MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell spent the early part of Tuesday’s edition of The Last Word demanding that President Trump be impeached for allegedly receiving bribes from ABC and CBS because, according to him, CBS’s decision to not allow Stephen Colbert to interview Texas Senate candidate James Talarico follows the same pattern as the decision to pay Trump $16 million as part of a 60 Minutes-related settlement.
O’Donnell urged viewers to “remember this about the CBS lawyers: they are the weakest, most cowardly corporate lawyers in America. They are actually in a tie with ABC's lawyers, who we will get to in a moment. The CBS lawyers who are now trying to tell Stephen Colbert, who can be a guest on his show, work for a parent company that agreed to pay Donald Trump $16 million to settle a frivolous lawsuit by Donald Trump against 60 Minutes, which Donald Trump had no chance of winning. Absolutely zero chance of winning.”
Lawrence O'Donnell implies that the FCC-Colbert dust up should be used as evidence at an impeachment trial, "Those cowardly corporate lawyers agreed to pay Donald Trump $16 million in what Stephen Colbert correctly called, quote, 'a big, fat bribe.' Those lawyers should be… pic.twitter.com/8bvshoe6Ts
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) February 18, 2026
It is worth noting that O’Donnell is assuming Colbert’s version of events is the truth, but CBS insists that it did not force Colbert to relegate the interview to YouTube but instead simply offered suggestions on how to fulfill any equal time obligations.
As Colbert and CBS trade allegations of untruthfulness, O’Donnell rolled on:
But those cowardly corporate lawyers agreed to pay Donald Trump $16 million in what Stephen Colbert correctly called, quote, ‘a big, fat bribe.’ Those lawyers should be witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump in the United States Senate right now, for that bribe. That is their filthy spot that they now occupy in American political and corporate legal history, right beside the ABC lawyers for their corporate parent, Disney, that agreed to pay Donald Trump $15 million in a frivolous lawsuit against ABC News, a lawsuit that Donald Trump would not have won. The entire legal team at ABC and Disney disgraced themselves, along with the corporate chieftains of Disney's Magic Kingdom, in their acquiescence to Donald Trump in their settling a lawsuit that Donald Trump would not have won.
CBS and ABC settled because they wanted to avoid discovery. Nevertheless, O’Donnell further mourned, “The lawyers did not have the courage to use their legal skills to fight Donald Trump's attempt to get money from this company. Donald Trump's illegal interference in their business. And so they paid them off.”
He also lamented, “America has three legacy networks: NBC, ABC, and CBS. They are our oldest networks, and two of them have handed over big, fat bribes to Donald Trump with the approval of the most cowardly corporate lawyers known to be currently working in America. Not one of those lawyers offered a principled resignation over the big fat bribe. Not one of them. We have seen lawyers publicly resigning from the Trump Justice Department on principle, from Washington to Minneapolis, but not one CBS lawyer, not one ABC lawyer.”
The actual reason why CBS finds itself in this equal time predicament is because 214 out of Stephen Colbert’s 215 political guests from September 2022 to December 2025 have been liberals or Democrats. The one exception, Liz Cheney, was only barely an exception. With percentages over 99 percent, someone was eventually going to dust off the equal time rules.
Here is a transcript for the February 17 show:
MS NOW The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
2/17/2026
10:05 PM ET
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Remember this about the CBS lawyers: they are the weakest, most cowardly corporate lawyers in America. They are actually in a tie with ABC's lawyers, who we will get to in a moment. The CBS lawyers who are now trying to tell Stephen Colbert, who can be a guest on his show, work for a parent company that agreed to pay Donald Trump $16 million to settle a frivolous lawsuit by Donald Trump against 60 Minutes, which Donald Trump had no chance of winning. Absolutely zero chance of winning.
But those cowardly corporate lawyers agreed to pay Donald Trump $16 million in what Stephen Colbert correctly called, quote, “a big, fat bribe.” Those lawyers should be witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump in the United States Senate right now, for that bribe. That is their filthy spot that they now occupy in American political and corporate legal history, right beside the ABC lawyers for their corporate parent, Disney, that agreed to pay Donald Trump $15 million in a frivolous lawsuit against ABC News, a lawsuit that Donald Trump would not have won.
The entire legal team at ABC and Disney disgraced themselves, along with the corporate chieftains of Disney's Magic Kingdom, in their acquiescence to Donald Trump in their settling a lawsuit that Donald Trump would not have won.
The lawyers did not have the courage to use their legal skills to fight Donald Trump's attempt to get money from this company. Donald Trump's illegal interference in their business. And so they paid them off.
America has three legacy networks: NBC, ABC, and CBS. They are our oldest networks, and two of them have handed over big, fat bribes to Donald Trump with the approval of the most cowardly corporate lawyers known to be currently working in America. Not one of those lawyers offered a principled resignation over the big fat bribe. Not one of them. We have seen lawyers publicly resigning from the Trump Justice Department on principle, from Washington to Minneapolis, but not one CBS lawyer, not one ABC lawyer.
