Countdown with Keith Olbermann

This podcast delves into public opinion on the prosecution of Trump, criticizes American media's 'both sidesism' approach, and explores the evidence of Trump breaking the law in Georgia and Washington. It also discusses new names in Trump's Twitter DMs, upcoming GOP events, and a case of identity theft. Additionally, there is a heartwarming chapter about the speaker's beloved puppy and an emphasis on the importance of dental care for dogs.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 14 - COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Jack Smith not only has Trump’s Twitter DIRECT MESSAGES, he has Trump’s Twitter DELETED Direct Messages, and as we posited here last Thursday, he has Trump’s Twitter Unsent Direct Message DRAFTS. Court documents were unsealed revealing all this, but CNN and The New York Times saw the headline - and missed it. The Times wrote almost as an afterthought that the judge had authorized Jack Smith to receive quote “all direct messages sent from, received by or stored in draft form by the account.” I speculated also about THIS last Thursday but I have to say seeing it as a reality takes my breath away. I mean DELETED direct messages are enough to fuel several books of Trump Scandal fan-fiction. But the DRAFTS could be far more nefarious. Drafts could be used – and there is no evidence that this is the case – the way terrorists used to use drafts in email 20 years ago --  as what the spies call a “dead-drop” by which you leave messages for anybody else who had the password, and then the messages are deleted. Except - nothing is ever deleted. No wonder Trump was pissed. Back to Atlanta. Trump will present his irrefutable guaranteed 100 percent exonerating report on Presidential Election Fraud in Georgia, starting at 11 next Monday morning at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey - enter by the main gate, proceed towards the 1st Tee, then make a left at Ivana. Not only don't Republicans WANT him to yoke them with another relitigation on 2020 but he has apparently turned the preparation of this report to the woman who might rank 79th on his propagandist depth chart, Liz Harrington. The creepy one.  Fani Willis has punctured not just Trump's reality but also the fantasy around him. And we're going to see how bad it is at that press conference. B-Block (23:18) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: And just like that, Herschel Walker is back in Georgia politics. And Tucker Carlson is finished: his biography TANKED. Wait - you don't know who Tucker Carlson WAS, do you? (26:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Elon throttles links to the NYT and Facebook. Suddenly DeSantis wants peace with Disney. And a co-anchor of mine leaves ESPN "so I can exercise my First Amendment rights more freely.” She wouldn't know the difference between the First Amendment and ESPN's First Take. C-Block (34:36) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: If we can, we need to help the Maui Humane Society (35:36) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A Times Square so dangerous that no restaurants were open there on weekend and 41 people were once arrested for stabbing a guy in the subway station. The story of my days at my second job: RKO Radio Network, 1981.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 13: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The former president of the United States is indicted in Georgia, accused of leading in essence a criminal gang that committed 161 separate illegal acts or components. 161. From the fake electors scheme through the breaching of the voting machines in Coffee County to the phone call to Brad Raffensberger to find the 11,780 votes to the abuse of the state poll workers to lying to the State Senate to trying to bring the Vice President in on the conspiracy to trying to bring the Department of JUSTICE in on the conspiracy to a specific charge that Trump directed his aide Johnny McEntee to develop a specific plan to PREVENT the Electoral Vote count and certification on January 6th.  19 defendants. They have until a week from Friday to turn themselves in. There are arrest warrants ready for all of them. There is an arrest warrant ready for Trump. There is a mugshot camera ready for Trump. Oh and there are 30 unindicted co-conspirators. There is an unindicted co-conspirator Number 30. It is… breathtaking. It is… sprawling. It is… 98 pages long. It is… national – prosecutors say the criminal enterprise also operated in the District of Columbia, in Arizona, in Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It makes Jack Smith look like he’s throwing six darts while Fani Willis brought a six-foot tall pile of arrows. The trials could go on for years. Like Wyatt Earp chasing down The Clanton Gang went on for years. Hell – analyzing this indictment could go on for years. No wonder this became the first-ever PRIME TIME edition of the Donald Trump Gets Indicted Again show. It is the War and Peace of American political criminology. And because of his threats against Fani Willis, and Jack Smith, and Judge Chutkan, there is the chance that he does not meet the key legal requirement to be allowed out on bail: "D) POSES NO SIGNIFICANT RISK OF INTIMIDATING WITNESSES OR OTHERWISE OBSTRUCTING THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE." B-Block (26:48) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS (30:55) IN SPORTS (36:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD C-Block (42:05) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The time I nearly hired Monica Lewinsky's lawyer to save me from having to do a nightly show about Monica Lewinsky.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 12: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN THIS EPISODE WAS REVISED AT 2:25 AM EDT MONDAY 8.14.23 A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump snaps. After a weekend of taunting Judge Tanya Chutkan - and the rule of law - through surrogates, he posts online attacks against her ("highly partisan...obviously wants me behind bars") and the special counsel ("How dare lowlife prosecutor Deranged Jack Smith break into my former Twitter account without informing me" - and calls this court-authorized access an "atrocity"). These are exactly the kind of inflammatory remarks that Judge Chutkan warned him against; he had tried to get around her by having Matt Gaetz threaten violence as he stood silently next to him, and he has tried to get around it by reposting the lies and character assassinations and threats of others. He didn't even wait 24 hours to try to get around her. Any other defendant in this country would have already had their pre-trial release revoked, or had an immediate hearing scheduled. We must end the appeasement of Trump. The law - with Judge Chutkan representing it - must crush him. Trump has also repeatedly attacked Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis in advance of her probable indictments tomorrow. He is panicking. He has reason to. In addition to his other crimes, she now has emails and texts tying "The Coffee County Breach" - the hacking of voting records there - to Trump lawyers and associates.  Also: RFK Junior has self-destructed. Surprise surprise. He calls for a federal ban on abortion after 15 or 21 weeks, then denies he said such a thing; then NBC produces the transcript of him re-confirming his belief several times. Republicans continue to rage against the appointment of a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden case after spending a year demanding the appointment of a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden case - and getting exactly the one they all wanted. Kevin McCarthy demanded it just 34 days ago! B-Block (22:59) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: It's like something out of a Jimmy Stewart western or a '20s Chicago Mob film: the bad guys break into the small town newspaper and kill the publisher. Only it's happened for real in Kansas, and the bad guys are the town cops, and the DOJ must have the FBI arrest the lot of them - the judge who authorized it included. And the CBS News president who tried to pander to the far right has been fired. I'm in the neighborhood, and I am available (part-time only) (29:29) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Fox anchor who not only thinks Karl Marx wrote "Mein Kampf" but has apparently thought so since 1985; First the baseball team suspended its announcer for nothing, then it seems to have forced him to say it was all a misunderstanding. And General Mike Flynn reaches a new low: the Holocaust was the fault of Jews who didn't fight back hard enough. C-Block (36:44) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just passed the anniversary of the day Aaron Sorkin stole a quote from my last father and put it in the mouth of Jeff Daniels - and every one of my exes called me to complain about it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 11: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: “Donald Trump cannot BE president – cannot run FOR president – cannot BECOME president – cannot HOLD OFFICE – unless two thirds of Congress decides to grant him amnesty for his conduct on January 6th." That’s from Will Baude, Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School, and member of the ultra-conservative FEDERALIST SOCIETY, and former clerk for Chief Justice Roberts. He was summarizing, for The New York Times, an article he and Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen will publish next year in the University of Pennsylvania law review. They insist that there is no doubt Trump has triggered the disqualification aspect of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and that it should be applied automatically by State Secretaries of State. “Section 3’s disqualification rule may and must be followed – applied, honored, obeyed, enforced, carried out – by anyone whose job it is to figure out whether someone is legally qualified to office.” The Federalist Society constitutional scholars say it's automatic. If you put Trump on the ballot, you are breaking the law. And as academic and theoretical and dilettantish as this all sounds, these guys think it should be made really real: “There are many ways that this could become a lawsuit presenting a vital constitutional issue that potentially the Supreme Court would want to hear and decide,” said Professor Paulsen. And Paulsen is a distinguished university chair and professor of Constitutional Law and Federal Courts at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. And Steven Calabresi, co-chairman of the Federalist Society, co-founder and co-chairman of the Federalist Society, says the Baude-Paulsen article is “a tour de force" that proves “Trump is INELIGIBLE TO BE ON the ballot, and each of the 50 state secretaries of state has an obligation to print ballots without his name on them,” unquote – or they may be SUED. There could be enough to knock Trump off the ballot in individual states. And with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) having successfully sued to remove a January 6th insurrectionist from office in New Mexico, there is a guidebook to how to literally stop Trump before he starts. Also: Jack Smith really was pushing a Rocket Docket. He wants the J6 trial to launch on January 2. Meanwhile Trump's lawyers are so stupid they think the 2021 insurrection was three-and-a-half years ago, and his apologists like Jon Turley think January 2, 2024 is 18 days before the inauguration that the rest of us seem to believe doesn't happen until a YEAR and 18 days later. B-Block (23:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: In Iowa, Ron DeSantis literally phones it in. Senator Tommy Tuberville - of Florida? And when it doesn't work the fascists only have one play: yell louder. So Laura Ingraham says they MUST RUN ON HAVING REPEALED ROE-V-WADE. For once I agree with her! (27:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Unbanned Twitter QAnon loser has a new conspiracy and a new made-up source; Florida GOP County Chair allegedly plagiarized his university Honors Thesis from Wikipedia; And when Conspiracy Theories collide: the Antivaxxer "running" for POTUS is endorsed by the guy whose father claimed he assassinated the Antivaxxer's uncle. C-Block (34:15) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: My father so loved "I Went To Sullivant" that he literally listened as I read it to him one last time - and only when I finished did he pass away. Now THAT'S an endorsement!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 10: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Jack Smith didn't want Trump's TWEETS! He wanted Trump's Direct Messages and his unsent drafts! Who needs a court order to GET a copy of all of Trump's tweets and other social media posts? It feels like you need a court order to AVOID Trump's tweets and other social media posts. He was looking for - and all the statements by the judge unsealed yesterday confirms this - for the DM's Trump sent, and any sent TO him. And anything still in the draft folders because I was reminded yesterday that 20 years ago terrorists like Khalid Sheik Mohammed and The Shoe-Bomber, and ordinary criminals like David Petraeus simply bypassed the risks of texts and apps by leaving messages IN THE DRAFT FOLDER of email accounts their shared with the messages' recipients.  You could do that with Twitter! And we KNOW Trump shared that account with other people - he sometimes wrote his own tweets and sometimes dictated them.  And he could also be able to get stuff Trump deleted. What? You think when you hit the "Delete" button it vanishes from the universe? Even your drafts? I mean Twitter was willing to turn all this stuff over to the Special Counsel but it wanted to alert Trump first and the judge said no, that'll give him the chance to destroy evidence and ALERT OTHERS and originally she thought it might lead him to "flee prosecution." Hell to the Yeah! And the headline is: Smith wanted all that stuff. And he got it. Also: details leaking on The Atlanta prosecutions, Trump wastes a delay move by demanding a SCIF at Mar-a-Lago when no judge can order one to be built, and yes, a fly landed on Trump's face during his interview with NewsMax. A REAL fly - not NewsMax's Eric Bolling. B-Block (20:15) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Trump stochastic terrorist who threatened Biden and those prosecuting Trump on Facebook is killed while the FBI serves him a warrant. And the late Robbie Robertson, not only an extraordinary musical figure but also the unchallenged winner of Twitter (23:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Dictator DeSantis usurps yet another elected official, Ken Starr's evil nephew orders lawyers to take religious training, and the Air Force UFO Whistleblower? Institutionalized five years ago after an episode in which it was determined he was a potential danger to himself. C-Block (29:51) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's Elvis Week! That means it was this week, 46 years ago, when a commercial I made for an Elvis concert in Syracuse - maybe the last one ANYBODY made - had to be pulled off our air because... well, you know. And I'll play the commercial.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 9 COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Is Jack Smith preparing a THIRD set of indictments against Trump? Maybe a FOURTH? The Grand Jury which indicted Trump LAST week is still meeting this week; they were in there yesterday. And Smith is deep in the weeds on Trump de-frauding his cultists and getting them to give him money to fix a “stolen election” he knew damn well WASN’T stolen. But the Special Counsel is also clearly still looking at how Trump tried to stop the transfer of presidential power. And Fani Willis will reportedly go to HER Atlanta Grand Jury as early as Tuesday. While they’re already blocking roads around the courthouse, Trump is already pre-smearing her, and he's already forgotten that he demanded the indictment of Joe Biden in October 2020. Plus: Trump has already pre-contempted a court order that hasn’t been issued yet. He says even if Judge Chutkan restricts what he can and can’t talk about, he’ll talk about it. The hearing is Friday. Re-indicted cause it feels so good. And yes, I’m singing that. B-Block (20:00) IN SPORTS: A chant of "Free Kevin Brown" broke out at the Baltimore Orioles' game last night. Their suspended play-by-play man will be back Friday, but that was the plan all along. And his suspension points to the plan in far too many baseball, basketball, and hockey TV booths: All reporting, all criticism, in fact anything not gushingly glowing about the home team will result in suspension. It's been coming for a century and it's here: the sports play-by-play broadcast is there only to brainwash you that your team is perfect, always has been, and you need to give it more money. (32:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The words you never want to hear from Matt Schlapp: I'm hanging out. Mike Pence makes a funny about January 6; too bad he didn't DO something about it. And mega-fraud God-salesman Franklin Graham attacks the U.S. Women's Soccer Team. Jesus would punch him in the face. C-Block (37:35) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Milo in Tennessee (38:40) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It is now 35 years since I got the greatest scoop of my career, using the least amount of effort. The Wayne Gretzky Trade!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 8: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump made his lawyers file a 29-page document complaining about Joe Biden’s coffee mug. Trump really hates this coffee mug. Trump is really aggrieved by this coffee mug. Trump’s fractured emotional and intellectual depth perception is triggered by this coffee mug. Trump’s last thought before he dies might just be about this coffee mug. He made his lawyers put a picture of this coffee mug IN the response to the government’s motion to keep him from taking the evidence produced in discovery and using it to try to get somebody to kill the witnesses or the prosecutors or the judges or the Attorney General or you or me or whoever. He believes this coffee mug gives him permission to take just about anything the prosecution has and write another hundred self-pitying posts about it or give another interminable TWO hundred speeches about it. It's SOME coffee mug. I wonder if Judge Tanya Chutkan has stopped laughing yet. Jack Smith quickly responded claiming Trump is seeking help trying the case in the media not in the courtroom and Judge Chutkan has already scheduled a hearing sometime before Friday.  Plus the Atlanta indictments are expected this week or next but no earlier than Thursday. His genius lawyers are now 0-4 versus E. Jean Carroll and Trump tries to attack DEVON Archer but instead attacks KEVIN Archer, co-founder of the group "Dexy's Midnight Runners" and you know what their one hit was, right? C'mon Aileen Cannon. B-Block (19:16) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: In what might be the longest 'Worsts' in this series, Piers Morgan's hatred of America and Kayleigh McEnany's complete fabrication about seeing "The Devon Archer hearing" cannot compete with Baltimore Orioles' CEO John Angelos who suspended his terrific young announcer Kevin Brown for complimenting the team on how much more success it's had this year than in previous seasons. Seriously. The guy wants the audience to believe the Orioles have never lost a game. I've been the victim of some BS suspensions, but nothing to compare to this BS. (25:54) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just 16,194 days ago I got a letter that so profoundly changed my life that I know exactly where it is at this minute and I bet I haven't gone a full week without thinking of it. C-Block (39:49) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL (Part 2): The letter was from Lou Adler, News Director of WCBS Radio in New York. And the trip to get back to my apartment to GET the letter ALSO nearly changed my life.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 7: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: If she won't revoke his pre-trial release, Judge Upadhyaya must at least bring Donald Trump into court and issue a gag order against him on social media and in public and warn him that if he threatens the judges again, or the prosecutors again, or witnesses again, or the court again, or the department of justice again, or the president again - or as he has done in the three days after she warned him to do none of those things, threaten ALL of them - she will incarcerate him. Nothing else will make the point to him, and whatever the results are, that's fine. Scott Adams hinting at civil war and sharpening 50,000 sketch pencils is fine. These blood-lusting fascists forget who owns all the tanks at the moment. Also: of COURSE Trump has hired another idiot as a lawyer. His defense for the January 6th indictments is that he was idiotically following the idiot advice of an idiot lawyer in John Eastman. Naturally he's going to bring in a new guy who said something so stupid yesterday he invoked Jeffrey Tambor in "Arrested Development" saying he might have committed some light treason. B-Block (20:48) IN SPORTS: USA-hating conservatives exult in Soccer team's loss in World Cup because...they are lost souls. For the first time all year the words "Tim Anderson" and "Hit" are used in the same sentence. And Robin Ventura is now the happiest man in sports. And the Mets are going to run the table, aren't they? O-57, right? (28:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: New York Times continues to think it can gain conservative readers by pandering; Vivek Ramaswamy was for Juneteenth before he was against it, and you'll never believe who didn't show up for the House Committee's interview with Hunter Biden's old biz partner. C-Block (35:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: ESPN Radio will now by run by non-ESPN people, which flashes me back to the day we launched it in 1992 and THAT flashes me back to WHY I happened to meet the wonderful actress Elizabeth Montgomery. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trump's violation of release terms leads to the call for immediate detention, highlighting his intimidation tactics against witnesses and obstructing justice. The podcast emphasizes the urgency of his trial and its impact on Republican voters, while also exploring dark secrets in the fashion industry and discussing controversies surrounding notable figures like Tiger Woods and General Flynn.