January 2, 2023 • 37 mins
EPISODE 103: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:55) BARBARA WALTERS: IN MEMORIAM. Since her death Friday, there has been one story after another about Barbara Walters the groundbreaker and Barbara Walters the feminist and Barbara Walters the interviewer and Barbara Walters the role model and each of these accolades is more than justified. But I'm not seeing enough about Barbara Walters, the person with a large soul who survived as huge a disaster as ever befell the career of anybody in television, who fought her way back from punchline to immortal, and who thanked everybody who protected her, and tried to protect everybody - women and men alike - who might be facing any of the attacks she fought off in the years following 1976. As she wrote me once: "I'm not as tough as I pretend to be and the support means the world to me. I cannot thank you enough."
B-Block (16:40) SPECIAL COMMENT: Chief Justice Roberts reinforced his reputation as the human embodiment of the "This Is Fine" dog in the burning room meme. Did his year end message on the judiciary for New Year's 2023 address Samuel Alito's insults towards this country? The revelation that he discussed Hobby Lobby with one of the theocrats before ruling? The madness of Ginni Thomas trying to overthrow the government? The Court throwing away its remaining credibility? No. He knows who the real victims here: The Justices.
C-Block (26:15) SPECIAL COMMENT: Roberts, of course, is nothing compared to Sam Alito. Where is Alito's reply to The New York Times report about his leak to Hobby Lobby? Where is the Court's reply to the Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate demanding answers about it? Alito is a clear and present danger to this country.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
I want to talk about the goal of Chief Justice
(00:26):
John Roberts and the scumbaggery of Sam Alito and why
they should both resign, and I will, but let me begin,
please with the late Barbara Walters. And since she died
Friday night, there has been one story after another about
Barbara Walters the groundbreaker, and Barbara Walters the feminist, and
Barbara Walters the interviewer, and Barbara Walters the role model.
(00:48):
And I am not seeing enough about Barbara Walters with
the proverbial large soul. Years ago, somebody disparaged her work.
I can't remember now if it was some comment made
on one of my MSNBC show or just one I
heard somewhere else scowled at and chose to attack. Either way,
(01:09):
I called the comment out, I ran through the reasons
I thought she should be above such criticism, and the
whole thing was over in about thirty or forty five
seconds tops. Early the next week, in the small stack
of mail appearing on my desk at MSNBC World Headquarters
in Secaucus, New Jersey, was a note in a very
(01:30):
expensive envelope with a very expensive New York City return
address on it, probably Central Park West. I opened it,
and to top the very expensive stationary, I saw one
name embost Barbara Walters Keith. She wrote, what a lovely
and caring gesture. I'm not as tough as I pretend
to be, and the support means the world to me.
I cannot thank you enough. Keep going the show gets
(01:52):
better nightly with deep admiration Barbara. Barbara Walters and I
had never met. Then years after that Tim Russer died.
I anchored the coverage that awful night, and if I
remember correctly, we got Barbara on the phone and she
was poetic about Tim, as so many of us were.
That night and the next week I traveled to Washington
(02:14):
to anchor the MSNBC coverage of the memorial service. It
was poignant yet fun, yet respectful, and there had to
have been a thousand reporters and politicians there, and the
moment it ended, it turned into your standard Washington social event,
which I would not wish on my worst enemy. So
sad about Tim. Did you hear what happened at the post?
(02:34):
I made a quick pass of the room and shook
a few hands and said a load to a few
friends and had the admittedly cool experience of being introduced
to Woodward by Bernstein. And then I was blowing out
towards the elevator when I heard a familiar voice behind me, Keith.
Two things. First off, thanks again for the support. I
(02:56):
drew a blank. Barbara Walters reminded me of the support details.
We are talking something that might have occurred ten years earlier.
Certain it was at least three or four years earlier,
and as I said, it took no more than forty
five seconds, she still wanted to bring it up. Secondly,
she asked, what did you think of the New Yorker.
(03:16):
I had been profiled in the issue that was I
think still on the stands when Tim Russer died, or
it had been on the stands a few weeks earlier.
The piece was not entirely complimentary. It was not bad,
but it had been written by the worst kind of journalists,
somebody who pretends to be your fan or supporter or
a friend of a friend. His name was Peter Boyer,
(03:37):
and I knew him only from a very good book
he had written about CBS News, and not that he
was a condescending conservative that I did not know. Among
other things, he had printed in The New Yorker details
about my seizure disorder and the medication I used for it,
things that I had told him off the record, to
give him a little context for a criticism. He said
(03:58):
he wanted to answer on my behalf. It was pretty despicable.
Turned out it was something he did a lot of anyway.
I told Barbara I was not completely happy with the article.
Nor was I, she said sharply. In fact, I called boyer,
I yelled at him. On the other hand, let me
remind you of something. They put your name on the
cover the cover of the New Yorker magazine, and at
(04:20):
least the copies I saw. They also stabled that paper
band to the cover, and that had your name and
the story on it, and even bigger letters cover of
the New Yorker. You cannot buy that kind of publicity. Keith,
Take the win, I laughed, Plus I did a little research.
Barbara Walters went on, You're the first person from TV
(04:40):
news mentioned on the cover of the New Yorker in
fifteen years. Trust me, nothing is a total victory in
this business. Take the win. She reached up and gave
me a kiss on the cheek and a professional hug,
and she shoot me away. If you're on the air tonight,
get going. It's almost five o'clock. I've told that story
(05:02):
a lot since it happened in two thousand eight, and
about four of the time. What I have heard then is,
you know, when the Times did a story about me,
Barbara called and said, or when Murdoch ran that hit
piece on me, Barbara wrote me and said she'd call
up the editor and screamed at him. That line she
wrote in that note to me all those years ago,
(05:22):
I'm not as tough as I pretend to be, and
the support means the world to me was as much
the story of Barbara Walters, I think as the breakthroughs
and the great get interviews and the glass ceiling is broken.
She had a protective and proactive empathy and in understood
and endorse the reality that none of us is as
tough as we pretend to be, and the support means
(05:44):
the world to us too. I am old enough to
have seen Barbara Walters on the Today Show on a
black and white TV, and to have recognized, even as
a kid, her gradual evolution from the token who got
to do the quote women's stories to the full fledged
co anchor with heavy weight news men like Hugh Downs
(06:06):
and Jim Hart's and Frank McGee. And I was sixteen
when the metaphorical earthquake hit TV news and run Arowag
hired her away from NBC to co anchor the ABC
Evening News run. Arowage, the inventor of ABC Sports and
the protector of Howard Cosell, had just subsumed the news
(06:28):
division of ABC as its chief too, and bluntly, in retrospect,
it is amazing he survived the series of mistakes he
made in hiring Barbara Walters. Make myself clear here. Hiring
Barbara Walters was not the mistake. How our ledge did
it and what he subjected her too was his mistake. Ultimately,
(06:50):
it worked out for her, for him and for ABC,
but that had nothing to do with him or ABC.
He hired Barbara Walters to do a job that required
the presence and skills of an anchor. Can you fill
the television screen by yourself? Can you read aloud and
on camera without looking tentative or lost or board. CBS
(07:13):
later did this with Katie Kuric, and it didn't work.
In sports terms, you're hiring a slugging first baseman, and
you just assume they will instantly become a star pitcher.
Barbara Walters was not an anchor. She was an interviewer,
and few were better at it, and she could appear
on camera for a few moments and stare down the audience.
(07:34):
But she was not an anchor. She told us all
that later. Not only did Rowage not plan for her
to do interviews as the primary job, but he stuck
her on a newscast that went through anchors the way
spinal Tap went through Drummers, ABC's most successful anchor in
its history to that point, hosted at the same time
(07:57):
as it hosted the ABC News, he hosted a game
show on CBS. His name was John day Lee. When
he quit in nineteen sixty, ABC then went through nine
anchors in five years. Then they hired a twenty six
year old guy from Canada named Peter Jennings, who came
across like a very sophisticated eleven year old spelling bee champion.
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They sent him on a ten year tour of foreign capitals,
and a year after that they went with a veteran
newsman named Bob Young, and one day Bob Young was
pruning trees at his home and he fell from the
ladder and he was never again quite certain where he was.
By nineteen seventy six, the ABC anchor was the surly
Harry Reasoner, and without asking him first, Arledge anointed Reasoner
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and Walters as co anchors, and Arlogs just assumed they
would be a happy TV couple. Reasoner did not want
a co anchor. He certainly did not want a woman
co anchor, and he particularly did not want a woman
co anchor named Barbara Walters. He literally would not say
her name nor look at her on the air. And
(09:03):
that was the nice assist he was to her all day.
As if it could get worse. To entice her away
from NBC, rude Ledge offered to double Barbara's salary to
a million dollars a year, and he made sure to
leak this fact to every newspaper in America. So what well?
The publicity was invaluable to our Ledge and to ABC,
(09:25):
and unfortunately, relative to Barbara, it was one negative. Walter
Cronkite did not make a million a year. He wasn't
making a millionaire when he retired five years later. Harry
Reasoner made two hundred thousand dollars a year. Johnny Carson,
who did four ninety minutes shows a week, was getting
two million a year from NBC. So our ledge had
(09:49):
made Barbara into an anchor for which she would be
widely criticized, forced her to co anchor with a misogynist
who widely criticized her on air and off, on the
record and off, and in case there was anybody left
likely to be on her side, he gave her a
record breaking salary when a million dollars was a million dollars.
(10:09):
Surprisingly enough, the ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner and
Barbara Walters it didn't work out. Who would I guess that?
And for a time she was the punching bag of
television news, in fact, the punching bag of comedy, the
Baba Wawa Gilda Radner character so warmly remembered from Saturday
(10:32):
Night Live when it was funny. They kept bringing it
up after she died last week. Do you think they
did that character because they liked her? They did that
because Barbara Walters was the easiest target in television. And
yet from that point, from a punch line, she became
the Barbara Walters. So correctly eulogized these last three days.
(10:56):
She did that despite, as she wrote, me, I'm not
as tough as I pretend to be, and the support
means the world to me. The reason for Walter's newscast
ended quickly, and forced to do something else with her
and the three more years of her no cut, five year,
five million dollar contract run Arledge agreed to her idea.
(11:17):
The interview beat, big name breaking news interviews Sadat and Bacon,
big name celebrity interviews, Katherine Hepburn, big name hybrid interviews,
Monica Lewinsky, the rest of her story. You know, most
people in broadcasting who I have known, who have experienced
the kind of Titanic meets Iceberg moment that Barbara Walters did,
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or in her case, the Titanic meets Iceberg two years
not moment, they don't respond well to that. They carry
a certain understandable bitterness. In fact, no matter how much
success they subsequently achieve, the Iceberg is never far from
their minds. So while we mourn her as a role
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model and sealing shatterer, I will remember her always as
the person who, after getting freak a seed for years,
made sure that no compliment went unthanked, and who when
she sensed somebody who was not as tough as they
pretended to be needed a little help, did her best
to provide that help, to support, to reassure you trust me.
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Nothing is a total victory in this business. Take the
win your memory, Barbara Walters, as they say, is a
blessing still ahead in a year when the Supreme Court,
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his Supreme Court, lost its remaining legitimacy and began to
make Roger B. Tawny and the dread Scott Supreme Court
look good. By contrast, what is the new year's message
from Chief Justice John Roberts. He and Alito and the
other religious zealots are operating without fear or favor. It's
you people out there who are wrong because you're making
(13:12):
the justices feel unsafe by criticizing their corruption. That's next,
This is countdown. The Supreme Court struck down Roe v.
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Wade last year after at least four justices lied under
oath to the Senate that it was settled law and
they would not vote to strike down Roe v. Wade.
Somebody connected to Justice Samuel Alito, we believe, leaked a
draft memorandum about that decision in order to keep the
newer religious zealots on the Court in line and not
let them compromise on the ruling. Alito has gone abroad
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and publicly mocked the majority in this country as if
he owned us and the court. The Supreme Republican Religious
Court is ready to rule now on a series of
new cases that could further advance fascism in this nation.
And we learned this year that the ex cult member
wife of Justice Clarence Thomas not only texted with various
(14:18):
lunatics on the extreme fringes of the fringe right about
overturning the government, but sent the chief of staff to
the then president a virtual cut and pace job from
the craziest of the q and on psychos about how
quote the Biden crime family would be quote living in
barges off git Mo to face military tribunals for sedition.
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But she now regrets her tone. Screw her. But Chief
Justice John Roberts knows the real victims here himself, the Thomas's,
Alito and the others. John Roberts has issued his annual
report on the state of the Federal Judiciary, and he
(15:03):
has ignored all of the US and instead devoted that
report entirely to something else. Quote. The law requires every
judge to swear an oath to perform his or her
work without fear or favor. But we must support judges
by ensuring their safety. A judicial system cannot and should
(15:23):
not live in fear. Chief Justice Roberts needs to resign.
Whatever fear he and the rest of the Supreme Court
may pretend to feel is nothing compared to the fear
of the citizens of this country, who are the justices employers.
That the Court has completely lost touch with reality and
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is now merely and entirely a weaponized offshoot of the
Federalist Society, part of the far right power structure, which
has finally accelerated it's decades long goal of eliminating nearly
all of the freedoms of the United States of America.
This is not the first time I have called on
John Roberts to resign, and guess what, I doubt it
will be the last. Last September, at the tenth Circuit
(16:08):
Bench and Bar Conference in Colorado, Roberts first made us
realize that he is, in fact the living, breathing embodiment
of the This is fine dog in the burning room,
only He's Chief Justice. This is fine, and the room
is our nation imperiled by his Supreme Court. Simply because
(16:31):
people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for
questioning the legitimacy of the court. John Roberts is talking
about the blowback to the Supreme Court for having overturned
Roe v. Wade, and he is so wrong it is
nearly impossible for him to continue as Chief Justice. Firstly,
that is not the only basis for questioning legitimacy of
(16:52):
the Supreme Court right at the moment, John, I'll get
to that in a moment, but just as a statement, quote,
because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis
for questioning the legitimacy of the court. That is not
only nonsense, it is historically proven nonsense. There have only
been seventeen Chief Justices of the United States. You would
(17:12):
think one of them Roberts would know about his predecessors,
like one of them, Roger B. Tawney, who oversaw a
Supreme Court so disconnected from reality, whose opinions were so
disagreed with that they were literally ignored, and the Supreme
Court itself was irrelevant in American life for nearly a decade.
The primary decision that nearly destroyed the Tawny Supreme Court
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and nearly destroyed the Supreme Court forever was dread Scott,
which forced a freeman back into slavery, as the Roberts
Court ruling on Dobbs will force American women to give
birth against their will to become breeding slaves. But there's
actually an even bigger issue than that. A title wave
is going to wash away the Roberts Supreme Court change
(17:58):
its size and composition at the minimum, and it will
put John Roberts next to Roger B. Tawney on the
shortlist of the most infamous Chief Justices of all time.
And he thinks it's about their verdict, not the political
corruption and subversion of the Constitution that has delegitimized his court.
Listen to more of John Roberts from this Colorado conference
(18:20):
over the week of the court doesn't retain its legitimate
function of interpreting the Constitution. Um, I'm not sure who
would take up that mantle. You don't want the political
branches telling you what the law is. You don't want
the political branches telling you what the law is, John Roberts,
could you be any more naive? One Supreme Court Justice
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Clarence Thomas is the husband of a January six insurrectionist,
a pure example of the political branches, specifically one political
party telling you what the law is. Another Supreme Court Justice,
Neil Gorsch, has his seat solely because the political branches,
specifically one politician, the then Senate majority leader, aid up
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a rule permitting him to deny even adhering to the
Supreme Court nominee of the president from the other political party.
Another Supreme Court Justice, a glorified paralegal named Amy Coney Barrett,
has her seat solely because, after promising to apply that
made up rule in all future identical circumstances, the political branches,
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specifically the leading politicians of the then Senate majority lied
and did not apply that made up rule. All three
of those justices and probably a fourth lied under oath
to the Senate during their confirmation hearings. In writing the
opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. Yet another Justice, Samuel Alito,
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not only cited as legal president the hallucinations of a
seventeenth century British judge who used to hang witches, but
he then gave a purely political speech in another country
mocking those in his country, our country, who disagreed with
the witch Hanger and with him and with his personal religion.
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Chief Justice Roberts, you don't want the political branches telling
you what the law is. You preside over a political
whorehouse under your stewardship, Roberts, the Supreme Court has less
legal authenticity than the Shariah courts of Iran. You have
taken two hundred and thirty three years of American Supreme
Court history, which survived even Roger B. Tawney and dread Scott,
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and destroyed its legitimacy. All of you are wrong on
the facts, wrong on the precedents, wrong on your understanding
of how to conduct yourselves simply as citizens of this country.
Simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a
basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court. We do
not question the legitimacy of your court, Mr Roberts, just
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because of a decision that the Senate will sooner or
later erase. We question the legitimacy of your court, Mr Roberts,
because you and your court are illegitimate. What's truly amazing
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about John Roberts is he's the fourth least insane member
of the Court. I mean Clarence Thomas is the eighth
least insane member of the Court, the champion, the man
who is not only intent on ending representative government in
this nation, but it's not even bothering to pretend he
is not. We will hear him mock us. Next, this
(21:41):
is countdown to continue on the subject of the Supreme Court.
As three begins, you would have thought John Roberts might
have mentioned in his annual report his purported investigation into
(22:05):
the Roe v. Wade draft leak, unless perhaps that investigation
is proving it was indeed an Alito clerk or other
ally who done it, or that the report might have
included some kind of response to the New York Times
story and the subsequent inquiry from the House and Senate
Judiciary committees that Mr Aldo has had a little trouble
(22:25):
keeping his fascist mouth shut. The Times rather clearly laid
out the evidence that Alito discussed the outcome of the
hobby lobby contraception case with one of the evangelicals pushing
this theocratic horsecrap before the Court issued its opinion. Quoting
the evangelical pushing the theocratic horse crap, pretty much sold
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me on the time story. No crickets, well, crickets from Roberts,
crickets from anybody else interested in the American representative government
as we know it now, not crickets from the terrorist
organization that unleashed this court on an unsuspected and unprepared America,
and particularly this worm Alito. When he spoke to the
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Federalist Society in November, they knew what he had done,
who he had done it for, and to which cause
he is a hero. Justice Samuel Alito is a prejudiced, dishonest, lazy,
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proselytizing fraud with a Messiah complex and an agenda to
serve not the law, not the democracy, not the nation,
but to serve his own religious beliefs. He is intent
on turning the Supreme Court into the Republican Supreme Religious Court,
and intent on turning this nation into a theocracy. And
(23:55):
he has gotten quite a headstart on both. And yet somehow,
this week, on the eve of the investiture of Justice Jackson,
he has reached a personal new high inlow. It goes
without saying that everyone is free to express disagreement with
our decisions and to criticize our reasoning as they see
(24:17):
fit Alito said in response to a stark but mild
reality check from Justice Elena Kagan. But saying or implying
that the Court is becoming an illegitimate institution, or questioning
our integrity crosses an important line, Mr Alito. You have
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no integrity left to be questioned. Mr Alito, Your institution
consists of at least four justices who perjured themselves under
oath to the Senate in their confirmation hearings. One of
your justice is Mr. Alito, is married to a woman
who needed to testify yesterday to the House committee investigating
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the attempt to overthrow the government of the United States
by coup, and she had to reassure that committee that
she never discussed any of her involvement with her husband
the Justice. These justices, Mr Alito, are illegitimate, and they
alone would make the Court illegitimate. Mr Alito, at least
(25:23):
one of your justices sits with you only because of
the destruction of the Senate of the United States by
its lead Republican member. The line, Sir, was crossed when
Merrick Garland was pocket vetoed. Ever since that moment, your
institution has been nothing more than a tool of the
Republican Party, designed to use the trappings of the law
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to legitimize the illegitimate, and to assert integrity when there
is nothing but corruption. Mr Alito, you are a political prostitute.
And Justice Clarence Thomas is a political prostitute. Justice Neil
Gore Sitch is a political prostitute. Justice Brett Kavanaugh is
(26:08):
a political prostitute. Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a political prostitute.
Chief Justice John Roberts is a political prostitute. Whatever you
once aspired to, Mr Alito, whatever you believed you had
become when you were given your seat, whatever dignity or
respect you thought you were now owed, you have long
(26:32):
since forfeited, and forfeited beyond the most remote possibility of reclamation.
You and that room full of partisan hacks have destroyed
the Supreme Court of the United States, And had you
either intelligence or dignity, you would resign and devote the
rest of your life to seeking forgiveness for the damage
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you have personally inflicted up on this nation in the
name of a corrupt and morally bankrupt political party, and
in the name of religion, not just your religion, but
all religions, which, whatever else it is or is not.
Is just a belief, just a hope, just a wish,
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perhaps more reliable than a horoscope, but perhaps not. Two
years ago, sixty seven percent of this country said it
had a great deal or fair amount of trust in
the Supreme Court. Last year that number was still fifty
(27:34):
four percent. As of a Gallop poll released yesterday, it
is now forty seven percent. The Court's job approval in
twenty was percent it is now. The political majority has
not changed on the Court since. Indeed it has not
changed since the citizens of this country have not politicized
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their view of you and the Court, Mr Aldo. It
is you and the frauds with whom you sit who
have politicized the Court beyond this nation's ability to withstand
it anymore. And it is you and the frauds with
whom you sit who have now substituted the Bible for
the law book. Saying or implying that the Court is
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becoming an illegitimate institution, or questioning our integrity crosses an
important line. No one has said this, Mr Alito, but
you and the charlatan's in robes around you have accomplished this.
You are the assassins of your own institution, and you
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are the murderers of your own integrity, and you are
the erasers of the most important line between legal impartiality
and political fuggery. The very worst moments, said Justice Cagan,
of the Court's history, have been times when judges have
even essentially reflected one parties or one ideology set of
(29:07):
views in their legal decisions. The thing that builds up
reservoirs of public confidence is the court acting like a
court and not acting like an extension of the political process.
If over time the court loses all connection with the
public and with public sentiment, that is a dangerous thing
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for democracy. To that judicious, polite, almost milk toast recitation
of facts from Justice Kagan, You, Mr Alito, decided you
needed to try to metaphorically martyr yourself and to threaten
this country for having had the nerve to recognize your
illegitimacy and the audacity to question what had been your integrity.
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The Alito Court, and make no mistake, it is his court,
John Roberts is sinking into utter irrelevance. The Alito Court
is to hear cases starting next month that could roll
back affirmative action in the admissions offices at Harvard and
the University of North Carolina, and thus at every American
college and university. The Court may circumscribe the Voting Rights
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Act as it pertains to draw in congressional districts and
African American voters. It may rule to permit rogue state
legislatures to eliminate election results at will. It may repeal
laws that protect lgbt Q customers from discrimination by businesses.
(30:39):
Do we expect the Alito Court will examine legal precedents
or the opinions of televangelists. You probably already know of
Alito's speech in Rome in July at the Notre Dame
Religious Freedom Summit, which, as with most religious conferences, is
misnamed and was actually the Notre Dame Religious You have
(31:03):
no freedom but to obey us summit. You probably heard
him mock the world leaders who were appalled by the
courts dishonest overturning of Roe v. Wade, with its reliance
on the legal wisdom of a judge who used to
oversee the hanging of witches. You may have heard him
bash secular values and the quote new Moral Code, but
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you probably did not hear him tell this meaningless anecdote
which he told with the gravity of someone who has
just watched the burning of an original copy of the Constitution.
I'm reminded of an experience I had a number of
years ago in a museum in um in Berlin. One
(31:51):
of the exhibits was a rustic wooden cross. A young uh,
an effluent woman, a well dressed woman, and a young
boy were looking at this exhibit, and the young boy
he turned to the woman, presumably his mother, and said,
who is that man? That memory has stuck in my
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mind as a harbinger of what may lie ahead for
our culture. Samuel Alito believes it is his job. It
is the job of an American judge. It is the
job of the Supreme Court. It is the job of
the United States of America government to force its citizens
to be able to identify a man on a cross
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who may or may not have ever existed, To force
them to honor the businesses that have built themselves into
world influencing powers by attributing quotes to this potentially fictional character,
and to defer to the interpretations of what this man,
who may or may not have ever lived, had to
(32:57):
say about what the laws of the United States of
America should be and who the President of the United
States of America should be. Mr Alito, that rustic wouldn't
cross I have a suggestion where you can put it.
There is one last vital point about what Samuel Alito
said and the danger it represents and the necessity for
(33:20):
action that it causes. When Alito says, questioning the court's
integrity quote crosses an important line? What line does he mean?
What also does he believe should be done after whatever
that line is is crossed? I believe the answer is
(33:46):
far more ominous than is currently being recognized. On June
this year, I tweeted, forgive the self quote it has
become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States.
The first step is for a state the court has
now forced guns of onon to ignore this ruling. Great
(34:07):
your court, Why and how do you think you can
enforce your rulings? Hashtag ignore the Court? It's a tweet.
Three days later, on June, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida
retweeted my remarks and added quote, it is a federal
(34:28):
offense to incite rebellion or insurrection against the authority of
the United States or the laws there of what Rubio
all but said there. What Alito has opaquely danced around
when asserting the questioning the Court's integrity crosses an important
line is that they intend not just to suppress criticism
(34:53):
of a corrupt, prostituted Supreme Court, but to criminalize it.
If Marco Rubio can look at a tweet calling for
states to ignore court rulings, which is one of the
court values of his Republican party, if he can do
that and apply that I am guilty of inciting rebellion
(35:15):
and insurrection by tweeting, then, unfortunately, we have to take
Aldo's reference to saying or implying that the Court is
becoming an illegitimate institution, or questioning our integrity crosses an
important line. Not as a defensive holier than Thou spasm,
(35:38):
but as a threat to every one of us. I've
done all the damage I can do here. Thank you
for listening. If you're not following or subscribing to the podcast,
please do so. You do not have to use your
own name, I am told. Here are our credits. Most
(36:01):
of the music, including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged,
produced and performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle.
They are the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards
by John Philip Chanelle, guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray,
produced by T k O Brothers. Another Beethoven selections have
been arranged and performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports
music is the Old Woman theme from ESPN two. It
(36:23):
was written by Mitch Warren Davis. It appears courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Musical comments from Nancy Fausts, the best baseball stadium organist ever.
Everything else is pretty much my fault. So let's countdown
for this the seven seven day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him now while we still can. A new edition
(36:45):
tomorrow as we resume the regular five day a week schedule.
Until then, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night,
and good luck. Countdown with Keith Alderman is a production
(37:10):
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
I want to talk about the goal of Chief Justice
(00:26):
John Roberts and the scumbaggery of Sam Alito and why
they should both resign, and I will, but let me begin,
please with the late Barbara Walters. And since she died
Friday night, there has been one story after another about
Barbara Walters the groundbreaker, and Barbara Walters the feminist, and
Barbara Walters the interviewer, and Barbara Walters the role model.
(00:48):
And I am not seeing enough about Barbara Walters with
the proverbial large soul. Years ago, somebody disparaged her work.
I can't remember now if it was some comment made
on one of my MSNBC show or just one I
heard somewhere else scowled at and chose to attack. Either way,
(01:09):
I called the comment out, I ran through the reasons
I thought she should be above such criticism, and the
whole thing was over in about thirty or forty five
seconds tops. Early the next week, in the small stack
of mail appearing on my desk at MSNBC World Headquarters
in Secaucus, New Jersey, was a note in a very
(01:30):
expensive envelope with a very expensive New York City return
address on it, probably Central Park West. I opened it,
and to top the very expensive stationary, I saw one
name embost Barbara Walters Keith. She wrote, what a lovely
and caring gesture. I'm not as tough as I pretend
to be, and the support means the world to me.
I cannot thank you enough. Keep going the show gets
(01:52):
better nightly with deep admiration Barbara. Barbara Walters and I
had never met. Then years after that Tim Russer died.
I anchored the coverage that awful night, and if I
remember correctly, we got Barbara on the phone and she
was poetic about Tim, as so many of us were.
That night and the next week I traveled to Washington
(02:14):
to anchor the MSNBC coverage of the memorial service. It
was poignant yet fun, yet respectful, and there had to
have been a thousand reporters and politicians there, and the
moment it ended, it turned into your standard Washington social event,
which I would not wish on my worst enemy. So
sad about Tim. Did you hear what happened at the post?
(02:34):
I made a quick pass of the room and shook
a few hands and said a load to a few
friends and had the admittedly cool experience of being introduced
to Woodward by Bernstein. And then I was blowing out
towards the elevator when I heard a familiar voice behind me, Keith.
Two things. First off, thanks again for the support. I
(02:56):
drew a blank. Barbara Walters reminded me of the support details.
We are talking something that might have occurred ten years earlier.
Certain it was at least three or four years earlier,
and as I said, it took no more than forty
five seconds, she still wanted to bring it up. Secondly,
she asked, what did you think of the New Yorker.
(03:16):
I had been profiled in the issue that was I
think still on the stands when Tim Russer died, or
it had been on the stands a few weeks earlier.
The piece was not entirely complimentary. It was not bad,
but it had been written by the worst kind of journalists,
somebody who pretends to be your fan or supporter or
a friend of a friend. His name was Peter Boyer,
(03:37):
and I knew him only from a very good book
he had written about CBS News, and not that he
was a condescending conservative that I did not know. Among
other things, he had printed in The New Yorker details
about my seizure disorder and the medication I used for it,
things that I had told him off the record, to
give him a little context for a criticism. He said
(03:58):
he wanted to answer on my behalf. It was pretty despicable.
Turned out it was something he did a lot of anyway.
I told Barbara I was not completely happy with the article.
Nor was I, she said sharply. In fact, I called boyer,
I yelled at him. On the other hand, let me
remind you of something. They put your name on the
cover the cover of the New Yorker magazine, and at
(04:20):
least the copies I saw. They also stabled that paper
band to the cover, and that had your name and
the story on it, and even bigger letters cover of
the New Yorker. You cannot buy that kind of publicity. Keith,
Take the win, I laughed, Plus I did a little research.
Barbara Walters went on, You're the first person from TV
(04:40):
news mentioned on the cover of the New Yorker in
fifteen years. Trust me, nothing is a total victory in
this business. Take the win. She reached up and gave
me a kiss on the cheek and a professional hug,
and she shoot me away. If you're on the air tonight,
get going. It's almost five o'clock. I've told that story
(05:02):
a lot since it happened in two thousand eight, and
about four of the time. What I have heard then is,
you know, when the Times did a story about me,
Barbara called and said, or when Murdoch ran that hit
piece on me, Barbara wrote me and said she'd call
up the editor and screamed at him. That line she
wrote in that note to me all those years ago,
(05:22):
I'm not as tough as I pretend to be, and
the support means the world to me was as much
the story of Barbara Walters, I think as the breakthroughs
and the great get interviews and the glass ceiling is broken.
She had a protective and proactive empathy and in understood
and endorse the reality that none of us is as
tough as we pretend to be, and the support means
(05:44):
the world to us too. I am old enough to
have seen Barbara Walters on the Today Show on a
black and white TV, and to have recognized, even as
a kid, her gradual evolution from the token who got
to do the quote women's stories to the full fledged
co anchor with heavy weight news men like Hugh Downs
(06:06):
and Jim Hart's and Frank McGee. And I was sixteen
when the metaphorical earthquake hit TV news and run Arowag
hired her away from NBC to co anchor the ABC
Evening News run. Arowage, the inventor of ABC Sports and
the protector of Howard Cosell, had just subsumed the news
(06:28):
division of ABC as its chief too, and bluntly, in retrospect,
it is amazing he survived the series of mistakes he
made in hiring Barbara Walters. Make myself clear here. Hiring
Barbara Walters was not the mistake. How our ledge did
it and what he subjected her too was his mistake. Ultimately,
(06:50):
it worked out for her, for him and for ABC,
but that had nothing to do with him or ABC.
He hired Barbara Walters to do a job that required
the presence and skills of an anchor. Can you fill
the television screen by yourself? Can you read aloud and
on camera without looking tentative or lost or board. CBS
(07:13):
later did this with Katie Kuric, and it didn't work.
In sports terms, you're hiring a slugging first baseman, and
you just assume they will instantly become a star pitcher.
Barbara Walters was not an anchor. She was an interviewer,
and few were better at it, and she could appear
on camera for a few moments and stare down the audience.
(07:34):
But she was not an anchor. She told us all
that later. Not only did Rowage not plan for her
to do interviews as the primary job, but he stuck
her on a newscast that went through anchors the way
spinal Tap went through Drummers, ABC's most successful anchor in
its history to that point, hosted at the same time
(07:57):
as it hosted the ABC News, he hosted a game
show on CBS. His name was John day Lee. When
he quit in nineteen sixty, ABC then went through nine
anchors in five years. Then they hired a twenty six
year old guy from Canada named Peter Jennings, who came
across like a very sophisticated eleven year old spelling bee champion.
(08:20):
They sent him on a ten year tour of foreign capitals,
and a year after that they went with a veteran
newsman named Bob Young, and one day Bob Young was
pruning trees at his home and he fell from the
ladder and he was never again quite certain where he was.
By nineteen seventy six, the ABC anchor was the surly
Harry Reasoner, and without asking him first, Arledge anointed Reasoner
(08:42):
and Walters as co anchors, and Arlogs just assumed they
would be a happy TV couple. Reasoner did not want
a co anchor. He certainly did not want a woman
co anchor, and he particularly did not want a woman
co anchor named Barbara Walters. He literally would not say
her name nor look at her on the air. And
(09:03):
that was the nice assist he was to her all day.
As if it could get worse. To entice her away
from NBC, rude Ledge offered to double Barbara's salary to
a million dollars a year, and he made sure to
leak this fact to every newspaper in America. So what well?
The publicity was invaluable to our Ledge and to ABC,
(09:25):
and unfortunately, relative to Barbara, it was one negative. Walter
Cronkite did not make a million a year. He wasn't
making a millionaire when he retired five years later. Harry
Reasoner made two hundred thousand dollars a year. Johnny Carson,
who did four ninety minutes shows a week, was getting
two million a year from NBC. So our ledge had
(09:49):
made Barbara into an anchor for which she would be
widely criticized, forced her to co anchor with a misogynist
who widely criticized her on air and off, on the
record and off, and in case there was anybody left
likely to be on her side, he gave her a
record breaking salary when a million dollars was a million dollars.
(10:09):
Surprisingly enough, the ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner and
Barbara Walters it didn't work out. Who would I guess that?
And for a time she was the punching bag of
television news, in fact, the punching bag of comedy, the
Baba Wawa Gilda Radner character so warmly remembered from Saturday
(10:32):
Night Live when it was funny. They kept bringing it
up after she died last week. Do you think they
did that character because they liked her? They did that
because Barbara Walters was the easiest target in television. And
yet from that point, from a punch line, she became
the Barbara Walters. So correctly eulogized these last three days.
(10:56):
She did that despite, as she wrote, me, I'm not
as tough as I pretend to be, and the support
means the world to me. The reason for Walter's newscast
ended quickly, and forced to do something else with her
and the three more years of her no cut, five year,
five million dollar contract run Arledge agreed to her idea.
(11:17):
The interview beat, big name breaking news interviews Sadat and Bacon,
big name celebrity interviews, Katherine Hepburn, big name hybrid interviews,
Monica Lewinsky, the rest of her story. You know, most
people in broadcasting who I have known, who have experienced
the kind of Titanic meets Iceberg moment that Barbara Walters did,
(11:38):
or in her case, the Titanic meets Iceberg two years
not moment, they don't respond well to that. They carry
a certain understandable bitterness. In fact, no matter how much
success they subsequently achieve, the Iceberg is never far from
their minds. So while we mourn her as a role
(11:59):
model and sealing shatterer, I will remember her always as
the person who, after getting freak a seed for years,
made sure that no compliment went unthanked, and who when
she sensed somebody who was not as tough as they
pretended to be needed a little help, did her best
to provide that help, to support, to reassure you trust me.
(12:23):
Nothing is a total victory in this business. Take the
win your memory, Barbara Walters, as they say, is a
blessing still ahead in a year when the Supreme Court,
(12:51):
his Supreme Court, lost its remaining legitimacy and began to
make Roger B. Tawny and the dread Scott Supreme Court
look good. By contrast, what is the new year's message
from Chief Justice John Roberts. He and Alito and the
other religious zealots are operating without fear or favor. It's
you people out there who are wrong because you're making
(13:12):
the justices feel unsafe by criticizing their corruption. That's next,
This is countdown. The Supreme Court struck down Roe v.
(13:35):
Wade last year after at least four justices lied under
oath to the Senate that it was settled law and
they would not vote to strike down Roe v. Wade.
Somebody connected to Justice Samuel Alito, we believe, leaked a
draft memorandum about that decision in order to keep the
newer religious zealots on the Court in line and not
let them compromise on the ruling. Alito has gone abroad
(13:57):
and publicly mocked the majority in this country as if
he owned us and the court. The Supreme Republican Religious
Court is ready to rule now on a series of
new cases that could further advance fascism in this nation.
And we learned this year that the ex cult member
wife of Justice Clarence Thomas not only texted with various
(14:18):
lunatics on the extreme fringes of the fringe right about
overturning the government, but sent the chief of staff to
the then president a virtual cut and pace job from
the craziest of the q and on psychos about how
quote the Biden crime family would be quote living in
barges off git Mo to face military tribunals for sedition.
(14:39):
But she now regrets her tone. Screw her. But Chief
Justice John Roberts knows the real victims here himself, the Thomas's,
Alito and the others. John Roberts has issued his annual
report on the state of the Federal Judiciary, and he
(15:03):
has ignored all of the US and instead devoted that
report entirely to something else. Quote. The law requires every
judge to swear an oath to perform his or her
work without fear or favor. But we must support judges
by ensuring their safety. A judicial system cannot and should
(15:23):
not live in fear. Chief Justice Roberts needs to resign.
Whatever fear he and the rest of the Supreme Court
may pretend to feel is nothing compared to the fear
of the citizens of this country, who are the justices employers.
That the Court has completely lost touch with reality and
(15:44):
is now merely and entirely a weaponized offshoot of the
Federalist Society, part of the far right power structure, which
has finally accelerated it's decades long goal of eliminating nearly
all of the freedoms of the United States of America.
This is not the first time I have called on
John Roberts to resign, and guess what, I doubt it
will be the last. Last September, at the tenth Circuit
(16:08):
Bench and Bar Conference in Colorado, Roberts first made us
realize that he is, in fact the living, breathing embodiment
of the This is fine dog in the burning room,
only He's Chief Justice. This is fine, and the room
is our nation imperiled by his Supreme Court. Simply because
(16:31):
people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for
questioning the legitimacy of the court. John Roberts is talking
about the blowback to the Supreme Court for having overturned
Roe v. Wade, and he is so wrong it is
nearly impossible for him to continue as Chief Justice. Firstly,
that is not the only basis for questioning legitimacy of
(16:52):
the Supreme Court right at the moment, John, I'll get
to that in a moment, but just as a statement, quote,
because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis
for questioning the legitimacy of the court. That is not
only nonsense, it is historically proven nonsense. There have only
been seventeen Chief Justices of the United States. You would
(17:12):
think one of them Roberts would know about his predecessors,
like one of them, Roger B. Tawney, who oversaw a
Supreme Court so disconnected from reality, whose opinions were so
disagreed with that they were literally ignored, and the Supreme
Court itself was irrelevant in American life for nearly a decade.
The primary decision that nearly destroyed the Tawny Supreme Court
(17:35):
and nearly destroyed the Supreme Court forever was dread Scott,
which forced a freeman back into slavery, as the Roberts
Court ruling on Dobbs will force American women to give
birth against their will to become breeding slaves. But there's
actually an even bigger issue than that. A title wave
is going to wash away the Roberts Supreme Court change
(17:58):
its size and composition at the minimum, and it will
put John Roberts next to Roger B. Tawney on the
shortlist of the most infamous Chief Justices of all time.
And he thinks it's about their verdict, not the political
corruption and subversion of the Constitution that has delegitimized his court.
Listen to more of John Roberts from this Colorado conference
(18:20):
over the week of the court doesn't retain its legitimate
function of interpreting the Constitution. Um, I'm not sure who
would take up that mantle. You don't want the political
branches telling you what the law is. You don't want
the political branches telling you what the law is, John Roberts,
could you be any more naive? One Supreme Court Justice
(18:43):
Clarence Thomas is the husband of a January six insurrectionist,
a pure example of the political branches, specifically one political
party telling you what the law is. Another Supreme Court Justice,
Neil Gorsch, has his seat solely because the political branches,
specifically one politician, the then Senate majority leader, aid up
(19:05):
a rule permitting him to deny even adhering to the
Supreme Court nominee of the president from the other political party.
Another Supreme Court Justice, a glorified paralegal named Amy Coney Barrett,
has her seat solely because, after promising to apply that
made up rule in all future identical circumstances, the political branches,
(19:25):
specifically the leading politicians of the then Senate majority lied
and did not apply that made up rule. All three
of those justices and probably a fourth lied under oath
to the Senate during their confirmation hearings. In writing the
opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. Yet another Justice, Samuel Alito,
(19:46):
not only cited as legal president the hallucinations of a
seventeenth century British judge who used to hang witches, but
he then gave a purely political speech in another country
mocking those in his country, our country, who disagreed with
the witch Hanger and with him and with his personal religion.
(20:08):
Chief Justice Roberts, you don't want the political branches telling
you what the law is. You preside over a political
whorehouse under your stewardship, Roberts, the Supreme Court has less
legal authenticity than the Shariah courts of Iran. You have
taken two hundred and thirty three years of American Supreme
Court history, which survived even Roger B. Tawney and dread Scott,
(20:33):
and destroyed its legitimacy. All of you are wrong on
the facts, wrong on the precedents, wrong on your understanding
of how to conduct yourselves simply as citizens of this country.
Simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a
basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court. We do
not question the legitimacy of your court, Mr Roberts, just
(20:55):
because of a decision that the Senate will sooner or
later erase. We question the legitimacy of your court, Mr Roberts,
because you and your court are illegitimate. What's truly amazing
(21:21):
about John Roberts is he's the fourth least insane member
of the Court. I mean Clarence Thomas is the eighth
least insane member of the Court, the champion, the man
who is not only intent on ending representative government in
this nation, but it's not even bothering to pretend he
is not. We will hear him mock us. Next, this
(21:41):
is countdown to continue on the subject of the Supreme Court.
As three begins, you would have thought John Roberts might
have mentioned in his annual report his purported investigation into
(22:05):
the Roe v. Wade draft leak, unless perhaps that investigation
is proving it was indeed an Alito clerk or other
ally who done it, or that the report might have
included some kind of response to the New York Times
story and the subsequent inquiry from the House and Senate
Judiciary committees that Mr Aldo has had a little trouble
(22:25):
keeping his fascist mouth shut. The Times rather clearly laid
out the evidence that Alito discussed the outcome of the
hobby lobby contraception case with one of the evangelicals pushing
this theocratic horsecrap before the Court issued its opinion. Quoting
the evangelical pushing the theocratic horse crap, pretty much sold
(22:47):
me on the time story. No crickets, well, crickets from Roberts,
crickets from anybody else interested in the American representative government
as we know it now, not crickets from the terrorist
organization that unleashed this court on an unsuspected and unprepared America,
and particularly this worm Alito. When he spoke to the
(23:09):
Federalist Society in November, they knew what he had done,
who he had done it for, and to which cause
he is a hero. Justice Samuel Alito is a prejudiced, dishonest, lazy,
(23:34):
proselytizing fraud with a Messiah complex and an agenda to
serve not the law, not the democracy, not the nation,
but to serve his own religious beliefs. He is intent
on turning the Supreme Court into the Republican Supreme Religious Court,
and intent on turning this nation into a theocracy. And
(23:55):
he has gotten quite a headstart on both. And yet somehow,
this week, on the eve of the investiture of Justice Jackson,
he has reached a personal new high inlow. It goes
without saying that everyone is free to express disagreement with
our decisions and to criticize our reasoning as they see
(24:17):
fit Alito said in response to a stark but mild
reality check from Justice Elena Kagan. But saying or implying
that the Court is becoming an illegitimate institution, or questioning
our integrity crosses an important line, Mr Alito. You have
(24:40):
no integrity left to be questioned. Mr Alito, Your institution
consists of at least four justices who perjured themselves under
oath to the Senate in their confirmation hearings. One of
your justice is Mr. Alito, is married to a woman
who needed to testify yesterday to the House committee investigating
(25:01):
the attempt to overthrow the government of the United States
by coup, and she had to reassure that committee that
she never discussed any of her involvement with her husband
the Justice. These justices, Mr Alito, are illegitimate, and they
alone would make the Court illegitimate. Mr Alito, at least
(25:23):
one of your justices sits with you only because of
the destruction of the Senate of the United States by
its lead Republican member. The line, Sir, was crossed when
Merrick Garland was pocket vetoed. Ever since that moment, your
institution has been nothing more than a tool of the
Republican Party, designed to use the trappings of the law
(25:47):
to legitimize the illegitimate, and to assert integrity when there
is nothing but corruption. Mr Alito, you are a political prostitute.
And Justice Clarence Thomas is a political prostitute. Justice Neil
Gore Sitch is a political prostitute. Justice Brett Kavanaugh is
(26:08):
a political prostitute. Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a political prostitute.
Chief Justice John Roberts is a political prostitute. Whatever you
once aspired to, Mr Alito, whatever you believed you had
become when you were given your seat, whatever dignity or
respect you thought you were now owed, you have long
(26:32):
since forfeited, and forfeited beyond the most remote possibility of reclamation.
You and that room full of partisan hacks have destroyed
the Supreme Court of the United States, And had you
either intelligence or dignity, you would resign and devote the
rest of your life to seeking forgiveness for the damage
(26:53):
you have personally inflicted up on this nation in the
name of a corrupt and morally bankrupt political party, and
in the name of religion, not just your religion, but
all religions, which, whatever else it is or is not.
Is just a belief, just a hope, just a wish,
(27:14):
perhaps more reliable than a horoscope, but perhaps not. Two
years ago, sixty seven percent of this country said it
had a great deal or fair amount of trust in
the Supreme Court. Last year that number was still fifty
(27:34):
four percent. As of a Gallop poll released yesterday, it
is now forty seven percent. The Court's job approval in
twenty was percent it is now. The political majority has
not changed on the Court since. Indeed it has not
changed since the citizens of this country have not politicized
(27:59):
their view of you and the Court, Mr Aldo. It
is you and the frauds with whom you sit who
have politicized the Court beyond this nation's ability to withstand
it anymore. And it is you and the frauds with
whom you sit who have now substituted the Bible for
the law book. Saying or implying that the Court is
(28:22):
becoming an illegitimate institution, or questioning our integrity crosses an
important line. No one has said this, Mr Alito, but
you and the charlatan's in robes around you have accomplished this.
You are the assassins of your own institution, and you
(28:43):
are the murderers of your own integrity, and you are
the erasers of the most important line between legal impartiality
and political fuggery. The very worst moments, said Justice Cagan,
of the Court's history, have been times when judges have
even essentially reflected one parties or one ideology set of
(29:07):
views in their legal decisions. The thing that builds up
reservoirs of public confidence is the court acting like a
court and not acting like an extension of the political process.
If over time the court loses all connection with the
public and with public sentiment, that is a dangerous thing
(29:28):
for democracy. To that judicious, polite, almost milk toast recitation
of facts from Justice Kagan, You, Mr Alito, decided you
needed to try to metaphorically martyr yourself and to threaten
this country for having had the nerve to recognize your
illegitimacy and the audacity to question what had been your integrity.
(29:54):
The Alito Court, and make no mistake, it is his court,
John Roberts is sinking into utter irrelevance. The Alito Court
is to hear cases starting next month that could roll
back affirmative action in the admissions offices at Harvard and
the University of North Carolina, and thus at every American
college and university. The Court may circumscribe the Voting Rights
(30:18):
Act as it pertains to draw in congressional districts and
African American voters. It may rule to permit rogue state
legislatures to eliminate election results at will. It may repeal
laws that protect lgbt Q customers from discrimination by businesses.
(30:39):
Do we expect the Alito Court will examine legal precedents
or the opinions of televangelists. You probably already know of
Alito's speech in Rome in July at the Notre Dame
Religious Freedom Summit, which, as with most religious conferences, is
misnamed and was actually the Notre Dame Religious You have
(31:03):
no freedom but to obey us summit. You probably heard
him mock the world leaders who were appalled by the
courts dishonest overturning of Roe v. Wade, with its reliance
on the legal wisdom of a judge who used to
oversee the hanging of witches. You may have heard him
bash secular values and the quote new Moral Code, but
(31:27):
you probably did not hear him tell this meaningless anecdote
which he told with the gravity of someone who has
just watched the burning of an original copy of the Constitution.
I'm reminded of an experience I had a number of
years ago in a museum in um in Berlin. One
(31:51):
of the exhibits was a rustic wooden cross. A young uh,
an effluent woman, a well dressed woman, and a young
boy were looking at this exhibit, and the young boy
he turned to the woman, presumably his mother, and said,
who is that man? That memory has stuck in my
(32:13):
mind as a harbinger of what may lie ahead for
our culture. Samuel Alito believes it is his job. It
is the job of an American judge. It is the
job of the Supreme Court. It is the job of
the United States of America government to force its citizens
to be able to identify a man on a cross
(32:36):
who may or may not have ever existed, To force
them to honor the businesses that have built themselves into
world influencing powers by attributing quotes to this potentially fictional character,
and to defer to the interpretations of what this man,
who may or may not have ever lived, had to
(32:57):
say about what the laws of the United States of
America should be and who the President of the United
States of America should be. Mr Alito, that rustic wouldn't
cross I have a suggestion where you can put it.
There is one last vital point about what Samuel Alito
said and the danger it represents and the necessity for
(33:20):
action that it causes. When Alito says, questioning the court's
integrity quote crosses an important line? What line does he mean?
What also does he believe should be done after whatever
that line is is crossed? I believe the answer is
(33:46):
far more ominous than is currently being recognized. On June
this year, I tweeted, forgive the self quote it has
become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States.
The first step is for a state the court has
now forced guns of onon to ignore this ruling. Great
(34:07):
your court, Why and how do you think you can
enforce your rulings? Hashtag ignore the Court? It's a tweet.
Three days later, on June, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida
retweeted my remarks and added quote, it is a federal
(34:28):
offense to incite rebellion or insurrection against the authority of
the United States or the laws there of what Rubio
all but said there. What Alito has opaquely danced around
when asserting the questioning the Court's integrity crosses an important
line is that they intend not just to suppress criticism
(34:53):
of a corrupt, prostituted Supreme Court, but to criminalize it.
If Marco Rubio can look at a tweet calling for
states to ignore court rulings, which is one of the
court values of his Republican party, if he can do
that and apply that I am guilty of inciting rebellion
(35:15):
and insurrection by tweeting, then, unfortunately, we have to take
Aldo's reference to saying or implying that the Court is
becoming an illegitimate institution, or questioning our integrity crosses an
important line. Not as a defensive holier than Thou spasm,
(35:38):
but as a threat to every one of us. I've
done all the damage I can do here. Thank you
for listening. If you're not following or subscribing to the podcast,
please do so. You do not have to use your
own name, I am told. Here are our credits. Most
(36:01):
of the music, including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged,
produced and performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle.
They are the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards
by John Philip Chanelle, guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray,
produced by T k O Brothers. Another Beethoven selections have
been arranged and performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports
music is the Old Woman theme from ESPN two. It
(36:23):
was written by Mitch Warren Davis. It appears courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Musical comments from Nancy Fausts, the best baseball stadium organist ever.
Everything else is pretty much my fault. So let's countdown
for this the seven seven day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him now while we still can. A new edition
(36:45):
tomorrow as we resume the regular five day a week schedule.
Until then, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night,
and good luck. Countdown with Keith Alderman is a production
(37:10):
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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