April 17, 2024 • 47 mins
SERIES 2 EPISODE 159: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: There’s nothing better than a good NAP.
“Now: Trump’s head slowly dropped, his eyes closed. It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself. Then, his head droops again. He straightens up, leaning back. His head drops for a third time, he shakes his shoulders. Eyes closed still. His head drops. Finally, he pops his eyes open. My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains my sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, or emptied some dull opiate to the drains."
Honestly: You’re Trump, on Monday they literally catch you napping. How do you possibly go in there yesterday and get caught napping… at least TWICE. One video, or one rapid-shutter sequence of still pictures of “Trump’s head slowly dropped, his eyes closed. It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself. Then, his head droops again” and we don’t have to WATCH the rest of the trial, he’d be DONE.
Looks like we'll get this started Monday. Seven jurors chosen. I had forgotten what I learned during two days in the NYC jury pool in 2013: it is surprisingly easy to find enough people who don’t know anything about anything to fill up a New York jury. Meanwhile Trump tried out his new defense: He knows nothing. Billionaire businessman, greatest mind of his or any other generation, but when it comes to paying off Stormy Daniels to bury her story and illegally keep bad facts about himself away from the eyes of the electorate weeks before the election, and then turning the thing into a clear crime by trying to write it off as a business expense? He knows nothing. He doesn’t know the accountant. He doesn’t know the lawyer. He didn’t know anything about the document. He didn’t know anything about the deduction. He just signed whatever they put in front of him. Because the billionaire businessman knows NOTHING about his own business!
ALSO: The picture is a rare one of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene with her mouth shut. It's in The New Republic and above it the magazine's question is: “Russia is Buying Politicians in Europe. Is it Happening Here Too?” After Greene decided to try to fire another Speaker of the House to destabilize our government further, and her screw-up in the Mayorkas hearing, it's a question worth exploring.
B-Block (24:38) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Baseball's uniform scandal is back. The pitcher is wearing the batboy's pants. The Speaker of the House had his brain trust look at his new bill first: Libs of TikTok and DC Draino and a 1/6 defendant. And I used to think the Supreme Court Justices were merely not there to do justice or defend the constitution. Now I'm not sure they're from this country, nor have more of a legal education than I do (and I took one law class 37 years ago).
C-Block (33:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just passed the quarter century anniversary of one of the most fun, most unexpected events of my career. How many people do you know who can say this: Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon pulled me on to the Red Carpet at the Oscars - and they broke my cummerbund!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. There's
nothing better than a good nap now. Trump's head slowly dropped,
(00:28):
his eyes closed. It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself,
then his head droops again. He straightens up, leaning back,
his head drops for a third time. He shakes his shoulders,
eyes closed, still, his head drops. Finally, he pops his
(00:49):
eyes open. Frank Runyon, Pool Reporter and New York Courts Reporter,
Law three sixty ten thirty am, April sixteenth, twenty twenty four.
My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains my sense,
as though of hemlock I had drunk or emptied some
dull opiate to the drain. John Keats owed to a nightingale,
(01:10):
May eighteen nineteen. Trump is leaning back and his eyes
appear to be closed. His head is occasionally tilting. Isaac Arnsdorf,
Washington Post Reporter, three thirty five PM, April sixteenth, twenty
twenty four. Fly ball to Wright. Winfield goes back to
the wall. He hits his head on the wall and
(01:31):
it rolls off. It's rolling all the way back to
second base. This is a terrible thing. Jerry Coleman San
Diego Padres baseball broadcast circa nineteen seventy seven. They finished
for the day and will resume tomorrow. Justice Merschawan first
admonishing Trump for gesturing and talking in the direction of
(01:53):
a jury candidate. Your client was audibly uttering, he told
defendant Jay's attorneys. It was audible, he was gesturing, and
he was speaking in the direction of the juror. I
will not have any jury intimidated in the court room.
I was surprised Trump didn't just reply, sorry, talking in
my sleep. Trump then left to exploit a crime that
(02:14):
happened at a Harlem bodega, possibly his first time in
Harlem in his goddamned life. And it looks like, despite
all the doomsayers me included, they will start the Trump
election interference trial next Monday, nine thirty am opening statements.
That is what Justice Merschaan told the court just before
shutting down yesterday after he had seated seven of the
(02:38):
eighteen jurors required, again validating the veteran legal reporters who
say it is surprisingly easy, especially in New York, to
find enough people who don't know anything about anything to
fill up a jury. I had forgotten my two days
in the New York jury pool room here eleven years ago,
(02:58):
when I deliberately sat near the guy in charge so
I could hear the kinds of questions he had to
deal with. For about an hour, I was terrified for
the future of humanity, I mean the future of humanity
for the remainder of that week, also for the future
of this poor man's psyche, and I asked if I
could go get him coffee or heroine or something. There
(03:20):
is already a four person dur B four hundred lives
in West Harlem, but originally was from Ireland. Was a waiter,
now in sales, some college. His spouses in school. They
have no children. He's outdoorsy. In his spare time, he
reads the New York Times and the Daily Mail. Gets
the rest of his news from MSNBC and Fox. Repeating
(03:43):
what I said before, It is surprisingly easy to find
enough people in New York who don't know anything about
anything to fill up a jury or to be the defendant.
That is Trump's latest claim. He knows nothing, billionaire businessman,
greatest mind of this or any other generation. But when
it comes to paying off Stormy Dan to bury her
(04:05):
story to illegally keep bad facts about himself away from
the eyes of the electorate weeks before the election, and
then turning the thing into a clear crime by trying
to write it off as a business expense. He knows nothing.
He doesn't know the accountant, he doesn't know the lawyer,
he doesn't know the law. He didn't know anything about
the document, he didn't know anything about the deduction. He
(04:28):
just signed whatever they put in front of him, because
the billionaire businessman knows nothing about his own business.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Was lawyer and marking down.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
A legal expense on account I know, marking down a
legal expense. That's exactly what it was. And you did
indict over no wonder. He keeps falling asleep in the courtroom.
This business stuff, it's all so boring to him. And honestly,
(05:01):
your Trump, on Monday, they literally catch you. How do
you possibly go in there on Tuesday and get caught napping?
At least twice more? One video or one rapid shutter
sequence of still pictures of Trump's head slowly dropped, his
eyes closed, it jerked back upward, he adjusts himself, then
(05:23):
his head droops again. One video of that or a
couple of good pictures, and we don't have to watch
the rest of this trial to see how it turns out.
He would be done. The New Republic asked the question
(05:46):
before yesterday's Marjorie Taylor Green debacle, and before Tom Cotton
suggested Americans protesting about the war in the Middle East
should be run over and killed by other Americans who
are angry about traffic. But it doesn't change much, and
it certainly doesn't require them to change the picture under
the startling question in their headline. The picture is a
(06:08):
rare one of Congresswoman Green with her mouth shut, and
the New Republic's question is, quote, Russia is buying politicians
in Europe? Is it happening here too? The message from
the magazine is clear, looking at you, Marge, the possibility
of that, never mind influencers and conspiracies. It boils down
(06:29):
to the Eric Idol Ruttles satirical song All you need
is cash, the possibility of that momentarily. First, what Cotton
and Green have now done. Senator Tom Cotton, who last
reminded America that he may be our worst senator, even
worse than Marsha Blackburn or Grassley or Cinema, reminded us
of that when The New York Times let him write
(06:50):
an op ed saying Trump should use the military to
disperse peaceful civilian protesters. He has now softened his stance
on that. Now he wants vigilantes to use their cars
to disperse peaceful civilian protesters. At nine pm Eastern Monday night,
Cotton again, a sitting US senator, a double Harvard graduate.
(07:14):
Back when one did not try to deny that part
of one's educational resume. Another military veteran who may not
really believe he was ever discharged and may not really
accept that he's no longer paid to kill other human beings,
Tom Cotton posted, I encourage people who get stuck behind
the pro hamas mobs blocking traffic, take matters into your
(07:36):
own hands. It's time to put an end to this nonsense.
The implication was unmistakable. Run them over with your car,
shoot them whatever. Why does he care? He's stochastically getting
you to kill them for him. Six minutes later, Tom
Cotton decided better that tweet, and instead of deleting it
(07:57):
or discouraging people from you know, political assassination of their
neighbors or road rage, he edited the post to read
I encourage people who get stuck behind the prohamas mobs
blocking traffic. Here comes the edit. Take matters into your
own hands to get them out of the way. It's
time to put an end to this nonsense. Unquote. It's
(08:21):
a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off
for him. This is nothing new. Ron DeSantis passed a
law calling a protest by three or more people in
Florida a riot and telling Florida drivers if they threatened
or felt threatened by a riot on a road, they
can drive their cars into the rioters. When George Wallace
ran as a third party presidential candidate nineteen sixty eight,
(08:43):
he responded to protesters lying down in front of President
Johnson's limo by saying that if they tried that in
front of his presidential limousine, it'd be the last limo
they ever lay down in front of. But Cotton as
the have the troops shoot the civilian's op ed showed
clearly fetishizes killing Americans as many possible, and the Russia
(09:06):
hook is he's loudly pro Ukraine, yet under the surface
he has repeatedly refused to condemn Trump's repeated praising of
Putin he wouldn't criticize Trump, saying that he would not
defend NATO from Russia and that he'd tell Putin to
do whatever the hell he wanted. And Business Insider quoted
FBC records showing that Cotton got more than forty thousand
(09:26):
dollars in quote contributions from a donor profiting off Russia's
war on Ukraine. But still that's just because he's an asshole, right,
Maybe some PTSD and fascism mixed in and too much
time at Harvard, there couldn't be cash considerations.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
But then there's Marjorie bitter Green. Hell of a week,
she's having tweets quote it's anti semitic to make Israeli
aid contingent on funding Ukrainian Nazis. Then moves to fire
another Speaker of the House because he's on the verge
of maybe getting Ukrainian aid passed, and because the condition
of the House of Representatives had just been upgraded from
(10:07):
chaotic to spasmodic and Russia needs it to be chaotic again.
That was preface to her face plant during yet another
hearing featuring her arch nemesis. No no, no, no, not reality.
Her other arch nemesis Homeland Security Secretary Majorcis.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Blake and Riley.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
You're familiar with her, right, I'm just be art break.
Are you familiar with Lake and Riley? I am familiar
with the case. You should have deported her so that
she could be alive today. Her parents would have appreciated that. Yeah, okay,
hun Lake and Riley was the murder victim, not the perpetrator.
(10:51):
Y'all should emulate your boy Trump and take a nap
from time to time. How about twenty four hours a day? Now?
You could argue that if Russia really were paying US
politicians to advocate for them and try to destroy this
country from within, they'd be able to get smarter ones
than Marjorie fing Green. But maybe not. Last month, a
(11:13):
couple of dozen European politicians, including some members of the
European Parliament, were arrested in Poland and the Czech Republic
for taking cash from Russian oligarchs to contribute anti Ukraine stories,
mostly to a website called Voice of Europe. Last month,
Russia was caught paying off local politicians in Cyprus and
Germany and Italy to introduce legislation actually written by Russian intelligence,
(11:39):
and also to write articles in local newspapers and use
their own names when they did so. This is why
Marjorie Green's stupidity is not a bug but a feature.
As The New Republic notes, one of the paid off
Europeans was really offended that the article the Russians wanted
him to pass off as his own under his own
byline was really poorly written. That he had a reputation
(12:02):
that quote, I am not a robot. He was taking
international bribes from a terrorist state, and he was worried
about how the article would affect his literary standing. Unclear
if he got the cash or the crypto, but he
got something, and the article LOWSI or not got printed
(12:22):
under his name. That can't happen here. It can't happen.
It can't happen here. Doc is here, Doc isn't here,
doc is here. It can't happen here. I'll let Alex
Finley of the New Republic pick this up at this point,
quoting him. It is naive to think the same pattern
does not exist in the United States, given the ample
(12:43):
evidence of coordinated pro Russian talking points from several Republican
politicians just this week, Marjorie Taylor Green spoke to Steve
Bannon about Ukraine's persecution of Christians, which is a Kremlin
talking point aimed at boosting the pro Moscow wing of
Ukraine's Orthodox Church. The US should be spending money on
(13:04):
the border with Mexico, not on Ukraine, aid, that's a
Kremlin talking point. Russia invaded Ukraine to defend itself against
an expanding NATO. That's a Kremlin talking point. Call for
a ceasefire and give Russia Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. That's
a Kremlin talking point. As the Director of National Intelligence
wrote in twenty twenty one, Russian intelligence operatives and their
(13:27):
proxies sought to use prominent US persons and media conduits
to launder their narratives to US officials and audiences. These
Russian proxies met with and provided materials to Trump administration
linked US persons to advocate for formal investigations, hired a
US firm to petition US officials, and attempted to make
(13:50):
contact with several senior US officials. They also made contact
with established US media figures quote huh, established US media
figures spewing Russian talking points, probably for money, probably a
(14:11):
lot less money than you'd think too, so somebody in
media who's notoriously personally cheap. I do not have a
guess any established US media figures hard up for cash
or paranoid about cash after losing, say a twenty million
dollar a year TV anchoring contract. I mean, besides which,
(14:37):
what do you think a Marjorie Taylor Green would cost?
I mean, look at the workmanship. It's not as if
Russia's influence here, both to undermine efforts to stop their
test war in Ukraine and to simply f with US,
is not being recognized. Chairman Mike Turner of the House
Intel Committee went on CNN and said, quote, we see
(14:58):
directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are
anti Ukraine and pro Russia messages, some of which we
even hear being uttered on the House floor. Days earlier,
it had been Chairman Michael McCall of House Foreign Affairs.
He told Puck News. I think Russian propaganda has made
its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it's infected
(15:19):
a good chunk of my party's base. Nothing spreads political
disinformation infection faster than money, by the way, I know,
you know, but let me emphasize this. The House is
in Republican hands. Those two chairmen admitting we are being
informationally invaded by Russia. Turner and McCall, they are Republicans.
(15:45):
The craziest part of the New Republic's theory of corruption
for cash the one that literally has Marjorie Taylor Green's
face on it on the article and only incidental references
to Trump media being kept financially afloat by Russian banks.
The craziest part is that Green's latest attack on the
American establishment seemingly on the reinvigorated anti Russian pro Ukrainian
(16:08):
push in the House. It's against Speaker Mike Johnson. But
last October, Newsweek reported that in twenty eighteen, Mike Johnson
received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from
the Texas based American Ethane company Made Prominent and Wealthy
by good Old Texas nohow led by an eighty eight
(16:29):
percent owned by three good Old Texans named Andre Konatbiev,
Konstantine Nikolayev, and Mikhail Yuev. The Speaker's office says it
returned the money as soon as it found out that
American Athene was not owned by three guys named Curly
Texan Clayton. Makes you wonder if Green is attacking Johnson
(16:52):
because he returned the Athane money, or perhaps because he
hasn't earned it yet. CBS News poll, By the way,
where do you get your information from about Russia's invasion
of Ukraine? Republicans? Which sources do you trust? Republicans? Multiple
(17:14):
sources here, so it doesn't add up to one hundred.
It's more than one hundred. State Department twenty seven percent
say yes. Among others, journalists in the war zone thirty
three percent, Conservative media fifty six percent, the Pentagon sixty percent,
topping the list. Though seventy nine percent of Republicans get
their information about Ukraine from Trump, and this is not
(17:39):
part of that CBS poll, but it underscores that the
process of healing the Republicans amazing stupidity and gullibility and
ability to monetize lies that kill people and kill democracy,
the process of curing this country is far more than
even horrifying poll numbers like that Republicans believe Trump because
the world is complex and they are not leaving it
(18:02):
to him is way easy than trying to figure it
out for themselves with brains unequipped to do so, and
if you ask. But whatever he's talking about, he changes
his stories every day, his viewpoints, his claims of what
he said previously and what he meant when he said it.
He changes these things endlessly. Left is right and up
(18:25):
is down. Well, that's even better for these Republicans, even
if he's lying, especially if he's lying. Listen to William Wolf,
former Trump Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and appointee at State.
It's like Trump favoring an abortion band. Wolf says, of
course he's lying about it, only he's lying about lying
(18:46):
about it, and that makes it not lying at makes
it cloaking.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I actually think there's wisdom in cloaking some of your
power levels and maybe some of the things that you're
trying to do. And then once you secure power and
you have it, you govern in a more extreme position.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
He's not lying, he's cloaking a cloaking device like star
Trek or an invisibility cloak, like good old Harry Potter.
You don't call it lying. He caught cloaking. It's a
new way of lying, and it's a good thing, because
(19:26):
Trump says so. Also of interest here, I don't know
when I stopped believing that the Supreme Court actually ruled
on legal issues, rather than that it existed solely to
make sure that some politically inconvenient laws or parts of
the Constitution got crushed for the benefit of the Republicans
(19:47):
and the rich people. But I know I was already
an adult when I figured it out. Right now, I
am so far from that naivete that I question whether
or not I believe that the six Conservatives are even
from this country, or that they have more of a
legal education than I do. Which was one undergraduate college
class mostly about communications law. In the January sixth related
(20:11):
case now before them, Justice Alito asks how the insurrection
and attempted overthrow of an election and the real president elect,
how is that different from people heckling the Supreme Court?
And the attorney has the restraint to not say, because
none of you assholes or your security died at the
(20:35):
hands of that mob, that mob of people that you
think heckled you, You moron. That's next. This is countdown.
This is countdown, with Keith o'd woman still ahead of
(21:13):
us on this ediative countdown. Late last month, we passed
the quarter century anniversary of one of the most joyful
moments of my career, and I have been thinking of
it off and on ever since March nineteen ninety nine.
Tom Hanks assaults me at the Oscars. With the help
(21:35):
of two Hollywood newcomers named Ben Affleck and Matt Damon,
the bastards broke the cum abund on my tuxedo ahead
in things I promised not to tell first, still more
new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the
miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute
two days non commer bund breaking worst persons in the
(21:59):
world the bronze worse Major League Baseball, and this gives
me a moment to mention that apparently we're having another
baseball rapture. The next to last living member of the
World champion nineteen fifty five Brooklyn Dodgers, Carl Erskine, died yesterday,
leaving only Sandy Kofax and Hall of Fame manager Whitey
(22:19):
Herzog of the Royals and the Cardinals died Ken Holtzman
the other day. Fritz Peterson last week I mentioned him
at length. Yesterday, Jerry Grody, Bunn Harrison, Jim McAndrew of
the sixty nine Mets, Pat Zachary and Don Gullet of
the seventy six champion reds ed ott fourteen x major
league players just since the start of spring training on
(22:41):
a happier note, or at least a sillier one. Remember
this year's big baseball controversy, I mean the one before
the show. Hey, Otani's interpreter made three hundred and twenty
five million dollars worth of bets and stole sixteen million
bucks from Otani scandal. Remember the uniform scandal where the
new better, wicking, lighter feeling, redesigned uniforms turned out to
(23:04):
be delivered late, like months late, and they wrinkled in
the rain, and they had tiny lettering on them. And
they have pants and shirts in which the colors don't match,
not even gray and gray. And they have the pants
that are more see through than pants have been previously.
That scandal, it's back the Seattle Mariners wore their City
(23:26):
Connect uniforms. It's a merchandizing thing. Everything in baseball today
is a merchandizing thing. And we are still awaiting a
full explanation from the Seattle Times of its cryptic report
that the pants of Seattle pitcher Bryce Miller did not
fit correctly, and so he instead wore the City Connect
(23:47):
uniform pants of a team bat boy. The only update
on this so far. Miller apparently complained that the bat
boy's pants kept riding up on him, which makes you
wonder whether his pants were so short that they were
actually designed for somebody else's son. And further details as
they become available. Speaking of a little short, the runner
(24:10):
up worser Mike Johnson, I know the Democrats may save
him and anybody Marjorie Taylor Green hates is a little
less schmucky than she is, and certainly, as noted earlier,
he's less Russian than the others. But still, what a
weasel that stunt last week in which he asked Trump
for permission to go worship him at marri Lago and
(24:30):
do a joint news conference about election integrity and then
introduce a performance art bill about demanding voter ID for
all voters, which they already have before he showed the
bill to anybody else in the House. According to NBC News,
Johnson showed it to d C. Draino. D C. Draino
(24:52):
is one of those conservative morons with a stick on
Twitter X. His reel name is broken oh Crapshack or
whatever it is. Showed it to Broken oh Crapshack first
to get him to use his influence ray to drum
up support online, which of course would then get back
to Trump. How much Johnson's idea would help Trump, But
(25:13):
it wasn't just d C draino. And I can't tell
if he's trying to be clever by spelling it dri
n when the product itself is spelled dr no, or
he's just too stupid to spell it correctly. In any event,
Johnson also shared the bill with libs of TikTok and
end Wokeness and Chrissy Clark, who apparently could not think
(25:37):
of a clever name, but he did not share it
with Cat Turd, Poor cat Turd, though Johnson did eventually
share it with Isabella de Luca, who is not just
an influencer, she's also a big big deal in moron
world because she's a January sixth defendant. Speaking of which,
(26:00):
our winners the conservative members of the Supreme Religious Court,
and yesterday they heard oral arguments in a case that
would invalidate the use of the obstruction of an official
proceedings law under which hundreds of January sixth defendants have
been convicted, some of whom that was the only charge
against them. So the case is basically asking John Roberts
(26:22):
and Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas and three Trump appointees
whether or not they want to free several dozen Trump thugs.
Ellie miss Stal from the nation, says Justice Neil Gorsich,
made an analogy between the January sixth rioters attacking the
US capital, between that and the day that Congressman Jamal
Bowman set off a fire alarm by opening a locked
(26:45):
door at the Capitol. Justice Alito asked how this was
any different from people heckling the Supreme Court. Oh no,
he was broken in half by a heckle. And Justice Thomas,
who simply put, is goddamned lucky. His wife has not
been in prison for the last three years over January sixth,
(27:07):
actually maybe the last thirty years. Justice Thomas insisted that legally,
January sixth is no different than any other attempt to
disrupt official proceedings. Why, yes, Clarence, I agree with you. You
are right. It is no different than any other attempt
to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, instigated and organized
and promoted by a lame duck president who wanted to
(27:29):
stay in office even though he lost, and who probably
wanted to jail or harm the actual president elect. I
just hope that all of these arguments these fascists are
using while finding excuses to make heroes out of traders,
that they will remember them if the day comes that
some large crowd, probably made up of conservatives who think
(27:52):
that justices are not conservative enough, when a large crowd
of conservatives storms the court the way Trump's insurrectionists so
benignly pulled the fire alarm at the Capitol on January sixth,
I just hope they remember all of their own arguments
while they are fleeing gorsicch Thomas Kavanaugh, Barrett Alito, Roberts,
(28:15):
He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind,
Two Days, Wars, Parsons, Eorld, ah just twenty five years ago.
(28:41):
Things I promised not to tell takes you back in time,
like things I already experienced in my career, could somehow
be ahead in time to March nineteen ninety nine, with
a little detour. First, they were everywhere photos and video
of what certainly looked from a distance like actor Tom
Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson yelling at, maybe even berating,
(29:07):
an unidentified random staffer on the red carpet at the
twenty twenty three Con Film Festival in France while promoting
his new movie Asteroid City. At various intervals, Hanks seems
to have a fist clenched, then seems to be jabbing
his forefinger at the man. Throughout he appeared to wear
(29:27):
a look of disbelief verging on anger. European newspapers were
filled for two days with stories about Tom Hanks yells
at Con and Tom Hanks yells at staffer and Tom
Hanks skulls con staffer, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And then his wife Rita spoke up, Then the staffer,
(29:47):
Vincent Chapalaine, spoke up. Then the sound on the video
spoke up louder than either of them. Tom Hanks wasn't
scolding anybody, but he was yelling because he could not
hear himself or this Vincent Chapalaine or anything else, because
the crowd around the red carpet was too loud. The
(30:09):
clenched hand, Tom Hanks clenched it while he was yelling,
I can't hear you. Everybody's screaming the jabbing forefinger. It
went with where are we supposed to go? Are we
supposed to go back to the start of the red carpet?
Just point at where you want us to go? And
the scolding of the random staffer. Vince as Chapelaine is
(30:30):
the manager of the Red Carpet at Khan has been
for ten years. The only thing he was taking offense
at was people presuming he was just security rather than management.
These are the French Khan. You hear me? Now, this
is an unusual story to include here, and I've gone
(30:51):
into unusual detail about it because the moment I saw
this story from KHN, I didn't have mere deja vu.
I had a full flashback, a full out of body experience,
time travel. I was propelled back to March twenty first,
nineteen ninety nine, where a similar overhead view of Tom
(31:12):
Hanks on a red carpet, without any audio, without any context,
would have presented you a picture of first Tom Hanks
and then Tom Hanks, with the assistance of Ben Affleck
and Matt Damon, assaulting a guy literally pulling him over
the hedges that served as the security boundary, damaging the
guy's clothing, and then basically throwing him back over the hedges,
(31:37):
and all this took place on a red carpet at
the Oscars. The guy was me. In nineteen ninety nine.
I had just started what began as a pretty good gig.
Fox Sports had launched its own version of ESPN and
its own version of SportsCenter, and it had thrown way
too much money at me, and it bought me out
(31:59):
of my contract at MSNBC, where I was desperately unhappy
doing the Clinton Lewinsky story every hour on the hour,
and they got me to move back to Los Angeles
and anchor their version of Sports Center and all the
Fox Baseball coverage two including the World Series in the
All Star Game, and it launched a five year plan
to give itself enough credibility to compete with the ESPN.
(32:20):
And I was just there to enjoy the sun, collect
the huge paycheck, and publicize the thing as often as
possible while they slowly built it up for the year
two thousand and four. As the executive who signed me said,
after we held an introductory press conference and press phone call,
with about two hundred reporters, you earned about a year
(32:41):
of your salary just doing that call. So when one
of the editors of the Los Angeles Times called somebody
she knew in the PR department at Fox and said,
I have a crazy idea, what is Keith Olberman doing
on Oscars night? The Fox people listened. The next thing
I knew I had that night off. I was in
a tux. I was standing the mid a sea off
(33:03):
photographers at the first turn of the red carpet at
the Oscars, gathering quotes from startled celebrities who expected to
see only photogs right there and not somebody asking questions,
certainly not me asking questions. I was a little startled too.
The editor, in a pre Oscars phone call, explained that
(33:23):
this was the seventy first edition of the Oscars, and
the Times had covered the first seventy and then they
had pretty much gotten it down to science around the
year nineteen thirty two, and they really hadn't changed much
since then, except the photos are in color now, she mentioned.
She asked if I wanted to hear what would be
in the Times the day after the Oscars, She said,
(33:43):
I can recite the main story Right now, I just
have to fill in the names of the winners. And
then there's the fashion review and how many daring and
outlandish and classic outfits there were. Now I'll have the
TV critic complaining about how bad the host was. No,
I'll had the TV business guy explaining why the ratings
were so low. Then we'll have the big pull quotes
from the actors that will re exactly like the big
(34:05):
poll quotes from nineteen eighty nine or nineteen seventy nine.
And we'll have the predictive piece on which award wins
will actually help movies at the box office. And then
we'll have the predictive piece on which awards snubs will
actually hurt movies at the box office. What we need
is anything else? Can you think of anything else? Can
you think of anything you haven't read in our paper
(34:27):
about the Oscars? I thought for a second, I said,
what about this idea that they're now going to televise
the Red Carpet live for half an hour before the Oscars.
You're gonna have like an Oscars pregame show. I heard
somebody say, you know, maybe they could do that all day.
I mean, what if I asked everybody like, like, whoever
(34:48):
will stop to talk to me, I mean, what if
I ask them they think would be a good idea
to make the Oscars an all day kind of thing,
like like Super Bowl Sunday Oscar Sunday Oscar Bowl Live
starting at dawn on ABC. I mean I could basically
write you the lead paragraph. Now, thanks for attending Oscar Bowl.
I please ask your limo driver to tune into the
(35:10):
postgame show with Vince Gully, Uma Thurman, and Angeline not
Angeline Edie Williams arrive home safely. The editor laughed, had
me repeat it, and wrote it down. It was the
lead of my story. So on the night of March
(35:31):
twenty first, nineteen ninety nine Oscars Night, there I was
officially a sports reporter and ex news reporter and ex
local LA sportscaster on top of everything else. There I
was at the first corner of the red carpet in
front of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, standing where one of
the eighty or so LA Times photographers should have been.
(35:51):
And I never found out what he thought of this idea.
And I was introducing myself to actors and actresses who
and producers and other people who had no idea who
I was. Helen Hunt was particularly confused and explaining why
I was there to actors and actresses who knew exactly
who I was. Kevin Costner was particularly confused. Some of
(36:11):
them gave thoughtful answers to my question about an all
day oscars. Helen Hunt actually thought about it and said
something interesting. Costner said he would never watch anything like
that instead of say college basketball. He recommended against doing it,
and he said, we already know too much about the
things we already know about. And I knew exactly what
he meant. What a great quote. We shook hands, and
(36:33):
cost took a deep breath, and he moved towards the
gauntlet of the next five hundred reporters down the red
carpet and said, wish me luck Keith. Within two minutes,
I then saw Costner walking back towards me. Can you
give me a favor? I mean, I'm sorry, but can
you not run that quote. I've never retracted a quote
in my life, but that'll make me sound like Yogi Bera.
(36:58):
I said, it didn't make him sound like Yogi berra.
It was perfect and everybody would know exactly what he meant.
But of course, if that's what he was wanted, I'd
forget it. I wouldn't use the quote until now. Anyway,
I had enough color and quotes, and technically my article
was going to be labeled arrivals. So it was done
already as night began to fall, and I had one
(37:18):
particular piece of gold handed to me. When the fabled
actress who had done the cameo in Titanic the year before,
arrived on the Red carpet, the photographer standing on one
side of me said, look, it's Martha Stuart. Not Martha Stuart,
I mean Glorias Swanson. No, you know who I mean,
Glorias Stuart. It was good that I had enough material,
(37:43):
and I thought that was probably going to be my
second paragraph, because the editor had given me a deadline, like,
I don't know, six thirty seven pm, where I had
to be back in the Times offices, which were a
quick walk a block or two away, and I had
to start writing because they wanted to put my piece
on the page with all the early photos from the
Red Carpet and the start of the awards, and they
needed my piece finished asa up. But I lingered a
(38:06):
few minutes longer than I was supposed to because there
was only one actor. I had really hoped I was
going to get to meet Tom Hanks. Finally, Keith comes
back to Tom Hanks. Didn't see him. Everybody's already inside.
I must have missed him, or maybe he's not coming,
even though he has a nominated film. And I'm about
to leave. Literally, I'm double checking my notes in my quotes.
(38:28):
When I heard some of the fotog shout Tom, Tom,
and there finally he was in a tux and a beard,
and he gave him that half mile actor stare and
pleasant smile, and without being asked, he did a slow
pan from side to side so each cameraman could get
him in profile and in full face. And then he
(38:51):
stopped and his eyes widened comically, and he said, Keith Olberman,
what are you doing here? Did you get fired? Again?
That even got a laugh from the photographers. He then
devolved into stick, come in with me. You can have
Rita's ticket better than that. Why don't you go in
(39:12):
with Rita? I'll go watch UCLA play. Rita. Wilson smiled, waved,
and while looking at her husband, she pointed to her
own head and made that crazy gesture and on and
on and on it went. I asked Tom Hanks my questions.
He gave me some good answers. He gave me a
very nice double handed handshake, and he moved on. And
(39:32):
he was one or two people down the gauntlet of
the red carpet when I thought, dummy, Tom Hanks is
right there. He's a fan. You're a fan. You have
a camera with you, You have a mother, Get a
picture with him for mom. So I beckoned, So you'll
go in with me, hot dog. I explained what I
actually wanted, and I handed my little disposable cardboard camera.
(39:54):
Remember those to the nearest reporter I knew, Lara Spencer
from Channel seven in New York more recently of Good
Morning America. And I leaned back over the hedges, which,
in the those innocent pre nine eleven days, were the
only things actually keeping the famous safe from us. We
merely cover the famous. Lara took a couple of shots
(40:15):
in them. It would prove my head is about four
times as big as Tom's and we both look like mutants,
scraining mutants. Wait, this won't work, Tom Hanks finally said,
and with that he grabbed me and started to pull
me over the shrubbery. I was unprepared for this. I
started to teeter. At this exact moment, I heard coming
(40:37):
from the carpet behind me two guys chanting. Hanks turned
around and said, Hello, boys, Look it's Keith Olberman. Can
you believe this? Finally a reason actually show up to
this dumb thing? Can we take me in with this
havebut you guys got an extra ticket here, help me
pull him over the hedge. The two guys were Ben
Athleck and Matt Damon somewhere in this process, and Afleck
(41:02):
and Damon were really young, then they really could pull
one of these three men broke my commer bund i square.
Suddenly I was on the red carpet with them, and
with a loose commer bund Affleck struck a wrestling pose
and made a grimace, a fake grimace. Lara Spencer shouted,
(41:23):
that's a perfect shot, at which point I heard a
sound effect, but in real life, nearly identical to the
one that signaled the arrival of the reporters. Throughout the movie,
the right stuff like a thousand mosquitoes moving in unison.
Wait wait, wait, wait, man, every photographer there panned over
to us because even those who did not know who
(41:43):
I was or what Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and Ben
Affleck were doing to me? Did notice security rushing to
this scene. It's all right, fellas, Hank shouted, he fell.
They helped me back over the hedge. Affleck asked me
about the Red Sox chances in the season ahead. Hanks
slapped me on the back. I barely managed to shout
(42:06):
enjoy the show boys, and Damon turned and said, well,
we just did, and they were gone. Any image of
this scene taken without sound and without context would have
been greeted, perhaps as the stuff from con was about
Tom Hanks. It would have shown three of Hollywood's top
actors appearing to attack, or maybe trying to subdue some
(42:31):
guy who looked vaguely like some sports or news guy
or something. And the tucks didn't fit well, it must
have been a rental. It might have been a perimeter breach.
I mean, look at the damage to the hedge, to
say nothing of the guy's cover bund. So when the
story of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson yelling at the
guy on the red carpet at Con broke, all I
(42:54):
could think of was here we go again. As a PostScript,
I should note that I have seen Tom Hanks several
times since then, and Hanks always mentions the comer bund
Affleck once portrayed me on Saturday Night Live, and I
went up to his studio, which was also the Football
Night in America studio, to say hello at his rehearsal
(43:15):
and offer him any tips he needed. And the next
thing I knew that was in the New York Post
Olberman Crash's studio and the photo of the four of us, well,
I clearly had enough stuff for my Arrivals piece in
the LA time. So I jogged back to their office
is a little late now and found the editor and
she asked me if the story would work, and I said, yes,
I have enough. And then I sheepishly said, listen, there
(43:37):
was a thing with me and Hanks and Affleck and Damon,
and can I mention it in the piece? Maybe at
the end. And again her eyes widened as I explained
what happened, and in great excitement she asked, did anybody
get a picture of this? And I said, well, yeah,
I thought about one hundred real photographers got a picture
(43:58):
of it. But I was certain that my friend Lara
from New York had gotten it on my disposable, which
which is when the editor grabbed the camera from my
hand and left without a word, running down the hallway.
And the next thing I saw of my camera or
what was in it was the next morning when the
front page of the La Times Oscar section had four
(44:19):
beautiful color pictures on it, one of Gwyneth Paltrow, Judy Dench,
James Coburn and Roberto Benini. One of Ilia Kazan. It
was the Elia Kazan's speech year. One of Kate Blanchette's
dress as seen from behind, so it was a picture
of Kate Blanchette's But the largest of all the pictures
(44:39):
me and the boys, with the caption the arrivals. Fox
Sports News anchor Keith Alreman is mugged by Tom Hanks,
left Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on the red carpet,
and lives to write about it, page f two. I
still have it framed on my wall, but just to
(45:03):
be clear, Tom Hanks didn't actually mug me. I've done
all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
(45:25):
Countdown Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanelle arranged, produced,
and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on guitars, bass,
and drums, and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards, and
it was produced by Tko Brothers. I saw Tom Hanks
about two years after the incident at the Oscars, having
(45:47):
lunch in he walked and on the way out he
came by a side door and leaned in the window
and talked to me and my friend Hank appropriately enough,
lovely guy, Tom Hanks. Other music, including some of the
Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by the group No Horn's Allowed.
The sports music is the Olberman theme from ESPN two.
(46:09):
It was written by Mitch Warren Davis and appears courtesy
of ESPN Inc. Our pithy and satirical musical comments are
by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our
announcer today was my friend, the actor Jonathan Banks. Everything
else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for
this The two hundred and third day until the twenty
(46:31):
twenty four presidential election, the one and ninety eighth day
since defendant Jay Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States, Use the Fourteenth Amendment
and the not regularly given elector objection provided by the
(46:54):
Supreme Court, Use the Insurrection Act, use the justice system,
use the mental health system to stop him from doing
it again while we still can. The next scheduled countdown
is tomorrow bulletins as the news warrants till then, I'm
Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and I ask
(47:16):
one no, that's right. Good Luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
(47:37):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. There's
nothing better than a good nap now. Trump's head slowly dropped,
(00:28):
his eyes closed. It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself,
then his head droops again. He straightens up, leaning back,
his head drops for a third time. He shakes his shoulders,
eyes closed, still, his head drops. Finally, he pops his
(00:49):
eyes open. Frank Runyon, Pool Reporter and New York Courts Reporter,
Law three sixty ten thirty am, April sixteenth, twenty twenty four.
My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains my sense,
as though of hemlock I had drunk or emptied some
dull opiate to the drain. John Keats owed to a nightingale,
(01:10):
May eighteen nineteen. Trump is leaning back and his eyes
appear to be closed. His head is occasionally tilting. Isaac Arnsdorf,
Washington Post Reporter, three thirty five PM, April sixteenth, twenty
twenty four. Fly ball to Wright. Winfield goes back to
the wall. He hits his head on the wall and
(01:31):
it rolls off. It's rolling all the way back to
second base. This is a terrible thing. Jerry Coleman San
Diego Padres baseball broadcast circa nineteen seventy seven. They finished
for the day and will resume tomorrow. Justice Merschawan first
admonishing Trump for gesturing and talking in the direction of
(01:53):
a jury candidate. Your client was audibly uttering, he told
defendant Jay's attorneys. It was audible, he was gesturing, and
he was speaking in the direction of the juror. I
will not have any jury intimidated in the court room.
I was surprised Trump didn't just reply, sorry, talking in
my sleep. Trump then left to exploit a crime that
(02:14):
happened at a Harlem bodega, possibly his first time in
Harlem in his goddamned life. And it looks like, despite
all the doomsayers me included, they will start the Trump
election interference trial next Monday, nine thirty am opening statements.
That is what Justice Merschaan told the court just before
shutting down yesterday after he had seated seven of the
(02:38):
eighteen jurors required, again validating the veteran legal reporters who
say it is surprisingly easy, especially in New York, to
find enough people who don't know anything about anything to
fill up a jury. I had forgotten my two days
in the New York jury pool room here eleven years ago,
(02:58):
when I deliberately sat near the guy in charge so
I could hear the kinds of questions he had to
deal with. For about an hour, I was terrified for
the future of humanity, I mean the future of humanity
for the remainder of that week, also for the future
of this poor man's psyche, and I asked if I
could go get him coffee or heroine or something. There
(03:20):
is already a four person dur B four hundred lives
in West Harlem, but originally was from Ireland. Was a waiter,
now in sales, some college. His spouses in school. They
have no children. He's outdoorsy. In his spare time, he
reads the New York Times and the Daily Mail. Gets
the rest of his news from MSNBC and Fox. Repeating
(03:43):
what I said before, It is surprisingly easy to find
enough people in New York who don't know anything about
anything to fill up a jury or to be the defendant.
That is Trump's latest claim. He knows nothing, billionaire businessman,
greatest mind of this or any other generation. But when
it comes to paying off Stormy Dan to bury her
(04:05):
story to illegally keep bad facts about himself away from
the eyes of the electorate weeks before the election, and
then turning the thing into a clear crime by trying
to write it off as a business expense. He knows nothing.
He doesn't know the accountant, he doesn't know the lawyer,
he doesn't know the law. He didn't know anything about
the document, he didn't know anything about the deduction. He
(04:28):
just signed whatever they put in front of him, because
the billionaire businessman knows nothing about his own business.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Was lawyer and marking down.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
A legal expense on account I know, marking down a
legal expense. That's exactly what it was. And you did
indict over no wonder. He keeps falling asleep in the courtroom.
This business stuff, it's all so boring to him. And honestly,
(05:01):
your Trump, on Monday, they literally catch you. How do
you possibly go in there on Tuesday and get caught napping?
At least twice more? One video or one rapid shutter
sequence of still pictures of Trump's head slowly dropped, his
eyes closed, it jerked back upward, he adjusts himself, then
(05:23):
his head droops again. One video of that or a
couple of good pictures, and we don't have to watch
the rest of this trial to see how it turns out.
He would be done. The New Republic asked the question
(05:46):
before yesterday's Marjorie Taylor Green debacle, and before Tom Cotton
suggested Americans protesting about the war in the Middle East
should be run over and killed by other Americans who
are angry about traffic. But it doesn't change much, and
it certainly doesn't require them to change the picture under
the startling question in their headline. The picture is a
(06:08):
rare one of Congresswoman Green with her mouth shut, and
the New Republic's question is, quote, Russia is buying politicians
in Europe? Is it happening here too? The message from
the magazine is clear, looking at you, Marge, the possibility
of that, never mind influencers and conspiracies. It boils down
(06:29):
to the Eric Idol Ruttles satirical song All you need
is cash, the possibility of that momentarily. First, what Cotton
and Green have now done. Senator Tom Cotton, who last
reminded America that he may be our worst senator, even
worse than Marsha Blackburn or Grassley or Cinema, reminded us
of that when The New York Times let him write
(06:50):
an op ed saying Trump should use the military to
disperse peaceful civilian protesters. He has now softened his stance
on that. Now he wants vigilantes to use their cars
to disperse peaceful civilian protesters. At nine pm Eastern Monday night,
Cotton again, a sitting US senator, a double Harvard graduate.
(07:14):
Back when one did not try to deny that part
of one's educational resume. Another military veteran who may not
really believe he was ever discharged and may not really
accept that he's no longer paid to kill other human beings,
Tom Cotton posted, I encourage people who get stuck behind
the pro hamas mobs blocking traffic, take matters into your
(07:36):
own hands. It's time to put an end to this nonsense.
The implication was unmistakable. Run them over with your car,
shoot them whatever. Why does he care? He's stochastically getting
you to kill them for him. Six minutes later, Tom
Cotton decided better that tweet, and instead of deleting it
(07:57):
or discouraging people from you know, political assassination of their
neighbors or road rage, he edited the post to read
I encourage people who get stuck behind the prohamas mobs
blocking traffic. Here comes the edit. Take matters into your
own hands to get them out of the way. It's
time to put an end to this nonsense. Unquote. It's
(08:21):
a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off
for him. This is nothing new. Ron DeSantis passed a
law calling a protest by three or more people in
Florida a riot and telling Florida drivers if they threatened
or felt threatened by a riot on a road, they
can drive their cars into the rioters. When George Wallace
ran as a third party presidential candidate nineteen sixty eight,
(08:43):
he responded to protesters lying down in front of President
Johnson's limo by saying that if they tried that in
front of his presidential limousine, it'd be the last limo
they ever lay down in front of. But Cotton as
the have the troops shoot the civilian's op ed showed
clearly fetishizes killing Americans as many possible, and the Russia
(09:06):
hook is he's loudly pro Ukraine, yet under the surface
he has repeatedly refused to condemn Trump's repeated praising of
Putin he wouldn't criticize Trump, saying that he would not
defend NATO from Russia and that he'd tell Putin to
do whatever the hell he wanted. And Business Insider quoted
FBC records showing that Cotton got more than forty thousand
(09:26):
dollars in quote contributions from a donor profiting off Russia's
war on Ukraine. But still that's just because he's an asshole, right,
Maybe some PTSD and fascism mixed in and too much
time at Harvard, there couldn't be cash considerations.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
But then there's Marjorie bitter Green. Hell of a week,
she's having tweets quote it's anti semitic to make Israeli
aid contingent on funding Ukrainian Nazis. Then moves to fire
another Speaker of the House because he's on the verge
of maybe getting Ukrainian aid passed, and because the condition
of the House of Representatives had just been upgraded from
(10:07):
chaotic to spasmodic and Russia needs it to be chaotic again.
That was preface to her face plant during yet another
hearing featuring her arch nemesis. No no, no, no, not reality.
Her other arch nemesis Homeland Security Secretary Majorcis.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Blake and Riley.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
You're familiar with her, right, I'm just be art break.
Are you familiar with Lake and Riley? I am familiar
with the case. You should have deported her so that
she could be alive today. Her parents would have appreciated that. Yeah, okay,
hun Lake and Riley was the murder victim, not the perpetrator.
(10:51):
Y'all should emulate your boy Trump and take a nap
from time to time. How about twenty four hours a day? Now?
You could argue that if Russia really were paying US
politicians to advocate for them and try to destroy this
country from within, they'd be able to get smarter ones
than Marjorie fing Green. But maybe not. Last month, a
(11:13):
couple of dozen European politicians, including some members of the
European Parliament, were arrested in Poland and the Czech Republic
for taking cash from Russian oligarchs to contribute anti Ukraine stories,
mostly to a website called Voice of Europe. Last month,
Russia was caught paying off local politicians in Cyprus and
Germany and Italy to introduce legislation actually written by Russian intelligence,
(11:39):
and also to write articles in local newspapers and use
their own names when they did so. This is why
Marjorie Green's stupidity is not a bug but a feature.
As The New Republic notes, one of the paid off
Europeans was really offended that the article the Russians wanted
him to pass off as his own under his own
byline was really poorly written. That he had a reputation
(12:02):
that quote, I am not a robot. He was taking
international bribes from a terrorist state, and he was worried
about how the article would affect his literary standing. Unclear
if he got the cash or the crypto, but he
got something, and the article LOWSI or not got printed
(12:22):
under his name. That can't happen here. It can't happen.
It can't happen here. Doc is here, Doc isn't here,
doc is here. It can't happen here. I'll let Alex
Finley of the New Republic pick this up at this point,
quoting him. It is naive to think the same pattern
does not exist in the United States, given the ample
(12:43):
evidence of coordinated pro Russian talking points from several Republican
politicians just this week, Marjorie Taylor Green spoke to Steve
Bannon about Ukraine's persecution of Christians, which is a Kremlin
talking point aimed at boosting the pro Moscow wing of
Ukraine's Orthodox Church. The US should be spending money on
(13:04):
the border with Mexico, not on Ukraine, aid, that's a
Kremlin talking point. Russia invaded Ukraine to defend itself against
an expanding NATO. That's a Kremlin talking point. Call for
a ceasefire and give Russia Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. That's
a Kremlin talking point. As the Director of National Intelligence
wrote in twenty twenty one, Russian intelligence operatives and their
(13:27):
proxies sought to use prominent US persons and media conduits
to launder their narratives to US officials and audiences. These
Russian proxies met with and provided materials to Trump administration
linked US persons to advocate for formal investigations, hired a
US firm to petition US officials, and attempted to make
(13:50):
contact with several senior US officials. They also made contact
with established US media figures quote huh, established US media
figures spewing Russian talking points, probably for money, probably a
(14:11):
lot less money than you'd think too, so somebody in
media who's notoriously personally cheap. I do not have a
guess any established US media figures hard up for cash
or paranoid about cash after losing, say a twenty million
dollar a year TV anchoring contract. I mean, besides which,
(14:37):
what do you think a Marjorie Taylor Green would cost?
I mean, look at the workmanship. It's not as if
Russia's influence here, both to undermine efforts to stop their
test war in Ukraine and to simply f with US,
is not being recognized. Chairman Mike Turner of the House
Intel Committee went on CNN and said, quote, we see
(14:58):
directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are
anti Ukraine and pro Russia messages, some of which we
even hear being uttered on the House floor. Days earlier,
it had been Chairman Michael McCall of House Foreign Affairs.
He told Puck News. I think Russian propaganda has made
its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it's infected
(15:19):
a good chunk of my party's base. Nothing spreads political
disinformation infection faster than money, by the way, I know,
you know, but let me emphasize this. The House is
in Republican hands. Those two chairmen admitting we are being
informationally invaded by Russia. Turner and McCall, they are Republicans.
(15:45):
The craziest part of the New Republic's theory of corruption
for cash the one that literally has Marjorie Taylor Green's
face on it on the article and only incidental references
to Trump media being kept financially afloat by Russian banks.
The craziest part is that Green's latest attack on the
American establishment seemingly on the reinvigorated anti Russian pro Ukrainian
(16:08):
push in the House. It's against Speaker Mike Johnson. But
last October, Newsweek reported that in twenty eighteen, Mike Johnson
received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from
the Texas based American Ethane company Made Prominent and Wealthy
by good Old Texas nohow led by an eighty eight
(16:29):
percent owned by three good Old Texans named Andre Konatbiev,
Konstantine Nikolayev, and Mikhail Yuev. The Speaker's office says it
returned the money as soon as it found out that
American Athene was not owned by three guys named Curly
Texan Clayton. Makes you wonder if Green is attacking Johnson
(16:52):
because he returned the Athane money, or perhaps because he
hasn't earned it yet. CBS News poll, By the way,
where do you get your information from about Russia's invasion
of Ukraine? Republicans? Which sources do you trust? Republicans? Multiple
(17:14):
sources here, so it doesn't add up to one hundred.
It's more than one hundred. State Department twenty seven percent
say yes. Among others, journalists in the war zone thirty
three percent, Conservative media fifty six percent, the Pentagon sixty percent,
topping the list. Though seventy nine percent of Republicans get
their information about Ukraine from Trump, and this is not
(17:39):
part of that CBS poll, but it underscores that the
process of healing the Republicans amazing stupidity and gullibility and
ability to monetize lies that kill people and kill democracy,
the process of curing this country is far more than
even horrifying poll numbers like that Republicans believe Trump because
the world is complex and they are not leaving it
(18:02):
to him is way easy than trying to figure it
out for themselves with brains unequipped to do so, and
if you ask. But whatever he's talking about, he changes
his stories every day, his viewpoints, his claims of what
he said previously and what he meant when he said it.
He changes these things endlessly. Left is right and up
(18:25):
is down. Well, that's even better for these Republicans, even
if he's lying, especially if he's lying. Listen to William Wolf,
former Trump Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and appointee at State.
It's like Trump favoring an abortion band. Wolf says, of
course he's lying about it, only he's lying about lying
(18:46):
about it, and that makes it not lying at makes
it cloaking.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I actually think there's wisdom in cloaking some of your
power levels and maybe some of the things that you're
trying to do. And then once you secure power and
you have it, you govern in a more extreme position.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
He's not lying, he's cloaking a cloaking device like star
Trek or an invisibility cloak, like good old Harry Potter.
You don't call it lying. He caught cloaking. It's a
new way of lying, and it's a good thing, because
(19:26):
Trump says so. Also of interest here, I don't know
when I stopped believing that the Supreme Court actually ruled
on legal issues, rather than that it existed solely to
make sure that some politically inconvenient laws or parts of
the Constitution got crushed for the benefit of the Republicans
(19:47):
and the rich people. But I know I was already
an adult when I figured it out. Right now, I
am so far from that naivete that I question whether
or not I believe that the six Conservatives are even
from this country, or that they have more of a
legal education than I do. Which was one undergraduate college
class mostly about communications law. In the January sixth related
(20:11):
case now before them, Justice Alito asks how the insurrection
and attempted overthrow of an election and the real president elect,
how is that different from people heckling the Supreme Court?
And the attorney has the restraint to not say, because
none of you assholes or your security died at the
(20:35):
hands of that mob, that mob of people that you
think heckled you, You moron. That's next. This is countdown.
This is countdown, with Keith o'd woman still ahead of
(21:13):
us on this ediative countdown. Late last month, we passed
the quarter century anniversary of one of the most joyful
moments of my career, and I have been thinking of
it off and on ever since March nineteen ninety nine.
Tom Hanks assaults me at the Oscars. With the help
(21:35):
of two Hollywood newcomers named Ben Affleck and Matt Damon,
the bastards broke the cum abund on my tuxedo ahead
in things I promised not to tell first, still more
new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the
miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute
two days non commer bund breaking worst persons in the
(21:59):
world the bronze worse Major League Baseball, and this gives
me a moment to mention that apparently we're having another
baseball rapture. The next to last living member of the
World champion nineteen fifty five Brooklyn Dodgers, Carl Erskine, died yesterday,
leaving only Sandy Kofax and Hall of Fame manager Whitey
(22:19):
Herzog of the Royals and the Cardinals died Ken Holtzman
the other day. Fritz Peterson last week I mentioned him
at length. Yesterday, Jerry Grody, Bunn Harrison, Jim McAndrew of
the sixty nine Mets, Pat Zachary and Don Gullet of
the seventy six champion reds ed ott fourteen x major
league players just since the start of spring training on
(22:41):
a happier note, or at least a sillier one. Remember
this year's big baseball controversy, I mean the one before
the show. Hey, Otani's interpreter made three hundred and twenty
five million dollars worth of bets and stole sixteen million
bucks from Otani scandal. Remember the uniform scandal where the
new better, wicking, lighter feeling, redesigned uniforms turned out to
(23:04):
be delivered late, like months late, and they wrinkled in
the rain, and they had tiny lettering on them. And
they have pants and shirts in which the colors don't match,
not even gray and gray. And they have the pants
that are more see through than pants have been previously.
That scandal, it's back the Seattle Mariners wore their City
(23:26):
Connect uniforms. It's a merchandizing thing. Everything in baseball today
is a merchandizing thing. And we are still awaiting a
full explanation from the Seattle Times of its cryptic report
that the pants of Seattle pitcher Bryce Miller did not
fit correctly, and so he instead wore the City Connect
(23:47):
uniform pants of a team bat boy. The only update
on this so far. Miller apparently complained that the bat
boy's pants kept riding up on him, which makes you
wonder whether his pants were so short that they were
actually designed for somebody else's son. And further details as
they become available. Speaking of a little short, the runner
(24:10):
up worser Mike Johnson, I know the Democrats may save
him and anybody Marjorie Taylor Green hates is a little
less schmucky than she is, and certainly, as noted earlier,
he's less Russian than the others. But still, what a
weasel that stunt last week in which he asked Trump
for permission to go worship him at marri Lago and
(24:30):
do a joint news conference about election integrity and then
introduce a performance art bill about demanding voter ID for
all voters, which they already have before he showed the
bill to anybody else in the House. According to NBC News,
Johnson showed it to d C. Draino. D C. Draino
(24:52):
is one of those conservative morons with a stick on
Twitter X. His reel name is broken oh Crapshack or
whatever it is. Showed it to Broken oh Crapshack first
to get him to use his influence ray to drum
up support online, which of course would then get back
to Trump. How much Johnson's idea would help Trump, But
(25:13):
it wasn't just d C draino. And I can't tell
if he's trying to be clever by spelling it dri
n when the product itself is spelled dr no, or
he's just too stupid to spell it correctly. In any event,
Johnson also shared the bill with libs of TikTok and
end Wokeness and Chrissy Clark, who apparently could not think
(25:37):
of a clever name, but he did not share it
with Cat Turd, Poor cat Turd, though Johnson did eventually
share it with Isabella de Luca, who is not just
an influencer, she's also a big big deal in moron
world because she's a January sixth defendant. Speaking of which,
(26:00):
our winners the conservative members of the Supreme Religious Court,
and yesterday they heard oral arguments in a case that
would invalidate the use of the obstruction of an official
proceedings law under which hundreds of January sixth defendants have
been convicted, some of whom that was the only charge
against them. So the case is basically asking John Roberts
(26:22):
and Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas and three Trump appointees
whether or not they want to free several dozen Trump thugs.
Ellie miss Stal from the nation, says Justice Neil Gorsich,
made an analogy between the January sixth rioters attacking the
US capital, between that and the day that Congressman Jamal
Bowman set off a fire alarm by opening a locked
(26:45):
door at the Capitol. Justice Alito asked how this was
any different from people heckling the Supreme Court. Oh no,
he was broken in half by a heckle. And Justice Thomas,
who simply put, is goddamned lucky. His wife has not
been in prison for the last three years over January sixth,
(27:07):
actually maybe the last thirty years. Justice Thomas insisted that legally,
January sixth is no different than any other attempt to
disrupt official proceedings. Why, yes, Clarence, I agree with you. You
are right. It is no different than any other attempt
to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, instigated and organized
and promoted by a lame duck president who wanted to
(27:29):
stay in office even though he lost, and who probably
wanted to jail or harm the actual president elect. I
just hope that all of these arguments these fascists are
using while finding excuses to make heroes out of traders,
that they will remember them if the day comes that
some large crowd, probably made up of conservatives who think
(27:52):
that justices are not conservative enough, when a large crowd
of conservatives storms the court the way Trump's insurrectionists so
benignly pulled the fire alarm at the Capitol on January sixth,
I just hope they remember all of their own arguments
while they are fleeing gorsicch Thomas Kavanaugh, Barrett Alito, Roberts,
(28:15):
He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind,
Two Days, Wars, Parsons, Eorld, ah just twenty five years ago.
(28:41):
Things I promised not to tell takes you back in time,
like things I already experienced in my career, could somehow
be ahead in time to March nineteen ninety nine, with
a little detour. First, they were everywhere photos and video
of what certainly looked from a distance like actor Tom
Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson yelling at, maybe even berating,
(29:07):
an unidentified random staffer on the red carpet at the
twenty twenty three Con Film Festival in France while promoting
his new movie Asteroid City. At various intervals, Hanks seems
to have a fist clenched, then seems to be jabbing
his forefinger at the man. Throughout he appeared to wear
(29:27):
a look of disbelief verging on anger. European newspapers were
filled for two days with stories about Tom Hanks yells
at Con and Tom Hanks yells at staffer and Tom
Hanks skulls con staffer, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And then his wife Rita spoke up, Then the staffer,
(29:47):
Vincent Chapalaine, spoke up. Then the sound on the video
spoke up louder than either of them. Tom Hanks wasn't
scolding anybody, but he was yelling because he could not
hear himself or this Vincent Chapalaine or anything else, because
the crowd around the red carpet was too loud. The
(30:09):
clenched hand, Tom Hanks clenched it while he was yelling,
I can't hear you. Everybody's screaming the jabbing forefinger. It
went with where are we supposed to go? Are we
supposed to go back to the start of the red carpet?
Just point at where you want us to go? And
the scolding of the random staffer. Vince as Chapelaine is
(30:30):
the manager of the Red Carpet at Khan has been
for ten years. The only thing he was taking offense
at was people presuming he was just security rather than management.
These are the French Khan. You hear me? Now, this
is an unusual story to include here, and I've gone
(30:51):
into unusual detail about it because the moment I saw
this story from KHN, I didn't have mere deja vu.
I had a full flashback, a full out of body experience,
time travel. I was propelled back to March twenty first,
nineteen ninety nine, where a similar overhead view of Tom
(31:12):
Hanks on a red carpet, without any audio, without any context,
would have presented you a picture of first Tom Hanks
and then Tom Hanks, with the assistance of Ben Affleck
and Matt Damon, assaulting a guy literally pulling him over
the hedges that served as the security boundary, damaging the
guy's clothing, and then basically throwing him back over the hedges,
(31:37):
and all this took place on a red carpet at
the Oscars. The guy was me. In nineteen ninety nine.
I had just started what began as a pretty good gig.
Fox Sports had launched its own version of ESPN and
its own version of SportsCenter, and it had thrown way
too much money at me, and it bought me out
(31:59):
of my contract at MSNBC, where I was desperately unhappy
doing the Clinton Lewinsky story every hour on the hour,
and they got me to move back to Los Angeles
and anchor their version of Sports Center and all the
Fox Baseball coverage two including the World Series in the
All Star Game, and it launched a five year plan
to give itself enough credibility to compete with the ESPN.
(32:20):
And I was just there to enjoy the sun, collect
the huge paycheck, and publicize the thing as often as
possible while they slowly built it up for the year
two thousand and four. As the executive who signed me said,
after we held an introductory press conference and press phone call,
with about two hundred reporters, you earned about a year
(32:41):
of your salary just doing that call. So when one
of the editors of the Los Angeles Times called somebody
she knew in the PR department at Fox and said,
I have a crazy idea, what is Keith Olberman doing
on Oscars night? The Fox people listened. The next thing
I knew I had that night off. I was in
a tux. I was standing the mid a sea off
(33:03):
photographers at the first turn of the red carpet at
the Oscars, gathering quotes from startled celebrities who expected to
see only photogs right there and not somebody asking questions,
certainly not me asking questions. I was a little startled too.
The editor, in a pre Oscars phone call, explained that
(33:23):
this was the seventy first edition of the Oscars, and
the Times had covered the first seventy and then they
had pretty much gotten it down to science around the
year nineteen thirty two, and they really hadn't changed much
since then, except the photos are in color now, she mentioned.
She asked if I wanted to hear what would be
in the Times the day after the Oscars, She said,
(33:43):
I can recite the main story Right now, I just
have to fill in the names of the winners. And
then there's the fashion review and how many daring and
outlandish and classic outfits there were. Now I'll have the
TV critic complaining about how bad the host was. No,
I'll had the TV business guy explaining why the ratings
were so low. Then we'll have the big pull quotes
from the actors that will re exactly like the big
(34:05):
poll quotes from nineteen eighty nine or nineteen seventy nine.
And we'll have the predictive piece on which award wins
will actually help movies at the box office. And then
we'll have the predictive piece on which awards snubs will
actually hurt movies at the box office. What we need
is anything else? Can you think of anything else? Can
you think of anything you haven't read in our paper
(34:27):
about the Oscars? I thought for a second, I said,
what about this idea that they're now going to televise
the Red Carpet live for half an hour before the Oscars.
You're gonna have like an Oscars pregame show. I heard
somebody say, you know, maybe they could do that all day.
I mean, what if I asked everybody like, like, whoever
(34:48):
will stop to talk to me, I mean, what if
I ask them they think would be a good idea
to make the Oscars an all day kind of thing,
like like Super Bowl Sunday Oscar Sunday Oscar Bowl Live
starting at dawn on ABC. I mean I could basically
write you the lead paragraph. Now, thanks for attending Oscar Bowl.
I please ask your limo driver to tune into the
(35:10):
postgame show with Vince Gully, Uma Thurman, and Angeline not
Angeline Edie Williams arrive home safely. The editor laughed, had
me repeat it, and wrote it down. It was the
lead of my story. So on the night of March
(35:31):
twenty first, nineteen ninety nine Oscars Night, there I was
officially a sports reporter and ex news reporter and ex
local LA sportscaster on top of everything else. There I
was at the first corner of the red carpet in
front of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, standing where one of
the eighty or so LA Times photographers should have been.
(35:51):
And I never found out what he thought of this idea.
And I was introducing myself to actors and actresses who
and producers and other people who had no idea who
I was. Helen Hunt was particularly confused and explaining why
I was there to actors and actresses who knew exactly
who I was. Kevin Costner was particularly confused. Some of
(36:11):
them gave thoughtful answers to my question about an all
day oscars. Helen Hunt actually thought about it and said
something interesting. Costner said he would never watch anything like
that instead of say college basketball. He recommended against doing it,
and he said, we already know too much about the
things we already know about. And I knew exactly what
he meant. What a great quote. We shook hands, and
(36:33):
cost took a deep breath, and he moved towards the
gauntlet of the next five hundred reporters down the red
carpet and said, wish me luck Keith. Within two minutes,
I then saw Costner walking back towards me. Can you
give me a favor? I mean, I'm sorry, but can
you not run that quote. I've never retracted a quote
in my life, but that'll make me sound like Yogi Bera.
(36:58):
I said, it didn't make him sound like Yogi berra.
It was perfect and everybody would know exactly what he meant.
But of course, if that's what he was wanted, I'd
forget it. I wouldn't use the quote until now. Anyway,
I had enough color and quotes, and technically my article
was going to be labeled arrivals. So it was done
already as night began to fall, and I had one
(37:18):
particular piece of gold handed to me. When the fabled
actress who had done the cameo in Titanic the year before,
arrived on the Red carpet, the photographer standing on one
side of me said, look, it's Martha Stuart. Not Martha Stuart,
I mean Glorias Swanson. No, you know who I mean,
Glorias Stuart. It was good that I had enough material,
(37:43):
and I thought that was probably going to be my
second paragraph, because the editor had given me a deadline, like,
I don't know, six thirty seven pm, where I had
to be back in the Times offices, which were a
quick walk a block or two away, and I had
to start writing because they wanted to put my piece
on the page with all the early photos from the
Red Carpet and the start of the awards, and they
needed my piece finished asa up. But I lingered a
(38:06):
few minutes longer than I was supposed to because there
was only one actor. I had really hoped I was
going to get to meet Tom Hanks. Finally, Keith comes
back to Tom Hanks. Didn't see him. Everybody's already inside.
I must have missed him, or maybe he's not coming,
even though he has a nominated film. And I'm about
to leave. Literally, I'm double checking my notes in my quotes.
(38:28):
When I heard some of the fotog shout Tom, Tom,
and there finally he was in a tux and a beard,
and he gave him that half mile actor stare and
pleasant smile, and without being asked, he did a slow
pan from side to side so each cameraman could get
him in profile and in full face. And then he
(38:51):
stopped and his eyes widened comically, and he said, Keith Olberman,
what are you doing here? Did you get fired? Again?
That even got a laugh from the photographers. He then
devolved into stick, come in with me. You can have
Rita's ticket better than that. Why don't you go in
(39:12):
with Rita? I'll go watch UCLA play. Rita. Wilson smiled, waved,
and while looking at her husband, she pointed to her
own head and made that crazy gesture and on and
on and on it went. I asked Tom Hanks my questions.
He gave me some good answers. He gave me a
very nice double handed handshake, and he moved on. And
(39:32):
he was one or two people down the gauntlet of
the red carpet when I thought, dummy, Tom Hanks is
right there. He's a fan. You're a fan. You have
a camera with you, You have a mother, Get a
picture with him for mom. So I beckoned, So you'll
go in with me, hot dog. I explained what I
actually wanted, and I handed my little disposable cardboard camera.
(39:54):
Remember those to the nearest reporter I knew, Lara Spencer
from Channel seven in New York more recently of Good
Morning America. And I leaned back over the hedges, which,
in the those innocent pre nine eleven days, were the
only things actually keeping the famous safe from us. We
merely cover the famous. Lara took a couple of shots
(40:15):
in them. It would prove my head is about four
times as big as Tom's and we both look like mutants,
scraining mutants. Wait, this won't work, Tom Hanks finally said,
and with that he grabbed me and started to pull
me over the shrubbery. I was unprepared for this. I
started to teeter. At this exact moment, I heard coming
(40:37):
from the carpet behind me two guys chanting. Hanks turned
around and said, Hello, boys, Look it's Keith Olberman. Can
you believe this? Finally a reason actually show up to
this dumb thing? Can we take me in with this
havebut you guys got an extra ticket here, help me
pull him over the hedge. The two guys were Ben
Athleck and Matt Damon somewhere in this process, and Afleck
(41:02):
and Damon were really young, then they really could pull
one of these three men broke my commer bund i square.
Suddenly I was on the red carpet with them, and
with a loose commer bund Affleck struck a wrestling pose
and made a grimace, a fake grimace. Lara Spencer shouted,
(41:23):
that's a perfect shot, at which point I heard a
sound effect, but in real life, nearly identical to the
one that signaled the arrival of the reporters. Throughout the movie,
the right stuff like a thousand mosquitoes moving in unison.
Wait wait, wait, wait, man, every photographer there panned over
to us because even those who did not know who
(41:43):
I was or what Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and Ben
Affleck were doing to me? Did notice security rushing to
this scene. It's all right, fellas, Hank shouted, he fell.
They helped me back over the hedge. Affleck asked me
about the Red Sox chances in the season ahead. Hanks
slapped me on the back. I barely managed to shout
(42:06):
enjoy the show boys, and Damon turned and said, well,
we just did, and they were gone. Any image of
this scene taken without sound and without context would have
been greeted, perhaps as the stuff from con was about
Tom Hanks. It would have shown three of Hollywood's top
actors appearing to attack, or maybe trying to subdue some
(42:31):
guy who looked vaguely like some sports or news guy
or something. And the tucks didn't fit well, it must
have been a rental. It might have been a perimeter breach.
I mean, look at the damage to the hedge, to
say nothing of the guy's cover bund. So when the
story of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson yelling at the
guy on the red carpet at Con broke, all I
(42:54):
could think of was here we go again. As a PostScript,
I should note that I have seen Tom Hanks several
times since then, and Hanks always mentions the comer bund
Affleck once portrayed me on Saturday Night Live, and I
went up to his studio, which was also the Football
Night in America studio, to say hello at his rehearsal
(43:15):
and offer him any tips he needed. And the next
thing I knew that was in the New York Post
Olberman Crash's studio and the photo of the four of us, well,
I clearly had enough stuff for my Arrivals piece in
the LA time. So I jogged back to their office
is a little late now and found the editor and
she asked me if the story would work, and I said, yes,
I have enough. And then I sheepishly said, listen, there
(43:37):
was a thing with me and Hanks and Affleck and Damon,
and can I mention it in the piece? Maybe at
the end. And again her eyes widened as I explained
what happened, and in great excitement she asked, did anybody
get a picture of this? And I said, well, yeah,
I thought about one hundred real photographers got a picture
(43:58):
of it. But I was certain that my friend Lara
from New York had gotten it on my disposable, which
which is when the editor grabbed the camera from my
hand and left without a word, running down the hallway.
And the next thing I saw of my camera or
what was in it was the next morning when the
front page of the La Times Oscar section had four
(44:19):
beautiful color pictures on it, one of Gwyneth Paltrow, Judy Dench,
James Coburn and Roberto Benini. One of Ilia Kazan. It
was the Elia Kazan's speech year. One of Kate Blanchette's
dress as seen from behind, so it was a picture
of Kate Blanchette's But the largest of all the pictures
(44:39):
me and the boys, with the caption the arrivals. Fox
Sports News anchor Keith Alreman is mugged by Tom Hanks,
left Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on the red carpet,
and lives to write about it, page f two. I
still have it framed on my wall, but just to
(45:03):
be clear, Tom Hanks didn't actually mug me. I've done
all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
(45:25):
Countdown Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanelle arranged, produced,
and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on guitars, bass,
and drums, and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards, and
it was produced by Tko Brothers. I saw Tom Hanks
about two years after the incident at the Oscars, having
(45:47):
lunch in he walked and on the way out he
came by a side door and leaned in the window
and talked to me and my friend Hank appropriately enough,
lovely guy, Tom Hanks. Other music, including some of the
Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by the group No Horn's Allowed.
The sports music is the Olberman theme from ESPN two.
(46:09):
It was written by Mitch Warren Davis and appears courtesy
of ESPN Inc. Our pithy and satirical musical comments are
by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our
announcer today was my friend, the actor Jonathan Banks. Everything
else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for
this The two hundred and third day until the twenty
(46:31):
twenty four presidential election, the one and ninety eighth day
since defendant Jay Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States, Use the Fourteenth Amendment
and the not regularly given elector objection provided by the
(46:54):
Supreme Court, Use the Insurrection Act, use the justice system,
use the mental health system to stop him from doing
it again while we still can. The next scheduled countdown
is tomorrow bulletins as the news warrants till then, I'm
Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and I ask
(47:16):
one no, that's right. Good Luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
(47:37):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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