In response to her heated appearance on MSNBC's "The Last Word," The New Republic's Julia Ioffe took to the publication that employs her to pen a letter titled: "Dear Lawrence O'Donnell, Don't Mansplain to Me About Russia."
During a "Last Word" segment on President Obama's decision to cancel his meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin amid growing tensions over NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Ioffe said she disagreed with O'Donnell's characterization of the situation.
"For the Russian statement to say, 'This is a situation which we did not create,' is of course a lie. They were in complete control of the outcome of what would happen to Snowden from the second he arrived at that airport," O'Donnell said.
Ioffe, who is a senior editor at The New Republic and was previously a Moscow-based correspondent for Foreign Policy and The New Yorker, disagreed. "I don't agree with you that it's a lie ... I think you do overestimate the Russians. I think in general, people who haven't been to Russia tend to overestimate their abilities," she said.
The exchange grew quite heated rather quickly. Ioffe took to The New Republic to further discuss the points she was trying to make on air, "because O'Donnell wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise." She also took a moment to address their clash:
Tonight, I went on Lawrence O'Donnell's show, and Lawrence O'Donnell yelled at me. Or, rather, he O'Reilly'd at me. That O'Donnell interrupted and harangued and mansplained and was generally an angry grandpa at me is not what I take issue with, however. What bothers me is that, look: your producers take the time to find experts to come on the show, answer your questions, and, hopefully, clarify the issue at hand.
Ioffee said that her "main beef with O'Donnell" was that "he did exactly the same shit Russians did to [her] when [she] was in Russia." She added, "The problem is that this was not in the ranting comments section, but was coming from the host of a prime time, national television show. And if you don't have the good sense and education or, hell, the reporting experience to know better, then just let the guests you invited on speak. Otherwise, don't waste my fucking evening."
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