August 22, 2023 • 41 mins
SEASON 2 EPISODE 18: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump needed just four hours and 25 minutes to violate the terms of his bail. Lock him up. Trump was granted pre-trial release on 200-thousand dollars bond in Atlanta at 3:30 PM yesterday and at 7:55 PM he violated the terms of that bail and now let’s see what Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is made of.
“The Defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a co-defendant or witness in this case or OTHERWISE OBSTRUCT THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. This shall include, but is not limited to, the following: ” Paragraph E: “The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media." He didn’t even last four-and-a-half hours. Confirming CNN’s report that he will be booked in Atlanta on Thursday, Trump called the prosecutor a quote “radical left district attorney...who is overseeing one of the greatest murder and violent crime disasters in American history… she campaigned and is continuing to cmapign and raise money on this witch hunt. This is in strict coordination with…Biden’s DOJ. It is all about election interference”unquote, none of which is true and all of which is an attempt to obstruct the administration of justice and was made via “posts on social media or reposts of posts” and which should be greeted Thursday by the booking officers at Rice Street Jail in Atlanta by an order from Judge McAfee to detain him. Period.
Trouble afterwards? Lindsey Graham’s “riots in the street”? Trump’s own threat of “death and destruction”? The countless bleatings of the sheep like Trump whores like Tim Pool about “civil war”? I’ll quote another Trump flunky, Jeffrey Clark: “That’s why there’s an insurrection act.” Trump is now out on bail… in three different states and the District of Columbia. He has CERTAINLY violated the terms of that bail with his spasm of threats against Judge Chutkan and Special Counsel Smith. Now, he has CERTAINLY violated the terms of that bail in Georgia. And soon or late, the remaining sane people in this country are going to have to reestablish the rule of law – or to call it by the name that Trump and his cult actually perceive it: the rule of being-afraid-you’ll-get-caught-and-sent-to-prison. We are GOING to HAVE to take the action without fear of taking the consequences, or the very MEANING of law itself in this nation will not just be erased, but will be rendered impossible to restore.
Trump’s supporters have forgotten that even if - like them - you DON'T have morals you are supposed to have a healthy fear of getting caught and going to prison. It’s goddamned time that we remind him. And the opportunity to do so falls to Judge Scott McAfee. You wrote it, Judge. And Trump broke it. He’s already in your jail on Thursday, Judge. Keep him there. Enforce the goddamned law.
B-Block (21:38) IN SPORTS: No, Dodger Stadium did NOT flood when Tropical Storm Hilary hit L.A. The New York Knicks add to their popularity by suing another team over analytics. And Gannett is trying AI for writing high school sports. If this is the best AI can do mankind has nothing to worry about. (26:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Michael David Fox of Las Cruces NM is charged with relying on a QAnon video to tell him which Congresswoman to threaten to kill; Howie Kurtz appears to be sending out hostage messages via twitter; a Democrat votes with Republicans to approve a recall move against a Democrat. The other Democrat doesn't even show up for the vote.
C-Block (32:46) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: MSNBC fired Rachel Maddow! Not recently, mind you. But they can only bury the ugly past so long. They offed her in 2005 because they thought it would make the Tucker Carlson show - on which she was a regular - better.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Trump
needed just four hours and twenty five minutes to violate
(00:25):
the terms of his bail. Lock him Up. Trump was
granted pre trial release on two hundred thousand dollars bond
in Atlanta at three point thirty pm yesterday, and at
seven fifty five pm yesterday he violated the terms of
that bail. And now let's see what Fulton County Superior
Court Judge Scott McAfee is made out of Item four.
(00:49):
The defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person
known to him or her to be a co defendant
or witness in this case, or otherwise obstruct the administration
of justice. This shall include, but is not limited to,
the following. Then, in paragraph E, the above shall include,
(01:09):
but are not limited to posts on social media or
reposts of posts made by another individual on social media. Unquote,
he didn't even make it four and a half hours,
confirming CNN's report that he will be booked in Atlanta
on Thursday, Trump called the prosecutor a quote radical left
(01:32):
district attorney who is overseeing one of the greatest murder
and violent crime disasters in American history. She campaigned and
is continuing to campaign and raise money on this witch hunt.
This is in strict coordination with Biden's DOJ. It is
all about election interference unquote, none of which is true,
and all of which is an attempt to obstruct the
(01:53):
administration of justice, and was made via quote posts on
social media or reposts of posts, and which should be
greeted Thursday by the booking officers at Ice Street Jail
in Atlanta and an order from Judge McAfee to detain
him period trouble afterwards. Lindsey Graham's riots in the Street,
(02:17):
Trump's own threat of death and destruction, the countless bleatings
of the sheep, like Trump horrors like Tim Poole about
civil War. I'll just quote another Trump flunky, Jeffrey Clark.
That's why there's an insurrection Act. Trump is now out
on bail in three different states and the District of Columbia.
(02:44):
He has certainly violated the terms of that bail with
his spasm of threats against Judge Chutkin and Special Council
Smith in DC. Now he has certainly violated the terms
of that bail in Georgia, and soon or late the
remaining sane people in this country are going to have
to re establish the rule of law, or to call
(03:06):
it by the name that Trump and his cult actually
perceive it to be the rule of being afraid they
will get caught and sent to prison. We are going
to have to take the action without fear of taking
the consequences, or the very meaning of law itself in
this nation will not just be erased, but it will
(03:27):
be rendered impossible to restore for decades to come. I mean,
Judge McAfee put Trump specific language in that bail document,
and Trump specifically spat all over it. And if this
is not clear cut enough, that post about Fani Willis
(03:49):
is hardly his first. It was hardly his first gest
from yesterday, and it can be read as a continuation
of what he had posted in the morning before the deal,
in which he called her crooked and incompetent and in
support of impeaching her, and in support of this six
TOAs state senator's stunt to call for a special session
too impeachure in nearly the same breath in which he
(04:11):
gave voice to his delusion that the defendants in that case,
including Trump, for somehow facing quote lethal injection. There is
nothing new about Americans, or American businessmen, or American rich people,
or American politicians who have excelled at evading and erasing
(04:31):
the law. Trump did not invent any of this, but
he did open the Pandora's box in which the entire
ethos of a political party could begin to rest on
the premise that not just the laws do not apply
to them, but that the government, the Liberals, the Democrats,
that they would not dare to try to enforce those
(04:53):
laws against them. Behind that, of course, is the Trumpest
fascist Maga Republican party conviction that Democrats and peace officers,
for whom politics is not an excuse for corrupt in
Malfeasi's they would not dare to try to enforce those
laws because Trump's mob has all that firepower. That was
the underlying premise behind January sixth, and that was the
(05:16):
underlying premise behind the pole watchers two months prior, And
that was the underlying premise at Charlottesville. And that was
the underlying premise at every Maga clan rally and every
Trump event and every one quarter step towards the abyss
of twenty first century America as one giant, continuous, unending
Wild West cliche of rule by vigilantism and violence. It
(05:40):
has been far too long since the bullies on whose
backs Trump has risen to his sleazy, slovenly power, have
gotten the crap kicked out of them by the laws
and the law keepers of the United States of America.
It is more than just eight years of Trump in
the spotlight. This has been building since before Oklahoma City
(06:04):
and before Waco. It has been building ever since a
large swath of our media, and our clergy and our
politicians began to stop trying to fix stupidity in their
constituencies and started instead trying to encourage it. We are
surrounded on all sides by the idiocracy. I was looking
(06:25):
for one of those threats of trumpy and civil war
as I sat down to write this, when up popped
the always jarring list of what the search engine thinks
are related searches. And while the first one second American
Civil War twenty twenty four, as if that were not
disturbing enough, but one after that was in a way
(06:45):
far more horrifying. Quote what to do if a civil
war breaks out? Like Google was going to tell you
to make three TikTok videos stock up on batteries and
Netflix and chill. Imagine there are people actually asking that question, Jen,
(07:06):
because the top answer provided to them is quote. The
first one is stay in your home, and the other
one is to move to the safest location. Wow. Thanks,
I had thought of those my own home. You say,
any particular room. The problem is that that would probably
(07:31):
seem like sophisticated advice. Two thousands, maybe millions of Americans,
And once again, as has happened off and on for
thirteen or I think more correctly fourteen years, I have
been greeted by a memory of part of a speech
(07:51):
or an interview that I heard Lindsey Graham give before
he went crazy. I have never found a recording of this,
nor a story online, not even in the c SPAN archives.
I think it might have been on c SPAN, and
I have looked periodically, because when I have sought to
grasp the moment that at least I realized a vast
(08:14):
minority or maybe even a slim majority of this country
had jumped the social studies shark. It was when I
heard Graham tell this story and his tone of astonishment
and despair and deep personal loss. They were exactly right,
(08:35):
and they constituted just about the last time I agreed
with him on anything. Thus, I am recalling this from memory.
It was, I'm sure in two thousand and nine, I believe,
in late summer, after the disputed vote over Al Frankin's
election in Minnesota had finally been resolved, and Graham said
(08:56):
that as the Tea Party burgeons in South Carolina, he
had conducted a town hall in one of its major cities.
There After he somehow got them to stop booing and
hooting and mooing at him. He took questions, and the
questions were worse than the booing. Someone rose and indignantly
(09:18):
asked Graham why the hell he was trying to negotiate
with them democrats and find them by partisan agreements? Graham said.
He stared at the questioner and then said something like,
let me ask you something. How many senators are there
in total? How many people in the Senate silence a
(09:42):
room of two or three hundred people interested enough to
have come to a senator's town hall to have involved
themselves in something called the tea Party? How many senators
are there? Nobody had an answer. Finally, somebody in the
(10:02):
back Graham said meekly muttered one hundred. Graham said, good,
at least one of you knows. Now, let me ask
you another question. How many of those hundred are Republicans
like me? Graham said. The answers came much quicker this time,
and they were all too large. He heard seventy five
(10:24):
and eighty and sixty five and one hundred and every
number in between. Wrong. He told them there are forty
Republicans and sixty Democrats. And he said what he heard
next sounded like the rush of air when a large
balloon is popped, followed by genuine, pained expressions of disbelief.
(10:47):
There are forty Republicans. Technically there's only fifty eight Democrats,
but the other two are independents who vote with the Democrats.
We are the minority party. Everybody gasps. Shock. Somebody shouted,
you got to stop that, Graham. He explained that they
had all been elected in the other states. More gasps.
(11:10):
Not everybody in that room knew that that was how
it worked. This was the starting point. These were the
politically active people of South Carolina. These were presumably those
(11:31):
who had voted for Lindsey Graham, and they did not
know how many senators there were, and they did not
know that their party was not the majority, and many
of them did not know how senators got to be senators,
(11:51):
and they did not know what they also did not know.
Joke frequently here about the baseline of stupidity among Trump supporters,
but as always, it is far far worse than we
could possibly imagine. There is a reason that they lose
their minds over football players kneeling during the national anthem
(12:13):
or politicians not wearing flag lapel pins. Is because those
are the only things they know about America. They've heard
about the Revolutionary War, but it wasn't about actual tyrannical
government by a king who was so far removed from
(12:37):
this land that he might as well have been ruling
from the moon. The Revolutionary War was about overthrowing a
government you didn't like and being allowed to shoot and
kill people. And the American government is there to do
what you personally need, nothing else, nothing for anybody who
(13:00):
don't know, nothing for anybody who don't look like And
when the elections turn out against you, you simply refuse
to go along with them because you have been told
for the whole of your life that the Democrats are
foreigner alien communists and Americans are Republicans. And that was
(13:21):
fourteen years ago, and you saw how that turned out.
Like so many other weak, vacillating, lazy, greedy men, Lindsey
Graham stopped trying to teach South Carolina how many senators
there were and which party had fifty percent more of
them than the other one did He stopped paying attention
(13:42):
to the danger that Trump presented and started recognizing only
the magic that was in Trump's ability to gain power
for all who swore fealty to him. At least at first,
Lindsey Graham forgot Trump's supporters forgot there are laws, break
(14:04):
the to hell with you. And it is god damned
time that we remind Lindsey Graham and those people in
that crowd, and every other crowd in which stupidity is king,
we remind them that whatever they think and whatever they want,
if they break the law, their asses are going to prison.
(14:29):
And the opportunity to do this this week falls to
a judge named Scott McAfee. You wrote it, judge, and
Trump already broke it. He's already going to be in
your jail on Thursday, Judge. Keep his ass there in
(14:50):
force the god damned law a couple of other headlines.
It ain't a declaration of war, per se, but Rupert
Murdoch took a surprisingly powerful shot at Trump last night.
He's not going to the debate to be televised by
folks tomorrow night, then neither are his surrogates. Trump was
(15:14):
going to send Junior and whatever happened to Baby Jane
Gilfoyle and Matt Gates and Byron Donald's and Carrie Lake
with the Weather to flood the post debate spin room
in Milwaukee, and Fox has now banned them and Carrie
Lake with the Weather, Rock wrote on Sports Earlier. Murdoch's
(15:39):
Wall Street Journal editorial board hit Trump too and Tucker Carlson,
Remember Tucker Carlson. WSJ blasted Trump for doing an interview,
not the debate, and said Carlson was not actually going
to be there to interview him, just to be there
to endorse Trump's backwards views of January sixth, then Ukraine
(16:00):
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. Trump continued to show signs
of weakness in the polling in Iowa. He's lapping the
field in the Des Moines Register poll, however, at forty
two percent. DeSantis is not even close at nineteen. Or
look at it the other way. Three out of five
Iowans do not support Trump, and a third of those
(16:22):
who do a third are open to a different candidate.
A new National Emerson poll has it Trump fifty six,
DeSantis ten, Ramaswami ten, and then in the election Emerson
has it forty four forty four unless you throw in
a third party candidate, in which case it is Trump
(16:42):
forty two, Biden thirty nine, Swift eight Swift, Taylor Swift.
Actually I'm shocked it's only eight percent for Taylor Swift.
And back to where we started. Two hundred thousand dollars
bond for Trump, which is hilariously stupid. And they're not
(17:05):
taking his passport. Maybe that could be an interim step
here if somebody is still afraid to put him in
jail tomorrow, Yeah, take his passport. Shot across the bow.
John Eastman also has to repeatedly check in with Atlanta authorities,
and if this ever happens to you, you may want
(17:27):
to rethink your personal code. John Eastman had to ask
for a postponement in his California disbarment hearing so he
could instead go to his George bail here. Also of interest,
(17:51):
here those photos of Tropical Storm Hillary, well that was
the maiden name. It's now post tropical Storm Hillary. Those
photos of the storm hitting La so bad it flooded
Dodger Stadium. I tweeted them, except they aren't real. No
flood at Dodger Stadium. And there was one huge obvious
detail right in the middle that we all missed. I'm sorry,
(18:17):
I'll explain. That's next. This is countdown.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
This is countdown with Keith Alber. This is Sports Senate. Wait,
check that not anymore. This is countdown with Keith Alberman
(18:47):
in sports.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
No, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles did not flood. I
saw the picture for friends of mine sent it to me.
I tweeted it. I'm not casting stones here, but Dodger
Stadium did not flood. Not only did the images taken
from a helicopter make it look like the low level
nearly below ground level parking lots beyond center field at
(19:09):
Dodger Stadium were under several feet of water, but that
there was even some flooding in the home plate parking lots,
which are literally several stories higher than the ones in
the outfield. Optical illusion explained the Los Angeles Times photographer
Robert Gautier. It was just reflected light off very wet surfaces.
(19:31):
Gautier says, the same reflection occurred after a minor storm
in two thousand and five, and photographs were taken then,
and it looks like it's under twenty feet of water.
Then two. He was over the stadium yesterday morning, Gotier says,
and it was completely dry, and the tell is obvious
in retrospect once you think about it. Though, the parking
lots look inundated in the photos. The playing field doesn't
(19:54):
even look wet, which is impossible. Thank you, Nancy Faust
(20:37):
and Robert Redford, Dateline, New York. The ever popular New
York Knicks just got even more beloved. The basketball franchise
has sued a former employee who was hired away by
the Toronto Raptors, and the Raptors and their head coach
have also been sued, and their player development coach has
been sued. The Knicks claim that when he left the club,
their ex employee took scouting reports with him. He stole
(21:00):
play frequency reports, a prep book, a link to third
party licensed software, thousands of proprietary files, and the New
Toronto employers told him to access them and feed the
New York information into their system. The main complication in
this suit for the Knicks, who last won the NBA
title in nineteen seventy three, have and only finished higher
(21:22):
than fourth in their conference once this century. The main
complication in the otherwise strong Knicks lawsuit will be to
convince a jury that any other professional basketball team would
want to use their scouting and player development methods and dateline. Columbus,
Ohio Gannett newspapers are experimenting with artificial intelligence to write
(21:47):
some game stories, especially high school sports game stories. The
first results are not not what is the word? Well,
don't ask AI. It certainly doesn't know that many of them.
Let me just read this one from the Columbus Dispatch.
School hyphenated Westerville North escapes Westerville Central in thin win
(22:12):
in Ohio high school football action by lead AI. The
Westerville North Warriors defeated the Westerville Central Warhawks twenty one
to twelve in an Ohio high school football game on Friday.
So far, so good. Westerville North edged Westerville Central twenty
one to twelve in a close encounter of the Athletic
(22:32):
Kind at Westerville North High on August eighteen in Ohio
football action. I think you said that in the first paragraph.
Westerville North opened with a seven nothing advantage over Westerville
Central through the first quarter. The Warhawks trimmed the margin
to make it seven to six at halftime. Westerville North
jumped to a twenty one to six lead heading into
(22:53):
the final quarter. The Warriors chalked up this decision in
spite of the warhawks spirited fourth quarter performance. Check out
our complete boys foot ball round up to stay up
to date on all the action. What is it, I'm
feeling like something is missing. Oh, I know it's missing
(23:14):
from this game story. The names of any of the
players involved still ahead on countdown. MSNBC fired Rachel Meadow.
(23:39):
No no, no, no, no, no, no no. This is
not breaking news. This is something that happened in August
of two thousand and five, and when they fired her
in two thousand and five, they fired her from her
job on the MSNBC Tucker Carlson Show. No, I'm not kidding.
Coming up in things I promise not to tell first
time for the daily round up of the miss Grants
(24:01):
Morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days
worst persons in the world. The Bronze Michael David Fox
of Las Crusis, New Mexico. Turns out, mister Fox made
a threat against an unnamed Houston congresswoman in May and
has now been charged with a federal crime. He told
the representative she was quote literally a tranny and a pedophile,
(24:25):
and I'm going to put a bullet in your effing
face un quote. Did this in a voicemail, And he
did this in a voicemail because these guys have the
hearts of assassins, but the intelligence and aim of squeaky
from Fox explained he determined all this about the congresswoman
because he'd made measurements of the congresswoman's skull and he
(24:45):
had learned about the world cabal of transgendered people. Sorry
Jewish people, you've been replaced in the cabal by transgendered people.
He was just following this online video he saw called
que the Plan to Save the World. Not sure how
we're going to cure these qanons paths, but we're out
(25:06):
of options here if we don't. The runner up, Howard Kurtz,
you may remember him from the days when he did
more or less coherent media criticism and media reporting for
The Washington Post and CNN and The Daily Beast. It's
a decade ago now when CNN and The Daily Beast
fired him. The Daily Beast said it was for quote,
(25:26):
serial inaccuracy, and he went to Fox News, where serial
inaccuracy is encouraged. Recently, there have been signs that Howard
may be trying to get coded messages out of Fox
as a hostage mite. The latest of them a tweet
that nominally references one of those Foxfield propaganda guys who
(25:48):
pretends to be an actual news reporter, a guy named
Griff Jenkins. Only in the tweet, Kurtz did not write
Griff Jenkins. He wrote Griff Jerkins, Hey, Griff, Griff Jerkins, Howie,
if you need us to rescue you. Put out another
tweet that misspells Jesse Waters name is Jesse What the
(26:11):
f is wrong with this? Kidders, We'll be right over,
but our winner. Mary Ellen Gerwitz, chair of the Michigan
Board of State Canvassers, which has approved a recall petition
against State Rep. Sharon McDonald. She is from Troy. She
is a Democrat. The grounds of the recall are that
McDonald voted for a red flag law, a bill that
(26:33):
would give courts in Michigan the right to temporarily take
guns away from those deemed to present an immediate danger
to somebody. It's a bill favored by three out of
four Michigan residents. But the Republicans are trying to recall
six state representatives in swing districts because they're Democrats and
the balance of power is tight. Now. This board rejected
(26:56):
the other five recall bids, but Sharon McDonald's was approved.
They want her to face recall because of how she
voted on a gun bill. No scandal, no not showing
up for work, no tawdriness. This was approved in part
because while the Republicans on the Board of Canvassers voted
(27:17):
mostly on party lines and the McDonald recall was orchestrated
by Republicans, the chair, Miss Gerwitz, the Democrats still thinks
this is nineteen sixty five and bipartisan this and bipartisan that.
So she voted with the Republicans and the other Democrat
on the board didn't even show up for the meeting.
And if you're not going to get serious about this,
(27:38):
miss Gerwitz, get the hell out. We do bipartisan after
we stop the QAnon Racism and Authoritarianism party, not before
Mary Ellen preserve representative government. Then by partisan Gerwitz two days,
(27:58):
worst person.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And no Word.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Finally our number one story on the countdown things I
promised not to tell, and back to my favorite topic. Me. Well,
actually not just me this time. This is an important
anniversary for an important TV news show, and I don't
mean one of mine. August third, two thousand and seven
was near as I can calculate the day I first
(28:39):
met Rachel Maddow, So August fourth, two seven, fifteen years ago,
was when I started to push MSNBC to make her
a host, specifically the guest host for my show, with
an eye towards eventually getting her to host her own
show which would follow mine, which happened almost immediately just
thirteen months later. On the other hand, two years earlier
(29:03):
than that first meeting, August eight, two thousand and five,
was the day MSNBC had cleverly fired Rachel Matdow early
in two thousand and seven, before MSNBC moved to thirty
Rockefeller Center in New York from the Charms of the
row of factory outlet discount stores in which it had
been nestled in in Secaucus, New Jersey since its inception.
(29:25):
My executive producer Izy Povich had walked into my office
and asked me if I remembered Rachel Matdow. Of course,
isn't she on Carlson? I stopped myself. She had been
a regular panelist on Tucker Carlson's last non Nazi TV program,
which incongruously aired right after mine at nine o'clock on MSNBC.
(29:47):
Rick Kaplan, then the ex president of CNN and shortly
to be ex president of MSNBC, had first foisted this
repulsive scumbag on us and then asked me to play
his liberal foil in all the Carlson pilot shows, which
Kaplan then demanded. One night, it dawned on Kaplan that
if he made me Carlson's co host, he could use
(30:10):
our initials and title the show TKO. And as he
pitched me the idea, he could not have been happier
nor more surprised if he had invented the alphabet himself.
When I pointed out to Rick Kaplan that I already
had a show and it already took me all goddamn
day to do it, and I had no desire to
(30:31):
add three hours to my schedule, nor to ever work
with Tucker Carlson. He had the new show's producer Bill
Wolfe search around for other potential liberal foils. Wolf found two,
our old sports colleague, Max Kellerman and this Air America
radio host Rachel Matdow only as is. He asked me
that day if I remembered her? Did I realize that
(30:53):
I had not seen Rachel Mattow in our studios recently
in New Jersey. Oh, it's well over a year, she explained.
When Tucker's show started to die and they trimmed salary,
they had to cut back to just one. They kept
Max Kellerman. I found that astonishing, even though I had
only met Rachel maybe three times in passing, once at
(31:14):
Air America's launch party, and we'd interacted superficially for maybe
I don't know a minute in total. They kept Kellerman
over her. Who kept Kellerman? I like Max? But who
would keep Kellerman? Izy Povich was not sure. We both
guessed it was Phil Griffin, who was basically running the place. Anyway,
(31:35):
Somebody suggested she would make a good guest on almost
anything political, and I interrupted, Izzie, God, yes tonight. Izzy
laughed and said I'll go book her any segment in particular,
and I said we should adhere to our usual high
and discerning standards. One of the segments we haven't booked
a guest for yet will do. Rachel, of course, was erudite, succinct, knowledgeable, compelling,
(31:58):
self deprecating, and she wasn't another guy. We began to
book her to talk about pretty much almost anything every week.
Soon it became twice a week. She also had fun
on TV without overdoing it. The in house phrase was
she plays and she played. Despite the fact that we
were always in different studios. We would either throw her
(32:19):
into a one camera room called the Nook, literally converted
from a third floor broom closet at thirty Rock, or
we would rent some time at an All Networks live
shot assembly line studio called Media three, which was a
few blocks further downtown. I would remain on the ever
increasingly antiquated Lazy Susan set at MSNBC in Jersey, and
(32:43):
as these appearances started, this was when the love letters
to her and to us began to show up on
the website, The Daily Coasts. As the ratings rose that
spring and MSNBC's moved to New York in October, loomed.
Phil Griffin had offered me a perk as long as
the viewership totals held. He said, I could skip the
(33:03):
weary commute to Secaucus on Fridays. I could write the
show in my apartment on Central Park South. I could
have an early dinner with my cohabitant, Katie Turr, actually
in our home. I could walk over to thirty Rock
at seven pm and do countdown from that aforementioned nook.
This was balm for my soul until word came down
(33:26):
from the office of the Director of News for NBC
that for some arcane reason, the knook had to be
rebuilt and it would be out of commission for like
two months. To his credit, Phil Griffin now ponied up
his offer of Jersey Free Friday continued, and he was
willing to rent me one of those studios at Media
three and I could anchor the show from there. Thus
(33:47):
did it happen that, as I breezed in for the
second week in a row to Media three at seven
point thirty on Friday, August third, two thousand and seven
and made my way to the makeup room. Our now
go to countdown guest, Rachel Meadow was already sitting in
the chair as previously. We had met before in passing,
we had not met since she had become a regular.
(34:10):
She rose instantly and unnecessarily. And as she did and
we exchanged pleasantries, I noticed she had one sheet of
paper in her hand. It had clearly been computer printed.
There was a line or two of texts at the
top of the page, then about half a sheet's worth
of words written by hand, and then there was a
second line of computer printed text and another half sheet
(34:34):
of longhand, and the back of the paper had the
same format. I can read upside down. I mean I
can read a paper or a book when the paper
or book is upside down. It's one of my few
parlor tricks. It took only a few seconds for me
to realize that the computer printed lines of text were
the questions I had composed for Rachel's segment that night. Then,
(34:58):
in her excellent penmanship, what are the answers to those questions?
It looked for all the world like a high school
or college short essay exam, Page four short questions and
four half page answers. My astonishment was completely organic. What's that?
(35:18):
Rachel was embarrassed. I just sorry, I just she hid
the sheet behind her back. I just do some prep
for the show. It's my prep sheet. I don't read
from it on the air or anything, but I like
to write everything down, Longhand, because it helps me organize
my thoughts, and I like to have it in front
of me in the studio in case. I interrupted her
(35:40):
now and said, in case you freeze or you get
interrupted or distracted by the idiot host. I pulled from
my pocket four folded up pages of my own on
which I had printed handwritten notes for each of the
scheduled interviews. I said, I find it's writing it by
hand that really helps here. It's I think it's some
sort of memory trick. Her gasp of astonishment turned into
(36:01):
a warm laugh. She and I used the same tea
be shortcut. Without knowing it. Now, something else popped into
my head. I said, you do realize you are more
prepared for your four minute segment than I am for
the entire damn show. Right, She laughed again, and I
waved my folded crib notes. You do realize that nobody
(36:22):
does this except you and me. It's lack of confidence
meets paranoia meets fear that you'll forget your good lines.
I squinted at her as the thought came to me,
have you ever thought of hosting one of these shows?
Rachel suddenly drew her head back as if evading a
(36:43):
right cross. What. No, I couldn't, I said, we haven't
had a good guest host in a long time. The
makeup artist moved to attempt to straighten up my hair.
You want to give it a try, she seemed to
go a little pale. No, I don't think so, really,
but I don't. How difficult could it be if I
(37:03):
stepped in here no experience and suddenly I had the
most popular liberal news show pick Up two? How good
you know? I'm tom three two to one? How difficult
could it be if I stepped in here with no
experience and suddenly I had the most popular liberal news show,
(37:26):
And then I did it again eight years later. She
looked unconvinced. I mean, you already do the prep. What
worries you? She looked away from me and mumbled, prompter.
I laughed, Did you say prompter? The prompter? The teleprompter.
She looked away again. I don't think I could use it.
(37:49):
I'm sorry, I said, with mock anger. Have you padded
your resume? Didn't you get one of them? Rhodes scholarship
be things, and you go over to England to study stuff,
and you think you can't learn how to use a teleprompter.
For God's sake, I learned to use a teleprompter in
ten minutes from Stuart Effing Varney at CNN. There's nothing
to it but practice. Rachel was not convinced. I said,
(38:12):
get made up, Come into the studio, sit with me
off camera. I'm just sitting in there reading the show
off the teleprompter. Watch you'll see. Let me ask you this,
if you knew how to use the teleprompter, if you
already knew, would you want to try hosting? Her eyes
got a little smaller, and she seemed nervous and very quietly.
Rachel Maddow said yes. We would travel a million bureaucratic
(38:36):
miles and a year together before we actually sat down
for prompter school. After one of her guest hits on
a Monday edition of Countdown, she and I and two
their credit Countdown's technical director Brian Nailsnik, and much of
the crew stayed for an extra half an hour. We
put two cameras and two monitors almost next to each
(38:58):
other so she could read the prompter along with me,
or watch the other monitor to see where my eyes
were at as I read from the prompter. And then
after a while we fixed it so I could read
along with her, or watch the other monitor to see
where her eyes were as she read. We read my scripts,
we read scripts that she had written. I gave her
(39:19):
the Tom Snyder prompter trick. Okay, here's the Tom Snyder
prompter trick. Try to see and read entire sentences, not
individual words. Focus your eyes not on the pain of
plastic where the words are projected, but focus several inches
beyond it, where the lens actually is in the camera.
(39:41):
I told her tonight, this is your freshman year. Tomorrow
will be sophomore Wednesday's, Junior Thursday, Senior Friday's graduation, and
also the homecoming football game in grad school, and the
alumni Association will be hitting you up for your money
on Saturday. Rachel Maddow came in every night that week
to practice overcoming her biggest fear. The teleprompter. I stayed
(40:02):
late again on Friday. What do you think, Rachel asked me,
who cares? I answered, what do you think? She straightened
her practice script by tapping it against the anchored desk
like an anchor does, and said, I think this is
the greatest invention in the history of mankind. I've done
(40:38):
all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
Countdown has come to you from our studios high atop
the Sports Capsule building in New York. Here are the credits.
Most of the music arranged, produced and performed by Brian
Ray and John Phillip Shanel, who are the Countdown musical directors.
All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanel, Guitars, bass
and drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Another
(41:01):
Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group
No Horns Allowed. Sports music is the Olderman theme from
ESPN two and it was written by Mitch Warren Davis
courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by Nancy Faust. The
best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my
friend Kenny Maine. Everything else was pretty much my fault.
(41:22):
That's countdown for this, the nine hundred and fifty eighth
day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States. Arrest him again while
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow bulletins
as the news warrants till then, I'm Keith Olreman. Good morning,
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
(41:52):
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. Trump
needed just four hours and twenty five minutes to violate
(00:25):
the terms of his bail. Lock him Up. Trump was
granted pre trial release on two hundred thousand dollars bond
in Atlanta at three point thirty pm yesterday, and at
seven fifty five pm yesterday he violated the terms of
that bail. And now let's see what Fulton County Superior
Court Judge Scott McAfee is made out of Item four.
(00:49):
The defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person
known to him or her to be a co defendant
or witness in this case, or otherwise obstruct the administration
of justice. This shall include, but is not limited to,
the following. Then, in paragraph E, the above shall include,
(01:09):
but are not limited to posts on social media or
reposts of posts made by another individual on social media. Unquote,
he didn't even make it four and a half hours,
confirming CNN's report that he will be booked in Atlanta
on Thursday, Trump called the prosecutor a quote radical left
(01:32):
district attorney who is overseeing one of the greatest murder
and violent crime disasters in American history. She campaigned and
is continuing to campaign and raise money on this witch hunt.
This is in strict coordination with Biden's DOJ. It is
all about election interference unquote, none of which is true,
and all of which is an attempt to obstruct the
(01:53):
administration of justice, and was made via quote posts on
social media or reposts of posts, and which should be
greeted Thursday by the booking officers at Ice Street Jail
in Atlanta and an order from Judge McAfee to detain
him period trouble afterwards. Lindsey Graham's riots in the Street,
(02:17):
Trump's own threat of death and destruction, the countless bleatings
of the sheep, like Trump horrors like Tim Poole about
civil War. I'll just quote another Trump flunky, Jeffrey Clark.
That's why there's an insurrection Act. Trump is now out
on bail in three different states and the District of Columbia.
(02:44):
He has certainly violated the terms of that bail with
his spasm of threats against Judge Chutkin and Special Council
Smith in DC. Now he has certainly violated the terms
of that bail in Georgia, and soon or late the
remaining sane people in this country are going to have
to re establish the rule of law, or to call
(03:06):
it by the name that Trump and his cult actually
perceive it to be the rule of being afraid they
will get caught and sent to prison. We are going
to have to take the action without fear of taking
the consequences, or the very meaning of law itself in
this nation will not just be erased, but it will
(03:27):
be rendered impossible to restore for decades to come. I mean,
Judge McAfee put Trump specific language in that bail document,
and Trump specifically spat all over it. And if this
is not clear cut enough, that post about Fani Willis
(03:49):
is hardly his first. It was hardly his first gest
from yesterday, and it can be read as a continuation
of what he had posted in the morning before the deal,
in which he called her crooked and incompetent and in
support of impeaching her, and in support of this six
TOAs state senator's stunt to call for a special session
too impeachure in nearly the same breath in which he
(04:11):
gave voice to his delusion that the defendants in that case,
including Trump, for somehow facing quote lethal injection. There is
nothing new about Americans, or American businessmen, or American rich people,
or American politicians who have excelled at evading and erasing
(04:31):
the law. Trump did not invent any of this, but
he did open the Pandora's box in which the entire
ethos of a political party could begin to rest on
the premise that not just the laws do not apply
to them, but that the government, the Liberals, the Democrats,
that they would not dare to try to enforce those
(04:53):
laws against them. Behind that, of course, is the Trumpest
fascist Maga Republican party conviction that Democrats and peace officers,
for whom politics is not an excuse for corrupt in
Malfeasi's they would not dare to try to enforce those
laws because Trump's mob has all that firepower. That was
the underlying premise behind January sixth, and that was the
(05:16):
underlying premise behind the pole watchers two months prior, And
that was the underlying premise at Charlottesville. And that was
the underlying premise at every Maga clan rally and every
Trump event and every one quarter step towards the abyss
of twenty first century America as one giant, continuous, unending
Wild West cliche of rule by vigilantism and violence. It
(05:40):
has been far too long since the bullies on whose
backs Trump has risen to his sleazy, slovenly power, have
gotten the crap kicked out of them by the laws
and the law keepers of the United States of America.
It is more than just eight years of Trump in
the spotlight. This has been building since before Oklahoma City
(06:04):
and before Waco. It has been building ever since a
large swath of our media, and our clergy and our
politicians began to stop trying to fix stupidity in their
constituencies and started instead trying to encourage it. We are
surrounded on all sides by the idiocracy. I was looking
(06:25):
for one of those threats of trumpy and civil war
as I sat down to write this, when up popped
the always jarring list of what the search engine thinks
are related searches. And while the first one second American
Civil War twenty twenty four, as if that were not
disturbing enough, but one after that was in a way
(06:45):
far more horrifying. Quote what to do if a civil
war breaks out? Like Google was going to tell you
to make three TikTok videos stock up on batteries and
Netflix and chill. Imagine there are people actually asking that question, Jen,
(07:06):
because the top answer provided to them is quote. The
first one is stay in your home, and the other
one is to move to the safest location. Wow. Thanks,
I had thought of those my own home. You say,
any particular room. The problem is that that would probably
(07:31):
seem like sophisticated advice. Two thousands, maybe millions of Americans,
And once again, as has happened off and on for
thirteen or I think more correctly fourteen years, I have
been greeted by a memory of part of a speech
(07:51):
or an interview that I heard Lindsey Graham give before
he went crazy. I have never found a recording of this,
nor a story online, not even in the c SPAN archives.
I think it might have been on c SPAN, and
I have looked periodically, because when I have sought to
grasp the moment that at least I realized a vast
(08:14):
minority or maybe even a slim majority of this country
had jumped the social studies shark. It was when I
heard Graham tell this story and his tone of astonishment
and despair and deep personal loss. They were exactly right,
(08:35):
and they constituted just about the last time I agreed
with him on anything. Thus, I am recalling this from memory.
It was, I'm sure in two thousand and nine, I believe,
in late summer, after the disputed vote over Al Frankin's
election in Minnesota had finally been resolved, and Graham said
(08:56):
that as the Tea Party burgeons in South Carolina, he
had conducted a town hall in one of its major cities.
There After he somehow got them to stop booing and
hooting and mooing at him. He took questions, and the
questions were worse than the booing. Someone rose and indignantly
(09:18):
asked Graham why the hell he was trying to negotiate
with them democrats and find them by partisan agreements? Graham said.
He stared at the questioner and then said something like,
let me ask you something. How many senators are there
in total? How many people in the Senate silence a
(09:42):
room of two or three hundred people interested enough to
have come to a senator's town hall to have involved
themselves in something called the tea Party? How many senators
are there? Nobody had an answer. Finally, somebody in the
(10:02):
back Graham said meekly muttered one hundred. Graham said, good,
at least one of you knows. Now, let me ask
you another question. How many of those hundred are Republicans
like me? Graham said. The answers came much quicker this time,
and they were all too large. He heard seventy five
(10:24):
and eighty and sixty five and one hundred and every
number in between. Wrong. He told them there are forty
Republicans and sixty Democrats. And he said what he heard
next sounded like the rush of air when a large
balloon is popped, followed by genuine, pained expressions of disbelief.
(10:47):
There are forty Republicans. Technically there's only fifty eight Democrats,
but the other two are independents who vote with the Democrats.
We are the minority party. Everybody gasps. Shock. Somebody shouted,
you got to stop that, Graham. He explained that they
had all been elected in the other states. More gasps.
(11:10):
Not everybody in that room knew that that was how
it worked. This was the starting point. These were the
politically active people of South Carolina. These were presumably those
(11:31):
who had voted for Lindsey Graham, and they did not
know how many senators there were, and they did not
know that their party was not the majority, and many
of them did not know how senators got to be senators,
(11:51):
and they did not know what they also did not know.
Joke frequently here about the baseline of stupidity among Trump supporters,
but as always, it is far far worse than we
could possibly imagine. There is a reason that they lose
their minds over football players kneeling during the national anthem
(12:13):
or politicians not wearing flag lapel pins. Is because those
are the only things they know about America. They've heard
about the Revolutionary War, but it wasn't about actual tyrannical
government by a king who was so far removed from
(12:37):
this land that he might as well have been ruling
from the moon. The Revolutionary War was about overthrowing a
government you didn't like and being allowed to shoot and
kill people. And the American government is there to do
what you personally need, nothing else, nothing for anybody who
(13:00):
don't know, nothing for anybody who don't look like And
when the elections turn out against you, you simply refuse
to go along with them because you have been told
for the whole of your life that the Democrats are
foreigner alien communists and Americans are Republicans. And that was
(13:21):
fourteen years ago, and you saw how that turned out.
Like so many other weak, vacillating, lazy, greedy men, Lindsey
Graham stopped trying to teach South Carolina how many senators
there were and which party had fifty percent more of
them than the other one did He stopped paying attention
(13:42):
to the danger that Trump presented and started recognizing only
the magic that was in Trump's ability to gain power
for all who swore fealty to him. At least at first,
Lindsey Graham forgot Trump's supporters forgot there are laws, break
(14:04):
the to hell with you. And it is god damned
time that we remind Lindsey Graham and those people in
that crowd, and every other crowd in which stupidity is king,
we remind them that whatever they think and whatever they want,
if they break the law, their asses are going to prison.
(14:29):
And the opportunity to do this this week falls to
a judge named Scott McAfee. You wrote it, judge, and
Trump already broke it. He's already going to be in
your jail on Thursday, Judge. Keep his ass there in
(14:50):
force the god damned law a couple of other headlines.
It ain't a declaration of war, per se, but Rupert
Murdoch took a surprisingly powerful shot at Trump last night.
He's not going to the debate to be televised by
folks tomorrow night, then neither are his surrogates. Trump was
(15:14):
going to send Junior and whatever happened to Baby Jane
Gilfoyle and Matt Gates and Byron Donald's and Carrie Lake
with the Weather to flood the post debate spin room
in Milwaukee, and Fox has now banned them and Carrie
Lake with the Weather, Rock wrote on Sports Earlier. Murdoch's
(15:39):
Wall Street Journal editorial board hit Trump too and Tucker Carlson,
Remember Tucker Carlson. WSJ blasted Trump for doing an interview,
not the debate, and said Carlson was not actually going
to be there to interview him, just to be there
to endorse Trump's backwards views of January sixth, then Ukraine
(16:00):
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. Trump continued to show signs
of weakness in the polling in Iowa. He's lapping the
field in the Des Moines Register poll, however, at forty
two percent. DeSantis is not even close at nineteen. Or
look at it the other way. Three out of five
Iowans do not support Trump, and a third of those
(16:22):
who do a third are open to a different candidate.
A new National Emerson poll has it Trump fifty six,
DeSantis ten, Ramaswami ten, and then in the election Emerson
has it forty four forty four unless you throw in
a third party candidate, in which case it is Trump
(16:42):
forty two, Biden thirty nine, Swift eight Swift, Taylor Swift.
Actually I'm shocked it's only eight percent for Taylor Swift.
And back to where we started. Two hundred thousand dollars
bond for Trump, which is hilariously stupid. And they're not
(17:05):
taking his passport. Maybe that could be an interim step
here if somebody is still afraid to put him in
jail tomorrow, Yeah, take his passport. Shot across the bow.
John Eastman also has to repeatedly check in with Atlanta authorities,
and if this ever happens to you, you may want
(17:27):
to rethink your personal code. John Eastman had to ask
for a postponement in his California disbarment hearing so he
could instead go to his George bail here. Also of interest,
(17:51):
here those photos of Tropical Storm Hillary, well that was
the maiden name. It's now post tropical Storm Hillary. Those
photos of the storm hitting La so bad it flooded
Dodger Stadium. I tweeted them, except they aren't real. No
flood at Dodger Stadium. And there was one huge obvious
detail right in the middle that we all missed. I'm sorry,
(18:17):
I'll explain. That's next. This is countdown.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
This is countdown with Keith Alber. This is Sports Senate. Wait,
check that not anymore. This is countdown with Keith Alberman
(18:47):
in sports.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
No, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles did not flood. I
saw the picture for friends of mine sent it to me.
I tweeted it. I'm not casting stones here, but Dodger
Stadium did not flood. Not only did the images taken
from a helicopter make it look like the low level
nearly below ground level parking lots beyond center field at
(19:09):
Dodger Stadium were under several feet of water, but that
there was even some flooding in the home plate parking lots,
which are literally several stories higher than the ones in
the outfield. Optical illusion explained the Los Angeles Times photographer
Robert Gautier. It was just reflected light off very wet surfaces.
(19:31):
Gautier says, the same reflection occurred after a minor storm
in two thousand and five, and photographs were taken then,
and it looks like it's under twenty feet of water.
Then two. He was over the stadium yesterday morning, Gotier says,
and it was completely dry, and the tell is obvious
in retrospect once you think about it. Though, the parking
lots look inundated in the photos. The playing field doesn't
(19:54):
even look wet, which is impossible. Thank you, Nancy Faust
(20:37):
and Robert Redford, Dateline, New York. The ever popular New
York Knicks just got even more beloved. The basketball franchise
has sued a former employee who was hired away by
the Toronto Raptors, and the Raptors and their head coach
have also been sued, and their player development coach has
been sued. The Knicks claim that when he left the club,
their ex employee took scouting reports with him. He stole
(21:00):
play frequency reports, a prep book, a link to third
party licensed software, thousands of proprietary files, and the New
Toronto employers told him to access them and feed the
New York information into their system. The main complication in
this suit for the Knicks, who last won the NBA
title in nineteen seventy three, have and only finished higher
(21:22):
than fourth in their conference once this century. The main
complication in the otherwise strong Knicks lawsuit will be to
convince a jury that any other professional basketball team would
want to use their scouting and player development methods and dateline. Columbus,
Ohio Gannett newspapers are experimenting with artificial intelligence to write
(21:47):
some game stories, especially high school sports game stories. The
first results are not not what is the word? Well,
don't ask AI. It certainly doesn't know that many of them.
Let me just read this one from the Columbus Dispatch.
School hyphenated Westerville North escapes Westerville Central in thin win
(22:12):
in Ohio high school football action by lead AI. The
Westerville North Warriors defeated the Westerville Central Warhawks twenty one
to twelve in an Ohio high school football game on Friday.
So far, so good. Westerville North edged Westerville Central twenty
one to twelve in a close encounter of the Athletic
(22:32):
Kind at Westerville North High on August eighteen in Ohio
football action. I think you said that in the first paragraph.
Westerville North opened with a seven nothing advantage over Westerville
Central through the first quarter. The Warhawks trimmed the margin
to make it seven to six at halftime. Westerville North
jumped to a twenty one to six lead heading into
(22:53):
the final quarter. The Warriors chalked up this decision in
spite of the warhawks spirited fourth quarter performance. Check out
our complete boys foot ball round up to stay up
to date on all the action. What is it, I'm
feeling like something is missing. Oh, I know it's missing
(23:14):
from this game story. The names of any of the
players involved still ahead on countdown. MSNBC fired Rachel Meadow.
(23:39):
No no, no, no, no, no, no no. This is
not breaking news. This is something that happened in August
of two thousand and five, and when they fired her
in two thousand and five, they fired her from her
job on the MSNBC Tucker Carlson Show. No, I'm not kidding.
Coming up in things I promise not to tell first
time for the daily round up of the miss Grants
(24:01):
Morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days
worst persons in the world. The Bronze Michael David Fox
of Las Crusis, New Mexico. Turns out, mister Fox made
a threat against an unnamed Houston congresswoman in May and
has now been charged with a federal crime. He told
the representative she was quote literally a tranny and a pedophile,
(24:25):
and I'm going to put a bullet in your effing
face un quote. Did this in a voicemail, And he
did this in a voicemail because these guys have the
hearts of assassins, but the intelligence and aim of squeaky
from Fox explained he determined all this about the congresswoman
because he'd made measurements of the congresswoman's skull and he
(24:45):
had learned about the world cabal of transgendered people. Sorry
Jewish people, you've been replaced in the cabal by transgendered people.
He was just following this online video he saw called
que the Plan to Save the World. Not sure how
we're going to cure these qanons paths, but we're out
(25:06):
of options here if we don't. The runner up, Howard Kurtz,
you may remember him from the days when he did
more or less coherent media criticism and media reporting for
The Washington Post and CNN and The Daily Beast. It's
a decade ago now when CNN and The Daily Beast
fired him. The Daily Beast said it was for quote,
(25:26):
serial inaccuracy, and he went to Fox News, where serial
inaccuracy is encouraged. Recently, there have been signs that Howard
may be trying to get coded messages out of Fox
as a hostage mite. The latest of them a tweet
that nominally references one of those Foxfield propaganda guys who
(25:48):
pretends to be an actual news reporter, a guy named
Griff Jenkins. Only in the tweet, Kurtz did not write
Griff Jenkins. He wrote Griff Jerkins, Hey, Griff, Griff Jerkins, Howie,
if you need us to rescue you. Put out another
tweet that misspells Jesse Waters name is Jesse What the
(26:11):
f is wrong with this? Kidders, We'll be right over,
but our winner. Mary Ellen Gerwitz, chair of the Michigan
Board of State Canvassers, which has approved a recall petition
against State Rep. Sharon McDonald. She is from Troy. She
is a Democrat. The grounds of the recall are that
McDonald voted for a red flag law, a bill that
(26:33):
would give courts in Michigan the right to temporarily take
guns away from those deemed to present an immediate danger
to somebody. It's a bill favored by three out of
four Michigan residents. But the Republicans are trying to recall
six state representatives in swing districts because they're Democrats and
the balance of power is tight. Now. This board rejected
(26:56):
the other five recall bids, but Sharon McDonald's was approved.
They want her to face recall because of how she
voted on a gun bill. No scandal, no not showing
up for work, no tawdriness. This was approved in part
because while the Republicans on the Board of Canvassers voted
(27:17):
mostly on party lines and the McDonald recall was orchestrated
by Republicans, the chair, Miss Gerwitz, the Democrats still thinks
this is nineteen sixty five and bipartisan this and bipartisan that.
So she voted with the Republicans and the other Democrat
on the board didn't even show up for the meeting.
And if you're not going to get serious about this,
(27:38):
miss Gerwitz, get the hell out. We do bipartisan after
we stop the QAnon Racism and Authoritarianism party, not before
Mary Ellen preserve representative government. Then by partisan Gerwitz two days,
(27:58):
worst person.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And no Word.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Finally our number one story on the countdown things I
promised not to tell, and back to my favorite topic. Me. Well,
actually not just me this time. This is an important
anniversary for an important TV news show, and I don't
mean one of mine. August third, two thousand and seven
was near as I can calculate the day I first
(28:39):
met Rachel Maddow, So August fourth, two seven, fifteen years ago,
was when I started to push MSNBC to make her
a host, specifically the guest host for my show, with
an eye towards eventually getting her to host her own
show which would follow mine, which happened almost immediately just
thirteen months later. On the other hand, two years earlier
(29:03):
than that first meeting, August eight, two thousand and five,
was the day MSNBC had cleverly fired Rachel Matdow early
in two thousand and seven, before MSNBC moved to thirty
Rockefeller Center in New York from the Charms of the
row of factory outlet discount stores in which it had
been nestled in in Secaucus, New Jersey since its inception.
(29:25):
My executive producer Izy Povich had walked into my office
and asked me if I remembered Rachel Matdow. Of course,
isn't she on Carlson? I stopped myself. She had been
a regular panelist on Tucker Carlson's last non Nazi TV program,
which incongruously aired right after mine at nine o'clock on MSNBC.
(29:47):
Rick Kaplan, then the ex president of CNN and shortly
to be ex president of MSNBC, had first foisted this
repulsive scumbag on us and then asked me to play
his liberal foil in all the Carlson pilot shows, which
Kaplan then demanded. One night, it dawned on Kaplan that
if he made me Carlson's co host, he could use
(30:10):
our initials and title the show TKO. And as he
pitched me the idea, he could not have been happier
nor more surprised if he had invented the alphabet himself.
When I pointed out to Rick Kaplan that I already
had a show and it already took me all goddamn
day to do it, and I had no desire to
(30:31):
add three hours to my schedule, nor to ever work
with Tucker Carlson. He had the new show's producer Bill
Wolfe search around for other potential liberal foils. Wolf found two,
our old sports colleague, Max Kellerman and this Air America
radio host Rachel Matdow only as is. He asked me
that day if I remembered her? Did I realize that
(30:53):
I had not seen Rachel Mattow in our studios recently
in New Jersey. Oh, it's well over a year, she explained.
When Tucker's show started to die and they trimmed salary,
they had to cut back to just one. They kept
Max Kellerman. I found that astonishing, even though I had
only met Rachel maybe three times in passing, once at
(31:14):
Air America's launch party, and we'd interacted superficially for maybe
I don't know a minute in total. They kept Kellerman
over her. Who kept Kellerman? I like Max? But who
would keep Kellerman? Izy Povich was not sure. We both
guessed it was Phil Griffin, who was basically running the place. Anyway,
(31:35):
Somebody suggested she would make a good guest on almost
anything political, and I interrupted, Izzie, God, yes tonight. Izzy
laughed and said I'll go book her any segment in particular,
and I said we should adhere to our usual high
and discerning standards. One of the segments we haven't booked
a guest for yet will do. Rachel, of course, was erudite, succinct, knowledgeable, compelling,
(31:58):
self deprecating, and she wasn't another guy. We began to
book her to talk about pretty much almost anything every week.
Soon it became twice a week. She also had fun
on TV without overdoing it. The in house phrase was
she plays and she played. Despite the fact that we
were always in different studios. We would either throw her
(32:19):
into a one camera room called the Nook, literally converted
from a third floor broom closet at thirty Rock, or
we would rent some time at an All Networks live
shot assembly line studio called Media three, which was a
few blocks further downtown. I would remain on the ever
increasingly antiquated Lazy Susan set at MSNBC in Jersey, and
(32:43):
as these appearances started, this was when the love letters
to her and to us began to show up on
the website, The Daily Coasts. As the ratings rose that
spring and MSNBC's moved to New York in October, loomed.
Phil Griffin had offered me a perk as long as
the viewership totals held. He said, I could skip the
(33:03):
weary commute to Secaucus on Fridays. I could write the
show in my apartment on Central Park South. I could
have an early dinner with my cohabitant, Katie Turr, actually
in our home. I could walk over to thirty Rock
at seven pm and do countdown from that aforementioned nook.
This was balm for my soul until word came down
(33:26):
from the office of the Director of News for NBC
that for some arcane reason, the knook had to be
rebuilt and it would be out of commission for like
two months. To his credit, Phil Griffin now ponied up
his offer of Jersey Free Friday continued, and he was
willing to rent me one of those studios at Media
three and I could anchor the show from there. Thus
(33:47):
did it happen that, as I breezed in for the
second week in a row to Media three at seven
point thirty on Friday, August third, two thousand and seven
and made my way to the makeup room. Our now
go to countdown guest, Rachel Meadow was already sitting in
the chair as previously. We had met before in passing,
we had not met since she had become a regular.
(34:10):
She rose instantly and unnecessarily. And as she did and
we exchanged pleasantries, I noticed she had one sheet of
paper in her hand. It had clearly been computer printed.
There was a line or two of texts at the
top of the page, then about half a sheet's worth
of words written by hand, and then there was a
second line of computer printed text and another half sheet
(34:34):
of longhand, and the back of the paper had the
same format. I can read upside down. I mean I
can read a paper or a book when the paper
or book is upside down. It's one of my few
parlor tricks. It took only a few seconds for me
to realize that the computer printed lines of text were
the questions I had composed for Rachel's segment that night. Then,
(34:58):
in her excellent penmanship, what are the answers to those questions?
It looked for all the world like a high school
or college short essay exam, Page four short questions and
four half page answers. My astonishment was completely organic. What's that?
(35:18):
Rachel was embarrassed. I just sorry, I just she hid
the sheet behind her back. I just do some prep
for the show. It's my prep sheet. I don't read
from it on the air or anything, but I like
to write everything down, Longhand, because it helps me organize
my thoughts, and I like to have it in front
of me in the studio in case. I interrupted her
(35:40):
now and said, in case you freeze or you get
interrupted or distracted by the idiot host. I pulled from
my pocket four folded up pages of my own on
which I had printed handwritten notes for each of the
scheduled interviews. I said, I find it's writing it by
hand that really helps here. It's I think it's some
sort of memory trick. Her gasp of astonishment turned into
(36:01):
a warm laugh. She and I used the same tea
be shortcut. Without knowing it. Now, something else popped into
my head. I said, you do realize you are more
prepared for your four minute segment than I am for
the entire damn show. Right, She laughed again, and I
waved my folded crib notes. You do realize that nobody
(36:22):
does this except you and me. It's lack of confidence
meets paranoia meets fear that you'll forget your good lines.
I squinted at her as the thought came to me,
have you ever thought of hosting one of these shows?
Rachel suddenly drew her head back as if evading a
(36:43):
right cross. What. No, I couldn't, I said, we haven't
had a good guest host in a long time. The
makeup artist moved to attempt to straighten up my hair.
You want to give it a try, she seemed to
go a little pale. No, I don't think so, really,
but I don't. How difficult could it be if I
(37:03):
stepped in here no experience and suddenly I had the
most popular liberal news show pick Up two? How good
you know? I'm tom three two to one? How difficult
could it be if I stepped in here with no
experience and suddenly I had the most popular liberal news show,
(37:26):
And then I did it again eight years later. She
looked unconvinced. I mean, you already do the prep. What
worries you? She looked away from me and mumbled, prompter.
I laughed, Did you say prompter? The prompter? The teleprompter.
She looked away again. I don't think I could use it.
(37:49):
I'm sorry, I said, with mock anger. Have you padded
your resume? Didn't you get one of them? Rhodes scholarship
be things, and you go over to England to study stuff,
and you think you can't learn how to use a teleprompter.
For God's sake, I learned to use a teleprompter in
ten minutes from Stuart Effing Varney at CNN. There's nothing
to it but practice. Rachel was not convinced. I said,
(38:12):
get made up, Come into the studio, sit with me
off camera. I'm just sitting in there reading the show
off the teleprompter. Watch you'll see. Let me ask you this,
if you knew how to use the teleprompter, if you
already knew, would you want to try hosting? Her eyes
got a little smaller, and she seemed nervous and very quietly.
Rachel Maddow said yes. We would travel a million bureaucratic
(38:36):
miles and a year together before we actually sat down
for prompter school. After one of her guest hits on
a Monday edition of Countdown, she and I and two
their credit Countdown's technical director Brian Nailsnik, and much of
the crew stayed for an extra half an hour. We
put two cameras and two monitors almost next to each
(38:58):
other so she could read the prompter along with me,
or watch the other monitor to see where my eyes
were at as I read from the prompter. And then
after a while we fixed it so I could read
along with her, or watch the other monitor to see
where her eyes were as she read. We read my scripts,
we read scripts that she had written. I gave her
(39:19):
the Tom Snyder prompter trick. Okay, here's the Tom Snyder
prompter trick. Try to see and read entire sentences, not
individual words. Focus your eyes not on the pain of
plastic where the words are projected, but focus several inches
beyond it, where the lens actually is in the camera.
(39:41):
I told her tonight, this is your freshman year. Tomorrow
will be sophomore Wednesday's, Junior Thursday, Senior Friday's graduation, and
also the homecoming football game in grad school, and the
alumni Association will be hitting you up for your money
on Saturday. Rachel Maddow came in every night that week
to practice overcoming her biggest fear. The teleprompter. I stayed
(40:02):
late again on Friday. What do you think, Rachel asked me,
who cares? I answered, what do you think? She straightened
her practice script by tapping it against the anchored desk
like an anchor does, and said, I think this is
the greatest invention in the history of mankind. I've done
(40:38):
all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
Countdown has come to you from our studios high atop
the Sports Capsule building in New York. Here are the credits.
Most of the music arranged, produced and performed by Brian
Ray and John Phillip Shanel, who are the Countdown musical directors.
All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanel, Guitars, bass
and drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Another
(41:01):
Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group
No Horns Allowed. Sports music is the Olderman theme from
ESPN two and it was written by Mitch Warren Davis
courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by Nancy Faust. The
best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my
friend Kenny Maine. Everything else was pretty much my fault.
(41:22):
That's countdown for this, the nine hundred and fifty eighth
day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States. Arrest him again while
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow bulletins
as the news warrants till then, I'm Keith Olreman. Good morning,
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
(41:52):
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
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