Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SEASON 3 EPISODE 150: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45): One shouted question to which Trump didn't even bother to reply reignites the entire Trumpstein scandal and cover-up: "What did you think Epstein was stealing those women FOR?" It encapsulates the entirety of Trump's complicity: in the cover-up of Epstein's crimes, in his willingness to cut a deal with Ghislaine Maxwell, with his indifference to the suffering of the victims, to his belief the real victim here is him because Epstein "stole" Virginia Giuffre and other employees from him. It encapsulates Trump's worthless, despicable life. The moral vacancy, the lack of humanity, summarized in one reporter's question. And it re-emphasizes that Trump now confesses he broke with Epstein not over the child rape but because Epstein hired rape victims away from him, was STEALING Virginia Giuffre away from him, Trump paints a picture OF Mar-a-Lago where the tragic Ms. Giuffre who just killed herself worked for Trump as not Epstein Island but the Recruiting Station and Waiting Room FOR Epstein Island, Trump calls going to the Island a quote “privilege” and keeps re-igniting Trumpsteen and finding new things to admit to, and after ten years of watching the fascists beat democracy to within an inch of its life using democracy’s own loopholes, Senate Democrats finally found a loophole which may FORCE the Justice Department to release the Trumpsteen files including whatever deal with the devil his man Todd made with the pedophile pimp Gulaine Maxwell last week, or at minimum take Trump and his inflatable rubber Attorney General and tie them up in court forever and thus keep the Trumpsteen Scandal ALIVE forever. EVEN DEMOCRATS ARE DOING SOMETHING: Invoking federal law that says any executive branch agency SHALL supply any information to any group of five members of the Senate Government Oversight Committee. SHALL. Repeated daily, Trumpstein will end Trump's presidency. B-Block (43:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: MSNBC says it's getting great new offices (in fact, it's getting kicked out of 30 Rock by a parent that has disowned it). Analyze the polls any way you want to: Andrew Cuomo is losing to Zohran Mamdani in NYC by 20 to 30 points. The move to disbar the FCC fascist Brendan Carr. And at our expense Kristi Noem brings Corey Lewandowski with her to Argentina with her so she can spend all her time riding. C-Block (54:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I surprised a new friend recently by mentioning the late Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner was my friend. In fact we were friends for more than 25 years and my exchanges with him were unexpectedly and always delightful. The blessing of only knowing George, never working for him. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 149: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Donald Trump is now getting into bed with a convicted pedophile. Figuratively. Donald Trump has already cut a deal with a pedophile. A two-day deal to protect her. To PROTECT Ghislaine Maxwell from being prosecuted. Two days of immunity. It’s immunity. It’s immunity at the direction of Donald Trump. Immunity. What may be a precursor to a deal. To a pardon. To her walking out of jail earlier than the year 2037. This is sending the Deputy Attorney General, previously one of your own personal scumbag sleazebag shill lawyer mouthpieces, to meet with a convicted child sex trafficker who is not eligible to be released until she’s 76 years old, giving her two days’ worth of temporary immunity in which she can’t be further prosecuted for anything she says to him. You have ALREADY CUT A DEAL with a pedophile. You, Todd Blanche, are already figuratively in bed with a pedophile. YOU, Donald Trump, are already figuratively in bed with a pedophile. YOU, Trump supporters and blind MAGA cult slaves, YOU are already figuratively in bed with a pedophile. Sure, make a deal. Art of the deal. Trump’s the great dealmaker. Make the deal with the rapist of children. Of the woman who essentially held the girls down. Make the deal with the woman who sold the children to the rapists. MAKE that deal, Trump. And you know what that deal is called – it’s called selling your soul to the devil. If you have any soul left. You, Donald Trump, and all who support him, stand on the precipice. You are figuratively getting into bed with Ghislaine Maxwell. You are figuratively getting into bed with a pedophile. You are figuratively getting into bed with the process of COVERING UP PEDOPHILIA. There is now no way out of Trumpstein for Trump. ALSO: Anybody notice that on Friday Trump said reporters shouldn't ask him about Epstein, they should ask Clinton or the Harvard President: "I'll give you a list." So...he confirmed THERE'S A LIST and there's a LIST HE HAS and there's a LIST HE HAS THAT HE COULD GIVE YOU BUT IS COVERING-UP? AND RYAN WALTERS, EXIT STAGE RIGHT: Oklahoma's lunatic Trump-bible-thumping head of public schools? Reportedly had porn playing on a monitor in his office during the executive session of the State Board of Education. And then couldn't figure how to turn it off. It's a classic story: the loudest moralist has the least morals. B-Block (47:28) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Great news! A QAnon prophet says there are multiple Hillarys, Obamas and Bidens. Cool! An army? With which to kick Trump's ass? Let's goooooo. Senator Mike Lee again proves he is just a balding 5th Grader who just flunked Social Studies again. And while you may still be wasting your time complaining about Colbert, CBS has gone full obey-in-advance to placate FCC Commissioner Brendan "Don't call me Josef Goebbels" Carr. There will be an ombudsman inside CBS News snitching to corporate on things the CBS News people are doing that might displease Fuhrer Trump. C-Block (49:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Did I ever tell you I was in a movie? And the star bothered to show up to see my little cameo shot because he was such a fan of mine? And he was a great guy and we stayed in touch for 20 years? And his name was...RANDY QUAID? "Dead Solid Perfect" may be the best golf movie of all-time, Quaid was (then, anyway) a delight, it has THE scene the golfers love the most starring actress Corinne Bohrer, and the director who personally asked me to be in it (and I'm terrible in it) was named Bobby Roth. And last week I worked with Bobby Roth for the first time in 37 years. He's a documentarian now and the new one is on saving democracy and he wanted me in it. All part of life's rich pageant! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 148: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Now that it's Murdochian Official (WHAT? Trump is IN the Trumpstein files? I'm shocked to discover there's gambling going on in here) and a Politico source says Trump and his White House goons are so lost "it's the first time I've ever seen them sort of paralyzed," expect them to push even harder on their QAnonTM fantasy that Barack Obama is guilty of 'treason' - even beyond the farce that the nitwitted Tulsi Gabbard and Karoline Leavitt presented yesterday. So it is time for President Obama to respond - and crush Trump. It is Obama's moment. Rather than again insist that EVERYBODY ELSE needs to DO more and SAY more and STAND for more, he should give a national address in which he sues Trump personally for slander and defamation and announce a ridiculous figure sought - like $500 Billion - and call for a conference at which he and President Clinton and other Democratic leaders and the SCOTUS justices they appointed and every decent Republican and every true American meets to strategize how to legally and immediately remove Trump from office and replace his criminal gang with a bipartisan caretaker government to carry us through to Election Day 2028. I will give a version of the speech Obama should now give, because he has been unexpectedly afforded the opportunity to perhaps actually start something that could end this nightmare of a madman steadily disassembling American democracy, a Temu Hitler gradually turning harassment of minorities into persecution and ethnic cleansing, a criminal who must stay in office at any cost or face the reality of dying in prison for his countless crimes. I have no doubt he can do better. I would not doubt he has a better idea. I will take no offense - provided he DOES something. “Trump is clearly furious,” a Politico close-to-the-White House source told its Trump stenographer yesterday. “It’s the first time I’ve seen them sort of paralyzed.” Say Hey! Trump’s White House is paralyzed! Excellent – kick them down the stairs, they can’t fight back. It’ll hurt more. The Trumpsteen Birthday Card is real and it CAN’T be the worst thing about Trump in the files that we now know Bondi told him about in May, otherwise he would’ve released the files. The photos of Epsteen at Trump’s second wedding are real, and THEY can’t be the worst otherwise he would’ve released it. Whatever’s worst is at LEAST B+ material. Keep hammering. B-Block (37:16) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: They piled up quick! Trump just asked Washington's NFL team to change its name; Trump once hammered Obama for asking Washington's NFL team to change its name. Mike Lee fell for an AI Jerome Powell resignation so badly done that the only word in the office logo that wasn't gibberish was "BUREAU," Chris Cillizza is actually criticizing somebody else for talking politics when nobody wants to hear that person talking politics, and the passing of the eternal Ozzy Osbourne inspires John Yang to get Ozzy's native country wrong and Alex Jones to get the cause of death wrong. C-Block (48:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Can you believe it? After I presented the inarguable evidence that CBS didn't fire Colbert just to please Trump (how are you shutting him up if he's not fired until next May?) I get invited to speak at a PRO-Colbert rally. I explained what I was going to say, and the line went dead. One of the things I was going to say was how this is the same as MSNBC's firing of Phil Donahue in 2003. I was actually in the room for that, so let's go through it step by step. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 147: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: We have been burying the lede here. Trump. Is. Suing. Murdoch. Trump and Murdoch are at war. Over Jeffrey Epstein. The two worst people in the country, probably the world, at each other's throats, until further notice. Weeks, months, years. Amid rumors Murdoch's people at the Wall Street Journal are upworking ANOTHER Trump-Epstein/Epstein-Trump/Trumpstein story. And that Murdoch is preparing a Defcon scenario in which he turns Fox News against Trump. Because if Trump is stupid enough to try to put Murdoch out of business, Murdoch will have no choice but to try to put Trump out of business. Trump also seems to be doing everything else he can think of to make sure the Trumpstein story never leads the headlines again. Attacks his own people again. Left a paper trail inside the DOJ and FBI of Pam Bondi searching for thousands of Trump references inside an evidence pit the size of The New York Public Library. Changing the story of the latest plot against him for the sixth time in a week. And watching the polls - 17% approve of his handling of the Epstein issue - actually get worse since just last Thursday (89% want everything, not just the almost-meaningless Grand Jury testimony, released). Oh by the way there IS a Trump Client List inside DOJ/FBI. The only part of Trump's claim that there isn't that's true, is that it may not bear that title. There's literally 40 computers, 70 CDs of video, and 300 gigabytes of data. The Trumpstein story will swamp his presidency. For sheer volume it exceeds almost everything else Trump has ever done. It makes Watergate look like the editing out of four words in a 5,000 word document. IT'S WONDERFUL. Trumpstein, Trumpstein, Trumpstein. ALSO: Trump's unpopularity has now reached 1st Term proportions. Tulsi Gabbard is conflating two Russian stories and claiming the one nobody believed (Russia tampered with voting machines) disproves the one Robert Mueller proved (Russia hacked emails and got them to Trump's campaign). How does that work? I'll explain the psychology of morons who want to please their bosses, with the story of Tennessee Ernie Williams. And if you think Trump isn't brain dead he wrote something that must've come directly from a dream about how the Cleveland Guardians (formed 1901, not named "Indians" until 1915) are one of baseball's "six original teams" (Major League Baseball started 30 years earlier; it's HOCKEY with "the original six" and that's wrong too). B-Block (39:15) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: I understand this busts the narrative and reduces our ability to suffer as martyrs, but there is one inarguable and unanswerable fact that disproves the almost-universally accepted premise that CBS cancelled Stephen Colbert solely to appease Trump. It's this: If they are silencing him, why have they decided to keep him on TV for THE NEXT TEN MONTHS? This is the Phil Donahue cancellation all over again. It works to CBS's corporate advantage to make it look like they are sucking up to the psycho. Sorry. This is the least of the reasons. C-Block (1:09:10) MONDAYS WITH THURBER: Haven't done any of his priceless stories lately, and with Trump's new permanent Trumpstein Crisis, it's fitting to do James Thurber's stunningly prophetic saga "The Greatest Man In The World." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 146: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN BULLETIN "I never wrote a picture in my life," Trump told The Wall Street Journal, with his typical cognitive confusion, as he denied its bombshell report tonight that he contributed a bawdy letter and drawing of a naked woman to a special bound '50th Birthday Book' for Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Within minutes, literally dozens of pictures wrote (or as we'd call it, "drawn") by Trump appeared online - most of them auctioned for charity. Trump was immediately defended by others like JD Vance who said was written in the book (compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell) didn't sound like him. Which him? The "Grab 'Em" him or the "I never wrote a picture in my life" him? Vance also asks why WSJ hasn't produced the letter. And Laura Loomer says Trump never types letters, he writes notes. I have a fan letter from Trump - from 2014 - typed by him or somebody for him. The denials aren't relevant to the existence of the letter or what it says about Trump's relationship with Epstein at this perilous moment in Trump's presidency. And the denials didn't survive an hour. And they didn't deal with the most ominous part, the content of the letter, which includes Epstein and Trump "talking" to each other and concludes with Trump "saying" "Happy birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret." Another wonderful secret? What in the HELL could that mean? ALSO: in addition to the Trump Epstein cover-up there is the Trump Health cover-up and parts of the story about his acutely swollen ankles don't hold up. And the only thing swollen about Stephen Colbert is his ego. CBS has tonight cancelled his show, effective next May. The man is untrustworthy and rarely funny but his platform was consistently anti-dictatorship so the forum will be missed even if he will not. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 145: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45): Trump self-destructs over the Epstein files: now calls his supporters “weaklings” calls Republicans “stupid” for believing the Epstein story HE sold them, now demands reporters don’t cover it, and demands MAGA stops talking about it. And now - most meaningfully - HE is connecting his Epstein Cover-up to his Russia Collusion Cover-up and continually tying Epstein to "The Steele Dossier." And what was the most grotesque part of the Steele Dossier story? Sexual perversion. Video. Blackmail. Trump is himself tying himself and Epstein to the purported pee tape! And that nauseating link and amazing implications (which he alone is making) are on top of the established reality: Donald Trump is president of the Jeffrey Epstein cover-up.Trump is RUNNING the Jeffrey Epstein cover-up. It’s TRUMP’S Jeffrey Epstein cover-up! President Pervert. President Epstein. President Pee Tape. President Pedophile. President cover-up. "TRUMP’S EPSTEIN COVER-UP" - I want to hear that every day, from a leading Democrat. Every day and SIX TIMES on Sunday. Forever. I’m delighted Trump is destroying himself; I want Democrats to finish the job. I want it to destroy MAGA. I want it to bury them all, under a mountain of their own amoral, uncaring, "bullshit" – the word Trump just used in an enraged screed against his own MAGA "weaklings" whose support he now claims he no longer wants. Is pursuing this Shapiro-Steele story disgusting? Yes. Is it sleazy? Yes. Is it what the Trumpist scum would do? Yes. Is it a terrible way to prevent dictatorship and terror? What? There are RULES here? No, there are no rules. Pick up the damn tire iron. This is democracy-saving gold. Every. Damn. Day. Trump's the one who did this. He's the one who has now linked whatever he's choosing to do in covering up the Epstein story, to whatever there was in the Steele Dossier that would destroy him. He's the one who... crossed the streams. B-Block (32:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Homeland Security Spokesman Micah Bock with a cleverly phrased bit of dishonesty which actually says Texans calling FEMA during the floods had the same chance of getting through as people buying tickets have of winning the lottery. Mehmet Oz, whose senate bid crashed over crudités, now sees his Medicare disembowlin rationalization not cut it over carrot cake, and what trophies did soccer mogul Gianna Infantino let Trump walk away with this time? C-Block (42:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Twenty years, almost to the day, since I quit smoking and began my MSNBC campaign to get others to quit, too. Which the PRESIDENT of MSNBC naturally responded to...by trying to kill me. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 144: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Well, there it is, finally - the perfect storm that can dethrone or at least deplete Trump and of course it's his fault. HE has openly admitted he's covering up the Epstein Files, and he has in essence confessed he's in the Epstein Files. The problem is a simple one: Trump promised to give them pedophiles. They were promised politician pedophiles. They were promised that the politicians who were covering up Epstein were the pedophiles. And then one day Trump suddenly decided to announce that HE was the politician who was covering up Epstein and he SCOLDED them and HUMILIATED them and YELLED at them for challenging his god-ordained RIGHT to cover up Epstein, and they said in their confusion “but you promised us that you would reveal the pedophile politicians that were covering up Epstein and…wait a minute... that means...” As of mid-afternoon Trump was getting ratioed, on his own social media site, nearly 4:1 by angry, confused, moronic MAGAs. They have lived and died by his insistence that only pedophile politicians personally implicated in the Epstein documents and "client list" would be keeping them from being released. Now his two conflicting piles of bull have clashed, and he has been buried under them. UNFORTUNATELY TRUMP'S RESPONSE is utterly predictable: he will double down on Trump-ISIS atrocities, on torturing immigrants. It will give his 'people' the snuff films they want and may deflect their rage, at least for awhile. But remember, any time you see ICE threatening kids, to shout "Watcha doin? Grabbing those kids so Trump can take them to Epstein Island?" B-Block (30:46) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Karoline Leavitt thinks her conference calls are being interfered with by the devil. Riley Gaines' reward for stirring up murderous hate against Trans people? She gets to audition for Fox, and conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Her skills are so varied: she's 85th best in swimming AND propaganda! And then there's winner Caitlin Francis, a rando from California who has the kind of advice only a homeschooling MAGA mother can present to you: dogs and cats have no souls, so if their vet bills exceed $1000, kill them. Say, Mrs. Francis, what's your over-under on your sick kids? (44:17) SPORTSBALLCENTER: Would you like to play in tomorrow night's baseball All-Star Game? Because that's the only stunt they have left to save the dying exhibition, now that they've decided that five big league games is sufficient experience to be an All-Star? And the floodgates may have just opened in St. Louis, where a pro sports team is eliminating its separate radio and TV play-by-play teams and simulcasting. This is the future, and it's not pretty. C-Block (1:05:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Somebody asked me what was my favorite joke that I ever did on the air. So here's a bunch - starring Albert Hall, the Takko-Bell trade, and the day the Reading Phillies set me up to get ejected from a minor league baseball game. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 143: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL REPORT: Which is worse? That Trump is running a “Protection Racket Presidency” and bribed one Senator to vote for his Big Beautiful Soak The Poor Budget Bill while metaphorically bumping off one Senator who wouldn’t? Or that Trump threatened Israel, threatened the government of Israel, if Israel's courts don’t do what HE wants on behalf of Netanyahu – and nobody noticed. Which is worse? Well it’s a trick question because these are actually just two different aspects of the same story. It’s a protection racket. These are a) the domestic operations of the protection racket, and b) the international operations of the protection racket. Thom Tillis, the vaguely responsible Republican senator from North Carolina, refused to let Trump politically rape him Saturday night and would not vote to advance the budget bill. Trump had been threatening him for weeks, months, accelerated it, finally began to ask for volunteers to primary him, Tillis announced yesterday he will retire from the senate at the end of his term next year. So much for Mr. Tillis. So much for somebody, anybody, in the Republican party saying “I owe this country something.” So much for the thought that when the country is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell ‘em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Tiller. I don’t know where I’ll be then, but I’ll know about it and I’ll be happy.” Well I know where Thom Tillis will be: he’ll be back home in Cornelius, North Carolina. Presumably drinking heavily. Reflecting on how he represents the utter moral and ethical decline of the already near-bankrupt and nearly-totally-declined Republican Party. Meanwhile Senator Lisa Murkowski turns out to be Susan Collins with less Kibuki make-up. She sold her soul to get herself a carveout for Alaska, only to find out the Senate Parliamentarian says it violates the Senate's Byrd Rule and the carveout must be carved out. Lol. AND TRUMP THREATENED TO DEFUND ISRAEL - what would be the end of the political career of any other American figure - and nobody noticed. And it seems to have worked. ALSO: WHY KRISTEN GILLIBRAND MUST RESIGN (and get treatment), Stephen Miller has a financial interest in the ICE raids, the plot to make Eric Adams the Republican nominee for mayor of New York, and you missed the new SCOTUS rulings on porn! Pay attention, Mike Johnson! B-Block (37:32) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jeopardy aficionados worried about a conflict of interest because the contestant was related to the person who was the answer to the question? I was on two episodes of Jeopardy in which a contestant had the same name as the answer to the question, and where a contestant wrote four of the five sketches that were all the answers in an entire category! Plus the Fox host who doesn't know when World War 2 was or which American party caused breadlines; Chris Cuomo thinks AOC destroyed the Democratic Party not, say, he and his brother; and idiot Senator Bernie Moreno discusses "anals" with Laura Ingraham. C-Block (56:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's that time again. July 10 is the 46th anniversary of my first broadcast on my first full-time broadcasting job, which means you have a choice: you have to listen to it, or skip it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 142: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: The only “scum” here is Trump and the only thing that’s been “obliterated” is America’s reputation. We have now descended to that level of hell in which the entire purpose of the government of the United States is to say and shout and lie so loudly and so often that the insane, deteriorating, mentally-dissolving, international joke that IS the current president doesn’t yell at the fools and whores who work for him. He has now gotten the government of Israel to lie for him about his attack on Iran; he has now gotten his own government to issue assessments that not only completely contradict YESTERDAY’S assessments but completely contradict his OWN assessments; he has now gotten his own Director of National Intelligence – presumably under threat of being fired – to cherry-pick SOMEBODY’S intelligence, maybe ours, maybe Qatar’s, maybe Joe Rogan’s, who knows – and insist that it is NEW and it confirms his obsession that everybody in the country, everybody in the world, everybody in the universe, everybody YET TO BE BORN, agree with him that Iran’s nuclear capacity is quote “obliterated” and for all time and forever and no arguments and it’s the greatest military success since Hiroshima and Nagasaki and don’t you dare say otherwise, don’t you dare say inconclusive obliterated obliterated obliterated. Except that 24 hours ago Trump said… inconclusive. THERE ARE SEVERAL SIDEBARS to Zohran Mamdani’s startling first-round win in the Democratic primary for mayor here in Fun City. First: the tepidness of national Democratic support for him. Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and the rest of the gerontocracy better shape up fast because Mamdani won the MIDDLE class by doing the two things you idiots refused to even try to do last year: combine concern for the financial crushing OF the middle class, AND standing up for what’s right in the country and the world, including opposing Trump and ICE and punishing corrupt political cynics like Andrew Cuomo. The hesitation can only open an avenue for Eric Adams to whore himself out as a pro-business "centrist" who will be Trump's tool. B-Block (27:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Larry Ellison and my old ex-friend Jeff "You Should've Known I Was Lying To You" Shell have a plan for CBS News: more Bari Weiss. The one time we could've used propaganda and Voice of America in Iran, Kari Lake made sure we were off the air. And it's so easy to miss and to minimize, but Trump went full gay-bashing this week. Silence is compliance. C-Block (37:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Now that I'm with my fifth different network just doing baseball games (FanDuel Sports) it's a good time to revisit my departure from my first. A scant 28 years ago this month I left ESPN - but we came thisclose to keeping the relationship going just enough to continue the Sunday SportsCenter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BULLETIN: SEASON 3 EPISODE 141. TRUMP'S PROFANE, INSANE RANT Donald Trump's limited tether to reality has snapped this morning and he must be removed from office, by his own party, first via the 25th Amendment and then by Impeachment. Even as individuals as far from being anti-Trump as Speaker of the House Johnson and Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry have said, live, on networks like Fox and CNN, that Iran's nuclear capacity was obviously not fully destroyed in Trump's undeclared war against Iran, he has now raged against the networks, against Israel, and against Iran - because reality is not doing what he is telling it to. After a session with the press that was disturbing even for him, Trump then went aboard Air Force One and began to struggle (again, well beyond his usual struggle) to locate certain words and even repeat words just said to him. Asked about possible Iran "sleeper cells" he raged against "super cells." Trump is a lethal, imminent, clear and present danger to the life of everybody on this planet. He cannot continue in office. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 140: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: We join the Trump Dictatorship, already in progress. He has attacked Iran, declared undeclared war on Iran, denied he wanted regime change there and is now insisting there should be regime change. And it's all because he has lost America. The Economist polling that has his OVERALL approval underwater in FIFTEEN states… that HE WON LAST YEAR. SEVEN under in Pennsylvania, FOUR under in Georgia, FOUR under in North Carolina, eight under in Michigan, eight under in Pennsylvania. Even CNN’s pollster Harry Enten says “I think we can say Trump has lost the political battle when it comes to what has happened in Los Angeles." CNN has Trump at -15 approval on his key issue: immigration, and -24 among independents. Trump attacked Iran because he has lost America. As a political observer wrote on January 17, 2012, “Obama will attack Iran in order to get re-elected.” And the SAME political observer wrote on October 9, 2012, “Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.” And the SAME political observer then wrote on September 16 2013 “I predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face,” and as the SAME political observer wrote on September 25, 2013 “Remember what I previously said, Obama will some day attack Iran in order to show how tough he is,” and how finally that SAME political observer wrote on November 10 2013 “Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly – not skilled” – and that political observer was… Donald J. Trump. I'll analyze the consequences of Trump's unconstitutional act - including angering Putin - and the hilarious moment when Pete Hegseth got the location of the target wrong. Plus Trump's nonsensical "I'd especially like to thank God," his lies about being opposed to Iraq, and the small victory: the Senate parliamentarian says they have to strip from the budget bill the move to limit the courts' ability to restrain Trump. B-Block (37:32) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: It's like Champions Week on Jeopardy: Mayor Eric Adams keeps digging, Jake Tapper keeps digging, and Stephen A. Smith is digging so hard to align himself with the reprehensible Candace Owens that at this rate Smith will be forcing ESPN to fire him. C-Block (50:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Of all the things you don't expect to come up on Jason Benetti's Detroit Tigers telecast is not one but two ex-pitchers confessing they still have dreams - thirty years later - that the anthem is playing, they are supposed to be pitching, but they cannot find their uniforms or that their shoelaces have been tied together. I'll explain why the mini-PTSD dream has become a nostalgic dream for these guys from my cohort: Frank Tanana, Dan Petry, and me. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 139: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: So we're going to do that whole Iraq crap again. Only swapping out the last letter. "Iran" instead of "Iraq." Because nobody remembers Bush and people think Trump is somehow anti-war, when he's doing all this because of his desperate FOMO that there is something somewhere on Fox News that he is not being given personal credit for. Only he's skipping the whole phony terrorism-9/11-pancake uranium-manufactured evidence dance and just saying "we're doing it to save Israel" even though the evangelicals who WANT to "save" Israel like Mike Huckabee really want just to make sure nobody but them destroys Israel, since the end of their prophecy is that when there are no Jews anywhere but Israel, there'll be a rapture, and all the Jews will convert or, you know, bye-bye. It's complete delusional snake-handling level religion. And as for the US military, the purpose of war with Iran would be the same as was the purpose of war with Iraq: to HAVE a war in which you can DESTROY B-2 Stealth Bombers and thus increase the Pentagon budget. As Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok would say: "Blowed 'em up good. Blowed 'em real good!" PLUS: Governor Hochul of New York uses the mot juste about what appears to have been a set-up of NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. ICE swings back towards seizing the people who keep the red states from starving. And those Trump American Phones are made in China. B-Block (32:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: CNN/MSNBC screw up the ratio of ICE protest coverage to No Kings protest coverage; Stephen Miller runs Trump but Katie Miller runs Stephen Miller; Karoline Leavitt inexplicably posts a photo of Trump wearing a dunce cap. C-Block (43:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: This week was the 25th anniversary of the day my mother became famous, and loved every moment of it, when she got hit in the face by a baseball thrown by the second baseman of the Yankees - while I was doing the highlights of that game on Fox's national game of the week telecast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 138: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: The Minnesota Assassinations and Trump's Toy Tank Parade proved it again this weekend: Without violence, he is nothing. No tanks? No guns? No bombs (to fulfill his FOMO over not getting to bomb Iran)? No threat if you protest you'll be harmed? Beaten, even if you're a Senator? No parades? No Pro-Life Murderers? Without them, Trump is nothing. Unfortunately - as the weekend showed - they are all still here. ON THE OTHER HAND: There is some small respite this morning. They got the 2011 Georgia Crops report and printed it out and pasted in some pictures of Trump or something and made it brief and showed it to him and all of a sudden he TACO’d on the ICE Gestapo round-ups of immigrants. At least the ones in agriculture, hotels, and restaurants because, you know… mass starvation. Well, mass starvation LATER. First, mass lower corporate profits IN agriculture, hotels, and restaurants. As I've cited endlessly since the report came out, in 2011 Georgia warned it would detain all undocumented migrant farm workers. Suddenly all the onions, watermelons, blueberries were rotting in the fields and Georgia farms were going bankrupt because they were 40% short of workers and the Georgia citizens recruited to replace them were no good at the jobs or quit because it was too tough and by the middle of summer Georgia had lost $75,000,000 in agricultural income. So that, times fifty. BUT PHILOSOPHICALLY: Even when the manifestos were found inside the car of the Minnesota Pro-Life Assassin, Senator Mike Lee went on Musk's Disinformation Platform to brand him a "marxist." Or all the fictionalized accounts of the assault on Senator Alex Padilla. Because the key to being infected with MAGA disease is to reach the conclusion that best suits you, then make up the facts to fit the outcome. We will defeat Trump. I don't know how we will defeat this. B-Block (36:11) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: There's always a tweet and for this moment in Iran, it's from Tulsi 2020 Gabbard. Then there are two tales of achieving peak idiocy about the assault on Senator Padilla from opposite directions: Stephen A. Smith, who started with no political experience or insight and has somehow gone backwards, and CNN political director David Chalian, who started as a political director and has ALSO somehow gone backwards. C-Block (49:00) MONDAYS WITH THURBER: Haven't read one in awhile. One of his most pleasing to hear rather than just read: The Car We Had To Push. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

COUNTDOWN BULLETIN: SEASON 3 EPISODE 137 Attempting to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at her Propaganda Conference in Los Angeles today about the Trump Junta's illegal usurpation of the California National Guard and its illegal deployment of active military into civilian police enforcement, California Senator Alex Padilla was jumped by a series of Trumpist thugs including uniformed members of the FBI who wrestled him to the ground, threatened him, and handcuffed him. This is simply the latest in a string of domestic terrorist events perpetrated by Trump's government since the beginning of the ICE raids rounding up migrants, naturalized citizens, and native-born Americans alike, last Friday. It precipitated minor protests and violence slightly below the level of that seen after the Los Angeles Lakers' basketball team won its last championship in 2020. The manhandling of Padilla may have not been the most ominous development Thursday in our march towards dictatorship. Pressed at a congressional hearing about the pending case asking a judge to restrain Trump from usurping control of the California National Guard from Governor Newsom, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth refused to confirm he would abide by any ruling from the court with which he would not agree. He is attempting to cloak the insertion of active military into civilian police enforcement, and the overriding of the courts, in some fantasy that he and Trump are enacting "foreign policy" by terrorizing Southern California. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 136: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Gavin Newsom has reached his "EFF IT" moment - and it might prove to be the moment we began to save the democracy. If you MISSED Newsom’s speech (and trust me, I did, its only failure was its rollout) I am going to play the whole thing at the end of the first segment because it was that good. Eight minutes of escalating but suppressed righteous indignation bordering on rage – eight minutes building towards Eff-It - of which I think I am still the Official Exclusive East Coast Distributor. I think I KNOW my eight-minute suppressed righteous indignation speeches and this was outstanding. Newsom alone has realized that all you have to do is stop playing Trump's version of this game, and introduce him to a NEW version in which the Mike Tyson Law applies - and he will have no chance. And Mike Tyson’s law – is that everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” As you listen to the speech, my connoisseur’s advice is to listen to the slow burn and the rapidly decreasing time between each metaphorical shot Newsom takes. It’s not just the FIRST grown-up speech responding to Trump’s evil. It’s a really good one. And it ends with… Trump getting metaphorically punched in the face. But consider the larger context. Newsom’s emergence – this is a stupid analogy but it somehow works – was like a caterpillar emerging as a gigantic butterfly, a butterfly equipped with nukes, a stealth bomber butterfly – and THAT was last Friday with his threat to crash Trump by withholding all of California’s federal taxes, all 692 billion of it – THE economic civil war game-ender I have been advocating out here in the wilderness for a decade. Then he says “wait, I’m not finished yet” and he goes back inside the cocoon for a minute and comes out even LARGER with MORE nukes and now he is THE Resistance, THE Democratic Party, and THE hope to save America. A week ago Gavin Newsom was posting a podcast with quote “Doctor” Phil McGraw, who did a ride along with ICE raiders. June 4: glad-hand interview that utter fraud Phil McGraw AFTER glad-hand interviewing Newt Gingrich, Michael Savage, Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. June 6: respond to Trump’s threats to kneecap California by threatening to lead a TAX STRIKE – the most liberal, progressive, in-your-face political protest proposed this century. June 7-8-9: come back and TOP that with calling the bluff of these Halloween Mask bullies like Trump and Tom Homan. June 10: give this speech. So, now the question is: Why haven’t any other Democratic so-called leaders followed Newsom over the top into no-man’s land even though he went first and discovered there are 100 to 200 million Americans just standing there waiting for somebody to lead them against Trump? B-Block (38:22) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Senator Kevin Cramer, who has never held a real job in his life (an entire career as a politician or failed political candidate) doesn't see the need for ANY federal minimum wage. Tulsi Gabbard thinks the "elites" have underground bunkers in which they can survive nuclear war. And Terry Moran got fired for an analytical opinion about Stephen Miller, but Jake Tapper can retweet Jonah Goldberg's opinion retweeting Fox's opinion retweeting Fetterman's opinion about how much the Democrats are hated. Fire. Tapper. Now. C-Block (50:00) IN MEMORY OF MINET GERMAIN OLBERMANN: Tuesday was World Pet Memorial Day and yesterday was the third anniversary of his gotcha day, so please let me tell you about my late rescue Minet. He arrived here a month shy of his 15th birthday with no expectations and very little awareness of the world around him. And then a little dental care and a little attention and the next thing I knew he was literally jumping for joy on the streets of New York. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 135: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: This isn't a metaphor or an analogy. When the Los Angeles Lakers won their last NBA championship in October, 2020, there were 76 people arrested for assaulting law enforcement, burning cars, mayhem, looting, graffiti, etc. The day before yesterday, during the Trump ICE Gestapo Riots? The ones he claims almost "obliterated" Los Angeles? It was so calm there were only 42 arrests. That's literally the score: LAKERS 76 TRUMP-ICE 42 The true law-breaking is, as always, by Trump. Analysis by Ryan Goodman of Just Security (and others) underscores that the document Federalizing the National Guard and authorizing the unprecedented use of active military is a blank check for Trump. It redefines everything, summoning from thin air a veto of the governors' primary role in this, giving the Guard to attack not just violence and not just peaceful protests but just the threat of peaceful protests. It is unchecked power to kill protestors. That's why Gavin Newsom and the government of California sued yesterday over Trump's illegal usurpation of the National Guard and the use of military enforcement of his political whims. B-Block (21:15) ANALYSIS: Anybody remember ELON MUSK? Wow, that whole thing with Trump seems like years ago. There is something substantial to the biggest story ever (until the next one). In a twisted way, I think it proves that no, what Trump said about Musk knowing all the computer voting machines was just D. Mentia's imprecision. It probably all confirms Musk didn't alter any of the actual voting in November. C-Block (37:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was explaining how I knew the remarkable actor Walter Matthau to a friend, and thought this was the right day to tell you about this extraordinary - and extraordinarily kind - man. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 134: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Call this what it is. This is Trump's terrorist attack on Los Angeles - and his terrorist threat against every other American city not yet infected with MAGA fascism disease. It is taking what even the paranoid L.A. police department considers a minor event and trying to manufacture a crisis worthy of burning down our constitutional rights and sending National Guard and perhaps Marines to shoot at civilians on the streets of an American city... and to warn every other city that it could be next. What else do you call it, when the fiendish, demented, Hispanic-hating advisor and bigot calls all this quote “an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States” when it is in fact a handful of people exercising their protected constitutional rights in the parking lot of a goddamned Home Depot? It is terrorism. It is designed to cause terror and panic and to either use violence or the threat of it to effect political change, extra-legally, by masked and helmeted, faceless men and women, with weapons of war, on the streets of America’s second largest city, to stage an ICE riot and then show what are literally seconds of self-defense by civilians again and again on what are nominally television news channels subverted and perverted into propaganda machines… to warn with unstated menace that THIS will be re-enacted every day for the next month in Southern California and then - where? New York? Chicago? Washington YET there IS a way to stop Trump, here, and to destroy his plans and perhaps his presidency. Right now. Governor Gavin Newsom and the state government of California have proposed leading what is in effect, a TAX STRIKE. "We pay over 80 billion dollars more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it’s time to cut that off," Newsom says. says State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas is more specific: “We must look at every option, including withholding federal taxes.” California pays $692 Billion a year in federal taxes. If the blue states withheld federal taxes the red states would be figuratively starving by next week. DOGE THIS, Trump. Do it. Stop the dictatorship. Stop the terrorism. B-Block (35:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Dinesh D'Souza and "Buck Millions" hilariously can't process the Musk-Trump fight. There's reportedly something amiss with the book sale figures for the Jake Tapper tome. And last month, New York mayoralty candidate Jessica Ramos branded fellow contender Andrew Cuomo as "The Democrats' Trump." Now - she's endorsed him. C-Block (45:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I saw a video of one of "our" newscasts the other day. He was the stentorian-voiced anchorman. I was the 19-year old intern. He remains one of my favorite people I've ever met in the business, and not just because he dedicated himself to being a thorn in the side of management everywhere. In memory of Bill Jorgensen, this time until next time. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 133: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: It's still just at the passive-aggressive stage but Elon Musk has not only broken with Trump and ghosted Trump, now he has re-tweeted someone telling MAGAs to go to the comments at Fox News and read how "almost every comment is in agreement with Elon – to see so many vehemently disagreeing with Trump is wild.” This is not going to end well. Pass the popcorn. How is that POSSIBLE? Who could have EVER forseen that relying on a chemical’d-up, psychologically-impaired, persistent over-promising, compulsive sperm donor who may have been the victim of a botched penile implant, could be a BAD thing. Musk has ghosted Trump and is starting to attack Trump - and Trump can’t say a word because unless Musk bankrolls it Trump won’t be able to subvert the constitution and run for a third term – and unless Musk bankrolls it a Trump successor will never get off the ground and unless Musk bankrolls it the Republicans will lose the House next year AND maybe the Senate too. All Trump has been able to do is the really sad sight of a screenshot of a Musk tweet praising Trump. It’s from May 28th. THIS is the BEST part: Trump cannot trash Musk. As much as he wants to, as much as Musk attacks the House for Trump’s budget bill and its 2-point-4 trillion dollar add to the deficit -without mentioning Trump even though it’s TRUMP’S bill and those idiots in the House like Mike Johnson are just Trump’s SLAVES, as much as Musk is still protecting Trump from himself, Trump has to do the most difficult thing in the world: shut himself up. Keep his mouth shut. OTHER HEADLINES: Trump is now trying to sabotage Columbia's accreditation. It's not too late, Claire, break your deal and sue him for $100 Trillion. Trump the Russian simp also says he talked to Putin about Ukraine and Putin says he'll have to avenge the airbase attacks (what is he going to do? Start bombing Ukrainian cities?) A Republican senator actually asks 'What WAS we ranked" in reading and arithmetic in 1979. And Karoline Leavitt has the yips: she has now called Trump "Chump" three times in the last week. B-Block (25:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Steven Cheung wants you to ignore the legacy media. To prove why, he attaches a clip from...CNN. CNN's Abby Phillip lets a putz named Chris Sununu to compare Trump's post about Biden being executed/cloned to people insisting there are back-up Melanias. And on the same topic somebody named Kaylee McGhee White goes on Fox and insists the nation might've been run by "a cable" of unelected White House officials. C-Block (35:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Tomorrow's the anniversary of the day the president of MSNBC wanted to postpone breaking news to do anniversary programming he had dedicated himself to. The breaking news? Ronald Reagan had just died. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 132: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: “He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy,” Trump writes of the suspect who has confessed to the Boulder Flame-Thrower Attack, “which has hurt our country so badly. He must go out under Trump policy.” Yeah, great. Well, he DIDN'T go out under the Trump policy because the Trump policy is to ignore the actual dangers and simply arrest the innocent and those who pose no threat and thus Trump has blood on his hands. The attack on the weekly march of those remembering the Gaza hostage was carried out by a man here illegally, whom Trump and his big talking crowd of bullies, losers and cowards, have had FOUR months to find and remove, and have criminally failed to do so because they under phony tough guy Tom Homan and Dress-Up Barbie Kristi Noem were too busy kidnapping mothers and gay hairdressers and kids at their high school graduations and people here legally and immigrants dutifully showing up for their hearings the way law-abiding people – law-abiding means NOT LIKE TRUMP – do. That the suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was still here, is TRUMP’S FAULT. Because the entire MAGA immigration STUNT is a show for the racists and the xenophobes. It goes after only the soft targets, it uses only brutality and force when neither is necessary, it is there to terrify one part of this country and satiate the sadism of the other. It is the opposite of securing borders – it is a prelude to the new Trump policy of “Re-migration” – and “Re-migration” is itself a prelude to Ethnic Cleansing. And the champion of re-migration, the demented, warped, soulless bastard behind that, is Stephen Miller, who couldn’t wait to turn the Sunday attack into a sword with which to again try to butcher this nation’s humanity. And I mean he COULDN’T wait, literally. If he had, more people would realize, Miller and his Gestapo are not the solution to the problem, they are its cause. B-Block (20:07) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Something worse than what Glenn Greenwald revealed in "the tape?" How about Glenn Greenwald threatening to reveal me as his source for a story because I criticized him. Plus Riley Gaines has challenged me to a swim race. It's 50 years since I was admitted to my high school's Cum Laude Society and I have an admission to make. And the Washington Post reported that polling showed the weirdest name of them all is "Keith" and I thought they were both serious - and right. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 131: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump believes Biden was cloned and executed. Five years ago. He sent this out on his social media account Saturday night:"There is no Joe Biden – executed in 2020. Biden clones doubles and robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see…” If you hear or read that this was Trump RE-posting something that some OTHER lunatic wrote on Trump’s social media site, or that this was Trump TROLLING, or owning the libs - this is incorrect and minimizes the severity of Trump’s accelerating complete mental breakdown. Unlike the original, TRUMP’S version also includes a photo HE has added. No matter what YOUR explanation for this is, or mine, or Fox’s, or his enablers, this country cannot have a president who promulgates theories that his predecessor was a clone, or a body double, or a robot. The dynamic tension keeping someone this damaged and disturbed from deciding now’s the time to nuke the world because don’t worry the people HE likes won’t be affected, is the same as the dynamic tension keeping a badly built bridge upright. It can hold for years or decades and then one day it just collapses and kills everybody. MEANWHILE, MUSK INCONTINENCE STORY LEAKS: Elon Musk was reportedly peeing his pants non-stop during the election? Afterwards? I don’t mean metaphorically. I mean… peeing his pants. New York Times about Musk in May, 2024: “Around that time, Mr. Musk told people that his ketamine use was causing bladder issues, according to people familiar with the conversations... The Food and Drug Administration (warns) chronic use can lead to addiction and problems with bladder pain and control." Where is the Jake Tapper book about THIS? Between THIS and Trump’s revelation that Biden wasn’t cognitively challenged last year and that instead he was dead and cloned and a robot - what does Jake Tapper do now? B-Block (33:14) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Con writer Kurt Schlichter thinks somebody else is "Two clever by half" never realizing...he isn't. Andrew Cuomo's excuse for breaking NYC traffic laws? He thought the reporters waiting to ask him questions about running for mayor were protestors. And Jake Tapper is losing roughly two viewers for every Biden book he sells. C-Block (45:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL/SPORTSBALL CENTER: Baseball's annual commemorations of Lou Gehrig have begun. It's the right time to remind you that when "The Iron Horse" was stricken by ALS, plenty of America's top sports authorities were convinced he was either faking it or not deserving of sympathy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.