May 17, 2024 • 57 mins
SERIES 2 EPISODE 177: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: A lawyer yelling "you're a liar" at a witness does not make him a liar, despite what Anderson Cooper says. The storyline before the Trump Trial began was: If Michael Cohen keeps his cool when Todd Blanche screams at him, he'll prevail. He did it, and yet the networks rushed to ignore it. Prosecutors have already said they'll only need about an hour of re-direct of Cohen next Monday, meaning that's all the time they expect to require to polish him back up. They are still winning - plus there is still the wild card that in his perpetual over-confidence Trump may testify.
And yet that's not where I start because sometimes the most important story and the most interesting one are not the same thing. The primary sidebar takeaway from Cohen's testimony was based on a poorly worded tweet that the author, Ron Filipkowski, deleted. “Cohen testified that his main media contacts to get positive stories run about Trump were Maggie Haberman, Katy Tur, and Chris Cuomo." Except Cohen DIDN'T say that. He was asked if he had good relationships with reporters. Haberman? "Yes," he replied. Tur? "Yes." Cuomo? "Yes." I am thus in the position of defending - in part - the transactional Haberman, my appalling ex, and the ridiculous Cuomo.
Having said that, they are all imperiled because of what Cohen DID say.
Plus we have a really great punchline to the day in the courtroom in which a would-be Trump Insurrectionist learned that loyalty to him is a one-way street, even if the only thing you wanted was a wave.
B-Block (29:43) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Exactly what American journalism needed: Chris Cillizza has authored a "Mission Statement." It is even more hilariously self-unaware than any actual article he's ever written.
C-Block (51:44) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A lot in this episode about the media, so let's hear from Thurber and how they tried to turn him into a radio star and instead turned him into a nervous wreck: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Todd Blanche.
Some of the reporters with which you had close relationships
(00:27):
were Chris Cuomo, Michael Cohen, Yes, Todd Blanche, Katie Turr,
Michael Cohen. Yes. Let me just interject this comment at
this moment. Every day I struggle with these, particularly with
(00:52):
choosing the lead, because often the most important story is
the most interesting story, but not always like yesterday, like
this edition, this is not the most important story. Nevertheless,
Adam Klassfeld reporting from the courthouse. Quote. Cohen says he
had a strong professional relationship with Chris Cuomo, Katie Turr,
(01:14):
and Maggie Haberman. Kyle Cheney reporting from the courthouse. Quote.
Cohen also name checked Chris Cuomo and Katie Urr. Hugo
Lowell reporting from the courthouse. Quote Katie Urr drink, Well,
it's not forced me to start that again. That's what
I get for telling you that I would soon stop
(01:34):
talking about my exes. Actually, I find myself in a
very strange position here Urr and Maggie Haberman and Chris
Cuomo actually have to be defended somewhat. Trump's lawyer did
ask Trump's ex lawyer, if he had close relationships with
those three, including my ex and Trump's ex lawyer, did
(01:58):
say yes. But and we'll know this with certainty later
today when the official transcript of yesterday's testimony comes out.
The most widely circulated thing supposedly testified to about Katie
Turr and Haberman and Cuomo and at least I ever
lived with Haberman or Cuomo. The most widely circulated supposed
(02:19):
quote was not said. Ron philip Kowski of Midas Network,
usually extremely reliable, got it wrong, tried to correct it
long after the horse was out of the barn. He
and he alone wrote that quote. Cohen testified that his
(02:40):
main media contacts to get positive stories run about Trump
were you know. The clear implication in that quote is
that when Trump needed good press, Cohen would first call
Maggie Haberman, then Katie Turr, then Chris Cuomo. And that
is not what he said. He only said he had
(03:01):
good relationships with them. Is that distinction without a difference.
If Michael Cohen testified or believed or comes back when
court goes back into session next Monday and says I
knew I could get Trump positive stories from the new
York Times by calling Haberman, or I knew I could
get Trump positive stories from CNN by calling Cuomo, or
(03:22):
I knew I could get Trump positive stories from NBC
by calling terror. Those guys are in the fireable offense zone.
Those guys are in the your career is over zone.
Those guys are in the what's your second act going
to be? Zone? But they're not there now. Not that
they might not get there, but they are not there now.
(03:45):
They are to be viewed dubiously because what Cohen did
say is damaging enough. But he never said these were
the three people I called first to carry my water
for me. He was asked about three people by name,
and he said yes to all three. It doesn't mean
those were his only three or his first three. Philip
(04:08):
CASKI really screwed this up. To his credit, he killed
his tweet. He reached out to at least me who
had set out a screenshot of his tweet, and said
I should take it down to And he was right,
And I know The New York Times reached out to
Philip Kowski about the implications for Haberman. The problem for
all three, of course, is the context. CNN fired Chris
(04:31):
Cuomo after a disastrous journalistic fail in which he consulted
for his brother on how to get away with the
scandal that would ultimately cost his brother his governorship. More importantly,
CNN fired Cuomo because his coverage of his brother's scandal
was utterly indefensible. You do not say I can remain
(04:54):
impartial by not covering my brother the governor. You do
say I can remain impartial because when we should cover
my brother the governor, I will hand the newscast off
to one of my colleagues and I will stay out
of it. I mean, I was asked by CNN and
Cuomo's executive producer in real time how to do this,
and that's what I told them to do, and they
(05:15):
ignored me, and everybody got fired. Simply saying I won't
cover his story just serves to reduce the amount of
negative coverage of his story. It's not neutral in any way,
shape or form anyway. After Cuomo got fired, he went
to News Nation, where he's become a bitter reactionary. He
was never seen as particularly smart, either at CNN or
(05:38):
at the job before that at ABC News, but now
he's just another right winger with no ratings. The last
thing he needed was for Michael Cohen to say he
had a close relationship with him. As to Haberman, she
has been successfully skating on thin ice for years now,
so I doubt The New York Times sees her in
any worse a light today than it did this time yesterday.
(06:02):
The Times, as I think most news organizations in trouble do,
always becomes defiant when challenged. We're the Times. The Times
defended a guy named Jason Blair even as evidence mounted
that he had fabricated quotes, fabricated entire stories, fabricated the
(06:24):
people in the stories. The Times defended Judith Miller during
the Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction disaster time and time again.
It's not going to fire Maggie Haberman, even though Michael
Cohen testified under oath that he asked Haberman to write
nice things about him, and Michael Cohen testified under oath
(06:45):
that surreptitiously he recorded lots of conversations, including about forty
with reporters, and he played one of the recordings of
somebody to Haberman for a story. And by the way,
Haberman is sitting out there in court covering the trial.
The Times probably is that every month or so. Now
(07:07):
there's another story about Maggie Haberman trying to walk that
tightrope of being friendly with sources without being friendly two sources.
Cohen actually denied that he gave her stories in exchange
for good spin, but her own colleagues did not exactly
help her out. Jonathan Swan of The New York Times
(07:28):
wrote on Twitter X yesterday that those condemning Haberman for
talking to Cohen were wrong. And as I said, obviously
that's that's true. I'm defending I'm defending Maggie Haberman. It's true.
But talk about damning her with faint praise. Swan wrote,
nowhere did Cohen say he succeeded in getting Maggie to
(07:50):
write positive stories about Trump? And we've been shown exhibits
in court of Trump attacking Maggie publicly unquote, what do
you mean attempted murder? The problem is that quote. Nowhere
did Cohen say he succeeded in getting Maggie to write
(08:10):
positive stories about Trump? Well, that makes you stop and think.
Has Maggie Haberman written positive stories about Trump in the Times?
The answer is yes, And now you have to wonder why.
And now again, this is not the lead story. I
want to get to Michael Cohen's testimony about important things,
but I can't. I mean, how often do my exes
(08:30):
come up in the news? Well, actually, rather a lot.
As to Katie Turr, the problem is, as I noted
here long ago, as far back as twenty sixteen, she
was calling me from the campaign trail to defend Kelly
Ann Conway. And when the first book with her name
on it came out, even though Katie had asked me
(08:52):
to write it for her, and I had given her
all the Trump research material I had for free, and
we had, you know, lived together for three years. And
when we broke up, when I asked her to leave,
I paid her rent for a year so she could
stay in New York. The only mention of me in
that book was as somebody who she had dated briefly
(09:13):
in her twenties, and even that was part of another
anecdote in which she defended Kelly An Conway. Which is
the point. This didn't just happen recently. She's been I
guess Stockholm syndromed after her terrible experience, and it was
a terrible experience. Her life was repeatedly threatened on the
Trump campaign trail in twenty sixteen. I mean, it's only
(09:38):
days since Nancy Pelosi slammed her seriously as a Trump apologist.
Her work covering this trial and other Trump stories has
not been neutral, It has not been appropriate. What was
actually said about her on the stand by Cohen, and
we'll get the transcript sometime today was damaging. The erroneous
exaggerated version would be disqualifying if it were true, even
(10:03):
not true, it may be disqualif and as pissed off
by her and as ashamed of her as I have
been and am, the exaggerated version is neither fair nor
correct in her case and in Haberman's. The bottom line is,
if there were to be a sourced story, an investigative
story with off the record sources, a Watergate style source
(10:25):
story that would actually break Trump, that would cause him
to end his campaign today and flee the country, where
do you think that story would come from? From somebody
around Trump talking to somebody at the New York Times
that the Michael Cohens of this world hated or did
(10:47):
not know, somebody who used to work on the sports
desk before they eliminated sports at the New York Times,
Or would it come from somebody they liked, like Maggie Haberman.
I mean deep throat. After all, the strong of trying
to figure out who deep Throat was in the Watergate story.
(11:12):
Bob Woodward's primary source who set him off on half
of the stuff he found about Watergate and confirmed the
other half. He was the deputy director of the FBI.
People are saying, you can't have Maggie Haberman talking to
Michael Cohen would have been saying you can't have Bob
Woodward talking to Mark Felt. So what do you do?
(11:35):
Do you have somebody else other than Maggie Haberman cover
this trial, somebody else cover Trump? Do you fire Chris Cuomo?
I mean he has the largest audience on News Nation,
which means two episodes of this podcast gets a combined
audience that's about forty three percent larger than one episode
of his TV show, which is not good. The problem
(11:57):
for Katie, her own failures plus this unfairly amplified perception,
is ad for her own, good for the network's own good.
MSNBC has got to do this, get her out of
a position, get her out of the time slot where
she is anchoring live Trump coverage of any kind, to
(12:21):
continue to throw her out there is professionally suicidal, and
the end result of it will be something real that
resembles what wasn't true yesterday, that, on top of everything else,
put me in the position of defending her. Okay, now,
(13:06):
the actual lead the case against Trump did not collapse yesterday.
Michael Cohen was not proven to be a liar, hard
as the networks tried to make it happen. No sorry,
and boy did see Ann try hard Anderson Cooper lost
his spit. But a lawyer screaming liar does not make
(13:29):
it so, especially if he's screaming liar at another lawyer.
The Washington Post got it pitch perfect. I bashed them
all the time too. The central witness against Donald Trump
withstood a withering cross examination Thursday from the former president's
defense lawyer, who accused Michael Cohen of lying as recently
as two days ago to realize his dreams of revenge
(13:51):
against his ex boss. Eleven paragraphs later. The angriest and
potentially most consequential moment in Thursday's testimony came when Todd
Blanche confronted Cohen over his claim that he spoke to
Trump on the evening of October twenty fourth, twenty sixteen,
when he called the phone of Trump's security chief Keith Schiller.
(14:11):
Cohen testified Tuesday that during the phone call, he told
Trump the plan to pay hush money to Daniels was
moving forward. Blanche, however, presented text messages between Schiller and
Cohen that preceded that call and suggested an entirely different
reason for the conversation. In those texts, the Washington Post writes,
Cohen complained about getting harrising phone calls and asked for
(14:34):
Schiller's help call me, Shiller replied. After hours of mild
mannered and patient questioning of Cohen, Blanche erupted as he
confronted Cohen over the Shiller texts, accusing Cohen of fabricating
key evidence against his client. The lawyer angrily grabbed the
microphone and raised his voice. That was a lie. You
did not talk to President Trump that night, Blanche bellowed
(15:00):
the paragraph twelve as opposed to what the TV networks did,
which was lead this. Blanche suggested the call was simply
too short for it to have included Schiller handing his
phone to his boss so he and Cohen could discuss
a financial transaction that would ultimately be the genesis of
criminal charges against Trump. Unquote, Well, the last part is nonsense.
I once fired a manager and an agent in one
(15:22):
phone call that, including the pleasantries and the goodbye, lasted
a total of thirty six seconds. What matters is trial
resumes Monday. I mean, it's off now right. We're all
going to Baron's commencement tomorrow, aren't we. You got your invitation?
You didn't. That's funny, I didn't either. Cross examination of
(15:47):
Cohen will be followed Monday by what the prosecutors said
would be maybe one hour of redirect. Ce and n said,
the jury's going to spend the weekend thinking only of
Blanche screaming, having proven he's a liar. He just said
he was a liar. The prosecutors nobody noticed. We'll spend
the weekend thinking how to undo whatever scuffing Cohen got yesterday.
(16:07):
And by the way, if they've already planned out that,
they're going to need only about an hour more in redirect.
They know what they're going to say, they know how
they're going to the degree it's necessary rehabilitate Michael Cohen.
And the key point was the key point that the
Washington post made, and all the networks had made this
the day before yesterday, but forgot it somehow yesterday. How
(16:27):
would Cohen respond when this inevitably happened that he was
called a liar by Trump's lawyer, and he responded calmly
and succinctly. He won, He was not destroyed. So they'll
spend the weekend trying to finalize what to ask him about,
and by the way, they'll talk about it in advance,
(16:49):
and then oops, maybe Trump testifies before this thing closes down.
Nothing could help the prosecution more. If you are a
praying person, pray that Trump testifies, because he'll say something
under oath that will be a lie and they can
open up another prosecution of him. The final arguments will
(17:10):
be early as Tuesday. The other headlines from the court
the daily Visit from the Unwashed and the Unloved included
Matt Gates and Lauren Bobert. If I am ever on
trial for anything, please ask them to stay the f home.
(17:33):
Bobert skipped her own son's criminal hearing to go to
New York and grandstand to give Trump a hand, as
it were, And what happened to Lauren Bobert? She was
shouted down by the crowd of onlookers during the news
(17:54):
conference that Gates and she and the others held jeering
crowds as the other members of Congress walked away from
the microphone, leaving her standing near by herself in all
her three foot eight inch glory. And what did the
jeering crowds chant in the background? Beetlejuice? What's the reference
(18:16):
to beetlejuice? Oh, the play she was at with the
guy during the gropathon. Let's hear it for the boy.
Let's give the boy a hand beetlejuice? How all the
news too sure asking the question what is the crime?
Because everyone in this court has not been informed of
what the crime has been invented, does not know the
(18:39):
crime that was committed. Reader, I thought no crowds were
allowed near the courtroom. I thought that millions of people
protesting were being held back by every police officer east
of I don't know that theater that she saw beetlejuice in,
(19:00):
I thought, well, no, I guess not. Meanwhile, Gates, a scumbag,
went very dark. He tweeted a photo of himself standing
behind Trump and it reads standing back and standing by
mister President. Oh, that's very funny, Matt, associating yourself with fascist,
racist militias. Well, a confession is good for the soul,
(19:23):
isn't it? Once again? Not too smart? Also, if that
were not enough of a confession. Again, the first thing
these guys do, and they get in front of a microphone,
is confess that this is an operation in which they
say what Trump has been told not to say, and
they have implicated themselves in a plot to violate the
(19:46):
gag order, for which only Trump will be punished. Justice
Merrechaan has got to get these hangers on to testify
about what Gates says right here. We're here of our
own volition because there are things we can say that
President Trump is unjustly not allowed to say. And then
there was the saddest moment, as reported by Norm Eisen
(20:08):
of the Brookings Institution. Jeffrey Clark, the environmental lawyer who
almost made himself the Attorney General of the United States
in the waning days of the Trump dictatorship, one who
was the one willing to use the Department of Justice
(20:29):
to seize all the ballot boxes and all of the results, was,
per Norm Eisen, Trump, Fulton County criminal co defendant and
accused coup plotter Jeffrey Clark, sitting in back row must
have snuck in after lunch, stands up to be seen
(20:49):
by Trump on way out ignored. Never mind the testimony
about Katie Terror. I would have paid money to see that,
because then you turn to Jeffrey Clark and you say, sorry, pal,
that's why there's an insurrection act. Okay, my voice is
(21:21):
feeling a little bit better. I'm going to give you
three other headlines, two of which totally totally damning about
the Supreme Court. Unless you've been paying attention. New York
Times says that after the election in twenty twenty, while
many Trump supporters were claiming that Biden had stolen the presidency,
they used the upside down American flag the sign of distress,
(21:46):
as a stop the steel logo. So the sign of
distress that has always been represented by flying the flag
upside down was appropriated by these scumbag anti democracy Republicans,
and they would hang their flags upside down at their
homes or wherever they had a flag. The Times reports
(22:06):
one of the homes flying an inverted flag during that
time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice samuel A
Alito Junior in Alexandria, Virginia. According to photographs and interviews
with neighbors aloft on January seventeenth, unbelievable Biden's inauguration was
three days away. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some of which
(22:30):
were recently obtained by The New York Times. Word of
the flag filtered back to the court. People who worked
there said in interviews. While the flag was up, The
Times notes, matter of factly, the court was still contending
with whether to hear a twenty twenty election case, with
Justice Alito on the losing end of that decision. So
how did Alito reply to the fact that they were
(22:51):
flying their freak flag at the Alito household? He used
the Bob Menendez maneuver. I don't know anything about it.
Talk to Missus Justice Alito quote. I had no involvement
whatsoever in the flow of the flag. It was briefly
placed by Missus Alito in response to a neighbor's use
of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs. Well,
(23:17):
we know, Alito, that personally insulting language on yard signs
could have been congratulations. President elect Biden Alito's nuts. We
know he's a fascist, we know he's a theocratic fascist,
we know he's an utterly devoid of morals fascist, but
he's also just nuts. Of course, Alido won't resign, and
(23:40):
there is no legal way to get him off the court.
But if you have any doubts who he is or
what he will do when the time comes, you can
erase them now because one of two things is true.
Either he put that flag upside down, or for what
appears to be a period of at least a week,
(24:00):
he didn't know that the flag outside the front door
of his own house was upside down. Also, the misses
should probably divorce him now. And I know this is
low for the daily ration of Supreme Court sucks stories.
There's another one. The Department of Justice really does need
(24:21):
to take the lead here. I know that's a ridiculous
statement to make too. These are all theoreticals, these are
all hopes, but it needs to open an investigation, a
criminal investigation. In the Clarence Thomas from the New York Republic,
Thomas is still refusing to reveal whether he repaid the
principle on the two hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars
(24:41):
loan that he received from Anthony Welters, a wealthy healthcare executive,
a wealthy healthcare Welters and a personal friend to purchase
his RV in nineteen ninety nine, according to a letter
that Senators Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse have sent to
an attorney for Justice Thomas. But he's not corrupt. He's
(25:05):
just getting what he deserves and a little levity at
the end. The quote of the day, the debates. Oh yeah,
the debates. Remember the story about the debates. That's so yesterday,
Kaylee mcinaney on Fox at the debates, Trump will stick
(25:26):
to the issues, Trump, Kaylee mcinaney says, will be disciplined.
Trump will be disciplined, You say, presumably with one of
Stormy daniels rolled up magazines. I also of interest here
(25:48):
the man who defines journalism, the quintessence of ethics, the
modern Edward R. Mureau and Richard Harding Davis combined. He
has issued something out of Citizen Kane's finest moment, the
Statement of Principle for the front page, a mission statement,
how to report, how to be a reporter, how to
(26:13):
write responsibly. Perhaps this will refresh your memory Maggie Haberman.
A mission statement has been crafted by the man most
qualified to do it in the entire journalistic world, Chris Solissa.
But Chris her emails. I'll read this unbelievable document to you.
(26:36):
That's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith
Olberman host scripts to the news, some headlines, some updates,
some stark, some predictions. Dateline, Washington d of C. Chris
(27:05):
Solissa has issued a mission statement. No no, no, mission,
not emission. I don't know how many times I've talked
about Chris Solissa, who used to be when he worked
for the Washington Post, a semi regular on Countdown on MSNBC,
and then he developed an unfortunate habit of both sides
(27:29):
everything except stuff that didn't really matter. No one reporter
is responsible for but her emails. The obsession with the story,
which we think of is twenty sixteen, but actually started
in twenty fifteen and went on for more than a year.
That moment of obsession, which may yet be the official
(27:53):
start of the day that American democracy caught its fatal illness.
That doesn't owe to one guy being a bad reporter,
just not understanding what it was he was supposed to
do or how he was supposed to evaluate truth from falsehood.
Simply because both of those things was said by people
wearing ties didn't mean you had to give equal balance
(28:15):
to them. It owes in a larger sense to a
combination of decreasing training and decreasing intelligence among reporters, because
I don't know how many more good reporters there are
now than there were in nineteen seventy, but the number
of outlets that can give them prominence is about ten
(28:35):
times as large for all of the contractions in the
news industry, and there have been so many, so many
great news organizations that have gone right out the window
and under the bus and into the toilet and all
the other cliches you want to use for everyone that's
gone out of business. There's been one hundred new ones
and they've all been crap, but they do give jobs
(28:55):
or at least platforms to people, and one of them
was Chris Silizza. And in addition to sort of overall
stupidity in the news media that's gradually taken over in
the last fifty years, the second part is fomo fear
of missing out on somebody else's story. If you look
at someone else's newspaper, newscasts, podcasts, twitter feed, and there's
(29:19):
something on there that you have not emphasized, and they
have and they're all excited about it. Your instant reaction
is to get excited about it too. I look at
it and go, this is not interesting. Sorry, that's unfortunately
not what most of them do. And when they write
the history, if after butt her emails there is any
(29:43):
history and anybody is allowed to write it, the book
that comes out about butt her emails may very well
have Chrys Siliz's picture on it. Just in the middle
six months of the year twenty fifteen, just in those
six months, he wrote fifty different pieces and blog entries
(30:07):
and articles for The Washington Post on her emails, Hillary
Clinton's emails and the headlines. And again he may or
may not have composed these blog posts are different than
newspaper articles. You can always depend on the idea that
a newspaper article headline was not written by the person
who wrote the article, but that's not necessarily true on
(30:28):
a blog post. Every blog post I ever wrote, I
wrote my own headlines. And these were just some of
the headlines in that segment that he did for The
Washington post called the Fix between March and I guess
September of twenty fifteen, you ready. March third, The Fix,
hillary Clinton's private email address at State reinforces everything people
(30:52):
don't like about her. March fourth, The Hillary Clinton email
story just keeps getting worse for her. August twelfth. This
email story just keeps getting worse for Hillary Clinton. And
you'll notice that's the same thing he said the previous time,
only with the words in different order. Then let's see
(31:13):
this is August ninth. Hillary Clinton's email problem isn't going away.
August eleventh, Hillary clinton email issue is not going away
anytime soon. September fourteenth, Hillary Clinton's email issues have become
a massive political problem. July thirtieth, Hillary Clinton as honest
(31:33):
and trustworthy as Donald Trump. April twenty eighth, Hillary Clinton
has answered seven questions as a candidate. Here are seven
more she should answer. But of course I'm only scratching
the surface here because it's a podcast, and the amount
of time I have available to me is infinity. It's
(31:54):
kind of majestic when you read the headlines together like that,
when you look at the big picture, it's like that
scene in the movie The Right Stuff about the founding
of the America in Space program where they set up
and lift off trial rocket after trial rocket, and they
all collapse. Some of them get like three feet off
(32:16):
the pad and then implode upon themselves, and they show
the reflections of everything going up in flames and the
eyeglasses of the scientists behind it, and Verner von Brown
looks very unhappy, and machine after machine blows up in
the air on the launch pad while they're carrying it out,
while they're drawing it, the drawing blows up. It's like
(32:39):
that looking at those emails, especially ones like the Hillary
Clinton email story just keeps getting worse for her, followed
by this email story just keeps getting worse for Hillary Clinton,
followed by Hillary Clinton's email problem isn't going away anyway.
The man who was behind all that, Chris Saliza, who
eventually left the Washington Post to go to work for
(33:00):
CNN only did he get fired there and has been
independent ever since, has now issued a mission statement. And
this is the crux of what I want to talk
about here. He wrote this apparently about a week ago.
I only saw it yesterday, so it's news to me
because this Chris Sili is a mission statement, story isn't
(33:22):
going away. I watched Jerry McGuire over the weekend. That's
another movie. And I know I make too many movie references,
but at least the ones that I refer to don't suck.
I refer to the right stuff. He's watching Jerry maguire
over the weekend with my wife and kids. It's a
little cheesier than I remember. Okay, a lot cheesier. Something
(33:47):
that's often said about Chris's work, But one thing stuck
with me. Jerry's mission statement, a vision of what he
wanted to do and why, how he could be different
and better. So I wrote my own on journalism. Now,
before you say that this must be fiction, let me
(34:07):
read it to you bullet point. I will hold politicians
to account when they lie, when they obfuscate, or when
they try to play too cute with their words or
their actions. I will be tough but fair on Donald Trump.
I will be tough but fair on Joe Biden. I
will not conclude that something is good solely because Democrats
(34:28):
do it, or something is bad solely because Republicans do it,
or vice versa. I will never write things for clicks
or to add subscribers. Who want red meat thrown at them.
I will always show my work and how I got
to my conclusions. I will admit when I got it
wrong and explain how and why it happened. I will
(34:48):
never talk down to you or assume I know better.
I will always work to foster kindness and civility in
our community. No, no, no, no, no, None of this
is meant ironically anyway. That's the short version. Well, I've
gotten hold of the law version. It has all that,
and then it goes on to say, I will not
hold politicians to account when they lie. I will not
(35:11):
be tougher fair with Donald Trump. I will not be
tougher fair with Joe Biden. I will conclude that something
is good solely because Democrats do it. I will always
write things for clicks. I will never admit when I
got it wrong. I will always talk down to you
and assume I know better you. See what I did there.
He's both scientists, So the first half of his mission
(35:31):
statement would consist of all those noble statements, but my
satirical second half in that he would contradict all those
noble statements. See what I did there. This caused me
to text a couple of my old MSNBC colleagues with
a variation of this basic message. Remind me why we
used to book this guy on the show. Did he
(35:52):
drive himself into the office? Did he bring the crew
food instead? I was reminded that the stuff from I
remember in two thousand and six, seven eight, As I
said out here once when we used to have real
trouble getting guests on MSNBC, Chrystalizza was already He's always
ready to go. Probably brought food to the crew. It
(36:14):
wasn't just then or with the email stuff. It's keeping
good pace to this day. I was reminded by somebody
that during the Super Bowl, remember the RFK Junior ad
where they stole his uncle's nineteen sixty presidential campaign ad
word for word and had him voice it. Oh the class.
(36:34):
It sounds like a frog that's been kidnapped and being
held for ransom. They spent fifteen million dollars on it.
But of course he had nothing to do with it. It
was done by an outside group. There was no coordination.
He put it at the head of his Twitter feed.
He pinned it, so the FCC got involved or FEC
got involved, and the family, the Kennedys denounced him right
(36:56):
after it aired during the Super Bowl. Somebody had tweeted
the Robert F. Kennedy Junior ad was brilliant, and Chrys
Salizzis saw that about this commercial that the world would
condemn within minutes, and he got there first and retweeted
it and added quote, totally agree Hillary Clinton as honest
(37:19):
and trustworthy as Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton has answered seven
questions as a candidate. Here are seven more she should answer.
There is nothing out there that Chris Siliza cannot get
wrong or get right and then correct himself, so he
remains wrong, or get wrong and right, or get right
(37:40):
and then correct it and then correct the correction, so
he winds up being wrong seventy five percent of the time.
He insisted that the models said Trump had not even
the slightest chance of reelection. He wrote this at the
end of September twenty twenty. The models must have been
Zulander and Giselle Bunchin. He predicted a Republican red wave
(38:05):
weeks before the twenty twenty two mid terms. He said
that when she would not put Jim Jordan and Jim
Banks on it, Nancy Pelosi, let me get the exact
quote doomed the already tiny chances of the January sixth
committee actually mattering. And then the first time we mentioned
him here in this podcast November of twenty twenty two,
(38:26):
the House Majority whip Jim Clyburn, south Carolina history degree
from South Carolina State history teacher in high school, said
on Fox the facts are very clear. I've studied history
all of my life. I've taught history, and I'm telling
you what I see here are parallels to what the
history was in this world back in the nineteen thirties,
in Germany and in Italy. And Chris Silizza knew better
(38:51):
than Jim Clyburn because Chrystaliza is a very serious political reporter.
I mean, look at all the extensive coverage he did
of the Hillary Clinton email story and how decisive that
was in the election. That proves he was right right. Also,
he hosts Political Trivia Night, and he went to Georgetown.
Chrystal is A wrote after Jim Cliburn said, Hey, this
(39:15):
looks like Nazi Germany, like in nineteen thirty two, so
pre Nazi Germany or Italy before Mussolini started wearing the
uniform and killing people. Krystal Is a wrote less than
a year and a half ago. I guess about a
year and a half ago. Rule Number one of politics
goes like this, don't compare anything to Nazi Germany. Just don't.
(39:36):
Before we go any further, it's worth voting here that
comparing anything to the Nazi regime, which led to the
systemic murder of more than six million Jews is a mistake.
It just is. There is nothing in our current moment
that suggests we are anywhere close to that. Well, of course,
the whole point of what Cliburn was saying was he
was not comparing Hitler to the current moment of November
twenty twenty two. He was comparing it to our immediate future.
(40:00):
He was comparing the Hitler of nineteen thirty to our
America of twenty twenty two, and thus of twenty twenty four,
what is ahead for us? What I see here are
parallels to what the history was in this world back
in the nineteen thirties in Germany, in Italy. He didn't
mention the Nazis. Chris Eliza did. Then. At about the
(40:25):
same time, there was this tweet that went out, America
needs a total cleansing. Only Trump can do with the
help of true patriots. Herschel Walker sent that it was
in response to the nut job lawyer Lynn Wood, who
had tweeted calling for the execution of Mike Pants by
a firing squad in November twenty twenty two. The response
(40:48):
from Chrystalizit of that was the election deniers like Herschel
total cleansing of America Walker quote, represent a serious threat
to our way of life. After all, if we can't
accept that our leaders were fairly elected and have faith
in the system, it's very hard to imagine how we
can expect anyone to effectively govern. That's see, that's what
(41:10):
would be wrong with a fascist coup to overturn a
democratic election and install a loser as winner, and do
heaven knows what to the actual elected president. That's the
problem there. It would interfere with governance. The lines at
the Department of Motor Vehicles would quadruple if there were
(41:32):
a civil war going on or a coup, or if
there were tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue and chrys Salissa
was at the DMZ. Imagine the inconvenience for Americans trying
to report for jury duty. Now, I'm not going to say,
(41:55):
ignored the idea that there might be a fascist coup.
He did address this another fascist coup, which is bad
exclamation point very bad. See. You know it's more important
because he used it very on the second reference. But
it's also worth remembering that democracy held in twenty twenty
(42:16):
even while it was under active assault from Donald Trump
and his minions. Again, the man who helped bring you
but her emails is saying, what do you mean attempted murder?
He's not dead, is he? Quote. We absolutely should be
vigilant about the potential rise of authoritarian politicians who would
(42:36):
wipe out things like the rule of law to further
their own political ambitions. But let's stop making the Nazi
Germany comparisons for all of our sakes politicians who would
wipe out things like the rule of law, because there's
lots of other things they could do that would have
as much damage as wiping out the rule of law. Again,
(43:00):
tanks blocking Chris's way into the DMV, that would really
be a tragedy. I mean, what would happen. What would
happen if he was going back to the world's only
remaining blockbuster with that copy of Jerry Maguire that he'd
watched with his wife and kids and found it a
little bit corner. What if he was trying to return
(43:21):
it and they were cooping out there in the street
and he couldn't return the VHS. I mean, it's probably
the only VHS copy. What if it got damaged. What
if they shot up his car and you know, nobody
was hurt, But the VHS copy, the videotape of Jerry
maguire were the last living copy of Jerry McGuire. I mean,
(43:44):
isn't anybody going to think of Tom Cruise? Won't somebody
think about Tom Cruise's work gone forever because of this coup?
I mean, this is what we have to worry about,
politicians who would wipe out things like the last copy
of Jerry McGuire. But let's stop making the Nazi Germany
comparison for all of our sakes. Even though Trump keeps
(44:05):
quoting Hitler, even though Trump kept a copy of Hitler's
speeches by his bed. The next day, after Solissa wrote
that Elon Musk told his one hundred and fifteen million
followers to vote Republican, and then responded to a quote
that was falsely attributed to Voltaire that was actually spoken
by an American neo Nazi pedophile, and the day after that,
(44:27):
Musk tweeted a photo of a Nazi soldier from nineteen
forty Chris Solissa Mission statement. Hillary Clinton finally apologizes for
her private email server. What took so long? September eighth,
twenty fifteen. Hillary Clinton's apology interview annotated September ninth, twenty fifteen.
(44:56):
Hillary Clinton's worst week in Washington August twenty first, twenty fifteen.
Now you know what, the whole fifty two fifty six
sixty weeks stretch from about that headline through November of
twenty sixteen, those are all tied Hillary Clinton's worst week
in Washington, and in fact, those are all tied for
to that point America's worst week in Washington, and people
(45:21):
like chrystal As are responsible for it, and never in
their lives will they ever understand this. If you could
actually claim that your mission statement should include I will
never write things for clicks or to add subscribers who
want red meat thrown at them. I will always show
(45:42):
my work and how I got to my conclusions. I
will admit when I got it wrong and explain how
and why it happened, Chrystal is a literally nine years
after he was as wrong as anybody in American journalism
could be wrong. Doesn't he even know that this is
where he was wrong and will not admit that he
(46:03):
got it wrong and cannot explain how and why it
happened because he doesn't believe he got it wrong. I
will never talk down to you or assue I know better.
Except for these fifty articles about Hillary Clinton's emails in
just that six month period, that's not even the whole list.
So reading all this, I was thinking about asking Chrys
(46:26):
salis If for a comment to put in this podcast
about how these stories Hillary couldn't finally apologizes for a
private email server, what took so long? And the upcoming
looking back at the ten year anniversary of Hillary Clinton's
email servers, my best fifty seven articles on Hillary clinton emails,
(46:49):
I thought, you know, I could ask him about that.
I was thinking of sending him an email. What do
you think to the number one story on the Countdown?
(47:16):
And it's Friday and the weekend edition, so that means
a little more James Thurber for you. James Thurber had
many full time jobs. He was a street reporter, for
the Columbus Dispatch and later the New York Post, and
he was an editor of The New Yorker long before
he was a writer or cartoonist there, and people kept
trying to make him into a radio star, leading to
(47:39):
a short story which is understandably one of my favorites.
A lot of it speaks of broadcasting in another world
and of course another century. But it is amazing how
much of what you will hear now is still true today.
From the May fifth, nineteen thirty four edition of The
New Yorker, How to Relax while Broadcasting by James Thurber,
(48:04):
the evening I went up to the studios for my
first radio broadcast. I got off by mistake, at the
sixteenth floor instead of the seventeenth. I decided not to
wait for the elevator, but just run up the stairs
to the seventeenth floor, because elevators in broadcasting buildings are
always crowded with small Italian musicians carrying cellos. And furthermore,
(48:27):
when the up sign above the elevators in these buildings
lights the operator of the car that stops where he
usually says down, and before you can think, you find
yourself on the first floor again without any way of
getting back up, because you surrendered your pass to the
man at the desk in the lobby the first time
you went up. I walked to a door on the
(48:47):
sixteenth floor, marked stairs, and stepped out into a cold,
dark staircase shaft and walked up one flight. I found
that the door on that floor wouldn't open. It was
after seven o'clock in the evening and the door had
been officially locked. I hurried back down to the sixth
eighth floor and discovered that the door there had locked
(49:07):
behind me too. I began to beat on it and
kick it from far off. A faint voice came to me,
finally saying, cut that out. The only thing to do
was walk down fifteen flights to the main floor, which
I did, but the door out into the lobby was
also locked, and nobody answered my screams and poundings. Screaming
(49:33):
and pounding is not radio, as the broadcasting people say.
I went down into the basement, which was dark and gloomy,
and hunted for the elevator shaft. I found it, but
there was no bell to push, so I sat on
an old chair until the car came down. The operator
was surprised to see me and asked me for my pass.
(49:54):
I told him I didn't have a pass. He thought awhile,
and then asked if mister Hayman knew I was down there.
I said I didn't think so. He was pretty much
alarmed by the but he took me up to the
seventeenth floor after warning me never to come down to
the basement again without a pass. There was nobody on
the seventeenth floor who understood my case, although the people
(50:18):
I talked to were patient and courteous. They said the
seventeenth floor was entirely given over to the business department
and had no studios or microphones. What I probably wanted
was the twenty seventh floor. Up there, I found some
people I had met before, but they were pretty busy
and seemed to think it was the wrong night. I
sat down in a chair, and presently a man came
(50:39):
up to me and asked me if I was mister Tartherer.
I said I wasn't sure, and he said to follow him.
I was shown into an office where there were some
officials I knew and some friends of mine. One of
the officials was denying a story somebody had been telling
about a man who fell dead in front of the microphone.
(51:01):
It seems he had merely had a stroke. In a
little while, I was led in a solemn march to
a small and lonely studio, heavily draped and silent. I
took out a cigarette, but saw a sign saying no smoking,
so I put the cigarette away again. Some men in
the glass in control room began to look at me.
(51:24):
I could see their lips move, but I couldn't hear anything.
A man tiptoed into the room where I was and
shook hands with me, and tiptoed out again. He never
came back. I walked over to a regular microphone, such
as I had talked over once or twice before and
had got used to. But somebody led me away from
(51:44):
that said I was to talk over a table microphone
because it would help me to relax. This turned out
to be a table about the size of a card table,
with a microphone set innocently in its center, face up,
more or less like an ash tray. It studied simplicity
caused me to tighten up slightly, and I meant this
(52:05):
to a man. Be it your ease, he said. I
stood over the table, grasped its edges firmly and leaned
down toward the microphone. Someone grasped me, no, no, he said,
you just sit down at the table, as if you
were sitting in a chair at any table and talk.
I sat down, trying to remember how I sit in
(52:28):
a chair at a table, especially a card table at
which nobody else is sitting. Relax, said someone with a
note of command. I slumped back in the chair and
placed on the table the papers I was going to
use and began fussing with them. Sh somebody hissed, don't
rustle them. This is a very highly sensitized mic which
(52:48):
picks up every slightest sound. It would sound like a
waterfalls if you rustled them. I began to drum my
fingers on the tabletop, but a courteous official put his
hand on mine and stopped that tapping would sound black
cavalry crossing a bridge to your listeners, He explained, just
(53:11):
take it easy. I leaned back in my chair and
adjusted my tie, doubtless giving the effect of someone trying
to take a leather belt away from a bulldog. In
a moment, an announcer came in and said we were
all ready to go. Okay, I said, standing up, let's
get out. He smiled with calm assurance and said no.
(53:33):
He meant that we were about to start the program.
Everybody but him tiptoed out of the room. I sat
down at the table again. I could see them all
watching me from the control room. Somebody in there raised
his hand sharply and let it drop sharply. I expected
to hear the faint hiss of lethal gas escaping into
the chamber, but instead the announcer started to talk. I
(53:53):
creaked nervously in the chair at this, and the listeners heard,
along with his calm announcement, the sound of a buckboard
falling over a cliff. Finally, he pointed a finger at me.
I sat bolt up and began to talk to the ashtray.
When it was all over, everybody tiptoed whisperingly into the
(54:15):
room and congratulated me on being only five seconds too slow.
Not bad for a beginner. The record is one five
hundredth of a second. I got up and started it
out of the room, but a man followed me and
took me by the arm. Where are you going, he asked,
Let's all go out and get a drink. I said,
(54:37):
but you haven't got time, he said. All this has
just been the rehearsal. I must have tightened up horribly
at that, for he said soothingly, take it easy. You
got plenty of time to relax in He looked at
his wristwatch. You got four minutes. I've done all the
(55:10):
damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Countdown.
Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel arranged, produced,
and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on guitars,
bass and drums, and mister Shanelle handled the orchestration and
the keyboards, and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Other music,
including some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by
the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the
(55:30):
Olberman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis
courtesy of ESPN Inc. ESPN ESPN. How could you misspell
ESPN or mispronounce it? It's spelled very similarly to the
way it sounds ESPN ESPN. Our satirical and pithy musical
comments are by Nancy Fauss, the best baseball stadium organist ever.
(55:54):
At our announcer today was my friend Nancy Faust, everything
else pretty much my fault as usual. That's countdown for
this the one hundred and seventy third day until the
two tenty twenty four presidential election, the two and twenty
eighth day since Dictator Jay Trump's first attempted coup against
the democratically elected government of the United States. Use the
(56:15):
legal system, use the mental health system, use presidential immunity
if the Supreme Court makes it up. Use the not
regularly given elector objection option to stop him from doing
it again while we still can. The next scheduled countdown
is Tuesday. The throat may be on the mend, the
(56:36):
sinus infection may be on the run. Hopefully I'll be
at seventy five percent by then. Whenever the next one
is till the next one, I'm Keith Olverman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and what about her emails? Countdown
(57:14):
with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Todd Blanche.
Some of the reporters with which you had close relationships
(00:27):
were Chris Cuomo, Michael Cohen, Yes, Todd Blanche, Katie Turr,
Michael Cohen. Yes. Let me just interject this comment at
this moment. Every day I struggle with these, particularly with
(00:52):
choosing the lead, because often the most important story is
the most interesting story, but not always like yesterday, like
this edition, this is not the most important story. Nevertheless,
Adam Klassfeld reporting from the courthouse. Quote. Cohen says he
had a strong professional relationship with Chris Cuomo, Katie Turr,
(01:14):
and Maggie Haberman. Kyle Cheney reporting from the courthouse. Quote.
Cohen also name checked Chris Cuomo and Katie Urr. Hugo
Lowell reporting from the courthouse. Quote Katie Urr drink, Well,
it's not forced me to start that again. That's what
I get for telling you that I would soon stop
(01:34):
talking about my exes. Actually, I find myself in a
very strange position here Urr and Maggie Haberman and Chris
Cuomo actually have to be defended somewhat. Trump's lawyer did
ask Trump's ex lawyer, if he had close relationships with
those three, including my ex and Trump's ex lawyer, did
(01:58):
say yes. But and we'll know this with certainty later
today when the official transcript of yesterday's testimony comes out.
The most widely circulated thing supposedly testified to about Katie
Turr and Haberman and Cuomo and at least I ever
lived with Haberman or Cuomo. The most widely circulated supposed
(02:19):
quote was not said. Ron philip Kowski of Midas Network,
usually extremely reliable, got it wrong, tried to correct it
long after the horse was out of the barn. He
and he alone wrote that quote. Cohen testified that his
(02:40):
main media contacts to get positive stories run about Trump
were you know. The clear implication in that quote is
that when Trump needed good press, Cohen would first call
Maggie Haberman, then Katie Turr, then Chris Cuomo. And that
is not what he said. He only said he had
(03:01):
good relationships with them. Is that distinction without a difference.
If Michael Cohen testified or believed or comes back when
court goes back into session next Monday and says I
knew I could get Trump positive stories from the new
York Times by calling Haberman, or I knew I could
get Trump positive stories from CNN by calling Cuomo, or
(03:22):
I knew I could get Trump positive stories from NBC
by calling terror. Those guys are in the fireable offense zone.
Those guys are in the your career is over zone.
Those guys are in the what's your second act going
to be? Zone? But they're not there now. Not that
they might not get there, but they are not there now.
(03:45):
They are to be viewed dubiously because what Cohen did
say is damaging enough. But he never said these were
the three people I called first to carry my water
for me. He was asked about three people by name,
and he said yes to all three. It doesn't mean
those were his only three or his first three. Philip
(04:08):
CASKI really screwed this up. To his credit, he killed
his tweet. He reached out to at least me who
had set out a screenshot of his tweet, and said
I should take it down to And he was right,
And I know The New York Times reached out to
Philip Kowski about the implications for Haberman. The problem for
all three, of course, is the context. CNN fired Chris
(04:31):
Cuomo after a disastrous journalistic fail in which he consulted
for his brother on how to get away with the
scandal that would ultimately cost his brother his governorship. More importantly,
CNN fired Cuomo because his coverage of his brother's scandal
was utterly indefensible. You do not say I can remain
(04:54):
impartial by not covering my brother the governor. You do
say I can remain impartial because when we should cover
my brother the governor, I will hand the newscast off
to one of my colleagues and I will stay out
of it. I mean, I was asked by CNN and
Cuomo's executive producer in real time how to do this,
and that's what I told them to do, and they
(05:15):
ignored me, and everybody got fired. Simply saying I won't
cover his story just serves to reduce the amount of
negative coverage of his story. It's not neutral in any way,
shape or form anyway. After Cuomo got fired, he went
to News Nation, where he's become a bitter reactionary. He
was never seen as particularly smart, either at CNN or
(05:38):
at the job before that at ABC News, but now
he's just another right winger with no ratings. The last
thing he needed was for Michael Cohen to say he
had a close relationship with him. As to Haberman, she
has been successfully skating on thin ice for years now,
so I doubt The New York Times sees her in
any worse a light today than it did this time yesterday.
(06:02):
The Times, as I think most news organizations in trouble do,
always becomes defiant when challenged. We're the Times. The Times
defended a guy named Jason Blair even as evidence mounted
that he had fabricated quotes, fabricated entire stories, fabricated the
(06:24):
people in the stories. The Times defended Judith Miller during
the Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction disaster time and time again.
It's not going to fire Maggie Haberman, even though Michael
Cohen testified under oath that he asked Haberman to write
nice things about him, and Michael Cohen testified under oath
(06:45):
that surreptitiously he recorded lots of conversations, including about forty
with reporters, and he played one of the recordings of
somebody to Haberman for a story. And by the way,
Haberman is sitting out there in court covering the trial.
The Times probably is that every month or so. Now
(07:07):
there's another story about Maggie Haberman trying to walk that
tightrope of being friendly with sources without being friendly two sources.
Cohen actually denied that he gave her stories in exchange
for good spin, but her own colleagues did not exactly
help her out. Jonathan Swan of The New York Times
(07:28):
wrote on Twitter X yesterday that those condemning Haberman for
talking to Cohen were wrong. And as I said, obviously
that's that's true. I'm defending I'm defending Maggie Haberman. It's true.
But talk about damning her with faint praise. Swan wrote,
nowhere did Cohen say he succeeded in getting Maggie to
(07:50):
write positive stories about Trump? And we've been shown exhibits
in court of Trump attacking Maggie publicly unquote, what do
you mean attempted murder? The problem is that quote. Nowhere
did Cohen say he succeeded in getting Maggie to write
(08:10):
positive stories about Trump? Well, that makes you stop and think.
Has Maggie Haberman written positive stories about Trump in the Times?
The answer is yes, And now you have to wonder why.
And now again, this is not the lead story. I
want to get to Michael Cohen's testimony about important things,
but I can't. I mean, how often do my exes
(08:30):
come up in the news? Well, actually, rather a lot.
As to Katie Turr, the problem is, as I noted
here long ago, as far back as twenty sixteen, she
was calling me from the campaign trail to defend Kelly
Ann Conway. And when the first book with her name
on it came out, even though Katie had asked me
(08:52):
to write it for her, and I had given her
all the Trump research material I had for free, and
we had, you know, lived together for three years. And
when we broke up, when I asked her to leave,
I paid her rent for a year so she could
stay in New York. The only mention of me in
that book was as somebody who she had dated briefly
(09:13):
in her twenties, and even that was part of another
anecdote in which she defended Kelly An Conway. Which is
the point. This didn't just happen recently. She's been I
guess Stockholm syndromed after her terrible experience, and it was
a terrible experience. Her life was repeatedly threatened on the
Trump campaign trail in twenty sixteen. I mean, it's only
(09:38):
days since Nancy Pelosi slammed her seriously as a Trump apologist.
Her work covering this trial and other Trump stories has
not been neutral, It has not been appropriate. What was
actually said about her on the stand by Cohen, and
we'll get the transcript sometime today was damaging. The erroneous
exaggerated version would be disqualifying if it were true, even
(10:03):
not true, it may be disqualif and as pissed off
by her and as ashamed of her as I have
been and am, the exaggerated version is neither fair nor
correct in her case and in Haberman's. The bottom line is,
if there were to be a sourced story, an investigative
story with off the record sources, a Watergate style source
(10:25):
story that would actually break Trump, that would cause him
to end his campaign today and flee the country, where
do you think that story would come from? From somebody
around Trump talking to somebody at the New York Times
that the Michael Cohens of this world hated or did
(10:47):
not know, somebody who used to work on the sports
desk before they eliminated sports at the New York Times,
Or would it come from somebody they liked, like Maggie Haberman.
I mean deep throat. After all, the strong of trying
to figure out who deep Throat was in the Watergate story.
(11:12):
Bob Woodward's primary source who set him off on half
of the stuff he found about Watergate and confirmed the
other half. He was the deputy director of the FBI.
People are saying, you can't have Maggie Haberman talking to
Michael Cohen would have been saying you can't have Bob
Woodward talking to Mark Felt. So what do you do?
(11:35):
Do you have somebody else other than Maggie Haberman cover
this trial, somebody else cover Trump? Do you fire Chris Cuomo?
I mean he has the largest audience on News Nation,
which means two episodes of this podcast gets a combined
audience that's about forty three percent larger than one episode
of his TV show, which is not good. The problem
(11:57):
for Katie, her own failures plus this unfairly amplified perception,
is ad for her own, good for the network's own good.
MSNBC has got to do this, get her out of
a position, get her out of the time slot where
she is anchoring live Trump coverage of any kind, to
(12:21):
continue to throw her out there is professionally suicidal, and
the end result of it will be something real that
resembles what wasn't true yesterday, that, on top of everything else,
put me in the position of defending her. Okay, now,
(13:06):
the actual lead the case against Trump did not collapse yesterday.
Michael Cohen was not proven to be a liar, hard
as the networks tried to make it happen. No sorry,
and boy did see Ann try hard Anderson Cooper lost
his spit. But a lawyer screaming liar does not make
(13:29):
it so, especially if he's screaming liar at another lawyer.
The Washington Post got it pitch perfect. I bashed them
all the time too. The central witness against Donald Trump
withstood a withering cross examination Thursday from the former president's
defense lawyer, who accused Michael Cohen of lying as recently
as two days ago to realize his dreams of revenge
(13:51):
against his ex boss. Eleven paragraphs later. The angriest and
potentially most consequential moment in Thursday's testimony came when Todd
Blanche confronted Cohen over his claim that he spoke to
Trump on the evening of October twenty fourth, twenty sixteen,
when he called the phone of Trump's security chief Keith Schiller.
(14:11):
Cohen testified Tuesday that during the phone call, he told
Trump the plan to pay hush money to Daniels was
moving forward. Blanche, however, presented text messages between Schiller and
Cohen that preceded that call and suggested an entirely different
reason for the conversation. In those texts, the Washington Post writes,
Cohen complained about getting harrising phone calls and asked for
(14:34):
Schiller's help call me, Shiller replied. After hours of mild
mannered and patient questioning of Cohen, Blanche erupted as he
confronted Cohen over the Shiller texts, accusing Cohen of fabricating
key evidence against his client. The lawyer angrily grabbed the
microphone and raised his voice. That was a lie. You
did not talk to President Trump that night, Blanche bellowed
(15:00):
the paragraph twelve as opposed to what the TV networks did,
which was lead this. Blanche suggested the call was simply
too short for it to have included Schiller handing his
phone to his boss so he and Cohen could discuss
a financial transaction that would ultimately be the genesis of
criminal charges against Trump. Unquote, Well, the last part is nonsense.
I once fired a manager and an agent in one
(15:22):
phone call that, including the pleasantries and the goodbye, lasted
a total of thirty six seconds. What matters is trial
resumes Monday. I mean, it's off now right. We're all
going to Baron's commencement tomorrow, aren't we. You got your invitation?
You didn't. That's funny, I didn't either. Cross examination of
(15:47):
Cohen will be followed Monday by what the prosecutors said
would be maybe one hour of redirect. Ce and n said,
the jury's going to spend the weekend thinking only of
Blanche screaming, having proven he's a liar. He just said
he was a liar. The prosecutors nobody noticed. We'll spend
the weekend thinking how to undo whatever scuffing Cohen got yesterday.
(16:07):
And by the way, if they've already planned out that,
they're going to need only about an hour more in redirect.
They know what they're going to say, they know how
they're going to the degree it's necessary rehabilitate Michael Cohen.
And the key point was the key point that the
Washington post made, and all the networks had made this
the day before yesterday, but forgot it somehow yesterday. How
(16:27):
would Cohen respond when this inevitably happened that he was
called a liar by Trump's lawyer, and he responded calmly
and succinctly. He won, He was not destroyed. So they'll
spend the weekend trying to finalize what to ask him about,
and by the way, they'll talk about it in advance,
(16:49):
and then oops, maybe Trump testifies before this thing closes down.
Nothing could help the prosecution more. If you are a
praying person, pray that Trump testifies, because he'll say something
under oath that will be a lie and they can
open up another prosecution of him. The final arguments will
(17:10):
be early as Tuesday. The other headlines from the court
the daily Visit from the Unwashed and the Unloved included
Matt Gates and Lauren Bobert. If I am ever on
trial for anything, please ask them to stay the f home.
(17:33):
Bobert skipped her own son's criminal hearing to go to
New York and grandstand to give Trump a hand, as
it were, And what happened to Lauren Bobert? She was
shouted down by the crowd of onlookers during the news
(17:54):
conference that Gates and she and the others held jeering
crowds as the other members of Congress walked away from
the microphone, leaving her standing near by herself in all
her three foot eight inch glory. And what did the
jeering crowds chant in the background? Beetlejuice? What's the reference
(18:16):
to beetlejuice? Oh, the play she was at with the
guy during the gropathon. Let's hear it for the boy.
Let's give the boy a hand beetlejuice? How all the
news too sure asking the question what is the crime?
Because everyone in this court has not been informed of
what the crime has been invented, does not know the
(18:39):
crime that was committed. Reader, I thought no crowds were
allowed near the courtroom. I thought that millions of people
protesting were being held back by every police officer east
of I don't know that theater that she saw beetlejuice in,
(19:00):
I thought, well, no, I guess not. Meanwhile, Gates, a scumbag,
went very dark. He tweeted a photo of himself standing
behind Trump and it reads standing back and standing by
mister President. Oh, that's very funny, Matt, associating yourself with fascist,
racist militias. Well, a confession is good for the soul,
(19:23):
isn't it? Once again? Not too smart? Also, if that
were not enough of a confession. Again, the first thing
these guys do, and they get in front of a microphone,
is confess that this is an operation in which they
say what Trump has been told not to say, and
they have implicated themselves in a plot to violate the
(19:46):
gag order, for which only Trump will be punished. Justice
Merrechaan has got to get these hangers on to testify
about what Gates says right here. We're here of our
own volition because there are things we can say that
President Trump is unjustly not allowed to say. And then
there was the saddest moment, as reported by Norm Eisen
(20:08):
of the Brookings Institution. Jeffrey Clark, the environmental lawyer who
almost made himself the Attorney General of the United States
in the waning days of the Trump dictatorship, one who
was the one willing to use the Department of Justice
(20:29):
to seize all the ballot boxes and all of the results, was,
per Norm Eisen, Trump, Fulton County criminal co defendant and
accused coup plotter Jeffrey Clark, sitting in back row must
have snuck in after lunch, stands up to be seen
(20:49):
by Trump on way out ignored. Never mind the testimony
about Katie Terror. I would have paid money to see that,
because then you turn to Jeffrey Clark and you say, sorry, pal,
that's why there's an insurrection act. Okay, my voice is
(21:21):
feeling a little bit better. I'm going to give you
three other headlines, two of which totally totally damning about
the Supreme Court. Unless you've been paying attention. New York
Times says that after the election in twenty twenty, while
many Trump supporters were claiming that Biden had stolen the presidency,
they used the upside down American flag the sign of distress,
(21:46):
as a stop the steel logo. So the sign of
distress that has always been represented by flying the flag
upside down was appropriated by these scumbag anti democracy Republicans,
and they would hang their flags upside down at their
homes or wherever they had a flag. The Times reports
(22:06):
one of the homes flying an inverted flag during that
time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice samuel A
Alito Junior in Alexandria, Virginia. According to photographs and interviews
with neighbors aloft on January seventeenth, unbelievable Biden's inauguration was
three days away. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some of which
(22:30):
were recently obtained by The New York Times. Word of
the flag filtered back to the court. People who worked
there said in interviews. While the flag was up, The
Times notes, matter of factly, the court was still contending
with whether to hear a twenty twenty election case, with
Justice Alito on the losing end of that decision. So
how did Alito reply to the fact that they were
(22:51):
flying their freak flag at the Alito household? He used
the Bob Menendez maneuver. I don't know anything about it.
Talk to Missus Justice Alito quote. I had no involvement
whatsoever in the flow of the flag. It was briefly
placed by Missus Alito in response to a neighbor's use
of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs. Well,
(23:17):
we know, Alito, that personally insulting language on yard signs
could have been congratulations. President elect Biden Alito's nuts. We
know he's a fascist, we know he's a theocratic fascist,
we know he's an utterly devoid of morals fascist, but
he's also just nuts. Of course, Alido won't resign, and
(23:40):
there is no legal way to get him off the court.
But if you have any doubts who he is or
what he will do when the time comes, you can
erase them now because one of two things is true.
Either he put that flag upside down, or for what
appears to be a period of at least a week,
(24:00):
he didn't know that the flag outside the front door
of his own house was upside down. Also, the misses
should probably divorce him now. And I know this is
low for the daily ration of Supreme Court sucks stories.
There's another one. The Department of Justice really does need
(24:21):
to take the lead here. I know that's a ridiculous
statement to make too. These are all theoreticals, these are
all hopes, but it needs to open an investigation, a
criminal investigation. In the Clarence Thomas from the New York Republic,
Thomas is still refusing to reveal whether he repaid the
principle on the two hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars
(24:41):
loan that he received from Anthony Welters, a wealthy healthcare executive,
a wealthy healthcare Welters and a personal friend to purchase
his RV in nineteen ninety nine, according to a letter
that Senators Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse have sent to
an attorney for Justice Thomas. But he's not corrupt. He's
(25:05):
just getting what he deserves and a little levity at
the end. The quote of the day, the debates. Oh yeah,
the debates. Remember the story about the debates. That's so yesterday,
Kaylee mcinaney on Fox at the debates, Trump will stick
(25:26):
to the issues, Trump, Kaylee mcinaney says, will be disciplined.
Trump will be disciplined, You say, presumably with one of
Stormy daniels rolled up magazines. I also of interest here
(25:48):
the man who defines journalism, the quintessence of ethics, the
modern Edward R. Mureau and Richard Harding Davis combined. He
has issued something out of Citizen Kane's finest moment, the
Statement of Principle for the front page, a mission statement,
how to report, how to be a reporter, how to
(26:13):
write responsibly. Perhaps this will refresh your memory Maggie Haberman.
A mission statement has been crafted by the man most
qualified to do it in the entire journalistic world, Chris Solissa.
But Chris her emails. I'll read this unbelievable document to you.
(26:36):
That's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith
Olberman host scripts to the news, some headlines, some updates,
some stark, some predictions. Dateline, Washington d of C. Chris
(27:05):
Solissa has issued a mission statement. No no, no, mission,
not emission. I don't know how many times I've talked
about Chris Solissa, who used to be when he worked
for the Washington Post, a semi regular on Countdown on MSNBC,
and then he developed an unfortunate habit of both sides
(27:29):
everything except stuff that didn't really matter. No one reporter
is responsible for but her emails. The obsession with the story,
which we think of is twenty sixteen, but actually started
in twenty fifteen and went on for more than a year.
That moment of obsession, which may yet be the official
(27:53):
start of the day that American democracy caught its fatal illness.
That doesn't owe to one guy being a bad reporter,
just not understanding what it was he was supposed to
do or how he was supposed to evaluate truth from falsehood.
Simply because both of those things was said by people
wearing ties didn't mean you had to give equal balance
(28:15):
to them. It owes in a larger sense to a
combination of decreasing training and decreasing intelligence among reporters, because
I don't know how many more good reporters there are
now than there were in nineteen seventy, but the number
of outlets that can give them prominence is about ten
(28:35):
times as large for all of the contractions in the
news industry, and there have been so many, so many
great news organizations that have gone right out the window
and under the bus and into the toilet and all
the other cliches you want to use for everyone that's
gone out of business. There's been one hundred new ones
and they've all been crap, but they do give jobs
(28:55):
or at least platforms to people, and one of them
was Chris Silizza. And in addition to sort of overall
stupidity in the news media that's gradually taken over in
the last fifty years, the second part is fomo fear
of missing out on somebody else's story. If you look
at someone else's newspaper, newscasts, podcasts, twitter feed, and there's
(29:19):
something on there that you have not emphasized, and they
have and they're all excited about it. Your instant reaction
is to get excited about it too. I look at
it and go, this is not interesting. Sorry, that's unfortunately
not what most of them do. And when they write
the history, if after butt her emails there is any
(29:43):
history and anybody is allowed to write it, the book
that comes out about butt her emails may very well
have Chrys Siliz's picture on it. Just in the middle
six months of the year twenty fifteen, just in those
six months, he wrote fifty different pieces and blog entries
(30:07):
and articles for The Washington Post on her emails, Hillary
Clinton's emails and the headlines. And again he may or
may not have composed these blog posts are different than
newspaper articles. You can always depend on the idea that
a newspaper article headline was not written by the person
who wrote the article, but that's not necessarily true on
(30:28):
a blog post. Every blog post I ever wrote, I
wrote my own headlines. And these were just some of
the headlines in that segment that he did for The
Washington post called the Fix between March and I guess
September of twenty fifteen, you ready. March third, The Fix,
hillary Clinton's private email address at State reinforces everything people
(30:52):
don't like about her. March fourth, The Hillary Clinton email
story just keeps getting worse for her. August twelfth. This
email story just keeps getting worse for Hillary Clinton. And
you'll notice that's the same thing he said the previous time,
only with the words in different order. Then let's see
(31:13):
this is August ninth. Hillary Clinton's email problem isn't going away.
August eleventh, Hillary clinton email issue is not going away
anytime soon. September fourteenth, Hillary Clinton's email issues have become
a massive political problem. July thirtieth, Hillary Clinton as honest
(31:33):
and trustworthy as Donald Trump. April twenty eighth, Hillary Clinton
has answered seven questions as a candidate. Here are seven
more she should answer. But of course I'm only scratching
the surface here because it's a podcast, and the amount
of time I have available to me is infinity. It's
(31:54):
kind of majestic when you read the headlines together like that,
when you look at the big picture, it's like that
scene in the movie The Right Stuff about the founding
of the America in Space program where they set up
and lift off trial rocket after trial rocket, and they
all collapse. Some of them get like three feet off
(32:16):
the pad and then implode upon themselves, and they show
the reflections of everything going up in flames and the
eyeglasses of the scientists behind it, and Verner von Brown
looks very unhappy, and machine after machine blows up in
the air on the launch pad while they're carrying it out,
while they're drawing it, the drawing blows up. It's like
(32:39):
that looking at those emails, especially ones like the Hillary
Clinton email story just keeps getting worse for her, followed
by this email story just keeps getting worse for Hillary Clinton,
followed by Hillary Clinton's email problem isn't going away anyway.
The man who was behind all that, Chris Saliza, who
eventually left the Washington Post to go to work for
(33:00):
CNN only did he get fired there and has been
independent ever since, has now issued a mission statement. And
this is the crux of what I want to talk
about here. He wrote this apparently about a week ago.
I only saw it yesterday, so it's news to me
because this Chris Sili is a mission statement, story isn't
(33:22):
going away. I watched Jerry McGuire over the weekend. That's
another movie. And I know I make too many movie references,
but at least the ones that I refer to don't suck.
I refer to the right stuff. He's watching Jerry maguire
over the weekend with my wife and kids. It's a
little cheesier than I remember. Okay, a lot cheesier. Something
(33:47):
that's often said about Chris's work, But one thing stuck
with me. Jerry's mission statement, a vision of what he
wanted to do and why, how he could be different
and better. So I wrote my own on journalism. Now,
before you say that this must be fiction, let me
(34:07):
read it to you bullet point. I will hold politicians
to account when they lie, when they obfuscate, or when
they try to play too cute with their words or
their actions. I will be tough but fair on Donald Trump.
I will be tough but fair on Joe Biden. I
will not conclude that something is good solely because Democrats
(34:28):
do it, or something is bad solely because Republicans do it,
or vice versa. I will never write things for clicks
or to add subscribers. Who want red meat thrown at them.
I will always show my work and how I got
to my conclusions. I will admit when I got it
wrong and explain how and why it happened. I will
(34:48):
never talk down to you or assume I know better.
I will always work to foster kindness and civility in
our community. No, no, no, no, no, None of this
is meant ironically anyway. That's the short version. Well, I've
gotten hold of the law version. It has all that,
and then it goes on to say, I will not
hold politicians to account when they lie. I will not
(35:11):
be tougher fair with Donald Trump. I will not be
tougher fair with Joe Biden. I will conclude that something
is good solely because Democrats do it. I will always
write things for clicks. I will never admit when I
got it wrong. I will always talk down to you
and assume I know better you. See what I did there.
He's both scientists, So the first half of his mission
(35:31):
statement would consist of all those noble statements, but my
satirical second half in that he would contradict all those
noble statements. See what I did there. This caused me
to text a couple of my old MSNBC colleagues with
a variation of this basic message. Remind me why we
used to book this guy on the show. Did he
(35:52):
drive himself into the office? Did he bring the crew
food instead? I was reminded that the stuff from I
remember in two thousand and six, seven eight, As I
said out here once when we used to have real
trouble getting guests on MSNBC, Chrystalizza was already He's always
ready to go. Probably brought food to the crew. It
(36:14):
wasn't just then or with the email stuff. It's keeping
good pace to this day. I was reminded by somebody
that during the Super Bowl, remember the RFK Junior ad
where they stole his uncle's nineteen sixty presidential campaign ad
word for word and had him voice it. Oh the class.
(36:34):
It sounds like a frog that's been kidnapped and being
held for ransom. They spent fifteen million dollars on it.
But of course he had nothing to do with it. It
was done by an outside group. There was no coordination.
He put it at the head of his Twitter feed.
He pinned it, so the FCC got involved or FEC
got involved, and the family, the Kennedys denounced him right
(36:56):
after it aired during the Super Bowl. Somebody had tweeted
the Robert F. Kennedy Junior ad was brilliant, and Chrys
Salizzis saw that about this commercial that the world would
condemn within minutes, and he got there first and retweeted
it and added quote, totally agree Hillary Clinton as honest
(37:19):
and trustworthy as Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton has answered seven
questions as a candidate. Here are seven more she should answer.
There is nothing out there that Chris Siliza cannot get
wrong or get right and then correct himself, so he
remains wrong, or get wrong and right, or get right
(37:40):
and then correct it and then correct the correction, so
he winds up being wrong seventy five percent of the time.
He insisted that the models said Trump had not even
the slightest chance of reelection. He wrote this at the
end of September twenty twenty. The models must have been
Zulander and Giselle Bunchin. He predicted a Republican red wave
(38:05):
weeks before the twenty twenty two mid terms. He said
that when she would not put Jim Jordan and Jim
Banks on it, Nancy Pelosi, let me get the exact
quote doomed the already tiny chances of the January sixth
committee actually mattering. And then the first time we mentioned
him here in this podcast November of twenty twenty two,
(38:26):
the House Majority whip Jim Clyburn, south Carolina history degree
from South Carolina State history teacher in high school, said
on Fox the facts are very clear. I've studied history
all of my life. I've taught history, and I'm telling
you what I see here are parallels to what the
history was in this world back in the nineteen thirties,
in Germany and in Italy. And Chris Silizza knew better
(38:51):
than Jim Clyburn because Chrystaliza is a very serious political reporter.
I mean, look at all the extensive coverage he did
of the Hillary Clinton email story and how decisive that
was in the election. That proves he was right right. Also,
he hosts Political Trivia Night, and he went to Georgetown.
Chrystal is A wrote after Jim Cliburn said, Hey, this
(39:15):
looks like Nazi Germany, like in nineteen thirty two, so
pre Nazi Germany or Italy before Mussolini started wearing the
uniform and killing people. Krystal Is a wrote less than
a year and a half ago. I guess about a
year and a half ago. Rule Number one of politics
goes like this, don't compare anything to Nazi Germany. Just don't.
(39:36):
Before we go any further, it's worth voting here that
comparing anything to the Nazi regime, which led to the
systemic murder of more than six million Jews is a mistake.
It just is. There is nothing in our current moment
that suggests we are anywhere close to that. Well, of course,
the whole point of what Cliburn was saying was he
was not comparing Hitler to the current moment of November
twenty twenty two. He was comparing it to our immediate future.
(40:00):
He was comparing the Hitler of nineteen thirty to our
America of twenty twenty two, and thus of twenty twenty four,
what is ahead for us? What I see here are
parallels to what the history was in this world back
in the nineteen thirties in Germany, in Italy. He didn't
mention the Nazis. Chris Eliza did. Then. At about the
(40:25):
same time, there was this tweet that went out, America
needs a total cleansing. Only Trump can do with the
help of true patriots. Herschel Walker sent that it was
in response to the nut job lawyer Lynn Wood, who
had tweeted calling for the execution of Mike Pants by
a firing squad in November twenty twenty two. The response
(40:48):
from Chrystalizit of that was the election deniers like Herschel
total cleansing of America Walker quote, represent a serious threat
to our way of life. After all, if we can't
accept that our leaders were fairly elected and have faith
in the system, it's very hard to imagine how we
can expect anyone to effectively govern. That's see, that's what
(41:10):
would be wrong with a fascist coup to overturn a
democratic election and install a loser as winner, and do
heaven knows what to the actual elected president. That's the
problem there. It would interfere with governance. The lines at
the Department of Motor Vehicles would quadruple if there were
(41:32):
a civil war going on or a coup, or if
there were tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue and chrys Salissa
was at the DMZ. Imagine the inconvenience for Americans trying
to report for jury duty. Now, I'm not going to say,
(41:55):
ignored the idea that there might be a fascist coup.
He did address this another fascist coup, which is bad
exclamation point very bad. See. You know it's more important
because he used it very on the second reference. But
it's also worth remembering that democracy held in twenty twenty
(42:16):
even while it was under active assault from Donald Trump
and his minions. Again, the man who helped bring you
but her emails is saying, what do you mean attempted murder?
He's not dead, is he? Quote. We absolutely should be
vigilant about the potential rise of authoritarian politicians who would
(42:36):
wipe out things like the rule of law to further
their own political ambitions. But let's stop making the Nazi
Germany comparisons for all of our sakes politicians who would
wipe out things like the rule of law, because there's
lots of other things they could do that would have
as much damage as wiping out the rule of law. Again,
(43:00):
tanks blocking Chris's way into the DMV, that would really
be a tragedy. I mean, what would happen. What would
happen if he was going back to the world's only
remaining blockbuster with that copy of Jerry Maguire that he'd
watched with his wife and kids and found it a
little bit corner. What if he was trying to return
(43:21):
it and they were cooping out there in the street
and he couldn't return the VHS. I mean, it's probably
the only VHS copy. What if it got damaged. What
if they shot up his car and you know, nobody
was hurt, But the VHS copy, the videotape of Jerry
maguire were the last living copy of Jerry McGuire. I mean,
(43:44):
isn't anybody going to think of Tom Cruise? Won't somebody
think about Tom Cruise's work gone forever because of this coup?
I mean, this is what we have to worry about,
politicians who would wipe out things like the last copy
of Jerry McGuire. But let's stop making the Nazi Germany
comparison for all of our sakes. Even though Trump keeps
(44:05):
quoting Hitler, even though Trump kept a copy of Hitler's
speeches by his bed. The next day, after Solissa wrote
that Elon Musk told his one hundred and fifteen million
followers to vote Republican, and then responded to a quote
that was falsely attributed to Voltaire that was actually spoken
by an American neo Nazi pedophile, and the day after that,
(44:27):
Musk tweeted a photo of a Nazi soldier from nineteen
forty Chris Solissa Mission statement. Hillary Clinton finally apologizes for
her private email server. What took so long? September eighth,
twenty fifteen. Hillary Clinton's apology interview annotated September ninth, twenty fifteen.
(44:56):
Hillary Clinton's worst week in Washington August twenty first, twenty fifteen.
Now you know what, the whole fifty two fifty six
sixty weeks stretch from about that headline through November of
twenty sixteen, those are all tied Hillary Clinton's worst week
in Washington, and in fact, those are all tied for
to that point America's worst week in Washington, and people
(45:21):
like chrystal As are responsible for it, and never in
their lives will they ever understand this. If you could
actually claim that your mission statement should include I will
never write things for clicks or to add subscribers who
want red meat thrown at them. I will always show
(45:42):
my work and how I got to my conclusions. I
will admit when I got it wrong and explain how
and why it happened, Chrystal is a literally nine years
after he was as wrong as anybody in American journalism
could be wrong. Doesn't he even know that this is
where he was wrong and will not admit that he
(46:03):
got it wrong and cannot explain how and why it
happened because he doesn't believe he got it wrong. I
will never talk down to you or assue I know better.
Except for these fifty articles about Hillary Clinton's emails in
just that six month period, that's not even the whole list.
So reading all this, I was thinking about asking Chrys
(46:26):
salis If for a comment to put in this podcast
about how these stories Hillary couldn't finally apologizes for a
private email server, what took so long? And the upcoming
looking back at the ten year anniversary of Hillary Clinton's
email servers, my best fifty seven articles on Hillary clinton emails,
(46:49):
I thought, you know, I could ask him about that.
I was thinking of sending him an email. What do
you think to the number one story on the Countdown?
(47:16):
And it's Friday and the weekend edition, so that means
a little more James Thurber for you. James Thurber had
many full time jobs. He was a street reporter, for
the Columbus Dispatch and later the New York Post, and
he was an editor of The New Yorker long before
he was a writer or cartoonist there, and people kept
trying to make him into a radio star, leading to
(47:39):
a short story which is understandably one of my favorites.
A lot of it speaks of broadcasting in another world
and of course another century. But it is amazing how
much of what you will hear now is still true today.
From the May fifth, nineteen thirty four edition of The
New Yorker, How to Relax while Broadcasting by James Thurber,
(48:04):
the evening I went up to the studios for my
first radio broadcast. I got off by mistake, at the
sixteenth floor instead of the seventeenth. I decided not to
wait for the elevator, but just run up the stairs
to the seventeenth floor, because elevators in broadcasting buildings are
always crowded with small Italian musicians carrying cellos. And furthermore,
(48:27):
when the up sign above the elevators in these buildings
lights the operator of the car that stops where he
usually says down, and before you can think, you find
yourself on the first floor again without any way of
getting back up, because you surrendered your pass to the
man at the desk in the lobby the first time
you went up. I walked to a door on the
(48:47):
sixteenth floor, marked stairs, and stepped out into a cold,
dark staircase shaft and walked up one flight. I found
that the door on that floor wouldn't open. It was
after seven o'clock in the evening and the door had
been officially locked. I hurried back down to the sixth
eighth floor and discovered that the door there had locked
(49:07):
behind me too. I began to beat on it and
kick it from far off. A faint voice came to me,
finally saying, cut that out. The only thing to do
was walk down fifteen flights to the main floor, which
I did, but the door out into the lobby was
also locked, and nobody answered my screams and poundings. Screaming
(49:33):
and pounding is not radio, as the broadcasting people say.
I went down into the basement, which was dark and gloomy,
and hunted for the elevator shaft. I found it, but
there was no bell to push, so I sat on
an old chair until the car came down. The operator
was surprised to see me and asked me for my pass.
(49:54):
I told him I didn't have a pass. He thought awhile,
and then asked if mister Hayman knew I was down there.
I said I didn't think so. He was pretty much
alarmed by the but he took me up to the
seventeenth floor after warning me never to come down to
the basement again without a pass. There was nobody on
the seventeenth floor who understood my case, although the people
(50:18):
I talked to were patient and courteous. They said the
seventeenth floor was entirely given over to the business department
and had no studios or microphones. What I probably wanted
was the twenty seventh floor. Up there, I found some
people I had met before, but they were pretty busy
and seemed to think it was the wrong night. I
sat down in a chair, and presently a man came
(50:39):
up to me and asked me if I was mister Tartherer.
I said I wasn't sure, and he said to follow him.
I was shown into an office where there were some
officials I knew and some friends of mine. One of
the officials was denying a story somebody had been telling
about a man who fell dead in front of the microphone.
(51:01):
It seems he had merely had a stroke. In a
little while, I was led in a solemn march to
a small and lonely studio, heavily draped and silent. I
took out a cigarette, but saw a sign saying no smoking,
so I put the cigarette away again. Some men in
the glass in control room began to look at me.
(51:24):
I could see their lips move, but I couldn't hear anything.
A man tiptoed into the room where I was and
shook hands with me, and tiptoed out again. He never
came back. I walked over to a regular microphone, such
as I had talked over once or twice before and
had got used to. But somebody led me away from
(51:44):
that said I was to talk over a table microphone
because it would help me to relax. This turned out
to be a table about the size of a card table,
with a microphone set innocently in its center, face up,
more or less like an ash tray. It studied simplicity
caused me to tighten up slightly, and I meant this
(52:05):
to a man. Be it your ease, he said. I
stood over the table, grasped its edges firmly and leaned
down toward the microphone. Someone grasped me, no, no, he said,
you just sit down at the table, as if you
were sitting in a chair at any table and talk.
I sat down, trying to remember how I sit in
(52:28):
a chair at a table, especially a card table at
which nobody else is sitting. Relax, said someone with a
note of command. I slumped back in the chair and
placed on the table the papers I was going to
use and began fussing with them. Sh somebody hissed, don't
rustle them. This is a very highly sensitized mic which
(52:48):
picks up every slightest sound. It would sound like a
waterfalls if you rustled them. I began to drum my
fingers on the tabletop, but a courteous official put his
hand on mine and stopped that tapping would sound black
cavalry crossing a bridge to your listeners, He explained, just
(53:11):
take it easy. I leaned back in my chair and
adjusted my tie, doubtless giving the effect of someone trying
to take a leather belt away from a bulldog. In
a moment, an announcer came in and said we were
all ready to go. Okay, I said, standing up, let's
get out. He smiled with calm assurance and said no.
(53:33):
He meant that we were about to start the program.
Everybody but him tiptoed out of the room. I sat
down at the table again. I could see them all
watching me from the control room. Somebody in there raised
his hand sharply and let it drop sharply. I expected
to hear the faint hiss of lethal gas escaping into
the chamber, but instead the announcer started to talk. I
(53:53):
creaked nervously in the chair at this, and the listeners heard,
along with his calm announcement, the sound of a buckboard
falling over a cliff. Finally, he pointed a finger at me.
I sat bolt up and began to talk to the ashtray.
When it was all over, everybody tiptoed whisperingly into the
(54:15):
room and congratulated me on being only five seconds too slow.
Not bad for a beginner. The record is one five
hundredth of a second. I got up and started it
out of the room, but a man followed me and
took me by the arm. Where are you going, he asked,
Let's all go out and get a drink. I said,
(54:37):
but you haven't got time, he said. All this has
just been the rehearsal. I must have tightened up horribly
at that, for he said soothingly, take it easy. You
got plenty of time to relax in He looked at
his wristwatch. You got four minutes. I've done all the
(55:10):
damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Countdown.
Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel arranged, produced,
and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on guitars,
bass and drums, and mister Shanelle handled the orchestration and
the keyboards, and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Other music,
including some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by
the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the
(55:30):
Olberman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis
courtesy of ESPN Inc. ESPN ESPN. How could you misspell
ESPN or mispronounce it? It's spelled very similarly to the
way it sounds ESPN ESPN. Our satirical and pithy musical
comments are by Nancy Fauss, the best baseball stadium organist ever.
(55:54):
At our announcer today was my friend Nancy Faust, everything
else pretty much my fault as usual. That's countdown for
this the one hundred and seventy third day until the
two tenty twenty four presidential election, the two and twenty
eighth day since Dictator Jay Trump's first attempted coup against
the democratically elected government of the United States. Use the
(56:15):
legal system, use the mental health system, use presidential immunity
if the Supreme Court makes it up. Use the not
regularly given elector objection option to stop him from doing
it again while we still can. The next scheduled countdown
is Tuesday. The throat may be on the mend, the
(56:36):
sinus infection may be on the run. Hopefully I'll be
at seventy five percent by then. Whenever the next one
is till the next one, I'm Keith Olverman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and what about her emails? Countdown
(57:14):
with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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