1 00:00:04,795 --> 00:00:21,235 Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. How 2 00:00:21,275 --> 00:00:25,555 Speaker 1: many times would you be permitted to threaten mass violence 3 00:00:25,595 --> 00:00:28,995 Speaker 1: if you did not get your way before Homeland Security 4 00:00:29,075 --> 00:00:32,755 Speaker 1: or the FBI or somebody came and dragged your ass 5 00:00:32,955 --> 00:00:37,195 Speaker 1: off somewhere? I think Trump is now in triple digits. 6 00:00:37,915 --> 00:00:43,355 Speaker 1: It is time to drag his ass off somewhere. All 7 00:00:43,395 --> 00:00:48,715 Speaker 1: political prosecutions of your favorite president me must stop immediately. 8 00:00:49,275 --> 00:00:53,555 Speaker 1: This is election interference and must be immediately stopped. Our 9 00:00:53,675 --> 00:00:58,715 Speaker 1: country will not stand for it. This is the by 10 00:00:58,795 --> 00:01:01,715 Speaker 1: now standard Trump stochastic threat. If the government does not 11 00:01:01,835 --> 00:01:06,275 Speaker 1: bend to my will, my supporters will kill you. It 12 00:01:06,355 --> 00:01:09,555 Speaker 1: is megalomania. And as often as he does it, and 13 00:01:09,755 --> 00:01:12,395 Speaker 1: as dulled as we are thus become to it, it 14 00:01:12,555 --> 00:01:16,355 Speaker 1: is unspeakably dangerous. It is not just shouting fire in 15 00:01:16,355 --> 00:01:19,395 Speaker 1: a crowded theater. It's shouting fire in a crowded theater 16 00:01:19,635 --> 00:01:22,955 Speaker 1: full of gun crazed nut jobs. And I will go 17 00:01:23,075 --> 00:01:26,635 Speaker 1: back to my first point here, how often would you 18 00:01:27,075 --> 00:01:30,795 Speaker 1: get away with it? Send him to Gitmo, just go 19 00:01:30,835 --> 00:01:33,515 Speaker 1: to his next court appearance. I think they are now 20 00:01:33,635 --> 00:01:37,315 Speaker 1: printed on most calendars, and I think they list them 21 00:01:37,355 --> 00:01:40,315 Speaker 1: on all the schedules next to the upcoming NBA games, 22 00:01:40,795 --> 00:01:45,235 Speaker 1: go to his next court appearance and arrest him. And oh, 23 00:01:45,275 --> 00:01:47,915 Speaker 1: by the way, I think at minimum he has to 24 00:01:47,955 --> 00:01:52,955 Speaker 1: stop with this nauseating your favorite president me stick if 25 00:01:52,955 --> 00:01:55,275 Speaker 1: you had not heard. In the New President's Date poll 26 00:01:55,315 --> 00:01:58,155 Speaker 1: of one hundred and fifty four historians, Trump was again 27 00:01:58,595 --> 00:02:03,435 Speaker 1: ranked the worst president ever, with only half the marks 28 00:02:03,755 --> 00:02:09,115 Speaker 1: of the next world first James Buchanan. Somehow, and consider 29 00:02:09,355 --> 00:02:14,515 Speaker 1: how nearly impossible this is. Somehow, he is also ranked 30 00:02:15,155 --> 00:02:20,115 Speaker 1: both the worst president of all time and the seventh 31 00:02:20,475 --> 00:02:27,955 Speaker 1: most overrated president of all time. How on the hell 32 00:02:28,075 --> 00:02:31,915 Speaker 1: you pull that off? They have gone nuts on the 33 00:02:31,955 --> 00:02:36,555 Speaker 1: right because while Trump was last, Obama is seventh, Biden fourteenth. Frankly, 34 00:02:36,595 --> 00:02:38,715 Speaker 1: I think they should cut their losses and join me 35 00:02:39,035 --> 00:02:43,115 Speaker 1: in this. I am surprised Trump finished as high up 36 00:02:43,155 --> 00:02:48,195 Speaker 1: as he did, but seriously, folks, on day thirty seven 37 00:02:48,275 --> 00:02:51,835 Speaker 1: of Trump's dementia crisis, more evidence that the dumbwaiter doesn't 38 00:02:51,875 --> 00:02:54,035 Speaker 1: go up to the top floor any longer in his 39 00:02:54,075 --> 00:02:58,675 Speaker 1: apartment building. As I always acknowledge here in learning how 40 00:02:58,675 --> 00:03:02,555 Speaker 1: to imitate human behavior, Trump has in his seventy seven 41 00:03:02,635 --> 00:03:08,115 Speaker 1: years developed some clever tricks, usually ingenious ripoffs imitations, indicating 42 00:03:08,115 --> 00:03:12,435 Speaker 1: a dim but for the dimness of his clientele sufficient 43 00:03:12,555 --> 00:03:16,595 Speaker 1: awareness of what others are doing. Biden goes on TikTok 44 00:03:16,675 --> 00:03:19,675 Speaker 1: one week. Trump tries to get to the kids by 45 00:03:19,715 --> 00:03:24,035 Speaker 1: showing off his shoe game the next. And most especially, 46 00:03:24,395 --> 00:03:27,835 Speaker 1: he has an ability to turn anything that happens anywhere 47 00:03:27,875 --> 00:03:31,235 Speaker 1: in the world to anybody, into something he can claim 48 00:03:31,315 --> 00:03:34,915 Speaker 1: credit for, or to say would not have happened if 49 00:03:34,955 --> 00:03:37,315 Speaker 1: he had been there to stop it, or to blame 50 00:03:37,315 --> 00:03:39,795 Speaker 1: someone else for having happened, or to turn into a 51 00:03:39,915 --> 00:03:43,875 Speaker 1: rationale for his own misconduct or self martyrdom. And it 52 00:03:43,915 --> 00:03:46,715 Speaker 1: is in that last area in which he just slipped. 53 00:03:47,355 --> 00:03:51,755 Speaker 1: In addition to the social media stochastic terrorism threat, yesterday, 54 00:03:51,795 --> 00:03:57,035 Speaker 1: Trump finally said something about how his boss Putin murdered Alexeydervalni. 55 00:03:57,915 --> 00:04:01,355 Speaker 1: But it doesn't make any sense. I mean even for Trump, 56 00:04:01,555 --> 00:04:05,395 Speaker 1: it doesn't make any sense because he made no effort 57 00:04:05,515 --> 00:04:11,995 Speaker 1: whatsoever to connect it to what followed in his own statement. Obviously, 58 00:04:12,035 --> 00:04:15,835 Speaker 1: Trump was not going to criticize Putin, but his ren 59 00:04:15,875 --> 00:04:20,075 Speaker 1: fields had long since insisted that Navalni was the Russian 60 00:04:20,235 --> 00:04:25,635 Speaker 1: Trump the opponent unfairly prosecuted by the incumbent president. Nonsensical, 61 00:04:25,635 --> 00:04:29,315 Speaker 1: but it works for that crowd. Clearly, Trump cannot say 62 00:04:29,395 --> 00:04:32,395 Speaker 1: that either. What is that if not just a different 63 00:04:32,515 --> 00:04:36,315 Speaker 1: kind of criticism of Putin? What do you mean unfairly prosecuted? 64 00:04:36,795 --> 00:04:39,675 Speaker 1: We all know that whatever the punishment is that Putin 65 00:04:39,715 --> 00:04:43,475 Speaker 1: would inflict on him, it would be something, and Trump 66 00:04:43,555 --> 00:04:47,075 Speaker 1: has lived the last decade at least terrified of it happening. 67 00:04:48,435 --> 00:04:52,915 Speaker 1: So faced with this conundrum, Trump yesterday simply mentioned Nevalni, 68 00:04:53,435 --> 00:04:58,035 Speaker 1: then jumped to something utterly unrelated and pretended that it 69 00:04:58,075 --> 00:05:02,475 Speaker 1: all made sense. Quote, the sudden death of Lexay Nevalni 70 00:05:02,555 --> 00:05:04,155 Speaker 1: has made me more and more aware of what is 71 00:05:04,195 --> 00:05:07,955 Speaker 1: happening in our country. It is a slow, steady progression, 72 00:05:08,315 --> 00:05:13,235 Speaker 1: with crooked radical left politicians, prosecutors and judges leading us 73 00:05:13,275 --> 00:05:16,835 Speaker 1: down a path to destruction, open borders, rigged elections, nation 74 00:05:16,955 --> 00:05:21,155 Speaker 1: and decline magots. What in the hell does Alexey Navalni 75 00:05:21,235 --> 00:05:24,635 Speaker 1: have to do with open borders? He might as well 76 00:05:24,635 --> 00:05:27,435 Speaker 1: have written the sudden death of Frederick Douglass has made 77 00:05:27,435 --> 00:05:28,915 Speaker 1: me more and more aware of what is happening in 78 00:05:28,955 --> 00:05:35,075 Speaker 1: our country. It is mortifying to think that Trump looks 79 00:05:35,115 --> 00:05:38,915 Speaker 1: at this sees it through whatever haze he lives in 80 00:05:39,435 --> 00:05:41,915 Speaker 1: and thinks it makes sense. It is as if he 81 00:05:42,075 --> 00:05:46,595 Speaker 1: is drunk all the time, or on opioids, or brain 82 00:05:46,755 --> 00:05:53,155 Speaker 1: damaged or everything everywhere all at once. Also on the 83 00:05:53,195 --> 00:05:56,715 Speaker 1: dementia French Apparently, Trump thinks the word indictment starts with 84 00:05:56,795 --> 00:06:01,395 Speaker 1: an end. You got indicted. Now, in my whole life, 85 00:06:01,435 --> 00:06:04,595 Speaker 1: I didn't know what the I didn't know what indictment meant. 86 00:06:04,835 --> 00:06:10,315 Speaker 1: You got indicted. So he can't spell indict and doesn't 87 00:06:10,395 --> 00:06:14,915 Speaker 1: know what it means, and Marjorie Taylor Green can't pronounce it. 88 00:06:15,235 --> 00:06:19,675 Speaker 2: This historical evidence is overwhelming that the founding fathers intended. 89 00:06:19,195 --> 00:06:21,995 Speaker 1: Impeachment to be used to deal. 90 00:06:21,915 --> 00:06:25,515 Speaker 2: With the commission of indictable crimes and the abuse of power. 91 00:06:26,195 --> 00:06:31,435 Speaker 1: Ah the classics among those presidents not finishing last all time. 92 00:06:32,075 --> 00:06:35,475 Speaker 1: Axios out with a big insider piece about the Biden campaign, 93 00:06:35,515 --> 00:06:40,315 Speaker 1: assessment that they have a big reset opportunity coming as 94 00:06:40,355 --> 00:06:42,635 Speaker 1: the President heads to California to work the rooms in 95 00:06:42,795 --> 00:06:45,955 Speaker 1: La San Fran and Los Altos Hills through Thursday of 96 00:06:45,955 --> 00:06:49,035 Speaker 1: this week. They think the State of the Union address 97 00:06:49,115 --> 00:06:52,995 Speaker 1: March seventh will be his big chance, maybe his last 98 00:06:53,115 --> 00:06:57,195 Speaker 1: chance to knock down what Politico aptly named the Biden 99 00:06:57,315 --> 00:07:00,995 Speaker 1: age plot. Quoting from the Axios report, everyone around him 100 00:07:01,035 --> 00:07:04,675 Speaker 1: is well aware of the need to jack this campaign up. 101 00:07:04,915 --> 00:07:07,755 Speaker 1: That is a quote from an unnamed source supposedly close 102 00:07:07,795 --> 00:07:10,635 Speaker 1: to Biden. For the President to be out there, the 103 00:07:10,675 --> 00:07:13,275 Speaker 1: source goes on to be visible, to be strong of 104 00:07:13,355 --> 00:07:18,835 Speaker 1: presence and strong of voice. Fair enough, But if the 105 00:07:18,875 --> 00:07:22,555 Speaker 1: campaign is resting its hopes on merely answering the age plot, 106 00:07:22,715 --> 00:07:25,915 Speaker 1: it will not work. This has to be a multi 107 00:07:26,035 --> 00:07:31,395 Speaker 1: pronged offense. Yes, show what they called half seriously during 108 00:07:31,435 --> 00:07:35,555 Speaker 1: the Kennedy presidency Viga, but at the same time we 109 00:07:35,635 --> 00:07:41,995 Speaker 1: have to see the most pointed, searing, annihilating, ubiquitous advertising 110 00:07:42,035 --> 00:07:47,835 Speaker 1: campaign against Trump. The only complexity in this is which 111 00:07:47,995 --> 00:07:53,835 Speaker 1: campaign themes Trump has handed them to choose from. Obviously 112 00:07:53,875 --> 00:07:58,715 Speaker 1: all the dictatorship ones, the insanity ones, Trump's cognition crisis, 113 00:07:58,915 --> 00:08:02,235 Speaker 1: the insurrection ones, and the new one that it looks 114 00:08:02,235 --> 00:08:04,635 Speaker 1: to me like Democrats are not seeing for the easy 115 00:08:04,995 --> 00:08:09,795 Speaker 1: campaign kills shot. It really is. Since the New York 116 00:08:09,875 --> 00:08:12,995 Speaker 1: Times story late last week about Trump privately saying he 117 00:08:13,395 --> 00:08:16,595 Speaker 1: likes the idea of a sixteen week national abortion ban, 118 00:08:17,195 --> 00:08:20,715 Speaker 1: with some exceptions. Much of the talk has been about 119 00:08:20,715 --> 00:08:23,795 Speaker 1: the length, about the sixteen weeks and how he's trying 120 00:08:23,835 --> 00:08:27,315 Speaker 1: to look moderate by saying sixteen weeks, and his terrifying 121 00:08:27,355 --> 00:08:32,715 Speaker 1: imbecility that he likes sixteen weeks because it's a nice 122 00:08:32,875 --> 00:08:36,595 Speaker 1: even number, and his quote in the Times article, you 123 00:08:36,635 --> 00:08:39,755 Speaker 1: know what I like about sixteen it's even, it's four months, 124 00:08:41,475 --> 00:08:44,155 Speaker 1: and as stupid and as terrifying as that is, we're 125 00:08:44,155 --> 00:08:50,795 Speaker 1: missing the point. The Republican presidential candidate favors a national 126 00:08:51,515 --> 00:08:58,355 Speaker 1: abortion ban. No more tap dancing, like every Republican dating 127 00:08:58,475 --> 00:09:02,475 Speaker 1: back to Gerald Ford, no more of the states should 128 00:09:02,475 --> 00:09:07,795 Speaker 1: make the call. V Wade the same stuff Trump himself 129 00:09:07,835 --> 00:09:18,515 Speaker 1: boasted about national abortion ban Alabama, Texas, Missouri, New York, California. 130 00:09:18,995 --> 00:09:22,315 Speaker 1: I take a thirty second TV spot. It's a black screen. 131 00:09:22,635 --> 00:09:25,475 Speaker 1: There's a tiny picture of Trump in the middle, growing 132 00:09:25,595 --> 00:09:30,555 Speaker 1: ever larger by the second. Silence, no voiceover, no music, 133 00:09:30,675 --> 00:09:36,715 Speaker 1: nothing for ten seconds. Then an announcer says Donald Trump 134 00:09:36,755 --> 00:09:42,155 Speaker 1: says he will institute a national abortion ban. Silence for 135 00:09:42,235 --> 00:09:44,475 Speaker 1: ten more seconds. Then as the picture of Trump hits 136 00:09:44,475 --> 00:09:47,675 Speaker 1: the full screen. I'm Joe Biden, and I approved this 137 00:09:47,755 --> 00:09:56,035 Speaker 1: message because I won't back briefly to the Axios story 138 00:09:56,075 --> 00:09:59,155 Speaker 1: on the reset, I'll just quote this. Mark Zandi and 139 00:09:59,235 --> 00:10:02,995 Speaker 1: his fellow Moody's analytics experts said in a paper last 140 00:10:02,995 --> 00:10:05,955 Speaker 1: month that although a bi Trump rematch would be a 141 00:10:06,035 --> 00:10:08,955 Speaker 1: nail bier, they feel confident in their state by state 142 00:10:09,035 --> 00:10:15,315 Speaker 1: model's prediction of a Biden win. In fact, they say 143 00:10:15,355 --> 00:10:20,035 Speaker 1: economic swings could alter the model considerably, and if Republican 144 00:10:20,115 --> 00:10:24,755 Speaker 1: turnout in the swing States grows even modestly, Trump might 145 00:10:24,795 --> 00:10:28,955 Speaker 1: win two seventy one to two sixty seven. But with 146 00:10:29,155 --> 00:10:34,355 Speaker 1: average turnout Biden three hundred and eight, Trump two thirty. 147 00:10:35,955 --> 00:10:40,555 Speaker 1: I'll take it. Also. I don't know how the hell 148 00:10:40,595 --> 00:10:44,355 Speaker 1: you could have missed this in the Washington Post. But 149 00:10:44,755 --> 00:10:49,555 Speaker 1: hero of the day is Abraham Lincoln. Historian and history 150 00:10:49,595 --> 00:10:54,315 Speaker 1: instructor David J. Gerlman of George Mason University in Virginia, 151 00:10:54,355 --> 00:10:57,075 Speaker 1: And all he did was thumb through a twenty two 152 00:10:57,115 --> 00:11:00,635 Speaker 1: page report on the trial of a union civilian employee 153 00:11:00,675 --> 00:11:04,315 Speaker 1: during the Civil War to discover the astonishing fact that 154 00:11:04,355 --> 00:11:09,195 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty four, Abraham Lincoln pardoned Joe Biden's great 155 00:11:09,555 --> 00:11:17,835 Speaker 1: great grandfather, Moses J. Robinette, a civilian hired as a 156 00:11:17,915 --> 00:11:20,715 Speaker 1: veterinary surgeon to take care of Union horses in Virginia. 157 00:11:21,035 --> 00:11:24,275 Speaker 1: He got into a knife fight with another civilian working 158 00:11:24,315 --> 00:11:27,555 Speaker 1: with the Federal Army, a man named John Jay. Alexander 159 00:11:28,355 --> 00:11:30,675 Speaker 1: Robinette made some sort of wise crack about the much 160 00:11:30,715 --> 00:11:34,235 Speaker 1: bigger Alexander to the female cook at the army camp. 161 00:11:35,315 --> 00:11:37,555 Speaker 1: I like this guy already, and feel as if I 162 00:11:37,635 --> 00:11:42,395 Speaker 1: met him. Alexander threatened him, and in his own defense, 163 00:11:42,435 --> 00:11:45,795 Speaker 1: he claimed Robinette drew his pocket knife and cut him, 164 00:11:45,835 --> 00:11:49,395 Speaker 1: not seriously, but because that was considered a weapon, Army 165 00:11:49,515 --> 00:11:54,075 Speaker 1: Reggs required that attempt to kill be included in the charges, 166 00:11:54,555 --> 00:11:57,475 Speaker 1: and he got two years at hard labor on the 167 00:11:57,555 --> 00:12:02,195 Speaker 1: Dry Tortugas off Florida, which is where President Lincoln comes in. 168 00:12:03,395 --> 00:12:08,955 Speaker 1: Apparently everybody loved Moses J. Robinette, described as full of fun, 169 00:12:09,515 --> 00:12:15,955 Speaker 1: always lively and joking. Again, I feel like I met him. 170 00:12:16,555 --> 00:12:22,875 Speaker 1: Three military figures petitioned to have President Lincoln pardon Moses J. Robinette, 171 00:12:23,155 --> 00:12:26,915 Speaker 1: and a month after arriving at the Dry Tortugas, Lincoln 172 00:12:26,995 --> 00:12:31,075 Speaker 1: wrote on the appeal pardon for unexecuted part of punishment A. 173 00:12:31,275 --> 00:12:33,555 Speaker 1: Lincoln September one, eighteen sixty four. 174 00:12:35,595 --> 00:12:36,155 Speaker 2: Wow. 175 00:12:37,795 --> 00:12:42,475 Speaker 1: Moses Robinette, who lived until nineteen o three, had a 176 00:12:42,515 --> 00:12:48,635 Speaker 1: granddaughter named Mary Elizabeth Robinette. She married Joseph Harry Biden. 177 00:12:49,515 --> 00:12:53,235 Speaker 1: Their son was Joseph Robinette Biden, Senior, and his son 178 00:12:53,435 --> 00:12:59,675 Speaker 1: is the President. But the best part of this remains 179 00:12:59,715 --> 00:13:06,555 Speaker 1: one quote dug up in Professor Gerlman's research. In imploring 180 00:13:06,595 --> 00:13:12,075 Speaker 1: Lincoln to pardon him, the friends of Moses J. Robinett 181 00:13:12,755 --> 00:13:21,795 Speaker 1: described him as quote ardent and influential in opposing traitors 182 00:13:22,115 --> 00:13:35,435 Speaker 1: and their schemes to destroy the government. Wow. By the way, 183 00:13:35,475 --> 00:13:38,755 Speaker 1: Congressman James Comer and Trump thug Robert Hurr have just 184 00:13:38,795 --> 00:13:41,955 Speaker 1: found out about Lincoln pardoning Biden's great great grandfather, so 185 00:13:41,995 --> 00:13:46,435 Speaker 1: that'll be starting the impeachment hearing on it on Friday. 186 00:13:47,155 --> 00:13:50,155 Speaker 1: I made that up. I probably shouldn't have. I don't 187 00:13:50,155 --> 00:13:53,235 Speaker 1: want to give them any ideas. I wish I were 188 00:13:53,235 --> 00:13:56,995 Speaker 1: making this up. There is another potential campaign issue here, 189 00:13:57,035 --> 00:14:00,195 Speaker 1: and it is isolationism, and we are seeing it play 190 00:14:00,235 --> 00:14:06,075 Speaker 1: out with deadly seriousness. The cowardice of Senator JD. Vance. 191 00:14:06,675 --> 00:14:09,995 Speaker 1: This is the clown who was running forth in the 192 00:14:09,995 --> 00:14:14,155 Speaker 1: Ohio senatorial primary when he sold his ass to Trump. 193 00:14:14,195 --> 00:14:18,235 Speaker 1: For an endorsement, and he is now not just senator, 194 00:14:18,275 --> 00:14:22,035 Speaker 1: but the ranking member on the Senate Checks Notes, Beard 195 00:14:22,315 --> 00:14:30,555 Speaker 1: Trimming and Facial Grooming Committee. The useless, vile, vacuous performance 196 00:14:30,715 --> 00:14:36,595 Speaker 1: artist think ted Cruz without the podcast. For the same 197 00:14:36,675 --> 00:14:40,955 Speaker 1: reasons a YouTuber would go there. JD. Vance went to 198 00:14:41,075 --> 00:14:45,995 Speaker 1: the Munich Security Conference. Julia naval Naya went there as well. 199 00:14:46,835 --> 00:14:49,075 Speaker 1: She went there as the wife of the imprisoned Alexe 200 00:14:49,195 --> 00:14:51,435 Speaker 1: Navalni and while she was there she found out she 201 00:14:51,475 --> 00:14:55,355 Speaker 1: had become his widow. Not an hour or two later, 202 00:14:55,435 --> 00:14:59,315 Speaker 1: she addressed the conference with dignity, with bravery, and with heartbreak. 203 00:15:00,595 --> 00:15:05,955 Speaker 1: From this country we sent this isolationist putts Vance. He 204 00:15:05,995 --> 00:15:09,395 Speaker 1: stood around giving snarky comments to American political reporters gullible 205 00:15:09,475 --> 00:15:12,075 Speaker 1: enough to platform him. He insisted, the US does not 206 00:15:12,155 --> 00:15:15,355 Speaker 1: have the resources to fight multifront wars, so we need 207 00:15:15,355 --> 00:15:18,395 Speaker 1: to tell Ukraine to seed territory to Putin. How many 208 00:15:18,395 --> 00:15:22,235 Speaker 1: more Ukrainians get killed before we get there, he asked, 209 00:15:22,635 --> 00:15:25,035 Speaker 1: of course, if we get there, if we get to 210 00:15:25,075 --> 00:15:28,595 Speaker 1: that point, we will have no choice but to soon 211 00:15:28,715 --> 00:15:33,355 Speaker 1: summon the resources to actually fight a multifront war in Europe, 212 00:15:33,555 --> 00:15:36,235 Speaker 1: because Putin will take our willingness to negotiate away part 213 00:15:36,235 --> 00:15:40,395 Speaker 1: of Ukraine as exactly what Hitler understood the European Democracy's 214 00:15:40,435 --> 00:15:43,915 Speaker 1: willingness to negotiate away Czechoslovakia and Poland to be in 215 00:15:43,995 --> 00:15:48,435 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty eight nineteen thirty nine. Appeasement. Jd Vance is 216 00:15:48,475 --> 00:15:53,235 Speaker 1: an appeaser. Jd Vance would have appeased Hitler. The West 217 00:15:53,275 --> 00:15:57,555 Speaker 1: doesn't make enough munitions to support an indefinite war. Vance belched, 218 00:15:58,155 --> 00:16:00,995 Speaker 1: Ukraine doesn't have enough manpower to support an indefinite war. 219 00:16:01,195 --> 00:16:07,795 Speaker 1: We have to be realistic. Unquote, we are being realistic, Beard, Oh, 220 00:16:08,355 --> 00:16:13,555 Speaker 1: very realistic. Ukraine is fighting Russia in Russia, so we 221 00:16:13,915 --> 00:16:18,355 Speaker 1: don't have to because if we have to fight a 222 00:16:18,395 --> 00:16:22,195 Speaker 1: madman dictator like Putin, we wouldn't know if we could 223 00:16:22,235 --> 00:16:25,955 Speaker 1: control it, and the risk of genuine conflict, even nuclear 224 00:16:25,955 --> 00:16:29,755 Speaker 1: conflict with Russia begins to escalate with just one mentally 225 00:16:29,835 --> 00:16:34,115 Speaker 1: unbalanced authoritarian holding his finger on the button, let alone 226 00:16:34,195 --> 00:16:39,395 Speaker 1: returning a second one into this equation in Trump, jd 227 00:16:39,595 --> 00:16:42,875 Speaker 1: Vance will never understand, or he is prostituting himself to 228 00:16:42,955 --> 00:16:46,675 Speaker 1: pretend to not understand, that we are not helping Ukraine. 229 00:16:47,795 --> 00:16:52,275 Speaker 1: Ukraine is helping us, so we don't have to summon 230 00:16:52,355 --> 00:16:57,075 Speaker 1: the munitions to support an indefinite war against Putin or 231 00:16:57,115 --> 00:17:01,915 Speaker 1: to summon the troops. Then, of course there is Vance's 232 00:17:01,915 --> 00:17:06,675 Speaker 1: personal cowardice. He's not just an appeaser. Well, I was 233 00:17:06,715 --> 00:17:08,395 Speaker 1: going to say something else, but I'll skip it. He's 234 00:17:08,395 --> 00:17:11,595 Speaker 1: not just an appeaser. He was invited to attend a 235 00:17:11,635 --> 00:17:15,195 Speaker 1: meeting with President Zelenski of Ukraine. He said that while 236 00:17:15,235 --> 00:17:20,115 Speaker 1: his position was underrepresented in Munich, you know, give the 237 00:17:20,115 --> 00:17:24,915 Speaker 1: world to Putin and betray our allies. He didn't want 238 00:17:25,155 --> 00:17:28,275 Speaker 1: to go to meet Zelenski because he didn't think he 239 00:17:28,315 --> 00:17:34,275 Speaker 1: would learn anything new. Of course, in this he is correct. 240 00:17:34,595 --> 00:17:36,715 Speaker 1: There is no evidence that Jay d Vantz has learned 241 00:17:36,715 --> 00:17:40,435 Speaker 1: anything new since he got out of diapers, if he did, 242 00:17:41,515 --> 00:17:43,115 Speaker 1: and of course there is no evidence that at its 243 00:17:43,155 --> 00:17:46,195 Speaker 1: core his Republican Party has learned anything new since the 244 00:17:46,235 --> 00:17:51,235 Speaker 1: original America firsters and Charles Lindberg and William Borra tried 245 00:17:51,275 --> 00:17:53,915 Speaker 1: to take over this country and demonize Jewish Americans in 246 00:17:53,995 --> 00:17:57,355 Speaker 1: order to appease Hitler in nineteen forty. They were a 247 00:17:57,395 --> 00:18:00,475 Speaker 1: cancer on our land then, and Trump is a cancer 248 00:18:00,635 --> 00:18:03,915 Speaker 1: on our land now. And I do not think it 249 00:18:03,955 --> 00:18:08,915 Speaker 1: is entirely a coincidence that when Nebl Chamberlain, the Prime 250 00:18:08,915 --> 00:18:12,115 Speaker 1: Minister of the United Kingdom, attempted and in fact gave 251 00:18:12,155 --> 00:18:16,195 Speaker 1: away Czechoslovakia to Hitler in nineteen thirty eight, the deal 252 00:18:16,275 --> 00:18:20,355 Speaker 1: was made in Munich and JD. Vance is willing to 253 00:18:20,355 --> 00:18:27,195 Speaker 1: give away Ukraine to Putin and made this statement in Munich, 254 00:18:32,915 --> 00:18:37,275 Speaker 1: rhyming with Unich also of interest here. I know her 255 00:18:37,355 --> 00:18:43,355 Speaker 1: nearly eighteen years now, and no, I don't know what 256 00:18:43,435 --> 00:18:47,795 Speaker 1: happened to Katie Turr on MSNBC last week, or how 257 00:18:47,835 --> 00:18:50,195 Speaker 1: she went from being somebody I cared deeply about who 258 00:18:50,515 --> 00:18:54,675 Speaker 1: used to help me with the special comments about George 259 00:18:54,675 --> 00:19:00,275 Speaker 1: Bush on MSNBC, somebody in twenty sixteen who Donald Trump 260 00:19:00,355 --> 00:19:02,875 Speaker 1: tried to get killed. How she went from that to 261 00:19:02,875 --> 00:19:06,435 Speaker 1: becoming somebody calling him a New York and asking on 262 00:19:06,515 --> 00:19:10,755 Speaker 1: her program on her newscast if it was fair to 263 00:19:10,955 --> 00:19:15,075 Speaker 1: prosecute him, and doing it on a television network I built. 264 00:19:17,395 --> 00:19:19,555 Speaker 1: I don't know what has happened to Katie Terr, but 265 00:19:20,715 --> 00:19:24,555 Speaker 1: I do have a theory that's next. This is an 266 00:19:24,555 --> 00:19:25,995 Speaker 1: all new edition of Countdown. 267 00:19:27,795 --> 00:19:30,235 Speaker 3: This is Countdown with Keith Olbermant. 268 00:19:36,555 --> 00:19:40,915 Speaker 1: Postscripts to the news some headlines, some updates, some snark, 269 00:19:41,595 --> 00:19:49,675 Speaker 1: some prediction, stateline thirty Rock Manhattan. Okay, I'm confused, as 270 00:19:49,755 --> 00:19:53,635 Speaker 1: everybody else is. For a year and a half after 271 00:19:53,675 --> 00:19:57,875 Speaker 1: he came down that escalator, Donald Trump tried to get 272 00:19:58,075 --> 00:20:04,035 Speaker 1: Katie Turr killed, called her out repeatedly at his campaign speeches, 273 00:20:04,675 --> 00:20:07,555 Speaker 1: pointed her out to his mobs sooner rather than later. 274 00:20:07,555 --> 00:20:11,635 Speaker 1: They had to get her Secret Service protection. Last Friday 275 00:20:11,795 --> 00:20:16,715 Speaker 1: on MSNBC, Katie carried so much water so quickly for 276 00:20:16,795 --> 00:20:19,755 Speaker 1: Trump that she was still trending for it on Saturday, 277 00:20:19,795 --> 00:20:23,795 Speaker 1: and she was the headline story on nearly every right 278 00:20:23,835 --> 00:20:30,155 Speaker 1: wing propaganda website. Not good. She insisted he was a 279 00:20:30,235 --> 00:20:33,115 Speaker 1: legend in New York City. Trump is synonymous with New York. 280 00:20:33,635 --> 00:20:36,235 Speaker 1: She then posited that there were no true victims in 281 00:20:36,275 --> 00:20:38,835 Speaker 1: the business fraud case, for which Trump must now pay 282 00:20:38,875 --> 00:20:41,835 Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty five million dollars in fines. She 283 00:20:41,955 --> 00:20:45,555 Speaker 1: asked a panel of startled guests, is this fair to 284 00:20:45,595 --> 00:20:48,355 Speaker 1: go after Donald Trump like this in this environment? 285 00:20:50,275 --> 00:20:50,435 Speaker 3: Ah? 286 00:20:52,715 --> 00:20:57,155 Speaker 1: Don't know where to begin here. I am beginning to 287 00:20:57,355 --> 00:21:04,435 Speaker 1: suspect sort of late flossoming Stockholm syndrome or blackmail maybe, 288 00:21:05,035 --> 00:21:09,875 Speaker 1: or something else unknown in this equation when they asked 289 00:21:09,955 --> 00:21:12,555 Speaker 1: Katie to go cover Trump's announcement that he was running. 290 00:21:12,595 --> 00:21:15,715 Speaker 1: She was working out of NBC's London bureau and was 291 00:21:15,755 --> 00:21:17,555 Speaker 1: only back here in the city for a few days 292 00:21:17,555 --> 00:21:20,315 Speaker 1: to meet her new boss and stop by and visit 293 00:21:20,355 --> 00:21:23,955 Speaker 1: her old friends and me. She told me she did 294 00:21:24,035 --> 00:21:27,675 Speaker 1: not want anything to do with American politics. She had 295 00:21:27,715 --> 00:21:30,155 Speaker 1: gotten an interview with him when she eventually went to 296 00:21:30,195 --> 00:21:32,515 Speaker 1: cover his announcement. He knew that she and I had 297 00:21:32,555 --> 00:21:35,835 Speaker 1: lived together in one of his buildings. The interview was good, 298 00:21:36,115 --> 00:21:39,075 Speaker 1: It was contentious in many respects. It was the last 299 00:21:39,075 --> 00:21:44,035 Speaker 1: solid interview anybody ever did with Trump, and NBC immediately 300 00:21:44,075 --> 00:21:48,395 Speaker 1: saw that and asked her to cover his campaign full time, 301 00:21:48,835 --> 00:21:51,035 Speaker 1: figuring it would sput her out at some point, but 302 00:21:51,075 --> 00:21:53,795 Speaker 1: that she had access to him. She told me she 303 00:21:53,835 --> 00:21:55,595 Speaker 1: didn't want anything to do with that either, and I 304 00:21:55,635 --> 00:21:58,035 Speaker 1: suggested that was probably the wrong answer and that I'd 305 00:21:58,115 --> 00:22:00,275 Speaker 1: help her get through it, that it could make her 306 00:22:00,315 --> 00:22:04,115 Speaker 1: career so off she went. She would send me her 307 00:22:04,195 --> 00:22:07,195 Speaker 1: NBC Dotory scripts to edit or rewrite for her, and 308 00:22:07,235 --> 00:22:09,315 Speaker 1: as the threats continued against her, I just tried to 309 00:22:09,315 --> 00:22:12,355 Speaker 1: be supportive and reassuring I had broken up with her 310 00:22:12,635 --> 00:22:15,235 Speaker 1: seven years earlier, but we had parted it as friends. 311 00:22:15,435 --> 00:22:17,355 Speaker 1: I had never had any reason to doubt that that 312 00:22:17,355 --> 00:22:20,795 Speaker 1: would continue. And then one day I attacked Kelly and 313 00:22:20,955 --> 00:22:24,315 Speaker 1: Conway on Twitter. I know, not a very high bar, 314 00:22:24,555 --> 00:22:27,595 Speaker 1: but still I did it. The next thing I know, 315 00:22:27,675 --> 00:22:29,555 Speaker 1: I'm getting a text from Katie Turr and then a 316 00:22:29,595 --> 00:22:33,315 Speaker 1: phone call, and she's really angry at me, saying Conway 317 00:22:33,435 --> 00:22:36,355 Speaker 1: called her up about what I had tweeted, and that 318 00:22:36,435 --> 00:22:38,595 Speaker 1: I needed to remember that there were decent people on 319 00:22:38,635 --> 00:22:42,075 Speaker 1: both sides and bad ones, and everybody got threats, and 320 00:22:42,115 --> 00:22:44,275 Speaker 1: it was really inappropriate for me to contribute to the 321 00:22:44,315 --> 00:22:49,235 Speaker 1: quote dangers Kelly and Conway faced, I said something about, well, yeah, 322 00:22:49,275 --> 00:22:51,155 Speaker 1: I'm sure there are decent people on both sides, but 323 00:22:51,195 --> 00:22:55,195 Speaker 1: she's not one of them. I said to her, Kelly 324 00:22:55,195 --> 00:23:00,395 Speaker 1: and Conway, you're worried about about Kelly and Conway. She's 325 00:23:00,515 --> 00:23:03,555 Speaker 1: part of a gang that has spent the last year 326 00:23:03,675 --> 00:23:09,075 Speaker 1: trying to get you killed, killed, not inconvenience, not fired, 327 00:23:09,715 --> 00:23:15,595 Speaker 1: killed enough that the Secret Service stepped in. Are you nuts? Well? 328 00:23:16,155 --> 00:23:19,675 Speaker 1: It turned out Kelly n. Conway was one of Katie's sources. 329 00:23:19,995 --> 00:23:22,155 Speaker 1: In fact, she might have been the main source for 330 00:23:22,195 --> 00:23:25,435 Speaker 1: the networks and the big newspapers during the twenty sixteen 331 00:23:25,475 --> 00:23:30,915 Speaker 1: campaign and beyond. Apparently she cannot stop talking. But even so, 332 00:23:31,915 --> 00:23:35,235 Speaker 1: Katie's attitude towards her and against me was out of 333 00:23:35,235 --> 00:23:39,675 Speaker 1: the blue and really offensive. Anyway, it passed, and maybe 334 00:23:39,715 --> 00:23:41,355 Speaker 1: two months later I got a text from her at 335 00:23:41,435 --> 00:23:44,835 Speaker 1: nine to fourteen PM on December eleven, and twenty sixteen. 336 00:23:44,875 --> 00:23:48,235 Speaker 1: This is called having the receipts. Trump had won. Our 337 00:23:48,355 --> 00:23:50,995 Speaker 1: nightmare had begun, and Katie had gotten a book deal 338 00:23:51,035 --> 00:23:54,435 Speaker 1: about her experience. I'd been keeping a document in my 339 00:23:54,595 --> 00:23:57,875 Speaker 1: laptop with hundreds of pages of Trump stories and links 340 00:23:58,115 --> 00:24:01,635 Speaker 1: and commentaries that I used for the Resistance video series 341 00:24:01,635 --> 00:24:05,395 Speaker 1: for GQ. It was my Trump doc, and given that 342 00:24:05,475 --> 00:24:07,995 Speaker 1: Katie was writing that book, I'd offered to give her 343 00:24:07,995 --> 00:24:10,595 Speaker 1: a copy of it so she had something chronological to 344 00:24:10,675 --> 00:24:13,395 Speaker 1: use as research as she wrote her book, because she 345 00:24:13,395 --> 00:24:15,755 Speaker 1: hadn't really been keeping notes, she'd just been trying not 346 00:24:15,875 --> 00:24:19,275 Speaker 1: to get killed. I still have her text. It reads, 347 00:24:19,555 --> 00:24:21,915 Speaker 1: do you still want to share your Trump dock with me? 348 00:24:22,475 --> 00:24:24,915 Speaker 1: I joked back, sure, how much? And she joked back 349 00:24:24,955 --> 00:24:28,235 Speaker 1: ten twenty dollars, And while we were texting, I emailed 350 00:24:28,235 --> 00:24:30,515 Speaker 1: her the doc and I said, no charge, but don't 351 00:24:30,515 --> 00:24:32,675 Speaker 1: forget my one demand. Do not leave me out of 352 00:24:32,715 --> 00:24:36,995 Speaker 1: your acknowledgments in your book. More than a month later, 353 00:24:37,075 --> 00:24:40,115 Speaker 1: at two thirty five pm on Sunday, January twenty second, 354 00:24:40,155 --> 00:24:44,595 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, I was just back from la and I 355 00:24:44,635 --> 00:24:47,235 Speaker 1: had just done Bill Maher's show for the last time, 356 00:24:47,715 --> 00:24:50,595 Speaker 1: and Katie ter texted me about why they had never 357 00:24:50,675 --> 00:24:54,675 Speaker 1: invited her to be on Bill Maher's show, and then 358 00:24:54,715 --> 00:24:59,475 Speaker 1: she switched topics. Quote, want to write this book, I 359 00:24:59,515 --> 00:25:02,995 Speaker 1: wrote back at five point thirty two. What You're not serious? 360 00:25:03,035 --> 00:25:06,315 Speaker 1: How would that work? That's when she phoned. She was 361 00:25:06,355 --> 00:25:08,835 Speaker 1: about to give the advanced money back to the publisher. 362 00:25:08,915 --> 00:25:11,395 Speaker 1: I can't write a book. I'm like fifty thousand words 363 00:25:11,435 --> 00:25:13,795 Speaker 1: short and it's terrible. I'll give you half the money. 364 00:25:13,835 --> 00:25:16,635 Speaker 1: I'll give you more than half the money. I pointed 365 00:25:16,635 --> 00:25:18,955 Speaker 1: out to her that I had written or rewritten dozens 366 00:25:18,995 --> 00:25:22,075 Speaker 1: of her stories for NBC News and MSNBC, and it 367 00:25:22,155 --> 00:25:25,075 Speaker 1: was not the question of the money. It was a 368 00:25:25,155 --> 00:25:28,515 Speaker 1: question of what we could get away with no viewer, 369 00:25:28,675 --> 00:25:31,875 Speaker 1: and maybe only one producer in a million would ever 370 00:25:31,955 --> 00:25:35,035 Speaker 1: notice that one sentence or one paragraph of one script 371 00:25:35,035 --> 00:25:37,715 Speaker 1: in her two minute report was actually written by me 372 00:25:37,835 --> 00:25:41,235 Speaker 1: or even sounded like me. First of all, she was 373 00:25:41,235 --> 00:25:44,515 Speaker 1: the one saying it each time I wrote or re 374 00:25:44,675 --> 00:25:47,275 Speaker 1: wrote in her name for NBC. It was a fireable 375 00:25:47,275 --> 00:25:50,035 Speaker 1: offense for her, but one that nobody would ever think 376 00:25:50,075 --> 00:25:53,275 Speaker 1: to look for, even though there is necessarily an email 377 00:25:53,315 --> 00:25:56,155 Speaker 1: trail ten miles long. But a book, a book about 378 00:25:56,275 --> 00:26:01,195 Speaker 1: Trump in my writing style, not hers in print. I 379 00:26:01,235 --> 00:26:04,235 Speaker 1: have a fairly distinct writing style, and I'm not good 380 00:26:04,275 --> 00:26:08,835 Speaker 1: at hide it. Somebody would notice. Her publisher might cancel 381 00:26:08,875 --> 00:26:11,475 Speaker 1: it or even sue, or if it got published, NBC 382 00:26:11,595 --> 00:26:15,715 Speaker 1: might notice it and fire her. This was not just 383 00:26:15,755 --> 00:26:17,875 Speaker 1: a bad idea, I pointed out to her, and very 384 00:26:17,955 --> 00:26:21,115 Speaker 1: dubious ethically, but it stood an excellent chance of destroying 385 00:26:21,155 --> 00:26:26,435 Speaker 1: her career and maybe damaging mine. She said okay, And 386 00:26:26,555 --> 00:26:27,835 Speaker 1: she told me she was going to talk it over 387 00:26:27,875 --> 00:26:30,395 Speaker 1: with her boyfriend Tony from CBS that night, and her 388 00:26:30,395 --> 00:26:32,555 Speaker 1: thought was to give back the advance and cancel the book. 389 00:26:32,555 --> 00:26:35,355 Speaker 1: And I said, did you think about a ghostwriter? And 390 00:26:35,395 --> 00:26:37,955 Speaker 1: she said, like who? And I said, I had no idea. 391 00:26:39,035 --> 00:26:41,275 Speaker 1: I tried to joke her out of these grim prospects 392 00:26:41,275 --> 00:26:43,355 Speaker 1: by reminding her that at least for a several thousand 393 00:26:43,435 --> 00:26:45,795 Speaker 1: dollars worth of research I gave her, I had cut 394 00:26:45,835 --> 00:26:48,675 Speaker 1: the price to no dollars and no sense, and all 395 00:26:48,715 --> 00:26:52,195 Speaker 1: I wanted was to not be left out of the acknowledgments. 396 00:26:53,635 --> 00:26:55,595 Speaker 1: The next thing I knew the book had been published. 397 00:26:56,715 --> 00:26:59,115 Speaker 1: She didn't give the money back. There was not a 398 00:26:59,115 --> 00:27:01,435 Speaker 1: paragraph of it that reads like the rest of her writing, 399 00:27:02,315 --> 00:27:06,115 Speaker 1: and the three years we lived together is reduced to 400 00:27:06,195 --> 00:27:10,675 Speaker 1: about four paragraphs in which she tells the story of 401 00:27:10,755 --> 00:27:13,675 Speaker 1: the day Kelly an Kahn Job called her to complain 402 00:27:13,715 --> 00:27:19,875 Speaker 1: about me. The book dismissed me as somebody she dated 403 00:27:19,955 --> 00:27:24,275 Speaker 1: briefly in her twenties. I mean I paid off her 404 00:27:24,275 --> 00:27:28,875 Speaker 1: student loans. I rented an apartment for her after we 405 00:27:28,955 --> 00:27:31,595 Speaker 1: broke up for a year so she could continue to 406 00:27:31,595 --> 00:27:35,835 Speaker 1: work in this city and punchline of all punchlines. Remember 407 00:27:35,835 --> 00:27:38,115 Speaker 1: my one request to her, don't leave me out of 408 00:27:38,115 --> 00:27:42,475 Speaker 1: the acknowledgments. She left me out of the acknowledgments. There 409 00:27:42,475 --> 00:27:46,195 Speaker 1: were later problems. She talked me out of doing an 410 00:27:46,235 --> 00:27:49,115 Speaker 1: interview with the Washington Post that wanted to interview me 411 00:27:49,155 --> 00:27:51,595 Speaker 1: about her, saying she wasn't going to participate in the 412 00:27:51,635 --> 00:27:54,675 Speaker 1: story and it was sexist to call her ex boyfriend, 413 00:27:54,915 --> 00:27:56,555 Speaker 1: and she hoped I wouldn't do it either, and I 414 00:27:56,595 --> 00:27:59,915 Speaker 1: agreed it was sexist. Then the article came out and 415 00:27:59,955 --> 00:28:03,675 Speaker 1: she had done the interview for it, and the article reads, 416 00:28:03,915 --> 00:28:06,875 Speaker 1: her former boyfriend Keith Overman, refused to comment for this article, 417 00:28:06,955 --> 00:28:10,235 Speaker 1: and I look like a schmuck. Then a month or 418 00:28:10,275 --> 00:28:12,395 Speaker 1: two later, there's a New York Times article about her 419 00:28:12,675 --> 00:28:14,675 Speaker 1: and the book, and it says I had refused the 420 00:28:14,715 --> 00:28:17,835 Speaker 1: writer's request to comment to the Times. And not only 421 00:28:17,875 --> 00:28:20,835 Speaker 1: did nobody from the Times ever request to comment, but 422 00:28:20,915 --> 00:28:24,595 Speaker 1: I didn't even recognize the writer's name. So I find 423 00:28:24,635 --> 00:28:26,235 Speaker 1: it call her up and I say, have we ever 424 00:28:26,275 --> 00:28:28,755 Speaker 1: spoken before? And she says no. But I asked Katie 425 00:28:28,755 --> 00:28:30,835 Speaker 1: to ask you for a comment. And she called me 426 00:28:30,875 --> 00:28:33,075 Speaker 1: back and she said she'd spoken to you and asked 427 00:28:33,075 --> 00:28:34,835 Speaker 1: you to do the interview with me, and you said no, 428 00:28:35,875 --> 00:28:40,395 Speaker 1: And I said, bad news. She never called me, the 429 00:28:40,435 --> 00:28:44,395 Speaker 1: writer gasped, But the problems at the Times this is 430 00:28:44,435 --> 00:28:47,715 Speaker 1: a subject of an entirely different commentary. So that was 431 00:28:47,755 --> 00:28:49,875 Speaker 1: the last time I had any contact with Katie. Chair 432 00:28:49,955 --> 00:28:51,795 Speaker 1: I told her that that was it for the friendship. 433 00:28:52,315 --> 00:28:56,955 Speaker 1: She said she was sorry, she was a terrible person. Well, 434 00:28:57,595 --> 00:29:02,035 Speaker 1: at least for all of us, Katie, me, for guests, 435 00:29:02,955 --> 00:29:05,515 Speaker 1: the viewers who saw her go over the Trump side 436 00:29:05,595 --> 00:29:11,115 Speaker 1: last week, we can agree on that she sure is 437 00:29:11,235 --> 00:29:38,075 Speaker 1: a terrible person. Still ahead of us on this all 438 00:29:38,155 --> 00:29:40,675 Speaker 1: new edition of Countdown Things I promised not to tell, 439 00:29:40,715 --> 00:29:42,515 Speaker 1: and for reasons I'll explain, I spent part of the 440 00:29:42,515 --> 00:29:47,155 Speaker 1: weekend reliving the weirdest, briefest job I ever had. Six 441 00:29:47,195 --> 00:29:49,875 Speaker 1: months is one of the top TV sportscasters in Boston, 442 00:29:50,435 --> 00:29:52,835 Speaker 1: and it literally ended with one of those you can't 443 00:29:52,915 --> 00:29:56,395 Speaker 1: quit me, I'm firing you moments with my boss, My 444 00:29:56,515 --> 00:29:59,795 Speaker 1: boss who twenty five years later started sending me fan mail. 445 00:30:00,755 --> 00:30:03,875 Speaker 1: Coming up first, Yes, the daily roundup of the miscrants, 446 00:30:03,875 --> 00:30:07,555 Speaker 1: morons and Dunning Krueger effects specimens who constitute two days 447 00:30:08,235 --> 00:30:13,835 Speaker 1: worse parsons in the world. The Bronze the worse. An 448 00:30:13,875 --> 00:30:17,195 Speaker 1: unidentified couple guys photographed on top of a moving subway 449 00:30:17,235 --> 00:30:20,715 Speaker 1: train along an elevated part of the Seven Line over 450 00:30:20,795 --> 00:30:24,915 Speaker 1: Queens Here in Fun City. This is called subway surfing, 451 00:30:24,955 --> 00:30:27,915 Speaker 1: and it's been going on for seventy five years at least. 452 00:30:28,795 --> 00:30:31,315 Speaker 1: My friend Kareem Abdul Jabbar says he did it when 453 00:30:31,355 --> 00:30:33,635 Speaker 1: he was a kid, and he is amazed he lived 454 00:30:33,755 --> 00:30:36,395 Speaker 1: to tell about it, especially when the train would go 455 00:30:36,475 --> 00:30:40,875 Speaker 1: back into the tunnel. But these guys on the seven train, 456 00:30:40,915 --> 00:30:43,635 Speaker 1: they've elevated the game. They appeared to be having sex 457 00:30:43,715 --> 00:30:46,515 Speaker 1: on top of the moving train. Is this the local 458 00:30:46,595 --> 00:30:50,915 Speaker 1: or the Express? Actually it can be worse. I once 459 00:30:50,995 --> 00:30:52,915 Speaker 1: rode into work on an F train in the nineteen 460 00:30:52,915 --> 00:30:55,595 Speaker 1: eighties and there was a guy sprawled across one whole 461 00:30:55,715 --> 00:30:58,115 Speaker 1: row of seats with a copy of the New York 462 00:30:58,155 --> 00:31:00,955 Speaker 1: Post covering his face. When I went home that night, 463 00:31:00,995 --> 00:31:03,355 Speaker 1: sure enough, I happened to get on exactly the same 464 00:31:03,475 --> 00:31:07,315 Speaker 1: train car, and exactly the same guy was still there, 465 00:31:07,995 --> 00:31:15,155 Speaker 1: still sprawled over the same seats because he was dead. Anyway, 466 00:31:15,195 --> 00:31:17,155 Speaker 1: I'm only really telling this story so I can get 467 00:31:17,155 --> 00:31:19,675 Speaker 1: in the quote from the communications director of the New 468 00:31:19,755 --> 00:31:24,195 Speaker 1: York Metropolitan Transit Authority quote. They's reckless clowns aren't thinking 469 00:31:24,195 --> 00:31:27,355 Speaker 1: about the mess cleaners and other subway workers will have 470 00:31:27,435 --> 00:31:30,595 Speaker 1: to deal with when their stupid stunt goes tragically wrong, 471 00:31:31,355 --> 00:31:36,555 Speaker 1: said Tim Minton. Tim Minton was the sports director of 472 00:31:36,715 --> 00:31:41,555 Speaker 1: WVBRFM at Cornell briefly before they got rid of him, 473 00:31:41,635 --> 00:31:45,915 Speaker 1: and I succeeded him. We were freshmen there together. This 474 00:31:46,075 --> 00:31:50,275 Speaker 1: was in nineteen seventy six. Happily, Tim and I have 475 00:31:50,435 --> 00:31:55,075 Speaker 1: almost moved past this event. Maybe he has the bronze 476 00:31:55,115 --> 00:31:56,915 Speaker 1: worse here. I've said it before and I'll say it again. 477 00:31:56,915 --> 00:31:58,675 Speaker 1: There are a lot of dumb people at Fox. That's 478 00:31:58,715 --> 00:32:01,275 Speaker 1: why they were hired. But I cannot think of anybody 479 00:32:01,315 --> 00:32:03,995 Speaker 1: more dumb for more years in a row than Brian 480 00:32:04,195 --> 00:32:08,235 Speaker 1: kill me. After the Trump New York fraud ruling, he tweeted, 481 00:32:08,755 --> 00:32:11,315 Speaker 1: this three hundred and fifty four million dollar penalty only 482 00:32:11,355 --> 00:32:14,915 Speaker 1: makes Trump stronger. Never had a chance with this comic 483 00:32:14,955 --> 00:32:18,555 Speaker 1: book character Judge Engern. Bad news for Nicky Haley and 484 00:32:18,635 --> 00:32:23,755 Speaker 1: Joe Biden. First of all, it's not. It's not bad 485 00:32:23,795 --> 00:32:25,955 Speaker 1: news for Nicky Haley or Joe Biden. They don't have 486 00:32:25,995 --> 00:32:30,035 Speaker 1: to sell property at a loss to pay all or 487 00:32:30,075 --> 00:32:32,115 Speaker 1: most of the three hundred and fifty five million dollar 488 00:32:32,195 --> 00:32:36,155 Speaker 1: fine into escrow within thirty days just to appeal to 489 00:32:36,155 --> 00:32:38,435 Speaker 1: find Alena Hobbas says, they actually have to pay more 490 00:32:38,435 --> 00:32:40,715 Speaker 1: than three hundred and fifty five million. It's not bad 491 00:32:40,755 --> 00:32:42,915 Speaker 1: news for Haley, It's not bad for Biden. It's bad 492 00:32:42,955 --> 00:32:45,675 Speaker 1: news for Trump. He's out three hundred and fifty five 493 00:32:45,715 --> 00:32:50,115 Speaker 1: million dollars. Even Trump knows what that is. But that's 494 00:32:50,155 --> 00:32:55,035 Speaker 1: not the point. Kill Mead's gonna kill Mead. It's his spelling. 495 00:32:55,235 --> 00:32:57,435 Speaker 1: How could you have misspelled the first five words of 496 00:32:57,475 --> 00:33:00,835 Speaker 1: that tweet? How can you misspell three hundred and fifty 497 00:33:00,835 --> 00:33:04,875 Speaker 1: four million? He made it into one word, and then 498 00:33:05,795 --> 00:33:08,355 Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty four million dollar penalty. He misspelled 499 00:33:08,395 --> 00:33:16,995 Speaker 1: penally penalty pe n e lt y. But the winner 500 00:33:17,115 --> 00:33:20,915 Speaker 1: the worst, that new shoe magnate Trump himself. I mean, look, 501 00:33:20,915 --> 00:33:23,675 Speaker 1: if you could get one thousand pairs of cheap generic 502 00:33:23,795 --> 00:33:27,875 Speaker 1: versions of Chuck Taylor's spray, paint them with rustolium number 503 00:33:27,915 --> 00:33:30,795 Speaker 1: three four h six four seven, and sell them for 504 00:33:30,875 --> 00:33:33,955 Speaker 1: four hundred bucks a pair to these psychos who think 505 00:33:34,035 --> 00:33:37,795 Speaker 1: that they will get into heaven or something because they 506 00:33:37,835 --> 00:33:43,035 Speaker 1: bought these crappy shoes, you'd do it right. You wouldn't 507 00:33:43,435 --> 00:33:47,315 Speaker 1: bless you anyway. A lot of good obvious jokes like 508 00:33:47,395 --> 00:33:50,155 Speaker 1: mine trump sneakers for the guy trying to run away 509 00:33:50,155 --> 00:33:53,595 Speaker 1: from the draft. Paul mcgalla is about they're good if 510 00:33:53,595 --> 00:33:57,915 Speaker 1: you have bone spurs. That meme in which Dorothy's House 511 00:33:58,475 --> 00:34:00,475 Speaker 1: from the Wizard of Oz has just fallen on top 512 00:34:00,475 --> 00:34:02,875 Speaker 1: of the wicked Witch of the East. Only the shoes 513 00:34:03,275 --> 00:34:05,835 Speaker 1: sticking out from under the house are these crappy Trump 514 00:34:05,915 --> 00:34:11,275 Speaker 1: gold ones. But the joke was by comedy writer Mark Age, 515 00:34:11,755 --> 00:34:16,835 Speaker 1: who hit one hundred in a beautiful sixcinct dry creation quote. 516 00:34:17,675 --> 00:34:20,955 Speaker 1: Tried hooping in these, but all I could do was 517 00:34:21,155 --> 00:34:25,555 Speaker 1: draw charges. I mean, how could you ever top that? 518 00:34:26,355 --> 00:34:30,755 Speaker 1: Trump and his shoe community. Try hooping in these, but 519 00:34:30,955 --> 00:34:38,075 Speaker 1: all you can do is draw charges. Two days worst Persons. 520 00:34:37,595 --> 00:34:54,315 Speaker 2: And finally to the proverbial top of the countdown and 521 00:34:54,355 --> 00:34:55,795 Speaker 2: things I promised not to tell. 522 00:34:55,835 --> 00:34:58,515 Speaker 1: And I actually spent part of the weekend trying to 523 00:34:58,515 --> 00:35:02,835 Speaker 1: help a young guy get started in television news. And 524 00:35:02,955 --> 00:35:08,115 Speaker 1: no I didn't. I didn't tell him, don't do it. 525 00:35:08,315 --> 00:35:11,195 Speaker 1: He's a college senior in Boston and he wants to 526 00:35:11,235 --> 00:35:15,715 Speaker 1: work there. So I found myself reviewing my very interesting 527 00:35:15,755 --> 00:35:19,435 Speaker 1: but very brief career in Boston with him, and with 528 00:35:19,555 --> 00:35:23,915 Speaker 1: the fellow I sent him to, who, by coincidence, now 529 00:35:24,075 --> 00:35:29,755 Speaker 1: holds exactly the same job I held starting for six 530 00:35:30,355 --> 00:35:38,035 Speaker 1: fabulous months starting forty years ago this April, Now. 531 00:35:38,075 --> 00:35:43,275 Speaker 3: News Center five Tonight You're complete News Update with Natalie Jacobson, 532 00:35:43,555 --> 00:35:48,035 Speaker 3: Chet Curtis, meteorologist Dick Albert, and Keith Oberman on sports 533 00:35:48,395 --> 00:35:52,395 Speaker 3: recording live from New England's News Center. Natalie Jacobson and 534 00:35:52,515 --> 00:35:55,315 Speaker 3: Chet Curtis. 535 00:35:55,995 --> 00:35:59,275 Speaker 1: Good evening, we're interrupting our network. At Boston Red Sox 536 00:35:59,315 --> 00:36:01,515 Speaker 1: spring training in nineteen eighty three, a fellow named Bob 537 00:36:01,555 --> 00:36:04,395 Speaker 1: Clark introduced himself as the sports producer at this Boston 538 00:36:04,435 --> 00:36:07,235 Speaker 1: State and said they were all fans of my CNN 539 00:36:07,275 --> 00:36:09,155 Speaker 1: work and that there would be a job opening that 540 00:36:09,235 --> 00:36:12,075 Speaker 1: summer as sports anchor, and could he go to his 541 00:36:12,075 --> 00:36:14,195 Speaker 1: bosses and say I was interested? And I said sure, 542 00:36:14,235 --> 00:36:15,675 Speaker 1: And in fact, if he wanted me to go with 543 00:36:15,755 --> 00:36:18,035 Speaker 1: him to tell his bosses that, or if he needed 544 00:36:18,035 --> 00:36:19,875 Speaker 1: me to carry him to go tell his bosses that, 545 00:36:19,955 --> 00:36:24,035 Speaker 1: I was ready. Things advanced so quickly that by Monday, 546 00:36:24,115 --> 00:36:27,395 Speaker 1: July eighteenth, nineteen eighty three, I found myself flying up 547 00:36:27,435 --> 00:36:30,675 Speaker 1: from New York with my agent, and as Boston appeared 548 00:36:30,715 --> 00:36:33,235 Speaker 1: out the window of the plane, she said, you will 549 00:36:33,235 --> 00:36:38,795 Speaker 1: own this town. Not so much maybe later I went 550 00:36:38,795 --> 00:36:41,515 Speaker 1: out to the station's headquarters in a barren suburb called 551 00:36:41,595 --> 00:36:45,515 Speaker 1: Needham and interviewed with everybody, sports producers, the news director, 552 00:36:45,555 --> 00:36:49,635 Speaker 1: finally the general manager. Everybody beamed at me and all 553 00:36:49,755 --> 00:36:52,795 Speaker 1: was going great, having laughed at several of my jokes 554 00:36:52,795 --> 00:36:55,195 Speaker 1: and told me he loved my tape. The general manager 555 00:36:55,235 --> 00:36:57,835 Speaker 1: a man named Coppersmith, who was about to usher me 556 00:36:57,875 --> 00:37:00,195 Speaker 1: out of his office with a big hand on my 557 00:37:00,275 --> 00:37:05,515 Speaker 1: shoulder when I made a terrible, terrible mistake. I told 558 00:37:05,555 --> 00:37:08,315 Speaker 1: him we had met before, when I was a TV 559 00:37:08,515 --> 00:37:11,675 Speaker 1: intern and he was the general manager of his parent 560 00:37:11,715 --> 00:37:14,955 Speaker 1: company station in New York. I remember him looking at 561 00:37:14,955 --> 00:37:17,515 Speaker 1: me quizically, and only later did I find out that 562 00:37:17,555 --> 00:37:20,475 Speaker 1: all of his people had lied to him without telling me, 563 00:37:20,835 --> 00:37:24,235 Speaker 1: and they had told him I was twenty eight years old. 564 00:37:24,555 --> 00:37:27,915 Speaker 1: They did not tell me that since I was twenty 565 00:37:27,995 --> 00:37:32,035 Speaker 1: four years old. Copper Smith's last year at Channel five 566 00:37:32,115 --> 00:37:35,555 Speaker 1: in New York had been nineteen seventy eight, and even 567 00:37:35,635 --> 00:37:37,995 Speaker 1: giving me the benefit of the aged out, he decided 568 00:37:37,995 --> 00:37:41,835 Speaker 1: I was no longer anything older than twenty six, and 569 00:37:41,955 --> 00:37:44,075 Speaker 1: ultimately he thought that was too young to be a 570 00:37:44,115 --> 00:37:47,235 Speaker 1: sports anchor in a major television market, back when those 571 00:37:47,315 --> 00:37:52,155 Speaker 1: used to be important jobs that paid important money. Their sportscasters. 572 00:37:52,155 --> 00:37:53,675 Speaker 1: Since the station had gone on the air in the 573 00:37:53,755 --> 00:37:56,875 Speaker 1: nineteen fifties had been an avuncular, pleasant, gifted man named 574 00:37:56,955 --> 00:38:00,395 Speaker 1: Don Gillis, but he was cutting back where they had 575 00:38:00,395 --> 00:38:04,155 Speaker 1: decided to cut him back to special feature Judy. The 576 00:38:04,195 --> 00:38:06,035 Speaker 1: next day, back in New York City, I went out 577 00:38:06,075 --> 00:38:09,595 Speaker 1: to find out if the Boston newspapers had found anything 578 00:38:09,595 --> 00:38:12,835 Speaker 1: out about my surreptitious trip there. I went to a 579 00:38:12,875 --> 00:38:16,915 Speaker 1: place so wonderful and now so impossible to explain to anybody, 580 00:38:17,195 --> 00:38:20,275 Speaker 1: the out of town newspaper and magazine shop in the 581 00:38:20,275 --> 00:38:23,915 Speaker 1: lobby of the pan Am building, adjacent to the Grand 582 00:38:23,995 --> 00:38:27,595 Speaker 1: Central train station. This was one of the smaller of 583 00:38:27,675 --> 00:38:30,355 Speaker 1: the out of town newsstands in New York. It carried 584 00:38:30,395 --> 00:38:34,515 Speaker 1: about two hundred different American newspapers, dozens more from around 585 00:38:34,515 --> 00:38:39,795 Speaker 1: the world, and every imaginable international magazine was always packed. 586 00:38:40,355 --> 00:38:45,195 Speaker 1: Its entire glory has been wiped out by the Internet anyway. 587 00:38:45,235 --> 00:38:47,995 Speaker 1: I bought the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald from 588 00:38:48,035 --> 00:38:50,595 Speaker 1: the same day, and there it was on page thirty 589 00:38:50,595 --> 00:38:52,995 Speaker 1: two of the Globe, a headline over a feature by 590 00:38:52,995 --> 00:38:57,675 Speaker 1: the TV sports columnist Jack Craig. Gillis departing soon on 591 00:38:57,835 --> 00:39:04,395 Speaker 1: Horizon Olderman's credentials, Good Young Keith Olberman of Cable News 592 00:39:04,395 --> 00:39:08,235 Speaker 1: Network CNN reportedly was very favorably interviewed at Channel five yesterday, 593 00:39:08,435 --> 00:39:11,035 Speaker 1: possibly signaling the end of the Don Gillis era more 594 00:39:11,115 --> 00:39:16,795 Speaker 1: quickly than anticipated. I was young then, but look credentials good, 595 00:39:16,835 --> 00:39:20,595 Speaker 1: it said in the headline. This was it the start 596 00:39:20,595 --> 00:39:23,755 Speaker 1: of my TV career for real. No more having to 597 00:39:23,795 --> 00:39:29,635 Speaker 1: explain to doubting athletes, doubting colleagues, doubting relatives, doubting team 598 00:39:29,715 --> 00:39:33,315 Speaker 1: executives that there really was a TV place called Cable 599 00:39:33,475 --> 00:39:37,475 Speaker 1: News Network parenthesis CNN, big money and big fame in 600 00:39:37,475 --> 00:39:39,995 Speaker 1: one of the best sports cities in the nation. As 601 00:39:40,035 --> 00:39:43,155 Speaker 1: even the Globes article noted, there is a hitch. Alderman's 602 00:39:43,155 --> 00:39:45,515 Speaker 1: contract with CNN does not expire until next May, and 603 00:39:45,515 --> 00:39:48,235 Speaker 1: whether he would be let out for Channel five is uncertain. Well, 604 00:39:48,355 --> 00:39:52,155 Speaker 1: sure it was, but CNN would be nice guys about it, right. 605 00:39:52,475 --> 00:39:56,715 Speaker 1: This was real TV, not some perpetual verge of bankruptcy 606 00:39:56,795 --> 00:39:59,715 Speaker 1: cable thing. It was really just a big delusion by 607 00:39:59,755 --> 00:40:02,915 Speaker 1: Ted Turner. And they needed eight cameras in New York, 608 00:40:02,955 --> 00:40:05,435 Speaker 1: but that can only afford seven being used in the 609 00:40:05,435 --> 00:40:08,635 Speaker 1: field for ten hours. One cameraman would have to lash 610 00:40:08,675 --> 00:40:12,075 Speaker 1: his camera to a tripod for the wide shot shot 611 00:40:12,275 --> 00:40:16,595 Speaker 1: for the nightly Sandy Freeman audio talk show. Even after 612 00:40:16,595 --> 00:40:19,835 Speaker 1: the inevitable occurred one night and the overworked camera burst 613 00:40:19,835 --> 00:40:28,915 Speaker 1: into flames on live TV, CNN would understand by the way, 614 00:40:28,955 --> 00:40:31,635 Speaker 1: Sandy Freeman was replaced about a year later by Larry King. 615 00:40:31,715 --> 00:40:36,355 Speaker 1: That's how long ago this actually was. Anyway, CNN's less 616 00:40:36,395 --> 00:40:40,635 Speaker 1: than happy reaction to this was academic. I had unwitningly 617 00:40:40,715 --> 00:40:43,435 Speaker 1: blown it when I revealed to that guy Coppersmith that 618 00:40:43,475 --> 00:40:45,995 Speaker 1: I was not twenty eight years old. Sure enough. On 619 00:40:46,075 --> 00:40:50,715 Speaker 1: August fifteenth, WCBB Channel five Boston announced the hiring of 620 00:40:50,715 --> 00:40:54,715 Speaker 1: a Miami sportscaster named Lee Webb to succeed Don Gillis. 621 00:40:55,035 --> 00:40:57,355 Speaker 1: Webb was a lot of things, and he wasn't a 622 00:40:57,355 --> 00:40:59,795 Speaker 1: lot of other things, but hot damn. He was thirty 623 00:40:59,875 --> 00:41:01,795 Speaker 1: years old, and that made him the man in the 624 00:41:01,795 --> 00:41:05,795 Speaker 1: eyes of the general manager, mister Coppersmith. On the other hand, 625 00:41:05,795 --> 00:41:08,715 Speaker 1: copper Smith thought his station should still hire me as 626 00:41:08,755 --> 00:41:11,715 Speaker 1: a reporter. The news director, a man who went by 627 00:41:11,715 --> 00:41:15,115 Speaker 1: the imposing name of Philip Scribner Balboni, offered me a 628 00:41:15,155 --> 00:41:17,875 Speaker 1: spot as a feature news reporter a producer, and I 629 00:41:17,915 --> 00:41:21,235 Speaker 1: would look for offbeat, on usual unique stories and go 630 00:41:21,355 --> 00:41:24,155 Speaker 1: cover them. It was not the sports anchor's job, but 631 00:41:24,195 --> 00:41:28,835 Speaker 1: it wasn't CNN either. WCBB would also wait until CNN 632 00:41:28,915 --> 00:41:31,875 Speaker 1: finally accepted that it was over between the two of us. 633 00:41:31,995 --> 00:41:36,355 Speaker 1: Whenever that was then, three more things happened in quick succession. 634 00:41:36,915 --> 00:41:39,555 Speaker 1: Channel five hired a new sports director, a producer who 635 00:41:39,595 --> 00:41:42,835 Speaker 1: would run the department and set its editorial tone. His 636 00:41:42,915 --> 00:41:45,835 Speaker 1: name was Mike Frnandi's, and even after working with him 637 00:41:45,835 --> 00:41:47,715 Speaker 1: for six months, the only thing I knew about him 638 00:41:47,875 --> 00:41:51,075 Speaker 1: was that he had no sense of humor. He understood 639 00:41:51,155 --> 00:41:53,035 Speaker 1: that I was making jokes, but he never got one 640 00:41:53,075 --> 00:41:56,235 Speaker 1: of them. And his principal interest in sports was apparently 641 00:41:56,595 --> 00:42:00,075 Speaker 1: determining which players were Don Jan's so he could refer 642 00:42:00,115 --> 00:42:05,235 Speaker 1: to them endlessly in the office as quote swordsman. The 643 00:42:05,275 --> 00:42:07,875 Speaker 1: second thing that happened was that the sports reporter at 644 00:42:07,955 --> 00:42:10,595 Speaker 1: Channel five, Bob Ryan, already very famous at the Boston 645 00:42:10,595 --> 00:42:14,315 Speaker 1: Globe later even more so nationally at ESPN, told management 646 00:42:14,315 --> 00:42:16,675 Speaker 1: he just could not do both the TV and newspaper 647 00:42:16,715 --> 00:42:20,475 Speaker 1: jobs anymore and he needed to quit. Mind you, this 648 00:42:20,675 --> 00:42:23,635 Speaker 1: was how important sports was on local TV in Boston 649 00:42:23,675 --> 00:42:25,875 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three, they had an on air sportscast, 650 00:42:25,915 --> 00:42:29,235 Speaker 1: you're a weekend sportscast, you're a sportscast, you're emeritus, and 651 00:42:29,435 --> 00:42:33,355 Speaker 1: an on air sports reporter, plus all the producers and 652 00:42:33,435 --> 00:42:36,795 Speaker 1: the off air sports director. Often the sportscast in the 653 00:42:36,875 --> 00:42:39,235 Speaker 1: hour long six o'clock news, and there was only the 654 00:42:39,275 --> 00:42:43,995 Speaker 1: one hour of news. The sportscast lasted ten minutes. So now, 655 00:42:44,035 --> 00:42:46,675 Speaker 1: having already offered me the feature news reporting job, news 656 00:42:46,675 --> 00:42:50,235 Speaker 1: director Philip Scribner Balboni offered me my choice of that 657 00:42:50,355 --> 00:42:54,115 Speaker 1: job or Bob Ryan's sports reporting job. And while I 658 00:42:54,195 --> 00:42:57,915 Speaker 1: was debating that, I managed to resist all efforts to 659 00:42:58,075 --> 00:43:01,235 Speaker 1: turn me into a newsman for fifteen years. While I 660 00:43:01,315 --> 00:43:06,115 Speaker 1: was debating that, another Boston station suddenly jumped into the fray. 661 00:43:06,395 --> 00:43:09,795 Speaker 1: Channel seven was a perennial also ran compared to Channel five, 662 00:43:09,835 --> 00:43:12,195 Speaker 1: whose newscasts were among the best, if not the best, 663 00:43:12,235 --> 00:43:14,635 Speaker 1: in the country. Without as much as asking me to 664 00:43:14,675 --> 00:43:18,235 Speaker 1: even come visit, Channel seven offered me the job as 665 00:43:18,315 --> 00:43:21,835 Speaker 1: its sports director, anchored the sports at six and eleven, 666 00:43:21,995 --> 00:43:24,635 Speaker 1: run the department, and get much more money than Channel five. 667 00:43:24,675 --> 00:43:29,475 Speaker 1: It offered me, and I turned it down out of 668 00:43:29,515 --> 00:43:32,795 Speaker 1: loyalty to Channel five, because they asked first, I turned 669 00:43:32,835 --> 00:43:38,915 Speaker 1: it down. Moren Channel five was out in the as 670 00:43:38,955 --> 00:43:43,475 Speaker 1: I said, barn suburbs. Channel seven was in downtown Boston. 671 00:43:43,875 --> 00:43:46,275 Speaker 1: I would be making like one hundred thousand a year 672 00:43:46,995 --> 00:43:50,155 Speaker 1: at age twenty five, with no responsibilities, living and working 673 00:43:50,275 --> 00:43:56,715 Speaker 1: in downtown Boston in nineteen eighty four. Moren So anyway, 674 00:43:56,755 --> 00:43:58,915 Speaker 1: I get to Boston at the end of April nineteen 675 00:43:58,955 --> 00:44:02,475 Speaker 1: eighty four at Channel five, and on my first day 676 00:44:02,475 --> 00:44:04,475 Speaker 1: out in the barren suburbs, I walk up a c 677 00:44:04,875 --> 00:44:07,795 Speaker 1: were staircase to the sports department office and I hit 678 00:44:07,875 --> 00:44:10,515 Speaker 1: my head on the staircase and bled so much they 679 00:44:10,555 --> 00:44:13,315 Speaker 1: all thought I was going to need stitches. And I 680 00:44:13,355 --> 00:44:15,515 Speaker 1: went back to the half a house I had moved to, 681 00:44:16,115 --> 00:44:19,275 Speaker 1: one of exactly two rental properties in the entire town 682 00:44:19,355 --> 00:44:22,475 Speaker 1: of Nita, Massachusetts, and I thought, what the hell have 683 00:44:22,555 --> 00:44:27,315 Speaker 1: I done? No things improved. I was not just in 684 00:44:27,355 --> 00:44:29,955 Speaker 1: the field. I did a lot of substitute anchoring, especially 685 00:44:30,035 --> 00:44:33,515 Speaker 1: on weekends, and the first time I did that, Susan Warnick, 686 00:44:33,675 --> 00:44:35,915 Speaker 1: one of our reporters and the wife of the big 687 00:44:35,955 --> 00:44:39,835 Speaker 1: sportscaster in town, Bob Lobell from Channel four. Susan came 688 00:44:39,915 --> 00:44:42,075 Speaker 1: up to me in the office on Monday and gave 689 00:44:42,155 --> 00:44:44,395 Speaker 1: me a big wet kiss on the lips and said, 690 00:44:44,635 --> 00:44:48,395 Speaker 1: you were terrific. Lo bell Is scared Crapless, I love you. 691 00:44:49,915 --> 00:44:52,515 Speaker 1: The first time I did a live shot before Celtics 692 00:44:52,515 --> 00:44:54,995 Speaker 1: game at Boston Garden, I wandered around the arena without 693 00:44:54,995 --> 00:44:57,955 Speaker 1: being recognized. Once two weeks later, I went back to 694 00:44:57,995 --> 00:45:00,035 Speaker 1: the Garden and I went to get a hot dog 695 00:45:00,635 --> 00:45:03,315 Speaker 1: and turned to find a crowd of several dozen viewers, 696 00:45:03,355 --> 00:45:05,675 Speaker 1: all shouting at me in the the angular language of 697 00:45:05,675 --> 00:45:10,115 Speaker 1: the Boston sports fan. On Monday, June eleventh, nineteen eighty four, Balboni, 698 00:45:10,195 --> 00:45:11,915 Speaker 1: the news director, called me in and said he wanted 699 00:45:11,915 --> 00:45:15,515 Speaker 1: me to start anchoring every night on the eleven o'clock news. 700 00:45:15,715 --> 00:45:18,075 Speaker 1: Lee Web would continue on the six. But the intimation 701 00:45:18,355 --> 00:45:20,595 Speaker 1: was if it went the way he thought it was 702 00:45:20,635 --> 00:45:24,675 Speaker 1: going to, I would get that show too. But the 703 00:45:24,755 --> 00:45:27,275 Speaker 1: problem was, and I don't know if you've noticed this, 704 00:45:28,035 --> 00:45:31,515 Speaker 1: but occasionally I like to make jokes, Okay, I need 705 00:45:31,515 --> 00:45:34,475 Speaker 1: to make jokes. And several of the executives at the 706 00:45:34,515 --> 00:45:38,115 Speaker 1: station were real fans of the Red Sox and Celtics 707 00:45:38,115 --> 00:45:42,435 Speaker 1: and Patriots and Bruins, and they did not like the jokes. 708 00:45:43,435 --> 00:45:47,915 Speaker 1: Even if the viewers liked the jokes, they didn't. One day, 709 00:45:47,915 --> 00:45:50,555 Speaker 1: I was supposed to go with a cameraman to shoot 710 00:45:50,555 --> 00:45:53,475 Speaker 1: a piece in which I pretended to interview the Green Monster, 711 00:45:53,555 --> 00:45:56,195 Speaker 1: the famed leftfield wall at Fenway Park. The punchline was 712 00:45:56,435 --> 00:45:58,955 Speaker 1: it would turn out the Green Monster didn't like baseball. 713 00:45:59,435 --> 00:46:02,675 Speaker 1: Not a bad idea for nineteen eighty four. Just as 714 00:46:02,675 --> 00:46:04,795 Speaker 1: we're leaving the station, the sports director for now, and 715 00:46:04,875 --> 00:46:08,115 Speaker 1: he said, change of plans. Needs to go to Smithfield. 716 00:46:08,635 --> 00:46:11,195 Speaker 1: That was where the football team held its training camp. 717 00:46:12,555 --> 00:46:15,355 Speaker 1: Patriots just put their back up middle lineback on waivers, 718 00:46:15,635 --> 00:46:19,195 Speaker 1: go get some sound. He didn't need any sound. The 719 00:46:19,275 --> 00:46:21,755 Speaker 1: executives who didn't like my jokes had gotten the executive 720 00:46:21,795 --> 00:46:23,675 Speaker 1: who didn't get my jokes to stop giving me the 721 00:46:23,755 --> 00:46:25,995 Speaker 1: chance to do my jokes. It was an hour and 722 00:46:26,035 --> 00:46:28,955 Speaker 1: a half to Smithfield. I was done for the day. 723 00:46:29,835 --> 00:46:31,995 Speaker 1: I went home for a little trip to New York. 724 00:46:32,075 --> 00:46:34,355 Speaker 1: In early September, met with my agent, told her that 725 00:46:34,435 --> 00:46:36,355 Speaker 1: after all the time and all the energy we had 726 00:46:36,355 --> 00:46:38,755 Speaker 1: spent to get that job, this was the most impossible 727 00:46:38,755 --> 00:46:41,515 Speaker 1: to imagine outcome. But it was the wrong station in 728 00:46:41,555 --> 00:46:45,315 Speaker 1: the wrong suburb. In the right town, and I didn't 729 00:46:45,315 --> 00:46:49,235 Speaker 1: know how we could ever fix it. She agreed. She 730 00:46:49,275 --> 00:46:50,835 Speaker 1: said I should go in and tell the news director 731 00:46:50,835 --> 00:46:52,315 Speaker 1: I wanted to quit, and then I'd stay as long 732 00:46:52,355 --> 00:46:54,355 Speaker 1: as he needed me. But that if they weren't going 733 00:46:54,395 --> 00:46:56,275 Speaker 1: to let me do the jokes, what was the point. 734 00:46:57,315 --> 00:46:59,875 Speaker 1: I was an okay reporter, I was an okay sportscaster. 735 00:47:00,075 --> 00:47:04,395 Speaker 1: But only with the jokes was I me So September tenth, 736 00:47:04,675 --> 00:47:07,275 Speaker 1: teen eighty four, a Monday, the news director was not happy. 737 00:47:07,515 --> 00:47:10,075 Speaker 1: He offered, in fact, to fire Lee Webb on the 738 00:47:10,075 --> 00:47:13,115 Speaker 1: spot and give me the six o'clock show immediately, like 739 00:47:13,195 --> 00:47:15,435 Speaker 1: that night. Like Lee, Lee web out of the building 740 00:47:15,515 --> 00:47:17,995 Speaker 1: that minute. But I told him that would mean he 741 00:47:18,035 --> 00:47:21,075 Speaker 1: would be keeping somebody who wanted to leave and firing 742 00:47:21,115 --> 00:47:24,835 Speaker 1: somebody who wanted to stay. He angrily agreed, and I 743 00:47:24,915 --> 00:47:27,435 Speaker 1: became a secret leam duck, and I stayed on getting 744 00:47:27,475 --> 00:47:29,875 Speaker 1: fewer and fewer chances to be me, although they stuck 745 00:47:29,875 --> 00:47:31,795 Speaker 1: to their end of it. They sent me to cover 746 00:47:31,835 --> 00:47:34,875 Speaker 1: the World Series in San Diego and Detroit, where the 747 00:47:34,915 --> 00:47:37,155 Speaker 1: guy next to me in the press box covering it 748 00:47:37,195 --> 00:47:39,275 Speaker 1: for Channel seven. The place I should have gone to 749 00:47:39,355 --> 00:47:42,715 Speaker 1: work was their new sports reporter, a just retired Red 750 00:47:42,715 --> 00:47:46,635 Speaker 1: Sox Hall of Fame player named Carl Yastremsky. I hit 751 00:47:46,635 --> 00:47:48,715 Speaker 1: a ball over here, I hit a ball over there. 752 00:47:48,955 --> 00:47:51,875 Speaker 1: I hit three balls over that roof. Then, when I 753 00:47:51,915 --> 00:47:55,515 Speaker 1: got back from the World Series, it happened on Friday 754 00:47:55,555 --> 00:47:59,155 Speaker 1: October nineteenth, nineteen eighty four, that TV sports columnist from 755 00:47:59,155 --> 00:48:02,315 Speaker 1: the Boston Globe, Jack Craig, called me up at home 756 00:48:02,395 --> 00:48:05,475 Speaker 1: and told me Channel five was firing me because of 757 00:48:05,555 --> 00:48:09,315 Speaker 1: bad ratings at eleven o'clock. I didn't have bad ratings 758 00:48:09,355 --> 00:48:11,715 Speaker 1: at eleven o'clock. In fact, I had great ratings, and 759 00:48:11,795 --> 00:48:14,235 Speaker 1: six weeks earlier they'd offered me the six o'clock show 760 00:48:14,275 --> 00:48:17,075 Speaker 1: as well. I hung up with Craig to call my agent, 761 00:48:17,115 --> 00:48:18,995 Speaker 1: and instead of a dial tone, I heard the voice 762 00:48:18,995 --> 00:48:21,875 Speaker 1: of the TV sports columnist from the Boston Herald, Jim Baker. 763 00:48:22,595 --> 00:48:25,435 Speaker 1: I had answered his call fort rang. He told me 764 00:48:25,555 --> 00:48:28,715 Speaker 1: Channel five was firing me and Lee Webb so it 765 00:48:28,715 --> 00:48:32,795 Speaker 1: could instead hire Ken the Hawk Harrelson, the former Red 766 00:48:32,835 --> 00:48:35,715 Speaker 1: Sox star and TV announcer who had moved to Chicago. 767 00:48:37,515 --> 00:48:39,515 Speaker 1: So now I call my agent. She says, your deal 768 00:48:39,555 --> 00:48:42,315 Speaker 1: with Channel five is off. They want to make it 769 00:48:42,315 --> 00:48:44,435 Speaker 1: look like you stink. They want to make it look 770 00:48:44,475 --> 00:48:46,555 Speaker 1: like they just fired you. You called Jim Baker and 771 00:48:46,635 --> 00:48:48,675 Speaker 1: Jack Craig right now and tell them the whole story. 772 00:48:48,795 --> 00:48:50,595 Speaker 1: Wherever you go next, it has to be clear that 773 00:48:50,675 --> 00:48:53,235 Speaker 1: you weren't fired, you quit and you stayed on because 774 00:48:53,235 --> 00:48:58,555 Speaker 1: you're a pro, which you know was true. So I called. 775 00:48:59,035 --> 00:49:01,955 Speaker 1: I told both writers everything, and two minutes after I 776 00:49:01,995 --> 00:49:03,915 Speaker 1: got off the phone with Jack Craig from The Globe, 777 00:49:04,195 --> 00:49:06,715 Speaker 1: the phone and it was Jim Baker from The Harold 778 00:49:06,755 --> 00:49:09,555 Speaker 1: calling back, and he says, you'll never believe this. Their 779 00:49:09,595 --> 00:49:14,675 Speaker 1: negotiations with Hawk Harrelson are dead. Apparently he wanted four 780 00:49:14,795 --> 00:49:18,435 Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars a year and to guarantee that he 781 00:49:18,515 --> 00:49:20,755 Speaker 1: only had to come in five minutes before each show 782 00:49:20,795 --> 00:49:23,515 Speaker 1: to get makeup and then read the script that somebody 783 00:49:23,515 --> 00:49:29,235 Speaker 1: else wrote. So you are now our lead story. Sure enough. 784 00:49:29,475 --> 00:49:33,035 Speaker 1: Backpage of the Boston Harald, Saturday, October twenty, nineteen eighty four, 785 00:49:33,075 --> 00:49:38,635 Speaker 1: above the masthead Overman quits Channel five at the same 786 00:49:38,715 --> 00:49:41,435 Speaker 1: hour I was supposed to go to Morgantown, West Virginia, 787 00:49:42,955 --> 00:49:46,235 Speaker 1: the place that was designed simply to make that lovely 788 00:49:46,315 --> 00:49:50,755 Speaker 1: town of Needham Massachusetts look like I don't know the Riviera. 789 00:49:50,875 --> 00:49:52,795 Speaker 1: I was supposed to go to Morgantown to cover Doug 790 00:49:52,835 --> 00:49:55,835 Speaker 1: Flute and Boston College against the University of West Virginia. 791 00:49:55,955 --> 00:49:59,835 Speaker 1: Since I lived between the television station and the airport, 792 00:49:59,875 --> 00:50:01,915 Speaker 1: the cameraman was going to swing by my house to 793 00:50:01,955 --> 00:50:05,235 Speaker 1: pick me up. Do it like seven am I ever showed? 794 00:50:05,755 --> 00:50:08,835 Speaker 1: By this point, I'm thinking I just had to call 795 00:50:08,875 --> 00:50:12,435 Speaker 1: my lying boss's liars in both Boston newspapers that are 796 00:50:12,475 --> 00:50:15,315 Speaker 1: on every newsstand in the city and the surrounding area. 797 00:50:15,475 --> 00:50:18,235 Speaker 1: Why am I going to race the clock to get 798 00:50:18,235 --> 00:50:21,515 Speaker 1: to the airport on my own when this idiot cameraman 799 00:50:21,595 --> 00:50:24,475 Speaker 1: forgot to come get me. When we had made the 800 00:50:24,555 --> 00:50:26,915 Speaker 1: arrangements the day before, the cameraman had gotten my name 801 00:50:26,955 --> 00:50:30,195 Speaker 1: wrong and called me Dick. At least that's why I 802 00:50:30,195 --> 00:50:34,955 Speaker 1: thought he'd called me Dick. Anyway, I was twenty five. 803 00:50:35,115 --> 00:50:37,395 Speaker 1: I went back to bed, and while I was asleep, 804 00:50:37,475 --> 00:50:39,555 Speaker 1: Channel five fired me from a job that I had 805 00:50:39,595 --> 00:50:42,195 Speaker 1: not only quit, but I had quit twice, including on 806 00:50:42,235 --> 00:50:45,395 Speaker 1: the front page of the newspapers that morning. The Channel 807 00:50:45,435 --> 00:50:48,235 Speaker 1: five people were furious. I put up a brave front, 808 00:50:48,275 --> 00:50:51,115 Speaker 1: but beneath the surface I was a little scared until 809 00:50:51,155 --> 00:50:54,235 Speaker 1: two more things happened before I could move back to 810 00:50:54,355 --> 00:50:57,275 Speaker 1: New York. The news director Phil Balboni told Craig of 811 00:50:57,315 --> 00:51:00,115 Speaker 1: the Globe that it was all too bad because quote 812 00:51:00,315 --> 00:51:06,155 Speaker 1: Keith was potentially such a major talent. Ooh ooh. And 813 00:51:06,195 --> 00:51:09,275 Speaker 1: then the general manager, Coppersmith, was so angry that he 814 00:51:09,395 --> 00:51:13,915 Speaker 1: sold my agent he will never again work in this business. 815 00:51:14,915 --> 00:51:18,875 Speaker 1: I am not a big believer in motivational quotes, but 816 00:51:18,915 --> 00:51:23,315 Speaker 1: those two those really worked. Number one and two on 817 00:51:23,355 --> 00:51:27,635 Speaker 1: my all time list, and as always, beyond that, there's 818 00:51:27,675 --> 00:51:31,115 Speaker 1: a punchline. In two thousand and seven, an email popped 819 00:51:31,115 --> 00:51:35,475 Speaker 1: into my inbox at MSNBC. It was glowing and warm 820 00:51:35,875 --> 00:51:39,035 Speaker 1: and lovely, and it indicated the writer was a huge fan. 821 00:51:39,195 --> 00:51:44,315 Speaker 1: It was signed You're old Channel five news director Phil Balboni. 822 00:51:45,555 --> 00:51:49,275 Speaker 1: His email did not mention that I was potentially such 823 00:51:49,275 --> 00:52:05,595 Speaker 1: a major talent. Also, I am now now informed that 824 00:52:05,675 --> 00:52:10,035 Speaker 1: they have taken down that spiral staircase, so if I 825 00:52:10,075 --> 00:52:15,115 Speaker 1: ever have to go back there, I'm safe, probably, But 826 00:52:15,115 --> 00:52:17,075 Speaker 1: they didn't even put up a monument or anything to 827 00:52:17,155 --> 00:52:19,995 Speaker 1: my head wound. I've done all the damage I can 828 00:52:19,995 --> 00:52:22,275 Speaker 1: do here. Thank you for listening. Tell somebody about this 829 00:52:22,435 --> 00:52:26,955 Speaker 1: award nominated show. Get somebody to subscribe. If you like 830 00:52:27,035 --> 00:52:29,435 Speaker 1: the show, people say nice things about the show, get 831 00:52:29,435 --> 00:52:33,715 Speaker 1: somebody else to subscribe. I'll make a little extra thanks 832 00:52:33,715 --> 00:52:36,315 Speaker 1: for listening. Countdown. Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip 833 00:52:36,355 --> 00:52:39,355 Speaker 1: schaneil Arrange produced and performed most of our music. Mister 834 00:52:39,475 --> 00:52:42,995 Speaker 1: Ray on guitars, bass and drums, Mister Shanelle handling, of course, 835 00:52:43,115 --> 00:52:47,475 Speaker 1: orchestration and keyboards produced by Tko Brothers. Other music, including 836 00:52:47,475 --> 00:52:50,235 Speaker 1: some Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by the group No 837 00:52:50,315 --> 00:52:53,395 Speaker 1: Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Ulberman theme from 838 00:52:53,595 --> 00:52:57,275 Speaker 1: ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis, courtesy of ESPN Inc. 839 00:52:57,755 --> 00:53:01,675 Speaker 1: Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Fauss, 840 00:53:01,675 --> 00:53:04,875 Speaker 1: the best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was 841 00:53:05,275 --> 00:53:08,955 Speaker 1: keeping with the Boston theme my friend Dennis Leary. Everything 842 00:53:08,955 --> 00:53:12,075 Speaker 1: else was pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for 843 00:53:12,075 --> 00:53:14,875 Speaker 1: this the two hundred and sixtieth day until the twenty 844 00:53:14,955 --> 00:53:19,555 Speaker 1: twenty four United States presidential election, but thirty ninth days 845 00:53:19,595 --> 00:53:23,075 Speaker 1: since Dementia J. Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically 846 00:53:23,075 --> 00:53:26,115 Speaker 1: elected government of the United States use the Fourteenth Amendment, 847 00:53:26,155 --> 00:53:29,955 Speaker 1: the Insurrection Act, the Justice system, the mental health system, 848 00:53:30,235 --> 00:53:33,955 Speaker 1: anti terrorism statutes to stop him from doing it again 849 00:53:34,555 --> 00:53:39,555 Speaker 1: while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. 850 00:53:39,595 --> 00:53:42,515 Speaker 1: Boltons is the news warrants till then, I'm Keith Olderman. 851 00:53:42,555 --> 00:54:03,195 Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with 852 00:54:03,315 --> 00:54:07,595 Speaker 1: Keith Olderman is a product of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts 853 00:54:07,635 --> 00:54:12,395 Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 854 00:54:12,435 --> 00:54:13,755 Speaker 1: you get your podcasts.