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

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Speaker 1: senior Federal District judge has hinted he believes the Justice

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Speaker 1: Department will quote move unquote against Trump quote in a

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Speaker 1: few months. I suspect, unquote, this is the most intriguing

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Speaker 1: comment yet about the Special Council's investigation of Donald J. Trump.

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Speaker 1: Judge Paul L. Friedman, on the record in his courtroom

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Speaker 1: in Washington, in his thirtieth year on the bench, as

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Speaker 1: he sentences a January sixth defendant to fifty two months

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Speaker 1: in prison, says, quote, there are still people who believe

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Speaker 1: the election was rigged. There are still people who support

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump, though not many showed up at the court

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Speaker 1: in Manhattan. We'll see what happens here at this court

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Speaker 1: when the Justice Department moves in a few months. I

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Speaker 1: suspect was Judge Freedman ruminating, calculating, or was he revealing

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Speaker 1: things to come? This is not some novice who does

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Speaker 1: not understand the meaning of his words and the meaning

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Speaker 1: of the venue in which he said them. And as

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Speaker 1: he put Robert Sandford in prison for four years and

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Speaker 1: four months for being an ex firefighter who threw a

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Speaker 1: fire extinguisher at cops during the coup. Judge Friedman warned

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Speaker 1: of the upcoming danger of further such violent acts on

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Speaker 1: Trump's behalf, and he said, we'll see what happens here

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Speaker 1: at this court that would be the US District Court

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Speaker 1: for the District of Columbia. Quote, when the Justice Department

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Speaker 1: moves in a few months. I suspect even if that

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Speaker 1: is not Judge Freedman giving us a forecast, but just

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Speaker 1: an informed guess, a rumination, it is an extraordinary thing

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Speaker 1: for him to say, and it needs to be literally parsed,

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Speaker 1: as if we were diagramming sentences back in eighth grade

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Speaker 1: English grammar position class. This is, after all, the judge

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Speaker 1: responsible for the continuing supervision of the would be assassin

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Speaker 1: of President Reagan, John David Hinckley. This is the judge

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Speaker 1: who is the secretary of the American Law Institute. And

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Speaker 1: this is a judge who has spoken out previously against

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Speaker 1: Trump for Trump's incendiary attacks on judges, hinting at violence,

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Speaker 1: essentially threatening it. On the surface, the judge was telling

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Speaker 1: the defendant, his lawyers and prosecutors that cases like the

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Speaker 1: fire extinguisher throwing firefighter are no longer just about the

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Speaker 1: January sixth we have already had. They are now also

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Speaker 1: about preventing the next January sixth. The pivotal sentence applies

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Speaker 1: to that subject. Clearly. It is about how Trump's goons

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Speaker 1: might respond quote at this court, the DC District Court

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Speaker 1: quote when the Justice Department moves. That's certainly clear. Freedman

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Speaker 1: is guessing or revealing or warning that the Justice Department

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Speaker 1: is going to move against Trump quote in a few months.

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Speaker 1: I suspect. Now the I suspect addendam throws uncertainty and

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Speaker 1: judgment into either the idea that the DOJ will move

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Speaker 1: or that the DOJ will move in a few months,

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Speaker 1: or both. So that could be when the Justice Department

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Speaker 1: moves pause in a few months, I suspect, or when

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Speaker 1: the Justice Department moves in a few months, I suspect.

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Speaker 1: But either way, regardless of exactly which phrase modifies and

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Speaker 1: lessons which other phrase. Eyebrows went up at the sentencing

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Speaker 1: yesterday afternoon, and they have remained up in the same town,

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Speaker 1: in the same justice system. Trump's nosferatu, Stephen Miller the Undead,

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Speaker 1: went back before the Grand jury hearing the evidence in

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Speaker 1: Special Council Smith's investigation of January sixth of the Marilago

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Speaker 1: classified documents Trump stole of Trump's attempts at fraudily changing

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Speaker 1: the election outcomes in Georgia and elsewhere. Miller was one

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Speaker 1: of the Trump head jaman denied executive privilege, and several

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Speaker 1: sources said he was going to be asked about in

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Speaker 1: his second trip before this grand jury what he and

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Speaker 1: Trump discussed in the moments before Trump sent the assemblage

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Speaker 1: of insurrectionists from the Ellipse to the Capitol to try

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Speaker 1: to end American representative government. We know Trump and Miller

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Speaker 1: were on the phone literally minutes before Trump took that stage.

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Speaker 1: Stephen Miller said nothing two reporters who spotted him going

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Speaker 1: into the courthouse yesterday, and that is of course understandable

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Speaker 1: because it presumably takes all his strength just to survive

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Speaker 1: in daylight, and as if one were needed. The Daily

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Speaker 1: Beast has produced an extraordinary link between the special councils

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Speaker 1: for suit of the defendant soon I think, and the

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Speaker 1: Manhattan District Attorney's arrest of the defendant last week. If

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Speaker 1: I remember, there were two first year attorneys who worked

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Speaker 1: together in the so called Rookie Class of nineteen ninety

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Speaker 1: four in the office of the legendary Manhattan District Attorney

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Speaker 1: Robert Margenthal. One was less than the special counsel Jack Smith,

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Speaker 1: and the other was Juan Meershaun, now the justice at

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Speaker 1: the New York Supreme Court, the one who presided over

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Speaker 1: the arraignment last week and is expected to hear the

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Speaker 1: Trump Stormy Daniels David Pecker case when it goes to

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Speaker 1: trial in New York. I believe I have suggested four

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Speaker 1: or five times here that what the current Manhattan DA

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Speaker 1: Alvin Bragg was saying in his responses to Jim Jordan

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Speaker 1: and Trump's other henchmen in the House as they threatened

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Speaker 1: to subpoena him for records and testimony and dirty him

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Speaker 1: up to make Trump look better, and then they scheduled

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Speaker 1: a field hearing to look into quote violence in New York,

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Speaker 1: even though the violence is worse in all the places

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Speaker 1: the Trump henchmen are from. What Bragg was saying to

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Speaker 1: them was keep this crap up, and I'm going to

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Speaker 1: hit you with obstruction of justice. Well, yesterday Da Bragg

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Speaker 1: hit them with a preface to obstruction of justice. He

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Speaker 1: has sued in federal court in the Southern District of

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Speaker 1: New York, accusing gym Jim of a quote reason and

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Speaker 1: unconstitutional attack, a transparent campaign to intimidate and attack the

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Speaker 1: DA quoting again, rather than allowing the criminal process to

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Speaker 1: proceed in the ordinary course, Chairman Jordan and the committee

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Speaker 1: are participating in a campaign of intimidation, retaliation, and obstruction.

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Speaker 1: There's that word obstruction again. Bragg is getting a court

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Speaker 1: to rule that he does not have to testify and

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Speaker 1: that Jordan should stfu. I like this play by Bragg.

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Speaker 1: He will not just ignore the subpoena from Jordan, nor

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Speaker 1: wait to have the DOJ ignore Jordan's attempt to hit

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Speaker 1: him with contempt of Congress. Bragg will tie Jordan up

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Speaker 1: and his committee up in court. Then guess who's going

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Speaker 1: to be better at that? A fifth rate Congressman from Lima,

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Speaker 1: Ohio or the DA of funds. City Democrats in Congress

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Speaker 1: turn out to have a play as well. Jerry Nadler

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Speaker 1: and city officials will be holding a news conference just

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Speaker 1: before the Republicans field hearing next Monday. Now nobody is

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Speaker 1: saying this, but the city should also run the standard

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Speaker 1: reaction to anybody who shows up here trying to show

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Speaker 1: us up. Oh yeah, your car legally parked? Can't you read?

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Speaker 1: Sign says begin no parking here Wednesdays, October Sunny days

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Speaker 1: three pm to four fifteen, two am to three thirty pm,

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Speaker 1: excepts no removable evacuation roots, no standing. It's over an

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Speaker 1: impound lot by the river. You can have it back

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Speaker 1: in the year twenty five, twenty five. And lastly, on

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Speaker 1: this point, there may or may not be crying in

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Speaker 1: say baseball, but if the defendant is to be believed,

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Speaker 1: there was crying in the Manhattan Criminal courthouse. Understand there

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Speaker 1: are millions of people who are going to take this

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Speaker 1: story seriously. Tucker Carlson did one of his famous flatulent

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Speaker 1: lap sitting interviews with the defendant last night. It is

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Speaker 1: good they pay Tuck that much for these things. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure the cash will come in handy for him in hell.

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Speaker 1: In this interview, well, it's not an interview, it's not.

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Speaker 1: In practice, the hallucinating abnormal would be dictator. The defendant

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Speaker 1: laid on all the schmaltz he could in recounting his arrest,

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Speaker 1: arrangement and release here last week and how the staff

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Speaker 1: at one hundred Center Street in Manhattan treated him it

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Speaker 1: has everything but the words sir in it. Quote. They

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Speaker 1: were incredible when I went to the courthouse, which is

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Speaker 1: also a prison in a sense. They signed me in,

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Speaker 1: and I'll tell you, people were crying. Unquote. People always

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Speaker 1: cry in front of Trump, at least Trump says they do,

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Speaker 1: or thinks they do, or lies that they do. Quoting again,

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Speaker 1: people that work there, professionally work there, that have no

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Speaker 1: problems putting in murderers, and they see everybody. It's a tough,

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Speaker 1: tough place. And they were crying. They were actually crying.

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Speaker 1: They said, I'm sorry. People were crying. They were crying.

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Speaker 1: They were actually crying. They said, I'm sorry. On this

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Speaker 1: quote Parsing edition Countdown podcast, think about what the construction

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Speaker 1: sounds like in that pathetic statement, or more correctly, who

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Speaker 1: it sounds like. Quote. There was this icicle and it

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Speaker 1: felled off the garage and it hit me in the

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Speaker 1: eye and hit my cheek and it broke my glasses.

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Speaker 1: Little Ralphie in a Christmas story written by Jean Shepherd,

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Speaker 1: Lee Brown Bob Clark nineteen eighty three. Little Ralphie is

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Speaker 1: in the third grade. They sign me in, and I'll

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Speaker 1: tell you, people were crying. People that worked there, professionally

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Speaker 1: worked there, that have no problems putting in murders, and

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Speaker 1: they see everybody. It's a tough, tough place, and they

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Speaker 1: were crying. They were actually crying. They said, I'm sorry.

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Speaker 1: You know, maybe they actually were crying. Listening to that

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Speaker 1: clip and reading that Trump quote. If I had to

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Speaker 1: stand in front of him and hear him say that shit,

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Speaker 1: I'd start crying too. Still ahead on this edition of

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Speaker 1: Countdown and Boys, there are a lot of news to

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Speaker 1: do postscripts on as the vote to put Justin Pearson

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Speaker 1: back into the Tennessee State House awaits an impact of

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Speaker 1: the protest he and Justin Jones led that nobody saw coming.

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Speaker 1: I didn't see this coming. The Republican governor of that

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Speaker 1: state actually took a step, a small one, to try

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Speaker 1: to mitigate gun madness. The latest on the really pressing

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Speaker 1: need we must defund Clarence Thomas. The Democrats picked their

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Speaker 1: venue for their convention next year, Chicago. Well, Democrats in Chicago.

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Speaker 1: The Democrats in Chicago again, what could possibly go wrong?

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Speaker 1: And in things I promised not to tell talk about

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Speaker 1: things going wrong just because twenty three year old Keith

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Speaker 1: could have four beers in one day does not mean

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Speaker 1: the twenty three year old Keith should have had forty

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Speaker 1: beers in one day. A harrowing tale in which I

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Speaker 1: still don't quite understand how I not only survived, but

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Speaker 1: was at work on the air on radio at five

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Speaker 1: thirty the following morning. That's next. This is an all

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Speaker 1: new edition of Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith old Woman.

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Speaker 1: Post Scripts to the news, some updates, some insights, some snarks,

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Speaker 1: some predictions. Date Line Nashville yesterday, on the eve of

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Speaker 1: a vote to appoint Justin Pierson to serve as interim

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Speaker 1: replacement for expelled Tennessee state rep himself. A surprise from

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Speaker 1: Tennessee's Republican Governor Bill Lee. After the Covenants School mass shooting,

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Speaker 1: Lee proposed legislation that cynically dealt only with hardening schools,

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Speaker 1: more locks, more guard it's more guns, turned schools into prisons. Yesterday,

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Speaker 1: the governor seemed to respond tentatively insufficiently but materially against

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Speaker 1: the Republican playbook and towards the protests in his state.

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Speaker 1: Lee issued an executive order designed to strengthen background checks

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Speaker 1: for firearm purchases, and they asked lawmakers to pass an

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Speaker 1: order protection law which will make it easier to keep

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Speaker 1: people who have committed crimes from getting guns. It may

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Speaker 1: be working, Stateline, Washington. The battle over the unfortunate fact

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Speaker 1: that the Republican activist and megadonor Harlan Crowe is the

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Speaker 1: sole owner and operator of Clarence Thomas has taken a

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Speaker 1: turn for the stupid. First, it was an opinion piece

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Speaker 1: in The Hill written by a biographer of Clarence Thomas,

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Speaker 1: who wrote that the Thomas corruption issue should have been

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Speaker 1: dropped once Jinny Thomas told the January sixth Commission she

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Speaker 1: and her husband never discussed her efforts to overthrow the

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Speaker 1: government that should have led it. The title of Scott

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Speaker 1: Douglas Gerber's piece Supreme Court justices are allowed to have friends, friends, yes,

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Speaker 1: owners no. Unfortunately, the piece was then answered in The

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Speaker 1: New Republic by Michael Tomaski. His article was titled the

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Speaker 1: Democrats need to destroy Clarence Thomas's reputation, which, while true,

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Speaker 1: ignores the fact that Clarence Thomas has already destroyed Clarence

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Speaker 1: Thomas's reputation, and anyway, the best title for a Clarence

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Speaker 1: Thomas op ed would be titled defund Clarence Thomas. All

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Speaker 1: these questions about Thomas center on one thing. Can you

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Speaker 1: have a duet with a guy like Harlan Crowe? And

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Speaker 1: the answer is no, Thank Q Nancy Faust Dateline, Wilmington, Delaware.

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Speaker 1: Jury selections set to begin tomorrow in the one point

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Speaker 1: six billion dollar defamation suit against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems.

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Speaker 1: Judge Eric Davis of Delaware Superior Court has narrowed what

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Speaker 1: each side can bring up about the other. Dominion cannot

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Speaker 1: raise the issue of January sixth. Fox cannot argue that

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Speaker 1: it televised its lies about Dominion on the idea that,

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Speaker 1: regardless of whether they were true, they were newsworthy. That

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Speaker 1: is the exact premise of how Fox has operated since

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six. We're not saying it's true, We're just

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Speaker 1: saying it happened. Dateline, Chicago, That is where the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty fourth Democratic National Convention will occur. August nineteenth to

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Speaker 1: twenty fourth used to be a regular thing for both

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Speaker 1: parties to convene in Chicago. The Republicans met there fourteen times,

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Speaker 1: but not since nineteen sixty. The Democrats went ten times,

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Speaker 1: ending in nineteen fifty six. It's not hard to figure why.

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Speaker 1: When travel was mostly or exclusively by train, Chicago was

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Speaker 1: basically the midpoint of the country. Then came the airplane

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Speaker 1: and the Democratic Convention of nineteen sixty eight and the

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Speaker 1: police riot against anti war protesters. There has been only

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Speaker 1: one convention by either party there since the Dems in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, when Bill Clinton was a lock for renomination.

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Speaker 1: Date Line, Washington. How will the Democrats approach Trump as

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Speaker 1: a campaign issue, whether or not he is the nominee

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Speaker 1: by the time they get to Chicago. The David Brock

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Speaker 1: Democratic group Facts First USA says that Trump's arrest has

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Speaker 1: clarified what the Democrats should do, that it gives the

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Speaker 1: party quote a perfect opportunity to further tie House Republicans

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Speaker 1: to the MAGA extremists of their party. The Trump indictments

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Speaker 1: ultimately stand as an indictment of House Republicans and their

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Speaker 1: efforts to shield Trump and other lawbreakers unquote. I think

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Speaker 1: David Brock has it nailed when he says that a

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Speaker 1: key to the campaign at the national, local and state

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Speaker 1: level is to play Republicans who defended Trump or tried

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Speaker 1: to stay silent as quote siding with criminals siding with criminals,

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Speaker 1: and said caveat. David Brock once paid me to give

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Speaker 1: a fire and brimstone speech to one of his fundraising

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Speaker 1: meetings as an aside. This was the speech I gave

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Speaker 1: outdoors in Florida on the eve of the twenty seventeen inauguration.

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Speaker 1: The speech actually earned me a standing oh and some converts.

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Speaker 1: But this is the literal truth. I was apparently so

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Speaker 1: radical and not what they expected that at certain moments

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Speaker 1: early on in the speech, when I paused, the audience

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Speaker 1: was so shocked by some of my suggestions about the

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Speaker 1: need for metaphorical war against the GOP and Trump that

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Speaker 1: the audience was completely silent. And since we were outside,

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Speaker 1: I could literally hear crickets. You do not really know

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Speaker 1: what the phrase you could hear crickets means until you

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Speaker 1: are giving a speech and you literally here crickets, stell

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Speaker 1: ahead on countdown. Don't drink. When I say don't drink,

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Speaker 1: I mean yeah, you can drink one or two a

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Speaker 1: week is not going to affect you either way. Forty

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Speaker 1: forty in one day. Let me tell you from bitter

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Speaker 1: personal experience from nineteen eighty two that'll affect you first

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Speaker 1: time for the daily roundup of the miscrants, morons, and

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Speaker 1: Donning Kruger effects specimens other than myself in nineteen eighty two,

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Speaker 1: who constitute today's worst persons in the world tie for

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Speaker 1: the bronze. Leo Terrell and Clay Travis, two guests on

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Speaker 1: Fox quote news unquote, they are different. I believe the

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Speaker 1: correct polite term is they are challenged. Leo Terrell is

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Speaker 1: angry about the FBI, which apparently used one agent to

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Speaker 1: see if a Virginia Catholic church had been infiltrated by

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Speaker 1: a dangerous excreamist. The right is reacting to this kind

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Speaker 1: of like it's the Crucifixion, and as if you know

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Speaker 1: there aren't right wing fake Christians at every level of

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Speaker 1: domestic terrorism anyway. This Terrell is demanding that FBI Director

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Speaker 1: Christopher Ray be fired for this and be replaced by

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Speaker 1: It's right here in front of me, and I don't

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Speaker 1: believe I'm seeing this. Let me quote him. This is

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Speaker 1: why we need a guy like Dan Bongino to be

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Speaker 1: the next FBI director. And I'm dead serious about that.

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Speaker 1: Dan Bongino is the ex New York cop who is

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Speaker 1: over three running for Congress and who draws his hair on. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: this Travis guy is nominally a sports commentator, only he

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Speaker 1: doesn't understand anything about sports either, But since he's a

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Speaker 1: reliable redneck, Fox has him on to talk politics, quoting him,

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Speaker 1: Joe Biden is an accidental president. They hit him in

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Speaker 1: his basement. He did virtually nothing, and only one by

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Speaker 1: twenty thousand votes after they rigged the entire election, after

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Speaker 1: they hit everything associated with Hunter Biden, with the big tech,

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Speaker 1: with the big media, with the big Democrat party collusion

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Speaker 1: that all worked in his favor. Okay, glad they've learned

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Speaker 1: something from the dominion suit. Let me do a callback

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Speaker 1: and read that quote again from Clay Travis. They hit

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Speaker 1: him in his basement, and he did virtually nothing, and

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Speaker 1: he only won by twenty thousand votes after they rigged

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Speaker 1: the entire election, after they hit everything associated with Hunter Biden,

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Speaker 1: with the big tech, with the big media, with the

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Speaker 1: big Democrat party collusion, that all worked in his favor. Okay, Moron.

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Speaker 1: Clay Travis moron runner up Congressman Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin,

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Speaker 1: who told Maua Botawomo on Fox Business that New York

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Speaker 1: is some sort of hellscape and he used to be great,

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Speaker 1: but now they've got I don't know. I guess he

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Speaker 1: thinks they've got like dinosaurs or something on the streets here. Quote.

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Speaker 1: I hear from people regularly out here in Wisconsin. They

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Speaker 1: were like, I don't know if I want to go

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Speaker 1: to New York City right now, because it's not safe.

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Speaker 1: Tiffany represents basically the Wasaw Chippewa Falls metro plequx. But

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Speaker 1: it is noteworthy that the website best places dot net

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Speaker 1: has a complicated index of all crime statistics gives you

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Speaker 1: one round number, where the lower the score the better.

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Speaker 1: New York City's violent crime score is twenty eight, which

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Speaker 1: is slightly worse than average. Milwaukee's violent crime score out Darren,

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Speaker 1: Wisconsin is seventy three, which is really bad, but our winner.

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Speaker 1: Texas State Republican Representative Brian Slayton of Austin. On March

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Speaker 1: eighth of this year, Brian Slayton introduced legislation to ban

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Speaker 1: any drag show of any kind that has kids in

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Speaker 1: the audience. He called drag shows quote grooming events that

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Speaker 1: were only about quote the sexualization of our children. That

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Speaker 1: was on March eighth. On March thirty first, according to

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Speaker 1: a complaint reported we just filed with the TECH. This

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Speaker 1: legislature Representative Slayton invited a female intern to his home

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Speaker 1: late on a weekend night, and he plied her with

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Speaker 1: alcohol even though she's under twenty one and not yet

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Speaker 1: old enough to drink legally. And then he made up

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Speaker 1: fake emails that he showed her that suggested somebody had

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Speaker 1: found out about him inviting this underaged girl who was

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Speaker 1: asked to fly her with alcohol, so he made her

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Speaker 1: pledge not to tell anybody. He denies all this, by

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Speaker 1: the way that Bill Brian Slayton had introduced twenty three

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Speaker 1: days before drinks over at Brie's house. In his press

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Speaker 1: release announcing it, Representative Slayton had said, quote, the state

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Speaker 1: has a duty to protect kids from being sexually exploited. Yes,

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Speaker 1: yes it does, Texas State Representative Brian. But I wasn't

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Speaker 1: wearing a dress, so hat could I have groomed her?

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Speaker 1: Slayton two days worst person and still ahead on countdown. Sure,

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Speaker 1: forty beers in one day from like two pm to

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Speaker 1: ten pm sounds like a lot. On the other hand,

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Speaker 1: I came from a long line of functioning alcoholics, and

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Speaker 1: this was nineteen eighty two. So a harrowing story I

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Speaker 1: hope you learn from I sure did, and things I

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Speaker 1: promised not to tell. Next. First, in each tradition of Countdown,

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Speaker 1: we feature a dog in need you can help. Every

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Speaker 1: dog has its day to New York and Sammy, a

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Speaker 1: seventy pound, ten and blond guy who is on the

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Speaker 1: kill list at the City Pound. He was a loyal

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Speaker 1: family dog here for four years. Loved the kids in

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Speaker 1: this family, loved when they took him out running in

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Speaker 1: the fields, loved showing off his ability to sit, shake, spin,

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Speaker 1: role play with them. And then in December they took

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Speaker 1: him out of the house and dumped him at the shelter.

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Speaker 1: He was fine at first, all those new human friends.

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Speaker 1: After four months, he understands he's been abandoned. He's now

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Speaker 1: acting out with other dogs and they're going to kill

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Speaker 1: him for it. Jesus, when do we stop killing people animals?

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Speaker 1: The animal who is the surest sign of a benevolent god, dogs,

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Speaker 1: Sammy needs our pledges to help a rescue pull him

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Speaker 1: out and save him. Look for Sammy and my Twitter feeds.

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Speaker 1: I thank you and Sammy thanks you. To the number

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Speaker 1: one story on the Countdown and my favorite topic me

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Speaker 1: and how I learned not to drink anybody over the

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Speaker 1: age of twenty seven, and the number may actually be

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Speaker 1: way lower than that can look back in genuine horror

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Speaker 1: at a day on which they did something alarming or

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Speaker 1: potentially physically injurious or fatal at a much younger age.

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Speaker 1: For me, since the day I turned three and a

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Speaker 1: half on July twenty seventh, nineteen eighty two. That day

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Speaker 1: was July twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two, and I remember

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Speaker 1: on my twenty third and a half birthday being kind

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Speaker 1: of surprised that I had made it through the previous

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Speaker 1: three days. July twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two is one

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Speaker 1: of those timeless, airless, stultifying summer sundays in New York

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Speaker 1: that can arrive and sit on your head and do

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Speaker 1: its best to smother you. It can get there anytime

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Speaker 1: from the end of May until the middle of September.

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Speaker 1: I was invited to a party on Long Island, Saiosset maybe,

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Speaker 1: where nine college friends were already having a great time drinking.

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Speaker 1: My friend Peter rented a duplex there and shared it

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Speaker 1: with some radio colleagues of his, including impossibly the former

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Speaker 1: New York Rangers hockey player Pete Stemkowski. My friend Glenn Cornelius,

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Speaker 1: who we would lose when he turned thirty nine and

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Speaker 1: whose name is on the studios of our Cornell radio

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Speaker 1: station's new facility, along with my dads, was there. He

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Speaker 1: was in charge of g the Burghers, and his wife

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Speaker 1: was there. Then my friend Peter's parents, and a pal

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Speaker 1: who used to be Pat Lyons in a T shirt

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Speaker 1: but is now Patrick Jay Lyons of the Foreign desk

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Speaker 1: of the New York Times thank you in a beard

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Speaker 1: and a three piece suit that makes him look like

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Speaker 1: Britain's ambassador to this country in eighteen ninety seven. I

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Speaker 1: mentioned all this because it is in my diary for

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Speaker 1: the next day. I don't actually remember it, and I

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Speaker 1: don't actually remember it because it was so damn hot

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Speaker 1: that I would not leave Peter's well air conditioned living room,

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Speaker 1: even to go grab a burger that Glenn Cornelius was

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Speaker 1: fixing with expert precision. I just sat there. I just

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Speaker 1: sat there and drank beer. Mind you, I didn't drink

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Speaker 1: a lot in college or thereafter. I was never once

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Speaker 1: carded in my life. I think I got my first

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Speaker 1: bar beer at the age of thirteen. But as of

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Speaker 1: that day in nineteen eighty two, I don't believe I

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Speaker 1: had ever had something to drink on three consecutive days,

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Speaker 1: and I probably hadn't had anything to drink on two

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Speaker 1: consecutive days more than four or five times in my life.

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Speaker 1: But that day was so oppressive, so unpleasant, that I

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Speaker 1: just kept drinking beer, and I did not stop. From

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Speaker 1: my arrival at two or three pm until my departure

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Speaker 1: just before ten, I had a beer in my hand

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Speaker 1: for seven eight hours without interruption. In those days, if

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Speaker 1: I stuck to one kind of beverage, I would neither

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Speaker 1: stay obviously drunk, nor would I get a hangover. I

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Speaker 1: do not know how many beers I had that stultifying

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Speaker 1: afternoon and evening. If I only got a new beer

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Speaker 1: every fifteen minutes, that would still be twenty eight or

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Speaker 1: thirty beers. Might have been less, might have been more.

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Speaker 1: My guess is it was more closer to forty. I

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Speaker 1: recall having the presence of mind to ask my friends Peter,

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Speaker 1: Pat and Glen not merely to take me to the

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Speaker 1: train station so I could get back to my apartment

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Speaker 1: in the city, but to stay with me on the

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Speaker 1: platform make sure I got on the train rather than

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Speaker 1: falling in front of it. I also remember them going

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Speaker 1: so far as to make sure not just that I

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Speaker 1: got on, but then I sat down, and I recall

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Speaker 1: being overjoyed at the train's air conditioning, considering that at

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Speaker 1: ten PM that night at the train station it was

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Speaker 1: still ninety degrees out. I'm pretty sure I splurged, and

427
00:27:26,235 --> 00:27:28,235
Speaker 1: it was a splurge in those days for a cab

428
00:27:28,355 --> 00:27:30,155
Speaker 1: back from Penn Station to my home on the other

429
00:27:30,235 --> 00:27:33,075
Speaker 1: side of town, even though my salary as the national

430
00:27:33,155 --> 00:27:37,875
Speaker 1: sports correspondent for CNN was twenty six thousand dollars a year.

431
00:27:38,915 --> 00:27:41,835
Speaker 1: And never once in all of this boozy time did

432
00:27:41,875 --> 00:27:44,595
Speaker 1: I forget that not only was I due in at

433
00:27:44,675 --> 00:27:47,035
Speaker 1: CNN at nine thirty the following morning, but that I

434
00:27:47,155 --> 00:27:50,355
Speaker 1: was also due in at my part time job as

435
00:27:50,435 --> 00:27:54,155
Speaker 1: the backup sportscaster on a New York radio station w

436
00:27:54,475 --> 00:27:59,235
Speaker 1: n W at four the next morning. It was past

437
00:27:59,315 --> 00:28:01,395
Speaker 1: eleven PM when I got into my apartment, whose air

438
00:28:01,435 --> 00:28:04,035
Speaker 1: conditioner was poorly designed for the purpose and did little

439
00:28:04,075 --> 00:28:08,475
Speaker 1: bit blow air around. Though still wobbly from drink twenty

440
00:28:08,555 --> 00:28:12,915
Speaker 1: eight beers thirty forty, I immediately set two alarms for

441
00:28:13,155 --> 00:28:16,595
Speaker 1: three am, four hours hence, I got a huge block

442
00:28:16,635 --> 00:28:18,675
Speaker 1: of ice out of my freezer. I put it in

443
00:28:18,715 --> 00:28:21,275
Speaker 1: the tub in front of my giant room fan. I

444
00:28:21,355 --> 00:28:23,835
Speaker 1: took a delightful shower. I did not dry off. I

445
00:28:23,875 --> 00:28:27,155
Speaker 1: simply wrapped myself in my bed sheet, and I fell asleep.

446
00:28:27,875 --> 00:28:29,955
Speaker 1: I woke up to the alarms three and a half

447
00:28:30,035 --> 00:28:34,115
Speaker 1: hours later, slightly less drunk, but not much less drunk.

448
00:28:34,955 --> 00:28:38,155
Speaker 1: I showered again, shaved and still drunk, put on a suit,

449
00:28:38,315 --> 00:28:41,235
Speaker 1: shirt and tie, checked the temperature, which had cooled all

450
00:28:41,275 --> 00:28:45,675
Speaker 1: the way down to a balmy eighty eight, and still drunk.

451
00:28:45,995 --> 00:28:48,355
Speaker 1: I walked in the middle of the night through the

452
00:28:48,475 --> 00:28:50,915
Speaker 1: risky New York of nineteen eighty two to the radio

453
00:28:50,995 --> 00:28:56,835
Speaker 1: station fourteen blocks downtown. But of course it was morning

454
00:28:57,595 --> 00:29:00,595
Speaker 1: and mourning. Whether you are drunk or not, still drunk

455
00:29:00,995 --> 00:29:04,475
Speaker 1: means breakfast, so I stopped at the best all night

456
00:29:04,715 --> 00:29:08,115
Speaker 1: diner among several that were open along the route, and

457
00:29:08,315 --> 00:29:13,275
Speaker 1: I got something to go, eggs, bacon and sausage, little

458
00:29:13,315 --> 00:29:18,035
Speaker 1: French toast, orange juice, coffee, and of course two pieces

459
00:29:18,075 --> 00:29:21,155
Speaker 1: of pastry. And I carried it, and I was still

460
00:29:21,235 --> 00:29:26,515
Speaker 1: drunk into WAW Radio Metromedia Radio in New York I greeted,

461
00:29:26,595 --> 00:29:29,515
Speaker 1: still drunk, the newscasters and producers. I grabbed the role

462
00:29:29,555 --> 00:29:32,115
Speaker 1: of sports wire copy still drunk that had been churning

463
00:29:32,155 --> 00:29:34,675
Speaker 1: out since about six pm the night before, and still drunk,

464
00:29:34,915 --> 00:29:37,195
Speaker 1: found the stories I needed, and still drunk while I

465
00:29:37,435 --> 00:29:39,715
Speaker 1: ate my breakfast that with today sustained me for three

466
00:29:39,755 --> 00:29:42,795
Speaker 1: and a half weeks. I wrote my first sportscast, who

467
00:29:42,835 --> 00:29:47,435
Speaker 1: air at five thirty am. I finished it. I looked

468
00:29:47,435 --> 00:29:51,355
Speaker 1: at the clock. It was four thirty AM. So since

469
00:29:51,395 --> 00:29:54,315
Speaker 1: the sports stories rarely changed on the morning shift, I

470
00:29:54,515 --> 00:29:57,875
Speaker 1: still drunk wrote the six thirty sportscast as well, and

471
00:29:57,955 --> 00:30:00,475
Speaker 1: then the seven thirty, and still drunk, and it's still

472
00:30:00,555 --> 00:30:03,155
Speaker 1: being only five ten am. I wrote the last of

473
00:30:03,235 --> 00:30:07,115
Speaker 1: the sportscast, the eight thirty. In point of fact, drunk,

474
00:30:07,955 --> 00:30:12,235
Speaker 1: I was working faster than I normally did. A perusal

475
00:30:12,395 --> 00:30:15,355
Speaker 1: of world history suggests that the stories of the morning

476
00:30:15,795 --> 00:30:18,275
Speaker 1: included the Yankees losing six to four of the Angels,

477
00:30:18,315 --> 00:30:21,155
Speaker 1: with x Yankee Reggie Jackson going one for three in

478
00:30:21,235 --> 00:30:23,955
Speaker 1: front of fifty one, five hundred and sixty one sweating

479
00:30:24,035 --> 00:30:28,595
Speaker 1: fans at Yankee Stadium, that Dave Kingman made two unassisted

480
00:30:28,635 --> 00:30:30,755
Speaker 1: double plays at first base for the Mets as they

481
00:30:30,875 --> 00:30:34,075
Speaker 1: lost three to two, with the victorious Padres placing the

482
00:30:34,155 --> 00:30:37,755
Speaker 1: tragic second baseman Alan Wiggins on the disabled list because

483
00:30:37,795 --> 00:30:40,955
Speaker 1: he had been arrested for cocaine possession, and that goalie

484
00:30:41,075 --> 00:30:44,915
Speaker 1: Hubert Birkenheimer starred as the New York Cosmos won their

485
00:30:44,955 --> 00:30:47,155
Speaker 1: fifth straight game eleventh straight at home over the San

486
00:30:47,195 --> 00:30:51,915
Speaker 1: Diego Soccers. An ill fated Olympic sort of thing called

487
00:30:51,955 --> 00:30:55,795
Speaker 1: the National Sports Festival was well underway in Indianapolis. It

488
00:30:55,995 --> 00:30:59,835
Speaker 1: was as boring then as it sounds now, no matter

489
00:30:59,915 --> 00:31:05,595
Speaker 1: how drunk your sportscaster happened to be. At thirty am,

490
00:31:05,795 --> 00:31:09,395
Speaker 1: I went on the air, still drunk and read my

491
00:31:09,515 --> 00:31:14,315
Speaker 1: script flawlessly. By six thirty I was beginning to sober up.

492
00:31:14,755 --> 00:31:18,035
Speaker 1: At seven thirty I was a little headachy. At eight thirty,

493
00:31:18,075 --> 00:31:22,155
Speaker 1: I was now one not drunk. I said goodbye to

494
00:31:22,195 --> 00:31:24,355
Speaker 1: all of my radio colleagues. I checked the temperature, now

495
00:31:24,435 --> 00:31:26,795
Speaker 1: back up to ninety three degrees, and I went out

496
00:31:26,875 --> 00:31:30,355
Speaker 1: and walked one block to the downtown subway train that

497
00:31:30,435 --> 00:31:32,515
Speaker 1: would take me to the World Trade Center and the

498
00:31:32,675 --> 00:31:35,355
Speaker 1: eight hour day that awaited me as a reporter out

499
00:31:35,435 --> 00:31:37,115
Speaker 1: in the field with a camera crew, and oh, by

500
00:31:37,115 --> 00:31:39,555
Speaker 1: the way, in nineteen eighty two, that particular subway line

501
00:31:39,595 --> 00:31:44,555
Speaker 1: did not have air conditioning. My diary entry leaves out

502
00:31:44,595 --> 00:31:46,955
Speaker 1: the story that I covered that day for CNN, but

503
00:31:46,995 --> 00:31:49,195
Speaker 1: it does note that I made a tape of the

504
00:31:49,275 --> 00:31:53,435
Speaker 1: drunken radio sportscasts and listened that evening and enjoined them

505
00:31:53,595 --> 00:31:58,315
Speaker 1: immensely because I had no memory of researching, composing, writing,

506
00:31:58,515 --> 00:32:02,995
Speaker 1: or reading them whatsoever. My diary also says I made

507
00:32:03,075 --> 00:32:06,155
Speaker 1: dinner plans with a girl at ANW who I was dating,

508
00:32:06,435 --> 00:32:08,835
Speaker 1: and I flirted with another woman at CNN who said

509
00:32:08,835 --> 00:32:11,115
Speaker 1: that my new publicity photos had made me look like

510
00:32:11,155 --> 00:32:14,195
Speaker 1: a puppy dog. She and I also made dinner plans.

511
00:32:17,315 --> 00:32:19,635
Speaker 1: This is like a month and a half of life

512
00:32:19,835 --> 00:32:23,155
Speaker 1: for me today, or even at the age of thirty three,

513
00:32:23,275 --> 00:32:27,275
Speaker 1: let alone twenty three. I remember, either that day or

514
00:32:27,275 --> 00:32:29,515
Speaker 1: the next, possibly as I listened to the sportscast I

515
00:32:29,635 --> 00:32:32,555
Speaker 1: had done while I'm still drunken autopilot, that it was

516
00:32:32,715 --> 00:32:34,755
Speaker 1: very impressive to me that I had managed to do

517
00:32:34,955 --> 00:32:38,795
Speaker 1: all this without swearing on radio or fainting while standing

518
00:32:38,915 --> 00:32:41,355
Speaker 1: up and holding a CNN microphone out in the ninety

519
00:32:41,395 --> 00:32:44,835
Speaker 1: three degree heat, or getting unwell in front of either

520
00:32:44,915 --> 00:32:47,595
Speaker 1: of those girls, that I could, in the parlance of

521
00:32:47,675 --> 00:32:54,915
Speaker 1: those just post madmen years, hold my alcohol. And then

522
00:32:54,955 --> 00:32:58,475
Speaker 1: I also remember that, just as quickly, I remembered in

523
00:32:58,675 --> 00:33:02,075
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two the names of some of my father's

524
00:33:02,195 --> 00:33:06,155
Speaker 1: uncles and some of my mother's cousins who they had

525
00:33:06,235 --> 00:33:08,835
Speaker 1: told me had all died around the age of forty

526
00:33:09,075 --> 00:33:12,915
Speaker 1: forty five, because bluntly, they could also hold their alcohol.

527
00:33:13,755 --> 00:33:15,915
Speaker 1: Where I got the phrase, I don't know, but I

528
00:33:16,035 --> 00:33:18,675
Speaker 1: did think of it that night. It's not you are

529
00:33:18,755 --> 00:33:24,395
Speaker 1: holding your alcohol. It's called functional alcoholism. And functional alcoholism

530
00:33:24,435 --> 00:33:26,755
Speaker 1: will allow you to drink forty beers one night and

531
00:33:26,875 --> 00:33:29,195
Speaker 1: then work from four am to six pm the next.

532
00:33:29,275 --> 00:33:32,435
Speaker 1: Then later it'll come back and you know, kill you.

533
00:33:34,675 --> 00:33:37,115
Speaker 1: Since that episode in July nineteen eighty two, the number

534
00:33:37,155 --> 00:33:39,515
Speaker 1: of times I have had double digit drinks on one

535
00:33:39,595 --> 00:33:44,155
Speaker 1: day is one. I was thirty seven. I was going

536
00:33:44,195 --> 00:33:47,395
Speaker 1: to a party celebrating what everybody else was believing was

537
00:33:47,515 --> 00:33:50,955
Speaker 1: me joining their Chicago radio station, but which I alone

538
00:33:51,075 --> 00:33:54,275
Speaker 1: new management had instead decided to close that radio station

539
00:33:54,475 --> 00:33:57,515
Speaker 1: and fire all of them. And before I left my hotel,

540
00:33:57,555 --> 00:33:59,395
Speaker 1: I took a bunch of the hotel business cards with

541
00:33:59,555 --> 00:34:01,675
Speaker 1: me because I wasn't sure I'd still be able to

542
00:34:01,755 --> 00:34:04,235
Speaker 1: speak later that night. I wanted a card so I

543
00:34:04,235 --> 00:34:06,315
Speaker 1: could just head to the cab driver. And that is

544
00:34:06,355 --> 00:34:12,115
Speaker 1: exactly what happened. And legitimately, I do not believe that

545
00:34:12,195 --> 00:34:15,195
Speaker 1: in all the years since then, and that's nineteen ninety six,

546
00:34:16,195 --> 00:34:19,875
Speaker 1: I have ever had anything to drink two days in

547
00:34:19,955 --> 00:34:23,315
Speaker 1: a row. And that street probably goes back to nineteen

548
00:34:23,395 --> 00:34:27,395
Speaker 1: eighty two as well, never have anything to drink two

549
00:34:27,435 --> 00:34:31,515
Speaker 1: days in a row. And not to preach, but may

550
00:34:31,555 --> 00:34:48,675
Speaker 1: I suggest that you shouldn't either. I've done all the

551
00:34:48,755 --> 00:34:51,195
Speaker 1: damage I can do here. Lord knows what I did

552
00:34:51,235 --> 00:34:53,355
Speaker 1: in my brain that day. Thank you for listening. Here

553
00:34:53,395 --> 00:34:55,635
Speaker 1: the credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced and

554
00:34:55,755 --> 00:34:58,755
Speaker 1: performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle, who are

555
00:34:58,795 --> 00:35:02,475
Speaker 1: the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John

556
00:35:02,515 --> 00:35:06,075
Speaker 1: Philip Chanelle. Guitars based on draw by Brian Ray, produced

557
00:35:06,115 --> 00:35:09,595
Speaker 1: by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and

558
00:35:09,715 --> 00:35:12,955
Speaker 1: performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music

559
00:35:13,155 --> 00:35:15,315
Speaker 1: is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, and it was

560
00:35:15,355 --> 00:35:19,275
Speaker 1: written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical

561
00:35:19,355 --> 00:35:22,435
Speaker 1: comments from Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever,

562
00:35:22,755 --> 00:35:25,715
Speaker 1: and our announcer today was Jonathan Banks from Breaking Bad.

563
00:35:26,515 --> 00:35:29,595
Speaker 1: Everything else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown

564
00:35:29,635 --> 00:35:31,995
Speaker 1: for this, the eight hundred and twenty seventh day since

565
00:35:32,075 --> 00:35:35,315
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government

566
00:35:35,315 --> 00:35:38,675
Speaker 1: of the United States. Don't forget to keep arresting him

567
00:35:39,035 --> 00:35:42,355
Speaker 1: while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow.

568
00:35:42,675 --> 00:35:45,475
Speaker 1: Until then, I'm Keith Alderman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight,

569
00:35:45,715 --> 00:35:56,835
Speaker 1: and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production

570
00:35:56,995 --> 00:36:02,275
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

571
00:36:02,355 --> 00:36:05,715
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you at your podcasts