SERIES 2 EPISODE 214: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Whaddya MEAN Tucker Carlson warned Trump last month that he might be assassinated if he DIDN'T pick a non-Neocon VP like J.D. Vance? Whaddya MEAN The New York Times had Carlson warning Trump weeks ago that if he chose somebody besides Carlson's choice - Vance - "the U.S. intelligence agencies would have every incentive to assassinate Mr. Trump in order to get their preferred president" - and they put it in paragraph 69 of a 71-paragraph article? Anybody ASKING Carlson about this, uh, coincidence? Or the Times about the sources? Or Vance?
Trump still hasn't called the family of the man murdered at his rally; England's Channel 4 says the 2016 Trump Campaign had the shooter's family in a special database of battleground state voters who probably owned guns. Nothing new from the Pittsburgh station's report that there were Trump signs in front of the family home.
There's new polling on who voters blame for the atmosphere that led to the Trump shooting (Trump), their reaction to his selection of Vance (27% of Republicans think he was the best choice; 56% have no idea who he is), Rudy Giuliani falls at the convention, and why nobody should ever compare Trump to Braveheart.
BIDEN MEANWHILE is going to run against Trump AND the Supreme Court and propose term limits and mandatory ethics. And while he is reportedly not broadening but tightening his circle of advisers about the race, the impossible happens. The polls show Trump ahead by about two - no "near miss bump" - but the 538 Electoral College simulator shows Biden with a 53% chance of winning (and by 16 votes).
B-Block (24:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: I got Jon Stewart interviewing Bill O'Reilly in a kind of Old Timers' Day of frauds. Joe Scarborough is so mad at NBC for suspending his show to appease the Republicans that he's risked firing by calling them out on the air (who do you root for in THAT battle?), Katy Tur seems to have forgotten Trump tried to get her killed, Ron Johnson becomes the latest to lose in Republicans Versus TelePrompters, and inexplicably Hugo Lowell deletes the greatest tweet to emanate from the Republican convention
C-Block (35:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: MSNBC silencing Joey Scars and having Tur praise him seems awfully familiar to some of us and when I say 'some of us' I mean: Me. The Republicans blackmailed NBC to get ME off the air after their convention in 2008 because nothing is more easily scared than a billion dollars.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. So
you're telling me? Last month, Tucker Carlson warned Trump that
(00:26):
he might be assassinated if he didn't pick JD. Vance
or another non Neocon as his running mate. Or I
may be reading this too generously, You might think Tucker
Carlson threatened Trump that he might be assassinated. You might
think that I could not possibly comment this astonishing event.
(00:51):
Carlson phones Trump from Australia in June tells him if
he chooses a Neocon like Marco Rubio instead of Carlson's
pal Vance as vice president, he might be could be
would be assassinated. It is in the New York Times,
and Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swann put it in paragraph
(01:13):
sixty nine paragraph sixty nine out of seventy one paragraphs.
Paragraph sixty nine kind of buried the lead, quoting Mags
and Swaneye. When word got back to Tucker Carlson a
few weeks ago that mister Trump might be wavering on
(01:33):
mister Vance, he intervened. Mister Carlson, who was visiting Australia
on a speaking tour, phoned mister Trump and delivered an
apocalyptic warning. According to two people briefed on their conversation,
he told mister Trump that mister Rubio could not be trusted,
that he would work against him and would try to
(01:54):
lead America into nuclear war. Mister Carlson, who declined to
comment for this article, told mister Trump that mister Burgham
could not be trusted either. Mister Carlson told mister Trump
in that June phone call that he believed that if
he chose a Neocon as his VP, then the US
intelligence agencies would have every incentive to assassinate mister Trump
(02:20):
in order to get their preferred president. Now, maybe I'm
being old fashioned, but where I comes from. If you
phone the Republican nominee for president of the United effing
States and you tell him if he doesn't pick the
(02:40):
right candidate to be his running mate, the intel community
will have every incentive to assassinate him. And like four
weeks after that, somebody tries to assassinate him, and two
days after that he chooses your pick as his running mate,
eyebrows will be raised even by the Secret Service. Are
(03:03):
they talking to Tucker Carlson about this? To Maggie Haberman
and Jonathan Swann, who sourced this story of Carlson's warning threat,
or really good guests are they talking to jd Vance?
I mean, for the second straight day, Eric Trump went
on television and insisted about his father that some unknown
(03:25):
they tried to take his life. And I know Eric
is challenged, but he also said that to CNN, where
Jake Tapper, a journalistic seat filler, replied with absolutely nothing
to say. That isn't true. They literally tried to kill
him this week. The more challenged of the Trump more
on twins told Fox the day before and before, you say,
(03:49):
Tucker Carlson couldn't possibly be the they. Besides which, he
was warning Trump that like the CIA, would assassinate him
if he chose the wrong vice president four weeks before
somebody actually tried to forty eight hours before he chose
the right vice president. You say, no way, I say,
(04:09):
have you ever met Tucker Carlson. In unrelated news, CNN
reports that the US intel community was told by human
source about a plot by Iran to assassinate Trump. That
the US Intel community was told this in the last
few weeks. No indication that the guy who actually tried
(04:35):
to assassinate Trump was connected to the malefactor here Tucker
Carlson or maybe Iran, I don't know. Also no indication
that the Secret Service ignored this. In fact, the sources
insist security around Trump was increased after the Iran story
reached somebody's desk, just as Carlson was calling Trump from
(04:56):
Australia and said, don't pick a neocon or you know
they'll want to back and to the left back, and
to the left back and to the left. While Trump
still has not called the family of the man who
actually died defending his family from MAGA gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks,
President Biden did phone the family, and the widow said
(05:17):
she appreciated the gesture, but she felt she had to
honor her late husband, refusing to take the call. On
the other hand, she said she bore the president no
ill will and blamed only the shooter. And Trump still
hasn't called because well, of course the guy who got
killed wasn't him, so why would he care. A technical
(05:39):
irony on the shooting has been reported by England's Channel four.
The Trump campaign targeted the shooter's family, targeted him in
a database. Matthew Crooks, father of Thomas Matthew Crooks and
owner of the AR fifteen used Saturday, was in a
Trump campaign database in twenty sixteen profiling millions of voters
(06:02):
in the battleground states in a secret program designed to
target specific voters with pro gun messages during the campaign.
It had identified both the father and the mother as
very likely to be gun owners and hunters and Republicans
and susceptible to pro gun messaging. The British news operation
(06:22):
obtained that Trump database in twenty sixteen and reported on
its existence. Then no idea if the campaign actually contacted
the Crooks family. No further information on the separate story
from a Pittsburgh television newsroom that neighbors often saw Trump
campaign signs in the yard around the Crooks family home. Nevertheless,
(06:43):
Trump was shot at by a maga gun nut. Some
polling about the assassination. Morning Consult concludes that three in
five voters blame American political rhetoric. They say it's responsible
for the environment that made shooting at Trump possible. They
asked voters Monday, and they got down to brass tax two.
(07:04):
Which person or group is to blame for the rhetoric
and the environment, and thus the violence, twenty nine percent
blame Biden, thirty one percent blame the Republican Party, thirty
eight percent blame Trump. Now, at last some information on
the forgotten question was Trump shot or not shot? The
(07:26):
good news is we finally have the testimony of a doctor.
The bad news is the doctor is Congressman Ronnie glug
Glug Jackson. He says he's seen and treated Trump's ear,
the one Trump had bandaged up like somebody who vaguely
remembered Vincent Van Goe's self portrait. And yes, there were
delegates on the floor at the convention in Milwaukee last
(07:48):
night wearing homemade versions of Trump's crapshack ear bandage. Yes,
it looked like a crowd of whinos in a cult
wearing post its. Speaking of Whinos in a cult, doctor
Jackson said a little bit of Trump's ear had actually
been taken off by the bullet. That's the first time
(08:10):
anybody besides Trump has asserted or even tried to confirm
Trump's claim that he was even grazed by a shot
and not debris or unintended shrapnel or something else. Also, Trump,
you let Ronnie Jackson treat your wound. Stand by for
sepsis place the legal theme? Why the legal theme? One
(08:55):
prospect few of us have contemplated. Trump wins, but the
Democrats take the Senate and House in landslides. Inauguration is
January twentieth, and in this scenario, the third Trump impeachment
is January twenty seventh. I mean, January twenty seventh is
my birthday. Under those circumstances, the next next president of
(09:19):
the United States would be this no accomplishment's freshman senator
from Ohio who looks like Rush Limbaugh's sperm donor sun
only wearing eyeliner. And we are getting our first perspective
on what Republicans and non crazy Americans think of him.
And the answer is, who the F is this guy?
Monday polling by you gov, only twenty seven percent of
(09:43):
Republicans think that Vance was Trump's best possible pick. They
did not ask Tucker Carlson. Twenty nine percent more say
he's okay. Forty three percent of Republicans say he's neither
good nor bad, or he is bad, or he's the worst,
or they are unsure. CNN polling from just eighteen days
ago indicates unsure is the driving factor here. Voters were
(10:07):
asked for favorable or unfavorable opinions on people simply described
to them as being in the news. Twenty seven percent
of Americans had a favorable opinion of Marco Rubio, thirty
four percent an unfavorable one, twenty three percent had no
opinion on Rubio. Twenty one percent said I never heard
of him, as to Vance, eleven percent favorable, eighteen percent unfavorable,
(10:32):
no opinion, fifteen percent never heard of him, fifty six
percent fifty six Fance is nearly is unknown, as is
Doug Bergham. Sixty six percent never heard of him either,
but eight percent had a favorable opinion of Burgham. That's
within striking distance of Vance's eleven percent. That's not good.
(10:56):
Then again, something made Trump feel like he just had
to pick Vance Hacker Carlton Deep State, also from that
Ku Klux Clan rally in Milwaukee, only with a decent
on stage band. Rudy Giuliani toppled to the floor yesterday
(11:17):
in the afternoon, took about eight steps down the red
carpet walkway, then shuffled to the right like Daffy Duck
in Showbiz Bugs and hit the deck down, goes Giuliati.
Down goes Giuliani. To be fair, The Atlanta Journal Constitution's
Washington correspondent Tia Mitchell notes that Giuliani seemed to be
(11:39):
reaching for one of the chairs on the convention floor
when he fell, and that thanks to some genius, the
red carpet walkways are actually several inches off the floor,
and you can't really see where the actual floor is
because of shadows cast by the chairs. My evil plan
(11:59):
has been unmasked. That or it was the sky. And
this from Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson of North Carolina, the
Republican nominee to become governor there, who foretold the new
Trump unity scam earlier this month by screaming in church
that people he didn't like need killing. Robinson told the
(12:22):
Republican Fascist Fest in Milwaukee that Trump is the brave
Heart of our time unquote. I never ceased to be
mystified by the number of politicians who compare themselves or
somebody they claim to like to Brave Heart. Brave Heart
was the thirteenth and fourteenth century warrior king of Scotland,
(12:45):
whose life was told kind of in one of the
least anti Semitic of mel Gibson's movies when the British
captured Braveheart and tried him for treason and for one
of the first times in world history, for war crimes,
including murdering civilians, including children, including nuns. They found him guilty.
(13:06):
They tied Brave Heart to the heels of a horse
and dragged him through the streets of London naked. Then
they hanged him, but they cut him down before he died.
And then they emasculated him, eviscerated him and beheaded him.
Then they got tough, the man Mark Robinson compared Trump
(13:26):
to then had his head cut into four parts and
dipped into tar and put on top of a spike
on London Bridge. And then they took what was left
of the rest of his body and took it on
a national tour. But Lieutenant Governor Robinson, you're telling me
Trump is the brave heart of our time. Go on. Meanwhile,
(13:59):
back at the ranch, I suggested here last week that
President Biden pull out the stops. The Supreme Court is hated.
A new Fox News poll put approval at thirty eight
percent yesterday. Others have the percentages who believe its judges
are utterly partisan. In the sixties run against Trump run
against the Supreme Court as well. The Washington Post reports
(14:21):
he's going to to propose legislated term limits and an
enforceable ethics code in the immediate future. He also wants
a constitutional amendment to override the Supreme court recent ruling
to eliminate broad presidential immunity and immunity for other officeholders.
He previewed this, apparently to the Congressional Progressive Caucus last Saturday.
(14:43):
A transcript of the conversation reads, I'm going to need
your help on the Supreme Court because I'm about to
come out. I don't want to prematurely announce it, but
I'm about to come out with a major initiative unlimiting
the Court. I've been working with constitutional scholars for the
last three months and I need some help. Well. Cool,
but you're not going to pass any of that now.
And I don't see where it says you're adding six
(15:04):
new seats to the bench. Mister President. To paraphrase Frederick Douglass,
the national edifice is on fire. Use the presidential immunity,
use it, not to say you might do this if
the Congress will approve, impose these things, and do it now,
and let the bastards try to undo it. And I
mean now, the Democratic National Committee is still planning to
(15:27):
renominate Joe Biden in a virtual role call in the
next few weeks before August seventh. Those who still want
him off the ticket are trying to stop that plan
to give the party more time to decide. And my god,
don't they realize they're Democrats. We don't decide. Congressman Jared
Huffman of California went on the record saying that he
(15:48):
represents a growing number of members who think the virtual
vote is quote a terrible idea, a dumb thing. There
is a letter being circulated among House Democrats that begins,
quote we respectfully but emphatically request that you cancel any
plans for an accelerated virtual role call. While that gives
a sense of urgency to the thing, there is a story,
(16:11):
and there is another story, and there's another story after that.
That part of that group, literally or just in spirit,
is Nancy Pelosi. That she is working behind the scenes,
has been since the day after the debate to change
presidential candidates let me quote politico. As dangerous as that
might be, one of her colleagues was struck to see
(16:32):
her chatting furtively but openly with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
last week in a corner of the House Democratic cloak
room in plain sight of a dozen lawmakers. The extent
of Pelosi's behind the scenes role hasn't been fully revealed,
and may never be if the former Speaker has her way,
But I'm told by people familiar with the exchanges that
(16:53):
she stage managed phone calls to Jeffreys, plotted strategy with
the biggest names in Democratic politics, and told one former
elected official bluntly that Biden's legacy can't be destroying their
party since the President's excellent press conference last week and
is even better speech in Detroit. I have returned to
(17:15):
being agnostic here, but goddamn it, let's make up our minds.
There cannot be more than two weeks left to clear
this up either way. By then, Poles will fully reflect
the Pennsylvania shooting at Trump, the selection of vance Tucker Carlson,
and the thing that rhymes with fascination debt, and Biden's
(17:37):
latest impact And the reason I'm agnostic again, I mean
I've only been agnostic like twice since nineteen seventy, the
Times reported last night. Then, rather than take more input
from more Democrats and more advisors. Joe Biden has tightened
his circle and now he isn't even talking to his
own polsters. Ordinarily, this might make you reach for Rudy
(18:01):
giuliani stash of Scotch. Except the five thirty eight dot
com average of polls, which shows Biden's disapproval hovering in
general at fifty six percent, shows the national polls averaging
plus two for Trump. But the five thirty eight electoral
college model, which eleven days ago showed Trump winning by
(18:24):
four votes in the electoral college, now shows Biden winning
in fifty three out of every one hundred simulations, Biden
with a fifty three percent chance of an electoral college victory,
and moreover, winning by two hundred and seventy seven electoral
college votes to two hundred and sixty one for Trump. Christ,
give me some of that stuff you gave Rudy. I
(18:46):
don't know, it might not be strong enough. Maybe give
me some of that stuff you gave Braveheart. Also of interest,
here deja vu all over again. MSNBC postpones a Joe
Scarborough show from the convention out of fear he'd say
(19:07):
something that would piss off Trump, while other anchors there,
including a woman I used to live with in a
Trump building who Trump tried to get killed eight years ago,
say he looks serene. They did it to me in
(19:27):
two thousand and eight, and they are doing it to
NBC and the MSNBC talent right now. I can smell it.
I will bet you actual cash money upwards of thirty
dollars that the Republicans are threatening the executives of NBC
right now, just as they did to get me off
the air sixteen years ago. Worst Persons and an updated
(19:49):
things I promised not to tell about GOPVNBC. That's next.
This is an all new edition of Countdown. This is
Countdown with Keith Olberman stell ahead of us on this
(20:25):
edition of Countdown. History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes,
except when it effing repeats itself. MSNBC anchors sucking up
to the Republican presidential nominee, Republican thugs going into the
offices of NBC News and suggesting some of the other
(20:46):
MSNBC anchors had better be taken off the air. During
GOP events twenty twenty four unfolding before our eyes. No sir,
two thousand and eight, they've already done this little dance
of fellating Trump's. Whatever the details in a New Things
I promised not to tell first, there are still more
(21:09):
new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miscreants,
morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's first
arsons in the world. Honorable mention John Stuart and Bill O'Reilly.
And what do they have in common? Well, the year
two thousand and three. But besides that, Stuart had O'Reilly
(21:33):
on his show last night, and I suppose there will
be something I can make fun of tomorrow. But for now,
I have only this to say. Anytime I hear that
somebody is talking to Bill O'Reilly, I flashed back to
his conversation with his producer at Fox, Andrea Macris, and
I wonder if during the conversation Bill is sitting there
(21:53):
with a vibrator up his tush. Lebrons worse my old
pals Joe Scarbrough and Katie Turr. Joe's bosses did something
he didn't like, so Joe reverted to his first decade
on MSNBC, and he pissed on the tent in the tent. Monday,
(22:14):
his NBC masters canceled his show postponed it. Really, his
show is called Ray Hash political talking points starring Joe Scarborough,
who judges which way the wind blows and if Trump
won't let him be vice dictator, Joe Scarborough pretend to
support Biden while Joe Scarborough sabotaged everybody else he works there,
and he steals other men's wives. Anyway, I think that's
(22:37):
what the show is called. I haven't watched lately, so anyway,
on Monday, they were all in Milwaukee for the Fascist
Convention and a live version of the show from there,
and they didn't put Joe on. I know CNN reported
this was out of fear at NBC that somebody would
make a quote inappropriate comment on live television that could
(23:01):
be used to assail the program and network as a whole.
While discussing Trump's assassination attempt. Wait, I thought that was
the point of the program. Joey Scar's not happy now. Normally,
when he's not happy, he just threatens and blackmail's management
and he undercuts them in anonymous quotes to news outlets.
(23:24):
But this time Joey Scars trashed his employers on their
own network. Quote, next time we are told there would
be a newsfeed replacing us, we will be in our
chairs and the newsfeed will be us, or they can
get somebody else to house the show. Firstly, he said
this more or less continuously off the air since two
(23:46):
thousand and three. Secondly, NBC, this is your chance. He
just threatened to quitch, and he breached his contract by
what he said on the air. You have seventy three
people on this show. Would anybody notice he's gone? Other
than the improvement and the smell in the studio? All right?
You'd have to get new graphics and calling it Morning Mika.
(24:08):
Big deal? I mean, does anybody miss the original hosts
check's notes, David Gregory and Kntessa Brewer. The one they
swapped in for Brewer and for the previous Missus Scarborough
is named Mika Brzhinski one of the nicest people in
the world, as long as she's unemployed when she has
a contract on a television network. Marie effing Antoinette, she
(24:32):
actually said something. It seemed like now more than ever
is a day a time when we would like to
be on. I think our viewers agree with that. Now
to be fair. I will defend Scarborough in the next
segment because I gather that what's so enraged Joey enough
to lash out on the air and risk getting fired
(24:54):
and risk all that money, and god he loves all
that money, is that Scarborough heard about this what I
heard when they did it to me sixteen years ago,
that the Republican Party demanded that NBC do this more
coming up as to Terr I'm so sorry about her.
I mean, I mean, I apologize to you that I
(25:16):
helped her get her career started. She was going to
be a painter, and when she moved in with me
in two thousand and six, I said, well, you know,
I know you don't want to do what your dad
and mom did, but you have a natural instinct for
what a news report from the field should look like.
You're a natural on camera. That was the last of
the painting. I'm sorry, It's my fault. Katie loves the
(25:36):
money too. Trump at the RNC and she says, quote,
I will tell you, even just looking at his face
in this video, I've never seen Trump with a look
like that on his face, not once. Chris Jansing, I
think saw where this was going and tried to save
the segment. Looks almost pensive, chancing, said Turr, then says serene. Yeah, Katie,
(25:59):
did he look as serene as eight years ago when
he tried to get his mobs to kill you? Because
he looked so serene at his fascist rallies, at the
thought of them killing you, And so many of us
came to your defense and lashed out against him and
comforted you in person and on the phone for months
and years thereafter. And now we have to remind everybody
(26:23):
that Trump tried to get you killed, and we have
to remind them because they may have forgotten, just like
you have. I am ashamed of you more than at
any point in the past, more than when you lied
about me to the Washington Post and New York Times.
So I wouldn't comment about your career, and I was
(26:45):
going to say positive things. Then God, what a disaster.
The runner up worser Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. Once again,
I'd like to point out the God of teleprompters is
avengeful and thoughtful God. The Republicans have spent months insisting
that President id And can only function if he has
(27:06):
a teleprompter. On Monday, speaker Mike Johnson's prompter failed at
the RNC while he was introducing the next speaker, and
he literally had no idea what to say next or
who the next speaker he was introducing was. Because Mike
Johnson had violated the first rule of prompter club, which
is always have a hard copy of the script somewhere
(27:29):
on you, or if you're introducing somebody, write his goddamn
name on your wrist. Then Senator Ron Johnson no relation
to any human beings. Ron looks like the first thing.
Every morning they drained the color from his face and
his eyes to make him look as post mortem as possible.
Ron Johnson got up and he really hued to that
(27:50):
new Trump unity line, that serenity that Katie saw. Johnson
told the convention the democratic policies are a quote clear
and present danger to the country. Afterwards, Johnson says he
meant not to say that, and to give an entirely
different speech spreading beauty and light, but that the prompter
(28:12):
guy loaded the old mean speech in the prompter, and
he Johnson, of course, just read the old one. Being
an idiot and a Russian, I learned it phle mythically.
The prompter problem probably also explains that when the new
Republican Trump Unity Convention was supposed to rise and sing Kumbayah,
(28:34):
the Democrats are still Americans. Instead they chanted f Joe
Biden because it was on the prompter. Probably, I don't know.
I think they need to find out where this prompter
guy was last Saturday. This could all be his fault.
He probably got Scarborough postponed two. Finally, the winner, the worst,
(28:56):
who could top any of this? Hugo Lowell, the estimable
political writer of the newspaper The Guardians Scoop. After scoop
on the Trump prosecutions, he tweeted some more breaking news
the other day. Pretty good scoop, pretty bad typing, and
I quote exactly as written at Hugo loll. Hearing from
multiple people that Trump will make an appearance at the
(29:17):
RNC tonight around eight pm, but he's not expected to speak,
would be Trump's first public appearance since he was shit
in the ear at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Let me just read that last part one more time.
Would be Trump's first public appearance since he was shit
(29:38):
in the ear at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Now once again, this would explain this whole lack of
clarity about what exactly did hit Trump on Saturday. I mean,
never mind the pee tape. He was shit in the ear.
Probably wouldn't be the first time. Seriously, everybody makes mistakes
(30:00):
like this. I once went on Network radio and I
rushed through a script with too many k's in it
and not enough time left in the show, and instead
of saying in a sportscast the mecca of quail club hunting,
I said something else that was about the anatomy of
a quail Shots like this happen. So why put Hugo
(30:24):
here's spit in near ear loll on the worst person's
list for an easily understood and laugh out loud funny typo,
especially in these times when we can use every laugh
we can get. Why put him on the worst person's list?
Why call him the worst person in the world because
he deleted this? It's gold, Jerry, It's gold, Hugo. Why
(30:47):
did you delete it? It's the smartest thing that's going
to come out of the Republican Convention this year. Loll
two days, worst person in the world. Anybody get any
(31:10):
pictures of that? In the ear to the number one
story on the Countdown and Things I Promised not to tell,
and MSNBC rubs the Republican Party, cancels Joe Scarborough's show
from the GOP fascist convention in Milwaukee, and as I
(31:32):
outlined earlier, it puts Eric Trump on Live with poor
brainwashed Katie Turr and she says, Daddy looks serene. And
it's not just that it looks like NBC News is
prostituting itself in preparation for a Republican takeover of the
country and the terror and the postponed Scarborough message from
Comcast is please don't arrest us, or at least don't
(31:54):
arrest our money. Not only that, but for some of us, Wow,
does this crap sound familiar? NBC Corporate at NBC is
in reruns. They were already blackmailed once by the Republicans,
long before Trump was sent here by the devil. And
(32:16):
boy did this flash me back, because this happened to
me at MSNBC in two thousand and eight, courtesy the
supposed sane Republicans, and in underscores that they have never
been sane. There have never been sane Republicans. They have
always longed to dictate to the media what it can
and cannot say about whichever asshole is its presidential candidate,
(32:41):
and thanks to people like Tom Brokaw, they often get
away with it. Chris Matthews and I were co anchoring
the Republican Convention on MSNBC in two thousand and eight.
He was there at the convention in Minnesota. I was
in the studios at thirty Rock in New York, ostensibly
so I could also anchor hurricane coverage, though it was
(33:04):
pretty clear that at least half the reason I was
not in Minneapolis was because the Republicans had threatened NBC
or said they could not guarantee my safety there or
something like that. So I was the one on September two,
two thousand and eight, who had to throw it to
a video that we had been told by the Republicans
was a tribute to the dead of nine to eleven
(33:24):
that they were playing in the theater in their convention
in Minnesota. It was not a tribute. It was a
snuff film. All of the images that the networks had
stopped showing of nine to eleven within weeks or even
days of the attacks, all of them were in this
snuff film. People jumping, falling to their deaths from the
World Trade Center, endless replays of the planes hitting the towers,
(33:47):
dismembered bodies in the plaza, the building collapses, the equally
terrifying scenes at the Pentagon, and all with the grotesque
voiceover from that Fink Robert Davey emphasizing that this was
all the Democrats fault. The message was they might as
well praised it this way, Electo, and you will die,
and you will die like this. I was angry just
(34:11):
on that base level. For that five and a half
years I had been back at MSNBC, we had been
rigorous about not showing any of that video that the
Republicans had just forced upon us by lying to us
about it. There were rules that if we had to
for some reason sneed some snippet, we would show only
skill images, and even then only with extensive warnings to
(34:33):
the viewers. But I knew from my conversations with the
president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, who I had known for
twenty eight years at that point, that he would insist
that on the scene in Minneapolis, Matthews and Tom Brokaw,
whose career at NBC I had resuscitated after Brian Williams
had buried him alive two years earlier. I knew from
what Griffin told me that one or both of them
(34:56):
would rebuke the GOP for showing not a nine to
eleven tribute, but, as I just said, a nine to
eleven snuff film. The snuff film ended, we came out
to Brokaw and Matthews, and Brokaw kind of coughed, and
Matthews said wow. And he turned to Brokaw and said,
in that loose fire hose delivery he had tom that
kind of scores terrorism. Big thing for Republicans. They try
(35:18):
stop Obama. Brokaw droned on approvingly, the Republicans sneaking a
snuff film, a banned video onto MSNBC and by the way,
also onto CNN, onto NBC proper, onto CBS, onto ABC
without any warning. That was not mentioned. Back to New
York to Keith, I was supposed to add liberates about
(35:42):
what we were expecting from the Republican convention for the
rest of the night and then throw to a commercial instead,
I said, and this is a paraphrase, the original tape
disappeared that night that before we moved on, I felt
I needed to apologize that we at MSNBC and for
that matter, at NBC News, had extremely strict rules about
not showing the video the Republicans had just shown you
(36:05):
via our network, without any warning, without any context, and
by lying to us, and we certainly would not have
shown the horror and death and blamed it on the
Democrats or for that matter, on the Republicans. I said,
if we had done such a thing ourselves, there would
have been people fired. The public program the GOP provided
(36:26):
said that was going to be a nine to eleven
tribute film, I said, and so did the private conversations
with the network, which included the reminder from NBC and
MSNBC that we had rules against showing the scenes of
horrible death and mutilation and destruction. So I apologized on
behalf of whoever trusted the Republicans to live up to
their word, that MSNBC viewers were forced to see the
(36:48):
video our network had promised never to show them. So
three nights later, without as much as an email to me,
this Griffin had called my agent and told her I
was fired and Matthews two from our coverage of the
upcoming Caine Obama debates, I happened to be off that
night in the press box watching a Mets Phillies game
(37:10):
at Shay Stadium, so she had to relate these details
to me by phone as I walked down the many
ramps in the stadium's bowels and headed towards the subway.
I told her to call Griffin back and tell him
I was quitting on the spot right then, and he
could work his way out of the ensuing disaster by himself.
Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal host Alderman for criticizing conservatives
(37:34):
for sneaking nine to eleven snuff film onto MSNBC. He
could work his way out of that disaster any way
he chose, and then he could wait for my response
on Good Morning America, CBS, This Morning, the PBS News Hour,
any other news program that bothered to ask and in court.
I made a few phone calls to friendly voices within
(37:56):
the NBC management structure, got from them a clearer picture
of what had happened, And despite the spotty cell service
along the elevated train line heading back into Manhattan, I
got a message from a newspaper reporter friend who neatly
tied together all that I was hearing elsewhere. Tom Brokaw
is going around NBC saying he got you fired from
(38:17):
the debates because the Republicans told him to. Nine maybe
ten months earlier, the same Phil Griffin had come to
me and asked me if I would be okay with
Brokaw appearing during our weekly coverage of the Democratic and
Republican primaries. Just a couple of minutes, buddy, like from
a perspective desk, that's all he wants to do. He's
so unhappy Brian Williams has frozen him out of everything.
(38:40):
I was appalled, but not surprised. The power had gone
to Brian's head, and of course there it had not
met very much resistance. Plus, as I said to Griffin,
you're asking me if I'd like to add Tom Brokaw's
experience and Tom Brocaw's gravitas to stuff I'm anchoring when
I'm not sure I know as much as I really
(39:02):
know to do this the right way. Tom to be
fair fit in beautifully, and twice after those long Tuesday
evenings during the primaries, he sent me brief emails awarding
me what he called the game ball because he was
so impressed by my ability to balance the roles of
political anchor and political commentator. Having tried this myself, he wrote,
(39:25):
I know of a perilous tight roupe. This is game
ball to koh. I mocked them now, but they meant
so much to me then that I printed them out
and carried them in my wallet until September. And now
Brokaw had gotten me fired because, as my newspaper friend said,
the Republicans told him to well, that wasn't hard to
(39:49):
unpack either. Tim Russard had died on the third of
June that year. I anchored that night until two in
the morning. It was still an open wound. There were
still tears. We didn't know it then, but the structure
of NBC News and the Gurlost tightroupe balancing NBC and
MSNBC had died with Tim Russard. So did the role
(40:11):
of moderator of the second debate between John McCain and
Barack Obama, scheduled for about a month. From my subway
ride on October seventh, two thousand and eight in Nashville,
Tim had not even been buried yet when Brokaw began
to angle to get that assignment that was now vacant,
along with brushing away the dirt of his Penny Ante
role on the MSNBC Perspective Desk, leaving us in the
(40:34):
lurch in order to take over Tim's spot as Brian's
sage sidekick on Big NBC. The month of four August,
there had been a story coming out of the east
end of the third floor at thirty Rock, where NBC
News managers sat around not doing much of anything, that
a Republican goon named Ed Gillespie had been in there
(40:54):
with Griffin and the idiot NBC News president Steve CAPPIs
trying to get me silenced or fired or off the
convention coverage or something, and that somebody prominent from NBC
News was in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie.
The rumor mill was not confident in who it was
(41:15):
or what exactly they were doing. That Friday night in
September two thousand and eight, as I switched from the
elevated seven train to the underground f the whole thing
came together before my comments about the GOP Convention nine
to eleven snuff film, Gillespie had come in and had
somehow vaguely threatened Cappus and Griffin about me using as
(41:38):
leverage the debate which Tom Brokaw was now supposed to moderate,
the one that had been Russerts. And when I apologized
for their snuff video on our air, Gillespie must have
turned it into an either or get rid of me
or McCain would refuse to participate in any debate moderated
by Brokaw. Tom Brokaw had already come back from the
(42:00):
dead once in two thousand and eight. I had made
that happen, and he would be damned if he would
be forced to do it a second time. But as
the train took me home to an apartment, I was
now going to have to sell since I had quit
MSNBC on the spot for folding to such obvious blackmail,
something else now occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or
(42:21):
NBC or our parent corporation GE actually think that they
could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC, where
the Rachel Meadow Show had not yet been born and
was only going to premiere the next week, and the
three times a night my show ran accounted for something
like sixty percent of the entire day's network audience and
(42:43):
all of its profits. How did they think they were
going to get away with that without a really bad
reaction from our audience. Plus, if a newspaper man already
knew the Brokaw part, how could this story be avoided
something like this. MSNBC has announced it had removed its
liberal star Keith al Rumman from coverage of the McCain
Obama presidential debates. Sources confirmed former NBC The News anchorman
(43:05):
Tom Brokaw, now an MSNBC commentator, had helped the Republican
Party to blackmail NBC into the decision. Olderman immediately resigned, saying,
quote in succumbing to this coercion on behalf of John McCain,
NBC has now forfeited any further right to be called
a news organization, and I'm sad to say MSNBC, which
I built, is now dead. At that point, it dawned
(43:30):
on me that the only thing that could save the
credibility of the whole NBC News division and the careers
of Griffin and Cappus and NBC Network President Jeff Zooker,
and especially Tom Brokaw, was for me to publicly state
to lie that I had asked to be removed from
anchoring the debates because the whatever was just too much
(43:52):
blah blah blah for me, and I felt I should
just stick to the post debate analysis and commentary and
blah blah blah blah blah. In short, they would have
a choice. They could fire me from the debates and
destroy everything, including the one hundred million dollars a year
or so in profits NBC was suddenly making off MSNBC
after years of losing about that much. Or I could
(44:16):
lie and claim it was my idea and I could
save everybody's ass and their money, including my own. I
got out of the subway and raced home. I called
my agent. I explained it to her. I'm not quitting.
In fact, I'm going to get a huge raise. Listen carefully,
you call Griffin back and explain to him I will
now personally save his job even though he doesn't deserve it,
(44:39):
and Campuses and Zooker's and bro CAUs and everybody else's
I'll take the fall instead of letting them get fired
by the MSNBC audience. I'll say this was my idea
and it will cost him only twelve million dollars. Oh,
and he has to leak the fact that it cost
him twelve million dollars. That's the deal. And she paused
(45:02):
for a second and she said, hey, that's It might
not quite be twelve, but I bet I get at
least nine million. On Sunday, several news organizations reported I
had asked to be taken off the anchor desk for
the debates. Two months and one week later, The New
York Times wrote, quote, Keith Olberman, the anchor of Countdown
(45:25):
on MSNBC, has extended his contract through the next presidential
election season. The networking outs mister Olderman and MSNBC essentially
tore up the four year, four million dollar a year
contract they signed last year and replaced it with one
worth about seven and a half million a year. So
that was a three and a half million dollar raise
for four years to a total of fourteen million dollars.
(45:47):
Except the new contract added two years to my old deal,
so the rays was actually twenty two million dollars. All
stories have punchlines. This punchline is about brocaw. We would
have gotten away with this. NBC would have gotten its
money's worth for the twenty two million and hush money
it had to pay me because it had rolled over
(46:07):
for Republican Party blackmail. Except Brokaw couldn't keep his mouth shut.
So proud was he of preserving his role as moderator
of the October seventh debate that he had to explain
in explicit detail how he went to his bosses at
NBC News and threatened them on behalf of the GOP.
I mean on the record, he said this September twenty ninth,
(46:31):
a lengthy and glowing Brokaw profile in The New York Times.
Quote mister Brokaw said that over the summer he'd quote
advocated within the executive suite of NBC News to modify
the anchor duties of the MSNBC hosts Keith Alderman and
Chris Matthews on election Night and on knights where there
were presidential debates. Mister Brokaw said he had also conducted
(46:54):
some shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and the
McCain campaign. His mission, he said, was to assure the
candidate's aids that despite some negative on air commentary by
mister Olberman in particular, mister McCain could still get a
fair shake from NBC News. Unquote. That was his mission,
(47:14):
the hell, that was his mission. Happily, broconc just could
not resist boasting even further. The next sentence reads quote,
Mister Brokaw said he had been told by a senior
McCain aide whom he did not name, that the campaign
had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one
of the moderators of the three presidential debates until his
(47:37):
name was invoked. One of the things I was told
by this person was that they were so irritated. They said,
if it's an NBC moalorator for any of these debates,
we won't go. Mister Brocaw said, my name came up,
and they said, oh hell, we have to do it,
because it's going to be Brokaw. No insufferable person in
(48:00):
all of broadcasting history has a better rep and a
better and more unders rep than Tom Broke All So,
when a Trump leans on NBC management because the coverage
that he got was not the coverage he wanted, don't
think it won't have an effect. Because in two thousand
and eight, they loved me then as they love Meadow now.
(48:23):
But what they loved about each of us was not
the truth we provided, but the money. There is a
second punchline, after all, this. When the new format came out,
MSNBC had David Gregory quote anchor unquote the debate coverage.
Practically all this meant was that I was on the
air until ninety seconds before the debates began, which is
(48:44):
when I said, now here's David Gregory. And he was
on the air for four or five minutes after the
debate ended, which is when he would then say, now
here's Keith Ollerin. And on Election Night, with David officially
the anchor of MSNBC's coverage, at ten fifty nine pm,
he said, and bless him for this. With the last
voting booth closing at eleven p NBC News can now
(49:06):
project the winner of the two thousand and eight presidential election,
Keith plus that twenty two million dollars. I still have it.
(49:31):
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening. By the way, I got my come
up ins too, because who was it who the Letterman
people called when that guy John McCain ended his presidential
chances the night that he bailed out on Letterman and
more importantly lied to Letterman about why he was bailing out.
That was actually the last day John McCain had a
(49:52):
chance of beating Barack Obama? And who did they call
to come over and be the guest instead of John
McCain who's supposed to be on for the whole hour
on Letterman that night me I got to be a
witness to Dave Letterman taking John McCain apart at the seams,
and nobody ever put him back together again. That was
(50:13):
it that night. And the guy who was the producer
of by segment, he's now the producer of Morning Joe.
Life is funny, isn't it? Countdown? Musical directors Brian Ray
and John Phillip Chanel arranged, produced, and performed most of
our music. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums,
and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. It was produced
(50:34):
by Tko Brothers. Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions,
arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The
sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, which
was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc.
Our satirical and fifthy musical comments are of course by
Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever. My announcer
(50:55):
today was the incomparable Stevie Van Zant. Everything else was
pretty much my fault, except the farts that are all Trump.
That's countdown for them. The one hundred and twelfth day
until the twenty twenty fourth presidential election, but one two
and eighty seventh day since convicted fellon Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
(51:18):
Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the mental health system.
You've got it, President Biden, use the presidential immunity to
stop him from doing it again while we still can.
And Republicans, please stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled
(51:40):
countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as the news requires. Till then,
I'm Keith Olremman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio.
(52:06):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. So
you're telling me? Last month, Tucker Carlson warned Trump that
(00:26):
he might be assassinated if he didn't pick JD. Vance
or another non Neocon as his running mate. Or I
may be reading this too generously, You might think Tucker
Carlson threatened Trump that he might be assassinated. You might
think that I could not possibly comment this astonishing event.
(00:51):
Carlson phones Trump from Australia in June tells him if
he chooses a Neocon like Marco Rubio instead of Carlson's
pal Vance as vice president, he might be could be
would be assassinated. It is in the New York Times,
and Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swann put it in paragraph
(01:13):
sixty nine paragraph sixty nine out of seventy one paragraphs.
Paragraph sixty nine kind of buried the lead, quoting Mags
and Swaneye. When word got back to Tucker Carlson a
few weeks ago that mister Trump might be wavering on
(01:33):
mister Vance, he intervened. Mister Carlson, who was visiting Australia
on a speaking tour, phoned mister Trump and delivered an
apocalyptic warning. According to two people briefed on their conversation,
he told mister Trump that mister Rubio could not be trusted,
that he would work against him and would try to
(01:54):
lead America into nuclear war. Mister Carlson, who declined to
comment for this article, told mister Trump that mister Burgham
could not be trusted either. Mister Carlson told mister Trump
in that June phone call that he believed that if
he chose a Neocon as his VP, then the US
intelligence agencies would have every incentive to assassinate mister Trump
(02:20):
in order to get their preferred president. Now, maybe I'm
being old fashioned, but where I comes from. If you
phone the Republican nominee for president of the United effing
States and you tell him if he doesn't pick the
(02:40):
right candidate to be his running mate, the intel community
will have every incentive to assassinate him. And like four
weeks after that, somebody tries to assassinate him, and two
days after that he chooses your pick as his running mate,
eyebrows will be raised even by the Secret Service. Are
(03:03):
they talking to Tucker Carlson about this? To Maggie Haberman
and Jonathan Swann, who sourced this story of Carlson's warning threat,
or really good guests are they talking to jd Vance?
I mean, for the second straight day, Eric Trump went
on television and insisted about his father that some unknown
(03:25):
they tried to take his life. And I know Eric
is challenged, but he also said that to CNN, where
Jake Tapper, a journalistic seat filler, replied with absolutely nothing
to say. That isn't true. They literally tried to kill
him this week. The more challenged of the Trump more
on twins told Fox the day before and before, you say,
(03:49):
Tucker Carlson couldn't possibly be the they. Besides which, he
was warning Trump that like the CIA, would assassinate him
if he chose the wrong vice president four weeks before
somebody actually tried to forty eight hours before he chose
the right vice president. You say, no way, I say,
(04:09):
have you ever met Tucker Carlson. In unrelated news, CNN
reports that the US intel community was told by human
source about a plot by Iran to assassinate Trump. That
the US Intel community was told this in the last
few weeks. No indication that the guy who actually tried
(04:35):
to assassinate Trump was connected to the malefactor here Tucker
Carlson or maybe Iran, I don't know. Also no indication
that the Secret Service ignored this. In fact, the sources
insist security around Trump was increased after the Iran story
reached somebody's desk, just as Carlson was calling Trump from
(04:56):
Australia and said, don't pick a neocon or you know
they'll want to back and to the left back, and
to the left back and to the left. While Trump
still has not called the family of the man who
actually died defending his family from MAGA gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks,
President Biden did phone the family, and the widow said
(05:17):
she appreciated the gesture, but she felt she had to
honor her late husband, refusing to take the call. On
the other hand, she said she bore the president no
ill will and blamed only the shooter. And Trump still
hasn't called because well, of course the guy who got
killed wasn't him, so why would he care. A technical
(05:39):
irony on the shooting has been reported by England's Channel four.
The Trump campaign targeted the shooter's family, targeted him in
a database. Matthew Crooks, father of Thomas Matthew Crooks and
owner of the AR fifteen used Saturday, was in a
Trump campaign database in twenty sixteen profiling millions of voters
(06:02):
in the battleground states in a secret program designed to
target specific voters with pro gun messages during the campaign.
It had identified both the father and the mother as
very likely to be gun owners and hunters and Republicans
and susceptible to pro gun messaging. The British news operation
(06:22):
obtained that Trump database in twenty sixteen and reported on
its existence. Then no idea if the campaign actually contacted
the Crooks family. No further information on the separate story
from a Pittsburgh television newsroom that neighbors often saw Trump
campaign signs in the yard around the Crooks family home. Nevertheless,
(06:43):
Trump was shot at by a maga gun nut. Some
polling about the assassination. Morning Consult concludes that three in
five voters blame American political rhetoric. They say it's responsible
for the environment that made shooting at Trump possible. They
asked voters Monday, and they got down to brass tax two.
(07:04):
Which person or group is to blame for the rhetoric
and the environment, and thus the violence, twenty nine percent
blame Biden, thirty one percent blame the Republican Party, thirty
eight percent blame Trump. Now, at last some information on
the forgotten question was Trump shot or not shot? The
(07:26):
good news is we finally have the testimony of a doctor.
The bad news is the doctor is Congressman Ronnie glug
Glug Jackson. He says he's seen and treated Trump's ear,
the one Trump had bandaged up like somebody who vaguely
remembered Vincent Van Goe's self portrait. And yes, there were
delegates on the floor at the convention in Milwaukee last
(07:48):
night wearing homemade versions of Trump's crapshack ear bandage. Yes,
it looked like a crowd of whinos in a cult
wearing post its. Speaking of Whinos in a cult, doctor
Jackson said a little bit of Trump's ear had actually
been taken off by the bullet. That's the first time
(08:10):
anybody besides Trump has asserted or even tried to confirm
Trump's claim that he was even grazed by a shot
and not debris or unintended shrapnel or something else. Also, Trump,
you let Ronnie Jackson treat your wound. Stand by for
sepsis place the legal theme? Why the legal theme? One
(08:55):
prospect few of us have contemplated. Trump wins, but the
Democrats take the Senate and House in landslides. Inauguration is
January twentieth, and in this scenario, the third Trump impeachment
is January twenty seventh. I mean, January twenty seventh is
my birthday. Under those circumstances, the next next president of
(09:19):
the United States would be this no accomplishment's freshman senator
from Ohio who looks like Rush Limbaugh's sperm donor sun
only wearing eyeliner. And we are getting our first perspective
on what Republicans and non crazy Americans think of him.
And the answer is, who the F is this guy?
Monday polling by you gov, only twenty seven percent of
(09:43):
Republicans think that Vance was Trump's best possible pick. They
did not ask Tucker Carlson. Twenty nine percent more say
he's okay. Forty three percent of Republicans say he's neither
good nor bad, or he is bad, or he's the worst,
or they are unsure. CNN polling from just eighteen days
ago indicates unsure is the driving factor here. Voters were
(10:07):
asked for favorable or unfavorable opinions on people simply described
to them as being in the news. Twenty seven percent
of Americans had a favorable opinion of Marco Rubio, thirty
four percent an unfavorable one, twenty three percent had no
opinion on Rubio. Twenty one percent said I never heard
of him, as to Vance, eleven percent favorable, eighteen percent unfavorable,
(10:32):
no opinion, fifteen percent never heard of him, fifty six
percent fifty six Fance is nearly is unknown, as is
Doug Bergham. Sixty six percent never heard of him either,
but eight percent had a favorable opinion of Burgham. That's
within striking distance of Vance's eleven percent. That's not good.
(10:56):
Then again, something made Trump feel like he just had
to pick Vance Hacker Carlton Deep State, also from that
Ku Klux Clan rally in Milwaukee, only with a decent
on stage band. Rudy Giuliani toppled to the floor yesterday
(11:17):
in the afternoon, took about eight steps down the red
carpet walkway, then shuffled to the right like Daffy Duck
in Showbiz Bugs and hit the deck down, goes Giuliati.
Down goes Giuliani. To be fair, The Atlanta Journal Constitution's
Washington correspondent Tia Mitchell notes that Giuliani seemed to be
(11:39):
reaching for one of the chairs on the convention floor
when he fell, and that thanks to some genius, the
red carpet walkways are actually several inches off the floor,
and you can't really see where the actual floor is
because of shadows cast by the chairs. My evil plan
(11:59):
has been unmasked. That or it was the sky. And
this from Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson of North Carolina, the
Republican nominee to become governor there, who foretold the new
Trump unity scam earlier this month by screaming in church
that people he didn't like need killing. Robinson told the
(12:22):
Republican Fascist Fest in Milwaukee that Trump is the brave
Heart of our time unquote. I never ceased to be
mystified by the number of politicians who compare themselves or
somebody they claim to like to Brave Heart. Brave Heart
was the thirteenth and fourteenth century warrior king of Scotland,
(12:45):
whose life was told kind of in one of the
least anti Semitic of mel Gibson's movies when the British
captured Braveheart and tried him for treason and for one
of the first times in world history, for war crimes,
including murdering civilians, including children, including nuns. They found him guilty.
(13:06):
They tied Brave Heart to the heels of a horse
and dragged him through the streets of London naked. Then
they hanged him, but they cut him down before he died.
And then they emasculated him, eviscerated him and beheaded him.
Then they got tough, the man Mark Robinson compared Trump
(13:26):
to then had his head cut into four parts and
dipped into tar and put on top of a spike
on London Bridge. And then they took what was left
of the rest of his body and took it on
a national tour. But Lieutenant Governor Robinson, you're telling me
Trump is the brave heart of our time. Go on. Meanwhile,
(13:59):
back at the ranch, I suggested here last week that
President Biden pull out the stops. The Supreme Court is hated.
A new Fox News poll put approval at thirty eight
percent yesterday. Others have the percentages who believe its judges
are utterly partisan. In the sixties run against Trump run
against the Supreme Court as well. The Washington Post reports
(14:21):
he's going to to propose legislated term limits and an
enforceable ethics code in the immediate future. He also wants
a constitutional amendment to override the Supreme court recent ruling
to eliminate broad presidential immunity and immunity for other officeholders.
He previewed this, apparently to the Congressional Progressive Caucus last Saturday.
(14:43):
A transcript of the conversation reads, I'm going to need
your help on the Supreme Court because I'm about to
come out. I don't want to prematurely announce it, but
I'm about to come out with a major initiative unlimiting
the Court. I've been working with constitutional scholars for the
last three months and I need some help. Well. Cool,
but you're not going to pass any of that now.
And I don't see where it says you're adding six
(15:04):
new seats to the bench. Mister President. To paraphrase Frederick Douglass,
the national edifice is on fire. Use the presidential immunity,
use it, not to say you might do this if
the Congress will approve, impose these things, and do it now,
and let the bastards try to undo it. And I
mean now, the Democratic National Committee is still planning to
(15:27):
renominate Joe Biden in a virtual role call in the
next few weeks before August seventh. Those who still want
him off the ticket are trying to stop that plan
to give the party more time to decide. And my god,
don't they realize they're Democrats. We don't decide. Congressman Jared
Huffman of California went on the record saying that he
(15:48):
represents a growing number of members who think the virtual
vote is quote a terrible idea, a dumb thing. There
is a letter being circulated among House Democrats that begins,
quote we respectfully but emphatically request that you cancel any
plans for an accelerated virtual role call. While that gives
a sense of urgency to the thing, there is a story,
(16:11):
and there is another story, and there's another story after that.
That part of that group, literally or just in spirit,
is Nancy Pelosi. That she is working behind the scenes,
has been since the day after the debate to change
presidential candidates let me quote politico. As dangerous as that
might be, one of her colleagues was struck to see
(16:32):
her chatting furtively but openly with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
last week in a corner of the House Democratic cloak
room in plain sight of a dozen lawmakers. The extent
of Pelosi's behind the scenes role hasn't been fully revealed,
and may never be if the former Speaker has her way,
But I'm told by people familiar with the exchanges that
(16:53):
she stage managed phone calls to Jeffreys, plotted strategy with
the biggest names in Democratic politics, and told one former
elected official bluntly that Biden's legacy can't be destroying their
party since the President's excellent press conference last week and
is even better speech in Detroit. I have returned to
(17:15):
being agnostic here, but goddamn it, let's make up our minds.
There cannot be more than two weeks left to clear
this up either way. By then, Poles will fully reflect
the Pennsylvania shooting at Trump, the selection of vance Tucker Carlson,
and the thing that rhymes with fascination debt, and Biden's
(17:37):
latest impact And the reason I'm agnostic again, I mean
I've only been agnostic like twice since nineteen seventy, the
Times reported last night. Then, rather than take more input
from more Democrats and more advisors. Joe Biden has tightened
his circle and now he isn't even talking to his
own polsters. Ordinarily, this might make you reach for Rudy
(18:01):
giuliani stash of Scotch. Except the five thirty eight dot
com average of polls, which shows Biden's disapproval hovering in
general at fifty six percent, shows the national polls averaging
plus two for Trump. But the five thirty eight electoral
college model, which eleven days ago showed Trump winning by
(18:24):
four votes in the electoral college, now shows Biden winning
in fifty three out of every one hundred simulations, Biden
with a fifty three percent chance of an electoral college victory,
and moreover, winning by two hundred and seventy seven electoral
college votes to two hundred and sixty one for Trump. Christ,
give me some of that stuff you gave Rudy. I
(18:46):
don't know, it might not be strong enough. Maybe give
me some of that stuff you gave Braveheart. Also of interest,
here deja vu all over again. MSNBC postpones a Joe
Scarborough show from the convention out of fear he'd say
(19:07):
something that would piss off Trump, while other anchors there,
including a woman I used to live with in a
Trump building who Trump tried to get killed eight years ago,
say he looks serene. They did it to me in
(19:27):
two thousand and eight, and they are doing it to
NBC and the MSNBC talent right now. I can smell it.
I will bet you actual cash money upwards of thirty
dollars that the Republicans are threatening the executives of NBC
right now, just as they did to get me off
the air sixteen years ago. Worst Persons and an updated
(19:49):
things I promised not to tell about GOPVNBC. That's next.
This is an all new edition of Countdown. This is
Countdown with Keith Olberman stell ahead of us on this
(20:25):
edition of Countdown. History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes,
except when it effing repeats itself. MSNBC anchors sucking up
to the Republican presidential nominee, Republican thugs going into the
offices of NBC News and suggesting some of the other
(20:46):
MSNBC anchors had better be taken off the air. During
GOP events twenty twenty four unfolding before our eyes. No sir,
two thousand and eight, they've already done this little dance
of fellating Trump's. Whatever the details in a New Things
I promised not to tell first, there are still more
(21:09):
new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miscreants,
morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's first
arsons in the world. Honorable mention John Stuart and Bill O'Reilly.
And what do they have in common? Well, the year
two thousand and three. But besides that, Stuart had O'Reilly
(21:33):
on his show last night, and I suppose there will
be something I can make fun of tomorrow. But for now,
I have only this to say. Anytime I hear that
somebody is talking to Bill O'Reilly, I flashed back to
his conversation with his producer at Fox, Andrea Macris, and
I wonder if during the conversation Bill is sitting there
(21:53):
with a vibrator up his tush. Lebrons worse my old
pals Joe Scarbrough and Katie Turr. Joe's bosses did something
he didn't like, so Joe reverted to his first decade
on MSNBC, and he pissed on the tent in the tent. Monday,
(22:14):
his NBC masters canceled his show postponed it. Really, his
show is called Ray Hash political talking points starring Joe Scarborough,
who judges which way the wind blows and if Trump
won't let him be vice dictator, Joe Scarborough pretend to
support Biden while Joe Scarborough sabotaged everybody else he works there,
and he steals other men's wives. Anyway, I think that's
(22:37):
what the show is called. I haven't watched lately, so anyway,
on Monday, they were all in Milwaukee for the Fascist
Convention and a live version of the show from there,
and they didn't put Joe on. I know CNN reported
this was out of fear at NBC that somebody would
make a quote inappropriate comment on live television that could
(23:01):
be used to assail the program and network as a whole.
While discussing Trump's assassination attempt. Wait, I thought that was
the point of the program. Joey Scar's not happy now. Normally,
when he's not happy, he just threatens and blackmail's management
and he undercuts them in anonymous quotes to news outlets.
(23:24):
But this time Joey Scars trashed his employers on their
own network. Quote, next time we are told there would
be a newsfeed replacing us, we will be in our
chairs and the newsfeed will be us, or they can
get somebody else to house the show. Firstly, he said
this more or less continuously off the air since two
(23:46):
thousand and three. Secondly, NBC, this is your chance. He
just threatened to quitch, and he breached his contract by
what he said on the air. You have seventy three
people on this show. Would anybody notice he's gone? Other
than the improvement and the smell in the studio? All right?
You'd have to get new graphics and calling it Morning Mika.
(24:08):
Big deal? I mean, does anybody miss the original hosts
check's notes, David Gregory and Kntessa Brewer. The one they
swapped in for Brewer and for the previous Missus Scarborough
is named Mika Brzhinski one of the nicest people in
the world, as long as she's unemployed when she has
a contract on a television network. Marie effing Antoinette, she
(24:32):
actually said something. It seemed like now more than ever
is a day a time when we would like to
be on. I think our viewers agree with that. Now
to be fair. I will defend Scarborough in the next
segment because I gather that what's so enraged Joey enough
to lash out on the air and risk getting fired
(24:54):
and risk all that money, and god he loves all
that money, is that Scarborough heard about this what I
heard when they did it to me sixteen years ago,
that the Republican Party demanded that NBC do this more
coming up as to Terr I'm so sorry about her.
I mean, I mean, I apologize to you that I
(25:16):
helped her get her career started. She was going to
be a painter, and when she moved in with me
in two thousand and six, I said, well, you know,
I know you don't want to do what your dad
and mom did, but you have a natural instinct for
what a news report from the field should look like.
You're a natural on camera. That was the last of
the painting. I'm sorry, It's my fault. Katie loves the
(25:36):
money too. Trump at the RNC and she says, quote,
I will tell you, even just looking at his face
in this video, I've never seen Trump with a look
like that on his face, not once. Chris Jansing, I
think saw where this was going and tried to save
the segment. Looks almost pensive, chancing, said Turr, then says serene. Yeah, Katie,
(25:59):
did he look as serene as eight years ago when
he tried to get his mobs to kill you? Because
he looked so serene at his fascist rallies, at the
thought of them killing you, And so many of us
came to your defense and lashed out against him and
comforted you in person and on the phone for months
and years thereafter. And now we have to remind everybody
(26:23):
that Trump tried to get you killed, and we have
to remind them because they may have forgotten, just like
you have. I am ashamed of you more than at
any point in the past, more than when you lied
about me to the Washington Post and New York Times.
So I wouldn't comment about your career, and I was
(26:45):
going to say positive things. Then God, what a disaster.
The runner up worser Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. Once again,
I'd like to point out the God of teleprompters is
avengeful and thoughtful God. The Republicans have spent months insisting
that President id And can only function if he has
(27:06):
a teleprompter. On Monday, speaker Mike Johnson's prompter failed at
the RNC while he was introducing the next speaker, and
he literally had no idea what to say next or
who the next speaker he was introducing was. Because Mike
Johnson had violated the first rule of prompter club, which
is always have a hard copy of the script somewhere
(27:29):
on you, or if you're introducing somebody, write his goddamn
name on your wrist. Then Senator Ron Johnson no relation
to any human beings. Ron looks like the first thing.
Every morning they drained the color from his face and
his eyes to make him look as post mortem as possible.
Ron Johnson got up and he really hued to that
(27:50):
new Trump unity line, that serenity that Katie saw. Johnson
told the convention the democratic policies are a quote clear
and present danger to the country. Afterwards, Johnson says he
meant not to say that, and to give an entirely
different speech spreading beauty and light, but that the prompter
(28:12):
guy loaded the old mean speech in the prompter, and
he Johnson, of course, just read the old one. Being
an idiot and a Russian, I learned it phle mythically.
The prompter problem probably also explains that when the new
Republican Trump Unity Convention was supposed to rise and sing Kumbayah,
(28:34):
the Democrats are still Americans. Instead they chanted f Joe
Biden because it was on the prompter. Probably, I don't know.
I think they need to find out where this prompter
guy was last Saturday. This could all be his fault.
He probably got Scarborough postponed two. Finally, the winner, the worst,
(28:56):
who could top any of this? Hugo Lowell, the estimable
political writer of the newspaper The Guardians Scoop. After scoop
on the Trump prosecutions, he tweeted some more breaking news
the other day. Pretty good scoop, pretty bad typing, and
I quote exactly as written at Hugo loll. Hearing from
multiple people that Trump will make an appearance at the
(29:17):
RNC tonight around eight pm, but he's not expected to speak,
would be Trump's first public appearance since he was shit
in the ear at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Let me just read that last part one more time.
Would be Trump's first public appearance since he was shit
(29:38):
in the ear at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Now once again, this would explain this whole lack of
clarity about what exactly did hit Trump on Saturday. I mean,
never mind the pee tape. He was shit in the ear.
Probably wouldn't be the first time. Seriously, everybody makes mistakes
(30:00):
like this. I once went on Network radio and I
rushed through a script with too many k's in it
and not enough time left in the show, and instead
of saying in a sportscast the mecca of quail club hunting,
I said something else that was about the anatomy of
a quail Shots like this happen. So why put Hugo
(30:24):
here's spit in near ear loll on the worst person's
list for an easily understood and laugh out loud funny typo,
especially in these times when we can use every laugh
we can get. Why put him on the worst person's list?
Why call him the worst person in the world because
he deleted this? It's gold, Jerry, It's gold, Hugo. Why
(30:47):
did you delete it? It's the smartest thing that's going
to come out of the Republican Convention this year. Loll
two days, worst person in the world. Anybody get any
(31:10):
pictures of that? In the ear to the number one
story on the Countdown and Things I Promised not to tell,
and MSNBC rubs the Republican Party, cancels Joe Scarborough's show
from the GOP fascist convention in Milwaukee, and as I
(31:32):
outlined earlier, it puts Eric Trump on Live with poor
brainwashed Katie Turr and she says, Daddy looks serene. And
it's not just that it looks like NBC News is
prostituting itself in preparation for a Republican takeover of the
country and the terror and the postponed Scarborough message from
Comcast is please don't arrest us, or at least don't
(31:54):
arrest our money. Not only that, but for some of us, Wow,
does this crap sound familiar? NBC Corporate at NBC is
in reruns. They were already blackmailed once by the Republicans,
long before Trump was sent here by the devil. And
(32:16):
boy did this flash me back, because this happened to
me at MSNBC in two thousand and eight, courtesy the
supposed sane Republicans, and in underscores that they have never
been sane. There have never been sane Republicans. They have
always longed to dictate to the media what it can
and cannot say about whichever asshole is its presidential candidate,
(32:41):
and thanks to people like Tom Brokaw, they often get
away with it. Chris Matthews and I were co anchoring
the Republican Convention on MSNBC in two thousand and eight.
He was there at the convention in Minnesota. I was
in the studios at thirty Rock in New York, ostensibly
so I could also anchor hurricane coverage, though it was
(33:04):
pretty clear that at least half the reason I was
not in Minneapolis was because the Republicans had threatened NBC
or said they could not guarantee my safety there or
something like that. So I was the one on September two,
two thousand and eight, who had to throw it to
a video that we had been told by the Republicans
was a tribute to the dead of nine to eleven
(33:24):
that they were playing in the theater in their convention
in Minnesota. It was not a tribute. It was a
snuff film. All of the images that the networks had
stopped showing of nine to eleven within weeks or even
days of the attacks, all of them were in this
snuff film. People jumping, falling to their deaths from the
World Trade Center, endless replays of the planes hitting the towers,
(33:47):
dismembered bodies in the plaza, the building collapses, the equally
terrifying scenes at the Pentagon, and all with the grotesque
voiceover from that Fink Robert Davey emphasizing that this was
all the Democrats fault. The message was they might as
well praised it this way, Electo, and you will die,
and you will die like this. I was angry just
(34:11):
on that base level. For that five and a half
years I had been back at MSNBC, we had been
rigorous about not showing any of that video that the
Republicans had just forced upon us by lying to us
about it. There were rules that if we had to
for some reason sneed some snippet, we would show only
skill images, and even then only with extensive warnings to
(34:33):
the viewers. But I knew from my conversations with the
president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, who I had known for
twenty eight years at that point, that he would insist
that on the scene in Minneapolis, Matthews and Tom Brokaw,
whose career at NBC I had resuscitated after Brian Williams
had buried him alive two years earlier. I knew from
what Griffin told me that one or both of them
(34:56):
would rebuke the GOP for showing not a nine to
eleven tribute, but, as I just said, a nine to
eleven snuff film. The snuff film ended, we came out
to Brokaw and Matthews, and Brokaw kind of coughed, and
Matthews said wow. And he turned to Brokaw and said,
in that loose fire hose delivery he had tom that
kind of scores terrorism. Big thing for Republicans. They try
(35:18):
stop Obama. Brokaw droned on approvingly, the Republicans sneaking a
snuff film, a banned video onto MSNBC and by the way,
also onto CNN, onto NBC proper, onto CBS, onto ABC
without any warning. That was not mentioned. Back to New
York to Keith, I was supposed to add liberates about
(35:42):
what we were expecting from the Republican convention for the
rest of the night and then throw to a commercial instead,
I said, and this is a paraphrase, the original tape
disappeared that night that before we moved on, I felt
I needed to apologize that we at MSNBC and for
that matter, at NBC News, had extremely strict rules about
not showing the video the Republicans had just shown you
(36:05):
via our network, without any warning, without any context, and
by lying to us, and we certainly would not have
shown the horror and death and blamed it on the
Democrats or for that matter, on the Republicans. I said,
if we had done such a thing ourselves, there would
have been people fired. The public program the GOP provided
(36:26):
said that was going to be a nine to eleven
tribute film, I said, and so did the private conversations
with the network, which included the reminder from NBC and
MSNBC that we had rules against showing the scenes of
horrible death and mutilation and destruction. So I apologized on
behalf of whoever trusted the Republicans to live up to
their word, that MSNBC viewers were forced to see the
(36:48):
video our network had promised never to show them. So
three nights later, without as much as an email to me,
this Griffin had called my agent and told her I
was fired and Matthews two from our coverage of the
upcoming Caine Obama debates, I happened to be off that
night in the press box watching a Mets Phillies game
(37:10):
at Shay Stadium, so she had to relate these details
to me by phone as I walked down the many
ramps in the stadium's bowels and headed towards the subway.
I told her to call Griffin back and tell him
I was quitting on the spot right then, and he
could work his way out of the ensuing disaster by himself.
Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal host Alderman for criticizing conservatives
(37:34):
for sneaking nine to eleven snuff film onto MSNBC. He
could work his way out of that disaster any way
he chose, and then he could wait for my response
on Good Morning America, CBS, This Morning, the PBS News Hour,
any other news program that bothered to ask and in court.
I made a few phone calls to friendly voices within
(37:56):
the NBC management structure, got from them a clearer picture
of what had happened, And despite the spotty cell service
along the elevated train line heading back into Manhattan, I
got a message from a newspaper reporter friend who neatly
tied together all that I was hearing elsewhere. Tom Brokaw
is going around NBC saying he got you fired from
(38:17):
the debates because the Republicans told him to. Nine maybe
ten months earlier, the same Phil Griffin had come to
me and asked me if I would be okay with
Brokaw appearing during our weekly coverage of the Democratic and
Republican primaries. Just a couple of minutes, buddy, like from
a perspective desk, that's all he wants to do. He's
so unhappy Brian Williams has frozen him out of everything.
(38:40):
I was appalled, but not surprised. The power had gone
to Brian's head, and of course there it had not
met very much resistance. Plus, as I said to Griffin,
you're asking me if I'd like to add Tom Brokaw's
experience and Tom Brocaw's gravitas to stuff I'm anchoring when
I'm not sure I know as much as I really
(39:02):
know to do this the right way. Tom to be
fair fit in beautifully, and twice after those long Tuesday
evenings during the primaries, he sent me brief emails awarding
me what he called the game ball because he was
so impressed by my ability to balance the roles of
political anchor and political commentator. Having tried this myself, he wrote,
(39:25):
I know of a perilous tight roupe. This is game
ball to koh. I mocked them now, but they meant
so much to me then that I printed them out
and carried them in my wallet until September. And now
Brokaw had gotten me fired because, as my newspaper friend said,
the Republicans told him to well, that wasn't hard to
(39:49):
unpack either. Tim Russard had died on the third of
June that year. I anchored that night until two in
the morning. It was still an open wound. There were
still tears. We didn't know it then, but the structure
of NBC News and the Gurlost tightroupe balancing NBC and
MSNBC had died with Tim Russard. So did the role
(40:11):
of moderator of the second debate between John McCain and
Barack Obama, scheduled for about a month. From my subway
ride on October seventh, two thousand and eight in Nashville,
Tim had not even been buried yet when Brokaw began
to angle to get that assignment that was now vacant,
along with brushing away the dirt of his Penny Ante
role on the MSNBC Perspective Desk, leaving us in the
(40:34):
lurch in order to take over Tim's spot as Brian's
sage sidekick on Big NBC. The month of four August,
there had been a story coming out of the east
end of the third floor at thirty Rock, where NBC
News managers sat around not doing much of anything, that
a Republican goon named Ed Gillespie had been in there
(40:54):
with Griffin and the idiot NBC News president Steve CAPPIs
trying to get me silenced or fired or off the
convention coverage or something, and that somebody prominent from NBC
News was in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie.
The rumor mill was not confident in who it was
(41:15):
or what exactly they were doing. That Friday night in
September two thousand and eight, as I switched from the
elevated seven train to the underground f the whole thing
came together before my comments about the GOP Convention nine
to eleven snuff film, Gillespie had come in and had
somehow vaguely threatened Cappus and Griffin about me using as
(41:38):
leverage the debate which Tom Brokaw was now supposed to moderate,
the one that had been Russerts. And when I apologized
for their snuff video on our air, Gillespie must have
turned it into an either or get rid of me
or McCain would refuse to participate in any debate moderated
by Brokaw. Tom Brokaw had already come back from the
(42:00):
dead once in two thousand and eight. I had made
that happen, and he would be damned if he would
be forced to do it a second time. But as
the train took me home to an apartment, I was
now going to have to sell since I had quit
MSNBC on the spot for folding to such obvious blackmail,
something else now occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or
(42:21):
NBC or our parent corporation GE actually think that they
could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC, where
the Rachel Meadow Show had not yet been born and
was only going to premiere the next week, and the
three times a night my show ran accounted for something
like sixty percent of the entire day's network audience and
(42:43):
all of its profits. How did they think they were
going to get away with that without a really bad
reaction from our audience. Plus, if a newspaper man already
knew the Brokaw part, how could this story be avoided
something like this. MSNBC has announced it had removed its
liberal star Keith al Rumman from coverage of the McCain
Obama presidential debates. Sources confirmed former NBC The News anchorman
(43:05):
Tom Brokaw, now an MSNBC commentator, had helped the Republican
Party to blackmail NBC into the decision. Olderman immediately resigned, saying,
quote in succumbing to this coercion on behalf of John McCain,
NBC has now forfeited any further right to be called
a news organization, and I'm sad to say MSNBC, which
I built, is now dead. At that point, it dawned
(43:30):
on me that the only thing that could save the
credibility of the whole NBC News division and the careers
of Griffin and Cappus and NBC Network President Jeff Zooker,
and especially Tom Brokaw, was for me to publicly state
to lie that I had asked to be removed from
anchoring the debates because the whatever was just too much
(43:52):
blah blah blah for me, and I felt I should
just stick to the post debate analysis and commentary and
blah blah blah blah blah. In short, they would have
a choice. They could fire me from the debates and
destroy everything, including the one hundred million dollars a year
or so in profits NBC was suddenly making off MSNBC
after years of losing about that much. Or I could
(44:16):
lie and claim it was my idea and I could
save everybody's ass and their money, including my own. I
got out of the subway and raced home. I called
my agent. I explained it to her. I'm not quitting.
In fact, I'm going to get a huge raise. Listen carefully,
you call Griffin back and explain to him I will
now personally save his job even though he doesn't deserve it,
(44:39):
and Campuses and Zooker's and bro CAUs and everybody else's
I'll take the fall instead of letting them get fired
by the MSNBC audience. I'll say this was my idea
and it will cost him only twelve million dollars. Oh,
and he has to leak the fact that it cost
him twelve million dollars. That's the deal. And she paused
(45:02):
for a second and she said, hey, that's It might
not quite be twelve, but I bet I get at
least nine million. On Sunday, several news organizations reported I
had asked to be taken off the anchor desk for
the debates. Two months and one week later, The New
York Times wrote, quote, Keith Olberman, the anchor of Countdown
(45:25):
on MSNBC, has extended his contract through the next presidential
election season. The networking outs mister Olderman and MSNBC essentially
tore up the four year, four million dollar a year
contract they signed last year and replaced it with one
worth about seven and a half million a year. So
that was a three and a half million dollar raise
for four years to a total of fourteen million dollars.
(45:47):
Except the new contract added two years to my old deal,
so the rays was actually twenty two million dollars. All
stories have punchlines. This punchline is about brocaw. We would
have gotten away with this. NBC would have gotten its
money's worth for the twenty two million and hush money
it had to pay me because it had rolled over
(46:07):
for Republican Party blackmail. Except Brokaw couldn't keep his mouth shut.
So proud was he of preserving his role as moderator
of the October seventh debate that he had to explain
in explicit detail how he went to his bosses at
NBC News and threatened them on behalf of the GOP.
I mean on the record, he said this September twenty ninth,
(46:31):
a lengthy and glowing Brokaw profile in The New York Times.
Quote mister Brokaw said that over the summer he'd quote
advocated within the executive suite of NBC News to modify
the anchor duties of the MSNBC hosts Keith Alderman and
Chris Matthews on election Night and on knights where there
were presidential debates. Mister Brokaw said he had also conducted
(46:54):
some shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and the
McCain campaign. His mission, he said, was to assure the
candidate's aids that despite some negative on air commentary by
mister Olberman in particular, mister McCain could still get a
fair shake from NBC News. Unquote. That was his mission,
(47:14):
the hell, that was his mission. Happily, broconc just could
not resist boasting even further. The next sentence reads quote,
Mister Brokaw said he had been told by a senior
McCain aide whom he did not name, that the campaign
had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one
of the moderators of the three presidential debates until his
(47:37):
name was invoked. One of the things I was told
by this person was that they were so irritated. They said,
if it's an NBC moalorator for any of these debates,
we won't go. Mister Brocaw said, my name came up,
and they said, oh hell, we have to do it,
because it's going to be Brokaw. No insufferable person in
(48:00):
all of broadcasting history has a better rep and a
better and more unders rep than Tom Broke All So,
when a Trump leans on NBC management because the coverage
that he got was not the coverage he wanted, don't
think it won't have an effect. Because in two thousand
and eight, they loved me then as they love Meadow now.
(48:23):
But what they loved about each of us was not
the truth we provided, but the money. There is a
second punchline, after all, this. When the new format came out,
MSNBC had David Gregory quote anchor unquote the debate coverage.
Practically all this meant was that I was on the
air until ninety seconds before the debates began, which is
(48:44):
when I said, now here's David Gregory. And he was
on the air for four or five minutes after the
debate ended, which is when he would then say, now
here's Keith Ollerin. And on Election Night, with David officially
the anchor of MSNBC's coverage, at ten fifty nine pm,
he said, and bless him for this. With the last
voting booth closing at eleven p NBC News can now
(49:06):
project the winner of the two thousand and eight presidential election,
Keith plus that twenty two million dollars. I still have it.
(49:31):
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening. By the way, I got my come
up ins too, because who was it who the Letterman
people called when that guy John McCain ended his presidential
chances the night that he bailed out on Letterman and
more importantly lied to Letterman about why he was bailing out.
That was actually the last day John McCain had a
(49:52):
chance of beating Barack Obama? And who did they call
to come over and be the guest instead of John
McCain who's supposed to be on for the whole hour
on Letterman that night me I got to be a
witness to Dave Letterman taking John McCain apart at the seams,
and nobody ever put him back together again. That was
(50:13):
it that night. And the guy who was the producer
of by segment, he's now the producer of Morning Joe.
Life is funny, isn't it? Countdown? Musical directors Brian Ray
and John Phillip Chanel arranged, produced, and performed most of
our music. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums,
and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. It was produced
(50:34):
by Tko Brothers. Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions,
arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The
sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, which
was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc.
Our satirical and fifthy musical comments are of course by
Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever. My announcer
(50:55):
today was the incomparable Stevie Van Zant. Everything else was
pretty much my fault, except the farts that are all Trump.
That's countdown for them. The one hundred and twelfth day
until the twenty twenty fourth presidential election, but one two
and eighty seventh day since convicted fellon Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
(51:18):
Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the mental health system.
You've got it, President Biden, use the presidential immunity to
stop him from doing it again while we still can.
And Republicans, please stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled
(51:40):
countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as the news requires. Till then,
I'm Keith Olremman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio.
(52:06):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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