Lawrence O'Donnell Tears Into 'Duck Dynasty' Star's Racist Comments

WATCH: O'Donnell Dismayed By 'Duck Dynasty' Star

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Lawrence O'Donnell slammed Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson on Thursday for his "attempt to re-write American history" in his comments about black people.

Robertson was suspended from the A&E reality show for his anti-gay remarks in a new GQ interview. On Thursday, O'Donnell said he was not surprised by Robertson's feelings towards gay people, which he was shared by 45 percent of people in the U.S.

The MSNBC host turned to Robertson's account of growing up in the South in the 1950s. Robertson had said:

I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field.... They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.

O'Donnell was dismayed by the comments, and said that Robertson lived through the murder of Emmett Till and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four little girls.

"This has nothing to do with belief," O'Donnell argued. "This is about fact, historical fact."

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