SCHUMER TELLS BIDEN IT'S TIME TO DROP OUT - 7.18.24

demand that President Biden drop out. Chuck Schumer, according to ABC News last night, went to Rehoboth Beach and in a one on one meeting with the president quote forcefully made the case that it would be better for Biden, better for the Democratic Party, and better for the country if he were to bow out of the race. Unquote. It is the twenty twenty four version of the Barry Goldwater mission to the White House to tell Nixon it

was time to go. Only it's Biden, and it's not a scandal, and it was in Delaware, not DC, and it wasn't for them at once, but one at a time, essentially, And that the Democratic leadership that has been working behind the scenes since the debate to change candidates no longer cares whether their efforts are public or not could not have been more clear. If they had hired one of those moving billboard trucks and flashed the message up and

down every street near the Capitol. Last night, Schumer's office replied to John Carl's report on ABC with something that isn't a denial. It isn't even a non denial denial. It's quote. Unless ABC source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden, the reporting is idle speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday. So the meeting happened. You're just keeping a fig leaf over announcing publicly what Schumer told the President

at the meeting. You just confirmed. So what ABC reported is what Schumer told the President. Forcefully made the case it would be better for Biden, better for the Democratic Party, and better for the country if he were to bow out. As yesterday unfolded, I had this growing suspicion that the behind the scenes Joe must Go drama was about to move center stage. I am confident his COVID test yesterday

in Vegas is no more than ironically timed symbolism. Unless this is like President Kennedy developing a severe cold during the Cuban missile crisis and having to rush back to Washington, although you have to admit it was a hell of a way to upstage the JD vance speech and maybe Trump's tonight too. And it also set up an expert troll on Twitter x when at seven twenty two Eastern last night, Biden's account posted I'm sick, then two minutes later added of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying

to buy this election. Regardless of the singer, regardless of the illness, regardless of the Schumer story on ABC, the critical mass certainly appears to be building, and in several different areas and different chain reactions. The first, you already know the ABC Schumer story, which just doesn't have any wiggle room to it. You're either right with that story

or you will never work again. But also yesterday the California Congressman Adam Schiff called for the president to retire from the ticket publicly, and Schiff Senator in waiting once he strikes out Steve Garvey with a curve ball low and away carries enough weight on his own. But there's also the little matter of him being Nancy Polo sees

protege and confidante. And now, in addition to the continuing swarm of stories around the speaker Emerita and her off camera stage management of key players in the Talk Joe Down campaign, Politico reports she is serving as a sounding board for worried Democratic House members who not only think the president will lose, but that he will break their

chances of reelection as well. One lawmaker told that website that Pelosi is taking these calls but not soliciting them, hasn't really acted on them, but quoting now, the member ended the phone call with the distinct impression that Pelosi believed Biden should exit the presidential race. And I think that's true. It is highly unlikely shiff would have said what he said publicly if Pelosi did not know he was going to, and more importantly, if Pelosi did not

approve of him saying it as strategy. As you know, once Democrats actually successfully begin to plan something anything, it leaks quickly because they are so pleased with themselves that they have finally done something that they can't wait to tell everybody. On the other hand, reportedly Pelosi told colleagues she knew nothing about what is actually a bigger piece in this puzzle than is the shift announcement, which I guess serves as a warning shot to Biden that we

will really go public, so don't make us. As I mentioned yesterday that virtual roll call online nomination of the president for a second term has been postponed by the DNC until around August seventh. They thought it might happen as early as August first, and first came the news from NBC that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was behind that decision, and that it was ABC and no, it was Schumer and House Minority Leader Jeffries each making it happen.

And then it was punch Bowl News saying yeah, it was both of them, and they talked beforehand and coordinated their announcements and moves. Interestingly, one of the headlines on the ticket dilemma, let's call it a dilemma. I don't think it's a crisis yet, though it escalated enough that it briefly threatened my ability to remain agnostic. Yesterday, one of the ticket dilemma headlines is actually much ado about nothing.

The Associated Press Nork poll yesterday, three weeks after the debate, and nearly two thirds of Democrats say he should withdraw in favor of a different candidate sixty five percent, to be exact, which is actually an improvement. In April, a few research survey asked Biden supporters if they thought either he or Trump should drop out or both, and sixty two percent said both, and four more of Biden's supporters said just Biden. So sixty two plus four is sixty

six percent. Now it's sixty five percent. And the sixty six was after the State of the Union and well before the debate. So I don't know why this was a big story other than the facts that polls are easily digestible fast news food, and most news organizations are happy to run them and say, well, it's their polls, not ours. Don't blame us. The data for Progress poll, though,

seems more meaningful. Before the debate, swing voters believed Trump's criminal charges were far more important than Biden's age, by forty eight percent to forty one percent. Now, a different group of swing voters in this poll released yesterday say his age is way more important than Trump's criminality and fifty three percent to thirty seven percent. That is a swing, a swing swing of twenty three points. And I don't

know how you come back from that. There were other developments suggesting something is coming on the Biden front, and right soon Pucked News with a lot of insider stuff on last Saturday's Biden Congress zoom call, which went so badly that one participant said, quote had the iss assassination attempt not occurred? An hour later, I imagine fifty people on that zoom were ready to come out publicly against him.

The call seems to have been recorded, and Puck published a partial transcript of a loud blow up between Biden and the Colorado Democrat Jason Crowe, who said the recent campaign emphasis on national security wasn't working. Biden was yelling at Crow, quoting Puck quoting Biden on the quote of the call, things are in chaos, and I'm bringing some

order to it. And again, find me a world leader who's an ally of ours, who doesn't think I'm the most respected person they've ever whereupon Crow interrupts, it's not breaking through, mister president, to our voters, and Biden comes back with you ought to talk about it on national security. Nobody has been a better president than I've been. Name me one, name me one exclamation point. So I don't

want to hear that crap. So that'd be a Democratic congressman saying Biden's vitality score is drowning out the party's entire message, and Biden replying by screaming at them because they're not getting his message across loudly enough. Axios had a similar report saying Mark Vzi of Texas and Chrissy Hulan of Pennsylvania demanded to know the president's plan to turn the campaign around, and Biden responded to vis by saying House members weren't doing a good enough job reminding

voters of the administration's accomplishments. This is fine, zips coffee, This is fine. Why is it warm in here? This is also fine. Bernie Sanders defending Biden yesterday to Isaac Chottner and The New Yorker, and it's well, it's very Bernie, and it's not very much help. Chattner to Sanders to merge the question about him selling his agenda with the

question about his age. I watched President Biden with Lester Holt Monday night, and I watched him on three point sixty with Speedy Mormon, and he is definitely getting out there more than he was the night after the debate. But just to be honest, Senator, I mean, the guy has trouble completing a single sentence, Sanders, he does, Chotner. Every time he was attacking Donald Trump's record, he would just pause. I mean, the idea that this candidate who's going to be eighty two this year is going to

Sanders may i Chotner, Yeah, please, Sanders. I'm not aware that anyone thinks that Joe Biden is the best candidate in the history of the world, or that he's an ideal candidate. And nobody will argue with you that he has a trails off it notes. He admitted it. Sometimes he gets confused about names. You're right, sometimes he doesn't

put three sentences together. It is true. But the reality of the moment is, in my view, he is the best candidate the Democrats have for a variety of reasons, and trying in an unprecedented way to take him off the ticket would do a lot more harm than good. Schotner to Sanders, and then there's this substantive question about whether he can be president for four more years. You have no concerns about that, Sanders. Look, I have concerns

about everything you know, and everybody should have concerns about everything. Okay, So that helped circling back to the COVID diagnosis. I truly don't think it's anything more or less than a COVID diagnosis. Certainly that's enough for an eighty one year old man. But here, of all things is a Biden interview, a new one with my old colleague from last century at MSNBC, Ed Gordon for beet, and the president for the first time said in it he could drop out if there were compelling health reasons.

new Trump Vance campaign logo masthead. And it's a snarky excuse about how they can't commit to a debate because they don't know who the Democratic vice presidential candidate will be. And that sounds hilarious, doesn't it. And they mentioned Harris choosing Newsom or Pritzker or Whitmer's a running mate at Oh what wittiness from a Trump idiot, Except it reads like Vance is too afraid of Newsom or Pritzker or Whitmer or Harris to just say what you're supposed to

do in this situation. Yes, that he needed a joke and a bad joke to cover up fear hours before his acceptance speech. Politics one oh one, JD. And you just failed the first exam, beardo the second mistake? Will I think move out of the shadows at some point soon, just like the Joe must Go thing again. And the longer this goes unaddressed, the less sense any of it

makes to me. In short, we now have to assume that Trump is lying about getting shot, that he was shot at is not in doubt that the blood came from in the unfortunate phrase he himself chose. His ear being pierced by a bullet has been verified by absolutely nobody.

Nothing from Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, nothing from the Secret Service, nothing from the Department of Justice, nothing from any branch of government, nothing from the FBI, even though the FBI has gone to unusual lengths of confirming the investigation is of an assassination attempt and of domestic terrorism. And they've already broken into the shooter's phone, and they know there were eight shots, and they know who else was shot, and they released their names, And nothing about

Trump getting shot. Nothing from any news organization, and each normans organization has had to cleverly, almost artistically, avoid saying Trump was shot and also avoid saying Trump wasn't shot. New York Times the former president was holding a rally when he said he was shot in his ear. Even NBC News, in the middle of a company wide Trump suck up, writes not that Trump was hit by a bullock,

but rather quote. Days since a Pennsylvania shooter opened fire at a campaign rally and wounded Trump's ear, the former president and his campaign have revealed next to nothing about

his condition. Well neither did the NBC News story, nothing from anybody on Trump's own team, except for his own original social media post about the ear piercing, and then from Congressman and demoted former Navy di Ronnie glug Glug Jackson, who had last been seen publicly swearing like a sailor at sheriff's officers as they detained him at a rodeo

in Amarillo a year and two weeks ago. And even Ronnie Jackson says he didn't treat Trump's ear until the day after Sunday, and not that he treated it last Saturday because he was home in Texas on Saturday. And based on how Jackson has described it and what he doesn't know about it, it is clear Jackson is assuming it was a bullet, but in fact, the superficial damage to Trump's ear could have been caused by a bullet or inadvertent shrapnel, or a piece of glass, or I

don't know, by venomous fleas. The entire official medical report from the Trump campaign is that he is quote fine, unquote Five days later, the entirety of Trump's cult and his political gang and militia continue to treat last Saturday as if Trump had had been literally saved by a deity. They are not only trying to use it to boost his polling, but also to boost gods. They have compared him to Christ, including the amount of vood loss. They

have thrown off any hesitation or moderation. They have made it if you shoot at the King analogies. A sitting senator has demanded that after Trump survived, we must all now believe in miracles. And nobody other than Trump will even confirm, even without a name attached to it, just an organizational name, even just anonymously. No one will confirm that what hit Trump really was a bullet? Why the

hell not? As we crossed the milestone of one hundred hours since the assassination attempt, and there's no argument that it wasn't one, the fact that nobody has confirmed he was shot must now be considered as having transformed into the fact that people are deliberately choosing to not confirm it. I mean, the full report on Biden's COVID was out within an hour of the test, down to the timing

of his first dose of packslovid. If Trump was shot, there is no longer any logical explanation for this hesitation, this five day long hesitation. Not even in Trump's world of illogic does this make sense. This creature lives to be the victim a statement from I don't know the Secretary of Homeland Security that he was shot. He would frame it, he would put it on his wall, he'd move some of the fake Time magazine covers out of the way. He'd sell photo copies of it up for

seventy eight dollars. Hell, the bastard is already selling commemorative limited edition assassination sneakers. Your costs two hundred and ninety nine dollars and no sense. By the way, you can, presumably in your assassination sneakers do the assassination tango. Nobody is disputing what was a tempted against Trump Saturday. Nobody

is disputing what could have happened. If they are not saying yes, definitively conclusively, he was shot with a bullet, with a bullet that hit his body, even just a little at this point we have to assume he was not hit by a bullet. And as I said at the start, therefore we now have to assume that Trump is lying about getting shot. And again, they could clear this up in thirty seconds. It's seemingly trivial some investigators, some law enforcement official, some doctor other than Glug Glug,

and they may yet do that. It may yet prove true. It is the easiest explanation of all the theories, and the most logical one. And the refusal to offer the proof has created uncertainty in an area that really shouldn't be that uncertain. If he wasn't shot, so what something else thrown up by the shit? The shooter's bullet intended to kill him, nicked his ear? Well, that's much better if he was shot. What's the issue? Is there something wrong with the bullets? Has he ever sold limited edition

Trump bullets? Was he grazed by a bullet that had his face on it or his name on it? I mean talk about a bullet having your name on it. The thing is, the more you look into the coverage of exactly what he got hit with, the crazier that coverage reads. Go to the local coverage around Pittsburgh in the days since, and you will find nobody with direct knowledge of how Trump looked, or how he was treated, or what he was treated for. You'll find that none

of them will say, yeah, Trump was shot. The hospital has been flooding the zone with information about how it reacted and how it had planned for something like this, and how it treated other new patients outside on the street, and how wonderful the hospital staff was. And then there's this from the KDKA TV website quote Butler Memorial Hospital's president was at a bridal shower when President Trump was shot at a local campaign rally. Karen Allen left the

shower and rushed to Butler Memorial. Her colleagues were treating Trump, the hospital was locked down. Okay, it's mildly unintentionally humorous to this point. Now, the serious part president of the hospital and her info about what happened to Trump, that he was being treated for at her hospital is not just second hand, it's third hand. Again, quoting Alan said, she learned Trump had been shot from the hospital's chief

medical officer, who was on vacation at the beach. So the head of the hospital has no first hand knowledge of the injuries, and the chief medical officer of the hospital has no first hand knowledge of the injuries either. Who in the hell does I mean at this point, Trump could have set off a movie prop blood squib and nobody would know. I'm not saying that's what happened, but you see where organic conspiracy theories grow from. And

at five days in Trump has grown one. And we have to assume he's lying about getting hit by a bullet, or there's something about the whole thing that he's lying about. Also of interest, here is Trump's near death experience part of God's plan. That's not me asking that question. That's not some idiot on Newsmax. That's a Washington Post columnist. And if you think he's swallowed the kool aid, you know which pundit is the leading national distributor of Trump

kool aid at the moment. It's Van. This is the night Trump became Jesus Jones of CNN. Van, the man is at it again, and you will never believe who he has praised. Now that's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman still ahead of us on this initiative countdown. So I'm reading those hilarious spotted entries of political celebrities at events at the Republican Convention. And you read these lists and your reaction to most of

them is She's still alive. And there's one name, Alexey Lallas, time counterculture soccer hero and now just another hanger on at a party for an Indiana fascist at the Republican Convention. Let me tell you, please, of the day at ESPN that I stole Alexei Lallas's guitar from him and smashed it to pieces in things I promised not to tell. Next,

there are still more idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Kruger effect specimens who constitute two days worse persons in the world Lebrons worst. Ted Cruz podcaster Mister Cruz has a part time job in the US Senate. I believe his job is he empties the spittoons on the Senate floor under the senator's desks. The job offers plenty of room for promotion.

After five years, they give him a brush Anyway, Ted Cruse's podcast, I believe the title is I'm lying with Ted Cruz featured this gem. I want to get answers to was Politics involved turning down additional resources for Trump. It's been reported now that on the day of the rally, Secret Service moved some of Trump's detail to protect Jill Biden. Well, the word reported is doing a lot of heavy lifting here,

even for Ted the podcaster. The reporting seems to have all come from one story posted by a woman who works for the right wing propaganda site Real Clear Politics. By the way, that's one of the stupidest names of anything in the world. Real Clear Politics, World Clear Politics. They spelled it right. There was no shift of Secret Service on Saturday, and there was no evidence that the Trump detail was understaffed. You heard the Iran report, it

was probably larger than usual. The Real Clear Politics clown just was told this by somebody who was lying, and she made a video. She even remembered to press record. The story, which is false, was reported in exactly the same way that the story has been reported for years that Ted Cruz is reported to reportedly be the Zode killer. It's not true, but it's been reported. The runner up worser Washington Post columnist and Washington Post editorial board member

Shady Hamid or as we will identify him here. The latest guy fooled by Trump is Trump's near death experience part of God's plan what a nation can expect when a leader is nearly assassinated. Stories of near death experiences chastening sinners and pushing them toward the light are the stuff of legend, but they are also the stuff of real, ordinary lives, the individuals who make a conscious choice to turn away from the past and restructure their own narratives

toward a better end. It could mean that he campaigns and then governs in the now more likely event that he wins in a manner that is less authoritarian. It could mean that, when presented with an opportunity to escalate tensions, he might choose instead to tamp them down. Is this about Trump really tamp them down? As it happens, this would also be in his self interest, a way to redeem his tarnished legacy. If this sounds like a fantasy,

perhaps it is, But fantasies sometimes come true. Dear Peedhus Forum, I never believed this would happen to me. Christ Fortunately, for Trump and perhaps for us, God works in mysterious ways. Well, I mean this guy, Shadi Hamid is a member of the Washington Post editorial board. So that's about as mysterious as he gets. This was posted Tuesday, after Trump picked that psychopath Advance as his running mate, and after he demanded that the nation unify behind him by dropping all

the charges against him. Can't imagine why the Washington Post, with writer Shadi Hamid, is bailing water twenty four hours a day publishing this crap, Holy crap, Why don't you just get a Trump is pivoting tattoo on your forehead? Speaking of which, our winner Van Jones of CNN, the number of people who say stupid things on CNN is

almost limitless. It's why CNN's ratings have sunk so low that their audience is moving towards where it was when I joined CNN at the end of its first year in nineteen eighty one, and I used to call up for credentials to news conferences and sporting events, and the pr people would say, Sonny, you and I both know there is no such thing as an all news television network. If you want to get a free pass to the ball game, you'll have to make up a better story

than that. Anyway, CNN is going there right now as I've noted the average audience for this podcast exceeds many hours of the audience during CNN's week. Van Jones is one of the reasons, As I said, a lot of people say dumb things on there, like all the anchors others like Jake Tapper and Dana Bash do the opp They don't say things dumb or otherwise when journalism would seemingly compel them to say something like during the debate or when Eric Trump is lying to them about who

shot what at his father. But Van Jones has been saying earnestly, with deep conviction and the most sincere performance of fake sincerity imaginable from his announcement in early twenty seventeen that Trump, in a speech to Congress had just truly become president. I guess because Trump had not shot a guy during the speech or messed his diapers during

the speech. From that point through last Saturday, when Van Jones cried on the air on seeing it and told Democrats to embrace Republicans to show we were all Americans, while Trump was already figuring out how to exploit the event by demanding that America owed him now and everybody should drop all those cases against him even though he is a trader and a convicted sexual assaulter, and now

there is more from Van Jones. They keep putting him on because if there's one thing TV executives throughout the history of the world we'll not do is connect the dots between their stupid personnel decisions and lower ratings. I mean, it's why Anderson Cooper has been on the air there for twenty years, even though he's never won his own time slot, and he hasn't even finished second since like two thousand and five. Van Jones has now turned to

commenting on the speakers at the Republican National Convention. Now, look, they're all political prostitutes. Nicki Haley got up and said Trump had her total endorsement because her fight against Trump was just a marketing scheme. Well, she didn't say it

was a marketing scheme. I'm saying that. But there are a few more cynical, few more dishonest, few more ugly in their soul speakers than not Haley, but Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now the governor of Arkansas, just as her soul as father was, and she of course was Trump's most virulent and angry press secretary, and she spoke at the RNC and Van Jones said afterwards on CNN, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she was incredibly compelling to me. She told personal stories

that landed. It was moving, and it was powerful. She gave the speech of the night unquote. Here's part of Huckabee's moving, powerful personal story.

an idiot. Jones is the worst person. Oh, it's so compelling in the world. Now things I promised not to tell. And it was nineteen ninety four, and they just had the first Soccer World Cup ever held in the United States, and Alexei Lallis was the folk hero of the plucky American team, and we put him in a This is Sports Center commercial. And there's a long, great story to this. I will tell you in a moment, But first listen to what I found. It is a DVD with the outtakes. Now,

I didn't do this twice. It's two separate angles of it. I might add. In the second angle, when I hit the guitar against the wall, the fret of the thing flew directly into the lens of the backup camera that was on the floor. I couldn't do that again in a billion years. Please enjoy. If you don't recognize me, I'm the one grunting.

commentator on soccer on TV. But back then, naturally, ESPN, launching its surrealist fake documentary commercial series, wanted him to be in it, and sure enough he came to Bristol and Hank Perlman devised a bit in which Gary Miller, our anchor, who was himself a soccer immortal for his soccer breakdown which I've played to you, you know, John Luca, Palyuka, the Mother, etc. Gary would be sitting at a desk

in the sports Center newsroom. As atop the adjoining desk, Alexi Lalis sat cross legged in sunglasses, philosophizing on relaxation and finally playing on his guitar. Michael Row the boat ashore. At that point the commercial turned into one of the classic scenes from John Belushi's film Animal House. Another sportscaster was to storm into the newsroom, pull the guitar out of Alexei Lalas's hands and smash it against a cubicle.

Wall and emit a loud, primal grunt as he did so, and then hand Lallas back whatever was left of the guitar, and like Belushi in the movie, say sorry. Well, Hank had a sportscaster in mind for that role, and guess who it was me? So picture that in your mind as I play what it sounded like. And then I have what I think is a really good backstory to the filming of this. This is SportsCenter SportsCenter commercial, and I'm talking to you at the darkness. We got to

do something about that, Michael. For time's sake, the word sorry didn't make it. So the backstory and it's out of chronological order. The guitar that Alexei Lawis was playing was not the one I smashed. There was an exact duplicate that had been bought. It had been taken apart, it had been sawed, and basically it was put back together with scotch tape. It would hold together long enough for him to scrum a few sour notes on it and then for me to grab it and smash it.

They were confident it would not fly apart until I hit the cubicle wall with it. But they still told me to simply grab it, not yanked out of his hands, or I might be left holding the neck of the guitar and Alexey holding the rest of it. This was especially problematic because we only had the one prop guitar. That's right, We made the business end of that commercial

in one take. This is SportsCenter campaign not only freakly achieved something approaching genius levels of originality and creativity, but they were all done cheaper than local news promos. In Burlington, Vermont in nineteen eighty two, we often shot three of these commercials in one day, and it wasn't until the second series of ads did the SportsCenter anchors who started in one, or two or three even get credit for

a day off. In one of them, Charlie Sneiner is trying to get his tape of highlights back from the Harlem Globetrotters who are passing it around like a basketball, and he says, can he is a little help? Then I'm typing away at my computer and I say, sure, Charlie, and I don't even look at him, let alone stop typing,

let alone give them any help. And that's done. Because the commercial was shot in the area right behind my desk, because nobody was working there that day except me, and it was around five PM, and I was, in fact sitting at my desk writing the eleven PM Sports Center script, and the original commercial script did not call for me to even be in Charlie's commercial. But on the fly the writer said, hey, Keith, can you give us one line? And I said, as long as I can keep writing,

and they said perfect. By the way, Charlie did the commercial around five o'clock or so and then went and anchored the six thirty PM Sports Center. The spot we did where hockey legend Gordy Howe beats me up while I am trying to read through a script also shot at my desk, also on a day I was anchoring

the show, and that was my real script. Anyway, back to alex A. Lallis and the guitar, so we only had the one prop guitar, and so we only had the one take, and we were shooting it in the actual Sports Center newsroom of course, in fact, they were remodeling the real newsroom to accommodate the launch of the new ESPN News network, so this was the temporary even more crowded than usual newsroom, so the cameraman and the producer and the writer, and I walked through how they

thought it would work best since I would have to weave past people who were really doing their jobs and going to other desks and talking to people and stuff. They had two cameras in the little hallway that constituted the temporary newsroom's northern border, and they put a third, smaller camera on the floor where they guessed that a piece of the guitar might land after I smashed it. See if you can get the fret or something to go here. The producer said that would make a great shot.

I asked him how in the hell I was supposed to do that since we couldn't even practice the smash, and he said, well, honestly, I don't know. Telepathy. Maybe that was the other salient part of the backstory, since we only had the one take and we wouldn't even be doing a dry run because they didn't want the

guitar to fall apart in my hands. I would say less than half the people crowded into the temporary newsroom had any idea that when I came in I was in the commercial let alone, that I was going to actually and loudly destroy a guitar by smashing it against a low cubicle wall. Even if the guitar has been pre broken and taped back together, as that one was, it is still going to make a lot of noise. Wait, I said to my friend Hank, who wrote it. You're

not warning anybody, are you, your little devil? Hank got a gleeful, evil glazed look in his eyes. No, isn't that great. So they filmed the closeups of Gary, and they filmed the closeups of Alexi, and then they set me up to enter from a vestibule through two swinging doors with windows in them, which was along the periphery of the temporary newsroom. Then a right turn, and then about no, no, no, fifteen twenty feet to where Alexei and Gary were still sitting.

My target for exactly where I should hit the guitar was clearly marked on the cube wall, and they even put marks on the carpet of where a couple of practice walks had shown would give me the best chance at a solid stance. When I swung the guitar and sent it el kabonging to its doom, and nobody ever

said quiet or roll or here we go. They told people in the room that they were just shooting some cover angles on Gary and Alexi, and people could say or move whatever and wherever they wanted to, just so long they didn't get away to the cameras. Then they just tapped the desks for Alexa and Gary to start, and the producer waved to me and in I went, trying to channel John Belushi when he takes the guitar away from Stephen Bishop on the stairs of the Front

House and Animal House. I furrowed my brow and I tried to fake some venom towards Alexei Lalas. I found the emotion. As I came through the doors, I kept thinking that since I had been eight years old, I had heard people call soccer the sport of the future here and I was now thirty seven, and I was damn tired of me hearing it. Lallis was strumming on the nearly neutered prop guitar. It made a sick sound. I

took my strides, I hit the marks. I grabbed the guitar by the neck with my right hand and simultaneously Alexey let go, and then with both hands I swung the guitar back over my head and smashed it right on the mark. As you heard Michael. The Sports Center

newsroom promptly went silent for several seconds. The reaction was identical to what it would have been had there been no commercial being made and no cameras present, and I had just walked in and destroyed somebody's guitar, which I guess a lot of people expect that I might do someday, because even a lot of the people who were surprised

were not surprised surprised. Craig Wax, the skinny research guy, can be seen in the finished commercial, which is on YouTube, for a second far left, just staring at me like, yeah, well, we always knew Keys would do something like that. After I'd destroyed the guitar, and I have to say, I did it really well. I kept moving per the plan until I walked back through the swinging doors and out

of shot. The director shouted cut. I walked back in, and the crew gave me a round of applause, and a couple of them were cheering out of all proportion. Even if I had done is good of a job, as I thought, come here, come here. The cameraman kept saying, come here, that extra camera on the floor. They backed the videotape up from it, and they showed it to me.

When I smashed the guitar, the fretboard, the actual wood and metal piece on the neck flew off and not only landed near the third camera's lens, it hit it on the fly and it stuck there. They were as happy as if they were engineers imploding a bill for the first time and it had fallen exactly as they

had hoped. Plus, they showed me the playback from the first camera, and there was an assignment desk editor with her back to the action on the phone, completely unaware of what was happening or even that they were rolling film and videotape, and she literally jumped several inches out of her seat of her chair. But to me, the best part of this thing is Gary Miller. Even if you know a loud noise is coming, it is quite the effort to not flinch a little when it happens

basically right over your shoulder. I mean, ask the little kid in the movie north By Northwest where Iva Marie Saint shoots Carrie Grant and he sticks his fingers in his ears because it's take thirty seven, and he knows the noise is coming. I mean, you're aware of it just for the possibility that somebody will screw it up like me and debris will fly into the back of your head. But if you watch Gary in this Sports Center commercial, he doesn't even blink, just a little dead

pan head jerk. It's perfect. What also amazes me is that we got all this done in twenty four seconds of running time. Alexei goes on about negativity. I have to do something about it. He plays enough of the song that you recognize it. You got a shot at cheerleaders incongruously in the middle of the background. I appear from nowhere, move over there, smash the guitar while roaring spectacularly. I give him back the neck of the thing. The only thing missing is that shot from the fret bar

flying into camera three. They explained they didn't have the extra two seconds scene. I remember enjoying doing this so much that I asked them for the front of the body of the guitar, and I had Alexi sign it to me on the spot. It hung framed in my various offices for about fifteen years. In twenty fourteen, I was leaving the recording of Stephen Colbert's final episode for

Comedy Central. I was one of one hundred guests, and I went out onto the street to find a cab home and I got one, and in getting into it, I nearly ran into Alexei Lalas, who was one of the other one hundred guests. I laughed, He laughed, and he said, and I don't even have my guitar with me. And one last note, I doubt this will be of any practical use to you, but I must say, as somebody who was accorded this rare privilege, not only of doing this, but of doing this with impunity, and doing

this to applause. If you are trying to HEALTHI event any frustrations or anger in your life, smashing a guitar against a workplace cubicle wall is exactly as satisfying as you would expect it would be. Okay, I still love you, man, I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Countdown Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip Schanelle arranged, produced, and performed most of our music. Mister Ray on guitars, bass, and drums, Mister Chanelle, orchestration

and keyboards. It was produced by Tkobros. Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions, arranged and performed by Noah Horns Aloud. Mister Lallis's guitar was by Les Paul of Beverly Hills. The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN inc. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever. My announcer today was what a coincidence, Nancy Faust. Everything else was pretty much

my fault. That's countdown for this the one hundred and eleventh day until the twenty twenty four presidential election, the eighty eighth day since convicted felon Donald J. Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. Use the mental health system, use presidential immunity. President Biden, you've got it, Use it to stop him from doing it again while we still can.

And Republicans please stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow, Bulletins is the newest requires till then. I'm Keith Olremman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olreman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.