EPISODE 238: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) Rudy Giuilani has offered to flip. It is almost certainly NOT against Trump and it may even be a finesse play to distract Jack Smith FROM Trump (and from himself). But that "voluntary meeting" with prosecutors we heard about early in the week turns out to have been a "Proffer Offer" in which he essentially auditioned as a witness.
The New York Times also has what – under the proffer protection that whatever he told them IN that interview will not be used against him unless it turns out he was lying – prosecutors asked him about: 1) About a plan to create fake slates of pro-Trump electors. 2)“They focused specifically on the role played in that effort by John Eastman." 3) Quote: “Giuliani also discussed Sidney Powell” 4) “Ms. Powell… also took part in a meeting in the Oval Office in December 2020 during which Trump was presented with a brazen plan, opposed by Giuliani, to use the military to seize control of voting machines and re-run the election.” 5) “Prosecutors further asked Mr. Giuliani about the scene at the Willard Hotel days before the attack on the Capitol” and the group of conspirators gathered there – the Times names Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, and Steve Bannon. CBS News, which does NOT use that tell-tale term “proffer,” also says he was asked about Jeffrey “Can I Put My Pants On” Clark? And 6) CBS had one other detail which reads quote: “The special counsel did not indicate that Giuliani is a SUBJECT of the investigation and his team does not believe he is” which then raises the question why the hell would he be trading information to the Special Prosecutor as a potential immunity deal? I’m Rudy and I’m a good citizen, so don’t prosecute me?
Moreover: time and time again throughout American criminal history – especially American POLITICAL criminal history – key witnesses have changed sides while telling themselves they were not giving up THEIR guy and then once they see how much MORE protection they will gain FROM giving up their guy… they GIVE UP their guy. When it was time to get immunity for his role in Watergate, my friend John Dean’s starting point was, according to the giggling reminiscence of his attorney Charlie Shaffer, “We can’t talk about The P” – “The P” -- Dean’s shorthand for President Nixon.
B-Block (19:48) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: She's trying to play to the right of Boebert and Greene by raging against abortions and human stem cells - even saying using some of the latter for research "makes us no better than Nazis." Now her family financial disclosures are out and Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna's husband owns stock in a medical company that uses human stem cells. And a MAGA "prophet" says he saw an image of Trump in the sky over "Rush Mountmore." (25:19) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Meltdown in RFK Jr Merch-land. Just when you thought he couldn't possibly be connected to foreign interference turns out the image in his merchandise ad is just a photoshopped stock shot of a Russian woman on a Russian street. Nancy Mace and Tommy Tuberville try to take credit for local Biden projects they voted against. And the Jersey Munitions Dealer and OAN guest didn't like those 32 old growth trees that blocked his view of New York City. So he had them cut down. Two problems: they weren't on HIS property and the law there says he now has to replace them and that could cost him nearly $2 Million.
C-Block (32:10) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Duke the beautifully-behaved Doberman on death row in Baldwin Park, California. (32:52) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Somebody asked me why TV executives seem like idiots. I said "SEEM?!?" and then instead of trying to explain it to her I just told her the saga of Rick Kaplan, who was president of CNN and then MSNBC and once credited himself for a format change from a year earlier that we did only once and abandoned but he didn't know because he DIDN'T HAVE CABLE IN HIS HOUSE.
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