February 20, 2023 • 33 mins
EPISODE 137: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL BREAKING NEWS EDITION OF THE COUNTDOWN PODCAST: Joe Biden's shock visit to Ukraine and the near-genius of its message to multiple audiences: (A) The American people, rarely surprised by anything, waking up to their president in Kyiv with Zelensky as air raid signals go off - on Presidents' Day no less! (B) To the Republicans trying to undermine support for Ukraine here (C) To buck up the Ukrainians with at least another year of war ahead (D) To Russia if it thought its proxies here could really undermine this country's foreign policy (E) To China amid rumors it might support Russia with materiel that maybe its role could be peacekeeper, what with the Chinese Foreign Minister in Moscow today of all days (F) And lastly, a message so profound and obvious even the American News Media can't miss it nor fail to fit it easily into one of the four or five templates it can process.
B-Block (14:30) On Russian disinformation through Musk, Carlson, Republicans.
C-Block (22:10) My lunch with Joe Biden
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio,
Yippi Kai a Mother Putin the President's surprise trip to
(00:27):
Kiev this morning into a war zone to meet Vladimir Zelinski,
virtually a year after Putin expected to own Kiev, to
symbolically personally deliver half a billion dollars more in aid
to Ukraine as the sun broke over Ukraine and across
the United States on our President's Day. It works on
(00:49):
so many levels to so many different audiences that it
borders on genius. The first audience for which all this
is intended you. The news of Joe Biden's surprise now
(01:24):
shock trip broke about five am Eastern, meaning there basically
wasn't anybody in the United States who did not wake
up to that audio and video of Biden in his
simple black overcoat and his neat suit and his aviators
walking with Zelenski out of St. Michael's Cathedral in Kiev
as the Ukrainian National Air raid siren went off. It
(01:48):
is nearly impossible to surprise the American public anymore about anything,
at least that part of the American public that pays
attention to politics and world events. And yet here it
is what do you mean Biden went to Ukraine overnight,
if there is any wavering of support in this country
for backing Ukraine against Russian aggression and butchery, if there
(02:10):
is any swerving away a year in from the reality
that for the one time since nine the world is
actually faced with the fact that that message, if they
don't fight the mayor, we may wind up fighting them here.
That that's almost literally true, and not just an excuse
to go into Korea or Vietnam or Iraq if anything
is in fact melting away. Nothing does more to shore
(02:34):
up American door to door resolve than that video, than
that audio, than that siren, than that simple message Biden
in Ukraine. The timing for the President is also exquisite.
It is President's Day, It is the one year anniversary
(02:56):
of the week of our warnings to Zelenski himself. This
country was, of course, actually ahead of Ukraine in our
understanding of what intended to do a year ago today.
And no matter what the bleating of our local neighborhood
American fascists in the Republican Party might say, the Biden
appearance is worth a thousand speeches from morons like Lauren
(03:17):
Bobert and Marjorie Trader Green who are back home in
their beds trying to figure out how to spell Ukraine.
And if you want a little further juxtaposition, and I
believe this was accidental. What was supposed to be an
anti war protest in front of the White House yesterday,
the rage against the war machine turned out to be
(03:37):
people carrying not only Putin's war machine Z banner, the
ones that his troops were carrying as they invaded, and
carrying Soviet Union red hammer and sickle flags. And the
optics of that are so laugh out loud tone depth
that if you told me that the flags and the
(03:58):
banners and the marchers were actually supplied Soto Voce by
the White House, I wouldn't be as surprise Soviet flags
in front of the White House, supposedly for peace, anti war,
Soviet Union flags, the hammer and sickle. As Russia tries
to annect Ukraine and Putin tries to rebuild the Soviet
(04:18):
Empire and win the Cold War thirty three years later
and dominate Europe, could there be a less popular cause
in the United States. What a contrast, The impact in Ukraine,
of course, is almost automatically understood their country was not
subsumed by the Russian war machine, and yet a year
(04:40):
of incredible hardships and death and destruction, even after all that,
it is not free of Russia. And it is hard
to imagine that even if internal forces in Russia were
to begin to gather against Putin right now, that it
will not be another year before Ukraine will be safe,
if it will be safe. So Biden's sudden appearance on
a Monday morning in Kiev is exactly the kind of
(05:03):
symbolism that will boost the already extraordinary courage and endurance
of my Ukrainian cousins. It's like a renewal of strength.
And just as obvious is the message to Russia, Flad,
You're gonna keep at this. So are we Americans then
(05:23):
and now. Like to think that the Soviet Union collapsed
in large part because of if you are a Reagan
worshiper Reagan, or if you are living in this world,
American diligence in confronting the last hard line Soviet leaders
like Bresnell under President Johnson, President Nixon, President Carter, and
President Reagan. But in point of fact, the Soviets largely
(05:44):
self destructed. The seeds of the end of their empire
in the early nineteen nineties will sound awfully familiar to
the America of three. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in nineteen
seventy nine. In what that era is Russia's leaders would
thought to have been a quick outcome, that they were
going to handle and win in a matter of days, months,
(06:06):
or maybe a year, a decade and what would be
about a hundred and fifteen billion dollars later, the Russians
had nothing but body bags and angry civilians back home.
And more importantly, it was the first sign to the
average Russian on the street that the world was not
what the Kremlin said it was. And now Putent seems
hell bent on recreating Afghanistan in Ukraine today. There is
(06:32):
the old story of rival businessmen making competing American sports leagues.
A century ago. The established leagues warned the newcomer businessmen
that this would be very expensive for them. The newcomers,
with far more money and resources, scoffed, and their leaders
said to the leader of the established leagues, you send
your man, and he and I can stand at the
(06:53):
Hudson River and we can throw silver dollars in one
at a time, We'll see who runs out of silver
dollars first. It won't be me. The established leagues sued
for Pe. There is one more external message contained in
Biden's trip today, and that is made to Beijing. There
have been renewed rumors of China coming into support Russia
(07:15):
with materiel. The United States has for a year been
warning the Chinese to keep back and stay back, and
they have. But if they were rethinking that, if Biden's
actions against the Chinese spy balloon and what now looks
like something between overly cautious actions against other flying things
here and well pure stunt work in the sky, if
(07:37):
those were not warning enough to China, one imagines the
Chinese got the message this morning, especially with the Chinese
Foreign minister being in Moscow today, the message you want
to get involved, President She, You want to throw your
weight around on this. You really think destabilizing conflict in
Europe that has to end either with Russia ascendant or
(07:59):
NATO ascendant is somehow in your interest. Go ahead, China,
throw your weight around. You've got your man there. Tell
Putin you can be the front man in peace talks,
and you can give Putin a climb down so that
Ukraine does not end with him losing power. Be the
mediator China. That's the message to them today. Lastly, there
(08:21):
is one final group for whom Biden's shocked trip to
the Ukrainian capital this morning will be a potent message
and potent symbolism, and may have even been intended as such.
I speak frequently here about the American political media industrial
complex and it's overwhelming simplicity of mind. It can only
(08:42):
process four or five templates, It can only understand four
or five types of stories. It only has four or
five cubbyholes into which it must try to shove every story,
from wayward presidential relatives to coup attempts. Well, today's trip
is template number two. It is story B. It fits
(09:04):
perfectly into cubby hole upper left. Even American political reporters, commentators, networks, guests, analysts, columnists, stenographers, pundits,
and parents saw Joe Biden this morning and said, Hey,
I know who he is, I know what he's doing.
(09:27):
They all now can clear their throats and intone the
words they love to say against the brilliant midwinter sky.
The President of the United States arrived in war torn
Ukraine it's Ukraine, right and war torn Ukraine, where the
plucky Ukrainish Ukrainian president blah blah blah blah blah. Our
(09:49):
president even gave the American political media a standard wartime
speech with dozens of different quotes to choose from you
all Ukrainians, Mr President, remind the world every single day
with the media, the word courage is from all sectors here, economy,
(10:12):
all walks, through all life. It's astounded, astounding. Remind us
that freedom is priceless, it's worth fighting for as long
as it takes. And that's how long we're gonna be
with you, Mr President. For as long as it takes,
(10:34):
We'll do it. Thank you, Yippy kai a mother Putin
and yippy kai a New York Times. Back after this
(11:06):
with the issue of those spreading Russian propaganda in this country,
Musk Tucker Carlson and you know, parts of the Republican Party.
That's next on this special edition of Countdown. We must
(11:38):
remove Russia from the United Nations. Prutin is doubling down
in Ukraine again, targeting civilians and now positioning himself as
a victim not of the retaliations of war, but of terrorism.
And it got little attention here, but a Russian hacker
group has taken thirteen US air travel websites offline, including
the official sites for l A X and Hartsfield in Atlanta.
(12:01):
The distributed denial of service attacks did no permanent damage
and did not last long, but they are the proverbial
shots across the bow against this country's bow from an
increasingly desperate Vladimir Putin. Removing Russia from the u N is,
of course, a million times easier said than done. At
the u n's formation, Russia was given veto power in
(12:23):
the Security Council, and it has thus stopped even the
most milk toast of UN responses about Ukraine, even after
these latest atrocities. In Russia's eight month long atrocity against Ukraine,
the only way to get rid of Russia is to
dissolve the current United Nations and form a new organization
without Russia, and that could only happen if China were
(12:46):
to go along with it. That is possible. Given a
chance to knock Russia down in at least the formal
arena of diplomacy, the Chinese might just go for it.
It still remains the longest of long shots. The more
immediate and practical alternative is for the President to formally
designate Russia as a state's sponsor of terrorism. This is
(13:07):
one step the Russians genuinely fear because it would not
only increase sanctions against the country and its leaders and
its oligarchs, but it would force many worldwide corporations to
make a choice do business with the United States or Russia,
and indeed it would penalize other countries for doing business
with Russia. It is a little over a month since
(13:28):
President Biden last dismissed the idea, saying through a spokesperson
that declaring them a terrorism sponsor could impact humanitarian efforts
and perhaps peace negotiations. Well, the humanitarian efforts are on
the rocks as it is, and if after this last
weekend anybody in the administration actually sees peace negotiations in
the future, they are hallucinating. Ukrainian President Zelinski has come
(13:51):
out and said it he will never talk peace with
Russia as long as Putin is its dictator. But we
need to do something more about Russia, and obviously or
we're not going to get into a shooting war with Russia,
and we're not to cut off all diplomatic relations with Russia,
but we haven't even addressed relatively minor symbolic acts like
offering Russian athletes playing in this country at choice of
(14:14):
renouncing their Russian citizenships were being banned from making their
millions here. The need to do something more about Russia is,
of course, not just about Russia. It's also about Elon
Musk and Tucker Carlson and Michael Flynn and c Pack.
Because after years of our international moral force being replaced
(14:37):
by Trump's international protection money NATO scheme, this country again
stood up for right against wrong. And just as we
need to make it harder for Russia to bomb playgrounds,
we need to make it harder for Musk and Carlson
and the others to supply Russian TV with an endless
stream of anti Ukrainian sound bites, which is beginning to
reach the outskirts of Tokyo Rose Territory. Like all stupid
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rich men, Elon Musk has assumed that his wealth has
somehow bought him intelligence that he did not have. It
has been two days since he tweeted about the Russian conflict.
On that occasion, he repeated the old Russian fable about
the man granted a single wish, with the caveat that
whatever he gets, his neighbor will get two of. In
that case, the man says, please poke one of my
(15:23):
eyes out Musk's insight. Inspired by that fable, his Pearl
of Wisdom to his million followers quote, and I for
an eye leaves everyone blind, which is, of course the
exact opposite of the moral of the Russian fable he quotes,
which is that Russians are happy to destroy half of
their world if it would destroy all of somebody else's.
(15:48):
It was Musk, of course, who thought he was moving
towards Nobel Peace Prize nominations by taking the Russian demands
for Ukraine and presenting them as his own, merely because
he added United Nations supervision to annexation votes in the
region Russia has seized. Not really. He put it out
as a Twitter poll, where it lost, naturally. He then
(16:10):
concluded the vote had been changed by the biggest bot
attack I've ever seen. Naturally. He then followed up by
representing the same plebiscite idea only using different words. Naturally,
he was criticized by such great actual Russian patriots and
anti Putinists, says Gary Kasparoff, naturally, Musk responded to kaspar Off,
(16:33):
we gave starlinks to Ukraine and lost eighty million dollars
plus in doing so. What have you done besides tweet?
And when readers explained kaspar Off was repeatedly jailed by
Putin and beaten by Russian police, Musk went silent, and
everything he writes or says winds up being played on
Russian television and given widespread coverage on the RT international
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channels and websites. If Musk is motivated by money here
you'll note from the tweet his eighty million dollars is
more important to him than casprov being arrested and beaten.
It is more than likely entirely his own money. But
the specter of the Russians actually paying some of the
anti Ukrainian voices in our country has been raised. It
(17:17):
is not yet two weeks since Spack issued and then
tried to retract pure Putent propaganda quote. Vladimir Putin announces
the annexation of four Ukrainian occupied territories. Biden and the
Dems continued to send Ukraine billions of taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile,
we are under attack at our southern border, When will
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Democrats put America first and end the gift giving to Ukraine.
The message was so blatant that military journalist David Larter,
formerly of Navy Times and Defense News, said that the
FBI should take a look at the money flowing into
Spack and where it's coming from, and that's not a
joke end quote. It was the former John McCain campaigner
(18:03):
Steve Schmidt who observed last spring that the Russians had
been trying to buy their way into the Republican Party
since at least two thousand six and two thousand seven,
and that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis was tied to
Paul Manafort and Oleg Deripaska and through them to putin.
Starting more or less contemporaneously with Schmidt's observations, Tucker Carlson
(18:24):
began to side with Russia every night. His work was
so consistent and dependable that they began to rebroadcast entire
segments on State TV in Russia with captions, though delightfully
they got his name wrong and continually called him Tucks
and Carlson. When the nord Stream natural gas pipeline was sabotaged,
Tucks and Carlson stated as if it were true. He
(18:47):
said that he is true that we were the ones
who blew it up, that Joe Biden did it directly
or through proxies, and he continued his theme that Biden's
actions for Ukraine are actually actions against Russia quote as
payback for getting Trump elected unquote, of Trump's own ties
to Russia and the lengths to which he went to
bury them, the lengths to which he is still trying
(19:10):
to bury them. I don't know that anything new can
be said, however, they do it. The Russians own Trump.
There are others. There is at least one host on
the Real America's voice streaming network who has praised Putin
for claiming the American left is satanic. The former u
n w M D inspector Scott Ritter is a frequent
(19:32):
guest on Russian television praising Putin. And I played this
next clip yesterday, but it is worth hearing again. This
is the former, however, briefly, national Security Adviser to the
President of the United States, Michael Garbage Flynn, famous for
attending a two thousand fifteen Moscow gala and sitting at
(19:53):
the head table with Vladimir Putin. These are not shy leaders.
These are bowl leaders who have every everything at stake
and terms of protecting their country. So these these fools
and I and like I said about Zelenski and his
statement about nuclear war, and people can go to the
(20:14):
various telegram and or my various social media to see
it that that is a foolish person. But what's more,
what's more dangerous than that is a is a dangerous fool.
There is, however, some comic relief in this whole grim business.
To circle back to Tucks and Carlson, We're Jiminy Glick.
(20:34):
Call him what you will. Tucker Carlson has had as
a handwringing guest the loathsome former Congresswoman Telse Gabbard. What
you will hear next is two commentators on Russian TV
as the clip of Carlson and Gabbard plays. The first
says her comments are important because she is a member
of the Democratic Party and thus an internal critic of
(20:55):
Joe Biden. The second one says, with clear regret in
his voice, Nah, sorry, I wish, but Tulsea Gabbard blames
Biden for everything all the time the administ Yet yet Lastly,
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there is no avoiding the reality that many of us
now calling to push the envelope as far as we
safely can against Russia. Find out which of its defenders
here are being paid by that nation or its intermediaries.
Designate Russia as state sponsors of terror. Reform the United Nations.
Without Russia, we are in the extraordinary position of acting
against everything we have proclaimed in the past. I grew
(21:42):
up thinking that the Russians were a menace only because
of the nature of their government at that time, and
I really believed, when the Soviet Union fell apart piece
by peace, that they could create and protect something very
close to democracy. Silly me. Ideally, though, I would like
to be right all the time, twenty four hours a
(22:04):
day forever. But as a second option, I'd rather be
right right now to the number one story on the
(22:26):
countdown on my favorite topic, me and things I promised
not to tell. Early in two thousand seven, my phone
rang at MSNBC headquarters in New Jersey. The Senator would
like to take you to lunch the next time he's
in New York. He needs your advice. Would you be interested?
It was Joe Biden's press guy. My first reaction was
(22:46):
to ask if they had called the wrong number. My
next reaction was to make sure this was not some
sort of policy question, because as a news anchor and
commentator for MSNBC, it did not seem appropriate to offer
advice to a candidate for his party's presidential nomination. And
doesn't that seem quite right now, Seawan Hannity No. I
(23:06):
was told it was more technical, more about communications, no policy,
my antique standards satisfied, I said sure. They gave me
a couple of dates. They suggested, given his schedule, the
best place to eat would be a restaurant in Manhattan,
and it turned out it happened to be about forty
five seconds from my home. So the day and hour
arrived March two thousand seven, and I made it to
(23:29):
the restaurant all the way down there, forty five seconds
from my home. I sat down, and moments later in
came the Senator from Delaware and his press guy. He
had the big welcoming smile and equally big welcoming handshake
that you may have seen from back when candidates could
still go greet the people in the crowd. He reminded
me that we had met briefly when he was in
Los Angeles for the two thousand Democratic Convention and happened
(23:52):
to be staying in the hotel there in which I lived.
Senator Biden then said some nice things about my days
in sports, and particularly about the commentaries I had begun
to do the previous summer on MSNBC. Those special comments,
he said, with first a smile and then a whistle.
There was, then and there remains now, almost no space
(24:13):
between the public Joe Biden of the campaign or the
presidency and the guy who talks informally to some knucklehead
off the streets, which in this story is me. The
word malarkey was used during our lunch, and I remember
that particularly because, as I told him, I went to
grammar school with a kid named Malarkey. And he was
delighted by that. And he said, he assumed we gave
(24:33):
the fellow a hard time. And I said, yeah, but
not because of his name. None of us third graders
knew what malarkey meant. Why did you give him a
hard time? Then Biden asked, it was the third grade.
I said, everybody gave everybody a hard time. He liked
that answer. But back to the point of the lunch.
Your language in these special comments, he said, in those days,
(24:54):
people often brought up my language. See I used to
tell President Bush to shut the hell up, only because
they wouldn't let me use the other word. And some
of the event of that presidency so infuriated me that
I would actually Redden on camera, and I don't Redden
in a sauna. Once my high school history teacher, a distinguished,
(25:15):
an elegant man whose nine older siblings had been born
in Vienna and who had the courtliness which that implies,
mentioned the language of the special comments, and I thought
I was in for it. He Walter Schneller, told me
on the day I had graduated that my plans to
be a sportscaster were very nice, and he was sure
I would go and do that, but that he was
(25:36):
also sure that I would wind up in politics someday,
either as reporter or combatant. And I told him I
was flattered, but he was crazy. Mr Schneller was the
one who, years later, was put in charge of the
school's surprisingly generous fund for bringing in speakers to address
the student body, and he was very annoyed by the
fact that for decades all of the speakers had either
(25:58):
looked like Hugh Sidy, the columnist for Time Magazine, or
they had been hughes I d the columnist for Time Magazine.
He began scouring the Northeast for anybody smart who might
have a diverse background, and that's how he happened to
be driving to the railroad station at Terrytown, New York,
one morning to meet the train that carried that day's
(26:21):
guest speaker, an editor of the Harvard Law Review named
Barack Obama. His last words to Obama were, I'm sure
you're going to go very far. So Mr Schneller and
I were talking about the commentaries again about two thousand
six or seven, and he said about the language, and
I braced myself and preemptically apologized, No, no, He said, urgently,
(26:45):
you missed my point entirely. I am amazed that your
language is so restrained. If I were speaking, I would
have called Mr Bush a And thereupon Mr Schneller made
reference to somebody's mother. So when Joe Biden asked about
the language I used, I was wary, but he followed
it by saying that it was kind of why he
(27:06):
had asked me to lunch. I watched those commentaries. You do,
and people send me the video and my staffers tell
me about them, and every time I think the same thing.
Here you are expressing anger, but as close as it
comes to the line, you never cross it. I say
to my staff folks, is he too angry for you?
And they say no, just right. So here's my question,
(27:27):
and then we can enjoy this great lunch. Here. When
I'm passionate about something and I speak on the Senate
floor or anywhere else, I get told by my friends
and my enemies, you're too angry. And when I really
am angry, they all say, you're really too angry. And here,
Joe Biden laughed. Now you you go on TV, far
larger audience, far longer speeches, and people say that Alderman guy,
(27:48):
he's righteously indignant. And now, with a mixture of laughter,
astonishment and curiosity, said me, I'm angry. You you're righteously indignant.
How do you do that? How do you do it? Man?
Can you tell me? Without thinking? I replied? You have
(28:10):
been in the Senate for how long? Now, Senator thirty
four years? He nodded. And you're only just asking this
question now. The words were barely out of my mouth.
When I froze, this was not a friend or a
colleague who would take the little joking jab I had
just thrown in the way in which I intended. This
(28:33):
was a politician. Politicians may have senses of humor, very
few have a sense of humor about themselves. In that
split second, I assumed Joe Biden might get up and leave.
And he was silent for a moment, and then the
corners of his mouth turned up into my great relief,
he burst into laughter. He rocked back into his chair.
(28:53):
He slapped the table with a pump. My god, that's funny.
More laughter, My god, it's true, louder laughter. I don't
mind telling you I have loved him ever since. I
didn't think I had much advice for Senator Biden, But
as we talked about this topic, he asked me follow
up questions that made me analyze for the first time
(29:13):
some of the processes I used when writing and reading
on television. I've never thought of them before because I've
never had lunch with Joe Biden before. I will not
bore you with the full results of the dissection of
the process of turning anger into righteous indignation. The most
valuable conclusion was the oldest one in the book. I
always wrote late at night while fully angry, and then
(29:34):
in the morning I would take things out of the script,
usually the juicier adjectives. Whatever anger was left was only
the most intense and the most justifiable. And if you
presented twenty four hours after you have written it, you'll
be in control of the anger. Your anger will not
be in control of you. Shorter version, sleep on it.
(29:58):
I saw the senator next in August of two thousand
seven Democratic primary debate the A F L. CIO candidates
for him, officially Soldier Field Chicago, who was outdoors degrees humidity,
threat of killer thunderstorms, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Dodd Richardson, Cucinach Edwards,
(30:20):
and the moderator me. There are photos of this Joe
Biden and I walking towards each other, hands extended for
a greeting, and I remember it clearly. He is literally
asking me if I've noticed that he's been trying to
turn his anger into righteous indignation, and he's asking me
if I thought he'd succeeded. Well, he did not succeed
in that debate. He actually came over to me during
(30:42):
the commercial break and told me what he was going
to do when we came back, and I told him,
don't do that, and he did it anyway and it
looked bad, and later he let me know I was
right and he was wrong. And since then I can't
recall him being angry, certainly not inappropriately angry, not even
(31:02):
in those debates with that goddamn mad and his words
were harsh, the tone was less so perfect eight plus.
But it occurs to me in all the analysis of
all the changes in Joe Biden since day one, in
three or even the vice presidency, nobody touches on this
(31:23):
one thing. As late as fifteen years ago, he seemed
to be a hothead. When was the last time he
was accused of that. I'm not saying I had anything
to do with that, But two years in and he's
not even accused of being a hothead. It's an awfully
nice change, isn't it. This special edition of Countdown has
(31:59):
come to you from the studios of Alderman Broadcasting Empire
World Headquarters in the Sport Its Capsule Building in New York.
Thank you for listening. Here are the credits. Most of
the music, including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth arranged, produced
and performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Shanelle. The
Countdown musical directors guitars based on drums by Brian Ray,
all orchestration and keyboards by John Philip s Chanelle, produced
(32:21):
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the Old Women theme for Me ESPN two, written by
Mitch Warren Davis, appearing courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments
from Nancy Fausts, the best baseball stadium organist ever, and
everything else is pretty much my fault. So let's countdown
for this the seven and seventy six day since Donald
(32:44):
Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States. Arrest him now while we still can.
The next scheduled countdowns tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith old
Room and good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck.
(33:04):
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Yippi Kai a Mother Putin the President's surprise trip to
(00:27):
Kiev this morning into a war zone to meet Vladimir Zelinski,
virtually a year after Putin expected to own Kiev, to
symbolically personally deliver half a billion dollars more in aid
to Ukraine as the sun broke over Ukraine and across
the United States on our President's Day. It works on
(00:49):
so many levels to so many different audiences that it
borders on genius. The first audience for which all this
is intended you. The news of Joe Biden's surprise now
(01:24):
shock trip broke about five am Eastern, meaning there basically
wasn't anybody in the United States who did not wake
up to that audio and video of Biden in his
simple black overcoat and his neat suit and his aviators
walking with Zelenski out of St. Michael's Cathedral in Kiev
as the Ukrainian National Air raid siren went off. It
(01:48):
is nearly impossible to surprise the American public anymore about anything,
at least that part of the American public that pays
attention to politics and world events. And yet here it
is what do you mean Biden went to Ukraine overnight,
if there is any wavering of support in this country
for backing Ukraine against Russian aggression and butchery, if there
(02:10):
is any swerving away a year in from the reality
that for the one time since nine the world is
actually faced with the fact that that message, if they
don't fight the mayor, we may wind up fighting them here.
That that's almost literally true, and not just an excuse
to go into Korea or Vietnam or Iraq if anything
is in fact melting away. Nothing does more to shore
(02:34):
up American door to door resolve than that video, than
that audio, than that siren, than that simple message Biden
in Ukraine. The timing for the President is also exquisite.
It is President's Day, It is the one year anniversary
(02:56):
of the week of our warnings to Zelenski himself. This
country was, of course, actually ahead of Ukraine in our
understanding of what intended to do a year ago today.
And no matter what the bleating of our local neighborhood
American fascists in the Republican Party might say, the Biden
appearance is worth a thousand speeches from morons like Lauren
(03:17):
Bobert and Marjorie Trader Green who are back home in
their beds trying to figure out how to spell Ukraine.
And if you want a little further juxtaposition, and I
believe this was accidental. What was supposed to be an
anti war protest in front of the White House yesterday,
the rage against the war machine turned out to be
(03:37):
people carrying not only Putin's war machine Z banner, the
ones that his troops were carrying as they invaded, and
carrying Soviet Union red hammer and sickle flags. And the
optics of that are so laugh out loud tone depth
that if you told me that the flags and the
(03:58):
banners and the marchers were actually supplied Soto Voce by
the White House, I wouldn't be as surprise Soviet flags
in front of the White House, supposedly for peace, anti war,
Soviet Union flags, the hammer and sickle. As Russia tries
to annect Ukraine and Putin tries to rebuild the Soviet
(04:18):
Empire and win the Cold War thirty three years later
and dominate Europe, could there be a less popular cause
in the United States. What a contrast, The impact in Ukraine,
of course, is almost automatically understood their country was not
subsumed by the Russian war machine, and yet a year
(04:40):
of incredible hardships and death and destruction, even after all that,
it is not free of Russia. And it is hard
to imagine that even if internal forces in Russia were
to begin to gather against Putin right now, that it
will not be another year before Ukraine will be safe,
if it will be safe. So Biden's sudden appearance on
a Monday morning in Kiev is exactly the kind of
(05:03):
symbolism that will boost the already extraordinary courage and endurance
of my Ukrainian cousins. It's like a renewal of strength.
And just as obvious is the message to Russia, Flad,
You're gonna keep at this. So are we Americans then
(05:23):
and now. Like to think that the Soviet Union collapsed
in large part because of if you are a Reagan
worshiper Reagan, or if you are living in this world,
American diligence in confronting the last hard line Soviet leaders
like Bresnell under President Johnson, President Nixon, President Carter, and
President Reagan. But in point of fact, the Soviets largely
(05:44):
self destructed. The seeds of the end of their empire
in the early nineteen nineties will sound awfully familiar to
the America of three. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in nineteen
seventy nine. In what that era is Russia's leaders would
thought to have been a quick outcome, that they were
going to handle and win in a matter of days, months,
(06:06):
or maybe a year, a decade and what would be
about a hundred and fifteen billion dollars later, the Russians
had nothing but body bags and angry civilians back home.
And more importantly, it was the first sign to the
average Russian on the street that the world was not
what the Kremlin said it was. And now Putent seems
hell bent on recreating Afghanistan in Ukraine today. There is
(06:32):
the old story of rival businessmen making competing American sports leagues.
A century ago. The established leagues warned the newcomer businessmen
that this would be very expensive for them. The newcomers,
with far more money and resources, scoffed, and their leaders
said to the leader of the established leagues, you send
your man, and he and I can stand at the
(06:53):
Hudson River and we can throw silver dollars in one
at a time, We'll see who runs out of silver
dollars first. It won't be me. The established leagues sued
for Pe. There is one more external message contained in
Biden's trip today, and that is made to Beijing. There
have been renewed rumors of China coming into support Russia
(07:15):
with materiel. The United States has for a year been
warning the Chinese to keep back and stay back, and
they have. But if they were rethinking that, if Biden's
actions against the Chinese spy balloon and what now looks
like something between overly cautious actions against other flying things
here and well pure stunt work in the sky, if
(07:37):
those were not warning enough to China, one imagines the
Chinese got the message this morning, especially with the Chinese
Foreign minister being in Moscow today, the message you want
to get involved, President She, You want to throw your
weight around on this. You really think destabilizing conflict in
Europe that has to end either with Russia ascendant or
(07:59):
NATO ascendant is somehow in your interest. Go ahead, China,
throw your weight around. You've got your man there. Tell
Putin you can be the front man in peace talks,
and you can give Putin a climb down so that
Ukraine does not end with him losing power. Be the
mediator China. That's the message to them today. Lastly, there
(08:21):
is one final group for whom Biden's shocked trip to
the Ukrainian capital this morning will be a potent message
and potent symbolism, and may have even been intended as such.
I speak frequently here about the American political media industrial
complex and it's overwhelming simplicity of mind. It can only
(08:42):
process four or five templates, It can only understand four
or five types of stories. It only has four or
five cubbyholes into which it must try to shove every story,
from wayward presidential relatives to coup attempts. Well, today's trip
is template number two. It is story B. It fits
(09:04):
perfectly into cubby hole upper left. Even American political reporters, commentators, networks, guests, analysts, columnists, stenographers, pundits,
and parents saw Joe Biden this morning and said, Hey,
I know who he is, I know what he's doing.
(09:27):
They all now can clear their throats and intone the
words they love to say against the brilliant midwinter sky.
The President of the United States arrived in war torn
Ukraine it's Ukraine, right and war torn Ukraine, where the
plucky Ukrainish Ukrainian president blah blah blah blah blah. Our
(09:49):
president even gave the American political media a standard wartime
speech with dozens of different quotes to choose from you
all Ukrainians, Mr President, remind the world every single day
with the media, the word courage is from all sectors here, economy,
(10:12):
all walks, through all life. It's astounded, astounding. Remind us
that freedom is priceless, it's worth fighting for as long
as it takes. And that's how long we're gonna be
with you, Mr President. For as long as it takes,
(10:34):
We'll do it. Thank you, Yippy kai a mother Putin
and yippy kai a New York Times. Back after this
(11:06):
with the issue of those spreading Russian propaganda in this country,
Musk Tucker Carlson and you know, parts of the Republican Party.
That's next on this special edition of Countdown. We must
(11:38):
remove Russia from the United Nations. Prutin is doubling down
in Ukraine again, targeting civilians and now positioning himself as
a victim not of the retaliations of war, but of terrorism.
And it got little attention here, but a Russian hacker
group has taken thirteen US air travel websites offline, including
the official sites for l A X and Hartsfield in Atlanta.
(12:01):
The distributed denial of service attacks did no permanent damage
and did not last long, but they are the proverbial
shots across the bow against this country's bow from an
increasingly desperate Vladimir Putin. Removing Russia from the u N is,
of course, a million times easier said than done. At
the u n's formation, Russia was given veto power in
(12:23):
the Security Council, and it has thus stopped even the
most milk toast of UN responses about Ukraine, even after
these latest atrocities. In Russia's eight month long atrocity against Ukraine,
the only way to get rid of Russia is to
dissolve the current United Nations and form a new organization
without Russia, and that could only happen if China were
(12:46):
to go along with it. That is possible. Given a
chance to knock Russia down in at least the formal
arena of diplomacy, the Chinese might just go for it.
It still remains the longest of long shots. The more
immediate and practical alternative is for the President to formally
designate Russia as a state's sponsor of terrorism. This is
(13:07):
one step the Russians genuinely fear because it would not
only increase sanctions against the country and its leaders and
its oligarchs, but it would force many worldwide corporations to
make a choice do business with the United States or Russia,
and indeed it would penalize other countries for doing business
with Russia. It is a little over a month since
(13:28):
President Biden last dismissed the idea, saying through a spokesperson
that declaring them a terrorism sponsor could impact humanitarian efforts
and perhaps peace negotiations. Well, the humanitarian efforts are on
the rocks as it is, and if after this last
weekend anybody in the administration actually sees peace negotiations in
the future, they are hallucinating. Ukrainian President Zelinski has come
(13:51):
out and said it he will never talk peace with
Russia as long as Putin is its dictator. But we
need to do something more about Russia, and obviously or
we're not going to get into a shooting war with Russia,
and we're not to cut off all diplomatic relations with Russia,
but we haven't even addressed relatively minor symbolic acts like
offering Russian athletes playing in this country at choice of
(14:14):
renouncing their Russian citizenships were being banned from making their
millions here. The need to do something more about Russia is,
of course, not just about Russia. It's also about Elon
Musk and Tucker Carlson and Michael Flynn and c Pack.
Because after years of our international moral force being replaced
(14:37):
by Trump's international protection money NATO scheme, this country again
stood up for right against wrong. And just as we
need to make it harder for Russia to bomb playgrounds,
we need to make it harder for Musk and Carlson
and the others to supply Russian TV with an endless
stream of anti Ukrainian sound bites, which is beginning to
reach the outskirts of Tokyo Rose Territory. Like all stupid
(15:01):
rich men, Elon Musk has assumed that his wealth has
somehow bought him intelligence that he did not have. It
has been two days since he tweeted about the Russian conflict.
On that occasion, he repeated the old Russian fable about
the man granted a single wish, with the caveat that
whatever he gets, his neighbor will get two of. In
that case, the man says, please poke one of my
(15:23):
eyes out Musk's insight. Inspired by that fable, his Pearl
of Wisdom to his million followers quote, and I for
an eye leaves everyone blind, which is, of course the
exact opposite of the moral of the Russian fable he quotes,
which is that Russians are happy to destroy half of
their world if it would destroy all of somebody else's.
(15:48):
It was Musk, of course, who thought he was moving
towards Nobel Peace Prize nominations by taking the Russian demands
for Ukraine and presenting them as his own, merely because
he added United Nations supervision to annexation votes in the
region Russia has seized. Not really. He put it out
as a Twitter poll, where it lost, naturally. He then
(16:10):
concluded the vote had been changed by the biggest bot
attack I've ever seen. Naturally. He then followed up by
representing the same plebiscite idea only using different words. Naturally,
he was criticized by such great actual Russian patriots and
anti Putinists, says Gary Kasparoff, naturally, Musk responded to kaspar Off,
(16:33):
we gave starlinks to Ukraine and lost eighty million dollars
plus in doing so. What have you done besides tweet?
And when readers explained kaspar Off was repeatedly jailed by
Putin and beaten by Russian police, Musk went silent, and
everything he writes or says winds up being played on
Russian television and given widespread coverage on the RT international
(16:56):
channels and websites. If Musk is motivated by money here
you'll note from the tweet his eighty million dollars is
more important to him than casprov being arrested and beaten.
It is more than likely entirely his own money. But
the specter of the Russians actually paying some of the
anti Ukrainian voices in our country has been raised. It
(17:17):
is not yet two weeks since Spack issued and then
tried to retract pure Putent propaganda quote. Vladimir Putin announces
the annexation of four Ukrainian occupied territories. Biden and the
Dems continued to send Ukraine billions of taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile,
we are under attack at our southern border, When will
(17:38):
Democrats put America first and end the gift giving to Ukraine.
The message was so blatant that military journalist David Larter,
formerly of Navy Times and Defense News, said that the
FBI should take a look at the money flowing into
Spack and where it's coming from, and that's not a
joke end quote. It was the former John McCain campaigner
(18:03):
Steve Schmidt who observed last spring that the Russians had
been trying to buy their way into the Republican Party
since at least two thousand six and two thousand seven,
and that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis was tied to
Paul Manafort and Oleg Deripaska and through them to putin.
Starting more or less contemporaneously with Schmidt's observations, Tucker Carlson
(18:24):
began to side with Russia every night. His work was
so consistent and dependable that they began to rebroadcast entire
segments on State TV in Russia with captions, though delightfully
they got his name wrong and continually called him Tucks
and Carlson. When the nord Stream natural gas pipeline was sabotaged,
Tucks and Carlson stated as if it were true. He
(18:47):
said that he is true that we were the ones
who blew it up, that Joe Biden did it directly
or through proxies, and he continued his theme that Biden's
actions for Ukraine are actually actions against Russia quote as
payback for getting Trump elected unquote, of Trump's own ties
to Russia and the lengths to which he went to
bury them, the lengths to which he is still trying
(19:10):
to bury them. I don't know that anything new can
be said, however, they do it. The Russians own Trump.
There are others. There is at least one host on
the Real America's voice streaming network who has praised Putin
for claiming the American left is satanic. The former u
n w M D inspector Scott Ritter is a frequent
(19:32):
guest on Russian television praising Putin. And I played this
next clip yesterday, but it is worth hearing again. This
is the former, however, briefly, national Security Adviser to the
President of the United States, Michael Garbage Flynn, famous for
attending a two thousand fifteen Moscow gala and sitting at
(19:53):
the head table with Vladimir Putin. These are not shy leaders.
These are bowl leaders who have every everything at stake
and terms of protecting their country. So these these fools
and I and like I said about Zelenski and his
statement about nuclear war, and people can go to the
(20:14):
various telegram and or my various social media to see
it that that is a foolish person. But what's more,
what's more dangerous than that is a is a dangerous fool.
There is, however, some comic relief in this whole grim business.
To circle back to Tucks and Carlson, We're Jiminy Glick.
(20:34):
Call him what you will. Tucker Carlson has had as
a handwringing guest the loathsome former Congresswoman Telse Gabbard. What
you will hear next is two commentators on Russian TV
as the clip of Carlson and Gabbard plays. The first
says her comments are important because she is a member
of the Democratic Party and thus an internal critic of
(20:55):
Joe Biden. The second one says, with clear regret in
his voice, Nah, sorry, I wish, but Tulsea Gabbard blames
Biden for everything all the time the administ Yet yet Lastly,
(21:19):
there is no avoiding the reality that many of us
now calling to push the envelope as far as we
safely can against Russia. Find out which of its defenders
here are being paid by that nation or its intermediaries.
Designate Russia as state sponsors of terror. Reform the United Nations.
Without Russia, we are in the extraordinary position of acting
against everything we have proclaimed in the past. I grew
(21:42):
up thinking that the Russians were a menace only because
of the nature of their government at that time, and
I really believed, when the Soviet Union fell apart piece
by peace, that they could create and protect something very
close to democracy. Silly me. Ideally, though, I would like
to be right all the time, twenty four hours a
(22:04):
day forever. But as a second option, I'd rather be
right right now to the number one story on the
(22:26):
countdown on my favorite topic, me and things I promised
not to tell. Early in two thousand seven, my phone
rang at MSNBC headquarters in New Jersey. The Senator would
like to take you to lunch the next time he's
in New York. He needs your advice. Would you be interested?
It was Joe Biden's press guy. My first reaction was
(22:46):
to ask if they had called the wrong number. My
next reaction was to make sure this was not some
sort of policy question, because as a news anchor and
commentator for MSNBC, it did not seem appropriate to offer
advice to a candidate for his party's presidential nomination. And
doesn't that seem quite right now, Seawan Hannity No. I
(23:06):
was told it was more technical, more about communications, no policy,
my antique standards satisfied, I said sure. They gave me
a couple of dates. They suggested, given his schedule, the
best place to eat would be a restaurant in Manhattan,
and it turned out it happened to be about forty
five seconds from my home. So the day and hour
arrived March two thousand seven, and I made it to
(23:29):
the restaurant all the way down there, forty five seconds
from my home. I sat down, and moments later in
came the Senator from Delaware and his press guy. He
had the big welcoming smile and equally big welcoming handshake
that you may have seen from back when candidates could
still go greet the people in the crowd. He reminded
me that we had met briefly when he was in
Los Angeles for the two thousand Democratic Convention and happened
(23:52):
to be staying in the hotel there in which I lived.
Senator Biden then said some nice things about my days
in sports, and particularly about the commentaries I had begun
to do the previous summer on MSNBC. Those special comments,
he said, with first a smile and then a whistle.
There was, then and there remains now, almost no space
(24:13):
between the public Joe Biden of the campaign or the
presidency and the guy who talks informally to some knucklehead
off the streets, which in this story is me. The
word malarkey was used during our lunch, and I remember
that particularly because, as I told him, I went to
grammar school with a kid named Malarkey. And he was
delighted by that. And he said, he assumed we gave
(24:33):
the fellow a hard time. And I said, yeah, but
not because of his name. None of us third graders
knew what malarkey meant. Why did you give him a
hard time? Then Biden asked, it was the third grade.
I said, everybody gave everybody a hard time. He liked
that answer. But back to the point of the lunch.
Your language in these special comments, he said, in those days,
(24:54):
people often brought up my language. See I used to
tell President Bush to shut the hell up, only because
they wouldn't let me use the other word. And some
of the event of that presidency so infuriated me that
I would actually Redden on camera, and I don't Redden
in a sauna. Once my high school history teacher, a distinguished,
(25:15):
an elegant man whose nine older siblings had been born
in Vienna and who had the courtliness which that implies,
mentioned the language of the special comments, and I thought
I was in for it. He Walter Schneller, told me
on the day I had graduated that my plans to
be a sportscaster were very nice, and he was sure
I would go and do that, but that he was
(25:36):
also sure that I would wind up in politics someday,
either as reporter or combatant. And I told him I
was flattered, but he was crazy. Mr Schneller was the
one who, years later, was put in charge of the
school's surprisingly generous fund for bringing in speakers to address
the student body, and he was very annoyed by the
fact that for decades all of the speakers had either
(25:58):
looked like Hugh Sidy, the columnist for Time Magazine, or
they had been hughes I d the columnist for Time Magazine.
He began scouring the Northeast for anybody smart who might
have a diverse background, and that's how he happened to
be driving to the railroad station at Terrytown, New York,
one morning to meet the train that carried that day's
(26:21):
guest speaker, an editor of the Harvard Law Review named
Barack Obama. His last words to Obama were, I'm sure
you're going to go very far. So Mr Schneller and
I were talking about the commentaries again about two thousand
six or seven, and he said about the language, and
I braced myself and preemptically apologized, No, no, He said, urgently,
(26:45):
you missed my point entirely. I am amazed that your
language is so restrained. If I were speaking, I would
have called Mr Bush a And thereupon Mr Schneller made
reference to somebody's mother. So when Joe Biden asked about
the language I used, I was wary, but he followed
it by saying that it was kind of why he
(27:06):
had asked me to lunch. I watched those commentaries. You do,
and people send me the video and my staffers tell
me about them, and every time I think the same thing.
Here you are expressing anger, but as close as it
comes to the line, you never cross it. I say
to my staff folks, is he too angry for you?
And they say no, just right. So here's my question,
(27:27):
and then we can enjoy this great lunch. Here. When
I'm passionate about something and I speak on the Senate
floor or anywhere else, I get told by my friends
and my enemies, you're too angry. And when I really
am angry, they all say, you're really too angry. And here,
Joe Biden laughed. Now you you go on TV, far
larger audience, far longer speeches, and people say that Alderman guy,
(27:48):
he's righteously indignant. And now, with a mixture of laughter,
astonishment and curiosity, said me, I'm angry. You you're righteously indignant.
How do you do that? How do you do it? Man?
Can you tell me? Without thinking? I replied? You have
(28:10):
been in the Senate for how long? Now, Senator thirty
four years? He nodded. And you're only just asking this
question now. The words were barely out of my mouth.
When I froze, this was not a friend or a
colleague who would take the little joking jab I had
just thrown in the way in which I intended. This
(28:33):
was a politician. Politicians may have senses of humor, very
few have a sense of humor about themselves. In that
split second, I assumed Joe Biden might get up and leave.
And he was silent for a moment, and then the
corners of his mouth turned up into my great relief,
he burst into laughter. He rocked back into his chair.
(28:53):
He slapped the table with a pump. My god, that's funny.
More laughter, My god, it's true, louder laughter. I don't
mind telling you I have loved him ever since. I
didn't think I had much advice for Senator Biden, But
as we talked about this topic, he asked me follow
up questions that made me analyze for the first time
(29:13):
some of the processes I used when writing and reading
on television. I've never thought of them before because I've
never had lunch with Joe Biden before. I will not
bore you with the full results of the dissection of
the process of turning anger into righteous indignation. The most
valuable conclusion was the oldest one in the book. I
always wrote late at night while fully angry, and then
(29:34):
in the morning I would take things out of the script,
usually the juicier adjectives. Whatever anger was left was only
the most intense and the most justifiable. And if you
presented twenty four hours after you have written it, you'll
be in control of the anger. Your anger will not
be in control of you. Shorter version, sleep on it.
(29:58):
I saw the senator next in August of two thousand
seven Democratic primary debate the A F L. CIO candidates
for him, officially Soldier Field Chicago, who was outdoors degrees humidity,
threat of killer thunderstorms, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Dodd Richardson, Cucinach Edwards,
(30:20):
and the moderator me. There are photos of this Joe
Biden and I walking towards each other, hands extended for
a greeting, and I remember it clearly. He is literally
asking me if I've noticed that he's been trying to
turn his anger into righteous indignation, and he's asking me
if I thought he'd succeeded. Well, he did not succeed
in that debate. He actually came over to me during
(30:42):
the commercial break and told me what he was going
to do when we came back, and I told him,
don't do that, and he did it anyway and it
looked bad, and later he let me know I was
right and he was wrong. And since then I can't
recall him being angry, certainly not inappropriately angry, not even
(31:02):
in those debates with that goddamn mad and his words
were harsh, the tone was less so perfect eight plus.
But it occurs to me in all the analysis of
all the changes in Joe Biden since day one, in
three or even the vice presidency, nobody touches on this
(31:23):
one thing. As late as fifteen years ago, he seemed
to be a hothead. When was the last time he
was accused of that. I'm not saying I had anything
to do with that, But two years in and he's
not even accused of being a hothead. It's an awfully
nice change, isn't it. This special edition of Countdown has
(31:59):
come to you from the studios of Alderman Broadcasting Empire
World Headquarters in the Sport Its Capsule Building in New York.
Thank you for listening. Here are the credits. Most of
the music, including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth arranged, produced
and performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Shanelle. The
Countdown musical directors guitars based on drums by Brian Ray,
all orchestration and keyboards by John Philip s Chanelle, produced
(32:21):
by T k O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been
arranged and performed by No horns allowed. The sports music
the Old Women theme for Me ESPN two, written by
Mitch Warren Davis, appearing courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments
from Nancy Fausts, the best baseball stadium organist ever, and
everything else is pretty much my fault. So let's countdown
for this the seven and seventy six day since Donald
(32:44):
Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States. Arrest him now while we still can.
The next scheduled countdowns tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith old
Room and good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck.
(33:04):
Count Down with Keith Olderman is a production of I
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