EPISODE 214: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Now it's a CONSPIRACY to obstruct justice - within Mar-a-Lago and within the larger Obstruction. After two reports Tuesday, it's clear Trump may have had a team of aides and a box-moving guy who were literally playing hide-and-go-see with stolen classified documents, shifting them from place to place, and trying to burn the security video OF them shifting them from place to place, in order to keep the FBI from finding them, in order to keep the DOJ from getting them, and in order to prevent even his own lawyer from knowing about them.
The newest stuff: The Washington Post reports that guy who helped Trump valet Walt Nauta move the boxes full of stolen classified documents at Mar-a-Lago is now suspected of then trying to find out from the Mar-a-Lago IT guy how you could get rid of security video at, say, Mar-a-Lago, showing, hypothetically, a guy who helped move boxes full of stolen classified documents. And not just that but that Trump’s primary Mar-a-Lago lawyer told Jack Smith’s Grand Jury that HE was told to search for the classified documents the DOJ and FBI wanted IN a storage room. And when he asked if he should search anywhere else – like in Trump’s Office – he was “steered away” and “waved off” and Trump’s office, of course, is where the FBI ultimately FOUND the MOST sensitive of the documents when it came back a month later.
Meanwhile the Debt Deal is going so disastrously internally for the Republicans that when he sought support for his argument against passing it, radical Texas goofball conservative Rep. "Chip" Roy quoted... ME.
B-Block (18:52) IN SPORTS: The Dodger disaster continues. They folded to the pressure of "The Catholic League" (which is one loud guy named Bill) and uninvited a Nun Drag group supported by actual Catholic Nuns. Since? Dodgers rightly attacked by LGBTQ community and local fans, so they reversed and RE-invited. Now they've been attacked by a pitcher for The Washington Nationals who has called for fans to boycott the Dodgers, and their own star twirler has announced a Christian Night at Dodger Stadium - evidently BEFORE the team was ready to. (26:52) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Someone claiming to be the wife of a serving marine says the president needs to be "executed publicly." Elon Musk paid $44B for twitter. One of his co-investors now says it's worth $15B. And disgraced disloyal ex-General Mike Flynn has found a new calling: SELLING SPERM.
C-Block (32:40) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Bentley was rescued by a clueless group which stuck him in a luxury kennel and he has to be ransomed! (33:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I never wanted to do politics. Then one day I went from interviewing Chris Kattan on MSNBC to anchoring the 1998 State of the Union Address
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Republicans in Disarray, gopan crisis, fascists all funked up a debt deal so internally disastrous that for support Congressman Chip Roy of Texas has turned to stuff I said on this podcast in a moment. But first Trump and new evidence that he led a conspiracy to obstruct justice within marri Lago and within the larger obstruction conspiracy that Trump may have had a team of aids and the box moving guy who were literally playing hide and go seek with the stolen classified documents, shifting them from place to place and trying to burn the security video of them shifting from place to place in order to keep the FBI from finding them, in order to keep the DOJ from getting them, and in order to prevent even Trump's own lawyer from knowing about them. The newest stuff The Washington Post now reporting that the guy who helped Trump Valet Walt n Aouda move the boxes full of stolen classified documents at Mary Lago is now suspected of then trying to find out how could you get rid of security video at OO say Mary Lago showing hypothetically a guy who helped move boxes full of stolen classified documents, and not just that, but that Trump's primary mariy Lago lawyer told Jack Smith's grand jury that he was told to search for the classified documents that the DOJ and FBI wanted in that storage room, and when he asked if he should search anywhere else like in Trump's office, he was quote steered away and quote waved off. And Trump's office is, of course where the FBI ultimately found the most sensitive of all the documents when it came back a month later. The lawyer was, of course Evan Corkoran, and his story first and then the box guy, and the story is from Hugo Lowell in The Guardian that Corkoran quote recounted that several Trump aids had told him to search the storage room because that was where all the materials that had been brought from the White House at the end of Trump's presidency ended up being deposited. Corkoran found thirty eight classified documents in the storage room. He then asked whether he should search anywhere else like Trump's office, but was steered away. Corkoran never searched the office end quote. It is hazy in the Guardian story, and one presumes it is also hazy inside the Jacksmith grand jury. Whether Evan Corkoran was completely misled by Trump, or if Evan Corcoran winked along with the clear message there's no need to search over there. Over here's the only place any documents could possibly be. The possibility that he was not fooled, that he was complicit, that he was an accessory to some degree, is underscored by the fact that when on June third, the FBI came over to pick up what Trump claimed were the only classified documents in his possession, the thirty eight that Corcoran found in the storage room, and when it came time for a legal memo to be written that day asserting that the Trump people had conducted a quote diligent search, Evan Corkoran sure as hell did not sign that document. Evan Corcoran wrote that document, and he had TV spokesmodel lawyer Christina bob sign it. Now as to whether or not this is all on tape, and if not, why not, The Washington Post now reporting that the same unknown Trump staffer who was seen on June's second security video helping Walt Nyoda move boxes into the storage area the day before the FBI got there, presumably after Trumpet kept the documents he'd wanted to keep or trade for better signage at a golf tournament. He has now been accused of asking a Mari Lago it guy quote how the security cameras work and how long images remained stored in the system. The Post reports that mystery employee number one told Jack Smith's investigators that the conversation was innocent, and he knew nothing about the investigation nor the subpoena. The other subpoena that had just been delivered that was now demanding the June second security video. It was just an amazing coincidence. He gets caught on video moving boxes the FBI wanted to get its hands on. A few weeks later, there's a subpoena for that video. And he then just happens to talk to Trump's security guy about the details of the Mari Lago CC video system and how often it records over stuff. And he was just making security video small talk as one does. Hey bro, how many megapixels you're running here? And how good is the night vision? And then and the VMD and where's the charge couple device, and uh, how's the missus. Of course, he wasn't trying to figure out how to delete video or disable the systems, so nobody would ever see him moving the boxes ever. Again, and the post does not specifically link this amazingly timed coincidental conversation to Trump as if maybe Trump suggested that he should talk to the it guy, but it does conveniently note in the story quote advisors to Trump said the former president was annoy with conversations last summer over how to handle subpoenas seeking video footage. The leaks about Attorney Corcoran and the boxman with the amazingly plot specific interest in what the it dude could tell him about how the security video system worked are clearly the special counsels. Shots across the bow against Corkoran and anybody who talked to Corkoran about where he could and could not search, and of course shots across the bow against that unnamed employee whose lawyer may suddenly say to him, hey, you know what, they may try to nail you as an accessory to obstruction of justice. And it's more info fed to a waiting public that when Jack Smith indicts Trump it will be as much about destruction of evidence and obstruction as it will be about espionage, And just to ratchet it up one more notch, the Daily Beast reported yesterday rather vaguely that quote. Now that federal investigators have turned the interrogation spotlight on some of Trump's lawyers themselves, defense attorneys on the team seem to be questioning whether their colleagues may actually turn into snitches, which is intriguing, which is plausible, but which leaves out the key takeaway from the Post and Guardian stories. One of their colleagues already turned into a snitch. Jack Smith has Evan Corcoran's fifty pages of handwritten contemporaneous notes of his conversations with Trump about these documents, and Jack Smith clearly has Evan Corkoran's testimony, and frankly, if the trial started tomorrow, the key witness for Jack Smith on the document's part of the people versus Donald Trump would be Evan Corkoran Esquire, followed by the box moving guy who just likes to keep updated on how many you know terabytes they're running round the resort and what's the FIFO on that? Fourteen days, twenty eight days the FIFO, the FIFO, the first in, first out deletion principle in the SSD, the SSD the Solid state drives. And why am I asking? Well, well, we were talking it over at the bar last night, me and President, Me and Dona, Me and don No, no, no, no, not don I forget his name, No, no, Evan. That's right, Me and Evan were talking. We're talking FIFO on SSD's over a bud light. I gotta go now. The debt ceiling cataclysm that would be the cataclysm within the Republican Party over whether to support the debt deal or scuttle it, or oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker, or deify Kevin McCarthy, or expose Kevin McCarthy for making secret voting deals to become speaker. That the rest of his caucus was utterly unaware of. This cataclysm is so bad that the Republican who revealed what now appears to actually be a secret agreement that any bill coming out of the Rules Committee had to be unanimous among the nine Republicans, which was news to everybody. Butt Congressman Chip Roy of Texas. And how can you trust Chip Roy when he's sitting at a hearing and quoting, Well, he wasn't quoting Evan Carkoran.
I could go down a list of other quotes the ever important policy genius Keith Oberman. Biden has still kicked McCarthy's but now he must also kick Joe manchins butt and his pipeline out of the debt deal.
I said, ass Chip, Biden kicked Kevin McCarthy's ass. This is a grown man fifty years old who's to chip. His real name is Charles Charles Chip. Where I grew up, we used to have a company called Charles Chips. They used to deliver bags of potato chips to your house, just potato chips and pretzels in big, old ups sized vans, which is about as bad a business model as you can come up with Charles Chips. But they only went bankrupt the two times. All right, So back to the bad business model that is the Republican's handling of the debt deal. After Congressman Dan Bishop said he had no confidence in Kevin McCarthy, he said McCarthy was lying. McCarthy then walks into the House Republican Conference meeting and says, I thrive for these moments, which isn't a thing I thrive for these moments. I'm not even sure what he was trying to say, let alone what he meant. Kevin thinks he thrives in these moments? Is that? What was he trying to say, thrives in these moments? He lives for these moments? Or what's the fifo on that? Fourteen days, though there are at least thirty Republican knows in the House on the deal, there has yet to be a motion to vacate the chair. And the bill was approved by the Rules Committee, and it is still on schedule for a full floor vote tonight. Oh and it got out of rules without all nine Republican votes, just seven of them. And chip Roy voted no. And he warned that House Republicans have now been quote torn asunder. And chip you might very well think you had a veto in there. I could not possibly comment. If you want to quote for today's hearing, that's a pretty good one, feel free. I could not possibly come. It's from House cards. And while we're here, I think it is really sad that the third paragraph on chip Roy's Wikipedia page emphasizes that while he was at UVA, he was a dorm resident assistant for a year. Quote meeting future pro football players Tiki and Rendez Barber. Ooh you met them?
Cool?
Yeah, that's great. Did you get an autograph Tiki Barber? You know, I worked with Tiki Barber for two years on Football Night in America on NBC. But it's cool you met him, Chip, you were a dorm ari, really really cool. Chip. Parenthetically to the point I was making in the tweet the Chipster quoted, and he could have at least plugged the podcast. The point I was making about the Joe Manchion Memorial pipeline the Mountain Valley and that's an oxy moron if anybody cares. And now Tim Kaine's movement to strip it out of the debt deal has been joined by all six Virginia Democrats in the House, so there is at least a chance. You'll also have noticed that the CBO scored the whole thing and found that, yes, the number of recipients now subject to new work and other requirements for SNAP benefits is almost exactly equivalent to the number of recipients who will no longer be subject to work and other requirements. It is a push, and I'll note that, barring one or two other small things, Democrats who didn't talk about either the pipeline or the snap benefits, they have largely been silent about this whole thing, and they have let the ever important policy geniuses like my own self do the heavy talking here while we've all left the stage to the Republicans so they can self destruct and then reform out of the goop and then self destruct again. And lastly, on this I think it is fantastic that Congressman Matt Gates has been able to take time out from his substantive policy debate that he cannot possibly understand to host the show on Newsmax TV and boast that the rerun of it at eleven PM last Friday had higher ratings than the rerun of Anderson Cooper's Show on CNN, which was guest hosted by the effervescent John King. And it is just as fantastic that Kevin McCarthy could take time out from his version of the Battle of Bosworth Field to go on radio with Hugh Hewitt and announced that after this glittering triumph, he McCarthy will dedicate himself to the Republican's next goal to quote eliminate the wokeism, because, as we all know, Kevin thrives for these moons. Also note here, I have an infinite amount of time on this podcast. Yet I do not have enough time to list all of the degradations and perversions and madnesses and ecstatic religious visions and disloyalties of the disgraced former General and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. But I give him immense credit because he has at least not lost his capacity to shock me. General Michael Flynn has started a new line of business. General Michael Flynn is now selling a product. General Michael Flynn is in fact, now selling sperm. You heard me, Michael Flynn is now selling sperm. That's next. This is kind of down. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman.
This is Sports Center. Wait, check that not anymore. This is Countdown with Keith Alberman in sports. How could it possibly go more wrong for the Los Angeles Dodgers. First they invited a satirical fundraising drag group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Pride Night at Dodgers Stadium. Then when the infamous Catholic League, which is actually just one obnoxious guy named Bill came after them for doing that. They disinvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from Pride Night. Then, after blowback, including support for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from actual Catholic nuns, the Dodgers reinvited them. On Monday, relief pitcher Anthony Bass of the Toronto Blue Jays posted a video from some guy calling for boycotts of Target and Bud happily leaving the Dodgers out of it. This is evil, this is demonic, said the video that Bass posted. Yesterday, Bass issued a stiff, thirty second apology that looked like a very well rehearsed live hostage video. A baseball blogger named Tyrone Palmer noted Anthony Bass is calling for a boycott of Target. Judging by his four point five zero er and four walks per nine innings, it looks like he's been boycotting targets all season long. Almost simultaneous to Bass's Forest apology, another mediocre pitcher named Trevor Williams of the Washington Nationals posted a two screenshot screed in which he said he was quote deeply troubled that the Dodgers were inviting The Sisters claimed the decision was a quote violation of the Dodgers discrimination policy and encourage his quote fellow Catholics to reconsider their support of an organization that allows this kind of mockery of its fans to occur. Williams is not quite as bad as Bass, but if he disappeared from baseball tomorrow you probably would not notice, and he might because while he might not be as bad as Bass, Bass also did not attack another team, the La Dodgers, no less, and encourage fans to boycott them. You're in the same business, pal, or at least you were. The whole thing just keeps getting worse and worse because of one decision. This Catholic league, which convinced the Dodgers to uninvite these crazy drag nuns, is actually just one guy named Bill Donahue, a loud mouthed homophobe and bully. All the cable networks figured him out in the nineties and stopped putting him on. When the Dodgers finally figured that out, they reverse course and reinvited the Sisters. But then last week, the Dodgers team leader, the veteran pitcher Clayton Kershaw, personally announced that the Dodgers would also be staging Christian Faith and Family Day after an interruption that began with the pandemic. Now it becomes evident that Kershaw decided to announce this himself. Quote, I think we were always going to do Christian Faith Day this year, but I think the timing of our announcement was sped up, Kershaw told the La Times. Yes, it was in response to the highlighting of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence by the Dodgers. So Kershaw announced his team was going to hold a Christian event, boxing the Dodgers into holding the Christian event. The team will not comment about its own star. And just to complicate this more, Kershaw has always participated in Pride Night, Quoting him again, this has nothing to do with the LGBTQ community or Pride or anything like that. This is simply a group that was making fun of a religion that I don't agree with. Moral When Bill Donahue of the Catholic quote League unquote calls whatever bad thing you think he's tried to make happen, there is really only one bad thing that can happen, and that is this. You can forget that when Bill Donahue calls you must immediately hang up on him.
Another moment of baseball fund At least this one's between the lines sort of. First, the Houston Astros mocked the fans of the Oakland A's, the moribund, lame duct team that's probably moving to Las Vegas after ownership basically starved the franchise to death over the last five years. The Astros tweeted a video of their offensive explosion in Oakland recently with this caption ten runs in front of tens of fans. This was retweeted forty six hundred times, It got seventeen thousand likes and seven million views, and then, amid the criticism, the Astros del the tweet, thereby making it twice as bad, and the beginning of the end of TV sports as we know it is underway, or something like that. The terminology here gets kind of confusing. The Sports Business Journal reports that Diamond Sports Group, which runs the Bally Sports regional networks, which carry dozens of local team broadcasts in many sports, and which went bankrupt in March, has for the first time forfeited its rights to one of those teams games. It has told the San Diego Padres, it will not be making its next payment to them on the twenty year one point two billion dollar deal, and so the TV rights for the Padres revert back to the Padres. And I guess now the announcers will just have to go door to door every morning asking if anybody wants to watch that night's game and how much they'd be willing to pay for it. Thank you, Nancy Faust. And if you're wondering where tennis gets its reputation for disconnection from reality. At the French Open, Marta Costiuk lost to number two women's seed Arena Sabelenka. Costiuk refused to shake Sabolenka's hand after the match. She never shakes Sabolenka's hand after the match and they always play and yes, it is because Costiuk is from Ukraine and Sabolenka is from Belarus, which supports Russia's terrorism in Ukraine. And Costiuk will not shake her hand and did not shake her hand, and the French Open crowd at Roland Garo Stadium promptly booed the Ukrainian for not shaking her hand. And this is how stupid that is. Costiuc of Ukraine said she was in embarrassed for the French crowd for booing her, But then Sablenka of Belarus said even she was amazed that the French crowd had booed costiuc when both players in this dynamics say you've screwed up, You've screwed up coming up. One day, I was the mild mannered host of a mild mannered news magazine on MSNBC that led the show with stories like, oh, the new edition of the Farmer's Almanac is out, let's go live to the publisher, or tonight we devote the hour to Saturday Night Live's newest breakout star, Chris Catan. And then the next day I was anchoring the State of the Union broadcast and getting quoted by politicians as I was yesterday by Chip Next first, the daily round up of the miss Grants, Morons and Dunning Kruger effects Bestman's who constitute today's worst persons in the world, The Bronze. Kayleie Campbell Layton, posting on Facebook identifying as the wife of Ryan Layton, a marine based in twenty nine Palms, California. Quote Biden left many military service dogs to die in cobble after the evacuation. I'm calling for public execution of this old man, and you can't change my mind. Now. I'm a dog lover, and the fate of the service dogs in Afghanistan grieves me, as any dog at risk grieves me. And this woman has also done the military is racist against white people, posts and videos about target and she should have been arrested already for this threat against the president, and her husband needs to be thrown out of the Marines and directly into well. I'm assuming Congress Ryan chip Layton, runner up Elon musk Shot and Chaser time shot. We all told him so. We told him the blue two checks are not status symbols, they're ID cards. But he didn't listen because he's a super genius. Yesterday, an account called aoc Press began impersonating Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortes, and it had a blue check mark, and some of its tweets included wild policy statements, and thus the new cognizanity of Twitter. Those with grilled cheese for brains who also paid ninety six dollars a year for a blue check mark that's bigger than their private parts, they began to believe it really was the congresswoman saying these stupid things. And that's when Musk replied to one of the fake account's tweets, thereby amplifying it no pain, no gain. Also no brain, no pain, and no brain, no shame. If that's the shot, here's the chaser. Yesterday, Fidelity Investments, which put money in when Musk bought Twitter, wrote down the value of its share of the company and his He bought it for forty four billion. Fidelity says it is now worth fifteen billion. Elon bought it all right, but the winner Michael Flynn, Yeah, that one, not the whole treason and overthrowing the government start. This is his new venture. He is described as a founding partner of for the Pure, which is one stop shopping for the vaxer crowd quote an online community of health conscious COVID nineteen unvaccinated people where health conscious individuals who have rejected the vaccine can connect and find everything they need. Friendships, dating, curated news service providers, doctors, blood donors, fertility options, jobs, shopping events, etc. Wait what was that last one? Blood donors, No, no, no, Before that, doctors, blood donors, fertility options. Fertility options, you mean you mean it's an unvaccinated sperm bank. Michael Flynn is now selling unvaccinated sperm. Michael Well selling sperm is I guess better than selling out the country. Flynn two days worst person in the sperm world, still ahead on countdown. Chip Roy is not the first to invoke my name happily or otherwise in Congress or the Senate or whatnot. Dick Cheney and John McCain both muttered angry jokes in my direction within days of each other. And then there was the night I anchored the nineteen ninety eight State of the Union, when two weeks earlier I was not even a political correspondent, not even close. That's saga. Next. First, in each tradition of Countdown, we feature a dog. Indeed, you can help. Every dog has its day. This is about Bentley. Bentley is a big black dog with big ears, and he's pretty calm and pretty happy. And somebody in Fullerton, California, rescued him from a pound and clearly did not quite get the whole what do we do next part and simply took Bentley to a dog boarding place, a kennel an upscale kennel that calls itself a pet lodge, and it got him a space, and it left him there for two hundred and eighteen nights at thirty eight dollars a night and eighty four dollars to board one healthy dog. My friend Alana Rizzo from MLB Network and her rescue Gidrey's Guardian, is contributing to ransoming Bentley and she could use your financial help. You can find her on Twitter at Gidresguardian dot org or on my Twitter feeds. I thank you, and Bentley thanks you from the Dog Hotel in California, where you can check out but you can never leave. Now to the number one story on the Countdown and Things I promised not to tell and the State of the Union nineteen ninety eight. When I left ESPN and signed with MSNBC the first time in nineteen ninety seven, it was not to become a political commentator nor even anchor. I went there to do what the president of NBC News America needed most, a live, hour long news magazine show from Secaucus, New Jersey, so unfocused that on consecutive nights, we led with the threat of a terrorist group called al Qaeda, and then The next night we led with the publication of the Farmers Almanac. I mean, this was the news at eight pm, the lead story that published the Farmers Almanac. Again, here's our live guest, the publisher. Here's a going to rain next year. I had regrets. Anyway, the good part of the job was sports. I hosted baseball in the World Series and even did some Super Bowl stuff for NBC, And in mid January of nineteen ninety eight, I flew to the West Coast to work on that and do this magazine show, The Big Show on MSNBC from entertainment venues in LA, most of them associated with NBC. On the afternoon of Tuesday, January twentieth, nineteen ninety eight, we were on the set of Third Rock from the Sun preparing to interview at Star John Lithgow when my producer Phil Griffins sidled over, You, my little friend, are about to become a political host. The President got caught with some chippy in the White House. Chippy, oh not sex, sex looks like just you know, and then he lied about it in the deposition Saturday. I asked him how in the hell anybody knew about what the deposition said? When it was just four days after he gave the deposition, and those things are supposed to be, you know, secret, beats me. Drudge put it out yesterday and I asked him if credible news organizations like NBC were actually quoting an internet guy best known for his hat about what was a potentially impeachable offense. A lot of people were close on this story. Griffin said, we were close. Lisa Myers almost had it Sunday night. Newsweek finally put out a more detailed version about ninety minutes ago. It was their scoop. Judge just stole it from them. I think it was Isakov who wrote it. You'll have to interview Tim Russer to lead the show. The president may resign. We'll do it from right here. Back that up. What was that you said, we'll do it from right here, No part about the president resigning. Oh yeah, the president might resign. Thus, half an hour later, I was hooked up by satellite with Tim Russert from the Washington Bureau, listening to him outline the possibilities that the president might resign before sunrise. I nodded with as much gravitas as I could fake, despite the elements of farce that were apparently obvious only to me in the story and in where I was seated. In the background of my close up stood the refrigerator from the kitchen set of Lithgo's show Third Rock from the Sun, and on the refrigerator complete with its decorative magnets speaking their silent and suddenly completely hip gag. The magnets were a banana surrounded on either side by a strawberry. Phil I said to Phil as we tried to plan a smooth transition from that taped Russert interview about the possible impeachment or resignation of the president to a taped interview with John Lithgow, and then back to the live speculations of a couple of political writers for the rest of the hour. We're not going to have to do this every day, are we, Griffin laugh, Of course not. What do you think this is the end of the world. He was right. We did not do it every day. We did it for two hundred and eighteen consecutive shows, starting that night with the banana and the strawberry magnets over my shoulder. Our ratings kept doubling. Following Tuesday, my thirty eighth birthday. I was back in New York hosting a roundtable of political heavyweights in the hour leading up to Bill Clinton State of the Union dress that night. Andy Lack of NBC News and Phil Griffin had decided that I should host a second live report once the NBC Network guys Russert, Tom Brokaw a couple of others had wrapped up their analysis, which we were also carrying on MSNBC. So I would come on at eleven o'clock after Brokaw and russered two hours. My little friend, this is our nightline. I was doing my best to keep a straight face when during a commercial break at maybe eleven forty five, maybe midnight, halfway through my wrap up show, Griffin materialized next to my anchor desk. He had this stunned but not unhappy look, like when he used to smoke a lot of dope when we worked together in the eighties. We have the preliminary ratings, my little friend, I hope you're sitting down, I pointed at myself, seated in the chair. The pregame show that did a one point one. Our average rating at MSNBC before this presidential stuff came up, had been an zero point three. This was now four times previous ratings. In the past week, it had searched to an zero point six, and Griffin had insisted to me that Andy Lack was so happy he had wet his pants. But this is the kicker here, buddy. We have the immediate Since the President finally stopped talking, speech, did an eight, broke on Russer the wrap up, did an six. Since eleven o'clock, you've been doing a one point seven. You have had three times the audience of Tom Brokaw, three times the audience of the old man himself. This isn't just people crossing over from NBC to watch more. This is people watching the speech, turning off the old man, then turning back at eleven to watch you. I tried to assimilate what he was telling me. For the first time in my life, my ego refused to cooperate. The stage manager barked his queue of thirty seconds until the end of the commercial break. Phil Griffin shook my hand. Oh, and by the way, that thing you said at the start of the hour about it. It was as if the Intern had opened the door to the chamber and said, mister speaker, the President the United states. That's already included in the Associated Press story one point seven, My little friend, don't f it up. Actually, you can't f it up. We're in for the long haul now. Revel in it me quoted about the Clinton Lewinsky story in the main coverage of the State of the Union address on the Associated Press wire. Eight months after I stopped giving the scores of the Greater Stuttgart Invitational tennis tournament on ESPN, I had this sudden, horrible feeling that the usually slow to decide American viewing public had instantly concluded that, for some reason elusive even to me, they really like to hear me talk about the whereabouts of the president's penis. If I could have figured out how to f up the rest of the hour, I would have done it right then I didn't. The next day it got worse. The ratings were so great last night, buddy, they want us to go live every night at eight and eleven only about the president. The eleven is going to be called crisis in Washington. Finally we get what we want. Phil Griffin was dancing around, it'll be our nightline. Since joining MSNBC, I had not taken any time off and I actually had a vacation booked in Hawaii the next week with a young lady. Uh, yeah, about that. Phil finally announced, well, that's what we have to talk about, Keith. They want you to commit to this for at least six weeks, so it's this or Hawaii. I explained Hawaii to Phil. Lac said he'd probably pay for you to go do that whenever this is over. I said, in my opinion, that probably would not be good enough, and Griffin said neither did he, but that it was just for openers, and Lack told him that I could have three wishes and I could anchor NBC Nightly News at least on the weekends and a couple of times during the week. Just personally, I'd recommend you do it. I got the pressure that the show's going to happen whether we agree to it or not. Griffin said. He mentioned something about Brian Williams or maybe John Gibson being poor second choices, but viable ones. He said, viable ones I told Phil had some calls to make. Griffin suggested Lack needed a decision within the hour, that he wanted White House and Crisis on the air that night. Wait, that didn't sound like what he'd called it before. Phil Is it White House in crisis or crisis in Washington? Phil Griffin seemed introspective for a moment, then got in touch with the news executive within what's the difference, It's going to be our nightline. I almost suggested to him that that should be the title MSNBC presents It's going to be our nightline. On and on. This went for weeks four months. I mocked the story. The ratings went up. I tried to quit the show. The ratings went up. I gave a speech insulting the network for covering the story. Twenty four to seven. The ratings went up. Fox Sports approached me and offered me five times when NBC was paying me to go out to LA to do their sportscast LA, which was kind of near Hawaii, nowhere near the Clinton Lewinski story. And the ratings went up. And I was debating all this and the fact that I had a contract and I had agreed to do it. And then one night in early spring, I got home after another night of this crap. I put my feet up. I was half watching something on NBC while really just staring off into the distance. Wondering what I had done to deserve this, mulling my own future when the snare drum and the violent string section of an NBC News promo interrupted me Wednesday on a very special edition of Nightline, Jane Paully and the former Miss America there she was for a second, had tilted her look grave, journalistic, even scholarly. Jane Paully, the ten year host of NBC's landmark Today Show, the one who had then switched to primetime because the journalism had slowly ebbed out of morning television and she couldn't do it anymore. She was sitting there in a two shot with a Miss America from too many Miss Americas ago, the former brunette, former redhead, now former blonde, whose jet black hair made her look a little frightening. Why the hell was Jane Paul interviewing her on the signature albeit superficial NBC thrice weekly magazine show Nightline No less Well, in a split second, the promo gave me my answer. Jane, did you have sex with the President of the United States? Ex Miss America? Yes, Yes, I did, announcer. That's Wednesday on a very special edition to Nightline only on NBC America's news source with genuine terror. I screamed, I shouted aloud to no one check please, and I called my agent to talk about Fox. I've done all the damage I can do. Here here are the credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced, and performed by Brian Ray and John Phillip Chanel, who are the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Chanel, Guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by No Horns Allowed. Sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two and it was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer was my friend Stevie van zandt Everything else was pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this, the eight hundred and seventy sixth day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States. Don't forget to keep arresting him while we still can. The next scheduled Countdown is tomorrow till then, I'm the ever Important policy Genius Keith Olderman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck.
The ever important policy Genius Keith Olberman. Biden has still kicked McCarthy's.
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