MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell sounded like a bad Hollywood screenplay on Thursday night. And he's written a few bad screenplays for Hollywood in his time. Long after the Mueller Report fizzled, O'Donnell took the latest newspaper scribbings of conspiracy theory and concluded for his network's rabid Democrat audience: "The president is a Russian operative."

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: The president is a Russian operative. That sounds like the description of a bad Hollywood screenplay, but it is real. It is Vladimir Putin’s greatest achievement. Decades after America’s victory in the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the president of the United States is now helping the president of Russia help the president of the United States to get re-elected. [?] So that the president of Russia will have four more years of the president of the United States who he wants in the Oval Office. This is one of those shocking news days if you retain the capacity to be shocked in the Trump era by the Trump regime, which might be better labeled the Trump-Putin regime.

The MSNBC host touted new heavy-breathing stories from the liberal Washington Post and New York Times, loaded with the usual anonymous suspects. The Times began:

Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who comThere are at least five sources leaking classified information in this story…crickets.plained that Democrats would use it against him.... The Russians have been preparing — and experimenting — for the 2020 election, undeterred by American efforts to thwart them but aware that they needed a new playbook of as-yet-undetectable methods, United States officials said.

Or as Streiff at RedState put it, "There are at least five sources leaking classified information in this story…crickets."

The Times motto is "The truth is more important now than ever." Or, in this case, "anonymously sourced innuendo is more important now than ever."

The Post story noted Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee "asked why the Russians would want to help Trump when he has levied punishing sanctions on their country, and they challenged Pierson to back up her claim with evidence. It is unclear how she responded." Streiff replied: "How in the name of all that’s Holy could anyone know what was said to this Pierson person and not know how she responded?"

None of this stopped Conspiracy Larry, as the graphic next to his head screamed "PUTIN'S RUNNING MATE."

"That is what the American presidency has become tonight," O'Donnell proclaimed. "Donald Trump is a Russian operative — if tonight’s reporting by The Washington Post and The New York Times is true. And everything else we know about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin indicates that it is true.”

He added, “This is a darkly momentous event in the history of this country, in the history of this world. Vladimir Putin has become Donald Trump’s running mate once again."

Then he turned to liberal Congressman Jim Himes for more on what happened in the hearing. Himes insisted " I can't tell you anything about the meeting. As you know I am not at liberty to discuss classified information that is conveyed to the Congress."

Or he and his fellow Democrats already conveyed it anonymously to the liberal papers. How's that for a conspiracy theory?