SEASON 2 EPISODE 23: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Two major developments today warranting a bulletin edition: Judge Tonya Chutkan has set the start of jury selection in the Trump Subversion of the Election trial in Washington for March 4. Trump is, as I predicted this morning, EFFED. He's SO effed he's already insisting he will appeal her decision, proving he doesn't even know there is no legal means FOR him to appeal it.

He is SO effed.

Meanwhile in Atlanta, his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows seems hell bent on confessing to everything - including crimes he hasn't been charged with - just to get the trial moved from state to federal court. He actually took the stand this morning and admitted to everything on the Raffensberger call (and I think I called him Ken in here. Ken pitched for the Phillies in 1954).

Note: the rest of this edition is repeated from Monday's regular edition. If you've heard it, feel free to hit STOP right about here.

Also: the first signs of life are appearing in the attempt to actually DO something about disqualifying Trump from the ballot under the Disqualification Clause of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

After another mass shooting - one predicated on distinct and undeniable racism - shock and grief and rage can account for almost any reaction. But as Governor Ron DeSantis, who trades in distinct and undeniable racism and who had the gall to insist HBCUs in Florida would not be targeted when one was targeted Saturday, attended a vigil last night for the victims in Jacksonville, the crowd rightly booed and heckled him and his inanely smiling wife. And the local Democratic councilwoman made an unbelievable mistake. She told the crowd to "put parties aside. A bullet don't know a party."

She could not be more wrong.

A bullet not only knows a party but the bullets are there BECAUSE of a party and we damn well better say so.

We have mass shootings and we have nearly unfettered civilian access to weapons of war and we have an orgy of gun worship BECAUSE of Republicans. Period. Our gun crisis may not be 100% Republican but it’s 95%. Our awareness that at any moment, anywhere, anyone in this country could be murdered by sentient fecal matter and the only variables are which minority group THIS one murdered because of which Republican THIS one listened to, waxes and wanes. But there are four unswerving constants and they played out in Jacksonville over the weekend: they had the guns because of Republicans; if they didn’t have the HATE already they got IT because of Republicans; nearly all of our news media will refuse to say that mass shootings in this country are the unquestioned FAULT of Republicans, and no matter what the circumstances of this particular one were, Republicans will insist it’s too soon to – you know – try to STOP them from happening and to propose – you know – SOLUTIONS – is trying to exploit a tragedy for political gain. As opposed to trying to exploit a tragedy for donations from the National Rifle Association and making sure that nothing is ever, ever, done, to stop the next one.

Trump's other spawn, Vivek Ramaswamy, spent Sunday morning insisting that Mike Pence he should’ve refused to certify Biden’s election until the Senate agreed to instantly instituted new laws to mandate the most draconian Republican talking points about voting suppression: single-day elections, paper ballots, government-issued ID’s, and quote “led through that level reform and then under that condition certified the election” – as if every moment of the political day is a hostage situation and every law is optional because Vivek Ramaswamy sees a loophole to exploit. 

Happily that performance on "Meet The Press" earned Ramaswamy the coveted endorsement of one viewer: O.J. Simpson.

B-Block (27:52) IN SPORTS: Spain's Soccer Kiss scandal continues to cascade. The Chicago White Sox still don't know how two fans got shot in the bleachers during a game. And the Oakland A's forgot they'll have to find a place to play four lame duck seasons before moving to Las Vegas (32:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Zillow mistakenly reports Trump sold Mar-a-Lago to Junior for 10 times its value ("Oops!"), Tucker and Musk are lying about the audience for Carlson's interview with Trump by a factor of at least 300:1, and Jonathan Turley 2023's biggest enemy right now is: Jonathan Turley 2021.

C-Block (38:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The odometer has turned over again. Now it's 43 years since I started in television at CNN. So let me tell you how Ted Turner inadvertently invented SportsCenter AND nearly wound up owning ALL THE TEAMS in the National Football League.