MSNBC Host Says He’s Taking A Break Because He Is ‘Exhausted’ Over Trump
Imagine having so much wealth that you can simply step away from your job because President Donald Trump has left you emotionally drained.
That is exactly what happened with MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, who revealed he is taking a break after spending 50 days covering the president and his administration. Citing "exhaustion," O’Donnell made his announcement while speaking with fellow MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on her show last week. Maddow, who had been hosting only on Mondays for the past year, had previously committed to working every weekday during the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency.
During their discussion, Maddow and O’Donnell created an unusual moment on live television, seemingly turning their conversation into a support group session.
“This is day 52, I thought it was day 92,” O’Donnell lamented. “So I’m going to take next week off. And I’m telling you that now because I know you don’t like it when I just drift away. Just taking next week off. Then I’m going to come back and go with you all the way to the hundred days. I can’t. I know.”
Maddow, offering words of encouragement, tried to comfort her visibly shaken colleague.
“We all tell each other you have to take care of yourself, you have to pace yourself, you have to be in this for the long haul,” Maddow said. “So I can’t hold it against you, but I’m very sad.”
O’Donnell, in turn, replied, “Can you hold this against me? Can you hold this against me? I’m going to get a head start by taking tomorrow off.”
Prior to his conversation with Maddow, O’Donnell had expressed his frustration on his own show, specifically targeting the president for his criticism of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.
“So America is at this hour completing the 52nd day of having a president of the United States whose brain does not work. Donald Trump’s brain is broken, badly damaged, as he exhibits every day. And once again, today, Donald Trump said something that would have gotten any other president rushed to the hospital for a neurological examination and an evaluation for dementia, for starters,” he claimed. “That’s where they would have begun.”
O’Donnell’s announcement followed a series of high-profile firings at the struggling network.
Maddow herself had recently expressed frustration with MSNBC’s leadership after they dismissed Joy Reid and demoted fill-in host Alex Wagner. These changes were part of a broader programming revamp that also led to the cancellation of weekend shows hosted by Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, and Ayman Mohyeldin.
Speaking about Reid’s departure, Maddow voiced her disappointment on-air in February.
“She is leaving the network altogether and that is very, very, very hard to take. I am 51 years old,” Maddow said. “I have been gainfully employed since I was 12 and I have had so many different kinds of jobs, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
“But in all of the jobs I have had in all of the years I have been alive, there is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid,” she continued, referring to her longtime MSNBC ally.
“I love everything about her. I have learned so much from her. I have so much more to learn from her,” Maddow added. “I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC, and personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door. It is not my call and I understand that. But that’s what I think.”
Maddow also raised concerns about the implications of these programming decisions.
“I will tell you. It is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two — count them — two non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend,” Maddow pointed out. “And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible and I do not defend it.”