On Thursday, Eric Ting at SFGate.com reported MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell created controversy on Twitter for coming to the protection of Sen. Dianne Feinstein after the San Francisco Chronicle reported 4 senators anonymously mentioned she was affected by psychological issues on the job.
O’Donnell, who served Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan as an aide from 1989 to 1995, tried to argue there’s nothing new on this controversy.
“I perceive considerations about Dianne Feinstein however learn whispers about her on this Senate context: at the very least 50 senators are 100% depending on employees, most senators are over 90% depending on employees & Strom Thurmond died in workplace in 2003 at age 100 lengthy after apparent psychological decline,” he tweeted.
“I am struggling to give you something that might probably be much less exonerating than the context introduced on this tweet,” New Republic columnist Natalie Shure tweeted in response to O’Donnell.
Critics wished to know if O’Donnell was significantly arguing that if Strom Thurmond did it, then Feinstein ought to give you the option do it. He mentioned that he was not, and that Feinstein “should not be” within the Senate.
“I used the phrase context,” he wrote. “Not protection. The context explains why she’s nonetheless there when she should not be. It additionally reveals this horrible concept of senators over 80 yrs previous has a historical past. Nobody ought to ever attempt to do something Strom Thurmond did. I am stunned you did not grasp that.”
When somebody requested if it would not be higher to have a Senate with extra forty-somethings than eighty-something, O’Donnell responded: “Senators of their 80s has by no means been a good suggestion. However senators of their 40s are normally 100% depending on employees. Senators of their 50s & 60s are normally essentially the most succesful.”
O’Donnell is now 70.