June 10, 2025 • 45 mins
SEASON 3 EPISODE 135: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: This isn't a metaphor or an analogy. When the Los Angeles Lakers won their last NBA championship in October, 2020, there were 76 people arrested for assaulting law enforcement, burning cars, mayhem, looting, graffiti, etc. The day before yesterday, during the Trump ICE Gestapo Riots? The ones he claims almost "obliterated" Los Angeles? It was so calm there were only 42 arrests.
That's literally the score:
LAKERS 76
TRUMP-ICE 42
The true law-breaking is, as always, by Trump. Analysis by Ryan Goodman of Just Security (and others) underscores that the document Federalizing the National Guard and authorizing the unprecedented use of active military is a blank check for Trump. It redefines everything, summoning from thin air a veto of the governors' primary role in this, giving the Guard to attack not just violence and not just peaceful protests but just the threat of peaceful protests. It is unchecked power to kill protestors. That's why Gavin Newsom and the government of California sued yesterday over Trump's illegal usurpation of the National Guard and the use of military enforcement of his political whims.
B-Block (21:15) ANALYSIS: Anybody remember ELON MUSK? Wow, that whole thing with Trump seems like years ago. There is something substantial to the biggest story ever (until the next one). In a twisted way, I think it proves that no, what Trump said about Musk knowing all the computer voting machines was just D. Mentia's imprecision. It probably all confirms Musk didn't alter any of the actual voting in November.
C-Block (37:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was explaining how I knew the remarkable actor Walter Matthau to a friend, and thought this was the right day to tell you about this extraordinary - and extraordinarily kind - man.
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. More
(00:24):
people were arrested in LA after the Lakers won the
twenty twenty NBA title than were arrested in LA on
Sunday during the protests during the Ice Riot during the
Gestapo invasion of Southern California. This is not some sort
of metaphor or analogy. October eleventh, twenty twenty, after the
(00:46):
COVID delayed NBA Finals ended with the LA Lakers winning
the championship, in LA, there were seventy six arrests Sunday,
the day Trump now says that without him and his
Brown Shirts, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated. There
were forty two arrests seventy six to forty two vandalism,
(01:12):
unlawful assembly, failure to disperse, bottles thrown at cops, vehicles
set on fire, flash bangs and projectiles fired at civilians,
graffiti covering buildings, property damage, a crowd of at least
two thousand out of control, Downtown LA streets closed. No,
that was also all after the Lakers won. The Lakers
(01:33):
victory celebration five years ago was measurably a greater risk
to security and safety than were the protests against Trump's
unconstitutional kidnapping of civilians, often citizens, almost always law abiding
this past Sunday, And if that raw final score is
(01:55):
not stark enough Lakers seventy six protests for due process
forty two. It's a final. You knew this will true.
Once Trump declared victory yesterday, at midnight, our hitler was posting,
looking really bad in La, bring in the troops. At noon,
(02:17):
our hitler was posting that the governor and the mayor
who just fire five things are not insane fascist dictators
quote should be saying thank you, President Trump. You are
so wonderful. We would be nothing without you? Sir? Is
he an insane narcissist or calculating monster? Why can't we
have both? Right after congratulating himself, Trump mobilized five hundred
(02:41):
members of the Marines to join the National Guard in La.
Some say it's seven hundred members of the Marines to
take care of the rapidly expanding nothing. It is not
just unnecessary, it is illegal, and I will get to
the California lawsuit against all of it presently, which has
(03:01):
now been filed. The other content, though, that Sunday was
nothing seventy six Laker arrests forty two Trump riot arrests.
Was when Trump insisted, quote, I wouldn't call it quite
an insurrection, but it could have led to an insurrection
on quote, And there was disappointment in his voice because
of course he wants one. As we will analyze in
(03:23):
a moment, the powers he has awarded himself when federalizing
the National Guard turned out to be enough for him
to literally install his dictatorship to day. But let's first
finish the clean up on the near complete obliteration of
Los Angeles. Ah, what a shame. I like the place
(03:43):
this could reignite at any point. You could know more
about this than I do, because I recorded this earlier
than you're listening to it. The rumor within local government
was ICE would be kidnapping people off the streets of
LA and southern California for the next twenty eight days
to a month. They were at multiple home debas yesterday,
(04:06):
And of course Trump wants it reignited, because that is
the point of it. The deportations are not only an
end in themselves raw meet to the racists and the
Stephen Miller grade psychos, but they are also a means
for him to control anything he wants, especially foremost the
midterm elections, but that there was nothing approaching what he
(04:27):
told his cult had happened was underscored when Rick Caruso,
the lifelong Republican who lost the election for mayor to
Karen Bass in November twenty twenty two and has since
criticized her every move, when he wrote, quote, there is
no emergency, widespread threat, or out of control violence in
Los Angeles, and absolutely no danger that justifies deployment of
(04:51):
the National Guard, military, or other federal force to the
streets of this or any other Southern California city. Local
law enforcement is capable of handling the situation and should
arrest anyone causing violence in the streets. We must call
for calm in the streets, and deployment of the National
Guard may prompt just the opposite. Lifelong Republican lost the
(05:16):
mayor's race, hates the mayor. Caruso reiterated all of that yesterday,
just in case you missed it, live in drivetime on
local radio news just before noon Eastern. For the record,
Caruso was the Republican head of the Police Commission in
LA for many years, and he has a little money
(05:37):
behind him that race for mayor. He blew forty one
million on the primary around the country as much as
Trump is selling the idea that la is a cauldron
and he alone can save it, even though no, no,
that's right. I saved it yesterday, so everybody should call me, sir.
It's not Landing. Polling by the Last King of five
(05:58):
thirty eight Elliott Morris confirms Trump has been hurt by
the deportations and especially the case of kilm Are of
Rego Garcia, and people like him and the Democrats have
been helped, not that they're doing anything with it, except
for Newsome. New CBS polling says fifty five percent in
this country supports the general idea of these deportations, but
(06:21):
fifty six percent dislike how Trump is doing it, and
no matter how they feel about the kidnappings and the renditions,
sixty three percent want due process. The problem, of course,
is that Trump doesn't have to convince anybody but his
supporters and the news media and the Republican political wars
(06:41):
he terrorizes into submission. He doesn't need fifty one percent
of voters. He doesn't need fifty one percent of Americans.
He just needs one hundred percent of his voters. They are,
in short, a mob, a gang, an organized crime family,
a cult, a suicide cult. Trump stumbling up those airplanes
(07:04):
step Sunday is the perfect metaphor. You and I correctly
see a deranged, delusional, elderly creature rapidly losing control not
just of his mind but of his bloated carcass. They
see him triumphantly getting up the stairs anyway and overcoming
all the obstacles anyway, and saving Los Angeles from a
(07:25):
crisis that he completely provoked and escalated. And matter of fact,
the son of a bitch didn't even manage to create
a real crisis, did he. I need a couple of
moments of humorous relief. One North Carolina congressman, a Republican
named Moore who does not appear to have his own neck,
(07:47):
let alone a brain, retweeted a Homeland Security post insisting
California politicians must call off their rioting mob. More added,
La is being burned down by lawless mobs who support
foreign criminals. The photo from DHS that he has reached
tweeted shows one car on fire, one not even very
(08:13):
on fire. There's some smoke There's about a dozen people
around this car. One is standing on top of it.
He is shirtless. He is wearing a Mexican flag, because
of course you never see a Mexican flag in Los Angeles.
It's the apocalypse again. Lakers arrests seventy six, Trump Ice
(08:34):
riot arrests forty two a final score. Then there is
the foppish conservative grifter, Scott Presler, you know, the guy
with the shoulder length hair, the one Politico reported had
sex in an office shared by the Republican National Committee
and the Republican Party of Virginia while he was working
(08:55):
for the latter group, and took pictures of himself having
sex in the office and posted the pictures on Craigslist.
Political outreach. I suppose well trump ists, mister Pressler is
ready to meet you at the barricades. Quote if Ice
needs more bodies on the ground, I'm willing to temporarily
(09:15):
stop my political work to help. I studied criminal justice
in college. I am physically fit and want to make
sure that the mission is a success. I'm very serious,
ready and willing to serve. Oh, Scott will save you.
(09:36):
He has a degree from George Mason University. Now about
the real danger behind this danger. Governor Gavin Newsom has
filed the Attorney General has filed a federal lawsuit by
the State of California against the Department of Defense and
(09:57):
Warrior Ethos and hair Products devotee Pete Hegseth for violating
the states' rights in the tenth amend, specifically the provisos
that state control of the National Guard is in the
hands of the states, or as somebody else put it
in twenty twenty, quote, we have laws. We have to
go buy the laws. We can't move in the National Guard.
(10:19):
We can't call in the National Guard unless we're requested
by a governor unquote and you know who said that,
then President d Mensha Trump. As straightforward as this would seem,
especially with Trump providing this unintentional testimony against himself, there
is a darker element to this, as outlined yesterday by
(10:40):
the impeccable Ryan Goodman, the co editor in chief of
Just Security and CNN analyst. Mister Goodman notes what most
of us had not had time to see because of
the spectacle of Trump's terrorist attack against la The memorandum
from Saturday, which federalizes the National Guard is almost unbelievably
almost completely vague. I encourage you to read Ryan Goodman's
(11:06):
thread on Blue Sky. It is harrowing and detailed. These
are the eight bullet points, and unfortunately that term may
never have been more appropriate than now. Points one and two.
The definition of rebellion, which used to mean, you know,
at least January sixth, rebellion, now means peaceful protests. The
(11:29):
part of the combined Pentagon and Homeland Security Memo Goodman
highlighted reads to the extent that protests or acts of
violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws. They constitute
a form of rebellion against the authority of the government
of the United States. So if you protest, the National
(11:51):
Guard is in theory entitled I shoot you. The second
point he makes is that one use of that word
or to the extent that protests or acts of violence,
so they're both covered. If you protest or you commit
an active violence, they can shoot you. Goodman's third and
(12:14):
fourth points this memo authorizes the use of preemptive force
and the use of preemptive force for quote protests. I
hereby call into Federal service members and units of the
National Guard under ten USC one two four oh six
to temporarily protect ice and other United States government personnel
who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law,
(12:37):
and to protect federal property at locations where protests against
these functions are occurring or are likely to occur. Based
on current threat assessments and planned operations, Your non violent
protest doesn't even have to have happened, yet they can
(12:59):
bring in the National Guard. Goodman's fifth point no geographically,
this is not an authorization to use the Guard in
southern California. In June of twenty twenty five, it's all purpose.
It's a magic, evil wand of all people. Bill Crystal
noted this first to quote him. The presidential memorandum never
(13:21):
mentions Los Angeles or California. It's a blank check for
mobilizing National Guard and active duty troops to deploy anywhere
to protect federal personnel or functions wherever protests are occurring
or are likely to occur. It gets worse and worse.
(13:43):
Goodman six point authorizes regular armed forces. It does not
tell you under what authority a president can use the
military in an emergency that is established, but he has
to invoke the Insurrection Act first, except this memo does
not say that. It just says members of the regular
(14:05):
Armed Forces, as determined appropriate in his discretion. So much
for the Insurrection Act, so much for any review of
what a president does. Goodman's seventh point expressly overrides the
governor's authorities, changing Title ten, Section one two four oh
(14:25):
six from orders for these purposes shall be issued through
the Governors of the States to saying only that the
Secretary of Defense should quote coordinate with the governors of
the States. For the record, before we finish these points,
this whole thing is, or at least should be, incredibly illegal,
but amazingly Trump has already violated it. His own new
(14:49):
illegal rules, according to Governor Knusimi, not only ignored the
governor's rights regarding the National Guard, he didn't even bother
with that lip service instruction to coordinate with the governor. Lastly,
Ryan Goodman's eighth point not a last resort. The Department
of Justice has a policy which is at least as
(15:10):
old as the policy that you can indict a candidate
around election time, that the military can only be deployed
legally in this country. As a last resort. This whole thing,
quite clearly and You don't need to be Ryan Goodman
to realize this, and you don't need to read the
(15:31):
entire memo from Homeland Security and the Pentagon to realize this.
This whole thing authorizes the use of the military as
a first resort. This is why Gavin Newsom in California
are suing. This is why, ultimately that lawsuit may be
more important than anything that happens on the streets of
(15:53):
Los Angeles this entire month. This is why Newsom is suing.
It is not just about what Trump is doing in LA,
and it won't be resolved fast enough to likely impact
Trump is doing in LA. It is that it provides
a template for Trump to institute a police state, a
military dictatorship in this country today. You can use the
(16:20):
National Guard and the military against peaceful protests, or just
the threat of peaceful protests, or your threat assessment that
there may be peaceful protests, or you can use it
against anything really, or as we are seeing in LA,
you can use it against nothing. CNN should have mister
(16:41):
Goodman on to cover this twenty four to seven and
said it will show you an empty intersection in downtown
LA and insists hell may break loose at any moment.
Right after this message from yet another insurance firm specializing
in mesothelioma, which leads me to one dark bit of humor.
I am glad CNN televised George Clooney's good Night and
(17:03):
good Luck over the weekend, which I mentioned I saw
the first night of previews. I hope they rerun the
live presentation again. It has many flaws, not the least
of one is fairly hilarious. George Clooney is not as
an actor as good a newscaster as his father, Nick
Clooney was, largely because Nick Clooney was a newscaster in
(17:27):
Los Angeles when I was a sportscaster there. It has flaws,
but it is invaluable right now. Except I couldn't help
notice that CNN ran it Saturday night just as the
events in LA were beginning to snowball, and CNN kept
with it, kept showing it and a postgame show for
three hours anyway. In short, CNN was showing a play
(17:53):
about news instead of showing you know news, which sadly
is the CNN story in a nuts Next now to
Musk and Trump, and why follow me closely here? Why
I think their fight probably proves no. Musk did not
(18:18):
rig the voting machines last November. That's next. This is
countdown now. Two things that may have slipped off your
(18:52):
plate in the last ten days of constant chaos. Okay,
last ten years of constant chaos. They are beginning to
talk about a military draft again. Bluntly, nothing, nothing, not
even the Blue state tax strike I mentioned yesterday, could
bring Trump down faster than if he imposed a draft
(19:16):
on the families of American youth in the twenty first century.
Sean Hannity, one of the oldest and most obvious distributors
of Trump's trial balloons, said on his radio show last week, quote, Look,
Israel's safety today depends on the brave men and women
of the IDF. Well that's also bullshit, but we'll pass
(19:37):
on that for the moment. Every citizen, by the way,
is required to serve. I actually think we should adopt
this in Thish country. It'd be so good for our
young people. Required to serve. That means a draft, or
it means compulsory registration and service, which is a draft
(19:58):
where everybody is drafted and sent to La to rendition
the brown people. We should a competition Nish country. You first, Sean,
see if we can find a military suit of paratroopers
outfit that would fit you. Trump hit it at this
(20:19):
during the campaign. Last June, his former Secretary of Defense
Christopher Miller, told The Washington Post that a national service
requirement should be quote strongly considered. He described the concept
as a common right of passage, one that would create
a sense of quote shared sacrifice among America's youth unquote.
(20:42):
A little article, not much play, and it went over
so badly. Trump had to publicly deny it, to say
he'd never even thought about a draft, never, not once,
just as I'm certain he's not thinking about it now.
I'm certain Sean Hannity the Renfield to Trump's Dracula, the
man who has not had an original idea since nineteen
(21:03):
ninety six. I'm sure Sean Hannity dreamed that up all
on a jan and he wasn't told to shay it
by his master. And the second news story that you
may have missed Musk and Trump. Remember Elon Musk, Remember
(21:29):
when it was not just the lead story but the
only story. Are you old enough to? I mean it
was Czech's calendar three thousand years ago, oh no, sorry,
I read that wrong. It was last Friday. And one, yes,
it's a distraction, certainly by now it is a distraction.
But two, I think it's a meaningful distraction. And three
(21:52):
to understand its meaning, you really have to turn off
your sanity and your filters for a moment and infer
what crazy people do in such circumstances. And also four,
I told you so if you miss this or have
forgotten it, because after all, there's only so much space
in our brains for the latest asshole thing Trump has done.
(22:14):
Overnight Friday, Musk deleted his Trump is in the Epstein
files tweets and the Trump should be immediately impeached tweets,
But Musk did not delete his I won the election
for Trump tweets. Now again, it's trivia. That's why it's
at the back end of the segment here, and it
(22:35):
could wait till Tuesday. But the tea leaves I think
are important. When this erupted, Musk went almost immediately to
Epstein and impeachment and President Vance. And I suppose it's
possible Elon was hit by lightning over the weekend and
suddenly his head cleared and he removed those tweets because
(22:57):
he wanted to de escalate like a you know, human
being would. But Musk and Trump aren't human beings in
the sense the rest of us understand the term. They
don't de escalate in an emergency. They may occasionally run
away in fear, but they can't be strategic or remorseful
(23:19):
or corrective even in self interest, and screenshots be damned.
They just try to burn the evidence and hope nobody notices.
And since the mottos of the Republican Party and the
Association of MAGA disease Victims have long since become I
haven't seen what he posted, said wrote on the sidewalk
(23:40):
in his own blood, so I can't comment on it.
Burning the evidence usually works. What I notice is that
he did not delete quote. Without me, Trump would have
lost the election, Dems would control the House, and Republicans
would be fifty one to forty nine in the Senate.
And adopting for a moment the crazy think that prevails
(24:01):
in the vast empty caverns of Musk's mind, I would
suggest this confirms Musk did not rig the voting for Trump,
and that Trump's infamous remark about Musk knowing those vote
counting computers was just more of Trump's imbecilic imprecision. Now, look,
I don't diminish or demean anybody who thinks otherwise. I
(24:25):
don't doubt that people could listen to that and think
Trump just confessed that Musk rigged the election. To you
and me, vote counting computers that means elections and devoled
company machines switching votes in Florida in two thousand, from
Gore to Bush, but to Trump, who is more like
(24:47):
a semi sentient vegetable of some kind. Vote counting computers
could mean anything, anything from that actual election rigging to
computers that produce polling results to tell Trump how many
votes he's going to get. It could mean that or
the other thing. It could mean, Siri. Trump used the
(25:09):
word counting, and sometimes to Trump, counting means counting out loud.
It didn't say the out loud. Party just says counting.
And we're supposed to assume we know what he means.
We're supposed to assume he knows what he means. That's
the way Trump is. His relationship to language, to human
language is like that of chance the gardener from being there.
(25:30):
Trump only uses words that could mean ten different things.
In any event, The reason I think all this sturm
Undran with the two worst people in this country actually
confirms there was no Musk effort to fix the twenty
twenty four election is that when things with Trump got
so bad that Musk was willing to invoke Epstein not
(25:52):
only accused Trump of pedophilia or knowledge of pedophilia, but
of using his government to cover up evidence of pedophilia.
When things with Trump got so bad so fast that
Musk went to each faster than well, faster than I do,
Musk did not say I rigged the election for him.
(26:13):
His post, which is still up, is about the things
we know about immoral, unforgivable but largely legal things. Two
hundred and seventy five million dollars in funding putting onto
the campaign trail is not inconsiderable appeal as a stupid
person's idea of a smart person throwing his social media
site completely behind Trump, because if you are willing to
(26:34):
apply to idiots who believe all Liberals are part of
a cannibalistic pedophilia ring that their hero, the sitting president
of the United States and semi Jesus is in a
report about a pedophilia ring, and that's why he hasn't
released it to you the way he promised. And if
you're willing to say flat out, he should be immediately impeached.
What on God's green earth would stop you from saying,
(26:57):
by the way, I rig the election for him. To
Trump's supporters, the idea that you rig the election for
him is like seventeenth on the list of great admissions.
Oh you did tell us how, so we can do
it without you next time. I mean, nuclear war is
nuclear war. You don't hold anything back, And Musk didn't
(27:18):
hold anything back. He may have rolled some of it
back over the weekend, but the claim he won the
election for Trump is still out there. And the only
reason I can think of for why what he wrote
is not stronger than it is is that what he
did was not stronger than it was. Musk Thursday was
reaching for things with which to kill Trump, at least metaphorically,
(27:40):
Epstein impeachment. Then he suddenly said, oh, rigging the election.
I won't throw that at him. Nonsense. Also, if Musk
or anybody else actually rigged all or part of the
twenty twenty four election, why didn't he rig the Wisconsin
Supreme Court election two months ago. I mean he spent
twenty million on it. He went there, humiliated himself, campaigned
(28:03):
in his ketamineupopt Clip's way, and his guy, Brad, lost
by ten percent. It's a lot, but ten percent in
a statewide special election is less than two hundred and
thirty nine thousand votes, and Musk would have literally had
to flip only one hundred and twenty thousand votes and
Brad wins. And if you can't do that, how can
(28:26):
you rig several swing states in an actual presidential election?
And by the way, one of them you would have
had to have rigged would have been Wisconsin. The Musk
vote rigging machine broke, did it between November and April.
Couldn't get the Wi Fi starlink, failed gelon, you got
a blue screen on your Dell. So there is the
(28:51):
rather serpentine backwards logic that says to me, the Musk
Trump fight kind of proves the election wasn't rigged, because
given what Musk wanted to do to Trump last week,
if he had that rock, he would have dropped it
on Trump like Trump was while e Coyote, which brings
me to my last point about this. I did tell
you so. When the podcast promos dropped last Wednesday night,
(29:15):
Musk attacks Trump, there was blowback from every corner. No
he didn't. No, you're making too much of one retweet.
No I got that one right. I am not an insider.
I do not have sources. Even on TV, I really
didn't have sources. They all looked at me funny in Washington,
like how does this guy know stuff? But what I
(29:37):
might lack in those and even lack in insight at
times I make up for in old age Trump as
the coyote and Musk as the road runner. Okay, Trump
is the coyote and Musk as a different coyote might
be new, but the formula ain't. These are narcissists with
brains that don't work. Right. I have covered them half
(30:00):
of my career, and I have worked for them half
of my life. And oh, by the way, there will
be another round to this fight, at least another round. Trump,
drifting off from reality like ooh, a metallic balloon let
go by a child in southern California callback to the
(30:20):
last episode, has threatened Musk with more king Lear consequences
if now he helps Democrats instead. Howell Musk respond who
knows other than that he will respond. These are mad
men with basses who cannot conceive that their cult leader
is wrong. They will fight. As I suggested online, we
(30:41):
can only hope that when they fight, it's a duel,
which brings me to the chef's kiss here. The Washington
Post buried this in its thumbsucker on the Musk Trump brawl.
It got a little play on Sunday because it's such
a dramatic image. They didn't deny it at the White House,
but literally, The Washington Post put this in paragraph twenty two,
(31:01):
long past the point Bezos or his whorees would fallen
asleep and thus missed it. It was about a sub
fight between Musk and Scott Bessant, the Treasury Secretary, who
I am still not convinced actually exists, who I am
still not convinced isn't just a character played by the
impeccable actor Barry Bostwick, who used to portray the mayor
(31:23):
on Spin City. The term fight here is used literally,
quoting the Post quoting Steve Bannon, and yes, we will
accept Steve Bannon as a source for anything this much
fun quote. In mid April, Musk and Besson had gone
into the Oval Office to make their respective cases about
their preferences for acting IRS Commissioner. Trump decided to support
(31:45):
Besson's choice. That disagreement was first reported by The New
York Times. Actor Bessant and Musk exited the Oval office
and began walking down the hallway. The two men started
to exchange insults, Bannon said, adding that Bessant brought up
Musk's claims that he would uncover more than one trillion
dollars in wasteful and fraudulent government spending, which Musk had
(32:05):
not succeeded at doing. Quote, Scott said, You're a fraud.
You're a total fraud, Bannon said in an interview. Musk
then rammed his shoulder into Besson's ribcage quote like a
rugby player, Bannon said, and Bessont hit him back. Multiple
people stepped in to break up the scrum who rugby
(32:25):
term as the two men reached the National Security Advisor's
office and Musk was shuffled out of the White House.
So we are now at this point in this bizarre timeline.
The Treasury Secretary is physically attacked by the mad scientist
spacey guy outside the National Security advisor's office. Thus the
(32:51):
movie Doctor Strangelove is real. Gentlemen, you can't fight in here.
This is the war room. Finally, the number one story
on the countdown, and my favorite topic me and things
from my career and my life. And it is to
(33:11):
me amazing, even after all this time, that you could
meet somebody just once in your life, but years later
be moved to tears upon learning of their death. Then again,
the man in question was named Walter Mathow, and if
he was not the most popular American comedic actor of
the last half of the twentieth century, he was close
to it. And maybe more importantly, he was the most skilled,
(33:35):
minimal touch American actor of the last half of the
twentieth century. In other words, he was the man who,
on stage or on camera, seemed to be doing the
least amount of actual acting while still keeping you utterly
convinced that the guy you saw on the screen was
not Walter Mathow, but was Oscar Madison, and was not
Walter Mathow, but was Max Goldman, and was not Walter Mathow,
(33:56):
but was Willie Gingrich, and was not Walter Mathow but
was Mel Miller, even though mel Miller had a Southern accent,
smoked a pipe, had horn rim glasses, and supposedly went
to Vanderbilt. We all knew Walter Mathow. It felt like
we knew him personally because he managed a miracle. Every
time he performed it was all him up there, and
(34:16):
yet at the same time it was not him at
all anyway. October first was his birthday, which is what
brought this extraordinary man to the front of my mind again.
I will get to my meeting with him first. Walter
Mathow's best friends as an adult were his partner in
half a dozen films, Jack Lemon and my dear friend
Norman Lloyd, the one man history of Hollywood, who he
(34:38):
lost in twenty twenty one at the age of one
hundred and six. Norman loved Walter, and Norman loved talking
about Walter, and there was an amazing amount of things
to talk about about Walter. Norman told me that on
the last of the Grumpy Old Men movies that he
and Lemon made together, I think it was called Grumpy
Old Men were doing this for the money. Mathow wanted
(35:01):
to wrap up one day of shooting quickly. He was
scheduled to film a scene in a water slide made
up to look like a sewer through which his character
was escaping. As the lunch break was called, he said
to lemon, come on, Jack, let's go rehearse the water
slide thing. This way. We can do it in one take.
Get the hell out of here anyway. Don't you have
to wait an hour after eating before you can shoot
(35:21):
through a sewer. They went to the sewer water slide set.
Walter Mathow grabbed the raft he was supposed to ride,
and he jumped in. As he went through it, he
studied all the corners and where the cameras would be,
so he knew where to make his faces. And seconds
later he was shooting out the far end of the
water slide onto the giant inflatable twelve foot square air
mattress placed there to break his fall. Or he would
(35:44):
have been doing that, except it was lunch and the
teamsters had deflated the mattress then moved it away because
the set was on lunch break. So Walter Mathow, then
seventy three years old, came flying out of the water
slide onto the pavement. He broke his collarbone, which is
just about as painful a thing as you can break.
(36:05):
No Walter Mathow screamed. Jack Lemon raced over to him. Walter, Walter,
are you all right? No? Not Jack? Call nine one one?
Oh how Lemon panicked? Can I help you, Walter? Can
I Can I get you something? Walter? Yes, Jack, get
me nine one one ow o. Lemon continued to panic
(36:25):
but till they come. Are you okay, Walter? Are you comfortable?
Walter Mathow was in sheer agony, but he realized through
the fog of pain that one of the oldest jokes
in show business was actually happening to him. Finally, in
real life. Am I comfortable? I make a nice living?
(36:45):
Jack ow O? My friend Norman Lloyd used to go
hiking with Walter Mathow in the Hollywood Hills, and he
told me that one day Walter was unusually quiet. The
two had gone a mile or so, and Mathow suddenly
stopped and grabbed Norman by the arm. Nomy, did you
know at the end and Beethoven was so deaf he
(37:07):
thought he was painting. Norman smiled, snorted, and started to
say that it was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard.
But halfway through norman sentence, Mathow had already turned away
from him and was back walking again. Another mile passed
in silence, and now Mathou slowed down and faced his
friend Norman. This is important. I have something to tell you,
Norman said. His heart skipped. He thought there was something wrong.
(37:30):
What is it, Walt did you know at the end
Beethoven was so deaf he thought he was painting? Now
Norman just shook his head. As they completed their five
mile hike through the hills, Mathou stopped roughly once every
mile and repeated the same line, did you know at
the end Beethoven was so deaf he thought he was painting?
(37:50):
Norman told me it totally unnerved me. When we got
back to where we parked our cars, I felt like
I had to avenge myself somehow, so I blurted out
to him, WALTA, did you know at the end Beethoven
was so deaf he thought he was painting, Norman said.
Mathow looked at him, screwing his great craggy face into
(38:10):
a resentful sneer as he did, what the hell are
you talking about? Thought he was painting? That's the dumbest
thing I ever heard, As I said, I met Walter
Mathow once when I was a local sportscaster in Los Angeles.
I was invited to host a charity event at the
Hollywood Park Racetrack. I ordinarily did not do these things
(38:31):
because to do them I would have to take the
day off. But when the organizer said, oh, and Walter
Mathow will be there, I just asked for directions. First
time I had ever imagined what it was like to
be a sportswriter or to be a sports broadcaster. It
was when I was nine years old and I saw
Walter Mathow portray Oscar Madison in the movie The Odd Couple.
(38:54):
It was exactly what I wanted to be and where
I wanted to live and how I wanted to eat.
And I wanted to get a chance to tell him that.
So at the charity dinner, I screwed up my courage,
I introduced myself. I told him all that, and he replied,
I hate you. I was so crushed I almost passed out,
(39:17):
and clearly Walter Mathow recognized this. No, no, no, I
don't hate your work. I watch you every night on
Channel two Action News, you and Jim Lampley and Bree
Lampley and Jim Lampley. But I hate the fact that
you don't have an accent of any kind. Where are
you raised? Iowa? I did not know where this conversation
was going. I said, I was from the Bronx originally,
(39:39):
Is that right? I'm from Brooklyn? Could you tell the
hell kind of speech teacher did you have? You? You
sound like Iowa? I explained, my father had said that
if I wanted to go into broadcasting, I could not
talk quote like the rest of us. Walter looked away
from me and then back, and he said, very wise words.
Your father was a speech teacher. No, I said, architect.
(40:02):
His eyes flared. How in the hell does that work?
I started to explain, when it suddenly dawned on me
that we were discussing this only because he said he
hated the fact that I did not have an accent.
I asked him, why no accent means I can't do
an impression of you? Well? This caused me to pause. Impressions.
(40:25):
This is nineteen ninety one. In nineteen ninety one, Walter
Mathow was one of the top five most impersonated voices
in America. Anybody who did impressions, good or bad, professional
or amateur. Anybody did a Walter Mathow? You did your
Sammy Davis, your Howard Cosell, your Walter Mathow. Wait, I
(40:49):
said to him, you do impressions of sportscasters? Yes, he said, proudly.
Would you like to hear them? I said, I'll pay cash.
Don't normally do these, but seeing you are in the business,
I will just for you. I practiced these a lot.
By the way, twenty years later, Norman Lloyd confirmed for
(41:10):
me Mathou did do sportscaster impressions. He did practice them
a lot. This was not some sort of bit. Now
back in nineteen ninety one, Mathow cleared his throat, he
shook his shoulders. Let's start with the best, and it
sounds something like this, Hello, everybody, this is Vin Scully
(41:31):
at Dodger Stadium. What do you think? It sounded exactly
like Walter Mathow. Didn't sound like Vin Scully. It didn't
even sound like a bad impression of Vin Scully. It
didn't even sound like a bad impression of Walter Mathow.
It was just Walter Mathow talking. Thinking quickly, I said, uncanny,
(41:52):
mister Mathow, thank you. I work on Vinnie especially hat
he's my favorite. Now the big mouth. Hello again, this
is Howard co Sell at ringside. How about that one?
I think I got most of the inflection. Goodness, mister Mathow,
It's like he's in the room with us. This went
on for many minutes, Kurt Goudie, Chick, hern Al Michaels,
(42:12):
several local LA radio announcers. I cursed myself for not
having brought a tape recorder with me. Walter Mathow did
impressions of sportscasters, and they were all terrible, but he
said he couldn't do one of me because I had
no accent. I was complimented and crushed after a very
(42:33):
nice event, saluting his friend and neighbor in the front
row seats at the Laker Games, doctor Robert Curlin. We
called it an evening, and as everybody got up to leave,
I asked Walter Mathow to autograph my program from the
dinner my pleasure. He said, nice work tonight. But I
still don't get how your father, the architect was also
a speech teacher. But never mind. In the program he
(42:54):
wrote this listen, Keith quit kidding around, No, don't. Walter
mathowt it was lovely, and then he did something that
took my breath away, something I have tried to do
anytime circumstances permitted me to. He picked up his program,
(43:15):
he handed it to me, and he said, no, you
sign mine. Can you believe that I only met him
the one time, but that gesture stayed with me to
such a degree that this happened. Nine years later. I
woke up at the crack of dawn to go host
(43:37):
the baseball Game of the Week at Fox Studios in
LA It was Saturday morning, July first, two thousand. It
was nine years and about two weeks after I met
Walter Mathow and on the all news radio station. There
was one big story that morning in Los Angeles. Overnight
the great actor Walter Mathow had died heart attack, aged
(44:01):
seventy nine. To tears, I've done all the damage I
can do here. Thank you for listening. Most of our
(44:22):
Countdown music was arranged, produced, and performed by Brian Ray
and John Phillip chaneil musical directors of Countdown. This is
my all purpose Walter Mathow Bernie Sanders' voice. It was
produced by Tko Brothers. Mister Ray was on the guitars,
bass and drums. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration in keyboards. I'll
(44:43):
stop now. Our satirical and fifthy musical comments are by
the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The Olberman
theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy
of ESPN, Inc. Is our Sports Music. Other music arranged
and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. That's countdown
for today, Day one hundred and forty two of America
held hostage just one and twenty two days until the
(45:06):
scheduled end of his lame duck and lame brained term
unless putin or musk remove him sooner, or the actuarial
tables do, or we do the next scheduled countdown. He
is Thursday until that next one. I'm Keith Olderman, good afternoon,
good morning, good evening, good night, and was the last
(45:29):
part of that all right, good luck Countdown with Keith
(45:50):
Ouldreman 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. More
(00:24):
people were arrested in LA after the Lakers won the
twenty twenty NBA title than were arrested in LA on
Sunday during the protests during the Ice Riot during the
Gestapo invasion of Southern California. This is not some sort
of metaphor or analogy. October eleventh, twenty twenty, after the
(00:46):
COVID delayed NBA Finals ended with the LA Lakers winning
the championship, in LA, there were seventy six arrests Sunday,
the day Trump now says that without him and his
Brown Shirts, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated. There
were forty two arrests seventy six to forty two vandalism,
(01:12):
unlawful assembly, failure to disperse, bottles thrown at cops, vehicles
set on fire, flash bangs and projectiles fired at civilians,
graffiti covering buildings, property damage, a crowd of at least
two thousand out of control, Downtown LA streets closed. No,
that was also all after the Lakers won. The Lakers
(01:33):
victory celebration five years ago was measurably a greater risk
to security and safety than were the protests against Trump's
unconstitutional kidnapping of civilians, often citizens, almost always law abiding
this past Sunday, And if that raw final score is
(01:55):
not stark enough Lakers seventy six protests for due process
forty two. It's a final. You knew this will true.
Once Trump declared victory yesterday, at midnight, our hitler was posting,
looking really bad in La, bring in the troops. At noon,
(02:17):
our hitler was posting that the governor and the mayor
who just fire five things are not insane fascist dictators
quote should be saying thank you, President Trump. You are
so wonderful. We would be nothing without you? Sir? Is
he an insane narcissist or calculating monster? Why can't we
have both? Right after congratulating himself, Trump mobilized five hundred
(02:41):
members of the Marines to join the National Guard in La.
Some say it's seven hundred members of the Marines to
take care of the rapidly expanding nothing. It is not
just unnecessary, it is illegal, and I will get to
the California lawsuit against all of it presently, which has
(03:01):
now been filed. The other content, though, that Sunday was
nothing seventy six Laker arrests forty two Trump riot arrests.
Was when Trump insisted, quote, I wouldn't call it quite
an insurrection, but it could have led to an insurrection
on quote, And there was disappointment in his voice because
of course he wants one. As we will analyze in
(03:23):
a moment, the powers he has awarded himself when federalizing
the National Guard turned out to be enough for him
to literally install his dictatorship to day. But let's first
finish the clean up on the near complete obliteration of
Los Angeles. Ah, what a shame. I like the place
(03:43):
this could reignite at any point. You could know more
about this than I do, because I recorded this earlier
than you're listening to it. The rumor within local government
was ICE would be kidnapping people off the streets of
LA and southern California for the next twenty eight days
to a month. They were at multiple home debas yesterday,
(04:06):
And of course Trump wants it reignited, because that is
the point of it. The deportations are not only an
end in themselves raw meet to the racists and the
Stephen Miller grade psychos, but they are also a means
for him to control anything he wants, especially foremost the
midterm elections, but that there was nothing approaching what he
(04:27):
told his cult had happened was underscored when Rick Caruso,
the lifelong Republican who lost the election for mayor to
Karen Bass in November twenty twenty two and has since
criticized her every move, when he wrote, quote, there is
no emergency, widespread threat, or out of control violence in
Los Angeles, and absolutely no danger that justifies deployment of
(04:51):
the National Guard, military, or other federal force to the
streets of this or any other Southern California city. Local
law enforcement is capable of handling the situation and should
arrest anyone causing violence in the streets. We must call
for calm in the streets, and deployment of the National
Guard may prompt just the opposite. Lifelong Republican lost the
(05:16):
mayor's race, hates the mayor. Caruso reiterated all of that yesterday,
just in case you missed it, live in drivetime on
local radio news just before noon Eastern. For the record,
Caruso was the Republican head of the Police Commission in
LA for many years, and he has a little money
(05:37):
behind him that race for mayor. He blew forty one
million on the primary around the country as much as
Trump is selling the idea that la is a cauldron
and he alone can save it, even though no, no,
that's right. I saved it yesterday, so everybody should call me, sir.
It's not Landing. Polling by the Last King of five
(05:58):
thirty eight Elliott Morris confirms Trump has been hurt by
the deportations and especially the case of kilm Are of
Rego Garcia, and people like him and the Democrats have
been helped, not that they're doing anything with it, except
for Newsome. New CBS polling says fifty five percent in
this country supports the general idea of these deportations, but
(06:21):
fifty six percent dislike how Trump is doing it, and
no matter how they feel about the kidnappings and the renditions,
sixty three percent want due process. The problem, of course,
is that Trump doesn't have to convince anybody but his
supporters and the news media and the Republican political wars
(06:41):
he terrorizes into submission. He doesn't need fifty one percent
of voters. He doesn't need fifty one percent of Americans.
He just needs one hundred percent of his voters. They are,
in short, a mob, a gang, an organized crime family,
a cult, a suicide cult. Trump stumbling up those airplanes
(07:04):
step Sunday is the perfect metaphor. You and I correctly
see a deranged, delusional, elderly creature rapidly losing control not
just of his mind but of his bloated carcass. They
see him triumphantly getting up the stairs anyway and overcoming
all the obstacles anyway, and saving Los Angeles from a
(07:25):
crisis that he completely provoked and escalated. And matter of fact,
the son of a bitch didn't even manage to create
a real crisis, did he. I need a couple of
moments of humorous relief. One North Carolina congressman, a Republican
named Moore who does not appear to have his own neck,
(07:47):
let alone a brain, retweeted a Homeland Security post insisting
California politicians must call off their rioting mob. More added,
La is being burned down by lawless mobs who support
foreign criminals. The photo from DHS that he has reached
tweeted shows one car on fire, one not even very
(08:13):
on fire. There's some smoke There's about a dozen people
around this car. One is standing on top of it.
He is shirtless. He is wearing a Mexican flag, because
of course you never see a Mexican flag in Los Angeles.
It's the apocalypse again. Lakers arrests seventy six, Trump Ice
(08:34):
riot arrests forty two a final score. Then there is
the foppish conservative grifter, Scott Presler, you know, the guy
with the shoulder length hair, the one Politico reported had
sex in an office shared by the Republican National Committee
and the Republican Party of Virginia while he was working
(08:55):
for the latter group, and took pictures of himself having
sex in the office and posted the pictures on Craigslist.
Political outreach. I suppose well trump ists, mister Pressler is
ready to meet you at the barricades. Quote if Ice
needs more bodies on the ground, I'm willing to temporarily
(09:15):
stop my political work to help. I studied criminal justice
in college. I am physically fit and want to make
sure that the mission is a success. I'm very serious,
ready and willing to serve. Oh, Scott will save you.
(09:36):
He has a degree from George Mason University. Now about
the real danger behind this danger. Governor Gavin Newsom has
filed the Attorney General has filed a federal lawsuit by
the State of California against the Department of Defense and
(09:57):
Warrior Ethos and hair Products devotee Pete Hegseth for violating
the states' rights in the tenth amend, specifically the provisos
that state control of the National Guard is in the
hands of the states, or as somebody else put it
in twenty twenty, quote, we have laws. We have to
go buy the laws. We can't move in the National Guard.
(10:19):
We can't call in the National Guard unless we're requested
by a governor unquote and you know who said that,
then President d Mensha Trump. As straightforward as this would seem,
especially with Trump providing this unintentional testimony against himself, there
is a darker element to this, as outlined yesterday by
(10:40):
the impeccable Ryan Goodman, the co editor in chief of
Just Security and CNN analyst. Mister Goodman notes what most
of us had not had time to see because of
the spectacle of Trump's terrorist attack against la The memorandum
from Saturday, which federalizes the National Guard is almost unbelievably
almost completely vague. I encourage you to read Ryan Goodman's
(11:06):
thread on Blue Sky. It is harrowing and detailed. These
are the eight bullet points, and unfortunately that term may
never have been more appropriate than now. Points one and two.
The definition of rebellion, which used to mean, you know,
at least January sixth, rebellion, now means peaceful protests. The
(11:29):
part of the combined Pentagon and Homeland Security Memo Goodman
highlighted reads to the extent that protests or acts of
violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws. They constitute
a form of rebellion against the authority of the government
of the United States. So if you protest, the National
(11:51):
Guard is in theory entitled I shoot you. The second
point he makes is that one use of that word
or to the extent that protests or acts of violence,
so they're both covered. If you protest or you commit
an active violence, they can shoot you. Goodman's third and
(12:14):
fourth points this memo authorizes the use of preemptive force
and the use of preemptive force for quote protests. I
hereby call into Federal service members and units of the
National Guard under ten USC one two four oh six
to temporarily protect ice and other United States government personnel
who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law,
(12:37):
and to protect federal property at locations where protests against
these functions are occurring or are likely to occur. Based
on current threat assessments and planned operations, Your non violent
protest doesn't even have to have happened, yet they can
(12:59):
bring in the National Guard. Goodman's fifth point no geographically,
this is not an authorization to use the Guard in
southern California. In June of twenty twenty five, it's all purpose.
It's a magic, evil wand of all people. Bill Crystal
noted this first to quote him. The presidential memorandum never
(13:21):
mentions Los Angeles or California. It's a blank check for
mobilizing National Guard and active duty troops to deploy anywhere
to protect federal personnel or functions wherever protests are occurring
or are likely to occur. It gets worse and worse.
(13:43):
Goodman six point authorizes regular armed forces. It does not
tell you under what authority a president can use the
military in an emergency that is established, but he has
to invoke the Insurrection Act first, except this memo does
not say that. It just says members of the regular
(14:05):
Armed Forces, as determined appropriate in his discretion. So much
for the Insurrection Act, so much for any review of
what a president does. Goodman's seventh point expressly overrides the
governor's authorities, changing Title ten, Section one two four oh
(14:25):
six from orders for these purposes shall be issued through
the Governors of the States to saying only that the
Secretary of Defense should quote coordinate with the governors of
the States. For the record, before we finish these points,
this whole thing is, or at least should be, incredibly illegal,
but amazingly Trump has already violated it. His own new
(14:49):
illegal rules, according to Governor Knusimi, not only ignored the
governor's rights regarding the National Guard, he didn't even bother
with that lip service instruction to coordinate with the governor. Lastly,
Ryan Goodman's eighth point not a last resort. The Department
of Justice has a policy which is at least as
(15:10):
old as the policy that you can indict a candidate
around election time, that the military can only be deployed
legally in this country. As a last resort. This whole thing,
quite clearly and You don't need to be Ryan Goodman
to realize this, and you don't need to read the
(15:31):
entire memo from Homeland Security and the Pentagon to realize this.
This whole thing authorizes the use of the military as
a first resort. This is why Gavin Newsom in California
are suing. This is why, ultimately that lawsuit may be
more important than anything that happens on the streets of
(15:53):
Los Angeles this entire month. This is why Newsom is suing.
It is not just about what Trump is doing in LA,
and it won't be resolved fast enough to likely impact
Trump is doing in LA. It is that it provides
a template for Trump to institute a police state, a
military dictatorship in this country today. You can use the
(16:20):
National Guard and the military against peaceful protests, or just
the threat of peaceful protests, or your threat assessment that
there may be peaceful protests, or you can use it
against anything really, or as we are seeing in LA,
you can use it against nothing. CNN should have mister
(16:41):
Goodman on to cover this twenty four to seven and
said it will show you an empty intersection in downtown
LA and insists hell may break loose at any moment.
Right after this message from yet another insurance firm specializing
in mesothelioma, which leads me to one dark bit of humor.
I am glad CNN televised George Clooney's good Night and
(17:03):
good Luck over the weekend, which I mentioned I saw
the first night of previews. I hope they rerun the
live presentation again. It has many flaws, not the least
of one is fairly hilarious. George Clooney is not as
an actor as good a newscaster as his father, Nick
Clooney was, largely because Nick Clooney was a newscaster in
(17:27):
Los Angeles when I was a sportscaster there. It has flaws,
but it is invaluable right now. Except I couldn't help
notice that CNN ran it Saturday night just as the
events in LA were beginning to snowball, and CNN kept
with it, kept showing it and a postgame show for
three hours anyway. In short, CNN was showing a play
(17:53):
about news instead of showing you know news, which sadly
is the CNN story in a nuts Next now to
Musk and Trump, and why follow me closely here? Why
I think their fight probably proves no. Musk did not
(18:18):
rig the voting machines last November. That's next. This is
countdown now. Two things that may have slipped off your
(18:52):
plate in the last ten days of constant chaos. Okay,
last ten years of constant chaos. They are beginning to
talk about a military draft again. Bluntly, nothing, nothing, not
even the Blue state tax strike I mentioned yesterday, could
bring Trump down faster than if he imposed a draft
(19:16):
on the families of American youth in the twenty first century.
Sean Hannity, one of the oldest and most obvious distributors
of Trump's trial balloons, said on his radio show last week, quote, Look,
Israel's safety today depends on the brave men and women
of the IDF. Well that's also bullshit, but we'll pass
(19:37):
on that for the moment. Every citizen, by the way,
is required to serve. I actually think we should adopt
this in Thish country. It'd be so good for our
young people. Required to serve. That means a draft, or
it means compulsory registration and service, which is a draft
(19:58):
where everybody is drafted and sent to La to rendition
the brown people. We should a competition Nish country. You first, Sean,
see if we can find a military suit of paratroopers
outfit that would fit you. Trump hit it at this
(20:19):
during the campaign. Last June, his former Secretary of Defense
Christopher Miller, told The Washington Post that a national service
requirement should be quote strongly considered. He described the concept
as a common right of passage, one that would create
a sense of quote shared sacrifice among America's youth unquote.
(20:42):
A little article, not much play, and it went over
so badly. Trump had to publicly deny it, to say
he'd never even thought about a draft, never, not once,
just as I'm certain he's not thinking about it now.
I'm certain Sean Hannity the Renfield to Trump's Dracula, the
man who has not had an original idea since nineteen
(21:03):
ninety six. I'm sure Sean Hannity dreamed that up all
on a jan and he wasn't told to shay it
by his master. And the second news story that you
may have missed Musk and Trump. Remember Elon Musk, Remember
(21:29):
when it was not just the lead story but the
only story. Are you old enough to? I mean it
was Czech's calendar three thousand years ago, oh no, sorry,
I read that wrong. It was last Friday. And one, yes,
it's a distraction, certainly by now it is a distraction.
But two, I think it's a meaningful distraction. And three
(21:52):
to understand its meaning, you really have to turn off
your sanity and your filters for a moment and infer
what crazy people do in such circumstances. And also four,
I told you so if you miss this or have
forgotten it, because after all, there's only so much space
in our brains for the latest asshole thing Trump has done.
(22:14):
Overnight Friday, Musk deleted his Trump is in the Epstein
files tweets and the Trump should be immediately impeached tweets,
But Musk did not delete his I won the election
for Trump tweets. Now again, it's trivia. That's why it's
at the back end of the segment here, and it
(22:35):
could wait till Tuesday. But the tea leaves I think
are important. When this erupted, Musk went almost immediately to
Epstein and impeachment and President Vance. And I suppose it's
possible Elon was hit by lightning over the weekend and
suddenly his head cleared and he removed those tweets because
(22:57):
he wanted to de escalate like a you know, human
being would. But Musk and Trump aren't human beings in
the sense the rest of us understand the term. They
don't de escalate in an emergency. They may occasionally run
away in fear, but they can't be strategic or remorseful
(23:19):
or corrective even in self interest, and screenshots be damned.
They just try to burn the evidence and hope nobody notices.
And since the mottos of the Republican Party and the
Association of MAGA disease Victims have long since become I
haven't seen what he posted, said wrote on the sidewalk
(23:40):
in his own blood, so I can't comment on it.
Burning the evidence usually works. What I notice is that
he did not delete quote. Without me, Trump would have
lost the election, Dems would control the House, and Republicans
would be fifty one to forty nine in the Senate.
And adopting for a moment the crazy think that prevails
(24:01):
in the vast empty caverns of Musk's mind, I would
suggest this confirms Musk did not rig the voting for Trump,
and that Trump's infamous remark about Musk knowing those vote
counting computers was just more of Trump's imbecilic imprecision. Now, look,
I don't diminish or demean anybody who thinks otherwise. I
(24:25):
don't doubt that people could listen to that and think
Trump just confessed that Musk rigged the election. To you
and me, vote counting computers that means elections and devoled
company machines switching votes in Florida in two thousand, from
Gore to Bush, but to Trump, who is more like
(24:47):
a semi sentient vegetable of some kind. Vote counting computers
could mean anything, anything from that actual election rigging to
computers that produce polling results to tell Trump how many
votes he's going to get. It could mean that or
the other thing. It could mean, Siri. Trump used the
(25:09):
word counting, and sometimes to Trump, counting means counting out loud.
It didn't say the out loud. Party just says counting.
And we're supposed to assume we know what he means.
We're supposed to assume he knows what he means. That's
the way Trump is. His relationship to language, to human
language is like that of chance the gardener from being there.
(25:30):
Trump only uses words that could mean ten different things.
In any event, The reason I think all this sturm
Undran with the two worst people in this country actually
confirms there was no Musk effort to fix the twenty
twenty four election is that when things with Trump got
so bad that Musk was willing to invoke Epstein not
(25:52):
only accused Trump of pedophilia or knowledge of pedophilia, but
of using his government to cover up evidence of pedophilia.
When things with Trump got so bad so fast that
Musk went to each faster than well, faster than I do,
Musk did not say I rigged the election for him.
(26:13):
His post, which is still up, is about the things
we know about immoral, unforgivable but largely legal things. Two
hundred and seventy five million dollars in funding putting onto
the campaign trail is not inconsiderable appeal as a stupid
person's idea of a smart person throwing his social media
site completely behind Trump, because if you are willing to
(26:34):
apply to idiots who believe all Liberals are part of
a cannibalistic pedophilia ring that their hero, the sitting president
of the United States and semi Jesus is in a
report about a pedophilia ring, and that's why he hasn't
released it to you the way he promised. And if
you're willing to say flat out, he should be immediately impeached.
What on God's green earth would stop you from saying,
(26:57):
by the way, I rig the election for him. To
Trump's supporters, the idea that you rig the election for
him is like seventeenth on the list of great admissions.
Oh you did tell us how, so we can do
it without you next time. I mean, nuclear war is
nuclear war. You don't hold anything back, And Musk didn't
(27:18):
hold anything back. He may have rolled some of it
back over the weekend, but the claim he won the
election for Trump is still out there. And the only
reason I can think of for why what he wrote
is not stronger than it is is that what he
did was not stronger than it was. Musk Thursday was
reaching for things with which to kill Trump, at least metaphorically,
(27:40):
Epstein impeachment. Then he suddenly said, oh, rigging the election.
I won't throw that at him. Nonsense. Also, if Musk
or anybody else actually rigged all or part of the
twenty twenty four election, why didn't he rig the Wisconsin
Supreme Court election two months ago. I mean he spent
twenty million on it. He went there, humiliated himself, campaigned
(28:03):
in his ketamineupopt Clip's way, and his guy, Brad, lost
by ten percent. It's a lot, but ten percent in
a statewide special election is less than two hundred and
thirty nine thousand votes, and Musk would have literally had
to flip only one hundred and twenty thousand votes and
Brad wins. And if you can't do that, how can
(28:26):
you rig several swing states in an actual presidential election?
And by the way, one of them you would have
had to have rigged would have been Wisconsin. The Musk
vote rigging machine broke, did it between November and April.
Couldn't get the Wi Fi starlink, failed gelon, you got
a blue screen on your Dell. So there is the
(28:51):
rather serpentine backwards logic that says to me, the Musk
Trump fight kind of proves the election wasn't rigged, because
given what Musk wanted to do to Trump last week,
if he had that rock, he would have dropped it
on Trump like Trump was while e Coyote, which brings
me to my last point about this. I did tell
you so. When the podcast promos dropped last Wednesday night,
(29:15):
Musk attacks Trump, there was blowback from every corner. No
he didn't. No, you're making too much of one retweet.
No I got that one right. I am not an insider.
I do not have sources. Even on TV, I really
didn't have sources. They all looked at me funny in Washington,
like how does this guy know stuff? But what I
(29:37):
might lack in those and even lack in insight at
times I make up for in old age Trump as
the coyote and Musk as the road runner. Okay, Trump
is the coyote and Musk as a different coyote might
be new, but the formula ain't. These are narcissists with
brains that don't work. Right. I have covered them half
(30:00):
of my career, and I have worked for them half
of my life. And oh, by the way, there will
be another round to this fight, at least another round. Trump,
drifting off from reality like ooh, a metallic balloon let
go by a child in southern California callback to the
(30:20):
last episode, has threatened Musk with more king Lear consequences
if now he helps Democrats instead. Howell Musk respond who
knows other than that he will respond. These are mad
men with basses who cannot conceive that their cult leader
is wrong. They will fight. As I suggested online, we
(30:41):
can only hope that when they fight, it's a duel,
which brings me to the chef's kiss here. The Washington
Post buried this in its thumbsucker on the Musk Trump brawl.
It got a little play on Sunday because it's such
a dramatic image. They didn't deny it at the White House,
but literally, The Washington Post put this in paragraph twenty two,
(31:01):
long past the point Bezos or his whorees would fallen
asleep and thus missed it. It was about a sub
fight between Musk and Scott Bessant, the Treasury Secretary, who
I am still not convinced actually exists, who I am
still not convinced isn't just a character played by the
impeccable actor Barry Bostwick, who used to portray the mayor
(31:23):
on Spin City. The term fight here is used literally,
quoting the Post quoting Steve Bannon, and yes, we will
accept Steve Bannon as a source for anything this much
fun quote. In mid April, Musk and Besson had gone
into the Oval Office to make their respective cases about
their preferences for acting IRS Commissioner. Trump decided to support
(31:45):
Besson's choice. That disagreement was first reported by The New
York Times. Actor Bessant and Musk exited the Oval office
and began walking down the hallway. The two men started
to exchange insults, Bannon said, adding that Bessant brought up
Musk's claims that he would uncover more than one trillion
dollars in wasteful and fraudulent government spending, which Musk had
(32:05):
not succeeded at doing. Quote, Scott said, You're a fraud.
You're a total fraud, Bannon said in an interview. Musk
then rammed his shoulder into Besson's ribcage quote like a
rugby player, Bannon said, and Bessont hit him back. Multiple
people stepped in to break up the scrum who rugby
(32:25):
term as the two men reached the National Security Advisor's
office and Musk was shuffled out of the White House.
So we are now at this point in this bizarre timeline.
The Treasury Secretary is physically attacked by the mad scientist
spacey guy outside the National Security advisor's office. Thus the
(32:51):
movie Doctor Strangelove is real. Gentlemen, you can't fight in here.
This is the war room. Finally, the number one story
on the countdown, and my favorite topic me and things
from my career and my life. And it is to
(33:11):
me amazing, even after all this time, that you could
meet somebody just once in your life, but years later
be moved to tears upon learning of their death. Then again,
the man in question was named Walter Mathow, and if
he was not the most popular American comedic actor of
the last half of the twentieth century, he was close
to it. And maybe more importantly, he was the most skilled,
(33:35):
minimal touch American actor of the last half of the
twentieth century. In other words, he was the man who,
on stage or on camera, seemed to be doing the
least amount of actual acting while still keeping you utterly
convinced that the guy you saw on the screen was
not Walter Mathow, but was Oscar Madison, and was not
Walter Mathow, but was Max Goldman, and was not Walter Mathow,
(33:56):
but was Willie Gingrich, and was not Walter Mathow but
was Mel Miller, even though mel Miller had a Southern accent,
smoked a pipe, had horn rim glasses, and supposedly went
to Vanderbilt. We all knew Walter Mathow. It felt like
we knew him personally because he managed a miracle. Every
time he performed it was all him up there, and
(34:16):
yet at the same time it was not him at
all anyway. October first was his birthday, which is what
brought this extraordinary man to the front of my mind again.
I will get to my meeting with him first. Walter
Mathow's best friends as an adult were his partner in
half a dozen films, Jack Lemon and my dear friend
Norman Lloyd, the one man history of Hollywood, who he
(34:38):
lost in twenty twenty one at the age of one
hundred and six. Norman loved Walter, and Norman loved talking
about Walter, and there was an amazing amount of things
to talk about about Walter. Norman told me that on
the last of the Grumpy Old Men movies that he
and Lemon made together, I think it was called Grumpy
Old Men were doing this for the money. Mathow wanted
(35:01):
to wrap up one day of shooting quickly. He was
scheduled to film a scene in a water slide made
up to look like a sewer through which his character
was escaping. As the lunch break was called, he said
to lemon, come on, Jack, let's go rehearse the water
slide thing. This way. We can do it in one take.
Get the hell out of here anyway. Don't you have
to wait an hour after eating before you can shoot
(35:21):
through a sewer. They went to the sewer water slide set.
Walter Mathow grabbed the raft he was supposed to ride,
and he jumped in. As he went through it, he
studied all the corners and where the cameras would be,
so he knew where to make his faces. And seconds
later he was shooting out the far end of the
water slide onto the giant inflatable twelve foot square air
mattress placed there to break his fall. Or he would
(35:44):
have been doing that, except it was lunch and the
teamsters had deflated the mattress then moved it away because
the set was on lunch break. So Walter Mathow, then
seventy three years old, came flying out of the water
slide onto the pavement. He broke his collarbone, which is
just about as painful a thing as you can break.
(36:05):
No Walter Mathow screamed. Jack Lemon raced over to him. Walter, Walter,
are you all right? No? Not Jack? Call nine one one?
Oh how Lemon panicked? Can I help you, Walter? Can
I Can I get you something? Walter? Yes, Jack, get
me nine one one ow o. Lemon continued to panic
(36:25):
but till they come. Are you okay, Walter? Are you comfortable?
Walter Mathow was in sheer agony, but he realized through
the fog of pain that one of the oldest jokes
in show business was actually happening to him. Finally, in
real life. Am I comfortable? I make a nice living?
(36:45):
Jack ow O? My friend Norman Lloyd used to go
hiking with Walter Mathow in the Hollywood Hills, and he
told me that one day Walter was unusually quiet. The
two had gone a mile or so, and Mathow suddenly
stopped and grabbed Norman by the arm. Nomy, did you
know at the end and Beethoven was so deaf he
(37:07):
thought he was painting. Norman smiled, snorted, and started to
say that it was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard.
But halfway through norman sentence, Mathow had already turned away
from him and was back walking again. Another mile passed
in silence, and now Mathou slowed down and faced his
friend Norman. This is important. I have something to tell you,
Norman said. His heart skipped. He thought there was something wrong.
(37:30):
What is it, Walt did you know at the end
Beethoven was so deaf he thought he was painting? Now
Norman just shook his head. As they completed their five
mile hike through the hills, Mathou stopped roughly once every
mile and repeated the same line, did you know at
the end Beethoven was so deaf he thought he was painting?
(37:50):
Norman told me it totally unnerved me. When we got
back to where we parked our cars, I felt like
I had to avenge myself somehow, so I blurted out
to him, WALTA, did you know at the end Beethoven
was so deaf he thought he was painting, Norman said.
Mathow looked at him, screwing his great craggy face into
(38:10):
a resentful sneer as he did, what the hell are
you talking about? Thought he was painting? That's the dumbest
thing I ever heard, As I said, I met Walter
Mathow once when I was a local sportscaster in Los Angeles.
I was invited to host a charity event at the
Hollywood Park Racetrack. I ordinarily did not do these things
(38:31):
because to do them I would have to take the
day off. But when the organizer said, oh, and Walter
Mathow will be there, I just asked for directions. First
time I had ever imagined what it was like to
be a sportswriter or to be a sports broadcaster. It
was when I was nine years old and I saw
Walter Mathow portray Oscar Madison in the movie The Odd Couple.
(38:54):
It was exactly what I wanted to be and where
I wanted to live and how I wanted to eat.
And I wanted to get a chance to tell him that.
So at the charity dinner, I screwed up my courage,
I introduced myself. I told him all that, and he replied,
I hate you. I was so crushed I almost passed out,
(39:17):
and clearly Walter Mathow recognized this. No, no, no, I
don't hate your work. I watch you every night on
Channel two Action News, you and Jim Lampley and Bree
Lampley and Jim Lampley. But I hate the fact that
you don't have an accent of any kind. Where are
you raised? Iowa? I did not know where this conversation
was going. I said, I was from the Bronx originally,
(39:39):
Is that right? I'm from Brooklyn? Could you tell the
hell kind of speech teacher did you have? You? You
sound like Iowa? I explained, my father had said that
if I wanted to go into broadcasting, I could not
talk quote like the rest of us. Walter looked away
from me and then back, and he said, very wise words.
Your father was a speech teacher. No, I said, architect.
(40:02):
His eyes flared. How in the hell does that work?
I started to explain, when it suddenly dawned on me
that we were discussing this only because he said he
hated the fact that I did not have an accent.
I asked him, why no accent means I can't do
an impression of you? Well? This caused me to pause. Impressions.
(40:25):
This is nineteen ninety one. In nineteen ninety one, Walter
Mathow was one of the top five most impersonated voices
in America. Anybody who did impressions, good or bad, professional
or amateur. Anybody did a Walter Mathow? You did your
Sammy Davis, your Howard Cosell, your Walter Mathow. Wait, I
(40:49):
said to him, you do impressions of sportscasters? Yes, he said, proudly.
Would you like to hear them? I said, I'll pay cash.
Don't normally do these, but seeing you are in the business,
I will just for you. I practiced these a lot.
By the way, twenty years later, Norman Lloyd confirmed for
(41:10):
me Mathou did do sportscaster impressions. He did practice them
a lot. This was not some sort of bit. Now
back in nineteen ninety one, Mathow cleared his throat, he
shook his shoulders. Let's start with the best, and it
sounds something like this, Hello, everybody, this is Vin Scully
(41:31):
at Dodger Stadium. What do you think? It sounded exactly
like Walter Mathow. Didn't sound like Vin Scully. It didn't
even sound like a bad impression of Vin Scully. It
didn't even sound like a bad impression of Walter Mathow.
It was just Walter Mathow talking. Thinking quickly, I said, uncanny,
(41:52):
mister Mathow, thank you. I work on Vinnie especially hat
he's my favorite. Now the big mouth. Hello again, this
is Howard co Sell at ringside. How about that one?
I think I got most of the inflection. Goodness, mister Mathow,
It's like he's in the room with us. This went
on for many minutes, Kurt Goudie, Chick, hern Al Michaels,
(42:12):
several local LA radio announcers. I cursed myself for not
having brought a tape recorder with me. Walter Mathow did
impressions of sportscasters, and they were all terrible, but he
said he couldn't do one of me because I had
no accent. I was complimented and crushed after a very
(42:33):
nice event, saluting his friend and neighbor in the front
row seats at the Laker Games, doctor Robert Curlin. We
called it an evening, and as everybody got up to leave,
I asked Walter Mathow to autograph my program from the
dinner my pleasure. He said, nice work tonight. But I
still don't get how your father, the architect was also
a speech teacher. But never mind. In the program he
(42:54):
wrote this listen, Keith quit kidding around, No, don't. Walter
mathowt it was lovely, and then he did something that
took my breath away, something I have tried to do
anytime circumstances permitted me to. He picked up his program,
(43:15):
he handed it to me, and he said, no, you
sign mine. Can you believe that I only met him
the one time, but that gesture stayed with me to
such a degree that this happened. Nine years later. I
woke up at the crack of dawn to go host
(43:37):
the baseball Game of the Week at Fox Studios in
LA It was Saturday morning, July first, two thousand. It
was nine years and about two weeks after I met
Walter Mathow and on the all news radio station. There
was one big story that morning in Los Angeles. Overnight
the great actor Walter Mathow had died heart attack, aged
(44:01):
seventy nine. To tears, I've done all the damage I
can do here. Thank you for listening. Most of our
(44:22):
Countdown music was arranged, produced, and performed by Brian Ray
and John Phillip chaneil musical directors of Countdown. This is
my all purpose Walter Mathow Bernie Sanders' voice. It was
produced by Tko Brothers. Mister Ray was on the guitars,
bass and drums. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration in keyboards. I'll
(44:43):
stop now. Our satirical and fifthy musical comments are by
the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The Olberman
theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy
of ESPN, Inc. Is our Sports Music. Other music arranged
and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. That's countdown
for today, Day one hundred and forty two of America
held hostage just one and twenty two days until the
(45:06):
scheduled end of his lame duck and lame brained term
unless putin or musk remove him sooner, or the actuarial
tables do, or we do the next scheduled countdown. He
is Thursday until that next one. I'm Keith Olderman, good afternoon,
good morning, good evening, good night, and was the last
(45:29):
part of that all right, good luck Countdown with Keith
(45:50):
Ouldreman 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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