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

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Speaker 1: has doubled down on his defiling of Arlington National Cemetery

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Speaker 1: Title thirty two, Part five to five to three Subpart

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Speaker 1: ce Conduct of Memorial Services and Ceremonies. Memorial services and

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Speaker 1: ceremonies at Army National Military Ceremonies will not include partisan

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Speaker 1: political activities. Trump's team exploited a memorial event at Arlington

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Speaker 1: on Monday, broke the law by privately photographing and filming it,

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Speaker 1: physically assaulted Arlington National Cemetery staff who asked him to stop.

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Speaker 1: He gave a thumbs up and smiled idiotically while literally

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Speaker 1: standing on the graves of dead US military heroes. And

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Speaker 1: now his campaign is trying to turn it into an

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Speaker 1: online campaign advertisement. By definition partisan political activity. Trump people

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Speaker 1: need to be arrested for this because it could have

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Speaker 1: been trivial. It could have been there was a miscommunication,

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Speaker 1: not even an apology, like anybody in the Trump campaign

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Speaker 1: were human enough or honest enough or respectful of our

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Speaker 1: war dead enough to apologize just say it was a misunderstanding. No,

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Speaker 1: they blamed the cemetery staffer, They blamed the media, They

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Speaker 1: blamed Vice President Harris for not being there to commemorate

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Speaker 1: the sad anniversary of deaths in Afghanistan, the commemoration Trump

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Speaker 1: has illegally turned into a campaign ad, the commemoration Trump

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Speaker 1: skipped last year and skipped the year before. Because to

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Speaker 1: Trump and to this robot JV. Vance, those buried at

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Speaker 1: Arlington are just another product, just another sell, just another gimmick,

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Speaker 1: just another brand name to exploit. But Vance, and thank god,

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Speaker 1: Vance might be the least intuitive politician of this century.

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Speaker 1: He makes Jeb Bush look like George Bush. Vance escalated

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Speaker 1: this by swearing at the Vice President of the United

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Speaker 1: States and blaming her. Because Trump has been exposed as

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Speaker 1: a monster who smiled and gave a thumbs up while

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Speaker 1: literally standing on the graves of dead American soldiers. Kamala

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Speaker 1: Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't

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Speaker 1: even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants

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Speaker 1: to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She

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Speaker 1: can go to hell that may be marrying lead shit

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Speaker 1: for brains there finally learned how to pronounce it's her name.

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Speaker 1: Just to twist this knife further, Trump's thug Chris Losovita

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Speaker 1: has now doubled down on the attempt by Trump's moron

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Speaker 1: Stephen Chung to blame the staff at the National Cemetery

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Speaker 1: for Trump breaking the law. Quote for a despicable individual

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Speaker 1: to physically prevent Trump's team from accompanying him to this

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Speaker 1: solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to

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Speaker 1: represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. You heard

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Speaker 1: me right, hollowed ho llowed as in hollowed out, as

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Speaker 1: in Trump's brain is hollowed out. You know, these manipulative

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Speaker 1: trump isst bastards who hate the troops, who hate this country,

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Speaker 1: can't even get the word right. It's hallowed ha llowd

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Speaker 1: to honor as holy? Oh, do you want to make

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Speaker 1: this worse? Still? Well, to their credit, the news organization's

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Speaker 1: Axios and Daily Beast added the notation parenthesis sick and

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Speaker 1: parenthesis after las Aveda's unforgivable stupidity. The former Obama staffer

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Speaker 1: and Army veteran a captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, Brandon Friedman,

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Speaker 1: noted that other news organizations like NBC simply cut and

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Speaker 1: pasted hollowed as if it were the right word, never

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Speaker 1: mentioning it was not, but CNN corrected las Avita before publishing.

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Speaker 1: They printed hallowed as if he had said that, giving

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Speaker 1: no indication that Trump's senior campaign advisor made an offensive mistake,

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Speaker 1: claiming he didn't. And worst of all, one news outlet

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Speaker 1: first cut and pasted hollowed, then corrected it to hallowed

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Speaker 1: without a sick or a note that la Savita made

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Speaker 1: the mistake, or even that they the news organization changed

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Speaker 1: it after publication. And you already know that the news

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Speaker 1: organization that managed to commit three separate journalistic felonies on

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Speaker 1: one infuriating quote to cover for Trump. The news organization

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Speaker 1: that again has covered for Trump's barbarism. You already know

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Speaker 1: it was The New York Times. And of course there

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Speaker 1: remains the context for this, the real reason the trumpists

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Speaker 1: did not just resolve this with a quick statement, not

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Speaker 1: even accepting responsibility, just confirming a miscommunication. America has caught

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Speaker 1: on to Trump's insanity and the fact that he doesn't

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Speaker 1: care if American soldiers die or are wounded or captured,

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Speaker 1: or are asked to shoot other Americans on the street.

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump is not loyal to the United States of America,

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Speaker 1: nor to the memory of anybody buried at Arlington National

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Speaker 1: Sene Cemetery, nor at flanders Field, nor in the Ardennes,

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Speaker 1: nor at Brookwood. And this issue, his fake patriotism, his

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Speaker 1: flag hugging bullshit, his suckers and losers essence, this is

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Speaker 1: about to break wide open, because hey, remember this. We're

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Speaker 1: only thirteen days removed from this.

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Speaker 2: We gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's the

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Speaker 2: highest award you can get as a civilian. It's the

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Speaker 2: equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version

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Speaker 2: it's actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal

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Speaker 2: of Honor. That soldiers they're either in very bad shape

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Speaker 2: because they've been hit so many times by bullets, or

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Speaker 2: they're dead.

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Speaker 1: Trump profaned the Medal of Honor. Then he has desecrated

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Speaker 1: and blasphemed Arlington and all who lie there now, the

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Speaker 1: opposing soldiers, the international despots and generals, the terrorists who killed,

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Speaker 1: the men on whose graves Trump might just as well

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Speaker 1: have literally danced Monday. They respected our war dead more

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Speaker 1: than does Donald Trump, scumbag. I would argue that Trump's

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Speaker 1: willingness to metaphorically die on this of all hills with

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Speaker 1: his trained monkey JD. Vance by his side, underscores that

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Speaker 1: he has never been more dangerous than he is today

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Speaker 1: because the reality has somehow pushed its way past the

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Speaker 1: nearly infinite amount of self reverence and the diseases and

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Speaker 1: the mini strokes and made its way to Trump's core.

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Speaker 1: What's made its way to Trump's core is that he

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Speaker 1: is now losing, that at the current trajectory, he is

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Speaker 1: going to lose, and lose badly, and that there will

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Speaker 1: be no immunity so thorough that it will keep him

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Speaker 1: from dying in prison. If he did not know that

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Speaker 1: before he found out about it last night. More polls,

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Speaker 1: more disasters for Trump. These are Fox News polls done

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Speaker 1: after the Democratic Convention, done after Trump was endorsed by

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Speaker 1: Bear cub Boy Arizona Harris fifty Trump forty nine. It

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Speaker 1: had been Trump by five, Georgia Harris fifty Trump forty eight.

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Speaker 1: It had been Trump by six. Nevada Harris fifty Trump

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Speaker 1: forty eight. That had been Trump by five. North Carolina

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Speaker 1: Trump fifty Harris forty nine. It had been Trump by five.

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Speaker 1: That is a total swing in four states to Harris

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Speaker 1: of twenty five points. Maintime the Republican Commissioner of Miami

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Speaker 1: Dade County in Florida commissioned to poll there. It's Harris

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Speaker 1: forty seven Trump forty seven. Florida a long shot still

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Speaker 1: to be sure is in play Harris forty seven, Trump

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Speaker 1: forty seven. They are tied in Miami Dade. The Harris

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Speaker 1: campaign just bought time for TV ads tying Trump to

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Speaker 1: Project twenty twenty five. They bought it in the Swing States,

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Speaker 1: and they bought it in the West Palm Beach market

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Speaker 1: wherein lies Mara crapshack and maybe worse than everything else,

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Speaker 1: Trump is beginning to kill off Republicans down ballot, especially

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Speaker 1: the ones closest to him psychopathically. The Fox poll in

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Speaker 1: Arizona scores the Senate race there as Reuben Diego fifty six,

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Speaker 1: Carrie Lake forty one, forty one forty one last week

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Speaker 1: of August. How in the hell is Carrie Lake going

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Speaker 1: to be able to afford to buy nine hundred more

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Speaker 1: camera filters this late in this race. The Fox powl

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Speaker 1: in North Carolina scores the governor's race there as Josh

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Speaker 1: Stein fifty four. Mark deserves killing, saying that of his

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Speaker 1: opponents Robinson forty three fifty four to forty three Stein.

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Speaker 1: The Fox pol in Nevada scores the Senate race there

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Speaker 1: as Jackie Rosen fifty five, Sam Brown forty one. The

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Speaker 1: Florida Politics website poll for the fourth District congressional race

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Speaker 1: there shows the brand new Democratic congressional nominee Whitney Fox

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Speaker 1: at forty eight compared to the incumbent Republican Anna Paulina.

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Speaker 1: If that is your real name, Luna forty four. I

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Speaker 1: am not saying this will happen. None of the people

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Speaker 1: around Trump are this smart. But Richard Nixon was driven

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Speaker 1: from office half a century ago, not by Democrats, but

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Speaker 1: by Republican senators and congressmen who went to the White

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Speaker 1: House and explained to him that not only would he

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Speaker 1: be impeached and convicted and remove from office, but more importantly,

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Speaker 1: all of them were going to lose in the midterms

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Speaker 1: because of him. Trump doesn't care. But Trump is not

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Speaker 1: just on a trajectory to lose and lose outside the

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Speaker 1: margin of insurrection, but on a trajectory to take down

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Speaker 1: his entire party on November fifth. Thus, however, he becomes

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Speaker 1: indescribably dangerous. He is seeing this for what it is

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Speaker 1: electoral victory or electoral theft through a contingent election, or

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Speaker 1: death in jail. It is tangible to him now with

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Speaker 1: definable features. This is a man so detachable reality that

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Speaker 1: he may think himself immortal for all we know, or

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Speaker 1: invincible or unbeatable. And yet the reality is clearly beginning

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Speaker 1: to get through, and he has thus become the cliche

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Speaker 1: of all cliches, the cornered and wounded animal, capable of

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Speaker 1: trying anything. Yesterday, Trump reposted four despicable memes, even by

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Speaker 1: Trump's standards of despicability, parenthetically, a day after his spokesman

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Speaker 1: mocked Kamala Harris's campaign for unseriousness because it was posting memes.

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Speaker 1: Spiritual Street Fighter seventeen retruthed by Donald J. Trump. All

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Speaker 1: Roads lead to Obama retruth if you want public military tribunals,

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Speaker 1: a picture of Trump with President Obama aka pro Boss

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Speaker 1: retruthed by Donald J. Trump. Indict the Unselect J Six Committee,

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Speaker 1: sedition retruth if you want to lock them up from

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Speaker 1: Beware of Penguin retruth by Donald J. Trump. Funny and

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Speaker 1: it's a picture of Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton. I'm

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Speaker 1: quoting this quote funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers

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Speaker 1: differently unquote and most importantly from Proud American seventeen seventy six,

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Speaker 1: retruth by Trump, how to actually fix the system and

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Speaker 1: pictures in orange jumpsuits not very well done of Joe

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Speaker 1: and Hunter Biden and Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Doctor Fauci,

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Speaker 1: Bill Gates, and Kamala Harris. That last count Proud American

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Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six is one of Trump's favorites. It recently

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Speaker 1: reported hosted an image calling for the murder of Vice

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Speaker 1: President Harris and Governor Walls. I guess we are fortunate

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Speaker 1: that Trump yesterday anyway, did not repost the work of

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Speaker 1: an account labeled the Rise of Rod, which has posted

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Speaker 1: five times on Trump's social in the last year, pro

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Speaker 1: Hitler video and statements like quote Adolf Hitler was right.

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Speaker 1: The Holocaust was the hollow hoax. Jews have been capitalizing

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Speaker 1: on n word for thousands of years. These are Trump's people,

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Speaker 1: these and JD. Van's. This is going to get far

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Speaker 1: worse before it gets any better, and it gets better

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Speaker 1: only when Trump is defeated beyond the margin at which

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Speaker 1: the corrupted Georgia electoral process can try to thwart the

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Speaker 1: certification of Kamala Harris's would be victory. It gets better

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Speaker 1: only when Trumps tried, found guilty, and imprisoned. In the interim,

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Speaker 1: it is essential to remember that, as hopeful as we

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Speaker 1: should be that we can defeat Trump's efforts to destroy

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Speaker 1: all right America from within for his own personal benefit,

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Speaker 1: we must remember he is desperate enough to try anything now, or,

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Speaker 1: more correctly, since at heart he is a weak and

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Speaker 1: pusillanimous coward, he is desperate enough to try to get

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Speaker 1: others to try anything now. Since it is Trump's people

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Speaker 1: who have dragged Hitler into this from as far back

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Speaker 1: as Charlottesville and even earlier, right from that point to

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Speaker 1: these creatures on Trump's social let us invoke Hitler for

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Speaker 1: a good reason. We need to treat Trump right now

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Speaker 1: as if he were Hitler Hitler with access to nukes. Okay,

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Speaker 1: this has to be lightened somewhat halfy. There are two

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Speaker 1: stories of some amusement quality. I cannot fully convey this.

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Speaker 1: This is a video. It's a visual thing posted by

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Speaker 1: a very talented guy named Dan Wilbur who my old

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Speaker 1: friend Lauren Michael should be calling about cameos. It is

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Speaker 1: a ninety second video of this Dan Wilber as jd Vance,

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Speaker 1: complete with mismatched haircut and too much eyeliner, trying to

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Speaker 1: order the doughnuts. Go and find it on social media.

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Speaker 1: In the interim, the audio is damned good on its own.

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Speaker 3: Hey, I'm jd Vance and I'm running for vice president

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Speaker 3: with whom I'd rather not say. Well, I'll just get

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Speaker 3: whatever a normal human person would get you. And what

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Speaker 3: do you do for work? Right? Youna?

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Speaker 1: What's that?

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Speaker 3: It's a donut? Okay? And what about that it's also

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Speaker 3: a donut? Okay? How long you how long you've been here?

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Speaker 1: How long you have you.

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Speaker 3: Been a black at a job? And how long have

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Speaker 3: you been black? I'm sorry, hey, folks, she doesn't want

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Speaker 3: to be on camera, so just blur her face out,

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Speaker 3: and while you're at it, blur my face out too.

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Speaker 3: I don't want to do this anymore.

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Speaker 1: I'm so sad.

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Speaker 3: I'm so tired. Hey, you don't have any like lean

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Speaker 3: protein back there, right, like some soilent or tilapia or something. Now,

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Speaker 3: just donuts, donut. It's like a beignet or a croqune bouche.

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Speaker 3: I would love to eat those again. Have you ever

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Speaker 3: been to Paris? What if we tried this over again

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Speaker 3: and I went somewhere else?

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, I just want to.

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Speaker 3: Do How long have you been here? How long have

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Speaker 3: I been in here? It feels like thirty years. It's

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Speaker 3: there a fridge back there, you can put me in

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Speaker 3: and lock it. I'm and I do not want to

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Speaker 3: do this anymore.

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Speaker 1: Extra points to Dan Wilbur for the soilent green shout

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Speaker 1: out in there it's people letting out Powell and more

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Speaker 1: substantially humor wise. Remember David McCormick. He was the hedge

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Speaker 1: fund loser who couldn't even beat doctor Oz for the

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Speaker 1: Trump nomination for the Senate in Pennsylvania two years ago.

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Speaker 1: This time they let McCormick have the nomination without opposition.

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Speaker 1: I guess because he brings his own opposition with him.

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Speaker 1: The polls have him down between five and ten to

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Speaker 1: Senator Bob Casey in Pennsylvania. And this is because Dave

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Speaker 1: McCormick is a dits end wokeness. Also a collection of

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Speaker 1: ditzes with a screen shot. New details released on Philadelphia shootings.

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Speaker 1: Police say suspect is gang member from Al Salvador breaking.

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Speaker 1: The man in Philadelphia who gunned down and tried to

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Speaker 1: kill eight innocent Americans is an illegal immigrant. He's a

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Speaker 1: MS thirteen member from l Salvador. Dave McCormick, Republican nominee

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Speaker 1: for the Senate from Pennsylvania, retweets all this, adding MS

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Speaker 1: thirteen gang members are terrorizing Philadelphians because of Harrison Casey's

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Speaker 1: radical open border policies. It's a bad thing. It's a

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Speaker 1: bad thing when people get shot. It's also irrelevant to

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Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania Senate race because, as the Casey communications team

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Speaker 1: helpfully noted, quote Dave, this story is from This story

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Speaker 1: is from Philadelphia, Mississippi. Say good night, Dave. Also of

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Speaker 1: interest here on this all new edition. If this is

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Speaker 1: where do you usually hit? Stop a couple of pieces

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Speaker 1: of business. First, Gonna take Tomorrow off. I hope have

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Speaker 1: to do a show Monday night for Tuesday. I need

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Speaker 1: the long weekend. I really need the long weekend. On

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Speaker 1: the other hand, next week we will cross the five

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Speaker 1: hundredth episode mark. And also I am considering going to

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Speaker 1: five shows a week again down the stretch. Something short

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Speaker 1: on Monday's Probably it's not a final call. It's still

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Speaker 1: back out of it, but it is the stretch of

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Speaker 1: more urgent interests. The CNN uncommitted voter who turned out

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Speaker 1: to be a committed Trump voter scandal that gets worse.

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Speaker 1: This is the guy who fooled CNN is now selling

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Speaker 1: t shirts celebrating the fact that he fooled CNN. And

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Speaker 1: the saga of the time NBC tried to blackmail me

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Speaker 1: by literally threatening to make my parents homeless because I

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Speaker 1: said I wanted to quit the show in which we

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Speaker 1: slandered President Clinton on behalf of the proto trumpists of

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Speaker 1: a quarter century ago. That saga in full. That's next.

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Speaker 1: This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith oldwoman stell

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Speaker 1: ahead of us on this all new edition of Countdown.

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Speaker 1: Somebody said to me the other day, boy Bill Clinton

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Speaker 1: looked old at the convention, and I stared into space,

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Speaker 1: and for a moment I was back in a tiny

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Speaker 1: dingy office at thirty Rock a quarter of a century ago,

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Speaker 1: and an alleged certified social worker for NBC News was

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Speaker 1: threatening to sue me, bankrupt me, and put my parents

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Speaker 1: out onto the street if I tried to quit doing

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Speaker 1: the MSNBC show that had accidentally formed around me, in

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Speaker 1: which each night we helped the primordial version of the

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Speaker 1: current fascist push in this country to try to run

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Speaker 1: a coup against Bill Clinton. Nah, good times, Great oldies.

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Speaker 1: The story of the threat to blacklist me because I

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Speaker 1: would not smear Bill Clinton ahead in things I promised

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Speaker 1: not to tell first. There are still more new idiots

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Speaker 1: to talk about. The daily roundup of the miss Grant's

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Speaker 1: morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days

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Speaker 1: worse persons in the world. Lebron's Attorney General, Ken Paxton

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Speaker 1: of Texas, I'm looking at you, Ken, I'm over here. Well,

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Speaker 1: he's in Texas. He doesn't work for the people of Texas.

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Speaker 1: He's just a rogue lawyer using the power of the

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Speaker 1: state to crush political opposition. The other day, the League

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Speaker 1: of United Latin American Citizens LOULAC did something it has

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Speaker 1: never done before, and it has been in business since

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine. It endorsed a presidential candidate. Guess which one,

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Speaker 1: and guess the response of private prosecutor's star Chamber Ken.

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Speaker 1: The Latino group lu LAC has written to the Justice

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Speaker 1: Department asking for an investigation by the FEDS. After Ken

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Speaker 1: Paxton sent agents of Texas to raid the homes of

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Speaker 1: the leaders of LULAC and other Latino Democrats in Texas.

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Speaker 1: Laptops and cell phones seized. The CEO of lu LAC

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Speaker 1: says that last week Lydia Martinez, an eighty seven year

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Speaker 1: old woman who lives in San Antonio and is a

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Speaker 1: thirty five year LULAC member who works to expand voter

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Speaker 1: registration among seniors and veterans in South Texas, got a

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Speaker 1: knock on her door. She opened it to find nine

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Speaker 1: officers in tactic gear with firearms who said they were

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Speaker 1: executing a search warrant. The eighty seven year old Ms

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Speaker 1: Martinez was questioned for more than three hours about her

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Speaker 1: voter registration efforts. Paxton's excuse, and Paxton needs to be

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Speaker 1: in prison, was that there has been vote harvesting in

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Speaker 1: Texas and illegal voting in Texas and he's going to

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Speaker 1: get to the bottom of it. Of course, there hasn't

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Speaker 1: been any. The record remains intact. Ninety nine percent of

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Speaker 1: all illegal voting in this country is done by Republicans.

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Speaker 1: This bastard Paxton. What he should get to the bottom

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Speaker 1: of is hell to borrow the vice presidential candidate's terminology

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Speaker 1: for today from the Republican Party. The runner up worser

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Speaker 1: CNN Gary Tuckman, whoever manages the place? And I'm assuming

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Speaker 1: here there's still somebody managing the place. There's no evidence

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Speaker 1: of that. Actually, their journalistic malpractice is now on a

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Speaker 1: thirty five dollars T shirt with their disaster printed on it,

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Speaker 1: available for you without a prescription. Remember the CNN Bryant

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Speaker 1: Rosato scandal. I mean it's from three days ago. Thirty

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Speaker 1: five year CNN veteran Tuckman conducted a panel after the

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Speaker 1: DNC acceptance speech by Vice President Harris. Eight avowedly undecided voters.

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Speaker 1: Having heard her speak, they met with him on the

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Speaker 1: air live from Allentown, Pennsylvania. One of the eight said

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Speaker 1: they remained undecided. Six of the eight said they were

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Speaker 1: now ready to vote for Harris. One of the eight

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Speaker 1: said he was also now ready to vote for Trump.

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Speaker 1: This is Bryant Risotto, and after some pressing, he revealed

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Speaker 1: that not only did he go into that focus group

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Speaker 1: intending to vote for Trump, but that he told CNN,

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Speaker 1: and in fact personally told Gary Tuckman, that he was

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Speaker 1: intending to vote for Trump. He says Tuckman approached him

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Speaker 1: and a friend at a restaurant and he asked They

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Speaker 1: asked him who they were voting for, and they told him.

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Speaker 1: Tuckman asked the two men, including Risotto, quoting Risotto, crazy

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Speaker 1: part is that CNN invited me knowing I was a

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Speaker 1: Trump supporter. Then they said it'll be voters that are undecided,

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Speaker 1: not Democrats. They told me to keep an open mind

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Speaker 1: and to give Kamala a chance after the speech, since

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Speaker 1: she's the new candidate after Biden, So I did hashtag Trump.

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Speaker 1: CNN's initial anonymous response to the Midas Network after this

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Speaker 1: disaster was quote, when building the panel of voters who

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Speaker 1: haven't decided on a candidate, all participants made it clear

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Speaker 1: that they indeed hadn't made a final determination. This particular individual,

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Speaker 1: who said he had supported Donald Trump in the past,

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Speaker 1: expressed to us that after President Biden dropped out of

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Speaker 1: the race, his mind became open and he hadn't make

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Speaker 1: a final decision on a candidate. Now, the folks at

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Speaker 1: the Midas Network report Risotto is using the notoriety provided

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Speaker 1: by his CNN appearance to sells for thirty four dollars

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Speaker 1: and ninety nine cents each. They show a screenshot of

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Speaker 1: his CNN appearance along with the caption she meaning Vice

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Speaker 1: President Harris is not ready. You know who's not ready CNN,

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Speaker 1: honest to God, is one of the people who was

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Speaker 1: there almost at the founding. They should just go dark

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Speaker 1: until after the election. Nobody would miss them. I mean,

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Speaker 1: run the Kamala Harris Tim Walls interview tonight. In fact,

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Speaker 1: have Kamala Harris interview, Tim Walls and vice versa. Send

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Speaker 1: Dana Bash home, just then do this interview and then

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Speaker 1: shut the network down, tone and bars until we assess

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Speaker 1: whether CNN management is suffering an utter loss of cognitive ability.

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Speaker 1: He is selling t shirts of how he screwed CNN,

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Speaker 1: and still there's somebody worse our winner, Jesse Wat of Fox.

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Speaker 1: You might ask yourself how anybody this stupid could be

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Speaker 1: a prominent figure at Fox for twenty years, and remember

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Speaker 1: he was O'Reilly's henchman, literally that long ago. O'Reilly used

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Speaker 1: to send him out to harass people. The answer, of course,

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Speaker 1: is Fox looks for people like this. They look for

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Speaker 1: stupid people. The dumber a TV guy is, the more

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Speaker 1: he is to likely to overhear news that he vaguely

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Speaker 1: understands and think, only, how are my bosses couching this?

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Speaker 1: If I couch it that way, or even go further,

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Speaker 1: they'll give me more money. That's Bill Hemmer, It's Harris Faulkner,

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Speaker 1: and it's the champ of them all, this idiot Jesse Waters.

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Speaker 1: The debate on the air was over a ban on

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Speaker 1: kids having cell phones in schools. There's a lot to

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Speaker 1: this debate on both sides. It's actually a legitimate cause

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Speaker 1: of concern, whether it's on Fox or PBS. But there's

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Speaker 1: one angle for which there can be no debate. Phones

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Speaker 1: for kids are vital lifelines in the event of emergency,

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Speaker 1: and that's where the topic had gone. But Waters on Fox,

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Speaker 1: with arrogance dripping from his voice, said what kind of

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Speaker 1: emergency would it be where you couldn't just call the school?

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Speaker 1: Even Janine Piro saw what was wrong there. She interrupted

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Speaker 1: with quote, oh my god, Waters, of course only he

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Speaker 1: knows anything, then interrupts her, why do you need to

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Speaker 1: call your child right then? In math class? That never

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Speaker 1: had you call? The token liberal on the program, Jessica Tarloff,

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Speaker 1: then interrupts him and says, simply school shooter. Now Waters

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Speaker 1: is really annoyed. Get them a beeper, he said that,

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Speaker 1: Get them a beeper. You and I hear somebody just

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Speaker 1: incredibly stupid, suddenly realizing he's made a disastrous mistake live

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00:30:00,875 --> 00:30:03,595
Speaker 1: on television. He's backed into a corner and like a

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00:30:03,595 --> 00:30:07,035
Speaker 1: little Trump with racer head hair, he's just decided he's

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00:30:07,075 --> 00:30:09,515
Speaker 1: going to crash his way out because it's always worked before.

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Speaker 1: And what are they going to do? Fire him? He's stupid.

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Speaker 1: They want him to be stupid. That's the appeal. What

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00:30:15,755 --> 00:30:19,435
Speaker 1: I hear is they're talking about kids and schools and emergencies,

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Speaker 1: and Jesse Waters, the father of four kids, claims to

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Speaker 1: be I'd need to see a paternity test. Honestly, the

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Speaker 1: father of four kids immediately thinks of himself, not the kids,

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Speaker 1: Not the kids in schools where things like school shootings

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00:30:35,355 --> 00:30:40,355
Speaker 1: happen because of Republicans like him, not the needs of kids,

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Speaker 1: not the needs of his own kids, but his needs,

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Speaker 1: him calling them in math class, his emergency, not the

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Speaker 1: kids emergency. And this nonsensical fallback here, give your child

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Speaker 1: a beeper so that during a school shooting allowed twentieth century,

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00:30:59,275 --> 00:31:02,955
Speaker 1: noise goes off from his book bag or his belt.

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00:31:04,875 --> 00:31:08,755
Speaker 1: Waters regularly says something stupid. One critic noted, the trade

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Speaker 1: of the malicious snake Tucker Carlson even up for Jesse

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Speaker 1: Waters at eight o'clock every night is a win for

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Speaker 1: those trying to destroy Fox because it is the triumph

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Speaker 1: of sheer stupidity over subversion. But in this case this

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Speaker 1: is really bad. Jesse Waters doesn't give a crap about

425
00:31:26,795 --> 00:31:32,035
Speaker 1: your kids. Jesse Waters doesn't give a crap about his kids. Jesse,

426
00:31:32,715 --> 00:31:36,515
Speaker 1: his kids should be taken away from him by the authorities.

427
00:31:36,955 --> 00:31:52,235
Speaker 1: Waters two days worst person in the world, to the

428
00:31:52,315 --> 00:31:54,635
Speaker 1: number one story on the Countdown, and things I promised

429
00:31:54,715 --> 00:31:56,635
Speaker 1: not to tell. And the further I get away from

430
00:31:56,675 --> 00:32:01,115
Speaker 1: the day I left NBC, the more I realize that

431
00:32:01,275 --> 00:32:07,515
Speaker 1: almost everybody there and many who are still there, was

432
00:32:07,595 --> 00:32:14,315
Speaker 1: crazy remains crazy. It is a nest for aggressive ingratitude

433
00:32:14,835 --> 00:32:17,035
Speaker 1: and the rewriting of history to make sure that everybody

434
00:32:17,035 --> 00:32:20,035
Speaker 1: who is a success did it all on their own,

435
00:32:21,235 --> 00:32:26,155
Speaker 1: sprang fully grown from the ground, and nobody owes anybody anything.

436
00:32:28,035 --> 00:32:30,755
Speaker 1: And those are the good parts. Then there are the

437
00:32:30,915 --> 00:32:33,955
Speaker 1: really crazy people, the ones who are in charge of

438
00:32:34,075 --> 00:32:38,515
Speaker 1: covering the election, the ones who laid the groundwork years

439
00:32:38,555 --> 00:32:41,995
Speaker 1: ago for the bottomless pit that American news media has

440
00:32:42,075 --> 00:32:46,235
Speaker 1: fallen into, particularly the curse that will, if not corrected,

441
00:32:46,715 --> 00:32:56,315
Speaker 1: kill us all both sides ism Chuck Todd disease. Sadly,

442
00:32:56,955 --> 00:33:03,435
Speaker 1: Katie Turd disease outside of the NBC, Crystal is a disease,

443
00:33:03,635 --> 00:33:06,475
Speaker 1: Ryan Lizzid disease, These New York Times, at this Ohio

444
00:33:06,555 --> 00:33:13,275
Speaker 1: diner disease. It started with the scumbag Roger Ales at

445
00:33:13,275 --> 00:33:19,075
Speaker 1: Fox News, It migrated to ken Starr and the Bill

446
00:33:19,115 --> 00:33:24,635
Speaker 1: Clinton prosecution, and it then became, after the sufficient number

447
00:33:24,755 --> 00:33:28,475
Speaker 1: of refs were worked, the we can't dismiss these sleeze

448
00:33:28,515 --> 00:33:31,115
Speaker 1: balls on the right because even if they are sleeves balls,

449
00:33:31,275 --> 00:33:35,395
Speaker 1: they have public support. We need every viewer we can get.

450
00:33:35,675 --> 00:33:39,915
Speaker 1: It's a declining marketplace. Instead of saying what American News

451
00:33:40,035 --> 00:33:43,475
Speaker 1: once said to the sleeze balls of any party like

452
00:33:43,915 --> 00:33:46,595
Speaker 1: Joe McCarthy or Father Coughlin or any of the others,

453
00:33:46,795 --> 00:33:49,955
Speaker 1: which was, screw you, We're going to write or broadcast

454
00:33:49,995 --> 00:33:53,675
Speaker 1: about your perfidy every day until you die, they looked

455
00:33:53,675 --> 00:33:58,275
Speaker 1: at ken Starr's read thin persecution of Bill Clinton and said, well, no,

456
00:33:58,315 --> 00:34:01,675
Speaker 1: they've found nothing in two months, in six months, in

457
00:34:01,715 --> 00:34:04,755
Speaker 1: two years. But What if they find something later and

458
00:34:04,755 --> 00:34:06,795
Speaker 1: it turns out we opposed them and we were wrong.

459
00:34:06,955 --> 00:34:10,275
Speaker 1: We'll get killed by right wing media and our fascist

460
00:34:10,395 --> 00:34:16,035
Speaker 1: bosses like Bob Wright, ken Starr and his thugs who

461
00:34:16,035 --> 00:34:19,715
Speaker 1: went after Bill Clinton played the American news media, especially

462
00:34:19,755 --> 00:34:24,315
Speaker 1: TV news like the proverbial two dollar banjo. No news

463
00:34:24,395 --> 00:34:27,715
Speaker 1: in the Clinton Lewinsky scandal, no problem. A quick phone

464
00:34:27,715 --> 00:34:30,915
Speaker 1: call Alisa Meyers at NBC or any of several correspondents

465
00:34:30,915 --> 00:34:34,755
Speaker 1: at CNNABC or CBS, or anybody at Fox, and suddenly

466
00:34:34,795 --> 00:34:38,595
Speaker 1: there was breaking news and another alleged victim ready to

467
00:34:38,635 --> 00:34:41,955
Speaker 1: do a tiery on camera interview which had already aired

468
00:34:41,955 --> 00:34:46,675
Speaker 1: a dozen times with clips on every network before anybody

469
00:34:46,715 --> 00:34:51,915
Speaker 1: realized the alleged victim hadn't actually alleged anything. It was putrid,

470
00:34:52,675 --> 00:34:57,315
Speaker 1: but worse, it was profitable. And if you questioned it,

471
00:34:57,515 --> 00:35:02,275
Speaker 1: if you said, this isn't journalism, the other networks, the

472
00:35:02,315 --> 00:35:06,475
Speaker 1: other newspapers, the others invest in this story. A real

473
00:35:06,595 --> 00:35:09,915
Speaker 1: time twenty four to seven soap opera would go do

474
00:35:09,995 --> 00:35:13,355
Speaker 1: any length to attack you. And what would your own

475
00:35:13,395 --> 00:35:17,755
Speaker 1: network do? Hell sir, That's why I wanted to tell

476
00:35:17,795 --> 00:35:22,555
Speaker 1: this story in full. I haven't before almost by accident.

477
00:35:22,635 --> 00:35:26,235
Speaker 1: I had become the face of the star Clinton Lewinsky

478
00:35:26,355 --> 00:35:29,675
Speaker 1: story on cable news early in nineteen ninety eight, and

479
00:35:29,795 --> 00:35:32,635
Speaker 1: one day I had enough. I decided to get out,

480
00:35:33,155 --> 00:35:36,195
Speaker 1: and the reaction at NBC News was to try to

481
00:35:36,915 --> 00:35:40,875
Speaker 1: prevent me from leaving. It was going to be a

482
00:35:40,955 --> 00:35:46,355
Speaker 1: hostage situation, to literally threaten my career, my income, my future,

483
00:35:46,635 --> 00:35:51,035
Speaker 1: my family, to try to force me to keep working there,

484
00:35:51,435 --> 00:35:58,275
Speaker 1: to keep pushing whatever Ken Starr was cooking. Until you

485
00:35:58,315 --> 00:36:00,235
Speaker 1: were in the middle of that, you can never really

486
00:36:00,275 --> 00:36:04,995
Speaker 1: imagine what television executives will do for ratings or money.

487
00:36:05,555 --> 00:36:10,315
Speaker 1: I think sometimes they are worse than politicians. By that point,

488
00:36:10,355 --> 00:36:12,275
Speaker 1: I had been in TV for sixteen years. I was

489
00:36:12,315 --> 00:36:15,475
Speaker 1: already thirty nine years old, I had some gray hair,

490
00:36:15,955 --> 00:36:19,315
Speaker 1: I'd already been through the grinding machinery of local news

491
00:36:19,355 --> 00:36:22,635
Speaker 1: in Boston and Los Angeles. I had already made my

492
00:36:22,755 --> 00:36:25,275
Speaker 1: mark on SportsCenter and moved on. I thought I had

493
00:36:25,315 --> 00:36:31,155
Speaker 1: seen it all, ha ha, dumb me. I had not, however,

494
00:36:31,275 --> 00:36:37,115
Speaker 1: seen NBC News President Andrew Lack, nor had I imagined

495
00:36:37,155 --> 00:36:39,795
Speaker 1: that he would actually have ready to go at a

496
00:36:39,835 --> 00:36:44,195
Speaker 1: moment's notice, an employee who would be willing to try

497
00:36:44,195 --> 00:36:48,195
Speaker 1: to blackmail me, literally threatened to bankrupt me and my

498
00:36:48,355 --> 00:36:51,635
Speaker 1: parents and put them, as Lacks employee phrased it, quote

499
00:36:51,915 --> 00:36:56,955
Speaker 1: on the street. This was in the spring of nineteen

500
00:36:57,035 --> 00:36:59,475
Speaker 1: ninety eight. As I said, I had decided I didn't

501
00:36:59,515 --> 00:37:02,435
Speaker 1: want to do the nightly show anymore. That was devoted

502
00:37:02,475 --> 00:37:06,595
Speaker 1: to covering the Bill Clinton Monacolunsky story, whether there was

503
00:37:06,715 --> 00:37:10,195
Speaker 1: any news about it that day or not, and especially

504
00:37:10,275 --> 00:37:13,155
Speaker 1: since the network was devoted to portraying the Clinton Lewinski

505
00:37:13,235 --> 00:37:16,715
Speaker 1: story as the worst thing to happen to America since

506
00:37:16,755 --> 00:37:20,795
Speaker 1: the Civil War. The problem was the shows I did

507
00:37:20,835 --> 00:37:24,795
Speaker 1: for Andy Lack's MSNBC in nineteen ninety eight. They were

508
00:37:24,795 --> 00:37:29,355
Speaker 1: making millions of dollars a week in profit, and the

509
00:37:29,395 --> 00:37:33,355
Speaker 1: rest of the network was losing money. It had never

510
00:37:33,435 --> 00:37:40,235
Speaker 1: had ratings before. I wanted to do something else, something else,

511
00:37:40,315 --> 00:37:46,275
Speaker 1: anything else, fifty percent Lewinski, fifty percent, something else inside NBC.

512
00:37:46,595 --> 00:37:49,995
Speaker 1: Failing that outside NBC, stay in news, go back to sports,

513
00:37:50,155 --> 00:37:52,555
Speaker 1: do it in New York, go to Los Angeles, anything

514
00:37:52,635 --> 00:37:57,235
Speaker 1: except the show as it was constituted. So, through his personnel,

515
00:37:57,315 --> 00:38:01,795
Speaker 1: Vice president Elena Nachmanoff, an otherwise fairly pleasant person, there

516
00:38:01,795 --> 00:38:04,035
Speaker 1: came a message from Andy Lack in May of nineteen

517
00:38:04,075 --> 00:38:07,915
Speaker 1: ninety eight. If you go see our personnel consultant, a

518
00:38:07,955 --> 00:38:11,235
Speaker 1: woman named Deborah Byrne, and you talk to her frankly,

519
00:38:12,155 --> 00:38:20,835
Speaker 1: we will consider letting you leave NBC immediately. I went

520
00:38:22,275 --> 00:38:25,835
Speaker 1: first off. Elena Akhmanoff told me on Friday afternoon, June fifth,

521
00:38:25,915 --> 00:38:28,555
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, some of us understand where you're coming from,

522
00:38:28,555 --> 00:38:31,155
Speaker 1: about the madness of covering this scandal every night like this.

523
00:38:31,355 --> 00:38:34,955
Speaker 1: So you're the good Sport Award winner for doing this today, Keith.

524
00:38:35,475 --> 00:38:39,155
Speaker 1: You'll like Deborah byrn She's a certified social worker, and

525
00:38:39,195 --> 00:38:41,795
Speaker 1: she's done great things for us. She saved a lot

526
00:38:41,835 --> 00:38:44,435
Speaker 1: of people who were in trouble. I don't mean ethical

527
00:38:44,475 --> 00:38:47,355
Speaker 1: crises like yours, Keith, I mean people who were passed

528
00:38:47,355 --> 00:38:51,675
Speaker 1: out drunk at their desks. I didn't stop to ask

529
00:38:51,675 --> 00:38:55,075
Speaker 1: her what she thought was worse. In any event, Elena

530
00:38:55,155 --> 00:38:57,675
Speaker 1: walked me through a labyrinth of hallways at thirty Rock

531
00:38:57,715 --> 00:38:59,675
Speaker 1: in New York to the office of this Deborah burn

532
00:39:00,035 --> 00:39:04,795
Speaker 1: She was a bespectacled, bent looking woman of about sixty,

533
00:39:05,315 --> 00:39:10,035
Speaker 1: with badly dyed hair and a fiercely aggressive handshake. She

534
00:39:10,155 --> 00:39:13,355
Speaker 1: was not big, but Frankly, I was not convinced I

535
00:39:13,355 --> 00:39:15,155
Speaker 1: could take her in a fight if it came to that,

536
00:39:16,115 --> 00:39:18,915
Speaker 1: and from the get go her manager suggested it might

537
00:39:18,955 --> 00:39:22,035
Speaker 1: come to that. I am not an employee of NBC

538
00:39:22,155 --> 00:39:25,595
Speaker 1: or MSNBC, and I'm not beholden to them. Deborah Burn

539
00:39:25,675 --> 00:39:30,035
Speaker 1: began loudly and too quickly. I work on a contractual basis,

540
00:39:30,115 --> 00:39:31,955
Speaker 1: meaning I don't get ten percent of anything, and I

541
00:39:31,955 --> 00:39:35,755
Speaker 1: don't get money for attracting more business. It was clear

542
00:39:35,795 --> 00:39:37,795
Speaker 1: whatever money they gave her, it did not go to

543
00:39:37,835 --> 00:39:42,675
Speaker 1: office decorps. There were a dozen filing cabinets, no windows,

544
00:39:42,795 --> 00:39:46,995
Speaker 1: two lamps, her high back chair, a metal desk, and

545
00:39:47,035 --> 00:39:49,915
Speaker 1: the plain wooden chair at its side on which I

546
00:39:50,035 --> 00:39:52,795
Speaker 1: was instructed to sit. I'm not here to be critical

547
00:39:52,795 --> 00:39:55,195
Speaker 1: of NBC or MSNBC or Andy Lack. I'm not here

548
00:39:55,195 --> 00:39:57,755
Speaker 1: to be critical of you. I'm an impartial observer and

549
00:39:57,835 --> 00:40:02,075
Speaker 1: I'm simply here to help Nachman off. The talent vice

550
00:40:02,115 --> 00:40:05,035
Speaker 1: president was still there, and Burn turned to her for

551
00:40:05,115 --> 00:40:07,435
Speaker 1: the record. Elena, I need you to describe the company's

552
00:40:07,435 --> 00:40:13,675
Speaker 1: position about Keith's employment. Keith, Elena said, understands that if

553
00:40:13,715 --> 00:40:16,635
Speaker 1: he chooses not to work for NBC, as NBC wants

554
00:40:16,675 --> 00:40:22,195
Speaker 1: him to work, he will have to face consequences. Now,

555
00:40:22,235 --> 00:40:25,195
Speaker 1: this was a slightly changed story from the one Elena

556
00:40:25,275 --> 00:40:29,195
Speaker 1: Knackmanoff had given me even minutes earlier. But once she

557
00:40:29,235 --> 00:40:31,675
Speaker 1: had given me in her own office, gone was the

558
00:40:31,955 --> 00:40:37,035
Speaker 1: Good Sport Award winner crap. Obviously, She said, We're not

559
00:40:37,075 --> 00:40:39,315
Speaker 1: going to release you from your contract, Keith. If you

560
00:40:39,395 --> 00:40:41,115
Speaker 1: want to be on the beach for the next two

561
00:40:41,195 --> 00:40:46,915
Speaker 1: years plus whatever remains after that, so be it. That's

562
00:40:47,035 --> 00:40:53,355
Speaker 1: his contract status, Deborah with a crisp thanks. Deborah burn

563
00:40:53,475 --> 00:40:56,795
Speaker 1: now dismissed the vice president of NBC News who left.

564
00:40:57,555 --> 00:41:01,075
Speaker 1: Burne produced and opened and probably large folder with my

565
00:41:01,315 --> 00:41:04,755
Speaker 1: name on it in improbably large letters, so I could

566
00:41:04,875 --> 00:41:09,315
Speaker 1: they had a folder on me ostentatiously shuffled quickly through

567
00:41:09,355 --> 00:41:12,395
Speaker 1: one hundred assorted documents, got to a blank form of

568
00:41:12,435 --> 00:41:15,115
Speaker 1: some kind, and asked me to describe the circumstances that

569
00:41:15,235 --> 00:41:19,115
Speaker 1: had brought me into her office. I explained I was

570
00:41:19,195 --> 00:41:22,235
Speaker 1: asked to come in. I also explained my conviction that

571
00:41:22,275 --> 00:41:24,315
Speaker 1: I had made a complete mistake going into news in

572
00:41:24,355 --> 00:41:27,155
Speaker 1: the first place, that I missed doing sports, and on

573
00:41:27,235 --> 00:41:29,675
Speaker 1: top of all that, there had now emerged this new

574
00:41:29,835 --> 00:41:32,675
Speaker 1: kind of news, which I felt was against my personal

575
00:41:32,715 --> 00:41:36,035
Speaker 1: ethics and beliefs about what I should be doing, or

576
00:41:36,075 --> 00:41:39,315
Speaker 1: in fact, what the media should be doing. I threw

577
00:41:39,355 --> 00:41:42,595
Speaker 1: in the word pollution a couple of times. Very grand

578
00:41:42,715 --> 00:41:45,595
Speaker 1: of me, I thought. She didn't look up at me.

579
00:41:45,675 --> 00:41:48,675
Speaker 1: Once all of media is becoming polluted in the way

580
00:41:48,675 --> 00:41:52,435
Speaker 1: you've described. She yanked off her glasses and staring at me,

581
00:41:52,515 --> 00:41:55,035
Speaker 1: not with anger, but with annoyance. You should learn how

582
00:41:55,075 --> 00:41:56,795
Speaker 1: to live with it. It'll be a lot easier for

583
00:41:56,835 --> 00:41:59,355
Speaker 1: everybody if you just do that. You're not a child.

584
00:41:59,435 --> 00:42:01,755
Speaker 1: Grow up. Maybe next time you'll learn to read the

585
00:42:01,795 --> 00:42:05,995
Speaker 1: contract before you sign it. I had to fight a smile.

586
00:42:06,955 --> 00:42:12,275
Speaker 1: This wasn't some sort of counselor. This was Andy LAX's enforcer.

587
00:42:14,595 --> 00:42:18,275
Speaker 1: She'd be threatening to break my legs before we were done.

588
00:42:19,075 --> 00:42:23,835
Speaker 1: They might bring in Brokaw to narrate it. I uh,

589
00:42:24,635 --> 00:42:30,275
Speaker 1: I did read the contract thoroughly, I said, suppressing my laughter.

590
00:42:30,715 --> 00:42:33,115
Speaker 1: This isn't about the contract. This is about my morals

591
00:42:33,955 --> 00:42:37,475
Speaker 1: and nobody else's morals, I said, not NBC's not, mister Lax,

592
00:42:37,915 --> 00:42:41,555
Speaker 1: just mine. I don't like the way the news industry

593
00:42:41,595 --> 00:42:43,995
Speaker 1: is handling this story. I have no delusion about being

594
00:42:44,035 --> 00:42:46,115
Speaker 1: able to change the news industry. I don't even feel

595
00:42:46,155 --> 00:42:48,595
Speaker 1: it's my responsibility to try to change the news industry.

596
00:42:48,675 --> 00:42:52,515
Speaker 1: This is about my ethics and my incorrect choices related

597
00:42:52,555 --> 00:42:56,955
Speaker 1: to TV news and TV sports. Now, she put her

598
00:42:56,995 --> 00:43:00,635
Speaker 1: glasses back on. She wrote some notes. She chuckled as

599
00:43:00,635 --> 00:43:03,795
Speaker 1: she wrote them. You may indeed miss sports as you

600
00:43:03,835 --> 00:43:06,395
Speaker 1: put it, and you may feel that sincerely, but it's

601
00:43:06,435 --> 00:43:09,955
Speaker 1: nonetheless an adolescent fantasy. And as to the pollution of

602
00:43:09,995 --> 00:43:12,595
Speaker 1: the media, that's also part of this fantasy world you

603
00:43:12,675 --> 00:43:14,555
Speaker 1: live in. You're grown up now, and you have to

604
00:43:14,755 --> 00:43:16,955
Speaker 1: live with the consequences of your actions. You heard what

605
00:43:16,995 --> 00:43:19,755
Speaker 1: Elena said. If you try to break this contract, NBC

606
00:43:19,875 --> 00:43:23,515
Speaker 1: will punish you severely. This is David and Goliath here, Keith,

607
00:43:23,515 --> 00:43:28,275
Speaker 1: and you're just not seeing it. I started to reply

608
00:43:28,435 --> 00:43:31,315
Speaker 1: something about how I had come down there as there's

609
00:43:31,355 --> 00:43:33,955
Speaker 1: a gesture of compromise at their request, and then she

610
00:43:34,035 --> 00:43:38,035
Speaker 1: shouted me down. You'll have to learn to compromise. She

611
00:43:38,075 --> 00:43:40,635
Speaker 1: emphasized the word as if I had not only not

612
00:43:40,875 --> 00:43:43,875
Speaker 1: just said it, but as if she had just invented it.

613
00:43:44,755 --> 00:43:46,755
Speaker 1: This is what the company wants, this is what the

614
00:43:46,795 --> 00:43:49,835
Speaker 1: audience wants, and you signed the contract. That's your responsibility.

615
00:43:50,035 --> 00:43:52,835
Speaker 1: I've been an NBC employee for twenty years, and they're

616
00:43:52,955 --> 00:43:55,595
Speaker 1: very big, and they're very successful, and they just won't

617
00:43:55,635 --> 00:43:58,395
Speaker 1: sit idly by. This will be David and Goliath, and

618
00:43:58,435 --> 00:44:00,195
Speaker 1: I'm very sorry to have to break it to you.

619
00:44:00,435 --> 00:44:06,155
Speaker 1: But you are not Goliath. I asked her why she

620
00:44:06,235 --> 00:44:09,515
Speaker 1: had just said she'd been an NBC employee for twenty years.

621
00:44:09,515 --> 00:44:11,635
Speaker 1: Two minutes after telling me that she was not an

622
00:44:11,715 --> 00:44:17,755
Speaker 1: NBC employee, she looked at me. She snickered. She wrote

623
00:44:17,795 --> 00:44:21,635
Speaker 1: that down too, Otherwise she just kept talking. Television viewers

624
00:44:21,635 --> 00:44:23,675
Speaker 1: are fickle, and if you're off the air for two years,

625
00:44:23,675 --> 00:44:25,995
Speaker 1: it'll be real difficult to get back on. People will

626
00:44:26,035 --> 00:44:31,635
Speaker 1: forget you. That's the real world now. Deborah Burn paused

627
00:44:31,675 --> 00:44:36,555
Speaker 1: and looked over at nothing over in the corner of

628
00:44:36,595 --> 00:44:42,315
Speaker 1: the room. I have a daughter who isn't realistic, she

629
00:44:42,435 --> 00:44:46,835
Speaker 1: suddenly whispered, just like you, lives in a world of

630
00:44:46,835 --> 00:44:50,475
Speaker 1: her own. She judges others and moralizes to them too.

631
00:44:51,355 --> 00:44:56,075
Speaker 1: She's tall like you too. It's difficult for parents to

632
00:44:56,075 --> 00:44:59,675
Speaker 1: have to look up at their children and discipline them.

633
00:45:00,555 --> 00:45:03,195
Speaker 1: Your height has always made it difficult for your parents

634
00:45:03,435 --> 00:45:12,795
Speaker 1: to discipline you. Thus you remain a headstrong child. The

635
00:45:12,875 --> 00:45:16,595
Speaker 1: defeat in her voice was total and as disturbing as that,

636
00:45:17,235 --> 00:45:19,875
Speaker 1: and this whole line was getting I really did think

637
00:45:19,915 --> 00:45:22,635
Speaker 1: somebody was gonna pop out from between those filing cabinets

638
00:45:22,715 --> 00:45:25,075
Speaker 1: to tell me I'd been punked, or that this was

639
00:45:25,115 --> 00:45:30,195
Speaker 1: a remake of candid Camera or something. I patiently explained

640
00:45:30,235 --> 00:45:32,515
Speaker 1: to Deborah Burn that I had not been born at

641
00:45:32,515 --> 00:45:35,835
Speaker 1: my current height of six three and a half inches, that,

642
00:45:35,875 --> 00:45:41,075
Speaker 1: in fact, my mother was taller than me until I

643
00:45:41,155 --> 00:45:45,355
Speaker 1: was probably twelve thirteen years old. That my father was

644
00:45:45,395 --> 00:45:47,875
Speaker 1: still taller than me until I got to college. But

645
00:45:47,915 --> 00:45:50,995
Speaker 1: your mother is short, she blurted, with great satisfaction. I

646
00:45:51,035 --> 00:45:54,435
Speaker 1: need descriptions of your parents, of their personalities, for my diagnosis,

647
00:45:54,435 --> 00:45:59,795
Speaker 1: and please stop giving me your obviously prepared answers. I

648
00:45:59,835 --> 00:46:02,395
Speaker 1: was still trying at this point. I started to describe

649
00:46:02,395 --> 00:46:05,155
Speaker 1: my parents. She cut me off. Father passive, of course,

650
00:46:06,475 --> 00:46:09,075
Speaker 1: this time I actually couldn't stop laughing. I said that

651
00:46:09,195 --> 00:46:11,475
Speaker 1: was not my father at all, that he usually did

652
00:46:11,515 --> 00:46:15,555
Speaker 1: what he damned well pleased. This annoyed Deborah Burn. No,

653
00:46:15,715 --> 00:46:18,675
Speaker 1: he's passive. I can tell I'm a professional, Keith. He

654
00:46:18,715 --> 00:46:20,835
Speaker 1: didn't stand up to your mother, did he? He never

655
00:46:20,875 --> 00:46:22,995
Speaker 1: told her to grow up or act her age? Did he?

656
00:46:23,155 --> 00:46:26,875
Speaker 1: That means he was passive. I could see her writing

657
00:46:26,955 --> 00:46:29,915
Speaker 1: the word passive in block letters on one of the

658
00:46:29,955 --> 00:46:33,115
Speaker 1: forms in which she'd been putting her notes. She then

659
00:46:33,275 --> 00:46:36,915
Speaker 1: detached this page theatrically. She stuck it into the large

660
00:46:37,035 --> 00:46:39,515
Speaker 1: pile of documents on the top of the thing, and

661
00:46:39,555 --> 00:46:42,955
Speaker 1: she grabbed a fresh page from a stack to her right.

662
00:46:43,075 --> 00:46:47,275
Speaker 1: What about your parents' finances, I explained, they were both retired,

663
00:46:47,395 --> 00:46:50,035
Speaker 1: so you take care of them. I began to answer

664
00:46:50,115 --> 00:46:52,715
Speaker 1: that they were both extremely independent, when she cut me

665
00:46:52,755 --> 00:46:55,795
Speaker 1: off again. I said, so you are responsible for them financially,

666
00:46:55,955 --> 00:47:01,035
Speaker 1: don't evade me. My amusement at this obviously deranged woman

667
00:47:01,555 --> 00:47:06,115
Speaker 1: now began to be overcome by anger. I swallowed both

668
00:47:06,155 --> 00:47:09,995
Speaker 1: the anger and the amusement, and I explained I handled

669
00:47:10,035 --> 00:47:14,355
Speaker 1: their finances, so your their sole financial support, just as

670
00:47:14,355 --> 00:47:21,035
Speaker 1: Elena Nachmanoff's report to me indicates. I thought, so, so

671
00:47:21,195 --> 00:47:26,475
Speaker 1: you're the superstar in the family, are you. I began

672
00:47:26,595 --> 00:47:30,955
Speaker 1: to try to bring us back to this planet, when

673
00:47:30,995 --> 00:47:33,715
Speaker 1: Deborah Byurn rose in her chair and leaned in toward

674
00:47:33,795 --> 00:47:38,675
Speaker 1: me and tell me, Keith, what exactly will your parents

675
00:47:38,835 --> 00:47:41,995
Speaker 1: do for money? What will keep them from being out

676
00:47:42,035 --> 00:47:48,595
Speaker 1: on the street when their precious superstar is blacklisted from television.

677
00:47:51,595 --> 00:47:55,355
Speaker 1: This purported social worker who worked for NBC or didn't

678
00:47:55,355 --> 00:47:59,675
Speaker 1: work for NBC, or maybe both, depending on which minute

679
00:47:59,795 --> 00:48:03,315
Speaker 1: it was, went into detail about the threat she was

680
00:48:03,355 --> 00:48:08,035
Speaker 1: now making on behalf half of NBC News MSNBC, Andy

681
00:48:08,155 --> 00:48:13,315
Speaker 1: lack Lanna nackman Off, and our corporate parent ge. Even

682
00:48:13,355 --> 00:48:18,435
Speaker 1: if I simply quit the Clinton Lewinsky Show, indeed quit television,

683
00:48:18,755 --> 00:48:22,195
Speaker 1: NBC would declare that my contract was still in force.

684
00:48:22,595 --> 00:48:25,595
Speaker 1: It would suspend me, It would not pay me. It

685
00:48:25,635 --> 00:48:28,155
Speaker 1: would then sue me for the salary it had already

686
00:48:28,155 --> 00:48:30,235
Speaker 1: paid me. Then it would sue me for the money

687
00:48:30,275 --> 00:48:32,635
Speaker 1: it had spent on promoting the show. Then it would

688
00:48:32,675 --> 00:48:36,555
Speaker 1: get a court order extending my contracts indefinitely until the

689
00:48:36,595 --> 00:48:39,355
Speaker 1: suspension ended, and then it would suspend me some more.

690
00:48:40,475 --> 00:48:45,515
Speaker 1: Let that sink in, she said, first time I ever

691
00:48:45,595 --> 00:48:48,075
Speaker 1: heard that phrase, Let that sink in. And then she

692
00:48:48,115 --> 00:48:49,875
Speaker 1: didn't even pause for a second to let me let

693
00:48:49,955 --> 00:48:53,755
Speaker 1: that sink in. Instead, she burst out with this the

694
00:48:53,835 --> 00:48:56,355
Speaker 1: greatest of all the non secutors on a day of

695
00:48:56,475 --> 00:49:00,875
Speaker 1: non sequiturs. You have what I would classify as a

696
00:49:00,995 --> 00:49:05,315
Speaker 1: Howard Stern kind of personality, And how I was back

697
00:49:05,355 --> 00:49:07,515
Speaker 1: to actually biting my tongue to keep from laughing at

698
00:49:07,555 --> 00:49:10,155
Speaker 1: the image of a bunch of therapists at a conference somewhere,

699
00:49:10,355 --> 00:49:16,435
Speaker 1: drily discussing the parameters of the Howard Stern kind of personality, Dogmatic, unbending,

700
00:49:16,635 --> 00:49:19,155
Speaker 1: presenting absolutely forceful opinions on the air that no one

701
00:49:19,195 --> 00:49:21,515
Speaker 1: is permitted to disagree with. Imagine going on a date

702
00:49:21,555 --> 00:49:27,515
Speaker 1: with Howard Stern. I tried not to. All he would

703
00:49:27,555 --> 00:49:29,875
Speaker 1: be doing would be talking about himself. It would be unbearable.

704
00:49:29,995 --> 00:49:31,515
Speaker 1: You're like him on the air, and I can see

705
00:49:31,515 --> 00:49:33,435
Speaker 1: that who you are on the airs, who you are

706
00:49:33,475 --> 00:49:35,275
Speaker 1: in life. Of course, I've never seen your show. I

707
00:49:35,315 --> 00:49:40,755
Speaker 1: don't have cable. Ever been married. I recovered from these

708
00:49:40,795 --> 00:49:42,795
Speaker 1: non sequitors quickly enough to explain that I had not

709
00:49:42,875 --> 00:49:48,835
Speaker 1: been married engaged again. No, I thought I might be

710
00:49:48,875 --> 00:49:52,235
Speaker 1: about to be ever had a long term relationship of

711
00:49:52,275 --> 00:49:55,875
Speaker 1: any kind? I told her I had, Oh, really, how

712
00:49:56,075 --> 00:50:01,195
Speaker 1: long term? I answered? Eleven years? And when did that end?

713
00:50:02,355 --> 00:50:06,275
Speaker 1: I calculated it had ended four years previously to the month,

714
00:50:06,315 --> 00:50:09,315
Speaker 1: in fact, And you haven't had an eleven year relationship,

715
00:50:09,395 --> 00:50:14,195
Speaker 1: since I explained to her as pleasantly as I could,

716
00:50:14,675 --> 00:50:17,235
Speaker 1: while I looked to see if there were any emergency exits,

717
00:50:18,075 --> 00:50:20,915
Speaker 1: or calculated if there might be a window somewhere outside

718
00:50:20,915 --> 00:50:22,795
Speaker 1: that I could throw myself through to get out of

719
00:50:22,795 --> 00:50:25,275
Speaker 1: the building as fast as possible. I explained to her

720
00:50:25,275 --> 00:50:28,355
Speaker 1: as pleasantly as possible, but I didn't know any way

721
00:50:28,475 --> 00:50:32,515
Speaker 1: of squeezing an eleven year long relationship into four calendar years,

722
00:50:32,715 --> 00:50:34,475
Speaker 1: so that my answer here would have to be no.

723
00:50:35,715 --> 00:50:41,475
Speaker 1: I told you to stop giving me prepared answers right

724
00:50:41,515 --> 00:50:46,915
Speaker 1: then again, she switched tones and topics. How much do

725
00:50:46,995 --> 00:50:50,755
Speaker 1: you drink? She demanded. I said, I almost never drank.

726
00:50:51,075 --> 00:50:53,195
Speaker 1: She dropped her pen and stared at me again. Well

727
00:50:53,195 --> 00:50:56,475
Speaker 1: what does that mean? I said? I believed I'd had

728
00:50:57,035 --> 00:51:00,995
Speaker 1: four glasses of wine during the current calendar year, and

729
00:51:01,115 --> 00:51:04,515
Speaker 1: it was June. She took the glasses off and leaned

730
00:51:04,835 --> 00:51:07,595
Speaker 1: as far as she could without again rising from her

731
00:51:07,675 --> 00:51:12,355
Speaker 1: chair or falling off it. Well, then, how much drug

732
00:51:12,435 --> 00:51:16,515
Speaker 1: do you do? Told her, I'd never use drug or

733
00:51:16,675 --> 00:51:21,115
Speaker 1: drugs stronger than alcohol, and before I could criticize her grammar,

734
00:51:21,155 --> 00:51:23,515
Speaker 1: she got red and angry. Then, what's that smell on

735
00:51:23,555 --> 00:51:26,075
Speaker 1: your breath. Look, you just don't get this. Do you

736
00:51:26,115 --> 00:51:30,555
Speaker 1: look at my telephone? Keith, and I did as instructed.

737
00:51:31,355 --> 00:51:35,675
Speaker 1: I looked at an ordinary black telephone, although given her

738
00:51:35,835 --> 00:51:38,555
Speaker 1: manifest insanity, for all I knew she would shortly reveal

739
00:51:38,595 --> 00:51:40,955
Speaker 1: it was a direct line to Elvis Presley. If I

740
00:51:40,955 --> 00:51:43,555
Speaker 1: didn't want a black telephone and I have a black telephone,

741
00:51:43,675 --> 00:51:46,595
Speaker 1: I'll just have to make the best of it, won't I,

742
00:51:46,595 --> 00:51:48,355
Speaker 1: I said. I thought she was holding up very well

743
00:51:48,435 --> 00:51:52,035
Speaker 1: under the strain of that disappointment. I instantly regretted the

744
00:51:52,035 --> 00:51:53,915
Speaker 1: snidness of that remark, because it was just going to

745
00:51:53,955 --> 00:51:56,635
Speaker 1: make things worse. And then, to my astonishment, she sat

746
00:51:56,715 --> 00:51:59,315
Speaker 1: back in her chair, ran her hand through her hair,

747
00:51:59,635 --> 00:52:04,195
Speaker 1: and almost whispered, thank you for saying that. I appreciate it.

748
00:52:06,235 --> 00:52:09,755
Speaker 1: The pause in the storm did not last long. You're

749
00:52:09,795 --> 00:52:13,995
Speaker 1: seeing a therapist, it says here you've been discussing these

750
00:52:14,035 --> 00:52:17,515
Speaker 1: so called ethical issues. I said, we've made a lot

751
00:52:17,515 --> 00:52:19,995
Speaker 1: of progress. Well, you can't resolve the work matters without

752
00:52:19,995 --> 00:52:22,195
Speaker 1: getting at the core problems, which are obviously personal and

753
00:52:22,235 --> 00:52:24,755
Speaker 1: family related, not to mention the alcohol and the drug.

754
00:52:25,355 --> 00:52:27,795
Speaker 1: So talking about work with your therapist is probably not

755
00:52:27,835 --> 00:52:30,355
Speaker 1: going to solve this to the satisfaction of NBC. So

756
00:52:30,515 --> 00:52:32,315
Speaker 1: I will need to talk to your therapist, and I

757
00:52:32,355 --> 00:52:35,995
Speaker 1: want you to sign a release here and now permitting

758
00:52:36,035 --> 00:52:37,875
Speaker 1: me to do so, unless that is this therapist of

759
00:52:37,915 --> 00:52:40,035
Speaker 1: yours is working towards making you adjust to the facts

760
00:52:40,115 --> 00:52:42,555
Speaker 1: that you signed this contract and this is your job,

761
00:52:42,635 --> 00:52:44,395
Speaker 1: and this is the real world, and this is David

762
00:52:44,395 --> 00:52:46,275
Speaker 1: and Goliath, and that's all there is to it. And

763
00:52:46,275 --> 00:52:47,875
Speaker 1: you're on the air tonight at eight o'clock, and that's

764
00:52:47,915 --> 00:52:52,435
Speaker 1: it now. She paused and stared off into space again,

765
00:52:53,235 --> 00:52:56,955
Speaker 1: like when she mentioned her daughter. When I was in

766
00:52:56,995 --> 00:53:00,075
Speaker 1: my early twenties, I was traveling from Smith College to

767
00:53:00,155 --> 00:53:06,155
Speaker 1: Montreal by train. She suddenly announced My meeting with her

768
00:53:06,155 --> 00:53:09,835
Speaker 1: went on for two hours. It featured threats against my parents.

769
00:53:10,755 --> 00:53:13,155
Speaker 1: It had her yelling at me, It had her accusing

770
00:53:13,195 --> 00:53:18,355
Speaker 1: me of using alcohol and drug and yet this was

771
00:53:18,395 --> 00:53:21,075
Speaker 1: the only point where I really considered trying to make

772
00:53:21,115 --> 00:53:24,875
Speaker 1: a break for the door. The Montreal Canadians hockey team

773
00:53:24,915 --> 00:53:27,675
Speaker 1: were on that train, very drunk, very happy, very boastful

774
00:53:27,715 --> 00:53:31,155
Speaker 1: of their conquests during their trips to the various cities

775
00:53:31,195 --> 00:53:34,395
Speaker 1: of their hockey league, and one of them, I suspect,

776
00:53:34,395 --> 00:53:36,515
Speaker 1: giving your fantasy world interest in sports, you may have

777
00:53:36,555 --> 00:53:40,195
Speaker 1: heard of him boom boom, Jeffreyon he came over and

778
00:53:40,235 --> 00:53:44,035
Speaker 1: tried to pick me up. I nodded robotically and began

779
00:53:44,075 --> 00:53:46,635
Speaker 1: to wonder if I suddenly leaped from the wooden chair

780
00:53:46,675 --> 00:53:50,035
Speaker 1: and did run out of her office, would she continued

781
00:53:50,075 --> 00:53:53,475
Speaker 1: to tell this story anyway after I left. We didn't

782
00:53:53,515 --> 00:53:55,435
Speaker 1: talk of such things then, not in the nineteen fifties.

783
00:53:55,475 --> 00:53:59,515
Speaker 1: A married man, an athlete, a tall athlete. Now, of course,

784
00:53:59,515 --> 00:54:01,195
Speaker 1: if I was a reporter and this happened, I'd have

785
00:54:01,195 --> 00:54:03,155
Speaker 1: to report it, I'd put it on the news. That's

786
00:54:03,235 --> 00:54:04,915
Speaker 1: just the way the world has changed, the real world,

787
00:54:04,955 --> 00:54:08,515
Speaker 1: that is. Keith. I suggested that at every news organization

788
00:54:08,555 --> 00:54:10,795
Speaker 1: for which I had worked, the code had been the

789
00:54:10,795 --> 00:54:14,035
Speaker 1: same that unless an incident involved the law, or it

790
00:54:14,075 --> 00:54:18,195
Speaker 1: diminished a player's ability or availability in a game, we

791
00:54:18,315 --> 00:54:22,355
Speaker 1: in fact didn't report it, like at ESPN. I related

792
00:54:22,355 --> 00:54:24,595
Speaker 1: a story similar to her own that had occurred in

793
00:54:24,675 --> 00:54:27,875
Speaker 1: Miami at the past World Series in nineteen ninety seven. Well,

794
00:54:28,275 --> 00:54:30,555
Speaker 1: she resumed, indignantly, you might have gotten away with that

795
00:54:30,635 --> 00:54:33,035
Speaker 1: under an old contract or in the sixties, where a

796
00:54:33,115 --> 00:54:35,715
Speaker 1: hippie like you might have fit in. But this isn't

797
00:54:35,755 --> 00:54:38,315
Speaker 1: the sixties. This is the real world of today, and

798
00:54:38,355 --> 00:54:40,275
Speaker 1: you won't get away with that kind of attitude under

799
00:54:40,315 --> 00:54:43,315
Speaker 1: this contract or any other contract in the future. You

800
00:54:43,315 --> 00:54:46,235
Speaker 1: could even go back to your precious sports and you'd

801
00:54:46,315 --> 00:54:49,195
Speaker 1: soon find out about the real world. Don't kid yourself,

802
00:54:49,235 --> 00:54:53,075
Speaker 1: it'll be David and Goliath. I said that the decision

803
00:54:53,115 --> 00:54:56,115
Speaker 1: not to report the story in Miami was made under

804
00:54:56,155 --> 00:54:59,995
Speaker 1: this contract by executives from NBC Sports. And now she

805
00:55:00,115 --> 00:55:03,115
Speaker 1: sat bolt upright and slammed her glasses back on her face.

806
00:55:03,355 --> 00:55:05,355
Speaker 1: I can't get this done, and just there's one session,

807
00:55:05,395 --> 00:55:10,755
Speaker 1: you know, deathly afraid that she was about to recite

808
00:55:10,795 --> 00:55:14,275
Speaker 1: another memory from the glorious days of rail travel, I

809
00:55:14,355 --> 00:55:17,315
Speaker 1: agreed to return the following Thursday, knowing full well, as

810
00:55:17,355 --> 00:55:19,835
Speaker 1: I said so, that I would never come back to

811
00:55:19,915 --> 00:55:25,515
Speaker 1: her office, even as a hostage or in a body bag. Well,

812
00:55:25,635 --> 00:55:28,155
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, she said, as she opened

813
00:55:28,155 --> 00:55:31,835
Speaker 1: her door. But I'm exhausted, I told her. Indeed so

814
00:55:31,995 --> 00:55:34,195
Speaker 1: was I, which was rather unfortunate because now I had

815
00:55:34,235 --> 00:55:37,115
Speaker 1: to go do two live hours of television. Yes, I

816
00:55:37,155 --> 00:55:41,235
Speaker 1: guess you do. She suddenly stared at my feet, then

817
00:55:41,315 --> 00:55:44,075
Speaker 1: quickly up at my head, as if she were estimating

818
00:55:44,075 --> 00:55:47,355
Speaker 1: what size I took in caskets. But you're so much

819
00:55:47,395 --> 00:55:54,955
Speaker 1: taller than I am, so you'll recover more quickly. MSNBC

820
00:55:55,075 --> 00:55:57,115
Speaker 1: had arranged a car service to take me out to

821
00:55:57,115 --> 00:56:00,195
Speaker 1: the studios in New Jersey from thirty Rock, and I

822
00:56:00,315 --> 00:56:05,475
Speaker 1: spent the entire trip writing all this down, page and

823
00:56:05,755 --> 00:56:10,395
Speaker 1: pages of notes and quotes and boom boom jeffreyon and

824
00:56:10,515 --> 00:56:14,235
Speaker 1: my own height at birth. And I called my therapist

825
00:56:14,275 --> 00:56:16,395
Speaker 1: on my phone, and I asked her if there was

826
00:56:16,435 --> 00:56:18,555
Speaker 1: a New York state number that I could call to

827
00:56:18,675 --> 00:56:22,875
Speaker 1: complain about a certified social worker who seemed to be

828
00:56:22,995 --> 00:56:26,795
Speaker 1: certifiable and who had just threatened me. She gave me

829
00:56:26,835 --> 00:56:29,075
Speaker 1: a number I called while still in the car, and

830
00:56:29,115 --> 00:56:32,435
Speaker 1: they said they had no record of any social worker

831
00:56:32,515 --> 00:56:37,075
Speaker 1: named Deborah Burn. When I got to the MSNBC studios

832
00:56:37,075 --> 00:56:39,915
Speaker 1: in Sicaugus, New Jersey, now the home of MLB Network

833
00:56:39,915 --> 00:56:42,035
Speaker 1: of all things, I went to my little office. I

834
00:56:42,075 --> 00:56:44,955
Speaker 1: picked up a small microcassette tape recorder that I kept

835
00:56:44,955 --> 00:56:47,115
Speaker 1: in the desk there, and I went in to see

836
00:56:47,115 --> 00:56:51,275
Speaker 1: my executive producer, Phil Griffin. I explained how this woman

837
00:56:51,395 --> 00:56:54,555
Speaker 1: Burn had threatened me, and I mentioned that I'd called

838
00:56:54,595 --> 00:56:58,715
Speaker 1: the state social worker hotline and appeared that Deborah Burn

839
00:56:59,435 --> 00:57:02,115
Speaker 1: was operating without a license. And as I did this,

840
00:57:02,195 --> 00:57:05,475
Speaker 1: I kept flipping that mini cassette machine from hand to

841
00:57:05,595 --> 00:57:09,115
Speaker 1: hand until I was sure Phil Griffin had gotten the implication.

842
00:57:09,755 --> 00:57:12,915
Speaker 1: Completely phony on my part, But like James Jones says

843
00:57:12,915 --> 00:57:15,635
Speaker 1: in Field of Dreams, there are rules here. No, there

844
00:57:15,675 --> 00:57:20,435
Speaker 1: are no rules here. My executive producer buried his head

845
00:57:20,755 --> 00:57:25,035
Speaker 1: in his hands. Needless to say, the Deborah Burn thing

846
00:57:25,075 --> 00:57:27,595
Speaker 1: had blown up in NBC's face. They went into a

847
00:57:27,635 --> 00:57:29,715
Speaker 1: full fledged panic at the news that she was not

848
00:57:29,795 --> 00:57:32,475
Speaker 1: registered as a certified social worker. And it turned out

849
00:57:32,515 --> 00:57:35,755
Speaker 1: that was a clerical mistake. It was her own clerical mistake.

850
00:57:35,995 --> 00:57:38,795
Speaker 1: She was registered, but she was registered only under her

851
00:57:38,875 --> 00:57:42,755
Speaker 1: maiden name. But for the next few weeks NBC was

852
00:57:42,875 --> 00:57:46,115
Speaker 1: completely on the defensive about me. Soon they were promising

853
00:57:46,155 --> 00:57:49,115
Speaker 1: to make me Tom Brokaw's air apparent if I would

854
00:57:49,115 --> 00:57:52,755
Speaker 1: only stay. I said, yeah, but it says in Brian Williams'

855
00:57:52,835 --> 00:57:56,195
Speaker 1: contract that he's Tom Brokaw's heir apparent. The executive in

856
00:57:56,275 --> 00:58:00,235
Speaker 1: question laughed and said, no, Brian only thinks it says

857
00:58:00,275 --> 00:58:03,115
Speaker 1: in Brian Williams contract that he's Tom Brokaw's heir apparent.

858
00:58:03,435 --> 00:58:07,115
Speaker 1: It can be you stick with the Lewinsky story, oh

859
00:58:07,155 --> 00:58:11,835
Speaker 1: and layoff ken Starr, and I have to think that

860
00:58:11,875 --> 00:58:14,875
Speaker 1: one through too long. If they could make poor Brian

861
00:58:14,995 --> 00:58:17,115
Speaker 1: think that he was the heir apparent when he wasn't,

862
00:58:17,835 --> 00:58:19,835
Speaker 1: they could make me think I was the heir apparent

863
00:58:19,835 --> 00:58:22,995
Speaker 1: when I wasn't as well, and that price laying off

864
00:58:23,075 --> 00:58:27,155
Speaker 1: ken Starr, that was a non starter. The stalemate continued

865
00:58:27,195 --> 00:58:29,635
Speaker 1: for a few weeks until, as I have related here previously,

866
00:58:29,635 --> 00:58:32,355
Speaker 1: a friend in the Sports division revealed that NBC had

867
00:58:32,435 --> 00:58:34,755
Speaker 1: lied to me to get me to sign my contract

868
00:58:34,755 --> 00:58:36,875
Speaker 1: with them, that I was not being paid as they

869
00:58:36,875 --> 00:58:39,715
Speaker 1: had told me, primarily by the News division, but by

870
00:58:39,715 --> 00:58:43,755
Speaker 1: the Sports division. I then met with Monica Lewinsky's first lawyer,

871
00:58:43,835 --> 00:58:48,355
Speaker 1: Bill Ginsburg, to discuss suing NBC over such illegal negotiation tactics.

872
00:58:48,715 --> 00:58:51,475
Speaker 1: Ginsburg thought just leaking the fact that we had met

873
00:58:51,795 --> 00:58:55,355
Speaker 1: would spring me. Sure enough, About six weeks later, Lanna

874
00:58:55,435 --> 00:58:57,715
Speaker 1: Akmanoff suddenly called my agent and told her they were

875
00:58:57,715 --> 00:59:01,195
Speaker 1: willing to sell my contract to Fox Sports in Los Angeles. Yippee,

876
00:59:02,795 --> 00:59:06,395
Speaker 1: so do not doubt what television executives are willing to

877
00:59:06,395 --> 00:59:10,635
Speaker 1: do to protect their ratings and their profits even in

878
00:59:10,675 --> 00:59:14,155
Speaker 1: the event of full fledged fascism. And do not doubt

879
00:59:14,155 --> 00:59:17,595
Speaker 1: what a zealot with even minimal skills at medium manipulation

880
00:59:17,715 --> 00:59:20,675
Speaker 1: like Ken Starr can do to the news you watch

881
00:59:20,795 --> 00:59:25,635
Speaker 1: or hear or read, even after he's dead. Also, most

882
00:59:25,715 --> 00:59:29,715
Speaker 1: relevantly now, as CNN's talent faced the prospect of conforming

883
00:59:29,715 --> 00:59:32,555
Speaker 1: to the right wing party line, or suddenly finding themselves

884
00:59:32,555 --> 00:59:36,715
Speaker 1: with a conservative co host, or finding themselves unemployed, there's

885
00:59:36,835 --> 00:59:40,315
Speaker 1: one more MSNBC story to tell that is relevant. I

886
00:59:40,355 --> 00:59:42,915
Speaker 1: went back there in two thousand and three and we

887
00:59:42,955 --> 00:59:46,235
Speaker 1: did pretty well, and then in twenty ten they began

888
00:59:46,315 --> 00:59:49,715
Speaker 1: to pressure me to change my tone and to add

889
00:59:49,795 --> 00:59:53,715
Speaker 1: in more diverse voices. And they did not mean women

890
00:59:54,275 --> 00:59:57,235
Speaker 1: or members of minority groups, or people like i'd hired,

891
00:59:57,315 --> 01:00:02,835
Speaker 1: like Rachel Maddow. They meant conservative, diverse voices. That's when

892
01:00:02,875 --> 01:00:05,195
Speaker 1: I began to pack my bags, Ti Lee, and a

893
01:00:05,235 --> 01:00:08,435
Speaker 1: few months later I left, And then four years later

894
01:00:08,515 --> 01:00:10,195
Speaker 1: they asked me to come back as long as I

895
01:00:10,275 --> 01:00:16,155
Speaker 1: agreed to have a conservative co host. I passed. But

896
01:00:16,235 --> 01:00:19,795
Speaker 1: here's the problem. I don't know anybody else pressured in

897
01:00:19,875 --> 01:00:24,635
Speaker 1: those ways who has also passed, not at CNN, not

898
01:00:24,795 --> 01:00:30,315
Speaker 1: at MSNBC, not anywhere else. Do not doubt what some

899
01:00:30,435 --> 01:00:36,115
Speaker 1: television talents are willing to do just to remain television talents.

900
01:00:49,595 --> 01:00:51,435
Speaker 1: I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank

901
01:00:51,475 --> 01:00:54,595
Speaker 1: you for listening. Please share this podcast with somebody who

902
01:00:54,635 --> 01:00:59,875
Speaker 1: does not listen. Send it to Deborah Byrne, Brian Ray,

903
01:00:59,915 --> 01:01:03,195
Speaker 1: and John Phillip Shaneil. The musical directors have Countdown, arranged, produced,

904
01:01:03,195 --> 01:01:06,075
Speaker 1: and performed most of our music. Mister Chanelle handled the

905
01:01:06,155 --> 01:01:08,795
Speaker 1: orchestration and keyboards, Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass

906
01:01:08,835 --> 01:01:12,035
Speaker 1: and drums, and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Our

907
01:01:12,075 --> 01:01:14,715
Speaker 1: satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball

908
01:01:14,755 --> 01:01:18,075
Speaker 1: stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The sports music is the

909
01:01:18,115 --> 01:01:21,595
Speaker 1: Olderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis

910
01:01:21,595 --> 01:01:25,195
Speaker 1: courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Other music arranged and performed by

911
01:01:25,195 --> 01:01:28,035
Speaker 1: the group No Horns Allowed. My announcer today is my

912
01:01:28,075 --> 01:01:31,755
Speaker 1: friend Jonathan Banks. Everything else was pretty much my fault.

913
01:01:32,555 --> 01:01:35,195
Speaker 1: Let's count down for this the sixty ninth day until

914
01:01:35,195 --> 01:01:38,955
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four presidential election. They three hundred and

915
01:01:38,955 --> 01:01:42,915
Speaker 1: thirtieth day since convicted fellon Donald J. Trump's first attempted

916
01:01:42,955 --> 01:01:46,155
Speaker 1: coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.

917
01:01:46,835 --> 01:01:49,595
Speaker 1: Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. If it happens, use

918
01:01:49,635 --> 01:01:52,355
Speaker 1: the mental health system. You have this available to you.

919
01:01:52,435 --> 01:01:56,155
Speaker 1: President Biden used presidential immunity to stop him from doing

920
01:01:56,235 --> 01:02:03,435
Speaker 1: it again while we still can and anti Semitic, anti immigration,

921
01:02:03,515 --> 01:02:07,915
Speaker 1: gun nut Republicans plea stop shooting at Trump. The next

922
01:02:07,955 --> 01:02:11,235
Speaker 1: scheduled countdown is Tuesday. I'm going to try to take

923
01:02:11,275 --> 01:02:16,835
Speaker 1: tomorrow off. I'm gonna try. There'll be a bulletin if

924
01:02:16,875 --> 01:02:20,555
Speaker 1: the news requires. Don't make me come out there till

925
01:02:20,595 --> 01:02:22,915
Speaker 1: the next one. I'm Keith Ouldreman. Good morning, good afternoon,

926
01:02:22,955 --> 01:02:44,955
Speaker 1: good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Ouldreman is

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01:02:44,995 --> 01:02:49,795
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit

928
01:02:49,835 --> 01:02:54,515
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.