July 9, 2024 • 46 mins
SERIES 2 EPISODE 209: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The dam was supposed to break yesterday, against President Biden. It didn't. Meetings were delayed and stances were softened. And if we are really going to do this, I finally have some actual advice for the president. If you want to change the topic, REALLY change the topic:
Arrest the Trump terrorists. This Federalist Society president who again yesterday vowed revolution against the government of the United States and implied he was ready to make it bloody and violent? Arrest him. The North Carolina Republican candidate for governor? Who called for mass killings of the people he doesn't like? Arrest him.
The Supreme Court - corrupt, insane, amoral - was also ultimately unimaginative. It tried to give Trump absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts. It didn't even think it was giving Biden the same tools.
Use them, Mr. President.
Arrest Kevin Roberts for calling for the violent overthrow of the government. Arrested Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson for terroristic threats. Arrest Trump's gang. If need be, invoke the Insurrection Act as Trump intends to - and arrest him.
If you really want to change the topic, CHANGE THE TOPIC.
Change it from words, to action.
Save the nation. Now.
B-Block (25:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Maureen Dowd finally writes a column about Maureen Dowd writing a column and misquoting Biden in it. Marjorie Taylor Let's Compare Biden's Acuity To Hers Greene lists a dozen signers of the Declaration of Independence, there are only eight names on it, and six didn't sign it. And of all times, NOW the Biden Campaign is posting online ads looking for... a Rapid Response Director?
C-Block (36:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Perfect time to retell it, forgive me if you've heard it before. 17 years ago I was taken to lunch by a senator looking to stop sounding crazy when he was angry, and instead sounding more like my righteous indignation. His name was Joe Biden
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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. The
worst possible outcome to the Biden situation is that there
(00:27):
is no outcome. That we stay here in the middle, somewhere,
always wondering if it was just a bad night, or
if there is another one, perhaps on September tenth, the
second debate, or if there are one hundred other ones.
And so I have a suggestion for President Biden that
(00:47):
will resolve this and there would be no more questions,
and there would be no more debates. And in fact,
if he wants to communicate only by written notes, he'd
get applause every time he did it. As someone who
was worried that President Biden correctly perceived the threat posed
by Trump and his fascists and their plan for a
(01:08):
form of Nazi Germany in this country, worried about that
long before I was worried that he correctly perceived that threat.
I have this suggestion, no more talk about Trump or
anything else, just action. Start, mister president by recognizing that
(01:28):
this is a terrorist threat posed by Trump and his
cult and his allies. Literally declare them terrorists if need be,
or now that you have been immunized by the Supreme Court.
Invoke the Insurrection Act as Trump plans to do. Invoke it,
invoke it for an hour, and arrest and detain people
(01:52):
like Trump and the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson,
and the head of this bloodthirsty gang in suits called
the Federalist Society and creator of Project twenty twenty five,
Kevin Roberts.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Our side is winning, and so I come full circle
in this response and just want to encourage you with
some substance that we are in the process of the
Second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left
allows it to be.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That was Kevin Roberts. He just promised revolution against the
government of the United States. He did it again yesterday
at the National Conservatism conference in Washington. And by the way,
if national Conservatism sounds like it was meant to invoke
that old German party, what was it called National Socialism?
No kidding? Also National in this use is just a
(02:44):
brand name. This is actually an international fascism cartel run
by a guy from Israel and starring victor Orbonn of
Hungary and the reprehensible British racist Suella Broberman. This Roberts
may have phrased his threat of revolution against the government
of the United States in a passive aggressive form. But
(03:05):
eighteen US Code two three eighty five is still on
the books, and mister Roberts just urinated on it and
all but dared you, mister President, to put him in
prison for twenty years, which is what a violation of
the statute can cost you. So you have your Attorney
general do it by whatever legal means are required to
do it. And remember the Supreme Court said you, mister President,
(03:27):
you can do anything you want as long as you
can prove it's official. And putting that asshole in jail
is as official as anything could be. Just at the moment,
he's called it a revolution, and he has implied that
he will make it violent. One eight US Code two
three eight five. And when you are done with Kevin Roberts,
(03:51):
mister President, go and get this psychopath Mark Robinson, who
is a the Lieutenant governor of the state of North Carolina,
b the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina. And
see who is at best trailing the Democrat by one
point in polling there and at worst is four points
ahead of the Democrats.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And get mad at me if you want to some
folks need killing. It's time for somebody to say it.
It's not a matter of vengeance, it's not a matter
of being mean, it's fitful. It's a matter of necessity.
We have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering
and riping. It's time to call out those guys in green.
(04:37):
Go have them handle with those boys in blue, and
have them go handle it and need to start handling
our business again.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
From Lieutenant Governor Robinson there and Federalist Society President Roberts,
this is not the same rhetoric of the fascists from
even three or four months ago. This is overt, violent, criminal,
terroristic threat. Mister President, If your attorney general is he
incapable of finding something to arrest them for, find a
new atten atorney general, or arrest the current attorney general
(05:08):
and utilize your national security powers now, not later, Now,
not after the election, now, not after somebody gets killed. Now,
and if Trump objects, arrest him too. Supreme Court says,
you can, if you can find him, if nobody has noticed.
(05:29):
He hasn't been seen in public since June twenty eighth,
hadn't even appeared on video since the fourth of July
didn't make a phone appearance until going on Hannity last night.
He's supposed to show up today after an arduous journey
of just under two hours from mary Lago to one
of his golf courses. If he makes it, arrest him too,
(05:50):
mister President, since the Supreme Court, which he appointed, says
there is no chance anybody in the world can stop you.
And do it. Not just because he and Roberts and
Robinson and the Federalist Society and the nat Cons and
the other Nazis represent a clear and present danger to
(06:11):
the safety of every person of every political stripe in
this country. Don't do it just for that. Do it
also because, since the night of the start of the debate,
the only thing I have heard you say, mister President,
that filled me with dread. It was not any mumble
or stumble, or inaccuracy or imperceptibility or confusion. But what
(06:34):
filled me with dread was when you said what you said.
After Stephanopoulos asked how you would feel if you lost,
and you said, as long as you felt you had
done your best, That's what it was all about. No,
(06:55):
I don't want to hear about your best. I don't
want to hear the chance that your best will be insufficient.
If you are allowing for the chance that your best,
mister President, will be insufficient, get somebody else in the
(07:15):
goddamn chair. If you say, as you reportedly did privately
to donors yesterday, we're done talking about the debate. It's
time to put Trump in the bullseye. Let's do it.
I want to hear you say that Trump and the
fascists will not win, that you will not let it
(07:38):
happen no matter what period. Enough talk enough, I beat
him before, and I'll beat him again. Enough the elites
are trying to keep me out. Enough, we'll start defeating
them today. The nation is under threat, as surely as
if there were armies at the border. You are going
(07:59):
to stop Trump. You are going to put him in
the bulls eye. Do it now. Arrest Mark Robinson, then
arrest Kevin Roberts, and I guarantee you, if you take
only those two steps, you won't even need to act
against Trump or any of the other leaders, or any
of the psychopaths out there who support him. They will
(08:20):
all flee. This election is existential for the future freedom
of everybody in this country, and potentially for the survival
of everybody in the world. But it only has to
be existential. Mister President, if you do not now use
(08:40):
the defenses provided to you as commander in chief, and
by this assenine a moral but ultimately unimaginative Trump Supreme Court,
on whom it never dawned, you might use the weapons
they tried to give to him. They have immunized you.
Now you can immunize all of the rest of us
(09:03):
from Trump's immortal threat to the United States of America.
Enough I regret to share with you that I do
not expect that President Biden will do any of this.
I'm sure if he heard what I'm suggesting, he might
recoil from it, not realizing that the one time this
(09:25):
nation truly faced an internal threat akin to that posed
now by Trump, President Lincoln did exactly these things to
the insurrectionist scum of the Confederacy. The history books, in fact,
might have judged him far more harshly, but there seems
little doubt that if he had been able to round
up the Confederate leaders from Jefferson Davis to Robert E.
(09:46):
Lee and all the others and imprison them. In May
eighteen sixty one, the Civil war would have been a
lot shorter and the death count a lot lower. And
I do not believe anybody ever got to ask him,
but I get the feeling that if you had said
to Abraham Lincoln in retrospect, should you have simply ailed
Davis and Lee and Bedford, Forrest and all the others,
(10:08):
he would have said yes. I mean, this was the
president who ultimately resorted to ignoring the Supreme Court and
contemplating the arrest of the Chief Justice of the United States.
I mean, mister President, if you want to change the
topic from the debate, change it, change it from talk
(10:32):
to action, and change the election from the sum of
all fears to Biden versus the last leader of the
Republican Party who is not in communicado somewhere in a
brig that would be Check's notes here. It is the
(10:54):
election between you, sir, and Republican candidate Asa Hutchinson. As
I said at the start of this episode, the worst
option facing Joe Biden and this nation is staying where
we are right now. Leading congressman calling for him to
(11:16):
leave the ticket, the Congressional Black Caucus calling for him
to stay on the ticket, Chuck Schumer voicing support, The
Washington Post anonymously quoting two Democratic senators who say the
consensus among Democratic senators is that he needs to step down.
Mark Warner scheduling an urgent meeting among Democratic senators and
then deciding it's not that urgent can wait till today,
and then issuing a statement backing away from Mark Warner.
(11:39):
I believe it is incumbent upon the President to more
aggressively make his case to the American people. That's not
exactly in the name of God go the President's people
uniformly insisting they have nothing to hide and have hidden nothing,
while the White House visitors logs show one Parkinson's expert
visited eight times between last July and this March. The
(12:01):
bigger story confusing that even more, being that that parkin
since expert has been a White House regular and a
consultant since twenty twelve. The Vice President behaving in an
exemplary manner, while there is at least one Biden veteran
quoted anonymously from inside the White House in The New
York Times, trying to get him out and her in.
(12:22):
The President trying to prove he is cogent and clear
minded by phoning in to Joe Scarborough, as if Joe
Scarborough were cogent or clear minded and not an opportunistic
leech who has taken every side of every issue just
since twenty sixteen, when the man wrote the center cannot hold.
(12:45):
This is what he meant. The problem, ultimately is this,
even if the President will not withdraw from the ticket,
and those urging him to suddenly all relax on the subject,
if the New York Times suddenly realizes that it could,
you know, flood the opinion and reporting space against Trump
(13:06):
in exactly the same way it has against Biden for
the last week and a half, if other events we
haven't experienced yet crowd the issue off the page, if
he has a good week or a good month, or
they say, hell, what do we need Scarborough for? Will
just put the president on every morning on MSNBC. Even
if all that happens, What makes anybody think that this
(13:27):
will neutralize this issue? Even if every Democrat and liberal
and pro democracy person in this country woke up tomorrow
committed to never mentioning this again, what will stop Trump
from doing so? His campaign announced the sixty one million
dollar ad buy last night surrounding the Olympics, guess what
that's going to be about? Are there not? Ultimately, no
(13:53):
matter what else happens. Two questions that cannot be erased.
One do you want him on the debate stage on
September tenth? And two do you think not that he
is going to hold steady in term of his mental alacrity,
but that it and the perception of it and of him,
that these things will improve between here and election day?
(14:14):
Because to beat Trump, the perception of Joe Biden is
going to have to improve. The thing is the consensus
on this story seemed to be that the dams would
all break yesterday. They did not. There were leaks from
the Congressional conference call Sunday, Jerry Nadler Adam Smith to
(14:35):
others get out the warners. Senate meeting postponed. The president
railed against the elites trying to get him out, blamed
the millionaires, said, rank and file Democrats want him in.
But reality to this point appears to be the exact opposite.
It's now forty six percent of Democratic voters who want
him to drop out. It was thirty six percent. The
(14:55):
other headlines, one of the marquee names from the Democrats
have a deep bench crowd just withdrew her candidacy for
a job that has not yet open. Governor Gretchen whit
MURV Michigan said if Biden drops out, she would not
seek to replace him on the ticket. Also, the White
House leaked yesterday that besides his letter to all of them,
Biden has personally called twenty Democratic members of the House
(15:16):
since the debate, which sounds impressive except that's less than
two a day. This is a head scratcher. The president says,
the twenty twenty polls underestimated him, so why should we
pay attention to the polls now? Except they didn't. He
was up by nine points this month in twenty twenty,
and he was never less than four points ahead of Trump.
(15:38):
As CNN pointed out, he is the first Democrat to
trail in the national polls in July since al Gore.
It is possible that he meant the polls in the
primaries in twenty twenty. But if anything is obviously bothering
the president, it is this exact thing, lack of specificity.
Trump has been like this since about nineteen sixty six,
(16:01):
but Joe Biden is becoming like this. Primary polls, residential
race polls, they just become polls, and one with this
assumes that the listener knows which one I meant. This
is not fatal, nor necessarily an indicator of anything. Hell
I do it in conversation on rare occasion, well, on occasion, Okay,
(16:24):
every day, but it leads to statements that seem like lies.
There also have been some pleasant surprises in polls, particularly
in battleground polls. Best members yet overall, and in Michigan
and in Wisconsin, and the forest not seen for the
trees in this is He's still losing in five of
(16:45):
the seven consensus battleground states. There are advantages through a
crisis like this, as Trump long ago proved stories that
would ordinarily be disqualifying scandals go buy almost unnoticed. The
Biden campaign arranged two quick interviews with obscure local radio
station to prove he could do them, and supplied the
(17:08):
interviewers with questions. One of the interviewers said, they gave
me the exact questions to ask. There was no back
and forth. The other interviewer is no longer with her station,
and I'm hoping whoever dreamed this up is no longer
with the Biden campaign. It is a Trump trick. It
is deeply offensive and most importantly, Oh on God's green Earth,
(17:31):
thought it would not come out the stupid people are
supposed to be running the Trump campaign. One other headline
shows that no matter how grave or unprecedented the news
may be, there are always people who can come up
with something so stupid that it becomes laugh out loud funny.
(17:52):
First of all, no, if Biden with draws, you do
not want a mini primary or some sort of huge debate.
The vice president becomes the nominee, even if you have
to blackmail everybody else mentioned for the job to pretend
they've all come to this unanimous decision. Even may I
say this if the president has to resign or step
(18:13):
aside under the twenty fifth Amendment in a leave of
absence and make her acting president, Because if the vice
president doesn't become the nominee and you have a mini primary,
guess what you will automatically have five or six or
seven losers, and they will be disappointed, and more importantly,
their supporters, who cannot grasp that their candidate is not
(18:34):
more important than the future of the country, will all
be disappointed and maybe even disaffected. And this doesn't even
address the fact that you would be bypassing the vice
president of the United States. Just as importantly, to create
an ad hoc nominating system, you open the door to
crackpot ideas. Semaphore News reported that a former Obama and
(18:58):
Clinton staffer and a Democratic donor have a plan, and
they wrote a memo. Oh Biden and Vice President Harris.
According to their plan, would announce the Blitz Primary one
month voting by the convention delegates a pledge of a
(19:19):
positive only campaign or you can't run a ranked choice
vote before the convention, the winner of which is announced
on day three of the convention, with the nominee unveiled
on stage by Biden, Bill Clinton, and Obama, presumably the
nominee standing there with a bag over his or her
head and you just pull it off, you go whoo.
(19:41):
The memo insists the nation would be captivated by the
Blitz Primary and donations to the Democratic Cofference would flow
like water, and Biden would be compared to George Washington
retiring for the good of his country. And best of all.
Best of all, there would be lively live weekly Blitz
(20:05):
Primary candidate forums, one with each candidate moderated by Michelle
Obama and Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift. And you know
why they chose the name the Blitz Primary, because you
would have to have been Blitz to have dreamed this crap. Uh.
(20:35):
Also of interest here, Yes, Marjorie Taylor Green is the
dumbest woman on the planet. But what special is just
when you think you know how dumb, it turns out
she has new, previously undiscovered supplies of dumbness. Marge explains
how Paul Revere signed the Declaration of Independence, not the Raiders,
just Paul Revere. She lists eight signers of the Declaration
(21:00):
of Independence and six of them didn't sign. And there's
one true silver lining to all this. It gives me
a chance to really go out there and attack the
morons on the left. And God knows we have them too,
and God knows some of them are in the Biden campaign.
Because apart from that whole idea about writing the interviews
(21:20):
for the radio reporters, they are soliciting applications for a
key campaign job right now. And you will not believe
what the job is. That's next. This is countdown. This
is countdown with Keith Olberman Stella ahead of us on
(22:00):
this edition of Countdown. I have told it before, but
it seems like it is the absolutely correct time to
tell it again. And if normally you hit stop after
worse persons in the world, you may want to stick
around for things I promised not to tell. As I
recount again the day I was taken to lunch and
asked for advice on public speaking, especially on how to
(22:23):
sound righteously indignant instead of crazy, by a then senator
named Joe Biden. But first, there are still more new
idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miscreants,
morons and Dunning Kruegerffet specimens who constitute today's worst persons
in the world, the bronze worse. Maureen Dowd of the
(22:45):
New York Times. Why yes, Mareen Daud still is with
the New York Times, and she's finally done it. She
has finally written the column we have always wanted to
read from her, not her retirement column that still looms
on the horizon like I don't know the promise of
eternal life. No, no, this is a column by Maureen
(23:08):
Dowd about the incompetence of Maureen Dowd. Let me quote
a paragraph or two in my Saturday column, I quoted
Biden's line to ABC's George Stephanopoulos about how he would
feel if Trump were sworn in as president because he
refused to step aside, I'll feel as long as I
gave it my all and did the goodest job as
(23:30):
I know I can do. That's what this is about. Now,
goodest isn't a word, but my researcher, Andrew Trunsky, and
I listened to the video our ears up against the
computer ten times, and that's what it sounded like. Unquote. Okay,
there's a lot to unpack here. Firstly, Maureen Dowd actually
(23:55):
has written a column about writing her previous column. This
goes on for paragraph after paragraph about how the White
House asked her, harassed her, interfered with her to make
the correction after she misquoted President Biden. I mean, he
mumbled through the answer, and maybe you do need to
listen to it a second time to be sure, but
(24:16):
he obviously says I did as good a job as
I know I can do. The issue of how clear
he was is the whole point of this. That's the story. Also,
I have mentioned previously that this answer is the only
thing he's done. That's really terrified me because the correct
answer is I will let Trump take power only over
my dead body or his dead body or something similar.
(24:38):
But that's not what Doubt is complaining about. She heard goodest,
and her researcher heard goodest, so it was goodest, and
damn you all the hell for correcting her white House,
which brings me to point number two. She has a
research assistant. Maureen Daoud has a research assistant, and the
columns still suck that much dairy air. Seriously, it takes
(25:03):
two of you to produce this thirdly quote. My researcher
and I listened to the video our ears up against
the computer ten times. So you have a researcher, but
you don't have headphones. I mean, I'm not even asking
that you and your researcher both have headphones, just maybe
(25:24):
a shared pair of headphones perhaps, or he has one.
Am I being too demanding? I mean? Has the Times
been lying about its fulsome profits? Can the Times not
afford a pair of headphones for Marine Doud or some
beats or buds? Are you guys spending too much money
sending me email after email after email dozen a day
(25:47):
trying to get me to start paying to play wordle again.
I'm not going to I'm wordled out. Stop it. Save
the money, Buy Marene some cans. We listened to the
computer ten times God the runner up worser Marjorie Taylor,
Barney Rubble. The way to reassure people about Biden is
(26:10):
to compare his acuity to hers Taylor Green. If somehow
you miss this, I'll just read it from Twitter x.
The average age of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy six, she wrote, was
forty four years old, but more than a dozen worth
(26:32):
thirty five or younger. Thomas Jefferson thirty three, John Hancock
thirty nine, James Madison twenty five, Alexander Hamilton twenty one,
James Monroe eighteen, Aaron Burr twenty, Paul Revere forty one,
George Washington forty four. Wait a minute, First of all,
(26:53):
Marge says more than a dozen worth thirty five or younger,
and then her list of a dozen or more only
has eight names on it. And of course, out of
her list of the dozen signers of the decl of Independence,
all eight of them, six of them did not sign
the declaration of Independence, like James Monroe, who had just
dropped out of college to join the Continental Army, and
(27:14):
Alexander Hamilton, who had just dropped out of school to
join the Continental Army, and Aaron Burr who had just
quit law school to join the Continental Army. But I
will never get over the idea that Marjorie Taylor Green
thinks Paul Revere signed the Declaration of Independence. I mean
Paul Whiteman, the jazz band leader of the thirties, would
(27:36):
have been a better guess. It's like she asked AI
to give her a list of eight people who were
alive in America in seventeen seventy six, and she was
just lucky it didn't pick Andrew Jackson, who in seventeen
seventy six was nine years old. Paul Revere signed the
Declaration of Independence same year he invented Revere Wear sauce
(27:56):
pans nineteen thirty nine. Holy crap, is this woman a moron?
And she might be the brightest Republican from Georgia. But
our winners, the Joe Biden for President twenty twenty four campaign,
I know what you're thinking. No, not for that, it
is for their new ad or listing in Daybook, which
(28:17):
is a website for job postings, mostly political ones, some educational,
some nonprofits. This one is next to one from the
Democratic Party of Illinois, which is looking to hire a
new head of its direct mail campaigns Rapid Response Communications
Manager Wilmington, Delaware. The Biden for President campaign is seeking
and rapid response communications manager. Well, there's your problem right there.
(28:41):
And rapids Response Communications manager to support the Rapid Response
team communications teams in Wilmington, including drafting and sending press materials,
maintaining press lists, and other duties as assigned. We're looking
for folks with a variety of backgrounds and experience and
are dedicated to building a team that looks like America
doesn't know that it's a rapid response communications manager. Well,
(29:03):
there's Marjorie tail Key. Responsibilities draft press materials including statements,
press releases, advisories and talking points. You bet your ass
draft briefing memos, presentations, and other internal facing documents like
the one reading. He correspond and coordinate with reporters as appropriate.
(29:26):
Hello Marine DOWD. Help manage the flow of communications material
internally to key stakeholders and externally to surrogates, allies, and press. Well,
this would be the thing about setting up that interview
with the radio places, and the guy doesn't work there
anymore when you gave him the questions in advance. Collaborate
with communications team, senior staff and other team members on
(29:48):
additional projects as needed. How do you draft a resignation track,
approvals and strategy meetings? Well, you need approvals, Coordinate with
state teams and rapid response bracketing. I don't even know
what that is. HU provides and manage communications department interns.
(30:08):
Oh No. Preferred skills and qualifications. Strong written and verbal
communication skills, strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work
effectively with employees at all levels. Ability to organize and
manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a detail oriented manner. Hello,
Mareen Dowd. Ability to organize and manage multiple priorities and
(30:29):
deadlines in a detail oriented manner. No, that's my fault.
I read that twice. Ability to handle projects with the
appropriate level of discretion and confidentiality. This was sort of
an actor thought until the last week or so. Ability
to work well under pressure with humor and grace. Yeah,
I'm sure. A team player that recognizes the importance of
(30:52):
working collaboratively additional useful skills and qualifications prior experience on
a political campaign seventy five thousand dollars to eighty thousand
a year. So you're telling me you're just hiring somebody
to do this now the Biden campaign, Well, hell, I
(31:17):
suppose if they're still reconsidering the position of president in
the campaign, I guess it's not too late to hire
an rapid response director. Two days worst Persons, somebody's been
taking this listing down in the world. Early in two
(31:57):
thousand and seven, my phone rang at MSNBC headquarters in
New Jersey. The Senator would like to take you to
lunch the next time he's in New York. He needs
your advice. Would you be willing to do that? It
was Joe Biden's press chief. My first reaction was to
ask if they had called the wrong number. My next
(32:18):
reaction was to make sure this was not some policy question,
because as a news anchor and commentator for MSNBC, it
did not seem appropriate for me to offer advice to
a candidate for his party's presidential nomination. And doesn't that
seem quaint now, Sean Hannity, No. I was told it
was more technical, more about communications, less about content. My
(32:43):
antique news standards satisfied, I said sure, and they gave
me a couple of dates, and they suggested, given his schedule,
the best place for us to eat would be a
restaurant in Manhattan. And I laughed and I said, yeah,
that's great. It happens to be about forty five seconds
from my apartment. The day and the hour arrived. It
was March twenty seventh, two thousand and seven, and I
(33:05):
made it to the restaurant and I sat down, and
moments later in came the Senator from Delaware. He had
that big welcoming smile and equally big welcoming handshake that
you may have seen from back when candidates could still
go greet the people in a crowd. He reminded me
that we had met briefly when he was in Los
Angeles for the two thousand Democratic Convention, and he happened
(33:27):
to be staying in the hotel there in which I
lived at the time. Senator Biden then said some nice
things about my days in sports, and particularly about the
commentaries I had begun to do the previous summer on MSNBC.
Those special commentaries. He said, with first a smile, then
a whistle. There was, then and there remains now almost
(33:48):
no space between the public Joe Biden of the campaign
or the presidency, and the guy who talks informally to
some knucklehead off the streets, which in this story would
be me. There might be a few more swear words words.
The word malarkey was used during our lunch, and I
(34:08):
remember that particularly because, as I told him, I went
to grammar school in Hastings on Hudson, New York with
a kid named Billy Mallarkey. He was delighted by that,
and he said, he assumed we gave the fellow a
hard time, And I said, yeah, but not because of
the name. None of us third graders knew what malarkey meant.
Then why did you give him a hard time? Senator
(34:30):
Biden asked, it was the third grade. I deadpanned. Everybody
gave everybody a hard time. You liked that answer. But
back to the point of the lunch, your language, he said,
in these special comments, now people often brought up the
language I used to do things like, you know, telling
(34:52):
President Bush to you know, shut the hell up, because
I had to say hell rather than the word I
wanted to say, and some of the events of that
presidency so infuriated me that I would Redden on camera,
and I don't Redden in a sauna. Once my high
school history teacher, a distinguished and elegant man whose nine
(35:14):
older siblings had been born in Vienna and who had
the courtliness with which that would be implied, mentioned to
me the language of the special comments, and I thought,
oh boy, here it happens. I'm in for it now.
He Walter Schneller, had told me on the day I
graduated that my plans to become a sportscaster were very nice,
(35:36):
and he was sure i'd go and do that, but
that he was also sure that I would wind up
in politics someday, either as a reporter or as a combatant.
And I told him I was flattered, and I will
always like you, mister Schneller, and you're out of your mind.
Mister Schneller was also the one who, years later, was
put in charge of the school's surprisingly generous fund for
(35:59):
bringing in speakers to address the student body. He was
very in by the fact that for decades, and he
got there in I believe nineteen sixty, all of the
speakers at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York had
either looked like, as he put it, Hugh Side, the
columnist of Time magazine, or they had actually been Hugh Saide,
(36:23):
the columnist for Time Magazine. Mister Schneller began scouring the
Northeast for anybody smart who might have a diverse background,
and that is how he happened to be driving to
the railroad station at Tarrytown, New York, one morning in
the year nineteen ninety one, to meet the train that
carried that day's guest speaker at the Hackley School. He
(36:44):
was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and his
name was Barack Obama. Anyway, mister Schneller and I were
talking about the commentaries, and he said about the language Keith,
and I braced myself and preemptively apologized, No, no, He said, urgently,
you missed my point entirely. I'm amazed that your language
(37:07):
is so restrained. If I was speaking, I'd have called
mister Bush a whereupon mister Schneller made reference to somebody's mother.
So back to lunch. When Senator Biden asked about the
language I used, I was wary, but he followed it
up by saying that it was kind of why he
(37:28):
had asked me to lunch. I watch the commentary as
you do. I don't have a choice. Everybody sends me
the videos, and my staffers tell me about them. And
every time I think the same thing, you express anger.
But as close as you come to the line, you
never go across it. I say to my staff folks,
is he too angry for you? And they all say no,
(37:51):
just right. So here's my question, and then we can
enjoy this great lunch. When I'm passionate about something and
I speak on the Senate floor, or on the campaign
or anywhere else, I get told by my friends and
by my enemies, you're too angry. And when I really
am angry, they all say, you're really too angry. And
here Joe Biden laughed. Now you you go on TV,
(38:16):
far larger audience, far longer speeches, and people say that Alderman,
he's righteously indignant. With a mixture of laughter, astonishment and curiosity,
he said me, I'm angry. You you are righteously indignant.
(38:38):
How do you do it? How do you do it? Man?
Can you tell me without thinking? I replied, you've been
in the Senate for how long now, Senator thirty thirty
four years? He nodded. And you're only just asking this
question now. The words were barely out of my mouth
(39:02):
when I froze. This was a friend, or a colleague,
or even an athlete who would take the little joking
jab I had just thrown. This was a politician. They
may have senses of humor, but very few have senses
of humor about themselves. In that split second, I was
confident Joe Biden would get up and leave. And he
(39:25):
was silent for a moment, and then the corners of
his mouth turned up, and to my great relief, he
burst into laughter. He rocked back into his chair. He
slapped the table with a palm. My god, that's funny.
More laughter, My God, that's true, louder laughter. I do
(39:46):
not apologize when I say I have loved him ever since.
I didn't think I actually would have had much advice
for him, and was prepared to just go through the
lunch having lunch. But as we talked about this topic,
he asked me follow up questions that made me analyze
for the the first time some of the processes I
(40:08):
used unknowingly when writing and reading on television. I had
never thought of them before because I had never had
had lunch with Joe Biden before. I will not bore
you with the full results of the dissection of the
process or how to turn anger into righteous indignation, if
that's really what I was doing. The most valuable conclusion
was simply the oldest one in the book. I always
(40:30):
wrote late at night while fully angry, and then in
the morning I would take a lot of things out,
usually adjectives. Whatever anger was left was only the most
intense and the most justifiable. And if you present it
twenty four hours after you have written it, you will
(40:51):
be in control of the anger and not have the
anger be in control of you in short sleep on it.
That was in March two thousand and seven. I saw
the Senator next in August of five, two thousand and seven,
a Democratic primary debate officially called the afl CIO Candidates Forum,
(41:11):
Soldier Field, Chicago, outdoors ninety five degrees, threat of thunderstorms, Obama, Clinton, Biden,
Dodd Richardson, Kusinich, Edwards, and the moderator me. There are
photos of this, Joe Biden and I walking towards each other,
(41:31):
hands extended for a greeting. He is literally asking me
if I have noticed that he has been trying to
turn his anger into righteous indignation, and Senator Biden asking
if I thought he had succeeded. They are great photos,
largely because my back is to the camera. He did
(41:52):
not really succeed in doing this in the debate, though,
and he actually came over to me during the commercial
and told me what he was going to do, that
he didn't think he'd actually gotten the chance to answer
a previous question sufficiently, and he was going to go
back to it the next time. I called on him,
and I told him, don't, don't, don't, don't do that,
(42:12):
and he did it anyway, and later he let me
know he should have listened to me. Since then, I
cannot recall him being angry, not even in those debates
with that goddamned madman. The words were harsh, cutting, destructive, fatal.
(42:33):
The tone, no, the tone was dismissive, disappointed, slept upon
rage perfect a plus no notes. But it occurs to
me in all of the analysis of all of the
changes in Joe Biden since day one in nineteen seventy three,
(42:57):
nobody touches on this one thing. As late as two
thousand and seven, he seemed to be his reputaieation was
as a hothead. When was the last time he was
accused of that. I'm not saying I had anything to
do with that, But in the years now, since January sixth, particularly,
(43:22):
it has been a comforting change, and not a change
within Joe Biden, but within our presidency. And yet now
twenty twenty four may make President Biden have to change back,
because the comforting Joe Biden is great and the sardonic
(43:43):
Joe Biden is greater. But the one who beat Trump
and the one we need right now is the Joe
Biden of the righteous anger. I've done all the damage
(44:07):
I can do here, and now he's going to Joe
Scarborough for advice. Thank you for listening. Countown musical directors
Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel arranged, produced, and performed
most of our music. Mister Ray was on the guitars,
bass and drums, and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards
(44:27):
produced by Tko Brothers. Other music, including some of the
Beethoven compositions, were arranged and performed by the group No
horns allowed. 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 Fauss, the
best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my
(44:47):
friend Larry David, and everything else was pretty much my fault.
Let's countdown for this the one hundred and twentieth day
until the twenty twenty four presidential election, the one two
hundred and eighty first day since convicted felon Donald Trump's
first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the
United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the
(45:09):
mental health system. You have this now, mister president, use
presidential immunity, arrest him, stop him from doing it again
while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.
Boltons as the news warrants, Oh God, I just want
a day off till the next one. I'm Keith Olreriman.
(45:32):
Good Morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
(46:02):
with Keith Oldreman is a production of iHeart. 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. The
worst possible outcome to the Biden situation is that there
(00:27):
is no outcome. That we stay here in the middle, somewhere,
always wondering if it was just a bad night, or
if there is another one, perhaps on September tenth, the
second debate, or if there are one hundred other ones.
And so I have a suggestion for President Biden that
(00:47):
will resolve this and there would be no more questions,
and there would be no more debates. And in fact,
if he wants to communicate only by written notes, he'd
get applause every time he did it. As someone who
was worried that President Biden correctly perceived the threat posed
by Trump and his fascists and their plan for a
(01:08):
form of Nazi Germany in this country, worried about that
long before I was worried that he correctly perceived that threat.
I have this suggestion, no more talk about Trump or
anything else, just action. Start, mister president by recognizing that
(01:28):
this is a terrorist threat posed by Trump and his
cult and his allies. Literally declare them terrorists if need be,
or now that you have been immunized by the Supreme Court.
Invoke the Insurrection Act as Trump plans to do. Invoke it,
invoke it for an hour, and arrest and detain people
(01:52):
like Trump and the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson,
and the head of this bloodthirsty gang in suits called
the Federalist Society and creator of Project twenty twenty five,
Kevin Roberts.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Our side is winning, and so I come full circle
in this response and just want to encourage you with
some substance that we are in the process of the
Second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left
allows it to be.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That was Kevin Roberts. He just promised revolution against the
government of the United States. He did it again yesterday
at the National Conservatism conference in Washington. And by the way,
if national Conservatism sounds like it was meant to invoke
that old German party, what was it called National Socialism?
No kidding? Also National in this use is just a
(02:44):
brand name. This is actually an international fascism cartel run
by a guy from Israel and starring victor Orbonn of
Hungary and the reprehensible British racist Suella Broberman. This Roberts
may have phrased his threat of revolution against the government
of the United States in a passive aggressive form. But
(03:05):
eighteen US Code two three eighty five is still on
the books, and mister Roberts just urinated on it and
all but dared you, mister President, to put him in
prison for twenty years, which is what a violation of
the statute can cost you. So you have your Attorney
general do it by whatever legal means are required to
do it. And remember the Supreme Court said you, mister President,
(03:27):
you can do anything you want as long as you
can prove it's official. And putting that asshole in jail
is as official as anything could be. Just at the moment,
he's called it a revolution, and he has implied that
he will make it violent. One eight US Code two
three eight five. And when you are done with Kevin Roberts,
(03:51):
mister President, go and get this psychopath Mark Robinson, who
is a the Lieutenant governor of the state of North Carolina,
b the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina. And
see who is at best trailing the Democrat by one
point in polling there and at worst is four points
ahead of the Democrats.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And get mad at me if you want to some
folks need killing. It's time for somebody to say it.
It's not a matter of vengeance, it's not a matter
of being mean, it's fitful. It's a matter of necessity.
We have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering
and riping. It's time to call out those guys in green.
(04:37):
Go have them handle with those boys in blue, and
have them go handle it and need to start handling
our business again.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
From Lieutenant Governor Robinson there and Federalist Society President Roberts,
this is not the same rhetoric of the fascists from
even three or four months ago. This is overt, violent, criminal,
terroristic threat. Mister President, If your attorney general is he
incapable of finding something to arrest them for, find a
new atten atorney general, or arrest the current attorney general
(05:08):
and utilize your national security powers now, not later, Now,
not after the election, now, not after somebody gets killed. Now,
and if Trump objects, arrest him too. Supreme Court says,
you can, if you can find him, if nobody has noticed.
(05:29):
He hasn't been seen in public since June twenty eighth,
hadn't even appeared on video since the fourth of July
didn't make a phone appearance until going on Hannity last night.
He's supposed to show up today after an arduous journey
of just under two hours from mary Lago to one
of his golf courses. If he makes it, arrest him too,
(05:50):
mister President, since the Supreme Court, which he appointed, says
there is no chance anybody in the world can stop you.
And do it. Not just because he and Roberts and
Robinson and the Federalist Society and the nat Cons and
the other Nazis represent a clear and present danger to
(06:11):
the safety of every person of every political stripe in
this country. Don't do it just for that. Do it
also because, since the night of the start of the debate,
the only thing I have heard you say, mister President,
that filled me with dread. It was not any mumble
or stumble, or inaccuracy or imperceptibility or confusion. But what
(06:34):
filled me with dread was when you said what you said.
After Stephanopoulos asked how you would feel if you lost,
and you said, as long as you felt you had
done your best, That's what it was all about. No,
(06:55):
I don't want to hear about your best. I don't
want to hear the chance that your best will be insufficient.
If you are allowing for the chance that your best,
mister President, will be insufficient, get somebody else in the
(07:15):
goddamn chair. If you say, as you reportedly did privately
to donors yesterday, we're done talking about the debate. It's
time to put Trump in the bullseye. Let's do it.
I want to hear you say that Trump and the
fascists will not win, that you will not let it
(07:38):
happen no matter what period. Enough talk enough, I beat
him before, and I'll beat him again. Enough the elites
are trying to keep me out. Enough, we'll start defeating
them today. The nation is under threat, as surely as
if there were armies at the border. You are going
(07:59):
to stop Trump. You are going to put him in
the bulls eye. Do it now. Arrest Mark Robinson, then
arrest Kevin Roberts, and I guarantee you, if you take
only those two steps, you won't even need to act
against Trump or any of the other leaders, or any
of the psychopaths out there who support him. They will
(08:20):
all flee. This election is existential for the future freedom
of everybody in this country, and potentially for the survival
of everybody in the world. But it only has to
be existential. Mister President, if you do not now use
(08:40):
the defenses provided to you as commander in chief, and
by this assenine a moral but ultimately unimaginative Trump Supreme Court,
on whom it never dawned, you might use the weapons
they tried to give to him. They have immunized you.
Now you can immunize all of the rest of us
(09:03):
from Trump's immortal threat to the United States of America.
Enough I regret to share with you that I do
not expect that President Biden will do any of this.
I'm sure if he heard what I'm suggesting, he might
recoil from it, not realizing that the one time this
(09:25):
nation truly faced an internal threat akin to that posed
now by Trump, President Lincoln did exactly these things to
the insurrectionist scum of the Confederacy. The history books, in fact,
might have judged him far more harshly, but there seems
little doubt that if he had been able to round
up the Confederate leaders from Jefferson Davis to Robert E.
(09:46):
Lee and all the others and imprison them. In May
eighteen sixty one, the Civil war would have been a
lot shorter and the death count a lot lower. And
I do not believe anybody ever got to ask him,
but I get the feeling that if you had said
to Abraham Lincoln in retrospect, should you have simply ailed
Davis and Lee and Bedford, Forrest and all the others,
(10:08):
he would have said yes. I mean, this was the
president who ultimately resorted to ignoring the Supreme Court and
contemplating the arrest of the Chief Justice of the United States.
I mean, mister President, if you want to change the
topic from the debate, change it, change it from talk
(10:32):
to action, and change the election from the sum of
all fears to Biden versus the last leader of the
Republican Party who is not in communicado somewhere in a
brig that would be Check's notes here. It is the
(10:54):
election between you, sir, and Republican candidate Asa Hutchinson. As
I said at the start of this episode, the worst
option facing Joe Biden and this nation is staying where
we are right now. Leading congressman calling for him to
(11:16):
leave the ticket, the Congressional Black Caucus calling for him
to stay on the ticket, Chuck Schumer voicing support, The
Washington Post anonymously quoting two Democratic senators who say the
consensus among Democratic senators is that he needs to step down.
Mark Warner scheduling an urgent meeting among Democratic senators and
then deciding it's not that urgent can wait till today,
and then issuing a statement backing away from Mark Warner.
(11:39):
I believe it is incumbent upon the President to more
aggressively make his case to the American people. That's not
exactly in the name of God go the President's people
uniformly insisting they have nothing to hide and have hidden nothing,
while the White House visitors logs show one Parkinson's expert
visited eight times between last July and this March. The
(12:01):
bigger story confusing that even more, being that that parkin
since expert has been a White House regular and a
consultant since twenty twelve. The Vice President behaving in an
exemplary manner, while there is at least one Biden veteran
quoted anonymously from inside the White House in The New
York Times, trying to get him out and her in.
(12:22):
The President trying to prove he is cogent and clear
minded by phoning in to Joe Scarborough, as if Joe
Scarborough were cogent or clear minded and not an opportunistic
leech who has taken every side of every issue just
since twenty sixteen, when the man wrote the center cannot hold.
(12:45):
This is what he meant. The problem, ultimately is this,
even if the President will not withdraw from the ticket,
and those urging him to suddenly all relax on the subject,
if the New York Times suddenly realizes that it could,
you know, flood the opinion and reporting space against Trump
(13:06):
in exactly the same way it has against Biden for
the last week and a half, if other events we
haven't experienced yet crowd the issue off the page, if
he has a good week or a good month, or
they say, hell, what do we need Scarborough for? Will
just put the president on every morning on MSNBC. Even
if all that happens, What makes anybody think that this
(13:27):
will neutralize this issue? Even if every Democrat and liberal
and pro democracy person in this country woke up tomorrow
committed to never mentioning this again, what will stop Trump
from doing so? His campaign announced the sixty one million
dollar ad buy last night surrounding the Olympics, guess what
that's going to be about? Are there not? Ultimately, no
(13:53):
matter what else happens. Two questions that cannot be erased.
One do you want him on the debate stage on
September tenth? And two do you think not that he
is going to hold steady in term of his mental alacrity,
but that it and the perception of it and of him,
that these things will improve between here and election day?
(14:14):
Because to beat Trump, the perception of Joe Biden is
going to have to improve. The thing is the consensus
on this story seemed to be that the dams would
all break yesterday. They did not. There were leaks from
the Congressional conference call Sunday, Jerry Nadler Adam Smith to
(14:35):
others get out the warners. Senate meeting postponed. The president
railed against the elites trying to get him out, blamed
the millionaires, said, rank and file Democrats want him in.
But reality to this point appears to be the exact opposite.
It's now forty six percent of Democratic voters who want
him to drop out. It was thirty six percent. The
(14:55):
other headlines, one of the marquee names from the Democrats
have a deep bench crowd just withdrew her candidacy for
a job that has not yet open. Governor Gretchen whit
MURV Michigan said if Biden drops out, she would not
seek to replace him on the ticket. Also, the White
House leaked yesterday that besides his letter to all of them,
Biden has personally called twenty Democratic members of the House
(15:16):
since the debate, which sounds impressive except that's less than
two a day. This is a head scratcher. The president says,
the twenty twenty polls underestimated him, so why should we
pay attention to the polls now? Except they didn't. He
was up by nine points this month in twenty twenty,
and he was never less than four points ahead of Trump.
(15:38):
As CNN pointed out, he is the first Democrat to
trail in the national polls in July since al Gore.
It is possible that he meant the polls in the
primaries in twenty twenty. But if anything is obviously bothering
the president, it is this exact thing, lack of specificity.
Trump has been like this since about nineteen sixty six,
(16:01):
but Joe Biden is becoming like this. Primary polls, residential
race polls, they just become polls, and one with this
assumes that the listener knows which one I meant. This
is not fatal, nor necessarily an indicator of anything. Hell
I do it in conversation on rare occasion, well, on occasion, Okay,
(16:24):
every day, but it leads to statements that seem like lies.
There also have been some pleasant surprises in polls, particularly
in battleground polls. Best members yet overall, and in Michigan
and in Wisconsin, and the forest not seen for the
trees in this is He's still losing in five of
(16:45):
the seven consensus battleground states. There are advantages through a
crisis like this, as Trump long ago proved stories that
would ordinarily be disqualifying scandals go buy almost unnoticed. The
Biden campaign arranged two quick interviews with obscure local radio
station to prove he could do them, and supplied the
(17:08):
interviewers with questions. One of the interviewers said, they gave
me the exact questions to ask. There was no back
and forth. The other interviewer is no longer with her station,
and I'm hoping whoever dreamed this up is no longer
with the Biden campaign. It is a Trump trick. It
is deeply offensive and most importantly, Oh on God's green Earth,
(17:31):
thought it would not come out the stupid people are
supposed to be running the Trump campaign. One other headline
shows that no matter how grave or unprecedented the news
may be, there are always people who can come up
with something so stupid that it becomes laugh out loud funny.
(17:52):
First of all, no, if Biden with draws, you do
not want a mini primary or some sort of huge debate.
The vice president becomes the nominee, even if you have
to blackmail everybody else mentioned for the job to pretend
they've all come to this unanimous decision. Even may I
say this if the president has to resign or step
(18:13):
aside under the twenty fifth Amendment in a leave of
absence and make her acting president, Because if the vice
president doesn't become the nominee and you have a mini primary,
guess what you will automatically have five or six or
seven losers, and they will be disappointed, and more importantly,
their supporters, who cannot grasp that their candidate is not
(18:34):
more important than the future of the country, will all
be disappointed and maybe even disaffected. And this doesn't even
address the fact that you would be bypassing the vice
president of the United States. Just as importantly, to create
an ad hoc nominating system, you open the door to
crackpot ideas. Semaphore News reported that a former Obama and
(18:58):
Clinton staffer and a Democratic donor have a plan, and
they wrote a memo. Oh Biden and Vice President Harris.
According to their plan, would announce the Blitz Primary one
month voting by the convention delegates a pledge of a
(19:19):
positive only campaign or you can't run a ranked choice
vote before the convention, the winner of which is announced
on day three of the convention, with the nominee unveiled
on stage by Biden, Bill Clinton, and Obama, presumably the
nominee standing there with a bag over his or her
head and you just pull it off, you go whoo.
(19:41):
The memo insists the nation would be captivated by the
Blitz Primary and donations to the Democratic Cofference would flow
like water, and Biden would be compared to George Washington
retiring for the good of his country. And best of all.
Best of all, there would be lively live weekly Blitz
(20:05):
Primary candidate forums, one with each candidate moderated by Michelle
Obama and Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift. And you know
why they chose the name the Blitz Primary, because you
would have to have been Blitz to have dreamed this crap. Uh.
(20:35):
Also of interest here, Yes, Marjorie Taylor Green is the
dumbest woman on the planet. But what special is just
when you think you know how dumb, it turns out
she has new, previously undiscovered supplies of dumbness. Marge explains
how Paul Revere signed the Declaration of Independence, not the Raiders,
just Paul Revere. She lists eight signers of the Declaration
(21:00):
of Independence and six of them didn't sign. And there's
one true silver lining to all this. It gives me
a chance to really go out there and attack the
morons on the left. And God knows we have them too,
and God knows some of them are in the Biden campaign.
Because apart from that whole idea about writing the interviews
(21:20):
for the radio reporters, they are soliciting applications for a
key campaign job right now. And you will not believe
what the job is. That's next. This is countdown. This
is countdown with Keith Olberman Stella ahead of us on
(22:00):
this edition of Countdown. I have told it before, but
it seems like it is the absolutely correct time to
tell it again. And if normally you hit stop after
worse persons in the world, you may want to stick
around for things I promised not to tell. As I
recount again the day I was taken to lunch and
asked for advice on public speaking, especially on how to
(22:23):
sound righteously indignant instead of crazy, by a then senator
named Joe Biden. But first, there are still more new
idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miscreants,
morons and Dunning Kruegerffet specimens who constitute today's worst persons
in the world, the bronze worse. Maureen Dowd of the
(22:45):
New York Times. Why yes, Mareen Daud still is with
the New York Times, and she's finally done it. She
has finally written the column we have always wanted to
read from her, not her retirement column that still looms
on the horizon like I don't know the promise of
eternal life. No, no, this is a column by Maureen
(23:08):
Dowd about the incompetence of Maureen Dowd. Let me quote
a paragraph or two in my Saturday column, I quoted
Biden's line to ABC's George Stephanopoulos about how he would
feel if Trump were sworn in as president because he
refused to step aside, I'll feel as long as I
gave it my all and did the goodest job as
(23:30):
I know I can do. That's what this is about. Now,
goodest isn't a word, but my researcher, Andrew Trunsky, and
I listened to the video our ears up against the
computer ten times, and that's what it sounded like. Unquote. Okay,
there's a lot to unpack here. Firstly, Maureen Dowd actually
(23:55):
has written a column about writing her previous column. This
goes on for paragraph after paragraph about how the White
House asked her, harassed her, interfered with her to make
the correction after she misquoted President Biden. I mean, he
mumbled through the answer, and maybe you do need to
listen to it a second time to be sure, but
(24:16):
he obviously says I did as good a job as
I know I can do. The issue of how clear
he was is the whole point of this. That's the story. Also,
I have mentioned previously that this answer is the only
thing he's done. That's really terrified me because the correct
answer is I will let Trump take power only over
my dead body or his dead body or something similar.
(24:38):
But that's not what Doubt is complaining about. She heard goodest,
and her researcher heard goodest, so it was goodest, and
damn you all the hell for correcting her white House,
which brings me to point number two. She has a
research assistant. Maureen Daoud has a research assistant, and the
columns still suck that much dairy air. Seriously, it takes
(25:03):
two of you to produce this thirdly quote. My researcher
and I listened to the video our ears up against
the computer ten times. So you have a researcher, but
you don't have headphones. I mean, I'm not even asking
that you and your researcher both have headphones, just maybe
(25:24):
a shared pair of headphones perhaps, or he has one.
Am I being too demanding? I mean? Has the Times
been lying about its fulsome profits? Can the Times not
afford a pair of headphones for Marine Doud or some
beats or buds? Are you guys spending too much money
sending me email after email after email dozen a day
(25:47):
trying to get me to start paying to play wordle again.
I'm not going to I'm wordled out. Stop it. Save
the money, Buy Marene some cans. We listened to the
computer ten times God the runner up worser Marjorie Taylor,
Barney Rubble. The way to reassure people about Biden is
(26:10):
to compare his acuity to hers Taylor Green. If somehow
you miss this, I'll just read it from Twitter x.
The average age of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy six, she wrote, was
forty four years old, but more than a dozen worth
(26:32):
thirty five or younger. Thomas Jefferson thirty three, John Hancock
thirty nine, James Madison twenty five, Alexander Hamilton twenty one,
James Monroe eighteen, Aaron Burr twenty, Paul Revere forty one,
George Washington forty four. Wait a minute, First of all,
(26:53):
Marge says more than a dozen worth thirty five or younger,
and then her list of a dozen or more only
has eight names on it. And of course, out of
her list of the dozen signers of the decl of Independence,
all eight of them, six of them did not sign
the declaration of Independence, like James Monroe, who had just
dropped out of college to join the Continental Army, and
(27:14):
Alexander Hamilton, who had just dropped out of school to
join the Continental Army, and Aaron Burr who had just
quit law school to join the Continental Army. But I
will never get over the idea that Marjorie Taylor Green
thinks Paul Revere signed the Declaration of Independence. I mean
Paul Whiteman, the jazz band leader of the thirties, would
(27:36):
have been a better guess. It's like she asked AI
to give her a list of eight people who were
alive in America in seventeen seventy six, and she was
just lucky it didn't pick Andrew Jackson, who in seventeen
seventy six was nine years old. Paul Revere signed the
Declaration of Independence same year he invented Revere Wear sauce
(27:56):
pans nineteen thirty nine. Holy crap, is this woman a moron?
And she might be the brightest Republican from Georgia. But
our winners, the Joe Biden for President twenty twenty four campaign,
I know what you're thinking. No, not for that, it
is for their new ad or listing in Daybook, which
(28:17):
is a website for job postings, mostly political ones, some educational,
some nonprofits. This one is next to one from the
Democratic Party of Illinois, which is looking to hire a
new head of its direct mail campaigns Rapid Response Communications
Manager Wilmington, Delaware. The Biden for President campaign is seeking
and rapid response communications manager. Well, there's your problem right there.
(28:41):
And rapids Response Communications manager to support the Rapid Response
team communications teams in Wilmington, including drafting and sending press materials,
maintaining press lists, and other duties as assigned. We're looking
for folks with a variety of backgrounds and experience and
are dedicated to building a team that looks like America
doesn't know that it's a rapid response communications manager. Well,
(29:03):
there's Marjorie tail Key. Responsibilities draft press materials including statements,
press releases, advisories and talking points. You bet your ass
draft briefing memos, presentations, and other internal facing documents like
the one reading. He correspond and coordinate with reporters as appropriate.
(29:26):
Hello Marine DOWD. Help manage the flow of communications material
internally to key stakeholders and externally to surrogates, allies, and press. Well,
this would be the thing about setting up that interview
with the radio places, and the guy doesn't work there
anymore when you gave him the questions in advance. Collaborate
with communications team, senior staff and other team members on
(29:48):
additional projects as needed. How do you draft a resignation track,
approvals and strategy meetings? Well, you need approvals, Coordinate with
state teams and rapid response bracketing. I don't even know
what that is. HU provides and manage communications department interns.
(30:08):
Oh No. Preferred skills and qualifications. Strong written and verbal
communication skills, strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work
effectively with employees at all levels. Ability to organize and
manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a detail oriented manner. Hello,
Mareen Dowd. Ability to organize and manage multiple priorities and
(30:29):
deadlines in a detail oriented manner. No, that's my fault.
I read that twice. Ability to handle projects with the
appropriate level of discretion and confidentiality. This was sort of
an actor thought until the last week or so. Ability
to work well under pressure with humor and grace. Yeah,
I'm sure. A team player that recognizes the importance of
(30:52):
working collaboratively additional useful skills and qualifications prior experience on
a political campaign seventy five thousand dollars to eighty thousand
a year. So you're telling me you're just hiring somebody
to do this now the Biden campaign, Well, hell, I
(31:17):
suppose if they're still reconsidering the position of president in
the campaign, I guess it's not too late to hire
an rapid response director. Two days worst Persons, somebody's been
taking this listing down in the world. Early in two
(31:57):
thousand and seven, my phone rang at MSNBC headquarters in
New Jersey. The Senator would like to take you to
lunch the next time he's in New York. He needs
your advice. Would you be willing to do that? It
was Joe Biden's press chief. My first reaction was to
ask if they had called the wrong number. My next
(32:18):
reaction was to make sure this was not some policy question,
because as a news anchor and commentator for MSNBC, it
did not seem appropriate for me to offer advice to
a candidate for his party's presidential nomination. And doesn't that
seem quaint now, Sean Hannity, No. I was told it
was more technical, more about communications, less about content. My
(32:43):
antique news standards satisfied, I said sure, and they gave
me a couple of dates, and they suggested, given his schedule,
the best place for us to eat would be a
restaurant in Manhattan. And I laughed and I said, yeah,
that's great. It happens to be about forty five seconds
from my apartment. The day and the hour arrived. It
was March twenty seventh, two thousand and seven, and I
(33:05):
made it to the restaurant and I sat down, and
moments later in came the Senator from Delaware. He had
that big welcoming smile and equally big welcoming handshake that
you may have seen from back when candidates could still
go greet the people in a crowd. He reminded me
that we had met briefly when he was in Los
Angeles for the two thousand Democratic Convention, and he happened
(33:27):
to be staying in the hotel there in which I
lived at the time. Senator Biden then said some nice
things about my days in sports, and particularly about the
commentaries I had begun to do the previous summer on MSNBC.
Those special commentaries. He said, with first a smile, then
a whistle. There was, then and there remains now almost
(33:48):
no space between the public Joe Biden of the campaign
or the presidency, and the guy who talks informally to
some knucklehead off the streets, which in this story would
be me. There might be a few more swear words words.
The word malarkey was used during our lunch, and I
(34:08):
remember that particularly because, as I told him, I went
to grammar school in Hastings on Hudson, New York with
a kid named Billy Mallarkey. He was delighted by that,
and he said, he assumed we gave the fellow a
hard time, And I said, yeah, but not because of
the name. None of us third graders knew what malarkey meant.
Then why did you give him a hard time? Senator
(34:30):
Biden asked, it was the third grade. I deadpanned. Everybody
gave everybody a hard time. You liked that answer. But
back to the point of the lunch, your language, he said,
in these special comments, now people often brought up the
language I used to do things like, you know, telling
(34:52):
President Bush to you know, shut the hell up, because
I had to say hell rather than the word I
wanted to say, and some of the events of that
presidency so infuriated me that I would Redden on camera,
and I don't Redden in a sauna. Once my high
school history teacher, a distinguished and elegant man whose nine
(35:14):
older siblings had been born in Vienna and who had
the courtliness with which that would be implied, mentioned to
me the language of the special comments, and I thought,
oh boy, here it happens. I'm in for it now.
He Walter Schneller, had told me on the day I
graduated that my plans to become a sportscaster were very nice,
(35:36):
and he was sure i'd go and do that, but
that he was also sure that I would wind up
in politics someday, either as a reporter or as a combatant.
And I told him I was flattered, and I will
always like you, mister Schneller, and you're out of your mind.
Mister Schneller was also the one who, years later, was
put in charge of the school's surprisingly generous fund for
(35:59):
bringing in speakers to address the student body. He was
very in by the fact that for decades, and he
got there in I believe nineteen sixty, all of the
speakers at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York had
either looked like, as he put it, Hugh Side, the
columnist of Time magazine, or they had actually been Hugh Saide,
(36:23):
the columnist for Time Magazine. Mister Schneller began scouring the
Northeast for anybody smart who might have a diverse background,
and that is how he happened to be driving to
the railroad station at Tarrytown, New York, one morning in
the year nineteen ninety one, to meet the train that
carried that day's guest speaker at the Hackley School. He
(36:44):
was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and his
name was Barack Obama. Anyway, mister Schneller and I were
talking about the commentaries, and he said about the language Keith,
and I braced myself and preemptively apologized, No, no, He said, urgently,
you missed my point entirely. I'm amazed that your language
(37:07):
is so restrained. If I was speaking, I'd have called
mister Bush a whereupon mister Schneller made reference to somebody's mother.
So back to lunch. When Senator Biden asked about the
language I used, I was wary, but he followed it
up by saying that it was kind of why he
(37:28):
had asked me to lunch. I watch the commentary as
you do. I don't have a choice. Everybody sends me
the videos, and my staffers tell me about them. And
every time I think the same thing, you express anger.
But as close as you come to the line, you
never go across it. I say to my staff folks,
is he too angry for you? And they all say no,
(37:51):
just right. So here's my question, and then we can
enjoy this great lunch. When I'm passionate about something and
I speak on the Senate floor, or on the campaign
or anywhere else, I get told by my friends and
by my enemies, you're too angry. And when I really
am angry, they all say, you're really too angry. And
here Joe Biden laughed. Now you you go on TV,
(38:16):
far larger audience, far longer speeches, and people say that Alderman,
he's righteously indignant. With a mixture of laughter, astonishment and curiosity,
he said me, I'm angry. You you are righteously indignant.
(38:38):
How do you do it? How do you do it? Man?
Can you tell me without thinking? I replied, you've been
in the Senate for how long now, Senator thirty thirty
four years? He nodded. And you're only just asking this
question now. The words were barely out of my mouth
(39:02):
when I froze. This was a friend, or a colleague,
or even an athlete who would take the little joking
jab I had just thrown. This was a politician. They
may have senses of humor, but very few have senses
of humor about themselves. In that split second, I was
confident Joe Biden would get up and leave. And he
(39:25):
was silent for a moment, and then the corners of
his mouth turned up, and to my great relief, he
burst into laughter. He rocked back into his chair. He
slapped the table with a palm. My god, that's funny.
More laughter, My God, that's true, louder laughter. I do
(39:46):
not apologize when I say I have loved him ever since.
I didn't think I actually would have had much advice
for him, and was prepared to just go through the
lunch having lunch. But as we talked about this topic,
he asked me follow up questions that made me analyze
for the the first time some of the processes I
(40:08):
used unknowingly when writing and reading on television. I had
never thought of them before because I had never had
had lunch with Joe Biden before. I will not bore
you with the full results of the dissection of the
process or how to turn anger into righteous indignation, if
that's really what I was doing. The most valuable conclusion
was simply the oldest one in the book. I always
(40:30):
wrote late at night while fully angry, and then in
the morning I would take a lot of things out,
usually adjectives. Whatever anger was left was only the most
intense and the most justifiable. And if you present it
twenty four hours after you have written it, you will
(40:51):
be in control of the anger and not have the
anger be in control of you in short sleep on it.
That was in March two thousand and seven. I saw
the Senator next in August of five, two thousand and seven,
a Democratic primary debate officially called the afl CIO Candidates Forum,
(41:11):
Soldier Field, Chicago, outdoors ninety five degrees, threat of thunderstorms, Obama, Clinton, Biden,
Dodd Richardson, Kusinich, Edwards, and the moderator me. There are
photos of this, Joe Biden and I walking towards each other,
(41:31):
hands extended for a greeting. He is literally asking me
if I have noticed that he has been trying to
turn his anger into righteous indignation, and Senator Biden asking
if I thought he had succeeded. They are great photos,
largely because my back is to the camera. He did
(41:52):
not really succeed in doing this in the debate, though,
and he actually came over to me during the commercial
and told me what he was going to do, that
he didn't think he'd actually gotten the chance to answer
a previous question sufficiently, and he was going to go
back to it the next time. I called on him,
and I told him, don't, don't, don't, don't do that,
(42:12):
and he did it anyway, and later he let me
know he should have listened to me. Since then, I
cannot recall him being angry, not even in those debates
with that goddamned madman. The words were harsh, cutting, destructive, fatal.
(42:33):
The tone, no, the tone was dismissive, disappointed, slept upon
rage perfect a plus no notes. But it occurs to
me in all of the analysis of all of the
changes in Joe Biden since day one in nineteen seventy three,
(42:57):
nobody touches on this one thing. As late as two
thousand and seven, he seemed to be his reputaieation was
as a hothead. When was the last time he was
accused of that. I'm not saying I had anything to
do with that, But in the years now, since January sixth, particularly,
(43:22):
it has been a comforting change, and not a change
within Joe Biden, but within our presidency. And yet now
twenty twenty four may make President Biden have to change back,
because the comforting Joe Biden is great and the sardonic
(43:43):
Joe Biden is greater. But the one who beat Trump
and the one we need right now is the Joe
Biden of the righteous anger. I've done all the damage
(44:07):
I can do here, and now he's going to Joe
Scarborough for advice. Thank you for listening. Countown musical directors
Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel arranged, produced, and performed
most of our music. Mister Ray was on the guitars,
bass and drums, and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards
(44:27):
produced by Tko Brothers. Other music, including some of the
Beethoven compositions, were arranged and performed by the group No
horns allowed. 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 Fauss, the
best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my
(44:47):
friend Larry David, and everything else was pretty much my fault.
Let's countdown for this the one hundred and twentieth day
until the twenty twenty four presidential election, the one two
hundred and eighty first day since convicted felon Donald Trump's
first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the
United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the
(45:09):
mental health system. You have this now, mister president, use
presidential immunity, arrest him, stop him from doing it again
while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.
Boltons as the news warrants, Oh God, I just want
a day off till the next one. I'm Keith Olreriman.
(45:32):
Good Morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
(46:02):
with Keith Oldreman is a production of iHeart. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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