MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi fact-checked President Donald Trump on Thursday evening while guest-hosting "The Last Word" for Lawrence O'Donnell.
"Tonight, the president's private business, his presidential campaign, his transition team, his White House, and now his inaugural committee -- all to varying degrees under criminal investigation," Velshi reported. "The report of an investigation into Trump's inaugural committee comes as NBC News confirms Donald Trump was the third person in the room in August of 2015 who was talking about hush money payments to women with Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker."
"These new reports dropped just hours after the president's attempts to distance himself from Michael Cohen and his former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn -- attempts that are often contradictory and obviously false."
Velshi noted how on Thursday morning, Trump's defense changed from blaming Cohen for not knowing better as an attorney, to attempting to say Cohen mostly did public relations work for the Trump Organization.
"In a matter of hours, Trump picked his own argument apart," he observed.
"Then the president falsely claimed that Michael Flynn did not lie to the FBI. He did," Velshi fact-checked. "And that prosecutors recommended Flynn not serve any jail time because, 'they're embarrassed.' They're not."
Velshi noted Trump continually complains about "they."
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance explained, "you reach a point where you listen to him where you realize that when prosecutors investigate him, they're corrupt and evil."
"When the FBI finds evidence against him, there's something wrong with the FBI," she continued. "When judges rule against him, they must be corrupt."
"And so we know that 'they' is really a fiction in Donald Trump's mind and in reality -- as that evidence mounts from a variety of sources -- it is far more likely than the reality is simply that Donald Trump has violated the criminal laws of the United States and it's catching up with him," Vance concluded.
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