Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SEASON 2 EPISODE 58: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Sidney Powell has flipped on Trump in Georgia. And if she's flipped on Trump in Georgia, she has to have either flipped on him in Jack Smith's DC case, or is about to. Because otherwise anything she says on the stand in Atlanta could be used against her in federal court. And she may be, to quote Elmer Fudd, a scwewy wabbit, but she ain't going to Alcatwaz. GOP's record 3793rd House Speaker vote, short version? Election denier denies election, loses by 22, convinces none of them to vote for him, decides to try it again anyway, is a f***ing idiot. It's so bad Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace have made inadvertent sex jokes about it. GAZA LATEST: Joe Biden's speech is so unequivocal and strong it was praised by a Fox News stalwart. AND the Gaza Hospital Scam gets scammier: US Intel says the death toll is 100-300, but a European intel source tells Agence France Presse that THAT'S high and it could be as low as a dozen fatalities. Amazingly, some people will look at this as bad news. B-Block (29:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska, CNN trying to get a Republican debate, Iowa City banning books - but not enough. C-Block (30:29) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Hey, Flip My Kraken! To honor the Trump news, James Thurber's epic profile of Trump even though it was written 15 years before Trump was born: The Greatest Man In The World.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 57: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Who could have guessed this? Republican Congressmen and Congresswomen are only in favor of threats when the threats are NOT made against themselves! Imagine being SUCH a schmuck that all the other people in the schmuck PARTY not only hate you and are trying to defeat you, but they have coordinated their hatred so that the votes against you keep GROWING and you get MORE humiliated each time you step out there. Imagine that’s YOU. That would make YOU…Jim Jordan! Hi, Schmuck! Now it's 22 Republicans vote against him, and at least SEVEN claim Jordan is responsible for doxxing and intimidation and in at least one case, death threats. So they are reportedly co-ordinating their no votes. So he gets LESS support on each vote. And he still plans on conducting a third vote. I’ll explain who the fictional Senator Fred Van Ackerman was, which movie he was in, and why Jim Jordan is one plot twist away from becoming him and getting Van Ackerman's choice: resign, or stay around as a mute lame duck. Because it turns out the Republicans hate Jordan even more than WE DO. I’ll also explain how the Gaza Hospital scam didn’t even last 24 hours. Because if it starts with “THEY BOMBED THE HOSPITAL” but it proves they actually “BOMBED THE PARKING LOT," all the other claims become exponentially LESS believable. And that leads us to genius of Joe Biden for going to Israel and throwing this country’s weight behind the truth. And how that dovetails into the story of what the newspapermen were writing 40 years ago today, about the president who was too old to run again and might not run and was facing an unbeatable opponent. And that president wound up winning the electoral college by 525 votes to 13. B-Block (23:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: GOP Congressman Mike Collins pretends GOP isn't imploding by saying Hakeem Jeffries lost too. And Marjorie Taylor Barney Rubble Greene makes that rare double appearance in the list: winning for attacking "insurrectionists" at the Capitol whose text messages were about hot dog stands. C-Block (29:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It wasn't THAT traumatic. It was just the most venerable disc jockey in New York radio coming into the newsroom and screaming that he would get me - the 21-year old back-up sportscaster - fired that day, and then an hour later, the same disc jockey coming back into the newsroom and screaming that he would get me a multi-year contract to become a regular on his show.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 56: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump may have a new problem in his civil fraud trial in New York. As the folks at Meidas Touch sleuthed, he has re-posted a piece by the loathsome Laura Loomer that appears to give an address for New York State Attorney General Letitia James. This isn't specifically covered under the gag order imposed against Trump by Judge Arthur Engoron, but it underscores the point that it should be. And it further underscores that both Judge Engoron and Judge Tanya Chutkan should try to expand their gag orders to include any such threats or stochastic invasions of the lives of the primary figures in ALL the legal cases against Trump. His only skill is finding where the line is, and how it moves. The judiciary needs to be proactive against him, not meek. And unfortunately Judge Chutkan's written version of HER gag order is devoid of any reference to which sanctions she'll impose when Trump finally violates it. There is, naturally, a connection to the lies and the world of delusion of Trump and his supporters, and the nightmare at the Gaza City hospital yesterday. Technology will probably - sooner or later - tell us whether Israel or Hamas did this, and then lied about it and successfully blamed the other. It may even tell us about the small chance the location of the carnage might have been inadvertent. But what this horror really tells us is where the Trump Lies lead and end, and how we must fight them because the imaginary world requires absolute fealty and ultimately the willingness to kill rather than admit you are wrong. You know it's been a bad day when Jim Jordan's wipeout in the Speaker voice, and what Elise Stefanik said about him that she THOUGHT would help, turns out to be the humorous relief. B-Block (22:12) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Who could have seen this coming? Britain's Conservatives expel member accused of sexual harassment and exposure. His name is Peter Bone. The Washington Post does a Jim Jordan profile without mentioning January 6th or the subpoena he skipped. And a professor at my alma mater says something so inhuman and stupid about the Middle East that supporters of BOTH Israel and Hamas should be offended - and he should be fired. C-Block (27:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It was the first item I checked on my bucket list. I was 10. The day I saw my first World Series game turns out to probably have been the day baseball's dominant role in American culture peaked. Plus: it was Vietnam Moratorium Day.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 55: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trust me: I think the Trump Gag Order is an extraordinary and terrific thing and I've invested all my money in popcorn futures. But the real headline coming out of Judge Tanya Chutkan's courtroom is her vow not to alter the start date of the Subversion Trial: March 4, 2024. This means it doesn't get postponed beyond the election and it also SEEMS as if she is taking the idea of starting it early as a punishment for WHEN Trump violates the gag order off the table. If that's the case - and she's promised a full written statement detailing the "sanctions" if he doesn't seal his lips closed with epoxy - then there are few options for her. She can fine him, or jail him. And even if she goes for the first one he'll eventually do it so many times she'll have no choice but to go to the second one. REVOKE. HIS. BAIL. Trump already began testing the boundaries, and trying to see if he can get his Renfields to carry his water for him. And there were many tea leaves from the hearing to read - and all of them look bad for your favorite traitor. Plus I have some stuff on the Jordan Speaker vote and Israel-Hamas. But the story that actually stuns me was one I thought I saw coming. As predicted here, the other shoe after NBC going soft on Trump on The Meet The Press interview has fallen: NBC gets the 3rd Republican Presidential debate. But they have debate "partners" including the appalling Rumble (Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate claim homes there) and Salem Radio (Charlie Kirk, Dinesh D'Souza, Jenna Ellis, Hugh Hewitt). Hewitt may be a co-moderator. Where are NBC's liberals here? When is enough enough? How much money is enough for my old protege to say "I refuse to be associated with any of this. Drop it or I'm out." I took a stance like that and I sleep well every night because of it. Rachel Maddow's voice still matters here and she's not using it. Assuming it's still - at $31,000,000 per annum - HER voice. B-Block (24:24) IN SPORTS: Marlins prove sexism still flourishes in baseball by humiliating successful General Manager. The worst National Anthem you've ever heard. (30:09) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: PBS correspondent is genuinely startled Democratic house members correctly call Jim Jordan an "insurrectionist" (wait'll she hears about the gymnasts). Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA gets whacked at ASU. Lauren Boebert barely knew the man she made sweet music with at "Beetlejuice" - except her campaign spent $300 at his bar. C-Block (36:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: That hockey anthem gave me a flashback to the day I was at Madison Square Garden and they directed our attention to the big screen on the scoreboard where NBC's Brian Williams promptly destroyed his own career.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 54: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The day after he attacked Israel and mocked its Prime Minister and praised Hezbollah, Trump was astonishingly quiet, and even his self-praising press release was composed in the past tense and lacked the usual arrogance. Something is wrong in Trumpland. And here's a shock: Trump's minions are going to need ANOTHER new Speaker of the House and right now there's nobody within 100 votes of the minimum number of votes needed for election! Just 18 days after I asked why he hadn't been indicted as an agent of Egypt, Senator Menendez...is. Now I ask: why is he out on bail? Ron DeSantis comes out of unintentional retirement to pull a really transparent stunt on Israel, and Tommy Tuberville shoots himself in the foot on the same topic. And something does not add up on the Mary Lou Retton story. So sick she can't breathe? No insurance? Daughter starts a GoFundMe? And last year the tiny Republican had a house worth $2,000,000? B-Block (19:17) IN SPORTS: New ESPN host reveals he's paid Aaron Rodgers millions for "interviews" and why this means all TV Sports "News" programs are now mortally and irreversibly wounded. A large part of the field beclowns itself over the issue of whether a minor taunt a Braves' player made about a Phillies' player in a clubhouse full of reporters was somehow 'off the record' and an instance from my own career when it really WAS. And Sunday it'll be 35 years since I matter-of-factly predicted the Kirk Gibson World Series home run that everybody else still seems to think was impossible. And the witness to my prediction makes a cameo! C-Block (38:20) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Only Thurber could merge the laziness of a sticky summer at his Connecticut place with the absolute conviction that his "hired man" trafficks with The Devil: "The Black Magic of Barney Haller."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 53: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Well, could YOU choose between Rep. Beelzebub or Rep. Lucifer? Jordan and Scalise both eminently define different kind of evils of the Republican Party. But the knives are out and they're steak knives: Jordan's allies are trying to sink Scalise by revealing his campaign has spent half a million dollars at DC's Capital Grille since 2011 (unfortunately that amounts to a nightly purchase of just two Filet Mignons, a side of spinach for the table, and no tip). While Trump's lawyers file their latest delay against Jack Smith by claiming there are "missing documents" from he January 6th Committee, and his Colorado lawyers explain Trump isn't subject to the 14th Amendment because the president doesn't have to "support" the Constitution, Trump goes off the deep end on Israel. He claims that Israel was attacked because of the 2020 election "rigging," keeps repeating "Barack Hussein Obama," and attacks Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming Israel was neither smart nor tough. The cheese whiz is slipping off the cracker - again. B-Block (20:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The internet is not kind to Tommy Tuberville: never joke about POTUS falling down if there's video of YOU falling down. Clouds begin to gather around Gary Bettman after he caves to the homophobes and Russians. And there's a shooting war between Israel and Hamas so what's exactly the right thing for a Charlie Kirk Turning Point USA "ambassador" to do? Compare "zionism to communism." C-Block (29:43) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I missed the anniversary, but to be fair - so did ESPN. 30 years ago on the 1st of this month we debuted ESPN2. Nobody noticed this month. EVERYBODY noticed then. We were voted the 7th worst thing in sports for 1993!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 52: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is nearly impossible to be shocked by anything bubbling up in Jack Smith's prosecutions of Donald Trump, and yet Smith has pulled it off. He has promised the court that during the trial of the United States vs. Trump for the stolen documents and secrets: "Why it occurred, what Trump knew, and what Trump intended in retaining them – all issues that the Government will prove at trial, primarily with unclassified evidence." It's a stunning guarantee, buried deep in Smith's filing, answering why Trump should to get his wish to delay the trial until after the election. And he tantalizes us: because nothing else in the motion even REFERS to it, let alone explains it. But it does dovetail with the latest grim details from Israel - and the awful echoes from Washington.Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, has now demanded that American aide to Ukraine be CUT OFF and sent instead to Israel, as if there were a reason for such a false either/or choice, and apparently unaware that people can see that his own performance and that of the rest of the Republican anti-Ukraine caucus is not in support of Israel but actually in support of Hamas and Iran. Twice in the last year the Kremlin invited Hamas to send delegations to Moscow and the terrorist group’s leadership met with Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in September 2022 and this past March. There is considerable analysis being done in Europe that the Russians encouraged – even bribed – Hamas, to undertake the full-scale attack that began from the Gaza Strip on Saturday and continues even at this hour. The Russians, this analysis reasons, wanted this because they are Iran’s leading ally and because a Middle East conflict of almost any size would amount to a second front, in which Western resources being dedicated to fighting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, might be re-directed TO Israel. In other words, Josh Hawley is doing exactly what the Russians want: degrading western support for Ukraine on the false excuse that the money must go instead to defend Israel. THAT would just give Russia a freer hand in Ukraine, and more money and materiel, to send to Hamas, to DEFEAT Israel, as Iran wants. It MUST not be forgotten, especially not at this hour, that on May 10th, 2017, in the Oval Office, Trump disclosed classified intelligence – classified intelligence obtained by the Israelis – about an ISIS plot the Israelis unraveled in a town in Syria. Trump gave the information, directly, to Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The same man who twice met with the Hamas delegations in Moscow. PLUS: not only confirmation that Egypt warned Israel about an attack from Gaza, but a reason to suspect that somebody in the Netanyahu government has thrown the defense services under the bus to protect the troubled Prime Minister. B-Block (26:12) IN SPORTS: Steve Garvey? Running for Senator? The baseball hero whose political career died in 1988 when he became "The Father Of Our Country"? His old team underscores baseball's playoff crisis. Hockey dives further into homophobia. And one of that game's best ambassadors has to quit to attend to his own health. (39:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Has-been Aaron Rodgers says nasty things about Taylor Swift's boyfriend who they still pay to make commercials, there's a 1/6 defendant worried about "chest-feeding" and the Murdoch empire inadvertently reveals that if the Democrats were to switch candidates, there's one alternate choice with all the name recognition in the world. C-Block (45:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The words were spoken by the best Communications professor I ever had, 44 or 45 years ago. And every week since - and literally yesterday - it's been ignored. "Whatever you do: DON'T SAY THIS."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 51: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is the problem with all national intelligence. It is like an overnight electrical storm: it blindingly illuminates the horizon but only for a second. And you must concentrate entirely on decoding what it really shows you, and not how it fits into your preconceptions. And so, like Bush before 9/11, like Putin before Ukraine, like a series of American governments before Pearl Harbor, like Neville Chamberlain before the invasion of Poland, Benjamin Netanyahu didn't truly ignore the warnings of Egyptian Intelligence and his own security forces. He simply forced them into a template in which Gaza was stable if not ideal, and The West Bank was a pressure cooker ready to explode - and also the only thing that kept him in power. It was only useful to him if the threat was from The West Bank. It could only BE The West Bank. The intel agencies will, as always, be blamed, and are already being blamed - because the politicians have the microphones. This was not a failure of intelligence. This was a failure of Benjamin Netanyahu. ALSO: Why do Rand Paul and Tommy Tuberville hate Israel? Trump identifies the real culprits: Forbes Magazine and the Forbes 400. And somebody TOLD YOU LAST WEDNESDAY that Kevin McCarthy would wind up being a candidate to be the next Speaker of the House and lookee here - that's exactly what's shaping up. B-Block (20:06) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: There's so many Gaza takes that the Medal Stand (Maximum Occupancy: 3) is SUPER-SIZED with six winners! Listen as Elon Musk, John Roberts, Martha McCallum, Ronna McDaniel, Nancy Mace - and even Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, squeeze onto the podium. C-Block (28:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: So it's thirteen years and a couple of Saturdays since I not only had to explain to my old classmates that the movie "A Christmas Story" in which Little Ralphie finally wigs out and beats the crap out of the bully was an almost punch-for-punch re-creation of our last day in the 4th Grade but that the bully had come up to me at the reunion and asked "Did we have a FIGHT in the 4th Grade?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 50: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is for all intents and purposes a spy, who in April 2021 gave away nuclear submarine secrets to an Australian manufacturer of boxes, 'potentially endanger(ing) the U.S. fleet." The businessman promptly told at least 45 other people, including 11 of his own employees, 10 Australian officials, and THREE FORMER Australian Prime Ministers. We must do to Trump what we would do to any other trafficker in top secret information: arrest, detention without bail, prosecution for espionage. We know the name of the man Trump delivered defense information to, we know his nationality, we know when and where Trump delivered it to him, we know what the information delivered WAS, we know that Jack Smith’s investigators know about it and interviewed him at least twice, and we know WHO the man in turned SHARED the top secret information WITH, totaling at LEAST 45 other people including three of his home country’s prime ministers. TRUMP GAVE AWAY OUR NUCLEAR SUBMARINE SECRETS TO A GUY WHO MAKES CORRUGATED BOXES. It's ESPIONAGE. Donald Trump committed ESPIONAGE. He is not MERELY trying to burn down representative government in this country AGAIN but in his spare time over the last three years he has been committing ESPIONAGE and he is for all intents and purposes a foreign agent of at LEAST one other country, Australia, and when we FIND agents of other countries who trade in information about how many nuclear warheads can fit in one of our submarines or how close they can get to the Russians without the Russians finding out they are there. And the government, no matter the fallout, needs to arrest Donald Trump today, for espionage, for spying on behalf of a foreign nation, and keep him detained without bail. B-Block (22:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Get your popcorn. The Republicans are Cawthorning Matt Gaetz. Politico underscores what's wrong with American media. The GOP finally can claim it got a Biden out of the White House: Commander the dog. (27:03) IN SPORTS: Farewell to Dick Butkus. I knew him; he was smart, ethical, funny. As predicted here, the Mets' GM exits. And as predicted nowhere: The New York Post comes out in defense of Trevor Bauer. (31:54) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Fox's pro-Nikki Haley guest turns out to be her state co-chair. Target's claim to be closing stores because of shoplifting turns out to be fraudulent. And Sage Steele and Bill Maher participate in the worst interview I've ever seen. C-Block (40:35) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His epic of baseball and not-really-attempted murder: "The Catbird Seat."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 49: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has already violated Judge Arthur Engoron’s gag order and if Engoron actually WAS contemplating finding him in contempt and putting him in jail for 30 days he should damn well do it and do it NOW – and if he WASN’T, he ought to expand the gag order and specify that if Trump breaks it again, he WILL spend a month behind bars. Yesterday, he posted quote “the judge fraudulently reduced the value of Mar-a-Lago and other assets in order to make their fake case more viable.”During the lunch-break he said of Engoron “he’s a Democrat judge, he has no choice, he’s run by the Democrats” thus accusing the judge both of fraud and of political corruption. The gag order precludes Trump from public comments about “any members of my staff” and it is not twisting logic nor semantics too strongly to note that the judge COUNTS as a member of his own staff. So step five is the judge imposing the serious sanctions. By statute it would be contempt of court and under New York State Law article 19 section 751 contempt of court is punishable by – I regret to tell you CAPITAL PUNISHMENT does NOT apply under article 19 section 751 – it’s punishable by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both. At the discretion of the judge. And if Judge Engoron really wants to make the argument that he is not a member of his own staff he needs to broaden the gag order immediately. Because you, or I, or Hunter Biden, or Joe Biden, or Jesus Christ fresh off the court would have already amassed a thousand 30-day sentences for the kind of stuff Donald Trump has gotten away with, abusing and degrading and insulting and harassing and threatening and undermining and sabotaging and lying about the judicial system. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani's Georgia lawyers have bailed out on him. On the other hand he got the kind of publicity he craves. The New York Times has published 3,109 devastating words OVER Maggie Haberman’s byline and UNDER the headline “Giuliani’s Drinking, Long A Fraught Subject, Has Trump Prosecutors’ Attention.” The Times writes they quote “have shown an interest in the drinking habits of Mr. Giuliani… (they’ve) questioned witnesses about Mr. Giuliani’s alcohol consumption as he was advising Mr. Trump, including on election night… Mr. Smith’s investigators have also asked about Mr. Trump’s level of awareness of his lawyer’s drinking as they worked to overturn the election… The answers to those prompts could complicate any efforts by Mr. Trump’s team to lean on a so-called advice-of-counsel defense… if such guidance came from someone whom Mr. Trump knew to be compromised by alcohol, especially when many others told Mr. Trump definitively that he had lost, his argument could weaken… several people at the White House on election night (the evening when Mr. Giuliani urged Mr. Trump to declare victory despite the results) have said that the former mayor appeared to be drunk, slurring and carrying an odor of alcohol. ‘The Mayor was definitely intoxicated’ Jason Miller”… said. The Trump/Smith angle is fascinating. Because apparently you can’t use an advice-of-counsel defense if your counsel is so drunk he could be considered at risk for spontaneous combustion. B-Block (19:21) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Institute of Economic Affairs has figured out "the future of journalism." It's four Matthews and no women, according to them. Jonathan Turley isn't just flubbing the big stuff; he got Steve Martin's name wrong. And the Trojan horse "news" site "The Messenger" has partnered with an AI company to rank the most reliable news organizations. And you're right: Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" can be trusted. "The New York Times" cannot. C-Block (25:35) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Saturday will be the 48th anniversary of the first broadcast I ever did that had both sponsors and an audience. It was preceded by the elders of the Cornell University radio station sports department playing a trick on me that would be repeated four years later when I made my network debut. I can laugh now. Then? I had two out-of-body experiences. Happily the 1975 WVBR-FM broadcast still exists, so I've tacked it on to the end of this segment. And yes: I mispronounced my own name.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 48: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Kevin McCarthy is out and the ensuing chaos mainlines directly back to an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." House Republican Radicals caught that proverbial car they’ve been chasing and they had no idea what to do next and they look like idiots. The offing of Kevin McCarthy is actually notable only because a) it underscores the reality that the Republicans have bluster and the novelty of having opened the pandora’s box of fascism and political violence, but they don’t have any leaders, as evidenced by b) Kevin McCarthy saying on Face The Nation, two days before they garroted him, that he’d survive and they should bring it on and now THAT’S probably the worst political TV interview of our time leading to c) his epic news conference last night in which he compared Vladimir Putin to Hitler in the ‘30s and concluding with d) McCarthy’s only actual accomplishment – he lasted 270 days in the job, 12 more than the record holder for shortest speakership. But the REAL lead story did not happen in Washington yesterday. WHICH idiot Republican becomes the NEW Future Former Speaker of the House doesn’t much matter. Because the real lead story is summarized by the phrase AND NOW WE WAIT. Turns out that not only did Judge Arthur Engoron issue a gag order against Trump hours after Trump attacked the clerk of Engoron’s court room yesterday, but he issued a gag order against Trump less than a day after he WARNED Trump’s lawyers informally that their client needed to shut the eff up. Engoron – of whom they should be installing a statue outside his courtroom – provided a template for Judge Tonya Chutkan for a week from next Monday. Judge Engoron not only gagged Trump but HOW he gagged him ALSO gags Junior Trump and Eric Trump: “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I won’t tolerate it. Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff.” But this trial is ultimately MOST valuable because what we just saw was the if-then scenario play out. Engoron didn’t just issue a gag order because Trump attacked the clerk. He had WARNED HIM, via his lawyers, informally but clearly. And twelve hours later Trump did it anyway. Memo to Judge Chutkan: Get ready to issue a gag order, on penalty of revoking his bail, after that hearing October 16. And get ready to have to enforce it. B-Block (24:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Campbell Brown is out as news chief at Meta/Facebook so I have to tell you the story of how CNN's president was forced to hire her instead of me at 8 PM there (and they then all got fired), which in turn means I have to tell the story of how Brown's Meta colleague Anne Kornblut wound up being interviewed by the MSNBC anchor (Savannah Guthrie) her husband left her for. And then there's Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who apologized for referencing Nazis in the Republican Party. Why? There ARE Nazis in the Republican Party. We call them...Nazis. C-Block (33:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's baseball playoff time again, so it's time for me to tell you about the year I was in the middle of a riot in Fenway Park, and I overheard a Yankee swearing at his manager in the clubhouse, and I bought - and chose not to air - videotape of Roger Clemens nearly getting into a fistfight with a Yankee fan before Game 3 of the World Series.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 47: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Yeah, I get it: I want my MTV (Motion To Vacate). Gaetz is running for governor. It’s a STUNT. It doesn’t matter WHICH Russian Republican runs their spitshow. What MATTERS is: Jack Smith is goddamned serious about the Gag Order. And new polling shows that the NATION is serious about disqualifying Trump under the 14th Amendment: 51 percent in favor, only 34 percent opposed. Judge Chutkan will convene a hearing on October 16 – two weeks from yesterday – on the Jack Smith gag order request and Smith is even more damned serious about it than I dreamed. HIS late night answer to TRUMP’S late night answer pointed out that the newest threats he made – the post about the death penalty for treason for what Trump considered treason – weren’t directed at Milley but directed at OTHER potential witnesses who might want to avoid those kinds of THREATS let aloner anything else. More over, the Special Counsel’s office noted that it doesn’t REALLY matter whether Trump did or DIDN’T buy a Lugar at a white supremacist gun shop in South Carolina. A purchase would obviously be a violation of his bail and there’d be no way for Chutkan not to revoke it and not to put him behind bars until the trial starts. But the OTHER option was ALSO an abuse of the terms under which Chutkan did not end Trump’s freedom in the first place.“The defendant either purchased a gun in violation of the law and his conditions, or seeks to benefit from his supporters’ mistaken belief that he did so.” Even LYING about buying a gun is a way in which Trump has exploited the absence of a gag order to remind his cult – AND WITNESSES – that he is a man dedicated to violence and the fomenting OF violence. Also Trump inadvertently CONFESSED to January 6th, and at his fraud trial he reminded us that his only genuine emotions are about money, and losing it makes him angry and stupid. So anybody debating him needs to make him ANGRY ABOUT MONEY. Also Trump said he’d rather be electrocuted than eaten by sharks and to that I say: you’ve got a deal! B-Block (18:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Did you know Governor Sarah Huckabee of Arkansas is being buried by a scandal over a $19,000 Podium? George Santos has a Constitutional argument against the new California senator. Unfortunately it appears he made it up. And speaking of making it up, Fox's Rachel Compost-Doofy is shocked Gov. Newsom didn't appoint the woman SHE KNEW would be the next Senator (22:03) IN SPORTS: The passing of Tim Wakefield and the guilt of Curt Schilling. Baseball managers Buck Showalter and Phil Nevin were fired even if the teams won't say so. The baseball playoffs have next to no meaning for me, maybe because 45 years ago yesterday I attended - a reported - the greatest playoff game imaginable. K.O. reports from the Bucky F'ing Dent Game. C-Block (32:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: One of the managers offed as the baseball season ended was Buck Showalter, who 30 years ago provided one of my favorite sports anecdotes and later made fun of himself for it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 46: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:40) IT'S STEVIE DAY! If you heard Friday's regular episode of the podcast, you've heard all of this before but I wanted to emphasize this story because, well, because it IS Stevie Day. 11 years ago today, totally by happenstance, with no plan, no rhyme, and no reason, I instantaneously became a dog person. All because of a little Maltese who liked to give kisses (and still does) B-Block (16:37) IT'S STEVIE DAY - PART TWO: She has fought through everything: cancer, immune disease, mobility issues, and never stopped smiling, and never believing that any human meant her anything but good (and still does). And now I have four dogs and I truly was, eleven years ago today, born again in dogs :-) C-Block (31:12) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 45: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: "Join the ultimate strike against the globalist class," Trump shouted at his crowd in Michigan. And of course that is a double dogwhistle because to antisemites like Trump, "Globalist" means Jews, but also has a CLEAN meaning: dealing with the interconnections of the modern world, internationally. And he got away with “strike” there because he was nominally addressing the labor action by the United Auto Workers. Of course if you think he was telling his cult of thugs to take labor action against those dealing with the interconnections of the modern world, congratulations on awakening from your nine-year coma. Trump began to covertly attack Jewish people as soon as his presidential campaign began, he threatened globalists at the United Nations, this is nothing new. But the use of the term “ultimate strike” should set off any remaining alarm bells that have not been ringing continuously all this time. This is not a complicated calculation: if Trump determined that he could get elected by beginning a full-fledged attack on Jewish people, Jewish influence, he’d do it. When we speak of him as having the soul of a mass murderer, that’s what we mean. People do not have any actual VALUE to him. Re-enact the holocaust in whole or in part? To get re-elected? To stay out of jail? Of course he’d do that. And to any group you could name. If he became convinced that he could regain the White House by rounding up and killing all the… left-handed people, he’d do it. There is also more to the attack on the news media for "country-threatening treason." The former editor of The Washington Post confirms are worst fears. When Trump and Kushner demanded they meet to discuss how they could 'make it up' to Trump for reporting on Russia, the executives went as summoned, and negotiated. There is the danger in how the media has treated Trump and will treat him: it's all a negotiation for him, and it's all a negotiation for them. Speaking of which, Melania has reportedly re-done her pre-nup. Which Tee Box did she get in the new deal? And as House Republicans prepare to sack Kevin McCarthy and replace him with Tom Emmer, who best represented their hilarious 'Impeachment Inquiry' launch? Jonathan Turkey saying he didn't see any evidence worthy of an impeachment? Or Congressman Chuck Edwards, who couldn't pronounce any of the names or words in the sentence they gave him to read - particularly: "Oligarch." B-Block (25:22) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Stew Peters and guest demand execution of Taylor Swift and Travis Kielce for vaccine advocacy. Hey, Matt Gaetz? Why the long face? And Curt Schilling - Scumbag - reveals a former teammate is fighting cancer even though the former teammate wanted to keep it private. (30:42) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL, PART 1: Saturday is Stevie Day. You've heard this story before? Well here's your chance to hear it again. A boy and his first dog (ok, the boy was 53). C-Block (46:17) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL, PART 2: Stevie makes her cameo.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 44: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: THE NEW TRUMP FATWA. Trump has now threatened another judge. As usual, by inference, and with just enough space between him and the call for violence that he can deny it when it happens. It’s another Trump Fatwa and he personally is now issuing more of them – and more often – than is the government of Iran. So Tanya Chutkan’s coming decision – next week? The week after? - on the Jack Smith gag order looms even larger than before and bluntly she should skip the gag order and go directly to revoking his bail and putting him behind bars. Since last Friday he has tried to incite someone to kill the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and has accused the news media of “country-threatening treason” and promised to make its people “pay a very big price” for criticizing him. Since last month he has threatened the Special Counsel and the District Attorney of Fulton County Georgia and the District Attorney of Manhattan and the Attorney General of the State of New York and a woman he has sexually assaulted and an ex-president he doxed and everybody in the country who might fit under the phrase “If you go after me, I’m coming after you” and Judge Chutkan herself. Now it's Judge Arthur Engoron: “We need justice in our country! This political hack judge… must be stopped.” The only hack who must be stopped - by the law - is Trump. Chutkan has every right to do so, and she must. I now have slightly more hope after she slapped him around for 20 pages last night, rejecting a demand that she recuse herself because she had referenced him while sentencing other January 6 conspirators. She called his interpretation of her remarks quote “hypersensitive, cynical and suspicious” – yeah, that’s him pretty much. And then there’s Trump’s accomplices: The news media. The New York Times makes a phenomenal journalistic failure that protects Trump, and while the Fascists have a giant pretend-news propaganda infrastructure bankrolled by billionaires, the sad truth is, the “Liberal Media”relies for its funding on: Commercials on Maddow's show, for Dr. Scholl’s Skin Tag Remover. Biden, Democrats, and democracy itself needs its rich people to spend to fight back against the Fox/Alex Jones/Joe Rogan machine with something promoting actual liberal-oriented news. And damned soon. B-Block (30:57) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Paul Ryan is nice enough to slam Kevin McCarthy AND Aaron Rodgers. The NFL is simultaneously trying to convince people it's not racist while also advertising adjacent to the posts by racist accounts on Twitter. And why has the Bidens' dog bit another Secret Service agent? One Fox idiot has the answer - he must've gotten into that cocaine they found at the White House. C-Block (36:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Apropos of the idea that the vast right wing conspiracy is mostly about controlling the narrative, let me re-tell the day 15 years ago when the Republicans told Tom Brokaw to either get me off MSNBC's coverage of the rest of the presidential campaign, or watch as their candidate refused to show up to the Presidential Debate Brokaw was to moderate. Brokaw not only did it, but he boasted about it in a New York Times article that's still online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 300! - COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Judge Tanya Sue Chutkan is about to become the most important person in the 2024 presidential campaign and maybe the most important person in the fight to prevent the sabotaging of democracy. Because if Judge Chutkan sides WITH Trump and AGAINST Jack Smith in the Gag Order case, she will be enabling Trump to claim that everything he does – every threat he makes, every conspiracy theory he stokes, every lie about Biden he proclaims – has been authorized by a Federal Judge and YOU cannot stop him and the LAW cannot stop him and the CONSTITUTION cannot stop him and THAT fresh hell will make the current one read like a quick dance in the spring rain. To read the full 25-page Trump Gag Order filing is an exercise by Trump to get the Judge – and thus the Courts – to sign off on every one of his anti-democracy rages and every call for assassination by proxy and to exonerate him on January 6th and to enshrine him as the REAL victim in this case. The Trump lawyers response filed late Monday night BURSTS with Trumpian claims of rights that do not exist, and precedents that do not authorize his dangerous rhetoric, and constitutional means to DESTROY the constitution that are not part of the American system of representative government. But if Judge Chutkan finds for Trump, he will immediately claim they are ALL in effect and he will exploit them and 482 days from now we will be living in an authoritarian state. Trump’s lawyers gave away the sub-plot in the first sentence. Literally. The answer to the Smith demand for a Gag Order begins: “President Trump respectfully submits this response in opposition to the prosecution’s motion to impose unconstitutional prior restraints." If Chutkan agrees with Trump, Trump will proceed and boast that his threat that kicked this all off – If you go after me, I’m coming after you – is constitutionally protected. He might as well put it on bumper stickers and MAGA hats. B-Block (20:15) IN SPORTS: In memory of Brooks Robinson, the greatest 3rd Baseman but a greater person (22:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: For the 20th consecutive year ex-pitcher Curt Schilling tells you who he really is. Benny Johnson lies about what Biden said and gets pounded - by the Right? And RFK Junior grabs and kisses yet another 3rd Rail: 9/11 Trutherism and Idiocy. C-Block (28:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: There is a Hall of Fame of people who have helped to ruin American journalism and I ran into one of the immortals the other day. His name is Andy Lack, he ran NBC News into the ground, and among other things he put Chuck Todd on Meet The Press and mainstreamed Megyn Kelly. Now you get to hear what a jackass he is.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 42: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Now we get the just-before-midnight answer to the Gag Order request, as insane as anything else since Friday, written not for legal purposes but to please Trump. Quote: “the proposed Gag Order is nothing more than an obvious attempt by the Biden Administration to unlawfully silence its most prominent political opponent, who has now taken a commanding lead in the polls. Keenly aware that it is losing that race for 2024, the prosecution seeks to unconstitutionally silence Trump’s (but not President Biden’s) political speech on pain of contempt)." Trump’s ambulance chasers slipstream behind his threats against NBC, referring to “President Biden and his surrogates (including those in the corporate media.” They dance along the lines of absurdity. There has been no intimidation of witnesses because quote “no witness has suggested that he or she will not testify because of anything president Trump has said.” It is impossible to believe their rhetoric will have any impact on Judge Chutkan. It doesn’t have to. It was written so Trump could get excited by it. Jack Smith has until Saturday to answer. And the late response was only the last of a string of insane moments by Trump or on his behalf. Yesterday - ten days after Hunter Biden was indicted for buying a gun when he was legally ineligible to do so… Trump in South Carolina bought a gun or tried to, when he was legally ineligible to do so. And all THAT followed worse. Under 18 US Code 4241 a prosecutor can request that the judge order that the defendant must undergo a psychiatric or psychological examination to determine if he’s competent to stand trial and unable to aid in his own defense and when it is proved that he isn’t, the judge can order him institutionalized and Jack Smith should make the request and Judge Chutkan should grant it because in the 72 hours before his lawyers were supposed to submit an argument against issuing a gag order on him as they did with exceptional lameness just before the clock struck midnight eastern last night after he’d threatened the court and tried to poison the jury pool, Trump demanded that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff be executed, insisted NBC News was guilty of something he made up called “Country Threatening Treason” because it had published a poll about him that he didn’t like, promised that as president he would make it and other news organizations “pay a big price,” and argued that the homes of all Democratic Senators be raided just cause, and bought a gun or tried to, and conflated the Bush Brothers and I don’t mean Billy. B-Block (22:45) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS (28:08): The gold bars are funny but isn't the issue with Senator Menendez the, you know, spying? Fox News was kind enough to just disprove the Hunter Biden/Joe Biden/Burisma phony story. And after she gets 35,000 people to register to vote in one day, a GOP propaganda site attacks... Taylor Swift? AND her fans? THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD (28:08): Congresswoman Sage Steele? The district they want her to run in wraps around but excludes the ESPN campus. Last year the Congressman won a Family Award. This year his missus says he's abandoned his family. And Kathleen Parker, who infamously wrote it'd be ok even if Trump won, tops herself: insisting Trump is "well-dressed." C-Block (33:25) THE FINAL WORDS ON DAVID BROOKS AND HIS $78 WHISKEYBURGER TWEET. Obviously, whose words would be better to use, than Brooks' own?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 41: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has gotten up in Iowa and announced if he again seizes power he will invoke the Alien Enemies Act and declare America has been INVADED and quote “immediately” detain and deport non-citizens of his choice who are older than 14 Not undocumented immigrants. Non-citizens. People who are here legally. People who are working TOWARDS becoming citizens. DACA’s and Dreamers and Refugees and Immigrants. At his sole discretion: The Alien Enemies Act gives the president the authority to detain ANYONE – but on the pretext that he is “removing all known or suspected gang members… drug dealers, cartel members from the United States…” Suspected. Suspected by him. So, anybody who isn’t a citizen. Anybody. Anybody. Anybody out of 22,000,000 non-citizens. The president immediately gains this power for himself, when he quote “makes public proclamation” that a quote “invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation”and THAT is why you hear the Boeberts and Greenes and Stephen Millers talk endlessly of “invasion” and Trump’s rivals climb all over each other to threaten war-by-other-names against Mexico. Oh but Trump didn't do it last time! History is littered with the bones – literally – of those who thought that because a madman did not do the most mad thing he said he would do… THAT time that he’d never do it. It is its own form of madness to think Trump’s first actual policy statement in nearly three years that wasn’t about the 2020 election is just for show. It is its own form of madness to forget Trump’s promise of retribution, and his own burning, seething, sadistic, animating sense of vengeance. And where do these detained non-citizens go? These places would in fact be camps, of some kind, and the living arrangements would necessarily be cramped, crowded, congested, confined — oh, what IS the word I’m looking for? Concentrated! That’s it! The camps would be concentrated. Camps. With Concentration. B-Block (27:12) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Rupert Murdoch retires to become Chairman Emeritus of Fox and News Corp. This is a man so evil that a dying television playwright with three months to live literally said he named his cancer "Rupert" after Murdoch so he had something to fight, and that if he hadn't wanted to spend his last months creating a new series, he would've murdered Murdoch on behalf of mankind. This was 29 years ago. This man is Osama Bin-Journalist. Stop rationalizing that he deserves some kind of praise because he dominated his field. So has Trump. So did Hitler. The story of writer Dennis Potter and Rupert - and how Rupert fired me personally, after I followed his rules. And may he burn in hell and the sooner the better. C-Block (55:20) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: His delightful story of every great dog you had to - and willingly made - excuses for: "The Dog That Bit People."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 40: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has descended into full-fledged panic over the Possible Gag Order and either he is exaggerating for effect – what a shock – or, more likely, his lawyers, preparing an answer to Jack Smith’s request to Judge Chutkan that is due Monday, told him SOMETHING that set his hair on fire and you know the dangers of combustion when spray paint is mixed with open flames. And that imagery is more than a joke about his bottle blondness. It is a forecast of things to come. We are headed to a legal crisis over Trump’s social media posts and his refusal to accede to the rule of law and I don’t know where this ends but at the far end of political science fiction, where it ends is a shootout between United States Marshals and United States Secret Service. His bail – his NOT being held in a jail cell in the District of Columbia until trial starts – is dependent on him NOT defying the law. As I said last week, at some point, whatever limitations Chutkan imposes upon him, WHEN he violates them, whether it’s the first time or the fiftieth – he is NOT going to surrender. He is not going to let them put him in prison. They are going to have to go and get him. And what happens THEN? It seems madness to risk the lives of Marshals or Secret Service to protect this semi-sentient pile of feces. But, what? You’re going to have the Secret Service agents protecting him turn around an arrest him? Biden is going to order the head of the Secret Service to order his men to stand down when the Marshals arrive? Trump is going to see the photo-shoot-value in an actual perp walk? I’m not counting on the last one. Rolling Stone now reports that as you’d expect, the I-don’t-think-about-jail crap he gave to the gullible Kristen Welker in last Sunday’s stenography class is nonsense. Quoting: “In the past several months, Donald Trump has had a burning question for some of his confidants and attorneys: Would the authorities make him wear, quote, “one of those jumpsuits” in prison?... Three sources familiar with his comments say he’s been aking lawyers and other people close to him what a prison sentence would look like for a former American president. Would he be sent to a ‘club fed’ style prison… or a bad prison? Would he serve out a sentence in a plush home confinement?... those who’ve heard him ask these questions about a hypothetical sentencing tell Rolling Stone that it’s clear the gravity of his mounting legal peril is GETTING to Trump." As an aside, I understand Jann Wenner is asking the same questions. Also: Cassidy Hutchinson's book includes a sexual assault accusation against Rudy Giuliani. It's the worst sexual misconduct accusation against him in nearly four months. Also Lin Wood flips on the entire Trump crowd. And a tweet from Junior Trump announces his father had died. He was hacked. We think. B-Block (18:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: JD Vance sets some kind of record by averaging more than one lie per sentence in a tweet about an "American journalist held hostage by Ukraine" who is none of the above. Congresswoman Victoria Spartz asks Merrick Garland a question and if he's still thinking about the hearing he's probably asking 'what the hell did she SAY?' And James O'Keefe's obsession with becoming a musical star has now led to the closure of Project (In Vino) Veritas. But who will think of the cast of O'Keefe-Homa!? C-Block (25:39) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: If Rudy is back in the news then the question: "what happened to Rudy?" is also back in the news and I'll give you the answer: whatever it is, it happened in 1995 or earlier.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 39: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: NOW the Deep State has done it! NOW the Deep State has made its 27-Dimensional Chess move to cement the place of THE conspiracy in place and it will be left only to a few patriots and the Dilbert Guy to carry the torch of truth. Because WE knew it didn’t add up because Ray Epps had never been charged and now the evil genius bastards have CHARGED RAY EPPS. He could get up to 90 days and be fined maybe 500 dollars! American! The conspiracy to frame Donald Trump is the greatest conspiracy in the history of the world and it was designed to make it look like Trump lost the 2020 election and destroy Jon Voight’s chances of winning a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars and make Joe Rogan look stupid. Well, MORE stupid. And then when the LEAK happened – the provocateur – the FBI plant who started it all and whose fault it all is – Ray Epps talked all the Trump supporters into going into the Capitol even though the other part of the conspiracy says everybody who went INTO the Capitol was Antifa - when it was revealed by the investigative team of Maria Bartiromo and Cat Turd that the feds left one nearly invisible loose thread – that the Deep State claimed Ray Epps wasn’t a plant yet they never CHARGED Ray Epps, they suddenly DID charge Ray Epps yesterday and the masterminds behind this vast earth-shattering conspiracy decided to cover their tracks and silence all protest forever by…charging him with one misdemeanor count of disruptive conduct and he’s pleading guilty today. And yet there it is, across Right Wing Looney Tunes land, the utter conviction, the absolute certainty from each of them that they alone have noticed that Epps was charged with one negligible offense and has seemingly already made a plea deal and that the rest of the world didn’t notice – everybody but Catturd, who valiantly stood up and braved assassination probably by typing “You’re not fooling anyone, Feds!" Oh god are they stupid. And The Stupid was all around the circuit yesterday: somebody used Matt Gaetz's printer to produce a copy of his resolution to oust McCarthy as Speaker, then left it in a Baby-Changing Station to be found by a reporter. Tim Scott was stupid enough to attack unions. Trump attacked Biden with the 25th Amendment and got everything ABOUT the 25th Amendment wrong. And 46 Republican Senators wrote a letter complaining about the relaxed attire rules in the Senate when the owner of their party wears bronzer, spray paints his hair, and lives inside a baseball cap. B-Block (19:52) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Peter Baker thinks the job of the president of the United States has actually been made tougher by something written by a guy who is evidently a columnist for The Washington Post. Add it to the list: Trump either doesn't know how the 25th Amendment work or thinks his cultists don't. And a Texas school district fires a teacher for reading The Diary of Anne Frank to 8th Graders because it was too sexy. C-Block (27:32) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: My least favorite near-death experience? United Nations Week here in Fun City! My MOST favorite near-death experience? When the president of MSNBC chased me around the studios threatening to destroy me. God that was funny.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 38: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump staffers are flipping faster than fry cooks at Fat Burger! two MORE of his gang members have flipped on him. Flipped on him evidently without getting anything in return even immunity. In one case, serving as a de facto government agent gathering and bringing in EVIDENCE against Trump. And in the other, flipping on him without – apparently – telling the truth: just making stuff up about him to save themselves by sinking HIM. In an almost comedic turn, Trump assistant/Gal Friday/factotum Molly Michael is telling federal investigators that he used to write to-do lists for her on the BACKS OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS HE HAD IMPROPERLY RETAINED. Documents with visible classification MARKINGS on them. Handed to Trump. IN the Oval Office. Which he used as scrap paper and handed to the lowest level White House staffer. They wouldn’t have accepted it as a plot device on “Veep.” The To-Do Doo-Doo. Also according to ABC News, Trump found out LAST YEAR that the FBI wanted to talk to her, so he told her – she says - quote “You don’t know anything about the boxes,” unquote. Thing is – she still doesn’t know what he MEANT by that. There’s always money in the banana stand. Meanwhile Jeff Clark – the man who would be Attorney General – has become the fifth of the Trump 19 to try to get his Atlanta charges moved to Federal Court and his lawyer has told the judge that he should grant their motion because of one letter. It’s the letter he wrote but was prevented from sending after the 2020 election from the Justice Department to top officials in Georgia saying that the DOJ had reason to doubt that Georgia’s election results were legitimate. Clark claims he was told to do so BY Trump, that he couldn’t have done so UNLESS Trump told him to. His lawyer told Judge Steve Jones quote “They say he was acting outside of his lane. The president PUT it in his lane,” unquote. Meanwhile it says something that when Trump posts an antisemitic meme and that isn't the lead story. Trump has found and posted a graphic meme that reads quote “Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America and Israel because you believed false narratives! Let’s hope you learned from your mistake and make better choices moving forward! Happy New Year!” Last October he also threatened America’s Jews and not via meme. He personally said they “have to get their act together… before it is too late!” and had better support him for supporting Israel and once again implied that they were Jewish first and American second and no, the fact that he used to keep a book of Hitler’s speeches in a cabinet next to his bed is nothing to worry about. Trump is a dangerous anti-semite. And this iteration is terrifying, because it is about the support of "Evangelicals" and it is a very dark thing indeed because the Evangelicals love Trump because he thinks he's going to help them convert (or get rid of) all the Jews so they can enjoy the Rapture. B-Block (30:52) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Dedicated to Lauren Boebert breaking up with her Beetlejuice beau (at least it had a Happy Ending): Nope, I was right, Maddow said NOTHING about the NBC/MSNBC Welker-Trump disaster. She told me success would ruin her as a person. She got that right. Also Elon Musk thinks he can charge everybody for Twitter. And Bill Maher makes up a phony excuse for backing off his plan to Scab and cross WGA picket lines. Reality was: his career would've ended. C-Block (38:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: How's your right side, just above the belt? Any pain? Any sharp searing blinding you-almost-blacked-out pain after you stick your finger into the area then remove it? Well my friend your appendix is on the fritz! Now don't do what I did 16 years ago and WAIT TO SEE THE DOCTOR UNTIL TWO DAYS LATER WHEN YOU ARE DYING OF SEPTICEMIA!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 37: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) BREAKING: Have Meet The Press staffers including Kristen Welker violated NBC News’s own WRITTEN JOURNALISTIC guidelines – what it called “The NBC News Employee Handbook” – in failing to correct or fact-check Trump or in some significant way warn Meet The Press viewers yesterday that he was spreading provable falsehoods on their network in a pre-taped interview that provided NBC News three full days to document those falsehoods? Did NBC News make a deal with Trump’s campaign to make sure that didn’t happen – to NOT materially fact-check him on-the-air during the disastrous Kristen Welker interview? I do NOT yet know with complete assurance the answer to these questions. I DO know they are among many questions being asked INSIDE NBC right now, in part because of ONE tweet, and in part because of the awful realization that some sort of illicit pre-arrangement is an almost BETTER explanation than that Welker, and Meet The Press, and NBC News, abrogated virtually every one of its journalistic responsibilities in a Chris Licht-level dumpster fire that has left the long time viability of Welker, and her Executive Producer, and the nearly 76 year old program itself, up in the air. I do NOT know for certain that there is an internal investigation. I DO know veterans within NBC News are pushing for one based on the following timeline: Welker and NBC News reporter Dasha Burns were among a dozen Washington insiders who were quote “wining and dining” with Trump thugs Jason Miller, Steven Cheung and Chris LaCivita at a steakhouse called “Rare” the night before the Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee. The dinner was August 22nd, Welker had been named the host-in-waiting for Meet The Press on June 5th, the interview was suddenly announced late in the day last Wednesday, the 13th, conducted on Thursday the 14th. Contacts or discussions between Meet The Press and the Trump campaign about editorial restrictions - at that dinner or elsewhere - would be a major issue. The more PRESSING problem is: at exactly 10 A-M Eastern yesterday, NBC News posted on its website, a fact check of Welker’s interview. At 10:13 A-M its “Meet The Press” account tweeted this, verbatim: Quote “Former President Trump made a spate of false and misleading comments about immigration, foreign policy, abortion and more in a wide-ranging interview with Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker,” unquote. The problem is that the NBC News Employee handbook requires – or required – I was never given one, though I was given access to one, and I haven’t personally seen a revised copy and am relying on others quoting it to me – that if they knowingly broadcast or publish lies false or misleading comments or information by anyone in any non-live format without a disclaimer or caveat or… a fact-check – they have violated the NBC News Employee codes and are potentially subject to punishment up to and including suspension and termination. On the one hand, NBC News is posting a fact-check of what, at 11:30 AM, it tweeted were “at least 11 times during President Trump’s interview" when Trump was not truthful. "Here’s our fact check." While on the other hand, someone in a position of authority at NBC News decided – made certain – that there was no SIMILAR fact check ON the television broadcast itself, other than a passing mention directing viewers to the website. But in confirming Trump quote “made a spate of false and misleading comments” in a piece posted ON THE NBC NEWS WEBSITE, they are underscoring that they failed to clearly flag and disclaim and caveat – and WARN – that Trump was MAKING those “false and misleading comments” on their television network, and in all the clips shown on MSNBC, CNBC, and the NBC owned and affiliated statements. The Meet The Press telecast, of course, SKIPPED anything resembling the online fact-check. B-Block (25:16) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: ABC's John Parkinson boasts about shouting at President Biden asking if he'll pardon his son - as he visits the churchyard where his son is buried. News organizations ignore a Trumpist Terrorist near the Biden home (if it had been Kavanaugh's house they'd be talking martial law) and Drew Barrymore sees the light but Bill Maher is still a Scumbag SCAB. C-Block (31:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A fitting time to bring up 2009 and the day Jeff Zucker called us in to his NBC President's office and announced that our corporate boss Jeff Immelt was ready to take MSNBC off the air because his mommy was a fan of Bill O'Reilly and was mad that I was criticizing Bill. Seriously.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 36: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:30) BULLETIN: Gag Order now. Jail, later. Jack Smith has asked Judge Tonya Chutkan to shut Trump up and there is the tantalizing possibility that he wants her to at least threaten him with revocation of his bail and the terms of his release and that would mean jail. Smith leaves the penalty TO Judge Chutkan. But he writes “The court should ensure that public statements by the defendant and his agents do not prejudice these criminal proceedings. The defendant’s repeated, inflammatory public statements regarding the District of Columbia, the Court, prosecutors and potential witnesses are substantially likely to materially prejudice the jury pool, create fear among potential jurors, and result in threats or harassment to individuals he singles out…” That is strong language that Smith couches as if – to be blunt – it isn’t. Quote: “The Government proposes two narrowly tailored orders that impose modest, permissible restrictions on prejudicial extrajudicial conduct." What Smith is accusing Trump of – and what Smith is asking Chutkan to DO – has bearings on Fani Willis’s prosecution of Trump there. You may recall that the Judge’s warnings to Trump about the terms of his release – the fact that he has been permitted to remain free on bail – are FAR more explicit than what Jack Smith has gotten so far in Florida or Washington: “The defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against any witness…” and yet Smith’s document says Trump has threatened witnesses. “The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media.” Jack Smith’s motions doesn’t just quote the threats and intimidation in Trump’s “posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual” – it actually includes reproductions of images of TEN of them. If Judge Chutkan finds against Trump in Washington, Trump could be immediately found guilty of violating his bail in Georgia. Trump replied by calling him quote “Deranged Jack Smith” again and referring to himself in the third person again and by mastering sophistry again by explaining that his poll numbers mean he can say anything he wants and claiming quote “I am not allowed to COMMENT? They leak, lie and sue and they won’t allow me to SPEAK? How else would I explain that Jack Smith is deranged…” This is not about the 1st Amendment. This is not even about the most extreme theoretical example of the 1st Amendment: the cliché about yelling fire in a crowded theater. This is about a man who yells fire in a crowded theater, and then goes to every theater in the country and yells fire again. This is about a creature who believes himself omnipotent and untouchable. This is about a potential scenario in which – if not in response to THIS filing by Jack Smith, then by SOME filing by SOME prosecutor at SOME point after SOME high number of these violations in one of these cases – a judge has to send federal or state marshals to apprehend Trump and bring him to a jail or prison for detention. He is not going to stop – he does not understand the concept of having to stop. He will have to be forced to. You can insert your own thoughts about the implications if he resists arrest. One thing that Trump and his lawyers and his apologists and his cultists cannot say, is that they have not been warned. “The fact that he’s running a political campaign has to yield to the orderly administration of justice,”Judge Chutkan told the Trump lawyer Lauro on the 11th of last month. “If that means he can’t say exactly what he wants to say about witnesses in this case, that’s how it has to be. Even arguably ambiguous statements from parties or their counsel, if they can be reasonably interpreted to intimidate witnesses or to prejudice potential jurors, can threaten the jurors,” Judge Chutkan continued, on August 11th. “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.” Judge, he’s not going to stop. You’re going to have to lock him up. Do it now. B-Block (19:02) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Lauren Boebert of the anti-drag party, is dating a bar owner who reportedly hosted a drag party. Drew Barrymore re-starts her talk show even though the writers are on strike. That makes her a SCAB. Bill Maher re-starts his "comedy" show even though the writers are on strike (and he insults the writers in the process) and he is a SCAB. (27:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I didn't know until 2009 that Maher and I met at Cornell in 1978 and in less than a minute he'd been so obnoxious I was ready to sock him. In a terrific irony considering his scabbing for his corporate masters, way back then he called me a "corporate sellout." C-Block (43:00) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: The immortal short story "The Night The Bed Fell."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 35: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Congratulations, Kevin McCarthy on a unique feat: impeaching YOURSELF. McCarthy and the Republicans got their wish – the framework of a Joe Biden Impeachment and in less than 72 hours they have so COMPLETELY obscured it and overshadowed it and knocked it off the front pages that not even the right wing outlets are talking about IT, they’re talking about McCARTHY. It’s going so well for Soon-To-Be-Former-House-Speaker Kevin McCarthy that a senior Republican lawmaker has now told Semafor News that this ends when quote, “The whole family kills each other. I think we’re close to that right now. We are in maybe the Godfather TWO stage.” McCarthy that he met with his House Conference, dared them to oust him as Speaker, and then swore at them. “Go ahead. I’m not (effing) scared of it… move the (effing) motion.” And a Republican Congressional aide says that the Freedom Caucus members are quote “hellbent on losing the majority” for the GOP in the House. McCarthy, who was not smart enough to KNOW the story of Newt Gingrich's implosion under similar impeachment circumstances in 1998 (let alone use it as a template to avoid creating his current drama in which he is not only the hostage but the guy who showed the hostage takers how to TAKE the hostage) is probably not smart enough – when it comes to this - to quit. So the House will suspend while they hose down what’s left of him off the walls and then if we’re all real quiet, through our windows and doors will come the faint but unmistakable sound of President Biden laughing his ass off. Meanwhile, the Kristen Welker “Big Splash” sitdown for her Meet The Press Debut was arguably WORSE than expected. They throw clips on Nightly News with Lester Holt and in one he says to her he could’ve pardoned himself and he makes up stories about legal authorities and she smiles vapidly at him and instead of saying “You do know we all know you’re lying” or even just “honey please” she says “even if you were re-elected?” as if she were asking some nitwit on Dateline whether or not he’d go to the prom with the murder victim again. And she asks him what he thinks about Hunter Biden which is like seeing “For my next question, President Trump, free topic! Say whatever you want!” And THEN HE says “You mean because I challenge an election, they want to put me in jail?” and instead of saying something like – well, anything – she stares vapidly and they cut to Lester and Lester stares vapidly and then says “He had a pretty interesting answer” and you are reminded that Lester reached the apogee of his journalistic career in his cameo at the end of the movie “The Fugitive” in 1993. And as the GOP implodes, I sit here and I almost pray that somebody in the Democratic Party has the vision to say “the Republicans are in trouble, let’s make sure we make it far worse for them. THIS is the time: release the Comer," As the prospect looms that McCarthy will be ousted and somebody - maybe Oversight Chairman James Comer - will succeed him, now is the moment to push the 2015 allegations that surfaced when Comer ran for governor: He was credibly accused ago of physically and mentally abusing his college girlfriend from the early 1990’s, and credibly accused calling her mother and threatening the girlfriend’s life. And credibly accused of becoming “enraged” after finding that she had written-in his real name on the paperwork at the abortion clinic the quote “Pro-life” unquote Comer had driven her to, to end THEIR pregnancy oh and she still had that paperwork in a safe deposit box. B-Block (24:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Lauren Boebert of the anti-drag party, is dating a bar owner who reportedly hosted a drag party. Drew Barrymore re-starts her talk show even though the writers are on strike. That makes her a SCAB. Bill Maher re-starts his "comedy" show even though the writers are on strike (and he insults the writers in the process) and he is a SCAB. (32:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I didn't know until 2009 that Maher and I met at Cornell in 1978 and in less than a minute he'd been so obnoxious I was ready to sock him. In a terrific irony considering his scabbing for his corporate masters, way back then he called me a "corporate sellout." C-Block (47:45) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: The immortal short story "The Night The Bed Fell."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 34: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Judge Aileen Cannon! You have unsuspected depth! Trump’s novice judicial appointee has shocked Trump World by issuing a gag order not only limiting what he can say and when he can say it during his prosecution and trial for stealing top secret documents, but also limiting when he and his lawyers can see the war plans and other classified information he stole. Cannon’s ruling is almost everything Smith asked for. Any evidence marked classified? Trump can’t discuss it publicly. The evidence marked classified that Trump has lied about and said he DE-classified? Trump can’t discuss THAT publicly. The evidence marked classified that has become public knowledge without being officially de-classified? Trump can’t discuss THAT publicly. If he wants to listen to any of the classified audio it has to be on a hardline headset on a computer that has no internet or network connection! And she also has ruled co-defendant Walt Nauta cannot have access to any of the material, so that's one less chance of a pro-Trump leak. It's stunning. Also, the Illegal Impeachment Inquiry Trump is stage-managing from behind the scenes is going shockingly badly. It's morphed into the GOP-In-Crisis; in fact, into the GOP in Open Revolt. McCarthy accused Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida of conspiring with Democrat Eric Swalwell of California to get Swalwell placed back on the Intelligence Committee. McCarthy even posits that THAT is a front for something else, saying of Gaetz quote “this is really about an ethics complaint.” Gaetz came back last night and said “This is an abject lie from a sad and pathetic man who lies to hold on to power,” and Congressman you’ll have to be more SPECIFIC than that and USE McCarthy’s name in that statement because otherwise it could be about anybody in your party. Also: the McCarthy FBI whistleblower about Hunter Biden? A DIFFERENT FBI whistleblower has implied that the other one is lying. And Hunter Biden just sued a former Trump aide for illegally accessing the laptop. And then there's the other media shoe dropping. A month ago Kristen Welker was one of a dozen reporters who took a meal with three Trump goons. Today, Welker will pre-destroy her career as host of "Meet The Press" to get a sit-down with Trump. The Executive Producer of her show - who didn't make the cut to join the Countdown staff 20 years ago - actually says of this garish soulless nonjournalistic stunt “We are in the business of covering politics. It’s not our job to pick and choose the leaders. The American people get to do that. And so our job is to make sure that the American people understand who the people in power are, what they stand for, and what they plan to do.” It's not our job to STOP the arsonists, it's just our job to give equal coverage to the firefighters AND the arsonists. B-Block (26:54) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Mitt Romney's going to retire at the end of his Senate term. I wonder if anyone will notice. My GOD they're treating this like Daniel Webster leaving the Senate in 1850. In fact, Mitt Romney is one of the dumbest, least perceptive people ever in public service - a man so dim that it wasn't until after January 6th that he realized smart colleagues like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley might not actually think Trump had won but were just LYING FOR PERSONAL GAIN AT AMERICA'S COST. And for me, nothing will erase from my memory the day I awoke to find that Mitt had tweeted about me, complained about me, and as Tommy Vietor replied "It’s long past time to break ground on a Both Sides museum in Washington, DC. This comparison of the President of the United States to Keith Olbermann MUST be preserved for future generations." But it what Mitt was complaining ABOUT that will always resonate: that I had despoiled American politics by calling Trump a terrorist. Three months later Mitt was a virtual hostage inside the Capitol, pinned there by... Trump's terrorists. C-Block (38:43) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCKSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 33: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: The impeachment inquiry Kevin McCarthy has now unilaterally and personally declared against President Joe Biden is, in fact, illegal. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel – The TRUMP Administration Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel – ruled, on January 19th, 2020, that there can be no impeachment and no impeachment inquiry without… a vote. And that ruling is still on the books. Today. And Kevin McCarthy has violated it. Kevin McCarthy has broken the law. It’s Kevin McCarthy’s ILLEGAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY. Steven A. Engel, Assistant Attorney General Office of Legal Counsel. Same guy who wrote Bill Barr’s Muller summary for him, wrote: “The house of representatives must expressly authorize a committee to conduct an impeachment investigation and to use compulsory process IN that investigation before the committee may compel the production of documents of testimony in support of the House’s power of impeachment…the House itself must authorize an impeachment inquiry… no committee may undertake the momentous move from legislative oversight to impeachment without a delegation BY THE FULL HOUSE of such authority." Kevin McCarthy also wrote in 2019 that an impeachment inquiry without a vote is invalid. And he said it again TWELVE DAYS AGO. So any Democrat responding to this latest Republican urination on the constitution on behalf of Dementia J. Trump by NOT calling this a quote “ILLEGAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY” should be expelled. From the party, from office, from the country. McCarthy didn’t just break the rules, he just broke Trump rules and that fact should be hung around his neck every morning like one of those floral leis you get when you arrive in Hawaii. “Hello Mr. Speaker? And how’s your illegal impeachment inquiry TODAY?” And then there's the history lesson McCarthy needs to know about the last Speaker to try to make an impeachment out of nothing. Newt Gingrich impeached Bill Clinton - and lost HIS job while Clinton kept his. And then Gingrich's successor lost his job before even officially starting it. And then HIS successor wound up in prison for child rape. As an aside: Rudy Giuliani is complaining about betrayals of the real meaning of 9/11 this year: who gets to speak first at the memorial. B-Block (26:29) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: All this Rudy and Clinton and Gingrich talk got me nostalgic for a quarter century ago, when in my third month in the news business I went - in one week - from “why haven’t I seen you on SportsCenter lately" to “Good Evening, I’m anchoring live coverage of the State of the Union Address.” How to succeed in political broadcasting without really trying! C-Block (39:20) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK: An Aaron Rodgers postscriptSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 32: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Joe Biden really really really really really really really really really really should take Trump up on his Acuity Test Challenge. Trump alluded to it four times again yesterday - his belief he can PROVE he is the mentally competent one and Biden is the opposite. And Biden should jump on it with both feet. I know it sounds nuts and I know it sounds undignified and I know it sounds unpresidential and on the other hand this is America 2023 – right now we are the world’s leading distributor OF nuts and OF undignified and OF unpresidential. Ian Millhiser of Vox summed it up last night: coverage of Biden’s age, Biden’s acuity, is quote “starting to take on the same character as the 2016 But Her Emails coverage – find something that is genuinely suboptimal about the Democratic candidate, and dwell on it endlessly to ‘balance’ coverage of the criminal in charge of the GOP” unquote and he’s exactly right. The American Political Media Industrial Complex will bothsides this country to death – it all but succeeded in 2016 and again in 2020. After years of promoting idiots into key editorial decisions, after years of reaching the point where balanced news consists of the following: here is a pound of truth, here is a pound of bullshit. So if Biden responding to Trump’s psychotic post “I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch and sons, Biden, WSJ heads, to acuity tests! We can also throw some physical activity into it” lessens the chances of all of us, you know, winding up dead because our teeming millions of fellow Americans whose stupidity is too vast to be described by mere human language can’t tell the difference between an undulating mass of blubber and madness, and a nearly 51-year veteran of service to this nation in its Senate, its Vice Presidency and its presidency, whose worst critics and most virulent haters still insist is actually simultaneously an enfeebled skeleton and the indefatigable mastermind of an international conspiracy and actually runs this country AND Ukraine and will personally remove every gas stove and dishwasher in America with his bare hands – if Biden saying to Trump “acuity test? Feats of strength? Let’s go, Fat Boy” can actually change that narrative – he HAS to do it. Donald Trump IS bluff. His life is bluff. His alleged net worth is bluff. His patriotism is bluff. His intelligence is bluff. His marriage is bluff. His ability to remember his kids names is bluff. His business success is bluff. His hair is bluff. Once – just once – JUST ONCE someone needs to step down off the stage of dignified reluctance and CALL TRUMP’S BLUFF, slap him across the face, and keep slapping him until the crowd of support that forms around all bullies, backs away and looks for a different one. And now, for once, and ONLY for once, Joe Biden should imitate Trump. Employ the jujitsu. Do not ignore the punch. Do not evade the punch. GRAB the fist and pull it towards you. And even if what follows does not FINISH Trump on the American stage – and I honestly believe it could – it WILL re-set this essential narrative of competence and acuity and age and insanity. B-Block (23:46) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Another day, another one of my ex-bosses in trouble. It was Walter Isaacson, briefly and unhappily the president of CNN at the turn of the century, who wrote the book about Elon Musk that revealed Musk had been meddling in American foreign policy, on behalf of the Russians, against the Ukrainians. And now suddenly, what Isaacson wrote Musk did has been changed in The Washington Post - to make Musk look a little less guilty of violating The Logan Act. Which flashes me back to the day Isaacson, then president of CNN, called me in and asked me if CNN should have a comedy-oriented news hour and instead of asking if I'd like to try it, asked me if I thought Jon Stewart would. C-Block (44:35) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 31: SPECIAL COMMENT A-Block (1:43) Breaking: one-legged Trump invites rivals to an ass-kicking contest: “I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch and sons, Biden, WSJ heads, to acuity tests!” Today, impossibly, infuriatingly, embarrassingly, we have now circled back to what – with the benefit of hindsight – appears to be the saddest possible thing: THE highlight of his presidency – July 2020 or perhaps earlier, when he was told to memorize an endless string of complicated, unconnected, ill-defined words and then not just remember them, but remember them… in the exact order: PERSON. WOMAN. MAN. CAMERA. TV. “I proved I was all there,” Trump said proudly, horrifyingly, again and again and again, to every interviewer, at every campaign speech, to everybody who would hold still long enough, beaming like a toddler who managed to poop in the potty chair. Mostly. “I aced it. I aced the test.” We thought those were the most humiliating things he could ever say about himself and that test, which on the mental or intellectual soundness scale is slightly above ‘put a mirror under his nose to see if he’s still breathing.’ We were wrong. For last night, somebody told him about a Wall Street Journal poll showing 73 percent of registered voters believed Joe Biden is too old to run for president – a not unexpected number given that the poll was run by… a former TRUMP pollster. But in that context the second number was shocking. FORTY-SEVEN percent of registered voters in the pro-Trump poll think TRUMP is too old to run. And after a typo in the first sentence of his rage-post last night he got right to it. “A few years ago I was the only one to agree to a mental acuity test and ACED IT” (aced it, is in caps) “Well I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch and sons, Biden, WSJ heads, to acuity tests! I will name the place and the test, and it will be a tough one. Nobody will come even close to me!” He trashed the Journal. He called it globalist. Damaged goods. Phony and rigged. He is enraged again. And that was just the start. It devolved into his claim that the true test of NON-MENTAL strength… is golf. Quote: “We can also throw some physical activity into it. I just won the Senior Club Championship at a big golf club,” (as an aside, he means his own, he said so, earlier; he cheats at all golf courses; he cheats at HIS golf courses with impunity; he cheats, literally, over his wife’s dead body). “I just won the Senior Club Championship at a big golf club, with many very good players. To do so you need strength, accuracy, touch and above all, mental toughness. Ask Bret Baier (Fox) a very good golfer.” Yeah that’s who I’m going to, to decide mental and physical competence.“The Wall Street Journal and Fox are damaged goods and their failed DeSanctimonious push and stupid $780 million settlement.” And the final thrust of this intellectual argument that would make Einstein weep – all in caps – “MORONS!!!" Plus, oh, just confirmation that Clarence and Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow and Cleta Mitchell should all be in jail for life. B-Block (23:33) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: And now he belongs to the ages. Chuck Todd leaves "Meet The Press" thoroughly convinced he did a great job. Don't let BOTH SIDES OF THE DOOR HIT YOU IN THE ASS ON THE WAY OUT Chuck. (29:10) IN SPORTS: Embattled Spanish soccer boss quits after forced kiss. Michigan State football coach beats it after harassment and abuse charge. And we have to start rescheduling the tennis tournaments: it'll be 147 degrees at the Aussie by 2050. (32:13) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Sean Spicer's amazing Freudian slip about GOP candidates. Elon Musk says his Neuralinks don't kill monkeys. They only kill terminally ILL monkeys. And Greg Gutfeld demands doxing of all leftist protestors. C-Block (38:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 22 years after 9/11 and the names I remember: Tomas Reyes, Mike Tanner, so many others. And what is finally becoming clear and horrible: the straight flashing line from that awful day to this awful day and the rise of hateful, blind fascism personified by Trump.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 30: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: It's BACK. Asked at his disbarment hearing in California about his December 2020 email to Boris Epshteyn referring to Mike Pence OR CHUCK GRASSLEY presiding over the January 6 Electoral College Vote count and certification, John Eastman said he couldn't answer because of attorney-client privilege. Asked WHICH client, he answered "President Trump." And so it reignites. It is the Dracula of January 6 Coup Conspiracy threads. Each time it seems like it's been discredited, something like this arises. Now it's Eastman reigniting the belief that his email, and Grassley's bizarre statements on January 5 that they didn't expect Pence to preside, and Pence's refusal to get into the Secret Service vehicle during the coup, are all connected. And Grassley once again has changed his story. I'll review the whole saga and I'll predict: if somebody breaks John Eastman, they'll get the truth. So let's break him! Might be Fani Willis. She has now replied to Jim Jordan's fishing expedition with everything this side of an indictment of Jordan. The highlights are wonderful. Then there's Peter Navarro's conviction and the reappearance of Sign Woman to torture the pint-sized fascist. Roger Stone reveals he has no idea what would happen during a nuclear war. A self-identifying Air Force vet confronts Ron DeSantis about the Dollar Store slaughter and Ron and his aide and his dubious Surgeon General overreact so much it's clear they know the mass shooting was DeSantis's fault. And we have to strip Elon Musk of his security clearance and all government contracts; a Russian propagandist goaded him into shutting off the satellite phone system he gave the Ukrainians when Ukraine needed it the most. Musk feared it would precipitate a "Mini-Pearl Harbor." Or, did he say "Minnie Pearl Harbor?" And that new CNN poll that's so dire for President Biden? Small detail. They polled 900 Republicans and only 600 non-Republicans. B-Block (25:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mike Buckner, explorer, who says tomorrow he will prove the earth is flat and what we think is the horizon of a globe is actually "The Great Ice Wall." CNN Politics thinks I'm-All-Ears Tuberville doing China's bidding by hamstringing the US military is a "Dispute between Tuberville and Democrats." And disgraced Conservative Steven Crowder takes out an ad offering a laugh and based on the allegations he repeatedly exposed himself to men, I think we know what the laugh is. C-Block (31:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Ever heard one of those stories of the guy who happens to run into the automobile manufacturer early in the 20th Century? And the businessman is just merging together a bunch of small firms and he needs a name for the new big one and the stranger says "How about General Motors?" The story is true - and it's about my great grandfather.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 29: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Is Jack Smith trying to get the Judge in the Election Subversion Trial to detain Trump or fine Trump or start Trump’s trial early or issue a GAG ORDER against Trump? In Washington there is a behind-the-scenes courtroom drama playing out under seal, but which SEEMS to be – based on the half-second of light shining on it, the way a midnight thunderstorm illuminates everything and then just as quickly plunges it all back into darkness – which SEEMS to be an attempt by Jack Smith to get Judge Tanya Chutkan to PUNISH Donald Trump for shooting off his big bazoo in speeches and on social media. And that’s all we know about it. Smith has made a filing with Judge Chutkan’s court in which he alleges Trump has quote “made daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool.” That’s almost LITERALLY IT. The whole motion is just 345 words. The easy part is to imagine what “daily extrajudicial statements” Smith is reminding Chutkan about because they began in the overnight hours of Sunday and Monday August 14th, not 72 hours after Judge Chutkan warned Trump’s lawyer “I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case” and Trump said he understood and at 12:33 Eastern Daylight Time Trump posted “How dare lowlife prosecutor, deranged Jack Smith, break into my former Twitter account without informing me and indeed trying to completely hide this atrocity from me." Revoke his bail? Is that what Jack Smith has ASKED her to do? Treat him as the lethal threat he represents and revoke his bail – the terms of which he has obviously violated? Or fine him? Or institute a gag order on him? Or is it that other option? WHATEVER is going on we will know SOMETHING next week, I think. CNN reports Chutkan has ordered both sides to file additional briefs on whether or not the original Smith brief – which presumably is about or at least TOUCHES on “the defendant’s daily extrajudicial statements” -should be posted on the public record. Trump’s team is to answer by Monday and the Special Counsel must answer by Monday. There is also all sorts of other bad news for Trump, including his announcement that he's going to testify at his "trial." Which one? B-Block (24:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Anderson Cooper has no idea what his job is at CNN; Little Jimmy O'Keefe told Project Veritas "The show must go on - even if our staffer is drowning;" and Rand Paul thinks he's talking about the dead eyes of Mitch McConnell when he actually means the dead eyes of... himself. C-Block (31:37) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Never go see how the sausage is made and, as I learned 48 years ago this month at my college radio station, never go see how radio or TV or any media is made if you ever want to enjoy it again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 28: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: I call for the immediate arrest of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, representative of the 14th district of Georgia, for violating 18 US code 871 – “Threats against the President and Successors to the Presidency.” Greene has posted to social media video of a direct threat to harm or kill Joe Biden, made by a man who when asked about that threat of personal violence replied “I don’t regret nothing I said. I (effing) mean it, bro." Greene’s own ignorance of the federal code dealing with threats against the President is no defense. 18 U-S code 871 quite clearly states that the threat does NOT have to be first-hand. Greene does not have to have said it, she merely has to have distributed the threat. Though she helpfully began her distribution and promulgation of the threat against Biden’s life with her own statement: “I agree with this man.” At some point we have to break Greene - and the fascist right's - dance along the cliff-edge of political violence. Just two weeks ago she rightly complained that violent threats against her had gotten a weak three-month sentence. Now, the threat she distributed should be met by her being charged, arrested, convicted, and sentenced to the maximum of five years. Because occasionally the Justice System works. "Enrique" Tarrio broke the January 6 record with a 22-year sentence (though take the odds and bet on Trump getting more). And let's hear it for my new hero, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who was born in Cuba and who accused political ignoramus and stunter Tommy Tuberville of more than even endangering national security by holding up military promotions. “For someone who was born in a communist country," said Secretary Del Toro, "I would never have imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communists and other autocratic regimes around the world.” And there is more on the 14th Amendment, now the flavor of the month in the media. Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson makes an interesting revelation: “Secretaries of states of multiple states are having conversations. I’m talking with folks in Pennsylvania, with the secretary of state in Nevada and even in Maine; people in Georgia of course – my colleague Brad Raffensberger – just to get a sense of what the facts are” and she added that a group of states quote “likely need to act in concert, if we act at all.” B-Block (21:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: I'm somewhat limited by a throat infection, but here are Anthony Rendon of baseball's Angels who can't play due to a string of injuries (it happens) but refuses to talk about it (it's inexcusable), Washington Post "Fact Checker" Glenn Kessler, and the Saudi Prince who's trying to choose our president for us and whose exports to this country we should cut off and whose assets here we should seize. C-Block (29:12) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the night the Republican Party and Tom Brokaw got me fired as the co-anchor of MSNBC’s 2008 Presidential Debate coverage because the Republicans told Brokaw do this or McCain won’t show up for the debate you inherited when Tim Russert died and Brokaw really wanted a second career after Brian Williams had buried his first career alive and threw me under the bus even though I had welcomed him to our MSNBC campaign coverage when NBC had literally benched him for the '08 campaign.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 27: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Uh-oh. Somebody told Trump about the 14th Amendment and he’s terrified And we know who terrified him. The Wall Street Journal published a 900-word editorial exactly 77 minutes before Trump’s post and it is aptly titled “The 14th Amendment Trump Panic” because while the Journal usually has the confidence and arrogance and factuality of Marie Antoinette apocryphally talking about dessert, this time the lead fascists Chez Murdoch sound really scared. They have resorted to the argument that even if the 14thAmendment doesn’t JUST apply to people who literally fired a gun at the flag or those who instructed them to, it can’t apply to January 6th because January 6th wasn’t a REAL insurrection because… uh… it didn’t SUCCEED. 14-3 advocates are quote “willing to put democracy at risk in order to save it. But U-S institutions held up reasonably well despite the strains of the Trump Presidency, even the events of January 6. The transfer of power took place on schedule…the rioters and organizers are being punished, often severely…” In other words: whaddya mean ATTEMPTED murder? What kind of crime is THAT? Either there’s murder, and you go to jail, or there isn’t murder, and you go free. Am I right? Trump bleated about socialists and democrats and election interference and who will get to tell him? The Disqualification clause was in essence created to keep the Vice President of the confederacy out of the Senate. After he won. As a DEMOCRAT. In 1866. And Alexander Stephens had been convicted of NOTHING. He was arrested for treason on May 11th, 1865, released from prison in October without even going to trial. In 1919, 14/3 was used to keep a Congressman-Elect, Victor Berger of Wisconsin – literally an actual member of the Socialist party – out of the House because he had been convicted of violating the Espionage Act during the 1st World War because he opposed U-S entry into it. And just last year local New Mexico official Cuoy Griffin was bounced by 14/3 after nothing more than a misdemeanor conviction for trespassing. The point of course is that Stephens was kept out even though he was never convicted of anything, never even TRIED for anything, and he was readmitted only after a Congressionally-approved amnesty. Trump doesn't understand these nuances but like the wild animal he is he can smell fear, and there's nothing but fear in the WSJ editorial. Press the point. Plus we knew Mark Meadows had confessed to the Georgia judge last week while trying to get his trial moved to Federal Court. We had no idea how MUCH he had confessed, and how screwed he is, and how his only option may be to cut a deal with Fani Willis. B-Block (20:27) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: All is finally well at CNN where the new guy starts in one month and four days and controversy is a thing of the past and what do you mean at the BBC he once leaned over to a news editor and BIT HIM ON THE ARM HARD ENOUGH TO LEAVE MARKS THROUGH HIS SHIRT? (26:26) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Matt Schlapp conducts an exorcism...in his PANTS! The Philadelphia cemetery that has a memorial to...Nazi collaborators? And segueing perfectly: After pimping for the hashtag "Ban The ADL," Elon Musk insists he's opposed to all forms of anti-semitism and then explains that the main Jewish organization fighting anti-semitism, The Anti-Defamation League, has conspired to destroy advertising on twitter and he's suing them and if Musk ain't an antisemite it's an incredible simulation. C-Block (33:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The school year has begun at every level and inevitably I flash back to the day my legendary Cornell American history professor nearly failed all of us in his class because his favorite football team lost.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 26: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: In an April deposition in the New York Civil Fraud case, Trump told the Attorney General's office that he wasn't running his company because he was too busy saving the world from nuclear holocaust and saving millions of lives because he was the only one to think of DEALING with North Korea. You’re WELCOME LOSERS. This underscores a part of Trump’s insanity that it sometimes seems like we have gotten used to: he really DOES think he’s the first person to ever think of something, or to DO something, that everybody else in his position did as long ago as 1946. I never hear him say something like this – “Only I saved millions of lives because only I dealt with North Korea” without thinking of what the idiot director Roger DeBris in Mel Brooks’ movie “The Producers” says about the play itself – quote – “I never knew that the ‘THIRD REICH’ meant Germany! I mean it’s just DRENCHED with historical goodies like that.” That’s Trump. Still, Trump didn’t save Peter Navarro, who goes to trial – but only after failing to grab a paper “TRUMP LOST” sign held an inch over his head. And he didn’t save Rudy Giuliani, who goes to trial for slandering Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman and hours later went on radio and slandered Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman AGAIN. And he didn’t save Kevin McCarthy who will now have to start an impeachment without holding a vote – which he once violently criticized – or hold the vote and LOSE IT. The knives are out for Fani Willis. The Georgia State Senate Majority Leader now threatens her with reprimands, sanctions, hearings, defunding and removal. His name is Gooch and he’s from Lumpkin County. But the Georgia State HOUSE Speaker, Jon Burns, another Republican, says trying to defund Willis violates separation of powers. With no hyperbole: I worry for Speaker Burns' safety. And the podcast celebrates a big milestone with a big thank you to you: the August audience was 3,000,000! B-Block (21:44) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: McConnell freezes again. Nice of his staffers to leave him out there and ask reporters to yell at him. And the brewing story about how if Mitch goes, the Democratic Kentucky governor may defy a new law and appoint a Democrat in his place. Plus the Proud Boys sentencings that weren't. (25:18) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Anti-pickleball millionaire Holly Peterson has an unexpected feature in her home: her own pickleball court. The guy who claimed he killed Bin Laden got arrested and replied by claiming he killed bin Laden. And why even in these days of loose ethics in cable news, MSNBC must fire primetime anchor Stephanie Ruhle. C-Block (32:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Poor puppy Thomas: attacked, left to die on the train tracks, and still wagging as humans treat him. (33:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's the 26th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, which was also the day cable news jumped the shark and the shark was in the Rubicon.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 25: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Trial of Donald Trump and the Trump 19 could begin in Atlanta on October 23rd. In such a low-key manner that it barely got noticed, Fonni Willis has now formally petitioned Judge Scott McAfee to MOVE UP the trial date for everybody – and reverse his previous ruling to sever the trial of Ken Chesebro from the entire roster of 19 defendants. It would mean everybody - not just Chesebro - goes on trial just 55 days from now, instead of on March 4. And thus we are presented with the reality that the Chesebro, the man who may do the most to put Trump in prison BEFORE the 2024 election may be the man he turned to, to engineer this half-baked plan to overturn the 2020 election. Way to go Cheese-Bro! Now we need to know when the State of Georgia and maybe the Department of Justice will put this Georgia State Legislator Colton Moore behind bars. This is the State Senator with eyes on opposite sides of his head and he is the one who tried to get a special session of the Georgia senate called so he could defund the Fulton County D-A’s office, and he is the one who previously revealed he believes that the Trump 19, if convicted, face death by lethal injection and he is now the one serving up on the propaganda channel “Real America’s Voice” a threat to send troopers to arrest Fonni Willis and make a Trumpian stochastic promise of Civil War. In Washington, Congressman Andy Clyde is on the House Appropriations Committee and he says he has TWO amendments ready to tag on to the Fiscal 2024 budget for Commerce Justice and Science which his committee will take up next month after the recess and guess who they defund and no it’s not Aileen Cannon. Clyde thinks he can take out Willis AND Alvin Bragg in New York AND Jack Smith (and he’s wrong about that, which I'll explain in detail). B-Block (19:59) IN SPORTS: The complete failure of the Colorado Rockies' security staff as two fans charge and hold an Atlanta Braves star underscores that since 9/11 sports has adopted only "security theater" - not real security. It was the worst breach in baseball in nearly a week! The White Sox finally have an explanation as to how two fans got shot in the bleachers last Friday and it involves hiding a gun in "folds of belly fat." (25:35) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Shouldn't have praised the urban Trump Mugshot Mural until you saw what the thought bubble said, Charlie Kirk and Jesse Watters; Matt and the sound of one hand Schlapping; and the Katy, Texas, School Board Moronic Fascist who banned a book because it used "they" instead of "he" or "she" except that's not why they used they; THEY used THEY because it was grammatically correct and Morgan Calhoun is too stupid to know it. C-Block (31:49) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Running that clip of O.J. Simpson endorsing Vivek Ramaswamy provided a good laugh but ever since I've been haunted of memories of what he did in 1994, how nobody believed it was possible, and how in LA media in the '80s and '90s we knew he was a phony and an evil man, but we weren't able to probe harder to learn what a monster he truly was.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 24: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump STILL has to go to trial in 189 days and apparently STILL does not know there is no legal mechanism to APPEAL the judge’s schedule nor STILL does half the Republican Party and STILL at least half of all media including the BBC, and thus Trump is STILL ROYALLY EFFED. And after Mark Meadows inexplicably testified for more than four hours yesterday trying to get a glorified change of venue in the Atlanta Election Subversion Conspiracy trial by using the singular strategy of confessing to everything… the Judge says he’ll have a ruling “as soon as possible”whether it stays in local court in Atlanta or in a federal court presumably elsewhere in Georgia with a jury pool more favorable to Meadows and Trump and when they say favorable of course they mean more WHITE. She wasn’t going to JAIL Trump, no matter how much I wished for it on my lucky beads. She was going to do something far worse. She was going to assume he was doing it to try to poison the jury pool (like he could think THAT rationally or THAT far ahead) and she would just speed up the trial. The prosecution wanted the trial to open 127 days from now. Trump countered with 947 days. Two and a half years. Chutkan’s compromise REEKS of “this is punishment, please enjoy being EFFED” – 189 days. It's glorious​. There is one thing here Trump truly fears – the OTHER essential ingredient (besides a guilty verdict) that can put him behind bars: a speedy trial – and his nitwitted co-defendants, his supposed minions Ken Cheesbro and Mark Meadows and Sidney Powell all INVOKED the Georgia Speedy Trial Law so THAT one is already on track to start two months earlier than originally planned BY THE D-A… and now Trump is being beaten up by the judge who KNOWS it’s the one thing Trump truly fears – and we’ll see you on March 4th. Now about Meadows: why did he feel he had to testify – for four hours – that he was Trump’s gatekeeper and HE was at every meeting and HE was on every phone call and HE was the guy others went to, to get Trump to listen to them – and HE went to Georgia and HE arranged the Raffensberger phone call and HE was in the meeting with the Michigan politicos and wait wait – that meeting and the Raffensberger call were about… overturning the election results in Georgia and Michigan? THAT’S what Trump meant about the 11-thousand-790 votes? I’ll be damned! Trump is SO effed. B-Block (21:18) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Big news everyone! Today is the day the Bidens are sentenced by the military and the "Citizens Tribunal" according to the founder of Judicial Watch. Tucker Carlson insists getting fired makes you a man: so he's FOUR men I guess. And Joe The Plumber dies. (26:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Melanie Zanona of CNN both-sides a Biden impeachment story but leaves out the fact that the GOP has no evidence until PARAGRAPH NINE. The NRA exaggerates the number of Americans using an AR-15 for defense by roughly 1,999,996. And Congressman Byron Donalds "blames" the 2020 lockdown and the vaccine rollout on Biden. While Trump was still president. C-Block (31:47) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With The Daily Beast reporting Matt Lauer has abandoned his comeback, time to recount what we really knew about him at NBC and the time he tried to get me fired because I helped him get a "big get" interview.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 23: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Two major developments today warranting a bulletin edition: Judge Tonya Chutkan has set the start of jury selection in the Trump Subversion of the Election trial in Washington for March 4. Trump is, as I predicted this morning, EFFED. He's SO effed he's already insisting he will appeal her decision, proving he doesn't even know there is no legal means FOR him to appeal it. He is SO effed. Meanwhile in Atlanta, his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows seems hell bent on confessing to everything - including crimes he hasn't been charged with - just to get the trial moved from state to federal court. He actually took the stand this morning and admitted to everything on the Raffensberger call (and I think I called him Ken in here. Ken pitched for the Phillies in 1954). Note: the rest of this edition is repeated from Monday's regular edition. If you've heard it, feel free to hit STOP right about here. Also: the first signs of life are appearing in the attempt to actually DO something about disqualifying Trump from the ballot under the Disqualification Clause of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. After another mass shooting - one predicated on distinct and undeniable racism - shock and grief and rage can account for almost any reaction. But as Governor Ron DeSantis, who trades in distinct and undeniable racism and who had the gall to insist HBCUs in Florida would not be targeted when one was targeted Saturday, attended a vigil last night for the victims in Jacksonville, the crowd rightly booed and heckled him and his inanely smiling wife. And the local Democratic councilwoman made an unbelievable mistake. She told the crowd to "put parties aside. A bullet don't know a party." She could not be more wrong. A bullet not only knows a party but the bullets are there BECAUSE of a party and we damn well better say so. We have mass shootings and we have nearly unfettered civilian access to weapons of war and we have an orgy of gun worship BECAUSE of Republicans. Period. Our gun crisis may not be 100% Republican but it’s 95%. Our awareness that at any moment, anywhere, anyone in this country could be murdered by sentient fecal matter and the only variables are which minority group THIS one murdered because of which Republican THIS one listened to, waxes and wanes. But there are four unswerving constants and they played out in Jacksonville over the weekend: they had the guns because of Republicans; if they didn’t have the HATE already they got IT because of Republicans; nearly all of our news media will refuse to say that mass shootings in this country are the unquestioned FAULT of Republicans, and no matter what the circumstances of this particular one were, Republicans will insist it’s too soon to – you know – try to STOP them from happening and to propose – you know – SOLUTIONS – is trying to exploit a tragedy for political gain. As opposed to trying to exploit a tragedy for donations from the National Rifle Association and making sure that nothing is ever, ever, done, to stop the next one. Trump's other spawn, Vivek Ramaswamy, spent Sunday morning insisting that Mike Pence he should’ve refused to certify Biden’s election until the Senate agreed to instantly instituted new laws to mandate the most draconian Republican talking points about voting suppression: single-day elections, paper ballots, government-issued ID’s, and quote “led through that level reform and then under that condition certified the election” – as if every moment of the political day is a hostage situation and every law is optional because Vivek Ramaswamy sees a loophole to exploit. Happily that performance on "Meet The Press" earned Ramaswamy the coveted endorsement of one viewer: O.J. Simpson. B-Block (27:52) IN SPORTS: Spain's Soccer Kiss scandal continues to cascade. The Chicago White Sox still don't know how two fans got shot in the bleachers during a game. And the Oakland A's forgot they'll have to find a place to play four lame duck seasons before moving to Las Vegas (32:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Zillow mistakenly reports Trump sold Mar-a-Lago to Junior for 10 times its value ("Oops!"), Tucker and Musk are lying about the audience for Carlson's interview with Trump by a factor of at least 300:1, and Jonathan Turley 2023's biggest enemy right now is: Jonathan Turley 2021. C-Block (38:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The odometer has turned over again. Now it's 43 years since I started in television at CNN. So let me tell you how Ted Turner inadvertently invented SportsCenter AND nearly wound up owning ALL THE TEAMS in the National Football League.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 22: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: After another mass shooting - one predicated on distinct and undeniable racism - shock and grief and rage can account for almost any reaction. But as Governor Ron DeSantis, who trades in distinct and undeniable racism and who had the gall to insist HBCUs in Florida would not be targeted when one was targeted Saturday, attended a vigil last night for the victims in Jacksonville, the crowd rightly booed and heckled him and his inanely smiling wife. And the local Democratic councilwoman made an unbelievable mistake. She told the crowd to "put parties aside. A bullet don't know a party." She could not be more wrong. A bullet not only knows a party but the bullets are there BECAUSE of a party and we damn well better say so. We have mass shootings and we have nearly unfettered civilian access to weapons of war and we have an orgy of gun worship BECAUSE of Republicans. Period. Our gun crisis may not be 100% Republican but it’s 95%. Our awareness that at any moment, anywhere, anyone in this country could be murdered by sentient fecal matter and the only variables are which minority group THIS one murdered because of which Republican THIS one listened to, waxes and wanes. But there are four unswerving constants and they played out in Jacksonville over the weekend: they had the guns because of Republicans; if they didn’t have the HATE already they got IT because of Republicans; nearly all of our news media will refuse to say that mass shootings in this country are the unquestioned FAULT of Republicans, and no matter what the circumstances of this particular one were, Republicans will insist it’s too soon to – you know – try to STOP them from happening and to propose – you know – SOLUTIONS – is trying to exploit a tragedy for political gain. As opposed to trying to exploit a tragedy for donations from the National Rifle Association and making sure that nothing is ever, ever, done, to stop the next one. Trump's other spawn, Vivek Ramaswamy, spent Sunday morning insisting that Mike Pence he should’ve refused to certify Biden’s election until the Senate agreed to instantly instituted new laws to mandate the most draconian Republican talking points about voting suppression: single-day elections, paper ballots, government-issued ID’s, and quote “led through that level reform and then under that condition certified the election” – as if every moment of the political day is a hostage situation and every law is optional because Vivek Ramaswamy sees a loophole to exploit. Happily that performance on "Meet The Press" earned Ramaswamy the coveted endorsement of one viewer: O.J. Simpson. The Trump Trials are now colliding in the scheduling space. One in the Washington case (when does the trial start? January 2024 or April 2026?) and one in the Atlanta case (Mark Meadows to be tried in local or federal court) both begin at the exact same hour. There are also more Atlanta defendants flipping on Trump before anybody asks them to. And the first signs of life are appearing in the attempt to actually DO something about disqualifying Trump from the ballot under the Disqualification Clause of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. B-Block (22:09) IN SPORTS: Spain's Soccer Kiss scandal continues to cascade. The Chicago White Sox still don't know how two fans got shot in the bleachers during a game. And the Oakland A's forgot they'll have to find a place to play four lame duck seasons before moving to Las Vegas (27:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Zillow mistakenly reports Trump sold Mar-a-Lago to Junior for 10 times its value ("Oops!"), Tucker and Musk are lying about the audience for Carlson's interview with Trump by a factor of at least 300:1, and Jonathan Turley 2023's biggest enemy right now is: Jonathan Turley 2021. C-Block (33:32) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The odometer has turned over again. Now it's 43 years since I started in television at CNN. So let me tell you how Ted Turner inadvertently invented SportsCenter AND nearly wound up owning ALL THE TEAMS in the National Football League.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 21: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The "Never Surrender" graphic and the "Never Surrender" $47 T-Shirt and the "Never Surrender" return-to-Twitter post all feature a photo taken literally AS TRUMP SURRENDERED. At least the Trump measurements - 6'3" 215 strawberry or blonde hair - are accurate. So long as they were determined from a satellite in high space orbit. Though the idea of the MUGSHOT is new, for most of us, the booking of Donald Trump is by now a ritual as old as time itself, passed from one generation of Americans to the next. To his supporters it is something they seem to have convinced themselves was not going to happen, and about which they take DIRE umbrage. Ned Ryun, the onetime George W Bush speechwriter and now head of one of the three million different organizations there to fight against the lack of conservative representation, went on Fox and said we were in a “cold civil war” and Sarah Palin, a dope, went on Newsmax and said “do you want us to be in a civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen. We do need to rise up and take our country back” and one is inclined to remind the Witch from Wasilla who has all the tanks. Well, if this means Civil War at least it’s about something important. The real news from Atlanta: another step taken by Kenneth Chesebro to put Donald Trump in jail before the election. I wish I understood his game here. B-Block (17:48) IN SPORTS: Shohei Ohtani is potentially facing the end of his pitching career - because unicorns don't exist - at exactly the same time the equally-hyped Stephen Strasburg retires due to an injury that his limited him to eight games since 2019. All of which reminds me of the greatest pitcher you've never heard of: Harry Krause. And when you're too big to do the Super Bowl halftime show (23:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Another year, another CNN streaming service. Plus Riley Gaines doxxes a librarian and the library gets a bomb threat. And just when we thought we had all debunked last year's "Litter boxes in schools" urban legend, Fox "newscaster" Shannon Bream announces it - as if it were true. C-Block (28:05) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: It's what I turn to whenever it is the Dark November of my Soul: "A Box To Hide In."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 20: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I watched the Republican Debate so you didn't have to and there was actually a surprise. Trump isn't leading by such a huge margin solely because of his cult and their craziness. He is leading by such a huge margin because DeSantis is a pull-string toy. He is rehearsed, wooden, confused, inflexible. At one point a moderator said "that isn't the question, Governor," and he replied "I know," like he was proud of it. Also: everybody hates Ramaswamy and there is a perfect word to describe him and that word was supplied by my Pittsburgh-bred friend Howard Fineman: "Jagoff." Meanwhile Trump was with Tucker Carlson on Twitter and they were both pleasuring themselves to fantasies of somebody trying to assassinate Trump so then they could have a Civil War. There are Atlanta developments that could see the Fani Willis trial begin as early as November 3. And maybe bigger than all, there is a scandal involving ABC News, CBS, CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, the New York Times, and other news outlets and I doubt anybody will notice but it drove me to distraction. Why, the night before the debate, did a dozen of the leading political reporters and editors think it was cool to have a meal with Jason Miller and two other thugs from the Trump Campaign and let them get schmoozed by them and let Miller try out his latest attacks on DeSantis? The Trump people want to dismember the press and maybe individual reporters. With the BEST of politicians you must keep yourself at arm's length - and these are the worst of them. They (and they include Dana Bash, Robert Costa, and Kristen Welker) should all be fired. B-Block (31:11) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Secret Service's 2020 links to The Oath Keepers; Prighozin dead after his plane falls out a window (35:03) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nice troll by the Biden campaign to advertise on Fox News. Except it helps Fox News. CNN may have found an old Chris Licht to replace young Chris Licht. And with these bothsidesist Climate Change headlines, The Washington Post may kill us all. C-Block (35:55) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: No, Rudy Giuliani did not fall from grace. He's ALWAYS been like that. You just didn't know him in 1996 - I did. He was nuts then, too.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 19: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: One of Trump’s Georgia co-defendants is already PRE-flipping on him. And his Mar-a-Lago “Employee 4” got rid of his Trump-supplied lawyer and recanted testimony that almost got him brought up on perjury charges and guess who he was lying FOR because after he changed his tune, that’s when Jack Smith added the new charges against Trump and the new co-defendant. The former Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party David Shafer – more importantly the former Quote “Chairman” unquote of the Georgia Fake Electors Slate - filed to switch his part of the trial to federal court and in his argument for doing so he added a small detail: this is all Trump’s fault. “Mr. Shafer and the other Republican Electors iin the 2020 election,”write Shafer’s attorneys, “acted at the DIRECTION OF THE INCUMBENT PRESIDENT and other federal officials. Attorneys for the President and Mr. Shafer specifically instructed Mr. Shafer, verbally and in writing,” write Shafer’s attorneys, “that the Republican electors’ meeting and casting their ballots on December 14, 2020 was consistent with counsels’ advice and was necessary to preserve the presidential election contest.” Shafer even handed over evidence. Not just to Fonni Willis but to the public. That December 14th sham electors’ vote? Shafer released a copy of the TRANSCRIPT of that gathering of the coven and the guy who addressed them beforehand was Ray Smith, another one of Trump’s co-defendants and oh by the way Trump’s local attorney of record in Atlanta who walked the suckers through their part in the coup attempt. And in the Florida case, Jack Smith answered Judge Aileen Cannon's confused query in a now-unsealed filing and revealed matter-of-factly that this was because the District of Columbia Grand Jury had been hearing evidence that maybe one of the witnesses – Mar-a-Lago Employee Number 4 – should be charged with perjury because while he still had Trump stooge Stanley Woodward as his attorney, he testified that he didn’t know nothing about nobody erasing no security video from no servers and never heard nobody say The Boss Wanted The Servers Deleted. And then somebody told Employee Number 4 that he’d just committed perjury and he DID see the light and doth repented and got a new attorney from the Public Defenders’ office. And the next thing you knew, Employee Number 4 – Trump’s I-T guy, Yuscil Taveras, was remembering clear as a bell and suddenly the guy who said “The Boss Wanted The Servers Deleted” had become the latest indicted victim of the maxim “Everything Trump Touches, Dies” and his name is Carlos De Oliveira and he is still a defendant but if you want to draft somebody in your fantasy Who Flips First in Florida league, pick him. And oh yeah, as soon as Taveras got his OWN attorney and not the same one Walt Nauta has, Smith filed three more counts against Trump. B-Block (17:10) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Vivek, caught lying, on tape, the day before the GOP debate? He's the Ron DeSantis of Scott Walkers. The full pre-debate nonsense, and Jair Bolsonaro may have pawned two high-end watches given to him by other governments, and the "Rich Men North of Richmond" singer had his 15 Days of fame. Now they've discovered Oliver Anthony is the reverse Milk Shake Duck: he's NOT racist. (24:34) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The weekly Eric Adams disaster here in Fun City. Greg Abbott has an ugly soul. And the Republican National Committee and Jeanine "Hooters Pants On a 72-Year Old" Pirro attack Biden on... talking to a rescue dog? C-Block (29:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was reminded of him the other day so I thought it was time to tell a few stories about a man whose absence is still so shocking, so wrong, so something you wish you could correct: Tony Gwynn.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 18: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump needed just four hours and 25 minutes to violate the terms of his bail. Lock him up. Trump was granted pre-trial release on 200-thousand dollars bond in Atlanta at 3:30 PM yesterday and at 7:55 PM he violated the terms of that bail and now let’s see what Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is made of. “The Defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a co-defendant or witness in this case or OTHERWISE OBSTRUCT THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. This shall include, but is not limited to, the following: ” Paragraph E: “The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media." He didn’t even last four-and-a-half hours. Confirming CNN’s report that he will be booked in Atlanta on Thursday, Trump called the prosecutor a quote “radical left district attorney...who is overseeing one of the greatest murder and violent crime disasters in American history… she campaigned and is continuing to cmapign and raise money on this witch hunt. This is in strict coordination with…Biden’s DOJ. It is all about election interference”unquote, none of which is true and all of which is an attempt to obstruct the administration of justice and was made via “posts on social media or reposts of posts” and which should be greeted Thursday by the booking officers at Rice Street Jail in Atlanta by an order from Judge McAfee to detain him. Period. Trouble afterwards? Lindsey Graham’s “riots in the street”? Trump’s own threat of “death and destruction”? The countless bleatings of the sheep like Trump whores like Tim Pool about “civil war”? I’ll quote another Trump flunky, Jeffrey Clark: “That’s why there’s an insurrection act.” Trump is now out on bail… in three different states and the District of Columbia. He has CERTAINLY violated the terms of that bail with his spasm of threats against Judge Chutkan and Special Counsel Smith. Now, he has CERTAINLY violated the terms of that bail in Georgia. And soon or late, the remaining sane people in this country are going to have to reestablish the rule of law – or to call it by the name that Trump and his cult actually perceive it: the rule of being-afraid-you’ll-get-caught-and-sent-to-prison. We are GOING to HAVE to take the action without fear of taking the consequences, or the very MEANING of law itself in this nation will not just be erased, but will be rendered impossible to restore. Trump’s supporters have forgotten that even if - like them - you DON'T have morals you are supposed to have a healthy fear of getting caught and going to prison. It’s goddamned time that we remind him. And the opportunity to do so falls to Judge Scott McAfee. You wrote it, Judge. And Trump broke it. He’s already in your jail on Thursday, Judge. Keep him there. Enforce the goddamned law. B-Block (21:38) IN SPORTS: No, Dodger Stadium did NOT flood when Tropical Storm Hilary hit L.A. The New York Knicks add to their popularity by suing another team over analytics. And Gannett is trying AI for writing high school sports. If this is the best AI can do mankind has nothing to worry about. (26:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Michael David Fox of Las Cruces NM is charged with relying on a QAnon video to tell him which Congresswoman to threaten to kill; Howie Kurtz appears to be sending out hostage messages via twitter; a Democrat votes with Republicans to approve a recall move against a Democrat. The other Democrat doesn't even show up for the vote. C-Block (32:46) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: MSNBC fired Rachel Maddow! Not recently, mind you. But they can only bury the ugly past so long. They offed her in 2005 because they thought it would make the Tucker Carlson show - on which she was a regular - better.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 17: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trumpland Trumpland Uber Alles It is the most terrifying poll result I have seen in 25 years of doing this: “Where (do) you feel you get information that is true? Trump Voters polled by CBS answer… “Friends and family: 63 percent.” “Conservative Media Figures: 56 percent.” “Religious Leaders: 42 percent.” “Trump: SEVENTY-ONE percent.” Not “Only 71% of them think Trump is telling the truth” or “Trump only tells the truth 71% of the time." 71% of them think Trump is the most reliable source of truth in their lives. It’s a cult: a cult so bad that a Trumpist Georgia State Senator is saying, in public, on a streaming show, that the reason he’s trying to defund Fonni Willis’s prosecution of Trump is: That if she convicts him, Trump will be executed. By lethal injection. I don’t know HOW we get out of this cult. I only know all these cults end the same way. Ask Jim Jones. Or Hitler. Plus: Trump drops out of the debates because he’s a big… pusillanimous fella. Mark Meadows DID Flip. And a UFC fighter tells Laura Ingraham Trump could beat Biden in a cage match. Trust me: Ingraham could beat Trump easily. And the U-F-C fighter. B-Bock (24:38) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The murder of Lauri Carleton for supporting LGBTQ, Sage Steele boasts that a woman 43 years older and seven inches shorter than her body-slammed her into a garbage can, Dennis Prager doesn't think masturbating to animated child porn is evil and is astonished normal people do. (30:58) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Block or be blocked with Elon Musk, Catturd and James Woods. Jeanine Pirro posts photos of herself in orange shorts, and what do you call somebody like Virginia Republican committeeman Ron Hedlund who takes a 12-foot long banner of a penis to a baseball game and records video of 16-year old boys holding it? C-Block (36:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Thursday is the 43rd anniversary of the day I proved what the phrases "Mom always said don't run for a train there'll always be another one" and "breakneck speed" actually mean.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 16: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has filed to have his January 6th trial start not in 138 days from now but in April 2026 and presumably THAT is the date he and his attorneys picked because “The Twelfth Of Never” would not fit on the legal form. The filing concludes with the most cynical argument imaginable: Point “E”, quote: “The Government’s Proposal Conflicts With Other Cases” and it then lists things like the civil case in New York beginning this October and another next January and the Stormy Daniels Payoff trial in March and the Georgia trial next March and the Mar-a-Lago trial start next May. YOU CAN’T PUT ME ON TRIAL FOR MY CRIMES IN JANUARY – I’M ALREADY ON TRIAL FOR MY CRIMES IN NEW YORK AND ATLANTA AND FLORIDA – YOU PEOPLE ACT LIKE YOU’RE THE ONLY PROSECUTOR AND THE ONLY JUDGE IN TOWN – I’M ALREADY BOOKED THAT WEEK. This trial calendar is his philosophy in miniature – and also, his only means of survival. If anybody ever gets him to admit, to others, to himself – sincerely (not just to deceive them) – that he has lost, I suspect he will stroke out, or at least be unable to function. He is the victim, he is the rightful ruler, he will be avenged, he will not accept a trial before the 2024 election, he won’t accept one in 2025 because if he were to LOSE the election he would be too busy in 2025 trying to overthrow the government and of course he ALSO won’t accept one in 2025 because if he were to WIN the election he would be too busy in 2025 dismantling the various prosecutions against him and oh yeah in the most cynical and manipulative part of this hole stall tactic, you can’t criminally try a sitting president. Or a sitting dictator, for that matter. And we need to throw EVERYTHING we have at him. Lawsuits, state cases, Arizona, Georgia, document trials, insurrection trials, the 14th Amendment, and if we can’t keep him off the ballot the goddamnedest series of campaign ads in the history of the world that make L-B-J’s Daisy Ad and Bush’s Willie Horton Ad look more milquetoast than “I Like Ike.” And right now we are NOT doing that. B-Block (22:58) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Britain's 5th-String Prime Minister has invited Saudi strongman Prince MBS to the UK - on or about the fifth anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The likely next governor of North Carolina never paid his rent from 2012. New York's idiot Democrats manage to place on the Supreme Court a woman judge who is opposed to Roe V. Wade. (27:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Everybody got fired at Project Veritas, The Washington Post puts out two of the worst Bothsidesist Headlines in world history in the same edition, and the rare winner twice in three days: my ex-SportsCenter co-anchor Sage Steele keeps digging! C-Block (33:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: You were all so kind with words about yesterday's stories of my late pup Mishu, let's just absorb some of the pure joy of dogs, even the cranky ones. It's Thurber's "The Dog That Bit People."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 15: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: America is NOT divided over the prosecution of Trump. The latest polling shows the citizens of this country are DECIDED - by wide margins - in favor of it. They are DECIDED - by wide margins - that he broke the law in Georgia. They are DECIDED - by wide margins - that the 2020 election was NOT stolen from him. Yet even the news company that paid for the newest polling showing these inarguable conclusions, has to fulfill its fearful, lazy, sacred obligations to the American Media Deity of Bothsidesism by taking this data and headlining it "Americans are divided along party lines over Trump's actions in election cases." No. The nation is not. The Associated Press, and other news organizations, are afraid of stating any truth that requires any assessment or evaluation or analysis or risks accusations of Liberal Bias. Bothsideism is afraid of any choice that isn’t “which is bigger: A) an elephant or B) a mouse.” Bothsideism is fearful and lazy and self-interested and it is dangerous and it is in play and even those organizations that actually PRODUCE the evidence that this nation is convinced Trump has broken the law in Georgia, in Washington, in America, and that Jack Smith and Fonni Willis are RIGHT to prosecute him – even those organizations are whispering the results for fear of blowback – or worse, because blowback is TOO MUCH TROUBLE FOR MANAGEMENT. That Trump acted illegally in Georgia outpolled more innocent explanations by 23 points. Support for the Jack Smith indictments outpolled opposition by 8 points. The percentage believing Trump did not have an election stolen from him is SEVENTY. There is even polling evidence that Trump not only isn't gaining Republican support because of the indictments but has lost a little.Hell, even Ted Cruz said yesterday he won't endorse Trump in the primary. But the major news organizations refuse to acknowledge any of this. Also today: the Trump Court Appearance Calendar is filling up so fast that the hearing to confirm a starting date for the January 6 trial will occur simultaneously with Mark Meadows' hearing to transfer his Georgia charges to Federal Court. There is more on the undying story of Jack Smith scraping Trump's Twitter DMs and who else had access to them. Turns out there's no way for Trump to get a pardon in Georgia until five years after his sentence ends. And we will again identify the unidentified in another edition of Trumple. B-Block (21:09) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Ron DeSantis now requires parents to sign permission slips or teachers can't call "Thomas" "Tommy." Jordan Peterson and Penguin take bad reviews and put them on the cover of his book (taking out the negative adjectives). And the judge who authorized the raid on the Marion County Record in Kansas has not only been retroactively overruled but it turns out she has a history of DUIs, one she apparently hid from the voters - and the judge who should have jailed her after the second DUI. (29:48) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Tomorrow will be the second anniversary of the day an extraordinary soul walked into my life. He was only here very briefly but I want you to meet and remember him and so I will again tell you the story of Mishu. C-Block (44:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL, PART 2: The conclusion of the story of Mishu.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 14 - COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Jack Smith not only has Trump’s Twitter DIRECT MESSAGES, he has Trump’s Twitter DELETED Direct Messages, and as we posited here last Thursday, he has Trump’s Twitter Unsent Direct Message DRAFTS. Court documents were unsealed revealing all this, but CNN and The New York Times saw the headline - and missed it. The Times wrote almost as an afterthought that the judge had authorized Jack Smith to receive quote “all direct messages sent from, received by or stored in draft form by the account.” I speculated also about THIS last Thursday but I have to say seeing it as a reality takes my breath away. I mean DELETED direct messages are enough to fuel several books of Trump Scandal fan-fiction. But the DRAFTS could be far more nefarious. Drafts could be used – and there is no evidence that this is the case – the way terrorists used to use drafts in email 20 years ago -- as what the spies call a “dead-drop” by which you leave messages for anybody else who had the password, and then the messages are deleted. Except - nothing is ever deleted. No wonder Trump was pissed. Back to Atlanta. Trump will present his irrefutable guaranteed 100 percent exonerating report on Presidential Election Fraud in Georgia, starting at 11 next Monday morning at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey - enter by the main gate, proceed towards the 1st Tee, then make a left at Ivana. Not only don't Republicans WANT him to yoke them with another relitigation on 2020 but he has apparently turned the preparation of this report to the woman who might rank 79th on his propagandist depth chart, Liz Harrington. The creepy one. Fani Willis has punctured not just Trump's reality but also the fantasy around him. And we're going to see how bad it is at that press conference. B-Block (23:18) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: And just like that, Herschel Walker is back in Georgia politics. And Tucker Carlson is finished: his biography TANKED. Wait - you don't know who Tucker Carlson WAS, do you? (26:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Elon throttles links to the NYT and Facebook. Suddenly DeSantis wants peace with Disney. And a co-anchor of mine leaves ESPN "so I can exercise my First Amendment rights more freely.” She wouldn't know the difference between the First Amendment and ESPN's First Take. C-Block (34:36) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: If we can, we need to help the Maui Humane Society (35:36) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A Times Square so dangerous that no restaurants were open there on weekend and 41 people were once arrested for stabbing a guy in the subway station. The story of my days at my second job: RKO Radio Network, 1981.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 13: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The former president of the United States is indicted in Georgia, accused of leading in essence a criminal gang that committed 161 separate illegal acts or components. 161. From the fake electors scheme through the breaching of the voting machines in Coffee County to the phone call to Brad Raffensberger to find the 11,780 votes to the abuse of the state poll workers to lying to the State Senate to trying to bring the Vice President in on the conspiracy to trying to bring the Department of JUSTICE in on the conspiracy to a specific charge that Trump directed his aide Johnny McEntee to develop a specific plan to PREVENT the Electoral Vote count and certification on January 6th. 19 defendants. They have until a week from Friday to turn themselves in. There are arrest warrants ready for all of them. There is an arrest warrant ready for Trump. There is a mugshot camera ready for Trump. Oh and there are 30 unindicted co-conspirators. There is an unindicted co-conspirator Number 30. It is… breathtaking. It is… sprawling. It is… 98 pages long. It is… national – prosecutors say the criminal enterprise also operated in the District of Columbia, in Arizona, in Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It makes Jack Smith look like he’s throwing six darts while Fani Willis brought a six-foot tall pile of arrows. The trials could go on for years. Like Wyatt Earp chasing down The Clanton Gang went on for years. Hell – analyzing this indictment could go on for years. No wonder this became the first-ever PRIME TIME edition of the Donald Trump Gets Indicted Again show. It is the War and Peace of American political criminology. And because of his threats against Fani Willis, and Jack Smith, and Judge Chutkan, there is the chance that he does not meet the key legal requirement to be allowed out on bail: "D) POSES NO SIGNIFICANT RISK OF INTIMIDATING WITNESSES OR OTHERWISE OBSTRUCTING THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE." B-Block (26:48) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS (30:55) IN SPORTS (36:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD C-Block (42:05) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The time I nearly hired Monica Lewinsky's lawyer to save me from having to do a nightly show about Monica Lewinsky.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 12: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN THIS EPISODE WAS REVISED AT 2:25 AM EDT MONDAY 8.14.23 A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump snaps. After a weekend of taunting Judge Tanya Chutkan - and the rule of law - through surrogates, he posts online attacks against her ("highly partisan...obviously wants me behind bars") and the special counsel ("How dare lowlife prosecutor Deranged Jack Smith break into my former Twitter account without informing me" - and calls this court-authorized access an "atrocity"). These are exactly the kind of inflammatory remarks that Judge Chutkan warned him against; he had tried to get around her by having Matt Gaetz threaten violence as he stood silently next to him, and he has tried to get around it by reposting the lies and character assassinations and threats of others. He didn't even wait 24 hours to try to get around her. Any other defendant in this country would have already had their pre-trial release revoked, or had an immediate hearing scheduled. We must end the appeasement of Trump. The law - with Judge Chutkan representing it - must crush him. Trump has also repeatedly attacked Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis in advance of her probable indictments tomorrow. He is panicking. He has reason to. In addition to his other crimes, she now has emails and texts tying "The Coffee County Breach" - the hacking of voting records there - to Trump lawyers and associates. Also: RFK Junior has self-destructed. Surprise surprise. He calls for a federal ban on abortion after 15 or 21 weeks, then denies he said such a thing; then NBC produces the transcript of him re-confirming his belief several times. Republicans continue to rage against the appointment of a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden case after spending a year demanding the appointment of a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden case - and getting exactly the one they all wanted. Kevin McCarthy demanded it just 34 days ago! B-Block (22:59) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: It's like something out of a Jimmy Stewart western or a '20s Chicago Mob film: the bad guys break into the small town newspaper and kill the publisher. Only it's happened for real in Kansas, and the bad guys are the town cops, and the DOJ must have the FBI arrest the lot of them - the judge who authorized it included. And the CBS News president who tried to pander to the far right has been fired. I'm in the neighborhood, and I am available (part-time only) (29:29) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Fox anchor who not only thinks Karl Marx wrote "Mein Kampf" but has apparently thought so since 1985; First the baseball team suspended its announcer for nothing, then it seems to have forced him to say it was all a misunderstanding. And General Mike Flynn reaches a new low: the Holocaust was the fault of Jews who didn't fight back hard enough. C-Block (36:44) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just passed the anniversary of the day Aaron Sorkin stole a quote from my last father and put it in the mouth of Jeff Daniels - and every one of my exes called me to complain about it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 11: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: “Donald Trump cannot BE president – cannot run FOR president – cannot BECOME president – cannot HOLD OFFICE – unless two thirds of Congress decides to grant him amnesty for his conduct on January 6th." That’s from Will Baude, Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School, and member of the ultra-conservative FEDERALIST SOCIETY, and former clerk for Chief Justice Roberts. He was summarizing, for The New York Times, an article he and Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen will publish next year in the University of Pennsylvania law review. They insist that there is no doubt Trump has triggered the disqualification aspect of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and that it should be applied automatically by State Secretaries of State. “Section 3’s disqualification rule may and must be followed – applied, honored, obeyed, enforced, carried out – by anyone whose job it is to figure out whether someone is legally qualified to office.” The Federalist Society constitutional scholars say it's automatic. If you put Trump on the ballot, you are breaking the law. And as academic and theoretical and dilettantish as this all sounds, these guys think it should be made really real: “There are many ways that this could become a lawsuit presenting a vital constitutional issue that potentially the Supreme Court would want to hear and decide,” said Professor Paulsen. And Paulsen is a distinguished university chair and professor of Constitutional Law and Federal Courts at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. And Steven Calabresi, co-chairman of the Federalist Society, co-founder and co-chairman of the Federalist Society, says the Baude-Paulsen article is “a tour de force" that proves “Trump is INELIGIBLE TO BE ON the ballot, and each of the 50 state secretaries of state has an obligation to print ballots without his name on them,” unquote – or they may be SUED. There could be enough to knock Trump off the ballot in individual states. And with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) having successfully sued to remove a January 6th insurrectionist from office in New Mexico, there is a guidebook to how to literally stop Trump before he starts. Also: Jack Smith really was pushing a Rocket Docket. He wants the J6 trial to launch on January 2. Meanwhile Trump's lawyers are so stupid they think the 2021 insurrection was three-and-a-half years ago, and his apologists like Jon Turley think January 2, 2024 is 18 days before the inauguration that the rest of us seem to believe doesn't happen until a YEAR and 18 days later. B-Block (23:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: In Iowa, Ron DeSantis literally phones it in. Senator Tommy Tuberville - of Florida? And when it doesn't work the fascists only have one play: yell louder. So Laura Ingraham says they MUST RUN ON HAVING REPEALED ROE-V-WADE. For once I agree with her! (27:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Unbanned Twitter QAnon loser has a new conspiracy and a new made-up source; Florida GOP County Chair allegedly plagiarized his university Honors Thesis from Wikipedia; And when Conspiracy Theories collide: the Antivaxxer "running" for POTUS is endorsed by the guy whose father claimed he assassinated the Antivaxxer's uncle. C-Block (34:15) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: My father so loved "I Went To Sullivant" that he literally listened as I read it to him one last time - and only when I finished did he pass away. Now THAT'S an endorsement!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 10: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Jack Smith didn't want Trump's TWEETS! He wanted Trump's Direct Messages and his unsent drafts! Who needs a court order to GET a copy of all of Trump's tweets and other social media posts? It feels like you need a court order to AVOID Trump's tweets and other social media posts. He was looking for - and all the statements by the judge unsealed yesterday confirms this - for the DM's Trump sent, and any sent TO him. And anything still in the draft folders because I was reminded yesterday that 20 years ago terrorists like Khalid Sheik Mohammed and The Shoe-Bomber, and ordinary criminals like David Petraeus simply bypassed the risks of texts and apps by leaving messages IN THE DRAFT FOLDER of email accounts their shared with the messages' recipients. You could do that with Twitter! And we KNOW Trump shared that account with other people - he sometimes wrote his own tweets and sometimes dictated them. And he could also be able to get stuff Trump deleted. What? You think when you hit the "Delete" button it vanishes from the universe? Even your drafts? I mean Twitter was willing to turn all this stuff over to the Special Counsel but it wanted to alert Trump first and the judge said no, that'll give him the chance to destroy evidence and ALERT OTHERS and originally she thought it might lead him to "flee prosecution." Hell to the Yeah! And the headline is: Smith wanted all that stuff. And he got it. Also: details leaking on The Atlanta prosecutions, Trump wastes a delay move by demanding a SCIF at Mar-a-Lago when no judge can order one to be built, and yes, a fly landed on Trump's face during his interview with NewsMax. A REAL fly - not NewsMax's Eric Bolling. B-Block (20:15) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Trump stochastic terrorist who threatened Biden and those prosecuting Trump on Facebook is killed while the FBI serves him a warrant. And the late Robbie Robertson, not only an extraordinary musical figure but also the unchallenged winner of Twitter (23:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Dictator DeSantis usurps yet another elected official, Ken Starr's evil nephew orders lawyers to take religious training, and the Air Force UFO Whistleblower? Institutionalized five years ago after an episode in which it was determined he was a potential danger to himself. C-Block (29:51) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's Elvis Week! That means it was this week, 46 years ago, when a commercial I made for an Elvis concert in Syracuse - maybe the last one ANYBODY made - had to be pulled off our air because... well, you know. And I'll play the commercial.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 9 COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Is Jack Smith preparing a THIRD set of indictments against Trump? Maybe a FOURTH? The Grand Jury which indicted Trump LAST week is still meeting this week; they were in there yesterday. And Smith is deep in the weeds on Trump de-frauding his cultists and getting them to give him money to fix a “stolen election” he knew damn well WASN’T stolen. But the Special Counsel is also clearly still looking at how Trump tried to stop the transfer of presidential power. And Fani Willis will reportedly go to HER Atlanta Grand Jury as early as Tuesday. While they’re already blocking roads around the courthouse, Trump is already pre-smearing her, and he's already forgotten that he demanded the indictment of Joe Biden in October 2020. Plus: Trump has already pre-contempted a court order that hasn’t been issued yet. He says even if Judge Chutkan restricts what he can and can’t talk about, he’ll talk about it. The hearing is Friday. Re-indicted cause it feels so good. And yes, I’m singing that. B-Block (20:00) IN SPORTS: A chant of "Free Kevin Brown" broke out at the Baltimore Orioles' game last night. Their suspended play-by-play man will be back Friday, but that was the plan all along. And his suspension points to the plan in far too many baseball, basketball, and hockey TV booths: All reporting, all criticism, in fact anything not gushingly glowing about the home team will result in suspension. It's been coming for a century and it's here: the sports play-by-play broadcast is there only to brainwash you that your team is perfect, always has been, and you need to give it more money. (32:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The words you never want to hear from Matt Schlapp: I'm hanging out. Mike Pence makes a funny about January 6; too bad he didn't DO something about it. And mega-fraud God-salesman Franklin Graham attacks the U.S. Women's Soccer Team. Jesus would punch him in the face. C-Block (37:35) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Milo in Tennessee (38:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It is now 35 years since I got the greatest scoop of my career, using the least amount of effort. The Wayne Gretzky Trade!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.