Lawrence O’Donnell is one of the biggest critics of Donald Trump, so when he heard that Trump had backed out of moderating a Republican debate on December 27, he enjoyed it greatly. Trump had announced on Tuesday that he would not be moderating the debate, making the claim that he might run for president as an independent if the Republicans do not pick a strong enough candidate.
O’Donnell called Trump’s reasons for backing out lies, saying that Trump had been laughed off the stage the night before by Bill O’Reilly. O’Donnell also found time to mock the way Trump made his announcement, which came on the social media website YouTube, which O’Donnell referred to as the “always presidential-looking YouTube,” according to the Huffington Post.
O’Donnell went on to say that the debate “was going to be as humiliating for Trump as it surely would have been for Newt Gingrich.”
“It is very important to me that the right Republican candidate be chosen to defeat the failed and very destructive Obama Administration, but if that Republican, in my opinion, is not the right candidate, I am not willing to give up my right to run as an Independent candidate,” Trump said in a statement, according to CNN. “Therefore, so that there is no conflict of interest within the Republican Party, I have decided not to be the moderator of the Newsmax debate.”
Those who agreed to participate in the debate include Newt Gingrich (the former House speaker) and Rick Santorum (the former Pennsylvania senator). Trump claims that other candidates declined to participate in the debate because of the potential that Trump might run for the presidency.
“I would like to thank Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum for having the courage, conviction, and confidence to immediately accept being a part of the Newsmax debate,” Trump said. “I believe this would not only have been the most watched debate, but also the most substantive and interesting debate!”
Santorum, in response to Trump’s announcement, said that he had been looking forward to a debate with Gingrich.
“The media has anointed Newt as the frontrunner, isn’t it time he go toe to toe with the consistent conservative alternative? The people of Iowa deserve as many opportunities to hear from the candidates as possible, because while Obama is beatable, we have to elect a conservative nominee who’s record is a clear contrast to the President’s,” Santorum said in a statement to CNN.
Reince Priebus, the Repbulican National Committee Chair, had the following to say about Trump being named as the moderator for the debate:
“I think that having a successful businessman serving as a moderator has a lot of value but the issue here is whether the moderator should be a person who is still batting around the idea of running as an independent,” Priebus said on Fox News.