TRUMP GAGGED, AND WHO'S THE NEXT FUTURE EX-SPEAKER? - 10.4.23

SEASON 2 EPISODE 48: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Kevin McCarthy is out and the ensuing chaos mainlines directly back to an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." House Republican Radicals caught that proverbial car they’ve been chasing and they had no idea what to do next and they look like idiots.

The offing of Kevin McCarthy is actually notable only because a) it underscores the reality that the Republicans have bluster and the novelty of having opened the pandora’s box of fascism and political violence, but they don’t have any leaders, as evidenced by b) Kevin McCarthy saying on Face The Nation, two days before they garroted him, that he’d survive and they should bring it on and now THAT’S probably the worst political TV interview of our time leading to c) his epic news conference last night in which he compared Vladimir Putin to Hitler in the ‘30s and concluding with d) McCarthy’s only actual accomplishment – he lasted 270 days in the job, 12 more than the record holder for shortest speakership.

But the REAL lead story did not happen in Washington yesterday. WHICH idiot Republican becomes the NEW Future Former Speaker of the House doesn’t much matter. Because the real lead story is summarized by the phrase AND NOW WE WAIT. Turns out that not only did Judge Arthur Engoron issue a gag order against Trump hours after Trump attacked the clerk of Engoron’s court room yesterday, but he issued a gag order against Trump less than a day after he WARNED Trump’s lawyers informally that their client needed to shut the eff up. Engoron – of whom they should be installing a statue outside his courtroom – provided a template for Judge Tonya Chutkan for a week from next Monday.

Judge Engoron not only gagged Trump but HOW he gagged him ALSO gags Junior Trump and Eric Trump: “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I won’t tolerate it. Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff.” But this trial is ultimately MOST valuable because what we just saw was the if-then scenario play out. Engoron didn’t just issue a gag order because Trump attacked the clerk. He had WARNED HIM, via his lawyers, informally but clearly. And twelve hours later Trump did it anyway.

Memo to Judge Chutkan: Get ready to issue a gag order, on penalty of revoking his bail, after that hearing October 16. And get ready to have to enforce it.

B-Block (24:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Campbell Brown is out as news chief at Meta/Facebook so I have to tell you the story of how CNN's president was forced to hire her instead of me at 8 PM there (and they then all got fired), which in turn means I have to tell the story of how Brown's Meta colleague Anne Kornblut wound up being interviewed by the MSNBC anchor (Savannah Guthrie) her husband left her for. And then there's Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who apologized for referencing Nazis in the Republican Party. Why? There ARE Nazis in the Republican Party. We call them...Nazis.

C-Block (33:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's baseball playoff time again, so it's time for me to tell you about the year I was in the middle of a riot in Fenway Park, and I overheard a Yankee swearing at his manager in the clubhouse, and I bought - and chose not to air - videotape of Roger Clemens nearly getting into a fistfight with a Yankee fan before Game 3 of the World Series.

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