Lawrence O’Donnell set his sights on JD Vance Monday night, calling the vice president “especially bad” at defending members of the Trump administration from accusations of lies and corruption.
O’Donnell rolled a clip of Vance proclaiming the guilt of the recently indicted former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, while also defending the innocence of White House Border Czar Tom Homan, whom recent reports say accepted a $50,000 bribe from undercover FBI agents in 2024. “It is worth noting that no Vice President of the United States in history before this one has decided to comment on the guilt of federal criminal defendants awaiting trial,” O’Donnell observed. “That’s never happened before.”
“It is not unusual for a vice president to defend members of his administration against accusations of all sorts,” O’Donnell additionally noted. “But James David Vance is especially bad at it.” Homan’s cash exchange was reportedly recorded and, in return for the money, he is said to have promised to provide immigration-related government contracts once he joined the Trump administration, according to reports.
Vance, for his part, defended Homan by claiming that the border czar has likely been paid more than $50,000 for his “services” at some point in his life. “What services could he possibly perform for undercover FBI agents who were lying about who they were?” O’Donnell asked in response. “That’s the kind of defense that has tripwires all around it.”
You can watch the full “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” segment yourself in the video below.
Later, when he was asked point-blank by George Stephanopoulos whether Homan had accepted the $50,000 payment, Vance responded, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” O’Donnell took issue with that response.
“So there’s your answer. ‘I don’t know.’ Did he accept $50,000? There are three possibilities: Yes, no and I don’t know, and JD Vance just picked, ‘I don’t know,’” the MSNBC anchor told viewers, adding, “He does know. Of course he knows, and George Stephanopoulos ably exposed what the vice president knows, what he doesn’t know and what he’s incapable of answering.”
