SEASON 2 EPISODE 40: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has descended into full-fledged panic over the Possible Gag Order and either he is exaggerating for effect – what a shock – or, more likely, his lawyers, preparing an answer to Jack Smith’s request to Judge Chutkan that is due Monday, told him SOMETHING that set his hair on fire and you know the dangers of combustion when spray paint is mixed with open flames. And that imagery is more than a joke about his bottle blondness. It is a forecast of things to come. We are headed to a legal crisis over Trump’s social media posts and his refusal to accede to the rule of law and I don’t know where this ends but at the far end of political science fiction, where it ends is a shootout between United States Marshals and United States Secret Service.

His bail – his NOT being held in a jail cell in the District of Columbia until trial starts – is dependent on him NOT defying the law. As I said last week, at some point, whatever limitations Chutkan imposes upon him, WHEN he violates them, whether it’s the first time or the fiftieth – he is NOT going to surrender. He is not going to let them put him in prison. They are going to have to go and get him. And what happens THEN?

It seems madness to risk the lives of Marshals or Secret Service to protect this semi-sentient pile of feces. But, what? You’re going to have the Secret Service agents protecting him turn around an arrest him? Biden is going to order the head of the Secret Service to order his men to stand down when the Marshals arrive? Trump is going to see the photo-shoot-value in an actual perp walk?

I’m not counting on the last one. Rolling Stone now reports that as you’d expect, the I-don’t-think-about-jail crap he gave to the gullible Kristen Welker in last Sunday’s stenography class is nonsense. Quoting: “In the past several months, Donald Trump has had a burning question for some of his confidants and attorneys: Would the authorities make him wear, quote, “one of those jumpsuits” in prison?... Three sources familiar with his comments say he’s been aking lawyers and other people close to him what a prison sentence would look like for a former American president. Would he be sent to a ‘club fed’ style prison… or a bad prison? Would he serve out a sentence in a plush home confinement?... those who’ve heard him ask these questions about a hypothetical sentencing tell Rolling Stone that it’s clear the gravity of his mounting legal peril is GETTING to Trump."

As an aside, I understand Jann Wenner is asking the same questions.

Also: Cassidy Hutchinson's book includes a sexual assault accusation against Rudy Giuliani. It's the worst sexual misconduct accusation against him in nearly four months. Also Lin Wood flips on the entire Trump crowd. And a tweet from Junior Trump announces his father had died. He was hacked. We think.

B-Block (18:45) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: JD Vance sets some kind of record by averaging more than one lie per sentence in a tweet about an "American journalist held hostage by Ukraine" who is none of the above. Congresswoman Victoria Spartz asks Merrick Garland a question and if he's still thinking about the hearing he's probably asking 'what the hell did she SAY?' And James O'Keefe's obsession with becoming a musical star has now led to the closure of Project (In Vino) Veritas. But who will think of the cast of O'Keefe-Homa!?

C-Block (25:39) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: If Rudy is back in the news then the question: "what happened to Rudy?" is also back in the news and I'll give you the answer: whatever it is, it happened in 1995 or earlier.

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