← Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
TRUMP ISN'T DEAD. AND HE'S MAKING SURE, NEITHER IS HIS EPSTEIN SCANDAL - 9.4.25
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- [00:00]
Keith Olbermann
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- [01:06]
Ryan Seacrest
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 on 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.
- [01:25]
Keith Olbermann
We're getting back to all of it and the best way to start is together.
- [01:30]
Ryan Seacrest
Watch the Today show weekday mornings at 7am on NBC. The U.S. electric grid is approaching a breaking point as demand soars from data centers and home energy use. Our aging infrastructure can't keep up and the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready, powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@propain.com hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Chumba Casino. Everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere. So sign up now@chumbacasino.com to claim your free welcome bonus. That's chumbacasino.com and live the Chumba Life sponsored by Chumba Casino NO purchase necessary VGW Group Void we're prohibited by law 21/ terms and conditions apply Countdown with Keith Olberman is a production of iHeartRadio. Trump is not dead and neither here is his cover up of the Epstein files of the Trumpstein files. Sorry if you gave him a script and told him what to do to reignite the Trumpstein tire fire every time it begins to go out that script would start with a leak. An anonymous statement to House Republicans considering signing the Massey discharge petition to force release of the real files. B Make sure the statement reads as much as like a slightly sanded down threat from a mafia boss as possible. Like quote, helping Thomas Massie and liberal Democrats with their attention seeking while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive file release effort from the Oversight Committee would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration. See actually release only the same documents that Pam Bondi released to the libs of TikTok Worm chayek and the DC Drano dipshit in those $2.69 thin three ring binders they bought at Staples in February. D Send a military flyover to try to drown out the Epstein survivors news conference on the steps of the Capitol yesterday. E Choose this moment, this moment to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict where the court found Trump guilty of being liable for sexual abuse of E Jean Carroll and of defaming a sexual abuse victim. Do that right now. This is the right moment for it. And of course f sit there staring, fuming as this actual bona fide excellent comprehensive question first of the year is rolled out in front of world media when you can only come back with an answer that makes everybody think wait, Trump said that maybe he is dead and he just forgot to lie down. There have been survivors of Jeffrey Epstein speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill. They're calling for these case files, these documents to be released. And Thomas Massie, who is sponsoring a discharge position to get the House to vote on releasing those documents, says he doesn't believe you're implicated in these files, but many of your friends and donors may be. And he says that's why the Justice Department is redacting and slow walking the release. Is the Justice Department protecting any friends or donors, sir? So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation. We gave him everything over and over again, more and more and more, and nobody's ever satisfied. From what I understand. I could check, but from what I Understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given, but it's really a Democrat hoax because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success that we've had as a nation since I've been president. Cool. Cool. Wherever Trump was the last week, it was not at a retreat strategizing how to get him out of whatever world ending revelation there is about him in the Trump Stein files would work. Was he. Pam Bondi says Trump is in the Epstein files. Elon Musk says Trump is in the Epstein files. Countless others have said previously Trump is in the Epstein files. And for legal reasons, the survivors who spoke at the Capitol yesterday did not name him nor name names of their rapists and abusers. But happily, Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to read the names with the survivor's permission on the floor of the House where speech is protected and nobody can sue. And boy, would she be in for a surprise. And also, there seems to be a direct connection here that the Trump dictatorship has not figured out. Every time Trump calls Trumpstein a hoax, another real news outlet picks up the story. Every time they mention it, it's a hoax. An angel gets its wings and another survivor comes forward and vows never to be quiet again and to send Trump more messages. Listen, I don't like to, I don't want to send a direct message to him. I'm already scared enough. Just, just pass the vote. Listen to us.
- [07:41]
Keith Olbermann
This is not a hoax.
- [07:43]
Ryan Seacrest
Like, it's not going to go away. And like I said on my speech earlier, we are not going to be, we're not going to be silenced anymore.
- [07:50]
Keith Olbermann
We will be speaking, moving forward.
- [07:52]
Ryan Seacrest
Wherever we need to be, we will be. And we need to pass this. The survivor's message to Trump is, in short, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Meanwhile, the other Trump cover up the weekend at Bernie's. Trump and Commander Pike, Trump and zombie Trump and the media's sublime willingness to just let a week pass in which a clinically compulsive talker does not utter a word in public or appear on video. For perhaps the first time in his life. The Trumpsters leaked a story to CNN about how he's always had bruising on his hand. We've always been at war with East Asia and always been self conscious about it. Which of course simply raises the follow up question, if he's had bruising on his hand for longer than just the last six months, how come he still insists on trying to cover it up with makeup when he clearly has no idea how to effing apply makeup and might as well write on his hand in lipstick something like ask me about my hand. What was tragic was to hear Trump and his MAGA hate thugs insist he had an active Labor Day weekend. Well, Labor Day week. And have everybody just sort of accept that because he posted on social media, he says it was him. And went to his golf club and posted photos of himself at his golf club that turned out to be from a month ago. And played golf. Well, he says he played golf. There's no video or pictures of him playing golf. And says he did an interview with the Daily Caller for which for some reason the Daily Caller did not record audio or video of. All of which ended when he finally got on the phone with CNN's new star mincing conservative fop Scott Jennings Tuesday morning and he sounded like he'd just been gargling battery acid. This is precisely how much we truly know about Trump and the week one of our presidents was missing. He's not dead currently. We don't know about last week. We do know he did not go to a retreat to strategize about Trumpstein. We can infer that. We can also infer he didn't go to a retreat to strategize about how to make Andrew Cuomo the next mayor of New York City. The Times reported yesterday Trump is considering appointing New York Mayor Eric Adams and appointing the Republican nominee to replace him, Curtis. I have a cute hat. Sliwa to the Trump administration in order to make the New York City mayor's race just Cuomo versus the Democratic nominee who won in a landslide in the primary, Zoran Mamdani. Now this is is political genius because it would force New York Republicans who hate Cuomo more than New York Democrats do and help to run him out of office when he was governor. Force New York Republicans to vote for him when they think he is as liberal as Mamdani and 20 times as guilty. And and it allows Mandani to spend the last two months of his campaign correctly noting that Cuomo is Trump's who and the man Trump wants to see become mayor so he can manipulate him by threatening to indict him and reminding Democrats that the election is now a referendum on TRUMP When 75% of New York City residents are registered Democrats. Genius. I tells you it may be that Trump is secretly working for Mamdani here. I don't think that's likely, but every time Trump does something, it becomes likely. Er, we also know Trump did not spend the missing week at a psychiatrist's office trying to address any of his two or three thousand mental problems. He roared out of the gate insisting he has settled seven wars. Seven wars. Again, he's got this idea in his head. He's gonna shove it down your throat. George Conway wrote the best kind of satire about this. A legit question that allows you to answer with snark. He wrote, I wish somebody would ask him to specifically list the seven or however many wars he claims to have ended and then hand him a map and ask him to show us on it where the wars were. I have offered George the following answer. Here are the seven wars Trump has settled. War of the Roses, War of Attrition, War of the Worlds, War of the Planet of the Apes, War of the Rohirrim, War of the Baseball Magnets, and of course, War of Worldcraft. Oh, by the way, once again, if Trump were a paid employee of Vladimir Putin, he could not be doing more or better work for Putin. Let me read the Associated Press story so you get the full, non hysterical version of this. Although hysteria would not be a bad idea right now. Putin says Trump's, quote, administration is listening to the Kremlin's justifications for its invasion of neighboring Ukraine and claimed that Moscow and Washington have come to a, quote, mutual understanding about the conflict. Putin said during a visit to China that the Trump administration is listening to us, unquote. And he complained that former President Joe Biden paid Moscow's arguments no heed. Now we see this mutual understanding. It's noticeable, Putin said at a bilateral meeting with pro Russian Slovak President Robert Fico after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, quote, we are very happy about this and hope this constructive dialogue will continue. Well, Vlad, if you're happy, we're happy. Putin's apparatchiks on state TV in Russia went further. They are saying Trump and Tulsi Gabbard have followed Putin's instructions, which, to be fair, is the first suggestion by anybody ever that Tulsi Gabbard is that competent at anything. Per Julia Davis of the Daily Beast, Kirill Benedictov, a highly honored Russian writer who wrote a book about Trump, said, we don't know what happened in Anchorage between Putin and Trump. We don't know what they talked about, and it's unlikely we will find out over the next few years. But we do know some things. The meeting took place on August 15, and four days later, on August 19, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard authored a memorandum. Oddly enough, she published it on X, formerly Twitter. It was about the firing of 37 agents of intelligence agencies, including the CIA, and stripping them of their security clearances, unquote. Now, why would Gabbard do something like fire all the intelligence officers critical of Putin and, as it turned out, outing one who was working undercover against Russia? To please Trump, obviously, because everybody in her life but Trump hates her and has for a long time. Why would Trump do it? Well, we need to remember something baseline here that's a lot simpler than trying to understand what Russia has on Trump and has always on Trump, which is probably money and maybe blackmail, but money. But there's something more baseline to this that it's useful to remember at all times about everything Trump does, including what I'm going to talk about next. COVID 19, and RFK Jr. We need to remember the baseline. Trump is not motivated by trying to improve things. Trump does not want better. He does not want to improve. He does not want anybody to succeed. He wants whatever he can see whatever is before him to be his. It may be pretty good and he may then turn it into shit or it may actually turn out okay, but it's his shit. Destruction and construction are the same thing to Donald Trump. As long as the rubble is imprinted in gold letters with just one word, Trump. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Is as big a health threat to this country as the COVID pandemic was, maybe as big a threat as the 1918 influenza pandemic was. He says we are going to see dramatic changes in the rates of many chronic diseases before Trump leaves office. Notice, please, he does not say if that change in the rate will be a decrease or an increase. RFK jr's behavior is somewhat easy to understand. He's insane. He's a heroin addict, supposedly recovered. He strung out on steroids, at least. And he hallucinates so much that he says in public that he can see mitochondrial damage in children just by looking at them. In short, if there's somebody here with mitochondrial or any other kind of damage, it's him. Now, he started with an understandable bent towards conspiracy theories. As a child, he had to see his uncle, the president, get his head blown off. And then five years later, his own father was shot to death. And conspiracies about them then dominated the background political conversation in this country for 30 years or more. Every damn day. I first met him in 2004. He called me the day after. The day after the election when I had reported some inconsistencies in voting in Ohio, where they locked down the place where they were counting the votes. In one rural county on an argument that Al Qaeda was about to attack this place in Warren County, I think it was Ohio. And it was a report that suggested that maybe somebody was trying to ensure a Bush vote in Ohio, but that was it. It wasn't. The election was fixed or that Kerry should have won or that or. And he went on for 25 minutes about how this story that I reported was the key, that I was his hero because it was going to open up the election and they'd overturn it and Kerry had really won and, and, and I began to wonder if there was anything he had done that was good for this country after he helped clean up the Hudson River. And it turns out that the conspiracies that populate the parts of the brain that were opened up when the worm ate them in Kennedy's head. The conspiracy part is at the core of this, and not just for Robert Kennedy Jr. But the assumption that the conspiracy theory is grassroots is really flawed. I have to confess, I never analyzed it deeply. It seemed to me that fear of needles, very underrated fear in this country, mixed with fear of government, mixed with fear of doctors, mixed with fear of death, mixed with fear of, you know, intelligence is a pretty, pretty strong prescription for mass asininity. But that's not what this is. Walker Bragman of the Accountability Journalism Institute writes that he tried to listen to the Ezra Klein New York Times podcast recently. Well, there's your mistake right there. No one is more overrated than Ezra Klein. I mean, on earth, no one is more overrated. Mr. Bragman wrote about this in a thread on Blue sky that was so eye opening. I want to quote freely from it and add a few probably unnecessary observations. Bragman writes that it quickly became clear to him that Klein and his guests, quote, really do not understand why how the political right turned on vaccines. The COVID 19 pandemic undermined the right in several key ways. One, it showed us which workers are essential and empowered them. Two, it showed that the markets can't solve everything. Three, it threatened GOP political prospects in a critical election. And four, government relief proved popular and effective. We forget about that. It was popular and clearly it was effective and Trump got credit for it. To continue from Mr. Bragman's points, if you're on the side of capital interests, wealth as an indicator of virtue, the value of one's societal contributions, free markets. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Well, you're effed, Covid Just exposed you entirely. And if you don't want anything to interfere with business, well, the only thing to do is end the crisis. At least end the public's perception that there is a crisis. Remember Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's tears in Texas about how the old like him should die to protect the economy for their grandchildren? The most important thing was the economy, not the possibility that this thing could get worse. And unchecked by any kind of vaccine or treatment at that point, could wipe everybody out. Very difficult to spend money when you're dead. He believed that old folks, and by that he meant old folks who worked jobs, not old folks who were using assumed names to graduate from talk radio to being the Lieutenant Governor of Texas. That old folks should die to protect the economy for their grandchildren. This is your grandchild, Elon Musk. Protect him. He was ready to go. Dan Patrick said, we're waiting, pal. Quote, so we saw right wing media and dark money group start messaging out bullshit like Covid is not really a huge deal. Deaths are overcounted. Best to pursue herd immunity through mass infection. Covid mitigation measures are an assault on personal liberty. School closures are irreparable harm. Mr. Bragman does not go off on the subject of school closures, but I will. The school closures thing immediately made no sense to me. The argument that we should not close schools. I mean, I understand that we should not close schools, but the people who were saying this were the right wingers. These are the people who have been pushing for homeschooling, who turned it, as I said the other day, from what we used to call it truancy, These are the people who gutted the Department of Education. These are the ones attacking the universities, particularly the Ivy League universities. School closures, the one positive side effect for the right wing to Covid, irreparable harm. What they meant was it was inconvenient to have their kids at home to resume the quotation. Now, on the surface, it doesn't make sense for the right to oppose the COVID vaccines, right? They presented a way out of the pandemic. They were created through Trump's operation Warp speed. But logic doesn't apply here. Pure politics do. Again, as an aside, the Wall Street Journal story last week about Trump's million dollar fundraiser, the one last month where he's ruminating to this room full of people who paid a million dollars to get in there about how he could not take credit for the vaccine because, well, you know, with the head of Pfizer in the crowd having paid a million dollars to get in there. A million dollars that he in part earned from the COVID vaccines. Quote, Biden got to roll out the vaccines and claim that victory. Of course the vaccines did not end the crisis immediately. They took a long time and Biden dropping non pharmaceutical interventions meant a lot of people died on his watch. Undermining the vaccines meant undermining Biden and Dems, but that wasn't all. Trump had pushed fake cures. Pre vax is an aside if you've forgotten the the drinking, the cleaning elements. I don't think he ever actually said bleach and putting light in your body. He did not actually say do an uncle Fester and put a light bulb in your mouth. That was just the image that appeared in the minds of Everybody with an IQ larger than 30. The people enlisted in that effort did not go away. Folks like Simone Gold of America's Frontline Doctors which pushed Trump's fake Hydri chloroquine miracle Covid treatment. She ended up allying with anti vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr. Again as an aside, who made money off that crap directly or just by pushing it on their shows and getting a greater right wing audience? Only every right winger with a show, Joe Rogan, Matt Gaetz appeared in commercials for the horse tonic Aaron Rodgers quote so we got the seeds for anti vax bullshit on the right with the embrace of fake cures like hydroxychloroquine and later ivermectin. Also, the herd immunity crowd is a natural ally for anti vaxxers because they said we didn't need a vaccine for herd immunity just inf. I'll note here that herd immunity also appealed to MAGA because they always just assumed they were stronger and better and had better mitochondria. And only Democrats would die of COVID Ask Herman Cain how that worked out for him. Herman who? Never heard of him. Quote so we start seeing anti vaxxers in the comment sections of posts by folks like J. Bhattacharya of the Great Barrington Declaration. And eventually these folks whose real goal was undermining government and the pandemic response embraced that audience. Taking a step back, the embrace of the unregulated wellness industry, an anti vax hokum, was probably inevitable for the right as the representative of big business interests. It has long had an antagonistic oppositional relationship with science and expertise. Think tobacco and climate science. Very good Mr. Bragman. The anti vax thing is just the pro smoking and anti climate change. Quote with COVID vaccines didn't matter that Trump facilitated their production. It just mattered that they could be used to undermine the right's favorite enemies government, Democrats, public health authorities, teachers and schools, and appeal to their natural base, affluent whites, while making inroads with new demographics in anyone skeptical of modern medicine and our healthcare system, which in this country is a lot of effing people. Our healthcare system breeds distrust. Millions don't have a primary care doctor. Cost is prohibitive. Lack of access is another issue, he continues, having covered this story in real time through various pieces. It was weird watching each narrative become essential to the right even as they contradicted each other. Like the bioweapon lab leak stuff that I didn't get into in this thread directly contradicts the anti vax and herd immunity stuff. The right, he postulates, has like a soup worldview. Anything goes in the pot so long as it erodes demand for and trust in government. Believe one part of it, you'll eventually have to accept the others to stay relevant within the right, even if it's contradictory and the sum of the parts doesn't make sense. Adding to the inevitability of the herd immunity anti vax alliance, both camps falsely claim their views were suppressed by the powers that be. It adds a layer of conspiratorial appeal. Rather an amazing thread from Accountability Journalism Institute's Walter Bragman. And if you don't think that last part is true, RFK Jr is the Secretary of Health, Health and Human Services. He's in charge of the public response to everything that relates to health, from food to swallowing light bulbs and bleach. And he is still positioning himself as draining the swamp. And the idiots who believe still think they are the victims with no voice. I say they believe. I don't know. At least they say that. Who knows what they believe, or if they believe anything anymore? And frankly, who cares? Doesn't matter what they believe, doesn't matter what they say. The only issue for the rest of us now is how to stop them. Also of interest here, Stephen A. Smith keeps digging. The name of his new politics show will turn your stomach. And speaking of that, oh, Joe Scarborough is at it again on the network that used to be MSNBC before they all broke it, siding with Trump against Democrats and against democracy, and especially against any Democratic official who has the nerve to stand up to Joe Scarborough's boss, Donald Trump. The history of Joe Scarborough Scumbag. That's next. This is Countdown.
- [30:45]
Keith Olbermann
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- [31:46]
Ryan Seacrest
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 on 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.
- [32:05]
Keith Olbermann
We're getting back to all of it, and the best way to start is together.
- [32:09]
Ryan Seacrest
Watch the Today show weekday mornings at 7am on NBC. The U.S. electric grid is approaching a breaking point as demand soars from data centers and home energy use. Our aging infrastructure can't keep up, and the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready, powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@probane.com Looking for excitement? Chumba Casino is here. Play anytime. Play anywhere. Play on the train. Play at the store. Play at home. Play when you're bored. Play today for your chance to win and get daily bonuses when you log in. So what are you waiting for? Don't delay. Chumba Casino is free to play.
- [33:01]
Keith Olbermann
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- [33:13]
Ryan Seacrest
VGW Group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. This is Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Still ahead on this edition of Countdown Joe Scarborough, who's done it again, went on the network formerly known as MSNBC Tuesday morning and said that Illinois Governor J.B. pritzker should, quote, partner up. That would be partner up in American English with Trump on Trump's violating of the Posse Comitatus act and that Pritzker should go along with the plan to use the National Guard in Chicago. This is because Joe Scarborough is a fascist. Also. He's yet to find a principle, including fascism, that he could not abandon at the first sign of trouble. It is nearly a year now since he and Mrs. Idiot tried to get back on the Trump Death Star by going to Mar a Lago and prostrating themselves. Joe Scarborough is a scumbag working for a scumbag network run by scumbag management owned by a scumbag company. But his willingness to personally prostitute himself in whatever way the pimps who own him want him to has gotten him a job for life there. If you call that show at that hour every morning a life. The many times I have been appalled by Joe Scarborough. Next in things I promise not to tell first, those who always will come in behind Joe Scarborough on the list of today's other worst persons in the world. LeBron's worst Stephen A. Smith. Stephen A. Smith announced a new weekly political show on a satellite radio outfit. Apparently they announced it in the form of an extreme exclusive to the Washington Post so they could get a feature length article out of the reporter Jeremy Barr. And by the way, that's the Washington Post, which is the Stephen A. Smith of newspapers. To be fair, Barr asked him about his friendship with Sean Hannity. You've said you've gotten some criticism of your 20 year long friendship with Fox News host Sean Hannity on whose show you appear occasionally. Has that given you any pause? Not even a little bit. It's made my friendship with him more resolute because you're not going to tell me how to think as an interjection. Who would waste their time trying to get him to think and how I should feel? You feel how thick your wallet is. That's all you feel. There's plenty of people that have friends in their lives that don't agree with their politics. This isn't politics. This is existential about America. And you're going on the wrong side of it, Steve, all of a sudden because it's Sean Hannity. It's supposed to be different. I don't want to hear that crap. It gets in the way of Stephen making money. He doesn't want to hear it. That's nonsense. Where does that say it will get me more money? He's a die hard conservative. I wish. He believes in free market capitalism and closed borders and strong national security and stuff like that. Stuff like that in the Hannity world is dictatorship. By the way, he's not some white nationalist or anything like that, okay? Sean doesn't roll like that. Oh my God. You say you know him 20 years. How come this has only come up five years ago that you knew him or he went on his show. Sean doesn't roll like that. I worked with Stephen A. Smith as recently as 2019 and there was not one goddamn mention of him being friends with Sean Hannity. I know him, so I don't worry about that. Candace Owens. He knows Candace Owens too and doesn't worry about her. And you know, if it's all about friends being agreeable with one another, then what kind of real friendship is that? Well, you want to try to have a friendship that doesn't end your career. Steven. Steven Hannity is so much worse a person than you could possibly know. Your friend is playing you if he is your friend, if he's anybody's friend. I also see nothing in this interview about Candace Owens and Smith praising her. Then again, I didn't read the whole thing because I canceled my Washington Post subscription a year ago. Two years ago. And I don't notice anybody asking Smith or Sirius how in the world they could in this time of the wholesale slaughter of our children in school, in church, in school, the slaughter of those kids to guns, and a year removed from the attempted shooting of a presidential candidate and the nation still teetering daily on mass gun violence. I don't see the guy from the Washington Post asking him or Sirius or he Stephen A. Smith. Why would they be cold enough to name their new show Stephen A Straight shooter? Stephen, run like hell. Frankly, this could easily destroy your media career. Easily and quickly. The runner up Werser, the man who is behind all those such destructions, Trump or whoever was writing his stuff for him during that week in which he spent in the cone of silence, the week in which he was Commander pike from the Star Trek pilot. Remember the video posted under his name during the cone of silence I used at the White House. The most beautiful marble and stone available anywhere. Surfaces are very important to me as a builder. Also, he can't comprehend anything besides surfaces. As everyone knows, I built many great buildings and other things over the years. Actually I lived in one of those buildings and like the day the warranty ran out, the elevators stopped running and some of the electricity shut off and water started to come out of the walls. But they were great buildings at the White House. I am very proud of the beautiful stonework we did in the Rose Garden. It's where they paved it over and made it look like a parking lot or worse, like Mar a Lago, in this case using limestone. Plus, the Rose Garden is completed and far more beautiful than anyone ever had in mind when it was conceived of decades ago. Three days ago while admiring the stonework, I happened to notice a huge gash in the limestone that extended more than 25 yards long. It was deep and nasty. I started yelling blah blah blah. And it turns out this is like 300 words about the marble that was used and how the marble got damaged and the marble contractor screwed up and marble, marble, marble. Which got this response Trump is worried about literally losing his marbles. Just showing that any writer will steal anything from anybody. I am obliged here to say I just stole that from the guy who wrote it. Dan McLaughlin BaseballCrank on Twitter of the National Review Online One of the most venomous and dense of the far right Mag Ass clown. But damn. Trump is worried about literally losing his marbles. Is a great line. But our winner Laura Loomer the worst There is one secret flex, one weapon of self defense that was, is and always will be on our side. It is the fact that for the maggots there is no yesterday. They cannot forget, no tomorrow. They cannot not foresee if it serves their purpose. They are all Joe Scarborough, only dumber. They are truly nihilists. So they can pretend to believe one thing one day and it's exact opposite thing tomorrow or ultimately when they run out of things that don't contradict what they used to believe. They believe in nothing. But it's more than that. It seems to be a requirement to never even consider that what you are boastfully criticizing somebody for or something you're threatening to do to somebody else may apply twice as much to you, or to your president or to your hero, or largely I think this is because the other fascists forget as fast as the speakers do, as the lead fascists do. But still, you would think that if you portray yourself as the Trump whisperer, as the secret personnel director at the White House, you would Google before you shoot so you don't say something like this. Not Laura Lohmer, no sir. The US District judge who blocked the Trump trafficking of unaccompanied children back to Guatemala because they were at risk of physical harm if they were Forced to go back to Guatemala. That judge is named Judge Sparkle Sukhnanan. Now that's an unusual name. Although I worked 40 years ago with a woman who became a prominent writer in Canada whose given first name was Sparkle Sparkle Hater. We worked together at cnn. So Sparkle is not as unusual a name as you might think. Anyway, Judge Sukhnanan was born in the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Her education Hofstra and Brooklyn law. So she's closer to being a native American than Loomer is, who is from Tucson and Miami. Me the libs of TikTok idiot. The one who still doesn't realize she was used by Trump and Bondi with the Epstein file folder that had nothing in it that they just released again yesterday she complained about Judge Suknan's origins. So Loomer went full racist xenophobe. I mean she is full racist xenophobe. She just decided to put it on social media this time. Laura Loomer, why do we allow for foreigners to be judges in the us it should be illegal to hold office in the United States if you are not from the us. I'm sick of woke foreign born judges destroying the us Go back to Trinidad. Uh Laura, quick word about Judge Eileen Cannon. Remember her? Trump's concierge judge, the one who fixed the espionage documents case for Trump last year. Judge Cannon, the one who threw herself in front of justice in the United States. Judge eileen Cannon, born 1981 in, let's see, Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cali, Columbia. Eileen Cannon, born 1981, Cali, Columbia. Not District of Columbia, Colombia. C O L O M B I A. You could have googled that Loomer. But no. Shoot from the hip. And when you shoot from the hip, remember the odds are 6 to 5 you will blow off part of your own ass. So yes Laura, no more foreigners can be judges in the us. Not Judge Sukhnen and not Judge Eileen Cannon. Be remember because you asked for it. Laura. Also, you're phrasing, why do we allow for foreigners to be judges? That's not exactly American English. Loomer Moron. And today's other worst person in the world.
- [45:45]
Keith Olbermann
Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? WashablesOfAs.com has your back. Featuring the Annabe Collection, the only designer sofa that's machine washable inside and out. Where designer quality meets budget friendly prices. That's right, sofas start at just $699. Enjoy a no risk experience with pet friendly stain resistant and changeable slipcovers made with performance fabric experience cloud like comfort with high resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime. Check out washablesofas.com and get up to 60% off your annabe sofa backed by a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund. No return, shipping or restocking fees. Every penny back. Upgrade now@washablesofas.com Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Good morning.
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Ryan Seacrest
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 on as the forecast calls for football all across the country, lots of stars, live concerts and so much more. Wake up to where it's all happening.
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Keith Olbermann
We're getting back to all of it, and the best way to start is together.
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Ryan Seacrest
Watch the Today show weekday mornings at 7am on NBC. The U.S. electric grid is approaching a breaking point as demand soars from data centers and home energy use. Our aging infrastructure can't keep up and the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100% fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready, powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@probane.com it is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to chumbacasino.com it's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba Casino has over a hundred online casino style games, all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now@chumbacasino.com sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group Void where prohibited by law 21 + terms and conditions apply. Joe Scarborough and his latest wife began their morning chat show on MSNBC with a simpering, cowardly, transparent word salad that might as well have literally been we for two welcome our new insect overlords. Only that would have been funny. Let me again mention that in half a century of working in newsrooms ranging from international ones to high school ones, Joe Scarborough is easily the worst person I have ever Known easily. And I worked with David Letterman's blackmailer, and I worked with a guy who later extorted George Steinbrenner and threatened to break his legs. Joe Scarborough is better than either of them. He is unique. The lack of morals, of principles, of scruples, that's not the result of a fractured brain like, say, Trump. It's not the result of money needs like the guy who blackmailed Letterman or the guy who extorted Steinbrenner. It's a tool Scarborough uses and he has used for at least 25 years. Joe Scarborough was a Newt Gingrich whore. Then he became a far right, pro torture O'Reilly wannabe. Then he was the supposedly reasonable conservative whose on air Persona covered up his endless internal sabotage of everybody who was better than him at NBC. Then he was the moderate political salon host in the mornings. Then he was the guy who tried to mainstream Trump and literally traveled to Trump to advise him and was Trump's guy on real tv. And then when Trump didn't choose him to be vice president, Scarborough decided the real money was in bashing Trump. And so he turned on him and bashed him and bashed him and bashed him and called him Hitler more than a year ago. And when he called him Hitler, it was the first time I'd ever agreed with Joey Scars. But I knew in my gut he was just selling another product. See, there are people who, when confronted in their lives by Nazis, suddenly find themselves choosing to join the government of Vichy France. That's Jeff Bezos. That's not Joe Scarborough. Joe Scarborough has always been a Vichy in search of Nazis to serve. And after seven years, he'd actually managed to erase his past. He'd virtually erased from his audience's memory any sense that he tried to ram Trump down America's throat in 2016. And then suddenly Monday, he was announcing he and Mika Brzezinski had gone to Mar a Lago to try to open a dialogue with Trump. And he then produced an amazing imaginary, moronic dialogue in which somebody else asked him, why the hell would you do that? With the ludicrous answer, why the hell wouldn't you? The rhetorical answer to that, of course, was contained in Mika Brzezinski's part of this speech, which was as close to an actual hostage video as I have ever seen on actual television. The practical answer is, of course you don't do that, because then you have just turned your network into collaborators. If he's Hitler and you are now saying, we must make a deal with him, you are Vichy. MSNBC and everybody who works there who does not say this is Vichy, MSNBC is just as guilty. Rachel. Anyway, there are three plausible explanations, I guess, equal plausibility for this. I'm not sure which is true. I'm not sure it matters. One, NBC and MSNBC looked at the post election Kamala Harris Saturday Night Live blowback and the post election ratings. And since the networks are run by people who do not understand news or political news and barely understand television, they panicked and told him to do it. Or Scarborough looked at the ratings and being exactly as stupid as his bosses, he panicked and did it himself. Or as CNN reported Tuesday, he and the Mrs. Genuinely assessed the threats by Trump and decided they were vulnerable and they'd have to do something to assuage Trump. And of course, just going there and saying sorry, that would hardly do it. But if they also told Trump, we'll go back to sane washing your presidency, only they didn't tell the audience that, well, that, that would make more sense. That would be pure cowardice. Of course, it's the actual plot of George Orwell's 1984. Maybe that last one makes slightly more sense now, in light of Tuesday night's news, that NBC is going to spin off its news cable operations, finally separating the dead weight of NBC News from what might still grow. MSNBC and cnbc. I beg them to do this. As far back as 1997, for God's sakes. Also, you're a listener to this podcast and I'm the guy who writes it and reads it. The last few weeks I haven't felt like writing it and reading it and you haven't felt like listening to it. Or at least not as much. We're in mourning. We're in husbanding your resources mode. We're in recovery. Of course the ratings are going to be bad. Go look at Fox News ratings at the end of 2020 and most of 2021. Did they fire everybody and suddenly wind up with a Joe Biden show in the morning? No. Be professionals. Take the loss. Oh, your NBC. Oh, MSNBC is only going to make a quarter of a billion dollars. Oh, I'm so sorry. People should be killed for that, right? Isn't that the law? Now, back at the Joey Scars level. The problem is, the problems are Scarborough already burned down his anti Trump audience in 2015 and early 2016. Then he burned down his new pro Trump audience in 2016 and 2017 and all the years since. And now he's gone back and burned down his anti Trump audience. Again, there's nobody left. The right never stopped hating him. The left, which had just started to forget he was in Trump's pocket for a year, hates him anew. And now is seeing that picture of him and Trump standing there with that idiotic thumb up their ass pose which I keep tweeting every day. Just a coincidence, Joe resolved this dilemma. Namely that nobody wants to watch him anymore or go on his show by simply pretending none of it is true and that everybody supports him and anybody who disagrees with him is disconnected from reality. And we have always been at war with East Asia. The other problem is Joe Scarborough is a terrible person who has always thought he could get away with it, often did, always thought he could blame somebody else, and has always done stuff exactly like this. And I'll get to that in a moment. First reminding you of the principal problem by having Nancy Faust remind you that just cause you call a guy Hitler, maybe, maybe you didn't mean that Hitler. Maybe it meant the other Hitler, the singing Hitler, the dancing Hitler, the Hitler with a song in his heart. Oh, Nancy. Sam Perhaps the most amazing thing about my 10 years at MSNBC was the fact that Joe Scarborough and his producers, especially his chief henchmen, ever got their own show on the air. Because nobody I have ever worked with in radio or television, in sports or news in the 20th century or the 21st, ever spent more time trying to screw with other programs on the same network than did Joe Scarborough. And until just about the time I left in 2011, the guy he sent in to do most of the sabotage for him was this henchman guy. The reason this should matter to you now is Scarborough's henchman was Chris Licht, the new president of cnn. And if they scoured the nation to find the worst person to run CNN in a time when democracy is threatened by one political party and tepidly defended by another, it's Chris Licht. I know, I know. You turn on the TV and you see Joe Scarborough and you see exactly what I see. A blank, dazed, darting, paranoid, no soul, stupid check engine light look. But if you don't trust me, trust my scars. My Joey scars. Behind that vapid face is a master saboteur. Early in 2008, the late Tim Russert called me and warned me that the GOP had upped its pressure on me. He said he had heard from somebody in New York, that somebody in New York was going into the office of the president of NBC News saying that Joe Scarborough couldn't get his friend John McCain to come onto his new morning show. Because I was so critical of McCain on Countdown, Tim was not sure it was Scarborough, but if it wasn't, who else could have gotten in to see the president of NBC News other than Scarborough or his executive producer? The evidence for the new CNN president, Mr. Licht, being directly involved in interfering with programming to benefit somebody else's friends or political cronies was vague in 2008, but not at all vague two years later. Early in January 2010, the Republican candidate to fill the Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy, Scott Brown. The former semi nude model, was at a rally when one of his supporters talked about shoving a curling iron up the backside of the Democratic Senate candidate, Martha Coakley. Scott Brown clearly heard the remark from the crowd and responded, we could do that. On January 18th on Countdown, I did a brief commentary about how unsuitable Brown was for public office. I said he was, quote, an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees, unquote. I had quotes from Brown. I had videotape of him disparaging his minority opponent in a local election to her face at a debate. To back up what I said, an hour later, Joe Scarborough commenced a tweet storm against me. Olbermann calls Brown a homophobic, racist reactionary who supports violence against women. How reckless and how sad. It's no longer enough to simply disagree with someone. I'm sorry, I just fell into my Scarborough impression. Just as when Beck called a president racist, this sort of rhetorical extremism must be discouraged. It cheapens the debate. End quote, end impression. Now, there was a standing rule at msnbc. You want to criticize another MSNBC personality, go ahead, have a blast. But it must be on the air on msnbc, and the other person must have an opportunity to reply in real time, in the same show, or in some kind of face to face way. No hit and run, no Joe Scarborough tweet storms. If you criticize them by name or by inference in any other medium, newspaper, interview, radio, social media, you were to receive an automatic suspension. The next day, January 19th, I called the president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, and I asked how long Joe Scarborough's automatic suspension was going to be. Griffin asked me to come into the office a little earlier than usual and to go see him. He said he had already had a meeting about the tweets that morning with Scarborough's executive producer, Chris Licht. Griffin explained that Scarborough, according to Licht, considered Scott Brown a friend. More importantly, Chris Licht warned Griffin that if Griffin followed through and enforced the suspension rule, Scarborough would have no other option than to go to the press and tell reporters, especially reporters at right wing websites like Tucker Carlson's the Daily Caller, that he, Scarborough, had been suspended because he, Scarborough, was a conservative, but I was a liberal and that I, and not Phil Griffin ran msnbc. What can I do? Griffin was scared. I told him he could fire Scarborough and Licht because they had just tried to blackmail him and eventually he was going to have to fire them both anyway. But that I knew he would not do this and that I knew now that he would not suspend Scarborough either and Griffin did not suspend him. Partial score Scarborough's Friends 2 MSNBC's rules of behavior Nothing. But Phil Griffin did send out a memo to the entire company insisting that anybody who criticized another MSNBC show or host in another medium would be suspended, except Scarborough, who had just done exactly that and then threatened his own employers. On January 25, Brian Stelter's old blog, TV Newser, got a copy of Griffin's memo. They wondered why Scarborough had not been suspended. So they called the MSNBC president and then they printed, quote, griffin responds to TV Newser, quote, an important rule was broken. I spoke to Keith and he said in the spirit of teamwork and the free flow of ideas, he didn't think it warranted punishment or suspension. I also talked to Joe and he apologized to me. That's why I made the decision that this didn't rise to the level of punishment. But I felt it was necessary to reiterate my long standing policy. 100% bull crap. Reiterate my long standing policy which I just did not enforce against Joe Scarborough. Whole thing was totally fabricated. Licht and Scarborough had threatened to smear their own bosses in the right wing echo chamber. Should have been both fired on the spot. In May 2010, Scarborough said something on the air about a Democrat getting away with not being investigated for something. I forget the details. I didn't bother to look it up. You can if you want. Then Marcos Militis, the editor of the Daily coast website and not just a regular contributor to Countdown, but somebody who had been promoting the show and the MSNBC brand on that website. Every day for five years. Marcos sent a snarky but legitimate tweet questioning Scarborough's credentials to criticize others who had not been investigated for stuff. Marcos invoked the staffer who died in an accident in Joe Scarborough's congressional office. Scarborough then attacked Militis on Twitter, inaccurately claiming Melissa has accused Scarborough of murder. A few days after that, I got a phone call from the MSNBC president, Phil Griffin. And if he got a phone call, rather than a call to come into his office, you know, he was really scared. Griffin told me, Chris Licht has been in to see me. Joe won't put up with having Marcos Malitzis on his network anymore. Not only that, but Licht says many of Joe's friends who also appear in Dayside and Prime Time won't come on if Marcos Militis is permitted to continue here. Chris is insisting that Marcos be banned from MSNBC immediately. Chris says he's afraid that if we don't do that, Joe won't come into work tomorrow. Upon hearing that, I laughed and I congratulated Phil Griffin on the clear win win he'd just been given. But Phil was very bad at enforcing MSNBC's rules, but very good at creating new ones on the spot to protect Joe Scarborough and Chris Licht and their friends. I'm banning the Litzes from any further appearances on msnbc. I said, phil, he's a contributor to my show. You are suspending my contributor who has driven hundreds of thousands of viewers to Countdown at MSNBC and I don't have any say in it. You are owned by Joe Scarborough and Chris Licht. What you now have to worry about is whether I tell this story on the air tonight or I just wait and tell it later. Phil now got conciliatory because he was scared again and said it could be just a suspension if I cooperated. So I called Marcos. He said he enjoyed his contributions to Countdown. He also did occasional appearances on the old Ed Schultz MSNBC show, and he said if there were a chance at resuming them, he'd prefer to at least try that. So Marcos and I went along with Griffin suspending Marcos Militis, and to my knowledge, Marcos Militis has not been seen on MSNBC since. I wish I had better notes on some of my conversations from the 2008 9, 1011 era about those conversations with the hosts and the producers of the other shows like Schultz and Rachel Maddows show, and even Chris, Chris Matthews and Hardball. I must have heard a variation of this statement a dozen times from these people. Guess who was in Griffin's office explaining that such and such is Joe's friend and Phil really needs to make sure we lay off him. Chris Licht. It was usually an expletive in the middle between Chris and Licht. I remember one of my producers at the MSNBC a version of Countdown telling me that one of the other producers told him that Licht had gone to NBC News President Steve Kappas with an actual list of Republicans that Maddow and Olbermann needed to stop criticizing because they were Joe's here's the word again, friends, and we were hurting Morning Joe. I've done all this 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. They are the musical directors of Countdown. It was produced by TKO brothers Mr. Ray on guitars, bass and drums, Mr. Chenale handling orchestration and keyboards. Our satirical and pithical. Again, for some reason I want to say satirical and pithical. Our satirical and pithy music musical comments are made by the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Foust. Maybe I need to get Nancy to read this script next time instead of me. The olderman Theme from ESPN2 written by Mitch Warren Davis, courtesy of ESPN Inc. Is the sports music other music arranged and performed by the group no horns allowed. My announcer today is my friend Larry David and everything else was, as always, my fault. That's Countdown for today. Day 228 of America held hostage just 1,244 days until the scheduled end of his lame duck and lame brained term. Unless he is removed sooner by MAGA and Jeffrey Epstein or by the pavement on his hand. Or like Commander pike, they just leave him somewhere where he can frolic. The next scheduled countdown is, let's see, Monday. Till then, 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.
- [69:03]
Keith Olbermann
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Ryan Seacrest
Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world. The News Agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, John Sopel with Global's award winning podcast the News Agents Dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs. And The News Agents USA listening to the Newsagents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.
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Keith Olbermann
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Keith Olbermann
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Ryan Seacrest
VGW Group void where prohibited by law 21 + terms and conditions apply. December 29, 1975 Laguardia Airport the holiday.
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Keith Olbermann
Rush Parents hauling luggage. Kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed.
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Ryan Seacrest
There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene.
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Keith Olbermann
In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged. Terrorism. Listen to the new season of law and criminal justice System on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Ryan Seacrest
This is an I Heart podcast.