GOP DEBATE 1: TRUMP IS ROMPING BECAUSE DeSANTIS IS A HOLOGRAM - 8.24.23

SEASON 2 EPISODE 20: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: I watched the Republican Debate so you didn't have to and there was actually a surprise. Trump isn't leading by such a huge margin solely because of his cult and their craziness. He is leading by such a huge margin because DeSantis is a pull-string toy. He is rehearsed, wooden, confused, inflexible. At one point a moderator said "that isn't the question, Governor," and he replied "I know," like he was proud of it. Also: everybody hates Ramaswamy and there is a perfect word to describe him and that word was supplied by my Pittsburgh-bred friend Howard Fineman: "Jagoff." Meanwhile Trump was with Tucker Carlson on Twitter and they were both pleasuring themselves to fantasies of somebody trying to assassinate Trump so then they could have a Civil War. There are Atlanta developments that could see the Fani Willis trial begin as early as November 3. And maybe bigger than all, there is a scandal involving ABC News, CBS, CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, the New York Times, and other news outlets and I doubt anybody will notice but it drove me to distraction. Why, the night before the debate, did a dozen of the leading political reporters and editors think it was cool to have a meal with Jason Miller and two other thugs from the Trump Campaign and let them get schmoozed by them and let Miller try out his latest attacks on DeSantis? The Trump people want to dismember the press and maybe individual reporters. With the BEST of politicians you must keep yourself at arm's length - and these are the worst of them. They (and they include Dana Bash, Robert Costa, and Kristen Welker) should all be fired. B-Block (31:11) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Secret Service's 2020 links to The Oath Keepers; Prighozin dead after his plane falls out a window (35:03) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Nice troll by the Biden campaign to advertise on Fox News. Except it helps Fox News. CNN may have found an old Chris Licht to replace young Chris Licht. And with these bothsidesist Climate Change headlines, The Washington Post may kill us all. C-Block (35:55) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: No, Rudy Giuliani did not fall from grace. He's ALWAYS been like that. You just didn't know him in 1996 - I did. He was nuts then, too. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.