Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SEASON 4 EPISODE 33: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: From beyond the grave Jeffrey Epstein has accused Trump – and there’s a smoking gun and maybe four of them. The allegations that one of Epstein’s female victims “spent hours at (Epstein’s) house with (Trump)…” that Trump was “that dog that hasn’t barked” and he “has never once been mentioned”… those specific allegations, MADE by Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 and acknowledged by Ghislaine Maxwell minutes later. And now, Trump and his Republicans – especially Speaker of the House Mike Johnson – and his MAGA enablers – and his Fox News propagandists – are complicit in another extraordinary, disgusting cover-up: cover-up of pedophilia, a NEW cover-up - right now - playing out in real time as Trump tries to blackmail Republicans into burying the Epstein FILES. A cover-up, most of all, of Trump’s GUILT. Trump is guilty and Epstein has provided the evidence. And now we turn to the real crisis for Trump. If what the Democrats released yesterday had been the worst thing in the files, Trump could've held a news conference explaining it all away and welcoming full release. Instead he went into full panic and dragged Lauren Boebert into the Situation Room to try to bully her into removing her name from the discharge petition. Didn't work. Now reportedly 100 Republicans in the House will vote for discharge and against Trump and a MAGA lynchpin has declared MAGA is dead. So what is next? What if Trump pardons Maxwell, or commutes her sentence, it will cost him his presidency. Because a pardon or commutation of her would amount to a confession by him. So what MORE is in the Epstein Files? To what lengths will Trump go to stop the release of the files? And when will Trump’s role in the Epstein Crimes, in his past cover-ups of them, in his current cover-up of them, in his cover-up of whatever he is guilty of - when will the true horror of Trump’s guilt become so overwhelming, so disqualifying, that Republicans will have to make the choice between covering up for Trump or saving THEMSELVES? How much time does Trump have left before Epstein destroys him? AND AN UPDATE ON TRUMP'S ACCELERATING DEMENTIA: He wants troops sent to a place that doesn't exist. "The Miracle Mile Shopping Center in Chicago," he wrote. There IS no "Miracle Mile Shopping in Chicago" but there is one in Monroeville, PA, and if Trump wants to send troops into Chicago to protect Monroeville he's further gone than we have ever imagined. B-Block (37:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Some late quotes from the Democratic Quislings Jeanne Shaheen and Dick Durbin, and Independent (from reality) Angus King. Bill Pulte and the 50-year mortgage and the lowered standards for getting one. And America's Sweethearts, Kash Patel and Alexis Wilkins and Alexis is suing three MAGA podcasters and being attacked by Candace Owens. C-Block (49:30) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 32: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Quislings. Traitors. Cowards. Capitulators. Collaborators. Fakes. Frauds. Enablers. Betrayers. Failures. Political Prostitutes. Senators Durbin, Kaine, Fetterman, Shaheen, Cortez-Masto, Hassan, Rosen, and King need to be expelled from the Democratic party and any that mistakenly think they have a chance of retaining their seats must be primaried. Must be. They are not progressives, they are not pragmatists, they are not even moderates. They are fools. Their careers must be ended. Now. Durbin, Kaine, Fetterman, Shaheen, Cortez-Masto, Hassan, Rosen, and King. Now. Done. Forgotten. Let us hear their names no more. Last night these eight Senators voted to fold, without any pressure, without any bribe, without anything. They voted to kick millions of Americans off ObamaCare in order to reopen and fund the government – for only three months, mind you – in exchange not for magic beans but just the promise of a vote in which they’ll GET magic beans – a vote ON the health care subsidies - IF half a dozen Republicans defy Trump. A vote about magic beans. Which they won’t win. Their rationalizations were pathetic and suggested their familiarity with the reality of the Senate, of Trump, of the Republican Party, was less than that of the average Senate Page. What's worse is, this happens now as the reality becomes more and clear: Trump’s mind is gone. It’s so bad even The Washington Post noticed. It’s so bad The Washington Post even put it on their front page. He’s hyping weight loss drugs. In The Oval Office. And how he and he alone can bring down their price. And a weight loss patient there to extoll weight loss drugs and say how safe they are and praise Trump’s wonderfulness… collapses. Folds. Drops, slow-motion, like a deflating inflatable tube man at a used car sales lot. Trump – whose mind is gone - not only doesn’t help the guy on the floor… he’s offended he upstaged him. And then Trump – whose MIND IS GONE - falls asleep. For the second time. Or as The Washington Post put it: “A Closer Look At Trump’s Apparent Struggles To Fight Off Sleep In The Oval Office” read the Post headline. “A Washington Post analysis of multiple video feeds found that the president spent nearly 20 minutes apparently battling to keep his eyes open…” 815 words follow. And four pictures. One of Trump – whose mind is gone - with one eye closed. One with one eye closed and two fingers rubbing it. One with both eyes closed. One where you can almost SEE the snoring. Even. The Washington Post. Knows It. Let’s step back from the nuts-and-bolts of the government shutdown to try to process how it was perceived by Trump…whose mind is gone. HE thought it would be a GOOD idea to cut off food stamps so lines at soup kitchens would get longer just as it was getting cold. He thought the correct political move as the Holidays approached was… government-sponsored starvation. He believed that the country would praise him for… gradually shutting down all air travel – including all air travel FOR HIS SUPPORTERS – first for Thanksgiving and then for Christmas and New Year’s. He thought these were good political moves. SPORTSBALLCENTER (30:00): Yes, legal gambling could send two Cleveland pitchers to jail for 65 years. But no, they didn't actually make a Shohei Ohtani Used Jockstrap baseball card. B-Block (38:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Politico thinks the first thing a Mayor-Elect of New York has to do is answer questions about the 2028 Senate elections. The Breaker media newsletter finds the New York Times fricasseeing its own digital books. That's right: FIFA isn't just polishing Trump's knob, it's inventing a "Peace Prize" so it can polish it harder. And Dr. Oz wants you to lose 400 pounds by the midterms. C-Block (55:00) WHY I'M NOT A HOCKEY ANNOUNCER: One of my favorite sportscasting stories: how my budding career as a plucky pucky play-by-play guy was thwarted when...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 31: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Do you want to hear the real lesson of this week’s Democratic landslide? Mamdani ran on your money issues and that Trump equals death. Sherrill ran on your money issues and that Trump equals death. Spanberger ran on your money issues and that Trump equals death. Prop 50 won on your money issues and that Trump equals death. Hey, you can do both at the same time! Who knew? Not difficult. Easy to remember. Useful on all occasions. Worked in New York, where they elected a socialist when only a quarter of the voters say they are socialists. Worked in Virginia, where they elected as governor an ex-congresswoman born in Jersey. Worked in Jersey, where they elected as a governor an ex-congresswoman born in Virginia. Money Issues, and Trump Equals Death. Useful on all occasions. It’s a floor wax AND a dessert topping. Of course the context is just as much fun as the lesson. That's becauseTrump not only doesn’t realize he got the S kicked out of him, but he doesn’t realize he’s already forced himself to both end the government shutdown and lose the government shutdown. “Trump wasn’t on the ballot,” Trump screamed. “And ‘Shutdown’… were the two reasons that Republicans lost elections...” Ah, poor Trump. Metaphorically, Trump not only was on the ballot - every ballot but he was on the ballot in the worst possible way. Everybody could vote no on him, but it was almost impossible to vote YES. The lame duck politician’s worst nightmare. And right now no duck is lamer than Trump. Democrats: run on your money issues and that Trump equals death. It’s a floor wax and a dessert topping! ALSO: No, I am not going to sanewash Dick Cheney, even after his passing. Yes, at the end, when it was loyalty to the country or Trump he chose the country and it's good to finish strong. But I will still remember him for that 9/11-Iraq exploitation thing. And I am still proud that - as you'll hear - I pissed him off enough as Vice President for him to publicly clap back. B-Block (30:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Roger Stone, who helped advance the deplorable Laura Loomer, is now shocked she's deplorable. Similarly Ben Shapiro, who helped sell Tucker Carlson's evil to the far right, is now shocked he's evil. And I-Never-Winsome Earle-Sears and scabby Fox host Charlie Hurt think Barack Obama not voting for her when he voted for Kamala Harris is hypocritical (so...Earle-Sears voted for Kamala, and Hurt voted for Spanberger?) C-Block (40:30) SPORTSBALLCENTER: You probably aren't interested in my thoughts on the latest new selection committee and the latest eight nominees for baseball's Hall of Fame (though I have many of them). But you may be entertained by the sagas of the previous selection committees and the legend of how the ex-players on them used to cast "courtesy votes" for their old buddies and one year Ted Williams and the others screwed up and accidentally cast way too many of them for a not-so-Hall-of-Famish catcher named Rick Ferrell and he actually got elected. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 30: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: If Andrew can no longer be PRINCE because of Jeffrey Epstein, Trump can no longer be PRESIDENT because of Jeffrey Epstein. I think Trump understands this. I have no doubt Mike Johnson understands this. I believe even large swaths of the otherwise imbecilic MAGA understand this. It is why Trump and Johnson and the others are starving the needy; dissolving Congress; destroying the domestic balance of power and gutting the work infrastructure at airports, government agencies, and services. It is why they are even cutting the legs out from under every Republican candidate in tomorrow’s handful of elections. Andrew has been convicted of nothing; Trump has been convicted of nothing. There are no astounding legal findings against Andrew; there are no astounding legal findings against Trump. There are probably no smoking guns about Andrew in the Epstein files; there are probably no smoking guns about Trump in the Epstein files. The status of their scandals is roughly identical. Just as importantly: the English monarchy wants to publicly atone for Andrew and based on heavy news reporting in the UK it is apparently pressing Andrew to reveal what he knows about Epstein – presumably about TRUMPStein. Meanwhile only Trump, would throw a Gatsby party with himself as Gatsby and scantily-clad women in giant Martini glasses, in the middle of his own sex ring crisis. In any event: If Andrew can no longer be PRINCE because of Jeffrey Epstein. Trump can no longer be PRESIDENT because of Jeffrey Epstein. B-Block (28:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: After O'Donnell flames him, Scott Jennings insists Lawrence O'Donnell, whose show is beating Jennings's CNN show in the ratings by 60%, is irrelevant. Karolyin Leavitt was appalled that there was a bathroom inside the White House. And before tomorrow's election, Andrew Cuomo has proclaimed himself "Mayor." C-Block (36:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Well the World Series ended just as I told you it would: With everybody demanding Fox never again interview a manager during Game 7. I was a Fox TV Baseball Dugout Reporter: Here's Why We Don't Need Them (except for emergencies; in 40 games in which I filled that role, there were maybe three emergencies. I'll recount the best of them - the on-field dispute that came this close to turning into a riot involving the New York Yankees, the Boston Cops, and thousands of drunken Red Sox fans. And it ended with me being ordered to sit, essentially, on George Steinbrenner's lap). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 29: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: The correct question has been lying there, invisible in the forest, for the trees. It was Mary Trump who finally saw it – and asked it: “Why the hell (do) they KEEP giving him cognitive tests?” That’s IT - isn’t it? THAT'S the question. None of the details, none of the giraffes versus elephants, none of his stupid boastful insults about it, none of the small stuff. It's the big picture. Why the hell DO they keep giving him cognitive tests? And I’ll add a corollary to Mary Trump's burst of simple genius: Why the hell do they KEEP giving him cognitive tests almost exactly six months apart? Friday October 10, 2015 at Walter Reed, which he boasted about on board Air Force One this week. And Friday April 11, 2015, which he had also boasted about on board Air Force One last spring. Those dates are almost six months apart. 182 days. If they’re not giving him pre-scheduled cognitive tests every six months that’s a helluva coincidence. Why the hell do they keep giving him cognitive tests? And I’ll add a second corollary to Mary Trump’s question: why did they give him an MRI? Is it the first MRI to accompany a cognitive test? What was it an MRI of? I mean it may be irrelevant (I once had an MRI to see how my sinuses were draining correctly). You really CAN get MRIs for almost trivial stuff. But you don’t get cognitive tests for trivial stuff. Why the hell do they keep giving him cognitive tests? PLUS: Trump says the Constitution prohibits him from running for president again. Again, mid-flight, after boasting about things that aren't real, he said: “If you read it it’s pretty clear. I’m not allowed to run." So that’s that, huh? That’s what all the experts say. The same experts who said there was no Presidential Immunity. So – what happens next? He just changes his mind? Or decides this term is eight years not four? Or he just cancels the 2028 election? This isn't bluster and it isn't trolling. They might get away with it and they might not, but there are plans. And the more we're convinced they can never pull them off, the more likely we are to see another "presidential immunity" ruling from The Supreme Court. Or another Aileen Cannon. Or another January 6. B-Block (24:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Steve Bannon wants to expel Zohran Mamdani from this country. Hell, we should expel Bannon. If we can find a truck that can carry that much blubber. There's a media writer named Rich Greenfield who has extrapolated from the possibility that Comcast might buy CNN and merge it with MSNBC and he has the exact right person to run it: Charlie Kirk's widow (a bible student). And as ludicrous as that sounds, the guy now running CNN wasn't even home from his visit to the White House to try to butter up Trump and the Trumpists when one of the Trumpists mocked him on twitter for visiting. Today, appeasers not only lose, they get flamed on social media. C-Block (36:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With the Dodgers in the World Series again it is time to hurry back to the greatest moment in their Los Angeles history: Kirk Gibson's pinch-hit homer even though three-quarters of his body was barely movable, to win Game One of the 1988 World Series and set them on the path to one of the greatest upsets in baseball history, over the vaunted Oakland A's. Gibson's homer was a surprise to everybody. Except me. Because I predicted it just before the first pitch of that final inning began. And there's a WITNESS. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 28: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Donald Trump does not own the White House. Donald Trump does not own the United States of America. Donald Trump does not own the world. NOTHING Trump has done, in sending in thugs and military to attack people that did not vote for him in cities and states that do not support him, is LEGAL. NOTHING Trump has done in having his Nosferatu Stephen Miller threaten Governor Pritzker with “seditious conspiracy," is LEGAL. NOTHING Trump has done in sending so-called “election monitors” to interfere in the voting in California and Jersey on BEHALF of Republican Thugs, is LEGAL. NOTHING Trump has done to let himself say – supposedly jokingly, per the New York Times – “I’m the speaker AND the president," is LEGAL. NOTHING Trump has done in his demolition against, destruction of, attack ON the East Wing of the White House, is LEGAL. Almost NOTHING about Trump administration - his presidency - his forming unilateral DICTATORSHIP, is LEGAL. And it is TIME to CUT HIM OFF FINANCIALLY by taking the one measure that will force an end to this Trumpian madness: for the blue states to follow up on Gavin Newsom’s suggestion, on the suggestion of others including me in this forum, and stop transmitting federal taxes to the national treasury until Trump resigns. We must have a tax payment boycott and it must be led by Governors and other STATE OFFICIALS so that there can be no attempt by Trump or his enablers and flunkies to prosecute or further threaten democracy-loving civilians. De-fund Donald Trump. Now. ALSO: More on these "election observers." Also the targeting of Mike Johnson as the fall-guy. And a media update on Bret Baier, CBS, NBC and the Ballroom, Cheryl Hines and Olivia Nuzzi, and Bill Maher making a jackass of himself. AGAIN. B-Block (36:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Kayleigh McEnany trying to sell her audience Hamburger Helper and convince them it's steak. ICE arrests a guy for playing the Star Wars imperial march. Anna Paulina Luna has a debate with a California congressman who doesn't exist. And Andrew Cuomo achieves a new high in low: laughing at a 9/11 racial slur about the man who beat him in the primary. B-Block (48:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Before the World Series ends (and I still think that's in five games) it's time to tell the 25th Anniversary edition of Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, the bat, and how Clemens was actually throwing it at me. C-Block (1:06:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL, CONCLUDED: There are so many ripples in the pond on this Clemens saga - they're still rippling! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 27: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Today is the dawn of Trump’s new policy: destroy America. Literally. Well, destroy part of the WHITE HOUSE – Literally. And steal $230 million from the government and pretend he’s going to give it to charity; AND give away 172 million dollars for two private jets for Kristi Noem; AND give Ukraine and eventually Europe to Putin, AND make America a one-party nation, AND get elected Democrats killed, AND destroy America. Literally. Well, ok, describing this as Trump’s new policy to destroy, steal, give away AND get elected Democrats killed - that’s not ENTIRELY fair. Because it’s not really NEW. He has long tried to stochastically encourage violence against opponents, but now key minions like Tom Emmer and Tom Homan talk about the quote “terrorist wing” of the Democratic party, and, Presto! A January 6th traitor Trump personally pardoned tries to assassinate Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Looks like cause and effect to me. Josh Marshall just invoked imagery I used in 2016 and he’s right: Trump has entered (actually RE-entered) the stage in which he is the omnipotent petulant child, Anthony, from the terrifying Twilight Zone episode “It’s A Good Life" who could destroy the world and kill people just by thinking it. Josh is right. I was right. Trump is now destroying just because it gives him something to do. And because in his psychosis it no longer matters whether he's constructing or deconstructing, it only matters that HE does it. ALSO: The Democrats can stop self-flagellating. Party identification has now swung back away from the Republicans and the seven-point margin is nearly as big as the Dems' was in 2012. So let's focus instead on taking out the trash like Graham Platner. For 17 years or so, the populist Maine Democrat somehow didn't know that was a nazi tattoo on his chest, which I suppose is possible. But when it was going to come out, instead of going right to a tattoo parlor and holding a news conference explaining and apologizing as they turned it into something else, he released a drunken video and waited three days to (supposedly) actually fix the problem. He has no judgment. None. Get out. B-Block (33:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Bob Iger and Disney didn't walk back the Jimmy Kimmel firing because of justice and the 1st Amendment. They did it because of a boycott. The Andrew Cuomo self-destruction tour continues as he confuses the New York Jets and the New York Mets. And The Washington Post columnist who said we'd be fine whether Hillary or Trump was elected is back with more stupidity. C-Block (49:12) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: This time of year, 51 years ago, I was about to sign up to go to Boston University when a radio student there gave me the inside story of the limitations undergrads faced. He talked me out of it. I was 15 and he was 20 and his name was Howard Stern. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 26: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: Can we? Involuntarily? Any way you can think of? I don’t know the answer, I suspect not, not even after the video he put out in which he proudly covers America in, uh, crap. A video he thought was some kind of flex, as opposed to reality, that it is the confirmation of everything that was being protested at No Kings, everything that defines Trump as president, as leader, as human being – sort of: a crapshow with a crown and he has to wear an oxygen mask and the MAGAs are standing below just hoping to catch some of it maybe with their mouths! Trump crapping on America – the only thing he’s good at – and in the limited coverage it gets in the media they sanitize it for your protection, literally not referencing WHAT it was flying in Trump’s Freudian video, his confession, the climax of his life. After that, let me say it again: Trump is insane and unchecked he will kill us all because nothing matters to him BUT him. He’s insane, he’s psychopathic, he’s murderous, he’s vile, he’s deranged, he’s damaged, he’s dysfunctional, he’s – on top of everything else there he is discharging himself all over New York and No Kings and America and my final thought was, if that AI video were real, and he really got rid of all that crap: what WHAT would he be left to THINK with? THAT PLUS the amazing under-coverage of the largest American political protest since 1970, and Trump him whoring and stalling for Putin again in Ukraine, and Trump’s Eternal Middle East Peace falling apart, and Curtis Sliwa stuffing Andrew Cuomo in a locker - it was glorious. B-BLOCK (30:00) ANOTHER SPECIAL COMMENT: You saw ESPN's Stephen A. Smith (who isn't trying to run for president but is humiliating himself, doing everything he can to make other people try to convince him to) appearing on the farcical News Nation's farcical "town hall" on the government shutdown? And a guy in the audience gets up and says he's an air traffic controller but because of 'them' he now has to deliver food to make ends meet? And Smith starts ranting and in solidarity with the people storms off the show because...I dunno why? Something about this story (in fact a couple things) just don't add up. Let me give you some hints. C-BLOCK (48:00) MONDAYS WITH THURBER: "Meet Birdey Doggett" is not his best known story. It is one of his best to hear read aloud. On a day when I'm under the weather and need a little cheering up myself - enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 25: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Is Trump Bombing Boats off Venezuela to test to see if he can get away with Bombing Americans in America? I mean now he says he’s going to try to get away with Bombing Venezuelans in Venezuela. If, 72 hours before Saturday’s No Kings protests around the country, we are at the stage – (and we are AT the stage) that Trump is threatening to invade Boston and San Francisco, and where Trump’s lackeys are calling everybody who disagrees with him “Antifa” and Trump has declared “Antifa” a quote “Domestic Terrorist Organization” – acronym DTO, and we’re at the stage where Trump has again this week – Tuesday morning – had the Secretary of Brylcreem blow up a probable sardine fishing boat in the Caribbean after declaring it was “affiliated with a “DESIGNATED Terrorist Organization” – acronym ALSO DTO… if we are blowing up people Trump and Trump alone gets to decide were in DESIGNATED DTO’s and in the process destroying ALL evidence for-or-against, how far in his madness and Stephen Miller’s evil are we from Trump blowing up people Trump and Trump alone gets to decide were in DOMESTIC D-T-O’s and in the process destroying ALL evidence for-or-against? The huge leap from bombing DTO’s to bombing… DTO’s. It's a big step. But it’s one even Trump, as his body disintegrates, can still manage. Plus my ex Olivia Nuzzi has reportedly written a new book. So now you know what to get me for Christmas. I have title suggestions. They are not cordial ones. B-Block (34:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Fox's Emily Compagno assumes anybody criticizing the appointment of Bari Weiss is an antisemite. Including critics who are Jewish. There is a MAGA celebrity chef named Andrew Gruel, from "Gravy Concepts" and he's one of Fox's Antifa experts. And then there is Governor Janet Mills of Maine who is trying to bigfoot Graham Platner and actually make Susan Collins the youngster in the race. C-Block (46:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The actual anniversary was two weeks ago, but whenever the leaves start to fall I think of the 1993 launch of ESPN2. The inside saga of the night I achieved immortality by announcing "Good Evening And Welcome To The End Of Our Careers." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 24: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: If Trump didn’t have much time left as president, how would his cabinet behave? If Trump didn’t have much time left as president, how would his henchmen behave? If Trump didn’t have much time left as president, how would his Stephen Millers behave? If Trump didn’t have much time left as president, how would HE behave? Would he have a straight-up public delusion that 1448 days into his first presidency it was Joe Biden’s FBI even though Joe Biden hadn’t BEEN president yet? Ending with the panicked, plaintive cry to the universe: “DO SOMETHING?” Would he have hallucinations about Watergate being a hoax? Would he start accidentally posting private messages to his attorney general demanding prosecutions of those who prosecuted him? NOW NOW NOW! DO SOMETHING! Would he be unable to close his umbrella? I’m not saying he’s DYING, I’m not saying he’s IRRETRIEVABLY SICK, I’m not saying he’s being raptured, I’m not saying he’s resigning, I’m not saying he’s fleeing… I’m not talking about cause, just EFFECT. If Trump didn’t have much time left as president… if he were getting a PROMOTION to something, how would they all BEHAVE? I think the answer is they’d all behave as they are behaving now. They’d panic. And, they are panicking. They’d panic because they know, there is NOBODY to take over for him. Junior? Eric? Bannon? Miller? Vance? WHAT? VANCE? After Stephanopoulos stuffed him in a locker yesterday? What do they think they know about Trump’s longevity, that we don’t? Why is Stephen Miller panicking? Why is Mike Johnson panicking over the Epstein Files and more importantly what could his end game be here? What? He's just never bringing the House back into session? And this all ties in to the indefensible Charlie Kirk assassination because all of this could be explained if you recognize that the Right thought Kirk was a future president, maybe THE future president. MEDIA OBEYING IN ADVANCE: Trump attacks Politico's Dasha Burns to her face and instead of accepting the Orange Badge of Courage she tells him Karolyin Leavitt will vouch for her. That's disqualifying. And I'd like to read you only about one fifth of one of the best media essays I've read this year, written by Elizabeth Lopatto at The Verge. It completely changed my mind about Bari Weiss going to CBS. Weiss is no less evil, but Lopatto brilliantly argues she is not going to destroy CBS - CBS is going to destroy her. And they should televise it. B-Block (35:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Milwaukee Brewers win, then humiliate themselves and their guiding light Bob Uecker, by taunting the losers. Governor Greg Abbott makes a joke about somebody else's physical incapacity. Trump's Beauty Pageant Miss Uncongeniality Prosecutor Lindsey Halligan makes another amazing typo. And a Kristi Noem twofer, performed with the Benny Hill Yakety Sax Theme playing in the background. C-Block (46:22) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The ACTUAL writer of The Washington Post's first Watergate story, Bart Barnes, has died. He pulled together the first-day work of Woodward, Bernstein and the crime reporter the day the thing broke in June 1972 and had a 50-year career that probably hit its nadir a decade later when he wound up covering the same story as...me. For months he and I and a couple of others were the core beat reporters on the 1982 NFL Strike. He was wonderful, and he was the final straight man in an intricate, fantastic practical joke we played on the New York Times' guy. The story of Bart Barnes - and The Janofsky Maneuver. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 23: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Here we go again. Trump is talking about his own mortality or career mortality or heaven or all of the above… AGAIN at the same time he’s talking about declaring insurrections and jailing more political opponents, like Mayor Johnson and Governor Pritzker and any one of a dozen judges including at least one he appointed – not prosecuting them, just jailing them - and, as if it could GET any worse, he specifically segued from the issue of wanting to prove to God that he’s been good to how great all those weapons are at his naval base. The missiles are flying, hallelujah, hallelujah. Plus he's written: “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also." Look, you and I know it should be TRUMP in jail because he’s not only broken laws, he’s nearly COLLECTED THE COMPLETE SET of broken laws. But the process of convincing Trump that he's not crazy, that his predictions are coming true, that Portland is ablaze, is how Stephen Miller and the others manipulate him into eroding American democracy a little more every damn day. And this has worked since at least 2016 and I was told about it by Ed Rollins in 2017. It's the Trump personal feedback loop. And when the interruptors in that loop get in the way, they get bought out and destroyed. CNN first, The Washington Post, and now CBS News and the "B" stands for "Bari Weiss" who once told The Federalist Society that it was ok if it didn't believe her and her wife's marriage was legal because they all shared what really mattered: a desire for lower taxes. Let me expand upon the death of CBS News and her disastrous debut at its helm by retelling the story of the miniature version enacted at the CBS flagship station in LA when I worked there in 1991: The Mystery Of The Broken Number 3 CBS Pencils. B-Block (37:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: What is wrong with these dweeb MAGAs? Ken Paxton can't keep his pants on, every other day there's some new story causing his wife to again decide to divorce him, and he's just announced "undercover operations" against leftists. Hey, Pal, if you did anything BESIDES undercover operations you wouldn't be dismissed as a sex pest. Poor Derrick Van Orden continues his descent: now he's yelling at people for not learning how the Senate votes the way he learned about it in the 4th Grade (all of what he learned was wrong). And the Bad Bunny Super Bowl blowback reaches Marjorie Taylor Greene who demands a law making English the official language which is going to be trouble for her since she doesn't speak it. C-Block (45:00) THURSDAYS WITH THURBER: It's one of those weeks, plus my back is gone, one of my eyes is fighting me: it's time to bring back the first Thurber story I ever read aloud to an audience, the oddly soothing "A Box To Hide In." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A-BLOCK (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: TRUMP SUDDENLY SPECULATES ABOUT LIFE WITHOUT HIM: From anybody else it would be trivia. From Trump this is startling. Buried in an ordinary narcissistic flight: "It'll be very unfair in the future when they (Republicans) don't have Trump to fight for them." That quote, might be the biggest headline Trump has made this year and it sailed RIGHT past the American news media yesterday. What in the HELL did he mean by that and more importantly why did he suddenly acknowledge there is an end, maybe soon? After being MIA for five days – no live public viewing of him, just one video that according to White House time stamps took more than two hours to produce even though it only required him to try to speak for a minute-ten… he EMERGED with what was, even for him, such an utterly bizarre and especially vulnerable admission. He was out of view for FIVE DAYS. FIVE. From that bizarre “please clap” speech before the Generals at Quantico on Tuesday – the Pete Hegseth International Day of Military Hair Care Symposium and Product Sampling – through yesterday morning when he managed to stagger out of the White House, blast a series of non sequitirs at the press pool, and then go to another military celebration for which we have the money even in the middle of his shutdown of the government. Nobody asked: HOW have you been, WHERE have you been, WHAT are they treating you for, WHAT does that "when they don't have (you) to fight for them" quote mean? Because again, as in the week he went MIA at the beginning of LAST month, nobody had a clue what would take a man with compulsive talking disease and an ego so large it has own it zip code, from appearing in front of crowds and cameras for FIVE DAYS. And THEN Trump went in front of the Navy and said he warned about Osama Bin Laden last year, and told Pete Hegseth about it a year before 9/11, and claimed he was president in 2016 but they fixed the 2016 election, but they ran it again and he "got 250." What. In The Hell. Is Wrong. With Trump’s Health? B-Block (27:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A $1 Trump coin? Ten cents per chin? Ian Miles Cheong doesn't think they'll eat his face. Noem and Lewandowski think they'll find undocumented immigrants attending the Super Bowl. And Kristi really has to go to the toilet. THIS IS OFFICIAL BUSINESS! C-Block (38:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Well, here we are. Fifty years ago Tuesday night, at 11:15 PM, I did my first broadcast on an actual radio station with advertisers and listeners. I was 16 and it's not bad for 16 and for the fact that my much older colleagues at WVBR-FM did a superb job of hazing me. And yes, that first broadcast is still extant, as you'll hear. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 21: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) COULD TRUMP PASS A SANITY TEST? Warning: this is a PARTIAL RE-RUN. If you heard Thursday's episode, don't bother. But I got such a great response to re-reading and annotating and updating my July 2016 piece for Vanity Fair Magazine on this topic that I wanted to post this as a stand-alone segment in case you skipped it and had time to listen now. The Thursday news-of-the-day stuff has gotten slightly outdated so I've stripped it off. As you know, I don't make a habit of re-posting episodes and I'm not going to start. Again: if you listened to the whole thing Thursday, this is NOT going to be new to you. Don't listen - unless you're trying to memorize it. SO... COULD TRUMP PASS A SANITY TEST? I have grown old talking about Trump's sanity. As I wrote then: short answer? Probably not. This is a layman using professional tools: an actual kind of "triage" test used by working psychology professionals to assess if somebody is injured, tripping, or psychopathic. I had an active therapist walk through the examination and assign the points per topic. It's an important time to review what we knew - or should have known - nine long years ago. Because he was unwell then, too. B-Block (24:31) PART TWO OF "CAN TRUMP PASS A SANITY TEST": We conclude the annotated 2016 piece on Trump's already provable mental distress with the disturbing reality that takes us back to where we began on Thursday with Representative Madeleine Dean's lament: "The president is unwell." C-Block (45:00) THIS IS JUST THE SIGN-OFF: Honestly, there is no reason to listen to this. It's just the credits. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 20: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: “The President is unhinged. He is Unwell. The President is Unwell.” Representative Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania with perhaps the most important eleven words in the past decade, perhaps the most important eleven words in the history of this country, CERTAINLY the most important eleven words for the FUTURE of this country. “The President is Unwell.” We have at LEAST one – probably TWO – presidential health crises in full flower at the same time: And near as I can tell, only Representative Dean is talking about it (and directly to Speaker Mike Johnson, in what was not intended to be a public conversation) along with Governor Pritzker of Illinois, whose diagnosis was SIXTEEN words long and just as important. Quote: "There is something genuinely wrong with this man, and the 25th Amendment ought to be invoked." The two crises are obvious: at his insane speech to the Generals Tuesday, Trump sounded as if his charger had been left unplugged for three weeks, his voice husky, indistinct, words slurred. And what he DID say made next to no sense. Pritzker suggests dementia which could explain both the rapidly declining mental capacity AND the audible collapse AND why Trump was invisible yesterday and had to send Vance to ride Day One of the government shutdown Trump orchestrated. It would all ALSO explain that missing week around Labor Day and the cabinet meeting – the LAST televised cabinet meeting – in which his Departmental Slaves shoveled twice as much laudatory BS as usual, as if it were a going-away roast for Trump. Maybe it was. “The President is unwell.” CAN TRUMP PASS A SANITY TEST? I have grown old talking about Trump's sanity. I first did it publicly in June, 2016, and a month later Vanity Fair published my article "Can Trump Pass A Sanity Test?" As I wrote then: short answer? Probably not. This is a layman using professional tools: an actual kind of "triage" test used by working psychology professionals to assess if somebody is injured, tripping, or psychopathic. I had an active therapist walk through the examination and assign the points per topic. It's an important time to review what we knew - or should have known - nine long years ago. Because he was unwell then, too. B-Block (35:23) PART TWO OF "CAN TRUMP PASS A SANITY TEST": We conclude the annotated 2016 piece on Trump's already provable mental distress with the disturbing reality that takes us back to where we began with Madeleine Dean's lament: "The president is unwell." C-Block (56:00) GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 19: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is escalating his terror campaign against you. If you oppose him, if you criticize him, if you even question him, he will try to call YOU a terrorist, put YOU on a terrorism BLACKLIST. And if that doesn’t work, ARREST you, and if THAT doesn’t work, invade your state and terrorize IT. On the other hand, he has apparently TACO’d out on his terrorist invasion of Portland now saying “well I mean we’re certainly LOOKING AT IT.” But on the OTHER OTHER hand National Security Presidential Memorandum Seven is not on hold; in it Trump claims the right to prosecute you for domestic terrorist if you express quote “anti-Christianity” or oppose the government in any way. Get you indicted when there is literally no case, like James Comey. Or reenact the McCarthy Era blacklist and try to get you fired, as with Lisa Monaco. Or just label you a domestic terrorist because you called Stephen Miller a "fascist." When Stephen Miller has called 150 million Democrats "fascists." That'll be quite the indictment against Miller. Which reminds me: Fox's Jesse Watters calls Miller a "sexual matador." Which I presume means he winds up getting gored in the groin. And just to bring this up a notch, Trump's insanity is growing and it certainly looks like over the weekend, he wanted his social media followers to believe he can bestow upon them the gift of immortality. Not IMMORALITY, "immortality." The saga of Trump's Med Beds and RFK jr's face. B-Block (34:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Isabel Vincent writes the weakest New York Post hit job on me in the history of New York Post hit jobs. The breaking news? An anonymous source says I may have been rude to a waiter in 1997. Marco Rubio bans the president of Colombia, tags him on twitter, tags the wrong guy. And Newt Gingrich complains about Abby Spanberger not voting for a particular bill in the House this month. Maybe because she hasn't been a member of the house since January? (45:47) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's Stevie Week! Thirteen years ago tomorrow since I was born again in dogs, when Olivia Nuzzi and I were adopted by a tiny Maltese who opened up a new world to me. C-Block (1:06:00) PART TWO OF STEVIE WEEK: The adventures of Stevie and the five dogs who have followed her, including a cameo appearance from the Gotcha Day Girl herself. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: After perhaps the most hapless 96 hours of his presidency, the worst 96 hours of the worst presidency of ALL TIME, the most FAIL in the shortest span… the mentally-deteriorating, untethered-from-reality Trump… must RESIGN. And take his idiot sycophants with him. The last 96 hours: His U.N. speech, sounding like an escapee from a psych ward. His Tylenol news conference, sounding like an escapee from a psych ward who’s been living on the street for a month. His suggestion NATO countries shoot down Russian jets. His sudden embrace of Zelensky, either another stall or a stupid dare to Putin. MAGA’s RAGE AT his sudden embrace of Zelensky. The cover of a London right wing daily: his picture and in 72-point type, the word “DERANGED.” The ICE shooting in Dallas; his sadistic Homeland chief pretending the victims were agents when they were detainees; his idiot simpering Vice President pretending the victims were agents when they were detainees; his corrupt venal FBI director pretending the victims were agents when they were detainees. His ICE chief not denying he took $50,000 in a paper bag. His staff THEN denying he took $50,000 in a paper bag. His cancellation of a meeting with Democrats making sure if there’s a government shutdown it’s all his fault. His crackpot pal Milei crashing the Venezuelan economy and needing us to bail him out. His paranoia over the stopped teleprompter at the U-N that was his White House staff’s fault. His paranoia over the stopped escalator at the U-N that was his own vanity videographer’s fault. His desire to arrest the U.N. escalator technician or the U-N escalator button pusher. His desire to arrest the escalator AND James Comey. The election of Raul Grijalva’s daughter to Congress. The fact that Adelita Grijalva will be the last Representative needed to force a vote on releasing the Trump Epstein Files. His self-humiliation at the Kirk Memorial. ABC reinstating Jimmy Kimmel. Meaning Disney told him to eff off. Meaning the National Football League told him to eff off. Meaning they all told his propagandists at Sinclair to eff off. Kimmel then shoving him in a locker using only a monologue. Kimmel getting a record 6 million viewers and 22 more online in the first TWENTY hours. Kimmel and his show getting new life and maybe a new contract. His self-owning confession that HE and his goons used threats to get Kimmel cancelled. The fact that Kimmel, and ABC, and Bob Iger, and Disney, and America told Trump to SHOVE HIS THREATS. And that’s just since Sunday night. You lost to an escalator. Resign. Take Vance with you. Take Noem with you. Take Ho-man with you. Take Milei with you. LEAVE the Epstein Files. B-Block (32:53) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jason Whitlock says eff everybody, this is Christ-land and he won't be brainwashed any more (no brain, no pain). Derrick Van Orden says Kirk was Jesus and you don't F with the Jesus so defund The Mayo Clinic (he should go there and get CT scanned) and Kristi Noem says a tweet saying she'd have a bad day was terrifying for her. This is a piece of crap who in her spare time murders puppies. C-Block (42:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The New York Post BS firehose points at a couple of liberals at a time, then it rotates away, but eventually it makes a full circle and comes back to you. For me this has been going on since the mid-1990's and it's just started again. If you'll permit, here's a brief history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 17: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: How about this for a plot twist? I'll believe it when I see it - it still depends on television executives doing the moral, right, professional thing AND tacitly admitting they are correcting a mistake, but multiple sources insist that at least at this moment the ABC people expect Jimmy Kimmel to not only not be fired but to return, on the air, in late night, probably before the end of the month. Maybe even this week. Yep. The fascist FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr may have delivered Liberals the biggest gift of the year. The blowback towards ABC is untenable (even polling: the Carr threat was "unacceptable" is above water by 17%; the Kimmel monologue was acceptable, 43%-36%) and the desire to keep Kimmel and maybe now even extend his contract has only grown since last week. And that's in large part because so many key right wingers from Ted Cruz and Rand Paul to Scott Dilbert Adams and Ben Shapiro are enraged by Carr's bullying and rightly recognize that if Trump can do this to ABC, what could a Democratic president do to Murdoch and NewsMax and... THEM. I mean, two out of three MAGAs have podcasts, right? My sources pointed to seven landmarks. First: they HAVEN’T fired him. Second: they actually haven’t said ANYTHING about him since the one sentence announcement about taking him off. Third: HE hasn’t said ANYTHING about ABC, good bad or indifferent. Fourth: remember the Sinclair owned local stations that started all the trouble? The ones who were bribing Trump and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr by DEMANDING Kimmel be sidelined, so Trump and Carr would waive the rules and let Sinclair buy more than the legal limit OF local stations? Remember their plan to run a Charlie Kirk tribute last Friday night in Kimmel’s time slot? They didn’t run it. They put it on YouTube. No other explanation. Fifth: what happened to the Sinclair demand that Kimmel apologize and pay a bribe, uh, make a donation to Kirk’s scam Turning Point Company? Sixth: how much grief did ABC take for folding to Trump AND for not defending Kimmel as the entire right wing misquoted him? So much that no human can estimate it. And Seventh: how could you possibly put all the Kimmel and Kirk toothpaste back in the tube? As Eric Idle said: All You Need Is Cash. ALSO: Grandpa posts a self-incriminating note to Pam Bondi that he must have thought was being printed or emailed or lord knows what. He is running out of prosecutors who'll prosecute innocent opponents about whom there's no evidence. The Tom Homan $50,000 scandal also involves Emil Bove (and how in the hell did we not see that coming? He literally has the word "HO" in his name). And a self-proclaimed prophetess says she saw Charlie Kirk get his reward in Heaven: a large ice cream cone. B-Block (40:20) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Congressman Randy Fine sets a new high in low. Stephen A. Smith thinks the Kimmel-Kirk controversy is over a joke. And Vanity Fair's hiring of Olivia Nuzzi is not sitting well with journalists (as one put it, all of them who DON'T sext their sources). C-Block (52:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Hard to understand anything she says or writes but I'm pretty sure Nancy Mace threatened to end my career over Charlie Kirk. Thus I need to review the efforts to end my career, which professionally date back only to 1984 but if you count my semi-pro days in college actually stretch back to late 1977. Virtually everybody who declared me done is out of the business, or deceased. Take a number, Nance. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BULLETIN: SEASON 4 EPISODE 16, COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN In an Oval Office news briefing crazy even by his standards, Trump answered a question about the FCC blackmailing of ABC over Charlie Kirk by changing the topic to himself, making up a statistic that "94, 95, 96, or 97 percent" of all network television stories about him are critical of him, and declaring of such criticism: "That's really illegal, in my opinion." In Trump's damaged condition he could forget this by morning. But after this week's mafioso style shakedown of ABC by the FCC and the owners of Sinclair to force Jimmy Kimmel off the air by FCC Commissioner, Brendan Carr, the real question is - what if he doesn't? What if somebody like Carr in his administration decides to curry favor with Trump by trying to enforce an "it's illegal to criticize Trump" declaration"? Taking the two stories together, and perhaps adding in Trump's threat to declare something that doesn't really exist (Antifa) a "terrorist organization" (which could just as easily lead to him declaring you a member of Antifa and thus a "terrorist") the FCC's action is so bad that it provoked serious, well-thought-out, sober yet angry condemnation Friday afternoon from the unlikeliest of sources: Senator Ted Cruz, who warned Republicans that the government needed to stay out of the bullying media business. Whether that will register with Trump remains to be seen. For now the gist is: Trump says criticizing him (or in the best possible interpretation, criticizing him a LOT) is illegal. He cannot remain president under such circumstances. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 15: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Charlie Kirk died because he lived amid the violent madness of Donald Trump's America. Now that we can say with some certainty that if Tyler Robinson indeed shot Charlie Kirk, he shot him for personal reasons, that he saw Kirk as a direct threat to someone he loved, that Robinson was NOT a stochastic proxy murderer from Antifa or the Groypers or the Right Wingers who had so recently called Kirk a fraud like Laura Loomer, it is also clear that there is truly only ONE person whose WORDS created, amplified, mainstreamed, and manufactured the nightmarish environment that led to Charlie Kirk’s indefensible death. The leading threat in this country in this moment, to the safety and the lives of Conservatives and Republicans and MAGA commentators and politicians and citizens - the leading threat to ALL of us - is Trump. The America in which Charlie Kirk was murdered… the America in which Melissa and Mark Hortman were murdered… the America in which Paul Pelosi was beaten… the America in which Donald Trump was shot is DONALD TRUMP’s America. THIS is Donald Trump’s America and ALL THOSE who are endangered by it, and all those who fall dead at its feet, are the victims of one man and one man alone: Donald Trump. The institutionalization of vengeance is Trump. The introduction of political persecution is Trump. The inspiration for the only attempted VIOLENT OVERTHROW AND COUP against the government of the United States is Trump. The weaponization of the mob and the government against individuals he names and hopes somebody else hurts is Trump. The TERROR is Trump. B-Block (29:20) BREAKING NEWS: And the transformation of flawed democracy into lethal autocracy… is Donald Trump. After the FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr took a page from the Goebbels playbook in 1930's Germany and threatened to revoke ABC's ownership of local stations because Jimmy Kimmel dared to tell the truth about Charlie Kirk's hate speech and the MAGA exploitation of his death, Bob Iger - the Disney chairman desperate to hold on to his job and his money and his only purpose in a failed life - folded to the fascists. Kimmel is off the air, indefinitely, probably for good, and has no legal recourse to be reinstated. All he can get is the money. C-Block (49:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Robert Redford, RIP. I interviewed him once and he and it were great. And then the booking producer who was trying to get promoted to segment producer got into his ear and told him "Wrap!" See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BULLETIN, SEASON 4 EPISODE 14, COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN BULLETIN (2:55): ABC announced late this afternoon that it had taken "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" off the network's air effective immediately, because Kimmel had the nerve to tell the truth about how Trump and the MAGA terrorists have exploited the indefensible assassination of Charlie Kirk, how they have tried to blame the left without evidence and with increasing evidence that this was an instance of a man who feared Kirk was a direct threat to a person he loved, and how they have ruthlessly tried to suppress all public comment that contradicts their narrative, or the nonsensical whitewashing of Kirk's violent, ultra-right platform that once included him publicly calling for the execution of President Biden. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said Monday. By this afternoon FCC chairman Brendan Carr dipped into the Goebbels playbook and threatened ABC's station licenses if it did not take Kimmel off the air, and the Nexstar stations that own many ABC affiliates, said they would not broadcast any more of Kimmel's shows. At that point ABC simply said the show was off the air "for the foreseeable future." Fascism can truly overtake this country's democracy only with the collaboration of Disney and ABC and people they run them - desperate people like Bob Iger, who reclaimed the chairmanship of the company and will do anything he can to maintain it - including selling this country out to the fascists. I'll also discuss why Kimmel has no recourse against the action and will most likely not appear again, and why ABC's only contractual obligation to him is to pay him the remaining year of his salary. This part of it I've personally been through - though under far less dire circumstances. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.