Lawrence O'Donnell Mark Thiessen: Scarborough Dumps O'Donnell

In the video below, Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe, had Lawrence O'Donnell and Mark Thiessen as guests to debate trying terrorists in military courtrooms or civilian federal trials. Mark Thiessen, a former speech writer for George W. Bush went first. Scarborough called O'Donnell into the conversation and from that point on, O'Donnell didn't give Thiessen a chance to be heard. O'Donnell spit-out every angry word. His rage was palpable. Scarborough finally dumped him after a break.

Eventually, when Scarborough cannot get O'Donnell to shut-up, he goes to break and says he will be back to interview Thiessen by himself. The transcript below the video does not include the last half with just Scarborough and Thiessen.

This is not the first time that O'Donnell has had a meltdown on television. He appeared with Joe Scarborough in 2004 with John O'Neill, the co-author of Unfit for Command. The viewpoint of the book, and 264 Swiftboaters who served with John Kerry, was that he was unfit for the Presidency. In that interview, O'Donnell called O'Neill a "liar." In fact in 16 lines, he used the word "liar," or a derivative of it 37 time, including "creepy liar," once. Read that unhinged rant here.

Scarborough, O'Donnell and Thiessen (video)


Begin Transcript:

SCARBOROUGH: So let me ask you, Marc, you heard Jane Mayer say yesterday that, 'My gosh, there's no difference between reading somebody their Miranda rights and what the military did as far as performance goes,' so why was Jane Mayer wrong yesterday, in your opinion?"

THIESSEN: You gotta think back to the period after 9/11. We didn't even know who hit us. We didn't know that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of 9/11 or the operational commander of Al-Qaeda. And then we started rounding up these terrorists. We caught Abu Zubaydah. We caught Ramzi Binalshibh and KSM. And these guys provided us information, under questioning by the CIA, that stopped a number of terrorist attacks. They were planning to blow up the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. They were planning to blow up our Marine camp in Djibouti. They were well on their way to recruiting a cell of terrorists who were going to fly an airplane into Heathrow Airport and buildings in downtown London, and they were going to -- And KSM had recruited a cell of Southeast Asian terrorists called the "Guraba" cell, because he knew we'd be on the lookout for Arab men, to fly an airplane into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, the tallest building on the West Coast. This program [interrogation without Miranda rights] is why we did not have another 9/11 after the attack.

O'DONNELL: You as a former, uh, speechwriter in the White House, you took an oath of office when you took that job that you might or might not remember. (screaming) You actually publish a BOOK that says that the president of the United States -- on its title! The president is inviting the next attack. Isn't...it...true that the -- 

THIESSEN: Lawrence? Lawrence, it's the morning.

O'DONNELL: -- president you work for invited the first attack the --

THIESSEN: Lawrence, that's ridiculous.

O'DONNELL: -- by having no idea what was going on with Al-Qaeda? 

THIESSEN: That is ridiculous. O'DONNELL: You just admitted that the --

THIESSEN: All right. Please. SCARBOROUGH: Lawrence, let him answer. O'DONNELL: -- when you were hit on 9/11, you just said, we didn't know who hit us. THIESSEN: Here's the record, Lawrence. O'DONNELL: (screaming) You said, we didn't know who hit us! THIESSEN: Lawrence? SCARBOROUGH: Let him answer.

 O'DONNELL: You were told who was going to hit you --

THIESSEN: Lawrence? Lawwwwwwwrence?

O'DONNELL: -- before we were hit on 9/11 --

SCARBOROUGH: Let him answer.

THIESSEN: Do conservatives get to talk on this show, at all?

O'DONNELL: -- AND YOUR ADMINISTRATION --

THIESSEN: Lawrence? Lawwwwwwwrence?

O'DONNELL: -- INVITED THE FIRST ATTACK --

SCARBOROUGH: Lawrence, let him answer.

O'DONNELL: -- FOR WHICH YOU SHOULD LIVE IN SHAME! 
 
THIESSEN: Listen, here's the record. When the Obama administration's approach -- the law enforcement first approach was working -- the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the bombing of the USS Cole, the bombing of --

O'DONNELL: (screaming) TALK ABOUT THE BUSH PRESIDENCY FROM THE DAY --

THIESSEN: -- the bombing of our embassies in Karachi and the 9/11 attacks --

O'DONNELL: -- HE WAS SWORN IN UNTIL 9/11 --

SCARBOROUGH: Hold on a minute.

THIESSEN: Can I get a word in?

O'DONNELL: -- WHAT DID THE BUSH-CHENEY --

SCARBOROUGH: Wait, wait.

THIESSEN: After the CIA too over --

O'DONNELL: (screaming)

SCARBOROUGH: Let's stop.

THIESSEN: -- no attacks.

SCARBOROUGH: We're going to break right now. 

End transcript


Thanks to RushLimbaugh.com for the transcript.