With the words “he has gone insane” over his shoulder as if it was a cry for help from his producer, MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell crammed a lot of crazy into just two-and-a-half minutes of Monday’s The Last Word. After praising the Iranian regime for shooting down an American F-15E because it “humiliated” President Trump, he decried the rescue operation as a notion because 80 years ago 120,000 Americans were prisoners of war during WWII.
“[A]nd they humiliated Donald Trump by proving him wrong, by shooting down his planes, shooting down two of his planes,” O’Donnell boasted as if Trump himself owned the jets, nearly 12 minutes into his longwinded opening monologue.
With that statement, O’Donnell let the mask slip on his ghoulish nature. He was happy about the shootdown - the shootdown that could have killed the two American airmen and/or could have seen them captured and tortured - because it “humiliated” the orange man.
It proved O’Donnell wanted American service members hurt or killed because he could use them against Trump. It demonstrated why, multiple times during the war, he demanded Trump’s son Barron be forcibly conscripted and sent to the ‘frontlines,’ that way he could be hurt or killed and used by him.
Keeping the hate train rolling, O’Donnell then took issue with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for declaring “we leave no man behind” because it didn’t use gender inclusive language (Click “expand”):
O’DONNEL: And today at the White House, that brilliant rescue was described by the secretary of defense and by General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a long standing American military rule of never leaving anyone behind.
HEGSETH: We leave no man behind.
O'DONNELL: That is, of course, the old school version of the idea. Back when only men flew American military planes, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it this way.
CAINE: We leave no one behind.
O'DONNELL: The general knows, unlike Pete Hegseth, that that could have been a woman they were trying to rescue, and it might be a woman the next time.
O’Donnell, who never served in America’s armed forces, had a twisted smile on his face as he then decried the very notion of never leaving a man behind. Why would he scoff at such a thing? Because there were American POWs over 80 years ago.
In 2-and-a-half minutes, MS NOW's Lawrence O'Donnell touts how Iran "humiliated" Trump by shooting down the planes, decried Hegseth saying "we leave no man behind" because it was not gender inclusive, decries the notion of rescuing 1 airman like that because 120,000 Americans… pic.twitter.com/HmkTbIYCtK
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 7, 2026
“But this 21st century notion that we leave no one behind ignores the 120,000 prisoners of war held by German and Japanese forces in World War II for years, who were left behind,” he chided.
He then attacked the ideal of never leaving a man behind because late Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was shot down and captured: “And the idea of using 155 aircraft and hundreds of military personnel on an immediate rescue mission for a single person of any rank, was inconceivable in World War II or in Vietnam, where we left John McCain behind.”
What an insulting thing to say about the men who defeated Nazism and imperialism, the very things MS NOW had been claiming were emanating from the Trump White House. Insulting to those who did everything they could, including putting their own lives on the line to rescue their comrades.
It’s ridiculous for O’Donnell - who again, knew absolutely nothing about service and self-sacrifice - to argue such rescue missions were “inconceivable in World War II or in Vietnam,” because they managed to pull off their own daring rescue missions without the technology we have today.
He was insulting men like Paul “Pappy” Gunn who went all Liam Neeson on the Japanese to rescue his family; and the Japanese-Americans of the 442 Infantry Division who broke through German lines to rescue the 1st Battalion of the 141 Infantry Regiment.
To really poke a hole in O’Donnell’s revisionist history, checkout Medal of Honor recipient Roy Benavidez of the 82nd Airborne who literally jump on a helicopter with nothing but a medic bag and knife to go rescue his fellow soldiers from the Vietnam jungle. And the 11th Airborne Division who carried out an epic raid on the Los Banos prison camp the Japanese set up. They rescued a little baby girl.
And that’s not to mention that many were captured because they were buying time for others to escape. Others like Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura in Korea, the soldiers of Fort Drum in the Philippines, and the 22 Americans of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon of the 99th Infantry Division who blunted the German advance at the Battle of Lanzerath Ridge, which was critical to the Allies winning the Battle of the Bulge.
And while O’Donnell was using McCain as a bludgeon, McCain chose to reject an offer to be released from captivity early because he was wanted others to be released first. That didn’t stop O’Donnell from praising the North Vietnamese. “In fact, he was injured in the crash of his plane in a lake in Hanoi and was helped out of the water by the North Vietnamese people. His plane was there to attack,” he said.
Of course, O’Donnell was ignorant of history.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MS NOW’s The Last Word
April 6, 2026
10:11:47 p.m. Eastern(…)
O'DONNELL: ... and they humiliated Donald Trump by proving him wrong, by shooting down his planes, shooting down two of his planes.
The pilot of that plane was rescued within hours of the shootdown. The still unnamed, seriously injured colonel had to hide for 48 hours before the rescue team could find him and save him without losing any other military personnel in that very risky mission.
They did lose two rescue planes worth $100 million each that they had to leave behind in Iran and destroy as they were leaving.
And today at the White House, that brilliant rescue was described by the secretary of defense and by General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a long standing American military rule of never leaving anyone behind.
HEGSETH: We leave no man behind.
O'DONNELL: That is, of course, the old school version of the idea. Back when only men flew American military planes, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it this way.
CAINE: We leave no one behind.
O'DONNELL: The general knows, unlike Pete Hegseth, that that could have been a woman they were trying to rescue, and it might be a woman the next time.
But this 21st century notion that we leave no one behind ignores the 120,000 prisoners of war held by German and Japanese forces in World War II for years, who were left behind.
And the idea of using 155 aircraft and hundreds of military personnel on an immediate rescue mission for a single person of any rank, was inconceivable in World War II or in Vietnam, where we left John McCain behind.
John McCain was shot down in the skies over North Vietnam, and at the time, no one tried to rescue him. In fact, he was injured in the crash of his plane in a lake in Hanoi and was helped out of the water by the North Vietnamese people. His plane was there to attack.
(...)
