Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio.

Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio.

Now.

Now.

The question becomes, how do we get Elon Musk and his teenage mutant Ninja Turtles arrested? The Democratic Party Rip van Winkle chairman, has awakened from its slumber and the nation with it. It has appreciated the reality of the crises of the tech pro coup and the push to privatize government and the multi trillion dollar attempted heist, and Trump's plan to invade Gaza so he can personally own it. Lawsuits are flying, impeachment symbolic but even symbolically undefeated is underway, and more on each in a moment. Trump is immune until we eventually replace this Supreme Court with something to do with the law and the constitution. However, Musk is not immune. Marco Els, the twenty five year old Musk fop allegedly rewriting code and in a position to do anything he wants your tax dollars, He's certainly not immune. The new Treasury Secretary Besant is not immune. Nicole Hollander is not immune. Akasha Baba is not immune. Luke Farretor is not immune. F Then Shao Tran is not immune. Edward Korstine is not immune. Gautier cole Killian is not immune. Gavin Kligger is not immune. And any of the officials at USAID or in the Treasury Department or anywhere else who admitted these little clowns into secure areas as has been alleged, they are not immune. In fact, they are subject to espionage charges, and they will still be subject to them four years from now. But Elon Musk is especially not immune. And what the hell is going on with him now? Anyway, his usual state semi delusional, frantic, irrational, it's given way to full fledged euphoria and delusional delusions, not of grandeur but of omnipotence. Somebody listed the names of his teenage mutant Ninja Turtles in a post on Twitter x, and Musk, acting like he was zonked out of his mind, responded, you have committed a crime, even though hours earlier he Musk amplified another post on Twitter x listing the same names. Musk has conflated a violation of Twitter doxing rules with actual violations of the law, And then it turned out that simply giving somebody's name is in fact not a violation of Twitter doxing rules. You have committed a crime. No elon check your mirror, you may have committed a crime. The lawsuits have already begun by government employee unions whose pensions, they say Musk and others have illegally put at risk by the Democrats, by ethics groups to whom Trump gave the priceless gift of declaring Musk and administration employee making Musk subject to conflict of interest laws. A federal judge in Maryland has already stopped Trump dead in his tracks on sabotaging birthright citizenships. There are six other lawsuits already in progress just on birthright citizenship. There are five over various aspects of his executive orders on immigration policy. There are thirteen about the phony buyouts and the attempts to thus dissolve the CIA, USAID, the Department of Education. There are four lawsuits about acts against transgender people. Just security dot org has a litigation tracker up go there. Odds are like one in three. While you are looking at this, it will update while you're reading it because there's been a new lawsuit and the bids to get temporary restraining orders against Musk and the other pirates in the Trump maladministration have unexpectedly been as efficient and as subtle as Trump has been. In Trump's work as a saboteur of the courts, it is the exact opposite of what Musk has been in his cyber version of Ocean's eleven meets the Nigerian Prince who only needs your bank routing number. But Trump has yet to completely destroy the justice system, and there are still enough judges to tie Musk up in local jurisdictions for the rest of his goddamned life, and especially to tie up these little shit weasels of his who will suddenly discover that their secret mainframes and social media accounts and SpaceX business cards don't mean crap, and that, as my friend William H. Macy once said in a classic pro for his show Shameless, Real Worlds out here Pal, but the goal has got to be to put Musk in prison. The side effect to Trump getting away with it for now is the residual rage for all of us, from nine year old politically aware kids to liberal Supreme Court justices, all of us who know Trump deserves to die in jail, not in the White House bathroom. We can't do anything about this for now. So who's the next best choice to absorb our legal wrath? Two hints that person will never corner any product nor industry the way he has cornered the world supplies of smug and snide, and visually he looks like a skull with some coagulated botox stretched across it. The key to getting Elon Musk arrested is publicity. What he is doing is a story, by the way, created for local television news for the older, less affluent audience of local television news. Musk's hackers allegedly go into the government, where they write, now could be stealing your Medicaid money and Social Security live at eleven. It is exactly what local television producers want. It's exactly what they dream of. Let's take you now live to Jack liveshot in Scarsdale with his concerned guest, concerned Grandma. Call your local newsroom. Once the publicity cycle begins to inflate, then we get to the local prosecutions. Because Trump has not corrupted the entirety of the legal system yet, and he's not forced out all the US attorneys, and a clever city, county, or state prosecutor could bring countless charges against Musk or his saboteurs or anybody else for everything from I don't know, theft, breaking an entering. You could do it in DC too. The Watergate burglars were not arrested by the FBI for you know, seventeen counts of trying to end democracy. They were arrested for burglary by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. This is low hanging fruit because everybody hates Elon Musk. Everybody, especially all the little tech pros, are gonna hate Elon Musk after it turns out Musk is not omnipotent, and to do his dirty work for him ends up with you getting your ass taken to jail. First one to flip on Musk gets probation and a brand new hotmail account and an Aol installation.

The question becomes, how do we get Elon Musk and his teenage mutant Ninja Turtles arrested? The Democratic Party Rip van Winkle chairman, has awakened from its slumber and the nation with it. It has appreciated the reality of the crises of the tech pro coup and the push to privatize government and the multi trillion dollar attempted heist, and Trump's plan to invade Gaza so he can personally own it. Lawsuits are flying, impeachment symbolic but even symbolically undefeated is underway, and more on each in a moment. Trump is immune until we eventually replace this Supreme Court with something to do with the law and the constitution. However, Musk is not immune. Marco Els, the twenty five year old Musk fop allegedly rewriting code and in a position to do anything he wants your tax dollars, He's certainly not immune. The new Treasury Secretary Besant is not immune. Nicole Hollander is not immune. Akasha Baba is not immune. Luke Farretor is not immune. F Then Shao Tran is not immune. Edward Korstine is not immune. Gautier cole Killian is not immune. Gavin Kligger is not immune. And any of the officials at USAID or in the Treasury Department or anywhere else who admitted these little clowns into secure areas as has been alleged, they are not immune. In fact, they are subject to espionage charges, and they will still be subject to them four years from now. But Elon Musk is especially not immune. And what the hell is going on with him now? Anyway, his usual state semi delusional, frantic, irrational, it's given way to full fledged euphoria and delusional delusions, not of grandeur but of omnipotence. Somebody listed the names of his teenage mutant Ninja Turtles in a post on Twitter x, and Musk, acting like he was zonked out of his mind, responded, you have committed a crime, even though hours earlier he Musk amplified another post on Twitter x listing the same names. Musk has conflated a violation of Twitter doxing rules with actual violations of the law, And then it turned out that simply giving somebody's name is in fact not a violation of Twitter doxing rules. You have committed a crime. No elon check your mirror, you may have committed a crime. The lawsuits have already begun by government employee unions whose pensions, they say Musk and others have illegally put at risk by the Democrats, by ethics groups to whom Trump gave the priceless gift of declaring Musk and administration employee making Musk subject to conflict of interest laws. A federal judge in Maryland has already stopped Trump dead in his tracks on sabotaging birthright citizenships. There are six other lawsuits already in progress just on birthright citizenship. There are five over various aspects of his executive orders on immigration policy. There are thirteen about the phony buyouts and the attempts to thus dissolve the CIA, USAID, the Department of Education. There are four lawsuits about acts against transgender people. Just security dot org has a litigation tracker up go there. Odds are like one in three. While you are looking at this, it will update while you're reading it because there's been a new lawsuit and the bids to get temporary restraining orders against Musk and the other pirates in the Trump maladministration have unexpectedly been as efficient and as subtle as Trump has been. In Trump's work as a saboteur of the courts, it is the exact opposite of what Musk has been in his cyber version of Ocean's eleven meets the Nigerian Prince who only needs your bank routing number. But Trump has yet to completely destroy the justice system, and there are still enough judges to tie Musk up in local jurisdictions for the rest of his goddamned life, and especially to tie up these little shit weasels of his who will suddenly discover that their secret mainframes and social media accounts and SpaceX business cards don't mean crap, and that, as my friend William H. Macy once said in a classic pro for his show Shameless, Real Worlds out here Pal, but the goal has got to be to put Musk in prison. The side effect to Trump getting away with it for now is the residual rage for all of us, from nine year old politically aware kids to liberal Supreme Court justices, all of us who know Trump deserves to die in jail, not in the White House bathroom. We can't do anything about this for now. So who's the next best choice to absorb our legal wrath? Two hints that person will never corner any product nor industry the way he has cornered the world supplies of smug and snide, and visually he looks like a skull with some coagulated botox stretched across it. The key to getting Elon Musk arrested is publicity. What he is doing is a story, by the way, created for local television news for the older, less affluent audience of local television news. Musk's hackers allegedly go into the government, where they write, now could be stealing your Medicaid money and Social Security live at eleven. It is exactly what local television producers want. It's exactly what they dream of. Let's take you now live to Jack liveshot in Scarsdale with his concerned guest, concerned Grandma. Call your local newsroom. Once the publicity cycle begins to inflate, then we get to the local prosecutions. Because Trump has not corrupted the entirety of the legal system yet, and he's not forced out all the US attorneys, and a clever city, county, or state prosecutor could bring countless charges against Musk or his saboteurs or anybody else for everything from I don't know, theft, breaking an entering. You could do it in DC too. The Watergate burglars were not arrested by the FBI for you know, seventeen counts of trying to end democracy. They were arrested for burglary by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. This is low hanging fruit because everybody hates Elon Musk. Everybody, especially all the little tech pros, are gonna hate Elon Musk after it turns out Musk is not omnipotent, and to do his dirty work for him ends up with you getting your ass taken to jail. First one to flip on Musk gets probation and a brand new hotmail account and an Aol installation.

Disc Impeachment today, impeachment tomorrow, impeachment forever.

Disc Impeachment today, impeachment tomorrow, impeachment forever.

Preach Al Green, preach, I rise to announce.

Preach Al Green, preach, I rise to announce.

That the movement to impeach the president has begun. I rise to announce that I will bring articles of impeachments against the President for destately deeds proposed and desperately deeds done.

That the movement to impeach the president has begun. I rise to announce that I will bring articles of impeachments against the President for destately deeds proposed and desperately deeds done.

Congressman Al Green al Green of Texas. I have mentioned before, I will mention again, no, it will not pass. I know that Congressman Green knows that we all know that. But we are for the time being limited to carefully tactical actions in the courts, holds in the Senate, and impeachment bills one a week in the House. And the history of impeachment since Richard Nixon is simple and instructive. Impeachment bills pass, and impeachment bills fail, and impeachments happen, and impeachments don't happen, and no president has ever been removed from office. And it don't matter the party that merely attempts and fails to impeach, no matter, the outcome is thirteen and oh in the following how Senate and presidential elections, that includes the Republicans and all the crap from Lauren Bobert and Jamie Comer in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. You don't even have to get a vote on your bill. Just keep saying the word impeachment. Damn thing works. The statistic the precise number thirteen and oh is disputed. As a historian, I would note it's probably fourteen and Oh, the infeatument of Andrew Johnson worked because it was one faction of the then monopolistic Republicans defeating the other faction of the monopolistic Republicans. On the other hand, a Congressional aid of my acquaintance says it shouldn't be thirteen and ohero and fourteen and oh, it's thirteen and one because Trump was impeached as his term ended in twenty twenty one, and the Republicans won the House in twenty twenty two. I replied that the Democrats lost fewer seats in twenty twenty two, then predicted, then predicted the morning of the election. And so you say the Republicans won the House in twenty twenty two, how did that work out for them? Elsewhere? Surprisingly enough, Trump's plan to take Gaza and maybe own it himself and turn it into the Middle Eastern Riviera. The division of trump World, inc oh, and to what amounts to ethnic cleansing of the current two million Palestinians who live there, as if he were doing the world a favor, has made him an international laughing stock the way nothing else in ten years has. And this is a world, after all that laughed at him during his speech to the UN. The bar is kind of high. The man who ran on ending forever wars and who mocks Bush to this day about Iraq at every opportunity, who falsely claims he was against the Iraq invasion, is ready to send what would have to be dozens of times as many American troops as went into Iraq six hundred miles east, to forcibly remove anybody still in Gaza and send them to Egypt and Jordan, whether they like it or not, or Egypt and Jordan like it or not. Oh, by the way, there's still Hamas in Gaza, and I'm not thinking they're going to be lining up at the counter for their tickets on the Trump shuttle to Aman. And of course Trump is still sending little twits like Marco Rubio around insisting we're going to take back the Panama Canal and his son idiot Junior to take over Greenland, and all of a sudden, those million, three hundred thousand active duty American troops they're just not going to be enough, now, are they. So now Trump's backed himself into the next corner bringing back the draft. Hasn't said it yet, Wait for it. If there is one thing that will guarantee riots in the streets that, oh, by the way, the rioters will win. It's another draft. The last one was expanded for Vietnam in the sixties, at a time when the nation still largely believed its government meant well and had judgment, and when parents would actually willingly let the government take their children to send them to die meaninglessly in a conflict we could not win or even influence, when we still believed in large part that the government's judgment on such things could be trusted. And still within three years there were daily protests and draft card burnings and violent underground terrorist organizations, and enough chaos to end Lyndon Johnson's presidency and force an end to the war and the draft within the decade. If Trump, if any president, for Gaza or Greenland or Panama or whatever else he pulls out of his own ass, If Trump or any president tried a draft, except in the event of something on the scale of World War Two, in these days, when the idea of people agreeing to be forced by the government to risk their lives in an optional war is met with only rage and uncontrollable laughter. If Trump actually tried a draft, and to clean out Gaza, he'd have to have a draft. If he actually did it, I'd give his presidency it a week to ten days before he and everybody in it were forced out of office. It may not have occurred to Trump yet that to do just Gaza, maybe just Greenland, or just Panama, it would require a draft. And by the way, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate those who protested Israel and Biden's attempts to find a way out of the Gordian not of the Middle East by not voting for Kamala Harris, Your boy Trump is demanding all Palestinians get out of Gaza. Nice protests, it's ethnic cleansing. Wait until Trump responds to the blowback to that, domestic and international, to his insane belief that he personally can make gazillions in Gaza tourism when somebody tells him he has just damaged himself and beclowned himself and made the world wonder if it needs to try to forcibly remove him because he's crazy. His next move won't be all out Palestinians out of Gaza. It will be all Palestinians out of America. I'm not favoring that, by the way, I'm just saying that's how he will react. Good call vote against Kamala Harris. What could go wrong? Who knew this could happen? Everybody told us this, but we thought they were just who knows, you bought it, you lie in it. The irony of the first two weeks of the Trump reducs is that his minions have been studdingly successful. Illegally successful, of course, but still we don't got to show you any stinking badges. The drag on their plan for world domination is this idiot Trump and is idiot pal idiot Musk, whereas they may soon be known Thelma and Louise Tariffs Tariff's tariffs start now, let me just talk to Canada and Mexico. First, Oh okay, no tariffs end results headline in the Wall Street Journal, Trump blinks on North American tariffs. Well played, sir, all in one first sixty shots didn't count. Then there was yesterday's farce of quote banning transgendered women from competing in women's sports at the collegiate and grade school and high school level, which part of Trump's promise to return all control of education to the States. Would this be all control of education of the States except for sports. I will also remind you of two things I have mentioned before. The estimated number of women athletes at the scholastic level whose birth gender was male in this country is one hundred and five one one hundred and five. Of course, that estimate is old. It's a month ago. It was made by a group seeking to ban them, so it may now be up to one hundred and six. And I will add that nearly fifty years ago and my friend doctor Renee Richards formerly doctor Richard Raskin, reached tennis's US Open. She of course wiped out Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova and all the rest. And you'll remember she won twenty three consecutive Wimbledon's and she destroyed women's tennis for all time because of her bone structure advantage. Oh that's right. None of that happened, because this issue is trivial, because there's one hundred and six of them in the country, and it only became a cause celebra for morons and mediocrits like the swimmer Riley Gaines, who finished well behind a transgendered woman once and then devoted her life to hounding transgendered people. Congrats on the Riley Gains was a mediocre swimmer, but a worse person order. Couple of vsh media notes, as Marjorie Taylor Green, who declared yesterday that the music magazine and news outlet is called Rolling Stones, demanded NPR and PBS testify to some committee she runs or subcommittee at the doge who knows hai this is the subcommittee for morons. PBS has commissioned a poll in which seventy two percent of Trump voters said they valued PBS for its kids programming. Sixty five percent of Trump voters think PBS is either adequately funded by the government or insufficiently funded government by the government. Unbelievable. There's large group of Trump voters who believe we should be giving more taxpayer money to PBS. Government funds are only fifteen percent of the PBS budget. Anyway, have a nice time with that data, Marge. I don't know a number as big as sixty five. She may just faint. Stephen A. Smith is skating further and further onto thin ice. He says it would be a sacrifice, but he might run for the Democratic nomination in twenty twenty eight, how's your shoulder for? Did you have an injury panning yourself on the back with both arms at the same time? Surgery Polling and it's by a Trump pollster has Kamala Harris at thirty five percent right now for the twenty twenty eight nomination, and nobody else in double digits. But just for giggles, here's the rest of the list. Buddha Jedge nine, Newsom seven AOC six, Governor Shapiro three, Governor Walls three, Governor Whitmter three, Senator Klobashar three, Corey Booker two, Governor Moore two, Stephen A. Smith two, Governor Pritzker one, Beto O'Rourke one, Governor Murphy one, Governor Polis one. So Stephen trails, Tim Walls and Amy Klobashar. But he's got twice the support of Jared Polis, who's been collaborating with Republicans. Well done, Steve. The problem with Stephen A. Smith is I'm not sure if he doesn't realize that two percent is nothing, or if he was just so excited to see his name on the list that he didn't even look at the number. And we have a nearly weekly, self owned by Van Jones, now in its tenth year, Van Jones is still on CNN. Van Jones commented on Scott Jennings, the racist, misogynist CNN platforms every night in hopes of getting an audience that just will not show up for Abby Phillip Show no matter who you put on it. She is at a little better than one third the Lawrence O'Donnell audience. And I assume most of Loade's audience at this point is people who died in front of the team and left it on MSNBC. That's just my guest based on my experience with him. Anyway, Van Jones told The Wall Street Journal about mister Jennings of the Abby Phillips Show, quote, I've never fell on air that Scott was saying something he didn't believe in a way that was unnecessarily incendiary just to go viral. So so, Ben, you're saying, Scott Jennings isn't a white supremacist asshole, clickbaiting poser. He's a real white supremacist asshole. And that's better somehow. If CNN canceled its primetime lineup and went all cartoons, the quality of CNN commentary and CNN journalism would shoot through the roof. In the interim, I have this suggestion CNN should try to get Van Jones and Scott Jennings shoot through the roof. See you boys. Also of interest here, Rom Emmanuel and David Axelrod are upset at the democrats reaction to Musk canceling the US AID program. Not righteously indignant enough, not protesting enough, not acting enough. No, no, no, These two dinosaurs think Democrats should not have reacted at all. Happily, my pal Will Bunch ended Rom Emmanuel's remaining credibility with one of the greatest burns I have ever read. That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown, with Keith Elberman still ahead. I was quoted in the Washington Post the other day as saying about Rachel Matadow quote, television political commentary is better when she's on the air. My understanding is she's pissed about that. Why because there's an article about her in which I am quoted. This is not an odd phenomenon, although she has elevated it to real weirdness. Not long after I got to ESPN in nineteen ninety two, people magazine found out that I had gone to school with was a protege there of and then successor to Chris Berman, and they were doing a story on him, so they interviewed me about him, and when it came out, Chris took me into a studio and they rolled up. Copy of the magazine was in his hand, and he was angry, they've quoted you in here more than they have quoted me. What I pointed out that I'd only said nice things, Chris, and this is him in brief quickly apologized, I'm sorry a family member is upset. Anyway.

Congressman Al Green al Green of Texas. I have mentioned before, I will mention again, no, it will not pass. I know that Congressman Green knows that we all know that. But we are for the time being limited to carefully tactical actions in the courts, holds in the Senate, and impeachment bills one a week in the House. And the history of impeachment since Richard Nixon is simple and instructive. Impeachment bills pass, and impeachment bills fail, and impeachments happen, and impeachments don't happen, and no president has ever been removed from office. And it don't matter the party that merely attempts and fails to impeach, no matter, the outcome is thirteen and oh in the following how Senate and presidential elections, that includes the Republicans and all the crap from Lauren Bobert and Jamie Comer in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. You don't even have to get a vote on your bill. Just keep saying the word impeachment. Damn thing works. The statistic the precise number thirteen and oh is disputed. As a historian, I would note it's probably fourteen and Oh, the infeatument of Andrew Johnson worked because it was one faction of the then monopolistic Republicans defeating the other faction of the monopolistic Republicans. On the other hand, a Congressional aid of my acquaintance says it shouldn't be thirteen and ohero and fourteen and oh, it's thirteen and one because Trump was impeached as his term ended in twenty twenty one, and the Republicans won the House in twenty twenty two. I replied that the Democrats lost fewer seats in twenty twenty two, then predicted, then predicted the morning of the election. And so you say the Republicans won the House in twenty twenty two, how did that work out for them? Elsewhere? Surprisingly enough, Trump's plan to take Gaza and maybe own it himself and turn it into the Middle Eastern Riviera. The division of trump World, inc oh, and to what amounts to ethnic cleansing of the current two million Palestinians who live there, as if he were doing the world a favor, has made him an international laughing stock the way nothing else in ten years has. And this is a world, after all that laughed at him during his speech to the UN. The bar is kind of high. The man who ran on ending forever wars and who mocks Bush to this day about Iraq at every opportunity, who falsely claims he was against the Iraq invasion, is ready to send what would have to be dozens of times as many American troops as went into Iraq six hundred miles east, to forcibly remove anybody still in Gaza and send them to Egypt and Jordan, whether they like it or not, or Egypt and Jordan like it or not. Oh, by the way, there's still Hamas in Gaza, and I'm not thinking they're going to be lining up at the counter for their tickets on the Trump shuttle to Aman. And of course Trump is still sending little twits like Marco Rubio around insisting we're going to take back the Panama Canal and his son idiot Junior to take over Greenland, and all of a sudden, those million, three hundred thousand active duty American troops they're just not going to be enough, now, are they. So now Trump's backed himself into the next corner bringing back the draft. Hasn't said it yet, Wait for it. If there is one thing that will guarantee riots in the streets that, oh, by the way, the rioters will win. It's another draft. The last one was expanded for Vietnam in the sixties, at a time when the nation still largely believed its government meant well and had judgment, and when parents would actually willingly let the government take their children to send them to die meaninglessly in a conflict we could not win or even influence, when we still believed in large part that the government's judgment on such things could be trusted. And still within three years there were daily protests and draft card burnings and violent underground terrorist organizations, and enough chaos to end Lyndon Johnson's presidency and force an end to the war and the draft within the decade. If Trump, if any president, for Gaza or Greenland or Panama or whatever else he pulls out of his own ass, If Trump or any president tried a draft, except in the event of something on the scale of World War Two, in these days, when the idea of people agreeing to be forced by the government to risk their lives in an optional war is met with only rage and uncontrollable laughter. If Trump actually tried a draft, and to clean out Gaza, he'd have to have a draft. If he actually did it, I'd give his presidency it a week to ten days before he and everybody in it were forced out of office. It may not have occurred to Trump yet that to do just Gaza, maybe just Greenland, or just Panama, it would require a draft. And by the way, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate those who protested Israel and Biden's attempts to find a way out of the Gordian not of the Middle East by not voting for Kamala Harris, Your boy Trump is demanding all Palestinians get out of Gaza. Nice protests, it's ethnic cleansing. Wait until Trump responds to the blowback to that, domestic and international, to his insane belief that he personally can make gazillions in Gaza tourism when somebody tells him he has just damaged himself and beclowned himself and made the world wonder if it needs to try to forcibly remove him because he's crazy. His next move won't be all out Palestinians out of Gaza. It will be all Palestinians out of America. I'm not favoring that, by the way, I'm just saying that's how he will react. Good call vote against Kamala Harris. What could go wrong? Who knew this could happen? Everybody told us this, but we thought they were just who knows, you bought it, you lie in it. The irony of the first two weeks of the Trump reducs is that his minions have been studdingly successful. Illegally successful, of course, but still we don't got to show you any stinking badges. The drag on their plan for world domination is this idiot Trump and is idiot pal idiot Musk, whereas they may soon be known Thelma and Louise Tariffs Tariff's tariffs start now, let me just talk to Canada and Mexico. First, Oh okay, no tariffs end results headline in the Wall Street Journal, Trump blinks on North American tariffs. Well played, sir, all in one first sixty shots didn't count. Then there was yesterday's farce of quote banning transgendered women from competing in women's sports at the collegiate and grade school and high school level, which part of Trump's promise to return all control of education to the States. Would this be all control of education of the States except for sports. I will also remind you of two things I have mentioned before. The estimated number of women athletes at the scholastic level whose birth gender was male in this country is one hundred and five one one hundred and five. Of course, that estimate is old. It's a month ago. It was made by a group seeking to ban them, so it may now be up to one hundred and six. And I will add that nearly fifty years ago and my friend doctor Renee Richards formerly doctor Richard Raskin, reached tennis's US Open. She of course wiped out Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova and all the rest. And you'll remember she won twenty three consecutive Wimbledon's and she destroyed women's tennis for all time because of her bone structure advantage. Oh that's right. None of that happened, because this issue is trivial, because there's one hundred and six of them in the country, and it only became a cause celebra for morons and mediocrits like the swimmer Riley Gaines, who finished well behind a transgendered woman once and then devoted her life to hounding transgendered people. Congrats on the Riley Gains was a mediocre swimmer, but a worse person order. Couple of vsh media notes, as Marjorie Taylor Green, who declared yesterday that the music magazine and news outlet is called Rolling Stones, demanded NPR and PBS testify to some committee she runs or subcommittee at the doge who knows hai this is the subcommittee for morons. PBS has commissioned a poll in which seventy two percent of Trump voters said they valued PBS for its kids programming. Sixty five percent of Trump voters think PBS is either adequately funded by the government or insufficiently funded government by the government. Unbelievable. There's large group of Trump voters who believe we should be giving more taxpayer money to PBS. Government funds are only fifteen percent of the PBS budget. Anyway, have a nice time with that data, Marge. I don't know a number as big as sixty five. She may just faint. Stephen A. Smith is skating further and further onto thin ice. He says it would be a sacrifice, but he might run for the Democratic nomination in twenty twenty eight, how's your shoulder for? Did you have an injury panning yourself on the back with both arms at the same time? Surgery Polling and it's by a Trump pollster has Kamala Harris at thirty five percent right now for the twenty twenty eight nomination, and nobody else in double digits. But just for giggles, here's the rest of the list. Buddha Jedge nine, Newsom seven AOC six, Governor Shapiro three, Governor Walls three, Governor Whitmter three, Senator Klobashar three, Corey Booker two, Governor Moore two, Stephen A. Smith two, Governor Pritzker one, Beto O'Rourke one, Governor Murphy one, Governor Polis one. So Stephen trails, Tim Walls and Amy Klobashar. But he's got twice the support of Jared Polis, who's been collaborating with Republicans. Well done, Steve. The problem with Stephen A. Smith is I'm not sure if he doesn't realize that two percent is nothing, or if he was just so excited to see his name on the list that he didn't even look at the number. And we have a nearly weekly, self owned by Van Jones, now in its tenth year, Van Jones is still on CNN. Van Jones commented on Scott Jennings, the racist, misogynist CNN platforms every night in hopes of getting an audience that just will not show up for Abby Phillip Show no matter who you put on it. She is at a little better than one third the Lawrence O'Donnell audience. And I assume most of Loade's audience at this point is people who died in front of the team and left it on MSNBC. That's just my guest based on my experience with him. Anyway, Van Jones told The Wall Street Journal about mister Jennings of the Abby Phillips Show, quote, I've never fell on air that Scott was saying something he didn't believe in a way that was unnecessarily incendiary just to go viral. So so, Ben, you're saying, Scott Jennings isn't a white supremacist asshole, clickbaiting poser. He's a real white supremacist asshole. And that's better somehow. If CNN canceled its primetime lineup and went all cartoons, the quality of CNN commentary and CNN journalism would shoot through the roof. In the interim, I have this suggestion CNN should try to get Van Jones and Scott Jennings shoot through the roof. See you boys. Also of interest here, Rom Emmanuel and David Axelrod are upset at the democrats reaction to Musk canceling the US AID program. Not righteously indignant enough, not protesting enough, not acting enough. No, no, no, These two dinosaurs think Democrats should not have reacted at all. Happily, my pal Will Bunch ended Rom Emmanuel's remaining credibility with one of the greatest burns I have ever read. That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown, with Keith Elberman still ahead. I was quoted in the Washington Post the other day as saying about Rachel Matadow quote, television political commentary is better when she's on the air. My understanding is she's pissed about that. Why because there's an article about her in which I am quoted. This is not an odd phenomenon, although she has elevated it to real weirdness. Not long after I got to ESPN in nineteen ninety two, people magazine found out that I had gone to school with was a protege there of and then successor to Chris Berman, and they were doing a story on him, so they interviewed me about him, and when it came out, Chris took me into a studio and they rolled up. Copy of the magazine was in his hand, and he was angry, they've quoted you in here more than they have quoted me. What I pointed out that I'd only said nice things, Chris, and this is him in brief quickly apologized, I'm sorry a family member is upset. Anyway.

What I really should have said was I'm glad somebody who knew me before I was a big deal still likes me now when I am a big deal.

What I really should have said was I'm glad somebody who knew me before I was a big deal still likes me now when I am a big deal.

That is also Chris. It's way less conceited than it sounds. I could not resist the joke though, that he had just set up. I pointed at his copy of People, and I said, where in there does it say I like you? He scowled, and then said, so, if they ever do a piece on you for some reason, I'll just say you were as big a wise ass now as you were when you were thirty. I said that was fair, and that was the end of it. When they did do a story on me, they didn't even call him Mattow though didn't apologize. And a last to that, the post noted quote that I helped jumpstart Matdow's career and that of other network stars, which is the first time that reality has sneaked into print in like five years. And it's true, but it doesn't get to the gist of it, which is I fought my bosses for a year, the ones who said MSNBC viewers would never watch a woman do political news. One of those geniuses is now president of her production company. Because TV damages the brains of everybody connected to it, myself included, you have to work your way back from that kind of damage. Few do. In point of fact, I actually wound up personally stopping MSNBC from losing Madow to CNN when Larry King offered her two hundred and fifty dollars to be a guest one night. Turned out we were getting her work for first here. That's right, two hundred and fifty dollars. I stepped in, hired her myself, spent four hundred and thirty seven dollars literally out of my own wallet to keep her there and billions of dollars later. I will tell you the story in full, because I think this is the anniversary of the event. It is a story that sounds crazier and crazier every time I tell it. I will tell it in full next in Things I promised not to tell first, Believe it or not, there's still more new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons undone in Kruger Effects specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in the world. Today's episode is dedicated to dishonorable Mention recipient Nancy Mace, the congresswoman stood on the floor of the House yesterday and shouted repeatedly, quote tranny, tranny, tranny, which wouldn't be news. She has episodes like that also. And Mace does not have a screw loose. She has a hardware store full of screws loose. The reason this matters is that after her former communications director, Natalie Johnson wrote to Mace on social about quote your botched cheap hooker inspired boob job unquote, it is evident that the average transgendered person has had less plastic surgery than has Nancy Mace any who. Thus we proceed to the medallists the bronze worse. The NFL, the National Football League from the athletic a Super Bowl change, something that had been in place since the twenty twenty one game. By the way, can we drop the moronic Roman numerals already? This isn't ancient rome. We barely use them at all anymore except for this stupid game. And nobody knows what LX means in mathematics anymore. Anyway, l i X everybody already has a joke about what LIX could mean. Anyway. The change from the athletic NFL to remove end racism messaging in end zone ahead of Super Bowl sources, And there is a picture of a preceding Super Bowl that the chief slogo in the end zone and then above it in smaller letters right under the goalpost and racism. Hey, Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, I know you're an idiot, but certainly somebody's had to you. Somebody had to have mentioned this. Hey, you know what if we suddenly become against end racism, isn't that the same as being for racism? NFL not see Football League the runner up generic Get off My Lawn, Republican octagenarian Jack Miladden, who decided to engage Justin Trudeau with one of the oldest cliches of all time on social media. It's literally at least two thousand years old, and Jack screwed it up. Trudeau wrote, the United States has confirmed that it intends to impose twenty five percent tariffs on most Canadian goods, with ten percent tariffs on energy starting February fourth. Obviously things have changed since this was written. I've met with the premieres and our cabinet today and I'll be speaking with President Scheinbaum of Mexico. Shortly we did et cetera, et cetera, and Jack Maladden, whose handle is at John Maladden, signifying a life of utter confusion on his part. Had Canada been treating us fairly, Jack added, this would never have happened, So buckle up, Canada, you're taking on Goliath. It got community noted because, of course, as the note said, Goliath died in that story. This Maladden guy, whoever it was is, was reduced to explaining that he knew all that, of course, But then clearly this time the odds were Goliath will win.

That is also Chris. It's way less conceited than it sounds. I could not resist the joke though, that he had just set up. I pointed at his copy of People, and I said, where in there does it say I like you? He scowled, and then said, so, if they ever do a piece on you for some reason, I'll just say you were as big a wise ass now as you were when you were thirty. I said that was fair, and that was the end of it. When they did do a story on me, they didn't even call him Mattow though didn't apologize. And a last to that, the post noted quote that I helped jumpstart Matdow's career and that of other network stars, which is the first time that reality has sneaked into print in like five years. And it's true, but it doesn't get to the gist of it, which is I fought my bosses for a year, the ones who said MSNBC viewers would never watch a woman do political news. One of those geniuses is now president of her production company. Because TV damages the brains of everybody connected to it, myself included, you have to work your way back from that kind of damage. Few do. In point of fact, I actually wound up personally stopping MSNBC from losing Madow to CNN when Larry King offered her two hundred and fifty dollars to be a guest one night. Turned out we were getting her work for first here. That's right, two hundred and fifty dollars. I stepped in, hired her myself, spent four hundred and thirty seven dollars literally out of my own wallet to keep her there and billions of dollars later. I will tell you the story in full, because I think this is the anniversary of the event. It is a story that sounds crazier and crazier every time I tell it. I will tell it in full next in Things I promised not to tell first, Believe it or not, there's still more new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons undone in Kruger Effects specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in the world. Today's episode is dedicated to dishonorable Mention recipient Nancy Mace, the congresswoman stood on the floor of the House yesterday and shouted repeatedly, quote tranny, tranny, tranny, which wouldn't be news. She has episodes like that also. And Mace does not have a screw loose. She has a hardware store full of screws loose. The reason this matters is that after her former communications director, Natalie Johnson wrote to Mace on social about quote your botched cheap hooker inspired boob job unquote, it is evident that the average transgendered person has had less plastic surgery than has Nancy Mace any who. Thus we proceed to the medallists the bronze worse. The NFL, the National Football League from the athletic a Super Bowl change, something that had been in place since the twenty twenty one game. By the way, can we drop the moronic Roman numerals already? This isn't ancient rome. We barely use them at all anymore except for this stupid game. And nobody knows what LX means in mathematics anymore. Anyway, l i X everybody already has a joke about what LIX could mean. Anyway. The change from the athletic NFL to remove end racism messaging in end zone ahead of Super Bowl sources, And there is a picture of a preceding Super Bowl that the chief slogo in the end zone and then above it in smaller letters right under the goalpost and racism. Hey, Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, I know you're an idiot, but certainly somebody's had to you. Somebody had to have mentioned this. Hey, you know what if we suddenly become against end racism, isn't that the same as being for racism? NFL not see Football League the runner up generic Get off My Lawn, Republican octagenarian Jack Miladden, who decided to engage Justin Trudeau with one of the oldest cliches of all time on social media. It's literally at least two thousand years old, and Jack screwed it up. Trudeau wrote, the United States has confirmed that it intends to impose twenty five percent tariffs on most Canadian goods, with ten percent tariffs on energy starting February fourth. Obviously things have changed since this was written. I've met with the premieres and our cabinet today and I'll be speaking with President Scheinbaum of Mexico. Shortly we did et cetera, et cetera, and Jack Maladden, whose handle is at John Maladden, signifying a life of utter confusion on his part. Had Canada been treating us fairly, Jack added, this would never have happened, So buckle up, Canada, you're taking on Goliath. It got community noted because, of course, as the note said, Goliath died in that story. This Maladden guy, whoever it was is, was reduced to explaining that he knew all that, of course, But then clearly this time the odds were Goliath will win.

Ms.

Ms.

Maloden is, of course mister Maladen. Whatever he is is, of course more representative of a different Biblical bit of imagery, namely the jawbone of an ass. But our winner is Rom Immanuel. Boy, oh boy, did this idiot not recognize his own sell by date? Never noticed when the sand had run out in his hour glass. His Washington post op ed was bad enough. Democrats had become the pointy of permissiveness. That's ballot box poison. This whole article, flimsy, badly written, repetitive, was an excuse to explain that only Bill Clinton's campaign in nineteen ninety two really got that balance right between big issues and kitchen table issues, and who worked on that campaign? Why it was whiny, holier than now, sound of one hand clapping, and the hand was immanuals and he was looking at a picture of himself as he did it. Rom Emmanuel, Well, that op ed was bad enough. But Emmanuel's interview with Politico, in which he insists that the Democrats are wrong to devote any time to try to stop Elon Musk savaging American foreign aid and breaking into the digital equivalent of Fort Knox, that's way worse. Rom Emmanuel is a fool. He got lucky once, like David Axelrod got lucky once. Axelrod is in the same story. He echoed to Politico, this same stick to kitchen table issues, while Trump is trying to steal everybody's kitchen table and gaza and open up. I don't know a restaurant with your kitchen table in it. Rom Emmanuel, David Axelrod, and Politico all in the same place, the all star team of conventional wisdom. As long as it's still nineteen ninety six, missing only Chuck Todd and Christial, how could it get worse? Well, I will offer for one immanual quote with this preface. I've mentioned it before. I brought up Chris Berman in high school, Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who used to answer to Bill Bunch, by the way, was from the day he joined our high school newspaper, which Berman had just graduated from. Bunch was our best reporter, my best reporter. I was news editor and editor in chief, and I'd been on the paper four years, and I really was a good editor. It was my calling. And then this got in the way. Anyway, Bunch was so good back then. This is fifty two years ago that I remember saying to him at the time, your article is the first one I'll do my voice from then, your article is the first one. I can't do anything too to make it better. Well, Bunch is still that good. First the Immanual quote from Politico that I referred to, then Bunch responding to it with the best burn of the year so far. Quote Manual, the former House leader, Chicago mayor, and diplomat, told me much the same quote. You don't find every fight, you don't swing at every pinch. And my view is, while I care about the USAID as a former ambassador, that's not the hill I'm going to die on, he said. Will Bunch screenshot at this and posted it with this kill shot directed at Immanuel, quoting, will please tell me the hill that you will die on, so that I can't transport you there immediately. Oh, I'll pay for the uber. Will rom your dead son, get yourself buried? Immanuel, Today's worst person than the word.

Maloden is, of course mister Maladen. Whatever he is is, of course more representative of a different Biblical bit of imagery, namely the jawbone of an ass. But our winner is Rom Immanuel. Boy, oh boy, did this idiot not recognize his own sell by date? Never noticed when the sand had run out in his hour glass. His Washington post op ed was bad enough. Democrats had become the pointy of permissiveness. That's ballot box poison. This whole article, flimsy, badly written, repetitive, was an excuse to explain that only Bill Clinton's campaign in nineteen ninety two really got that balance right between big issues and kitchen table issues, and who worked on that campaign? Why it was whiny, holier than now, sound of one hand clapping, and the hand was immanuals and he was looking at a picture of himself as he did it. Rom Emmanuel, Well, that op ed was bad enough. But Emmanuel's interview with Politico, in which he insists that the Democrats are wrong to devote any time to try to stop Elon Musk savaging American foreign aid and breaking into the digital equivalent of Fort Knox, that's way worse. Rom Emmanuel is a fool. He got lucky once, like David Axelrod got lucky once. Axelrod is in the same story. He echoed to Politico, this same stick to kitchen table issues, while Trump is trying to steal everybody's kitchen table and gaza and open up. I don't know a restaurant with your kitchen table in it. Rom Emmanuel, David Axelrod, and Politico all in the same place, the all star team of conventional wisdom. As long as it's still nineteen ninety six, missing only Chuck Todd and Christial, how could it get worse? Well, I will offer for one immanual quote with this preface. I've mentioned it before. I brought up Chris Berman in high school, Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who used to answer to Bill Bunch, by the way, was from the day he joined our high school newspaper, which Berman had just graduated from. Bunch was our best reporter, my best reporter. I was news editor and editor in chief, and I'd been on the paper four years, and I really was a good editor. It was my calling. And then this got in the way. Anyway, Bunch was so good back then. This is fifty two years ago that I remember saying to him at the time, your article is the first one I'll do my voice from then, your article is the first one. I can't do anything too to make it better. Well, Bunch is still that good. First the Immanual quote from Politico that I referred to, then Bunch responding to it with the best burn of the year so far. Quote Manual, the former House leader, Chicago mayor, and diplomat, told me much the same quote. You don't find every fight, you don't swing at every pinch. And my view is, while I care about the USAID as a former ambassador, that's not the hill I'm going to die on, he said. Will Bunch screenshot at this and posted it with this kill shot directed at Immanuel, quoting, will please tell me the hill that you will die on, so that I can't transport you there immediately. Oh, I'll pay for the uber. Will rom your dead son, get yourself buried? Immanuel, Today's worst person than the word.

Ah.

Ah.

The geniuses of MSNBC. So I looked up the details of this, and it looks like this is the anniversary. It's somewhere around here at the beginning of February from two thousand and eight. Late in November two thousand and seven, after several months of pressuring my MSNBC bosses to hire Rachel Maddow to try out as My guest host with a goal of then showcasing her and spinning her off into her own show, the vice president in charge of the network, Phil Griffin, agreed to give Madow a deal for forty or fifty grand as an MSNBC contributor. It would do nothing more than lock her in place so that CNN would not steal her from us. I mean, I knew that that conversation and that concession still would not get her her own show. What I did not know was the concession I was told about the contributors contract. It was a lie. And by January two thousand and eight, as the Clinton Obama primary race turned into a tong war, we were imposing upon Rachel Meadow to join the desk each Tuesday for Primary Night. She was not anchoring, she was not even the lead analyst. And my uncontrollable fire hose co host Matthews, who was consistently pretending that she did not actually exist, but she existed, she was there, and I quizzed her about every topic every chance I got. Soon I began to include her appearances in the pre recorded open that I would write two minutes of hyperbole that was really designed merely to give everybody enough time to get my fat ass into the anchor chair and everybody else's mics on with Tim Russard in the NBC News Washington Bureau, David Gregory at Clinton Headquarters, Howard Feineman and Eugene Robinson in New York, Chuck Todd at the exit poll desk, Tom broke off the perspective desk, MC Esher at the lack of Perspective Desk. Then came Super Tuesday, February fifth, two thousand and eight. I was writing this orgasmic drivel, as I always did on Tuesday, crossing the names of who was where off the list as I went the list handed to me by the executive producer, Izypovich. When I noticed the list did not include either Rachel or the Rachel Desk, I knocked on the wall that separated our little offices at thirty Rock, and she shuffled in complete with a sincere smile, friendship, but always also with what seemed to be a little space kept in reserve where she could wonder if I was mad enough to try to take somebody hostage. Yes, my third child. Where's Rachel tonight? I asked, as I waved the paper at her, assuming oversight, but leaving my own little space in reserve where my earlier nightmare had come true. Not on paper. Please to put name Rachel on paper? Is Isipovich said it matter of factly. Oh, yeah, well, oh, I was in trouble. That elongated consonant always meant trouble. She's on Larry King tonight. Momentarily, I went very stupid. How in the hell does that work when she has a contract with us? I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to hate me. The Izypovich fake cringe and crouch ensued. Phil made me promise not to tell you. Rachel doesn't have a contract with us. He told me he told you he'd get her one, then his boss refused to give him the money. I'm sorry, you promised not to hate me. Momentarily, I was calm. Momentarily, but why didn't you tell me that before? Approximately? Oh right, now, why didn't you tell me this before? She agreed to go on Larry King's show, while she only decided this morning, apparently she really needs the cash. I told Phil, and he said, those are the breaks, buddy. The last thing I actually remember doing, the last part that I did not need to recreate from the memories of others and an occasional flashback in therapy, was asking how much my old friend Larry King was going to give Rachel Is he pursed her lips two hundred and fifty dollars. I remember screaming that figure several times, along with all the swear words I knew. I remember vocalizing, we are going to lose Rachel Meadow, the next great talent of cable news, to effing CNN, for two hundred and fifty fing dollars. Everything else after that statement is darkness. I know. I phoned Phil Griffin and threatened him. Is He recently confirmed for me that I asked her to leave before I called him and threatened him. I believe I warned him that if he did not sign her to a contributor's contract within twenty four hours, I would walk off the set during that night's primary coverage, or maybe the next week's or maybe during countdown tomorrow night. It would be a surprise. I'm also confident that I warned him that of all the talent on television, Larry King had the best knowledge of what and who else would succeed more than the rest of us combined. He was a savant, and when he saw her in real time on his primary night panel, we would never see her again, and she would have a CNN contract before midnight. I told Phil that when that happened, I would then kill him with my bare hands, or Jeff Zucker would kill him when she wound up beating the hell out of us in the ratings. This statement all took longer than this paragraph would imply, because I know, without fear of contradiction, every other word out of my mouth was either what we used to call an oath or the phrase Jesus h ka Christ. Mind you, these people the president of NBC, Jeff Zucker, and it's a year since they got rid of him at CNN, the president of NBC News Steve Cappus, and the soon to be president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin. These had been the same people who, about a year earlier, had decided that their ten PM host, Tucker Carlson, yep, Tucker Carlson was on MSNBC that Tucker Carlson did not need two people to play the role of liberal foil on his show at like fifty grand a year, So they kept one of them, his name was Max Kellerman, and they fired the other one. Her name was Rachel Maddow. They fired Rachel Maddow at MSNBC to save fifty thousand dollars. She was back now at MSNBC only because my producer is He had suggested making her a regular guest, and within a couple of months I realized she would be the next great host in cable news. And after months of pleading, including pleading with her because she didn't want to do it, I had just convinced them to put her back under contract. Except they had lied to me, and they had not put her back under contract. I may have mentioned this to Phil Griffin during our phone call one hundred and eleven different times. I may have mentioned it to him. I also telephoned Rachel. I did not swear at her here. Every other word out of my mouth was not an oath but an apology, I said. I had genuinely believed she was already being paid, and I was not only humiliated on behalf of my network, but that I was far more humiliated that I had not double checked with her that they'd actually given her the contract they told me they had given her. I begged her to please, please, please, don't go and see an end tonight. I did not ask her to skip out on them and return to us unless she thought she could pull that off gracefully and with a clean conscience, but just not to go on with Larry. And that's where I at the little four hundred and thirty seven dollars stunt. I'm sorry about the money situation, I said. I didn't know. Now I know I can only do this. I think they will give you forty or fifty thousand for a contributors deal, just to start. But what I will do is, and while making as many sound effects of exertion as I could dream up, I stretched around it, pulled my wallet out of my back pocket, and I emptied it onto my desk. I need to keep five bucks to tip my driver tonight. You can have the rest of whatever cash I have on me. I'm counting it now. There's one hundred twenty twenty twenty. My play by play skipped no bills four hundred and forty two bucks American five for the driver, the rest for you four hundred and thirty seven dollars. Rachel deal, She laughed, I'll see you tonight. I'll just tell Larry I couldn't be disloyaled to you. Oh, and I will take the money. And she took the money. In point of fact, when I like to say anything that Rachel Mattow did with her career after we got her show on the air in August of two thousand and eight, that's all her doing. I have nothing to do with that except being the lead in for the first two years. That's true. But I also like to say that I got that show on the air. And I also like to say I hired Rachel Mattow at MSNBC. And this is my point, it was not figuratively, it was not metaphorically. I hired her out of my own pocket. I literally hired Medow at MSNBC for four hundred and thirty seven dollars. And I will point this out again, I never even got the four hundred and thirty seven dollars back when I sent a segment a go doing TV damages the brain. I don't know if it's something in the camera. I don't know if it's something in the wiring. I don't know if it's something that attracts already flawed people to it. But the first thing it does is it takes whatever part of you is grateful and burns that to a cinder. You begin to think. I used to think this myself, that the people who helped you succeed somehow subtracted from your own value today and you had to erase them. The premise, as near as I can figure out, was if they were important to your success, were you important to your own success? Or was it all an accident of timing. It's illogical, paranoid and the epitome of ingratitude. Of course, then, of course that's the definition of MSNBC. Any who let me descend from the so box and send you on your way with my thanks for listening. Brian Ray and John Phillip Shaneil, the musical directors of Countdown, Arranged, produced and performed most of our music. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums as the third member of Tko Brothers, which produced it. I'm very grateful to them. Both our satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. I am grateful to her contributions and the fact that she gave me an interview at UPI in nineteen eighty. The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two. I'm grateful that Mitch Warren Davis wrote it, and I'm grateful to ESPN for letting me play it. Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed, and I'm grateful to them. My announcer today was my friend John Dean, whose friendship is one of my greatest sources of pride and to whom I thank every day. And everything else was as ever my fault. That's countdown today just and forty five days until the scheduled end of his lane duck lame brained term, unless Musk removes him sooner. The next scheduled countdown is Monday. As always, bulletins, as the news warrants, remember Al Green is right, impeach Trump and Keith impeaching Trump. It won't pass now, it won't work now, it will win the Democrats the midterms until next time, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The geniuses of MSNBC. So I looked up the details of this, and it looks like this is the anniversary. It's somewhere around here at the beginning of February from two thousand and eight. Late in November two thousand and seven, after several months of pressuring my MSNBC bosses to hire Rachel Maddow to try out as My guest host with a goal of then showcasing her and spinning her off into her own show, the vice president in charge of the network, Phil Griffin, agreed to give Madow a deal for forty or fifty grand as an MSNBC contributor. It would do nothing more than lock her in place so that CNN would not steal her from us. I mean, I knew that that conversation and that concession still would not get her her own show. What I did not know was the concession I was told about the contributors contract. It was a lie. And by January two thousand and eight, as the Clinton Obama primary race turned into a tong war, we were imposing upon Rachel Meadow to join the desk each Tuesday for Primary Night. She was not anchoring, she was not even the lead analyst. And my uncontrollable fire hose co host Matthews, who was consistently pretending that she did not actually exist, but she existed, she was there, and I quizzed her about every topic every chance I got. Soon I began to include her appearances in the pre recorded open that I would write two minutes of hyperbole that was really designed merely to give everybody enough time to get my fat ass into the anchor chair and everybody else's mics on with Tim Russard in the NBC News Washington Bureau, David Gregory at Clinton Headquarters, Howard Feineman and Eugene Robinson in New York, Chuck Todd at the exit poll desk, Tom broke off the perspective desk, MC Esher at the lack of Perspective Desk. Then came Super Tuesday, February fifth, two thousand and eight. I was writing this orgasmic drivel, as I always did on Tuesday, crossing the names of who was where off the list as I went the list handed to me by the executive producer, Izypovich. When I noticed the list did not include either Rachel or the Rachel Desk, I knocked on the wall that separated our little offices at thirty Rock, and she shuffled in complete with a sincere smile, friendship, but always also with what seemed to be a little space kept in reserve where she could wonder if I was mad enough to try to take somebody hostage. Yes, my third child. Where's Rachel tonight? I asked, as I waved the paper at her, assuming oversight, but leaving my own little space in reserve where my earlier nightmare had come true. Not on paper. Please to put name Rachel on paper? Is Isipovich said it matter of factly. Oh, yeah, well, oh, I was in trouble. That elongated consonant always meant trouble. She's on Larry King tonight. Momentarily, I went very stupid. How in the hell does that work when she has a contract with us? I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to hate me. The Izypovich fake cringe and crouch ensued. Phil made me promise not to tell you. Rachel doesn't have a contract with us. He told me he told you he'd get her one, then his boss refused to give him the money. I'm sorry, you promised not to hate me. Momentarily, I was calm. Momentarily, but why didn't you tell me that before? Approximately? Oh right, now, why didn't you tell me this before? She agreed to go on Larry King's show, while she only decided this morning, apparently she really needs the cash. I told Phil, and he said, those are the breaks, buddy. The last thing I actually remember doing, the last part that I did not need to recreate from the memories of others and an occasional flashback in therapy, was asking how much my old friend Larry King was going to give Rachel Is he pursed her lips two hundred and fifty dollars. I remember screaming that figure several times, along with all the swear words I knew. I remember vocalizing, we are going to lose Rachel Meadow, the next great talent of cable news, to effing CNN, for two hundred and fifty fing dollars. Everything else after that statement is darkness. I know. I phoned Phil Griffin and threatened him. Is He recently confirmed for me that I asked her to leave before I called him and threatened him. I believe I warned him that if he did not sign her to a contributor's contract within twenty four hours, I would walk off the set during that night's primary coverage, or maybe the next week's or maybe during countdown tomorrow night. It would be a surprise. I'm also confident that I warned him that of all the talent on television, Larry King had the best knowledge of what and who else would succeed more than the rest of us combined. He was a savant, and when he saw her in real time on his primary night panel, we would never see her again, and she would have a CNN contract before midnight. I told Phil that when that happened, I would then kill him with my bare hands, or Jeff Zucker would kill him when she wound up beating the hell out of us in the ratings. This statement all took longer than this paragraph would imply, because I know, without fear of contradiction, every other word out of my mouth was either what we used to call an oath or the phrase Jesus h ka Christ. Mind you, these people the president of NBC, Jeff Zucker, and it's a year since they got rid of him at CNN, the president of NBC News Steve Cappus, and the soon to be president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin. These had been the same people who, about a year earlier, had decided that their ten PM host, Tucker Carlson, yep, Tucker Carlson was on MSNBC that Tucker Carlson did not need two people to play the role of liberal foil on his show at like fifty grand a year, So they kept one of them, his name was Max Kellerman, and they fired the other one. Her name was Rachel Maddow. They fired Rachel Maddow at MSNBC to save fifty thousand dollars. She was back now at MSNBC only because my producer is He had suggested making her a regular guest, and within a couple of months I realized she would be the next great host in cable news. And after months of pleading, including pleading with her because she didn't want to do it, I had just convinced them to put her back under contract. Except they had lied to me, and they had not put her back under contract. I may have mentioned this to Phil Griffin during our phone call one hundred and eleven different times. I may have mentioned it to him. I also telephoned Rachel. I did not swear at her here. Every other word out of my mouth was not an oath but an apology, I said. I had genuinely believed she was already being paid, and I was not only humiliated on behalf of my network, but that I was far more humiliated that I had not double checked with her that they'd actually given her the contract they told me they had given her. I begged her to please, please, please, don't go and see an end tonight. I did not ask her to skip out on them and return to us unless she thought she could pull that off gracefully and with a clean conscience, but just not to go on with Larry. And that's where I at the little four hundred and thirty seven dollars stunt. I'm sorry about the money situation, I said. I didn't know. Now I know I can only do this. I think they will give you forty or fifty thousand for a contributors deal, just to start. But what I will do is, and while making as many sound effects of exertion as I could dream up, I stretched around it, pulled my wallet out of my back pocket, and I emptied it onto my desk. I need to keep five bucks to tip my driver tonight. You can have the rest of whatever cash I have on me. I'm counting it now. There's one hundred twenty twenty twenty. My play by play skipped no bills four hundred and forty two bucks American five for the driver, the rest for you four hundred and thirty seven dollars. Rachel deal, She laughed, I'll see you tonight. I'll just tell Larry I couldn't be disloyaled to you. Oh, and I will take the money. And she took the money. In point of fact, when I like to say anything that Rachel Mattow did with her career after we got her show on the air in August of two thousand and eight, that's all her doing. I have nothing to do with that except being the lead in for the first two years. That's true. But I also like to say that I got that show on the air. And I also like to say I hired Rachel Mattow at MSNBC. And this is my point, it was not figuratively, it was not metaphorically. I hired her out of my own pocket. I literally hired Medow at MSNBC for four hundred and thirty seven dollars. And I will point this out again, I never even got the four hundred and thirty seven dollars back when I sent a segment a go doing TV damages the brain. I don't know if it's something in the camera. I don't know if it's something in the wiring. I don't know if it's something that attracts already flawed people to it. But the first thing it does is it takes whatever part of you is grateful and burns that to a cinder. You begin to think. I used to think this myself, that the people who helped you succeed somehow subtracted from your own value today and you had to erase them. The premise, as near as I can figure out, was if they were important to your success, were you important to your own success? Or was it all an accident of timing. It's illogical, paranoid and the epitome of ingratitude. Of course, then, of course that's the definition of MSNBC. Any who let me descend from the so box and send you on your way with my thanks for listening. Brian Ray and John Phillip Shaneil, the musical directors of Countdown, Arranged, produced and performed most of our music. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums as the third member of Tko Brothers, which produced it. I'm very grateful to them. Both our satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. I am grateful to her contributions and the fact that she gave me an interview at UPI in nineteen eighty. The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two. I'm grateful that Mitch Warren Davis wrote it, and I'm grateful to ESPN for letting me play it. Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed, and I'm grateful to them. My announcer today was my friend John Dean, whose friendship is one of my greatest sources of pride and to whom I thank every day. And everything else was as ever my fault. That's countdown today just and forty five days until the scheduled end of his lane duck lame brained term, unless Musk removes him sooner. The next scheduled countdown is Monday. As always, bulletins, as the news warrants, remember Al Green is right, impeach Trump and Keith impeaching Trump. It won't pass now, it won't work now, it will win the Democrats the midterms until next time, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.