Lawrence O'Donnell Condemns Michelle Obama Cartoon: 'Racist Obscenity' (VIDEO)

O'Donnell: Michelle Obama Cartoon A 'Racist Obscenity'

On his Tuesday show, Lawrence O'Donnell condemned a controversial cartoon of Michelle Obama, calling it a "racist obscenity" and saying that the cartoonists who drew it needed "an intervention."

The cartoon, released on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government site last weekend, depicts Michelle Obama as overweight and wolfing down hamburgers while she talks about her campaign to promote healthy eating. Barack Obama is drawn with huge, outsized ears and tells her her campaign is going to hurt his re-election efforts. "Shut up and pass the bacon!" she replies.

O'Donnell only showed one panel of the cartoon, saying he would not show the rest of it "because it is a racist obscenity." In his view, President Obama was depicted "in a half man, half animal form, with ears that don't exist in the homo sapien species."

He said that the cartoonists were working in the "vile tradition" of artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries, who, in O'Donnell's words, "succeeded in making people like the Irish look like dangerous animals."

O'Donnell concluded that "what both of these men need is an intervention," and he even went so far as to urge their families to tell them to stop drawing such cartoons.

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