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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Give

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Speaker 1: Me Liberty or Give Me Death. Patrick Henry said that

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty years ago, yesterday, to galvanize Americans

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Speaker 1: against the tyranny growing around them, brought by an insane

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Speaker 1: dictator king, not whatever was manifesting near Saint John's Church

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Speaker 1: in Richmond, where the Second Virginia Convention he was addressing

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Speaker 1: was meeting, Not what threatened them individually, not what was

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Speaker 1: at their door, but what they knew would be at

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Speaker 1: their door soon or late, because it was already inside

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Speaker 1: the homes of their fellow Americans in far off Boston.

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Speaker 1: Give me Liberty or give me death, because whether or not,

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Speaker 1: the tyrant is here for us now, he is here

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Speaker 1: already for our brothers and sisters. He will be here

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Speaker 1: for us soon enough, and soon the Virginia Militia embroidered

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Speaker 1: their battle shirts with Liberty or Death, and soon an

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Speaker 1: entirely new concept. Americans had destroyed those who intended to

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Speaker 1: enslave them, and they had won a liberty that lasted

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty years, well nearly closer to what

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five minus eight two one hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: two years, give me liberty or give me death March

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Speaker 1: twenty third, seventeen hundred and seventy five. And what would

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Speaker 1: our Patrick Henry have said on March twenty third, two

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Speaker 1: thousand and twenty five, Give me liberty or give me

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Speaker 1: a free twelve ounce coffee with the purchase of a

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Speaker 1: dozen donuts while supplies last at participating outlets only. Our

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Speaker 1: collective selfishness and self obsession is virtually total. Our collective

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Speaker 1: incapacity to see anything further than our own needs. For

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Speaker 1: that matter, our own needs for no span of time

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Speaker 1: longer than a couple of weeks, is so powerful, so ritualized,

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Speaker 1: so rewarded, that we barely see it anymore. Even when

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Speaker 1: our laws, our courts, our institutions, our leaders, our media,

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Speaker 1: our political parties, our handful of responsible corporations, even when

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Speaker 1: they fold under pressure or just the fear of pressure,

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Speaker 1: or worst of all, even without any pressure whatsoever, we

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Speaker 1: sit there, pointing at them and at those of applying

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Speaker 1: the pressure, as if pointing at them were somehow enough,

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Speaker 1: as if shame would be enough to make them stiffen

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Speaker 1: and fight back and risk something, risk anything to save democracy.

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Speaker 1: And in that word, hour I include myself, and I

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Speaker 1: exclude literally no more than a handful of others like

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Speaker 1: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders, who are at least

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Speaker 1: out there yelling and warning and being the focal points

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Speaker 1: for the crowds and inviting the hatred and the pressure

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Speaker 1: of the fascists, and inviting worse than just pressure. The

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Speaker 1: rest of us are celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth

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Speaker 1: anniversary of Patrick Henry by proclaiming, give me liberty or

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Speaker 1: give me unlimited text and data when I trade in

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Speaker 1: my iPhone. The institutions that made their bones in this country,

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Speaker 1: that grew their gravitas that we're supposed to do this

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Speaker 1: when we needed them to do this, that earned some trust,

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Speaker 1: even as trust shrank in every corner with every passing year,

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Speaker 1: are now racing each other to capitulate and to collaborate

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Speaker 1: before their rivals do. Columbia University, whose board of trustees

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Speaker 1: co chair is one of my oldest professional friends and

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Speaker 1: one of the reporters I had the most respect for,

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Speaker 1: was barely done humiliating and prostrating itself in front of

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Speaker 1: Trump in hopes of getting back four hundred million dollars

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Speaker 1: in federal grants out of five billion in federal grants,

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Speaker 1: when Colombia's endowment is fourteen and a half billion. Columbia

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Speaker 1: was barely done getting the public praise yesterday from the

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Speaker 1: idiot former head of wrestling who is now Secretary of

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Speaker 1: Education without telling her to shove the four hundred million

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Speaker 1: dollars up Trump's ass, one silver dollar at a time,

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Speaker 1: without the student body walking out, or taking over Upper Manhattan,

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Speaker 1: or shutting down the entire goddamned city of New York.

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Speaker 1: Columbia was barely done collaborating when the entire infrastructure of

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Speaker 1: my alma mater, Cornell, did nothing about ice the Gestapo

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Speaker 1: demanding that one of Cornell's students turn himself in for

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Speaker 1: deportation today because of anti Israel protests. And let me

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Speaker 1: tell you, shutting down Inthaca, New York, would be a

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Speaker 1: lot goddamned easier than shutting down half of Manhattan. And

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Speaker 1: when I was still there, the majority of the faculty

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Speaker 1: and even some students had witnessed the response to rampant racism,

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Speaker 1: including a cross burning at a black women's dorm, and

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Speaker 1: the response was for students to take over the student

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Speaker 1: union while carrying long guns and wearing bandoliers. And even

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine when I graduated. A decade after

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Speaker 1: that and a group of low income minority students felt

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Speaker 1: they had been discriminated against because their degrees were being

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Speaker 1: withheld because they hadn't fully paid back tuition extensions when

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Speaker 1: they were black, even they peacefully and without weapons, took

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Speaker 1: over an administration building for a few hours just to

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Speaker 1: say this is wrong. You didn't do this with the

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Speaker 1: white students who were late with their money just to

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Speaker 1: do something, to do anything but obey in advance. Then

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Speaker 1: I don't give a damn if the protesters at Cornell

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Speaker 1: and Columbia or anywhere else are anti Semites, or are

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Speaker 1: defending a really unpopular cause, or seemingly have carefully chosen

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Speaker 1: every possible strategic move to make themselves and their causes

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Speaker 1: more unpopular and less palatable in this country. I don't

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Speaker 1: care who they are or what you think you have

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Speaker 1: to do to establish parameters for them. The parameters Columbia

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Speaker 1: cannot include establishing a campus thought police that can now

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Speaker 1: arrest the protesters it and you do not like, and

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Speaker 1: Trump does not like, and not arrest the protesters who

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Speaker 1: are demanding faster transfer of academic records for postgraduate applications

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Speaker 1: or job interviews. And I don't care who they are

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Speaker 1: or what you think you have to do to establish

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Speaker 1: parameters for them. The parameters Cornell cannot include completely ignoring

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Speaker 1: the demand that one of you gets yanked off campus

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the goddamned spring semester and deported

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Speaker 1: to where where they sent the gay barber they decided

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Speaker 1: was a terrorist, or where they sent the god with

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Speaker 1: the real Madrid soccer tattoo. It cannot, Cornell include ignoring

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Speaker 1: the disappearing of a Cornell student because it doesn't effing

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Speaker 1: matter which Cornell student they are disappearing for which unpopular opinion,

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Speaker 1: because next time that Cornell student could be you, and

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Speaker 1: at this rate, eventually it will be you. And it

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter what your campuses did not do when they

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Speaker 1: came for these mistaken and incompetent protesters, because your collaboration

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Speaker 1: will earn you nothing except the Trump dictatorship's recognition that

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Speaker 1: Cornell and Columbia are officially pushovers, and the next time

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Speaker 1: they need somebody for a show trial, they will go

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Speaker 1: to Cornell and Columbia first, because Cornell and Columbia will

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Speaker 1: help you round up whoever you want, whether it's a student,

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Speaker 1: a professor, or the head of the board of trust.

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Speaker 2: Please.

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Speaker 1: And if you didn't learn all this at Cornell, Cornell,

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Speaker 1: and if you didn't learn all this at Columbia Columbia,

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Speaker 1: go out of business and close Columbia and close Cornell

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Speaker 1: and sell the campuses, and do it today, because that

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Speaker 1: what you just did not do, That was your purpose,

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Speaker 1: that was why you existed, to teach that liberty requires

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Speaker 1: us to defend our liberty and the other guy's liberty.

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Speaker 1: And if you didn't learn all this at every college

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Speaker 1: and university and juco and community college in this country,

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Speaker 1: close them too. You have all lost the plot. Happily,

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Speaker 1: the students imperiled can always call the noted law firm

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Speaker 1: of Paul kama Weiss and its chairman Brad S. Karp,

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Speaker 1: advocate for corporations and protesters alike, and rich and poor alike.

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Speaker 1: Except mister Karp and Paul kama Weiss tried to challenge

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Speaker 1: a threat from Trump and have a pro Trump firm

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Speaker 1: called Quinn Comma, Immanuel Kamma, Erkut Kamma and Sullivan joined

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Speaker 1: them and when those pro trumpists saw the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: destroy a rival, and so what if it destroyed the

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Speaker 1: rule of law in the process, And when that rival

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Speaker 1: said no, Paul kama Weiss capitulated. Paul kama Weiss will

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Speaker 1: now bribe Trump with forty million dollars in free lawyer

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Speaker 1: hours to help Trump, because you know, somebody's got to

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Speaker 1: litigate whatever Trump's version of the Nuremberg Race laws turns

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Speaker 1: out to be. Thank you all for your patience during

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Speaker 1: this time, said Karp of Paul kama Weiss to his staff.

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Speaker 1: With this behind us, we can devote our complete focus

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Speaker 1: as we always do, to our clients, our work, our colleagues,

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Speaker 1: and our firm. Mister Carp, you are an idiot With

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Speaker 1: this behind us. It is not behind you. You have

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Speaker 1: assured that it will forever be in front of you.

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Speaker 1: Trump will be back soon, mister Carp, to tell you

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Speaker 1: who you can and cannot hire, and who you can

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Speaker 1: and cannot represent, and which other clients' confidential records Trump

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Speaker 1: does and does not want because hours after this idiot,

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Speaker 1: self interested, self deluding lawyer told the thousand lawyers who

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Speaker 1: worked for him that it would all be fine now

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Speaker 1: now that he had old their souls to the devil.

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Speaker 1: The White House sent out a memo Saturday to the

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Speaker 1: little witch now running the Department of Justice, which reads,

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Speaker 1: in part quote that she should seek sanctions against attorneys

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Speaker 1: and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious

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Speaker 1: litigation against the government. The slave overseers who work for

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Speaker 1: Trump also instructed the dog murdering head of Homeland Security

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Speaker 1: dress up Barbie with a thousand different action adventure outfits

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Speaker 1: in her closet to quote prioritize enforcement of those regulations

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Speaker 1: governing what lawyers can do inside the immigration courts. That

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Speaker 1: is a somewhat cloudy way of saying, represent somebody we

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Speaker 1: are trying to deport, and if we can, we will

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Speaker 1: deport you with them, or we will deport you or

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Speaker 1: employee or your friend or another student at Cornell or Columbia.

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Speaker 1: The Columbia case was Trump testing how much educational money

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Speaker 1: would need to be threatened before the universities were willing

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Speaker 1: to sell their core values. That figure turned out to

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Speaker 1: be four hundred million dollars, not very much if your

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Speaker 1: endowment is fourteen point eight something billion. The Paul comme

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Speaker 1: a wis case was Trump testing how much litigational money

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Speaker 1: would be needed to be threatened before the big law

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Speaker 1: firms were willing to sell their core values. That turned

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Speaker 1: out to be forty million dollars. Lawyers are cheaper than universities,

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Speaker 1: turned out, though in both cases they're very cheap, and

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Speaker 1: the cost wasn't very much at all. By the way,

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Speaker 1: lawyers all lawyers. The cowardice, the complicity of Paul kama

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Speaker 1: Weiss has now emboldened Trump to tell Pam Bondi to

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Speaker 1: try to punish law firms who take asylum cases pro bono,

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Speaker 1: to give her the right to start to poll security

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Speaker 1: clearances for firms she doesn't like, and to try to

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Speaker 1: prosecute lawyers who sued the government starting in oh twenty seventeen,

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Speaker 1: you know, the year when Trump took over the first time,

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Speaker 1: four years before we napoleoned him instead of putting him

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Speaker 1: in prison, because give me liberty or I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to pay a lot for this muffler. And so we

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Speaker 1: can add the universities and the lawyers to the list.

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Speaker 1: The list of the guard rails that turned out to

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Speaker 1: be made out of paper mache filled with oatmeal, The

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Speaker 1: list that includes pretty much every American institution of any

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Speaker 1: importance except the Visiting Nurse Association, the owners of the

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Speaker 1: television networks for instance, the other news organizations, more on

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Speaker 1: them presently. The Republican Party obviously, I mean, why should

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Speaker 1: any of them risk what they have the increased power

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Speaker 1: Trump's dictatorship has given them. It's not like Trump's going

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Speaker 1: to deport me or take away my power yet. On

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Speaker 1: the list, of course, the Democratic Party leadership. And thank

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Speaker 1: you to the TV networks for putting on Chuck Schumer

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Speaker 1: every goddamned day since he sold out this country so

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Speaker 1: he can keep selling his effing book without having to

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Speaker 1: face one single protester or obviously on the TV political shows,

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Speaker 1: having to face one difficult question. Thank you to the

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Speaker 1: Democratic leaders out of office who have joined this list.

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Speaker 1: Has any man squandered his post presidency more than Barack Obama?

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Speaker 1: No one in this country could enrage Trump faster or

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Speaker 1: more thoroughly than Barack Obama. He stops Trump so thoroughly

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Speaker 1: in his tracks that Trump thinks he ran a presidential

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Speaker 1: race against Obama. Almost no one in this country, no,

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Speaker 1: no one in this country, despite his flaws. Rally, the

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Speaker 1: dispirited and confused opposition begging for leadership now than could Obama. Well, happily,

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Speaker 1: he is all over the news at the moment with

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Speaker 1: his college basketball picks South Carolina over Southern I don't know,

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Speaker 1: because give me liberty or give me a two hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars bonus bet. When I sign up with sports Betting, Inc.

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Speaker 1: Must be twenty one or over gambling problem called one

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Speaker 1: eight hundred gambler. And most importantly on the list, the

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Speaker 1: law on the courts, the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice.

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Speaker 1: I begin to think his family name is justice, because

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Speaker 1: there's nothing justice about his work. Trump as President, as

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Speaker 1: he did before, publicly demands the removal of a judge

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Speaker 1: who thwarted him at in so he is testing to

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Speaker 1: see if he can get away with that, and John

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Speaker 1: Roberts comes out with a robust, profound, dramatic warning in response,

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Speaker 1: I'm kidding. He issued boiler plate Pablom quote. For more

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Speaker 1: than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is

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Speaker 1: not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.

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Speaker 1: The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose. There's

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Speaker 1: got to be something else on this sheet. That's all

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Speaker 1: he said, thank you, Justice, Thank you, Chief Justice Roberts,

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Speaker 1: thank you for the three three and a half minutes

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Speaker 1: you devoted to this statement trying to defend democracy in

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Speaker 1: the rule of law. Not the faintest glimmer of understanding

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Speaker 1: that Roberts as Chief Justice, as the supposed restraint against

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Speaker 1: the corrupt influence peddling religious nuts on his own court.

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Speaker 1: Roberts still immunized Trump against virtually any prosecution for virtually

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Speaker 1: any crime, and now seems surprised when Trump decides to

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Speaker 1: try out the crime of threatening judges and dismantling the

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Speaker 1: judiciary and arresting political opponents. Oh, dismantling the judiciary, arresting

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Speaker 1: political opponents. I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm

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Speaker 1: reading one of my commentaries from next fall when Trump

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Speaker 1: tries to arrest Chuck Schumer or AOC or Sonya Sotomayor

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Speaker 1: or Mehdi Hassan. Actually, I'm just reading the news from Turkey.

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Speaker 1: The same day the opposition voted for its choice to

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Speaker 1: run against the quasi dictator Ereuwan. In twenty twenty eight,

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Speaker 1: Erewan had that man, the mayor of Istanbul, formally arrested

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Speaker 1: and charged with corruption ekkrem Imama Glue can still run

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Speaker 1: for president even if they keep him in detention until

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight. But if he's convicted of anything, and

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Speaker 1: how could he be convicted of anything in a Turkish

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Speaker 1: judicial system that at minimum exaggerated the severity of the

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen quote coup quote against Erdiguan. If he's convicted

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Speaker 1: of anything, he cannot serve Now, of course Erdiguan is

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Speaker 1: prevented from running again in twenty twenty eight. But of

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Speaker 1: course he can't run again in twenty twenty eight because

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Speaker 1: of term limits in the constitution, which is why he's

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Speaker 1: now trying to change the constitution. Why does this all

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Speaker 1: sound so familiar? The Turks have been protesting for five nights.

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Speaker 1: It now seems, after years of this, as if they

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Speaker 1: will have only one option, which would be to remove

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Speaker 1: their dictator by force. I assume they are at this

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Speaker 1: point because ten or twenty or whenever years ago, when

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Speaker 1: celebrating the anniversary of their Patrick Henry, it came out,

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Speaker 1: give me liberty or give me up to thirty percent

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Speaker 1: on rooms that select Disney resort hotels when I stay

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Speaker 1: five nights or longer while I am burning things to

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Speaker 1: the ground on your time. Back to the media for

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Speaker 1: a moment, please. We have both long since discovered and

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Speaker 1: paid for the incompetence of the modern insulated self referential,

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Speaker 1: sealed in both a bubble and in bubble plastic political

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Speaker 1: media complex. But here's something new and terrible, even for them.

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Speaker 1: Hot off the presses, as it were, the ground zero

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Speaker 1: of world in which access is the only thing that

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Speaker 1: matters or is understood, and in which there is no

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Speaker 1: comprehension of the dangers to which that access provides front

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Speaker 1: row seats. The ground zero of that world is not

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Speaker 1: the Washington Post. It's not even the New York Times.

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Speaker 1: It's Politico. Its lead item day before yesterday was a

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Speaker 1: breathless account, a doubly fake scoop, a book excerpt. It's

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Speaker 1: from a book by Jonathan Allen and Amy Parnes, and

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Speaker 1: Politico can't decide which is the bigger news, an anecdote

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Speaker 1: about Joe Biden's memory or the fact that it somehow

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Speaker 1: obtained a copy of this book long before it's supposed

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Speaker 1: to be available. It's only supposed to be available April first,

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Speaker 1: and they got it here at the March twenty second

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Speaker 1: or something. As to that second point. It is amazing

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Speaker 1: but deeply symbolic that political writers keep pulling this done

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Speaker 1: year after year after year, and expecting anybody to fall

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Speaker 1: for it. And there's always somebody at Politico to fall

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Speaker 1: for it. You got a copy of a book before

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Speaker 1: the publication date, you must be the greatest reporter since

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Speaker 1: Woodward and Bernstein. How is such a mighty feat possible

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Speaker 1: by mere humans? The answer is, of course, that proof

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Speaker 1: copies of a book come out months before publication. I

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Speaker 1: used to get a box of them at least six

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Speaker 1: weeks before publication, two months, mailed them to friends. If

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Speaker 1: I'd found a way to sell them on eBay, I

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Speaker 1: would have done it. These inexplicable pre publicity pre publication

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Speaker 1: leaks happen as follows. Hey, Politico, says the author, my

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Speaker 1: book is coming out in a month. I need some

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Speaker 1: pub The Politico guy replies, well, what's good in it?

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Speaker 1: And the author responds, why I can give you this

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Speaker 1: anecdote because I already promised the other good one to

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Speaker 1: the post. Take that axios, The Politico guy says quietly

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Speaker 1: to himself, another scoop for yours. Truly, I bet my

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Speaker 1: European bosses will give me a five dollars bonus. The

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Speaker 1: new one Saturday from Politico has the added embarrassment of

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Speaker 1: underscoring how the authors do not understand politics, or America,

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Speaker 1: or in fact life. I'll just read what Politico excerpted

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Speaker 1: about how one Democrat who had run for the Democratic

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Speaker 1: nomination in twenty nineteen, quote became concerned about Biden's mental

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Speaker 1: acuity at a June twenty twenty three White House picnic

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Speaker 1: for members of Congress. Quote when they came face to face,

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Speaker 1: Biden did not immediately recognize his one time rival for

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Speaker 1: the party's nomination. Quote. The candidate quote had to Biden

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Speaker 1: with personal details to remind him that sounds bad about

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Speaker 1: last year's big story which X would be nominee was

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Speaker 1: so supposedly struck that Biden didn't remember that both of

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Speaker 1: them had run for president, could not identify his former

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Speaker 1: rival on the debate stage. Which one of them Eric Swollwell, now,

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Speaker 1: if you're anything like me, your response to hearing this

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Speaker 1: anecdote was, wait, Eric Swowell ran for president? The congressman, right, good,

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Speaker 1: good guy, but congressman from Illin, New York, California, California. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I can almost picture him in my mind, I had

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Speaker 1: no memory at all that Swalwell had run, just like

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Speaker 1: Biden had no memory at all that Swalwell had run.

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing just like you had no memory that Swalwell

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Speaker 1: had run. In fact, my surprise is that Swalwell remembered

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Speaker 1: that he had run, writing Jonathan Allen about how somebody

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Speaker 1: forgot he ran, and I'm still taking his word for this.

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Speaker 1: That he did run is not the negative flex against

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Speaker 1: Joe Biden you think it is. But wait, there's more.

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Speaker 1: The official Swallwell response to Politico was that there was

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Speaker 1: no White House party for members of Congress on the

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Speaker 1: date Allen has given June twenty twenty three, And it

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Speaker 1: turns out he's right. There was none. Politico then dives

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Speaker 1: into showing how great it is by proving that there

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Speaker 1: was one in July of twenty twenty three, and Swallowell

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Speaker 1: was there. See where journalists, we and the authors and

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Speaker 1: the editors forgot when the party was got it wrong.

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Speaker 1: But it's Biden who was already having trouble remembering things

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, and Swawell didn't go public about it.

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Speaker 1: See we're smarter than they is. Wait, there's even more.

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Speaker 1: Politico's Adam Wren foolishly took credit for writing this. He

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Speaker 1: managed to please his new neo fascist European owners by

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Speaker 1: turning this story into a story by the way of

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Speaker 1: an author getting a date wrong about a piece of

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Speaker 1: trivia at at which somebody forgot a piece of trivia.

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Speaker 1: He turned this into a Democrats lied about Biden, and

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Speaker 1: now everybody hates the Democrats and the Democrats is dead

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Speaker 1: story quote Adam Wren, Politico. Biden's refusal to pass the

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Speaker 1: torch until more than a year later still looms over

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Speaker 1: the party, and the Democrats are still facing questions about

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Speaker 1: who knew what and when about Biden's faculties. It's not

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Speaker 1: difficult to see more of these anecdotes surfacing in the

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Speaker 1: coming weeks and months. What's harder is seeing how the

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Speaker 1: party regains voters trust trust Adam wrenn trust Politico, trust

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Allen. Joe Biden and the Democrats aren't the ones

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Speaker 1: who can't tell the difference between a president for getting

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Speaker 1: an actual campaign rival and an utterly and literally forgettable

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Speaker 1: vanity campaign for the nomination that lasted exactly three months

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Speaker 1: and out of which the guy himself bailed two hundred

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Speaker 1: and eleven days before the first primary, and Biden wasn't

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Speaker 1: the one who got the month of the party wrong

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Speaker 1: and published it anyway, And none of us out here

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Speaker 1: let our Politico White House Bureau Chief conduct an official

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Speaker 1: on stage event at Sea pack Nazi Party memberships for

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Speaker 1: people who don't like the letter Z. The real memory

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Speaker 1: loss about Politico that Politico should address is after it

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Speaker 1: goes out of business, will anybody remember it was? Ever?

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Speaker 1: There also of interest here because believe it or not,

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Speaker 1: I have some venom left, if not much voice. There's

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Speaker 1: also something up at NBC. I'm not sure what it is,

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Speaker 1: but Trump has now threatened them again about MSNBC. And

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Speaker 1: it's four months since Scarborough rehoard himself to Trump, and

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Speaker 1: it's a month tomorrow since they fired Joy Reid and

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Speaker 1: the other hosts of Color. So NBC is preparing to

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Speaker 1: throw somebody or something out the windows at the fifty

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Speaker 1: second floor corporate offices at thirty Rock. What is it?

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Speaker 1: Who is it? That's next? This is countdown? This is

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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olberman host scripts to the news, some headlines,

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Speaker 1: some updates, some stark still ahead of course worse persons,

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Speaker 1: and you know why you need a Department of Education

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00:30:33,235 --> 00:30:37,235
Speaker 1: so idiots like the South African Elon Musk can learn

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Speaker 1: English correctly and not wind up publicly misspelling the words

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Speaker 1: Department of education. First, this is the Countdown podcast, and

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Speaker 1: these are the places where there's news. Date line thirty Rock.

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Speaker 1: I live a few blocks from where I used to work. This,

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Speaker 1: of course, is an evergreen statement almost anywhere I've ever

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Speaker 1: lived in New York. I could say that about one

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Speaker 1: of the places I used to work, but this time

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Speaker 1: I am being specific about thirty Rock, thirty Rockefeller Center,

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Speaker 1: thirty Rockefeller Plaza, the heart of New York City, the

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Speaker 1: home of the National Broadcasting Company and the corporation that

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Speaker 1: owns it. I'm not sure what specific ass kissing they

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Speaker 1: have planned for Trump as our business quasi humans rush

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Speaker 1: for the exits to get the best deal from the

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Speaker 1: fascist state, but I can tell from the looks on

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00:31:36,355 --> 00:31:40,715
Speaker 1: their faces they're thinking about it. In the month just closing,

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00:31:40,955 --> 00:31:45,115
Speaker 1: Trump was nice enough to declare that MSNBC and CNN

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Speaker 1: are illegal. He used the word three times in his

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00:31:49,875 --> 00:31:53,355
Speaker 1: reichs Parthai tog at the Ministry of Love. I'm sorry

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00:31:53,435 --> 00:31:56,195
Speaker 1: the Department of justice. The Ministry of Love was in

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Speaker 1: the book nineteen eighty four. Anyway, When indictments did not

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00:31:59,915 --> 00:32:04,395
Speaker 1: immediately follow his thrice use of the word illegal, he

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00:32:04,475 --> 00:32:08,475
Speaker 1: brought the subject up again last week and blocks away.

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Speaker 1: I can smell the fear from the fifty second floor

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Speaker 1: at thirty Rock. It's not all I smell from there,

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00:32:16,075 --> 00:32:20,435
Speaker 1: but mostly it's fear. They are planning to fold to Trump.

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Speaker 1: It's just a question of which way. I don't think

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00:32:23,995 --> 00:32:26,235
Speaker 1: they're literally going to do what he suggested last week,

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Speaker 1: because frankly, that would not be enough for Trump at

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Speaker 1: this point. He doesn't want that. He doesn't want MSNBC

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Speaker 1: switched off. He wants them to go all Scarborough. He

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Speaker 1: wants msn VS keep the brand name, keep a lot

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00:32:43,235 --> 00:32:46,675
Speaker 1: of the same people, pretend they are being critical of him,

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Speaker 1: and the Republicans become the official authorized controlled resistance, which

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00:32:52,995 --> 00:32:58,595
Speaker 1: offers no resistance at all, except maybe complaining that Trump

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Speaker 1: hasn't praised his own bitcoon brand recently enough. God knows

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Speaker 1: NBC has done it before with Republicans. When Republicans have

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Speaker 1: said something like this, we just.

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Speaker 3: Need honest journalism and we don't have it.

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Speaker 2: When you have a CNN. I watch.

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Speaker 1: You have to watch these people every once in a

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Speaker 1: while just to see where they're coming from.

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Speaker 2: And it's so dishonest.

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Speaker 3: MSNBC is, I think, probably worse, and they're both doing

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Speaker 3: horribly in the ratings.

430
00:33:25,315 --> 00:33:26,475
Speaker 1: I think they're going to be turned off.

431
00:33:26,515 --> 00:33:28,955
Speaker 2: I don't think they're not doing any ratings.

432
00:33:29,435 --> 00:33:36,475
Speaker 1: Wow, does this crap sound familiar? NBC corporate NBC is

433
00:33:36,515 --> 00:33:41,955
Speaker 1: in reruns. They were already blackmailed once by the Republicans,

434
00:33:42,595 --> 00:33:46,595
Speaker 1: long before Trump was sent here by the devil. And

435
00:33:46,675 --> 00:33:49,475
Speaker 1: boy did this flash me back? Because this happened to

436
00:33:49,595 --> 00:33:53,475
Speaker 1: me at MSNBC in two thousand and eight, courtesy the

437
00:33:53,595 --> 00:33:57,475
Speaker 1: supposed sane Republicans, and it underscores that they have never

438
00:33:57,515 --> 00:34:02,635
Speaker 1: been sane. There have never been sane Republicans. They have

439
00:34:02,755 --> 00:34:05,875
Speaker 1: always longed to dictate to the media what it can

440
00:34:05,955 --> 00:34:10,915
Speaker 1: and cannot say about whichever asshole is its presidential candidate,

441
00:34:12,035 --> 00:34:16,835
Speaker 1: and thanks to people like Tom Brokaw, they often get

442
00:34:16,955 --> 00:34:20,995
Speaker 1: away with it. Chris Matthews and I were co anchoring

443
00:34:20,995 --> 00:34:24,435
Speaker 1: the Republican Convention on MSNBC in two thousand and eight.

444
00:34:24,475 --> 00:34:27,355
Speaker 1: He was there at the convention in Minnesota. I was

445
00:34:27,395 --> 00:34:30,595
Speaker 1: in the studios at thirty Rock in New York, ostensibly

446
00:34:30,995 --> 00:34:34,315
Speaker 1: so I could also anchor hurricane coverage, though it was

447
00:34:34,355 --> 00:34:36,195
Speaker 1: pretty clear that at least half the reason I was

448
00:34:36,195 --> 00:34:39,595
Speaker 1: not in Minneapolis was because the Republicans had threatened NBC

449
00:34:39,995 --> 00:34:42,515
Speaker 1: or said they could not guarantee my safety there or

450
00:34:42,555 --> 00:34:46,395
Speaker 1: something like that. So I was the one on September two,

451
00:34:46,515 --> 00:34:48,595
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, who had to throw it to

452
00:34:48,715 --> 00:34:51,995
Speaker 1: a video that we had been told by the Republicans

453
00:34:52,075 --> 00:34:54,635
Speaker 1: was a tribute to the dead of nine to eleven

454
00:34:54,675 --> 00:34:58,435
Speaker 1: that they were playing in the theater in their convention

455
00:34:58,675 --> 00:35:01,715
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. It was not a tribute. It was a

456
00:35:01,795 --> 00:35:05,035
Speaker 1: snuff film. All of the images that the net works

457
00:35:05,035 --> 00:35:07,235
Speaker 1: had stopped showing of nine to eleven within weeks or

458
00:35:07,275 --> 00:35:10,515
Speaker 1: even days of the attacks, all of them were in

459
00:35:10,555 --> 00:35:14,115
Speaker 1: this snuff film. People jumping, falling to their deaths from

460
00:35:14,115 --> 00:35:16,995
Speaker 1: the World Trade Center, endless replays of the planes hitting

461
00:35:17,035 --> 00:35:21,075
Speaker 1: the towers, dismembered bodies in the plaza, the building collapses,

462
00:35:21,235 --> 00:35:24,715
Speaker 1: the equally terrifying scenes at the Pentagon, and all with

463
00:35:24,755 --> 00:35:29,475
Speaker 1: the grotesque voiceover from that Fink Robert Dove, emphasizing that

464
00:35:29,555 --> 00:35:32,675
Speaker 1: this was all the Democrats fault. The message was they

465
00:35:32,755 --> 00:35:35,035
Speaker 1: might as well have praised it this way. Elect Obama

466
00:35:35,115 --> 00:35:38,115
Speaker 1: and you will die, and you will die like this.

467
00:35:39,875 --> 00:35:43,235
Speaker 1: I was angry just on that base level. For that

468
00:35:43,395 --> 00:35:45,675
Speaker 1: five and a half years I had been back at MSNBC,

469
00:35:45,835 --> 00:35:48,435
Speaker 1: we had been rigorous about not showing any of that

470
00:35:48,555 --> 00:35:52,035
Speaker 1: video that the Republicans had just forced upon us by

471
00:35:52,155 --> 00:35:55,155
Speaker 1: lying to us about it. There were rules that if

472
00:35:55,195 --> 00:35:59,915
Speaker 1: we had to for some reason sneed some snippet, we

473
00:35:59,955 --> 00:36:02,635
Speaker 1: would show only still images, and even then only with

474
00:36:02,715 --> 00:36:06,195
Speaker 1: extensive warnings to the viewers. But I knew from my

475
00:36:06,275 --> 00:36:09,235
Speaker 1: conversations with the president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, who I

476
00:36:09,235 --> 00:36:11,955
Speaker 1: had known for twenty eight years at that point, that

477
00:36:11,995 --> 00:36:14,955
Speaker 1: he would insist that on the scene in Minneapolis, Matthews

478
00:36:14,995 --> 00:36:18,835
Speaker 1: and Tom Brokaw, whose career at NBC I had resuscitated

479
00:36:19,115 --> 00:36:22,155
Speaker 1: after Brian Williams had buried him alive two years earlier.

480
00:36:22,555 --> 00:36:25,035
Speaker 1: I knew from what Griffin told me that one or

481
00:36:25,115 --> 00:36:28,835
Speaker 1: both of them would rebuke the GOP for showing not

482
00:36:29,115 --> 00:36:31,395
Speaker 1: a nine to eleven tribute, but, as I just said,

483
00:36:31,395 --> 00:36:35,355
Speaker 1: a nine to eleven snuff film. The snuff film ended,

484
00:36:35,595 --> 00:36:38,715
Speaker 1: we came out to Brokaw and Matthews and Brokaw kind

485
00:36:38,715 --> 00:36:41,795
Speaker 1: of coughed, and Matthews said wow. And he turned to

486
00:36:41,795 --> 00:36:44,715
Speaker 1: Brokaw and said, in that loose fire hose delivery he

487
00:36:44,795 --> 00:36:48,755
Speaker 1: had tom that kind of scores terrorism, big thing for Republicans.

488
00:36:48,755 --> 00:36:54,475
Speaker 1: They try stuck Obama. Brokaw droned on approvingly the Republican

489
00:36:54,555 --> 00:36:57,955
Speaker 1: sneaking a snuff film, a banned video onto MSNBC and

490
00:36:57,955 --> 00:37:02,955
Speaker 1: by the way, also onto CNN, onto NBC proper, onto CBS,

491
00:37:02,995 --> 00:37:08,595
Speaker 1: onto ABC without any warning. That was not mentioned back

492
00:37:08,635 --> 00:37:11,235
Speaker 1: to New York to Keith, I was supposed to add

493
00:37:11,275 --> 00:37:14,395
Speaker 1: liberates about what we were expecting from the Republican convention

494
00:37:14,475 --> 00:37:15,875
Speaker 1: for the rest of the night and then throw to

495
00:37:15,915 --> 00:37:19,395
Speaker 1: a commercial instead, I said, and this is a paraphrase,

496
00:37:19,435 --> 00:37:23,035
Speaker 1: the original tape disappeared that night that before we moved on,

497
00:37:23,155 --> 00:37:26,755
Speaker 1: I felt I needed to apologize that we at MSNBC

498
00:37:26,915 --> 00:37:30,635
Speaker 1: and for that matter, at NBC News, at extremely strict

499
00:37:30,715 --> 00:37:34,275
Speaker 1: rules about not showing the video the Republicans had just

500
00:37:34,395 --> 00:37:38,875
Speaker 1: shown you via our network, without any warning, without any context,

501
00:37:38,955 --> 00:37:42,715
Speaker 1: and by lying to us, and we certainly would not

502
00:37:42,755 --> 00:37:45,515
Speaker 1: have shown the horror and death and blamed it on

503
00:37:45,595 --> 00:37:49,755
Speaker 1: the Democrats, or for that matter, on the Republicans. I said,

504
00:37:49,755 --> 00:37:52,195
Speaker 1: if we had done such a thing ourselves, there would

505
00:37:52,195 --> 00:37:56,515
Speaker 1: have been people fired. The public program the GOP provided

506
00:37:56,595 --> 00:37:58,155
Speaker 1: said that was going to be a nine to eleven

507
00:37:58,195 --> 00:38:01,235
Speaker 1: tribute film, I said, and so did the private conversations

508
00:38:01,235 --> 00:38:03,435
Speaker 1: with the network, which included the reminder from NBC and

509
00:38:03,555 --> 00:38:07,115
Speaker 1: MSNBC that we had rules against showing the scenes of

510
00:38:07,155 --> 00:38:12,675
Speaker 1: horrible death and mutilation and destruction. So I apologized on

511
00:38:12,715 --> 00:38:15,235
Speaker 1: behalf of whoever trusted the Republicans to live up to

512
00:38:15,315 --> 00:38:18,595
Speaker 1: their word that MSNBC viewers were forced to see the

513
00:38:18,675 --> 00:38:24,875
Speaker 1: video our network had promised never to show them. So

514
00:38:25,235 --> 00:38:28,635
Speaker 1: three nights later, without as much as an email to me,

515
00:38:28,795 --> 00:38:31,395
Speaker 1: this Griffin had called my agent and told her I

516
00:38:31,555 --> 00:38:34,235
Speaker 1: was fired and Matthews two from our coverage of the

517
00:38:34,315 --> 00:38:37,795
Speaker 1: upcoming McCain Obama debates. I happened to be off that

518
00:38:37,955 --> 00:38:40,635
Speaker 1: night in the press box watching a Mets Phillies game

519
00:38:40,675 --> 00:38:43,755
Speaker 1: at Shay Stadium, so she had to relate these details

520
00:38:43,755 --> 00:38:45,955
Speaker 1: to me by phone. As I walked down the many

521
00:38:46,035 --> 00:38:49,675
Speaker 1: ramps in the stadium's bowels and headed towards the subway,

522
00:38:50,355 --> 00:38:52,755
Speaker 1: I told her to call Griffin back and tell him

523
00:38:52,795 --> 00:38:56,275
Speaker 1: I was quitting on the spot. Right then, and he

524
00:38:56,435 --> 00:39:00,155
Speaker 1: could work his way out of the ensuing disaster by himself.

525
00:39:00,435 --> 00:39:04,675
Speaker 1: Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal host Alderman for criticizing Concerns

526
00:39:04,675 --> 00:39:07,715
Speaker 1: Servatives for sneaking nine to eleven snuff film onto MSNBC.

527
00:39:08,035 --> 00:39:10,395
Speaker 1: He could work his way out of that disaster any

528
00:39:10,515 --> 00:39:13,115
Speaker 1: way he chose, and then he could wait for my

529
00:39:13,195 --> 00:39:17,475
Speaker 1: response on Good Morning America, CBS, This Morning, the PBS

530
00:39:17,515 --> 00:39:20,555
Speaker 1: News Hour, any other news program that bothered to ask

531
00:39:20,995 --> 00:39:25,195
Speaker 1: and in court. I made a few phone calls to

532
00:39:25,315 --> 00:39:29,195
Speaker 1: friendly voices within the NBC management structure, got from them

533
00:39:29,195 --> 00:39:32,115
Speaker 1: a clearer picture of what had happened. And despite the

534
00:39:32,115 --> 00:39:35,315
Speaker 1: spotty cell service along the elevated train line heading back

535
00:39:35,355 --> 00:39:37,995
Speaker 1: into Manhattan, I got a message from a newspaper reporter

536
00:39:38,075 --> 00:39:41,915
Speaker 1: friend who neatly tied together all that I was hearing elsewhere.

537
00:39:42,675 --> 00:39:46,635
Speaker 1: Tom Brokaw is going around NBC saying he got you

538
00:39:46,795 --> 00:39:50,155
Speaker 1: fired from the debates because the Republicans told him to.

539
00:39:52,595 --> 00:39:55,315
Speaker 1: Nine maybe ten months earlier, the same Phil Griffin had

540
00:39:55,315 --> 00:39:56,595
Speaker 1: come to me and asked me if I would be

541
00:39:56,635 --> 00:39:59,115
Speaker 1: okay with Brokaw appearing during our weekly coverage of the

542
00:39:59,155 --> 00:40:02,475
Speaker 1: Democratic and Republican primaries. Just a couple of minutes, buddy

543
00:40:02,715 --> 00:40:05,795
Speaker 1: like from a perspective desk. That's all he wants to do.

544
00:40:06,155 --> 00:40:09,875
Speaker 1: He's so unhappy Brian Williams has frozen him out of everything.

545
00:40:11,075 --> 00:40:14,035
Speaker 1: I was appalled, but not surprised. The power had gone

546
00:40:14,075 --> 00:40:17,675
Speaker 1: to Brian's head, and of course there it had not

547
00:40:17,835 --> 00:40:21,795
Speaker 1: met very much resistance. Plus, as I said to Griffin,

548
00:40:21,795 --> 00:40:24,155
Speaker 1: you're asking me if i'd like to add Tom Brocaw's

549
00:40:24,195 --> 00:40:30,235
Speaker 1: experience and Tom brocaws gravitas to stuff I'm anchoring when

550
00:40:30,275 --> 00:40:32,115
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I know as much as I really

551
00:40:32,155 --> 00:40:35,755
Speaker 1: know to do this the right way. Tom to be

552
00:40:35,835 --> 00:40:39,715
Speaker 1: fair fit in beautifully, and twice after those long Tuesday

553
00:40:39,795 --> 00:40:43,435
Speaker 1: evenings during the primaries, he sent me brief emails awarding

554
00:40:43,435 --> 00:40:46,715
Speaker 1: me what he called the game ball, because he was

555
00:40:46,755 --> 00:40:49,355
Speaker 1: so impressed by my ability to balance the roles of

556
00:40:49,395 --> 00:40:55,035
Speaker 1: political anchor and political commentator. Having tried this myself, he wrote,

557
00:40:55,315 --> 00:40:59,035
Speaker 1: I know of a perilous tightroup. This is game ball

558
00:40:59,235 --> 00:41:03,515
Speaker 1: to Koh. I mock them now, but they meant so

559
00:41:03,595 --> 00:41:05,315
Speaker 1: much to me then that I print them out and

560
00:41:05,395 --> 00:41:10,835
Speaker 1: carried them in my wallet until September. And now Brokaw

561
00:41:11,395 --> 00:41:15,115
Speaker 1: had gotten me fired because, as my newspaper friend said,

562
00:41:15,155 --> 00:41:19,235
Speaker 1: the Republicans told him to Well, that wasn't hard to

563
00:41:19,355 --> 00:41:22,595
Speaker 1: unpack either. Tim Russard had died on the third of

564
00:41:22,675 --> 00:41:25,595
Speaker 1: June that year. I anchored that night until two in

565
00:41:25,635 --> 00:41:29,275
Speaker 1: the morning. It was still an open wound. There were

566
00:41:29,395 --> 00:41:33,435
Speaker 1: still tears. We didn't know it then, but the structure

567
00:41:33,475 --> 00:41:37,595
Speaker 1: of NBC News and the perilous tight group balancing NBC

568
00:41:37,635 --> 00:41:41,115
Speaker 1: and MSNBC had died with Tim Russard. So did the

569
00:41:41,195 --> 00:41:44,315
Speaker 1: role of moderator of the second debate between John McCain

570
00:41:44,355 --> 00:41:47,195
Speaker 1: and Barack Obama, scheduled for about a month. From my

571
00:41:47,355 --> 00:41:51,955
Speaker 1: subway ride on October seventh, two thousand and eight in Nashville,

572
00:41:52,035 --> 00:41:55,195
Speaker 1: Tim had not even been buried yet when Brokaw began

573
00:41:55,235 --> 00:41:57,995
Speaker 1: to angle to get that assignment that was now vacant,

574
00:41:58,435 --> 00:42:00,955
Speaker 1: along with brushing away the dirt of his Penny Anti

575
00:42:01,115 --> 00:42:04,395
Speaker 1: role on the MSNBC Perspective desk, leaving us in the

576
00:42:04,915 --> 00:42:08,795
Speaker 1: in order to take over Tim's spot as Brian's sage

577
00:42:09,035 --> 00:42:14,475
Speaker 1: sidekick on Big NBC. The one before August, there had

578
00:42:14,475 --> 00:42:16,115
Speaker 1: been a story coming out of the east end of

579
00:42:16,115 --> 00:42:18,995
Speaker 1: the third floor at thirty Rock, where NBC News managers

580
00:42:19,195 --> 00:42:22,355
Speaker 1: sat around not doing much of anything. That a Republican

581
00:42:22,475 --> 00:42:25,435
Speaker 1: goon named Ed Gillespie had been in there with Griffin

582
00:42:26,075 --> 00:42:29,835
Speaker 1: and the idiot NBC News president Steve kappis trying to

583
00:42:29,875 --> 00:42:33,595
Speaker 1: get me silenced or fired or off the convention coverage

584
00:42:33,675 --> 00:42:38,315
Speaker 1: or something, and that somebody prominent from NBC News was

585
00:42:38,395 --> 00:42:42,715
Speaker 1: in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie. The

586
00:42:42,835 --> 00:42:46,115
Speaker 1: rumor mill was not confident in who it was or

587
00:42:46,115 --> 00:42:51,355
Speaker 1: what exactly they were doing. That Friday night in September

588
00:42:51,435 --> 00:42:53,715
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, as I switched from the elevated

589
00:42:53,755 --> 00:42:56,835
Speaker 1: seven train to the underground f the whole thing came together.

590
00:42:57,555 --> 00:43:00,795
Speaker 1: Before my comments about the GOP Convention nine to eleven

591
00:43:00,835 --> 00:43:04,275
Speaker 1: snuff film, Gillespie had come in and had somehow vaguely

592
00:43:04,355 --> 00:43:08,795
Speaker 1: threaten and Campus and Griffin about me using as leverage

593
00:43:09,355 --> 00:43:12,315
Speaker 1: the debate which Tom Brokaw was now supposed to moderate,

594
00:43:12,355 --> 00:43:16,115
Speaker 1: the one that had been Russots, And when I apologized

595
00:43:16,115 --> 00:43:19,275
Speaker 1: for their snuff video on our air, Gillespie must have

596
00:43:19,315 --> 00:43:21,515
Speaker 1: turned it into an either or get rid of me,

597
00:43:22,275 --> 00:43:26,155
Speaker 1: or McCain would refuse to participate in any debate moderated

598
00:43:26,195 --> 00:43:30,515
Speaker 1: by Brokaw. Tom Brokaw had already come back from the

599
00:43:30,595 --> 00:43:33,035
Speaker 1: dead once in two thousand and eight, I had made

600
00:43:33,035 --> 00:43:36,155
Speaker 1: that happen, and he would be damned if he would

601
00:43:36,155 --> 00:43:39,675
Speaker 1: be forced to do it a second time. But as

602
00:43:39,715 --> 00:43:41,715
Speaker 1: the train took me home to an apartment, I was

603
00:43:41,755 --> 00:43:43,755
Speaker 1: now going to have to sell since I had quit

604
00:43:43,875 --> 00:43:46,835
Speaker 1: MSNBC on the spot for folding to such obvious blackmail,

605
00:43:47,195 --> 00:43:51,355
Speaker 1: something else now occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or

606
00:43:51,475 --> 00:43:55,475
Speaker 1: NBC or our parent corporation GE actually think that they

607
00:43:55,515 --> 00:44:01,315
Speaker 1: could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC, where

608
00:44:01,315 --> 00:44:04,915
Speaker 1: the Rachel Meadow Show had not yet been born, was

609
00:44:04,955 --> 00:44:08,075
Speaker 1: only going to premiere the next week, and the three

610
00:44:08,155 --> 00:44:10,595
Speaker 1: times a night my show ran accounted for something like

611
00:44:10,635 --> 00:44:13,555
Speaker 1: sixty percent of the entire day's network audience and all

612
00:44:13,595 --> 00:44:15,635
Speaker 1: of its profits. How did they think they were going

613
00:44:15,675 --> 00:44:17,675
Speaker 1: to get away with that without a really bad reaction

614
00:44:17,795 --> 00:44:21,995
Speaker 1: from our audience. Plus, if a newspaper man already knew

615
00:44:22,035 --> 00:44:25,555
Speaker 1: the Brokaw part, how could this story be avoided something

616
00:44:25,635 --> 00:44:28,795
Speaker 1: like this? MSNBC has announced it had removed its liberal

617
00:44:28,875 --> 00:44:32,635
Speaker 1: star Keith Alderman from coverage of the McCain Obama presidential debates.

618
00:44:32,995 --> 00:44:37,355
Speaker 1: Sources confirmed former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw now an

619
00:44:37,475 --> 00:44:42,195
Speaker 1: MSNBC commentator had helped the Republican Party to blackmail NBC

620
00:44:42,275 --> 00:44:47,115
Speaker 1: into the decision. Olderman immediately resigned, saying, quote in succumbing

621
00:44:47,155 --> 00:44:50,235
Speaker 1: to this coercion on behalf of John McCain, NBC has

622
00:44:50,275 --> 00:44:53,115
Speaker 1: now forfeited any further right to be called a news organization,

623
00:44:53,475 --> 00:44:56,315
Speaker 1: and I'm sad to say MSNBC, which I built, is

624
00:44:56,395 --> 00:45:00,955
Speaker 1: now dead. At that point, it dawned on me that

625
00:45:00,995 --> 00:45:03,195
Speaker 1: the only thing that could save the credibility of the

626
00:45:03,235 --> 00:45:07,035
Speaker 1: whole NBC News debate vision and the careers of Griffin

627
00:45:07,155 --> 00:45:11,115
Speaker 1: and Cappus and NBC Network president Jeff Zucker and especially

628
00:45:11,195 --> 00:45:15,795
Speaker 1: Tom Brokaw was for me to publicly state to lie

629
00:45:16,075 --> 00:45:18,955
Speaker 1: that I had asked to be removed from anchoring the

630
00:45:18,995 --> 00:45:22,955
Speaker 1: debates because the whatever was just too much blah blah

631
00:45:22,995 --> 00:45:25,555
Speaker 1: blah for me, and I felt I should just stick

632
00:45:25,635 --> 00:45:28,915
Speaker 1: to the post debate analysis in commentary and blah blah

633
00:45:28,955 --> 00:45:33,195
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. In short, they would have a choice.

634
00:45:33,515 --> 00:45:36,395
Speaker 1: They could fire me from the debates and destroy everything,

635
00:45:36,595 --> 00:45:38,915
Speaker 1: including the one hundred million dollars a year or so

636
00:45:39,075 --> 00:45:43,035
Speaker 1: in profits NBC was suddenly making off MSNBC after years

637
00:45:43,035 --> 00:45:46,795
Speaker 1: of losing about that much, or I could lie and

638
00:45:46,875 --> 00:45:49,835
Speaker 1: claim it was my idea and I could save everybody's

639
00:45:49,915 --> 00:45:54,715
Speaker 1: ass and their money, including my own. I got out

640
00:45:54,755 --> 00:45:57,835
Speaker 1: of the subway and raced home. I called my agent.

641
00:45:57,955 --> 00:46:00,595
Speaker 1: I explained it to her. I'm not quitting. In fact,

642
00:46:00,835 --> 00:46:03,715
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a huge raise. Listen carefully, you

643
00:46:03,835 --> 00:46:06,355
Speaker 1: call Griffin back and explain to him I will now

644
00:46:06,395 --> 00:46:08,915
Speaker 1: personally save his job, even though he doesn't deserve it,

645
00:46:09,115 --> 00:46:12,595
Speaker 1: and campuses and Zooker's and bro cause in everybody else's

646
00:46:12,835 --> 00:46:16,795
Speaker 1: I'll take the fall instead of letting them get fired

647
00:46:16,835 --> 00:46:21,115
Speaker 1: by the MSNBC audience. I'll say this was my idea,

648
00:46:21,555 --> 00:46:26,795
Speaker 1: and it will cost him only twelve million dollars. Oh,

649
00:46:26,915 --> 00:46:28,435
Speaker 1: and he has to leak the fact that it cost

650
00:46:28,515 --> 00:46:32,555
Speaker 1: him twelve million dollars. That's the deal. And she paused

651
00:46:32,595 --> 00:46:35,675
Speaker 1: for a second, and she said, hey, that's genius. It

652
00:46:35,795 --> 00:46:38,315
Speaker 1: might not quite be twelve, but I bet I get

653
00:46:38,315 --> 00:46:44,955
Speaker 1: at least nine million. On Sunday, several news organizations reported

654
00:46:45,035 --> 00:46:47,835
Speaker 1: I had asked to be taking off the anchor desk

655
00:46:47,915 --> 00:46:51,875
Speaker 1: for the debates. Two months and one week later, The

656
00:46:51,875 --> 00:46:55,075
Speaker 1: New York Times wrote, quote Keith Oldraman, the anchor of

657
00:46:55,075 --> 00:46:58,155
Speaker 1: countdown on MSNBC has extended his contract through the next

658
00:46:58,195 --> 00:47:02,035
Speaker 1: presidential election season. The networking outs mister Olderman and MSNBC

659
00:47:02,235 --> 00:47:04,875
Speaker 1: essentially tore up the four year, four million dollars a

660
00:47:04,955 --> 00:47:07,795
Speaker 1: year contract they signed last year and replaced it with

661
00:47:07,835 --> 00:47:10,035
Speaker 1: one worth about seven and a half million a year.

662
00:47:11,155 --> 00:47:12,875
Speaker 1: So that was a three and a half million dollar

663
00:47:12,955 --> 00:47:17,275
Speaker 1: raise for four years to a total of fourteen million dollars.

664
00:47:17,315 --> 00:47:20,755
Speaker 1: Except the new contract added two years to my old deal,

665
00:47:20,795 --> 00:47:25,915
Speaker 1: so the rais was actually twenty two million dollars. All

666
00:47:25,955 --> 00:47:30,355
Speaker 1: stories have punchlines. This punchline is about Brokaw. We would

667
00:47:30,395 --> 00:47:33,395
Speaker 1: have gotten away with this. NBC would have gotten its

668
00:47:33,435 --> 00:47:35,675
Speaker 1: money's worth for the twenty two million in hush money

669
00:47:35,675 --> 00:47:37,995
Speaker 1: it had to pay me because it had rolled over

670
00:47:38,075 --> 00:47:43,755
Speaker 1: for Republican Party blackmail. Except Brokaw couldn't keep his mouth shut.

671
00:47:44,395 --> 00:47:47,595
Speaker 1: So proud was he of preserving his role as moderator

672
00:47:47,635 --> 00:47:50,635
Speaker 1: of the October seventh debate that he had to explain

673
00:47:50,795 --> 00:47:53,755
Speaker 1: in explicit detail how he went to his bosses at

674
00:47:53,835 --> 00:47:56,595
Speaker 1: NBC News and threatened them on behalf of the GOP.

675
00:47:57,395 --> 00:48:01,355
Speaker 1: I mean on the record, he said this September twenty ninth,

676
00:48:01,835 --> 00:48:06,435
Speaker 1: a lengthy and glowing Brocaw profile in the New York Times. Quote,

677
00:48:06,875 --> 00:48:11,555
Speaker 1: mister Brocaws said that over the summer he'd quote advocated

678
00:48:12,035 --> 00:48:14,715
Speaker 1: within the executive suite of NBC News to modify the

679
00:48:14,755 --> 00:48:17,795
Speaker 1: anchor duties of the MSNBC hosts Keith Olberman and Chris

680
00:48:17,795 --> 00:48:20,475
Speaker 1: Matthews on election Night and on knights where there were

681
00:48:20,515 --> 00:48:24,475
Speaker 1: presidential debates. Mister Brocaw said he had also conducted some

682
00:48:24,555 --> 00:48:29,115
Speaker 1: shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and the McCain campaign.

683
00:48:29,875 --> 00:48:32,475
Speaker 1: His mission, he said, was to assure the candidate's aids

684
00:48:32,515 --> 00:48:35,635
Speaker 1: that despite some negative on air commentary by mister Olderman

685
00:48:35,715 --> 00:48:39,235
Speaker 1: in particular, mister McCain could still get a fair shake

686
00:48:39,315 --> 00:48:44,995
Speaker 1: from NBC News. Unquote. That was his mission. The hell,

687
00:48:45,115 --> 00:48:49,395
Speaker 1: that was his mission. Happily, Rocaw just could not resist

688
00:48:49,435 --> 00:48:55,235
Speaker 1: boasting even further. The next sentence reads quote, mister Brocaws

689
00:48:55,235 --> 00:48:57,515
Speaker 1: said he had been told by a senior McCain aide

690
00:48:57,755 --> 00:49:00,915
Speaker 1: whom he did not name, that the campaign had been

691
00:49:00,955 --> 00:49:03,955
Speaker 1: reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one of the

692
00:49:03,995 --> 00:49:08,715
Speaker 1: moderators of the three presidential debates until his name was invoked.

693
00:49:09,475 --> 00:49:11,755
Speaker 1: One of the things I was told by this person

694
00:49:12,195 --> 00:49:14,395
Speaker 1: was that they were so irritated they said, if it's

695
00:49:14,435 --> 00:49:17,515
Speaker 1: an NBC moalorator for any of these debates, we won't go.

696
00:49:18,075 --> 00:49:21,395
Speaker 1: Mister Brocaw said, my name came up, and they said,

697
00:49:21,435 --> 00:49:24,315
Speaker 1: oh hell, we have to do it, because it's going

698
00:49:24,355 --> 00:49:31,275
Speaker 1: to be Brokaw. No insufferable person in all of broadcasting

699
00:49:31,355 --> 00:49:34,075
Speaker 1: history has a better rep and a better and more

700
00:49:34,395 --> 00:49:40,035
Speaker 1: undeserved rep than Tom Brokaw. So when a Trump leans

701
00:49:40,075 --> 00:49:43,955
Speaker 1: on NBC management because the coverage that he got was

702
00:49:43,955 --> 00:49:46,275
Speaker 1: not the coverage he wanted, don't think it won't have

703
00:49:46,435 --> 00:49:49,795
Speaker 1: an effect. Because in two thousand and eight.

704
00:49:49,715 --> 00:49:53,435
Speaker 2: They loved me then as they love Meadow now. But

705
00:49:53,595 --> 00:49:56,755
Speaker 2: what they loved about each of us was not the

706
00:49:56,835 --> 00:50:05,355
Speaker 2: truth we provided, but the money.

707
00:50:26,635 --> 00:50:29,275
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, there are still more new idiots

708
00:50:29,275 --> 00:50:32,275
Speaker 1: to talk about the roundup of the misgrants, morons and

709
00:50:32,395 --> 00:50:37,915
Speaker 1: Dunning Krueger effects specimens who constitute today's other worst persons

710
00:50:38,515 --> 00:50:43,035
Speaker 1: in the world. Here are the nominees, the brons worse

711
00:50:43,635 --> 00:50:48,475
Speaker 1: the perpetrators, in this case, Canadian anger towards that nation's

712
00:50:48,515 --> 00:50:54,995
Speaker 1: hockey immortal, well former immortal, Wayne Gretzky, has re redoubled

713
00:50:55,835 --> 00:51:01,075
Speaker 1: and here comes the feces smeared on the nine foot

714
00:51:01,115 --> 00:51:04,675
Speaker 1: tall statue of Gretzky outside the hockey rink in Edmond,

715
00:51:05,355 --> 00:51:09,875
Speaker 1: where Gretzky played the bulk of his career. Feses, a

716
00:51:10,035 --> 00:51:15,275
Speaker 1: lot of feces. The Edmonton Oilers executive vice president of

717
00:51:16,435 --> 00:51:22,915
Speaker 1: UH statue defecising or something, a man named Tim Shipton

718
00:51:23,555 --> 00:51:27,635
Speaker 1: telling the news division of CTV quote, it's unfortunate over

719
00:51:27,675 --> 00:51:31,275
Speaker 1: the past several years we've had to deal with issues

720
00:51:31,395 --> 00:51:33,875
Speaker 1: of disorder in our downtown core.

721
00:51:35,475 --> 00:51:35,715
Speaker 2: Sir.

722
00:51:36,235 --> 00:51:41,115
Speaker 1: That is not disorder, it's feces. They have not defaced

723
00:51:41,955 --> 00:51:46,475
Speaker 1: or done any disordering. They have defecis. Or to put

724
00:51:46,475 --> 00:51:49,475
Speaker 1: it in terms that invokes two of Gretzky's teams and

725
00:51:49,595 --> 00:51:56,915
Speaker 1: probably his best known teammate, it's messy. A that's a

726
00:51:56,915 --> 00:52:00,515
Speaker 1: hockey joke. The runner up worser New York Mayor Eric Adams,

727
00:52:00,555 --> 00:52:03,555
Speaker 1: who's just a joke joke. His re election campaign has

728
00:52:03,635 --> 00:52:09,035
Speaker 1: raised this year thirty six thousand dollars. Oh wait, that's

729
00:52:09,035 --> 00:52:11,755
Speaker 1: before he had to give eighteen thousand dollars back to

730
00:52:11,955 --> 00:52:16,675
Speaker 1: donors who were over the legal limit. For comparison, eight

731
00:52:16,755 --> 00:52:19,755
Speaker 1: hundred and forty five thousand dollars has been raised this

732
00:52:19,835 --> 00:52:25,115
Speaker 1: year by the campaign of Zoran Mamdani. Who is Zoran Mamdani.

733
00:52:25,635 --> 00:52:28,955
Speaker 1: I had no idea and I live here until I

734
00:52:28,995 --> 00:52:32,115
Speaker 1: looked him up. He is the Socialist candidate for mayor.

735
00:52:32,595 --> 00:52:35,955
Speaker 1: He outraised the mayor mayor same time span by a

736
00:52:35,995 --> 00:52:40,355
Speaker 1: factor of forty seven. On the other hand, Mayor Adams

737
00:52:40,355 --> 00:52:43,835
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to understand the implications here. He held a

738
00:52:43,915 --> 00:52:46,955
Speaker 1: town hall in the ocean side neighborhood of the Rockaways

739
00:52:47,315 --> 00:52:49,675
Speaker 1: and decided instead of talking about what he could do

740
00:52:50,075 --> 00:52:53,795
Speaker 1: to save the city and himself, he decided to reminisce

741
00:52:54,155 --> 00:52:58,035
Speaker 1: about riding the subways without paying so he could visit

742
00:52:58,075 --> 00:53:04,675
Speaker 1: his quote Shorty unquote who lived in the distant Rockaways.

743
00:53:04,995 --> 00:53:08,835
Speaker 1: Shorty means many things in the urban lingo. This time

744
00:53:08,835 --> 00:53:12,475
Speaker 1: it appears to be a reference to a girlfriend, possibly

745
00:53:12,595 --> 00:53:16,595
Speaker 1: a girlfriend on the side of another relationship. Or it's

746
00:53:16,755 --> 00:53:19,875
Speaker 1: Eric Adams, who the hell knows what he means.

747
00:53:20,595 --> 00:53:22,155
Speaker 2: There's a real history for me.

748
00:53:22,475 --> 00:53:24,235
Speaker 3: I had a shorty that lived out here, you know,

749
00:53:24,395 --> 00:53:28,795
Speaker 3: used to come out, come out, taking that long a train, right,

750
00:53:29,155 --> 00:53:32,235
Speaker 3: you know, and the cold, you know, love is blind,

751
00:53:32,355 --> 00:53:36,675
Speaker 3: and you know, taking that long, long a train I

752
00:53:36,715 --> 00:53:40,315
Speaker 3: did not have a car, and one or two times

753
00:53:40,355 --> 00:53:42,355
Speaker 3: I didn't have a tokens. So yes, I did jump

754
00:53:42,475 --> 00:53:45,315
Speaker 3: up with the turnstile. I'm not gonna it's over. The

755
00:53:45,355 --> 00:53:47,035
Speaker 3: statue of limitation is over.

756
00:53:48,035 --> 00:53:54,235
Speaker 1: Statue of limitations. Statue of limitations. The Mayor of the

757
00:53:54,275 --> 00:53:58,515
Speaker 1: City of New York, everybody but the winner worst Ellen

758
00:53:58,635 --> 00:54:03,475
Speaker 1: Musk wait I may have mispronounced that. Yeah at Elon,

759
00:54:04,675 --> 00:54:08,515
Speaker 1: Elon Musk. Now that he and Trump have eliminated the

760
00:54:08,515 --> 00:54:13,195
Speaker 1: Department of Education, which Mayor Adams so desperately needed, who

761
00:54:13,275 --> 00:54:17,675
Speaker 1: knows how much more stupid we will each become. Musk,

762
00:54:17,755 --> 00:54:20,955
Speaker 1: of course, does not have much further to descend. He

763
00:54:21,115 --> 00:54:24,435
Speaker 1: celebrated the thing that will increase those non college white

764
00:54:24,595 --> 00:54:28,675
Speaker 1: trash men for Trump numbers by doing the graveside meme

765
00:54:29,155 --> 00:54:32,275
Speaker 1: with the guy kneeling in front of the tombstone giving

766
00:54:32,275 --> 00:54:36,355
Speaker 1: the two finger piece or V for victory sign. Only

767
00:54:36,395 --> 00:54:38,235
Speaker 1: in this one the guy is Trump and on the

768
00:54:38,275 --> 00:54:46,115
Speaker 1: tombstone it reads Department of Education. Yes, depart men d

769
00:54:46,155 --> 00:54:49,195
Speaker 1: E P R T M E N. Because Musk has

770
00:54:49,235 --> 00:54:59,155
Speaker 1: misspelled department because he's a clucking idiot. Elon Department of Education. Musk.

771
00:55:00,195 --> 00:55:04,195
Speaker 1: The law of proving Darwin was right. This has to

772
00:55:04,195 --> 00:55:06,715
Speaker 1: come into play with this loser at some point, doesn't it.

773
00:55:06,955 --> 00:55:08,875
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got to try to get the toast

774
00:55:08,875 --> 00:55:11,395
Speaker 1: out with a fork sooner rather than later, doesn't he

775
00:55:13,035 --> 00:55:58,515
Speaker 1: Elon Musk two days worse person and no word. I've

776
00:55:58,555 --> 00:56:00,435
Speaker 1: done all the damage I can do here. Thank you

777
00:56:00,515 --> 00:56:03,635
Speaker 1: for listening. Ryan Ray and John Phillip Chanel, the musical

778
00:56:03,675 --> 00:56:07,155
Speaker 1: directors have Countdown, arranged, produced, and performed most of our music.

779
00:56:07,475 --> 00:56:10,955
Speaker 1: Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Mister Ray was on

780
00:56:10,995 --> 00:56:13,235
Speaker 1: the guitars, bass and drums, and it was produced by

781
00:56:13,275 --> 00:56:16,995
Speaker 1: Tko Brothers. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by

782
00:56:17,035 --> 00:56:20,595
Speaker 1: the best baseball stadium organists ever, Nancy Faust. The sports

783
00:56:20,675 --> 00:56:24,115
Speaker 1: music is the Olberman theme from ESPN two, written by

784
00:56:24,155 --> 00:56:27,955
Speaker 1: Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Other music arranged

785
00:56:27,955 --> 00:56:30,395
Speaker 1: and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. And my

786
00:56:30,435 --> 00:56:34,595
Speaker 1: announcer today is my friend Larry David. Everything else was

787
00:56:34,635 --> 00:56:38,955
Speaker 1: as ever my fault. That's countdown for today, just three

788
00:56:38,995 --> 00:56:43,435
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety nine days. We've cleared fourteen hundred until

789
00:56:43,435 --> 00:56:46,355
Speaker 1: the scheduled end of his lane Duck lame reigned term

790
00:56:46,795 --> 00:56:51,515
Speaker 1: unless Musk removes him sooner or the actuarial tables due.

791
00:56:52,315 --> 00:56:59,075
Speaker 1: The next scheduled countdown is Thursday. Voice still tentative. As always,

792
00:56:59,115 --> 00:57:02,555
Speaker 1: Bolton's as the news warrants, remember im peach Trump. It

793
00:57:02,595 --> 00:57:04,875
Speaker 1: won't work now, it will win the Democrat. It's the

794
00:57:04,915 --> 00:57:09,595
Speaker 1: midterms if there are midterms, and remove Schumer immediately. Until

795
00:57:09,675 --> 00:57:12,835
Speaker 1: next time, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night,

796
00:57:13,595 --> 00:57:14,555
Speaker 1: and good luck.

797
00:57:22,795 --> 00:57:24,595
Speaker 3: The statue of limitation is over.

798
00:57:24,955 --> 00:57:28,915
Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olberman is a production of iHeartRadio. For

799
00:57:29,075 --> 00:57:33,995
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

800
00:57:34,235 --> 00:57:36,235
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.