ARREST MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FOR DISTRIBUTING A THREAT TO HARM PRESIDENT BIDEN - 9.6.23

If you feel like getting dinner on the table for everyone is basically impossible, we've got the perfect salt for you. Meet Weko Hospitality. They deliver fully prepared, totally craveable dinners that are ready in only 10 minutes. No chopping, no cooking, just a little heat, heat toss toss and you're all set set. Visit WekoHospitality.com to order. That's W-E-C-O Hospitality.com and for a limited time, use promo code Craybe for free delivery and damn good dinners. On his new podcast, Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon, join Kevin for inspiring conversations with his friends and fellow celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like actor Matthew McConaughey. You know, I found myself moving upstate in the middle of this fracking fight, you know, and I'm trying to raise kids there and, you know, my neighbors like willing to poison my water. Listen to Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm the Wizard of Oz, I'm the one making everything happen. Real Housewife of Salt Lake City Star, Jen Shaw, is running the scam of the century. I remember one time, Stuart lost like about 8 million, Jen was very upset and she came down to the office late at night with Coach, yelling at him, asking him where their money is. Listen to Queen of the Con, season 4, The Unreal Housewife. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Countdown with Keith Ulerman is a production of iHeartRadio. I call for the immediate arrest of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, representative of the 14th District of Georgia, under terms of 18 U.S. code 871, threats against the president and successors to the presidency. Greene has posted to social media, video of an anti-vax threat to harm or kill Joe Biden, made by a man who when asked about that threat of personal violence replied, I don't regret nothing I said, I effing mean it, bro. And Greene's own ignorance of the federal code, dealing with threats against the president is no defense here. 18 U.S. code 871 quite clearly states that the threat does not have to be first hand. She does not have to say it herself. She merely has to deliver it, though, helpfully for my point of view, she began her distribution and promulgation of the threat against Biden with her own statement, quote, I agree with this man, unquote. This man, a self-described rapper named Ben Parker, has obviously made a direct threat against Biden and needs to be arrested himself today, but so does Marjorie Taylor Greene. She has danced along the cliff edge of political violence in this country for years, and now she has endorsed presidential assassination, quote, I agree with this man, I'm hearing this exact sentiment from everyone I know. Marjorie Taylor Greene has now fallen off that cliff edge of political violence and her threats can no longer be tolerated, and she can no longer be tolerated. She must be arrested now. With a warning about the strong, strong language, this is part of the deranged anti-vaccination video by the man calling himself Ben Parker, which Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on Twitter on her congressional account. Not retweeted it, she has posted it under her own name, and which, again, she has prefaced with the quote, I agree with this man. A Joe Biden literally saying, y'all need to come, they need to come up with a new vaccine, and they need to come up with a way that people have to take it no matter what. I'm explain something very fucking clear to you. If the Democrat party and the Joe Biden administration, I'm motherfucking serious right now, this ain't no threat, this ain't no nothing, this is a fucking promise. If you think for one second, you're going to force me to take any fucking thing that you tell me to do, I will fuck you up, homie. You and whatever motherfucking army you send in the process, I want you to think you're going to make me take some shit, Joe. Now see, otherwise you crossed, I ain't say shit, but this the line you crossed, bitch, make me. I'm willing to die about this shit. Again, Marjorie Taylor Green posted a five minute video version of that slime and wrote quote, I agree with this man, 18 US code 871 threats against the president and successors to the presidency reads in part, whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier, any letter paper writing, print, misive or document containing any threat to take the life of to kidnap or to inflict bodily harm upon the president of the United States, the president elect the vice president or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of president of the United States or the vice president elect or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the president president elect vice president or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of president or vice president elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years or both, unquote, arrest Marjorie Taylor Green today and this Ben Parker. He has posted a second video which uses the green tweet as his video background. I don't know that you or I need to hear him again. I don't know that the secret service needs to hear him again, quote, I appreciate everywhere my video is going. He says, I appreciate every effing person that's reposting my video because guess what Joe, I don't know where the F you at and I can't get near you, but I'm not that mother effort. It'll be a cold day in hell, unquote. So arrest this man on two charges of threatening the life of the president of the United States. After eight years of letting the psychopaths and sociopaths of this nation leech the moral fiber out of our government, out of our culture, out of our baseline of what is acceptable and what is not, we must finally say enough. This creature green is a clear and present danger to the president and indeed all the members of his party, politicians and civilians alike and her willingness to traffic in violence and the threat of violence is a danger to the United States of America itself. And especially going is that just two weeks ago, a New York man was sentenced to three months in jail for leaving multiple threatening voicemails towards Marjorie Taylor green. And her reaction was not to say I agree with this man, not to say she's heard this sentiment everywhere, not to wave the free speech flag and the political rights flag in which she so often wraps herself and her fellow insurrectionists, but to complain that that sentence was too lenient and she was right. And the sentence against Marjorie Taylor green, the co-conspirator handling the publication and promulgation side of the threat to harm or kill the president of the United States made by the man who calls himself Ben Parker. That sentence should also be as severe as 18 U.S. code 871 allows five years. With Trump willing to use any means to regain power in this nation, any means. The sooner we begin finally to take action against those who use political violence or the threat of it to try to intimidate and manipulate this country at its good citizens, the better. And we can only do that with the proverbial short, sharp shock. And charging this deranged, dangerous, irresponsible, fantasy-driven mediocrity would be an excellent start. Arrest Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene today. Because surprise, surprise, sometimes the justice system works. The Trumpist insurrectionist Henry Tario, who calls himself Enrique and on whom it continues to seem it has never dawned that he is exactly the kind of person the Trumpists want to expel from this country, was sentenced yesterday to 22 years in prison after his conviction on citizen conspiracy. The judge invoked the terrorism sentencing enhancement. Tario was the head of the proud boys who are looking both for a new leader, and after four of their members were sentenced to a combined 64 years, probably a new name to inscribe over their clubhouse door. And among those actively and currently undermining the government of the United States of America, not so much a truth leak, as a truth explosion from a Washington television studio yesterday, when the secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force vivisected, Senator Tommy I'm all ears, Tuberville, over his continuing interference with military defense, placing holds on the confirmation of more than 300 promotions. They had written an op-ed accusing him of putting our national security at risk, but that was nothing compared to my new hero, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who was born in Cuba and who said yesterday, for someone who was born in a communist country, I would never have imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communists and other autocratic regimes around the world. He directly accused Senator Tuberville of aiding and abetting communists, and of course by that he means China, aiding and abetting communists. A Senator Dumbo, could you hear that? It has been noted that Enrique Tario's sentence 22 years is now the record for any January 6th defendant, but I would like to note that the favorite in this tournament probably hits last, Trump. This obviously is separate from the issue I underscored yesterday, Trump's sudden panically discovery of the 14th Amendment, you can hear him, can't you? Wait, there's a 14th Amendment? Trump may have moved on to his next ingenious fantasy that Jack Smith not only destroyed January 6th committee evidence, but he destroyed the evidence that exonerated Trump. Again, Trump could not have come up with a more ludicrous theory if he had eaten a box of magic mushrooms or borrowed something from his son, but it is ingenious and his idiots will believe it. Even though as usual, he spoiled it by writing at the end of his post, quote, dismiss suit, which underscores the Trumpian panic I noted yesterday, it's not a suit, it's a case. This is not a civil suit, you're on trial. You'd think that if you had spent your life in courtrooms, you would have noticed that. Then again, the blooper could have owed to sheer volume. By 8 p.m. last night, Trump had made no less than 58 separate posts on his social media site. I guess he has to to interrupt the ads for gold and the terrible truth of Tommy Chong. Trying to identify specific causes for each of Trump's spasms of public irrationality is like trying not only to number each raindrop, but to give each one of them a name. Still, I cannot shake this idea that his latest step away from reality tracks back to that Wall Street Journal editorial Monday night about the 14th Amendment. I am confident it is the first time anything like this has ever occurred to him. Well God knows 14.3 is now the number of the month in journalism, but Washington post had a lengthy and useful analysis of the process by which disqualification could be pursued legally. New Jersey and Illinois, the post notes, have administrative agencies in place to assess a candidate's eligibility and you the voter at home, can trigger it. In Pennsylvania, you Joe local voter have seven days after a would-be candidate applies to be on the ballot there to challenge his eligibility in Pennsylvania. Of most use in the Greg Sargent piece, he quotes sources that say that the long awaited legal actions to enforce 14.3 against Trump by citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington crew and free speech for people will take place this fall, which is less of a skew when you realize right fall starts in 17 days. Sargent though also, healthfully quotes Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller, seriously, he had to quote one named Muller. Notre Muller says that while many state Supreme courts may rule Trump eligible or ineligible based on their own laws and the court's interpretation of 14.3 quote, the odds are high that at least one gets to the merits and decides whether Trump participated in an insurrection that disqualifies him. Muller says that decision at a state Supreme Court level will be easily appealed to the federal Supreme Court, which is not an automatic L. If the case gets there while Alito and Thomas are on a plane with Harlan Crow over the North Pole or something. Much more practical information was supplied by a state roundup put together at talking points memo yesterday. Ohio with a wildly smarmy Trumpist as Secretary of State dismisses 14.3 as a quote fringe legal theory. New Mexico, spokesman for the Secretary of State Oliver. We are aware of and reviewing the legal theories regarding the 14th amendment that conclude Trump is ineligible to run for president. Any determination about a specific candidate's eligibility for the ballot will be made after the candidate filing day in February. Wisconsin and North Carolina said nothing has been brought to their attention. So they have nothing to comment on Arizona's secretary has basically suggested he will have to wait until somebody sews him to keep Trump off. Most interesting of all was the response on a podcast from Michigan's Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Secretaries of states of multiple states, she says, are having conversations. I'm talking with folks in Pennsylvania with the Secretary of State in Nevada and even in Maine, people in Georgia, of course, my colleague Brad Rapinsberger just to get a sense of what the facts are. And she added that a group of states quote, likely need to act in concert if we act at all. And yes, you just saw it off on the horizon. Brad Rapinsberger gets that rarest of things, the second bite of the apple. The apple being Trump's backside yet it was Greg Sergeant in the Washington Post who raised inadvertently a critical point, quoting them again, some argue that citizen challenges risk undermining Trump voters faith in our institutions, unquote, wait, what? Trump's brand is undermining faith in our institutions. He attempted to illegally and unconstitutionally retain power by undermining faith in our institutions weekly, daily, hourly. He still demands that his cultists maintain the fiction that he had an election stolen from him by undermining faith in our institutions. How can actions based on an amendment to the constitution that was ratified 155 years ago undermine Trump voters faith in our institutions, even if they somehow really do have any faith left in the institutions of the United States of America as urinated on for eight years without a break by their lord and master. My thanks, by the way, to the Midas Touch Network for bringing the Marjorie Taylor Green threat towards President Biden to my attention. Also of interest here, if I sound a little different, yeah, throat infection, gonna barely make the finish line here by doing just a new worst person's list and then an anniversary for things I promised not to tell. And in the worst person, yeah, the Saudis are trying to manipulate the oil supply in order to interfere with the election. So here's an idea, let's cut them off diplomatically, freeze their worthless assets in this country, take their money, and cut them off. That's next, this is countdown. Have you tried meal kits and wished you didn't have to do all the chopping, cooking, and cleaning up? But you still need to get dinner on the table for everyone? Good news, Weko Hospitality delivers fully prepared, totally crevable dinners that are ready in only 10 minutes. Menus change weekly, so there's always something new to look forward to. Wekohospitality.com to order, that's w-e-c-o-hospitality.com, and for a limited time, use promo code, laver, for free delivery. On his new podcast, six degrees with Kevin Bacon, join Kevin for inspiring conversations with celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like musical artist, Jewel. And what an equal opportunist misery is, it doesn't care if you're black or white or rich or poor or famous or homeless, if you are raised in misery systems, it's perpetual. Kevin is the founder of the nonprofit organization, six degrees dot org. Now he's meeting with like-minded actors who share a passion for change, like Mark Ruffalo. They're all in the wrong track, helping you down the right track. If you're on the right track, let's help them double down on that and see the opportunities stay on the right track for success in the future. These conversations between Kevin and activist Matthew McConaughey will have you ready to lean in, learn, and inspire to act. You know, I found myself moving up state in the middle of this fracking fight that I'm trying to raise kids there and my neighbors, like willing to poison my water. Listen to six degrees with Kevin Bacon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm the Wizard of Oz, I'm the one making everything happen. Real housewife of Salt Lake City star Jen Shaw is running the scam of the century. We probably will never be able to be retired black working to work anymore. Using a fat million dollar lifestyle on the backs of thousands of elderly victims. She turned up their lives for what a fake Fendi bag, Congrats Girl. When you have her confronted, instead of stopping, she finds ways to be sneaky or about it and keeps going. I remember one time Stuart lost like about eight million and Jen was very upset and she came down to the office late at night with coach Yalga screaming at him, asking him where their money is. Would you call her a con artist? I would just call her a con, she's not very much of an artist. Listen to Queen of the Con season four, the Unreal Housewife on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Countdown with Keith Alberman. Still a head on, Countdown, as I mentioned, throat, bad, better than I thought, but I'm still going to shorten the back half of the podcast. This is more of a struggle than it sounds, that's why I get the big bucks. So there will be a things I promise not to tell and it's timely. Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the Night the Republican Party and Tom Brocaw got me fired as the co-anchor of MSNBC's 2008 presidential debate coverage because the Republicans told Brocaw do this or McCain will not show up for that debate you inherited when Tim Russell died and Brocaw really wanted a second career at NBC after Brian Williams had buried his first career at NBC alive. Plus, I got enough voice left to give you the daily roundup of the Miss Green's morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst persons in the world. The bronze, Anthony Rendon, third basement of baseball's Los Angeles Angels, well we think that's still his job. He's played in exactly 200 games since having signed a 7-year, 245 million contract as a free agent in 2020. It's 200 games, four years, what is that, it's like 50 a year? It's not a lot. Athletes get hurt all the time and next to none of them, next to none of them are mollingers. Nothing rends an athlete's soul more or more quickly than when his body betrays him. It's like having a sore throat throughout your body. On the other hand, a high-priced athlete who has a series of devastating injuries has an obligation to understand that he's not the only one interested in his own health. Spotted in the team's clubhouse, Tuesday Rendon was asked for an injury update. His answer, no obla in glaze today, and then he left the clubhouse. Well, everybody has a bad day. And you do get tired of talking about it. On the other hand, on August 6th of this year, when he was asked how he was doing, Anthony Rendon answered that since he was on the quote, dead list, unquote, he doesn't have to do interviews anymore, and then he left the clubhouse. On July 19th, Rendon was asked by reporters how he was feeling, and he answered, quote, I'm not here. And then he left the clubhouse. On June 29th, Rendon was asked by reporters how his wrist was doing, and he replied, I have two, and then he left the clubhouse. By the way, the Los Angeles Angels of Anthony Rendon took their team photo yesterday. The injury-ridden Shohei Otani will appear in the finished product, though he was not actually in the photograph as it was taken. They used per reporters on the scene a body double, and they will Photoshop Otani in later. Fun Group Runner up Glen Kessler, fact checker of the Washington Post, that's a brand name fact checker. Kessler has devoted 1,911 words to criticizing Joe Biden's anecdotes, because the details sometimes vary or are not precisely true. He gets on Biden telling a Milwaukee audience this year that he was born in the same hospital at which his grandfather had died just before he was born. That is just before Biden was born. In fact, one of his grandfather's did die 14 months before Biden was born, but it was at a different hospital. The other one died 15 years later at the same hospital at which the president was born. There are about a dozen of these stories in the Kessler article, including one in which as a boy, Biden sees two gay men in suits kissing in Delaware, and he asks his father to explain this and is told it's simple they love each other. Kessler writes, quote, he describes this exchange with his father usually is taking place in 1961, but back then gay men generally did not kiss in public, many people regarded homosexuality as deviant, unquote. These and similar Kesslerian facts earned the president this headline in the Washington F. Post. Biden loves to retell certain stories. Some aren't credible. The irony here of course is anybody reading the story would then think of the number of times they have heard family members conflate grandfather's or add or subtract details from a 60 year old anecdote or done it themselves. There's also no mention in the piece of Biden's history as a stutterer and the fact that in the stress of public speaking, not only do details often get confused, but random words sometimes appear unintentionally in a person's speech. In fact, nearly all of Kessler's analyses of nearly all of Biden's stories in the article are interpretations. They're not fact checking so that when Kessler writes the piece and identifies himself as, quote, the fact checker, that isn't credible and it's not factual. But our winner Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia. Starting in July, it cut oil production by a million barrels a day on a month by month basis. It has now extended that to the rest of the year. Little imagination is required to understand why Saudi Arabia has done this. Six months after the Trump regime fell in this country, bin Salman gave Jared Kushner two billion dollars in investment money. And ever since, Saudi Arabia has worked against Biden and against the Democrats in hopes of getting Trump reelected. Their most direct contribution raised American gas prices. It may be even caused a shortage so Trump can blame Biden for it. What Biden should do is cut off relations with the Saudis. That nation enabled 9-11 and a recently released FBI report indicates a Saudi diplomat assigned an employee to look out for two of the hijackers when they arrived in Los Angeles in 2000. The Saudis have been interfering with our economy, with our nation since the 1970s. They assassinated and cut up the body of a Washington Post journalist. They have now purchased the American golf tour so they can sports wash their money and their evil. And frankly, other than their gasoline, they have absolutely no value to this nation. So maybe what President Biden could do would be to declare the climate emergency somebody's going to have to declare. Maybe this president, maybe this year, and at this rate, maybe this month, and pull us, the Saudis' fifth biggest oil customer, out of their gas bank roll. Oh, and then shut off diplomatic relationships with them, freeze their money here, block the golf sale, and generally f them anyway possible. Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, economic terrorists, two days, worst persons in the world. If you feel like getting dinner on the table for everyone is basically impossible, we've got the perfect solve for you. Meet Uiko Hospitality. They deliver fully prepared, totally craveable dinners that are ready in only 10 minutes. No chopping, no cooking, just a little heat, heat toss toss, and you're all set set. Visit Uiko Hospitality.com to order. That's W-E-C-O Hospitality.com, and for a limited time, use promo code Crave for free delivery and damn good dinners. On his new podcast, six degrees with Kevin Bacon, join Kevin for inspiring conversations with celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like musical artist, jewel, and what an equal opportunist misery is. It doesn't care if you're black or white or rich or poor or famous or homeless. If you are raised in misery systems, it's perpetual. Kevin is the founder of the nonprofit organization, six degrees.org. Now he's meeting with like-minded actors who share a passion for change, like Mark Ruffalo. They're all in the wrong track helping get on the right track. If they're on the right track, let's help them double down on that and see the opportunities stay on the right track for success in the future. These conversations between Kevin and activist Matthew McConaughey will have you ready to lean in, learn, and inspire to act. You know, I found myself moving up state in the middle of this fracking fight and I'm trying to raise kids there and my neighbors like willing to poison my water. Listen to six degrees with Kevin Bacon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm the Wizard of Oz. I'm the one making everything happen. Real housewife of Salt Lake City star Jen Shaw is running the scam of the century. We probably will never be able to be retired black working to work anymore. Living a fat million dollar lifestyle on the backs of thousands of elderly victims. She turned up their lives for what a fake Fendi bag? Congrats, girl. When you have her confronted, instead of stopping, she finds ways to be sneakier about it and keeps going. I remember one time Stuart lost like about eight million and Jen was very upset and she came down to the office late at night with Coach. Yall is screaming at him, asking him where their money is. Would you call her a con artist? I would just call her a con. She's not very much of an artist. Listen to Queen of the Con season four, the Unreal Housewife on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Finally our number one story on the countdown in my favorite topic, me. I miss the exact anniversary by David. It's close enough. The demand for spots in the shame stadium press box that night was so great that there was a signed seating. I had no real reason to be there, but as usual, the New York Mets took care of me. And so on Friday the 5th of September 2008, I was shoulder to shoulder with reporter friends watching the Mets begin to blow their three game pennant racially against the Philadelphia Philly sorry Mets fans for bringing this up again. Brett Myers had just struck out New York's David Wright looking when my phone rang. It was my agent Jean Sage. They just called she said flatly you and Matthews have been fired from anchoring the presidential debates because of what you said. What I had said had been said three nights previously. Chris Matthews and I were co anchoring the Republican Convention on MSNBC. He was there in Minneapolis. I was in the studios in New York ostensibly so I could also anchor hurricane coverage. Although it was pretty clear that at least half the reason I was not in Minneapolis was because the Republicans had threatened NBC or said they couldn't guarantee my safety or something like that and NBC folded. So I was the one during MSNBC's coverage of the 2008 Republican Convention who had to throw it to a video they were introducing that we had been told by the Republicans was a quote tribute to the dead of 9-11. It was in fact a snuff film all of the images that all of the networks had stopped showing within weeks or even days of the attacks. All of those images were in this video people jumping and falling to their deaths from the World Trade Center on 9-11 endless replays of the planes hitting the towers dismembered bodies in the plaza. The building collapses. The equally terrifying scenes at the Pentagon and all with a grotesque Robert Davy voiceover emphasizing that this was all the Democrats fault. The message was simple, elect Obama and you will die like this. I was angry just on that base level. For the five and a half years I had been back at MSNBC we had been rigorous about not showing any of that video. There were rules that if we had to for some reason we should show only the still images and even then only with extensive warnings to the viewers. But I knew from my conversations with the President of MSNBC Phil Griffin who I'd only known for 28 years at that point that he would insist that on the scene in Minneapolis Matthews and Tom Brokall whose career at NBC I had resurrected after Brian Williams had buried him alive two years earlier that one or both of them would rebuke the GOP before showing not a 9-11 tribute but as I just said a 9-11 snuff film. The video ended and we came out to Brokall with Matthews and Brokall kind of coughed and Matthews said wow and he turned to Brokall and said in that loose fire hose delivery of his Tom that kind of underscores terrorism big thing Republicans as they try stop Obama. Brokall droned on approvingly. The Republicans sneaking a snuff film of banned video on to MSNBC and by the way also on to CNN on to NBC on to CBS on to ABC without any warning that was not mentioned by Brokall or Matthews. Back to New York and Keith I was supposed to add libatees about what we were expecting from the Republican convention for the rest of the night and then throw to a commercial. Instead I said and this is a paraphrase the original tape disappeared that night that before we moved on I felt I needed to apologize that we at MSNBC and for that matter NBC news had extremely strict rules about not showing that video the Republicans had just shown you without any warning without any context and we certainly would not have shown the horror and death and blamed it on the Democrats or for that matter blamed it on the Republicans. I said if we had done such a thing ourselves there would have been people fired at NBC news. The public program the GOP provided said that was going to be a 911 tribute film I said and so did the private conversations with the network which included the reminder from NBC and MSNBC that we had rules against showing the scenes of the horrible death and mutilation and destruction. So I apologized on behalf of whoever trusted the Republicans to live up to their word that MSNBC viewers were forced to see the video our network had long before vowed never to show again. So three nights later without as much as an email this Griffin guy had called my agent and told her I was fired Matthews 2 from our further coverage of the upcoming McGain Obama debates. She related these details to me as I walked down the many ramps in the back of Shae Stadium towards the subway. I told her to call Griffin back and tell him I had quit on the spot right then and he could work his way out of the ensuing disaster. Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal host Ulraman for criticizing conservatives for sneaking 911 snuff film onto MSNBC. He could figure that out any way he wanted and he could hear my response on I don't know good morning America CBS this morning the PBS news hour and any other news program that bothered to ask me to stop by and talk. I phoned my live-in girlfriend Katie Tur and told her I was on my way home and I made a few phone calls to friendly voices within the NBC management structure and got from them a clear picture of what had happened and despite the spotty cell service along the elevated line heading back to Manhattan I got a message from a newspaper reporter friend who neatly tied together all that I was hearing elsewhere. Tom Broca is going around NBC saying he got you fired from the debates because the Republicans told him to. Nine maybe 10 months earlier. Phil Griffin had come to me and asked me if I would be okay with this guy who had been kind of disappeared by the network. Tom Broca was his name appearing during our weekly coverage of the Democratic and Republican primaries. Just a couple of minutes like from a perspective desk that's all he wants to do. He's really Tom's really unhappy. Brian has frozen him out of everything. Brian Williams of course. I was appalled but not surprised. The power had gone to Brian's head and of course there it had not met much resistance. Plus as I said to Griffin you're asking me if I'd like to add Tom Broca's experience and Tom Broca's gravitas to stuff I'm anchoring when I'm not sure I know as much as I really need to know to do this right you're asking me this. Tom fit in beautifully and twice after those long Tuesday evenings in the primary season he sent me brief emails awarding me what he called La Game Ball. Because he was so impressed by my ability to balance the roles of political anchor and political commentator. Having tried this myself one of them read I know what a perilous tight roofless is. Game Ball to care. I'm mocking him now but these meant so much to me I printed the emails out and carried them in my wallet. And now he was claiming he had gotten me fired because as my newspaper friend said the Republicans told him to. That was not hard to unpack either. Tim Russell had died on June 3rd of that year. I anchored that night until two in the morning. It was still an open wound. There were still tears. We didn't know it then but the structure of NBC News and the perilous tightrope balancing NBC and MSNBC had died with Tim Russell. So did the role of moderator of the second debate between John McCain and Barack Obama scheduled for about a month after my subway ride on October 7th in Nashville. Tim had not even been buried yet when Brocaw began to angle to get that assignment along with brushing away the dirt of his petty anti-roll on the MSNBC perspective desk. We never saw him again in order that he could take Tim's spot as Brian Williams sidekick on big NBC. The month before August there was a story coming out of the east end of the third floor at 30 Rock where NBC News management sat around not doing much of anything that a Republican goon named Ed Gillespie had been in there with Griffin and the NBC News president Steve Capis trying to get me silenced or fired or off the convention coverage or something and that somebody prominent within NBC News was in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie the rumor mill wasn't certain. As I switched from the elevated seven train to the underground F train the whole thing came together. Before my comments about the GOP convention 9-11 snuff film Ed Gillespie had come in and had somehow vaguely threatened Capis and Griffin about me using as leverage the debate which Tom Brocaw was now supposed to moderate and when I apologized for their video on our air Gillespie must have turned it into an either or get rid of me or McCain would refuse to participate in any debate moderated by Brocaw or anybody from NBC News and Brocaw had already come back from the dead once in 2008 and he would be damned if he would be forced to do it a second time. But as the train took me home to an apartment I was now going to have to sell since I had just quit MSNBC on the spot for folding to such obvious Republican blackmail something else now occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or NBC or our parent corporation at the time GE actually think that they could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC where the Rachel Maddo show had yet to be born and the three times a night my show ran accounted for something like 60 percent of the entire day's network audience and do that without getting a really bad reaction from our audience. Plus if a newspaper man already knew the Brocaw part how could this story be avoided? MSNBC announced it had removed its liberal star Keith Ulerman from coverage of the McCain Obama presidential debates sources confirmed former NBC News Anchorman Tom Brocaw now an MSNBC commentator on Ulerman's coverage had helped her Republican party to blackmail NBC into the decision. Ulerman immediately resigned saying quote in succumbing to this coercion on behalf of John McCain NBC has now forfeited any right to further be called a news organization I'm sad to say MSNBC which I built is now dead. My God MSNBC and NBC News for that matter would have committed corporate suicide before the weekend was over. At that point it dawned on me that the only thing that could save the credibility of the whole news division and the careers of Griffin and Capis and NBC network president Jeff Zucker and especially the career of Tom Brocaw was for me to publicly state that I had asked to be removed from anchoring the debates because the whatever was just too much blah blah blah for me and I felt I should stick to the post debate analysis and commentary. NBC would now have a choice they could fire me from the debates and destroy everything including the $100 million a year or so in profit that NBC made off MSNBC or I could you know why and claim it was my idea and save everybody's ass including my own. I got out of the subway and raced home Katie met me at the door with a big hug she had been crying relax I said I'm not quitting in fact I'm going to get a huge raise now listen carefully I called my agent and I explained the idea that had lit over my head on the subway like a light bulb to both of them I said you call Phil Griffin back and explain to him that I will personally save his job and Steve campuses and Jeff Sookers and Tom Brocaw's and everybody else's I'll take the fall instead of letting them all get fired by the MSNBC audience I'll say this was my idea and all it will cost Phil is $12 million and he has to leak the term so everybody knows it cost him $12 million and she paused for a second and said it's genius it might not quite be $12 million but I bet I bet they'll pay you at least nine on Sunday several news organizations reported I had asked to be taken off the anchor desk two months and one week later the New York Times wrote quote Keith Alderman the anchor of countdown on MSNBC has extended his contract through the next presidential election season the network announced Mr. Alderman and MSNBC essentially tore up the four year four million dollar year contract they signed last year and replaced it with one worth about seven and a half million a year so that was a three and a half million dollar raise for four years rate total of fourteen million dollars except the new contract added two years to my old deal so the raise was actually $22 million dollars all stories have a punch line this punch line is about Tom Brokaw we would have gotten away with this cleanly NBC would have gotten its money's worth for the $22 million in hush money which is what it was that it had to pay me because I had agreed with them rolling over for the Republican Party Blackmail except Brokaw could not keep his mouth shut so proud was he of preserving his role as the moderator of the October 7th NBC debate that he had to explain in explicit detail in public how he went to his bosses at NBC news and threatened them on behalf of the GOP on September 29th 2008 a lengthy and glowing Brokaw profile appeared in the New York Times quote Mr. Brokaw said that over the summer he had quote advocated within the executive suite of NBC news to modify the anchored duties of the MSNBC host Skiithal Roman and Chris Matthews on election night and on nights when there were presidential debates Mr. Brokaw said he had also conducted some shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and the McCain campaign his mission he said was to assure the candidates aides that despite some negative on air commentary by Mr. Overman in particular Mr. McCain could still get a fair shake from NBC news on quote oh that was his mission the hell it was happily Brokaw just could not resist boasting even further the next sentence actually reads quote Mr. Brokaw said he had been told by a senior McCain aide whom he did not name that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential debates until his name was invoked quote one of the things I was told by this person was that they were so irritated they said if it's an NBC moderator for any of these debates we won't go Mr. Brokaw said quoting him again my name came up and they said oh hell we have to do it because it's going to be brokaw there is a second punchline after all this when the new format came out and I was sitting there counting my money MSNBC had David Gregory quote anchor unquote the debate coverage David was terrific during this practically all this meant anyway was that I was on the air until literally 90 seconds before each debate began which is when I said now here's David Gregory and he was then on for four or five minutes after the debate ended which is when he said now here's Keith Overman and on election night itself with David again formally anchoring per the Republican black male at 1059 p.m. to his great credit and to my eternal gratitude David Gregory said with the last voting booth closing at 11 p.m. NBC news can now project the winner of the 2008 presidential election Keith bless him plus I still have all the money I've done all the damage I can do here to my throat thank you for listening countdown has come to you from our studios high it's off the sports capsule building in New York here are the credits most of the music range produced and performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Chanel who are the countdown musical directors all orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanel guitars bass and drums by Brian Ray produced by TKO others other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group no horns allowed sports music is the old Roman theme from the espn two which was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of the espn ink musical comments by Nancy Faust the best baseball stadium organist ever our announcer today was my friend Stevie van Zant at everything else was pretty much my fault so that's countdown for this the 974th day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States can victim now while we still can but excheduled countdown is tomorrow Bolton's as the news warrants or as my throat infection permits till then I'm Keith Ulerman good morning good afternoon good night good luck and happy gargling countdown with Keith Ulerman is a production of iHeart Radio for more podcasts from iHeart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts add this to the list of things that will make your life easier weco hospitality you can get their fresh chef-made meals delivered when you want them no subscription required these meals come already prepared for you and are ready to eat after some quick finishing touches did we mention there are no subscriptions we did but we're telling you again visit wecohospitality.com to order that's w-e-c-o hospitality.com and for a limited time 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