Countdown with Keith Olbermann

TRUMP POSTPONED IRAN TO USE IT LATER, AROUND THE MIDTERMS - 4.9.26

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!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SO...NUCLEAR WAR ON TUESDAY? - 4.6.26

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!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BULLETIN: TRUMP FIRES BONDI, REIGNITING EPSTEIN COVER-UP - 4.2.26

BULLETIN: TRUMP FIRES ATTORNEY GENERAL - SEASON 4 EPISODE 75 Trump, who attacked Iran to distract from his cover-up of and culpability in the Epstein Files disaster (and the malfeasance of his Attorney General Pam Bondi in mishandling those files) has now fired Bondi in part to distract from his attack on Iran - thus refocusing the world's attention ON the Epstein Files. Todd Blanche is the interim replacement, Lee Zeldin among the candidates for the permanent job, and a British newspaper reports the tipping point was Trump's rage that Bondi had not jailed any of Trump's democratic opponents. The Daily Mail also says he was furious Bondi seemed to have intervened in a plan to release the investigatory files on Congressman Eric Swalwell, even though Swalwell had been cleared by the FBI.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TRUMP CALLS AMERICA "STUPID" - 4.2.26

SEASON 4 EPISODE 74: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: The buffoon who is, for better or worse, the actual president of this country has called the United States of America STUPID. No – seriously: “We are the only country in the world stupid enough to allow birthright citizenship” He didn’t call the Constitution stupid. He didn’t call the Supreme Court stupid. He didn't call the immigrants stupid. He didn't call the Democrats stupid. He called the ENTIRE COUNTRY stupid. You. And me. And his own supporters. Why again do we continue to permit this disloyal, deranged moron to remain president? Oh by the way that was him - even before his pathetic speech on Iran last night - signaling he will LOSE, that he is getting CREAMED, after the oral arguments OVER birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court, summarized by his lawyer saying “it’s a new world” and the Chief Justice replying but “it’s the same constitution.” When the Justices rule in June it could be 9-0, though 7-2 would be likelier. THE BESTEST WAR EVER: Near as I can tell, the essence of Trump's argument in his Iran speech last night was: It's going perfectly because it hasn't taken nearly as long as World War I or Vietnam. He didn't address NATO, he only tweaked the allies who have refused to jump overboard with him, and he only once gave any hint about what's next (Iran has "two or three weeks" to make a deal even though everybody in Iran is dead). The overriding theme of the speech was the tantalizing prospect that he might fall asleep at the podium while he was talking. TRUMP'S PERVERTS: The latest on Kristi Noem and whether she got a group discount on plastic surgery, the servitude of Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio and RFK Jr and Jeff Bezos, and the weird psychology behind why his former critics enslave themselves to Trump. A professional in the field says it's not masochism, and while it may be blackmail, it's more about Trump providing them with a way for them to lie to themselves and say they aren't deviants or hypocrites, that he will back up their delusions - provided they do exactly what he tells them to. B-Block ( ) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Oh, look, I'm dragging Katy Tur and Tony Dokoupil again. Tur and I used to talk about Trump's lack of acuity in 2015. She just did a tv segment on it this week and it was as if she discovered it. And a profile of Dokoupil by Columbia Journalism Review has revealed he was once a hair model. What do you mean "once?" Also on here, Navy Commander Tim Parlatore ragging on behalf of Gamblin' Pete Hegseth. Last time we saw him he was civilian Trump attorney Tim Parlatore. I'm waiting for Cardinal Parlatore. And if Cory Booker is paying for the astroturfed online support, he deserves a refund. C-Block ( ) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: If I'm dragging Tur, it's only fair I tell the story of when she went above-and-beyond even live-in girlfriend duties: the saga of the day my appendix exploded and it took me 48 hours to figure out it wasn't just an upset stomach. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TRUMP DIDN'T KNOW VINCE LOMBARDI. HE KNEW VINCE LOMBARDI JR! - 3.30.26

SEASON 4 EPISODE 73: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: I have figured out what might be the weirdest most pointless delusion of Trump's second term: his claim "Vince Lombardi - I knew him." Trump was just 21, in college, and living with his parents in Queens the day the most legendary figure in football in the '60s retired as coach of The Green Bay Packers. More over, the first time he claimed he knew him was a decade ago, filled with details of witnessing Lombardi grab players by the shirt and not getting beat up because he was a winner. Where? How? He never explained. Of course he didn't. He probably saw it on television. So why does he believe he met Vince Lombardi? Because he DID meet Vince Lombardi. Only - not THAT Vince Lombardi. He met Vince Lombardi, JUNIOR, son of the legendary coach. Vince Lombardi Jr. was an executive in the United States Football League while Trump owned the New Jersey Generals of that league. Lombardi Jr. recounts meeting Trump (Trump was a jerk) in Jeff Pearlman's perfect book "Football For A Buck." By this standard, I ALSO KNEW VINCE LOMBARDI. The younger was a negotiator for the owners during the NFL Strike of 1982 that I covered for CNN. But in the 44 years since I met him I never conflated him with his father. THIS IS NOT THE LEAD STORY, it's just maddening. The lead? Trump and Hegseth and Rubio may be sending thousands of American troops into an ambush in Iran. Not that they care. The conservative publication “The Washington Post” reports Pentagon plans for thousands of Marines and other personnel conducting weeks of raids while Rubio insists it’s going so well, we’ll never need boots on the ground. But Trump and Hegseth and Rubio may be wildly exaggerating how EFFECTIVELY America has degraded Iran’s military capacities AND wildly underrating how effective Iran has been destroying American equipment – especially aircraft.The Pentagon said an AWACS – the giant command and control plane – was “damaged” while parked on an airfield in Saudi Arabia. Photos have leaked. The back half of the AWACs was blown off. Iran is successfully conducting a war designed to destroy our PLANES on the ground, and control or neutralize wherever American troops intend to land or be based. AND THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL doesn't know it is against federal law to send troops (or other "armed men") to a polling station during an election. Five years in jail for sending them, Todd Blanche. Losing eligibility for all offices or honors, Donald Trump. B-Block (36:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Bill Maher wins The Shania Twain Prize For Humor. I think I have that right. Laura Loomer takes a terrible risk invoking the term "a slap in the face" given what she's done to her own face. And who's worse? Scott Jennings (now accused by three fellow guests of faking his anti-Trump hysteria) or Abby Phillip (who lets her name be used on the grotesque CNN show where Jennings allegedly lies)? C-Block (50:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I mean this question literally: Whatever happened to Rudy Giuliani? Not that I miss him, not that I'm worried. It's just - he's vanished, hasn't he?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.