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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. There

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Speaker 1: are not going to be any Biden Trump debates, at

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Speaker 1: least not in the form that was announced yesterday. I know,

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Speaker 1: I know they announced it yesterday. Why are you saying

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Speaker 1: there aren't going to be any Well, something did not

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Speaker 1: add up on the Biden Trump debate announcements yesterday. In fact,

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Speaker 1: a lot of things did not add up. And what

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Speaker 1: I think it is is Trump is planning right now

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Speaker 1: to pull out of these debates and blame Biden. But

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Speaker 1: there's also another possibility, which is Biden has also intentionally

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Speaker 1: or otherwise given himself an emergency exit from these debates

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Speaker 1: as well. There is and I know this is an

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Speaker 1: unusual thing to hear from a political analyst of any kind.

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Speaker 1: There is always the chance I might be wrong. I

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Speaker 1: know who says that. There is always the chance I

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Speaker 1: might be misreading this. This is only my interpretation, but

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Speaker 1: I'm right. But if you go through the timeline of

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Speaker 1: what happened yesterday, I don't think I am misreading this.

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Speaker 1: I think this has been deliberately set up so that

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Speaker 1: Trump can pull out and blame Biden for it. Biden

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Speaker 1: makes his challenge and then they agree to the ABC

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Speaker 1: debate and the CNN debate, and Biden puts out his

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Speaker 1: video and Biden taunts Trump, all of which is great

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Speaker 1: for Biden. Then CNN reports that Trump is irked because

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Speaker 1: Biden has, in the words of its reporter, taken control

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Speaker 1: of the narrative on the debates, a relevant point. Trump

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Speaker 1: then posts, please let this true, and a reminder, truth

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Speaker 1: is a brand name for Donald Trump, like Trump steaks.

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Speaker 1: Please let this Trump steak serve to represent that I

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Speaker 1: hereby accept debating Biden on Fox News. The date will

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Speaker 1: be Wednesday, October second. The host will be Brett bhar

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Speaker 1: and Martha McCallum. Thank you three tells in that the

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Speaker 1: word represent the weighted word in his world hereby, and

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Speaker 1: the thank you at the end. Those three words are

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Speaker 1: code for listen up, you Rubes. This is a legal document.

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Speaker 1: I'm accepting this offer that I can debate Biden on

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Speaker 1: Fox News on October second, with Bear and McCallum as

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Speaker 1: the anchor. There's been no offer. He has accepted it

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Speaker 1: in advance solely so he can say he accepted it

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Speaker 1: and if it doesn't happen, it's Biden's fault. Now, What

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Speaker 1: use is that to him in October when the other

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Speaker 1: two debates would be in June and September, the CNN

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Speaker 1: one in Atlanta at the end of next month, and

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Speaker 1: then the one on ABC coming up later in the

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Speaker 1: early fall. I'm not sure what that would help him

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Speaker 1: with if he were to cancel somehow afterwards after doing

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Speaker 1: those first two debates, although that would give him an out,

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Speaker 1: would it not. But I think it's for use far

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Speaker 1: earlier than that. Sometime between now and the official announcement

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Speaker 1: the full details of the CNN debate, he says, I

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Speaker 1: will be there as long as Biden recommits to our

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Speaker 1: debate on Fox News on October second, and when he doesn't,

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Speaker 1: he calls them all off. And I think the Biden

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Speaker 1: campaign already knows about this. There was a statement after

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Speaker 1: this crazy by accept debating Biden, and I will pay

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Speaker 1: him twelve Trump stakes on Wednesday, October second. The hosts

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Speaker 1: will be Lara Trump and Christy Nome. Biden's campaign Jen

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Speaker 1: O'Malley Dylan issued a statement after this crazy Trump Truth

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Speaker 1: Truth is a brand name. It's meant ironically. She said,

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Speaker 1: Trump has a long history of playing games with debates. Well,

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Speaker 1: she's already clued in as to what he was doing yesterday,

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Speaker 1: complaining about the rules, breaking those grules, pulling out at

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Speaker 1: the last minute. Hello, where does Keith get this crazy

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Speaker 1: idea that Trump will pull out at the last minute.

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Speaker 1: It says it right here, pulling out at the last minute,

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Speaker 1: She wrote. He said he would debate President Biden any time,

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Speaker 1: and he where any place. In fact, he said and

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Speaker 1: posted it dozens of times, with varying degrees of comprehension

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Speaker 1: and basic grammar. Ooh nice. I would have been proud

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Speaker 1: to say that myself. President Biden made his terms clear

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Speaker 1: for two one on one debates, and Donald Trump accepted

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Speaker 1: those terms. No more games, no more chaos, no more

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Speaker 1: debate about debates. We'll see Donald Trump on June twenty

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Speaker 1: seventh in Atlanta if he shows up, unquote, what does

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Speaker 1: that mean if not that the Biden camp and campaign

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Speaker 1: are both prepared for Trump not to show up for

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Speaker 1: these debates that they may. In fact, as I suggested earlier,

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Speaker 1: there is a slim chance. Although I put ninety percent

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Speaker 1: of the weight on this on Trump pulling out, there's

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Speaker 1: a ten percent chance that this has been set up

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Speaker 1: this way so Biden can pull out when Trump insists

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Speaker 1: on whatever he would insist on. In this case, he

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Speaker 1: immediately insisted on a third debate on Fox, by the way,

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Speaker 1: with Brett Bahar, who he formerly said would never serve

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Speaker 1: as an MC or as a participant in any debate

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Speaker 1: Trump ever did again, as you know, nothing that Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump has ever said previously applies today. The past is

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Speaker 1: irrelevant in Trump Land because there is no reality. There

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Speaker 1: is no history. There is only him now radiating his wonderfulness.

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Speaker 1: That Trump statement is his standard fake legal document. Hereby,

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Speaker 1: you've won ten million dollars if you have all seventy

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Speaker 1: three numbers drawn an hour lottery. But the Rubes believe this.

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Speaker 1: That's why there were Trump steaks. Please let this serve

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Speaker 1: to represent represent that I hereby accept well. That means

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Speaker 1: he was offered it. The date will be thank you.

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Speaker 1: The Rubes believe this. In that world, there are three debates,

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Speaker 1: and one of them will be on Fox News. In

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Speaker 1: the real world, Trump agreed to the ones on CNN

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Speaker 1: and ABC, and that's it. So between now. In June

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Speaker 1: twenty seven, Trump demands Biden reconfirms his commitment to October

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Speaker 1: two on Fox. Biden tells him to f off. In fact,

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Speaker 1: in some respects the statement from the campaign yesterday already

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Speaker 1: told Trump to f off and there are no debates.

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Speaker 1: Biden may have anticipated this, You could read it that

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Speaker 1: way too, in which case he says, I tried, I

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Speaker 1: challenged him, I committed to it, he committed to it,

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Speaker 1: he backed out. He's a coward. And of course to

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Speaker 1: pay this off. It's very simple. Joe Biden shows up

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Speaker 1: at the CNN studios on June twenty seventh in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: and says, helloooo, and there's no Trump. Because think about

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Speaker 1: the other aspect here, Setting aside the possibility that Trump

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Speaker 1: is fully aware that he is beginning to glitch significantly

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Speaker 1: and making a fool of himself and really putting a

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Speaker 1: hole in people's perception that he is he is the

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Speaker 1: sharper one. And let's not get into why that's the perception.

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Speaker 1: It is the perception. He may be aware of that.

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Speaker 1: But even if he's not, it's irrelevant to my point,

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Speaker 1: why would Trump agree to these two debates under the

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Speaker 1: circumstances and the details as provided to the public yesterday.

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Speaker 1: The debates will have no audience, no audience. Who does

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Speaker 1: Trump con to if there's no audience. Who is he

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Speaker 1: trying to sell, Who is he trying to smooth, Who

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Speaker 1: is he trying to use, Who is he trying to

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Speaker 1: get to cheer? Who is he trying to get to gasp?

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Speaker 1: Who does he want alternatively on his side or oppose

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Speaker 1: to him. If there's no audience, how do you have

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Speaker 1: WrestleMania only? It's politics. The point of Trump and Trump's

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Speaker 1: campaign is when he got involved in the wrestling world,

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Speaker 1: he realized what his milieu was for politics to turn

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Speaker 1: it into professional wrestling. Well, you cannot have professional wrestling

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Speaker 1: without an audience. It may be twenty thousand people, it

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Speaker 1: may be two hundred thousand people, or it could be

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Speaker 1: twenty people. But if it's no people, there's no reason

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Speaker 1: for Trump to go to it. There's nobody to con

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Speaker 1: And if there's nobody to con on top of everything

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Speaker 1: else that is inherent and necessary to the Trump perspective

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Speaker 1: and the Trump campaign. If he's not conning somebody, Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump dies figuratively, at least he's no longer alive. The

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Speaker 1: other rule, each answer will be timed and the mics

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Speaker 1: will shut off at that time. Well, that's worse than

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Speaker 1: letting the moderator cut off the microphone. Why would Trump

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Speaker 1: agree to that? Why would Trump agree to the mics,

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Speaker 1: Why would he agree to no audience. There's nothing in

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Speaker 1: this for him except the potential for those two disasters

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Speaker 1: hurting him, plus his own increasing dementia or aphasia or whatever.

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Speaker 1: It is becoming more and more evident in areas where

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Speaker 1: it has not been seen. And yet there is also

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Speaker 1: the even larger issue, the even larger risk for Trump.

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Speaker 1: The risk is all on Trump's side because in Trump World,

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Speaker 1: the belief is they still believe Joe Biden will be

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Speaker 1: withdrawn as the Democratic nominee. To this date, they are expecting,

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Speaker 1: depending where you are in there, Hillary Clinton or Michelle

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Speaker 1: Obama or Rachel Maddow or I don't know who they're expecting,

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Speaker 1: but they really believe that something is going to happen,

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Speaker 1: and Biden is going to get up one day and

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Speaker 1: go and he's not going to be the nominee. It is,

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Speaker 1: as with every other Republican accusation, a confession about the

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Speaker 1: situation they themselves find themselves in, which is that Trump

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Speaker 1: is the one who is much more likely to say.

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Speaker 1: But the outcome of any debate in Atlanta, in New

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Speaker 1: York on ABC, on CNN, on Fox, going door to

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Speaker 1: door with it. The outcome of any debate that does

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Speaker 1: not include Joe Biden passing out or Joe Biden saying

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Speaker 1: something in a tongue in a language only he knows,

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Speaker 1: in some form of ancient Native American dialect that has

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Speaker 1: not been spoken in five hundred years. If that does

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Speaker 1: not happen, Biden wins, and more importantly, Trump gets hurt,

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Speaker 1: and Trump has to confront the reality that what he

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Speaker 1: believes the world is is incorrect and he can't do that.

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Speaker 1: The whole thing about Trump, the entirety of Donald Trump's life,

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Speaker 1: has been to avoid any inconvenient reality that would face

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Speaker 1: him and challenge his perverted, twisted view in which he

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Speaker 1: is king of everything. Whenever that is threatened, he shuts down.

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Speaker 1: Why do you think he's falling asleep in court? It's

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Speaker 1: his only way to get out. I don't think there

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Speaker 1: will be debates. I'm not absolutely sold on this process.

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Speaker 1: And again, I hope you've awakened from losing consciousness when

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Speaker 1: I said I might be mistaken, but I might be mistaken.

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Speaker 1: I don't think there will be debates. Ninety percent chance

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Speaker 1: Trump pulls out because Biden has He'll say renegged, pulled

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Speaker 1: out too scared? Whatever about this imaginary debate on Fox News,

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Speaker 1: I hereby accept debating Biden. I'd serve to represent your mileage, Mayberry.

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Speaker 1: Remember FDI see costs may be higher west of the Rockies.

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Speaker 1: Trump knows what that post was. This truth served to represent.

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Speaker 1: The inclusion of Brett Bear was the tell Trump is slipping.

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Speaker 1: He's already said he wouldn't have anything to do with

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Speaker 1: Brett Bher and I know, as I said before, everything changes,

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Speaker 1: But he included Brett Bhar in there. He might as

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Speaker 1: well have said Tucker Carlson on Fox. It's a tell

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Speaker 1: that he did this sloppily and in panic. I don't

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Speaker 1: think there will be debates now. There's sidebar fund to

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Speaker 1: this whole process, because there is nothing more hilarious than

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Speaker 1: seeing the entirety of the print journalism world go crazy

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Speaker 1: because they have just been removed even further from the mainstream.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing more hilarious than seeing pundits step on their

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Speaker 1: own schwantzes. They are angry because now with Biden having

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Speaker 1: cut out the Debate Commission and the Debate Commission out

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Speaker 1: of the picture, all the writers are one further step

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Speaker 1: removed from the debate process. There used to be not

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Speaker 1: just writers involved in all the presidential debates. There used

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Speaker 1: to be multi writers. There used to be two or

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Speaker 1: three of them on a panel with a TV guy

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Speaker 1: more or less as just the TV guy asking a

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Speaker 1: question or two, but generally turning it over to Hugh

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Speaker 1: Sidey from Time magazine, who has a question about the

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Speaker 1: relationship between electromagnetic fields and the ratings in Poland. Used

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Speaker 1: to be writers at the debates who dominated the debates.

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Speaker 1: Some of the greatest questions in all of the debate's

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Speaker 1: history were posed not by John Chancellor or Walter Cronkite

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Speaker 1: or anybody else, or Howard Smith and Kennedy and Nixon

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty, but by writers. They're all gone now,

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Speaker 1: and their dream, which is the dream of everybody who

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Speaker 1: writes politics for a living, that they will be the

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Speaker 1: star of the campaign, that it will be remembered as

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Speaker 1: their presidential campaign, is one further step away from reality.

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Speaker 1: It was never reality to begin with, and has not

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Speaker 1: been for more than twenty five years. But that doesn't stop.

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Speaker 1: As evidenced by some of the things that were written yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Nate Silver savaged Biden for cutting that Debate Commission out.

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Speaker 1: Nate Silver, You're supposed to be the candidate who stands

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Speaker 1: up for norms and traditions, and now you're ducking this tradition,

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Speaker 1: Oh Nate. On April fourteenth of twenty twenty two, so

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Speaker 1: three April fourteenths ago, the Republican National Committee pulled out

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Speaker 1: of the Debate Commission. The Debate Commission has been dead

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Speaker 1: for two years. Nate Biden didn't end in tradition and

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Speaker 1: a norm norms dead April fourteenth, twenty twenty two. The

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Speaker 1: Commission on Presidential Debates is biased and has refused to

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Speaker 1: enact simple and common sense reforms to help ensure fair debates,

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Speaker 1: including hosting debates before voting begins and selecting moderators who

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Speaker 1: have never worked for candidates on the debate stage. You

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Speaker 1: know who said that? You know who didn't stand up

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Speaker 1: for norms and traditions. Who cut the commission out? Nate Silver.

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Speaker 1: Rona McDaniel said that you may remember her from such

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Speaker 1: films as Meet the Press. Okay, you've met the press,

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Speaker 1: get the hell out, and I had the shortest career

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Speaker 1: in TV history two years ago. She said this, Nate

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Speaker 1: Silver is another one of these, who is largely my fault.

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Speaker 1: I knew him from baseball statistics when he proved in

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Speaker 1: a way we didn't know nearly twenty years ago now

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Speaker 1: that the numbers had their own numbers. That if you

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Speaker 1: got enough baseball statistics together, and you factored in things

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Speaker 1: like which ballparks each player played in, and you adjusted

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Speaker 1: them for how a player would get better to a

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Speaker 1: certain age and how he get worse after a certain age,

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Speaker 1: you could predict next year's baseball statistics. And then Nate said,

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Speaker 1: you know, you can do this with poles too, And

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Speaker 1: I said, great, come on Countdown and talk about it.

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Speaker 1: And to be fair, Nate was pretty good at it

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Speaker 1: as long as he stuck to the numbers. Once Nate

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Speaker 1: tried words, we got things like you're supposed to be

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Speaker 1: the candidate who stands up for norms and traditions, and

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Speaker 1: now you're ducking this tradition which died two years ago.

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Speaker 1: Only I didn't even bother to google it before I

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Speaker 1: wrote this tweet. I'm Nate Silver, I'm now seeking treatment.

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Speaker 1: This was also great. This is Jonathan Martin And to

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Speaker 1: go back and use another sports analogy, forgive me for

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Speaker 1: this Politico stole Jonathan Martin from The New York Times

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Speaker 1: like he was showhey flipping Otani. Oh, we've got Jonathan Martin,

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Speaker 1: the Great Jonathan Martin, the eternal. Jonathan Martin is leaving

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Speaker 1: the Times to join us here at Politico, the sausage

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Speaker 1: factory of politics and politics news. This guy's not show

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Speaker 1: Heo Tani. This guy might be shoe Heyo Tani's interpreter

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Speaker 1: in terms of hefton reliability. April twenty eighth, Meet the Press,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Martin quote, Biden's folks don't want him to debate.

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Speaker 1: They don't want to give Trump that platform and risk

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Speaker 1: exposing Biden like that on National TV Jonathan Martin yesterday,

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Speaker 1: which would be eighteen days after he said Biden's folks

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Speaker 1: don't want them to debate, They don't want to give

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Speaker 1: Trump that platform and exposing Biden with that a National TV.

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Speaker 1: Eighteen days later, he subtweets Biden's video best reveal Yet,

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Speaker 1: dar Biden does believe the polls. We think that was

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Speaker 1: supposed to be that. Biden does believe the polls. Best

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Speaker 1: reveal yet, Dar Biden does believe the polls. Dar and

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Speaker 1: knows his only way back is to drag Trump back

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Speaker 1: into living rooms, which the trial ain't doing. Oh my god.

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Speaker 1: April twenty eighth, he says Biden's folks don't want him

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Speaker 1: to debate. Eighteen days later, he says Biden's desire to

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Speaker 1: debate proves that Biden does believe the polls. And of

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Speaker 1: course he's just gone out onto another limb because now

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Speaker 1: he's acting like the debates are going to happen. Definitely. Look,

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Speaker 1: it's going to drag Trump back into the living rooms,

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Speaker 1: which the trial ain't doing, which, by the way, the

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Speaker 1: trial is doing the reason Every once in a while

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Speaker 1: is revealed why people like Jonathan Martin and other pundits

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Speaker 1: lean towards Trump. Maybe not politically, maybe not societally. Maybe

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Speaker 1: if push they would actually say, nah, you know what,

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Speaker 1: I'll stick with democracy. I won't go with Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: But in their heart of hearts, they like Trump, and

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Speaker 1: they like Trump because they yearn to do what Trump

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Speaker 1: is able to do. Say A one day about something

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Speaker 1: and then say Z the next day and not only

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Speaker 1: get away with it, but get a raise and more power.

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Speaker 1: Eighteen days between these two statements, for Jonathan Martin, you

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Speaker 1: do that on television, and he did do the first

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Speaker 1: one on television? Well, I meet the press. You do

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Speaker 1: that on television and they don't let you talk anymore

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Speaker 1: if you're that bad at it. But it's what Trump does.

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Speaker 1: And so in this era, Jonathan Martin is sho heey

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Speaker 1: Otani's interpreter. Last sidebar. There is no NBC News in

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Speaker 1: this equation. Eh Now they're doing ABC and CNN. No

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Speaker 1: NBC News. Well done, you little both sides as twits.

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Speaker 1: There's no CBS News at least for now. Who gets

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Speaker 1: the debate of the broadcast networks ABC where George Stephanopoulos

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Speaker 1: went out onto a limb and frick a Seed jd

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Speaker 1: Vance one week and Nancy Mayce a couple of weeks later,

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Speaker 1: and Chris Sinunu somebody who actually stood up for half

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Speaker 1: an hour and called liars liars, And ABC says it

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Speaker 1: will not hold this exclusively. It will offer its feed

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Speaker 1: of its debate, which may just be Joe Biden. But

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Speaker 1: it will offer its feed of its debate to the

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Speaker 1: other networks. They can run them live if they want.

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Speaker 1: CNN will not do that. Well, how could CNN offer

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Speaker 1: its feed of its debate to anybody else? I mean,

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Speaker 1: if it shared the debate with other networks. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if it let MSNBC run the debate live, CNN would

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Speaker 1: finish second in the cable ratings with its own debate,

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Speaker 1: maybe finished third. Trump on Trial. And yes, the sign

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Speaker 1: is this infection continues. It is getting better, but I

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Speaker 1: still have to limit what I'm doing and the amount

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Speaker 1: of work I'm doing. So this is ad libbed and

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Speaker 1: a little ragged, but I'm beginning to enjoy it. The

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Speaker 1: legal news, Trump's surrogates violating the gag order. We have

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Speaker 1: no idea if the DA followed up yesterday. They do

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Speaker 1: tend to keep this stuff close to the vest. We

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Speaker 1: have no idea if the judge followed up. We do know.

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Speaker 1: And there's an awful lot of MSNBC and here. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: I'm being complimentary towards it, and sometimes i am not.

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Speaker 1: And this is one of the I knots. MSNBC mes

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Speaker 1: missed a huge scoop because its host stopped listening to

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Speaker 1: its guests. The author Andrew Rice went on there late Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: and he said he was in court Tuesday during the

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Speaker 1: testimony of Michael Cohen, and he was sitting close enough

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Speaker 1: to Trump that he could read over Trump's shoulders and

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Speaker 1: see what Trump was looking at during the testimony, and

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Speaker 1: to quote him, he was actually reading the quotes that

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Speaker 1: these individuals were, meaning the ones who attended on Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: presumably Speaker Johnson, Vivek Ramaswami. This is a scam. Politician, child, child,

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Speaker 1: don't kill me, Trump, don't kill me. He was actually

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Speaker 1: reading the quotes that these individuals were and going through

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Speaker 1: and making notations with a pen. Chris Hayes adroitly asked

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Speaker 1: before or after, meaning was he looking at the comments

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Speaker 1: before or after the surrogates made them? And Rice took

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Speaker 1: it wrong. He thought he was being asked whether these

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Speaker 1: reviews of the quotes were done by Trump before or after.

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Speaker 1: Michael Cohen testified, and he said during and instead of

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Speaker 1: going back to this and clarifying it, where you go,

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Speaker 1: What do you mean you saw Trump editing the comments

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Speaker 1: that were being made on his behalf about the judge's

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Speaker 1: daughter and how he's an innocent man, and what the

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Speaker 1: Speaker of the House prostituted himself in front of everybody,

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Speaker 1: and this interference in a criminal case that bordered on

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Speaker 1: obstruction of justice. What do you mean? What did you see?

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Speaker 1: What time did you write it? Down. Do you have witnesses?

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Speaker 1: Did anybody else see instead of saying that Alex Wagner

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Speaker 1: came in and changed the subject. Mean, there is a

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Speaker 1: reason we did not hire Alex Wagner when we needed

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Speaker 1: somebody like her in twenty ten. She changed the subject,

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Speaker 1: and we've heard nothing more about this. This guy saw

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Speaker 1: Trump looking at the quotes that were said on Trump's

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Speaker 1: behalf because Trump can't say them because of the gag order,

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Speaker 1: and he was making notations of some sort, going through

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Speaker 1: and making notations with a pen as opposed to in

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Speaker 1: blood or something, and they changed the subject. It appears

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Speaker 1: that Justice meyr Shan self starts on these gag order violations.

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Speaker 1: This is not like the case with Jack Smith and

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Speaker 1: the case in Washington where he has to file for

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Speaker 1: hearing that Mershawan schedules his own hearing. Let's hope he

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Speaker 1: does one and calls Andrew Rice and says what Alex

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Speaker 1: Wagner did not say, which is, what the hell did

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Speaker 1: you mean? He needs to call Trump's surrogates. And by

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Speaker 1: the way, we're calling them Trump's surrogates. You know who

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Speaker 1: called them Trump surrogates? Trump called them that. What does

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Speaker 1: the word surrogate mean? Legally, it means several things, one

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Speaker 1: of which is you're the legal spokesperson for somebody. You

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Speaker 1: are the legal representative for somebody when you are there,

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Speaker 1: surrogate or the legal representative if they're unable to speak

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Speaker 1: because they're in a coma. We should be so lucky.

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Speaker 1: He called them his surrogates. They went out and said

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Speaker 1: things he could not say. I wonder if there's some

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Speaker 1: connection between these two things. He was actually reading the

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Speaker 1: quotes that these individuals were and going through and making

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Speaker 1: notations with a pen. On another matter, what about Michael

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Speaker 1: Cohen's hairstyle. The judge needs to find Trump responsible for

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Speaker 1: those violations by proxy and say, read the whole gag order.

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Speaker 1: You can't say this stuff, and you cannot instruct anybody

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Speaker 1: else to. And this is sufficient evidence in my mind

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Speaker 1: that you did that. You instructed these people to say

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Speaker 1: these things. And the next group that shows up on

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Speaker 1: the next day of court, which would be oh, check's

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Speaker 1: watch today, they better watch their asses because they may

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Speaker 1: be called into this hearing too, because Trump has violated

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Speaker 1: the gag order. And you know what Mershawn said last time,

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Speaker 1: Lock them up, plenty of room and rikers, lock them up.

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Speaker 1: And lose the key. Lock them up, and forget which

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Speaker 1: celly you put him in. Just lock them up, Lock

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Speaker 1: them up already. Imagine me being called to testify in

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Speaker 1: Trump trial and Todd Blanche Trump's attorney says, have you

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Speaker 1: ever said anything negative about Donald Trump? And I go yes,

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Speaker 1: and he goes like what? And then I keep talking

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Speaker 1: for three years. Speaking of MSNBC, also of interest here

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Speaker 1: quote how MSNBC's leftward tilt delivers ratings and complications. NBC's

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Speaker 1: leaders have been forced to grapple with how to square

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Speaker 1: it's cable news networks embrace of progressive politics with the

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Speaker 1: company's straight news operation. Un Quote the headline, Yes, I

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Speaker 1: was just thumbing through my scrap books from two thousand

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Speaker 1: and six and two thousand and seven and two thousand

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Speaker 1: and eight and read that about how MSNBC's leftward tilt

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Speaker 1: deliveries ratings and complications and what what that wasn't in

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Speaker 1: the New York Times from two thousand and seven. That

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Speaker 1: was in the New York Times yesterday. Deja vu all

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Speaker 1: over again. That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown

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Speaker 1: with Keith Oberman postscripts to the news. I've forgotten the

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Speaker 1: whole spiel. I give it the start of postscripts to

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Speaker 1: the news. So I'm just not going to say it.

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Speaker 1: I will say though, Dateline New York. I swear to goodness,

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Speaker 1: this was in the New York Times yesterday and I

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Speaker 1: suddenly felt young again. I read this and I was

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Speaker 1: forty six years old and going out onto a limb

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Speaker 1: in Secaucus, New Jersey, saying, nobody watches this network anyway.

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Speaker 1: Management does not watch it, nobody cares. I'm just going

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Speaker 1: to tell the truth. Let's see what happens. It worked

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Speaker 1: for Warren Batty in that movie, didn't it. And the

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Speaker 1: coverage that began after I started to criticize George W.

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Speaker 1: Bush was at first glowing an extraordinary and then suddenly

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Speaker 1: it turned dark. Yes, MSNBC is making a profit of

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty million dollars after losing about one

427
00:29:20,875 --> 00:29:25,035
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars every year for the last decade. However,

428
00:29:25,595 --> 00:29:29,395
Speaker 1: look at all the inconvenience it's covering up here. It's

429
00:29:29,515 --> 00:29:33,275
Speaker 1: causing these executives at thirty Rock to have to stay

430
00:29:33,315 --> 00:29:37,075
Speaker 1: an extra fifteen minutes and answer phone calls, and never

431
00:29:37,155 --> 00:29:41,155
Speaker 1: mind the executives from the company. My goodness, the chairman

432
00:29:41,195 --> 00:29:45,115
Speaker 1: of ge His mommy called him up and complained because

433
00:29:45,155 --> 00:29:49,355
Speaker 1: of something she saw on Fox News. Time to tell

434
00:29:49,355 --> 00:29:52,715
Speaker 1: that story again too. But first, this my point in

435
00:29:52,795 --> 00:29:55,915
Speaker 1: going back in time, and I felt my hair get darker,

436
00:29:55,915 --> 00:30:00,595
Speaker 1: and my knee get better, and my belly get smaller. Yesterday,

437
00:30:00,715 --> 00:30:03,635
Speaker 1: Jim Ruttenberg and Michael Grinbaum wrote in The New York

438
00:30:03,715 --> 00:30:06,515
Speaker 1: Times this story, the headline of which I gave you

439
00:30:06,555 --> 00:30:11,395
Speaker 1: before the break, and the top of it was MSNBC

440
00:30:11,515 --> 00:30:15,115
Speaker 1: placed a big bet on becoming comfort TV for liberals.

441
00:30:15,475 --> 00:30:21,515
Speaker 1: Then it doubled down. First off, you're welcome. The moves

442
00:30:21,515 --> 00:30:24,475
Speaker 1: have been a hit with viewers. Once again. Let me

443
00:30:24,555 --> 00:30:30,075
Speaker 1: just interject here, you're welcome. MSNBC has leap frog passed

444
00:30:30,075 --> 00:30:34,635
Speaker 1: its erstwhile rivals CNN in the ratings. Yeah. Actually we

445
00:30:34,675 --> 00:30:40,875
Speaker 1: did that in two thousand and six. You're welcome. I

446
00:30:40,915 --> 00:30:43,995
Speaker 1: once beat CNN in the ratings for a George Bush

447
00:30:44,035 --> 00:30:48,955
Speaker 1: press conference with a burst appendix. I was dying of

448
00:30:48,955 --> 00:30:53,835
Speaker 1: sepsis and I got rated CNN. So you're welcome. MSNBC

449
00:30:53,915 --> 00:30:56,275
Speaker 1: has leaped. That'll be the last time I do this, Probably.

450
00:30:56,395 --> 00:30:59,755
Speaker 1: MSNBC has leap frog passed its erstwhile rivals CNN in

451
00:30:59,795 --> 00:31:02,515
Speaker 1: the ratings, and has seen viewership rise over the past year,

452
00:31:02,835 --> 00:31:05,755
Speaker 1: securing second place in cable news, behind the perennial leader

453
00:31:05,795 --> 00:31:08,435
Speaker 1: Fox News. Again, we did this in two thousand and six.

454
00:31:08,635 --> 00:31:10,795
Speaker 1: I don't know how this qualifies as news, Jim Rutenberg.

455
00:31:11,515 --> 00:31:17,595
Speaker 1: But MSNBC success has had unintended consequences for its parent company, NBC.

456
00:31:17,955 --> 00:31:23,115
Speaker 1: An original Big three broadcaster that still strives to appeal

457
00:31:23,155 --> 00:31:26,995
Speaker 1: to a mass American audience. Okay, there's no what is

458
00:31:27,035 --> 00:31:32,675
Speaker 1: this big three broadcaster? We're talking it's nineteen ninety four again,

459
00:31:32,755 --> 00:31:35,955
Speaker 1: before there was a Fox, before there was streaming, where

460
00:31:35,955 --> 00:31:40,115
Speaker 1: everybody had their own television network, an original Big three broadcaster.

461
00:31:40,275 --> 00:31:43,035
Speaker 1: Half the people alive watching television have no idea what

462
00:31:43,075 --> 00:31:45,795
Speaker 1: this means. It's like saying original six in hockey. There's

463
00:31:45,795 --> 00:31:48,995
Speaker 1: no such thing as the original six. The original six

464
00:31:49,035 --> 00:31:51,675
Speaker 1: were the teams that didn't go out of business before

465
00:31:51,675 --> 00:31:54,715
Speaker 1: the start of World War two. Original Big three broadcast.

466
00:31:54,715 --> 00:31:58,715
Speaker 1: How about original Big four broadcaster. Let's include the Dumont Network,

467
00:31:59,675 --> 00:32:01,795
Speaker 1: which went out of business in nineteen fifty five, even

468
00:32:01,835 --> 00:32:04,755
Speaker 1: though it had Jackie Gleeson and the Honeymooners, and by

469
00:32:04,795 --> 00:32:08,875
Speaker 1: the way the National Football League. But I digress significantly.

470
00:32:09,355 --> 00:32:14,195
Speaker 1: NBC's traditional political journalists, grin Baum and Rutenberg wrote yesterday,

471
00:32:14,195 --> 00:32:16,395
Speaker 1: although this could have been written in two thousand and seven,

472
00:32:16,955 --> 00:32:21,915
Speaker 1: NBC's traditional political journalists have cycled between ranker and resignation,

473
00:32:22,835 --> 00:32:26,355
Speaker 1: that the cable network's partisanship, a regular target of mister Trump,

474
00:32:26,435 --> 00:32:32,635
Speaker 1: will color perceptions of their straight news reporting. My first

475
00:32:32,635 --> 00:32:37,315
Speaker 1: decide here is NBC's traditional political journalists have cycled between

476
00:32:37,355 --> 00:32:40,315
Speaker 1: ranker and resignation. Have a lot of them resigned? Has

477
00:32:40,395 --> 00:32:46,515
Speaker 1: Chuck Todd resigned? Did Tom Brokaw resign? Lester Holt resigned?

478
00:32:46,675 --> 00:32:51,315
Speaker 1: Lester Holt who's career was saved by MSNBC and they

479
00:32:51,315 --> 00:32:53,915
Speaker 1: put them on NBC News only because Brian Williams went

480
00:32:54,395 --> 00:32:59,035
Speaker 1: pew up into the sky. Now they haven't. Really, that's

481
00:32:59,035 --> 00:33:01,915
Speaker 1: not the way he meant resignation, I'm sir. The other

482
00:33:02,035 --> 00:33:06,475
Speaker 1: thing about this is, since sometime in the late two thousands,

483
00:33:06,875 --> 00:33:09,435
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight nine, I never got the exact

484
00:33:09,515 --> 00:33:13,315
Speaker 1: date of this, the role of Horace and cart at

485
00:33:13,515 --> 00:33:20,235
Speaker 1: NBC News switched MSNBC and CNBC and the other smaller

486
00:33:20,355 --> 00:33:25,715
Speaker 1: cable news entities within the NBC News family A dysfunctional

487
00:33:25,755 --> 00:33:31,795
Speaker 1: family like the Manson family. The NBC News family used

488
00:33:31,795 --> 00:33:34,835
Speaker 1: to be led by NBC News, The Today's Show, Meet

489
00:33:34,875 --> 00:33:37,155
Speaker 1: the Press, NBC Nightly News used to make all the money.

490
00:33:37,155 --> 00:33:40,355
Speaker 1: And then people stop watching network television. Anybody who could

491
00:33:40,355 --> 00:33:45,395
Speaker 1: afford cables started to watch cable. And sometime around two

492
00:33:45,435 --> 00:33:48,115
Speaker 1: thousand and seven two thousand and eight, when frankly what

493
00:33:48,275 --> 00:33:50,355
Speaker 1: I did, and then what Rachel Matdow did, and to

494
00:33:50,515 --> 00:33:53,995
Speaker 1: some degree, what Chris Matthews did, started making MSNBC money.

495
00:33:54,035 --> 00:33:57,115
Speaker 1: Suddenly it was MSNBC and CNBC were making more money,

496
00:33:57,315 --> 00:34:00,715
Speaker 1: and NBC News was being carried by the cable networks.

497
00:34:00,715 --> 00:34:02,675
Speaker 1: And I don't know what the numbers look like now,

498
00:34:02,715 --> 00:34:05,515
Speaker 1: but I know at some point around two thousand and fifteen,

499
00:34:05,875 --> 00:34:09,715
Speaker 1: the ratio was about cable producing two dollars for every

500
00:34:09,755 --> 00:34:13,555
Speaker 1: one dollar produced by NBC News. So if the NBC

501
00:34:13,715 --> 00:34:18,795
Speaker 1: traditional political journalists are cycling between ranker and resignation about

502
00:34:18,835 --> 00:34:23,035
Speaker 1: the cable network's partisanship, then they should resign because the

503
00:34:23,195 --> 00:34:27,475
Speaker 1: partisanship on MSNBC, and by the way, the reverse partisanship

504
00:34:27,675 --> 00:34:31,315
Speaker 1: the right wing fascist we pray to God for more

505
00:34:31,355 --> 00:34:38,235
Speaker 1: money every night CNBC partisanship. Those two partisanships keep NBC

506
00:34:38,395 --> 00:34:44,795
Speaker 1: News alive. If you cut off MSNBC's partisanship and CNBC's

507
00:34:44,915 --> 00:34:48,275
Speaker 1: partisanship tomorrow, the first thing you would notice would be

508
00:34:48,355 --> 00:34:51,475
Speaker 1: all the NBC News broadcasts from here on in would

509
00:34:51,515 --> 00:34:55,795
Speaker 1: be done in black and white to save money. To

510
00:34:55,875 --> 00:35:00,195
Speaker 1: resume mister Rutenberg's article, local NBC stations between the coasts

511
00:35:00,195 --> 00:35:02,955
Speaker 1: have demanded again and again that executives in New York

512
00:35:02,995 --> 00:35:08,755
Speaker 1: do more to preserve nbc DA's nonpartisan brand, less MSNBC's

513
00:35:08,875 --> 00:35:14,715
Speaker 1: Blue state bent alienate their red state viewers. If you

514
00:35:15,155 --> 00:35:18,595
Speaker 1: would like to invest in something in which you can

515
00:35:18,635 --> 00:35:22,595
Speaker 1: be guaranteed to lose all your money, invest in a

516
00:35:22,755 --> 00:35:27,195
Speaker 1: local NBC station between the coasts, or in fact, a

517
00:35:27,235 --> 00:35:30,595
Speaker 1: local ABC station, or a Fox station, or in fact,

518
00:35:30,635 --> 00:35:34,275
Speaker 1: almost any local television station or local television broadcaster in

519
00:35:34,315 --> 00:35:37,595
Speaker 1: this country. If you would like to lose your money

520
00:35:37,635 --> 00:35:42,035
Speaker 1: and you can't find any interurban trolley lines to buy

521
00:35:42,355 --> 00:35:46,075
Speaker 1: in the year twenty twenty four, buy a local TV station.

522
00:35:46,635 --> 00:35:48,915
Speaker 1: If you want to buy a local TV station and

523
00:35:48,995 --> 00:35:51,355
Speaker 1: it isn't between the coast, you want to buy KNBC

524
00:35:51,475 --> 00:35:55,715
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, WNBC in New York. I'm sure all

525
00:35:55,755 --> 00:35:59,595
Speaker 1: you have to do is open the window and yell out, Hey, NBC,

526
00:35:59,795 --> 00:36:03,115
Speaker 1: I want to buy Channel four. I have cash, and

527
00:36:03,155 --> 00:36:07,915
Speaker 1: they will call you within five five minutes. They are

528
00:36:07,995 --> 00:36:13,395
Speaker 1: losing money hand over fists as if they were an

529
00:36:13,435 --> 00:36:17,635
Speaker 1: ancient god with sixty one hands and thus sixty one

530
00:36:17,675 --> 00:36:24,635
Speaker 1: fists local NBC stations. If local NBC stations called NBC

531
00:36:24,675 --> 00:36:29,235
Speaker 1: headquarters in New York, collect the operators would be instructed

532
00:36:29,315 --> 00:36:33,395
Speaker 1: not to accept the charges. This account of the tensions

533
00:36:33,835 --> 00:36:37,915
Speaker 1: roiling NBC and its corporate overseers is based on interviews

534
00:36:38,075 --> 00:36:40,995
Speaker 1: with more than two dozen people with knowledge of the

535
00:36:41,075 --> 00:36:45,315
Speaker 1: company's inner workings, almost all of whom insisted on anonymity

536
00:36:45,395 --> 00:36:50,555
Speaker 1: to share details of internal discussions. Well, I have to say,

537
00:36:50,755 --> 00:36:54,435
Speaker 1: although executives have long Phil Griffin gone to The New

538
00:36:54,515 --> 00:36:58,075
Speaker 1: York Times to whine and complain, particularly about talent, that

539
00:36:58,115 --> 00:37:00,435
Speaker 1: they did not have the guts to talk to personally.

540
00:37:01,515 --> 00:37:04,395
Speaker 1: Although that was the case once upon a time when

541
00:37:04,875 --> 00:37:09,075
Speaker 1: at NBC, particularly at NBC News, were offended that things

542
00:37:09,075 --> 00:37:12,395
Speaker 1: became more and more difficult for them because their Republican

543
00:37:12,435 --> 00:37:16,835
Speaker 1: friends We're calling up and complaining of that that on

544
00:37:16,995 --> 00:37:20,075
Speaker 1: MSNBC they used to put their own names on him

545
00:37:20,115 --> 00:37:25,355
Speaker 1: Tom Brooker, there's nothing new to this. I really don't

546
00:37:25,435 --> 00:37:28,675
Speaker 1: understand this piece. It is from two thousand and seven,

547
00:37:29,315 --> 00:37:32,275
Speaker 1: it is written in twenty twenty four. And the problem

548
00:37:32,395 --> 00:37:35,675
Speaker 1: is that all the rationalizations for why they need to

549
00:37:35,795 --> 00:37:42,395
Speaker 1: reel MSNBC in have now weighted against them. The fact

550
00:37:42,395 --> 00:37:45,475
Speaker 1: that MSNBC is the thing that makes money within NBC

551
00:37:45,555 --> 00:37:49,035
Speaker 1: News and everything else hemorrhage's money, or at least does

552
00:37:49,075 --> 00:37:52,715
Speaker 1: not make enough money that the investors would be willing

553
00:37:52,955 --> 00:37:55,875
Speaker 1: to start it anew if it was offered and presented

554
00:37:55,915 --> 00:37:59,675
Speaker 1: to them tomorrow. That is the reality of cash, and

555
00:37:59,755 --> 00:38:02,955
Speaker 1: for some reason, that's not included anywhere in this rather

556
00:38:03,115 --> 00:38:06,115
Speaker 1: lengthy piece by Mistertburt and mister Grinbaum, and I don't

557
00:38:06,115 --> 00:38:11,075
Speaker 1: criticize them. Although mister Ruttenberg and mister Grenbaum had simply

558
00:38:11,115 --> 00:38:13,315
Speaker 1: repeated an article written for The New York Times by

559
00:38:13,355 --> 00:38:16,435
Speaker 1: Brian Stelter circa nineteen two thousand and eight or two

560
00:38:16,435 --> 00:38:18,875
Speaker 1: thousand and nine and put their own names on it

561
00:38:18,915 --> 00:38:21,355
Speaker 1: and changed a few names in it, nobody would have

562
00:38:21,395 --> 00:38:24,915
Speaker 1: known the difference. It's the same damn point. Those MSNBC

563
00:38:25,075 --> 00:38:27,155
Speaker 1: people are ruining it for us. Do you know what

564
00:38:27,275 --> 00:38:29,675
Speaker 1: kind of trouble we'll be in when we go fascist

565
00:38:29,795 --> 00:38:32,355
Speaker 1: next year, Trump's gonna come and arrest all of us

566
00:38:32,435 --> 00:38:34,995
Speaker 1: rather than just those guys on the third and fourth

567
00:38:35,035 --> 00:38:40,835
Speaker 1: floors there at MSNBC. Screw them now. The other part

568
00:38:40,915 --> 00:38:45,595
Speaker 1: that was left out of this is this desire to

569
00:38:45,835 --> 00:38:51,275
Speaker 1: reel back in MSNBC. I'm not going to spend a

570
00:38:51,275 --> 00:38:53,515
Speaker 1: lot of time talking about another one of my exes.

571
00:38:53,675 --> 00:38:56,515
Speaker 1: It's one of my greatest faults. It wasn't my intention

572
00:38:56,675 --> 00:39:00,035
Speaker 1: for this series, at least not my primary intention for

573
00:39:00,075 --> 00:39:02,715
Speaker 1: this series to talk about my exes. But Katie Turr

574
00:39:02,755 --> 00:39:05,715
Speaker 1: is a disaster of biblical proportions, and then they have

575
00:39:05,795 --> 00:39:11,635
Speaker 1: her on with Andrea Mitchell and the two of them

576
00:39:11,635 --> 00:39:15,435
Speaker 1: are acting like it's the year eighteen eighty four and

577
00:39:15,435 --> 00:39:17,395
Speaker 1: they know women will never have the right to vote,

578
00:39:17,395 --> 00:39:21,395
Speaker 1: so why bother. Joe Scarborough also is not a liberal.

579
00:39:21,515 --> 00:39:24,635
Speaker 1: Joe Scarborough is playing a liberal on TV because trying

580
00:39:24,675 --> 00:39:28,315
Speaker 1: to be Trump's vice president twenty sixteen didn't work out

581
00:39:28,355 --> 00:39:30,355
Speaker 1: for him, and they'll never admit him back inside the

582
00:39:30,395 --> 00:39:33,475
Speaker 1: conservative club, even though he's just as conservative now as

583
00:39:33,515 --> 00:39:36,955
Speaker 1: he was then. There are no actual principles or morals

584
00:39:36,955 --> 00:39:39,355
Speaker 1: in Joe Scarborough, and he's on television five hours a

585
00:39:39,435 --> 00:39:43,355
Speaker 1: day simply repeating gossip and hosting people like Jonathan Martin,

586
00:39:43,395 --> 00:39:47,555
Speaker 1: who will change his opinion eighteen days from now. The

587
00:39:47,595 --> 00:39:54,595
Speaker 1: rest the rest in here was about the protests of

588
00:39:54,755 --> 00:39:58,755
Speaker 1: criticism of the Gaza Israel war in the hours after

589
00:39:59,155 --> 00:40:05,115
Speaker 1: the attack by Hamas on October seventh, the ronal McDaniel disaster,

590
00:40:06,115 --> 00:40:11,075
Speaker 1: like that was MSNBC's fault. Hey, Rachel, who do you

591
00:40:11,115 --> 00:40:13,795
Speaker 1: think we should hire? I think we should hire ronal McDaniel.

592
00:40:14,355 --> 00:40:17,675
Speaker 1: I don't think that conversation happened. I've had some criticisms

593
00:40:17,675 --> 00:40:19,795
Speaker 1: of Rachel matdow here. You may have heard them. One

594
00:40:19,875 --> 00:40:21,875
Speaker 1: of them is not that she was intending to hire

595
00:40:21,915 --> 00:40:27,395
Speaker 1: ronal McDaniel. And the rest of this was about how

596
00:40:27,395 --> 00:40:31,555
Speaker 1: the problem ultimately is insoluble, that there's no way for

597
00:40:31,635 --> 00:40:35,355
Speaker 1: these two operations to continue, NBC News and MSNBC. It

598
00:40:35,395 --> 00:40:38,395
Speaker 1: can't go on much longer, even though even though we're

599
00:40:38,515 --> 00:40:42,555
Speaker 1: going to celebrate in about a year my first special

600
00:40:42,595 --> 00:40:49,195
Speaker 1: comments twentieth anniversary, but it's never going to last. And

601
00:40:49,275 --> 00:40:52,955
Speaker 1: those billions of dollars that MSNBC has made for NBC,

602
00:40:53,115 --> 00:40:56,195
Speaker 1: first for Ge and now for Comcast, all of which,

603
00:40:56,875 --> 00:41:00,595
Speaker 1: excuse me, all of which originates from my going screw it,

604
00:41:00,635 --> 00:41:02,755
Speaker 1: nobody's watching. What's the difference. They'll fire me. I'll go

605
00:41:02,795 --> 00:41:05,035
Speaker 1: back work at ESPN again. I have another ab I

606
00:41:05,035 --> 00:41:06,875
Speaker 1: can do. I don't need this job. I'm a fully

607
00:41:06,955 --> 00:41:11,115
Speaker 1: qualified brain surgeon. The rest of this article is about

608
00:41:11,115 --> 00:41:13,515
Speaker 1: how this problem is insoluble, and how that they even

609
00:41:13,635 --> 00:41:17,115
Speaker 1: thought maybe they could spin MSNBC off and stop saying

610
00:41:17,155 --> 00:41:19,395
Speaker 1: it was news, and they could do this and they

611
00:41:19,395 --> 00:41:22,475
Speaker 1: wouldn't use it as a spillover for NBC programming or

612
00:41:22,475 --> 00:41:25,315
Speaker 1: an attempt to amortize the cost of sending a reporter

613
00:41:25,435 --> 00:41:27,915
Speaker 1: somewhere to go do a stupid story on the stupid

614
00:41:27,955 --> 00:41:29,915
Speaker 1: Today Show for two minutes and then throw it back.

615
00:41:29,915 --> 00:41:32,075
Speaker 1: And then they wait, wait, wait, wait, wait wait, go

616
00:41:32,155 --> 00:41:35,555
Speaker 1: back to that last one. They thought, maybe spin MSNBC

617
00:41:35,755 --> 00:41:39,435
Speaker 1: off and exceparate the two operations and maybe call MSNBC

618
00:41:39,635 --> 00:41:42,595
Speaker 1: something else. Oh my good god. We proposed this to

619
00:41:42,635 --> 00:41:45,515
Speaker 1: them in two thousand and four. The first thing I

620
00:41:45,595 --> 00:41:48,715
Speaker 1: did when I went back there for my second stint

621
00:41:48,795 --> 00:41:50,755
Speaker 1: at the beginning of two thousand and three, the first

622
00:41:50,755 --> 00:41:52,475
Speaker 1: thing I said was, you know what would make everything

623
00:41:52,475 --> 00:41:55,515
Speaker 1: a lot easier for you, not for us, but for you.

624
00:41:56,035 --> 00:41:58,675
Speaker 1: Don't put the NBC logo on this. We have to

625
00:41:58,715 --> 00:42:02,235
Speaker 1: have the NBC logo on if this is what sells it. No, no, no, no.

626
00:42:02,355 --> 00:42:04,995
Speaker 1: Don't you understand the people who are watching MSA NBC

627
00:42:04,995 --> 00:42:06,955
Speaker 1: are the ones who've already decided they don't want to

628
00:42:06,995 --> 00:42:11,075
Speaker 1: watch NBC nightly news. They don't want more Tom Brokaw.

629
00:42:12,115 --> 00:42:15,595
Speaker 1: They don't want God Love Him, Carrie Sanders or more

630
00:42:15,635 --> 00:42:17,955
Speaker 1: of Carrie Sanders. They want the two. Maybe they'll watch

631
00:42:18,035 --> 00:42:20,955
Speaker 1: nightly news. I notice you never let us run nightly

632
00:42:20,995 --> 00:42:30,475
Speaker 1: news on MSNBC. You want us to run leftovers. For years,

633
00:42:30,755 --> 00:42:32,435
Speaker 1: we argued, and it was one of the few times

634
00:42:32,475 --> 00:42:35,395
Speaker 1: I ever agreed with the then president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin.

635
00:42:35,475 --> 00:42:38,715
Speaker 1: We argued, we have to have a separate identity, keep

636
00:42:38,755 --> 00:42:42,795
Speaker 1: the two operations with the proverbial wall of China between them.

637
00:42:42,875 --> 00:42:46,115
Speaker 1: Don't have people who are on MSNBC appear on NBC News.

638
00:42:46,155 --> 00:42:49,075
Speaker 1: Don't have people who are on NBC News appear on MSNBC.

639
00:42:49,355 --> 00:42:51,915
Speaker 1: And for a while we did that, and we made

640
00:42:51,995 --> 00:42:54,675
Speaker 1: billions of dollars, and then somebody went, you know what,

641
00:42:54,715 --> 00:42:57,235
Speaker 1: we could save one hundred and twenty seven dollars. If

642
00:42:57,235 --> 00:43:00,395
Speaker 1: we had the same person do the early morning news

643
00:43:00,395 --> 00:43:04,355
Speaker 1: on MSNBC and the newscast part of the Today Show,

644
00:43:04,795 --> 00:43:08,635
Speaker 1: that same band would be great, brilliant, crossbro Synergy. It's synergy,

645
00:43:09,675 --> 00:43:12,515
Speaker 1: and it saves one hundred and twenty seven dollars. And

646
00:43:12,555 --> 00:43:16,995
Speaker 1: that's where all this problem originates, re originates, re reriginates.

647
00:43:17,315 --> 00:43:19,475
Speaker 1: We killed this problem off in two thousand and eight,

648
00:43:19,755 --> 00:43:22,235
Speaker 1: and then it came back in twenty fifteen, and then

649
00:43:22,235 --> 00:43:25,875
Speaker 1: when MSNBC tanked and nobody would go on MSNBC from NBC,

650
00:43:26,115 --> 00:43:28,995
Speaker 1: it was solved again. And then MSNBC rose again, and

651
00:43:29,035 --> 00:43:30,795
Speaker 1: now they have the same problem because they're trying to

652
00:43:30,875 --> 00:43:35,195
Speaker 1: use people on both networks. We solved this. I didn't

653
00:43:35,195 --> 00:43:39,595
Speaker 1: see that in the article either, But of course all

654
00:43:39,635 --> 00:43:42,675
Speaker 1: of this could have been averted if I had simply said, sure,

655
00:43:42,915 --> 00:43:46,915
Speaker 1: what the hell? When the phone call came in the

656
00:43:46,955 --> 00:43:50,235
Speaker 1: summer of two thousand and nine and it was Jeff Zucker,

657
00:43:50,315 --> 00:43:54,075
Speaker 1: and he said, you and the executive producer better get

658
00:43:54,155 --> 00:43:57,795
Speaker 1: up here now to my palatial office on the fifty

659
00:43:57,835 --> 00:44:01,035
Speaker 1: second floor, because the chairman of GE has just told

660
00:44:01,035 --> 00:44:04,795
Speaker 1: me that he's going to take MSNBC off the air

661
00:44:04,875 --> 00:44:10,515
Speaker 1: and replace it with cartoons because he doesn't want to

662
00:44:10,595 --> 00:44:15,835
Speaker 1: be bothered with these phone calls anymore. And I said,

663
00:44:16,715 --> 00:44:20,435
Speaker 1: whoa wait, We're making two hundred million dollars a year.

664
00:44:20,595 --> 00:44:22,715
Speaker 1: Do you think that matters to him? Get your ass

665
00:44:22,795 --> 00:44:27,035
Speaker 1: up here? And I did, so let me retell that story,

666
00:44:27,075 --> 00:44:36,755
Speaker 1: because that's next. This is countdown. I said, Jeff Immelt

667
00:44:36,795 --> 00:44:40,275
Speaker 1: is going to take MSNBC off the air. I didn't

668
00:44:40,315 --> 00:44:43,115
Speaker 1: need any of my overwrought visions from two years earlier

669
00:44:43,155 --> 00:44:46,355
Speaker 1: of the future of liberal news commentary falling out the

670
00:44:46,515 --> 00:44:49,475
Speaker 1: NBC window to its death on the rink. This was

671
00:44:49,515 --> 00:44:53,835
Speaker 1: the real thing. The chairman of General Electric was threatening

672
00:44:53,875 --> 00:44:57,795
Speaker 1: to open the window himself, throw us out the window himself,

673
00:44:58,035 --> 00:45:00,795
Speaker 1: and then race down to the pavement to stomp on

674
00:45:00,875 --> 00:45:06,235
Speaker 1: our dying remains himself. Poor Ed Schultz heard Jeff Zucker

675
00:45:06,235 --> 00:45:09,395
Speaker 1: say those words, and he had screwed up his face

676
00:45:09,475 --> 00:45:12,835
Speaker 1: and tilted his head like a puppy hearing a car crash.

677
00:45:13,155 --> 00:45:15,475
Speaker 1: He had not believed it the first time. He had

678
00:45:15,475 --> 00:45:18,235
Speaker 1: not believed at the second time. Zucker said it a

679
00:45:18,275 --> 00:45:21,195
Speaker 1: third time. Immelt is going to take MSNBC off the

680
00:45:21,195 --> 00:45:26,515
Speaker 1: effing air at Schultz groaned, after weeks of Griffin's coaxing,

681
00:45:26,555 --> 00:45:30,075
Speaker 1: he had finally just moved from Nebraska to New York

682
00:45:30,235 --> 00:45:33,995
Speaker 1: the preceding weekend. Yet he was still, somehow only the

683
00:45:34,075 --> 00:45:37,955
Speaker 1: second most strung out person in the room. You, Zucker

684
00:45:37,995 --> 00:45:40,315
Speaker 1: shouted at me, You're the smartest one in the room.

685
00:45:40,955 --> 00:45:44,555
Speaker 1: What the f do we do now? I'll confess I

686
00:45:44,675 --> 00:45:46,915
Speaker 1: was shaken by this because it appeared for once that

687
00:45:47,035 --> 00:45:50,555
Speaker 1: Zucker was not being sarcastic. I had never before seen

688
00:45:50,635 --> 00:45:53,795
Speaker 1: him flush nor flustered. This was a guy who wore

689
00:45:53,875 --> 00:45:58,035
Speaker 1: fleece in July. Now he was beat red and sweating.

690
00:45:59,035 --> 00:46:01,115
Speaker 1: Sometimes he knew what he was doing, and, as his

691
00:46:01,155 --> 00:46:04,435
Speaker 1: opposition to hiring Matdow had proved, sometimes he didn't know

692
00:46:04,475 --> 00:46:06,995
Speaker 1: what he was doing. But he always acted as the

693
00:46:06,995 --> 00:46:10,675
Speaker 1: most confident man in the galaxy. But now he literally

694
00:46:10,715 --> 00:46:12,795
Speaker 1: had no clue what to do next. And he not

695
00:46:12,835 --> 00:46:16,275
Speaker 1: only could not ignore my advice, he desperately needed it.

696
00:46:16,875 --> 00:46:20,355
Speaker 1: This situation and that color on his face were almost

697
00:46:20,395 --> 00:46:25,395
Speaker 1: worth watching the corporate fascists nuke my network. I asked

698
00:46:25,515 --> 00:46:28,315
Speaker 1: Zucker to explain what happened? You got Dan, well know

699
00:46:28,435 --> 00:46:31,555
Speaker 1: what happened. Zucker moved towards me and I stood up

700
00:46:31,595 --> 00:46:34,235
Speaker 1: and I told him I would see myself out. He stopped,

701
00:46:34,795 --> 00:46:38,155
Speaker 1: remembering that he did indeed actually need my help. I'm sorry,

702
00:46:38,235 --> 00:46:42,915
Speaker 1: I apologize. This isn't raschal, this is immelt. Last week

703
00:46:42,995 --> 00:46:46,315
Speaker 1: sometime Bill O'Reilly snapped, he told Murdoch he wasn't gonna

704
00:46:46,315 --> 00:46:48,035
Speaker 1: take any more of what you were saying about him

705
00:46:48,035 --> 00:46:50,035
Speaker 1: on the air. So he did a piece last night

706
00:46:50,395 --> 00:46:54,235
Speaker 1: accusing GE of manufacturing the components that been used in

707
00:46:54,395 --> 00:46:57,315
Speaker 1: roadside bombs that were built in a rand to kill

708
00:46:57,355 --> 00:47:01,315
Speaker 1: Americans in Iraq, which is true legally, that's legally true.

709
00:47:01,435 --> 00:47:04,395
Speaker 1: They found roadside bombs that had like thirty year old

710
00:47:04,475 --> 00:47:08,235
Speaker 1: g E transistors or TV twobes from nineteen fifty four

711
00:47:08,315 --> 00:47:12,635
Speaker 1: or is something in them? Legally, GE did manufacture components

712
00:47:12,675 --> 00:47:14,715
Speaker 1: that were used in roadside bombs that were built in

713
00:47:14,795 --> 00:47:17,595
Speaker 1: around to kill Americans in Iraq. So o'reiley puts this

714
00:47:17,795 --> 00:47:21,195
Speaker 1: on his effing show as a lead story, and then

715
00:47:21,635 --> 00:47:24,555
Speaker 1: Fox sent two camera crews in this little crap producer

716
00:47:24,595 --> 00:47:29,075
Speaker 1: from O'Riley show, Jesse Waters something to steak emmeilt out

717
00:47:29,075 --> 00:47:33,435
Speaker 1: and chase him around the GE shareholders meeting in Charlotte.

718
00:47:33,835 --> 00:47:36,115
Speaker 1: Zucker finally came up for air, and I jumped in.

719
00:47:36,915 --> 00:47:39,915
Speaker 1: Why didn't emmelt have six camera crews to stake out

720
00:47:39,955 --> 00:47:42,635
Speaker 1: the two Fox crews and chase them around in Charlotte?

721
00:47:42,635 --> 00:47:45,355
Speaker 1: I mean, isn't that one of our news hubs Charlotte

722
00:47:45,595 --> 00:47:48,915
Speaker 1: doesn't emmelt own like twenty camera crews? There, he bring

723
00:47:48,995 --> 00:47:53,195
Speaker 1: a camera crew, You'll bring two camera crews. Zucker started

724
00:47:53,235 --> 00:47:55,915
Speaker 1: to not like me again. Now you suggest that where

725
00:47:55,915 --> 00:47:58,195
Speaker 1: were you in? All right, never mind, it doesn't matter.

726
00:47:58,875 --> 00:48:01,595
Speaker 1: Emmel says, if there's one more story on Bill O'Reilly

727
00:48:01,635 --> 00:48:05,595
Speaker 1: about ge manufacturing components for roadside bombs in Iraq, he's

728
00:48:05,675 --> 00:48:10,275
Speaker 1: taking MSNBC off the air immediately. It'll just be twenty

729
00:48:10,315 --> 00:48:13,915
Speaker 1: four hours of lock up and I'm fired and you're fired.

730
00:48:14,355 --> 00:48:16,835
Speaker 1: And then he pointed at Chris Matthews, producer and Matthews

731
00:48:16,875 --> 00:48:19,315
Speaker 1: is fired. And he pointed at poor Ed Schultz and

732
00:48:19,355 --> 00:48:22,835
Speaker 1: you're fired, and Ed whimpered, So Smart asked, what the

733
00:48:22,955 --> 00:48:26,755
Speaker 1: f do we do? I feigned all the nonchalants I

734
00:48:26,795 --> 00:48:29,835
Speaker 1: could feign. If I could have lit a shroot by

735
00:48:29,875 --> 00:48:32,635
Speaker 1: striking a match on the sole of my boot, I

736
00:48:32,715 --> 00:48:38,355
Speaker 1: would have. It's manageable. But Jeff, why is Emmelt so

737
00:48:38,795 --> 00:48:41,835
Speaker 1: worked up about what O'Reilly said about him. Only O'Reilly's

738
00:48:41,875 --> 00:48:45,195
Speaker 1: nutjob viewers actually believe any of that crap. Nobody at GE,

739
00:48:45,755 --> 00:48:49,835
Speaker 1: nobody investing in GE, could possibly believe we're building components

740
00:48:49,835 --> 00:48:57,595
Speaker 1: for roadside bombs. Zucker inhaled deeply. Emmelt's mother believes it.

741
00:48:58,715 --> 00:49:01,355
Speaker 1: All the heads in the room turned toward the president

742
00:49:01,355 --> 00:49:06,115
Speaker 1: of NBC. Missus. Emmelt back in Cincinnati is a devoted

743
00:49:06,195 --> 00:49:12,155
Speaker 1: Bill O'Reilly viewer watches him every night, sees this, calls him, says, Sonny,

744
00:49:12,155 --> 00:49:14,995
Speaker 1: why are you manufacturing components that were used in roadside

745
00:49:14,995 --> 00:49:19,555
Speaker 1: bombs built in Iran to kill Americans in Iraq? I

746
00:49:19,635 --> 00:49:23,755
Speaker 1: had not expected that, I said to Zucker. So so

747
00:49:23,955 --> 00:49:27,435
Speaker 1: he'll really burn what two hundred million a year in

748
00:49:27,515 --> 00:49:32,275
Speaker 1: profits just between Rachel and me? Because his mom watches

749
00:49:32,395 --> 00:49:36,355
Speaker 1: Bill O'Reilly, Zucker got angry again. You bet you're effing

750
00:49:36,355 --> 00:49:39,075
Speaker 1: ass he will now you said it was manageable. How

751
00:49:39,115 --> 00:49:42,795
Speaker 1: how the hef do we manage it? Ulderman? Just a minute?

752
00:49:42,835 --> 00:49:47,475
Speaker 1: How old is she? Zucker summoned all his annoyance? How

753
00:49:47,475 --> 00:49:52,955
Speaker 1: old is who ML's mother? How old is she? Jeff

754
00:49:53,675 --> 00:49:56,835
Speaker 1: Zucker was really annoyed. How should I know? You're missing

755
00:49:56,835 --> 00:50:00,195
Speaker 1: the point? I had him really worked up, nearly to

756
00:50:00,235 --> 00:50:05,195
Speaker 1: the boiling point. It was great, guess, Zucker fluttered. I

757
00:50:05,235 --> 00:50:07,595
Speaker 1: don't know. He's in his mid fifties. She's got to

758
00:50:07,635 --> 00:50:12,755
Speaker 1: be eighty ninety something. I stifled a fake yawn. Yeah,

759
00:50:12,795 --> 00:50:15,115
Speaker 1: you're right, probably closer to ninety now that I think

760
00:50:15,155 --> 00:50:20,035
Speaker 1: of it. So the problem is she watches O'Reilly. She

761
00:50:20,235 --> 00:50:25,195
Speaker 1: tells him what's on Fox? What O'Reilly's saying about Ge? Well,

762
00:50:25,235 --> 00:50:26,835
Speaker 1: I think you have a simple solution. I'd say the

763
00:50:26,875 --> 00:50:28,515
Speaker 1: first thing you do is you send over a couple

764
00:50:28,555 --> 00:50:30,875
Speaker 1: of big guys to her house and you pull the

765
00:50:30,875 --> 00:50:36,275
Speaker 1: freaking cable out of the wall. Zucker actually gasped. My producer,

766
00:50:36,315 --> 00:50:39,715
Speaker 1: is Hepovich unsuccessfully stifled a laugh, and I saw Rachel

767
00:50:39,795 --> 00:50:43,835
Speaker 1: crack a smile. Zucker regained himself. This isn't funny, Olderman.

768
00:50:44,555 --> 00:50:48,395
Speaker 1: I crossed my legs. Oh, it's a little funny. And anyway,

769
00:50:48,435 --> 00:50:51,435
Speaker 1: it's not essential. If the problem is emailed is threatening

770
00:50:51,475 --> 00:50:53,395
Speaker 1: to take the network off the air because O'Reilly is

771
00:50:53,435 --> 00:50:58,235
Speaker 1: avenging himself against me by attacking him and attacking Ge.

772
00:50:58,395 --> 00:51:01,035
Speaker 1: The short term solution is easy and in fact, it

773
00:51:01,195 --> 00:51:04,835
Speaker 1: is manageable. The long term solution that's not easy, and

774
00:51:04,875 --> 00:51:07,275
Speaker 1: that's not manageable. But the short term one that's simple.

775
00:51:07,475 --> 00:51:09,995
Speaker 1: Rest of this week, next week, maybe the week after that.

776
00:51:10,115 --> 00:51:15,875
Speaker 1: Even we just don't mention Fox News on MSNBC something

777
00:51:16,395 --> 00:51:20,995
Speaker 1: resembling a smile across Zucker's face. It made him look

778
00:51:21,035 --> 00:51:23,555
Speaker 1: a little less like a lizard person and more like

779
00:51:23,555 --> 00:51:30,235
Speaker 1: a monkey with glasses. You do that forever? No, not forever.

780
00:51:30,315 --> 00:51:33,875
Speaker 1: I would not do that, I said to Bias time. Yes,

781
00:51:34,515 --> 00:51:36,595
Speaker 1: but remember who was it who was in my office

782
00:51:36,675 --> 00:51:38,715
Speaker 1: last winter telling me that I should go on the

783
00:51:38,715 --> 00:51:42,075
Speaker 1: air and just to f with Fox? I should ask

784
00:51:42,115 --> 00:51:45,075
Speaker 1: why Rupert Murdoch was still running a huge international media

785
00:51:45,115 --> 00:51:48,635
Speaker 1: company like News Corp, despite all the reports that he's

786
00:51:48,635 --> 00:51:51,795
Speaker 1: suffering from dementia, even though there haven't been any reports

787
00:51:51,835 --> 00:51:55,595
Speaker 1: that he's suffering from dementia. For everybody's sake, here, who

788
00:51:55,675 --> 00:51:58,915
Speaker 1: was that again who told me to do that? Zuker's

789
00:51:58,955 --> 00:52:02,355
Speaker 1: goodwill was gone? Again? Obviously that was me. What's your point?

790
00:52:03,235 --> 00:52:07,035
Speaker 1: My point is, we built this new brand of ours

791
00:52:07,155 --> 00:52:09,915
Speaker 1: organically on a couple of themes, a couple of statements

792
00:52:09,915 --> 00:52:12,555
Speaker 1: of principle and one of them is to use your

793
00:52:12,595 --> 00:52:16,755
Speaker 1: words just to f with Fox. If we don't f

794
00:52:16,875 --> 00:52:18,835
Speaker 1: with Fox for a couple of weeks at the start

795
00:52:18,875 --> 00:52:22,155
Speaker 1: of the summer, who's gonna care, Who's gonna notice? But

796
00:52:22,355 --> 00:52:26,195
Speaker 1: like after two weeks, three weeks, our viewers are gonna notice,

797
00:52:26,555 --> 00:52:28,995
Speaker 1: and the TV writers are gonna notice, and then the

798
00:52:29,075 --> 00:52:31,195
Speaker 1: crap we'll hit from every direction you can think of.

799
00:52:31,915 --> 00:52:36,635
Speaker 1: Temporary freeze on mentioning Fox and mentioning O'Reilly and mentioning Murdoch. Fine,

800
00:52:36,795 --> 00:52:39,995
Speaker 1: permanent freeze. Might as well let em Milk turn us

801
00:52:39,995 --> 00:52:43,795
Speaker 1: off in the morning. After all, I don't think Zooker

802
00:52:43,875 --> 00:52:46,555
Speaker 1: actually heard the last part about em Milt turning us off.

803
00:52:46,675 --> 00:52:52,075
Speaker 1: After all, the lack of color was returning to his face. Okay, breathe,

804
00:52:52,195 --> 00:52:56,755
Speaker 1: he kept saying to himself. Breathe, breathe, Okay, breathe. He

805
00:52:56,795 --> 00:52:59,475
Speaker 1: looked at me and nodded. He pointed at Izzy and

806
00:52:59,555 --> 00:53:01,755
Speaker 1: at Phil Griffin and me, You and you and you

807
00:53:02,235 --> 00:53:05,315
Speaker 1: and I will we will talk tomorrow, maybe to and

808
00:53:05,355 --> 00:53:08,955
Speaker 1: we'll all meet again next week. Until then, nothing about Fox, anybody,

809
00:53:08,995 --> 00:53:13,235
Speaker 1: are we clear? Nothing on the air about Fox. Silence

810
00:53:13,275 --> 00:53:16,395
Speaker 1: in the room, then the assorted noises of people rising

811
00:53:16,475 --> 00:53:21,115
Speaker 1: mixed with attempts to resuscitate poor Ed Schultz. Somebody Matthew's

812
00:53:21,115 --> 00:53:24,075
Speaker 1: guy Harson, I think, was almost at the door out

813
00:53:24,075 --> 00:53:26,315
Speaker 1: of Zucker's office, an office so big that it was

814
00:53:26,355 --> 00:53:28,875
Speaker 1: to steal the Ring Lardner line, the size of the

815
00:53:28,995 --> 00:53:33,515
Speaker 1: Yale Bowl, but with lamps. And then a voice spoke up,

816
00:53:33,595 --> 00:53:39,755
Speaker 1: quietly but firmly. Excuse me. It was Rachel Maddow. Excuse me.

817
00:53:40,595 --> 00:53:43,275
Speaker 1: I will not have the content of my show dictated

818
00:53:43,315 --> 00:53:47,795
Speaker 1: by any corporations, including the one I work for. Remember

819
00:53:47,835 --> 00:53:49,755
Speaker 1: this is June two thousand and nine. She still felt

820
00:53:49,755 --> 00:53:52,755
Speaker 1: that way then, and especially one I don't work for.

821
00:53:52,875 --> 00:53:55,155
Speaker 1: I will walk out first. I cannot have the audience

822
00:53:55,195 --> 00:53:58,195
Speaker 1: wondering what else I have not told them. I don't

823
00:53:58,195 --> 00:53:59,995
Speaker 1: do a lot about Fox on my show, but if

824
00:53:59,995 --> 00:54:02,275
Speaker 1: there is a story about Fox, I will not honor

825
00:54:02,275 --> 00:54:04,595
Speaker 1: this freeze. I will report that story. And if I'm

826
00:54:05,035 --> 00:54:08,795
Speaker 1: from reporting that story, I will leave. Whereupon she left,

827
00:54:09,835 --> 00:54:14,875
Speaker 1: Zucker barked Phil Olderman, is he stay? When the rest

828
00:54:14,955 --> 00:54:17,915
Speaker 1: of the room had cleared, Zucker blew air out of

829
00:54:17,915 --> 00:54:21,155
Speaker 1: his mouth as if it were smoke. He gestured violently

830
00:54:21,195 --> 00:54:22,955
Speaker 1: at me with his right arm. I told you, she

831
00:54:23,035 --> 00:54:25,595
Speaker 1: was a mistake. You didn't listen to me. I told you. Now,

832
00:54:25,635 --> 00:54:28,115
Speaker 1: she's your problem. All this is your problem. Get her

833
00:54:28,155 --> 00:54:31,875
Speaker 1: back on the reservation or else. Now I had run

834
00:54:31,915 --> 00:54:35,475
Speaker 1: out of goodwill and jokes. Oh, I'll get her back

835
00:54:35,475 --> 00:54:37,355
Speaker 1: on the reservation, Jeff. But if you think this is

836
00:54:37,515 --> 00:54:40,435
Speaker 1: my problem, just think about what happens if he really

837
00:54:40,555 --> 00:54:42,995
Speaker 1: does take us off the air, or if it just

838
00:54:43,075 --> 00:54:45,955
Speaker 1: gets out that he threatened to take us off the

839
00:54:45,995 --> 00:54:54,395
Speaker 1: air because his mother didn't like what Fox said about him.

840
00:54:54,875 --> 00:54:59,235
Speaker 1: That's my problem. Uh uh, that's your problem. And it's

841
00:54:59,275 --> 00:55:02,835
Speaker 1: the problem of the CEO of the frickin' sixth largest

842
00:55:02,875 --> 00:55:06,515
Speaker 1: corporation in the world, who it makes his business decisions

843
00:55:06,555 --> 00:55:10,555
Speaker 1: involving hundreds of millions of dollars of profits based on

844
00:55:10,715 --> 00:55:16,355
Speaker 1: what his mother says. At this point, Phil Griffin managed

845
00:55:16,355 --> 00:55:18,955
Speaker 1: to pull Zucker away and Izzy and I made for

846
00:55:18,995 --> 00:55:22,915
Speaker 1: the door, saying nothing until we were in the elevator. Finally,

847
00:55:22,955 --> 00:55:25,715
Speaker 1: she asked, what are you going to do about Rachel?

848
00:55:26,595 --> 00:55:29,195
Speaker 1: I look straight ahead. I have depth perception issues while

849
00:55:29,235 --> 00:55:32,875
Speaker 1: traveling forward, backwards, up or down. Yeah, if I know

850
00:55:32,875 --> 00:55:34,075
Speaker 1: what I'm going to do about her. But I got

851
00:55:34,115 --> 00:55:36,595
Speaker 1: an idea. I mean the only person she was really

852
00:55:36,595 --> 00:55:40,035
Speaker 1: talking to in there was herself. This isn't a brand

853
00:55:40,115 --> 00:55:44,235
Speaker 1: new surprise success for her anymore. This is successful. This

854
00:55:44,315 --> 00:55:48,155
Speaker 1: is what nine ten months she's successful. She said she

855
00:55:48,275 --> 00:55:51,155
Speaker 1: was once a dancing cell phone outside a cell phone

856
00:55:51,235 --> 00:55:53,755
Speaker 1: store outside of Boston. She ain't going back to that.

857
00:55:55,395 --> 00:55:57,275
Speaker 1: I went to talk to Rachel about an hour later

858
00:55:57,315 --> 00:56:00,755
Speaker 1: and reassured her. I mentioned that powerful as Fox was,

859
00:56:01,195 --> 00:56:02,995
Speaker 1: they were not going to be able to re invade

860
00:56:03,035 --> 00:56:06,995
Speaker 1: Iraq by themselves, and unless she moved it way closer

861
00:56:06,995 --> 00:56:09,875
Speaker 1: than it had been, nobody would cross her censorship line.

862
00:56:10,275 --> 00:56:12,475
Speaker 1: And I said, just give me as much time as

863
00:56:12,475 --> 00:56:16,235
Speaker 1: the French government took before fleeing during the Nazi advance

864
00:56:16,275 --> 00:56:18,715
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty. I said, give me, what was it,

865
00:56:18,755 --> 00:56:21,355
Speaker 1: thirty three days? Give me thirty three days. If we

866
00:56:21,395 --> 00:56:23,555
Speaker 1: aren't back where we were this morning, we can both

867
00:56:23,675 --> 00:56:26,915
Speaker 1: quit on the air. I mean that'd be fun, right.

868
00:56:28,075 --> 00:56:30,755
Speaker 1: Three nights later, well after midnight on a Friday, my

869
00:56:30,955 --> 00:56:36,395
Speaker 1: NBC issued BlackBerry buzzed with a quick email from Rachel Maddow. Hey,

870
00:56:36,635 --> 00:56:40,235
Speaker 1: she wrote, don't necessarily quote me because I'm really drunk,

871
00:56:40,515 --> 00:56:42,515
Speaker 1: but just make the best deal you can for us.

872
00:56:42,595 --> 00:56:44,835
Speaker 1: I trust you, we don't need to do Fox all

873
00:56:44,875 --> 00:56:47,315
Speaker 1: the time. I never do Fox stories anyway. I just

874
00:56:47,395 --> 00:56:49,955
Speaker 1: had to say that, and this is the best platform

875
00:56:49,995 --> 00:56:53,715
Speaker 1: we will ever have. Well she was right, at least

876
00:56:53,755 --> 00:56:55,835
Speaker 1: for the time being. A couple of weeks later, I

877
00:56:55,835 --> 00:56:58,275
Speaker 1: had to sneak in a script that blasted Fox, and

878
00:56:58,315 --> 00:57:00,355
Speaker 1: at ten thirty at home that night, I got a

879
00:57:00,395 --> 00:57:02,995
Speaker 1: call from a drunken Phil Griffin shouting into the phone,

880
00:57:03,435 --> 00:57:07,835
Speaker 1: I have a Zucker had to go meet with Roger

881
00:57:07,915 --> 00:57:12,955
Speaker 1: Ales secretly inside thirty Rock, and I hope they remember

882
00:57:13,035 --> 00:57:15,995
Speaker 1: to clean the room afterwards, and MLT even had to

883
00:57:15,995 --> 00:57:20,115
Speaker 1: meet with Murdoch. And then, happily, some idiot GE executive

884
00:57:20,115 --> 00:57:22,995
Speaker 1: decided to boast to The New York Times about getting

885
00:57:23,115 --> 00:57:26,395
Speaker 1: us little talent children under control and a big deal

886
00:57:26,475 --> 00:57:29,755
Speaker 1: with the executives over at Fox and how they'd settled everything,

887
00:57:29,795 --> 00:57:32,675
Speaker 1: which blew up the whole deal instantly, because the moment

888
00:57:33,075 --> 00:57:37,195
Speaker 1: the deal went public, NBC looked so stupid, and even

889
00:57:37,355 --> 00:57:41,635
Speaker 1: NBC News was now risked. The only point of the

890
00:57:41,635 --> 00:57:44,075
Speaker 1: whole thing was to keep the Immelts and the Zuckers

891
00:57:44,155 --> 00:57:46,755
Speaker 1: and the Griffins and the ales Is from throwing us

892
00:57:46,795 --> 00:57:50,155
Speaker 1: and our little island of liberal commentary out of that

893
00:57:50,235 --> 00:57:54,075
Speaker 1: window at thirty Rock. But as Rachel Mattow and I

894
00:57:54,115 --> 00:57:57,915
Speaker 1: would be constantly reminded in the ensuing years, thirty Rock

895
00:57:58,355 --> 00:58:14,555
Speaker 1: has a lot of freaking windows. I've done all the

896
00:58:14,595 --> 00:58:16,995
Speaker 1: damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Countdown.

897
00:58:17,075 --> 00:58:20,795
Speaker 1: Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip Schaneil arranged, produced,

898
00:58:20,835 --> 00:58:23,595
Speaker 1: and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on

899
00:58:23,635 --> 00:58:25,915
Speaker 1: the guitars, the bass, and the drums, and mister Shanelle

900
00:58:25,955 --> 00:58:28,875
Speaker 1: handled the orchestration and the keyboards. It was produced by

901
00:58:28,915 --> 00:58:32,595
Speaker 1: Tko Brothers. Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions,

902
00:58:32,675 --> 00:58:36,355
Speaker 1: arranged and performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports music

903
00:58:36,435 --> 00:58:39,235
Speaker 1: is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch

904
00:58:39,235 --> 00:58:43,435
Speaker 1: Warren Davis, courtesy of ESPN Inc. Our satirical and pithy

905
00:58:43,515 --> 00:58:46,755
Speaker 1: musical comments are by Nancy Fauss, the best baseball stadium

906
00:58:46,835 --> 00:58:49,835
Speaker 1: organist ever. Our announcer today was my friend Howard Fineman,

907
00:58:49,875 --> 00:58:53,075
Speaker 1: and everything else was pretty much my fault. Let's countdown

908
00:58:53,075 --> 00:58:56,075
Speaker 1: for this the one hundred and seventy sixth day until

909
00:58:56,075 --> 00:58:59,875
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four presidential election, but two hundred and

910
00:58:59,915 --> 00:59:03,995
Speaker 1: twenty fifth day since Dictator Jay Trump's first attempted coup

911
00:59:04,235 --> 00:59:07,875
Speaker 1: against the democratically elected government of the United States. Use

912
00:59:07,915 --> 00:59:10,675
Speaker 1: the legal system such as it is, use the mental

913
00:59:10,715 --> 00:59:14,595
Speaker 1: health system, Use presidential immunity if it happens, use the

914
00:59:14,715 --> 00:59:20,115
Speaker 1: not regularly given elector objection option. Use the campaign to

915
00:59:20,315 --> 00:59:25,355
Speaker 1: stop him from doing it again while we still can.

916
00:59:26,435 --> 00:59:28,515
Speaker 1: The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Again, I'm going to

917
00:59:28,595 --> 00:59:31,875
Speaker 1: label that as probable game time decision till the next one.

918
00:59:31,915 --> 00:59:35,635
Speaker 1: I'm Keith Olderman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and

919
00:59:36,115 --> 01:00:00,915
Speaker 1: good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio.

920
01:00:01,195 --> 01:00:06,515
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio Apple Apple Podcasts,

921
01:00:06,635 --> 01:00:08,595
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.