BIDEN MUST INVOKE THE 14TH, AND KNEE McCARTHY - 5.22,23

Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions, like, can we create new senses for humans? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Last season, millions tuned into the betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception. I'm Andrea Gunning, and now we're sharing an all-new story of betrayal. Ashley Litten was helping her husband set up a business Venmo account when she discovered a terrible secret. I saw a hidden folder, and I opened it. What the hell did I just see? Listen to season two of betrayal on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Queen Charlotte, the official podcast, we're stepping behind the scenes and the drawing boards of this team to experience the life breathed into the Bridgerton prequel. Listen to the leaps executive producer and series director Tom Barrica took to capture the feeling that puts that lump in your throat, and you've got to catch creator Shonda Rhimes. She's dropping gems, diamonds, and mics. You can listen to Queen Charlotte, the official podcast, every Thursday, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. Countdown with Keith Olermann is a production of iHeart Radio. I'm only going to say this once, as Democrats, as liberals, as whatever you identify yourself. If we do not harden our stances and fight now and convince our less adamantine cohorts to do the same, we are going to lose this democracy. Quote, should the Democrats hold fast on the debt ceiling and not negotiate, or should they negotiate spending constraints with Republicans? Reads the question in the new Harvard Harris poll. 82% of Republicans say the Democrats should negotiate with Republicans. And Christ, Almighty 41% of Democrats say Democrats should negotiate with Republicans. Are you kidding? Are you insane? Are you suicidal? Negotiate. You do not negotiate with terrorists. You metaphorically shoot terrorists in the head. The Democrats already negotiated on the debt ceiling. In fact, the Democrats already caved on the debt ceiling, and everybody seems to know this except Democrats in the Senate, in the House, in the White House. I'm looking at the 14th Amendment. I think we have the authority. The question is, could it be done in time, said the president from Hiroshima? We have not come up with unilateral action that could succeed in a matter of two weeks or three weeks. That's the issue. So it's up to lawmakers with respect, Mr. President. No, the hell it is not. Stop caving in to these bastard fascists. They are not negotiating. They are not operating from any position of good faith, nor of coherent philosophy, except to try to destroy the economy and to blame you for it and to run against you on it. And you have stated you know as much and you are still standing there with another metaphorical gun pointed against your head, hoping that you will find some middle road with the people who have spent the last 30 years dynamiting and jackhammering all the middle roads. And you know exactly what the Republicans would do if the details of this scenario were reversed. They would invoke the 14th Amendment now and dare the opposition to take them to court. And while the courts were ruling, they would have ignored the court rulings and paid the debt anyway, because that's the way it's done now. And some fanciful good old days memory of Tippo Neil and Ronald Reagan having drinks about it and negotiating it was an imaginary sugarcoating of Republican treachery then. And even the most recent example of anything just that evil happened no more recently than 34 years and three months ago. The time is dead, Mr. President. This is metaphorical war against Republican fascists. Stop negotiating. Start remembering who the bullies are and who has the goddamn hammer at the moment and use it. I mean, this is so obvious that even Politico noticed it. Politico official stenographers of the 17th century. Its lead story summarized where the quote negotiations on quote are even Politico noticed. And these are their numbered bullet points that Democrats have one all but publicly acknowledged there will be no clean debt ceiling increase and they'll have to give the Republicans something to signal a willingness to claw back on spent COVID funding and overhauling permitting reform. Three already conceded $90 billion in spending cuts next year and a trillion over the next decade and four indicated the president is willing to consider work requirements for some safety net programs. On the other hand, the Republicans idea of meeting somewhere in the middle even Politico notices this is one tripling the length of the spending caps. Two hinting that their extremists still want the inflation reduction act and student debt relief eliminated. Three want all these spending cuts but still want more money to go to the Pentagon and for the border. Four have refused the Democrats timid ask for just enforcing some tax laws on the rich. Five doubled down on work requirements so another 700,000 Americans would lose food assistance. Six want restricted immigration put into this deal. Seven will not accept a reduction in spending through prescription drug reforms which they will not accept. Even Politico noticed this. I mean the progressives letter to the president said the damage to caving to the Republicans here would be 780,000 more unemployed, a million two more without food assistance and up to 21 million Americans stripped of Medicaid. You're going to run against that Mr. Biden who says it's up to the lawmakers. The hell it is. You know what's easy? Tell McCarthy today here is your climb down. You have until morning to agree to these token cuts over here. So your party of terrorists does not kick you out as speaker tonight. But as of 9am Tuesday, if you have not agreed to this, these token cuts go away and I invoke the 14th amendment and I announced you have refused to negotiate and I refuse to negotiate with terrorists and I make sure I have the US Marine Corps band behind me as I say this playing God bless America in the background and then when I'm done, I will repeat Mr. McCarthy that the United States does not submit to blackmail from terrorists, foreign or domestic and then we'll play the anthem and we'll all sing. 41% of Democrats think Democrats should cave here. Holy crap. Now it is possible. I pray that this poll number is ridiculously high. I mean, the guy in charge of the Harris poll is the man of this moment of capitulation. Mark Penn. Mark Penn may be the least trustworthy, least honest worst politician of the last half century. He's in charge of the Harris poll now. Dankasquez, Frank Luns was busy. But even if it is a wrong number and it's only 20% in favor of Democrats caving to Republicans, what are you thinking? Has life taught you nothing? You give into bullies over some far-fetched pipe dream of comedy and unity and you expect that now stop and like you more, you expect that they will ever stop? Give the Republicans anything here. Give them everything here and they still will find something to blame Democrats for. That is what they are good at. And of all times, of all times to do it now, even even Politico noticed, I read it and said, I'm not alone. Someone else sees this. And what's more, even Axios noticed, you know, the odds against Axios and Politico getting something right on the same day? You know what Axios's lead story was? That Trump is basing his presidential campaign on a promise that if he's elected, he'll turn the presidency into a dictatorship. That if you ignore all the psychosis and the bluster and you scryate all the policy promises, Trump's 2025 vision revealed. Even Axios noticed this Trump's 2025 vision revealed is virtual totalitarianism. As Axios, my God, even Axios sees this peril. Axios, as Axios listed them, he'll pardon all the insurrectionists and militias. He'll pull the rug out from under Ukraine and hand it to Putin. He will demand the right to hire and fire federal workers at will based on who is personally loyal to him. He will demand the right to hire and fire the officials who accredit our universities. He will order diversity eliminated there equity and inclusion programs eliminated in universities and high schools where he can and tenure for teachers. He wants to defund or maybe if he's in a better mood, just reshape the Department of Justice and the intelligence agencies. He wants political monitors to decide if the intelligence agencies are behaving in some sort of Marxist fashion. He wants to deny Medicaid and Medicare to hospitals and providers who offer gender affirming care and go after those who have already provided that care. He wants to use the army against drug cartels and street crime in America. He wants to build his own new cities somewhere and pay white people to have children in them. He wants to strip out residential segregation laws and stop addressing poverty issues. He wants national concealed carry reciprocity so somebody from Texas can carry a gun into your state no matter what your laws are. This is all in Axios. Trump is not only openly promising the end of virtually every aspect of democracy and promising to use the military and vigilante gangs and militias to enforce minority white male rule over everybody else, but he's doing it so boldly that even Axios noticed it and his party is bullying the current president of the United States so openly that even Politico noticed it and what are Democrats doing? Two out of five of us want to negotiate with these Republican scumbags and Lord knows how many of our leaders are trying to organize a nice two-year long farewell tour for Dianne Feinstein because they see no good reason we can't multi-party like it's 1959. What are you going to negotiate with Trump? What are you going to negotiate with the man who owes his speakership to Trump, Miss McCarthy? Mr. President, when you see Kevin McCarthy, like I said, you give him a climb down offer and you tell him he has until sunrise and he leaves and just before he leaves you call him back and you put your hands on his shoulders in that way of yours and you whisper in his ear, Kevin, my fellow Irishman, take this with you from another son of the old sod and you need him in the groin or and I am the last person on earth ever to be considered a Star Wars fan or be prepared to hear this as soon as 19 months from now. I hope after you've lost and the empire reigns over the galaxy unopposed you will find some comfort in the knowledge that you fought according to the rules. I can offer you and obviously myself since I need it only this comic relief today. Yesterday Chris Licht's boss gave the commencement address at Boston University and was repeatedly booed and interrupted by the graduating students. David Zazlav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, who last week told that media conference that Republicans now saw CNN as a place to get more votes because it's not an advocacy network for Democrats anymore without ever once realizing he was in the same breath declaring that CNN now is an advocacy network for Republicans. David Zazlav is in the public eye not just because of the CNN fiasco but because of the Hollywood writers strike and he gave the commencement address in the middle of a writer's strike at Boston University with one of the largest schools of public communications in the nation. Also from what I heard of it his speech was so full of cliches that if there had not been a strike it still should have been interrupted. It'll make a huge difference. The fourth thing I learned along my journey is that it's really painful to get outworked. Wait, Biff Tannen's day, I'm sorry, David Zazlav's day got even worse. You want to be successful. You're going to have to figure out how to get along with everyone and that includes difficult people. Some people, some people will be looking for a fight. I know from experience that one of the proudest moments you can have in life is to give the commencement or convocation or the equivalent address at your old school. I did it at Cornell in 1998 and I got laughs. I did it at my high school in 1994. I got to pay tribute to 19 of my teachers who were still there 19 years after I graduated. Great lasting experiences. I can still smell the smells of the day. Unfortunately that was not what David Zazlav, Boston U Law Class of 1985, experienced yesterday. Has you heard but hey for me it was just great. Mr. Zazlav later issued a statement to the Hollywood Reporter quote, I'm immensely supportive of the writers and hope the strike is resolved soon and in a way that they feel recognizes their value on quote. Apparently left out the additional observation of only I as the chairman of the company that owns HBO, CNN, TNT, TBS, DC Comics, Warner Bros, much of the CW network and the food network had some influence of some kind over just how Hollywood producers pay their writers but clearly I don't as the CEO. In passing I will note here that if you scoffed at my reporting last week that CNN and Chris Licht are still discussing may even be already negotiating the terms of a second town hall with Trump on Saturday amidst his weekend of fear and insanity. Trump made a social media post about CNN and the quote absolutely lovely town hall they just put on one of their biggest rating nights in years. CNN let's do another one. And as a final note on this topic Friday's ratings will hit a waiting world around four or five p.m. Eastern Monday but we have Thursdays already and Anderson Cooper has now settled into fourth place in the ratings for three straight nights behind Newsmax. Anderson Cooper's viewers have left the silo and the only possible conclusion is Cooper and CNN are tanking and playing for the number one draft pick. Also of note here it's the greatest political sound bite of all time and I know my political sound bites and this one is from Friday afternoon and it is glittering in just how panoramically stupid it is in so many different wonderful ways. Another note remember when a million downloads for us here on Countdown was a huge milestone for a month we are crossing it for the month of May today on the 16th weekday of the month of May. Thank you. As my way of saying thanks do you remember George W. Bush do you? He's made the finals of today's worst persons in the world. That's next this is Countdown. Hi I'm David Eagleman I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm a neuroscientist and an author at Stanford University and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. On my new podcast I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions so we can better understand our lives and our realities like does time really run in slow motion when you're in a car accident or can we create new senses for humans or what does dreaming have to do with the rotation of the planet. So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior your perception and your reality. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Last season millions tuned into the betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception. I'm Andrea Gunning and now we're sharing an all-new story of the trail. Ashley Linton was helping her husband set up a business fan mail account when she discovered a terrible secret. I scrolled down and that's when I saw a hidden folder and I opened it. What the hell did I just see? I was scared that he was coming home. What Ashley discovered that day was a secret so dark she feared for her life. She was like oh my god I gotta get out of the house. He's gonna find out that I've seen this he's gonna come kill me. Listen to season two of betrayal on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What if I told you there was way more to the story behind game changing events. Welcome to my new podcast that moment with Damon John every Tuesday we will jump into the personal stories of some of the most influential people on the planet from business mobiles. At this point I'm a young chef. I talk to chef. He said listen to me now. I said black kid you can work in the restaurant because people like me allow you to work in the restaurant. Celebrities to athletes and artists. You gotta have a little gang since they're surviving this business because they will also challenge anything they think won't fight back. greatness starts with a single step so whether you're an entrepreneur an artist or just someone seeking inspiration join me every Tuesday or that moment with Damon John on the Black Effect Podcast Network the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you go to get your podcasts. This is Countdown with Keith Oldman. Postscript's the news some headlines some updates some snark some predictions Dateline Washington this is the greatest political soundbite of all time. The greatest and I have heard them all from UN ambassador and former presidential candidate Adlay Stevenson intending to say circumscribed and instead saying circumcised to everything Sarah Palin ever did on camera to Herschel Walker talking about his erection but for pure laugh out loud stupidity and forgetting a score of 100 on the Freudian slip scale and for the third key component a truth leak what congressman George if that is your real name Santos said Friday about how no matter how he got there he's been doing his job as congressman someday this might be matched but it will never be exceeded I have not not done my job since I've gotten here I can chew and walk them at the same time I can chew gum and walk at the same the thing is not only can't George Santos walk and chew gum at the same time and in fact that very soundbite is evidence that he can't walk and chew gum at the same time but given his record we also have to assume that representative Santos is lying when he says he can walk gum Dateline Hartford Connecticut Sandra sack Glover has withdrawn as the nominee of the Democratic governor Ned Lamont to the state Supreme Court there members of the general assembly say they just could not be sure she really supports the state's strong reproductive freedom rights because of something she did in 2017 Glover participated in the marches against Trump the day after his inauguration and she made all kinds of protestations about her supporting the abortion laws of the state but she had signed a letter supporting the 2017 nomination by Trump of a judge to the seventh circuit appeals court and that judge's name was Amy Coney Barrett quote Professor Barrett is a woman of remarkable intellect and character wrote all of the Supreme Court clerks from the 1998-99 court term including Ms. Glover spoiler alert Justice Barrett is neither a woman of remarkable intellect nor of character the term for what Ms. Glover did is log rolling and Ms. Glover just lost a spot on the Connecticut Supreme Court because of it and we need more of that Dateline Harrison County Mississippi why does the Coney Barrett endorsement case become a career ender for her entire high school life a trans girl at central high school there in Harrison LB has worn dresses and skirts and high heels to class and nobody gave a damn and she ordered the formal white dress required of girls who were going to the graduation ceremony and two weeks before graduation the principal called LB in and said she could not attend her own high school graduation ceremony unless she dressed as a boy shirt tie and jacket the ACLU took the school to court and the night before the ceremony Saturday a Trump appointee US District Court Judge Taylor McNeil ruled in favor of the school Judge McNeil bio notes since 2020 member of the Federalist Society and here is the point if you can make a trans kid dress not as she has spent the last four years dressed not as her friends are used to her dressing not as the school is used to her dressing not as she is entitled to dress and you can literally order her into boys clothes for her high school graduation then soon you will be able to say what names people can call themselves so that there aren't any androgynous names or ones that you could keep while transitioning and you could say that some names can only go to boys and some names can only go to girls in which case Judge Taylor McNeil will be a victim of the same Federalist terrorist society Trump fascism that Judge McNeil is currently dishing out because Judge Taylor McNeil could be a woman could be a man I don't really care but clearly the Federalists will and soon Judge McNeil soon and Dateline Texas Senator Ted Cruz went on Fox yesterday and announced he's launching an investigation into Bud Light and its association with social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney now seriously using American tax dollars and helped by Marsha Blackburn I mean it is utter nonsense and it is our money wasted but on the other hand we might be able to relax about this because neither Budweiser nor Mulvaney has a damn thing to worry about I wouldn't trust Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn to investigate a toilet overflowing Coming up the TV managerial appointment so amazingly bad that within a week the network said to the guy yeah you still have the job but you're not in charge of anything anymore first the daily roundup of the miscreants morons and Dunning Krugerf ex-bestmons who constitute today's worst persons in the world the bronze remember last week when Marjorie Taylor Barney Rubble white supremacist Karen Green claimed that being called white supremacist by Congressman Jamal Bowman was threatening to her and it was like calling somebody the n-word and she dog whistled that maybe one of her fellow Trump clan members or you know attack the congressman she put out a video of herself lifting weights in her garage and explaining her impeachment plan which she has not actually introduced so there can't be a vote on it so she can't lose by 400 votes and the folks at Patriot takes notice something unusual in the video something sitting on the floor next to where she works off her roid rage it was a cooler a cooler with a flag on it a Confederate flag so March for Marjorie Taylor Green's denials of white supremacyism they're on her up the state of Texas I mean it could be on here every day we could just have a worse person in the state of Texas feature too but this is special two weeks ago the incumbent state poet laureate of Texas gave his farewell reading he's Lupe Mendez an educator from Houston who often switches back and forth in his poetry from English to Spanish and one of his most popular books of poetry is called why I am like tequila and he was named to the post in 2021 and will continue in it till next month and last week of school in north Texas banned the book why I am like tequila the name of the school has not been disclosed because the teacher at the school who told the Washington Post was too scared to reveal even that a school in Texas has banned a book from the state poet laureate of Texas let's stop giving Texas any federal money while it is using it to introduce fascism but our winner well speaking of the same region and from the dustbin of history he's back the winner president George W. Bush you remember him right the worst president PT pre-Trump alumni of his administration had an event at southern Methodist University in Dallas over the weekend obviously it was attended only by the ones who are not in hell already always ready with the bon mo or as he might have called it the bonnot bush joke to the crowd quote 900 people more than my margin of victory in Florida oh very droll president bush very very dr. Matter of fact if there'd been one person there that too would have been more than your margin of quote victory on quote in Florida. George W was pooting to invited his pooting to hear bush two days worst person Hi I'm David Eagleman I have a new podcast called inner cosmos on iHeart. I'm a neuroscientist and an author at Stanford University and I've spent my career exploring the three pound universe in our heads on my new podcast I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions so we can better understand our lives and our realities like does time really run in slow motion when you're in a car accident or can we create new senses for humans or what does dreaming have to do with the rotation of the planet so join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior your perception and your reality listen to inner cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts last season millions tuned into the betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception i'm Andrea gunning and now we're sharing an all new story of betrayal Ashley Linton was helping her husband set up a business fan mail count when she discovered a terrible secret I scrolled down and that's when I saw a hidden folder and I opened it what the hell did I just see I was scared that he was coming home what Ashley discovered that day was a secret so dark she feared for her life she was like oh my god I got to get out of the house he's gonna find out that I've seen this he's gonna come kill me listen to season two of betrayal on the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts what if I told you there was way more to the story behind game changing events welcome to my new podcast that moment with Damon john every Tuesday we will jump into the personal stories of some of the most influential people on the planet from business moguls at this point i'm a young chef i talked to chef he said listen to me now i said black kid you can work in the restaurant because people like me allow you to work in the restaurant celebrities to athletes and artists you gotta have a little gang since they survive in this business because they will also challenge anything they think won't fight back greatness starts with a single step so whether you're an entrepreneur an artist or just someone seeking inspiration join me every Tuesday or that moment with Damon john on the black effect podcast network the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you go to get your podcast still ahead i'm countdown one of my favorite pieces of advice especially to younger people is there are no adults you have to be your own adult nowhere is this more true than in television the story of the worst manager i have ever personally experienced i mean the cnn crowd is catching up here but this would be the worst one i've ever worked for next first in each edition of countdown we feature a dog in need you can help every dog has its day this time it's the people who help all the dogs and the cats in need one by one animal advocates of Huntington West Virginia has helped and found homes for more than 30,000 animals in the last decade it can happen to any group trying to save the injured or the ailing ob oa is itself in need of rescue $15,000 in debt and new heart-rending cases coming in still every day a fundraiser on cuddly has gotten them about half what they need if you can help grow that percentage donate at cuddly.com for one by one animal advocates or look for the reminder on my twitter feeds i thank you and one by one animal advocates thanks you i was a witness to the greatest management fiasco in television history and it began on monday june 12th 2006 my girlfriend at the time katie ter was coming in from la for a week and my vacation had started the previous friday at exactly 901 p.m at 902 p.m on that friday night the acting chief of msnbc phil griffin called me insisting that even though i was on vacation we had to meet for breakfast at 930 a.m monday i said that made it a not vacation and he said we will give you two additional days off later something is happening you need to know about first i sighed the previous wednesday they had fired the president of msnbc the one who had once chased me around our offices in sakakis new jersey threatening to kill me because he was squeamish about blood see if that makes any logical sense to you he threatened to kill me because he was squeamish about blood jeff zooker then the president of nbc had called my agent and asked how my relationship with the aforementioned acting chief phil griffin was it was obvious they were going to put griffin in charge and as the marquee anchor on the network they needed me to find it out from them rather than from a gossip site or something i could not begrudge them the courtesy so on the first weekday of my vacation griffin and i met for breakfast and as soon as coffee arrived he said so listen buddy um i'm going to be the executive in charge of msnbc but i'm going to be staying here in the city uh to oversee the today show so msnbc will also have a general manager and the general manager will be in charge in sakakis and the new general manager will be dan abrams well i paused for a second and then burst into laughter i mean 30 seconds of a riotous belly laugh loud enough that other people at the restaurant at normas in the parka meridian in new york city turned around to look at me to find out what was so funny then i composed myself then i laughed again then a third laugh then a fourth laugh oh my god phil that is the best you get me to get up early on the first day of my vacation and you hit me with that dan abrams running something we've known each other what phil 25 years next month that is the best joke you have ever told me dan abrams and i laughed again for another 30 seconds and one of my friends who was a waiter there came over and said everything okay because phil could never interrupt anybody who was praising him he smiled back at me and when i finally stopped laughing he said well thanks i guess but but i'm serious we've been talking to dan for several months about this and he just has the kind of analytical mind that it had taken me more than a minute to realize griffin was serious that he and the president of nbc news steve capis and that president of nbc jeff zooker had actually decided to take the host of our nine p.m. show which had been devoted for years to excruciating lowest common denominator tabloid crap coverage of the missing white woman of the week to take a man who had the respect of absolutely no one on air or off at msnbc a man who made me in that regard look like st. frances of a cesee a man who had only been in television for 12 years a man who had never run anything in his life a man with indescribably bad hair that none of us could identify was it a toupee was it a weave was he hit by lightning and that was the most sincere thing about him his hair they had actually decided to appoint this gossip monger with no experience to run a network that was just now finally establishing itself as a factor in american political media christ phil what are you thinking i said to him he's a buffoon i'd rather work for joe scarborough he's condescending he insults his producers he insults our producers he leaks constantly to the reporters and the gossip blogs half of his exclusive sources turn out to be wrong and i might be the best friend he has there phil griffin chugged his coffee well i'm sorry about that i mean i mean it's not going to make any practical difference for you you you and countdown will report directly to me dan is going to have any responsibilities for any of the prime time shows he's only going to be hands-on with the daytime shows but but he'll be the general manager of the network and we think he has a lot of exciting ideas and i said exciting ideas about what exciting ideas about john bonnet ramsey phil we have just stopped being the running joke the bottomless punchline of cable news and once this gets out we will be less respected than we were a year ago i paused and the news bounced off the walls of the restaurant and hit me afresh again dan abrams general manager of msnbc he will get you fired phil i don't know if he will get you fired because he's trying to get you fired or he'll get you fired because he'll be so bad at this that everybody will quit but you've just committed professional suicide you and capis and zooker dead men walking phil griffin was now read i had only previously seen him read when he was very very drunk and we were in our 20s i was hoping you'd give him a chance and i said some very pleasant things about giving him a chance to destroy what we had been building up for the last year and did phil remember that my contract was up in six months and cnn was already publicly courting me to go there i said i'm gone you might as well release me from the contract right now i'm out and then something else popped into my mind oh and listen did you think there might be a problem because he and i dated the same woman nine years ago and he told her she'd be making a mistake to get involved with me phil's eyes widened he had forgotten like i said he'll have nothing to do with countdown an hour later my home phone rang and it was dan abrams i just wanted to say i'm much i'm looking forward to working with you on countdown as time goes by phil will be more and more overwhelmed at the today show and i'll be making the day-to-day decisions i'll be your guy after a few minutes of this which i swear i could hear his phone scratching against his to pay and during which i said nothing but uh-huh my home phone rang again and it was the nbc president jeff zooker so you guys report to dan and if you need to go further you can go to phil and i said phil had just told me abrams would have nothing to do with countdown and i intended to make sure that was true zooker showing the loyalty and consistency that was so publicly displayed in the original chris komo cnn fiasco immediately said well if this doesn't work f dan abrams hell f phil griffin you come to me the first thing i had done when i had gotten home was to call my executive producer is he povich she had been as fascinated as i had been as to why i had to have a business breakfast on day one of a vacation well i said you'll never believe who the new general manager of msnbc is she guessed phil griffin then me and then the manager of the new york yankies joe torrey i said all would have been better choices i said it's dan abrams she laughed so hard i had to pull the phone away from my ear after she finally calmed down is he said oh you had me going oh my god what a disaster that would be i'm sorry i fell into the bit yeah just kidding she laughed again no actually i'm not kidding she laughed again and said come on and so i said yeah yeah i'm kidding she laughed again no actually i'm not kidding dan abrams is the new general manager she laughed again we must have done this for two or three minutes it was an old eddie isard bit i stole it from him about the death of anglebert humperdink i finally stopped when she said wait i saw dan abrams getting out of his car in the in the president's parking space this morning you're you're you're not quit kidding oh my god i have to call my husband and tell him i'm quitting well it all worked out about as well as i had predicted at his first meeting with the producers dan abrams revealed his first exciting idea he had apparently been given enough lead time about his appointment to have made up giant banners containing the new msnbc network slogan which he had dreamed up the banners he told the producers we're going to be hung around the studios and in fact we're being hung around the studios as they spoke and behind him there was one covered in a drape cloth and he pulled the string the cloth fell off revealing his first exciting idea the new network slogan msnbc keeping it real keeping k-e-e-i-p-i-n apostrophe no g keeping hidden that was the highlight of his tenure as the general manager the blowback against his appointment was so universal nobody trying to hide it abrams first move was to cancel a show hosted by an x-box news walking malaprop artist named rita kazbi she almost took hostages abrams delayed the meeting to tell her staff from noon until six p.m. abrams then gave an interview about his vision for msnbc and told the reporter quote documentaries are our most important programs and the staffs of the uncancelled prime time shows mine included nearly walked out because in fact we were our most important programs while griffin prevented that mass resignation by swearing abrams had been misquoted abrams then launched a series of radio commercials for msnbc documentaries abrams tried to get a producer named bill wolf who had been told he was going to be the new general manager to instead host his own show he told me he had figured out the perfect guest host for countdown and was already in negotiations with him dan rather my girlfriend katie's father then chimed in with a new nickname for abrams that spread across the television industry miles miles as in miles the boy producer from the sitcom murphy brown i even felt sorry for him it was that bad and of course i was promptly repaid for this mistake a week after abrams was hired the cable news blogger named brian stelter who inexplicably wound up first at the new york times and then at cnn and you heard about him getting fired over the summer brian stelter called to say he had been told by a source at nbc that i had just been fired at a meeting an hour before by abrams and an nbc executive named randy falco in fact abrams was at a meeting with zucker and the nbc news president capis as they desperately tried to steer out of the fatal skid they had all swerved into phil griffin was furious griffin told me he suspected abrams had been somehow connected to this leak about this fake story about me getting fired and he began an investigation of him and never trusted him again one week appointed monday and a lame duck the following monday keeping it real keeping on august ninth three days shy of the two months mark phil griffin called my office an hour and a half before my show okay you want to say i told you so but we've made it clear to dan that he won't be involved in any major decisions going forward he will remain general manager but i'm running everything in a year or so buddy we'll say he found out he he just had to go back on the air uh and he'll resign and we'll give him the 9 p.m. show probably you have to keep this confidential i did i'm surprisingly good at that at least till i started this podcast 14 months later they offer off him by which time i had already started to lobby them to make the 9 p.m. host not dan abrams but rachel mattow they finally gave into that in september 2008 and dan did not have a show or a title and he finally got the message and he left nbc in 2011 the last i had heard of dan abrams before the news nation retirement home he had launched a new website it's called whiskey raiders because it rates various brands of whiskey you get it raiders raiders you get it it's a pun presumably he chose that pun because somebody else had already taken keeping it real i've done all the damage i can do here here are the credits most of music arranged produced and performed by brian ray and john phillip chenale who are the countdown musical directors all orchestration and keyboards by john phillip chenale guitars bass and drums by brian ray produced by tk o brothers other beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by no horns allowed the sports music is the olderman theme from esp n two and it was written by mitch warren davis courtesy of esp n ink musical comments from nancy fouse the best baseball stadium organist ever our announcer was john banks from breaking bad and everything else is pretty much my fault that's countdown for this the eight hundred and sixty-seventh day since donald trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the united states do not forget keep arresting him while we still can the next scheduled countdown is tomorrow until then i'm keith old rimann good morning good afternoon good night and good luck i have not not done my job since i've gotten here i can chew and walk on at the same time countdown with keith old rimann is a production of i heart radio for more podcasts from i heart radio visit the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts hi i'm david egalman i have a new podcast called inner cosmos on i heart i'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions like can we create new senses for humans so join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior your perception and your reality listen to inner cosmos with dave egalman on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts last season millions tuned into the betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception i'm andrea gunning and now we're sharing an all new story of betrayal ashley litton was helping her husband set up a business venn mow account when she discovered a terrible secret i saw a hidden folder and i opened it with the help that i just see listen to season two of betrayal on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts on queen charlotte the official podcast we're stepping behind the scenes and the drawing boards of this team to experience the life breathed into the bridgerton prequel listen to the leaps executive producer and series director tom barrica took to capture the feeling that puts that lump in your throat and you've got to catch creator shonda rhymes she's dropping gems diamonds and mics you can listen to queen charlotte the official podcast every thursday on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows Thanks.