October 17, 2023 • 47 mins
SEASON 2 EPISODE 55: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trust me: I think the Trump Gag Order is an extraordinary and terrific thing and I've invested all my money in popcorn futures. But the real headline coming out of Judge Tanya Chutkan's courtroom is her vow not to alter the start date of the Subversion Trial: March 4, 2024. This means it doesn't get postponed beyond the election and it also SEEMS as if she is taking the idea of starting it early as a punishment for WHEN Trump violates the gag order off the table.
If that's the case - and she's promised a full written statement detailing the "sanctions" if he doesn't seal his lips closed with epoxy - then there are few options for her. She can fine him, or jail him. And even if she goes for the first one he'll eventually do it so many times she'll have no choice but to go to the second one. REVOKE. HIS. BAIL.
Trump already began testing the boundaries, and trying to see if he can get his Renfields to carry his water for him. And there were many tea leaves from the hearing to read - and all of them look bad for your favorite traitor.
Plus I have some stuff on the Jordan Speaker vote and Israel-Hamas. But the story that actually stuns me was one I thought I saw coming. As predicted here, the other shoe after NBC going soft on Trump on The Meet The Press interview has fallen: NBC gets the 3rd Republican Presidential debate. But they have debate "partners" including the appalling Rumble (Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate claim homes there) and Salem Radio (Charlie Kirk, Dinesh D'Souza, Jenna Ellis, Hugh Hewitt). Hewitt may be a co-moderator.
Where are NBC's liberals here? When is enough enough? How much money is enough for my old protege to say "I refuse to be associated with any of this. Drop it or I'm out." I took a stance like that and I sleep well every night because of it. Rachel Maddow's voice still matters here and she's not using it. Assuming it's still - at $31,000,000 per annum - HER voice.
B-Block (24:24) IN SPORTS: Marlins prove sexism still flourishes in baseball by humiliating successful General Manager. The worst National Anthem you've ever heard. (30:09) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: PBS correspondent is genuinely startled Democratic house members correctly call Jim Jordan an "insurrectionist" (wait'll she hears about the gymnasts). Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA gets whacked at ASU. Lauren Boebert barely knew the man she made sweet music with at "Beetlejuice" - except her campaign spent $300 at his bar.
C-Block (36:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: That hockey anthem gave me a flashback to the day I was at Madison Square Garden and they directed our attention to the big screen on the scoreboard where NBC's Brian Williams promptly destroyed his own career.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. The
gag order is great, but the real story out of
(00:24):
Judge Tanya Chutkins Trump courtroom is she will not postpone
the trial date. It will not slide until after the election.
It will begin on March fourth, and not the cracked
Trump legal teams demand that it be delayed until the
twelfth of never. And apart from the obvious meeting, there
is also a subtle one and it pertains two the
(00:45):
gag order quote, this trial will not yield to the
election cycle, and we will not revisit the trial date. Remember,
Judge Chutkin had previously said that her preferred way to
punish Trump for his violations of the terms of his
release and other you know laws would beat a art
the trial sooner. And while she did not explicitly say
(01:08):
there is no chance he might yet force her to
do that, the statement yesterday we will not revisit the
trial date seems surprisingly explicit because it implies that if
he breaks the gag order, well my kidding, he may
have broken the gag order yesterday. When he breaks the
gag order, she will punish him in some other way.
(01:29):
She referred in court yesterday to sanctions, and there's not
a lot of sanctions on the table, but advancing the
trial start was the simplest of them. And if it
is off the table, we are looking at financial penalties
or well, you can't send one of his attorneys to
the penalty box and make them defend shorthanded. What's left
is declaring he has violated the terms of his release
(01:52):
and revoking his bail and incarcerating him until the trial
or at least over a weekend. That is not a
step to be taken lightly. But when Trump violates the
game order for the fifth time, or the tenth time
or the fiftieth time, what other option will she have?
Send the Secret Service home, send in the marshals, frog
(02:14):
march the bastard. What odds can I get that he
resists arrest? Come on, come on, you know you want
to resist, doney, Come on. Exactly what Judge Chutkin plans
to do, or in the near term, exactly what she
plans to threaten him with, is as important as the
fact of the gag order itself. Given the judges expressiveness
(02:38):
during the gag hearing yesterday, and when the judge laughs
at your attorneys twice it is not going well for you.
There is something portentous in her unwillingness to state the
penalties she has in mind. Politico phrased it quote. She
did not elaborate on those sanctions, although she said she
(02:59):
planned to issue a written order with further details. Unquote.
I'm confident she had said before issuing the gag order
that without some sort of restriction, we'll be in here
all the time. After all, as soon as she gagged him,
he did say this, I.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Am willing to go to jail if that's what it
takes for our country to win and become a democracy again.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
You, sir, have a deal. As an aside, each time
this happens, that he says one thing that he thinks
wins his argument for him, when it is in fact
a confession to his crimes, or, as in this case,
a confession to the seriousness of his endless traitorous conduct
towards this country. I wonder how many arguments were made
(03:50):
not by Nazi propagandists but by ordinary non genocidal conservatives
or political moderates in Germany in nineteen thirty and nineteen
thirty one and nineteen thirty two in the first month
of nineteen thirty three, arguments that they're Trump was not
threatening freedom, he was saving it. That he wasn't risking
their lives, he was risking his. Every time I hear
(04:12):
Trump say something like that, his belief that he's talking
about the trial of the century as opposed to having
his bail revoked after his two hundred and twenty seventh
reference to a certain unnamed deranged prosecutor. Every time I
hear him talk like that, I think of them, and
I wonder which special place in hell they went to. Anyway,
(04:36):
you're willing to go to jail, good, let's see that
rubber hit that road. Whenever Chutkin issues her written order
with further details, because not three hours after she cost
him in the head with the gag order, he began
feeling around to see exactly where the line is. A
judge gave a gag order today? Did you hear that?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
On speech? Which I believe is totally unconstitutional? What she did?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
A judge gave a gag order to judge doesn't like
me too much. Her whole life is not like in me.
In the preliminary version of the gag order, as released yesterday,
the judge told Trump he had free reign about Biden
and about insulting Washington, but to keep his mouth shut
about witnesses and the prosecutors in the case, and echoing
(05:23):
his attempt to dos an irrelevant court clerk in the
New York fraud case because she had once taken a
selfie with Chuck Schumer court staff members, she did not
include herself on the initial list of the inviolables. Once again,
the promised written order will tell us, and more importantly
will tell Trump. The written order will also tell us
(05:44):
about how far Trump can get away with the standard
Trump trick. I didn't say it, I just repeated it.
Retweets do not equal endorsements. Within literally minutes of the
imposition of the order, one of Trump's many renfields, the
former Chuck Grassley staffer Mike Davis, referred to the order
as something that quote happens in third world Marxist hellholes.
(06:09):
But even this scum Davis stopped at unconstitutional and erroneous,
and later Marjorie Taylor Green paraded her own stupidity by
complaining that the judge let the media attend, and then
Junior issued a video using all the buzzwords but in
another reminder of the blessing of his impaired stupidity, he
(06:30):
referred to the means justifying the ends. And we can
rest I think assured that whatever quality it is that
attracts the stupid and the hateful to Trump, it ain't hereditary.
So some reposts will be okay, and we'll see what
(06:51):
the judge says about attacking the judge. But Chutkin has
already told him about the witnesses and Jack Smith and
Jack Smith's aids and court staff, and in court, the
judge took Trump's comments about Mark Milly and juxtaposed them
with the prospect of Bill Barr as a witness. What
she asked, Trump's most self demeaning lawyer yet, John Laurow,
(07:14):
what if Trump said Barr should be executed for treason,
or said he should keep his mouth shut, or just
threatened his future in a future Trump presidency. And by
the way, I'm thinking that ship has sailed. Laura incredibly
said all that would be protected by the First Amendment.
And I'd like to see him say that if I
(07:35):
said all that about Trump, Chuckkin went appropriately nuts. Quote,
because he's running for president, he gets to make threats.
Mister Trump is a criminal defendant. He is facing four
felony charges. He is under the supervision of the criminal
justice system. He does not have the right to say
and do exactly as he pleases. No other criminal defendant
(07:58):
would be allowed to do so, and I am not
going to permit it in this case. Exactly. It was
like that all day. The judge does not like that attorney,
and that attorney does not like the judge. Happily, only
the first thing in that sentence counts. Trump's ambulance chaser
actually said his client would be more limited in his
(08:18):
speech than Hunter Biden is, and that therefore George Orwell
would have a field day. And Chutkin responded that Hunter
Biden is not a party to the case, and she says, yeah,
George Orwell would have a field day. And any rational
attorney with a rational client who heard that would camp
out outside the prosecutor's office asking about a plea deal. Sadly,
(08:42):
we are not at that point, are we. Trump says,
they're going to appeal, and it's unconstitutional. And given that
there have already been threats of violence against Smith and
members of his staff, and threats against the judge, in
New York and threats against his staff, and there is
already one gag order against him in the fraud case,
plus a partial gag order relating to classified material in
the Florida case. There is no expectation that his appeal
(09:04):
will anywhere, and so the clock is ticking to the
revocation of Trump's bail. Popcorn futures have shot through the
roof in early trading on the hangs, saying, for his part,
after the first test of that rhetorical question, when you
say lethal weapon, does this count? Trump then swerved off
(09:28):
and instead went on an orgy of thirty or more
masturbatory posts about his great polls and all his endorsements,
and I swear to God. It was interrupted only by
ads for a ninety six million volt self defense stun
gun and the Black Widows switchblade knife and Tom Fitten's
go fund me for shirts that would actually fit him,
(09:51):
and all of this overshadowed a bombshell in the New
York courtroom where the civil fraud trial continues, even without
Trump or Michael Cohen being there. Patrick Bernie is Trump's
assistant vice president in chargearge of I don't know greed anyway,
he's a vice president. Prosecutor brought up the convicted ex
(10:12):
Trump financial boss Alan Weiselberg. Did he, mister Burney quote,
ever tell you that Donald Trump wanted his net worth
on his statement of financial condition to go up? Mister
Bernie answered yes, and that would be your motive and
your foreign knowledge of fraud, although you're probably gonna want
something more tangible than a one word answer. And speaking
(10:36):
of corrupt businesses before we move on to why NBC
News and MSNBC should be dissolved today a little further afield,
we have Trump with one of the great Freudian slips
of all time, even for him. What was that Pete
Sagate thing about liberals eating babies?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
But remember Republicans eat their young, if they really do,
they eat the young.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Terrible statement, but it's true. I'll have extra agenochrome on that, please. Okay,
that settles that. The amazing thing about that video from
which that clip was taken, well, the other amazing thing
is the realization that Trump's video people actually posted that,
and therefore there is no other possible conclusion but that
(11:29):
that was the best take. I've got nothing on Israel
or the Jim Jordan's speaker's vote that is insightful or
either relevant or true, except that Biden is going to Israel.
And Jordan was, of course Trump's wingman inside the House
in the attempt to overthrow the duly elected incoming government
(11:50):
of the United States, and he covered up the rape
of scholastic wrestlers. And thus he is not only a
fitting successor to the Dennis Hastart memorial sexual molestation Speaker's chair,
but he is in fact your average Republican congressman. And
all the intrigue about a Sean Hannity producer sending out
(12:10):
threatening emails to those holding out their votes from Jordan
was erased last night when Hennedy went on his little
fascist fest on TV. And first he tried to pretend
he wasn't acting as a king maker by saying he
was just doing the job of an investigative reporter. And
then he went on and gave the House members instructions
on TV about what they could do and what they
(12:33):
couldn't do, and he called those who revealed his pressure
campaign quote snowflakes. The funniest thing about that was the
observation by somebody that Hannity has been acting as Jim
Jordan's whip. In point of fact, it will or it
would be Jim Jordan acting as Hannity's speaker. The most
(12:57):
insightful thing about this was from Council on Foreign Relations
Senior Fellow Laurie Garrett, who said that Hannity's actions were
open and shut proof that Fox's news credentials must be
pulled by the Congressional and White House Correspondence Associations because
neither group gives credentials to lobbyists, which leaves us at NBC.
(13:21):
Remember I told you after Kristen Welker's debut on Meet
the Press that there was an internal investigation there as
to whether the decision to not offer any real time
fact checking of Trump's lies but limit that to a
couple of ten second asides and a mediocre online effort,
that that was part of some sort of quid pro
quo to get Trump to do the interview, or maybe
(13:43):
even part of a deal to get NBC the rights
to host a Republican presidential debate. NBC News has now
gotten the third Republican presidential debate in Miami next month,
and it's actually worse than even I thought calculated that
(14:04):
they should make nice with the Republican Party so that
if we go fully fascist, the Republicans will let NBC
stay in business and not I don't know, arrest everybody
who owns Comcast is a choice, but the price of
that choice was way higher than even I expected. The
NBC press release about this sellout carrying the third Republican
(14:32):
presidential debate on NBC, mind you, not on cable. The
press release, over the signature of the vice president of
Communications for NBC News reads that while NBC will produce
the debate, it will not be alone. There will be
quote debate partners Salem Radio Network and the Republican Jewish Coalition,
(14:56):
as well as URNC streaming partner Rumble to live stream
the debate. NBC News is in bed with Rumble and
Salem Radio, and the bed is in a whorehouse. Rumble
(15:17):
is the place Nick Fuente's live streamed reaction to the
first GOP debate. It's the place Andrew Tate claims to
have a nine million dollar deal NBC News on Rumble.
But Salem Radio is much cleaner than that, much better.
It's only the home of Jenna Ellis and Denesh Desuza
(15:38):
and Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk, who in July called for
President Biden to be quote put in prison and or
given the death penalty for crimes against America. NBC's new
partners Charlie Kirk and Rumble and Salem Radio. So now
(16:04):
from my I mean, here are your moderators for this
Republican presidential debate, Les your Holt, Kristin Welker, Andrew Tate,
Nick Foantes, and Charlie Kirk. Yeah, but don't worry. In reality,
it will not be that bad. CNN's impeccable media reporter
Oliver Darcy reports that Charlie Kirk will not be on
stage with his new NBC partners. It'll only be Salem
(16:29):
Radio's Hugh Hewitt. We were so poor growing up, we
could only afford two syllables. Look. I first went to
work for NBC News twenty six years ago this month,
and one of the first things I noticed that never
changed was the stunning lack of ethics or even awareness
(16:53):
that there were journalistic standards or personal integrity in management there.
I mean, I worked for Andy Lack, I almost worked
for twice. I worked with Joe Scarborough, I worked for
a guy who suspended me for violating NBC News employee
(17:15):
rules and made a big announcement smearing me, even though
they wrote my contract to specifically say I was not
an NBC News employee. I have no illusions of what
NBC News will do when faced with the greatest ethical
crisis of our times? What about our NBC money? Won't
somebody think about our NBC money? But I must confess
(17:40):
I am still stupid enough to have believed that when
this broke that somebody, somebody at NBC like Leicester, who
I always thought wanted to be an ethical person, or
somebody at what's the name of the other place, MSNBC,
somebody there like Chris Hayes or Lawrence o'donald or even
Matdow would stand up and say, now I'm out rumble.
(18:06):
That's it. I mean, when they suspended me, they asked
Chris Hayes to fill in for me, and he wasn't
even getting a salary from NBC and he wouldn't do it.
It's called ethics available for purchase. I mean, Rachel Matdow,
for f's sake, I got you the damn job in
two thousand and eight, and every dollar you have made
since then, you have earned. I knocked down the door
(18:28):
and I'll tell everybody to that till the day I die,
and everything thereafter was entirely your doing. But how much
is it now? When I got to like forty to
fifty million from them, I said enough, you want to
abuse me and slander me and force me to have
Republicans on for balance, I'm gone. Where are you now? Rachel?
(18:53):
What is it? A million or so the first few years,
then about nine million a year. Now it's thirty one
million a year. That's what one hundred and fifty million?
Two high? One hundred and twenty five million too low,
closer to two hundred. At what point do you realize
that by sitting there shilling for the same company that
(19:16):
just did a deal with the platformers of Charlie Kirk
and Nick Fouentes and Andrew freaking Tate, you become Charlie
Kirk and Nick Fouentes and Andrew freaking Tate. It's now
rumble Charlie Kirk, Nick Fouentes, Andrew freaking Tate, Rachel Maddow,
(19:40):
Joe Scarborough. When it is mixed in there with that scum,
how much money does it cost you to buy your
soul back. For God's sake, Rachel, say something. Your voice
(20:04):
still matters. Then again, I'm assuming here, aren't I I'm
assuming it's still your voice. Also of interest, here, I
am the last person to complain about a national anthem
at a sporting event. I don't think they should have
(20:26):
the national anthem at sporting events. That's why they almost
never televise the national anthem at sporting events. But if
you're going to do it, if you're going to televise
it in the United States and Canada, can you at
least get somebody who knows the words, or at least
when she does not know the words, she replaces them
with actual other words and not just gibberish and and
(20:51):
oh yeah, before the break, one last gag order joke.
Feel permit me. Do you know what the sound of
a gag order is? You're ready? That's next. This is countdown.
This is Countdown with Keith Alberman.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
This is Sports Center. Wait check that, not anymore. This
is countdown with Keith Alberman.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
In sports The San Francisco Giants may have actually scheduled
an interview with coaching assistant Alyssa Nakin for their vacant
managerial position that obviously would be a first in sports
history major men's sports history, anyway, But the Miami Marlins
have stepped into the breach to make sure sports took
two or maybe three steps back. The Marlins are dead
(21:57):
in the water, waste of public funds and National League franchise,
which has since its first season, exceeded in attendance of
two million fans in only two seasons. But new general
manager Kim Eng put together a team that somehow made
the playoffs this year, and when it came time for
the Marlins to pick up her mutual option for the
twenty twenty four baseball season, they said, we can't wait.
(22:20):
You've been terrific and oh, by the way, we're going
to hire a new president of Baseball operations to be
your boss. Seriously, to her credit, she declined her part
of the mutual option, and Kim Ang is now a
free agent, and once again it's time to reclaim this
pointless Marlins franchise from its latest pointless owner, a man
(22:42):
named Bruce Sherman, now from hockey. And there's no way
else to put this. It is the worst edition of
the national anthem of the United States of America. Of
all time. Not the funniest worst, Not like the guy
in Vancouver who used to sing the Canadian anthem while
skating around the rink, and then he skated on to
(23:03):
the red carpet and he went flying while still trying
to sing. Not the stupidest worst, like Carl Lewis forgetting
the key and then forgetting the words to the American
anthem but promising that he'd win the audience back and
starting all over again. This is Jeanique Fournier before the
Montreal Canadians Chicago Blackhawks game at Montreal. Now, look, this
(23:28):
is a tough song. I would never try to sing
this song out loud by myself in public. Never. If
you want to tell me it's a bad song and
its composer had a bad history and the lyrics are clunky,
go ahead. If you also want to mention in miss
Fournier's defense that she won Canada's got talent, and she's
(23:49):
a palliative care nurse and evidently a great person, all
of which is true. But it's still clear she does
not know the words to the United States of America's
national anthem, which is fine, she's from Canada, but she's
singing it in public and on television in the United
States nationally, and it's clear she's only learned it phonetically,
(24:12):
and she didn't even learn it well. Fanatically caps for
the singing.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Of the National Afs by saying for you, oh see
can you see by the tiberally.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Light was suffered.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
The Twine's last streaming, Who's brought Strife in Bridestos to
the fair Raasphite on the rest Street was worse againly
stream and again.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Dinossy ye.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Through the line you.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
A lad, we see.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Oh say starstars.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Man call the lid, And.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
It's like she heard every bad rendition of the anthem
ever sung at an American sporting event and said to this,
I aspire. I think I heard her sing oh say
can you see by the damn early not what's a
dab Twilight's last creaming, And of course the big finish
(26:12):
dav our glaff was still there. Excuse me, I have
to go watch the video of that Vancouver singer tripping
over the red carpet again, just to restore my faith
in mankind. Still ahead on countdown thinking of restoring one's
(26:53):
faith in mankind? Anybody heard lately from Brian Williams. The
day one of the most remarkable self destructions in journalistic
history began at incidentally, a hockey game at New York's
Madison Square Garden. I was in the crowd, and boy
was I surprised. I thought I needed to go see
a neurologist. That level of surprise things I promised not
(27:16):
to tell. Coming up first time for the daily round
up with the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects
specimens who constitute two days worse persons in the world
The Bronze Lisa Desjardin PBS News Hour correspondent based in
a Bubble Somewhere formerly Associated Press, formerly CNN Radio, formerly
(27:39):
Medill's School of Journalism at Northwestern, claims to have covered
like seven US presidential elections and one of the political
media industrial complex reporters I have warned you about time
and time again, add nauseum. Who cannot process something that
does not fit into one of the dozen or so
templates of things that always happen in Washington. If it's
(28:01):
not fitting the cliche, they don't know what to do it. Wow,
She tweeted. First off, Wow, House dem Number two just
called Jim Jordan an insurrectionist twice, saying he fought a
j six subpoena and pointedly fueled twenty twenty doubts is
one thing, but man saying he wanted to overthrow the government,
(28:25):
asking what specific evidence and logic they have for this?
After they pulled Miss Desjardin's career out from the ten
ton pile of criticism that fell upon it, she tried
to backtrack and say she was only questioning what parts
of the January sixth evidence democrats say implicate Jordan. But no,
(28:45):
she's not. Quote. Being involved in a conspiracy is a
serious charge and one we should talk about, but it
is not the same as being an insurrectionist. These are
the people who are covering the threats against representative government
in this country. No wonder it's under threat and appears
to be losing. PBS needs to remove her from their
(29:08):
newscast like immediately. Oh and wait till somebody tells her
about Jim Jordan and the wrestlers the runners up turning
Point USA. That is the crowd led by balloon Head,
the evil version of Charlie Brown. Charlie Kirk, the president
of Arizona State University, has sent a searing letter to
faculty warning them that Charlie Kirk's thugs have been seen
(29:31):
operating on campus and quote followed harassed, pushed, and injured
a university English professor as he went from his class
to his car. As university President Michael Crowe put it,
a list of professors promulgated by Kirk's gang quote has
resulted in anti Semitic, anti LGBTQ plus and misogynistic attacks
(29:53):
on ASU faculty, with whom Turning Point USA and its
followers disagree. Why did Kirk's brown shirts push the instructor
to the ground because he co founded a group called
Drag Story Hour. Fascism is alive and well on America's campuses,
and we had better pull it out by its roots immediately.
(30:15):
But our winner, Lauren Bobert, the Colorado representative, who is
representative of another prong of fascism in this country. I
won't talk about her roots for the moment. We are
at a point where the staid corporate media like Politico
can write of her and her date. At the live
musical version of Beatlejuice Quote, Bobert and Quinn Gallagher were
(30:35):
caught on camera fondling one another amid a crowd that
included families with children. That's in Politico fondling congresswoman fondling.
And by the way, that's the highlight of her accomplishments
while in office, fondling the guy. You may recall that
(30:56):
after she denied anything untoward, it happened, and then the
video from security became public of her uh checking his
reaction to the musical. Bobert said it was their first date.
She would not be seeing him again because she just
found out he was a Democrat. Maybe not. Her campaign
finance reports indicate that late in July, Bobert spent three
(31:20):
hundred and seventeen dollars and forty eight cents on quote
catering at the Hoochcraft cocktail Bar in Aspen, Colorado, which
is co owned by Quinn Gallagher. Meeting with donors, said
her campaign manager is a standard campaign procedure. What exactly
(31:43):
was mister Gallagher donating Lauren? Other than that, missus Bobert,
How did you enjoy the play Today's Worst Person in
the World. I saw my ticket now to the number
(32:14):
one story on the countdown and my favorite topic me
and the day I tried to save Brian Williams and
the anniversary of the day I found out why NBC
did not fire Brian Williams. The seventh anniversary was over
the weekend, but first we start. On Thursday, January twenty ninth,
twenty fifteen, after I finished my late afternoon sportscast on
(32:36):
ESPN two, I walked the ten blocks to New York's
Madison Square Garden to see the New York Rangers Montreal
Canadians hockey game. And within two hours, not only was
I convinced I had a profound brain injury or illness,
but a catastrophe would occur so all encompassing in its
sweep that it would end the then very active negotiations
(32:57):
to what else put countdown back on MSNBC. Also, the
Rangers got shut out one nothing. I went to the
game with Bill Wolfe, a former ESPN colleague from twenty
years earlier, whom I had met again at MSNBC and
who was in fact the first executive producer of the
Racil Meadow Show. We had not seen each other in
(33:17):
a while, and he had just left that job. And
so as the skilled youth of many nations cavorted below us,
threatening each other with sticks and razor sharp skates, we
caught up on things, and that's when it happened. At
least once per period in a National Hockey League game,
an ordinary stoppage of play has turned into a lengthy
delay during which the television broadcasters catch up on any
(33:41):
unplayed commercials the TV timeout. And during one of these
TV timeouts, the public address announcer at the garden, Joe Tollison, said,
ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the video screen, etc.
Ice where the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News,
Brian Williams will I didn't actually hear the next part.
(34:03):
At hearing Brian's name, my friend Bill Wolf shouted f
me and I let out a low groan. Since nineteen
ninety seven, I have done my absolute best to like
Brian Williams. I have stuck my neck out for Brian Williams.
I have advocated for Brian Williams. I have forgiven Brian Williams.
(34:25):
And none of it has been enough. No person in
my forty three years as a full time professional broadcaster
has been as insecure nor as mocked behind his back
as as Brian. It is too bad. He is brilliantly
talented and this will never be enough for him. He
(34:47):
is one of those who can only be successful if
he has convinced himself he has taken away some of
the success from those around him. I've been accused of many,
many things, but never that. In the nineties, Brian Williams
used to appear in the middle of My MSNBC show
with a promo for fur his MSNBC show which followed mine.
(35:07):
One night, I said that in five minutes we'd be
previewing President Clinton's itinerary in Africa, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Dharsalam, Johannesburg,
but first with the preview of the news with Brian Williams.
Here's Brian Williams. Brian Williams and he said, thanks Keith,
as someone who's actually been to those places all the time.
(35:28):
With this anyway, when Wolf and I came out of
our respective rages, we heard this over the garden PA system.
During the Iraq invasion, US Army Command Sergeant Major Tim
Turpak was responsible for the safety of Brian Williams and
his NBC news team after their Chinook helicopter was hit
and crippled by enemy fire. I began to sweat Command.
(35:53):
Sergeant Major Turpak was awarded three Bronze Stars for combat
valor in Iraq and recently retired after twenty three years
in the US Army. Both men, both Rangers fans, have
been reunited for the first time in twelve years for
tonight's game. Please welcome, come in Sergeant Major Tim Turpak
and Brian Williams. Bill Wolf swore again. My reaction was different.
(36:18):
I started to get lightheaded, and then immediately very very
worried Bill. I said, in a voice so low that
Bill had to lean in to hear me. Do you
know a good neurologist? Bill laughed. For Brian, it wasn't
a pleasant laugh. He won't go to a neurologist, good
or otherwise unless he can get videotape of it and
(36:39):
put it on the effing screen here at Madison Square Garden.
And I said, no, no, that's that's not what I mean.
I mean, I mean one for me. I was anchoring
on MSNBC the night that Brian Williams story about the
helicopters and the RPG in Iraq. I went on to
tell Bill that that's all I did my first month
(37:00):
back at MSNBC. In two thousand and three, they rehired
me only because they did not have enough anchors to
cover a war. And I was on that night, and
that story about Brian's chopper getting hit, that's not the
way I remember it, Bill. My brain is going I
remember a different story, And I mean, I don't even
remember leading the show with that. My God, if the
heir apparent as the anchor of NBC Nightly News was
(37:23):
shot down over the desert in the middle of the
Iraq War, we would have left led with it. I
don't remember leading with it. I'm only fifty six. I'm
way too young for dementia. It must be a tumor
or something. Do you know a good neurologist, Bill Bill
Wolf was, as usual, pretty cool under the circumstances, and
he said, I think maybe you should relax, because I
don't think it's you. I think it's him because I
(37:46):
remember that story too, Bill said, And that's not the
way he told it in two thousand and three. I
think Brian has changed the story. When I got home
after the Rangers lost that night, I looked up everything
I could about March twenty six, two thousand and three,
and the fact that Brian William was an NBC news
(38:06):
field reporter embedded with troops in Iraq and in the
helicopters with them, and that this was not some sort
of PR stunt. We had another prominent anchor named David Bloom,
who hosted the Today Show on the weekends and had
succeeded Brian as our NBC White House correspondent. And David
Bloom had died in Iraq because after weeks of twisting
himself into the shape of a pretzel to fit inside
(38:29):
a tank, he suffered deep vein thrombosis and he was
dead because they couldn't treat him in time. I even
found a video cassette with the hours I anchored on
MSNBC on March twenty six, two thousand and three, and
I saw Brian's report and I heard him say that
he and an NBC analyst, retired General Wayne Downing, had
(38:50):
been on the ground preparing to take off as part
of the last helicopters in a convoy flying over an
Iraqi desert when they got word that a chopper an
hour ahead of them had been threatened by gunfire and
was then forced to make an emergency landing because of
a sandstorm. I remember thinking, then in two thousand and three,
(39:10):
then in twenty fifteen, and now in twenty twenty two,
that being in the helicopter when they are shooting at
the helicopters is an act of sufficient bravery that you
could brag on yourself forever. I would have been bragging thusly, Hey,
I'm a civilian. I went up in the chopper anyway,
and I did not crap my pants. The end, I
(39:32):
would have been stopping passers by to tell them that.
As I continued to research this, I realized that in
the ensuing dozen years, Brian Williams had slowly changed the story,
almost imperceptibly, almost every time he had retold it. Soon
the chopper was hit by the RPG that actually missed it.
(39:56):
Then the chopper that was hit was not an hour
ahead of them, it was the one right in front
of them. Soon they were all part of the group
that could claim quote, we were the northern most Americans
in Iraq, And by twenty thirteen Brian was claiming it
was his chopper that got hit. In real time. The
next day, Friday, January thirtieth, twenty fifteen, we found out
(40:18):
why Brian had done the thing. At the hockey game
with Command Sergeant Major Turpak. He played a clip of
it on NBC Nightly News, and that is when a
lot of Iraq vets began to speak up with memories
that agreed with Brian on one detail only, Yeah, it
happened in Iraq. I saw the clip from the Rangers game,
(40:39):
and I saw the train wreck coming up behind it
for Brian and for NBC News, and I started emailing
my remaining friends at NBC. Get him drunk, I wrote
to one executive. Then take him into his office and
scatter empty liquor bottles all around, and call in photographers
from the New York Post, the New York Daily News,
and then explain he's going to rehab. You don't have
to say anything else. Rehab as they get out of
(41:01):
jail free card. He comes back in a month and
they'll throw a freak parade for him. To a former
boss still at NBC, I sent this email. Put him
on tonight and at the start of Nightly have him
say this, I'm taking a voluntary leave of absence for
fill in the blank days and during that time, the
(41:21):
entirety of my salary will be donated to fill in
the blank with any military charity, because while I did
not intend to exaggerate my experience in Iraq in two
thousand and three, being hit by small arms fire is
bad enough, being behind the helicopter that got hit with
an RPG is worse. Nevertheless, I did exaggerate it, and
a newsman cannot make a mistake like that without consequences.
(41:45):
Thank you for your forbearance. Now for the rest of
tonight's news cast, here is fill in the name of
NBC employee number whatever. I added a PostScript to my
old boss do this and he could still swerve out
of this. But everybody in management and NBC News was
asleep at the switch during this crisis. They're in action
(42:08):
by News president Deborah Turnus, who now runs a BBC
apparently did not bring the Williams catastrophe to the attention
of Comcast News chief Pat Philly, and that would eventually
cost both of them their jobs. Since I was at
that exact moment negotiating directly with Pat Philly to put
countdown back on MSNBC that also went down over the desert.
(42:35):
Philly's successor was Andy Lack. He resumed the countdown negotiations
with me at the Essex House the following fall. That
was in New York on October twenty ninth, twenty fifteen,
just past the anniversary of that, Lack was moaning to
me about Brian, whom he said he was ready to
resign outright and was willing to go without much of
(42:55):
a stink and without demanding much of a settlement. But
it was Brian's wife, Lack says, who pointed out that
there was a termination clause which was written by the
self same Andy Lack the previous time Andy Lack ran
NBC News that meant if Brian were fired for cause,
he would be owed twice whatever salary was left on
his contract. His wife, Lack said, here's a goddamn Pat
(43:19):
Nixon in this. So instead of firing him and owing
him twice as much money for some reason, nice contract, Lack,
Lack reassigned Brian to cover any breaking news during the
Little Watch daytime hours of MSNBC, and then eventually gave
him his own show there at eleven PM. The punchline,
(43:41):
of course, is that back in February of twenty fifteen,
when it turned out Brian had lied about Iraq and
also maybe lied about seeing a dead body, float past
him during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and about being
mugged while selling Christmas trees when he was in high school,
and about saving a puppy when he's a volunteer firefighter.
(44:02):
I felt dreadful for him. I thought this might be fixable.
And you know who else felt it might be fixable
and felt dreadful for him. Our mutual friend David Letterman,
and I was going on Dave's show, and I said
to Dave, listen, I think Brian's career should not end
because of this. He just needs help. He's a compulsive exaggerator.
(44:23):
If you want to give me the opening to say
that while I'm on with you, just do it. If
you don't, don't, I won't bring it up myself. Dave
is a very loyal man, and Dave gave me the opening,
and then after I defended Brian, he joined me. And
at that point we were literally the only two people
working in television to speak out for Brian. Not only
(44:45):
was it six weeks before Brian as much as sent
me an email of thanks, but David told me he
never heard from Brian, and I haven't heard from Brian
since twenty fifteen, and there is another punchline. As I
came off the Letterman stage that night that he and
I both defended Brian Williams, a producer took me aside
(45:07):
and said it was a nice thing to do, but
was I sure I wanted to get involved in this?
And I shrugged my shoulders and I said, who knows?
Why do you ask? And he said, because one night
when Brian was coming on the Letterman Show, it was
the anniversary of the Iraq helicopter story, and in the
pre interview, Brian explained to this producer that when they
got hit by the RPG, which didn't happen, this command
(45:30):
Sergeant Major Turpak had been injured, which didn't happen. And
when they landed on the desert floor, which didn't happen,
Brian treated Turpack's injury and dressed Turpack's wound himself. But
then Brian said, maybe I should keep that between us.
(45:51):
I guess we were lucky. Brian Williams never claimed that
he saved the helicopter crew by catching the missile with
his teeth. I've done all the damage I can do here.
(46:12):
Thank you for listening. Countdown has come to you from
the Vin Scully studio at the Elderman Broadcasting Empire HI
atop the Sports Capsule Building in New York. The music
you heard was for the most part, arranged, produced, and
performed by Countdown musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip Chanel.
Brian Ray handled the guitars, bass and drums. John Phillip
Shaneil did the orchestration and keyboards produced by Tko Brothers.
(46:36):
Other music, including other Beethoven tunes, were arranged and performed
by the group No Horns Allowed. Sports music is courtesy
of ESPN, Inc. And it was written by Mitch Warren Davis.
We called the Olderman theme from ESPN two. Our satirical
and pithy musical comments are from Nancy Faust, the best
baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my friend
(46:59):
Richard Lewis. Everything else is pretty much my fault except
the national anthem. Let's countdown for this the one thy
fifteenth day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the
democratically elected government of the United States. Convict him now
while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.
Bulletins as the news warrants till then I'm Keith Olremman.
(47:20):
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
Oh see m see by Johverly.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. The
gag order is great, but the real story out of
(00:24):
Judge Tanya Chutkins Trump courtroom is she will not postpone
the trial date. It will not slide until after the election.
It will begin on March fourth, and not the cracked
Trump legal teams demand that it be delayed until the
twelfth of never. And apart from the obvious meeting, there
is also a subtle one and it pertains two the
(00:45):
gag order quote, this trial will not yield to the
election cycle, and we will not revisit the trial date. Remember,
Judge Chutkin had previously said that her preferred way to
punish Trump for his violations of the terms of his
release and other you know laws would beat a art
the trial sooner. And while she did not explicitly say
(01:08):
there is no chance he might yet force her to
do that, the statement yesterday we will not revisit the
trial date seems surprisingly explicit because it implies that if
he breaks the gag order, well my kidding, he may
have broken the gag order yesterday. When he breaks the
gag order, she will punish him in some other way.
(01:29):
She referred in court yesterday to sanctions, and there's not
a lot of sanctions on the table, but advancing the
trial start was the simplest of them. And if it
is off the table, we are looking at financial penalties
or well, you can't send one of his attorneys to
the penalty box and make them defend shorthanded. What's left
is declaring he has violated the terms of his release
(01:52):
and revoking his bail and incarcerating him until the trial
or at least over a weekend. That is not a
step to be taken lightly. But when Trump violates the
game order for the fifth time, or the tenth time
or the fiftieth time, what other option will she have?
Send the Secret Service home, send in the marshals, frog
(02:14):
march the bastard. What odds can I get that he
resists arrest? Come on, come on, you know you want
to resist, doney, Come on. Exactly what Judge Chutkin plans
to do, or in the near term, exactly what she
plans to threaten him with, is as important as the
fact of the gag order itself. Given the judges expressiveness
(02:38):
during the gag hearing yesterday, and when the judge laughs
at your attorneys twice it is not going well for you.
There is something portentous in her unwillingness to state the
penalties she has in mind. Politico phrased it quote. She
did not elaborate on those sanctions, although she said she
(02:59):
planned to issue a written order with further details. Unquote.
I'm confident she had said before issuing the gag order
that without some sort of restriction, we'll be in here
all the time. After all, as soon as she gagged him,
he did say this, I.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Am willing to go to jail if that's what it
takes for our country to win and become a democracy again.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
You, sir, have a deal. As an aside, each time
this happens, that he says one thing that he thinks
wins his argument for him, when it is in fact
a confession to his crimes, or, as in this case,
a confession to the seriousness of his endless traitorous conduct
towards this country. I wonder how many arguments were made
(03:50):
not by Nazi propagandists but by ordinary non genocidal conservatives
or political moderates in Germany in nineteen thirty and nineteen
thirty one and nineteen thirty two in the first month
of nineteen thirty three, arguments that they're Trump was not
threatening freedom, he was saving it. That he wasn't risking
their lives, he was risking his. Every time I hear
(04:12):
Trump say something like that, his belief that he's talking
about the trial of the century as opposed to having
his bail revoked after his two hundred and twenty seventh
reference to a certain unnamed deranged prosecutor. Every time I
hear him talk like that, I think of them, and
I wonder which special place in hell they went to. Anyway,
(04:36):
you're willing to go to jail, good, let's see that
rubber hit that road. Whenever Chutkin issues her written order
with further details, because not three hours after she cost
him in the head with the gag order, he began
feeling around to see exactly where the line is. A
judge gave a gag order today? Did you hear that?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
On speech? Which I believe is totally unconstitutional? What she did?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
A judge gave a gag order to judge doesn't like
me too much. Her whole life is not like in me.
In the preliminary version of the gag order, as released yesterday,
the judge told Trump he had free reign about Biden
and about insulting Washington, but to keep his mouth shut
about witnesses and the prosecutors in the case, and echoing
(05:23):
his attempt to dos an irrelevant court clerk in the
New York fraud case because she had once taken a
selfie with Chuck Schumer court staff members, she did not
include herself on the initial list of the inviolables. Once again,
the promised written order will tell us, and more importantly
will tell Trump. The written order will also tell us
(05:44):
about how far Trump can get away with the standard
Trump trick. I didn't say it, I just repeated it.
Retweets do not equal endorsements. Within literally minutes of the
imposition of the order, one of Trump's many renfields, the
former Chuck Grassley staffer Mike Davis, referred to the order
as something that quote happens in third world Marxist hellholes.
(06:09):
But even this scum Davis stopped at unconstitutional and erroneous,
and later Marjorie Taylor Green paraded her own stupidity by
complaining that the judge let the media attend, and then
Junior issued a video using all the buzzwords but in
another reminder of the blessing of his impaired stupidity, he
(06:30):
referred to the means justifying the ends. And we can
rest I think assured that whatever quality it is that
attracts the stupid and the hateful to Trump, it ain't hereditary.
So some reposts will be okay, and we'll see what
(06:51):
the judge says about attacking the judge. But Chutkin has
already told him about the witnesses and Jack Smith and
Jack Smith's aids and court staff, and in court, the
judge took Trump's comments about Mark Milly and juxtaposed them
with the prospect of Bill Barr as a witness. What
she asked, Trump's most self demeaning lawyer yet, John Laurow,
(07:14):
what if Trump said Barr should be executed for treason,
or said he should keep his mouth shut, or just
threatened his future in a future Trump presidency. And by
the way, I'm thinking that ship has sailed. Laura incredibly
said all that would be protected by the First Amendment.
And I'd like to see him say that if I
(07:35):
said all that about Trump, Chuckkin went appropriately nuts. Quote,
because he's running for president, he gets to make threats.
Mister Trump is a criminal defendant. He is facing four
felony charges. He is under the supervision of the criminal
justice system. He does not have the right to say
and do exactly as he pleases. No other criminal defendant
(07:58):
would be allowed to do so, and I am not
going to permit it in this case. Exactly. It was
like that all day. The judge does not like that attorney,
and that attorney does not like the judge. Happily, only
the first thing in that sentence counts. Trump's ambulance chaser
actually said his client would be more limited in his
(08:18):
speech than Hunter Biden is, and that therefore George Orwell
would have a field day. And Chutkin responded that Hunter
Biden is not a party to the case, and she says, yeah,
George Orwell would have a field day. And any rational
attorney with a rational client who heard that would camp
out outside the prosecutor's office asking about a plea deal. Sadly,
(08:42):
we are not at that point, are we. Trump says,
they're going to appeal, and it's unconstitutional. And given that
there have already been threats of violence against Smith and
members of his staff, and threats against the judge, in
New York and threats against his staff, and there is
already one gag order against him in the fraud case,
plus a partial gag order relating to classified material in
the Florida case. There is no expectation that his appeal
(09:04):
will anywhere, and so the clock is ticking to the
revocation of Trump's bail. Popcorn futures have shot through the
roof in early trading on the hangs, saying, for his part,
after the first test of that rhetorical question, when you
say lethal weapon, does this count? Trump then swerved off
(09:28):
and instead went on an orgy of thirty or more
masturbatory posts about his great polls and all his endorsements,
and I swear to God. It was interrupted only by
ads for a ninety six million volt self defense stun
gun and the Black Widows switchblade knife and Tom Fitten's
go fund me for shirts that would actually fit him,
(09:51):
and all of this overshadowed a bombshell in the New
York courtroom where the civil fraud trial continues, even without
Trump or Michael Cohen being there. Patrick Bernie is Trump's
assistant vice president in chargearge of I don't know greed anyway,
he's a vice president. Prosecutor brought up the convicted ex
(10:12):
Trump financial boss Alan Weiselberg. Did he, mister Burney quote,
ever tell you that Donald Trump wanted his net worth
on his statement of financial condition to go up? Mister
Bernie answered yes, and that would be your motive and
your foreign knowledge of fraud, although you're probably gonna want
something more tangible than a one word answer. And speaking
(10:36):
of corrupt businesses before we move on to why NBC
News and MSNBC should be dissolved today a little further afield,
we have Trump with one of the great Freudian slips
of all time, even for him. What was that Pete
Sagate thing about liberals eating babies?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
But remember Republicans eat their young, if they really do,
they eat the young.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Terrible statement, but it's true. I'll have extra agenochrome on that, please. Okay,
that settles that. The amazing thing about that video from
which that clip was taken, well, the other amazing thing
is the realization that Trump's video people actually posted that,
and therefore there is no other possible conclusion but that
(11:29):
that was the best take. I've got nothing on Israel
or the Jim Jordan's speaker's vote that is insightful or
either relevant or true, except that Biden is going to Israel.
And Jordan was, of course Trump's wingman inside the House
in the attempt to overthrow the duly elected incoming government
(11:50):
of the United States, and he covered up the rape
of scholastic wrestlers. And thus he is not only a
fitting successor to the Dennis Hastart memorial sexual molestation Speaker's chair,
but he is in fact your average Republican congressman. And
all the intrigue about a Sean Hannity producer sending out
(12:10):
threatening emails to those holding out their votes from Jordan
was erased last night when Hennedy went on his little
fascist fest on TV. And first he tried to pretend
he wasn't acting as a king maker by saying he
was just doing the job of an investigative reporter. And
then he went on and gave the House members instructions
on TV about what they could do and what they
(12:33):
couldn't do, and he called those who revealed his pressure
campaign quote snowflakes. The funniest thing about that was the
observation by somebody that Hannity has been acting as Jim
Jordan's whip. In point of fact, it will or it
would be Jim Jordan acting as Hannity's speaker. The most
(12:57):
insightful thing about this was from Council on Foreign Relations
Senior Fellow Laurie Garrett, who said that Hannity's actions were
open and shut proof that Fox's news credentials must be
pulled by the Congressional and White House Correspondence Associations because
neither group gives credentials to lobbyists, which leaves us at NBC.
(13:21):
Remember I told you after Kristen Welker's debut on Meet
the Press that there was an internal investigation there as
to whether the decision to not offer any real time
fact checking of Trump's lies but limit that to a
couple of ten second asides and a mediocre online effort,
that that was part of some sort of quid pro
quo to get Trump to do the interview, or maybe
(13:43):
even part of a deal to get NBC the rights
to host a Republican presidential debate. NBC News has now
gotten the third Republican presidential debate in Miami next month,
and it's actually worse than even I thought calculated that
(14:04):
they should make nice with the Republican Party so that
if we go fully fascist, the Republicans will let NBC
stay in business and not I don't know, arrest everybody
who owns Comcast is a choice, but the price of
that choice was way higher than even I expected. The
NBC press release about this sellout carrying the third Republican
(14:32):
presidential debate on NBC, mind you, not on cable. The
press release, over the signature of the vice president of
Communications for NBC News reads that while NBC will produce
the debate, it will not be alone. There will be
quote debate partners Salem Radio Network and the Republican Jewish Coalition,
(14:56):
as well as URNC streaming partner Rumble to live stream
the debate. NBC News is in bed with Rumble and
Salem Radio, and the bed is in a whorehouse. Rumble
(15:17):
is the place Nick Fuente's live streamed reaction to the
first GOP debate. It's the place Andrew Tate claims to
have a nine million dollar deal NBC News on Rumble.
But Salem Radio is much cleaner than that, much better.
It's only the home of Jenna Ellis and Denesh Desuza
(15:38):
and Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk, who in July called for
President Biden to be quote put in prison and or
given the death penalty for crimes against America. NBC's new
partners Charlie Kirk and Rumble and Salem Radio. So now
(16:04):
from my I mean, here are your moderators for this
Republican presidential debate, Les your Holt, Kristin Welker, Andrew Tate,
Nick Foantes, and Charlie Kirk. Yeah, but don't worry. In reality,
it will not be that bad. CNN's impeccable media reporter
Oliver Darcy reports that Charlie Kirk will not be on
stage with his new NBC partners. It'll only be Salem
(16:29):
Radio's Hugh Hewitt. We were so poor growing up, we
could only afford two syllables. Look. I first went to
work for NBC News twenty six years ago this month,
and one of the first things I noticed that never
changed was the stunning lack of ethics or even awareness
(16:53):
that there were journalistic standards or personal integrity in management there.
I mean, I worked for Andy Lack, I almost worked
for twice. I worked with Joe Scarborough, I worked for
a guy who suspended me for violating NBC News employee
(17:15):
rules and made a big announcement smearing me, even though
they wrote my contract to specifically say I was not
an NBC News employee. I have no illusions of what
NBC News will do when faced with the greatest ethical
crisis of our times? What about our NBC money? Won't
somebody think about our NBC money? But I must confess
(17:40):
I am still stupid enough to have believed that when
this broke that somebody, somebody at NBC like Leicester, who
I always thought wanted to be an ethical person, or
somebody at what's the name of the other place, MSNBC,
somebody there like Chris Hayes or Lawrence o'donald or even
Matdow would stand up and say, now I'm out rumble.
(18:06):
That's it. I mean, when they suspended me, they asked
Chris Hayes to fill in for me, and he wasn't
even getting a salary from NBC and he wouldn't do it.
It's called ethics available for purchase. I mean, Rachel Matdow,
for f's sake, I got you the damn job in
two thousand and eight, and every dollar you have made
since then, you have earned. I knocked down the door
(18:28):
and I'll tell everybody to that till the day I die,
and everything thereafter was entirely your doing. But how much
is it now? When I got to like forty to
fifty million from them, I said enough, you want to
abuse me and slander me and force me to have
Republicans on for balance, I'm gone. Where are you now? Rachel?
(18:53):
What is it? A million or so the first few years,
then about nine million a year. Now it's thirty one
million a year. That's what one hundred and fifty million?
Two high? One hundred and twenty five million too low,
closer to two hundred. At what point do you realize
that by sitting there shilling for the same company that
(19:16):
just did a deal with the platformers of Charlie Kirk
and Nick Fouentes and Andrew freaking Tate, you become Charlie
Kirk and Nick Fouentes and Andrew freaking Tate. It's now
rumble Charlie Kirk, Nick Fouentes, Andrew freaking Tate, Rachel Maddow,
(19:40):
Joe Scarborough. When it is mixed in there with that scum,
how much money does it cost you to buy your
soul back. For God's sake, Rachel, say something. Your voice
(20:04):
still matters. Then again, I'm assuming here, aren't I I'm
assuming it's still your voice. Also of interest, here, I
am the last person to complain about a national anthem
at a sporting event. I don't think they should have
(20:26):
the national anthem at sporting events. That's why they almost
never televise the national anthem at sporting events. But if
you're going to do it, if you're going to televise
it in the United States and Canada, can you at
least get somebody who knows the words, or at least
when she does not know the words, she replaces them
with actual other words and not just gibberish and and
(20:51):
oh yeah, before the break, one last gag order joke.
Feel permit me. Do you know what the sound of
a gag order is? You're ready? That's next. This is countdown.
This is Countdown with Keith Alberman.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
This is Sports Center. Wait check that, not anymore. This
is countdown with Keith Alberman.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
In sports The San Francisco Giants may have actually scheduled
an interview with coaching assistant Alyssa Nakin for their vacant
managerial position that obviously would be a first in sports
history major men's sports history, anyway, But the Miami Marlins
have stepped into the breach to make sure sports took
two or maybe three steps back. The Marlins are dead
(21:57):
in the water, waste of public funds and National League franchise,
which has since its first season, exceeded in attendance of
two million fans in only two seasons. But new general
manager Kim Eng put together a team that somehow made
the playoffs this year, and when it came time for
the Marlins to pick up her mutual option for the
twenty twenty four baseball season, they said, we can't wait.
(22:20):
You've been terrific and oh, by the way, we're going
to hire a new president of Baseball operations to be
your boss. Seriously, to her credit, she declined her part
of the mutual option, and Kim Ang is now a
free agent, and once again it's time to reclaim this
pointless Marlins franchise from its latest pointless owner, a man
(22:42):
named Bruce Sherman, now from hockey. And there's no way
else to put this. It is the worst edition of
the national anthem of the United States of America. Of
all time. Not the funniest worst, Not like the guy
in Vancouver who used to sing the Canadian anthem while
skating around the rink, and then he skated on to
(23:03):
the red carpet and he went flying while still trying
to sing. Not the stupidest worst, like Carl Lewis forgetting
the key and then forgetting the words to the American
anthem but promising that he'd win the audience back and
starting all over again. This is Jeanique Fournier before the
Montreal Canadians Chicago Blackhawks game at Montreal. Now, look, this
(23:28):
is a tough song. I would never try to sing
this song out loud by myself in public. Never. If
you want to tell me it's a bad song and
its composer had a bad history and the lyrics are clunky,
go ahead. If you also want to mention in miss
Fournier's defense that she won Canada's got talent, and she's
(23:49):
a palliative care nurse and evidently a great person, all
of which is true. But it's still clear she does
not know the words to the United States of America's
national anthem, which is fine, she's from Canada, but she's
singing it in public and on television in the United
States nationally, and it's clear she's only learned it phonetically,
(24:12):
and she didn't even learn it well. Fanatically caps for
the singing.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Of the National Afs by saying for you, oh see
can you see by the tiberally.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Light was suffered.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
The Twine's last streaming, Who's brought Strife in Bridestos to
the fair Raasphite on the rest Street was worse againly
stream and again.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Dinossy ye.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Through the line you.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
A lad, we see.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Oh say starstars.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Man call the lid, And.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
It's like she heard every bad rendition of the anthem
ever sung at an American sporting event and said to this,
I aspire. I think I heard her sing oh say
can you see by the damn early not what's a
dab Twilight's last creaming, And of course the big finish
(26:12):
dav our glaff was still there. Excuse me, I have
to go watch the video of that Vancouver singer tripping
over the red carpet again, just to restore my faith
in mankind. Still ahead on countdown thinking of restoring one's
(26:53):
faith in mankind? Anybody heard lately from Brian Williams. The
day one of the most remarkable self destructions in journalistic
history began at incidentally, a hockey game at New York's
Madison Square Garden. I was in the crowd, and boy
was I surprised. I thought I needed to go see
a neurologist. That level of surprise things I promised not
(27:16):
to tell. Coming up first time for the daily round
up with the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects
specimens who constitute two days worse persons in the world
The Bronze Lisa Desjardin PBS News Hour correspondent based in
a Bubble Somewhere formerly Associated Press, formerly CNN Radio, formerly
(27:39):
Medill's School of Journalism at Northwestern, claims to have covered
like seven US presidential elections and one of the political
media industrial complex reporters I have warned you about time
and time again, add nauseum. Who cannot process something that
does not fit into one of the dozen or so
templates of things that always happen in Washington. If it's
(28:01):
not fitting the cliche, they don't know what to do it. Wow,
She tweeted. First off, Wow, House dem Number two just
called Jim Jordan an insurrectionist twice, saying he fought a
j six subpoena and pointedly fueled twenty twenty doubts is
one thing, but man saying he wanted to overthrow the government,
(28:25):
asking what specific evidence and logic they have for this?
After they pulled Miss Desjardin's career out from the ten
ton pile of criticism that fell upon it, she tried
to backtrack and say she was only questioning what parts
of the January sixth evidence democrats say implicate Jordan. But no,
(28:45):
she's not. Quote. Being involved in a conspiracy is a
serious charge and one we should talk about, but it
is not the same as being an insurrectionist. These are
the people who are covering the threats against representative government
in this country. No wonder it's under threat and appears
to be losing. PBS needs to remove her from their
(29:08):
newscast like immediately. Oh and wait till somebody tells her
about Jim Jordan and the wrestlers the runners up turning
Point USA. That is the crowd led by balloon Head,
the evil version of Charlie Brown. Charlie Kirk, the president
of Arizona State University, has sent a searing letter to
faculty warning them that Charlie Kirk's thugs have been seen
(29:31):
operating on campus and quote followed harassed, pushed, and injured
a university English professor as he went from his class
to his car. As university President Michael Crowe put it,
a list of professors promulgated by Kirk's gang quote has
resulted in anti Semitic, anti LGBTQ plus and misogynistic attacks
(29:53):
on ASU faculty, with whom Turning Point USA and its
followers disagree. Why did Kirk's brown shirts push the instructor
to the ground because he co founded a group called
Drag Story Hour. Fascism is alive and well on America's campuses,
and we had better pull it out by its roots immediately.
(30:15):
But our winner, Lauren Bobert, the Colorado representative, who is
representative of another prong of fascism in this country. I
won't talk about her roots for the moment. We are
at a point where the staid corporate media like Politico
can write of her and her date. At the live
musical version of Beatlejuice Quote, Bobert and Quinn Gallagher were
(30:35):
caught on camera fondling one another amid a crowd that
included families with children. That's in Politico fondling congresswoman fondling.
And by the way, that's the highlight of her accomplishments
while in office, fondling the guy. You may recall that
(30:56):
after she denied anything untoward, it happened, and then the
video from security became public of her uh checking his
reaction to the musical. Bobert said it was their first date.
She would not be seeing him again because she just
found out he was a Democrat. Maybe not. Her campaign
finance reports indicate that late in July, Bobert spent three
(31:20):
hundred and seventeen dollars and forty eight cents on quote
catering at the Hoochcraft cocktail Bar in Aspen, Colorado, which
is co owned by Quinn Gallagher. Meeting with donors, said
her campaign manager is a standard campaign procedure. What exactly
(31:43):
was mister Gallagher donating Lauren? Other than that, missus Bobert,
How did you enjoy the play Today's Worst Person in
the World. I saw my ticket now to the number
(32:14):
one story on the countdown and my favorite topic me
and the day I tried to save Brian Williams and
the anniversary of the day I found out why NBC
did not fire Brian Williams. The seventh anniversary was over
the weekend, but first we start. On Thursday, January twenty ninth,
twenty fifteen, after I finished my late afternoon sportscast on
(32:36):
ESPN two, I walked the ten blocks to New York's
Madison Square Garden to see the New York Rangers Montreal
Canadians hockey game. And within two hours, not only was
I convinced I had a profound brain injury or illness,
but a catastrophe would occur so all encompassing in its
sweep that it would end the then very active negotiations
(32:57):
to what else put countdown back on MSNBC. Also, the
Rangers got shut out one nothing. I went to the
game with Bill Wolfe, a former ESPN colleague from twenty
years earlier, whom I had met again at MSNBC and
who was in fact the first executive producer of the
Racil Meadow Show. We had not seen each other in
(33:17):
a while, and he had just left that job. And
so as the skilled youth of many nations cavorted below us,
threatening each other with sticks and razor sharp skates, we
caught up on things, and that's when it happened. At
least once per period in a National Hockey League game,
an ordinary stoppage of play has turned into a lengthy
delay during which the television broadcasters catch up on any
(33:41):
unplayed commercials the TV timeout. And during one of these
TV timeouts, the public address announcer at the garden, Joe Tollison, said,
ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the video screen, etc.
Ice where the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News,
Brian Williams will I didn't actually hear the next part.
(34:03):
At hearing Brian's name, my friend Bill Wolf shouted f
me and I let out a low groan. Since nineteen
ninety seven, I have done my absolute best to like
Brian Williams. I have stuck my neck out for Brian Williams.
I have advocated for Brian Williams. I have forgiven Brian Williams.
(34:25):
And none of it has been enough. No person in
my forty three years as a full time professional broadcaster
has been as insecure nor as mocked behind his back
as as Brian. It is too bad. He is brilliantly
talented and this will never be enough for him. He
(34:47):
is one of those who can only be successful if
he has convinced himself he has taken away some of
the success from those around him. I've been accused of many,
many things, but never that. In the nineties, Brian Williams
used to appear in the middle of My MSNBC show
with a promo for fur his MSNBC show which followed mine.
(35:07):
One night, I said that in five minutes we'd be
previewing President Clinton's itinerary in Africa, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Dharsalam, Johannesburg,
but first with the preview of the news with Brian Williams.
Here's Brian Williams. Brian Williams and he said, thanks Keith,
as someone who's actually been to those places all the time.
(35:28):
With this anyway, when Wolf and I came out of
our respective rages, we heard this over the garden PA system.
During the Iraq invasion, US Army Command Sergeant Major Tim
Turpak was responsible for the safety of Brian Williams and
his NBC news team after their Chinook helicopter was hit
and crippled by enemy fire. I began to sweat Command.
(35:53):
Sergeant Major Turpak was awarded three Bronze Stars for combat
valor in Iraq and recently retired after twenty three years
in the US Army. Both men, both Rangers fans, have
been reunited for the first time in twelve years for
tonight's game. Please welcome, come in Sergeant Major Tim Turpak
and Brian Williams. Bill Wolf swore again. My reaction was different.
(36:18):
I started to get lightheaded, and then immediately very very
worried Bill. I said, in a voice so low that
Bill had to lean in to hear me. Do you
know a good neurologist? Bill laughed. For Brian, it wasn't
a pleasant laugh. He won't go to a neurologist, good
or otherwise unless he can get videotape of it and
(36:39):
put it on the effing screen here at Madison Square Garden.
And I said, no, no, that's that's not what I mean.
I mean, I mean one for me. I was anchoring
on MSNBC the night that Brian Williams story about the
helicopters and the RPG in Iraq. I went on to
tell Bill that that's all I did my first month
(37:00):
back at MSNBC. In two thousand and three, they rehired
me only because they did not have enough anchors to
cover a war. And I was on that night, and
that story about Brian's chopper getting hit, that's not the
way I remember it, Bill. My brain is going I
remember a different story, And I mean, I don't even
remember leading the show with that. My God, if the
heir apparent as the anchor of NBC Nightly News was
(37:23):
shot down over the desert in the middle of the
Iraq War, we would have left led with it. I
don't remember leading with it. I'm only fifty six. I'm
way too young for dementia. It must be a tumor
or something. Do you know a good neurologist, Bill Bill
Wolf was, as usual, pretty cool under the circumstances, and
he said, I think maybe you should relax, because I
don't think it's you. I think it's him because I
(37:46):
remember that story too, Bill said, And that's not the
way he told it in two thousand and three. I
think Brian has changed the story. When I got home
after the Rangers lost that night, I looked up everything
I could about March twenty six, two thousand and three,
and the fact that Brian William was an NBC news
(38:06):
field reporter embedded with troops in Iraq and in the
helicopters with them, and that this was not some sort
of PR stunt. We had another prominent anchor named David Bloom,
who hosted the Today Show on the weekends and had
succeeded Brian as our NBC White House correspondent. And David
Bloom had died in Iraq because after weeks of twisting
himself into the shape of a pretzel to fit inside
(38:29):
a tank, he suffered deep vein thrombosis and he was
dead because they couldn't treat him in time. I even
found a video cassette with the hours I anchored on
MSNBC on March twenty six, two thousand and three, and
I saw Brian's report and I heard him say that
he and an NBC analyst, retired General Wayne Downing, had
(38:50):
been on the ground preparing to take off as part
of the last helicopters in a convoy flying over an
Iraqi desert when they got word that a chopper an
hour ahead of them had been threatened by gunfire and
was then forced to make an emergency landing because of
a sandstorm. I remember thinking, then in two thousand and three,
(39:10):
then in twenty fifteen, and now in twenty twenty two,
that being in the helicopter when they are shooting at
the helicopters is an act of sufficient bravery that you
could brag on yourself forever. I would have been bragging thusly, Hey,
I'm a civilian. I went up in the chopper anyway,
and I did not crap my pants. The end, I
(39:32):
would have been stopping passers by to tell them that.
As I continued to research this, I realized that in
the ensuing dozen years, Brian Williams had slowly changed the story,
almost imperceptibly, almost every time he had retold it. Soon
the chopper was hit by the RPG that actually missed it.
(39:56):
Then the chopper that was hit was not an hour
ahead of them, it was the one right in front
of them. Soon they were all part of the group
that could claim quote, we were the northern most Americans
in Iraq, And by twenty thirteen Brian was claiming it
was his chopper that got hit. In real time. The
next day, Friday, January thirtieth, twenty fifteen, we found out
(40:18):
why Brian had done the thing. At the hockey game
with Command Sergeant Major Turpak. He played a clip of
it on NBC Nightly News, and that is when a
lot of Iraq vets began to speak up with memories
that agreed with Brian on one detail only, Yeah, it
happened in Iraq. I saw the clip from the Rangers game,
(40:39):
and I saw the train wreck coming up behind it
for Brian and for NBC News, and I started emailing
my remaining friends at NBC. Get him drunk, I wrote
to one executive. Then take him into his office and
scatter empty liquor bottles all around, and call in photographers
from the New York Post, the New York Daily News,
and then explain he's going to rehab. You don't have
to say anything else. Rehab as they get out of
(41:01):
jail free card. He comes back in a month and
they'll throw a freak parade for him. To a former
boss still at NBC, I sent this email. Put him
on tonight and at the start of Nightly have him
say this, I'm taking a voluntary leave of absence for
fill in the blank days and during that time, the
(41:21):
entirety of my salary will be donated to fill in
the blank with any military charity, because while I did
not intend to exaggerate my experience in Iraq in two
thousand and three, being hit by small arms fire is
bad enough, being behind the helicopter that got hit with
an RPG is worse. Nevertheless, I did exaggerate it, and
a newsman cannot make a mistake like that without consequences.
(41:45):
Thank you for your forbearance. Now for the rest of
tonight's news cast, here is fill in the name of
NBC employee number whatever. I added a PostScript to my
old boss do this and he could still swerve out
of this. But everybody in management and NBC News was
asleep at the switch during this crisis. They're in action
(42:08):
by News president Deborah Turnus, who now runs a BBC
apparently did not bring the Williams catastrophe to the attention
of Comcast News chief Pat Philly, and that would eventually
cost both of them their jobs. Since I was at
that exact moment negotiating directly with Pat Philly to put
countdown back on MSNBC that also went down over the desert.
(42:35):
Philly's successor was Andy Lack. He resumed the countdown negotiations
with me at the Essex House the following fall. That
was in New York on October twenty ninth, twenty fifteen,
just past the anniversary of that, Lack was moaning to
me about Brian, whom he said he was ready to
resign outright and was willing to go without much of
(42:55):
a stink and without demanding much of a settlement. But
it was Brian's wife, Lack says, who pointed out that
there was a termination clause which was written by the
self same Andy Lack the previous time Andy Lack ran
NBC News that meant if Brian were fired for cause,
he would be owed twice whatever salary was left on
his contract. His wife, Lack said, here's a goddamn Pat
(43:19):
Nixon in this. So instead of firing him and owing
him twice as much money for some reason, nice contract, Lack,
Lack reassigned Brian to cover any breaking news during the
Little Watch daytime hours of MSNBC, and then eventually gave
him his own show there at eleven PM. The punchline,
(43:41):
of course, is that back in February of twenty fifteen,
when it turned out Brian had lied about Iraq and
also maybe lied about seeing a dead body, float past
him during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and about being
mugged while selling Christmas trees when he was in high school,
and about saving a puppy when he's a volunteer firefighter.
(44:02):
I felt dreadful for him. I thought this might be fixable.
And you know who else felt it might be fixable
and felt dreadful for him. Our mutual friend David Letterman,
and I was going on Dave's show, and I said
to Dave, listen, I think Brian's career should not end
because of this. He just needs help. He's a compulsive exaggerator.
(44:23):
If you want to give me the opening to say
that while I'm on with you, just do it. If
you don't, don't, I won't bring it up myself. Dave
is a very loyal man, and Dave gave me the opening,
and then after I defended Brian, he joined me. And
at that point we were literally the only two people
working in television to speak out for Brian. Not only
(44:45):
was it six weeks before Brian as much as sent
me an email of thanks, but David told me he
never heard from Brian, and I haven't heard from Brian
since twenty fifteen, and there is another punchline. As I
came off the Letterman stage that night that he and
I both defended Brian Williams, a producer took me aside
(45:07):
and said it was a nice thing to do, but
was I sure I wanted to get involved in this?
And I shrugged my shoulders and I said, who knows?
Why do you ask? And he said, because one night
when Brian was coming on the Letterman Show, it was
the anniversary of the Iraq helicopter story, and in the
pre interview, Brian explained to this producer that when they
got hit by the RPG, which didn't happen, this command
(45:30):
Sergeant Major Turpak had been injured, which didn't happen. And
when they landed on the desert floor, which didn't happen,
Brian treated Turpack's injury and dressed Turpack's wound himself. But
then Brian said, maybe I should keep that between us.
(45:51):
I guess we were lucky. Brian Williams never claimed that
he saved the helicopter crew by catching the missile with
his teeth. I've done all the damage I can do here.
(46:12):
Thank you for listening. Countdown has come to you from
the Vin Scully studio at the Elderman Broadcasting Empire HI
atop the Sports Capsule Building in New York. The music
you heard was for the most part, arranged, produced, and
performed by Countdown musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip Chanel.
Brian Ray handled the guitars, bass and drums. John Phillip
Shaneil did the orchestration and keyboards produced by Tko Brothers.
(46:36):
Other music, including other Beethoven tunes, were arranged and performed
by the group No Horns Allowed. Sports music is courtesy
of ESPN, Inc. And it was written by Mitch Warren Davis.
We called the Olderman theme from ESPN two. Our satirical
and pithy musical comments are from Nancy Faust, the best
baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my friend
(46:59):
Richard Lewis. Everything else is pretty much my fault except
the national anthem. Let's countdown for this the one thy
fifteenth day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the
democratically elected government of the United States. Convict him now
while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.
Bulletins as the news warrants till then I'm Keith Olremman.
(47:20):
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
Oh see m see by Johverly.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
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