Minutes. First, after five days of televised impeachment hearings, the facts are clear if you are willing to see them. As the a. P. s julie pace puts it, the mountain of evidence is beyond dispute. But disputes are the specialty of trump media. Two americas are split into two different news worlds. I mean, think about it. Right now in order to be a loyal republican these days, loyal to the president , here are the things that youre supposed to believe. Youre supposed to believe in the ukraine Conspiracy Theory and believe the whistleblower made up a false story. That ukraine is dwlt of meddling in the 2016 election. That yovanovitch wouldnt hang trumps photo up in the embassy. Lets put that scroll up and talk more about all the things youre supposed to believe in order to be a loyal republican. Youre supposed to believe that adam schiff is someone who knows the identity of the whistleblower. Youre supposed to believe that crowd strooik is at the center of what really happened in 2016. What we know from fiona hill and other witnesses who testified under oath is some of the conspiracy theories are promoted by russian disinformation agents. Were also seeing republicans promote these, stand by these, and insist you must believe them too. Its a strange environment that were living in right now. Let me walk over to the panel and talk about what this week represented. And whether anything really changed. Margaret sullivan is here, oliver darcy, and juliet hutty. Thank you all for coming in. Juliet, i know you have a lot of experience with these competing universes of information as someone who spent so many years at fox news. It was discouraging for me this week to see that no matter how damning the evidence was, sean hannity just completed the different set of facts. What did you see happening . I think what happens on fox on a daily basis its a microcome of what happens in the world on a daily basis. Fox is banking on the fact that americans are going to americans who watch them krrk their viewers are going to stick with them. We know that i think its like 20 of america, closely followed the impeachment hearings. I was talking to some relatives of mine over at my house. Theyre Trump Supporters. I said okay, so what did you think of the impeachment . We didnt watch. How do you get your news . We look at the headlines. The headlines when i go to their house, its on fox news. When i look at their computer screen, its breitbart or the hill. So the headlines or information theyre getting is an agenda driven narrative. Thats the right. Theyre not getting any of this information. And fox is banking on the fact as is hannity to Tucker Carlson and the rest of the crew, the fox and friends folk, theyre banking on the fact theyve done a good job of convincing us, the rest of the world and their viewers that the media is lying. That critics of are liars and the enemy of the state, and theyre banking on the fact that everybody is going to stick with them and not go outside the lines. I saw this when i watched the nightly newscasts and watched Sean Hannitys version of the republican nightly news. Lets look at lester holt on one side and hannity on the other. The most explosive testimony yet. Everything the president said to sondland is exculpatory. There was a quid pro quo. No quid pro quo. Former white house russia expert. Todays witness, a socalled ukraine expert. Blasting republicans for spreading a Conspiracy Theory for ukraine interfering in the 2016 election. Ukraine, did, in fact, interfere in the 2016 elections to help Hillary Clinton and hurt donald trump. Its cynical on hannitys part, but it does work. Right. I think this week really showed theres no depth. The right wing media wont sink to to defend this president. And we talk a lot about hannity as well and how he misinforms viewers. I think we should also talk about how fox on the news side largely does not inform viewers. I think this week we saw, for instance, the website which is supposedly part of their straight News Division run by hannitys former producer. It looked more like breitbart than you expect fox news to look like. Look at the panelists they brought onto talk about the impeachment hears, they were bringing on people like ken star, mccarthy, people sympathetic to the president s case. And finally, were using our chyrons throughout the week to inform viewers about the testimony coming from the witnesses. Chyron is the banner on the bottom of the screen. A lot of the time on fox news, they werent putting the breaking news about the hearing on the banner. Right. This is from foxs News Division. They say were fareless and straight down the middle and have an opinion, but the News Division is tell it how it is. This week highlighted how their socalled News Division is not doing that. The journalists feel squeezed by the situation. Bret baier, good journalist. Largely this News Division and the way you see it operate on the websites and the way you see them do things with the chyrons, it shows they are really hesitant to be critical of the president and to just put in what the witnesses are saying. Like what is happening . Yeah. What is happening in the real world. The lying by omission. They leave things out. The president called into fox and friends friday morning in order to talk for 53 minutes about his view how things are doing. The Washington Post described it. Trump continued to peddle falsehoods and. Attacked his enemies and all while playing the role of persecuted victim. Margaret, youre at the Washington Post. We need writing and reporting to explain how bonkers this is. We cant say take it down the middle and say heres what the people on the right are saying. Heres what the people on the left are saying. That amounts to a false equivalency. Unfortunately, whats being viewed as left wing media is what i like to call the realitybased press, and you know, i dont think that most of the time and particularly on the evening shows, but as oliver says not just on the evening shows, youre not getting reality. Youre getting a skewed version of things by design. And theres so much confusion as a result. You wrote a column this week for the post addressing this sense a lot of people have. I dont know what to believe. You hear this all the time these days. Its a pretty relevant excuse. I dont know what to believe. You say thats a copout . I think it is a copout. I think as american citizens we like to say news consumers, but american citizens ought to make ourselves informed. And so to say i dont know. Im hearing things on different sides. You know, read a newspaper. Watch the evening news. Okay. You want to watch fox, but compare and contrast. Yeah. And get a sense and go beyond the headlines. And i think that when people say i dont know what to believe, im confused, i actually think we should push back on that and say well, you know, this is actually really important whats going on. And its really you ought to find out. And seek out primary source material, et cetera. I also would like to point out what were not seeing. That leads me to gop lawmakers. The leaders of the Republican Party and how theyre not showing up on this screen. Theyre not showing up anywhere but fox. Mitch mcconnell, for example, zero interviews in the past three months. We searched autotranscripts. He hasnt done a single interview. Its not much bet fter if you lk at Steve Scalise and others. Scalise pretty much all on fox news, showing up almost nowhere else in the past three months. This is something thats true for almost all the leaders of the Republican Party. I know youre not surprised by this, oliver, but i think we should recognize theyve mostly stayed in a bubble. Well, they have trouble defending the indefensible. Theyre going to an outlet thats not going to press them on things that are uncomfortable, that are unfavorable to their narrative they put out. And the Republican Party and the right wing press, theyve totally created and constructed this alternate universe. And people are telling the truth and everyone else is telling lies. Its easy for them to peddle the misinformation. Theyre not pressed on these things. If they were to come out in the real world, you see their arguments fall apart. You saw it when jim jordan went on state of the union with jake tapper. His argument just fell apart. Collapsed under the weight of reality in the other universe, theyre not bound by the same laws of physics. Theyre allowed to just put stuff out there that makes no real sense and the hosts dont press. It makes me wonder what it would be like to have ten minutes to interview mcconnell. Just a couple questions and see how it reacts. Panel, thank you so much. Coming up here two of cnns best, jake tapper and sanjay gupta join me with two different angles about the president and his credibility, and most importantly, why it matters. Thats next. bold music now, its like he has his own health entourage. He gets medicares largest healthcare network, a free gym membership, vision, dental and more. Theres so much to take advantage of. Cant wait till im 65. A few more chairs, please. Unitedhealthcare Medicare Advantage plans, including the only plans with the aarp name. Free dental care and eye exams, and free designer eyewear. Go ahead, take advantage. And youll experience a whole new range of emotions like. Of a travel site the relaxing feeling of knowing youre getting the best price. And the magic power of unlocking your room with your phone. I can read minds too. Really . Book at hilton. Com and get the hilton price match guarantee. And your mother told me all her life that i should fix it. 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Hyde passed away in 2007. His words stand out to me today from 1999 when he read aloud a letter from a third grader in chicago. He was making a point about how the president is a role model for the country. As that third grader from chicago wrote to me, if you cant believe the president , who can you believe . If you cant believe the president , who can you believe . Theres such power in that question. Of course, it applied then to bill clinton and now applies to President Trump who kind of makes past president ial liars look like amateurs. Trumps lying is to pervasive its the subject of an hour long special by jake tapper called all the president s lies. He speaks with Amanda Carpenter and other experts. Talking about how the president is gaslighting the country. The special premiers tonight, sunday at 9 00 p. M. , and tapper is joining me now for a preview. Jake j is it fair to say were at the point where the president and allied outlets are waging a disinformation war on the public . Is it that bad . Well, theres a lot of disinformation coming from President Trump and his allies in the media and on capitol hill. Theres a lot of things that are said that are just factually not true. And the truth is i was thinking about this documentary before ukraine happened, and before this scandal broke. But it has become disinformation, lying has become a key part of his defense. I mean, he says the president says, that the whistleblower complaint has been disproven. Thats not true. The main components of it have been backed p by further testimony. He says that adam schiff made up his own version of the call, and then was proven wrong when the president released the call. And thats not what happened at all. The president released the rough transcript. Adam schiff, and you can question the wiseness of this, but he did his own version of it in front of the House Intelligence Committee that time, but it wasnt he wasnt trying to mislead. He was trying to do like a mob version of it. But in any case, the point is like, the president s timeline is completely off. And so much of this is designed, i think just to confuse the American People, and muddy the waters and cloud what the facts are. And thats where the gaslighting comes. Do you think journalists are going to look back in years and regret not doing more to speak out about the lying and deceit. This prime thyime special is a y to address how ridiculous its gotten. I think some reporters will. I dont think some of them or any of us who attempt to just staten equivocally what the facts are and what they are not, not only with President Trump but with any major politician, although especially President Trump who lies so frequently. I dont think we necessarily have anything to look back on with regret. But i certainly think there are other journalists who are not doing it. Ill tell you, when i prepare for interviews, i read previous interviews that the democrat or republican im about to interview has done. And im quite often and im not going to give you any names or networks, but im quite often stunned at the degree to which just blatant lies are not only said by politicians, but sometimes by members of the media. It gets so confusing for americans and for Trump Supporters and trump opponents. I think people just throw up their hands and walk away. But its not just the lie itself that President Trump is pushing. Its the corruption of the truth. The fact that all these people around him have to start talking. Acting as if President Trump is talking about this thing that is actually a legitimate beef that he might have when thats not at all what hes talking about. Right. And then we get more confused and thats why we need specials like yours. Jake, thank you so much. Thank you, brian. Tappers special is tonight, 9 00 p. M. Eastern time here on cnn. The clear result of all the president s lies is a lack of credibility not just for the president but his aides. Theres been speculation about the unusual trip to walter reed last weekend. Trump says he went for a routine physical because he had extra time. But does it add up . Neurosurgeon, dr. Sanjay gupta has spoken to several doctors who previously worked at the white house or are currently in touch with the white house to try to find out whats going on. His new story was just published on cnn. Com. Whats the new reporting . First, as a starting point, any time a 73yearold man with clinical obesity and a history of Heart Disease goes to the dr. Unannoun unannounced, medical people will ask why. And the president going to the hospital is a big deal no matter what. Theres lots of things that need to happen at. The hospital corridors are closed. Certain roads are closed. Thats why an institutionwide notice goes out. That didnt happen here. That was a bit unusual. Also, what we subsequently heard that the president had done at walter reed after going through the process of getting to the hospital were basic lab tests, primarily, that could have been done at the white house. So those are important points. You know, we see video of when the president is leaving the white house. We see dr. Shawn conley getting into the vehicle with him. Thats important. Doctors that i talked to said in their entire time as white house physicians, they never road with the president. Thats a security concern, and yet, you see the doctor riding with the president on the way to walter reed. This past saturday. Eight days ago now. We dont know what to make of that. And its hard to say that it means anything. We know that shawn conley released after we asked questions in terms of his own explanation of things. And what he spent time doing in the memo he released was basically saying here are the things the president didnt have done as opposed to what he did have done. So these are all sort of just question marks. I will say one thing, brian. President trump seems to have gotten in and out of the hospital within a couple of hours. Yeah. Thats a good thing. If it were something more serious or something requiring intensive care, it seems like it would have been longer. Right. And certainly hes been on camera since then. No outward issues, but because of this administrations lack of credibility, we are left with these questions. And you say in your cnn. Com story your greatest concern is not whether hes being honest with the public, but whether his doctors are being with him. Look, this is a huge concern, brian. I think the idea of having what are supposed to be independent medical professionals in a way acting beholden to the president as we have seen in the past, im not making that up. I mean, everyone remembers the letter where it was said hell be the healthiest president ever. His health is astonishingly excellent. I mean, really flowery language. Then we come to find out allegedly that letter was entirely dictated by President Trump himself to dr. Harold bornstein. That is being beholden to someone. When i asked dr. Ronny jackson, you remember, brian, last year in 2018 at the press conference a couple questions, i want you to listen to this for a second. This is the more nuanced stuff you have to get through. Listen to this. Lets listen. Reporter he does have Heart Disease. Is that what you said . No. He had a ct scan before that showed calcium. He did. He had a so, i think technically he has nonclinical coronary atheroscerosis. Thats the challenge. He did not disclose the president even h