August 14, 2023 • 42 mins
SEASON 2 EPISODE 12: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
THIS EPISODE WAS REVISED AT 2:25 AM EDT MONDAY 8.14.23
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump snaps. After a weekend of taunting Judge Tanya Chutkan - and the rule of law - through surrogates, he posts online attacks against her ("highly partisan...obviously wants me behind bars") and the special counsel ("How dare lowlife prosecutor Deranged Jack Smith break into my former Twitter account without informing me" - and calls this court-authorized access an "atrocity").
These are exactly the kind of inflammatory remarks that Judge Chutkan warned him against; he had tried to get around her by having Matt Gaetz threaten violence as he stood silently next to him, and he has tried to get around it by reposting the lies and character assassinations and threats of others. He didn't even wait 24 hours to try to get around her. Any other defendant in this country would have already had their pre-trial release revoked, or had an immediate hearing scheduled.
We must end the appeasement of Trump. The law - with Judge Chutkan representing it - must crush him.
Trump has also repeatedly attacked Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis in advance of her probable indictments tomorrow. He is panicking. He has reason to. In addition to his other crimes, she now has emails and texts tying "The Coffee County Breach" - the hacking of voting records there - to Trump lawyers and associates.
Also: RFK Junior has self-destructed. Surprise surprise. He calls for a federal ban on abortion after 15 or 21 weeks, then denies he said such a thing; then NBC produces the transcript of him re-confirming his belief several times. Republicans continue to rage against the appointment of a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden case after spending a year demanding the appointment of a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden case - and getting exactly the one they all wanted. Kevin McCarthy demanded it just 34 days ago!
B-Block (22:59) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: It's like something out of a Jimmy Stewart western or a '20s Chicago Mob film: the bad guys break into the small town newspaper and kill the publisher. Only it's happened for real in Kansas, and the bad guys are the town cops, and the DOJ must have the FBI arrest the lot of them - the judge who authorized it included. And the CBS News president who tried to pander to the far right has been fired. I'm in the neighborhood, and I am available (part-time only) (29:29) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Fox anchor who not only thinks Karl Marx wrote "Mein Kampf" but has apparently thought so since 1985; First the baseball team suspended its announcer for nothing, then it seems to have forced him to say it was all a misunderstanding. And General Mike Flynn reaches a new low: the Holocaust was the fault of Jews who didn't fight back hard enough.
C-Block (36:44) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just passed the anniversary of the day Aaron Sorkin stole a quote from my last father and put it in the mouth of Jeff Daniels - and every one of my exes called me to complain about it.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. At
twelve thirty three Eastern daylight time this morning, Donald Trump
(00:26):
snapped his pre trial release must be revoked immediately and
he must be taken into custody immediately. Warned by Judge
Tanya Chutkin to temper his public rage, Trump instead descended
from a weekend of threats by proxy and attacks by
reposting to what are unequivocal, undeniable, and indefensible direct attacks
(00:50):
on the judge and the Special Council. Quote how dare
low life prosecutor deranged Jack Smith break into my former
Twitter account without informing me and indeed trying to completely
this atrocity from me twelve thirty three am unquote. Yes,
(01:11):
Trump actually used the word atrocity, and yes, he apparently
knew nothing of the court order, even though it was
last January and it was in all the papers. At
one fourteen eastern this morning, Trump referred to a quote
by highly partisan Judge Tanya Chutkin, she obviously wants me
(01:32):
behind bars unquote. The laws of this country must finally
today crush Donald Trump. This is exactly what the judge
warned his attorneys against just last Friday, not even seventy
two hours earlier. Quote. I caution you and your client
(01:54):
to take special care in your public statements about this case,
she said at the Evidentiary Protective Order hearing. Quote. Even
arguably ambiguous statements from parties or their council can threaten
the process. Then she threatened him with something far worse
than just a gag order. Quote. The more a party
makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the
(02:17):
jury pool, the greater the urgency will be that we
proceed to trial quickly. Translation every threat you make, the
trial starts sooner. Response First, Trump had others make his
threats for him. Six times yesterday and last night. Trump
reposted inflammatory statements by others, by Stephen Miller, by Greg Jarrett,
(02:42):
by the Necklace Attorney General of West Virginia Patrick Morrissey,
and most relevantly, by former Grassy aide Mike Davis, who
dishonestly posted the Judge Chutkin quote openly admitted she's running
election interference against Trump. There is no law, no rule,
no ruling that Trump does not think he can find
(03:04):
a way around. He by reposting others was taunting Judge Chutkin,
you say I can't say anything threatening. He was testing.
Judge Chutkin, let see you punish me for simply amplifying
threats by others. She did not punish him. Naturally, she
(03:26):
did not. It was the weekend, and she is not
a psychopath. She knows the difference between the weekend and
the week He then decided he no longer needed to
be cute, at twelve thirty three, accusing the Special counsel
of committing an atrocity against him, and at one point fourteen,
accusing the judge of having prejudged the case, and he
thereby stopped even the pretense of obeying the letter of
(03:48):
her rulings. This is not to say that before he
broke Trump had not violated their spirit. It was with
those reposted insults that he did that. And moreover, as
he stood at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines
next to his political prostitute Matt Gates. This time it
was not Trump summoning his stochastic terrorists vaguely and indirectly.
(04:12):
It was Gates openly calling for quote force on Trump's behalf,
with Trump silent alongside him. I'm not say these people
are destroying our country. They're opening our orders. They're a
weapon lawforsement state trich Americans who loved this station as
(04:34):
we should. We are. We love staying with you, but
we have only doing made any change in a corrupt
town like Washington, d C. It is quite literally true
that after Judge Chutkin's order Friday, if that had been
Trump saying that and not Gates, Trump would have had
(04:54):
his pre trial release revoked by nightfall, or he would
be back in front of the judge today, or at minimum,
he would have seen the trial date advanced a month
to descend second, not January second. Given Trump's history, given
Maga's history, given Gates' history, given January sixth, it was
so bad that even Gates was terrified. He tried to
(05:18):
back away from it. He tweeted that night, quote, do
you agree we must force change to a corrupt system?
Force change in all caps? Force change? As if he
had not said only through force, as if he had
not just threatened more violence, more insurrection, more traitorous betrayal.
(05:40):
Again as always, as it always will be. This is
Trump in miniature. He matters, the judge does not. He matters,
the country does not. He matters the law does not
the law should crush him today. If that was hard
(06:06):
to clearly understand, a reporter asked, do you plan to
comply with the judge's order, etc. And Trump, for a moment,
falling off script, answered We'll have to take a look
at the order. Last Friday, before Judge Chucken, his attorney
said Trump would abide by her order. Within twenty four hours,
(06:27):
he had broken it. Within twenty four hours, he had
had a political prostitute threatened violence over it. Within thirty
six hours, he had begun another online campaign by proxy
against her and against the prosecutors. Any other defendant would
already have been crushed by the law. It is Judge
Chutkin's responsibility to defend the law and defend the nation today, now,
(06:52):
without further warning, without further delay, without further appeasement. Trump
spent the rest of his weekend in abject terror over
what is to come in Georgia, almost certainly to come tomorrow.
Between reposted attacks on Judge Chutkin, he posted his own
attacks on District Attorney Willis, and he has good reason
(07:15):
to be terrified. The Guardian and CNN broke two parts
of the same story on top of everything else Trump
did in Georgia by phone by Rudy Giuliani by public pressure.
That video that showed the GOP chairwoman of Coffee County, Georgia,
Kathy Latham, holding the door open to the local Board
(07:37):
of Elections so two techs could illegally download the voting
data from the rural county onto a portable hard drive.
The Coffee County breach well prosecutors have text messages and
emails quote directly connecting members of Trump's legal team, including
Bernie Carrick, to that breach. In advance. On January one,
(08:02):
twenty twenty one, CNN reported head of the January seven
voting Systems breach, Catherine Fries, an attorney working with Rudy Giuliani,
Sidney Powell, and other Trump allies, shared a written invitation
to examine voting systems in Coffee County with a group
of Trump allies. She literally sent a separate version of
(08:23):
the invitation to Bernard Carrick and to once again underscore
that democracy survives less by our efforts than by the
stupidity of those who would destroy it. This idiot titled
the letter of invitation quote Letter of Invitation, the Guardian's
Hugo Lowell fleshed it out. The potential charges at issue
(08:45):
are computer trespass felonies. He adds, this could all be
the backbone of racketeering charges. The Guardian does not mention Carrick,
or Giuliani or Sidney Powell, whose name has been connected
since at least last year, to this hair brain scheme
to prove voter fraud in a county Trump won with
seven percent of the vote. We expect the indictments tomorrow
(09:08):
because now two of the witnesses who testify to Fannie
Willis's Special Purpose grand Jury, journalist George Cheaty and former
Lieutenant Governor Jeff duncan confirm on the record that they
have been subpoenaed to show up before the regular grand
jury tomorrow and will do so. The regular grand jury
can indict, the special Purpose grand jury could not. If
(09:29):
a fourth set of indictments we're not terrifying enough for Trump.
One particular newspaper headline about them should be quoting it.
Georgia is ground zero for Trump exhaustion. As another indictment looms.
The article is about Georgia Republicans suddenly realizing that this
is not about them or their party, or their state,
(09:52):
but only about him, and it has been since twenty
twenty without interruption. This underlines a point I have brought
up before. There are limits to how much of the
Trump soap opera even Trump cultists will put up with,
even if the responses are specific to a city, state,
or region and are a long time happening. They are
(10:16):
also showing up in fundraising, which is declining with each
new indictment. Oh and perhaps most terrifying to Trump might
be where that particular headline about Trump exhaustion was seen.
It's in the Wall Street Journal. Two more Trump points
(10:40):
in a moment, but first through the looking glass people,
or more correctly, through the funhouse mirror, that is the
right wing, a place where Robert F. Kennedy Junior is
gaining on Joe Biden in their quote race unquote for
the Democratic nomination. I think the RFK Junior thing might
be over now. Yesterday in Iowa, I presume he was
(11:01):
there with all the other Republicans, Kennedy announced he's in
favor of a federal ban on abortion. At fifteen or
twenty one weeks quote. I believe a decision to abort
a child should be up to the women during the
first three months of life. Asked by NBC if he
meant a ban beyond that time, he said yes, going
(11:22):
for that vast national abortion ban group of Democratic primary voters.
When he realized what had happened, Kennedy fell on the
Oh it was too loud in their excuse, claiming he
misheard the question that he does not believe in any
abortion ban, which doesn't explain why in his first statement
he limited a woman's right to choose to three months
(11:45):
or use the phrase three months of life. NBC produced
a transcript of their interview with Kennedy. It is clear
he did not misunderstand a thing and is lying. And
also over here in cloud cuckoo Land, now there's a
Hunter Biden Special Counsel, and the loudest and most shameless
of Republicans are angry about it and about who it is,
(12:09):
even though they've spent a year demanding it and demanding
that guy Ted Cruz. Last September nineteenth letter to Merrick Garland,
We the undersigned write to request that David C. Weiss
be extended special Council protections and authorities to conduct the
Hunter Biden investigation. Ted Cruz yesterday, Weiss is quote a
(12:30):
wildly inappropriate person to be a special counsel. Marcia Blackburn
last September nineteenth signed the same letter as Cruz, and
I'm caveating this. Lately, the Medusa of the Senate has
exhibited some cognitive deficits, which is truly serious since she
didn't start with much in the cognitive bank as it
was Marshall Blackburn yesterday, Weiss is a quote collaborator. Chuck
(12:57):
Grassley last September nineteenth, same letter Chuck Grassley on Friday,
Weiss has been compromised. Chuck adds he may have run
over another deer. Jamie Comer spent the spring and the
summer holding hearing after nonsensical hearing, insisting Biden was preventing
Weiss's appointment as special counsel. Friday. Comer said Weiss's appointment
(13:19):
a special council is quote part of the Justice Department's
efforts to attempt a Biden family cover up. Tim Scott
last September nineteenth, also not a bright bulb, same letter,
Tim Scott Friday. Weiss's appointment raises further questions about the
independence of Biden's DOJ. You asked for this guy. And
(13:42):
then there are two fascists who, even in this uniform
display of the reality that the Republicans have only one policy.
As Aaron Sorkin wrote in The American President, they are
interested in two things, and two things only, making you
afraid of it and telling you who to blame for it.
Even against that backdrop, they are particularly a pall and
(14:03):
good old Jim Jordan wrote to the Attorney General a long,
angry letter which he summarized on Twitter with quote, why
hasn't DOJ appointed a special council for the Hunter Biden investigation?
This he did. On February twenty eighth Friday, A Jordan's
spokesman announced that DOJ appointing a special council for the
Hunter Biden investigation quote is just a new way to
(14:25):
whitewash the Biden family corruption un quote. And yet that
turnaround five and a half months is nothing compared to
that which was performed by a creature who wrote an
op ed on the Fox website saying the failure to
name Weiss as special counsel confirmed quote political interference from
(14:45):
the Biden administration unquote interference so bad it quote smells,
and that it demanded the potential impeachment of Merrick Garland
and Joe Biden. He wrote that on July twelfth, thirty
four days ago. Now the same creature says the the
appointment of Weiss is an attempt to quote obstruct congressional
(15:08):
investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption, who went from
whining and bitching about no to whining and bitching about
yes in just thirty four days. The Speaker of the House,
Kevin McCarthy. I would call McCarthy a worm, but worms
(15:28):
generally only keep digging in one direction, not too you know,
I truly think Republicans are nearly universally better at politics,
and especially slimy, chisely politics than our Democrats. But why
they do not take the win here makes no sense
(15:50):
to me. They could claim they forced Garland and or
Biden to appoint the special Council and the one they wanted,
and then still go ahead and rip his investigation at
every stage. Instead, they could not break themselves of the
habit of automatic opposition and gain saying to anything Democrats do.
(16:15):
This has already taken the steam out of the entire
Hunter Biden crap and out of them. I suppose it's
too much to assume that maybe they had heard this
was coming. Yesterday, Congressman Jamie Raskin said, House Democrats are
going to release a report about all of the foreign
government emoluments millions of dollars. We can document that Trump
(16:38):
pocketed at the hotels, at the golf courses through business
deals when he was president, and that his family got well, okay, Jamie,
that is great, but it is billions, not millions. And
if this is a complete report, it's going to require
about seven people to lift just one copy of it,
(17:01):
isn't it. And then there's Ivana Trump literally causing her
ex husband trouble from beyond the grave. It is now
nearly thirteen months since she died when she fell down
a staircase in her home. And if she had been
(17:22):
the ex wife of a Democrat, any Democrat, we would
be in month thirteen of the twenty four to seven
accounts of her quote murder unquote and the quote lead
suspect unquote, namely the X. But instead we had none
of that. But we have had the enduringly macabre scene
of her grave being near the first tea at Trump's
(17:45):
Chinsey golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Now made more
macabre still because, as the British tabloid The Daily Mail reports,
the temporary memorial plaque, which has now been there a
year in lieu of the actual headstone they'll get to eventually,
is well. Their headline says it all quote, Ivana Trump's
(18:09):
cordoned off grave is barely visible in completely overgrown area
of Trump's five hundred and six acre Bedminster, New Jersey
golf course. And there is, as they say, art a
series of photos of well grass. Some of the grass
(18:30):
is turning brown, Some of the grass is scarred by
patches of dirt. Some of the grass is obscuring part
of Ivana's marker, so that the first four letters of
her first name really can't be seen anymore, and it
looks like it reads simply and solely a Trump. On
(18:53):
the other hand, think of the good news between the
thick grass near the marker and the total absence of
grass just inches away. If you are teeing off on
one and you really slice the damn thing, now be
much much easier to find your ball. Also of interest, here,
(19:18):
it's nothing less than a scene out of any nineteen
twenty Chicago mob movie or at least one Jimmy Stewart Western.
The newspaper has the goods on their corrupt leader and
is about to expose him. So the corrupt leader sends
in his goons to trash the office and kill the publisher.
Only this is no movie, and this is not eighteen
eighty eight or nineteen twenty six. It's twenty twenty three
(19:42):
in a Kansas town halfway between Wichita and Topeka. And
the bad guys who in fact trashed the newspaper office
and led to the death of the publisher they are
the town police. The FBI better get a book of
arrest warrants. Fascism in Marion, Kansas. That's next. This discountdown,
(20:07):
you know, this is countdown with you know Keith Alberman.
Postscripts to the news some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some predictions. Dateline Marion, Kansas waiting on the Department of
(20:28):
Justice to launch an investigation into police Chief Gideon Cody
of that town and Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge
Laura Weyer. The judge signed a search warrant that let
Chief codies fascist stormtroopers of Marion, Kansas literally trash the
offices of the newspaper, the Marion County Record. They destroyed
(20:49):
part of it. They seized the rest, including personal cell phones,
all the computers, and all the devices of the staff,
including it's ninety eight year old co owner Joan Meyer,
all of her devices and equipment. Her stress at the
damage to the paper and the loss of her own computer,
her router, her Alexa, her ability to stream shows at
(21:11):
home was such that she collapsed and died the next day.
What preceded this, and the word is preceded, not provoked,
because this is still America, and the destruction of a
newspaper offices by the cops has to be met by
the stiffest of jail terms. As Marisa Kabas wrote in
her substack, quoting publisher Eric Meyer of the paper, quote,
(21:33):
We've been investigating the police chief. When he was named
chief just two months ago. We got an outpouring of
calls from his former co workers making a wide array
of allegations against him, saying that he was about to
be demoted at his previous job, and that he retired
to avoid demotion and punishment over sexual misconduct charges and
(21:54):
other things. Unquote, the FBI needs to be at Chief
Cody's home and the homes of his officers today. It
is only unfortunate that they will not be able to
charge any of them with murder. Dateline White Deer, Texas.
And now we have the backstory of the tale of
Ronnie Jackson has a bad night at the rodeo, the
(22:17):
one so bad that the first public statement from the
disgraced Congressoan's office after it occurred was to insist that
Ronnie Jackson had not been drinking. That's where they started. Firstly,
one of the deputy sheriffs involved in the incident said, no,
he'd been drinking. Quote, he was backstage earlier in the
(22:37):
evening drinking alcohol while I was working security in that area.
And EMT added he did appear drunk. If you don't
remember this story, on the twenty ninth of July, a
teenaged girl had a seizure at a rodeo in White
Deer outside Amarillo. Jackson formerly the White House position until
(22:57):
there was a whole thing with no over prescribing pills
and stuff. Jackson said he rushed to her aid, but
was man handled and cuffed by over Zealda's deputies, not
really officers got to the girl first, and they told
everybody to back away from her, so EMTs who were
at the rodeo and on their way over could treat her.
(23:19):
Jackson would not do so, please say. They told him
four times to back away before they threw him face
first to the ground. Police say Jackson then threatened to
quote beat one of the troopers and bury the sheriff
at the next election. And at one point he bumped
a trooper with his chest. And he was still threatening
them and swearing at them even after they removed the
(23:40):
handcuffs and put him back in his own car without
charging or detaining him. Oh and guess what, there's bodycam
footage of all this. They have not released it yet.
I'll get the popcorn. Thank you, Nancy Faust and Dateline
(24:18):
New York City near as Kamlanie is out as co
president of CBS News. This is hours after The New
York Post reported that he had told colleagues he was
being removed following clashes with high profile anchors and hr
complaints about his abusive behavior. Kim Lannie is the guy
who also tried to appease the right wing by hiring
(24:39):
former Trump Chief of staff Mick mulvaney as a CBS
News commentator. Nobody would have noticed. I mean, it's Mick
mulvaney for crying out loud, except that, in announcing the
hiring to staff, Kim Lannie explained he had made the
move in part, quote to make sure that we are
getting access to both sides of the aisle, which is
(24:59):
a priority because we know the Republicans are going to
take over most likely in the midterms. A lot of
the people that we're bringing in are helping us in
terms of access to that side of the equation. Unquote. Yeah,
how did that all work out for you? Niarraje PostScript,
This podcast continues to burgeon. I have just rented a
new studio for it, and a video version of it
(25:22):
is coming at some point soon. But I am only
nine tenths of a mile away from CBS News World
headquarters in New York, and provided you'd let me bring
in one or two of the dogs every day, I
mean I could hike over and run it for you
in my spare time. You're welcome. Plus, Norah O'Donnell, the
(25:55):
anchor of the CBS Evening News, pretty much got her
first TV break on My old show on MSNBC and
I can do a fairwea decent impression war Parker Faymale's mayor,
just saying I don't talk enough about myself on this show.
I just invoked Aaron Sorkin, so still ahead on countdown.
(26:16):
I looked at my calendar of stupid stuff that I've
lived through. What do you know? We just passed the
anniversary of the day Aaron Sorkin flat out stole a
line from my father and put it in one of
his TV series, which was about me things I promised
not to tell next. I really don't. I don't talk
enough about myself. We should have like an extra half
an hour a day, or just talk about myself first
(26:38):
time for the daily roundup of the miss grants, morons
un dunning Kruger Effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons
in the world. The Bronze Bill Hemmer of Fox quote
News unquote. Hemmer is now co anchoring with the amazingly
nit witted Dana Perino in an allegedly non commentary news
(27:00):
hour in which the combined IQ of the anchors might
not reach triple did. I worked with Himmer briefly at CNN.
Very affable very pleasant, very stupid, but he has outdone himself.
Interview about critical race theory or wherever the spinning wheel
of endless Umbradge stopped that day, and Hemmer was reminiscing
(27:21):
about his own education and how he thought traveling to
the place where someone wrote a historically important book would
help him understand it better. Quote. I remember twenty years
ago going to Treer, Germany and trying to find the
home of Karl Marx Cauz. You know, eighteen forty eight
he wrote Mine COMF. Hemmer was born in November nineteen
(27:45):
sixty four, meaning that since at least nineteen eighty five
he has been searching in vain for where Carl Marx
wrote Hitler's Mind KMFF. When we all know that, in fact,
Karl Marx wrote the best seller Groucho and Me runner
up the Baltimore Orioles, and specifically senior vice president Greg
Baterer and CEO John Angelos, you will recall that they
(28:09):
suspended team play by play man Kevin Brown for having
had the nerve to read on the air the team's
past record against its rivals from Tampa history, supplied by
the team and given to Brown to read by the
team run television broadcast. Brown had violated the sacred oath.
He had revealed that the Orioles had in their past
(28:30):
actually lost games. Kevin Brown returned to the booth Friday
after the two week suspension for doing nothing that would
make any oriol fan think less of the team, and
then these words were put out in Brown's Twitter account quote. Unfortunately,
recent media reports have mischaracterized my relationship with my adopted
(28:51):
hometown Orioles. The fact is I have a wonderful relationship
with the organization. I asked that everyone disregard the distracting
noise of the past few days. I have worked closely
with o's SV Greg Batter for the past four years,
and John Angelos and I have a solid dialogue based
on mutual respect. We are all good here in Birdland.
(29:17):
I have no idea who wrote that, but I would
bet on it's just a guest here Senior vice president
Greg Batter and John Angelos. See. I once had to
write something like that at MSNBC after they tried to
suspend me and in so doing breached my contract, and
I realized that if I played ball for another two
three months with them, they would have to pay me
like eighteen million dollars, and I could then sign elsewhere
(29:39):
for a lot more than that, and I did both.
May the same happen to you, hostage tweet producer Kevin Brown,
But our winner, General Michael Flynn, And how we permit
this madman to walk free in this country is inexplicable.
Flynn has now been condemned by everybody from General Barry
McCaffrey to the Auschwitz Museum. After a speech in which
(30:03):
he blamed the Jewish victims Alba Holocaust for not fighting
back and defeating their Nazi captors. Flynn lied to his
audience and said that as German Jews were forced onto
the trains to the concentration camps, there were quote thousands
of them and not many guards. Flynn added that the
victims said, Okay, here's my child and God on the
(30:24):
train unquote. The why didn't the Jews fight back trope
is one of the more grossly subtle forms of anti Semitism.
It has been appropriated by worse creatures even than Flynn.
He seemed to think he was warning his followers about
who knows, because to equate yourself with the victims of
(30:45):
Hitler is to obscure the truth. Flynn and his followers
are the Nazis. But you already know this. You probably
even heard the audio already of Flynn's deplorable victim blaming.
What you may not have seen was the detailed and
surprisingly restrained, six hundred word answer to Flynn from the
out Schwitz Museum about the facts of the rounding up
(31:07):
in Germany and the firepower used by the Germans and
those who fought back against the Nazis. And even more
important than that, you probably did not see Flynn's astonishing reply,
in which he doubled down. Flynn tweeted in response, quote
the fact you need to explain so much shows you
(31:29):
don't understand the point I'm making unquote Seriously, Michael Flynn
is explaining the Holocaust to the Auschwitz Museum. General Michael Flynn,
traitor to the uniform he once wore, and in desperate
need of immediate institutionalization or a neurological exam or an
(31:51):
arrest or all of the above, and quite literally two
days worst person in the world. Finally, our number one
(32:13):
story in the countdown things I promised not to tell
And back to my favorite topic me I heard Jeff
Daniels say the words, and in the next minute my
cell phone rang. It was an ex girlfriend. While we
were talking, an email arrived from another ex girlfriend, and
then in came a text from the current girlfriend at
her folks house, then two more emails, and before I
(32:34):
was off the phone to voicemails, and then regular friends
started to contact me. This is just over ten years
ago now. It was Sunday, August fifth, twenty twelve. Jeff
Daniels was playing the controversial newscaster and commentator on Aaron
Sorkin's HBO series Newsroom, which was based structurally on Me
(32:54):
and Countdown. And I know this because Aaron Sorkin told
me so before he filmed any of it. And I
know this because he asked me if he could base
the pilot ap episode on what happened to me at
MSNBC in the spring and summer of twenty ten. And
I know this because he came in and shadowed the
staff of Countdown for two days to get the feel
(33:15):
for the place. And I know this because he wound
up basing one character, Maggie Jordan, on my assistant Margaret Judson,
and then hiring Margaret Judson as a consultant and then
hiring her as an actress to play a part that
wasn't supposed to be her. And I know this because
he was furious when I would not fly to Denver.
(33:35):
I think it was to do a cameo in the pilot.
And I know this because he said he was hiring
me as a consultant. And I know this because I
never saw a dime out of it. This was the
second time Aaron Sorkin had based one of his TV
series on one of my TV series. The other was
called Sports Night, and Esquire magazine once asked me to
(33:56):
interview Sorkin about Sports Night, and I asked him the
real tough question, what was the origin of Sports Night?
And his answer was, quote, you are the origin. So
when The New York Times had called me about Newsroom,
I lightheartedly said it was nice to know in advance
this time that Aaron Sorkin was making a TV series
about me. Sorkin did not like this at all, and
(34:20):
he told all his actors to tell all their interviewers
that this was not true. And I know that because
Jeff Daniels told me that that was what Sorkin had
told him. Sorkin is interesting. I had known him for
about ten or twelve years when he came in to
countdown to see what it looked and felt like. And
he was twenty minutes late. And my assistant Margaret, after
(34:41):
whom he named Maggie Jordan, whom he then hired away
from me, and whom he finally hired as an actress
to play Tess Weston, and she was great, by the way.
Margaret brings him in and he apologizes for being late,
and he says he's staying in a hotel two blocks away,
and he should have just walked, but instead he got
in a car, and the next thing he knew, he
was six blocks away, caught in traffic caused by the
(35:02):
complete shutdown of one of the crosstown streets for midday construction.
And I laughed, and I said, well, like my late father,
the architect used to say, New York, it'll be a
great town whenever they finish it. And he laughed, and
I laughed. And two years later, in the seventh episode
of the HBO Newsroom series first aired on August fifth,
(35:23):
twenty twelve, and re aired throughout the week, Jeff Daniels
as the anchorman, Will McAvoy who wasn't me but actually
kind of was me, is late to his newsroom because
he gets caught in Manhattan traffic caused by Sunday night
street construction, and he says to his exasperated producer, new York,
it'll be a great town whenever they finish it. That's
(35:46):
when my phone and email blew up, and the then girlfriend,
and like forty percent of all of my exes ever,
all had the same question, New York, it'll be a
great town whenever they finish it. Isn't that what your
dad used to say? Even the ones who never met
my dad knew this because I used to quote him constantly,
because the real humor in the quote is the fact
(36:08):
that my dad was an architect and construction was his business.
New York, It'll be a great town whenever they finish it.
And then one of the last of the exes reached out.
She waited until the show was over. Now, I don't
think any of us is proud of this, but she
had also dated Sorkin once or twice, and since she
(36:29):
had written celebrity stories for a New York newspaper, he
had later asked her by email what the world of
gossip reporting was like, and she told him by email,
and what she now told me made Aaron Sorkin's use
of my dad's quote and other parts of my life
seem like possible coincidences. She said. She was watching the third,
(36:49):
maybe fourth episode of Newsroom, and in walked a new character,
a gossip columnist, a woman, and the first sentence the
character said was my friend an X said word for
word something she had sent to Sorkin in one of
the email about the gossip business. She said, when she
heard it, her face started to get red and it
(37:10):
would keep getting reader. The gossip columnist character's second line
had also been cut and pasted from my ex's email,
then her long speech, then all of her dialogue. She
said in her second scene, my ex actually managed to
record that episode and to find her own email to
Sorkin and to compare them, and she said, other than
changing a couple of tenses, he had used her answers verbatim.
(37:34):
I met the actor Josh Charles during the two thousand
World Series. I was there anchoring it for Fox Sports.
Josh was there promoting his new show on Fox. Josh
had played Dan Rydell on Sorkin's Sports Night series and
even Sorkin, and I agree, Dan Rydell is just me
with a different haircut. I was walking up Sixth Avenue
(37:54):
one day in October two thousand and from several blocks away,
I saw Josh Charles walking towards me, so I had
several minutes to prepare what I could say to him.
This was not spontaneous, sadly, but after our eyes met
and I smiled and he gave me that yes, I'm
on TV, look that I recognize and have myself deployed.
(38:16):
He switched suddenly to shock and even a little apprehension,
and I said the line I had been rehearsing in
my head for several minutes. Excuse me, you don't get
to say this often in life, But didn't you use
to play me on TV? Right there on sixth aven
You Josh told me about the ordeal of working with
and for Aaron Sorkin, and I thought he just met
(38:37):
for actors, but I later found out because New York,
it'll be a great time whenever they finish it. Josh
and I are still friends. We've gone to ballgames together,
we were in a fantasy baseball league together, and one
night on my ESPN two show. We came back from commercial,
giving the audience no warning or explanation, and we simply
started co anchoring the show and calling it Sports Night
(38:59):
and making references to the program and to Newsroom. And
then he said, why did we keep reading this? And
I said, I don't know. I just assumed Sorkin had
run out of new ideas. The mutual laughter that followed
was sincere. There is one more punchline to the Newsroom
Sorkin story, because I was like his seventh guest ever.
(39:21):
When Stephen Colbert wrapped up the Colbert Report on Comedy Central,
I was invited to be on the final farewell episode,
me and like ninety nine other people. There were so
many of us, ranging from Barry Manilow to Brian Cranston
to Big Bird, that they had like nine green rooms
in the Comedy Central building. And I get there and
(39:42):
they send me to the green room I would be
sharing with several other people, and I'd trudge up a
bunch of stairs to the top floor. And in this
big room there is only one other performer there yet
it's Jeff Daniels. Without saying hello, he says, now, wait,
let me explain. Sorkin told me, and I explained, and
then he explained, and then I explained some more and
(40:04):
Jeff said, oh a lot, and once he said oops,
and Sorkin didn't tell me that. And after about three
minutes he said, so I owe you an apology and
I said, no, you don't. It's not your fault. And
he smiled and he said, well great, I'm glad. So
can we take a picture together that I can put
(40:25):
out on Twitter? And I said, yeah, absolutely, but only
if you capture it. New York. It'll be a great
town whenever they finish it. I've done all the damage
(40:47):
I can do here. Thank you for listening, New York.
It'll be great whenever they finish it. Countdown has come
to you from our studios high atop the Sports Capsule
Building in New York. There are the credits. Most of
the music was arranged, produced, and performed by Brian Ray
and John Philip Chanel. They are the Countdown music directors.
All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillipshonel, guitars, bass and
(41:09):
drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven
selections have been arranged and performed by No horns allowed
The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two.
It was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever.
Our announcer today was my friend Richard Lewis, and everything
(41:29):
else was pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this,
the nine hundred and fiftieth day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him again while we still can. The next scheduled
countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as the news warrants till then,
I'm Keith Olriman, Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
(41:53):
good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio.
(42:15):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. At
twelve thirty three Eastern daylight time this morning, Donald Trump
(00:26):
snapped his pre trial release must be revoked immediately and
he must be taken into custody immediately. Warned by Judge
Tanya Chutkin to temper his public rage, Trump instead descended
from a weekend of threats by proxy and attacks by
reposting to what are unequivocal, undeniable, and indefensible direct attacks
(00:50):
on the judge and the Special Council. Quote how dare
low life prosecutor deranged Jack Smith break into my former
Twitter account without informing me and indeed trying to completely
this atrocity from me twelve thirty three am unquote. Yes,
(01:11):
Trump actually used the word atrocity, and yes, he apparently
knew nothing of the court order, even though it was
last January and it was in all the papers. At
one fourteen eastern this morning, Trump referred to a quote
by highly partisan Judge Tanya Chutkin, she obviously wants me
(01:32):
behind bars unquote. The laws of this country must finally
today crush Donald Trump. This is exactly what the judge
warned his attorneys against just last Friday, not even seventy
two hours earlier. Quote. I caution you and your client
(01:54):
to take special care in your public statements about this case,
she said at the Evidentiary Protective Order hearing. Quote. Even
arguably ambiguous statements from parties or their council can threaten
the process. Then she threatened him with something far worse
than just a gag order. Quote. The more a party
makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the
(02:17):
jury pool, the greater the urgency will be that we
proceed to trial quickly. Translation every threat you make, the
trial starts sooner. Response First, Trump had others make his
threats for him. Six times yesterday and last night. Trump
reposted inflammatory statements by others, by Stephen Miller, by Greg Jarrett,
(02:42):
by the Necklace Attorney General of West Virginia Patrick Morrissey,
and most relevantly, by former Grassy aide Mike Davis, who
dishonestly posted the Judge Chutkin quote openly admitted she's running
election interference against Trump. There is no law, no rule,
no ruling that Trump does not think he can find
(03:04):
a way around. He by reposting others was taunting Judge Chutkin,
you say I can't say anything threatening. He was testing.
Judge Chutkin, let see you punish me for simply amplifying
threats by others. She did not punish him. Naturally, she
(03:26):
did not. It was the weekend, and she is not
a psychopath. She knows the difference between the weekend and
the week He then decided he no longer needed to
be cute, at twelve thirty three, accusing the Special counsel
of committing an atrocity against him, and at one point fourteen,
accusing the judge of having prejudged the case, and he
thereby stopped even the pretense of obeying the letter of
(03:48):
her rulings. This is not to say that before he
broke Trump had not violated their spirit. It was with
those reposted insults that he did that. And moreover, as
he stood at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines
next to his political prostitute Matt Gates. This time it
was not Trump summoning his stochastic terrorists vaguely and indirectly.
(04:12):
It was Gates openly calling for quote force on Trump's behalf,
with Trump silent alongside him. I'm not say these people
are destroying our country. They're opening our orders. They're a
weapon lawforsement state trich Americans who loved this station as
(04:34):
we should. We are. We love staying with you, but
we have only doing made any change in a corrupt
town like Washington, d C. It is quite literally true
that after Judge Chutkin's order Friday, if that had been
Trump saying that and not Gates, Trump would have had
(04:54):
his pre trial release revoked by nightfall, or he would
be back in front of the judge today, or at minimum,
he would have seen the trial date advanced a month
to descend second, not January second. Given Trump's history, given
Maga's history, given Gates' history, given January sixth, it was
so bad that even Gates was terrified. He tried to
(05:18):
back away from it. He tweeted that night, quote, do
you agree we must force change to a corrupt system?
Force change in all caps? Force change? As if he
had not said only through force, as if he had
not just threatened more violence, more insurrection, more traitorous betrayal.
(05:40):
Again as always, as it always will be. This is
Trump in miniature. He matters, the judge does not. He matters,
the country does not. He matters the law does not
the law should crush him today. If that was hard
(06:06):
to clearly understand, a reporter asked, do you plan to
comply with the judge's order, etc. And Trump, for a moment,
falling off script, answered We'll have to take a look
at the order. Last Friday, before Judge Chucken, his attorney
said Trump would abide by her order. Within twenty four hours,
(06:27):
he had broken it. Within twenty four hours, he had
had a political prostitute threatened violence over it. Within thirty
six hours, he had begun another online campaign by proxy
against her and against the prosecutors. Any other defendant would
already have been crushed by the law. It is Judge
Chutkin's responsibility to defend the law and defend the nation today, now,
(06:52):
without further warning, without further delay, without further appeasement. Trump
spent the rest of his weekend in abject terror over
what is to come in Georgia, almost certainly to come tomorrow.
Between reposted attacks on Judge Chutkin, he posted his own
attacks on District Attorney Willis, and he has good reason
(07:15):
to be terrified. The Guardian and CNN broke two parts
of the same story on top of everything else Trump
did in Georgia by phone by Rudy Giuliani by public pressure.
That video that showed the GOP chairwoman of Coffee County, Georgia,
Kathy Latham, holding the door open to the local Board
(07:37):
of Elections so two techs could illegally download the voting
data from the rural county onto a portable hard drive.
The Coffee County breach well prosecutors have text messages and
emails quote directly connecting members of Trump's legal team, including
Bernie Carrick, to that breach. In advance. On January one,
(08:02):
twenty twenty one, CNN reported head of the January seven
voting Systems breach, Catherine Fries, an attorney working with Rudy Giuliani,
Sidney Powell, and other Trump allies, shared a written invitation
to examine voting systems in Coffee County with a group
of Trump allies. She literally sent a separate version of
(08:23):
the invitation to Bernard Carrick and to once again underscore
that democracy survives less by our efforts than by the
stupidity of those who would destroy it. This idiot titled
the letter of invitation quote Letter of Invitation, the Guardian's
Hugo Lowell fleshed it out. The potential charges at issue
(08:45):
are computer trespass felonies. He adds, this could all be
the backbone of racketeering charges. The Guardian does not mention Carrick,
or Giuliani or Sidney Powell, whose name has been connected
since at least last year, to this hair brain scheme
to prove voter fraud in a county Trump won with
seven percent of the vote. We expect the indictments tomorrow
(09:08):
because now two of the witnesses who testify to Fannie
Willis's Special Purpose grand Jury, journalist George Cheaty and former
Lieutenant Governor Jeff duncan confirm on the record that they
have been subpoenaed to show up before the regular grand
jury tomorrow and will do so. The regular grand jury
can indict, the special Purpose grand jury could not. If
(09:29):
a fourth set of indictments we're not terrifying enough for Trump.
One particular newspaper headline about them should be quoting it.
Georgia is ground zero for Trump exhaustion. As another indictment looms.
The article is about Georgia Republicans suddenly realizing that this
is not about them or their party, or their state,
(09:52):
but only about him, and it has been since twenty
twenty without interruption. This underlines a point I have brought
up before. There are limits to how much of the
Trump soap opera even Trump cultists will put up with,
even if the responses are specific to a city, state,
or region and are a long time happening. They are
(10:16):
also showing up in fundraising, which is declining with each
new indictment. Oh and perhaps most terrifying to Trump might
be where that particular headline about Trump exhaustion was seen.
It's in the Wall Street Journal. Two more Trump points
(10:40):
in a moment, but first through the looking glass people,
or more correctly, through the funhouse mirror, that is the
right wing, a place where Robert F. Kennedy Junior is
gaining on Joe Biden in their quote race unquote for
the Democratic nomination. I think the RFK Junior thing might
be over now. Yesterday in Iowa, I presume he was
(11:01):
there with all the other Republicans, Kennedy announced he's in
favor of a federal ban on abortion. At fifteen or
twenty one weeks quote. I believe a decision to abort
a child should be up to the women during the
first three months of life. Asked by NBC if he
meant a ban beyond that time, he said yes, going
(11:22):
for that vast national abortion ban group of Democratic primary voters.
When he realized what had happened, Kennedy fell on the
Oh it was too loud in their excuse, claiming he
misheard the question that he does not believe in any
abortion ban, which doesn't explain why in his first statement
he limited a woman's right to choose to three months
(11:45):
or use the phrase three months of life. NBC produced
a transcript of their interview with Kennedy. It is clear
he did not misunderstand a thing and is lying. And
also over here in cloud cuckoo Land, now there's a
Hunter Biden Special Counsel, and the loudest and most shameless
of Republicans are angry about it and about who it is,
(12:09):
even though they've spent a year demanding it and demanding
that guy Ted Cruz. Last September nineteenth letter to Merrick Garland,
We the undersigned write to request that David C. Weiss
be extended special Council protections and authorities to conduct the
Hunter Biden investigation. Ted Cruz yesterday, Weiss is quote a
(12:30):
wildly inappropriate person to be a special counsel. Marcia Blackburn
last September nineteenth signed the same letter as Cruz, and
I'm caveating this. Lately, the Medusa of the Senate has
exhibited some cognitive deficits, which is truly serious since she
didn't start with much in the cognitive bank as it
was Marshall Blackburn yesterday, Weiss is a quote collaborator. Chuck
(12:57):
Grassley last September nineteenth, same letter Chuck Grassley on Friday,
Weiss has been compromised. Chuck adds he may have run
over another deer. Jamie Comer spent the spring and the
summer holding hearing after nonsensical hearing, insisting Biden was preventing
Weiss's appointment as special counsel. Friday. Comer said Weiss's appointment
(13:19):
a special council is quote part of the Justice Department's
efforts to attempt a Biden family cover up. Tim Scott
last September nineteenth, also not a bright bulb, same letter,
Tim Scott Friday. Weiss's appointment raises further questions about the
independence of Biden's DOJ. You asked for this guy. And
(13:42):
then there are two fascists who, even in this uniform
display of the reality that the Republicans have only one policy.
As Aaron Sorkin wrote in The American President, they are
interested in two things, and two things only, making you
afraid of it and telling you who to blame for it.
Even against that backdrop, they are particularly a pall and
(14:03):
good old Jim Jordan wrote to the Attorney General a long,
angry letter which he summarized on Twitter with quote, why
hasn't DOJ appointed a special council for the Hunter Biden investigation?
This he did. On February twenty eighth Friday, A Jordan's
spokesman announced that DOJ appointing a special council for the
Hunter Biden investigation quote is just a new way to
(14:25):
whitewash the Biden family corruption un quote. And yet that
turnaround five and a half months is nothing compared to
that which was performed by a creature who wrote an
op ed on the Fox website saying the failure to
name Weiss as special counsel confirmed quote political interference from
(14:45):
the Biden administration unquote interference so bad it quote smells,
and that it demanded the potential impeachment of Merrick Garland
and Joe Biden. He wrote that on July twelfth, thirty
four days ago. Now the same creature says the the
appointment of Weiss is an attempt to quote obstruct congressional
(15:08):
investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption, who went from
whining and bitching about no to whining and bitching about
yes in just thirty four days. The Speaker of the House,
Kevin McCarthy. I would call McCarthy a worm, but worms
(15:28):
generally only keep digging in one direction, not too you know,
I truly think Republicans are nearly universally better at politics,
and especially slimy, chisely politics than our Democrats. But why
they do not take the win here makes no sense
(15:50):
to me. They could claim they forced Garland and or
Biden to appoint the special Council and the one they wanted,
and then still go ahead and rip his investigation at
every stage. Instead, they could not break themselves of the
habit of automatic opposition and gain saying to anything Democrats do.
(16:15):
This has already taken the steam out of the entire
Hunter Biden crap and out of them. I suppose it's
too much to assume that maybe they had heard this
was coming. Yesterday, Congressman Jamie Raskin said, House Democrats are
going to release a report about all of the foreign
government emoluments millions of dollars. We can document that Trump
(16:38):
pocketed at the hotels, at the golf courses through business
deals when he was president, and that his family got well, okay, Jamie,
that is great, but it is billions, not millions. And
if this is a complete report, it's going to require
about seven people to lift just one copy of it,
(17:01):
isn't it. And then there's Ivana Trump literally causing her
ex husband trouble from beyond the grave. It is now
nearly thirteen months since she died when she fell down
a staircase in her home. And if she had been
(17:22):
the ex wife of a Democrat, any Democrat, we would
be in month thirteen of the twenty four to seven
accounts of her quote murder unquote and the quote lead
suspect unquote, namely the X. But instead we had none
of that. But we have had the enduringly macabre scene
of her grave being near the first tea at Trump's
(17:45):
Chinsey golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Now made more
macabre still because, as the British tabloid The Daily Mail reports,
the temporary memorial plaque, which has now been there a
year in lieu of the actual headstone they'll get to eventually,
is well. Their headline says it all quote, Ivana Trump's
(18:09):
cordoned off grave is barely visible in completely overgrown area
of Trump's five hundred and six acre Bedminster, New Jersey
golf course. And there is, as they say, art a
series of photos of well grass. Some of the grass
(18:30):
is turning brown, Some of the grass is scarred by
patches of dirt. Some of the grass is obscuring part
of Ivana's marker, so that the first four letters of
her first name really can't be seen anymore, and it
looks like it reads simply and solely a Trump. On
(18:53):
the other hand, think of the good news between the
thick grass near the marker and the total absence of
grass just inches away. If you are teeing off on
one and you really slice the damn thing, now be
much much easier to find your ball. Also of interest, here,
(19:18):
it's nothing less than a scene out of any nineteen
twenty Chicago mob movie or at least one Jimmy Stewart Western.
The newspaper has the goods on their corrupt leader and
is about to expose him. So the corrupt leader sends
in his goons to trash the office and kill the publisher.
Only this is no movie, and this is not eighteen
eighty eight or nineteen twenty six. It's twenty twenty three
(19:42):
in a Kansas town halfway between Wichita and Topeka. And
the bad guys who in fact trashed the newspaper office
and led to the death of the publisher they are
the town police. The FBI better get a book of
arrest warrants. Fascism in Marion, Kansas. That's next. This discountdown,
(20:07):
you know, this is countdown with you know Keith Alberman.
Postscripts to the news some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some predictions. Dateline Marion, Kansas waiting on the Department of
(20:28):
Justice to launch an investigation into police Chief Gideon Cody
of that town and Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge
Laura Weyer. The judge signed a search warrant that let
Chief codies fascist stormtroopers of Marion, Kansas literally trash the
offices of the newspaper, the Marion County Record. They destroyed
(20:49):
part of it. They seized the rest, including personal cell phones,
all the computers, and all the devices of the staff,
including it's ninety eight year old co owner Joan Meyer,
all of her devices and equipment. Her stress at the
damage to the paper and the loss of her own computer,
her router, her Alexa, her ability to stream shows at
(21:11):
home was such that she collapsed and died the next day.
What preceded this, and the word is preceded, not provoked,
because this is still America, and the destruction of a
newspaper offices by the cops has to be met by
the stiffest of jail terms. As Marisa Kabas wrote in
her substack, quoting publisher Eric Meyer of the paper, quote,
(21:33):
We've been investigating the police chief. When he was named
chief just two months ago. We got an outpouring of
calls from his former co workers making a wide array
of allegations against him, saying that he was about to
be demoted at his previous job, and that he retired
to avoid demotion and punishment over sexual misconduct charges and
(21:54):
other things. Unquote, the FBI needs to be at Chief
Cody's home and the homes of his officers today. It
is only unfortunate that they will not be able to
charge any of them with murder. Dateline White Deer, Texas.
And now we have the backstory of the tale of
Ronnie Jackson has a bad night at the rodeo, the
(22:17):
one so bad that the first public statement from the
disgraced Congressoan's office after it occurred was to insist that
Ronnie Jackson had not been drinking. That's where they started. Firstly,
one of the deputy sheriffs involved in the incident said, no,
he'd been drinking. Quote, he was backstage earlier in the
(22:37):
evening drinking alcohol while I was working security in that area.
And EMT added he did appear drunk. If you don't
remember this story, on the twenty ninth of July, a
teenaged girl had a seizure at a rodeo in White
Deer outside Amarillo. Jackson formerly the White House position until
(22:57):
there was a whole thing with no over prescribing pills
and stuff. Jackson said he rushed to her aid, but
was man handled and cuffed by over Zealda's deputies, not
really officers got to the girl first, and they told
everybody to back away from her, so EMTs who were
at the rodeo and on their way over could treat her.
(23:19):
Jackson would not do so, please say. They told him
four times to back away before they threw him face
first to the ground. Police say Jackson then threatened to
quote beat one of the troopers and bury the sheriff
at the next election. And at one point he bumped
a trooper with his chest. And he was still threatening
them and swearing at them even after they removed the
(23:40):
handcuffs and put him back in his own car without
charging or detaining him. Oh and guess what, there's bodycam
footage of all this. They have not released it yet.
I'll get the popcorn. Thank you, Nancy Faust and Dateline
(24:18):
New York City near as Kamlanie is out as co
president of CBS News. This is hours after The New
York Post reported that he had told colleagues he was
being removed following clashes with high profile anchors and hr
complaints about his abusive behavior. Kim Lannie is the guy
who also tried to appease the right wing by hiring
(24:39):
former Trump Chief of staff Mick mulvaney as a CBS
News commentator. Nobody would have noticed. I mean, it's Mick
mulvaney for crying out loud, except that, in announcing the
hiring to staff, Kim Lannie explained he had made the
move in part, quote to make sure that we are
getting access to both sides of the aisle, which is
(24:59):
a priority because we know the Republicans are going to
take over most likely in the midterms. A lot of
the people that we're bringing in are helping us in
terms of access to that side of the equation. Unquote. Yeah,
how did that all work out for you? Niarraje PostScript,
This podcast continues to burgeon. I have just rented a
new studio for it, and a video version of it
(25:22):
is coming at some point soon. But I am only
nine tenths of a mile away from CBS News World
headquarters in New York, and provided you'd let me bring
in one or two of the dogs every day, I
mean I could hike over and run it for you
in my spare time. You're welcome. Plus, Norah O'Donnell, the
(25:55):
anchor of the CBS Evening News, pretty much got her
first TV break on My old show on MSNBC and
I can do a fairwea decent impression war Parker Faymale's mayor,
just saying I don't talk enough about myself on this show.
I just invoked Aaron Sorkin, so still ahead on countdown.
(26:16):
I looked at my calendar of stupid stuff that I've
lived through. What do you know? We just passed the
anniversary of the day Aaron Sorkin flat out stole a
line from my father and put it in one of
his TV series, which was about me things I promised
not to tell next. I really don't. I don't talk
enough about myself. We should have like an extra half
an hour a day, or just talk about myself first
(26:38):
time for the daily roundup of the miss grants, morons
un dunning Kruger Effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons
in the world. The Bronze Bill Hemmer of Fox quote
News unquote. Hemmer is now co anchoring with the amazingly
nit witted Dana Perino in an allegedly non commentary news
(27:00):
hour in which the combined IQ of the anchors might
not reach triple did. I worked with Himmer briefly at CNN.
Very affable very pleasant, very stupid, but he has outdone himself.
Interview about critical race theory or wherever the spinning wheel
of endless Umbradge stopped that day, and Hemmer was reminiscing
(27:21):
about his own education and how he thought traveling to
the place where someone wrote a historically important book would
help him understand it better. Quote. I remember twenty years
ago going to Treer, Germany and trying to find the
home of Karl Marx Cauz. You know, eighteen forty eight
he wrote Mine COMF. Hemmer was born in November nineteen
(27:45):
sixty four, meaning that since at least nineteen eighty five
he has been searching in vain for where Carl Marx
wrote Hitler's Mind KMFF. When we all know that, in fact,
Karl Marx wrote the best seller Groucho and Me runner
up the Baltimore Orioles, and specifically senior vice president Greg
Baterer and CEO John Angelos, you will recall that they
(28:09):
suspended team play by play man Kevin Brown for having
had the nerve to read on the air the team's
past record against its rivals from Tampa history, supplied by
the team and given to Brown to read by the
team run television broadcast. Brown had violated the sacred oath.
He had revealed that the Orioles had in their past
(28:30):
actually lost games. Kevin Brown returned to the booth Friday
after the two week suspension for doing nothing that would
make any oriol fan think less of the team, and
then these words were put out in Brown's Twitter account quote. Unfortunately,
recent media reports have mischaracterized my relationship with my adopted
(28:51):
hometown Orioles. The fact is I have a wonderful relationship
with the organization. I asked that everyone disregard the distracting
noise of the past few days. I have worked closely
with o's SV Greg Batter for the past four years,
and John Angelos and I have a solid dialogue based
on mutual respect. We are all good here in Birdland.
(29:17):
I have no idea who wrote that, but I would
bet on it's just a guest here Senior vice president
Greg Batter and John Angelos. See. I once had to
write something like that at MSNBC after they tried to
suspend me and in so doing breached my contract, and
I realized that if I played ball for another two
three months with them, they would have to pay me
like eighteen million dollars, and I could then sign elsewhere
(29:39):
for a lot more than that, and I did both.
May the same happen to you, hostage tweet producer Kevin Brown,
But our winner, General Michael Flynn, And how we permit
this madman to walk free in this country is inexplicable.
Flynn has now been condemned by everybody from General Barry
McCaffrey to the Auschwitz Museum. After a speech in which
(30:03):
he blamed the Jewish victims Alba Holocaust for not fighting
back and defeating their Nazi captors. Flynn lied to his
audience and said that as German Jews were forced onto
the trains to the concentration camps, there were quote thousands
of them and not many guards. Flynn added that the
victims said, Okay, here's my child and God on the
(30:24):
train unquote. The why didn't the Jews fight back trope
is one of the more grossly subtle forms of anti Semitism.
It has been appropriated by worse creatures even than Flynn.
He seemed to think he was warning his followers about
who knows, because to equate yourself with the victims of
(30:45):
Hitler is to obscure the truth. Flynn and his followers
are the Nazis. But you already know this. You probably
even heard the audio already of Flynn's deplorable victim blaming.
What you may not have seen was the detailed and
surprisingly restrained, six hundred word answer to Flynn from the
out Schwitz Museum about the facts of the rounding up
(31:07):
in Germany and the firepower used by the Germans and
those who fought back against the Nazis. And even more
important than that, you probably did not see Flynn's astonishing reply,
in which he doubled down. Flynn tweeted in response, quote
the fact you need to explain so much shows you
(31:29):
don't understand the point I'm making unquote Seriously, Michael Flynn
is explaining the Holocaust to the Auschwitz Museum. General Michael Flynn,
traitor to the uniform he once wore, and in desperate
need of immediate institutionalization or a neurological exam or an
(31:51):
arrest or all of the above, and quite literally two
days worst person in the world. Finally, our number one
(32:13):
story in the countdown things I promised not to tell
And back to my favorite topic me I heard Jeff
Daniels say the words, and in the next minute my
cell phone rang. It was an ex girlfriend. While we
were talking, an email arrived from another ex girlfriend, and
then in came a text from the current girlfriend at
her folks house, then two more emails, and before I
(32:34):
was off the phone to voicemails, and then regular friends
started to contact me. This is just over ten years
ago now. It was Sunday, August fifth, twenty twelve. Jeff
Daniels was playing the controversial newscaster and commentator on Aaron
Sorkin's HBO series Newsroom, which was based structurally on Me
(32:54):
and Countdown. And I know this because Aaron Sorkin told
me so before he filmed any of it. And I
know this because he asked me if he could base
the pilot ap episode on what happened to me at
MSNBC in the spring and summer of twenty ten. And
I know this because he came in and shadowed the
staff of Countdown for two days to get the feel
(33:15):
for the place. And I know this because he wound
up basing one character, Maggie Jordan, on my assistant Margaret Judson,
and then hiring Margaret Judson as a consultant and then
hiring her as an actress to play a part that
wasn't supposed to be her. And I know this because
he was furious when I would not fly to Denver.
(33:35):
I think it was to do a cameo in the pilot.
And I know this because he said he was hiring
me as a consultant. And I know this because I
never saw a dime out of it. This was the
second time Aaron Sorkin had based one of his TV
series on one of my TV series. The other was
called Sports Night, and Esquire magazine once asked me to
(33:56):
interview Sorkin about Sports Night, and I asked him the
real tough question, what was the origin of Sports Night?
And his answer was, quote, you are the origin. So
when The New York Times had called me about Newsroom,
I lightheartedly said it was nice to know in advance
this time that Aaron Sorkin was making a TV series
about me. Sorkin did not like this at all, and
(34:20):
he told all his actors to tell all their interviewers
that this was not true. And I know that because
Jeff Daniels told me that that was what Sorkin had
told him. Sorkin is interesting. I had known him for
about ten or twelve years when he came in to
countdown to see what it looked and felt like. And
he was twenty minutes late. And my assistant Margaret, after
(34:41):
whom he named Maggie Jordan, whom he then hired away
from me, and whom he finally hired as an actress
to play Tess Weston, and she was great, by the way.
Margaret brings him in and he apologizes for being late,
and he says he's staying in a hotel two blocks away,
and he should have just walked, but instead he got
in a car, and the next thing he knew, he
was six blocks away, caught in traffic caused by the
(35:02):
complete shutdown of one of the crosstown streets for midday construction.
And I laughed, and I said, well, like my late father,
the architect used to say, New York, it'll be a
great town whenever they finish it. And he laughed, and
I laughed. And two years later, in the seventh episode
of the HBO Newsroom series first aired on August fifth,
(35:23):
twenty twelve, and re aired throughout the week, Jeff Daniels
as the anchorman, Will McAvoy who wasn't me but actually
kind of was me, is late to his newsroom because
he gets caught in Manhattan traffic caused by Sunday night
street construction, and he says to his exasperated producer, new York,
it'll be a great town whenever they finish it. That's
(35:46):
when my phone and email blew up, and the then girlfriend,
and like forty percent of all of my exes ever,
all had the same question, New York, it'll be a
great town whenever they finish it. Isn't that what your
dad used to say? Even the ones who never met
my dad knew this because I used to quote him constantly,
because the real humor in the quote is the fact
(36:08):
that my dad was an architect and construction was his business.
New York, It'll be a great town whenever they finish it.
And then one of the last of the exes reached out.
She waited until the show was over. Now, I don't
think any of us is proud of this, but she
had also dated Sorkin once or twice, and since she
(36:29):
had written celebrity stories for a New York newspaper, he
had later asked her by email what the world of
gossip reporting was like, and she told him by email,
and what she now told me made Aaron Sorkin's use
of my dad's quote and other parts of my life
seem like possible coincidences. She said. She was watching the third,
(36:49):
maybe fourth episode of Newsroom, and in walked a new character,
a gossip columnist, a woman, and the first sentence the
character said was my friend an X said word for
word something she had sent to Sorkin in one of
the email about the gossip business. She said, when she
heard it, her face started to get red and it
(37:10):
would keep getting reader. The gossip columnist character's second line
had also been cut and pasted from my ex's email,
then her long speech, then all of her dialogue. She
said in her second scene, my ex actually managed to
record that episode and to find her own email to
Sorkin and to compare them, and she said, other than
changing a couple of tenses, he had used her answers verbatim.
(37:34):
I met the actor Josh Charles during the two thousand
World Series. I was there anchoring it for Fox Sports.
Josh was there promoting his new show on Fox. Josh
had played Dan Rydell on Sorkin's Sports Night series and
even Sorkin, and I agree, Dan Rydell is just me
with a different haircut. I was walking up Sixth Avenue
(37:54):
one day in October two thousand and from several blocks away,
I saw Josh Charles walking towards me, so I had
several minutes to prepare what I could say to him.
This was not spontaneous, sadly, but after our eyes met
and I smiled and he gave me that yes, I'm
on TV, look that I recognize and have myself deployed.
(38:16):
He switched suddenly to shock and even a little apprehension,
and I said the line I had been rehearsing in
my head for several minutes. Excuse me, you don't get
to say this often in life, But didn't you use
to play me on TV? Right there on sixth aven
You Josh told me about the ordeal of working with
and for Aaron Sorkin, and I thought he just met
(38:37):
for actors, but I later found out because New York,
it'll be a great time whenever they finish it. Josh
and I are still friends. We've gone to ballgames together,
we were in a fantasy baseball league together, and one
night on my ESPN two show. We came back from commercial,
giving the audience no warning or explanation, and we simply
started co anchoring the show and calling it Sports Night
(38:59):
and making references to the program and to Newsroom. And
then he said, why did we keep reading this? And
I said, I don't know. I just assumed Sorkin had
run out of new ideas. The mutual laughter that followed
was sincere. There is one more punchline to the Newsroom
Sorkin story, because I was like his seventh guest ever.
(39:21):
When Stephen Colbert wrapped up the Colbert Report on Comedy Central,
I was invited to be on the final farewell episode,
me and like ninety nine other people. There were so
many of us, ranging from Barry Manilow to Brian Cranston
to Big Bird, that they had like nine green rooms
in the Comedy Central building. And I get there and
(39:42):
they send me to the green room I would be
sharing with several other people, and I'd trudge up a
bunch of stairs to the top floor. And in this
big room there is only one other performer there yet
it's Jeff Daniels. Without saying hello, he says, now, wait,
let me explain. Sorkin told me, and I explained, and
then he explained, and then I explained some more and
(40:04):
Jeff said, oh a lot, and once he said oops,
and Sorkin didn't tell me that. And after about three
minutes he said, so I owe you an apology and
I said, no, you don't. It's not your fault. And
he smiled and he said, well great, I'm glad. So
can we take a picture together that I can put
(40:25):
out on Twitter? And I said, yeah, absolutely, but only
if you capture it. New York. It'll be a great
town whenever they finish it. I've done all the damage
(40:47):
I can do here. Thank you for listening, New York.
It'll be great whenever they finish it. Countdown has come
to you from our studios high atop the Sports Capsule
Building in New York. There are the credits. Most of
the music was arranged, produced, and performed by Brian Ray
and John Philip Chanel. They are the Countdown music directors.
All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillipshonel, guitars, bass and
(41:09):
drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven
selections have been arranged and performed by No horns allowed
The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two.
It was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever.
Our announcer today was my friend Richard Lewis, and everything
(41:29):
else was pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this,
the nine hundred and fiftieth day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him again while we still can. The next scheduled
countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as the news warrants till then,
I'm Keith Olriman, Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
(41:53):
good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio.
(42:15):
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