MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Wednesday night said he's narrowed down the mystery insider who wrote an anonymous opinion piece for The New York Times speaking about about the White House under President Donald Trump, and his "educated guess" comes down to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
He also said during his news program, "The Last Word," that he thinks Coats was inspired by his friend, late Sen. John McCain, who was specifically praised by name in the opinion piece.
"The New York Times says the author of the piece approached the newspaper through an intermediary recently," said O'Donnell. "Dan Coats might have finally decided that what John McCain would do, or what he would want Dan Coats to do, would be to tell the American people the truth of what they needed to know about the president of the United States."
O'Donnell said he came to Coats' name following a process of elimination that left behind the names of Coats, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, but the TImes slipped that the writer was a "he."
Haley, he continued, works in New York City, not the White House, and in his opinion, both she and Pompeo want to have a continued future in Republican politics.
"The op-ed piece has a heavy emphasis on foreign policy," said O'Donnell, referring to a section claiming Trump shows a preference for dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Both have said that Russians directed by Vladimir Putin did indeed attack our election," said O'Donnell.
In addition, he noted, both Pompeo and Coats are former congressmen who have successfully run for federal office, and the opinion piece has the "flow" of a campaign speech against Trump.
"Only one of them has no expectation of ever making a campaign speech again in his life," said O'Donnell, "which leaves us with 75-year-old Dan Coats, who knows the Director of National Intelligence is his last job in government."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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