Watch: Olbermann’s Apology — To Viewers — Not Bosses
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
My thoughts, had he not returned, were, “Just imagine what a Keith Olbermann, CEO of The Keith Olbermann Foundation could accomplish…”
(Read: “Olbermann Suspension Over, Returns This Week.”)
>>> discussing something that i’m sure has happened to you dozens of times in your life. you know, when there is a petition federal courting you and you get 22,000 tweets in 72 hours and you are invited to be on television because you aren’t on television because they want you on “good morning, america” and ” larry king” and “letterman” and you break records on the huffing ton post and you’re on the front page of the new york times without being dead or in jail or charlie sheen or something. for me it was a surprise. all i can say is i’m stunned and grateful and it still feels like a universal hug. i owe you three apologies. foremost for having subjected to to this drama. the white house is on the phone for you. seriously? another by having not known by observation since it is not in the contract for not making political donations although any rule like that probably isn’t legal. the third rule doubles as a correction. it is accurate that i contributed to the campaigns of conway, giffords and gribalba, but the reporting assumed that i donated then interviewed and should have disclosed it when i interviewed. the sequence was the reverse. i didn’t think about contributing until hours after the interview. if i had come on the air and said, hey, i contributed to gribalba and giffords and conway knowing the way you responded to stories like the free health care family and the chronic family in tennessee there would have been a lot of donations to them and suddenly then i’m fund-raising for them and we’re accidentally fox. however, the day after the donations i included the opponent in the race against congresswoman giffords in the old worst persons segment. i never made the connection that he, jesse kelly, was running against her. and i should have made it clear that i had contributed to her or just dropped him from the segment. i apologize to you and mr. kelly. after i play the late night comedians jokes about me which i will do after a few personal thanks. i would like to name all 300,000 signatories to the petition but i can’t. anyway, 99% of them were my relatives. i would like to thank the commentaries, reporters and columnists who gave their support or a fair hearing and those with whom my politics don’t overlap. william crystal and dana lash probably treated me better than i would have treated them. rick sanchez clearly did that. they get my thanks and respect although they probably wish they didn’t. three more. let me thank thomas roberts for filling in and chris hayes for not. and thanks to dear rachel when saying so much when saying anything would have been enough. now let the party begin.
>> here’s a story you may have heard about. msnbc’s keith olbermann will be back to work on wednesday after being suspended without pay for giving campaign contributions to democratic candidates which is against the rules at msnbc. see, if only he’d done like spitzer and given his money to hookers. he would have gotten his own prime time show on cnn. see? [ applause ]
>> see, john cline? i told you that’s how we should have done it. okay. so that was jay. then there was jon stewart. we criticized each other a week back. i have to say i took the spirit of his larger meaning in worst persons and he took mine and described parts of the rally as inartful. back to the subject of me, on that topic jon hit a series of homeruns.
>> that’s the great thing about america. we all have the freedom to have opinions and say and do what we wish.
>> msnbc suspended keith olbermann for making political donations.
>> almost everybody has that right. it seems friday keith broke a rule by making campaign donations without first obtaining permission from the network because msnbc has a hard and fast rule that political donations represent bias in journalism unless you ask first.
>> i read somebody’s 10,000 word essay on the ethics of donations and jon boiled it down to 17 with a p.s. of 21 words.
>> you learn you manners, boy, i will knock you down to host of headliners & lemgds so fast your head will spin. anyway, olbermann was suspended indefinitely. i mean it’s bad enough they suspended his mustache. boom! boom! oh, that was gratuitous.
>> no, it wasn’t. it was a bad mustache. i looked like i was dressed up as ming the merciless from flash gordon.
>> there is no telling how long it will be before we see keith olbermann again.
>> msnbc says keith will be back on air tomorrow night. [ laughter ]
>> lesson learned. yes, msnbc, it’s a stupid rule, but at least it was enforced poorly.
>> it’s not a stupid rule. it just needs debate about it. needs to be adapted to 21st century journalism. to wrap up i think we saw where the system is working for transparency in democracy and where it is failing. i made legal political contributions as a u.s. citizen near midnight eastern. by 10:00 p.m. eastern on thursday november 4 the contributions were public knowledge. that’s the point. i gave and you found out and you judged me for good or ill as you felt appropriate. if i had given the money through the u.s. chamber of commerce you would have never, ever known. that’s november 9, seven days since the republicans took control of the house. mr. bane, where are the jobs? i’m keith olbermann. good night and good
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U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, is under fire after praising University of Mississippi students, some wearing American flag outfits, mocking a Black woman protester by making monkey sounds and shouting, “lock her up.”
“Counter-protestors at the University of Mississippi made racist remarks — including monkey noises and comparisons to Lizzo — towards a Black woman who was part of a planned protest against the war in Gaza,” Los Angeles Magazine reported Friday.
Collins, who tried to defund Vice President Kamala Harris’ Office in November, declared his support for the counter-protesters at “Ole Miss,” as the University is called.
“Ole Miss taking care of business,” he wrote on social media, atop the video (below).
The counter-protesters, as evidenced in the video, appear to be mostly white.
A large number of users on the social media platform X responded, accusing the Congressman and the counter-protesters of racism.
“When is the inevitable ‘I don’t have a racist bone in my body’ tweet coming,” wondered Rewire News Group editor-at-large Imani Gandy.
“Which part is your favorite, Mike?” asked Fred Wellman, the former executive director of The Lincoln Project. “Is it the white kid acting like a monkey at the black woman or the white security guy acting like she’s a threat? I’m trying to figure out which flavor of racism has you all excited the most?”
READ MORE: MAGA State Superintendent Supports Chaplains in Public Schools – But Not From All Religions
Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic clinical instructor Alejandra Caraballo responded to the Georgia GOP congressman, “Thanks for confirming you’re a massive racist piece of sh*t.”
Mississippi Free Press news editor Ashton Pittman wrote: “Rep. Mike Collins, R-Georgia, praises a video showing a University of Mississippi frat boy dancing like a monkey and making monkey noises near a Black woman student who was protesting for Palestine while other frat boys chant ‘lock her up.'”
In a separate post describing a separate video taken of the same group Pittman wrote: “Frat bros at @OleMiss chant, ‘Lizzo! Lizzo!’ and shout, ‘F**k you fatass, f**k you b*tch’ at a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine. Do people really think these counterprotestors are doing it to support Jews?”
Journalist John Harwood did not mince words, writing, “Congressman proud of the racism.”
“Okay, Mike. We get it,” wrote podcast host, documentary director, and author W. Kamau Bell. “You want to be famous for being a racist. Fine. I’ll help you become a famous racist. You’re welcome.”
The original video is here.
See Rep. Collins’ post and the video below or at this link.
Caution: the video is disturbing.
Ole Miss taking care of business. pic.twitter.com/JiL9hs2pHz
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) May 3, 2024
READ MORE: Noem Heads to Mar-a-Lago After Branding Kids She Ministered in Church ‘Little Tyrants’
Amid more damning revelations from her soon-to-be released book, embattled South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem will head to Mar-a-Lago this weekend as ex-president Donald Trump auditions potential vice presidential picks in front of high-dollar donors. Noem was also slated to attend a Republican fundraiser in Colorado this weekend but it was canceled over alleged safety concerns after news broke she had bragged about shooting her 14-month old dog.
While Noem’s shooting to death of her wirehaired pointer, Cricket, which she detailed in the book, is still making headlines overnight a new revelation made news: Noem falsely claims in her book she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
A spokesperson for Noem “seemed to concede that the Kim story was false Thursday night,” and notified her publisher, Politico’s Ryan Lizza reported in his exclusive.
But less noticed appears to be the actual text of Noem’s false story, in which she brands children she ministered in church “little tyrants,” and compared them to the murderous North Korean dictator.
READ MORE: RFK Jr., Embracing Far-Right, Spoke at Fundraiser for Anti-Government Group With J6 Ties
“Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee,” Noem wrote, according to Politico, “I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all).”
CNBC reported this week Trump “will mingle with potential vice presidential running mates and wealthy Republican donors at the Republican National Committee’s spring donor retreat. The meetings are likely to act as informal tryouts for a short list of politicos in the running to join the Trump ticket.”
The list of Republican “special guests” includes U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and J.D. Vance, Rep. Elise Stefanik, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
Also expected to attend are House Speaker Mike Johnson, U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and other elected Republicans along with RNC co-chair Lara Trump.
READ MORE: Election Denialism Embraced by ‘Large Proportion’ of Trump’s Followers: Report
NBC News, which says Rep. Donalds is also under consideration, on Friday added there will be “a fundraising retreat that could serve as a screening session” for potential vice presidential running mates.
Meanwhile, the Jefferson County, Colorado Republican Party chair announced a fundraising dinner Noem was slated to attend was canceled after threats were made, The Denver Post reports.
“We understood there was a planned organized protest outside of the hotel, led by Progress Now,” Nancy Pallozzi said. “I felt that our event would be negatively impacted, and we could not take the risk that those who made threats would cause physical harm.”
Over the weekend independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at a fundraiser for a far-right anti-government group in Erie County, New York – a slice of the country that had a large proportion of residents arrested and charged for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection. Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine denialist, increasingly is embracing the far-right.
“That group, Constitutional Coalition of New York State, has founders who not only have ties to Donald Trump but are also connected to the stop-the-steal movement through their activist network, which includes groups that had a presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” The Daily Beast reported Friday. “It’s yet another instance of Kennedy—who is mounting one of the most well-funded third-party presidential threats in decades—serving as a peculiar bridge between his own anti-establishment movement and Trump’s.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center includes the Constitutional Coalition of New York State (CCNYS) on its page of anti-government groups. Political Research Associates, which detailed the high proportion of January 6 residents arrested and charged, included the Constitutional Coalition of New York State in its February report on “The Rise of the Far Right in Western New York.”
READ MORE: Election Denialism Embraced by ‘Large Proportion’ of Trump’s Followers: Report
“If you don’t think the government is lying to you, you’re not paying attention,” Kennedy told attendees at the CCNYS fundraiser, The Buffalo News reports.
“CCNYS founders Nick and Nancie Orticelli are also affiliated with the Watchmen, a nearby militia who Nick has encouraged his social media followers to join. The Watchmen had several members at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and one member, Pete Harding, is still facing charges for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds,” The Daily Beast noted. “Nancie Orticelli has also hosted the Watchmen’s founder, Charles Pellien, on her weekly radio show on several occasions.”
One of Kennedy’s goals in traveling to New York was to get on the ballot for the November presidential election. Various polls show him taking votes from both President Joe Biden and ex-president Donald Trump, but Kennedy currently has only qualified to be on the ballot in three states, Utah, Michigan and Hawaii, the newspaper reported.
But The Washington Post on Thursday reported The American Independent Party of California, which has a history of “far-right ties,” and “backed segregationist and former Alabama governor George Wallace in 1968, nominated Kennedy for president.”
Kennedy “said this week that he has qualified to be on the ballot in California and will accept the nomination of the American Independent Party, which has a history of associating itself with far-right figures and individuals who have expressed racist views.”
Some news reports and RFK Jr. himself say the Trump campaign was actively courting Kennedy, attempting to convince him to consider being the ex-president’s 2024 vice presidential running mate.
“That MAGA dalliance with Kennedy could be coming back to bite the Trump campaign, some Republicans close to the former president worry,” The Daily Beast also reported.
“’They can only blame themselves,’ a Trump-aligned strategist told The Daily Beast, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about private conversations about the risk Kennedy poses, ‘because they cozied up to him and thought it was funny.’”
Watch WIVBTV’s report on Kennedy’s trip to New York below or at this link.
READ MORE: Trump Won’t Commit to Accepting Election Results if He Doesn’t Win State He Falsely Claims He Won
Congressman Pummeled for Praising Students Mocking Black Protester With Monkey Sounds
Noem Heads to Mar-a-Lago After Branding Kids She Ministered in Church ‘Little Tyrants’
RFK Jr., Embracing Far-Right, Spoke at Fundraiser for Anti-Government Group With J6 Ties
Election Denialism Embraced by ‘Large Proportion’ of Trump’s Followers: Report
Trump Won’t Commit to Accepting Election Results if He Doesn’t Win State He Falsely Claims He Won
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