Lawrence O'Donnell: Unlike Other Presidents, Obama Has Had to Teach 'Elementary Lessons of Governing' to Congress

"The lessons that he has had to teach, the elementary lessons of governing that he has struggled to teach this Congress is something that no one else has had to go through," harumphed Lawrence O'Donnell during post-State of the Union coverage on MSNBC.

O'Donnell made those remarks around 10:40 p.m. Eastern as he hailed Obama's lecturing tone in what was his last State of the Union address.

A transcript and video clip follow:

MSNBC
post-State of the Union coverage
January 12, 2016; 10:39 p.m. Eastern

CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know, I think there’s another question here and that is, the people we’re looking at in that room tonight have a combined approval rating of about 9 percent. All the people in that room. And it’s not just they don’t get along with each other, they’re not effective.

And that’s why Bernie Sanders is probably pulling a surge right now.

It’s certainly why Donald Trump and Cruz are doing well. Lawrence, the establishment is in that room tonight. And they're not doing well.

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: No, and, people talk about President Obama lecturing and that sort of thing. You have to remember that no president has faced a greater fog of misinformation and outright lies in the public sphere than this president.

He's giving that speech a country where 20 percent of the people of this country believe that he is not an American. Thirty percent of the people in this country -- I'm not talking Republicans, this is the American population – 30 percent of them believe that President Obama is Muslim.

He is also dealing with a Congress where maybe a majority of the Republican side of the Congress believes that you can let the country go into default, that the debt ceiling is optional.

Every Congress prior to the Congresses President Obama has had to work with has understood that the debt ceiling is not optional, that it's absolute must-pass. The lessons that he has had to teach, the elementary lessons of governing that he has struggled to teach this Congress is something that no other president has ever had to go through.