EPISODE 23: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN 8.31.22

TRUMP IS REALLY, REALLY, SCREWED

A BLOCK (1:50) SPECIAL COMMENT: A Justice Department photo shows at least five bright yellow TOP SECRET/SCI files strewn on a gaudy carpet. Some pictures are worth a thousand words - this mind-blowing one looks like it's worth 10 to 20 in a Supermax for Trump. The DOJ answer to Trump's ill-conceived "Special Master" suit is released early Wednesday morning and in it, Trump destroys his own defense that he "declassified" all the documents, as government agents swear Trump did NOT assert Executive Privilege over any of the documents he turned over in June, nor did he claim any of them had been declassified. There are countless lesser Trump self-destructions in the DOJ filing that add up to Obstruction of Justice, Concealing Classified Documents, and Falsely Sworn Documents - and all this is BEFORE WE EVEN KNOW FOR SURE WHAT'S IN THE DOCUMENTS. (7:20) And this may not even be the worst news of the day for Trump. President Biden is clearly on offense, slamming Lindsey Graham for his "riots in the streets" promise. (8:06) Graham actually makes it worse: he goes back on Fox and flatly lies, and denies he said what he said on Fox two nights earlier (10:33) Biden's willingness to call out Republicans normalizes the terms he uses like "semi-fascism" and builds momentum for others to use them on a daily basis (14:20) To paraphrase "The Manchurian Candidate": "Are they saying ARE there any fascists in the Republican Party? Of course not! They're saying HOW MANY fascists are there in the Republican Party!" (14:20) Trump meanwhile goes full QAnon, posting direct messages from the imaginary figure and all but calling for another coup to be led by people who believe prophesy tells them to participate (17:15) But overarching all of it is that one photo: glowing TOP SECRET/SCI files on a carpet like so many baseball cards.

B BLOCK (19:42) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Hadley (20:57) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Gorbachev dies just before Putin finishes undoing all his work. How will your town look under 10 inches of melted glacial water? How come the dirty words on the GOP headquarters were carefully sprayed AROUND the Republican logo? (23:32) IN SPORTS: Sweden warns its players: don't go to Russia. Why are we letting Russians play in the NHL? And sports blogger Clay Travis actually compares vaccine-refuseniks Aaron Rodgers, Kyrie Irving and Novak Djokovic to Muhammad Ali's refusal to be inducted into the military: "Covid is our modern era Vietnam," says the dumbest man on the planet (29:47) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Ted Cruz, Joe Rogan, and Herschel Walker - proudly insisting "My bike is not bent" compete for the honors.

C BLOCK (34:43) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's the birthday of the late Daniel Schorr, the last man hired by Ed Murrow at CBS News, a proud member of Richard Nixon's enemies list, and my colleague at CNN 40 years ago. The best story? The day I had to delay his interview with the CIA chief for breaking... College Football Rankings News!

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