Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio. On November two, two thousand one, Rachel Meadow read a letter that implored her to not go through with her plans to reduce her television schedule from daily to weekly. It argued that the peril which had struck the democracy just ten months earlier was only the beginning, that the mid terms of and the presidential election of might ultimately be as important to the history of this nation as the Civil War, and that her program was one of the few public squares in which those defending the country from fascism could take heart and believe they were not alone. The handwritten letter expressed sympathy, indeed empathy, to Maddow on her decision, and the writers I said that if indeed the inevitable had finally come and the workload had gone from sissaphe into crushing, perhaps she could take a leave of absence, keep her name on her nightly MSNBC show, have others fill in, and not returned to it until even as latest September or October of the following year. The writer acknowledged that what he was saying sounded absurd and hyperbolic, but he insisted it was true. The liberal point of view on cable news had never been more important. It had never been under greater threat from both market forces and less hidden forms of fascism, and the entire cable news industry was teetering on implosion. No matter how flawed MSNBC and to a lesser degree, CNN were, they were vitally important to the future of freedom in the United States. And because her viewers believed that her nightly program was essential to that future of freedom, it was essential to that future of freedom. Matadow did not reply. She did not alter her plans. She cut back to once a week. MSNBC's ratings collapsed, her own included and that of her lead in and that of her lead out. CNN was sold to conservatives who viewed Brett Bear as the personification of moderation and put in the hands of a scheming idiot whose head contained little but ambition and over confidence. And today, even though they too are down, the ratings for Fox News are larger than those of MSNBC and CNN combined, which is exactly where we were in two thousand three, when the barbaric right wing agenda of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney controlled not just the country, but just as importantly the news business, and at NBC, they decided the only smart business model then was to go farther right and Fox and now today, as a former colleague of mine, equipped grimly yesterday, cable news is not in intensive care, it's in hospice. And I answered, no, it had another five years to live. But if it's in hospice, it's in hospice now because it was already sick. And then it's new bosses poisoned it because at a time when the nation actually needs cable TV news, and when it's only means of survival is to offer compelling, intelligent, well produced political shows and no, I am not campaigning, they would sooner self immolate than hire me. Instead, the new boss poisoners have concluded that the magic bullet is putting Gail King and Bill Maher on CNN once a week each and putting Matt Gates and Lauren Bobert on MSNBC whenever they will agree to go on. Because at a time when all the forces that can be brought to bear against democracy, against diversity, against more voters voting more often in more convenient ways, in a time when all those forces are being brought and brought together. What American needs out of CNN and MSNBC is celebrity interviews by Gail King and Stale naive fold libertarian both sides is nonsense from what is left over a decade after Bill Maher stopped trying very hard. Gail King, to paraphrase Frederick Douglas, the national edifice is on fire. Every man who can carry a bucket of water or remove a brick is wanted. But those who have the care of the building, having a profound respect for the feeling of the national burglars who set the building on fire are determined that of flames shall only be extinguished by restoring conservative trust in CNN and MSNBC. I have nothing against Gail King. She is a very nice person. I know her so long. We met when I was just starting at Sports Center and she was a local newscaster in Hartford, Connecticut. I know that the CBS morning show she is on is the best Last Place show out of all the dozens of different Last Place shows CBS has produced in the mornings over the decades, and most relevantly, that show was the last news program that CNN's new idiot boss had anything to do with and Gail King is thus one of the only four or five people in the news business he knows the first thing about. But the national edifice is on fire. And this is what one of the two possible firehouses is considering as a great new idea, even if it's just keep CNN and MSNBC alive until November. And before you say, the ratings proved that CNN and MSNBC are now irrelevant. While I agree with you, but I ask you this, what has replaced them? The far right has Fox and Fox Business and news Max and the First and one American News and Daily Wire and The Blaze and Joe Rogan and literally a hundred streaming shows and other seven feeds. And the left has I'll Wait. The left has MSNBC boasting promoting that it's got Bobert and Gates on as guests. Left has MSNBC firing It's Only Growing show, which had been hosted on the weekends by an African American woman because Tucker Carlson complained about nasty things she said about him. The left has CNN killing off its moderate lean left prime time lineup so it could move Don Lemon to a morning show with Peppy hair Low and somebody from The Daily Caller, and that show now gets three and thirty one thousand viewers, meaning it is only about one third ahead of the weekly audience for this podcast. But the solution is Gail King maybe once a week in primetime and Bill Maher Friday's for twenty minutes. Even though no once a week show in the history of cable news has ever succeeded, not even Meadows. She's shrinking. Tucker Carlson's ratings are fifty higher than hers. The point of cable news is, no, your most fervent fans are not going to watch you all five nights each week, but they've got to know you are there all five nights each week. And there's still something else besides this terrifying political dynamic in which the almost laughably negligible supply of liberal or even moderate seven news outlets gets extinguished because the fascists bought fifty of them. That would be CNN and the geniuses at the other MSNBC are making the same mistake about both sides. Is um not being its own form of bias that was made by their predecessors from the year. These people are not just political malefactors, deliberately or unknowingly helping the causes of those who would and will dismantle of freedoms of this country and persecute the minorities of this country, and enrich the mega rich of this country, and turn off the liberal networks of this country and some of the conservative ones too. They're not just that. The Chris Licks and the Saysar Conde's, and the John Malone's and the Jeff Shells are not just political terrorists by proxy. They're also idiots. Dale King is a morning show host. If Chris Lift of CNN could convince her to quit CBS Mornings and work for him full time, he would give her her choice of which hours she wanted an anchor eight pm, nine pm, ten pm, all the pms, and she would fail miserably because eight pm, nine pm, and ten pm are at night, and CBS Mornings is on in the morning. You don't think that matters. It's seven thirty. On the morning of February two thousand five, the president of CBS Television Less Moon Vest and the president of CBS News, Andrew Hayward, sneaked into my apartment building in New York via the back door so nobody would see them come in and came up to my apartment. There was a minor hitch in their big plan to hire the person who would save the CBS Evening News. That person was the co host to the NBC Morning Show Today, and her name was Katie Kurrik. I'll spell it for you C O U R I C And she was one of the five best known, best respected people in television news. And they were still sure they were gonna get her, but they had no backup plan, so they wanted me to be the backup plan. This was my job interview, and I said, hell, three years ago I was unemployed. I'm happy to be your backup plan. But I also said, look, before you signed Katie Curic, have you considered the possibility that being a successful co host of a morning show might not translate into being a successful soul anchor of the CBS evening News. Have you considered what we called in radio day parts. It's not the same job, it's not what people know her for. Morning shows are interviews. Evening news is is are reading teleprompter scripts and then getting on a plane for Afghanistan and reading teleprompter scripts there. That's not what people watch her for. And I said, it was like when I did Sports Center with Dan Patrick. Ten seconds before you were going to say, I've had enough of this snarky idiot Alderman, I'm changing the channel, I would say, Dan, and all of a sudden there would be a different face on your television with better hair, and you would relax and you would not change the channel. And then a few minutes later, when you were about to say I had enough of this idiot Patrick, I'm changing the channel, he would say, Oko, and you would say, oh good, it's the other guy again. It's not gonna be like this on the CBS Evening News with just Katie Kirk. It's just gonna be Katie Kirk. And Les Moonves said, are right, but she's a star, and I said, look, I know you're gonna make the deal with her and not me, and I know she's going to take the deal if you offer it to her. I have nothing to lose here, but don't do this. Don't hire her. Don't hire me, but don't hire her, because let me tell you how precisely much it matters what time somebody is on. When I was a local sportscaster in Los Angeles at Channel five, I told them we did the ten o'clock news. I came on about ten fifty every night. I was beloved. Viewers treated me like I was some sort of combination of Howard Cosell, Johnny Carson and Voltaire. The ratings went up at ten fifty every night, the only newscast in America where the ratings went up when the sports guy came on. Then I got hired away by another station, your station, Mr Moonvess, Channel two. I got paid seven times. When I was making it was great, and we did the eleven o'clock news. And I came on at about eleven thirty every night, and I was hated, hated, hated. Hey did none of the viewers got the jokes. Nobody liked me anymore. Nobody seemed to know who I was. I was on Channel five on Friday night. I took Saturday off, and then I was on Channel two on Sunday night, and it was gone, all gone. I only took one day off. They hated me, and I was shocked. And my bosses, who had spent all that money, they were shocked and their bosses in New York were shocked. Then they all decided to spend a fortune on research to figure out what went wrong. Maybe it was my mustache. And they came back and they said, the evidence is overwhelming. All the people who loved this guy's sportscasts had jobs where they had to be in the office at like seven or eight because of the whole East Coast West Coast thing where people in l A have to be in offices earlier. And all the people who loved him, they had literally been staying up as late as they could to watch him at ten fifty, and you put him on at eleven thirty, All the people who liked him are asleep less andy ten fifty pm and just forty minutes later eleven thirty pm. They are different day parts. What works in one will not necessarily work in the other. And if ten fifty and eleven thirty are different day parts, than seven am and six thirty pm are completely different day parts. They hired her, nobody liked her, then nobody watched her. Then they fired the news president Heyward, then they fired her. But Dale King will save CNN at night Owen Bill maher once a week Bill Maher, who is older than I am. The national edifice is on fire, and the two last hopes for a highly watched, consistent seven liberal or moderate point of view on national television or national stream ing or national whatever is turning to run its operations and anchor its programs to a series of the management and on air talent equivalence of James Buchanan, the fift president of the United States, the one right before the Civil War, the president when the first seven Southern States seceded, Gail King, if you would like to start seven liberal leaning news outlet streaming broadcast door to door, give me a call, Gail Kang. This is CNN. By the way, the letter I mentioned that Rachel Maddow read on November imploring her not to cut back or to just take some time and then come back five nights a week, because she was necessary. She was perhaps the last line of defense. I know about this letter because I wrote this letter. By that time, Rachel and I had not spoken in ten years and ten months. Nothing was left of our friendship nor my mentorship. She refused to do interviews about herself if she was going to be asked about my role in starting her show, she yelled at staffers who mentioned me. She blocked an NBC proposal to have me rejoined MSNBC, either with Countdown or as her Tuesday to Friday guest host. And after that, when it was decided that I would not be going back there, I wrote to her anyway humbly, and for me, humbly takes a lot of work. I wrote to her trying to underscore that the situation for the liberal point of view in news was die and getting worse, and by cutting back to one day a week she might pretty much kill it off, which is what has happened. But don't worry the absence of a viable liberal source of seven televised or video news in this country, while the number of such conservative sources has exploded past a hundred, How could that be a problem this year or next year. Besides, it will never happen. MSNBC has the answer more Bobard and Gates and CNN has the answer. Gail King in prime Time once a week, maybe still ahead. George Santos steps away from his committee assignments, and Kevin McCarthy says this is good. It will give Santos time to quote clear everything up just when you thought you knew how stupid Kevin McCarthy is in sports. When you're the most hated team owner in New York, what do you do to improve your image? Why? Higher pr genius Hope Picks. I mean, look what Hope Picks did for Trump? Why do he is doggon thing the CBS reporter to whom somebody at the Justice Department leaked that documents had been found at the Biden Center. Well, now she is a news story that right after that, the President invited the FBI to come search the Biden Center. Funny they didn't mention that the first time, isn't it. Somebody screwed up bad at this story? And since the President has gotten hosed in the news media again, let me finally tell his story the day Joe Biden took me out to lunch and asked for my advice. Relax, it was a two thousand been No actual national policies were injured in the making of that lunch or this podcast. That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead on countdown that point guarded there. It looks a little old to be on the JV team. I don't believe she's just thirteen, she looks fourteen or how old is she? Special announcement about this yere podcast and my lunch with Senator Joe Biden and why he thought it was a good idea. First, in each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need you can help. Every dog has its day to Staten Island, New York, and a Kira. Akira is a big, beautiful, light brown husky attacked by another dog with such force that both of her front legs were fractured. There will have to be surgery and rehab, and your donations will be gratefully accept The CIA is also the companion of a young guy with special needs, so you can imagine how distraught he is. You can find a Kira on Cudley's website or on my Twitter feeds. Your retweets of Akira will also be a huge help. I thank you, and Akira thanks you. Po scripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some prediction. State Line Chicago, the same CBS reporter who got the original leak from the Department of Justice. The President Biden's lawyers had found classified documents in a safe location inside his think tank broke another story yes today that Biden promptly invited the FBI to do its own search of the Penn Biden Center no search warrant necessary right after the discovery, and the FBI did so within days of the original fine and this somehow got left out of the original reporting by Adriana Diaz and CBS News Dateline, Washington Congressman elect your name here has stepped away from his committee assignments temporarily, he says Congress and George Santos that is his real name, met with the head of the new McCarthy ism Monday, and per Kevin McCarthy, Santos volunteered to recuse himself. One of the all time great quotes has now ensued from McCarthy. It's quote the appropriate decision for Santos to quote do until he could clear everything up. So he's staying away from the committees until he can clear everything up. That's gonna take him through the year six dateline the Kremlin. Former Putin speechwriter Abbas Kalyamov says that as Russian losses mount in Ukraine and Western sanctions begin to hit home in the next twelve months, he thinks Russia may experience a military coup. Thank you, Nancy Faust. Military coup in Russia? Is that necessarily a good idea? And dateline wherever you podcast? We are six months old today. The premiere was August one, and there's actual news. It became official last night. We have crossed one of the podcasting fields benchmarks for the first time, one million downloads in one month. To celebrate, I'm happy to tell you this podcast will be for the rest of the week free now charge right what it is? Free? Well, that's the hell of a bargain. Tell your friends this is SportsCenter. Wait, check that not anymore. This is Countdown with Keith Alberman. Honestly, my thanks to the mystery announcer there, and Nancy Faust and Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanelle and all of the guest announcers like Larry David and John Banks and everybody else who has contributed something to the show, and Kenny Maine who you just heard there. Everybody who's contributed to this podcast and has made it such a great experience so far six months. It's also like my third long, longest lasting job. That's not true in sports. The rumor had been out there for weeks in battled New York Rangers and Nicks and Radio City music hall owner Jim Dolan, now in the middle of a facial recognition technology scandal that might cost him his liquor license and his forty three million dollar year tax abatement. Rumor had been he had hired to consult him in public relations. Of all people, Hope Hicks, the former Trump spokesmodel, turns out to have been working for him consulting for several weeks. According to The New York Daily News and other sources, Hicks is saying nothing, but her text after the coup attempt seems to fit the one in which she claimed Trump had shot everybody's job prospects to hell. Quote we all look like domestic terrorists Now, she wrote, Well, Hope you got the right new boss. And from Portsmouth, Virginia comes one of the all times great sports stories. The girls junior varsity basketball team at Churchland High School in Portsmouth was going to have to play Nan Simon in a critical game on January. One, one of its thirteen year old star players was going to have to miss the game because she was going to a tournament for the club team. She also played on so assistant coach are Alicia Boykin's twenty two years old had a stroke of genius. She wore the missing players uniform number and pretended to be her and played in the game twenty two year old woman posing as a thirteen year old j V player, and she got away with it until after the game anyway, she was found out and fired, and the head coach was fired, and so was the varsity head coach, and the players on both teams the real players decided they could not take the court again in good conscience, and they just called off the rest of Churchilland's season. But there is one more twist to this story, which I think is just as fascinating as the idea that a two year old woman got away with playing as a thirteen year old j V basketball player. The executive director of the Virginia High School League, Dr. Billy Hahn, oversaw the decisions at Churchland after the impersonation, and it turns out Dr Han knew exactly what to do here, because he says, this is the second time in his seven years on his job that a coach has impersonated a player. What do you mean this is the second time? What the hell? Kind of league you guys running. There is there heavy wagering on the games? Do you have a TV contract that's at stake for JV women's basketball twice in the same high school league and just seven years. Just tell me one thing, Dr Billy Han, Just tell me please that it was not the same coach both times. Thank you again, Nancy Faust. Now to the daily roundup of the miscrants, morons, and dunning Krueger effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons in the world. Lebronze Little Jesse Waters, well known as the dumbest of all the Fox Nudes hosts. You may recall he used to be the guy Bill O'Reilly would send out to Harris Women reporters. Anyway, he hosts a show now on Fox in which he appears to understand roughly every third or fourth word he hears. Last night, he outdumbed himself, though Biden said he'd probably run for re election God willing. But God doesn't choose our president. The FBI does. Apparently they have not told Little Jesse about the developing Charles mcgonnical Trump Russia FBI two thousand sixteen scandal. How right you are, Little Jesse runner up Republican fundraiser Caroline Wren. When Matt Lap was caught with his hands in another guy's pants, the other guy being a herschel Walker campaign staffer, Caroline Wren raced two slaps aid, denigrating the victim as a quote forty four year old volunteer driver who has been fired from multiple jobs for being a habitual liar. In a separate tweet, she claimed the man was thirty nine, not forty four, and had been fired from multiple campaigns. Neither version is true. The victim is now already sued Schlap. Now the victim is suing Wren for defamation, seeking half a million. But our winner looks like Andrea Riseboro got away with it. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists sciences or scientists, although if you've seen movies recently, scientist is probably closer to the right word. Anyway, The Academy will not resend her nomination for Best Actress. After her film to Leslie made twenty seven thousand dollars in its initial release in October and made the top film lists of almost no critics, the Academy began to examine the exhaustive social media campaign that included praise of the movie and Andrew Risborrow's performance from stars whose quotes all sounded suspiciously the same. The Academy met yesterday and determined, quote, the activity in question does not rise to the level that the film's nomination should be rescinded. However, we did discover social media and outreach campaigning tactics that caused concern. These tactics are being addressed with the responsible parties directly unquote, well what does that mean? What are you guys gonna do? Go to the actual Oscar ceremony and slapper Oh right, I never made Andrea. It's a major award. Rise Borro, two days worst Parson, and I'm ready for my close up, Mr Devil to the number one story on the countdown on my favorite topic, me and things I promised not to tell. Early in two thousand seven, my phone rang at MSNBC headquarters in New Jersey. The Senator would like to take you to lunch the next time he's in New York. He needs your advice. Would you be interested? It was Joe Biden's press guy. My first reaction was to ask if they had called the wrong number. My next reaction was to make sure this was not some sort of policy question, because as a news anchor and commentator for MSNBC, it did not seem appropriate to offer advice to a candidate for his party's presidential nomination. And doesn't that seem quite right now, Sean Hannity. No. I was told it was more technical, more about communications, no policy, my antique standards satisfied, I said sure. They gave me a couple of dates. They suggested, given his schedule, the best place to eat would be a restaurant in Manhattan, and it turned out it happened to be about forty five seconds from my home. So the day and hour arrived March two thousand seven, and I made it to the restaurant all the way down there, forty five seconds from my home. I sat down, and moments later in came the Senator from Delaware and his press guy. He had the big welcoming smile and equally big welcoming handshake that you may have seen from back when candidates could still go greet the people in the crowd. He reminded me that we had met briefly when he was in Los Angeles for the two thousand Democratic convention and happened to be staying in the hotel there in which I lived. Senator by and then said some nice things about my days in sports, and particularly about the commentaries I had begun to do the previous summer on MSNBC. Those special comments, he said, with first a smile and then a whistle. There was, then and there remains now, almost no space between the public Joe Biden of the campaign or the presidency, and the guy who talks informally to some knucklehead off the streets, which in this story is me. The word malarkey was used during our lunch, and I remember that particularly because, as I told him, I went to grammar school with a kid named Malarkey. And he was delighted by that. And he said, he assumed we gave the fellow a hard time. And I said, yeah, but not because of his name. None of us third graders knew what malarkey meant. Why did you give him a hard time? Then Biden asked it was the third grade. I said, everybody gave everybody a hard time. He liked that answer. But back to the point of the lunch. Your language in these special comments, he said, in those days, people often brought up my language. See I used to tell President Bush to shut the hell up, only because they wouldn't let me use the other word. And some of the events of that presidency so infuriated me that I would actually Redden on camera, and I don't Redden in a sauna. Once my high school history teacher, a distinguished, an elegant man whose nine older siblings had been born in Vienna and who had the courtliness which that implies, mentioned the language of the special comments, and I thought I was in for it. He Walter Schneller, told me on the day I had graduated, that my plans to be a sportscaster were very nice, and he was sure I would go and do that, but that he was also sure that I would wind up in politics someday, either as reporter or combatant. And I told him I was flattered, but he was crazy. Mr Schneller was the one who, years later was put in charge of the school's surprisingly generous fund for bringing in speakers to address the student body, and he was very annoyed by the fact that, for decade Aids all of the speakers that either looked like Hugh Sidy, the columnist for Time magazine, or they had been Hugh Siety, the columnist for Time Magazine. He began scouring the Northeast for anybody's smart who might have a diverse background, and that's how he happened to be driving to the railroad station at Terrytown, New York, one morning in to meet the train that carried that day's guest speaker, an editor of the Harvard Law Review named Barack Obama. His last words to Obama were, I'm sure you're going to go very far. So Mr Schneller and I were talking about the commentaries again about two thousand six or seven, and he said about the language, and I braced myself and preemptly apologized, No, no, He said urgently, you missed my point entirely. I am amazed that your language is so restrained. If I were speaking, I'd have called Mr Bush a And thereupon Mr Schneller made reference to somebody's mother. So when Joe Biden asked about the language I used, I was wary, but he followed it by saying that it was kind of why he had asked me to lunch. I watched those commentaries you do, and people send me the video and my staffers tell me about them, and every time I think the same thing. Here you are expressing anger, but as close as it comes to the line, you never cross it. I say to my staff, folks, is he too angry for you? And they say no, just right. So here's my question, and then we can enjoy this great lunch. Here. When I'm passionate about something and I speak on the Senate floor or anywhere else, I get told by my friends and my enemies, you're too angry. And when I really am angry, they all say, you're really too angry. And here, Joe Biden laughed. Now you you go on TV, far larger audience, far longer speeches, and people say that Alderman guy, he's righteously indignant. And now, with a mixture of laughter, astonishment and curiosity, said me, I'm angry. You you're righteously indignant. How do you do that? How do you do it? Man? Can you tell me? Without thinking? I replied, you have been in the Senate for how long? Now, Senator thirty four years? He nodded. And you're only just asking this question now. The words were barely out of my mouth when I froze. This was not a friend or a colleague who would take the little joking jab I had just thrown in the way in which I intended this was a politician. Politicians may have senses of humor, very few have a sense of humor about themselves. In that split second, I assumed Joe Biden might get up and leave. And he was silent for a moment, and then the corners of his mouth turned up into my great relief, he burst into laughter. He rocked back into his chair. He slapped the table with a palmp. My god, that's fine. Me more laughter, My god, it's true, louder laughter. I don't mind telling you I have loved him ever since. I didn't think I had much advice for Senator Biden, but as we talked about this topic, he asked me follow up questions that made me analyze for the first time some of the processes I used when writing and reading on television. I've never thought of them before because I've never had lunch with Joe Biden before. I will not bore you with the full results of the dissection of the process of turning anger into righteous indignation. The most valuable conclusion was the oldest one in the book. I always wrote late at night while fully angry, and then in the morning I would take things out of the script, usually the juicier adjectives. Whatever anger was left, it was only the most intense and the most justifiable. And if you presented twenty four hours after you have written it, you'll be in control of the anger. Your anger will not be in control of you. Shorter version, sleep on it. I saw the senator next. In August of two thousand seven Democratic primary debate the A F L C I O candidates for him officially Soldier Field, Chicago was outdoors degrees humidity, threat of killer thunderstorms, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Dodd Richardson, Cucinach Edwards, and the moderator me. There are photos of this Joe Biden and I walking towards each other, hands extended for a greeting, and I remember it clearly. He is literally asking me if I've noticed that he's been trying to turn his anger into righteous indignation, and he's asking me if I thought he'd succeeded. Well, he did not succeed in that debate. He actually came over to me during the commercial break and told me what he was going to do when we came back and I told him, don't do that, and he did it anyway and it looked bad. And later he let me know I was right and he was wrong. And since then I can't call him being angry, certainly not inappropriately angry. Not even in those debates with that goddamn madman. His words were harsh, the tone was less so perfect eight plus. But it occurs to me in all the analysis of all the changes in Joe Biden since day one, in three or even the vice presidency, nobody touches on this one thing. As late as fifteen years ago, he seemed to be a hothead. When was the last time he was accused of that. I'm not saying I had anything to do with that, But two years in and he's not even accused of being a hothead. It's an awfully nice change, isn't it. Countdown has come too from the studios of Olderman Broadcasting Empire World headquarters in the Sports Capsule Deuilding in New York. Thanks for listening. Here are the credits. Most of the music, including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged, produced, and performed by John Philip s Chanelle and Brian Ray. They are the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced by t k O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Alderman theme from the ESPN two. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis Fierce Courtisy ESPN Inc. Musical comments throughout by Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was Keny Maine. Everything else pretty much my fault. So let's countdown for this the seven and fifty seventh day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States. Arrest him now while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Until that, I'm Keith Alderman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Alderman is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio. On November two, two thousand one, Rachel Meadow read a letter that implored her to not go through with her plans to reduce her television schedule from daily to weekly. It argued that the peril which had struck the democracy just ten months earlier was only the beginning, that the mid terms of and the presidential election of might ultimately be as important to the history of this nation as the Civil War, and that her program was one of the few public squares in which those defending the country from fascism could take heart and believe they were not alone. The handwritten letter expressed sympathy, indeed empathy, to Maddow on her decision, and the writers I said that if indeed the inevitable had finally come and the workload had gone from sissaphe into crushing, perhaps she could take a leave of absence, keep her name on her nightly MSNBC show, have others fill in, and not returned to it until even as latest September or October of the following year. The writer acknowledged that what he was saying sounded absurd and hyperbolic, but he insisted it was true. The liberal point of view on cable news had never been more important. It had never been under greater threat from both market forces and less hidden forms of fascism, and the entire cable news industry was teetering on implosion. No matter how flawed MSNBC and to a lesser degree, CNN were, they were vitally important to the future of freedom in the United States. And because her viewers believed that her nightly program was essential to that future of freedom, it was essential to that future of freedom. Matadow did not reply. She did not alter her plans. She cut back to once a week. MSNBC's ratings collapsed, her own included and that of her lead in and that of her lead out. CNN was sold to conservatives who viewed Brett Bear as the personification of moderation and put in the hands of a scheming idiot whose head contained little but ambition and over confidence. And today, even though they too are down, the ratings for Fox News are larger than those of MSNBC and CNN combined, which is exactly where we were in two thousand three, when the barbaric right wing agenda of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney controlled not just the country, but just as importantly the news business, and at NBC, they decided the only smart business model then was to go farther right and Fox and now today, as a former colleague of mine, equipped grimly yesterday, cable news is not in intensive care, it's in hospice. And I answered, no, it had another five years to live. But if it's in hospice, it's in hospice now because it was already sick. And then it's new bosses poisoned it because at a time when the nation actually needs cable TV news, and when it's only means of survival is to offer compelling, intelligent, well produced political shows and no, I am not campaigning, they would sooner self immolate than hire me. Instead, the new boss poisoners have concluded that the magic bullet is putting Gail King and Bill Maher on CNN once a week each and putting Matt Gates and Lauren Bobert on MSNBC whenever they will agree to go on. Because at a time when all the forces that can be brought to bear against democracy, against diversity, against more voters voting more often in more convenient ways, in a time when all those forces are being brought and brought together. What American needs out of CNN and MSNBC is celebrity interviews by Gail King and Stale naive fold libertarian both sides is nonsense from what is left over a decade after Bill Maher stopped trying very hard. Gail King, to paraphrase Frederick Douglas, the national edifice is on fire. Every man who can carry a bucket of water or remove a brick is wanted. But those who have the care of the building, having a profound respect for the feeling of the national burglars who set the building on fire are determined that of flames shall only be extinguished by restoring conservative trust in CNN and MSNBC. I have nothing against Gail King. She is a very nice person. I know her so long. We met when I was just starting at Sports Center and she was a local newscaster in Hartford, Connecticut. I know that the CBS morning show she is on is the best Last Place show out of all the dozens of different Last Place shows CBS has produced in the mornings over the decades, and most relevantly, that show was the last news program that CNN's new idiot boss had anything to do with and Gail King is thus one of the only four or five people in the news business he knows the first thing about. But the national edifice is on fire. And this is what one of the two possible firehouses is considering as a great new idea, even if it's just keep CNN and MSNBC alive until November. And before you say, the ratings proved that CNN and MSNBC are now irrelevant. While I agree with you, but I ask you this, what has replaced them? The far right has Fox and Fox Business and news Max and the First and one American News and Daily Wire and The Blaze and Joe Rogan and literally a hundred streaming shows and other seven feeds. And the left has I'll Wait. The left has MSNBC boasting promoting that it's got Bobert and Gates on as guests. Left has MSNBC firing It's Only Growing show, which had been hosted on the weekends by an African American woman because Tucker Carlson complained about nasty things she said about him. The left has CNN killing off its moderate lean left prime time lineup so it could move Don Lemon to a morning show with Peppy hair Low and somebody from The Daily Caller, and that show now gets three and thirty one thousand viewers, meaning it is only about one third ahead of the weekly audience for this podcast. But the solution is Gail King maybe once a week in primetime and Bill Maher Friday's for twenty minutes. Even though no once a week show in the history of cable news has ever succeeded, not even Meadows. She's shrinking. Tucker Carlson's ratings are fifty higher than hers. The point of cable news is, no, your most fervent fans are not going to watch you all five nights each week, but they've got to know you are there all five nights each week. And there's still something else besides this terrifying political dynamic in which the almost laughably negligible supply of liberal or even moderate seven news outlets gets extinguished because the fascists bought fifty of them. That would be CNN and the geniuses at the other MSNBC are making the same mistake about both sides. Is um not being its own form of bias that was made by their predecessors from the year. These people are not just political malefactors, deliberately or unknowingly helping the causes of those who would and will dismantle of freedoms of this country and persecute the minorities of this country, and enrich the mega rich of this country, and turn off the liberal networks of this country and some of the conservative ones too. They're not just that. The Chris Licks and the Saysar Conde's, and the John Malone's and the Jeff Shells are not just political terrorists by proxy. They're also idiots. Dale King is a morning show host. If Chris Lift of CNN could convince her to quit CBS Mornings and work for him full time, he would give her her choice of which hours she wanted an anchor eight pm, nine pm, ten pm, all the pms, and she would fail miserably because eight pm, nine pm, and ten pm are at night, and CBS Mornings is on in the morning. You don't think that matters. It's seven thirty. On the morning of February two thousand five, the president of CBS Television Less Moon Vest and the president of CBS News, Andrew Hayward, sneaked into my apartment building in New York via the back door so nobody would see them come in and came up to my apartment. There was a minor hitch in their big plan to hire the person who would save the CBS Evening News. That person was the co host to the NBC Morning Show Today, and her name was Katie Kurrik. I'll spell it for you C O U R I C And she was one of the five best known, best respected people in television news. And they were still sure they were gonna get her, but they had no backup plan, so they wanted me to be the backup plan. This was my job interview, and I said, hell, three years ago I was unemployed. I'm happy to be your backup plan. But I also said, look, before you signed Katie Curic, have you considered the possibility that being a successful co host of a morning show might not translate into being a successful soul anchor of the CBS evening News. Have you considered what we called in radio day parts. It's not the same job, it's not what people know her for. Morning shows are interviews. Evening news is is are reading teleprompter scripts and then getting on a plane for Afghanistan and reading teleprompter scripts there. That's not what people watch her for. And I said, it was like when I did Sports Center with Dan Patrick. Ten seconds before you were going to say, I've had enough of this snarky idiot Alderman, I'm changing the channel, I would say, Dan, and all of a sudden there would be a different face on your television with better hair, and you would relax and you would not change the channel. And then a few minutes later, when you were about to say I had enough of this idiot Patrick, I'm changing the channel, he would say, Oko, and you would say, oh good, it's the other guy again. It's not gonna be like this on the CBS Evening News with just Katie Kirk. It's just gonna be Katie Kirk. And Les Moonves said, are right, but she's a star, and I said, look, I know you're gonna make the deal with her and not me, and I know she's going to take the deal if you offer it to her. I have nothing to lose here, but don't do this. Don't hire her. Don't hire me, but don't hire her, because let me tell you how precisely much it matters what time somebody is on. When I was a local sportscaster in Los Angeles at Channel five, I told them we did the ten o'clock news. I came on about ten fifty every night. I was beloved. Viewers treated me like I was some sort of combination of Howard Cosell, Johnny Carson and Voltaire. The ratings went up at ten fifty every night, the only newscast in America where the ratings went up when the sports guy came on. Then I got hired away by another station, your station, Mr Moonvess, Channel two. I got paid seven times. When I was making it was great, and we did the eleven o'clock news. And I came on at about eleven thirty every night, and I was hated, hated, hated. Hey did none of the viewers got the jokes. Nobody liked me anymore. Nobody seemed to know who I was. I was on Channel five on Friday night. I took Saturday off, and then I was on Channel two on Sunday night, and it was gone, all gone. I only took one day off. They hated me, and I was shocked. And my bosses, who had spent all that money, they were shocked and their bosses in New York were shocked. Then they all decided to spend a fortune on research to figure out what went wrong. Maybe it was my mustache. And they came back and they said, the evidence is overwhelming. All the people who loved this guy's sportscasts had jobs where they had to be in the office at like seven or eight because of the whole East Coast West Coast thing where people in l A have to be in offices earlier. And all the people who loved him, they had literally been staying up as late as they could to watch him at ten fifty, and you put him on at eleven thirty, All the people who liked him are asleep less andy ten fifty pm and just forty minutes later eleven thirty pm. They are different day parts. What works in one will not necessarily work in the other. And if ten fifty and eleven thirty are different day parts, than seven am and six thirty pm are completely different day parts. They hired her, nobody liked her, then nobody watched her. Then they fired the news president Heyward, then they fired her. But Dale King will save CNN at night Owen Bill maher once a week Bill Maher, who is older than I am. The national edifice is on fire, and the two last hopes for a highly watched, consistent seven liberal or moderate point of view on national television or national stream ing or national whatever is turning to run its operations and anchor its programs to a series of the management and on air talent equivalence of James Buchanan, the fift president of the United States, the one right before the Civil War, the president when the first seven Southern States seceded, Gail King, if you would like to start seven liberal leaning news outlet streaming broadcast door to door, give me a call, Gail Kang. This is CNN. By the way, the letter I mentioned that Rachel Maddow read on November imploring her not to cut back or to just take some time and then come back five nights a week, because she was necessary. She was perhaps the last line of defense. I know about this letter because I wrote this letter. By that time, Rachel and I had not spoken in ten years and ten months. Nothing was left of our friendship nor my mentorship. She refused to do interviews about herself if she was going to be asked about my role in starting her show, she yelled at staffers who mentioned me. She blocked an NBC proposal to have me rejoined MSNBC, either with Countdown or as her Tuesday to Friday guest host. And after that, when it was decided that I would not be going back there, I wrote to her anyway humbly, and for me, humbly takes a lot of work. I wrote to her trying to underscore that the situation for the liberal point of view in news was die and getting worse, and by cutting back to one day a week she might pretty much kill it off, which is what has happened. But don't worry the absence of a viable liberal source of seven televised or video news in this country, while the number of such conservative sources has exploded past a hundred, How could that be a problem this year or next year. Besides, it will never happen. MSNBC has the answer more Bobard and Gates and CNN has the answer. Gail King in prime Time once a week, maybe still ahead. George Santos steps away from his committee assignments, and Kevin McCarthy says this is good. It will give Santos time to quote clear everything up just when you thought you knew how stupid Kevin McCarthy is in sports. When you're the most hated team owner in New York, what do you do to improve your image? Why? Higher pr genius Hope Picks. I mean, look what Hope Picks did for Trump? Why do he is doggon thing the CBS reporter to whom somebody at the Justice Department leaked that documents had been found at the Biden Center. Well, now she is a news story that right after that, the President invited the FBI to come search the Biden Center. Funny they didn't mention that the first time, isn't it. Somebody screwed up bad at this story? And since the President has gotten hosed in the news media again, let me finally tell his story the day Joe Biden took me out to lunch and asked for my advice. Relax, it was a two thousand been No actual national policies were injured in the making of that lunch or this podcast. That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead on countdown that point guarded there. It looks a little old to be on the JV team. I don't believe she's just thirteen, she looks fourteen or how old is she? Special announcement about this yere podcast and my lunch with Senator Joe Biden and why he thought it was a good idea. First, in each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need you can help. Every dog has its day to Staten Island, New York, and a Kira. Akira is a big, beautiful, light brown husky attacked by another dog with such force that both of her front legs were fractured. There will have to be surgery and rehab, and your donations will be gratefully accept The CIA is also the companion of a young guy with special needs, so you can imagine how distraught he is. You can find a Kira on Cudley's website or on my Twitter feeds. Your retweets of Akira will also be a huge help. I thank you, and Akira thanks you. Po scripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some prediction. State Line Chicago, the same CBS reporter who got the original leak from the Department of Justice. The President Biden's lawyers had found classified documents in a safe location inside his think tank broke another story yes today that Biden promptly invited the FBI to do its own search of the Penn Biden Center no search warrant necessary right after the discovery, and the FBI did so within days of the original fine and this somehow got left out of the original reporting by Adriana Diaz and CBS News Dateline, Washington Congressman elect your name here has stepped away from his committee assignments temporarily, he says Congress and George Santos that is his real name, met with the head of the new McCarthy ism Monday, and per Kevin McCarthy, Santos volunteered to recuse himself. One of the all time great quotes has now ensued from McCarthy. It's quote the appropriate decision for Santos to quote do until he could clear everything up. So he's staying away from the committees until he can clear everything up. That's gonna take him through the year six dateline the Kremlin. Former Putin speechwriter Abbas Kalyamov says that as Russian losses mount in Ukraine and Western sanctions begin to hit home in the next twelve months, he thinks Russia may experience a military coup. Thank you, Nancy Faust. Military coup in Russia? Is that necessarily a good idea? And dateline wherever you podcast? We are six months old today. The premiere was August one, and there's actual news. It became official last night. We have crossed one of the podcasting fields benchmarks for the first time, one million downloads in one month. To celebrate, I'm happy to tell you this podcast will be for the rest of the week free now charge right what it is? Free? Well, that's the hell of a bargain. Tell your friends this is SportsCenter. Wait, check that not anymore. This is Countdown with Keith Alberman. Honestly, my thanks to the mystery announcer there, and Nancy Faust and Brian Ray and John Phillips Chanelle and all of the guest announcers like Larry David and John Banks and everybody else who has contributed something to the show, and Kenny Maine who you just heard there. Everybody who's contributed to this podcast and has made it such a great experience so far six months. It's also like my third long, longest lasting job. That's not true in sports. The rumor had been out there for weeks in battled New York Rangers and Nicks and Radio City music hall owner Jim Dolan, now in the middle of a facial recognition technology scandal that might cost him his liquor license and his forty three million dollar year tax abatement. Rumor had been he had hired to consult him in public relations. Of all people, Hope Hicks, the former Trump spokesmodel, turns out to have been working for him consulting for several weeks. According to The New York Daily News and other sources, Hicks is saying nothing, but her text after the coup attempt seems to fit the one in which she claimed Trump had shot everybody's job prospects to hell. Quote we all look like domestic terrorists Now, she wrote, Well, Hope you got the right new boss. And from Portsmouth, Virginia comes one of the all times great sports stories. The girls junior varsity basketball team at Churchland High School in Portsmouth was going to have to play Nan Simon in a critical game on January. One, one of its thirteen year old star players was going to have to miss the game because she was going to a tournament for the club team. She also played on so assistant coach are Alicia Boykin's twenty two years old had a stroke of genius. She wore the missing players uniform number and pretended to be her and played in the game twenty two year old woman posing as a thirteen year old j V player, and she got away with it until after the game anyway, she was found out and fired, and the head coach was fired, and so was the varsity head coach, and the players on both teams the real players decided they could not take the court again in good conscience, and they just called off the rest of Churchilland's season. But there is one more twist to this story, which I think is just as fascinating as the idea that a two year old woman got away with playing as a thirteen year old j V basketball player. The executive director of the Virginia High School League, Dr. Billy Hahn, oversaw the decisions at Churchland after the impersonation, and it turns out Dr Han knew exactly what to do here, because he says, this is the second time in his seven years on his job that a coach has impersonated a player. What do you mean this is the second time? What the hell? Kind of league you guys running. There is there heavy wagering on the games? Do you have a TV contract that's at stake for JV women's basketball twice in the same high school league and just seven years. Just tell me one thing, Dr Billy Han, Just tell me please that it was not the same coach both times. Thank you again, Nancy Faust. Now to the daily roundup of the miscrants, morons, and dunning Krueger effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons in the world. Lebronze Little Jesse Waters, well known as the dumbest of all the Fox Nudes hosts. You may recall he used to be the guy Bill O'Reilly would send out to Harris Women reporters. Anyway, he hosts a show now on Fox in which he appears to understand roughly every third or fourth word he hears. Last night, he outdumbed himself, though Biden said he'd probably run for re election God willing. But God doesn't choose our president. The FBI does. Apparently they have not told Little Jesse about the developing Charles mcgonnical Trump Russia FBI two thousand sixteen scandal. How right you are, Little Jesse runner up Republican fundraiser Caroline Wren. When Matt Lap was caught with his hands in another guy's pants, the other guy being a herschel Walker campaign staffer, Caroline Wren raced two slaps aid, denigrating the victim as a quote forty four year old volunteer driver who has been fired from multiple jobs for being a habitual liar. In a separate tweet, she claimed the man was thirty nine, not forty four, and had been fired from multiple campaigns. Neither version is true. The victim is now already sued Schlap. Now the victim is suing Wren for defamation, seeking half a million. But our winner looks like Andrea Riseboro got away with it. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists sciences or scientists, although if you've seen movies recently, scientist is probably closer to the right word. Anyway, The Academy will not resend her nomination for Best Actress. After her film to Leslie made twenty seven thousand dollars in its initial release in October and made the top film lists of almost no critics, the Academy began to examine the exhaustive social media campaign that included praise of the movie and Andrew Risborrow's performance from stars whose quotes all sounded suspiciously the same. The Academy met yesterday and determined, quote, the activity in question does not rise to the level that the film's nomination should be rescinded. However, we did discover social media and outreach campaigning tactics that caused concern. These tactics are being addressed with the responsible parties directly unquote, well what does that mean? What are you guys gonna do? Go to the actual Oscar ceremony and slapper Oh right, I never made Andrea. It's a major award. Rise Borro, two days worst Parson, and I'm ready for my close up, Mr Devil to the number one story on the countdown on my favorite topic, me and things I promised not to tell. Early in two thousand seven, my phone rang at MSNBC headquarters in New Jersey. The Senator would like to take you to lunch the next time he's in New York. He needs your advice. Would you be interested? It was Joe Biden's press guy. My first reaction was to ask if they had called the wrong number. My next reaction was to make sure this was not some sort of policy question, because as a news anchor and commentator for MSNBC, it did not seem appropriate to offer advice to a candidate for his party's presidential nomination. And doesn't that seem quite right now, Sean Hannity. No. I was told it was more technical, more about communications, no policy, my antique standards satisfied, I said sure. They gave me a couple of dates. They suggested, given his schedule, the best place to eat would be a restaurant in Manhattan, and it turned out it happened to be about forty five seconds from my home. So the day and hour arrived March two thousand seven, and I made it to the restaurant all the way down there, forty five seconds from my home. I sat down, and moments later in came the Senator from Delaware and his press guy. He had the big welcoming smile and equally big welcoming handshake that you may have seen from back when candidates could still go greet the people in the crowd. He reminded me that we had met briefly when he was in Los Angeles for the two thousand Democratic convention and happened to be staying in the hotel there in which I lived. Senator by and then said some nice things about my days in sports, and particularly about the commentaries I had begun to do the previous summer on MSNBC. Those special comments, he said, with first a smile and then a whistle. There was, then and there remains now, almost no space between the public Joe Biden of the campaign or the presidency, and the guy who talks informally to some knucklehead off the streets, which in this story is me. The word malarkey was used during our lunch, and I remember that particularly because, as I told him, I went to grammar school with a kid named Malarkey. And he was delighted by that. And he said, he assumed we gave the fellow a hard time. And I said, yeah, but not because of his name. None of us third graders knew what malarkey meant. Why did you give him a hard time? Then Biden asked it was the third grade. I said, everybody gave everybody a hard time. He liked that answer. But back to the point of the lunch. Your language in these special comments, he said, in those days, people often brought up my language. See I used to tell President Bush to shut the hell up, only because they wouldn't let me use the other word. And some of the events of that presidency so infuriated me that I would actually Redden on camera, and I don't Redden in a sauna. Once my high school history teacher, a distinguished, an elegant man whose nine older siblings had been born in Vienna and who had the courtliness which that implies, mentioned the language of the special comments, and I thought I was in for it. He Walter Schneller, told me on the day I had graduated, that my plans to be a sportscaster were very nice, and he was sure I would go and do that, but that he was also sure that I would wind up in politics someday, either as reporter or combatant. And I told him I was flattered, but he was crazy. Mr Schneller was the one who, years later was put in charge of the school's surprisingly generous fund for bringing in speakers to address the student body, and he was very annoyed by the fact that, for decade Aids all of the speakers that either looked like Hugh Sidy, the columnist for Time magazine, or they had been Hugh Siety, the columnist for Time Magazine. He began scouring the Northeast for anybody's smart who might have a diverse background, and that's how he happened to be driving to the railroad station at Terrytown, New York, one morning in to meet the train that carried that day's guest speaker, an editor of the Harvard Law Review named Barack Obama. His last words to Obama were, I'm sure you're going to go very far. So Mr Schneller and I were talking about the commentaries again about two thousand six or seven, and he said about the language, and I braced myself and preemptly apologized, No, no, He said urgently, you missed my point entirely. I am amazed that your language is so restrained. If I were speaking, I'd have called Mr Bush a And thereupon Mr Schneller made reference to somebody's mother. So when Joe Biden asked about the language I used, I was wary, but he followed it by saying that it was kind of why he had asked me to lunch. I watched those commentaries you do, and people send me the video and my staffers tell me about them, and every time I think the same thing. Here you are expressing anger, but as close as it comes to the line, you never cross it. I say to my staff, folks, is he too angry for you? And they say no, just right. So here's my question, and then we can enjoy this great lunch. Here. When I'm passionate about something and I speak on the Senate floor or anywhere else, I get told by my friends and my enemies, you're too angry. And when I really am angry, they all say, you're really too angry. And here, Joe Biden laughed. Now you you go on TV, far larger audience, far longer speeches, and people say that Alderman guy, he's righteously indignant. And now, with a mixture of laughter, astonishment and curiosity, said me, I'm angry. You you're righteously indignant. How do you do that? How do you do it? Man? Can you tell me? Without thinking? I replied, you have been in the Senate for how long? Now, Senator thirty four years? He nodded. And you're only just asking this question now. The words were barely out of my mouth when I froze. This was not a friend or a colleague who would take the little joking jab I had just thrown in the way in which I intended this was a politician. Politicians may have senses of humor, very few have a sense of humor about themselves. In that split second, I assumed Joe Biden might get up and leave. And he was silent for a moment, and then the corners of his mouth turned up into my great relief, he burst into laughter. He rocked back into his chair. He slapped the table with a palmp. My god, that's fine. Me more laughter, My god, it's true, louder laughter. I don't mind telling you I have loved him ever since. I didn't think I had much advice for Senator Biden, but as we talked about this topic, he asked me follow up questions that made me analyze for the first time some of the processes I used when writing and reading on television. I've never thought of them before because I've never had lunch with Joe Biden before. I will not bore you with the full results of the dissection of the process of turning anger into righteous indignation. The most valuable conclusion was the oldest one in the book. I always wrote late at night while fully angry, and then in the morning I would take things out of the script, usually the juicier adjectives. Whatever anger was left, it was only the most intense and the most justifiable. And if you presented twenty four hours after you have written it, you'll be in control of the anger. Your anger will not be in control of you. Shorter version, sleep on it. I saw the senator next. In August of two thousand seven Democratic primary debate the A F L C I O candidates for him officially Soldier Field, Chicago was outdoors degrees humidity, threat of killer thunderstorms, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Dodd Richardson, Cucinach Edwards, and the moderator me. There are photos of this Joe Biden and I walking towards each other, hands extended for a greeting, and I remember it clearly. He is literally asking me if I've noticed that he's been trying to turn his anger into righteous indignation, and he's asking me if I thought he'd succeeded. Well, he did not succeed in that debate. He actually came over to me during the commercial break and told me what he was going to do when we came back and I told him, don't do that, and he did it anyway and it looked bad. And later he let me know I was right and he was wrong. And since then I can't call him being angry, certainly not inappropriately angry. Not even in those debates with that goddamn madman. His words were harsh, the tone was less so perfect eight plus. But it occurs to me in all the analysis of all the changes in Joe Biden since day one, in three or even the vice presidency, nobody touches on this one thing. As late as fifteen years ago, he seemed to be a hothead. When was the last time he was accused of that. I'm not saying I had anything to do with that, But two years in and he's not even accused of being a hothead. It's an awfully nice change, isn't it. Countdown has come too from the studios of Olderman Broadcasting Empire World headquarters in the Sports Capsule Deuilding in New York. Thanks for listening. Here are the credits. Most of the music, including our theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged, produced, and performed by John Philip s Chanelle and Brian Ray. They are the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced by t k O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Alderman theme from the ESPN two. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis Fierce Courtisy ESPN Inc. Musical comments throughout by Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was Keny Maine. Everything else pretty much my fault. So let's countdown for this the seven and fifty seventh day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States. Arrest him now while we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Until that, I'm Keith Alderman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Alderman is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.