Lawrence O’Donnell Slams ‘Absurd’ Sean Hannity Interview With JD Vance

Lawrence O'Donnell
MSNBC YouTube

What To Know

  • Lawrence O’Donnell criticized Sean Hannity’s interview with Vice President JD Vance for ignoring questions about the Epstein files and instead focusing on unrelated topics.
  • O’Donnell compared Vance’s silence on the Epstein issue to Gerald Ford’s silence during the Watergate scandal, arguing that Vance failed to address the most pressing challenge facing his administration.
  • The MSNBC host noted that by sharing his segment on social media, Vance inadvertently exposed his followers to critical commentary they might not otherwise encounter.

On Thursday’s (November 13) episode of The Last Word, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell highlighted the “absurdity” of Sean Hannity‘s latest interview with Vice President JD Vance.

O’Donnell started by noting Vance’s response to a segment that aired on Wednesday’s (November 11) edition of The Last Word, in which the MSNBC anchor discussed the Epstein files drama and compared the Vice President’s inaction to that of Gerald Ford during the Watergate scandal.

“JD Vance is doing exactly what Gerald Ford did while the Nixon presidency was sinking… When things were the darkest for President Richard Nixon, Vice President Gerald Ford said nothing… Tonight, JD Vance is silent. Tonight JD Vance is Gerald Ford,” O’Donnell said, per The Daily Beast.

Vance reshared the whole 18-minute segment from O’Donnell’s show on X, writing in response, “I did two media interviews literally today, one of which is airing in a few hours.”

One of those interviews was with Fox News anchor Hannity, though, as O’Donnell pointed out, Vance wasn’t asked about Epstein, nor did he mention the ongoing pressure on the government to release the Epstein files once. Instead, as highlighted in clips from the interview, Vance and Hannity spent time gushing over Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok.

“JD Vance never said the word Epstein,” O’Donnell said on Thursday’s show. “JD Vance never said the words Ghislaine Maxwell. JD Vance stayed absolutely silent about the worst challenge his boss is facing tonight. In other words, JD Vance is still Gerald Ford tonight.”

O’Donnell also touched on Vance’s X response, stating that the Vice President helped “bring even more attention to my 18-minute statement last night about Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.”

Noting that Vance’s followers “probably don’t often hear what I have to say,” the long-time news anchor added, “But now JD Vance has made the mistake of hooking them up with what I had to say last night about him and Donald Trump, and what Jeffrey Epstein had to say about Donald Trump in his emails.”

“JD Vance tonight decided to push out there into the heart of the Trump/Vance social media world, a sealed-off echo chamber where my voice is usually not heard,” O’Donnell continued. “So thank you for that, Mr. Vice President.”

O’Donnell also pointed out that Hannity interviewed Attorney General Pam Pondi and, once again, did not bring up Epstein.

You can watch the full Last Word segment here.

The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, Weeknights, 10/9c, MSNBC