Countdown with Keith Olbermann

BULLETIN: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 21

Trump's plan to "work with" Democrats after they eviscerated him in the midterms?

Fire White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and replace her with white supremacist Stephen miller.

We should have seen this coming. In a little-seen interview with BBC yesterday, one of the architects of Project 2025, Paul Dans, said "the blame there lies at the feet of president trump’s incompetent staff. His chief of staff Susie Wiles was not a governance leader, she was a campaign leader, and she stepped into a ro...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 21

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): As Vance attacks him, it's finally true: Trump is now radioactive - even inside the GOP. Jayvee's "J'Accuse" post about the midterms and Iran was actually 613 words of euphemisms for "blame the midterms on Trump." He's trying to set himself up for '28. Even Ron DeSantis came back from the political grave to declare an "extinction level event" for everybody in his party except him. The MAGA circular firing squad opens fire, and I am reminded of The Maltese Falcon, with Trump as Brigid O'Shaughnessy: "Don't be...

BULLETIN: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 20

Blue Wave? Insufficient.

Blue Tsunami? Not good enough.

To paraphrase "Arrested Development": Trump just blue himself.

Where do we START? Senator El-SAYED? Senator TALARICO? Governor ACTON? Governor HINOJOSA? EX-Senator Susan Collins LEARNING HER LESSON? Senator ANDREWS? Governor BOTTOMS? Senator HAMILTON? Senator FLANAGAN? Governor CROWLEY? Governor HAALAND? Congresswoman Ilhan Omar winning 76 to 16? Male Model but not Senator Jon Husted? And it looks like Derrick Van Orden out in Wisconsin, Virginia Foxx in a virtual tie, probably headed for a recount in North Carolina and...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 19

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): What Fresh Hell will the world look like after the midterms?

Certainties: it will look like a Wednesday, and Haley Stevens' time as an American will be over. She betrayed her state, party, constituents, and now the Republicans will betray her. All for the sake of her fiancé, Uncle Fester.

Probabilities: a Democratic House. By double digits. And Trump bombing Iran as early as Wednesday, possibly using nukes, to help Netanyahu, and to try to force a regime change that will not happen. 

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 18

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): "...the actual evidence we have seen...indicates that Trump abused, assaulted, and even raped numerous women alongside, and in coordination with, the most infamous sex trafficker in history."

The House Judiciary Democrats call for a Special Counsel to investigate Trump-Epstein. The appalling new details in their Staff Report on Trump-Epstein, and the equally appalling reasons the media won't let you see it: The New York Times doesn't mention it but at last look it has SIX pieces up about Obama and The Cheesecake Factory trivia.<...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 17

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): Deeply delusional, convinced his approval is "really" at 60% but The New York Times stole it from him, believing he can stave off a Democratic house and a senate with enough Dems and terrified Republicans to convict and remove him, Trump launches his Weaponized Department of Justice and personal justice slut Todd Blanche against Alaska Senate ballot because he doesn't know what the word "incumbent" on the ballot means. Trump threatens voters there - and election officials in California if they don't corrupt the voter rolls for him.<...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 16

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): Trump's doctors are not asking him to tell the difference between a snake and a giraffe because he CAN tell the difference between a snake and a giraffe! They're asking him because in private he must be showing continual signs that HE CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SNAKE AND A GIRAFFE!

We've lost the truth behind Trump's boast about his "perfect scores" on "IQ tests" and all those doctors who stick by him even if you in the crowd are dying. This is not...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 15

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT) Trump has proved it again and Trump has proved it anew.

He is owned by Russia.

Only, this time, even rabid Conservatives are realizing it's true.

The National Review is out with a new article insisting "Congress Must Investigate Trump's Aid and Comfort to Putin." That, again, is our Constitution's terminology for treason. And a rabid right winger, Dan McLaughlin, who still somehow thinks Trump's previous conspiracies with Putin were simply rhetorical, now says "this time The Wolf comes as a...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 14

Bulletin - Trump confirms press secretary Katie Zacharia (in Monday, out before close of business Friday) is out as Press Secretary.

"I told her I think you are better off being happy. I'm not sure you can ever be happy in this job." Trump said she may stay in the administration in "a more pleasant form" and a White House source says she is "transitioning out" of the role she occupied for about 100 hours. 

Though she clearly lied about whether she was a lawyer, an attorney, o...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 13

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): The President is insane.

I know you know this – we all know this.

But – days after a disturbed man climbed into a tiger enclosure in England and was mauled to death, Trump posted a video of another man in a lion enclosure. He captioned it “Don’t ever mess with nature.” Almost immediately afterwards he posted ANOTHER video of a series of similar incidents, at least half a dozen lions killing people. One tiger. No caption this time. Just grisly, horrifying, death. Five hours late...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 12

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): 31% of those who voted for Trump just 707 days ago now DISAPPROVE of his presidency.

His approval rating among those who voted for him was 95% on January 20, 2025. It is now just 67%.

There is no other word for this: it is a collapse within his base. Even if they do not go to the polls to punish him, and even if a large percentage of those in the new Pew/USA Today poll saying they do not approve actually blame somebody else for his failure...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN – SEASON 5 EPISODE 11

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): This is not complicated.

Trump: ”They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.”

U.S. Constitution: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

It’s impeachable aid and comfort to an enemy. Literally. Definitionally. PER THE CONSTITUTION. Add it to the $14 Billion he freed up by letting Iraq and its investors regain access to their oil money in...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 10

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): Even Trump sees the wave of Blue water forming on the horizon, now less than a month out. It's so bad he's resorted to one of the three classic cliched lies: "The check is in the mail!" He has actually said it, virtually word-for-word, in Ohio, talking about his latest attempt to buy votes. Not $5,000 apiece this time. Not even a $100 advance he mentioned. This is $500 to Ohioans. It's desperate, stupid, and invites Natalie Harp jokes that even I just won't make lol.

But he...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 9

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): You heard me. Trump wrote me a fan letter - but he hates me.

Yet here's something I never write: but this is not about me! We'll get to it later. It's important because it is a metaphor for what's happening to the Republican Party as the midterms speed towards us: all of their candidates are vulnerable because their base is sick of the war and sick of Trump and especially sick of a guy who on the same day launches a tax-payer tirade concluding "...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 8

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): BREAKING: Republicans finally throw Trump overboard - or maybe it's "Republicans finally throw Trump under the campaign bus."

-Trump toady Byron Donalds, running for Governor of Florida and only ahead in the polls by 1/10 of a percentage point, scrubs Trump from his website.

- Foundering GOP Senate candidates in Iowa and Michigan criticize Trump's war in Iran and resultant high prices.

- Trump's approval among Pure Independents drops from +15 to -71 since Election Day (an 86 point swing against Trump!; 99 point swing...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 7

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): I confess - I fell for it.

Trump banned CNN and MS Now from the White House  and I immediately thought: the rest of the media finally, FINALLY, has to walk out and not give this bastard any further coverage.

No - I was wrong.

Then I thought: he ADMITS “we took the freedom of speech away.” And I thought: it IS the most blatant attack on the 1st Amendment in the history of our country And it should – it WILL – it MUST ins...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 6

A Block (SPECIAL COMMENT): We're actually under-reacting to the threat from A.I. because it is not just 'A.I. Will Kill Us All' - it is 'TRUMP'S A.I. Will Kill Us All.'

Trump is up to his each of his 27 chins in his own investments in A-I; for all we know he's also thinking A-I might fix the midterms for him; humanity is at risk because Trump and his idiot sons and his cabinet members and his foreign fixers and everybody in the Epstein Files a...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5, EPISODE 5

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT) - Hey, yeah, sorry, we forgot to mench...before U.S. servicemen were killed at a base in Jordan, Iran got satellite images of the facility from "Chinese entities" according to The Wall Street Journal. Nobody's saying it's the GOVERNMENT so end of story, especially if you have the IQ of a Trump. Use your brain: Iran didn't buy these on eBay - there's only one kind of Chinese "Entity" - a Chinese GOVERNMENT Entity. 

Ten days before he's supposed to entertain Chinese Dictator Xi a...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - BULLETIN, SEPTEMBER 10 2026

An hour into his typical delusional speech at the Republican "Midterm Convention" in Texas last night Trump actually said something different: he offered each adult American $5,000 in a "tariff dividend" if the Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate in the midterms.

Without a lot of people being excluded from the bribe that would cost taxpayers $1 Trillion.

Bribing voters is completely illegal under a federal law passed in 1948 - although it's debatable whether or not it applies here.

It's also debatable about whether...

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN - SEASON 5 EPISODE 3

A-Block (SPECIAL COMMENT) Am I the only one who noticed this? Is the news media so compliant, so dead, not to recognize Trump newly bending the knee not to America but to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin? The story was so easily told just by the sequence and yet it gave our newsmen and our supposed liberal commentators the proverbial haircut. I'll walk you through it.

THERE IS REASON TO HOPE we will be able to rein the monster in. Newest polling from Michigan: el-Sayed is up by three, Trump's...

BULLETIN: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN SEPTEMBER 3 2026

Trump's favorite Goebbels impersonator Maria Bartiromo has been fired by Fox - I believe directly by Rupert Murdoch - for telling Trump that Fox News had ordered her and others to not give credence to Trump's July speech in which he promulgated the hallucination that China had stolen the 2020 election which he lost, from him.

That she was fired was evident from the timing: it is the proverbial "Take Out The Trash" Day (the Thursday before the four-day Labor Day weekend); she was given no chance to say goodbye...

SEASON 5 EPISODE 1: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN 

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Hey look, we're back. A special edition to test new equipment (both internal and mechanical), and to talk about the amazing reality that Trump has lost his war in Iran, and the only result he got has just been made permanent as Iran made a deal not with him, but with Oman, to institutionalize the Strait of Hormuz tolls. He is literally the first U.S. President to lose a war. So much winning! Plus the latest media fails (New York Times platforms that idiot David Ellison, who h...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 84: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (3:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: Back from a week off just in time to put the podcast on health hiatus...details within today's supersized edition. Plus, befitting the time off, some meta pictures on how Democrats should plan for what they want this country to look like on its 300th anniversary, if it lasts that long. Will we have jailed Trump and gotten back the money he took? Undone his damage? Eliminated the anachronistic idea that Wyoming should have as many senators as California? Let the Supreme Court continue to lie, cheat and...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 83: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (3:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has given away his labyrinthine plot to stay in office past 2028 in one social media post and he’s just crazy enough to think it will work. It is in his rant claiming the indictment of a political opponent means "The 2020 Presidential Election Should Be Permanently Wiped From The Books And Be Of No Further Force or Effect…”

He is not going to try a new Constitutional Amendment or say the limit is two CONSECUTIVE terms. He's not going another coup (at least not initially). He is...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 82: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (3:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: Call me a cynic but I am beginning to get a sense that you may have some doubts about this Not-An-Assassination Attempt at The White House Correspondents Dinner.

Well - that's what it was. Or in this case, what it wasn't. The acting attorney general says the alleged perp quote “was stopped before he got anywhere near the President.” So, NOT an assassination attempt, per the attorney general. But of course the White House is still trying to sell it as one (its 'protocol director' insists it w...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 81: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (3:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: "Donald Trump Is Losing His Mind."

It's the headline on a column in perhaps the most prominent MAGA magazine headline. It's not me saying it this time. Not Jimmy Kimmel. Not George Conway. Not a psychiatrist. The Washington Examiner: “Donald Trump Is Losing His Mind.”

Why? Just because he’s also losing IRAN? Just because he’s COMPARING Iran to Vietnam (which he dodged)? Just because he threatened to go General Sherman on Teheran? Just because he's just announced you are no longer ALLOWED to CRITIC...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 80: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (3:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: Nobody is at the wheel of Trump's war in Iran.

Is the Strait of Hormuz open or is it closed? Are there peace talks with Iran in Pakistan TOMORROW… or nah? Is Jayvee Vance going? Is Iran going? Has Trump scheduled peace talks where we’re the only ones there? Will it make any difference if we’re the only ones there? Doesn’t “blowing a hole in the engine room” of an Iranian cargo ship yesterday mean we aren’t honoring Trump’s own ceasefire he boasted about...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 79: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump doubles down on bashing the Pope and appropriating Jesus.

This time it’s not him pretending to be Dr. Jesus or whoever. It's, it's, it's...well the image he posted looks like he’s about to make out with him. I mean this isn’t one of my areas of expertise but JC is fondling Trump's chest. It’s so bad even Speaker Mike Johnson noticed.

The Republicans aren’t mad about the other part, slamming Pope Leo, because right wing governments have been attack...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 78: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) BREAKING: Trump attacks and threatens Pope Leo in insane online rant, criticizing him for being opposed to Nuclear Weapons. Then in an in-person interview upon his return to Joint Base Andrews tonight insists Pope Leo was wrong to SUPPORT Nuclear Weapons. Trump then posts an image of himself dressed in Jesus-like attire apparently healing a hospital patient. No comment yet from the world's 1,200,000,000 Catholics. (8:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: I know, I know, lots of stuff just happened: Orban topples in Hungary, Vance beclowns himself there and in talks with Iran, Trump basically...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 77: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Did Trump lose to Iran because the war was escalating too quickly for him?

Firstly, great cease fire, Trump. Oh did we mention it doesn’t include Lebanon but it DOES include Iran closing the strait of Hormuz on Day 1. CEASEFIRE? This is way more FIRE than CEASE.

How do you LOSE a cease fire, El Presidente? But the bigger question: did Trump really call off his genocide because he didn’t need the missiles flying THIS week? Because this is way too early to pr...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 76: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: The OTHER part of Dementia J. Trump’s vile, multi-religion blasphemous Easter post is the operative part “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge day… “There will be nothing like it… “You’ll be living in Hell… "Just watch…”  All that was followed four hours and 35 minutes later by quote “Tuesday 8:00 PM Eastern Time," plus phone calls to his media stenographers: If there’s no deal Monday he’s quote “blowing up the whole country” and “I am blowing up everything over there."

What that is, is at least a threat to use tacti...

BULLETIN: TRUMP FIRES ATTORNEY GENERAL - SEASON 4 EPISODE 75

Trump, who attacked Iran to distract from his cover-up of and culpability in the Epstein Files disaster (and the malfeasance of his Attorney General Pam Bondi in mishandling those files) has now fired Bondi in part to distract from his attack on Iran - thus refocusing the world's attention ON the Epstein Files. 

Todd Blanche is the interim replacement, Lee Zeldin among the candidates for the permanent job, and a British newspaper reports the tipping point was Trump's rage that Bondi had not jailed any of Trump's d...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 74: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: The buffoon who is, for better or worse, the actual president of this country has called the United States of America STUPID.

No – seriously: “We are the only country in the world stupid enough to allow birthright citizenship”

He didn’t call the Constitution stupid. He didn’t call the Supreme Court stupid. He didn't call the immigrants stupid. He didn't call the Democrats stupid. He called the ENTIRE COUNTRY stupid.

You. And me. And his own supporters.

Why again do we continu...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 73: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: I have figured out what might be the weirdest most pointless delusion of Trump's second term: his claim "Vince Lombardi - I knew him."

Trump was just 21, in college, and living with his parents in Queens the day the most legendary figure in football in the '60s retired as coach of The Green Bay Packers. More over, the first time he claimed he knew him was a decade ago, filled with details of witnessing Lombardi grab players by the shirt and not getting beat up...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 72: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has started World War 3 and has no idea how to stop it - and he doesn't know he's LOSING World War 3.

How could he NOT know this? Because reportedly every morning they show him two minutes of highlights of "stuff blowing up" in Iran. His own personal SportsCenter

Conflagration in the Middle East. Trump insisting Iran is dead. And yet Iran has struck Tel Aviv. Putin has sent a Russian oil tanker to Cuba just to remind us he can. Trump has now...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 71: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is paying Iran to try to kill Americans.

$14 billion, he’s giving them. Fourteen billion for oil Iran can now sell, per Trump. What’s that called again? If you’re ‘adhering to our enemies, giving them aid and comfort’? And that fop Scott Bessent defended it yesterday as "jujitsuing" Iran, using its money against it.

In fact Trump is using Iran's money against American troops.

Trump, who is garbage - who celebrated the death of Robert Mueller just as he celebrated...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 70: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: We are all looking at it backwards: That was Tulsi Gabbard’s passive-aggressive mini-coup against Trump - about Iran, and the elections.

That's what she did in her Senate testimony – and what her deputy Joe Kent did when he resigned, a day earlier (and you think THAT was a coincidence of timing?) In a kind of bizarre code, through omission and not commission, they called Trump a liar about Iran and nukes. Not nobly or bravely. But they did it. They left no other conclusion that Trump...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 69: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is not qualified to continue as commander in chief.

Not for another five minutes. He has to resign at least that role, immediately.

Trump is personally LOSING THE WAR IN IRAN. Trump is personally TURNING IRAN into INSTANT PROCESSED VIETNAM. Never mind the politics, never mind his assault on democracy, never mind his instability, never mind his corruption, never mind the details: Just MILITARILY. Just MAKING DECISIONS THAT WILL KILL AMERICAN TROOPS - Trump is NOT qualified to continue as commander in chief and...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 68: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump doesn’t REALIZE that he’s screwed in Iran. He can't decide if he's won and we should applaud now, or if he'll win later and we should applaud then - when the reality is, he's in a quagmire and about two weeks from handing the Democrats a majority that even White House strategists think might be enough to impeach AND remove him next year. Key Republicans and everybody behind the scenes in MAGA are looking for off-ramps. Does Trump know? Will he be temporarily not-a-moron and take...

SEASON 4 EPISODE 67: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is in essence paying to provide Iran with the location of our forces in the Middle East. Our ships, jets, troops.

Trump has just waived part of the embargo against Russian oil. So Iran’s ally Russia can sell MORE oil to India to get more money. Thus Russia can spend that money to gather more  information on where American forces are IN the war. So Russia can give that information TO IRAN, and reportedly is, AND nobody in the Trump Rogue Government is denying it...