‘What an Imbecile’: MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell Mocked for Calling Hegseth Sexist for Using ‘Man’ To Describe Rescued Pilot

MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell is facing mockery for criticizing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for declaring, “We leave no man behind.”On Tuesday, Mr. O’Donnell played a video of the war secretary touting the daring operation to rescue American pilots after their F-15E Strike Eagle was downed over Iran. “That is, of course, the old school version of the idea, back when only men flew American military planes,” the left-wing host said of Mr. Hegseth’s decision to use the word “man.”He played a separate clip of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, declaring that America leaves “no one behind.”“The general knows, unlike Pete Hegseth, that that could have been a woman they were trying to rescue — and it might be a woman the next time,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “But this 21st-century notion that we leave no one behind ignores the 120,000 prisoners of war held by German and Japanese forces in World War II for years, who were left behind.”The comment led to mockery online.NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich wrote on X, “What an imbecile.”“Any woman stuck behind enemy lines would not give a [expletive] about gender, @Lawrence. But this is how you know the mission was a smashing success. O’Donnell is reduced to looking at pronouns to criticize it,” another user wrote. Radio host Gerry Callahan wrote, “Hard to believe this is real. Lawrence O’Donnell is not of sound mind.”“You can’t convince me this isn’t an SNL skit,” another person said. Another user asked, “Do you think he’s ever heard of a figure of speech?”While women are allowed to fly fighter jets, the percentage of women who do so is relatively small. In 2024, roughly 6.5 percent of nearly 11,000 pilots in the Air Force were women, and of that group, only 3 percent were fighter pilots. However, last month, at least one of the pilots mistakenly shot down over Kuwait was a woman. At the beginning of Mr. O’Donnell’s program on Tuesday, he claimed that American civilization was on the verge of destruction because Mr. Trump won a second term. “When that man was elected president of the United States the second time … this is what the collapse of a civilization looks like,” he said.He also took aim at Mr. Trump’s dramatic warning to Iran — before it agreed to a two-week ceasefire — that a “whole civilization will die.”Mr. O’Donnell said, “Hitler never said that … No cruel king ever threatened that, no mass murdering tyrant anywhere in the world ever said that, or even thought it was possible.”

‘What an Imbecile’: MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell Mocked for Calling Hegseth Sexist for Using ‘Man’ To Describe Rescued Pilot

More from the New York Sun

Israel and Lebanon Coordinate Aid Convoy to Christian Villages in Combat Zone

Emerging Claim That Targeting Civilian Infrastructure Is a War Crime Proves a Bridge Too Far

Stanford Calls Bluff on Students Using Jain Faith To Dodge Meal Plan

More from the New York Sun

Israel and Lebanon Coordinate Aid Convoy to Christian Villages in Combat Zone

Emerging Claim That Targeting Civilian Infrastructure Is a War Crime Proves a Bridge Too Far

Stanford Calls Bluff on Students Using Jain Faith To Dodge Meal Plan

South Florida GOP Congresswoman’s Immigration Reform Bill Sparks Backlash From Colleagues, Conservative Commentariat

Middle-Class Americans Prove the Biggest Winners From Trump’s Tax Cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill

In a Funeral for Economic Liberty, the Casket Cartel Seeks To Bury the Competition

The Double Tragedy of the Jewish Bund

Borrowing a Page From El Salvador’s Bukele, Ecuadoran President Welcomes American Troops To Assist With His Drug Gang Crackdown