EPISODE 237: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: There arises today the distinct chance that the two Non-Trump-Employees heard on the Trump Confession Recording supplied their copy of the recording to Jack Smith, and that they will testify against him. It may be coincidence but we know this much for sure: days after they were at Bedminster in July, 2021, after a lot of publicity in newspapers and with Tucker Carlson for their new venture, the co-publishers of Mark Meadows' book all but disappeared from public view.
The recording does not exist in a vacuum. Why is everybody looking at it that way It's a tape of FIVE PEOPLE TALKING IN A ROOM. Any of whom can be called to testify ABOUT THE TAPE. And we don’t really know, because nobody’s really focused them, who the OTHER four people are. And we don’t know what THEY think of the tape. And we don’t know whether any of them are already on that list of possible witnesses Smith may call in the documents trial. The New York Post had a throwaway reference last night: “Two of the people Trump speaks to in the audio are believed to be Kate Hartson and Louise Burke, who had started All Seasons Press, a conservative publishing company…”
You do not have to have a hyperactive imagination to wonder: if the Post is right and it was both of them that as Ms. Burke and Ms. Hartson left Bedminster that day two years ago next month one of them realized that they had just been shown top secrets and had it within their power to get Trump indicted for not keeping top secrets SECRET and it put the fear of God into them. Hell, Kid Rock says Trump did it with HIM and even HE was smart enough to get frightened.
Did they go to the FBI?
Meanwhile Trump really DID change HIS story three times yesterday. When he got burned by Bret Baier on Fox last week, Trump insisted about the document referred to in the transcript of the recording, quote “there was no document.” Yesterday he posted only that he was covered by the Presidential Records Act. Then in New Hampshire he insisted he had kind of told Baier there WAS a document. Then to reporters on his plane he said no, he never had a document, just building plans. And golf course plans. And a newspaper story about Iran. And he was showing off.
All in one day.
Plus Walt Nauta didn't testify because his lawyer decided he needed lots more money to take THIS case. But Rudy Giuliani reportedly pre-testified in an interview with the Special Counsel's staff.
B-Block (24:32) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: SCOTUS votes 6-3 in favor of keeping democracy after all (though it's really more like 5-4). The Senator whose state's top industry is tourism tells tourists not to go there. A Bob and Ray sketch comes to life. They once imagined Chocolate-Flavored Ketchup. The National Culinary institute is introducing COLA-Flavored Ketchup - for use on HOT DOGS. (35:01) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Elon Musk deliberately or inattentively starts punishing accounts which block RW ads on Twitter. Last week The National Hockey League betrayed Pride Night. THIS week it puts its player draft in the city whose incoming owner is a noted anti-same-sex marriage and adoption ex-Governor. And yes RFK Jr shared an online stage with an anti-vaxxer who says the Covid vaccine causes you to become magnetic. But I'm the winner because I accidentally called RFK Jr "JFK Jr" and that is utterly unfair...to JFK Jr.
C-Block (36:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Fox just changed its lineup to put its 10 PM host on at 7 because its audience is now too old to stay up to 10. This flashed me back to the day, nearly 15 years ago, when I first realized that the future of cable news was... there wasn't any. The day they let a guy who knew nothing about cable news and cared even less bully the people who ran MSNBC. His name was Tom Brokaw.
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. Has
Trump been flipped on by Louise Burke and Kate Hartson
(00:30):
as he changed his story about the Mark Milly Iran
tape three different times yesterday? Oh no, those weren't the
most carefully guarded military secrets. We have plans for war
against Iran. They were building plans, plans of buildings and
golf courses with buildings on them. Yeah, that's the ticket.
As that was unfolding in Trump's usual cornered, lying eight
(00:52):
year old's way, something more intriguing and probably more important
was spotted moving in the shadows of this ever increasingly
bizarre story. Raiso, Yes, this increasingly bizarre story. Not one,
not one of the analyzes of the impact of the
(01:14):
two minutes of his exquisitely detailed narration in real time
of every detail of his violations of the Espionage Act
except announcing I am now gathering, transmitting or losing defense information.
That's eighteen US Code seventy nine to three. If you're
scoring at home, or even if you're alone. Not one
analysis of the impact of the recording, Not one puts
(01:38):
the recording in its proper and its simplest perspective, the
recording does not exist in a vacuum. The trial will
not consist of Jack Smith simply introducing himself to the jury,
pressing play, nodding along for two minutes, and then saying,
and with that, ladies and gentlemen, the prosecution rests. Yet
(02:01):
that is exactly how the recording has been a so far,
it convicts Trump. No, it's exonerating of Trump. No, it's
viscerally damning in a way no testimony could be. It's infuriating,
it's sociopathic, it's treason is it's it's a tape of
five people talking in a room. It's a tape of
(02:25):
five people, any of whom can be called to testify
about it. And we don't really know, because nobody's really
focused on them, who the other four people are. And
we don't know what they think of the recording, And
(02:46):
we don't know what they thought of the meeting, and
they don't know what they saw Trump holding in his
hand besides his excuse, And we don't know whether any
of them are already on that list of dozens of
possible witnesses Jack Smith may call in the document's trial
and more importantly, Still, as those figures move about in
(03:09):
the shadows of this story and we think we know
who they all are, two of them are in effect missing,
and they may have flipped on Trump. Missing is probably
too strong a term, but certainly missing in a public sense.
(03:30):
Who are they and where are they? And why aren't
they the next part of this story? And why have
we heard nothing from them or about them? Okay, we've
known from the beginning that two Trump staffers were present,
and that a second recording of this conversation with the
Mark Meadows ghostwriters was made by one of the Trump staffers,
(03:51):
Margot Martin, the young Trump press aide whom Fox News
mistook at the arrangement for Milania. But after the recording
went public Monday night, it was widely reported that the
gushingly sycophantic, giggling woman with what was described by one
wag as that fake brin mahr accent, who is heard
on it throughout it is Trump's hapless press spokesperson, Liz Harrington.
(04:17):
Three down, two to go, miss kill Gallen. The first
leaks about this recording, long before the rest of us
got to hear it, were that it was made by
two researchers working on the autobiography of the Trump chief
of staff, the one voted most likely to be indicted,
Mark Meadows. Then the autobiography became a quote autobiography unquote,
(04:39):
and the two researchers became a ghostwriter and an editor
or someone similar. And then last night the pair became
a writer or editor and one of the two women
who essentially created their own publishing firm in order to
put out the Mark Meadows book. Their names are Louise
(04:59):
Burke and Kate Hartson. I mentioned them at the beginning
because because maybe they have flipped against Trump, and Hartson
in particular was famous for a little while in twenty
twenty one because literally days after January sixth, she was
fired and her conservative imprint at Hatchet Books was discontinued,
(05:21):
and so out the door went this woman Hartson, the
editor who bought and published a Trump Junior book and
a Judge Janine book and a Vivak Ramaswami book. And
six months later, either she or her partner Burke or
both is at Trump's golf course at Bedminster, giggling along
with Margot Martin and probably Liz Harrington. And there by
(05:44):
the way getting plans for bombing Tehran and or building
a new Caddyshack near the clubhouse. Yeah, yeah, classified caddy
Shack that he could have declassified when he was president,
Like he says on the tape, they get that bombing
plan and or Caddy Shack waved in their faces before
the real fun begins Rasom coats. But last night, buried
(06:10):
in the tenth paragraph of a sleepy little story in
the New York Post came a throwaway reference quote. Two
of the people Trump speaks to in the audio are
believed to be Kate Hartson and Louise Burke, who had
started All Seasons Press, a conservative publishing company. Unquote. First
(06:32):
of all, that's All Seasons Press, not four Seasons. Four
Seasons was the landscaping company Trump and Giuliani thought, was
this swanky Philadelphia hotel. More importantly, what is extremely extraordinary
about this passing reference to the mystery of those who
may be the two most important witnesses Jack Smith will
(06:53):
call in this case is that this appears to be
the first time in nearly two years that either Miss
Hartson or Miss Burke have been mentioned anywhere in the media. Yea,
there is a story about the founding of their conservative
publishing company in the New York Times on June sixteenth,
twenty twenty one. They are on with Tucker Carlson. The
(07:14):
next day you remember him. That is turned into a
Fox website story the day after that, and then there's
a passing reference to them and a feature on another
publisher literally their names and nothing else in Slate a
few weeks later. My point is, right after a flurry
of publicity for their publishing house being founded and the
start of the process of publishing the Mark Meadows book,
(07:37):
one or both of these Conservative martyrs goes or go
to Bedminster about a month later in July twenty twenty
one to interview Trump for the Meadows book, and they
get shown top secret war plans authored by the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Or it was a
new golf cart path design for Trump derral that quote
(07:59):
was done by the military and given to me and
wins my case for me. And this happens, and they
see whatever this is, and then they disappear again, disappear
from public view. I have no reason to believe they're
actually missing missing, But you do not have to be
a hyperactive imagination kind of guy to wonder if the
(08:22):
post is right, And it was both of them that.
As MS Burke and MS Hartson left Bedminster that day
two years ago, next month, one of them realized that
they had just been shown top secrets and they had
it within their power to get Trump indicted for not
keeping top secrets secret, and it put the fear of
God into them right at that moment. Hell Kid Rock says,
(08:45):
Trump did it with him and even he was smart
enough to get frightened. What would you do, no matter
how crazy the Trump cultist you might be, if he
puts you in that spot, or if your first thought
isn't I know stuff I shouldn't know what? Is it? Again?
That happens to people who know stuff they shouldn't know what.
(09:06):
On the other hand, if you're just an actually loyal,
hyper patriotic American and you're wondering, why is Trump showing
this stuff to anybody? Why is he showing it to
me in his golf club where anybody can get in
because all you need is cash. Did Louise Burke and
(09:28):
Kate Hartson talk to a lawyer? Did they wait and
talk to a lawyer later? Did they lay low until
a year ago, and the first stories began to break
about Trump holding on to classified documents. And then did
they go to the FBI, to the DOJ or via
an exact opposite route. Did they downplay the secret nature
(09:50):
of what they'd seen so they could put it in
Mark Meadow's autobiography that Mark Meadows didn't right And they
fan girled this whole experience, and they told all their pals,
and one day somebody from the FBI called them and says,
U kind of need to interview you. You may be
in possession of top secret classified information that you're not
(10:11):
supposed to know, and here's a subpoena just in case. Now, look,
I am wildly out on several different limbs on several
different trees, all at the same time here, so I
could be wildly wrong, but I'm going to revise something
(10:31):
I suggested here that the recording of this meeting, the
recording not allegedly done by Trump's Milania double Margot Martin,
that this recording does not belong to Mark Meadows. Instead,
it belongs to All Seasons Press, and to Louise Burke
and to Kate Hartson. And while Meadows would have a
reason to leak it if he really has flipped on
(10:51):
Trump and decided to completely destroy Trump. I can't see
what benefit Burke and Hartson and all seasons would gain
from anonymously leaking it unless those they leaked it too,
like CNN and the New York Times and the Washington
Post and NBC and CBS and the Genesee Valley Penny
Saver now all owe them huge favors. So I suppose
(11:17):
that means we need to put back on the table
the chance that somebody in the DOJ leaked that recording,
or a Trump lawyer did, or somebody on the periphery somewhere,
or The important point here is there are not just
four other people on that tape as Trump crimes and
does play by play of his crimes. There are four witnesses.
(11:43):
And while Margot Martin was on the campaign trail with
Trump last night and Liz Harrington was back somewhere retweeting her,
and I'm finding it hard to believe either of them
we'll be smart enough to jump ship in time. You
have to wonder if the let me now call it
retirement from public view of publishers. Burke and Hartson follows
a timeline in which they are protecting themselves. And the
(12:07):
copy of Jack Smith has of that Trump conversation about
where to put his highly confidential ball watcher is the
one Burke and Hartson recorded, and they are already witnesses,
and mister Trump, perhaps this will refresh your memory. By
(12:30):
the way, in this perfect little two minute radio play,
the self Defenestration of Dementia J. Trump, written by Dementia J. Trump,
audio by Dementia J. Trump, the characters are him and
the four women. That's Martin and Harrington the gullible employees,
(12:51):
and Burke and Hartson the witnesses. But there is also
a sixth character who has no lines and is heard
only off stage. And as you will now realize, there's
actually been a re I have kept playing this clip
because it is the sixth character to whom Trump says
(13:12):
rasom coats. And the speculation now is the guy he
tells to bring in the cokes is Walt Nauta, his
co defendant, who was not, as it turned out, arraigned
in Florida yesterday because heavy thunderstorms put a ground stop
on all the flights out of Newark Airport in New Jersey.
(13:32):
And also, oh, by the way, the Guardian reports there's
also the little matter of the Florida lawyer Nauda had
tentatively retained, suddenly demanding way more money at the last minute,
because hell, would you take any part of this case.
The Guardian's Hugo Lowell adds this twist Nauda would not
pay the extra green for the mouthpiece quote, even though
(13:52):
he would be paid by Trump's political action committee Save America,
which has also been paying the fees of Nauta's lead lawyer,
Stanley Woodward. There is also reason to believe that anything
Trump can do to slow this all down, he will do,
and having a reason to delay now his arraignment until
the end of next week because I'm not going to
pay a lot for this lawyer. It ain't much, but
(14:15):
it's a week and I'll get back to the tees
from earlier about Trump changing his version of the recording
story three times in a moment. But also pertinent on
the witness front, CNN dropped a big headline with no
details behind it last night quote Rudy Giuliani interviewed in
Special Council's twenty twenty election interference probe Ooooooo. That's though,
(14:38):
pretty much the whole story CNN has nothing else, not when,
no specifics, not even a topic heading. It was with
Juliani and his attorney, Robert Costello. And the word used
is interviewed, so that would make you assume it was
not in front of the grand jury. And the rest
of the piece is the story so far. Also, Kevin
(15:00):
McCarthy briefly yesterday seemed lukewarm to Trump's candidacy for next year.
Can he win that election? McCarthy asked CNBC rhetorically, Yeah,
he can win that election. The question is is he
the strongest to win the election? I don't know that answer.
Oh well, McCarthy quickly found out a different answer one
Trump phone call later, and Kevin McCarthy issued a statement
(15:23):
that Trump was quote the strongest political opponent for Joe
Biden next year because Kevin McCarthy is a whore and
Donald Trump is a pimp. Got it? Okay? Back to
Trump and the recordings, and we'll let the key question,
did Louise Burke and Kate Hartson, who you did not
know existed ten minutes ago, flip on Trump. We'll let
(15:45):
that just hang there for the more repertorily connected among you,
dear listener, Trump really did change his story about this
three times just yesterday. We'll start at the baseline. When
he got burned by Brett Baar on Fox last week,
Trump insisted about the document referred to in the transcript
(16:06):
of the recording, quote, there was no document unquote. After
the tape emerged Monday night, Trump responded angrily on social
media with comparatively low key, stochastic terroristic threats against the
Special Council. But about the evidence itself, he wrote, only
I come under the Presidential Records Act, which is not
the same thing as saying there is no document, So
(16:28):
that was changed number one. Then interviewed by Fox at
Conquered in Hampshire yesterday, Trump was asked how the fact
of the recording squares with his absolute statement to bear
there was no document, and he tossed out a word salad. Quote.
I said it very clearly. I had a whole desk
full of lots of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines,
(16:50):
copies of different plans, copies of stories having to do
with many, many subjects. And what was said was absolutely
fine unquote. So there was a document, While simultaneously they're
all h was not a document. It's both changed number
two and the original version of a Donovan song. Then,
(17:16):
on board his plane to Semaphore News and ABC News,
Trump changed his story a third time in one day.
What we heard was quote, bravado. If you want to
know the truth, it was bravado, Trump, bravado, no way
quoting again. I was talking and just holding up papers
and talking about them. But I had no documents. I
(17:37):
didn't have any documents. One of the reporters then quoted
change number two earlier in the day when Trump said
what he had was copies of magazines, copies of different plans.
So now Trump says, did I use the word plans.
What I'm referring to is magazines, newspapers, plans of buildings.
(17:58):
I had plans of buildings, you know, building plans. I
had plans of a golf course. Don't mention the grave
near the first T. Don't mention the grave near the
first T. Don't mention the grave near the first tea.
Semaphore reports. Trump added quote, I just held up a
whole pile of my desk is loaded up with papers.
(18:19):
I have papers from twenty five different things unquote, such
as he suggested articles about Iran and then quoting semaphore again.
At one point, Trump gestured to the seat next to
him on the plane, where a stack of various papers, newspapers,
copies of his speech, printouts of articles sat. He grabbed
(18:39):
some from the pile and placed them in front of him,
moving them around as he spoke, and offering up a
physical reenactment of what he said was occurring on the
audio tape unquote. Then he was asked if he had
any regrets. He did not, go Sinatra on you, No,
I have no regrets. I didn't have a classified document.
(19:01):
There was no classified document on my desk unquote. Just
a bunch of highly secret golf course building plans that
the military had done for him, and they're off the record,
and he could have classified them when he was president.
And their plans of buildings. I had plans of buildings.
(19:25):
You know, what do they call building plans? What do
they call building plans? Quick? Trump? Quick? What do they
call them? You know? Building plans? And then somebody tapped
into the zeitgeist. And here's a lesson from an old
man who saw Watergate unfolding real time. Never ignore the
zeitgeist during political conspiracies and political controversies, and one of
(19:52):
the reporters asked Trump if the audio tape would affect
whether he would consider a plea deal. The audio tape
has caused the reporters to have the gonads sufficiently required
to ask Trump to his face about taking a plea deal.
That is the new zeitgeist. Well, Trump went into a
(20:15):
diatribe against Biden, and then the fear receded and the
bravado came back. Frankly, that you even ask a question
like that's a disgrace. So let's end it. Unquote, and
no cokes were brought in. Thank you, Nancy Faust. Also
(20:52):
of interest here, Robert F. Kennedy Junior holds an event
with a vax conspiracy theorist who believes and says that
people who get vaccinated get magnetized. RFK Junior is also
mentioned as a potential running mate for Trump. And yes
yesterday I called RFK Junior JFK Junior because I'm Q
(21:18):
and I have this secret message for all of you
QP dolls. Quote. That's next. This is countdown. This is
countdown with Keith Olberman. Postscripts to the news some headlines,
(21:43):
some updates, some snarks, some predictions. Dateline the Supreme Court. Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh,
Barrett Jackson vote for the continuation of democracy, Alito, Gorsich,
Thomas vote against. Presumably the Travel agency's calls got through
in time. This was the vote yesterday on More v. Harper,
(22:04):
and by sixty three down goes independent state legislature theory.
The election's clause does not vest exclusive and independent authority
in state legislatures to set the rules regarding federal elections rights.
Chief Justice Roberts a pleasant enough surprise, except Kavanaugh wrote
a separate opinion, basically saying he thinks maybe it does,
(22:27):
just that this case didn't prove it. So it's really
like democracy only has a five to four lead on
the Court dayline. Tallahassee, Florida Senator Rick Scott birth name,
of course, was Rick Scott Voldemort, announcing what he called
a travel warning yesterday that quote, I'm warning socialists and
communists not to travel to Florida. They are not welcome
(22:50):
in the Sunshine State. He added, people who believe in
big government shouldn't come there either. Specifically, he said to
all these groups, do not take vacations in Florida or
move to Florida. Florida's leading industry is tourism. So all
those of you in socialist countries, remember, do not go
to Florida for any reason. The Senator has just threatened
(23:14):
your safety when the state of Florida gets an estimated
sixty two billion dollars a year more from the semi
socialist government of the United States of America than it
sends to the semi socialist government of the United States
of America. So let's stop that right quick dayline purchase
New York and the world headquarters of PEPSI. I have
(23:35):
had for many decades a theory that if I were
to live long enough, I would see every sketch ever
performed about American society by my heroes and later my friends,
Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, and my heroes and later
my friends the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, I
would see all of their sketches actually happen. One of
(23:59):
the best Bob and Ray sketches had Bob as the
public service hosts on their imaginary radio station, interviewing the
chairman of the National Ketchup Association about how to correctly
pour ketchup, and after a demonstration that goes wonderfully awry,
and the admission that having to hit the bottle of
the bottom of Ketchup was in fact a marketing device
(24:21):
by the Ketchup manufacturers. Ray taels Bob by coincidence, its
National Ketchup Week, and his group is expecting an enormous
growth in the amount of Ketchup consumed in the United
States because he has hit on the brilliant idea to
expand the breadth of the Ketchup footprint by introducing new
(24:43):
flavors of Ketchup. New Ketchup flavors, asks a very dubious
Bob Ray replies, in the perfect expression of bureaucratic condescension. Well,
not Ketchup as you civilians know it now, but I've
discovered that the entire field of dessert toppings has remained
utterly untapped by our industry. So we will be using
(25:04):
National Ketchup Week this year to introduce our new chocolate
flavored Ketchup for use on ice cream. There is another pause,
and then Bob says, so you're holding National Ketchup Week
to promote the sale of chocolate sauce. There's one more pause,
(25:25):
and Ray says, well, gee, When you put it that way,
it does sound completely idiotic, doesn't it. What's worse, it's
all my idea. I better get back to the office
and stop this thing, but fast. Then you hear a
man running away and a door slam, and then the
theme to the program. The Culinary Institute of America's business
(25:46):
consulting unit has announced that it is teaming up with
Pepsi to introduce a new sweet and tangy ketchup, Pepsi
Cola Chop. I'll say that one more time, Pepsi Cola Chop,
which is designed to be used on hot dogs on
(26:09):
the fourth of July, so you'll put more ketchup on
hot dogs. The new cola flavored ketchup will be available
at several baseball stadiums were free on July fourth itself.
I wish Bob Elliot Ray Goulding were still alive to
hear this, so Bob could say to Pepsi and the
Colinary Institute of America, so you've invented a new flavor
(26:32):
of ketchup in order to promote the sale of cola
flavored mustard. Still ahead, you saw that the Fox story
(26:55):
was finally confirmed that they pulled Laura Ingram out of primetime,
and they put her on at seven, and they put
that imbecile Jesse Waters on at eight. They kept Hannity
at nine. They put the with the compulsive head tilt,
Greg Gut, Greg Gut I think is his name, at
ten o'clock. This was described as a bid to win
the next generation of Fox News viewers. I have bad news.
(27:18):
There isn't one. The species is too old to reproduce,
and it may very well be the same at CNN
and MSNBC. The thing is, it didn't have to happen
so soon, but they all let their cable operations get
run by and bullied by people who did not understand
the concept of cable news. And that flashed me back
(27:40):
to the first day I really realized that was the case,
and I saw all this coming, which will be fifteen
years ago this September. It was the day at MSNBC
when Tom Brokaw screwed everything up. Ahead. First to day
we round up with the miss Grants, morons and Dunning
Kruger effect specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in
(28:02):
the world. The Bronze National Hockey League. Last week, Commissioner
Gary Bettman sold out every LGBTQ fan, player and other
participant in the game, and everybody else depended on an
NHL team to raise consciousness about their own issue, whatever
it is, by declaring that while the league would still
hold Pride Nights, it would no longer let players wear
(28:24):
Pride warm up uniforms for ten lousy minutes before each game,
or any other special pregame uniforms. And we'll see about
that come Military Appreciation Day, Military Appreciation Week, Military Appreciation Month,
and of course Military Appreciation Quarter. Tonight, the NHL opens
its annual amateur player draft in Nashville, Tennessee, where your
(28:46):
hosts the Nashville Predators, the majority ownership of which gradually
is being taken over by former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam,
the homophobe who not only opposes same sex marriage, but
who signed a bill designed to make it more difficult
for same sex couples to adopt children. The NHL the
National Hip Hopocracy League, one of whose mottos is Hockey
(29:07):
is for everyone, Yes, everyone except days, lesbians, allies, everybody.
The runner up, Elon Musk it is unclear what he's
doing at Twitter evergreen tweet, but either there is a
new bug that is restricting by accident just the accounts
of people who have blocked too many of the new
(29:27):
right wing issue ads that have begun to take over
individual feeds on that site, or there is a feature
that does that. Either way, the feed of the Tennessee
Holler says, quote, it seems mister free speech Musk is
restricting the accounts of people who block the spam ads
he's using to keep Twitter afloat as he turns it
into a haven for right wing extremism and porn bots.
(29:49):
Lovely unquote no reply from Musk. Musk was busy sending
out tweets defending Jordan Peterson and training for the heavyweight
Ozembic Championship fight against Zuckerberg. But our winner today is
me Yes. By all accounts, Robert F. Kennedy Junior's online
health policy roundtable did go off as scheduled last night.
(30:12):
I'm phrasing it that way because I couldn't find anybody
who would admit they attended. The real star of the
rfk our Junior Virtual conspiracy was supposed to be doctor
Sherry Tenpenny, the osteopath whose license is being challenged after
she testified to the Ohio House that if you got
the COVID vaccine, you would become magnetized and metal would
(30:34):
cling to you. That's who RFK Junior is hanging out with,
or sticking to, as the case might be. Also, there's
the Nicke at Night retirement home of TV news News Nation,
which is still planning a live town hall with RFK
Junior tonight. The host is Elizabeth Bargas, who bombed out
of ABC. She says this is everybody's chance to really
(30:55):
sort of get unedited and live hear him speak and
listen to how he thinks. This town hall is not
a town hall about vaccines because we haven't gotten one
chance to hear Robert F. Kennedy Junior speak, even as
he's been on every right wing outlet for the last
three months during his trojan horse Democratic candidacy, even though
(31:16):
he's not a member of the Democratic Party, he's a
member of the Looney Party. But the award still goes
to me because in this podcast yesterday I referred to
RFK Jr. As JFK Junior. And that's really unfortunate because
a it's a mistake can be because JFK Junior has
been dead, just shy of twenty four years now, and
the only part of RFK Junior that's dead is his sanity.
(31:40):
Me Today's worst me in the world. Finally, our number
(32:03):
one story on the Countdown and my favorite topic me.
I missed the exact anniversary by day, but it's close enough.
The demand for spots in the Shaye Stadium press box
that night was so great that there was a signed seating.
I had no real reason to be there, but as usual,
the New York Mets took care of me, and so
on Friday, the fifth of September two thousand and eight,
(32:24):
I was shouldered to shoulder with reporter friends watching the
Mets begin to blow their three game Pennant Race lead
against the Philadelphia Phillies. Sorry Mets fans for bringing this
up again. Brett Myers had just struck out New York's
David Wright looking when my phone rang. It was my agent,
Gene Sage. They just called. She said, flatly, you and
(32:44):
Matthews have been fired from anchoring the presidential debates because
of what you said. What I had said had been
said three nights previously. Chris Matthews and I were co
anchoring the Republican Convention on MSNBC. He was there in Minneapolis.
I was in the studios in New York, ostensibly so
I could also anchor hurricane coverage, although it was pretty
(33:06):
clear that at least half the reason I was not
in Minneapolis was because the Republicans had threatened NBC or
said they couldn't guarantee my safety or something like that,
and NBC folded. So I was the one during MSNBC's
coverage of the two thousand and eight Republican Convention who
had to throw it to a video they were introducing
that we had been told by the Republicans was a
(33:29):
quote tribute to the dead of nine to eleven. It was,
in fact a snuff film. All of the images that
all of the networks had stopped showing within weeks or
even days of the attacks, all of those images were
in this video. People jumping and falling to their deaths
from the World Trade Center on nine to eleven, endless
(33:50):
replays of the planes hitting the towers, dismembered bodies in
the plaza, the building collapses, the equally terrifying scenes at
the Pentagon, and all with a grotesque Robert Dove voiceover
emphasizing that this was all the Democrats fault. The message
was simple, elect Obama and you will die like this.
(34:13):
I was angry just on that base level. For the
five and a half years I had been back at MSNBC,
we had been rigorous about not showing any of that video.
There were rules that if we had to for some reason,
we should show only the skill images, and even then
only with extensive warnings to the viewers. But I knew
from my conversations with the president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin,
(34:35):
who I'd only known for twenty eight years at that point,
that he would insist that on the scene in Minneapolis,
Matthews and Tom Brokaw, whose career at NBC I had
resurrected after Brian Williams had buried him alive two years earlier,
that one or both of them would rebuke the GOP
for showing not a nine to eleven tribute, but, as
I just said, a nine to eleven snuff film. The
(34:57):
video ended, and we came out to Brokaw with Matthews
and Brokaw kind of coughed, and Matthews said wow. And
he turned to Brokaw and said, in that loose fire
hose delivery of his tom That kind of hunderscorns terrorism,
big thing Republicans says, they tristop Obama. Brocawd droned on
approvingly the Republicans sneaking a snuff film, a banned video,
(35:23):
onto MSNBC and by the way, also onto CNN, onto NBC,
onto CBS, onto ABC without any warning. That was not
mentioned by brokaw or Matthews. Back to New York and Keith,
I was supposed to ad liberates about what we were
expecting from the Republican convention for the rest of the
night and then throw to a commercial instead, I said,
(35:44):
and this is a paraphrase, the original tape disappeared that
night that before we moved on, I felt I needed
to apologize that we at MSNBC and for that matter,
NBC News, had extremely strict rules about not showing that video.
The Republicans had just shown you without any warning, without
any context, and we certainly would not have shown the
(36:04):
horror and death and blamed it on the Democrats, or
for that matter, blamed it on the Republicans. I said,
if we had done such a thing ourselves, there would
have been people fired at NBC News the public program
the GOP provided said that was going to be a
nine to eleven tribute film. I said, and so did
the private conversations with the network, which included the reminder
from NBC and MSNBC that we had rules against showing
(36:27):
the scenes of the horrible death and mutilation and destruction.
So I apologized on behalf of whoever trusted the Republicans
to live up to their word that MSNBC viewers were
forced to see the video our network had long before
vowed never to show again. So three nights later, without
as much as an email, this Griffin guy had called
(36:49):
my agent and told her I was fired Matthews two
from our further coverage of the upcoming McGain Obama debates.
She related these details to me as I walked down
the many ramps in the back of Shay Stadium towards
the subway. I told her to call Griffin back and
tell him I had quit on the spot right then
and he could work his way out of the ensuing disaster.
(37:12):
Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal host Elberman for criticizing Conservatives
for sneaking nine to eleven snuff film onto MSNBC. He
could figure that out. Any way he wanted, and he
could hear my response on I don't know, Good Morning America, CBS,
This Morning, the PBS News Hour, and any other news
program that bothered to ask me to stop by and talk.
(37:33):
I phoned my live in girlfriend, Katie Turr and told
her I was on my way home, and I made
a few phone calls to friendly voices within the NBC
management structure and got from them a clear picture of
what had happened. And despite the spotty cell service along
the elevated line heading back to Manhattan, I got a
message from a newspaper reporter friend who neatly tied together
all that I was hearing elsewhere. Tom Brokaw is going
(37:56):
around NBC saying he got you fired from the debates
because the Republicans told him to. Nine maybe ten months earlier,
Phil Griffin had come to me and asked me if
I would be okay with this guy who had been
kind of disappeared by the network. Tom Brokaw was his
name appearing during our weekly coverage of the Democratic and
(38:19):
Republican primaries. Just a couple of minutes, like from a
perspective desk, that's all he wants to do. He's really
Tom's really unhappy. Brian has frozen him out of everything.
Brian Williams. Of course, I was appalled, but not surprised.
The power had gone to Brian's head, and of course
there it had not met much resistance. Plus, as I
(38:41):
said to Griffin, you're asking me if i'd like to
add Tom Brokaw's experience and Tom Brocaw's gravitas to stuff
I'm anchoring when I'm not sure I know as much
as I really need to know to do this right.
You're asking me this. Tom fit in beautifully, and twice
after those long Tuesday evenings in the primary season, he
sent me brief emails awarding me what he called legame ball,
(39:05):
because he was so impressed by my ability to balance
the roles of political anchor and political commentator, having tried
this myself. One of them read, I know what a
perilous tight rupeless is game ball, Toko. I'm mocking him now,
but these meant so much to me. I printed the
emails out and carried them in my wallet. And now
(39:27):
he was claiming he had gotten me fired because, as
my newspaper friend said, the Republicans told him to that
was not hard to unpack either. Tim Russard had died
on June third of that year. I anchored that night
until two in the morning. It was still an open wound,
there were still tears. We didn't know it then, but
the structure of NBC News and the perilous tightroup balancing
(39:51):
NBC and MSNBC had died with Tim Russard. So did
the role of moderator of the second debate between John
McCain and Barack Obama, scheduled for about a month after
my subway ride on October seventh in Nashville. Tim had
not even been buried yet when Brokaw began to angle
to get that assignment, along with brushing away the dirt
of his Penny Ante role on the MSNBC Perspective desk,
(40:14):
we never saw him again in order that he could
take Tim's spot as Brian Williams sidekick on Big NBC.
The month before August, there was a story coming out
of the east end of the third floor at thirty Rock,
where NBC News management sat around not doing much of anything,
that a Republican goon named Ed Gillespie had been in
there with Griffin and the NBC News president Steve Cappus
(40:38):
trying to get me silenced or fired or off the
convention coverage or something, and that somebody prominent within NBC
News was in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie.
The rumor mill wasn't certain. As I switched from the
elevated seven train to the underground f train, the whole
thing came together before my comments about the GOP Convention
(41:00):
nine to eleven snuff film ed Gillespie had come in
and had somehow big threatened Cappus and Griffin about me
using as leverage the debate which Tom Brokaw was now
supposed to moderate, and when I apologized for their video
on our air, Gillespie must have turned it into an
either or get rid of me or McCain would refuse
(41:23):
to participate in any debate moderated by Brokaw or anybody
from NBC News, and Brokaw had already come back from
the dead once in two thousand and eight, and he
would be damned if he would be forced to do
it a second time. But as the train took me
home to an apartment I was now going to have
to sell since I had just quit MSNBC on the
(41:44):
spot for folding to such obvious Republican blackmail. Something else
now occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or NBC or
our parent corporation at the time, GE actually think that
they could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC
where the Rachel Meadow Show had yet to be born,
(42:04):
and the three times a night my show ran accounted
for something like sixty percent of the entire day's network audience,
and do that without getting a really bad reaction from
our audience. Plus, if a newspaper man already knew the
Brokaw part, how could this story be avoided? MSNBC announced
(42:25):
it had removed its liberal star Keith Alderman from coverage
of the McCain Obama presidential debates. Sources confirmed former NBC
News anchorman Tom Brokaw, now an MSNBC commentator on Olberman's coverage,
had helped the Republican Party to blackmail NBC into the decision.
Olderman immediately resigned, saying, quote in succumbing to this coercion
(42:45):
on behalf of John McCain, NBC has now forfeited any
right to further be called a news organization, And I'm
sad to say MSNBC, which I built, is now dead.
My god, MSNBC an NBC News for that matter, would
have committed corporate suicide before the weekend was over. At
that point had dawned on me that the only thing
(43:06):
that could save the credibility of the whole news division
and the careers of Griffin and Cappus and NBC Network
President Jeff Zucker, and especially the career of Tom Brokaw
was for me to publicly state that I had asked
to be removed from anchoring the debates because the whatever
was just too much blah blah blah for me, and
(43:28):
I felt I should stick to the post debate analysis
and commentary. NBC would now have a choice. They could
fire me from the debates and destroy everything, including the
one hundred million dollars a year or so in profit
that NBC made off MSNBC, or I could you know
why and claim it was my idea and save everybody's ass,
(43:51):
including my own. I got out of the subway and
raced home. Katie met me at the door with a
big hug. She had been crying. Relax, I said, I'm
not quitting. In fact, I'm going to get a huge raise,
now listen carefully. I called my agent and I explained
the idea that had lit over my head on the
subway like a light bulb to both of them. I said,
(44:12):
you call Phil Griffin back and explain to him that
I will personally save his job and Steve Campus's and
Jeff Zoker's and Tom Brokaw's and everybody else's. I'll take
the fall instead of letting them all get fired by
the MSNBC audience. I'll say this was my idea, and
all it will cost Phil is twelve million dollars, and
(44:35):
he has to leak the term so everybody knows it
cost him twelve million dollars. And she paused for a
second and said it's genius. It might not quite be
twelve million, but I bet, I bet they'll pay you
at least nine. On Sunday, several news organizations reported I
had asked to be taken off the anchor desk two
months and one week later, The New York Times wrote, quote,
(44:59):
Keith Olderman, the anchor of Countdown on MSNBC, has extended
his contract through the next president election season. The network
announced mister Alberman and MSNBC essentially tore up the four year,
four million dollar year contract they signed last year and
replaced it with one worth about seven and a half
million a year. Oh, that was a three and a
(45:21):
half million dollar raise for four years. We're a total
of fourteen million dollars, except the new contract added two
years to my old deal, so the raise was actually
twenty two million dollars. All stories have a punchline. This
punchline is about Tom Brokaw. We would have gotten away
(45:43):
with this cleanly. NBC would have gotten its money's worth
for the twenty two million in hush money, which is
what it was that it had to pay me because
I had agreed with them rolling over for the Republican
Party blackmail. Except Brokaw could not keep his mouth shut,
so proud was he of preserving his role as the
moderator of the October seventh NBC debate that he had
(46:05):
to explain in explicit detail in public how he went
to his bosses at NBC News and threatened them on
behalf of the GOP. On September twenty ninth, two thousand
and eight, a lengthy and glowing Brocaw profile appeared in
The New York Times. Quote mister Brocaw said that over
the summer he had quote advocated within the executive suite
(46:29):
of NBC News to modify the anchor duties of the
MSNBC hosts Keith Alderman and Chris Matthews on election night
and on nights when there were presidential debates. Mister brocass
said he had also conducted some shuttle diplomacy in recent
weeks between NBC and the McCain campaign. His mission, he said,
was to assure the candidate's aids that despite some negative
(46:50):
on air commentary by mister Olberman in particular, mister McCain
could still get a fair shake from NBC News. Unquote, Oh,
that was his mission. The hell it was. Lee Brokaw
just could not resist boasting even further. The next sentence
actually reads quote Mister Brocaw said he had been told
(47:14):
by a senior McCain aide whom he did not name,
that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC
representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential
debates until his name was invoked. Quote. One of the
things I was told by this person was that they
were so irritated. They said, if it's an NBC moderator
(47:38):
for any of these debates. We won't go, mister Brocaw said,
quoting him again. My name came up and they said, oh, hell,
we have to do it because it's going to be Brokaw.
There is a second punchline. After all this, when the
new format came out and I was sitting there counting
(47:59):
my money, MSNBC had David Gregory quote anchor unquote the
debate coverage. David was terrific during this. Practically all this meant, anyway,
was that I was on the air until literally ninety
seconds before each debate began, which is when I said,
now here's David Gregory. And he was then on for
four or five minutes after the debate ended, which is
(48:19):
when he said, now here's Keith Olberman. And on Election
Night itself with David again formally anchoring per the Republican
blackmail at ten fifty nine PM, to his great credit
and to my eternal gratitude, David Gregory said, with the
last voting booth closing at eleven PM, NBC News can
now project the winner of the two thousand and eight
(48:40):
presidential election, Keith bless him. Plus I still have all
the money. I've done all the damage I can do here.
(49:01):
Thank you for listening. Here are the credits. Most of
the music was range, produced and performed by Brian Ray
and John Phillip Shaneale, who are the countdown musical directors. Guitars,
bass and drums by Brian ray All, orchestration and keyboards
by John Phillip Shaneale, produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven
selections have been arranged and performed by the group No
Horns Allowed. Sports music is the Ulriman theme from ESPN
(49:24):
two and it was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy
of ESPN Inc. Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best
baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my friend
Stevie van Zant. Everything else was pretty much my fault.
So that's countdown for this the nine hundred and fourth
day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States. Arrest him again while
(49:47):
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Till then,
I'm Keith Olerman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good
luck Raysom Coats and countdown with Keith Olderman is a
production of iHeartRadio. More podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
(50:08):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Has
Trump been flipped on by Louise Burke and Kate Hartson
(00:30):
as he changed his story about the Mark Milly Iran
tape three different times yesterday? Oh no, those weren't the
most carefully guarded military secrets. We have plans for war
against Iran. They were building plans, plans of buildings and
golf courses with buildings on them. Yeah, that's the ticket.
As that was unfolding in Trump's usual cornered, lying eight
(00:52):
year old's way, something more intriguing and probably more important
was spotted moving in the shadows of this ever increasingly
bizarre story. Raiso, Yes, this increasingly bizarre story. Not one,
not one of the analyzes of the impact of the
(01:14):
two minutes of his exquisitely detailed narration in real time
of every detail of his violations of the Espionage Act
except announcing I am now gathering, transmitting or losing defense information.
That's eighteen US Code seventy nine to three. If you're
scoring at home, or even if you're alone. Not one
analysis of the impact of the recording, Not one puts
(01:38):
the recording in its proper and its simplest perspective, the
recording does not exist in a vacuum. The trial will
not consist of Jack Smith simply introducing himself to the jury,
pressing play, nodding along for two minutes, and then saying,
and with that, ladies and gentlemen, the prosecution rests. Yet
(02:01):
that is exactly how the recording has been a so far,
it convicts Trump. No, it's exonerating of Trump. No, it's
viscerally damning in a way no testimony could be. It's infuriating,
it's sociopathic, it's treason is it's it's a tape of
five people talking in a room. It's a tape of
(02:25):
five people, any of whom can be called to testify
about it. And we don't really know, because nobody's really
focused on them, who the other four people are. And
we don't know what they think of the recording, And
(02:46):
we don't know what they thought of the meeting, and
they don't know what they saw Trump holding in his
hand besides his excuse, And we don't know whether any
of them are already on that list of dozens of
possible witnesses Jack Smith may call in the document's trial
and more importantly, Still, as those figures move about in
(03:09):
the shadows of this story and we think we know
who they all are, two of them are in effect missing,
and they may have flipped on Trump. Missing is probably
too strong a term, but certainly missing in a public sense.
(03:30):
Who are they and where are they? And why aren't
they the next part of this story? And why have
we heard nothing from them or about them? Okay, we've
known from the beginning that two Trump staffers were present,
and that a second recording of this conversation with the
Mark Meadows ghostwriters was made by one of the Trump staffers,
(03:51):
Margot Martin, the young Trump press aide whom Fox News
mistook at the arrangement for Milania. But after the recording
went public Monday night, it was widely reported that the
gushingly sycophantic, giggling woman with what was described by one
wag as that fake brin mahr accent, who is heard
on it throughout it is Trump's hapless press spokesperson, Liz Harrington.
(04:17):
Three down, two to go, miss kill Gallen. The first
leaks about this recording, long before the rest of us
got to hear it, were that it was made by
two researchers working on the autobiography of the Trump chief
of staff, the one voted most likely to be indicted,
Mark Meadows. Then the autobiography became a quote autobiography unquote,
(04:39):
and the two researchers became a ghostwriter and an editor
or someone similar. And then last night the pair became
a writer or editor and one of the two women
who essentially created their own publishing firm in order to
put out the Mark Meadows book. Their names are Louise
(04:59):
Burke and Kate Hartson. I mentioned them at the beginning
because because maybe they have flipped against Trump, and Hartson
in particular was famous for a little while in twenty
twenty one because literally days after January sixth, she was
fired and her conservative imprint at Hatchet Books was discontinued,
(05:21):
and so out the door went this woman Hartson, the
editor who bought and published a Trump Junior book and
a Judge Janine book and a Vivak Ramaswami book. And
six months later, either she or her partner Burke or
both is at Trump's golf course at Bedminster, giggling along
with Margot Martin and probably Liz Harrington. And there by
(05:44):
the way getting plans for bombing Tehran and or building
a new Caddyshack near the clubhouse. Yeah, yeah, classified caddy
Shack that he could have declassified when he was president,
Like he says on the tape, they get that bombing
plan and or Caddy Shack waved in their faces before
the real fun begins Rasom coats. But last night, buried
(06:10):
in the tenth paragraph of a sleepy little story in
the New York Post came a throwaway reference quote. Two
of the people Trump speaks to in the audio are
believed to be Kate Hartson and Louise Burke, who had
started All Seasons Press, a conservative publishing company. Unquote. First
(06:32):
of all, that's All Seasons Press, not four Seasons. Four
Seasons was the landscaping company Trump and Giuliani thought, was
this swanky Philadelphia hotel. More importantly, what is extremely extraordinary
about this passing reference to the mystery of those who
may be the two most important witnesses Jack Smith will
(06:53):
call in this case is that this appears to be
the first time in nearly two years that either Miss
Hartson or Miss Burke have been mentioned anywhere in the media. Yea,
there is a story about the founding of their conservative
publishing company in the New York Times on June sixteenth,
twenty twenty one. They are on with Tucker Carlson. The
(07:14):
next day you remember him. That is turned into a
Fox website story the day after that, and then there's
a passing reference to them and a feature on another
publisher literally their names and nothing else in Slate a
few weeks later. My point is, right after a flurry
of publicity for their publishing house being founded and the
start of the process of publishing the Mark Meadows book,
(07:37):
one or both of these Conservative martyrs goes or go
to Bedminster about a month later in July twenty twenty
one to interview Trump for the Meadows book, and they
get shown top secret war plans authored by the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Or it was a
new golf cart path design for Trump derral that quote
(07:59):
was done by the military and given to me and
wins my case for me. And this happens, and they
see whatever this is, and then they disappear again, disappear
from public view. I have no reason to believe they're
actually missing missing, But you do not have to be
a hyperactive imagination kind of guy to wonder if the
(08:22):
post is right, And it was both of them that.
As MS Burke and MS Hartson left Bedminster that day
two years ago, next month, one of them realized that
they had just been shown top secrets and they had
it within their power to get Trump indicted for not
keeping top secrets secret, and it put the fear of
God into them right at that moment. Hell Kid Rock says,
(08:45):
Trump did it with him and even he was smart
enough to get frightened. What would you do, no matter
how crazy the Trump cultist you might be, if he
puts you in that spot, or if your first thought
isn't I know stuff I shouldn't know what? Is it? Again?
That happens to people who know stuff they shouldn't know what.
(09:06):
On the other hand, if you're just an actually loyal,
hyper patriotic American and you're wondering, why is Trump showing
this stuff to anybody? Why is he showing it to
me in his golf club where anybody can get in
because all you need is cash. Did Louise Burke and
(09:28):
Kate Hartson talk to a lawyer? Did they wait and
talk to a lawyer later? Did they lay low until
a year ago, and the first stories began to break
about Trump holding on to classified documents. And then did
they go to the FBI, to the DOJ or via
an exact opposite route. Did they downplay the secret nature
(09:50):
of what they'd seen so they could put it in
Mark Meadow's autobiography that Mark Meadows didn't right And they
fan girled this whole experience, and they told all their pals,
and one day somebody from the FBI called them and says,
U kind of need to interview you. You may be
in possession of top secret classified information that you're not
(10:11):
supposed to know, and here's a subpoena just in case. Now, look,
I am wildly out on several different limbs on several
different trees, all at the same time here, so I
could be wildly wrong, but I'm going to revise something
(10:31):
I suggested here that the recording of this meeting, the
recording not allegedly done by Trump's Milania double Margot Martin,
that this recording does not belong to Mark Meadows. Instead,
it belongs to All Seasons Press, and to Louise Burke
and to Kate Hartson. And while Meadows would have a
reason to leak it if he really has flipped on
(10:51):
Trump and decided to completely destroy Trump. I can't see
what benefit Burke and Hartson and all seasons would gain
from anonymously leaking it unless those they leaked it too,
like CNN and the New York Times and the Washington
Post and NBC and CBS and the Genesee Valley Penny
Saver now all owe them huge favors. So I suppose
(11:17):
that means we need to put back on the table
the chance that somebody in the DOJ leaked that recording,
or a Trump lawyer did, or somebody on the periphery somewhere,
or The important point here is there are not just
four other people on that tape as Trump crimes and
does play by play of his crimes. There are four witnesses.
(11:43):
And while Margot Martin was on the campaign trail with
Trump last night and Liz Harrington was back somewhere retweeting her,
and I'm finding it hard to believe either of them
we'll be smart enough to jump ship in time. You
have to wonder if the let me now call it
retirement from public view of publishers. Burke and Hartson follows
a timeline in which they are protecting themselves. And the
(12:07):
copy of Jack Smith has of that Trump conversation about
where to put his highly confidential ball watcher is the
one Burke and Hartson recorded, and they are already witnesses,
and mister Trump, perhaps this will refresh your memory. By
(12:30):
the way, in this perfect little two minute radio play,
the self Defenestration of Dementia J. Trump, written by Dementia J. Trump,
audio by Dementia J. Trump, the characters are him and
the four women. That's Martin and Harrington the gullible employees,
(12:51):
and Burke and Hartson the witnesses. But there is also
a sixth character who has no lines and is heard
only off stage. And as you will now realize, there's
actually been a re I have kept playing this clip
because it is the sixth character to whom Trump says
(13:12):
rasom coats. And the speculation now is the guy he
tells to bring in the cokes is Walt Nauta, his
co defendant, who was not, as it turned out, arraigned
in Florida yesterday because heavy thunderstorms put a ground stop
on all the flights out of Newark Airport in New Jersey.
(13:32):
And also, oh, by the way, the Guardian reports there's
also the little matter of the Florida lawyer Nauda had
tentatively retained, suddenly demanding way more money at the last minute,
because hell, would you take any part of this case.
The Guardian's Hugo Lowell adds this twist Nauda would not
pay the extra green for the mouthpiece quote, even though
(13:52):
he would be paid by Trump's political action committee Save America,
which has also been paying the fees of Nauta's lead lawyer,
Stanley Woodward. There is also reason to believe that anything
Trump can do to slow this all down, he will do,
and having a reason to delay now his arraignment until
the end of next week because I'm not going to
pay a lot for this lawyer. It ain't much, but
(14:15):
it's a week and I'll get back to the tees
from earlier about Trump changing his version of the recording
story three times in a moment. But also pertinent on
the witness front, CNN dropped a big headline with no
details behind it last night quote Rudy Giuliani interviewed in
Special Council's twenty twenty election interference probe Ooooooo. That's though,
(14:38):
pretty much the whole story CNN has nothing else, not when,
no specifics, not even a topic heading. It was with
Juliani and his attorney, Robert Costello. And the word used
is interviewed, so that would make you assume it was
not in front of the grand jury. And the rest
of the piece is the story so far. Also, Kevin
(15:00):
McCarthy briefly yesterday seemed lukewarm to Trump's candidacy for next year.
Can he win that election? McCarthy asked CNBC rhetorically, Yeah,
he can win that election. The question is is he
the strongest to win the election? I don't know that answer.
Oh well, McCarthy quickly found out a different answer one
Trump phone call later, and Kevin McCarthy issued a statement
(15:23):
that Trump was quote the strongest political opponent for Joe
Biden next year because Kevin McCarthy is a whore and
Donald Trump is a pimp. Got it? Okay? Back to
Trump and the recordings, and we'll let the key question,
did Louise Burke and Kate Hartson, who you did not
know existed ten minutes ago, flip on Trump. We'll let
(15:45):
that just hang there for the more repertorily connected among you,
dear listener, Trump really did change his story about this
three times just yesterday. We'll start at the baseline. When
he got burned by Brett Baar on Fox last week,
Trump insisted about the document referred to in the transcript
(16:06):
of the recording, quote, there was no document unquote. After
the tape emerged Monday night, Trump responded angrily on social
media with comparatively low key, stochastic terroristic threats against the
Special Council. But about the evidence itself, he wrote, only
I come under the Presidential Records Act, which is not
the same thing as saying there is no document, So
(16:28):
that was changed number one. Then interviewed by Fox at
Conquered in Hampshire yesterday, Trump was asked how the fact
of the recording squares with his absolute statement to bear
there was no document, and he tossed out a word salad. Quote.
I said it very clearly. I had a whole desk
full of lots of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines,
(16:50):
copies of different plans, copies of stories having to do
with many, many subjects. And what was said was absolutely
fine unquote. So there was a document, While simultaneously they're
all h was not a document. It's both changed number
two and the original version of a Donovan song. Then,
(17:16):
on board his plane to Semaphore News and ABC News,
Trump changed his story a third time in one day.
What we heard was quote, bravado. If you want to
know the truth, it was bravado, Trump, bravado, no way
quoting again. I was talking and just holding up papers
and talking about them. But I had no documents. I
(17:37):
didn't have any documents. One of the reporters then quoted
change number two earlier in the day when Trump said
what he had was copies of magazines, copies of different plans.
So now Trump says, did I use the word plans.
What I'm referring to is magazines, newspapers, plans of buildings.
(17:58):
I had plans of buildings, you know, building plans. I
had plans of a golf course. Don't mention the grave
near the first T. Don't mention the grave near the
first T. Don't mention the grave near the first tea.
Semaphore reports. Trump added quote, I just held up a
whole pile of my desk is loaded up with papers.
(18:19):
I have papers from twenty five different things unquote, such
as he suggested articles about Iran and then quoting semaphore again.
At one point, Trump gestured to the seat next to
him on the plane, where a stack of various papers, newspapers,
copies of his speech, printouts of articles sat. He grabbed
(18:39):
some from the pile and placed them in front of him,
moving them around as he spoke, and offering up a
physical reenactment of what he said was occurring on the
audio tape unquote. Then he was asked if he had
any regrets. He did not, go Sinatra on you, No,
I have no regrets. I didn't have a classified document.
(19:01):
There was no classified document on my desk unquote. Just
a bunch of highly secret golf course building plans that
the military had done for him, and they're off the record,
and he could have classified them when he was president.
And their plans of buildings. I had plans of buildings.
(19:25):
You know, what do they call building plans? What do
they call building plans? Quick? Trump? Quick? What do they
call them? You know? Building plans? And then somebody tapped
into the zeitgeist. And here's a lesson from an old
man who saw Watergate unfolding real time. Never ignore the
zeitgeist during political conspiracies and political controversies, and one of
(19:52):
the reporters asked Trump if the audio tape would affect
whether he would consider a plea deal. The audio tape
has caused the reporters to have the gonads sufficiently required
to ask Trump to his face about taking a plea deal.
That is the new zeitgeist. Well, Trump went into a
(20:15):
diatribe against Biden, and then the fear receded and the
bravado came back. Frankly, that you even ask a question
like that's a disgrace. So let's end it. Unquote, and
no cokes were brought in. Thank you, Nancy Faust. Also
(20:52):
of interest here, Robert F. Kennedy Junior holds an event
with a vax conspiracy theorist who believes and says that
people who get vaccinated get magnetized. RFK Junior is also
mentioned as a potential running mate for Trump. And yes
yesterday I called RFK Junior JFK Junior because I'm Q
(21:18):
and I have this secret message for all of you
QP dolls. Quote. That's next. This is countdown. This is
countdown with Keith Olberman. Postscripts to the news some headlines,
(21:43):
some updates, some snarks, some predictions. Dateline the Supreme Court. Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh,
Barrett Jackson vote for the continuation of democracy, Alito, Gorsich,
Thomas vote against. Presumably the Travel agency's calls got through
in time. This was the vote yesterday on More v. Harper,
(22:04):
and by sixty three down goes independent state legislature theory.
The election's clause does not vest exclusive and independent authority
in state legislatures to set the rules regarding federal elections rights.
Chief Justice Roberts a pleasant enough surprise, except Kavanaugh wrote
a separate opinion, basically saying he thinks maybe it does,
(22:27):
just that this case didn't prove it. So it's really
like democracy only has a five to four lead on
the Court dayline. Tallahassee, Florida Senator Rick Scott birth name,
of course, was Rick Scott Voldemort, announcing what he called
a travel warning yesterday that quote, I'm warning socialists and
communists not to travel to Florida. They are not welcome
(22:50):
in the Sunshine State. He added, people who believe in
big government shouldn't come there either. Specifically, he said to
all these groups, do not take vacations in Florida or
move to Florida. Florida's leading industry is tourism. So all
those of you in socialist countries, remember, do not go
to Florida for any reason. The Senator has just threatened
(23:14):
your safety when the state of Florida gets an estimated
sixty two billion dollars a year more from the semi
socialist government of the United States of America than it
sends to the semi socialist government of the United States
of America. So let's stop that right quick dayline purchase
New York and the world headquarters of PEPSI. I have
(23:35):
had for many decades a theory that if I were
to live long enough, I would see every sketch ever
performed about American society by my heroes and later my friends,
Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, and my heroes and later
my friends the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, I
would see all of their sketches actually happen. One of
(23:59):
the best Bob and Ray sketches had Bob as the
public service hosts on their imaginary radio station, interviewing the
chairman of the National Ketchup Association about how to correctly
pour ketchup, and after a demonstration that goes wonderfully awry,
and the admission that having to hit the bottle of
the bottom of Ketchup was in fact a marketing device
(24:21):
by the Ketchup manufacturers. Ray taels Bob by coincidence, its
National Ketchup Week, and his group is expecting an enormous
growth in the amount of Ketchup consumed in the United
States because he has hit on the brilliant idea to
expand the breadth of the Ketchup footprint by introducing new
(24:43):
flavors of Ketchup. New Ketchup flavors, asks a very dubious
Bob Ray replies, in the perfect expression of bureaucratic condescension. Well,
not Ketchup as you civilians know it now, but I've
discovered that the entire field of dessert toppings has remained
utterly untapped by our industry. So we will be using
(25:04):
National Ketchup Week this year to introduce our new chocolate
flavored Ketchup for use on ice cream. There is another pause,
and then Bob says, so you're holding National Ketchup Week
to promote the sale of chocolate sauce. There's one more pause,
(25:25):
and Ray says, well, gee, When you put it that way,
it does sound completely idiotic, doesn't it. What's worse, it's
all my idea. I better get back to the office
and stop this thing, but fast. Then you hear a
man running away and a door slam, and then the
theme to the program. The Culinary Institute of America's business
(25:46):
consulting unit has announced that it is teaming up with
Pepsi to introduce a new sweet and tangy ketchup, Pepsi
Cola Chop. I'll say that one more time, Pepsi Cola Chop,
which is designed to be used on hot dogs on
(26:09):
the fourth of July, so you'll put more ketchup on
hot dogs. The new cola flavored ketchup will be available
at several baseball stadiums were free on July fourth itself.
I wish Bob Elliot Ray Goulding were still alive to
hear this, so Bob could say to Pepsi and the
Colinary Institute of America, so you've invented a new flavor
(26:32):
of ketchup in order to promote the sale of cola
flavored mustard. Still ahead, you saw that the Fox story
(26:55):
was finally confirmed that they pulled Laura Ingram out of primetime,
and they put her on at seven, and they put
that imbecile Jesse Waters on at eight. They kept Hannity
at nine. They put the with the compulsive head tilt,
Greg Gut, Greg Gut I think is his name, at
ten o'clock. This was described as a bid to win
the next generation of Fox News viewers. I have bad news.
(27:18):
There isn't one. The species is too old to reproduce,
and it may very well be the same at CNN
and MSNBC. The thing is, it didn't have to happen
so soon, but they all let their cable operations get
run by and bullied by people who did not understand
the concept of cable news. And that flashed me back
(27:40):
to the first day I really realized that was the case,
and I saw all this coming, which will be fifteen
years ago this September. It was the day at MSNBC
when Tom Brokaw screwed everything up. Ahead. First to day
we round up with the miss Grants, morons and Dunning
Kruger effect specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in
(28:02):
the world. The Bronze National Hockey League. Last week, Commissioner
Gary Bettman sold out every LGBTQ fan, player and other
participant in the game, and everybody else depended on an
NHL team to raise consciousness about their own issue, whatever
it is, by declaring that while the league would still
hold Pride Nights, it would no longer let players wear
(28:24):
Pride warm up uniforms for ten lousy minutes before each game,
or any other special pregame uniforms. And we'll see about
that come Military Appreciation Day, Military Appreciation Week, Military Appreciation Month,
and of course Military Appreciation Quarter. Tonight, the NHL opens
its annual amateur player draft in Nashville, Tennessee, where your
(28:46):
hosts the Nashville Predators, the majority ownership of which gradually
is being taken over by former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam,
the homophobe who not only opposes same sex marriage, but
who signed a bill designed to make it more difficult
for same sex couples to adopt children. The NHL the
National Hip Hopocracy League, one of whose mottos is Hockey
(29:07):
is for everyone, Yes, everyone except days, lesbians, allies, everybody.
The runner up, Elon Musk it is unclear what he's
doing at Twitter evergreen tweet, but either there is a
new bug that is restricting by accident just the accounts
of people who have blocked too many of the new
(29:27):
right wing issue ads that have begun to take over
individual feeds on that site, or there is a feature
that does that. Either way, the feed of the Tennessee
Holler says, quote, it seems mister free speech Musk is
restricting the accounts of people who block the spam ads
he's using to keep Twitter afloat as he turns it
into a haven for right wing extremism and porn bots.
(29:49):
Lovely unquote no reply from Musk. Musk was busy sending
out tweets defending Jordan Peterson and training for the heavyweight
Ozembic Championship fight against Zuckerberg. But our winner today is
me Yes. By all accounts, Robert F. Kennedy Junior's online
health policy roundtable did go off as scheduled last night.
(30:12):
I'm phrasing it that way because I couldn't find anybody
who would admit they attended. The real star of the
rfk our Junior Virtual conspiracy was supposed to be doctor
Sherry Tenpenny, the osteopath whose license is being challenged after
she testified to the Ohio House that if you got
the COVID vaccine, you would become magnetized and metal would
(30:34):
cling to you. That's who RFK Junior is hanging out with,
or sticking to, as the case might be. Also, there's
the Nicke at Night retirement home of TV news News Nation,
which is still planning a live town hall with RFK
Junior tonight. The host is Elizabeth Bargas, who bombed out
of ABC. She says this is everybody's chance to really
(30:55):
sort of get unedited and live hear him speak and
listen to how he thinks. This town hall is not
a town hall about vaccines because we haven't gotten one
chance to hear Robert F. Kennedy Junior speak, even as
he's been on every right wing outlet for the last
three months during his trojan horse Democratic candidacy, even though
(31:16):
he's not a member of the Democratic Party, he's a
member of the Looney Party. But the award still goes
to me because in this podcast yesterday I referred to
RFK Jr. As JFK Junior. And that's really unfortunate because
a it's a mistake can be because JFK Junior has
been dead, just shy of twenty four years now, and
the only part of RFK Junior that's dead is his sanity.
(31:40):
Me Today's worst me in the world. Finally, our number
(32:03):
one story on the Countdown and my favorite topic me.
I missed the exact anniversary by day, but it's close enough.
The demand for spots in the Shaye Stadium press box
that night was so great that there was a signed seating.
I had no real reason to be there, but as usual,
the New York Mets took care of me, and so
on Friday, the fifth of September two thousand and eight,
(32:24):
I was shouldered to shoulder with reporter friends watching the
Mets begin to blow their three game Pennant Race lead
against the Philadelphia Phillies. Sorry Mets fans for bringing this
up again. Brett Myers had just struck out New York's
David Wright looking when my phone rang. It was my agent,
Gene Sage. They just called. She said, flatly, you and
(32:44):
Matthews have been fired from anchoring the presidential debates because
of what you said. What I had said had been
said three nights previously. Chris Matthews and I were co
anchoring the Republican Convention on MSNBC. He was there in Minneapolis.
I was in the studios in New York, ostensibly so
I could also anchor hurricane coverage, although it was pretty
(33:06):
clear that at least half the reason I was not
in Minneapolis was because the Republicans had threatened NBC or
said they couldn't guarantee my safety or something like that,
and NBC folded. So I was the one during MSNBC's
coverage of the two thousand and eight Republican Convention who
had to throw it to a video they were introducing
that we had been told by the Republicans was a
(33:29):
quote tribute to the dead of nine to eleven. It was,
in fact a snuff film. All of the images that
all of the networks had stopped showing within weeks or
even days of the attacks, all of those images were
in this video. People jumping and falling to their deaths
from the World Trade Center on nine to eleven, endless
(33:50):
replays of the planes hitting the towers, dismembered bodies in
the plaza, the building collapses, the equally terrifying scenes at
the Pentagon, and all with a grotesque Robert Dove voiceover
emphasizing that this was all the Democrats fault. The message
was simple, elect Obama and you will die like this.
(34:13):
I was angry just on that base level. For the
five and a half years I had been back at MSNBC,
we had been rigorous about not showing any of that video.
There were rules that if we had to for some reason,
we should show only the skill images, and even then
only with extensive warnings to the viewers. But I knew
from my conversations with the president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin,
(34:35):
who I'd only known for twenty eight years at that point,
that he would insist that on the scene in Minneapolis,
Matthews and Tom Brokaw, whose career at NBC I had
resurrected after Brian Williams had buried him alive two years earlier,
that one or both of them would rebuke the GOP
for showing not a nine to eleven tribute, but, as
I just said, a nine to eleven snuff film. The
(34:57):
video ended, and we came out to Brokaw with Matthews
and Brokaw kind of coughed, and Matthews said wow. And
he turned to Brokaw and said, in that loose fire
hose delivery of his tom That kind of hunderscorns terrorism,
big thing Republicans says, they tristop Obama. Brocawd droned on
approvingly the Republicans sneaking a snuff film, a banned video,
(35:23):
onto MSNBC and by the way, also onto CNN, onto NBC,
onto CBS, onto ABC without any warning. That was not
mentioned by brokaw or Matthews. Back to New York and Keith,
I was supposed to ad liberates about what we were
expecting from the Republican convention for the rest of the
night and then throw to a commercial instead, I said,
(35:44):
and this is a paraphrase, the original tape disappeared that
night that before we moved on, I felt I needed
to apologize that we at MSNBC and for that matter,
NBC News, had extremely strict rules about not showing that video.
The Republicans had just shown you without any warning, without
any context, and we certainly would not have shown the
(36:04):
horror and death and blamed it on the Democrats, or
for that matter, blamed it on the Republicans. I said,
if we had done such a thing ourselves, there would
have been people fired at NBC News the public program
the GOP provided said that was going to be a
nine to eleven tribute film. I said, and so did
the private conversations with the network, which included the reminder
from NBC and MSNBC that we had rules against showing
(36:27):
the scenes of the horrible death and mutilation and destruction.
So I apologized on behalf of whoever trusted the Republicans
to live up to their word that MSNBC viewers were
forced to see the video our network had long before
vowed never to show again. So three nights later, without
as much as an email, this Griffin guy had called
(36:49):
my agent and told her I was fired Matthews two
from our further coverage of the upcoming McGain Obama debates.
She related these details to me as I walked down
the many ramps in the back of Shay Stadium towards
the subway. I told her to call Griffin back and
tell him I had quit on the spot right then
and he could work his way out of the ensuing disaster.
(37:12):
Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal host Elberman for criticizing Conservatives
for sneaking nine to eleven snuff film onto MSNBC. He
could figure that out. Any way he wanted, and he
could hear my response on I don't know, Good Morning America, CBS,
This Morning, the PBS News Hour, and any other news
program that bothered to ask me to stop by and talk.
(37:33):
I phoned my live in girlfriend, Katie Turr and told
her I was on my way home, and I made
a few phone calls to friendly voices within the NBC
management structure and got from them a clear picture of
what had happened. And despite the spotty cell service along
the elevated line heading back to Manhattan, I got a
message from a newspaper reporter friend who neatly tied together
all that I was hearing elsewhere. Tom Brokaw is going
(37:56):
around NBC saying he got you fired from the debates
because the Republicans told him to. Nine maybe ten months earlier,
Phil Griffin had come to me and asked me if
I would be okay with this guy who had been
kind of disappeared by the network. Tom Brokaw was his
name appearing during our weekly coverage of the Democratic and
(38:19):
Republican primaries. Just a couple of minutes, like from a
perspective desk, that's all he wants to do. He's really
Tom's really unhappy. Brian has frozen him out of everything.
Brian Williams. Of course, I was appalled, but not surprised.
The power had gone to Brian's head, and of course
there it had not met much resistance. Plus, as I
(38:41):
said to Griffin, you're asking me if i'd like to
add Tom Brokaw's experience and Tom Brocaw's gravitas to stuff
I'm anchoring when I'm not sure I know as much
as I really need to know to do this right.
You're asking me this. Tom fit in beautifully, and twice
after those long Tuesday evenings in the primary season, he
sent me brief emails awarding me what he called legame ball,
(39:05):
because he was so impressed by my ability to balance
the roles of political anchor and political commentator, having tried
this myself. One of them read, I know what a
perilous tight rupeless is game ball, Toko. I'm mocking him now,
but these meant so much to me. I printed the
emails out and carried them in my wallet. And now
(39:27):
he was claiming he had gotten me fired because, as
my newspaper friend said, the Republicans told him to that
was not hard to unpack either. Tim Russard had died
on June third of that year. I anchored that night
until two in the morning. It was still an open wound,
there were still tears. We didn't know it then, but
the structure of NBC News and the perilous tightroup balancing
(39:51):
NBC and MSNBC had died with Tim Russard. So did
the role of moderator of the second debate between John
McCain and Barack Obama, scheduled for about a month after
my subway ride on October seventh in Nashville. Tim had
not even been buried yet when Brokaw began to angle
to get that assignment, along with brushing away the dirt
of his Penny Ante role on the MSNBC Perspective desk,
(40:14):
we never saw him again in order that he could
take Tim's spot as Brian Williams sidekick on Big NBC.
The month before August, there was a story coming out
of the east end of the third floor at thirty Rock,
where NBC News management sat around not doing much of anything,
that a Republican goon named Ed Gillespie had been in
there with Griffin and the NBC News president Steve Cappus
(40:38):
trying to get me silenced or fired or off the
convention coverage or something, and that somebody prominent within NBC
News was in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie.
The rumor mill wasn't certain. As I switched from the
elevated seven train to the underground f train, the whole
thing came together before my comments about the GOP Convention
(41:00):
nine to eleven snuff film ed Gillespie had come in
and had somehow big threatened Cappus and Griffin about me
using as leverage the debate which Tom Brokaw was now
supposed to moderate, and when I apologized for their video
on our air, Gillespie must have turned it into an
either or get rid of me or McCain would refuse
(41:23):
to participate in any debate moderated by Brokaw or anybody
from NBC News, and Brokaw had already come back from
the dead once in two thousand and eight, and he
would be damned if he would be forced to do
it a second time. But as the train took me
home to an apartment I was now going to have
to sell since I had just quit MSNBC on the
(41:44):
spot for folding to such obvious Republican blackmail. Something else
now occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or NBC or
our parent corporation at the time, GE actually think that
they could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC
where the Rachel Meadow Show had yet to be born,
(42:04):
and the three times a night my show ran accounted
for something like sixty percent of the entire day's network audience,
and do that without getting a really bad reaction from
our audience. Plus, if a newspaper man already knew the
Brokaw part, how could this story be avoided? MSNBC announced
(42:25):
it had removed its liberal star Keith Alderman from coverage
of the McCain Obama presidential debates. Sources confirmed former NBC
News anchorman Tom Brokaw, now an MSNBC commentator on Olberman's coverage,
had helped the Republican Party to blackmail NBC into the decision.
Olderman immediately resigned, saying, quote in succumbing to this coercion
(42:45):
on behalf of John McCain, NBC has now forfeited any
right to further be called a news organization, And I'm
sad to say MSNBC, which I built, is now dead.
My god, MSNBC an NBC News for that matter, would
have committed corporate suicide before the weekend was over. At
that point had dawned on me that the only thing
(43:06):
that could save the credibility of the whole news division
and the careers of Griffin and Cappus and NBC Network
President Jeff Zucker, and especially the career of Tom Brokaw
was for me to publicly state that I had asked
to be removed from anchoring the debates because the whatever
was just too much blah blah blah for me, and
(43:28):
I felt I should stick to the post debate analysis
and commentary. NBC would now have a choice. They could
fire me from the debates and destroy everything, including the
one hundred million dollars a year or so in profit
that NBC made off MSNBC, or I could you know
why and claim it was my idea and save everybody's ass,
(43:51):
including my own. I got out of the subway and
raced home. Katie met me at the door with a
big hug. She had been crying. Relax, I said, I'm
not quitting. In fact, I'm going to get a huge raise,
now listen carefully. I called my agent and I explained
the idea that had lit over my head on the
subway like a light bulb to both of them. I said,
(44:12):
you call Phil Griffin back and explain to him that
I will personally save his job and Steve Campus's and
Jeff Zoker's and Tom Brokaw's and everybody else's. I'll take
the fall instead of letting them all get fired by
the MSNBC audience. I'll say this was my idea, and
all it will cost Phil is twelve million dollars, and
(44:35):
he has to leak the term so everybody knows it
cost him twelve million dollars. And she paused for a
second and said it's genius. It might not quite be
twelve million, but I bet, I bet they'll pay you
at least nine. On Sunday, several news organizations reported I
had asked to be taken off the anchor desk two
months and one week later, The New York Times wrote, quote,
(44:59):
Keith Olderman, the anchor of Countdown on MSNBC, has extended
his contract through the next president election season. The network
announced mister Alberman and MSNBC essentially tore up the four year,
four million dollar year contract they signed last year and
replaced it with one worth about seven and a half
million a year. Oh, that was a three and a
(45:21):
half million dollar raise for four years. We're a total
of fourteen million dollars, except the new contract added two
years to my old deal, so the raise was actually
twenty two million dollars. All stories have a punchline. This
punchline is about Tom Brokaw. We would have gotten away
(45:43):
with this cleanly. NBC would have gotten its money's worth
for the twenty two million in hush money, which is
what it was that it had to pay me because
I had agreed with them rolling over for the Republican
Party blackmail. Except Brokaw could not keep his mouth shut,
so proud was he of preserving his role as the
moderator of the October seventh NBC debate that he had
(46:05):
to explain in explicit detail in public how he went
to his bosses at NBC News and threatened them on
behalf of the GOP. On September twenty ninth, two thousand
and eight, a lengthy and glowing Brocaw profile appeared in
The New York Times. Quote mister Brocaw said that over
the summer he had quote advocated within the executive suite
(46:29):
of NBC News to modify the anchor duties of the
MSNBC hosts Keith Alderman and Chris Matthews on election night
and on nights when there were presidential debates. Mister brocass
said he had also conducted some shuttle diplomacy in recent
weeks between NBC and the McCain campaign. His mission, he said,
was to assure the candidate's aids that despite some negative
(46:50):
on air commentary by mister Olberman in particular, mister McCain
could still get a fair shake from NBC News. Unquote, Oh,
that was his mission. The hell it was. Lee Brokaw
just could not resist boasting even further. The next sentence
actually reads quote Mister Brocaw said he had been told
(47:14):
by a senior McCain aide whom he did not name,
that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC
representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential
debates until his name was invoked. Quote. One of the
things I was told by this person was that they
were so irritated. They said, if it's an NBC moderator
(47:38):
for any of these debates. We won't go, mister Brocaw said,
quoting him again. My name came up and they said, oh, hell,
we have to do it because it's going to be Brokaw.
There is a second punchline. After all this, when the
new format came out and I was sitting there counting
(47:59):
my money, MSNBC had David Gregory quote anchor unquote the
debate coverage. David was terrific during this. Practically all this meant, anyway,
was that I was on the air until literally ninety
seconds before each debate began, which is when I said,
now here's David Gregory. And he was then on for
four or five minutes after the debate ended, which is
(48:19):
when he said, now here's Keith Olberman. And on Election
Night itself with David again formally anchoring per the Republican
blackmail at ten fifty nine PM, to his great credit
and to my eternal gratitude, David Gregory said, with the
last voting booth closing at eleven PM, NBC News can
now project the winner of the two thousand and eight
(48:40):
presidential election, Keith bless him. Plus I still have all
the money. I've done all the damage I can do here.
(49:01):
Thank you for listening. Here are the credits. Most of
the music was range, produced and performed by Brian Ray
and John Phillip Shaneale, who are the countdown musical directors. Guitars,
bass and drums by Brian ray All, orchestration and keyboards
by John Phillip Shaneale, produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven
selections have been arranged and performed by the group No
Horns Allowed. Sports music is the Ulriman theme from ESPN
(49:24):
two and it was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy
of ESPN Inc. Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best
baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my friend
Stevie van Zant. Everything else was pretty much my fault.
So that's countdown for this the nine hundred and fourth
day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States. Arrest him again while
(49:47):
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Till then,
I'm Keith Olerman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good
luck Raysom Coats and countdown with Keith Olderman is a
production of iHeartRadio. More podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
(50:08):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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