Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SERIES 3 EPISODE 18: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has doubled down on his defiling of Arlington National Cemetery. Title 32, Part 553, Subpart C: Memorial Services and Ceremonies at Army National Military Ceremonies will not include partisan political activities. Trump’s team exploited a memorial service at Arlington on Monday, broke the law by privately photographing and filming it, physically assaulted Arlington National Cemetery staff who asked him to stop, he gave a thumbs up and smiled idiotically while literally standing on the graves of dead U-S military heroes, and now they have turned it into an online campaign advertisement – by definition, a partisan political activity. This could’ve been trivial. It could’ve been “there was a miscommunication.” Not even an apology – like anybody in the Trump campaign were human enough, or honest enough, or RESPECTFUL OF OUR WAR DEAD ENOUGH to apologize. Just “misunderstanding.” No. They blamed the Cemetery staffer, they blamed the media, they blamed Vice President Harris for not being there to commemorate the sad anniversary of deaths in Afghanistan – the commemoration Trump has illegally turned into a campaign AD – the commemoration Trump skipped last year and the year before. Because to Trump, and to this robot JV Vance, those buried AT Arlington are just another product, just another SELL, just another gimmick, just another BRAND NAME. And they got the brand name wrong. Trump thug Chris LaCivita wrote that Arlington "most hollowed" ground. Corrupted news outlets like The New York Times covered for it by claiming he wrote "hallowed." Hallowed, is Arlington. Hollowed, is Trump's brain. TRUMP IS NOW MORE DANGEROUS THAN EVER. Another new round of polls underscores: he's losing, and dragging down the down-ballot MAGA GOP: a total swing in four states of 25 points to Harris. She leads by one in Arizona, two in Georgia and Nevada, and has cut it to one in North Carolina. The Fox poll in Arizona scores the Senate as Ruben Gallego 56, Kari Lake 41. How is Kari lake going to be able to afford to buy 900 more camera filters THIS late in the race? The Fox poll in North Carolina scores the Governor’s race as Josh Stein 54 Mark Robinson 43. The Fox poll in Nevada scores the Senate race as Jacky Rosen 55 Sam Brown 41.  TO LEAVEN THE MOOD A LITTLE: A comedian named Dan Wilbur has done a spot-on impression of JD Vance trying to be a human for 9 minutes at a donut shop. It's better if you go watch it. It's not bad if you listen to it here. B-Block (25:31) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Texas political hitman Ken Paxton sends nine armed troops to 87-year old Democratic woman's home because she registered voters. CNN/Gary Tuchman "Uncommitted Voter" scandal worsens: the guy is now selling t-shirts. And asked about phones for kids during emergencies at school Jesse The Idiot Watters thinks that means HIS emergency when he has to call them in math class. C-Block (36:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was talking about Bill Clinton yesterday and I think it's time to tell the entire story of how NBC tried to blackmail me into NOT quitting the Clinton-Lewinsky MSNBC show in 1998 because it made them too much money. An emissary from then NBC News President Andy Lack threatened to sue me and get me blacklisted from television AND make sure my parents wound up homeless.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 17: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is now claiming that the White House rigged the presidential election in 2020. HE was president in 2020. HE was in the White House. "Zuckerberg admits the White House pushed to suppress Hunter Biden laptop story, in other words the 2020 presidential election was rigged," Trump writes. I'm telling you: Mijni-strokes. SPEAKING OF WHICH: There's way more to Trump exploiting Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to take smiling thumbs-up selfies while literally standing on the graves of American heroes. An Arlington official tried to stop the photography; a Trumpist allegedly shoved him; the Trump Campaign decided the correct response was to claim the Arlington official was "suffering from a mental health episode."  JACK SMITH OUTWITS THE SUPREME COURT: This one weird trick actually works. He filed his superseding indictment in the Insurrection case in Washington. It's a little more complicated than this, but basically he got around SCOTUS by changing every reference to "President Trump" to "Candidate Trump" and calling the 1/6 Call To Arms a "campaign speech." RAGE IN THE MACHINE: Thousands of newspaper columns were deleted (hundreds at The New York Times alone) when Kamala Harris agreed to her first sit-down interview. It's with Dana Bash on CNN so she still hasn't scheduled one anybody will SEE. The Cook Political Report has moved two more states from "Lean Democrat" to "Likely" and moved North Carolina from "Lean Republican" to "Toss-up." Maybe that's why Trump has agreed to the September 10th debate - or seemed to. The actual words in his acceptance never says he'll actually be there. And we have the first polling on weirdness by party and while the GOP is accurately seen as more weird, the lead is hardly big enough. B-Block (23:55) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: RW troll blasts Democrats for "not being interested" in the Trump assassination attempt. Turns out all the Democrats on the House committee went to the site survey Monday. Only three of the seven Republicans bothered to. Trump makes the list too after what HR McMaster revealed about the Taliban Trump ordered released. And somebody who made this list in 2007 for indiscretions as a tv reporter is back for mocking Gus Walz while not merely a right wing media nut but also the volleyball coach at a high school with a praised and cherished program for learning-challenged kids. C-Block (33:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: 43 years ago now, my television career starts because the late Lou Dobbs had issues keeping his pants on. It's still amazing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 16: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The full Reichstag-Fire-level propaganda site Red State may have commissioned, certainly got first access, to a poll showing Kamala Harris leading Trump 52 to 45 among LIKELY voters, and 50 to 46 percent among REGISTERED voters. It’s OUTSIDE the margin of error according to the head of the firm, which is SO right wing that the pollster’s pinned tweet is about how in 2011 he predicted a Trump presidency. They also did favorability scores and claim Harris is at 50-50 and Trump only eleven points underwater. “The biggest factor helping Harris is how she has neutralized the immigration issue. In both polls, immigration was the fourth most important issue, or rather – only 10 percent told us it was their number one.” Also on polling, the weekly update from Morning Consult has shown no Convention Bump for Harris, or maybe just a continuation of the previous bumps – unchanged at Harris 48 Trump 44. But there ARE signs of… a Tim Walz bump. His favorability was at 39 percent and plus three before the convention; it is 42 percent and now plus SIX after it. SOLUTION: MUTE HIS MIC THROUGHOUT THE DEBATE: Trump is back to trying to back out of the presidential debate and he’s not even doing it well and the American political media is, as always, astonished. As soon as Harris replaced Biden he claimed all agreements were off, now he is enraged she wants the mikes always open not muted, not because he objects to the mikes not being muted, but because she wants it. Let me summarize this: he is trying to back out of the debate. He is hoping to be able to back out and blame her. He did this with Biden too. He is using as an excuse an objection to something he agrees with. What is Harris doing? Harris, bluntly, is EFFING with him. The Harris team has already proven to be the most successful anti-Trump entity in the fertile field of EFFING with him. MORE MEDIA MADNESS: CNN interviews eight "undecided" voters after Harris's acceptance speech. Except one of them told them in advance he was voting for Trump. Chris Cillizza tops himself. And the Times' latest self-destructive Op-Ed? "Trump Can Win On Character,"  written by the guy who followed the 2008 Vice Presidential Debate with the infamous masturbatory column about Sarah Palin. B-Block (25:33) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Covfefe of 2024 as DonOld shows more evidence of mini-strokes. Andrea Tantaros compares Harris's appearance to...Hitler's "manscaping." And Jason Miller mocks a Kamala TV political surrogate as so old he should be in a rest home. The guy is 18 months YOUNGER than Trump. C-Block (32:25) SPORTS FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE SPORTS/THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The former ESPN Big Show SportsCenter producer who went on to run ESPN, is succeeded by the guy who succeeded him AS the ESPN Big Show SportsCenter producer. Turns out the death of WCBS NewsRadio in New York was largely my fault. And I've found another cassette, so if you want to hear the day I was first paid to do the news (July 25, 1980, WNEW Radio, New York) you're in luck.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 15: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The special guest was the next President of the United States. Kamala Harris nailed the speech. It could not have been  better. Not a sour note, not a space for complaint, not an issue avoided.  Plus: Harris has cut Trump’s lead from nine points to five points… in TEXAS. Harris is now AHEAD in North Carolina by a point. There is the RFK Junior thing coming today. There is leaked audio of Trump pledging fealty to the families of the January 6th traitors and hosting an event for them two weeks from now, and more blatant Trump antisemitism hinting at a nightmare scenario in which he merges the streams: where the conspiracy theories about rigged elections and immigrant voting gets fully crossed with racism and anti-semitism (and the advanced kind, where there are “good” Trump-supporting Jewish people, and “bad” Trump-hating Jewish people. There is also the increasing evidence that Trump is, at least accidentally, giving up on winning the election and instead trying to raise the temperature so much among his fascists that they can run a coup from behind in the legislatures and the House and try to force a Contingent Election. Again from Yale historian Timothy Snyder via The New York Times: “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 once 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.” And time to make the donuts: JV Vance actually manages to fail at the simple buy-food photo-op. B-Block (24:55) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Megyn Kelly’s stupidity mixes with her racism: she doesn’t realize HBCU’s exist because so many black students were excluded from other colleges. And Trumpsucker Mike Crispi and the one famous Cornell alumna whom the university does not recognize tie for pure inhumanity when it comes to Tim Walz’s son Gus. C-Block (37:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: For everybody who’s ever asked “Olbermann? Did you hit your HEAD or something?” the answer is yes and the 45th anniversary is tomorrow. Don’t worry, I’ll be getting better any day now.          See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 14: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: You heard that right. RFK Junior will drop out of the presidential race tomorrow. Whether or not he then endorses Trump reportedly depends on when his wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines, relents on her opposition to Trump. Of course it may not matter. There is no reliable polling on what Kennedy's remaining support thinks of Trump or Harris or anybody else. And despite what individual state polls suggest, national polling suggests he's been taking 2% or 3% support from both Kamala and Psychotrump. The other wild card is what position in his cabinet Trump is willing to offer. I'm thinking "Secretary of Bears." THE OTHER NEW POLLING IS SO ASTONISHING that the whole thing may be irrelevant. Rasmussen Republican polling has her up by one in Wisconsin. University of New Hampshire polling has her having gone from four behind Trump in the conservative Maine 2nd District to five points AHEAD of him. And Politico analyzed ten quality polls and suggests that the data suggests the snowball is forming. MEANWHILE TRUMP'S GREATEST FREUDIAN SLIP EVER: His antisemitic trope about Democrats and Jews is well known by now. "If Jewish people vote for her they ought to go out and get their heads examined." And yet on the Hugh Hewitt show yesterday he forgot the back half of it. He stopped after "go out" and started talking about something out. The part he left out was "get their heads examined." Trump also made up a story about Harris meeting with Putin before the Ukraine invasion. This also sounds crazy but may be less insanity and more an indicator that the Trump campaign is giving up on actually winning at the ballot box and just amping up the conspiracy theories so its minions in state legislatures and the House can try to steal the election by coup after Harris wins. B-Block (21:05) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: How could you misspell Bruce Springsteen's name? A Philly hotel managed to do it! Rudy Giuliani says Steve Bannon is being "tortured" in prison (I wish), and should the FBI or Secret Service be visiting Hulk Hogan and asking him why he threatened the Vice President of the United States? C-Block (29:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: A non-broadcasting friend of mine brought up the name the other day and I was surprised he knew him. Meet the former president of MSNBC who threatened - while his screams were audible in the background live on the air - to destroy and kill me. Fun place to work!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 13: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Did you HEAR Trump yesterday? Did you HEAR HIM TALK? He’s in Howell, Michigan, where it might as well be Alabama in the year 1855, where they marched chanting “We Love Hitler, We Love Trump” a MONTH ago, and he came out at the County Sheriff’s Office, and behind him with the cops as the props and if he had had ten times the energy and ten times the focus you would have said: what’s wrong with Trump? Is he DYING or something? I mean I don’t THINK he’s dying, I think there are intermediate stages between having every single thing in a presidential campaign turn against you in a matter of two weeks and actually dying, but look if this mumble thing continues, at this rate they’re going to have start putting live captions over him. Trump responded to the overture from the RFK Junior camp about dropping out if Trump would give him a role in his cabinet. “I didn’t know he was thinking about getting out, but if he is thinking about getting out, certainly I’d be open to it.” RFK's running mate Nicole Shanahan appears to be doing the bargaining. Even she has figured it out: "We run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency, as we draw votes from Trump. We draw, somehow, more votes from Trump. Or we walk away, right now, and join forces with Donald Trump…” Translation: bribe us and we’ll go away. Looks like what they want is Secretary of Health and Human Services. THE SELF-DEFENESTRATION OF THE POLITICAL MEDIA: The Times really did it yesterday, with no sense of irony, no meta self-reflection: “Kamala Harris’s tan suit was a surprising choice, our fashion critic writes.” The Post, meantime, did a DNC factcheck and got half a dozen things wrong: the Post insisted that there was no evidence that Trump ever sent love letters to dictators with Kessler writing “we do not know what Trump wrote to Kim Jong Un,” Media Matters went appropriately nuts. Of course we know. Trump showed them to… Bob Woodward of the Post. The factcheck now has its own factcheck. I recommend to you and will quote extensively from a masterpiece on this topic in The New Republic. Meredith Shiner writes: "after years of watching Morning Joe and searching for their birthdays in the Politico Playbook, they do not see their role as speaking to us, but rather speaking to themselves." Ex-effing-actly. B-Block (26:47) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jesse Watters has rebirthed birtherism. He's sending "Johnny" to Hawaii to get the real story about Barack Obama's birth certificate because Harris. Amy Kremer, a GOP Committeewoman from Georgia, is the sucker born every minute. A liberal trolls the idiot Jack Posobiec by saying she'll have an abortion and a vasectomy onstage at the DNC and Kremer believes her. And Stephen L. Miller - the "other" Stephen Miller - uses the c-word about Mallory McMorrow with no self-awareness that it's used about him. C-Block (37:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It was a lovely day in Fun City yesterday so I was out all day and I walked right past it: the bar out of which George Steinbrenner stepped one night in 1981 after I had spent the day trying to find... George Steinbrenner.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 12: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has doubled down on his smearing of military heroes, of Medal of Honor recipients, by comparing them to the likes of Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon. To a local news reporter in Pennsylvania, he insisted veterans are not enraged, that he has not done untold damage to his supposedly-ultra-patriotic base, and naturally he made it worse because now he had to clarify that what he meant was that Miriam Adelson LOOKS better than Medal of Honor winners because the Medal of Honor winners are often horribly wounded or dead and who wants to look horribly wounded or dead. The polls continue to be so good, so uniformly, that it’s now hard to keep up with them and probably not worth doing so. As you already know, Sunday CBS News polling put her up THREE but ABC and the Washington Post pegged it at SIX. Morning Consult not only saying its tracking poll has her now up 48-44. It was THREE points last week. She’s also above water on favorability, 50 to 45… so plus-five-favorable, her high water mark and something Trump has never approached J.V. VANCE, MEANWHILE figuratively stumbled over the ordering of a cheese steak in Philadelphia. And if he brings "his" new dog Atlas back on th campaign trail, dog-walking experts predict he literally stumble over him. OH THE CONVENTION?  From deep in their souls you can hear the disappointment forcing its way out like a primal scream: the primal scream of reporters who were promised tear gas and got only their own tears, the reporters – nationwide on Fox, internationally on BBC – heart-broken, stunned, disbelieving: There were no riots at the Opening Day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Not one goddamned canister of tear gas. And the number of protesters turned out to be overestimated by perhaps 90%. And yes I'll be damned if I know why they still hold conventions. Your time is much better spent listening to a guy from NewsMax explain that Trump is in a slump and needs to reintroduce himself to the electorate by going retail. Drop the hour-long speeches. Give golf tips. Bring his grandchildren to supermarket parking lots. No, I'm not kidding, and no, I cannot sufficiently convey how hilarious it is. B-Block (23:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Laura Ingraham - who once turned the Republican National Convention into a Hitler Salute To Trump - complains there's too much "show" at the DNC. Sure Nancy Mace is an idiot, but if Abby Phillip and CNN wouldn't platform her, we wouldn't have to listen to the idiocy. And Marcel Teloma has a foolproof plan for Trump Victory but I have a better one: why settle for JUST the Republican nomination? C-Block (32:59) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The television world - and the liberal world - rightly mourn Phil Donahue, who died Sunday. But it must be said and it must be said now: the final act of the Donahue TV story, in which he claimed MSNBC fired him for opposing the Iraq War even though he had the network's highest ratings. Almost none of the story is true, and I know this not merely because I was there as it happened as what was an initially disinterested uninvolved bystander, but more importantly, why would they have fired him for opposing Bush and Iraq when the show that replaced him was called "Countdown With Keith Olbermann"?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BULLETIN: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-BLOCK (1:44) Trump, “honoring” Miriam Adelson, a wealthy widow trying to help him buy the election and the government, has denigrated and insulted our nation's greatest military heroes by saying that the PRESIDENTIAL medal of freedom he gave her was quote “better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor because the recipients of the latter were usually deceased or injured. "When we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Trump said at an event Thursday night at his ramshackle golf course in New Jersey, "that’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. But civilian version, it’s actually much better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they're soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead, She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal." at any other point in our nation’s history a presidential candidate who said what Donald Trump has now said about winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor, would not only have had had his nomination rescinded by his party, but its leaders would have expelled him, and probably chased him out of the country or at least into hiding. This latest in a series of Trump blasphemies against American war dead and wounded comes in the middle of an attempt by his campaign to ride the limited military service of his vice presidential pick, Senator Vance, as an indicator of patriotism and bravery, and the attempt to swift-boat his Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz because there are nuanced details of the end of his TWENTY-FOUR year career in the military – a career which he resumed, coming out of retirement after 9/11. Vance has accused Walz of "stolen valor" and just yesterday in Pennsylvania a campaign surrogate called Walz a "coward." Lastly, there is Trump’s own original sin in this area: he somehow obtained five deferments from service in Vietnam in the 1960’s using “bone spurs” that mysteriously ended at the same time the military draft did.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 10: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: First he held a news conference where the reporters didn't have microphones. Then he held a news conference where the reporters basically didn't get to ask questions. What's next? A Trump News Conference without Trump? Sounds like a good idea. Incredibly, CNN ran the whole nonsensical non-news conference rant live. As somebody who was hired by CNN as its first year ended in 1981 I have a secret for them – the acronym stands for “Cable NEWS Network.” You’re no longer news. Cut to a test pattern, fire everybody, and start from scratch. Which also applies to Trump’s running mate. I’m beginning to think J.D. Vance is actually a Democratic plant. New Kensington, Pennsylvania. At VFW Post 92. That’s Veterans of Foreign Wars, the post number is 92, and there is still the Sarah Palin rule. Vance called it "VFA," forgot the number, had to fish into his pocket for a card that had the number written on it, and forgot the Palin rule (if you're an idiot running for Vice President, and you have to remember something, just write it on your hand). There are more polls and Kamalapalooza continues. She's pulled off a nine-point swing in Pennsylvania and a ten-point swing nationally. So naturally Politico led with 28 paragraphs on Vivek Ramaswamy insisting Trump was listening to his advice to focus on the issues and not attack her. This is while the Republican campaign is imploding so quickly that now Frank Luntz is wondering if Trump is trying to lose. And as the Trump campaign continues to try to insist it has nothing to do with Project 2025, Media Matters uncovers the implausible. There's a Project 2025 training video starring Karoline Leavitt, who is now Trump's Campaign spokesperson. As the video ends she tells Project 2025 trainees that if they need any help to just contact her. B-Block (23:57) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Republican House Candidate accused, as a cop, of handcuffing an infant. RFK Junior hires somebody to program political ads to you based on data on your phone. And baseball's new low: the Mets' ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by the Hawk Tuah woman. I presume she threw a spitball. C-Block (33:10) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: It's got everything: Suspense, Baseball, Red Barber, a story that was turned into a movie with Peter Sellers. It's "The Catbird Set."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 9: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Yesterday I said that the USA Today poll that had Vice President Harris down by five Florida was a great indicator of the Democratic tsunami that could be gathering but it’s not like she’s actually going to WIN Florida, and literally hours later in comes a new poll and she may actually WIN Florida. She's ahead in all but one of the Cook Political Report swing state polls. There are three new national polls (including Monmouth's) in which she's ahead. She's grown the Democratic lead among Latinos from 5% to 19%. Democratic enthusiasm has shot through the roof. She's cut Trump's lead among non-college-educated white people almost in half. It's such a torrent that even Frank Luntz has noticed, says it will soon be time to start figuring out if her coattails will win the House and Senate for the Democrats and “The people who were undecided have all collapsed towards Harris. The entire electoral pool has changed. Kamala Harris has got an intensity advantage, and I haven’t seen anything like this happen – in 30 days – in my lifetime.” AND REMARKABLY I'M GOING TO DEFEND TRUMP: Not his campaign, not his hate, not WHAT he said while he was on with Elon Musk. But his claim that the equipment gave him that lisp/slurred words/sibilant 'S'? He's right. Anybody who's ever worked with audio processors designed to improve phone signals knows exactly what happened here. We used to call it 1979 Comrex Martian Disease. I'll explain. B-Block (23:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Internet trolls "Gunther Eagleman" and "End Wokeness" complain that the Ilhan Omar primary count didn't go fast enough, then went too fast, then they didn't like the outcome. Laura Ingraham complains Kamala likes curse words when Laura swears like a stevedore. And they play a prank on Liz Truss and she doesn't like it. C-Block (37:10) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Last weekend somebody told me their career was over and asked if anybody ever told me that and I said yeah, in 2016. And 2001. And 1984. Oh and 1977. Haven't gotten me yet.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 8: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: ActiVote, completely its survey in Texas yesterday: Trump 53.3% Harris 46.7% In Texas. The lead is Trump +6.6; the margin of error is 5 points. Their last poll was July 19th, it was Trump by NINE points. So she cut the lead by nearly a third in three weeks. She is ostensibly within the margin of error. In Florida, in polling led by USA Today: Trump 47 Harris 42, so Trump is ahead by 5. IMargin of error is 4.5 points so Kamala Harris IS within the margin of error. All previous polls, from the one by the University of North Florida Research Lab to the one by a Trump pollster, McLaughlin, had it Trump by eight. As recently as last Thursday. Is she going to WIN Florida or Texas or both? I don’t think so. Registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats in Florida by a MILLION. Trump won Texas in 2016 by nine points. Five-and-a-half in 2020. But that the FACT of Kamala Harris, before the convention, before the campaign has really even begun, has cut Trump’s lead by nearly a third in Texas and nearly forty percent in Florida tells you just how bad things were and just how much better they have already gotten in Florida and Texas – and Michigan and Pennsylvania – and America. I have this urgent request of the Trump campaign: please continue to do EVERYTHING exactly the way you are doing it now. Thank you. You are Kamala Harris’s primary asset. You are her ROCK. MEANWHILE, THERE'S ELECTION INTERFERENCE by Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. The Post is explaining WHY the Post cannot publish nor even IDENTIFY internal documents and computer traffic STOLEN from a presidential campaigns - THIS time. There's some lofty bull about pausing and considering motives and outside actors and then the Executive Editor of the Post tells the truth."In the end," says Matt Murray, "it didn’t seem fresh or new enough." Of course there is a clip on YouTube from 2016 in which the Post's Wikileaks reporters explain that's why they published then and yeah they were sure it'd happen again. So they knew this would happen again and they knew they were setting the precedent and they knew they wouldn’t do better next time and now they’re pretending that it HASN’T happened again and they’re pretending NO precedent was set and they’re confirming they AREN’T doing better next time and they haven’t learned a damn thing. Lastly, Trump's campaign has been slammed by an unlikely source, the man who might be his only friend in the world: Bill O'Reilly. It's hilarious. And the quotes let me do my Bill O'Reilly voice again. B-Block (26:56) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: He's back and badder than ever, suggesting Kamala Harris hasn't done enough interviews. It's Chris Cillizza (two Z's and an endless number of L's); Trump War Room goes full racist and shows you the future and in one the houses everything is neat and clean and evidently all the people are dead; and why Elon Musk's Eleventy Billion views for Trump turns out to imply that the average viewer stayed for ONLY FOUR MINUTES. C-Block (39:35) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Sam Rosen retired yesterday - effective at the end of the next season - as the Hall of Fame play-by-play announcer of hockey's New York Rangers. Sam just happens to have succeeded so well AFTER he was my boss when I was 20 and 21 years old! The saga of Sam, who I know so long I wrote a paper about him in college.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 6: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: There's no other word for it. Collapsed. Trump's poll numbers have collapsed. Poll numbers collapse all the time – relatively speaking; measured across the arc of American political history. If they had had them in 1864, ABE LINCOLN’S poll numbers would have collapsed. But I do not think that any other presidential candidate’s poll numbers have collapsed, this late, this fast, after this much of a twin honeymoon of a convention and a failed assassination attempt. Ipsos Polling: Harris by FIVE, 42-37, last surveys taken Wednesday. In the July 23rd Ipsos poll it was Harris by three, 37-34. Ipsos Repeat Polling (same respondents as last poll) of the Big Seven Swing States: Harris by TWO, 50 to 48… that’s Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The LAST Ipsos poll of the SAME voters in these states, also concluded July 23rd it was Trump by THREE. MARQUETTE LAW SCHOOL also released its national results very early Thursday Morning and among likely voters it’s Harris 50 Trump 42 – Harris by EIGHT. Everybody has their own criteria for “likely voters” so if you drop to just registered voters it’s still Harris by SIX. Most intriguing: among independent voters where Marquette has her head by 60 to 40. TWENTY points among Independents. What we are seeing as of THIS moment is exactly why this unprecedented move: changing horses not mid-stream but mid-tightrope was attempted. To get these results. And nobody, NOBODY, expected them this fast. NOBODY. Which leads me into the second thing I mentioned previously and I mentioned it on Wednesday July 24th and before I mentioned it I took a deep breath and asked myself do you really want to mention this already but I did and I repeat it: I have been thinking since no later than (hours after President Biden dropped out) that there will come a point, this year, this election, maybe this MONTH, where we will all be saying “Can you believe we came THIS CLOSE to not making Vice President Harris the nominee?” I’m not building the Joe Saved Democracy Again statues quite yet. But I am beginning to think of maybe what they kinda could LOOK like. AND IS ANYBODY GOING TO DO OR WRITE ANYTHING about Trump's Health Crisis? His “news conference” was, objectively, twice as bad, FOUR times as bad, as the President’s performance at the debate. Throughout, it bordered on – and often crossed the line INTO – fugue state.  And this got no headlines.  Trump always SOUNDS like he doesn’t know where he was. This time he also LOOKED like he didn’t know where he was. Can’t convey that on a podcast: when a question came from the right side of the room he looked frightened as if he had just discovered there WAS a right side of the room. He looked lost. More shockingly, perhaps, he looked pale. The New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Axios, ABC, NBC and CBS had NO front page stories about the demented nature of his performance yesterday. Within an hour of its conclusion. Each hid behind his vague commitment to debates. Axios, incredibly, LED with “Vice President Harris still hasn’t given an interview or taken questions from voters since she became a presidential candidate…” B-Block (24:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A former mediocre football player named Marcellus Wiley claims Democrats are trying to bribe celebrities like him to support them (like him?) Trump makes up a story about Biden trying to seize back the nomination; his social media whore Dan Scavino posts 'I hear Biden is trying to seize back the nomination.' Elon Musk posts a fake London newspaper headline claiming there are going to be internment camps for conservatives (I WISH). Dear UK: what is the point of HAVING a Tower of London if you're not gonna use it? C-Block (34:50) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: The most amount of action in the smallest amount of space in any Thurber story. His impeccable tale of one hour of confusion in his childhood home: "The Night The Bed Fell."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 5: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Thank the lord for J.D. (J.V.) Vance. Even if you're atheist or agnostic, thank somebody. It is a given that they should have Tim Walz make ten speeches a week, every warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse. But Democrats should also anonymously flood the Trump campaign with the succinct and anonymous message: SEND MORE JD VANCE! Vance has launched, twenty years after, a new version of the anti-John Kerry Swiftboat Campaign against Walz, a man who served in the military for 24 years. Falsely accused him of "stolen valor" because he retired before his unit was ordered to Iraq. And he’s not only done so while being the running mate of a draft dodger. He's done so when his own role in the military was: Marine Correspondent. Brian Williams in uniform.  As late as 2010 he was publicly supporting Iraq, now says he fell for George W. Bush’s propaganda about Iraq. Means that Public Affairs Colonel J.D. Vance was a propagandist. By his own definition. Brian Williams in a uniform. After that disaster, and a clumsy stunt in which he portrayed himself as a creepy weirdo trying to get on the Vice President's plane, they gave Vance the chance to push back on the thing that allowed Tim Walz to burst out of the gate Monday: that he's happy and voters want at least some happy. Asked what makes him happy, he was asked. He promptly berated the reporter and said he was angry. Never change, Dude. You're the worst. ALSO of note: more polls, from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, showing an eight point swing from Trump to Harris in a little over two weeks. Eight. Points. B-Block (25:33) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Critics of the Paris Olympics, please meet Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. She has a lovely bouquet of F-Bombs for you. Philly radio man Howard Eskin hasn't been fired after "unwanted kiss" and I haven't gotten over something he did to me in 1980. And Valentina "Gun Moll" Gomez didn't win the Fascist Primary for Secretary of State in Missouri. In fact she didn't even finish Top Five! C-Block (36:52) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It was such a dumb move that the other executives at MSNBC actually thought it was a practical joke. And then they found out the only joke was on them. NBC is known for its ability to erase people from its past but nobody has been erased more than the ex-host who was inexplicably promoted to General Manager in 2006 (and then stripped of power about a week later).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 4: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: People. Like. Him. In a time when 50% approval is a landslide of support, when the very few most earnest and most honest politicians are still tolerated, when we have had a decade of one of the most disliked humans on the planet hating everything and everybody, the idea that the Democrats are running not one but TWO likeable candidates is staggeringly important – and simple – and novel.  Tim Walz is HAPPY to be living here, and fighting to help other people become happy, and now to join Kamala Harris, who is ALSO happy and smiles – like a person. Trump isn’t HAPPY! At every moment of what should be success he’s degrading someone, he’s embittered, he’s angry, he’s the victim, he’s shortchanged, he’s threatening revenge. As shown on his spectacular first day as her running mate, Walz and Vice President Harris recognize what Trump does not: America is so worn out by and done with, unhappy weirdos. THE POLLS CONTINUE TO BE ALL KAMALA: Marist for PBS: Harris 51 Trump 48. Harris by three. Previous poll: Trump by one. Marist for PBS: Who do you trust more on abortion? Harris… 56-to-41. Who do you trust more on preserving democracy? Harris 53-46. Who do you trust more on the economy? Trump… but only by three. Who do you trust more on immigration – this is the killer, right? Trump’s real chance to survive the tsunami? Yes, poll says Trump but only by six. And some very pro-conservative swing state polling were also all positive. And all conducted before Tim Walz. B-Block (26:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Jim Vandehei of Axios not only fires ten percent of his staff, but he makes them read about it in a memo written in the impenetrable Axios 'style.' Bloomberg editors' response to their decision to break the embargo on the trade for Evan Gershkovich? Fire the reporter! And a member of Code Pink who was already ahead of Congressman Derrick Van PTSD Orden is delayed slightly, he yells at her to move, as she moves she brushes past him, he is now demanding she be charged with "assault on a member of Congress." C-Block (37:25) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was supposed to anchor NBC’s cable coverage of the Summer Olympics in 2000 in Sydney. But I quit the job in 1998. Then I was supposed to anchor NBC’s cable coverage of the Summer Olympics in 2004 in Athens. But I told them – no, I think I’d prefer to stay in New Jersey and try to grow this new news show Countdown and there are still executives at NBC who think I am insane. And I am proud to tell you that I have not watched ONE minute, not ONE highlight, from the 2024 Olympics. I'm beginning to think I might not LIKE the Olympics. If this is true it dates to 1980 and my experience as part of a two-and-a-half man team that covered the ENTIRE WINTER Olympics at Lake Placid, New York – just the two-and-a-half of us. It was rewarding, it was challenging, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I have done everything since then to make SURE it WAS just once-in-a-lifetime, especially after the other one-and-a-half guys – my boss and my boss’s boss – got me drunk one night and then sent me to cover the skiing at sunrise and I almost didn’t survive.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 3: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The selection of Kamala Harris's Vice President is a big story and I'm really interested and it could be Joe Biden and I'd go "Whatever You Want, Queen." The lead story today is ANOTHER poll explosion She’s ahead in the Morning Consult poll 48-44. A week ago she was ahead by ONE point. Two weeks ago TRUMP was ahead by TWO points. That's a seven point swing since President Biden bowed out. They polled on six key attributes in seven swing states: she wins not too old in a landslide. She wins "mentally fit" in a landslide. She wins "less dangerous" in a landslide. She wins "cares about me" by as much as ten. She's tied with him on "more presidential." She's up. by three in SurveyUSA. CBS (which never had Biden ahead) has her up by one. Decision Desk HQ shows her improved in nine of its ten battleground states (the only one she didn't improve on? Virginia, where she and Biden were each up by three). For the first time even Nate Silver's projection says she has the better chance of winning the electoral college – 53% – and winning it by 282 votes to 255 for Trump – and has her up in the polls by one and nine tenths points, largely because HIS average of the polls in Pennsylvania has her up by a point and in Michigan by just under three. Nate Silver has Kamala Harris within six points of leading in… Florida. ALSO THERE'S THE VP THING. Reuters reported Tim Walz and Josh Shapiro are the finalists. It might be Mark Kelly in the mix, too. Sure great fine get Walz new younger glasses. End advice. AND NOW WE KNOW WHY RFK MADE THE BEAR VIDEO: Yes, sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you and sometimes when you try to get ahead of The New Yorker story about you dumping in Central Park the dead carcass of a bear cub you say another motorist killed, it turns out there were stories the bear had stab wounds, and oh yeah the magazine has a PHOTO of you mocking the dead bear and in it your fly is unzipped. B-Block (29:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: TWO Supreme Court Justices. Gorsuch threatens Biden. Thomas takes more trip courtesy Harlan Crow Travel Agency. Elon Musk warns of civil war in Europe - for at least the fifth time in ten months. Does he own a civil war distributorship or something? C-Block (38:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The anniversary looms: my greatest scoop proves you can accomplish great things by doing nothing and just letting everybody else do all the work for you. I broke the trade of Wayne Gretzky to the L-A Kings – as important a moment as there has been in the history of the development of hockey in this country – by just answering the phone a couple times. I mean I didn’t even have to leave my office. The Gretzky Trade And My Absolutely Unnecessary Role in Breaking It.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 2: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Don’t look now but I think a certain Russian dictator has stopped betting on Trump. In fact, he’s started humiliating him. Whatever the deal between Trump and Putin was on Gershkovich – and there is every chance it existed only in that great, amorphous, bug-filled attic that is Trump’s mind – it’s gone now. On June 5 Trump insisted only he could get him home. Only he would be the recipient of Putin’s trust and agreement. He even put a date on it. Not when he was back in the White House but as soon as he was president-elect. Instead Putin just kicked Trump in the balls. Whatever happened, Trump was no longer worth enough to Putin for Putin to let Trump lie to cover his own useless ass. He just let Trump step on that rake. He just LEFT Trump to post impotently on social media about whether we got more prisoners then they did, like he was talking about getting 13 burgers for five bucks at McDonald’s instead of just a dozen. TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON 'KAMALA IS NOT BLACK, SHE'S JAMAICAN.' Since he thinks immigrants are from asylums because he doesn't know the word has multiple meanings, there's every chance he thinks the "Jamaica" is the part of his home borough, Queens. The stupidity of The New York Times and Washington Post may have helped convince him he's got the winning campaign theme here but his claim she's not really black really cut through - and cut him. THERE'S VP NEWS: JD Vance says nobody's trying to get him off the ticket, everybody's been treated like this. Mike Pence was treated like this (JD? A word, please?) But everybody says the Dump-Vance movement is coming from Kellyanne Conway. On the other side, the tea leaves suggest Josh Shapiro may be Kamala's choice. AND ONE WEIRD TRICK: Imagine being born in 1946, living through Korea and the Cold War and JFK and Vietnam and the Swinging 60s and Watergate and Reagan and The Tech Boom and 9/11 and Obama and every day of your life since you learned how to talk, somebody has called you weird and apparently you’d never heard this… until last week. Happily, Trump has the perfect response to this: I’m not weird, you’re weird. B-Block (24:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: As Mike Trout loses another season to injury and entropy, Angels' owner Arte Moreno must move him, or the team. The editor of the Cook Political Report thinks if the election is about the issues and not Trump, Trump will win. And Musk says he and Maduro will fight. Ever heard of the boxing matches where the two guys score simultaneous knockouts? C-Block (34:50) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: From his great near-novel "My Life And Hard Times" it's just another kid from another century trying to get through the bewildering bureaucracy that is a major American college: "University Days."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 3 EPISODE 1: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: After his demented, prejudiced paroxysm at the National Association of Black Journalists, as he signaled the start of his full-on, hateful, disgusting, apartheid-and-slavery-level-appalling campaign of birtherism and racism, Donald Trump must withdraw from the presidential election and commit to psychiatric institutionalization. There is no longer any room in the political discourse of the United States of America for anyone both so deeply disturbed AND so deeply possessed by a hate of people of color that it reaches the levels of insanity and prejudice Trump not only DISPLAYED in Chicago yesterday but gloried in. More over, there is no room in American SOCIETY for anyone with such an immeasurably dysfunctional and dangerous mental illness as that which Trump showed again and again at the NABJ event. This country is not safe if Donald Trump is free to walk on its streets. This country is not safe if those who have mistaken him for sane, or rational, or patriotic, or just American, are not shown in no uncertain terms that what he radiated yesterday on that stage is a disease At the National Association of Black Journalists event in Chicago he went full birther, again. He went full racist, again. He not only questioned the ethnic history of the Vice President of the United States, but he accused her of either CHANGING that history or changing her STATEMENTS ABOUT that history – Trump’s insanity permitted him to be vague even in his apartheid-level racist accusation. As he did so his stooges like Jesse Watters were going on Fox claiming Vice President Harris is quote “not African-American, technically” and Laura Loomer was disseminating a Harris birth certificate and the gutter trash congresswoman from Colorado Lauren Boebert wrote quote “she switched” and the Trump parking lot attorney Alina Habba said quote “Unlike you Kamala, I know who my roots are and where I come from." Not again. We must - using the law and the ballot box - destroy this man's evil and metaphorically bury his campaign and those who support under the rubble of birtherism. B-BLOCK (24:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Mar-a-Lago insiders selling info to supplicants about when Trump is in a good mood. Musk and Ramaswamy say America needs more people (but not immigrants like their own parents) and the Oklahoma school nazi wants to fire any teacher who wasn't worried enough about Trump's ear-piercing. C-BLOCK (35:38) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Ah for the simpler times of 46 years ago when the big issue was: will I get my seersucker suit dirty on the subway as I travel up to my internship at Channel 5 News. The story of Keith The Intern and Bill Mazer,  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 7: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump. Friday, Microsoft said the Iranians would try to meddle in the election.  SATURDAY… YOUR campaign computers get hacked - you say. By the Iranians – you say. And you didn't report it to the FBII. Even though it’s by Iran and part of your whole campaign scam, Trump, is that Iran is the root of all evil.  And you didn’t report it to the F-B-I, and you didn’t provide any evidence. Only yesterday, the FBI issued another anonymous, not even a spokesman’s name attached to it, just like that No-He-Was-Too-Hit-By-A-Bullet announcement – gave a clear and compelling picture of the vast team that has fanned out across the country, across the internet, across the world to track down this evil. Quote: “We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter.” Investigating… who? Investigating… what? Whether they were really hacked? Whether they were really hacked by the Iranians? Whether Trump made it all up? Whether the Trump campaign fell for some sort of phishing by a porn site? Also the material was supposed to hurt Trump? And was leaked to The Washington Post and Politico, which have repeatedly been helping Trump in this campaign? What's hurting Trump, and which the media is under-reporting, is that his polls are now cratering. Last week The New York Times had Kamala Harris ahead by 4 in each of the Rust Belt States. Now, Bullfinch Group for a site supposedly servicing independent voters: Harris by FOUR in Pennsylvania, by FIVE in Michigan, by NINE in Wisconsin. There's a tie in North Carolina. There's a lead of nearly three points at 538 and of more than half a point at the right-poisoned RCP poll of polls. And most staggeringly - and most undercovered - from The New York Times: “Two private polls conducted in Ohio recently by Republican poillsters – which Mr. Trump carried in 2020 with 53 percent of the vote – showed him receiving less than 50 percent of the vote against Ms. Harris in the state, according to a person with direct knowledge of the data.” Holy crap.  B-Block (31:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The unaided ease by which that Turkish guy won a shooting medal at the Olympics has the inevitable side effect. 27% of Brits tell pollsters that if they started now THEY could make the 2028 British Olympic team. The aforementioned LaCivita gets blown up by Matt Dowd over Swift Boating. And the tape CNN found from January 6th from the North Carolina candidate to run schools there, Michele Morrow. All it is is a demand that Trump conduct a military coup against then President-elect Biden. (41:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: In memory of WCBS Radio, the day its news director validated my entire existence as an aspiring 20-year old broadcaster. The saga of The Adler Letter. C-Block (50:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The Adler Letter and MY legacy of WCBS Radio, Part TwoSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 222: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: As reports mount that she'll select her Vice Presidential running mate next Monday or Tuesday, Kamala Harris - ten days into her campaign - surges into the lead in the swing states: Michigan: Kamala Harris 53 Trump 42 Arizona: Harris 49 Trump 47 Wisconsin: Harris 49 Trump 47 Nevada: Harris 47 Trump 45 Georgia: Harris 47 Trump 47 North Carolina: Trump 48 Harris 46 Pennsylvania: Trump 50 Harris 46 Seven Swing States Combined in these polls by Morning Consult for BLOOMBERG News: Harris 48 Trump 47 or as they headlined it “Harris erases Trump’s Swing State Lead.” But Nate Silver told me Harris only has a 38 percent chance of winning, the New York Times told me this is just a "honeymoon" period (a term for the time AFTER a VP is chosen and a convention is held) and Axios told me Trump is selecting his cabinet. Explaining the polls, and the media's inability to believe anything that never happened before is happening now. B-Block (30:38) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Honorary mention, me, for coughing on the podcast yesterday. So now Matt Gaetz is OPPOSED to electoral losers insisting they really had won? Laura Loomer makes up a story no crazier than the other stories she's made up and got mad at all of us for taking her seriously. And the National Association of Black Journalists is entitled to host Trump for an interview at its convention. It is NOT allowed to let him bring his own pet propagandist with him to "interview" him. C-Block (44:33) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: In those days there was no internet, no ESPN, no CNN, and no weekday national sportscasts. So when the captain of the New York Yankees crashed his private plane 45 years ago this Friday, it was left to eight or so network radio sports guys to cover the nightmare in real time. And one of them was a rookie with about eight days' experience in the business: Me.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 221: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT (NOW! WITH LESS COUGHING!): Looks like you can build a couple new towers and an extra moat at Kamalot: Morning Consult poll, which Trump still led a week ago today 47 to 45, now shows Vice President Harris AHEAD 47 to 46 and yes it is all within the margin of error; nevertheless it is a 3-point swing in ONE WEEK. Just as importantly: FIFTY PERCENT of voters in that poll view her favorably, 46 percent unfavorably, that’s a net of +4 and in our fractured landscape that is landslide territory and nothing Biden OR Trump achieved. As Morning Consult notes her popularity score swung by twelve points since last week, driven mostly by… INDEPENDENTS. A week ago 31 percent of INDEPENDENTS viewed her favorably and now it’s 48% percent. Kamala Harris is also killing it in the stodgier polls. FOX surveyed four swing states. Harris up by six in Minnesota. They’re TIED in Michigan and Pennsylvania. She trails by a point in Wisconsin. The new Wall Street Journal Poll: she's cut Trump's lead from six to two Harris 47.  In short, there’s simply not a more CONGENIAL spot. For happily-ever-after-ing than here in Camelot. MEANWHILE TRUMP (WITH A NET FAVORABLE OF -16)? Of COURSE he meant if Christians voted for him now they wouldn’t have to vote again in 2028 BECAUSE he meant there wouldn’t BE elections - or maybe even more likely, there wouldn’t be elections in 2028 that HE COULD LOSE. There are a lot of reasons we can be certain of this, the easiest of which is that we all UNDERSTAND that he is running because if he doesn’t win the 2024 election and go to the WHITE HOUSE, he instead WILL go to prison, and he WILL die there. And if that is true in 2024 – guess what – it would ALSO be TRUE in 2028. B-Block (26:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: RFK says he was rambunctious so yeah there may be more sexual assault charges. A woman named Amy Vandersteel thinks 0.4% is forty percent. And right wing nut job Bill Mitchell explains there's a replacement Joe Biden who is four inches taller and deliberately tanked the debate so the Democrats could complete their intricate scheme to get him out and Kamala in I WISH. C-Block (36:20) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: MSNBC didn't make a big deal about it but they just hit their 28th anniversary on the air, and what I believe is the 19th anniversary of the day they fired Rachel Maddow, before I hired her back out of my own pocket.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.