KILMEADE: KILL THE HOMELESS. AND THE WORST ATTACKS ON KIRK? BY FUENTES AND LOOMER - 9.15.25

Summary

Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Episode: KILMEADE: KILL THE HOMELESS. AND THE WORST ATTACKS ON KIRK? BY FUENTES AND LOOMER

Date: September 15, 2025
Host: Keith Olbermann
Podcast: iHeartRadio

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Episode Overview

Keith Olbermann delivers yet another scathing, rapid-fire commentary on the latest eruptions in American media and politics. This episode zeroes in on two flashpoints:

1. Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade advocating for the murder of the homeless (“involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill them”), and the subsequent fraudulent apology.
2. The reactions to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, especially on the far right, focusing on the intra-MAGA schisms, opportunism, and overblown rhetoric about leftist guilt, including attacks from Nick Fuentes and Laura Loomer.

Olbermann moves, as always, through his segments with a mixture of outrage, biting humor, and references spanning from historical fascism to contemporary cable news failures. The episode also diagnoses broader trends: the normalization of violence in right-wing discourse, the media’s role in enabling it, the panic in MAGA ranks post-Kirk, and cowardice among mainstream outlets like MSNBC.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Brian Kilmeade’s Advocacy for Violence Against the Homeless

• Kilmeade, Fox & Calls for Murder ([02:21]–[04:54])

  • Olbermann reports that Fox host Brian Kilmeade explicitly called for the state to murder homeless Americans via “involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill them.”
  • Kilmeade made no exception for homeless veterans, children, or anyone else.
  • The context: a Fox & Friends discussion where Kilmeade and Lawrence Jones went beyond calls for institutionalization, to execution.
  • Quote:
    • Olbermann: “Kill the homeless, including America's 33,000 homeless veterans...Kill the homeless children...Kill the 600,000 homeless who are not veterans or children. Lethal injection or something. Just kill them.” ([03:07])
    • Olbermann: “This horrific vision...is mass murder of the homeless. And the most widely accepted high-end estimate of homelessness in this country is 771,000 people a night.” ([06:38])

• Delayed, Insincere Apology and Media Response ([04:54]–[06:21])

  • Kilmeade’s “apology” was four days late and only happened under pressure.
  • Olbermann likens it to Kilmeade’s history of apologizing only after being caught in past racist or eugenicist remarks ([16:01]).
  • Olbermann: “These quotations are not a series of aberrations. Brian Kilmeade is scum who called for the murder by the government by lethal injection, by involuntary lethal injection of God knows how many homeless children and veterans and just plain old homeless Americans, and apologized four days late because he got caught. Only because he got caught.” ([16:01])

• Media Complicity

  • Hardly any mainstream coverage except Media Matters and select social media critics like Aaron Rupar ([10:19]).
  • Olbermann sharply criticizes the indifference of Fox and its leadership, invoking Rupert Murdoch’s responsibility.

• Notable Moment: "What’s the threshold for murder?"

  • Olbermann turns the moral logic upside down:
    • "If somebody from the Trump dictatorship walked up to Brian Kilmeade and gave him a, quote, involuntary lethal injection, would that be murder? You're goddamn right it would be murder." ([15:00])
    • He hammers home the question of numbers and principle: “At what number does giving the homeless involuntary lethal injections constitute extrajudicial murder of Americans by America, mass murder by the government? What number?” ([14:36])
  • Implication: even mentioning the policy is monstrous—debating "how many" is the logic of fascism.

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2. Broader Political Decay and Trump’s Culpability

• Trump’s Deference to Putin During Eastern European Crises ([17:51]–[23:39])
  • Trump stalls on sanctions as Russian drones threaten Poland and Romania, shifting blame to NATO allies and constructing impossible pre-conditions for action.
  • Olbermann: “The coward, the loser, the P word here, the here kitty kitty guy, is Trump.”
  • He likens current US abdication under Trump to appeasement of Hitler in 1930s Europe, quoting Churchill ([22:49]).

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3. The Charlie Kirk Assassination: Intra-Right Fractures and the Politics of Martyrdom

• Right-Wing Claims: Kirk Killed by "the Left"

  • Republican figures and Fox try to frame Kirk’s death as evidence of a leftist threat ([23:39]).
  • Repeated right-wing claims about shooter’s “leftist ideology” evaporate under scrutiny; real evidence points to Kirk’s enemies being within the far right ([26:04]–[29:36]).
    • Example:
      • Nick Fuentes: "Charlie Kirk cannot call himself a Christian anymore. Sorry, you forfeited that...you cannot allow Charlie Kirk to go to one more public event...without being protested, without being shouted down..." ([26:37])
      • Laura Loomer: “I don't ever want to hear Charlie Kirk claim he is pro Trump ever again...Charlie has decided to behave like a charlatan, claiming to be pro Trump one day while he stabs Trump in the back the next.” ([27:59])

• Media and Political Backlash: Establishing Kirk as a Martyr

  • The right invokes closure of criticism, with calls from politicians like Rep. Clay Higgins for lifetime bans of anyone criticizing Kirk ([31:09]).
    • Higgins: “I’m going to use congressional authority and every influence with Big Tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” ([33:09])
  • Olbermann points out the right's selective invocation of free speech: hailing Kirk as a “champion of free speech” as they suppress dissent.
    • Andrew Lawrence/Media Matters: “Charlie Kirk was a champion of free speech and if you disagree, you are under arrest.” ([34:25])

• The Right’s Fear and the Collapse of Their Invulnerability Myth

  • Kirk’s death creates panic—MAGA’s sense of being literally invincible, “blessed by God,” is shattered ([36:05], [50:02]).
  • Olbermann: “The right wing is suddenly, and for the first time in at least a decade, scared.” ([47:21])

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4. The Fragmented Reality of Media Consumption

• Different Universes—Who Was Charlie Kirk? ([39:12]–[47:19])

  • Olbermann reads a Facebook reflection (quoted from historian Rick Perlstein) demonstrating how Kirk was seen as a pious, motivational figure by many on one media 'side,' and as a hateful, dangerous radical by the other.
    • “Talking to a friend who only knew Charlie as a Christian motivational speaker, because that's all that ever came across her feed...She was horrified by his remarks about Pelosi's husband’s attacker being bailed out...she had never seen or heard them before.” ([43:54])
  • Massive difference in public perception reinforces the echo chamber effect of social media.

• Kirk’s Comedy and Controversy ([46:21])

  • Kirk’s own words: “I want to watch that execution. That'll make my day better. I want to see him on a public block and get him be publicly executed...At what age should you start to see public execution? Sixteen, I think. I think you could do it earlier.” ([46:21]–[46:39])
  • Olbermann: this is the real Kirk many mourners never saw.

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5. MSNBC’s Cowardice and the Professional Left’s Silence

• MSNBC Fires Matt Dowd for Telling the Truth About Kirk ([63:47]–[75:48])

  • Olbermann lambasts MSNBC for firing former Bush operative-turned-commentator Matt Dowd after he “told the truth” about Kirk’s divisiveness on air, refusing to simply canonize him for the sake of “dialogue.”

    • Matt Dowd: “He's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures...pushing this sort of hate speech...I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which lead to hateful actions. And I think that is the environment we are in...You can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place.” ([71:28])

  • Olbermann decries the silence of Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, and Lawrence O'Donnell, accusing them of cowardice for not defending Dowd or principle.

    • “[...] they still get their money, right? Today's other worst persons in the world. I've done all the damage I can do here.” ([79:04])

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6. The Nihilism Behind Political Violence

• Parallels Between Lee Harvey Oswald and Kirk’s Assassin ([55:49]–[59:40])
  • Olbermann draws lines between the assassinations of Kennedy and Kirk, suggesting a possible thread of nihilistic motivation: the need to be ‘famous for something,’ not true political ideology.
  • “Having studied and analyzed and contemplated this for more than 60 years now, I think the correct answer is Lee Harvey Oswald believed in nothing except in his murderous rage that he was not famous for something.” ([58:00])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Kilmeade’s Apology:
  • “Fire him, hire him again and fire him another time.” ([14:54])
• Re media cowardice:
  • “Rachel Maddow is a coward. Chris Hayes is a coward. Lawrence O’Donnell is, in fact, two or three cowards.” ([76:56])
• On Trump’s ‘blinking’ to Putin:
  • “He's blinking so much, he might as well be sending Morse code.” ([18:16])
• On mass murder as policy:
  • “The statements of hate are not the aberration. The apologies are the aberration.” ([16:01])
• On Kirk’s right-wing critics (Fuentes):
  • “Charlie Kirk cannot call himself a Christian anymore. Sorry, you forfeited that. ...you cannot allow Charlie Kirk to go to one more public event...without being protested, without being shouted down...” – Nick Fuentes ([26:37])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:21]–[06:21] – Olbermann’s deep dive into Kilmeade, Fox News, and the “kill the homeless” proposal
• [11:02]–[16:01] – Examining Fox’s hollow defense, Kilmeade’s track record, and Olbermann’s moral test
• [17:51]–[23:39] – Trump, Russia/Ukraine/Poland crisis, and parallels to 1930s appeasement
• [23:39]–[36:06] – The assassination of Kirk, MAGA panic, right-wing infighting, and the manufactured martyr narrative
• [39:12]–[47:19] – Social media echo chambers and the double lives of right-wing propagandists like Kirk
• [55:49]–[59:40] – On Oswald, nihilism, and the meaninglessness of much contemporary political violence
• [63:47]–[79:06] – Olbermann’s “Worst Persons” segment, focusing on mainstream media cowardice and the professional left’s silence

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Tone and Language

• Olbermann’s signature:
  • Sarcastic, indignant, historically referential, and emotionally charged.
  • Mixes biting satire ("Brian Kilmeade is scum") with gravitas ("We're in such a place in this country…").
  • Calls to action and moral reflection intermingle with cynicism towards media institutions and their leaders.

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Conclusion

Olbermann uses this episode to dissect the normalization and minimization of right-wing incitement to violence, as exemplified by Kilmeade’s remarks. He then explodes the narrative that all political violence is leftist by excavating the far right’s own venom toward one of their supposed martyrs (Kirk). Across the board, Olbermann sees cowardice and complicity, whether in the corridors of Fox, in the fear-stricken halls of MSNBC, or among “mourners” who never truly saw the full picture of the figures they idolized. His concluding thesis: America’s crisis is one of media, morality, and the disintegration of shared reality.

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This summary covers the major themes, specific arguments, and standout excerpts, offering a road map for listeners (or non-listeners) to understand the gravity, context, and complexity of this particularly charged episode.

Transcript

[Keith Olbermann]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Keith Olbermann]

With Keith Olbermann is a production of iHeartRadio. Brian Kilmeade must be fired even by Fox. Even today. Fired. Now the co host of the Fox News morning program called for America's homeless to be killed by, quote, involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill them.

Unquote.

Kill the homeless, including America's 33,000 homeless veterans.

He did not exclude Them he called.

For this and he got away with it.

Last Wednesday, he said this last Wednesday.

Kill the homeless veterans.

Kill the homeless children.

Kill the 600,000 homeless who are not veterans or children. Lethal injection or something. Just kill them. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch. Same company as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post. Murdering the homeless. Mass murdering the homeless. Took him four days to apologize. Took Brian Kilmeade four days to apologize. Four days. He apologized only because he got caught. Fraud apology. Fraud host, fnc Fraud News Channel. He said what he said because it's in his heart and he got away with it because it is in the hearts of the people who run Fraud News Channel. And they got away with it because it is in the heart of the monster who has run that place and ruined this world. Rupert Murdoch. Nothing has happened to Brian Kilmeade. Nothing but a couple of ex Republicans who have a soft spot for him personally and who are understandably shocked that anybody at Fraud News Channel would apologize for anything. Kinda complimented him. Complimented him because, well, he got caught. And then weakly and briefly and fraudulently apologized. Brian Kilmeade apologized. He said, calling for the homeless, or as he referred to them, them to die by involuntary lethal injection or something, just kill them.

That was callous on his part.

It went out on their propaganda channel last Wednesday morning, hours before Charlie Kirk was murdered and the orgy of right wing bullshit began that the left, and only the left, uses or threatens violence. And Kilmeade, who has been the often literally unintelligible co host of the Fox News morning show since 1998, agreed with another host that homeless people who refused treatment programs should be institutionalized or locked up in jail. The other guy said. And then Kilmeade added, or involuntary lethal injection. The other speaker, a man named Lawrence Jones, said, yeah, and then Kilmeade finished this thought or something. Just kill them.

End quote.

The third host, who was reportedly Sean.

Hannity's girlfriend, swerved away from this, probably accidentally, to give Kilmeade to do what Fox always does, the opportunity to turn.

Everything into an illegal campaign contribution. This time he segued from killing the homeless to advocating for Republican candidates in North Carolina.

The homeless should face arrest or institutionalization. Or quoting Brian Kilmeade, involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill them.

Mass murder.

Oh, and this nodding Lawrence Jones, who agreed with Kilmeade. Not even a fraud apology from him. Nothing from Fox about him either. Nothing. We are in such a place in this country thanks to Trump, thanks to.

Maga, thanks to the late Charlie Kirk.

Thanks to the Tea Party, thanks to.

Bush, thanks to Rush Limbaugh, thanks to.

The list continues backwards almost indefinitely and infinitely. We're in such a place in this country that this horrific vision, which in its essence is mass murder of the homeless. And the most widely accepted high end estimate of homelessness in this country is 771,000 people a night. And no, Kilmeade did not say, let's submit 771,000 people to, quote, involuntary lethal injection. He didn't have to if he meant 771 people. Is that somehow less horrific if he meant 77?

What is your threshold to be enraged.

At the prospect of the government simply pulling some homeless people off the street and lethally injecting them? 7 is 1. How about none but a guy who's been a face of fox News for 27 years simply proposing it. We are in such a place in this country that hours after Kilmeade lethally injected his idea into the psyche of this damaged, disintegrating nation, Charlie Kirk was killed itself. Something horrific, something indefensible. And for four days, that's almost all there has been. Trump's criminal negligence of Putin's attack on Poland. No, I mean the one last week, not the new one Saturday. Nor the one on Romania Saturday that could not break through the ceaseless canonization of this rather typical maga threatener. Nor the ceaseless attempts, even as the facts piled up against it, of Trump's attempt at and the right's attempt to turn it into what fascist influencer literally called, quote, our Reichstag fire, but don't you dare call us Nazis. And by the way, he did not mean Reichstag fire in a negative or an informed way. In the middle of this, a humanoid fraud news channel host with a 27 year record of saying remarkably stupid and indefensible and subhuman things, even for Fox, who also has one of the few remaining national television platforms, said that when all else failed, the solution to the homeless issue in this country, the, if I may call it this, final solution, is involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill them. And initially, only Media Matters for America itself, targeted for a metaphorical lethal injection by the Trump dictatorship. Only Media Matters for America gave this story any real attention in real time. Last Wednesday. I'll confess, I saw the video. Maybe Thursday, maybe early Friday. I literally thought it was a fabrication, a cut and paste job, even AI. This could not be real. Not even Kilmeade would say that. I searched for the sound bite. I found it. I heard it. I still didn't grasp the implications of it. I fell victim to all of the potholes of the Internet where you can be distracted from the real Horrors of America 2025 like Brian Kilmeade because of the sheer volume of attention to the fake horrors of America 2025. And so until one of the genuine invaluable components of social media, Aaron Rupar, clipped the Kill Mead involuntary lethal injection segment and put it out Saturday morning on social media, this grotesque idea straight from the pages of every country from Pol Pot's Cambodia to Hitler's Germany, every country that has ever turned to ethnic cleansing or purging or concentration camps or the mass murder of the other, it slipped out of sight. Like Trump ignoring Putin sending drones into Polish airspace for the second time and Romania for the first. Like Trump establishing a series of possible tasks for other countries to effect before he will act against Putin. Like Trump being asked about mourning his friend Charlie Kirk and basically saying yeah, and then changing the topic immediately to the building of his White House gold plated outhouse.

I will cover each of these things in depth. It will be a long podcast and it is all new because Trump's criminal negligence truly is beginning to take on the shape of Europe and America, ignoring Hitler and many of its leaders here working on behalf of Hitler in the 30s lookin at you in hell, Charles Lindbergh. The Kirk story not only reveals the reality that he infuriated huge swaths of a far right even crazier than he was, and their leaders influenced his murderer. The reverence for Kirk by even some milquetoast liberals and the panic by every last damned MAGA indicates that they have for the first time realized with mounting fear and even terror that the old Monty Python joke with Eric Idle as the army private asking his commander to let him leave the army contains great truth in it Idle says it's dangerous. There are people with guns out there. Real guns sir, not toy guns. Proper guns, sir. And so I'd like to leave the army now before I get killed. There's lots to talk about on all of these subjects, but first let me finish off this Brian Kilmeade story. The Fox defense, although really their primary defense had been to hope it would just go away. And hell, it did go away for four days. Was it kill me just slipped and Lawrence Jones just slipped and they were only talking about one homeless person, the murderer of the Ukrainian immigrant woman on the light rail line in Charlotte, North Carolina. The first time incidentally, that Fox and Mag MAGA have actually been worried about or concerned about the death of any Ukrainian. It was just a slip. He didn't mean 770,000 homeless people should be euthanized. He just meant the one in advance, which is patently untrue. The quote again is Jones talking about wasting billions on trying to treat homelessness so lock them up or put them in institutions. And Kilmeade adding or involuntary lethal injection. And Jones saying, yeah, and Kilmeade Mead then adding quote or something, just kill them. There's no reference to the one victim in those quotes. They'd stop talking about her a minute earlier. Jones says the word them three times. And Kilmeade's final words are not about her. His final words are just kill them. Kilmeade's four days late apology, quote, I'm obviously aware that not all mentally ill homeless people act as the perpetrator did in North Carolina and that so many mentally ill homeless people deserve our empathy and compassion, unquote. Well, there's a clear inference in that for which Kilmeade should also be fired. Fire him, hire him again and fire him another time. A clear inference in that, quote, that many homeless people do not deserve our empathy or our compassion. They deserve, per Brian Kilmeade, per Fox News, per the Murdoch psychopathic viewpoint, lethal injection. But even if Kilmeade was not issuing a fraud apology, a deeply wallet felt apology, because he got caught. Let me circle back to my earlier point at what number does giving the homeless involuntary lethal injections constitute extrajudicial murder of Americans by America, Mass murder by the government? What number?

All 771,000 homeless people. 1,000 people.

Two people? One person.

If somebody. And let me state here, I am opposed to this with all of my.

Heart, and I know Brian Kilmeade, I'm opposed to this about him or anybody else.

But if somebody from the Trump dictatorship walked up to Brian Kilmeade and gave him a, quote, involuntary lethal injection, would that be murder?

You're goddamn right it would be murder. Would you object to it as I do?

Or if Brian Kilmeade didn't realize that.

The victim here was Brian Kilmeade, would he object? I don't think he would.

He just proposed this as a solution to an American problem. So how many more victims would be.

Required before it was mass murder?

Brian?

Because to twist an old phrase, I think we can agree on who you are, Brian Kilmeade. We are now just arguing about the.

In the total number of lethal injections, you would pay for. And the apology for which even today many are saying he deserves credit for this. Remarkably similar to Brian kilmeade's apology in 2009 after he said Americans shouldn't marry people from other cultures like the Swedes don't, and thus the Swedes have pure genesis when he had to apologize for being pro eugenics.

And it's remarkably similar to Brian Kilmeade's.

Apology in 2010 when he said not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim. And remarkably similar to Brian kilmeade's apology from 2018 when Trump was separating immigrant children from their parents, when Kilmeade said, quote, these aren't our kids. Show them compassion. But it's not like he's doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country. These quotations are not a series of aberrations. Brian Kilmeade is scum who called for the murder by the government by lethal injection, by involuntary lethal injection of God knows how many homeless children and veterans and just plain old homeless Americans, and apologized four days late because he got caught. Only because he got caught. Like when he endorsed eugenics or said all terrorists are Muslim or insisted migrant children could be separated because they're from another country. The statements of hate are not the aberration. The apologies are the aberration. Fire Brian Kilmeade today.

And in our fourth story on the Countdown, the president of the United States continues to help Vladimir Putin begin to subjugate Eastern Europe. I mean, seriously traitorous behavior by Trump again, to Putin's benefit again. And the poor, mindless, delusional bastard Trump can't even be the lead story. You're slipping. Don't. At midday Saturday, Russian drones skirted the borders with Poland and Romania for Poland, second time in a week. Pinging them, we used to call it in a different context. And Trump did what he is supposed to do in such situations. Provide cover for Putin and Russia. Provide stalling tactics for Putin and Russia. Shift the responsibility for Putin and for stopping Putin, shift that responsibility to the victims. Blame Zelensky, presumably. Start blaming Poland's Donald Tusk. The Russians cobbled together junk drones. I mean, literally pieces of debris, wood, extra room for extra fuel so these drones could get near Poland. That's an old North Korean trick to show they could do it, to see if Trump would blink. He's blinking so much, he might as well be sending Morse code. Trump's response? He'll put sanctions on Russia. He's ready to do it. Don't make him come up there. This time he means it. This time, the 3,000th time, he'll do it. Incidentally, Trump has now made more promises to stop Putin than Brian Kilmeade has had to make. Apologies. A letter sent by President Donald J. Trump. The J is for jerk head to all NATO nations and the world. I thought you were sending it to Neptune, asshole. Quote, I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO nations have agreed and started to do the same thing, and when all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia. As you know, NATO's commitment to win has been far less than 100%. And the purchase. Wait a minute. NATO's commitment to win has been less than 100%. Putin's commitment to win is 100%. NATO's commitment to win is 100%. Trump's commitment to win is minus one hundred and seventy three percent. The coward, the loser, the P word here, the here kitty kitty guy is Trump. But the gist of this is, as he goes on to blame Zelensky, ridiculous war. This is not Trump's war. Are the usual bullshit. The gist of it is he will now impose sanctions when NATO stops buying Russian oil. And it sounds almost plausible.

It's the first non totally insane thing.

Superficially anyway, that he has said since gonna, say, December before the election, 2015. I'm settling on 1947.

It's the first semi sane thing he said since 1947.

Yeah, he's right. What good are sanctions against Russian oil if actual NATO member countries keep buying Russian oil? Except this plausibility is just another prearranged way to make sure the push for sanctions can never succeed. Because two of the NATO countries still buying Russian oil are Slovakia, a fascist state run by a fascist, and Hungary, an even more fascist state run by an even fatter fascist. They aren't opposed to Putin.

They depend on Putin.

Trump might as well have said he will impose 100% sanctions on Russia and quadruple military aid to Ukraine and block Russian ports.

Once everyone in America signs a notarized statement saying that he won the 2020 election, history may judge that Trump was not on the Russian payroll or that Trump was not being blackmailed by Russia, or that Trump was not being run by Russia, it may judge that something.

Far worse was going on, that he.

Was doing this by choice, that Trump's work for Russia was voluntary. The latest stall is a stall. Another one. Well, Putin keeps testing the West. One week it's Poland, the next week it's Poland and Romania. And soon rather than late, it'll be Poland and Romania and Germany. As Winston Churchill said when England bent.

Over for Hitler, our people should know.

That we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road. They should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged and that the terrible words have for the time been pronounced against the Western democracies. Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting. And do not suppose Churchill concluded that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning.

And now to St. Charlie of Kirk. I am beginning to suspect that the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, also trying to be Saint Bipartisan. Spencer of Cox is actually a Trojan horse. The latest is he's insisting Kirk's shooter was indoctrinated and has expressed leftist ideology. To its credit, CNN had him on and actually pressed him question did investigators just use the term leftist ideology or did they give some specifics? Governor Cox said, quote, there are conversations that were discussed specifically about Charlie Kirk. I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm sure he fought back tears at this point. If this was MAGA and a radicalized MAGA person, I would be sharing that as well. I'll believe that one when you do it. Gov, Family discussions, parents, this is what they're saying. Do you have specifics on what he was saying about Charlie Kirk to his family? Governor Cox? Just not a fan. That's all I can say. Unquote. Waiting on the deets Gov. Molly White of Citation Needed News summed up the undercurrent of those deets that have in turn each collapsed under, well, reality. Quoting her arrow right. The shooter is trans arrow right. Okay. The bullets were trans arrow right. Okay. The roommate is trans. Cash Patel sweating profusely. Is anyone nearby trans? Now it's the supposed girlfriend who is supposed trans. And yes, it is possible that somebody saw it recently and they're just repurposing the plot from the Pacino film Dog Day Afternoon. The only indoctrination we have any confirmation of here is the universal agreement that he was raised by an all right wing family and had giant guns in his house when he was a toddler. All maga, all the time, all Trump voters. Then somewhere along the line he criticized Charlie Kirk. And criticizing Charlie Kirk must be leftist ideology and indoctrination, right?

Huh?

When did this happen? When was he indoctrinated by the left? When did he start criticizing Charlie Kirk.

Which is against the law, isn't it?

When did he, when did he start hitting Kirk? Because this, this next thing was from last month. This appears to have been August 26th. I think that's the date. I couldn't verify that it's around August 26th. That would be carry the one 20 days ago. And the speaker criticizing Charlie Kirk is Nick Fuentes.

[Nick Fuentes]

Charlie Kirk cannot call himself a Christian anymore. Sorry, you forfeited that. I do not want to hear. And you cannot allow Charlie Kirk to go to one more public event, one more question and answer one more ask me anything without being protested, without being shouted down, without being interrogated about this. This guy goes around from campus to campus in the most artificial and phony and fake way talking about, oh God, God made me very blessed that I control $500 million. Oh, I'm so blessed. I'm so rich and I'm so blessed to know God's been so good to me.

[Keith Olbermann]

Nick Fuentes, August 26, saying that Charlie.

Kirk is not actually a Christian. Saying something about Charlie Kirk worse than any Democrat or liberal commentator ever said about Charlie Kirk. Though to be fair, maybe not worse than what was written 60 days ago by Laura Loomer. Quote, I don't ever want to hear Charlie Kirk claim he is pro Trump ever again. After this weekend, I'd say he's revealed himself as political opportunist and I have had a front row seat to witness the mental gymnastics of these last 10 years. Lately, Charlie has decided to behave like.

A charlatan, claiming to be pro Trump.

One day while he stabs Trump in the back the next. As an aside, isn't that violent? Isn't that if he stabbed Trump in the back, wouldn't you, wouldn't you, wouldn't you have to call the Free Speech.

Hall monitor on this? TPUSA was only able to thrive thanks.

To the generosity of President Trump.

And a donation from the Chubb Group.

On the one year anniversary of the assassination attempt on Trump's life, Charlie hosted Dave Smith.

Dave Smith was able to speak to a bunch of conservative youth at an organization that claims to be pro Trump.

Three weeks ago, Dave Smith called for President Trump to be impeached and removed from office over his decision to blow.

Up Iran's nuclear facilities. Charlie played both sides of the Iran.

Issue on his show, as we all saw, because he wants to play to.

Both sides of the aisle.

The honorable thing to do is have a position and actually defended to the death, said Laura Loomer. Instead of flip flopping, Smith said all of maga, quote, should turn on Trump and abandon him.

Well that's it. Indict all of MAGA now.

He said this three weeks ago.

See the clip below. TP USA is definitely not pro Trump.

If they were, they certainly aren't anymore.

Out of all the incredible pro Trump voices out there who support the President.

Charlie Kirk decided to host Dave Smith.

It really is shameful and I am honestly just disgusted by the nonstop flip flopping on the right.

So it was the left who turned.

This Robinson guy against Charlie Kirk. Not not Laura Loomer or Nick Fuentes. Leftist ideology or right wing doctrinal hyphen.

Ethnic cleansing and then right wing guilt.

But the snowball had already started down.

The hill and they are all helping it.

The fascists have decided to use this as an opening to close down criticism. If you ever called out one of the fascists for threatening violence, if you.

Noted Trump's stochastic terrorism, if you accurately compared him to Hitler and the means Hitler used to gain power and the things Hitler did once he gained power, you're finished. A conservative named Hanania Hanania Richard hanania.

Noted only two prominent politicians have ever called Trump, J.D. vance and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They're going over the side of the boat too. No. Why not? Stephen Miller's wife got off of her.

Broom for a moment to warn that you called us Hitler and others repeated.

You called us Nazis and therefore the left is responsible for Kirk's death. Which will be news to Michael Savage, who compared Obama to Hitler and will be news to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Peoria, Illinois who compared Obama to Hitler, and Lance Wall, now the mystic, who compared all liberals to Hitler, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who compared Joe Biden to Hitler and Glenn Beck, who compared.

Al Gore to Hitler or to Rush.

Limbaugh, who from the early 1990s until the minute he finally died called everybody feminazis. Elon Musk, who once promised to pay all the legal fees for anybody who lost their jobs due to having posted or liked something on Twitter X has now retweeted one of the hit lists conservatives are now accumulating of those they hope to get fired because they would not praise Charlie Kirk after his death or they had had the nerve to say that an America without Kirk's venom was a better place. People are losing jobs because they are not hiling. Then there is the disgraced ex cop, now Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins, the clown who gives plausibility to the cliche of the inbred Southerner, to say nothing of the guy who explained January 6th with what he called goat Buff says, which turned out in English to be ghost buses. Although we never found out from Clay what they were either. Higgins, after Kirk's death, I'm gonna use congressional authority. I'm sorry, you'll never understand it. If I read it, he would. I'm going to use congressional authority and every influence with Big Tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kir. If they ran their mouth with their smart ass hatred celebrating the heinous murder of that beautiful young man who dedicated his whole life to delivering respectful conservative truth into the hearts of liberal enclave universities armed only with a Bible and a microphone and a Constitution. Those profiles must come down. So I'm going to lean forward in this fight demanding that Big Tech have zero tolerance for violent political hate content the user to be banned from all platforms. In the real world that we dream of at that point, Clay Higgins account would have disappeared. I'm also going after their business licenses and permitting their businesses will be blacklisted aggressively. They should be kicked from every school and their driver's licenses should be revoked. I'm basically going to cancel with extreme prejudice. Guy had a gun once. He thinks he's. He thinks he's Eastwood. I'm going to cancel with extreme prejudice and Bronson. These evil sick animals who celebrated Charlie Kirk's assassination. I'm starting that today. That is all. That's the same Clay Higgins, a sitting Congressman who responded to the terrorist attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband, which was supposed to be an attack on her that involved torture and then murder. Clay Higgins responded to that by insisting the attack involved male prostitution. If Clay Higgins is inbred, he's inbred with oysters. Sorry, oysters.

As Andrew Lawrence of Media Matters succinctly concluded, Charlie Kirk quote, was a champion of free speech and if you disagree, you are under arrest. Now, unexpectedly, there is something useful in all of this, in the Clay Higgins bullshit. In that quote, that beautiful young man armed only with a Bible. I don't get startled a lot. There was a startling post on Facebook which may hint at why the right is so enraged. So it seems as genuine as they can get. Genuinely enraged. Huge swaths of the right, as implied in this Facebook post, saw only the Bible parts from the nonstop Charlie Kirk video machine. Not the let's force kids to watch public executions, let's kill Trump's adversaries parts. Literally, they had. They have no idea that Charlie Kirk marketed to two different audiences. The reason they keep invoking Martin Luther King and Jesus with Charlie Kirk is because they did not see the entire Charlie Kirk. They literally, literally never saw it.

I'll explain that.

Plus a little secret on the right. The right wing influencers, like all terrorists had thought they were again, literally untouchable. That God would never let anything bad happen to Trump. Not after last year.

We're cool now.

And he wouldn't let anything bad happen to Charlie Kirk. Or. Or wait, wouldn't let anything bad happen to themselves. A second segment today on Charlie Kirk, the fear and the parallel universe in.

Which he was just a sweet bible thumper. Next on this all new edition of.

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[Keith Olbermann]

Now to the meta stuff. The implications of the death of Charlie Kirk that may linger even as his story get pushed further and further off the page. And no matter what your impression may be right now, it will only Epstein lingers. You doubt this. Anybody remember Andrew Breitbart?

Quick, what did he look like?

I mean, his news outlet is fading into obscurity a little more every week. Andrew Breitbart was 25 Charlie Kirks well.

The meta stuff is there are additional.

Factors here to the Kirk story. I'm not sure anybody's really registered. Firstly, I'll confess it was evident to.

Me that Kirk was an important conservative propagandist and a tough guy, with the constant references to God's will and killing.

People and why women like Taylor Swift needed to submit to their husbands. But I will confess now, I had no clue they revered him to this degree. I am not certain that I would.

Have put him in the top hundred fascists list. And yet, as you see, he is.

Now St. Charlie of Kirk.

Someone explained that there was a widespread, seldom spoken belief that Kirk would be President of the United States. The authoritarian movement in this country is.

Well aware that no matter the absolute.

Stone cold imbecility of J.D. vance, he's no Trump. He does a nice job swearing online, but once you get past two or at most three short sentences from him, it's time for a quick nap. He's like the sidekick from the Larry Sanders show. Kind of funny then. Isn't there anybody else around here we can get to do the job? When you think of the dictatorial depth chart in this country, the fascists know they have nobody to lead the movement once Trump is gone. Whether gone means deceased or jailed or incapable or whatever. His adult sons are both imbeciles. One of them has such a ham fist that in the middle of the maudlin postmortems about Charlie Kirk, this guy started to pitch his new book.

I mean, not even his father tried that.

And then there's one of them who might have trouble passing a drug screen and is so gone that he tweeted, quote, one of our heroes was assinated. Oh, I'll be damned if I'm going to psychoanalyze that assinated ass. I N a T E D. Where's your spell check now? That famous daughter checked out. The other daughter is unrecognizable. The youngest son is the smartest of the group. He's never said a word in public. It is quite possible that Eric Trump's wife, the one with the lip implants, is actually the second most recognizable one in the family. And she's awkward and insincere. And I mean, in contrast to Trump, she's awkward and insincere. They tried to get another active politician to replace Trump after 2021, and none of them withstood the first strong breeze. Desantis, Haley Ramaswamy Burgum, Tim Scott. No. Who then? RFK Jr. What did you say? You're gonna elect RFK Jr. He's gonna get the State of the Union address shirtless. Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller and the 247 vibe he gives of a flaccid penis. Stephen Bannon and the 247 vibe he gives of a refrigerator repairman with his butt crack exposed. So the more you analyze it, the more you can understand this. Kirk was not just a smoother Ben Shapiro or a better Steven Crowder. If he was not next, he was soon. He could have been President of the United States or whatever they'll call the dictator in those days. And they thought this because, as I mentioned before the break, huge parts of Kirk's world never saw the hate. Literally never saw it. The videos never came up on their feeds. This sounds insane, but there it is. Rick Perlstein, the historian, the author of Nixon Land, which I read to my father on his deathbed. So maybe you should read it if you have not. Rick Perlstein posted this Saturday night. I found it comes from Facebook. But I am a Luddite, so to this day, I have not had the patience to try to find the author who wrote it on Facebook. But it's. It's amazing. I'm going to assume it's real.

I may be falling victim to an Internet hoax, but I don't. I don't think so. I'd say the odds are only one in a hundred. Quote, one thing that has become really clear is that we live in at least two different realities. Talking to a friend who only knew Charlie as a Christian motivational speaker, because that's all that ever came across. Her feed showed me videos I've never seen before of him saying perfectly reasonable and empowering things. I showed her videos she'd never seen before of his racism Misogyny, homophobia, advocating for violence against specific groups of people. She was horrified by his remarks about Pelosi's husband husband's attacker being bailed out and celebrated for his violent act. She was horrified by a number of things that he said, but she had never seen or heard them before. The same as I had never seen or heard the generalized clips of him sounding like a perfectly nice loving man and father. Neither of us had a whole picture of this man. I mentioned he was a known white supremacist and she thought I was joking. She talked about him giving a speech about finding your purpose and doing good in the world and I thought she was joking. Oh, and my friend had never heard and God help me, I don't know how she escaped the news, but she.

Had never heard of the Minnesota legislators.

Who were shot in June, the husband and wife and dog who were killed, one after throwing themselves over their child.

To protect the child.

The other couple who somehow survived politically motivated attacks specifically because they were Democrats. She learned about those shootings that happened months ago because I showed her Charlie Kirk's comments about them. The kidnapping plot against the female Midwestern Democratic governor, the assassination attempt against Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, all things Charlie had.

Plenty to say about while supporting the.

Second Amendment and bashing the Democratic Party. She didn't know about any of it because we're all living in two different worlds. And the quote supplied by Rick Perlstein.

Facebook author unknown.

It boils down to this. In short, God knows how many of Charlie Kirk's mourners and those planning plotting exacting revenge right now, never ever have heard him say this.

[Unknown Caller or Guest]

I want to watch that execution. That'll make my day better. I want to see him on a public block and get him be publicly executed. And I think that would be justice. You think children should have. You should see it.

[Keith Olbermann]

What is the age?

[Unknown Caller or Guest]

At what age should you start to see public execution?

[Keith Olbermann]

Sixteen, I think.

I think you could do it earlier.

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I think you may be at age.

[Keith Olbermann]

12 whenever 6th grade or so.

[Unknown Caller or Guest]

Kirk describes King as quote, a bad guy.

[Keith Olbermann]

It's true.

[Unknown Caller or Guest]

And Kirk self described very, very radical view that the country made a mistake when it passed the Civil Rights Act. Tech also true as we note in the piece. Kirk has previously described Kirk as a hero and a civil rights icon. It's true. I used to be wrong. What inspired Kirk to shift his view on mlk? Why does Kirk think that MLK is a bad guy? When Kirk says that MLK says quote, one good thing he didn't believe what does he mean by that? Why does Kirk believe passing the Civil Rights act was a mistake? Now, again, apparently they don't listen to the show because we do that at least once a week.

[Keith Olbermann]

Right?

[Unknown Caller or Guest]

Once a week. We about why the Civil Rights act was a mistake.

[Keith Olbermann]

The second thing I think is in play. That explains the overreaction, the threats, the doxing, the promises of vengeance, unspoken because they're all King Learing this. They'll threaten you now and then figure out what they're threatening with later. The right wing is suddenly, and for the first time in at least a decade, scared. I mean, since Obama chose not to prosecute or even expose anybody in the Bush administration for an orchestrated campaign of torture and an orchestrated campaign of manipulation, of terror threats to use them against the American public, the right wing, especially the unstable end of the right wing, has known it will get no blowback from the Democrats.

None.

As I said the night before Obama was inaugurated, if a president or those working for him commit crimes and you specifically choose not to prosecute him and them, the next president knows in advance that those laws do not apply to him and them. That was Trump's Glideway. Biden, of course, made it worse, assuming not just that the country was elastic and would snap back to shape as soon as Trump was out, but that.

He would be harming its recovery if.

He put somebody at justice who was willing to prosecute Trump. As of 12:01pm on January 20, 2021, Merrick Garland will go down in history. If there is any history near James Buchanan for criminal negligence in public office. Sadly, I suspect now Joe Biden will go with him.

So against that backdrop, even during Trump's.

Time as the crazed exiled dictator, his Bonaparte days, the increasingly despotic right has pretty much gotten away with everything since Trump came down that escalator and the damn thing didn't open up and swallow him in root. I mean, Trump was even shot and stalked with surprising and terrifying success.

I will confess I believed for quite a while that his involuntary ear piercing.

Was from glass shards and not bullets, but I never doubted he was the victim of an assassination attempt.

The second one, the one at the golf course, was far less serious, but still, that guy got stunningly close to.

Doing something genuinely threatening.

The religious lunatic wing of the proverbial basket of deplorables quickly turned those episodes.

Into God preserving Trump. And once Trump saw the campaign value of that, I have God's endorsement, to.

Say nothing of the license it gave him, to complain about something else all.

The damn time, all the goddamned time.

He began to adopt it, too. And if you can remember back to last month, he was still campaigning off.

This phony religious awakening thing when he went MIA and he put out these I want to try to get to.

Heaven fundraising email blasts.

I'll say it again, don't let us stop you, pal.

The problem with religious fervor and the belief that you are ordained or imbued or protected or something is that you soon begin to treat it as an endless salad bowl. As the counterterrorism experts used to tell me when the microphones were off. We have one hidden advantage over the terrorists that we don't like to emphasize just in case they're watching and they realize, hey, they're right. A terrorist who mixes in belief in divine protection and intervention and undoing God's plan, or whoever's plan, that person tends to put together the most meticulous and intricate plan for the first 85 to 90% of the attack. The last 10%. God will take care of us. He's on our side. What do you mean you didn't get an escape car? As a quick reminder, I also don't think there has ever been a war, conventional, guerrilla or terror based, in which the losing side was not actually stunned when they lost because. Wait, wait, wait. Did the Lord take the day off? He said we were going to win. I heard him. What do you mean? That was a tumor. So MAGA and the rest have been operating all this time, not just convinced of political invincibility, but of actual invincibility, actual immortality. Until last Wednesday. I am unafraid to say this. I don't think it costs me credibility. I am against shooting political commentators, mostly because I'm a political commentator. I am against shooting people in general, but the commentator part is, you know, personal. Can you say that on the right and not get thrown out of the macho or female macho club? And if you can't say it, you not only have in your mind that video of Charlie Kirk and an almost exact frame for frame match of the assassination of the fictional Senator John Yerkes, Iceland from the Manchurian Candidate, but you naturally can envision that being you. And you can't say that terrifies you, even though saying that terrifies me. That would be the most human things most of these yahoos had done in the last decade. So for many of the other mag assholes who this time last week were criticizing Charlie Kirk or scheming behind his back to take his online audience away from him or trying to get past him to trump Laura Loomer.

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[Keith Olbermann]

The current Rage and Vengeance tour is in part a cover for their own fear. A British conservative columnist said he's now, for the first time in his life, afraid. The Times had six fascists write blurbs about why they were running away. Peter McHugh, editor of a conservative student rag at the University of Virginia, said, says, I'm out. Even those committed to many of the things Mr. Kirk encouraged, conversation, political engagement are questioning if it's worth the risk. This morning, another writer at the Jefferson Independent confided that they would never again attend a university sponsored political event. The fear that controversial speech can provoke genuine violence is no longer theoretical for students, but real appropriate to Virginia. When I quoted Patrick Henry saying, give me liberty or give me death, I meant your death. And I think there's even a second level to this fear. As the reverence for Kirk inside the authoritarian plot was a surprise to most of us out here in the, you know, real world, so too was what is now obviously a deep and pervasive hatred of his influence and ubiquity. And what if it's true and Kirk really was offed by words from his own side? Now they all have to worry about that. It is part and parcel of all authoritarian movements that the bloodlust doesn't just emanate outwards. Can't find an enemy to destroy? Try an ally.

Like the Loomer quote I read and the Fuentes clip I played before the break. And you know, the whole French Revolution, so long before the rest of us found out about the Groiper war against Kirk and the bitterness towards him within maga, there was far more resentment of him, far more schism than we could have possibly known or cared about. Frankly. Which head of the hydra is the worst?

Who cares?

Just cut it off. Well, they care. And then there's the tertiary level of this fear, the one that combines the realization that no God is protecting them and that the call may be coming from inside the house. Since Kirk's murder, through all the twists and rollercoasters and Trumpist lies and Ezra Klein inanities and assumptions and presumptions, I have kept coming back to three words, the exact relevance of which has not been immediately clear to me, but which I was certain had had some relevance. The three words are Lee Harvey Oswald. I do not want to make false equivalencies here. I'll repeat this. I am opposed to shooting political commentators. I appreciate my main reason for my opposition may seem self centered to you.

I think it's justifiable. I'm opposed to shooting political commentators because I'm a political commentator.

I am opposed to shooting anybody. I'm opposed to shooting presidents. But that requires a longer explanation. Invoking Oswald does not mean I am for a moment equating Charlie Kirk and President Kennedy. I am in the most preliminary way possible equating this suspect, Tyler Robinson to Oswald. Obviously the shot itself continues to inspire disbelief. On the other hand, if people could not hit a target at such distance, guns would be far less of a threat, wouldn't they? They guns make idiots into agents of historical change and guns make cowards into legends. But more importantly, the further you dig down into Robinson, the more you discover it's just one level of nihilism that was hiding another level of nihilism.

One high school classmate summed up what.

He knew of Robinson and said he probably just shot Kirk just to impress his friends.

And if it is the groiper thing.

What do they believe in anyway? Nominally they are ultra fascists, ultra white supremacists, ultra aryans and they're led by a guy named Fuentes who by definition.

Is viewed by a large percentage of.

The less murderous MAGA as not being totally white.

The groiper belief system is less we.

Hate them than it is you over there. We hate you.

It is an excuse to bond with other people who want to threaten or.

Shoot or kill but need to believe they're doing it for a reason. Which is where there is cause to.

Consider this Tyler Robinson A possible 21st.

Century version of Oswald.

Even at the time, and I was old enough then to remember it vaguely, even at the time of the shooting, this was out there. What the hell happened here? I was old enough to see the first public showings of the Zapruder film in School in 1970. I was old enough to see the tail end of the first backlash to the Warren Commission and of course the 100 backlashes since. And even at the time, one of.

The most confounding and panic inducing parts.

Of the assassination of President Kennedy was why? Which group was behind this? Even if it really was a lone gunman, which group's beliefs was he turning into such horrible action? Having studied and analyzed and contemplated this for more than 60 years now, I think the correct answer is Lee Harvey Oswald believed in nothing except in his murderous rage that he was not famous for something. Yet the confusion after the assassination only grew as we learned about what he had done in life. He'd been in the Marines. Oh no. Military dictatorship. Then he'd moved to the Soviet Union. Who did that in the 50s? Oh no, no, it's the communists. Besides defectors and spies, he had expected to be a king there, an American convert to communism. Instead he got a wife who he didn't really like that much and a crap job in a crap country. And he moved back and renounced Russia and communism. Okay, so now he's some sort of Russian plan. And in the same year that he shot Kennedy and yeah, he, he, he, he shot Kennedy in April of 1963, tried to kill the rabid right wing racist army general Edwin Walker in Dallas. Then in August 1963 was on the streets of New Orleans handing out leaflets defending the Castro communist dictatorship in Cuba. Pick a side if you want to do some amateur psychoanalysis. By this point, all politics was just one thing to him. He wanted to become famous by shooting somebody else famous.

You can construct a more complicated explanation for all of that. You can construct a thousand of them. And lord knows, in the last six days, six decades, in each case, we have constructed all the complicated explanations for the Kennedy and Kirk assassinations. But they all hit at least one immovable factual problem or another in the Kennedy case. And they all fail to leap over Occam's razor. A guy in a gun filled society fails, fails again, fails again, repeats, retraces, keeps failing, goes nuts, is given an opportunity and a gun and a nightmare ensues. That's Oswald. Parts of it right now. That's Robinson. That's the worst. That's the most destabilizing fear of them all. The realization that no, it's not them the other side and no, you're not divinely protected and no, nothing is permanent and nothing is safe. That it's all to some degree from partly to totally. That it's all including the cliched bullet with your name on it. That it is all random worst persons.

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[Keith Olbermann]

This is Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Believe it or not, there are still more new idiots to talk about. The roundup of the Miscreants, Morons and Dunning Kruger Effect specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in the world. The Bronze worse. Ezra Klein. You've heard about this already. Charlie Kirk was practicing politics the right way. Next week, Brian Kilmeade was practicing television the right way.

You can dislike much of what Kirk.

Believed, and the following statement is still true. Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way. He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him. He was one of the era's most effective practitioners of persuasion. When the left thought its hold on the hearts and minds of college students was nearly absolute, Kirk showed up again and again to break it slowly. Then, all at once he did. You know how he did it. He never bothered to worry about telling the truth. It's like Fox News. How could they possibly produce that much.

Garbage all the time. It's lies.

It's lies for an audience that never.

Asks, is this lies?

Never asks how come these lies don't match last week's lies. Charlie Kirk was a gifted bullshit artist. I'll give him proper credit for that. As they all are. They are sophists. They are perpetrators of circular logic, and.

They have an audience that just wants.

To have their own prejudices and beliefs reinforced.

They never criticize their own people. Oh, that's right, they do. There was that one little problem with Charlie and everybody farther to the right than him. In any event, that's not the point. The point here is Ezra Klein.

You know, when they told me Ezra.

Klein had been hired as a columnist by the New York Times, I thought it was a gag.

Now I'm just gagging. Years ago, one of our segment producers.

Who once pitched us on a segment that she had read a story about, she wanted to do this segment about how you lost two IQ points for.

Every child you had. And I didn't have time to vet every one of the guest segments. In the early days of Countdown, when.

It wasn't just a political show, I said, okay, I don't have children. I guess it's true. We got Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, comedic partner, father of Rob, to come on as the guest. And in the. In the middle of my interview with Carl Reiner, he said, keith, I love the show, but I don't think this is a real story.

And you know what?

It wasn't. The producer had not noticed she had been reading this story on a satirical site. Then she had two more pet projects. She kept pushing people she wanted on as guests. They'll improve the show so much you have to put them on. The first one was Ezra Klein.

So we did.

I forget where he was working then. He was so boring. His insights were so superficial that I actually ended the interview early and I said off camera, never again. Then they booked her second great idea. That was Ryan Lizza. He was so used car salesman.

Ish.

I actually ended that interview early and I said, never again. And I said to my show producers about the segment producer, maybe she needs to work elsewhere.

She then went to work for Glenn Beck. I'm hoping she works with Ezra Klein now. The encomiums for Charlie Kirk in the New York Times. Somebody said, well, he's dead. We better say something nice about him. Who can we say something nice about? Who's good at writing nonsensical things that don't hold together in praise of stupid things? Oh, that's why we hired Ezra Klein. Runner up Werser Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Here we go. From Britain's Daily Mail headline Texas Attorney General's caught in shocking sex scandal as details of secret affair with married Christian influencer mom of seven are exposed. Define shocking. Texas controversial Attorney general, the story began, has been caught in a shocking king sex scandal less than two years after cheating on his wife with his mistress. The Daily Mail can exclusively REVEAL Ken Paxton, 62, was secretly seeing a married Christian influencer behind the backs of both their partners. Sounds entertaining. At least behind the backs. Multiple sources confirm mother of seven Tracy Doohan, 57, who is also an author, is the reason the politicians relationship crumbled earlier this summer. Texas State Senator Angela Paxton announced In July their 38 year old marriage was over. In a stinging tweet citing biblical grounds, she hit him in the nuts with the Bible. It is not the first time Ken Paxton has been rocked by scandal, having been caught cheating on Angela in 2023 with his former mistress Laura Olson. Oh no, what a shock. Ken Paxton screwing around. Ken's trying to become the senator from Texas. I'm sure he'll win. I mean, after all, Texas have all known for a long time that Ken Paxton has a wandering eye, so to speak. But the worst, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Lawrence o' Donnell and everybody else at MSNBC with any sway or heft there.

Except in an irony.

I would call it an irony except Katie Tur, Katie actually comes out at the top of this list in the correct behavior. I was never a Matthew Dowd fan.

Matt presented himself as the reasonable Republican.

On the other hand, he was a key perpetrator in Bush's 2004 reelection campaign. He was one of them who pretended.

The swift boating of John Kerry or the sudden release of the bin Laden.

Video the weekend before the election or.

The other terror manipulations were not really.

Part of the campaign.

He and I, I did, I think did one panel together later on this Week with George Stephanopoulos one Sunday morning on abc. I would not have put him on a list of the 100 worst conservatives.

But I wouldn't have put him on.

A list of the 100 best either. Until last week, in the hours after Charlie Kirk was shot, he said some tough truth.

He said it somberly.

He said it solemnly. And to Katie Tur's credit, she didn't back away from him. She didn't tut tut him. She didn't tell the principal on him. To Dowd, it did not matter what was presumed about the shooter. It mattered that Charlie Kirk trafficked in hate and violence and political threat and.

Intimidation and an effort to undermine our democracy.

It needed to be said. Katie asked him about the overall environment in which indefensible events like his assassination happen.

And Matt Dowd told the truth.

Quote, he's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this who was constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which lead to hateful actions. And I think that is the environment we are in. You can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place. And that's the unfortunate environment we are in.

That's true.

It's not cheering the assassination, nor ignoring the shock. It wasn't too soon. It wasn't unfair. It didn't blame Charlie Crowd Kirk for his own shooting. It did not say it was justified. It did not say shooting was justified. It was saying that eventually, if you play with a gun, your odds of shooting yourself do increase, metaphorically speaking.

And MSNBC fired him before the day was over. The right wingers who now own and run MSNBC, or whatever they're calling it this week, the Comcast CEO, a cowardly money monkey named Brian Roberts, somebody named Mike Kavanaugh who assumed power after they had to fire Jeff Shell for lying, and the chairman of the new company they created to put distance between NBC and Comcast and msnbc. This thing, Versant, Spinco is a better name. Mark Lazarus. They then warned the staff of MSNBC about dialogue with respect and we need to do better. And the usual language of executives who were worried about losing $3, who have lost already all sense that they are not laying cable anymore for a living. But they are handling journalism in a time when democracy is under threat and journalism is one of the last weapons we have to protect it, including their ability to make money off of it, including their ability to make money without tithing Donald Trump, including their freedoms, not just the freedoms of the people out on the front lines. Dowd later explained what happened that day, quoting him. The right wing media mob ginned up, went after me on a plethora of platforms and MSNBC reacted to that mob, even though most at MSNBC knew my words were being misconstrued. The timing of my words, words forgotten. Remember, I said this before anyone knew Kirk was a target. And then I apologized for any miscommunication on my part. I was terminated by the end of the day. Ordinarily, I would make a big deal about the irony here. A former member of what 20 years ago we thought was the worst right wing media mob imaginable, being taken down by what turns out to be truly the worst right wing media mob imaginable, including agents inside MSNBC's own house, like Joe Scarborough and his wife, the one who used to be somebody else's wife. But my point here is, once again, MSNBC still makes a lot of money and its primetime stars make lots of money. And they've all been on their jobs since their shows were spun off from mine. And the most recent of those spin offs was Hayes. And now that's like 14 years ago. And I have to tell you this simply, as somebody who stopped making that kind of money 13 years ago. If Maddow and O' Donnell and Hayes.

Do not now have enough money by.

Now to cover them and the next six or seven generations of their families for the rest of their lives, they have really effed up.

So exactly why would they not say.

Something, anything about Matt Dowd being thrown overboard when he was right, when even if he wasn't right or could have been better timed, even if the new MSNBC is supposed to be about dialogue, at worst they should have suspended him, if that much.

Why haven't they said anything about this? Why haven't they defended the freedom of speech they are now complaining the far right is trying to cancel? We are living in a time in which there is a president who says he is going to stop free speech because of Charlie Kirk. He is going to stop it. He is going to use the weapons.

Of government against you and me and Rachel Maddow and MSNBC and Chris Hayes.

And o' Donnell and the place that o' Donnell and Hayes and Maddow and the rest of them, the place they work, obeys in advance. In fact, MSNBC was the first place, the first place to punish an employee for not being sufficiently phony about the death of Charlie Kirk.

The first. By Friday, it had turned out, of course, that in the black and white world that scumbags like Brian Roberts and Mike Kavanaugh and Mark Lazarus live in.

That Kirk had been shot, if not directly by his own side, then certainly under the influence of somebody who was under the influence of their own side. And MSNBC helped legitimize the entire clampdown on criticism of Charlie Kirk by firing.

Matt Dowd and Maddow and Hayes and.

O' Donnell helped legitimize Dowd's firing by their cowardice.

Rachel Maddow is a coward. Chris Hayes is a coward.

Lawrence o' Donnell is, in fact, two or three cowards. They're cowardice in not speaking up in some way, shape or form. Because what would Rachel Maddow do without another $25 million this year? I used to look for opportunities to reveal management hypocrisy or malpractice. I used to look at ESPN at KCBS in la, at my college radio station. I used to look for executives who really screwed up or who really were doing bad things. I like to try to humiliate them in some way or at least let people know what they were doing. I used to look for this.

It's a dangerous hobby, but one I thought was part of my duty, my career. I was paid back with a reputation as a troublemaker. You bet your ass I'm a troublemaker. Rachel Maddow, a fake troublemaker. Chris Hayes, who once refused to go on Countdown as the host because MSNBC had breached my contract by suspending me. They asked him to anchor in my place and he went, no, you're wrong. I'm not going to do it. And he was making, I don't know, $50,000 a year from MSNBC at that point, if that much, and risked all of it and everything he could ever possibly make, including all the money he has made. He risked all that then. He wouldn't risk something now and then. O'.

Donnell.

Well, he was a fake in 2011. He's a fake today. Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O'.

Donnell.

Silent as they were when MSNBC fired Mehdi Hassan and when MSNBC fired Joy Reid. And when MSNBC fired Katie Fang. And when MSNBC fired Melissa Harris Perry. And when MSNBC fired Tiffany Cross. Oh, and when MSNBC fired all of Rachel Maddow's staff. Silent?

Well, sure, why not?

I mean, they still get their money, right? Today's other worst persons in the world. I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Most of our Countdown music was arranged, produced and performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Chenale, our musical directors of Countdown. It was produced by TKO Brothers. Mr. Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums. Mr. Chennaial handled orchestration and keyboards. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Foust. The old rimmen theme from ESPN2, written by Mitch Warren Davis, courtesy of ESPN Inc. Is our sports music. Other music arranged and performed by the group. No horns allowed My announcer today was my friend Larry Davis. Everything else was, as always, my fault. That's COUNTDOWN for today, day 240 of America held hostage just 1,233 days until the scheduled end of his lame duck and lame brained term. Unless he is removed sooner by MAGA Jeffrey Epstein or the pavement on his hand or hey, anybody notice he's been silent again recently?

Recently?

The next scheduled countdown is Thursday. Until then, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night and wait for it. Good luck.

Foreign.

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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