MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell kicked off his show Wednesday night by apologizing for running an unverified report that directly tied President Trump's finances to Russia, which he retracted.
"Last night on this show, I discussed information that wasn't ready for reporting," O'Donnell said. "I repeated statements a single source told me about the president's finances and loan documents with Deutsche Bank saying 'if true'-- as I discussed the information-- was simply not good enough. I did not go through the rigorous verification and standards process here at MSNBC before repeating what I heard from my source. Had it gone through that process, I would not have been permitted to report it. I should not have said it on-air or post it on Twitter. I was wrong to do so."
He went on to acknowledge the letter he and NBCUniversal received by Trump's legal counsel demanding a retraction and an apology for the "aforementioned false and defamatory" reporting and threatened to take legal action.
"This afternoon, attorneys for the president sent us a letter asserting the story is false. They also demanded a retraction. Tonight, we are retracting the story," O'Donnell continued. "We don't know whether the information is inaccurate. The fact is we do know it wasn't ready for broadcast and for that I apologize."