WEBVTT - DE-FUND THE TRUMP DICTATORSHIP - 10.27.25 0:00:04.795 --> 0:00:24.115 Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio Breaking News. 0:00:24.515 --> 0:00:28.315 Donald Trump does not own the White House. Donald Trump 0:00:28.355 --> 0:00:31.195 does not own the United States of America. Donald Trump 0:00:31.235 --> 0:00:34.875 does not own the world. Nothing Trump has done in 0:00:34.955 --> 0:00:37.835 sending in thugs and military to attack people that did 0:00:37.875 --> 0:00:40.315 not vote for him in cities and states that do 0:00:40.355 --> 0:00:43.875 not support him is legal. Nothing Trump has done in 0:00:43.955 --> 0:00:48.115 having his nosferatu Stephen Miller threatened Governor Pritzker of Illinois 0:00:48.195 --> 0:00:52.955 with seditious conspiracy is legal. Nothing Trump has done in 0:00:52.995 --> 0:00:55.795 his attempt to begin ethnic cleansing of Hispanics in this 0:00:55.915 --> 0:01:02.075 country Gestapo like raids, kidnappings, deportations is legal. Nothing Trump 0:01:02.155 --> 0:01:05.955 has done in sending so called election monitors to interfere 0:01:06.035 --> 0:01:09.195 in the voting in California and Jersey on behalf of 0:01:09.235 --> 0:01:13.115 the MAGA is legal. Nothing Trump has done to enable 0:01:13.155 --> 0:01:17.755 the passive self neutering of the House and Senate is legal. 0:01:18.355 --> 0:01:21.635 Nothing Trump has done to let him say, supposedly jokingly 0:01:21.915 --> 0:01:25.275 for The New York Times yesterday, I'm the Speaker and 0:01:25.395 --> 0:01:29.475 the President is legal. Nothing Trump has done in his 0:01:29.595 --> 0:01:34.195 demolition against destruction of attack on the East Wing of 0:01:34.235 --> 0:01:37.835 the White House is legal. Nothing Trump has done in 0:01:37.955 --> 0:01:42.475 murdering citizens of other nations in international waters without evidence 0:01:42.715 --> 0:01:46.755 and without a declaration of war, without any congressional oversight. 0:01:46.835 --> 0:01:49.795 None of that is legal. Nothing he has done to 0:01:49.835 --> 0:01:53.435 send battleships to Latin America is legal. Nothing he has 0:01:53.475 --> 0:01:56.635 done to accept money from international sources for himself and 0:01:56.675 --> 0:01:59.635 his family is legal. Nothing he has done to try 0:01:59.635 --> 0:02:02.955 to buy the election for the fascist Malay in Argentina 0:02:03.315 --> 0:02:06.435 is legal. Nothing Trump has done in selling one hundred 0:02:06.475 --> 0:02:09.995 and thirty million dollars worth of influence in the army 0:02:10.275 --> 0:02:15.275 to someone aptly described as a weirdo Nepo baby is legal. 0:02:15.995 --> 0:02:21.315 Almost nothing about the Trump administration, about his presidency, about 0:02:21.355 --> 0:02:27.275 his forming unilateral dictatorship, is legal, and thus it is 0:02:27.315 --> 0:02:31.795 time to cut him off financially, to take the one 0:02:31.835 --> 0:02:36.035 measure that will force an end to this trumpion madness 0:02:36.435 --> 0:02:40.795 for the Blue States to follow up on Governor Newsom's suggestion, 0:02:41.315 --> 0:02:45.115 on the suggestion of others including me in this forum, 0:02:45.635 --> 0:02:50.795 and stop transmitting federal taxes from the States to the 0:02:50.915 --> 0:03:01.555 National Treasury until Trump resigns as president period. We must 0:03:01.635 --> 0:03:06.515 have a state led tax payment boycott, and it must 0:03:06.515 --> 0:03:10.955 be led by governors and other state officials, so that 0:03:10.995 --> 0:03:13.475 there can be no attempt by Trump or his enablers 0:03:13.475 --> 0:03:17.955 and flunkies and whorees to prosecute or further threaten democracy 0:03:18.035 --> 0:03:21.915 loving civilians. For more than our two hundred and fifty 0:03:21.995 --> 0:03:24.515 years as a nation, we have proudly recited the phrase 0:03:24.595 --> 0:03:29.475 no taxation without representation, and it is pastime to apply 0:03:29.595 --> 0:03:32.835 it here. And it is essential that governors like Newsom 0:03:32.835 --> 0:03:36.355 and Pritzker and Hokel and others in the majority states 0:03:36.995 --> 0:03:41.035 protect their citizens who are being subject to taxation without 0:03:41.075 --> 0:03:46.515 representation and without democracy, and for them the governors to 0:03:46.515 --> 0:03:51.675 take responsibility for these acts. The state of California must 0:03:51.675 --> 0:03:55.315 refuse to send any funds it can control to Washington. 0:03:55.475 --> 0:03:59.035 The state of Illinois must refuse to send any funds 0:03:59.035 --> 0:04:01.795 it can control to Washington. The state of New York 0:04:02.115 --> 0:04:05.715 must refuse to send any funds it can control to Washington. 0:04:06.355 --> 0:04:09.075 And if it wrecks the world economy, so be it. 0:04:09.355 --> 0:04:11.715 That will be better than what we have now and 0:04:11.755 --> 0:04:17.155 what is coming under Trump. Donald Trump is now a 0:04:17.275 --> 0:04:23.595 rogue dictator. He is almost completely and fully outside the law. 0:04:24.355 --> 0:04:28.715 He is engorging himself with public funds. He is insisting 0:04:28.715 --> 0:04:31.955 the government fix the twenty twenty election when it was 0:04:32.075 --> 0:04:36.035 his government and everybody he has demanded be prosecuted for it, 0:04:36.075 --> 0:04:38.955 except as FBI director was not in the government in 0:04:39.035 --> 0:04:42.995 twenty twenty. That's how effing crazy this ass whole is. 0:04:45.995 --> 0:04:50.195 He is destroying not just government buildings without any legal authorization, 0:04:50.635 --> 0:04:53.955 He is destroying symbols of the American nation without any 0:04:54.035 --> 0:04:58.195 legal authorization. He is deranging our public discourse. He is 0:04:58.315 --> 0:05:01.835 destroying our public safety. He is threatening the lives of 0:05:01.915 --> 0:05:06.235 everyone in this country and the only that works in America. 0:05:06.355 --> 0:05:11.395 Right now, money used as a weapon must be used 0:05:11.435 --> 0:05:14.715 to freeze him where he stands so that this nation 0:05:15.035 --> 0:05:19.075 can roll back the years and decades of damage he 0:05:19.155 --> 0:05:48.835 has done. Now now, now dfund Donald Trump. That quote 0:05:48.875 --> 0:05:51.875 I mentioned from the New York Times story yesterday, quote, 0:05:51.955 --> 0:05:55.795 I'm the speaker and the president, mister Trump has joked. 0:05:55.875 --> 0:05:59.035 According to two people who heard the remark, that may 0:05:59.075 --> 0:06:01.635 be the least surprising news item of the year. But 0:06:01.835 --> 0:06:05.275 seeing Maga go on the record in that Time story, 0:06:05.315 --> 0:06:09.515 Steve Bannon is quoted. Representatives Kylie and Van Dine are 0:06:09.595 --> 0:06:12.875 quoted seeing him go on the record to carve up 0:06:12.995 --> 0:06:17.795 Mike tiny flaccid Johnson suggests Trump is not only forcing 0:06:17.835 --> 0:06:20.915 this impotent Johnson to do all the dirty work, but 0:06:20.995 --> 0:06:26.555 then blaming him for the inevitable results. I have no 0:06:26.675 --> 0:06:29.475 sympathy for Johnson. This is the hell he has created 0:06:29.515 --> 0:06:33.875 for himself. It's just interesting, as in, He's going to 0:06:33.875 --> 0:06:37.395 throw Johnson overboard soon, isn't he. We're going to go 0:06:37.475 --> 0:06:42.075 through all that again with the Speaker of the House. Now, 0:06:42.115 --> 0:06:44.555 the headline today should not be that. It should be 0:06:44.635 --> 0:06:48.155 this story that Trump is sending election observers to New 0:06:48.195 --> 0:06:52.435 Jersey and California. It's straight up Jim Crow Southern voter intimidation. 0:06:53.955 --> 0:06:56.315 But I can understand and give a pass to the 0:06:56.355 --> 0:06:59.195 fact that it's difficult to pick out the headline from 0:06:59.195 --> 0:07:04.035 this kaleidoscope of shit Trump drops on us all every day. 0:07:05.075 --> 0:07:08.635 I'm beginning to suspect the video was not AI hell, 0:07:08.755 --> 0:07:12.275 I didn't lead with the election observers. Plus, it is 0:07:12.635 --> 0:07:17.235 tough when you realize Trump announces he's building an arc 0:07:19.075 --> 0:07:23.675 the election observers in a moment, let's let's let's let's 0:07:23.715 --> 0:07:28.315 talk arc. I don't know if he's crazy enough to 0:07:28.355 --> 0:07:32.395 think he's building Noah's arc. I don't know if he's 0:07:32.395 --> 0:07:36.235 crazy enough to think he's building a space arc like 0:07:36.355 --> 0:07:38.675 Musk wants. I don't know if he's crazy enough to 0:07:38.675 --> 0:07:43.715 think the word arch A R C H, common everyday 0:07:43.755 --> 0:07:47.795 English word like the thing he wants to build to 0:07:47.995 --> 0:07:52.835 march troops through in DC. The arc to Trump, I 0:07:52.875 --> 0:07:59.035 don't know which crazy it is. He thinks it's arc 0:07:59.115 --> 0:08:04.035 as in French, but it's arch. But he says he's 0:08:04.035 --> 0:08:06.275 building an R and he's going to illegally spend some 0:08:06.355 --> 0:08:08.955 of the illegal money for the illegal ballroom on this 0:08:09.075 --> 0:08:12.595 illegal arc. You think I'm exaggerating. 0:08:12.795 --> 0:08:15.675 You know, we're building the arc, and maybe we use 0:08:15.715 --> 0:08:20.915 it for the arc. Looks like we might. You know, 0:08:20.915 --> 0:08:23.595 we're going to be building the arc now. We've raised 0:08:23.595 --> 0:08:25.515 a lot of money for the ballroom, so maybe we'll 0:08:25.555 --> 0:08:29.995 But the ARC is going to be incredible for Washington, DCA, 0:08:30.315 --> 0:08:31.835 so maybe we use it for the arc. 0:08:32.475 --> 0:08:39.475 So you're building an arc, hi, buddy? Okay, how many 0:08:39.595 --> 0:08:41.515 things a week does Trump say that we get anybody 0:08:41.515 --> 0:08:46.315 else in this country forcibly committed. Then there is the 0:08:46.355 --> 0:08:49.115 latest on the ballroom and the destruction of part of 0:08:49.155 --> 0:08:52.835 the White House. You know, Trump bringing to fruition the 0:08:52.915 --> 0:08:58.395 nine to eleven terrorist plot of Osama bin Laden the 0:08:58.475 --> 0:09:03.355 new ballroom and airplane hangar. It's going to cost two 0:09:03.435 --> 0:09:06.155 hundred million. Oh no, t oh no, three hundred Oh, 0:09:06.155 --> 0:09:09.275 I said three hundred and fifty. But it's privately funded 0:09:09.315 --> 0:09:13.475 with corporate bribes, meaning it's fine because it's privately funded. 0:09:13.515 --> 0:09:17.795 But of course No Kings is a communist plot because 0:09:17.795 --> 0:09:24.275 some of the logistics for it were privately funded. Privately 0:09:24.315 --> 0:09:30.595 funded communism. Plus, what is the problem about how much 0:09:30.635 --> 0:09:35.995 it's gonna cost? A woman named Cheryl Cassone on Fox, 0:09:36.475 --> 0:09:39.795 who once was an actual CNBC business reporter and is 0:09:39.835 --> 0:09:42.795 now at the I'll say anything to stay in the 0:09:42.835 --> 0:09:49.275 TV business stage, emitted this perfectly symmetrical sophistry in defense 0:09:49.635 --> 0:09:55.515 of what are certain to be endless cost overruns on 0:09:55.595 --> 0:09:59.675 the only building big enough to house Trump's ego quote 0:10:00.395 --> 0:10:02.635 that going after him about the cost. Initially he said 0:10:02.675 --> 0:10:03.995 it was going to be two hundred million. Now it's 0:10:03.995 --> 0:10:07.115 like three hundred million. Oh no, construction cost, You're higher 0:10:07.115 --> 0:10:10.395 than what the original budget or quote was shocking. Let's 0:10:10.395 --> 0:10:15.755 call the National Guard in give me a break unquote 0:10:15.915 --> 0:10:21.035 national Guard, you say, miss Cassone. Interesting reference. Trump does 0:10:21.115 --> 0:10:24.435 call in the National Guard for everything else. Why isn't 0:10:24.475 --> 0:10:29.635 he calling in the National Guard here? It's only fifty 0:10:29.755 --> 0:10:35.435 seventy five percent over the cost Social Security has been 0:10:35.475 --> 0:10:39.155 cut passive aggressively. Starting in January, the cost of living 0:10:39.235 --> 0:10:42.155 adjustment will be two point eight percent. The average annual 0:10:42.195 --> 0:10:45.035 increase in the last decade had been three point one percent, 0:10:45.755 --> 0:10:49.955 so it's ten percent less and with inflation at three percent, 0:10:50.395 --> 0:10:55.435 Trump has just made seventy one million Americans ten percent poor. 0:10:57.555 --> 0:11:00.275 Seventeen million Americans will pay thirty percent more for the 0:11:00.315 --> 0:11:08.635 Trump version of Obamacare. He makes billionss arches and ballrooms. 0:11:09.355 --> 0:11:13.235 We pay thousands. We sent twenty billion to try to 0:11:13.275 --> 0:11:16.555 save Milay of Argentina without even getting a guarantee that 0:11:16.555 --> 0:11:19.635 he's going to get a grown up haircut, one that 0:11:19.675 --> 0:11:21.915 would make him not look like the late great comedian 0:11:21.995 --> 0:11:28.755 Marty Allen. Google Marty Allen. It'll be worth it. Oh yeah, 0:11:28.795 --> 0:11:32.115 and he's declared he can kill people at whim, murder them, 0:11:32.915 --> 0:11:38.075 but happily they're just foreigners right now. Anyway, if you 0:11:38.235 --> 0:11:41.715 are declaring war against these cartels, and Congress is likely 0:11:41.835 --> 0:11:45.515 to approve of that process, why not just ask for 0:11:45.515 --> 0:11:46.515 a declaration of war. 0:11:47.675 --> 0:11:50.475 Well, I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for 0:11:50.515 --> 0:11:53.155 a declaration of war. I think we're just going to 0:11:53.275 --> 0:11:56.595 kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay, 0:11:56.715 --> 0:11:57.635 we're going to kill them. 0:11:57.915 --> 0:12:00.675 You know, they're going to be like dead. He can't. 0:12:00.755 --> 0:12:06.155 By the way, those will be war crimes. All the 0:12:06.195 --> 0:12:08.715 next president has to do is turn him over to 0:12:08.755 --> 0:12:12.155 the International Court. I really would like to see one 0:12:12.155 --> 0:12:15.275 of the hopefuls on the democratic side swear right now 0:12:15.315 --> 0:12:18.035 that they will turn him over to the international Court. 0:12:21.235 --> 0:12:23.795 This whole idea about moderation and don't run against Trump 0:12:23.915 --> 0:12:29.075 is bullshit. It is deliberately designed by people whose money 0:12:29.195 --> 0:12:33.915 depends on the infrastructure of politics continuing unchanged. Doesn't matter 0:12:34.075 --> 0:12:40.595 if we're fascist, communist, democratic, doesn't matter who's in charge, 0:12:40.715 --> 0:12:43.675 just as long as all of their jobs at the 0:12:43.795 --> 0:12:48.875 Washington Post still exists or at the State Department. There 0:12:48.995 --> 0:12:52.115 is a deep state. It is not nefarious. It is 0:12:52.115 --> 0:12:59.395 simply self preserving. Do not say, oh, we need to 0:12:59.435 --> 0:13:02.795 be moderate Democrats, don't run against Trump. The guy who 0:13:02.835 --> 0:13:05.955 says I will put Trump behind bars, come hell or 0:13:06.035 --> 0:13:09.555 high water is the one who gets the nomination. And 0:13:09.635 --> 0:13:16.595 I'm using guy generally. Man, woman, I don't care. Speaking 0:13:16.595 --> 0:13:21.075 of which, there's Harmeit Dillon, who also should be turned 0:13:21.115 --> 0:13:23.675 over to the International Court. One of the worst of 0:13:23.755 --> 0:13:27.675 the Trumpsts, a tenth rate lawyer used to represent Tulsey 0:13:27.715 --> 0:13:31.435 skunk Air Gabbard is now in charge of civil rights 0:13:31.515 --> 0:13:34.915 at the DOJ that would be protecting white people from 0:13:35.075 --> 0:13:41.075 laws the civil rights It's her department that will be 0:13:41.155 --> 0:13:45.075 asked to monitor polling sites in Passaic County, New Jersey, 0:13:45.195 --> 0:13:49.275 and five California counties La, Orange, Kern, Riverside, and Fresno 0:13:49.555 --> 0:13:54.555 to quote insure transparency, ballot security and compliance with federal law. 0:13:56.075 --> 0:13:59.515 In other words, those counties that did not vote Republican 0:13:59.595 --> 0:14:03.515 and Trump wants monitors there will they be accompanied by 0:14:03.515 --> 0:14:08.115 the National Guard, and the monitors and whoever is with 0:14:08.235 --> 0:14:13.075 them will intimidate Democratic voters. Just a coincidence that California 0:14:13.115 --> 0:14:18.315 will be voting on redrawing the election map. In recent elections, 0:14:18.475 --> 0:14:21.675 we have received reports of irregularities in these counties that 0:14:21.755 --> 0:14:24.395 we fear will undermine either the willingness of voters to 0:14:24.475 --> 0:14:27.435 participate in the election or their confidence in the announced 0:14:27.435 --> 0:14:32.115 results of the election, writes the MAGA GOP chairwoman Korn 0:14:32.195 --> 0:14:36.995 Rankin of California. I'll translate that from MAGA to English. 0:14:37.955 --> 0:14:41.475 The irregularities are Republicans can't win in those counties. There 0:14:41.475 --> 0:14:44.155 aren't enough of them. This is how voting works. You 0:14:44.275 --> 0:14:48.915 have more votes, you win. So the translation is we 0:14:48.955 --> 0:14:53.115 can't win, so we have to fix the election. You 0:14:53.115 --> 0:14:55.635 want to send election observers into New Jersey to find 0:14:55.675 --> 0:14:58.595 out why the Republicans keep running candidates even worse than 0:14:58.595 --> 0:15:01.995 the Democrats find in New Jersey, I'll listen to that intervention. 0:15:02.475 --> 0:15:05.235 As to California, korn Rankin, shove it up up your ass. 0:15:06.875 --> 0:15:10.315 One note from twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four. 0:15:10.355 --> 0:15:15.035 The DOJ wanted to send monitors to actual troubled voting areas. 0:15:15.555 --> 0:15:21.875 They were prevented prevented by local officials local Republican officials 0:15:21.915 --> 0:15:28.395 in Missouri and Florida. As to California and Jersey, governor's 0:15:28.475 --> 0:15:31.035 Newsom and Murphy should get on the jump here, call 0:15:31.075 --> 0:15:33.675 out the National Guard in their states and arrest the 0:15:33.755 --> 0:15:37.515 quote election observers as soon as they get off the plane, 0:15:37.675 --> 0:15:40.195 or if they're not going by plane, climb out of 0:15:40.235 --> 0:15:47.555 the closest HARMEI Dylan Sewer in a totally different kind 0:15:47.595 --> 0:15:50.475 of election observation Here is my observation about the main 0:15:50.635 --> 0:15:53.515 Senate election. Graham Plattner had to drop out last week. 0:15:53.555 --> 0:15:55.875 He did not. He has to drop out even more 0:15:55.955 --> 0:16:01.475 this week. Yes, he has a Nazi tattoo. He's covered 0:16:01.515 --> 0:16:04.435 it up. Now, the Nazi tattoo did not bother as 0:16:04.435 --> 0:16:06.795 many many people as I thought it was gonna. I 0:16:06.875 --> 0:16:11.195 had to admit surprise there. I'm not easily surprised anymore. 0:16:12.075 --> 0:16:15.395 But how about this? Does this bother anybody? It looks 0:16:15.435 --> 0:16:18.755 like he lied about not knowing it was a Nazi 0:16:18.835 --> 0:16:26.875 symbol in his tattoo on his body. Get out. His 0:16:26.955 --> 0:16:34.635 supporters renounced him, including Bernie Sanders, renounce Graham Plattner. Graham 0:16:34.635 --> 0:16:38.555 Platner has no judgment, no hesitation to lie his way 0:16:38.555 --> 0:16:41.835 out of a problem. We already have enough people like that. 0:16:43.795 --> 0:16:46.355 CNN reported that he knew about it more than a 0:16:46.435 --> 0:16:49.995 decade ago, talked about it, wrote about it online. I'll 0:16:50.075 --> 0:16:53.715 just read the k file report quote. Jewish Insider first 0:16:53.755 --> 0:16:57.875 reported about the former acquaintance who recalled Platner referring to 0:16:57.915 --> 0:17:03.715 the image as my totin cough unquote in a joking way. 0:17:03.755 --> 0:17:06.915 More than a decade ago. CNN spoke with that same 0:17:06.955 --> 0:17:10.235 acquaintance who reiterated the recollection. CNN also spoke with an 0:17:10.275 --> 0:17:12.915 acquaintance of Platner for more than a decade ago, who 0:17:12.915 --> 0:17:16.475 said Platner spoke about his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. 0:17:16.795 --> 0:17:19.195 A second person told CNN that they learned of the 0:17:19.195 --> 0:17:22.435 tattoo years ago from the acquaintance, who told them that 0:17:22.475 --> 0:17:30.475 Platner had described it as a Nazi style design. CNN 0:17:30.635 --> 0:17:33.835 also reviewed a text chain between the acquaintance and another 0:17:33.915 --> 0:17:38.595 person discussing Platner's Nazi liank tattoo several months ago before 0:17:38.635 --> 0:17:43.875 the story became public, using to continue the CNN report 0:17:44.275 --> 0:17:50.115 his longtime Reddit handle p Hustle. The former Marine infantryryman 0:17:50.275 --> 0:17:53.435 and future Democratic Senate hopeful, also argued in a twenty 0:17:53.515 --> 0:17:57.635 twenty online discussion that SS lightning bolt tattoos were a 0:17:57.755 --> 0:18:02.995 culture marker within Marine Scout sniper units, not an expression 0:18:03.035 --> 0:18:07.355 of white supremacist ideology. When commenters in the twenty twenty 0:18:07.355 --> 0:18:10.915 thread described the lightning bolts as a Nazi or racist symbol, 0:18:11.195 --> 0:18:14.715 Platnir dismissed the criticism, writing that outsiders quote have no 0:18:14.795 --> 0:18:17.195 idea what they're talking about, and added I will be 0:18:17.235 --> 0:18:19.795 sure to inform the black guys I know with bolts 0:18:19.995 --> 0:18:25.315 that they're Nazis now, so the symbol he didn't know 0:18:26.595 --> 0:18:30.915 was believed to be was interpreted as was a Nazi 0:18:30.955 --> 0:18:34.155 symbol he was denying was a Nazi symbol five years 0:18:34.195 --> 0:18:40.435 ago and making reference to the word Nazi. If somehow 0:18:40.475 --> 0:18:43.595 you still don't think this is disqualifying or that there's 0:18:43.635 --> 0:18:46.795 some kind of other explanation, let me ask you this. 0:18:48.115 --> 0:18:51.275 The guy's response to the story breaking was to cover 0:18:51.395 --> 0:18:58.355 it up figuratively first then literally, So what's the next story, 0:18:58.675 --> 0:19:01.115 and what's he going to do about that story? And 0:19:01.195 --> 0:19:05.195 who knows that story? Right now? Who knows that story 0:19:05.235 --> 0:19:08.155 and is just saving it so it can be used 0:19:08.235 --> 0:19:12.035 at the right moment to give us another six years 0:19:12.315 --> 0:19:21.435 of Susan fing Collins Now another edition of It's called 0:19:21.475 --> 0:19:25.395 a news medium because it's neither rare nor well done. 0:19:25.595 --> 0:19:29.635 Bill Maher, Olivia newsy Comcast, Cheryl Hines, Brett Bhar, Brett 0:19:29.635 --> 0:19:34.795 Behar first to CBS to do the CBS Evening News, 0:19:36.195 --> 0:19:39.155 the latest ratings at Fox for the Brett Baer News 0:19:40.595 --> 0:19:45.275 Propaganda caston eight hundred and sixty two thousand viewers. Latest 0:19:45.275 --> 0:19:48.715 CBS Evening News viewership three million, six hundred and sixty 0:19:48.755 --> 0:19:52.795 one thousand. If there is one move to make to 0:19:52.955 --> 0:19:56.875 kill off the CBS Evening News before the end of 0:19:56.915 --> 0:19:59.995 the year, maybe it is to alienate the audience which 0:20:00.035 --> 0:20:03.355 agrees with its producers, whether or not you or I do. 0:20:04.195 --> 0:20:07.595 Aliena the audience which agrees with its producers that the 0:20:07.595 --> 0:20:11.275 CBS Evening News is a good and politically accurate or 0:20:11.315 --> 0:20:16.195 politically neutral newscast. Alienate them by putting on someone scene 0:20:16.275 --> 0:20:19.915 as a right wing nutjob who is quoted in the 0:20:20.035 --> 0:20:23.435 lawsuits which Fox had to settle for umpteen million dollars 0:20:23.835 --> 0:20:31.115 as an unapologetic, utterly biased right wing propagandist. TV executives 0:20:31.635 --> 0:20:36.235 experienced TV executives, not the dozens of Barry Weiss's who 0:20:36.275 --> 0:20:39.595 have been put in charge only to fail almost immediately, 0:20:39.995 --> 0:20:42.275 the ones who come and go every eighteen months or so. 0:20:42.355 --> 0:20:46.195 Somewhere in television. They have always believed that an audience 0:20:46.235 --> 0:20:49.875 can be picked up and moved from one network to 0:20:49.915 --> 0:20:57.595 the other without losing any viewers. It's madness. This is 0:20:57.595 --> 0:21:00.875 why they hired Megan Kelly at NBC. Look at all 0:21:00.875 --> 0:21:06.395 those viewers will get years before they'd hired Rita from 0:21:06.635 --> 0:21:08.955 Fox News on the weekends and said, look at her 0:21:08.995 --> 0:21:10.835 numbers on the weekends. They're bigger than our numbers on 0:21:10.875 --> 0:21:13.115 the week We'll put her on MSNBC and she'll get 0:21:13.115 --> 0:21:15.315 those numbers. She didn't get those numbers because she was 0:21:15.355 --> 0:21:17.515 any good. She got those numbers because she was on Fox. 0:21:20.355 --> 0:21:24.435 It is madness. We're gonna move that audience from one 0:21:24.475 --> 0:21:27.955 network to another. We're gonna move Brett Beher's audience to CBS. 0:21:28.035 --> 0:21:30.675 It's like deciding you're gonna move a river by picking 0:21:30.755 --> 0:21:34.955 up the water in the palms of your hands. Thirty 0:21:35.035 --> 0:21:39.115 years ago, when ESPN launched ESPN two, the thought was 0:21:39.795 --> 0:21:42.875 all the younger viewers in America, all the sports fans 0:21:42.995 --> 0:21:46.795 under say thirty five, they're gonna go watch the new 0:21:47.115 --> 0:21:50.835 hip ESPN two. You can tell it's hip, it has 0:21:50.955 --> 0:21:54.675 two in it. Well, just before we launched ESPN two, 0:21:54.755 --> 0:21:59.155 the executive who postulated this, who, by the way, was 0:21:59.195 --> 0:22:03.435 not originally television. He was a newspaper and magazine guy. 0:22:03.715 --> 0:22:06.475 He had many good eydea is, but probably ninety seven 0:22:06.475 --> 0:22:09.075 out of one hundred of them were disasters. The other 0:22:09.115 --> 0:22:11.715 three put them in the Hall of fame. But this 0:22:11.835 --> 0:22:16.115 executive postulated that it would be a great idea that 0:22:16.275 --> 0:22:18.835 we should start a network for fans under thirty five. 0:22:18.875 --> 0:22:21.195 He asked me if I knew which program in all 0:22:21.235 --> 0:22:25.555 of television Hall already had that audience. Which program, he 0:22:25.635 --> 0:22:28.795 asked me, in all of television has the audience with 0:22:28.875 --> 0:22:32.155 the highest percentage of its viewers who are under thirty five. 0:22:33.715 --> 0:22:35.355 I said, I assumed that had to be some show 0:22:35.395 --> 0:22:38.835 on MTV, and the executive laughed and proudly said, No, 0:22:39.635 --> 0:22:45.635 it's your show, the eleven PM SportsCenter. I thought for 0:22:45.675 --> 0:22:49.195 a second, and then I said, wait, that's the show 0:22:49.235 --> 0:22:53.755 you're taking me off to go do this You already have. 0:22:54.715 --> 0:22:58.355 We already have the audience under the age of thirty five, 0:22:58.875 --> 0:23:01.195 and they're watching me on the show I'm doing now. 0:23:01.235 --> 0:23:04.115 They live at SportsCenter, and you're going to start at 0:23:04.275 --> 0:23:08.635 ESPN two, and you're kicking them out of SportsCenter and 0:23:08.755 --> 0:23:11.715 kicking me out of SportsCenter and expecting us to go 0:23:11.835 --> 0:23:14.315 watch this new thing. Most of them don't even get 0:23:14.355 --> 0:23:18.315 on their cable systems. You already have these viewers, and 0:23:18.355 --> 0:23:21.195 you just told them to get lost, and you just 0:23:21.275 --> 0:23:23.435 paid me more money to go do this other show 0:23:24.035 --> 0:23:30.475 to get the audience we already have. He paused, and 0:23:30.515 --> 0:23:33.475 then a blank look crossed his face, which was pretty 0:23:33.515 --> 0:23:39.075 blank to begin with, and he said, hmm, I have 0:23:39.155 --> 0:23:44.395 to go make a few phone calls. I was back 0:23:44.435 --> 0:23:49.195 on SportsCenter seven months later. I know Bret Bhar a 0:23:49.235 --> 0:23:52.115 little bit. He's not a journalist. He thinks he's a journalist. 0:23:52.395 --> 0:23:55.315 He might be tempted to go anchor the CBS Evening 0:23:55.395 --> 0:24:01.835 News because Cronkite did, unless he thinks about it. And 0:24:01.875 --> 0:24:04.435 while he is not a journalist, he's also not a moron. 0:24:04.795 --> 0:24:06.675 I am not convinced I can say that about Barry 0:24:06.675 --> 0:24:08.995 Weiss and the people who just took over CBS News, who, 0:24:09.075 --> 0:24:11.395 if they put a right wing ideologue in the anchor chair, 0:24:11.755 --> 0:24:14.355 will be able to lose even more money more quickly 0:24:14.395 --> 0:24:22.315 than anybody believes possible. Meanwhile, over at NBC, Comcast has 0:24:22.315 --> 0:24:25.435 been identified as one of the firms playing for Trump's 0:24:25.555 --> 0:24:32.235 ballroom and memorial airplane hangar, paying and playing, but playing 0:24:34.435 --> 0:24:38.355 that makes NBC News and MSNBC and CNBC and all 0:24:38.395 --> 0:24:44.915 the rest untrustworthy. That is what Bob Eiger bought for 0:24:45.035 --> 0:24:49.955 ABC News. Then he swerved away somewhat anyway over the 0:24:50.035 --> 0:24:55.635 Kimmel and Disney plus subscriptions disaster. He may have avoided 0:24:55.875 --> 0:25:00.195 the acts CBS has not. It already went there irretrievably. 0:25:02.595 --> 0:25:07.995 But the question is comcast in. They're right on the precipice. 0:25:08.155 --> 0:25:11.155 Does a company, especially a company that does news for 0:25:11.355 --> 0:25:14.635 money in many different venues, does it have the right 0:25:14.675 --> 0:25:18.315 to pay a bribe in order to avoid unjustifiable and 0:25:18.355 --> 0:25:24.475 retaliatory prosecution. I'm not sure the answer is no. If 0:25:24.475 --> 0:25:27.875 there is no other way to save yourself from getting shot, 0:25:28.395 --> 0:25:32.755 do you give the hold up man the money? The 0:25:32.835 --> 0:25:39.155 key is, is there no other way? Bill Maher In 0:25:39.195 --> 0:25:43.555 the New York Mayor's race, my old college frenemie has 0:25:43.675 --> 0:25:49.555 endorsed the sheep in sheep's clothing. Andrew Cuomo may not 0:25:49.595 --> 0:25:53.115 be that exciting, mar said, and that inspirational, but for 0:25:53.155 --> 0:25:55.035 a party that said we want to go back to normal, 0:25:55.275 --> 0:25:59.555 he's kind of normal. Yeah, yeah, Bill, You hear the 0:25:59.595 --> 0:26:05.155 word normal a lot when people mention Cuomo. Guests then 0:26:05.195 --> 0:26:07.795 pointed out that Cuomo resigned as governor of New York. 0:26:08.155 --> 0:26:10.635 A federal investigation concluded that he had been a sex 0:26:10.755 --> 0:26:16.435 pest or worse to at least thirteen female staffers. Plus 0:26:16.515 --> 0:26:18.915 there were all those dead people in the nursing homes. 0:26:20.035 --> 0:26:24.915 That's not normal for a governor. Bill mar said, Oh no, 0:26:25.075 --> 0:26:28.555 I did my own research before having Cuomo on his show. 0:26:28.835 --> 0:26:31.155 Quote a lot of it's kind of bullshit. I mean, 0:26:31.195 --> 0:26:33.995 maybe he was a little too handsy, a little too Italian, 0:26:34.315 --> 0:26:40.275 a little too touchy. You know. Why would Bill Maher 0:26:40.795 --> 0:26:45.395 defend Cuomo and dismiss all of that and those thirteen 0:26:45.475 --> 0:26:53.195 women with the phrase maybe he was a little too handsy. Well, 0:26:53.235 --> 0:26:58.195 take a guess. Also, it's time to confess for the 0:26:58.275 --> 0:27:00.995 last six or seven years that I would go to 0:27:01.155 --> 0:27:05.035 LA to appear on Bill Mahers show, like the yearsenty 0:27:05.115 --> 0:27:09.475 ten to twenty seventeen, I did it. I did it because, 0:27:10.355 --> 0:27:13.315 as many of my fellow guests would admit to one another, 0:27:14.155 --> 0:27:16.675 but only out of earshot. Maybe we're in the parking 0:27:16.715 --> 0:27:20.235 lot going to have a smoke or something. We went 0:27:20.475 --> 0:27:24.955 because because they spent money, they would fly us round 0:27:24.995 --> 0:27:29.515 trip from the East Coast first class. Hell. I used 0:27:29.555 --> 0:27:36.675 to plan my business trips and vacations around it. I'm sorry. Plus, 0:27:36.715 --> 0:27:39.195 back to the hands the part when I went on 0:27:39.355 --> 0:27:43.035 his old ABC show. An acquaintance who was one of 0:27:43.075 --> 0:27:44.915 the producers who had called me and asked me to 0:27:44.915 --> 0:27:47.155 be on it, told me, whatever I did, do not 0:27:47.475 --> 0:27:54.475 shake Bill's hand before we taped. He's he's probably uh. 0:27:55.475 --> 0:27:57.115 Took her a long time to get the rest of 0:27:57.115 --> 0:28:03.835 her remark out. He he's probably uh just warmed up, 0:28:05.035 --> 0:28:12.675 if you get my meaning. But they flew us first 0:28:12.675 --> 0:28:17.355 class on the same subject and not the airplane part. 0:28:17.475 --> 0:28:21.835 How do insane confidence men and alleged on camera masturbators 0:28:21.875 --> 0:28:27.395 like Robert Kennedy Junior survive? Let alone succeed because a 0:28:27.475 --> 0:28:30.915 thousand people on the fringes do nothing about him. One 0:28:30.955 --> 0:28:35.155 of those people is Cheryl Hines. She went on the 0:28:35.155 --> 0:28:39.235 podcast of the Almost as Strange, wife of Stephen Miller 0:28:39.315 --> 0:28:43.195 Katie Miller, who asked her about quote rumors or speculation 0:28:43.395 --> 0:28:49.355 about her marriage. Miller was asking about how much her 0:28:49.435 --> 0:28:51.235 husband f surround. 0:28:53.835 --> 0:28:53.995 Ms. 0:28:54.075 --> 0:28:56.755 Hines, who I do not know, answered in perfect Stepford 0:28:56.795 --> 0:28:59.715 wife manner. I think you always have to consider the source, right, 0:28:59.755 --> 0:29:03.355 So that's where I start. Then Miller asked about my 0:29:03.635 --> 0:29:08.195 ex Olivia. The denial doubled quote. Bobby had been running 0:29:08.235 --> 0:29:10.635 for president and it was an exhausting year and a 0:29:10.675 --> 0:29:13.475 half of headlines and rumors and articles in chaos, and 0:29:13.595 --> 0:29:16.275 at that time I thought, Okay, this is more chaos 0:29:16.315 --> 0:29:19.355 and more rumors, and it was a lot. I don't 0:29:19.435 --> 0:29:22.635 know this person, don't know their intentions. I could guess, 0:29:22.715 --> 0:29:27.795 but I won't, but you can if you want. Cheryl 0:29:29.795 --> 0:29:36.595 doesn't matter if you know her. It matters that Kennedy 0:29:36.675 --> 0:29:41.835 knows her and how he knows her. How close to 0:29:41.875 --> 0:29:48.435 the Biblical knows is this? And consider the source. You're 0:29:48.475 --> 0:29:52.115 married to Bobby Kennedy Junior, possibly the worst source in 0:29:52.155 --> 0:30:00.875 America next to Trump. But consider the source. I don't. 0:30:01.595 --> 0:30:06.075 I think perhaps I've noted here that I'm not attacking 0:30:06.155 --> 0:30:09.435 my ex, but I'm certainly not carrying water for her. 0:30:09.475 --> 0:30:12.955 But consider the there's a publisher putting out her book. 0:30:13.275 --> 0:30:16.795 The publisher can be sued if any of her allegations 0:30:16.795 --> 0:30:18.715 are untrue, and she is going to go into the 0:30:18.755 --> 0:30:23.155 whole Kennedy thing. And then there's her more recent ex 0:30:24.075 --> 0:30:27.755 whom she did sue, who she tried to get arrested, 0:30:28.195 --> 0:30:31.475 and then something happened and suddenly she wasn't suing him, 0:30:31.555 --> 0:30:33.915 and she was quote leaving her job, and oh, the 0:30:33.995 --> 0:30:36.395 FBI was no longer involved, and we all know what 0:30:36.475 --> 0:30:39.755 that something had happened had to have been to get 0:30:39.755 --> 0:30:44.755 her to drop all the theatrics. That's something that had 0:30:44.755 --> 0:30:48.275 to have happened that provided all those exquisite details and 0:30:48.475 --> 0:30:54.195 quotes about her interactions with Kennedy and all the I 0:30:54.275 --> 0:30:59.435 want to impregnate you stuff and the other stuff that 0:30:59.675 --> 0:31:01.835 led me to say, I'm still grossed out. And I 0:31:01.875 --> 0:31:09.875 lived with her for three years. Somebody has a transcript 0:31:10.075 --> 0:31:18.155 of or more likely a recording of them on on 0:31:18.475 --> 0:31:30.755 FaceTime or some part of the body time. Hey, you 0:31:33.675 --> 0:31:38.635 also of interest here, Anna Paulina Luna? Could she be 0:31:38.875 --> 0:31:42.955 the dumbest Republican congresswoman? What do your rankings look like? 0:31:43.235 --> 0:31:48.075 How is your bracket? Could she really be dimmer than McCain, 0:31:49.795 --> 0:31:54.795 McLain that was a Freudian slip, Bobert Green and the others? 0:31:55.395 --> 0:31:58.635 Could she be dumber than them combined? Let's ask the 0:31:58.635 --> 0:32:03.555 California congressman with whom Anna Paulina Luna had an online 0:32:03.595 --> 0:32:06.595 fight over the funds for No Kings. All right, we 0:32:06.795 --> 0:32:09.795 can't ask the California congressman with whom she had an 0:32:09.795 --> 0:32:12.835 online fight over the funding for No Kings Because, unbeknownst 0:32:12.835 --> 0:32:16.115 to Anna Paulina Luna, the California congressman with whom she 0:32:16.155 --> 0:32:18.515 had an online fight over the funding for No Kings, 0:32:18.875 --> 0:32:23.515 does not actually exist. He's a satirical character and she 0:32:23.675 --> 0:32:32.395 doesn't know this. That's next. This is Countdown. This is 0:32:32.515 --> 0:32:57.835 Countdown with Keith Oberman still ahead on this episode of Countdown. 0:32:57.875 --> 0:33:02.275 The anniversary was last week, in fact, the twenty fifth anniversary, 0:33:03.195 --> 0:33:06.435 and it was during the World Series. And today this 0:33:06.595 --> 0:33:09.235 is still during the World Series. And after a number 0:33:09.235 --> 0:33:12.395 of years in which this saga had cooled in importance, 0:33:12.715 --> 0:33:15.835 it seems to have reasserted itself as a part of baseball. 0:33:15.955 --> 0:33:19.555 Loar that I was in the middle of the night 0:33:19.755 --> 0:33:24.035 Roger Clemens of the New York Yankees, through Mike Piazza 0:33:24.275 --> 0:33:27.755 of the New York Mets, broken bat at Mike Piazza 0:33:28.275 --> 0:33:31.515 during the World Series, or didn't throw it at him, 0:33:32.195 --> 0:33:35.515 or threw it at me in the Yankee dugout. And 0:33:35.595 --> 0:33:39.315 it all ends with Mike Piazza threatening to sue me. 0:33:40.235 --> 0:33:44.595 And next in Things I promised not to tell but 0:33:44.915 --> 0:33:49.235 so long that I will start it immediately after the 0:33:49.355 --> 0:33:52.195 end of Worse Persons, Then there'll be a commercial and 0:33:52.235 --> 0:33:56.195 then part two. First Believe it or Not there are 0:33:56.235 --> 0:33:58.435 still more new idiots to talk about the roundup of 0:33:58.475 --> 0:34:01.515 the miscreants, morons and Dunn Kruger effects specimens who constitute 0:34:01.515 --> 0:34:07.075 two Day's other worst persons in the world World. We 0:34:07.115 --> 0:34:10.995 have a tie at bronze for worse Ice in DC 0:34:12.475 --> 0:34:16.755 with Oh no, you want details. American Isis arrested a 0:34:16.755 --> 0:34:21.595 man named Sam O'Hara in a raid in DC at 0:34:21.675 --> 0:34:26.915 Logan Circle. He was arrested for playing Darth Vader's theme music. 0:34:27.155 --> 0:34:34.035 The Imperial March arrested. The ACLU has sued on his 0:34:34.155 --> 0:34:40.755 behalf because guess what, satire is still legal. Also, if 0:34:40.795 --> 0:34:44.355 you're wearing masks, how do we know you're not members 0:34:44.635 --> 0:34:50.875 of the Imperial thing? From Star Wars. But it's what 0:34:50.955 --> 0:34:55.275 they wrote about Ice that I'm quoting here point four. 0:34:55.315 --> 0:34:57.795 The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort 0:34:57.835 --> 0:35:00.355 a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, 0:35:00.755 --> 0:35:02.635 but in the here and now, the First Amendment bars 0:35:02.755 --> 0:35:06.315 of government officials from shutting down peaceful protests, et cetera, 0:35:06.355 --> 0:35:11.995 et cetera. I just like the formal use of the 0:35:12.035 --> 0:35:14.995 only part of Star Wars I stayed to see. Yes, 0:35:15.035 --> 0:35:16.955 you're looking at the guy who walked out in nineteen 0:35:16.995 --> 0:35:20.595 seventy seven. I'm not saying I was physically triggered. I 0:35:20.715 --> 0:35:23.035 just didn't really. It did give me a headache. I 0:35:23.075 --> 0:35:25.355 just didn't like it. But I still find the reference 0:35:25.395 --> 0:35:29.835 to it in illegal Action reassuringly funny. We may all 0:35:29.875 --> 0:35:36.075 be making our jokes inside concentration camps where the guards 0:35:36.075 --> 0:35:40.115 where logos with Donald Trump's face on them, but at 0:35:40.155 --> 0:35:43.795 least we'll still be having fun. That's tied with somebody 0:35:43.835 --> 0:35:46.955 who'll be there in her little Ilsis she Wolf of 0:35:46.995 --> 0:35:52.675 the SS outfit? Kaylee mcinaney smiling all the way through. 0:35:53.835 --> 0:35:58.075 Kaylee macinaney, one of Trump's lying, lying lawyer and laying 0:35:58.155 --> 0:36:05.795 things gefflingen Flungen Kaylee macinaney, one of Trump's lying liars 0:36:06.035 --> 0:36:09.875 from the first time around. No, I'm not doing a 0:36:09.915 --> 0:36:14.595 second take on this, smiling all the way through as 0:36:14.595 --> 0:36:20.675 she always does, because Jesus saydist This is the reaction 0:36:20.875 --> 0:36:24.715 to Trump trashing the economy, particularly the economy for food, 0:36:24.755 --> 0:36:28.915 particularly the economy for lower income television viewers and the 0:36:29.035 --> 0:36:33.155 elderly people like my age and older who watch a 0:36:33.195 --> 0:36:35.395 lot of Fox News. Not that I do, but they do, 0:36:36.075 --> 0:36:39.115 and smiling all the way through this I cannot possibly 0:36:39.435 --> 0:36:42.515 even if I played this clip and risked a lawsuit 0:36:42.555 --> 0:36:46.155 from Fox in playing it, I could not possibly possibly 0:36:47.395 --> 0:36:52.195 convey to you Kayley mcinnaney's desperate smile all the way 0:36:52.275 --> 0:36:56.275 through this everything sign they have a gun of my work. 0:36:56.475 --> 0:37:00.555 They're gonna shoot. They're gonna put me in the concentration 0:37:00.715 --> 0:37:08.275 crip too, Kaylee mcinnaney quote one tried and true brand 0:37:08.355 --> 0:37:11.995 is making a big comeback as consumers tighten their wallets. 0:37:12.755 --> 0:37:17.395 Hamburger Helper, the mix of mac and cheese and ground 0:37:17.435 --> 0:37:22.435 beef is seeing a surge in sales. Isn't that great? 0:37:22.915 --> 0:37:26.555 People are starving to death already. Isn't that great? And 0:37:26.715 --> 0:37:34.275 you helped Daily mcahaney the runner up, the priceless Anna 0:37:34.355 --> 0:37:37.235 Paulina Luna, who, if she did not exist, would have 0:37:37.355 --> 0:37:41.155 to be created. This may be the dumbest person in America. 0:37:41.595 --> 0:37:44.395 I know. I keep going back and forth among the 0:37:44.475 --> 0:37:47.435 various members of the House of Representatives, in the Republican Caucus, 0:37:47.475 --> 0:37:51.435 in the House, in the Senate, and I keep saying, no, no, Ultimately, 0:37:51.555 --> 0:37:56.675 it's still Bobert, No, No, It's it's McLean from Michigan, 0:37:57.595 --> 0:38:00.635 who once demonstrated in the past week the idea that 0:38:00.675 --> 0:38:05.035 there were protesters. She demonstrated this by moving her arm arms. 0:38:05.115 --> 0:38:07.875 She bawled up her fists and did her little arm march. 0:38:08.835 --> 0:38:16.715 Lisa McClean absolute IQ none detected but the original one maybe, 0:38:16.755 --> 0:38:25.795 Anna Paulina my Hoff Luna. Anna Paulina posted this at Rep. 0:38:26.035 --> 0:38:29.115 Jack Kimball asked me for receipts, but blocked me before 0:38:29.155 --> 0:38:33.715 I could respond. Weird flex So here are the receipts. 0:38:33.835 --> 0:38:34.115 Jack. 0:38:36.875 --> 0:38:42.715 Anna Paulina Luna posted that there were receipts showing the 0:38:42.755 --> 0:38:46.475 No King's protests were backed by dollars signed two hundred 0:38:46.475 --> 0:38:51.035 and ninety four million by the Sarrows Foundation buffet. I 0:38:51.115 --> 0:38:58.395 presume Jimmy Aclu indivisible and planned parenthood. This wasn't grassroots, 0:38:58.555 --> 0:39:02.115 It was a billionaire funded. She doesn't say what it was. 0:39:02.155 --> 0:39:04.675 She just has a picture of herself grabbing my mind 0:39:04.915 --> 0:39:09.155 and looking intently like her car is on fire in 0:39:09.195 --> 0:39:13.235 the parking lot. And this Rep. Jack Kimball of the 0:39:13.235 --> 0:39:16.635 fifty fourth District of California wrote, this is large. Anna 0:39:16.635 --> 0:39:19.835 Paulina has foung proof that No Kings marchers were paid 0:39:19.875 --> 0:39:26.995 nearly forty two cents each for participating. So she reposted 0:39:27.035 --> 0:39:29.835 all of this a screenshot of what Jack Kimball wrote 0:39:29.835 --> 0:39:33.195 in response to hers and just turned it into a 0:39:33.195 --> 0:39:37.595 fight and said that Jack Kimball asked her for receipts, 0:39:37.795 --> 0:39:40.835 which he did not. But the most interesting part, of course, 0:39:40.955 --> 0:39:46.035 is there is no representative Jack Kimball. The giveaway is, Anna, 0:39:46.555 --> 0:39:51.035 you never met him, and he's supposedly a Republican and 0:39:51.075 --> 0:39:53.595 he's from the fifty fourth district of California. And I 0:39:53.635 --> 0:39:57.315 know for people like Anna Paulina Luna, the number fifty 0:39:57.355 --> 0:40:00.355 four is might as well be the same as two 0:40:00.395 --> 0:40:04.115 hundred and ninety four million. It's an inestimably large number. 0:40:04.915 --> 0:40:09.555 It's double or triple her IQ fifty four the fifty fourth. 0:40:09.955 --> 0:40:13.235 There is no fifty fourth congressional district. Jack Kimball is 0:40:13.355 --> 0:40:18.515 one of the oldest satirical accounts on Twitter x and 0:40:18.555 --> 0:40:22.995 she fell for it. But a screenshot is forever Congratulations 0:40:23.035 --> 0:40:28.515 on reclaiming your crown. Here's your crown, moron, but our 0:40:28.555 --> 0:40:34.115 winner as always Cuomo. I'm sure you heard something about this. 0:40:35.835 --> 0:40:40.755 Andrew Cuomo's self defenestration campaign continues apace, right down to 0:40:40.795 --> 0:40:43.475 election day. He's going to make sure that nobody in 0:40:43.515 --> 0:40:46.475 the city of New York, other than possibly in Staten Island, 0:40:47.035 --> 0:40:50.995 thinks well of him. Ever again, he will bring down 0:40:51.075 --> 0:40:53.595 his brother, who is already pretty much down as it is. 0:40:53.755 --> 0:40:56.475 He will bring down his late father's name. There will 0:40:56.515 --> 0:40:59.155 be a bid to remove his late father's name from 0:40:59.195 --> 0:41:02.115 what is actually the tap and Z Bridge connecting Terrytown, 0:41:02.155 --> 0:41:05.155 New York, and Rockland County across the Hudson. They will 0:41:05.195 --> 0:41:08.595 do it. He is destroying the Cuomo family name, and 0:41:08.755 --> 0:41:13.355 his father was actually a very good governor Andrew Cuomo. 0:41:14.035 --> 0:41:17.075 According to reporter Nick Garber, talking to conservative radio host 0:41:17.195 --> 0:41:20.315 sid Rosenberg this morning, sid Rosenberg, you may have seen 0:41:20.675 --> 0:41:24.195 has the darkest ten of anybody who was not injured 0:41:24.235 --> 0:41:30.715 in some sort of radiation accident. Cuomo asked this in 0:41:30.755 --> 0:41:33.115 an interview about the man who's going to defeat him 0:41:33.115 --> 0:41:35.155 in the mayoral election, as he defeated him in the 0:41:35.155 --> 0:41:41.395 mayoral primary. Zoraon Mamdani quote, God forbid another nine to eleven. 0:41:41.795 --> 0:41:46.555 Can you imagine ma'm donni in the seat, sid Rosenberg, 0:41:47.195 --> 0:41:53.715 scumbag looks like a burn victim. Sid Rosenberg replies, he'd 0:41:53.755 --> 0:42:00.795 be cheering. Cuomo paused and chuckled before saying that's another problem. 0:42:03.235 --> 0:42:05.155 I was here on nine to eleven, and I was 0:42:05.195 --> 0:42:06.955 here in the months after nine to eleven, and I 0:42:06.995 --> 0:42:08.955 have been here, in fact in this city. I got 0:42:08.995 --> 0:42:11.955 back from Los Angeles in late June or the beginning 0:42:11.955 --> 0:42:13.635 of July of two thousand and one, and I have 0:42:13.755 --> 0:42:17.155 lived here ever since without interruption. I don't think I've 0:42:17.155 --> 0:42:19.395 been away for more than three weeks at a span 0:42:19.595 --> 0:42:23.275 since then. And the one thing that has not happened 0:42:23.275 --> 0:42:27.435 in this city since then has been problems created by 0:42:27.475 --> 0:42:31.035 people of the Muslim faith of all the religions in 0:42:31.075 --> 0:42:33.355 this city that have done the most to try to 0:42:33.395 --> 0:42:36.515 outreach to other groups, to try to heal the wounds, 0:42:36.555 --> 0:42:41.555 and practically speaking, to invest their money in the areas 0:42:41.595 --> 0:42:45.515 that were blighted after nine to eleven. Members of the 0:42:45.555 --> 0:42:51.395 Islamic faith. I just I don't get the enmity. It's 0:42:51.515 --> 0:42:55.715 probably from people who were not adults on nine to eleven, 0:42:56.515 --> 0:42:59.795 who have now conflated everything because of scumbags like Trump 0:43:00.555 --> 0:43:05.675 and scumbags like Andrew Cromo. Andrew Como is not a Democrat. 0:43:06.835 --> 0:43:09.475 I don't know if he's a Republican. I don't know 0:43:09.475 --> 0:43:12.235 if he has any convictions whatsoever. Though I think he 0:43:12.275 --> 0:43:15.715 should have been convicted of something. I just think to 0:43:15.835 --> 0:43:17.915 say this about somebody who is likely to be the 0:43:17.915 --> 0:43:20.675 next mayor of New York indicates a total lack of 0:43:20.715 --> 0:43:26.715 responsibility or interest in anybody alive except himself. I think 0:43:26.755 --> 0:43:29.515 he should go to hell. All I know for sure 0:43:29.555 --> 0:43:32.795 about his convictions and how you would describe Andrew Cuomo 0:43:32.995 --> 0:43:38.075 is the following. He is Andrew Cuomo two Day's worst 0:43:38.355 --> 0:43:52.675 person in the world. Before the World Series ends, I 0:43:52.715 --> 0:43:54.915 have to tell this thing I promise not to tell, 0:43:54.955 --> 0:43:57.235 because by the time of the next one of these segments, 0:43:57.355 --> 0:43:59.795 no matter how long it lasts, the World Series will 0:43:59.835 --> 0:44:02.435 be over. So here is our number one story things 0:44:02.475 --> 0:44:06.675 I promise not to tell my favorite topic me and 0:44:06.715 --> 0:44:08.595 the series will be over, which is more than I 0:44:08.595 --> 0:44:11.395 can say for this story, which is chronologically and in 0:44:11.515 --> 0:44:14.875 terms of storytelling time, the longest one of these I 0:44:14.915 --> 0:44:18.835 can not only imagine having told, but ever telling. It 0:44:18.955 --> 0:44:22.675 started on the night of October twenty second, two thousand 0:44:23.275 --> 0:44:25.995 and it ended well. I'll let you know if and 0:44:25.995 --> 0:44:29.115 when it ever ends. I was enjoying the second night 0:44:29.155 --> 0:44:32.115 of one of my childhood dreams come true. I was 0:44:32.235 --> 0:44:35.075 the host, not just of the telecast of the World Series. 0:44:35.275 --> 0:44:37.635 But it was an all New York City series, a 0:44:37.675 --> 0:44:42.155 Mets versus Yankee series, a subway series. I'd literally dreamt 0:44:42.155 --> 0:44:45.715 of it since nineteen sixty seven. The manager of the 0:44:45.795 --> 0:44:48.955 Yankees had been the first person I ever interviewed on TV. 0:44:49.555 --> 0:44:52.435 Fifteen years earlier, I had worked with him in TV. 0:44:52.595 --> 0:44:55.475 He was a friend of mine. I had just covered 0:44:55.475 --> 0:44:57.635 the Mets through their playoff run and knew all of 0:44:57.675 --> 0:45:00.795 their players. My face had been on an advertisement in 0:45:00.875 --> 0:45:03.835 dead center field in the Mets Stadium for the entirety 0:45:03.915 --> 0:45:06.315 of the year before, and the players all knew me 0:45:06.395 --> 0:45:10.315 my name. Where we were that night, Yankee Stadium was 0:45:10.355 --> 0:45:12.515 not only where I saw my first baseball game, but 0:45:12.635 --> 0:45:15.115 was about seven eighths of a mile from the hospital 0:45:15.115 --> 0:45:18.355 in which I had been born, and my first home 0:45:18.995 --> 0:45:23.675 was four subway stops away. The night before this event, 0:45:23.755 --> 0:45:25.675 as I hosted the start of the first game of 0:45:25.715 --> 0:45:28.795 this Keith of palooza, I was supposed to introduce the 0:45:28.795 --> 0:45:32.835 public address announcer of Yankee Stadium, Bob Sheppard, whose voice 0:45:32.915 --> 0:45:35.795 I had heard nearly every day since I was eight 0:45:35.875 --> 0:45:38.955 years old, so he could then introduce the players and 0:45:38.995 --> 0:45:41.315 this epic World Series would begin, and it dawned on 0:45:41.395 --> 0:45:43.995 me in the seconds before I was supposed to do 0:45:44.035 --> 0:45:47.395 this that I literally had the power to stop the 0:45:47.435 --> 0:45:50.595 two thousand World Series from ever happening if I just 0:45:50.715 --> 0:45:55.875 kept talking and never actually said, here is Bob Shephard. Well, 0:45:55.915 --> 0:45:57.915 I could delay it briefly until they cut my mic 0:45:57.995 --> 0:46:00.315 off and then fired me on the spot. Anyway, this 0:46:00.475 --> 0:46:03.795 was Game two, and now that our pregame show was over, 0:46:03.835 --> 0:46:05.995 and I had waved to my mother, who had seen 0:46:06.035 --> 0:46:09.235 her first game at Yankee Stadium just ooh sixty six 0:46:09.315 --> 0:46:12.155 years previously, and she was seated in the family seats 0:46:12.155 --> 0:46:15.155 that were just nine rows up from our on field set. 0:46:15.835 --> 0:46:18.035 I had crawled into the position I would assume for 0:46:18.075 --> 0:46:21.315 the entire game as the dugout reporter. I was hunched 0:46:21.315 --> 0:46:24.115 over on a stool, squeezed between the far end of 0:46:24.155 --> 0:46:27.475 the Yankee dugout and our Fox Sports first base camera. 0:46:27.955 --> 0:46:31.515 A thin chicken wire fence separated me from the dugout himself. 0:46:31.875 --> 0:46:34.155 In fact, it was a formality. I was more or 0:46:34.235 --> 0:46:37.115 less in the dugout players, coaches, and that night, as 0:46:37.115 --> 0:46:39.235 I settled in, my friend, the Yankee manager, all came 0:46:39.275 --> 0:46:43.395 over to say hello. Roger Clemens of the Yankees, who 0:46:43.395 --> 0:46:45.675 I had also known since we were both rookies in 0:46:45.755 --> 0:46:49.955 Boston Sports in nineteen eighty four. He lasted, I didn't 0:46:50.515 --> 0:46:53.235 Roger Clemens had struck out the first two Mets hitters. 0:46:53.675 --> 0:46:56.115 Clemens was a strange man about whom I had heard 0:46:56.155 --> 0:46:59.475 a strange tale of teammates in a college summer baseball 0:46:59.555 --> 0:47:03.395 league who were all wearing their wallets in their uniform 0:47:03.515 --> 0:47:07.235 pants back pockets during a game because one of them 0:47:07.275 --> 0:47:09.835 explained to a friend of mine, we have this crazy 0:47:09.915 --> 0:47:12.355 kid Clemens from Texas on this team, and we don't 0:47:12.395 --> 0:47:16.515 trust him. In Boston, I had found him a little nervous, 0:47:16.995 --> 0:47:20.435 little standoffish, but doing his best to be professional. But 0:47:20.595 --> 0:47:24.155 by now there were rumors swirling around Roger Clemens about 0:47:24.155 --> 0:47:27.635 amphetamines and performance enhancing drugs, and you knew not to 0:47:27.715 --> 0:47:29.915 talk to him before or after a game unless you 0:47:29.995 --> 0:47:32.235 had to, and if you had to, you chose your 0:47:32.275 --> 0:47:35.875 words very carefully, then made sure that whatever you did, 0:47:35.915 --> 0:47:39.115 you had to start with something mundane, like the score 0:47:39.155 --> 0:47:42.035 of the game, and if you could let him bring 0:47:42.155 --> 0:47:47.395 up anything controversial or complex, he would then probably do it. 0:47:48.315 --> 0:47:51.115 So now, as this game continued, after two batters had 0:47:51.115 --> 0:47:54.675 struck out, Lee Mazzilli, the former Mets star now Yankees coach, 0:47:54.715 --> 0:47:56.795 another friend of mine, was on the other side of 0:47:57.275 --> 0:48:00.875 a little fence, and as Mets superstar Mike Piazza stepped 0:48:00.915 --> 0:48:03.115 in as the third batter of the game, Mozilly leaned 0:48:03.155 --> 0:48:06.675 in and said, conspiratorily, let's see if Roger flips him again. 0:48:07.475 --> 0:48:10.675 In Midsummer two thousand, Roger Clemens had beamed Mike Piazza 0:48:10.675 --> 0:48:14.915 with a fastball. There was a hospital visit involved. Nobody 0:48:14.995 --> 0:48:17.595 was convinced it had not been intentional, or that Clemens 0:48:17.635 --> 0:48:19.075 would not do it again, even though it was the 0:48:19.115 --> 0:48:23.155 World Series. Mozilli and I leaned forward. Piazza was a 0:48:23.155 --> 0:48:26.475 deeply complicated guy too. During the playoffs, he had walked 0:48:26.555 --> 0:48:27.835 up to me and asked me if it was true 0:48:27.875 --> 0:48:29.515 I was from New York, and then he quizzed me 0:48:29.515 --> 0:48:31.755 about the relative merits of the suburbs, and then he 0:48:31.795 --> 0:48:33.955 wanted to know if I had really taken up residence 0:48:34.315 --> 0:48:37.235 in his favorite southern California hotel, and we talked for 0:48:37.315 --> 0:48:40.715 fifteen minutes about that. The next night I saw him smiled, 0:48:40.755 --> 0:48:42.755 said heloon, and he looked at me like I had 0:48:42.835 --> 0:48:46.675 just sworn a vendetta against his family. For a long 0:48:46.715 --> 0:48:49.315 time I thought it was me until about ten years later, 0:48:49.595 --> 0:48:52.595 the great Vin Scully said that Piazza was with the Dodgers, 0:48:53.155 --> 0:48:55.555 and when they were both together there in Los Angeles, 0:48:55.795 --> 0:48:58.955 Vin had had the identical experience with Piazza. Best friends 0:48:58.955 --> 0:49:02.075 on the team bus one day, and then no indication 0:49:02.195 --> 0:49:05.035 Piazza remembered even meeting him the next I mean that 0:49:05.155 --> 0:49:09.035 was Ben Sculley. Clemens, as it turned out, did not 0:49:09.195 --> 0:49:12.275 throw a baseball at Piazza, but instead pitched him inside 0:49:12.275 --> 0:49:15.115 in on his hands, and Piazza tried to stop a 0:49:15.155 --> 0:49:18.235 swing that was half self defense, but instead the odd 0:49:18.275 --> 0:49:21.195 angle and the force of the pitch shattered Piazza's bat. 0:49:21.635 --> 0:49:24.195 The ball veered to the right, describing a circle into 0:49:24.195 --> 0:49:27.555 foul territory. The head of the bat shot out towards 0:49:27.555 --> 0:49:31.635 Clemens on the mound. A second piece flew briefly into 0:49:31.635 --> 0:49:34.995 the infield. Piazza was left holding just the handle, and 0:49:35.035 --> 0:49:37.635 it looked as foolish as that sounds. But lost in 0:49:37.635 --> 0:49:39.595 this description is the fact that all happened at once, 0:49:40.195 --> 0:49:43.155 and even from our signe angle in the Yankee dugout 0:49:43.195 --> 0:49:46.195 it looked to Mozillion me as if Piazza's bat had 0:49:46.195 --> 0:49:50.435 simply exploded, like it was a trick device of some sort. 0:49:51.115 --> 0:49:54.115 I saw Clemens reach for the baseball. I thought it 0:49:54.155 --> 0:49:56.235 was the baseball right in front of him, and then 0:49:56.355 --> 0:49:58.675 just as quickly he and I at the same moment, 0:49:58.835 --> 0:50:01.155 realized it was not the baseball. It was the barrel 0:50:01.195 --> 0:50:03.635 of the bat, which was slightly rounded, just a little 0:50:03.715 --> 0:50:05.955 darker than a baseball, but could in the heat of 0:50:05.995 --> 0:50:09.955 an instant following a bat explosion, it could be mistaken 0:50:09.995 --> 0:50:14.675 for a ball. So far, so good. But right then Clemens, 0:50:14.915 --> 0:50:17.835 realizing it was part of a bat and not a ball, 0:50:17.955 --> 0:50:22.595 promptly threw that part of the bat at me. Jesus Mas, 0:50:22.875 --> 0:50:25.075 I said to Mizilly, why did Clemens throw that bat 0:50:25.115 --> 0:50:28.355 barrel at me? The Yankee coach looked incredulously at me. 0:50:28.395 --> 0:50:29.875 He didn't throw it you. He threw it at me. 0:50:31.195 --> 0:50:34.515 That's what it looked like. We were lined up perfectly. 0:50:34.755 --> 0:50:38.115 Roger Clemens had thrown the barrel of Mike Piazza's bat, say, 0:50:38.195 --> 0:50:40.915 one hundred and twenty feet instead of just six or 0:50:40.955 --> 0:50:44.155 seven feet, he would have hit either me or Lee 0:50:44.275 --> 0:50:48.595 Mozilly in the Yankee dugout as it was, since nobody 0:50:48.635 --> 0:50:51.955 knew exactly what was happening. Piazza had started to run 0:50:51.995 --> 0:50:54.915 down to first base in case the ball was fair. 0:50:54.995 --> 0:50:57.315 He didn't know where the ball was either. For that 0:50:57.515 --> 0:51:02.355 initial split second, you really couldn't tell which flying object 0:51:02.475 --> 0:51:05.435 was the ball, and also whether the ball was fair 0:51:05.675 --> 0:51:10.595 or foul. So Roger Clemens's throw certainly looked like it 0:51:10.635 --> 0:51:13.475 was aimed at Piazza as Piazza went down the first 0:51:13.515 --> 0:51:16.835 baseline and as Piazza took umbrage, and there was another 0:51:16.875 --> 0:51:19.355 split second of confusion when it looked like Piazza might 0:51:19.435 --> 0:51:21.635 charge out to the mound to try to sock Clemens 0:51:21.715 --> 0:51:25.035 for this and for the Midsummer beating. I said to Missilly, wait, 0:51:25.395 --> 0:51:29.715 did he throw that bat at Piazza? Miszilly just shook 0:51:29.715 --> 0:51:32.715 his head. I don't think so. Whun hell knows. He's 0:51:32.715 --> 0:51:34.835 been here two years. I haven't figured out anything he's 0:51:34.835 --> 0:51:38.995 done so far. As the umpires then got involved, Clemens 0:51:39.075 --> 0:51:42.875 repeatedly tapped his own chest, and not in a bragging way, 0:51:42.955 --> 0:51:45.595 but in a kind of what looked like that's on 0:51:45.875 --> 0:51:49.635 me way. Two bat boys collected the three main pieces 0:51:49.635 --> 0:51:51.835 of the bat and a bunch of smaller shards, some 0:51:51.875 --> 0:51:54.995 of them smaller than a toothpick. The Fox play by 0:51:55.035 --> 0:51:57.795 play man threw it to me in the dugout well, 0:51:57.835 --> 0:51:59.635 I said, I can tell you the Yankee dugout doesn't 0:51:59.675 --> 0:52:03.275 know what happened or why. Joe Missilly laughed quietly and 0:52:03.275 --> 0:52:04.595 then hit me in the arm. While I was on 0:52:04.595 --> 0:52:07.275 the air, I postulated that Clemens was looking for a 0:52:07.315 --> 0:52:10.115 ball hit back to him, instead found the piece of 0:52:10.115 --> 0:52:12.435 the bat, and then discarded that piece of the bats 0:52:12.395 --> 0:52:15.155 so he could keep looking for the ball. That he discarded, 0:52:15.195 --> 0:52:18.475 it kind of where Piazza was running, might have been delivered, 0:52:18.635 --> 0:52:21.835 might have been a coincidence. I do remember suggesting that 0:52:22.115 --> 0:52:25.315 if Clemens had really aimed the bat at Piazza, that 0:52:25.395 --> 0:52:28.395 from that distance, with the strength and accuracy of a 0:52:28.435 --> 0:52:30.835 major league pitcher, he clearly would have hit him with it. 0:52:31.795 --> 0:52:34.315 Piazza then promptly grounded out to end the inning, and 0:52:34.355 --> 0:52:37.195 as Clemens came back towards the Yankee dugout where Mozilly 0:52:37.195 --> 0:52:40.075 and I were, he again stopped to talk to the umpire, 0:52:40.075 --> 0:52:43.475 who was Charlie Reliford. Over the noise of fifty six 0:52:43.555 --> 0:52:46.195 thousand fans, at Yankee Stadium. I couldn't hear a damn thing, 0:52:46.475 --> 0:52:49.195 but it sure looked like Clemens was again saying that 0:52:49.475 --> 0:52:52.275 was on me. I asked Mizillly if he could find 0:52:52.275 --> 0:52:54.315 out if that's what Clemens was doing, And half an 0:52:54.355 --> 0:52:57.475 inning later, Missilly reported that Clemens indeed thought for a 0:52:57.475 --> 0:52:59.515 second it was the ball, and that he threw it, 0:52:59.795 --> 0:53:01.475 and that it was on him, and that it was 0:53:01.515 --> 0:53:05.435 not intentional and it was not directed at Piazza. Now 0:53:05.475 --> 0:53:08.155 I did something kind of stupid. I suggested to my 0:53:08.315 --> 0:53:11.835 bosses that I should go ask the commissioner Baseball, who 0:53:11.875 --> 0:53:14.235 in a World Series game had the power to eject 0:53:14.275 --> 0:53:17.035 any player for any reason, although that power had not 0:53:17.075 --> 0:53:20.195 actually been used since nineteen thirty four. What he thought 0:53:20.235 --> 0:53:23.315 of all this? The producer said yes, And I thought 0:53:23.675 --> 0:53:27.075 me and my big mouth, I now had to crawl 0:53:27.155 --> 0:53:30.195 out of that little space between camera and dugout, and 0:53:30.235 --> 0:53:34.755 I mean literally crawl hands and knees to exit back 0:53:34.875 --> 0:53:38.275 into the seats via where the groundskeepers kept all the 0:53:38.395 --> 0:53:42.035 extra dirt. I knew where in the stands the commissioner 0:53:42.075 --> 0:53:44.755 was sitting. I went there. I got to him, I 0:53:44.875 --> 0:53:47.715 asked him. He assured me there was no discipline coming 0:53:47.715 --> 0:53:49.755 for Clemens, and they'd look at the tape of the 0:53:49.795 --> 0:53:51.795 game again that night or in the morning. But he 0:53:51.835 --> 0:53:54.035 really didn't think Clemens had tried to hit Piazza with 0:53:54.075 --> 0:53:56.115 the bat. Well, they would look at the tape and 0:53:56.155 --> 0:53:58.235 they decided both that Clemens did not try to hit 0:53:58.275 --> 0:54:01.235 Piazza with the bat and that he should be fined 0:54:01.275 --> 0:54:05.035 fifty thousand dollars for I don't know, not trying to 0:54:05.075 --> 0:54:08.035 hit him with the bat. So I made it back 0:54:08.075 --> 0:54:11.715 to the dugout, reversing my crawl like I was recreating 0:54:11.755 --> 0:54:15.955 the movie The Great Escape. As it turned out, Piazza's 0:54:15.995 --> 0:54:18.555 little squib shot that caused all the trouble with the 0:54:18.635 --> 0:54:21.675 exploding bat was about the hardest thing they hit off 0:54:21.715 --> 0:54:25.155 Clemens all night. Over eight innings, he struck out nine 0:54:25.235 --> 0:54:28.315 Mets batters, he walked none, he gave up only two hits, 0:54:28.355 --> 0:54:31.515 and he only hit one batter. And then, incredibly, after 0:54:31.555 --> 0:54:35.115 Clemens left the game, the Yankees almost blew a six 0:54:35.115 --> 0:54:38.275 to nothing lead. In the ninth inning, a Met outfielder 0:54:38.355 --> 0:54:41.435 named Jay Payton hit a three run homer off future 0:54:41.475 --> 0:54:44.595 Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera, and the Mets had a 0:54:44.675 --> 0:54:47.475 chance to tie the game or go ahead off Rivera 0:54:47.555 --> 0:54:49.675 in the top of the ninth and then he got 0:54:49.675 --> 0:54:50.955 out of it, and the final score was six to 0:54:51.035 --> 0:54:53.355 five Yankees. And with the game over now it was 0:54:53.755 --> 0:54:57.835 Keith interviews Clemens' time. I went to the pre arranged 0:54:57.915 --> 0:55:00.195 spot at the other end of the Yankee dugout, where 0:55:00.235 --> 0:55:03.715 another friend of mine, the Yankees PR director, had guaranteed 0:55:03.755 --> 0:55:05.795 me he would go in get Clemens and they would 0:55:05.795 --> 0:55:09.115 emerge after Clemens left the clubhouse to do what was 0:55:09.395 --> 0:55:15.275 a contractually obligated interview with Fox and me. Apparently, Roger 0:55:15.315 --> 0:55:17.835 Clemens started making his way towards me the moment the 0:55:17.915 --> 0:55:21.875 Yankees finally won that game. Unfortunately, at that exact moment, 0:55:22.515 --> 0:55:26.595 security closed the only runway from the Yankee dugout to 0:55:26.675 --> 0:55:29.755 the clubhouse so that a dignitary could use it as 0:55:29.795 --> 0:55:35.915 an exit from his seats. The dignitary was Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, 0:55:36.555 --> 0:55:41.115 noted front running Yankees fan and ticket freeloader. And while 0:55:41.155 --> 0:55:43.915 Fox literally delayed the start of every newscast on every 0:55:43.955 --> 0:55:45.795 one of its stations in the country, even on the 0:55:45.795 --> 0:55:48.715 West Coast, and Joe Buck and Tim McCarver kept showing 0:55:48.755 --> 0:55:52.355 replays again and again, and promising my interview with Roger Clemens, 0:55:53.035 --> 0:55:57.355 Rudy Giuliani took his goddamn time leaving the field. His 0:55:57.515 --> 0:56:00.675 idiot son Andrew grabbed some dirt from the field. I 0:56:00.715 --> 0:56:03.315 half expected him to eat it. Instead, he stuffed it 0:56:03.355 --> 0:56:08.155 in his jacket pockets. Giuliani now waited for his entire entourage, 0:56:08.595 --> 0:56:11.475 one of his wives, some of his I guess they 0:56:11.475 --> 0:56:15.795 were friends, assorted political riff raff, and as my producer 0:56:15.915 --> 0:56:19.915 screamed in my ear, where is Clemens? Giuliani waited until 0:56:19.955 --> 0:56:23.435 they were all together on the field, and finally he 0:56:23.515 --> 0:56:26.035 marched them down into the dugout and up through the runway. 0:56:26.595 --> 0:56:29.995 And after all this delay, Clemens came out and finally 0:56:30.035 --> 0:56:32.315 I could ask him about throwing the bat shard at 0:56:32.435 --> 0:56:35.915 or near piazza. And at that moment I remembered what 0:56:35.955 --> 0:56:38.635 I had learned about Clemens in Boston. If you started 0:56:38.675 --> 0:56:43.555 an interview with something controversial, he might very well walk away. If, 0:56:43.595 --> 0:56:46.875 on the other hand, you did the boring game outcome question, 0:56:46.955 --> 0:56:48.955 he would answer anything you asked, and he might even 0:56:48.955 --> 0:56:51.475 bring up anything controversial himself. But you had to do 0:56:51.835 --> 0:56:56.755 the stupid game stuff first, So which was harder work. Roger, 0:56:56.915 --> 0:56:59.795 I asked eight innings of two hit ball or watching 0:56:59.875 --> 0:57:02.915 the Mets nearly tie it in the ninth. His answer 0:57:02.995 --> 0:57:04.635 was not bad, but he did not bring up the bat. 0:57:04.795 --> 0:57:07.075 So I asked another question about what he thought of 0:57:07.115 --> 0:57:09.795 his performance in that game. Well, that did it. He 0:57:09.875 --> 0:57:13.555 started talking about having to overcome his emotions in the 0:57:13.595 --> 0:57:15.675 first inning, and now I could say, well, since you 0:57:15.755 --> 0:57:19.755 brought up the emotions the bat throwing incident, did you 0:57:19.835 --> 0:57:23.315 throw that piece of broken bat at Mike Piazza. There 0:57:23.355 --> 0:57:25.835 is a freeze frame from that interview in which Roger 0:57:25.875 --> 0:57:31.795 Clemens eyes are bugged wide open. Well, Glemons basically confirmed 0:57:31.795 --> 0:57:33.555 what the guys in the dugout had told me. He 0:57:33.635 --> 0:57:35.675 had told them. You can believe him or not, but 0:57:35.795 --> 0:57:38.235 he thought the thing he grabbed was the ball, and 0:57:38.275 --> 0:57:40.595 when it wasn't, he threw it away just in case 0:57:40.635 --> 0:57:42.675 the ball was somewhere else near him and he had 0:57:42.715 --> 0:57:44.875 to have a free hand with which to pick it up. 0:57:45.395 --> 0:57:47.675 He explained the chest taps he was indeed saying to 0:57:47.715 --> 0:57:51.955 the umpire Umpire Charlie, as Clemens called him, accompanying his 0:57:52.035 --> 0:57:54.315 apologies to the umps for throwing the bat. He said 0:57:54.355 --> 0:57:56.395 he didn't even know where Piazza was at the point 0:57:56.435 --> 0:58:00.155 he threw the bat. It was as straight and nonpartisan 0:58:00.315 --> 0:58:05.195 and frankly, as informative an interview as I've ever conducted. Meanwhile, 0:58:05.755 --> 0:58:09.435 everybody else in that stadium, everybody else in that city, 0:58:09.795 --> 0:58:12.835 everybody else in the Tri State area, was convinced of 0:58:12.915 --> 0:58:15.915 one of only two things. Roger Clemens had tried to 0:58:15.955 --> 0:58:19.955 impale Mike Piazza with a shard of his own bat, 0:58:20.635 --> 0:58:23.715 or the Mets were crybabies who could not tell that 0:58:23.755 --> 0:58:26.715 Clemens obviously did not try to impale Mike Piazza with 0:58:26.715 --> 0:58:30.555 his own bat. There was no middle ground. I found 0:58:30.555 --> 0:58:33.755 this out specifically the next day when the TV sports 0:58:33.755 --> 0:58:36.075 columnist of the New York Times, Rich Sandomir, who was 0:58:36.115 --> 0:58:38.915 a friend of mine, called to interview me about the interview. 0:58:39.155 --> 0:58:41.315 Why didn't you ask him about the bat first? Nobody 0:58:41.315 --> 0:58:44.555 cared about how he pitched he threw a bat Piazza. 0:58:45.355 --> 0:58:48.155 I said, you're a Met fan, and I explained the 0:58:48.155 --> 0:58:50.595 theory of not making Clemens end an interview before he 0:58:50.635 --> 0:58:52.275 said what you needed to know. I went through the 0:58:52.275 --> 0:58:55.035 whole thing I just recited here. It was amazing to 0:58:55.075 --> 0:58:59.675 see those few days, how every sports reporter and columnist 0:58:59.795 --> 0:59:02.955 in New York self identified as either a Met fan 0:59:03.075 --> 0:59:05.715 or ex Met fan, or a Yankee fan or ex 0:59:05.795 --> 0:59:08.715 Yankee fan. And you can still see it today as 0:59:08.795 --> 0:59:12.035 this story from twenty two years ago is recollected by others. 0:59:12.835 --> 0:59:17.315 They wrote what they felt as kids Clemens was the victim, 0:59:17.795 --> 0:59:23.275 or Clemens tried to kill Mike Piazza like he was 0:59:23.355 --> 0:59:26.715 a dracula, and they had the wooden steak to go 0:59:26.835 --> 0:59:31.715 through his heart. Meanwhile, we learned recently from Joe Torri, 0:59:31.795 --> 0:59:34.155 the Yankee manager, another one of my friends, that they 0:59:34.195 --> 0:59:37.795 all hid something from us that night, the thing about emotions. 0:59:38.275 --> 0:59:40.875 After the incident in the first inning, Roger Clemens went 0:59:40.915 --> 0:59:45.195 back to the Yankee clubhouse and started to cry. This 0:59:45.395 --> 0:59:47.835 might have had something to do with embarrassment or grief. 0:59:47.875 --> 0:59:50.075 But since he had noted that he had had to 0:59:50.195 --> 0:59:53.155 check his emotions, I always thought, well, he might have 0:59:53.235 --> 0:59:58.355 been a little overamped for that game, naturally or otherwise. 1:00:00.115 --> 1:00:02.715 All right, So before I present anything else out of 1:00:02.795 --> 1:00:05.475 chronological order, let me go back to the I thanked 1:00:05.555 --> 1:00:07.915 Roger Clemens for the interview and threw it back to 1:00:08.035 --> 1:00:10.435 Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the Fox booth because 1:00:10.475 --> 1:00:14.635 this is when the real trouble started. They were pretty 1:00:14.715 --> 1:00:16.515 much done for the night, but I had another two 1:00:16.595 --> 1:00:19.675 hours to go in a live postgame show on Fox's 1:00:19.715 --> 1:00:22.915 cable Sports network. We had about four minutes until that 1:00:22.955 --> 1:00:25.275 show started, and it suddenly occurred to me that although 1:00:25.275 --> 1:00:27.075 this was not the most important event in the history 1:00:27.075 --> 1:00:29.795 of the World Series, the bat would become part of 1:00:29.875 --> 1:00:33.955 the iconography of baseball. I had been at Yankee Stadium 1:00:34.035 --> 1:00:36.795 often enough over the years to know the two kids 1:00:36.795 --> 1:00:39.875 who ran the visiting clubhouse, and right then they were 1:00:39.955 --> 1:00:42.475 still packing up the Mets bats and equipment, and the 1:00:42.515 --> 1:00:45.595 Mets dugout, so I ran over and asked the senior 1:00:45.715 --> 1:00:49.355 of them what happened to the pieces of the Piazza bat. 1:00:50.155 --> 1:00:53.835 The answer to that question has haunted me for twenty 1:00:53.995 --> 1:00:57.675 two years. It resulted in me being threatened with a 1:00:57.795 --> 1:01:00.955 lawsuit by Mike Piazza. The owner of the Boston Red 1:01:00.955 --> 1:01:03.995 Sox said he was threatened by Piazza over the same bat. 1:01:04.435 --> 1:01:06.715 And then came the moment during that World Series that 1:01:06.795 --> 1:01:12.675 Mike Piazza confronted me and we talked about restaurants. The 1:01:12.675 --> 1:01:21.875 rest of this crazy story after this, So back to 1:01:21.915 --> 1:01:24.395 our number one story on the countdown and the saga 1:01:24.435 --> 1:01:26.675 of the night in the two thousand World Series and 1:01:26.795 --> 1:01:30.315 all the nights since, when the bat of Mike Piazza 1:01:30.355 --> 1:01:34.715 of the Mets shattered should be and Roger Clemens of 1:01:34.715 --> 1:01:36.715 the Yankees picked up the barrel of that bat and 1:01:36.795 --> 1:01:39.195 tossed it at him, or just tossed it away having 1:01:39.235 --> 1:01:42.275 mistaken it for a baseball, or made up a story 1:01:42.515 --> 1:01:45.075 that he had mistaken it for a baseball. And I 1:01:45.235 --> 1:01:47.435 was in the Yankee dugout as the reporter, and I 1:01:47.475 --> 1:01:50.235 was hosting the game for Fox, and I interviewed Clemens afterwards, 1:01:50.315 --> 1:01:53.515 and then before our two hour postgame show on Cable, 1:01:54.435 --> 1:01:56.275 I went over to the Met dugout and asked the 1:01:56.315 --> 1:02:01.555 clubhouse attendant there what happened to the pieces of Piazza's bat. Well. 1:02:01.595 --> 1:02:04.235 The guy explained that Bobby Valentine, the Mets manager, had 1:02:04.315 --> 1:02:06.835 asked that one of the pieces go to a friend 1:02:06.835 --> 1:02:10.555 of his in the stands, and he, the clubhouse attendant, 1:02:10.675 --> 1:02:13.275 had handed it to the guy. A second piece he 1:02:13.355 --> 1:02:15.955 believed was kept by the Yankees. He wasn't sure about that. 1:02:16.275 --> 1:02:19.875 The third piece, the handle was where was it. Where 1:02:19.955 --> 1:02:22.635 is it? He asked the other attendant. It's here in 1:02:22.675 --> 1:02:25.515 the garbage, the kid said. I did a double take 1:02:25.675 --> 1:02:28.755 the garbage. Yeah, the kid said, under the dugout bench, 1:02:28.875 --> 1:02:31.435 and there it was, stuffed in amid all the empty 1:02:31.475 --> 1:02:35.075 bags of sunflower seeds and the crushed gatorade cuffs. I said, 1:02:35.115 --> 1:02:37.875 what happens to it? Now? Gets thrown out? They clean 1:02:37.875 --> 1:02:41.315 out the dugouts first, so I said, look, can I 1:02:41.355 --> 1:02:43.795 borrow it? This would make a great prop for our 1:02:43.795 --> 1:02:47.755 postgame show? And the attendant says sure, and he pulls 1:02:47.795 --> 1:02:49.355 it out of the pile and hands it to him, 1:02:49.475 --> 1:02:52.195 just about seven inches of a baseball bat, and all 1:02:52.235 --> 1:02:54.875 there is is Piazza's uniform number thirty one written in 1:02:54.915 --> 1:02:57.995 magic marker on the bottom. Listen. I said, I won't 1:02:58.035 --> 1:02:59.515 be able to bring this back to you for like 1:02:59.555 --> 1:03:01.715 two hours. We're on for two hours. Will you still 1:03:01.755 --> 1:03:03.755 be in the clubhouse? And he said, are you kidding? 1:03:04.315 --> 1:03:06.515 We have to be here at eight. He and I'll 1:03:06.515 --> 1:03:08.755 be out of here in ten minutes. And I said, 1:03:08.955 --> 1:03:10.475 you want me to bring it back to you for 1:03:10.555 --> 1:03:13.595 game three? And he says, garbage. You're going to bring 1:03:13.635 --> 1:03:16.155 back garbage? Throw it out, keep it whatever, what do 1:03:16.235 --> 1:03:20.755 I care? So I use the bat fragment as a 1:03:20.835 --> 1:03:23.555 prop in the show repeatedly, and I stuck it in 1:03:23.635 --> 1:03:25.995 my shoulder bag, and I thought, I'm not a scrounger, 1:03:26.635 --> 1:03:29.755 but this is a valuable piece of memorabilia and I'd 1:03:29.795 --> 1:03:32.515 like to keep it. So either I'll auction it off 1:03:32.515 --> 1:03:35.795 for charity and bid against myself or something, or I'll 1:03:35.795 --> 1:03:38.155 make a donation to a baseball charity and I'll keep it. 1:03:38.195 --> 1:03:41.115 And that was it. And two days later, as the 1:03:41.155 --> 1:03:43.715 World Series shifted from Yankee Stadium to Shay Stadium, I 1:03:43.715 --> 1:03:45.915 got a phone call from one of the PR guys 1:03:45.955 --> 1:03:49.115 at Fox Sports. Did you see the paper? And I said, no, 1:03:49.195 --> 1:03:51.475 not yet. And he says, Piazza told the guy from 1:03:51.555 --> 1:03:55.115 Newsday that you stole his bat and he wants it back. 1:03:55.875 --> 1:03:58.955 And I said, what if I hadn't asked about it, it 1:03:58.955 --> 1:04:01.195 would be on a garbage scale right now, being towed 1:04:01.235 --> 1:04:03.955 out to be dumped in the Atlantic Ocean. And he says, 1:04:03.995 --> 1:04:06.515 maybe so, but Piazza told this John Hayman, He's going 1:04:06.555 --> 1:04:10.075 to sue you to get it back. So now I 1:04:10.155 --> 1:04:12.995 go to the ballpark with extra excitement on my plate. 1:04:13.155 --> 1:04:15.195 I'm waiting for Mike Piazza to tell me he's going 1:04:15.275 --> 1:04:17.715 to sue me. So I go out onto the field. 1:04:17.835 --> 1:04:19.875 I'm wondering how long it's going to be before I run 1:04:19.915 --> 1:04:22.035 into Piazza, And like two minutes after I step on 1:04:22.075 --> 1:04:23.835 the field, I turn around and he's walking towards me. 1:04:23.955 --> 1:04:26.555 He looks at me and he says, hey, Keith wild 1:04:26.555 --> 1:04:28.875 One the other night, huh say listen, when you lived 1:04:28.915 --> 1:04:30.995 at Shutters, did you ever eat at Ivy at the 1:04:31.035 --> 1:04:35.275 Shore in Santa Monica? Nothing about the bat. We're talking 1:04:35.275 --> 1:04:38.595 about restaurants in Santa Monica, California. And I say, well, yeah, 1:04:38.595 --> 1:04:40.635 but did you ever eat at Shae Jay's. And a 1:04:40.795 --> 1:04:43.475 big smile from Piazza, Oh, man, I love Shade Jay's. 1:04:43.555 --> 1:04:45.955 I love Jay. Give me your number this winter when 1:04:45.955 --> 1:04:48.595 I'm home, Let's go eat at Shaye Jay's. And I said, 1:04:48.595 --> 1:04:50.515 I'll pay for it and I'll order the sand dabs. 1:04:50.915 --> 1:04:53.635 Now we're talking about sand dabs, how to prepare sand 1:04:53.715 --> 1:04:56.515 dabs at a restaurant. And then he says, hey, sorry, 1:04:56.515 --> 1:05:00.075 I gotta go ahead, have a good show. That was it. 1:05:00.955 --> 1:05:04.195 He's in the paper threatening to sue me. We see 1:05:04.235 --> 1:05:06.795 each other on on the field. He starts the conversation. 1:05:07.635 --> 1:05:11.515 No mention of suing me, not one word. Next day 1:05:11.555 --> 1:05:14.115 in the paper, more Piazza quotes about how he's going 1:05:14.195 --> 1:05:16.915 to sue me for stealing his bat. Next night, Game 1:05:16.915 --> 1:05:18.915 four of the World Series, we're just about to go 1:05:18.955 --> 1:05:20.875 on the air with the pregame show, and now Piazza 1:05:20.875 --> 1:05:23.395 comes over again, coming in from the outfield to the dugout, 1:05:23.395 --> 1:05:25.315 and he says, hey, this must be really cool to 1:05:25.355 --> 1:05:27.395 do what you guys are doing. Have a great show. 1:05:28.315 --> 1:05:29.875 And by now the only thing I can think of. 1:05:30.195 --> 1:05:32.915 He does not know I'm the same Keith Olberman. He 1:05:32.995 --> 1:05:36.835 keeps threatening to sue. So the World Series ends and 1:05:36.875 --> 1:05:39.195 the Yankees beat the Mets, and if you look for it, 1:05:39.235 --> 1:05:42.115 there's this photo of the traditional postgame awarding of the 1:05:42.115 --> 1:05:45.795 World Series Trophy and the Most Valuable Player award and 1:05:45.875 --> 1:05:48.875 its commissioner, Bud Selig and Derek Jeter, the Yankees and me, 1:05:49.475 --> 1:05:51.955 and just before it happened, George Steinbrenner was the owner 1:05:51.955 --> 1:05:55.795 of the Yankees. He's crying, leans in and I give 1:05:55.835 --> 1:05:57.835 him a hug and reassure him. And he asked me 1:05:57.875 --> 1:05:59.835 if my mother went to the game, and I said, 1:05:59.875 --> 1:06:01.915 you know, my mother she'd never come to Shay Stadium. 1:06:01.955 --> 1:06:04.155 She hates it more than you do. And he says, 1:06:04.795 --> 1:06:08.515 I love her more than ever before. Now, So the 1:06:08.595 --> 1:06:11.155 series ends, and it's not been that greatest series, but 1:06:11.195 --> 1:06:14.515 it's been exciting and it was the dream from my childhood. 1:06:14.555 --> 1:06:17.235 And the Yankees have won and my friends are happy. 1:06:17.315 --> 1:06:21.075 And I've not heard another word about this lawsuit, nothing 1:06:21.115 --> 1:06:24.115 from Mike Piazza. And I told the Fox people, well, 1:06:24.195 --> 1:06:25.915 if I'm not going to hear anything more from them, 1:06:25.955 --> 1:06:28.235 it's easy. I'm going to keep the bat and I'm 1:06:28.275 --> 1:06:31.555 going to donate twenty five thousand dollars to this charity, 1:06:31.595 --> 1:06:34.555 the Baseball Assistance Team, which helps ex ball players in 1:06:34.595 --> 1:06:38.355 financial need, because A I'm not a scrounger. B it's 1:06:38.355 --> 1:06:41.675 a great cause. C that's actually much more than the 1:06:41.675 --> 1:06:43.755 bat handle would be worth on the open market. And 1:06:43.875 --> 1:06:47.995 D the acronym for the Baseball Assistance Team is bat 1:06:48.675 --> 1:06:52.755 bat and that's perfect. It's about Piazza's bat, you get it. 1:06:54.195 --> 1:06:57.835 And then nothing for a month, whereupon Fox gets another 1:06:57.915 --> 1:07:01.435 letter now from Piazza's agent fellow named Manzan and he 1:07:01.515 --> 1:07:03.995 threatens to sue again, and that's the end of it. 1:07:04.195 --> 1:07:07.355 Never heard from him again. So now it's the next year, 1:07:07.395 --> 1:07:09.035 two thousand and one, and I'm back in New York 1:07:09.155 --> 1:07:11.555 working for CNN doing the news, and I go to 1:07:11.635 --> 1:07:13.675 a Mets game and I see Piazza and I give 1:07:13.755 --> 1:07:15.515 him a big smile and I offer my hand and 1:07:15.555 --> 1:07:17.915 I say, still all of those sand dabs from shayj 1:07:18.275 --> 1:07:20.835 And he just stares at me and walks right past me. 1:07:21.635 --> 1:07:23.435 And I see a cop I know who works next 1:07:23.475 --> 1:07:25.875 to the Mets dugout, and the cop says, Mike has 1:07:25.915 --> 1:07:29.355 been asking him about me? Is that Keith Olderman the 1:07:29.355 --> 1:07:33.515 one who stole my bat? So now I'm not just 1:07:33.635 --> 1:07:37.955 keeping the bat. I want to sue Mike Piazza for 1:07:38.155 --> 1:07:41.635 being a pain in the ass. And then nine to 1:07:41.635 --> 1:07:45.195 eleven happens, and ball players are doing charity things, and 1:07:45.235 --> 1:07:49.155 sportscasters and newscasters are doing charity things, and I think, well, 1:07:49.475 --> 1:07:52.435 this is the time when the baseball season resumes. I 1:07:52.475 --> 1:07:54.195 throw the bat handle in my bag and I go 1:07:54.235 --> 1:07:55.955 out to a Mets game and I go up to 1:07:56.155 --> 1:07:58.395 Piazza's locker before the game, and I pull the bat 1:07:58.475 --> 1:08:01.515 chart out and I say, take this, Mike, auction it 1:08:01.555 --> 1:08:03.595 off for charity. Let's do some good with this, or 1:08:03.595 --> 1:08:06.275 if it's too much trouble, you sign it and I'll 1:08:06.275 --> 1:08:08.075 auction it off. We can leave my name out of it, 1:08:08.115 --> 1:08:10.595 whatever you want, however you want to do it. And 1:08:10.635 --> 1:08:13.275 he looks at me like I've just insulted his mother 1:08:13.515 --> 1:08:16.355 and says, no, it's too complicated, and he turns away, 1:08:16.995 --> 1:08:21.635 and I think to myself, this is the strangest athlete 1:08:21.755 --> 1:08:25.595 I have ever met. And just before the season ends, 1:08:25.595 --> 1:08:27.915 I go to another Mets game. Now this time it's 1:08:27.915 --> 1:08:29.955 one of his teammates who takes me aside and says, 1:08:30.195 --> 1:08:32.755 you know, Piazza never stops talking about you stealing his 1:08:32.795 --> 1:08:35.035 bat from the Clemens game last year. He says, he 1:08:35.075 --> 1:08:38.435 still wants to sue you. Didn't you try to give 1:08:38.515 --> 1:08:40.715 him the bat back in the clubhouse to auction off. 1:08:40.755 --> 1:08:42.995 Didn't I see that? And I say, yeah, I did, 1:08:43.235 --> 1:08:45.435 and he refused to take it. And the guy laughs 1:08:45.475 --> 1:08:48.955 and he says, great player, excellent catcher. I love him, 1:08:49.235 --> 1:08:53.115 strangest player I have ever met. Comes two thousand and two, 1:08:53.515 --> 1:08:57.115 nothing happens. See Piazza at several Mets games. Nothing happens. 1:08:57.115 --> 1:09:00.315 Two thousand and three, nothing happens. Now I can't pin 1:09:00.435 --> 1:09:02.675 the year down on this. It's one of the Red 1:09:02.715 --> 1:09:05.675 Sox Yankees' playoffs series either too thousand and three. We're 1:09:05.675 --> 1:09:08.155 two thousand and four and I'm leaving the field as 1:09:08.155 --> 1:09:10.875 they're clearing the media off just before the game starts, 1:09:10.995 --> 1:09:13.315 and I'm going out through the Red Sox dugout, literally 1:09:13.395 --> 1:09:16.475 at the same spot where the kid handed me Piazza's 1:09:16.515 --> 1:09:19.755 bat handle three or four years earlier, where the trouble 1:09:19.795 --> 1:09:22.675 all began. And I see the new owner of the 1:09:22.715 --> 1:09:25.195 Red Sox team approaching from the other end of the dugout, 1:09:25.435 --> 1:09:28.315 Keith John Henry, Nice to meet you. Have you got 1:09:28.355 --> 1:09:31.635 a minute? And I said, well, yeah, they're kicking the 1:09:31.635 --> 1:09:33.675 media off the field, so and he laughs and he 1:09:33.675 --> 1:09:35.475 says I can take care of that. And he yells 1:09:35.515 --> 1:09:37.835 at the plane clothes coop and he says he's with 1:09:37.995 --> 1:09:40.435 me and the cop nods and John Henry, the owner 1:09:40.435 --> 1:09:42.355 of the Red Sox, and I sit down on the 1:09:42.355 --> 1:09:44.475 Red Sox bench before the start of a Red Sox 1:09:44.555 --> 1:09:47.315 Yankees playoff game, and there are no other reporters out there, 1:09:47.315 --> 1:09:49.715 and I think, Okay, what did I say about the 1:09:49.715 --> 1:09:54.155 Red Sox? What is he pissed off about? Instead? John 1:09:54.195 --> 1:09:58.915 Henry says, can I ask you about Mike Piazza And 1:09:58.955 --> 1:10:03.635 I laugh and I say, sure, what about him? And 1:10:03.675 --> 1:10:06.115 he says, you have part of his bat from the 1:10:06.115 --> 1:10:08.875 World Series with Clemens right, And I say yeah, and 1:10:08.875 --> 1:10:11.875 he says, tell me the whole story. So I do 1:10:12.035 --> 1:10:15.435 what you've just heard, and John Henry says, that's what 1:10:15.515 --> 1:10:18.715 I was told, Thank you, huh. I thought it was me. 1:10:19.475 --> 1:10:21.355 So that other piece of the bat that was handed 1:10:21.395 --> 1:10:23.715 to a friend of Bobby Valentine's during that game, that 1:10:23.795 --> 1:10:25.595 friend is a great friend of mine. And after nine 1:10:25.635 --> 1:10:27.315 to eleven he said, wouldn't it be great to get 1:10:27.355 --> 1:10:29.635 Mike Piazza to sign this and then we can auction 1:10:29.755 --> 1:10:31.795 it off for the victims' families or the cops or 1:10:31.795 --> 1:10:34.595 some other charity. And he gives me the bat and 1:10:34.635 --> 1:10:36.395 I call the Mets and they approach Mike and they 1:10:36.435 --> 1:10:38.315 call me and they say, Mike loves the idea and 1:10:38.315 --> 1:10:39.955 I should come to one of the spring training games 1:10:39.955 --> 1:10:42.315 and he'll sign it. So the next March, I go 1:10:42.315 --> 1:10:44.195 to one of the Mets spring training games and I 1:10:44.235 --> 1:10:45.835 go up to him in the clubhouse and I introduce 1:10:45.915 --> 1:10:48.315 myself and he looks at me like I'm from Mars 1:10:48.795 --> 1:10:50.355 and I say, well, I brought the bat and he 1:10:50.395 --> 1:10:53.115 says what bat? And I explained that we had arranged 1:10:53.115 --> 1:10:55.315 to have him sign the bat from the World Series 1:10:55.755 --> 1:10:57.955 for a nine to eleven charity and he erupts at me, 1:10:58.115 --> 1:11:01.035 I'm not signing that bat? Sure for charity? You think 1:11:01.035 --> 1:11:05.835 I was born yesterday? And say something to John Henry, 1:11:05.875 --> 1:11:08.355 owner of the Red Sox, like welcome to the club. 1:11:08.595 --> 1:11:11.555 Did he threaten to sue you too? And he laughs 1:11:11.595 --> 1:11:14.715 and says yes. That's the next part of the story. 1:11:14.835 --> 1:11:17.635 So while we're trying to straighten that out, his agent 1:11:17.715 --> 1:11:19.555 calls me and asks if I will give them the 1:11:19.595 --> 1:11:22.115 bat to auction off for charity, and I say sure, 1:11:23.115 --> 1:11:25.315 and I go to another Mets game and I go 1:11:25.355 --> 1:11:27.515 to the clubhouse and I have the bat again. Now 1:11:27.555 --> 1:11:30.275 Piazza says, no, I can't take the bat because of 1:11:30.395 --> 1:11:34.475 pending litigation, but if I want him to, he'll sign 1:11:34.555 --> 1:11:36.675 it for me. All I have to do is come 1:11:36.715 --> 1:11:39.875 back a couple of weeks later. So this is what 1:11:39.915 --> 1:11:43.675 I wanted to ask Keith. Is he the strangest ballplayer 1:11:43.675 --> 1:11:48.115 you've ever met? Or is it just me? There's one 1:11:48.155 --> 1:11:54.195 more part to this. Flash forward to twenty fourteen, I 1:11:54.235 --> 1:11:57.515 still have the Piazza batthandle the one I unsuccessfully tried 1:11:57.515 --> 1:12:00.115 to give back to Piazza. The middle portion, the one 1:12:00.195 --> 1:12:03.355 John Henry unsuccessfully tried to give back to Piazza, has 1:12:03.395 --> 1:12:07.155 been sold, with the proce going to charity. So where 1:12:07.195 --> 1:12:09.715 is the third piece, the barrel of the bat, the 1:12:09.755 --> 1:12:11.995 part that Clemens through at Piazza if you're a Met 1:12:12.035 --> 1:12:15.075 fan or was unfairly accused of throwing at Piazza if 1:12:15.075 --> 1:12:18.115 you're not a Met fan? And the answer finally arrives 1:12:18.155 --> 1:12:21.595 in a sports memorabilia auction catalog that year. While one 1:12:21.675 --> 1:12:24.075 of the visiting bat boys was handing the middle part 1:12:24.075 --> 1:12:26.675 of the bat to a friend of Bobby Valentine and 1:12:26.755 --> 1:12:30.475 John Henry's in the stands, the barrel, which landed near 1:12:30.515 --> 1:12:33.395 the Yankee dugout, was scooped up by the Yankee bat boy, 1:12:33.795 --> 1:12:36.515 who put it in the pile of Yankee broken bats. 1:12:36.995 --> 1:12:38.955 And as it turned out, right at that point, the 1:12:39.035 --> 1:12:43.235 Yankee strengthen conditioning coach Jeff Mangold, who was on the bench, said, 1:12:43.515 --> 1:12:46.115 wait a minute, that's the pile of broken bats they're 1:12:46.115 --> 1:12:48.675 going to throw out. They shouldn't throw it out. It's history. 1:12:49.195 --> 1:12:51.595 And he grabs that part of the Piazza bat and 1:12:51.635 --> 1:12:53.395 puts it up in his home office. And now it's 1:12:53.395 --> 1:12:55.795 fourteen years later and he wants to auction it off 1:12:55.835 --> 1:12:59.075 for charity. So he auctions it off, and I think, well, hell, 1:12:59.635 --> 1:13:01.795 it should be alongside the other piece of the bat. 1:13:01.875 --> 1:13:05.275 My other piece of the bat, the handle, win the auction. 1:13:06.515 --> 1:13:09.315 There it is on my wall, complete with a baseball 1:13:09.355 --> 1:13:12.875 card showing Roger Clemens about to throw the barrel. Reasons 1:13:13.035 --> 1:13:17.395 left to your imagination, two thirds of the famous bat. 1:13:18.235 --> 1:13:21.275 I'll sell it someday, I'm sure, but I'll always have 1:13:21.315 --> 1:13:26.035 the memories, my memories and John Henry's memories. And if 1:13:26.035 --> 1:13:28.555 you're wondering, No, unlike John Henry and I, that Yankee 1:13:28.555 --> 1:13:31.555 strength coach Jeff Mangold never tried to give it back 1:13:31.595 --> 1:13:34.155 to Piazza, or get it signed by Piazza, or auctioned 1:13:34.195 --> 1:13:36.715 off for charity with Piazza, which means that, on top 1:13:36.755 --> 1:13:41.075 of everything else, Jeff Mangold is smarter than John Henry 1:13:41.075 --> 1:13:58.035 and I put together. Yes, the story took three hours, 1:13:58.075 --> 1:14:01.835 but I think you'll agree it was worth it. Hello. Hello, 1:14:01.915 --> 1:14:05.755 you're still there. Hello, HELLI I've done all the damage 1:14:05.795 --> 1:14:07.635 I can do here. Thank you for listening. Most of 1:14:07.675 --> 1:14:10.315 our countdown music was arranged, produced and performed by Brian 1:14:10.435 --> 1:14:13.715 Ray and John Phillip Schanel. Our musical directors have Countdown 1:14:13.715 --> 1:14:16.675 and it was produced by TKO Brothers. Mister Ray was 1:14:16.715 --> 1:14:20.235 on the guitars, bass and drums. Mister Chaneale handled orchestration 1:14:20.275 --> 1:14:23.875 and keyboards. Our satirical and fifty musical comments are by 1:14:23.915 --> 1:14:27.515 my friend and the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. 1:14:27.915 --> 1:14:31.395 The Olderman theme from ESPN two written by Mitch Warren 1:14:31.475 --> 1:14:34.835 Davis Pier's Curtisy of ESPN, Inc. And it's the sports music. 1:14:35.155 --> 1:14:38.235 Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. 1:14:38.515 --> 1:14:42.395 My announcer today, keeping with the baseball theme was Tony Kornheiser. 1:14:42.835 --> 1:14:47.155 Everything else was as always my fault. That's countdown for today. 1:14:47.195 --> 1:14:49.755 Day two hundred and eighty one of America held hostage again, 1:14:50.435 --> 1:14:54.195 just eighty two days until the scheduled end of his 1:14:54.315 --> 1:14:57.155 lame duck and lame brained term unless he is removed 1:14:57.235 --> 1:15:01.995 sooner by Maga and Epstein, or that patch of pavement 1:15:02.035 --> 1:15:05.275 on his hand, or a stuck escalator or a kopathy 1:15:05.395 --> 1:15:07.915 test or tail and all, or his jet made out 1:15:07.955 --> 1:15:12.035 of poop, or the arc he's building. He's building an arc. 1:15:12.395 --> 1:15:16.275 He thinks he's pronounced arc. He thinks arch is arc. 1:15:18.555 --> 1:15:23.035 Now he's fine, He's fine. The next scheduled countdown is Thursday. 1:15:23.075 --> 1:15:25.795 Until then, I'm Keith Alderman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, 1:15:26.435 --> 1:15:43.315 and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production 1:15:43.555 --> 1:15:48.835 of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 1:15:48.915 --> 1:15:52.315 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.