SEASON 2 EPISODE 27: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Uh-oh. Somebody told Trump about the 14th Amendment and he’s terrified

And we know who terrified him. The Wall Street Journal published a 900-word editorial exactly 77 minutes before Trump’s post and it is aptly titled “The 14th Amendment Trump Panic” because while the Journal usually has the confidence and arrogance and factuality of Marie Antoinette apocryphally talking about dessert, this time the lead fascists Chez Murdoch sound really scared. They have resorted to the argument that even if the 14thAmendment doesn’t JUST apply to people who literally fired a gun at the flag or those who instructed them to, it can’t apply to January 6th because January 6th wasn’t a REAL insurrection because… uh… it didn’t SUCCEED. 14-3 advocates are quote “willing to put democracy at risk in order to save it. But U-S institutions held up reasonably well despite the strains of the Trump Presidency, even the events of January 6. The transfer of power took place on schedule…the rioters and organizers are being punished, often severely…”

In other words: whaddya mean ATTEMPTED murder? What kind of crime is THAT? Either there’s murder, and you go to jail, or there isn’t murder, and you go free. Am I right? Trump bleated about socialists and democrats and election interference and who will get to tell him? The Disqualification clause was in essence created to keep the Vice President of the confederacy out of the Senate. After he won. As a DEMOCRAT. In 1866. And Alexander Stephens had been convicted of NOTHING. He was arrested for treason on May 11th, 1865, released from prison in October without even going to trial.

In 1919, 14/3 was used to keep a Congressman-Elect, Victor Berger of Wisconsin – literally an actual member of the Socialist party – out of the House because he had been convicted of violating the Espionage Act during the 1st World War because he opposed U-S entry into it. And just last year local New Mexico official Cuoy Griffin was bounced by 14/3 after nothing more than a misdemeanor conviction for trespassing. The point of course is that Stephens was kept out even though he was never convicted of anything, never even TRIED for anything, and he was readmitted only after a Congressionally-approved amnesty. Trump doesn't understand these nuances but like the wild animal he is he can smell fear, and there's nothing but fear in the WSJ editorial. Press the point.

Plus we knew Mark Meadows had confessed to the Georgia judge last week while trying to get his trial moved to Federal Court. We had no idea how MUCH he had confessed, and how screwed he is, and how his only option may be to cut a deal with Fani Willis.

B-Block (20:27) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: All is finally well at CNN where the new guy starts in one month and four days and controversy is a thing of the past and what do you mean at the BBC he once leaned over to a news editor and BIT HIM ON THE ARM HARD ENOUGH TO LEAVE MARKS THROUGH HIS SHIRT? (26:26) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Matt Schlapp conducts an exorcism...in his PANTS! The Philadelphia cemetery that has a memorial to...Nazi collaborators? And segueing perfectly: After pimping for the hashtag "Ban The ADL," Elon Musk insists he's opposed to all forms of anti-semitism and then explains that the main Jewish organization fighting anti-semitism, The Anti-Defamation League, has conspired to destroy advertising on twitter and he's suing them and if Musk ain't an antisemite it's an incredible simulation.

C-Block (33:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The school year has begun at every level and inevitably I flash back to the day my legendary Cornell American history professor nearly failed all of us in his class because his favorite football team lost.