Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SEASON 4 EPISODE 80: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (3:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: Nobody is at the wheel of Trump's war in Iran.
Is the Strait of Hormuz open or is it closed? Are there peace talks with Iran in Pakistan TOMORROW… or nah? Is Jayvee Vance going? Is Iran going? Has Trump scheduled peace talks where we’re the only ones there? Will it make any difference if we’re the only ones there? Doesn’t “blowing a hole in the engine room” of an Iranian cargo ship yesterday mean we aren’t honoring Trump’s own ceasefire he boasted about? Are we paying 20 billion dollars for the Iranian uranium and hostages? The same uranium and hostages Obama bought for 400 million and Trump called him a traitor? Or is that a no?
Don’t ask Trump – he doesn’t know. But that won’t stop him from answering anyway. Yes. Then Nope. Then Yes again. Then: All of the Above. in 48 hours he went from 13 posts congratulating himself on winning, to insisting he would stop being “Mr. Nice Guy” and blow up all of Iran. By the way, eactly when was he “Mr. Nice Guy”?
We are LOSING the war in Iran and as of today a total idiot is still president and commander-in-chief. He gets questions about the pointless war he started to divert attention from Epstein and the economy he crashed, so he orders the reporters out of the Oval Office, and sits there with hapless munchkin Little Joe Rogan standing behind him, the shine off his cueball noggin blinding cameras and journalists alike. Trump has set off a chain of events over which he no longer has any control – except to withdraw and flee – and to withdraw and flee is to acknowledge he screwed up. And this man would jump off the roof of the White House before admitting he screwed up.
The Trump “Administration” has so UTTERLY jumped the shark, that the truthers are coming out from inside MAGA: Alex Jones now insists Trump has done all this DELIBERATELY, because he has made a “deal with the deep state to throw the election to the Democrats." Marjorie Taylor Greene has joined the Trump Assassination Truthers and Trump himself has floated a kind of conspiracy theory ABOUT himself… he wrote ‘Praise Be To Allah’ on Easter morning to “seem as unstable and insulting as possible.”
He wanted to seem as unstable as possible? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, Trump! You’ve finally done something you promised!
B-Block (28:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Before the year is out, Major League Baseball will threaten to lock the players out and cancel the season in 2027 because the smaller market teams can't make enough money to compete. One of those teams just sold for $3.1 billion more than it did in 2012. New York's hockey teams support a) Trump putting his name on public buildings or b) legal funds for cops convicted of killing unarmed civilians. Vivek Ramaswamy dismisses his opponent talking about being raped as a child as her "complaining." And Lauren Boebert thinks Congress is too horny and she won't remain, uh, hands off.
C-Block (45:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Netflix stock took a huge hit, supposedly after the co-founder Reed Hastings announced he was bowing out. But I think it might've been another announcement that did it. They are going into news podcasts with - Brian Williams? The story of how he imploded at NBC, while I was literally an eyewitness to his public self-destruction, and the advice I gave his bosses that could have saved him (and them) if they hadn't ignored it.
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SEASON 4 EPISODE 79: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump doubles down on bashing the Pope and appropriating Jesus.
This time it’s not him pretending to be Dr. Jesus or whoever. It's, it's, it's...well the image he posted looks like he’s about to make out with him. I mean this isn’t one of my areas of expertise but JC is fondling Trump's chest. It’s so bad even Speaker Mike Johnson noticed.
The Republicans aren’t mad about the other part, slamming Pope Leo, because right wing governments have been attacking the Catholic Church since King Henry the 8th. But some of the comments do underscore that if they want the Pope to "stay in his lane," the MAGA evangelical squad needs to stay in its.
This also underscores how MANY wars can Trump start at the same time? War against the Pope, War against European governments, War against Iran, War against Reality. He again insists he’s blockading the Strait of Hormuz when the American navy is clearly NOT blockading the Strait of Hormuz. He again insists he’s already beaten Iran, when Iran now says IT may also halt shipping in the RED SEA.
Does Trump even KNOW how bad it’s going for America in the Gulf? In world capitals? Or is this like Germany 1942 where citizens – and many government officials – were actually told the Luftwaffe had totally destroyed New York City. Let me tell you the story of what happened when German POW’s actually SAW New York City…
Plus: watch where you put your hands, J.
B-Block (26:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Is naming a large pothole on the Moon in honor of the late wife of one of the astronauts an "act of colonialism"? One anti-colonialism commenter thinks so. When you OD and that isn't the worst thing you did all week - the story of Clavicular. And the Swalwell Disaster prompts one Congressman (Andy Ogles) to propose hanging rapists (who's going to tell him?) and one Fox host (Jesse Watters) to pontificate on the proper time to "whip it out."
C-Block (39:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: She was a five-hour a week camerawoman who had already survived several years on Capitol Hill. He, owned the network and invited her to the best French restaurant in Georgetown. And she - as she told me back in '82 or '83 - wound up saying good night, by standing up in the middle of that restaurant and slapping him.
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SEASON 4 EPISODE 78: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (2:30) BREAKING: Trump attacks and threatens Pope Leo in insane online rant, criticizing him for being opposed to Nuclear Weapons. Then in an in-person interview upon his return to Joint Base Andrews tonight insists Pope Leo was wrong to SUPPORT Nuclear Weapons. Trump then posts an image of himself dressed in Jesus-like attire apparently healing a hospital patient. No comment yet from the world's 1,200,000,000 Catholics. (8:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: I know, I know, lots of stuff just happened: Orban topples in Hungary, Vance beclowns himself there and in talks with Iran, Trump basically ends the ceasefire and threatens war against EVERY country in the world if they send a ship through the strait of Hormuz, the Houthis are trying to blockade the OTHER shipping bottle-neck there, Trump caught staring at cleavage at the cage fighting in Miami, Swalwell self-defenestrating.
But I'll stick to this: The Melania Trump speech about Epstein was the single most important public statement by anybody connected to Trump in the last decade. She, personally, out of nowhere, moved the Epstein story back to center stage. A month of world-shaking cataclysm by her husband to bury the Epstein story and HIS COVER-UP OF IT and in 535 words she undid all that.
And the thing that will keep this story alive for months: NONE of her words were in defense of her husband. She never said WE are innocent. She said I am innocent. She said it TWENTY FOUR TIMES. Her speech could’ve been only FIVE words long. Five words that may end the Trump presidency:
I’M not taking the fall.
PLUS: No, Swalwell isn't the victim and the allegations aren't anonymous and this isn't a Roger Stone set-up. He just knew there was a story, the way in 2017 I knew there was a story that would end up getting Matt Lauer fired from NBC and I knew it six days before Lauer knew it. That "B" follows "A" does not mean "A" caused "B."
B-Block (42:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Chuck Todd blames Trump's pardons on Biden because Chuck Todd Disease. The Financial Times with one of the great corrections of our time. The banner if not the roof falls in on Gov. Shapiro. And what exactly are Kalshi, pro golf, and golfer Bryson deChambeau trying to sell in a commercial that ends with deChambeau evidently moving to a crashed UFO to beat an injured extraterrestrial to death with some golf clubs?
C-Block (56:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: My greatest sports record fell last night. It was 21 years and two months between episodes of ESPN's SportsCenter that I anchored. My old friend Rich Eisen has now made it 23 years. A good time to describe the Rip Van Winkle effect, and the bizarre stories about my goin' back to Bristol, Bristol, Bristol, in 2005, 2013, and 2018.
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SEASON 4 EPISODE 77: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Did Trump lose to Iran because the war was escalating too quickly for him?
Firstly, great cease fire, Trump. Oh did we mention it doesn’t include Lebanon but it DOES include Iran closing the strait of Hormuz on Day 1. CEASEFIRE? This is way more FIRE than CEASE.
How do you LOSE a cease fire, El Presidente? But the bigger question: did Trump really call off his genocide because he didn’t need the missiles flying THIS week? Because this is way too early to precipitate a crisis HERE, in AMERICA? Did he give the Iranians control of Hormuz and let them keep their uranium and get out from under the sanctions because while the FIRST reason for this pointless brinksmanship was a distraction from the Epstein Files, the SECOND reason was to have a reason in late summer and early autumn to declare a domestic emergency HERE, and mess with the elections?
To extrapolate from the cynical but entirely logical and disturbing writings of the great historian Professor Tim Snyder, is all this because Trump didn’t need retaliation from Iran and maybe the threat of Iranian terrorism (real or staged) on APRIL 9th… he needs it on OCTOBER 9th… so this was not only postponed, but it was postponed already pre-sabotaged, so he can keep it on a back burner TIL then, or bring it back later when he needs to lie and say Iran is a threat HERE?
PLUS: Thank you Pam Bondi for putting Epstein back on the map, by not just going to the House deposition and taking the hit. Now we can again point at an all-too-obvious Trump Epstein cover-up. The other day I jokingly asked 'Where the F happened to Rudy Giuliani?" and all of a sudden he's back. And my old boss Jeff Shell did indeed get fired, for the second time, as a major TV network president.
B-Block (29:15) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Dr. Naomi Wolf is an all-time great. This time, she is unaware of the sun. We have Trump-inspired Eggcorn propagators talking about "Litnis Tests" and the "Commander And Chief!" A boss at X describes writing on the site as "tweeting." And as Trump threatens to arrest reporters (again) the White House Correspondents Dinner looms and they will welcome him, but no critics, no comedians, and no protest except the lamest thing you've ever heard: The Jake Tapper Protest Pocket Square.
C-Block (55:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: He was perhaps the greatest mechanical newscaster in history. Just perfect on the air. That, he explained, was because he never thought, he just read. Unfortunately if there was a mistake in the script, he'd read that too. And one night, boy was there a mistake in Jerry Dunphy's script!
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SEASON 4 EPISODE 76: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: The OTHER part of Dementia J. Trump’s vile, multi-religion blasphemous Easter post is the operative part “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge day… “There will be nothing like it… “You’ll be living in Hell… "Just watch…” All that was followed four hours and 35 minutes later by quote “Tuesday 8:00 PM Eastern Time," plus phone calls to his media stenographers: If there’s no deal Monday he’s quote “blowing up the whole country” and “I am blowing up everything over there."
What that is, is at least a threat to use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran. Even if it’s JUST a threat, or the “nuclear” part is hyperbole, it is still a threat to use massive amounts of conventional ordnance but Trump of course has longed to use nuclear weapons since the first term, asking his generals why we had them if we didn’t use them. He wants to. He's a sadist who wants to see people die.
And of course, he IS crazy: “I know him… and… he has gone insane.” Marjorie Taylor Greene said that. Oh and her postscript, as she joined our Club Reality: “Our president is not a Christian.”
This is still all about the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump said was irrelevant and would open itself and about which he has held 28 public positions in the last 35 days. So here we are. Tomorrow is either TACO Tuesday or Thermonuclear Tuesday.
THE ALTERNATIVE VIEW: This is Trump's fault regardless, but could he have been manipulated into it by a soft-rollout Military Coup against the civilian government, led by Hegseth and the other religious nuts in the Pentagon? And when did this America actually go off the rails? You can point at the day Trump came down the escalator it didn't extend to hell. You could look at the sign-on of Fox News Channel. Just as relevant: January 19, 2009 and one of the last decisions by a President-Elect who taught future Republican leaders that the laws would not be enforced against them.
B-Block (48:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jeff Shell, who is one of the two people primarily responsible for scuttling my planned return to MSNBC in 2019-20-21, is about to get fired as a network president for the second time in three years. Sometimes I wonder: could it be me, and not them? In this case, I don't wonder. Plus Rep. Andy Ogles, baseball's Texas Rangers (MLB is boasting of 40% diversity; they rolled out an opening day line-up of 10 white guys and a statue of a Texas racist, and those who pushed a pastor claiming Trump was about to be the recipient of biblical "golden showers" make up the rest of the list.
C-Block (1:02:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A lot of the yap on Threads over the weekend was about the late lamented food chain "Boston Market" and who killed it. Well, my bad, that was me. The story of the brilliant commercials I did for them that worked so well, but every time it worked it cost them $12!
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