I WANT POLLING ON A PRESIDENTIAL RECALL VOTE - 4.7.25

Summary

Podcast Summary: Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Episode: I WANT POLLING ON A PRESIDENTIAL RECALL VOTE

Date: April 7, 2025
Host: Keith Olbermann
Production: iHeartRadio

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Episode Overview

In this characteristically sharp episode, Keith Olbermann launches a provocative appeal for polling data on a hypothetical presidential recall vote, responding to the mounting political and economic crises under Donald Trump’s second term. Olbermann blends political analysis, historical context, and media critique with his signature sardonic wit. The episode weaves in contemporary political developments, critiques of Republican leadership, a call for Democratic strategic innovation, comic takedowns, and segments on sports history and journalism.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Call for Presidential Recall Polling

• Olbermann asserts there is no legal precedent for a presidential recall but contends that the current crisis justifies imaginative responses (05:12).
• He positions this hypothetical polling as a tool to pressure Republican lawmakers into acknowledging public discontent and hastening Trump's removal.
• Anger at Republicans for rewriting norms:

  "The Republicans are always making up laws these days inside the Supreme Court and out..." — Olbermann (06:03)

Poll Questions Olbermann Wants to See:

• Would you support a special emergency recall vote to reverse the 2024 presidential election?
• Do you believe Donald Trump is mentally fit to run the country?
• Do you think Trump is acting to destroy the US on behalf of a foreign country?
• Would you support acting outside the Constitution to save America from Trump?
• Who would you vote for if the 2024 election were held again?
  (See: 11:50–13:20)

2. Republican Leadership & Party Dynamics

• Olbermann diagnoses severe fractures within the GOP, distinguishing between diehard Trumpists, doubters, and opportunists (14:45).

• He is adamant that most will abandon Trump if/when self-preservation becomes critical:

  “There is no group of politicians who will collectively risk themselves for their leader ... when the choices are they go down with him or he goes down all by himself. It is always, always, always he goes down by himself.” (18:00)

• Historical parallels are drawn, referencing Nixon’s resignation and the British Conservatives’ quick turnovers of leaders like Thatcher and Johnson to illustrate that political self-preservation ultimately rules:

  “The Democrats didn’t finish Richard Nixon. Republican Senate and House leadership finished Richard Nixon…The British Conservatives…knifed Margaret Thatcher, not the Liberals.” (19:37)

3. Democratic Strategy & Shadow Cabinet

• Criticizes the slow, diffused response from Democrats and particularly the “People’s Cabinet” initiative by new DNC Chair Ken Martin (25:22).
• Advocates vocally for a high-profile, coordinated Democratic shadow cabinet, with Obama regularly fronting press conferences:

  “I want prominent, popular young Democrats in front of microphones outdoors every Sunday, raising hell. But the People’s Cabinet — it’s a start.” (27:00)

Barack Obama’s Role

• Olbermann plays Obama audio from a Hamilton College Q&A, highlighting Obama’s rhetorical skill in condemning Trump’s anti-democratic behavior (30:10).

• “So, and I say this not on a partisan basis. This has to do with something more precious, which is who are we as a country and what values do we stand for?” — Barack Obama (31:20)

• Obama is praised as the “best political speaker in this country” (32:15).

4. Trump Administration & MAGA Cabinet Ridicule

• A signature “Worst Persons In the World” segment lampoons Trump’s current cabinet and prominent defenders:

  • Pam Bondi’s ignorance about presidential term limits (41:30)
  • Sec. of Agriculture Brook Rollins’ comically evasive answers on tariffs on uninhabited islands (43:50)
  • Senator Tommy Tuberville’s outlandish remarks about transgender athletes (45:00)
  • Treasury Sec. Scott Besant’s tone-deaf comfort about stock market disaster:

    “...everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that record volume.” (48:50)

  • Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick’s bizarre comments on automation and child labor (50:00)

• Olbermann uses satire and references to old comedy sketches to hammer home the incompetence and hypocrisy he observes (52:30).

5. Sports & History Segments

• Hockey Record Debate:
  Deconstructs the narrative around Alexander Ovechkin surpassing Wayne Gretzky in goals, by counting goals from rival leagues (WHA), and ultimately credits Gordie Howe as all-time leading goal scorer (58:03).

  “Ovechkin has 895 career goals right now. Wayne Gretzky actually has 940 career goals. Well where does that put us? ... Neither of them has the most career goals. Gordie Howe scored 801 NHL goals and 174 more in the WHA. That would be 975.” (1:03:50)

• ‘First Photographed Middle Finger’:
  New evidence resets the history of the earliest known photo of "flipping the bird" — previously credited to 1886, but now an 1882 photo of pitcher “Old Hoss” Radbourn is discovered (1:08:00).

6. Extended: ‘Why, Chuck Todd?’

• In the recurring “Things I Promised Not To Tell,” Olbermann shares insider stories of TV news hiring, dissecting how Chuck Todd rose to host Meet the Press by accident of history and lack of better choices (1:11:00–1:22:00):

  “The reason that Chuck Todd got into the position he got into was Tim Russert was looking for somebody to succeed him as bureau chief … and didn’t really find anyone … so when you are, in essence, maybe the fourth consensus choice, sometimes that’s just not good enough.” (1:20:55)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the state of Trump’s mental fitness:

  “Trump's mind is shattered beyond repair, shattered beyond rational thought. They need to see Trump has summoned doomsday. And the sooner they stick him with the bill for it, the better chance they have of surviving it.” (13:50)

• Historical wisdom on political loyalty:

  “There is no group of politicians who will collectively risk themselves for their leader when the choices are they go down with him or he goes down all by himself. It is always, always, always he goes down by himself." (18:00)

• On the hypocrisy of Trump’s economic policies:

  “...leaving Jeanine Pirro to say, ‘I don’t really care about my 401k today. You know why? I believe in this man. And, of course, in wine.’ And you left Benny Johnson to say, ‘Losing money means nothing. Digital ones and zeros.’" (50:00)

• Pam Bondi on a hypothetical third term for Trump:

  “We’d have to look at the Constitution. ... Go look for a copy of the Constitution. And while you’re at it, look for a copy of your law degree. ‘Cause I don’t believe that exists either.” (41:40)

• On Obama’s statesmanship:

  “Now you know why he got elected twice.” (32:00)

• On Chuck Todd’s accidental ascension:

  “Chuck Todd wound up in a position to be the host of Meet the Press because David Bloom died and Tim Russert died and David Gregory did not succeed. … when you are, in essence, maybe the fourth choice ... sometimes that’s just not good enough.” (1:20:55)

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Important Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |---------------------------------|--------------| | Main commentary starts | 06:00 | | Hypothetical recall polling pitch| 08:30–14:00 | | On GOP self-preservation | 17:20–20:00 | | Historical political analogies | 20:05–22:35 | | People's Cabinet & Democratic media agenda | 25:22–32:00 | | Obama audio & response | 30:10–32:45 | | White House/Trump’s cabinet mockery | 41:30–53:00 | | ‘Worst Persons in the World’ | 54:00–59:02 | | Gretzky/Ovechkin/goal scoring record | 59:03–1:06:00 | | ‘First Photographed Middle Finger’ | 1:08:00 | | “Why, Chuck Todd?” segment | 1:11:00–1:22:00 |

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Sectional Flow

1. Political Crisis & Recall Polling:
   Urgent call for symbolic polling to pressure Republican lawmakers.

2. Party & Leadership Dynamics:
   Dissects Republican power structure, drawing heavily on historic parallels.

3. Media & Strategy for Democrats:
   Critiques Democratic messaging inefficacy, urges adoption of a visible shadow cabinet.

4. Current Events Satire:
   Humorous dissection of the incompetence and hypocrisy among Trump and high-profile MAGA administration/supporters.

5. Sports & History Segments:
   Deep-dives into the hockey scoring record and the true origins of the ‘flipping the bird’ gesture in photos.

6. Media & Broadcasting Inside Story:
   Reveals the backstory behind Chuck Todd’s rise and the institutional vacuum left post-Russert.

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Summary in Tone

True to Olbermann’s style, the episode is biting, exasperated, and sharply focused on accountability, both for Republicans and Democrats. It mixes policy analysis, scathing humor, historical knowledge, and behind-the-scenes media anecdotes, all delivered with urgency grounded in the gravity of America’s current political moment.

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This summary omits commercial breaks and non-content sections, focusing on the substance of Keith Olbermann’s latest “Countdown.”

Transcript

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VGW Group Void where prohibited by law 21 + terms and conditions apply. Countdown with Keith Olbermann is a production of iHeartRadio as Wall street prepares for its worst stock market crash since nearly 30 Thursday, I want to see polling numbers on a presidential recall vote. I know there is no such thing as a presidential recall vote, but what the hell? The Republicans are always making up laws these days inside the Supreme Court and out demanding to have their way because they say the public wants it. Trying to scam the Constitution for a third term, claiming the nation voted for Trump. And if Trump wants national suicide, then the nation has already pre approved national suicide. If they can do this crap, so can we. Because I want Republican congressmen and senators and state and city and village officials to understand right now that if we put it to a vote tomorrow, Trump and nearly all of them would be out on their asses out of office by Wednesday. I don't want to wait for the midterms and for this involuntary harakiri to be complete, for the pressure to begin to mount. Trump's prostitutes, who continue to insist the emperor does too have clothes and that the insane worm dictator is actually a rational human being and what someone called economic Munchausen by proxy, in which you make a nation sick in order to claim to be healing a sick nation is somehow survivable. I don't want to wait. I want Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise and the House congressmen with the stronger instincts towards self preservation to understand today that in a parliamentary system their public careers would already be dead, that they are shackled to a corpse in the White House, that there is no master plan, that the country knows Trump is not playing some long game, that the country suddenly understands there is no Trump derangement syndrome, only Trump is deranged syndrome. That the country knows this is an unmitigated, irredeemable, bipartisan national disaster and Trump caused it deliberately. And their only chance is for them, the Republicans, to use the powers they have right now to extract him from office, or at minimum, neuter him where he stands and pull all his powers from him, or they, the Republicans, will perish from the earth. I want them to know that in five months it's gone from their futures depending on enslaving themselves to Trump, to their futures depending on them removing him from office immediately. Them, the gop, the MAGA cult, not Trump, but his assholes. They are the Roman senators and metaphorically, he is Julius Caesar, figuratively speaking, obviously. I want to see polling on a presidential recall vote. I want one of these moribund, terrified, formerly journalistic media outlets to ask voters of every possible flavor if the election were rerun today, would you vote for Trump or. Or a Democrat? Or would you vote for Trump or another Republican? Or would you vote for Trump or a fairly intelligent farm animal? I want the pollster to ask, would you support a special emergency recall vote to potentially reverse the outcome of the 2024 presidential election? I want them to ask, would you describe the current financial panic and the upcoming tsunami of inflation, unemployment, as a national emergency? I want them to ask, do you think Donald Trump has taken leave of his senses? I want them to ask, do you think Donald Trump is mentally fit to run this country? I want them to ask, do you think Donald Trump is acting to destroy the United States on behalf of a foreign country? I want them to ask, do you think it is necessary to act once, and only once, outside the Constitution, if necessary, to save the United States of America from Donald Trump? I want them to ask, if the midterm elections for the Senate and the House were tomorrow, would you vote Republican or Democrat? Let's see where we really stand right now, because we're not going to have a presidential recall vote. We're not going to rerun the election. We're not going to just this once act outside the Constitution. We're not Republicans. But the Republicans, without whose support Trump could not remain in office past noon, need to see these numbers, need to see that their elected offices and their hopes for re election and their hopes for higher office and their hopes for post governmental money are flying out the effing window. Because Trump wants to make America 1894 again. Because Trump doesn't know what he's doing. Because Trump's mind is shattered beyond repair, shattered beyond rational thought. They need to see Trump has summoned doomsday. And the sooner they stick him with the bill for it, the better chance they have of surviving it. Because this is neither as hopeless nor as complicated as it looks. A quarter of Republicans in the House and Senate are full kool Aid drinkers. A quarter have doubts. The other half know damn well he's nuts. They've always known he's nuts. They've just enjoyed the power and the money and the popularity too much to ever dream of letting it go. Unless the choice became he goes or they go, in which case he goes. They could force him to resign, more likely to simply flee the country, to leave office and avoid prison. Avoid prison, flee the country, then resign. They could force him to resign by making it clear that after his travesty of a mockery, of a sham, of a mockery of two mockeries of a Sham. There are now enough Republican votes to impeach him in the House and convict him in the Senate. They could force him out by simply introducing the measure to impeach themselves. Because there are two truths about American politics. Everything seems permanent and isn't. And the other one is. And it's true in this century. It was true last century, it was true the century before that. It's that there are always lots of politicians who will risk themselves for their leader as long as he demands they do so, while one at a time, or as long as the nation's business demands they do so one at a time. But there is no group of politicians who will collectively risk themselves for their leader when the choices are they go down with him or he goes down all by himself. It is always, always, always he goes down by himself. Damn shame. He had a great run. Where are we going? To lunch? You don't believe me? Ask Richard Nixon. The Democrats didn't finish Richard Nixon. Republican Senate and House leadership finished Richard Nixon. Hell, ask Abraham Lincoln. Two months before the 1864 presidential election, the referendum on the future of the Civil War, Republican leaders were trying to figure out how to remove Lincoln from the ballot. Two months. Because he was clearly going to lose to McClellan in the election. And McClellan was going to surrender days before Sherman took Atlanta. This was seven months before Robert E. Lee surrendered the South. Seven months before they were gonna win the war and they were going to kick Lincoln to the curb. Oh, oh, we got it. We got Atlanta. Okay, nevermind. Not enough examples. Try other places. The British conservatives were the ones who knifed Margaret Thatcher, not the liberals. Christ, they knifed David Cameron, then Theresa May, then Boris Johnson, then Liz Truss, all while they were prime minister in the last 15 years. Trump has an iron grip on MAGA, on the Republican Party, on the House, majority, on the Senate, majority on the nation. Until 8, maybe 10 Republicans in the House decide Trump is going to destroy them personally. And they get together and they go, let's not get destroyed personally. Until 14, count them, 14 Republicans in the Senate decide Trump is going to destroy them personally. Trump's iron grip is at Its largest, exactly 24 self interested, amoral, disloyal Republicans. Wide 24. And trust me, at least 24 House and Senate Republicans have always hated Trump's guts. And right now, at least 24 House and Senate Republicans, probably closer to 204 of them, hate Trump's guts. So I want to see polling numbers on a presidential recall vote. Am I expecting to see polling numbers on a presidential Recall vote commissioned by aabc, by cowering cnn, by msnbc. More unlikely still, commissioned by some aspect of the Democratic Party. I am not. I mean, who listens to me? I am, right, with surprising frequency. But who listens to me? On the other hand, I have been pounding for weeks the idea of a shadow Democratic Cabinet and a weekly news conference every Sunday morning at 8am which steals the agenda for the Sunday morning news shows, for all of local television news, all day Sunday, which steals the news agenda for almost all of media for at least part of Monday. And what did we get? The new DNC chair, Ken Martin, announced the People's Cabinet to provide stuff with which to hit the Trumpists in the groin. It still sounds a little diffuse to me. He's going to have experts and random press conferences and data and stuff that you at home can use. I want prominent, popular young Democrats in front of microphones outdoors every Sunday, raising hell. But the People's Cabinet. It's a start. Do you know Ken Martin? I mean, tell him about polling on a presidential recall vote and the impact, symbolic at least, that a large number, like 70% of the public wanting a new vote or 47% of the public wanting a new vote might have on current events, namely our 24 Republicans. I mean, for months I have been putting out APBs on Barack Obama and what happened. He emerged, he did a Q and A at Hamilton College and not only spewed facts, spilled teas of infinite variety, but he underscored why he is an essential, maybe the essential messenger right now, even if it still doesn't seem clear to him that he needs to get out there at minimum every two weeks. And he has to stop avoiding calling Trump out by name. But this message, delivered this way is. Is quietly, concisely, magnetically, brilliantly inspirational. Just sit for two minutes and listen. Imagine if I had done any of this. Let me just. I just. I just want to be clear about this. Imagine that. Imagine if I had pulled Fox News credentials from the White House press corps. You're laughing, but no. This is what's happening. Imagine if I had said to law firms that were representing parties that were upset with policies my administration had initiated that you will not be allowed into government buildings. We will punish you economically for dissenting from the Affordable Care act or the Iran deal. We will ferret out students who protest against my policies. It's unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me or a whole bunch of my predecessors. So. So, and I say This, I say this not on a partisan basis. This has to do with something more precious, which is who are we as a country and what values do we stand for? Now you know why he got elected twice. Additionally, very matter of factly, President Obama noted that the divide in the Democratic Party. Stick to the kitchen table issues, stick to the democracy issues. They're the same issue. It's one thing without democracy. Trump sets tariffs and tariffs set the prices of what's at your kitchen table. The cost of everything is going up under fascism again. Obama remains the best political speaker in this country. Clinton was once better, but age has, and I mean this literally hurt his instrument. And as an unavoidable aside, for which I apologize, Barack Obama's first political proto speech was also in New York State. At my high school, the one Will Bunch and Chris Berman and I went to years earlier, obviously 1991, at the behest of the history teacher who told me on graduation day the sports casting thing was nice, but someday I would wind up in politics, covering it or running in it. I was 16. I laughed at him. His name was Walter Schneller and Walter was right about me and more importantly about Obama. As he put him on the train in Tarrytown, New York. He said, have you considered running for office? Now back to the point. Put all these ideas together. The shadow cabinet, the Sunday morning news agenda setting press conference and having the speaker at it be at least once in a while. Barack Obama, armed with polling on a presidential recall vote and large protests like this past weekend's, at least every other weekend. Give Ken Martin my email or just a link to the podcast. Christ, why is this such a labyrinth? Wouldn't it have been nice to have had Obama do a news conference yesterday morning instead of an event at Hamilton College yesterday morning? Sunday morning. And forced Trump's parade of idiots on the Sunday shows to try to follow that. To have the headlines now not be about disproving these awful imbecilic liars and their awful imbecilic lies, but about how awful and imbecilic they sounded compared to Obama. And also that presidential recall vote data. That's a stunner, isn't it? Steve Kornacki? Ordinarily, even if you were Trump, you would keep radio silence after a week in which you impose tariffs based on a formula that you dreamt up. That is basically the ratio of our trade deficit with each country and that country's total exports to this country divided by two. In layman's terms, this is the equivalent of how Much of your money you have lost to one guy when you play poker and he's better than you are, divided by how much money he actually won from you, divided by two. Oh, and then you announce that number is they cheated by winning. Ordinarily, after a week like that, you keep radio silence after not only making up an unbelievably bullshit excuse for how Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlanta got added to the illegal signal chat about bombing Yemen. I'll just read this explanation the way Hugo Lowell scooped it in the Guardian. Hugo's got it right, but I still think they just made it up. Are you ready? You have a drink nearby? Cause if you don't need alcohol after this, at least you want a drink so you can do a spit take. According to three people briefed on the internal investigation, Goldberg had emailed the campaign about a story that criticized Trump for his attitude towards wounded service members. To push back against the story, the campaign enlisted the help of Mike Waltz, their national security surrogate. Goldberg's email was forwarded to then Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes, who then copied and pasted the content of the email, including the signature block with Kohlberg's phone number, into a text message that he sent to Waltz so that he could be briefed on the forthcoming story. Waltz did not ultimately call Goldberg, the people said, but in an extraordinary twist, inadvertently ended up saving Goldberg's number in his iPhone under the contact card for Hughes, now the spokesperson for the National Security Council, unquote. It took them 13 days to make that up. And you don't think they're vulnerable to pressure from 24 Republicans who would become convinced that their careers depend on Trump leaving the White House. Day seven. You got anything? No, I don't have anything. Day nine. Well, I may have something. Something about. Something about cutting and pasting. I'll put a team on it. 13 days to make that up. The entire Cuban missile crisis took 13 days. We nearly blew up the world, then steered it all back from the edge of doomsday in 13 days. And that's how long it took them to make that bullshit up. Ordinarily, after that, you'd keep radio silence. You'd keep all of your people off tv. You'd deny there was an Attorney General. No, I'm sorry, we don't have one. I don't know. I went out with that Dodge stuff. Ordinarily, you'd keep radio silence after you crashed the stock market and the economy and reposted a video saying you crashed the stock market intentionally leaving Jeanine Pirro to Say, I don't really care about my 401k today. You know why? I believe in this man and of course, in wine. And you left Benny Johnson to say losing money means nothing. Digital ones and zeros. In the end, you won't miss any of it. Losing your country cost you everything. You'll never get that back. Your kids will be slave to foreign powers who hate us. Without America first policies, we become slaves. Fight this. After promising Trump would make all of his suckers rich. And Benny doesn't have to worry about money. There's always Russia. This reminds me of the famous line from the late, great comic genius Ernie Kovacs. The money means nothing. The money is nothing. Therefore the money means nothing. Ordinarily, after a week like that, you shut the F up and shut your cabinet the F up and not parade your dumbest people in front of even the milquetoast cowering Sunday shows. Not Trumpy. I really can't decide who was dumbest on Fox. Pam Bondi. Who was actually the Attorney General when she's so legally illiterate she makes Alina Haba sound like Oliver effing Wendell Holmes. Interviewer do you believe there's a method by which Trump could seek a third term? I wish we could have him for 20 years as our president when he'd be 98, but I think he's gonna be finished probably after this term. Interviewer Probably Bondi. We'd have to look at the Constitution. You do that, Pam. Go look for a copy of the Constitution. And while you're at it, look for a copy of your law degree. Cuz I don't believe that exists either. At least you don't have one on CNN. The Agriculture Secretary. Brook, you're imposing a 10% charge on the herd. And McDonald Islands, they have zero human inhabitants. Why are you putting tariffs on islands that are entirely populated by penguins? Brook Rollins. Come on, Jake. Whatever. Listen, the people that are leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic, the smartest people I've ever worked with. When the 1992 Cotton Bowl Queen Brooke Rollins tells you that these are the most serious, intentional, patriotic, smartest people she's ever worked with. You do realize, sir, she's including the likes of Lou Holtz and George W. Bush. Since we're invoking the sweeping stupidity of college football, there's coach Tommy Tuberville, still a senator, on Fox. Tommy also believes in brownies and elves. Tuberville, quote, we have entire men's teams across this country now that are turning trans. Women's teams are turning trans that's gonna be a situation where it's gonna pick up speed because these woke globalists are pushing these. Tommy actually does very well considering he was born without a brain. There are by the way, an estimated nine transgendered athletes in American college sports. Nine. And of course you remember when my eye doctor Renee Richards transitioned and played in the US Open starting in 1977 and won 27 consecutive US women's titles and she destroyed the sport of women's tennis and nobody ever heard of say Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova and they don't play women's tennis anymore. Oh right, you don't remember any of that. It didn't happen because there are nine transgendered college athletes in this country in high school. The only data we have is from Michigan where they say they have one. They might have a second whole teams as women is changing into into what would the other one be mentioned could be trained changing into the third gender. Tuberville on NBC. Scott Besant, the Secretary of treasury and if ever there was actually a reason to go check if the gold is still at Fort Knox. SCOTT Besant, is it? Interviewer the markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan? BESANT we had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that record volume. Oh, and the machine didn't break great like the day of the 1929 crash. Well, it's every moment of it is a disaster. But, but look, the machine is just ticking out like nobody's business. Those humming machines. Besson actually gets two entries. He was also asked Trump promised he was going to improve the economy starting on day one. What is your message to Americans who want to retire right now and have just seen their lifetime savings dropped significantly? BESANT Most Americans who have put away for years in their savings account don't look at the day to day fluctuations of what's happening. My heroes Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding did a sketch that I heard first when I was 14, 15 years old about a paperclip factory somewhere in Ohio of all places. There news reporter Wally Ballou, played by Bob, is interviewing the owner of the place, the handmade paperclip factory. Literally they were handmade paperclips cut and bent into shape by hand. Ray as the owner explains. How's that possible? Baloo asks. They must cost a fortune. Handmade. No, the owner says they're 10 cents a box fob AKRON we just signed a 99 year sweetheart deal with our union we pay our employees 8 cents a week. Baloo screams 8 cents a week. How do your people live on 8 cents a week? And the owner says, Mr. Ballou, we don't pry into the private lives of our employees. We don't pry into the private lives of our employees. People who don't have any money in their checking account and savings account. They don't know that. They don't look day to day fluctuations in their account. To that point. Possibly the dumbest person in any cabinet ever, excluding Trump himself, obviously. On cbs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick or as he has been unfortunately renamed Howard Nutlik Lutnick, you realize trillions of dollars of factories are going to be built in America. That's huge gdp. The factories being built in America are huge. Interviewer that takes years. And you said that robots are going to fill those jobs. So those aren't union worker jobs. Lutnik. It's automated factories. The key is who's going to build and operate the factories. You said robots. Lutnick. The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones. That kind of thing is going to come to America. Oh, child labor which they are moving to make legal in Florida where they can screw in little screws to make iPhones better if you have little hands screwing in little screws. 10 cents a box fob Akron the Bob and Ray sketch had another punchline when pressed on the living conditions of his staff. The head of the handmade paperclip factory explained that it was his understanding that most of his employees wore old newspapers wrapped around their feet instead of shoes and that they lived in caves on the outskirts of town. 24 Republicans I want polling on a presidential recall vote. Also of interest on this all new episode. The entire history of who was the first person ever to be photographed giving the cameraman the finger now must be rewritten after discoveries from this weekend past. And no, sorry sports fans, Alexander Ovechkin did not set the all time record for most goals scored in big league hockey. And I will answer an additional question from politics. The question is Chuck Todd why that's next.

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VGW Group void where prohibited by law. 21/ Terms and conditions apply. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman. Still ahead in this all new edition of countdown, Ovechkin now has more goals than Gretzky. But contrary to what you've heard, that does not mean Ovechkin now has the record for the most goals scored. I will explain. And the history of the flipped finger has been entirely rewritten and I received a question about Chuck Todd, and I want to answer it at length. The question is basically why? First, believe it or not, there's still more new idiots to talk about. The roundup of the miscreants morons and dunning Kruger effect specimens who constitute the latest other worst persons in the world. Here are the nominees. The Bronze Worse Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates the new season is upon us and the little murders therein are becoming visible, such as the Pirates ballpark, at which they have understandably positioned as a shrine to the late superstar Roberto Clemente, whose death during a humanitarian mission to an earthquake in Nicaragua is now 52 years ago. The Pirates have dozens of tributes to Clemente, including a statue. There's a bridge to the ballpark named after him, but none were as prominent, at least to the television audience for the games, than the official logo showing Clemente's retired uniform number 21 that rests high up on the wall in the right field corner just next to the foul pole. If the ball was hit to right field, you at home saw the Clemente logo. Well, it did rest high up on that wall in the right field corner. A fan noticed Saturday and posted a photo of that corner at the Pirates ballpark and the Clemente uniform number plaque is gone, replaced by a very large advertisement for seltzer. This was retweeted by Roberto Clemente Jr. Who added one wow. The Pirates have confirmed that the Clemente tribute had been taken down and the seltzer ad put up in its place. But they said the plaque had only been temporary. It was only supposed to be there for a short period of time before being taken down the last three years when evidently they couldn't sell the ad space. I guess the Pirates proceeded to list every tribute to Clemente they did not take down and replaced with an ad for Seltzer. Which of course only underscored the fact that yes, they did take the most universally visible tribute to Roberto Clemente down so they could sell the space for an ad for a giant can of seltzer. Oh, and they never told the Clemente family in advance. They found out on Twitter runner up Werser, a MAGA influencer named Blair White. As in Blair White Project, Another one apparently functioning without thumbs, with which she could Google herself or Google something before humiliating herself in public. But won't. Musician and author Michael Jollott observed the obvious foreign influence behind Trump's self destructive tariffs. He tweeted Russia isn't on Trump's tariff list and repeated that sentence six times. That's the tweet White retweeted Dalit and added we don't import anything from Russia. Repeating that sentence four times and then adding quote, you're a retard, unquote. Ms. White was quickly community noted because according to the Trump office of the U.S. trade Representative, the Trump U.S. trade Representative's office, U.S. exports to Russia last year totaled $526 million. U.S. imports from Russia, which she says there is none, in fact total two and a half billion dollars. Slight difference in the number here. She says none. Trump says two and a half billion dollars. The punchline from the woman who dropped an R bomb on somebody who was right when she was wrong. She's transgender. She's MAGA transgender. Why do I think they're going to make her life more complicated and that she should be nicer to those of us who won't because that doesn't make a difference to us. She is a moron. But the winner worst why he's making the rare two segment appearance Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary, the MAGA guy who looks like he's been hit in the face with a shovel. Basically he has a flat face. He's the one happily responding to the crisis by insisting this is the ideal time to cut taxes on the rich. He wasn't supposed to say that out loud. That's the whole point of this. That's the whole plan. That's the whole idea. They get rid of taxes for the rich. That's why Trump wants it to be the 1890s again. There weren't any taxes. He made money. He kept all the damn money. That's all he wants. That's all he wants before he dies. He wants all the damn money. Politico reports that hours after Secretary Besant added to his series of ridiculous statements by insisting that the correct American response to tariff disaster 25 and tarifflation was to quote, buy American seen in Scott Besant's driveway and seen parked there for months. According to neighbor was a Range Rover which is manufactured mostly in Britain by a company based in India. Treasury Secretary SCOTT When I say buy American, I mean you should buy American. Not that I have to buy American. Today's other worst person in the world. This is Sports Center. Wait, check that. Not anymore. This this is Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Still ahead on this all new edition of countdown, the answer to the question Chuck Todd. First from the Sportsball Central center news desk tonight, Washington. On the 21st anniversary of the day the Washington Capitals won the lottery for the first pick in the amateur draft in which they selected him. Alexander Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's goal total of 894, scoring his 895th in a loss in which that was the only goal for Washington. And Gretzky, of course, threw himself off another cliff. And oh, by the way, Ovechkin did not set the record for most goals scored in a big league career in hockey, no matter how hard. The National Hockey League and its partners are trying to sell you on this idea so you will buy merchandise. Gretzky first. When Ovechkin tied the mark Friday night in Washington, Wayne Gretzky was there and he was shown on television in a suite standing next to Popeye himself. Trump fixer, conspiracy theorist, all around nut job, FBI director in this cheap horror film, we're all in Cash Patel. The tying of the 894 total now became Gretzky tied to Ovechkin, whose social media still shows him posing with Putin, for whom he has campaigned. And Gretzky now tied to Cash Patel. That's Gretzky, who three months ago was still one of Canada's all time icons and now flatly after his buddy Trump decided he's going to attack Canada one way or the other. Gretzky is hated in Canada. He attended Trump's victory party, an inauguration event. He's been wearing the hat, he's been playing the golf, he's been distributing the Kool Aid. The depth of the heartbroken sense of betrayal in Canada was already pretty much maxed out. Then Canada had to watch as Gretzky's record was tied while Gretzky was standing next to one of Trump's biggest whores. As Trump continues to threaten Canada with annexation, financial collapse and ultimately, well, inevitably, invasion. Patel added to this by tweeting photos of himself with Gretzky and Ovechkin and the Washington capital's team. Somehow they didn't get Putin in the photo. Somehow they left Marshall Patan out of that shot. Anyway, later, one of Gretzky's most accomplished teammates, hall of Famer Kevin Lowe, posted about all this on Facebook. And I'm going to read it because it starts as if GLOW is going to end up crying Leave Wehner alone into a pillow. But then it takes quite a turn. Kevin lowe, I've been heartbroken, disillusioned, frustrated, furious even from the moment the witch hunt towards Wayne Gretzky's name began. I've known Wayne for 45 years. We lived together, we grew up together. We put our asses on the line to help Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years. I'd say few people qualify to know Wayne as well as I do. His character and loyalty to Canada have always been and will always remain impeccable. One thing I know for certain, Wayne may be the least political person alive. And as you so astutely presented, shame on anyone who's attempted to entrap him in Trump's maniacal orbit. Well, Sir Kevin Lowe, you have unsuspected depth. I'm not sure about the term witch hunt. Gretzky brought this on himself. Nobody stitched the MAGA hat to his hair while he was out cold. But Lowe leaves an intriguing question there. Shame on anyone who's attempted to entrap him in Trump's maniacal orbit. Anyone? Well, who would that be? Who could have influence sufficient over Gretzky to entrap him, to, in essence, sell out his country that he loves so very well? Another social media post may have our answer. This is from right after the election. Congratulations, Mr. President. Donald J. Trump. Red heart, Blue heart. American flag. You did it. You deserved it. You earned every bit of it. The world is a better place to have you as our leader. Proud capital P to be an American. Thank you for being such a great friend. May God keep watching over you. Red heart, prayers. Red heart, love. Our family. To yours. Space, exclamation point. Janet Jones. Gretzky. How on earth could any of this be salvaged? Now, what can be inferred as the least political person alive being entrapped in Trump's maniacal orbit as Mrs. Gretzky? Destroying Mr. Gretzky? How can we pull out of this nosedive? Well, sir, how about Wayne Gretzky does not hold the record for the most goals scored. Not anymore. Matter of fact, he never did. And matter of fact, Alexander Ovechkin also does not hold the record for the most goals scored. Ovechkin has 895 goals in the National Hockey League. But for nearly all of the 1970s, the National Hockey League did not have a monopoly on that sport. In the US And Canada, there was the World Hockey association, in which 19 future Hockey hall of Famers worked and played, including Mark Messier, Bobby Hull, Jacques Plante, Bernie Perrant, Frank Mahovlich. And this was only seven seasons worth of hockey. They had two national television contracts. The National Hockey League also does not recognize World Hockey association statistics, which is arrogant, egotistical nonsense, and utterly inconsistent. The National Hockey League recognized the stats from its earlier rival leagues, like the Pacific Coast Association. The Western Canada League, NHL champions played PCHA and WCHL champions for the Stanley cup lost three times in the Stanley cup to them. The NHL recognizes Stanley Cups won by teams that never played in the NHL recognizes the Stanley Cups its teams won against those teams that never played in the NHL. But for some reason, to this day, the WHA still angers some NHL owners and old timers, especially people even older than me. And so they decided the WHA never happened. Which is even stranger considering that in 1979 the NHL, although they would not use the word merge, absorbed four of the teams from the WHA and whatever anybody thought of the quality of play in the wha, four WHA franchises that immediately joined the National Hockey League. And in fact all four franchises are still in the National Hockey League. The Quebec Nordique, now the Colorado Avalanche. The Winnipeg jets who moved to Phoenix and have been succeeded by a new Winnipeg jets franchise. The Hartford Whalers of late lamented memory. Now the Carolina Hurricanes and the Edmonton Oilers. Those four ex WHA franchises have won nine of the 44 Stanley Cups since. Since the NHL took them in, took the WHA over. That's several times the average number of Cups won by any four NHL franchises. Oh, and by the way, those Edmonton Oilers, they came into the NHL with a player on their roster named Wayne Gretzky. His goals for the NHL Edmonton Oilers, they count towards his total. But his 46 goals for the WHA Edmonton Oilers, the same team, and the WHA Indianapolis Racers, for some reason those goals do not count. In point of fact, While Ovechkin has 895 career goals right now, Wayne Gretzky actually has 940 career goals. Well where does that put us? What good does that do us? Now we're back in the situation where Gretzky's in the spotlight and everybody hates Wayne. Well, neither of them has the most career goals. Gordie Howe scored 801 goals in the National Hockey League and 174 more in the WHA. That would be 975. Gretzky is irrelevant to this discussion. And ovechkin is still 80 short of Gordie Howes all time goals scored record. And that is probably the best solution here. For Putin, for Ovechkin, for Gretzky, for Mrs. Gretzky, for Canada. The all time leading goal scorer is Gordie Howe. He put the biscuit in the basket. Period. Dateline Kingston, New York. Flipping the bird. History has been discovered in a sale of sports memorabilia there by love of the game auctions. For decades it's been acknowledged that Baseball hall of Famer Charles Old Hoss Radbourne, the pitcher who won 60 of his team's 84 victories as they won the pennant and the first World Series in 1884. Yes, his wins above replacement that year was 19.2. Old Hoss was the first American, probably the first human, to appear in a photograph giving the finger. It's plain as day. He posed with his Boston teammates with the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds on opening day in the year 1886, about what, 50 blocks north of my home? And there it is, top row, far left, left hand, middle finger cradled on the left shoulder of the teammate in the row ahead of him, Tom Poorman. We believe it is the finger. Hi, Eternity. I'm Charlie. Turns out, though, that is not the first photo of anybody giving the one fingered salute to the photographer. Certainly not in sports. Auctioned Saturday night, the 1882 team photo of the Providence Grays, then a major league team in the National League. And there he is, Charlie Old Hoss Radbourn again, back row, second from the left, his right hand at his belt and kind of kind of hiding it sort of behind teammate George Wright and pointed sort of sideways at team manager Harry Wright, kind of in profile. Radbourne is again giving the finger, only with the other hand. He was ambidextrous baseball and obscene gesture. History is thus rewritten. The finger dates, it is believed, to ancient Rome. The photographed finger now moves back four years in time, at least from 1886 to 1882. The price of this priceless photo? $7,200, the year he started 41 of his team's last 51 games and won 35 of them, plus both that were won in the World Series when they won the first World Series. Charles Olhaas Give him the finger. Radbourne apparently reportedly made a maximum of $5,000. A photo of him is worth $7,200, which is why he's giving the finger.

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Welcome to today. From back to school to tackling your to do list, the Today show is your best start to the day. It's a new season and every morning we're here to help you take it all along. As the forecast calls for football all across the country, blockbuster stars, live concerts and so much more. Wake up to where it's all happening.

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We're prohibited by law 21/ terms and conditions apply. Finally, on this all new edition of countdown, things I promised not to tell. And as promised, back to a topic we addressed last week. I brought this up when news came out that the former host of Meet the Press, Chuck Todd, was bargaining with a bank and financiers to spend up to $2 billion to buy some sort of media company. And I was thinking, who in the hell would trust chuck Todd with $2, let alone $2 billion? I've known him for nearly 20 years. We were in fantasy sports leagues for half that time and we worked news for the other half of that time. And he was one of those people who Sort of descended in terms of how impressive he was, the more you got to know him, I'm sure he would say the same thing about me. In any event, I don't do an ask me anything or any of that stuff. I don't solicit questions from the audience. I don't ask you to tell me what you want me to talk about because, well, if I needed you to produce material for me, I would probably pay you for it, or at least I should. So I feel that my part of this equation is I come up with the ideas and you listen, and you listen to the commercials, and the people who buy the commercials indirectly pay me. I think that's fair. I don't have to mention that you can usually skip through the commercials. In any event, I don't do these AMAs, but occasionally a friend or just a listener will get a question through to me. And it occurs to me that I have left out something extraordinarily interesting, or apparently interesting to the person at least, who asked the question. Such a case occurred last week when a friend asked about Chuck Todd. Not about Chuck Todd and the $2 billion. Not about Chuck Todd and putting the words in Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's mouth about the concentration camps. She said concentration camps. He said Nazi concentration camps, quoting her when she never said Nazi and could not be convinced that there or that he had done anything wrong. Not that. Not the $2 billion. And not what happened to him at Meet the Press. And not the bad comb over. Well, no, but nobody asked about the bad comb over. And I hadn't mentioned the bad comb over till just now. So sorry. This was something else and far more elemental. And it's the kind of thing I just never think of, because the number of times this question could have been asked about somebody I worked with was probably by now in the thousands. I'm sure it's been asked about me many times. I've read myself. In fact, the question was very simple. How in the hell did Chuck Todd ever get into the position of being the host of Meet the Press or anywhere else in which he could have failed so spectacularly and to be in a position where he was so disconnected from reality that he would think he could walk into a bank or some sort of, I don't know, corporate investment fund or Trump's using taxpayer money for no good reason? I don't know where he thought he was going to get $2 billion or he thinks he's going to get $2 billion. But the point was, I was focused on the back end of it. And my questioner asked that elemental one that I didn't think about, and I thank him for asking it. How did Chuck even get that far to fail that badly? Well, sir, here's what I know between what Tim Russert told me me and what others told me that Tim Russert told them. People whose confidence or in whose confidence Tim was to a greater degree than he was with me. We were friends and he told me lots of great stuff, but I'm sure he didn't tell me everything. And he told other people things that he I know he didn't tell me and other things that I've pieced together over the years and other things that people who didn't like Chuck just as much as I didn't like Chuck told me me. Here's what happened. There are, as always in these situations, circumstances beyond anybody's control that played a huge factor. Tim Russert told me once that years and years ago, at the height of his earliest success at NBC and remember, he was the host of Meet the Press and the bureau chief of NBC News in Washington. He ran the NBC News operation in Washington. He didn't identify, I don't think put together the schedule for the assignment editors, but I'm sure at some point he was involved in those. Maybe once a year he did bureaucratic work and then got on the phone and traded horses with Republicans and Democrats and met people for drinks and tried to arrange guests and then had to prep to trip up the great and the not so great on Meet the Press. And he did that job, no matter what the criticisms might have been of him. He did that job with surprising alacrity in a time in which it began to vanish from the other networks and has not been seen since he died. He was also a wonderful and engaging human being. And his death was one of the great sadnesses of my life, truly. And I responded to it the way I could, which was to go on the air and relieve everybody else of the responsibility of anchoring that night. And I do remember and will always remember that the guy who stayed up in the middle of the night in Paris and went to a street corner in Paris, France, where he was on vacation to join us four or five different times as late as, I believe, 4:00am local time, Paris that night was Bob Schieffer, who was the host of the CBS equivalent of Meet the Press, Face the Nation. They were very close friends. And his. His respect for his friend and colleague and adversary, his competitor. Tim Russert strikes me to this day, in any event, at the beginning, when I first knew Tim in the fall of 1997 and the Lewinsky story broke at the beginning of 1998, I got to know Tim in bursts where I'd spend an hour with him and he would tell me three days worth of information and days later I'd be processing. Wait a minute. Russert told me this. I forgot all about that. I have to start taking notes. Russert told me that that long term he had plans to. He wasn't sure which he would get rid of first. But at some point he could not envision doing both Meet the Press and running the NBC News bureau. And more than likely he would give up the bureaucratic job first because frankly, it didn't pay as well and it was not nearly as much fun, although it did allow him to influence so many things at NBC News. Without that influence, NBC News slowly and then with greater rapidity went to hell in a handbasket into the condition that you see it in now, now. But Russert said that he was looking and was always on the lookout for somebody with that attention to detail, who enjoyed dealing with details like the assignment editor's schedules that he had had once and then finally had to farm out as his on air responsibilities got more and more important. But being the NBC News bureau chief in Washington was a pretty damn good job to begin with, let alone also hosting Meet the Press. So he thought he could probably find somebody just right, just nuts enough was the way he put it, and yet talented enough and responsible enough to do the job. So I left NBC News and MSNBC late in 1998 and never finished that conversation with him. But I came back with his blessing in 2003 and he quickly got involved again in my show on MSNBC whenever he could and stayed late and talked baseball with me in the middle of the night after election nights in the primary season of 2007, 2008, just before his passing. And he told me, and had told me, I guess, in 2003 or 4, that they had found a guy who was kind of number obsessed, a fellow who worked for a news outlet, a small news outlet called, I believe he was with Hotline and then the Hill, or it might have been the other way around. But this guy who was a pretty good guest, he had a kind of funky Fu Manchu mustache going for him and thinning hair, but his name was Chuck Tod and he was pretty good on the air and would I try him out on Countdown. They were putting him on Hardball with Chris Matthews, a lot would I try him out and report back to Tim what I thought of him both in terms of his capability on the air and if I had that sense of whether or not he might make a good executive, being somebody who had a lot of opinions on what made a good executive and what made a bad executive. And he said, should we hire him full time? Don't give me the answer right away. Just thinking about it in the next couple of years. At some point he called me back and he said, it's time for me to make a decision. What's your vote? And I said yes. I said, I think he was at his maximum position. I think that he might learn a little bit more television, that he might be a good guest and maybe he could be a contributor doing things like exit polls or number crunching on election nights. Very much the role that Steve Kornacki later assumed at NBC News and msnbc after, by the way, way, I started him on television at Court tv, excuse me, at Current tv and never got any credit from that from him because he's a little strange guy. And apparently he forgot that he was on the air with us at Current TV and I was negotiating with him to join us full time when one day he did not show up for work. And it turned out he'd signed a deal with MSNBC and never told us he was even negotiating it and did not call to say I will not be there tonight cuz I've signed a deal with msnbc. Quizzed on this later, he did not understand why this was a problem. As I said, a very, very strange guy. The more positive aspects of this were the sort of thing I thought Chuck Todd might be good at. And Tim said, I'm glad to hear you say that. I've tried and tried and I just don't see him being a kind of host. I mean, he might be able to host a daytime show on msnbc. Maybe we could do something politically that could get him involved. That's what he wants to do. I think he's better suited for what you're talking about three or four minutes at a stre. And I said okay. He said, what do you think of him as an executive? I'm thinking maybe he could be political director of NBC News or he could be something in which we make him kind of a bureaucratic figure who then has that cache on the air of being the political director of NBC News, who only is on the air, say a total of 17 minutes a month. I said, I think that might be a good thing. He does seem to be very detail oriented. A little too detail oriented. Sometimes we have to steer him out of the weeds when he's on as a guest to talk about the substantial things. The bigger pictures back them off a little bit from the topicality of the moment to what it means and why we're having him on as a guest. So that's where we left it. And that's where Tim Russert died. Originally, Russert had talked about as a possible successor as the host of Meet the Press, the NBC News chief White House correspondent in the late 90s, David Bloom. To lead towards this, they had moved David Bloom to New York as the weekend host of Today Day. And then David Bloom in 2002, went to Iraq in late 2002, the beginning of 2003, obviously, with the conflict and the war there and our invasion of it under Mr. Bush. And David Bloom died there. He died there of deep vein thrombosis. Because he was riding around in this extraordinary then for the TIME Live tank. He could broadcast live from this tank. And it was a great thing for television. Unfortunately, it meant that for several weeks he slept in a tank in a curled position with his knees bent. And as he got sicker and sicker and didn't know that it was a problem, he was turning greener and greener. And those of us who saw him on the air said, what's wrong with him? Oh, it's just. It's just the feed's a little off color. I went, well, everything else looks right. Why does he look greenish bronze? The next day he was dead. It was a tragedy of unbelievable proportions. So David Bloom was gone and then there was no apparent successor lined up in Washington. A lot of the people at NBC News who might actually have been good successors for Tim Russert if he had to pick somebody moved off into different branches of the company. Norah o' Donnell was one. Norah o' Donnell was considered for a period of time as a possible successor to Russert on that show. And then she eventually moved on to CBS after Tim's death. And that didn't happen at NBC. But the only person that they'd ever really sort of have talked about, maybe as a guest host, as a replacement if something happened where Tim wanted to retire, apart from the idea that Tom Brokaw might make a good fill in, there was this idea about David Gregory. And then came the tragedy of the summer of 2008 and the death of Tom Brokaw, of rather of Tim Russert and the immediate replacement of him by Tom Brokaw. On an interim basis while they tried to get David Gregory up to speed to be the host of Meet the Press. I didn't think David Gregory did a bad job as the host of Meet the Press. Apparently I was in a minority of this, but he was very, very tense. The job weighed on him heavily and he was very difficult to work with, by all the accounts I heard of. And Rachel Maddow once played me the voicemail that David Gregory left here after she had to cancel for family reasons, a trip to Washington to be on Meet the Press. And it was two minutes of perhaps non stop scatological terms. How dare you. And then just words I won't even repeat here. And then she said, and that was only the first message. He called right back and there was another two minutes of it. So that's what she played me. David, I don't think could handle the pressure of it. David had already flailed out in his role as the original replacement for Don Imus when they fired Imus and canceled that show. And because David didn't do that, we got Joe Scarborough in the mornings on msnbc. And because David didn't do Meet the Press well, although that lasted longer than he did on the mornings, I believe they gave him three or four weeks on the morning on MSNBC and then went next and we got Scarborough. But the Meet the Press thing went on for several years. I don't know. I wasn't at NBC News. I wasn't connected to it. I do know that by about 2014 or so they made that change. I do know that Chuck Todd then took me out to dinner one time. This was transparently designed to get me to convince Katie Turr to accept a lesser assignment than she wanted after the 2016 presidential campaign. And Chuck had turned completely condescending and completely above himself and completely out of his depth. And he had had such a conviction that he and he alone knew what to do next. It was extraordinary. Any level of charm, and maybe I don't have this right, had been gone for a long time. And I think it was because Russert died, because Russert was Chuck's rabbi. He was, in fact, the man who was guiding Chuck still had hopes that Chuck might make an anchor, which he didn't. But the origins of all of that are, as I told you, the reason that Chuck Todd got into the position that he got into was Tim Russert was looking for somebody to succeed him as bureau chief of NBC News in Washington. Couldn't find anybody he thought of that would be good. He was thinking of looking for somebody eventually to take over Meet the Press and didn't really find anybody that he thought of, but he thought, certainly thought, that David Gregory would be a good choice and Chuck Todd would not. He took a poll of all the people at NBC News and MSNBC who he trusted as to whether or not he should hire Chuck Todd for any capacity, and I guess we all voted yes. And I apologize for that. What can I tell you? In any event. I keep saying in any event, but that's the key operative word. Chuck Todd wound up in a position to be the host of Meet the Press because David Bloom died and Tim Russert died and David Gregory did not succeed. So when you are, in essence, maybe the fourth choice or the fourth reasonable choice or the fourth consensus choice, sometimes that's just not good enough. And that's what happened to Chuck. And I hope they ask him those questions before they give him the $2 billion. I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Brian Ray and John Philip Chenale, the musical directors of Countdown, have arranged, produced and performed most of our music on this program. E Mr. Chanel handled the orchestration and keyboards. Mr. Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums. It was produced by TKO Brothers. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Foust. The sports music is the olderman theme from ESPN2, which was written by Mitch Warren Davis and appears courtesy of ESPN Inc. Other music arranged and performed by the group. No horns allowed. My announcer today was my friend Jonathan Banks from Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad and Airplane. Everything else was, as ever, pretty much my fault. That's Countdown for today. Just 1385 days until the scheduled end of his lame duck, lame brained term. Unless Musk removes him sooner or the actuarial tables due. The next scheduled countdown is Thursday. As always, bulletins as the news warrants, remember, impeach Trump. It will not work now. It will, however, win the Democrats the midterms and I want polling on a presidential recall vote. Let's put, as they said in the original British version of House of Cards, let's put a bit of stick about. Till next time. I'm Keith Olbermann. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olbermann is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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