Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. The
Speaker 1: worst possible outcome to the Biden situation is that there
Speaker 1: is no outcome. That we stay here in the middle, somewhere,
Speaker 1: always wondering if it was just a bad night, or
Speaker 1: if there is another one, perhaps on September tenth, the
Speaker 1: second debate, or if there are one hundred other ones.
Speaker 1: And so I have a suggestion for President Biden that
Speaker 1: will resolve this and there would be no more questions,
Speaker 1: and there would be no more debates. And in fact,
Speaker 1: if he wants to communicate only by written notes, he'd
Speaker 1: get applause every time he did it. As someone who
Speaker 1: was worried that President Biden correctly perceived the threat posed
Speaker 1: by Trump and his fascists and their plan for a
Speaker 1: form of Nazi Germany in this country, worried about that
Speaker 1: long before I was worried that he correctly perceived that threat.
Speaker 1: I have this suggestion, no more talk about Trump or
Speaker 1: anything else, just action. Start, mister president by recognizing that
Speaker 1: this is a terrorist threat posed by Trump and his
Speaker 1: cult and his allies. Literally declare them terrorists if need be,
Speaker 1: or now that you have been immunized by the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1: Invoke the Insurrection Act as Trump plans to do. Invoke it,
Speaker 1: invoke it for an hour, and arrest and detain people
Speaker 1: like Trump and the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson,
Speaker 1: and the head of this bloodthirsty gang in suits called
Speaker 1: the Federalist Society and creator of Project twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: Kevin Roberts.
Speaker 2: Our side is winning, and so I come full circle
Speaker 2: in this response and just want to encourage you with
Speaker 2: some substance that we are in the process of the
Speaker 2: Second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left
Speaker 2: allows it to be.
Speaker 1: That was Kevin Roberts. He just promised revolution against the
Speaker 1: government of the United States. He did it again yesterday
Speaker 1: at the National Conservatism conference in Washington. And by the way,
Speaker 1: if national Conservatism sounds like it was meant to invoke
Speaker 1: that old German party, what was it called National Socialism?
Speaker 1: No kidding? Also National in this use is just a
Speaker 1: brand name. This is actually an international fascism cartel run
Speaker 1: by a guy from Israel and starring victor Orbonn of
Speaker 1: Hungary and the reprehensible British racist Suella Broberman. This Roberts
Speaker 1: may have phrased his threat of revolution against the government
Speaker 1: of the United States in a passive aggressive form. But
Speaker 1: eighteen US Code two three eighty five is still on
Speaker 1: the books, and mister Roberts just urinated on it and
Speaker 1: all but dared you, mister President, to put him in
Speaker 1: prison for twenty years, which is what a violation of
Speaker 1: the statute can cost you. So you have your Attorney
Speaker 1: general do it by whatever legal means are required to
Speaker 1: do it. And remember the Supreme Court said you, mister President,
Speaker 1: you can do anything you want as long as you
Speaker 1: can prove it's official. And putting that asshole in jail
Speaker 1: is as official as anything could be. Just at the moment,
Speaker 1: he's called it a revolution, and he has implied that
Speaker 1: he will make it violent. One eight US Code two
Speaker 1: three eight five. And when you are done with Kevin Roberts,
Speaker 1: mister President, go and get this psychopath Mark Robinson, who
Speaker 1: is a the Lieutenant governor of the state of North Carolina,
Speaker 1: b the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina. And
Speaker 1: see who is at best trailing the Democrat by one
Speaker 1: point in polling there and at worst is four points
Speaker 1: ahead of the Democrats.
Speaker 3: And get mad at me if you want to some
Speaker 3: folks need killing. It's time for somebody to say it.
Speaker 3: It's not a matter of vengeance, it's not a matter
Speaker 3: of being mean, it's fitful. It's a matter of necessity.
Speaker 3: We have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering
Speaker 3: and riping. It's time to call out those guys in green.
Speaker 3: Go have them handle with those boys in blue, and
Speaker 3: have them go handle it and need to start handling
Speaker 3: our business again.
Speaker 1: From Lieutenant Governor Robinson there and Federalist Society President Roberts,
Speaker 1: this is not the same rhetoric of the fascists from
Speaker 1: even three or four months ago. This is overt, violent, criminal,
Speaker 1: terroristic threat. Mister President, If your attorney general is he
Speaker 1: incapable of finding something to arrest them for, find a
Speaker 1: new atten atorney general, or arrest the current attorney general
Speaker 1: and utilize your national security powers now, not later, Now,
Speaker 1: not after the election, now, not after somebody gets killed. Now,
Speaker 1: and if Trump objects, arrest him too. Supreme Court says,
Speaker 1: you can, if you can find him, if nobody has noticed.
Speaker 1: He hasn't been seen in public since June twenty eighth,
Speaker 1: hadn't even appeared on video since the fourth of July
Speaker 1: didn't make a phone appearance until going on Hannity last night.
Speaker 1: He's supposed to show up today after an arduous journey
Speaker 1: of just under two hours from mary Lago to one
Speaker 1: of his golf courses. If he makes it, arrest him too,
Speaker 1: mister President, since the Supreme Court, which he appointed, says
Speaker 1: there is no chance anybody in the world can stop you.
Speaker 1: And do it. Not just because he and Roberts and
Speaker 1: Robinson and the Federalist Society and the nat Cons and
Speaker 1: the other Nazis represent a clear and present danger to
Speaker 1: the safety of every person of every political stripe in
Speaker 1: this country. Don't do it just for that. Do it
Speaker 1: also because, since the night of the start of the debate,
Speaker 1: the only thing I have heard you say, mister President,
Speaker 1: that filled me with dread. It was not any mumble
Speaker 1: or stumble, or inaccuracy or imperceptibility or confusion. But what
Speaker 1: filled me with dread was when you said what you said.
Speaker 1: After Stephanopoulos asked how you would feel if you lost,
Speaker 1: and you said, as long as you felt you had
Speaker 1: done your best, That's what it was all about. No,
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear about your best. I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear the chance that your best will be insufficient.
Speaker 1: If you are allowing for the chance that your best,
Speaker 1: mister President, will be insufficient, get somebody else in the
Speaker 1: goddamn chair. If you say, as you reportedly did privately
Speaker 1: to donors yesterday, we're done talking about the debate. It's
Speaker 1: time to put Trump in the bullseye. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: I want to hear you say that Trump and the
Speaker 1: fascists will not win, that you will not let it
Speaker 1: happen no matter what period. Enough talk enough, I beat
Speaker 1: him before, and I'll beat him again. Enough the elites
Speaker 1: are trying to keep me out. Enough, we'll start defeating
Speaker 1: them today. The nation is under threat, as surely as
Speaker 1: if there were armies at the border. You are going
Speaker 1: to stop Trump. You are going to put him in
Speaker 1: the bulls eye. Do it now. Arrest Mark Robinson, then
Speaker 1: arrest Kevin Roberts, and I guarantee you, if you take
Speaker 1: only those two steps, you won't even need to act
Speaker 1: against Trump or any of the other leaders, or any
Speaker 1: of the psychopaths out there who support him. They will
Speaker 1: all flee. This election is existential for the future freedom
Speaker 1: of everybody in this country, and potentially for the survival
Speaker 1: of everybody in the world. But it only has to
Speaker 1: be existential. Mister President, if you do not now use
Speaker 1: the defenses provided to you as commander in chief, and
Speaker 1: by this assenine a moral but ultimately unimaginative Trump Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: on whom it never dawned, you might use the weapons
Speaker 1: they tried to give to him. They have immunized you.
Speaker 1: Now you can immunize all of the rest of us
Speaker 1: from Trump's immortal threat to the United States of America.
Speaker 1: Enough I regret to share with you that I do
Speaker 1: not expect that President Biden will do any of this.
Speaker 1: I'm sure if he heard what I'm suggesting, he might
Speaker 1: recoil from it, not realizing that the one time this
Speaker 1: nation truly faced an internal threat akin to that posed
Speaker 1: now by Trump, President Lincoln did exactly these things to
Speaker 1: the insurrectionist scum of the Confederacy. The history books, in fact,
Speaker 1: might have judged him far more harshly, but there seems
Speaker 1: little doubt that if he had been able to round
Speaker 1: up the Confederate leaders from Jefferson Davis to Robert E.
Speaker 1: Lee and all the others and imprison them. In May
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, the Civil war would have been a
Speaker 1: lot shorter and the death count a lot lower. And
Speaker 1: I do not believe anybody ever got to ask him,
Speaker 1: but I get the feeling that if you had said
Speaker 1: to Abraham Lincoln in retrospect, should you have simply ailed
Speaker 1: Davis and Lee and Bedford, Forrest and all the others,
Speaker 1: he would have said yes. I mean, this was the
Speaker 1: president who ultimately resorted to ignoring the Supreme Court and
Speaker 1: contemplating the arrest of the Chief Justice of the United States.
Speaker 1: I mean, mister President, if you want to change the
Speaker 1: topic from the debate, change it, change it from talk
Speaker 1: to action, and change the election from the sum of
Speaker 1: all fears to Biden versus the last leader of the
Speaker 1: Republican Party who is not in communicado somewhere in a
Speaker 1: brig that would be Check's notes here. It is the
Speaker 1: election between you, sir, and Republican candidate Asa Hutchinson. As
Speaker 1: I said at the start of this episode, the worst
Speaker 1: option facing Joe Biden and this nation is staying where
Speaker 1: we are right now. Leading congressman calling for him to
Speaker 1: leave the ticket, the Congressional Black Caucus calling for him
Speaker 1: to stay on the ticket, Chuck Schumer voicing support, The
Speaker 1: Washington Post anonymously quoting two Democratic senators who say the
Speaker 1: consensus among Democratic senators is that he needs to step down.
Speaker 1: Mark Warner scheduling an urgent meeting among Democratic senators and
Speaker 1: then deciding it's not that urgent can wait till today,
Speaker 1: and then issuing a statement backing away from Mark Warner.
Speaker 1: I believe it is incumbent upon the President to more
Speaker 1: aggressively make his case to the American people. That's not
Speaker 1: exactly in the name of God go the President's people
Speaker 1: uniformly insisting they have nothing to hide and have hidden nothing,
Speaker 1: while the White House visitors logs show one Parkinson's expert
Speaker 1: visited eight times between last July and this March. The
Speaker 1: bigger story confusing that even more, being that that parkin
Speaker 1: since expert has been a White House regular and a
Speaker 1: consultant since twenty twelve. The Vice President behaving in an
Speaker 1: exemplary manner, while there is at least one Biden veteran
Speaker 1: quoted anonymously from inside the White House in The New
Speaker 1: York Times, trying to get him out and her in.
Speaker 1: The President trying to prove he is cogent and clear
Speaker 1: minded by phoning in to Joe Scarborough, as if Joe
Speaker 1: Scarborough were cogent or clear minded and not an opportunistic
Speaker 1: leech who has taken every side of every issue just
Speaker 1: since twenty sixteen, when the man wrote the center cannot hold.
Speaker 1: This is what he meant. The problem, ultimately is this,
Speaker 1: even if the President will not withdraw from the ticket,
Speaker 1: and those urging him to suddenly all relax on the subject,
Speaker 1: if the New York Times suddenly realizes that it could,
Speaker 1: you know, flood the opinion and reporting space against Trump
Speaker 1: in exactly the same way it has against Biden for
Speaker 1: the last week and a half, if other events we
Speaker 1: haven't experienced yet crowd the issue off the page, if
Speaker 1: he has a good week or a good month, or
Speaker 1: they say, hell, what do we need Scarborough for? Will
Speaker 1: just put the president on every morning on MSNBC. Even
Speaker 1: if all that happens, What makes anybody think that this
Speaker 1: will neutralize this issue? Even if every Democrat and liberal
Speaker 1: and pro democracy person in this country woke up tomorrow
Speaker 1: committed to never mentioning this again, what will stop Trump
Speaker 1: from doing so? His campaign announced the sixty one million
Speaker 1: dollar ad buy last night surrounding the Olympics, guess what
Speaker 1: that's going to be about? Are there not? Ultimately, no
Speaker 1: matter what else happens. Two questions that cannot be erased.
Speaker 1: One do you want him on the debate stage on
Speaker 1: September tenth? And two do you think not that he
Speaker 1: is going to hold steady in term of his mental alacrity,
Speaker 1: but that it and the perception of it and of him,
Speaker 1: that these things will improve between here and election day?
Speaker 1: Because to beat Trump, the perception of Joe Biden is
Speaker 1: going to have to improve. The thing is the consensus
Speaker 1: on this story seemed to be that the dams would
Speaker 1: all break yesterday. They did not. There were leaks from
Speaker 1: the Congressional conference call Sunday, Jerry Nadler Adam Smith to
Speaker 1: others get out the warners. Senate meeting postponed. The president
Speaker 1: railed against the elites trying to get him out, blamed
Speaker 1: the millionaires, said, rank and file Democrats want him in.
Speaker 1: But reality to this point appears to be the exact opposite.
Speaker 1: It's now forty six percent of Democratic voters who want
Speaker 1: him to drop out. It was thirty six percent. The
Speaker 1: other headlines, one of the marquee names from the Democrats
Speaker 1: have a deep bench crowd just withdrew her candidacy for
Speaker 1: a job that has not yet open. Governor Gretchen whit
Speaker 1: MURV Michigan said if Biden drops out, she would not
Speaker 1: seek to replace him on the ticket. Also, the White
Speaker 1: House leaked yesterday that besides his letter to all of them,
Speaker 1: Biden has personally called twenty Democratic members of the House
Speaker 1: since the debate, which sounds impressive except that's less than
Speaker 1: two a day. This is a head scratcher. The president says,
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty polls underestimated him, so why should we
Speaker 1: pay attention to the polls now? Except they didn't. He
Speaker 1: was up by nine points this month in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: and he was never less than four points ahead of Trump.
Speaker 1: As CNN pointed out, he is the first Democrat to
Speaker 1: trail in the national polls in July since al Gore.
Speaker 1: It is possible that he meant the polls in the
Speaker 1: primaries in twenty twenty. But if anything is obviously bothering
Speaker 1: the president, it is this exact thing, lack of specificity.
Speaker 1: Trump has been like this since about nineteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: but Joe Biden is becoming like this. Primary polls, residential
Speaker 1: race polls, they just become polls, and one with this
Speaker 1: assumes that the listener knows which one I meant. This
Speaker 1: is not fatal, nor necessarily an indicator of anything. Hell
Speaker 1: I do it in conversation on rare occasion, well, on occasion, Okay,
Speaker 1: every day, but it leads to statements that seem like lies.
Speaker 1: There also have been some pleasant surprises in polls, particularly
Speaker 1: in battleground polls. Best members yet overall, and in Michigan
Speaker 1: and in Wisconsin, and the forest not seen for the
Speaker 1: trees in this is He's still losing in five of
Speaker 1: the seven consensus battleground states. There are advantages through a
Speaker 1: crisis like this, as Trump long ago proved stories that
Speaker 1: would ordinarily be disqualifying scandals go buy almost unnoticed. The
Speaker 1: Biden campaign arranged two quick interviews with obscure local radio
Speaker 1: station to prove he could do them, and supplied the
Speaker 1: interviewers with questions. One of the interviewers said, they gave
Speaker 1: me the exact questions to ask. There was no back
Speaker 1: and forth. The other interviewer is no longer with her station,
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping whoever dreamed this up is no longer
Speaker 1: with the Biden campaign. It is a Trump trick. It
Speaker 1: is deeply offensive and most importantly, Oh on God's green Earth,
Speaker 1: thought it would not come out the stupid people are
Speaker 1: supposed to be running the Trump campaign. One other headline
Speaker 1: shows that no matter how grave or unprecedented the news
Speaker 1: may be, there are always people who can come up
Speaker 1: with something so stupid that it becomes laugh out loud funny.
Speaker 1: First of all, no, if Biden with draws, you do
Speaker 1: not want a mini primary or some sort of huge debate.
Speaker 1: The vice president becomes the nominee, even if you have
Speaker 1: to blackmail everybody else mentioned for the job to pretend
Speaker 1: they've all come to this unanimous decision. Even may I
Speaker 1: say this if the president has to resign or step
Speaker 1: aside under the twenty fifth Amendment in a leave of
Speaker 1: absence and make her acting president, Because if the vice
Speaker 1: president doesn't become the nominee and you have a mini primary,
Speaker 1: guess what you will automatically have five or six or
Speaker 1: seven losers, and they will be disappointed, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: their supporters, who cannot grasp that their candidate is not
Speaker 1: more important than the future of the country, will all
Speaker 1: be disappointed and maybe even disaffected. And this doesn't even
Speaker 1: address the fact that you would be bypassing the vice
Speaker 1: president of the United States. Just as importantly, to create
Speaker 1: an ad hoc nominating system, you open the door to
Speaker 1: crackpot ideas. Semaphore News reported that a former Obama and
Speaker 1: Clinton staffer and a Democratic donor have a plan, and
Speaker 1: they wrote a memo. Oh Biden and Vice President Harris.
Speaker 1: According to their plan, would announce the Blitz Primary one
Speaker 1: month voting by the convention delegates a pledge of a
Speaker 1: positive only campaign or you can't run a ranked choice
Speaker 1: vote before the convention, the winner of which is announced
Speaker 1: on day three of the convention, with the nominee unveiled
Speaker 1: on stage by Biden, Bill Clinton, and Obama, presumably the
Speaker 1: nominee standing there with a bag over his or her
Speaker 1: head and you just pull it off, you go whoo.
Speaker 1: The memo insists the nation would be captivated by the
Speaker 1: Blitz Primary and donations to the Democratic Cofference would flow
Speaker 1: like water, and Biden would be compared to George Washington
Speaker 1: retiring for the good of his country. And best of all.
Speaker 1: Best of all, there would be lively live weekly Blitz
Speaker 1: Primary candidate forums, one with each candidate moderated by Michelle
Speaker 1: Obama and Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift. And you know
Speaker 1: why they chose the name the Blitz Primary, because you
Speaker 1: would have to have been Blitz to have dreamed this crap. Uh.
Speaker 1: Also of interest here, Yes, Marjorie Taylor Green is the
Speaker 1: dumbest woman on the planet. But what special is just
Speaker 1: when you think you know how dumb, it turns out
Speaker 1: she has new, previously undiscovered supplies of dumbness. Marge explains
Speaker 1: how Paul Revere signed the Declaration of Independence, not the Raiders,
Speaker 1: just Paul Revere. She lists eight signers of the Declaration
Speaker 1: of Independence and six of them didn't sign. And there's
Speaker 1: one true silver lining to all this. It gives me
Speaker 1: a chance to really go out there and attack the
Speaker 1: morons on the left. And God knows we have them too,
Speaker 1: and God knows some of them are in the Biden campaign.
Speaker 1: Because apart from that whole idea about writing the interviews
Speaker 1: for the radio reporters, they are soliciting applications for a
Speaker 1: key campaign job right now. And you will not believe
Speaker 1: what the job is. That's next. This is countdown. This
Speaker 1: is countdown with Keith Olberman Stella ahead of us on
Speaker 1: this edition of Countdown. I have told it before, but
Speaker 1: it seems like it is the absolutely correct time to
Speaker 1: tell it again. And if normally you hit stop after
Speaker 1: worse persons in the world, you may want to stick
Speaker 1: around for things I promised not to tell. As I
Speaker 1: recount again the day I was taken to lunch and
Speaker 1: asked for advice on public speaking, especially on how to
Speaker 1: sound righteously indignant instead of crazy, by a then senator
Speaker 1: named Joe Biden. But first, there are still more new
Speaker 1: idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miscreants,
Speaker 1: morons and Dunning Kruegerffet specimens who constitute today's worst persons
Speaker 1: in the world, the bronze worse. Maureen Dowd of the
Speaker 1: New York Times. Why yes, Mareen Daud still is with
Speaker 1: the New York Times, and she's finally done it. She
Speaker 1: has finally written the column we have always wanted to
Speaker 1: read from her, not her retirement column that still looms
Speaker 1: on the horizon like I don't know the promise of
Speaker 1: eternal life. No, no, this is a column by Maureen
Speaker 1: Dowd about the incompetence of Maureen Dowd. Let me quote
Speaker 1: a paragraph or two in my Saturday column, I quoted
Speaker 1: Biden's line to ABC's George Stephanopoulos about how he would
Speaker 1: feel if Trump were sworn in as president because he
Speaker 1: refused to step aside, I'll feel as long as I
Speaker 1: gave it my all and did the goodest job as
Speaker 1: I know I can do. That's what this is about. Now,
Speaker 1: goodest isn't a word, but my researcher, Andrew Trunsky, and
Speaker 1: I listened to the video our ears up against the
Speaker 1: computer ten times, and that's what it sounded like. Unquote. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a lot to unpack here. Firstly, Maureen Dowd actually
Speaker 1: has written a column about writing her previous column. This
Speaker 1: goes on for paragraph after paragraph about how the White
Speaker 1: House asked her, harassed her, interfered with her to make
Speaker 1: the correction after she misquoted President Biden. I mean, he
Speaker 1: mumbled through the answer, and maybe you do need to
Speaker 1: listen to it a second time to be sure, but
Speaker 1: he obviously says I did as good a job as
Speaker 1: I know I can do. The issue of how clear
Speaker 1: he was is the whole point of this. That's the story. Also,
Speaker 1: I have mentioned previously that this answer is the only
Speaker 1: thing he's done. That's really terrified me because the correct
Speaker 1: answer is I will let Trump take power only over
Speaker 1: my dead body or his dead body or something similar.
Speaker 1: But that's not what Doubt is complaining about. She heard goodest,
Speaker 1: and her researcher heard goodest, so it was goodest, and
Speaker 1: damn you all the hell for correcting her white House,
Speaker 1: which brings me to point number two. She has a
Speaker 1: research assistant. Maureen Daoud has a research assistant, and the
Speaker 1: columns still suck that much dairy air. Seriously, it takes
Speaker 1: two of you to produce this thirdly quote. My researcher
Speaker 1: and I listened to the video our ears up against
Speaker 1: the computer ten times. So you have a researcher, but
Speaker 1: you don't have headphones. I mean, I'm not even asking
Speaker 1: that you and your researcher both have headphones, just maybe
Speaker 1: a shared pair of headphones perhaps, or he has one.
Speaker 1: Am I being too demanding? I mean? Has the Times
Speaker 1: been lying about its fulsome profits? Can the Times not
Speaker 1: afford a pair of headphones for Marine Doud or some
Speaker 1: beats or buds? Are you guys spending too much money
Speaker 1: sending me email after email after email dozen a day
Speaker 1: trying to get me to start paying to play wordle again.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to I'm wordled out. Stop it. Save
Speaker 1: the money, Buy Marene some cans. We listened to the
Speaker 1: computer ten times God the runner up worser Marjorie Taylor,
Speaker 1: Barney Rubble. The way to reassure people about Biden is
Speaker 1: to compare his acuity to hers Taylor Green. If somehow
Speaker 1: you miss this, I'll just read it from Twitter x.
Speaker 1: The average age of the signers of the Declaration of
Speaker 1: Independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy six, she wrote, was
Speaker 1: forty four years old, but more than a dozen worth
Speaker 1: thirty five or younger. Thomas Jefferson thirty three, John Hancock
Speaker 1: thirty nine, James Madison twenty five, Alexander Hamilton twenty one,
Speaker 1: James Monroe eighteen, Aaron Burr twenty, Paul Revere forty one,
Speaker 1: George Washington forty four. Wait a minute, First of all,
Speaker 1: Marge says more than a dozen worth thirty five or younger,
Speaker 1: and then her list of a dozen or more only
Speaker 1: has eight names on it. And of course, out of
Speaker 1: her list of the dozen signers of the decl of Independence,
Speaker 1: all eight of them, six of them did not sign
Speaker 1: the declaration of Independence, like James Monroe, who had just
Speaker 1: dropped out of college to join the Continental Army, and
Speaker 1: Alexander Hamilton, who had just dropped out of school to
Speaker 1: join the Continental Army, and Aaron Burr who had just
Speaker 1: quit law school to join the Continental Army. But I
Speaker 1: will never get over the idea that Marjorie Taylor Green
Speaker 1: thinks Paul Revere signed the Declaration of Independence. I mean
Speaker 1: Paul Whiteman, the jazz band leader of the thirties, would
Speaker 1: have been a better guess. It's like she asked AI
Speaker 1: to give her a list of eight people who were
Speaker 1: alive in America in seventeen seventy six, and she was
Speaker 1: just lucky it didn't pick Andrew Jackson, who in seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy six was nine years old. Paul Revere signed the
Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence same year he invented Revere Wear sauce
Speaker 1: pans nineteen thirty nine. Holy crap, is this woman a moron?
Speaker 1: And she might be the brightest Republican from Georgia. But
Speaker 1: our winners, the Joe Biden for President twenty twenty four campaign,
Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking. No, not for that, it
Speaker 1: is for their new ad or listing in Daybook, which
Speaker 1: is a website for job postings, mostly political ones, some educational,
Speaker 1: some nonprofits. This one is next to one from the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party of Illinois, which is looking to hire a
Speaker 1: new head of its direct mail campaigns Rapid Response Communications
Speaker 1: Manager Wilmington, Delaware. The Biden for President campaign is seeking
Speaker 1: and rapid response communications manager. Well, there's your problem right there.
Speaker 1: And rapids Response Communications manager to support the Rapid Response
Speaker 1: team communications teams in Wilmington, including drafting and sending press materials,
Speaker 1: maintaining press lists, and other duties as assigned. We're looking
Speaker 1: for folks with a variety of backgrounds and experience and
Speaker 1: are dedicated to building a team that looks like America
Speaker 1: doesn't know that it's a rapid response communications manager. Well,
Speaker 1: there's Marjorie tail Key. Responsibilities draft press materials including statements,
Speaker 1: press releases, advisories and talking points. You bet your ass
Speaker 1: draft briefing memos, presentations, and other internal facing documents like
Speaker 1: the one reading. He correspond and coordinate with reporters as appropriate.
Speaker 1: Hello Marine DOWD. Help manage the flow of communications material
Speaker 1: internally to key stakeholders and externally to surrogates, allies, and press. Well,
Speaker 1: this would be the thing about setting up that interview
Speaker 1: with the radio places, and the guy doesn't work there
Speaker 1: anymore when you gave him the questions in advance. Collaborate
Speaker 1: with communications team, senior staff and other team members on
Speaker 1: additional projects as needed. How do you draft a resignation track,
Speaker 1: approvals and strategy meetings? Well, you need approvals, Coordinate with
Speaker 1: state teams and rapid response bracketing. I don't even know
Speaker 1: what that is. HU provides and manage communications department interns.
Speaker 1: Oh No. Preferred skills and qualifications. Strong written and verbal
Speaker 1: communication skills, strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work
Speaker 1: effectively with employees at all levels. Ability to organize and
Speaker 1: manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a detail oriented manner. Hello,
Speaker 1: Mareen Dowd. Ability to organize and manage multiple priorities and
Speaker 1: deadlines in a detail oriented manner. No, that's my fault.
Speaker 1: I read that twice. Ability to handle projects with the
Speaker 1: appropriate level of discretion and confidentiality. This was sort of
Speaker 1: an actor thought until the last week or so. Ability
Speaker 1: to work well under pressure with humor and grace. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. A team player that recognizes the importance of
Speaker 1: working collaboratively additional useful skills and qualifications prior experience on
Speaker 1: a political campaign seventy five thousand dollars to eighty thousand
Speaker 1: a year. So you're telling me you're just hiring somebody
Speaker 1: to do this now the Biden campaign, Well, hell, I
Speaker 1: suppose if they're still reconsidering the position of president in
Speaker 1: the campaign, I guess it's not too late to hire
Speaker 1: an rapid response director. Two days worst Persons, somebody's been
Speaker 1: taking this listing down in the world. Early in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, my phone rang at MSNBC headquarters in
Speaker 1: New Jersey. The Senator would like to take you to
Speaker 1: lunch the next time he's in New York. He needs
Speaker 1: your advice. Would you be willing to do that? It
Speaker 1: was Joe Biden's press chief. My first reaction was to
Speaker 1: ask if they had called the wrong number. My next
Speaker 1: reaction was to make sure this was not some policy question,
Speaker 1: because as a news anchor and commentator for MSNBC, it
Speaker 1: did not seem appropriate for me to offer advice to
Speaker 1: a candidate for his party's presidential nomination. And doesn't that
Speaker 1: seem quaint now, Sean Hannity, No. I was told it
Speaker 1: was more technical, more about communications, less about content. My
Speaker 1: antique news standards satisfied, I said sure, and they gave
Speaker 1: me a couple of dates, and they suggested, given his schedule,
Speaker 1: the best place for us to eat would be a
Speaker 1: restaurant in Manhattan. And I laughed and I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. It happens to be about forty five seconds
Speaker 1: from my apartment. The day and the hour arrived. It
Speaker 1: was March twenty seventh, two thousand and seven, and I
Speaker 1: made it to the restaurant and I sat down, and
Speaker 1: moments later in came the Senator from Delaware. He had
Speaker 1: that big welcoming smile and equally big welcoming handshake that
Speaker 1: you may have seen from back when candidates could still
Speaker 1: go greet the people in a crowd. He reminded me
Speaker 1: that we had met briefly when he was in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles for the two thousand Democratic Convention, and he happened
Speaker 1: to be staying in the hotel there in which I
Speaker 1: lived at the time. Senator Biden then said some nice
Speaker 1: things about my days in sports, and particularly about the
Speaker 1: commentaries I had begun to do the previous summer on MSNBC.
Speaker 1: Those special commentaries. He said, with first a smile, then
Speaker 1: a whistle. There was, then and there remains now almost
Speaker 1: no space between the public Joe Biden of the campaign
Speaker 1: or the presidency, and the guy who talks informally to
Speaker 1: some knucklehead off the streets, which in this story would
Speaker 1: be me. There might be a few more swear words words.
Speaker 1: The word malarkey was used during our lunch, and I
Speaker 1: remember that particularly because, as I told him, I went
Speaker 1: to grammar school in Hastings on Hudson, New York with
Speaker 1: a kid named Billy Mallarkey. He was delighted by that,
Speaker 1: and he said, he assumed we gave the fellow a
Speaker 1: hard time, And I said, yeah, but not because of
Speaker 1: the name. None of us third graders knew what malarkey meant.
Speaker 1: Then why did you give him a hard time? Senator
Speaker 1: Biden asked, it was the third grade. I deadpanned. Everybody
Speaker 1: gave everybody a hard time. You liked that answer. But
Speaker 1: back to the point of the lunch, your language, he said,
Speaker 1: in these special comments, now people often brought up the
Speaker 1: language I used to do things like, you know, telling
Speaker 1: President Bush to you know, shut the hell up, because
Speaker 1: I had to say hell rather than the word I
Speaker 1: wanted to say, and some of the events of that
Speaker 1: presidency so infuriated me that I would Redden on camera,
Speaker 1: and I don't Redden in a sauna. Once my high
Speaker 1: school history teacher, a distinguished and elegant man whose nine
Speaker 1: older siblings had been born in Vienna and who had
Speaker 1: the courtliness with which that would be implied, mentioned to
Speaker 1: me the language of the special comments, and I thought,
Speaker 1: oh boy, here it happens. I'm in for it now.
Speaker 1: He Walter Schneller, had told me on the day I
Speaker 1: graduated that my plans to become a sportscaster were very nice,
Speaker 1: and he was sure i'd go and do that, but
Speaker 1: that he was also sure that I would wind up
Speaker 1: in politics someday, either as a reporter or as a combatant.
Speaker 1: And I told him I was flattered, and I will
Speaker 1: always like you, mister Schneller, and you're out of your mind.
Speaker 1: Mister Schneller was also the one who, years later, was
Speaker 1: put in charge of the school's surprisingly generous fund for
Speaker 1: bringing in speakers to address the student body. He was
Speaker 1: very in by the fact that for decades, and he
Speaker 1: got there in I believe nineteen sixty, all of the
Speaker 1: speakers at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York had
Speaker 1: either looked like, as he put it, Hugh Side, the
Speaker 1: columnist of Time magazine, or they had actually been Hugh Saide,
Speaker 1: the columnist for Time Magazine. Mister Schneller began scouring the
Speaker 1: Northeast for anybody smart who might have a diverse background,
Speaker 1: and that is how he happened to be driving to
Speaker 1: the railroad station at Tarrytown, New York, one morning in
Speaker 1: the year nineteen ninety one, to meet the train that
Speaker 1: carried that day's guest speaker at the Hackley School. He
Speaker 1: was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and his
Speaker 1: name was Barack Obama. Anyway, mister Schneller and I were
Speaker 1: talking about the commentaries, and he said about the language Keith,
Speaker 1: and I braced myself and preemptively apologized, No, no, He said, urgently,
Speaker 1: you missed my point entirely. I'm amazed that your language
Speaker 1: is so restrained. If I was speaking, I'd have called
Speaker 1: mister Bush a whereupon mister Schneller made reference to somebody's mother.
Speaker 1: So back to lunch. When Senator Biden asked about the
Speaker 1: language I used, I was wary, but he followed it
Speaker 1: up by saying that it was kind of why he
Speaker 1: had asked me to lunch. I watch the commentary as
Speaker 1: you do. I don't have a choice. Everybody sends me
Speaker 1: the videos, and my staffers tell me about them. And
Speaker 1: every time I think the same thing, you express anger.
Speaker 1: But as close as you come to the line, you
Speaker 1: never go across it. I say to my staff folks,
Speaker 1: is he too angry for you? And they all say no,
Speaker 1: just right. So here's my question, and then we can
Speaker 1: enjoy this great lunch. When I'm passionate about something and
Speaker 1: I speak on the Senate floor, or on the campaign
Speaker 1: or anywhere else, I get told by my friends and
Speaker 1: by my enemies, you're too angry. And when I really
Speaker 1: am angry, they all say, you're really too angry. And
Speaker 1: here Joe Biden laughed. Now you you go on TV,
Speaker 1: far larger audience, far longer speeches, and people say that Alderman,
Speaker 1: he's righteously indignant. With a mixture of laughter, astonishment and curiosity,
Speaker 1: he said me, I'm angry. You you are righteously indignant.
Speaker 1: How do you do it? How do you do it? Man?
Speaker 1: Can you tell me without thinking? I replied, you've been
Speaker 1: in the Senate for how long now, Senator thirty thirty
Speaker 1: four years? He nodded. And you're only just asking this
Speaker 1: question now. The words were barely out of my mouth
Speaker 1: when I froze. This was a friend, or a colleague,
Speaker 1: or even an athlete who would take the little joking
Speaker 1: jab I had just thrown. This was a politician. They
Speaker 1: may have senses of humor, but very few have senses
Speaker 1: of humor about themselves. In that split second, I was
Speaker 1: confident Joe Biden would get up and leave. And he
Speaker 1: was silent for a moment, and then the corners of
Speaker 1: his mouth turned up, and to my great relief, he
Speaker 1: burst into laughter. He rocked back into his chair. He
Speaker 1: slapped the table with a palm. My god, that's funny.
Speaker 1: More laughter, My God, that's true, louder laughter. I do
Speaker 1: not apologize when I say I have loved him ever since.
Speaker 1: I didn't think I actually would have had much advice
Speaker 1: for him, and was prepared to just go through the
Speaker 1: lunch having lunch. But as we talked about this topic,
Speaker 1: he asked me follow up questions that made me analyze
Speaker 1: for the the first time some of the processes I
Speaker 1: used unknowingly when writing and reading on television. I had
Speaker 1: never thought of them before because I had never had
Speaker 1: had lunch with Joe Biden before. I will not bore
Speaker 1: you with the full results of the dissection of the
Speaker 1: process or how to turn anger into righteous indignation, if
Speaker 1: that's really what I was doing. The most valuable conclusion
Speaker 1: was simply the oldest one in the book. I always
Speaker 1: wrote late at night while fully angry, and then in
Speaker 1: the morning I would take a lot of things out,
Speaker 1: usually adjectives. Whatever anger was left was only the most
Speaker 1: intense and the most justifiable. And if you present it
Speaker 1: twenty four hours after you have written it, you will
Speaker 1: be in control of the anger and not have the
Speaker 1: anger be in control of you in short sleep on it.
Speaker 1: That was in March two thousand and seven. I saw
Speaker 1: the Senator next in August of five, two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: a Democratic primary debate officially called the afl CIO Candidates Forum,
Speaker 1: Soldier Field, Chicago, outdoors ninety five degrees, threat of thunderstorms, Obama, Clinton, Biden,
Speaker 1: Dodd Richardson, Kusinich, Edwards, and the moderator me. There are
Speaker 1: photos of this, Joe Biden and I walking towards each other,
Speaker 1: hands extended for a greeting. He is literally asking me
Speaker 1: if I have noticed that he has been trying to
Speaker 1: turn his anger into righteous indignation, and Senator Biden asking
Speaker 1: if I thought he had succeeded. They are great photos,
Speaker 1: largely because my back is to the camera. He did
Speaker 1: not really succeed in doing this in the debate, though,
Speaker 1: and he actually came over to me during the commercial
Speaker 1: and told me what he was going to do, that
Speaker 1: he didn't think he'd actually gotten the chance to answer
Speaker 1: a previous question sufficiently, and he was going to go
Speaker 1: back to it the next time. I called on him,
Speaker 1: and I told him, don't, don't, don't, don't do that,
Speaker 1: and he did it anyway, and later he let me
Speaker 1: know he should have listened to me. Since then, I
Speaker 1: cannot recall him being angry, not even in those debates
Speaker 1: with that goddamned madman. The words were harsh, cutting, destructive, fatal.
Speaker 1: The tone, no, the tone was dismissive, disappointed, slept upon
Speaker 1: rage perfect a plus no notes. But it occurs to
Speaker 1: me in all of the analysis of all of the
Speaker 1: changes in Joe Biden since day one in nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: nobody touches on this one thing. As late as two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, he seemed to be his reputaieation was
Speaker 1: as a hothead. When was the last time he was
Speaker 1: accused of that. I'm not saying I had anything to
Speaker 1: do with that, But in the years now, since January sixth, particularly,
Speaker 1: it has been a comforting change, and not a change
Speaker 1: within Joe Biden, but within our presidency. And yet now
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four may make President Biden have to change back,
Speaker 1: because the comforting Joe Biden is great and the sardonic
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is greater. But the one who beat Trump
Speaker 1: and the one we need right now is the Joe
Speaker 1: Biden of the righteous anger. I've done all the damage
Speaker 1: I can do here, and now he's going to Joe
Speaker 1: Scarborough for advice. Thank you for listening. Countown musical directors
Speaker 1: Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanel arranged, produced, and performed
Speaker 1: most of our music. Mister Ray was on the guitars,
Speaker 1: bass and drums, and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards
Speaker 1: produced by Tko Brothers. Other music, including some of the
Speaker 1: Beethoven compositions, were arranged and performed by the group No
Speaker 1: horns allowed. Sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two,
Speaker 1: written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN inc. Our
Speaker 1: satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Fauss, the
Speaker 1: best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my
Speaker 1: friend Larry David, and everything else was pretty much my fault.
Speaker 1: Let's countdown for this the one hundred and twentieth day
Speaker 1: until the twenty twenty four presidential election, the one two
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty first day since convicted felon Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the
Speaker 1: United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the
Speaker 1: mental health system. You have this now, mister president, use
Speaker 1: presidential immunity, arrest him, stop him from doing it again
Speaker 1: while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Boltons as the news warrants, Oh God, I just want
Speaker 1: a day off till the next one. I'm Keith Olreriman.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
Speaker 1: with Keith Oldreman is a production of iHeart. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.