July 18, 2024 • 49 mins
SEASON 2 EPISODE 215: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is now my expectation that if by next week President Biden has not withdrawn from the presidential race, a coterie of key Democrats led by Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries will publicly announce that they and their caucuses cannot support his candidacy.
The first true dam break in that process occurred Saturday, but only became known last night when ABC News reported that Schumer went to the president's Delaware home and "forcefully made the case that it would be better for Biden, better for the Democratic party, and better for the country if he were to bow out of the race." The Schumer office issued something less than a non-denial denial and the White House press office put its head down and shouted full steam ahead.
But the Schumer news followed a day in which it became more and more apparent that those key Democrats no longer care if this becomes public. Congressman Adam Schiff, soon to be Senator from California, publicly called for Biden to step aside. More and more ugly details emerged from a Zoom call between the president and House Democrats. A really startlingly tepid defense of Biden's continuing on the ticket by Bernie Sanders was published by The New Yorker. And it was revealed that Schumer and Jeffries working in concert got that "virtual roll call" confirming Biden's nomination delayed into August.
There was also new polling (65% of Dems want a new candidate, Associated Press) that wasn't so new (66% of them wanted one in April, Pew Research).
And then there was that weirdly timed presidential positive test for COVID yesterday in Las Vegas forcing the cancellation of a speech and a trip back east. From all I can tell that's what it is: the virus. Your willingness to compare it to the "cold" President Kennedy suddenly developed while on a campaign tour during The Cuban Missile Crisis is up to you.
ALSO: Five days after the assassination attempt and we now have to assume that Trump is LYING about getting shot.
That he was SHOT AT, is not in doubt.
That the blood came from - in the unfortunate phrase he himself chose – his EAR BEING PIERCED, by a bullet – has been verified… by absolutely nobody.
Nothing from Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania.
Nothing from the Secret Service.
Nothing from the Department of Justice.
Nothing from ANY branch of government.
Nothing from the FBI even though it has gone to unusual lengths of confirming the INVESTIGATION is of an assassination attempt AND domestic terrorism AND they’ve broken into the shooter’s phone AND they know there were eight shots AND they know who ELSE was shot AND they released names AND
Nothing from ANY news organization, each of which has cleverly and almost ARTISTICALLY avoided saying Trump WAS shot and avoided saying Trump WASN’T shot.
The entire official medical report from the Trump campaign is that he is quote “fine,” unquote.
100 hours and they can't get an anonymous statement from a hospital. We now have to assume he's lied about something about the attempt.
B-Block (25:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: It's been awhile. Time for Ted Cruz to make a jackass out of himself again. The Washington Post editorial writer with the unfortunate name of "Shadi" asks if Trump not dying was "God's will." And CNN must fire Van Jones. Its remaining 837 viewers will accept no less.
C-Block (37:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The onetime American counter-culture soccer star Alexi Lalas is now just another D-list "celebrity" at the Republican Convention. But once he was the straight man in an ESPN commercial that rings through the ages.
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. My
expectation is that before the weekend is out, if President
(00:25):
Biden has not announced he will withdraw from the Democratic
ticket to be replaced by an alternate presidential candidate, a
big collection of party leaders with bigger names and even
bigger reputations will go public and on the record and
demand that President Biden drop out. Chuck Schumer, according to
(00:47):
ABC News last night, went to Rehoboth Beach and in
a one on one meeting with the president quote forcefully
made the case that it would be better for Biden,
better for the Democratic Party, and better for the country
if he were to bow out of the race. Unquote.
It is the twenty twenty four version of the Barry
Goldwater mission to the White House to tell Nixon it
(01:08):
was time to go. Only it's Biden, and it's not
a scandal, and it was in Delaware, not DC, and
it wasn't for them at once, but one at a time, essentially,
And that the Democratic leadership that has been working behind
the scenes since the debate to change candidates no longer
cares whether their efforts are public or not could not
(01:30):
have been more clear. If they had hired one of
those moving billboard trucks and flashed the message up and
down every street near the Capitol. Last night, Schumer's office
replied to John Carl's report on ABC with something that
isn't a denial. It isn't even a non denial denial.
It's quote. Unless ABC source is Senator Chuck Schumer or
(01:52):
President Joe Biden, the reporting is idle speculation. Leader Schumer
conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden
on Saturday. So the meeting happened. You're just keeping a
fig leaf over announcing publicly what Schumer told the President
(02:14):
at the meeting. You just confirmed. So what ABC reported
is what Schumer told the President. Forcefully made the case
it would be better for Biden, better for the Democratic Party,
and better for the country if he were to bow out.
As yesterday unfolded, I had this growing suspicion that the
(02:34):
behind the scenes Joe must Go drama was about to
move center stage. I am confident his COVID test yesterday
in Vegas is no more than ironically timed symbolism. Unless
this is like President Kennedy developing a severe cold during
the Cuban missile crisis and having to rush back to Washington,
(02:56):
although you have to admit it was a hell of
a way to upstage the JD vance speech and maybe
Trump's tonight too. And it also set up an expert
troll on Twitter x when at seven twenty two Eastern
last night, Biden's account posted I'm sick, then two minutes
later added of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying
(03:18):
to buy this election. Regardless of the singer, regardless of
the illness, regardless of the Schumer story on ABC, the
critical mass certainly appears to be building, and in several
different areas and different chain reactions. The first, you already
know the ABC Schumer story, which just doesn't have any
(03:39):
wiggle room to it. You're either right with that story
or you will never work again. But also yesterday the
California Congressman Adam Schiff called for the president to retire
from the ticket publicly, and Schiff Senator in waiting once
he strikes out Steve Garvey with a curve ball low
and away carries enough weight on his own. But there's
(04:01):
also the little matter of him being Nancy Polo sees
protege and confidante. And now, in addition to the continuing
swarm of stories around the speaker Emerita and her off
camera stage management of key players in the Talk Joe
Down campaign, Politico reports she is serving as a sounding
board for worried Democratic House members who not only think
(04:24):
the president will lose, but that he will break their
chances of reelection as well. One lawmaker told that website
that Pelosi is taking these calls but not soliciting them,
hasn't really acted on them, but quoting now, the member
ended the phone call with the distinct impression that Pelosi
believed Biden should exit the presidential race. And I think
(04:45):
that's true. It is highly unlikely shiff would have said
what he said publicly if Pelosi did not know he
was going to, and more importantly, if Pelosi did not
approve of him saying it as strategy. As you know,
once Democrats actually successfully begin to plan something anything, it
(05:07):
leaks quickly because they are so pleased with themselves that
they have finally done something that they can't wait to
tell everybody. On the other hand, reportedly Pelosi told colleagues
she knew nothing about what is actually a bigger piece
in this puzzle than is the shift announcement, which I
guess serves as a warning shot to Biden that we
will really go public, so don't make us. As I
(05:30):
mentioned yesterday that virtual roll call online nomination of the
president for a second term has been postponed by the
DNC until around August seventh. They thought it might happen
as early as August first, and first came the news
from NBC that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was behind
that decision, and that it was ABC and no, it
(05:51):
was Schumer and House Minority Leader Jeffries each making it happen.
And then it was punch Bowl News saying yeah, it
was both of them, and they talked beforehand and coordinated
their announcements and moves. Interestingly, one of the headlines on
the ticket dilemma, let's call it a dilemma. I don't
(06:11):
think it's a crisis yet, though it escalated enough that
it briefly threatened my ability to remain agnostic. Yesterday, one
of the ticket dilemma headlines is actually much ado about nothing.
The Associated Press Nork poll yesterday, three weeks after the debate,
and nearly two thirds of Democrats say he should withdraw
in favor of a different candidate sixty five percent, to
(06:35):
be exact, which is actually an improvement. In April, a
few research survey asked Biden supporters if they thought either
he or Trump should drop out or both, and sixty
two percent said both, and four more of Biden's supporters
said just Biden. So sixty two plus four is sixty
(06:56):
six percent. Now it's sixty five percent. And the sixty
six was after the State of the Union and well
before the debate. So I don't know why this was
a big story other than the facts that polls are
easily digestible fast news food, and most news organizations are
happy to run them and say, well, it's their polls,
not ours. Don't blame us. The data for Progress poll, though,
(07:19):
seems more meaningful. Before the debate, swing voters believed Trump's
criminal charges were far more important than Biden's age, by
forty eight percent to forty one percent. Now, a different
group of swing voters in this poll released yesterday say
his age is way more important than Trump's criminality and
fifty three percent to thirty seven percent. That is a swing,
(07:41):
a swing swing of twenty three points. And I don't
know how you come back from that. There were other
developments suggesting something is coming on the Biden front, and
right soon Pucked News with a lot of insider stuff
on last Saturday's Biden Congress zoom call, which went so
badly that one participant said, quote had the iss assassination
(08:05):
attempt not occurred? An hour later, I imagine fifty people
on that zoom were ready to come out publicly against him.
The call seems to have been recorded, and Puck published
a partial transcript of a loud blow up between Biden
and the Colorado Democrat Jason Crowe, who said the recent
campaign emphasis on national security wasn't working. Biden was yelling
(08:29):
at Crow, quoting Puck quoting Biden on the quote of
the call, things are in chaos, and I'm bringing some
order to it. And again, find me a world leader
who's an ally of ours, who doesn't think I'm the
most respected person they've ever whereupon Crow interrupts, it's not
breaking through, mister president, to our voters, and Biden comes
(08:50):
back with you ought to talk about it on national security.
Nobody has been a better president than I've been. Name
me one, name me one exclamation point. So I don't
want to hear that crap. So that'd be a Democratic
congressman saying Biden's vitality score is drowning out the party's
entire message, and Biden replying by screaming at them because
(09:14):
they're not getting his message across loudly enough. Axios had
a similar report saying Mark Vzi of Texas and Chrissy
Hulan of Pennsylvania demanded to know the president's plan to
turn the campaign around, and Biden responded to vis by
saying House members weren't doing a good enough job reminding
voters of the administration's accomplishments. This is fine, zips coffee,
(09:41):
This is fine. Why is it warm in here? This
is also fine. Bernie Sanders defending Biden yesterday to Isaac
Chottner and The New Yorker, and it's well, it's very Bernie,
and it's not very much help. Chattner to Sanders to
merge the question about him selling his agenda with the
(10:02):
question about his age. I watched President Biden with Lester
Holt Monday night, and I watched him on three point
sixty with Speedy Mormon, and he is definitely getting out
there more than he was the night after the debate.
But just to be honest, Senator, I mean, the guy
has trouble completing a single sentence, Sanders, he does, Chotner.
(10:22):
Every time he was attacking Donald Trump's record, he would
just pause. I mean, the idea that this candidate who's
going to be eighty two this year is going to
Sanders may i Chotner, Yeah, please, Sanders. I'm not aware
that anyone thinks that Joe Biden is the best candidate
in the history of the world, or that he's an
ideal candidate. And nobody will argue with you that he
(10:44):
has a trails off it notes. He admitted it. Sometimes
he gets confused about names. You're right, sometimes he doesn't
put three sentences together. It is true. But the reality
of the moment is, in my view, he is the
best candidate the Democrats have for a variety of reasons,
and trying in an unprecedented way to take him off
(11:04):
the ticket would do a lot more harm than good.
Schotner to Sanders, and then there's this substantive question about
whether he can be president for four more years. You
have no concerns about that, Sanders. Look, I have concerns
about everything you know, and everybody should have concerns about everything. Okay,
(11:25):
So that helped circling back to the COVID diagnosis. I
truly don't think it's anything more or less than a
COVID diagnosis. Certainly that's enough for an eighty one year
old man. But here, of all things is a Biden interview,
a new one with my old colleague from last century
at MSNBC, Ed Gordon for beet, and the president for
(11:49):
the first time said in it he could drop out
if there were compelling health reasons.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Is there anything that you would look to you personally,
not anybody else, not other pundits, not even perhaps family
members that you would look to to say, if I
see that, I will reevaluate.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody,
if the doctors came to me and said you got
this problem, that problem. But I made a serious mistake
in the whole debate. And look, when I originally ran,
you may remember it, I said I was gonna be again.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Coincidence. I think interview comes out around two pm Eastern,
COVID diagnosis around six pm Eastern. That's a coincidence, right, right,
First two major unforced errors of the official Trump campaign.
(12:50):
CBS News proposes August twelve for the vice presidential debate.
Kamala Harris accepts. This is hours before JD. Vance was
to give his vice presidential acceptance speech, and Vance refused
to commit, probably the first press release to carry the
new Trump Vance campaign logo masthead. And it's a snarky
(13:14):
excuse about how they can't commit to a debate because
they don't know who the Democratic vice presidential candidate will be.
And that sounds hilarious, doesn't it. And they mentioned Harris
choosing Newsom or Pritzker or Whitmer's a running mate at
Oh what wittiness from a Trump idiot, Except it reads
like Vance is too afraid of Newsom or Pritzker or
(13:35):
Whitmer or Harris to just say what you're supposed to
do in this situation. Yes, that he needed a joke
and a bad joke to cover up fear hours before
his acceptance speech. Politics one oh one, JD. And you
just failed the first exam, beardo the second mistake? Will
(13:59):
I think move out of the shadows at some point soon,
just like the Joe must Go thing again. And the
longer this goes unaddressed, the less sense any of it
makes to me. In short, we now have to assume
that Trump is lying about getting shot, that he was
shot at is not in doubt that the blood came
(14:22):
from in the unfortunate phrase he himself chose. His ear
being pierced by a bullet has been verified by absolutely nobody.
Nothing from Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, nothing from the
Secret Service, nothing from the Department of Justice, nothing from
(14:44):
any branch of government, nothing from the FBI, even though
the FBI has gone to unusual lengths of confirming the
investigation is of an assassination attempt and of domestic terrorism.
And they've already broken into the shooter's phone, and they
know there were eight shots, and they know who else
was shot, and they released their names, And nothing about
(15:05):
Trump getting shot. Nothing from any news organization, and each
normans organization has had to cleverly, almost artistically, avoid saying
Trump was shot and also avoid saying Trump wasn't shot.
New York Times the former president was holding a rally
when he said he was shot in his ear. Even
(15:29):
NBC News, in the middle of a company wide Trump
suck up, writes not that Trump was hit by a bullock,
but rather quote. Days since a Pennsylvania shooter opened fire
at a campaign rally and wounded Trump's ear, the former
president and his campaign have revealed next to nothing about
his condition. Well neither did the NBC News story, nothing
(15:53):
from anybody on Trump's own team, except for his own
original social media post about the ear piercing, and then
from Congressman and demoted former Navy di Ronnie glug Glug Jackson,
who had last been seen publicly swearing like a sailor
at sheriff's officers as they detained him at a rodeo
(16:14):
in Amarillo a year and two weeks ago. And even
Ronnie Jackson says he didn't treat Trump's ear until the
day after Sunday, and not that he treated it last
Saturday because he was home in Texas on Saturday. And
based on how Jackson has described it and what he
doesn't know about it, it is clear Jackson is assuming
it was a bullet, but in fact, the superficial damage
(16:37):
to Trump's ear could have been caused by a bullet
or inadvertent shrapnel, or a piece of glass, or I
don't know, by venomous fleas. The entire official medical report
from the Trump campaign is that he is quote fine,
unquote Five days later, the entirety of Trump's cult and
(16:59):
his political gang and militia continue to treat last Saturday
as if Trump had had been literally saved by a deity.
They are not only trying to use it to boost
his polling, but also to boost gods. They have compared
him to Christ, including the amount of vood loss. They
have thrown off any hesitation or moderation. They have made
(17:22):
it if you shoot at the King analogies. A sitting
senator has demanded that after Trump survived, we must all
now believe in miracles. And nobody other than Trump will
even confirm, even without a name attached to it, just
an organizational name, even just anonymously. No one will confirm
that what hit Trump really was a bullet? Why the
(17:44):
hell not? As we crossed the milestone of one hundred
hours since the assassination attempt, and there's no argument that
it wasn't one, the fact that nobody has confirmed he
was shot must now be considered as having transformed into
the fact that people are deliberately choosing to not confirm it.
(18:05):
I mean, the full report on Biden's COVID was out
within an hour of the test, down to the timing
of his first dose of packslovid. If Trump was shot,
there is no longer any logical explanation for this hesitation,
this five day long hesitation. Not even in Trump's world
of illogic does this make sense. This creature lives to
(18:27):
be the victim a statement from I don't know the
Secretary of Homeland Security that he was shot. He would
frame it, he would put it on his wall, he'd
move some of the fake Time magazine covers out of
the way. He'd sell photo copies of it up for
seventy eight dollars. Hell, the bastard is already selling commemorative
(18:48):
limited edition assassination sneakers. Your costs two hundred and ninety
nine dollars and no sense. By the way, you can,
presumably in your assassination sneakers do the assassination tango. Nobody
is disputing what was a tempted against Trump Saturday. Nobody
is disputing what could have happened. If they are not
(19:12):
saying yes, definitively conclusively, he was shot with a bullet,
with a bullet that hit his body, even just a
little at this point we have to assume he was
not hit by a bullet. And as I said at
the start, therefore we now have to assume that Trump
is lying about getting shot. And again, they could clear
this up in thirty seconds. It's seemingly trivial some investigators,
(19:35):
some law enforcement official, some doctor other than Glug Glug,
and they may yet do that. It may yet prove true.
It is the easiest explanation of all the theories, and
the most logical one. And the refusal to offer the
proof has created uncertainty in an area that really shouldn't
(19:56):
be that uncertain. If he wasn't shot, so what something
else thrown up by the shit? The shooter's bullet intended
to kill him, nicked his ear? Well, that's much better
if he was shot. What's the issue? Is there something
wrong with the bullets? Has he ever sold limited edition
(20:18):
Trump bullets? Was he grazed by a bullet that had
his face on it or his name on it? I
mean talk about a bullet having your name on it.
The thing is, the more you look into the coverage
of exactly what he got hit with, the crazier that
coverage reads. Go to the local coverage around Pittsburgh in
(20:38):
the days since, and you will find nobody with direct
knowledge of how Trump looked, or how he was treated,
or what he was treated for. You'll find that none
of them will say, yeah, Trump was shot. The hospital
has been flooding the zone with information about how it
reacted and how it had planned for something like this,
and how it treated other new patients outside on the street,
(21:01):
and how wonderful the hospital staff was. And then there's
this from the KDKA TV website quote Butler Memorial Hospital's
president was at a bridal shower when President Trump was
shot at a local campaign rally. Karen Allen left the
shower and rushed to Butler Memorial. Her colleagues were treating Trump,
(21:23):
the hospital was locked down. Okay, it's mildly unintentionally humorous
to this point. Now, the serious part president of the
hospital and her info about what happened to Trump, that
he was being treated for at her hospital is not
just second hand, it's third hand. Again, quoting Alan said,
(21:45):
she learned Trump had been shot from the hospital's chief
medical officer, who was on vacation at the beach. So
the head of the hospital has no first hand knowledge
of the injuries, and the chief medical officer of the
hospital has no first hand knowledge of the injuries either.
Who in the hell does I mean at this point,
(22:09):
Trump could have set off a movie prop blood squib
and nobody would know. I'm not saying that's what happened,
but you see where organic conspiracy theories grow from. And
at five days in Trump has grown one. And we
have to assume he's lying about getting hit by a bullet,
(22:30):
or there's something about the whole thing that he's lying about.
Also of interest, here is Trump's near death experience part
of God's plan. That's not me asking that question. That's
not some idiot on Newsmax. That's a Washington Post columnist.
(22:53):
And if you think he's swallowed the kool aid, you
know which pundit is the leading national distributor of Trump
kool aid at the moment. It's Van. This is the
night Trump became Jesus Jones of CNN. Van, the man
is at it again, and you will never believe who
(23:13):
he has praised. Now that's next. This is countdown. This
is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead of us on
(23:45):
this initiative countdown. So I'm reading those hilarious spotted entries
of political celebrities at events at the Republican Convention. And
you read these lists and your reaction to most of
them is She's still alive. And there's one name, Alexey Lallas,
time counterculture soccer hero and now just another hanger on
(24:08):
at a party for an Indiana fascist at the Republican Convention.
Let me tell you, please, of the day at ESPN
that I stole Alexei Lallas's guitar from him and smashed
it to pieces in things I promised not to tell. Next,
there are still more idiots to talk about. The daily
roundup of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effect
(24:28):
specimens who constitute two days worse persons in the world
Lebrons worst. Ted Cruz podcaster Mister Cruz has a part
time job in the US Senate. I believe his job
is he empties the spittoons on the Senate floor under
the senator's desks. The job offers plenty of room for promotion.
(24:51):
After five years, they give him a brush Anyway, Ted
Cruse's podcast, I believe the title is I'm lying with
Ted Cruz featured this gem. I want to get answers
to was Politics involved turning down additional resources for Trump.
It's been reported now that on the day of the rally,
Secret Service moved some of Trump's detail to protect Jill Biden. Well,
(25:15):
the word reported is doing a lot of heavy lifting here,
even for Ted the podcaster. The reporting seems to have
all come from one story posted by a woman who
works for the right wing propaganda site Real Clear Politics.
By the way, that's one of the stupidest names of
anything in the world. Real Clear Politics, World Clear Politics.
(25:36):
They spelled it right. There was no shift of Secret
Service on Saturday, and there was no evidence that the
Trump detail was understaffed. You heard the Iran report, it
was probably larger than usual. The Real Clear Politics clown
just was told this by somebody who was lying, and
she made a video. She even remembered to press record.
The story, which is false, was reported in exactly the
(25:58):
same way that the story has been reported for years
that Ted Cruz is reported to reportedly be the Zode killer.
It's not true, but it's been reported. The runner up
worser Washington Post columnist and Washington Post editorial board member
Shady Hamid or as we will identify him here. The
latest guy fooled by Trump is Trump's near death experience
(26:23):
part of God's plan what a nation can expect when
a leader is nearly assassinated. Stories of near death experiences
chastening sinners and pushing them toward the light are the
stuff of legend, but they are also the stuff of real,
ordinary lives, the individuals who make a conscious choice to
turn away from the past and restructure their own narratives
(26:46):
toward a better end. It could mean that he campaigns
and then governs in the now more likely event that
he wins in a manner that is less authoritarian. It
could mean that, when presented with an opportunity to escalate tensions,
he might choose instead to tamp them down. Is this
about Trump really tamp them down? As it happens, this
(27:09):
would also be in his self interest, a way to
redeem his tarnished legacy. If this sounds like a fantasy,
perhaps it is, But fantasies sometimes come true. Dear Peedhus Forum,
I never believed this would happen to me. Christ Fortunately,
for Trump and perhaps for us, God works in mysterious ways. Well,
(27:35):
I mean this guy, Shadi Hamid is a member of
the Washington Post editorial board. So that's about as mysterious
as he gets. This was posted Tuesday, after Trump picked
that psychopath Advance as his running mate, and after he
demanded that the nation unify behind him by dropping all
the charges against him. Can't imagine why the Washington Post,
(27:58):
with writer Shadi Hamid, is bailing water twenty four hours
a day publishing this crap, Holy crap, Why don't you
just get a Trump is pivoting tattoo on your forehead?
Speaking of which, our winner Van Jones of CNN, the
number of people who say stupid things on CNN is
almost limitless. It's why CNN's ratings have sunk so low
(28:21):
that their audience is moving towards where it was when
I joined CNN at the end of its first year
in nineteen eighty one, and I used to call up
for credentials to news conferences and sporting events, and the
pr people would say, Sonny, you and I both know
there is no such thing as an all news television network.
If you want to get a free pass to the
ball game, you'll have to make up a better story
(28:43):
than that. Anyway, CNN is going there right now as
I've noted the average audience for this podcast exceeds many
hours of the audience during CNN's week. Van Jones is
one of the reasons, As I said, a lot of
people say dumb things on there, like all the anchors
others like Jake Tapper and Dana Bash do the opp
(29:04):
They don't say things dumb or otherwise when journalism would
seemingly compel them to say something like during the debate
or when Eric Trump is lying to them about who
shot what at his father. But Van Jones has been
saying earnestly, with deep conviction and the most sincere performance
of fake sincerity imaginable from his announcement in early twenty
(29:27):
seventeen that Trump, in a speech to Congress had just
truly become president. I guess because Trump had not shot
a guy during the speech or messed his diapers during
the speech. From that point through last Saturday, when Van
Jones cried on the air on seeing it and told
Democrats to embrace Republicans to show we were all Americans,
while Trump was already figuring out how to exploit the
(29:48):
event by demanding that America owed him now and everybody
should drop all those cases against him even though he
is a trader and a convicted sexual assaulter, and now
there is more from Van Jones. They keep putting him
on because if there's one thing TV executives throughout the
history of the world we'll not do is connect the
(30:09):
dots between their stupid personnel decisions and lower ratings. I mean,
it's why Anderson Cooper has been on the air there
for twenty years, even though he's never won his own
time slot, and he hasn't even finished second since like
two thousand and five. Van Jones has now turned to
commenting on the speakers at the Republican National Convention. Now, look,
(30:33):
they're all political prostitutes. Nicki Haley got up and said
Trump had her total endorsement because her fight against Trump
was just a marketing scheme. Well, she didn't say it
was a marketing scheme. I'm saying that. But there are
a few more cynical, few more dishonest, few more ugly
in their soul speakers than not Haley, but Sarah Huckabee Sanders,
(30:58):
now the governor of Arkansas, just as her soul as
father was, and she of course was Trump's most virulent
and angry press secretary, and she spoke at the RNC
and Van Jones said afterwards on CNN, Sarah Huckabee Sanders,
she was incredibly compelling to me. She told personal stories
that landed. It was moving, and it was powerful. She
(31:20):
gave the speech of the night unquote. Here's part of
Huckabee's moving, powerful personal story.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
I got the chance to take my four year old son,
Huck to bring your kid to workday, much like Jill
now drags Joe to bring your husband to work out.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
That was ageist and disrespectful, and like the rest of
the life of Sarah Huckabee, it was as if you
had taught a rhinoceros to talk. Plus, she's standing at
the gates of heaven and the administrator there says, and
what did you do with your life? And she says,
I named my son Huck huck Tuckabee Sanders. And he
(32:06):
goes next and the next thing you hear is Van
Jones thought that was incredibly compelling, moving and powerful. Thought
it was the speech of the night because Van, I'm
an idiot. Jones is the worst person. Oh, it's so
(32:29):
compelling in the world. Now things I promised not to tell.
And it was nineteen ninety four, and they just had
the first Soccer World Cup ever held in the United States,
(32:50):
and Alexei Lallis was the folk hero of the plucky
American team, and we put him in a This is
Sports Center commercial. And there's a long, great story to this.
I will tell you in a moment, But first listen
to what I found. It is a DVD with the outtakes. Now,
I didn't do this twice. It's two separate angles of it.
(33:13):
I might add. In the second angle, when I hit
the guitar against the wall, the fret of the thing
flew directly into the lens of the backup camera that
was on the floor. I couldn't do that again in
a billion years. Please enjoy. If you don't recognize me,
I'm the one grunting.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
Okay, I still love you, man, Okay, I still love
you man.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
The nineteen ninety four Soccer World Cup did not really
do that much for American soccer, which as you know,
is the sport of the future in this country and
always will be. But it did make a lot of
Americans into fans of European soccer clubs, especially the British ones.
But for a while, Alexi Lalas, with his shoulder length,
reddish blonde hair and billy goat beard and anti establishment vibe,
(34:29):
was on the front burner of American sports and he
made quite a nice career out of it as a
commentator on soccer on TV. But back then, naturally, ESPN,
launching its surrealist fake documentary commercial series, wanted him to
be in it, and sure enough he came to Bristol
and Hank Perlman devised a bit in which Gary Miller,
our anchor, who was himself a soccer immortal for his
(34:52):
soccer breakdown which I've played to you, you know, John Luca, Palyuka,
the Mother, etc. Gary would be sitting at a desk
in the sports Center newsroom. As atop the adjoining desk,
Alexi Lalis sat cross legged in sunglasses, philosophizing on relaxation
and finally playing on his guitar. Michael Row the boat ashore.
(35:15):
At that point the commercial turned into one of the
classic scenes from John Belushi's film Animal House. Another sportscaster
was to storm into the newsroom, pull the guitar out
of Alexei Lalas's hands and smash it against a cubicle.
Wall and emit a loud, primal grunt as he did so,
and then hand Lallas back whatever was left of the guitar,
(35:37):
and like Belushi in the movie, say sorry. Well, Hank
had a sportscaster in mind for that role, and guess
who it was me? So picture that in your mind
as I play what it sounded like. And then I
have what I think is a really good backstory to
the filming of this. This is SportsCenter SportsCenter commercial, and
(36:02):
I'm talking to you at the darkness. We got to
do something about that, Michael. For time's sake, the word
(36:28):
sorry didn't make it. So the backstory and it's out
of chronological order. The guitar that Alexei Lawis was playing
was not the one I smashed. There was an exact
duplicate that had been bought. It had been taken apart,
it had been sawed, and basically it was put back
together with scotch tape. It would hold together long enough
for him to scrum a few sour notes on it
(36:49):
and then for me to grab it and smash it.
They were confident it would not fly apart until I
hit the cubicle wall with it. But they still told
me to simply grab it, not yanked out of his hands,
or I might be left holding the neck of the
guitar and Alexey holding the rest of it. This was
especially problematic because we only had the one prop guitar.
(37:13):
That's right, We made the business end of that commercial
in one take. This is SportsCenter campaign not only freakly
achieved something approaching genius levels of originality and creativity, but
they were all done cheaper than local news promos. In Burlington,
Vermont in nineteen eighty two, we often shot three of
(37:33):
these commercials in one day, and it wasn't until the
second series of ads did the SportsCenter anchors who started
in one, or two or three even get credit for
a day off. In one of them, Charlie Sneiner is
trying to get his tape of highlights back from the
Harlem Globetrotters who are passing it around like a basketball,
and he says, can he is a little help? Then
(37:55):
I'm typing away at my computer and I say, sure, Charlie,
and I don't even look at him, let alone stop typing,
let alone give them any help. And that's done. Because
the commercial was shot in the area right behind my desk,
because nobody was working there that day except me, and
it was around five PM, and I was, in fact
sitting at my desk writing the eleven PM Sports Center script,
(38:18):
and the original commercial script did not call for me
to even be in Charlie's commercial. But on the fly
the writer said, hey, Keith, can you give us one line?
And I said, as long as I can keep writing,
and they said perfect. By the way, Charlie did the
commercial around five o'clock or so and then went and
anchored the six thirty PM Sports Center. The spot we
(38:41):
did where hockey legend Gordy Howe beats me up while
I am trying to read through a script also shot
at my desk, also on a day I was anchoring
the show, and that was my real script. Anyway, back
to alex A. Lallis and the guitar, so we only
had the one prop guitar, and so we only had
the one take, and we were shooting it in the
(39:02):
actual Sports Center newsroom of course, in fact, they were
remodeling the real newsroom to accommodate the launch of the
new ESPN News network, so this was the temporary even
more crowded than usual newsroom, so the cameraman and the
producer and the writer, and I walked through how they
thought it would work best since I would have to
weave past people who were really doing their jobs and
(39:24):
going to other desks and talking to people and stuff.
They had two cameras in the little hallway that constituted
the temporary newsroom's northern border, and they put a third,
smaller camera on the floor where they guessed that a
piece of the guitar might land after I smashed it.
See if you can get the fret or something to
go here. The producer said that would make a great shot.
(39:47):
I asked him how in the hell I was supposed
to do that since we couldn't even practice the smash,
and he said, well, honestly, I don't know. Telepathy. Maybe
that was the other salient part of the backstory, since
we only had the one take and we wouldn't even
be doing a dry run because they didn't want the
guitar to fall apart in my hands. I would say
less than half the people crowded into the temporary newsroom
(40:10):
had any idea that when I came in I was
in the commercial let alone, that I was going to
actually and loudly destroy a guitar by smashing it against
a low cubicle wall. Even if the guitar has been
pre broken and taped back together, as that one was,
it is still going to make a lot of noise. Wait,
(40:31):
I said to my friend Hank, who wrote it. You're
not warning anybody, are you, your little devil? Hank got
a gleeful, evil glazed look in his eyes. No, isn't
that great. So they filmed the closeups of Gary, and
they filmed the closeups of Alexi, and then they set
me up to enter from a vestibule through two swinging
doors with windows in them, which was along the periphery
(40:52):
of the temporary newsroom. Then a right turn, and then about no, no, no,
fifteen twenty feet to where Alexei and Gary were still sitting.
My target for exactly where I should hit the guitar
was clearly marked on the cube wall, and they even
put marks on the carpet of where a couple of
practice walks had shown would give me the best chance
at a solid stance. When I swung the guitar and
(41:14):
sent it el kabonging to its doom, and nobody ever
said quiet or roll or here we go. They told
people in the room that they were just shooting some
cover angles on Gary and Alexi, and people could say
or move whatever and wherever they wanted to, just so
long they didn't get away to the cameras. Then they
(41:36):
just tapped the desks for Alexa and Gary to start,
and the producer waved to me and in I went,
trying to channel John Belushi when he takes the guitar
away from Stephen Bishop on the stairs of the Front
House and Animal House. I furrowed my brow and I
tried to fake some venom towards Alexei Lalas. I found
the emotion. As I came through the doors, I kept
(41:56):
thinking that since I had been eight years old, I
had heard people call soccer the sport of the future
here and I was now thirty seven, and I was
damn tired of me hearing it. Lallis was strumming on the
nearly neutered prop guitar. It made a sick sound. I
took my strides, I hit the marks. I grabbed the
guitar by the neck with my right hand and simultaneously
(42:17):
Alexey let go, and then with both hands I swung
the guitar back over my head and smashed it right
on the mark. As you heard Michael. The Sports Center
(42:40):
newsroom promptly went silent for several seconds. The reaction was
identical to what it would have been had there been
no commercial being made and no cameras present, and I
had just walked in and destroyed somebody's guitar, which I
guess a lot of people expect that I might do someday,
because even a lot of the people who were surprised
(43:01):
were not surprised surprised. Craig Wax, the skinny research guy,
can be seen in the finished commercial, which is on YouTube,
for a second far left, just staring at me like, yeah, well,
we always knew Keys would do something like that. After
I'd destroyed the guitar, and I have to say, I
did it really well. I kept moving per the plan
(43:23):
until I walked back through the swinging doors and out
of shot. The director shouted cut. I walked back in,
and the crew gave me a round of applause, and
a couple of them were cheering out of all proportion.
Even if I had done is good of a job,
as I thought, come here, come here. The cameraman kept saying,
come here, that extra camera on the floor. They backed
(43:43):
the videotape up from it, and they showed it to me.
When I smashed the guitar, the fretboard, the actual wood
and metal piece on the neck flew off and not
only landed near the third camera's lens, it hit it
on the fly and it stuck there. They were as
happy as if they were engineers imploding a bill for
(44:04):
the first time and it had fallen exactly as they
had hoped. Plus, they showed me the playback from the
first camera, and there was an assignment desk editor with
her back to the action on the phone, completely unaware
of what was happening or even that they were rolling
film and videotape, and she literally jumped several inches out
of her seat of her chair. But to me, the
(44:27):
best part of this thing is Gary Miller. Even if
you know a loud noise is coming, it is quite
the effort to not flinch a little when it happens
basically right over your shoulder. I mean, ask the little
kid in the movie north By Northwest where Iva Marie
Saint shoots Carrie Grant and he sticks his fingers in
(44:49):
his ears because it's take thirty seven, and he knows
the noise is coming. I mean, you're aware of it
just for the possibility that somebody will screw it up
like me and debris will fly into the back of
your head. But if you watch Gary in this Sports
Center commercial, he doesn't even blink, just a little dead
pan head jerk. It's perfect. What also amazes me is
(45:14):
that we got all this done in twenty four seconds
of running time. Alexei goes on about negativity. I have
to do something about it. He plays enough of the
song that you recognize it. You got a shot at
cheerleaders incongruously in the middle of the background. I appear
from nowhere, move over there, smash the guitar while roaring spectacularly.
I give him back the neck of the thing. The
only thing missing is that shot from the fret bar
(45:35):
flying into camera three. They explained they didn't have the
extra two seconds scene. I remember enjoying doing this so
much that I asked them for the front of the
body of the guitar, and I had Alexi sign it
to me on the spot. It hung framed in my
various offices for about fifteen years. In twenty fourteen, I
(45:57):
was leaving the recording of Stephen Colbert's final episode for
Comedy Central. I was one of one hundred guests, and
I went out onto the street to find a cab
home and I got one, and in getting into it,
I nearly ran into Alexei Lalas, who was one of
the other one hundred guests. I laughed, He laughed, and
he said, and I don't even have my guitar with me.
And one last note, I doubt this will be of
(46:19):
any practical use to you, but I must say, as
somebody who was accorded this rare privilege, not only of
doing this, but of doing this with impunity, and doing
this to applause. If you are trying to HEALTHI event
any frustrations or anger in your life, smashing a guitar
(46:40):
against a workplace cubicle wall is exactly as satisfying as
you would expect it would be. Okay, I still love you, man,
(47:15):
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening. Countdown Musical directors Brian Ray and John
Phillip Schanelle arranged, produced, and performed most of our music.
Mister Ray on guitars, bass, and drums, Mister Chanelle, orchestration
and keyboards. It was produced by Tkobros. Other music, including
some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by Noah
Horns Aloud. Mister Lallis's guitar was by Les Paul of
(47:40):
Beverly Hills. The sports music is the Olderman theme from
ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN inc.
Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Faust,
the best baseball stadium organist ever. My announcer today was
what a coincidence, Nancy Faust. Everything else was pretty much
my fault. That's countdown for this the one hundred and
(48:00):
eleventh day until the twenty twenty four presidential election, the
eighty eighth day since convicted felon Donald J. Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the mental health system,
use presidential immunity. President Biden, you've got it, Use it
(48:23):
to stop him from doing it again while we still can.
And Republicans please stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled
countdown is tomorrow, Bulletins is the newest requires till then.
I'm Keith Olremman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
(48:43):
good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio.
(49:04):
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. My
expectation is that before the weekend is out, if President
(00:25):
Biden has not announced he will withdraw from the Democratic
ticket to be replaced by an alternate presidential candidate, a
big collection of party leaders with bigger names and even
bigger reputations will go public and on the record and
demand that President Biden drop out. Chuck Schumer, according to
(00:47):
ABC News last night, went to Rehoboth Beach and in
a one on one meeting with the president quote forcefully
made the case that it would be better for Biden,
better for the Democratic Party, and better for the country
if he were to bow out of the race. Unquote.
It is the twenty twenty four version of the Barry
Goldwater mission to the White House to tell Nixon it
(01:08):
was time to go. Only it's Biden, and it's not
a scandal, and it was in Delaware, not DC, and
it wasn't for them at once, but one at a time, essentially,
And that the Democratic leadership that has been working behind
the scenes since the debate to change candidates no longer
cares whether their efforts are public or not could not
(01:30):
have been more clear. If they had hired one of
those moving billboard trucks and flashed the message up and
down every street near the Capitol. Last night, Schumer's office
replied to John Carl's report on ABC with something that
isn't a denial. It isn't even a non denial denial.
It's quote. Unless ABC source is Senator Chuck Schumer or
(01:52):
President Joe Biden, the reporting is idle speculation. Leader Schumer
conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden
on Saturday. So the meeting happened. You're just keeping a
fig leaf over announcing publicly what Schumer told the President
(02:14):
at the meeting. You just confirmed. So what ABC reported
is what Schumer told the President. Forcefully made the case
it would be better for Biden, better for the Democratic Party,
and better for the country if he were to bow out.
As yesterday unfolded, I had this growing suspicion that the
(02:34):
behind the scenes Joe must Go drama was about to
move center stage. I am confident his COVID test yesterday
in Vegas is no more than ironically timed symbolism. Unless
this is like President Kennedy developing a severe cold during
the Cuban missile crisis and having to rush back to Washington,
(02:56):
although you have to admit it was a hell of
a way to upstage the JD vance speech and maybe
Trump's tonight too. And it also set up an expert
troll on Twitter x when at seven twenty two Eastern
last night, Biden's account posted I'm sick, then two minutes
later added of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying
(03:18):
to buy this election. Regardless of the singer, regardless of
the illness, regardless of the Schumer story on ABC, the
critical mass certainly appears to be building, and in several
different areas and different chain reactions. The first, you already
know the ABC Schumer story, which just doesn't have any
(03:39):
wiggle room to it. You're either right with that story
or you will never work again. But also yesterday the
California Congressman Adam Schiff called for the president to retire
from the ticket publicly, and Schiff Senator in waiting once
he strikes out Steve Garvey with a curve ball low
and away carries enough weight on his own. But there's
(04:01):
also the little matter of him being Nancy Polo sees
protege and confidante. And now, in addition to the continuing
swarm of stories around the speaker Emerita and her off
camera stage management of key players in the Talk Joe
Down campaign, Politico reports she is serving as a sounding
board for worried Democratic House members who not only think
(04:24):
the president will lose, but that he will break their
chances of reelection as well. One lawmaker told that website
that Pelosi is taking these calls but not soliciting them,
hasn't really acted on them, but quoting now, the member
ended the phone call with the distinct impression that Pelosi
believed Biden should exit the presidential race. And I think
(04:45):
that's true. It is highly unlikely shiff would have said
what he said publicly if Pelosi did not know he
was going to, and more importantly, if Pelosi did not
approve of him saying it as strategy. As you know,
once Democrats actually successfully begin to plan something anything, it
(05:07):
leaks quickly because they are so pleased with themselves that
they have finally done something that they can't wait to
tell everybody. On the other hand, reportedly Pelosi told colleagues
she knew nothing about what is actually a bigger piece
in this puzzle than is the shift announcement, which I
guess serves as a warning shot to Biden that we
will really go public, so don't make us. As I
(05:30):
mentioned yesterday that virtual roll call online nomination of the
president for a second term has been postponed by the
DNC until around August seventh. They thought it might happen
as early as August first, and first came the news
from NBC that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was behind
that decision, and that it was ABC and no, it
(05:51):
was Schumer and House Minority Leader Jeffries each making it happen.
And then it was punch Bowl News saying yeah, it
was both of them, and they talked beforehand and coordinated
their announcements and moves. Interestingly, one of the headlines on
the ticket dilemma, let's call it a dilemma. I don't
(06:11):
think it's a crisis yet, though it escalated enough that
it briefly threatened my ability to remain agnostic. Yesterday, one
of the ticket dilemma headlines is actually much ado about nothing.
The Associated Press Nork poll yesterday, three weeks after the debate,
and nearly two thirds of Democrats say he should withdraw
in favor of a different candidate sixty five percent, to
(06:35):
be exact, which is actually an improvement. In April, a
few research survey asked Biden supporters if they thought either
he or Trump should drop out or both, and sixty
two percent said both, and four more of Biden's supporters
said just Biden. So sixty two plus four is sixty
(06:56):
six percent. Now it's sixty five percent. And the sixty
six was after the State of the Union and well
before the debate. So I don't know why this was
a big story other than the facts that polls are
easily digestible fast news food, and most news organizations are
happy to run them and say, well, it's their polls,
not ours. Don't blame us. The data for Progress poll, though,
(07:19):
seems more meaningful. Before the debate, swing voters believed Trump's
criminal charges were far more important than Biden's age, by
forty eight percent to forty one percent. Now, a different
group of swing voters in this poll released yesterday say
his age is way more important than Trump's criminality and
fifty three percent to thirty seven percent. That is a swing,
(07:41):
a swing swing of twenty three points. And I don't
know how you come back from that. There were other
developments suggesting something is coming on the Biden front, and
right soon Pucked News with a lot of insider stuff
on last Saturday's Biden Congress zoom call, which went so
badly that one participant said, quote had the iss assassination
(08:05):
attempt not occurred? An hour later, I imagine fifty people
on that zoom were ready to come out publicly against him.
The call seems to have been recorded, and Puck published
a partial transcript of a loud blow up between Biden
and the Colorado Democrat Jason Crowe, who said the recent
campaign emphasis on national security wasn't working. Biden was yelling
(08:29):
at Crow, quoting Puck quoting Biden on the quote of
the call, things are in chaos, and I'm bringing some
order to it. And again, find me a world leader
who's an ally of ours, who doesn't think I'm the
most respected person they've ever whereupon Crow interrupts, it's not
breaking through, mister president, to our voters, and Biden comes
(08:50):
back with you ought to talk about it on national security.
Nobody has been a better president than I've been. Name
me one, name me one exclamation point. So I don't
want to hear that crap. So that'd be a Democratic
congressman saying Biden's vitality score is drowning out the party's
entire message, and Biden replying by screaming at them because
(09:14):
they're not getting his message across loudly enough. Axios had
a similar report saying Mark Vzi of Texas and Chrissy
Hulan of Pennsylvania demanded to know the president's plan to
turn the campaign around, and Biden responded to vis by
saying House members weren't doing a good enough job reminding
voters of the administration's accomplishments. This is fine, zips coffee,
(09:41):
This is fine. Why is it warm in here? This
is also fine. Bernie Sanders defending Biden yesterday to Isaac
Chottner and The New Yorker, and it's well, it's very Bernie,
and it's not very much help. Chattner to Sanders to
merge the question about him selling his agenda with the
(10:02):
question about his age. I watched President Biden with Lester
Holt Monday night, and I watched him on three point
sixty with Speedy Mormon, and he is definitely getting out
there more than he was the night after the debate.
But just to be honest, Senator, I mean, the guy
has trouble completing a single sentence, Sanders, he does, Chotner.
(10:22):
Every time he was attacking Donald Trump's record, he would
just pause. I mean, the idea that this candidate who's
going to be eighty two this year is going to
Sanders may i Chotner, Yeah, please, Sanders. I'm not aware
that anyone thinks that Joe Biden is the best candidate
in the history of the world, or that he's an
ideal candidate. And nobody will argue with you that he
(10:44):
has a trails off it notes. He admitted it. Sometimes
he gets confused about names. You're right, sometimes he doesn't
put three sentences together. It is true. But the reality
of the moment is, in my view, he is the
best candidate the Democrats have for a variety of reasons,
and trying in an unprecedented way to take him off
(11:04):
the ticket would do a lot more harm than good.
Schotner to Sanders, and then there's this substantive question about
whether he can be president for four more years. You
have no concerns about that, Sanders. Look, I have concerns
about everything you know, and everybody should have concerns about everything. Okay,
(11:25):
So that helped circling back to the COVID diagnosis. I
truly don't think it's anything more or less than a
COVID diagnosis. Certainly that's enough for an eighty one year
old man. But here, of all things is a Biden interview,
a new one with my old colleague from last century
at MSNBC, Ed Gordon for beet, and the president for
(11:49):
the first time said in it he could drop out
if there were compelling health reasons.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Is there anything that you would look to you personally,
not anybody else, not other pundits, not even perhaps family
members that you would look to to say, if I
see that, I will reevaluate.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody,
if the doctors came to me and said you got
this problem, that problem. But I made a serious mistake
in the whole debate. And look, when I originally ran,
you may remember it, I said I was gonna be again.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Coincidence. I think interview comes out around two pm Eastern,
COVID diagnosis around six pm Eastern. That's a coincidence, right, right,
First two major unforced errors of the official Trump campaign.
(12:50):
CBS News proposes August twelve for the vice presidential debate.
Kamala Harris accepts. This is hours before JD. Vance was
to give his vice presidential acceptance speech, and Vance refused
to commit, probably the first press release to carry the
new Trump Vance campaign logo masthead. And it's a snarky
(13:14):
excuse about how they can't commit to a debate because
they don't know who the Democratic vice presidential candidate will be.
And that sounds hilarious, doesn't it. And they mentioned Harris
choosing Newsom or Pritzker or Whitmer's a running mate at
Oh what wittiness from a Trump idiot, Except it reads
like Vance is too afraid of Newsom or Pritzker or
(13:35):
Whitmer or Harris to just say what you're supposed to
do in this situation. Yes, that he needed a joke
and a bad joke to cover up fear hours before
his acceptance speech. Politics one oh one, JD. And you
just failed the first exam, beardo the second mistake? Will
(13:59):
I think move out of the shadows at some point soon,
just like the Joe must Go thing again. And the
longer this goes unaddressed, the less sense any of it
makes to me. In short, we now have to assume
that Trump is lying about getting shot, that he was
shot at is not in doubt that the blood came
(14:22):
from in the unfortunate phrase he himself chose. His ear
being pierced by a bullet has been verified by absolutely nobody.
Nothing from Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, nothing from the
Secret Service, nothing from the Department of Justice, nothing from
(14:44):
any branch of government, nothing from the FBI, even though
the FBI has gone to unusual lengths of confirming the
investigation is of an assassination attempt and of domestic terrorism.
And they've already broken into the shooter's phone, and they
know there were eight shots, and they know who else
was shot, and they released their names, And nothing about
(15:05):
Trump getting shot. Nothing from any news organization, and each
normans organization has had to cleverly, almost artistically, avoid saying
Trump was shot and also avoid saying Trump wasn't shot.
New York Times the former president was holding a rally
when he said he was shot in his ear. Even
(15:29):
NBC News, in the middle of a company wide Trump
suck up, writes not that Trump was hit by a bullock,
but rather quote. Days since a Pennsylvania shooter opened fire
at a campaign rally and wounded Trump's ear, the former
president and his campaign have revealed next to nothing about
his condition. Well neither did the NBC News story, nothing
(15:53):
from anybody on Trump's own team, except for his own
original social media post about the ear piercing, and then
from Congressman and demoted former Navy di Ronnie glug Glug Jackson,
who had last been seen publicly swearing like a sailor
at sheriff's officers as they detained him at a rodeo
(16:14):
in Amarillo a year and two weeks ago. And even
Ronnie Jackson says he didn't treat Trump's ear until the
day after Sunday, and not that he treated it last
Saturday because he was home in Texas on Saturday. And
based on how Jackson has described it and what he
doesn't know about it, it is clear Jackson is assuming
it was a bullet, but in fact, the superficial damage
(16:37):
to Trump's ear could have been caused by a bullet
or inadvertent shrapnel, or a piece of glass, or I
don't know, by venomous fleas. The entire official medical report
from the Trump campaign is that he is quote fine,
unquote Five days later, the entirety of Trump's cult and
(16:59):
his political gang and militia continue to treat last Saturday
as if Trump had had been literally saved by a deity.
They are not only trying to use it to boost
his polling, but also to boost gods. They have compared
him to Christ, including the amount of vood loss. They
have thrown off any hesitation or moderation. They have made
(17:22):
it if you shoot at the King analogies. A sitting
senator has demanded that after Trump survived, we must all
now believe in miracles. And nobody other than Trump will
even confirm, even without a name attached to it, just
an organizational name, even just anonymously. No one will confirm
that what hit Trump really was a bullet? Why the
(17:44):
hell not? As we crossed the milestone of one hundred
hours since the assassination attempt, and there's no argument that
it wasn't one, the fact that nobody has confirmed he
was shot must now be considered as having transformed into
the fact that people are deliberately choosing to not confirm it.
(18:05):
I mean, the full report on Biden's COVID was out
within an hour of the test, down to the timing
of his first dose of packslovid. If Trump was shot,
there is no longer any logical explanation for this hesitation,
this five day long hesitation. Not even in Trump's world
of illogic does this make sense. This creature lives to
(18:27):
be the victim a statement from I don't know the
Secretary of Homeland Security that he was shot. He would
frame it, he would put it on his wall, he'd
move some of the fake Time magazine covers out of
the way. He'd sell photo copies of it up for
seventy eight dollars. Hell, the bastard is already selling commemorative
(18:48):
limited edition assassination sneakers. Your costs two hundred and ninety
nine dollars and no sense. By the way, you can,
presumably in your assassination sneakers do the assassination tango. Nobody
is disputing what was a tempted against Trump Saturday. Nobody
is disputing what could have happened. If they are not
(19:12):
saying yes, definitively conclusively, he was shot with a bullet,
with a bullet that hit his body, even just a
little at this point we have to assume he was
not hit by a bullet. And as I said at
the start, therefore we now have to assume that Trump
is lying about getting shot. And again, they could clear
this up in thirty seconds. It's seemingly trivial some investigators,
(19:35):
some law enforcement official, some doctor other than Glug Glug,
and they may yet do that. It may yet prove true.
It is the easiest explanation of all the theories, and
the most logical one. And the refusal to offer the
proof has created uncertainty in an area that really shouldn't
(19:56):
be that uncertain. If he wasn't shot, so what something
else thrown up by the shit? The shooter's bullet intended
to kill him, nicked his ear? Well, that's much better
if he was shot. What's the issue? Is there something
wrong with the bullets? Has he ever sold limited edition
(20:18):
Trump bullets? Was he grazed by a bullet that had
his face on it or his name on it? I
mean talk about a bullet having your name on it.
The thing is, the more you look into the coverage
of exactly what he got hit with, the crazier that
coverage reads. Go to the local coverage around Pittsburgh in
(20:38):
the days since, and you will find nobody with direct
knowledge of how Trump looked, or how he was treated,
or what he was treated for. You'll find that none
of them will say, yeah, Trump was shot. The hospital
has been flooding the zone with information about how it
reacted and how it had planned for something like this,
and how it treated other new patients outside on the street,
(21:01):
and how wonderful the hospital staff was. And then there's
this from the KDKA TV website quote Butler Memorial Hospital's
president was at a bridal shower when President Trump was
shot at a local campaign rally. Karen Allen left the
shower and rushed to Butler Memorial. Her colleagues were treating Trump,
(21:23):
the hospital was locked down. Okay, it's mildly unintentionally humorous
to this point. Now, the serious part president of the
hospital and her info about what happened to Trump, that
he was being treated for at her hospital is not
just second hand, it's third hand. Again, quoting Alan said,
(21:45):
she learned Trump had been shot from the hospital's chief
medical officer, who was on vacation at the beach. So
the head of the hospital has no first hand knowledge
of the injuries, and the chief medical officer of the
hospital has no first hand knowledge of the injuries either.
Who in the hell does I mean at this point,
(22:09):
Trump could have set off a movie prop blood squib
and nobody would know. I'm not saying that's what happened,
but you see where organic conspiracy theories grow from. And
at five days in Trump has grown one. And we
have to assume he's lying about getting hit by a bullet,
(22:30):
or there's something about the whole thing that he's lying about.
Also of interest, here is Trump's near death experience part
of God's plan. That's not me asking that question. That's
not some idiot on Newsmax. That's a Washington Post columnist.
(22:53):
And if you think he's swallowed the kool aid, you
know which pundit is the leading national distributor of Trump
kool aid at the moment. It's Van. This is the
night Trump became Jesus Jones of CNN. Van, the man
is at it again, and you will never believe who
(23:13):
he has praised. Now that's next. This is countdown. This
is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead of us on
(23:45):
this initiative countdown. So I'm reading those hilarious spotted entries
of political celebrities at events at the Republican Convention. And
you read these lists and your reaction to most of
them is She's still alive. And there's one name, Alexey Lallas,
time counterculture soccer hero and now just another hanger on
(24:08):
at a party for an Indiana fascist at the Republican Convention.
Let me tell you, please, of the day at ESPN
that I stole Alexei Lallas's guitar from him and smashed
it to pieces in things I promised not to tell. Next,
there are still more idiots to talk about. The daily
roundup of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effect
(24:28):
specimens who constitute two days worse persons in the world
Lebrons worst. Ted Cruz podcaster Mister Cruz has a part
time job in the US Senate. I believe his job
is he empties the spittoons on the Senate floor under
the senator's desks. The job offers plenty of room for promotion.
(24:51):
After five years, they give him a brush Anyway, Ted
Cruse's podcast, I believe the title is I'm lying with
Ted Cruz featured this gem. I want to get answers
to was Politics involved turning down additional resources for Trump.
It's been reported now that on the day of the rally,
Secret Service moved some of Trump's detail to protect Jill Biden. Well,
(25:15):
the word reported is doing a lot of heavy lifting here,
even for Ted the podcaster. The reporting seems to have
all come from one story posted by a woman who
works for the right wing propaganda site Real Clear Politics.
By the way, that's one of the stupidest names of
anything in the world. Real Clear Politics, World Clear Politics.
(25:36):
They spelled it right. There was no shift of Secret
Service on Saturday, and there was no evidence that the
Trump detail was understaffed. You heard the Iran report, it
was probably larger than usual. The Real Clear Politics clown
just was told this by somebody who was lying, and
she made a video. She even remembered to press record.
The story, which is false, was reported in exactly the
(25:58):
same way that the story has been reported for years
that Ted Cruz is reported to reportedly be the Zode killer.
It's not true, but it's been reported. The runner up
worser Washington Post columnist and Washington Post editorial board member
Shady Hamid or as we will identify him here. The
latest guy fooled by Trump is Trump's near death experience
(26:23):
part of God's plan what a nation can expect when
a leader is nearly assassinated. Stories of near death experiences
chastening sinners and pushing them toward the light are the
stuff of legend, but they are also the stuff of real,
ordinary lives, the individuals who make a conscious choice to
turn away from the past and restructure their own narratives
(26:46):
toward a better end. It could mean that he campaigns
and then governs in the now more likely event that
he wins in a manner that is less authoritarian. It
could mean that, when presented with an opportunity to escalate tensions,
he might choose instead to tamp them down. Is this
about Trump really tamp them down? As it happens, this
(27:09):
would also be in his self interest, a way to
redeem his tarnished legacy. If this sounds like a fantasy,
perhaps it is, But fantasies sometimes come true. Dear Peedhus Forum,
I never believed this would happen to me. Christ Fortunately,
for Trump and perhaps for us, God works in mysterious ways. Well,
(27:35):
I mean this guy, Shadi Hamid is a member of
the Washington Post editorial board. So that's about as mysterious
as he gets. This was posted Tuesday, after Trump picked
that psychopath Advance as his running mate, and after he
demanded that the nation unify behind him by dropping all
the charges against him. Can't imagine why the Washington Post,
(27:58):
with writer Shadi Hamid, is bailing water twenty four hours
a day publishing this crap, Holy crap, Why don't you
just get a Trump is pivoting tattoo on your forehead?
Speaking of which, our winner Van Jones of CNN, the
number of people who say stupid things on CNN is
almost limitless. It's why CNN's ratings have sunk so low
(28:21):
that their audience is moving towards where it was when
I joined CNN at the end of its first year
in nineteen eighty one, and I used to call up
for credentials to news conferences and sporting events, and the
pr people would say, Sonny, you and I both know
there is no such thing as an all news television network.
If you want to get a free pass to the
ball game, you'll have to make up a better story
(28:43):
than that. Anyway, CNN is going there right now as
I've noted the average audience for this podcast exceeds many
hours of the audience during CNN's week. Van Jones is
one of the reasons, As I said, a lot of
people say dumb things on there, like all the anchors
others like Jake Tapper and Dana Bash do the opp
(29:04):
They don't say things dumb or otherwise when journalism would
seemingly compel them to say something like during the debate
or when Eric Trump is lying to them about who
shot what at his father. But Van Jones has been
saying earnestly, with deep conviction and the most sincere performance
of fake sincerity imaginable from his announcement in early twenty
(29:27):
seventeen that Trump, in a speech to Congress had just
truly become president. I guess because Trump had not shot
a guy during the speech or messed his diapers during
the speech. From that point through last Saturday, when Van
Jones cried on the air on seeing it and told
Democrats to embrace Republicans to show we were all Americans,
while Trump was already figuring out how to exploit the
(29:48):
event by demanding that America owed him now and everybody
should drop all those cases against him even though he
is a trader and a convicted sexual assaulter, and now
there is more from Van Jones. They keep putting him
on because if there's one thing TV executives throughout the
history of the world we'll not do is connect the
(30:09):
dots between their stupid personnel decisions and lower ratings. I mean,
it's why Anderson Cooper has been on the air there
for twenty years, even though he's never won his own
time slot, and he hasn't even finished second since like
two thousand and five. Van Jones has now turned to
commenting on the speakers at the Republican National Convention. Now, look,
(30:33):
they're all political prostitutes. Nicki Haley got up and said
Trump had her total endorsement because her fight against Trump
was just a marketing scheme. Well, she didn't say it
was a marketing scheme. I'm saying that. But there are
a few more cynical, few more dishonest, few more ugly
in their soul speakers than not Haley, but Sarah Huckabee Sanders,
(30:58):
now the governor of Arkansas, just as her soul as
father was, and she of course was Trump's most virulent
and angry press secretary, and she spoke at the RNC
and Van Jones said afterwards on CNN, Sarah Huckabee Sanders,
she was incredibly compelling to me. She told personal stories
that landed. It was moving, and it was powerful. She
(31:20):
gave the speech of the night unquote. Here's part of
Huckabee's moving, powerful personal story.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
I got the chance to take my four year old son,
Huck to bring your kid to workday, much like Jill
now drags Joe to bring your husband to work out.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
That was ageist and disrespectful, and like the rest of
the life of Sarah Huckabee, it was as if you
had taught a rhinoceros to talk. Plus, she's standing at
the gates of heaven and the administrator there says, and
what did you do with your life? And she says,
I named my son Huck huck Tuckabee Sanders. And he
(32:06):
goes next and the next thing you hear is Van
Jones thought that was incredibly compelling, moving and powerful. Thought
it was the speech of the night because Van, I'm
an idiot. Jones is the worst person. Oh, it's so
(32:29):
compelling in the world. Now things I promised not to tell.
And it was nineteen ninety four, and they just had
the first Soccer World Cup ever held in the United States,
(32:50):
and Alexei Lallis was the folk hero of the plucky
American team, and we put him in a This is
Sports Center commercial. And there's a long, great story to this.
I will tell you in a moment, But first listen
to what I found. It is a DVD with the outtakes. Now,
I didn't do this twice. It's two separate angles of it.
(33:13):
I might add. In the second angle, when I hit
the guitar against the wall, the fret of the thing
flew directly into the lens of the backup camera that
was on the floor. I couldn't do that again in
a billion years. Please enjoy. If you don't recognize me,
I'm the one grunting.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
Okay, I still love you, man, Okay, I still love
you man.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
The nineteen ninety four Soccer World Cup did not really
do that much for American soccer, which as you know,
is the sport of the future in this country and
always will be. But it did make a lot of
Americans into fans of European soccer clubs, especially the British ones.
But for a while, Alexi Lalas, with his shoulder length,
reddish blonde hair and billy goat beard and anti establishment vibe,
(34:29):
was on the front burner of American sports and he
made quite a nice career out of it as a
commentator on soccer on TV. But back then, naturally, ESPN,
launching its surrealist fake documentary commercial series, wanted him to
be in it, and sure enough he came to Bristol
and Hank Perlman devised a bit in which Gary Miller,
our anchor, who was himself a soccer immortal for his
(34:52):
soccer breakdown which I've played to you, you know, John Luca, Palyuka,
the Mother, etc. Gary would be sitting at a desk
in the sports Center newsroom. As atop the adjoining desk,
Alexi Lalis sat cross legged in sunglasses, philosophizing on relaxation
and finally playing on his guitar. Michael Row the boat ashore.
(35:15):
At that point the commercial turned into one of the
classic scenes from John Belushi's film Animal House. Another sportscaster
was to storm into the newsroom, pull the guitar out
of Alexei Lalas's hands and smash it against a cubicle.
Wall and emit a loud, primal grunt as he did so,
and then hand Lallas back whatever was left of the guitar,
(35:37):
and like Belushi in the movie, say sorry. Well, Hank
had a sportscaster in mind for that role, and guess
who it was me? So picture that in your mind
as I play what it sounded like. And then I
have what I think is a really good backstory to
the filming of this. This is SportsCenter SportsCenter commercial, and
(36:02):
I'm talking to you at the darkness. We got to
do something about that, Michael. For time's sake, the word
(36:28):
sorry didn't make it. So the backstory and it's out
of chronological order. The guitar that Alexei Lawis was playing
was not the one I smashed. There was an exact
duplicate that had been bought. It had been taken apart,
it had been sawed, and basically it was put back
together with scotch tape. It would hold together long enough
for him to scrum a few sour notes on it
(36:49):
and then for me to grab it and smash it.
They were confident it would not fly apart until I
hit the cubicle wall with it. But they still told
me to simply grab it, not yanked out of his hands,
or I might be left holding the neck of the
guitar and Alexey holding the rest of it. This was
especially problematic because we only had the one prop guitar.
(37:13):
That's right, We made the business end of that commercial
in one take. This is SportsCenter campaign not only freakly
achieved something approaching genius levels of originality and creativity, but
they were all done cheaper than local news promos. In Burlington,
Vermont in nineteen eighty two, we often shot three of
(37:33):
these commercials in one day, and it wasn't until the
second series of ads did the SportsCenter anchors who started
in one, or two or three even get credit for
a day off. In one of them, Charlie Sneiner is
trying to get his tape of highlights back from the
Harlem Globetrotters who are passing it around like a basketball,
and he says, can he is a little help? Then
(37:55):
I'm typing away at my computer and I say, sure, Charlie,
and I don't even look at him, let alone stop typing,
let alone give them any help. And that's done. Because
the commercial was shot in the area right behind my desk,
because nobody was working there that day except me, and
it was around five PM, and I was, in fact
sitting at my desk writing the eleven PM Sports Center script,
(38:18):
and the original commercial script did not call for me
to even be in Charlie's commercial. But on the fly
the writer said, hey, Keith, can you give us one line?
And I said, as long as I can keep writing,
and they said perfect. By the way, Charlie did the
commercial around five o'clock or so and then went and
anchored the six thirty PM Sports Center. The spot we
(38:41):
did where hockey legend Gordy Howe beats me up while
I am trying to read through a script also shot
at my desk, also on a day I was anchoring
the show, and that was my real script. Anyway, back
to alex A. Lallis and the guitar, so we only
had the one prop guitar, and so we only had
the one take, and we were shooting it in the
(39:02):
actual Sports Center newsroom of course, in fact, they were
remodeling the real newsroom to accommodate the launch of the
new ESPN News network, so this was the temporary even
more crowded than usual newsroom, so the cameraman and the
producer and the writer, and I walked through how they
thought it would work best since I would have to
weave past people who were really doing their jobs and
(39:24):
going to other desks and talking to people and stuff.
They had two cameras in the little hallway that constituted
the temporary newsroom's northern border, and they put a third,
smaller camera on the floor where they guessed that a
piece of the guitar might land after I smashed it.
See if you can get the fret or something to
go here. The producer said that would make a great shot.
(39:47):
I asked him how in the hell I was supposed
to do that since we couldn't even practice the smash,
and he said, well, honestly, I don't know. Telepathy. Maybe
that was the other salient part of the backstory, since
we only had the one take and we wouldn't even
be doing a dry run because they didn't want the
guitar to fall apart in my hands. I would say
less than half the people crowded into the temporary newsroom
(40:10):
had any idea that when I came in I was
in the commercial let alone, that I was going to
actually and loudly destroy a guitar by smashing it against
a low cubicle wall. Even if the guitar has been
pre broken and taped back together, as that one was,
it is still going to make a lot of noise. Wait,
(40:31):
I said to my friend Hank, who wrote it. You're
not warning anybody, are you, your little devil? Hank got
a gleeful, evil glazed look in his eyes. No, isn't
that great. So they filmed the closeups of Gary, and
they filmed the closeups of Alexi, and then they set
me up to enter from a vestibule through two swinging
doors with windows in them, which was along the periphery
(40:52):
of the temporary newsroom. Then a right turn, and then about no, no, no,
fifteen twenty feet to where Alexei and Gary were still sitting.
My target for exactly where I should hit the guitar
was clearly marked on the cube wall, and they even
put marks on the carpet of where a couple of
practice walks had shown would give me the best chance
at a solid stance. When I swung the guitar and
(41:14):
sent it el kabonging to its doom, and nobody ever
said quiet or roll or here we go. They told
people in the room that they were just shooting some
cover angles on Gary and Alexi, and people could say
or move whatever and wherever they wanted to, just so
long they didn't get away to the cameras. Then they
(41:36):
just tapped the desks for Alexa and Gary to start,
and the producer waved to me and in I went,
trying to channel John Belushi when he takes the guitar
away from Stephen Bishop on the stairs of the Front
House and Animal House. I furrowed my brow and I
tried to fake some venom towards Alexei Lalas. I found
the emotion. As I came through the doors, I kept
(41:56):
thinking that since I had been eight years old, I
had heard people call soccer the sport of the future
here and I was now thirty seven, and I was
damn tired of me hearing it. Lallis was strumming on the
nearly neutered prop guitar. It made a sick sound. I
took my strides, I hit the marks. I grabbed the
guitar by the neck with my right hand and simultaneously
(42:17):
Alexey let go, and then with both hands I swung
the guitar back over my head and smashed it right
on the mark. As you heard Michael. The Sports Center
(42:40):
newsroom promptly went silent for several seconds. The reaction was
identical to what it would have been had there been
no commercial being made and no cameras present, and I
had just walked in and destroyed somebody's guitar, which I
guess a lot of people expect that I might do someday,
because even a lot of the people who were surprised
(43:01):
were not surprised surprised. Craig Wax, the skinny research guy,
can be seen in the finished commercial, which is on YouTube,
for a second far left, just staring at me like, yeah, well,
we always knew Keys would do something like that. After
I'd destroyed the guitar, and I have to say, I
did it really well. I kept moving per the plan
(43:23):
until I walked back through the swinging doors and out
of shot. The director shouted cut. I walked back in,
and the crew gave me a round of applause, and
a couple of them were cheering out of all proportion.
Even if I had done is good of a job,
as I thought, come here, come here. The cameraman kept saying,
come here, that extra camera on the floor. They backed
(43:43):
the videotape up from it, and they showed it to me.
When I smashed the guitar, the fretboard, the actual wood
and metal piece on the neck flew off and not
only landed near the third camera's lens, it hit it
on the fly and it stuck there. They were as
happy as if they were engineers imploding a bill for
(44:04):
the first time and it had fallen exactly as they
had hoped. Plus, they showed me the playback from the
first camera, and there was an assignment desk editor with
her back to the action on the phone, completely unaware
of what was happening or even that they were rolling
film and videotape, and she literally jumped several inches out
of her seat of her chair. But to me, the
(44:27):
best part of this thing is Gary Miller. Even if
you know a loud noise is coming, it is quite
the effort to not flinch a little when it happens
basically right over your shoulder. I mean, ask the little
kid in the movie north By Northwest where Iva Marie
Saint shoots Carrie Grant and he sticks his fingers in
(44:49):
his ears because it's take thirty seven, and he knows
the noise is coming. I mean, you're aware of it
just for the possibility that somebody will screw it up
like me and debris will fly into the back of
your head. But if you watch Gary in this Sports
Center commercial, he doesn't even blink, just a little dead
pan head jerk. It's perfect. What also amazes me is
(45:14):
that we got all this done in twenty four seconds
of running time. Alexei goes on about negativity. I have
to do something about it. He plays enough of the
song that you recognize it. You got a shot at
cheerleaders incongruously in the middle of the background. I appear
from nowhere, move over there, smash the guitar while roaring spectacularly.
I give him back the neck of the thing. The
only thing missing is that shot from the fret bar
(45:35):
flying into camera three. They explained they didn't have the
extra two seconds scene. I remember enjoying doing this so
much that I asked them for the front of the
body of the guitar, and I had Alexi sign it
to me on the spot. It hung framed in my
various offices for about fifteen years. In twenty fourteen, I
(45:57):
was leaving the recording of Stephen Colbert's final episode for
Comedy Central. I was one of one hundred guests, and
I went out onto the street to find a cab
home and I got one, and in getting into it,
I nearly ran into Alexei Lalas, who was one of
the other one hundred guests. I laughed, He laughed, and
he said, and I don't even have my guitar with me.
And one last note, I doubt this will be of
(46:19):
any practical use to you, but I must say, as
somebody who was accorded this rare privilege, not only of
doing this, but of doing this with impunity, and doing
this to applause. If you are trying to HEALTHI event
any frustrations or anger in your life, smashing a guitar
(46:40):
against a workplace cubicle wall is exactly as satisfying as
you would expect it would be. Okay, I still love you, man,
(47:15):
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening. Countdown Musical directors Brian Ray and John
Phillip Schanelle arranged, produced, and performed most of our music.
Mister Ray on guitars, bass, and drums, Mister Chanelle, orchestration
and keyboards. It was produced by Tkobros. Other music, including
some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by Noah
Horns Aloud. Mister Lallis's guitar was by Les Paul of
(47:40):
Beverly Hills. The sports music is the Olderman theme from
ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN inc.
Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Faust,
the best baseball stadium organist ever. My announcer today was
what a coincidence, Nancy Faust. Everything else was pretty much
my fault. That's countdown for this the one hundred and
(48:00):
eleventh day until the twenty twenty four presidential election, the
eighty eighth day since convicted felon Donald J. Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the mental health system,
use presidential immunity. President Biden, you've got it, Use it
(48:23):
to stop him from doing it again while we still can.
And Republicans please stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled
countdown is tomorrow, Bulletins is the newest requires till then.
I'm Keith Olremman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
(48:43):
good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio.
(49:04):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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