Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Trump
Speaker 1: is now testing how much of a dictatorship his Republicans
Speaker 1: will let him start. The obvious reality about Attorney General
Speaker 1: designate Beavis and Botox and Health and Human Services Secretary
Speaker 1: designate sideshow Bobby Kennedy because doctor Mengela is unavailable, is
Speaker 1: that whatever happens next, Trump will not withdraw Gates' nomination
Speaker 1: or Kennedy's nomination or any of the other nominations. He
Speaker 1: will not compromise. He is not playing three dimensional chess.
Speaker 1: These creatures and the other psychotics have been chosen because
Speaker 1: they are unacceptable, because they are unqualified, because they are unbalanced.
Speaker 1: This is Trump saying he doesn't care about any of that.
Speaker 1: Trump does not think he's overplayed his hand. Trump knew
Speaker 1: the House Ethics reporting to Gates' sex life was going
Speaker 1: to come out, as it already did yesterday when ABC
Speaker 1: reported that the woman who testified to the House hearing
Speaker 1: said she had sex with Gates when she was seventeen.
Speaker 1: Trump doesn't care. Trump cares whether or not she was hot,
Speaker 1: just like his only reaction to the RFK Junior Olivia
Speaker 1: Newsy story was to consider consoling her ex fiance in
Speaker 1: an entirely different way, though he cares about one thing.
Speaker 1: If he ever answers a media question again, he will
Speaker 1: say the ABC leak about Gates or the full committee
Speaker 1: report if it leaks, is fake and it's a witch hunt,
Speaker 1: and they are all lying, and only he tells the truth,
Speaker 1: and ultimately it's just another attack on him. And he
Speaker 1: is going to make it and the Kennedy nomination into
Speaker 1: a life or death loyalty test for his cult and
Speaker 1: his slaves. And as much as I hate every last
Speaker 1: Republican lawmaker, I almost feel sorry for them. Right now.
Speaker 1: Trump is going to demand they approve Gates as Attorney
Speaker 1: General and Kennedy at HHS and maybe Patel at FBI.
Speaker 1: Any way, or at minimum, he's going to demand that
Speaker 1: the Senate gets out of the way with recess appointments
Speaker 1: instead of hearings. That's the plan. The plan is I decide,
Speaker 1: and you do what I say. We are already here.
Speaker 1: This is the fork in the fascist road. Deliberately choose
Speaker 1: people with no morals, no qualifications, and no qualities except
Speaker 1: absolute fealty to the dictator that insist that everybody say
Speaker 1: they're great let's salute them. Same for this woman Gnome,
Speaker 1: same for the disgusting Gabbard, same for this pig Hegsith,
Speaker 1: same for him naming all his personal attorneys to key
Speaker 1: roles at DOJ, and it will probably work. It has
Speaker 1: so far. The Republicans in charge of this country got
Speaker 1: to be in charge of this country by not caring
Speaker 1: about this country, nor caring about anything else but power.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't, If there really are thirty votes against
Speaker 1: the nomination of Matt Gates in the Senate, and there
Speaker 1: actually is a hearing and Matt Gates actually is defeated,
Speaker 1: then there is an entirely new ballgame in this country.
Speaker 1: Then Trump has been humiliated and defeated entirely by his
Speaker 1: own side. And Republicans, whether it is four of them
Speaker 1: or forty of them, will have set boundary or maybe
Speaker 1: more than boundaries. Once the momentum of a dictatorship in
Speaker 1: the formation is stopped, it can be destroyed. This could
Speaker 1: be existential for Trump. It is amazing that this perverted, slimy,
Speaker 1: pompadored defeat Madison Cawthorne wannabe and the rotting, literally worm
Speaker 1: eaten corpse of Robert F. Kennedy Junior could unintentionally be
Speaker 1: the things that preserve or destroy American democracy. But that's
Speaker 1: where we're going, and we don't have far to get there.
Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, that rule, do not obey
Speaker 1: in advance. First the Washington Post obeyed in advance. Now
Speaker 1: it's CNN. Oliver Darcy of Status Report Now says the
Speaker 1: new boss of what used to be a news network
Speaker 1: has told a company wide town hall that CNN will
Speaker 1: not revert back to the wall to wall coverage of
Speaker 1: the Trump White House that defined it in it it's previous.
Speaker 1: Life go deeper, he said. According to Darcy and Report
Speaker 1: on the impact that policies decided on in Washington have
Speaker 1: on the rest of the country, there's more to life
Speaker 1: than these inside the Beltway stories like the destruction of democracy.
Speaker 1: The new boss is named Mark Thompson. He has another
Speaker 1: wash out from the toxic world of British journalism where
Speaker 1: they could not care less. He is a Matt Gates,
Speaker 1: Bobby Kennedy, Cash Patel kind of guy in terms of
Speaker 1: what he cares about in life, not being what he
Speaker 1: does for a living. He's not a journalist. He's a
Speaker 1: man who bosses journalists. If this were the summer of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, and there had been a CNN Mark
Speaker 1: Thompson in charge of it, would be saying less gettysburg mate,
Speaker 1: less civil law, more about the price of firewood, and
Speaker 1: the next tour of the singer Jenny Lynde, the future
Speaker 1: of the that's just a story. So if after this
Speaker 1: slitmus test, I'm Trump and I'm appointing not my horse
Speaker 1: like Caligula, but my whores, you will still obey me
Speaker 1: and approve them. If it's not Trump that has been destroyed,
Speaker 1: but democracy, we then move on to the next step.
Speaker 1: Trump then confirming in the near future that no Wednesday
Speaker 1: in front of the House Republican Caucus, No, he was
Speaker 1: not joking. He believes he is entitled to a third
Speaker 1: term and you are going to give it to him.
Speaker 1: And I have a lot about that story. It is
Speaker 1: a House bill, and the Republicans control the House, and
Speaker 1: so it will not pass the House because Republicans in
Speaker 1: the House have even fewer morals than Republicans in the Senate.
Speaker 1: But at least Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman has stood up
Speaker 1: and said this. He has proposed a formeral House resolution
Speaker 1: quote which would reaffirm that the twenty second Amendment is
Speaker 1: explicit in prohibiting presidents who have served two full terms
Speaker 1: from running for the presidency again, and condemned President Elect
Speaker 1: Trump's frequent statements suggesting he could serve past the end
Speaker 1: of his most recent term. What we need, what we
Speaker 1: really need is that statement proposed and passed in the
Speaker 1: Senate while the Senate is still in Democratic hands. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure that before doing that, Senate Judiciary Chairman Durbin
Speaker 1: would need to study those words for thirty to forty years.
Speaker 1: In any event, do not sleep on the Trump third
Speaker 1: term idea. I'm begging you. After Congressman Goldman introduced that measure,
Speaker 1: he was greeted by a surprisingly large arge number of
Speaker 1: reactions from the left that mirrored the reactions that I
Speaker 1: got yesterday to my coverage of Trump's slow burn towards
Speaker 1: running for a third term. If he isn't dead by then,
Speaker 1: he's joking. He's joking. He's not joking. He's not joking.
Speaker 1: He's running. He's president again for a third term. That's
Speaker 1: the sequence. The gist of the reaction to this is,
Speaker 1: why are you wasting time on this topic when it's
Speaker 1: a moot point? And the twenty second Amendment to the
Speaker 1: Constitution limits the president to two terms. Well, sir, the
Speaker 1: Constitution also bars anybody who participated in an insurrection from
Speaker 1: serving in office. The fourteenth Amendment is explicit about that.
Speaker 1: In fact, the fourteenth Amendment was used in New Mexico
Speaker 1: against one of the January sixth gang. And yet here
Speaker 1: we are the head of that gang. Trump set to
Speaker 1: be sworn in as president sixty seven days from now.
Speaker 1: The Supreme Court will say what the twenty second Amendment
Speaker 1: to the Constitution actually says, and of course it will
Speaker 1: have been Trump who will have told them what to
Speaker 1: say it actually says. And since last spring, the fascists
Speaker 1: have been field testing exactly how best to go around
Speaker 1: the twenty second Amendment and get Trump, if he isn't
Speaker 1: dead by then, a third term. The headline last spring
Speaker 1: in the magazine The American Conservative Trump twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 1: The sub headline to this piece, the twenty second Amendment
Speaker 1: is an arbitrary restraint on presidents who serve non consecutive
Speaker 1: terms and on democracy itself. The Republicans started joking and
Speaker 1: tweaking and triggering the left with variations on this theme.
Speaker 1: Ever since Trump himself mused in two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: that he was owed to third term because during his
Speaker 1: first term, he had been preoccupied with defending his you know,
Speaker 1: crimes against the United States of America. Then there was
Speaker 1: the joky animation, the Trump twenty twenty campaign banner, followed
Speaker 1: by a Trump twenty twenty four campaign banner, fooled by
Speaker 1: a Trump twenty twenty eight campaign banner, followed by a
Speaker 1: Trump twenty thirty two campaign banner, and on and on
Speaker 1: and on until it was a one hundred and two
Speaker 1: year old Trump running in twenty forty eight, and nobody
Speaker 1: was wondering if he'd be dead by then and running
Speaker 1: from a coffin, because after all, it was just a joke.
Speaker 1: They're only doing this to own the Libs. Except that's
Speaker 1: not what they're doing, quoting author in the American Conservative
Speaker 1: Peter Tungeit, I swear to God that's his name. T
Speaker 1: N g u E Tte quoting Tunget on Trump. His
Speaker 1: re emergence as the Republican nominee in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: is a triumph of democracy. Not only did Trump secure
Speaker 1: the nomination following his defeat in twenty twenty a rather
Speaker 1: incredible feat in and of itself, but did so in
Speaker 1: spite of every obstacle the mainstream media, the Republican establishment,
Speaker 1: and the law fair apparatus have put in his way.
Speaker 1: You see where this is going. Trump overcame obstacles, or
Speaker 1: if you prefer, Trump overcame the law and the constitution,
Speaker 1: and Trump overcame mediocrity and weaponized stupidity and hatred inside
Speaker 1: his own party. Therefore, the constitution shouldn't apply to him.
Speaker 1: He's spatial, especially that part of the constitution that has
Speaker 1: those pesky term limits in it. That twenty second Amendment
Speaker 1: shouldn't apply to him. Republican primary voters quote chose him,
Speaker 1: writes mister Tung It in the American Conservative quote because
Speaker 1: they damn well felt like it. That's the American way.
Speaker 1: The twenty second Amendment. You get two full terms or
Speaker 1: one and a half if you're serving out another president's term.
Speaker 1: Quote sounds reasonable enough, especially in light of FDR's hold
Speaker 1: on the office. Yet those who supported the amendment more
Speaker 1: than seventy years ago could not have foreseen the prospect
Speaker 1: of a one term president who lost the office but
Speaker 1: who later regained it in a subsequent election. The author
Speaker 1: then immediately cites that exact thing happening. He immediately mentions
Speaker 1: the time that that exact thing happened when Grover Cleveland,
Speaker 1: the ex president, came all the way back to being
Speaker 1: president again in eighteen ninety two. And the author also
Speaker 1: leaves out in this idea that nobody could have foreseen
Speaker 1: anything like Trump that while he may see this as
Speaker 1: something from prehistory when dinosaurs still had the vote or something,
Speaker 1: the twenty second Amendment was in fact introduced by a
Speaker 1: Michigan congressman named Earl Mitchener. Earl Mitchener was sixteen years
Speaker 1: old and already preparing for University of Michigan law school
Speaker 1: when Grover Cleveland was first elected. Earl Mitchener, in just
Speaker 1: his lifetime, not only saw Cleveland re elected after four
Speaker 1: years in the wilderness, but he'd also seen former President
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt try for a third non consecutive term in
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. He had seen the Republican bid to draft
Speaker 1: former President Calvin Coolidge to run for a third non
Speaker 1: consecutive term instead of President Herbert Hoover. In nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 1: He had seen Hoover himself try for nomination for a
Speaker 1: second non consecutive term in nineteen thirty six and again
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty. Owen Mitchener has also seen Franklin Roosevelt
Speaker 1: run for a third term and get it, and run
Speaker 1: for a fourth term and get it. And he'd seean
Speaker 1: William Jennings Bryan get the Democratic nomination in eighteen ninety
Speaker 1: six and nineteen hundred and having not had enough to
Speaker 1: run for it again in nineteen hundred and eight, and
Speaker 1: even begin to try to get it again for a
Speaker 1: fourth time in nineteen twelve. Mitchner, the congressman behind presidential
Speaker 1: term limits, only saw all that unfold in one lifetime.
Speaker 1: But nobody could have foreseen an ex president regaining the
Speaker 1: White House other than everybody who did. As to the
Speaker 1: audacity that the Constitution would prohibit his trumpness from running
Speaker 1: again in twenty twenty eight, even though he's so special,
Speaker 1: quoting mister tunget again, this is plainly unfair, even though
Speaker 1: the uniqueness it bestows upon him. He was elected, He
Speaker 1: was not reelected. He tried to overthrow democracy failed even
Speaker 1: at that. Well, that's rather akin to, you know, we
Speaker 1: should break the rules for him. He shot a guy
Speaker 1: on Fifth Avenue and they all applauded. The author promptly
Speaker 1: uses for support for his argument two two term presidents
Speaker 1: who each said something doubting the twenty second Amendment and
Speaker 1: the quote artificial limits it places on voter choice, even
Speaker 1: though those two presidents were Reagan, who love him or
Speaker 1: hate him, did win two landslides, and Barack Obama, who
Speaker 1: won the twenty first century equivalent of two landslides, while
Speaker 1: Trump won once with a minority of the popular vote,
Speaker 1: and then this month produced the fiftieth biggest popular margin
Speaker 1: of victory in history, or if you prefer, the fifth smallest.
Speaker 1: But to quote mister Tungett again, Trump, however, makes an
Speaker 1: even more forceful ethical argument against the twenty second Amendment
Speaker 1: and for its repeal. If a man who once was
Speaker 1: president returned after a series of years to stand again
Speaker 1: for the office and proves so popular as to earn
Speaker 1: a second non consecutive term, as Trump seems bound to,
Speaker 1: to deny him the right to run for a second
Speaker 1: consecutive term cuts against basic fair play. Unquote ah, the
Speaker 1: basic fair play argument Alexander Hamilton thought that up, if
Speaker 1: I recall correctly, or was it George Hamilton quote? If
Speaker 1: by twenty twenty eight voters feel Trump has done a
Speaker 1: poor job, they can pick another candidate. But if they
Speaker 1: feel he has delivered on his promises, why should they
Speaker 1: be denied the freedom to choose him once more? Unquote Well,
Speaker 1: if he really has delivered on his promises, what makes
Speaker 1: you think they will get the chance to deny him
Speaker 1: another term or a fourth one after that. But that's
Speaker 1: besides the point. Just for the moment, this is Trump's
Speaker 1: legal looking version of trying to stay in office for life.
Speaker 1: We'll get to the illegal point later on. I'm sure
Speaker 1: there follows in this piece some hurried sophistry. Quote don't
Speaker 1: let questions of Trump's age in four years fool you?
Speaker 1: And his ability to walk in a straight line, and
Speaker 1: how in twenty thirty two he'd only be eighty six,
Speaker 1: I mean true, he'd be spray tanned, rested, and ready
Speaker 1: having not used his brain in more than twelve years.
Speaker 1: The best part of the American Conservative piece by mister
Speaker 1: tungueit positing Trump deserves a theoretical third term even though
Speaker 1: it's you know, unconstitutional. Is how fluidly this idiot, having
Speaker 1: not come close to proving his case, then concludes he
Speaker 1: has utterly proved his case in a slam dunk, and
Speaker 1: so you better shut up and enjoy it. Quote. Conservatives
Speaker 1: have gritted their teeth for years as the left, in
Speaker 1: their hatred of Trumps, attempted to pervert the meaning of
Speaker 1: the twenty second Amendment unquote, which Democrats haven't, because nobody
Speaker 1: has previously raised the possibility that the twenty second Amendment,
Speaker 1: which precludes a third term, actually encourages the third term.
Speaker 1: Only this guy, mister Tungeit. It's interesting, by the way,
Speaker 1: that a man named Tungeit would use the phrase gritted
Speaker 1: their teeth. Democrats have not tried to pervert the meaning
Speaker 1: of the twenty second Amendment, because if they had, they
Speaker 1: would have found a pretext to run Obama for a
Speaker 1: third term in twenty sixteen, or in twenty twenty, or
Speaker 1: you know, this month or four years from now. Quoting again,
Speaker 1: The case for repealing the twenty second Amendment is far
Speaker 1: more straightforward. As with prohibition, it is simply a matter
Speaker 1: of finding the will to get rid of a bad
Speaker 1: idea that needlessly limits American's freedom. Trump twenty twenty eight
Speaker 1: exclamation point. So this guy is saying it would be
Speaker 1: a triumph of the will, triumph of the Will. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: like the Lanny Riefenstahl Adolf Hitler film from nineteen thirty five.
Speaker 1: Got it well, I know, can't spell triumph of the
Speaker 1: Will without Trump. Where you might ask in this article
Speaker 1: is the process by which the twenty second Amendment is repealed? Well, sir,
Speaker 1: there is none. The Roberts Court disqualifying vote against the
Speaker 1: fourteenth at its invention of a non existent congressional action
Speaker 1: to implement the fourteenth Amendment, when in fact the fourteenth
Speaker 1: Amendment insists there must be congressional action only to override it.
Speaker 1: That is shown as the green light for a very
Speaker 1: simple Republican plan. If Trump isn't dead by twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 1: and they want to run him again, as he doubtless
Speaker 1: will want to run again, and the plan is this,
Speaker 1: they just do it, and then they dare you to sue.
Speaker 1: They run him. They to again use the author's phrase,
Speaker 1: run him, because they damn well feel like it. They
Speaker 1: string out the nominating process just long enough so that
Speaker 1: the court cases don't really become relevant until late spring
Speaker 1: or summer, and when the Supreme Court finally gets around
Speaker 1: to it in July or August. Right at twenty twenty
Speaker 1: eight convention time, the Court will have to tisk tisk
Speaker 1: the political system and say that to strike Trump from
Speaker 1: the ballot at such a late date would be an
Speaker 1: unthinkable denial of the rights of millions of fascists, some
Speaker 1: of whom were five when he first declared for the domination,
Speaker 1: to vote for him again. Because well, because of the constitutions,
Speaker 1: no fair rule. But certainly, you say, if suddenly Trump
Speaker 1: can run for a third term, the third term thing
Speaker 1: would not apply just to Trump. The Republicans have missed
Speaker 1: the small detail, haven't they. Suddenly Barack Obama, who would
Speaker 1: be sixty seven in twenty twenty eight, and Bill Clinton,
Speaker 1: who would still be two months younger than Trump, they
Speaker 1: would be eligible to run for their own third terms. Ah,
Speaker 1: not so fast. What the Trumpsts are setting up is
Speaker 1: a Supreme Court ruling that only presidents who have served
Speaker 1: two non consecutive terms can seek a third. Literally, the
Speaker 1: only other person in human history this would apply to
Speaker 1: would be Grover Cleveland. Grover Cleveland was a Democrat, but
Speaker 1: he's been dead since nineteen oh seven. So even if
Speaker 1: we dig them up and run them for a third
Speaker 1: non consecutive term, he'd be almost as mental and confident
Speaker 1: as Donald Trump is. Now, remember, before you get lost
Speaker 1: in Gates and the rest of these idiots and the
Speaker 1: next Trump outrage, that Trump declared he was running for
Speaker 1: reelection literally before he was sworn in in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: He will probably be more circumspect this time, because this
Speaker 1: is a big deal. Even the New York Times would
Speaker 1: probably notice that him going for a third term would
Speaker 1: be the absolute point of no return towards dictatorship. Probably
Speaker 1: they'd notice. But Trump is building towards it. And if
Speaker 1: this thing in the American Conservative is not enough of
Speaker 1: a warning, there are other articles springing up online with
Speaker 1: ambiguous titles, and when I say ambiguous, I mean not
Speaker 1: at all ambiguous titles like the twenty second Amendment doesn't
Speaker 1: say what you think it says. These articles offer not
Speaker 1: only ways to ignore the twenty second Amendment, but additional workarounds,
Speaker 1: like electing a different Republican ticket in twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 1: the Lurelin Wallace option. You elect two other idiots president
Speaker 1: and vice president, and then you make Trump Speaker of
Speaker 1: the House, which is legal, and then you get the
Speaker 1: newly elected Republican president and vice president to both resign,
Speaker 1: making Speaker Trump president still for a third term. These
Speaker 1: compared to the twenty second Amendment stuff read like rejected
Speaker 1: scripts from the West Wing. But then again, so does
Speaker 1: all of American political history since the year twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: The point of this is, yes, Gates is a disaster.
Speaker 1: Gabbard is worse, bad enough that our European allies are
Speaker 1: already murmuring that they would have to stop sharing intelligence
Speaker 1: with the Director of National Intelligence in this country. Hegsith
Speaker 1: is ready to deploy US troops against US citizens on
Speaker 1: US soil. These are all true things, but don't take
Speaker 1: your eye off the big ball. Trump's mission, his sole purpose,
Speaker 1: his only means of staying literally alive, is to find
Speaker 1: a way to stay in office forever. Period. And Peter
Speaker 1: tung its essay in The American Conservative was the sound
Speaker 1: of Trump's GPS being switched on to help him find that.
Speaker 1: And if you need one last confirmation of that, of
Speaker 1: the importance of this, of how it is not a moot,
Speaker 1: point of how the twenty second Amendment will be reread
Speaker 1: to indicate that it's about making lollipops illegal, if that's
Speaker 1: what Trump wants it to say. If you want one
Speaker 1: last confirmation here it is Lisa Needham at the site.
Speaker 1: Public notice connected the final dots. Remember the name of
Speaker 1: the magazine that mister Tungitt wrote this for, The American
Speaker 1: Conservative quote. The American Conservative is a partner of Project
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. As promised, at least two countdowns a
Speaker 1: week going forward, Mondays and Thursdays. Definitely more as circumstances
Speaker 1: warrant and permit. This was one of those circumstances. You're welcome.
Speaker 1: The next scheduled edition is Monday. Until then, I'm Keith Aulderman.
Speaker 1: Good Night and good luck. Countdown with Keith Alderman is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.