Here's the full video you were referring to. 14 minutes on the MSNBC YouTube channel

YouTube: Lawrence: The media is trying (and failing) to cure themselves of 'sane-washing' Trump (MS NOW)

After watching it, I came away with a much different take on his commentary. Yes, he talked about "sane washing" Trump. But I don't see that as the main point of the commentary. It was a supporting point. An introduction.

The meat of the commentary to me was tariffs. He took the New York Times to task for letting slide the lie that tariffs are paid by foreign companies. As I've commented here multiple times just today, tariffs are paid by the consumers of the imported goods. The point of tariffs is to make foreign goods more expensive than domestic goods so that consumers will prefer the domestic goods. They are a form of economic protectionism.

"Taxing foreign nations" is literally on the screen in the background behind O'Donnell during the entire commentary. That is the main point he's trying to make.

Yes, a deeper economic analysis shows that some part of a tariff is paid by the foreign company. How much depends on the elasticity of demand, which is easy to draw on a chalkboard in a classroom, but notoriously difficult to calculate in the real world. But some, probably not insignificant, part of the tax is indeed paid by the citizens of the country imposing the tariff. It functions much like a sales tax. And like a sales tax, it is a form of regressive taxation.

No wonder Trump and his wannabe oligarch friends like tariffs. They push tax burdens off the rich and onto the rest of society.

--Peter