MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell have a fascinating theory that explains the biggest lie of the entire Trump presidency

Anchor Rachel Maddow stayed for an extended conversation with host Lawrence O'Donnell as she handed off the MSNBC airwaves on Tuesday evening.

The two speculated on special counsel Robert Mueller's sentencing memo for former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

Maddow suggested one only needed to read, "third grade-level spy novels" to understand the motivations involved.

O'Donnell praised a recently broadcast theory from Maddow that tied all of their lying together.

"It's the best explanation we have so far, that it is all one project -- this Russian interference in our election, the Trump attempt to do business in Russia by building a Trump Tower in Moscow, and the reveal that we got on that last week through Michael Cohen, that that, as you described Friday night, is the big project in which everyone had to lie," he recounted.

"It's the thing that makes lying about sanctions make sense -- and given that's what a lot of people are in big trouble for, it gives you some sense of the gravity of why they might have felt they needed to," Maddow explained.

"In the redactions, might there be something in there that reveals Mike Flynn knew -- as National Security Advisor -- he was working for a president who was trying during the campaign to do business in Moscow and possibly was hoping that his children in the company would be able to do business in Moscow during the Trump presidency?" O'Donnell wondered.

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