CHERYL HINES HOLDS UP RFK JR'S ENDORSEMENT OF TRUMP - 8.22.24

Your Enthusiasm, does not want him to endorse Trump. No, I didn't email Larry and ask him what he knows. Regardless, none of it may make any difference, because there is some stunning new pro Harris polling and equally stunning new reasons for me to repeat my question from yesterday. Is

Trump dying or something? Kennedy First, he says, I will not confirm or deny that he's dropping out and endorsing Trump, but he has confirmed that tomorrow he will address the nation about the path forward for his campaign, which, as three quarters of his support has vanished, the path is pretty much narrowed to taking his campaign, stuffing it in the backseat. Of his car and then dumping it in Central Park and trying to make it look like it

was killed by a bicyclist. Yeah, bicyclist named Joe Biden. ABC News reports Kennedy will drop out. The Washington Post merely intimates he has had multiple conversations about it with Trump, including one in person. The campaign insists nothing is final. He'll be announcing whatever he announces in Phoenix at noon local time, and Trump will be at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, at four local time. And yeah, you do the math.

This really is Trump's only obvious remaining play at this point, and it is debatable if it is as big a deal as it would have been literally just five weeks ago. To start with, it is unclear how many Kennedy voters there are left, And of course all the polls asked a backwards version of the question that would answer that.

NBC quized Republicans and Democrats about Kennedy in July before the President dropped out, and found that Kennedy's approval among Republicans was plus eleven, while among Democrats it was minus thirty eight. That, of course, is exactly the opposite of the information we could use, which is, what would be

Kennedy voters think of Kamala Harris and Trump? What do they think of Democrats and Republicans before the Biden drop out, when it was forty five forty three in the head to head matchup, when they would expand to the full field with all the other psychoes like Kennedy and Cornell West and Jill Stein, Trump would lose thirteen percent of his support. What's more, though, in state after state, it's

clear Kennedy is now hurting Trump. The most recent national poll by IPSO says Kennedy's has been taking two percent of Trump's support but three percent of Harris's support. The Times poll in just the battlegrounds produces an even foggier number. Kennedy has been taking three percent of Harris's support and three percent of Trump's support. And all of this is still predicated on an assumption that the remaining Kennedy voters

will vote for Trump or Harris. I mean, if you were dumb enough to be ready to vote for Kennedy, you are dumb enough to vote for Jill Stein. There also continue to be early signs, and I mean like predicting next month's weather early signs that we might have to change that last sentence there too, if you were dumb enough to vote for Trump. Obviously, the Tim Walls speech went well last night, and the Obamas will continue

to piss off the fascists right through the election. And please, dear God, get Kamala Harris on stage no later than ten pm Eastern tonight. I'm pleading with you. This is not a sporting event. The ratings do not go up the later you stay on past eleven o'clock. But more intriguing than all that these new polls, something very very

odd has come out of Rasmussen polling. He died in the will pick fights on social media in the tank boot licking bunch of conservatives founded by the guy who created ESPN, then was removed from controlling it two months before it signed on, and eventually he got like seven hundred and forty grand for his share of the whole company.

The average Rasmussen poll shaves four to five points off the Democrat in every other pole, and yet in Wisconsin Rasmussen now has Senator Baldwin beating Eric Hovdy, the guy from the brawny paper towel rappers, by ten points and it has Harris beating Trump by one point. If that pole in Wisconsin by Rasmussen is accurate, the weather may be getting very dark for Trump very fast. And then the University of New Hampshire has put out polling on Maine.

On July twenty fifth, the week Biden dropped out, This same pole had the pretty damned Conservative Republican Secure Main second District at Trump plus two or Trump plus four with Kennedy and the rest in the mix. The same pole now has Harris up by five in both measures, a seven or nine point swing to Harris in a Conservative bash in less than one month. And in the same poll she is ahead by twenty eight points in the liberal first district of Maine and seventeen overall in

the state. It is startling, or if you prefer stunning, that is the word Politico of all outfits has used to describe interior numbers in major polls across tabs, as the kids call them. Taking time out from listing who went to the Politico grill at the Democratic Convention, their analysts delved into ten quality polls, and they now write, quote, Harris has registered gains across a wide range of demographic categories, but the improvement has been especially pronounced among young voters,

non white voters, and women voters. Taken together, the numbers suggest that the Harris swap has largely repaired a fraying Democratic coalition, has repaired the party's image presidentially among independents, and has dragged the election back to a toss up at the minimum. In short, she has managed to do something that every candidate can only dream of, appeal to

her base without turning off swing voters. Politico cites these gains in particular twelve percent improvement over Joe Biden among black voters, six percent among Hispanics, five percent growth among non college educated, seven points added among women, nine percent among independents, seventeen percent among young voters. Politico started that report with the words startling and ended its analysis of the eye popping gains with a different word, and that

word was unprecedented. Here's another word to use about what's going on. Craze has in crasee gains for Kamala Harris because Trump is crazy. I don't know if this is truly the most Freudian slip Trump has ever made, or the most Freudian slip Trump could ever make but it sure feels like it, and it sure feels like it contains an admission or a plea for help, or a foreshadowing or something. It is now many hours since I first heard it, and I am still shocked by it,

and I'll stop with the preamble already. But Trump has gone on the Hugh Hewitt Gullible Hour and was, for whatever reason, unable to complete his hoary old anti Semitic trope about Jewish Americans voting for Democrats.

He said, if Jewish people vote for her, they ought to go out, and he forgot the rest of it. He forgot to say and get their heads examined, which, by no coincidence whatsoever, is what he should be doing right now, getting his head examined. Just to sell the point further. The interviewer well, the stenographer, Hugh Hewitt, the Lars Larsen of Eric Erickson's, followed up with a promotional

tweet in which he gave it all away. Trump remains the best interview in America has been since twenty fifteen because he tells you exactly what you think. You bet your ass, Sonny. Hugh Hewett deleted that post. Again, it sounds like a badly written scene in a badly written episode of Succession. And I know that's redundant, but that's

a different story for a different podcast. But it also sounds like one of those moments when everybody who doesn't recognize its importance looks back and says, and that's when I knew Trump was finished psychologically. One more time on this.

two fighter. And he made up a story, made up a story that Kamala Harris met with Vladimir Putin just before he invaded further into Ukraine in twenty twenty two. Utter bullshit. They have never met. Harris went to the Munich Security Conference in February twenty twenty two, warning Russia and warning that Russia was going to create a false pretext for invasion. Putin was not there. The closest thing Harris and Putin have ever come to a meeting is

Harris talked about Putin once. This sounds nuts, obviously in a way it is, But in a different way, it's

far darker. Between the polls and the escalating tone of absurdity in Trump's attacks on Harris, there is reason to suppose Trump and is very evil, not quite geniuses may be shifting from bothering to even try to win at the ballot box to simply ginning up the rage and the doubt and the lunacy and the conspiracy so much that it, as they say, creates consent for him and his cooperative minions in the state legislatures and the House of Representatives to steal the election after they lose it.

Thomas Edsell's column on Trump's next coup in the New York Times ends with a quote from Yale historian Timothy Snyder. I am thanking Edsall and quoting Snyder. Trump is in the classic dictatorial position. He needs to die in bed holding all executive power to stay out of prison. This means that he will do whatever he can to gain power and wants in power, will do all that he can to never let it go. This is a basic incentive structure which underlies everything else. It is entirely inconsistent

with democracy. So thanks to the Times for that, and damn the Times for this. From fact check reporter Linda Hugh, take it from an actual billionaire. Trump is rich and only one thing stupidity a quote attributed to Governor JB. Pritzker of Illinois at the Democratic National Convention, and the fact check reporter in the Times writes this lacks evidence. While mister Trump's exact net Worth is unknown. Forbes and

Bloomberg estimate that he is currently a billionaire. Obviously, we know The New York Times has no sense of humor. I mean, Maureen Dowd is considered a humorist at the New York Times. But does a hyperbolic joke now require a Times fact check so that The Times can claim it as being fair to Trump? I mean, if I ask how many Times fact checkers and idiotic editors does it take to screw in a light bulb? Is the

Times going to fact check that? And note that there is no empirical evidence that more or fewer of them would be required than of any other demographic group. Jud Leegum has an amazing piece of popular information headlined the fact checking industrial complex. Just one paragraph of that please. The fact checking industry got that right. Has attempted to prove its objectivity by producing similar pieces for the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. This requires some sleight of hand.

Glenn Kessler's fact check in the Washington Post on the night Trump spoke to the RNC was limited exclusively to Trump. Other noted fabulousts on the agenda, including Tucker Carlson Franklin Graham, Alina Haba, and Eric Trump were ignored. Kessler's fact check of Biden's speech to the DNC included all other speakers on Monday evening. If you doubt that the Post is doing this, still doing this? Oh you want fact checks of Trump? Do you liberals? We'll give you some fact checks.

Let me read you this from Amy Gardner, National reporter Washington Post quote. Donald Trump says he will refuse to accept the election results if he loses again. Biden said, But that's not true, Amy Gardner writes, Trump just hasn't said that he would accept, and he has previously said the only way he loses is if the Democrats cheat.

Well done, Amy Gardner. If you manage to snatch fascism from the jaws of democracy with shit like this, please do so confidence that when we are then all in the Trump re education camps, there will be a sign hanging from just your cell door. Reading noted that Trump never said he would refuse to accept the election results, only that he didn't say he would accept the election result. So remember, give her two bowls of water a day.

Also have interest here did Hulk Hogan make a threat of violence against the Vice president of the United States. Shouldn't the FBI or the Secret Service be asking this question and not some idiot with a podcast. Also, if Hulk Hogan did try to fight her, wouldn't she kick his ass? That's next? This is countdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman ahead of us on this editiontive Countdown out of nowhere. My lunch guest the other day who was not in broadcasting and never has been said he

knew the former president of MSNBC, Rick Kaplan. Rick Kamplan who wants threatened to kill me live while we were both on MSNBC where we were in the background. We weren't like the main show. God knows that would have gotten much better ratings than anything they have now. But we were live and he threatened to kill me and was swearing at me live on MSNBC. So my friend at lunch and I we traded Rick Kaplan stories. Mine

still wins because he tried to kill me. Coming up in Things I promised not to tell first, there are still more new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst persons. In the world, the brons worse. The Live Casino in Philadelphia. Wait, I'm sorry, Apparently that's it's the Live casino in Philadelphia has an exclamation point, so it's either live or live. Apparently it's live. Makes

more sense that way, doesn't it. In any event, they put up a big sign outside greeting Bruce Springsteen as he comes to Philadelphia for a bunch of tour dates there at the ballpark. Per Springsteen. Fan tour organizer Stan Goldstein took a picture of the sign at the Live or Live Cain in Philadelphia and captioned it, you had

one job. And it's a picture apparently of Bruce Springsteen Live Casino hotel in the corner, and it says Welcome to Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen s p R I N G st ei N. So it could read welcome to Philadelphia, Bruce Springstein. It misspelled Springsteen's name. They misspelled Springsteen's name kid from the Jersey Shore, and they misspelled his name in Philadelphia. You had one job. Also, it's it's just me, but the photo of Springsteen looks like Jerry Seinfeld. Are

we sure that's Springsteen? Maybe it's some guy named Springstein. And he's going to perform at the Live casino. Maybe Bruce in nineteen seventy seven, but it's much more Seinfeld. And the look on his face is is that my car on fire in the parking lot? Disaster? All around? Springsteen spelled wrong. The runner up worser Rudy Giuliani. Rudy Giuliani along with Mike Lindell co hosting Steve Bannon's streaming show on Nazi TV or whatever they call it, Real

Nazi's Choice. I forget what the name of it is. The war Room, as if Steve Bannon could fit through the doorway of the War Room. And the one argument for letting Steve Bannon out of prison, and perhaps letting him out early, is so that Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell would not be hosting the show in his absence. Hello, I'm Mike Lindell. And by the way, wasn't Mike Lindell supposed to go undercover at the Democratic National Committee by shaving off his mustache, because in the video he's wearing

a mustache. It's possible he has a collection of them at home in a jar, hopefully his own. He's been united done shaving other men's mustaches and keeping them in any event, just a little update from Rudy who said, as Steve mannon is being prevented from watching television or streaming stuff, or listening to radio or listening to his own show. And oh, by the way, Steve Bannon is being tortured in jail.

Hulk Hogan, who you will recall, is one of the speakers who introduced Trump on the climax night and if that's the right word for it, of the Republican National Convention. Somebody who represents Hulk Hogan does much of what has destroyed our culture. Not wrestling. Wrestling's fine. Lots of fictional things are fine, but the belief in the culture of wrestling, the belief that it's anything but a performance, the belief that it's legit in some way, the belief that it's

dignified in some way. It's an act, and it's a crappy act. It's like the guy who announces his name is Bruce Springstein and comes out and sings born to run in the wrong key in any event. Here's Hulk Hogan on his threat against the Vice President of the United States.

of the United States. So, circling back to Rudy Giuliani's friend Merrick Garland, prosecute him, put him in prison. Let's see how far he's willing to take this T shirt ripping wrestling bullshit culture. I know, I know, don't say things like that. How about this. Put him in one of those Steve Bannon jails and he can be tortured by being forced to listen to Rudy doing the Steve Bannon show. Hulk. By the way, You're seventy one years old,

three hundred pounds, drunk, and desperately out of shape. I would avoid the vice president. She'd probably beat the crap out of you. Hogan two days worst person in the world, finally our number one story in the Countdown Things. I promised not to tell him. Back to my favorite topic, me, How exactly was I supposed to tell the police that the man threatening to kill me was the president of MSNBC. He was chasing me through the studios. He was too

overweight to run. But even though he inexplicably lied and said he was six foot seven, at six foot five, this guy his name was Rick Kaplan, and he was the soon to be ex president of MSNBC, just as he was already the ex president of CNN. He still had strides as long as my own. Plus On that night of August eighth, two thousand and five, I was multitasking.

I was trying to mentally record everything he was shouting, while also drawing him away from the live microphones of the live studio in which he had started shouting, while also wishing for my office key so I could lock myself in there if need be, while also figuring out how I would hit him if it came to that, while also trying to register the superb double takes from my colleagues past, whom he was stomping like an out of shape Frankenstein, while also trying to suppress an overwhelming

and seemingly inappropriate desire to burst into laughter, while still game planning these soon to be inevitable call to the cops. A beautiful downtown Secaucus, New Jersey. Hi. Yeah, yeah, he's trying to kill me, my boss, the president of MSNBC. Yeah, yeah, the cable television network. Yeah, exact down the street from the London Fog Outlet store. Yeah, one MSNBC Plaza. I know it's a dumb address. He's about sixty to seventy

five two hundred and eighty pounds. By the way, he says he's six foot seven, but he's only six foot five. Why Why does he lie about his height or why is he trying to kill?

any ratings. I'll pay you back, I'll get you I'll finish your own I'll tell y'all. This had all begun roughly ten days earlier, in late July two thousand and five, an oral surgeon who had intended to examine a growth on the roof of my mouth that instead, with one pale look, silently betrayed his suspicion that it was cancerous.

Then he cut the whole thing out. I was on my way to work anyway, It was too late to get a replacement, and I was bleeding so much that our technical director and I decided to pre record all of my on camera segments for that night's show, thus reducing the chances of viewers hearing me say President Bush today while blood oozed out of my mouth over my teeth and lips and onto the desk like I was

dracul Anchor. When the following Wednesday I got the unexpected all clear from the surgeon's office, I decided to devote some of each night's newscast to a campaign to help viewers and myself quit smoking. My premise was a simple one that I had never heard argued before and have rarely heard argued since, that it would be a lot easier to quit if you didn't have cancer. If you did have cancer, I pitched my producers on the series. I went into Rick Kaplan's office to get his seal

of approval. He was enthusiastic and supportive, and most rare of all, he was paying attention. And then I said, I was also going to point out that if you got the good outcome like I had, they would merely stick a laser in your mouth, and you'd smell your own flesh burning for like forty eight hours, and you'd have to keep spitting out your own blood. Don't say that.

He suddenly threw his meaty hands out towards me in a strangling gesture, and then just as quickly clamped them over his own ears and closed his eyes and began actually screaming no no, no, no no no no no no no no no no. I thought he had gone crazy, as it proved he was just practicing for going crazy. Later, I'm sorry, I'm squeamish. I got the point. I just can't handle references to, you know, uh the red stuff. Go ahead with the series. Just tone down the uh

the red stuff. I toned down the red stuff, and my executive producer is Epovich sent him the scripts and he told her to tone down the red stuff a little more. And I went and I did that too. We all decided to start the anti smoking series the following Monday, August eighth, two thousand and five. By nauseating coincidence, that was the day after the ABC anchorman Peter Jennings had died of lung cancer. The MSNBC president had been

a producer on jennings newscast. I had long since written and recorded jennings obituary, and now this somewhat cold but still journalistically valid segue would have to be made. We would have to go directly from the twelve minute long Jennings Oh bit to the start of our anti tobacco campaign eight or nine minutes into that pre recorded Jennings obituary. Rick Kaplan came out of his office and walked the fifty feet or so through the vast open newsroom to

where my anchor desk was. His eyes were full of tears. This is wonderful, he said. Qie Peter would have liked this. He gave me a thumbs up. Then he walked to a second desk another fifty feet away, where his first big hire, a woman named Rita Cosby, was about to premiere his first big gamble, her new show immediately following mine. I was actually moved by Rick Kaplan's comment. I did

not once think of phoning the Secaucus police. But then I began the anti smoking segment, and as I focused on the camera and the teleprompter in front of me and detailed the blood and the gore and the spitting and how that was the good outcome, out of the corner of my eye I saw this weird sight. The President again left his office and waddled out along the wall thirty feet all ahead of me in the general

direction of the control rooms. Within moments, as I continued to read my script, he was back in the studio and standing right next to my camera, gesticulating wildly. I said, they never say it, but wouldn't it be really easier to quit smoking when you didn't have cancer than when you did? And Kaplan responded with the same two handed choking gesture he had made briefly in his office much earlier.

I presumed there was some simple problem, like that the building was on fire, but I calculated that I could still make it to the show scheduled finished time eight fifty nine to fifty nine EDT and still survive even if others perished. That's countdown for this the eight hundred and thirtieth day since the declaration of mission accomplished in Iraq. I'm Keith Olderman. Good night and good luck your SULIVI,

Rick Kaplan suddenly screamed from the other anchor desk. I could hear, and this is my impression of her.

the noise isn't really professional. Well, we're not talking professionals, are we We're talking idiots. We were walking and he was still screaming, you're idiots. I will never trust you again. He had begun to trot or stumble or whatever he was doing. This is not over.

five years, knew almost nothing about how TV worked. I explained to him that Izzy and one of her assistants and I had gone over the the script several times and taken out half of the Gorrier references. Then they suck at television. And since I can't trust anybody here, since they won't stand up to you and edit the script, since you obviously bullied.

get that part, but now I had him. I crossed my arms in front of my chest slowly, like you have seen every news anchor do in every television news promo ever shown in the history of the world. I flashed as evil a slow mo smile as I could, Oh, I'll be here tomorrow, and then I made a sweeping gesture back towards my staff, who were both, of course literally and figuratively behind me, and so will all of them. Suddenly, at that point, for no apparent reason, Rick Caplan's hysterics

were replaced by mere confusion. He even stopped huffing at almost normal volume. He asked me all of who. Only at this point did I turn around to discover that my entire staff had already left the building. There was nobody there behind me. Of course, there was nobody there, Azipovich told me later he went into the control room and threatened all of them first. So we got on the phone back to the office to tell everybody to get the hell out of the building. She paused and laughed.

I mean, we love you, but we're not crazy. Rick Caplan's exorcism was a brief one. He began screaming again, I'm going to hand your career tomorrow. I'm going to completely few up. He turned and stumbled away from my office.

Good luck sleeping tonight. I slept like a stone, and not because Kaplin had previously threatened to fire me for not leaving my father's bedside after what they thought was a heart attack to fly to la to appear on the tonight show, and not because he'd once threatened to fire me because he didn't like my tie, and not because he had previously threatened to fire me for not doing something during live coverage that I had already done but he thought we hadn't done because he was watching

us not live but on delay on his DVR president of a network. And I slept beautifully, not because I correctly guessed this would be it for Rick Kaplan and it was. The next day, human resources forced him to apologize to me, and ten months later his bosses fired him. Nor did I snooze blessedly because of any bravery or stoicism or fatalism on my part. But I slept well simply because of the realization that even after all of this, Rick Kaplan was still only the second or third craziest

MSNBC executive I had ever worked for. I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Please share this podcast with somebody who does not listen, And my apologies. Yesterday I was going to blame the fact that there was no podcast at midnight, as there usually is, and the first actual listing on Apple Podcasts was at about eight thirty or so in the morning yesterday. I was going to blame that on technical problems, but

in fact I simply screwed up. You know when they say check the boxes, I didn't check the right boxes. The thing didn't get published. I apologize. I may need some time off. Brian Ray and John on Phillip Shanel, the musical directors of Countdown. Maybe I can suspend myself to get a day off. Brian Ray and John Phillip Schanel, the musical directors of Countdown, arranged it wouldn't be the first time Arrange produced and performed most of our music.

Mister Chanelle handled orchestration and keyboards, Mister Ray was on guitars, bass and drums, and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Our satirical and fifty musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. My announcer today was my friend Stevie van Zant, and everything else as usual.

It was pretty much my fault, so that's countdown for this the seventy sixth day until the twenty twenty four presidential election. The one three hundred and twenty third day since convicted fellon Donald J. Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. If it happens, use the mental health system you've got this. President Biden used presidential immunity.

The Supreme Court says you can do whatever you want as long as it's official. To stop him from doing it again while we still can, and anti Semitic, anti immigration, gun nut Republicans, please stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as the news requires till the next one. I'm Keith Alderman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is

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