This is too long to fit in Cheers & Jeers, so I’m posting it separately. I knew the instant I heard Lawrence O’Donnell’s opening monologue last night that I’d be transcribing it the next morning, just so I could feel the words coming out of my own fingers. I think he paints a terrific picture of the meaning behind the moment yesterday when Trump’s meltdown failed to have its usual effect of cowing everyone in the room.
So, enjoy (video at the bottom):
The Last Word—October 16, 2019
Lawrence O’Donnell Opening monologue
"You've never seen anything like it, and I've never seen anything like it, and I've been in the room where it happened many, many times. But I never saw anyone in that room do what Nancy Pelosi did today when she literally stood up to the President of the United States. And because Donald Trump has the weakest mind in the history of the American presidency, he released the photograph of that moment, captured perfectly by a White House photographer.
We would not have that photograph if Donald Trump had not made the profoundly stupid mistake of tweeting it. And that photograph, thanks to Donald Trump, will now become the single-most important and indelible photographic image of the Trump presidency. It tells the story of the Trump presidency better than any other photograph.
Nancy Pelosi immediately placed that photograph on her twitter page, and she will never replace it with a better photograph. It is the perfect portrait of the child president: the Trump face is full of the confusion and fear of a four-year-old boy being rebuked by an adult in the room full of adults who know he shouldn't be there.
Fifty years from now, schoolchildren studying American history will come upon this photograph, and they will instantly know who was in charge in that room: the adult standing and pointing at that pained face across the table.
Historians will recognize that when Nancy Pelosi stood up to that president today, she wasn't just standing up for herself and for Congress. She was standing up for the millions of Americans and millions of people around the world who immediately stood up to Donald Trump after he was inaugurated in what turned out to be the largest inauguration protest in history—a protest that went worldwide.
She was standing up for American voters whose democracy has been attacked by foreign agents while Donald Trump welcomes those attacks.
She was standing up for children held in custody at the southern border by Donald Trump, and mothers and fathers separated from those children by Donald Trump.
She was standing up for Kurds in Syria being killed tonight by forces unleashed by Donald Trump.
She was standing up to the lies and racist poison that Donald Trump has been spewing since he first opened his mouth about President Obama's birth certificate.
She was standing up for all of us against all of that.
And so, of course, it was impossible for Donald Trump to understand the moment. Impossible for him to understand what that photograph represents to the world. That's why he tweeted it into history today.
What Nancy Pelosi was saying to Donald Trump then was 'All roads with you lead to Putin.' Those words will be forever memorable."
-