DID MEADOWS FLIP ON TRUMP? DID DESANTIS'S TWITTER THING START YET? - 5.25.23

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. Get ready! Stuff they don't want you to know is back in iHeartland for another epic event. Ben, Matt, and Noel from Stuff they don't want you to know are hitting the big screen in iHeartland in Fortnite. This time they're celebrating some of the most important people in our lives, teachers. Join the guys as they educate us about our educators and celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day all week long. Head to State Farm Park in iHeartland in Fortnite, starting Thursday, June 1st at 7pm Eastern. Visit iHeartRadio.com slash iHeartland to start playing today. Countdown with Keith Oberman is a production of iHeartRadio. Is it possible that his former White House Chief of Staff has flipped on Donald Trump? Is it possible that despite what amounts to a million for in hush money, the guy Trump has long suspected was ratting him out, maybe even quoting Trump from months ago wearing a wire that that person has himself been identified? Is there just one figure behind the three bombshells from the special counsel's investigation this week? Is one person connected to the revelation that Jack Smith now has Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran's notes about the Marilago Docs and is the same figure behind the revelation that Smith subpoenaed Trump's business dealings with Saudi Arabia and six other countries on the premise that he might have traded or sold the documents as part of property deals and could the same figure be behind Tuesday's story that some of Trump's close associates are bracing for his indictment? Are three scoops just parts of one story, sussed out by first the special counsel and then by three different reporters? Is the source either for the counsel or the reporters? Mark Meadows. There was a clunky mundane featureish piece about Mark Meadows that appeared out of nowhere on CNN's website yesterday and the first 13 paragraphs basically said he's been off stage advising the Republican debt ceiling hostage takers. And then if you were still awake somehow paragraph 14 hit you right in the teeth quote a source close to Trump's legal team said Trump's lawyers have had no contact with Meadows and his team and are in the dark on what Meadows is doing in the investigation. It's damn weird phrasing even for a CNN writer are in the dark on what Meadows is doing in the investigation not are in the dark whether he has played any part in the investigation but in the dark on what Meadows is doing in the investigation as in he has a role in it. We just don't know what that role is quoting the piece again. We've all heard the same rumors one Trump advisor told CNN no one really knows what he's doing though. Wait what in December 2022 the law firm representing Mark Meadows got a little cash from the Trump political action committee save America just a little just nine hundred thousand dollars to say nothing of the half million Meadows gets from the pro Trump think tank conservative partnership institute and Trump's lawyers have had no contact with million dollar Meadows and they seem certain Meadows is involved in some way in the special counsel's investigation but they don't know how exactly in fact they're in the dark and all they've heard is rumors and nobody really knows what he's doing what the hell good is a million foreign hush money if the guy don't hush. To resume the CNN piece it is matter factly noted that this is quote fueling speculation about whether Meadows is cooperating with the special counsel's probe or if Meadows himself is a target of the investigation. The piece then quotes that same Trump advisor who says nobody knows what's really going on now he says he still checks in he still wants to talk about the politics and Jim Jordan goes on the record to CNN about Mark Meadows and says on the record he talks to Mark Meadows at least once a week quote but when it comes to legal matters Jordan said we make a point not to talk about that unquote Jim Jordan Mr. conspiracy theory Mr. Weaponization of government committee Mr. I'll try to sell anything to my rubes and he's not talking to Mark Meadows about January 6th and Trump and the Department of Justice and the special counsel we're supposed to believe that best source of rumors you could have would be somebody who's involved in the January 6th investigation oh I know I'm talking about that Mark Meadows at the center of the conspiracy to illegally fundraise off the 2020 election even though Trump knew it was not stolen the conspiracy on which Jack Smith has concentrated his electoral college part of his three pronged investigation of Trump and nobody knows whether Meadows is the target or the source. Mark Meadows probably uninvolved with the Marilago documents end of Jack Smith and team Trident but also Mark Meadows at the center of the conspiracy to make it look like Trump did not go to the ellipse on January 6th and do anything but handout bear spray and capital blueprints to the insurrectionists who tried to complete a military coup to allow him to overthrow democracy that Mark Meadows. Mark Meadows who not only knows that Colonel Mustard and Clue stuff from that day that Smith so obviously loves like where Trump was and who he talked to during the seven hours and 37 minutes on January 6th where the White House phone logs go dark that Mark Meadows and all Trump's side here as is Mark Meadows who could tell you everything that Trump knew and as the old line goes when the president knew it. Oh we haven't talked to lately. Oh and by the way each of the major news organizations that have broken big stories out of the special counsel's investigation New York Times Washington Post CNN The Guardian each of them has at least one top reporter working basically full time on Jack Smith the man of many grand juries and they have not broken one Mark Meadows story and the first thing even resembling a Mark Meadows story is we don't know what the story is with the Mark Meadows story said Jim Jordan two aside counting the CNN piece on Meadows three of the four big stories about the special counsel this week have referenced that Jack Smith is in the end game he's wrapping it up barreling to a conclusion as it says in the CNN piece reference after reference to Smith having gotten all the testimony he wanted and brought some witnesses back for a second grilling and not one mention of Mark Meadows testifying or not testifying and Mark Meadows would not testify to the January 6th committee pure contempt of Congress and the Justice Department decided not to charge him with contempt of Congress now just think for a moment why would the Justice Department not want to charge somebody who might be the back breaking witness against Trump for the Justice Department also so if you missed the Ron DeSantis campaign launch on Twitter last night don't worry so did he so did Elon Musk that sound is all Ron DeSantis will be remembered for 26 minutes of silence and echoes and that sound and then the Twitter space blowed up blowed up good blowed up real good blowed up like an Elon Musk space X rocket I'll spare you the other jokes except the one that must then tweeted that all presidential candidates were welcome on Twitter and you have to wonder if two of them called Elon at the same time to say I'd like to come on if Elon's phone system would melt honest to God if he were smart and he's not Ron DeSantis would announce today that he's changed his mind and he's not running for president and then after the Twitter space thing dies down in a week or two he should do like a town hall on CNN and say change his mind again and he is running anything to get the stench of that Twitter disaster off his ill fitting suit and high-heeled shoes I mean Joe Biden tweeted this link works Joe Biden scored off him on Twitter during DeSantis's campaign announcement let me also point out at the other end of this thing that hours before this disaster the Axios media writer concluded that quote Musk has displaced Rupert Murdoch and Fox News as king of conservative media in recent weeks and I think we can forget about that now too and Tucker Carlson told the site hours before the disaster quote thankfully the old system is collapsing in real time uh no sorry tucky good choice of words though it seems to be Elon's new system that's collapsing in real time and oh look you're willing to forgo 30 million dollars from Fox to launch your new show on Twitter Tucker I hate your guts and you hate mine but I'm going to give you free advice you would be better off launching your new show by fax Tucker Twitter Twitter Tucker when Musk's SpaceX blew up it left a coating of brown crap on several Texas towns and so will this fiasco the problem for DeSantis is when they clean this Twitter crap up people will notice what little he did say on the Twitter spaces thing and then on a subsequent interview on Fox with ex- congressman Trey Goudy and Trey you got to stop sticking your head in the pencil sharpener Goudy asked him about Ukraine and DeSantis could not say anything about Ukraine didn't seem to understand about Ukraine had to pivot reflexively began with quote farangest I think what we need to do as a veteran is recognize that our military has become politicized you talk about gender ideology you talk about global warming we're not talking about that term out Ukraine that would be something I could take care of on day one the sad implication being the sad truth being Ron DeSantis could not take care of anything else on day one except whoa the Wokey Fanoke swap thing oh and there's a ps from the republican campaign CNN is doing another town hall because the last one went so well with Nikki Haley on Sunday June 4th at Grinnell College in Iowa as reporter Ben Jacobs pointed out first I think big weekend at Grinnell two nights earlier next Friday June 2nd at the Harris Center it's sorry it's the second Grinnell College reunion drag show capacity is limited so please arrive early Nikki and if that's not enough of a lark to go out on you must have heard this by now as the Republicans continue to try to destroy the economy and kill the debt limit hostage and that's Matt Gates's term not mine the adults all left the congressional room for a while and somebody let Marjorie Taylor Barney Rubble white supremacist Karen Green run the asylum imagine as you hear this being this reviled by your own congressional colleagues I mean hell imagine being this reviled by your own colleagues at a pool hall the members are reminded to abide by decorum of the house the house will be in order I believe the term they used to use in the south to describe people like Marjorie Taylor Green was and I'll update it to make it politically correct trash speaking of making a public spectacle of yourself for 24 hours or so it sure looked like Tom Hanks had erased a reputation built over a lifetime of being mr. Nice Guy of Hollywood trouble and wild justiculations on the red carpet at the con film festival wait wild justiculations red carpet Tom Hanks I am flashing back to my day of wild justiculations and a red carpet and Tom Hanks that's next this is God down 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 betrayal 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 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 iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts if you're looking for someone to help you unpack Queen Charlotte a Bridgerton story you're in the right place it's me Gabby Collins come with me because i'm queen charlotte the official podcast we're stepping behind the scenes and the drawing boards of this team to experience the life breathes into the Bridgerton prequel listen to the leaps executive producer and series director tom barrica took to capture the feeling that's put that lump in your throat and you've got to catch creator shonda rhymes she's dropping gems diamonds and mics on this podcast we're going beyond the basic line of questioning and getting to the heart of the show all while appreciating the contributions of the show's creative teams and remarkable cast go inside each episode of queen charlotte a Bridgerton story with the creatives the cast and creator shonda rhymes leading the way listen to queen charlotte the official podcast thursdays on the iHeartRadio app apple podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts uh you know this is cat down with uh you know Keith oberman post scripts to the news some headlines some updates some snark some predictions date line con in france they were everywhere photos and video of what certainly you look from a distance like actor tom hanks and his wife rita wilson yelling at maybe even be rating and unidentified random staffer on the red carpet at the 2023 con film festival in france while promoting his new movie asteroid city at various intervals hanks seems to have a fist clenched then seems to be jabbing his forefinger at the man throughout he appeared to wear a look of disbelief verging on anger european newspapers were filled for two days with stories about tom hanks yells at con and tom hanks yells at staffer and tom hanks skulls con staffer etc etc etc etc and then his wife rita spoke up then the staffer vincent shapalane spoke up then the sound on the video spoke up louder than either of them tom hanks wasn't scolding anybody but he was yelling because he could not hear himself or this vincent shapalane or anything else because the crowd around the red carpet was too loud the clenched hand tom hanks clenched it while he was yelling i can't hear you everybody's screaming the jabbing forefinger it went with where are we supposed to go are we supposed to go back to the start of the red carpet just just point at where you want us to go and the scolding of the random staffer vincent shapalane is the manager of the red carpet at con has been for ten years the only thing he was taking offense at was people presuming he was just security rather than management these are the french con you hear me now this is an unusual story to include here and i've gone into unusual detail about it because the moment i saw this story from con i didn't have mere deja vu i had a full flashback a full out-of-body experience time travel i was propelled back to march 21st 1999 where a similar overhead view of tom hanks on a red carpet without any audio without any context would have presented you a picture of first tom hanks and then tom hanks with the assistance of ben afleck and matt daman assaulting a guy literally pulling him over the hedges that served as the security boundary damaging the guys clothing and then basically throwing him back over the hedges and all this took place on a red carpet at the oscars the guy was me in 1999 i had just started what began as a pretty good gig fox sports had launched its own version of esp and and its own version of sports center and it had thrown way too much money at me and it bought me out of my contract at msnbc where i was desperately unhappy doing the clinton luinski story every hour on the hour and they got me to move back to los angeles and anchor their version of sports center and all the fox baseball coverage too including the world series in the all-star game and it launched a five-year plan to give itself enough credibility to compete with the spn and i was just there to enjoy the sun collect the huge paycheck and publicize the thing as often as possible while they slowly built it up for the year 2004 as the executive who signed me said after we held an introductory press conference and press phone call with about 200 reporters you earned about a year of your salary just doing that call so when one of the editors of the los angeles times called somebody she knew in the pr department at fox and said i have a crazy idea what is kyth oldman doing on oscars night the fox people listened the next thing i knew i had that night off i was in a tux i was standing amid a sea of photographers at the first turn of the red carpet at the oscars gathering quotes from startled celebrities who expected to see only photos right there and not somebody asking questions certainly not me asking questions i was a little startled too the editor in a three oscars phone call explained that this was the 71st edition of the oscars and the times had covered the first 70 then they had pretty much gotten it down to a science around the year 1932 and they really hadn't changed much since then except the photos are in color now she mentioned she asked if i wanted to hear what would be in the times the day after the oscars she said i can recite the main story right now i just have to fill in the names of the winners and then there's the fashion review and how many daring and outlandish and classic outfits there were now had the tv critic complaining about how bad the host was and i'll have the tv business guy explaining why the ratings were so low then we'll have the big poll quotes from the actors that will read exactly like the big poll quotes from 1989 or 1979 and we'll have the predictive piece on which award wins will actually help movies at the box floor office and then we'll have the predictive piece on which awards snubs will actually hurt movies at the box office what we need is anything else can you think of anything else can you think of anything you haven't read in our paper about the oscars i thought for a second i said what about this idea that they're now going to televise the red carpet live for half an hour before the oscars you're gonna have like a oscars pre-game show i heard somebody say you know maybe they could do that all day i mean what if i asked everybody like uh like whoever will stop to tell to me i mean what if like ask them would they think it would be a good idea to make the oscars an all day kind of thing like like super bowl sunday oscars sunday oscars bowl live starting at dawn on a bc i mean i could basically write you the lead paragraph now thanks for attending oscars bowl one please ask your limo driver to tune into the post-game show with uh vinskulli umatherman and uh angeline not not angeline edie williams arrive home safely the editor laughed had me repeat it and wrote it down it was the lead of my story so on the night of march 21st 1999 oscars night there i was officially a sports reporter and ex news reporter and ex local la sports caster on top of everything else there i was at the first corner of the red carpet in front of the dorothy chandler pavilion standing where one of the 80 or so la times photographers should have been and i never found out what he thought of this idea and i was introducing myself to actors and actresses who and producers and other people who had no idea who i was hellen hunt was particularly confused and explaining why i was there to actors and actresses who knew exactly who i was kevin costner was particularly confused some of them gave thoughtful answers to my question about an all-day oscars hellen hunt actually thought about it and said something interesting costner said he would never watch anything like that instead of say college basketball he recommended against doing it and he said we already know too much about the things we already know about and i knew exactly what he meant what a great quote we shook hands and coster took a deep breath and he moved towards the gauntlet of the next 500 reporters down the red carpet and said wish me luck Keith within two minutes i then saw costner walking back towards me can you do me a favor i mean i'm sorry but can you not run that quote i've never retracted a quote in my life but that'll make me sound like yogi barra i said it didn't make him sound like yogi barra it was perfect and everybody would know exactly what he meant but of course if that's what he wanted i'd i'd forget it i wouldn't use the quote until now anyway i had enough color and quotes and technically my article was going to be early-abled arrivals so it was done already as night began to fall and i had one particular piece of gold handed to me when the fabled actress who had done the cameo in titanic the year before arrived on the red carpet the photographer standing on one side of me said look it's martha stewart not martha stewart i mean uh glorious swanson i know you know who i mean glorious stewart it was good that i had enough material and i thought that was probably going to be my second paragraph because the editor had given me a deadline like i don't know 6.30 7 p.m where i had to be back in the times offices which were a quick walk a block or two away and i had to start writing because they wanted to put my piece on the page with all the early photos from the red carpet and the start of the awards and they needed my piece finished asap but i lingered a few minutes longer than i was supposed to because there was only one actor i had really hoped i was going to get to meet tom hanks finally keith comes back to tom hanks didn't see him everybody's already inside i must have missed him or maybe he's not coming even though he has a nominated film and i'm about to leave literally i'm double checking my notes and my quotes when i heard some of the photog shout tom tom and there finally he was in a tux and a beard and he gave them that half mile actor stare and pleasant smile and without being asked he did a slow pan from side to side so each cameraman could get him in profile and in full face and then he stopped and his eyes widened comically and he said keith arbor men what are you doing here did you get fired again that even got a laugh from the photographers he then devolved into schtick come in with me you can have reed as ticket better than that why don't you go in with reed a i'll go watch you cla play reed a wilson smiled waved and while looking at her husband she pointed to her own head and made that crazy gesture and on and on and on it went i asked tom hanks my questions he gave me some good answers gave me a very nice double-handed handshake and he moved on and he was one or two people down the gauntlet of the red carpet when i thought dummy tom hanks is right there he's a fan you're a fan you have a camera with you you have a mother get a picture with him for mom so i beckoned so you'll go in with me hot dog i explained what i actually wanted and i handed my little disposable cardboard camera remember those to the nearest reporter i knew lara spencer from channel seven in new york more recently of good morning america and i leaned back over the hedges which in those innocent pre-9-11 days where the only things actually keeping the famous safe from us the we merely cover the famous lara took a couple of shots in them it would prove my head is about four times as big as tom's and we both look like mutants straining mutants wait this won't work tom hanks finally said and with that he grabbed me and started to pull me over the shrubbery i was unprepared for this i started to teter at this exact moment i heard coming from the carpet behind me two guys chanting keith keith hanks turned around and said hello boys look it's keith oberman can you believe this finally a reason actually show up to this dumb thing can we take him in with us about you guys got an extra ticket here help me pull him over the hedge the two guys were ben athlek and matt daman somewhere in this process and athlek and daman were really young then they really could pull one of these three men broke my cummerbund i swear suddenly i was on the red carpet with them and with a loose cummerbund athlek struck a wrestling pose and made a grimace a fake grimace lara spencer shouted that's a perfect shot at which point i heard a sound effect but in real life nearly identical to the one that signaled the arrival of the reporters throughout the movie the right stuff like a thousand mosquitoes moving in unison every photographer there panned over to us because even those who did not know who i was or what tom hanks matt daman and ben athlek were doing to me did notice security rushing to this scene it's all right fellas hanks shouted he fell they helped me back over the hedge athlek asked me about the red socks chances in the season ahead hanks slapped me on the back i barely managed to shout enjoy the show boys and daman turned and said well we just did and they were gone any image of this scene taken without sound and without context would have been greeted perhaps as the stuff from con was about tom hanks it would have shown three of hollywood's top actors appearing to attack or maybe trying to subdue some guy who looked vaguely like some sports or news guy or something and the tux didn't fit well it must have been a rental it might have been a perimeter breach i mean look at the damage to the hedge to say nothing of the guy's cover bond so when the story of tom hanks and reeda wilson yelling at the guy on the red carpet at con broke all i could think of was here we go again as a postscript i should note that i have seen tom hanks several times since then and hanks always mentions the cummerbund athlek once portrayed me on saturday night live and i went up to his studio which was also the football night in america studio to say hello at his rehearsal and offer him any tips he needed and the next thing i knew that was in the new york post oberman crashes studio and the photo of the four of us well i clearly had enough stuff for my arrivals piece in the l8 time so i jogged back to their offices a little late now and found the editor and she asked me if the story would work and i said yes i have enough and then i sheepishly said listen there was a thing with me and and hanks and afleck and dayman and i can i mention it in the piece maybe at the end and again her eyes widened as i explained what happened and in great excitement she asked did anybody get a picture of this and i said well yeah i thought about um um hundred real photographers got a picture of it but but i was certain that my friend lara from new york had gotten it on my disposable which is when the editor grabbed the camera from my hand and left without a word running down the hallway and the next thing i saw of my camera or what was in it was the next morning when the front page of the l8 times oscar section had four beautiful color pictures on it one of guineth paltrow jutty danc james koburn and roberto bonini one of ilea kazan it was the ilea kazan speech year one of kate blanchettes dress as seen from behind so it was a picture of kate blanchettes but and largest of all the pictures me and the boys with the caption the arrivals fox sports news anchor kethal remin is mugged by tom hanks left ben afleck and matt dayman on the red carpet and lives to write about it page f2 i still have it framed on my wall but just to be clear tom hanks didn't actually mug me hi i'm david egelman 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 egelman 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 andre 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 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 if you're looking for someone to help you unpack queen charlotte a bridgerton story you're in the right place it's me gabby colons come with me because i'm queen charlotte the official podcast we're stepping behind the scenes and the drawing boards of this team to experience the life breathes into the bridgerton prequel listen to the leaps executive producer and series director tom berryka took to capture the feeling that's put that lump in your throat and you've got to catch creator shonda rhymes she's dropping gems diamonds and mics on this podcast we're going beyond the basic line of questioning and getting to the heart of the show all while appreciating the contributions of the show's creative teams and remarkable cast go inside each episode of queen charlotte a bridgerton story with the creatives the cast and creator shonda rhymes leading the way listen to queen charlotte the official podcast thursday's on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts still ahead on countdown the tom hank story put me in an l a confidential kind of mood nostalgic see nostalgic for the night i had the scoop of the year in l a maybe in the entire sports world and then the cameraman said hold on uh uh uh i might not have recorded it next first in each edition of countdown we feature a dog in need you can help every dog has its day chelsea has now faced death at the new york pound twice she was rescued just in time three years ago she went to a loving home and then just about a week ago they found her tied up outside of the new york pound and with her was her friend her bonded dog pal ace the humans abandoned them chelsea is about 40 pounds and affectionate with everybody loving and wiggly and good with other dogs but the moment they separated her from ace she began to scream with loss and in terror and because she was afraid and alone they put her on the kill list again and because of that we have to get her out of there chelsea can be adopted right now no questions or we can pledge to help or rescue savor either way you can find her on my twitter feeds and any help you can give her even a retreat will help i thank you and chelsea thanks you now for my favorite topic me and some more things i promise not to tell and i can hear him saying it still keith who was cardin ghillon water 30 years ago and more i used to get phone calls from a viewer named harry harry or nest harry had once been a training camp stickboy for the long forgotten national hockey league franchise the new york americans he later became a linesman in the national hockey league he had stepped in as the owner of the nearly bankrupt st louis blues he owned the minor league baseball team in vancouver and most notably the toronto arganats of the canadian football league until he sold them to wane gratsky and gratsky's boss the owner of the l.a. kings bruce mcknell and the late john candy and harry was one of those guys who knew everything going on with everyone in one sport and harry was a fan of my sports guests so he would call me at kcbs in los angeles and later at espian and he would say i am once again your source keith for a story about bruce mcknell you always mispronounce mcknell mcknell but i will only give you the story if you can tell me and then he'd ask me a baseball trivia question keith who was cardin ghillon water this is pre-internet no chance i could look cardin ghillon water up in a book and have harry not hear me doing so over the phone so i would have to give him my best answer and usually i got these right cardin ghillon water and it stuck in my head from somewhere who knows when was an obscure out filter from the 1940s boston braves mostly and one day april 20th 1991 in fact when i got the trivia answer right harry said would you happen to be going to the los angeles kings play off game tonight and i said matter of fact i was and harry said excellent my friend if you watch mr mcknell's private box you will see he will have a visitor i mr rahib rocket ismail from nottradame university he went on to say mr mcknell has just signed mr ismail to a contract with the toronto arganats formerly owned by your source and he said i'm led to believe it is for four years and 26 million dollars i am also led to believe a little over half of it is guaranteed i'm led to believe mr mcknell will be announcing it tomorrow just before the national football league conducts its college draft he's really going to piss them all off isn't he it would make cardin ghillon water shamed also he would remind me mr mcknell has yet to pay me what he owes me for when i sold him the toronto arganats rocket ismail was not the best player available in the 1991 national football league draft which was to start the next morning right then early in new york but he was the most exciting a dynamic receiver and kick returner from noter dame and while it was not certain that he would be chosen first overall by the dallas cowboys it was likely surely possible and instead he had signed with toronto of the canadian league it seemed very very unlikely and on the other hand harry or nest had never been wrong once with one of these story tips so my producer ron groundick and i went to the los angeles forum we were going anyway as fans to the hockey playoff game and he asked our assignment desk at kcbs to send us a camera crew because we were going to at least get video of rocket ismail at the forum or leaving the forum or something it was some kind of story and sure enough from our seats we could easily see into bruce mcknell's private box and there without a doubt totally unrecognized by any of the l.a. hockey fans was this noter dame football player rocket ismail he and mcknell and the other executive seem to be having a great time and there was a lot of back slapping and beer drinking and whatnot and i said to ron good god we're going to break a huge story here but they won't let us bring the cameraman in here to shoot video of ismail and mcknell's box we're gonna have to stake him out we're gonna have to get him after the game ends out in the parking lot somewhere ron smiled knowingly ron had once been an usher at the great western forum and i said you know i know all the secret ways out of here he said to me and i know all the limo drivers and the limo drivers never changed last time i was here i said hi to half a dozen of them let me go find out which one is waiting for them within 15 minutes ron was back got it you said that a lot he found a limo driver who was sent to take rocket ismail back to the hotel and he found out which side door out of about a thousand of them in this old arena the driver had been told to wait next to i would have been back sooner ron said but he wanted to show me pictures of his new baby so now we used my cell phone not a lot of cell phones in use in 1991 not even an l.a. to check on the camera crew and we were told the cameraman would meet us in the parking lot that's such and such an hour and we told the assignment desk to have him park near this one side exit that we'd been told smail was going to use when the game was over and then we waited and with the kings losing three to two to edminton early in the third period just as we were planning to go out and meet up with the camera guy the kings tied the game up and that screwed up everything because now the game might go into overtime and end suddenly and it might end in five minutes and it might end in five hours and we might get caught in the crowd exiting the arena and we might miss rocket ismail or he might leave early or who knows and then as the overtime period began i looked up at bruce mcnall's private box for like the three hundredth time that night and i saw it i saw rocket ismail yawning let's get out of here i said to ron we left we rendez vu with the cameraman and we rehearsed what we planned to do pure obnoxious tv ambushing we would hide across the street from the side exit the windows around the door of that side exit would give us enough time to see him coming and as soon as the door opened i would step forward towards him the cameraman would turn on his light and press play and record on his video deck and i would essentially block rocket ismail if i could from getting into his limo and i'd just start firing questions at him the cameraman should never stop rolling keep rolling i said who knows what we'll get and how well it all worked within minutes of the start of the second overtime period we saw ismail and a los angeles king's executive named roy malar bound up the steps toward the side exit onto the street and i waited until they were obscured behind the door i shouted to the cameraman roll the cameraman threw on his light we took a few steps from the parking lot across the street onto the sidewalk rocket keith oberman from channel two action news have you signed with the toronto argonauts he said nothing but he looked like i had just stolen his wallet we understand you're getting 26 million for four years about half of it guaranteed is that correct he now looked like he was a escaping prisoner who had just been identified rocket why did you sign with the cfl before the nfl draft again he said nothing he did not need to the look on his face confirmed everything i was asking him rocket did you not want to play for the dowels cowboys still silence it suddenly dawned on me that this guy might have finished second in the voting for college football's player of the year award the Heisman trophy but he was having a lot of trouble getting around me and my 32 year old unathletic six foot three and a half blubbery frame did Bruce Mcall give you a part of the franchise rocket at which point i was finally gently and easily moved aside by somebody with him rocket s mail slipped into the limo where pound my cameraman showing great perspicacity dropped to his knees and pointed the camera inside the limo we could see is mail thoroughly shaken sitting next to the king's executive roy malleker i shouted in one last perfect question to malleker roy is that a rocket in your pocket are you just glad to see us at which point as if on cue the limo door slammed and the driver peeled out of there with a huge screeching sound the cameraman now turned off his life and i light and my producer ron and i started jumping up and down in the parking lot we had not only gotten a terrific scoop and the video would be on every cbs station in the country within hours but we had done it with an interview in which the interviewee did not say a word yet still gave away the whole story just with facial expressions and body language ron and i repeated these elements to each other and high-fived and celebrated until the cameraman suddenly said hold on i may have forgotten to roll tape i looked at him and smiling i said that it was fun to play with us like that but he just shortened our lives by a year and i didn't say play i'm sorry man i'm not joking yeah i forgot to roll i'm sorry man too too bad you ask great questions rocket in your pocket and looks on his face damn sorry ron and i made him double check and triple check and quadruple check and when there was no more doubt he had never hit play and record we stood for lorn like a couple of guys who had just seen the winning lottery ticket blown out of their hands into the sewer or something the cameraman packed up and left and as ron and i stood there silently i wondered how it could possibly get worse which is when it started to rain my great scoop the interview in which the interviewee said nothing that through the national football league draft into utter chaos was now worthless Bruce McNaugh of course would announce the signing of rocket s mail by his toronto argonauts i would be able to phone into the cbs sports office in new york and give them a warning about the signing their overnight guy said thanks and hung up on me and i would phone into our all news radio station knx and i would do a live report from the parking lot outside the l.a. forum about rocket ismail at 1215 on sunday morning as if anybody was listening and as if anybody who was listening could have possibly cared about Canadian football for weeks thereafter ron grellnick and i would be in conversation about something else when one of us would pause and say can you believe he forgot to roll the frequency of this dropped with time to once a month then once a year at last saw ron in 2021 he and i told his wife the story after which involuntarily the way a casualty of a long forgotten battle will describe the shock of his injury half a century earlier ron said can you believe he forgot to roll and i know i know in my heart that whether i live another week or another 40 years one of the last things i will say to myself on this earth will take me back to that damp saturday night in 1991 when i ambushed rocket ismail but my cameraman ambushed me can you believe he forgot to roll i've done all the damage i can do here here the credits most of the music was arranged produced and performed by brian ray and john philip shanell who are the countdown musical directors all orchestration and keyboards by john philip shanell guitars bass and drums by brian ray produced by tk o brothers other beto and selections have been arranged and performed by the group no horns allowed the sports music is the old ron theme from esp and two and it was written by mitch warren davis courtesy of esp and ink musical comments by nancy fouse the best baseball stadium organist ever our announcer was my friend richard luis cummerbuns were adjusted by tom hanks everything else is pretty much my fault so let's count down for this the eight hundred and seventy-eighth day since donald trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the united states don't forget to keep arresting him while we still can the next scheduled countdown is tomorrow till then i'm keith bulberman good morning good afternoon good night and good luck the members are reminded to abide by decorum of the house countdown with keith oleman 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 hi i'm david egalman 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 egalman 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 litton was helping her husband set up a business fan mill 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 get ready stuff they don't want you to know is back in iHeartland for another epic event then matt and knoll from stuff they don't want you to know are hitting the big screen in iHeartland in fortnite this time they're celebrating some of the most important people in our lives teachers join the guys as they educate us about our educators and celebrate teacher appreciation day all week long head to state farm park in iHeartland in fortnite starting thursday june first at 7 p.m. Eastern visit iHeartRadio.com slash iHeartland to start playing today.