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

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Speaker 1: was the bend he just went around. That was the

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Speaker 1: deep end. He just went off, And those were his marbles.

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Speaker 1: He just lost two forty nine pm Eastern Dementia time quote.

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Speaker 1: I'm not running to terminate the ACA as crooked Joe

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Speaker 1: Buden disinformates and miss informates all the time. I'm running

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Speaker 1: to close the border, et cetera. There is no such

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Speaker 1: word as disinformate. There is no such word as miss InformATE.

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Speaker 1: There is a Joe Buden, but he is not president.

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Speaker 1: He is a freelance finance specialist from the city of

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Speaker 1: Saudi Daisy, Tennessee. And when the name Saudi Daisy, Tennessee

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Speaker 1: is the one correct verb or proper noun in this

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Speaker 1: sorry situation, the facts are undeniable. Donald Trump is not

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Speaker 1: even close to still being all there. It is impossible

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Speaker 1: to say which moment of trump insanity, of his broken

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Speaker 1: bean hood is the worst. Could have been comparing himself

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Speaker 1: to Christ. Could have been repeatedly mistaking Obama and Biden

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Speaker 1: for one another and then saying he meant to do that.

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Speaker 1: Could be getting the year wrong, are abandoning tough words

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Speaker 1: in mid syllable, but this one buden misinformate, disinformate. That

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Speaker 1: has got to be top ten at least because he

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Speaker 1: wasn't finished. Trump added he wants to quote make the

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Speaker 1: ACA or Obamacare as it is known, much better, stronger,

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Speaker 1: and far less expensive. In other words, make the ACA

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Speaker 1: much much much better for far less money or cost.

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Speaker 1: Those aren't other words. Those are the same words. Don

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Speaker 1: If a relative of yours started doing stuff like this

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Speaker 1: on a daily basis, you would have them committed or

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Speaker 1: at least treated. It is impossible to say that he

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Speaker 1: cannot possibly last this way, what with the forces of

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Speaker 1: aphasia and dementia and narcissism and head injury and whatever

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Speaker 1: else there is pulling him apart. But of course he

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Speaker 1: has lasted in approximately this same space for months now,

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Speaker 1: and in space is not really that much better than

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Speaker 1: this one for years now and decades now, and if

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Speaker 1: the early anecdotes are correct, for a lifetime now. Still

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Speaker 1: inventing your own words is a sign of a dozen

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Speaker 1: different physical problems, to say nothing of psychological ones like bipolarity,

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Speaker 1: and environmental ones like huffing decon roach room, fogger, Joe

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Speaker 1: buden b U d E N. Who is miss informating

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Speaker 1: the populace? But no, Trump, You're right, Trump is the

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Speaker 1: vigorous alert one. Maybe maybe he meant platformate, He meant platformte,

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Speaker 1: not misinformate, platformte. The additive that Shell used to put

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Speaker 1: in its gasoline in the nineteen sixties that made it.

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Speaker 1: I don't remember what it did. Maybe it maybe it

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Speaker 1: burned the atmosphere faster. Maybe maybe maybe Don used to

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Speaker 1: huff huff that stuff. And of course Trump still does,

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Speaker 1: or seems to plan and accomplish complicated, even intricate schemes

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Speaker 1: like this adroit little move in the Stormy Daniel's hush

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Speaker 1: money and election suppression case yesterday. It is supposed to

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Speaker 1: start with jury selection two weeks from Monday. Trump's goal

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Speaker 1: in all of his cases is to stall, stall, so

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Speaker 1: yesterday morning he attacked the daughter of the judge Juan

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Speaker 1: Mershon online, claiming she worked at a company that works

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Speaker 1: for Congressman Adam Schiff, and within hours Judge Mershon hit

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Speaker 1: him with a gag order, preventing him from talking about

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Speaker 1: witnesses and attorneys and court staff and their families. Given

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Speaker 1: that Trump did not immediately rail against that gag order.

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Speaker 1: There is reason to speculate that he did this deliberately

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Speaker 1: to get that gag order. Mere Shawn gags Trump. Trump

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Speaker 1: appeals the gag order, the judge rejects the appeal, Trump

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Speaker 1: goes to an appellate court, and before you can say

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Speaker 1: misinformate that April fifteenth trial start date is on ice

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Speaker 1: until the appeal is heard, or he didn't plan it,

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Speaker 1: and those are his toys in his attic, as they

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Speaker 1: say stasis in the other Trump trials. But is co

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Speaker 1: defendant in Georgia who put the speed bump in the

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Speaker 1: case of the Trump seventeen may be in more trouble elsewhere.

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Speaker 1: Michael Roman, the former Trump campaign aid, has reportedly been

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Speaker 1: subpoened as part of the burgeoning investigation into the fake

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Speaker 1: Trump electors in Arizona. This is according to ABC News,

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Speaker 1: which previously reported that Kenny the Cheese Kenneth Chesbro was

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Speaker 1: already interviewed by the state attorney general there, who was

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Speaker 1: going for some indictments in Arizona. Quoting Chris Mays, we

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Speaker 1: will announce something in the relatively near future. Well, you

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Speaker 1: can't argue with that. In Trump Legal adjacent news guests

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Speaker 1: who propped up the Trump humping propaganda channel Newsmax right

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Speaker 1: in the middle of Trump's occupation of the White House,

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Speaker 1: a member of the royal family of Katar. According to

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Speaker 1: The Washington Post twenty nineteen and twenty twenty, this was

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Speaker 1: fifty million dollars into Newsmacks, not just to make sure

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Speaker 1: there was good Trump coverage, mind you, that Kataris also

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Speaker 1: wanted better pub for themselves during a squabble in the

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Speaker 1: Middle East over who supported terrorist groups and who didn't.

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Speaker 1: The Kataris are not particularly particular nor especially smart about

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Speaker 1: American television. They are the ones who bought the old

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Speaker 1: scam I worked for Current TV, than sued its chief

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Speaker 1: ass clown Joel Hyatt, the guy on whom the villain

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Speaker 1: in the movie Philadelphia was in part based. And then

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Speaker 1: ultimately they just shut the damn thing down because what's

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Speaker 1: fifty million dollars to these guys. And lastly, this is

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Speaker 1: where Trump is at the moment. Talk about misinformate and disinformate.

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Speaker 1: He is now selling Trump Bibles, Bible, Holy Bible. Well,

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Speaker 1: Trump endorsed Bibles. He did a three minute infomercial for it.

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Speaker 1: Or maybe that's a misinformate infomercial. It's actually a Lee

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Speaker 1: Greenwood Bible with the lyrics of God Bless the USA.

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Speaker 1: Added in along with it notes the Declaration of Independence,

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Speaker 1: the Pledge of Allegiance, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights,

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Speaker 1: even though don't tell them the Bill of Rights is

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Speaker 1: already in the Constitution. Your cost just fifty nine dollars

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Speaker 1: and ninety nine and sense for a Bible. No evidence.

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Speaker 1: Trump claims to have written the Bible. Then again, he

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Speaker 1: really did compare himself to Christ on Monday, So who

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Speaker 1: knows what's next with the pitch, Trump added this completely

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Speaker 1: authentic tell me you know nothing of the story of

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Speaker 1: Christ without telling me you know nothing of the story

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Speaker 1: of Christ line quote happy Holy Week, because of course,

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Speaker 1: the first emotion that comes with the whole crucifixion business.

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Speaker 1: That first emotion is happy, happy, joy Joy. Meanwhile, the

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Speaker 1: worst personnel fiasco at NBC News in nearly three months

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Speaker 1: is finally over. NBC News chairman Sesar Conde fired former

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Speaker 1: RNC chair and now eternal punchline Rona McDaniel at six

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Speaker 1: ZHO one Eastern last night. According to the memo, hey all,

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Speaker 1: Conde's memo begins and in so doing, it and he

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Speaker 1: tells you all you need to know about the state

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Speaker 1: of decay at NBC might as well have started it

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Speaker 1: to all you little people out there. I'll read the

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Speaker 1: memo and annotate it and translate it as we go on. Quote.

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Speaker 1: Hey all, there is no doubt that the last several

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Speaker 1: days have been difficult for the news group. After listening

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Speaker 1: to the legitimate concerns of many you view unquote, especially

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Speaker 1: the two hundred and thirty seven of you who said

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Speaker 1: something on the air resuming the quote, I have decided

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Speaker 1: that Ronal McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor.

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Speaker 1: No organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is

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Speaker 1: cohesive and a line unquote. And we're still trying here

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Speaker 1: in year twenty nine of Msnbceingly, we haven't quite gotten

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Speaker 1: it straight yet. I know what the hell quoting again,

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Speaker 1: Over the last few days, it has become clear that

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Speaker 1: disappointment undermines that goal. I want to personally apologize to

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Speaker 1: our team members who felt we let them down. While

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Speaker 1: this was a collective recommendation by some members of our

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Speaker 1: leadership team unquote, that's Chairman Caesar's hint to Rebecca Blumenstein

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Speaker 1: and carry Butdoff Brown and Rashida Jones to update their

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Speaker 1: resumes before they get locked out of their computers again, quoting,

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Speaker 1: While this was a collective recommendation by some members of

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Speaker 1: our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility

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Speaker 1: for it unquote, And to use the lawn of the

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Speaker 1: great comedian and Nixon impersonator David Frye as the man

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Speaker 1: in charge, I of course accept full responsibility, but not

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Speaker 1: the blame. Let me explain the difference. People who are

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Speaker 1: to blame lose their jobs, people who are responsible do not.

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Speaker 1: Quoting yet again. Our initial decision was made because of

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Speaker 1: our deep commitment to presenting our audiences with a widely

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Speaker 1: diverse set of viewpoints and experiences, particularly during these consequential times. Unquote. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we like to have both people who are lying and

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Speaker 1: people who are not lying on our newscasts. More quotes.

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Speaker 1: We continue to be committed to the principle that we

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Speaker 1: must have diverse viewpoints on our programs, and to that end,

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Speaker 1: we will read double our efforts to seek voices that

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Speaker 1: represent different parts of the political spectrum. Unquote. Translation, this

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Speaker 1: is your big chance, Nick Fuentes, quoting one last bit,

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Speaker 1: Take care Sayzar unquote yes. The backlash against the world's

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Speaker 1: worst television news hire since Bo Dietle was so great

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Speaker 1: that even NBC News chairman Sayesar Conde noticed. Just to

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Speaker 1: rub this in, The New York Times reports that CIA,

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Speaker 1: the talent agency that got McDaniel her three hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars a year, well a day deal with the Peacock,

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Speaker 1: and had handled her bargaining with ABC and CNN, and

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Speaker 1: aren't they glad they finished second and third. CIA has

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Speaker 1: also dropped McDaniel as a client. The Time says McDaniel

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Speaker 1: is quote interviewing attorneys to engage with NBC on her behalf,

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Speaker 1: which would seem to imply that Seesar Conde is trying

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Speaker 1: to somehow get out from under the three hundred k

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Speaker 1: NBC offered her, and to which offer she said yes,

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Speaker 1: and to which contract they wrote their names. I have

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Speaker 1: absolutely no respect for nor interest in Ronna Romney McDaniel.

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Speaker 1: But she didn't do anything contractually wrong here. It's not

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Speaker 1: like she didn't tell them she used to be chair

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Speaker 1: of the RNC, or that she had a role in

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Speaker 1: trying to overthrow democracy. Trump campaign. One can imagine an

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Speaker 1: NBC attorney saying we thought that part of your resume.

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Speaker 1: Read Anchored News twelve Brooklyn. NBC has no grounds for

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Speaker 1: firing McDaniel for cause, which would mean they wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: to pay her, nor would one think it would want to,

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Speaker 1: so again poke its collective head into the collective hornet's

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Speaker 1: nest by trying to get out from under the price

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Speaker 1: it agreed to. Of course, that's what I would have

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Speaker 1: said a week ago if you had asked me if

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Speaker 1: even Sesar Kande would be stupid enough to hire Rona frickin' McDaniel.

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Speaker 1: It's equally true that she has no action against them,

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Speaker 1: despite bleatings from the likes of nitwits like Hugh Hewitt

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Speaker 1: about emotional distress and reputational damage. She was merely an

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Speaker 1: insurrectionist once, but now she has to live with the

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Speaker 1: terrible trauma of being a former NBC employee who knows.

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Speaker 1: With the rarest of exceptions, TV contracts all include one

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Speaker 1: primary clause, pay or play, which means as long as

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Speaker 1: the company pays you, it does not have to play you.

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Speaker 1: I had that deal for eight months at Fox in

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Speaker 1: the year two thousand and one, greatest god job I

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Speaker 1: ever had. So now she belongs to the ages five

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Speaker 1: days at NBC News, and true she was only on

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Speaker 1: for one show, but she was still with NBC News

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Speaker 1: after the first commercial break, so she did not earn

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Speaker 1: the honor of being the quickest thing ever canceled by

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Speaker 1: a major American TV network. That honor remains, and it

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Speaker 1: is seemingly unbeatable in the hands of the ABC Network's

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Speaker 1: surrealist comedy sketch show called turn On, which premiered on Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: February fifth, nineteen sixty nine, at eight thirty pm Eastern,

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Speaker 1: and was canceled on Wednesday, February fifth, nineteen sixty nine

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Speaker 1: at eight forty pm Eastern, just as the first commercial

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Speaker 1: break began. The ABC station in Cleveland did not even

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Speaker 1: let the show come back from that break, and some

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Speaker 1: on the West Coast did not show any of it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, even RNA got to twenty minutes anyway, out

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Speaker 1: of the TV weeds and back into the charred remains

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Speaker 1: of NBC News burned to the ground during her epic

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Speaker 1: five days or four commercial breaks, or the equivalent of

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Speaker 1: three turn Ons, or whichever yardstick you want to use,

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Speaker 1: the point of all this, and perhaps the value of

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Speaker 1: this internal rebellion is that maybe the somnambulent American political media,

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Speaker 1: especially the American television political media, has awakened from its

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Speaker 1: naive stupor. The crap that Chris licked got away with

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Speaker 1: for a year running CNN, sacking liberal reporters, sabotaging Don Lemon,

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Speaker 1: putting Trump on live, fighting to air Republican debates both sides,

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Speaker 1: ing everything he could get his hands on was not

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Speaker 1: some sort of aberration, and it didn't just happen at CNN,

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Speaker 1: and it was not some sort of X dream. I

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Speaker 1: have been saying here for the eighteen month life of

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Speaker 1: this podcast that every news organization in this country has

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Speaker 1: had the same meeting, what do we do if Trump

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Speaker 1: regains power? Not what you would hope they would be asking,

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Speaker 1: not what do we do journalistically or what do we

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Speaker 1: do to save the nation, but what do we do

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Speaker 1: to protect our phony boloney jobs and our profits? And

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Speaker 1: what do we do so when Trump starts jailing reporters

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Speaker 1: and TV executives, he'll leave us alone, or more realistically,

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Speaker 1: he'll let us become one of his authorized propaganda channels.

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Speaker 1: The entirety of that guy Lickt's career at CNN and

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Speaker 1: the bidding amongst CNN and ABC, and aren't they glad

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Speaker 1: they finished second and third? Thank God, Thank Jesus, thank Cale,

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Speaker 1: I think anybody you can think of. And the bidding

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Speaker 1: among CNN and ABC and NBC for Ronald McDaniel. It

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Speaker 1: all underscores the reality that in the minds of its

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Speaker 1: owners and its executives, it's legions of hot and cold running.

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Speaker 1: Caesar condeys, television news is not a kind of news.

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Speaker 1: It's a kind of television. It is designed to fill

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Speaker 1: the places between the commercials. If it serves some kind

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Speaker 1: of public purpose, Hey, great, as long as that doesn't

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Speaker 1: mean we have to go too many hours canceling all

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Speaker 1: those advertisements just because some pope died or something. Putting

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Speaker 1: Trump on and taking Mehdi Hassan off and hiring Roni

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Speaker 1: McDaniel was inoculation, nothing more, nothing less. It was proving

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Speaker 1: to Trump and the magas that while no we in

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Speaker 1: the media, we are not shuddering MSNBC and sending Rachel

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Speaker 1: Maddow to Alaska, and we're not in favor of this

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Speaker 1: whole and the peaceful transfer power thing and fascism is

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Speaker 1: the new democracy stuff. But hey, go on, we're listening.

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Speaker 1: Even most of the protests from within NBC and MSNBC

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Speaker 1: completely missed that point. Chuck Todd was the first to

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Speaker 1: get mad, not on behalf of America, but on behalf

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Speaker 1: of Kristin Welker. The pathetic I hope you'll reconsider from

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Speaker 1: first Joe Scarborough and then Rachel Maddow was the twenty

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Speaker 1: first century equivalent of Oliver Twist saying please, sir, I

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Speaker 1: want some more. Mattow has the power to veto any

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Speaker 1: higher at MSNBC, and she's used it. Trust me, I

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Speaker 1: know she could have stopped this last Friday, me or

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Speaker 1: her you pick, you have my number. Hell, even I

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Speaker 1: did that rodal McDaniel, the NBC publicists would have said, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: We wrote Roddy goddamn spell check again. I mean, those

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Speaker 1: tortured rationales were kind of summed up by Lawrence O'Donnell,

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Speaker 1: who decided to play hey you kids, get off my

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Speaker 1: lawn and promptly got all the facts wrong while he

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Speaker 1: did it. O'Donnell decided this had happened not because he

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Speaker 1: has worked for and genuflected in front of a moral

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Speaker 1: corporate NBC humanoids since nineteen ninety six. But because they

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Speaker 1: were all so young and innocent that they didn't know

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Speaker 1: how real TV newsmen would have handled Rona McDaniel and

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Speaker 1: the other members of the Trump gang. They wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: done what they did after Watergate, when Walter and chet

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Speaker 1: and David and Harry Reasoner refused to hire all the

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Speaker 1: president's men, never gave any of them a dime, never

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Speaker 1: gave any of them the cloak of television respectability, like

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Speaker 1: that's a real thing, especially not that evil jailed Watergate

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Speaker 1: mastermind John Dean, who never went to jail only to

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Speaker 1: witness protection because of all the death threats, because he

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Speaker 1: was the one who did the right thing, and he

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Speaker 1: was the one who sank Nixon, and you smeared him, Lawrence,

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Speaker 1: and who, by the way, by nineteen ninety nine was

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Speaker 1: being paid by MSNBC Lawrence to sit next to Brian

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Speaker 1: Williams during the Bill Clinton impeachment. There's an easy way

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Speaker 1: to avoid the controversy. NBC News has stumbled into. Lawrence

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Speaker 1: O'Donnell said, don't hire anyone close to the crimes. That's

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Speaker 1: what happened to the Nixon gang. He said that Tuesday night,

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Speaker 1: And he could not have been more wrong as he

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Speaker 1: said it. John Dean was on with me on ms

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight. On My original show, I also

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Speaker 1: had to interview John Erlickman and Robert Bork. Robert Bork

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Speaker 1: who fired the special counsel who fired Archibald Cox when

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Speaker 1: the three guys ahead of him quit rather than do it.

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Speaker 1: Robert freaking Bork was an analyst on MSNBC in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety eight during the Clinton impeachment. I can't remember if

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Speaker 1: Erlickman and Bork were paid or not. I do remember

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Speaker 1: when John dene, a genuine American hero, came out against

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Speaker 1: Clinton's impeachment on my show one night, the word went

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Speaker 1: out at MSNBC that if we booked him again, we

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Speaker 1: also had to book a different Watergate figure for the

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Speaker 1: same show, a Watergate figure who was in favor of

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Speaker 1: Clinton's impeachment. We had Gordon Lyddy on. They wanted Gordon

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Speaker 1: Lyddy to do his own show. I mean, eventually they

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Speaker 1: had Oliver North from a different scandal do his own shows,

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Speaker 1: anchoring his own shows on MSNBC. I mean. Hell, Pat

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Speaker 1: Buchanan testified in Nixon's defense at the Senate Watergate hearings,

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Speaker 1: and when CNN went on in nineteen eighty, so did

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Speaker 1: Pat Buchanan's show. It was called Crossfire. Pat Buchanan was

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Speaker 1: on cable TV continuously from nineteen eighty until at least

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Speaker 1: twenty ten. He was on so long he wound up

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Speaker 1: being madows regular foil paid by MSNBC. But nobody in

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Speaker 1: our girl days ever hired anyone close to the crimes.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Gordon Goddamn, put your hand over the flame.

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Speaker 1: Liddy had his own radio show in Washington for twenty

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Speaker 1: five years. Sure nobody would touch John Erckman Lawrence, except

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Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven, fifteen years after the Watergate break in,

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Speaker 1: when Erckman was hired to do commercials for Dryers ice Cream,

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Speaker 1: part of a crazy ad campaign called Unbelievable Spokespeople for

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Speaker 1: an Unbelievable product. Dryers ice Cream had commercials featuring a

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Speaker 1: woman who said she'd encountered many UFOs and the guy

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Speaker 1: who faked the last will and testament of Howard Hughes

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Speaker 1: and some kid who kept getting blamed for everything, and

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Speaker 1: the consumer blowback was so bad that they kept the

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Speaker 1: Howard Hughes forger and the UFO lady and they fired

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Speaker 1: John Erlickman from the ice cream commercials, but go on, Lawrence. Okay,

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Speaker 1: enough of this sub brand about Lawrence o'donald, which I

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Speaker 1: will resume at the end of this podcast. Back to

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Speaker 1: the point, American TV News is not going to save

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Speaker 1: us from creeping fascism. But maybe maybe the scattered, largely

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Speaker 1: self absorbed and selfish, righteous kind of righteous indignation at NBC,

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Speaker 1: maybe it means American TV News will stop helping fascism

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Speaker 1: creep faster guardrail hell no bike strips scattered across democracies highways.

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Speaker 1: Uh well, maybe we could stop doing that. I guess

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Speaker 1: hope that's good enough. Does that mean we can't hire

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Speaker 1: Rudy Juliani to anchor at four o'clock with Katie So ultimately,

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Speaker 1: in a perverse way, Thank you, Rana McDaniel. You may

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Speaker 1: have helped in ways you'll never be smart enough to understand.

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Speaker 1: You helped me. Rana helped me. Rana help me, help me,

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Speaker 1: help me, Rana help me. Rana Wait a minute, Oh, Nancy.

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Speaker 2: Caesar Conde, say Caesar Condey hired, Rana ha hired, Rana

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Speaker 2: got yelled at, yelled at by mad Oh, she's the boss.

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Speaker 1: So that was the death blow. Help me, Rana the

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Speaker 1: f of my TV.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Nancy Fast for me and all my brothers.

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Speaker 1: Also of interest, here I will tell all those O'Donnell's stories,

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Speaker 1: like when he guest hosted Countdown and while I was

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Speaker 1: out for a few weeks, he tried to get me

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Speaker 1: fired so he could take over the show, and when

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Speaker 1: that didn't work, he just stole a couple of the

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Speaker 1: producers instead and got his own show. Oh, by the way,

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Speaker 1: I was out for a couple of weeks because my

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Speaker 1: dad was dying at the time. Also, you know why

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Speaker 1: that bridge collapsed in Baltimore hit by a freighter? You

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Speaker 1: naive fool. It was DEI and Open Borders, and it

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Speaker 1: was to distract you from Kate Middleton's body double. That's next.

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Speaker 1: This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman still

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Speaker 1: ahead of us on this edition of Countdown since he's

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Speaker 1: in the news for completely butchering the story of the

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Speaker 1: post Watergate TV careers. Of all the Watergate figures, let

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Speaker 1: me has promised detail for you how much of a

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Speaker 1: jackass Lawrence O'Donnell is tried to steal my show? Did

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Speaker 1: steal my producers send a personal letter of mine to

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Speaker 1: Ann Coulter so she could write a column about it.

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Speaker 1: Just an a one schmuck in things I promised not

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Speaker 1: to t Well, the title doesn't hold up here. I

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Speaker 1: promised to tell this and I live up to my promises.

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Speaker 1: Next first, still more idiots to talk about. The daily

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Speaker 1: roundup of the mis grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects

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Speaker 1: specimens who constitute two days Wor's persons in the world. First,

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Speaker 1: the Bronze the Worst Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee making

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Speaker 1: the list for the second time in three episodes, which

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Speaker 1: is a rare accomplishment and I'm sure he's very proud

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Speaker 1: of it, and he will send out a fundraising email

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Speaker 1: off of it. After the shooting at the Kansas City

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Speaker 1: Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade this year, mister Burchett, who

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Speaker 1: is that rare combination of having absolute confidence in his

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Speaker 1: judgment while having absolutely no judgment, posted a picture of

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Speaker 1: a man named Denton louder Mill Junior on his Twitter

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Speaker 1: x account, and Burchette wrote that this was quote one

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Speaker 1: of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters unquote, and

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Speaker 1: he added quote an illegal alien unquote A couple problems here.

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Speaker 1: Mister Loudermill isn't an alien, is not an illegal alien,

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Speaker 1: has never been either of those things. And he wasn't

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Speaker 1: a shooter, nor was he charged with anything. He was

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Speaker 1: handcuffed as police closed off the area near the shooting,

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Speaker 1: and he happened to get photographed during that brief period,

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Speaker 1: and that was it. Mister Loudermill was in fact a victim.

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Speaker 1: Congressman Burchett's smearing of mister loudermill was reposted more than

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Speaker 1: twenty one thousand times on Elon Musk's hell site, and

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Speaker 1: it had seven million views in the first three days.

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Speaker 1: It is still not clear that the congressman understands what

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Speaker 1: he did, because he's a bonehead. But after the lawsuit

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Speaker 1: I'm going to go out on a limb and say

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Speaker 1: mister Burchett will understand what he did. The runner up

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Speaker 1: worser Aarry Fleischer, who is actually he hasn't had an

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Speaker 1: actual job since he quit his George W. Bush's White

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Speaker 1: House Press secretary on the fifteenth of July two thousand

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Speaker 1: and three, though he has been a consultant to the

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Speaker 1: Saudi Live bon Saw Golf League Yesterday, Aery Fleischer slammed

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Speaker 1: President Biden's foreign policy record in a tweet, complaining that

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Speaker 1: he had quote opposed the First Gulf War, supported the

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Speaker 1: Second Gulf War. Aery, the Second Gulf War. That was yours,

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Speaker 1: that was Bush's, that was the one. Aery Fleischer spent

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Speaker 1: part of two thousand and one, all of two thousand

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Speaker 1: and two, the first half of two thousand and three

403
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Speaker 1: selling to the American public even though nearly everything that

404
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Speaker 1: he and Bush and Dick Cheney, then Colin Powell and

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Speaker 1: Fox Propaganda, then everybody in the government and everybody in

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Speaker 1: the Republican Party, everything they said about the Second Gulf

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Speaker 1: War was completely untrue, including that little issue of weapons

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Speaker 1: of mass destruction in Iraq and any connection whatsoever between

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Speaker 1: Sodom Hussein and nine to eleven. And suddenly Aery Fleischer

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Speaker 1: is criticizing Biden for I guess believing that a president

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Speaker 1: would never lie about something as important as whether or

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Speaker 1: not this country should attack a foreign nation and precipitate

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Speaker 1: a war in which we would be fully involved for

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Speaker 1: nearly a decade and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians

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Speaker 1: would die. Then I guess Aery Fleischer is critical of

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Speaker 1: Biden for assuming a presidential press secretary would also never

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Speaker 1: lie to the American public to the world about something

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Speaker 1: so important, especially when the Second Gulf War press secretary

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Speaker 1: was Aery Fleischer. But I'm burying the lead here, I

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Speaker 1: guess headline Aery Fleischer is now critical of people who

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Speaker 1: supported George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. But our winners

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Speaker 1: the worst. Let's see, it's quite a list. There's Congresswoman

423
00:32:00,075 --> 00:32:05,475
Speaker 1: Nancy Mace, Maria Bartiromo of Fox Florida can rectional candidate

424
00:32:05,555 --> 00:32:11,515
Speaker 1: David Sabatini, Matt new Intown, Fella Schlap, Glen Thrush of

425
00:32:11,555 --> 00:32:16,075
Speaker 1: the New York Times, and Rose Graham. As you know,

426
00:32:16,795 --> 00:32:19,635
Speaker 1: early yesterday morning, a freighter the size of an aircraft

427
00:32:19,715 --> 00:32:23,355
Speaker 1: carrier rammed the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Harbor

428
00:32:23,395 --> 00:32:26,755
Speaker 1: in Baltimore and collapsed it. The bridge did not have

429
00:32:26,795 --> 00:32:31,195
Speaker 1: structural problems, it wasn't part of any infrastructure crisis. Systems

430
00:32:31,235 --> 00:32:34,395
Speaker 1: did not fail as it approached one of the supports

431
00:32:34,435 --> 00:32:37,995
Speaker 1: of the bridge. The ship had a total power failure,

432
00:32:38,195 --> 00:32:40,315
Speaker 1: yet the crew managed to get a May Day signal

433
00:32:40,355 --> 00:32:43,755
Speaker 1: out in time for police to seal the entrances. So

434
00:32:43,795 --> 00:32:46,875
Speaker 1: that nobody else got onto it. They only had ninety

435
00:32:46,955 --> 00:32:51,075
Speaker 1: seconds to do that. They saved lives. Eight people were

436
00:32:51,075 --> 00:32:56,275
Speaker 1: missing initially, two recovered, one uninjured. Eight On the far

437
00:32:56,395 --> 00:32:59,595
Speaker 1: right though, the bridge disaster and actually it's the freighter

438
00:32:59,675 --> 00:33:04,475
Speaker 1: disaster is a reason to I don't know, declare martial law.

439
00:33:05,315 --> 00:33:09,555
Speaker 1: Congresswoman Mace, who is an idiot, immediately blamed it on

440
00:33:09,635 --> 00:33:14,475
Speaker 1: the Biden Infrastructure Bill, which she was last seen taking

441
00:33:14,635 --> 00:33:20,395
Speaker 1: credit for taking credit for the Biden infrastructure bill. Maria Bartiromo,

442
00:33:20,755 --> 00:33:23,875
Speaker 1: a Trump pr person who was once actually somehow mistaken

443
00:33:24,115 --> 00:33:27,755
Speaker 1: for an NBC journalist, blamed it on the wide open

444
00:33:27,835 --> 00:33:33,035
Speaker 1: port that's in English, the wide open border. Anthony Sabatini,

445
00:33:33,075 --> 00:33:38,555
Speaker 1: another Trump nut job, tweeted, DEI did this. Matt Schlapp

446
00:33:38,595 --> 00:33:42,555
Speaker 1: went on Newsmax and blamed it on COVID lockdowns and

447
00:33:42,715 --> 00:33:47,195
Speaker 1: drug addled employees, which sounds more like an accurate description

448
00:33:47,275 --> 00:33:52,475
Speaker 1: of his seapack organization, doesn't it. Glenn thresh thrush Thrash

449
00:33:53,195 --> 00:33:56,275
Speaker 1: of The Times tweeted a series of questions, including is

450
00:33:56,355 --> 00:34:01,035
Speaker 1: any bridge supposed to just fall down after a single impact? However,

451
00:34:01,115 --> 00:34:05,995
Speaker 1: big this is a news reporters half a dozen bridges

452
00:34:06,075 --> 00:34:09,515
Speaker 1: hit by objects as small as a tugboat have collapsed

453
00:34:09,555 --> 00:34:12,675
Speaker 1: in this country just since nineteen sixty seven, and each

454
00:34:12,715 --> 00:34:16,035
Speaker 1: of them resulted in at least thirty five deaths. The

455
00:34:16,075 --> 00:34:18,995
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven Minnesota Bridge collapsed without being hit

456
00:34:19,035 --> 00:34:23,435
Speaker 1: by anything. And then there's Rose Graham, a seemingly random

457
00:34:23,475 --> 00:34:27,595
Speaker 1: tweeter who has nearly five thousand followers, seems to be

458
00:34:27,675 --> 00:34:30,995
Speaker 1: from Arkansas, and she wrote what so many of the

459
00:34:31,035 --> 00:34:36,075
Speaker 1: conspiracy thumpers wrote yesterday, quote puff Daddy gets raided and

460
00:34:36,155 --> 00:34:39,835
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Bridge collapses, and just like that, people are

461
00:34:39,915 --> 00:34:46,195
Speaker 1: becoming no longer interested in Kate Middleton. It's always several

462
00:34:46,235 --> 00:34:48,875
Speaker 1: things going on at once to keep you busy. Trust

463
00:34:48,915 --> 00:34:52,995
Speaker 1: nothing and no one unquote because it's all a plot

464
00:34:53,955 --> 00:34:57,275
Speaker 1: to I'm not sure which part of it she thinks

465
00:34:57,315 --> 00:35:00,835
Speaker 1: is the plot, but trust no one except her. This

466
00:35:00,995 --> 00:35:04,075
Speaker 1: was an accident. It was the shipping line's fault. They

467
00:35:04,075 --> 00:35:06,995
Speaker 1: will ultimately pay for it. There is reason to question

468
00:35:07,035 --> 00:35:11,315
Speaker 1: whether such large watercraft should be allowed on inland waterways

469
00:35:11,595 --> 00:35:15,835
Speaker 1: without tugs escorting them, but otherwise there was not much

470
00:35:15,915 --> 00:35:18,675
Speaker 1: to prevent this from happening. And yet there are people

471
00:35:18,715 --> 00:35:23,155
Speaker 1: today who will die peacefully in their beds eighty years

472
00:35:23,195 --> 00:35:27,475
Speaker 1: from now, remaining convinced that the Baltimore Bridge collapse of

473
00:35:27,475 --> 00:35:33,595
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four happened because of drug addled DEI riding

474
00:35:33,635 --> 00:35:37,115
Speaker 1: the infrastructure bill in through wide open borders and it

475
00:35:37,155 --> 00:35:40,475
Speaker 1: was all just a distraction from Kate Middleton. And accidents

476
00:35:40,475 --> 00:35:46,875
Speaker 1: are illegal, aren't they? Thanks to Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Maria Bartiommo, Fox,

477
00:35:47,155 --> 00:35:52,355
Speaker 1: Florida congressional candidate David Sabatini, Matt new Intown Fellaslap, Glen

478
00:35:52,355 --> 00:35:55,475
Speaker 1: Thrush of The New York Times, and Rose Graham Rando,

479
00:35:56,075 --> 00:35:59,275
Speaker 1: who don't know what they're talking about, but that didn't

480
00:35:59,315 --> 00:36:02,115
Speaker 1: phase them in the least. And who are two days

481
00:36:03,155 --> 00:36:14,635
Speaker 1: worst person in the world. Kate Middleton, For God's I

482
00:36:14,675 --> 00:36:18,595
Speaker 1: wanted to tell you about Bloomberg's flagship podcast. It's called

483
00:36:18,635 --> 00:36:21,475
Speaker 1: The Big Take, and it should be part of your

484
00:36:21,555 --> 00:36:25,595
Speaker 1: daily routine. The Big Take brings you what's shaping the

485
00:36:25,635 --> 00:36:29,355
Speaker 1: world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters

486
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Speaker 1: around the world. Hosts David Gurra, Sarah Holder, and Salaiah

487
00:36:33,955 --> 00:36:37,795
Speaker 1: Mosen bring you the stories behind what's moving money and

488
00:36:37,915 --> 00:36:40,755
Speaker 1: markets and help you understand what's happening, what it means,

489
00:36:41,115 --> 00:36:45,835
Speaker 1: and why it matters every afternoon. Now, Look, David Gerr

490
00:36:45,835 --> 00:36:49,395
Speaker 1: went to Cornell and he majored in history there and

491
00:36:49,675 --> 00:36:51,555
Speaker 1: as near as I've been able to find out with

492
00:36:51,595 --> 00:36:55,475
Speaker 1: my research, he got good grades. So a lot of

493
00:36:55,475 --> 00:36:58,955
Speaker 1: people recommend podcasts to you without any kind of frame

494
00:36:59,035 --> 00:37:03,235
Speaker 1: of reference. And I'm telling you this guy survived four

495
00:37:03,315 --> 00:37:07,555
Speaker 1: winters in Ithaca, New York like I did. So if

496
00:37:07,555 --> 00:37:10,395
Speaker 1: he says he can help you understand what's happening, this

497
00:37:10,595 --> 00:37:14,115
Speaker 1: is tested by snow and cold. You can listen to

498
00:37:14,155 --> 00:37:18,315
Speaker 1: the Big Take on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or

499
00:37:18,795 --> 00:37:28,875
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Now to the number one

500
00:37:28,955 --> 00:37:31,395
Speaker 1: story on the countdown on my favorite topic, me and

501
00:37:31,475 --> 00:37:34,795
Speaker 1: things I promised not to tell. Early on the afternoon

502
00:37:34,835 --> 00:37:39,235
Speaker 1: of Monday May twenty third, twenty sixteen, I bounced out

503
00:37:39,275 --> 00:37:41,755
Speaker 1: of my New York City apartment building, began to walk

504
00:37:41,795 --> 00:37:46,275
Speaker 1: past the tourist trap brunch spot in the lobby, and

505
00:37:46,395 --> 00:37:50,715
Speaker 1: froze there at one of the cramped outdoor tables. Staring

506
00:37:50,795 --> 00:37:54,035
Speaker 1: up at me in blank surprise that must have matched

507
00:37:54,075 --> 00:37:57,315
Speaker 1: my own staring down at him in blank surprise. Was

508
00:37:57,395 --> 00:38:02,555
Speaker 1: Laurence O'Donnell. I decided to go silly, Hey, get out

509
00:38:02,595 --> 00:38:06,435
Speaker 1: of my house. He laughed. I laughed. It didn't seem forced.

510
00:38:07,035 --> 00:38:10,635
Speaker 1: He introduced me to his companion, his daughter. This my

511
00:38:10,755 --> 00:38:14,595
Speaker 1: dear is Keith Ulderman. Keith started us all at MSNBC,

512
00:38:14,715 --> 00:38:17,955
Speaker 1: and then he left, and here Lawrence gave one of

513
00:38:17,955 --> 00:38:24,795
Speaker 1: his long pauses, and we crashed it. I wanted to

514
00:38:24,835 --> 00:38:27,635
Speaker 1: be generous, I started to politely contradict him, and I

515
00:38:27,715 --> 00:38:33,875
Speaker 1: just couldn't do it. Yeah, pretty much anyway, About thirty

516
00:38:33,915 --> 00:38:37,235
Speaker 1: seconds of courteous nothingness followed, and I wish the O'Donnell's well,

517
00:38:37,235 --> 00:38:41,355
Speaker 1: and then I left. It was the most pleasant experience

518
00:38:41,435 --> 00:38:44,075
Speaker 1: I ever had with Lawrence O'Donnell. In fact, it might

519
00:38:44,115 --> 00:38:46,515
Speaker 1: have been the only pleasant experience I ever had with

520
00:38:46,595 --> 00:38:52,355
Speaker 1: Lawrence O'Donnell. After I finally convinced and bullied and blackmailed

521
00:38:52,435 --> 00:38:56,035
Speaker 1: MSNBC management into letting Rachel Meadow become the regular guest

522
00:38:56,035 --> 00:38:58,755
Speaker 1: host for my show, and she aced it, and then

523
00:38:58,835 --> 00:39:02,435
Speaker 1: rightly got her own show, and she aced that and

524
00:39:02,515 --> 00:39:06,435
Speaker 1: became a star. Looking for a new guest host, my

525
00:39:06,475 --> 00:39:09,355
Speaker 1: first idea was a frequent guest we had named Chris Hayes.

526
00:39:09,995 --> 00:39:12,875
Speaker 1: I didn't get far. Management had its own idea and

527
00:39:12,915 --> 00:39:16,915
Speaker 1: my input was not required. They wanted former Vermont governor

528
00:39:16,955 --> 00:39:21,035
Speaker 1: and Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean. And Howard is a

529
00:39:21,075 --> 00:39:24,435
Speaker 1: really smart guy and great on TV. But Howard had

530
00:39:24,435 --> 00:39:27,755
Speaker 1: a bit of a teleprompter problem. One of my producers

531
00:39:27,915 --> 00:39:32,875
Speaker 1: swears that Howard once read good Evening, I'm Howard Dean,

532
00:39:32,955 --> 00:39:37,635
Speaker 1: former governor of Vermont. This is countdown. I do know.

533
00:39:37,835 --> 00:39:39,875
Speaker 1: Whatever he did on the air, it was bad enough

534
00:39:39,875 --> 00:39:42,155
Speaker 1: that one week when I was off and at the

535
00:39:42,155 --> 00:39:44,475
Speaker 1: Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and a

536
00:39:44,475 --> 00:39:47,155
Speaker 1: baseball news story broke and he was filling in for me.

537
00:39:47,475 --> 00:39:50,155
Speaker 1: My producers called me there and asked me to come

538
00:39:50,235 --> 00:39:53,395
Speaker 1: on from the streets of Cooperstown and be a guest

539
00:39:53,435 --> 00:39:59,115
Speaker 1: on my own show, just to help Howard Dean out. Anyway.

540
00:39:59,875 --> 00:40:02,075
Speaker 1: Their next idea was a guy who had been kicking

541
00:40:02,075 --> 00:40:06,475
Speaker 1: around MSNBC since its founding in nineteen ninety six. Lawrence

542
00:40:06,515 --> 00:40:12,395
Speaker 1: O'Donnell was one of the original MSNBC Friends, The MSNBC

543
00:40:12,715 --> 00:40:17,675
Speaker 1: Friends political pundits who sat on clearstools at a clear

544
00:40:17,795 --> 00:40:20,355
Speaker 1: table or in a set designed to look like a

545
00:40:20,395 --> 00:40:24,275
Speaker 1: booth at a coffee shop. No, I'm not making this up.

546
00:40:24,795 --> 00:40:29,915
Speaker 1: Among the friends were and Colter and Laura Ingram, if

547
00:40:29,955 --> 00:40:33,435
Speaker 1: you can believe it, once or twice an hour, the

548
00:40:33,595 --> 00:40:37,275
Speaker 1: rather CNN like all news coverage on MSNBC in its

549
00:40:37,275 --> 00:40:40,235
Speaker 1: first couple of years would pause and three or more

550
00:40:40,315 --> 00:40:45,675
Speaker 1: of these friends would appear, chew over the MSNBC headlines,

551
00:40:46,155 --> 00:40:51,795
Speaker 1: and then disappear. Lawrence O'Donnell was one of the friends.

552
00:40:52,755 --> 00:40:56,995
Speaker 1: It was as bad as it sounds. Then Lawrence o'donald

553
00:40:56,995 --> 00:41:00,195
Speaker 1: pretty much disappeared. You would see him on MSNBC as

554
00:41:00,195 --> 00:41:02,715
Speaker 1: a guest every once in a while, but mostly he

555
00:41:02,835 --> 00:41:06,515
Speaker 1: pursued his acting and producing. He played President Bartlett's father

556
00:41:06,595 --> 00:41:10,395
Speaker 1: on the West Wing, the one who beat him. Throughout college,

557
00:41:10,635 --> 00:41:14,275
Speaker 1: Lawrence was very convincing, and then around two thousand and eight,

558
00:41:14,355 --> 00:41:16,835
Speaker 1: we started getting pressure to bring him in as a

559
00:41:16,915 --> 00:41:19,875
Speaker 1: guest on Countdown, like once a week or twice a week.

560
00:41:20,475 --> 00:41:22,355
Speaker 1: I was not sure what that was all about, but

561
00:41:22,435 --> 00:41:24,835
Speaker 1: he had been a Senate staffer and he knew the

562
00:41:24,875 --> 00:41:28,755
Speaker 1: healthcare debate and other wonky stuff pretty well, so I

563
00:41:28,875 --> 00:41:32,195
Speaker 1: gave my assent for whatever that was worth. Not long

564
00:41:32,235 --> 00:41:35,195
Speaker 1: after that, Lawrence came into my office. He really needed

565
00:41:35,195 --> 00:41:38,475
Speaker 1: my support, he said, to get him more involved in MSNBC.

566
00:41:38,835 --> 00:41:41,195
Speaker 1: He knew I had gone to bat for Rachel and

567
00:41:41,275 --> 00:41:44,595
Speaker 1: before her, I'd gone to bat for Tom Brokaw and

568
00:41:44,635 --> 00:41:46,995
Speaker 1: for people like Chuck Todd and Chris Hayes and others

569
00:41:47,035 --> 00:41:50,635
Speaker 1: who are now getting steady incomes from NBC. I don't

570
00:41:50,675 --> 00:41:53,555
Speaker 1: remember his argument on his own behalf. I do remember

571
00:41:53,955 --> 00:41:55,595
Speaker 1: I didn't have much of a reason to say no,

572
00:41:56,275 --> 00:41:58,075
Speaker 1: and he wasn't asking me to do a lot, so

573
00:41:58,195 --> 00:42:01,715
Speaker 1: I said yes. The next thing I knew, I was

574
00:42:01,755 --> 00:42:04,675
Speaker 1: reading a memo announcing that Lawrence O'Donnell had been appointed

575
00:42:04,835 --> 00:42:08,955
Speaker 1: as the new full time guest host of Countdown. This

576
00:42:09,275 --> 00:42:11,835
Speaker 1: was in the winter of two thousand and nine twenty ten,

577
00:42:11,875 --> 00:42:14,595
Speaker 1: when my late dad was fighting so valiantly to stay

578
00:42:14,635 --> 00:42:18,155
Speaker 1: alive after colon cancer and more importantly, a series of infections.

579
00:42:18,915 --> 00:42:22,435
Speaker 1: Dad had the immune system of an alien. The average

580
00:42:22,435 --> 00:42:24,915
Speaker 1: white cell count in a healthy adult is between four

581
00:42:24,955 --> 00:42:28,355
Speaker 1: thousand and eleven thousand. One night, Dad's was at thirty

582
00:42:28,475 --> 00:42:31,835
Speaker 1: three thousand, and the doctors told me to prepare to

583
00:42:31,915 --> 00:42:34,955
Speaker 1: make the call to let him go. They had one

584
00:42:35,075 --> 00:42:38,555
Speaker 1: antibiotic left to try on him. The next morning, Dad's

585
00:42:38,595 --> 00:42:41,355
Speaker 1: white cell count, which had been thirty three thousand, was

586
00:42:42,075 --> 00:42:48,515
Speaker 1: eight thousand. Onward, he fought. Unfortunately, he was eighty years

587
00:42:48,555 --> 00:42:52,515
Speaker 1: old and he had not exercised since Harry Truman was president,

588
00:42:52,955 --> 00:42:56,475
Speaker 1: and eventually he ran out of Houdini tricks. I had

589
00:42:56,475 --> 00:42:59,035
Speaker 1: been visiting him twice a day for six months while

590
00:42:59,075 --> 00:43:02,395
Speaker 1: still doing Countdown and the NBC Sunday Night Football Show.

591
00:43:02,395 --> 00:43:05,715
Speaker 1: But now, as it hit late February of twenty ten,

592
00:43:06,275 --> 00:43:09,355
Speaker 1: his bright days became fewer and farther in between, and

593
00:43:09,435 --> 00:43:11,875
Speaker 1: the hope that was propelling me to keep being his

594
00:43:11,955 --> 00:43:15,715
Speaker 1: full time caregiver and Countdown's full time host both began

595
00:43:15,755 --> 00:43:18,795
Speaker 1: to fade. In the last two weeks of my dad's life,

596
00:43:18,835 --> 00:43:21,475
Speaker 1: as the doctors tried all the long shot things, I

597
00:43:21,515 --> 00:43:26,275
Speaker 1: asked MSNBC for a leave of absence. Finally the inevitability

598
00:43:26,315 --> 00:43:30,115
Speaker 1: became inarguable, and we let Dad go. On Saturday, March thirteenth,

599
00:43:30,115 --> 00:43:33,635
Speaker 1: twenty ten, my sister held his hand and I read

600
00:43:33,715 --> 00:43:36,075
Speaker 1: him his favorite Thurber story, and as soon as I

601
00:43:36,155 --> 00:43:40,035
Speaker 1: finished it, he exhaled deeply and peacefully, and he died.

602
00:43:41,075 --> 00:43:45,995
Speaker 1: I think I took another week off, maybe two, and

603
00:43:46,075 --> 00:43:49,395
Speaker 1: I vaguely recall emails from friends at Countdown that I

604
00:43:49,435 --> 00:43:53,115
Speaker 1: may have paid passing attention to, but I really didn't.

605
00:43:53,555 --> 00:43:56,355
Speaker 1: Most of the staff, including people who came up from Washington,

606
00:43:56,955 --> 00:44:00,395
Speaker 1: like Howard Feynman or Gene Robinson of the Washington Post,

607
00:44:01,075 --> 00:44:04,675
Speaker 1: always friends to me. They attended my dad's memorial service.

608
00:44:05,395 --> 00:44:08,635
Speaker 1: I believe Lawrence o'donald, who was of course filling in

609
00:44:08,675 --> 00:44:10,755
Speaker 1: for me on Countdown, was there too, but maybe not,

610
00:44:10,875 --> 00:44:14,555
Speaker 1: I do not remember. And then came the day when

611
00:44:14,555 --> 00:44:16,355
Speaker 1: I went back to the office full time and my

612
00:44:16,435 --> 00:44:21,235
Speaker 1: assistant grabbed me both hands on my wrist. You did

613
00:44:21,235 --> 00:44:23,915
Speaker 1: not answer my emails, she said, with a fervency she

614
00:44:24,075 --> 00:44:28,035
Speaker 1: rarely exhibited. For God's sake, do not ever leave me

615
00:44:28,115 --> 00:44:32,395
Speaker 1: alone with Laurence O'Donnell Again, I snapped back to attention.

616
00:44:32,875 --> 00:44:37,755
Speaker 1: Had he, you know, bothered her? Not that way, she said,

617
00:44:37,875 --> 00:44:39,915
Speaker 1: But he's a son of a bitch. He treats me

618
00:44:39,915 --> 00:44:41,795
Speaker 1: and everybody who was in a producer here like dirt.

619
00:44:42,155 --> 00:44:44,355
Speaker 1: And since you didn't read my emails, I just have

620
00:44:44,435 --> 00:44:46,515
Speaker 1: to tell you this. He's trying to get you fired

621
00:44:46,795 --> 00:44:49,035
Speaker 1: so he can take over Countdown. And if you think

622
00:44:49,075 --> 00:44:51,555
Speaker 1: he's nuts, one of your senior producers is in on

623
00:44:51,595 --> 00:44:56,675
Speaker 1: it too with him. I have to admit, even now,

624
00:44:56,995 --> 00:44:59,355
Speaker 1: of all the things I went through at that very

625
00:44:59,675 --> 00:45:05,515
Speaker 1: very strange place MSNBC, even now this story he still

626
00:45:05,715 --> 00:45:09,955
Speaker 1: shocks me. The senior producers of Countdown consisted of a

627
00:45:09,995 --> 00:45:13,755
Speaker 1: guy who'd been a producer who booked satellite transmissions for

628
00:45:13,875 --> 00:45:18,475
Speaker 1: MSNBC until I asked that he'd be promoted, and one

629
00:45:18,555 --> 00:45:20,875
Speaker 1: was a guest booker for the daytime shows until I

630
00:45:20,915 --> 00:45:24,315
Speaker 1: asked that she be promoted. Another was a line producer

631
00:45:24,355 --> 00:45:26,715
Speaker 1: who was well regarded only for his ability to time

632
00:45:26,755 --> 00:45:29,115
Speaker 1: a show until I asked for him to be promoted.

633
00:45:29,875 --> 00:45:31,595
Speaker 1: And then there was the old friend of mine who

634
00:45:31,595 --> 00:45:34,075
Speaker 1: had been blown out of ESPN and a sexual harassment

635
00:45:34,195 --> 00:45:37,395
Speaker 1: porn link email scandal and was headed back to college

636
00:45:37,435 --> 00:45:40,595
Speaker 1: to start his career all over again until I asked

637
00:45:40,595 --> 00:45:44,475
Speaker 1: that he'd be hired and then promoted. I did some

638
00:45:44,555 --> 00:45:46,635
Speaker 1: digging and I was going to confront O'Donnell about it

639
00:45:46,675 --> 00:45:49,355
Speaker 1: when somebody told me he had tweeted something negative about

640
00:45:49,355 --> 00:45:51,755
Speaker 1: me and about Countdown. So I got a hold of

641
00:45:51,795 --> 00:45:53,395
Speaker 1: him and I said this did not seem to be

642
00:45:53,395 --> 00:45:57,435
Speaker 1: in keeping with MSNBC traditions and rules, you know, the

643
00:45:57,475 --> 00:46:00,275
Speaker 1: ones about not peeing inside the tent, and he said,

644
00:46:00,275 --> 00:46:03,595
Speaker 1: what do you know about MSNBC traditions. I've been here

645
00:46:03,715 --> 00:46:08,075
Speaker 1: since nineteen nineteen. I never left and came back. So

646
00:46:09,195 --> 00:46:11,235
Speaker 1: I went to my boss, the president of the network,

647
00:46:11,235 --> 00:46:13,675
Speaker 1: Phil Griffin, the one who would not hire Rachel Maddow,

648
00:46:13,995 --> 00:46:15,755
Speaker 1: And before I could say they'd have to get rid

649
00:46:15,795 --> 00:46:18,155
Speaker 1: of him, Griffin said it was all academic. They were

650
00:46:18,235 --> 00:46:20,915
Speaker 1: preparing the press release as we spoke for Lawrence's new

651
00:46:21,035 --> 00:46:24,035
Speaker 1: show at ten o'clock called The Last Word, And oh,

652
00:46:24,075 --> 00:46:26,715
Speaker 1: by the way, Keith, two of your senior producers are

653
00:46:26,755 --> 00:46:30,515
Speaker 1: going with him to run his show. If this sounds

654
00:46:30,915 --> 00:46:34,275
Speaker 1: vaguely familiar to you, it is the plot of the

655
00:46:34,315 --> 00:46:39,715
Speaker 1: pilot for the old Aaron Sorkin HBO series Newsroom. I

656
00:46:39,835 --> 00:46:43,035
Speaker 1: was still friendly with Aaron then, so he actually asked.

657
00:46:43,595 --> 00:46:46,355
Speaker 1: As I related this to him in real time in

658
00:46:46,435 --> 00:46:48,955
Speaker 1: emails and phone calls, he asked if he could use

659
00:46:48,995 --> 00:46:52,395
Speaker 1: it in the plot rather than just what he often did,

660
00:46:52,475 --> 00:46:55,515
Speaker 1: which was to use it without asking. The problem was

661
00:46:56,635 --> 00:46:59,155
Speaker 1: none of this made any sense in the real world,

662
00:46:59,355 --> 00:47:01,595
Speaker 1: although it made a pretty good pilot for Aaron Sorkin

663
00:47:02,115 --> 00:47:05,035
Speaker 1: in going into the ten PM slot, Lawrence o'donod would

664
00:47:05,035 --> 00:47:09,035
Speaker 1: be replacing a rerun of Countdown, and even if O'Donnell

665
00:47:09,115 --> 00:47:12,195
Speaker 1: did much better in the ratings, much much better, there

666
00:47:12,275 --> 00:47:15,395
Speaker 1: was no way it could ever make enough money to

667
00:47:15,475 --> 00:47:21,035
Speaker 1: make the move make sense. O'Donnell's new show would necessarily

668
00:47:21,075 --> 00:47:24,515
Speaker 1: cost MSNBC between ten and fifteen million dollars to produce

669
00:47:24,635 --> 00:47:27,115
Speaker 1: every year. Didn't have anything to do with him. That

670
00:47:27,235 --> 00:47:32,275
Speaker 1: was the cost. The Countdown rerun cost, not ten fifteen

671
00:47:32,355 --> 00:47:35,315
Speaker 1: million dollars a year. It count however much they paid

672
00:47:35,355 --> 00:47:38,435
Speaker 1: the guy who pushed the play button that fired up

673
00:47:38,475 --> 00:47:46,955
Speaker 1: the videotape of the Countdown replay amortized. Later that day,

674
00:47:46,995 --> 00:47:50,075
Speaker 1: a sympathetic NBC executive called me up and explained the

675
00:47:50,115 --> 00:47:53,795
Speaker 1: move to me. First, Griffin was convinced O'Donnell was about

676
00:47:53,795 --> 00:47:57,835
Speaker 1: to leave US and sign with CNN. I said, well,

677
00:47:57,875 --> 00:48:02,355
Speaker 1: that's a good idea for everybody involved except CNN. Turned

678
00:48:02,395 --> 00:48:04,675
Speaker 1: out CNN had not even talked to him, but Griffin

679
00:48:04,755 --> 00:48:08,355
Speaker 1: and did not know that. More importantly, Comcast had already

680
00:48:08,355 --> 00:48:11,835
Speaker 1: finalized its agreement to buy NBC effective the following January,

681
00:48:11,955 --> 00:48:14,435
Speaker 1: and as part of the deal, they were entitled to

682
00:48:14,475 --> 00:48:17,395
Speaker 1: review what all the executives in the company had done,

683
00:48:17,595 --> 00:48:20,475
Speaker 1: and they had already looked at MSNBC president Phil Griffin

684
00:48:20,515 --> 00:48:25,515
Speaker 1: and discovered he had never done anything. In panic, Griffin

685
00:48:25,555 --> 00:48:27,995
Speaker 1: told colleagues he had to launch a new show of

686
00:48:28,075 --> 00:48:34,835
Speaker 1: his own immediately. This is the series Aaron Sorkin should

687
00:48:34,875 --> 00:48:38,075
Speaker 1: have made. As to the producers who left my show

688
00:48:38,115 --> 00:48:41,835
Speaker 1: to go with O'Donnell while my father was dying, one

689
00:48:41,835 --> 00:48:43,675
Speaker 1: of them told me a couple of years after she

690
00:48:43,795 --> 00:48:47,355
Speaker 1: left MSNBC for the last time, every day when I

691
00:48:47,395 --> 00:48:49,915
Speaker 1: went into that last word office, I realized you were

692
00:48:49,915 --> 00:48:53,555
Speaker 1: getting your revenge on me without even having to lift

693
00:48:53,595 --> 00:48:57,635
Speaker 1: a finger. Lots of people I've worked with, probably a

694
00:48:57,675 --> 00:49:02,235
Speaker 1: majority of people i've helped, have behaved like Lawrence O'Donnell, because,

695
00:49:02,275 --> 00:49:07,435
Speaker 1: remember it's television. It is a mental illness. The comparatively

696
00:49:07,475 --> 00:49:09,955
Speaker 1: healthy people are the ones who acknowledge it's a mental illness.

697
00:49:10,235 --> 00:49:14,715
Speaker 1: But Lawrence O'Donnell was something special. A year before my

698
00:49:14,915 --> 00:49:17,795
Speaker 1: dad died, almost to the day, in fact, I was

699
00:49:17,795 --> 00:49:20,915
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles appearing on Bill Maher's show, and one

700
00:49:20,955 --> 00:49:23,675
Speaker 1: of the other guests that night was the actress Kerrie Washington.

701
00:49:23,915 --> 00:49:26,315
Speaker 1: She was very nice to me, very sweet, a very

702
00:49:26,315 --> 00:49:30,355
Speaker 1: big fan, and she asked to stay in touch. Sure enough,

703
00:49:30,395 --> 00:49:32,755
Speaker 1: after my father died after the memorial, after I was

704
00:49:32,795 --> 00:49:35,075
Speaker 1: back at work, I had to go to his house

705
00:49:35,075 --> 00:49:37,595
Speaker 1: for the first time since he had passed away. It

706
00:49:37,715 --> 00:49:41,315
Speaker 1: was about as much fun as it sounds. In the

707
00:49:41,355 --> 00:49:43,875
Speaker 1: car on the way back into New York City. The

708
00:49:43,995 --> 00:49:47,555
Speaker 1: solemnity of it. Both my parents died within eleven months

709
00:49:47,595 --> 00:49:50,555
Speaker 1: of each other. It really hit me for some reason

710
00:49:51,035 --> 00:49:53,995
Speaker 1: for the first time, full force, and I was about

711
00:49:54,075 --> 00:49:58,475
Speaker 1: to lose it when the car approached a billboard overlooking

712
00:49:58,475 --> 00:50:00,955
Speaker 1: the West Side Highway in New York City. And whose

713
00:50:01,035 --> 00:50:03,675
Speaker 1: big smiling face was on the ad on that billboard,

714
00:50:04,875 --> 00:50:08,195
Speaker 1: Carrie Washington, And it flashed me right back to her

715
00:50:08,275 --> 00:50:11,275
Speaker 1: kindness in la and it helped me overcome this bump

716
00:50:11,315 --> 00:50:14,595
Speaker 1: in my morning. So I wanted to drop her a note,

717
00:50:14,675 --> 00:50:19,555
Speaker 1: nothing big, nothing suggestive. I wasn't hinting at asking her out.

718
00:50:20,355 --> 00:50:23,635
Speaker 1: Just you never know how you might help somebody in

719
00:50:23,675 --> 00:50:28,515
Speaker 1: a time of crisis. Thanks for letting me smile. That

720
00:50:28,675 --> 00:50:31,235
Speaker 1: was the whole message. I asked my assistant to figure

721
00:50:31,235 --> 00:50:32,555
Speaker 1: out how to get it to her, and that was

722
00:50:32,595 --> 00:50:37,395
Speaker 1: the end of it, except a week later, the fact

723
00:50:37,395 --> 00:50:40,035
Speaker 1: that I wrote her a note wound up in a

724
00:50:40,075 --> 00:50:48,395
Speaker 1: column written by an colter. I was astonished, how why?

725
00:50:48,555 --> 00:50:52,875
Speaker 1: And Colter it was her usual the brain doesn't quite

726
00:50:53,115 --> 00:50:55,635
Speaker 1: work right kind of stuff. She implied, I was hitting

727
00:50:55,675 --> 00:50:58,235
Speaker 1: on Carrie Washington and said how stupid I had to

728
00:50:58,235 --> 00:51:00,715
Speaker 1: be to not realize she was involved with somebody, and

729
00:51:00,755 --> 00:51:03,435
Speaker 1: on and on and on, no mention of my father's passing,

730
00:51:03,635 --> 00:51:06,755
Speaker 1: where the mar show or the billboard or her smiling face.

731
00:51:08,035 --> 00:51:10,755
Speaker 1: I went back to my assistant and I said, hey,

732
00:51:11,155 --> 00:51:14,555
Speaker 1: what on earth did you do with that note to

733
00:51:14,675 --> 00:51:18,195
Speaker 1: Carrie Washington? And she said, oh, I gave it to

734
00:51:18,315 --> 00:51:22,715
Speaker 1: this Lawrence O'Donnell guy. And I said, good god, why

735
00:51:22,755 --> 00:51:25,595
Speaker 1: did you do that? And she said, well, he's dating

736
00:51:25,675 --> 00:51:28,235
Speaker 1: Carrie Washington. I thought you knew that. I thought that's

737
00:51:28,275 --> 00:51:31,995
Speaker 1: why you asked me to get it to her. So

738
00:51:32,235 --> 00:51:35,075
Speaker 1: it wasn't hard to figure out from there. Lawrence had

739
00:51:35,075 --> 00:51:38,595
Speaker 1: called his old friend from the old MSNBC Friends of

740
00:51:38,675 --> 00:51:42,395
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six and Colter and told her about the note,

741
00:51:42,875 --> 00:51:46,035
Speaker 1: inventing whatever motive his jealous little mind could dream up,

742
00:51:46,555 --> 00:51:49,515
Speaker 1: it should have gotten him fired from NBC, but unfortunately

743
00:51:49,515 --> 00:51:51,835
Speaker 1: his boss was just as much of a fourteen year

744
00:51:51,875 --> 00:51:54,915
Speaker 1: old emotionally as he was. And meanwhile, I had decided

745
00:51:54,915 --> 00:51:57,555
Speaker 1: to get out of MSNBC anyway when the time was ripe,

746
00:51:58,395 --> 00:52:01,915
Speaker 1: and as it turned out, it ripened in January twenty eleven.

747
00:52:01,955 --> 00:52:05,475
Speaker 1: I've told that story in other episodes, sixty of them.

748
00:52:05,595 --> 00:52:09,315
Speaker 1: It's kind of complicated, and since nobody ever actually asked

749
00:52:09,355 --> 00:52:11,835
Speaker 1: me why count Down the TV show ended, I've probably

750
00:52:11,835 --> 00:52:15,155
Speaker 1: got another sixty episodes worth of information about that anyway

751
00:52:16,595 --> 00:52:20,915
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen. Since repeatedly over the following ten years,

752
00:52:20,955 --> 00:52:23,715
Speaker 1: there were overtures by both sides to bring Countdown and

753
00:52:23,835 --> 00:52:27,755
Speaker 1: Me back to MSNBC. In twenty fifteen, during the World Series,

754
00:52:27,795 --> 00:52:30,995
Speaker 1: in fact, the then president of NBC News Andy Lack,

755
00:52:31,635 --> 00:52:33,835
Speaker 1: asked me to come back and do a new show

756
00:52:33,875 --> 00:52:37,395
Speaker 1: at MSNBC and move to Los Angeles and have a

757
00:52:37,395 --> 00:52:41,995
Speaker 1: co host, a conservative, and not do any commentaries. And

758
00:52:42,035 --> 00:52:45,675
Speaker 1: actually this new show is somehow less appealing than it sounds.

759
00:52:46,835 --> 00:52:49,595
Speaker 1: But the punchline of all punchlines is contained in what

760
00:52:49,715 --> 00:52:54,155
Speaker 1: Lack wanted to call my new twenty fifteen MSNBC show

761
00:52:54,155 --> 00:52:56,595
Speaker 1: that never was. It tells you all you really need

762
00:52:56,635 --> 00:52:59,395
Speaker 1: to know about the last word with Lawrence O'Donnell and

763
00:52:59,595 --> 00:53:03,715
Speaker 1: MSNBC and O'Donnell's place in TV history. At its demise

764
00:53:04,715 --> 00:53:09,275
Speaker 1: and the end of MSNBC. NBC new president Lack was

765
00:53:09,395 --> 00:53:12,355
Speaker 1: brimming with enthusiasm about this name that he had come

766
00:53:12,435 --> 00:53:15,475
Speaker 1: up with for my new show of good the perfect title.

767
00:53:15,755 --> 00:53:19,395
Speaker 1: Lack told me, we're gonna call it The Last Word

768
00:53:19,515 --> 00:53:24,275
Speaker 1: with Keith Alderman. And I didn't laugh for guffaw. I

769
00:53:24,395 --> 00:53:28,355
Speaker 1: just said, Andy, you have a show called the Last Word,

770
00:53:29,035 --> 00:53:34,515
Speaker 1: The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell. Andy Lack now laughed, huh,

771
00:53:35,035 --> 00:53:50,835
Speaker 1: hopefully not for much longer. I don't. I've done all

772
00:53:50,875 --> 00:53:53,315
Speaker 1: the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Countdown.

773
00:53:53,395 --> 00:53:56,875
Speaker 1: Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip Schaneale arranged, produced,

774
00:53:56,915 --> 00:53:59,955
Speaker 1: and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on

775
00:54:00,035 --> 00:54:02,475
Speaker 1: the guitars, the bass, and the drums, and mister Shanale

776
00:54:02,715 --> 00:54:07,275
Speaker 1: handled orchestration and keyboards. Produced by Tko Broms. Other music,

777
00:54:07,315 --> 00:54:10,755
Speaker 1: including some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by

778
00:54:10,755 --> 00:54:14,835
Speaker 1: the group No Horns Allowed. Let's pun say it. It's

779
00:54:14,835 --> 00:54:19,715
Speaker 1: all horns, No Horns. The sports music is the Olderman

780
00:54:19,835 --> 00:54:23,435
Speaker 1: theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis, Curtisy

781
00:54:23,715 --> 00:54:26,795
Speaker 1: ESPN Inc. And yes, I did just kind of mispronounce

782
00:54:26,835 --> 00:54:29,955
Speaker 1: my own name there, didn't I. Our satirical and pithy

783
00:54:30,035 --> 00:54:33,235
Speaker 1: musical comments are by Nancy Fauss, the best baseball stadium

784
00:54:33,275 --> 00:54:36,115
Speaker 1: organist ever. Our announcer today was my friend John Dean.

785
00:54:36,555 --> 00:54:39,235
Speaker 1: Everything else, including the mispronunciation of my own name, was

786
00:54:39,235 --> 00:54:42,475
Speaker 1: pretty much by faults. So that's countdown for this the

787
00:54:42,475 --> 00:54:45,875
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty fourth day until the twenty twenty

788
00:54:45,875 --> 00:54:50,595
Speaker 1: four presidential election, and the one thou and seventy seventh

789
00:54:50,675 --> 00:54:54,755
Speaker 1: day since dementia Jay Trump's first attempted coup against the

790
00:54:54,795 --> 00:54:58,595
Speaker 1: democratically elected government of the United States. Use the fourteenth

791
00:54:58,635 --> 00:55:03,075
Speaker 1: Amendment and the not regularly given elector objection option. Use

792
00:55:03,115 --> 00:55:07,075
Speaker 1: the Insurrection Act, the to system, the mental health system

793
00:55:07,395 --> 00:55:11,475
Speaker 1: to stop him from disinformating everybody and from doing it

794
00:55:11,515 --> 00:55:16,515
Speaker 1: again while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is

795
00:55:16,555 --> 00:55:19,795
Speaker 1: tomorrow bulletins as the news warrants till then, I'm Keith Olderman,

796
00:55:20,435 --> 00:55:24,275
Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good night. Then good luck.

797
00:55:28,555 --> 00:55:32,955
Speaker 2: Caesar con they say, Caeser Coon Hey hired Rana ha

798
00:55:33,315 --> 00:55:37,555
Speaker 2: hired Rana got yelled at, yelled at by mad Oh.

799
00:55:38,075 --> 00:55:41,355
Speaker 1: She's the boss, so that was the death blow. Help me,

800
00:55:41,715 --> 00:55:50,755
Speaker 1: Ruana get the f of my TV. Thank you, Nancy

801
00:55:50,835 --> 00:55:53,755
Speaker 1: fast for me and all of my brothers. Countdown with

802
00:55:53,875 --> 00:55:58,195
Speaker 1: Keith Oldreman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

803
00:55:58,195 --> 00:56:02,955
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

804
00:56:02,995 --> 00:56:04,795
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts.