‘SCUMBAG!’ Keith Olbermann Goes All The Way Off on Joe Scarborough For Attacking Fetterman’s Disability

Veteran broadcaster and podcast host Keith Olbermann went on a brutal tear at former MSNBC colleague Joe Scarborough for his “grotesque, unfeeling, inhuman, arrogant, condescending, holier than thou attacks on John Fetterman.”

On Tuesday night, Fetterman and Oz participated in a televised debate that became the subject of heated commentary on Fetterman’s performance, a dispute over the closed-captioning tech used in the debate to accommodate Fetterman, and speculation about his condition.

Scarborough was a leader in the latter regard, and on the most recent edition of his Countdown with Keith Olbermann podcast, he let it be known in scathing terms with a more than ten-minute diatribe that included a barrage of (at-times-personal) invective about Scarborough’s shortcomings and “whoring” for Donald Trump.

But then Olbermann turned to Scarborough’s treatment of Fetterman, and shared his own encounter with brain trauma:

Joe Scarborough’s attack on John Fetterman is somehow even worse than it seems. Because for every American, every human being recovering from any illness, any injury, any physical problem, any emotional problem, but especially a stroke or an aneurysm or Alzheimer’s or just a concussion. Joe Scarborough’s attack on John Fetterman was a slap to all their faces.

The brain is fragile, incredibly precise, incredibly resilient. And John Fetterman’s performance Tuesday night was miraculous and inspirational, especially if you have ever been touched, even in the mildest of ways, by head trauma.

I have told this story before. At the age of 21, I stupidly ran headfirst into the side of a New York City subway train. Fortunately, I escaped with nothing more than a serious concussion. Nearly all the symptoms cleared within six months, but some — pertaining to depth perception and vision — are now in their 42nd year. And I do ocular muscle exercises that help considerably. In fact, I did them this morning.

But less than an hour after I hit my head, at the emergency room in Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, I was asked at the desk to provide a family contact. I selected my father. I gave them his likely whereabouts with no problem. I gave them his phone number with no problem. I gave them his name, Theodore, with no problem. And then the nurse asked me for my full name. And I could not, for the life of me remember my middle name. Keith something Olbermann. My middle name is Theodore. The brain is so fragile and its functions so delicate and so precise that I could immediately, after a serious concussion, remember that my father’s name was Theodore, but it took me literally hours before it came back to me that my own middle name was Theodore.

And instead of looking at John Fetterman and saying, he’s still fighting it, but God damn it, his recovery is astonishing. Joe “Holier than thou” Scarborough. Joe “Quit Congress” Scarborough. Joe “Break up other people’s marriages” Scarborough, Joe “don’t ask Trump if he’s stoned or brain damage” Scarborough, Joe “my brain won’t let me be the same person three years in a row” Scarborough attacked Fetterman, attacked people who criticized him for attacking Fetterman, attacked the media who would not attack Fetterman, and then welcomed as a guest on his show, a man who used to literally pretend to have hearing and vision problems in order to get away with interrupting his guests, sabotaging his co-hosts, and making inappropriate remarks to women. Chris Matthews: Scumbag!

Joe Scarborough: Scumbag!

Watch above via Countdown with Keith Olbermann.