Countdown with Keith Olbermann

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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