Podcast appearances and mentions of Howard Fineman

SERIES 2 EPISODE 201: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: As debate day arrives there could not be a more potent nor ominous metaphor for our political crisis than the one in DC. There, a 3000-pound replica of the Lincoln Memorial is… at this hour… melting in the hot sun. As Trump tries to destroy democracy and Biden tries to destroy Trump, the climate disaster that has already begun and on which Trump would apply the finishing touches, has so imperiled the six-foot tall wax statue of Lincoln outside a Washington elementary school, that the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities has removed Lincoln's head “to prevent it from falling and breaking.” Can you think of worse imagery? Polling indicates more than half of voters expect to watch tonight, and that a rather startling 11% actually expect to have their opinion of who to vote for changed by the results. The three groups produce the most voters who feel that way are the ones in which Trump has had the most unlikely growth: voters under 35, African-Americans, and Hispanics. If Trump actually blows that growth tonight he's cooked. And we will either have a debate right after the Supreme Court rules on this Trumpian "Presidential Immunity" nonsense, or the night before it. It becomes a simple, tangible truth that if the Court invents this immunity and declares this nation a monarchy, the king won't be Trump but Biden and he can take any steps he wants without fear of consequence. It's kind of hard to believe but it is literally true that if SCOTUS creates immunity today, Biden could have arrest Trump tonight - during the debate. B-Block (17:22) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jamaal Bowman didn't lose because a Nevada Republican called him names, or because AIPAC spent millions, or because progressives are in retreat. He lost because of Jamaal Bowman. The sports TV world is in such trouble a Major League Baseball team is now in essence PAYING its fans to watch its game broadcasts. And Hung Cao, the nut job GOP candidate for Senate in Virginia, tries to get out in front of a huge scandal by blaming a USA Today story that he may have padded his military resume on... the font their reporter used in their email. C-Block (30:35) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: He should've been one of the greatest of all-time in the news business. But bad luck and bad survival skills combined to lay Will Spens low: The Most Talented Man I Ever Worked With.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 200: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT:  With the news that tomorrow night, debate moderators Danna Bash and Jake Tapper will NOT fact-check Trump in real time, CNN has abrogated yet another journalistic imperative at yet another Trump event offering him yet another step towards imposing a dictatorship on this nation. Oh, ok, says CNN: on the 2020 election, yeah, they'll push back. But otherwise?The moderators “are not participants in the debate. They are facilitators,” said a CNN spokesman. CNN's woeful political director David Chalian – largely responsible for the Trump Town Hall debacle last year – told the New York Times that a live debate “is not the ideal arena for live fact-checking”even as that spokesperson who refused to give their NAME to Axios said that there WOULD be SOME fact-checking of major falsehoods and smaller details on secondary CNN platforms. So they're going to do it, they're just not going to do it where it matters or when it matters. Just to further confess that the decision to NOT fact check Trump's firehose of lies as he makes them, WHERE he makes them, is another principle thrown away to make sure Trump shows up or doesn't batter the network, or both, that SAME spokesman said that Trump's lies about 2020 are “inaccuracies.” WHAT SHOULD BIDEN DO? When Trump says something crazy – about sharks OR the economy OR anything in between – START by saying “Donald Trump is insane. And he's wrong. Here's why.” This is especially true if Trump tries the “are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Emphasize Trump's criminal culpability about Covid. The million dead. The bleach. The putting light in your body. The economic collapse. The fact that in February Trump knew it was airborne and lied to the public for months as Americans died. Say it, Mr. President, say it bluntly: Trump killed a million Americans. There are American millions HE killed for whom there is no question – they ain't better off now than they were four years ago. AND bluntly say that he killed the economy. That the inflation we are finally stopping now is TRUMP Inflation. It's TRUMP COVID inflation. That the president with the worst job records since Herbert Hoover was Trump. That violent crime exploded under Trump. That there were two kinds of criminals under Trump: muggers and murderers on the street… and ex-presidents who tried to overthrow the government. And the most important truth to hit him with – the most important truth to dispel what Brian Beutler dubbed “Trump-Stalgia and Trump-Nesia” – the most important truth to enrage Trump – is the truth that he lost. That he lost the election. That he's a loser. And that instead of taking it like a man, he had other people try to overthrow the government, he didn't even have the guts to go to the Capitol during the coup. B-Block (21:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Troy Nehls has been wearing a combat medal he never deserved. The military took it back. He says it's the establishment trying to punish him. Vivek Ramaswamy praises the Julian Assange deal, rips the Julian Assange deal, blames Biden, even though he was indicted by Trump. And Missouri's Attorney General sues New York State to somehow impact Trump's 34 Felony Convictions here and says there would be no way some rogue D.A. would have taken Abe Lincoln off the campaign trail in South Carolina in 1860 for being anti-slavery when, of course, Abe Lincoln was taken off the BALLOT in South Carolina in 1860 for being anti-slavery. C-Block (33:44) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I did an interview about my doctor and friend Renée Richards over the weekend so it's time to tell how I met her - and more importantly why - when she treated me after I slammed my head on the front of the 7 Train at Shea Stadium in New York in 1980.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 199: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump and his henchmen opened not one but two emergency exits for him to bail out of Thursday's debate against The President and blame it on Biden. And in doing so, his dumbest press secretary yet went on CNN and called Adolf Hitler "HILTER." H-I-L-T-E-R, Hilter. I don't know if she should be fired for invoking HItler, or if she WILL be fired for getting the name of Trump's role model wrong. It's Karoline Leavitt, the former centerfielder of the St. Anselm College softball team and the idiot who previously insisted the word 'damning' is correctly pronounced 'dammaning,' tried to filibuster CNN's Katie Hunt about how biased debate hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash really are. As Hunt cut first the answer and then the interview off, Leavitt insisted anybody could spend five minutes googling how many times Tapper had compared Trump to "Adolf Hilter." Bypassing the whole Hitler/Hilter stuff, "Damaning Hilter" Leavitt adopted the traditional pose of the Martyred Trump Huckster and did the rounds of the fascist media outlets. When she went on Steve Bannon's outlet he said either CNN apologizes to her, or Trump should cancel the debate. Hours later, Trump opened a second emergency chute, again demanding drug tests before the debate, as his personal quack Congressman Physician Prescribe Thyself Ronny Jackson wrote a long letter to the White House requesting such tests (and saying nothing about any stashes he may have left there). Who knows if Trump really will bail. But he's got FOLAD (Fear Of Losing A Debate) all covered. MEANWHILE: it's a long shot but I'm beginning to wonder if somebody on Jack Smith's side is laying the groundwork for indicting Trump anew - in New Jersey. There has been a second news leak in just three business days, about Trump's Mar-a-Lago Espionage Scandal. Yesterday's leak via ABC News did not resonate among American news media which can generally only BARELY handle one thing at a time – like the debate. The story itself – about Trump making an almost-secret special trip to Florida in July 2022 to make sure nobody had touched the documents he stole from the White House and hid from his own attorney - may not be much more than another one of those threads that you pull on and maybe it just comes off in your hand – or maybe it unravels the entirety of Trump's size 62 suit. I don't even think prosecutors know what they have here. But he went down there two weeks after he had bankers' boxes shipped from Mar-a-Lago to the Bedminster Golf Course. They didn't contain Ivana. B-Block (20:35) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: I have somehow forgotten, for years, maybe 35 years, the first and arguably the best joke I ever made about Trump. I'll correct that here. Not only are the British Conservatives on track for a historic loss in the July 4 election but two candidates, a party official, and a security guard have been caught allegedly wagering on which day their prime minister would select for Election Day! And the rare two-wins-in-a-row for Puck media guy Dylan Byers, carrying still more management water as he turns gutsy Washington Post reporting on the paper's ongoing management scandal into “a plan to dig for unflattering information.” C-Block (27:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: How did I forget to tell you this one through the first 500 episodes of this podcast? How could I have missed the 24th anniversary last week? I'll just mention the principals: my mother, me, a former New York Yankees infielder named Chuck Knoblauch - and Babe Ruth. .  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 198: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The New York Times' sourced story - that a year ago first a senior federal judge in Florida phoned Judge Aileen Cannon and urged her to hand off the Trump Espionage/Stolen Classified Documents case to some other judge, and when Cannon ignored the idea, the CHIEF federal judge in Florida phoned Cannon and warned her that the optics of ruling on the president who appointed her with disastrous - is not just a great bit of reporting. It's a clear shot across the bow of Cannon. It's an indicator that this is her last chance to voluntarily recuse from a case she has so mishandled that even when both Trump and Jack Smith said they were ready to start the trial, SHE refused. I think it's a legitimate inference that if she again ignores it, a real move will be made against her (maybe even against her fitness to continue as a judge). The chief judge who issued the warning was appointed by Governor Bush and then President Bush and to me it's clear this was a planned leak. Let's hope it works. MEANWHILE IT'S TIME FOR RFK JUNIOR TO DROP OUT. The nephew of a martyred President and son of a man who easily could've won the office has now threatened to jail Dana Bash and Jake Tapper of CNN - and the whole network management and production staff - because the network has excluded him from the debate next week. Kennedy's farcical, dangerous, insane Trump stalking horse campaign has to end. He isn't a victim and he isn't being persecuted. He's nuts. AND DONALD SUTHERLAND HAS DIED. This spectacularly talented man was, I am proud to say, my friend. He appointed himself my "acting father" after my Dad died. He was supportive, insightful, hilarious, and I think I can tell you something you may not know about him: he was as good a writer as I've ever read. I will read you one of the dozens of emails he sent me. I will restrain myself and chose one about baseball, not one about...Jane Fonda. B-Block (27:55) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: What if a Tucker Carlson fell over in Australia and nobody was there to hear it? His speaking tour? Plenty of good seats available. Jeff Bezos still won't do the obvious: Will Lewis has to be fired before he crashes The Washington Post. And Dylan Byers trots out words like "hero" and "great" for my late friend Howard Fineman. 14 months ago he gratuitously and painfully insulted him in a story that gad nothing to do with Howard just because he felt like taking a shot at somebody. Byers, a management-jock-sniffing jackass, might meet the same fate 30 years from now - except nobody will remember his work. C-Block (40:02) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: One of the existential premises of his work was: everything in the world could be reduced to a husband and wife arguing over the dumbest of things. This week he has her insisting that he is murdering her wrong in "Mr. Preble Gets Rid Of His Wife."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 197: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Joe Biden, five points behind Trump in the Fox News poll in MARCH, a point behind him last month, is now two points AHEAD of Trump in the Fox News poll in JUNE. . There are also some remarkable internal numbers in the poll. Doesn't sound like much, but Fox says 32 percent of its respondents now believe the economy is in excellent or good shape - and that is the HIGH WATERMARK for the entire Biden Presidency. Fox also says voter CONFIDENCE in Biden on the economy has swung wildly towards Biden. They favor Trump by FIVE points, but that last month it was Trump over Biden by THIRTEEN. Also: A top midwestern political reporter says the Trump Campaign is now warning LOCAL media that it will VET all questions for Trump at the Republican Convention and only give access TO Trump to local outlets whose questions have been APPROVED in advance. And a week before the debate, as rumors continue to swirl that Trump will back out as soon as he can find some way to blame it on Biden, it is not only a certainty that Robert Kennedy Junior will NOT be at the debate, but it's beginning to look like he is on FAR fewer state ballots than his campaign has been claiming. And is Trump going to bail out of the debate? Why? Just because he told a reporter Joan Rivers voted for him in 2016 - when she died in 2014? B-Block (20:10) SPORTSCENTRAL CENTER NEWSDESK TONIGHT: The day Willie Mays deliberately turned a double into a single - and why it's testament to his genius as a baseball player. And Justin Turner's pretty smart but his new World Series idea is really, really dumb. (31:04) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Georgetown University celebrated the late New York Times writer David Carr as a great man, which he was. But they also celebrated him as a great journalist, which he most decidedly was NOT. ETTD: Everyteam Trump Touches, Dies. And Greg Gutfeld explains Fox doesn't make crap up which means I guess that they gave Dominion Voting $787,500,000 because Rupert has too much money? C-Block (47:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just started to get hot here and whenever that it happens I remember the day I went to work at 3 AM after spending the previous day drinking roughly 40 beers. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 196: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Yesterday in Milwaukee the melting of Trump's brain reached - or at least neared - its completion. He called the President of the United States and the obsession of his life "Joe Bride." He had lots of other episodes, but this is the all-time new high in low. JOE. BRIDE.  No - he's fine. Ask Dr. Johnson. Dr. Jackson. Dr. Johnson. Dr. Jackson. My sister. My daughter. Joe Bride.  Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, who are in essence running the Trump CAMPAIGN, are reportedly “worried” about Trump – specifically about his deteriorating mental condition. Can't imagine why (JOE BRIDE). And this is coming from two former Republicans still plugged into THAT side of the ball. Wiles and LaCivita, per Rick Wilson, are going to friendly journalists and, quoting Wilson, “are starting to whisper that ‘no one can control (Trump)'.” Former Republican Senate aide Tom Nichols meanwhile put his finger to the wind and said that the FLOOD of Trump campaign efforts to make it look like the no one can control PRESIDENT BIDEN are making HIM suspicious. Nichols now writes quote: “Republicans and their media ecosystem seem to be in a panic about their candidate… if Trump is doing so well, why is his campaign and its support system in right-wing media resorting to easily disproved lies?”  Trump also stepped into it AGAIN not IN Milwaukee but ABOUT it. His campaign had to deny a heavily-sourced report from the ABC Television station in Chicago that during the convention – in Milwaukee – the place he called HORRIBLE last week – he won't even stay in a hotel there; that he will stay in his building in Chicago and COMMUTE. MEANWHILE: Roger Stone may conceivably have cost Judge Aileen Cannon her job. In the latest undercover audio released by my friend the investigative journalist Lauren Windsor and her colleague Ally Sammarco, Stone – at a Catholics for Catholics event AT Mar-a-Lago – made the mistake of hinting that the fix is IN in Trump's trial for stealing and keeping classified documents and other espionage act crimes… that when the Trump-appointed Cannon conducts a hearing day after tomorrow on the Trump motions to DISMISS all or most of the charges on the fabricated premise that the Special Counsel was unlawfully appointed, Stone seems – even for him – unusually confident Cannon really WILL throw the case. AND TRUMP JUNIOR tweeted a photo of CNN's Jim Acosta and wrote “LOL. Looks like CNN Fake News loser Acosta got an embarrassingly bad hair dye job.” Talk about “embarrassingly.” Bad hair dye job? Remember that among other living hells, Don Jr. is the guy who on a regular basis mounts that gargoyle Kimberly Guilfoyle who at age 55 trying to look 35 now has SO much make-up and SO much hair dye that she looks like Bette Davis in the movie “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?” B-Block (21:19) Willie Mays, two days before he and the Negro Leagues in which he played, are to be honored with a San Francisco Giants' game at Rickwood Field where Mays' first team the Birmingham Black Barons played, has died at the age of 93. (32:17) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Josh Hawley spreads the "Biden wants to sit during the debate" lie. The BBC's unfortunate typo about self-identification for job applicants and what it did to the word "deaf." And Jeff Bezos sends an email to his Washington Post staff about the building being on fire and stuff and talk about getting a roll of stamps and e-mailing it in! C-Block (42:05) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since Bezos is in the news, let me tell you of when I worked with his fiancé Lauren Sanchez, blackmail victim, and when I worked with David Letterman's future blackmailer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 195: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is losing his mind. If Joe Biden gave a speech in which he claimed everybody agreed he was in full robust mental health because he'd passed a test administered by Doctor Anthony… Hopkins. Or Anthony Bourdain… or Anthony Michael Hall – any Anthony except the doctor who gave him the theoretical test, Doctor Anthony FAUCI. If that had happened to Joe Biden there would be nothing else on television or the internet. But Trump has gotten away with it in part because he is so crazy, so loudly, so often, that it all runs together and, perversely, each Trump mental disaster stops seeming like it's part OF a sequence. Each Trump mental disaster REPLACES the one before it. I have a thought experiment about that to underscore how that's even MORE true than you or I might assume it is. But the second half of the headline? That he's losing his mind AND the election?New Ipsos poll for Politico yesterday: ONE THIRD of all voters say they are now LESS likely to support Trump. Among independents, same number, a third, less likely to vote for him; only 12% of independents say MORE likely to vote for him.Ipsos also dug a little deeper. Are the convictions IMPORTANT in your decision whether or not to vote for Trump? 22% say the convictions ARE important AND make them less likely to vote for him.  He's losing. And Biden has dfinally called him a "convicted criminal" in an official campaign ad. Next? The President saying it himself. I think that is also coming. B-Block (41:47) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Another GOP flag scandal: Newt Gingrich is back because his eyesight is almost as weak as his intelligence. The Michigan Republican who posts, disavows, then embraces an AI endorsement from Martin Luther King. The Associated Press puts out a transparent ad for Trump. And Royce White, would be Republican Senator from Minnesota, would have you believe that there is a crime wave there caused by... water fountains? C-Block (50:02) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The almost certainty that Turner Sports is about to lose the NBA reminds me of the summer Ted Turner almost got the rights to the NFL. Not the games - the entire league.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The media and journalists are pillars of a healthy democracy, but they're not infallible. So how do we hold errant media personalities and companies accountable? Norm and Kavita break down this unique issue and pay tribute to one of the greats, Howard Fineman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The media and journalists are pillars of a healthy democracy, but they're not infallible. So how do we hold errant media personalities and companies accountable? Norm and Kavita break down this unique issue and pay tribute to one of the greats, Howard Fineman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The media and journalists are pillars of a healthy democracy, but they're not infallible. So how do we hold errant media personalities and companies accountable? Norm and Kavita break down this unique issue and pay tribute to one of the greats, Howard Fineman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tony opens the show by talking about the passing of Howard Fineman, a long time friend of the show and one of the most astute political analysts of his time. And Tony also talks about the opening round of the US Open with Michael. Steve Sands calls in to talk some more about the first round of the US Open, and what to expect in the rest of the tournament, Tim Kurkjian calls in to talk about his trip to London to call the Phillies / Mets series, and also about trying to set up his new TV, and Tony closes out the show by opening up the Mailbag. Songs : Jim Lane “Bessy” ; “Hitchhikers Lament” To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My friend Howard Fineman died this week. He had a long career as one of Washington's most respected political reporters and began his career at the Louisville Courier Journal. There, he was able to witness the rise of Mitch McConnell and learn what kind of politician he was. In this episode from 2019, we discuss what makes McConnell tick and Howard's career. May his memory be a blessing.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 194: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) Trump and Mike Johnson are plotting for House Republicans to somehow "overturn" Trump's convictions in the Stormy Daniels Election Interference trial. That was what they were SUPPOSED to talk about when Trump met with the House GOP yesterday but amid all the threats and terrorism and dictatorship and violence we forget that at his core, Trump is a moron. Whether he and Johnson actually got around to conceive some extra-constitutional scheme to enact ex post facto measure, before or after the election, who knows. All we do know is that Trump wound up insulting and enrages Milwaukee, a month and a day before the Republican Convention is supposed to open there. The blowback was a welcome respite. Three different Wisconsin Congressmen made up four different excuses for Trump calling Milwaukee "horrible." One of them, Bryan Steil, first said Trump said no such thing, then in a local TV interview contradicted himself and said Trump did say it, but was referring to "specific things." The upshot of all of this - and Trump's word salads - and Trump's manic blinking at his news conference where he couldn't handle any questions - is the ever-increasingly obvious reality that Trump is currently losing his mind. And that means for all its bravado and fealty the Republican Party is shackled to a corpse. B-Block (24:30) TRUMPDATE: Late breaking news about Trump's fear of going to prison and the likelihood that if he goes it'll be in a place that is halfway between New York City and ESPN (huh?) (26:14) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Rishi Sunak explains he grew up deprived because he didn't have the British equivalent of HBO. The downward spiral of ex-human being Mark Penn gets worse. And Lauren Boebert is caught vaping in public again and you know WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME! C-Block (34:00) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: For the first time, a chapter from Thurber's only non-fiction book "The Years With Ross." It includes a quote from a New Yorker Magazine writer that to me is one of the five or ten greatest things uttered by anybody in the history of the world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John is joined by Kara Swisher—celebrated chronicler of the titans of tech, host of the podcast On With Kara Swisher and cohost of the Pivot podcast with Scott Galloway, and author of the best-selling memoir Burn Book—to discuss Apple's embrace of A.I., Elon Musk's broadsides against the company, and Silicon Valley's newfound ethusiasm for Donald Trump. And renowned political scribe and Primary Colors author Joe Klein stops by to mourn the passing of his and John's friend and former colleague, Howard Fineman. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SEASON 2 EPISODE 193: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I have no use for Merrick Garland, in large part because he is one of those people who would never think to do this, and never realize that his Republican counterpart would do it in a heartbeat. Found in Contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena, as rammed through by Jim Jordan, who BEGAN to ignore a Congressional subpoena two years and a month ago? Garland should get a grand jury to indict Jordan TODAY. LET THE ASS-KISSING BEGIN: Trump goes to Capitol Hill for the first time since his attempted coup. Just to ratchet up the imagery, he'll be at the Capitol Hill Club, which is where the still undiscovered terrorist left one of his/her pipe bombs the night before.  COULD SCOTUS DECIDE TODAY? It is to issue decisions today and tomorrow. One of them may be about Trump's imaginary "Presidential Immunity." Or not. Or maybe they'll keep it a secret. Or run it up a flag poll to see who'll salute. Another bid to make them follow SOME rules has been vetoed by Lindsey Graham. AND IN MEMORY OF MY FRIEND HOWARD FINEMAN: There is a tiny silver lining in Howard's story, which he honored me by sharing with me since his diagnosis and prognosis 18 months ago. He was with me from literally the HOUR my political career began through last Wednesday when his "intro" to the B-Block last ran. He was brilliant, supportive, honest, indefatigable, funny, beloved, and I will tell you why his fight made our sadness just a little easier to endure. B-Block (25:14) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: So she felt she had to tell everybody to stop calling Jill Biden "Hunter Biden's mother" because she wasn't his biological mother. Someone wrote - and I could not find a clip to confirm this - that she then implied that when the President referred to his wife, and to Hunter as "their son" it was a sign of dementia. So we need to talk about what's wrong with Katy Tur. We'll start with the fact that Katy is herself the step-mother to two children. I have known that families and motherhood have been issues for her since we met in 2006, even before we lived together. But to drag this onto the air - onto news coverage - is unforgivable. It's time for MSNBC to find somebody else. C-Block (45:02) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCKSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 192: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT:  Trump has now floated reinstating the Military Draft. He put the words in the mouth of the last of his Secretaries of Defense and that guy – Christopher Miller who sat back and watched January 6th unfold nearly as much as Trump did – dressed the draft up as “A National Service Requirement.” It seems to be targeted at 18, 19, and 20-year old American boys and girls (and maybe 17-year olds) and it would start with a mandatory military aptitude test administered BY the Pentagon IN your local high school and any kid who refused to take it might be prevented from graduating and any school that hesitated to go along with this would lose ALL federal funding. Trump breaking precedent and using the American army domestically to suppress protests and conceivably kill civilians is not the bottom of the plan for the military-dictatorship part of his dictatorship. Those army soldiers, and marines, and whoever else, firing on other Americans – many of them or most of them or maybe all of them, would be draftees. And when The Washington Post reported it, and the story got no traction and no pick-up at all, and even though the paper reported Trump had not expressly endorsed the draft, within six hours Trump posted an enraged denial reading “In fact, I never even thought of that idea” which even for him is a disastrously transparent non-denial denial. Of course HE never thought of that idea: when has Donald Trump ever thought anything about a military draft – except how to dodge it. Somebody ELSE thought of that idea. The somebody else is that former Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. The Post interviewed Miller and he said a national service requirement should be “strongly considered. He described the concept as a common “rite of passage,” one that would create a sense of “shared sacrifice” among America's youth." The impact this Washington Post story, could have on Trump's campaign would be nothing short of fatal – if only it were to be handled correctly by BIDEN'S campaign: Trump wants to reinstate the draft. The. DRAFT.  Is there a more powerful campaign message than “Trump wants to draft your kids”? “Trump Wants To Force Your Kids To Kill Or Be Killed?” Actually there is. Because the voting age is not what it was in the ‘60s. The 18-year olds vote. There IS a more powerful campaign message and it is “Trump wants to draft YOU. Trump Wants To Force YOU to Kill or Be Killed.” ALSO: Trump's felony conviction means he can't own a gun in Florida. So why has he had one longer than Hunter Biden had his? And what about Washington State's law allowing any voter to challenge any candidate's ballot position if he's been convicted of a felony? And why is Alvin Bragg voluntarily appearing at Jim Jordan's hearing - the day after Trump will be sentenced? B-Block (25:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A Twitter follower of mine puts Chris Cillizza and Nate Silver in the same tweet just to mess with me. Jonathan Martin, who has spent a year talking about nothing but Joe Biden's age, complains that nobody has talked about Joe Biden's age (and works Aaron Sorkin into it, somehow) and the Republican who wants to be Senator from Minnesota, Royce White, explains the campaign funds may have been spent AT the all-nude strip club but that doesn't mean they were spent on STRIPPERS since they serve FOOD at all-nude strip clubs. C-Block (34:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: As I read of Stephen A. Smith demanding that ESPN pay him more than it pays Pat McAfee, I flashed back to the days when the studio-show audiences there were way more profitable than they are now and ESPN was make $60 million a year from SportsCenter and they were paying me $300,000 and I asked for $3,000,000. Oh the look on their faces delights me to this day. How I Quit SportsCenter...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andrew, Carl, and Tom discuss President Biden's trip to Europe for the annual G-7 Summit and the implications of this weekend's European Union elections. Also, the arrest by the FBI of eight foreign nationals in the US who are allegedly tied to Isis-K, the Afghan branch of the international terrorist organization. They also talk about new polling on voters' attitudes toward Vice President Kamala Harris from Politico/Morning Consult, the results of yesterday's primaries, and the life of journalist Howard Fineman who passed away at the age of 75. Next, Tom Bevan talks with RCP national correspondent Susan Crabtree about Army veteran Sam Brown's victory in the Republican senate primary in Nevada. He will face incumbent Democrat Jacky Rosen in November in what is expected to be one of the nation's most closely watched 2024 Senate races. And finally, Carl Cannon talks to RCP contributor Eric Spitz about the Olympics and Israeli athletes, the state of higher education, and Hunter Biden's conviction on federal gun charges.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 191: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The polls continue to underscore it. Trump's conviction, just twelve days ago, is already half as important in voters' decision-making process as where the candidates stand on immigration. 28% tell CBS the convictions are a "major factor" for them, yet this number is dismissed because it isn't by itself decisive. A separate Morning Consult poll says Trump's net favorability is now four points below that of Biden's - because of the trial.  And yet the President, and his advisors, and the old men of the Democratic Party continue to contrive to keep Joe Biden from saying the truth in public. He says the impact of the convictions is for the public to decide. No! That's for the public to decide? This isn't an American Idol vote. This isn't Coke versus Pepsi. This is democracy or dictatorship and most people don't know and YOU, Mr. President, have to make the case. You don't have to sink to Trump's brain-damaged rhetorical level but “that's for the public to decide?” HELP THEM DECIDE. TELL THEM THE TRUTH. Part of the problem is: the campaign seems to be incapable of realizing it can do multiple attacks on Trump - from criminality to dictatorship to the price of orange juice. I'll give some examples of the variety of ads they could run. MEANWHILE: KNOTTED BY WINDSOR. Justice Alito makes a fool of himself as my friend the investigative journalist Lauren Windsor records him agreeing that either the right or left will "win" - and he had a much better visit with her than did his wife. Martha-Ann Alito promises to get revenge against everybody, fly an anti-LGBTQ flag, and sue the bunch of them. It turns out everything we thought about them was comparatively positive. AND JUST FOR LAUGHS: Jonathan Turley has declared Trump "elderly." B-Block (34:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Alleged Democratic governor Hochul of New York, after freezing NYC congestion prices, apparently bails out on fundraiser hosted by auto dealers. Marge Barney Rubble Greene thinks electric cars run on gasoline. Politico with the typo of the year, about a fabulous "head of head." C-Block (40:21) FROM THE SPORTS CENTRAL CENTER NEWSDESK TONIGHT: I moved this last in case you are NOT a baseball fan of 57 seasons' duration whom the game is losing. The Athletic publishes its survey of current players and guess what! Turns out they all invented the game, and anybody who played before about 2010 was incompetent and irrelevant. Worse yet, somebody grabs my personal third rail, insulting Babe Ruth. Which means I have to go through mediocre reliever Adam Ottavino's 2018 contention that he would strike Babe Ruth out every time he faced him. If you brought Babe Ruth into baseball 2024 and gave him its tiny ballparks and elaborate video scouting and training regimens, he would hit 255 homers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 190: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Timing is everything, and for once the timing was perfect. Steve Bannon has been ordered to go to prison. Ordered on June 6th. Ordered on the anniversary of D-Day, when we destroyed everything his predecessors stood for. He doesn't get it yet. We will destroy HIM and what HE stands for. And all who stand with him. And Trump. And as he stood outside court - jailed by a Trump-appointed judge who once clerked for Clarence Thomas - he was boasting to the vapid press that, no, he will destroy us and his fascism will subsume America, as he insisted no jail would ever shut him up, a protestor behind him drowned him out with shouts of "Lock Him Up!" because when all you have is noise and threats, you tend to forget that there is always somebody else with more noise and bigger threats. THERE IS ALSO NEW POLLING on what happens if Trump joins him in the slammer. The Reuters-Ipsos Poll says actual jail time could cost Trump 23% of his voters. That could be as much as 17,000,000 votes. Even as time and timidity wear that number down, it's a remarkable game-changer. PLUS: Trump glitched again at a Word Salad Rally in Phoenix, while the Democratic National Committee is actually putting up billboards near his events emphasizing "CONVICTED FELON DONALD TRUMP." And there's more from The Supreme Court: a watchdog group says Clarence Thomas may have gotten as much as $4,000,000 in gifts in the last 20 years. And Brett Kavanaugh is writing a book! Hey! Is it a book about assault? B-Block (24:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: There's a name-that-hockey-team contest in Salt Lake City and the six final choices are all nightmarishly bad. So, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, J.D. Vance, Doug Burgum, Ben Carson, Byron Donalds, and Elise Stefanik. You're being vetted to run with Trump? When he encouraged them to HANG the last guy? And your daily reason to fire Merrick Garland: there may be videotape of Carlson, Hannity, Ingraham and others at Fox vivisecting Trump and saying his 2020 Election claims are crap, and you are working to RETURN THESE TAPES TO FOX? C-Block (33:25) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Any time the news is full of Trump-driven drivel and MAGA conspiracies, is a good time to remember Thurber's account of the day in 1913 that the dam outside his home of Columbus, Ohio, broke and everybody fled. Only it hadn't broken - and they were running in the wrong direction anyway. "The Day The Damn Broke."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 189: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The New York Times tried to minimize it but late yesterday it re-surveyed 2,000 voters its previously polled who had Trump up by three. It asked them their opinions after the convictions. The new number is Trump by just ONE. That translates to a loss of SEVEN PERCENT OF TRUMP VOTERS, three percent of which says it will vote for Biden with the other four destined for him or somebody else who isn't Trump. And a quarter of Trump's support among disaffected Biden-2020 voters is gone. And a fifth of double-haters. The convictions CONTINUE to have an impact. And so does calling him "Convicted Felon Donald Trump." MEANWHILE: Has Convicted Felon Donald Trump completed a quid pro quo with Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal? Is he THAT low to trade the life of an American hostage for a big anti-Biden newspaper story?  What would the editors of The Wall Street Journal do if Convicted Felon Donald Trump went to them and said I can get Putin to send home his American hostage, your reporter Evan Gershkovich?What would the editors then do if Trump paused and added: "I would like you to do us a favor, though."And what would the editors do if Trump then paused again and said ‘you need to help get me elected. i need you to join our Biden Age Plot. I need you to write a piece that restarts this Biden Age thing. I'm a convict. I need to change the topic immediately. I need you to publish this by Wednesday.' At 9 PM Eastern Tuesday Night The Wall Street Journal's genuinely unbelievable attempt to reignite what even Politico termed "The Republicans' Biden-Age-Plot" - for whom editors on my high school newspaper would've been fired and probably expelled - dropped like excrement from Rupert Murdoch's soul. And WHAT had happened EARLIER Tuesday? WHAT had happened at 11:22 A-M Eastern, involving Trump and The Wall Street Journal? A video in which Trump, out of the blue, for the first time in two weeks, again promised that Putin would return the WSJ's Gershkovich to Trump - and Trump alone. Is it possible it was a quid pro quo? You know, like the other time Trump offered to save somebody from Putin's evil, if they did his dirty work? Well the writers quoted Kevin McCarthy while dismissing his quotes about Biden's sharpness as "tactical" lying, never thinking maybe he was tactically lying to them. They also interviewed at least three Democrats who said on-the-record that Biden is fine (Pelosi, Patty Murray, Jack Reed) and used not one quote from any of them. Why use quotes that bust your narrative? Or Trump's narrative. Plus the careers of the writers makes the prospect of a Trump/WSJ deal realistic. One was the idiot who mocked Biden's 2021 trip to the cemetery in which his son, daughter, and wife are buried, and who put a front page piece on Hillary Clinton's "coldness" on the front page of The Boston Globe in 2016. The other? Assigned to get reaction to Obama's 2013 SOTU address, she interviewed Ted Nugent. It's the worst thing I've ever even half-believed of any American news organization. But I think The Wall Street Journal may have really whored itself out for Trump. B-BLOCK (32:29) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mike Johnson misunderstands what "The House Intelligence Committee" means and names to it two of his least intelligent members. Speaking of members, Matt Schlapp with an all-time Freudian slip about Trump's slipping polls. And first Byron Daniels gets nostalgic for Jim Crow, and then he says Biden has taken away black men's... spears. C-BLOCK (39:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since I've attested to the corruption of all Rupert Murdoch news organizations, I might as well tell you of the day I was fired by Rupert - personally - for doing exactly what he told me to do.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 188: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The words weren't out of my mouth before they came out of President Biden's mouth. “A former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” he said at a fundraiser 10 minutes from my HIGH SCHOOL. He added that after the 2020 election, “Something snapped in this guy for real, it's literally driving him crazy.” 1) Call Crazy Donald Trump a convicted felon – mission accomplished. 2) Call Convicted Felon Donald Trump literally crazy – now do it on camera. Because now there's MORE evidence it works and it cannot be said too often and it cannot be said by too many different leaders and it needs to be said by the President of the United States loudly and confidently and repeatedly: he's Convicted Felon Donald Trump and he is literally insane. I am not betting the democracy on one poll, it's conducted by a Canadian firm called Leger, but it IS an indicator: one out of three Republicans wishes they had nominated somebody else. Among Republicans under age 35 its nearly HALF. Say it. Keep saying it. ON CAMERA, Mr. President. MEANWHILE: The Wisconsin Fake Electors Scheme draws felony indictments and the whole thing sideswipes Senator Ron Johnson. And if like me you constantly wonder WHY these people sell out the nation and reality and themselves for Trump, the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalistic non-profit Pro Publica may have an answer based on promotions, new jobs, and other emoluments eight pro-Trump witnesses have received: Cash. B-Block (27:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Republicans literally could not tell the difference between Milwaukee and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. ESPN's Ticking Time Bomb Pat McAfee somehow makes his use of the "b-word" about a Women's Basketball star even more of a disaster. And why on earth would a baseball player get banned for life for gambling on baseball oh right half the ads on baseball broadcasts tell you to gamble on baseball C-Block (38:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I brought him up in the A-Block..Why not tell you ALL my Frank Luntz stories? From the one where he inadvertently got me the job anchoring Countdown on MSNBC to the one where he inadvertently got the president of CNN fired.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 187: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The light bulbs may have finally gone off over the heads of the Biden Campaign at 2:03 P-M Eastern yesterday. They had USED the phrase before and they had said the phrase before but it was at THAT moment that they sent it out into the world alone: a Twitter-X post reading simply “Convicted Felon” and under it the close-up, sweating, mottled-face, golf picture of Convicted Felon Donald Trump that looks it was the before shot in a before-and-after about your grandpa's risk of having a stroke. Elections are not decided by social media posts and they are not decided by nicknames and they are not decided by bad photos but you can probably decide ONE PERCENTAGE POINT in an election with them. Or two. Or five. We may hate it, but we live in America where the name “Crooked Hillary” stuck, and the phrase “Lock Her Up” stuck, and the acronym “MAGA” – one of the stupidest and discordant acronyms of all time – stuck. And here Joe Biden has an answer to every insult and every meme and every catchphrase used by Trump and his cult and it's not only a GREAT answer but it has the added benefit of being entirely true and it has the even GREATER benefit of utterly deranging Trump's whores. They have spent every day since the conviction screaming, shouting, whining, crying “don't say that” like you did the day the kids gave you your first mean nickname in the 3rd or 4th Grade. Now they have to make it show up in the polling. In the newest poll, CBS/You Gov, the number of Republicans saying he's not fit to be president is up to 10 percent and the number of Independents saying he's not fit to be president is FIFTY percent. Echelon Insights, run by the conservative Kristen Soltis Andersen, went back to 477 people it previously polled who had had it 47-47 and after the verdict asked them again and they came back 49-47 for Biden.  So keep calling him “Convicted Felon Donald Trump.” Every time. Like he legally changed his name to it. And that means Joe Biden, personally. Say it. Put it in campaign ads. Can you imagine the political media freakout? It would be indelibly attached to Trump.  MEANWHILE: The Supreme Court is coming apart at the seams: The civilian victim in the Alito Flag Scandal now says that both IN late 2020/early 2021 AND two weeks ago, a black S-U-V from the Alito security detail parked in front of her mother's home in Alexandria Virginia. “I couldn't say who was in the car because of the tinted glass,” Emily Baden told The Guardian, “and nobody ever said anything. I took it as a general threat. The message was, we could do terrible things to you, and nobody would be able to do anything about it. When it comes to justices at the supreme court, they make the laws, but the laws don't apply to them.” But Congressman Jamie Raskin has a solution, if only Merrick Garland will get off the dime. B-Block (27:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The publishers and distributors of "2000 Mules" repudiated the film, apologized to one of the people they slandered, and blamed it all on Dinesh D'Souza (who would now be meat). Josh Hawley either made up a story about an illicit use of American troops abroad, or he revealed military secrets - prosecute him! And once again the right wingers explain how they'll show us, they'll avenge Trump by shooting everybody. Why does it never occur to them that they may have lots of guns but who has all the tanks and military bases again? Meet Carl Higbie of NewsMax. Carl's bonkers. C-Block (35:06) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO COME: With the 80th Anniversary of D-Day looming I flashed back to the 60th Anniversary and the then-new MSNBC president who pulled out all the stops and went wall-to-wall live from Normandy and with all his big stars working a Saturday to impress his bosses...and then breaking news cancelled all of it!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 185: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Do not be fooled by the dismissive attitude of the media of the impact on Trump voting support of the jury's finding of Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, and not NOT-Guilty. If, as the most circumspect pre-verdict polling suggests, 2% of his voters would peel away, that (based on 2020) is 1,500,000 voters and at least 5 electoral votes, and (based on 2016) would have been enough to throw Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to Clinton.  It reminds us that we should stop looking for the game-ender for Trump and rely instead on the incrementals, because they - and the justice that invoke them - will defeat him. Also, can the Trump cultists explain to me: are these 34 verdicts election interference that will stop Trump from winning, or are they a political gift that just gave him the election? Because you keep saying BOTH. PLUS: If you missed it, John Roberts just told Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse to go F themselves. He's king for life and he won't even talk to them about the Alito Scandal, or the OTHER Alito Scandal, or the Roberts scandal. Fine. Subpoena him. And if he ignores that, arrest him. This country is changing and those who act will decide whether it changes for the good or the bad, and we are the good guys. B-Block (32:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Clay Travis goes entirely racist on The View's Sonny Hostin (and even on the WNBA's Caitlin Clark). Minnesota GOP Senate likelihood Royce White (who played eight minutes and 55 seconds in the NBA and don't you forget it) is in trouble again. And the book sale numbers are in for Kristi Noem's Puppy Murder Diary book and I don't want to say they're not moving but the fall off from Week 1 to Week 3 is 9275% C-Block (41:25) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Only one story to tell on this day after: Thurber prophesying the life of Trump in something he wrote... in 1931!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 184: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I'm convinced Sam Alito is lying about who put the flags up. And I'm convinced I can prove it. And I'm convinced the proof is contained not in the Upside Down American Flag and not The Appeal To Heaven Flag; the proof is contained in the THIRD flag. “My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not. She was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home,” he wrote to 50 members of the House who have asked him to recuse from Trump and election cases before the Supreme Court, and refusing to do so. In the case of the Virginia distress flag, “She has flown other patriotic flags… college flags, flags supporting sports teams…” etc. Sports...teams? Like that flag "she" flew celebrating the 2022 Philadelphia Phillies? The second most star-crossed team in the history of that baseball franchise? SHE flew that flag? Sam Alito wanted to grow up to be Commissioner of Baseball. He went to a Phillies fantasy camp. He had baseball cards made of himself in a Phillies uniform. He jokingly refused to answer the question 'ever worn your Phillies uni under your judicial robes?' He's the crazy Phillies fan, but SHE put the flag over their house? Nonsense. PLUS: The jury gets the Trump Trial and within hours they're asking to hear the judge's legal instructions again, and David Pecker's testimony about the birth of Catch-and-Kill. Not a thing about Michael Cohen or lies or perjury or "The GLOAT." The jury is signaling that it is circling a conviction or conviction. And then we have to ask: what is the Biden Campaign's plan to exploit a conviction or convictions? Do they immediately start calling him "Convicted Felon Donald Trump"? If not, why not? Does "Convicted Felon And Republican Nominee Donald Trump" work better? They are prepared to burn this into voters' retinas, right? Riiiiiight? B-Block (27:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The key to re-electing Biden could be giving more money to right wing nut job Pat Sajak. There is a woman named Brenda Ramer who claims her ray has had an immaculate conception. And the latest Bothsidesist Pap from A.G. Sulzberger? Put an op-ed in The New York Times defending Trump - in the middle of a trial centering around him banging a porn star - written by the editor of a Catholic Church Magazine. Must be a different Catholic Church than they used to have when I was a kid. C-Block (39:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since we're talking Sajak and comedy-based late night talk shows (he had a failed one on CBS 35 years ago) and we're talking about crazy editors, let me tell you the saga of onetime CNN president Walter Isaacson. In 2001 he had both parts of an idea that would become a hit for MSNBC two years later, sitting in his office: the desire to do a CNN news hour with some humor in it, and me. He somehow did not put these two parts together.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 183: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: It is becoming increasingly obvious that Trump and the authoritarians seeking to overthrow democracy in the United States and install him as dictator for life and then enact the equivalent of ethnic cleansing… have made the choice to let everybody KNOW… that they are seeking to overthrow the democracy in the United States and install him as dictator and then enact the equivalent of ethnic cleansing. You may recall him summoning most of the fossil fuel industry of this country to Mar-a-Lago in April and essentially demanding they put one billion dollars into his campaign so he can eliminate virtually all the restrictions on their businesses as they try to destroy the planet faster. Now The Washington Post reports that early THIS month he summoned most of the big money donors to the Republicans and other fascists to the Pierre Hotel here in New York and was essentially demanding they increase THEIR donations by a factor of 25 or 50 so he can eliminate virtually all TAXES on their businesses and incomes… A businessman, he told them, had offered a donation of a million dollars to his campaign, in exchange for lunch. The Post's sources quote Trump as replying “I'm not having lunch. You've got to make it 25 million.” Then there was the donor who normally gave two to three million. “He told the donor that he wanted a 25 million dollar or 50 million dollar contribution or he would not be, quote ‘very happy'. It's blackmail. Give me the money I want – 25 times as much as you planned – or else. It's kinda Robert DeNiro, in "The Untouchables," playing Al Capone, carrying around a baseball bat. Which is funny because who showed up at the trial yesterday but DeNiro and suddenly the Trumpists are enraged that anybody would dare bring people TO the courthouse! If this unvarnished, unrestrained, undeniable corruption were not obvious enough that Trump just doesn't GIVE a shit any more – you're not going to shame him, you're not going to restrain him, you're not going to prosecute him – he's decided it's us or him… there's the SECOND part. Trump posted a video – another one of these fig leaf deniable videos: HE didn't MAKE the video, he just POSSSSSSTED this video. And so the threats in the video, nominally directed at Joe Scarborough, that Trump will "get rid of all you offing liberals; you liberals are gone" aren't Trump's threats.  Except, of course they are. Because Trump has called his opponents vermin and vowed to get rid of them. And expel all the immigrants. And put them in concentration camps. And use the army. And use the cops. And if you can do that, you can point at Joe Scarborough and say "YOU are now defined as an immigrant. Get in the camp." And that... is ethnic cleansing. B-Block (30:49) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Renfield-ification of Lindsey Graham is complete. Speaker Mike Johnson is stalling on the installation of a Capitol plaque honoring the police from January 6th. And Pastor Shane Vaughn has news for you: Jesus was a millionaire. C-Block (41:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since yesterday was the saga of the 45th anniversary of my college graduation, today must be the saga of the class I nearly failed because the professor was mad because the quarterback of his favorite football team fumbled away a victory in the final minute. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 183: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Today would be a good day to convict Donald J. Trump. The jury in his Stormy Daniels Hush Money/Election Interference case may get the case as soon as this afternoon and then they could deliver the only verdict not materially interfered with by a judge – or JUDGES – that Trump himself appointed. The country, the world, keeps emphasizing in succession the unprecedented nature of Trump's indictment, arrest, arraignment, mugshot, trial, artist sketch, jury selection, defense, witnesses, objections, fart-naps and today, closing statements… but for some reason they leave the other unprecedented reality OUT – that our court system IS rigged, that it IS rigged, BY Trump, FOR Trump, with three judges HE put on the Supreme Court until they die or resign delaying and subverting justice in THOSE cases, and an unqualified former Yoga Correspondent for the Miami Neuvo Herald he appointed to FEDERAL Court brazenly and openly stalling and trying to SABOTAGE the espionage case against him in THAT case. THAT is what is unprecedented about the prosecution of Donald Trump. THAT his appointees are interfering with the attempts to bring him to justice and we may never know if he appointed them only on the assurance that they would do EXACTLY what they are doing now when and if it came to this… and what Trump means when he says the New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office and Justice Juan Merchan's courtroom are rigged against him – what he MEANS is… they are NOT rigged for him. I'll look at the legal stuff as the case moves inexorably towards the jury. ALSO: We get comic relief from the Libertarian Party (Trump came close to - in an Aphasia haze - calling them The Libyan Party) and we find out that The Washington Post was good enough to sit on the Alito Flag story for just 1,222 days (the final nine AFTER The New York Times had already broken it) and wouldn't even run it even on the soft premise that it really WAS Martha-Ann Alito's dispute with the neighbors.  I will sing about it. B-Block (29:47) SPORTSCENTERCENTRAL: In memory of perhaps the most beloved man in sports: Bill Walton. Everyone has their Bill Walton story, I'll tell you mine. (36:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Rishi Sunak's campaign handlers clearly want him to lose reelection in the UK. Nick Fuentes complains J.D. Vance isn't white enough (never realizing that none of the Trumpist really think anybody named 'Fuentes' could be white). And Fred Trump praised Hitler? I heard it on C-SPAN! C-Block (43:35) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 45 long years ago today I shocked my professors and relieved my suspicious parents by graduating from Cornell University. And I've had the dream where I DON'T graduate an average of once a week every year since. It used to be a stress dream. Lately it's turned into an amazing revelation about how your mind really works (or at least: how mine does).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 181: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The would-be dictatorships are stacked up so thick they have to wait for permission to land. We rightfully fear a Trump dictatorship. Right now, however, we are being RULED by a Samuel Alito dictatorship. And now we have to take measures to overthrow it. Caught flying one insurrectionist flag at his VIRGINIA home – while he was adjudicating cases that could have benefitted the Trump Coup Attempt – Alito simply lied about it, claiming he had no role in it, then contradicted himself by telling a backstory of petty personal recrimination involving neighbors – a backstory which had its OWN set of lies. And now we know that THAT entire story was – at best – a lie of omission, because when Alito was caught improperly flying a disqualifying insurrectionist symbol in public at his primary home in 2021, he was continuing to hide the fact that through much or all of last summer he was flying a DIFFERENT disqualifying insurrectionist symbol in public at his vacation home in New Jersey. It is, as you know, the Appeal to Heaven flag, stolen by groups of Christo-Fascists from its historical role in our founding revolution and re-purposed to rationalize a fundamentalist religious dictatorship replacing representative government. As the New York Times noted in reporting this story, quote, “the phrase ‘appeal to heaven' comes from the 17th century philosopher John Locke, who wrote of a responsibility to rebel, even use violence, to overthrow unjust rule. ‘It's a paraphrase for trial by arms,' Anthony Grafton, a historian at Princeton University said in an interview,” unquote. It's a paraphrase for trial by arms, and it's been flying in public view from Samuel Alito's home. And now we have to figure out how to stop Alito from completing his plan to turn this country into a religious dictatorship - a kind of westernized Iran. On the other hand: In a surprise announcement, Donald Trump has declared himself dead. “They were authorized to shoot me!,” begins his email to try to con more money out of his dumbest cult members. Quote: “I nearly escaped death!”Uhhhh…. So… you… DIDN'T… escape death? Metaphorically, Trump may be right. The words used by the President and those around him about Trump's "Unified Reich" video are a sea change. They are calling him an antisemite. Next they need to call him a Nazi. B-Block (27:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, apparently cannot afford a weather app. It rained so hard on him he became Rishi Sunk. Larry Hogan, a Republican, insists he's always protected women's rights. Of course he's lying. And as we realize just how corrupted and unsalvageable the Supreme Court is, Jim Jordan provides some comic relief by saying something that provides an immediate opportunity to insult Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito. C-Block (34:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I ran into Al Roker the other day, so naturally I have to tell you all my Matt Lauer stories. These are the obnoxious, vanity ones, as opposed to the assault-y ones.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 180: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: We may have had a breakthrough with the electorate. Democratic AND Republican pollsters are finding a shocking number of undecideds or Republicans who will not vote for Trump because of his talk of trying to make himself eligible for a third term, or eliminating term limits entirely, or elections entirely. The fundamental lesson of January 6th - that he will never leave office voluntarily - has sunk in. And which ever way the cult is trying to position it, these voters are taking it seriously. More over, these seem pollsters are finding a sudden surge in independent and even Republican backlash against The Supreme Court because the gutting of Roe-V-Wade has caused countless voters to reconsider what kind of havoc a corrupted Trump-owned Court would be willing to do to fraudulently bring about the America the fascists want. It's stunning news and combined with additional polling showing Biden running far behind Democratic Senators in the swing state, it suggests not only that there are margins of victory to be added to his vote totals in those states, but that there is a straightforward way to get them: campaign AGAINST dictatorship, third terms, and a rogue Court. PLUS: THE DEFENSE RESTS at the Trump Trial. Literally, in his case. All you need to know about what happened was that on Trump's Tuesday posse was comedian Joe Piscopo, who was very good on his last hit, Saturday Night Live, which he just left recently. Well, no, not recently - FORTY YEARS AGO THIS MONTH. B-Block (30:47) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Marco Rubio doesn't know what the phrase "last name" means. Chris Cillizza has just discovered people have been diagnosing mental acuity of presidential candidates from afar (it started a decade ago, by Trump. Chris thinks it started earlier this week with Stuart Stevens). And having burned through CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and Fox News, Tucker Carlson premieres on Russia-24. C-Block (37:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: At 5:40 AM he told me he was going to get my fired from our radio station, and kill me. At 6:40 AM he was promising me a multi-year contract as a new sportscaster on our radio station. It's more than four decades ago and it is still as scary an experience as I've had in my career. The Ted Brown Story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 179: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The FIRST item, letter A, on Trump's gag order: "Defendant is directed to refrain from making or directing others to make, public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses." After the last time – after the last TEN times, to be exact – Justice Juan Merchan was explicit that, next time, he'd have to consider jailing Trump. Well Trump talked about witness Robert Costello – the one whom the judge metaphorically kicked in the gonads as the court day came to a roaring end. AND he talked about witness Michael Cohen and as the judge had ALSO explicitly stated, it didn't matter if he was reading or quoting somebody else's words. If there is any remaining doubt in Merchan's mind that the premise of the Trump defense is not some kind of refutation of the charges but instead an all-out attack on the rule of law, on the judge, on the court, on its authority to dare to thwart Trump – the man who wants to put the “dick” in dictator – he must erase that doubt. This is why the outburst from the witness Robert Costello – an attorney - where he complained about Merchan's rulings in real time – could be the last straw that sends Trump to the big house. That was Trump's witness, the prosecution fought Merchan to keep him out, Merchan sided with the defense, the witness metaphorically spit in Merchan's face.  MEANWHILE: Alito has NOT changed his story again and there is no Democratic politician with the guts to even conduct a hearing into his amazing corruption. But Brian Beutler has a suggestion that could at least illuminate reality and punish Alito and the fascists for his perfidy. B-Block (33:23) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Politico is so corrupt that the boyfriend editor hyping the girlfriend's article doesn't even bother to put it third or fourth on its list. The guy who finished second to Larry Hogan in the GOP Maryland primary? Robin Ficker? Does that sound familiar? And RFK Jr, wrong about his residence and just three presidents of Iran behind the times. C-Block (43:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The event was a couple of days ago but there's always time to celebrate not just the birthday of the immortal of Willie Mays but the day he gave a 20-year old me a radio interview that began with him doing a voice out of all the bigoted cliched movies of the 1930's.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 178: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:40) SPECIAL COMMENT: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has not only now CONFIRMED that the upside down American flag flown in front of his home three days before President Biden's inauguration WAS meant to support the Trump “Stop The Steal” plot – but in blaming his wife and neighbors for it, he has blatantly and transparently LIED in his excuse. “I spoke directly with Justice Alito about the flag story in the New York Times,” posts Shannon Bream, a host on Fox News. “In addition to what's in the story, he told me a neighbor on their street had a quote ‘F Trump' sign that was within 50 feet of where children await the school the bus in January '21.”  THAT'S the lie. Local schools – city of Alexandria AND Fairfax county - had resumed REMOTE learning a MONTH earlier. There were no school buses. There were no kids waiting at bus stops waiting for the school buses that never were. Alito seems to have forgotten that anybody could check this. "According to Justice Alito, things escalated and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the January 6th attacks. Justice Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign,” unquote. Again – this sign could not have been seen by kids at a bus stop. “Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language ‘including the c-word.' Following that exchange Mrs. Alito was distraught and hung the flag upside down quote “for a short time.” Justice Alito says some neighbors on his street are ‘very political' and acknowledges it was a very heated time in January 2021,” end quote. Alito said he had had “no involvement whatsoever” in the flying of the flag when contacted by The Times on Wednesday or Thursday. By Friday he suddenly had an involved and intricate story of an increasingly bitter and intense series of confrontations with his neighbors, including his wife becoming quote “distraught” – and especially the vivid and enraging detail about the flag with the F-word being visible to neighborhood children the school bus stop. He's lying. Again. In multiple ways. The Democratic response? Resign? Hearings? More limp-flagged calls for recusal and SCOTUS ethic rules. What would the Republicans be doing if – to merge two current Supreme Court scandals - say, Justice Katanji Brown Jackson had hung an ANTIFA-related flag or sign from HER home and taken cash and gifts directly from George Soros? Chairman Durbin needs to think about that – or somebody needs to think about it for him – and then he should do THAT. B-Block (16:28) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Exactly what American journalism needed: Chris Cillizza has authored a "Mission Statement." It is even more hilariously self-unaware than any actual article he's ever written. C-Block (38:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A lot in this episode about the media, so let's hear from Thurber and how they tried to turn him into a radio star and instead turned him into a nervous wreck: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 177: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: A lawyer yelling "you're a liar" at a witness does not make him a liar, despite what Anderson Cooper says. The storyline before the Trump Trial began was: If Michael Cohen keeps his cool when Todd Blanche screams at him, he'll prevail. He did it, and yet the networks rushed to ignore it. Prosecutors have already said they'll only need about an hour of re-direct of Cohen next Monday, meaning that's all the time they expect to require to polish him back up. They are still winning - plus there is still the wild card that in his perpetual over-confidence Trump may testify. And yet that's not where I start because sometimes the most important story and the most interesting one are not the same thing. The primary sidebar takeaway from Cohen's testimony was based on a poorly worded tweet that the author, Ron Filipkowski, deleted. “Cohen testified that his main media contacts to get positive stories run about Trump were Maggie Haberman, Katy Tur, and Chris Cuomo." Except Cohen DIDN'T say that. He was asked if he had good relationships with reporters. Haberman? "Yes," he replied. Tur? "Yes." Cuomo? "Yes." I am thus in the position of defending - in part - the transactional Haberman, my appalling ex, and the ridiculous Cuomo.  Having said that, they are all imperiled because of what Cohen DID say.  Plus we have a really great punchline to the day in the courtroom in which a would-be Trump Insurrectionist learned that loyalty to him is a one-way street, even if the only thing you wanted was a wave. B-Block (29:43) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Exactly what American journalism needed: Chris Cillizza has authored a "Mission Statement." It is even more hilariously self-unaware than any actual article he's ever written. C-Block (51:44) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A lot in this episode about the media, so let's hear from Thurber and how they tried to turn him into a radio star and instead turned him into a nervous wreck: "How To Relax While Broadcasting."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 176: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: DON'T BE FOOLED. TRUMP HAS SET THE TABLE SO HE CAN BAIL OUT ON THE DEBATES. "Please let this TRUTH," Trump wrote after the CNN and ABC debates were announced (and "TRUTH" is just an ironic brand name, like everything else Trump calls his crap), "serve to represent that I hereby accept debating Biden on Fox News. The date will be Wednesday, October 2nd. The hosts will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Thank you.” The Publishers' Clearing House style childish fake legalese ("Represent...hereby...thank you") is the tell. Trump has agreed to the two debates with Biden and simultaneously given himself a way out of going to either of them. Some time between now and the Atlanta debate next month he can simply insist Biden "recommit" to the imaginary third debate, and when Biden refuses, he can back out - claiming Biden backed out first. A late statement from the Biden campaign yesterday showed I'm not the only one thinking this could be in the cards. It's Trump to a tee: What does he have to gain from a debate in which there is no audience, where microphones go off automatically when time expires, and in which Biden does not flail. ALSO: HOW DID MSNBC LET THAT SCOOP GET AWAY? An in-court witness told them, live, Tuesday night, that he saw Trump reviewing the comments of his surrogates who insulted the judge and his family in Trump's place. It was evidence that there was a Trump conspiracy to evade the gag order and it was a huge story. And Alex Wagner changed the subject. Regardless: Justice Merchan must conduct a hearing immediately. It was Trump who CALLED Mike Johnson and the other Republican prostitutes his "surrogates." Presumably there will be more of them today. They are a new and clever means of Trump violating the order by proxy and Merchan should send him to jail for it. B-Block (31:28) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: "How MSNBC's Leftward Tilt Delivers Ratings, and Complications," read the headline in The New York Times. Suddenly I was young again. This was obviously some sort of re-print from 2007. My hair was dark, I could still digest pizza. The sub headline made me happier still: "NBC's leaders have been forced to grapple with how to square its cable news network's embrace of progressive politics with the company's straight-news operation.” Ah yes, thumbing through my scrapbooks from 2006 and 2007 and – that was in the New York Times YESTERDAY? SERIOUSLY? NBC executives are still exploiting The New York Times to whine about the "partisanship" of MSNBC? Holy crap! C-Block (49:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Since we're on this subject, time to re-tell the saga from June 2009 when the "friction" The New York Times reported on yesterday as if it were new (or even just not impossibly old) was so bad that the Chairman of GE - the corporation that then owned us - had decided to take MSNBC off the air because the $200,000,000 a year we made him just wasn't enough to compensate him for having his conservative Mom call up and yell at him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 175: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44): Dumboesque Senator Tommy Tuberville has gone on the Newsmax propaganda channel and revealed the obvious: the Speaker, the Senators, Congressmen, (one) Governor and one political jock-sniffer (Ramaswamy) who've stunt-attended Trump's New York trial are there to help Trump evade Judge Merchan's Gag Order. Merchan must bring them into court, put them under oath, and get their testimony as to what Trump demanded that Mike Johnson, Cory Mills, J.D. Vance, Tuberville, Doug Burgum, and Ramaswamy do to help him get around the Judge's order. Then find Trump in contempt because the gag order ALSO precludes him from telling others to attack witnesses or the judge's family for him. Also, thanks for Ramaswamy for the funniest Freudian slip of the trial, in which he accidentally called Trump a "sham politician." MEANWHILE: A day ago I asked The New York Times to give us a "Walter Cronkite" moment and instead it gave us a Judith Miller Moment. Introduced into evidence yesterday? Texts from Michael Cohen to Maggie Haberman from 2018 reading “Big boss just approved my responding to complaint and statement. Please start writing and I will call you soon." What she wrote presented Cohen's (and Trump's) lies about Stormy Daniels and the payoffs as facts. She wrote it the same day and came back and wrote it again the next day. There is a difference between facts (Cohen texted me) and the truth (WHAT Cohen texted me isn't true and I didn't bother to try to find out or even caveat the lies - and Haberman and The Times have to go. As they fired Judith Miller for disseminating George W. Bush's "Saddam WMD" lies so they must fire Haberman - the same Haberman who two days ago dismissed Cohen's testimony as "hearsay" and who is still writing Times leads on this story TODAY. B-BLOCK (40:47) WHY The Times needs to give us a Walter Cronkite Moment. C-BLOCK (64:39) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 174: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: We need a Walter Cronkite moment from The New York Times. The New York Times needs, one day – one day soon, one day now – to devote the entirety of the front page – to a headline, and an editorial, signed by the publisher Sulzberger and the editor Kahn and the key columnists and correspondents – headlined “TRUMP IMPERILS DEMOCRACY” and sub-headlined “YOUR LIFE AT STAKE.” We need a Walter Cronkite moment from The New York Times and when Trump went to a Philadelphia area seaside resort called Wildwood, drew maybe 10,000 cultists, lied and had the Republican mayor lie and say it was 80,000, complained that immigrant students don't speak English and immediately afterwards said something like “Borden-in-riv-iv,” said something else like “carry doubt-ite-by-rite,”claimed the president between Ford and Reagan was named Jimmy Connors, said the Chinese were preparing to invade Beijing (their own capital), insisted the entire country was grateful that he killed Roe-V-Wade, thanked – by name - the Supreme Court justices who gutted it, suddenly invoked the fictional cannibal character Hannibal Lecter, seemed to praise him, claimed the character was dead, and got the name of the movie wrong, and then insisted all immigrants are Hannibal Lecter – and all of that was after he was introduced by some immigrant who called him “President CHUMP"... the New York Times story, by a sixth-stringer named Michael Gold, mentioned… none of that. This was what Editor Joe Kahn's writer told consumers of the most influential news organization in America, quote: “After a long and often tense week in his criminal trial in Manhattan… Trump… took part in a time-honored ritual enjoyed by countless New Yorkers in need of a break: He went to the shore.” Oh ho ho, how clever. The Times instead lets Maggie Haberman dismiss as “hearsay” Michael Cohen's first-hand recounting of what Trump told him about ‘not being on the market for long' if Melania dumped him and if Haberman doesn't know the legal definition of “hearsay” get rid of her. And the Times made room for an op-ed bashing Joe Biden by Mark Penn, a dishonest right wing pollster who has been posing as a Democrat for at least 20 years. In Court: “Michael Cohen calmly describes Trump's hush money instructions,” reads the headline in The Washington Post. The SUB-headline quotes Trump: “Just do it.” That's what the prosecution needed out of Cohen. And it needs it again out of him today. AND whenever the cross-examination begins. It needs him making more self-abnegating jokes about ‘angry, even for me.' It needs him testifying as he did yesterday: that he was there in Trump Tower, days before Trump was sworn in as president, with Allan Weisselberg, reviewing a handwritten document plan to repay Cohen for the Stormy Daniels hush money and how they would hide it. And that Trump said “smart individuals” had told him, Trump, to pay the $130,000. And that Trump told him he knew if the Daniels story got out it would be a disaster for the CAMPAIGN. And it needs him producing one outstandingly sleazy quote from Trump per day on the stand, like when Cohen asked Trump about the impact on his wife MELANIA if the story got out and Trump said “don't worry. How long do you think I'll be on the market for? Not long.” B-Block (22:54) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: California Assembly Bill 2265 and what it can do to save dogs - and save shelters the horrible cost of killing them. (24:27) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: An update on the back story to the "This Is SportsCenter" commercial I did with soccer's Alexi Lalas, in which I reprised John Belushi's moment in "Animal House" in which he smashes the guitar against the wall. The update? The DVD with the outtakes literally fell off a shelf here yesterday. Enjoy. C-Block (40:35) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 173: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I don't know much about the law but I do know the Trump Trial has confirmed one of the immutable truths of the field: Never hire an attorney with a rating of 3-1/2 stars. Susan Necheles somehow managed to lose to Stormy Daniels during the second day of cross-examination in Trump-On-Trial yesterday; lose so badly and obviously that Trump's team was forced to file for a desperation mistrial from the very thin ice of basically claiming Necklace forgot to object to something that Daniels said on TUESDAY. All of a sudden the Trump defense was claiming – and leaking to every news organization, by the way – that Daniels had dog-whistled a subtext of rape or assault when she gave details about Trump standing in front of her, and not using a condom, and a bodyguard being out in the hallway – and we should just ignore that when she said all that, THREE DAYS AGO, Trump's lawyer with the three-and-a-half stars rating Susan Necheles said… nothing. Not even the only thing you or I would remember to say if we woke up in some alternate universe where we were in that courtroom as Trump's lawyer: “OBJECTION.” And that might have been Necheles's best work. Ms. Necheles: “You have experience in making up fake stories about sex?” Ms. Daniels: “The sex is real. That's why it's not a B movie.” Ms. Necheles: “NOW you have a story about having sex with President Trump, right?” Ms. Daniels: “If that story was untrue, I would've written it to be a lot better.” Ooops! There goes another half a star. Ms. Necheles: “You had sex with a cameraman?” Ms. Daniels: “I started dating him and he became my husband.” A reminder: None of this needed to be heard by the jury. If Trump's defense had stipulated, yeah, they had sex, she wouldn't have been allowed to testify. Or they could have just asked her what she knew about Trump's involvement in the non-disclosure agreement and the payoffs and she could have said “nothing” and Ms. Necheles could have said “nothing further, your honor.” This is a case – a relatively boring case with excruciating details about how routine company checks got sent to the White House for Trump to sign even as president and he never ignored a single detail that cost him more than 99 cents – a relatively boring case about falsified business records and the attempt to interfere with an election and Trump's team turned it into wocka-wocka-wocka, and his credibility and their credibility against the credibility of a pornographic actress and guess what: the actress won. ALSO: Oh by the way, last month Trump assembled around 20 of the nation's top oil and fossil fuel executives and offered them a deal. He'd sell them the world to destroy as quickly as they wanted - repeal all regulations and make Doug Burgum Secretary of Energy or VP or whatever - if they'd simply give him a billion dollars with which to get elected. So when you worry that democracy is on the ballot in November, just remember, no, it's worse than that: human EXISTENCE is on the ballot. B-Block (23:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mark Levin tries to get around calling Judge Juan Merchan "a pervert" because he was listening to Stormy Daniels' testimony. Failson Andrew Giuliani is "reporting" on the trial and puts me in an impossible position by blasting Lawrence O'Donnell. And Chuck Todd ISN'T gone after all. He has just written a masterpiece of nonsense: an Epic Poem of bothsidesism in which he concludes Biden and Trump both need to admit their mistakes. He spends one paragraph on Trump's mistakes and about a dozen on how Biden failed to bring the country together (while Trump was tearing it apart).  C-Block (34:00) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: No gentle reminiscences here. No prophetic tales of heroes who were actually schmoes. Thurber goes for the jugular vein of the famous Avantgarde artist Salvador Dali in "The Secret Life Of James Thurber."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 172: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Robert F. Kennedy Junior who may turn out to be the spoiler who throws the election to Trump says under oath that his cognitive problems and short term and longer term memory loss from a worm that ate his brain and then died. On the other OTHER hand, too early to tell if it's an outlier or the start of the new wave, but swing state poll: Wisconsin, Quinnipiac, Registered voters: Biden 50 Trump 44. Three-way: Biden 40 Trump 39 Kennedy and his Worm, 12. Nevertheless. I'm not confident we can stave off fascism in this country because: worms in Kennedy's brain. AND Trump's trial in Florida has been delayed until the twelfth of never by an unqualified judge HE appointed and his trial in Georgia has been delayed indefinitely – probably into next year - because the appeals court says it WILL listen to Trump's appeal of the ruling that the district attorney didn't have a financial conflict of interest just because she hired her boyfriend to work on the case (because guess what: there IS a deep state and among its constituent parts are the legal system and partisan judges and the Supreme Court and an Attorney General who will go to his grave believing the people exist to serve laws rather than laws existing to serve the people. Also, because OBAMA's most public adviser criticized all the sex talk in the Stormy Daniels testimony and, oh by the way, WORMS IN KENNEDY'S BRAIN. Memory loss, quote: “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died. I have cognitive problems, clearly. I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.”RFK Junior, in a deposition during his divorce in 2012. When Kennedy said I was his HERO - I KNEW something was wrong. MEANWHILE the man who called out The New York Times for its vengeful coverage of Biden answers the Editor-in-Chief's strawman response that the paper won't become part of the Biden campaign. "In general, and this is a complaint I have had about the New York Times that is two decades old – I wish they would take good faith criticism from the left with as much seriousness as they take BAD faith criticism from the right," says Dan Pfeiffer. B-Block (24:51) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Lobbyist Jim Courtovich (if you're going to make a threat by quoting 'The Godfather' you better make sure you get the quote right), Speaker Mike Johnson (you know "intuitively" that non-citizens are voting? Is that like I know "intuitively" that there must have been fraud in your election? No facts, just a Spidey Sense?), and Congressman Mike Collins (You think last week's racism-at-Ole-Miss tweet was disqualifying? Wait'll you see this week's joke about the JFK and RFK assassinations). C-Block (32:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Trump mocked Lawrence O'Donnell after Tuesday's court session, so it's probably time for me to mock him. The day they finally incarcerate Joe Scarborough, O'Donnell will become the least sincere person on MSNBC. Ever seen the pilot of the old HBO show "The Newsroom"? Where the back-up tries to steal the show from the guy he's filling in for? Guess who that's actually about?    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 171: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: First of several underemphasized meta-headlines from Stormy Daniels' testimony: Trump's lawyer Ms. Necklace seems to have made inroads in her effort to convince the jury that Ms. Daniels would say or do almost anything for money. Uh, she's a pornographic actress. Whether you approve that profession, or abhor it, or like me you're agnostic: one statement should not be among those you express in shock or dismay or surprise: “Oh no, she's a pornographic actress, she will do or say almost anything for money.” Which leads to the next meta headline. My GOD the media, especially the television networks, treated her testimony like they were cicadas and Stormy Daniels was the ring girl who stepped between the ropes to announce the start of year 13. My GOD they all awoke from somnambulance about bank records and cell phone extractions and the testimony of comptrollers and people named RONA and were able to say – at least to themselves – good grief, get a load of those rebuttals. Which leads into the next meta headline: Stormy Daniels is not on trial here. She's only incidental to the case. That is NOT what you would have thought if you watched coverage of this case. The sex isn't illegal, the money isn't illegal, Trump isn't illegal, Daniels changing her story isn't illegal. Buying her story to keep it from becoming public in the weeks before an election and then hiding the payoffs to prevent THEM from becoming public in the weeks before an election – THAT'S illegal and all those boring receipts and records and notations written by hand by a guy named Allan – with TWO L'S – THAT is the case. And denying it as Trump has – LYING about it, as Trump has – is why Stormy Daniels is there. To testify. I have to admit I was a little surprised by the last headline. If the Monday juxtaposition of Trump Maybe Going To Jail Over The Gag Order and Kristi Noem Quintuples Down On The Idea That Shooting Puppies In The Face Is A Good Thing underscored how MAGA believes it has the right to kill, then YESTERDAY'S juxtaposition of Noem's disastrous media tour – more on that shortly – and Trump On Trial underscored that these really deeply disturbed, borderline personalities, do NOT do well when confronted with reality from which they cannot run and they cannot hide. And then there's Noem, who got beaten up on Fox by my old friend Stu Varney and, stunningly, on NewsMax. But it's all right, she still thinks she's killing it. Yeah, the way his presidential roll-out killed it for Greg Stillson. B-Block (24:33) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL/SPORTS: Seen anything about this week being the 70th Anniversary of Roger Bannister "breaking the 4-Minute mile?" There's one problem. C-Block (42:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL/SPORTS PART 2: That one problem? Roger Bannister WAS NOT the first man to run a mile in four minutes or less. It's a sad story with a lot of bias and even racism in it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 170: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: The reaction to Justice Merchan's stark warning to Trump that he may put him in jail the next time he violates the gag order, and the defense inside the Trump cult of Kristi Noem for murdering her dog and threatening Biden's dog - these are actually the same story. The point is: killing. They are about one thing: at their core, Noem and Trump and MAGA and Trump's Supreme Court Justices and his slaves inside the House and the Senate believe they have a right to kill. Today, they have a right to kill their dogs. Tomorrow? Your dog. Then the judge. The day after that immigrants. Finally, anything and anybody. Do not mistake them, nor what this is about. Do not forget that even as chilling a phrase as “political violence” is itself just a euphemism. Political violence is: murder. Individual murder, mass murder, or if the rest of us are lucky, just attempted murder or threatened murder. Every Trump attack on every witness, on every judge, on every prosecutor, on every opponent; every stochastic call to “end” this; every reference to “bedlam”; every meme of the President of the United States bound and gagged; every Tim Scott refusing to honor the outcome of an election; every reference to patriots and deep states and rigged elections and I am your retribution – they all have the unspoken second half: those who try to stop us will do what we say or we will kill them. One third of Trump supporters who've heard about Noem killing her dog told a YouGov poll that it WAS acceptable. 29 percent weren't sure. So the total of Trump voters who would not criticize it was six out of ten. AS THIS UNFOLDS, THE NEW YORK TIMES completely disconnects from reality. “When you are Democrat you start off essentially at 40 percent (of the vote) because you have civil service, you have the unions and you have welfare. They get welfare to vote, and then they cheat on top of that. They cheat,” Trump said of Biden and the Democrats. “'These people are running a Gestapo administration' Mr. Trump told donors who attended the event at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times." An audio recording. OBTAINED by The New York Times. Where is this recording? Why has this recording not been made public by The Times? Why is the paper suppressing it? Incredibly, at the same time the paper's editor gave an interview to Semafor News that discredits everyone who works at The Times as he dismisses any awareness that his coverage has normalized Trump without a sufficient sense of crisis or threat. "To say that the threats of democracy are so great that the media is going to abandon its central role as a source of impartial information to help people vote – that's essentially saying that the news media should become a propaganda arm for a single candidate, because we prefer that candidate's agenda," said Joe Kahn. “It's our job to cover the full range of issues that people have. At the moment, democracy is one of them. But it's not the top one – immigration happens to be the top, and the economy and inflation is the second. Should we stop covering those things because they're favorable to Trump?” Nothing to see here. Just the editor-in-chief of The New York Times living in a world defined by Fox News talking points, and populated entirely by strawmen. B-Block (38:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Tigers say their new uniforms are "going 0-60." Nancy Mace claims the victim of half the GOP Antisemitic tropes is behind all the pro-Palestinian protests too. And Obama's campaign manager has the new podcast every one has been clamoring: he co-hosts with Kellyanne Conjob. (47:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL/SPORTS: Seen anything about this week being the 70th Anniversary of Roger Bannister "breaking the 4-Minute mile?" There's one problem. C-Block (1:04:51) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL/SPORTS PART 2: That one problem? Roger Bannister WAS NOT the first man to run a mile in four minutes or less. It's a sad story with a lot of bias and even racism in it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 169: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is full of shit. Nothing about the gag order precludes him from testimony. What caused him to change his mind and suddenly announce no, he's not testifying after all, is sheer naked fear. He heard the Smoking Gun tape of himself and Michael Cohen mapping out how to pay hush money to his girlfriend before the election, and he crapped himself.  I'll play the tape and you'll see. The last thing you do after THAT tape is played, is talk. In a fitting metaphor, on Trump's pants are so on fire about why he's too scared to testify, that his post-court photo op was at a New York Fire Department Station. He also mocked reporting about how he's been falling asleep in court and then 90 minutes later, he fell asleep in court - again. MEANWHILE: We are in such an unprecedented place in this country's history that if Trump were now to pick Kristi Noem as his running mate and announce they were going to campaign on a platform of puppy killing, the cult would do it. He's not likely to try it. But then did you really think that Noem's response to her self-defenestration would be to double down and claim the dog she murdered was far more evil than she let on and was a threat to her children. By next week she'll be claiming Cricket had clamped her vicious jaws around her daughter's neck. Or that she was holding Noem's kids hostage.​ And by the way, she may have no other choice than to double down and claim she is the real victim here, because there is emerging evidence that the story of Kristi Noem luring the dog into a gravel pit and shooting it in the face because it was randomly attacking other animals and posed a threat of some kind​ that might be a COVER STORY. As America's hatred washed over her, she laid low – until Wednesday. That's when she went on with Sean Hannity and resumed trying to get people to buy the book, and buy her story. But her story has now changed. Cricket was no puppy. She was a working dog – and 14 months old. That Cricket was untrained wasn't HER fault. Quote: “It was a dog that was extremely dangerous. It had come to us from a family who found her way too aggressive. We were her second chance. The day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock.​.. (Livestock? Chickens. But of course killing animals is just a first step – and then you're Ted Bundy​)...“that were part of our neighbors. She attacked me. And it was a hard decision.” That was Wednesday night. By ​y​esterday afternoon on social media, Noem saw an out. “I had a choice between the safety of my children and an animal who had a history of attacking people and killing livestock. I chose my kids.” So. She's already changed the story. Was the version in the book also changed? Was the murder worse? Was the timeline of who saw it different? Could Noem have shot the dog as her family watched? B-Block (19:47) SPECIAL COMMENT: I am largely agnostic on the issues, and having taken part in student protests against Vietnam and racism in the 7th Grade in 19-freaking-70 I'm in favor of them at any time. But what's happening on campuses today is NOT 1970 revisited. It's not on the level of Black Lives Matter. The arrests aren't unprecedented, the right to protest isn't being destroyed, and the students might want to recognize that their decisions are simply increasing the chances that everything they want will NOT happen, culminating in a Trump presidency in which they or their successors will be detained by the Army or shot on sight or both. C-Block (28:05) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Thurber's mother was down with the whole occult stuff. Him? He barely delved. But this is another week where we need a pure silly story and he produced one when he went into the worlds of supernatural (and German dialects). "The Black Magic of Barney Haller."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 168: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Enough excuses. In a speech in Wisconsin yesterday, Trump talked about, attacked, and attacked the accuracy of, Cassidy Hutchinson - a probable witness against him in the Election Subversion trial in Washington. He has thus violated both the terms of his release on bail, and the gag order long ago imposed upon him. Judge Tanya Chutkan must now jail him. There is no evading this. While under threat of imprisonment if he violates the gag order in the Hush Money Election Interference case in New York, he has violated the gag order in the Election Subversion case in Washington. Judge Chutkan has no excuse this time. Revoke his bail. Somebody, for once, for God's sake, for America's preservation – draw the line in the sand. And just for added insolence, in attacking Hutchinson he confirmed the gist of her testimony, that he tried to talk his Secret Service detail into taking him to the Capitol on January 6th so he could watch his scum try to overthrow American democracy. He's been lying about this for three years. In his speech Trump also insisted he was president three years ago (he wasn't), butchered the word "infrastructure," and of particular relevance to the moment, reminded the current protestors that he would prohibit refugees from Gaza and reinstitute his ban on Muslims. PLUS a small slip in that extraordinary Time Magazine interview suggests that his extensive, inappropriate, and entirely corrupt shadow diplomacy with other nations may have included some kind of arrangement with Putin by which Russia continues to hold Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich hostage, until and unless Trump regains power. B-BLOCK (18:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The collapse of the regional sports cable television market not only felled last year's San Diego Padres but it's now taken an NHL playoff game off the air in the middle of the action. When The Gateway Pundit wonders if you might be an unreliable source - you might be an unreliable source. And given that it was a stunt bill with no more impact than the week full of Republican Make Appliances Pollute Again legislation, it's amazing that Marjorie Taylor Greene decided to explain why she voted against an Antisemitism measure - and her reasoning was that it might make it illegal to proclaim that the Jews killed Jesus. C-BLOCK (27:40) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 167: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is officially in contempt of court and has been threatened with jail time if he again violates the gag order and testimony from the stand continues to bury him alive as he buried the Stormy Daniels scandal and none of that is CLOSE to being as important as his new and most virulent threat yet to destroy this country via political VIOLENCE. And it underscores why we – LOYAL Americans – must destroy his cult first. Cover story, Time magazine, all the nightmares of Trump becoming dictator, but laid out with unusual clarity for someone as insane and demented as Trump. Quoting the interviewer (Eric Cortellessa) “Trump does not dismiss he possibility of political violence around the election.” Quoting Trump: “If we don't win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of the election.” The author asks him about his social media post in which Trump claimed a stolen election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the constitution,” Trump then denies he said it. Quoting Trump: “I never said that at all. I never said that at all.”Within moments of this lie – no, not a lie, a distinction without a difference in that he never SAID it, he merely WROTE it, on Truth Social, on December 3, 2022 – within moments he declares the CURRENT government has “broken the constitution. They have gotten very far astray from our Constitution..." What about his remarks about being a dictator only on day one? He says he was kidding. Doesn't he realize it horrifies those who see dictatorship as the opposite of America? Quote: “I think a lot of people LIKE IT.” So the police become militarized and the military becomes Trump's personal gestapo and the states and cities that don't promise fealty to him don't get federal allotments and the federal government becomes his personal staff and if he doesn't win the elections they're UNFAIR elections and violence is fine and most people WANT a dictator anyway and he chooses who gets prosecuted and he chooses which budgeted money gets spent and where because he'll give himself a line-item veto and he'll put anybody here illegally into concentration camps… or anybody he SAYS is here illegally and if that's YOU – who are you going to get to STOP him? ALSO: "Jail may be a necessary punishment." Justice Merchan bemoans the low limits of the fines he could impose upon Trump for being in contempt of court after breaking the gag order nine times. So Imprisoned Don is on the clock. B-Block (19:04) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: That embossed giant representation of The Queensboro/59th Street Bridge on the new batting helmet of the New York Mets is wonderful, until you realize it ALSO looks like something never ever associated with baseball. Kayleigh McEnany is the latest Trump pusher who can't add or subtract integers. And Jesse Watters invokes the Loch Ness monster to explain why he thinks the Trump Gag Order is unconstitutional. C-Block (27:37) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Let's continue on the subject of Watters, whose stupidity is anything but an act, and whose cupidity was honed as Bill O'Reilly's henchman and stalker-by-proxy. Let's talk Jesse and revisit some of the best Billo moments.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 166: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: We need a special counsel to investigate the six conservatives on the Supreme Court. We know Harlan Crow spent thousands on Clarence Thomas – for what precise purpose We know somebody paid off Brett Kavanaugh's debts – who? When? Why? We know Leonard Leo's gang spent millions to put Gorsuch and the others in place – what did they get in return? We know the Trump appointees all lied to the Senate and said Roe-V-Wade was settled, then voted to overturn it – were they paid to? We know the conservatives looked at the 14th Amendment, which states when, why, and how to appeal disqualification from the ballot, and ignored the Constitution. To what end? We know those conservatives have now signaled that they will countenance a coup, or presidentially-ordered domestic assassinations, or anything, so long as they can pretend they were official acts, and so long as they don't have to rule until and unless Trump is president again. What inducement could make even conservatives – even conservative lawyers – prostitute themselves? And most of all we know, that if the polarity was reversed – if this was a Republican administration now and that was an utterly corrupt and criminal DEMOCRATIC president on trial – and a 6-3 LIBERAL Supreme Court impeding and slowing and obstructing justice – we KNOW that the Republican administration would do: There would be a Special Counsel investigating the Court. There are lesser solutions. Joyce Vance suggests Jack Smith empty his January 6th evidence at a hearing to determine what might be subject to 'presidential immunity.' Brian Beutler suggests something stronger. The gist is: we – I mean all of us who have a faint hope that there'll be representative government in this country a year from today – WE must stop assuming that being right about everything DECIDES everything any more (if it ever did). The Biden campaign is going to have to stop assuming that the president being right and good and Trump being the worst person in this country's history is going to be enough. We need to go on OFFENSE and the goal has to be to metaphorically GUT the bastard – and to metaphorically GUT all the OTHER bastards in his gang. As said by the character of the prime minister in “House of Cards” – the good version – we need to put a bit of stick about. ALSO: There's little new left to say about the psychopathic monster Kristi Noem. Yet I actually found something. It's not good. And it's from her alleged boyfriend. B-Block (25:41) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The lovely celebrity columnist Cindy Adams just turned 94. Somebody leaked her birthday party guest list and it's the twelve people you meet when you get to hell. The New York Times is so strung out over Politico's reveal that its publisher is altering the news to punish Biden for not doing an interview that it has issued a furious denial about journalism and principles and THE STATEMENT IS ANONYMOUS. And unfortunately not only did Nancy Pelosi call out my ex for being a Trump apologist but based on her reaction she has no idea that everybody agrees she's a Trump apologist. C-Block (35:16) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Well it ain't Thursday but it IS Tur-Day. Since I'm already talking about my ex, face planting on MSNBC every afternoon, I might as well tell you the rest of the story. About her jumping the political shark. About her book. And about how she deceived me. And The New York Times. And The Washington Post. It's exhausting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 165: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Justice Samuel Alito should wake up tomorrow in Gitmo. Or in a hospital prison ward being examined for illness, mental or otherwise. He and the other Conservative members of the Supreme Court are as dangerous to the future of this country and its citizens and its freedoms and its representative form of government, as any terrorists who have ever lived. If presidents knew they might be prosecuted for little things like trying to overturn a valid election and illegally staying in office, Alito told the lawyer representing Jack Smith, they would be way more likely to try to overturn a valid election and illegally stay in office. So, if you want to preserve democracy, you CAN'T prosecute a former president for trying to overturn a valid election and illegally staying in office. THAT is the constitutional position of the leading justice on the Supreme Court, the ones Trump's sheep follow, echoing almost word-for-word, things that the mad traitor Trump has posted on his social media feed about persecutions and retributions and retirements. This is Samuel Alito telling you that the way to insure peaceful transitions of power is: you can't prosecute a lame duck president who partially – and nearly FULLY – disrupted the peaceful transition of power. It sounds like something Joseph Heller CUT from his novel Catch-22 as too stupid to be useful as political satire. And it just went downhill from there. They asked Trump's lawyer if assassination of the opposing presidential candidate or a military coup might be considered a president's "official acts" and he said yes.  Ultimately, what the six conservatives on this destructive, fascist court hinted at yesterday, was how far they would go to prostitute themselves to rule FOR Trump in any case that comes before them. We've already seen them erase the clear mandate in the 14th Amendment because they felt it would deny American democracy the right to vote itself out of existence. We have now heard them try to cobble together any bullshit they had in their brains to immunize Trump for his countless crimes. But we have also been forewarned that if a case comes before THIS court relative to THIS election, they will figure out what is best for Trump and make up the reasons why. They WILL. After yesterday, you and I now KNOW this. ALSO: The gag order Trump keeps violating in New York will require another hearing with Justice Merchan. But not until next Wednesday. Because we all know we have all the time in the world. On the other hand, Trump addressed all his many legal cases late yesterday and sounded terrible. Breathless. You know how old he sounded? 206! B-Block (24:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: For the first time they all come from one newspaper, for misdeeds revealed in one article. They are New York Times Washington Bureau Chief Elizabeth Bumiller, writer Peter Baker, and publisher A.G. Sulzberger, and they are the vindictive little shits who could help cost us democracy. Because as Politico reports, Sulzberger has ordered the paper to fixate on Joe Biden's age as payback for Biden refusing to give The Times a one-on-one interview. Apparently Sulzberger thinks when Trump comes to round up the liberals, intellectuals, and reporters, everybody at The Times will be issued a pass. C-Block (38:50) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: Deliberately chosen to have nothing to do with Trump or politics or The Times, his wonderful story of a loathed practical jokester: "Meet Birdey Dogged."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.