Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. So
Speaker 1: you're telling me? Last month, Tucker Carlson warned Trump that
Speaker 1: he might be assassinated if he didn't pick JD. Vance
Speaker 1: or another non Neocon as his running mate. Or I
Speaker 1: may be reading this too generously, You might think Tucker
Speaker 1: Carlson threatened Trump that he might be assassinated. You might
Speaker 1: think that I could not possibly comment this astonishing event.
Speaker 1: Carlson phones Trump from Australia in June tells him if
Speaker 1: he chooses a Neocon like Marco Rubio instead of Carlson's
Speaker 1: pal Vance as vice president, he might be could be
Speaker 1: would be assassinated. It is in the New York Times,
Speaker 1: and Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swann put it in paragraph
Speaker 1: sixty nine paragraph sixty nine out of seventy one paragraphs.
Speaker 1: Paragraph sixty nine kind of buried the lead, quoting Mags
Speaker 1: and Swaneye. When word got back to Tucker Carlson a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago that mister Trump might be wavering on
Speaker 1: mister Vance, he intervened. Mister Carlson, who was visiting Australia
Speaker 1: on a speaking tour, phoned mister Trump and delivered an
Speaker 1: apocalyptic warning. According to two people briefed on their conversation,
Speaker 1: he told mister Trump that mister Rubio could not be trusted,
Speaker 1: that he would work against him and would try to
Speaker 1: lead America into nuclear war. Mister Carlson, who declined to
Speaker 1: comment for this article, told mister Trump that mister Burgham
Speaker 1: could not be trusted either. Mister Carlson told mister Trump
Speaker 1: in that June phone call that he believed that if
Speaker 1: he chose a Neocon as his VP, then the US
Speaker 1: intelligence agencies would have every incentive to assassinate mister Trump
Speaker 1: in order to get their preferred president. Now, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: being old fashioned, but where I comes from. If you
Speaker 1: phone the Republican nominee for president of the United effing
Speaker 1: States and you tell him if he doesn't pick the
Speaker 1: right candidate to be his running mate, the intel community
Speaker 1: will have every incentive to assassinate him. And like four
Speaker 1: weeks after that, somebody tries to assassinate him, and two
Speaker 1: days after that he chooses your pick as his running mate,
Speaker 1: eyebrows will be raised even by the Secret Service. Are
Speaker 1: they talking to Tucker Carlson about this? To Maggie Haberman
Speaker 1: and Jonathan Swann, who sourced this story of Carlson's warning threat,
Speaker 1: or really good guests are they talking to jd Vance?
Speaker 1: I mean, for the second straight day, Eric Trump went
Speaker 1: on television and insisted about his father that some unknown
Speaker 1: they tried to take his life. And I know Eric
Speaker 1: is challenged, but he also said that to CNN, where
Speaker 1: Jake Tapper, a journalistic seat filler, replied with absolutely nothing
Speaker 1: to say. That isn't true. They literally tried to kill
Speaker 1: him this week. The more challenged of the Trump more
Speaker 1: on twins told Fox the day before and before, you say,
Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson couldn't possibly be the they. Besides which, he
Speaker 1: was warning Trump that like the CIA, would assassinate him
Speaker 1: if he chose the wrong vice president four weeks before
Speaker 1: somebody actually tried to forty eight hours before he chose
Speaker 1: the right vice president. You say, no way, I say,
Speaker 1: have you ever met Tucker Carlson. In unrelated news, CNN
Speaker 1: reports that the US intel community was told by human
Speaker 1: source about a plot by Iran to assassinate Trump. That
Speaker 1: the US Intel community was told this in the last
Speaker 1: few weeks. No indication that the guy who actually tried
Speaker 1: to assassinate Trump was connected to the malefactor here Tucker
Speaker 1: Carlson or maybe Iran, I don't know. Also no indication
Speaker 1: that the Secret Service ignored this. In fact, the sources
Speaker 1: insist security around Trump was increased after the Iran story
Speaker 1: reached somebody's desk, just as Carlson was calling Trump from
Speaker 1: Australia and said, don't pick a neocon or you know
Speaker 1: they'll want to back and to the left back, and
Speaker 1: to the left back and to the left. While Trump
Speaker 1: still has not called the family of the man who
Speaker 1: actually died defending his family from MAGA gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks,
Speaker 1: President Biden did phone the family, and the widow said
Speaker 1: she appreciated the gesture, but she felt she had to
Speaker 1: honor her late husband, refusing to take the call. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, she said she bore the president no
Speaker 1: ill will and blamed only the shooter. And Trump still
Speaker 1: hasn't called because well, of course the guy who got
Speaker 1: killed wasn't him, so why would he care. A technical
Speaker 1: irony on the shooting has been reported by England's Channel four.
Speaker 1: The Trump campaign targeted the shooter's family, targeted him in
Speaker 1: a database. Matthew Crooks, father of Thomas Matthew Crooks and
Speaker 1: owner of the AR fifteen used Saturday, was in a
Speaker 1: Trump campaign database in twenty sixteen profiling millions of voters
Speaker 1: in the battleground states in a secret program designed to
Speaker 1: target specific voters with pro gun messages during the campaign.
Speaker 1: It had identified both the father and the mother as
Speaker 1: very likely to be gun owners and hunters and Republicans
Speaker 1: and susceptible to pro gun messaging. The British news operation
Speaker 1: obtained that Trump database in twenty sixteen and reported on
Speaker 1: its existence. Then no idea if the campaign actually contacted
Speaker 1: the Crooks family. No further information on the separate story
Speaker 1: from a Pittsburgh television newsroom that neighbors often saw Trump
Speaker 1: campaign signs in the yard around the Crooks family home. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: Trump was shot at by a maga gun nut. Some
Speaker 1: polling about the assassination. Morning Consult concludes that three in
Speaker 1: five voters blame American political rhetoric. They say it's responsible
Speaker 1: for the environment that made shooting at Trump possible. They
Speaker 1: asked voters Monday, and they got down to brass tax two.
Speaker 1: Which person or group is to blame for the rhetoric
Speaker 1: and the environment, and thus the violence, twenty nine percent
Speaker 1: blame Biden, thirty one percent blame the Republican Party, thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent blame Trump. Now, at last some information on
Speaker 1: the forgotten question was Trump shot or not shot? The
Speaker 1: good news is we finally have the testimony of a doctor.
Speaker 1: The bad news is the doctor is Congressman Ronnie glug
Speaker 1: Glug Jackson. He says he's seen and treated Trump's ear,
Speaker 1: the one Trump had bandaged up like somebody who vaguely
Speaker 1: remembered Vincent Van Goe's self portrait. And yes, there were
Speaker 1: delegates on the floor at the convention in Milwaukee last
Speaker 1: night wearing homemade versions of Trump's crapshack ear bandage. Yes,
Speaker 1: it looked like a crowd of whinos in a cult
Speaker 1: wearing post its. Speaking of Whinos in a cult, doctor
Speaker 1: Jackson said a little bit of Trump's ear had actually
Speaker 1: been taken off by the bullet. That's the first time
Speaker 1: anybody besides Trump has asserted or even tried to confirm
Speaker 1: Trump's claim that he was even grazed by a shot
Speaker 1: and not debris or unintended shrapnel or something else. Also, Trump,
Speaker 1: you let Ronnie Jackson treat your wound. Stand by for
Speaker 1: sepsis place the legal theme? Why the legal theme? One
Speaker 1: prospect few of us have contemplated. Trump wins, but the
Speaker 1: Democrats take the Senate and House in landslides. Inauguration is
Speaker 1: January twentieth, and in this scenario, the third Trump impeachment
Speaker 1: is January twenty seventh. I mean, January twenty seventh is
Speaker 1: my birthday. Under those circumstances, the next next president of
Speaker 1: the United States would be this no accomplishment's freshman senator
Speaker 1: from Ohio who looks like Rush Limbaugh's sperm donor sun
Speaker 1: only wearing eyeliner. And we are getting our first perspective
Speaker 1: on what Republicans and non crazy Americans think of him.
Speaker 1: And the answer is, who the F is this guy?
Speaker 1: Monday polling by you gov, only twenty seven percent of
Speaker 1: Republicans think that Vance was Trump's best possible pick. They
Speaker 1: did not ask Tucker Carlson. Twenty nine percent more say
Speaker 1: he's okay. Forty three percent of Republicans say he's neither
Speaker 1: good nor bad, or he is bad, or he's the worst,
Speaker 1: or they are unsure. CNN polling from just eighteen days
Speaker 1: ago indicates unsure is the driving factor here. Voters were
Speaker 1: asked for favorable or unfavorable opinions on people simply described
Speaker 1: to them as being in the news. Twenty seven percent
Speaker 1: of Americans had a favorable opinion of Marco Rubio, thirty
Speaker 1: four percent an unfavorable one, twenty three percent had no
Speaker 1: opinion on Rubio. Twenty one percent said I never heard
Speaker 1: of him, as to Vance, eleven percent favorable, eighteen percent unfavorable,
Speaker 1: no opinion, fifteen percent never heard of him, fifty six
Speaker 1: percent fifty six Fance is nearly is unknown, as is
Speaker 1: Doug Bergham. Sixty six percent never heard of him either,
Speaker 1: but eight percent had a favorable opinion of Burgham. That's
Speaker 1: within striking distance of Vance's eleven percent. That's not good.
Speaker 1: Then again, something made Trump feel like he just had
Speaker 1: to pick Vance Hacker Carlton Deep State, also from that
Speaker 1: Ku Klux Clan rally in Milwaukee, only with a decent
Speaker 1: on stage band. Rudy Giuliani toppled to the floor yesterday
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, took about eight steps down the red
Speaker 1: carpet walkway, then shuffled to the right like Daffy Duck
Speaker 1: in Showbiz Bugs and hit the deck down, goes Giuliati.
Speaker 1: Down goes Giuliani. To be fair, The Atlanta Journal Constitution's
Speaker 1: Washington correspondent Tia Mitchell notes that Giuliani seemed to be
Speaker 1: reaching for one of the chairs on the convention floor
Speaker 1: when he fell, and that thanks to some genius, the
Speaker 1: red carpet walkways are actually several inches off the floor,
Speaker 1: and you can't really see where the actual floor is
Speaker 1: because of shadows cast by the chairs. My evil plan
Speaker 1: has been unmasked. That or it was the sky. And
Speaker 1: this from Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson of North Carolina, the
Speaker 1: Republican nominee to become governor there, who foretold the new
Speaker 1: Trump unity scam earlier this month by screaming in church
Speaker 1: that people he didn't like need killing. Robinson told the
Speaker 1: Republican Fascist Fest in Milwaukee that Trump is the brave
Speaker 1: Heart of our time unquote. I never ceased to be
Speaker 1: mystified by the number of politicians who compare themselves or
Speaker 1: somebody they claim to like to Brave Heart. Brave Heart
Speaker 1: was the thirteenth and fourteenth century warrior king of Scotland,
Speaker 1: whose life was told kind of in one of the
Speaker 1: least anti Semitic of mel Gibson's movies when the British
Speaker 1: captured Braveheart and tried him for treason and for one
Speaker 1: of the first times in world history, for war crimes,
Speaker 1: including murdering civilians, including children, including nuns. They found him guilty.
Speaker 1: They tied Brave Heart to the heels of a horse
Speaker 1: and dragged him through the streets of London naked. Then
Speaker 1: they hanged him, but they cut him down before he died.
Speaker 1: And then they emasculated him, eviscerated him and beheaded him.
Speaker 1: Then they got tough, the man Mark Robinson compared Trump
Speaker 1: to then had his head cut into four parts and
Speaker 1: dipped into tar and put on top of a spike
Speaker 1: on London Bridge. And then they took what was left
Speaker 1: of the rest of his body and took it on
Speaker 1: a national tour. But Lieutenant Governor Robinson, you're telling me
Speaker 1: Trump is the brave heart of our time. Go on. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: back at the ranch, I suggested here last week that
Speaker 1: President Biden pull out the stops. The Supreme Court is hated.
Speaker 1: A new Fox News poll put approval at thirty eight
Speaker 1: percent yesterday. Others have the percentages who believe its judges
Speaker 1: are utterly partisan. In the sixties run against Trump run
Speaker 1: against the Supreme Court as well. The Washington Post reports
Speaker 1: he's going to to propose legislated term limits and an
Speaker 1: enforceable ethics code in the immediate future. He also wants
Speaker 1: a constitutional amendment to override the Supreme court recent ruling
Speaker 1: to eliminate broad presidential immunity and immunity for other officeholders.
Speaker 1: He previewed this, apparently to the Congressional Progressive Caucus last Saturday.
Speaker 1: A transcript of the conversation reads, I'm going to need
Speaker 1: your help on the Supreme Court because I'm about to
Speaker 1: come out. I don't want to prematurely announce it, but
Speaker 1: I'm about to come out with a major initiative unlimiting
Speaker 1: the Court. I've been working with constitutional scholars for the
Speaker 1: last three months and I need some help. Well. Cool,
Speaker 1: but you're not going to pass any of that now.
Speaker 1: And I don't see where it says you're adding six
Speaker 1: new seats to the bench. Mister President. To paraphrase Frederick Douglass,
Speaker 1: the national edifice is on fire. Use the presidential immunity,
Speaker 1: use it, not to say you might do this if
Speaker 1: the Congress will approve, impose these things, and do it now,
Speaker 1: and let the bastards try to undo it. And I
Speaker 1: mean now, the Democratic National Committee is still planning to
Speaker 1: renominate Joe Biden in a virtual role call in the
Speaker 1: next few weeks before August seventh. Those who still want
Speaker 1: him off the ticket are trying to stop that plan
Speaker 1: to give the party more time to decide. And my god,
Speaker 1: don't they realize they're Democrats. We don't decide. Congressman Jared
Speaker 1: Huffman of California went on the record saying that he
Speaker 1: represents a growing number of members who think the virtual
Speaker 1: vote is quote a terrible idea, a dumb thing. There
Speaker 1: is a letter being circulated among House Democrats that begins,
Speaker 1: quote we respectfully but emphatically request that you cancel any
Speaker 1: plans for an accelerated virtual role call. While that gives
Speaker 1: a sense of urgency to the thing, there is a story,
Speaker 1: and there is another story, and there's another story after that.
Speaker 1: That part of that group, literally or just in spirit,
Speaker 1: is Nancy Pelosi. That she is working behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: has been since the day after the debate to change
Speaker 1: presidential candidates let me quote politico. As dangerous as that
Speaker 1: might be, one of her colleagues was struck to see
Speaker 1: her chatting furtively but openly with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
Speaker 1: last week in a corner of the House Democratic cloak
Speaker 1: room in plain sight of a dozen lawmakers. The extent
Speaker 1: of Pelosi's behind the scenes role hasn't been fully revealed,
Speaker 1: and may never be if the former Speaker has her way,
Speaker 1: But I'm told by people familiar with the exchanges that
Speaker 1: she stage managed phone calls to Jeffreys, plotted strategy with
Speaker 1: the biggest names in Democratic politics, and told one former
Speaker 1: elected official bluntly that Biden's legacy can't be destroying their
Speaker 1: party since the President's excellent press conference last week and
Speaker 1: is even better speech in Detroit. I have returned to
Speaker 1: being agnostic here, but goddamn it, let's make up our minds.
Speaker 1: There cannot be more than two weeks left to clear
Speaker 1: this up either way. By then, Poles will fully reflect
Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania shooting at Trump, the selection of vance Tucker Carlson,
Speaker 1: and the thing that rhymes with fascination debt, and Biden's
Speaker 1: latest impact And the reason I'm agnostic again, I mean
Speaker 1: I've only been agnostic like twice since nineteen seventy, the
Speaker 1: Times reported last night. Then, rather than take more input
Speaker 1: from more Democrats and more advisors. Joe Biden has tightened
Speaker 1: his circle and now he isn't even talking to his
Speaker 1: own polsters. Ordinarily, this might make you reach for Rudy
Speaker 1: giuliani stash of Scotch. Except the five thirty eight dot
Speaker 1: com average of polls, which shows Biden's disapproval hovering in
Speaker 1: general at fifty six percent, shows the national polls averaging
Speaker 1: plus two for Trump. But the five thirty eight electoral
Speaker 1: college model, which eleven days ago showed Trump winning by
Speaker 1: four votes in the electoral college, now shows Biden winning
Speaker 1: in fifty three out of every one hundred simulations, Biden
Speaker 1: with a fifty three percent chance of an electoral college victory,
Speaker 1: and moreover, winning by two hundred and seventy seven electoral
Speaker 1: college votes to two hundred and sixty one for Trump. Christ,
Speaker 1: give me some of that stuff you gave Rudy. I
Speaker 1: don't know, it might not be strong enough. Maybe give
Speaker 1: me some of that stuff you gave Braveheart. Also of interest,
Speaker 1: here deja vu all over again. MSNBC postpones a Joe
Speaker 1: Scarborough show from the convention out of fear he'd say
Speaker 1: something that would piss off Trump, while other anchors there,
Speaker 1: including a woman I used to live with in a
Speaker 1: Trump building who Trump tried to get killed eight years ago,
Speaker 1: say he looks serene. They did it to me in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, and they are doing it to
Speaker 1: NBC and the MSNBC talent right now. I can smell it.
Speaker 1: I will bet you actual cash money upwards of thirty
Speaker 1: dollars that the Republicans are threatening the executives of NBC
Speaker 1: right now, just as they did to get me off
Speaker 1: the air sixteen years ago. Worst Persons and an updated
Speaker 1: things I promised not to tell about GOPVNBC. That's next.
Speaker 1: This is an all new edition of Countdown. This is
Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olberman stell ahead of us on this
Speaker 1: edition of Countdown. History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes,
Speaker 1: except when it effing repeats itself. MSNBC anchors sucking up
Speaker 1: to the Republican presidential nominee, Republican thugs going into the
Speaker 1: offices of NBC News and suggesting some of the other
Speaker 1: MSNBC anchors had better be taken off the air. During
Speaker 1: GOP events twenty twenty four unfolding before our eyes. No sir,
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, they've already done this little dance
Speaker 1: of fellating Trump's. Whatever the details in a New Things
Speaker 1: I promised not to tell first, there are still more
Speaker 1: new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miscreants,
Speaker 1: morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's first
Speaker 1: arsons in the world. Honorable mention John Stuart and Bill O'Reilly.
Speaker 1: And what do they have in common? Well, the year
Speaker 1: two thousand and three. But besides that, Stuart had O'Reilly
Speaker 1: on his show last night, and I suppose there will
Speaker 1: be something I can make fun of tomorrow. But for now,
Speaker 1: I have only this to say. Anytime I hear that
Speaker 1: somebody is talking to Bill O'Reilly, I flashed back to
Speaker 1: his conversation with his producer at Fox, Andrea Macris, and
Speaker 1: I wonder if during the conversation Bill is sitting there
Speaker 1: with a vibrator up his tush. Lebrons worse my old
Speaker 1: pals Joe Scarbrough and Katie Turr. Joe's bosses did something
Speaker 1: he didn't like, so Joe reverted to his first decade
Speaker 1: on MSNBC, and he pissed on the tent in the tent. Monday,
Speaker 1: his NBC masters canceled his show postponed it. Really, his
Speaker 1: show is called Ray Hash political talking points starring Joe Scarborough,
Speaker 1: who judges which way the wind blows and if Trump
Speaker 1: won't let him be vice dictator, Joe Scarborough pretend to
Speaker 1: support Biden while Joe Scarborough sabotaged everybody else he works there,
Speaker 1: and he steals other men's wives. Anyway, I think that's
Speaker 1: what the show is called. I haven't watched lately, so anyway,
Speaker 1: on Monday, they were all in Milwaukee for the Fascist
Speaker 1: Convention and a live version of the show from there,
Speaker 1: and they didn't put Joe on. I know CNN reported
Speaker 1: this was out of fear at NBC that somebody would
Speaker 1: make a quote inappropriate comment on live television that could
Speaker 1: be used to assail the program and network as a whole.
Speaker 1: While discussing Trump's assassination attempt. Wait, I thought that was
Speaker 1: the point of the program. Joey Scar's not happy now. Normally,
Speaker 1: when he's not happy, he just threatens and blackmail's management
Speaker 1: and he undercuts them in anonymous quotes to news outlets.
Speaker 1: But this time Joey Scars trashed his employers on their
Speaker 1: own network. Quote, next time we are told there would
Speaker 1: be a newsfeed replacing us, we will be in our
Speaker 1: chairs and the newsfeed will be us, or they can
Speaker 1: get somebody else to house the show. Firstly, he said
Speaker 1: this more or less continuously off the air since two
Speaker 1: thousand and three. Secondly, NBC, this is your chance. He
Speaker 1: just threatened to quitch, and he breached his contract by
Speaker 1: what he said on the air. You have seventy three
Speaker 1: people on this show. Would anybody notice he's gone? Other
Speaker 1: than the improvement and the smell in the studio? All right?
Speaker 1: You'd have to get new graphics and calling it Morning Mika.
Speaker 1: Big deal? I mean, does anybody miss the original hosts
Speaker 1: check's notes, David Gregory and Kntessa Brewer. The one they
Speaker 1: swapped in for Brewer and for the previous Missus Scarborough
Speaker 1: is named Mika Brzhinski one of the nicest people in
Speaker 1: the world, as long as she's unemployed when she has
Speaker 1: a contract on a television network. Marie effing Antoinette, she
Speaker 1: actually said something. It seemed like now more than ever
Speaker 1: is a day a time when we would like to
Speaker 1: be on. I think our viewers agree with that. Now
Speaker 1: to be fair. I will defend Scarborough in the next
Speaker 1: segment because I gather that what's so enraged Joey enough
Speaker 1: to lash out on the air and risk getting fired
Speaker 1: and risk all that money, and god he loves all
Speaker 1: that money, is that Scarborough heard about this what I
Speaker 1: heard when they did it to me sixteen years ago,
Speaker 1: that the Republican Party demanded that NBC do this more
Speaker 1: coming up as to Terr I'm so sorry about her.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I apologize to you that I
Speaker 1: helped her get her career started. She was going to
Speaker 1: be a painter, and when she moved in with me
Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, I said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I know you don't want to do what your dad
Speaker 1: and mom did, but you have a natural instinct for
Speaker 1: what a news report from the field should look like.
Speaker 1: You're a natural on camera. That was the last of
Speaker 1: the painting. I'm sorry, It's my fault. Katie loves the
Speaker 1: money too. Trump at the RNC and she says, quote,
Speaker 1: I will tell you, even just looking at his face
Speaker 1: in this video, I've never seen Trump with a look
Speaker 1: like that on his face, not once. Chris Jansing, I
Speaker 1: think saw where this was going and tried to save
Speaker 1: the segment. Looks almost pensive, chancing, said Turr, then says serene. Yeah, Katie,
Speaker 1: did he look as serene as eight years ago when
Speaker 1: he tried to get his mobs to kill you? Because
Speaker 1: he looked so serene at his fascist rallies, at the
Speaker 1: thought of them killing you, And so many of us
Speaker 1: came to your defense and lashed out against him and
Speaker 1: comforted you in person and on the phone for months
Speaker 1: and years thereafter. And now we have to remind everybody
Speaker 1: that Trump tried to get you killed, and we have
Speaker 1: to remind them because they may have forgotten, just like
Speaker 1: you have. I am ashamed of you more than at
Speaker 1: any point in the past, more than when you lied
Speaker 1: about me to the Washington Post and New York Times.
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't comment about your career, and I was
Speaker 1: going to say positive things. Then God, what a disaster.
Speaker 1: The runner up worser Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. Once again,
Speaker 1: I'd like to point out the God of teleprompters is
Speaker 1: avengeful and thoughtful God. The Republicans have spent months insisting
Speaker 1: that President id And can only function if he has
Speaker 1: a teleprompter. On Monday, speaker Mike Johnson's prompter failed at
Speaker 1: the RNC while he was introducing the next speaker, and
Speaker 1: he literally had no idea what to say next or
Speaker 1: who the next speaker he was introducing was. Because Mike
Speaker 1: Johnson had violated the first rule of prompter club, which
Speaker 1: is always have a hard copy of the script somewhere
Speaker 1: on you, or if you're introducing somebody, write his goddamn
Speaker 1: name on your wrist. Then Senator Ron Johnson no relation
Speaker 1: to any human beings. Ron looks like the first thing.
Speaker 1: Every morning they drained the color from his face and
Speaker 1: his eyes to make him look as post mortem as possible.
Speaker 1: Ron Johnson got up and he really hued to that
Speaker 1: new Trump unity line, that serenity that Katie saw. Johnson
Speaker 1: told the convention the democratic policies are a quote clear
Speaker 1: and present danger to the country. Afterwards, Johnson says he
Speaker 1: meant not to say that, and to give an entirely
Speaker 1: different speech spreading beauty and light, but that the prompter
Speaker 1: guy loaded the old mean speech in the prompter, and
Speaker 1: he Johnson, of course, just read the old one. Being
Speaker 1: an idiot and a Russian, I learned it phle mythically.
Speaker 1: The prompter problem probably also explains that when the new
Speaker 1: Republican Trump Unity Convention was supposed to rise and sing Kumbayah,
Speaker 1: the Democrats are still Americans. Instead they chanted f Joe
Speaker 1: Biden because it was on the prompter. Probably, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think they need to find out where this prompter
Speaker 1: guy was last Saturday. This could all be his fault.
Speaker 1: He probably got Scarborough postponed two. Finally, the winner, the worst,
Speaker 1: who could top any of this? Hugo Lowell, the estimable
Speaker 1: political writer of the newspaper The Guardians Scoop. After scoop
Speaker 1: on the Trump prosecutions, he tweeted some more breaking news
Speaker 1: the other day. Pretty good scoop, pretty bad typing, and
Speaker 1: I quote exactly as written at Hugo loll. Hearing from
Speaker 1: multiple people that Trump will make an appearance at the
Speaker 1: RNC tonight around eight pm, but he's not expected to speak,
Speaker 1: would be Trump's first public appearance since he was shit
Speaker 1: in the ear at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Let me just read that last part one more time.
Speaker 1: Would be Trump's first public appearance since he was shit
Speaker 1: in the ear at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Now once again, this would explain this whole lack of
Speaker 1: clarity about what exactly did hit Trump on Saturday. I mean,
Speaker 1: never mind the pee tape. He was shit in the ear.
Speaker 1: Probably wouldn't be the first time. Seriously, everybody makes mistakes
Speaker 1: like this. I once went on Network radio and I
Speaker 1: rushed through a script with too many k's in it
Speaker 1: and not enough time left in the show, and instead
Speaker 1: of saying in a sportscast the mecca of quail club hunting,
Speaker 1: I said something else that was about the anatomy of
Speaker 1: a quail Shots like this happen. So why put Hugo
Speaker 1: here's spit in near ear loll on the worst person's
Speaker 1: list for an easily understood and laugh out loud funny typo,
Speaker 1: especially in these times when we can use every laugh
Speaker 1: we can get. Why put him on the worst person's list?
Speaker 1: Why call him the worst person in the world because
Speaker 1: he deleted this? It's gold, Jerry, It's gold, Hugo. Why
Speaker 1: did you delete it? It's the smartest thing that's going
Speaker 1: to come out of the Republican Convention this year. Loll
Speaker 1: two days, worst person in the world. Anybody get any
Speaker 1: pictures of that? In the ear to the number one
Speaker 1: story on the Countdown and Things I Promised not to tell,
Speaker 1: and MSNBC rubs the Republican Party, cancels Joe Scarborough's show
Speaker 1: from the GOP fascist convention in Milwaukee, and as I
Speaker 1: outlined earlier, it puts Eric Trump on Live with poor
Speaker 1: brainwashed Katie Turr and she says, Daddy looks serene. And
Speaker 1: it's not just that it looks like NBC News is
Speaker 1: prostituting itself in preparation for a Republican takeover of the
Speaker 1: country and the terror and the postponed Scarborough message from
Speaker 1: Comcast is please don't arrest us, or at least don't
Speaker 1: arrest our money. Not only that, but for some of us, Wow,
Speaker 1: does this crap sound familiar? NBC Corporate at NBC is
Speaker 1: in reruns. They were already blackmailed once by the Republicans,
Speaker 1: long before Trump was sent here by the devil. And
Speaker 1: boy did this flash me back, because this happened to
Speaker 1: me at MSNBC in two thousand and eight, courtesy the
Speaker 1: supposed sane Republicans, and in underscores that they have never
Speaker 1: been sane. There have never been sane Republicans. They have
Speaker 1: always longed to dictate to the media what it can
Speaker 1: and cannot say about whichever asshole is its presidential candidate,
Speaker 1: and thanks to people like Tom Brokaw, they often get
Speaker 1: away with it. Chris Matthews and I were co anchoring
Speaker 1: the Republican Convention on MSNBC in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: He was there at the convention in Minnesota. I was
Speaker 1: in the studios at thirty Rock in New York, ostensibly
Speaker 1: so I could also anchor hurricane coverage, though it was
Speaker 1: pretty clear that at least half the reason I was
Speaker 1: not in Minneapolis was because the Republicans had threatened NBC
Speaker 1: or said they could not guarantee my safety there or
Speaker 1: something like that. So I was the one on September two,
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, who had to throw it to
Speaker 1: a video that we had been told by the Republicans
Speaker 1: was a tribute to the dead of nine to eleven
Speaker 1: that they were playing in the theater in their convention
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. It was not a tribute. It was a
Speaker 1: snuff film. All of the images that the networks had
Speaker 1: stopped showing of nine to eleven within weeks or even
Speaker 1: days of the attacks, all of them were in this
Speaker 1: snuff film. People jumping, falling to their deaths from the
Speaker 1: World Trade Center, endless replays of the planes hitting the towers,
Speaker 1: dismembered bodies in the plaza, the building collapses, the equally
Speaker 1: terrifying scenes at the Pentagon, and all with the grotesque
Speaker 1: voiceover from that Fink Robert Davey emphasizing that this was
Speaker 1: all the Democrats fault. The message was they might as
Speaker 1: well praised it this way, Electo, and you will die,
Speaker 1: and you will die like this. I was angry just
Speaker 1: on that base level. For that five and a half
Speaker 1: years I had been back at MSNBC, we had been
Speaker 1: rigorous about not showing any of that video that the
Speaker 1: Republicans had just forced upon us by lying to us
Speaker 1: about it. There were rules that if we had to
Speaker 1: for some reason sneed some snippet, we would show only
Speaker 1: skill images, and even then only with extensive warnings to
Speaker 1: the viewers. But I knew from my conversations with the
Speaker 1: president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, who I had known for
Speaker 1: twenty eight years at that point, that he would insist
Speaker 1: that on the scene in Minneapolis, Matthews and Tom Brokaw,
Speaker 1: whose career at NBC I had resuscitated after Brian Williams
Speaker 1: had buried him alive two years earlier. I knew from
Speaker 1: what Griffin told me that one or both of them
Speaker 1: would rebuke the GOP for showing not a nine to
Speaker 1: eleven tribute, but, as I just said, a nine to
Speaker 1: eleven snuff film. The snuff film ended, we came out
Speaker 1: to Brokaw and Matthews, and Brokaw kind of coughed, and
Speaker 1: Matthews said wow. And he turned to Brokaw and said,
Speaker 1: in that loose fire hose delivery he had tom that
Speaker 1: kind of scores terrorism. Big thing for Republicans. They try
Speaker 1: stop Obama. Brokaw droned on approvingly, the Republicans sneaking a
Speaker 1: snuff film, a banned video onto MSNBC and by the way,
Speaker 1: also onto CNN, onto NBC proper, onto CBS, onto ABC
Speaker 1: without any warning. That was not mentioned. Back to New
Speaker 1: York to Keith, I was supposed to add liberates about
Speaker 1: what we were expecting from the Republican convention for the
Speaker 1: rest of the night and then throw to a commercial instead,
Speaker 1: I said, and this is a paraphrase, the original tape
Speaker 1: disappeared that night that before we moved on, I felt
Speaker 1: I needed to apologize that we at MSNBC and for
Speaker 1: that matter, at NBC News, had extremely strict rules about
Speaker 1: not showing the video the Republicans had just shown you
Speaker 1: via our network, without any warning, without any context, and
Speaker 1: by lying to us, and we certainly would not have
Speaker 1: shown the horror and death and blamed it on the
Speaker 1: Democrats or for that matter, on the Republicans. I said,
Speaker 1: if we had done such a thing ourselves, there would
Speaker 1: have been people fired. The public program the GOP provided
Speaker 1: said that was going to be a nine to eleven
Speaker 1: tribute film, I said, and so did the private conversations
Speaker 1: with the network, which included the reminder from NBC and
Speaker 1: MSNBC that we had rules against showing the scenes of
Speaker 1: horrible death and mutilation and destruction. So I apologized on
Speaker 1: behalf of whoever trusted the Republicans to live up to
Speaker 1: their word, that MSNBC viewers were forced to see the
Speaker 1: video our network had promised never to show them. So
Speaker 1: three nights later, without as much as an email to me,
Speaker 1: this Griffin had called my agent and told her I
Speaker 1: was fired and Matthews two from our coverage of the
Speaker 1: upcoming Caine Obama debates, I happened to be off that
Speaker 1: night in the press box watching a Mets Phillies game
Speaker 1: at Shay Stadium, so she had to relate these details
Speaker 1: to me by phone as I walked down the many
Speaker 1: ramps in the stadium's bowels and headed towards the subway.
Speaker 1: I told her to call Griffin back and tell him
Speaker 1: I was quitting on the spot right then, and he
Speaker 1: could work his way out of the ensuing disaster by himself.
Speaker 1: Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal host Alderman for criticizing conservatives
Speaker 1: for sneaking nine to eleven snuff film onto MSNBC. He
Speaker 1: could work his way out of that disaster any way
Speaker 1: he chose, and then he could wait for my response
Speaker 1: on Good Morning America, CBS, This Morning, the PBS News Hour,
Speaker 1: any other news program that bothered to ask and in court.
Speaker 1: I made a few phone calls to friendly voices within
Speaker 1: the NBC management structure, got from them a clearer picture
Speaker 1: of what had happened, And despite the spotty cell service
Speaker 1: along the elevated train line heading back into Manhattan, I
Speaker 1: got a message from a newspaper reporter friend who neatly
Speaker 1: tied together all that I was hearing elsewhere. Tom Brokaw
Speaker 1: is going around NBC saying he got you fired from
Speaker 1: the debates because the Republicans told him to. Nine maybe
Speaker 1: ten months earlier, the same Phil Griffin had come to
Speaker 1: me and asked me if I would be okay with
Speaker 1: Brokaw appearing during our weekly coverage of the Democratic and
Speaker 1: Republican primaries. Just a couple of minutes, buddy, like from
Speaker 1: a perspective desk, that's all he wants to do. He's
Speaker 1: so unhappy Brian Williams has frozen him out of everything.
Speaker 1: I was appalled, but not surprised. The power had gone
Speaker 1: to Brian's head, and of course there it had not
Speaker 1: met very much resistance. Plus, as I said to Griffin,
Speaker 1: you're asking me if I'd like to add Tom Brokaw's
Speaker 1: experience and Tom Brocaw's gravitas to stuff I'm anchoring when
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I know as much as I really
Speaker 1: know to do this the right way. Tom to be
Speaker 1: fair fit in beautifully, and twice after those long Tuesday
Speaker 1: evenings during the primaries, he sent me brief emails awarding
Speaker 1: me what he called the game ball because he was
Speaker 1: so impressed by my ability to balance the roles of
Speaker 1: political anchor and political commentator. Having tried this myself, he wrote,
Speaker 1: I know of a perilous tight roupe. This is game
Speaker 1: ball to koh. I mocked them now, but they meant
Speaker 1: so much to me then that I printed them out
Speaker 1: and carried them in my wallet until September. And now
Speaker 1: Brokaw had gotten me fired because, as my newspaper friend said,
Speaker 1: the Republicans told him to well, that wasn't hard to
Speaker 1: unpack either. Tim Russard had died on the third of
Speaker 1: June that year. I anchored that night until two in
Speaker 1: the morning. It was still an open wound. There were
Speaker 1: still tears. We didn't know it then, but the structure
Speaker 1: of NBC News and the Gurlost tightroupe balancing NBC and
Speaker 1: MSNBC had died with Tim Russard. So did the role
Speaker 1: of moderator of the second debate between John McCain and
Speaker 1: Barack Obama, scheduled for about a month. From my subway
Speaker 1: ride on October seventh, two thousand and eight in Nashville,
Speaker 1: Tim had not even been buried yet when Brokaw began
Speaker 1: to angle to get that assignment that was now vacant,
Speaker 1: along with brushing away the dirt of his Penny Ante
Speaker 1: role on the MSNBC Perspective Desk, leaving us in the
Speaker 1: lurch in order to take over Tim's spot as Brian's
Speaker 1: sage sidekick on Big NBC. The month of four August,
Speaker 1: there had been a story coming out of the east
Speaker 1: end of the third floor at thirty Rock, where NBC
Speaker 1: News managers sat around not doing much of anything, that
Speaker 1: a Republican goon named Ed Gillespie had been in there
Speaker 1: with Griffin and the idiot NBC News president Steve CAPPIs
Speaker 1: trying to get me silenced or fired or off the
Speaker 1: convention coverage or something, and that somebody prominent from NBC
Speaker 1: News was in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie.
Speaker 1: The rumor mill was not confident in who it was
Speaker 1: or what exactly they were doing. That Friday night in
Speaker 1: September two thousand and eight, as I switched from the
Speaker 1: elevated seven train to the underground f the whole thing
Speaker 1: came together before my comments about the GOP Convention nine
Speaker 1: to eleven snuff film, Gillespie had come in and had
Speaker 1: somehow vaguely threatened Cappus and Griffin about me using as
Speaker 1: leverage the debate which Tom Brokaw was now supposed to moderate,
Speaker 1: the one that had been Russerts. And when I apologized
Speaker 1: for their snuff video on our air, Gillespie must have
Speaker 1: turned it into an either or get rid of me
Speaker 1: or McCain would refuse to participate in any debate moderated
Speaker 1: by Brokaw. Tom Brokaw had already come back from the
Speaker 1: dead once in two thousand and eight. I had made
Speaker 1: that happen, and he would be damned if he would
Speaker 1: be forced to do it a second time. But as
Speaker 1: the train took me home to an apartment, I was
Speaker 1: now going to have to sell since I had quit
Speaker 1: MSNBC on the spot for folding to such obvious blackmail,
Speaker 1: something else now occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or
Speaker 1: NBC or our parent corporation GE actually think that they
Speaker 1: could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC, where
Speaker 1: the Rachel Meadow Show had not yet been born and
Speaker 1: was only going to premiere the next week, and the
Speaker 1: three times a night my show ran accounted for something
Speaker 1: like sixty percent of the entire day's network audience and
Speaker 1: all of its profits. How did they think they were
Speaker 1: going to get away with that without a really bad
Speaker 1: reaction from our audience. Plus, if a newspaper man already
Speaker 1: knew the Brokaw part, how could this story be avoided
Speaker 1: something like this. MSNBC has announced it had removed its
Speaker 1: liberal star Keith al Rumman from coverage of the McCain
Speaker 1: Obama presidential debates. Sources confirmed former NBC The News anchorman
Speaker 1: Tom Brokaw, now an MSNBC commentator, had helped the Republican
Speaker 1: Party to blackmail NBC into the decision. Olderman immediately resigned, saying,
Speaker 1: quote in succumbing to this coercion on behalf of John McCain,
Speaker 1: NBC has now forfeited any further right to be called
Speaker 1: a news organization, and I'm sad to say MSNBC, which
Speaker 1: I built, is now dead. At that point, it dawned
Speaker 1: on me that the only thing that could save the
Speaker 1: credibility of the whole NBC News division and the careers
Speaker 1: of Griffin and Cappus and NBC Network President Jeff Zooker,
Speaker 1: and especially Tom Brokaw, was for me to publicly state
Speaker 1: to lie that I had asked to be removed from
Speaker 1: anchoring the debates because the whatever was just too much
Speaker 1: blah blah blah for me, and I felt I should
Speaker 1: just stick to the post debate analysis and commentary and
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah. In short, they would have
Speaker 1: a choice. They could fire me from the debates and
Speaker 1: destroy everything, including the one hundred million dollars a year
Speaker 1: or so in profits NBC was suddenly making off MSNBC
Speaker 1: after years of losing about that much. Or I could
Speaker 1: lie and claim it was my idea and I could
Speaker 1: save everybody's ass and their money, including my own. I
Speaker 1: got out of the subway and raced home. I called
Speaker 1: my agent. I explained it to her. I'm not quitting.
Speaker 1: In fact, I'm going to get a huge raise. Listen carefully,
Speaker 1: you call Griffin back and explain to him I will
Speaker 1: now personally save his job even though he doesn't deserve it,
Speaker 1: and Campuses and Zooker's and bro CAUs and everybody else's
Speaker 1: I'll take the fall instead of letting them get fired
Speaker 1: by the MSNBC audience. I'll say this was my idea
Speaker 1: and it will cost him only twelve million dollars. Oh,
Speaker 1: and he has to leak the fact that it cost
Speaker 1: him twelve million dollars. That's the deal. And she paused
Speaker 1: for a second and she said, hey, that's It might
Speaker 1: not quite be twelve, but I bet I get at
Speaker 1: least nine million. On Sunday, several news organizations reported I
Speaker 1: had asked to be taken off the anchor desk for
Speaker 1: the debates. Two months and one week later, The New
Speaker 1: York Times wrote, quote, Keith Olberman, the anchor of Countdown
Speaker 1: on MSNBC, has extended his contract through the next presidential
Speaker 1: election season. The networking outs mister Olderman and MSNBC essentially
Speaker 1: tore up the four year, four million dollar a year
Speaker 1: contract they signed last year and replaced it with one
Speaker 1: worth about seven and a half million a year. So
Speaker 1: that was a three and a half million dollar raise
Speaker 1: for four years to a total of fourteen million dollars.
Speaker 1: Except the new contract added two years to my old deal,
Speaker 1: so the rays was actually twenty two million dollars. All
Speaker 1: stories have punchlines. This punchline is about brocaw. We would
Speaker 1: have gotten away with this. NBC would have gotten its
Speaker 1: money's worth for the twenty two million and hush money
Speaker 1: it had to pay me because it had rolled over
Speaker 1: for Republican Party blackmail. Except Brokaw couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Speaker 1: So proud was he of preserving his role as moderator
Speaker 1: of the October seventh debate that he had to explain
Speaker 1: in explicit detail how he went to his bosses at
Speaker 1: NBC News and threatened them on behalf of the GOP.
Speaker 1: I mean on the record, he said this September twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: a lengthy and glowing Brokaw profile in The New York Times.
Speaker 1: Quote mister Brokaw said that over the summer he'd quote
Speaker 1: advocated within the executive suite of NBC News to modify
Speaker 1: the anchor duties of the MSNBC hosts Keith Alderman and
Speaker 1: Chris Matthews on election Night and on knights where there
Speaker 1: were presidential debates. Mister Brokaw said he had also conducted
Speaker 1: some shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and the
Speaker 1: McCain campaign. His mission, he said, was to assure the
Speaker 1: candidate's aids that despite some negative on air commentary by
Speaker 1: mister Olberman in particular, mister McCain could still get a
Speaker 1: fair shake from NBC News. Unquote. That was his mission,
Speaker 1: the hell, that was his mission. Happily, broconc just could
Speaker 1: not resist boasting even further. The next sentence reads quote,
Speaker 1: Mister Brokaw said he had been told by a senior
Speaker 1: McCain aide whom he did not name, that the campaign
Speaker 1: had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one
Speaker 1: of the moderators of the three presidential debates until his
Speaker 1: name was invoked. One of the things I was told
Speaker 1: by this person was that they were so irritated. They said,
Speaker 1: if it's an NBC moalorator for any of these debates,
Speaker 1: we won't go. Mister Brocaw said, my name came up,
Speaker 1: and they said, oh hell, we have to do it,
Speaker 1: because it's going to be Brokaw. No insufferable person in
Speaker 1: all of broadcasting history has a better rep and a
Speaker 1: better and more unders rep than Tom Broke All So,
Speaker 1: when a Trump leans on NBC management because the coverage
Speaker 1: that he got was not the coverage he wanted, don't
Speaker 1: think it won't have an effect. Because in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, they loved me then as they love Meadow now.
Speaker 1: But what they loved about each of us was not
Speaker 1: the truth we provided, but the money. There is a
Speaker 1: second punchline, after all, this. When the new format came out,
Speaker 1: MSNBC had David Gregory quote anchor unquote the debate coverage.
Speaker 1: Practically all this meant was that I was on the
Speaker 1: air until ninety seconds before the debates began, which is
Speaker 1: when I said, now here's David Gregory. And he was
Speaker 1: on the air for four or five minutes after the
Speaker 1: debate ended, which is when he would then say, now
Speaker 1: here's Keith Ollerin. And on Election Night, with David officially
Speaker 1: the anchor of MSNBC's coverage, at ten fifty nine pm,
Speaker 1: he said, and bless him for this. With the last
Speaker 1: voting booth closing at eleven p NBC News can now
Speaker 1: project the winner of the two thousand and eight presidential election,
Speaker 1: Keith plus that twenty two million dollars. I still have it.
Speaker 1: I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening. By the way, I got my come
Speaker 1: up ins too, because who was it who the Letterman
Speaker 1: people called when that guy John McCain ended his presidential
Speaker 1: chances the night that he bailed out on Letterman and
Speaker 1: more importantly lied to Letterman about why he was bailing out.
Speaker 1: That was actually the last day John McCain had a
Speaker 1: chance of beating Barack Obama? And who did they call
Speaker 1: to come over and be the guest instead of John
Speaker 1: McCain who's supposed to be on for the whole hour
Speaker 1: on Letterman that night me I got to be a
Speaker 1: witness to Dave Letterman taking John McCain apart at the seams,
Speaker 1: and nobody ever put him back together again. That was
Speaker 1: it that night. And the guy who was the producer
Speaker 1: of by segment, he's now the producer of Morning Joe.
Speaker 1: Life is funny, isn't it? Countdown? Musical directors Brian Ray
Speaker 1: and John Phillip Chanel arranged, produced, and performed most of
Speaker 1: our music. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums,
Speaker 1: and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. It was produced
Speaker 1: by Tko Brothers. Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions,
Speaker 1: arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The
Speaker 1: sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, which
Speaker 1: was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc.
Speaker 1: Our satirical and fifthy musical comments are of course by
Speaker 1: Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever. My announcer
Speaker 1: today was the incomparable Stevie Van Zant. Everything else was
Speaker 1: pretty much my fault, except the farts that are all Trump.
Speaker 1: That's countdown for them. The one hundred and twelfth day
Speaker 1: until the twenty twenty fourth presidential election, but one two
Speaker 1: and eighty seventh day since convicted fellon Donald Trump's first
Speaker 1: attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Speaker 1: Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the mental health system.
Speaker 1: You've got it, President Biden, use the presidential immunity to
Speaker 1: stop him from doing it again while we still can.
Speaker 1: And Republicans, please stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled
Speaker 1: countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as the news requires. Till then,
Speaker 1: I'm Keith Olremman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and
Speaker 1: good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.