Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. To
Speaker 1: be blunt about it, rare has been the election when
Speaker 1: the vice presidential choice has actually helped the Democratic campaign.
Speaker 1: But rarer still has been the election when both vice
Speaker 1: presidential choices have actually helped the Democratic campaign. It is
Speaker 1: a given that they should have Tim Walls make ten
Speaker 1: speeches a week every warehouse, farmhouse, hen house, outhouse, and doghouse.
Speaker 1: But Democrats should also now anonymously flood the Trump campaign
Speaker 1: and every Republican in the country with a succinct and
Speaker 1: anonymous message send more jd Vance, My God, is this
Speaker 1: guy an idiot? More accurately, JV Vance JV what a gift?
Speaker 1: JV Vance has launched twenty years after after the original
Speaker 1: attempt to do this succeeded against John Kerry. Jd vance
Speaker 1: has launched a new swift boat campaign against a man,
Speaker 1: Tim Walls, governor of Minnesota, who served in the military
Speaker 1: for twenty four years. And Tim Walls is the victim here, obviously,
Speaker 1: but moreover, jd vance has launched this campaign, this swift
Speaker 1: voting effort while being the running mate of a draft dodger.
Speaker 1: If there is one topic you do not want to
Speaker 1: bring up as Trump's campaign slowly bleeds to death, one
Speaker 1: topic you do not want to insert into the national
Speaker 1: dialogue right now. It's stolen valor. And if that were
Speaker 1: not enough, if it were not enough to bring the
Speaker 1: entirety of the Trump bone spurs draft avoidance, and that's
Speaker 1: the best interpretation of it, story back to life after
Speaker 1: literally fifty five years. If there's one thing you don't
Speaker 1: want to do besides that, it's to bring up this
Speaker 1: story again and this question of valor and who's telling
Speaker 1: the truth about their military record when your own role
Speaker 1: in the United States military was as a Marine correspondent.
Speaker 1: Captain J. V. Vance was a correspondent with the Marines
Speaker 1: in Iraq. Brian Williams in uniform. Everybody more on that. Presently,
Speaker 1: he's trying to swift vote to smear a man who
Speaker 1: served in the National Guard for nineteen eighty one through
Speaker 1: two thousand and five and who retired at one rank
Speaker 1: lower than he actually served at because he had not
Speaker 1: finished one training course, so he took the benefits hit
Speaker 1: rather than try to fudge the promotion. That is who
Speaker 1: is being attacked here by JD. Vance. Thus JV reopens
Speaker 1: the entire question not only of what Trump was not
Speaker 1: doing in Vietnam, but what he Vance was not doing
Speaker 1: in Iraq as a Marine correspondent. And of course, the
Speaker 1: last phrase you would ever want to use under these
Speaker 1: circumstances would be the one that goes stolen valor.
Speaker 2: He has not spent a day in a combat zone.
Speaker 2: What bothers me about Tim Waltz is the stolen valor garbage.
Speaker 2: Do not pretend to be something that you're not. And
Speaker 2: if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy
Speaker 2: League education, I'm proud of the fact that my Mamma's
Speaker 2: support to me that I was able to make something
Speaker 2: to myself. I'd be ashamed if I was him and
Speaker 2: I lied about my military service like he did.
Speaker 1: Stolen valor said by a man who was in Iraq
Speaker 1: as a correspondent. Now, look, I'm not going to go
Speaker 1: and use that phrase stolen valor against JV. Vance, because
Speaker 1: if you go to Iraq as a correspondent, as a
Speaker 1: innocent bystander, as a member of a peace group somehow
Speaker 1: embedded with the Marines, you still stood an excellent chance
Speaker 1: of getting your arm blown off. On a good day.
Speaker 1: It required heroism, and it certainly counts as military service.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing what JV. Vance is trying to do
Speaker 1: to Tim Walls. On the other hand, as it points
Speaker 1: out in his biography, he enlisted in the US Marine
Speaker 1: Corps and served in Iraq as a combat correspondent for
Speaker 1: six months late in two thousand and five. I swear
Speaker 1: to God, part of the second Marine Aircraft Wing Public
Speaker 1: Affairs section. I presume they had battles with Iraqi pr people.
Speaker 1: He said his service taught him how to live like
Speaker 1: an adult. But he added, oh my goodness, get this tattooed.
Speaker 1: I was lucky to escape any real fighting. That's a
Speaker 1: marine talking. I was lucky to escape any real fighting.
Speaker 1: But this guy over here is guilty of stolen valor
Speaker 1: not only that, but Vance has tried to pin the
Speaker 1: Iraq War on Joe Biden because as a senator, President
Speaker 1: Biden voted and was conned by Colin Powell and everybody
Speaker 1: in the DOJ and everybody in the Bush administration and
Speaker 1: in the Office of Homeland Security and Dick Cheney and
Speaker 1: all the other scumbags. He was conned, as many of
Speaker 1: us were. I wasn't, but I'll be part of that
Speaker 1: era in news for all time. He was conned as
Speaker 1: Biden now says, but JD. Vance wants to make the
Speaker 1: Iraq war Biden's fault, not Bush's fault. As late as
Speaker 1: twenty ten, JV. Vance was publicly supporting Bush's war in Iraq.
Speaker 1: Now he says, he fell for George W. Bush's propaganda
Speaker 1: about Iraq. Wait a minute, that was propaganda that was
Speaker 1: lying about Iraq. And you were one again, what did
Speaker 1: you serve as you were a general? Oh no, you
Speaker 1: were a public affairs Colonel JD. Vance. You were in
Speaker 1: charge of spreading propaganda. So this war that was based
Speaker 1: on lies and propaganda by George W. Bush, you were
Speaker 1: one of the people who perpetrated the lying. Well, we
Speaker 1: want to give you a full credit for that. Thank
Speaker 1: you for your service, Liar Brian Williams in a uniform. Yes, uh,
Speaker 1: I personally captured Sodom Hussein. He was staying in my basement,
Speaker 1: in my basement, in my pehouse in the middle of
Speaker 1: the desert a near Sodom City. Now, Vance does not
Speaker 1: have to take all of the blame on this. If
Speaker 1: you are familiar with the original swift boat story, one
Speaker 1: of the scumbags in charge of the swift boating of
Speaker 1: John Kerry, in which the campaign of George W. Bush
Speaker 1: in two thousand and four managed to get MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBSABC,
Speaker 1: all of them to question the exact details of where
Speaker 1: the boat was and where John Kerry was and where
Speaker 1: the island was when they gave John Kerry one of
Speaker 1: his medals while he was serving in battle in Vietnam,
Speaker 1: and they tried to make him look like he was
Speaker 1: some sort of draft dodger, when of course Donald Trump
Speaker 1: was a draft dodger and George W. Bush avoided active service,
Speaker 1: never left Texas for his military service. They managed to
Speaker 1: do this with the complicity of the media and a
Speaker 1: few of us in the back going. I don't think
Speaker 1: this this is right. It was par for the course
Speaker 1: with the Bush era. And as we know now Public
Speaker 1: Affairs Colonel JD. Vance was helping on this whole Bush
Speaker 1: measure from Iraq, but that would be in two thousand
Speaker 1: and five. This is two thousand and four. One of
Speaker 1: the Bush administration's swift voters is now Senior something or
Speaker 1: another senior asshole on the Trump campaign. So they worked
Speaker 1: on this in two thousand and four. It worked so well,
Speaker 1: and they've decided to use it again. And they've stepped
Speaker 1: on their own dicks again because they are emphasizing the
Speaker 1: fact that Donald Trump dodged the draft and the phony
Speaker 1: war of Iraq, all of the lies, all of the
Speaker 1: propaganda from George W. Bush was sold in part by
Speaker 1: public Affairs Colonel JD. Vance, the gift that keeps on given.
Speaker 1: But wait, there's more from JV. He's offered to debate,
Speaker 1: to debate Kamala Harris. If you've ever heard the cliche
Speaker 1: too clever by half and wondered what it actually meant,
Speaker 1: this is too clever by half. He's playing dumb. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have to play very hard to give this impression
Speaker 1: across to anybody, but he is playing dumb and claiming that, well, officially,
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris is still the vice president. I will debate her.
Speaker 1: They don't really have a vice it's been certified already.
Speaker 1: He also stalked the Vice president's playing yesterday, adding to
Speaker 1: the weird creep factor, leading also to a tweet from
Speaker 1: Congressman Moskowitz saying he's been on Air Force two, the
Speaker 1: Vice President's plane, and it has a very nice sofa.
Speaker 1: This guy is just tone deaf and is another one
Speaker 1: of the Dunning Krueger group. No earthly clue that he's
Speaker 1: not the smartest guy in the room when he's probably
Speaker 1: seventh from the bottom. The takeaway the headline to the
Speaker 1: entirety of the Tim Walls era just starting day three,
Speaker 1: But the headline, the point is he's happy. People like
Speaker 1: happy voters. Like happy voters are fed up with these
Speaker 1: angry conspiracy theories, these whiners like Trump and Vance. If
Speaker 1: there's anything that the Kamala Harris campaign exploding out of
Speaker 1: the gates and now exploding again out of the gates
Speaker 1: with the addition of Walls has shown, it's that we
Speaker 1: don't want everybody to be angry all the time. And
Speaker 1: again you put on the list of the people who
Speaker 1: are angry all the time. I'm on that list. I
Speaker 1: get the point. So here, like we don't have enough
Speaker 1: here from JV. Vance, he went and got more angry yesterday.
Speaker 1: He got a gift from the almighty. You want evidence
Speaker 1: that there might be a god. JD. Vance got a
Speaker 1: gift from that entity if he really exists. Yesterday, a
Speaker 1: reporter asks him, what makes you happy? I mean, utterly
Speaker 1: teed up to make inroads, to be able to push
Speaker 1: back against tim walls, to stop the bleeding before it
Speaker 1: turns into a hemorrhage, to compete with walls for the
Speaker 1: I like America. I'm happy. What makes me happy? I
Speaker 1: like dogs and cats. I like ice cream. I like America.
Speaker 1: I like to smile at the flag. I like to
Speaker 1: wrap myself in the flag. I like Donald Trump. Donald
Speaker 1: Trump makes me happy. Say something like that. He couldn't
Speaker 1: he couldn't do it. He couldn't stop himself. What makes
Speaker 1: you happy, He's asked, He answers in effect, I like
Speaker 1: being mad. He did everything except say I'm only happy
Speaker 1: when it rains. I only smile in the dark. My
Speaker 1: only comfort is the night gone black. I didn't accidentally
Speaker 1: tell you that I'm only happy when it rains. A
Speaker 1: little bit different here, how the criticizes being too serious
Speaker 1: entertain me sometimes. What makes you smile?
Speaker 2: What makes you happy?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: I smile a little lot of things, including bogus questions
Speaker 2: from the media. Man, I mean, look, I think if
Speaker 2: you watch, if you watch a full speech that I give,
Speaker 2: I actually I'm having a good time out here and
Speaker 2: I'm enjoying this. But look, sometimes you got to take
Speaker 2: the good with the bad, and right now I.
Speaker 1: Am angry at JV. If you want something to really
Speaker 1: be unhappy about, the first vance versus happy Tim Walls.
Speaker 1: Polling will be coming out soon. Meanwhile, his boss, mister
Speaker 1: stolen Valor of nineteen sixty six, nineteen sixty seven and
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight three Pete winner of Mister Stolen Valor
Speaker 1: of the Year, Draft dodger Don. He stepped on his
Speaker 1: own wang yesterday too. The standard Trump anybody who opposes
Speaker 1: me as a communist stream merged with the you thought
Speaker 1: January sixth was better? What about when the entire country
Speaker 1: burned to the ground by Black Lives Matter, especially Minneapolis.
Speaker 1: These two streams merged. Trump did it. Trump has spent
Speaker 1: the entirety of the time since Tim Walls was given
Speaker 1: the vice presidential slot on the Harris campaign blaming Tim
Speaker 1: Walls and Tim Walls alone for communism, inflation, gas prices.
Speaker 1: The troubled Trump has keeping his hair just the right
Speaker 1: color of orange. He's been complaining about Tim Walls and
Speaker 1: insisting its Tim Walls and Tim Walls did a terrible job.
Speaker 1: And he's going to, in that phrase from Steven Miller,
Speaker 1: turn the entirety of the Midwest into Mogadishu, except now
Speaker 1: it turns out, thank you ABC News. Trump got on
Speaker 1: the blower with all the governors in the middle of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, late in the spring, after Trump had tweeted
Speaker 1: liberate Minnesota, jeopardizing Tim Walls's life by doing so. After
Speaker 1: all that, after the rioting, such as it was trivial
Speaker 1: compared to January sixth, got on the phone with a
Speaker 1: bunch of governors to talk about how he thought walltz
Speaker 1: was doing with the protest in Minnesota, and Donald Trump
Speaker 1: could not stop praising Governor to Walls. I know Governor
Speaker 1: Walls is on the phone and we spoke, and I
Speaker 1: fully agree with the way he handled it.
Speaker 2: The last couple of days.
Speaker 1: I asked him to do that. The best example I
Speaker 1: alluded to it a couple of seconds ago is Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: Two days three days later, I spoke to the governor.
Speaker 1: The Governor's I think on the calliny he's an excellent guy.
Speaker 1: By the way, the police station in Minneapolis that was burned,
Speaker 1: that you will hear a lot about as they continue
Speaker 1: this thread, as they continue to throw anything they can
Speaker 1: think of against the wall, and so far they have
Speaker 1: not even hit the wall yet. One of the people
Speaker 1: who burned it to the ground was a Maga provocateur,
Speaker 1: a member of the Boogaloo Boys. So when you hear oh,
Speaker 1: they burned down a Minneapolis police station while Tim Walls
Speaker 1: was governor, just remember like the guy who shot at Trump,
Speaker 1: it was Maga, And you could just take some of
Speaker 1: that tape of Trump and you could say, we're Tim
Speaker 1: Walls and Kamala Harris, and we approved this message because
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is an effing moron. Now your polls round up,
Speaker 1: and again, the overarching theme of the polls ever since
Speaker 1: Harris replaced Biden in this campaign has been the same message.
Speaker 1: These are the kind of inroads that were hoped for
Speaker 1: by perhaps Labor Day or maybe October first. They are
Speaker 1: already here and there is as yet no indication they
Speaker 1: are even slowing down. You gov for the Economist yesterday
Speaker 1: Harris forty five, Trump forty three. Data for Progress Russ
Speaker 1: felt only that's Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The second time
Speaker 1: they've done this trial July twenty third, the results were
Speaker 1: Trump fifty percent in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Biden forty
Speaker 1: three percent. The new poll dated August seventh, Harris forty
Speaker 1: eight forty seven, So Biden was losing by seven to
Speaker 1: Trump and Harris is beating Trump by one. The swing
Speaker 1: in a matter of two weeks, two weeks eight points
Speaker 1: and by the way, a very good job by Data
Speaker 1: for Progress because they polled the sane people about how
Speaker 1: they would be voting if it were still Biden in
Speaker 1: the campaign for the Democrats, and the wisdom of this
Speaker 1: move and the timing of this move, which will be judged,
Speaker 1: I think by historians to be just as important as
Speaker 1: the move itself. The timing of this and the fact
Speaker 1: of this is indicated by the results of this poll
Speaker 1: Data for Progress in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Again it's
Speaker 1: forty eight forty seven Harris, and those voters said if
Speaker 1: it had been Biden running, it would be forty seven
Speaker 1: forty two Trump. So there is a swing right now
Speaker 1: of six points in favor of Kamala Harris and against
Speaker 1: Donald Trump by virtue of the presidential nominee being Kamala Harris.
Speaker 1: Marquette University Law Wisconsin voters likely voters Harris fifty Trump
Speaker 1: forty nine, and they did about two hundred different issues.
Speaker 1: These are just the highlights. Harris is seen as better
Speaker 1: on abortion policy, healthcare, ensuring fair and accurate elections, on Medicare,
Speaker 1: and on Social Security. Some specific questions, Does the phrase
Speaker 1: is a strong leader fit Harris? Fifty percent say it
Speaker 1: fits very well or somewhat well. Does it fit Trump?
Speaker 1: Fifty eight percent say it fits very well or somewhat well.
Speaker 1: So the big thing Trump has going for him, one
Speaker 1: of the two big issues his own seeming personal strength.
Speaker 1: Because America has always loved bullshit, his seeming strength is
Speaker 1: only at this point one hundred days out, an eight
Speaker 1: percent advantage over a presidential candidate who has been the
Speaker 1: candidates for two and a half weeks. Another one, Does
Speaker 1: the phrase has the right temperament to be president? Fit
Speaker 1: these two characters? Well, see if you can guess how
Speaker 1: this one turned out. Does it fit Harris? Fifty six
Speaker 1: percent say you bet you. It is Wisconsin after all.
Speaker 1: Does it fit Trump? Forty two percent say it fits
Speaker 1: very well or somewhat well. That's forty two percent that
Speaker 1: is below the percentage of voters who are Republicans in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: The favorability score in this poll in Wisconsin, Trump was
Speaker 1: at forty one before his own convention and before the
Speaker 1: assassination attempt, it has risen only to forty four. His
Speaker 1: negative is fifty four. He's still ten points underwater. Harris
Speaker 1: is at forty one approval fifty three disapproval, So she
Speaker 1: is just twelve underwater. She's only two points worse than
Speaker 1: he is two and a half weeks in. One more set,
Speaker 1: not so much of polls, but as of interpretation of
Speaker 1: polling and trends. This is Larry Sabato's group at the
Speaker 1: University of Virginia Center for Politics. Their crystal Ball, good
Speaker 1: old fashioned crystal ball, which has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: the former MSNBC host stoll Ball. Thank goodness crystal Ball
Speaker 1: ratings changes. Three states were changed yesterday in the forecast.
Speaker 1: Georgia was lean Trump. It is now considered a toss up.
Speaker 1: Minnesota was lean Democrat. Guess what it is now It's
Speaker 1: now likely Democrat. New Hampshire was lean Democrat. That one
Speaker 1: has also been moved by Sabato and company to likely Democrat.
Speaker 1: And this is all before the Republicans experience when the
Speaker 1: walls come tumbling down on them. Also of interest here,
Speaker 1: remember Valentina, the gal with the ar fifteen running for
Speaker 1: Secretary of State in Missouri, the one who appeared on
Speaker 1: the balcony of the Speaker of the House in violation
Speaker 1: of the rules and laws regarding the use of the
Speaker 1: Speaker of the House's balcony for political purposes. Well, guess
Speaker 1: what not gonna be Secretary of State in Missouri. She
Speaker 1: lost bad. She's not gonna get it. She lost real bad,
Speaker 1: real real bad. Those fun numbers. Next, this is countdown.
Speaker 1: This is countdown with Keith Oberman still ahead of us
Speaker 1: on this editionive Countdown. Somebody mentioned this guy's name yesterday.
Speaker 1: He is still in television. He rarely talks about his
Speaker 1: stint as the general manager of MSNBC because it's kind
Speaker 1: of like that forty nine day term of the former
Speaker 1: UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and the way they talk
Speaker 1: about her now now Liz Truss, Liz Trust who oh,
Speaker 1: the woman who lost to the cabbage That is this story.
Speaker 1: The worst general manager in the world, so bad he
Speaker 1: was compared to a character from the old Candice Berg
Speaker 1: and TV series Murphy Brown. So bad that when it
Speaker 1: was announced they were actually going to make him the
Speaker 1: GM that other executives at MSNBC believed that it was
Speaker 1: an elaborate, practical joke. Ahead in Things I promised not
Speaker 1: to tell first, there are still more new idiots to
Speaker 1: talk about. The daily roundup of the mis grants, morons
Speaker 1: and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two day's worst
Speaker 1: persons in the world, the Bronze Worst Olympics critics like Trumpy,
Speaker 1: like Victor Orbon, the ones who took on the mayor
Speaker 1: of Paris, A Hidalgo and has been the mayor there
Speaker 1: since twenty fourteen using language like this, I love Anne.
Speaker 1: Religious and political officials you will recall voice outrage in
Speaker 1: response to the opening ceremonies, and the International Olympic Committee
Speaker 1: apologized to anybody who might have been offended because they
Speaker 1: thought it was the Last Supper, being it's a book,
Speaker 1: you don't even know if it's real. You don't even
Speaker 1: know where the Last Supper was. There's no evidence that
Speaker 1: Christ actually existed. If you want to believe it, go
Speaker 1: right ahead. Don't complain about the Olympics because you think
Speaker 1: they made fun of the story. And it wasn't even
Speaker 1: that story they were making fun of. And I am
Speaker 1: being nice. Mayor Hidalgo is not being nice, she said,
Speaker 1: using the English version of this abbreviation. F the reactionaries,
Speaker 1: if this far right, if all of those who would
Speaker 1: like to lock us into a war of all against all,
Speaker 1: said Mayor Hidalio of Paris in an interview with Lemounde
Speaker 1: published Tuesday, and as was noted here in one piece
Speaker 1: of wire copy, using the expletive in the original English,
Speaker 1: she said she's proud of the way the opening ceremonies
Speaker 1: presented Paris to the world, quoting again, Paris is the
Speaker 1: city of all freedoms, the city of refuge for LGBTQI
Speaker 1: plus people, the city where people live together. F the right.
Speaker 1: I would like Mayor Hidalgo to run for mayor of
Speaker 1: New York City. I mean we need a mayor who
Speaker 1: talks like a script from the Sopranos. Just let it
Speaker 1: all hang out, Mayor. Thank you the runner up. Okay,
Speaker 1: don't always let it all hang out. Take, for example,
Speaker 1: our worser today, Philadelphia radio sports reporter Howard Eskin. The
Speaker 1: headline Howard Eskin to remain Eagles sideline reporter, according to
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Inquirer despite quote unwelcome kiss at Philly's game.
Speaker 1: Howard Eskin, who is currently banned from the state at
Speaker 1: which the Philadelphia Phillies and the NBA Philadelphia seventy six
Speaker 1: Ers play that would be an arena in the seventy
Speaker 1: six ers case, will be the All Sports radio stations
Speaker 1: sideline reporter for Philadelphia Eagles games, following a nearly one
Speaker 1: month hiatus that followed accusations he made an unwanted advance
Speaker 1: towards an Airmark employee, that's the concessionaires at the ballpark
Speaker 1: at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The advance included an
Speaker 1: unwelcome kiss in May. If you've ever seen Howard Eskin,
Speaker 1: you know how old he is. He's two hundred and six.
Speaker 1: All kisses from Howard Eskin would be described as unwelcome.
Speaker 1: Apparently this one was a little worse than normal. Have
Speaker 1: I got a story about Howard Eskin for you? When
Speaker 1: I say Howard Eskin is two hundred and six, that
Speaker 1: might be not a bad guess, almost literally true. When
Speaker 1: I got into this business in nineteen seventy nine, Howard
Speaker 1: Eskin was already the sports stringer for United Press Internationals
Speaker 1: radio network in Philadelphia, so I would buy tape from him,
Speaker 1: as we said he would do interviews with players after
Speaker 1: games for the Philadelphia Phillies, the Eagles, the seventy six Ers,
Speaker 1: any other team that existed in those days. He would
Speaker 1: then feed the tape to us in New York and
Speaker 1: he would get fifteen dollars or twenty five dollars or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. In nineteen eighty, the Philadelphia Phillies made
Speaker 1: their first World Series appearance in thirty years, the first
Speaker 1: since they had a lot of reporters covering things like
Speaker 1: the World Series, and we needed for UPI somebody to
Speaker 1: go and cover the World Series in Philadelphia and Kansas City.
Speaker 1: And that was me, age twenty one and the third
Speaker 1: most senior sportscaster out of three for UPI's radio network.
Speaker 1: And my boss Sam Rosen was good enough to hire
Speaker 1: somebody from Philadelphia to make sure that I was okay,
Speaker 1: that there was a back up in case I missed
Speaker 1: a protein interview, to share his tape with me, to
Speaker 1: help me out in any way he could, in addition
Speaker 1: to his other personal responsibilities for his radio station in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and that naturally was our stringer in Philadelphia. Howard unwelcome
Speaker 1: kiss Eskin. I'll have to say Howard Eskin did not
Speaker 1: do a bad job. I was twenty one years old
Speaker 1: and didn't have much to compare it to. Using the
Speaker 1: experience of the last forty four years, I'd say he
Speaker 1: did probably a B minus job. He had a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff to do for himself. I didn't need that
Speaker 1: much help. But several times I said, I didn't get
Speaker 1: that interview with Dick ruthven Dowerry. I got it for
Speaker 1: your hair. It's a dub. However, after the Phillies won
Speaker 1: their first World Series ever and they had become the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Phillies, and I believe eighteen eighty four, they moved
Speaker 1: from Worcester, Massachusetts, to Philadelphia. The Phillies had never won
Speaker 1: the World Series before, so the celebration was kind of big.
Speaker 1: And in nineteen eighty they won the World Series at
Speaker 1: home in Philmladelphia, with the police on horseback ringing the outfield.
Speaker 1: There must have been fifty mounted Philadelphia Police officers on
Speaker 1: the field on the warning track. God help anybody if
Speaker 1: there was a long fly ball, long fly ball deep
Speaker 1: left field. As their announcer Harry Kallis would have said,
Speaker 1: thank goodness, the last out was a pop up in
Speaker 1: any event, That's how worried they were about damage during
Speaker 1: the celebration in Philadelphia, and sure enough, there was a
Speaker 1: little damage when we finally left the ballpark that night
Speaker 1: about four am on the main streets of Philadelphia. The
Speaker 1: amount of broken glass on the streets was about two
Speaker 1: two and a half inches high. Broken glass down the
Speaker 1: middle of Broad Street in Philadelphia. Howard Eskin having been
Speaker 1: paid to take care of me, and since there weren't
Speaker 1: a lot of cabs outside Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia the
Speaker 1: night the Phillies won their first World Series because everybody
Speaker 1: was too busy the breaking glass on Broad Street, Howard
Speaker 1: Eskin said, I'll give you a lift back to your hotel,
Speaker 1: and he took me halfway to my hotel, right into
Speaker 1: the middle of Broad Street for twenty four to twenty
Speaker 1: five am. And he said, yeah, so far as I go,
Speaker 1: you can get a cab from here, and basically pushed
Speaker 1: me out the door. Howard Eskin back once again after
Speaker 1: unwelcome kiss at Phillies game. Give him something unwelcome at
Speaker 1: the Phillies game. And now to our winner, the worst
Speaker 1: Valentina gun nut herself. You remember Valentina Valentina Gomez, the
Speaker 1: immigrant from Colombia, running to get the Republican nomination for
Speaker 1: Secretary of State in Missouri. She's put out video fat
Speaker 1: shaming others, kind of risky considering her own problems with
Speaker 1: the issue. She's made video after video anti gay, anti
Speaker 1: lgb TQ. She's made video after video carrying automatic weapons.
Speaker 1: She made the video I mentioned earlier standing on the
Speaker 1: balcony of the House of Representative Speaker Mike Johnson, which
Speaker 1: you cannot do. You cannot campaign from that spot. Well,
Speaker 1: that issue will be put aside for a time because
Speaker 1: the Republican primary for Secretary of State in Missouri is
Speaker 1: over and guests who didn't win go go with Gomez. No,
Speaker 1: I'm afraid not. Let's see Denny Hoskins one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty seven one hundred and eighteen votes, twenty four point
Speaker 1: four percent of the vote. Shane Schuler one hundred and
Speaker 1: eight thousand, Mike Carter ninety one, eight sixty six thirteen,
Speaker 1: Dean Plotcher eighty six six, Mary Elizabeth Coleman seventy two,
Speaker 1: Howard Eskin dot sixty Oh no, I just made that
Speaker 1: part up. I don't see Valentina Gomez's name here anywhere.
Speaker 1: On two three, four five, oh, wait a minute, here
Speaker 1: she is. She finished sixth She got forty seven thousand votes.
Speaker 1: She got seven and four tenths percent of the vote.
Speaker 1: She only missed by one hundred and ten thousand votes
Speaker 1: for the Republican primary, but she did finish ahead of
Speaker 1: Jamie Corley by one thousand. Congratulations Valentina Valentina Gomez, who
Speaker 1: lost to Denny Hoskins, who has been sued for defamation
Speaker 1: by Denton Loudermill of Olatha, Kansas, after Hoskins shared an
Speaker 1: image of Loudermill in handcuffs and falsely identified him as
Speaker 1: an undocumented immigrant and one of the shooters at the
Speaker 1: Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting louder Mill. Valentina Gomez sixth place,
Speaker 1: probably should have brought a bigger gun. Today's worse person
Speaker 1: than the world. You can get a cab from here
Speaker 1: to the number one story on the Countdown and my
Speaker 1: favorite topic me and things I promised not to tell
Speaker 1: And with that bill O'Reilly cris Cuomo thing in worse
Speaker 1: Persons about that network News Nation, I was reminded that
Speaker 1: there's another guy who has a show on it. And
Speaker 1: if you have not seen this network, you are among
Speaker 1: roughly eight billion people. It's kind of like the nick
Speaker 1: at night of cable news. You turn to it and
Speaker 1: five will get you ten that your immediate reaction will
Speaker 1: be I didn't know he was still alive anyway. It
Speaker 1: reminded me of this story about this other guy. I
Speaker 1: was a witness to the greatest management fiasco in television history,
Speaker 1: and it began on Monday, June twelfth, two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: My girlfriend and at the time, Katie Urr, was coming
Speaker 1: in from la for a week, and my vacation had
Speaker 1: started the previous Friday at exactly nine oh one pm.
Speaker 1: At nine oh two pm on that Friday night, the
Speaker 1: acting chief of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, called me, insisting that
Speaker 1: even though I was on vacation, we had to meet
Speaker 1: for breakfast at nine thirty am Monday. I said that
Speaker 1: made it a not vacation, and he said, we will
Speaker 1: give you two additional days off later. Something is happening
Speaker 1: you need to know about first, I sighed. The previous Wednesday,
Speaker 1: they had fired the president of MSNBC, the one who
Speaker 1: had once chased me around our offices in Secaucus, New Jersey,
Speaker 1: threatening to kill me because he was squeamish about blood.
Speaker 1: See if that makes any logical sense to you. He
Speaker 1: threatened to kill me because he was squeamish about blood.
Speaker 1: Jeff Zucker, then the president of NBC, had called my
Speaker 1: agent and asked how my relationship with the aforementioned acting
Speaker 1: chief Phil Griffin was. It was obvious they were going
Speaker 1: to put Griffin in charge charge, and as the marquee
Speaker 1: anchor on the network, they needed me to find it
Speaker 1: out from them rather than from a gossip site or something.
Speaker 1: I could not begrudge them the courtesy. So on the
Speaker 1: first weekday of my vacation, Griffin and I met for breakfast,
Speaker 1: and as soon as coffee arrived, he said, so listen, buddy,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be an executive in charge of MSNBC, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be staying here in the city to oversee
Speaker 1: the Today Show. So MSNBC will also have a general manager, uh,
Speaker 1: and the general manager will be in charge in secaucas
Speaker 1: and the new general manager will be Dan Abrams. Well,
Speaker 1: I paused for a second and then burst into laughter.
Speaker 1: I mean thirty seconds of a riotous belly laugh, loud
Speaker 1: enough that other people at the restaurant at Norma's in
Speaker 1: the Parker Meridian in New York City turned around to
Speaker 1: look at me to find out what was so funny.
Speaker 1: Then I composed myself. Then I laughed again, then a
Speaker 1: third laugh, then a fourth laugh. Oh my god, Phil,
Speaker 1: that is the best. You get me to get up
Speaker 1: early on the first day of my vacation and you
Speaker 1: hit me with that Dan Abrams running something we've known
Speaker 1: each other, what Phil twenty five years next month? That
Speaker 1: is the best joke you have ever told me. Dan
Speaker 1: Abrams and I laughed again for another thirty seconds, and
Speaker 1: one of my friends, who was a waiter there, came
Speaker 1: over and said, everything okay. Because Phil could never interrupt
Speaker 1: anybody who was praising him. He smiled back at me,
Speaker 1: and when I finally stopped laughing, he said, well, thanks,
Speaker 1: I guess, but I'm serious. We've been talking to Dan
Speaker 1: for several months about this, and he just has the
Speaker 1: kind of analytical mind that it had taken me more
Speaker 1: than a minute to realize Griffin was serious that he
Speaker 1: and the President of NBC News, Steve Cappus, and that
Speaker 1: President of NBC Jeff Zooker, had actually decided to take
Speaker 1: the host of our nine PM show, which had been
Speaker 1: devoted for years to excruciating, lowess, common denominator tabloid crap
Speaker 1: coverage of the missing white woman of the week. To
Speaker 1: take a man who had the respect of absolutely no
Speaker 1: one on air or off at MSNBC, A man who
Speaker 1: made me in that regard looked like Saint Francis of ASISI.
Speaker 1: A man who had only been in television for twelve years,
Speaker 1: a man who had never run anything in his life,
Speaker 1: A man with indescribably bad hair that none of us
Speaker 1: could identify. Was it a two pe? Was it a weave?
Speaker 1: Was he hit by lightning? And that was the most
Speaker 1: sincere thing about him? His hair? They had actually decided
Speaker 1: to appoint this gossip monger with no experience to run
Speaker 1: a network that was just now finally establishing itself as
Speaker 1: a factor in American political media. Christ Phil, what are
Speaker 1: you thinking? I said to him, He's a buffoon. I'd
Speaker 1: rather work for Joe Scarborough. He's condescending, he insults his producers,
Speaker 1: he insults our producers. He leaks constantly to the reporters
Speaker 1: and the gossip blogs. Half of his exclusive sources turn
Speaker 1: out to be wrong. And I might be the best
Speaker 1: friend he has there. Phil Griffin chugged his coffee. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about that. I mean, I mean it's not
Speaker 1: going to make any practical difference for you. You would countdown
Speaker 1: will report directly to me. Dan isn't going to have
Speaker 1: any responsibilities running the primetime shows. He's only going to
Speaker 1: be hands on with the daytime shows. But he'll be
Speaker 1: the general manager of the network. And we think he
Speaker 1: has a lot of exciting ideas. And I said exciting
Speaker 1: ideas about what exciting ideas about Sean Beney Ramsey. Phil,
Speaker 1: We have just stopped being the running joke, the bottomless
Speaker 1: punchline of cable news. And once this gets out, we
Speaker 1: will be less respected than we were a year ago.
Speaker 1: I paused, and the news bounced off the walls of
Speaker 1: the restaurant and hit me afresh again. Dan Abrams, general
Speaker 1: manager of MSNBC. He will get you fired, Phil. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he will get you fired because he's
Speaker 1: trying to get you fired, or he'll get you fired
Speaker 1: because he'll be so bad at this that everybody will quit.
Speaker 1: But you've just committed professional suicide. You and Cappus and
Speaker 1: Zuker dead men walking. Phil Griffin was now read I
Speaker 1: had only previously seen him read when he was very,
Speaker 1: very drunk and we were in our twenties. I was
Speaker 1: hoping you'd give him a chance, and I said some
Speaker 1: very pleasant things about giving him a chance to destroy
Speaker 1: what we had been building up for the last year.
Speaker 1: And did Phil remember that my contract was up in
Speaker 1: six months and CNN was already publicly courting me to
Speaker 1: go there. I said, I'm gone. You might as well
Speaker 1: release me from the contract right now. I'm out. And
Speaker 1: then something else popped into my mind. Oh, and listen,
Speaker 1: did you think there might be a problem because he
Speaker 1: and I dated the same woman nine years ago, and
Speaker 1: he told her she'd be making a misas to get
Speaker 1: involved with me. Phil's eyes widened. He had forgotten, Like
Speaker 1: I said, he'll have nothing to do with Countdown. An
Speaker 1: hour later, my home phone rang and it was Dan Abrams.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say how much I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to working with you on Countdown. As time goes by,
Speaker 1: Phil will be more and more overwhelmed at the Today Show,
Speaker 1: and I'll be making the day to day decisions. I'll
Speaker 1: be your guy. After a few minutes of this, which
Speaker 1: I swear I could hear, his phone scratching against his
Speaker 1: two pay and during which I said nothing but uh huh.
Speaker 1: My home phone rang again and it was the NBC president,
Speaker 1: Jeff Zucker. So, you guys report to Dan, and if
Speaker 1: you need to go further, you can go to Phil.
Speaker 1: And I said, Phil had just told me Abrams would
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with countdown, and I intended to
Speaker 1: make sure that was true. Zucker, showing the loyalty and
Speaker 1: consistency that was so publicly displayed in the original Chris
Speaker 1: Cuomo CNN fiasco, immediately said, well, if this doesn't work,
Speaker 1: f Dan Abrams, hell, F Phil Griffin, you come to me.
Speaker 1: The first thing I had done when I had gotten
Speaker 1: home was to call my executive producer, i Isy Povich.
Speaker 1: She had been as fascinated as I had been as
Speaker 1: to why I had to have a business breakfast on
Speaker 1: day one of a vacation. Well, I sighed, You'll never
Speaker 1: believe who the new general manager of MSNBC is. She
Speaker 1: guessed Phil Griffin than me, and then the manager of
Speaker 1: the New York Yankees, Joe Tory. I said, all would
Speaker 1: have been better choices. I said, it's Dan Abrams. She
Speaker 1: laughed so hard I had to pull the phone away
Speaker 1: from my ear. After she finally calmed down, is he said,
Speaker 1: you had me going, Oh my god, what a disaster
Speaker 1: that would be. I'm sorry I fell into the bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just kidding, she laughed again. No, actually, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1: She laughed again and said come on, and so I said, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. She laughed again. No actually I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1: Dan Abrams is the new general manager, she laughed again.
Speaker 1: We must have done this for two or three minutes.
Speaker 1: It was an old Eddie Izzard bit. I stole it
Speaker 1: from him about the death of Engelbert humperdink. I finally
Speaker 1: stopped when she said, wait, I saw Dan Abrams getting
Speaker 1: out of his car in the President's parking space this morning.
Speaker 1: You're you're not quit kidding. Oh my god. I have
Speaker 1: to call my husband and tell him I'm quitting. Well,
Speaker 1: it all worked out about as well as I had predicted.
Speaker 1: At his first meeting with the producers, Dan Abrams revealed
Speaker 1: his first exciting idea. He had apparently been given enough
Speaker 1: lead time about his appointment to have made up giant
Speaker 1: banners containing the new MSNBC network slogan, which he had
Speaker 1: dreamed up. The banners He told the producers, we're going
Speaker 1: to be hung around the studios, and in fact, we're
Speaker 1: being hung around the studios as they spoke, and behind
Speaker 1: him there was one covered in a drape cloth, and
Speaker 1: he pulled the string. The cloth fell off, revealing his
Speaker 1: first exciting idea, the new network slogan MSNBC keeping it real,
Speaker 1: keeping k eeipi n apostrophe, no g keeping. That was
Speaker 1: the highlight of his tenure as the general manager. The
Speaker 1: blowback against his appointment was so universal nobody trying to
Speaker 1: hide it. Abram's first move was to cancel a show
Speaker 1: hosted by an Xbox News walking malliprop artist named Rita Cosby.
Speaker 1: She almost took hostages. Abrams delayed the meeting to tell
Speaker 1: her staff from noon until six pm. Abrams then gave
Speaker 1: an interview about his vision for MSNBC and told the
Speaker 1: reporter quote, documentaries are our most important programs, and the
Speaker 1: staffs of the uncanceled primetime shows mine included nearly walked
Speaker 1: out because in fact we were our most important programs.
Speaker 1: While Griffin prevented that mass resignation by swearing Abrams had
Speaker 1: been misquoted. Abrams then launched a series of radio commercials
Speaker 1: for MSNBC documentaries. Abrams tried to get a producer named
Speaker 1: Bill Wolf, who had been told he was going to
Speaker 1: be the new general manager, to instead host his own show.
Speaker 1: He told me he had figured out the perfect guest
Speaker 1: host for Countdown and was already in negotiations with him.
Speaker 1: Dan Rather, my girlfriend Katie's father, then chimed in with
Speaker 1: a new nickname for Abrams that spread across the television
Speaker 1: industry Miles Miles, as in Miles the boy producer from
Speaker 1: the sitcom Murphy Brown. I even felt sorry for him,
Speaker 1: it was that bad, and of course I was promptly
Speaker 1: repaid for this mistake. A week after Abrams was hired,
Speaker 1: the cable news blogger named Brian Stelter, who inexplicably wound
Speaker 1: up first at The New York Times and then at CNN,
Speaker 1: and you heard about him getting fired over the summer.
Speaker 1: Brian Stelter called to say he had been told by
Speaker 1: a source at NBC that I had just been fired
Speaker 1: at a meeting an hour before by Abrams and an
Speaker 1: NBC executive named Randy Falco. In fact, Abrams was at
Speaker 1: a meeting with Zucker and the NBC News president, Cappus
Speaker 1: as they desperately tried to steer out of the fatal
Speaker 1: skid they had all swerved into. Phil Griffin was furious.
Speaker 1: Griffin told me he suspected Abrams had been somehow connected
Speaker 1: to this leak about this fake story about me getting fired,
Speaker 1: and he began an investigation of him and never trusted
Speaker 1: him again. One week appointed Monday, and a lame duck
Speaker 1: the following Monday, keeping it real keeping. On August ninth,
Speaker 1: three days shy of the two months mark, Phil Griffin
Speaker 1: called my office an hour and a half before my show. Okay,
Speaker 1: you want to say I told you so, but we've
Speaker 1: made it clear to Dan that he won't be involved
Speaker 1: in any major decisions going forward. He will remain general,
Speaker 1: but I'm running everything. In a year or so, buddy,
Speaker 1: we'll say he found out he just had to go
Speaker 1: back on the air, and he'll resign and we'll give
Speaker 1: him the nine PM show. Probably, you have to keep
Speaker 1: this confidential. I did. I'm surprisingly good at that, at
Speaker 1: least still, I started this podcast. Fourteen months later they
Speaker 1: offed him, by which time I had already started to
Speaker 1: lobby them to make the nine PM host not Dan
Speaker 1: Abrams but Rachel Maddow. They finally gave into that in
Speaker 1: September two thousand and eight, and Dan did not have
Speaker 1: a show or a title, and he finally got the
Speaker 1: message and he left NBC in twenty eleven. The last
Speaker 1: I had heard of Dan Abrams before the News Nation
Speaker 1: retirement home. He had launched a new website. It's called
Speaker 1: Whiskey Raiders because it rates various brands of whiskey. He
Speaker 1: got it, Raiders, Ray Ters, you got it. It's a punt.
Speaker 1: Presumably he chose that pun because somebody else had already
Speaker 1: taken keeping it real. I've done all the damage I
Speaker 1: can do here. Thank you for listening, and sorry again
Speaker 1: for the continuing brevity and raggedness powering through here with
Speaker 1: the bad throat as the kids say. Brian Ray and
Speaker 1: John Phillip Schanelle musical directors, have Countdown, arranged, produced and
Speaker 1: performed most of the music. Mister Chanelle handled the orchestration
Speaker 1: and the keyboards. Mister Ray was on the guitars, the bass,
Speaker 1: and the drums, produced by Tko Brothers. Our satirical and
Speaker 1: fithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever,
Speaker 1: Nancy Faust. The Sports music is the Olderman theme from
Speaker 1: ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc.
Speaker 1: Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed.
Speaker 1: Speaking of music, my announcer today was my friend, the
Speaker 1: one and only Stevie van Zant. Everything else was pretty
Speaker 1: much my fault. That's countdown for this the ninetieth day
Speaker 1: until the twenty twenty fourth presidential election. They three hundred
Speaker 1: and ninth day since convicted felon draft dodger j Trump's
Speaker 1: first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the
Speaker 1: United States. Thanks for reminding me that about all that
Speaker 1: jv vans use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the
Speaker 1: mental health system. You've got it. President Biden used presidential
Speaker 1: immunity to stop him from doing it again while we
Speaker 1: still can. And anti Semitic, anti immigration, psychotic Republicans, please
Speaker 1: stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Bulletins as the news requires and the voice permits till
Speaker 1: the next one. I'm Keith Olvermant. Good morning, good afternoon,
Speaker 1: good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.