After Mitt Romney’s son, Tagg, said recently said that he wanted to punch President Barack Obama for insulting his dad, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell on Thursday invited the younger Romney to “take a swing at me.”

Following Tuesday’s second 2012 presidential debate, Tagg Romney explained how he wished he could to react when he felt like the president was calling his dad “a liar.”

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“Well — jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him,” he told radio host Bill Lumaye. “But you know you can’t do that because, well, first there is a lot of Secret Service between you and him but also because this is the nature of the process, they’re going to do everything they can do to make my dad into someone he is not.”

On Thursday, Ann Romney pointed out that her husband and five sons had not served their country by joining the military because they found “different ways of serving” by going on religious missions in France, England, Australia and Chile as part of their obligation to the Mormon church.

“Serving in war is not against the Romney family religion, but it is against the Romney family tradition of safely and always pursuing self interest,” O’Donnell charged during his Thursday show, noting that the Romney men had refused “to serve in the military while championing every war that comes along and urging us to another one in Iran right now.”

“The flawlessly consistent, intergenerational combat cowardice of Romney men makes today’s threat of physical violence from a Romney man all the more surprising,” the MSNBC host added, referring to Tagg Romney’s desire to deck the president.

O’Donnell then looked into the camera and spoke directly to “Taggart”:

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When I hear you talking about taking a swing and taking punches, why do I get the feeling that you’ve never actually taken a punch? Or thrown a punch? I didn’t have that luxury in the part of Boston that I grew up in. But in your rich, suburban Boston life, with your father filling a $100 million trust fund for you, I don’t know, I just get the feeling that things were kind of different for you. Now, I know you’ve got a lot — a lot to be pissed off at these days, starting with the name Taggart, which you got every right to be wicked pissed off at for every day for the 42 years of your life. So, let me try to help you deal with all this aggression you’re feeling right now. You’re mad at President Obama for calling your father a liar? Well, let’s get something straight, he didn’t call your father a liar, I did. The president just said that what your father said isn’t true. I’ve been saying all year that your father is a liar, I’ve repeatedly said that your father lies and is trying to lie his way into the White House. You want to take a swing at someone for calling your old man a liar? Take a swing at me. Come on, come on. And don’t worry, there won’t be any Secret Service involved. Just us. And I’ll make it easy for you, I’ll come to you. Anytime, anywhere.”

“Go ahead, Taggart, take your best shot,” O’Donnell concluded.

Watch this video from MSNBC’s The Last Word, broadcast Oct. 18, 2012.

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