February 6, 2023 • 44 mins
EPISODE 127: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is carefully hidden to protect the sources, but there's no question in my mind now: The New York Times' profile of the arrested ex-FBI New York Executive Charles McGonigal implies that FBI and DOJ are investigating whether he was working for Oleg Deripaska, employer of Paul Manafort who was Trump's Campaign Manager - FOR FREE - long before he retired from the Bureau. I go through the Times piece line-by-line and the phrasing, the invoking of an earlier Russian Spy in McGonigal's own FBI department, the terminology, is all groundwork for later stories that could fully reengage this country with the reality of Trump's 2016 Conspiracy with Russia - and how the FBI's New York Office may have knowingly or unknowingly played a part on both ends of that fetid deal.
B-Block (19:53) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Gang Of 8 offered Trump Dock-Drama briefing; "Jim Dial" dies; Flaco the missing Central Park Owl? He's over at my place (24:32) IN SPORTS: Conspiracy nut Kyrie Irving dealt to Dealey Plaza; NHL tries to pretend its sudden homophobia problem/Pride Night disaster crisis is just going to go away (27:55) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Inside SCOTUS (in)security and use of private emails; Jenna Ellis is a moron; a Mississippi state rep goes full racist about the Chinese balloon.
C-Block (34:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Andre, in New York (34:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Schmuck Todd did it again. Another Republican Congressman lied to him about the five Chinese Recon Balloons sighted during the Trump Administration and Chuck said "duh, ok." What it was like to work with - and spend ten years in a fantasy football league with - Chuckles The Clown.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
Did the arrested x FBI executive Charles McGonagall start working
(00:26):
for the Russian oligarch connected to Trump's campaign manager only
after McGonagall left the bureau? Or was he doing so
while he McGonagall was still ordering events within the bureau.
Was Charlie McGonagall a Russian asset inside the FBI? Because
(00:48):
since Friday, I have had that sinking feeling that we
are watching the proverbial drip, drip, drip, the slow reveal
of something so shocking that the details must be parceled out.
Because it is one thing for me to line up
these and ask what does it mean if they are
all connected? And it is one thing for Professor Tim
(01:09):
Snyder of Yale to ask that, And it is one
thing for the author, Greg Olier to ask that it
is something else altogether, for the New York Times to
ask that. Yet there were all the dots scattered under
the by lines of Ken Vogel and Michael Rothfeld and
William Roschbaum, without the lines drawn to connect them, and
(01:30):
without the adjectives and emphasies that caused the jaw to
drop and largely sitting in the back row of the
narrative of the story behind the fact that McGonagall has
been indicted for taking money to act on behalf of
an Albanian thug while he was still a top official
at the FBI Field Office in New York. But there
it is in the back, not jumping up and down,
(01:51):
not waving its arms at us, but still clear with
discernible features. But sources and writers and editors at the
New York Times all looked at and said, you know,
you can print this, the stinct and distinctly new possibility
that when the FBI New York office went rogue in
two thousand sixteen and went pro Trump and manipulated the
(02:15):
Anthony Weiner laptop story and basically blackmailed James Comey into
reopening both Pandora's box and but her emails. While that
was happening, the key man at the FBI in New
York investigating Old Egg derri Posca was maybe already getting
money from Old Egg derri Posca, and Paul Manafort owed
(02:38):
Old Egg derri Posca money, and Paul Manafort was Donald
Trump's campaign manager for free. It's a lot of dots.
This is the legitimacy the New York Times can, when
it is not stepping on its own private parts, still bestow.
It can state the raw facts of mcgonagall's indictment in Albania,
(03:00):
and two paragraphs later it can quote the former FBI
counterintelligence official Holden triplet as saying, quote, it puts a
question mark next to everything he McGonagall was involved in.
You'd be trying to figure out, Okay, when did this
start and what did he touch after it started? Going
(03:24):
back and thinking about what the damage could be is painful.
After forty six years of dealing as a professional with
virtually every news organization in this country, and working for
nearly every news organization in this country, I do not
believe any of them say, well, we have the whole
picture here in the office, so let's make sure whatever
we do we do not show the whole picture all
(03:46):
at once. Let's parcel it out. They do not do that.
That kind of thinking is q and on. But the
sources for stories like the New York Times extraordinary piece
on McGonagall do exactly that, and always have. You only
have to read all the President's men to recognize at
(04:06):
once that nearly all the evidence and information that the
source deep Throat, the FBI's then associate director, their number two,
Guy Mark, felt had in his hands on June two
was all the evidence he would ever have in his hands.
That was the first day he talked to Bob Woodward.
He did not share the last of all that evidence
(04:28):
until March nineteen seventy three, nearly a year later. The
earliest crimes of which Mr McGonagall is accused right Raschbauman, Rothfeld,
and Vogel in the Times date to August two thousand seventeen,
but the FBI's damage assessment likely is looking back much further.
(04:48):
Former officials said that he may have lied while with
the bureau about his acceptance of cash from a business associate,
and contact with foreign individuals has also raised concerns about
the breadth and duration and of his possible deceptions. I
(05:10):
have written sentences like that. Let me translate this one.
He's under indictment for taking cash from a representative of
one foreign government while he was still working with the FBI.
We now have to assume he could have taken cash
from a representative of a different foreign government. That's what
(05:30):
the word breadth means in this context. And we just
haven't found evidence of it yet. And where should we
start looking for that evidence? How about involving the foreigner.
He's also under indictment for taking money from later. That's
what duration refers to in this context. Concerns about the
breadth and duration of his possible deceptions means the FBI
(05:54):
and the Department of Justice are investigating right now this
morning whether or not Charles McGonagall got any money from
Oleg Deri Posca or any other Russian while McGonagall still
worked at the FBI. And the bending over backwards to
make sure it is not phrased that way in the
New York Flipping Times is what happens when a source says,
(06:14):
look this, this is what we are doing. If you
say we are doing this, they will know it was
me what told you. So you gotta hide it and
blur it and fuzz it up. So let's work on
how you can say it. There are a lot of
other hands dropped into this New York Times piece, almost
buried within it that should set alarm bells ringing everywhere,
(06:37):
especially in Trump Landia. Quote. Mr mcgonagall's high ranking role
would have given him a wide view of what was
happening across the agency and intelligence community. The article continues,
that's not tough to translate. This is confirmation of the
known chronology. Mcdonagall was in the Bureau in Washington as
(06:59):
the Trump events culminating in the Komi letter and the
Times owned tragic and false clearing of Trump in Russia
at the end of October two thousand sixteen happened, and
he was detailed to New York on October two. And
one of the Times sources is reminding you that McGonagall
knew damn well, quote what was happening across the agency
(07:24):
in October two thousand sixteen, like in any other month
where he was so prominent in the bureau. And if
you still somehow have not read between the lines, the
Time sources are kind enough to now show you their math. Literally.
McGonagall retired from the FBI in two thousand eighteen. The
Times writes quote that the suspected crimes occurred shortly before
(07:48):
his retirement, suggests Mr mcdonagall might have started or increased
illicit activities after taking the last of his required polygraph tests,
which are supposed to be administered every five years. Mm hmm.
(08:08):
This is advanced math. But I was once mistaken for
a math prodigy. Let me see if I can do this.
Two thousand eighteen minus five is carrying on ginist slept
through the entirety of tenth grade. Two thousand thirteen, the
(08:29):
FBI New York Office became trump Landia in the phrase
Greg Olier wrote about in two thousand sixteen. Even if
McGonagall took his last lie detective test in two thousand
fourteen or two thousand fifteen, that leaves plenty of space
on the timeline for him to be suspected of working
for Manaforts Russian in two thousand sixteen. Just in case
(08:52):
you're reading that, we're listening to this and beginning to
think Russia, Russia, Russia, Trump Trump Trump McGonagall McGonagall o
mc gonagal. But you're saying no, no, no, no no,
I've been led down this path before. No way. The
next paragraph contains one sentence, floating out there adrift in
a labyrinthine and on the record analysis of the money
(09:13):
McGonagall took from the Albanian while he was still at
the FBI, And that one sentence is quote Robert P. Hansen,
the FBI agent turned spy who fed classified information to
Russia for two decades and is serving a life sentence.
Began cooperating with the Russians in the late nineteen seventies
(09:37):
while in a counter intelligence unit in New York. Unquote,
oh wait, where did mcdonagall work New York? And what
unit counter intelligence? What was his job? Encounter intelligence? He
was Special Agents in charge of the counter Intelligence division
for the New York Field Office. That's what it says
in the press release issued on October four, two thousand sixteen. Hintintintintintint,
(09:59):
just happened to pull out of all the American spies
ever in the FBI just happened to pull out Robert Hansen,
the FBI agent in the counter intelligence office who sold
out to the Russians. If you are still with the Times,
here in paragraph number thirty six, the Times buries what
(10:21):
is not now the lead but could very shortly become it.
I'll just read this. It's kind of short quote. After
leaving the FBI, Mr mcdonagall went to work where Mr
Derri Pasca, the sanctioned oligarch, according to the New York indictment,
but it was not his first encounter with Mr Derri
Pasca's circle. Prosecutors suggested that Mr mcdonagall began wooing Mr
(10:46):
Derrick Pasca shortly before his retirement. In two thousand eighteen,
he helped the daughter of an employee of Mr Derrick
Pasca get an internship with the New York Police Department.
According to the New York indictment, Mr McGonagall explained to
another FBI official that the girl's father was a Russian
(11:08):
intelligence officer he wanted to recruit, Prosecutors said in two
thousand nineteen, continuing with their times, wrote after his retirement,
Mr mcdonagall introduced Mr Derrick Posca to a law firm
that would seek to get his sanctions lifted, and Mr
mcdonagall was paid twenty five thousand dollars a month through
(11:28):
March by Mr Derrick Posca through the law firm as
a consultant. According to the indictment, the work stopped at
the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. In one Mr mcdonagall
and his associate, Mr. Shastakov negotiated a deal with the
Derrick Pasca employee whose daughter got the police internship to
(11:48):
work for Mr Derrick Posca to investigate a rival Oligarc unquote.
So here in the late thirties of paragraphs, nearly at
the end of this odyssey, this remark couples story from
The New York Times, which began by hinting that there
were FBNI and Justice Department officials and ex officials who
(12:12):
knew the lay of the land, who were now looking
for evidence that maybe Charlie McGonagall was working for others
before he retired from the bureau. That's the way the
article began. But here at the end, where you're now told, well, yeah,
there is evidence that he did that. In two thousand eighteen,
he just happens to be getting this daughter of one
(12:34):
of Derrick Pasca's employees an internship in the New York
City Police Department. And though mcgonagall's got this excuse he
wanted to flip her dad Derrick Posca's employee, Derrick Posca's employee,
who he says was a Russian intelligence officer. And then
three years later, when Derrick Posca is looking for somebody
to investigate a rival Oligarch, here's the guy whose daughter
(12:56):
got the police internship. Only mcdonagall is not turning this
Russian guy into an American asset. The Russian intelligence officer
is hiring McGonagall and making him into a Russian asset.
Let me just strip that down one more time. By
two thousand eighteen, while he's still at the FBI, McGonagall,
(13:17):
who had been investigating Olelegg derri Posca, is now tight
enough with the people around Oleg derri Posca that he
knows Oleg Derrick Posca's employee is a Russian intelligence officer,
a spy. And McGonagall thinks that Derrick posca employee is
so ready to start working for American intelligence that he
could be swede if McGonagall can only get his daughter
(13:41):
an internship. So at the FBI, McGonagall already knows at
least one Derri Posca employee. He already knows this employee
is in Russian intelligence. He already knows this employee's daughter
wants an internship and wants it at the New York
Police Department. And then within three years, the Russian intelligence
(14:02):
officer is hiring McGonagall. Because McGonagall getting an internship for
the Russians daughter is not enough to get the Russians
spy to defect to the United States, but it was
enough three years later to get the Russian spy to
hire McGonagall to work for Derra Posca again. Now me,
(14:23):
that's my lead in this story, but I'm not at
the times. No, I don't know if they were scared.
I tend to doubt that, which means I think the
only other excuse for it would be they did it
this way intentionally. And if they did it this way intentionally,
it is to protect and thank their sources. And if
they are protecting and thanking their sources, it's because their
(14:45):
sources have more information later. And it means that when
I have that sinking feeling that we are watching the
proverbial drip, drip drip, the slow reveal of something as
shocking as just to pick something at random. McGonagall was
already working for dry Posca before the two thousand sixteen
presidential election, while he was still inside the FBI. Yeah,
(15:08):
it's it's my feeling those details must kind of be
parceled out, and and when I have that feeling, it's
only my opinion, but I'm right still ahead. So a
(15:36):
Republican congressman now confirms the Defense Department breathed Congress that
there were at least five sightings of Chinese fine balloons
from United States States during the Trump administration. But when
a different Republican congressman tells Chuck it's odd that that
is a lie, Chuck says, Okay, let me tell you
(15:59):
about what it was like to work with Chuck and
to be in a fantasy football league with Chuck in ings.
I promised not to tell Schmuck Todd. The National Hockey
League is just gonna pretend it has not endorsed making
room for players who subscribe to a religion that says
it's okay to kill Ukrainians because their country has pride parades.
(16:20):
It is a huge scandal in hockey, and I suspect
it's going to consume the entire season. And that missing
eagle owl in Central Park in New York City, well
he's not missing. I saw him yesterday. In fact, he's
my new neighbor. Also, he showed up at my bank,
No seriously, at my branch, not a tree branch, a
(16:44):
bank branch. He showed up at my bank branch. That's next.
This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith old Woman.
Postscripts to the news some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
(17:05):
some predictions Los Angeles. They held the Grammy Awards last night.
I'll be damned if I know why. Washington, the Trump
docu drama roars back to life. The do o J
and the Director of National Intelligence have unofficially offered the
so called Gang of eight House and Senate leaders and
Intel Committee chairman a closed door briefing about what exactly
(17:26):
Trump stole, an overview of the three classified documents found
at Mari Lago and elsewhere. Nothing is set yet on this,
and a reminder first go to Bedminster dig up Ivana
because in this scandal, we literally all know where the
bodies are buried. Dateline, Washington. Jim Jordan has gotten the letter.
(17:49):
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Rarte has spelled out the circumstances
under which Jordan's witch hunt can see or hear stuff
from Justice. Short version. Those circumstances are when hell has
frozen over the actual terms or any engagement. You get
nothing on active investigations. You may only hear from senior supervisors.
(18:11):
You must prioritize your requests, not all will be granted,
and if you have a hearing, you want somebody there
two weeks notice or you'll get nothing and You'll like it. Dateline,
Los Angeles. The actor Charles Kimbro has died. He played
anchorman Jim Dial in the CBS Candice Bergen series Murphy Brown,
and I can tell you I once had the accidental
(18:33):
privilege of meeting him and telling him on board of
New York City subway train, of all places, that, as
somebody who had himself anchored the news for twenty years,
I thought his portrayal off air and on air was
almost precise and as good as any I have ever seen.
The man blushed, his wife blushed. He shook my hand,
(18:56):
He shook my hand again. He shook my hand. As
I got off the train. I mentioned all this to
somebody who knew him that was him. Never really got
over his surprise that people were watching or that they
loved his work. Charles Kimbro was eighty six a Dateline
Central Park. That last word Flocco, the missing Central Park
(19:16):
Zoo Eurasian eagle owl is still out there in a
comparatively low branch of a tree in Central Park in
New York, roughly between the pond in the park southeast
quarter and the Woolman Ice Rink. He has been on
the loose since Thursday night, when vandals cut a hole
in his enclosure in the zoo and he flew away.
(19:37):
I saw him Saturday. I went down there and saw
him yesterday. He has startling orange eyes. He's got orange eyes.
And I say, he's still out there. I could go
and check. He's my neighbor. And as you say, there
goes Keith again making it about him. I'd like to
point out and when Flacco first escaped, he flew out
(20:00):
onto the city streets adjoining the park, and he landed
at the door or of a city bank branch, my
city bank branch. Now he's in my neighborhood. Now he's
on the path where I walk my dogs. I'm thinking
maybe he's an identity thief eagle owl. One way or another.
(20:24):
He's changed trees each day, and he's flown around a little.
Thank you, Nancy Faust. The good news is Flacco survived
wind chills of minus seven on Friday night. Here. The
(20:47):
bad news is he's been in captivity since two thousand ten.
I'm guessing that's why he went first to the bank.
This means he does not know how to hunt for food.
The good news is owls can go about two weeks
between meals. Some breeds much much longer, and the zoo
is keeping an eye on him at all times, as
(21:08):
am I out my window. The bad news, of course,
is the Republicans want Biden to shoot him down as well.
(21:30):
This is Sports Center. Wait, check that, not anymore. This
is Countdown with Keith Alberan in sports. Our condolences to
the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. They have
traded for anti Semitic, flat earther, conspiracy theorist, and anti
(21:51):
maxer Kyrie Irving, sending Dorian Finney Smith Spencer Dinwitty first
and seconds to the Brooklyn Nets for him and another player.
This is especially big news for Kyrie Irving because, on
top of the rest of that crap, he has stated
he believes that John F. Kennedy was killed because he
(22:11):
wanted to end the banking cartel. Now Kyrie can drive
over to Deely Plaza and see the place of Kennedy's
assassination for himself, and then believe whatever the hell he
wants to believe anyway, because that's what stupid people like
him do. Hockey's All Star break is over, and the
sport roars back into business with Commissioner Gary Bettman under
(22:33):
the mistaken impression that the biggest cultural scandal in hockey
in a decade just went away. The NHL completely screwed
up Pride Night in Philadelphia and then somehow made it
worse in New York. A Philly player was able to
hide behind his religion, which says the Russians are justified
in trying to destroy Ukraine because Ukraine has Pride parades
(22:58):
there and he was not forced or even asked to
explain why he did not take the minimum step of
just wearing a warm up jersey with his number in
rainbow colors. Then the New York Rangers bailed out completely
minutes before their team was to wear the same kind
of uniforms on their seventh Pride Night. Yet Commissioner Gary
(23:20):
Bettman now says the two Pride nights were great and quote,
we also have to respect some individual choice and some
people are more comfortable embracing themselves in causes than others.
And part of being diverse and welcoming is understanding those differences. Unquote.
The hell it is, Commissioner, You're completely wrong, completely wrong.
(23:44):
The diversity you are welcoming in this case is this
big group of people's hatred of gay people, and this
so called religion, Russian Orthodox wants gay people and those
who defend them to be killed and their countries destroyed.
That is not diversity, it's ethnic cleansing. You are proclaiming
(24:05):
that the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman has room for murderers.
You may want to go through this again with some
of your idiot advisers. Let's try this one as an example.
I just joined a new religion last night, and this
religion says Russia is evil and America and Canada should
never let any Russian citizens stay or work here. So
(24:28):
if this is about diversity and accepting all opinions, you,
Commissioner Bettman, have to let me participate in events at
your games, at which I will demand that you expel
alex Ovechkin, Ivan provarov, Igor Shasterkin, the goalie, and all
the other Russians from the league, because you know it's
(24:48):
a religion. Now, the daily roundup of the misgrants, morons
and Donning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst persons
(25:11):
in the world. The Bronze your Supreme Court of Religion
of the United States, Scrotus, CNN reporting that long before
somebody leaked the Roe v. Wade opinion draft, security at
Scrotus had basically evaporated. Justices were transferring ultra secret things
(25:34):
like you know, opinion drafts via personal email instead of
by secure servers that had been set up for them.
The court also used printers that produced no logs or
other tracking methods and could print in other places, and
while there were burn bags for sensitive materials, they were
usually just left open, unsecured in hallways. Runner up Jenna
(26:01):
Ellis is sometimes Trump lawyer. She tweeted then quickly delete
an image of a woman in a bathroom at Los
Angeles International Airport quote breaking l a X is installing
urinals in the women's bathrooms, she wrote. Turns out no,
l a X is not doing that. It is reconstructing
part of a terminal, and it is converting one women's
(26:21):
bathroom into a men's bathroom, which would explain the urinals
when as somebody who identifies herself as quote America's lawyer,
Jenna Ellis probably should have known the tweeting an image
of a woman in a bathroom is an open and
shut violation of the woman's privacy, and it might be
worse than that. Please somebody sue Jenna Ellis for every
(26:43):
dollar she isn't worth. America's lawyer, try America's moron, but
our winner, and it's a tie first. James t Already,
Doug Cameron and a runa of Viswanatha of the Wall
Street Journal quote the appearance of a possible Chinese reconnaissance
(27:03):
craft and US airs base raises the specter of a
balloon gap being potentially added to a list of concerns
about China, and the headline for their piece was Chinese
craft raises fears of a balloon gap in intelligence gathering.
It is balloon and besides f troop. If suddenly you
(27:26):
are hearing George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson from
Dr Strangelove warning about a post apocalyptic mind shaft gap,
a mind shaft gap. We have to prevent a mind
shaft gap. You're not alone sharing the honors at the
Wall Street Gap Journal. Mississippi State Senator Joel R. Carter,
who apparently thinks he is a balloon expert because coincidentally
(27:49):
he looks like one with a face drawn on it,
tweeting Biden administration currently and then below that a photo
of a balloon with this written on the balloon, quoting
him whether Barroon Totary not for spying, that would be
Barrun with two rs, and Totari spelled t O T
(28:11):
A R y. On top of this, pig Carter's cross
racism and the Wall Street Journals abject fascist imbecility. Both
of them did these things literally hours before the Chinese
balloon was shot down by the President on his orders.
Mississippi State Senator Joel R. Bars for Cracker, Carter and
(28:35):
the Wall Street Journal, which should really be worried about
its own We can't find any smart people to work
here gap two days, worst persons in the world, it is,
by still ahead on countdown. Chuck Todd rides again. He
(29:06):
asks Congressman Mike sure Biden shot it, but Trump would
have shot it sooner. Turner of Ohio about the three
Chinese balloons in US airspace while Trump was president. Turner
dismisses that as a lie. Chuck's follow up was about
the U S blocking Chinese access to the info gathered
by the balloon. He asked Turner, you buy that, and
Turner said no, and clearly you don't either. Schmuck Todd
(29:29):
rides again the inside story of working with this idiot. Next.
First in each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog
in need you can help. Every dog has its day
here in New York. Andre only got to the pound
a week ago yesterday. He's already on death row. He's sociable,
easy going with people, doesn't act like a pity, but
he's terrified in the pound. He needs to be an
(29:50):
only dog somewhere. He's not getting pledges. He may die
at the age of two. Despite the magic words in
his right up, takes treats gently. He needs pledges to
defray rescues, cost to pull him and save him, and
train him and find him a home him. You can
find Andre on my Twitter feeds. Please retweet him and
pledge if you can. I thank you, and Andre, thanks you.
(30:26):
Now our number one story in the Countdown, And back
to my favorite topic, me things about my career, Things
I promised not to tell. You may be one of
the many, many listeners who have complaints about Chuck Todd
of NBC's Meet the Press. I know this because I
can read. But it is unlikely that you have ever
(30:46):
been able to do anything about Chuck Todd, So I
wanted to tell you of the day that I did
do something about him. That day was August eleven, two
thousand nineteen. I knew Chuck for about fifteen years early
in his career, when he was with the d C
Insider publication the Hotline. He was a frequent guest on
Out Down, and in two thousand seven, when Tim Russer
(31:07):
was thinking of hiring him at NBC News, mine was
one of dozens of temperatures Tim took. As Chuck later
wrote to me, quote, you certainly were a tremendous advocate
and cheerleader for me over the years, and I don't
forget that. Yeah, well that wasn't true. He forgot it
all right, But I'm veering away from the main story.
In two thousand and eight, a couple of Washington political
(31:27):
types started a fantasy football league. If you don't think
fantasy football leagues are important, you should know that last spring,
a major League baseball player in uniform walked up to
another major League baseball player in uniform on a Major
League baseball field with thousands of people already in the stands,
(31:48):
and he slapped him in the face over a roster
move that the second player had made in their fantasy
football league. The second guy had managed to retain the
rights to an injured player, and the first guy was
upset about this. So six months after their fantasy season ended,
this major league baseball player walked up and slapped the
(32:09):
other Major League baseball player. If slaps or duels or
kidnappings are not everyday occurrences in fantasy football, they do
represent the kind of baseline intensity of the thing. So
when I and others were approached about this Washington centric
league in two thousand eight, it was already a big deal,
even before we were all sworn to secrecy, because a
(32:32):
spot in the league was being held open for some
DC guy named Barack Obama. It turned out he did
not join our league, some excuse about too much work,
when obviously he was just afraid of my fantasy football skills.
But some people in his white House did join the league,
and I still will not identify them, because the premise
(32:52):
of this league was the first rule of Fantasy football
club is you do not talk about fantasy football club.
I will say that Chuck Todd, like me, was an
original player. We call ourselves owners because we are nuts,
and it's a fantasy It's in the title Fantasy Football
Fantasy Football Owners. And one year, I think it was
I had assembled in this league, mostly by accident, a
(33:14):
team that was almost perfect. It literally lost one game
all season, and that was in the middle of the
year to Chuck Todd's team. And the night after I
lost to Chuck Todd's team, he was giving a speech
I think at the University of Virginia, and witnesses called
to tell me that he began his speech by saying,
I have much to tell you, but first I have
(33:35):
to tell you that I am in a fantasy football
league with Keith Alderman, and he has a great team
this year, and this week I upset him by a
final score of hutter hundred forty one or whatever the
score was. I thought it was pretty dumb. But by
Chuck was the NBC News White House correspondent, and we
all cringed whenever we saw he was going to be
on with one of us on MSNBC. See, some people
(33:59):
respond well to pressure and success and some people do not,
and some people be entirely different people. So when Chuck
violated the prime directive of this fantasy football league, and
talked about it. I shrugged. The other guys in the
league did not. Chuck was actually punished. The commissioner of
the league ordered that he had to skip his fourth
(34:20):
choice in the following years player draft. Chuck was bereft.
He believed this would destroy his chances. He apologized to
me like every week, and finally I said, you know, guys,
maybe this is too much. And as the supposed victim
in the equation, I got final say and Chuck got
to keep his fourth draft choice. Chuck was because Tim
(34:43):
Russer died, Tom Broke all retired, and David Gregory flamed out.
Chuck was the host to Meet the Press. He was
also political director of NBC News, another part of russer
It's old portfolio. But whereas Tim was a master who
could convince the Republicans, he was ordering that I be
punished for what I said, when in fact he would
be calling me and asking me what stupid, meaningless thing
(35:04):
I could think of to tell the Republicans. He was
punishing me with or four. He was sublime, subtlety. Not Chuck.
No subtlety. There. In two thousand sixteen, Chuck was preparing
to not name my ex lib In girlfriend Katie Turre
as the new NBC White House correspondent, even though she
had suffered as the primary NBC correspondent covering the Trump campaign.
(35:28):
And out of nowhere, Chuck emails me that he's going
to be in New York and he wants to take
me to dinner. I had known him more than a
decade by then, we had never as much as shared
pieces of the same pizza. I had not seen him
in the flesh in more than five years. And I
knew as we sat down that Chuck's idea was to
get me to tell Katie that she was not gonna
be White House correspondent, so he did not have to.
(35:50):
He kept bringing it up, what do you think Katie
would think? And then I'd switched the topic to, uh,
fantasy football, and then he'd say, but let me ask
you about Katie in the White House job. We did
this for ninety minutes, and finally I said, Okay, Chuck,
I've avoided it long enough. Maybe I could call her
and soften the blow for her. And that's when he said, well,
(36:11):
I'm going back to d C tonight, so if I
want to catch that last train, I better leave five
Chuck is not subtle. I'll spare you the other crap
from the Fantasy League. Suffice to say, I was reminded
of how annoyingly and obviously he used to conduct himself
when I read that last May, one of Chuck's guest
bookers for the now no longer on TV Meet the
(36:32):
Press Daily show had emailed the office of Alaska Congressman
Don Young hoping to get Young to appear the next day,
which would have been the ultimate great guest get because
Don Young had died two months earlier. Anyway, this fantasy
football league was fun and unique in that there had
only been one change in its composition in all that time.
(36:53):
Chuck's team defeated mine and the Fantasy Football super Bowl
one year, and mostly he was just annoying, like he
was on the air. Nothing worse than that. And then
on June nineteen, Representative Alexandria Occasio Cortes AOC ripped the
Trump administration's migrant policies. She said, quote, the United States
(37:14):
is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that
is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps. End quote.
Chuck went on MSNBC and said the following in response, quote,
you can call our government's detention of migrants many things,
depending on how you see it. It's a stain on
our nation, maybe, a necessary evil to others to deal
with an untenable situation, perhaps, But do you know what
(37:36):
you can't call it? Chuck then played the clip of
aoc calling it concentration camps, and Chuck resumed, if you
want to criticize the shameful treatment of people at our
southern border, fine, you'll have plenty of company, but be
careful comparing them to Nazi concentration camps, because they're not
at all comparable. In the slightest A lot of people
(37:56):
me included, were stunned. Ocasio Cortes never mentioned the Nazis,
and concentration camps did not begin with Nazis or Hitler.
They began with the British in the Boer War in
South Africa at the turn of the nineteenth and twenty centuries.
Yet here was Chuck putting a word in her mouth,
and that word was Nazi, and then he attacked her
(38:17):
for something she never said. He lied about her. He lied,
Chuck Todd made it up on the news. I was
furious enough to email him that night. I thought by
now somebody at NBC would have pointed out that concentration
camps and Nazi death camps are not the same thing.
But no, NBC had simply tweeted out the clip of
(38:37):
Chuck lying about the congresswoman and putting the word Nazi
in her mouth, as if it were something NBC News
should be proud of. Chuck was furious at me. He
emailed back, quote, come on, own up, that she invoked
the wrong image and should have simply walked the imagery back.
And I wrote him back that the person who had
to walk back imagery here was him, since he had
(39:00):
said Nazi and she had not said Nazi. On my
angriest day, he now replied, I'd like to think I
treated you with more respect than this, sad. I feel
like we won't recover from this, and we had recovered
from a lot. I wrote back to Chuck that we
were going to recover from anything if he insisted that
all concentration camps were Nazi death camps and that somebody
(39:21):
who never said Nazis owed somebody else an apology for
what not saying Nazis. There was no getting past the
reality that Chuck had no idea that he was one
dent in the wrong here, historically wrong, factually wrong, ethically wrong,
not a leg to stand on. So I of course
(39:42):
began to contemplate the year ahead in fantasy football. I
couldn't face it. I'm sorry, I let real life and
fantasy sports mix, and I just I just couldn't spend
another autumn having to deal with Chuck Todd. Chuck had
often said that he was now just too busy to
play in the league anymore, and he would have to
(40:03):
leave it this year. So on August eleven, two thousand nineteen,
more in sadness than an anger, I asked the commissioner
of the league if Chuck was coming back for the
two thousand nineteen season. I don't know, Maybe not, was
the answer. I said, Look, this is not him or me.
I'm not asking you to not let him come back.
It's not like that. But if he tells you one
(40:25):
way or the other, let me know, because I just
can't stand another year of him. He takes all the
fun of it out of it for me, I understand,
said the commissioner. It's a shame, but why do it
if it's not fun? At eight am. On the morning
of August two thousand nineteen, the official email notifying everybody
of the new fantasy football season went out. I was
not listed among the players. Nineteen minutes later, I got
(40:49):
an email from Chuck Todd, subject line, it's just a
game content quote just play. I won't speak to you,
and please do me the same courtesy grow the f up,
and no, I am not editing this. He really wrote
grow the f up. I wrote back that I thought
he'd become part of the problem that imperils our nation
and I didn't want to have anything more to do
(41:10):
with him. I ended it with quote, do not contact
me again. At ten thirteen am, he contacted me again,
amazing how you believe what you believe about me. I'm
sorry for ever helping you get credibility, and I did
not reply. At ten eighteen he wrote me again again,
I'm happy to never speak with you again. I'd prefer
(41:30):
to pretend you don't exist. Don't make me care about you. No, boy,
when Chuck Todd asks you to not make him care
about you, you're in deep and dangerous waters. Boy. Another
Chuck email at nine you are truly a tiny little man.
I don't even feel sorry for you anymore. You have
done this to yourself. And here I made a mistake.
(41:52):
I did not ask him what he felt sorry for
me about and what I had done to myself. I
assume he was about losing the Fantasy Football super Bowl
to him. At eleven o nine, another email quote, you
deliberately misinterpreted what I said shot first, and then rationalize
the mistaken shot with some convoluted, full of bleef explanation.
(42:14):
This presumably was the silly little detail about him lying
and saying Representative Accio Cortez had referred to Nazi concentration camps.
Then he wrote that what she said quote evokes Gash Chambers,
and I think that's where we should leave it. A
fantasy sports league is just a fantasy sports league, and
(42:34):
having been in various kinds of them since nineteen good God,
I often wonder if they aren't a kind of therapeutic
cathartic pressure valve for our inner demons. I do know this.
You find out a lot about the other people in
a fantasy sports league. So when that baseball players slapped
(42:55):
the other baseball player over the reserve running back that
he kept on his roster, and most people said, I
just don't understand why he slapped him. I said, oh,
I understand why he slapped him. Two good weeks of
(43:22):
follow up questions from schmuck Todd, and clearly one of
his bosses told him never to do that again in
his life. Countdown has come to you from the world
headquarters of Alderman Broadcasting Empire. Here in the Sports Capsule
building in New York. Just look for the owl. Thank
you for listening Here the credits. Most of the music,
(43:42):
including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged, produced and
performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle, who are
the Countdown musical directors. Guitars bassed and drums by Brian Ray,
All orchestration and keyboards by John Philip, Channel produced by
t Ko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and
performed by No Horns allowed. The sports music is the
(44:02):
Aulderman theme from ESPN two, and it was written by
Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by
Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer
today was Jonathan Banks. Owls wrangled by the Central Park Zoo.
Everything else is pretty much my fault. So let's countdown
for this, the seven and sixty second day since Donald
(44:24):
Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States. Arrest him now while we still can.
The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith
all Reman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck.
(44:45):
Countdown with Keith all Reman is a production of I
heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
Did the arrested x FBI executive Charles McGonagall start working
(00:26):
for the Russian oligarch connected to Trump's campaign manager only
after McGonagall left the bureau? Or was he doing so
while he McGonagall was still ordering events within the bureau.
Was Charlie McGonagall a Russian asset inside the FBI? Because
(00:48):
since Friday, I have had that sinking feeling that we
are watching the proverbial drip, drip, drip, the slow reveal
of something so shocking that the details must be parceled out.
Because it is one thing for me to line up
these and ask what does it mean if they are
all connected? And it is one thing for Professor Tim
(01:09):
Snyder of Yale to ask that, And it is one
thing for the author, Greg Olier to ask that it
is something else altogether, for the New York Times to
ask that. Yet there were all the dots scattered under
the by lines of Ken Vogel and Michael Rothfeld and
William Roschbaum, without the lines drawn to connect them, and
(01:30):
without the adjectives and emphasies that caused the jaw to
drop and largely sitting in the back row of the
narrative of the story behind the fact that McGonagall has
been indicted for taking money to act on behalf of
an Albanian thug while he was still a top official
at the FBI Field Office in New York. But there
it is in the back, not jumping up and down,
(01:51):
not waving its arms at us, but still clear with
discernible features. But sources and writers and editors at the
New York Times all looked at and said, you know,
you can print this, the stinct and distinctly new possibility
that when the FBI New York office went rogue in
two thousand sixteen and went pro Trump and manipulated the
(02:15):
Anthony Weiner laptop story and basically blackmailed James Comey into
reopening both Pandora's box and but her emails. While that
was happening, the key man at the FBI in New
York investigating Old Egg derri Posca was maybe already getting
money from Old Egg derri Posca, and Paul Manafort owed
(02:38):
Old Egg derri Posca money, and Paul Manafort was Donald
Trump's campaign manager for free. It's a lot of dots.
This is the legitimacy the New York Times can, when
it is not stepping on its own private parts, still bestow.
It can state the raw facts of mcgonagall's indictment in Albania,
(03:00):
and two paragraphs later it can quote the former FBI
counterintelligence official Holden triplet as saying, quote, it puts a
question mark next to everything he McGonagall was involved in.
You'd be trying to figure out, Okay, when did this
start and what did he touch after it started? Going
(03:24):
back and thinking about what the damage could be is painful.
After forty six years of dealing as a professional with
virtually every news organization in this country, and working for
nearly every news organization in this country, I do not
believe any of them say, well, we have the whole
picture here in the office, so let's make sure whatever
we do we do not show the whole picture all
(03:46):
at once. Let's parcel it out. They do not do that.
That kind of thinking is q and on. But the
sources for stories like the New York Times extraordinary piece
on McGonagall do exactly that, and always have. You only
have to read all the President's men to recognize at
(04:06):
once that nearly all the evidence and information that the
source deep Throat, the FBI's then associate director, their number two,
Guy Mark, felt had in his hands on June two
was all the evidence he would ever have in his hands.
That was the first day he talked to Bob Woodward.
He did not share the last of all that evidence
(04:28):
until March nineteen seventy three, nearly a year later. The
earliest crimes of which Mr McGonagall is accused right Raschbauman, Rothfeld,
and Vogel in the Times date to August two thousand seventeen,
but the FBI's damage assessment likely is looking back much further.
(04:48):
Former officials said that he may have lied while with
the bureau about his acceptance of cash from a business associate,
and contact with foreign individuals has also raised concerns about
the breadth and duration and of his possible deceptions. I
(05:10):
have written sentences like that. Let me translate this one.
He's under indictment for taking cash from a representative of
one foreign government while he was still working with the FBI.
We now have to assume he could have taken cash
from a representative of a different foreign government. That's what
(05:30):
the word breadth means in this context. And we just
haven't found evidence of it yet. And where should we
start looking for that evidence? How about involving the foreigner.
He's also under indictment for taking money from later. That's
what duration refers to in this context. Concerns about the
breadth and duration of his possible deceptions means the FBI
(05:54):
and the Department of Justice are investigating right now this
morning whether or not Charles McGonagall got any money from
Oleg Deri Posca or any other Russian while McGonagall still
worked at the FBI. And the bending over backwards to
make sure it is not phrased that way in the
New York Flipping Times is what happens when a source says,
(06:14):
look this, this is what we are doing. If you
say we are doing this, they will know it was
me what told you. So you gotta hide it and
blur it and fuzz it up. So let's work on
how you can say it. There are a lot of
other hands dropped into this New York Times piece, almost
buried within it that should set alarm bells ringing everywhere,
(06:37):
especially in Trump Landia. Quote. Mr mcgonagall's high ranking role
would have given him a wide view of what was
happening across the agency and intelligence community. The article continues,
that's not tough to translate. This is confirmation of the
known chronology. Mcdonagall was in the Bureau in Washington as
(06:59):
the Trump events culminating in the Komi letter and the
Times owned tragic and false clearing of Trump in Russia
at the end of October two thousand sixteen happened, and
he was detailed to New York on October two. And
one of the Times sources is reminding you that McGonagall
knew damn well, quote what was happening across the agency
(07:24):
in October two thousand sixteen, like in any other month
where he was so prominent in the bureau. And if
you still somehow have not read between the lines, the
Time sources are kind enough to now show you their math. Literally.
McGonagall retired from the FBI in two thousand eighteen. The
Times writes quote that the suspected crimes occurred shortly before
(07:48):
his retirement, suggests Mr mcdonagall might have started or increased
illicit activities after taking the last of his required polygraph tests,
which are supposed to be administered every five years. Mm hmm.
(08:08):
This is advanced math. But I was once mistaken for
a math prodigy. Let me see if I can do this.
Two thousand eighteen minus five is carrying on ginist slept
through the entirety of tenth grade. Two thousand thirteen, the
(08:29):
FBI New York Office became trump Landia in the phrase
Greg Olier wrote about in two thousand sixteen. Even if
McGonagall took his last lie detective test in two thousand
fourteen or two thousand fifteen, that leaves plenty of space
on the timeline for him to be suspected of working
for Manaforts Russian in two thousand sixteen. Just in case
(08:52):
you're reading that, we're listening to this and beginning to
think Russia, Russia, Russia, Trump Trump Trump McGonagall McGonagall o
mc gonagal. But you're saying no, no, no, no no,
I've been led down this path before. No way. The
next paragraph contains one sentence, floating out there adrift in
a labyrinthine and on the record analysis of the money
(09:13):
McGonagall took from the Albanian while he was still at
the FBI, And that one sentence is quote Robert P. Hansen,
the FBI agent turned spy who fed classified information to
Russia for two decades and is serving a life sentence.
Began cooperating with the Russians in the late nineteen seventies
(09:37):
while in a counter intelligence unit in New York. Unquote,
oh wait, where did mcdonagall work New York? And what
unit counter intelligence? What was his job? Encounter intelligence? He
was Special Agents in charge of the counter Intelligence division
for the New York Field Office. That's what it says
in the press release issued on October four, two thousand sixteen. Hintintintintintint,
(09:59):
just happened to pull out of all the American spies
ever in the FBI just happened to pull out Robert Hansen,
the FBI agent in the counter intelligence office who sold
out to the Russians. If you are still with the Times,
here in paragraph number thirty six, the Times buries what
(10:21):
is not now the lead but could very shortly become it.
I'll just read this. It's kind of short quote. After
leaving the FBI, Mr mcdonagall went to work where Mr
Derri Pasca, the sanctioned oligarch, according to the New York indictment,
but it was not his first encounter with Mr Derri
Pasca's circle. Prosecutors suggested that Mr mcdonagall began wooing Mr
(10:46):
Derrick Pasca shortly before his retirement. In two thousand eighteen,
he helped the daughter of an employee of Mr Derrick
Pasca get an internship with the New York Police Department.
According to the New York indictment, Mr McGonagall explained to
another FBI official that the girl's father was a Russian
(11:08):
intelligence officer he wanted to recruit, Prosecutors said in two
thousand nineteen, continuing with their times, wrote after his retirement,
Mr mcdonagall introduced Mr Derrick Posca to a law firm
that would seek to get his sanctions lifted, and Mr
mcdonagall was paid twenty five thousand dollars a month through
(11:28):
March by Mr Derrick Posca through the law firm as
a consultant. According to the indictment, the work stopped at
the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. In one Mr mcdonagall
and his associate, Mr. Shastakov negotiated a deal with the
Derrick Pasca employee whose daughter got the police internship to
(11:48):
work for Mr Derrick Posca to investigate a rival Oligarc unquote.
So here in the late thirties of paragraphs, nearly at
the end of this odyssey, this remark couples story from
The New York Times, which began by hinting that there
were FBNI and Justice Department officials and ex officials who
(12:12):
knew the lay of the land, who were now looking
for evidence that maybe Charlie McGonagall was working for others
before he retired from the bureau. That's the way the
article began. But here at the end, where you're now told, well, yeah,
there is evidence that he did that. In two thousand eighteen,
he just happens to be getting this daughter of one
(12:34):
of Derrick Pasca's employees an internship in the New York
City Police Department. And though mcgonagall's got this excuse he
wanted to flip her dad Derrick Posca's employee, Derrick Posca's employee,
who he says was a Russian intelligence officer. And then
three years later, when Derrick Posca is looking for somebody
to investigate a rival Oligarch, here's the guy whose daughter
(12:56):
got the police internship. Only mcdonagall is not turning this
Russian guy into an American asset. The Russian intelligence officer
is hiring McGonagall and making him into a Russian asset.
Let me just strip that down one more time. By
two thousand eighteen, while he's still at the FBI, McGonagall,
(13:17):
who had been investigating Olelegg derri Posca, is now tight
enough with the people around Oleg derri Posca that he
knows Oleg Derrick Posca's employee is a Russian intelligence officer,
a spy. And McGonagall thinks that Derrick posca employee is
so ready to start working for American intelligence that he
could be swede if McGonagall can only get his daughter
(13:41):
an internship. So at the FBI, McGonagall already knows at
least one Derri Posca employee. He already knows this employee
is in Russian intelligence. He already knows this employee's daughter
wants an internship and wants it at the New York
Police Department. And then within three years, the Russian intelligence
(14:02):
officer is hiring McGonagall. Because McGonagall getting an internship for
the Russians daughter is not enough to get the Russians
spy to defect to the United States, but it was
enough three years later to get the Russian spy to
hire McGonagall to work for Derra Posca again. Now me,
(14:23):
that's my lead in this story, but I'm not at
the times. No, I don't know if they were scared.
I tend to doubt that, which means I think the
only other excuse for it would be they did it
this way intentionally. And if they did it this way intentionally,
it is to protect and thank their sources. And if
they are protecting and thanking their sources, it's because their
(14:45):
sources have more information later. And it means that when
I have that sinking feeling that we are watching the
proverbial drip, drip drip, the slow reveal of something as
shocking as just to pick something at random. McGonagall was
already working for dry Posca before the two thousand sixteen
presidential election, while he was still inside the FBI. Yeah,
(15:08):
it's it's my feeling those details must kind of be
parceled out, and and when I have that feeling, it's
only my opinion, but I'm right still ahead. So a
(15:36):
Republican congressman now confirms the Defense Department breathed Congress that
there were at least five sightings of Chinese fine balloons
from United States States during the Trump administration. But when
a different Republican congressman tells Chuck it's odd that that
is a lie, Chuck says, Okay, let me tell you
(15:59):
about what it was like to work with Chuck and
to be in a fantasy football league with Chuck in ings.
I promised not to tell Schmuck Todd. The National Hockey
League is just gonna pretend it has not endorsed making
room for players who subscribe to a religion that says
it's okay to kill Ukrainians because their country has pride parades.
(16:20):
It is a huge scandal in hockey, and I suspect
it's going to consume the entire season. And that missing
eagle owl in Central Park in New York City, well
he's not missing. I saw him yesterday. In fact, he's
my new neighbor. Also, he showed up at my bank,
No seriously, at my branch, not a tree branch, a
(16:44):
bank branch. He showed up at my bank branch. That's next.
This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith old Woman.
Postscripts to the news some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
(17:05):
some predictions Los Angeles. They held the Grammy Awards last night.
I'll be damned if I know why. Washington, the Trump
docu drama roars back to life. The do o J
and the Director of National Intelligence have unofficially offered the
so called Gang of eight House and Senate leaders and
Intel Committee chairman a closed door briefing about what exactly
(17:26):
Trump stole, an overview of the three classified documents found
at Mari Lago and elsewhere. Nothing is set yet on this,
and a reminder first go to Bedminster dig up Ivana
because in this scandal, we literally all know where the
bodies are buried. Dateline, Washington. Jim Jordan has gotten the letter.
(17:49):
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Rarte has spelled out the circumstances
under which Jordan's witch hunt can see or hear stuff
from Justice. Short version. Those circumstances are when hell has
frozen over the actual terms or any engagement. You get
nothing on active investigations. You may only hear from senior supervisors.
(18:11):
You must prioritize your requests, not all will be granted,
and if you have a hearing, you want somebody there
two weeks notice or you'll get nothing and You'll like it. Dateline,
Los Angeles. The actor Charles Kimbro has died. He played
anchorman Jim Dial in the CBS Candice Bergen series Murphy Brown,
and I can tell you I once had the accidental
(18:33):
privilege of meeting him and telling him on board of
New York City subway train, of all places, that, as
somebody who had himself anchored the news for twenty years,
I thought his portrayal off air and on air was
almost precise and as good as any I have ever seen.
The man blushed, his wife blushed. He shook my hand,
(18:56):
He shook my hand again. He shook my hand. As
I got off the train. I mentioned all this to
somebody who knew him that was him. Never really got
over his surprise that people were watching or that they
loved his work. Charles Kimbro was eighty six a Dateline
Central Park. That last word Flocco, the missing Central Park
(19:16):
Zoo Eurasian eagle owl is still out there in a
comparatively low branch of a tree in Central Park in
New York, roughly between the pond in the park southeast
quarter and the Woolman Ice Rink. He has been on
the loose since Thursday night, when vandals cut a hole
in his enclosure in the zoo and he flew away.
(19:37):
I saw him Saturday. I went down there and saw
him yesterday. He has startling orange eyes. He's got orange eyes.
And I say, he's still out there. I could go
and check. He's my neighbor. And as you say, there
goes Keith again making it about him. I'd like to
point out and when Flacco first escaped, he flew out
(20:00):
onto the city streets adjoining the park, and he landed
at the door or of a city bank branch, my
city bank branch. Now he's in my neighborhood. Now he's
on the path where I walk my dogs. I'm thinking
maybe he's an identity thief eagle owl. One way or another.
(20:24):
He's changed trees each day, and he's flown around a little.
Thank you, Nancy Faust. The good news is Flacco survived
wind chills of minus seven on Friday night. Here. The
(20:47):
bad news is he's been in captivity since two thousand ten.
I'm guessing that's why he went first to the bank.
This means he does not know how to hunt for food.
The good news is owls can go about two weeks
between meals. Some breeds much much longer, and the zoo
is keeping an eye on him at all times, as
(21:08):
am I out my window. The bad news, of course,
is the Republicans want Biden to shoot him down as well.
(21:30):
This is Sports Center. Wait, check that, not anymore. This
is Countdown with Keith Alberan in sports. Our condolences to
the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. They have
traded for anti Semitic, flat earther, conspiracy theorist, and anti
(21:51):
maxer Kyrie Irving, sending Dorian Finney Smith Spencer Dinwitty first
and seconds to the Brooklyn Nets for him and another player.
This is especially big news for Kyrie Irving because, on
top of the rest of that crap, he has stated
he believes that John F. Kennedy was killed because he
(22:11):
wanted to end the banking cartel. Now Kyrie can drive
over to Deely Plaza and see the place of Kennedy's
assassination for himself, and then believe whatever the hell he
wants to believe anyway, because that's what stupid people like
him do. Hockey's All Star break is over, and the
sport roars back into business with Commissioner Gary Bettman under
(22:33):
the mistaken impression that the biggest cultural scandal in hockey
in a decade just went away. The NHL completely screwed
up Pride Night in Philadelphia and then somehow made it
worse in New York. A Philly player was able to
hide behind his religion, which says the Russians are justified
in trying to destroy Ukraine because Ukraine has Pride parades
(22:58):
there and he was not forced or even asked to
explain why he did not take the minimum step of
just wearing a warm up jersey with his number in
rainbow colors. Then the New York Rangers bailed out completely
minutes before their team was to wear the same kind
of uniforms on their seventh Pride Night. Yet Commissioner Gary
(23:20):
Bettman now says the two Pride nights were great and quote,
we also have to respect some individual choice and some
people are more comfortable embracing themselves in causes than others.
And part of being diverse and welcoming is understanding those differences. Unquote.
The hell it is, Commissioner, You're completely wrong, completely wrong.
(23:44):
The diversity you are welcoming in this case is this
big group of people's hatred of gay people, and this
so called religion, Russian Orthodox wants gay people and those
who defend them to be killed and their countries destroyed.
That is not diversity, it's ethnic cleansing. You are proclaiming
(24:05):
that the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman has room for murderers.
You may want to go through this again with some
of your idiot advisers. Let's try this one as an example.
I just joined a new religion last night, and this
religion says Russia is evil and America and Canada should
never let any Russian citizens stay or work here. So
(24:28):
if this is about diversity and accepting all opinions, you,
Commissioner Bettman, have to let me participate in events at
your games, at which I will demand that you expel
alex Ovechkin, Ivan provarov, Igor Shasterkin, the goalie, and all
the other Russians from the league, because you know it's
(24:48):
a religion. Now, the daily roundup of the misgrants, morons
and Donning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst persons
(25:11):
in the world. The Bronze your Supreme Court of Religion
of the United States, Scrotus, CNN reporting that long before
somebody leaked the Roe v. Wade opinion draft, security at
Scrotus had basically evaporated. Justices were transferring ultra secret things
(25:34):
like you know, opinion drafts via personal email instead of
by secure servers that had been set up for them.
The court also used printers that produced no logs or
other tracking methods and could print in other places, and
while there were burn bags for sensitive materials, they were
usually just left open, unsecured in hallways. Runner up Jenna
(26:01):
Ellis is sometimes Trump lawyer. She tweeted then quickly delete
an image of a woman in a bathroom at Los
Angeles International Airport quote breaking l a X is installing
urinals in the women's bathrooms, she wrote. Turns out no,
l a X is not doing that. It is reconstructing
part of a terminal, and it is converting one women's
(26:21):
bathroom into a men's bathroom, which would explain the urinals
when as somebody who identifies herself as quote America's lawyer,
Jenna Ellis probably should have known the tweeting an image
of a woman in a bathroom is an open and
shut violation of the woman's privacy, and it might be
worse than that. Please somebody sue Jenna Ellis for every
(26:43):
dollar she isn't worth. America's lawyer, try America's moron, but
our winner, and it's a tie first. James t Already,
Doug Cameron and a runa of Viswanatha of the Wall
Street Journal quote the appearance of a possible Chinese reconnaissance
(27:03):
craft and US airs base raises the specter of a
balloon gap being potentially added to a list of concerns
about China, and the headline for their piece was Chinese
craft raises fears of a balloon gap in intelligence gathering.
It is balloon and besides f troop. If suddenly you
(27:26):
are hearing George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson from
Dr Strangelove warning about a post apocalyptic mind shaft gap,
a mind shaft gap. We have to prevent a mind
shaft gap. You're not alone sharing the honors at the
Wall Street Gap Journal. Mississippi State Senator Joel R. Carter,
who apparently thinks he is a balloon expert because coincidentally
(27:49):
he looks like one with a face drawn on it,
tweeting Biden administration currently and then below that a photo
of a balloon with this written on the balloon, quoting
him whether Barroon Totary not for spying, that would be
Barrun with two rs, and Totari spelled t O T
(28:11):
A R y. On top of this, pig Carter's cross
racism and the Wall Street Journals abject fascist imbecility. Both
of them did these things literally hours before the Chinese
balloon was shot down by the President on his orders.
Mississippi State Senator Joel R. Bars for Cracker, Carter and
(28:35):
the Wall Street Journal, which should really be worried about
its own We can't find any smart people to work
here gap two days, worst persons in the world, it is,
by still ahead on countdown. Chuck Todd rides again. He
(29:06):
asks Congressman Mike sure Biden shot it, but Trump would
have shot it sooner. Turner of Ohio about the three
Chinese balloons in US airspace while Trump was president. Turner
dismisses that as a lie. Chuck's follow up was about
the U S blocking Chinese access to the info gathered
by the balloon. He asked Turner, you buy that, and
Turner said no, and clearly you don't either. Schmuck Todd
(29:29):
rides again the inside story of working with this idiot. Next.
First in each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog
in need you can help. Every dog has its day
here in New York. Andre only got to the pound
a week ago yesterday. He's already on death row. He's sociable,
easy going with people, doesn't act like a pity, but
he's terrified in the pound. He needs to be an
(29:50):
only dog somewhere. He's not getting pledges. He may die
at the age of two. Despite the magic words in
his right up, takes treats gently. He needs pledges to
defray rescues, cost to pull him and save him, and
train him and find him a home him. You can
find Andre on my Twitter feeds. Please retweet him and
pledge if you can. I thank you, and Andre, thanks you.
(30:26):
Now our number one story in the Countdown, And back
to my favorite topic, me things about my career, Things
I promised not to tell. You may be one of
the many, many listeners who have complaints about Chuck Todd
of NBC's Meet the Press. I know this because I
can read. But it is unlikely that you have ever
(30:46):
been able to do anything about Chuck Todd, So I
wanted to tell you of the day that I did
do something about him. That day was August eleven, two
thousand nineteen. I knew Chuck for about fifteen years early
in his career, when he was with the d C
Insider publication the Hotline. He was a frequent guest on
Out Down, and in two thousand seven, when Tim Russer
(31:07):
was thinking of hiring him at NBC News, mine was
one of dozens of temperatures Tim took. As Chuck later
wrote to me, quote, you certainly were a tremendous advocate
and cheerleader for me over the years, and I don't
forget that. Yeah, well that wasn't true. He forgot it
all right, But I'm veering away from the main story.
In two thousand and eight, a couple of Washington political
(31:27):
types started a fantasy football league. If you don't think
fantasy football leagues are important, you should know that last spring,
a major League baseball player in uniform walked up to
another major League baseball player in uniform on a Major
League baseball field with thousands of people already in the stands,
(31:48):
and he slapped him in the face over a roster
move that the second player had made in their fantasy
football league. The second guy had managed to retain the
rights to an injured player, and the first guy was
upset about this. So six months after their fantasy season ended,
this major league baseball player walked up and slapped the
(32:09):
other Major League baseball player. If slaps or duels or
kidnappings are not everyday occurrences in fantasy football, they do
represent the kind of baseline intensity of the thing. So
when I and others were approached about this Washington centric
league in two thousand eight, it was already a big deal,
even before we were all sworn to secrecy, because a
(32:32):
spot in the league was being held open for some
DC guy named Barack Obama. It turned out he did
not join our league, some excuse about too much work,
when obviously he was just afraid of my fantasy football skills.
But some people in his white House did join the league,
and I still will not identify them, because the premise
(32:52):
of this league was the first rule of Fantasy football
club is you do not talk about fantasy football club.
I will say that Chuck Todd, like me, was an
original player. We call ourselves owners because we are nuts,
and it's a fantasy It's in the title Fantasy Football
Fantasy Football Owners. And one year, I think it was
I had assembled in this league, mostly by accident, a
(33:14):
team that was almost perfect. It literally lost one game
all season, and that was in the middle of the
year to Chuck Todd's team. And the night after I
lost to Chuck Todd's team, he was giving a speech
I think at the University of Virginia, and witnesses called
to tell me that he began his speech by saying,
I have much to tell you, but first I have
(33:35):
to tell you that I am in a fantasy football
league with Keith Alderman, and he has a great team
this year, and this week I upset him by a
final score of hutter hundred forty one or whatever the
score was. I thought it was pretty dumb. But by
Chuck was the NBC News White House correspondent, and we
all cringed whenever we saw he was going to be
on with one of us on MSNBC. See, some people
(33:59):
respond well to pressure and success and some people do not,
and some people be entirely different people. So when Chuck
violated the prime directive of this fantasy football league, and
talked about it. I shrugged. The other guys in the
league did not. Chuck was actually punished. The commissioner of
the league ordered that he had to skip his fourth
(34:20):
choice in the following years player draft. Chuck was bereft.
He believed this would destroy his chances. He apologized to
me like every week, and finally I said, you know, guys,
maybe this is too much. And as the supposed victim
in the equation, I got final say and Chuck got
to keep his fourth draft choice. Chuck was because Tim
(34:43):
Russer died, Tom Broke all retired, and David Gregory flamed out.
Chuck was the host to Meet the Press. He was
also political director of NBC News, another part of russer
It's old portfolio. But whereas Tim was a master who
could convince the Republicans, he was ordering that I be
punished for what I said, when in fact he would
be calling me and asking me what stupid, meaningless thing
(35:04):
I could think of to tell the Republicans. He was
punishing me with or four. He was sublime, subtlety. Not Chuck.
No subtlety. There. In two thousand sixteen, Chuck was preparing
to not name my ex lib In girlfriend Katie Turre
as the new NBC White House correspondent, even though she
had suffered as the primary NBC correspondent covering the Trump campaign.
(35:28):
And out of nowhere, Chuck emails me that he's going
to be in New York and he wants to take
me to dinner. I had known him more than a
decade by then, we had never as much as shared
pieces of the same pizza. I had not seen him
in the flesh in more than five years. And I
knew as we sat down that Chuck's idea was to
get me to tell Katie that she was not gonna
be White House correspondent, so he did not have to.
(35:50):
He kept bringing it up, what do you think Katie
would think? And then I'd switched the topic to, uh,
fantasy football, and then he'd say, but let me ask
you about Katie in the White House job. We did
this for ninety minutes, and finally I said, Okay, Chuck,
I've avoided it long enough. Maybe I could call her
and soften the blow for her. And that's when he said, well,
(36:11):
I'm going back to d C tonight, so if I
want to catch that last train, I better leave five
Chuck is not subtle. I'll spare you the other crap
from the Fantasy League. Suffice to say, I was reminded
of how annoyingly and obviously he used to conduct himself
when I read that last May, one of Chuck's guest
bookers for the now no longer on TV Meet the
(36:32):
Press Daily show had emailed the office of Alaska Congressman
Don Young hoping to get Young to appear the next day,
which would have been the ultimate great guest get because
Don Young had died two months earlier. Anyway, this fantasy
football league was fun and unique in that there had
only been one change in its composition in all that time.
(36:53):
Chuck's team defeated mine and the Fantasy Football super Bowl
one year, and mostly he was just annoying, like he
was on the air. Nothing worse than that. And then
on June nineteen, Representative Alexandria Occasio Cortes AOC ripped the
Trump administration's migrant policies. She said, quote, the United States
(37:14):
is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that
is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps. End quote.
Chuck went on MSNBC and said the following in response, quote,
you can call our government's detention of migrants many things,
depending on how you see it. It's a stain on
our nation, maybe, a necessary evil to others to deal
with an untenable situation, perhaps, But do you know what
(37:36):
you can't call it? Chuck then played the clip of
aoc calling it concentration camps, and Chuck resumed, if you
want to criticize the shameful treatment of people at our
southern border, fine, you'll have plenty of company, but be
careful comparing them to Nazi concentration camps, because they're not
at all comparable. In the slightest A lot of people
(37:56):
me included, were stunned. Ocasio Cortes never mentioned the Nazis,
and concentration camps did not begin with Nazis or Hitler.
They began with the British in the Boer War in
South Africa at the turn of the nineteenth and twenty centuries.
Yet here was Chuck putting a word in her mouth,
and that word was Nazi, and then he attacked her
(38:17):
for something she never said. He lied about her. He lied,
Chuck Todd made it up on the news. I was
furious enough to email him that night. I thought by
now somebody at NBC would have pointed out that concentration
camps and Nazi death camps are not the same thing.
But no, NBC had simply tweeted out the clip of
(38:37):
Chuck lying about the congresswoman and putting the word Nazi
in her mouth, as if it were something NBC News
should be proud of. Chuck was furious at me. He
emailed back, quote, come on, own up, that she invoked
the wrong image and should have simply walked the imagery back.
And I wrote him back that the person who had
to walk back imagery here was him, since he had
(39:00):
said Nazi and she had not said Nazi. On my
angriest day, he now replied, I'd like to think I
treated you with more respect than this, sad. I feel
like we won't recover from this, and we had recovered
from a lot. I wrote back to Chuck that we
were going to recover from anything if he insisted that
all concentration camps were Nazi death camps and that somebody
(39:21):
who never said Nazis owed somebody else an apology for
what not saying Nazis. There was no getting past the
reality that Chuck had no idea that he was one
dent in the wrong here, historically wrong, factually wrong, ethically wrong,
not a leg to stand on. So I of course
(39:42):
began to contemplate the year ahead in fantasy football. I
couldn't face it. I'm sorry, I let real life and
fantasy sports mix, and I just I just couldn't spend
another autumn having to deal with Chuck Todd. Chuck had
often said that he was now just too busy to
play in the league anymore, and he would have to
(40:03):
leave it this year. So on August eleven, two thousand nineteen,
more in sadness than an anger, I asked the commissioner
of the league if Chuck was coming back for the
two thousand nineteen season. I don't know, Maybe not, was
the answer. I said, Look, this is not him or me.
I'm not asking you to not let him come back.
It's not like that. But if he tells you one
(40:25):
way or the other, let me know, because I just
can't stand another year of him. He takes all the
fun of it out of it for me, I understand,
said the commissioner. It's a shame, but why do it
if it's not fun? At eight am. On the morning
of August two thousand nineteen, the official email notifying everybody
of the new fantasy football season went out. I was
not listed among the players. Nineteen minutes later, I got
(40:49):
an email from Chuck Todd, subject line, it's just a
game content quote just play. I won't speak to you,
and please do me the same courtesy grow the f up,
and no, I am not editing this. He really wrote
grow the f up. I wrote back that I thought
he'd become part of the problem that imperils our nation
and I didn't want to have anything more to do
(41:10):
with him. I ended it with quote, do not contact
me again. At ten thirteen am, he contacted me again,
amazing how you believe what you believe about me. I'm
sorry for ever helping you get credibility, and I did
not reply. At ten eighteen he wrote me again again,
I'm happy to never speak with you again. I'd prefer
(41:30):
to pretend you don't exist. Don't make me care about you. No, boy,
when Chuck Todd asks you to not make him care
about you, you're in deep and dangerous waters. Boy. Another
Chuck email at nine you are truly a tiny little man.
I don't even feel sorry for you anymore. You have
done this to yourself. And here I made a mistake.
(41:52):
I did not ask him what he felt sorry for
me about and what I had done to myself. I
assume he was about losing the Fantasy Football super Bowl
to him. At eleven o nine, another email quote, you
deliberately misinterpreted what I said shot first, and then rationalize
the mistaken shot with some convoluted, full of bleef explanation.
(42:14):
This presumably was the silly little detail about him lying
and saying Representative Accio Cortez had referred to Nazi concentration camps.
Then he wrote that what she said quote evokes Gash Chambers,
and I think that's where we should leave it. A
fantasy sports league is just a fantasy sports league, and
(42:34):
having been in various kinds of them since nineteen good God,
I often wonder if they aren't a kind of therapeutic
cathartic pressure valve for our inner demons. I do know this.
You find out a lot about the other people in
a fantasy sports league. So when that baseball players slapped
(42:55):
the other baseball player over the reserve running back that
he kept on his roster, and most people said, I
just don't understand why he slapped him. I said, oh,
I understand why he slapped him. Two good weeks of
(43:22):
follow up questions from schmuck Todd, and clearly one of
his bosses told him never to do that again in
his life. Countdown has come to you from the world
headquarters of Alderman Broadcasting Empire. Here in the Sports Capsule
building in New York. Just look for the owl. Thank
you for listening Here the credits. Most of the music,
(43:42):
including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged, produced and
performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle, who are
the Countdown musical directors. Guitars bassed and drums by Brian Ray,
All orchestration and keyboards by John Philip, Channel produced by
t Ko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and
performed by No Horns allowed. The sports music is the
(44:02):
Aulderman theme from ESPN two, and it was written by
Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by
Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer
today was Jonathan Banks. Owls wrangled by the Central Park Zoo.
Everything else is pretty much my fault. So let's countdown
for this, the seven and sixty second day since Donald
(44:24):
Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States. Arrest him now while we still can.
The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith
all Reman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck.
(44:45):
Countdown with Keith all Reman is a production of I
heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
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