June 14, 2023 • 44 mins
EPISODE 227: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Where is the enterprise, where is the daring, where is the simple nerve of Sophie Alexander, International Affairs producer for the UK’s SKY News. As Trump is doing the carefully staged man-of-the-people bit, the same act from the day he threw rolls of paper towels to the drowning residents of Puerto Rico, he hops into the Cuban hang-out The Versailles Bakery and all Sophie Alexander did was shout a question at Trump: are you ready to go to jail? “The emperor has no clothes.”
Put her in charge of CNN!
Plus: "The Emperor Has No Clothes." No, not me. Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska, as Trump was arrested for the second time in 70 days.
“The espionage act has been used to go after traitors and spies.” Again – not me. Trump himself, last night, after prosecutors let him turn yesterday into one long campaign ad.
“I certainly won’t support a convicted felon for the White House.” Also, not me. Republican Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado, Freedom Caucus member, signatory to the Texas Amicus Brief-Coup Attempt, who ten days ago said the investigations and the lawsuits and the arrests almost gave Trump credibility and he didn’t care and who yesterday changed sides. Like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott did. Like a trickle of other Republicans have. It may stop here. If it doesn’t, it may stop Trump.
I hesitate to even HOPE that this is where enough of the G-O-P breaks to split the party but the last two days have shown what such a split would look like and it is along two simple fault lines: both conceits are wildly untrue but the Republicans think of themselves as the party of law and order, and the party of absolute prioritization of the military and what has been obvious to the rest of us for eight years is suddenly obvious to many in the GOP: Trump believes neither in law-and-order nor the military – Trump believes only in himself.
What happens when it's The Troops...or The Trump?
B-Block (23:11) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Tommy Tuberville doesn't show up, meaning Dick Durbin can bypass Tuberville's hold on Military Promotions, and Durbin says 'but that wouldn't be playing the game!' And Pat Sajak retires. Good! He's a schmuck! (28:48) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: MSNBC supplants Fox News atop the cable news ratings for the first time in 120 weeks. You're welcome. Vivek Ramaswamy tries to play the crowd at the Trump arraignment. And Doctor/Senator Bill Cassidy posts an umbrage selfie and makes a huge mistake.
C-Block (33:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Puppy Simba, on death row at an insanely overcrowded New York pound (34:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The day the president of MSNBC decided to try to chase me around the live studio while his pet project was debuting IN the live story and I had to figure out what to say when I called the cops to tell them he was threatening to kill me.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Quote
the Emperor has no clothes. No, not me. Congressman Don Bacon,
(00:28):
Republican of Nebraska, as Trump was arrested for the second
time in seventy days. Quote, the Espionage Act has been
used to go after traders and spies. Again not me,
Trump last night after prosecutors let him turn yesterday into
one long campaign ad quote. I certainly won't support a
(00:49):
convicted felon for the White House. Also not me. Republican
Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado Freedom Caucus member signatory to
the Texas Amicus Brief coup attempt who ten days ago
said the investigations and the lawsuits in the Eras almost
gave Trump credibility, and he didn't care. But who yesterday
(01:10):
changed sides like NICKI Haley did, like Tim Scott did,
like a trickle of other key Republicans have. It may
stop here. If it does not stop here, it may
stop Trump. He hid documents, Buck said yesterday as Trump
officially became the man who has not only been impeached
more times than he has been elected, but has now
(01:32):
been arrested more times than he has been elected. As well,
purposely putting them in a shower, purposely putting them on
a stage, So there clearly is an intent to hide.
Congressman Buck went further, yet, I would not feel comfortable
with a convicted felon in the White House. Bunck went
even further than that. Let's just look at Donald Trump's
words in twenty sixteen. He said that Hillary Clinton was
(01:55):
unfit for the White House because of the way she
handled classified information. I think his words have set the
standard that America will look at in determining whether he
is fit for president. Quote Republican. I hesitate to even
hope that this is where enough of the GOP breaks
(02:17):
to split the party, But the last two days have
shown what such a split would look like, and it
is along to simple fault lines. Both conceits are wildly untrue.
But the Republican Party thinks of itselves as the party
of law and order and the party of absolute prioritization
(02:38):
of the military. And what has been obvious to the
rest of us for eight years is suddenly obvious to
many in the GOP. Trump believes neither in law and
order nor in the military. Trump believes only in himself.
If that realization continues to spread, they may actually thwart him.
(03:00):
For Congressman Bacon, none of this is new, endorsed by Trump.
Trump apology then thrown overboard by Trump, and as Trump
was being a rain, he said, quote, I think it's
obvious what the President did was wrong, and we just
got to be honest. I just think the emperor has
no clothes, and we need to have some Republicans stand
(03:21):
up and say that. I think Republicans have always stood
on the rule of law. We can't walk away from that.
Think of that term rule of law as a brand name,
and it will be easier to digest what I am
putting out here. Mike Pompeo, who we can still see
(03:41):
standing there smugly in a time of American crisis, insisting
there would be a smooth transition to a second Trump term.
But yesterday on Fox Pompeo quote, Trump had classified documents
when he shouldn't have had them, and when given the
opportunity to return them, he chose not to do that.
That's inconsistent with protecting America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.
(04:09):
He left out the wax. Two days, two former key
members of the Trump government saying Trump endangered the soldiers. Again,
this could be the last we ever hear of that,
but it also could be Rubicon Republicans having to choose
between the law and the troops or the Trump. Even Hayley,
(04:33):
when she predictably tried to back away from her accusation
Monday that Trump had endangered the troops, only backed up
and did not back out. Yesterday, she talked about pardoning
him after a conviction. From many angles, that's even worse.
Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw. It's very problematic, he said. There's
(04:54):
a reason I'm not defending it. That's all I'll say
about it. Republican Congressman Tim Burchett, the weird one with
the beard. Would you support Trump after conviction? No, Honestly,
on the surface, I wouldn't. That doesn't look good. Republican
congress and Dan Newhouse. No one is above the law.
(05:14):
They are all trying to walk a tightrope that may
or may not be tied to anything on the other end.
And every one of their anti Trump sentences comes attached
to attack on Biden or Hillary Clinton or the DOJ. Fine,
that's not the point right now, general run of the
mill two thousand and eight. Republican paranoia at holier than
(05:37):
thou bleedings about the military and law and order that
looks surprisingly palatable at the moment. And by the way,
that tightrope, whether or not it's connected to anything, is
getting pretty damn crowded. Buck Bacon, Crenshaw, Birchett new House, Haley,
Tim Scott, Romney, Murkowski, thun Chris Christy, Asa Hutchinson, Hell
(06:00):
Mick Mulvaney, one of his chiefs of staff yesterday's I
think the chances of a guilty verdict are very high,
and the chances of real jail time are pretty high.
And the interviewer asked, how long in jail for Trump
do you think? And mulvaney said, quote at his age,
it doesn't really make much difference, right whooooo, Happy birthday, Trumper.
(06:27):
I mean, can you imagine the headlines if a Democrat
had said that, had implied that any jail time for
Donald Trump means, you know, he'll die in prison. Mick mulvaney,
you have unsuspected depth. Of course, you can only imagine
the headlines if a Democrat had said that. Because here
(06:47):
it is again, President Biden has ordered radio silence on
the indictment. And I have not been able to figure
out who treated the defendant like Queen Elizabeth yesterday in Miami,
but the deference was nauseating. Anybody else would have been
denied bail. And he wasn't even a dressed as the defendant.
He was called the former president, no cameras, no audio. Reporters,
(07:10):
could not even text from the courtroom. And the difference
sounds all tidy and diplomatic. And yet besides the difference,
there's a deference, and it is interpreted by his defenders
as naked fear from Politico on the Democratic response to
Trump and the indictment, which is namely, there isn't any quote.
(07:33):
Biden and his top aides have taken a vow of
silence on the federal indictment of his predecessor, Donald Trump,
and have explicitly ordered the entities that the White House controls,
which includes the re election campaign and the Democratic National Committee,
are not to publicly discuss any of the criminal investigations
into Trump. Those closest to the president are deeply wary
(07:56):
of any perception that Biden is trying to influence the
investigations unquote, because the fact that Biden will be treated
as if he is on the phone directing every second
of this process twenty four to seven. Whether he does
it or not is not just presumed on the right.
It is the starting point of every fascist attack on
this process. And the President is going to pretend it
(08:20):
isn't instead of saying, what the hell you're gonna believe
the worst of me anyway? Let me get Adam. I'm
going to kick him while he's down. Repeatedly, War from
Politico quote. That decision has some Democrats and allies worried
that Biden could miss a chance to underscore the seriousness
of the national moment as well as deliver a political
(08:42):
blow to his top White House rival. You think, I mean,
it is as if Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans of
eighteen sixty four sat around one day at the desk
and decided it would be inappropriate to mention, you know,
if the country votes for George McClellan instead of for Abe,
that they're going to immediately sign a peace treaty with
(09:03):
the South, and you know, reinstate slavery. Abe is deeply
wary of any perception that he is trying to influence
the investigations of the secessionist traders. Concurrent with this madness
is the recognition provided by the perspective of finally seeing
Trump indicted and arraigned, even at this late date, a
(09:26):
perspective that is spectacularly outlined by Eric Levitts in New
York Magazine that there was political interference in the prosecution
of Trump, that the Department of Justice and presumably somebody
in the White House did interfere to try to prevent
Trump from being prosecuted. Quoting Levitts, as late as January
(09:46):
twenty twenty two, the Justice Department was still giving Trump
the opportunity to avoid charges by returning the documents he
had taken. The indictment released last week makes this point clear,
as levitt notes, Trump returned one hundred and ninety seven
stolen documents, then he was charged on none of them. None,
(10:07):
just like Pence wasn't charged, just like Biden will not
be charged. To the extent that political considerations influenced the
DOJ's handling of the case, Levitz rights, they led the
Department to extend Trump extraordinary opportunities to extricate himself from
legal peril so as to avoid the politically inflammatory spectacle
(10:28):
of his prosecution. As Mick mulvaney said in that same
interview where he forecast Trump dying in prison, he compared
the Trump documents to the Benz and Biden documents and said, quote,
they gave them back. And oh, by the way, what
exactly has that spectacle, that politically inflammatory spectacle of his
(10:51):
prosecution been so far? Three hundred people showed up at
the courthouse yesterday, maybe four hundred, and the city of
Miami was ready for fifty thousand, and the Carrie Leep
prediction was three hundred million. In all the day, I
was waiting for Melissa McCarthy, a Shawan spicer, to show
up on my TV and announce it was three hundred million. Period.
(11:16):
I hope I am not conveying anything resembling Pollyanna. Here.
The small crowd at the courthouse is still about twenty
five times bigger than the small crowd of Republicans who
have scurried back aboard the good ship reality. The American
news media is also still pliant, gullible. It's not even
close to being haunted by memories of twenty sixteen or
(11:39):
twenty twenty or last freaking week. Though the improvement in
CNN post Chris Licht was immediate when CNN decided not
to run Trump's remarks at bed Minster last night Live.
The effect of the paste clears out of the system quickly,
I believe. But still, where is the enterprise, Where is
(12:03):
the daring? Where's the simple nerve of Sophie Alexander, the
international affairs producer for the UK's Sky News on assignment
in Miami yesterday, you saw this, You didn't see this
as Trump is doing the carefully staged man of the
people bit, the same act from the day that he
(12:24):
threw those rolls of paper towels to the drowning residence
of Puerto Rico. Trump hops into the Cuban hangout, the
Versailles Bakery, and all Sophie Alexander of Sky News did
was to shout above the crowd a question at Trump,
and the question was, are you ready to go to jail?
President Trump?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Are you ready to go to jail?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
She's just a producer, She's not even on the air.
A producer. You think you're gonna get that from Andrea
Mitchell from Chuck Todd. Chuck Todd would have said, mister Trump,
some people say that it's an important question to ask.
Are you ready to go to Sophie Alexander Sky News Hey,
David Zaslav, I think I found your new CEO of CNN. Hell,
(13:43):
have her do that and host at nine o'clock. Name
an American reporter at any venue, in any medium who
A gets inside that bakery. B has absolutely no concern
about disturbing the Trump narrative. And c does not give
a good goddamn what they think of her or what
they threatened to do to her for asking that question.
(14:06):
And yes, she's fine, but they did throw her out
of the bakery. Leave the phone, take the cannoli. Okay,
there is old business on the Trump front to clear
up here. You may have heard New York State Attorney
General T. James say the federal prosecution of Trump will
take precedence over hers. The quote was, in all likelihood,
(14:28):
I believe that my case, as well as DA Bragg
and the Georgia case will unfortunately have to be adjourned
pending the outcome of the federal case. Can't and won't
argue with her knowledge of her own case. But there
are no indications thus far that Bragg has slowed down
his prosecution of Trump, nor conceded any adjournment or delay.
And as to the Fannie Willis electoral interference case in Georgia,
(14:51):
not only is there no evidence that she is deferring
to jack Smith's schedule, but the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports
now that one of the people in that crowd of
three or four hundred around the Miami Courthouse for yesterday's
arraignment was and atlant a police official quote closely monitoring
the security procedures that city used to protect the world
(15:12):
from the Trump mob, you know, just in case they
indict Trump in Atlanta month after next. Also, though the
Miami event was a landmark, it was nowhere near the
end of the road for the Special Council. As Trump
was being treated with kid gloves, he did not deserve.
Jacksmith's Washington Grand Jury heard from the chairman and the
(15:34):
vice chairman of the Nevada GOP, Michael McDonald and Jim Degraffen,
reed two of that state's fake electors. And speaking of
fake in the mirror image world of the House Republican Caucus,
which stays up nights trying to make up stuff it
can claim, Biden did that Trump really did. The latest
twist in the Chuck Grassley, Jamie Comer, Ponzi scheme. Oh,
(15:57):
there's a lead about an FBI document, but it's hidden
and it's redacted, and it's from a confidential source, reportedly
quoting a rumoredhstile blower. Well, the new hint is Grassley says.
The hidden document says that the informant has seventeen audio
tapes of Joe and Hunter Biden talking about five million
(16:17):
dollar bribes. And of course none of this has come out,
none of it has come out at any time in
the last checks watch seven years. Now. I'll be the
first to admit that this particular Trump what about what
Biden did allegedly reportedly apparently according to sources, this is
a very very heavy lift for anybody. But there is
(16:41):
only one part. You really have to sell to the
Republican roobs that these alleged Biden tapes actually exist. You
don't have to play them, you don't have to show
a machine that they're on, you don't have to show
a document. Just convince them. They're ready to be convinced.
(17:01):
And sure enough, Jamie Comer went on news Max yesterday
and he was asked the question about this three times,
and each time he gave an answer worse than the
previous one, and the end result basically was Jamie Comer admitting,
are these Biden tapes for real? I have no frickin clue.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
When will you be able to confirm if these recordings
are legit? How long is that going to take?
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Well? I can confirm that the recordings were in the
ten twenty three. Remember I was with Center Grashley when
we saw the unredacted version.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Okay, so chause Grassley was saying, alleged yesterday. So these
recordings are legit. You can confirm they are legitimate.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Well, I can confirm they were listed in the ten
twenty three that the FBI redacted. I don't know if
they're legit or not, but we know that the foreign
national claims he has them.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Okay, So when can you confirm it they're legit? Because
if they're.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Legit to it this is the problem. Heh boy, not
enough laughs. Let's close with a few more hadn't seen
this till last night. Maybe you have the Trump boxes
in the toilet shot, but with a new meme kind
of caption bed bath and beyond a reasonable doubt. The
twenty seven year old press aide Trump took with him
(18:13):
from the White House. Margot Martin, not Margo Martindale, my
fellow performer on BoJack Horseman, Margo Martin, she showed up
at the courthouse yesterday and was misidentified as Millenia, misidentified
on Fox News. And best of all, as Trump posted
(18:35):
before during an actor the hearing yesterday, he screwed something
up so badly that I am genuinely amazed. It did
not overshadow the entire arraignment. It's another attack on Jack Smith. Quote.
This is the thug overturned consistently and unanimously in big cases.
He's a radical right lunatic and Trump hater, as are
all his friends and Femme, wait what, He's a radical
(18:58):
right lunatic and Trump hater. And so we end where
we began. Are these first thirteen key Republicans to turn
on Trump also the last thirteen key Republicans to turn
on Trump? Or are they just the first wave? Doctor
Freud would look at that post and suggest the latter,
because based on what Trump wrote, Trump seems to think
(19:22):
he's now being prosecuted by the radical right. Also of
interest here, Senator Coach Pinhead, Tommy the Tuba Tubberville is
blocking unanimous consent for military promotions because somebody taught him
the word woke. But Tommy the Tuba wanted to be
(19:44):
at Bedminster with Trump last night, so he missed a
vital vote in the Senate. So somebody else suggested to
Dick Durbin, who's in the Democratic Party, if you didn't know,
now's the time, isn't it to go for unanimous consent
on all those military promotions because Tubberville isn't here. And
durban shook his head gravely, and he said. Durbin actually said,
(20:06):
that's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman.
Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some predictions. Dateline the Capitol. If your brains did not
(20:27):
fall out your head over the kid gloves treatment of Trump.
Wait do you hear about Dick Durbin the world's dumbest Senator?
Tommy Tuberville was supposed to show up to vote against
nominee Jared Bernstein to become Chairman of the Council of
Economic Advisors so as to force the Vice President to
cast a tie breaking vote. Instead, Tuberville went to New
Jersey for a photo op with the defendant spoiling Mitch
(20:50):
McConnell's mischief. It was posited to Senator Durbin that with
Tuberville out chasing Trump, this would be the time to
pass all those military promotions that Tuberville has been blocking
because he's a grand standing idiot and nobody knows if
his head is inflated or stuffed. Durbin's reply, that would
be quote tempting, but quote one of the unwritten rules
(21:12):
of the place is you don't take advantage of a
person's absence. Senator Durbin, have you met Senator Feinstein. Wait,
it's worse, almost as Durbin was surrendering to Republicans who
hadn't even tried to force him to do so. Almost
at that exact moment, JD. Vance, the Republican senator representing
(21:33):
Book Tour Nation, announced he will be putting a hold
on all Biden nominees to the Justice Department to pay
the Justice Department back for the prosecution of the Trader Trump,
which means, in effect, Dick Durbin Democratic Party is an
accessory to these Republican stunts. And I think now the
(21:53):
time has come that he needs to resign. His leadership
roles in the Senate, and hell, while we're at it,
resign your seat. Senator. This is no longer the game
you are playing. You are wringing your hands and hoping
they'll be nice to you while the Republicans are throwing
America off the top of the Capitol Dome. You have
the majority, Senator, Kindly crush the Republicans with it, or
(22:15):
turn that majority over to someone who will.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
You.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Nancy Faust Dateline, Hollywood, Pat Sajack says he is retiring
after the upcoming forty first season of the Wheel of
Fortune game show. Good he's a schmuck. There are lots
of TV performers who are schmucks. Maybe a majority, say Jack, though,
is a lazy, intellectually constipated schmuck. Thirty four years ago,
CBS actually decided that he was the right choice to
(22:54):
host a late night talk show to go up against
Johnny Carson on NBC. The CBS thought wasn't no, he's
not very good, and yeah, he's not going to do
very well in the but Carson is going to retire
soon in a couple of years, and by then, say
Jack will be the familiar face in late night and
he'll do well against whoever succeeds Johnny Carson. Well, Carson
(23:15):
did indeed retire just three years later, but by that point,
Say Jack's CBS show had been dead for two years
and a month because it never reached half of Carson's ratings,
and also for internal reasons that don't get talked a
lot about when they talk about what a great TV legend,
Pat Sajack is spinning that stupid wheel and not succeeding
(23:35):
at all in the primetime version. I was the local
sportscaster for CBS in LA in that exact timeframe. Twice
I was a guest on Pat Sajack's CBS show, The
Pat Sajack Show. We even did this bit where I
did my sportscast live from outside his studio and came
on as a guest on his show, and he came
(23:57):
on and was a guest on my show. Only we
were saying he was coming from the future to the
past because we were live at five point thirty. Well,
his show didn't go on until tape till eleven thirty. Anyway,
the second time I did the show, I got there
around three o'clock for a five pm taping. And I
wanted to say hello to Pat, and the producer told
me I should check back in an hour or so
(24:17):
because Sajack had started only showing up in time for makeup.
He also said the CBS executive in charge of Late
Night was waiting in my dressing room, and I assumed
he was joking. And then I went into my dressing
room and there he was. Hey. He said, have you
ever thought about hosting something like this? And I laughed
and I said no, thinking he was still joking, but
I would happy to give it a try. And he said,
how about next month, We're gonna get rid of this idiot. Instead,
(24:41):
CBS just shut the whole thing down fifteen months after
it launched. It later proved that Sajack was such an
arch conservative, and sometime in the last fifteen years he
started apologizing for being the person who put me on
national television and thus made my career. I had to
point out that I had started on national television in
(25:01):
nineteen eighty one, a year before he had that I
had spent four years on CNN every day. I also
had to point out that whatever he thought had happened
due to my appearances on his CBS show, since nobody
watched it. Helping my career was not one of them.
In Los Angeles, our CBS eleven o'clock News was in
last place in the ratings, but it still got more
(25:24):
viewers than the program that followed it, which was of
course called The Pat Sayjack Show still ahead on Countdown. Boy,
(25:44):
that was a long time before the president of a
network I worked for chased me around the studio threatening
to kill me, and I thought I was going to
have to call the cops or hit him in the
head with my fists. Boy, is that a story. I'll
tell it to you next. First, the daily round Up
with the miss Greens, Morons and Dunning Kruger Effect specimens
who constituted today's worst persons in the world, The Brons
(26:06):
the fine folks over to Fox quote news unquote. For
one hundred and twenty weeks in a row, they have
won the primetime battle for the most viewers over CNN
and MSNBC and Newsmax and Nick at Night News Nation.
Last week, they averaged one million, five hundred and four
thousand viewers per minuted in primetime, while MSNBC averaged one million,
(26:28):
five hundred and twenty thousand viewers permitted in primetime. So
Fox is officially number two behind number one MSNBC in primetime.
And all I can say is you're welcome. The runner
up presidential candidate Vivek No. I don't think I'm embarrassing myself.
Why do you ask? Ramaswami. He went to the courthouse
(26:48):
in Miami yesterday dressed in a T shirt and a
baseball cap, and the baseball cap read tru thh. He's subtle.
He said he had written to every other candidate in
both parties quote, demanding that they sign his letter promising
to pardon Trump. On top of that, he mispronounced the
(27:08):
name of the North Dakota governor and gop wanna be
Doug Bergham as Doug Bugram. Congratulations, Governor Bugram on your
new name. So I'm trying to understand this. This guy,
Ramswami is a success in business, but our winner is
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Cassidy posted a walking selfie,
(27:28):
which he himself has called outrage of the week. Quote.
The White House Gift Shop is putting out a commemorative
coin for Donald Trump's indictment. You gotta admit it's poor taste,
that it's capitalizing upon something without his permission. I'm sure
it's the wrong thing to do. Have a sense of decency.
White House Gift Shop unquote. Senator Cassidy has been in
(27:49):
Washington since two thousand and nine as a congressman and
then a senator, and apparently only yesterday did he learn
that the White House Gift Shop is unaffiliated with the
White House. It is a private retail company that sells
crap like a twenty twenty Trump beats covid coin online mostly,
and it does everything to make the stupid people out
(28:10):
there think it is some kind of branch of the government. Frighteningly,
Senator Cassidy is also a physician. He's a liver specialist,
and he thus fulfills George Carlin's timeless observation that just
by process of elimination, somewhere there must be the worst
doctor in the world. My late friend, I have your winner,
(28:32):
doctor Senator Cassidy, who also really struggled in that video
with pronouncing that word commemoratating so physician, healed thyself today's
worst person just ahead. Based on my reputation, you would
(28:59):
think that every one of my bosses was driven so
nuts that they would eventually try to kill.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Nah.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
He's just the one guy. His story next. First in
each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need
you can help. Every dog has its day. Back to
the New York Pound. Things are out of control, two
hundred and ninety four dogs, they say, in a shelter
designed to hold one hundred and sixty eight. Before the pandemic,
a dozen dogs on their twice weekly pre kill list
(29:29):
would have been a lot. Right now, it's thirty two,
including Simba, who's a forty eight pound puppy who's just
fifty four weeks old. Loves people, loves kids, loves dogs.
Unsure around strangers, but he warms up quickly dumped quote
due to not having time to care for him. He's exuberant.
He's a lot of dog. He still needs to be fixed,
but there isn't one reason he should be killed. We
(29:51):
need pledges to defray the cost of a rescue to
come in and save him and train him and get
him to a family that will not leave him to
die in the pound when it's at maximum overcrowding. Look
for Simba on my Twitter feed. Your retweets will also
so help I thank you, and Simba thanks you. Finally
(30:19):
our number one story in the countdown things I promised
not to tell And back to my favorite topic, me
how exactly was I supposed to tell the police that
the man threatening to kill me was the president of MSNBC.
He was chasing me through the studios. He was too
overweight to run, But even though he inexplicably lied and
(30:39):
said he was six foot seven, at six foot five,
this guy, his name was Rick Kaplan, and he was
the soon to be ex president of MSNBC, just as
he was already the ex president of CNN. He still
had strides as long as my own. Plus On that
night of August eighth, two thousand and five, I was multitasking.
I was trying to mentally record everything he was shouting,
(31:02):
while also drawing him away from the live microphones of
the live studio in which he had started shouting, while
also fishing for my office key so I could lock
myself in there if need be, while also figuring out
how I would hit him if it came to that,
while also trying to register the superb double takes from
(31:23):
my colleagues past whom he was stomping like an out
of shape Frankenstein, while also trying to suppress an overwhelming
and seemingly inappropriate desire to burst into laughter while still
game planning these soon to be inevitable call to the cops.
A beautiful downtown Secaucus, New Jersey. Hi. Yeah, yeah, he's
(31:46):
trying to kill me, my boss, the president of MSNBC.
Yeah yeah, the cable television network. Yeah, exactly, down the
street from the London Fog Outlet store. Yeah, one MSNBC Plaza.
I know it's a dumb address. He's about sixty two
(32:08):
seventy five, two hundred and eighty pounds. By the way,
he says he's six foot seven, but he's only six
foot five. Why Why does he lie about his height
or why is he trying to kill right? Well, I
did a commentary urging the viewers to stop smoking, and
he's afraid of the mention of blood. Hello. Hello. As
all of this played out in my head, President Kaplan
(32:29):
was huffing and puffing his way through our giant studio,
weaving through the news assignment area, past the makeup room,
down the hallways, nearing the offices of my show Countdown,
and passed the bank of a couple of one hundred
television monitors with a different face on every one of them,
each seemingly staring slack jawed at the executive, screaming threats
at the only guy on his own network who got
(32:50):
any ratings. I'll pay you back, I'll get you I'll
finish your own I'll kill y'all. This had all begun
roughly ten days earlier, in late July two thousand and five,
an oral surgeon who had intended to examine a growth
(33:10):
on the roof of my mouth that instead, with one
pale look, silently betrayed his suspicion that it was cancerous.
Then he cut the whole thing out. I was on
my way to work anyway. It was too late to
get a replacement, and I was bleeding so much that
our technical director and I decided to pre record all
of my on camera segments for that night's show, thus
(33:33):
reducing the chances of viewers hearing me say President Bush
today while blood oozed out of my mouth, over my
teeth and lips, and onto the desk like I was
dracul Anchor. When the following Wednesday, I got the unexpected
all clear from the surgeon's office, I decided to devote
some of each night's newscast to a campaign to help
(33:55):
viewers and myself quit smoking. My premise was a simple
one that I had never heard argued before and have
rarely heard argued since, that it would be a lot
easier to quit if you didn't have cancer then if
you did have cancer. I pitched my producers on the series.
I went into Rick Kaplan's office to get his seal
(34:17):
of approval. He was enthusiastic and supportive, and most rare
of all, he was paying attention. And then I said,
I was also going to point out that if you
got the good outcome like I had, they would merely
stick a laser in your mouth and you'd smell your
own flesh burning for like forty eight hours, and you'd
have to keep spitting out your own blood.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Don't say that.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
He suddenly threw his meaty hands out towards me in
a strangling gesture, and then just as quickly clamped them
over his own ears and closed his eyes and began
actually screaming no, no, no, no no no no no
no no no no no. I thought he had gone crazy,
as it proved he was just practicing for going crazy. Later,
(34:57):
I'm sorry, I'm squeamish. I got the point. I just
can't findle references to, you know, uh, the red stuff.
Go ahead with the series. Just toned down the red stuff.
I toned down the red stuff, and my executive producer
is Epovich sent him the scripts and he told her
(35:18):
to tone down the red stuff a little more. And
I went and I did that too. We all decided
to start the anti smoking series the following Monday, August eighth,
two thousand and five. By nauseating coincidence, that was the
day after the ABC anchorman Peter Jennings had died of
lung cancer. The MSNBC president had been a producer on
(35:39):
Jennings newscast. I had long since written and recorded Jennings obituary,
and now this somewhat cold, but still journalistically valid segue
would have to be made. We would have to go
directly from the twelve minute long Jennings oh bit to
the start of our anti tobacco campaign. Eight or nine
minutes into that pre recorded Jennings obituary, Rick Kaplan came
(36:01):
out of his office and walked the fifty feet or
so through the vast open newsroom to where my anchor
desk was His eyes were full of tears. This is wonderful,
he said quietly. Peter would have liked this. He gave
me a thumbs up. Then he walked to a second
desk another fifty feet away, where his first big hire,
a woman named Rita Cosby, was about to premiere his
(36:22):
first big gamble, her new show immediately following mine. I
was actually moved by Rick Kaplan's comment. I did not
once think of phoning the Secaucus police. But then I
began the anti smoking segment, and as I focused on
the camera and the teleprompter in front of me and
detailed the blood and the gore and the spitting and
(36:43):
how that was the good outcome, out of the corner
of my eye, I saw this weird sight. The President
again left his office and waddled out along the wall,
thirty feet all ahead of me, in the general direction
of the control rooms. Within moments, as I continued to
read my script, he was back in the studio and
standing right next to my camera, gesticulating wild. I said,
(37:07):
they never say it, but wouldn't it be really easier
to quit smoking when you didn't have cancer than when
you did? And Kaplan responded with the same two handed
choking gesture he had made briefly in his office much earlier.
I presumed there was some simple problem, like that the
building was on fire, but I calculated that I could
still make it to the show's scheduled finished time eight
fifty nine fifty nine EDT and still survive even if
(37:31):
others perished. That's countdown for this the eight hundred and
thirtieth day since the declaration of mission accomplished in Iraq.
I'm Keith Ulerman. Good night and good luck your sliver.
Rick Kaplan suddenly screamed from the other anchor desk. I
could hear, and this is my impression of her.
Speaker 5 (37:48):
Good evening. I'mrita Cosby. This is Rita Cosby, live and
direct with Rida Cosby, and I'm Rida Cosby.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
She was not a big woman, but she had a
voice on her like the horn on the Staten Island
ferry if it had a cold. You are over the top.
You aren't disgusting. My first thought was that Kaplan had
forgotten that microphones fifty feet away were live during the
premiere of his pet project sh Rina is On. I
actually whispered to him, silly me, I don't give her half.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
If Free Day is on, you were told by is
He Poevits that the piece was over the top and
you needed to cut it, and you didn't.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
I still couldn't bring myself to yell back her in
a live studio. I did cut it, and eas He
read it and approved it, and she said you had too.
And Rita's premiere is going on over there in that
sort of direction. Maybe you should yell at me closer
to the assignment desk. Maybe I don't give a crap.
If is He approved it, then she's an ass and
I can't trust you. I can't trust you. You're all idiots.
(38:46):
I can't believe you did this to me. I'm trying
to get Rita's show off the ground, and you start
talking about spitting blood into a garbage can. Well, now
I was getting angry. I couldn't resist. Yes, Rita is
in fact live and direct from that desk right over there.
And if you'll notice, she keeps looking over here at
using why you are yelling during the first minutes of
(39:07):
her first show? So why don't we move over here? Rick?
I began to move away from him, and we're walking
away from the live Mo Mike's and we're walking, and
we're walking, and Rick and Keith are walking because the
noise isn't really professional. Well, we're not talking professionals, are
we We're talking idiots. We were walking and he was
still screaming, you're idiots. I will never trust you again.
(39:31):
He had begun to trot or stumble or whatever he
was doing.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
This is not over. I will pay you back, self
serving garbage. I will get you, and I'll get that
A hole is he for not staying here and reading
that script? How many times did you intend to say
spit blood into a garbage can before I stopped to
I now realized what he thought had happened, as he
had gestured spasmodically at me while he stood next to
(39:56):
my camera. I briefly let my focus shift to amazement
at the fact that this guy, who had been in
TV news for twenty five years, knew almost nothing thing
about how TV worked. I explained to him that Izzy
and one of her assistants and I had gone over
the script several times and taken out half of the
Gorrier references. Then they suck at television. And since I
(40:18):
can't trust anybody here, since they won't stand up to
you and edit the script since you obviously bullied them.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
He bawled up his fist and stomped his foot on
the floor as he called me a bully. I'm now
going to have to approve every piece of your copy.
By this point, I was backing into the countdown work
area with its array of desks, and all the producers
Kaplan had just insulted. I knew one of them would
(40:44):
dial the phone when I said, call the cops. I
call this lunatics, boss, did you hear me?
Speaker 5 (40:50):
And if you don't like it and you don't want
to come into work tomorrow, that's fine too.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I never did get that part, but now I had him.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest slowly,
like you have seen every news anchor do in every
television news promo ever shown in the history of the world.
I flashed as evil a slow mo smile as I could, Oh,
I'll be here tomorrow, and then I made a sweeping
(41:15):
gesture back towards my staff, who were both, of course
literally and figuratively behind me, and so will all of them. Suddenly,
at that point, for no apparent reason, Rick Caplin's hysterics
were replaced by mere confusion. He even stopped huffing at
almost normal volume. He asked me all of who. Only
(41:38):
at this point did I turn around to discover that
my entire staff had already left the building. There was
nobody there behind me. Of course, there was nobody there,
As I Povich told me later, he went into the
control room and threatened all of them first, So we
got on the phone back to the office to tell
everybody to get the hell out of the building. She
paused and laughed. I mean, we love you, but we're
(42:01):
not crazy. Rick Caplin's ex was a brief one. He
began screaming again, I'm going to end your career tomorrow.
I'm going to completely f you up. He turned and
stumbled away from my office. Good luck sleeping tonight. I
slept like a stone. And not because Kaplin had previously
(42:21):
threatened to fire me for not leaving my father's bedside
after what they thought was a heart attack to fly
to la to appear on the Tonight show. And not
because he'd once threatened to fire me because he didn't
like my tie, And not because he had previously threatened
to fire me for not doing something during live coverage
that I had already done, but he thought we hadn't
done because he was watching us, not live but on
(42:43):
delay on his DVR president of a network. And I
slept beautifully, not because I correctly guessed this would be
it for Rick Kaplan, and it was. The next day
human resources forced him to apologize to me, and ten
months later his bosses fired him. Nor did I snooze
(43:03):
blessedly because of any bravery or stoicism or fatalism on
my part. But I slept well simply because of the
realization that even after all of this, Rick Kaplan was
still only the second or third craziest MSNBC executive I
had ever worked for. I've done all the damage I
(43:37):
can do here. Countdown has come to you from the
Vin Scully Studio at the world headquarters of the Olderman
Broadcasting Empire in New York. Here are the credits. Most
of the music was arranged, produced, and performed by Brian
Ray and John Phillip Shanel. They are the Countdown musical directors.
All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanel, Guitars, bass
and drums by Brian Ray. Produced by Tko Brothers other
(43:59):
Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group
No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Olderman theme
from ESPN two. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis CURTESYBSPN, Inc.
Musical comments by Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever.
Our announcer was my friend Kenny Maine. Everything else is
pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this the
eight hundred and ninetieth day since Donald Trump's first attempted
(44:21):
coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him again while we still can. Let's go for
a streak. Let's do it every day, shall we. The
next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Till then, I'm Keith Olberman.
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
(44:50):
with Keith Olberman 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. Quote
the Emperor has no clothes. No, not me. Congressman Don Bacon,
(00:28):
Republican of Nebraska, as Trump was arrested for the second
time in seventy days. Quote, the Espionage Act has been
used to go after traders and spies. Again not me,
Trump last night after prosecutors let him turn yesterday into
one long campaign ad quote. I certainly won't support a
(00:49):
convicted felon for the White House. Also not me. Republican
Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado Freedom Caucus member signatory to
the Texas Amicus Brief coup attempt who ten days ago
said the investigations and the lawsuits in the Eras almost
gave Trump credibility, and he didn't care. But who yesterday
(01:10):
changed sides like NICKI Haley did, like Tim Scott did,
like a trickle of other key Republicans have. It may
stop here. If it does not stop here, it may
stop Trump. He hid documents, Buck said yesterday as Trump
officially became the man who has not only been impeached
more times than he has been elected, but has now
(01:32):
been arrested more times than he has been elected. As well,
purposely putting them in a shower, purposely putting them on
a stage, So there clearly is an intent to hide.
Congressman Buck went further, yet, I would not feel comfortable
with a convicted felon in the White House. Bunck went
even further than that. Let's just look at Donald Trump's
words in twenty sixteen. He said that Hillary Clinton was
(01:55):
unfit for the White House because of the way she
handled classified information. I think his words have set the
standard that America will look at in determining whether he
is fit for president. Quote Republican. I hesitate to even
hope that this is where enough of the GOP breaks
(02:17):
to split the party, But the last two days have
shown what such a split would look like, and it
is along to simple fault lines. Both conceits are wildly untrue.
But the Republican Party thinks of itselves as the party
of law and order and the party of absolute prioritization
(02:38):
of the military. And what has been obvious to the
rest of us for eight years is suddenly obvious to
many in the GOP. Trump believes neither in law and
order nor in the military. Trump believes only in himself.
If that realization continues to spread, they may actually thwart him.
(03:00):
For Congressman Bacon, none of this is new, endorsed by Trump.
Trump apology then thrown overboard by Trump, and as Trump
was being a rain, he said, quote, I think it's
obvious what the President did was wrong, and we just
got to be honest. I just think the emperor has
no clothes, and we need to have some Republicans stand
(03:21):
up and say that. I think Republicans have always stood
on the rule of law. We can't walk away from that.
Think of that term rule of law as a brand name,
and it will be easier to digest what I am
putting out here. Mike Pompeo, who we can still see
(03:41):
standing there smugly in a time of American crisis, insisting
there would be a smooth transition to a second Trump term.
But yesterday on Fox Pompeo quote, Trump had classified documents
when he shouldn't have had them, and when given the
opportunity to return them, he chose not to do that.
That's inconsistent with protecting America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.
(04:09):
He left out the wax. Two days, two former key
members of the Trump government saying Trump endangered the soldiers. Again,
this could be the last we ever hear of that,
but it also could be Rubicon Republicans having to choose
between the law and the troops or the Trump. Even Hayley,
(04:33):
when she predictably tried to back away from her accusation
Monday that Trump had endangered the troops, only backed up
and did not back out. Yesterday, she talked about pardoning
him after a conviction. From many angles, that's even worse.
Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw. It's very problematic, he said. There's
(04:54):
a reason I'm not defending it. That's all I'll say
about it. Republican Congressman Tim Burchett, the weird one with
the beard. Would you support Trump after conviction? No, Honestly,
on the surface, I wouldn't. That doesn't look good. Republican
congress and Dan Newhouse. No one is above the law.
(05:14):
They are all trying to walk a tightrope that may
or may not be tied to anything on the other end.
And every one of their anti Trump sentences comes attached
to attack on Biden or Hillary Clinton or the DOJ. Fine,
that's not the point right now, general run of the
mill two thousand and eight. Republican paranoia at holier than
(05:37):
thou bleedings about the military and law and order that
looks surprisingly palatable at the moment. And by the way,
that tightrope, whether or not it's connected to anything, is
getting pretty damn crowded. Buck Bacon, Crenshaw, Birchett new House, Haley,
Tim Scott, Romney, Murkowski, thun Chris Christy, Asa Hutchinson, Hell
(06:00):
Mick Mulvaney, one of his chiefs of staff yesterday's I
think the chances of a guilty verdict are very high,
and the chances of real jail time are pretty high.
And the interviewer asked, how long in jail for Trump
do you think? And mulvaney said, quote at his age,
it doesn't really make much difference, right whooooo, Happy birthday, Trumper.
(06:27):
I mean, can you imagine the headlines if a Democrat
had said that, had implied that any jail time for
Donald Trump means, you know, he'll die in prison. Mick mulvaney,
you have unsuspected depth. Of course, you can only imagine
the headlines if a Democrat had said that. Because here
(06:47):
it is again, President Biden has ordered radio silence on
the indictment. And I have not been able to figure
out who treated the defendant like Queen Elizabeth yesterday in Miami,
but the deference was nauseating. Anybody else would have been
denied bail. And he wasn't even a dressed as the defendant.
He was called the former president, no cameras, no audio. Reporters,
(07:10):
could not even text from the courtroom. And the difference
sounds all tidy and diplomatic. And yet besides the difference,
there's a deference, and it is interpreted by his defenders
as naked fear from Politico on the Democratic response to
Trump and the indictment, which is namely, there isn't any quote.
(07:33):
Biden and his top aides have taken a vow of
silence on the federal indictment of his predecessor, Donald Trump,
and have explicitly ordered the entities that the White House controls,
which includes the re election campaign and the Democratic National Committee,
are not to publicly discuss any of the criminal investigations
into Trump. Those closest to the president are deeply wary
(07:56):
of any perception that Biden is trying to influence the
investigations unquote, because the fact that Biden will be treated
as if he is on the phone directing every second
of this process twenty four to seven. Whether he does
it or not is not just presumed on the right.
It is the starting point of every fascist attack on
this process. And the President is going to pretend it
(08:20):
isn't instead of saying, what the hell you're gonna believe
the worst of me anyway? Let me get Adam. I'm
going to kick him while he's down. Repeatedly, War from
Politico quote. That decision has some Democrats and allies worried
that Biden could miss a chance to underscore the seriousness
of the national moment as well as deliver a political
(08:42):
blow to his top White House rival. You think, I mean,
it is as if Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans of
eighteen sixty four sat around one day at the desk
and decided it would be inappropriate to mention, you know,
if the country votes for George McClellan instead of for Abe,
that they're going to immediately sign a peace treaty with
(09:03):
the South, and you know, reinstate slavery. Abe is deeply
wary of any perception that he is trying to influence
the investigations of the secessionist traders. Concurrent with this madness
is the recognition provided by the perspective of finally seeing
Trump indicted and arraigned, even at this late date, a
(09:26):
perspective that is spectacularly outlined by Eric Levitts in New
York Magazine that there was political interference in the prosecution
of Trump, that the Department of Justice and presumably somebody
in the White House did interfere to try to prevent
Trump from being prosecuted. Quoting Levitts, as late as January
(09:46):
twenty twenty two, the Justice Department was still giving Trump
the opportunity to avoid charges by returning the documents he
had taken. The indictment released last week makes this point clear,
as levitt notes, Trump returned one hundred and ninety seven
stolen documents, then he was charged on none of them. None,
(10:07):
just like Pence wasn't charged, just like Biden will not
be charged. To the extent that political considerations influenced the
DOJ's handling of the case, Levitz rights, they led the
Department to extend Trump extraordinary opportunities to extricate himself from
legal peril so as to avoid the politically inflammatory spectacle
(10:28):
of his prosecution. As Mick mulvaney said in that same
interview where he forecast Trump dying in prison, he compared
the Trump documents to the Benz and Biden documents and said, quote,
they gave them back. And oh, by the way, what
exactly has that spectacle, that politically inflammatory spectacle of his
(10:51):
prosecution been so far? Three hundred people showed up at
the courthouse yesterday, maybe four hundred, and the city of
Miami was ready for fifty thousand, and the Carrie Leep
prediction was three hundred million. In all the day, I
was waiting for Melissa McCarthy, a Shawan spicer, to show
up on my TV and announce it was three hundred million. Period.
(11:16):
I hope I am not conveying anything resembling Pollyanna. Here.
The small crowd at the courthouse is still about twenty
five times bigger than the small crowd of Republicans who
have scurried back aboard the good ship reality. The American
news media is also still pliant, gullible. It's not even
close to being haunted by memories of twenty sixteen or
(11:39):
twenty twenty or last freaking week. Though the improvement in
CNN post Chris Licht was immediate when CNN decided not
to run Trump's remarks at bed Minster last night Live.
The effect of the paste clears out of the system quickly,
I believe. But still, where is the enterprise, Where is
(12:03):
the daring? Where's the simple nerve of Sophie Alexander, the
international affairs producer for the UK's Sky News on assignment
in Miami yesterday, you saw this, You didn't see this
as Trump is doing the carefully staged man of the
people bit, the same act from the day that he
(12:24):
threw those rolls of paper towels to the drowning residence
of Puerto Rico. Trump hops into the Cuban hangout, the
Versailles Bakery, and all Sophie Alexander of Sky News did
was to shout above the crowd a question at Trump,
and the question was, are you ready to go to jail?
President Trump?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Are you ready to go to jail?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
She's just a producer, She's not even on the air.
A producer. You think you're gonna get that from Andrea
Mitchell from Chuck Todd. Chuck Todd would have said, mister Trump,
some people say that it's an important question to ask.
Are you ready to go to Sophie Alexander Sky News Hey,
David Zaslav, I think I found your new CEO of CNN. Hell,
(13:43):
have her do that and host at nine o'clock. Name
an American reporter at any venue, in any medium who
A gets inside that bakery. B has absolutely no concern
about disturbing the Trump narrative. And c does not give
a good goddamn what they think of her or what
they threatened to do to her for asking that question.
(14:06):
And yes, she's fine, but they did throw her out
of the bakery. Leave the phone, take the cannoli. Okay,
there is old business on the Trump front to clear
up here. You may have heard New York State Attorney
General T. James say the federal prosecution of Trump will
take precedence over hers. The quote was, in all likelihood,
(14:28):
I believe that my case, as well as DA Bragg
and the Georgia case will unfortunately have to be adjourned
pending the outcome of the federal case. Can't and won't
argue with her knowledge of her own case. But there
are no indications thus far that Bragg has slowed down
his prosecution of Trump, nor conceded any adjournment or delay.
And as to the Fannie Willis electoral interference case in Georgia,
(14:51):
not only is there no evidence that she is deferring
to jack Smith's schedule, but the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports
now that one of the people in that crowd of
three or four hundred around the Miami Courthouse for yesterday's
arraignment was and atlant a police official quote closely monitoring
the security procedures that city used to protect the world
(15:12):
from the Trump mob, you know, just in case they
indict Trump in Atlanta month after next. Also, though the
Miami event was a landmark, it was nowhere near the
end of the road for the Special Council. As Trump
was being treated with kid gloves, he did not deserve.
Jacksmith's Washington Grand Jury heard from the chairman and the
(15:34):
vice chairman of the Nevada GOP, Michael McDonald and Jim Degraffen,
reed two of that state's fake electors. And speaking of
fake in the mirror image world of the House Republican Caucus,
which stays up nights trying to make up stuff it
can claim, Biden did that Trump really did. The latest
twist in the Chuck Grassley, Jamie Comer, Ponzi scheme. Oh,
(15:57):
there's a lead about an FBI document, but it's hidden
and it's redacted, and it's from a confidential source, reportedly
quoting a rumoredhstile blower. Well, the new hint is Grassley says.
The hidden document says that the informant has seventeen audio
tapes of Joe and Hunter Biden talking about five million
(16:17):
dollar bribes. And of course none of this has come out,
none of it has come out at any time in
the last checks watch seven years. Now. I'll be the
first to admit that this particular Trump what about what
Biden did allegedly reportedly apparently according to sources, this is
a very very heavy lift for anybody. But there is
(16:41):
only one part. You really have to sell to the
Republican roobs that these alleged Biden tapes actually exist. You
don't have to play them, you don't have to show
a machine that they're on, you don't have to show
a document. Just convince them. They're ready to be convinced.
(17:01):
And sure enough, Jamie Comer went on news Max yesterday
and he was asked the question about this three times,
and each time he gave an answer worse than the
previous one, and the end result basically was Jamie Comer admitting,
are these Biden tapes for real? I have no frickin clue.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
When will you be able to confirm if these recordings
are legit? How long is that going to take?
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Well? I can confirm that the recordings were in the
ten twenty three. Remember I was with Center Grashley when
we saw the unredacted version.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Okay, so chause Grassley was saying, alleged yesterday. So these
recordings are legit. You can confirm they are legitimate.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Well, I can confirm they were listed in the ten
twenty three that the FBI redacted. I don't know if
they're legit or not, but we know that the foreign
national claims he has them.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Okay, So when can you confirm it they're legit? Because
if they're.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Legit to it this is the problem. Heh boy, not
enough laughs. Let's close with a few more hadn't seen
this till last night. Maybe you have the Trump boxes
in the toilet shot, but with a new meme kind
of caption bed bath and beyond a reasonable doubt. The
twenty seven year old press aide Trump took with him
(18:13):
from the White House. Margot Martin, not Margo Martindale, my
fellow performer on BoJack Horseman, Margo Martin, she showed up
at the courthouse yesterday and was misidentified as Millenia, misidentified
on Fox News. And best of all, as Trump posted
(18:35):
before during an actor the hearing yesterday, he screwed something
up so badly that I am genuinely amazed. It did
not overshadow the entire arraignment. It's another attack on Jack Smith. Quote.
This is the thug overturned consistently and unanimously in big cases.
He's a radical right lunatic and Trump hater, as are
all his friends and Femme, wait what, He's a radical
(18:58):
right lunatic and Trump hater. And so we end where
we began. Are these first thirteen key Republicans to turn
on Trump also the last thirteen key Republicans to turn
on Trump? Or are they just the first wave? Doctor
Freud would look at that post and suggest the latter,
because based on what Trump wrote, Trump seems to think
(19:22):
he's now being prosecuted by the radical right. Also of
interest here, Senator Coach Pinhead, Tommy the Tuba Tubberville is
blocking unanimous consent for military promotions because somebody taught him
the word woke. But Tommy the Tuba wanted to be
(19:44):
at Bedminster with Trump last night, so he missed a
vital vote in the Senate. So somebody else suggested to
Dick Durbin, who's in the Democratic Party, if you didn't know,
now's the time, isn't it to go for unanimous consent
on all those military promotions because Tubberville isn't here. And
durban shook his head gravely, and he said. Durbin actually said,
(20:06):
that's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman.
Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some predictions. Dateline the Capitol. If your brains did not
(20:27):
fall out your head over the kid gloves treatment of Trump.
Wait do you hear about Dick Durbin the world's dumbest Senator?
Tommy Tuberville was supposed to show up to vote against
nominee Jared Bernstein to become Chairman of the Council of
Economic Advisors so as to force the Vice President to
cast a tie breaking vote. Instead, Tuberville went to New
Jersey for a photo op with the defendant spoiling Mitch
(20:50):
McConnell's mischief. It was posited to Senator Durbin that with
Tuberville out chasing Trump, this would be the time to
pass all those military promotions that Tuberville has been blocking
because he's a grand standing idiot and nobody knows if
his head is inflated or stuffed. Durbin's reply, that would
be quote tempting, but quote one of the unwritten rules
(21:12):
of the place is you don't take advantage of a
person's absence. Senator Durbin, have you met Senator Feinstein. Wait,
it's worse, almost as Durbin was surrendering to Republicans who
hadn't even tried to force him to do so. Almost
at that exact moment, JD. Vance, the Republican senator representing
(21:33):
Book Tour Nation, announced he will be putting a hold
on all Biden nominees to the Justice Department to pay
the Justice Department back for the prosecution of the Trader Trump,
which means, in effect, Dick Durbin Democratic Party is an
accessory to these Republican stunts. And I think now the
(21:53):
time has come that he needs to resign. His leadership
roles in the Senate, and hell, while we're at it,
resign your seat. Senator. This is no longer the game
you are playing. You are wringing your hands and hoping
they'll be nice to you while the Republicans are throwing
America off the top of the Capitol Dome. You have
the majority, Senator, Kindly crush the Republicans with it, or
(22:15):
turn that majority over to someone who will.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
You.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Nancy Faust Dateline, Hollywood, Pat Sajack says he is retiring
after the upcoming forty first season of the Wheel of
Fortune game show. Good he's a schmuck. There are lots
of TV performers who are schmucks. Maybe a majority, say Jack, though,
is a lazy, intellectually constipated schmuck. Thirty four years ago,
CBS actually decided that he was the right choice to
(22:54):
host a late night talk show to go up against
Johnny Carson on NBC. The CBS thought wasn't no, he's
not very good, and yeah, he's not going to do
very well in the but Carson is going to retire
soon in a couple of years, and by then, say
Jack will be the familiar face in late night and
he'll do well against whoever succeeds Johnny Carson. Well, Carson
(23:15):
did indeed retire just three years later, but by that point,
Say Jack's CBS show had been dead for two years
and a month because it never reached half of Carson's ratings,
and also for internal reasons that don't get talked a
lot about when they talk about what a great TV legend,
Pat Sajack is spinning that stupid wheel and not succeeding
(23:35):
at all in the primetime version. I was the local
sportscaster for CBS in LA in that exact timeframe. Twice
I was a guest on Pat Sajack's CBS show, The
Pat Sajack Show. We even did this bit where I
did my sportscast live from outside his studio and came
on as a guest on his show, and he came
(23:57):
on and was a guest on my show. Only we
were saying he was coming from the future to the
past because we were live at five point thirty. Well,
his show didn't go on until tape till eleven thirty. Anyway,
the second time I did the show, I got there
around three o'clock for a five pm taping. And I
wanted to say hello to Pat, and the producer told
me I should check back in an hour or so
(24:17):
because Sajack had started only showing up in time for makeup.
He also said the CBS executive in charge of Late
Night was waiting in my dressing room, and I assumed
he was joking. And then I went into my dressing
room and there he was. Hey. He said, have you
ever thought about hosting something like this? And I laughed
and I said no, thinking he was still joking, but
I would happy to give it a try. And he said,
how about next month, We're gonna get rid of this idiot. Instead,
(24:41):
CBS just shut the whole thing down fifteen months after
it launched. It later proved that Sajack was such an
arch conservative, and sometime in the last fifteen years he
started apologizing for being the person who put me on
national television and thus made my career. I had to
point out that I had started on national television in
(25:01):
nineteen eighty one, a year before he had that I
had spent four years on CNN every day. I also
had to point out that whatever he thought had happened
due to my appearances on his CBS show, since nobody
watched it. Helping my career was not one of them.
In Los Angeles, our CBS eleven o'clock News was in
last place in the ratings, but it still got more
(25:24):
viewers than the program that followed it, which was of
course called The Pat Sayjack Show still ahead on Countdown. Boy,
(25:44):
that was a long time before the president of a
network I worked for chased me around the studio threatening
to kill me, and I thought I was going to
have to call the cops or hit him in the
head with my fists. Boy, is that a story. I'll
tell it to you next. First, the daily round Up
with the miss Greens, Morons and Dunning Kruger Effect specimens
who constituted today's worst persons in the world, The Brons
(26:06):
the fine folks over to Fox quote news unquote. For
one hundred and twenty weeks in a row, they have
won the primetime battle for the most viewers over CNN
and MSNBC and Newsmax and Nick at Night News Nation.
Last week, they averaged one million, five hundred and four
thousand viewers per minuted in primetime, while MSNBC averaged one million,
(26:28):
five hundred and twenty thousand viewers permitted in primetime. So
Fox is officially number two behind number one MSNBC in primetime.
And all I can say is you're welcome. The runner
up presidential candidate Vivek No. I don't think I'm embarrassing myself.
Why do you ask? Ramaswami. He went to the courthouse
(26:48):
in Miami yesterday dressed in a T shirt and a
baseball cap, and the baseball cap read tru thh. He's subtle.
He said he had written to every other candidate in
both parties quote, demanding that they sign his letter promising
to pardon Trump. On top of that, he mispronounced the
(27:08):
name of the North Dakota governor and gop wanna be
Doug Bergham as Doug Bugram. Congratulations, Governor Bugram on your
new name. So I'm trying to understand this. This guy,
Ramswami is a success in business, but our winner is
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Cassidy posted a walking selfie,
(27:28):
which he himself has called outrage of the week. Quote.
The White House Gift Shop is putting out a commemorative
coin for Donald Trump's indictment. You gotta admit it's poor taste,
that it's capitalizing upon something without his permission. I'm sure
it's the wrong thing to do. Have a sense of decency.
White House Gift Shop unquote. Senator Cassidy has been in
(27:49):
Washington since two thousand and nine as a congressman and
then a senator, and apparently only yesterday did he learn
that the White House Gift Shop is unaffiliated with the
White House. It is a private retail company that sells
crap like a twenty twenty Trump beats covid coin online mostly,
and it does everything to make the stupid people out
(28:10):
there think it is some kind of branch of the government. Frighteningly,
Senator Cassidy is also a physician. He's a liver specialist,
and he thus fulfills George Carlin's timeless observation that just
by process of elimination, somewhere there must be the worst
doctor in the world. My late friend, I have your winner,
(28:32):
doctor Senator Cassidy, who also really struggled in that video
with pronouncing that word commemoratating so physician, healed thyself today's
worst person just ahead. Based on my reputation, you would
(28:59):
think that every one of my bosses was driven so
nuts that they would eventually try to kill.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Nah.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
He's just the one guy. His story next. First in
each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need
you can help. Every dog has its day. Back to
the New York Pound. Things are out of control, two
hundred and ninety four dogs, they say, in a shelter
designed to hold one hundred and sixty eight. Before the pandemic,
a dozen dogs on their twice weekly pre kill list
(29:29):
would have been a lot. Right now, it's thirty two,
including Simba, who's a forty eight pound puppy who's just
fifty four weeks old. Loves people, loves kids, loves dogs.
Unsure around strangers, but he warms up quickly dumped quote
due to not having time to care for him. He's exuberant.
He's a lot of dog. He still needs to be fixed,
but there isn't one reason he should be killed. We
(29:51):
need pledges to defray the cost of a rescue to
come in and save him and train him and get
him to a family that will not leave him to
die in the pound when it's at maximum overcrowding. Look
for Simba on my Twitter feed. Your retweets will also
so help I thank you, and Simba thanks you. Finally
(30:19):
our number one story in the countdown things I promised
not to tell And back to my favorite topic, me
how exactly was I supposed to tell the police that
the man threatening to kill me was the president of MSNBC.
He was chasing me through the studios. He was too
overweight to run, But even though he inexplicably lied and
(30:39):
said he was six foot seven, at six foot five,
this guy, his name was Rick Kaplan, and he was
the soon to be ex president of MSNBC, just as
he was already the ex president of CNN. He still
had strides as long as my own. Plus On that
night of August eighth, two thousand and five, I was multitasking.
I was trying to mentally record everything he was shouting,
(31:02):
while also drawing him away from the live microphones of
the live studio in which he had started shouting, while
also fishing for my office key so I could lock
myself in there if need be, while also figuring out
how I would hit him if it came to that,
while also trying to register the superb double takes from
(31:23):
my colleagues past whom he was stomping like an out
of shape Frankenstein, while also trying to suppress an overwhelming
and seemingly inappropriate desire to burst into laughter while still
game planning these soon to be inevitable call to the cops.
A beautiful downtown Secaucus, New Jersey. Hi. Yeah, yeah, he's
(31:46):
trying to kill me, my boss, the president of MSNBC.
Yeah yeah, the cable television network. Yeah, exactly, down the
street from the London Fog Outlet store. Yeah, one MSNBC Plaza.
I know it's a dumb address. He's about sixty two
(32:08):
seventy five, two hundred and eighty pounds. By the way,
he says he's six foot seven, but he's only six
foot five. Why Why does he lie about his height
or why is he trying to kill right? Well, I
did a commentary urging the viewers to stop smoking, and
he's afraid of the mention of blood. Hello. Hello. As
all of this played out in my head, President Kaplan
(32:29):
was huffing and puffing his way through our giant studio,
weaving through the news assignment area, past the makeup room,
down the hallways, nearing the offices of my show Countdown,
and passed the bank of a couple of one hundred
television monitors with a different face on every one of them,
each seemingly staring slack jawed at the executive, screaming threats
at the only guy on his own network who got
(32:50):
any ratings. I'll pay you back, I'll get you I'll
finish your own I'll kill y'all. This had all begun
roughly ten days earlier, in late July two thousand and five,
an oral surgeon who had intended to examine a growth
(33:10):
on the roof of my mouth that instead, with one
pale look, silently betrayed his suspicion that it was cancerous.
Then he cut the whole thing out. I was on
my way to work anyway. It was too late to
get a replacement, and I was bleeding so much that
our technical director and I decided to pre record all
of my on camera segments for that night's show, thus
(33:33):
reducing the chances of viewers hearing me say President Bush
today while blood oozed out of my mouth, over my
teeth and lips, and onto the desk like I was
dracul Anchor. When the following Wednesday, I got the unexpected
all clear from the surgeon's office, I decided to devote
some of each night's newscast to a campaign to help
(33:55):
viewers and myself quit smoking. My premise was a simple
one that I had never heard argued before and have
rarely heard argued since, that it would be a lot
easier to quit if you didn't have cancer then if
you did have cancer. I pitched my producers on the series.
I went into Rick Kaplan's office to get his seal
(34:17):
of approval. He was enthusiastic and supportive, and most rare
of all, he was paying attention. And then I said,
I was also going to point out that if you
got the good outcome like I had, they would merely
stick a laser in your mouth and you'd smell your
own flesh burning for like forty eight hours, and you'd
have to keep spitting out your own blood.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Don't say that.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
He suddenly threw his meaty hands out towards me in
a strangling gesture, and then just as quickly clamped them
over his own ears and closed his eyes and began
actually screaming no, no, no, no no no no no
no no no no no. I thought he had gone crazy,
as it proved he was just practicing for going crazy. Later,
(34:57):
I'm sorry, I'm squeamish. I got the point. I just
can't findle references to, you know, uh, the red stuff.
Go ahead with the series. Just toned down the red stuff.
I toned down the red stuff, and my executive producer
is Epovich sent him the scripts and he told her
(35:18):
to tone down the red stuff a little more. And
I went and I did that too. We all decided
to start the anti smoking series the following Monday, August eighth,
two thousand and five. By nauseating coincidence, that was the
day after the ABC anchorman Peter Jennings had died of
lung cancer. The MSNBC president had been a producer on
(35:39):
Jennings newscast. I had long since written and recorded Jennings obituary,
and now this somewhat cold, but still journalistically valid segue
would have to be made. We would have to go
directly from the twelve minute long Jennings oh bit to
the start of our anti tobacco campaign. Eight or nine
minutes into that pre recorded Jennings obituary, Rick Kaplan came
(36:01):
out of his office and walked the fifty feet or
so through the vast open newsroom to where my anchor
desk was His eyes were full of tears. This is wonderful,
he said quietly. Peter would have liked this. He gave
me a thumbs up. Then he walked to a second
desk another fifty feet away, where his first big hire,
a woman named Rita Cosby, was about to premiere his
(36:22):
first big gamble, her new show immediately following mine. I
was actually moved by Rick Kaplan's comment. I did not
once think of phoning the Secaucus police. But then I
began the anti smoking segment, and as I focused on
the camera and the teleprompter in front of me and
detailed the blood and the gore and the spitting and
(36:43):
how that was the good outcome, out of the corner
of my eye, I saw this weird sight. The President
again left his office and waddled out along the wall,
thirty feet all ahead of me, in the general direction
of the control rooms. Within moments, as I continued to
read my script, he was back in the studio and
standing right next to my camera, gesticulating wild. I said,
(37:07):
they never say it, but wouldn't it be really easier
to quit smoking when you didn't have cancer than when
you did? And Kaplan responded with the same two handed
choking gesture he had made briefly in his office much earlier.
I presumed there was some simple problem, like that the
building was on fire, but I calculated that I could
still make it to the show's scheduled finished time eight
fifty nine fifty nine EDT and still survive even if
(37:31):
others perished. That's countdown for this the eight hundred and
thirtieth day since the declaration of mission accomplished in Iraq.
I'm Keith Ulerman. Good night and good luck your sliver.
Rick Kaplan suddenly screamed from the other anchor desk. I
could hear, and this is my impression of her.
Speaker 5 (37:48):
Good evening. I'mrita Cosby. This is Rita Cosby, live and
direct with Rida Cosby, and I'm Rida Cosby.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
She was not a big woman, but she had a
voice on her like the horn on the Staten Island
ferry if it had a cold. You are over the top.
You aren't disgusting. My first thought was that Kaplan had
forgotten that microphones fifty feet away were live during the
premiere of his pet project sh Rina is On. I
actually whispered to him, silly me, I don't give her half.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
If Free Day is on, you were told by is
He Poevits that the piece was over the top and
you needed to cut it, and you didn't.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
I still couldn't bring myself to yell back her in
a live studio. I did cut it, and eas He
read it and approved it, and she said you had too.
And Rita's premiere is going on over there in that
sort of direction. Maybe you should yell at me closer
to the assignment desk. Maybe I don't give a crap.
If is He approved it, then she's an ass and
I can't trust you. I can't trust you. You're all idiots.
(38:46):
I can't believe you did this to me. I'm trying
to get Rita's show off the ground, and you start
talking about spitting blood into a garbage can. Well, now
I was getting angry. I couldn't resist. Yes, Rita is
in fact live and direct from that desk right over there.
And if you'll notice, she keeps looking over here at
using why you are yelling during the first minutes of
(39:07):
her first show? So why don't we move over here? Rick?
I began to move away from him, and we're walking
away from the live Mo Mike's and we're walking, and
we're walking, and Rick and Keith are walking because the
noise isn't really professional. Well, we're not talking professionals, are
we We're talking idiots. We were walking and he was
still screaming, you're idiots. I will never trust you again.
(39:31):
He had begun to trot or stumble or whatever he
was doing.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
This is not over. I will pay you back, self
serving garbage. I will get you, and I'll get that
A hole is he for not staying here and reading
that script? How many times did you intend to say
spit blood into a garbage can before I stopped to
I now realized what he thought had happened, as he
had gestured spasmodically at me while he stood next to
(39:56):
my camera. I briefly let my focus shift to amazement
at the fact that this guy, who had been in
TV news for twenty five years, knew almost nothing thing
about how TV worked. I explained to him that Izzy
and one of her assistants and I had gone over
the script several times and taken out half of the
Gorrier references. Then they suck at television. And since I
(40:18):
can't trust anybody here, since they won't stand up to
you and edit the script since you obviously bullied them.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
He bawled up his fist and stomped his foot on
the floor as he called me a bully. I'm now
going to have to approve every piece of your copy.
By this point, I was backing into the countdown work
area with its array of desks, and all the producers
Kaplan had just insulted. I knew one of them would
(40:44):
dial the phone when I said, call the cops. I
call this lunatics, boss, did you hear me?
Speaker 5 (40:50):
And if you don't like it and you don't want
to come into work tomorrow, that's fine too.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I never did get that part, but now I had him.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest slowly,
like you have seen every news anchor do in every
television news promo ever shown in the history of the world.
I flashed as evil a slow mo smile as I could, Oh,
I'll be here tomorrow, and then I made a sweeping
(41:15):
gesture back towards my staff, who were both, of course
literally and figuratively behind me, and so will all of them. Suddenly,
at that point, for no apparent reason, Rick Caplin's hysterics
were replaced by mere confusion. He even stopped huffing at
almost normal volume. He asked me all of who. Only
(41:38):
at this point did I turn around to discover that
my entire staff had already left the building. There was
nobody there behind me. Of course, there was nobody there,
As I Povich told me later, he went into the
control room and threatened all of them first, So we
got on the phone back to the office to tell
everybody to get the hell out of the building. She
paused and laughed. I mean, we love you, but we're
(42:01):
not crazy. Rick Caplin's ex was a brief one. He
began screaming again, I'm going to end your career tomorrow.
I'm going to completely f you up. He turned and
stumbled away from my office. Good luck sleeping tonight. I
slept like a stone. And not because Kaplin had previously
(42:21):
threatened to fire me for not leaving my father's bedside
after what they thought was a heart attack to fly
to la to appear on the Tonight show. And not
because he'd once threatened to fire me because he didn't
like my tie, And not because he had previously threatened
to fire me for not doing something during live coverage
that I had already done, but he thought we hadn't
done because he was watching us, not live but on
(42:43):
delay on his DVR president of a network. And I
slept beautifully, not because I correctly guessed this would be
it for Rick Kaplan, and it was. The next day
human resources forced him to apologize to me, and ten
months later his bosses fired him. Nor did I snooze
(43:03):
blessedly because of any bravery or stoicism or fatalism on
my part. But I slept well simply because of the
realization that even after all of this, Rick Kaplan was
still only the second or third craziest MSNBC executive I
had ever worked for. I've done all the damage I
(43:37):
can do here. Countdown has come to you from the
Vin Scully Studio at the world headquarters of the Olderman
Broadcasting Empire in New York. Here are the credits. Most
of the music was arranged, produced, and performed by Brian
Ray and John Phillip Shanel. They are the Countdown musical directors.
All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanel, Guitars, bass
and drums by Brian Ray. Produced by Tko Brothers other
(43:59):
Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group
No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Olderman theme
from ESPN two. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis CURTESYBSPN, Inc.
Musical comments by Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever.
Our announcer was my friend Kenny Maine. Everything else is
pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this the
eight hundred and ninetieth day since Donald Trump's first attempted
(44:21):
coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him again while we still can. Let's go for
a streak. Let's do it every day, shall we. The
next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Till then, I'm Keith Olberman.
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
(44:50):
with Keith Olberman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
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