President Trump's charge that his media enemies peddle fake news about him got reinforcement yesterday from one of his primary antagonists, who scored an own-goal on his team, MSNBC.  That cable news channel's host Lawrence O'Donnell on Tuesday had opened his show with a charge that President Trump's loans from Deutsche Bank had been co-signed by Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, guaranteeing repayment at a time when his finances were strained.  This amounted to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for the Russia hoax, the claim that Vlad Putin has Trump in his hip pocket, a dream that the Left simply cannot let go of.

As O'Donnell opened his show Tuesday, he touted his hot story to Rachel Maddow as the cable network transitioned to O'Donnell's show from Maddow's:

Maddow's pained facial expressions as O'Donnell's madness unfolded were priceless.

MSNBC screen grabs via YouTube.

Maddow was not the only one at MSNBC shocked by the use of one anonymous source to defame the president of the United States.  Michael Del Moro is a producer on Morning Joe:

Deutsche Bank is declining to comment on Lawrence O’Donnell’s reporting that Russian oligarch’s co-signed Trump’s loans. The information came from a single source who has not seen the bank records. NBC has not seen those records and has not yet been able to verify the reporting.

— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) August 28, 2019

President Trump's personal and corporate lawyer sent a letter to MSNBC Wednesday demanding a retraction:

"This law firm is litigation counsel for President Donald J. Trump ('Mr. Trump') and The Trump Organization ('Trump Org.')," Charles Harder of Harder LLP law firm wrote to MSNBC executives, in a letter obtained by Breitbart News. "We write concerning the false and defamatory statements published by Lawrence O'Donnell and NBC Universal ('NBCU') (collectively, 'you' and 'your') about Mr. Trump and Trump Org. in an episode of the program, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, which was broadcasted on or about August 27, 2019 (the 'Program'), and also published by Mr. O'Donnell and NBCU in a tweet posted on that same date (the 'Tweet'). The Program and Tweet make the false and defamatory statements that 'Russian oligarchs' cosigned loans provided to Mr. Trump by Deutsche Bank, and described these 'co-signers' as 'Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.'" (snip)

"These statements are false and defamatory, and extremely damaging," the president's lawyer wrote. "The only borrowers under these loans are Trump entities, and Mr. Trump is the only guarantor. Numerous documents for each of these loans are also recorded, publicly available and searchable online. Thus, actual malice can easily be proven based on your reckless disregard of the truth and unreasonable reliance on an alleged 'source' who you will not even identify in your story and likely is seeking to mislead you and the public for political reasons or other ulterior motives."

As such, Harder wrote that Trump is demanding a retraction and apology from MSNBC and O'Donnell.

"Demand is hereby made that Mr. O'Donnell and NBCU immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize for the aforementioned false and defamatory statements," Harder's letter continues.

The letter concludes by noting that MSNBC must preserve all documents in the case of litigation as a result of O'Donnell's actions.

A failure to respond and retract the statement within 24 hours, Harder wrote, would mean the president will pursue legal action against the network.

O'Donnell and his bosses beat a hasty retreat with a tweet Wednesday...

Last night I made an error in judgment by reporting an item about the president’s finances that didn’t go through our rigorous verification and standards process. I shouldn’t have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air. I will address the issue on my show tonight.

— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) August 28, 2019

...and he delivered the promised on-air apology last night at the start of his show:

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The schadenfreude level here tiptoes up to the sensory overload red line.  O'Donnell is a nasty, angry man who clearly regards conservatives as inferior beings.  One person who has his number is Tucker Carlson, who last night savored O'Donnell's humiliation:

Needless to say, the Trump-hating media will not publicize this clear instance of fake news, but President Trump will not be shy of reminding them and the public of a bogus Russia charge being retracted.