Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Follow
Speaker 1: said Deep Throat the money, as it was true then
Speaker 1: in Watergates, so is it true now in Stoogegate, the
Speaker 1: federal indictment of two Russian state media operatives on charges
Speaker 1: they funneled millions through a Tennessee company to right wing
Speaker 1: influencers via intermediaries to transform putin propaganda made at the
Speaker 1: Kremlin into pro Trump, anti America talking point videos. Of course,
Speaker 1: the Watergate source Deep Throat actually FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt.
Speaker 1: He never actually said follow the money. That was something
Speaker 1: my late friend William Goldman, the screenwriter of the movie
Speaker 1: version of All the President's Men, wrote. He wrote it
Speaker 1: for money to make it all more memorable. Bill Goldman
Speaker 1: told me because it was a great line. Bill Goldman
Speaker 1: told me because it was not true. Bill Goldman told
Speaker 1: me that Deep Throats said follow the money, but it
Speaker 1: was still the truth. And that's kind of the point
Speaker 1: about what Felt's modern day successors in the Department of
Speaker 1: Justice have now done, because in their indictment of the Russians,
Speaker 1: they never say that the Tennessee company is called Tenet Media,
Speaker 1: and they never say that Tenant Media was founded by
Speaker 1: Lauren Chen, and they never say that Lauren Chen also
Speaker 1: happens to work for Glenn Beck and Blaze TV. And
Speaker 1: they never say that Tenet Media's YouTube channel got ten
Speaker 1: million dollars from Putin's propaganda arm RT to grow and
Speaker 1: make and distribute videos about how America star did the
Speaker 1: Russian war in Ukraine, how it's all Biden's fault and
Speaker 1: vote Trump or die, and how America shouldn't get trapping
Speaker 1: forever wars, and how terrorists you're coming into the country
Speaker 1: across the southern border in the billions, And they didn't
Speaker 1: say that through Tenant the Russians washed large sums of
Speaker 1: money to get it to scumbags, and Merrick Garland didn't
Speaker 1: say that the scumbags might have been Tim Poole, Benny Johnson,
Speaker 1: Dave Rubin, and others. And they didn't say those morons
Speaker 1: unwittingly did Putin's work for him. The Attorney General didn't
Speaker 1: say any of that, in exactly the same way that
Speaker 1: Deep Throat didn't say follow the money. The other Watergate
Speaker 1: parallel pertains to the certainty that Bob Woodward's editors never
Speaker 1: knew in nineteen seventy two and nineteen seventy three, though
Speaker 1: he probably did that Deep Throat was not one source
Speaker 1: but a clearing house of sources, all the sources the
Speaker 1: FBI had, from its own informants and rumor passers to
Speaker 1: its own executives. Deep Throat was his own newsgathering organization,
Speaker 1: and the Washington Post went unwittingly there's that word again,
Speaker 1: into partnership with that news gathering organization of mister Felts.
Speaker 1: From the reaction of the Russian stooges who were not
Speaker 1: mentioned in the indictments, but who like Tim Poole, have
Speaker 1: kind of volunteered that at minimum they yeah worked for
Speaker 1: Tenet Media. Is sure. They are clearly insistent that they
Speaker 1: too are victims and that they were unwittingly involved. And
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to assume they're right, because
Speaker 1: if you had to come up with a list of
Speaker 1: conservative influencer morons who utterly define the word unwitting, you
Speaker 1: could do far worse than to begin with the names
Speaker 1: Tim Poole, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin. I mean, I would
Speaker 1: still take Jesse Waters first in my definition of unwitting
Speaker 1: fantasy draft, but I would have considered the others too.
Speaker 1: I mean, Tim Poole is the thirty eight year old
Speaker 1: man who dresses on camera like a beanie baby. This
Speaker 1: is professional grade unwitting Right here, there is potentially another
Speaker 1: shoe to drop, As it was widely noted when this broke.
Speaker 1: It is hardly as if Pool and Johnson and Ruben
Speaker 1: and the others have not been parroting Russian propaganda for years.
Speaker 1: But it is also hardly as if they were the
Speaker 1: leading parrots. I know a dead parrot when I see one,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking at one right now. No, he's not dead,
Speaker 1: he's resting. Remarkable bird, the Norwegian blue? In't it? If
Speaker 1: a plumage? Is this just the tip of the iceberg?
Speaker 1: I mean, there is a reference in the indictment to
Speaker 1: the alleged American end of this scheme and the people
Speaker 1: in it here looking at the video of a top
Speaker 1: American television news personality at a Moscow supermarket and being
Speaker 1: so insanely over the top in his praise of the
Speaker 1: dump that even they thought that the video was of
Speaker 1: no value as a propaganda tool for Russia or for
Speaker 1: their own arguments about Russia. I mean, did the two
Speaker 1: indicted Russians or anybody else connected to this, like the
Speaker 1: Glenn Beck employee. Glenn Beck employee. I mean, we're this
Speaker 1: close to posthumously indicting Russia. Limbai here, I got so
Speaker 1: much shot in Freude. I'm wading knee deep in shot
Speaker 1: than Freuda in my living room. Did any of the
Speaker 1: plotters underwrite any of the other Russian tools in this
Speaker 1: country or think about it or approach them? Because look,
Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson and a trader Joe Stalins might be over
Speaker 1: the top, but what about his other nine thousand hours
Speaker 1: of pro Russian bullshit? I mean, when I heard this
Speaker 1: story first yesterday, I read that they were not going
Speaker 1: to indict Tucker or Tommy Tuberville or Elon Musk, And
Speaker 1: all I could think was why not follow the money?
Speaker 1: You know, Trump makes a lot of videos just saying
Speaker 1: the stonewalling and the covering up of the Trump team's
Speaker 1: physical altercation with the woman employee at Arlington National Cemetery
Speaker 1: and his illegal use of video of the graves of
Speaker 1: the war dead in a campaign commercial. That stonewalling and
Speaker 1: that cover up continues, but Trump has clearly not escaped
Speaker 1: the damage that his actions at his two different and
Speaker 1: completely contradicting versions of events at Arlington have inflicted on
Speaker 1: his support from military members and their families. That impact
Speaker 1: is in fact startling. Change research in polling that was
Speaker 1: completed for Semaphore News a week ago today, four days
Speaker 1: after the altercation at Arlington, but just now released, shows
Speaker 1: that Trump's lead over Harris among veterans is down to
Speaker 1: ten points, his lead among active duty service members is
Speaker 1: down to five points. His lead among families of active
Speaker 1: duty service members is now inside the margin of error
Speaker 1: at just two percent. Trump won veterans in twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: by nineteen points, he won active duty by nineteen points.
Speaker 1: He won family members by twelve points. There has been
Speaker 1: almost no new polling among active military during this campaign
Speaker 1: until this new poll, though. Last month the Economist and
Speaker 1: Hugov found service members and veterans believed Trump cared more
Speaker 1: about them than Harris did by fifty one percent to
Speaker 1: thirty two percent. That's a lot different than these new numbers.
Speaker 1: Back to these new numbers showing damage to Trump, Change
Speaker 1: research also says fifty three percent of military related voters
Speaker 1: who have previously voted for Trump in twenty sixteen and
Speaker 1: or twenty twenty but say they will not vote for
Speaker 1: him this year. They attribute their change of mind to
Speaker 1: how he has talked about and behaved towards the military
Speaker 1: and those who have served in it. I'm adding this
Speaker 1: note the military and those who have served in it,
Speaker 1: like the dead at Arlington. For his part, after insisting
Speaker 1: Tuesday that the entirety of the confrontation with an Arlington
Speaker 1: employee tried to stop the Trump campaign from its illegal
Speaker 1: commercial filming, that that never happened, That nothing happened, not
Speaker 1: even something that would let him portray himself as the victim.
Speaker 1: As usual, he went silent on this issue online yesterday,
Speaker 1: despite another spasm of more than four dozen posts and
Speaker 1: videos so haphazard as spasm, so rushed a spasm that
Speaker 1: in one video he insisted Kamala Harris had quote always
Speaker 1: been a communist and maybe more crazy than that, he
Speaker 1: appeared in another video without his trademark communist red colored
Speaker 1: tie back to you, Tavaresh. It is remotely possible that
Speaker 1: the message somehow got through the forest of mirrors surrounding
Speaker 1: Trump's head to just drop this now while he still can,
Speaker 1: if he still can, despite his ever narrowing lead among
Speaker 1: voters connected to the military, those voters in the Change
Speaker 1: Research Semaphore Pole do not appear to have any illusions
Speaker 1: about basically what a coward Trump would be in actual conflict.
Speaker 1: They asked seven hundred and three veteran active service family
Speaker 1: members if they agreed or disagreed with six scenarios, and
Speaker 1: they started by asking them to imagine themselves, quote, being
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's team member in a combat situation. Do you
Speaker 1: agree or disagree with this statement He'd only look out
Speaker 1: for himself. Fifty five percent agreed with that, he'd talk
Speaker 1: a big game but not do much. Fifty four percent
Speaker 1: of the military people agreed with that he would crumble
Speaker 1: under pressure. Trump did well. Only forty nine percent of
Speaker 1: the military voters think he would crumble under pressure. Fifty
Speaker 1: one percent think he wouldn't. He'd have my back. Forty
Speaker 1: six percent believe that Trump would have your back or
Speaker 1: their back in an actual combat situation. He'd be a
Speaker 1: good team player. Fifty seven percent said, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: he would not be a good team player. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: he'd win a Medal of valor. Do you agree with
Speaker 1: that statement? Yes, thirty four percent, no, sixty six percent.
Speaker 1: Two thirds of the military voters can't even produce a
Speaker 1: fantasy scenario in which Trump displays conspicuous valor. Fifty seven
Speaker 1: percent of them can't imagine him being a good team player.
Speaker 1: Back to the Arlington scandal, The Washington Post analyzed what
Speaker 1: Trump did with the video illegally shot literally atop the
Speaker 1: graves of US war dead, and concluded, quote Trump appeared
Speaker 1: to have misled gold Star families on troop deaths in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: That's post speak for he lied, to quote the paper
Speaker 1: quoting Trump, we didn't lose one person in eighteen months,
Speaker 1: and then they took over that disaster. Those cameras appear
Speaker 1: to have recorded Trump saying these were words to the
Speaker 1: gold Star families, reports the Post. The TikTok shows him
Speaker 1: talking to families as the words are spoken as a voiceover.
Speaker 1: In his phrasing, it sounds as if no troops were
Speaker 1: killed in Afghanistan during the late last eighteen months of
Speaker 1: his presidency. That's false, though there was an eighteen month
Speaker 1: gap with no fatalities across Trump's and Biden's combined presidencies
Speaker 1: the last eleven months of Trump's presidency and the first
Speaker 1: seven of Biden's. In a rare throwback to its democracy
Speaker 1: dies in darkness days, the Post had an even bigger
Speaker 1: surprise for Trump. Aaron Blake analyzed the CNN polling in
Speaker 1: the swing states and determined that, especially with President Biden
Speaker 1: now out of the race, the message about the existential
Speaker 1: dangers of another Trump presidency are getting through after months
Speaker 1: of being lost in the noise, or even of diminishing
Speaker 1: as the far right tried to do an Orwellian rewriting
Speaker 1: of January sixth and other Trump attacks on representative government
Speaker 1: and elections. See earlier story about follow the Money to
Speaker 1: quote the Post on this story. Across six key swing
Speaker 1: states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, de batt of Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: an average of fifty four percent of registered voters said
Speaker 1: Trump was too extreme, with forty eight percent also saying
Speaker 1: that he threatens the country. In each state, at least
Speaker 1: half a voter said Trump was too extreme, at at
Speaker 1: least forty six percent said he was a threat to
Speaker 1: the country. Harris's numbers were significantly lower. An average of
Speaker 1: forty four percent said she was too extreme. Just thirty
Speaker 1: nine percent regarded her perceived extremness as a threat to
Speaker 1: the country. In no state did a majority regard her
Speaker 1: as too extreme. Most voters instead regarded her as generally mainstream.
Speaker 1: Then there is what the CNN's swing state results. Its
Speaker 1: newest polling looks like. Arizona Trump forty nine, Harris forty four,
Speaker 1: Georgia Harris forty eight, Trump forty seven, Michigan Harris forty eight,
Speaker 1: Trump forty three, Nevada Harris forty eight, Trump forty seven,
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Harris and Trump tied at forty seven, Wisconsin Harris fifty,
Speaker 1: Trump forty four. Biden, of course, won all six of
Speaker 1: those states, some by as little as the eleven thousand
Speaker 1: in Georgia and Arizona. The caveat. Both Georgia and Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: remain thoroughly up for grabs according to the polls, with
Speaker 1: tight margins overall and double digit shares of likely voters
Speaker 1: twelve percent in Georgia and sixteen percent in Pennsylvania saying
Speaker 1: they have not yet decided on a candidate or that
Speaker 1: they might change their minds. That is the CNN analysis
Speaker 1: of the CNN polling. The point of all the polling
Speaker 1: is not to memorize the numbers, nor calculate how they
Speaker 1: have changed per day. This isn't the stock market. We're
Speaker 1: not investors at the macro level. The point is the
Speaker 1: momentum and the idea that the undecided or soft voters
Speaker 1: total twelve percent in Georgia and sixteen percent in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: which in turn means Harris or Trump could not only
Speaker 1: win those states, but could run away with them. But
Speaker 1: at the micro level, there's something that the CNN swing
Speaker 1: state polls don't even address. We may soon officially have
Speaker 1: to expand the number of swing states that have to
Speaker 1: be polled. Redfield Wilton, the UK based polster working for
Speaker 1: the newspaper there the Telegraph, is now polling those six
Speaker 1: states I just mentioned, and Florida and North Carolina. We
Speaker 1: know from other polls that North Carolina is essentially a
Speaker 1: toss up at the moment, but now we have new
Speaker 1: Redfield Wilton polling suggesting Florida is getting there. It's Trump
Speaker 1: forty eight Harris forty three in Florida. It might not
Speaker 1: get any closer than that, or maybe it will. And
Speaker 1: maybe that Trump campaign TV commercial by in the West
Speaker 1: Palm Beach market was not solely to provide one particular
Speaker 1: resident in that market some political porn for him to
Speaker 1: enjoy one resident named Trump. And then there is something
Speaker 1: that has to be read almost verbatim to be believed.
Speaker 1: I have rigorously charted the excuses and cover ups that
Speaker 1: the website Politico has provided for Trump, but I'll give
Speaker 1: them credit for this much. These people know rats leaving
Speaker 1: a sinking ship when they see them. The website's playbook
Speaker 1: feature began a piece with near astonishment that the deplorable
Speaker 1: right winger Eric Erickson had tweeted that some Republicans thought
Speaker 1: that the only hope for their party long term was
Speaker 1: for Trump to lose, and lose big. Jonathan Martin, the
Speaker 1: Politico writer, as Cubby hold an ancient beltwere as there
Speaker 1: is said. He contacted a series of Republican leaders for
Speaker 1: a column, thinking that his belief that the best hope
Speaker 1: for the Republican's future was to lose and lose soundly
Speaker 1: would be met with anger and pushback and denial instead quote,
Speaker 1: what he found while making calls was that many Republicans
Speaker 1: agreed with the take. There follows this astonishment eighteen paragraphs
Speaker 1: worth of various songs whistled by various Republicans as they
Speaker 1: walk past various graveyards. So everybody from the defense hawks
Speaker 1: angry at Trump's cobbling up to the dictators, to anti
Speaker 1: abortion diehards who now hate him over his attempt to
Speaker 1: be all things to all voters on that issue. There
Speaker 1: is even and try to follow this, there is even
Speaker 1: a supply of Republicans who have already decided that if
Speaker 1: Trump wins, but the Democrats take the House or the
Speaker 1: Senate in November or both, that the Democratic House or
Speaker 1: Senate will be more difficult to take back in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. So they want Trump to lose so that
Speaker 1: the Republicans have a better chance and the Senate and
Speaker 1: the House not this year, but two years from now.
Speaker 1: In other words, they have not even lost yet the presidency.
Speaker 1: They have not even lost yet the House. They've not
Speaker 1: even lost yet the Senate. Yet there are Republicans right
Speaker 1: now trying to sound like they meant for all of
Speaker 1: that to happen. You and I have already learned this year,
Speaker 1: this summer how fast one can go from digging your
Speaker 1: own grave to instead shoving Trump's campaign into said grave.
Speaker 1: But get a load of wow. Politico finished this piece
Speaker 1: up quoting, again quoting an anonymous Conservative leader quote, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of old school conservatives might hope that
Speaker 1: if he loses, there's an opportunity to just completely forget
Speaker 1: the last eight years happened. In other words, Trump Trump Who.
Speaker 1: If you're new here and you have arrived via the advertising,
Speaker 1: thank you, Welcome to the party. I am here five
Speaker 1: days a week, forty to sixty minutes a day except
Speaker 1: for Monday mornings, posting just after midnight Sunday through Thursday nights.
Speaker 1: Oh and I am America's most reliable news source. Just
Speaker 1: ask me. Oh, and you have arrived propitiously this podcast,
Speaker 1: this one right here. This is episode number five hundred,
Speaker 1: and also of interest here in episode number five hundred,
Speaker 1: the Tim Walls family hates. Tim Wall's thing kind of collapsed.
Speaker 1: It turns out his older brother says when he said
Speaker 1: he had terrible stories to tell about his younger brother,
Speaker 1: he meant how Tim used to get carsick and throw
Speaker 1: up on his siblings in like nineteen sixty eight, and
Speaker 1: a question was asked on national television, quote, we have
Speaker 1: a damaged, delusional old man who again might get re
Speaker 1: elected to the presidency of the United States. How did
Speaker 1: this happen? How did the Republican Party get here? You know,
Speaker 1: whose show that was asked on The answer is Joe Scarborough.
Speaker 1: You know what. The answer to the question how did
Speaker 1: we get here? Is why? Coincidentally enough, the answer to
Speaker 1: that question is also Joe Scarborough. How the chief trump
Speaker 1: enabler of twenty sixteen has tried to make you forget
Speaker 1: he made this monster? Mainstream Worst Persons is next Discountdown.
Speaker 1: This is Countdown with Keith Alberman still ahead of us
Speaker 1: on this five hundredth edition of Countdown. I know it
Speaker 1: only seems like five thousand. Continuing our week long celebration
Speaker 1: of the beginning of another season in the National Football League,
Speaker 1: Tonight begins weekend one of when is it now fifty weeks?
Speaker 1: Fifty fifty seven weeks? I'll take you back to the
Speaker 1: year that NBC rather unexpectedly offered me the job of
Speaker 1: co hosting Football Night in America before it's Sunday night games,
Speaker 1: And like three weeks in I had to call in
Speaker 1: sick because MAAIX blew up and I didn't know it.
Speaker 1: And I kept working and I anchored a George Bush
Speaker 1: press conference and I beat CNN in the ratings while
Speaker 1: literally in the middle stages of septiscemia in things I
Speaker 1: promised not to tell. How you feeling. Oh, I'm okay,
Speaker 1: other than the septu seemia, well, septi seemia later. First,
Speaker 1: there's still more new idiots to talk about, besides me
Speaker 1: for saying that the daily roundup of the miss Grants
Speaker 1: morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days
Speaker 1: worst persons in the world the Bronze. Remember yesterday's story
Speaker 1: about Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark some folks need killing Robinson,
Speaker 1: their candidate for governor in North Carolina, And how six Greensboro,
Speaker 1: North Carolina poorn aficionados told a local news outlet that
Speaker 1: a quarter century ago, Robinson was a five nights a
Speaker 1: week customer to those visits rooms, the private rooms in
Speaker 1: which men quote watch unquote porn, And how the main
Speaker 1: source of the story, a guy used to work there
Speaker 1: named Money Money, said he also sold Robinson at least
Speaker 1: one bootlegged porn video a week, and how Money says
Speaker 1: the last one a compilation tape of some really wild
Speaker 1: New York made videos he sold to Robinson for twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars, but Robinson never paid him. This was just
Speaker 1: the start of the story. It turns out there were
Speaker 1: lots of unpaid bills at the Robinson household back in
Speaker 1: those days, from the website notes from the Chalkboard dot com.
Speaker 1: According to public records obtained from Guilford County Court, the
Speaker 1: wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson was sued by
Speaker 1: Tarheel Triad Girl Scouts over quote money owed in Guilford
Speaker 1: County Small Claims Court in two thousand and three, and
Speaker 1: the Girl Scouts won. Continuing the quotation, it's September two
Speaker 1: thousand and three, the Girl Scouts filed suit against Yolanda
Speaker 1: Hill due to a two nine hundred and fifty six
Speaker 1: dollars and three cent bad check. The matter was heard
Speaker 1: the following month, and court documents indicate nobody attended on
Speaker 1: behalf of the defendant. The magistrate, well, you know, we
Speaker 1: know where the defendant was, right, He's down in that booth.
Speaker 1: The magistrate found in favor of the Girl Scouts and
Speaker 1: tacked on fees and damages as permitted by state law
Speaker 1: on return to checks for a grand total of three
Speaker 1: four hundred and eighty six dollars and three cents. The
Speaker 1: records do not explain what the check was for or
Speaker 1: any other context around what happened between Hill and the
Speaker 1: Girl Scouts, Hill being Missus Robinson. Missus Robinson, I think
Speaker 1: you're trying to steal cookies from me. Lieutenant Governor Robinson
Speaker 1: is a dangerous, unbalanced individual. But you have to give
Speaker 1: he and the wife credit when you and your wife,
Speaker 1: and yes, they've been married since nineteen ninety, so all this,
Speaker 1: including the porn took place in the context of them
Speaker 1: being married for years already, when you and your wife,
Speaker 1: and yes, he worked at some of her daycare operations.
Speaker 1: And yes, the federal government says they owe it money too.
Speaker 1: That is, the daycare operations owe the government money. Still,
Speaker 1: this is a pretty broad spectrum of creditors here. In short,
Speaker 1: mister and Missus Robinson stiffed the porn store and the
Speaker 1: Girl Scouts the runners up the group. Walls is for Trump.
Speaker 1: A right wing Trump troll named Matt Wolking has posted
Speaker 1: a photo of eight people wearing Trump t shirts. His caption,
Speaker 1: Tim Walls's family members in Nebraska are voting for Trump.
Speaker 1: Mister Wolking does not note that the eight people are
Speaker 1: all wearing the same blue shirt, reading quote Nebraska Walls'
Speaker 1: is for Trump and in it. Walls's is spelled w
Speaker 1: Alz apostrophe s. The debate over what to do with
Speaker 1: a plural form of a word or name ending in
Speaker 1: s is eternal. Those who are wrong will never be defeated.
Speaker 1: But there is no debate over what to do with
Speaker 1: a plural form of a word or name ending in z.
Speaker 1: The rule is clear. You add an e and an
Speaker 1: S to it, So the shirts should read Nebraska Walls
Speaker 1: is for Trump wal Zees, not walz apostrophe s. But
Speaker 1: if this is too high falutin for the vice presidential
Speaker 1: candidates dumber relatives, the shirts could read Walls family members
Speaker 1: for Trump or something else easy, using grammar that doesn't
Speaker 1: make them seem like there are court orders preventing them
Speaker 1: from leaving Nebraska. Now, before you complain, I'm being way
Speaker 1: too judgmental here. There is an organized effort to make
Speaker 1: Tim Walls look bad, the way Mary Trump and Young
Speaker 1: Fred and the other sane Trumps have made Psycho Trump
Speaker 1: look bad, and this effort to make Tim Walls look
Speaker 1: bad it's not going well. His older brother, Jeff Walls,
Speaker 1: started this, apparently inadvertently. He says he regrets it now.
Speaker 1: He wrote on Facebook that the governor is not the
Speaker 1: type of character who should make decisions about our future,
Speaker 1: and he could tell terrible stories about him if he
Speaker 1: wanted to. But Jeff Walls has now done an interview
Speaker 1: with the News Nation channel that's the Nick at Night
Speaker 1: of news, and he's told NewsNation that he regrets the
Speaker 1: post that he made on Facebook. He's not endorsing Trump.
Speaker 1: He still thinks of his brother as his brother, and
Speaker 1: they just disagree on all policies. So he's sitting out
Speaker 1: the election. But he did tell one of those terrible stories,
Speaker 1: one of those stories that's just gonna sink. Tim Walls
Speaker 1: and Kamala Harrison put Trump back in the right house,
Speaker 1: are you ready? Quote? I'll give you one example. My
Speaker 1: little brother, when we were younger, we would go on
Speaker 1: family trips in a station wagon and the thing was
Speaker 1: nobody wanted to sit with him because he had car
Speaker 1: sickness and would always throw up on us. That sort
Speaker 1: of thing unquote. Now, you know, if they'd revealed that
Speaker 1: before the Democratic Convention, maybe Walls would have had to withdraw.
Speaker 1: You know, that also may not be quite the sick
Speaker 1: burn the trumpests think it is. Democratic dominee threw up
Speaker 1: on a Republican. Hell, that's the basis for a Tim
Speaker 1: Walls twenty thirty two presidential campaign, Make America throw up
Speaker 1: on Republicans again. But our winner. Speaking of which, the
Speaker 1: worst Joe Scarborough. I don't have to go back to
Speaker 1: the beginning here, do I and discuss the three hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty seven examples I've given just in this series
Speaker 1: about how, on balance Joe Scarborough may have been the
Speaker 1: worst person I have ever worked with, the worst human being,
Speaker 1: the most reprehensible one. And I worked with Tucker Carlson
Speaker 1: and the guy who went on to blackmail David Letterman.
Speaker 1: So when I say worst, I mean worst. And the
Speaker 1: guy in the middle of this story related to Joe Scarborough,
Speaker 1: Mike Barnacle. I've known him literally forty five years. We
Speaker 1: worked together during the entirety of my time in Boston,
Speaker 1: and then we worked together several years at MSNBC, and
Speaker 1: I've worked with his sons and Mike in his career.
Speaker 1: He's cut corners now and again, but I do not
Speaker 1: doubt for a moment his overall sincerity, especially on the
Speaker 1: issue of Trump and preserving American democracy. But on their
Speaker 1: Little Morning Joe Show yesterday, which the latest breezes are
Speaker 1: always bent to and the latest conventional wisdoms are turned
Speaker 1: into words etched into the walls of the ancient Greek
Speaker 1: temple of Apollo and Delphi. And some guy who got
Speaker 1: canceled ten years ago for not wearing pants while pressuring
Speaker 1: women employees is rehabilitated, brought back from beyond the grave.
Speaker 1: On their s show yesterday, Mike Barnacle went on passionately
Speaker 1: about this rhetorical question. Quote, today we have a damaged,
Speaker 1: delusional old man who again and I'm reading this thinking
Speaker 1: Scarborough's not that old. Oh, today we have a damaged,
Speaker 1: delusional old man who again might get re elected to
Speaker 1: the presidency of the United States. How did this happen?
Speaker 1: How did the Republican Party get here? And they tweeted
Speaker 1: it out again, a legit question all the way. But
Speaker 1: in saying this, Mike Barnacle forgot and in clipping it
Speaker 1: off and sending it out virallly and that cynical handwringing, Oh,
Speaker 1: we finally have a product we can sell, which is
Speaker 1: true of one hundred percent of the time on MSNBC
Speaker 1: before say seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the time thereafter that cynical way that
Speaker 1: they treat progressivism or non conservatism, or whatever it is
Speaker 1: they think they're doing. Before say, four in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: the Morning Joe team forgot a little bit of the
Speaker 1: answer to that question. Mike Barnacle posed one of the
Speaker 1: answers to how did this happen? How did the Republican
Speaker 1: Party get here? One of the answers is Joe Scarborough
Speaker 1: made sure it got there for some reason. Barnacle and
Speaker 1: Morning Joe and the MSNBC Comms department don't mention this
Speaker 1: a lot anymore, but in twenty fifteen. In twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: Joe Scarborough fervently tried to mainstream Donald Trump and make
Speaker 1: him president of the United States, had him on MSNBC,
Speaker 1: advised him, traveled to a debate to coach him. CNN
Speaker 1: February twelve, twenty sixteen, their media reporter noting that in
Speaker 1: November of twenty fifteen, quote Joe Scarborough sat on stage
Speaker 1: at the ninety second Street Why in New York and
Speaker 1: recounted the various times he had given Donald Trump political advice.
Speaker 1: I've actually called him up and said, Donald, listen, you
Speaker 1: need to speak in complete sentences. At debates. Scarborough said,
Speaker 1: after the second debate, I walked into his office. I said, Donald,
Speaker 1: do you know how to read? I said, you should
Speaker 1: read before a debate. Read a paragraph on Syria. Read
Speaker 1: a paragraph on education reform. The anecdotes, which were meant
Speaker 1: as a testament to Trump's off the cuff political savvy,
Speaker 1: drew laughter from the audience. Both Scarborough and co host
Speaker 1: Mika Brzhinsky, who used to be somebody else's wife and
Speaker 1: his now Joe's wife, are close friends with Trump and
Speaker 1: members of his family. This is February twenty sixteen. Scarborough,
Speaker 1: a former four term congressman from Florida's first District, has
Speaker 1: often stayed at Trump's Marilago Club in Palm Beach with
Speaker 1: his family and was there during which family and his
Speaker 1: family and was there during the week between Christmas and
Speaker 1: New Year's. Two sources at the hotel during that time
Speaker 1: said on the night of the New Hampshire primary, CNN
Speaker 1: went on, Scarborough and Brzhinsky visited Trump's hotel room for
Speaker 1: what MSNBC described as background discussions with the candidate's senior
Speaker 1: staff and a conversation with Trump that lasted less than
Speaker 1: five minutes. In recent weeks, Scarborough has spoken about Trump
Speaker 1: in increasingly glowing terms, praising him as a masterful politician
Speaker 1: and defending him against his political opponents and media critics.
Speaker 1: The Washington Post has noted that Trump has received a
Speaker 1: tremendous degree of warmth from the show, and that his
Speaker 1: appearances on the show in person and over the phone
Speaker 1: often feel like a cozy social club. Some MSNBC insiders
Speaker 1: also cringed at an on air exchange Scarborough had last
Speaker 1: month with radio host Hugh Hewitt. Well, that's an evergreen sentence,
Speaker 1: but he meant something specifically CNN did in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Hewitt pressed Scarborough on whether he would serve as Trump's
Speaker 1: vice president. Scarborough ruled out the possibility, but not before
Speaker 1: saying he would do quote just about anything to try
Speaker 1: to get the White House back. End the CNN quote
Speaker 1: from twenty sixteen. How did we get here with Donald Trump?
Speaker 1: I don't know? Does anybody know how? And Joe Scarborough
Speaker 1: looked even more blankly into the camera than he has
Speaker 1: every other minute of his life, little slit eyed bastard.
Speaker 1: We all know about this from the beginning of twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: and then, oddly enough, Trump didn't like Scarborough anymore, and
Speaker 1: they fell out, And then we forget that after Scarborough
Speaker 1: disavowed Trump, he reavowed him after Trump won. December fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, Politico writes a saga that included co host
Speaker 1: Joe Scarborough comparing Trump policies to Nazi Germany, and the
Speaker 1: candidate tweeting that co host Mika Brazinski is crazy and
Speaker 1: very dumb. Has taken a distinctly positive turn. I don't
Speaker 1: know those quotes sound pretty positive or at least accurate.
Speaker 1: The co hosts are now in regular communication with Trump
Speaker 1: and his circle, so much so that they are fielding
Speaker 1: criticism for being a house organ for the incoming administration. Well,
Speaker 1: if anybody could be described as an organ, it's Joe Scarborough.
Speaker 1: They have always been boosters. Things turned south when Trump
Speaker 1: froze them out, but coverage always stilted. They are transition
Speaker 1: spokesman now tweeted a rival morning anchor, CNN's Chris Cuomo again,
Speaker 1: this is twenty sixteen. Indeed, most viewers Politico wrote seemed
Speaker 1: to agree, knowing the co host's direct pipeline to Trump Tower. Scarborough,
Speaker 1: in an interview, declared that he and Brashinsky talked several
Speaker 1: times a week with Trump himself, and last week Brazinski
Speaker 1: traveled to Trump Tower and visited Ivanka Trump for coffee.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to guess here, by the way, as
Speaker 1: an aside, I assume Mika had to pay. Indeed, many
Speaker 1: members of Trump's inner circle, including his influential son in
Speaker 1: law Jared Kushner, stayed in close contact with the show
Speaker 1: in the campaign's final weeks. An NBC source close to
Speaker 1: the show says the Trump campaign appreciated that Morning Joe
Speaker 1: never wrote off their candidate as other media did. Now,
Speaker 1: in the wake of Trump's election, Mourning Joe is becoming
Speaker 1: a go to spot for Trump watchers. That is the
Speaker 1: end of twenty sixteen, a month and a half before
Speaker 1: Trump became president. And what it says, if you heard
Speaker 1: it in there, is that even while they were supposedly
Speaker 1: fighting and Scarborough was opposed to a Trump presidency, even then,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, the two camps were in touch and
Speaker 1: the Trump people still appreciated Joe Scarborough's support. So when
Speaker 1: the question is raised, how did we get here, maybe
Speaker 1: the answer, the third or fourth answer is Joe effing
Speaker 1: Scarborough got us here and the next time somebody on
Speaker 1: Scarborough Show asks how did this happen? Or why is
Speaker 1: Trump still there? Take that photo that I tweeted yesterday
Speaker 1: and send it directly to Joe at Joe NBC. It's
Speaker 1: the shot of him in Trump at MSNBC, both grinning
Speaker 1: like the fascist idiots. They are both giving Trump's thumbs up.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to do that, just get a
Speaker 1: package together and send Joe Scarborough a mirror. Joe Scarborough,
Speaker 1: who helped elect Trump and is thus helping to possibly
Speaker 1: elect Trump again because he didn't do what a moral
Speaker 1: man or just one with a conscience might have done
Speaker 1: after Trump was elected and did what he did, which
Speaker 1: would be to resign from your television show, leave the
Speaker 1: public arena in shame, and take a ten year vow
Speaker 1: of silence. Joe Scarborough Today's worst person in the world,
Speaker 1: to the number one story on the Countdown and my
Speaker 1: favorite topic, me and things I promised not to tell.
Speaker 1: So it's another anniversary. One Sometime on Wednesday, September twelfth,
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, I began to feel bad, all
Speaker 1: strained on my right side. But my girlfriend at the time,
Speaker 1: Katie Turr, and I had just moved only a few
Speaker 1: weeks before into our new apartment, and I was still
Speaker 1: pushing boxes around and I thought I'd just strained something.
Speaker 1: The next morning, the thirteenth, I was still feeling like crap,
Speaker 1: but now my stomach also hurt, and I thought I
Speaker 1: was bloated or constipated or something, and maybe some sit
Speaker 1: ups would help. And actually they felt like they had
Speaker 1: relieved some of the pressure. And Katie's father, who was
Speaker 1: among many many things in emt, happened to be in town.
Speaker 1: He gave me a vico In or something, and I
Speaker 1: took a nap and went into work a little later
Speaker 1: than usual at MSNBC, which I could get away with
Speaker 1: that day because President Bush was speaking that night and
Speaker 1: almost all of my work that night would be ad
Speaker 1: live before his speech, and then after his speech. I
Speaker 1: wrote what I needed to write quickly, and at about
Speaker 1: seven point fifteen, I went out to the show line
Speaker 1: producer Greg Kordick, who sat in exactly the right place
Speaker 1: that he could make certain that I had left tour
Speaker 1: makeup and was going to the studio on time. I
Speaker 1: had to walk right past him and I said, I'm exhausted.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to close my eyes at my desk
Speaker 1: for a couple of minutes. If you don't see me
Speaker 1: go pass by, like seven forty, come in and wake
Speaker 1: me up. And I sat down and put my legs
Speaker 1: up on my desk. I folded my hands behind my head,
Speaker 1: and I just closed my eyes, more to rest my
Speaker 1: eyes than in any real hope of sleeping. I am
Speaker 1: a fickle sleeper. There's not a chance I could snooze
Speaker 1: like that. Next thing I know, it's seven forty and
Speaker 1: I'm feeling somebody shaking me and seriously a hand on
Speaker 1: each shoulder. Apparently it took mister Cordick a little while
Speaker 1: to wake me up, and I thanked Greg and staggered
Speaker 1: to the makeup room, and I realized now I had
Speaker 1: a little fever, but it was too late to do
Speaker 1: anything about it. So I got my makeup, went to
Speaker 1: the set, did the lead into Bush's speech, took some
Speaker 1: notes during it, did the post speech wrap up with
Speaker 1: the analysts, and after two hours on the air, I
Speaker 1: got in the car that they sent for me to
Speaker 1: go home to New York from New Jersey, and I
Speaker 1: fell asleep again in the car. I still thought this
Speaker 1: is some weird stomach flu and I'm bloated beyond belief,
Speaker 1: and I really don't feel good. But I bet that's
Speaker 1: just from listening to George W. Bush one time too many.
Speaker 1: I'll just go to bed. I found it was too
Speaker 1: difficult to lie on my stomach or my side, which
Speaker 1: presented a problem because rarely can I fall asleep on
Speaker 1: my back. But I had to try, and the next
Speaker 1: thing I knew it was morning. I slept like a stone,
Speaker 1: but I still felt really bad, in fact, a little
Speaker 1: bit worse. On top of all which Katie was yelling
Speaker 1: at me about something. And I had a check up
Speaker 1: for something unrelated at my doctor's office, and I left
Speaker 1: early so I could go buy something for the constipation.
Speaker 1: And then when my doctor called me and he said,
Speaker 1: you look terrible. Are you okay? And I said no,
Speaker 1: I got this really so stomach and the last time
Speaker 1: I had this fever for a while, and he kind
Speaker 1: of gasped, and now he looked terrible, and he said,
Speaker 1: when was the last time you ate? I said, you know, funny,
Speaker 1: I haven't thought about food for a couple of days.
Speaker 1: And then he asked me when was the last time
Speaker 1: that happened? And I said, when I was in the
Speaker 1: womb and he had me stand up and he pushed
Speaker 1: his finger into my stomach about five inches to the
Speaker 1: right of my navel, and holding the finger there, he said,
Speaker 1: does this hurt? And I said not at all, And
Speaker 1: then he said does it hurt now? As I take
Speaker 1: my finger away, And I don't remember if I said
Speaker 1: anything or not, because I saw the proverbial stars in
Speaker 1: front of my eyes and I let out a scream.
Speaker 1: So he said, get back in your car, and you
Speaker 1: go to our other office at fifty ninth and tenth
Speaker 1: and go see our gastro specialist. And I said, sure,
Speaker 1: just don't poke me again. And when I got there,
Speaker 1: they showed me right in and she taps me and
Speaker 1: she says, why are you hunched over like that? And
Speaker 1: I said, I'm hunched over and she says, if you
Speaker 1: haven't eaten in two days, how come your stomach is
Speaker 1: heard is a rock? And I said, is this a
Speaker 1: medical quiz because you're the doctor, And she says, I
Speaker 1: want you to go across the street to the hospital
Speaker 1: emergency room. I'll call them while you're walking. Just go
Speaker 1: right in and tell them you're the one doctor Lou
Speaker 1: called about. Because boy, your appendix burst, and although I
Speaker 1: think you'll be fine, technically you've got about oh eight,
Speaker 1: ten twelve hours to live. Well, that got my attention,
Speaker 1: and as I'm grabbing my jacket my bag, I say, wait,
Speaker 1: if this isn't just constipation, how come it felt better
Speaker 1: when I did the sit ups? And she says, because
Speaker 1: when you did the sit ups, you only had an
Speaker 1: infected appendix that was going to burst. When you did
Speaker 1: the sit ups, dummy, that's when the appendix burst, you
Speaker 1: burst it. So I said, wait, I went on TV
Speaker 1: for two hours after my appendix burst. Shut up, She explained,
Speaker 1: she was right. The our people saw me immediately. They
Speaker 1: ran a bunch of tests and reminded me that if
Speaker 1: I hadn't already, I should probably call in sick for
Speaker 1: a couple days. And I said, wait, what day is today?
Speaker 1: And they helped out and they said Friday. So I
Speaker 1: called MSNBC, and I called the producer of Football Night
Speaker 1: in America, which I was doing for NBC on Sundays,
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, sorry, looks like I'm technically dying
Speaker 1: from a burst appendix. And they're going to operate on
Speaker 1: me as soon as they can get a surgeon in here,
Speaker 1: and they say it's real unlikely. I'll be out of
Speaker 1: the hospital by Sunday or Monday. Have a nice day.
Speaker 1: I called Katie, who had already gotten to her job
Speaker 1: in local cable news in Brooklyn, and she turned around
Speaker 1: to come help me out at the hospital. And then
Speaker 1: I just waited and got Goofier and Goofier and Goofier
Speaker 1: and Goofier. I think they operated around seven or eight pm.
Speaker 1: The surgeon introduced himself. He was a big sports fan,
Speaker 1: Fred Kimmelsteele, the surgeon named by prophetic parents. And I
Speaker 1: went to the anesthesiologist and I warned him. I said
Speaker 1: I'd once woken up from anesthesia during an endoscopy, and
Speaker 1: could he make sure that that didn't happen again. In fact,
Speaker 1: I said that the other day when I had my
Speaker 1: knee operated on, and this guy did the same thing.
Speaker 1: They both of these anesthesiology I just just laughed when
Speaker 1: I challenged them to knock me out a little bit harder.
Speaker 1: So doctor kimmel Steele asked me about the latest met
Speaker 1: choke job. This is the one in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: not the one in twenty twenty two. And I started
Speaker 1: to talk about David wright, and the next thing I knew,
Speaker 1: I was freezing cold and trying to open my eyes.
Speaker 1: And it was three hours later and the surgery was over.
Speaker 1: What a mess, said doctor Kimmel Steel, never had one
Speaker 1: that bad before. Thank God, it absesss You'll be here
Speaker 1: all weekend and I was the next day. They made
Speaker 1: me get out of bed and I think it took
Speaker 1: me half an hour to walk about twenty feet down
Speaker 1: the hallway and back, and there was a morphine drip
Speaker 1: and a new bag of intravenous antibiotics every two hours,
Speaker 1: and at one point the phone rang, and I really
Speaker 1: did have to go back the following weekend ask the
Speaker 1: producer if this actually happened or I merely hallucinated it.
Speaker 1: But the phone rang, and it was the football night
Speaker 1: in America people, and they said they were going to
Speaker 1: shoot video of the hospital I was in, and I said,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can see me from the street,
Speaker 1: and they said, right, we know that. We're just pretty
Speaker 1: much doing this for a laugh at your expense while
Speaker 1: you're in the hospital and we're on TV. And then
Speaker 1: finally my appetite came back on Monday and I was
Speaker 1: able to eat some pancakes, and they sent me home
Speaker 1: in the afternoon. And for two days after that, I
Speaker 1: was still sweating out the poisons and the antibiotics and
Speaker 1: the painkillers, and I mean I was so warm I
Speaker 1: could not bear to have a shirt on. But by
Speaker 1: Thursday I was able to go back to work, and
Speaker 1: just to show off, I wrote a special comment about
Speaker 1: Bush from my first show back. I was extremely pleased
Speaker 1: with myself. Now there are three postscripts to this. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously I learned, and I've just taught you the test
Speaker 1: for appendicitis or a burst appendix. If you poke it
Speaker 1: and it doesn't hurt until you stop poking it, it's
Speaker 1: your appendix. Fat lot of good that'll do me. Now
Speaker 1: I don't have an appendix. Second weeks later, I was
Speaker 1: at dinner with my friend John Clees from Monty Python's
Speaker 1: Flying Circus, and he said he'd heard the story about
Speaker 1: my appendix and he was very upset with me. I
Speaker 1: did the exact same thing, John said, blew up, And
Speaker 1: for two days I had no idea how serious it was.
Speaker 1: Thought it was a cold But don't kill people that
Speaker 1: don't undersell it and call it a burst appendix. You
Speaker 1: and I we were both dying of septacemia. Never let
Speaker 1: anybody forget that, and I haven't. And the last and
Speaker 1: best PostScript was, while I'm lying there recovering after the surgery,
Speaker 1: the phone rings and it's my executive producer and she says,
Speaker 1: good news. When you anchored before and after Bush's speech
Speaker 1: and you got sick or after you got sick, you
Speaker 1: beat CNN in the ratings by like twenty five percent,
Speaker 1: And as stone on them painkillers as I might have been,
Speaker 1: I was still able to say to her, I beat CNN.
Speaker 1: I beat CNN with one appendix tied behind my back.
Speaker 1: I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening. We're now back to five episodes a week,
Speaker 1: posting nightly just after midnight Eastern. The YouTube version which
Speaker 1: is which is the audio with some animation. I don't
Speaker 1: want to mislead you on that there's no video of this.
Speaker 1: The YouTube version posts about five am Eastern. If you're
Speaker 1: not subscribing, please subscribe to one or both, and please
Speaker 1: share this pod with somebody who does not listen or
Speaker 1: watch or is it watching audio on YouTube or is
Speaker 1: it some other verb you're listening to YouTube? Then why
Speaker 1: is it a tube. Brian Ray and John Phillip Shaneil
Speaker 1: the musical directors have Countdown Arrange, produced and performed most
Speaker 1: of our music. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Mister
Speaker 1: Ray was on the guitars that based on the drums,
Speaker 1: and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Our satirical and
Speaker 1: pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist stepper,
Speaker 1: Nancy Faust. The sports music is the Olderman theme from
Speaker 1: ESPN two, written by Mitch Horn Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc.
Speaker 1: Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed.
Speaker 1: My announcer today was my friend Nancy Faust. Everything else
Speaker 1: was pretty much my fault. So that's this the five
Speaker 1: hundredth edition of the Countdown podcast for this sixty second
Speaker 1: day until the twenty twenty four presidential election and the
Speaker 1: one three hundred and thirty second day since convicted feudn
Speaker 1: dementia J Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected
Speaker 1: government of the United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing,
Speaker 1: use the mental health system, use presidential immunity. The Supreme
Speaker 1: Theocratic Court has given it to you, President Biden. I say,
Speaker 1: if it's official, it's legal to have fun. You're immune.
Speaker 1: Do it. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as
Speaker 1: the news requires till the next one. I'm Keith Olderman.
Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
Speaker 1: with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.