COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 21

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): As Vance attacks him, it's finally true: Trump is now radioactive - even inside the GOP. Jayvee's "J'Accuse" post about the midterms and Iran was actually 613 words of euphemisms for "blame the midterms on Trump." He's trying to set himself up for '28. Even Ron DeSantis came back from the political grave to declare an "extinction level event" for everybody in his party except him. The MAGA circular firing squad opens fire, and I am reminded of The Maltese Falcon, with Trump as Brigid O'Shaughnessy: "Don't be silly - YOU'RE taking the fall."

Meanwhile on the human side of the equation: us humans may need a new Speaker and Majority Leader because Jeffries and Schumer are already saying 'affordability not accountability' when YOU CAN WALK AND CHEW GUM AT THE SAME TIME. Trump corruption CAUSED the affordability crisis and rooting out and prosecuting the corruption can address the reality that stealing billions and insider trading by Trump and his crime family cost ordinary Americans their money. People have to go to jail.

There's also a post-celebration drumbeat about Democrats now being in position to neuter The Electoral College from below, via state legislatures, but I think believing you can do it without a constitutional amendment is wishful thinking, as long as there is still a Trump-filled Supreme Court. Plus a heartfelt message hoping for an intervention for Haley Stevens.

B-Block: THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL (37:00) All the politics reminded me of the first convention I ever went to - Democrats, here in New York, 1980. And that reminded me of trying to explain to today's New Yorkers what a different place Fun City was just 46 years ago - like the day I saw a dead guy riding the E train with me, then worked a whole day for CNN, got back on the subway, and there it was: it was the same train, the same car, and the same dead guy.