Countdown with Keith Olbermann

The podcast discusses the upcoming trial of Donald Trump and the Trump 19 in Georgia. It also covers a politician's attempt to defund the prosecutor's office and his threats of civil war. Other topics include OJ Simpson's shocking transformation, security breaches at MLB games, misconduct allegations on a political campaign, and the banning of a book in Texas schools.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 24: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT:  Trump STILL has to go to trial in 189 days and apparently STILL does not know there is no legal mechanism to APPEAL the judge’s schedule nor STILL does half the Republican Party and STILL at least half of all media including the BBC, and thus Trump is STILL ROYALLY EFFED.   And after Mark Meadows inexplicably testified for more than four hours yesterday trying to get a glorified change of venue in the Atlanta Election Subversion Conspiracy trial by using the singular strategy of confessing to everything… the Judge says he’ll have a ruling “as soon as possible”whether it stays in local court in Atlanta or in a federal court presumably elsewhere in Georgia with a jury pool more favorable to Meadows and Trump and when they say favorable of course they mean more WHITE. She wasn’t going to JAIL Trump, no matter how much I wished for it on my lucky beads. She was going to do something far worse. She was going to assume he was doing it to try to poison the jury pool (like he could think THAT rationally or THAT far ahead) and she would just speed up the trial. The prosecution wanted the trial to open 127 days from now. Trump countered with 947 days. Two and a half years. Chutkan’s compromise REEKS of “this is punishment, please enjoy being EFFED” – 189 days. It's glorious​. There is one thing here Trump truly fears – the OTHER essential ingredient (besides a guilty verdict) that can put him behind bars: a speedy trial – and his nitwitted co-defendants, his supposed minions Ken Cheesbro and Mark Meadows and Sidney Powell all INVOKED the Georgia Speedy Trial Law so THAT one is already on track to start two months earlier than originally planned BY THE D-A… and now Trump is being beaten up by the judge who KNOWS it’s the one thing Trump truly fears – and we’ll see you on March 4th. Now about Meadows: why did he feel he had to testify – for four hours – that he was Trump’s gatekeeper and HE was at every meeting and HE was on every phone call and HE was the guy others went to, to get Trump to listen to them – and HE went to Georgia and HE arranged the Raffensberger phone call and HE was in the meeting with the Michigan politicos and wait wait – that meeting and the Raffensberger call were about… overturning the election results in Georgia and Michigan? THAT’S what Trump meant about the 11-thousand-790 votes? I’ll be damned! Trump is SO effed. B-Block (21:18) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Big news everyone! Today is the day the Bidens are sentenced by the military and the "Citizens Tribunal" according to the founder of Judicial Watch. Tucker Carlson insists getting fired makes you a man: so he's FOUR men I guess. And Joe The Plumber dies. (26:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Melanie Zanona of CNN both-sides a Biden impeachment story but leaves out the fact that the GOP has no evidence until PARAGRAPH NINE. The NRA exaggerates the number of Americans using an AR-15 for defense by roughly 1,999,996. And Congressman Byron Donalds "blames" the 2020 lockdown and the vaccine rollout on Biden. While Trump was still president. C-Block (31:47) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With The Daily Beast reporting Matt Lauer has abandoned his comeback, time to recount what we really knew about him at NBC and the time he tried to get me fired because I helped him get a "big get" interview.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 22: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: After another mass shooting - one predicated on distinct and undeniable racism - shock and grief and rage can account for almost any reaction. But as Governor Ron DeSantis, who trades in distinct and undeniable racism and who had the gall to insist HBCUs in Florida would not be targeted when one was targeted Saturday, attended a vigil last night for the victims in Jacksonville, the crowd rightly booed and heckled him and his inanely smiling wife. And the local Democratic councilwoman made an unbelievable mistake. She told the crowd to "put parties aside. A bullet don't know a party." She could not be more wrong. A bullet not only knows a party but the bullets are there BECAUSE of a party and we damn well better say so. We have mass shootings and we have nearly unfettered civilian access to weapons of war and we have an orgy of gun worship BECAUSE of Republicans. Period. Our gun crisis may not be 100% Republican but it’s 95%. Our awareness that at any moment, anywhere, anyone in this country could be murdered by sentient fecal matter and the only variables are which minority group THIS one murdered because of which Republican THIS one listened to, waxes and wanes. But there are four unswerving constants and they played out in Jacksonville over the weekend: they had the guns because of Republicans; if they didn’t have the HATE already they got IT because of Republicans; nearly all of our news media will refuse to say that mass shootings in this country are the unquestioned FAULT of Republicans, and no matter what the circumstances of this particular one were, Republicans will insist it’s too soon to – you know – try to STOP them from happening and to propose – you know – SOLUTIONS – is trying to exploit a tragedy for political gain. As opposed to trying to exploit a tragedy for donations from the National Rifle Association and making sure that nothing is ever, ever, done, to stop the next one. Trump's other spawn, Vivek Ramaswamy, spent Sunday morning insisting that Mike Pence he should’ve refused to certify Biden’s election until the Senate agreed to instantly instituted new laws to mandate the most draconian Republican talking points about voting suppression: single-day elections, paper ballots, government-issued ID’s, and quote “led through that level reform and then under that condition certified the election” – as if every moment of the political day is a hostage situation and every law is optional because Vivek Ramaswamy sees a loophole to exploit.  Happily that performance on "Meet The Press" earned Ramaswamy the coveted endorsement of one viewer: O.J. Simpson. The Trump Trials are now colliding in the scheduling space. One in the Washington case (when does the trial start? January 2024 or April 2026?) and one in the Atlanta case (Mark Meadows to be tried in local or federal court) both begin at the exact same hour. There are also more Atlanta defendants flipping on Trump before anybody asks them to. And the first signs of life are appearing in the attempt to actually DO something about disqualifying Trump from the ballot under the Disqualification Clause of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. B-Block (22:09) IN SPORTS: Spain's Soccer Kiss scandal continues to cascade. The Chicago White Sox still don't know how two fans got shot in the bleachers during a game. And the Oakland A's forgot they'll have to find a place to play four lame duck seasons before moving to Las Vegas (27:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Zillow mistakenly reports Trump sold Mar-a-Lago to Junior for 10 times its value ("Oops!"), Tucker and Musk are lying about the audience for Carlson's interview with Trump by a factor of at least 300:1, and Jonathan Turley 2023's biggest enemy right now is: Jonathan Turley 2021. C-Block (33:32) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The odometer has turned over again. Now it's 43 years since I started in television at CNN. So let me tell you how Ted Turner inadvertently invented SportsCenter AND nearly wound up owning ALL THE TEAMS in the National Football League.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keith Olbermann discusses the start date of Trump's trial and the defense's strategy. Updates on Vivek Rameswamy endorsement, Marsha Blackburn criticism, Russian investigation, and Jonathan Turley controversy. Spanish soccer crisis and White Sox shooting are also mentioned. Analysis of contradicting statements and blackmail attempt on Jeff Bezos. Personal story of entering sports reporting industry with connection to Lou Dobbs and CNN. Wrap-up and farewell message.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 21: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The "Never Surrender" graphic and the "Never Surrender" $47 T-Shirt and the "Never Surrender" return-to-Twitter post all feature a photo taken literally AS TRUMP SURRENDERED. At least the Trump measurements - 6'3" 215 strawberry or blonde hair - are accurate. So long as they were determined from a satellite in high space orbit. Though the idea of the MUGSHOT is new, for most of us, the booking of Donald Trump is by now a ritual as old as time itself, passed from one generation of Americans to the next. To his supporters it is something they seem to have convinced themselves was not going to happen, and about which they take DIRE umbrage. Ned Ryun, the onetime George W Bush speechwriter and now head of one of the three million different organizations there to fight against the lack of conservative representation, went on Fox and said we were in a “cold civil war” and Sarah Palin, a dope, went on Newsmax and said “do you want us to be in a civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen. We do need to rise up and take our country back” and one is inclined to remind the Witch from Wasilla who has all the tanks. Well, if this means Civil War at least it’s about something important. The real news from Atlanta: another step taken by Kenneth Chesebro to put Donald Trump in jail before the election. I wish I understood his game here. B-Block (17:48) IN SPORTS: Shohei Ohtani is potentially facing the end of his pitching career - because unicorns don't exist - at exactly the same time the equally-hyped Stephen Strasburg retires due to an injury that his limited him to eight games since 2019. All of which reminds me of the greatest pitcher you've never heard of: Harry Krause. And when you're too big to do the Super Bowl halftime show (23:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Another year, another CNN streaming service. Plus Riley Gaines doxxes a librarian and the library gets a bomb threat. And just when we thought we had all debunked last year's "Litter boxes in schools" urban legend, Fox "newscaster" Shannon Bream announces it - as if it were true. C-Block (28:05) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: It's what I turn to whenever it is the Dark November of my Soul: "A Box To Hide In."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 20: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I watched the Republican Debate so you didn't have to and there was actually a surprise. Trump isn't leading by such a huge margin solely because of his cult and their craziness. He is leading by such a huge margin because DeSantis is a pull-string toy. He is rehearsed, wooden, confused, inflexible. At one point a moderator said "that isn't the question, Governor," and he replied "I know," like he was proud of it. Also: everybody hates Ramaswamy and there is a perfect word to describe him and that word was supplied by my Pittsburgh-bred friend Howard Fineman: "Jagoff."  Meanwhile Trump was with Tucker Carlson on Twitter and they were both pleasuring themselves to fantasies of somebody trying to assassinate Trump so then they could have a Civil War. There are Atlanta developments that could see the Fani Willis trial begin as early as November 3.  And maybe bigger than all, there is a scandal involving ABC News, CBS, CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, the New York Times, and other news outlets and I doubt anybody will notice but it drove me to distraction. Why, the night before the debate, did a dozen of the leading political reporters and editors think it was cool to have a meal with Jason Miller and two other thugs from the Trump Campaign and let them get schmoozed by them and let Miller try out his latest attacks on DeSantis? The Trump people want to dismember the press and maybe individual reporters. With the BEST of politicians you must keep yourself at arm's length - and these are the worst of them. They (and they include Dana Bash, Robert Costa, and Kristen Welker) should all be fired. B-Block (31:11) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Secret Service's 2020 links to The Oath Keepers; Prighozin dead after his plane falls out a window (35:03) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nice troll by the Biden campaign to advertise on Fox News. Except it helps Fox News. CNN may have found an old Chris Licht to replace young Chris Licht. And with these bothsidesist Climate Change headlines, The Washington Post may kill us all. C-Block (35:55) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: No, Rudy Giuliani did not fall from grace. He's ALWAYS been like that. You just didn't know him in 1996 - I did. He was nuts then, too.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 19: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: One of Trump’s Georgia co-defendants is already PRE-flipping on him. And his Mar-a-Lago “Employee 4” got rid of his Trump-supplied lawyer and recanted testimony that almost got him brought up on perjury charges and guess who he was lying FOR because after he changed his tune, that’s when Jack Smith added the new charges against Trump and the new co-defendant. The former Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party David Shafer – more importantly the former Quote “Chairman” unquote of the Georgia Fake Electors Slate - filed to switch his part of the trial to federal court and in his argument for doing so he added a small detail: this is all Trump’s fault. “Mr. Shafer and the other Republican Electors iin the 2020 election,”write Shafer’s attorneys, “acted at the DIRECTION OF THE INCUMBENT PRESIDENT and other federal officials. Attorneys for the President and Mr. Shafer specifically instructed Mr. Shafer, verbally and in writing,” write Shafer’s attorneys, “that the Republican electors’ meeting and casting their ballots on December 14, 2020 was consistent with counsels’ advice and was necessary to preserve the presidential election contest.” Shafer even handed over evidence. Not just to Fonni Willis but to the public. That December 14th sham electors’ vote? Shafer released a copy of the TRANSCRIPT of that gathering of the coven and the guy who addressed them beforehand was Ray Smith, another one of Trump’s co-defendants and oh by the way Trump’s local attorney of record in Atlanta who walked the suckers through their part in the coup attempt. And in the Florida case, Jack Smith answered Judge Aileen Cannon's confused query in a now-unsealed filing and revealed matter-of-factly that this was because the District of Columbia Grand Jury had been hearing evidence that maybe one of the witnesses – Mar-a-Lago Employee Number 4 – should be charged with perjury because while he still had Trump stooge Stanley Woodward as his attorney, he testified that he didn’t know nothing about nobody erasing no security video from no servers and never heard nobody say The Boss Wanted The Servers Deleted. And then somebody told Employee Number 4 that he’d just committed perjury and he DID see the light and doth repented and got a new attorney from the Public Defenders’ office. And the next thing you knew, Employee Number 4 – Trump’s I-T guy, Yuscil Taveras, was remembering clear as a bell and suddenly the guy who said “The Boss Wanted The Servers Deleted” had become the latest indicted victim of the maxim “Everything Trump Touches, Dies” and his name is Carlos De Oliveira and he is still a defendant but if you want to draft somebody in your fantasy Who Flips First in Florida league, pick him. And oh yeah, as soon as Taveras got his OWN attorney and not the same one Walt Nauta has, Smith filed three more counts against Trump. B-Block (17:10) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Vivek, caught lying, on tape, the day before the GOP debate? He's the Ron DeSantis of Scott Walkers. The full pre-debate nonsense, and Jair Bolsonaro may have pawned two high-end watches given to him by other governments, and the "Rich Men North of Richmond" singer had his 15 Days of fame. Now they've discovered Oliver Anthony is the reverse Milk Shake Duck: he's NOT racist. (24:34) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The weekly Eric Adams disaster here in Fun City. Greg Abbott has an ugly soul. And the Republican National Committee and Jeanine "Hooters Pants On a 72-Year Old" Pirro attack Biden on... talking to a rescue dog? C-Block (29:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was reminded of him the other day so I thought it was time to tell a few stories about a man whose absence is still so shocking, so wrong, so something you wish you could correct: Tony Gwynn.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 18: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT:  Trump needed just four hours and 25 minutes to violate the terms of his bail. Lock him up. Trump was granted pre-trial release on 200-thousand dollars bond in Atlanta at 3:30 PM yesterday and at 7:55 PM he violated the terms of that bail and now let’s see what Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is made of. “The Defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a co-defendant or witness in this case or OTHERWISE OBSTRUCT THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. This shall include, but is not limited to, the following: ” Paragraph E: “The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media." He didn’t even last four-and-a-half hours. Confirming CNN’s report that he will be booked in Atlanta on Thursday, Trump called the prosecutor a quote “radical left district attorney...who is overseeing one of the greatest murder and violent crime disasters in American history… she campaigned and is continuing to cmapign and raise money on this witch hunt. This is in strict coordination with…Biden’s DOJ. It is all about election interference”unquote, none of which is true and all of which is an attempt to obstruct the administration of justice and was made via “posts on social media or reposts of posts” and which should be greeted Thursday by the booking officers at Rice Street Jail in Atlanta by an order from Judge McAfee to detain him. Period. Trouble afterwards? Lindsey Graham’s “riots in the street”? Trump’s own threat of “death and destruction”? The countless bleatings of the sheep like Trump whores like Tim Pool about “civil war”? I’ll quote another Trump flunky, Jeffrey Clark: “That’s why there’s an insurrection act.” Trump is now out on bail… in three different states and the District of Columbia. He has CERTAINLY violated the terms of that bail with his spasm of threats against Judge Chutkan and Special Counsel Smith. Now, he has CERTAINLY violated the terms of that bail in Georgia. And soon or late, the remaining sane people in this country are going to have to reestablish the rule of law – or to call it by the name that Trump and his cult actually perceive it: the rule of being-afraid-you’ll-get-caught-and-sent-to-prison. We are GOING to HAVE to take the action without fear of taking the consequences, or the very MEANING of law itself in this nation will not just be erased, but will be rendered impossible to restore. Trump’s supporters have forgotten that even if - like them - you DON'T have morals you are supposed to have a healthy fear of getting caught and going to prison. It’s goddamned time that we remind him. And the opportunity to do so falls to Judge Scott McAfee. You wrote it, Judge. And Trump broke it. He’s already in your jail on Thursday, Judge. Keep him there. Enforce the goddamned law. B-Block (21:38) IN SPORTS: No, Dodger Stadium did NOT flood when Tropical Storm Hilary hit L.A. The New York Knicks add to their popularity by suing another team over analytics. And Gannett is trying AI for writing high school sports. If this is the best AI can do mankind has nothing to worry about. (26:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Michael David Fox of Las Cruces NM is charged with relying on a QAnon video to tell him which Congresswoman to threaten to kill; Howie Kurtz appears to be sending out hostage messages via twitter; a Democrat votes with Republicans to approve a recall move against a Democrat. The other Democrat doesn't even show up for the vote. C-Block (32:46) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: MSNBC fired Rachel Maddow! Not recently, mind you. But they can only bury the ugly past so long. They offed her in 2005 because they thought it would make the Tucker Carlson show - on which she was a regular - better.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 17: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trumpland Trumpland Uber Alles      It is the most terrifying poll result I have seen in 25 years of doing this:      “Where (do) you feel you get information that is true?      Trump Voters polled by CBS answer…      “Friends and family: 63 percent.”      “Conservative Media Figures: 56 percent.”      “Religious Leaders: 42 percent.”      “Trump: SEVENTY-ONE percent.”       Not “Only 71% of them think Trump is telling the truth” or “Trump only tells the truth 71% of the time." 71% of them think Trump is the most reliable source of truth in their lives. It’s a cult: a cult so bad that a Trumpist Georgia State Senator is saying, in public, on a streaming show, that the reason he’s trying to defund Fonni Willis’s prosecution of Trump is: That if she convicts him, Trump will be executed. By lethal injection. I don’t know HOW we get out of this cult. I only know all these cults end the same way. Ask Jim Jones. Or Hitler. Plus: Trump drops out of the debates because he’s a big… pusillanimous fella. Mark Meadows DID Flip. And a UFC fighter tells Laura Ingraham Trump could beat Biden in a cage match.      Trust me: Ingraham could beat Trump easily. And the U-F-C fighter. B-Bock (24:38) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The murder of Lauri Carleton for supporting LGBTQ, Sage Steele boasts that a woman 43 years older and seven inches shorter than her body-slammed her into a garbage can, Dennis Prager doesn't think masturbating to animated child porn is evil and is astonished normal people do. (30:58) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Block or be blocked with Elon Musk, Catturd and James Woods. Jeanine Pirro posts photos of herself in orange shorts, and what do you call somebody like Virginia Republican committeeman Ron Hedlund who takes a 12-foot long banner of a penis to a baseball game and records video of 16-year old boys holding it? C-Block (36:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Thursday is the 43rd anniversary of the day I proved what the phrases "Mom always said don't run for a train there'll always be another one" and "breakneck speed" actually mean.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trump's attempt to postpone his trial is discussed, highlighting his fear of legal consequences. His proposed trial calendar reveals his ambition for dictatorship and his refusal to accept election outcomes. Other topics include corruption in Saudi Arabia, the UK Prime Minister's invitation, a rent eviction scandal, and a controversial judge nomination. The declining state of Project Veritas, claims about Ron DeSantis, and Trump's alleged counter-punching tactics are also mentioned. Anecdotes about the speaker's dog, Mugs, aggressive behavior and its impact on family and business associations. The podcast concludes with music credits, Trump's attempted coup, and a farewell message.