September 14, 2022 • 36 mins
URGENT CIA BRIEFING
A BLOCK (1:48) SPECIAL COMMENT: Warning or Coincidence? CIA Director Burns urgently briefs Pelosi, McCarthy, Schiff, Gang of 8 at Capitol at close-of-business. Could easily be nothing except it's now public (3:24) that Trump stole classified documents marked HCS, SI, and FISA. It's all in the less-redacted version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit. (4:05) Judge is again warned SHE is risking national defense (5:53) Trump gives up the pretense and posts a picture of himself wearing a "Q" lapel pin, referencing "The Storm." (6:43) An attack on Liberals to "restore Trump to President-King" is thwarted in Pennsylvania (7:15) Lindsey Graham falls further, announcing an anti-abortion bill that proves McConnell was lying that it was to be "left to the states" (11:03) Lindsey now works for the Mike Lindell party. Lindell says the FBI seized his phone at an Arby's. Then he says it was at a Hardee's. Please lord let the agents have said "Sir, this is a Wendy's." (11:31) And can it get dumber? Yes, if Lauren Boebert is around. Tasked with reading the Bible aloud to a bunch of Christian theocrats, she screws it up and refers to "Wonton Murders."
B BLOCK (15:49) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Josephine in Illinois (17:06) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Polling showing Shapiro over Mastriano by 19? Warnock over Walker by 10? Is it legit? And what's wrong in Russia? An oligarch didn't defenestrate, he drowned! (19:08) IN SPORTS: Aaron Judge has 57 homers - and competition, and could they have become "The Southern California Angels?" (23:21) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Etsy, sponsoring Steve Bannon, competes with Erin Burnett and Brett Favre for the honors.
C BLOCK (28:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Clinton-Lewinsky persecutor Ken Starr is dead, and so is the rule that you can't speak ill of the dead. He was a harbinger of today's Authoritarian Rules-For-Thee Fascism, and he distracted America from the looming threat of terrorism, and he leaked constantly and illegally, and he let people like NBC News President Andy Lack degrade and demean America - and me, too, when I told him I no longer wanted to do a "news" show designed to fulfill Starr's nakedly political purposes.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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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 I Heart Radio.
(00:28):
Late yesterday afternoon, the Speaker of the House, the Minority Leader,
and the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee were taken
into a sensitive compartmented information center at the US Capital
by the Director of the CIA, William Burns. The Axios
and Puck News organizations reporting to such secure meetings yesterday
(00:48):
another involving the so called Gang of Eight Intelligence Group.
No clue yet as to what or why. But if
that phrase sensitive compartmented sounds familiar, it should. It's what
was marked on some of the documents Trump stole. And
now we know officially trump stole classified documents marked h
c S identifying people spying for this country, identifying human
(01:12):
sources for this country, identifying people who worked in secret
for the CIA. And now we know officially that Trump
stole classified documents marked s I identifying signals, intercepts, communications
including bugs, and wire taps undertaken by the National Security
Agency for this country. And now we know officially that
Trump stole classified documents marked FISA identifying the Foreign Intelligence
(01:37):
and Surveillance Act anti terrorism surveillance and wire taps ostensibly
directed against suspected espionage or terrorism operations. And now we
know officially that Trump took thirty eight top secret documents
marked f s I or HCS at least thirty eight,
since that number thirty eight is how many were returned
(01:58):
when the Archives and the Department of Justice and FBI
first got their subpoena to get materials back from our
clear kleptomaniac. A series of news organizations now have reported
all of this data previously, but this is now official.
This is now released publicly Tuesday in a second, less
redacted version of the affidavit used to get the August
(02:20):
eighth search warrant at Mari Lago connected to the two
sudden secret meetings with the CIA chief at the Capitol
at close of business yesterday coincidence we do not know, However,
we do know that it is incontrovertible. Now Donald Trump
is at minimum a suspect in dozens of cases of espionage,
(02:42):
of classified document misshandling, a classified document theft, and he,
this treacherous criminal, continues to try to hide in some
gray area in which he can publicly claim he declassified
all these documents, while his lawyers continue to avoid such
a claim on the record. Because they know it is refuted. Factually,
(03:03):
the government has warned appointed Judge Eileen Cannon that she
needs to stop hiding in the same gray area because
she is now providing a legal fig leaf for Trump's
tiny morality. The documents had, the filing reads quote markings
signifying that their unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to
(03:25):
result in damage to the national security. The phrases irreparable
harm and exceptionally grave damage were also used. Legal experts
say the new filing also hits Trump's attorneys where they
live and could erase at least some of any attorney
client privilege. His lawyers repeatedly told the government they had
(03:45):
been told that all the secret documents had been returned.
Who told them that? Who could have told them that?
But Trump. If the lawyers lied to the government, they
could face prison time. If they misled the government, because
Trump lied to them, they could avoid any punishment. And
the investigation of Trump has also been in progress far
(04:07):
longer than any of us knew. The new government filing
says the d o J sought surveillance video from Marilago
from as long ago as January, and the House Oversight
Committee Chair Carol and Maloney confirmed something else we thought
we've known all along that the National Archives still is
not sure it has gotten back all of our documents
(04:28):
from the trees and his thief Trump, the treason, his
Q and On member thief Trump. He has reposted a
photoshopped image of himself on social media wearing a Q
and On pin on his lapel, an image surrounded by
a Q and On catchphrase, including one which should make
(04:48):
us fear that he is about to bring violence back
into the madness. We still inexplicably permit and suffer from
this scoundrel quote, the storm is coming, As Q and
On experts remind us, the quote storm unquote is a
very specific scenario to the Q and On collective psychosis.
(05:09):
Trump rounding up all his political enemies, forcing them before
a military tribunal, and then having them hanged. And it's
all idle madness until you hear that police in Pennsylvania
have now acknowledged that they have charged a sixty one
year old man who walked into a dairy queen in
the town of Delmont a rainbow wig on his head
(05:31):
and a revolver in his hand and two more in
his car, and he told the police. He needed the
weapons to protect himself from quote drug traffickers, and he
needed them in order to quote kill democrats and liberals
and force the police to quote restore Trump to president
King of the United States. But tell me again, Judge,
about the necessity of a special master. The dairy queen
(05:57):
would be killer. Is only about a step or two
pass the level of insanity required to run for the
Senate as a Republican, ask Lindsay Graham. First came Graham's
repudiation of his repudiation of Trump. Then came his second
repudiation of his repudiation of Trump in January two one.
Then last month he warned that if Trump were indicted,
(06:18):
there would be riots in the streets. Now Graham has
gotten himself in trouble with his own party. After the
years of political machinations carefully designed to get Roe v.
Wade overturned without well without riots in the streets, Graham
ruined the plot line the Mitch McConnell plan all along
(06:39):
was to get it repealed by a Supreme Court full
of political hacks. Then insist, at least insist through the
next election that the Republicans wanted to leave regulation of
abortion to the states, and then after that election revealed
national legislation to all but eliminate abortion. Lindsey Graham can't wait.
He has announced a bill, and he has no Republican
(07:02):
Senate co sponsors yet because the party line is no.
Of course, the Republicans want this left to the states.
It states rights, That's all it was about. Graham has
announced his bill to ban abortion after fifteen weeks. On
May three of this year, Lindsey Graham not only said
abortion should be left to the states, but insisted he
(07:23):
had always said abortion should be left to the states
and insisted he would always say it should be left
to the states. I've been consistent. I think state should
decide the issue of marriage and stay should decide the
issue of abortion. May three, four months and ten days later.
The hypocrisy was so extraordinary that even reporters noticed Steel
(07:49):
every single decide, yes, here you are introducing awide. I'm
wondering how you swear those two states pretty easy. After
they introduced the bill to define who they are, I
thought it would be nice to introduce a bill to
(08:10):
find who we are. We know who you are. We're
just arguing about the price. Graham may not have any
co sponsors, and he may not have any Republican senators
who don't want to strangle him. But he did bring
charts showing that the fifteen week limit is in line
with the limits in France, England, Sweden, Switzerland. He tweeted
quote to oppose this legislation makes you out of the
(08:33):
mainstream of the world, which is interesting because it says
to his America first maga clowns that they must accept
laws crafted in another country. And it also underscores that
all of those countries whose laws Graham wants to apply
here also have comprehensive sex education and free abortion and
pregnancy care and free contraceptives. And on a more base level,
(08:59):
Lindsey Graham just shot his own party in the foot.
To my Democratic friends, you're going around call on all
of us every name you can think of. We're a
bunch of wackos. Your ideas wacko, not ours. It's like
getting to listen to Senator Daniel Webster live or Senator
(09:20):
Charles Sumner, Senator Thaddeus Stevens. Your idea is wacko, not ours.
Let's put that on the base of a statue. By
the way, lindsay to my Democratic friends. You don't have
any Democratic friends, and after this, I'm not sure you
have any Republican friends. Lindsey Graham also needs to be
reminded that he is now a fringe figure in the
party of Lauren Bobert and Mike Lindell. Mike Lindell says
(09:44):
the FBI confronted him at a fast food restaurant in Mankato, Minnesota,
and showed him a search warrant for his phone. Lindell
has told two versions of this story, one in which
the FBI got him in the Mankato Hardias and he complained,
and another in which the FBI got him in the
Mankato Arby's and he complained. One can only hope that,
(10:05):
in fact, the agents turned to him and said, sir,
this is a Wendy's and speaking of morons and food
Representative Lauren Bobert, and she has storm from behind to
regain the top spot in the rankings for dumbest person
in Congress. These are the people Trump has given to
us like a venereal disease. Bobert addressed the Truth and
(10:29):
Liberty Coalition, a theocratic Christian nationalist organization, demanding that the
nation apply the Bible as law. Bobert actually made a
jackass out of herself simply while reading the Bible aloud
in Woodland Park, Colorado, last Friday, but the sound and
the video only turned up last night. Are you there? God?
(10:51):
It's her stupid all hell proc louse, rampant evil grabbing
and crasping, vicious factstabbing. They made life hell on earth
with their envy on Tom killing. I don't know what
a Wanton killing is. I'm gonna have to look that
one up, but it sounds interesting. I don't think I
(11:14):
want to be a part of it. That would be wanton,
not Wanton Wanton. The Wanton killings oc Curd of course
at the heartsease in Mankato, Minnesota, so bad they had
to send in the Gaspacho police. Still ahead on countdown
(11:41):
polling that has Rapiel Warnock up by ten in Georgia
over herschel Walker, Josh Shapiro up by nineteen over mass
Triano in Pennsylvania. Could it be real? Aaron Judge has
fifty seven home runs now, and he's got competition for
the record from a twenty two year old baseball player
you have never heard of. And it's Steve Bannon's War Room,
(12:03):
brought to you by brought to you by who who
sponsors Steve Mannon's Insurrection Hour. That's next this Ciscountdown. You know,
this is Countdown with you know Keith Alan and still
(12:28):
ahead on Countdown Richard, the infamous Clinton persecutor Ken Star
is dead and it looks like a lot of us
were able to skip that thing that says, don't speak
ill of the dead. Plus in sports, the Los Angeles
Angels than Anaheim Angels California Angels. Could they have been
named the Southern California Angels New historical research First. In
(12:52):
each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need
whom you can help. Every dog has its day. We
go to St. Charles, Illinois and more of the nightmares
of Puppy Mills and Geraldine. At seven years old, this
Golden retriever has been pregnant virtually her entire adult life.
Tiny and Tall Rescue has saved her from this forced breeding,
but there's still four to five more puppies on the way.
(13:15):
Plus she needs a home and care, and Tiny and
Tall is doing a fundraiser for Geraldine with a modest
goal of raising five You can find Geraldine on Cuddley
and donate to her there, or just look for my
tweet about Geraldine on my account for Dogs in Need
at Tom Jumbo Grumbo on Twitter and thank you for
doing so. Coming up and countdown, Ken Starr has died.
(13:48):
That old thing about not speaking ill of the dead
Ken Star seems to have broken it. A lot of
ill has been spoken, and I will pile on. Also
Steve Bannon's War Rooms sponsored by by who. No, this
isn't possible. First postscripts to the news. Some headlines, some thoughts,
some snark. Dateline Alexandria Virginia Senator Raphael Warnuck leading herschel
(14:20):
Walker in polling in the Georgia Senate race by ten points.
Stacy Abrams up by one for Governor Katie Hobbs up
fifty to forty over Carry Lake in the Arizona governor race,
Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro fifty five, mass Ccriano thirty six. Ordinarily
I'd say all that is fantasy. But these are new
(14:40):
polls out from Echelon Insights, which bills itself as the
Fun Polling Firm. More importantly, it was founded by polster
Patrick Raffini. Republican and pollster Kristen Saltis Anderson, Republican, whom
MSNBC once dreamed of as a co host for My
Possible return There Abrams plus one, Warnuck and Hobbs plus
(15:03):
ten Shapiro up by nineteen go on Dateline Moscow. Another
Russian oligarch is dead. Ivan Petrarin, supposedly Putin's favorite to
develop Russia's resources in the Arctic, is dead at thirty nine,
just weeks after he attended a major conference hosted by Prutin.
The good news is he did not defendis s rate.
(15:26):
He drowned, fell off the side of his boat. They
couldn't find him for a day. Well, I mean, it's
just common sense. You probably shouldn't have had your boat
up there next to that open sixth story window. Thank you,
(15:50):
Nancy Faust. This is Sports Center. Wait, check that not anymore.
(16:11):
This is Countdown with Keith Alberman in sports Munitaka Murakami
and the occult Swallows of Nippon Pro Baseball. The major
leagues of Japan are off today so well. While Aaron
Judge of the New York Yankees tries to break the
legitimate seasonal home run records, here sixty by Babe ruth
(16:34):
In a hundred and fifty four games sixty one by
Roger Morrison, a hundred sixty two. Murakami of the Swallows
is pursuing the Japanese record of sixty homers. He has
already tied the Japanese native records set by Sadaharu oh
with fifty five. With seventeen games to go in the season,
he still has a chance to break the record all
times set in two thousand thirteen in Japan by the
(16:57):
Cure Sound native Vladimir Balantine. It is a great story
to begin with with this twist. Moon A. Murakami is
two years old, the third baseman will not turn twenty
three until next February, and he's already hit a hundred
and fifty nine career homers in Japan and has three
seasons of thirty six homers or more. Murrakami would not
be eligible to come to the United States Majors as
(17:19):
a free agent until he's twenty five. That would be season,
but that was also the rule for showhy Otani, and
look he got here when he was twenty three. Otani,
of course, plays for the Los Angeles Angels pitches designated
hits and every once in a while threatens to play
the outfield. And a footnote to Angels history I never
knew courtesy of my friend Benji Kays, whose father IRV
(17:42):
was the Angel's original media relations guru and later had
similar mastery for Al Davis with the l A Raiders.
The Los Angeles Angels, who has perceptions of what geographical
designation made the most marketing sense for them, became the
California Angels in nineteen sixty six, then the Anaheim Angels,
then the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in two thousand five,
(18:05):
then back to being the Los Angeles Angels who just
happened to actually play in Anaheim. In two thousands sixteen,
they almost became the Southern California Angels. In a nineteen
memo to erv Ks and four other Angels executives from
team president and co owner Bob Reynolds, Reynolds ruminates on
what to call the team when it completes its move
(18:27):
from Los Angeles to ANAHEIMI in nineteen quoting an interesting
aspect of this subject, Reynolds rights was a very brief
conversation with Walter O'Malley. I told him that we hadn't
determined as yet what we were going to call our club,
and he immediately volunteered his thought that Anaheim would be
our best designation. Actually, I sensed that Walter sincerely hopes
(18:50):
that we do not name ourselves Southern California Angels, because
such a title would then be one he could never use,
and someday we might wind up with a greater regional
support than the Dodgers. Two postscripts. This is totally prophetic.
Why why aren't they the Southern California Angels. People in
(19:10):
Southern California love calling their region Southern California so cal
They did that when I moved there in five It's
a natural. Second PostScript. This memo from Bob Reynolds to
Case and the others about the Southern California Angels. It
is dated January nine, my sixth birthday yesterday. This the
(19:48):
toccata from Bach is my inner monologue when I think
of a memo being written on my sixth birthday. Still
ahead here usually my career recollections things I promised not
to tell commemorate an anniversary of some kind. Not this time.
This time it's about the death of the Clinton leew
Innskey prosecutor Ken Starr, and the lengths NBC tried to
(20:09):
go to to keep me doing a show that served
Ken stars perverted purposes. I'm going to read you a
quote from the president of NBC News from that you
will not believe even after you hear it first. The
daily round up of the miscrants, morons, and Dunning Krueger
effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons in the world.
(20:30):
The Bronze former NFL quarterback Brett no Pants Farv the
net is tightening around him in a scandal that saw
five million dollars worth of Mississippi state welfare funds diverted
to build a volleyball stadium at Farves alma mater the
University of Southern Mississippi. Texts now entered into the civil
lawsuit over the scandal show that Farves push was supported
(20:54):
by former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant. The texts also show
that there was a separate one point one million dollar
fund funneled to Farv, quoting him, I could record a
few radio spots and whatever compensation could go to the
University of Southern Mississippi. The money he was to get
for some sort of project would then go into building
(21:14):
this volleyball stadium, and then five asks, if you were
to pay me, is there any way the media can
find out where it came from and how much? And
one of the other schemesters says no, which obviously turned
out to be wrong. Since we're hearing about it, Farve
has not been charged the silver the latest CNN talent
to sell themselves out in hopes of keeping their job.
(21:36):
Aaron Burnett's Monday New York magazine put everything and had
behind what it called a six month investigation into Huns
Your Buds Laptop Well went over like a lead balloon.
No traction, no interest in the story almost anywhere on
social media. Not even the right wingers seemed hopped up
(21:56):
about it, except from Aaron Burnett's a five minute segment
on it in a sixty minute news broadcast, including a
live interview with one of the co authors. The irony
here is the story wasn't even interesting or salacious. It's
hard to imagine that what CNN did with that will
save Burnett from the wrath of the new right wing
(22:18):
hatchetman running CNN, Chris Licht, or, as I always like
to to give him, his full title Chairman and chief
executive Officers CNN Worldwide and the guy who when we
were at MSNBC together, I used to think eight paced.
But the winners Etsy and every innocent craftsman making their
mark via the e commerce home of the vintage and
(22:40):
handmade stuff. No response yet from at Sea to the
stunning news from the check my Ads organization that one
of the big online sponsors on the streaming network Real
America's voice advertising the site and your Etsy products on
Steve Bannon's war Room is Etsy. Check my Ads is
(23:01):
the watchdog revealing how people who would never be caught
dead on sites like Steve Bannon's war Room are unknowingly
advertising on them because of deals like the one Etsy
has with online advertising clearinghouses. Etsy, which helps to fund
Steve Bannon, has said nothing, but an Etsy seller notes
this is actually terrifying because they forced sellers to opt
(23:23):
into advertising after selling a certain amount. The idea that
my product could show up on a site like that
absolutely disgusting. Just remember the next time you buy that
cute medallion for your dog's collar on Etsy, you are
indirectly paying Steve Bannon. Etsy dot com two days worst
(23:45):
persons in the world to the number one story on
the Countdown, and it is still my favorite topic me
and it is still things I promised not to tell.
(24:07):
But it is animated this time not by an anniversary,
but by the death of Kenneth Star. If you miss
that particular page of history, congratulations. Ken's Star was the
special counsel in the Bill Clinton case. Ask not for
whom the bell tolls, it tolls for the I honor
(24:27):
that sentiment. It resonates with me. But it is just
as important not to lie about society's malefactors when they die.
And this society has had a lot of malefactors in
the last twenty five years, but Ken Starr was near
the top of the list. Star did not start us
on the path towards Donald Trump, but he made certain
(24:48):
that we were stuck on that track, and also on
the path to nine eleven two. Maybe the most important,
certainly the most overlooked part of the Star Hunt of
Bill Clinton, was that the week before it began, the
guests on My show on MSNBC included terrorism experts warning
about some guy named Osama bin Laden and his crazy
(25:09):
plan to attack America in America, and then all of
a sudden, there was a stained dress and a president
and an intern, and nobody mentioned Bin Laden again for
three and a half goddamned years. Most importantly, Ken Starr
stuck us on that track in which disreputable, dishonest scum
can dress themselves up in the law so that they
(25:32):
can break the law like Trump, like this Lindsey Graham,
and where Republicans, authoritarians, and fascists can declare with a
straight face that the law must be enforced as long
as it is enforced against minorities or women or liberals
Star New Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Delay. These vermin of
(25:55):
the nineteen nineties trained generations of conservatives in this country
to truly believe that they were right everybody else was wrong,
and moreover, the they were being silenced and canceled and suppressed,
even though they had their own television network, and then
another television network, and then a hundred radio networks and
(26:15):
then ten thousand podcasts. Starr and the others made a
life and ultimately made a political party out of a
joke from the British TV comedy series The Young Ones,
which I often repeat here with the actor Nigel Plainer
as Neil quoting crucifixion. It's a really negative way to
(26:35):
kill yourself. I've tried it hundreds of times. There's no
way you can hammer in that last nail. Well, that's
the essence of the Republican Party hammering in their own
last nail. They are being crucified twenty four hours a day,
three sixty five days a year for the last quarter
of a century. And when it came to the Clinton
(26:56):
Lewinsky investigation, Starr and the others very cleverly also made
an industry out of leaking information, often illegally leaking privileged
information to the media, which would then run it unquestioned,
often unreviewed before air because the information guaranteed ratings, and
(27:17):
ratings guaranteed advertisers, and advertisers guaranteed raises for the executives.
And I was part of that. At MSNBC, we went
from literally a high water mark of an audience of
seventy or eighty thousand viewers a night, high water mark
for a television network, eighty thousand viewers. We went from
(27:39):
that overnight to a million, then a million and a half,
then two million a night, just so long as we
kept mentioning Bill Clinton, and or Monica Lewinsky. So after
a couple of months of that, I decided to quit.
I had just left the office of my new therapist,
having spent most of the hour talking about the craziest
(27:59):
person I had yet met in broadcasting, Andy Lack, the
president of NBC News, the man who made his programming
decisions based on what Ken Starr had done that day
when my phone rang out on twenty three straight in
New York, and it was Andy Lack. Our problem, in
brief was that we had turned my not too successful
(28:20):
MSNBC nightly news magazine show of nineteen seven seventy thousand
viewers a night into the all Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky
show of nine two million viewers a night. That there
was not enough new news about them every night did
not matter. We did at least one show a night,
often too often for two hours each just about them.
(28:43):
If Monica Lewinsky's lawyer said anything more detailed than no comment,
we stayed on the air until we ran out of guests.
The whole thing, including television's crazed wall to wall reaction,
was part of a carefully planned New Gingridge plot in
which he really thought he could impeach Clinton, and then
(29:04):
somehow impeach the new president, Al Gore, before Gore could
get himself a new vice president, which would mean that
the new new president would be Speaker of the House
new Gang Rich. He really thought this was going to happen.
Every aspect of this story was unethical. Clinton's behavior did
(29:25):
not break the top ten list of unethical, maybe not
the top one. Whatever Clinton did, ken Starr did something
worse and the shame in which he would later cover
himself as the president and chancellor during the sports sexual
assault scandals at Baylor University, real sexual scandals. None of
this Clinton crap. That was still fifteen years in the future.
(29:47):
So I wanted out, let me leave, let me go
do something else, or change the topic. I was done.
The problem was every time I said I was done,
or I let my cynicism about the story escape on
the air. I once compared ken Starr to Himmler. Every
time I did something like that, the ratings went up.
(30:07):
The year before, MSNBC was lucky to get a hundred
thousand viewers once a month. Now we were upset if
we did not get a million and a half viewers
a minute. MSNBC was actually making money, and that was
almost entirely because of my shows. So when I wanted
to quit, people like Andy Lack, president of NBC News,
(30:28):
wanted not to kill me, but to force me to
stay there and keep talking like that woman newsreader you
see from North Korean television. To make that possible, Lack
tried everything he could, promises that I and not Brian Williams,
would be the next anchor of NBC Nightly News, more money,
more time off. When that didn't work, more threats, threats
(30:53):
against my family, literally anything except the first step towards
letting me change the show, or leave the show, or
leave the network. And the first step would have been
to talk to me about it face to face. He
would not talk to me about it. That was what
he was calling to tell me on that warm afternoon
(31:14):
of the seven. He was calling to tell me that
he couldn't talk to me. It was exactly as crazy
as it sounds. First I asked Andy Lack if I
could come up to his office right away to talk
to him about it. He said no. I asked him
if we could talk about it on the phone at
some point, he said no. Then he proceeded to talk
about it well, he began, if you're calling about this
(31:35):
meeting of life business, if you just want to stir
the pot about how you're not satisfied with the show
at the moment, and I might add only at the
moment the nuance and subtleties of your career. Well, I
have to say no, we can't meet. Of course, I'm
saying that I'm always available to meet with you. I
love you, but to me uh here, he paused, having
run out of words, apparently or possibly just to remember
(31:55):
what he had just said. The news channel ticker in
my mind now appeared at the bottom of my vision
and flashed a message about not worrying about what I
would hear next, that this was a test of the
Andy Lack Emergency Random Thoughts warning system. It's just not
the right time. It's premature, it's too early in the process,
and it's saying it's too early in the process. I'm
not saying there is a process, it's just that there
(32:16):
there shouldn't be a process yet, because it's uh, just
not the right time for this, and I don't think
we've explored the options fully for improving how you see
what's happening. When I say we, of course, I mean
you and Phil Griffin. You and Phil Griffin, because Phil
is part of this process, not to imply there is
a process, but rather he's just at the beginning of
this situation, of the resolution of this situation, not that
there is a situation that requires resolution necessarily, because I
(32:37):
think you know, in life, you have many times, many durations,
many seasons, many years where you might say you're unhappy
or discontented or in some way not pleased with what
you're doing. But you'll have plenty of opportunities to make
changes in the direction of your life. Obviously, not now.
You made these changes last year, and you committed to it,
and I committed to it. You've done such an outstanding job,
a thoroughly outstanding job, that I can't tell you how
much we value you. I was on Larry King last
(32:58):
week and Larry said to me, I love Aldermann, and
I said, I love Alderman, and he said, I wish
I could be doing for you what he's doing for you.
This is not that you should think I'm totally blowing
smoke up your backside, but the critical acclaim, especially the
insider's critical acclaim. The people whose opinions matter consistently, rating
you is the best at this on the cutting edge,
and for that matter, the ratings have been outstanding. And
I'm fully committed to you in all senses of that word.
(33:19):
But if you want to talk to me about in
some way changing what you're doing, it just doesn't enter
into the equation because things are going so well and
we're just delighted with the program, and you need to
understand that on my radar screen, this isn't even on
the fast track, because why should I say to you. Look,
I want to change this completely successful show when it's
been a complete success and a complete success and a
runaway hit, and everyone says to me how smoothly you've
(33:40):
made the transition, And I can't talk to you about
it because I love you. I mean, I'm fully behind you.
You have my support, in my commitment, my resources, and
they're all at your back and call anytime you need
them or you need me. But there aren't any problems,
and I love the show and the thought of tinkering
with it or jesting it is just the farthest thing
from my mind right now. But you have to understand
I'm completely committed to you and Phil and what you're doing,
(34:00):
and I just can't talk to you about it now,
although the door is always open, and you know you
can call me and talk to me at any time
about anything. And when I say anything, I mean not this.
And I can envision changing things because I don't have to.
That was Andy Lack, the president of NBC News, talking
to me about not talking to me about changing the
(34:20):
Clinton Lewinsky TV marathon. It is possible that I have
not quoted his three minutes spasm of words correctly. But
if I have not quoted his three minute spasm of
words correctly, I got God damn close. The night of
that conversation, it would be the first time I would
go on MSNBC with Carvassier Kognak mixed into my coffee.
(34:46):
Ken Starr was at the root of all that. He
has now died. You're expecting me to say, rest in peace.
I've on all the damage I can do here. I
(35:06):
swear to God, that's what he said to me. Help
me out here. Give this thing a good review or rating,
or subscribe, or forward it or email it to somebody,
or send them a text paying them. The countdown theme
from Beethoven's ninth. The arrange produced and performed by Countdown
musical directors Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle. All orchestration
and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitars, bass and drums
(35:28):
by Brian Ray. It was produced by t k O Brothers.
The other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by
No horns allowed. Our sports music the Olberman theme from
ESPN Too, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Musical comments from Nancy paus the best baseball stadium organist ever,
and our annuncer today was my friend Richard Lewis. Let's
(35:51):
countdown for this the si day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him now, I always still can a new episode tomorrow.
Till then, I'm Keith All Women. Good morning, good afternoon,
good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith all Woman
(36:17):
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
(00:28):
Late yesterday afternoon, the Speaker of the House, the Minority Leader,
and the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee were taken
into a sensitive compartmented information center at the US Capital
by the Director of the CIA, William Burns. The Axios
and Puck News organizations reporting to such secure meetings yesterday
(00:48):
another involving the so called Gang of Eight Intelligence Group.
No clue yet as to what or why. But if
that phrase sensitive compartmented sounds familiar, it should. It's what
was marked on some of the documents Trump stole. And
now we know officially trump stole classified documents marked h
c S identifying people spying for this country, identifying human
(01:12):
sources for this country, identifying people who worked in secret
for the CIA. And now we know officially that Trump
stole classified documents marked s I identifying signals, intercepts, communications
including bugs, and wire taps undertaken by the National Security
Agency for this country. And now we know officially that
Trump stole classified documents marked FISA identifying the Foreign Intelligence
(01:37):
and Surveillance Act anti terrorism surveillance and wire taps ostensibly
directed against suspected espionage or terrorism operations. And now we
know officially that Trump took thirty eight top secret documents
marked f s I or HCS at least thirty eight,
since that number thirty eight is how many were returned
(01:58):
when the Archives and the Department of Justice and FBI
first got their subpoena to get materials back from our
clear kleptomaniac. A series of news organizations now have reported
all of this data previously, but this is now official.
This is now released publicly Tuesday in a second, less
redacted version of the affidavit used to get the August
(02:20):
eighth search warrant at Mari Lago connected to the two
sudden secret meetings with the CIA chief at the Capitol
at close of business yesterday coincidence we do not know, However,
we do know that it is incontrovertible. Now Donald Trump
is at minimum a suspect in dozens of cases of espionage,
(02:42):
of classified document misshandling, a classified document theft, and he,
this treacherous criminal, continues to try to hide in some
gray area in which he can publicly claim he declassified
all these documents, while his lawyers continue to avoid such
a claim on the record. Because they know it is refuted. Factually,
(03:03):
the government has warned appointed Judge Eileen Cannon that she
needs to stop hiding in the same gray area because
she is now providing a legal fig leaf for Trump's
tiny morality. The documents had, the filing reads quote markings
signifying that their unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to
(03:25):
result in damage to the national security. The phrases irreparable
harm and exceptionally grave damage were also used. Legal experts
say the new filing also hits Trump's attorneys where they
live and could erase at least some of any attorney
client privilege. His lawyers repeatedly told the government they had
(03:45):
been told that all the secret documents had been returned.
Who told them that? Who could have told them that?
But Trump. If the lawyers lied to the government, they
could face prison time. If they misled the government, because
Trump lied to them, they could avoid any punishment. And
the investigation of Trump has also been in progress far
(04:07):
longer than any of us knew. The new government filing
says the d o J sought surveillance video from Marilago
from as long ago as January, and the House Oversight
Committee Chair Carol and Maloney confirmed something else we thought
we've known all along that the National Archives still is
not sure it has gotten back all of our documents
(04:28):
from the trees and his thief Trump, the treason, his
Q and On member thief Trump. He has reposted a
photoshopped image of himself on social media wearing a Q
and On pin on his lapel, an image surrounded by
a Q and On catchphrase, including one which should make
(04:48):
us fear that he is about to bring violence back
into the madness. We still inexplicably permit and suffer from
this scoundrel quote, the storm is coming, As Q and
On experts remind us, the quote storm unquote is a
very specific scenario to the Q and On collective psychosis.
(05:09):
Trump rounding up all his political enemies, forcing them before
a military tribunal, and then having them hanged. And it's
all idle madness until you hear that police in Pennsylvania
have now acknowledged that they have charged a sixty one
year old man who walked into a dairy queen in
the town of Delmont a rainbow wig on his head
(05:31):
and a revolver in his hand and two more in
his car, and he told the police. He needed the
weapons to protect himself from quote drug traffickers, and he
needed them in order to quote kill democrats and liberals
and force the police to quote restore Trump to president
King of the United States. But tell me again, Judge,
about the necessity of a special master. The dairy queen
(05:57):
would be killer. Is only about a step or two
pass the level of insanity required to run for the
Senate as a Republican, ask Lindsay Graham. First came Graham's
repudiation of his repudiation of Trump. Then came his second
repudiation of his repudiation of Trump in January two one.
Then last month he warned that if Trump were indicted,
(06:18):
there would be riots in the streets. Now Graham has
gotten himself in trouble with his own party. After the
years of political machinations carefully designed to get Roe v.
Wade overturned without well without riots in the streets, Graham
ruined the plot line the Mitch McConnell plan all along
(06:39):
was to get it repealed by a Supreme Court full
of political hacks. Then insist, at least insist through the
next election that the Republicans wanted to leave regulation of
abortion to the states, and then after that election revealed
national legislation to all but eliminate abortion. Lindsey Graham can't wait.
He has announced a bill, and he has no Republican
(07:02):
Senate co sponsors yet because the party line is no.
Of course, the Republicans want this left to the states.
It states rights, That's all it was about. Graham has
announced his bill to ban abortion after fifteen weeks. On
May three of this year, Lindsey Graham not only said
abortion should be left to the states, but insisted he
(07:23):
had always said abortion should be left to the states
and insisted he would always say it should be left
to the states. I've been consistent. I think state should
decide the issue of marriage and stay should decide the
issue of abortion. May three, four months and ten days later.
The hypocrisy was so extraordinary that even reporters noticed Steel
(07:49):
every single decide, yes, here you are introducing awide. I'm
wondering how you swear those two states pretty easy. After
they introduced the bill to define who they are, I
thought it would be nice to introduce a bill to
(08:10):
find who we are. We know who you are. We're
just arguing about the price. Graham may not have any
co sponsors, and he may not have any Republican senators
who don't want to strangle him. But he did bring
charts showing that the fifteen week limit is in line
with the limits in France, England, Sweden, Switzerland. He tweeted
quote to oppose this legislation makes you out of the
(08:33):
mainstream of the world, which is interesting because it says
to his America first maga clowns that they must accept
laws crafted in another country. And it also underscores that
all of those countries whose laws Graham wants to apply
here also have comprehensive sex education and free abortion and
pregnancy care and free contraceptives. And on a more base level,
(08:59):
Lindsey Graham just shot his own party in the foot.
To my Democratic friends, you're going around call on all
of us every name you can think of. We're a
bunch of wackos. Your ideas wacko, not ours. It's like
getting to listen to Senator Daniel Webster live or Senator
(09:20):
Charles Sumner, Senator Thaddeus Stevens. Your idea is wacko, not ours.
Let's put that on the base of a statue. By
the way, lindsay to my Democratic friends. You don't have
any Democratic friends, and after this, I'm not sure you
have any Republican friends. Lindsey Graham also needs to be
reminded that he is now a fringe figure in the
party of Lauren Bobert and Mike Lindell. Mike Lindell says
(09:44):
the FBI confronted him at a fast food restaurant in Mankato, Minnesota,
and showed him a search warrant for his phone. Lindell
has told two versions of this story, one in which
the FBI got him in the Mankato Hardias and he complained,
and another in which the FBI got him in the
Mankato Arby's and he complained. One can only hope that,
(10:05):
in fact, the agents turned to him and said, sir,
this is a Wendy's and speaking of morons and food
Representative Lauren Bobert, and she has storm from behind to
regain the top spot in the rankings for dumbest person
in Congress. These are the people Trump has given to
us like a venereal disease. Bobert addressed the Truth and
(10:29):
Liberty Coalition, a theocratic Christian nationalist organization, demanding that the
nation apply the Bible as law. Bobert actually made a
jackass out of herself simply while reading the Bible aloud
in Woodland Park, Colorado, last Friday, but the sound and
the video only turned up last night. Are you there? God?
(10:51):
It's her stupid all hell proc louse, rampant evil grabbing
and crasping, vicious factstabbing. They made life hell on earth
with their envy on Tom killing. I don't know what
a Wanton killing is. I'm gonna have to look that
one up, but it sounds interesting. I don't think I
(11:14):
want to be a part of it. That would be wanton,
not Wanton Wanton. The Wanton killings oc Curd of course
at the heartsease in Mankato, Minnesota, so bad they had
to send in the Gaspacho police. Still ahead on countdown
(11:41):
polling that has Rapiel Warnock up by ten in Georgia
over herschel Walker, Josh Shapiro up by nineteen over mass
Triano in Pennsylvania. Could it be real? Aaron Judge has
fifty seven home runs now, and he's got competition for
the record from a twenty two year old baseball player
you have never heard of. And it's Steve Bannon's War Room,
(12:03):
brought to you by brought to you by who who
sponsors Steve Mannon's Insurrection Hour. That's next this Ciscountdown. You know,
this is Countdown with you know Keith Alan and still
(12:28):
ahead on Countdown Richard, the infamous Clinton persecutor Ken Star
is dead and it looks like a lot of us
were able to skip that thing that says, don't speak
ill of the dead. Plus in sports, the Los Angeles
Angels than Anaheim Angels California Angels. Could they have been
named the Southern California Angels New historical research First. In
(12:52):
each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need
whom you can help. Every dog has its day. We
go to St. Charles, Illinois and more of the nightmares
of Puppy Mills and Geraldine. At seven years old, this
Golden retriever has been pregnant virtually her entire adult life.
Tiny and Tall Rescue has saved her from this forced breeding,
but there's still four to five more puppies on the way.
(13:15):
Plus she needs a home and care, and Tiny and
Tall is doing a fundraiser for Geraldine with a modest
goal of raising five You can find Geraldine on Cuddley
and donate to her there, or just look for my
tweet about Geraldine on my account for Dogs in Need
at Tom Jumbo Grumbo on Twitter and thank you for
doing so. Coming up and countdown, Ken Starr has died.
(13:48):
That old thing about not speaking ill of the dead
Ken Star seems to have broken it. A lot of
ill has been spoken, and I will pile on. Also
Steve Bannon's War Rooms sponsored by by who. No, this
isn't possible. First postscripts to the news. Some headlines, some thoughts,
some snark. Dateline Alexandria Virginia Senator Raphael Warnuck leading herschel
(14:20):
Walker in polling in the Georgia Senate race by ten points.
Stacy Abrams up by one for Governor Katie Hobbs up
fifty to forty over Carry Lake in the Arizona governor race,
Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro fifty five, mass Ccriano thirty six. Ordinarily
I'd say all that is fantasy. But these are new
(14:40):
polls out from Echelon Insights, which bills itself as the
Fun Polling Firm. More importantly, it was founded by polster
Patrick Raffini. Republican and pollster Kristen Saltis Anderson, Republican, whom
MSNBC once dreamed of as a co host for My
Possible return There Abrams plus one, Warnuck and Hobbs plus
(15:03):
ten Shapiro up by nineteen go on Dateline Moscow. Another
Russian oligarch is dead. Ivan Petrarin, supposedly Putin's favorite to
develop Russia's resources in the Arctic, is dead at thirty nine,
just weeks after he attended a major conference hosted by Prutin.
The good news is he did not defendis s rate.
(15:26):
He drowned, fell off the side of his boat. They
couldn't find him for a day. Well, I mean, it's
just common sense. You probably shouldn't have had your boat
up there next to that open sixth story window. Thank you,
(15:50):
Nancy Faust. This is Sports Center. Wait, check that not anymore.
(16:11):
This is Countdown with Keith Alberman in sports Munitaka Murakami
and the occult Swallows of Nippon Pro Baseball. The major
leagues of Japan are off today so well. While Aaron
Judge of the New York Yankees tries to break the
legitimate seasonal home run records, here sixty by Babe ruth
(16:34):
In a hundred and fifty four games sixty one by
Roger Morrison, a hundred sixty two. Murakami of the Swallows
is pursuing the Japanese record of sixty homers. He has
already tied the Japanese native records set by Sadaharu oh
with fifty five. With seventeen games to go in the season,
he still has a chance to break the record all
times set in two thousand thirteen in Japan by the
(16:57):
Cure Sound native Vladimir Balantine. It is a great story
to begin with with this twist. Moon A. Murakami is
two years old, the third baseman will not turn twenty
three until next February, and he's already hit a hundred
and fifty nine career homers in Japan and has three
seasons of thirty six homers or more. Murrakami would not
be eligible to come to the United States Majors as
(17:19):
a free agent until he's twenty five. That would be season,
but that was also the rule for showhy Otani, and
look he got here when he was twenty three. Otani,
of course, plays for the Los Angeles Angels pitches designated
hits and every once in a while threatens to play
the outfield. And a footnote to Angels history I never
knew courtesy of my friend Benji Kays, whose father IRV
(17:42):
was the Angel's original media relations guru and later had
similar mastery for Al Davis with the l A Raiders.
The Los Angeles Angels, who has perceptions of what geographical
designation made the most marketing sense for them, became the
California Angels in nineteen sixty six, then the Anaheim Angels,
then the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in two thousand five,
(18:05):
then back to being the Los Angeles Angels who just
happened to actually play in Anaheim. In two thousands sixteen,
they almost became the Southern California Angels. In a nineteen
memo to erv Ks and four other Angels executives from
team president and co owner Bob Reynolds, Reynolds ruminates on
what to call the team when it completes its move
(18:27):
from Los Angeles to ANAHEIMI in nineteen quoting an interesting
aspect of this subject, Reynolds rights was a very brief
conversation with Walter O'Malley. I told him that we hadn't
determined as yet what we were going to call our club,
and he immediately volunteered his thought that Anaheim would be
our best designation. Actually, I sensed that Walter sincerely hopes
(18:50):
that we do not name ourselves Southern California Angels, because
such a title would then be one he could never use,
and someday we might wind up with a greater regional
support than the Dodgers. Two postscripts. This is totally prophetic.
Why why aren't they the Southern California Angels. People in
(19:10):
Southern California love calling their region Southern California so cal
They did that when I moved there in five It's
a natural. Second PostScript. This memo from Bob Reynolds to
Case and the others about the Southern California Angels. It
is dated January nine, my sixth birthday yesterday. This the
(19:48):
toccata from Bach is my inner monologue when I think
of a memo being written on my sixth birthday. Still
ahead here usually my career recollections things I promised not
to tell commemorate an anniversary of some kind. Not this time.
This time it's about the death of the Clinton leew
Innskey prosecutor Ken Starr, and the lengths NBC tried to
(20:09):
go to to keep me doing a show that served
Ken stars perverted purposes. I'm going to read you a
quote from the president of NBC News from that you
will not believe even after you hear it first. The
daily round up of the miscrants, morons, and Dunning Krueger
effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons in the world.
(20:30):
The Bronze former NFL quarterback Brett no Pants Farv the
net is tightening around him in a scandal that saw
five million dollars worth of Mississippi state welfare funds diverted
to build a volleyball stadium at Farves alma mater the
University of Southern Mississippi. Texts now entered into the civil
lawsuit over the scandal show that Farves push was supported
(20:54):
by former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant. The texts also show
that there was a separate one point one million dollar
fund funneled to Farv, quoting him, I could record a
few radio spots and whatever compensation could go to the
University of Southern Mississippi. The money he was to get
for some sort of project would then go into building
(21:14):
this volleyball stadium, and then five asks, if you were
to pay me, is there any way the media can
find out where it came from and how much? And
one of the other schemesters says no, which obviously turned
out to be wrong. Since we're hearing about it, Farve
has not been charged the silver the latest CNN talent
to sell themselves out in hopes of keeping their job.
(21:36):
Aaron Burnett's Monday New York magazine put everything and had
behind what it called a six month investigation into Huns
Your Buds Laptop Well went over like a lead balloon.
No traction, no interest in the story almost anywhere on
social media. Not even the right wingers seemed hopped up
(21:56):
about it, except from Aaron Burnett's a five minute segment
on it in a sixty minute news broadcast, including a
live interview with one of the co authors. The irony
here is the story wasn't even interesting or salacious. It's
hard to imagine that what CNN did with that will
save Burnett from the wrath of the new right wing
(22:18):
hatchetman running CNN, Chris Licht, or, as I always like
to to give him, his full title Chairman and chief
executive Officers CNN Worldwide and the guy who when we
were at MSNBC together, I used to think eight paced.
But the winners Etsy and every innocent craftsman making their
mark via the e commerce home of the vintage and
(22:40):
handmade stuff. No response yet from at Sea to the
stunning news from the check my Ads organization that one
of the big online sponsors on the streaming network Real
America's voice advertising the site and your Etsy products on
Steve Bannon's war Room is Etsy. Check my Ads is
(23:01):
the watchdog revealing how people who would never be caught
dead on sites like Steve Bannon's war Room are unknowingly
advertising on them because of deals like the one Etsy
has with online advertising clearinghouses. Etsy, which helps to fund
Steve Bannon, has said nothing, but an Etsy seller notes
this is actually terrifying because they forced sellers to opt
(23:23):
into advertising after selling a certain amount. The idea that
my product could show up on a site like that
absolutely disgusting. Just remember the next time you buy that
cute medallion for your dog's collar on Etsy, you are
indirectly paying Steve Bannon. Etsy dot com two days worst
(23:45):
persons in the world to the number one story on
the Countdown, and it is still my favorite topic me
and it is still things I promised not to tell.
(24:07):
But it is animated this time not by an anniversary,
but by the death of Kenneth Star. If you miss
that particular page of history, congratulations. Ken's Star was the
special counsel in the Bill Clinton case. Ask not for
whom the bell tolls, it tolls for the I honor
(24:27):
that sentiment. It resonates with me. But it is just
as important not to lie about society's malefactors when they die.
And this society has had a lot of malefactors in
the last twenty five years, but Ken Starr was near
the top of the list. Star did not start us
on the path towards Donald Trump, but he made certain
(24:48):
that we were stuck on that track, and also on
the path to nine eleven two. Maybe the most important,
certainly the most overlooked part of the Star Hunt of
Bill Clinton, was that the week before it began, the
guests on My show on MSNBC included terrorism experts warning
about some guy named Osama bin Laden and his crazy
(25:09):
plan to attack America in America, and then all of
a sudden, there was a stained dress and a president
and an intern, and nobody mentioned Bin Laden again for
three and a half goddamned years. Most importantly, Ken Starr
stuck us on that track in which disreputable, dishonest scum
can dress themselves up in the law so that they
(25:32):
can break the law like Trump, like this Lindsey Graham,
and where Republicans, authoritarians, and fascists can declare with a
straight face that the law must be enforced as long
as it is enforced against minorities or women or liberals
Star New Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Delay. These vermin of
(25:55):
the nineteen nineties trained generations of conservatives in this country
to truly believe that they were right everybody else was wrong,
and moreover, the they were being silenced and canceled and suppressed,
even though they had their own television network, and then
another television network, and then a hundred radio networks and
(26:15):
then ten thousand podcasts. Starr and the others made a
life and ultimately made a political party out of a
joke from the British TV comedy series The Young Ones,
which I often repeat here with the actor Nigel Plainer
as Neil quoting crucifixion. It's a really negative way to
(26:35):
kill yourself. I've tried it hundreds of times. There's no
way you can hammer in that last nail. Well, that's
the essence of the Republican Party hammering in their own
last nail. They are being crucified twenty four hours a day,
three sixty five days a year for the last quarter
of a century. And when it came to the Clinton
(26:56):
Lewinsky investigation, Starr and the others very cleverly also made
an industry out of leaking information, often illegally leaking privileged
information to the media, which would then run it unquestioned,
often unreviewed before air because the information guaranteed ratings, and
(27:17):
ratings guaranteed advertisers, and advertisers guaranteed raises for the executives.
And I was part of that. At MSNBC, we went
from literally a high water mark of an audience of
seventy or eighty thousand viewers a night, high water mark
for a television network, eighty thousand viewers. We went from
(27:39):
that overnight to a million, then a million and a half,
then two million a night, just so long as we
kept mentioning Bill Clinton, and or Monica Lewinsky. So after
a couple of months of that, I decided to quit.
I had just left the office of my new therapist,
having spent most of the hour talking about the craziest
(27:59):
person I had yet met in broadcasting, Andy Lack, the
president of NBC News, the man who made his programming
decisions based on what Ken Starr had done that day
when my phone rang out on twenty three straight in
New York, and it was Andy Lack. Our problem, in
brief was that we had turned my not too successful
(28:20):
MSNBC nightly news magazine show of nineteen seven seventy thousand
viewers a night into the all Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky
show of nine two million viewers a night. That there
was not enough new news about them every night did
not matter. We did at least one show a night,
often too often for two hours each just about them.
(28:43):
If Monica Lewinsky's lawyer said anything more detailed than no comment,
we stayed on the air until we ran out of guests.
The whole thing, including television's crazed wall to wall reaction,
was part of a carefully planned New Gingridge plot in
which he really thought he could impeach Clinton, and then
(29:04):
somehow impeach the new president, Al Gore, before Gore could
get himself a new vice president, which would mean that
the new new president would be Speaker of the House
new Gang Rich. He really thought this was going to happen.
Every aspect of this story was unethical. Clinton's behavior did
(29:25):
not break the top ten list of unethical, maybe not
the top one. Whatever Clinton did, ken Starr did something
worse and the shame in which he would later cover
himself as the president and chancellor during the sports sexual
assault scandals at Baylor University, real sexual scandals. None of
this Clinton crap. That was still fifteen years in the future.
(29:47):
So I wanted out, let me leave, let me go
do something else, or change the topic. I was done.
The problem was every time I said I was done,
or I let my cynicism about the story escape on
the air. I once compared ken Starr to Himmler. Every
time I did something like that, the ratings went up.
(30:07):
The year before, MSNBC was lucky to get a hundred
thousand viewers once a month. Now we were upset if
we did not get a million and a half viewers
a minute. MSNBC was actually making money, and that was
almost entirely because of my shows. So when I wanted
to quit, people like Andy Lack, president of NBC News,
(30:28):
wanted not to kill me, but to force me to
stay there and keep talking like that woman newsreader you
see from North Korean television. To make that possible, Lack
tried everything he could, promises that I and not Brian Williams,
would be the next anchor of NBC Nightly News, more money,
more time off. When that didn't work, more threats, threats
(30:53):
against my family, literally anything except the first step towards
letting me change the show, or leave the show, or
leave the network. And the first step would have been
to talk to me about it face to face. He
would not talk to me about it. That was what
he was calling to tell me on that warm afternoon
(31:14):
of the seven. He was calling to tell me that
he couldn't talk to me. It was exactly as crazy
as it sounds. First I asked Andy Lack if I
could come up to his office right away to talk
to him about it. He said no. I asked him
if we could talk about it on the phone at
some point, he said no. Then he proceeded to talk
about it well, he began, if you're calling about this
(31:35):
meeting of life business, if you just want to stir
the pot about how you're not satisfied with the show
at the moment, and I might add only at the
moment the nuance and subtleties of your career. Well, I
have to say no, we can't meet. Of course, I'm
saying that I'm always available to meet with you. I
love you, but to me uh here, he paused, having
run out of words, apparently or possibly just to remember
(31:55):
what he had just said. The news channel ticker in
my mind now appeared at the bottom of my vision
and flashed a message about not worrying about what I
would hear next, that this was a test of the
Andy Lack Emergency Random Thoughts warning system. It's just not
the right time. It's premature, it's too early in the process,
and it's saying it's too early in the process. I'm
not saying there is a process, it's just that there
(32:16):
there shouldn't be a process yet, because it's uh, just
not the right time for this, and I don't think
we've explored the options fully for improving how you see
what's happening. When I say we, of course, I mean
you and Phil Griffin. You and Phil Griffin, because Phil
is part of this process, not to imply there is
a process, but rather he's just at the beginning of
this situation, of the resolution of this situation, not that
there is a situation that requires resolution necessarily, because I
(32:37):
think you know, in life, you have many times, many durations,
many seasons, many years where you might say you're unhappy
or discontented or in some way not pleased with what
you're doing. But you'll have plenty of opportunities to make
changes in the direction of your life. Obviously, not now.
You made these changes last year, and you committed to it,
and I committed to it. You've done such an outstanding job,
a thoroughly outstanding job, that I can't tell you how
much we value you. I was on Larry King last
(32:58):
week and Larry said to me, I love Aldermann, and
I said, I love Alderman, and he said, I wish
I could be doing for you what he's doing for you.
This is not that you should think I'm totally blowing
smoke up your backside, but the critical acclaim, especially the
insider's critical acclaim. The people whose opinions matter consistently, rating
you is the best at this on the cutting edge,
and for that matter, the ratings have been outstanding. And
I'm fully committed to you in all senses of that word.
(33:19):
But if you want to talk to me about in
some way changing what you're doing, it just doesn't enter
into the equation because things are going so well and
we're just delighted with the program, and you need to
understand that on my radar screen, this isn't even on
the fast track, because why should I say to you. Look,
I want to change this completely successful show when it's
been a complete success and a complete success and a
runaway hit, and everyone says to me how smoothly you've
(33:40):
made the transition, And I can't talk to you about
it because I love you. I mean, I'm fully behind you.
You have my support, in my commitment, my resources, and
they're all at your back and call anytime you need
them or you need me. But there aren't any problems,
and I love the show and the thought of tinkering
with it or jesting it is just the farthest thing
from my mind right now. But you have to understand
I'm completely committed to you and Phil and what you're doing,
(34:00):
and I just can't talk to you about it now,
although the door is always open, and you know you
can call me and talk to me at any time
about anything. And when I say anything, I mean not this.
And I can envision changing things because I don't have to.
That was Andy Lack, the president of NBC News, talking
to me about not talking to me about changing the
(34:20):
Clinton Lewinsky TV marathon. It is possible that I have
not quoted his three minutes spasm of words correctly. But
if I have not quoted his three minute spasm of
words correctly, I got God damn close. The night of
that conversation, it would be the first time I would
go on MSNBC with Carvassier Kognak mixed into my coffee.
(34:46):
Ken Starr was at the root of all that. He
has now died. You're expecting me to say, rest in peace.
I've on all the damage I can do here. I
(35:06):
swear to God, that's what he said to me. Help
me out here. Give this thing a good review or rating,
or subscribe, or forward it or email it to somebody,
or send them a text paying them. The countdown theme
from Beethoven's ninth. The arrange produced and performed by Countdown
musical directors Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle. All orchestration
and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitars, bass and drums
(35:28):
by Brian Ray. It was produced by t k O Brothers.
The other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by
No horns allowed. Our sports music the Olberman theme from
ESPN Too, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Musical comments from Nancy paus the best baseball stadium organist ever,
and our annuncer today was my friend Richard Lewis. Let's
(35:51):
countdown for this the si day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him now, I always still can a new episode tomorrow.
Till then, I'm Keith All Women. Good morning, good afternoon,
good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith all Woman
(36:17):
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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