February 6, 2024 • 40 mins
SERIES 2 EPISODE 117: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: When Trump says “there is now a 100% chance that there will be major terror attacks in the USA” he is right and after the weekend and yesterday, now we KNOW WHY he is right and what he means: He means terror attacks BY the Republican Party.
Trump for once is right: terrorism is here, and the terrorists are the Republicans.
The GOP under Trump is now the party of blackmail and extortion and destruction and terrorism: vote for us or we’ll destroy whatever we can get our hands on. Joe Biden agrees to a draconian overreaction to the migration issue that is more than the most xenophobic, most dogmatic Republican Fascist could ever DREAM of living long enough to see actually enacted, and instead of passing it before lunch just in case Biden changes his mind, they have lied about it, and attacked it, and killed it, and exacerbated the EXACT problem they claim to be fighting, and if they are correct IN THE SLIGHTEST about the gravity of the border and immigration situations, they – the Republican Party – THEY will kill Americans. THEY, the Republicans, will be ushering the criminals they claim are seeking a home here. THEY, the Republicans, will be carrying in and distributing the fentanyl they claim the immigrants are all carrying. THEY, the Republicans, will be killing Americans. And then they’ll run on the crisis THEY have caused.
If a foreign country, or a jihadist group, or a re-born Al-Qaeda, or a pack of wild communists managed to interrupt America’s control of her own border, and successfully interfered with America’s financial and military aid to its own allies around the world, and blocked our humanitarian aid to civilian war victims, and infiltrated and radicalized and made into THEIR agents some of our political leaders who then made public promises to derail, and disrupt, and SABOTAGE our Senate and our House and our Government… this nation under the leadership of either political party or a combination of them would immediately use the means provided by our laws of national self-defense… to STOP them. To STOP the terrorists.
Plus: Trump now thinks he's...Elvis?
B-Block (20:15) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: It's all TV News news: CNN blows up the morning again as the new boss damages his staff more than even Licht did. Tucker Carlson is in Moscow because you CAN fool all of the Tucker all of the time. And I think this qualifies as a national security crisis AND a brain drain AND a journalism crisis: reportedly, President Biden has come to rely on the advice of Joe Scarborough, who 30 years ago was loyal to Newt Gingrich and 8 years ago was trying to mainstream Trump and get his Vice Presidential slot and would say anything to anybody if it got him power. Plus, he's turned MSNBC's morning show into the equivalent of Sean Hannity advising Trump. It, and he, stinks.
C-Block (43:00) OOOH A TEASE: Brian Ray and John Philip Shenale are about to debut new music for the show!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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. When
Trump says there is now a one hundred percent chance
that there will be major terror attacks in the USA,
(00:27):
he is right. And after the weekend and yesterday, now
we know why he is right and what he means.
He means terror attacks by the Republican Party. For once,
Trump is right, terrorism is here and the terrorists are
the Republicans. The GOP under Trump is now the party
(00:50):
of blackmail and extortion and destruction and terrorism. Vote for us,
or we will destroy whatever we can get our hands
on in this country. Joe Biden agrees to a draconian
overreaction to the migration issue that is more than the
most xenophobic, most dogmatic Republican fascists could ever dream of
living long enough to see actually enacted, and instead of
(01:12):
passing it before lunch just in case Biden changes his mind,
they have lied about it, they have attacked it, they
have killed it, and they have exacerbated the exact problem
they had claimed to be fighting. And if they are
correct in the slightest about the gravity of the border
and immigration situations, they the Republican Party, they will kill
(01:34):
Americans as terrorists. They the Republicans will be ushering the
criminals they claim are seeking a home here. They the Republicans,
will be carrying in and distributing the fentanyl they claim
the immigrants are all carrying. They the Republicans, will be
(01:55):
ushering door to door the quote terrorists unquote. And then
they will run on the crisis they have caused. Trump
for once is right. Terrorism is here, and the terrorists
are Republicans, all of them. If a foreign country, or
(02:19):
a jihadist group, or a reborn Al Qaeda, or a
pack of wild communists managed to interrupt America's control of
her own border, successfully interfered with America's financial and military
aid to its own allies around the world, and blocked
our humanitarian aid to civilian war victims, and infiltrated and
(02:39):
radicalized and made into their agents some of our political leaders,
who then made public promises to derail and disrupt and
sabotage our Senate and our House and our government, this nation,
under the leadership of either political party or a combination
of them, would immediately declare a grave crisis and use
(03:02):
the means provided by our law of national self defense
to stop them. To stop the terrorists. The Republicans are
now those terrorists. The Republicans have now torn off the
masks and declared themselves to be what so many of
(03:23):
them have so long been, terrorists infiltrators, sworn on decreasing
the security of the nation, decreasing the safety of its people,
decreasing the viability of its allies. Terrorosts from Mike Johnson
to Mike Lee, terrorists from Byron Donald's to Donald Trump.
(03:49):
Round them up, charge them with the crimes they are
committing as we speak, and the Americans whose lives they
are endangering, and send the terrorists to Gittmo. Mike Johnson,
Mike Lee, Byron Donald's, Donald Trump, vivec. I'mswami, all of them,
and if that coffee is a little strong for you.
(04:12):
The minimum the minimum in this situation where the Republicans
make blood curdling demands and use the language of fear
and threat and murder and racism and terrorism, and then
get what they want, but turn it down so they
can save and worsen the disaster they have described so
they can run on it, the minimum is for President
(04:36):
Biden to now demand TV time from all the broadcast
networks and every other Networking can put himself on and
for him to make a fire and brimstone speech no
later than tomorrow night about how the Republicans have betrayed
their own negotiators, how they have betrayed their own constituents,
how they have even portrayed their own prejudices and hatreds,
(04:56):
how they have betrayed this country, and how they have
endangered this nation, how they are terrorists. Biden should take
all the components of the border bill that he can
enact or come close to enacting by executive action, and
give the Republicans forty eight hours to pass the border
bill they threatened the nation into supporting, and then renneck
(05:20):
don and the President should say that until the Republicans
regained some control of their party from their mafia chief
Dementia J Trump, he will veto the Trump Mike Johnson
House bill that would not improve conditions at the border,
would not authorize more aid to Ukraine, but would still
give the Israeli version of Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu all the
(05:41):
money he needs to carry on a war for months
for years, which even the majority of his own people
want to stop. Because what Trump and the House Republicans
want is not aid to Israel, but aid to Nettagnyahoo
and Biden must take the opportunity to declare the obvious
that these two things are different things, and this nation
(06:03):
will always be on Team Israel, but it is no
longer on team Nettan Yahoo and Team Netanyahoo fascism, Trump
and our team fascism, our team terrorism. The Republican Party
have long since devolved into the metaphorical hostage takers. Do
(06:24):
what we say, or we'll tank the economy. Do what
we say, or Trump's cult will shoot you. Do what
we say, or we will destroy you with the elections
over the problems we have caused, but which we blame
on you. But now when the democratic answer actually has
been we will do what you say. The Republicans have
demanded more, and now Joe Biden must make sure they
(06:48):
get nothing. It is terrorism. The Republicans are using terrorism.
Trump is and always has been a terrorist, and terrorists
understand only one thing, a result in which they are
not Their targets are destroyed. And it is time for
President Biden to tell the Republican terrorist Party you had
(07:12):
your chance, and we mistakenly took you seriously. Now you
have a choice. You do what America wants, or America
will destroy you. By the way, there is a procrustian
bed here for Democrats if you are unaware of it.
(07:35):
Whatever the correct assessment of the border is, the perception
in much of this country, including places Democrats have to win,
or the United States of America as we know it
is over, the perception is that this is a crisis,
whatever it is, And Biden might have actually gotten a
(07:57):
minor gift here. He might only have to give a
fiery speech about how Republicans are endangering this and stopping
him from curing it. He may not actually have to
do anything. Whatever it is it is showing up in
the special election a week from today to fill the
seat of George Santos. You should excuse the expression veteran
(08:20):
moderate Tom Swazi versus an ex Democrat x Israeli Defense
Forces member, mother of seven born in Ethiopia who has
otherwise pretty much hid her personal history, accept her multiple
qualifications as an immigrant, and is running on a no
immigrants platform. And right now it would be a toss up,
(08:41):
and the ads from both sides are only about immigration.
And if you think well, Democrats can't lose a special
election in New York. It ain't New York, It's Long Island.
And last time the genius voters of that district voted,
they elected George freaking Santos. On the other hand, if
(09:06):
you think there is no one in the Republican Party
not fully assimilated into the mindlessness of their Trumpian borg,
a snippet from punch Bowl News might cheer you. It
is about yesterday morning's post apocalyptic meeting of the Republican
Senator's Communications Directors, those representing Senator James Langford, the lead
negotiator on the border bill, and thus the guy thrown
(09:29):
highest into the air when the rug was pulled out
from under them, explain the bill as it currently stands
and opened it up for questions, whereupon, reports punch Bowl,
the Comm's director for Senator Mike Lee, the mindless moron
from Utah with the weakest combover ever seen, started yelling
at everybody, not Mike Lee, but as Comm's director, eventually
(09:50):
storming out of the room shouting betrayal. Then, before you
think the Republicans cannot be peeled away from Thelma and
louising their way across the cliff at Trump's insistence over
this after Mike Lee's aid stormed down quote, those in
the room erupted in laughter. One hopes there might have
(10:13):
been similar reactions to the Sunday morning appearance with George
Stephanoppolis of the simpering, sniveling sycophant from Ohio Senator JD.
Too much eyeliner Vance. If you wondered if anybody could
possibly suck harder on Trump's backside in a bid to
get onto his ticket as vice president than Elise Stefanik
(10:33):
or Tim Scott or eight years ago, Joe Scarborough, Vance
has ended your uncertainty. He said the e Gene Carrol
verdict was invalid because it happened in a liberal state.
He encouraged ignoring Supreme Court rulings that Trump doesn't like,
(10:55):
and he, in essence, said that if he had been
vice president on January sixth, he would have not only
committed the insurrectionist act Trump wanted Pence to do, but
he would have done even more of them, done even
worse versions of them, including demanding that all swing states
Trump lost send second sets of electors and let the
Senate choose. Vance is an authoritarian weasel wearing eyeliner and
(11:22):
just because he's bad at it is no reason to
let him get away with it. I have long advocated
that all political TV hosts be given a button controlling
the mics of their guests that they could turn off
at their will. George Stephanoppolis finally had had enough. Advance
cut him off, and as ABC went to break, they
adroitly cut to a shot of jd Vance still talking
(11:44):
with his mike muted lip flap, as we call it
in the trade. It was beautiful. I'm sure all of
the executives at CNN and Meet the Press feinted. Oh mah,
I have the papers. Some quick headlines. Impeachment one, impeachment.
Politico reports the White House is actually planning to fight
(12:06):
back against any bid to impeach Homeland Secretary of may
orcus a motion to dismiss in the Senate or refer
to a committee in the Senate, or to submit it
to a point of order motion. I know, I know
it'll be the worst day in Washington since January sixth.
A point of order motion. Oh no, Kristen Cinema will
(12:29):
storm out. Not that I haven't seen that happen before. Meanwhile,
if you haven't heard anything lately, about the impeachment of
President Biden. That's because the Republicans have a two vote
cushion in the House, and CNN reported that as of Friday,
at least twenty Republicans are not convinced there is evidence
(12:51):
justifying impeachment. Most of them would weasel out of voting
against it, but seventeen of them can weasel out, and
that would still leave three who would kill impeachment outright
and with it kill the careers of Jim Jordan, Jamie Comer,
and Mike Johnson. A reminder that Thursday will be oral
(13:14):
arguments in the fourteenth Amendment disqualification case before the Supreme Court.
That is the Colorado ruling that he's off the ballot
there and for God's sake, somebody tell the attorneys what
Antonin Scalias said about how the president is to an
officer of the United States. Sometimes judges do say the
(13:34):
darnedest things. Tanya Chutkin, in essence, leaked the postponement of
the start of the Trump DC trial a day before
she had to make it official yesterday. At a conference
about a different January sixth insurrectionist. According to Politico, she
said she has plans to be in a different land
in Midsummer of this year quote, I hope not to
be in the country on August five, She said she
(13:56):
might have to cancel her travel though, because, again quoting,
I'm in trial in another matter that has not yet
returned to my calendar. Golly, what matter could that be?
Mark it down? Trump trial still in progress August five
or later. And I must mention two weird meals served
(14:17):
at Trump's good old actuarial table last July. Last July,
somebody tweeted and culter has been right about Trump in
the past, I'd love to hear what he needs to
do in her opinion to help us take America back.
Cooltergeist chose last Saturday night around midnight to answer, by
means of retweet quote, maybe he could die. And culture
(14:43):
has been right about Trump in the past. I'd love
to hear what he needs to do in her opinion
to help us take America back. Maybe he could die.
Just goes to show that for even the most lunkheaded
of us in the Cornell Alumni Association, the value of
that education eventually rises to the top. In Ann's case,
(15:05):
just shy of forty years after graduation. And then there
was the surest sign yet that he really is dementia
j Trump. No, not the dragging of the right leg
in all those new videos, like he just had a
stroke or other events. Could just be the fact that
(15:29):
his right leg is very heavy. No, not that. Rather
the posting of a split screen image of him aged
seventy seven and Elvis Presley aged about twenty five, and
his apparently now certainly non self satirizing comment quote. For
(15:54):
so many years people have been saying that Elvis and
I look alike. Now this pick has been going all
over the place. What do you think trying to convince
your cult that you are somehow like Elvis Presley? You
mean that you've both been brain dead since nineteen seventy seven? Okay,
(16:22):
that I'll buy nothing but an insurrectionist. Also of interest
on this all new edition of Countdown, Oh nothing, just
the three worst fears about cable TV news coming true.
The guy who replaced Chris Lickt at CNN maybe worse
(16:43):
than Chris Lickt was Tucker Carlson is in the Kremlin
and he's not staying there. Oh and you've heard the
phrase white house brain drain, Well here it is living
and breathing before your eyes, Axios reports. President Biden's unofficial
(17:03):
advisory is I'm Joe Scarborough. This is Scarborough Country. That's next.
This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olboman. Postscripts
(17:28):
to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions,
and this time postscripts to the news is all TV
News News Dateline Moscow. Tucker Carlson is in Russia. Quick
seal the borders. It's too much to hope he's simply
(17:50):
been recalled by the Cheka. The assumption is Tucker Carlson
is there for an interview with Putin or possible interview
with Putin that will fall through or fall out a window.
Another theory is he may be acting as a conduit
for Trump to some in the Kremlin. And obviously, given
how many Russians, Carlson and Trump have carried water for that,
(18:10):
somebody could be any of a couple hundred commissars, or
if you'd like a unified theory of the man Russian
State TV once called Tucson Carlson. This has something to
do with Trump and Elon Musk and Putin and shrooms.
Regardless whoever, he is there to see Carlson will return
(18:30):
here imbued with fresh real world propaganda to use in
his decades long fight against reality and his own mental health.
You can't fix Russian, but you can fool Tucker Carlson
all of the time. Thank you, Nancy. Post dateline Atlanta,
(19:19):
CNN is retooling its morning show again emphasis on the
word tool again. This time it is offloading anchors PHILM.
Mattingly oh I thought was pretty good at it, and
the insufferable Poppy Harlow, and shortening the show and moving
its production from New York to Atlanta. But the network
actually insisted to several reporters this is not a cancelation.
(19:42):
It's just new anchors, a new city, and shorter hours
on the air. The fifty staffers affected have been encouraged
to reapply for their jobs as the new new CNN boss,
Mark Thompson guts the place even faster than the late
lamented paced eater Chris Lickt did. I'll point out that
(20:03):
the results of this show are just It's like the
ten PM Abby Phillip disaster, which CNN spends millions of
dollars on. In the Morning Show's case, it spends millions
of dollars on it and uses expensive lights and makeup
and fifty staffers to produce a show that was averaging
this year a daily audience of three hundred and twenty
two thousand, which is not even three times the size
(20:24):
of this podcast, which I do in my spare time
in my suit closet with the help of my dogs.
Keep up the good work, CNN and Dateline the White House. Hello, well,
this is nothing less than the worst national security crisis
since the Russians stop Jim Brown and Rock Hudson from
(20:47):
getting to ice Station Zebra in nineteen sixty nine. I'll
just read this verbatim from Axios because I just couldn't
bring myself to try to rewrite it. Quote. When White
House aids appear on MSNBC's Morning Joe, there are often
booked between seven and seven forty am ET. That's so
(21:08):
they'll reach one crucial and loyal viewer, President Biden. Why
it matters. Biden's year's long love of MSNBC's staple morning
show affects how the White House runs and who Biden
listens to. The President often calls co host Joe Scarborough,
a former Republican congressman who's now a harsh critic of
(21:29):
Donald Trump. Check the notes to see if he's still
a harsh critic of Trump or if he's swung back
yet to get Scarborough's take on issues, and sometimes vent
about media coverage, According to people familiar with the relationship,
Hi mister Piagin in It's Jakes Garb During the day,
Biden has long asked his staff whether they saw a story,
(21:50):
a poll, or a segment that had been on the show.
He's included show regulars in off the record conversations with
policy experts Biden pays particular attention to and has consulted
with Mourning Joe regulars, including longtime report Mike Barnacle, Oh Good,
foreign policy expert Richard Haas, and historian John Meacham, who
(22:12):
has assisted on several Biden's speeches, each of whom made
their MSNBC debuts on My Shows. Vice President Harris watches
Morning Joe two. She and second Gentleman Doug m Off
hosted a dinner last month at the Vice Presidential residence
for Scarborough and Mika Prasinski, his co host and wife.
I hope they counted the forks, knives and spoons afterwards,
(22:33):
Aids note that Harris also tunes into Fox News and
occasionally watches The Five behind the scenes. Because Biden watches
Morning Joe so often, most of his top aides watch
or track the show to anticipate potential questions from him.
Biden aids have remarked how long time Biden aids Steve
Richetti Richetti Rischetti seems to watch much of the four
(22:55):
hour show every morning. God Help Him. He and other
aids often reference the show God Help Them. A White
House official told Axio that many of Biden's top staff
members think the show gives Biden a fairer shake than
other outlets. Well Newsmax and that guy who thinks Biden
(23:16):
is from a different planet, and you know Biden included
retired Admiral James Starmbritez mourning Joe Staple on national security issue.
That's two staples in the middle of Morning Joe, which
makes sense. In an off the record briefing at the
White House with other experts, Biden takes notes and initially
(23:37):
refrains from giving his perspective during such sessions because he
doesn't want people to tell him what he wants to hear.
According to a person familiar with the meetings. Olderman added,
then why the hell is he talking to Joe Scarborough
if he doesn't want to talk to somebody who'll tell
him what he wants to hear. Far be it from
me to tell Joe Biden he cannot consult newspeople for advice,
(24:00):
Considering Senator Joe Biden took me to lunch to ask
for advice in two thousand and seven, but that was
about public speaking style, not issues or policy or important
stuff that affected anybody other than the two people sitting
at the table. Also, unlike Joe Scarborough, I'm not an amoral,
(24:22):
lying son of a bitch who would take any position
on any issue at any time if I thought it
would advance me personally, Like when Scarborough angled to be
Trump's by his presidential running mate in twenty sixteen, day
after day, week after week, mainstreaming and normalizing Trump and
his malignant hate in hopes of buttering up the would
be fewer. Do you think any of Joe Scarborough's criticisms
(24:46):
of Trump would have even shot fleetingly through that narcissistic
head of his had Trump offered him the VP slot
or even a cabinet post or some cash Joey Scars
is the worst kind of political prostitute, the one who
thinks he will be president someday and who really doesn't
(25:07):
care which party or form of government he'd have to
belong to to get there. The day I returned to
MSNBC in two thousand and three, Brian Williams sat me
down to update me on events of the four years
between my two stints there. Your little friend, Joe, Brian said,
thinks he can become a TV star and from there
(25:28):
president of the United States. Joe overflows with ambitions, Brian
Williams said, somebody else overflowed with ambition. By chance, I
saw Joe Scarborough on Broadway last week near PJ. Clark's
on the West Side near Lincoln Center, presumably on his
(25:49):
way to meeting somebody else's wife somewhere. Just guess. On
my part, I would have rolled down the car window
and mfed him as loudly and as frequently as I could.
But I had one of my dogs with me, and
Joey Scars is not worth upsetting one of my dogs.
You turn on the TV and see Joe Scarborough and
see exactly what I do. A blank, dazed, darting from
(26:13):
side to side, paranoid, no soul, stupid check engine light. Look,
but if you don't trust me, trust my Scars. My
Joey Scars behind the vapid face is a master saboteur,
and I'm a little worried he may be using the
saboteur bit on the President of the United States. Early
(26:36):
in two thousand and eight, the late Tim Russert called
me and warned me that the GOP had upped its
pressure on everybody at NBC about me. He said he
had heard somebody in New York was going into the
office of the president of NBC News saying that Joe
Scarborough couldn't get his friend John McCain to come on
to his new morning show on MSNBC because I was
(26:59):
so critical of John McCain. Early in January twenty ten,
the Republican candidate to fill the Senate seat of the
late Ted Kennedy, Scott Brown, a former nude model, was
at a rally when one of his supporters talked about quote,
shoving a curling iron up the backside of the Democratic
candidate Martha Coakley. Scott Brown clearly heard the remark and
(27:20):
clearly responded to it. Quote, we could do that. On
January eighteenth, on Countdown, I did a brief commentary about
how unsuitable Scott Brown was for public office. I said
he was quote and irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex nude model,
t bagging, supporter of violence against women and against politicians
(27:41):
with whom he disagrees unquote. I had quotes from Brown
supporting that conclusion, and videotape of him disparaging his minority
opponent in a local election to her face added debate
to back that part of it up. An hour later,
Joe Scarborough did a tweet storm against me. Quote Olderman
calls Brown a homophobic, racist reactionary who support or it's
(28:04):
violence against women. How reckless and how sad. It is
no longer enough to simply disagree with someone, just as
when Beck called the President racist. This sort of rhetorical
extremism must be discouraged. It cheapens the debate. End quote
Joe Scarborough accusing somebody else of cheapening things. This man
(28:26):
was once loyal to Newt Gingrich. Now there was also,
more relevantly a standing rule at MSNBC. You want to
criticize somebody else who's on MSNBC. Go ahead, have fun,
the more of the merrier, but it has to be
on the air at MSNBC. It can't be hit and run.
(28:47):
They must have an opportunity to reply in real time,
same show or in some face to face way. No
hit and run, no blindsiding, and no tweet storms. If
you criticize them by name or by inference in any
other medium newspaper, interview, radio, social media, you were to
receive an automatic suspension. The next day, January nineteenth, I
(29:12):
called the president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, and I asked
him how long Scarborough's suspension would be. I did not say,
will it be longer than the amount of time you
and Scarborough spend drinking together. Griffin asked me to come
to his office. He said he'd already had a meeting
about the tweets that morning with Scarborough's executive producer, Chris Licked.
(29:34):
Remember Chris Licked. Griffin explained that Scarborough considered Scott Brown
a friend. More importantly, lickt had warned Griffin, and Scarborough
told him this again by phone, that if Griffin followed
through and enforced the mandatory suspension rule, Joe Scarborough would
have no other option than to go to the press
and tell reporters, especially reporters at right wing sites like
(29:58):
Tucker Carlson's The Daily Caller, that he had been suspended
from MSNBC because he was a conservative and I was
a liberal, and that I and not Phil Griffin, was
running the network. What can I do? Buddy? Phil Griffin
was scared. I told him he could fire Scarborough and
Licked because they had just blackmailed him and they were
(30:19):
getting terrible ratings and eventually he was going to have
to fire them anyway. But then I knew he wasn't
going to do that, and that I knew he wasn't
going to suspend Scarborough either, and Griffin did not suspend him.
Partial score Scarborough's friends too, MSNBC rules of conduct nothing,
but Phil Griffin did send out a memo to the
entire company insisting that anybody who criticized another MSNBC show
(30:44):
or host in another medium would be suspended from now on,
except Scarborough, who had just done that exactly to a
t and then threatened his own employers and successfully blackmailed them.
On January twenty fifth, Brian Stelter's old blog TV News
(31:05):
got a copy of that memo, and it didn't come
from me, and I don't think it came from anybody
on my staff. Stelter's people wondered why Scarborough had not
been suspended, so they called the MSNBC president. Then they
printed quote Griffin responds to TV newser quote an important
rule was broken. I spoke to Keith and he said
that in the spirit of teamwork and the free flow
(31:26):
of ideas, he didn't think it warranted punishment or suspension.
I also talked to Joe and he apologized to me.
That's why I made the decision that this didn't rise
to the level of punishment, but I felt it was
necessary to reiterate my long standing policy one hundred percent
bull crap, totally fabricated. Of course, one hundred percent bull
(31:49):
crap is what they're going to put on Phil Griffin's tombstone.
Licked and Scarborough had blackmailed their own boss with a
threat to smear them inside the right wing echo chamber,
which nobody at MSNBC needed to care about. They should
have been fired on the spot for cause, with not
another dollar going to them. In May twenty ten, couple
(32:12):
of months later, now Scarborough said something on the air
about a Democrat getting away with not being investigated for
something or another. Marcos Malitzus, the editor of the Daily
Coast website and not just a regular contributor accountdown, but
somebody who had been promoting the MSNBC brand on his
website for five years, sent a snarky but legitimate tweet
questioning Scarborough's credentials to criticize others who were not investigated
(32:37):
for things. Marcos invoked the staffer who died in an
accident in Joe's office. Didn't say that Joe had anything
to do with it. Everybody actually believes it was an accident.
Scarborough then attacked Mlitsus on Twitter inaccurately claiming Malitzus had
accused him, Joe Scarborough, of murder. A few days later,
(32:58):
I got a phone call from MSNBC President Griffin and
he told me Chris litz been in to see me.
Joe won't put up with having Marcos Mlitzus on his
network anymore. Not only that, but Lick says many of
Joe's friends who also appear on Day Side and Primetime
won't come on anymore if Marcos Malitzus is permitted to
continue here as a guest. Chris is insisting that Marcos
(33:19):
be banned from MSNBC immediately. Chris says he's afraid that
if we don't, Joe won't come into work tomorrow. I
congratulated Phil Griffin on the clear win win. Phil Griffin
was very bad at enforcing MSNBC's rules, but very good
at creating new ones. On the spot to protect Joe Scarborough,
(33:40):
I'm banning Malitzus from any further appearances on MSNBC, I said, Phil,
he's a contributor to my show. You're suspending my guest
who has driven hundreds of thousands of viewers to count
Down at MSNBC, and I don't have any say in it.
Joe Scarborough owns you, Chris Lick owns you. What you
now have to worry about is whether I tell this
story on the air tonight or I wait and I
(34:01):
tell it later. Phil now got concentstory because he was
scared again, and he said it could be just a
suspension if I cooperated. I told Marcos about this, and
he said he enjoyed his contributions to Countdown. He also
did occasional appearances on the Old Ed Schultz Show, and
if there was still a chance at resuming the appearances.
He'd preferred to at least try that. So Griffin suspended
(34:24):
Marcos Malitsus, and to my knowledge, he's still suspended fourteen
years later and has not been on MSNBC since. I
wish I had kept better notes on some of my
conversations from the two thousand and eight nine, ten eleven era,
about my conversations with the hosts and the producers of
the other shows, like Schultz, Rachel Mattow, even Chris Matthews.
(34:45):
I must have heard a variation of this statement a
dozen times. Guess who was in Griffin's office explaining that
such and such is Joe's friend or alternatively, my friend,
and Phil really needs to make sure we lay off him.
It was either Chris Lick or Joe Scarborough, sometimes both.
I remember one of my producers at the MSNBC version
(35:06):
of Countdown telling me that one of the other producers
had told him that Licked had gone to NBC News
President Steve Kappus with a list of Republicans that Mattow
and Alderman needed to stop criticizing because they were Joe's
friends and we were hurting morning Joe. One can now
imagine Joey scarr is going into whoever runs MSNBC these
(35:28):
days and saying that Matto or Hayes or O'Donnell or
whoever is being too critical of Biden and they had
better stop because that wouldn't be good for mourning Joe.
Or maybe it would be Mehdi Hassan who should stop
saying stuff like that, or Tiffany Cross or hey wait,
Mehdi Hassan and Tiffany Cross have been fired by MSNBC
(35:51):
recently under mysterious circumstances with bullshit explanations, haven't they coincidence?
No doubt? Because I might think Joe Scarborough is the
worst person I've met in forty five five years in media,
and I might think Joe Biden couldn't turn to a
worse advisor, but more importantly, a more insincere one. But
(36:16):
none of that is the biggest problem here. The biggest
problem here is that Joe Scarborough is now Sean Hannity.
We all rightly mock Sean Hannity as Trump's unofficial idiot
White House advisor. Well, what is Scarborough? Every time Joe
Scarborough talks about Joe Biden on Merinnge MSNBC needs to
(36:36):
put up a disclaimer disclosing their unofficial and utterly inappropriate relationship.
It's not journalism, it's not ethical, it's not appropriate, and
MSNBC should not abide it because it compromises everything said
by everybody on MSNBC pro Biden or anti Biden, including
whoever you think the good guys are. They are all
(36:59):
whrrors by extension, because Joe Scarborough has turned MSNBC See
into what those of us who created it fought desperately
to make sure it would never become the liberal duplicate
of Fox News, which, at least in the mornings it
now is. There is one silver lining to all this.
(37:26):
Whenever Joe Biden does something that makes no sense or
has only expediency or sophistry going for it, or he
is timid and seeks compromise when he should stand fast,
or he lets Trump off the hook, at least you
and I know which member of his brain trust gave
(37:46):
him such bad advice, The one who doesn't have brains,
just ambitions, Joe Scarmrail. Thank you, Nacy Faust. I've done
(38:47):
all the damage I can do here. Countdown musical directors
Brian Ray and John Phillip Chanelle Arrange produced and performed
most of our music. Mister Ray was on guitars, bass
and drums. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Produced by
Tko Brothers. Here's a tease. Mister Ray and mister Chaneale
have created a new composition for us for the Trump Trials,
(39:08):
premiering later this week on Countdown. You'll enjoy it. Other music,
including some of the Beethoven compositions, were arranged and performed
by the group No Horns Allowed. I know, I know,
you'll decide whether or not you'll enjoy it. No Brian's work.
The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two.
It's written by Mitch Warren Davis Curtesy of ESPN inc.
(39:29):
Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Fauss,
the best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was
my friend Larry David. I understand he has a new
show on HBO twelve years You say, is it good?
Everything else is pretty much my fault. So that's count
(39:50):
down for this two hundred and seventy fourth day until
the twenty twenty four US presidential election and the twenty
seventh day since dementia, j Trump's first attempted coup against
the democratically elected government of the United States. Use the
Fourteenth Amendment the insurrect at the justice system the mental
health system to stop him from doing it again while
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow, Bolton
(40:12):
says the news warrants till then. I'm Keith Olrimman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith
(40:43):
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. When
Trump says there is now a one hundred percent chance
that there will be major terror attacks in the USA,
(00:27):
he is right. And after the weekend and yesterday, now
we know why he is right and what he means.
He means terror attacks by the Republican Party. For once,
Trump is right, terrorism is here and the terrorists are
the Republicans. The GOP under Trump is now the party
(00:50):
of blackmail and extortion and destruction and terrorism. Vote for us,
or we will destroy whatever we can get our hands
on in this country. Joe Biden agrees to a draconian
overreaction to the migration issue that is more than the
most xenophobic, most dogmatic Republican fascists could ever dream of
living long enough to see actually enacted, and instead of
(01:12):
passing it before lunch just in case Biden changes his mind,
they have lied about it, they have attacked it, they
have killed it, and they have exacerbated the exact problem
they had claimed to be fighting. And if they are
correct in the slightest about the gravity of the border
and immigration situations, they the Republican Party, they will kill
(01:34):
Americans as terrorists. They the Republicans will be ushering the
criminals they claim are seeking a home here. They the Republicans,
will be carrying in and distributing the fentanyl they claim
the immigrants are all carrying. They the Republicans, will be
(01:55):
ushering door to door the quote terrorists unquote. And then
they will run on the crisis they have caused. Trump
for once is right. Terrorism is here, and the terrorists
are Republicans, all of them. If a foreign country, or
(02:19):
a jihadist group, or a reborn Al Qaeda, or a
pack of wild communists managed to interrupt America's control of
her own border, successfully interfered with America's financial and military
aid to its own allies around the world, and blocked
our humanitarian aid to civilian war victims, and infiltrated and
(02:39):
radicalized and made into their agents some of our political leaders,
who then made public promises to derail and disrupt and
sabotage our Senate and our House and our government, this nation,
under the leadership of either political party or a combination
of them, would immediately declare a grave crisis and use
(03:02):
the means provided by our law of national self defense
to stop them. To stop the terrorists. The Republicans are
now those terrorists. The Republicans have now torn off the
masks and declared themselves to be what so many of
(03:23):
them have so long been, terrorists infiltrators, sworn on decreasing
the security of the nation, decreasing the safety of its people,
decreasing the viability of its allies. Terrorosts from Mike Johnson
to Mike Lee, terrorists from Byron Donald's to Donald Trump.
(03:49):
Round them up, charge them with the crimes they are
committing as we speak, and the Americans whose lives they
are endangering, and send the terrorists to Gittmo. Mike Johnson,
Mike Lee, Byron Donald's, Donald Trump, vivec. I'mswami, all of them,
and if that coffee is a little strong for you.
(04:12):
The minimum the minimum in this situation where the Republicans
make blood curdling demands and use the language of fear
and threat and murder and racism and terrorism, and then
get what they want, but turn it down so they
can save and worsen the disaster they have described so
they can run on it, the minimum is for President
(04:36):
Biden to now demand TV time from all the broadcast
networks and every other Networking can put himself on and
for him to make a fire and brimstone speech no
later than tomorrow night about how the Republicans have betrayed
their own negotiators, how they have betrayed their own constituents,
how they have even portrayed their own prejudices and hatreds,
(04:56):
how they have betrayed this country, and how they have
endangered this nation, how they are terrorists. Biden should take
all the components of the border bill that he can
enact or come close to enacting by executive action, and
give the Republicans forty eight hours to pass the border
bill they threatened the nation into supporting, and then renneck
(05:20):
don and the President should say that until the Republicans
regained some control of their party from their mafia chief
Dementia J Trump, he will veto the Trump Mike Johnson
House bill that would not improve conditions at the border,
would not authorize more aid to Ukraine, but would still
give the Israeli version of Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu all the
(05:41):
money he needs to carry on a war for months
for years, which even the majority of his own people
want to stop. Because what Trump and the House Republicans
want is not aid to Israel, but aid to Nettagnyahoo
and Biden must take the opportunity to declare the obvious
that these two things are different things, and this nation
(06:03):
will always be on Team Israel, but it is no
longer on team Nettan Yahoo and Team Netanyahoo fascism, Trump
and our team fascism, our team terrorism. The Republican Party
have long since devolved into the metaphorical hostage takers. Do
(06:24):
what we say, or we'll tank the economy. Do what
we say, or Trump's cult will shoot you. Do what
we say, or we will destroy you with the elections
over the problems we have caused, but which we blame
on you. But now when the democratic answer actually has
been we will do what you say. The Republicans have
demanded more, and now Joe Biden must make sure they
(06:48):
get nothing. It is terrorism. The Republicans are using terrorism.
Trump is and always has been a terrorist, and terrorists
understand only one thing, a result in which they are
not Their targets are destroyed. And it is time for
President Biden to tell the Republican terrorist Party you had
(07:12):
your chance, and we mistakenly took you seriously. Now you
have a choice. You do what America wants, or America
will destroy you. By the way, there is a procrustian
bed here for Democrats if you are unaware of it.
(07:35):
Whatever the correct assessment of the border is, the perception
in much of this country, including places Democrats have to win,
or the United States of America as we know it
is over, the perception is that this is a crisis,
whatever it is, And Biden might have actually gotten a
(07:57):
minor gift here. He might only have to give a
fiery speech about how Republicans are endangering this and stopping
him from curing it. He may not actually have to
do anything. Whatever it is it is showing up in
the special election a week from today to fill the
seat of George Santos. You should excuse the expression veteran
(08:20):
moderate Tom Swazi versus an ex Democrat x Israeli Defense
Forces member, mother of seven born in Ethiopia who has
otherwise pretty much hid her personal history, accept her multiple
qualifications as an immigrant, and is running on a no
immigrants platform. And right now it would be a toss up,
(08:41):
and the ads from both sides are only about immigration.
And if you think well, Democrats can't lose a special
election in New York. It ain't New York, It's Long Island.
And last time the genius voters of that district voted,
they elected George freaking Santos. On the other hand, if
(09:06):
you think there is no one in the Republican Party
not fully assimilated into the mindlessness of their Trumpian borg,
a snippet from punch Bowl News might cheer you. It
is about yesterday morning's post apocalyptic meeting of the Republican
Senator's Communications Directors, those representing Senator James Langford, the lead
negotiator on the border bill, and thus the guy thrown
(09:29):
highest into the air when the rug was pulled out
from under them, explain the bill as it currently stands
and opened it up for questions, whereupon, reports punch Bowl,
the Comm's director for Senator Mike Lee, the mindless moron
from Utah with the weakest combover ever seen, started yelling
at everybody, not Mike Lee, but as Comm's director, eventually
(09:50):
storming out of the room shouting betrayal. Then, before you
think the Republicans cannot be peeled away from Thelma and
louising their way across the cliff at Trump's insistence over
this after Mike Lee's aid stormed down quote, those in
the room erupted in laughter. One hopes there might have
(10:13):
been similar reactions to the Sunday morning appearance with George
Stephanoppolis of the simpering, sniveling sycophant from Ohio Senator JD.
Too much eyeliner Vance. If you wondered if anybody could
possibly suck harder on Trump's backside in a bid to
get onto his ticket as vice president than Elise Stefanik
(10:33):
or Tim Scott or eight years ago, Joe Scarborough, Vance
has ended your uncertainty. He said the e Gene Carrol
verdict was invalid because it happened in a liberal state.
He encouraged ignoring Supreme Court rulings that Trump doesn't like,
(10:55):
and he, in essence, said that if he had been
vice president on January sixth, he would have not only
committed the insurrectionist act Trump wanted Pence to do, but
he would have done even more of them, done even
worse versions of them, including demanding that all swing states
Trump lost send second sets of electors and let the
Senate choose. Vance is an authoritarian weasel wearing eyeliner and
(11:22):
just because he's bad at it is no reason to
let him get away with it. I have long advocated
that all political TV hosts be given a button controlling
the mics of their guests that they could turn off
at their will. George Stephanoppolis finally had had enough. Advance
cut him off, and as ABC went to break, they
adroitly cut to a shot of jd Vance still talking
(11:44):
with his mike muted lip flap, as we call it
in the trade. It was beautiful. I'm sure all of
the executives at CNN and Meet the Press feinted. Oh mah,
I have the papers. Some quick headlines. Impeachment one, impeachment.
Politico reports the White House is actually planning to fight
(12:06):
back against any bid to impeach Homeland Secretary of may
orcus a motion to dismiss in the Senate or refer
to a committee in the Senate, or to submit it
to a point of order motion. I know, I know
it'll be the worst day in Washington since January sixth.
A point of order motion. Oh no, Kristen Cinema will
(12:29):
storm out. Not that I haven't seen that happen before. Meanwhile,
if you haven't heard anything lately, about the impeachment of
President Biden. That's because the Republicans have a two vote
cushion in the House, and CNN reported that as of Friday,
at least twenty Republicans are not convinced there is evidence
(12:51):
justifying impeachment. Most of them would weasel out of voting
against it, but seventeen of them can weasel out, and
that would still leave three who would kill impeachment outright
and with it kill the careers of Jim Jordan, Jamie Comer,
and Mike Johnson. A reminder that Thursday will be oral
(13:14):
arguments in the fourteenth Amendment disqualification case before the Supreme Court.
That is the Colorado ruling that he's off the ballot
there and for God's sake, somebody tell the attorneys what
Antonin Scalias said about how the president is to an
officer of the United States. Sometimes judges do say the
(13:34):
darnedest things. Tanya Chutkin, in essence, leaked the postponement of
the start of the Trump DC trial a day before
she had to make it official yesterday. At a conference
about a different January sixth insurrectionist. According to Politico, she
said she has plans to be in a different land
in Midsummer of this year quote, I hope not to
be in the country on August five, She said she
(13:56):
might have to cancel her travel though, because, again quoting,
I'm in trial in another matter that has not yet
returned to my calendar. Golly, what matter could that be?
Mark it down? Trump trial still in progress August five
or later. And I must mention two weird meals served
(14:17):
at Trump's good old actuarial table last July. Last July,
somebody tweeted and culter has been right about Trump in
the past, I'd love to hear what he needs to
do in her opinion to help us take America back.
Cooltergeist chose last Saturday night around midnight to answer, by
means of retweet quote, maybe he could die. And culture
(14:43):
has been right about Trump in the past. I'd love
to hear what he needs to do in her opinion
to help us take America back. Maybe he could die.
Just goes to show that for even the most lunkheaded
of us in the Cornell Alumni Association, the value of
that education eventually rises to the top. In Ann's case,
(15:05):
just shy of forty years after graduation. And then there
was the surest sign yet that he really is dementia
j Trump. No, not the dragging of the right leg
in all those new videos, like he just had a
stroke or other events. Could just be the fact that
(15:29):
his right leg is very heavy. No, not that. Rather
the posting of a split screen image of him aged
seventy seven and Elvis Presley aged about twenty five, and
his apparently now certainly non self satirizing comment quote. For
(15:54):
so many years people have been saying that Elvis and
I look alike. Now this pick has been going all
over the place. What do you think trying to convince
your cult that you are somehow like Elvis Presley? You
mean that you've both been brain dead since nineteen seventy seven? Okay,
(16:22):
that I'll buy nothing but an insurrectionist. Also of interest
on this all new edition of Countdown, Oh nothing, just
the three worst fears about cable TV news coming true.
The guy who replaced Chris Lickt at CNN maybe worse
(16:43):
than Chris Lickt was Tucker Carlson is in the Kremlin
and he's not staying there. Oh and you've heard the
phrase white house brain drain, Well here it is living
and breathing before your eyes, Axios reports. President Biden's unofficial
(17:03):
advisory is I'm Joe Scarborough. This is Scarborough Country. That's next.
This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olboman. Postscripts
(17:28):
to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions,
and this time postscripts to the news is all TV
News News Dateline Moscow. Tucker Carlson is in Russia. Quick
seal the borders. It's too much to hope he's simply
(17:50):
been recalled by the Cheka. The assumption is Tucker Carlson
is there for an interview with Putin or possible interview
with Putin that will fall through or fall out a window.
Another theory is he may be acting as a conduit
for Trump to some in the Kremlin. And obviously, given
how many Russians, Carlson and Trump have carried water for that,
(18:10):
somebody could be any of a couple hundred commissars, or
if you'd like a unified theory of the man Russian
State TV once called Tucson Carlson. This has something to
do with Trump and Elon Musk and Putin and shrooms.
Regardless whoever, he is there to see Carlson will return
(18:30):
here imbued with fresh real world propaganda to use in
his decades long fight against reality and his own mental health.
You can't fix Russian, but you can fool Tucker Carlson
all of the time. Thank you, Nancy. Post dateline Atlanta,
(19:19):
CNN is retooling its morning show again emphasis on the
word tool again. This time it is offloading anchors PHILM.
Mattingly oh I thought was pretty good at it, and
the insufferable Poppy Harlow, and shortening the show and moving
its production from New York to Atlanta. But the network
actually insisted to several reporters this is not a cancelation.
(19:42):
It's just new anchors, a new city, and shorter hours
on the air. The fifty staffers affected have been encouraged
to reapply for their jobs as the new new CNN boss,
Mark Thompson guts the place even faster than the late
lamented paced eater Chris Lickt did. I'll point out that
(20:03):
the results of this show are just It's like the
ten PM Abby Phillip disaster, which CNN spends millions of
dollars on. In the Morning Show's case, it spends millions
of dollars on it and uses expensive lights and makeup
and fifty staffers to produce a show that was averaging
this year a daily audience of three hundred and twenty
two thousand, which is not even three times the size
(20:24):
of this podcast, which I do in my spare time
in my suit closet with the help of my dogs.
Keep up the good work, CNN and Dateline the White House. Hello, well,
this is nothing less than the worst national security crisis
since the Russians stop Jim Brown and Rock Hudson from
(20:47):
getting to ice Station Zebra in nineteen sixty nine. I'll
just read this verbatim from Axios because I just couldn't
bring myself to try to rewrite it. Quote. When White
House aids appear on MSNBC's Morning Joe, there are often
booked between seven and seven forty am ET. That's so
(21:08):
they'll reach one crucial and loyal viewer, President Biden. Why
it matters. Biden's year's long love of MSNBC's staple morning
show affects how the White House runs and who Biden
listens to. The President often calls co host Joe Scarborough,
a former Republican congressman who's now a harsh critic of
(21:29):
Donald Trump. Check the notes to see if he's still
a harsh critic of Trump or if he's swung back
yet to get Scarborough's take on issues, and sometimes vent
about media coverage, According to people familiar with the relationship,
Hi mister Piagin in It's Jakes Garb During the day,
Biden has long asked his staff whether they saw a story,
(21:50):
a poll, or a segment that had been on the show.
He's included show regulars in off the record conversations with
policy experts Biden pays particular attention to and has consulted
with Mourning Joe regulars, including longtime report Mike Barnacle, Oh Good,
foreign policy expert Richard Haas, and historian John Meacham, who
(22:12):
has assisted on several Biden's speeches, each of whom made
their MSNBC debuts on My Shows. Vice President Harris watches
Morning Joe two. She and second Gentleman Doug m Off
hosted a dinner last month at the Vice Presidential residence
for Scarborough and Mika Prasinski, his co host and wife.
I hope they counted the forks, knives and spoons afterwards,
(22:33):
Aids note that Harris also tunes into Fox News and
occasionally watches The Five behind the scenes. Because Biden watches
Morning Joe so often, most of his top aides watch
or track the show to anticipate potential questions from him.
Biden aids have remarked how long time Biden aids Steve
Richetti Richetti Rischetti seems to watch much of the four
(22:55):
hour show every morning. God Help Him. He and other
aids often reference the show God Help Them. A White
House official told Axio that many of Biden's top staff
members think the show gives Biden a fairer shake than
other outlets. Well Newsmax and that guy who thinks Biden
(23:16):
is from a different planet, and you know Biden included
retired Admiral James Starmbritez mourning Joe Staple on national security issue.
That's two staples in the middle of Morning Joe, which
makes sense. In an off the record briefing at the
White House with other experts, Biden takes notes and initially
(23:37):
refrains from giving his perspective during such sessions because he
doesn't want people to tell him what he wants to hear.
According to a person familiar with the meetings. Olderman added,
then why the hell is he talking to Joe Scarborough
if he doesn't want to talk to somebody who'll tell
him what he wants to hear. Far be it from
me to tell Joe Biden he cannot consult newspeople for advice,
(24:00):
Considering Senator Joe Biden took me to lunch to ask
for advice in two thousand and seven, but that was
about public speaking style, not issues or policy or important
stuff that affected anybody other than the two people sitting
at the table. Also, unlike Joe Scarborough, I'm not an amoral,
(24:22):
lying son of a bitch who would take any position
on any issue at any time if I thought it
would advance me personally, Like when Scarborough angled to be
Trump's by his presidential running mate in twenty sixteen, day
after day, week after week, mainstreaming and normalizing Trump and
his malignant hate in hopes of buttering up the would
be fewer. Do you think any of Joe Scarborough's criticisms
(24:46):
of Trump would have even shot fleetingly through that narcissistic
head of his had Trump offered him the VP slot
or even a cabinet post or some cash Joey Scars
is the worst kind of political prostitute, the one who
thinks he will be president someday and who really doesn't
(25:07):
care which party or form of government he'd have to
belong to to get there. The day I returned to
MSNBC in two thousand and three, Brian Williams sat me
down to update me on events of the four years
between my two stints there. Your little friend, Joe, Brian said,
thinks he can become a TV star and from there
(25:28):
president of the United States. Joe overflows with ambitions, Brian
Williams said, somebody else overflowed with ambition. By chance, I
saw Joe Scarborough on Broadway last week near PJ. Clark's
on the West Side near Lincoln Center, presumably on his
(25:49):
way to meeting somebody else's wife somewhere. Just guess. On
my part, I would have rolled down the car window
and mfed him as loudly and as frequently as I could.
But I had one of my dogs with me, and
Joey Scars is not worth upsetting one of my dogs.
You turn on the TV and see Joe Scarborough and
see exactly what I do. A blank, dazed, darting from
(26:13):
side to side, paranoid, no soul, stupid check engine light. Look,
but if you don't trust me, trust my Scars. My
Joey Scars behind the vapid face is a master saboteur,
and I'm a little worried he may be using the
saboteur bit on the President of the United States. Early
(26:36):
in two thousand and eight, the late Tim Russert called
me and warned me that the GOP had upped its
pressure on everybody at NBC about me. He said he
had heard somebody in New York was going into the
office of the president of NBC News saying that Joe
Scarborough couldn't get his friend John McCain to come on
to his new morning show on MSNBC because I was
(26:59):
so critical of John McCain. Early in January twenty ten,
the Republican candidate to fill the Senate seat of the
late Ted Kennedy, Scott Brown, a former nude model, was
at a rally when one of his supporters talked about quote,
shoving a curling iron up the backside of the Democratic
candidate Martha Coakley. Scott Brown clearly heard the remark and
(27:20):
clearly responded to it. Quote, we could do that. On
January eighteenth, on Countdown, I did a brief commentary about
how unsuitable Scott Brown was for public office. I said
he was quote and irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex nude model,
t bagging, supporter of violence against women and against politicians
(27:41):
with whom he disagrees unquote. I had quotes from Brown
supporting that conclusion, and videotape of him disparaging his minority
opponent in a local election to her face added debate
to back that part of it up. An hour later,
Joe Scarborough did a tweet storm against me. Quote Olderman
calls Brown a homophobic, racist reactionary who support or it's
(28:04):
violence against women. How reckless and how sad. It is
no longer enough to simply disagree with someone, just as
when Beck called the President racist. This sort of rhetorical
extremism must be discouraged. It cheapens the debate. End quote
Joe Scarborough accusing somebody else of cheapening things. This man
(28:26):
was once loyal to Newt Gingrich. Now there was also,
more relevantly a standing rule at MSNBC. You want to
criticize somebody else who's on MSNBC. Go ahead, have fun,
the more of the merrier, but it has to be
on the air at MSNBC. It can't be hit and run.
(28:47):
They must have an opportunity to reply in real time,
same show or in some face to face way. No
hit and run, no blindsiding, and no tweet storms. If
you criticize them by name or by inference in any
other medium newspaper, interview, radio, social media, you were to
receive an automatic suspension. The next day, January nineteenth, I
(29:12):
called the president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, and I asked
him how long Scarborough's suspension would be. I did not say,
will it be longer than the amount of time you
and Scarborough spend drinking together. Griffin asked me to come
to his office. He said he'd already had a meeting
about the tweets that morning with Scarborough's executive producer, Chris Licked.
(29:34):
Remember Chris Licked. Griffin explained that Scarborough considered Scott Brown
a friend. More importantly, lickt had warned Griffin, and Scarborough
told him this again by phone, that if Griffin followed
through and enforced the mandatory suspension rule, Joe Scarborough would
have no other option than to go to the press
and tell reporters, especially reporters at right wing sites like
(29:58):
Tucker Carlson's The Daily Caller, that he had been suspended
from MSNBC because he was a conservative and I was
a liberal, and that I and not Phil Griffin, was
running the network. What can I do? Buddy? Phil Griffin
was scared. I told him he could fire Scarborough and
Licked because they had just blackmailed him and they were
(30:19):
getting terrible ratings and eventually he was going to have
to fire them anyway. But then I knew he wasn't
going to do that, and that I knew he wasn't
going to suspend Scarborough either, and Griffin did not suspend him.
Partial score Scarborough's friends too, MSNBC rules of conduct nothing,
but Phil Griffin did send out a memo to the
entire company insisting that anybody who criticized another MSNBC show
(30:44):
or host in another medium would be suspended from now on,
except Scarborough, who had just done that exactly to a
t and then threatened his own employers and successfully blackmailed them.
On January twenty fifth, Brian Stelter's old blog TV News
(31:05):
got a copy of that memo, and it didn't come
from me, and I don't think it came from anybody
on my staff. Stelter's people wondered why Scarborough had not
been suspended, so they called the MSNBC president. Then they
printed quote Griffin responds to TV newser quote an important
rule was broken. I spoke to Keith and he said
that in the spirit of teamwork and the free flow
(31:26):
of ideas, he didn't think it warranted punishment or suspension.
I also talked to Joe and he apologized to me.
That's why I made the decision that this didn't rise
to the level of punishment, but I felt it was
necessary to reiterate my long standing policy one hundred percent
bull crap, totally fabricated. Of course, one hundred percent bull
(31:49):
crap is what they're going to put on Phil Griffin's tombstone.
Licked and Scarborough had blackmailed their own boss with a
threat to smear them inside the right wing echo chamber,
which nobody at MSNBC needed to care about. They should
have been fired on the spot for cause, with not
another dollar going to them. In May twenty ten, couple
(32:12):
of months later, now Scarborough said something on the air
about a Democrat getting away with not being investigated for
something or another. Marcos Malitzus, the editor of the Daily
Coast website and not just a regular contributor accountdown, but
somebody who had been promoting the MSNBC brand on his
website for five years, sent a snarky but legitimate tweet
questioning Scarborough's credentials to criticize others who were not investigated
(32:37):
for things. Marcos invoked the staffer who died in an
accident in Joe's office. Didn't say that Joe had anything
to do with it. Everybody actually believes it was an accident.
Scarborough then attacked Mlitsus on Twitter inaccurately claiming Malitzus had
accused him, Joe Scarborough, of murder. A few days later,
(32:58):
I got a phone call from MSNBC President Griffin and
he told me Chris litz been in to see me.
Joe won't put up with having Marcos Mlitzus on his
network anymore. Not only that, but Lick says many of
Joe's friends who also appear on Day Side and Primetime
won't come on anymore if Marcos Malitzus is permitted to
continue here as a guest. Chris is insisting that Marcos
(33:19):
be banned from MSNBC immediately. Chris says he's afraid that
if we don't, Joe won't come into work tomorrow. I
congratulated Phil Griffin on the clear win win. Phil Griffin
was very bad at enforcing MSNBC's rules, but very good
at creating new ones. On the spot to protect Joe Scarborough,
(33:40):
I'm banning Malitzus from any further appearances on MSNBC, I said, Phil,
he's a contributor to my show. You're suspending my guest
who has driven hundreds of thousands of viewers to count
Down at MSNBC, and I don't have any say in it.
Joe Scarborough owns you, Chris Lick owns you. What you
now have to worry about is whether I tell this
story on the air tonight or I wait and I
(34:01):
tell it later. Phil now got concentstory because he was
scared again, and he said it could be just a
suspension if I cooperated. I told Marcos about this, and
he said he enjoyed his contributions to Countdown. He also
did occasional appearances on the Old Ed Schultz Show, and
if there was still a chance at resuming the appearances.
He'd preferred to at least try that. So Griffin suspended
(34:24):
Marcos Malitsus, and to my knowledge, he's still suspended fourteen
years later and has not been on MSNBC since. I
wish I had kept better notes on some of my
conversations from the two thousand and eight nine, ten eleven era,
about my conversations with the hosts and the producers of
the other shows, like Schultz, Rachel Mattow, even Chris Matthews.
(34:45):
I must have heard a variation of this statement a
dozen times. Guess who was in Griffin's office explaining that
such and such is Joe's friend or alternatively, my friend,
and Phil really needs to make sure we lay off him.
It was either Chris Lick or Joe Scarborough, sometimes both.
I remember one of my producers at the MSNBC version
(35:06):
of Countdown telling me that one of the other producers
had told him that Licked had gone to NBC News
President Steve Kappus with a list of Republicans that Mattow
and Alderman needed to stop criticizing because they were Joe's
friends and we were hurting morning Joe. One can now
imagine Joey scarr is going into whoever runs MSNBC these
(35:28):
days and saying that Matto or Hayes or O'Donnell or
whoever is being too critical of Biden and they had
better stop because that wouldn't be good for mourning Joe.
Or maybe it would be Mehdi Hassan who should stop
saying stuff like that, or Tiffany Cross or hey wait,
Mehdi Hassan and Tiffany Cross have been fired by MSNBC
(35:51):
recently under mysterious circumstances with bullshit explanations, haven't they coincidence?
No doubt? Because I might think Joe Scarborough is the
worst person I've met in forty five five years in media,
and I might think Joe Biden couldn't turn to a
worse advisor, but more importantly, a more insincere one. But
(36:16):
none of that is the biggest problem here. The biggest
problem here is that Joe Scarborough is now Sean Hannity.
We all rightly mock Sean Hannity as Trump's unofficial idiot
White House advisor. Well, what is Scarborough? Every time Joe
Scarborough talks about Joe Biden on Merinnge MSNBC needs to
(36:36):
put up a disclaimer disclosing their unofficial and utterly inappropriate relationship.
It's not journalism, it's not ethical, it's not appropriate, and
MSNBC should not abide it because it compromises everything said
by everybody on MSNBC pro Biden or anti Biden, including
whoever you think the good guys are. They are all
(36:59):
whrrors by extension, because Joe Scarborough has turned MSNBC See
into what those of us who created it fought desperately
to make sure it would never become the liberal duplicate
of Fox News, which, at least in the mornings it
now is. There is one silver lining to all this.
(37:26):
Whenever Joe Biden does something that makes no sense or
has only expediency or sophistry going for it, or he
is timid and seeks compromise when he should stand fast,
or he lets Trump off the hook, at least you
and I know which member of his brain trust gave
(37:46):
him such bad advice, The one who doesn't have brains,
just ambitions, Joe Scarmrail. Thank you, Nacy Faust. I've done
(38:47):
all the damage I can do here. Countdown musical directors
Brian Ray and John Phillip Chanelle Arrange produced and performed
most of our music. Mister Ray was on guitars, bass
and drums. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Produced by
Tko Brothers. Here's a tease. Mister Ray and mister Chaneale
have created a new composition for us for the Trump Trials,
(39:08):
premiering later this week on Countdown. You'll enjoy it. Other music,
including some of the Beethoven compositions, were arranged and performed
by the group No Horns Allowed. I know, I know,
you'll decide whether or not you'll enjoy it. No Brian's work.
The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two.
It's written by Mitch Warren Davis Curtesy of ESPN inc.
(39:29):
Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Fauss,
the best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was
my friend Larry David. I understand he has a new
show on HBO twelve years You say, is it good?
Everything else is pretty much my fault. So that's count
(39:50):
down for this two hundred and seventy fourth day until
the twenty twenty four US presidential election and the twenty
seventh day since dementia, j Trump's first attempted coup against
the democratically elected government of the United States. Use the
Fourteenth Amendment the insurrect at the justice system the mental
health system to stop him from doing it again while
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow, Bolton
(40:12):
says the news warrants till then. I'm Keith Olrimman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith
(40:43):
Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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