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

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Speaker 1: follows is the speech Barack Obama should now give to

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Speaker 1: the nation. This is the address Barack Obama should now give,

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Speaker 1: rather than another one about how everybody else needs to

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Speaker 1: do more and say more and stand for more in

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Speaker 1: this time of crisis. This is the speech Barack Obama

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Speaker 1: should give now because he has been unexpectedly afforded the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to perhaps actually start something that could end this

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Speaker 1: nightmare of a madman steadily disassembling American democracy, a team

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Speaker 1: ou hitler, gradually turning harassment of minority parties into persecution

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Speaker 1: and ethnic cleansing, a criminal who must stay in office

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Speaker 1: at any cost or face the reality of dying in

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Speaker 1: prison for anyone of his hundreds and thousands of crimes.

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Speaker 1: This is the speech Barack Obama should now give at

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Speaker 1: this moment, in the hopes that he can inspire America

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Speaker 1: as he did in two thousand and eight, only this

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Speaker 1: time not merely inspire it, but save it. My fellow Americans,

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Speaker 1: if a random madman on the street or online had

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Speaker 1: accused me of treason, I would probably never hear him

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Speaker 1: say it. It has happened since I left the presidency.

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Speaker 1: It happened during my presidency, it happened before my presidency.

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Speaker 1: I would not blink. It is part of the job.

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Speaker 1: If an active American politician made such an accusation against me,

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Speaker 1: I would never respond. Republican and conservative politics have long

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Speaker 1: since fallen into the gutter, through the stone beneath the gutter,

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Speaker 1: through the basement. But when the current president of the

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Speaker 1: United States accuses me or any other former American president

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Speaker 1: of treason, and more disturbingly, still claims to have incontrovertible

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Speaker 1: proof of my guilt and instead presents only some laughably

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Speaker 1: cherry picked documents that point only to his own guilt

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Speaker 1: and his own collusion with Russia, and his own insanity,

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Speaker 1: as mister Trump did the day before yesterday in the

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Speaker 1: Oval Office. When this kind of sacrilege occurs, I, as

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Speaker 1: an American citizen, am left no other choice but to respond.

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Speaker 1: I must respond not for myself, but for my country,

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Speaker 1: for our country, for our future. Donald Trump can no

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Speaker 1: longer remain president of the United States. Whatever there is

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Speaker 1: in the so called Epstein files that incriminates him in

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Speaker 1: whatever crime or best reality or abuse, it has severed

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Speaker 1: the already flimsy tether between himself and reality, and a president,

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Speaker 1: the most powerful man in the world, who is severed

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Speaker 1: from reality yet retains the all too real powers of

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Speaker 1: the office, is a danger to the life of every

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Speaker 1: person in this country and every person on this planet.

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Speaker 1: Nothing in my conduct has ever approached the words mister

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Speaker 1: Trump has used to describe me. His animus towards me

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Speaker 1: is decades old. It has been analyzed by many smarter

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Speaker 1: people than I. It is clear that it contains elements

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Speaker 1: of racism, and of envy, and of lust for power,

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Speaker 1: and most importantly and most perilously, of sheer madness. As

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Speaker 1: someone who loves my country above all else, as someone

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Speaker 1: who has devoted my life to serving my country, his

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Speaker 1: words are slanderous in the highest degree possible using human language.

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Speaker 1: There is no worse accusation he can make, and no

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Speaker 1: more amplifying platform he could have made it from. In addition,

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Speaker 1: I must note that the members of the Supreme Court

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Speaker 1: mister Trump himself appointed, including one who he was able

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Speaker 1: to appoint only because of a manipulative and unethical political

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Speaker 1: trick enacted by his party while he was running for president,

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Speaker 1: have created virtual blanket immunity for presidents for acts committed

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Speaker 1: while in office. Therefore, it is not possible for any

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Speaker 1: present and to be guilty of any of the crimes

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Speaker 1: mister Trump has alleged about me, even if they were

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Speaker 1: remotely true in the slightest possible degree, because mister Trump

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Speaker 1: has made sure that there are no crimes any president

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Speaker 1: can be guilty of. Therefore, mister Trump has exceeded all

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Speaker 1: boundaries of acceptable comment or political criticism, or legally defendable speech,

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Speaker 1: even within the mentally warped world he inhabits. And therefore

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Speaker 1: it is necessary that I act on two fronts. In

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Speaker 1: the lesser of these, I have today had my attorneys

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Speaker 1: file a slander and defamation suit against Donald John Trump

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Speaker 1: as an individual. In this suit, I seek damages of

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Speaker 1: five hundred billion dollars from him personally. I have filed

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Speaker 1: an additional slander and defamation suit against the government of

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Speaker 1: the United States of America for permitting him to use

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Speaker 1: it as a staging ground for his slanders smears, and

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Speaker 1: more importantly, for giving him a place from which to

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Speaker 1: try to usher in a form of America in which

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Speaker 1: a madman's vague effort to save himself from prison by

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Speaker 1: fabricating an imaginary plot against this country is acceptable. I

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Speaker 1: will state now that any money I receive after I

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Speaker 1: prevail in these two lawsuits, any part of the one

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Speaker 1: trillion dollars in damages I am seeking, will be distributed

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Speaker 1: to citizens, immigrants, and defendants who, like me, have been

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Speaker 1: slandered and abused, and whose life has been imperiled by

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Speaker 1: this creature Trump. But more importantly than these defamation suits,

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Speaker 1: I am calling for the leaders of the Democratic Party

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Speaker 1: to meet with me, and with the governors of the

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Speaker 1: key Democratic led states, and with former President Clinton, and

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Speaker 1: with the members of the Supreme Court that President Clinton

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Speaker 1: and I I appointed, and with the key business leaders

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Speaker 1: of this country at a conference to attempt to fend

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Speaker 1: off the coming disaster Donald Trump seeks to inflict on

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Speaker 1: this nation and this world, to stop it with actions

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Speaker 1: that would shame a Soviet leader or a medieval king.

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Speaker 1: We who believe in democracy, We who believe in an

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Speaker 1: America safe for us to disagree with one another without

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Speaker 1: having someone in power who can respond by jailing us

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Speaker 1: or threatening us with phony charges and a politically corrupted judiciary.

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Speaker 1: We who believe in America must gather our forces now

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Speaker 1: to fend off disaster. Later to begin, we will be

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Speaker 1: filling out the idea voiced by Governor Newsom of California

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Speaker 1: that his state should no longer pay the expenses of

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Speaker 1: the so called Red States, whose economies are such that

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Speaker 1: they cannot provide services for their own people without being

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Speaker 1: underwritten by the so called Blue states. Governor Newsom has suggested,

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Speaker 1: in effect, a federal tax boycott, and at our conference,

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Speaker 1: those of us who want to save America will propose

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Speaker 1: an organized and safe process for all the states to

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Speaker 1: participate in this tax boycott and assume all the risks

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Speaker 1: so that you, as a citizen, will bear no risk.

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Speaker 1: We will additionally analyze, organize, and propose a national strike

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Speaker 1: to hasten the realization by the members of this President's

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Speaker 1: cabinet and party, and his congressional leaders and his Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court that they must join our movement or they must

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Speaker 1: assume responsibility for the financial chaos that will ensue in

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Speaker 1: the Red States and the areas which they purport to represent.

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Speaker 1: America will not last long as a dictatorship run by

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Speaker 1: a minority of unproductive racists. If the fair minded people

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Speaker 1: of the nation who oppose such a dictatorship decide to

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Speaker 1: stop paying for it. Our Conference will propose legal, peaceful

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Speaker 1: means to remove Donald John Trump from office immediately, along

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Speaker 1: with many of his most fervent and least mentally well

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Speaker 1: acolytes and enforcers, and to replace his administration with a bipartisan,

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Speaker 1: multi party one that can serve to undo the damage

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Speaker 1: he has already inflicted on us as a form of

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Speaker 1: caretaker government until the midterm elections of twenty twenty six

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Speaker 1: and the presidential election of twenty twenty eight hopefully put

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Speaker 1: us back on the path to the tolerant, diverse, multi

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Speaker 1: party nation in which we all grew up and in

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Speaker 1: which you and I, and our parents and our ancestors

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Speaker 1: have thrived since seventeen seventy six. Our Conference will seek

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Speaker 1: to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the

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Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence July fourth of next year, the two

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Speaker 1: hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our nation, by ensuring that

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Speaker 1: on that anniversary, our nation will still be here. I

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Speaker 1: invite all responsible Republican leaders to join us to, as

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Speaker 1: President Lincoln said, disenthrall yourselves. Disenthrall yourselves, because you already

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Speaker 1: know without me telling you that the next person, mister

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Speaker 1: Trump will accuse of treason is you. The dogmas of

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Speaker 1: the quiet past, President Lincoln said are inadequate to the

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Speaker 1: stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and

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Speaker 1: we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new.

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Speaker 1: So we must think a new and act a new

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Speaker 1: We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we share save our country.

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Speaker 1: I'm not holding my breath by the way Obama has become,

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Speaker 1: if anything, the national scold you really need to do more.

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Speaker 1: I really need to be retired. His reaction to what

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Speaker 1: Trump said, you or me, Probably in those situations we

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Speaker 1: would have controlled ourselves and simply gone up and smacked

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Speaker 1: Trump in the head. Obama's reaction was a too cool

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Speaker 1: for school statement, attributed to a spokesman beginning out of

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Speaker 1: respect for the office of the Presidency, our office does

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Speaker 1: not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out

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Speaker 1: of this White House with a response. But these claims,

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Speaker 1: it is not nonsense, President Obama. It is a serious

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Speaker 1: attempt to put you in prison, to put me in prison,

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Speaker 1: to put all who oppose Trump in prison. It is

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Speaker 1: not misinformation. It is brainwashing and out of respect for

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Speaker 1: the office of the presidency. The man in the office

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Speaker 1: shits on the office of the presidency and thus every

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Speaker 1: president who preceded him, every hour of every day. The

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Speaker 1: idea of the respect for the office of the President

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Speaker 1: of the United States is dead. Someone must restore it.

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Speaker 1: The people with the greatest opportunity to restore it and

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Speaker 1: with the greatest need to restore it, are our former presidents.

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Speaker 1: That's you and mister Clinton. Mister Bush is somewhere on

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Speaker 1: the sidelines, even further away from the light than you are.

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Speaker 1: In the attempt to not take any of this seriously.

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Speaker 1: Obama takes it much too seriously. Nothing could go further

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Speaker 1: right at this minute towards ousting Trump than Obama throwing

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Speaker 1: punches here. Nothing would beat the staid what an utter

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Speaker 1: nonsensical boor response to be replaced for once by the

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Speaker 1: kind of rage the rest of us feel, President Obama. Somebody,

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Speaker 1: somebody of stature, and it would be nice, somebody of probody,

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Speaker 1: somebody who does tend to stand off getting angry, summoning

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Speaker 1: our fury, directing what lurks just beneath the surface of

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Speaker 1: all us. What we need right now is and I'm

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Speaker 1: mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this any

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Speaker 1: more eruption from Barack Obama. But if it could be

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Speaker 1: more sad that he's not saying something like my little speech,

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Speaker 1: anything like that, anything hopefully better written, more inspirational. If

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Speaker 1: it could be more sad, it is because he is

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Speaker 1: uniquely qualified in a unique moment to get this off

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Speaker 1: the dime. A president not just accusing his predecessors of

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Speaker 1: treason and being sedacious. He said sedacious. Apparently that is

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Speaker 1: Trump's version of seditious or maybe Sebasius, not just doing

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Speaker 1: that but claiming it's been proven. This is a unique

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Speaker 1: opportunity to respond. It is an invitation to come over

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Speaker 1: and smack him in the head and to invoke all

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Speaker 1: the gravitas and gravity that the accused ex president necessarily summons.

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Speaker 1: The current Democratic leadership is terrified and dim and buried

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Speaker 1: under consultants and focus groups. Commentators, we're just commentators. A

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Speaker 1: former president could actually put such a conference together and

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Speaker 1: at minimal risk to himself and thus those who participated

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Speaker 1: with him. I mean, how would Trump respond to such

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Speaker 1: a conference by accusing Obama of double secret treason. I

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Speaker 1: also think the five hundred billion dollar lawsuit against Trump

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Speaker 1: would be a nice touch. He would understand what that meant.

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Speaker 1: Even he would understand what that meant. If you don't

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Speaker 1: like any of that, President Obama, do something of your

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Speaker 1: own choice, do something you think is better than that.

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Speaker 1: But do something anything, because just an effing statement, not

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Speaker 1: even under your own name, is utterly insufficient and makes

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Speaker 1: it worse. You have a chance right now to kneecap

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Speaker 1: this man. We do not. His White House is reported

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Speaker 1: by a prominent news organization to be paralyzed by Trump. Steen,

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Speaker 1: He's down, kick him, kneecap him right now. The distance

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Speaker 1: you are keeping from our crisis, our national existential crisis

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Speaker 1: is assuming Marie Antoinette like proportions. And I know Marie

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Speaker 1: Antoinette never said the cake thing. I am saying you,

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Speaker 1: like every other political professional, seems to remain under the

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Speaker 1: delusion that the American Republic is elastic and everything will

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Speaker 1: just snap back to normal proportions eventually. Yeah, just like

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Speaker 1: it did in two thousand and nine, Remember when all

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Speaker 1: the racists went away after your election, Just like it

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Speaker 1: did in twenty fifteen, when Republicans stood firmly against nominating

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Speaker 1: a man they all called a psychopath and some correctly

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Speaker 1: called a hitler, just like it did in twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 1: when having failed at a coup from inside the White

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Speaker 1: House and failed to keep their monster in chief in office,

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Speaker 1: all those MAGA guys dispersed, We are broken, President Obama. Insane, impossible, inconceivable.

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Speaker 1: I sure hope so. But regardless, Trump just not only

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Speaker 1: said you're guilty of treason, but that it's been proved

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Speaker 1: already that you're guilty of treason. You have to cut

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Speaker 1: this guy's balls off metaphorically because he obviously doesn't have

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Speaker 1: any actual ones anymore. As we know, it's always Taco

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Speaker 1: Tuesday somewhere and this isn't random, like it or not.

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Speaker 1: You are the last person to get him to have

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Speaker 1: publicly backed down. When he backed down, he did the

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Speaker 1: bare minimum back down. He never repeated the back down.

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Speaker 1: He has always undermined his own back down. But he

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Speaker 1: did publicly state you were born in this country, your

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Speaker 1: birth certificate is legitimate. The ground zero of his goddamned

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Speaker 1: America destroying campaign was false. He admitted he was wrong.

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Speaker 1: That was the one crack in the armor of bullshit

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Speaker 1: he wears every day. You did that, Now do it again.

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Speaker 1: If the lawsuit seems beneath you and you don't want

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Speaker 1: to have to stoop to save the nation, then go

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Speaker 1: with the conference idea, or go with another idea. Somebody

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Speaker 1: have some ideas, you don't like my ideas, do better,

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Speaker 1: but do something. The point is that one way or

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Speaker 1: the other, even if it's just old age, someday Trump

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Speaker 1: will be gone. What is needed now is a strategy

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Speaker 1: for making sure that he takes his followers and is

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Speaker 1: evil with him to hell. What could be better than

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Speaker 1: an all party conference, a bipartisan effort to save the nation,

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Speaker 1: a recognition that a minority is not only in command

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Speaker 1: with dreams of enacting the world of George Orwell, but

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Speaker 1: if using its victim's money to finance. It's been a

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Speaker 1: long time, but this nation has had bipartisan emergency conferences

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Speaker 1: in which the peril presented by one man or one

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Speaker 1: event has been obvious to all political parties, and and

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Speaker 1: the suspended all the rules just to fix it. One

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Speaker 1: such conference resulted in a fateful, fatal bargain in eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy seven that we should not repeat. The North got

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Speaker 1: the White House, the South got the end of reconstruction,

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Speaker 1: and the ground worked for Jim Crow, it was terrible.

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Speaker 1: On the other hand, it forestalled, and so far it

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Speaker 1: has forestalled it for one hundred and forty eight goddamned years.

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Speaker 1: The only other option in January eighteen seventy seven, which

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Speaker 1: was a Second American Civil War with more carnage, more guns.

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Speaker 1: I get it, President Obama, eight long years. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: make it to six years doing Sports Center every night.

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Speaker 1: You've been off since January twentieth, twenty seventeen. Even I

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Speaker 1: don't take that much time off. My high school was

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Speaker 1: the place that gave you your first true platform for

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Speaker 1: a political speech in nineteen ninety one. You went there

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Speaker 1: at the invitation of the same Hackley history teacher and

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Speaker 1: department chairman who told me on graduation day in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy five that the sportscasting thing I was planning was nice,

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Speaker 1: but that I needed to realize that someday, whether I

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Speaker 1: liked it or not, I would end up, whether as

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Speaker 1: candidate or as reporter or as commentator, I would end

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Speaker 1: up in politics. And I thanked him and smiled politely

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Speaker 1: and shook his hand and told him he was crazy,

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Speaker 1: and he wasn't crazy. President Obama. That is a unique,

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Speaker 1: if trivial bond between you and I, and I invoke

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Speaker 1: Walter Schneller's clairvoyance for you and for me and say

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Speaker 1: to you what he would say. This madman Trump has

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Speaker 1: afforded you a gift, an opportunity to do more for

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Speaker 1: your country than even eight years in the White House

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Speaker 1: gave you. Walter was a courtly man, the youngest son

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Speaker 1: of diplomats from Vienna, but he would have told you

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Speaker 1: this even more bluntly than I am now. In two

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Speaker 1: thousand and seven, he complained to me that he didn't

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Speaker 1: like my language towards Bush in the MSNBC Special Comments,

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Speaker 1: And as I began to apologize to him for telling

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Speaker 1: the President of the United States to shut up, he

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Speaker 1: interrupted me and said, no, no, you missed my point.

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Speaker 1: I do not understand how you'd refrain yourself from calling

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Speaker 1: that mother effort Bush a mother effort. I would so

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Speaker 1: on mister Schneller's behalf President Obama, this is your moment

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Speaker 1: kneecap that mother effort to follow up on something I

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Speaker 1: just dropped in there. Trump is clearly furious unquote, a

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Speaker 1: political close to the White House source told Politico's Trump's

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Speaker 1: stenographer yesterday quote, it's the first time I've seen them

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Speaker 1: sort of paralyzed. Yes, please, Trump's White House is sort

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Speaker 1: of paralyzed. Excellent. Kick them down the stairs. They can't

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Speaker 1: fight back. It'll hurt more if they're paralyzed. Kick them

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Speaker 1: down the stairs. Then take the elevator and meet them

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Speaker 1: when they land and kick them again. The Trump's Steen

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Speaker 1: birthday card is real, the one the Wall Street Journal reported,

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Speaker 1: and it cannot be the worst thing about Trump in

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Speaker 1: the trump Stein files. Otherwise he would have released the

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Speaker 1: files because it's not that bad. It's stupid and sleazy,

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Speaker 1: and that's Trump's baseline. The photos of Epstein at Trump's

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Speaker 1: second wedding, they're real, and they can't be the worst

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Speaker 1: thing in the files. Otherwise he would have released the files.

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Speaker 1: Whatever is worst in the trump Stein files is at

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Speaker 1: least B plus material. Keith hammering, they're sort of paralyzed.

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Speaker 1: Let's go for one hundred percent on that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: good God. Even Mike Johnson has the presence of mind

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Speaker 1: to act when the opportunity has been afforded him. Trump

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Speaker 1: needed as many distractions as he could from Trumpstein, and

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Speaker 1: none of them have worked. Even the Tulsey Gabbard drooling

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Speaker 1: which treason nonsense, and her conflation of Russian trivia with

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Speaker 1: actual Russian sabotage for Trump, and the talk of arrests

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Speaker 1: and trials, and the release of the Martin Luther King

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Speaker 1: junior files, and the Hillary email story by Pam Bondy

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Speaker 1: better known as Pam Bondy who refused to prosecute Epstein

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Speaker 1: in Florida, and the destruction of Christy Dogg killer Gnome

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Speaker 1: when she threatened New York City and reporters. None of

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Speaker 1: those Trumpstein distractions have been enough. Even Mike Johnson knew

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Speaker 1: he needed to act President Obama, so he sent the

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Speaker 1: House home to avoid any votes in the month ahead

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Speaker 1: on the Democratic amendments to force the release of the

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Speaker 1: Trumpstein files, because they need this window for Trump's legal

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Speaker 1: mouthpiece Todd Blanche to go see Glaine Maxwell in prison

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Speaker 1: and presumably offer her a pardon if she will lie

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Speaker 1: and say Trump had nothing to do with it. Because

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Speaker 1: as flawed a plan as that is, and as many

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Speaker 1: new conspiracy theories that would be spun instantly out of

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Speaker 1: that obvious perjury from Maxwell, it's doing something. Those defending

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Speaker 1: this nation are doing less than that. And I'd like

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Speaker 1: to point out that one organization that prides itself on

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Speaker 1: defending this nation on day four of all this, and

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Speaker 1: we are now numbered at day seventeen of trump Stein.

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Speaker 1: On day four of all this, that broke in New

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Speaker 1: York Times posted this headline how Trump deflected maga's wrath

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Speaker 1: over Epstein, at least for now, by tapping into other grievances.

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Speaker 1: President Trump managed to turn one of the most fractious

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Speaker 1: moments for his base into a unifying one. Spoiler alert times, no,

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Speaker 1: he didn't. Some poll numbers from the impeccable g Elliot Morris,

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Speaker 1: the last king of five thirty eight Democrats now lead

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Speaker 1: the House generic ballot forty seven to forty three eight

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Speaker 1: point edge nine percent undecided. Trump is at fifty seven

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Speaker 1: percent disapproval. His issue disapprovals are worse. He's underwater everywhere

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Speaker 1: except under border security. He's ahead on six points on

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Speaker 1: border security everything else. Disapproval is far ahead of approval

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Speaker 1: prices and inflation. It's sixty one percent disapproval to thirty

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Speaker 1: three percent approval. CNN's Frantic Guy Enton is now doing

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Speaker 1: a disapproval poll of polls, and his numbers are even

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Speaker 1: worse than Elliott Morris's Trump Underwater in an aggregate poll

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Speaker 1: on immigration, minus five on the economy, minus fourteen, on

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Speaker 1: foreign policy, minus fourteen, on trade, minus fifteen, on Epstein,

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Speaker 1: minus thirty seven. Trump is at minus thirty seven on Epstein,

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Speaker 1: and even the politico Dweebs say he and the White

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Speaker 1: House are paralyzed. It's time, President Obama, every Democratic leader,

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Speaker 1: every responsible Republican, it's time. It is time. It is today.

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Speaker 1: The door is open. Push Trump down the goddamned flight

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Speaker 1: of stairs. I don't think you need it, President Obama,

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Speaker 1: but you're certainly willing to have the copyright on anything

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Speaker 1: that you liked in my version of the speech. You

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Speaker 1: should now give and you should sue him, because that's

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Speaker 1: the only thing he understands and the only thing his

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00:28:59,315 --> 00:29:03,115
Speaker 1: base understands. And a big, impossible number like five hundred

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00:29:03,195 --> 00:29:06,395
Speaker 1: billion dollars is it is to anybody with an IQ

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Speaker 1: larger than twenty five. Trump supporters do not have IQs

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Speaker 1: larger than twenty five. They will be scared at the

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Speaker 1: thought that Trump might owe you five hundred billion dollars,

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Speaker 1: and that they might owe you another five hundred billion dollars.

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Speaker 1: And if you don't like any of those ideas. As

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Speaker 1: I said, any that you propose will necessarily be better

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Speaker 1: than any that I have just spoken. Do something. This

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Speaker 1: is the country and the history of this nation calling

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Speaker 1: on you, and you alone. A postcard will not suffice,

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00:29:53,155 --> 00:30:00,275
Speaker 1: or a playlist or a very very early college basketball bracket.

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00:30:03,755 --> 00:30:06,475
Speaker 1: Also of interest, he who is the last political person

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Speaker 1: in America? Who should write that nobody wants to hear

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Speaker 1: the political opinions or analysis of anybody else. Who is

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Speaker 1: the worst person to conclude this? Who is the worst

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Speaker 1: spokesman for you know? This guy over there should shut up.

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Speaker 1: Nobody cares what he thinks. Now this is close. It

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Speaker 1: could be Chuck Todd, could be Joe Scarborough, It could

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Speaker 1: be Joe the woman version Scarborough. But it's not. It's

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Speaker 1: a guy with the initial CC, and he's in worse

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Speaker 1: persons CC and I don't mean Sabbathia and CC has

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Speaker 1: perpetrated one of the all time lack of self awareness

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Speaker 1: doozies even for him. That's next. This is countdown. This

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Speaker 1: is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead on this initiative. Countdown.

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Speaker 1: So you will love this, and I suspect you will

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Speaker 1: love this whether you agree with me on the Stephen

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Speaker 1: Colbert firing, or you disagree with me on the Stephen

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Speaker 1: Colbert firing, or if you only accept some parts of

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Speaker 1: my argument. That know, they were going to end his

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00:31:46,275 --> 00:31:49,755
Speaker 1: show anyway when his contract ends next spring, and the

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00:31:49,755 --> 00:31:53,355
Speaker 1: fact that they are now leaving him on CBS every

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Speaker 1: night to say whatever the f he wants between now

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00:31:57,155 --> 00:32:02,195
Speaker 1: and then for ten months anyway, kind of confirms they

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00:32:02,235 --> 00:32:05,355
Speaker 1: didn't do this to shut him up, just to shut

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00:32:05,435 --> 00:32:11,755
Speaker 1: him up, because they're not shutting him up anyway. This

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00:32:11,875 --> 00:32:15,035
Speaker 1: is the part you will love. This is the definition

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00:32:15,115 --> 00:32:20,035
Speaker 1: of political commentary and political protest. The liberals have it

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00:32:20,235 --> 00:32:24,755
Speaker 1: in a smaller scale than the Conservatives, for whom everything

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00:32:25,155 --> 00:32:29,275
Speaker 1: is a conservative protest. They are as softish church music.

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00:32:29,635 --> 00:32:33,875
Speaker 1: To borrow the phrase of an old colleague of mind. Anyway,

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00:32:33,875 --> 00:32:35,675
Speaker 1: this is the part you will love. I have been

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Speaker 1: invited by a prominent liberal activist movement to saunter the

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Speaker 1: ten blocks or so from my home over to Colbert's

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Speaker 1: studio to speak at a rally protesting is firing. I

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Speaker 1: said I'd be happy to. I will speak about CBS's

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00:32:53,155 --> 00:32:56,635
Speaker 1: capitulation too, and their appeasement of Trump. And how they've

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00:32:56,675 --> 00:33:00,235
Speaker 1: turned that into the whorehouse network over there, how they

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00:33:00,235 --> 00:33:03,475
Speaker 1: are behaving the way Timu Hitler wants them to. But

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Speaker 1: I will have to emphasize that the Colbert firing wasn't

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00:33:06,115 --> 00:33:09,075
Speaker 1: really part of this, except in a small symbolic way

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00:33:09,355 --> 00:33:11,755
Speaker 1: that's maybe a little bit more cynical than you realize.

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00:33:11,795 --> 00:33:14,355
Speaker 1: That they are using this that they were going to

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00:33:14,395 --> 00:33:19,475
Speaker 1: do anyway as a soop to Trump, but that it's

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00:33:19,515 --> 00:33:22,355
Speaker 1: not really about Trump, just as the downsizing of Seth

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00:33:22,435 --> 00:33:25,755
Speaker 1: Meyers's show was not about Trump, and the cancelation or

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00:33:25,755 --> 00:33:29,315
Speaker 1: the other neutering of the Kimmel and Fallon shows to

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00:33:29,395 --> 00:33:33,795
Speaker 1: come will not be about Trump either, Shockingly, with those

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00:33:33,835 --> 00:33:38,515
Speaker 1: caveats they passed anyway still ahead. I have argued this

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00:33:38,595 --> 00:33:44,235
Speaker 1: seemingly very pro corporate, anti liberal, anti liberal protest before,

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Speaker 1: and taking hell for it then too. But I was

428
00:33:47,715 --> 00:33:51,315
Speaker 1: right then and I'm right now, And with the anniversary

429
00:33:51,355 --> 00:33:53,835
Speaker 1: the first anniversary of his passing coming up, it is

430
00:33:53,875 --> 00:33:58,435
Speaker 1: time to revisit the day MSNBC fired its top rated

431
00:33:58,475 --> 00:34:01,475
Speaker 1: host and its top rated show came to an end,

432
00:34:01,755 --> 00:34:06,915
Speaker 1: The Phil Donahue Show, just as George Bush started bombing

433
00:34:06,995 --> 00:34:12,155
Speaker 1: Iraq and MSNBC claimed it was losing money too, and

434
00:34:12,315 --> 00:34:16,235
Speaker 1: MSNBC was also right. They were going to do it anyway,

435
00:34:16,755 --> 00:34:20,515
Speaker 1: they just exploited it. Next in Things I Promised not

436
00:34:20,635 --> 00:34:25,595
Speaker 1: to tell. Actually, I can go longer about that first

437
00:34:25,635 --> 00:34:28,035
Speaker 1: believe it or not. There's still more new idiots to

438
00:34:28,075 --> 00:34:30,355
Speaker 1: talk about, the roundup of the miss Grants, morons and

439
00:34:30,435 --> 00:34:34,595
Speaker 1: Dunning Krueger effect specimens who constitute today's other works persons

440
00:34:34,595 --> 00:34:36,755
Speaker 1: in the world. And this is the problem. When you

441
00:34:36,835 --> 00:34:39,755
Speaker 1: skip the worst person segment from one show, they begin

442
00:34:39,835 --> 00:34:42,955
Speaker 1: to pile up so much that there are honorary mentions

443
00:34:43,195 --> 00:34:50,155
Speaker 1: the cup overfloweth honorary mention number one Andrew Yang. There

444
00:34:50,155 --> 00:34:52,315
Speaker 1: are times at which it looks like, sounds like, and

445
00:34:52,395 --> 00:34:55,115
Speaker 1: reads as if Elon Musk is the stupidest rich person

446
00:34:55,275 --> 00:35:00,435
Speaker 1: in the world, or maybe that guy Bill, the investment

447
00:35:01,075 --> 00:35:06,315
Speaker 1: money guy, the hedge fund guy. No, Andrew Yang is

448
00:35:06,355 --> 00:35:11,675
Speaker 1: the dumbest rich guy in the world. After the Sad

449
00:35:11,755 --> 00:35:19,755
Speaker 1: News on Tuesday, Andrew Yang wrote rip Ozzy Osbourne a

450
00:35:19,875 --> 00:35:27,475
Speaker 1: true American original. He deleted it when somebody pointed out

451
00:35:27,475 --> 00:35:33,115
Speaker 1: to him as Homer Simpson always said, I have always

452
00:35:33,155 --> 00:35:38,715
Speaker 1: said I prefer our Beatles to England's Rolling Stones and

453
00:35:38,795 --> 00:35:43,075
Speaker 1: already mentioned number two. Well it's Trump. Jamel Hill, my

454
00:35:43,155 --> 00:35:47,315
Speaker 1: old brief colleague at ESPN, pointed this one out. Yes,

455
00:35:47,395 --> 00:35:52,875
Speaker 1: there's always a treat, she wrote a tweet, but a treat. President,

456
00:35:53,155 --> 00:35:56,075
Speaker 1: he wrote, should not be telling the Washington Redskins to

457
00:35:56,155 --> 00:36:00,075
Speaker 1: change their name. Our country has far bigger problems. Focus

458
00:36:00,195 --> 00:36:03,875
Speaker 1: on them, not nonsense, said the man who just tried

459
00:36:03,915 --> 00:36:06,715
Speaker 1: to distract you from trump Stein by demanding that the

460
00:36:06,835 --> 00:36:14,035
Speaker 1: Washington Commanders Commandeer's, Washington Football Club, Washington trump Stein's whatever

461
00:36:14,035 --> 00:36:16,475
Speaker 1: they're called now. He just demanded they change their name

462
00:36:16,675 --> 00:36:20,715
Speaker 1: to the Redskins. He's previously written that a president should

463
00:36:20,755 --> 00:36:22,675
Speaker 1: not be telling the to Washington football team to change

464
00:36:22,675 --> 00:36:25,715
Speaker 1: his name, because they're bigger problems. That was when he

465
00:36:25,755 --> 00:36:29,435
Speaker 1: was still partially saying honor you mentioned number three. House

466
00:36:29,515 --> 00:36:33,515
Speaker 1: Republicans John Bresnahan reports they are trying to rename part

467
00:36:33,555 --> 00:36:38,515
Speaker 1: of the Kennedy Center for Milania Trump No, not the

468
00:36:38,595 --> 00:36:41,435
Speaker 1: dumpster in the back a GOP amendment on the Interior

469
00:36:41,475 --> 00:36:44,155
Speaker 1: Spending Bill which has now been added to that bill

470
00:36:44,435 --> 00:36:47,235
Speaker 1: that the opera House located in the John F. Kennedy

471
00:36:47,275 --> 00:36:50,595
Speaker 1: Center for the Performing Art shall be known and designated

472
00:36:50,955 --> 00:36:55,755
Speaker 1: as the first Lady Malania Trump Opera House. Do you

473
00:36:55,755 --> 00:36:59,075
Speaker 1: want to name it after Milania? Have you thought about

474
00:36:59,195 --> 00:37:05,515
Speaker 1: just naming it then the Anastasia dot com Opera House,

475
00:37:07,035 --> 00:37:14,835
Speaker 1: or or the trump Stein Jeffrey Epstein helped introduce Milanna

476
00:37:14,995 --> 00:37:20,795
Speaker 1: and Trump Opera House. Or this is where people do

477
00:37:20,915 --> 00:37:24,875
Speaker 1: not make themselves intelligible in any known language. Opera House

478
00:37:27,235 --> 00:37:31,355
Speaker 1: to the winners, the bronze worst boy is Mike Lee stupid.

479
00:37:31,435 --> 00:37:35,755
Speaker 1: Someone has postulated that the Senator from Utah went into

480
00:37:35,955 --> 00:37:39,875
Speaker 1: the Warren holes, the rabbit holes, and the Warren Dens

481
00:37:39,915 --> 00:37:42,715
Speaker 1: and the Rabbit Warrens and the Warren Commission that is

482
00:37:42,715 --> 00:37:48,555
Speaker 1: the Internet and lost his mind there. He posted this

483
00:37:49,795 --> 00:37:54,675
Speaker 1: Powell's out and before it and after it had a

484
00:37:54,715 --> 00:37:59,555
Speaker 1: fire alarm. Oh, it is important. Powell's out and posted

485
00:37:59,555 --> 00:38:03,035
Speaker 1: this note addressed to the President the White House, Washington,

486
00:38:03,115 --> 00:38:09,475
Speaker 1: d C. I'm worried about this already, dear mister President period. Okay,

487
00:38:09,555 --> 00:38:12,555
Speaker 1: so far, I see four mistakes. You'd address it to

488
00:38:13,035 --> 00:38:16,275
Speaker 1: President Donald Trump, the White House, Washington, d C. Usually

489
00:38:16,395 --> 00:38:19,235
Speaker 1: with a zip code, and it would be on some

490
00:38:19,355 --> 00:38:22,275
Speaker 1: kind of stationary with his name on it. From Jerome

491
00:38:22,315 --> 00:38:24,915
Speaker 1: Powell after much reflection, I've decided to resign from my

492
00:38:24,995 --> 00:38:27,355
Speaker 1: position as chair of the Board of Governors of the

493
00:38:27,355 --> 00:38:31,075
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve System, effective at the close of business today.

494
00:38:31,835 --> 00:38:34,635
Speaker 1: And the real problem with this is down at the bottom,

495
00:38:35,075 --> 00:38:38,675
Speaker 1: where it says respectfully, and everything has been crowded to

496
00:38:38,755 --> 00:38:44,715
Speaker 1: fit one page on a computer, respectfully. Jerome H. Powell.

497
00:38:45,035 --> 00:38:49,515
Speaker 1: Jerome H. Powell, Chairman, Federal Reserve Board. There is a

498
00:38:49,555 --> 00:38:53,835
Speaker 1: logo of some sort and it has an eagle and

499
00:38:53,915 --> 00:38:59,995
Speaker 1: some stripes, and uh yeah, there's a wreath there looks

500
00:39:00,075 --> 00:39:02,675
Speaker 1: like an olive branch on each side, and then this

501
00:39:02,795 --> 00:39:12,595
Speaker 1: inscription OEDEO of govery BEB. So it's the oa doo

502
00:39:12,715 --> 00:39:18,515
Speaker 1: of GOVERYBB. Then at the bottom it's a REEBYL reserve

503
00:39:19,195 --> 00:39:26,635
Speaker 1: reserve is right, say A the last word instead of

504
00:39:26,675 --> 00:39:29,475
Speaker 1: system it it's an s I. It's like doing an

505
00:39:29,475 --> 00:39:34,435
Speaker 1: eye chart backwards, e another L upside down what looks

506
00:39:34,475 --> 00:39:39,035
Speaker 1: like a kind of Sloman's shield for those of you

507
00:39:39,315 --> 00:39:42,435
Speaker 1: who know what Sloman's is, and then an A, only

508
00:39:42,475 --> 00:39:44,515
Speaker 1: the bar in the A is at the bottom rather

509
00:39:44,595 --> 00:39:48,195
Speaker 1: than in the middle. So because it has this official

510
00:39:48,235 --> 00:39:51,915
Speaker 1: looking seal. Mike Lee, who among other things, believes people

511
00:39:51,995 --> 00:39:55,195
Speaker 1: believe in his comb over, Mike Lee thought this was

512
00:39:55,235 --> 00:40:00,395
Speaker 1: official the oedo of GOVERYBB. There's only one word right

513
00:40:00,515 --> 00:40:04,995
Speaker 1: in the logo, reserve. Everything else is designed to fool

514
00:40:05,315 --> 00:40:11,635
Speaker 1: stupid people like Senator Mike Lee. Someone has to take

515
00:40:11,755 --> 00:40:15,835
Speaker 1: Mike's phone away from him. They need to take his

516
00:40:15,915 --> 00:40:18,435
Speaker 1: seat away from him, obviously, but the first step take

517
00:40:18,515 --> 00:40:21,115
Speaker 1: his effing phone away from him. He does something like

518
00:40:21,155 --> 00:40:25,155
Speaker 1: this once a week, even for the Republican Party. He's stupid.

519
00:40:28,395 --> 00:40:31,195
Speaker 1: The runner up. I'm going to give this to The

520
00:40:31,275 --> 00:40:35,795
Speaker 1: Daily Beast, but I'm not con confident that it's their doing.

521
00:40:35,875 --> 00:40:38,715
Speaker 1: They may be trolling us, but certainly did the other

522
00:40:38,755 --> 00:40:43,115
Speaker 1: person mentioned in this. It's one of the great understated

523
00:40:43,195 --> 00:40:47,675
Speaker 1: tweets of all time, the Daily Beast. It's a promo,

524
00:40:47,955 --> 00:40:51,155
Speaker 1: a link to one of their pieces, The Daily Beast Opinion.

525
00:40:51,755 --> 00:40:55,795
Speaker 1: I simply cannot figure out why Hunter Biden thinks that

526
00:40:55,875 --> 00:40:59,075
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party or the world is in need of

527
00:40:59,115 --> 00:41:07,795
Speaker 1: his opinions about politics rights Chris Slizza. Then the link

528
00:41:07,875 --> 00:41:10,195
Speaker 1: is Hunter Biden really needs to shut it. Why is

529
00:41:10,235 --> 00:41:13,315
Speaker 1: he talking? Why is he still talking? By Chris Solissa.

530
00:41:14,555 --> 00:41:17,475
Speaker 1: I think I think somebody at the Daily Beast did

531
00:41:17,475 --> 00:41:21,435
Speaker 1: this deliberately. It's a troll, isn't it. I mean they

532
00:41:21,475 --> 00:41:25,795
Speaker 1: can't be that stupid, can they? SOLISA, Oh my, yes,

533
00:41:26,115 --> 00:41:28,715
Speaker 1: he is that stupid. He is stupid enough to have

534
00:41:28,715 --> 00:41:31,715
Speaker 1: written this article asking why somebody else keeps writing when

535
00:41:31,755 --> 00:41:37,275
Speaker 1: clearly nobody wants their opinion, his opinion, but not The

536
00:41:37,355 --> 00:41:43,155
Speaker 1: Daily Beast. And then again, they did pay Chris Soliza

537
00:41:43,275 --> 00:41:47,355
Speaker 1: probably twenty twenty five dollars for this piece. Why people

538
00:41:47,435 --> 00:41:50,315
Speaker 1: should not be listening to this guy by Chris Solissa,

539
00:41:50,995 --> 00:41:56,195
Speaker 1: forward by Chuck Todd, but our winner. Speaking of which,

540
00:41:56,835 --> 00:42:01,155
Speaker 1: Alex Jones, remembering that the late Azzie Osbourne had been

541
00:42:01,275 --> 00:42:05,555
Speaker 1: acutely sick since twenty nineteen, and not particularly well before then.

542
00:42:06,035 --> 00:42:11,115
Speaker 1: Parkinson's disease was diagnosed in twenty nineteen, along with blood clots,

543
00:42:11,555 --> 00:42:15,075
Speaker 1: mobility issues, depression, a whole array of new drugs that

544
00:42:15,115 --> 00:42:17,555
Speaker 1: had their own side effects, and he fought through it

545
00:42:17,675 --> 00:42:22,235
Speaker 1: gamely and bravely, literally appearing on stage just days before

546
00:42:22,275 --> 00:42:27,475
Speaker 1: his death. Considering that twenty nineteen was the diagnosis before

547
00:42:27,475 --> 00:42:33,875
Speaker 1: COVID vaccines, before COVID, Alex Jones, this brain dead, endless

548
00:42:34,035 --> 00:42:38,875
Speaker 1: blight on mankind, this waste of carbon, this large pile

549
00:42:39,155 --> 00:42:43,635
Speaker 1: of recycling, just waiting for the right landfill space to

550
00:42:43,755 --> 00:42:48,875
Speaker 1: open up. Alex Jones writes after Ozzy Osborne's death, quote,

551
00:42:49,355 --> 00:42:55,275
Speaker 1: the iconic Ozzy Osbourne has died suddenly after years of illness,

552
00:42:55,595 --> 00:43:03,395
Speaker 1: which mysteriously started after getting vaccinated. So Alex, I have

553
00:43:03,475 --> 00:43:08,395
Speaker 1: one question. If that's true, can I treat you to

554
00:43:08,435 --> 00:43:13,195
Speaker 1: a free COVID vaccination? Alex, Nothing will stop him from

555
00:43:13,275 --> 00:43:20,235
Speaker 1: hurting people. Jones, Today's other worst person in the world,

556
00:43:34,915 --> 00:43:38,715
Speaker 1: and so do our number one story and Phil Donahue.

557
00:43:38,795 --> 00:43:41,275
Speaker 1: This is not about what a good guy Phil Donahue was,

558
00:43:41,395 --> 00:43:43,835
Speaker 1: and he was. This is not about what a committed

559
00:43:43,875 --> 00:43:46,275
Speaker 1: liberal he was and he was. And this is not

560
00:43:46,395 --> 00:43:50,195
Speaker 1: about how he changed television talk shows television indeed for

561
00:43:50,275 --> 00:43:54,995
Speaker 1: good or for ill, all of which is true and unquestionable.

562
00:43:55,875 --> 00:43:58,875
Speaker 1: This is about the contention that has echoed for more

563
00:43:58,915 --> 00:44:02,795
Speaker 1: than two decades that Phil Donahue was fired by his

564
00:44:02,955 --> 00:44:07,235
Speaker 1: last employer and had his career ended by his last employer,

565
00:44:07,715 --> 00:44:15,875
Speaker 1: MSNBC because he opposed the Iraq war. That's not why

566
00:44:16,155 --> 00:44:19,395
Speaker 1: he was fired. That might have been why he was

567
00:44:19,435 --> 00:44:23,355
Speaker 1: fired as soon as he was, but that was not

568
00:44:23,555 --> 00:44:26,275
Speaker 1: why he was fired. And the reason I know this

569
00:44:26,515 --> 00:44:30,875
Speaker 1: is I was there and as I saw this play

570
00:44:30,875 --> 00:44:35,395
Speaker 1: out in real time. Initially, I was a disinterested bystander

571
00:44:35,915 --> 00:44:38,395
Speaker 1: the firing played out, and people told me things in

572
00:44:38,515 --> 00:44:40,515
Speaker 1: real time that they thought it was safe for me

573
00:44:40,555 --> 00:44:42,755
Speaker 1: to know, because what the hell. I was only going

574
00:44:42,835 --> 00:44:45,435
Speaker 1: to be back at MSNBC in two thousand and three

575
00:44:45,475 --> 00:44:48,155
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks, maybe just a couple of days.

576
00:44:48,915 --> 00:44:51,555
Speaker 1: I'd been hired by NBC Sports do the Olympics and

577
00:44:51,595 --> 00:44:53,395
Speaker 1: other stuff for them. It's not like I was going

578
00:44:53,435 --> 00:44:56,315
Speaker 1: to replace Phil Donahue at eight o'clock on MSNBC when

579
00:44:56,315 --> 00:45:01,875
Speaker 1: they eventually fired him. Actually I did replace Phil Donahue

580
00:45:01,875 --> 00:45:04,115
Speaker 1: at eight pm on MSNBC when they actually fired him.

581
00:45:04,795 --> 00:45:07,035
Speaker 1: That was not the plan. That was never the plan,

582
00:45:07,235 --> 00:45:09,075
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, one night, that was

583
00:45:09,075 --> 00:45:13,315
Speaker 1: the plan. Phil Donahue had retired in nineteen ninety six

584
00:45:13,355 --> 00:45:16,475
Speaker 1: because his ratings had dropped from first because he was

585
00:45:16,515 --> 00:45:22,275
Speaker 1: the originator of that format, the daytime drama live talk show.

586
00:45:22,795 --> 00:45:26,595
Speaker 1: Barbara Walters did one, Doctor, Phil did one. They've all

587
00:45:26,635 --> 00:45:30,115
Speaker 1: done them. This was the original the Donahue Show, a

588
00:45:30,235 --> 00:45:34,435
Speaker 1: high feminist content, a high liberal content, and given the

589
00:45:34,435 --> 00:45:37,315
Speaker 1: fact that he often did really stupid topics, a high

590
00:45:37,395 --> 00:45:41,915
Speaker 1: intellectual topic and content. But by nineteen ninety six he

591
00:45:42,035 --> 00:45:45,395
Speaker 1: was done and he retired, and in two thousand and

592
00:45:45,435 --> 00:45:51,995
Speaker 1: two MSNBC approached him about doing a primetime show on MSNBC,

593
00:45:52,995 --> 00:45:56,115
Speaker 1: and again when they did fire him, the show that

594
00:45:56,235 --> 00:45:59,675
Speaker 1: replaced him at eight o'clock on MSNBC was called Check's

595
00:45:59,715 --> 00:46:03,035
Speaker 1: Notes Countdown with Keith Olderman. And see that's your first

596
00:46:03,035 --> 00:46:06,195
Speaker 1: clue that Donahue was. He not fired because he opposed

597
00:46:06,235 --> 00:46:12,315
Speaker 1: Iraq and Bush Countdown originally started as essentially just another

598
00:46:12,395 --> 00:46:15,915
Speaker 1: hour of the latest news from Iraq after we invaded,

599
00:46:16,435 --> 00:46:20,155
Speaker 1: and gradually, i'd say within two months, I began to

600
00:46:20,195 --> 00:46:23,835
Speaker 1: take a somewhat skeptical view of this. But before I

601
00:46:23,915 --> 00:46:25,795
Speaker 1: went on the air, before they assigned me the eight

602
00:46:25,795 --> 00:46:30,035
Speaker 1: o'clock show and replacing Phil Donahue, I had spent about

603
00:46:30,035 --> 00:46:33,035
Speaker 1: a year doing a daily commentary on the ABC Radio

604
00:46:33,075 --> 00:46:35,995
Speaker 1: network that was carried by a couple of hundred stations,

605
00:46:36,035 --> 00:46:39,275
Speaker 1: including one in New York, in which I questioned the

606
00:46:39,635 --> 00:46:43,155
Speaker 1: sanity of this impending war, and we all knew it

607
00:46:43,195 --> 00:46:44,995
Speaker 1: was coming for a year. We all knew it was

608
00:46:45,035 --> 00:46:47,555
Speaker 1: the only thing the Bush administration had been prepared for

609
00:46:47,755 --> 00:46:50,795
Speaker 1: as of September eleventh, was an a war in Iraq.

610
00:46:51,475 --> 00:46:53,635
Speaker 1: And the only conspiracy I ever put any weight in

611
00:46:53,755 --> 00:46:55,795
Speaker 1: was the idea that they looked at nine to eleven

612
00:46:55,835 --> 00:46:57,995
Speaker 1: and went, oh crap, what are we going to do now?

613
00:46:58,075 --> 00:47:00,195
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's an excuse to go into Iraq.

614
00:47:00,875 --> 00:47:03,115
Speaker 1: That was the conspiracy of nine to eleven. That's the

615
00:47:03,155 --> 00:47:05,595
Speaker 1: inside job, and that's the extent of it. They were

616
00:47:05,635 --> 00:47:09,195
Speaker 1: prepared to go into Iraq at whatever excuse presented itself.

617
00:47:09,395 --> 00:47:11,355
Speaker 1: If the weather had been bad six weeks in a row,

618
00:47:11,355 --> 00:47:15,595
Speaker 1: they would have said, that's Sadam Hussein fault. We're going in.

619
00:47:15,595 --> 00:47:18,755
Speaker 1: In any event, my point is that if you're going

620
00:47:18,795 --> 00:47:21,075
Speaker 1: to get rid of a guy for opposing Iraq and

621
00:47:21,155 --> 00:47:24,035
Speaker 1: George W. Bush, you are not going to replace the

622
00:47:24,035 --> 00:47:29,795
Speaker 1: Phil Donahue Show with Countdown with Keith Olderman. You are

623
00:47:29,835 --> 00:47:34,795
Speaker 1: firing Donahue and replacing him with Olderman. Bad call, buddy.

624
00:47:36,235 --> 00:47:39,475
Speaker 1: And again I don't defend MSNBC, and I am defending

625
00:47:39,555 --> 00:47:42,195
Speaker 1: MSNBC because I saw this play out in real time.

626
00:47:42,555 --> 00:47:45,755
Speaker 1: Countdown started as another hour of news from Iraq, and

627
00:47:45,835 --> 00:47:48,635
Speaker 1: by June I was telling the real story about the

628
00:47:48,675 --> 00:47:52,715
Speaker 1: rescue of Private Jessica Lynch who had been taken hostage

629
00:47:52,715 --> 00:47:54,835
Speaker 1: by the Iraqis when in fact she was in a

630
00:47:54,875 --> 00:47:57,875
Speaker 1: hospital and they were torturing her there, and knowing fact,

631
00:47:57,875 --> 00:48:00,675
Speaker 1: the doctors, it turned out, from the Iraqi hospital had

632
00:48:00,715 --> 00:48:04,515
Speaker 1: contacted US servicemen through intermediaries and said, we don't have

633
00:48:04,555 --> 00:48:06,555
Speaker 1: an enough equipment to take care of her. We're worried

634
00:48:06,555 --> 00:48:09,715
Speaker 1: about permanent spinal damage. Why don't you come over and

635
00:48:09,795 --> 00:48:12,715
Speaker 1: get her when we'll stand outside and you can go

636
00:48:12,795 --> 00:48:15,795
Speaker 1: in and get her. And they turned it into the

637
00:48:15,915 --> 00:48:20,795
Speaker 1: raid at Entebbe. And I was the first newscaster nationally

638
00:48:20,915 --> 00:48:23,075
Speaker 1: to go and say, you know, there's this report from

639
00:48:23,115 --> 00:48:25,635
Speaker 1: a Toronto newspaper that that's not the way it went down.

640
00:48:26,115 --> 00:48:29,835
Speaker 1: And Bob Right, the head of NBC, called up the

641
00:48:29,875 --> 00:48:33,395
Speaker 1: head of MSNBC Primetime, my boss, Phil Griffin and said

642
00:48:33,395 --> 00:48:37,475
Speaker 1: fire him. And Griffin talked him down to make him apologize.

643
00:48:38,035 --> 00:48:40,555
Speaker 1: And I said, apologize to who? Phil? And he said,

644
00:48:40,595 --> 00:48:42,795
Speaker 1: apologize to the troops. I said, I didn't even mention

645
00:48:42,875 --> 00:48:45,235
Speaker 1: the troops. I guess that's why you're making the troops

646
00:48:45,235 --> 00:48:47,115
Speaker 1: look like they didn't know that this was I said,

647
00:48:47,555 --> 00:48:49,595
Speaker 1: so you want me to tell the story again? And

648
00:48:49,635 --> 00:48:52,435
Speaker 1: explain that I wasn't trying to insult the troops. Yes,

649
00:48:52,555 --> 00:48:55,315
Speaker 1: that'll subtle it. Otherwise we'll have to cancel the show.

650
00:48:56,075 --> 00:48:58,715
Speaker 1: And I said to myself, it's a little demeaning. On

651
00:48:58,755 --> 00:49:00,555
Speaker 1: the other hand, I got to tell the story again.

652
00:49:00,875 --> 00:49:02,675
Speaker 1: I got to throw a little cold water on this

653
00:49:02,755 --> 00:49:05,035
Speaker 1: idea that this was some sort of rescue. So's told

654
00:49:05,075 --> 00:49:06,995
Speaker 1: the story again. In fact, I said, would you like

655
00:49:07,035 --> 00:49:09,195
Speaker 1: me to apologize again next week? And they said yes,

656
00:49:09,435 --> 00:49:11,795
Speaker 1: And soon we were doing all the stories that question

657
00:49:12,075 --> 00:49:14,515
Speaker 1: whether or not George W. Bush was lying to America,

658
00:49:14,595 --> 00:49:19,355
Speaker 1: which he was. That's what they got instead of Phil Donahue.

659
00:49:19,355 --> 00:49:22,355
Speaker 1: They did not fire Phil Donahue over IRAQ to get me,

660
00:49:23,315 --> 00:49:25,755
Speaker 1: not just to get me, but to get eight goddamned

661
00:49:25,795 --> 00:49:29,315
Speaker 1: years of me saying this, screaming at George Bush getting

662
00:49:29,355 --> 00:49:31,795
Speaker 1: on the cover of The New Yorker. Shut the hell up,

663
00:49:31,875 --> 00:49:36,395
Speaker 1: mister president. They fired Phil Donahue in two thousand and

664
00:49:36,435 --> 00:49:40,435
Speaker 1: three for the following reasons. Number one, they made NBC

665
00:49:40,635 --> 00:49:44,795
Speaker 1: management and MSNBC in particular, they made the classic dapart mistake.

666
00:49:45,075 --> 00:49:47,795
Speaker 1: I have talked about day parts before. If you remember

667
00:49:47,875 --> 00:49:50,315
Speaker 1: Katie Kurrk being lured away from the Today Show on

668
00:49:50,435 --> 00:49:53,875
Speaker 1: NBC to host the CBS Evening News and being an

669
00:49:53,915 --> 00:49:57,755
Speaker 1: utter disaster. That was a dapart mistake. The daypart is

670
00:49:58,235 --> 00:50:02,755
Speaker 1: the mornings, the afternoons, the middays, the evenings, the late nights,

671
00:50:02,795 --> 00:50:05,955
Speaker 1: the overnights. It's a radio term, it applies to television.

672
00:50:06,195 --> 00:50:09,395
Speaker 1: And the simple truth about day parts is just because

673
00:50:09,435 --> 00:50:11,875
Speaker 1: you are popular in one day part does not mean

674
00:50:11,875 --> 00:50:14,595
Speaker 1: you will automatically be popular in another. In fact, it

675
00:50:14,635 --> 00:50:18,875
Speaker 1: may mean you will be unpopular. I learned this at

676
00:50:18,915 --> 00:50:23,395
Speaker 1: the age of thirty two. No earlier than that. I

677
00:50:23,555 --> 00:50:26,995
Speaker 1: learned this at the age of twenty nine. I went

678
00:50:27,035 --> 00:50:30,115
Speaker 1: from KTLA in Los Angeles, where my sports cast was

679
00:50:30,155 --> 00:50:33,515
Speaker 1: on at ten minutes to eleven o'clock every night and

680
00:50:33,635 --> 00:50:38,275
Speaker 1: it was the intellectual thing to watch on TV. I

681
00:50:38,395 --> 00:50:41,635
Speaker 1: went from KTLA down the street to KCBS, from channel

682
00:50:41,635 --> 00:50:44,115
Speaker 1: five to Channel two, where the sports cast came on

683
00:50:44,315 --> 00:50:46,915
Speaker 1: not at ten fifty every night, but at eleven thirty

684
00:50:46,915 --> 00:50:49,515
Speaker 1: every night. It was the same sports cast. I was

685
00:50:49,555 --> 00:50:52,195
Speaker 1: the same guy. The lighting was a little bit better,

686
00:50:52,555 --> 00:50:55,555
Speaker 1: the material was a little bit better, and everybody hated

687
00:50:55,595 --> 00:50:59,395
Speaker 1: me because that was a different day part. Everybody who

688
00:50:59,555 --> 00:51:02,235
Speaker 1: liked the thing and thought it was intellectual. They were

689
00:51:02,235 --> 00:51:04,315
Speaker 1: going to bed at eleven o'clock. They were literally not

690
00:51:04,355 --> 00:51:06,315
Speaker 1: going to They up till eleven thirty. All the people

691
00:51:06,315 --> 00:51:08,275
Speaker 1: who were watching me at eleven thirty were the people

692
00:51:08,315 --> 00:51:10,275
Speaker 1: who did not have to be at their jobs early

693
00:51:10,315 --> 00:51:15,235
Speaker 1: the next morning, people who were fungible, let's put it

694
00:51:15,275 --> 00:51:17,195
Speaker 1: that way, in terms of their career. That's how I

695
00:51:17,275 --> 00:51:20,715
Speaker 1: learned about day parts. Katie Kuric went from the Today Show,

696
00:51:20,715 --> 00:51:22,355
Speaker 1: where she was a co host and when you got

697
00:51:22,355 --> 00:51:24,875
Speaker 1: tired of her on then came that guy who later

698
00:51:24,915 --> 00:51:28,395
Speaker 1: wound up to be a you know, and then she'd

699
00:51:28,395 --> 00:51:30,075
Speaker 1: come back on when you were tired of him. And

700
00:51:30,075 --> 00:51:33,195
Speaker 1: they took her and she mostly did interviews in little

701
00:51:33,235 --> 00:51:35,795
Speaker 1: fluffy pieces, and she was a happy gal. And they

702
00:51:35,795 --> 00:51:37,675
Speaker 1: put her on the CBS Evening News, where her job

703
00:51:37,755 --> 00:51:40,355
Speaker 1: was to read the teleprompter at six thirty at night,

704
00:51:41,075 --> 00:51:42,995
Speaker 1: and nobody knew her at six thirty at night because

705
00:51:42,995 --> 00:51:44,955
Speaker 1: she'd been on at seven thirty in the morning, and

706
00:51:45,035 --> 00:51:47,235
Speaker 1: everybody hated her because she wasn't that good at reading

707
00:51:47,235 --> 00:51:50,675
Speaker 1: the teleprompter and she couldn't do those little fluffy interviews.

708
00:51:50,835 --> 00:51:53,275
Speaker 1: It was a newsreading job, and it was a disaster,

709
00:51:53,555 --> 00:51:56,755
Speaker 1: and it happens again and again, and somebody, several somebodies,

710
00:51:56,755 --> 00:51:59,035
Speaker 1: including the people who spent millions of dollars on the

711
00:51:59,115 --> 00:52:03,915
Speaker 1: MSNBC Phil Donahue Show, thought that because Phil Donna You

712
00:52:03,955 --> 00:52:06,515
Speaker 1: had been a brilliant success between the years nineteen sixty

713
00:52:06,515 --> 00:52:09,835
Speaker 1: seven and nineteen ninety six on over the air television,

714
00:52:10,115 --> 00:52:12,515
Speaker 1: usually running at one o'clock in the afternoon or two

715
00:52:12,515 --> 00:52:15,835
Speaker 1: o'clock in the afternoon, that he would be a success

716
00:52:15,875 --> 00:52:19,915
Speaker 1: at eight o'clock at night on cable in two thousand

717
00:52:19,995 --> 00:52:25,275
Speaker 1: and two, day part plus the other great mistake, which

718
00:52:25,315 --> 00:52:29,315
Speaker 1: is a success on broadcast television, was automatically a success

719
00:52:29,395 --> 00:52:32,555
Speaker 1: on cable television, or vice versa. That was the primary

720
00:52:32,595 --> 00:52:35,515
Speaker 1: reason they had violated the first rule. The show was

721
00:52:35,555 --> 00:52:37,675
Speaker 1: doomed from the day they signed it to the contract.

722
00:52:37,955 --> 00:52:40,515
Speaker 1: They also had another problem to get him to come

723
00:52:40,555 --> 00:52:43,715
Speaker 1: out of retirement, even though he wanted to. He's from television.

724
00:52:43,835 --> 00:52:46,515
Speaker 1: He wanted to keep doing it. I'm from television. I

725
00:52:46,595 --> 00:52:50,235
Speaker 1: want to keep doing it. It's part of our psychological problems.

726
00:52:51,235 --> 00:52:53,075
Speaker 1: Even though he wanted to do it, he knew he

727
00:52:53,115 --> 00:52:55,475
Speaker 1: had them over a barrel. It was MSNBC. It was

728
00:52:55,515 --> 00:52:59,315
Speaker 1: a minefield. There were littered corpses everywhere of shows that

729
00:52:59,395 --> 00:53:02,315
Speaker 1: had not succeeded. The eight pm thing alone was a

730
00:53:02,395 --> 00:53:05,835
Speaker 1: disaster area between my two state it's there. I was

731
00:53:05,875 --> 00:53:07,715
Speaker 1: gone for four years and four months, and there were

732
00:53:07,755 --> 00:53:10,595
Speaker 1: seventeen different shows on at eight o'clock. You had to

733
00:53:10,595 --> 00:53:12,475
Speaker 1: get what you wanted why you could get it. And

734
00:53:12,515 --> 00:53:16,075
Speaker 1: Phil Donahue said, I want a huge staff, and I'm

735
00:53:16,075 --> 00:53:19,115
Speaker 1: not going to Scacca's freaking New Jersey to do my show.

736
00:53:19,355 --> 00:53:21,115
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it from thirty Rocker. I'm not

737
00:53:21,115 --> 00:53:23,395
Speaker 1: going to do it at all, and it's going to

738
00:53:23,435 --> 00:53:26,035
Speaker 1: have a live audience. And I want a staff of

739
00:53:26,395 --> 00:53:28,835
Speaker 1: three times the size of anybody else's. I want three

740
00:53:28,875 --> 00:53:33,075
Speaker 1: executive producers. And I went, okay, mister Donahue, Okay, mister Donahue, Okay,

741
00:53:33,115 --> 00:53:37,395
Speaker 1: mister Donahue. The show now cost about ten times as

742
00:53:37,475 --> 00:53:40,875
Speaker 1: much to produce as any other hour on cable news,

743
00:53:41,235 --> 00:53:43,875
Speaker 1: meaning that it didn't just have to do as well

744
00:53:43,915 --> 00:53:47,715
Speaker 1: as the other shows on MSNBC or even slightly better

745
00:53:48,195 --> 00:53:50,875
Speaker 1: to lift up the boat, but just to pay for itself,

746
00:53:50,915 --> 00:53:53,955
Speaker 1: it basically had to do ten times better ratings than

747
00:53:53,995 --> 00:53:57,115
Speaker 1: any other show on cable television and guess what it didn't.

748
00:53:58,155 --> 00:54:01,235
Speaker 1: The Donahue Show on MSNBC premiered in August of two

749
00:54:01,315 --> 00:54:07,155
Speaker 1: thousand and two. The rating was zero points on the

750
00:54:07,195 --> 00:54:11,715
Speaker 1: network was averaging in its depths zero point two The

751
00:54:11,755 --> 00:54:15,515
Speaker 1: Phil Donahue Show, after initial success, the highest rating they'd

752
00:54:15,515 --> 00:54:19,555
Speaker 1: ever gotten for a premiere show, even mine, sank to

753
00:54:19,675 --> 00:54:24,835
Speaker 1: about half of the average audience on MSNBC. Was it

754
00:54:24,875 --> 00:54:28,475
Speaker 1: because he talked a lot about Iraq and doubted the

755
00:54:28,515 --> 00:54:32,075
Speaker 1: reasonableness of going to war there? Maybe maybe it was

756
00:54:32,115 --> 00:54:33,675
Speaker 1: the fact that he was on at eight o'clock at

757
00:54:33,755 --> 00:54:35,635
Speaker 1: night and everybody who used to watch him was either

758
00:54:35,715 --> 00:54:38,355
Speaker 1: dead or looking for him at two o'clock in the afternoon.

759
00:54:38,635 --> 00:54:42,115
Speaker 1: Back to the day part subject. So, how come when

760
00:54:42,155 --> 00:54:45,635
Speaker 1: the story of Phil Donahue's firing by MSNBC as the

761
00:54:45,675 --> 00:54:49,995
Speaker 1: Iraq War started always points out that Donahue Show and

762
00:54:50,075 --> 00:54:53,995
Speaker 1: Donahue were fired and canceled while it had the highest

763
00:54:54,075 --> 00:54:59,115
Speaker 1: ratings on MSNBC. Well, they left out one detail in that,

764
00:54:59,235 --> 00:55:02,675
Speaker 1: which was they had the highest ratings on MSNBC at

765
00:55:02,715 --> 00:55:05,875
Speaker 1: the time that the show was canceled. For the month

766
00:55:06,555 --> 00:55:10,755
Speaker 1: of February two thousand and three, it averaged four hundred

767
00:55:10,755 --> 00:55:13,355
Speaker 1: and forty six thousand viewers, just to give you a

768
00:55:13,395 --> 00:55:16,915
Speaker 1: relative idea, at these sort of apex of countdown on

769
00:55:17,075 --> 00:55:20,355
Speaker 1: MSNBC two thousand and nine, we did an average of

770
00:55:20,395 --> 00:55:23,675
Speaker 1: a million, two hundred thousand viewers a night. Four hundred

771
00:55:23,675 --> 00:55:26,355
Speaker 1: and forty six thousand was the best at MSNBC in

772
00:55:26,395 --> 00:55:30,355
Speaker 1: two thousand and three as this war approached. It was terrible.

773
00:55:30,475 --> 00:55:33,035
Speaker 1: It was a low number. It wasn't that much bigger

774
00:55:33,075 --> 00:55:36,075
Speaker 1: than anybody else's, and it sure wasn't ten times bigger

775
00:55:36,115 --> 00:55:39,435
Speaker 1: than every other cable show in the business. It had

776
00:55:39,475 --> 00:55:41,915
Speaker 1: the highest ratings that month, and they canceled it anyway

777
00:55:42,035 --> 00:55:45,835
Speaker 1: because it was hemorrhaging money. And my friend of the time,

778
00:55:45,875 --> 00:55:48,595
Speaker 1: Phil Griffin, who had filled me in on the entirety

779
00:55:48,635 --> 00:55:51,155
Speaker 1: of this story as it unfolded, said that they were

780
00:55:51,235 --> 00:55:54,115
Speaker 1: only getting those high ratings because they were spending, now

781
00:55:54,155 --> 00:55:57,355
Speaker 1: on top of everything else, a fortune in advertising. They

782
00:55:57,395 --> 00:56:00,435
Speaker 1: bought every local commercial they could get. They put bus

783
00:56:00,475 --> 00:56:02,715
Speaker 1: ads in most of the major cities trying to get

784
00:56:02,755 --> 00:56:05,275
Speaker 1: people to watch donnah It was a desperate attempt to

785
00:56:05,355 --> 00:56:09,955
Speaker 1: keep Phil Donahue on the air. As he put it,

786
00:56:10,355 --> 00:56:13,595
Speaker 1: an unfortunate term, and Phil was known for them at

787
00:56:13,595 --> 00:56:16,435
Speaker 1: the time of February. In March of two thousand and three,

788
00:56:16,555 --> 00:56:19,315
Speaker 1: we had to carpet balm with advertising as like, Phil,

789
00:56:19,355 --> 00:56:22,835
Speaker 1: what about IRAQ? Oh, you're right, buddy. The reason we

790
00:56:22,875 --> 00:56:26,515
Speaker 1: are left with the impression that MSNBC canceled the late

791
00:56:26,555 --> 00:56:29,995
Speaker 1: Phil Donahue show because he was opposed to IRAQ was

792
00:56:30,155 --> 00:56:35,195
Speaker 1: Phil Donahue wanted it that way. I understand this fully well.

793
00:56:35,275 --> 00:56:37,475
Speaker 1: I think what happened to me. The biggest lesson, I

794
00:56:37,475 --> 00:56:40,595
Speaker 1: think is the how corporate media shapes our opinions and

795
00:56:40,635 --> 00:56:44,995
Speaker 1: our coverage. Donahue said, this was a decision, my decision,

796
00:56:45,395 --> 00:56:48,795
Speaker 1: meaning relating to the cancelation of his show, the decision

797
00:56:48,795 --> 00:56:52,075
Speaker 1: to release me came from far above. This was not

798
00:56:52,155 --> 00:56:55,715
Speaker 1: an assistant program director who decided to separate me from MSNBC.

799
00:56:56,675 --> 00:57:00,395
Speaker 1: They were terrified of the anti war voice. Let me

800
00:57:00,435 --> 00:57:03,395
Speaker 1: interrupt to say these things are true. They were terrified

801
00:57:03,395 --> 00:57:05,835
Speaker 1: of the anti war voice. My own experience over the

802
00:57:05,915 --> 00:57:08,755
Speaker 1: Jessica Lynch story would explain that. On the other hand,

803
00:57:09,275 --> 00:57:11,955
Speaker 1: of course, it wasn't the assistant program director who separated

804
00:57:11,995 --> 00:57:15,075
Speaker 1: him from MSNBC. It was the president of MSNBC, the

805
00:57:15,075 --> 00:57:18,035
Speaker 1: president of NBC News and the president of NBC, because

806
00:57:18,035 --> 00:57:20,435
Speaker 1: that's the decisions they reserved for themselves, because those are

807
00:57:20,475 --> 00:57:22,755
Speaker 1: the egotistical ones, the ones where you can call in

808
00:57:22,795 --> 00:57:24,955
Speaker 1: some TV star and say either you do it my

809
00:57:25,035 --> 00:57:29,915
Speaker 1: way or you're fired. To resume mister Donahues's comments. They

810
00:57:29,915 --> 00:57:32,355
Speaker 1: were terrified of the anti war voice, and that is

811
00:57:32,395 --> 00:57:35,195
Speaker 1: not an overstatement. Anti War voices were not popular and

812
00:57:35,235 --> 00:57:38,235
Speaker 1: if your general electric, you certainly don't want an anti

813
00:57:38,275 --> 00:57:40,875
Speaker 1: war voice on a cable channel that you own. Donald

814
00:57:40,955 --> 00:57:44,315
Speaker 1: Rumsfeld is your biggest customer. So, by the way, I

815
00:57:44,355 --> 00:57:47,035
Speaker 1: had to have two conservatives on for every liberal. I

816
00:57:47,075 --> 00:57:50,355
Speaker 1: could have Richard pearl on alone. Richard pearl was a

817
00:57:50,435 --> 00:57:53,555
Speaker 1: diplomat in quotes who worked for Bush. But I couldn't

818
00:57:53,555 --> 00:57:57,075
Speaker 1: have Dennis Kussinich on alone, former mayor of Cleveland, who

819
00:57:57,115 --> 00:58:01,435
Speaker 1: was most anti war. I was considered two liberals. It

820
00:58:01,515 --> 00:58:03,955
Speaker 1: really is funny, almost when you look back on how

821
00:58:04,075 --> 00:58:06,875
Speaker 1: the management was just frozen by the anti war voice.

822
00:58:06,915 --> 00:58:10,395
Speaker 1: We were scolds, we weren't patriotic, American people disagreed with us,

823
00:58:10,395 --> 00:58:13,715
Speaker 1: and we weren't good for business, all of which is true,

824
00:58:13,715 --> 00:58:17,515
Speaker 1: but all of which somewhat exaggerates the point here. If

825
00:58:17,635 --> 00:58:20,115
Speaker 1: half a million people, and it wasn't that many were

826
00:58:20,155 --> 00:58:23,115
Speaker 1: watching Phil Donahue every night. Half a million people in

827
00:58:23,155 --> 00:58:25,835
Speaker 1: a country that even then was pushing three hundred million

828
00:58:26,515 --> 00:58:30,235
Speaker 1: isn't very much. His anti war voice was an annoyance

829
00:58:30,275 --> 00:58:32,835
Speaker 1: to these people, an embarrassment to people like Bob Wright

830
00:58:32,835 --> 00:58:36,515
Speaker 1: who ran NBC. Phil Donahue treated it as if he

831
00:58:36,795 --> 00:58:40,955
Speaker 1: was I don't know, he was the guy amiel Zola

832
00:58:41,315 --> 00:58:45,155
Speaker 1: writing jacquesues against the French government in eighteen ninety something.

833
00:58:45,875 --> 00:58:48,595
Speaker 1: Phil also forgot in making this statement that in the

834
00:58:48,635 --> 00:58:50,595
Speaker 1: fall of two thousand and two, he was on the

835
00:58:50,635 --> 00:58:54,835
Speaker 1: air on MSNBC alongside the late Jerry Nackman, who also

836
00:58:54,875 --> 00:58:58,155
Speaker 1: had a show that wasn't doing well, talking about they're

837
00:58:58,435 --> 00:59:02,995
Speaker 1: terrible ratings. They're going to fire us, Nachman said to Donahue,

838
00:59:03,555 --> 00:59:07,595
Speaker 1: and Donahue said, yeah, they are. That was in the

839
00:59:07,595 --> 00:59:10,715
Speaker 1: fall of two thousand and two. Weeks after the Donahue

840
00:59:10,755 --> 00:59:13,395
Speaker 1: Show had premiered. There was talk of moving Donahue to

841
00:59:13,435 --> 00:59:15,515
Speaker 1: the middle of the day. There was talk of moving

842
00:59:15,555 --> 00:59:18,235
Speaker 1: Donahue somewhere else. There was talk of putting him on

843
00:59:18,435 --> 00:59:23,715
Speaker 1: hey hiatus. Instead, everybody got fired except poor Knackman, who

844
00:59:23,715 --> 00:59:26,715
Speaker 1: got sick The reason I was at MSNBC was Jerry

845
00:59:26,795 --> 00:59:29,475
Speaker 1: Knackman was sick. They didn't have enough anchors. They asked

846
00:59:29,475 --> 00:59:32,115
Speaker 1: me to fill in for a few days, and the

847
00:59:32,155 --> 00:59:35,275
Speaker 1: next thing you knew, I was doing the show again.

848
00:59:35,635 --> 00:59:39,195
Speaker 1: Would they have fired Phil Donahue if Bush had said,

849
00:59:40,115 --> 00:59:44,355
Speaker 1: we have fixed this, there will be no war in Iraq, Yes,

850
00:59:44,395 --> 00:59:48,515
Speaker 1: they would have fired him. It was hemorrhaging money. It

851
00:59:48,635 --> 00:59:51,755
Speaker 1: was putting out ten dollars for every dollar it took in.

852
00:59:52,075 --> 00:59:54,715
Speaker 1: Would they have fired him that fast? No way. They

853
00:59:54,715 --> 00:59:56,915
Speaker 1: were short of staff. They were so short of staff

854
00:59:56,955 --> 00:59:59,195
Speaker 1: they brought me back, and I had left five years

855
00:59:59,195 --> 01:00:05,315
Speaker 1: before in flames. That's why I was there. I'm wrapping

856
01:00:05,315 --> 01:00:09,075
Speaker 1: this up. New York Magazine in twenty ten, I believe

857
01:00:09,275 --> 01:00:13,395
Speaker 1: wrote a long story about the then climaxing cable wars,

858
01:00:13,595 --> 01:00:18,155
Speaker 1: particularly between CNN and MSNBC. Gabe Sherman, I think, wrote

859
01:00:18,155 --> 01:00:21,635
Speaker 1: this with the surgeon patriotism. Following the terrorist attacks of

860
01:00:21,715 --> 01:00:25,795
Speaker 1: nine to eleven, NBC CEO Bob Wright told Shapiro, that

861
01:00:25,835 --> 01:00:28,635
Speaker 1: would be Neil Shapiro, then the head of NBC News,

862
01:00:28,635 --> 01:00:32,115
Speaker 1: that MSNBC should try and out flank Fox on the right.

863
01:00:32,395 --> 01:00:34,475
Speaker 1: We have to be more conservative than they are, right,

864
01:00:34,555 --> 01:00:38,715
Speaker 1: told Shapiro pointedly, that's absolutely true. By the way, Bob

865
01:00:38,715 --> 01:00:41,875
Speaker 1: Wright actually thought you could be to further right than

866
01:00:41,915 --> 01:00:45,235
Speaker 1: Fox was at that time, And for years I thought

867
01:00:45,275 --> 01:00:48,235
Speaker 1: he was an idiot who just had these psycho drama

868
01:00:48,355 --> 01:00:50,395
Speaker 1: ideas going on in his head. Well, of course, then

869
01:00:50,435 --> 01:00:52,835
Speaker 1: came Trump. He was right, He just didn't know how

870
01:00:52,835 --> 01:00:56,275
Speaker 1: to do it. Swirling graphics of the American flag, New

871
01:00:56,355 --> 01:00:59,115
Speaker 1: York Magazine wrote soon became a fixture on the network,

872
01:00:59,115 --> 01:01:03,795
Speaker 1: along with the tagline America's News Channel, it said, in

873
01:01:03,955 --> 01:01:06,515
Speaker 1: graphics that were taped to all the cameras so that

874
01:01:06,595 --> 01:01:09,595
Speaker 1: all the anchors would see it and say it America's

875
01:01:09,795 --> 01:01:15,075
Speaker 1: News Channel. Despite the network's emphasis on flag waving, MSNBC

876
01:01:15,195 --> 01:01:17,675
Speaker 1: showed how little it understood the Fox model when, with

877
01:01:17,755 --> 01:01:21,075
Speaker 1: Phil Griffin as MSNBC's primetime head it hired the liberal

878
01:01:21,115 --> 01:01:25,715
Speaker 1: Phil Donahue, who'd been Griffin's childhood idol, out of retirement

879
01:01:25,795 --> 01:01:27,635
Speaker 1: in April two thousand and two to anchor an eight

880
01:01:27,675 --> 01:01:31,435
Speaker 1: pm primetime talk show that would challenge Bill O'Reilly. The

881
01:01:31,475 --> 01:01:35,235
Speaker 1: show debuted with the highest ratings ever for an MSNBC program,

882
01:01:35,315 --> 01:01:37,835
Speaker 1: attracting more than a million viewers in its first night,

883
01:01:38,035 --> 01:01:40,155
Speaker 1: but within a month the audience was cut in half.

884
01:01:40,875 --> 01:01:43,915
Speaker 1: Standard for MSNBC. Rita Cosby once got nearly a million

885
01:01:44,435 --> 01:01:46,115
Speaker 1: viewers her first night, by the end of the week,

886
01:01:46,195 --> 01:01:48,115
Speaker 1: she was down to one hundred and seventy five thousand

887
01:01:48,435 --> 01:01:52,315
Speaker 1: to resume. At the same time, executives expressed increasing unease

888
01:01:52,675 --> 01:01:55,715
Speaker 1: about Donahue's vocal opposition to the looming war in Iraq.

889
01:01:56,035 --> 01:01:59,355
Speaker 1: At a time when red meat patriotism prevailed, Donahue booked

890
01:01:59,395 --> 01:02:03,115
Speaker 1: anti war guests like Michael Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Susan Sarandon,

891
01:02:03,155 --> 01:02:06,035
Speaker 1: and Tim Robbins. By the way, I should point out

892
01:02:06,075 --> 01:02:07,795
Speaker 1: that years later, when I was trying to explain to

893
01:02:07,835 --> 01:02:10,035
Speaker 1: Phil Griffin that Rachel maddow was the next star of

894
01:02:10,115 --> 01:02:12,955
Speaker 1: MSNBC and she should be given her own show, he

895
01:02:13,035 --> 01:02:17,435
Speaker 1: tried to hire Rosie O'Donnell instead. Soon, the Donahue pro

896
01:02:17,675 --> 01:02:21,835
Speaker 1: problem threatened Griffin's job. In a tense phone conversation, NBC

897
01:02:21,875 --> 01:02:26,395
Speaker 1: News president Shapiro told MSNBC president Eric Sorenson to fire Griffin,

898
01:02:26,435 --> 01:02:29,875
Speaker 1: but Sorenson pushed back, I'm not going to do that,

899
01:02:30,075 --> 01:02:32,555
Speaker 1: he told Shapiro. Number One, Phil's been loyal to me

900
01:02:32,555 --> 01:02:34,755
Speaker 1: for a long time. I don't think it's right. Number two,

901
01:02:34,835 --> 01:02:37,635
Speaker 1: we're shorthanded. We have all this talent and he's the

902
01:02:37,635 --> 01:02:40,995
Speaker 1: one who's managing it. Part two was a lie. They

903
01:02:40,995 --> 01:02:42,675
Speaker 1: didn't have any talent at all. That's why I was

904
01:02:42,715 --> 01:02:45,835
Speaker 1: back there. As a compromise, Griffin's job was spared, but

905
01:02:45,875 --> 01:02:48,555
Speaker 1: he was stripped of responsibility for the show. The new

906
01:02:48,555 --> 01:02:52,955
Speaker 1: producer insisted on a precise numerical balance between liberals and conservatives.

907
01:02:53,515 --> 01:02:57,595
Speaker 1: Donna Hue's problems only increased when Chris Matthews let it

908
01:02:57,635 --> 01:03:00,915
Speaker 1: be known that he wanted Donahue off the air. Matthews

909
01:03:00,955 --> 01:03:03,275
Speaker 1: was a rising force at the network, with a reported

910
01:03:03,315 --> 01:03:06,915
Speaker 1: salary of five million dollars a year. He cultivated former

911
01:03:06,995 --> 01:03:10,035
Speaker 1: ge CEO Jack Welch and had the ear of the

912
01:03:10,155 --> 01:03:14,475
Speaker 1: NBC CEO, Bob Wright. The two summered together on Nantucket,

913
01:03:15,155 --> 01:03:18,555
Speaker 1: and you know the limerick about Nantucket. Matthew saw himself

914
01:03:18,595 --> 01:03:23,195
Speaker 1: as MSNBC's biggest star. Well, he was MSNBC's biggest something,

915
01:03:23,555 --> 01:03:25,955
Speaker 1: and he was upset that the network was pumping significant

916
01:03:25,995 --> 01:03:31,235
Speaker 1: resources into Donahue's show. Again. I would never defend Chris

917
01:03:31,275 --> 01:03:34,395
Speaker 1: Matthews under any circumstances, but he's absolutely right about this.

918
01:03:34,795 --> 01:03:39,235
Speaker 1: Matthews was delivering ratings with almost no advertising, ratings that

919
01:03:39,275 --> 01:03:42,195
Speaker 1: were usually much higher than those of Phil Donahue, and

920
01:03:42,355 --> 01:03:47,315
Speaker 1: here thousands and thousands of dollars in advertising were spent

921
01:03:47,475 --> 01:03:50,675
Speaker 1: daily to try to sell people on a Phil Donahue

922
01:03:50,715 --> 01:03:54,835
Speaker 1: show that nobody wanted, whether it offered a solution for

923
01:03:54,955 --> 01:03:58,595
Speaker 1: world peace and eternal life. In the fall of two

924
01:03:58,595 --> 01:04:01,155
Speaker 1: thousand and two, US News and World Report ran a

925
01:04:01,195 --> 01:04:04,275
Speaker 1: gossip item that had Matthew saying over lunch in Washington

926
01:04:04,315 --> 01:04:06,355
Speaker 1: that have done Donahue stays on the air, he could

927
01:04:06,395 --> 01:04:09,395
Speaker 1: bring down the network. After the item was published, Matthews

928
01:04:09,395 --> 01:04:13,075
Speaker 1: showed up at Donahue's office and apologized. He didn't deny it.

929
01:04:13,155 --> 01:04:18,395
Speaker 1: Donahue remembers Matthews made a hobby within MSNBC of trying

930
01:04:18,435 --> 01:04:20,435
Speaker 1: to get the rest of us fired. He tried to

931
01:04:20,435 --> 01:04:22,515
Speaker 1: do that to me in two thousand and eight during

932
01:04:22,795 --> 01:04:25,755
Speaker 1: the coverage of the Republican National Convention, when we got

933
01:04:25,795 --> 01:04:29,195
Speaker 1: removed because of something I said. Matthews had been saying

934
01:04:29,195 --> 01:04:32,475
Speaker 1: equally stupid things and usually factually inaccurate ones, but he

935
01:04:32,515 --> 01:04:35,155
Speaker 1: did call Jeff Zooker and then Jeff Immelt, the head

936
01:04:35,155 --> 01:04:38,555
Speaker 1: of GE and say you should fire Olderman and keep me.

937
01:04:39,795 --> 01:04:42,155
Speaker 1: Back to the New York Magazine article. With the war looming,

938
01:04:42,235 --> 01:04:44,435
Speaker 1: Sorenson and Griffin decided to take him off the air

939
01:04:44,675 --> 01:04:46,755
Speaker 1: to make war for twenty four to seven make room

940
01:04:46,795 --> 01:04:49,995
Speaker 1: for twenty four seven war coverage. Matthews told me he

941
01:04:50,035 --> 01:04:52,155
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the decision. That's true. They

942
01:04:52,195 --> 01:04:54,715
Speaker 1: never listened to him. For Griffin, the firing of his

943
01:04:54,795 --> 01:04:57,915
Speaker 1: childhood idol was a painful experience. The guy that got

944
01:04:57,915 --> 01:05:00,275
Speaker 1: me into TV probably hates my guts, and I wish

945
01:05:00,355 --> 01:05:03,795
Speaker 1: he didn't because I love the guy, Griffin, says. Griffin,

946
01:05:03,795 --> 01:05:07,115
Speaker 1: who prevented Rachel Madow from appearing on MSNBC for several

947
01:05:07,195 --> 01:05:10,395
Speaker 1: years as an anchor. Anyway, he was paid back by

948
01:05:10,435 --> 01:05:12,675
Speaker 1: the fact that somehow Rachel has forgotten this and made

949
01:05:12,755 --> 01:05:15,875
Speaker 1: him the president of her production company. In any event,

950
01:05:16,155 --> 01:05:18,075
Speaker 1: so all that was playing out, and I was just

951
01:05:18,155 --> 01:05:19,995
Speaker 1: hanging around for a couple of days filling in for

952
01:05:20,075 --> 01:05:22,515
Speaker 1: Jerry Nackman, who was just out sick, and then the

953
01:05:22,635 --> 01:05:25,475
Speaker 1: diagnosis came back about how sick Jerry Nackman was, and

954
01:05:25,515 --> 01:05:28,195
Speaker 1: suddenly they didn't have enough anchors. Les Your Holt, who

955
01:05:28,195 --> 01:05:29,915
Speaker 1: was doing something like four or five hours a day

956
01:05:29,955 --> 01:05:33,115
Speaker 1: on MSNBC, was suddenly called to New York to do

957
01:05:33,195 --> 01:05:39,315
Speaker 1: more action coverage from NBC News about the Iraq War.

958
01:05:39,395 --> 01:05:42,635
Speaker 1: And now MSNBC had no anchors, They had nobody who

959
01:05:42,675 --> 01:05:45,875
Speaker 1: was familiar to their audience, They had nobody. Nacman was sick.

960
01:05:46,155 --> 01:05:49,435
Speaker 1: They certainly weren't going to have Phil Donahue anchor Iraq

961
01:05:49,475 --> 01:05:52,715
Speaker 1: war coverage. And now Lester Holt was being taken away

962
01:05:52,715 --> 01:05:57,435
Speaker 1: from them, and Brian Williams was already in Iraq personally

963
01:05:57,755 --> 01:06:01,075
Speaker 1: looking for Sodom Hussein or whatever he was doing in Iraq.

964
01:06:01,195 --> 01:06:05,075
Speaker 1: So the plan was canceled. Donna Hughes show hires somebody

965
01:06:05,115 --> 01:06:07,275
Speaker 1: good like Sam Donaldson and have him do a show

966
01:06:07,355 --> 01:06:11,195
Speaker 1: called Countdown with Sam Donaldson. I've already told you how

967
01:06:11,195 --> 01:06:14,675
Speaker 1: they turned that into Countdown with Keith Olderman. But the

968
01:06:14,715 --> 01:06:18,115
Speaker 1: gist of it was, as I said earlier, if there

969
01:06:18,115 --> 01:06:21,035
Speaker 1: had been no threat of Iraq war, or if everybody

970
01:06:21,035 --> 01:06:25,115
Speaker 1: had said, you know, Phil Donahue is right, this is asinine,

971
01:06:25,355 --> 01:06:29,595
Speaker 1: This is power greedy, This is Bush trying to use

972
01:06:29,715 --> 01:06:34,555
Speaker 1: nine to eleven in the most insincere and brutal way,

973
01:06:34,635 --> 01:06:39,115
Speaker 1: possible as an excuse for an unrelated war. If everybody

974
01:06:39,115 --> 01:06:42,715
Speaker 1: had said that, if Bush had resigned from the presidency

975
01:06:42,915 --> 01:06:47,235
Speaker 1: and Cheney with him, if they had made Michael Moore

976
01:06:47,355 --> 01:06:50,555
Speaker 1: President of the United States, they still would have fired

977
01:06:51,635 --> 01:07:01,075
Speaker 1: Phil Donahue because he lost money. Phil Donahue Television Hall

978
01:07:01,115 --> 01:07:16,835
Speaker 1: of Famer, not fired over IRAQ. I've done all the

979
01:07:16,915 --> 01:07:19,155
Speaker 1: damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Most

980
01:07:19,155 --> 01:07:22,035
Speaker 1: of our Countdown music was arranged, produced, and performed by

981
01:07:22,075 --> 01:07:25,435
Speaker 1: Brian Ray and John Phillip Chanel. Our musical directors have

982
01:07:25,515 --> 01:07:28,635
Speaker 1: Countdown and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Mister Ray

983
01:07:28,715 --> 01:07:32,355
Speaker 1: was on guitars, bass and drums. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration

984
01:07:32,435 --> 01:07:35,875
Speaker 1: and keyboards. Our satirical and fifthy musical comments are by

985
01:07:35,915 --> 01:07:39,195
Speaker 1: the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The Old

986
01:07:39,195 --> 01:07:42,035
Speaker 1: Woman theme from ESPN two, which was written by Mitch

987
01:07:42,075 --> 01:07:45,315
Speaker 1: Warren Davis, is courtesy of ESPN, Inc. And it's our

988
01:07:45,355 --> 01:07:48,955
Speaker 1: sports music. Other music arranged and performed by the group

989
01:07:48,995 --> 01:07:51,955
Speaker 1: No Horns Allowed. My announcer today is my friend Stevie

990
01:07:52,075 --> 01:07:56,355
Speaker 1: van zandt and everything else was as always my fault.

991
01:07:57,195 --> 01:07:59,995
Speaker 1: That's Countdown for today. Day one hundred and eighty six

992
01:08:00,635 --> 01:08:04,795
Speaker 1: of America held hostage again, just two and eighty five

993
01:08:04,875 --> 01:08:08,195
Speaker 1: days until the scheduled end of Trump's lame duck lame

994
01:08:08,315 --> 01:08:14,315
Speaker 1: brained term, unless he is removed sooner by MAGA and

995
01:08:14,435 --> 01:08:19,995
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein and trump Stein. The next scheduled countdown is

996
01:08:20,075 --> 01:08:23,115
Speaker 1: Monday till then. I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon,

997
01:08:23,235 --> 01:08:46,355
Speaker 1: good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olberman is

998
01:08:46,395 --> 01:08:51,195
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit

999
01:08:51,235 --> 01:08:56,155
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.