Countdown with Keith Olbermann

EPISODE 120: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: We must act now against The New McCarthyism, or lose the Republic. With Trump restored to Facebook, dispatching Coke Jr and recording a video sending KEVIN McCarthy instructions for this insidious "Weaponization Subcommittee," the Democrats must literally counter-program. The Senate must crowd the Jim Jordan Star Chamber off the public stage by holding its own hearings (the suppression of the Mueller Report; the actions of just-arrested FBI agent and now Russian oligarch advisor Charles McGonigal in the infamous Comey Letter of October 2016; anything will do). Trump smells the opportunity to turn truth into falsehood, and falsehood into truth. We must stop him and The New McCarthyism - and damn fast. B-Block (15:25) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Huggin, in New York (16:21) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Sapphire's successor is finally on the way; the man behind audience participation at "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has passed; and a bad day for Joe Rogan and Fred Roggin (20:14)THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: HOW many people watched baseball's Hall of Fame announcement on the network it owns? Marge can see her reflection in a mirror. And the RWNJ who thinks Damar Hamlin didn't recover from his cardiac arrest and is actually dead and the vaccine killed him - because some people are just insensitive morons. C-Block (25:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With the Republicans now offering to place one of their presidential primary debates on CNN or MSNBC, time to recall the day they starkly told Tom Brokaw what HE had to do if they really expected John McCain to show up to the debate Brokaw would moderate in his swan song for NBC News: get me fired.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 119: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) OF McGONIGAL, DERIPASKA, AND MANAFORT, Part 1: Even at this late date, the ex-FBI executive arrested Saturday, Charles McGonigal, could put Donald Trump in jail forever. McGonigal is not only facing prison for working for Russian oligarch and election conspiracist Oleg Deripaska, but when the FBI revived the "But Her Emails" smear against Hillary Clinton 11 days before the 2016 election and three days later leaked it had "cleared" Trump, McGonigal was the head of the FBI's 2016 Trump-Russia investigation. He's the centerpiece of TWO of the plots to install Trump, and his arrest should start the entire investigation of the Trump-Russia Conspiracy. B-Block (13:34) OF McGONIGAL, DERIPASKA, AND MANAFORT, Part 2: McGonigal, like Paul Manafort, became an employee of Putin crony Deripaska. It's time again to examine Manafort, in bed with Deripaska to the tune of $60,000,000 and appearing in front of Tom Barrack right after Trump lost the Iowa Caucuses saying "I've got to GET TO TRUMP." His story, and the timeline that led McGonigal to a prison cell. C-Block (31:55) OF McGONIGAL, DERIPASKA, AND MANAFORT, Part 3: Suddenly the picture looks so familiar: emails, a computer, gaslighting. It's time to remember the horrible feeling of the morning the sun did not rise: November 9, 2016, and to launch either a Senate or Presidential investigation of the successful Trump-Russia plot to install him in the White House before they succeed again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 118: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Trump-Russia story roared back from the dead yesterday and basically nobody noticed. They've arrested retired FBI agent Charles McGonigal, of the lead FBI investigators of 2016 Russian Electoral Interference by Putin-friendly Russian oligarch Oleg Derpiaska. The allegation? That McGonigal has spent the last year secretly working FOR OLEG DERIPASKA. And if that doesn't make you scratch your head, remember that one of Deripaska's employees was a consultant named Paul Manafort and by total coincidence one of Trump's campaign managers was a consultant named Paul Manafort. Plus updates on Biden's documents (we're up to EIGHT different stories now) and how the Arizona Senate race just changed, activating Kyrsten Sinema's aversion to three-ways. B-Block (16:28) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Robin; (17:42) IN SPORTS: Angels not for sale, Hall of Fame may not get any electees; Local newscaster struggles with the hockey name "Canucks." And "Boudreau." And "Tocchet." (23:27) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mike Pompeo smears Jamal Khashoggi, Elon Musk again, and the M&M Nonsense fight for the honors. C-Block (29:08) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since it's baseball Hall of Fame announcement day, the story of the time I was asked at age 20 to call Willie Mays after he was banned from the game. A woman answered. Or it sounded like a woman. But it also sounded like Willie. And that's when the fun began.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 117: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:41) SPECIAL COMMENT: I do not believe Joe Biden and/or his team mishandled any classified documents. Unfortunately, it’s clear Joe Biden and/or his team mishandled the messaging, the process, and the narrative. If you have to tell seven different stories in two weeks, it begins to matter less and less that you were totally cooperative and proactive and invited the feds to search, and it begins to look more and more like that oldest of presidential story templates: It no longer looks like what the president said it was.  Happily there are several things the president can still did to regain the narrative and smash the undeserved gift his team handed the inquisition-happy Republicans and the pudding-brained American political-media complex so desperate for a Democratic scandal that Peter Baker actually wrote a piece comparing Biden's papers to Clinton-Lewinsky! And he better do them TODAY. B-Block (16:25) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Sebastian; (17:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Brett Kavanaugh Sexual Assault documentary, Revised Edition, plus George Santos, and the SCOTUS Investigation that wasn't really an investigation. (20:14) IN SPORTS: Trump praises Trump, The Golfer Of Strength And Stamina. Hockey's Vancouver Canucks screw up again. A month until Spring Training games and the chaos of the new rules. And my secret method to make sure all batting averages actually go up (24:36) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nikki Haley doesn't know what the "P" in VP stands for, the lights are on but no one's home, and Greg Abbott's epic twitter self-own. C-Block (29:13) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Talk about White Houses trying to control the narrative: in 2004 George W. Bush's people were a) convinced I was on their side b) knew I was only interviewing Iraq War critic Ambassador Joe Wilson in order to savage him c) decided to help me by emailing all their talking points but d) couldn't figure out how to spell my name. Hilarity ensued (and all they wound up doing was revealing to me all of "their" people at NBC News.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 116: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) Alina Habba! C'mon Down! You're the next contestant on YOU TRUSTED TRUMP! His lawyer sanctioned $937,989.39 for being stupid enough to file Trump's stunt-suit against Hillary Clinton. Just part of a day in which it sure sounded as if Trump has gotten a role of stamps and mailed it in for 2024, low lighted by what could be the new somnambulant campaign slogan: "TRUMP 2024! SO IT GOES." (7:45) Trump invokes the Supreme Court leak, leaving me to wonder: if there was a crime, why wasn't the FBI or the cops investigating it and not...the Court itself? (9:06) The first lie George Santos addresses is the Drag Queen story and his big flex is "I don't kill dogs"? And he manages non-denial denials on both (12:04) And there are three new January 6th Defendants, all Marines in Military Intelligence and that magic phrase offers happy memories of George Carlin. B-Block (17:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Uptown, in New York (18:12) IN SPORTS: Time for Tony Dungy's annual humiliation of NBC Sports, and the Philadelphia Flyers double down on the Pride Night disaster that threatens to turn the NHL into the "National Homophobia League" (23:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The New York Times competes with two different state governors - one Democrat, one Republican. C-Block (28:13) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Of spies, schemes, string beans, and falling asleep mid-fantasy: "The Lady on 142."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 115: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) It's kind of a drag: The Republican Party has persecuted, vilified, targeted, and endangered every drag performer (and any of the rest of us who have refused to join them in their smears) by branding them 'Groomers' has been twisting itself in knots for a month all to protect a new New York Congressman who has been identified by a Brazilian Drag Star as a fellow Drag Artist. Just when we thought "George Santos" had run out of new names, he got his best yet: Kitara Ravache. And there's a photo. And there's apparently a new VIDEO. And this is all that's left to Kevin McCarthy: throw Kitara overboard and risk a smaller House majority, or stick with him and spend the rest of the next two years answering questions about SANTOS'S DRESS SELECTION AND ABILITY TO ACCESSORIZE. It's. Perfect. Plus: the only Republican who's lied more than Santos does it again. Trump inadvertently gives the DOJ evidence of his intent to steal classified folders. And under oath in the E. Jean Carroll rape lawsuit he is asked who's the woman in the photo with him. He answers "that's my wife Marla Maples." It's not. It's... E. Jean Carroll. Could've been worse. Could've been Kitara Ravache. B-BLOCK (16:24) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: "Critical Boy" in Texas. (17:50) IN SPORTS: The National Hockey League destroys its own "Pride Night" in Philadelphia, choosing to defend not the LGBTQ community it pretended to celebrate, but the bigoted player who hid behind his religion that endorsed Russia's attack on Ukraine because Ukraine has Pride Parades. It's a disaster. (25:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Compromises in exchange for debates, Boris Johnson's new book, and a Tesla engineer says there's a problem with the 2016 "Tesla X Drives Itself" video. He says: it's fake. C-BLOCK (29:48) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Republican Primary Debate Chairman David Bossie - THAT David Bossie - says he's willing to put some debates on CNN and/or NBC. Do you know how much CNN and/or NBC had to prostitute themselves just to get this far? I do, from personal experience. Because in 2008, the Republicans' debate price to NBC was: "Fire Olbermann."  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 114: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: May George Santos burn in hell, and the sooner the better. A homeless disabled Navy veteran tells the Oyster Bay NY "Patch" news site that Santos told him he would raise the $3,000 needed for life-saving surgery for the vet's Service Dog, Sapphire. And Santos raised it. And Santos kept it. And Sapphire died. It boils down to this: George Santos as good as killed a dog, for money. And today, a political prostitute named Kevin McCarthy will lecture this country about the will of the voters, and refuse to call for Santos merely to resign from Congress, and will insist "I try to stick by the Constitution" solely because McCarthy needs Santos's vote to keep his sorry ass in the Speaker's chair. And I tell people that once, maybe Republicans were just as soulless and evil as they are today, but they used to have a fear of getting caught doing and being it, and so they would refuse to enable wretched, disgusting sociopaths like George Santos. And now the fear is gone, and so with it is any claim of either morality or humanity in that party. Because as amoral as McCarthy is, he was not alone in turning away from the story of Sapphire and god knows how many other Santos stories like it, and giving him seats on the House Small Business and Science Committees. Steve Scalise is guilty, too. And Tom Emmer. And Elise Stefanik. And Mike Johnson. And Gary Palmer. And Richard Hudson. And the rest of the Republican "leadership" in the House. And today not one reporter will ask any of them, the question: "How can you defend your man George Santos? He ran a fake pet charity and by proxy killed a disabled veteran's service dog so he could take the money from the GoFundMe. How can you defend him? How can you NOT spit in his face?" B-Block (23:41) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Ravioli (24:41) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Madison Square Garden's face and facial recognition device attacked by all of New York's politicians; what's that on Kyrsten Sinema's shoulder, and hey, Ted Cruz, why didn't you wager some incest porn? (29:58) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: First came the ten hours in a blizzard in a car that had just had its snow tires removed by George's father because after all it was April and it NEVER snows in April. But then, after the trial-by-snow, there was... The Adler Letter. C-Block (44:32) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL, PART 2: The Adler Letter, written by the-then News Director of WCBS Radio in New York, Lou Adler, changed my life. Nearly 44 years later it still hangs in a place of honor on my wall, and 37 years later I got to repay his kindness and support.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 113: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Now that George Santos has been tied financially to the cousin of a sanctioned Russian Oil Oligarch, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy has confirmed he won't move to oust him, the Democrats have to run with the gift the Republicans have given them. Whatever the issue, whatever the question, whatever the talking points, every Democrat, every time, must answer: "George Santos." GOP tries to blame Biden for the looming debt ceiling crisis? "You sound like George Santos!" McCarthy asks about the documents? "Why isn't the Speaker as angry at George Santos?" CNN writes another Bothsidesist article about documents? "Why isn't CNN probing George Santos and the Russian Oligarch?" Everybody insists nobody needs to investigates his ex-girlfriend's allegations of violence against Rep. James Comer? "Speaker McCarthy? In Comer, are you worried you've got another George Santos on your hands?" B-Block (16:33) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Waffles (17:31) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: If she's secretly governor why would she run for Governor? And what do the Biden documents make Ronny Jackson think of? Drugs and hookers! Of course EVERYTHING makes Ronny think of drugs and hookers. (19:36) IN SPORTS: The LIV Golf tournament, formally tied to Prince MBS and Trump; why would baseball expand, especially to Nashville? And 1962 Met Frank Thomas dies, and leaves a troubling legacy on race and teammates and Dick Allen. (26:32) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jordan Peterson runs a climate change denial chart that ends in 1885; Germany needs a new Defense Minister (to say nothing of 5000 new helmets), and Tucker Carlson needs you to explain candy to him. C-Block (31:02) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: CNN's Chris Licht reportedly wants to hire a comedian to do a nightly newscast you can laugh at (intentionally, this time). He and others at Clicks Not News think this is a great, brand new idea. In fact, it's a lousy old one. It was first proposed at CNN...in 2001! I know: I was in the room. And it was THE SAME COMEDIAN!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 112: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Garland has to go - and NOT because he appointed a Special Counsel; that'll probably work to Biden's advantage. We have to have somebody there to protect the Trump Investigation and Merrick Garland has again shown he's not smart enough to be trusted with doing it. Garland has to go because of a question nobody's asking: Who illegally leaked this confidential investigation to CBS News? How could it leak barely four days after the internal recommendation to name a Counsel? How could Garland have handed this case requiring ultimate secrecy to a Trump appointee? How could he NOW hand the case over to a DIFFERENT Trump appointee who used to clerk for Justice Rehnquist and has his own page as a "contributing expert" to The Federalist Society? We've all long had reasons to question Merrick Garland's intelligence and savviness, but these are the last straws. He's just no damn good at this, and right now we have no margin for error for a guy whose Department of Justice is a sieve, and doesn't understand the realities of the Trump cult. B-Block (16:48) SPECIAL COMMENT No. 2: This is the third time I have suggested Garland must either act or resign. In September, as Trump tried to block the Mar-a-Lago investigation via the "Special Master" there was a way around the stall for Garland. And he just sat back and did nothing. C-Block (25:30) SPECIAL COMMENT No. 3: And in October, Garland seemed to willfully ignore that week-long orgy of Trump's boastful confessions about the documents he stole. (40:45) It's so bad that there's even a James Thurber fable, the moral of which is the story of Merrick Garland. It's called "The Bear Who Let It Alone."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 111: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Washington Post's huge scoop. The Justice of Department is now investigating whether Trump or his minions paid for the attorneys of witnesses in the Special Counsel's investigation and to the Grand Jury. It's the Cassidy Hutchinson question and it's critical to proving perjury, suborning of perjury and obstruction of justice. DOJ is subpoenaing witnesses' retainers with their attorneys. For the second time in three nights the breadth of Jack Smith's investigation has widened. Did you see it on CNN? Are the Post and the Times pushing it? They are not, because they have the "new" Biden story: NBC has one source saying somewhere (their source doesn't know where) somebody (their source doesn't know who) found something (their source doesn't know what). And another stampede reminiscent of the Clinton-Lewinsky "Anything Is News" mindset of 1998 is underway. The knives are out for Joe Biden, and CNN's goal is obvious: it will participate in the cover-up of the crimes as Donald Trump. It's so bad CNN actually brought Maga Maggie Haberman in to "analyze" the Biden sliver and she actually said "We don't know the details, BUT..." Oh by the way, on the same day it broke its "story," NBC News... fired its president. B-Block (19:44) SPECIAL COMMENT 2: I really think we have forgotten how serious the allegations are against Trump. Donald Rumsfeld's onetime speechwriter wrote "If Trump's classified document mishandling was 'irresponsible' so is Biden's." Well, no, it wasn't 'irresponsible.' Trump's classified document mishandling was 'when Ethel Rosenberg did the same damn thing in the 1950's we executed her.' Let's really play the CNN Whataboutism game. Here's what I reported on August 9, 2022. C-Block (36:10) SPECIAL COMMENT 3: Oh and lookee here: this is from September 8, 2022, when we first realized that Trump had stolen nuclear documents outlining what nukes another nation did and didn't have. Not only did this espionage and kleptomania hit home, but three months and four days ago I actually said here that sooner or later, CNN would join the cover-up of Trump's crimes. Point to moi.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.