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

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Speaker 1: I ready to publish the podcast today, Trump decided to

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Speaker 1: attack the Pope online. I'll say that again. Trump attacked

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Speaker 1: the Pope Pope Leo online, and then he came back

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Speaker 1: not an hour later, pretending that he Trump is God

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Speaker 1: god like capable of healing.

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Speaker 2: Quote.

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Speaker 1: Pope Leo is weak on crime, he wrote, quote week

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Speaker 1: on nuclear weapons. Oh my God, no nuke's pope. How

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Speaker 1: will the world survive? Trump added that Leo quote does

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Speaker 1: not sit well with me, nor does the fact that

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Speaker 1: he meets with Obama sympathizers. Trump concluded the Pope is

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Speaker 1: quote hurting the Catholic Church and added, his brother lewis

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Speaker 1: much better than I like him because Lewis is all maga.

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Speaker 1: That is correct. Lewis is retired Navy with an online

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Speaker 1: vocabulary to match. But he would not make that good

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Speaker 1: of pope because you know, Lewis wasn't even a priest.

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Speaker 1: Trump concluded, in a typically modest bit of trump Ist insanity, quote,

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Speaker 1: if I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: in the Vatican. Once again, can't have those religious leaders

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Speaker 1: opposing nuking Iran. Can you but wait? That turned out

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Speaker 1: that just be the warm up for Trump's trolley truly

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Speaker 1: jumping the track. Forty six minutes later, Trump posted not

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Speaker 1: a repost, this was original to his account, an illustration,

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Speaker 1: probably AI of himself in flowing white Jesus like robes

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Speaker 1: and some kind of red tunic draped around his shoulders.

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Speaker 1: Trump's left hand is on the forehead of a sleeping

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Speaker 1: man who appears to be wearing a hospital gown. In

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Speaker 1: Trump's right hand, there is some kind of glowing light

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Speaker 1: origin unknown, possibly possibly originating in Trump's ass. Also in

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Speaker 1: the scene a nurse, a soldier, a woman who might

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Speaker 1: be the patient's wife, a bearded vet who looks unexpectedly

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Speaker 1: like the former San Antonio Spurs basketball coach Greg Popovich.

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Speaker 1: The Lincoln Memorial and the Statue of Liberty are in

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Speaker 1: the background behind Trump the healer. There are some really

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Speaker 1: big eagles in the sky, and something really big with

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Speaker 1: three points coming out of its head flying by, and

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Speaker 1: you'd say that must be the Statue of Liberty, only

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Speaker 1: the angry Statue of Liberty. And you don't want to

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Speaker 1: see the Statue of Liberty when she's angry, except as

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Speaker 1: I mentioned. The Statue of Liberty is also in the

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Speaker 1: background of this scene, next to the Lincoln Memorial behind

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Speaker 1: Trump as Jesus, who can heal people with the magic

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Speaker 1: light coming out of his palm. Now it's just me,

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Speaker 1: but the patient that Trump is healing in this illustration

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Speaker 1: that Trump himself posted last night, or perhaps he has

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Speaker 1: just sunk into a coma after listening to Trump talk

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Speaker 1: too much too long about his ballroom. It's just me,

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Speaker 1: but I think the patient is George W.

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Speaker 2: Bush.

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Speaker 1: The website patriot Takes reposted all this with the Rye

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Speaker 1: comment Trump has finally released his healthcare plan. President of

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Speaker 1: the United States posted these two things tonight, after attacking

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Speaker 1: the pope, after promising a blockade of the straight up

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Speaker 1: horror moves that would be a competing blockade to the

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Speaker 1: blockade the Iranians already have going there, after watching his

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Speaker 1: boy Orbond gets smoked in the Hungarian election, and just

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Speaker 1: before one more Trump post again no text, just a rendering,

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Speaker 1: this time not of the man being cured of a

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Speaker 1: bald patch or something by Trump and his magic light,

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Speaker 1: just a rendering of a Trump hotel or an apartment building.

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Speaker 1: It's gold. It's got a big Trump logo on it.

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Speaker 1: It's sixty to seventy stories high, and it's on the moon.

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Speaker 1: There are no other buildings around it, no services. Most interestingly,

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Speaker 1: there are no people in or around Trump Moon Plaza.

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Speaker 1: And having lived in a Trump building, I can tell

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Speaker 1: you that tracks the President of the United States.

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Speaker 2: Everybody.

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Speaker 1: So nine minutes after the attack on the Pope, Trump

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Speaker 1: met with pool reporters upon his return to Joint Base

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Speaker 1: Andrews from Florida last night and was asked, Hey, why'd

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Speaker 1: you go after the Pope, the spiritual leader of one billion,

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Speaker 1: four hundred million Catholics worldwide, seventy two million of them

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Speaker 1: at least in the US. And you will notice in

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Speaker 1: his answer, Trump gets it wrong on the timing of

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Speaker 1: when certain religious figures were arrested for violating COVID standards.

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Speaker 1: That was in twenty twenty when he was president. And

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Speaker 1: he gets it wrong and says, Pope Leo is in

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Speaker 1: favor of nuclear weapons. I tuk so, so.

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Speaker 3: I don't think he's doing a very good job.

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Speaker 1: He likes crime.

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Speaker 3: I guess he hit us think of it. He's worried

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Speaker 3: about fear. What about the fear when the administers and

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Speaker 3: the priests and all of those great people that were

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Speaker 3: arrested during COVID, and in many cases they're outside ten

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Speaker 3: feet apart and they were arrested.

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Speaker 1: So we don't like it.

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Speaker 3: We don't like a pope that's going to say that

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Speaker 3: it's okay to have a nuclear weapon. We don't want

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Speaker 3: a pope that says crime is okay in our cities.

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Speaker 3: I don't like it. I'm not a big fan of Publio.

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Speaker 3: He's a very liberal person, and he's a man that

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Speaker 3: doesn't believe in stopping crime. He's a man that doesn't

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Speaker 3: think that we should be doing him with a country

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Speaker 3: that wants a nuclear weapons so they can blow up

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Speaker 3: the world. I'm not a fan of Fublo.

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Speaker 1: So if there is a god, he has the chance

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Speaker 1: to do the funniest thing ever. Hi, Malanya Trump Epstein's

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Speaker 1: scandal Rush chairman, damn glad to meet you. If I

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Speaker 1: say her speech five hundred and thirty five words, most

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Speaker 1: of them mispronounced, all of them defensive and suspicious, and

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Speaker 1: a couple dozen of them totally unintelligible. If I say

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Speaker 1: that was the single most important public statement by anybody

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Speaker 1: connected to Trump in the last decade, I cannot help

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Speaker 1: but think. You may think I'm crazy, but I believe

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Speaker 1: that lousy. How is your English possibly worse now than

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Speaker 1: it was twenty five years ago, Babbel, Maybe the tipping

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Speaker 1: point for the insane tower of that has been Trump's

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Speaker 1: empire of lies and threats and bribes and blackmail. Malania

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Speaker 1: Trump the face of the resistance I know, orbon topples

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Speaker 1: in Hungary. Trump basically ends the ceasefire and threatens war

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Speaker 1: against every country in the world if they send a

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Speaker 1: ship through the Strait of Hormuz. The hooties are now

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Speaker 1: trying to blockade the other shipping bottleneck there. Bob elmandeb

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Speaker 1: JV Vance flunked out in Islamabad and Hungary. Trump is

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Speaker 1: staring at cleavage at the cage fighting in Miami Swallwell's

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Speaker 1: self defense strates while on fire. I know, I know

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Speaker 1: a lot going on. The Milania Trump speech and this

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Speaker 1: bizarre story of Amanda Ungaro, ex partner of the grubby

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Speaker 1: looking model agency owner who actually introduced the first lady

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Speaker 1: to Trump that has been to me the only head

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Speaker 1: line since it happened. It is potentially fatal to Trump's presidency,

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Speaker 1: and even if it is not fatal to Trump's presidency.

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Speaker 1: It has already begun to wound him in three or

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Speaker 1: four different ways. Firstly, almost every commentary and every analysis

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Speaker 1: of the millennia Trump's speech not only misses the forest

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Speaker 1: for the trees, it misses the continent of original growth

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Speaker 1: woodlands for the trees. She personally out of nowhere. Thursday,

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Speaker 1: moved the Epstein story back to center stage a month

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Speaker 1: of world shaking cataclysm caused by her idiot husband to

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Speaker 1: try to bury the Epstein story and his cover up

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Speaker 1: of the Epstein story. And in five hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: five words, she undid all that Epstein island revisited. Never

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Speaker 1: mind Iron. We can talk about Iron later. We can

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Speaker 1: wait till you're done talking about Iran. Trump is insisting

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Speaker 1: the Jeffrey Epstein story is over. His wife, the one

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Speaker 1: who is not buried at the golf course, also the

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Speaker 1: one whose lips are not glued shut by a non

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Speaker 1: disclosure agreement. His wife, the current one, is insisting that

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Speaker 1: there have to be congressional hearings for Epstein's victims. President says,

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Speaker 1: Epstein over, Epstein, hoax, Epstein nothing first, Lady says Epstein today,

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Speaker 1: Epstein tomorrow Epstein forever, Hi, Milania Trump Epstein scandal Rush chairman,

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Speaker 1: damn glad to meet you. And then she garrotted Trump

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Speaker 1: the speech, it's a travail. It causes headaches. Did you

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Speaker 1: listen to that speech? May be easier. Did you read it?

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Speaker 1: It was five hundred and thirty five words. It could

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Speaker 1: have been reduced to five. Those fives would have been

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Speaker 1: I'm not taking the fall. That was not a speech

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Speaker 1: to end a controversy. That was a speech designed to

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Speaker 1: deliberately invoke the streisand effect and not only reintroduce the

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Speaker 1: entire Epstein nightmare and the entire Trump campaign, promising to

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Speaker 1: expose everything about Epstein and Trump's personal, elaborate, tireless, ceaseless

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Speaker 1: cover up of Epstein. That was a preemptive strike to

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Speaker 1: raise not just uncomfortable questions for Donald Trump, but fatal

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Speaker 1: ones for Donald Trump. Why that speech? Why now what

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Speaker 1: she's talking about?

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Speaker 2: What is it?

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Speaker 1: Why did she do it?

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Speaker 2: Now?

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Speaker 1: What heretofore unknown scandal is about to break? Is she

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Speaker 1: defending herself from it? Or is she giving a five

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty five word pro for coverage of it?

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Speaker 1: So now we've got Epstein largely relegated to the background,

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Speaker 1: just as Trump wanted when those two animating principles of

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Speaker 1: his monstrous, soulless, quasi human life crossed, the need to

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Speaker 1: save himself even if it kills millions, and the sadistic

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Speaker 1: desire to blow stuff up, especially if brown people have

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Speaker 1: been using that stuff. He always wanted to blow up Iran,

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Speaker 1: but now he had a need to to distract from Epstein.

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Speaker 1: And as badly as this unplanned, Hey kids, let's go

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Speaker 1: out in the backyard and start a war. Quagmire has gone.

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Speaker 1: That's the exact degree and amount to which the distraction

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Speaker 1: had gone. Well, the distraction worked. The Epstein story was

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Speaker 1: barely alive. He even got away with firing the Attorney

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Speaker 1: General who screwed it up, Pambondy. During the Iran distraction,

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Speaker 1: Epstein dropped off the BBC, Epstein dropped out of the

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Speaker 1: dispatches of the.

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Speaker 2: A Gen Franz Press.

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Speaker 1: Epstein stopped being updated daily on the Wagga Wagga nightly

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Speaker 1: news in Australia and Milania. Put it all back where

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Speaker 1: it had been before Iran, And as a third consequence,

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Speaker 1: she also largely erased Iran as a means of further

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Speaker 1: distracting from Epstein, at least distracting any more in the future.

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Speaker 1: Her speech, bizarre, unexpected, inscrutable, took back the spotlight the

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Speaker 1: next time she speaks, or anybody thinks she might speak,

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Speaker 1: or the story that evidently provoked this about the model's

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Speaker 1: agent's ex partner, Amanda Ungaro advanced like, oh, maybe Amanda

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Speaker 1: Ungaro's interview scheduled on CNN today. The next time anything

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Speaker 1: else happens on this story, Iran stops because Milania Trump

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Speaker 1: changed the Epstein story from Epstein disgusting Donald more Epstein,

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Speaker 1: Prince Charles Epstein, Epstein Trump Trump to why the f

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Speaker 1: is Malania Trump talking about this? And yet there was

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Speaker 1: one more, one more, even more masterful stroke. That was

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Speaker 1: her saying, I'm not taking the fall. In that speech,

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Speaker 1: she used the word me seven times, she used the

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Speaker 1: word I seventeen times. She used Epstein's name sixteen times.

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Speaker 1: She denied her involvement, she said never nine times, she

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Speaker 1: said lie three times, she said victim five times, and

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Speaker 1: not once did she mention her husband, Fats. She referred

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Speaker 1: to him in meeting him, but nothing about this story.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't exist for the purposes of the story that

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Speaker 1: she told. There were less than four hundred other words

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Speaker 1: in the whole goddamn speech, and none of them were

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Speaker 1: used to say anything like my husband is enocent. She

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Speaker 1: barely mentioned him except to deny that Epstein introduced them.

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Speaker 1: She used the word wei, but not to insist that we,

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Speaker 1: as in she and her husband, were uninvolved. She never

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Speaker 1: expressed the slightest concern for him or how this story

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Speaker 1: affects him. She never protected him, She never defended him,

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Speaker 1: She never rallied to his side. He was an afterthought.

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Speaker 1: He was trivial. He was he is on his effing own.

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Speaker 1: The age old cliche is damning with faint praise. Well,

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Speaker 1: what the hell is it when it's not faint praise

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Speaker 1: but no praise of any kind at all. Milania Trump

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Speaker 1: hung Donald Trump out to dry about Epstein in the

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Speaker 1: speech by omission, by the fact of giving the speech

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Speaker 1: by co mission. Thomas Massey and Roe Conna were two

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Speaker 1: randos in the comments compared to the first lady. This

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Speaker 1: speech was so important, so damning, so destructive to all

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Speaker 1: the doors and barricades and flack that Trump has put

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Speaker 1: up between himself and Jeffrey Epstein, Dead and Jeffrey Epstein

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Speaker 1: alive and Jeffrey Epstein covered up that Trump doesn't have

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Speaker 1: any distractions left to use. I mean, does he think

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Speaker 1: we are going to go back to war with Iran again?

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Speaker 1: So he can Jeck's headlines distract from the Milania Epstein

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Speaker 1: cover up. It will not work. Something caused her to snap.

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Speaker 1: She snapped. In doing so, she snapped him in half. Hi,

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Speaker 1: Milania Trump Epstein scattle Rush chairman, Damn glad.

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Speaker 2: To meet you.

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Speaker 1: In brief, and I do want to get to you know,

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Speaker 1: orbond falling in Hungary thanks a lot jd Vance, and

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Speaker 1: the war in Iran that has gotten so bad that

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Speaker 1: Trump himself suggested simply filling the straight of horror moves

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Speaker 1: with American gunships. But a favorite Trump Washington Post columnist

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Speaker 1: had an idea that was even worse. Simply killed the

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Speaker 1: Iranian negotiators who refused to say yes. When jad Vance

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Speaker 1: presented Trump's list of demands to a country that is

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Speaker 1: absolutely certain it has beaten the United States. I do

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Speaker 1: want to get back to all that, but we need

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Speaker 1: a small explainer here. On Amanda Ungaro, she was the

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Speaker 1: partner of Paolo Zampoli, owner of ID Models, This guy

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Speaker 1: looks vaguely like my friend Stevie van Zant, only the

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Speaker 1: way suits fit this guy Zampoli. It makes Stephen in

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Speaker 1: his E Street band garb look like he's wearing a tux.

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Speaker 1: Steve cleans up nice Zampoli looks Zampolian.

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Speaker 2: Anyway.

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Speaker 1: Ungaro came here aboard Epstein's plane. Insists she was never

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Speaker 1: trafficked or abused, had no complaint with Epstein. She and

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Speaker 1: this Zampoli guy had a child in twenty ten. She

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Speaker 1: then left modeling. They knew the Trumps. They dined. She

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Speaker 1: found everything that Trumps did boring. She hated marri Lago.

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Speaker 1: She and the partner broke up in twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 1: She left Zampoli. She took no money. She and Zampoli

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Speaker 1: fought over custody of their son. She married a doctor,

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Speaker 1: and one day they came to arrest the doctor for

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Speaker 1: fraudulent practices and to take her in on visit charges.

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Speaker 1: Zampoli finds out about the mother of his child being imprisoned,

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Speaker 1: and according to the New York Times, he then calls

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Speaker 1: Ice with the simple message, don't release her. To port her.

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Speaker 1: Then I get custody the kid Zampoli denies this. He

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Speaker 1: never did it, and so what if he did. He

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Speaker 1: says she was guilty and they would have deported her anyway,

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Speaker 1: and he would have wound up with the boy anyway,

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Speaker 1: which is a really lousy way to try to make

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Speaker 1: yourself look innocent. So now she is deported to Rio

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Speaker 1: de Janeiro and the news begins to leak last week

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Speaker 1: that she's done interviews. The one in CNN is rumored

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Speaker 1: for today. The one in the Brazilian paper El Paie

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Speaker 1: was published yesterday. Now it's war. She says, I kept

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Speaker 1: quiet for years, and because of that, people judge me.

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Speaker 1: They ask me, why are you speaking now? Because the

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Speaker 1: man would not let me live in peace.

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Speaker 2: I tried.

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Speaker 1: I left the relationship with nothing, left my son at

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Speaker 1: boarding school and went to work. It was not enough

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Speaker 1: for him to destroy me during twenty years of relationship.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to destroy me again when I started a

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Speaker 1: new life, when I got married. I empathize. I feel

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Speaker 1: for you. There's no mention of Milania Trump in the

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Speaker 1: interview in Brazil. The Epstein connection. She says she met

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Speaker 1: him once. The Zampoli guy seems to have emailed him once.

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Speaker 1: The end their Epstein connection is that it wasn't Epstein

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Speaker 1: who introduced Malania to Trump, it was Zampoli. Then last Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: Ungaro posted a couple of tweets replies to Malania Trump

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Speaker 1: on the floatis account vague except for the they contained quote,

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Speaker 1: I have nothing left to lose in my life. I

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Speaker 1: will tear down the entire system. Be careful with me, bitch.

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Speaker 1: I assume they translated this for Milania into beach going

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Speaker 1: out on a limb here. There may be more to

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Speaker 1: this story than we know right now. If Trump is

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Speaker 1: involved directly in the personal vengeful targeting of this woman

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Speaker 1: who lived here for twenty years and has yes a

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Speaker 1: birthright citizen child, or somebody intervened by or on behalf

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Speaker 1: of Trump for the man who introduced him to his wife,

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Speaker 1: who just got up and gave a speech putting the

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Speaker 1: Epstein investigation directly back on her own husband of the

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Speaker 1: president of the United States. If that's the case, or

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Speaker 1: anything similar to it, It's not just a story. It's

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Speaker 1: a week of stories. It's a month of stories. It's

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Speaker 1: a presidency full of stories. It is the bottom this

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Speaker 1: bit of Trump Epstein's stories, and the irony is it's

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Speaker 1: barely about Epstein. It's entirely about the rot that Epstein

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Speaker 1: and Trump spread across this country and this world. And

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Speaker 1: it may turn out that the loathsome Malania Trump is

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Speaker 1: I can't believe I'm gonna say.

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Speaker 2: This, but.

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Speaker 1: A truth teller in all this, okay, And that smarmy

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Speaker 1: spokesmodel guy who's making the rounds of right wing media

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Speaker 1: defending her and once again saying nothing, nothing at all

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Speaker 1: in defense of Trump, just talking about her Donald Donald,

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Speaker 1: who Mark Beckman is her spokesman. Milania is a serious

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Speaker 1: person and she's ready to create serious implications for whom

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Speaker 1: Mark Beckman you may know him from such projects as

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Speaker 1: the movie twenty twenty six and The Matt Gates Show

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, and of course the upcoming Milania does Donald.

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Speaker 2: Twenty twenty seven. I made the last one up.

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Speaker 1: But this cynical, unintelligible, perpetually dyspeptic woman, Milania Konov's Trump

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Speaker 1: from Poland or Slovenia or from I don't care, do you?

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Speaker 2: As a truth teller? Well, hell, why not.

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Speaker 1: She's already done more to revive the Epstein saga than

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Speaker 1: anybody else, anybody else, And let me correct myself. Epstein

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Speaker 1: sagaes Hi Milania Trump Epstein scandal Rush chairman, damn glad

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Speaker 1: to meet you.

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Speaker 2: Meanwhile, a little further afield.

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Speaker 1: If it weren't satisfying enough to see a fat fascist

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Speaker 1: f get the crap kicked out of himself and the

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Speaker 1: elections in Hungary, I want to thank jd Vance for

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Speaker 1: going all the way there to campaign for Victor Orbin

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Speaker 1: and thus get the crap of Orbon's failed dictatorship all

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Speaker 1: over his shoes, his floor, shime shoes. It is extraordinary

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Speaker 1: that Orbon, who is even more openly run by Putin

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Speaker 1: than Trump, is actually conceded same day as the election yesterday,

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Speaker 1: although there is still plenty of time for him to

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Speaker 1: stage a fake security crisis. Trump beaten so badly that

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Speaker 1: the Democrats have a super majority if that comes to pass,

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Speaker 1: would not concede. Hell, he hasn't conceded twenty twenty yet

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Speaker 1: because he is a broken brained, deranged, psychopathic twerp. Trump's

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Speaker 1: last words in this life will probably be I will

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Speaker 1: live forever. U Polling Now suggests if anything happens to

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Speaker 1: him before the mid terms, yeah, look for Mike Johnson.

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Speaker 1: It'll be the Republican Senate or House election committees will

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Speaker 1: be the primary suspects. Incredibly, Trump, in the new CBS poll,

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Speaker 1: has lost lost whites without college degrees, his core morons,

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Speaker 1: in fifteen months. He went from sixty eight percent approval

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Speaker 1: with them in February of last year thirty two percent

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Speaker 1: disapproval to forty eight percent approval fifty two percent disapproval.

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Speaker 1: Now that is a net swing of minus forty forty points.

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Speaker 1: He lost the Shah of Iran didn't even lose forty

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Speaker 1: eight points in a little over a year. As to Iran,

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Speaker 1: and there goes the ceaspire. Trump has now threatened to

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Speaker 1: blow up any ship that pays a toll the straight

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Speaker 1: of Horror Moves. In other words, he has threatened war

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Speaker 1: against every country on Earth. Good call, Grandpa Shardy. Now,

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Speaker 1: what are you gonna do about bob Elmandeb. No, No, no, sorry,

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00:25:18,515 --> 00:25:22,795
Speaker 1: he's not a friend of Milania's. All right, Drag Trump

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Speaker 1: off the golf course. Explain to him what that is.

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Speaker 1: It's the other bottleneck for most shipped oil from the Gulf.

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Speaker 1: If you go through Suez, you gotta go through Horror

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Speaker 1: Moves and bob Elmandeb three point three million barrels a

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Speaker 1: day through bob Elmandeb. It's near Yemen, and what do

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Speaker 1: you know? Is predicted as everybody but Trump expected, the

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Speaker 1: Houthis have been laying back waiting for their moment to

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Speaker 1: aid their Iranian sponsors, and they seem to be moving

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Speaker 1: to block bob Elmandeb, to board ships trying to go through.

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Speaker 1: Nice job, President, brain liquefaction. This shuar is going great.

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Speaker 1: What twenty one hour of negotiations with the US team

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Speaker 1: led by serial idea book title borrower JD Vance, and

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Speaker 1: we somehow didn't get world peace. See, there was a

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Speaker 1: slight miscalculation by the American negotiators that Trump sent. They

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00:26:19,595 --> 00:26:24,075
Speaker 1: went in expecting surrender terms from Iran, when Iran understands,

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Speaker 1: like the rest of the world understands, that it has

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Speaker 1: won because it is still intact, because all it lost

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Speaker 1: was a few aging bureaucrats. With this country collapse if

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Speaker 1: somebody knocked off some of our aging bureaucrats. Hell, we

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Speaker 1: have so many aging bureaucrats who'd notice whatever happened to

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Speaker 1: that McConnell guy blown up by Iran? How can you

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Speaker 1: tell Alito? The real problem looming at the near horizon

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00:26:59,915 --> 00:27:02,475
Speaker 1: is the reality that at some point Trump is going

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Speaker 1: to have to cut off Israel, talk them out of this,

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00:27:09,395 --> 00:27:13,035
Speaker 1: get off the team. There are no breaks in Israel.

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Speaker 1: Their government net in Yahoo needs a forever war to

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Speaker 1: stay in power, and he will not stop. And he

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00:27:22,155 --> 00:27:24,435
Speaker 1: needs to stay in power to stay out of jail.

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Speaker 1: Even the Wall Street Journal reports Iran still has thousands

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Speaker 1: of ballistic missiles and launchers secure in underground storage. China

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00:27:33,995 --> 00:27:37,595
Speaker 1: is shipping new ordinance to Iran and new air defense systems.

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00:27:37,715 --> 00:27:42,515
Speaker 1: The Ayatola farms continue to produce new litters aline. The

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Speaker 1: Strait of Hormuz is as even Trump is discovered filled

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Speaker 1: with land mines or water mines. But alas, the one

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Speaker 1: thing we apparently did destroy in Iran was all the

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Speaker 1: infrastructure required for Iran to remove the mines. What happens

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Speaker 1: when to save his own presidency, Trump has to bait

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Speaker 1: with Israel. What happens when oil will flow through Hormuz

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Speaker 1: and bob Elmandeb. Only if Iran is intact will Trump

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00:28:15,595 --> 00:28:17,635
Speaker 1: actually get to the point where this country has to

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Speaker 1: side with Iran and against Israel to keep Trump's precious

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Speaker 1: gallon of gas under ten dollars Oil oil uber Alas,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what is Trump going to do instead of

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00:28:33,915 --> 00:28:38,035
Speaker 1: turning against Israel when that point arrives endorse wind farms

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00:28:38,075 --> 00:28:42,275
Speaker 1: and solar power. Trump's entire foreign policy has about three

401
00:28:42,315 --> 00:28:50,795
Speaker 1: weeks to live and then who knows three weeks like

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00:28:50,915 --> 00:28:55,035
Speaker 1: the Eric Swallowell candidacy. Look, I get it. I thought

403
00:28:55,075 --> 00:29:00,035
Speaker 1: he was terrific too, he's not. The evidence is overwhelming.

404
00:29:00,235 --> 00:29:03,795
Speaker 1: It is not based only on anonymous victims. It is

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00:29:03,835 --> 00:29:06,995
Speaker 1: not connected to Roger Stone. It is not a plot

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00:29:07,075 --> 00:29:11,355
Speaker 1: to Franken Swalwell and elect a Republican governor of California.

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00:29:11,635 --> 00:29:17,715
Speaker 1: It is a classic politician gone bad saga. It was

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Speaker 1: Ali Simarco who went on record accusing Swalowell of things

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Speaker 1: that could put him in jail, never mind put him

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Speaker 1: out of that race. And Somarco's husband, the Democratic strategist

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Speaker 1: Adam Parkermenko, made an inarguable point about the apologist's refuge. Oh,

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Speaker 1: there are anonymous accusers, it must be fake to quote him.

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Speaker 1: A number of women received cease and desist letters from

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Speaker 1: Eric Swalwell. My wife did not. Every woman involved except

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Speaker 1: my wife, who went on the record, has remained anonymous.

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Speaker 1: So here's the question. No one can ignore. How did

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Speaker 1: he know who to send those letters to if they

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00:29:59,595 --> 00:30:10,235
Speaker 1: were anonymous? Yeah, as the kids say this, and as

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00:30:10,275 --> 00:30:13,515
Speaker 1: to Stoney, absolutely did tell Alex Jones that the swal

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00:30:13,555 --> 00:30:16,035
Speaker 1: whales story was going to explode a few hours before

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Speaker 1: it broke in the media. That's a mighty thin evidence

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Speaker 1: if you really think Roger Stone caused it to happen.

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Speaker 1: Roger Stone would like you to think he caused it

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Speaker 1: to happen, just like Roger Stone would like you to

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00:30:29,195 --> 00:30:38,355
Speaker 1: think that's his real hair. But people talk, and political operatives,

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Speaker 1: all of whom have seemingly worked for, all of the

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Speaker 1: elected officials now alive, local, state, and national in this

428
00:30:45,195 --> 00:30:49,155
Speaker 1: country and sometimes in other countries. All the political operatives

429
00:30:49,275 --> 00:30:53,835
Speaker 1: who do know each other. They're like the borg from

430
00:30:53,915 --> 00:30:57,555
Speaker 1: Star Trek, and they talk like nineteenth century housemaids. Used

431
00:30:57,595 --> 00:31:02,635
Speaker 1: to any good news organization San Francisco Chronicles, CNN, NBC,

432
00:31:02,755 --> 00:31:06,275
Speaker 1: anybody who reported on the Swalweales store, any good news

433
00:31:06,395 --> 00:31:10,635
Speaker 1: organization on stories they don't report, they make hundreds of

434
00:31:10,715 --> 00:31:14,835
Speaker 1: calls on a story like this. You worked with Smith,

435
00:31:15,035 --> 00:31:18,195
Speaker 1: who worked with Jones, who worked for Swalwell, could this

436
00:31:18,355 --> 00:31:20,955
Speaker 1: be true? Or should we drop it? Off the record,

437
00:31:20,995 --> 00:31:25,355
Speaker 1: just give me some guidance. Stone told Alex Jones that

438
00:31:25,395 --> 00:31:28,315
Speaker 1: the Swalwell story was going to explode hours before it broke.

439
00:31:28,995 --> 00:31:29,635
Speaker 2: Wow.

440
00:31:30,235 --> 00:31:33,755
Speaker 1: A thousand political people could have done that. A thousand

441
00:31:33,835 --> 00:31:36,995
Speaker 1: political people could have told Alex Jones hours, maybe days.

442
00:31:38,355 --> 00:31:40,875
Speaker 1: It's likely Stone was one of the last to find out.

443
00:31:41,075 --> 00:31:46,275
Speaker 1: Stone was just the most scumbaggish of them, naturally, And

444
00:31:46,315 --> 00:31:49,435
Speaker 1: that's the razor's edge to breaking any story in any field.

445
00:31:49,475 --> 00:31:53,875
Speaker 1: How do you get background confirmation, third sources, fifth sources,

446
00:31:54,155 --> 00:31:56,995
Speaker 1: fifty third sources who are just guiding you as to

447
00:31:57,035 --> 00:31:59,915
Speaker 1: whether or not you're full of crap. How do you

448
00:31:59,915 --> 00:32:03,555
Speaker 1: do it without giving the story away to them? Well,

449
00:32:03,595 --> 00:32:07,275
Speaker 1: you work fast, and I will close by telling of

450
00:32:07,315 --> 00:32:10,355
Speaker 1: my own experience with something like this. The Wednesday before

451
00:32:10,395 --> 00:32:13,475
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving in twenty seventeen, a friend of mine called me

452
00:32:13,715 --> 00:32:16,315
Speaker 1: and told me Matt Lower was about to go up

453
00:32:16,315 --> 00:32:20,315
Speaker 1: in flames at NBC. She had a vague idea of

454
00:32:20,355 --> 00:32:23,795
Speaker 1: what it was about women and violence, no other details,

455
00:32:24,035 --> 00:32:26,715
Speaker 1: just that it was very bad and he was done.

456
00:32:28,515 --> 00:32:28,635
Speaker 3: It.

457
00:32:28,715 --> 00:32:32,755
Speaker 1: May say, she said, this is the long Thanksgiving weekend,

458
00:32:32,835 --> 00:32:36,915
Speaker 1: but nobody at our Alma mater is on vacation. Sure, enough,

459
00:32:37,715 --> 00:32:42,395
Speaker 1: NBC vaporized Matt Lower, the president, the idiot Andy Lack

460
00:32:42,555 --> 00:32:45,635
Speaker 1: went to his apartment here in New York late the

461
00:32:45,715 --> 00:32:51,475
Speaker 1: following Tuesday, the twenty eighth, and in the interim between

462
00:32:52,115 --> 00:32:54,715
Speaker 1: Wednesday and Tuesday, the story didn't break, It didn't leak,

463
00:32:54,795 --> 00:32:58,115
Speaker 1: it wasn't hinted at. My source found out about it

464
00:32:58,155 --> 00:33:01,075
Speaker 1: on Wednesday the twenty second. I found out about it

465
00:33:01,155 --> 00:33:04,195
Speaker 1: later on Wednesday the twenty second. Matt Lower found out

466
00:33:04,235 --> 00:33:07,995
Speaker 1: about it on Tuesday the twenty ninth. My source hadn't

467
00:33:07,995 --> 00:33:11,035
Speaker 1: worked at NBC in ten years. I hadn't worked at

468
00:33:11,115 --> 00:33:16,555
Speaker 1: NBC in six years. People talk, People gossip. If you

469
00:33:16,595 --> 00:33:21,675
Speaker 1: believe Roger Stone orchestrated Eric Swalwells's self defenestration after he

470
00:33:21,795 --> 00:33:26,515
Speaker 1: set himself a blaze, then you can also believe that

471
00:33:26,635 --> 00:33:36,675
Speaker 1: my friend and I we're the ones who fired Matt Lower, and.

472
00:33:36,795 --> 00:33:37,835
Speaker 2: We didn't.

473
00:33:41,755 --> 00:33:45,235
Speaker 1: Also have interest here. My record for the longest span

474
00:33:45,475 --> 00:33:50,355
Speaker 1: between anchoring consecutive editions of SportsCenter twenty one years and

475
00:33:50,515 --> 00:33:56,875
Speaker 1: two months has now been broken. I will introduce you

476
00:33:56,915 --> 00:34:01,595
Speaker 1: to the new rip fan Winkle and speaking of getting

477
00:34:01,635 --> 00:34:06,635
Speaker 1: off by NBC like Matt Lower, Chuck Tad is outraged,

478
00:34:06,675 --> 00:34:10,315
Speaker 1: about Trump's plan to pre pardon his administration members, and

479
00:34:10,475 --> 00:34:19,155
Speaker 1: Chuck has put the blame entirely on Joe Biden because

480
00:34:19,435 --> 00:34:23,635
Speaker 1: Chuck Todd's career may be over, but his both sizest

481
00:34:23,715 --> 00:34:25,955
Speaker 1: idiocy is forever.

482
00:34:27,475 --> 00:34:29,315
Speaker 2: That's next. This is Countdown.

483
00:34:31,075 --> 00:34:56,195
Speaker 1: This is Countdown with Keith Alderman still ahead on this

484
00:34:56,435 --> 00:34:59,715
Speaker 1: all new edition of Countdown. After an absence of twenty

485
00:34:59,755 --> 00:35:04,355
Speaker 1: three years, my friend Rich Eisen went back to Bristol

486
00:35:04,675 --> 00:35:09,155
Speaker 1: eticuet last night to anchor ESPN's Sports Center for the

487
00:35:09,155 --> 00:35:12,755
Speaker 1: first time since two thousand and three. Thus he breaks

488
00:35:12,955 --> 00:35:17,595
Speaker 1: my record for Rip van winkling that show, which was

489
00:35:17,675 --> 00:35:20,475
Speaker 1: twenty one years and a couple months. And in TV

490
00:35:20,595 --> 00:35:25,195
Speaker 1: sports terms, this is the equivalent of cal Ripken breaking

491
00:35:25,235 --> 00:35:29,955
Speaker 1: the Lou Garrig consecutive games played streak. Nobody thought that

492
00:35:30,155 --> 00:35:35,995
Speaker 1: anybody could create a longer gap between Sports Center shows,

493
00:35:36,595 --> 00:35:40,075
Speaker 1: and the Ripvan Winkle effect at ESPN is real. Nothing

494
00:35:40,315 --> 00:35:42,955
Speaker 1: would have looked familiar to him, as nothing looked familiar

495
00:35:42,955 --> 00:35:46,355
Speaker 1: to me. The saga of my nuclear departure from ESPN

496
00:35:46,355 --> 00:35:49,875
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven, my unexpected return two ESPN in

497
00:35:49,915 --> 00:35:53,275
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, my re return in twenty thirteen.

498
00:35:53,395 --> 00:35:57,675
Speaker 1: My re re return in twenty eighteen. Next in another

499
00:35:58,235 --> 00:36:02,595
Speaker 1: thing I promised not to tell first. In the interim,

500
00:36:02,635 --> 00:36:05,315
Speaker 1: we always have new idiots to talk about the roundup

501
00:36:05,315 --> 00:36:08,395
Speaker 1: of the mis grants, morons and Dunning Krueger effects specimens

502
00:36:08,395 --> 00:36:10,235
Speaker 1: who constitute today's other.

503
00:36:10,795 --> 00:36:13,915
Speaker 2: Worst persons in the world.

504
00:36:15,355 --> 00:36:19,315
Speaker 1: This edition is dedicated to Chuck Todd. Chuck Todd, who

505
00:36:19,315 --> 00:36:23,035
Speaker 1: still has not absorbed why ANDBC fired him from Meet

506
00:36:23,075 --> 00:36:28,115
Speaker 1: the Press, nor why he became an online punchline. It's

507
00:36:28,155 --> 00:36:31,075
Speaker 1: the both sides ism, Chuck, and you've done it again,

508
00:36:31,795 --> 00:36:35,795
Speaker 1: and it's uninformed both sides ism. After Trump said he

509
00:36:35,915 --> 00:36:40,115
Speaker 1: might issue blanket pardons for all members of his administration preemptively,

510
00:36:40,555 --> 00:36:46,115
Speaker 1: Chuck blamed Joe Biden I quote. Perhaps Trump would have

511
00:36:46,195 --> 00:36:49,395
Speaker 1: done this regardless, but let's not forget Biden created this

512
00:36:49,555 --> 00:36:53,115
Speaker 1: preemptive pardon precedent. The only good news that might come

513
00:36:53,115 --> 00:36:56,035
Speaker 1: out of this pardon corruption we will get a bipartisan

514
00:36:56,155 --> 00:37:00,955
Speaker 1: supported constitutional amendment to create a congressional nullification process for

515
00:37:01,115 --> 00:37:08,435
Speaker 1: all presidential pardons. A. No, we won't, Chuck. The Republicans

516
00:37:08,475 --> 00:37:12,675
Speaker 1: will never do anything to limit a president's powers. They also,

517
00:37:12,835 --> 00:37:16,155
Speaker 1: these Republicans, they certainly won't because they can't see more

518
00:37:16,195 --> 00:37:19,195
Speaker 1: than their own lives ahead. Half of them will still

519
00:37:19,235 --> 00:37:24,515
Speaker 1: need pardons even after Trump is dead. The Republicans won't

520
00:37:24,515 --> 00:37:29,755
Speaker 1: support limiting a president's powers, particularly pardoning half of them.

521
00:37:29,835 --> 00:37:33,355
Speaker 1: Literally half of them would go to jail. And b

522
00:37:33,755 --> 00:37:39,035
Speaker 1: Chuck who created the preemptive pardon? Who was the president

523
00:37:39,195 --> 00:37:44,755
Speaker 1: before Joe Biden? Again, the president before Joe Biden was

524
00:37:44,755 --> 00:37:51,195
Speaker 1: was Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson, Chester, Allen Arthur.

525
00:37:52,835 --> 00:37:54,595
Speaker 2: No oh right.

526
00:37:54,715 --> 00:37:58,755
Speaker 1: The president before Biden was Donald Trump, and he pardoned

527
00:37:58,795 --> 00:38:01,795
Speaker 1: General Flynn and Steve Bannon and Elliott Roydy and Paul

528
00:38:01,835 --> 00:38:06,795
Speaker 1: Manifordi's campaign manager, and he pardoned Piro's ex husband.

529
00:38:08,555 --> 00:38:09,795
Speaker 2: Chuck is such a clown.

530
00:38:11,395 --> 00:38:14,755
Speaker 1: The medalists, the Bronze Worst, the Financial Times, the newspaper.

531
00:38:14,795 --> 00:38:18,355
Speaker 1: There are meaningless quotation errors. I once told a newspaper

532
00:38:18,355 --> 00:38:20,235
Speaker 1: that I felt like a guy in a life raft

533
00:38:20,475 --> 00:38:23,635
Speaker 1: who had been quote picked up by the q E two,

534
00:38:24,275 --> 00:38:26,315
Speaker 1: as in the luxury Liner, the q E two, the

535
00:38:26,395 --> 00:38:31,035
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth two. And the guy wrote instead that I

536
00:38:31,195 --> 00:38:34,355
Speaker 1: felt like I was picked up by the Kiwi Comma

537
00:38:34,595 --> 00:38:39,475
Speaker 1: two tub o. But this this is that didn't matter.

538
00:38:39,555 --> 00:38:42,275
Speaker 1: It was just dumb this matters.

539
00:38:42,675 --> 00:38:43,515
Speaker 2: I am quoting the.

540
00:38:43,515 --> 00:38:49,235
Speaker 1: Ft verbatim not suitable for work correction Brene Brown. Researcher

541
00:38:49,275 --> 00:38:52,555
Speaker 1: Brene Brown was misquoted in an interview published on April sixth.

542
00:38:52,875 --> 00:38:57,155
Speaker 1: She described herself as solidly in my fuck it era

543
00:38:57,915 --> 00:39:07,075
Speaker 1: rather than quote solidly in my fucking era. Yeah, it

544
00:39:07,195 --> 00:39:10,115
Speaker 1: is kind of good that they corrected that. On the

545
00:39:10,155 --> 00:39:14,435
Speaker 1: other hand, it's like losing a paternity case. I mean,

546
00:39:14,475 --> 00:39:20,035
Speaker 1: you have to deny that you're solidly in your fucking era, madam.

547
00:39:20,475 --> 00:39:24,275
Speaker 1: In several places on social media, the correction to the

548
00:39:24,755 --> 00:39:28,915
Speaker 1: FT's correction was responded to with the best correction of

549
00:39:28,915 --> 00:39:31,555
Speaker 1: all time, which dates to I think twenty nineteen from

550
00:39:31,555 --> 00:39:34,755
Speaker 1: one of my alma maters, GQ Magazine. Note this story

551
00:39:34,755 --> 00:39:37,955
Speaker 1: has been updated. Alexander Vindman received a purple heart after

552
00:39:37,995 --> 00:39:42,315
Speaker 1: being wounded by an IED or improvised explosive device, not

553
00:39:42,395 --> 00:39:51,515
Speaker 1: an IUD intributor in device. We regret the error. Honey,

554
00:39:51,515 --> 00:39:54,875
Speaker 1: if you got your IED, I don't know, but let's

555
00:39:54,875 --> 00:39:57,355
Speaker 1: talk to Brene Brown again about whether or not she's

556
00:39:57,395 --> 00:40:01,395
Speaker 1: solidly Okay, all right, okay, you can listen. Okay, you

557
00:40:01,395 --> 00:40:05,035
Speaker 1: can bring the kids back into the room. The rest

558
00:40:05,035 --> 00:40:07,355
Speaker 1: of it. I got his sound effects and insults. That's

559
00:40:07,395 --> 00:40:08,475
Speaker 1: all right, It's fine.

560
00:40:08,235 --> 00:40:08,915
Speaker 2: From here on in.

561
00:40:09,275 --> 00:40:12,875
Speaker 1: I think the runner up worser whoever set up the

562
00:40:12,915 --> 00:40:16,995
Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth Anniversary Commonwealth Concert Series event Thursday

563
00:40:17,155 --> 00:40:22,515
Speaker 1: in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Chrucolate Factory where thousands of people

564
00:40:22,555 --> 00:40:26,795
Speaker 1: work to make that delight with and without nuts, as

565
00:40:26,835 --> 00:40:29,395
Speaker 1: the great lowl Thomas once said, and then started to

566
00:40:29,475 --> 00:40:35,275
Speaker 1: laugh on CBS radio for five minutes, Trucolate Tone where

567
00:40:35,275 --> 00:40:42,515
Speaker 1: thousands of workers make chucolate with than without nuts. Governor

568
00:40:42,595 --> 00:40:46,835
Speaker 1: Josh Shapiro was in Hershey. I believe along that main

569
00:40:46,995 --> 00:40:51,555
Speaker 1: artery there which is called what the Hershey Parkway, Governor

570
00:40:51,635 --> 00:40:54,195
Speaker 1: Josh Shapiro, and I told you you could bring the

571
00:40:54,275 --> 00:40:57,355
Speaker 1: kids back into the room. Governor Josh Shapiro and a

572
00:40:57,355 --> 00:41:00,195
Speaker 1: bunch of historical reenactors. It was a Ben Franklin, there

573
00:41:00,195 --> 00:41:02,475
Speaker 1: was a Betsy Ross, there were some others. They put

574
00:41:02,555 --> 00:41:06,435
Speaker 1: up a large heavy backdrop banner behind the lectern and

575
00:41:06,675 --> 00:41:10,355
Speaker 1: mike to announce the two hundred and fiftieth Anniversary Commonwealth

576
00:41:10,355 --> 00:41:15,075
Speaker 1: Concert Series in Pennsylvania. And then with this big heavy

577
00:41:15,155 --> 00:41:19,075
Speaker 1: backdrop banner behind the Governor and Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross.

578
00:41:19,235 --> 00:41:26,955
Speaker 4: Here comes the wind in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the newly refurbished,

579
00:41:26,995 --> 00:41:34,915
Speaker 4: refashioned redone point State Parks. Kiss everybody open, We all five.

580
00:41:35,675 --> 00:41:40,755
Speaker 1: Everyone is fine. This is such an exciting announcement. So

581
00:41:40,875 --> 00:41:45,995
Speaker 1: the world is falling apart over it? Yes, kite, all right,

582
00:41:46,035 --> 00:41:51,355
Speaker 1: Doc to Franklin, listen, we are all good. We're holding on,

583
00:41:52,035 --> 00:41:56,475
Speaker 1: all right, all right, pipe down Betsy Ross one goddamn

584
00:41:56,595 --> 00:41:58,755
Speaker 1: flag and she thinks she's Abigail Adams.

585
00:41:59,755 --> 00:42:00,195
Speaker 2: Zip it.

586
00:42:01,315 --> 00:42:04,035
Speaker 1: None were injured, though, as we begin to see name

587
00:42:04,155 --> 00:42:08,355
Speaker 1: surface for twenty twenty eight Democratic nomination, Governor Shapiro should

588
00:42:08,395 --> 00:42:15,475
Speaker 1: think really seriously about symbols and omens augurs and four

589
00:42:15,595 --> 00:42:16,795
Speaker 1: tense dier.

590
00:42:18,075 --> 00:42:18,675
Speaker 2: At your event.

591
00:42:18,715 --> 00:42:22,075
Speaker 1: Go I almost got crushed by the two hundred and

592
00:42:22,075 --> 00:42:28,915
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of our country banner. Oh, but our winner

593
00:42:29,235 --> 00:42:33,875
Speaker 1: the worst golfer Bryson Deshambeau and Calsh Calshi. Is that

594
00:42:34,035 --> 00:42:36,835
Speaker 1: bet on anything site that is ruining what little is

595
00:42:36,915 --> 00:42:39,795
Speaker 1: left of our lives that hadn't already been ruined by

596
00:42:39,795 --> 00:42:44,195
Speaker 1: the Internet and Rupert Murdoch. If you were unfamiliar with golf,

597
00:42:45,275 --> 00:42:51,395
Speaker 1: first off, congratulations there is no less interesting sport with

598
00:42:51,515 --> 00:42:56,595
Speaker 1: less interesting participants, which overrates its big events like the

599
00:42:56,675 --> 00:43:04,795
Speaker 1: Masters more especially the Masters, which until thirty years ago

600
00:43:04,835 --> 00:43:12,675
Speaker 1: is actually still kind of segregated. There's no less interesting

601
00:43:12,715 --> 00:43:17,275
Speaker 1: sport with less interesting participants, which wastes more physical space

602
00:43:17,475 --> 00:43:22,035
Speaker 1: for less interesting purposes. As Churchill pointed it out, you

603
00:43:22,195 --> 00:43:25,435
Speaker 1: hit a ball with an implement ill designed for the purpose,

604
00:43:25,795 --> 00:43:29,915
Speaker 1: and then you go chase it. But if you are

605
00:43:29,955 --> 00:43:32,595
Speaker 1: lucky and you don't know your golf. Bryson de Shambo,

606
00:43:32,755 --> 00:43:35,595
Speaker 1: this guy I mentioned, starts with the reputation of being

607
00:43:35,635 --> 00:43:39,195
Speaker 1: a dick. Even the other golfers hate him, even golf

608
00:43:39,275 --> 00:43:43,275
Speaker 1: fans hate him. Unsurprisingly, mister de Shambo is now doing

609
00:43:43,315 --> 00:43:46,235
Speaker 1: commercials for Calshi, and one of them is so clever

610
00:43:46,315 --> 00:43:49,475
Speaker 1: and self congratulatory that it probably has yet to dawn

611
00:43:49,515 --> 00:43:52,115
Speaker 1: on the agency and the client that they are really

612
00:43:52,195 --> 00:43:56,995
Speaker 1: hurting themselves with it. Even Deshambo a dick, looks worse

613
00:43:57,195 --> 00:44:00,075
Speaker 1: somehow after this thing. In it, you see Bryson De

614
00:44:00,155 --> 00:44:04,195
Speaker 1: Shambo's caddie and they're talking. He has to talk to

615
00:44:04,195 --> 00:44:07,715
Speaker 1: Bryson Shambo. Deshambo pays him. Dishambo and the caddy are

616
00:44:07,715 --> 00:44:12,035
Speaker 1: discussing betting on betting sites, and Deshambo says something about

617
00:44:12,595 --> 00:44:15,675
Speaker 1: that you can bet on alien sightings. Cut to the

618
00:44:15,715 --> 00:44:18,355
Speaker 1: sand trap on the golf course, where a UFO is

619
00:44:18,355 --> 00:44:23,835
Speaker 1: clearly just crashed and your standard cliched martian extraterrestrial with

620
00:44:23,915 --> 00:44:28,875
Speaker 1: the Reynolds wrap skin and the big eyes has crawled

621
00:44:28,915 --> 00:44:33,235
Speaker 1: out and is moaning in agony in the sand trap.

622
00:44:33,995 --> 00:44:38,275
Speaker 1: Possibly he's moaning in agony because he realizes he's crashed

623
00:44:38,275 --> 00:44:41,915
Speaker 1: in a golf course and may have to watch golf anyway.

624
00:44:41,995 --> 00:44:45,195
Speaker 1: Dashambo asks if they can bet on alien sightings, and

625
00:44:45,195 --> 00:44:48,355
Speaker 1: the caddie says, yes, yes you can, And clearly Deshambo

626
00:44:48,475 --> 00:44:51,795
Speaker 1: has a bet against alien sightings or for some reason

627
00:44:51,915 --> 00:44:55,235
Speaker 1: is interested in the outcome of the betting on alien signings,

628
00:44:55,475 --> 00:44:59,075
Speaker 1: because you can see once again the gravely injured extraterrestrial

629
00:44:59,115 --> 00:45:03,395
Speaker 1: again in close up, and the caddy says, you can't

630
00:45:03,515 --> 00:45:07,955
Speaker 1: leave him like that, and Deshambo says, I know, and

631
00:45:07,995 --> 00:45:10,235
Speaker 1: he walks back to the golf cart and he pulls

632
00:45:10,235 --> 00:45:12,715
Speaker 1: out a couple of clubs, sticks them under his arm,

633
00:45:12,755 --> 00:45:17,995
Speaker 1: and walks resolutely and grimly towards the moaning extraterrestrial whom

634
00:45:18,035 --> 00:45:23,555
Speaker 1: he is clearly going to kill. Now, I get it.

635
00:45:23,555 --> 00:45:27,915
Speaker 1: It's TV. It's supposed to be stupid. I've worked in

636
00:45:28,035 --> 00:45:30,635
Speaker 1: TV off and on since nineteen eighty one, and it's

637
00:45:30,635 --> 00:45:33,955
Speaker 1: a TV commercial, so it's it's supposed to be even

638
00:45:33,955 --> 00:45:38,115
Speaker 1: more stupid. I've done TV commercial since the first one's

639
00:45:38,155 --> 00:45:41,875
Speaker 1: in Boston in nineteen eighty four, and it's a TV

640
00:45:41,955 --> 00:45:44,715
Speaker 1: commercial featuring golf, So it's supposed to be as stupid

641
00:45:44,715 --> 00:45:50,635
Speaker 1: as humanly possible, extending into extraterrestrial stupid. And in this

642
00:45:50,755 --> 00:45:55,035
Speaker 1: cynical time, if there were anything left to be upset by,

643
00:45:55,595 --> 00:45:58,035
Speaker 1: nothing is sacred. But I'd just like to point out

644
00:45:58,035 --> 00:46:01,395
Speaker 1: that the message here from the Calshi wagering site, and

645
00:46:01,515 --> 00:46:04,675
Speaker 1: from this guy to Shambo Bryson de Shambo, and from

646
00:46:04,835 --> 00:46:08,035
Speaker 1: PGA Golf Tour, and thus from its most recent event,

647
00:46:08,275 --> 00:46:10,515
Speaker 1: the Masters, the message from all of them is that

648
00:46:10,555 --> 00:46:13,435
Speaker 1: if there is life anywhere else in the universe, and

649
00:46:13,515 --> 00:46:17,155
Speaker 1: that life form comes here, God knows why, confirming that

650
00:46:17,195 --> 00:46:20,075
Speaker 1: we are not alone in this vast space, that perhaps

651
00:46:20,075 --> 00:46:23,555
Speaker 1: we could be helped by a species smarter than us,

652
00:46:23,795 --> 00:46:26,395
Speaker 1: that knows how to force the twenty fifth Amendment, That

653
00:46:26,475 --> 00:46:29,555
Speaker 1: perhaps there is some meaning to life, some chance that

654
00:46:29,635 --> 00:46:34,435
Speaker 1: mankind might endure despite its own mistakes. Some solution for

655
00:46:35,315 --> 00:46:38,875
Speaker 1: the poisoning of our atmosphere and the general lowering and

656
00:46:39,075 --> 00:46:42,955
Speaker 1: iq of our leaders if that extraterrestrial comes here and

657
00:46:43,035 --> 00:46:46,355
Speaker 1: comes to Earth and confirms all that by his mere presence,

658
00:46:46,475 --> 00:46:50,435
Speaker 1: and the first human the extraterrestrial meets is Bryson to Shamba.

659
00:46:50,835 --> 00:46:54,115
Speaker 1: Bryson to Shamba will try to beat that extraterrestrial to

660
00:46:54,195 --> 00:47:00,275
Speaker 1: death with a couple of golf clubs. Bryson, I can

661
00:47:00,315 --> 00:47:02,955
Speaker 1: bet on anything, can I? Can I bet on the

662
00:47:02,995 --> 00:47:10,995
Speaker 1: extraterrestrial here Deshambo Today's other as in having the extraterrestrial

663
00:47:11,315 --> 00:47:14,755
Speaker 1: not only survive the attack, but take the clubs from

664
00:47:14,835 --> 00:47:17,995
Speaker 1: Bryson to Shambo's hands, and then.

665
00:47:18,355 --> 00:47:19,795
Speaker 2: Well you get the rest of the picture.

666
00:47:21,675 --> 00:47:34,235
Speaker 1: Today's other worst person in the universe. See the premise

667
00:47:34,235 --> 00:47:37,035
Speaker 1: of that joke is when Deshambo goes over to beat

668
00:47:37,035 --> 00:47:40,595
Speaker 1: the hell out of the extraterrestrial and kill him, then

669
00:47:40,595 --> 00:47:43,115
Speaker 1: the extraterrestrial just takes the thing from him and then

670
00:47:43,315 --> 00:47:54,555
Speaker 1: going back to Bristol, Bristol, Bristol, going back to Bristol. Man,

671
00:47:54,995 --> 00:48:00,035
Speaker 1: I don't think so. My friend rich Eisen, who I

672
00:48:00,435 --> 00:48:03,155
Speaker 1: actually walked in the door for the first time at

673
00:48:03,435 --> 00:48:08,075
Speaker 1: ESPN thirty thirty one, one hundred and seventy years ago,

674
00:48:08,875 --> 00:48:12,275
Speaker 1: returned there last night to do an edition of Sports

675
00:48:12,275 --> 00:48:15,675
Speaker 1: Center for the first time in twenty years. I'm sure

676
00:48:15,715 --> 00:48:19,035
Speaker 1: he had exactly the same experience mentally that I did

677
00:48:19,395 --> 00:48:21,715
Speaker 1: the two times I went back, and the first time

678
00:48:21,755 --> 00:48:24,035
Speaker 1: I went back to do an edition of Sports Center,

679
00:48:24,315 --> 00:48:27,675
Speaker 1: which was in twenty eighteen, a brief interruption from the

680
00:48:27,875 --> 00:48:30,435
Speaker 1: last time I had done it, which was nineteen ninety seven.

681
00:48:31,035 --> 00:48:34,995
Speaker 1: It was exactly like the story of Rip van Winkle,

682
00:48:35,235 --> 00:48:37,755
Speaker 1: who wakes up after a quick nap to find out

683
00:48:37,795 --> 00:48:40,595
Speaker 1: that twenty years have passed and all of a sudden

684
00:48:40,915 --> 00:48:44,555
Speaker 1: he's in the middle of a gigantic city when he

685
00:48:44,635 --> 00:48:46,515
Speaker 1: thought the whole world was about a block and a

686
00:48:46,555 --> 00:48:51,195
Speaker 1: half long when he laid down there seconds before. I'm

687
00:48:51,195 --> 00:48:54,395
Speaker 1: sure Rich had a great time, very warm, very nostalgic,

688
00:48:54,475 --> 00:48:59,035
Speaker 1: and it's always better to resolve your previous burned bridges,

689
00:48:59,835 --> 00:49:03,435
Speaker 1: burned bridges by ESPN in his case, burned bridges by

690
00:49:03,435 --> 00:49:07,635
Speaker 1: me and ESPN in mind in any event, with that

691
00:49:07,835 --> 00:49:11,075
Speaker 1: and the news story as the preamble to the number

692
00:49:11,075 --> 00:49:15,995
Speaker 1: one story on the Countdown and going back to Bristol, Bristol, Bristol,

693
00:49:16,275 --> 00:49:20,115
Speaker 1: going back to Bristol, I don't think so. I left

694
00:49:20,395 --> 00:49:24,195
Speaker 1: ESPN in a storm of controversy that can only be

695
00:49:24,315 --> 00:49:27,875
Speaker 1: guessed at now by people who were not functioning in

696
00:49:27,915 --> 00:49:31,235
Speaker 1: the media world or functioning consumers on a daily basis

697
00:49:31,275 --> 00:49:35,955
Speaker 1: of ESPN in the nineteen ninety five six y seven era.

698
00:49:36,195 --> 00:49:39,435
Speaker 1: You cannot imagine that there were people whose job it

699
00:49:39,675 --> 00:49:44,115
Speaker 1: was to cover what was happening at ESPN and the

700
00:49:44,155 --> 00:49:47,635
Speaker 1: other networks, but hours included, and that when after months

701
00:49:47,635 --> 00:49:51,475
Speaker 1: of uncertainty and indecision, I made up my mind and

702
00:49:51,595 --> 00:49:54,515
Speaker 1: decided to leave, I was able to leak the story

703
00:49:54,795 --> 00:49:58,755
Speaker 1: to two different New York newspapers, each of which played

704
00:49:58,755 --> 00:50:03,075
Speaker 1: it prominently in their sports sections. Today, it would not

705
00:50:03,155 --> 00:50:07,115
Speaker 1: get mentioned in two newspapers in America. It was a

706
00:50:07,155 --> 00:50:09,915
Speaker 1: big deal then. It was a big deal when Rich

707
00:50:10,035 --> 00:50:13,875
Speaker 1: left for the NFL Network about ten years later. It

708
00:50:13,955 --> 00:50:17,275
Speaker 1: was still a big deal when I started to negotiate

709
00:50:17,355 --> 00:50:21,955
Speaker 1: to go back to ESPN myself. But you can't imagine

710
00:50:22,035 --> 00:50:25,195
Speaker 1: what it was like in nineteen ninety seven and the

711
00:50:25,235 --> 00:50:30,715
Speaker 1: amount of attention this got, and particularly it Nobody remembers this,

712
00:50:30,915 --> 00:50:33,155
Speaker 1: and it didn't last very long, but it was a

713
00:50:33,275 --> 00:50:37,035
Speaker 1: cordial farewell, although it was later written up to be

714
00:50:37,435 --> 00:50:40,435
Speaker 1: nuclear war, and it became that. Certainly, it was a

715
00:50:40,475 --> 00:50:44,275
Speaker 1: cordial farewell. And now with the perspective of more than

716
00:50:44,435 --> 00:50:48,595
Speaker 1: or nearly three decades since my first departure from ESPN,

717
00:50:48,635 --> 00:50:51,595
Speaker 1: as opposed to my second, third, or fourth departures from ESPN,

718
00:50:51,675 --> 00:50:56,195
Speaker 1: all of which were amicable, it has a great lesson

719
00:50:56,315 --> 00:51:00,155
Speaker 1: to it, which is, as I have suggested previously, it's

720
00:51:00,395 --> 00:51:04,515
Speaker 1: much better when the bridges have been burnt to take

721
00:51:04,515 --> 00:51:08,275
Speaker 1: that tunnel. There was a famous line, which was an

722
00:51:08,315 --> 00:51:10,675
Speaker 1: adaptation of one of my lines from one of the

723
00:51:10,715 --> 00:51:14,075
Speaker 1: pr people at ESPN, who said, Keith didn't just burn

724
00:51:14,635 --> 00:51:16,675
Speaker 1: the bridges here, he napalmed them.

725
00:51:16,875 --> 00:51:17,395
Speaker 2: This was a.

726
00:51:17,395 --> 00:51:19,875
Speaker 1: Variation on something I had said on Tom Snyder's show

727
00:51:19,955 --> 00:51:22,755
Speaker 1: previously a few weeks previously, late in nineteen ninety seven,

728
00:51:22,955 --> 00:51:25,675
Speaker 1: which was I had not just burned the bridges, I

729
00:51:25,715 --> 00:51:29,195
Speaker 1: had also managed to burn the river. In any event,

730
00:51:29,275 --> 00:51:32,835
Speaker 1: I'm wandering off into the as I said, nuclear war

731
00:51:32,875 --> 00:51:35,475
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety seven, rather than talk about the real

732
00:51:35,555 --> 00:51:39,475
Speaker 1: point here, which was going back there first in twenty thirteen,

733
00:51:39,555 --> 00:51:43,635
Speaker 1: then again briefly in twenty fifteen, and then finally for

734
00:51:43,875 --> 00:51:48,395
Speaker 1: my retirement tour in twenty eighteen, none of which could

735
00:51:48,395 --> 00:51:51,075
Speaker 1: have been possibly predicted the day I walked out of

736
00:51:51,075 --> 00:51:53,955
Speaker 1: there in late June of nineteen ninety seven with a

737
00:51:53,995 --> 00:51:59,195
Speaker 1: going away party that lasted until sunrise. I'm not going

738
00:51:59,235 --> 00:52:06,595
Speaker 1: to tell those stories, regardless to the ESPN, after I

739
00:52:06,675 --> 00:52:10,715
Speaker 1: went into news and burned all the way through those experiences,

740
00:52:10,875 --> 00:52:12,835
Speaker 1: and there was never any doubt that that was the

741
00:52:12,835 --> 00:52:15,795
Speaker 1: way it was going to end. I was both difficult

742
00:52:16,115 --> 00:52:20,995
Speaker 1: with management, and I was insistent on editorial input or

743
00:52:21,035 --> 00:52:24,555
Speaker 1: control or both, and I insisted on telling the truth.

744
00:52:24,595 --> 00:52:27,435
Speaker 1: And frankly, the people at NBC no longer were interested

745
00:52:27,475 --> 00:52:30,195
Speaker 1: in the truth. They were interested in trying to get

746
00:52:30,195 --> 00:52:33,275
Speaker 1: an audience that did not exist, which was some sort

747
00:52:33,315 --> 00:52:36,755
Speaker 1: of neutral news audience that had long since vanished from

748
00:52:36,835 --> 00:52:41,555
Speaker 1: cable news. But it was inevitable, and as they improperly

749
00:52:41,595 --> 00:52:45,555
Speaker 1: suspended me for violating the NBC News Codes, even though

750
00:52:45,595 --> 00:52:49,035
Speaker 1: they had written a contract in which they specifically insisted

751
00:52:49,075 --> 00:52:51,515
Speaker 1: I sign a document that said I was not an

752
00:52:51,675 --> 00:52:55,155
Speaker 1: NBC News employee and thus not subject to the NBC

753
00:52:55,315 --> 00:52:58,795
Speaker 1: News Codes. Well, that was the end of that contract,

754
00:52:58,795 --> 00:53:00,595
Speaker 1: and they owed me a lot of money, and al

755
00:53:00,675 --> 00:53:03,075
Speaker 1: Gore and his people offered me even more money, and

756
00:53:03,115 --> 00:53:05,355
Speaker 1: I went over there, and one day they ran out

757
00:53:05,355 --> 00:53:07,315
Speaker 1: of money and decided to blame me for it and

758
00:53:07,395 --> 00:53:10,195
Speaker 1: decided to stop paying me, and I had to sue them,

759
00:53:10,315 --> 00:53:13,435
Speaker 1: as I had threatened to sue NBC. The outcome of

760
00:53:13,555 --> 00:53:18,675
Speaker 1: all of these outcomes combined simply was I got enough

761
00:53:18,715 --> 00:53:22,675
Speaker 1: money by the year twenty and twelve to have no

762
00:53:22,755 --> 00:53:24,075
Speaker 1: more need of working.

763
00:53:23,795 --> 00:53:24,595
Speaker 2: Again in my life.

764
00:53:24,635 --> 00:53:27,475
Speaker 1: And yet here I am still working because that's what

765
00:53:27,475 --> 00:53:29,835
Speaker 1: we're supposed to do, but I don't have to do it,

766
00:53:30,235 --> 00:53:32,035
Speaker 1: and I don't do it when I don't want to

767
00:53:32,075 --> 00:53:37,115
Speaker 1: do it, And that, in fact is Nirvana, not the band.

768
00:53:37,355 --> 00:53:43,675
Speaker 1: The state of existence. Okay, around two thousand and eleven,

769
00:53:43,875 --> 00:53:47,395
Speaker 1: as the thing began to collapse at current TV, first off,

770
00:53:47,515 --> 00:53:50,955
Speaker 1: negotiations began and continued off and on through twenty twenty

771
00:53:50,995 --> 00:53:53,235
Speaker 1: one for me to go back to MSNBC, but they

772
00:53:53,275 --> 00:53:58,035
Speaker 1: also resumed with an unlikely candidate for a return. ESPN

773
00:53:58,155 --> 00:54:01,035
Speaker 1: was interested in having me come back. I had maintained

774
00:54:01,115 --> 00:54:05,675
Speaker 1: a foothold within sports and in fact within ESPN, although

775
00:54:05,715 --> 00:54:08,115
Speaker 1: it was nuclear war by two thousand and five, the

776
00:54:08,315 --> 00:54:10,715
Speaker 1: ESPN Radio Network asked me to come back and help

777
00:54:10,795 --> 00:54:13,115
Speaker 1: Dan Patrick out, who was having some trouble with his

778
00:54:13,275 --> 00:54:16,595
Speaker 1: radio show on ESPN. I became a host once a

779
00:54:16,675 --> 00:54:19,355
Speaker 1: week for an hour of Dan's show, co host with him,

780
00:54:19,555 --> 00:54:21,435
Speaker 1: and then that went so well they gave me a

781
00:54:21,515 --> 00:54:23,835
Speaker 1: huge amount of money for ESPN, more than they had

782
00:54:23,875 --> 00:54:26,235
Speaker 1: paid me to do Sports Center, to do one hour

783
00:54:26,355 --> 00:54:28,555
Speaker 1: a day with Dan, and it was great and refreshing,

784
00:54:28,555 --> 00:54:31,995
Speaker 1: and it was a wonderful a wonderful pressure valve for

785
00:54:32,075 --> 00:54:34,195
Speaker 1: all the stuff I had to do in politics. And

786
00:54:34,195 --> 00:54:36,075
Speaker 1: every day I'd go over to a studio or do

787
00:54:36,155 --> 00:54:38,835
Speaker 1: a studio shot from my own home for an hour

788
00:54:38,875 --> 00:54:41,515
Speaker 1: from three to four o'clock, and I would be I

789
00:54:41,555 --> 00:54:46,835
Speaker 1: would be freshened, I would have my palette cleansed, and

790
00:54:46,955 --> 00:54:50,035
Speaker 1: we'd laugh and have fun about the good old days.

791
00:54:50,035 --> 00:54:51,955
Speaker 1: And the amount of preparation time for a one hour

792
00:54:52,115 --> 00:54:55,355
Speaker 1: radio sports show is not like a one hour television

793
00:54:55,395 --> 00:54:58,955
Speaker 1: show about politics, which requires about seven hours of preparation.

794
00:54:59,035 --> 00:55:02,115
Speaker 1: If you go really really fast, a one hour radio

795
00:55:02,195 --> 00:55:05,635
Speaker 1: sports show can require as little as ninety seconds preparation.

796
00:55:05,875 --> 00:55:07,555
Speaker 1: What are we talking about? Okay?

797
00:55:07,555 --> 00:55:09,715
Speaker 2: Have you got any print outs on that? Okay?

798
00:55:10,155 --> 00:55:13,835
Speaker 1: All right, we are there sandwiches. That's the preparation for

799
00:55:13,875 --> 00:55:15,435
Speaker 1: some of the hours that Dan and I did, And

800
00:55:15,515 --> 00:55:17,715
Speaker 1: we just went on and talked about our reactions, which

801
00:55:17,755 --> 00:55:19,755
Speaker 1: were pretty much going to be the same, whether we

802
00:55:19,795 --> 00:55:22,075
Speaker 1: had deeply read into a subject or not, or at

803
00:55:22,155 --> 00:55:24,795
Speaker 1: least mine were. I think Dan got a little bit

804
00:55:24,795 --> 00:55:28,075
Speaker 1: more in depth because he had to do three hours

805
00:55:28,075 --> 00:55:29,635
Speaker 1: of the show. So I had gone back and there

806
00:55:29,715 --> 00:55:34,395
Speaker 1: was peace, if not resolution, and there were various articles

807
00:55:34,395 --> 00:55:37,155
Speaker 1: that would come out about the war between ESPN and

808
00:55:37,235 --> 00:55:40,035
Speaker 1: Keith Olderman and Keith Olderman and ESPN, and I didn't

809
00:55:40,115 --> 00:55:42,555
Speaker 1: like that person, and that person didn't like me, and

810
00:55:42,555 --> 00:55:46,155
Speaker 1: they wouldn't put my name in any of the annual

811
00:55:46,275 --> 00:55:49,355
Speaker 1: shows or his throw doing the history of ESPN. There

812
00:55:49,395 --> 00:55:51,755
Speaker 1: are all kinds of petty, silly things, but in fact

813
00:55:51,755 --> 00:55:53,595
Speaker 1: they were paying me like three hundred and fifty thousand

814
00:55:53,595 --> 00:55:56,835
Speaker 1: dollars a year ago on Dan's radio show. So that passed.

815
00:55:56,835 --> 00:55:59,155
Speaker 1: When Dan left ESPN in two thousand and seven, and

816
00:55:59,195 --> 00:56:02,755
Speaker 1: again we were distant, but not uncomfortably. So I went

817
00:56:02,795 --> 00:56:06,475
Speaker 1: to work with NBC. It's in addition to the MSNBC show,

818
00:56:06,675 --> 00:56:09,035
Speaker 1: and did the Sunday Night Football show, from two thousand

819
00:56:09,075 --> 00:56:12,635
Speaker 1: and seven through the two thousand and nine season, and

820
00:56:12,755 --> 00:56:15,275
Speaker 1: I did other sports projects here and there for NBC

821
00:56:15,355 --> 00:56:17,835
Speaker 1: and other outfits and had a good time generally. I

822
00:56:17,955 --> 00:56:21,875
Speaker 1: did a blog, a daily blog for MLB dot com,

823
00:56:21,875 --> 00:56:25,355
Speaker 1: and was going to be involved in Baseball's new TV

824
00:56:25,515 --> 00:56:27,315
Speaker 1: network when it went on the air in two thousand

825
00:56:27,315 --> 00:56:29,235
Speaker 1: and nine, so I still had a presence in sports

826
00:56:29,315 --> 00:56:31,635
Speaker 1: much bigger than I do now and a knowledge of

827
00:56:31,675 --> 00:56:35,795
Speaker 1: sports much greater than I have now. Anyway, so now

828
00:56:35,795 --> 00:56:39,155
Speaker 1: we're talking about two thousand and eleven and twenty twelve,

829
00:56:39,235 --> 00:56:41,595
Speaker 1: and the news game has pretty much run its course

830
00:56:41,635 --> 00:56:44,835
Speaker 1: because there aren't other networks or channels that are going

831
00:56:44,875 --> 00:56:49,355
Speaker 1: to carry a show about political opinion. There's CNN maybe

832
00:56:49,435 --> 00:56:53,275
Speaker 1: and MSNBC, and I've already worked twice for MSNBC by

833
00:56:53,315 --> 00:56:55,795
Speaker 1: this point, and they have breached my contract and I

834
00:56:55,795 --> 00:56:58,275
Speaker 1: had to threaten to sue them for umpteen million dollars

835
00:56:58,395 --> 00:57:00,515
Speaker 1: and they had to pay me umpteen million dollars so

836
00:57:00,515 --> 00:57:02,675
Speaker 1: I would not sue them, and I had to leave

837
00:57:03,955 --> 00:57:06,795
Speaker 1: by mutual consent, obviously, because who wants to stay at

838
00:57:06,795 --> 00:57:09,995
Speaker 1: a place where you are suing your boss? As pleasant

839
00:57:10,235 --> 00:57:13,995
Speaker 1: it is in theory. It has practical problems, like if

840
00:57:13,995 --> 00:57:16,795
Speaker 1: you leave your office, perhaps they'll change the locks while

841
00:57:16,795 --> 00:57:19,475
Speaker 1: you're out in the bathroom. I'm not saying they did that.

842
00:57:19,755 --> 00:57:24,395
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I know they contemplated it. So I thought,

843
00:57:24,475 --> 00:57:27,115
Speaker 1: also it probably would be a good idea if going

844
00:57:27,155 --> 00:57:29,395
Speaker 1: back to the idea of the Dan Patrick Show, a

845
00:57:29,555 --> 00:57:32,195
Speaker 1: palette cleanse of a couple of years was in order,

846
00:57:32,675 --> 00:57:35,075
Speaker 1: And so my agents and I began to discuss with

847
00:57:35,395 --> 00:57:38,595
Speaker 1: ESPN the possibility of going back there. They had developed

848
00:57:38,635 --> 00:57:40,755
Speaker 1: the agents that is a very good relationship with a

849
00:57:40,795 --> 00:57:43,035
Speaker 1: man named John Skipper, who was the new president of

850
00:57:43,275 --> 00:57:46,635
Speaker 1: ESPN and who, unlike most of his predecessors, really thought

851
00:57:46,635 --> 00:57:50,155
Speaker 1: that it was necessary to have sportscasters. There was a

852
00:57:50,235 --> 00:57:53,395
Speaker 1: president of ESPN whose dream it was to never have

853
00:57:53,595 --> 00:57:56,795
Speaker 1: any sportscaster appear on camera, so that they would not

854
00:57:56,915 --> 00:58:00,115
Speaker 1: get famous enough or even recognizable enough that you had

855
00:58:00,155 --> 00:58:03,275
Speaker 1: to pay them six figures. This was actually his goal

856
00:58:03,595 --> 00:58:06,475
Speaker 1: at the height of Espend's monopoly, when there was nothing

857
00:58:06,515 --> 00:58:10,715
Speaker 1: else worth watching in cable sports news, after CNN took

858
00:58:10,755 --> 00:58:14,075
Speaker 1: its show off the air and there was no competition

859
00:58:14,155 --> 00:58:17,555
Speaker 1: for Sports Center. This man really dreamt of having a

860
00:58:17,595 --> 00:58:22,475
Speaker 1: sportscast with no sportscasters. The new guy, Skipper had a

861
00:58:22,515 --> 00:58:26,755
Speaker 1: totally different attitude. If anything, he overvalued sportscasters. And so

862
00:58:26,875 --> 00:58:29,475
Speaker 1: we began a series of negotiations with him and the

863
00:58:29,475 --> 00:58:32,355
Speaker 1: people close to him whom my agents knew, and we

864
00:58:32,515 --> 00:58:36,515
Speaker 1: had meetings, clandestine meetings in suburban New York and out

865
00:58:36,555 --> 00:58:38,875
Speaker 1: in the wilds of Connecticut with people that I had

866
00:58:38,915 --> 00:58:42,715
Speaker 1: worked with at ESPN. Principal among them Norby Williamson, who

867
00:58:42,755 --> 00:58:45,915
Speaker 1: was the producer of SportsCenter the day I got there

868
00:58:45,915 --> 00:58:49,155
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two, and then was the executive producer

869
00:58:49,195 --> 00:58:52,035
Speaker 1: of ESPN two when we launched it in nineteen ninety three,

870
00:58:52,235 --> 00:58:54,435
Speaker 1: and who by this point was pretty much in charge

871
00:58:54,475 --> 00:58:57,315
Speaker 1: of everything done in the studio at ESPN, and who

872
00:58:57,435 --> 00:59:00,995
Speaker 1: desperately wanted me to come back and do SportsCenter or something.

873
00:59:01,435 --> 00:59:05,795
Speaker 1: And so throughout twenty twelve we discussed this in secret meetings,

874
00:59:05,835 --> 00:59:09,635
Speaker 1: and Norby had a plan that got to this stage

875
00:59:09,955 --> 00:59:12,915
Speaker 1: of near fruition. He told me to keep a couple

876
00:59:12,915 --> 00:59:17,715
Speaker 1: of Sundays open in September of twenty twelve because what

877
00:59:17,755 --> 00:59:20,275
Speaker 1: he wanted to do was reach an agreement with me,

878
00:59:20,395 --> 00:59:23,875
Speaker 1: a contract, sign it on a Sunday afternoon in Connecticut,

879
00:59:24,035 --> 00:59:26,475
Speaker 1: put me in a hotel room with all the equipment

880
00:59:26,475 --> 00:59:29,435
Speaker 1: that I would need to write and prepare an edition

881
00:59:29,555 --> 00:59:32,315
Speaker 1: of the Sunday Night Sports Center for a night in September,

882
00:59:32,355 --> 00:59:36,115
Speaker 1: a Sunday in September twenty twelve, and simply five or

883
00:59:36,155 --> 00:59:38,755
Speaker 1: ten minutes before Sports Center was to go on that night,

884
00:59:38,995 --> 00:59:42,435
Speaker 1: go from the hotel room to the studio at ESPN,

885
00:59:42,835 --> 00:59:45,075
Speaker 1: sit down at the desk where a Sports Center was

886
00:59:45,115 --> 00:59:48,235
Speaker 1: being done, to the total surprise of the co anchor,

887
00:59:48,275 --> 00:59:51,315
Speaker 1: whoever that was, and taking the place of somebody who

888
00:59:51,395 --> 00:59:54,515
Speaker 1: was essentially a beard, a fake anchor, who had prepared

889
00:59:54,555 --> 00:59:57,355
Speaker 1: the whole show and who would now say good to

890
00:59:57,355 --> 00:59:59,515
Speaker 1: see Keith, and then would walk off, and then we

891
00:59:59,555 --> 01:00:02,555
Speaker 1: would start SportsCenter and not announce to anybody that I

892
01:00:02,595 --> 01:00:05,435
Speaker 1: had come back to ESPN, but simply had me appear,

893
01:00:05,835 --> 01:00:08,315
Speaker 1: maybe with one promo in the middle of the Sunday

894
01:00:08,355 --> 01:00:11,515
Speaker 1: night football game or Sunday night baseball game, whatever it

895
01:00:11,675 --> 01:00:15,995
Speaker 1: was at the time, and next Sports Center with Keith Olderman.

896
01:00:16,475 --> 01:00:19,435
Speaker 1: That can't be right, play the theme. That was what

897
01:00:19,515 --> 01:00:22,355
Speaker 1: he wanted to do, and he said, keep these days open. Well,

898
01:00:22,395 --> 01:00:24,675
Speaker 1: we got to the point where he then called me

899
01:00:24,715 --> 01:00:27,555
Speaker 1: and said, it's not going to work. It's going to

900
01:00:27,675 --> 01:00:29,835
Speaker 1: not work, and it's not going to work this winter.

901
01:00:29,995 --> 01:00:32,315
Speaker 1: It's going to be something we have to revisit next year.

902
01:00:32,355 --> 01:00:34,555
Speaker 1: You'll just have to sit at home and count all

903
01:00:34,595 --> 01:00:37,715
Speaker 1: of your news money. And I went, oh, well, all right, fine,

904
01:00:37,795 --> 01:00:40,955
Speaker 1: So we revisited it in twenty thirteen, and there really

905
01:00:41,035 --> 01:00:45,235
Speaker 1: wasn't any motivation for ESPN to do this. And there's

906
01:00:45,315 --> 01:00:48,795
Speaker 1: also a significant drawback to what was going on. As

907
01:00:48,795 --> 01:00:51,115
Speaker 1: I said, I was involved in a lawsuit against these

908
01:00:51,155 --> 01:00:53,835
Speaker 1: people from Current TV, and it dawned on me one

909
01:00:53,955 --> 01:00:56,155
Speaker 1: day that if I were running a television network and

910
01:00:56,195 --> 01:00:58,915
Speaker 1: thinking of hiring some guy, no matter how talented or

911
01:00:59,035 --> 01:01:02,595
Speaker 1: useful he might be, if he was actively suing his

912
01:01:02,715 --> 01:01:06,035
Speaker 1: previous employer, I might be reluctant to hire him on

913
01:01:06,075 --> 01:01:09,155
Speaker 1: the simple premise that if he sued his previous employer,

914
01:01:09,635 --> 01:01:11,955
Speaker 1: what's to assure me that he's not going to sue

915
01:01:12,115 --> 01:01:15,755
Speaker 1: me his current employer. I thought that made a lot

916
01:01:15,755 --> 01:01:18,155
Speaker 1: of sense, and in discussions with the people at ESPN

917
01:01:18,195 --> 01:01:22,675
Speaker 1: again John Skipper, Norby Williamson, many other folks, that seemed

918
01:01:22,715 --> 01:01:25,875
Speaker 1: to be the overarching point of view. Well Happily, we

919
01:01:25,915 --> 01:01:29,115
Speaker 1: took the lawsuit to mediation, and there was an opportunity

920
01:01:29,115 --> 01:01:31,435
Speaker 1: for me to both not go to court and to

921
01:01:31,555 --> 01:01:33,715
Speaker 1: end the whole thing and to get the money. And

922
01:01:33,835 --> 01:01:36,355
Speaker 1: I saw it as a great opportunity to also resume

923
01:01:36,395 --> 01:01:40,475
Speaker 1: my career after one year of being absolutely radioactive. And

924
01:01:40,595 --> 01:01:45,795
Speaker 1: sure enough this doubled ESPN's enthusiasm for bringing me back

925
01:01:46,075 --> 01:01:51,195
Speaker 1: after almost what sixteen years away. The other thing that

926
01:01:51,355 --> 01:01:58,595
Speaker 1: motivated them was one of the great strategical, delightful, mean spirited,

927
01:01:58,915 --> 01:02:03,755
Speaker 1: practical jokes black ops rat effing, to use the Nixon

928
01:02:03,755 --> 01:02:07,835
Speaker 1: administration term, things I have ever heard of in any industry,

929
01:02:07,955 --> 01:02:12,795
Speaker 1: but particularly in television. Two things happened that accentuated the

930
01:02:12,955 --> 01:02:15,915
Speaker 1: need for them to rehire me to go and do

931
01:02:15,995 --> 01:02:19,075
Speaker 1: something at ESPN. Originally it was to be Sports Center,

932
01:02:19,115 --> 01:02:22,355
Speaker 1: but then they had a better idea Fox Sports, for

933
01:02:22,475 --> 01:02:24,915
Speaker 1: whom I had worked in nineteen ninety nine, two thousand

934
01:02:24,995 --> 01:02:27,395
Speaker 1: and two thousand and one, trying to build up something

935
01:02:27,435 --> 01:02:32,195
Speaker 1: that would eventually compete with ESPN, particularly SportsCenter. They underfunded

936
01:02:32,235 --> 01:02:34,875
Speaker 1: it and that thing went up in dust, but I

937
01:02:34,915 --> 01:02:38,595
Speaker 1: got my money there too. Now Here, twenty years later,

938
01:02:38,675 --> 01:02:41,115
Speaker 1: they're going to try it again. Or ten years later,

939
01:02:41,155 --> 01:02:43,315
Speaker 1: they're going to try it again, and in fact, they're

940
01:02:43,315 --> 01:02:46,755
Speaker 1: going to roll out two new networks. And it dawned

941
01:02:46,755 --> 01:02:50,035
Speaker 1: on the folks at ESPN Skipper in particular, that what

942
01:02:50,115 --> 01:02:52,915
Speaker 1: he could do would be hire me, put me on

943
01:02:53,395 --> 01:02:56,795
Speaker 1: ESPN two, and whatever the ratings would be for my

944
01:02:56,875 --> 01:02:59,995
Speaker 1: show on ESPN two, they would presumably be double what

945
01:03:00,075 --> 01:03:03,155
Speaker 1: Fox Sports was able to get in its earliest stages.

946
01:03:03,235 --> 01:03:06,475
Speaker 1: It's premiere week, it's premier month, and they could point

947
01:03:06,595 --> 01:03:09,195
Speaker 1: to the ratings and say, we don't even look at

948
01:03:09,195 --> 01:03:12,475
Speaker 1: what they're doing against Sports Center on ESPN. Look at

949
01:03:12,515 --> 01:03:16,115
Speaker 1: how poorly they're doing against our second offering at that

950
01:03:16,235 --> 01:03:20,355
Speaker 1: hour at eleven o'clock, Keith Alderman's new show. Isn't this ridiculous?

951
01:03:20,355 --> 01:03:23,195
Speaker 1: How much money is Fox going to waste on this project?

952
01:03:23,395 --> 01:03:27,315
Speaker 1: But then I believe my people, Nick Kahn, who was

953
01:03:27,395 --> 01:03:30,315
Speaker 1: my agent and then went on to run wrestling, in

954
01:03:30,355 --> 01:03:33,835
Speaker 1: a move I still don't quite understand. Nick Kahn, I believe,

955
01:03:33,915 --> 01:03:37,315
Speaker 1: suggested to John Skipper that there was something even more

956
01:03:37,395 --> 01:03:42,195
Speaker 1: evil he could do. Fox did one thing right. Fox

957
01:03:42,395 --> 01:03:46,355
Speaker 1: played the media, the media covering television, and has always

958
01:03:46,355 --> 01:03:50,075
Speaker 1: played them extraordinarily well. They wined them, They dined them,

959
01:03:50,115 --> 01:03:52,995
Speaker 1: they flew them places, they gave them free stuff, and

960
01:03:53,075 --> 01:03:54,715
Speaker 1: what they were going to do in the summer of

961
01:03:54,715 --> 01:03:58,715
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen was to fly them all to Los Angeles.

962
01:03:58,875 --> 01:04:02,035
Speaker 1: And now we're not talking about newspapers sending reporters because

963
01:04:02,035 --> 01:04:04,355
Speaker 1: there were fewer and fewer of them. We're now talking

964
01:04:04,355 --> 01:04:08,795
Speaker 1: about bloggers. Bloggers who is the proverbial jokes go, have

965
01:04:08,955 --> 01:04:11,435
Speaker 1: never been out of their mother's basement before, suddenly get

966
01:04:11,435 --> 01:04:13,835
Speaker 1: a first class air ticket to Los Angeles for a

967
01:04:13,915 --> 01:04:16,075
Speaker 1: couple of days in a good hotel and a lot

968
01:04:16,115 --> 01:04:19,875
Speaker 1: of free food and a party. Probably half of them

969
01:04:19,875 --> 01:04:22,715
Speaker 1: had never been to a party before. It's the launch

970
01:04:22,755 --> 01:04:26,595
Speaker 1: party for Fox Sports one and Fox Sports two. And

971
01:04:26,795 --> 01:04:30,115
Speaker 1: in the middle of the second day or the first day,

972
01:04:31,755 --> 01:04:35,395
Speaker 1: there comes the announcement over the wire that ESPN has

973
01:04:35,475 --> 01:04:39,395
Speaker 1: rehired me. It was nineteen ninety seven when I left,

974
01:04:39,475 --> 01:04:42,595
Speaker 1: and now at twenty thirteen, I'm going back. And we

975
01:04:42,755 --> 01:04:45,995
Speaker 1: actually got phone video from people we had planted at

976
01:04:45,995 --> 01:04:49,035
Speaker 1: the Fox Sports party with five or six hundred people

977
01:04:49,075 --> 01:04:52,195
Speaker 1: and maybe one hundred reporters and bloggers. Theyre about to

978
01:04:52,195 --> 01:04:55,355
Speaker 1: write about Fox Sports this and Fox Sports to that,

979
01:04:55,675 --> 01:04:58,755
Speaker 1: and the New Regis Philbins Sports Show and all the

980
01:04:58,795 --> 01:05:01,515
Speaker 1: other things they had planned on, all of these great programs,

981
01:05:01,555 --> 01:05:03,515
Speaker 1: and the money they were spending. And they're all there

982
01:05:03,555 --> 01:05:06,315
Speaker 1: on Fox's Diamond Los Angeles, and all of a sudden,

983
01:05:06,315 --> 01:05:09,235
Speaker 1: across their phones comes the bulletin from I guess the

984
01:05:09,235 --> 01:05:13,195
Speaker 1: New York Times Keith Olberman returning to ESPN. Wore over,

985
01:05:14,755 --> 01:05:17,755
Speaker 1: and we have video of them all leaving the party,

986
01:05:18,875 --> 01:05:22,675
Speaker 1: leaving the Fox Sports publicity party to go write stories

987
01:05:22,715 --> 01:05:29,835
Speaker 1: about ESPN and me a take that Rupert Murdoch and

988
01:05:29,915 --> 01:05:34,395
Speaker 1: he's still going anyway. So that was the first one,

989
01:05:34,435 --> 01:05:36,915
Speaker 1: and the motivation was to provide a buffer in the

990
01:05:36,995 --> 01:05:40,195
Speaker 1: ratings against the ESPN too, and if the show succeeded great.

991
01:05:40,235 --> 01:05:41,995
Speaker 1: We had a two year contract. They paid me for

992
01:05:42,075 --> 01:05:46,155
Speaker 1: them an unbelievably large amount of money, and it didn't

993
01:05:46,195 --> 01:05:49,635
Speaker 1: make any headroom in terms of or headway in terms

994
01:05:49,755 --> 01:05:53,115
Speaker 1: of the ratings. And when Skipper turned out to have

995
01:05:53,195 --> 01:05:58,355
Speaker 1: had a small problem with dependency and other stuff and

996
01:05:58,555 --> 01:06:02,155
Speaker 1: had over budgeted the amount of talent and had to

997
01:06:02,195 --> 01:06:05,115
Speaker 1: fire like thirty five on air, people hired all the

998
01:06:05,115 --> 01:06:08,075
Speaker 1: people whose contracts were up, which makes sense that included me,

999
01:06:08,275 --> 01:06:10,875
Speaker 1: And although they buried this. It included my high school

1000
01:06:10,875 --> 01:06:14,235
Speaker 1: classmate Chris Berman. We were both fired by ESPN in

1001
01:06:14,275 --> 01:06:18,555
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. So in any event, I wandered back after that,

1002
01:06:18,995 --> 01:06:21,035
Speaker 1: not really with much of a complaint about how they

1003
01:06:21,035 --> 01:06:23,195
Speaker 1: had treated me, because that was the deal going in.

1004
01:06:23,235 --> 01:06:23,955
Speaker 2: It's two years.

1005
01:06:23,995 --> 01:06:27,075
Speaker 1: If it does more than we expect, then we'll do

1006
01:06:27,155 --> 01:06:28,915
Speaker 1: some more, and if it doesn't, we'll just part as

1007
01:06:28,955 --> 01:06:31,875
Speaker 1: friends this time, and in the interim the whole idea

1008
01:06:31,995 --> 01:06:35,555
Speaker 1: of Olberman ESPN nuclear war will have been erased by

1009
01:06:35,555 --> 01:06:39,155
Speaker 1: two years of friendly cooperation and good programs and a

1010
01:06:39,195 --> 01:06:42,475
Speaker 1: lot of jokes. And that's exactly what happened. By the

1011
01:06:42,635 --> 01:06:44,795
Speaker 1: end of those two years, I was invited to all

1012
01:06:44,795 --> 01:06:47,555
Speaker 1: the ESPN events, I went to all of the parties.

1013
01:06:47,795 --> 01:06:49,595
Speaker 1: The only thing I did not do in that two

1014
01:06:49,635 --> 01:06:52,595
Speaker 1: year span was to do Sports Center. Okay, so now

1015
01:06:52,635 --> 01:06:55,075
Speaker 1: I go back into politics, and unfortunately that's the start

1016
01:06:55,115 --> 01:06:57,875
Speaker 1: of the Trump era. And I devoted twenty fifteen and

1017
01:06:57,995 --> 01:07:02,435
Speaker 1: sixteen and seventeen to that. And I was at an

1018
01:07:02,475 --> 01:07:06,875
Speaker 1: Apple store and ran into two guys who, in the

1019
01:07:07,435 --> 01:07:10,155
Speaker 1: late thirties or early forties must have been the youngest

1020
01:07:10,515 --> 01:07:14,115
Speaker 1: people who had watched Sports Center in the early nineties

1021
01:07:14,235 --> 01:07:16,915
Speaker 1: on a regular basis. They were kids on the West

1022
01:07:16,955 --> 01:07:19,795
Speaker 1: Coast for whom it was the eight pm Sports Center,

1023
01:07:20,355 --> 01:07:23,115
Speaker 1: And they took me aside and thus took me two

1024
01:07:23,115 --> 01:07:26,035
Speaker 1: hours to buy a phone, because they just were regaling

1025
01:07:26,075 --> 01:07:28,955
Speaker 1: me with stories of why they didn't watch Sports Center anymore.

1026
01:07:29,035 --> 01:07:31,115
Speaker 1: And it didn't have anything to do with the changes

1027
01:07:31,235 --> 01:07:33,715
Speaker 1: in the industry or the availability of highlights, or the

1028
01:07:33,755 --> 01:07:36,835
Speaker 1: fact that everybody knew the scores long before Sports Center

1029
01:07:36,915 --> 01:07:39,435
Speaker 1: was on, as opposed to the old scenario in which

1030
01:07:39,475 --> 01:07:41,595
Speaker 1: we were telling you the scores for the first time

1031
01:07:41,635 --> 01:07:43,875
Speaker 1: and certainly showing you the highlights for the first time,

1032
01:07:43,995 --> 01:07:47,995
Speaker 1: we had first use of all that video. Basically, it

1033
01:07:48,115 --> 01:07:50,555
Speaker 1: wasn't that they just thought the new versions of the

1034
01:07:50,555 --> 01:07:56,275
Speaker 1: show didn't live up to the panache of nineteen ninety five,

1035
01:07:56,595 --> 01:08:00,595
Speaker 1: and me and Dan and Rich Eisen and Stuart Scott

1036
01:08:00,915 --> 01:08:05,715
Speaker 1: and Kenny Main and Larry Beel and Jack Edwards and

1037
01:08:06,035 --> 01:08:11,955
Speaker 1: Linda Cone and and everybody, the worst person on ESPN

1038
01:08:11,995 --> 01:08:14,635
Speaker 1: Sports Center in nineteen ninety five would have been the

1039
01:08:14,635 --> 01:08:18,235
Speaker 1: star of ESPN Sports Center in two thousand and seventeen.

1040
01:08:18,835 --> 01:08:22,235
Speaker 1: And I left this buying of a phone so sad

1041
01:08:22,635 --> 01:08:26,795
Speaker 1: because there are many things women can say about this podcast,

1042
01:08:26,955 --> 01:08:30,755
Speaker 1: or the Resistance video series for GQ, or the show

1043
01:08:30,795 --> 01:08:33,755
Speaker 1: at MSNBC, or any of the other work I've done

1044
01:08:33,795 --> 01:08:38,195
Speaker 1: against George Bush, against Donald Trump, against fascism. There's many

1045
01:08:38,195 --> 01:08:39,835
Speaker 1: things that can be said for them, And in many

1046
01:08:39,875 --> 01:08:44,635
Speaker 1: cases they're extraordinary in their the degree of rewarding and

1047
01:08:44,795 --> 01:08:48,155
Speaker 1: satisfaction that they provide in a sense of actually doing

1048
01:08:48,155 --> 01:08:51,835
Speaker 1: something important. But there's one thing. They rarely were fun.

1049
01:08:53,155 --> 01:08:56,595
Speaker 1: And in nineteen twenty seventeen, rather, I was already fifty

1050
01:08:56,635 --> 01:08:58,915
Speaker 1: eight years old and pushing fifty nine and thinking, if

1051
01:08:58,915 --> 01:09:01,795
Speaker 1: I'm ever going to enjoy being on television again, I

1052
01:09:01,875 --> 01:09:04,355
Speaker 1: better find out some way of doing that now. And

1053
01:09:04,475 --> 01:09:07,075
Speaker 1: so I called John Skipper and we started talking about

1054
01:09:07,155 --> 01:09:09,915
Speaker 1: my going back to ESPN four. If you count the

1055
01:09:09,955 --> 01:09:14,675
Speaker 1: Dan Patrick Show a fourth time. Why not, We've done

1056
01:09:14,675 --> 01:09:18,875
Speaker 1: it successfully, he and I and Norby Williamson. In twenty thirteen,

1057
01:09:19,195 --> 01:09:21,195
Speaker 1: he put Norby on it. We had a series of

1058
01:09:21,235 --> 01:09:24,395
Speaker 1: meetings again, just like twenty twelve and thirteen. Here we

1059
01:09:24,435 --> 01:09:27,395
Speaker 1: go again, Keith's coming back in secret. Skipper is all

1060
01:09:27,395 --> 01:09:29,715
Speaker 1: excited about it. Skipper and I meet for drinks every

1061
01:09:29,715 --> 01:09:32,035
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, we talk about things like me doing

1062
01:09:32,075 --> 01:09:34,995
Speaker 1: baseball play by play? Could you do a game by yourself.

1063
01:09:34,995 --> 01:09:38,035
Speaker 1: I've always enjoyed the way Vin Skelley does baseball games,

1064
01:09:38,115 --> 01:09:40,715
Speaker 1: just him, and I was like, well, he's Vin Skelly,

1065
01:09:40,955 --> 01:09:43,995
Speaker 1: But that you'd be the number two best solo sportscast

1066
01:09:44,035 --> 01:09:48,315
Speaker 1: you're doing baseball games. Well, no, there'd be Vin would

1067
01:09:48,315 --> 01:09:50,675
Speaker 1: be number one, and there'd be no numbers two through

1068
01:09:50,715 --> 01:09:53,315
Speaker 1: one thousand, and I would be number one thousand and one,

1069
01:09:53,875 --> 01:09:56,715
Speaker 1: better than being last. And I couldn't convince him it

1070
01:09:56,755 --> 01:09:58,955
Speaker 1: was a bad idea. But we talked about my doing

1071
01:09:58,995 --> 01:10:01,915
Speaker 1: baseball games, and we've talked about my doing all kinds

1072
01:10:01,915 --> 01:10:06,515
Speaker 1: of other things and SportsCenter. So finally we're about to

1073
01:10:06,555 --> 01:10:09,835
Speaker 1: announce this and I wrap up the GQ video series

1074
01:10:10,035 --> 01:10:13,715
Speaker 1: is The Resistance. It's all over, and I wish everybody

1075
01:10:13,915 --> 01:10:16,115
Speaker 1: the most luck they can have on it, but I

1076
01:10:16,155 --> 01:10:20,235
Speaker 1: can't possibly continue. It's it's killing me. It's literally causing

1077
01:10:20,275 --> 01:10:23,595
Speaker 1: me my health to decline because it was so much

1078
01:10:23,715 --> 01:10:28,555
Speaker 1: not fun. So now here we are in twenty seventeen,

1079
01:10:28,715 --> 01:10:31,875
Speaker 1: running towards Christmas, we're about to announce this once again,

1080
01:10:32,235 --> 01:10:34,595
Speaker 1: and this is the thing I look for in all

1081
01:10:34,715 --> 01:10:38,795
Speaker 1: job negotiations since then, when somebody says keep these days

1082
01:10:38,875 --> 01:10:40,755
Speaker 1: open because this is when we're going to announce it,

1083
01:10:41,315 --> 01:10:43,715
Speaker 1: that's when I know it's about to explode and bad

1084
01:10:43,755 --> 01:10:46,795
Speaker 1: things are going to happen. Within two days of the

1085
01:10:46,835 --> 01:10:49,955
Speaker 1: same idea that Norby Williamson had had in twenty twelve,

1086
01:10:50,155 --> 01:10:52,955
Speaker 1: having me just show up on the air with no announcement,

1087
01:10:54,275 --> 01:10:56,515
Speaker 1: I wake up one morning and there is a text

1088
01:10:56,595 --> 01:11:00,315
Speaker 1: on my phone. We're literally going to announce the new

1089
01:11:00,355 --> 01:11:04,115
Speaker 1: deal within three days of the morning I am waking

1090
01:11:04,195 --> 01:11:07,315
Speaker 1: up to there is a text on my phone from

1091
01:11:07,315 --> 01:11:10,875
Speaker 1: my friend Jeff Merrick, the hockey maven of Toronto, Ontario

1092
01:11:11,475 --> 01:11:14,595
Speaker 1: and environs. I know he's not from Toronto. I'm sorry

1093
01:11:14,595 --> 01:11:17,395
Speaker 1: I didn't mention the individual cities that you've mentioned in

1094
01:11:17,435 --> 01:11:20,995
Speaker 1: the conversation all these years, Jeff. In any event, here

1095
01:11:21,075 --> 01:11:23,835
Speaker 1: is a text on my phone from Jeff saying John

1096
01:11:23,875 --> 01:11:27,955
Speaker 1: Skipper resigned. And I'm looking at the phone thinking of

1097
01:11:27,955 --> 01:11:30,715
Speaker 1: the implications of this and knowing it can't be real.

1098
01:11:30,755 --> 01:11:33,915
Speaker 1: Why would John Skipper resign as president of ESPN when

1099
01:11:33,955 --> 01:11:35,875
Speaker 1: we're two days away from making this deal that I

1100
01:11:35,955 --> 01:11:37,835
Speaker 1: just quit my job for what the hell is this?

1101
01:11:38,555 --> 01:11:40,635
Speaker 1: And I said, this is the damnedest dream I've ever had,

1102
01:11:40,675 --> 01:11:44,315
Speaker 1: because the phone in my hand has weight. I've never

1103
01:11:44,315 --> 01:11:47,235
Speaker 1: had a dream before in which the things had weight

1104
01:11:47,395 --> 01:11:48,315
Speaker 1: that I could feel.

1105
01:11:48,355 --> 01:11:51,275
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's not a dream.

1106
01:11:52,195 --> 01:11:55,795
Speaker 1: John Skipper had resigned for the reasons I referred to earlier,

1107
01:11:55,995 --> 01:12:00,915
Speaker 1: and now ESPN was in the control of nobody, and

1108
01:12:01,035 --> 01:12:04,435
Speaker 1: the deal I was about to make was totally frozen

1109
01:12:04,955 --> 01:12:07,395
Speaker 1: and there was no one to approve it, and they

1110
01:12:07,395 --> 01:12:10,075
Speaker 1: had to bring a former president out of retirement to

1111
01:12:10,075 --> 01:12:13,075
Speaker 1: be acting president, so there wouldn't be anybody in charge,

1112
01:12:13,155 --> 01:12:15,835
Speaker 1: not for months, not for years. And the plan, which

1113
01:12:15,835 --> 01:12:18,635
Speaker 1: at that point was me moving back to Bristol to

1114
01:12:18,715 --> 01:12:21,915
Speaker 1: do the six o'clock Sports Center by myself every day

1115
01:12:22,915 --> 01:12:26,275
Speaker 1: for a period of six months, maybe a year in Bristol, Connecticut.

1116
01:12:26,315 --> 01:12:28,915
Speaker 1: And by the way, the home that I owned in

1117
01:12:28,995 --> 01:12:33,555
Speaker 1: Southington adjoining Bristol, Connecticut in nineteen ninety through nineteen ninety

1118
01:12:33,635 --> 01:12:36,155
Speaker 1: seven was available again and they were going to buy

1119
01:12:36,155 --> 01:12:39,075
Speaker 1: it for me. So all of this was going to

1120
01:12:39,115 --> 01:12:40,875
Speaker 1: be the case, and I was going to move up

1121
01:12:40,915 --> 01:12:42,915
Speaker 1: there and then come back and we'd start doing Sports

1122
01:12:42,955 --> 01:12:47,675
Speaker 1: Center from the city. Sometime in two thousand and nineteen probably,

1123
01:12:47,795 --> 01:12:51,235
Speaker 1: and and nobody is going to make this deal, because

1124
01:12:51,235 --> 01:12:52,835
Speaker 1: no one is going to make any deal, and the

1125
01:12:52,835 --> 01:12:55,875
Speaker 1: whole place is frozen, and nobody knows what happened to Skipper,

1126
01:12:55,875 --> 01:12:58,235
Speaker 1: and nobody knows what's going to happen next, and nobody

1127
01:12:58,235 --> 01:13:00,755
Speaker 1: knows if there's going to be an ESPN tomorrow afternoon.

1128
01:13:00,995 --> 01:13:03,635
Speaker 1: And I guess we're not going to announce my new deal.

1129
01:13:06,475 --> 01:13:09,395
Speaker 1: Norby Williamson is many things and has been criticized by

1130
01:13:09,395 --> 01:13:12,635
Speaker 1: many people, and I certainly was one of them, particularly

1131
01:13:12,675 --> 01:13:15,635
Speaker 1: in the nineties. But my god, Norby Williamson, in that

1132
01:13:15,795 --> 01:13:19,355
Speaker 1: environment which was essentially nuclear winter, managed to pull together

1133
01:13:19,395 --> 01:13:21,075
Speaker 1: a deal in which I was hired to do a

1134
01:13:21,155 --> 01:13:23,915
Speaker 1: number of sports centers every week from New York and

1135
01:13:24,115 --> 01:13:29,155
Speaker 1: produce various other segments for shows for sports centers, pieces

1136
01:13:29,195 --> 01:13:34,235
Speaker 1: on baseball history, obituaries, reports on this event, essays for

1137
01:13:34,435 --> 01:13:37,515
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl coverage, that the other thing, and go

1138
01:13:37,555 --> 01:13:39,875
Speaker 1: and do baseball games on the radio even though I

1139
01:13:39,875 --> 01:13:42,475
Speaker 1: had no experience, and do a couple of them on TV,

1140
01:13:42,835 --> 01:13:44,755
Speaker 1: and I was okay at it and would have been

1141
01:13:44,795 --> 01:13:46,715
Speaker 1: really good if I had been able to take a

1142
01:13:46,755 --> 01:13:49,115
Speaker 1: couple of years and go to the Carolina League and

1143
01:13:49,235 --> 01:13:51,635
Speaker 1: learned how to actually do play by play, because if

1144
01:13:51,675 --> 01:13:54,035
Speaker 1: you're a fifty nine year old rookie play by play announcer,

1145
01:13:54,075 --> 01:13:57,035
Speaker 1: you suddenly discover there are things you really did need

1146
01:13:57,075 --> 01:13:59,275
Speaker 1: to work on in nineteen eighty three that you never

1147
01:13:59,315 --> 01:14:03,075
Speaker 1: knew anything about. All Right, So we now slowly roll

1148
01:14:03,155 --> 01:14:06,195
Speaker 1: out this whole program, and I'm going to do Sports center,

1149
01:14:06,235 --> 01:14:09,595
Speaker 1: And now I'm going to Bristol, Connecticut, early in twenty eighteen,

1150
01:14:10,035 --> 01:14:13,875
Speaker 1: and it is Rip van Winkle. There is no semblance

1151
01:14:13,875 --> 01:14:17,475
Speaker 1: of the place that I left. I recognized exactly one

1152
01:14:18,595 --> 01:14:23,155
Speaker 1: part of one hallway was untouched down in the basement.

1153
01:14:23,675 --> 01:14:27,435
Speaker 1: Down in the basement of the engineering room where our

1154
01:14:27,515 --> 01:14:31,755
Speaker 1: old studio was, there was one corner where the engineers,

1155
01:14:31,795 --> 01:14:34,115
Speaker 1: when they would get twenty or twenty four pizzas for

1156
01:14:34,195 --> 01:14:37,155
Speaker 1: everybody eat to eat during special events, would lay the

1157
01:14:37,195 --> 01:14:41,595
Speaker 1: pizzas out on tables one corner. The tables were still there.

1158
01:14:41,955 --> 01:14:45,315
Speaker 1: Everything else at ESPN was changed, the pizza table was

1159
01:14:45,355 --> 01:14:47,915
Speaker 1: still intact. So I went through my Rip van Winkle

1160
01:14:47,955 --> 01:14:49,875
Speaker 1: experience and did a bunch of sports centers, and we

1161
01:14:49,915 --> 01:14:52,035
Speaker 1: did them from New York and we did them from Bristol,

1162
01:14:52,035 --> 01:14:54,155
Speaker 1: and I stayed in Bristol, and I did baseball Tonight

1163
01:14:54,195 --> 01:14:56,475
Speaker 1: from Bristol, and I did games on the road, and

1164
01:14:56,515 --> 01:14:58,875
Speaker 1: I did this, and I did that, and I got

1165
01:14:59,275 --> 01:15:01,515
Speaker 1: some illnesses and I had to have some surgery, and

1166
01:15:01,555 --> 01:15:03,715
Speaker 1: I had to cut back on the amount of work

1167
01:15:03,715 --> 01:15:05,715
Speaker 1: I was able to do in two twenty nineteen, but

1168
01:15:05,795 --> 01:15:09,115
Speaker 1: into early twenty twenty, we had begun negotiations on another

1169
01:15:09,195 --> 01:15:11,955
Speaker 1: contract for me to stay at ESPN as I approached

1170
01:15:12,235 --> 01:15:16,395
Speaker 1: my sixty second year on this planet, and that's when.

1171
01:15:16,155 --> 01:15:16,915
Speaker 2: COVID hit.

1172
01:15:19,435 --> 01:15:23,315
Speaker 1: And there was no sports And you know what they

1173
01:15:23,315 --> 01:15:29,115
Speaker 1: don't need if there's no sports, sportscasters, particularly Sports Center sportscasters.

1174
01:15:29,755 --> 01:15:32,395
Speaker 1: To Norby Williamson's credit, he found something for me to do.

1175
01:15:32,475 --> 01:15:34,715
Speaker 1: I did a weekly piece for them, which was highlights

1176
01:15:34,715 --> 01:15:38,715
Speaker 1: of old highlights, old funny highlights with new jokes attached

1177
01:15:38,715 --> 01:15:42,155
Speaker 1: to them. It wasn't bad, all things considered, and there

1178
01:15:42,195 --> 01:15:44,715
Speaker 1: really wasn't anything to do, and no indication that when

1179
01:15:44,875 --> 01:15:47,075
Speaker 1: things cleared up, whenever that was going to be, that

1180
01:15:47,115 --> 01:15:49,155
Speaker 1: they were ever going to reopen that New York studio

1181
01:15:49,235 --> 01:15:51,875
Speaker 1: or continue the expense of having Sports Center done partially

1182
01:15:51,915 --> 01:15:56,795
Speaker 1: from Bristol. Bristol Bristol and New York, and so looking

1183
01:15:56,835 --> 01:15:59,915
Speaker 1: at the twenty twenty presidential election coming up in the

1184
01:15:59,995 --> 01:16:02,995
Speaker 1: horizon in the summer of twenty twenty, I said, I

1185
01:16:03,035 --> 01:16:05,875
Speaker 1: think I should I should stop being with the ESPN.

1186
01:16:06,075 --> 01:16:07,995
Speaker 1: And Norby was like, why don't you think we're going

1187
01:16:08,035 --> 01:16:10,955
Speaker 1: to rehire you when everything clears up in your contracts up?

1188
01:16:10,995 --> 01:16:14,355
Speaker 1: And I said you might, I wouldn't. I mean, I'm

1189
01:16:15,435 --> 01:16:18,515
Speaker 1: happy too, and maybe we can revisit it, but I'm

1190
01:16:18,555 --> 01:16:20,435
Speaker 1: going to be sitting here not working for you when

1191
01:16:20,475 --> 01:16:24,475
Speaker 1: I should try to do something about this Biden Trump election. Okay,

1192
01:16:26,035 --> 01:16:28,315
Speaker 1: I didn't know at the time that this allowed him

1193
01:16:28,475 --> 01:16:33,955
Speaker 1: to alter his head count at ESPN and save a

1194
01:16:33,995 --> 01:16:36,435
Speaker 1: little money and change his budget a little bit and

1195
01:16:36,475 --> 01:16:39,355
Speaker 1: make things better for everybody else. But the end result

1196
01:16:39,355 --> 01:16:41,995
Speaker 1: of this was absolutely the last thing that anybody would

1197
01:16:41,995 --> 01:16:44,435
Speaker 1: have predicted at any point in the history of the world.

1198
01:16:44,555 --> 01:16:48,835
Speaker 1: Prior to this announcement. In the middle of covid as

1199
01:16:48,835 --> 01:16:50,915
Speaker 1: we began to come out of it and the vaccine

1200
01:16:50,955 --> 01:16:54,315
Speaker 1: was evident on the horizon and the reopening of sporting

1201
01:16:54,315 --> 01:16:57,555
Speaker 1: events began, and people started to trickle back into the

1202
01:16:57,595 --> 01:17:00,915
Speaker 1: stadiums and go outside and do ordinary things again, and

1203
01:17:00,955 --> 01:17:03,795
Speaker 1: life began to return to normal, and Trump was defeated

1204
01:17:03,795 --> 01:17:04,635
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty.

1205
01:17:04,475 --> 01:17:05,635
Speaker 2: One As he was.

1206
01:17:06,835 --> 01:17:11,115
Speaker 1: As all this happened, ESPN announced that I had retired

1207
01:17:11,475 --> 01:17:15,195
Speaker 1: from ESPN. I didn't even know that was the plan.

1208
01:17:15,635 --> 01:17:21,315
Speaker 1: I became an ESPN retiree. I to this day get

1209
01:17:21,395 --> 01:17:25,835
Speaker 1: money from ESPN as a retiree, as a Disney cast

1210
01:17:25,915 --> 01:17:29,795
Speaker 1: member who retired, me the guy who spent the better

1211
01:17:29,835 --> 01:17:33,875
Speaker 1: part of his life in nuclear war with ESPN, competing

1212
01:17:33,915 --> 01:17:37,235
Speaker 1: against ESPN, trying to knock it down, or negotiating to

1213
01:17:37,275 --> 01:17:40,595
Speaker 1: go back there. The storm and the drawing ended with

1214
01:17:40,755 --> 01:17:44,995
Speaker 1: me as a retiree. So now when things go wrong

1215
01:17:44,995 --> 01:17:47,475
Speaker 1: at ESPN and people do things they should not do,

1216
01:17:48,155 --> 01:17:50,115
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave names out of it just for once.

1217
01:17:50,435 --> 01:17:52,195
Speaker 1: But when they do things that they should not do

1218
01:17:52,315 --> 01:17:54,995
Speaker 1: on ESPN, I can point at the TV like that

1219
01:17:55,155 --> 01:17:58,795
Speaker 1: Leonardo DiCaprio meme and point at it, and I can say,

1220
01:17:58,835 --> 01:18:02,275
Speaker 1: with that meme in mind, and with my retire status

1221
01:18:02,275 --> 01:18:07,395
Speaker 1: in mind, hey, I'm a retiree. My money is wrapped

1222
01:18:07,475 --> 01:18:24,715
Speaker 1: up in your show. Stop screwing it up. Like Bryson

1223
01:18:24,755 --> 01:18:29,635
Speaker 1: Deschambo approaching the alien with a couple of golf clubs,

1224
01:18:29,875 --> 01:18:33,155
Speaker 1: the extraterrestrial on the golf course. I've done all the

1225
01:18:33,195 --> 01:18:39,115
Speaker 1: damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Sorry,

1226
01:18:39,155 --> 01:18:43,355
Speaker 1: the commercial still pisses me off. What would this golfer

1227
01:18:43,435 --> 01:18:46,435
Speaker 1: do if we had an et actually land here? Beat

1228
01:18:46,515 --> 01:18:52,115
Speaker 1: him to death over a bet? Thanks for listening. Our

1229
01:18:52,195 --> 01:18:55,355
Speaker 1: musical directors of Countdown are John Phillip Chaneil on keyboards

1230
01:18:55,355 --> 01:18:58,675
Speaker 1: and handling the orchestration, and Brian Ray on the bass,

1231
01:18:58,795 --> 01:19:03,475
Speaker 1: drums and guitars. Their work is produced by Tko Brothers.

1232
01:19:03,515 --> 01:19:05,875
Speaker 1: Nancy Faust, the best base all stadium organist ever, is

1233
01:19:05,955 --> 01:19:09,955
Speaker 1: responsible for these satirical and pithy musical comments. When we

1234
01:19:09,995 --> 01:19:13,155
Speaker 1: play the sports music, it's the old Olberman Show theme

1235
01:19:13,235 --> 01:19:16,795
Speaker 1: from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of

1236
01:19:17,035 --> 01:19:23,795
Speaker 1: ESPN Inc. Going back to Bristol, Bristol, Bristol. Other music

1237
01:19:24,435 --> 01:19:27,555
Speaker 1: arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. My

1238
01:19:27,675 --> 01:19:32,795
Speaker 1: announcer today was my friend Nancy Faust. This program was

1239
01:19:32,835 --> 01:19:37,515
Speaker 1: produced today by Ted Stevie Rose and Kit. Everything else

1240
01:19:37,675 --> 01:19:41,435
Speaker 1: was as always my fault. Let's countdown for today, Day

1241
01:19:41,435 --> 01:19:44,955
Speaker 1: four hundred and forty nine of America held hostage again

1242
01:19:45,435 --> 01:19:48,875
Speaker 1: just one thousand and fourteen days until the scheduled end

1243
01:19:48,955 --> 01:19:52,275
Speaker 1: of Trump's lane duck and lame brained term unless he

1244
01:19:52,355 --> 01:19:56,915
Speaker 1: is removed sooner by the Trump Memorial arch and Grill

1245
01:19:59,235 --> 01:20:03,195
Speaker 1: knowing his construction standards, don't stand under it, mister President.

1246
01:20:04,275 --> 01:20:07,555
Speaker 1: The next the Chedil Countdown is Thursday. Bulletins is the

1247
01:20:07,555 --> 01:20:11,195
Speaker 1: news merits till the next one. I'm Keith Alderman. Good morning,

1248
01:20:11,195 --> 01:20:15,395
Speaker 1: good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck pronouncing my own name.

1249
01:20:32,795 --> 01:20:36,755
Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Alderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For

1250
01:20:36,915 --> 01:20:41,835
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1251
01:20:42,075 --> 01:20:44,035
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.