September 5, 2024 • 49 mins
SERIES 3 EPISODE 21: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN ALL-TIME SERIES EPISODE 500
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: "Follow the money," said Deep Throat about Watergate.
Except he didn't..
My friend, the screenwriter of "All The President's Men," Bill Goldman - HE said it. Because they paid him to. The real "Deep Throat," Deputy FBI Director Mark Felt, never said anything like it. Goldman added he threw it in because it sounded more memorable. And it was. Now everybody remembers it as having happened, when it didn't.
Which is kind of the point about what Mark Felt's institutional descendants at the Department of Justice did yesterday about Stooge-Gate: In their indictment of two Russian propagandists THEY never say the Tennessee company through which they funneled money into the American right wing echo chamber is called Tenet Media and THEY never say that Tenet Media was founded by Lauren Chen who also happens to work for Glenn Beck and Blaze-TV and THEY never say that Tenet Media’s YouTube channel got ten million dollars from Putin’s propaganda arm, R-T, to grow and distribute videos about how America started the Russian war in Ukraine, and how it was all Biden’s fault, and vote Trump or die, and how America shouldn’t get trapped in forever wars and how terrorists were coming into the country across the southern border. And they didn’t say that through Tenet the Russians washed large sums of money to scumbags like Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, and others to unwittingly do Putin’s work for him.
Some of those folks say they're unwitting victims. I actually believe it. Because if there was an Unwitting Fantasy League, Jesse Watters would be my first choice but I'd certainly be satisfied if I could get Pool or Johnson or Rubin.
My question is: Russia only had a handful of stooges here? I doubt that.
TRUMP GOES SILENT ON ARLINGTON: Possibly after reading polling showing that his standing with veterans, active service members, and their families is vanishing - he's in a virtual dead heat with Vice President Harris among the families.
AND THE RATS ARE LEAVING THE SINKING SHIP and boasting about it to Politico. Eighteen paragraphs about Republicans who are preparing a bunch of different songs to whistle past a bunch of different graveyards, but the lyrics are identical: we WANT Trump to lose, it's the GOP's only chance!
B-Block (25:22) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mark Robinson allegedly owed the porn guy money, and then his wife owed the Girl Scouts money! The "Tim Walz Family Hates Tim Walz" campaign falls flat when it turns out the terrible story his brother had to tell was about Tim barfing in the car as a kid. And on Joe Scarborough's show, Mike Barnicle asked the fitting question: how did the Republicans get here, nominating a lunatic Trump for a third time? The answer - in part anyway - IS Joe Scarborough.
C-Block (42:37) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The NFL season opens tonight. Why not look back at the day I had to call in sick as co-host of NBC's "Football Night In America" because I had unknowingly blown out my appendix! Surprise!
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. Follow
said Deep Throat the money, as it was true then
(00:28):
in Watergates, so is it true now in Stoogegate, the
federal indictment of two Russian state media operatives on charges
they funneled millions through a Tennessee company to right wing
influencers via intermediaries to transform putin propaganda made at the
Kremlin into pro Trump, anti America talking point videos. Of course,
(00:54):
the Watergate source Deep Throat actually FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt.
He never actually said follow the money. That was something
my late friend William Goldman, the screenwriter of the movie
version of All the President's Men, wrote. He wrote it
for money to make it all more memorable. Bill Goldman
(01:15):
told me because it was a great line. Bill Goldman
told me because it was not true. Bill Goldman told
me that Deep Throats said follow the money, but it
was still the truth. And that's kind of the point
about what Felt's modern day successors in the Department of
Justice have now done, because in their indictment of the Russians,
(01:38):
they never say that the Tennessee company is called Tenet Media,
and they never say that Tenant Media was founded by
Lauren Chen, and they never say that Lauren Chen also
happens to work for Glenn Beck and Blaze TV. And
they never say that Tenet Media's YouTube channel got ten
million dollars from Putin's propaganda arm RT to grow and
(02:01):
make and distribute videos about how America star did the
Russian war in Ukraine, how it's all Biden's fault and
vote Trump or die, and how America shouldn't get trapping
forever wars, and how terrorists you're coming into the country
across the southern border in the billions, And they didn't
say that through Tenant the Russians washed large sums of
(02:23):
money to get it to scumbags, and Merrick Garland didn't
say that the scumbags might have been Tim Poole, Benny Johnson,
Dave Rubin, and others. And they didn't say those morons
unwittingly did Putin's work for him. The Attorney General didn't
say any of that, in exactly the same way that
(02:43):
Deep Throat didn't say follow the money. The other Watergate
parallel pertains to the certainty that Bob Woodward's editors never
knew in nineteen seventy two and nineteen seventy three, though
he probably did that Deep Throat was not one source
but a clearing house of sources, all the sources the
(03:03):
FBI had, from its own informants and rumor passers to
its own executives. Deep Throat was his own newsgathering organization,
and the Washington Post went unwittingly there's that word again,
into partnership with that news gathering organization of mister Felts.
From the reaction of the Russian stooges who were not
(03:25):
mentioned in the indictments, but who like Tim Poole, have
kind of volunteered that at minimum they yeah worked for
Tenet Media. Is sure. They are clearly insistent that they
too are victims and that they were unwittingly involved. And
you know what, I'm going to assume they're right, because
(03:45):
if you had to come up with a list of
conservative influencer morons who utterly define the word unwitting, you
could do far worse than to begin with the names
Tim Poole, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin. I mean, I would
still take Jesse Waters first in my definition of unwitting
fantasy draft, but I would have considered the others too.
(04:11):
I mean, Tim Poole is the thirty eight year old
man who dresses on camera like a beanie baby. This
is professional grade unwitting Right here, there is potentially another
shoe to drop, As it was widely noted when this broke.
It is hardly as if Pool and Johnson and Ruben
and the others have not been parroting Russian propaganda for years.
(04:34):
But it is also hardly as if they were the
leading parrots. I know a dead parrot when I see one,
and I'm looking at one right now. No, he's not dead,
he's resting. Remarkable bird, the Norwegian blue? In't it? If
a plumage? Is this just the tip of the iceberg?
I mean, there is a reference in the indictment to
(04:54):
the alleged American end of this scheme and the people
in it here looking at the video of a top
American television news personality at a Moscow supermarket and being
so insanely over the top in his praise of the
dump that even they thought that the video was of
no value as a propaganda tool for Russia or for
(05:17):
their own arguments about Russia. I mean, did the two
indicted Russians or anybody else connected to this, like the
Glenn Beck employee. Glenn Beck employee. I mean, we're this
close to posthumously indicting Russia. Limbai here, I got so
much shot in Freude. I'm wading knee deep in shot
(05:37):
than Freuda in my living room. Did any of the
plotters underwrite any of the other Russian tools in this
country or think about it or approach them? Because look,
Tucker Carlson and a trader Joe Stalins might be over
the top, but what about his other nine thousand hours
(06:00):
of pro Russian bullshit? I mean, when I heard this
story first yesterday, I read that they were not going
to indict Tucker or Tommy Tuberville or Elon Musk, And
all I could think was why not follow the money?
(06:42):
You know, Trump makes a lot of videos just saying
the stonewalling and the covering up of the Trump team's
physical altercation with the woman employee at Arlington National Cemetery
and his illegal use of video of the graves of
the war dead in a campaign commercial. That stonewalling and
that cover up continues, but Trump has clearly not escaped
(07:06):
the damage that his actions at his two different and
completely contradicting versions of events at Arlington have inflicted on
his support from military members and their families. That impact
is in fact startling. Change research in polling that was
completed for Semaphore News a week ago today, four days
(07:27):
after the altercation at Arlington, but just now released, shows
that Trump's lead over Harris among veterans is down to
ten points, his lead among active duty service members is
down to five points. His lead among families of active
duty service members is now inside the margin of error
(07:47):
at just two percent. Trump won veterans in twenty sixteen
by nineteen points, he won active duty by nineteen points.
He won family members by twelve points. There has been
almost no new polling among active military during this campaign
until this new poll, though. Last month the Economist and
(08:09):
Hugov found service members and veterans believed Trump cared more
about them than Harris did by fifty one percent to
thirty two percent. That's a lot different than these new numbers.
Back to these new numbers showing damage to Trump, Change
research also says fifty three percent of military related voters
who have previously voted for Trump in twenty sixteen and
(08:31):
or twenty twenty but say they will not vote for
him this year. They attribute their change of mind to
how he has talked about and behaved towards the military
and those who have served in it. I'm adding this
note the military and those who have served in it,
like the dead at Arlington. For his part, after insisting
Tuesday that the entirety of the confrontation with an Arlington
(08:54):
employee tried to stop the Trump campaign from its illegal
commercial filming, that that never happened, That nothing happened, not
even something that would let him portray himself as the victim.
As usual, he went silent on this issue online yesterday,
despite another spasm of more than four dozen posts and
(09:14):
videos so haphazard as spasm, so rushed a spasm that
in one video he insisted Kamala Harris had quote always
been a communist and maybe more crazy than that, he
appeared in another video without his trademark communist red colored
tie back to you, Tavaresh. It is remotely possible that
(09:38):
the message somehow got through the forest of mirrors surrounding
Trump's head to just drop this now while he still can,
if he still can, despite his ever narrowing lead among
voters connected to the military, those voters in the Change
Research Semaphore Pole do not appear to have any illusions
about basically what a coward Trump would be in actual conflict.
(10:01):
They asked seven hundred and three veteran active service family
members if they agreed or disagreed with six scenarios, and
they started by asking them to imagine themselves, quote, being
Donald Trump's team member in a combat situation. Do you
agree or disagree with this statement He'd only look out
(10:22):
for himself. Fifty five percent agreed with that, he'd talk
a big game but not do much. Fifty four percent
of the military people agreed with that he would crumble
under pressure. Trump did well. Only forty nine percent of
the military voters think he would crumble under pressure. Fifty
(10:44):
one percent think he wouldn't. He'd have my back. Forty
six percent believe that Trump would have your back or
their back in an actual combat situation. He'd be a
good team player. Fifty seven percent said, oh, you know what,
(11:06):
he would not be a good team player. And then lastly,
he'd win a Medal of valor. Do you agree with
that statement? Yes, thirty four percent, no, sixty six percent.
Two thirds of the military voters can't even produce a
(11:26):
fantasy scenario in which Trump displays conspicuous valor. Fifty seven
percent of them can't imagine him being a good team player.
Back to the Arlington scandal, The Washington Post analyzed what
Trump did with the video illegally shot literally atop the
graves of US war dead, and concluded, quote Trump appeared
(11:47):
to have misled gold Star families on troop deaths in Afghanistan.
That's post speak for he lied, to quote the paper
quoting Trump, we didn't lose one person in eighteen months,
and then they took over that disaster. Those cameras appear
to have recorded Trump saying these were words to the
gold Star families, reports the Post. The TikTok shows him
(12:09):
talking to families as the words are spoken as a voiceover.
In his phrasing, it sounds as if no troops were
killed in Afghanistan during the late last eighteen months of
his presidency. That's false, though there was an eighteen month
gap with no fatalities across Trump's and Biden's combined presidencies
the last eleven months of Trump's presidency and the first
(12:31):
seven of Biden's. In a rare throwback to its democracy
dies in darkness days, the Post had an even bigger
surprise for Trump. Aaron Blake analyzed the CNN polling in
the swing states and determined that, especially with President Biden
now out of the race, the message about the existential
dangers of another Trump presidency are getting through after months
(12:54):
of being lost in the noise, or even of diminishing
as the far right tried to do an Orwellian rewriting
of January sixth and other Trump attacks on representative government
and elections. See earlier story about follow the Money to
quote the Post on this story. Across six key swing
states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, de batt of Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin,
(13:16):
an average of fifty four percent of registered voters said
Trump was too extreme, with forty eight percent also saying
that he threatens the country. In each state, at least
half a voter said Trump was too extreme, at at
least forty six percent said he was a threat to
the country. Harris's numbers were significantly lower. An average of
(13:37):
forty four percent said she was too extreme. Just thirty
nine percent regarded her perceived extremness as a threat to
the country. In no state did a majority regard her
as too extreme. Most voters instead regarded her as generally mainstream.
Then there is what the CNN's swing state results. Its
(13:59):
newest polling looks like. Arizona Trump forty nine, Harris forty four,
Georgia Harris forty eight, Trump forty seven, Michigan Harris forty eight,
Trump forty three, Nevada Harris forty eight, Trump forty seven,
Pennsylvania Harris and Trump tied at forty seven, Wisconsin Harris fifty,
(14:19):
Trump forty four. Biden, of course, won all six of
those states, some by as little as the eleven thousand
in Georgia and Arizona. The caveat. Both Georgia and Pennsylvania
remain thoroughly up for grabs according to the polls, with
tight margins overall and double digit shares of likely voters
twelve percent in Georgia and sixteen percent in Pennsylvania saying
(14:42):
they have not yet decided on a candidate or that
they might change their minds. That is the CNN analysis
of the CNN polling. The point of all the polling
is not to memorize the numbers, nor calculate how they
have changed per day. This isn't the stock market. We're
(15:02):
not investors at the macro level. The point is the
momentum and the idea that the undecided or soft voters
total twelve percent in Georgia and sixteen percent in Pennsylvania,
which in turn means Harris or Trump could not only
win those states, but could run away with them. But
(15:23):
at the micro level, there's something that the CNN swing
state polls don't even address. We may soon officially have
to expand the number of swing states that have to
be polled. Redfield Wilton, the UK based polster working for
the newspaper there the Telegraph, is now polling those six
states I just mentioned, and Florida and North Carolina. We
(15:48):
know from other polls that North Carolina is essentially a
toss up at the moment, but now we have new
Redfield Wilton polling suggesting Florida is getting there. It's Trump
forty eight Harris forty three in Florida. It might not
get any closer than that, or maybe it will. And
maybe that Trump campaign TV commercial by in the West
(16:08):
Palm Beach market was not solely to provide one particular
resident in that market some political porn for him to
enjoy one resident named Trump. And then there is something
(16:30):
that has to be read almost verbatim to be believed.
I have rigorously charted the excuses and cover ups that
the website Politico has provided for Trump, but I'll give
them credit for this much. These people know rats leaving
a sinking ship when they see them. The website's playbook
(16:50):
feature began a piece with near astonishment that the deplorable
right winger Eric Erickson had tweeted that some Republicans thought
that the only hope for their party long term was
for Trump to lose, and lose big. Jonathan Martin, the
Politico writer, as Cubby hold an ancient beltwere as there
(17:11):
is said. He contacted a series of Republican leaders for
a column, thinking that his belief that the best hope
for the Republican's future was to lose and lose soundly
would be met with anger and pushback and denial instead quote,
what he found while making calls was that many Republicans
agreed with the take. There follows this astonishment eighteen paragraphs
(17:39):
worth of various songs whistled by various Republicans as they
walk past various graveyards. So everybody from the defense hawks
angry at Trump's cobbling up to the dictators, to anti
abortion diehards who now hate him over his attempt to
be all things to all voters on that issue. There
is even and try to follow this, there is even
(18:03):
a supply of Republicans who have already decided that if
Trump wins, but the Democrats take the House or the
Senate in November or both, that the Democratic House or
Senate will be more difficult to take back in twenty
twenty six. So they want Trump to lose so that
the Republicans have a better chance and the Senate and
(18:26):
the House not this year, but two years from now.
In other words, they have not even lost yet the presidency.
They have not even lost yet the House. They've not
even lost yet the Senate. Yet there are Republicans right
now trying to sound like they meant for all of
that to happen. You and I have already learned this year,
(18:52):
this summer how fast one can go from digging your
own grave to instead shoving Trump's campaign into said grave.
But get a load of wow. Politico finished this piece
up quoting, again quoting an anonymous Conservative leader quote, I
(19:13):
think a lot of old school conservatives might hope that
if he loses, there's an opportunity to just completely forget
the last eight years happened. In other words, Trump Trump Who.
(19:38):
If you're new here and you have arrived via the advertising,
thank you, Welcome to the party. I am here five
days a week, forty to sixty minutes a day except
for Monday mornings, posting just after midnight Sunday through Thursday nights.
Oh and I am America's most reliable news source. Just
ask me. Oh, and you have arrived propitiously this podcast,
(20:00):
this one right here. This is episode number five hundred,
and also of interest here in episode number five hundred,
the Tim Walls family hates. Tim Wall's thing kind of collapsed.
It turns out his older brother says when he said
he had terrible stories to tell about his younger brother,
he meant how Tim used to get carsick and throw
(20:21):
up on his siblings in like nineteen sixty eight, and
a question was asked on national television, quote, we have
a damaged, delusional old man who again might get re
elected to the presidency of the United States. How did
this happen? How did the Republican Party get here? You know,
whose show that was asked on The answer is Joe Scarborough.
(20:42):
You know what. The answer to the question how did
we get here? Is why? Coincidentally enough, the answer to
that question is also Joe Scarborough. How the chief trump
enabler of twenty sixteen has tried to make you forget
he made this monster? Mainstream Worst Persons is next Discountdown.
(21:07):
This is Countdown with Keith Alberman still ahead of us
(21:32):
on this five hundredth edition of Countdown. I know it
only seems like five thousand. Continuing our week long celebration
of the beginning of another season in the National Football League,
Tonight begins weekend one of when is it now fifty weeks?
Fifty fifty seven weeks? I'll take you back to the
(21:52):
year that NBC rather unexpectedly offered me the job of
co hosting Football Night in America before it's Sunday night games,
And like three weeks in I had to call in
sick because MAAIX blew up and I didn't know it.
And I kept working and I anchored a George Bush
press conference and I beat CNN in the ratings while
(22:13):
literally in the middle stages of septiscemia in things I
promised not to tell. How you feeling. Oh, I'm okay,
other than the septu seemia, well, septi seemia later. First,
there's still more new idiots to talk about, besides me
for saying that the daily roundup of the miss Grants
(22:35):
morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days
worst persons in the world the Bronze. Remember yesterday's story
about Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark some folks need killing Robinson,
their candidate for governor in North Carolina, And how six Greensboro,
North Carolina poorn aficionados told a local news outlet that
(22:59):
a quarter century ago, Robinson was a five nights a
week customer to those visits rooms, the private rooms in
which men quote watch unquote porn, And how the main
source of the story, a guy used to work there
named Money Money, said he also sold Robinson at least
one bootlegged porn video a week, and how Money says
(23:22):
the last one a compilation tape of some really wild
New York made videos he sold to Robinson for twenty
five dollars, but Robinson never paid him. This was just
the start of the story. It turns out there were
lots of unpaid bills at the Robinson household back in
those days, from the website notes from the Chalkboard dot com.
(23:44):
According to public records obtained from Guilford County Court, the
wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson was sued by
Tarheel Triad Girl Scouts over quote money owed in Guilford
County Small Claims Court in two thousand and three, and
the Girl Scouts won. Continuing the quotation, it's September two
(24:07):
thousand and three, the Girl Scouts filed suit against Yolanda
Hill due to a two nine hundred and fifty six
dollars and three cent bad check. The matter was heard
the following month, and court documents indicate nobody attended on
behalf of the defendant. The magistrate, well, you know, we
know where the defendant was, right, He's down in that booth.
The magistrate found in favor of the Girl Scouts and
(24:30):
tacked on fees and damages as permitted by state law
on return to checks for a grand total of three
four hundred and eighty six dollars and three cents. The
records do not explain what the check was for or
any other context around what happened between Hill and the
Girl Scouts, Hill being Missus Robinson. Missus Robinson, I think
(24:53):
you're trying to steal cookies from me. Lieutenant Governor Robinson
is a dangerous, unbalanced individual. But you have to give
he and the wife credit when you and your wife,
and yes, they've been married since nineteen ninety, so all this,
including the porn took place in the context of them
being married for years already, when you and your wife,
(25:14):
and yes, he worked at some of her daycare operations.
And yes, the federal government says they owe it money too.
That is, the daycare operations owe the government money. Still,
this is a pretty broad spectrum of creditors here. In short,
mister and Missus Robinson stiffed the porn store and the
(25:35):
Girl Scouts the runners up the group. Walls is for Trump.
A right wing Trump troll named Matt Wolking has posted
a photo of eight people wearing Trump t shirts. His caption,
Tim Walls's family members in Nebraska are voting for Trump.
Mister Wolking does not note that the eight people are
(25:55):
all wearing the same blue shirt, reading quote Nebraska Walls'
is for Trump and in it. Walls's is spelled w
Alz apostrophe s. The debate over what to do with
a plural form of a word or name ending in
s is eternal. Those who are wrong will never be defeated.
(26:18):
But there is no debate over what to do with
a plural form of a word or name ending in z.
The rule is clear. You add an e and an
S to it, So the shirts should read Nebraska Walls
is for Trump wal Zees, not walz apostrophe s. But
if this is too high falutin for the vice presidential
(26:41):
candidates dumber relatives, the shirts could read Walls family members
for Trump or something else easy, using grammar that doesn't
make them seem like there are court orders preventing them
from leaving Nebraska. Now, before you complain, I'm being way
too judgmental here. There is an organized effort to make
Tim Walls look bad, the way Mary Trump and Young
(27:04):
Fred and the other sane Trumps have made Psycho Trump
look bad, and this effort to make Tim Walls look
bad it's not going well. His older brother, Jeff Walls,
started this, apparently inadvertently. He says he regrets it now.
He wrote on Facebook that the governor is not the
type of character who should make decisions about our future,
(27:26):
and he could tell terrible stories about him if he
wanted to. But Jeff Walls has now done an interview
with the News Nation channel that's the Nick at Night
of news, and he's told NewsNation that he regrets the
post that he made on Facebook. He's not endorsing Trump.
He still thinks of his brother as his brother, and
they just disagree on all policies. So he's sitting out
(27:48):
the election. But he did tell one of those terrible stories,
one of those stories that's just gonna sink. Tim Walls
and Kamala Harrison put Trump back in the right house,
are you ready? Quote? I'll give you one example. My
little brother, when we were younger, we would go on
family trips in a station wagon and the thing was
nobody wanted to sit with him because he had car
(28:12):
sickness and would always throw up on us. That sort
of thing unquote. Now, you know, if they'd revealed that
before the Democratic Convention, maybe Walls would have had to withdraw.
You know, that also may not be quite the sick
burn the trumpests think it is. Democratic dominee threw up
(28:32):
on a Republican. Hell, that's the basis for a Tim
Walls twenty thirty two presidential campaign, Make America throw up
on Republicans again. But our winner. Speaking of which, the
worst Joe Scarborough. I don't have to go back to
the beginning here, do I and discuss the three hundred
(28:53):
and eighty seven examples I've given just in this series
about how, on balance Joe Scarborough may have been the
worst person I have ever worked with, the worst human being,
the most reprehensible one. And I worked with Tucker Carlson
and the guy who went on to blackmail David Letterman.
So when I say worst, I mean worst. And the
(29:14):
guy in the middle of this story related to Joe Scarborough,
Mike Barnacle. I've known him literally forty five years. We
worked together during the entirety of my time in Boston,
and then we worked together several years at MSNBC, and
I've worked with his sons and Mike in his career.
He's cut corners now and again, but I do not
doubt for a moment his overall sincerity, especially on the
(29:36):
issue of Trump and preserving American democracy. But on their
Little Morning Joe Show yesterday, which the latest breezes are
always bent to and the latest conventional wisdoms are turned
into words etched into the walls of the ancient Greek
temple of Apollo and Delphi. And some guy who got
canceled ten years ago for not wearing pants while pressuring
(29:58):
women employees is rehabilitated, brought back from beyond the grave.
On their s show yesterday, Mike Barnacle went on passionately
about this rhetorical question. Quote, today we have a damaged,
delusional old man who again and I'm reading this thinking
Scarborough's not that old. Oh, today we have a damaged,
(30:19):
delusional old man who again might get re elected to
the presidency of the United States. How did this happen?
How did the Republican Party get here? And they tweeted
it out again, a legit question all the way. But
in saying this, Mike Barnacle forgot and in clipping it
off and sending it out virallly and that cynical handwringing, Oh,
(30:40):
we finally have a product we can sell, which is
true of one hundred percent of the time on MSNBC
before say seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and
a lot of the time thereafter that cynical way that
they treat progressivism or non conservatism, or whatever it is
they think they're doing. Before say, four in the afternoon,
the Morning Joe team forgot a little bit of the
(31:02):
answer to that question. Mike Barnacle posed one of the
answers to how did this happen? How did the Republican
Party get here? One of the answers is Joe Scarborough
made sure it got there for some reason. Barnacle and
Morning Joe and the MSNBC Comms department don't mention this
(31:23):
a lot anymore, but in twenty fifteen. In twenty sixteen,
Joe Scarborough fervently tried to mainstream Donald Trump and make
him president of the United States, had him on MSNBC,
advised him, traveled to a debate to coach him. CNN
(31:44):
February twelve, twenty sixteen, their media reporter noting that in
November of twenty fifteen, quote Joe Scarborough sat on stage
at the ninety second Street Why in New York and
recounted the various times he had given Donald Trump political advice.
I've actually called him up and said, Donald, listen, you
need to speak in complete sentences. At debates. Scarborough said,
(32:06):
after the second debate, I walked into his office. I said, Donald,
do you know how to read? I said, you should
read before a debate. Read a paragraph on Syria. Read
a paragraph on education reform. The anecdotes, which were meant
as a testament to Trump's off the cuff political savvy,
drew laughter from the audience. Both Scarborough and co host
(32:28):
Mika Brzhinsky, who used to be somebody else's wife and
his now Joe's wife, are close friends with Trump and
members of his family. This is February twenty sixteen. Scarborough,
a former four term congressman from Florida's first District, has
often stayed at Trump's Marilago Club in Palm Beach with
his family and was there during which family and his
(32:49):
family and was there during the week between Christmas and
New Year's. Two sources at the hotel during that time
said on the night of the New Hampshire primary, CNN
went on, Scarborough and Brzhinsky visited Trump's hotel room for
what MSNBC described as background discussions with the candidate's senior
staff and a conversation with Trump that lasted less than
(33:12):
five minutes. In recent weeks, Scarborough has spoken about Trump
in increasingly glowing terms, praising him as a masterful politician
and defending him against his political opponents and media critics.
The Washington Post has noted that Trump has received a
tremendous degree of warmth from the show, and that his
(33:33):
appearances on the show in person and over the phone
often feel like a cozy social club. Some MSNBC insiders
also cringed at an on air exchange Scarborough had last
month with radio host Hugh Hewitt. Well, that's an evergreen sentence,
but he meant something specifically CNN did in twenty sixteen.
(33:54):
Hewitt pressed Scarborough on whether he would serve as Trump's
vice president. Scarborough ruled out the possibility, but not before
saying he would do quote just about anything to try
to get the White House back. End the CNN quote
from twenty sixteen. How did we get here with Donald Trump?
(34:14):
I don't know? Does anybody know how? And Joe Scarborough
looked even more blankly into the camera than he has
every other minute of his life, little slit eyed bastard.
We all know about this from the beginning of twenty sixteen,
and then, oddly enough, Trump didn't like Scarborough anymore, and
they fell out, And then we forget that after Scarborough
(34:39):
disavowed Trump, he reavowed him after Trump won. December fifth,
twenty sixteen, Politico writes a saga that included co host
Joe Scarborough comparing Trump policies to Nazi Germany, and the
candidate tweeting that co host Mika Brazinski is crazy and
very dumb. Has taken a distinctly positive turn. I don't
(35:02):
know those quotes sound pretty positive or at least accurate.
The co hosts are now in regular communication with Trump
and his circle, so much so that they are fielding
criticism for being a house organ for the incoming administration. Well,
if anybody could be described as an organ, it's Joe Scarborough.
They have always been boosters. Things turned south when Trump
(35:26):
froze them out, but coverage always stilted. They are transition
spokesman now tweeted a rival morning anchor, CNN's Chris Cuomo again,
this is twenty sixteen. Indeed, most viewers Politico wrote seemed
to agree, knowing the co host's direct pipeline to Trump Tower. Scarborough,
(35:47):
in an interview, declared that he and Brashinsky talked several
times a week with Trump himself, and last week Brazinski
traveled to Trump Tower and visited Ivanka Trump for coffee.
I'm just going to guess here, by the way, as
an aside, I assume Mika had to pay. Indeed, many
members of Trump's inner circle, including his influential son in
(36:08):
law Jared Kushner, stayed in close contact with the show
in the campaign's final weeks. An NBC source close to
the show says the Trump campaign appreciated that Morning Joe
never wrote off their candidate as other media did. Now,
in the wake of Trump's election, Mourning Joe is becoming
a go to spot for Trump watchers. That is the
(36:32):
end of twenty sixteen, a month and a half before
Trump became president. And what it says, if you heard
it in there, is that even while they were supposedly
fighting and Scarborough was opposed to a Trump presidency, even then,
behind the scenes, the two camps were in touch and
the Trump people still appreciated Joe Scarborough's support. So when
(36:55):
the question is raised, how did we get here, maybe
the answer, the third or fourth answer is Joe effing
Scarborough got us here and the next time somebody on
Scarborough Show asks how did this happen? Or why is
Trump still there? Take that photo that I tweeted yesterday
and send it directly to Joe at Joe NBC. It's
(37:16):
the shot of him in Trump at MSNBC, both grinning
like the fascist idiots. They are both giving Trump's thumbs up.
If you don't want to do that, just get a
package together and send Joe Scarborough a mirror. Joe Scarborough,
who helped elect Trump and is thus helping to possibly
(37:37):
elect Trump again because he didn't do what a moral
man or just one with a conscience might have done
after Trump was elected and did what he did, which
would be to resign from your television show, leave the
public arena in shame, and take a ten year vow
of silence. Joe Scarborough Today's worst person in the world,
(38:07):
to the number one story on the Countdown and my
favorite topic, me and things I promised not to tell.
So it's another anniversary. One Sometime on Wednesday, September twelfth,
two thousand and seven, I began to feel bad, all
strained on my right side. But my girlfriend at the time,
Katie Turr, and I had just moved only a few
(38:29):
weeks before into our new apartment, and I was still
pushing boxes around and I thought I'd just strained something.
The next morning, the thirteenth, I was still feeling like crap,
but now my stomach also hurt, and I thought I
was bloated or constipated or something, and maybe some sit
ups would help. And actually they felt like they had
relieved some of the pressure. And Katie's father, who was
(38:49):
among many many things in emt, happened to be in town.
He gave me a vico In or something, and I
took a nap and went into work a little later
than usual at MSNBC, which I could get away with
that day because President Bush was speaking that night and
almost all of my work that night would be ad
live before his speech, and then after his speech. I
wrote what I needed to write quickly, and at about
(39:10):
seven point fifteen, I went out to the show line
producer Greg Kordick, who sat in exactly the right place
that he could make certain that I had left tour
makeup and was going to the studio on time. I
had to walk right past him and I said, I'm exhausted.
I'm just going to close my eyes at my desk
for a couple of minutes. If you don't see me
go pass by, like seven forty, come in and wake
me up. And I sat down and put my legs
(39:33):
up on my desk. I folded my hands behind my head,
and I just closed my eyes, more to rest my
eyes than in any real hope of sleeping. I am
a fickle sleeper. There's not a chance I could snooze
like that. Next thing I know, it's seven forty and
I'm feeling somebody shaking me and seriously a hand on
each shoulder. Apparently it took mister Cordick a little while
to wake me up, and I thanked Greg and staggered
(39:55):
to the makeup room, and I realized now I had
a little fever, but it was too late to do
anything about it. So I got my makeup, went to
the set, did the lead into Bush's speech, took some
notes during it, did the post speech wrap up with
the analysts, and after two hours on the air, I
got in the car that they sent for me to
go home to New York from New Jersey, and I
fell asleep again in the car. I still thought this
(40:16):
is some weird stomach flu and I'm bloated beyond belief,
and I really don't feel good. But I bet that's
just from listening to George W. Bush one time too many.
I'll just go to bed. I found it was too
difficult to lie on my stomach or my side, which
presented a problem because rarely can I fall asleep on
my back. But I had to try, and the next
(40:38):
thing I knew it was morning. I slept like a stone,
but I still felt really bad, in fact, a little
bit worse. On top of all which Katie was yelling
at me about something. And I had a check up
for something unrelated at my doctor's office, and I left
early so I could go buy something for the constipation.
(40:58):
And then when my doctor called me and he said,
you look terrible. Are you okay? And I said no,
I got this really so stomach and the last time
I had this fever for a while, and he kind
of gasped, and now he looked terrible, and he said,
when was the last time you ate? I said, you know, funny,
I haven't thought about food for a couple of days.
And then he asked me when was the last time
(41:20):
that happened? And I said, when I was in the
womb and he had me stand up and he pushed
his finger into my stomach about five inches to the
right of my navel, and holding the finger there, he said,
does this hurt? And I said not at all, And
then he said does it hurt now? As I take
my finger away, And I don't remember if I said
anything or not, because I saw the proverbial stars in
(41:40):
front of my eyes and I let out a scream.
So he said, get back in your car, and you
go to our other office at fifty ninth and tenth
and go see our gastro specialist. And I said, sure,
just don't poke me again. And when I got there,
they showed me right in and she taps me and
she says, why are you hunched over like that? And
I said, I'm hunched over and she says, if you
haven't eaten in two days, how come your stomach is
(42:00):
heard is a rock? And I said, is this a
medical quiz because you're the doctor, And she says, I
want you to go across the street to the hospital
emergency room. I'll call them while you're walking. Just go
right in and tell them you're the one doctor Lou
called about. Because boy, your appendix burst, and although I
think you'll be fine, technically you've got about oh eight,
(42:21):
ten twelve hours to live. Well, that got my attention,
and as I'm grabbing my jacket my bag, I say, wait,
if this isn't just constipation, how come it felt better
when I did the sit ups? And she says, because
when you did the sit ups, you only had an
infected appendix that was going to burst. When you did
the sit ups, dummy, that's when the appendix burst, you
(42:44):
burst it. So I said, wait, I went on TV
for two hours after my appendix burst. Shut up, She explained,
she was right. The our people saw me immediately. They
ran a bunch of tests and reminded me that if
I hadn't already, I should probably call in sick for
a couple days. And I said, wait, what day is today?
(43:04):
And they helped out and they said Friday. So I
called MSNBC, and I called the producer of Football Night
in America, which I was doing for NBC on Sundays,
and I said, hey, sorry, looks like I'm technically dying
from a burst appendix. And they're going to operate on
me as soon as they can get a surgeon in here,
and they say it's real unlikely. I'll be out of
the hospital by Sunday or Monday. Have a nice day.
(43:25):
I called Katie, who had already gotten to her job
in local cable news in Brooklyn, and she turned around
to come help me out at the hospital. And then
I just waited and got Goofier and Goofier and Goofier
and Goofier. I think they operated around seven or eight pm.
The surgeon introduced himself. He was a big sports fan,
Fred Kimmelsteele, the surgeon named by prophetic parents. And I
(43:50):
went to the anesthesiologist and I warned him. I said
I'd once woken up from anesthesia during an endoscopy, and
could he make sure that that didn't happen again. In fact,
I said that the other day when I had my
knee operated on, and this guy did the same thing.
They both of these anesthesiology I just just laughed when
I challenged them to knock me out a little bit harder.
So doctor kimmel Steele asked me about the latest met
(44:11):
choke job. This is the one in two thousand and seven,
not the one in twenty twenty two. And I started
to talk about David wright, and the next thing I knew,
I was freezing cold and trying to open my eyes.
And it was three hours later and the surgery was over.
What a mess, said doctor Kimmel Steel, never had one
that bad before. Thank God, it absesss You'll be here
all weekend and I was the next day. They made
(44:31):
me get out of bed and I think it took
me half an hour to walk about twenty feet down
the hallway and back, and there was a morphine drip
and a new bag of intravenous antibiotics every two hours,
and at one point the phone rang, and I really
did have to go back the following weekend ask the
producer if this actually happened or I merely hallucinated it.
But the phone rang, and it was the football night
(44:53):
in America people, and they said they were going to
shoot video of the hospital I was in, and I said,
I don't think you can see me from the street,
and they said, right, we know that. We're just pretty
much doing this for a laugh at your expense while
you're in the hospital and we're on TV. And then
finally my appetite came back on Monday and I was
able to eat some pancakes, and they sent me home
in the afternoon. And for two days after that, I
(45:14):
was still sweating out the poisons and the antibiotics and
the painkillers, and I mean I was so warm I
could not bear to have a shirt on. But by
Thursday I was able to go back to work, and
just to show off, I wrote a special comment about
Bush from my first show back. I was extremely pleased
with myself. Now there are three postscripts to this. Now,
(45:35):
obviously I learned, and I've just taught you the test
for appendicitis or a burst appendix. If you poke it
and it doesn't hurt until you stop poking it, it's
your appendix. Fat lot of good that'll do me. Now
I don't have an appendix. Second weeks later, I was
at dinner with my friend John Clees from Monty Python's
(45:56):
Flying Circus, and he said he'd heard the story about
my appendix and he was very upset with me. I
did the exact same thing, John said, blew up, And
for two days I had no idea how serious it was.
Thought it was a cold But don't kill people that
don't undersell it and call it a burst appendix. You
and I we were both dying of septacemia. Never let
(46:19):
anybody forget that, and I haven't. And the last and
best PostScript was, while I'm lying there recovering after the surgery,
the phone rings and it's my executive producer and she says,
good news. When you anchored before and after Bush's speech
and you got sick or after you got sick, you
(46:41):
beat CNN in the ratings by like twenty five percent,
And as stone on them painkillers as I might have been,
I was still able to say to her, I beat CNN.
I beat CNN with one appendix tied behind my back.
(47:06):
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening. We're now back to five episodes a week,
posting nightly just after midnight Eastern. The YouTube version which
is which is the audio with some animation. I don't
want to mislead you on that there's no video of this.
The YouTube version posts about five am Eastern. If you're
not subscribing, please subscribe to one or both, and please
(47:31):
share this pod with somebody who does not listen or
watch or is it watching audio on YouTube or is
it some other verb you're listening to YouTube? Then why
is it a tube. Brian Ray and John Phillip Shaneil
the musical directors have Countdown Arrange, produced and performed most
of our music. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Mister
(47:51):
Ray was on the guitars that based on the drums,
and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Our satirical and
pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist stepper,
Nancy Faust. The sports music is the Olderman theme from
ESPN two, written by Mitch Horn Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc.
Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed.
My announcer today was my friend Nancy Faust. Everything else
(48:15):
was pretty much my fault. So that's this the five
hundredth edition of the Countdown podcast for this sixty second
day until the twenty twenty four presidential election and the
one three hundred and thirty second day since convicted feudn
dementia J Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected
(48:36):
government of the United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing,
use the mental health system, use presidential immunity. The Supreme
Theocratic Court has given it to you, President Biden. I say,
if it's official, it's legal to have fun. You're immune.
Do it. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as
(49:00):
the news requires till the next one. I'm Keith Olderman.
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
(49:24):
with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. 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. Follow
said Deep Throat the money, as it was true then
(00:28):
in Watergates, so is it true now in Stoogegate, the
federal indictment of two Russian state media operatives on charges
they funneled millions through a Tennessee company to right wing
influencers via intermediaries to transform putin propaganda made at the
Kremlin into pro Trump, anti America talking point videos. Of course,
(00:54):
the Watergate source Deep Throat actually FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt.
He never actually said follow the money. That was something
my late friend William Goldman, the screenwriter of the movie
version of All the President's Men, wrote. He wrote it
for money to make it all more memorable. Bill Goldman
(01:15):
told me because it was a great line. Bill Goldman
told me because it was not true. Bill Goldman told
me that Deep Throats said follow the money, but it
was still the truth. And that's kind of the point
about what Felt's modern day successors in the Department of
Justice have now done, because in their indictment of the Russians,
(01:38):
they never say that the Tennessee company is called Tenet Media,
and they never say that Tenant Media was founded by
Lauren Chen, and they never say that Lauren Chen also
happens to work for Glenn Beck and Blaze TV. And
they never say that Tenet Media's YouTube channel got ten
million dollars from Putin's propaganda arm RT to grow and
(02:01):
make and distribute videos about how America star did the
Russian war in Ukraine, how it's all Biden's fault and
vote Trump or die, and how America shouldn't get trapping
forever wars, and how terrorists you're coming into the country
across the southern border in the billions, And they didn't
say that through Tenant the Russians washed large sums of
(02:23):
money to get it to scumbags, and Merrick Garland didn't
say that the scumbags might have been Tim Poole, Benny Johnson,
Dave Rubin, and others. And they didn't say those morons
unwittingly did Putin's work for him. The Attorney General didn't
say any of that, in exactly the same way that
(02:43):
Deep Throat didn't say follow the money. The other Watergate
parallel pertains to the certainty that Bob Woodward's editors never
knew in nineteen seventy two and nineteen seventy three, though
he probably did that Deep Throat was not one source
but a clearing house of sources, all the sources the
(03:03):
FBI had, from its own informants and rumor passers to
its own executives. Deep Throat was his own newsgathering organization,
and the Washington Post went unwittingly there's that word again,
into partnership with that news gathering organization of mister Felts.
From the reaction of the Russian stooges who were not
(03:25):
mentioned in the indictments, but who like Tim Poole, have
kind of volunteered that at minimum they yeah worked for
Tenet Media. Is sure. They are clearly insistent that they
too are victims and that they were unwittingly involved. And
you know what, I'm going to assume they're right, because
(03:45):
if you had to come up with a list of
conservative influencer morons who utterly define the word unwitting, you
could do far worse than to begin with the names
Tim Poole, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin. I mean, I would
still take Jesse Waters first in my definition of unwitting
fantasy draft, but I would have considered the others too.
(04:11):
I mean, Tim Poole is the thirty eight year old
man who dresses on camera like a beanie baby. This
is professional grade unwitting Right here, there is potentially another
shoe to drop, As it was widely noted when this broke.
It is hardly as if Pool and Johnson and Ruben
and the others have not been parroting Russian propaganda for years.
(04:34):
But it is also hardly as if they were the
leading parrots. I know a dead parrot when I see one,
and I'm looking at one right now. No, he's not dead,
he's resting. Remarkable bird, the Norwegian blue? In't it? If
a plumage? Is this just the tip of the iceberg?
I mean, there is a reference in the indictment to
(04:54):
the alleged American end of this scheme and the people
in it here looking at the video of a top
American television news personality at a Moscow supermarket and being
so insanely over the top in his praise of the
dump that even they thought that the video was of
no value as a propaganda tool for Russia or for
(05:17):
their own arguments about Russia. I mean, did the two
indicted Russians or anybody else connected to this, like the
Glenn Beck employee. Glenn Beck employee. I mean, we're this
close to posthumously indicting Russia. Limbai here, I got so
much shot in Freude. I'm wading knee deep in shot
(05:37):
than Freuda in my living room. Did any of the
plotters underwrite any of the other Russian tools in this
country or think about it or approach them? Because look,
Tucker Carlson and a trader Joe Stalins might be over
the top, but what about his other nine thousand hours
(06:00):
of pro Russian bullshit? I mean, when I heard this
story first yesterday, I read that they were not going
to indict Tucker or Tommy Tuberville or Elon Musk, And
all I could think was why not follow the money?
(06:42):
You know, Trump makes a lot of videos just saying
the stonewalling and the covering up of the Trump team's
physical altercation with the woman employee at Arlington National Cemetery
and his illegal use of video of the graves of
the war dead in a campaign commercial. That stonewalling and
that cover up continues, but Trump has clearly not escaped
(07:06):
the damage that his actions at his two different and
completely contradicting versions of events at Arlington have inflicted on
his support from military members and their families. That impact
is in fact startling. Change research in polling that was
completed for Semaphore News a week ago today, four days
(07:27):
after the altercation at Arlington, but just now released, shows
that Trump's lead over Harris among veterans is down to
ten points, his lead among active duty service members is
down to five points. His lead among families of active
duty service members is now inside the margin of error
(07:47):
at just two percent. Trump won veterans in twenty sixteen
by nineteen points, he won active duty by nineteen points.
He won family members by twelve points. There has been
almost no new polling among active military during this campaign
until this new poll, though. Last month the Economist and
(08:09):
Hugov found service members and veterans believed Trump cared more
about them than Harris did by fifty one percent to
thirty two percent. That's a lot different than these new numbers.
Back to these new numbers showing damage to Trump, Change
research also says fifty three percent of military related voters
who have previously voted for Trump in twenty sixteen and
(08:31):
or twenty twenty but say they will not vote for
him this year. They attribute their change of mind to
how he has talked about and behaved towards the military
and those who have served in it. I'm adding this
note the military and those who have served in it,
like the dead at Arlington. For his part, after insisting
Tuesday that the entirety of the confrontation with an Arlington
(08:54):
employee tried to stop the Trump campaign from its illegal
commercial filming, that that never happened, That nothing happened, not
even something that would let him portray himself as the victim.
As usual, he went silent on this issue online yesterday,
despite another spasm of more than four dozen posts and
(09:14):
videos so haphazard as spasm, so rushed a spasm that
in one video he insisted Kamala Harris had quote always
been a communist and maybe more crazy than that, he
appeared in another video without his trademark communist red colored
tie back to you, Tavaresh. It is remotely possible that
(09:38):
the message somehow got through the forest of mirrors surrounding
Trump's head to just drop this now while he still can,
if he still can, despite his ever narrowing lead among
voters connected to the military, those voters in the Change
Research Semaphore Pole do not appear to have any illusions
about basically what a coward Trump would be in actual conflict.
(10:01):
They asked seven hundred and three veteran active service family
members if they agreed or disagreed with six scenarios, and
they started by asking them to imagine themselves, quote, being
Donald Trump's team member in a combat situation. Do you
agree or disagree with this statement He'd only look out
(10:22):
for himself. Fifty five percent agreed with that, he'd talk
a big game but not do much. Fifty four percent
of the military people agreed with that he would crumble
under pressure. Trump did well. Only forty nine percent of
the military voters think he would crumble under pressure. Fifty
(10:44):
one percent think he wouldn't. He'd have my back. Forty
six percent believe that Trump would have your back or
their back in an actual combat situation. He'd be a
good team player. Fifty seven percent said, oh, you know what,
(11:06):
he would not be a good team player. And then lastly,
he'd win a Medal of valor. Do you agree with
that statement? Yes, thirty four percent, no, sixty six percent.
Two thirds of the military voters can't even produce a
(11:26):
fantasy scenario in which Trump displays conspicuous valor. Fifty seven
percent of them can't imagine him being a good team player.
Back to the Arlington scandal, The Washington Post analyzed what
Trump did with the video illegally shot literally atop the
graves of US war dead, and concluded, quote Trump appeared
(11:47):
to have misled gold Star families on troop deaths in Afghanistan.
That's post speak for he lied, to quote the paper
quoting Trump, we didn't lose one person in eighteen months,
and then they took over that disaster. Those cameras appear
to have recorded Trump saying these were words to the
gold Star families, reports the Post. The TikTok shows him
(12:09):
talking to families as the words are spoken as a voiceover.
In his phrasing, it sounds as if no troops were
killed in Afghanistan during the late last eighteen months of
his presidency. That's false, though there was an eighteen month
gap with no fatalities across Trump's and Biden's combined presidencies
the last eleven months of Trump's presidency and the first
(12:31):
seven of Biden's. In a rare throwback to its democracy
dies in darkness days, the Post had an even bigger
surprise for Trump. Aaron Blake analyzed the CNN polling in
the swing states and determined that, especially with President Biden
now out of the race, the message about the existential
dangers of another Trump presidency are getting through after months
(12:54):
of being lost in the noise, or even of diminishing
as the far right tried to do an Orwellian rewriting
of January sixth and other Trump attacks on representative government
and elections. See earlier story about follow the Money to
quote the Post on this story. Across six key swing
states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, de batt of Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin,
(13:16):
an average of fifty four percent of registered voters said
Trump was too extreme, with forty eight percent also saying
that he threatens the country. In each state, at least
half a voter said Trump was too extreme, at at
least forty six percent said he was a threat to
the country. Harris's numbers were significantly lower. An average of
(13:37):
forty four percent said she was too extreme. Just thirty
nine percent regarded her perceived extremness as a threat to
the country. In no state did a majority regard her
as too extreme. Most voters instead regarded her as generally mainstream.
Then there is what the CNN's swing state results. Its
(13:59):
newest polling looks like. Arizona Trump forty nine, Harris forty four,
Georgia Harris forty eight, Trump forty seven, Michigan Harris forty eight,
Trump forty three, Nevada Harris forty eight, Trump forty seven,
Pennsylvania Harris and Trump tied at forty seven, Wisconsin Harris fifty,
(14:19):
Trump forty four. Biden, of course, won all six of
those states, some by as little as the eleven thousand
in Georgia and Arizona. The caveat. Both Georgia and Pennsylvania
remain thoroughly up for grabs according to the polls, with
tight margins overall and double digit shares of likely voters
twelve percent in Georgia and sixteen percent in Pennsylvania saying
(14:42):
they have not yet decided on a candidate or that
they might change their minds. That is the CNN analysis
of the CNN polling. The point of all the polling
is not to memorize the numbers, nor calculate how they
have changed per day. This isn't the stock market. We're
(15:02):
not investors at the macro level. The point is the
momentum and the idea that the undecided or soft voters
total twelve percent in Georgia and sixteen percent in Pennsylvania,
which in turn means Harris or Trump could not only
win those states, but could run away with them. But
(15:23):
at the micro level, there's something that the CNN swing
state polls don't even address. We may soon officially have
to expand the number of swing states that have to
be polled. Redfield Wilton, the UK based polster working for
the newspaper there the Telegraph, is now polling those six
states I just mentioned, and Florida and North Carolina. We
(15:48):
know from other polls that North Carolina is essentially a
toss up at the moment, but now we have new
Redfield Wilton polling suggesting Florida is getting there. It's Trump
forty eight Harris forty three in Florida. It might not
get any closer than that, or maybe it will. And
maybe that Trump campaign TV commercial by in the West
(16:08):
Palm Beach market was not solely to provide one particular
resident in that market some political porn for him to
enjoy one resident named Trump. And then there is something
(16:30):
that has to be read almost verbatim to be believed.
I have rigorously charted the excuses and cover ups that
the website Politico has provided for Trump, but I'll give
them credit for this much. These people know rats leaving
a sinking ship when they see them. The website's playbook
(16:50):
feature began a piece with near astonishment that the deplorable
right winger Eric Erickson had tweeted that some Republicans thought
that the only hope for their party long term was
for Trump to lose, and lose big. Jonathan Martin, the
Politico writer, as Cubby hold an ancient beltwere as there
(17:11):
is said. He contacted a series of Republican leaders for
a column, thinking that his belief that the best hope
for the Republican's future was to lose and lose soundly
would be met with anger and pushback and denial instead quote,
what he found while making calls was that many Republicans
agreed with the take. There follows this astonishment eighteen paragraphs
(17:39):
worth of various songs whistled by various Republicans as they
walk past various graveyards. So everybody from the defense hawks
angry at Trump's cobbling up to the dictators, to anti
abortion diehards who now hate him over his attempt to
be all things to all voters on that issue. There
is even and try to follow this, there is even
(18:03):
a supply of Republicans who have already decided that if
Trump wins, but the Democrats take the House or the
Senate in November or both, that the Democratic House or
Senate will be more difficult to take back in twenty
twenty six. So they want Trump to lose so that
the Republicans have a better chance and the Senate and
(18:26):
the House not this year, but two years from now.
In other words, they have not even lost yet the presidency.
They have not even lost yet the House. They've not
even lost yet the Senate. Yet there are Republicans right
now trying to sound like they meant for all of
that to happen. You and I have already learned this year,
(18:52):
this summer how fast one can go from digging your
own grave to instead shoving Trump's campaign into said grave.
But get a load of wow. Politico finished this piece
up quoting, again quoting an anonymous Conservative leader quote, I
(19:13):
think a lot of old school conservatives might hope that
if he loses, there's an opportunity to just completely forget
the last eight years happened. In other words, Trump Trump Who.
(19:38):
If you're new here and you have arrived via the advertising,
thank you, Welcome to the party. I am here five
days a week, forty to sixty minutes a day except
for Monday mornings, posting just after midnight Sunday through Thursday nights.
Oh and I am America's most reliable news source. Just
ask me. Oh, and you have arrived propitiously this podcast,
(20:00):
this one right here. This is episode number five hundred,
and also of interest here in episode number five hundred,
the Tim Walls family hates. Tim Wall's thing kind of collapsed.
It turns out his older brother says when he said
he had terrible stories to tell about his younger brother,
he meant how Tim used to get carsick and throw
(20:21):
up on his siblings in like nineteen sixty eight, and
a question was asked on national television, quote, we have
a damaged, delusional old man who again might get re
elected to the presidency of the United States. How did
this happen? How did the Republican Party get here? You know,
whose show that was asked on The answer is Joe Scarborough.
(20:42):
You know what. The answer to the question how did
we get here? Is why? Coincidentally enough, the answer to
that question is also Joe Scarborough. How the chief trump
enabler of twenty sixteen has tried to make you forget
he made this monster? Mainstream Worst Persons is next Discountdown.
(21:07):
This is Countdown with Keith Alberman still ahead of us
(21:32):
on this five hundredth edition of Countdown. I know it
only seems like five thousand. Continuing our week long celebration
of the beginning of another season in the National Football League,
Tonight begins weekend one of when is it now fifty weeks?
Fifty fifty seven weeks? I'll take you back to the
(21:52):
year that NBC rather unexpectedly offered me the job of
co hosting Football Night in America before it's Sunday night games,
And like three weeks in I had to call in
sick because MAAIX blew up and I didn't know it.
And I kept working and I anchored a George Bush
press conference and I beat CNN in the ratings while
(22:13):
literally in the middle stages of septiscemia in things I
promised not to tell. How you feeling. Oh, I'm okay,
other than the septu seemia, well, septi seemia later. First,
there's still more new idiots to talk about, besides me
for saying that the daily roundup of the miss Grants
(22:35):
morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days
worst persons in the world the Bronze. Remember yesterday's story
about Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark some folks need killing Robinson,
their candidate for governor in North Carolina, And how six Greensboro,
North Carolina poorn aficionados told a local news outlet that
(22:59):
a quarter century ago, Robinson was a five nights a
week customer to those visits rooms, the private rooms in
which men quote watch unquote porn, And how the main
source of the story, a guy used to work there
named Money Money, said he also sold Robinson at least
one bootlegged porn video a week, and how Money says
(23:22):
the last one a compilation tape of some really wild
New York made videos he sold to Robinson for twenty
five dollars, but Robinson never paid him. This was just
the start of the story. It turns out there were
lots of unpaid bills at the Robinson household back in
those days, from the website notes from the Chalkboard dot com.
(23:44):
According to public records obtained from Guilford County Court, the
wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson was sued by
Tarheel Triad Girl Scouts over quote money owed in Guilford
County Small Claims Court in two thousand and three, and
the Girl Scouts won. Continuing the quotation, it's September two
(24:07):
thousand and three, the Girl Scouts filed suit against Yolanda
Hill due to a two nine hundred and fifty six
dollars and three cent bad check. The matter was heard
the following month, and court documents indicate nobody attended on
behalf of the defendant. The magistrate, well, you know, we
know where the defendant was, right, He's down in that booth.
The magistrate found in favor of the Girl Scouts and
(24:30):
tacked on fees and damages as permitted by state law
on return to checks for a grand total of three
four hundred and eighty six dollars and three cents. The
records do not explain what the check was for or
any other context around what happened between Hill and the
Girl Scouts, Hill being Missus Robinson. Missus Robinson, I think
(24:53):
you're trying to steal cookies from me. Lieutenant Governor Robinson
is a dangerous, unbalanced individual. But you have to give
he and the wife credit when you and your wife,
and yes, they've been married since nineteen ninety, so all this,
including the porn took place in the context of them
being married for years already, when you and your wife,
(25:14):
and yes, he worked at some of her daycare operations.
And yes, the federal government says they owe it money too.
That is, the daycare operations owe the government money. Still,
this is a pretty broad spectrum of creditors here. In short,
mister and Missus Robinson stiffed the porn store and the
(25:35):
Girl Scouts the runners up the group. Walls is for Trump.
A right wing Trump troll named Matt Wolking has posted
a photo of eight people wearing Trump t shirts. His caption,
Tim Walls's family members in Nebraska are voting for Trump.
Mister Wolking does not note that the eight people are
(25:55):
all wearing the same blue shirt, reading quote Nebraska Walls'
is for Trump and in it. Walls's is spelled w
Alz apostrophe s. The debate over what to do with
a plural form of a word or name ending in
s is eternal. Those who are wrong will never be defeated.
(26:18):
But there is no debate over what to do with
a plural form of a word or name ending in z.
The rule is clear. You add an e and an
S to it, So the shirts should read Nebraska Walls
is for Trump wal Zees, not walz apostrophe s. But
if this is too high falutin for the vice presidential
(26:41):
candidates dumber relatives, the shirts could read Walls family members
for Trump or something else easy, using grammar that doesn't
make them seem like there are court orders preventing them
from leaving Nebraska. Now, before you complain, I'm being way
too judgmental here. There is an organized effort to make
Tim Walls look bad, the way Mary Trump and Young
(27:04):
Fred and the other sane Trumps have made Psycho Trump
look bad, and this effort to make Tim Walls look
bad it's not going well. His older brother, Jeff Walls,
started this, apparently inadvertently. He says he regrets it now.
He wrote on Facebook that the governor is not the
type of character who should make decisions about our future,
(27:26):
and he could tell terrible stories about him if he
wanted to. But Jeff Walls has now done an interview
with the News Nation channel that's the Nick at Night
of news, and he's told NewsNation that he regrets the
post that he made on Facebook. He's not endorsing Trump.
He still thinks of his brother as his brother, and
they just disagree on all policies. So he's sitting out
(27:48):
the election. But he did tell one of those terrible stories,
one of those stories that's just gonna sink. Tim Walls
and Kamala Harrison put Trump back in the right house,
are you ready? Quote? I'll give you one example. My
little brother, when we were younger, we would go on
family trips in a station wagon and the thing was
nobody wanted to sit with him because he had car
(28:12):
sickness and would always throw up on us. That sort
of thing unquote. Now, you know, if they'd revealed that
before the Democratic Convention, maybe Walls would have had to withdraw.
You know, that also may not be quite the sick
burn the trumpests think it is. Democratic dominee threw up
(28:32):
on a Republican. Hell, that's the basis for a Tim
Walls twenty thirty two presidential campaign, Make America throw up
on Republicans again. But our winner. Speaking of which, the
worst Joe Scarborough. I don't have to go back to
the beginning here, do I and discuss the three hundred
(28:53):
and eighty seven examples I've given just in this series
about how, on balance Joe Scarborough may have been the
worst person I have ever worked with, the worst human being,
the most reprehensible one. And I worked with Tucker Carlson
and the guy who went on to blackmail David Letterman.
So when I say worst, I mean worst. And the
(29:14):
guy in the middle of this story related to Joe Scarborough,
Mike Barnacle. I've known him literally forty five years. We
worked together during the entirety of my time in Boston,
and then we worked together several years at MSNBC, and
I've worked with his sons and Mike in his career.
He's cut corners now and again, but I do not
doubt for a moment his overall sincerity, especially on the
(29:36):
issue of Trump and preserving American democracy. But on their
Little Morning Joe Show yesterday, which the latest breezes are
always bent to and the latest conventional wisdoms are turned
into words etched into the walls of the ancient Greek
temple of Apollo and Delphi. And some guy who got
canceled ten years ago for not wearing pants while pressuring
(29:58):
women employees is rehabilitated, brought back from beyond the grave.
On their s show yesterday, Mike Barnacle went on passionately
about this rhetorical question. Quote, today we have a damaged,
delusional old man who again and I'm reading this thinking
Scarborough's not that old. Oh, today we have a damaged,
(30:19):
delusional old man who again might get re elected to
the presidency of the United States. How did this happen?
How did the Republican Party get here? And they tweeted
it out again, a legit question all the way. But
in saying this, Mike Barnacle forgot and in clipping it
off and sending it out virallly and that cynical handwringing, Oh,
(30:40):
we finally have a product we can sell, which is
true of one hundred percent of the time on MSNBC
before say seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and
a lot of the time thereafter that cynical way that
they treat progressivism or non conservatism, or whatever it is
they think they're doing. Before say, four in the afternoon,
the Morning Joe team forgot a little bit of the
(31:02):
answer to that question. Mike Barnacle posed one of the
answers to how did this happen? How did the Republican
Party get here? One of the answers is Joe Scarborough
made sure it got there for some reason. Barnacle and
Morning Joe and the MSNBC Comms department don't mention this
(31:23):
a lot anymore, but in twenty fifteen. In twenty sixteen,
Joe Scarborough fervently tried to mainstream Donald Trump and make
him president of the United States, had him on MSNBC,
advised him, traveled to a debate to coach him. CNN
(31:44):
February twelve, twenty sixteen, their media reporter noting that in
November of twenty fifteen, quote Joe Scarborough sat on stage
at the ninety second Street Why in New York and
recounted the various times he had given Donald Trump political advice.
I've actually called him up and said, Donald, listen, you
need to speak in complete sentences. At debates. Scarborough said,
(32:06):
after the second debate, I walked into his office. I said, Donald,
do you know how to read? I said, you should
read before a debate. Read a paragraph on Syria. Read
a paragraph on education reform. The anecdotes, which were meant
as a testament to Trump's off the cuff political savvy,
drew laughter from the audience. Both Scarborough and co host
(32:28):
Mika Brzhinsky, who used to be somebody else's wife and
his now Joe's wife, are close friends with Trump and
members of his family. This is February twenty sixteen. Scarborough,
a former four term congressman from Florida's first District, has
often stayed at Trump's Marilago Club in Palm Beach with
his family and was there during which family and his
(32:49):
family and was there during the week between Christmas and
New Year's. Two sources at the hotel during that time
said on the night of the New Hampshire primary, CNN
went on, Scarborough and Brzhinsky visited Trump's hotel room for
what MSNBC described as background discussions with the candidate's senior
staff and a conversation with Trump that lasted less than
(33:12):
five minutes. In recent weeks, Scarborough has spoken about Trump
in increasingly glowing terms, praising him as a masterful politician
and defending him against his political opponents and media critics.
The Washington Post has noted that Trump has received a
tremendous degree of warmth from the show, and that his
(33:33):
appearances on the show in person and over the phone
often feel like a cozy social club. Some MSNBC insiders
also cringed at an on air exchange Scarborough had last
month with radio host Hugh Hewitt. Well, that's an evergreen sentence,
but he meant something specifically CNN did in twenty sixteen.
(33:54):
Hewitt pressed Scarborough on whether he would serve as Trump's
vice president. Scarborough ruled out the possibility, but not before
saying he would do quote just about anything to try
to get the White House back. End the CNN quote
from twenty sixteen. How did we get here with Donald Trump?
(34:14):
I don't know? Does anybody know how? And Joe Scarborough
looked even more blankly into the camera than he has
every other minute of his life, little slit eyed bastard.
We all know about this from the beginning of twenty sixteen,
and then, oddly enough, Trump didn't like Scarborough anymore, and
they fell out, And then we forget that after Scarborough
(34:39):
disavowed Trump, he reavowed him after Trump won. December fifth,
twenty sixteen, Politico writes a saga that included co host
Joe Scarborough comparing Trump policies to Nazi Germany, and the
candidate tweeting that co host Mika Brazinski is crazy and
very dumb. Has taken a distinctly positive turn. I don't
(35:02):
know those quotes sound pretty positive or at least accurate.
The co hosts are now in regular communication with Trump
and his circle, so much so that they are fielding
criticism for being a house organ for the incoming administration. Well,
if anybody could be described as an organ, it's Joe Scarborough.
They have always been boosters. Things turned south when Trump
(35:26):
froze them out, but coverage always stilted. They are transition
spokesman now tweeted a rival morning anchor, CNN's Chris Cuomo again,
this is twenty sixteen. Indeed, most viewers Politico wrote seemed
to agree, knowing the co host's direct pipeline to Trump Tower. Scarborough,
(35:47):
in an interview, declared that he and Brashinsky talked several
times a week with Trump himself, and last week Brazinski
traveled to Trump Tower and visited Ivanka Trump for coffee.
I'm just going to guess here, by the way, as
an aside, I assume Mika had to pay. Indeed, many
members of Trump's inner circle, including his influential son in
(36:08):
law Jared Kushner, stayed in close contact with the show
in the campaign's final weeks. An NBC source close to
the show says the Trump campaign appreciated that Morning Joe
never wrote off their candidate as other media did. Now,
in the wake of Trump's election, Mourning Joe is becoming
a go to spot for Trump watchers. That is the
(36:32):
end of twenty sixteen, a month and a half before
Trump became president. And what it says, if you heard
it in there, is that even while they were supposedly
fighting and Scarborough was opposed to a Trump presidency, even then,
behind the scenes, the two camps were in touch and
the Trump people still appreciated Joe Scarborough's support. So when
(36:55):
the question is raised, how did we get here, maybe
the answer, the third or fourth answer is Joe effing
Scarborough got us here and the next time somebody on
Scarborough Show asks how did this happen? Or why is
Trump still there? Take that photo that I tweeted yesterday
and send it directly to Joe at Joe NBC. It's
(37:16):
the shot of him in Trump at MSNBC, both grinning
like the fascist idiots. They are both giving Trump's thumbs up.
If you don't want to do that, just get a
package together and send Joe Scarborough a mirror. Joe Scarborough,
who helped elect Trump and is thus helping to possibly
(37:37):
elect Trump again because he didn't do what a moral
man or just one with a conscience might have done
after Trump was elected and did what he did, which
would be to resign from your television show, leave the
public arena in shame, and take a ten year vow
of silence. Joe Scarborough Today's worst person in the world,
(38:07):
to the number one story on the Countdown and my
favorite topic, me and things I promised not to tell.
So it's another anniversary. One Sometime on Wednesday, September twelfth,
two thousand and seven, I began to feel bad, all
strained on my right side. But my girlfriend at the time,
Katie Turr, and I had just moved only a few
(38:29):
weeks before into our new apartment, and I was still
pushing boxes around and I thought I'd just strained something.
The next morning, the thirteenth, I was still feeling like crap,
but now my stomach also hurt, and I thought I
was bloated or constipated or something, and maybe some sit
ups would help. And actually they felt like they had
relieved some of the pressure. And Katie's father, who was
(38:49):
among many many things in emt, happened to be in town.
He gave me a vico In or something, and I
took a nap and went into work a little later
than usual at MSNBC, which I could get away with
that day because President Bush was speaking that night and
almost all of my work that night would be ad
live before his speech, and then after his speech. I
wrote what I needed to write quickly, and at about
(39:10):
seven point fifteen, I went out to the show line
producer Greg Kordick, who sat in exactly the right place
that he could make certain that I had left tour
makeup and was going to the studio on time. I
had to walk right past him and I said, I'm exhausted.
I'm just going to close my eyes at my desk
for a couple of minutes. If you don't see me
go pass by, like seven forty, come in and wake
me up. And I sat down and put my legs
(39:33):
up on my desk. I folded my hands behind my head,
and I just closed my eyes, more to rest my
eyes than in any real hope of sleeping. I am
a fickle sleeper. There's not a chance I could snooze
like that. Next thing I know, it's seven forty and
I'm feeling somebody shaking me and seriously a hand on
each shoulder. Apparently it took mister Cordick a little while
to wake me up, and I thanked Greg and staggered
(39:55):
to the makeup room, and I realized now I had
a little fever, but it was too late to do
anything about it. So I got my makeup, went to
the set, did the lead into Bush's speech, took some
notes during it, did the post speech wrap up with
the analysts, and after two hours on the air, I
got in the car that they sent for me to
go home to New York from New Jersey, and I
fell asleep again in the car. I still thought this
(40:16):
is some weird stomach flu and I'm bloated beyond belief,
and I really don't feel good. But I bet that's
just from listening to George W. Bush one time too many.
I'll just go to bed. I found it was too
difficult to lie on my stomach or my side, which
presented a problem because rarely can I fall asleep on
my back. But I had to try, and the next
(40:38):
thing I knew it was morning. I slept like a stone,
but I still felt really bad, in fact, a little
bit worse. On top of all which Katie was yelling
at me about something. And I had a check up
for something unrelated at my doctor's office, and I left
early so I could go buy something for the constipation.
(40:58):
And then when my doctor called me and he said,
you look terrible. Are you okay? And I said no,
I got this really so stomach and the last time
I had this fever for a while, and he kind
of gasped, and now he looked terrible, and he said,
when was the last time you ate? I said, you know, funny,
I haven't thought about food for a couple of days.
And then he asked me when was the last time
(41:20):
that happened? And I said, when I was in the
womb and he had me stand up and he pushed
his finger into my stomach about five inches to the
right of my navel, and holding the finger there, he said,
does this hurt? And I said not at all, And
then he said does it hurt now? As I take
my finger away, And I don't remember if I said
anything or not, because I saw the proverbial stars in
(41:40):
front of my eyes and I let out a scream.
So he said, get back in your car, and you
go to our other office at fifty ninth and tenth
and go see our gastro specialist. And I said, sure,
just don't poke me again. And when I got there,
they showed me right in and she taps me and
she says, why are you hunched over like that? And
I said, I'm hunched over and she says, if you
haven't eaten in two days, how come your stomach is
(42:00):
heard is a rock? And I said, is this a
medical quiz because you're the doctor, And she says, I
want you to go across the street to the hospital
emergency room. I'll call them while you're walking. Just go
right in and tell them you're the one doctor Lou
called about. Because boy, your appendix burst, and although I
think you'll be fine, technically you've got about oh eight,
(42:21):
ten twelve hours to live. Well, that got my attention,
and as I'm grabbing my jacket my bag, I say, wait,
if this isn't just constipation, how come it felt better
when I did the sit ups? And she says, because
when you did the sit ups, you only had an
infected appendix that was going to burst. When you did
the sit ups, dummy, that's when the appendix burst, you
(42:44):
burst it. So I said, wait, I went on TV
for two hours after my appendix burst. Shut up, She explained,
she was right. The our people saw me immediately. They
ran a bunch of tests and reminded me that if
I hadn't already, I should probably call in sick for
a couple days. And I said, wait, what day is today?
(43:04):
And they helped out and they said Friday. So I
called MSNBC, and I called the producer of Football Night
in America, which I was doing for NBC on Sundays,
and I said, hey, sorry, looks like I'm technically dying
from a burst appendix. And they're going to operate on
me as soon as they can get a surgeon in here,
and they say it's real unlikely. I'll be out of
the hospital by Sunday or Monday. Have a nice day.
(43:25):
I called Katie, who had already gotten to her job
in local cable news in Brooklyn, and she turned around
to come help me out at the hospital. And then
I just waited and got Goofier and Goofier and Goofier
and Goofier. I think they operated around seven or eight pm.
The surgeon introduced himself. He was a big sports fan,
Fred Kimmelsteele, the surgeon named by prophetic parents. And I
(43:50):
went to the anesthesiologist and I warned him. I said
I'd once woken up from anesthesia during an endoscopy, and
could he make sure that that didn't happen again. In fact,
I said that the other day when I had my
knee operated on, and this guy did the same thing.
They both of these anesthesiology I just just laughed when
I challenged them to knock me out a little bit harder.
So doctor kimmel Steele asked me about the latest met
(44:11):
choke job. This is the one in two thousand and seven,
not the one in twenty twenty two. And I started
to talk about David wright, and the next thing I knew,
I was freezing cold and trying to open my eyes.
And it was three hours later and the surgery was over.
What a mess, said doctor Kimmel Steel, never had one
that bad before. Thank God, it absesss You'll be here
all weekend and I was the next day. They made
(44:31):
me get out of bed and I think it took
me half an hour to walk about twenty feet down
the hallway and back, and there was a morphine drip
and a new bag of intravenous antibiotics every two hours,
and at one point the phone rang, and I really
did have to go back the following weekend ask the
producer if this actually happened or I merely hallucinated it.
But the phone rang, and it was the football night
(44:53):
in America people, and they said they were going to
shoot video of the hospital I was in, and I said,
I don't think you can see me from the street,
and they said, right, we know that. We're just pretty
much doing this for a laugh at your expense while
you're in the hospital and we're on TV. And then
finally my appetite came back on Monday and I was
able to eat some pancakes, and they sent me home
in the afternoon. And for two days after that, I
(45:14):
was still sweating out the poisons and the antibiotics and
the painkillers, and I mean I was so warm I
could not bear to have a shirt on. But by
Thursday I was able to go back to work, and
just to show off, I wrote a special comment about
Bush from my first show back. I was extremely pleased
with myself. Now there are three postscripts to this. Now,
(45:35):
obviously I learned, and I've just taught you the test
for appendicitis or a burst appendix. If you poke it
and it doesn't hurt until you stop poking it, it's
your appendix. Fat lot of good that'll do me. Now
I don't have an appendix. Second weeks later, I was
at dinner with my friend John Clees from Monty Python's
(45:56):
Flying Circus, and he said he'd heard the story about
my appendix and he was very upset with me. I
did the exact same thing, John said, blew up, And
for two days I had no idea how serious it was.
Thought it was a cold But don't kill people that
don't undersell it and call it a burst appendix. You
and I we were both dying of septacemia. Never let
(46:19):
anybody forget that, and I haven't. And the last and
best PostScript was, while I'm lying there recovering after the surgery,
the phone rings and it's my executive producer and she says,
good news. When you anchored before and after Bush's speech
and you got sick or after you got sick, you
(46:41):
beat CNN in the ratings by like twenty five percent,
And as stone on them painkillers as I might have been,
I was still able to say to her, I beat CNN.
I beat CNN with one appendix tied behind my back.
(47:06):
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening. We're now back to five episodes a week,
posting nightly just after midnight Eastern. The YouTube version which
is which is the audio with some animation. I don't
want to mislead you on that there's no video of this.
The YouTube version posts about five am Eastern. If you're
not subscribing, please subscribe to one or both, and please
(47:31):
share this pod with somebody who does not listen or
watch or is it watching audio on YouTube or is
it some other verb you're listening to YouTube? Then why
is it a tube. Brian Ray and John Phillip Shaneil
the musical directors have Countdown Arrange, produced and performed most
of our music. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Mister
(47:51):
Ray was on the guitars that based on the drums,
and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Our satirical and
pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist stepper,
Nancy Faust. The sports music is the Olderman theme from
ESPN two, written by Mitch Horn Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc.
Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed.
My announcer today was my friend Nancy Faust. Everything else
(48:15):
was pretty much my fault. So that's this the five
hundredth edition of the Countdown podcast for this sixty second
day until the twenty twenty four presidential election and the
one three hundred and thirty second day since convicted feudn
dementia J Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected
(48:36):
government of the United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing,
use the mental health system, use presidential immunity. The Supreme
Theocratic Court has given it to you, President Biden. I say,
if it's official, it's legal to have fun. You're immune.
Do it. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as
(49:00):
the news requires till the next one. I'm Keith Olderman.
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
(49:24):
with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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