Countdown with Keith Olbermann

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.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is urged to take Trump's acuity test challenge. The podcast discusses the ongoing debate about Biden's coherence and intelligence compared to Trump. Mocks Senator Dr. Marshal's mispronunciations and criticizes his attack on Biden's 9/11 visit. The New York Jets' season, Aran Rogers' injury, and Elon Musk's involvement are also discussed. Elon Musk's interference in a Ukrainian drone attack and the idea of creating a comedy news show on CNN are explored. Lessons learned from the CNN contract are shared.

Trump challenges Rupert Murdoch and Biden to a mental acuity test. The speaker denounces Trump's pride in memorizing complex words and criticizes the Wall Street Journal. The disappearance of a unified culture and a grandmother's support for Trump are discussed. The difficulties of educating individuals, Chuck Todd's departure, and media coverage criticism are explored. The harm caused by doxing and Greg Gutfeld's lack of awareness are examined. The reflections on September 11th and ads for Roku Players and Ferguson Bath, Kitchen, and Lighting Gallery are also included.

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

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

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

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

In this podcast, Keith Olbermann discusses Trump's claims of preventing nuclear holocaust and his delusional thinking. It also covers the trials of Peter Navarro and Rudy Giuliani, along with Mitch McConnell's behavior. The podcast touches on controversial actions and media scandals, ethical concerns, and advertisements. There is also a reflection on Princess Diana's death and the impact on news. Keith Olbermann concludes with a closing statement and advertisements for sponsors.

The podcast discusses the upcoming trial of Donald Trump and the Trump 19 in Georgia. It also covers a politician's attempt to defund the prosecutor's office and his threats of civil war. Other topics include OJ Simpson's shocking transformation, security breaches at MLB games, misconduct allegations on a political campaign, and the banning of a book in Texas schools.

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