On Monday's Last Word, MSNBC's Tony Dokoupil inadvertently revealed that his network restrains itself from pressing Donald Trump too hard. Dokoupil reported on conservative radio host Charlie Sykes's "incredibly blistering" interview of Trump earlier in the day, and underlined that the personality "knew it was going to be a one and done. He does not have to go back to Donald Trump ever again. People who are on the beat, people who work for our network — they have to keep that relationship going for a long, long time. Charlie did not have that burden." [video below]

Host Lawrence O'Donnell turned to the correspondent near the end of his program. O'Donnell revealed that he was "struck by Charlie's reaction there — that he was surprised that there haven't been more interviews like his with Donald Trump. I am, too. And he was a little bit surprised that Donald Trump showed up for this interview, wasn't he?"

Dokoupil confirmed the Wisconsin conservative host's reaction, and added, "Before we beat ourselves up too much for not challenging Donald Trump in the same way that Charlie Sykes did, we have to remember that Charlie did a one and done. That's a term of art here in the journalism world. He knew he had one shot at Donald Trump." The MSNBC journalist continued by pointing out Sykes's year-long opposition to the billionaire presidential candidate, and summarized what took place during the interview.

When Dokoupil made his revelation about "people who are on the beat" and those with MSNBC holding back with Trump, O'Donnell tried to paper over what the correspondent had just let out of the bag: "Well, I don't think the fact that you have to cover Donald Trump means that you then play softball with him, so that you can guarantee he will speak to you another time. Once the mission of an interview is to get the next interview with the same person, we know how soft that interview's going to be."

The transcript of the relevant portion of Tony Dokoupil's report from MSNBC's The Last Word on March 28, 2016: