Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Harris
Speaker 1: has cut Trump's lead from nine points to five points
Speaker 1: in Texas. Harris is now ahead in North Carolina by
Speaker 1: one point. There is leaked audio of Trump pledging fealty
Speaker 1: to the families of the January sixth Traders and hosting
Speaker 1: an event for them, and more blatant Trump anti Semitism.
Speaker 1: There is the RFK Junior thing. There is the increasing
Speaker 1: evidence that Trump is at least accidentally giving up on
Speaker 1: winning the election and instead focusing on raising the temperature
Speaker 1: so much among his fascists that they can run a
Speaker 1: coup from behind in the legislatures and in the House.
Speaker 1: And none of that, at least for a few hours today,
Speaker 1: is gonna top this.
Speaker 2: Bellow Americans, this election is not only the most important
Speaker 2: of our lives, it is one of the most important
Speaker 2: in the life of our nation. In many ways, Donald
Speaker 2: Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences, but the
Speaker 2: consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House
Speaker 2: are extremely serious. Consider consider not only the chaos and
Speaker 2: calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity
Speaker 2: of what has happened since he lost the last election,
Speaker 2: Donald Trump tried to throw your votes. When he failed,
Speaker 2: he sent an armed mob to the United States Capital,
Speaker 2: where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his
Speaker 2: own party begged him to call off the mob and
Speaker 2: send help, he did the opposite. He fanned the flames.
Speaker 2: And now, for an entirely different set of crimes, he
Speaker 2: was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans,
Speaker 2: and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse.
Speaker 2: And consider consider what he intends to do if we
Speaker 2: give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set
Speaker 2: free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at
Speaker 2: the Capitol, His explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents,
Speaker 2: and anyone he sees as the enemy. His explicit intent
Speaker 2: to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens.
Speaker 2: Consider consider the power he will have, especially after the
Speaker 2: United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be
Speaker 2: immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails,
Speaker 2: and how he would use the immense powers of the
Speaker 2: presidency of the United States, not to improve your life,
Speaker 2: not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the
Speaker 2: only client he has ever had himself and understand he
Speaker 2: is not done. As a part of his agenda, he
Speaker 2: and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban
Speaker 2: medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or
Speaker 2: without Congress. And get this, get this, he plans to
Speaker 2: create a national anti abortion coordinator and force states to
Speaker 2: report on women's miscarriages and abortions. Simply put, they are
Speaker 2: out of their minds. We must be worthy of this moment.
Speaker 2: It is now our turn to do what generations before
Speaker 2: us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight
Speaker 2: for this country we love, to fight for the ideals
Speaker 2: we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes
Speaker 2: with the greatest privilege on earth, the privilege and pride
Speaker 2: of being an American.
Speaker 1: So let's get out there, Let's fight for it.
Speaker 2: Let's get out there, let's vote for it, and together
Speaker 2: let us write the next great chapter in the most
Speaker 2: extraordinary story ever told.
Speaker 1: Thank you, let's see in the bus the United.
Speaker 2: States of America.
Speaker 1: Thank you of the non convention news. The Texas thing
Speaker 1: really is the most astonishing. In June, the University of
Speaker 1: Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs had Trump beating Biden
Speaker 1: in Texas by just under nine points. In its first
Speaker 1: poll since the chain, it has Trump's lead in Texas
Speaker 1: down to five points. More importantly, perhaps in June, Texas
Speaker 1: women were backing Trump by just under a point. It
Speaker 1: is now women by six for Harris in Texas, and
Speaker 1: then the biggest number of them all. In June, Trump
Speaker 1: led among Texas independents by twenty four points. The new
Speaker 1: Hobby poll has Trump ahead of Independence by two. She
Speaker 1: has cut his lead among Texas independents by ninety two percent.
Speaker 1: The Harris campaign is still not invested in a full
Speaker 1: campaign in Texas, not officially, there is reason to believe
Speaker 1: that even if a Trump squeaker is the best to
Speaker 1: be hoped for there, a minor investment could help down
Speaker 1: ballot Democrats in Texas. It might even knock out Ted Cruz,
Speaker 1: who is just two points ahead of the Democrat Colin Allred.
Speaker 1: The North Carolina number continues to indicate that that state
Speaker 1: has officially become a toss up Harris by one. In
Speaker 1: Survey US, the Nate Silver model has her favored by
Speaker 1: fifty two point seven to forty six point nine. It
Speaker 1: predicts a two hundred and seventy seven to two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty Harris win in the electoral college. A Civics
Speaker 1: poll has the newest net favorability scores. Walls is a
Speaker 1: plus three, Harris is a minus four. Trump is minus thirteen.
Speaker 1: Vance is minus fifteen. And now back to the question
Speaker 1: that I raised yesterday, and I am hardly the first
Speaker 1: who have done so, is it possible that Trump is
Speaker 1: now deliberately or inadvertently trying to lose with method to
Speaker 1: his madness, which I will circle back to shortly. Presumably
Speaker 1: you have heard about his crazy rant on Fox News
Speaker 1: yesterday where he twice refused to let even the supplicant
Speaker 1: Fox hosts interrupt him. Presumably U I seen the video
Speaker 1: of JV Vance failing to successfully order donuts in Georgia.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't do it justice to play just the audio here,
Speaker 1: Go and watch it if you have it already. It
Speaker 1: ends with an unfortunate worker refusing to let them use
Speaker 1: her face on the video, and then when he explains
Speaker 1: his name is JD. Vance and he's running for vice president,
Speaker 1: she answers okay, in a way in which the okay
Speaker 1: comes out sounding like are you sure about that? Well,
Speaker 1: all right, here's the audio anyway.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry she had a ordveal film guys to just
Speaker 2: cut her.
Speaker 1: Out of anything.
Speaker 2: Appreciate that man, Okadie Danser.
Speaker 1: I watch President see it. So Vance's net favorability was
Speaker 1: what did it say here? Minus fifteen? Did it go
Speaker 1: to minus sixteen just from that video at the donut shop?
Speaker 1: Have another donut? Okay? So so those are the funny parts.
Speaker 1: Now here's the not funny part, which is, of course,
Speaker 1: the threat by Trump to sabotage the elections. On the
Speaker 1: same day, leaked video appears from last year showing Trump
Speaker 1: at his golf crap shack at a gathering of families
Speaker 1: of those convicted, in some cases convicted after plea deals
Speaker 1: and confessions of participating in his first attempt to overthrow
Speaker 1: the government. Hours later comes this You are invited to
Speaker 1: the J six Awards gala. This is in gold printed
Speaker 1: on black, Thursday, September fifth, six pm Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster,
Speaker 1: and then it gives the address. The address is Lamington Road.
Speaker 1: By the way, attendees will get a chance to win
Speaker 1: a justice for all Donald J. Trump and J six
Speaker 1: Prison Choir J six number one Music chart at plaque.
Speaker 1: The invited guest speakers, Rudy Giuliani, Donald J. Trump and
Speaker 1: it says invited, and Anthony Raymundi and I don't know
Speaker 1: who Anthony is, but he couldn't afford to tie. This
Speaker 1: is two weeks from yesterday at Bedminster. If you're there,
Speaker 1: please don't step directly on Ivana's grave. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your understanding. At the same time, the same day come
Speaker 1: these videos out of nowhere from last year's Patriot Freedom
Speaker 1: Project August twenty second of last year at Bedminster. It
Speaker 1: is what he has said so often, this inversion of reality,
Speaker 1: in which the scum that he sent marching into the
Speaker 1: Capitol to kill congressmen and kill senators and kill his
Speaker 1: own vice president and interrupt the peaceful transfer of power
Speaker 1: are now heroes to be celebrated and pardoned.
Speaker 2: So I just want to let you know I'm with
Speaker 2: you to do something. You're not going to let this happen.
Speaker 1: This is a outrageous situation.
Speaker 2: Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: So we're going to be working with all of you,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna first we have to get elected. We
Speaker 1: get elected, Yes, we're.
Speaker 2: Gonna see me a little be treated very fairly again,
Speaker 2: because we're living in a fascist country. This is almost
Speaker 2: like a fashion.
Speaker 1: You're even a good word. Almost is a good word.
Speaker 1: But this has very become a country a little bit
Speaker 1: like you and I have never seen before. This is
Speaker 1: not our country. And he will do it again on
Speaker 1: September fifth, to again put front of mind to his
Speaker 1: own cult two months before election day, the idea of
Speaker 1: having to overthrow the government by force. At the same time,
Speaker 1: Trump is going full racism and full anti semitism, and
Speaker 1: it is anything but difficult to imagine that he is
Speaker 1: ready to cross the streams here, as it were, to
Speaker 1: insist if the current political trends continue and Harris's three
Speaker 1: to four point national lead expands still further, and if
Speaker 1: more and more swing states and independent voters reject Trump,
Speaker 1: to insist that his gangs and his militias be ready
Speaker 1: to take over the country by force or by legislative
Speaker 1: deceit because the last piece of the puzzle, it's the
Speaker 1: minorities who have rigged the election against him and them
Speaker 1: that is the final inflection point. And who knows what
Speaker 1: large percentage of his cultists are already there. There is
Speaker 1: no question he would turn to it. Hitler turned to
Speaker 1: it desperate despots in countless nations have turned to it,
Speaker 1: and to violence, and to ethnic cleansing, and to nightmares untold,
Speaker 1: there is no question he would turn to it. There
Speaker 1: is only the question of whether or not he will.
Speaker 1: Again from Yale historian Timothy Snyder, I have the New
Speaker 1: York Times. I quoted it yesterday. I may quote it
Speaker 1: every edition of this program between now and the election. Quote.
Speaker 1: Trump is in the classic dictatorial position. He needs to
Speaker 1: die in bed holding all executive power to stay out
Speaker 1: of prison. This means that he will do whatever he
Speaker 1: can to gain power, and once in power, will do
Speaker 1: all that he can to never let it go. This
Speaker 1: is a basic incentive structure which underlies everything else. It
Speaker 1: is entirely inconsistent with democracy. Trump and his cult will
Speaker 1: accept any inconsistency because they agree to no rules, and
Speaker 1: after nine years of this nation letting him and them
Speaker 1: run unchecked through our norms and laws and guard rails
Speaker 1: and collective goodness, that has convinced them they can get
Speaker 1: away with anything. And one day Trump is insisting the
Speaker 1: Democrats are anti Semitic because they chose Governor Walls and
Speaker 1: not Governor Shapiro to be vice president, and the next day,
Speaker 1: Trump is insisting that Governor Shapiro is a bad jew
Speaker 1: To quote Trump, shortly after midnight on Wednesday night, Thursday morning,
Speaker 1: the highly overrated Jewish Governor of the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: Josh Shapiro, made a really bad and poorly delivered speech
Speaker 1: talking about freedom and fighting for Comrade Kamala Harris for president.
Speaker 1: Yet she hates Israel and will do nothing but make
Speaker 1: its journey through the complexities of survival as difficult as possible,
Speaker 1: hoping in the end that it will fail. Judge only
Speaker 1: by her actions. Yet Shapiro, for strictly political reasons, refuse
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel
Speaker 1: and the Jewish people ever had. I have done more
Speaker 1: for Israel than any president, and frankly, I have done
Speaker 1: more for Israel than any person, and it's not even close.
Speaker 1: Shapiro has done nothing for Israel. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Israel is in big trouble. So what that is setting
Speaker 1: up is not defense of the Jewish people from anti Semitism.
Speaker 1: It is a refining of the Hitler plan or the
Speaker 1: plan of any other anti Semitic purges in human history.
Speaker 1: If and when Trump finally activates a base that is
Speaker 1: more than happy to attack the Jews, there will be
Speaker 1: good Trump Jews and bad Trump Jews, as there are
Speaker 1: already good Trump people of color and bad Trump people
Speaker 1: of color depend upon it. And why on earth would
Speaker 1: you ever do this? Not Trump? Why would he ever
Speaker 1: do that? Professor Snyder's simple reminder is that it's win
Speaker 1: or die in jail for Trump. There are no other options.
Speaker 1: Why on earth, though, would those around him ever do that?
Speaker 1: Because if there is no electoral path for him, there
Speaker 1: are no jobs for them. And we live in a
Speaker 1: time in which people think the only thing that matters
Speaker 1: is money. Not the people throughout our American history who
Speaker 1: have been corrupted by the idea that money is the
Speaker 1: most important thing. The people around Trump believe that money
Speaker 1: is the only measure of life. If there is no
Speaker 1: electoral path for Trump, there is only pure insurrection or
Speaker 1: the promise of the contingent election. I hope when I
Speaker 1: extensively quote somebody here that you will at least go
Speaker 1: to their site. I do it the quoting that is
Speaker 1: because they have expressed something more compactly and more starkly
Speaker 1: than I ever could, and usually with less rage. I
Speaker 1: find myself doing this often with Brian Boutler, who was
Speaker 1: once a contributor to the current TV edition of this
Speaker 1: news outlet. Brian Buler has the premise of the contingent
Speaker 1: election down and what President Biden should do about it,
Speaker 1: and what Democratic congressional leaders should be preparing to do
Speaker 1: about it and preparing now. I now steal three hundred
Speaker 1: of Brian's words, and I urge you to go subscribe
Speaker 1: to his newsletter. Quote. Trump loyalists don't necessarily need Trump
Speaker 1: loyal judges to validate their baseless allegations of impropriety. They
Speaker 1: just need to run out the clock. Brian writes. They
Speaker 1: would be perfectly happy to see liberal voters take to
Speaker 1: the streets in say Atlanta, only for the results in
Speaker 1: Georgia or elsewhere to remain uncertified as of the constitutional deadline.
Speaker 1: At that juncture, with no candidate having received at least
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy electoral votes, the question of who
Speaker 1: becomes president can only be answered by a contingent election
Speaker 1: in the US House, where each state delegation gets one vote.
Speaker 1: Many times over the past decades, Democrats have controlled the
Speaker 1: House itself while holding majorities in fewer than twenty five
Speaker 1: state delegations. If Republicans still control more state delegations than
Speaker 1: Democrats on January sixth, they can hand the election to
Speaker 1: the loser, even if Democrats control the Chamber and the
Speaker 1: House Speaker is a keem. Jeffries I. Brian Boiler writes
Speaker 1: would like to see Democrats taking steps to preempt that outcome.
Speaker 1: The starting point would probably be high profile Senate hearings
Speaker 1: with local elections officials willing to sound the alarm about
Speaker 1: their MAGA colleagues's dark intentions. Then advancing legislation to impose
Speaker 1: federal criminal penalties on elections officials who take results hostage.
Speaker 1: Make Senate Republicans filibuster it challenge House Republicans to hold
Speaker 1: a vote, but more radical action may be necessary, he writes.
Speaker 1: If Democrats win the House, they should be prepared to
Speaker 1: exploit ambiguities in precedent and refuse to seat Republicans from
Speaker 1: states or counties where MAGA election officials have blocked statewide
Speaker 1: certification of the presidential election result. After all, if the
Speaker 1: top of the ticket is suspect, why should the rest
Speaker 1: of the ballot get a rubber stamp? If that's not
Speaker 1: enough to assure that a contingent election will deliver the
Speaker 1: presidency to the true winner. President Biden should contemplate convening
Speaker 1: then adjourning the House and Senate pursuant to his Article two,
Speaker 1: Section three powers until Maga relents. It is harrowing. It
Speaker 1: is perhaps an accurate picture of the future, the immediate future.
Speaker 1: The Trump wins by losing future. And it is also
Speaker 1: a fulfillment of the old hackneyed phrase forewarned is forearmed boiler.
Speaker 1: Brian Bouler b e ut l e R. Also of
Speaker 1: interest here, I think for the first time ever there
Speaker 1: is a three way time for worst persons in the world,
Speaker 1: and I goddamn mean it this time. The worst persons
Speaker 1: in the world. They are Meghan Kelly and two people
Speaker 1: who have publicly attacked Governor Tim Wallas's seventeen year old
Speaker 1: challenged son for having cried as his dad was being nominated.
Speaker 1: They are a Trump sucker and Delegate Mike Crispy and
Speaker 1: Coulter Geist herself. And they are scum. That's next. This
Speaker 1: is countdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead
Speaker 1: of us on this edition of Countdown breaking format on
Speaker 1: a Friday, because for everybody who's ever asked, hey, pal,
Speaker 1: did you hit your head or something when you were
Speaker 1: a kid, the answer is why, Yes, yes I did.
Speaker 1: And the forty fifth anniversary of it is tomorrow. Don't worry,
Speaker 1: I'll be getting better any day now. Next in Things
Speaker 1: I promised not to tell first, there are still more
Speaker 1: new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the misgrants,
Speaker 1: morons and Dunning Krueger effects specimens who constitute today's worst
Speaker 1: persons in the world. And ordinarily, although maybe it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like this, every time there is an element of
Speaker 1: humor to the worst person in the world segment, there
Speaker 1: is some attempt to mock them, at least to if
Speaker 1: we can't laugh with them, at least we can laugh
Speaker 1: at them. Not so today, these are three of the
Speaker 1: genuinely worst persons in the world, people who have been
Speaker 1: so turned from probably unpleasant, stupid, narrow minded, arrogant individuals
Speaker 1: into monsters because of the Republican Party and the conservative
Speaker 1: movement and Fox News and the right wing echo sphere.
Speaker 1: They all fit this category. They are all legitimately the
Speaker 1: worst persons in the world, and so we have a
Speaker 1: three way tie Number one is Megan Kelly. Megan Kelly
Speaker 1: is the woman who used to be with Fox, used
Speaker 1: to be with NBC, used to be with Lawyer, and
Speaker 1: lost all three of those gigs who once went on
Speaker 1: and suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris slept her way
Speaker 1: to the top. And you should have heard the rumors
Speaker 1: at Fox News. Megan Kelly wrote this Lafonza Butler speaking
Speaker 1: she filled Feinstein's seat at the DNC this is happening,
Speaker 1: celebrating that she and Harris both graduated from historically black colleges.
Speaker 1: Imagine the white person up there. I'm proud to tell
Speaker 1: you I went to a mostly white university. Quote. It
Speaker 1: seems to have never occurred to Megan Kelly, and why
Speaker 1: should it. She's a white woman with blonde hair. At
Speaker 1: least that's its color. Now she's a blonde woman with
Speaker 1: white hair, or a white woman with blonde hair, or
Speaker 1: she's just pasty white. And it's never occurred to her
Speaker 1: once because she's never been the victim of any kind
Speaker 1: of discrimination whatsoever. Possibly something was held against her because
Speaker 1: she was a woman. That happens, That still happens. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's happened in her case, she got
Speaker 1: into television with absolutely no qualifications whatsoever and got a
Speaker 1: huge contract from NBC, And her qualification for that was
Speaker 1: they had a news chief who was in decline, who
Speaker 1: had begun to hire and promote people who looked like
Speaker 1: women who looked like his wife did at various stages
Speaker 1: of her life. I swear, in any event, it has
Speaker 1: never seemingly occurred, based on this tweet by Megan Kelly,
Speaker 1: it has never occurred to her that the reason there
Speaker 1: are historically black colleges is that, for you know, all
Speaker 1: of American history, it's been tougher for black people to
Speaker 1: get into historically white colleges. That there are historically white colleges.
Speaker 1: I went to a mostly white university. You bet your ass,
Speaker 1: Megan Kelly, and you all look good in your hoods there.
Speaker 1: The idea of affirmative action was not to somehow benefit
Speaker 1: people at the expense of others, but to stop that
Speaker 1: from happening. That there were historically white universities, That there
Speaker 1: were college that did not admit black people, That there
Speaker 1: were golf courses like the one where they play the
Speaker 1: Masters tournament every year that did not admit black members.
Speaker 1: Well into the what was it nineteen nineties. Racism is
Speaker 1: alive and well in this country. And if you need
Speaker 1: to find out where, follow Megan Kelly on Twitter X.
Speaker 1: As I said, it's a three way tie. They are worse, worser,
Speaker 1: and worse. This is from a guy named Mike Crispy,
Speaker 1: who we saw last as a man claiming that the
Speaker 1: Democrats are biased against Italian Americans, that Italian Americans are
Speaker 1: suffering racism at the hands of the Democrats. He was, apparently,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, a congressional candidate who finished like
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty third. He lists himself as a
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four Trump delegate, So he's stupid and corrupt.
Speaker 1: Chairman of the America First Republicans of New Jersey. So
Speaker 1: he's stupid and corrupt and has a really stupid sounding accent,
Speaker 1: and he's a podcaster on Rumble, which means he has
Speaker 1: no ethics whatsoever. This is what Mike Crispy wrote about
Speaker 1: Gus Walls as we saw Gus Walls during his father's
Speaker 1: speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night accepting
Speaker 1: the vice presidential nomination. This is what Mike Crispy wrote
Speaker 1: with a picture of Mike Crispy rather of Gus Walls
Speaker 1: and his mother. The video of this taken, ironically enough,
Speaker 1: from MSNBC. Mike Crispy wrote, Tim Walls's stupid crying son.
Speaker 1: Isn't the flex the left thinks it is. You raised
Speaker 1: your kid to be a puffy beta male. Congrats? Does
Speaker 1: Baron Trump cry Nope? Does he love his father? Of course,
Speaker 1: That's the type of values I want leading the country.
Speaker 1: Mike Crispy called Gus Walls a puffy beta male, a
Speaker 1: stupid crying son. I'll just mention this Schwallz is neuro divergent.
Speaker 1: He has ADHD, anxiety and a nonverbal learning disorder, and
Speaker 1: it is not surprising that at the age of seventeen,
Speaker 1: under those circumstances he would have trouble regulating his emotions
Speaker 1: in social settings. I would argue that if Mike Crispy
Speaker 1: had some sort of normal human relationship with anybody else
Speaker 1: in the world, and that person was being nominated for
Speaker 1: Vice President of the United States, Mike Crispy, who looks
Speaker 1: like he's about fifty six fifty seven years old and
Speaker 1: pretending to be much younger, Mike Crispy might not fully
Speaker 1: control his emotions while that person who was important to
Speaker 1: him was being nominated for vice president. He has the
Speaker 1: nerve to call this kid a seventeen year old, the
Speaker 1: nerve to call him your stupid, crying son, your kid
Speaker 1: to be a puffy beta male, and to compare him
Speaker 1: to Baron Trump. Baron Trump, who, by the way, I
Speaker 1: will assert, is the smartest of all the Trump males.
Speaker 1: He has never said a word in public. I don't
Speaker 1: care why he's the smart one. The other ones are
Speaker 1: all assholes. Mike Crispy, he should be fired from wherever
Speaker 1: he works. He should not have a job. He should
Speaker 1: not have an income. He should not have a family,
Speaker 1: he should not have a future. He should not have
Speaker 1: a meal today. Mike Crispy Crispi on Rumble Chairman America,
Speaker 1: First Republicans of New Jersey. I'd like to say he
Speaker 1: knows where all the bodies are buried, but we already
Speaker 1: know the answer to that if Anna is on the
Speaker 1: first t. But there's somebody who is actually tied with
Speaker 1: Mike Crispy. It's hard to believe that anybody could compete
Speaker 1: with Mike Crispy, or Megan Kelly for that matter, But
Speaker 1: competing with Mike crispy on the subject of Tim Walls
Speaker 1: and his son Gus, because of her reach, because of
Speaker 1: her experience, because of her number of followers, still ill,
Speaker 1: because of the familiarity one has with her words, and
Speaker 1: the fact that they have been for now thirty years
Speaker 1: inhuman unkind to a degree almost is immeasurable. Somebody who
Speaker 1: made Rush Limbaugh look good. And Culture who finally got
Speaker 1: so disgusting that she was turned away by the Republican Party.
Speaker 1: And Culture with a picture of Gus Walls with his
Speaker 1: hand on his chest, his eyes closed, crying and pointing
Speaker 1: that's my dad. An extraordinary moment. But and Coulter, who
Speaker 1: is as disgusting a human being as I've ever heard,
Speaker 1: who went to my college, Cornell University, and once called
Speaker 1: me an elitist because I mentioned it on the air
Speaker 1: that I went to Cornell University, and then said, I
Speaker 1: did not really go to Cornell University because I graduated
Speaker 1: from the Agriculture School and that was a partial state school.
Speaker 1: But she went to the Arts college. She was Ivy
Speaker 1: League Cornell. I was cow College Cornell, and I was
Speaker 1: an elitist. And culture has now stepped down into what
Speaker 1: we used to clean out of the stables at the
Speaker 1: Agriculture College the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at
Speaker 1: Cornell University, the university, by the way, which does not
Speaker 1: list and Culture among its famed alumni, because years ago
Speaker 1: it decided it needed to separate itself from one of
Speaker 1: its own alumni or alumni. And Culture runs this picture
Speaker 1: of Tim Walls in the middle of an extraordinary emotional
Speaker 1: moment for him and wrote, simply talk about weird and culture.
Speaker 1: May the next time I see you you be face
Speaker 1: down in the stables at the Cornell Agriculture and Life
Speaker 1: Sciences College. Horse manure pile, Mike Crispy, Megan Kelly, and
Speaker 1: Colter two day's worst persons, and I mean it in
Speaker 1: the world. On Sunday, the twenty fourth of August nineteen eighty,
Speaker 1: I learned what Mom meant when she had said, never
Speaker 1: run for a train. There'll always be another one. Because
Speaker 1: I didn't know what it meant, I nearly killed myself.
Speaker 1: I permanently altered my health, and I put myself on
Speaker 1: a path towards meeting the great doctor Renee Richards. I
Speaker 1: was sleeping late in my relatively new and tiny studio
Speaker 1: apartment on fifty Fifth Street in Manhattan, apartment ten F,
Speaker 1: when above me eleven F started making noise like pounding
Speaker 1: on the floor. And now it's eight thirty Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: and I'm awake, and I'm not doing my job as
Speaker 1: a radio sportscaster until about two, and I think, well,
Speaker 1: I'm a oh, the Dodgers are playing the Mets at Shay.
Speaker 1: I can go to my other job as a semi
Speaker 1: professional photographer and go shoot the Dodgers and still make
Speaker 1: it to work on time. So I packed my semi
Speaker 1: professional emphasis on the semi photographer's bag and drag myself
Speaker 1: out on the subway and get to share stadium around
Speaker 1: eleven thirty am. And there's nobody there. No Dodgers players,
Speaker 1: no Mets players, nobody but the grounds keepers. And as
Speaker 1: the minutes pass, I'm beginning to calculate when I have
Speaker 1: to leave in order to not be late to my
Speaker 1: job back in Manhattan. Weekend life in New York City
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty might as well have been nineteen ten.
Speaker 1: I tell people this, they do not believe me. But
Speaker 1: when I worked weekends the next year in Times Square,
Speaker 1: I used to call into my newsroom from a payphone
Speaker 1: on Fifth Avenue and say, okay, I'm going to Arby's today.
Speaker 1: Who wants one? But or McDonald's or Burger King or wherever.
Speaker 1: Because our office was in Times Square and on weekends
Speaker 1: there were no restaurants open in Times Square. You could
Speaker 1: not get food in Times Square on weekends. Today, the
Speaker 1: same four square block area probably has fifty restaurants and
Speaker 1: fast food places. So the train back to Manhattan from
Speaker 1: Shaye Stadium in Queens ran once every half an hour
Speaker 1: on that Sunday in August of nineteen eighty, And as
Speaker 1: I looked at my watch, I realized I should have
Speaker 1: left the field three or four minutes ago. If you
Speaker 1: went out the press entrance and exit at Shaye Stadium,
Speaker 1: you could see the train approaching the elevated station out
Speaker 1: behind right field, And if you had just seen it,
Speaker 1: if it had just become visible, and if you then
Speaker 1: ran your fastest, you could make it to the viaduct
Speaker 1: that crossed the parking lot and led you up towards
Speaker 1: the station platform. And if you could get your subway
Speaker 1: token out and into the turnstile slot with one fluid
Speaker 1: overhead motion, and if you kept running all time, you
Speaker 1: could just make the train if you didn't, you would
Speaker 1: be waiting half an hour, unless maybe the next train
Speaker 1: was late or on fire somewhere. Sure enough, as I
Speaker 1: got out of the ballpark, I could see the Manhattan
Speaker 1: bound train just appearing at the horizon. I was twenty one.
Speaker 1: My knees still worked, and I ran, and I got
Speaker 1: into the viaduct, and I got the token out of
Speaker 1: my pocket, and I got into the slot like Darryl
Speaker 1: Dawkins doing a Tomahawk slam. And I not only made
Speaker 1: the train, but I made it by so much that
Speaker 1: I styled, I celebrated, I congratulated myself. I was guilty
Speaker 1: of premature jocularity. I could have just slowed to a
Speaker 1: triumphant jog and gotten a seat, huffing and sweaty, but
Speaker 1: eminently satisfied and on time for work. But no, I
Speaker 1: decided to make an exultant, joyful leap. The next thing
Speaker 1: I registered. It was the loudest sound I had ever
Speaker 1: or have since ever heard, as if six hundred gongs
Speaker 1: had gone off simultaneously, or a dozen church bells, or
Speaker 1: every alarm clock that had ever awakened me from the
Speaker 1: deepest of sleeps. Something like this, but inside your head
Speaker 1: barm when it happened was forgetting that I was no
Speaker 1: longer six feet tall as I had been even two
Speaker 1: years before, but was now just under six y four.
Speaker 1: My leap had ended with me slamming my forehead on
Speaker 1: the flat metal bar just above the train doorway an
Speaker 1: inch higher, I might have blinded myself. The bar an
Speaker 1: inch above the doorway is, in fact, as I found
Speaker 1: out later, the thickest piece of metal on a New
Speaker 1: York City subway train. As it was, my momentum carried
Speaker 1: me safely into the train. I hit the floor. I
Speaker 1: saw my sunglasses go flying off and rattling down towards
Speaker 1: the back of the train like a plastic rat. I
Speaker 1: heard the train doors close, I felt the blood on
Speaker 1: my head and in my hair, and I crawled up
Speaker 1: onto the plastic bench seating behind me. The mass gong
Speaker 1: sound continued in my head, and my first cogent thought
Speaker 1: was to see the blood on the train floor and think, Oh,
Speaker 1: I have spilled blood all over their train, and I
Speaker 1: don't have anything to clean it up with. Similar nonsense
Speaker 1: continued to bounce around my concussed size eight noggin for seconds,
Speaker 1: maybe minutes. It was beginning to really hurt, and of
Speaker 1: more practical import the bleeding had not really stopped. At
Speaker 1: this point, an older woman sitting more or less across
Speaker 1: from me handed me a small packet. It was a
Speaker 1: wet wipe. I mumbled thanks, opened it, dabbed it on
Speaker 1: my forehead for a second, and was surprised to find
Speaker 1: it instantly inundated with blood. This was the first time
Speaker 1: it occurred to me that I might be in real trouble.
Speaker 1: On the number seven local train to Grand Central and
Speaker 1: Times Square. Apparently this thought occurred simultaneously to the woman
Speaker 1: with the wet wipe and to her friend, I think
Speaker 1: you're kind of hurt. One of them said to me,
Speaker 1: let's get you to the hospital. There's one a couple
Speaker 1: blocks from the next stop. Now understand this situation. The
Speaker 1: New York of nineteen eighty, and particularly the subways of
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty were not nice places. Two years later, I
Speaker 1: took a rush hour train to my job at CNN
Speaker 1: at the World Trade Center and was annoyed to find
Speaker 1: one guy who had sprawled himself over three seats with
Speaker 1: a newspaper covering his face. Nine hours later, when I
Speaker 1: went home, I got onto a train and saw the
Speaker 1: same guy with the same newspaper on the same seats,
Speaker 1: because it was the same train, and more importantly, because
Speaker 1: he was dead anyway, it was now around twelve forty
Speaker 1: five of a Sunday afternoon. If it had been night,
Speaker 1: or indeed certain other times of the day or on
Speaker 1: other train lines, I would have simply been the easiest
Speaker 1: mugging victim in New York history. Somebody could have knocked
Speaker 1: me over and taken my wallet with next to no effort. Hell,
Speaker 1: they could have asked me for my wallet, and I
Speaker 1: was so I probably would have said, sure, have a
Speaker 1: nice day, got any wet wipes? Instead, I met not one,
Speaker 1: but two good Samaritans who knew where the hospitals were
Speaker 1: in a part of town I could barely find on
Speaker 1: a map. Sure enough, they helped me to my feet,
Speaker 1: walked me down the steps and to the two blocks
Speaker 1: or so that separated us from Elmhurst Hospital, And when
Speaker 1: I reassured them I was clear headed enough to get
Speaker 1: into the emergency room by myself, they wished me luck,
Speaker 1: and they would not even accept my offer of two
Speaker 1: tokens to get them back on the subway. There should
Speaker 1: be a monument to these two women somewhere. If the
Speaker 1: New York City subways of nineteen eighty were scary, the
Speaker 1: emergency rooms of its hospitals were something out of a
Speaker 1: Brian De Palma film. I think there were a couple
Speaker 1: of dozen people in the er. I remember one of
Speaker 1: them asking me how I got so bloody, and I explained,
Speaker 1: and he said you should go ahead of me. And
Speaker 1: he opened his windbreaker to show a blood covered shirt,
Speaker 1: and he added the bullet only crazed me. I know.
Speaker 1: I waited about two hours. During that time I had
Speaker 1: a singular experience which has informed my understanding of concussions
Speaker 1: and traumatic brain injury ever since. The desk nurse asked
Speaker 1: me for the name of a contact, preferably a family member.
Speaker 1: I gave my father's name, Theodore. Then she asked me
Speaker 1: for my full name, and when I went to say it,
Speaker 1: I could not remember my middle name. Could not remember
Speaker 1: my middle name Keith I got Olderman, I got that
Speaker 1: was it. My middle name is also Theodore. I could
Speaker 1: remember Theodore my dad, but not Theodore my middle name.
Speaker 1: That is how fragile your brain really is. Think of
Speaker 1: that the next time you see somebody get clocked in
Speaker 1: a sporting event, there was some comic relief. I called
Speaker 1: into my office at United Press International's Audio network and
Speaker 1: explained to the news editor a veteran named Ed Caerans,
Speaker 1: the most dapperman in radio history, who looked like the
Speaker 1: actor Ray Collins from Citizen Kane. I told Ed, I
Speaker 1: had just sort of almost you know, killed myself on
Speaker 1: the subway coming in from Queen's, and I really didn't
Speaker 1: know when or if I would be at work. About
Speaker 1: forty five minutes after that conversation, the desk nurse started
Speaker 1: shouting my name, and I thought, Okay, I'm finally going
Speaker 1: to be brought in to see a doctor. No, it
Speaker 1: was Ed Caron's calling from UPI. My bosses were all
Speaker 1: very sorry that I was wounded, he said, but there
Speaker 1: was nobody available to fill in for me. So when
Speaker 1: could they expect me to be in the office, I explained,
Speaker 1: I did not know that since I was technically still
Speaker 1: bleeding to death. Forty five minutes more passed, and again
Speaker 1: the nurse summoned me and said there was a phone call,
Speaker 1: and this time I was sure it was my dad,
Speaker 1: Keith ed Karin's again at UPI. He explained that my
Speaker 1: boss now said that they would bring in the guy
Speaker 1: who was supposed to do the next morning sports cast,
Speaker 1: my college friend Peter shack Now, but they expected me
Speaker 1: to do it his shift starting at four point thirty
Speaker 1: in the morning. I explained to Ed that I would try,
Speaker 1: but that honestly I didn't know where I was or
Speaker 1: what time it was. Now two nice ladies had mentioned
Speaker 1: the name of the hospital, but I really wasn't remembering
Speaker 1: too well. Plus I was still bleeding to death. Needless
Speaker 1: to say, I did not bleed to death. I survived.
Speaker 1: It was a severe concussion, but it only took a
Speaker 1: stitch and a half to actually close that wound, and
Speaker 1: the er doctor and the nurses were outstanding, and they
Speaker 1: gave me easy to remember instructions, plus a note indicating
Speaker 1: that I should rest for at least forty eight hours
Speaker 1: just in case ED Karen showed up at my apartment.
Speaker 1: No offense to ED. They told me what symptoms to expect,
Speaker 1: how to prepare for them, and when they would stop.
Speaker 1: And they stopped like one day earlier. It was a
Speaker 1: potential disaster that turned into a nothing burger, or so
Speaker 1: I thought. Two years later, I was at the original
Speaker 1: Louis Armstrong Stadium covering the nineteen eighty two US Tennis Open,
Speaker 1: on the other side of the same elevated subway station
Speaker 1: where I had run into the train going there. Always
Speaker 1: actually made me laugh. Until the afternoon of Saturday, September eleventh,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two. I was watching the Women's final, covering
Speaker 1: it for CNN Chris Evert over Hannah Mandlakova and swinging
Speaker 1: my head from side to side as one does to
Speaker 1: follow the tennis action from over here, two over there,
Speaker 1: two over here, two over there, as I had swung
Speaker 1: my head from side to side for the preceding twelve
Speaker 1: days of the tournament. Then I swung to the right,
Speaker 1: but my left eye kept looking to the left, the
Speaker 1: old Marty Feldman thing reversed crossed eyes that hurt worse
Speaker 1: than hitting the train had. I could barely stand any light.
Speaker 1: I often had to keep my hand in front of
Speaker 1: my eyes. I rushed to my optometris Monday morning and
Speaker 1: he started to laugh. This happened to you during the
Speaker 1: US Open. I said, yes, why are you laughing at me?
Speaker 1: He said, I'm going to send you to the best
Speaker 1: muscle ophthalmologist I've ever met. I said, so, why are
Speaker 1: you laughing at me? He said, you don't know who
Speaker 1: that is? I said, no, I let my knowledge of
Speaker 1: the muscle ophthalmology ranking slip. Why are you laughing at me?
Speaker 1: He said? The best muscle ophthalmologist I've ever met is
Speaker 1: doctor Renee Richards, the transsexual tennis player. I said, I
Speaker 1: don't care who you're sending me to. I'm in trouble here.
Speaker 1: If they can fix this, I don't care who you're
Speaker 1: sending me. My train accident was so far in my
Speaker 1: past that when I got in to see doctor Richards
Speaker 1: the next morning, I didn't even think to mention it
Speaker 1: in my patient history. It didn't matter. Thirty seconds of
Speaker 1: staring into my eyes through a wall sized feropter and
Speaker 1: Renee Richards said, when exactly did you hit your head
Speaker 1: August or September of nineteen eighty. I was stunned. I
Speaker 1: did hit my head in nineteen eighty August twenty fourth.
Speaker 1: She made a clicking noise of satisfaction. I've heard of
Speaker 1: this before, but I've never seen it. You couldn't do
Speaker 1: this again in a million years. The good news is
Speaker 1: that muscle with the eyes, that's just muscle exhaustion. We
Speaker 1: can fix that with a thing that costs to buck
Speaker 1: ninety eight. The bad news is when you hit your head,
Speaker 1: most of the damage must have been absorbed by your
Speaker 1: inner ear. If you want to fix that, you'll need
Speaker 1: brain surgery. I don't recommend brain surgery. Doctor Renee Richards
Speaker 1: showed me the muscle exercises that cost a dollar ninety
Speaker 1: eight that fixed my reverse crossed eyes. They felt better immediately.
Speaker 1: I still do the exercises I did them earlier today.
Speaker 1: Then Renee Richards said, so you're a sports reporter. It
Speaker 1: says here, listen, my next patient isn't due for half
Speaker 1: an hour. You should rest anyway after my exam. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about sports reporting. Renee Richards was an expert. Her
Speaker 1: transition had been outed by a sportscaster, Tucker Carlson's father.
Speaker 1: If you can believe that, I can believe it, because
Speaker 1: she had been a man when she played in the
Speaker 1: US Open. As a woman, she had become almost instantaneously
Speaker 1: the most famous tennis player in the world. Then she
Speaker 1: became Martina Navratilova's coach. I learned more from her in
Speaker 1: that first half hour of conversation about the ethics of
Speaker 1: reporting than I had in all of my previous life
Speaker 1: experiences combined. Plus she was a gas Renee. Richards was hilarious,
Speaker 1: she was self effacing, She was a great doctor, and
Speaker 1: to me, she was the definition of courage. And she,
Speaker 1: I am proud to say, is still my friend, all
Speaker 1: because I did not know what Mom meant when she said,
Speaker 1: don't run for a train. There'll always be another one.
Speaker 1: The other phrase I never really understood till then was
Speaker 1: break neck speed. Oh, when there is one more punchline here.
Speaker 1: If the name of that hospital that the two good
Speaker 1: Samaritans took me to, Elmhurst Hospital, sounds vaguely familiar, it should.
Speaker 1: It was ground zero when COVID nineteen hit, when the
Speaker 1: pandemic had its hand around New York City's throat. The
Speaker 1: worst hit community was Elmhurst in Queens, and the worst
Speaker 1: hit hospital was Elmhurst Hospital. They were in desperate need
Speaker 1: at that point of ventilators, so I knew what I
Speaker 1: had to do. You could buy them for cash legally,
Speaker 1: So I got two ventilators. I had them delivered, one
Speaker 1: for each of the ladies who helped me to get
Speaker 1: off the damn train that day. I've done all the
Speaker 1: damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Please
Speaker 1: share this podcast with somebody who does not listen. Brian
Speaker 1: Ray and John Phillips Chanel, the musical directors, have Countdown, arranged, produced,
Speaker 1: and performed most of our music. Mister Chanelle handled the
Speaker 1: orchestration and the keyboards. Mister Ray was on the guitars,
Speaker 1: the bass, and the drums. It was produced by Tko Brothers.
Speaker 1: Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best
Speaker 1: baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. Sports music is the
Speaker 1: Olberman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis
Speaker 1: courtesy of ESPN Inc. Other music arranged and performed by
Speaker 1: the group No Horns Allowed. My announcer today was my
Speaker 1: friend Kenny Main. Everything else was pretty much my fault.
Speaker 1: That's countdown for this the seventy fifth day until the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four presidential election, and they three hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty fourth day since convicted felon Donald J. Trump's first
Speaker 1: attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Speaker 1: Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. If it happens, use
Speaker 1: the mental health system. You've got it. President Biden used
Speaker 1: presidential immunity. If you need to get out the troops
Speaker 1: and stop him from doing it again while we still can,
Speaker 1: and anti Semitic, anti immigration, gun nut Republicans, please stop
Speaker 1: shooting at Trump. The next scheduled countdown is Tuesday. Bulletins
Speaker 1: as the news requires. Until the next one of these,
Speaker 1: I'm Keith Olderman, good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
Speaker 1: good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.