Fresh off of cheering on Iran for how they “humiliated” President Trump by trying to kill American airmen, MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell kicked off Tuesday night’s show by suggesting Adolf Hitler wasn’t as bad a leader as Trump. He went even further and suggested that America committed suicide as a civilization when voters elected Trump a second time.
As O’Donnell was coming on the air, his first words were a jab a trump and praise for Hitler. “'A whole civilization will die tonight.' Hitler never said that,” he declared for the man who wanted to exterminate the Jews and wrote an entire book about it.
According to O’Donnell, no villain in the history of the world was as bad as Trump. “No head of state in the history of the world ever said that. Civilization had to wait literally thousands of years until today, April 7th, 2026 at 8:06 A.M. for a head of state to say and threaten 'A whole civilization will die tonight,’” he asserted.
Adding: “No cruel king ever threatened that, no mass murdering tyrant anywhere in the world ever said that, or even thought it was possible.”
Since NewsBusters already established that O’Donnell either didn’t know history or was obfuscating it from his audience, he might want to chat with the Jews and Gypsies Hitler tried to eradicate, the Ukrainians who survived Joesph Stalin’s Holodomor, anyone living through any of the ongoing genocides in Africa, or anyone who survived any communist regime anywhere.
“And with that statement, it could not be more tragically clear now that a whole civilization has already died,” O’Donnell sneered as he proceeded to rant about how American voters killed the American civilization.
Lawrence O'Donnell commends Hitler for being better than Trump because he supposedly never expressed "A whole civilization will die tonight" and claims America as a civilization was dead, that it committed suicide by electing Trump a second time:
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 8, 2026
O'DONNELL: 'A whole civilization… pic.twitter.com/2n5e3BtHX6
O’Donnell’s disdain for the American voters who returned Trump to office was palpable. He essentially suggested they had led America to committing suicide:
The whole civilization, beginning with the model of the British parliament leading to the first independent American government formed under the Articles of Confederation, followed by the Constitution that wrote the presidency into existence, and nearly 250 years of the American presidency.
All of that, that whole civilization forming the presidency, died with the elevation of Donald Trump to the presidency a second time, proving that it wasn't just an electoral college accident, the first time. The country that claimed so self-righteously to be the conscience of the world, and sometimes in some ways came very close to reaching that ideal, elected a president who had been convicted of business fraud and covering up payments to a porn star in a failed attempt to keep her quiet about his sexual relationship with her, while his third wife was still nursing his youngest child. A man who was indicted and criminally charged with violations of the Espionage Act and illegal possession of classified documents. A man who was indicted for conspiracy against the United States of America for trying to overthrow a presidential election.
“When that man was elected president of the United States the second time…this is what the collapse of a civilization looks like,” he proclaimed.
Steeped in theatrics, and suggesting hyperbolic words were greater than literal genocidal action, O’Donnell bloviated that, “the United States of America now must live with the permanent stain on our history, that we are the only country in the world who has produced a head of state, who said, 'a whole civilization will die tonight.'”
It’s worth noting that he said all this with the words “Trump retreats. Again.” over his shoulder (pictured above), mocking the President for NOT killing a whole civilization that night.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MS NOW’s The Last Word
April 7, 2026
10:00:49 a.m. EasternLAWRENCE O'DONNELL: 'A whole civilization will die tonight.' Hitler never said that. No head of state in the history of the world ever said that. Civilization had to wait literally thousands of years until today, April 7th, 2026 at 8:06 A.M. for a head of state to say and threaten 'A whole civilization will die tonight.'
No cruel king ever threatened that, no mass murdering tyrant anywhere in the world ever said that, or even thought it was possible.
And so, the United States of America now must live with the permanent stain on our history, that we are the only country in the world who has produced a head of state, who said, 'a whole civilization will die tonight.'
And with that statement, it could not be more tragically clear now that a whole civilization has already died. The whole civilization, beginning with the model of the British parliament leading to the first independent American government formed under the Articles of Confederation, followed by the Constitution that wrote the presidency into existence, and nearly 250 years of the American presidency.
All of that, that whole civilization forming the presidency, died with the elevation of Donald Trump to the presidency a second time, proving that it wasn't just an electoral college accident, the first time. The country that claimed so self-righteously to be the conscience of the world, and sometimes in some ways came very close to reaching that ideal, elected a president who had been convicted of business fraud and covering up payments to a porn star in a failed attempt to keep her quiet about his sexual relationship with her, while his third wife was still nursing his youngest child. A man who was indicted and criminally charged with violations of the Espionage Act and illegal possession of classified documents. A man who was indicted for conspiracy against the United States of America for trying to overthrow a presidential election.
When that man was elected president of the United States the second time, the very fabric of the civilization that knitted the Constitution into an acceptable form of government for 13 states, with varying and sometimes conflicting interests, and delivered a presidency often occupied by the most admired person in the country and always occupied by someone who lived in awe of the civilization that produced the presidency, until Donald Trump. This is what the collapse of a civilization looks like.
(...)
