I think question you also have to ask, was this a coup or a firing or both . He was responding to a recommendation, and now its completely undermined when the president said i was going to do it anyway. Is, you know, who to believe . Nobody. I think that Donald Trumps comments yesterday in a strange way blew the lid off of his own coverup. Howard those media accusations following shifting white house accounts after this president ial interview on nbc he made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. Howard and the president now suggesting he may just do away with White House Press briefings. First of all, you have a level of hostility thats incredible. And its very unfair. Howard would that hurt the administration as much as the press corps . Plus, jimmy kimmel takes a victory lap over his emotional plea for obamacare. Is he now a political partisan . Im howard kurtz, and this is mediabuzz. Howard President Trump is ratcheting up his rhetoric against the press corps over its saturation coverage and highly controversial coverage of the firing of james comey, telling judge Jeanine Pirro that he may have a solution for his Communications Team not being able to keep up with him. We dont have press conferences, and we do you dont mean that. Well, just dont have them unless i have one every two weeks that i do myself. We dont have them. I think its a good idea. First of all, you have a level of hostility thats incredible. And its very unfair. Sarah huckabee is a lovely young woman. You know sean spicer. He is a wonderful human being. Hes a nice man. Howard joining us now from new york to talk about way this storys being covered is Kellyanne Conway, the president s counselor. Thanks for coming in. Hi, howie. Howard would you recommend as his counselor that the White House Press briefings be abolished . Im very happy that the president gave three big interviews this week. It goes with what jeff mason said at the dinner a couple of weeks ago which is that the press has access to this white house. The president gave interviews to nbc, fox news and Time Magazine this week. So theres not a mystery about a what he thinks on everything. I would go to the other point of what the president said to judge Jeanine Pirro. He said the level of hostility to the people who work for him is really something. And do you see what some in the media are doing while sean spicer or Sarah Huckabee sanders are giving their press briefings, theyre Live Streaming them. How many people are talking about Health Care Reform today . Did it go away as an important issue . No. Its always the, its the issue du jour, its the explosive, what they decide is the explosive, my developically obsessive story of the week, and they go on that, and its presumptively negative. Use that presents the president himself as the best communicator and the best connector that ive ever seen. And hes given tremendous access including this week. Howard well, the unusual firing of the fbi director is the story du jour. Let me ask you this, because i think a lot of the contentiousness in the White House Briefing room this week followed what the press portrayed as conflicting white house accounts about the firing of james comb hawaii and whether or not it was done solely at the recommendation of rod rosenstein. Let me play a little bit with nbcs lester holt. Youre saying i accepted their recommendation. You had already made the decision. Oh, i was going to fire regardless. He made a recommendation. Hes highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. The democrats like him, the republicans like him. He made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. Howard this led to a million headlines, white house changing its story, president was going to fire comey anyway. The president said hes been thinking about if this for a while and that he watched mr. Comey testify the week before. Hes been thinking about this for a while. And then independent of that, his Deputy Attorney general who oversees the fbi, thats his job, came to this conclusion on his own 14 days or so on the job and made the recommendation. Now, i would also point out a whats really important here is everybody is saying comey was investigating. No, comey wasnt investigating. The fbi was investigating, and the fbi will continue to investigate. The acting director of the fbi, many mccabe, said very clearly under oath, first, that the investigation is not impeded and, secondly, he has adequate resources. That is the direct opposite of what many people in the media print and electronically were saying about this. This is a man, the acting director of the fbi, has expressed confidence to continue the investigation, and the president himself has said he wants the investigation to go forward and to conclude. The leader, leader mcconnell has said the house and senate are also looking at this. So the idea that any of this is, you know, breaking news, the fact that the president has been watching what others have been watching. And, you know, its the democrats who for months were criticizing director comey. And it is, director comb hawaii himself had said that he went out and he told, quote, that was a hard call for me to make, to call the attorney general, loretta lynch, and tell her im going to do a press conference, but i cant tell you what im going the say. That wasnt a hard call, it was the wrong call. Howard right. And mr. Rosenstein has mentioned that its a usurpation of the powers of the attorney general, and that they dont do press conferences. Howard whenever this question comes up about the russia investigation and alleged ties between Trump Associates in moscow, i always say lets slow down because not much is proven, but when the president again talking to lester holt says when i decided to fire comey, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing is a madeup story. Its not a completely madeup story in the sense that there are real, serious investigations here as to to whether theres anything there. Howie, this has been going on for months. You basically could have a baby in the time theyve been investigating this. Former dni mr. Clapper said based on the information he had when he left his position, he saw no evidence of this he reaffirmed based on what he knew at the time, he saw nothing to suggest otherwise. You know, and, look, i think the best statement that was made this week, ironically, about the president s prerogative in firing the fbi director was by the outgoing fing bi director. Fbi director. Jim comey himself said he has long thought that the president of the United States has the right, has the ability the to fire the fbi director, and thats exactly what the president did. Howre howard we played some clips ott the top, the New York Daily News cover calling it a coup, mcclatchy used the word dictator, bob beckel called the president a liar and a boo toon. What do you make of some of this language and covering this admittedlyimportant story . Its irresponsible, and its conjecture, and its opinion. Its people passing themselves off as News Reporters when theyre expressing their opinions, and theyre using a lexicon thats never been used about a president of the United States, one who just this week was very accessible to the press in three major interviews. And ill let what the president said speak for itself on every single issue. But the media has to decide, too, what is its relationship with the white house, how does it want to cover the white house. Where are the editors . Some days i think a lot of these editors got fired. Twitter is not an assignment editor, its not a source. You know, i was out in the country, i was in five different states at the beginning of this week, and nobody there is talking about anything but jobs and health care. People at the end of the week were talking about cybersecurity attacks. Theyll probably continue to talk about it as they get back to their desks in the morning for work. The country is talking about things that matter to them that the president is working dutifully on every single day. Theres such a disconnect now between what people hear as noise and and what is actually news. And what theyre paying attention to every single day, what they will judge this president on ultimately is if growth improves. All these confidence measures youve seen from the manufacturers, the home builders, the Small Business own ors, the consumers themselves, the job production. If that actually continues, health care will get done. And there will be tack relief howard and we will cover that. And hes doing great advances across the world. He has a huge foreign trip coming up with five different stops and three bilateral meetings just this congresswoman coming week. Whos talking about that this morning . Howard its been overshadowed, no question about it. Thats a choice. Im sorry, thats a choice the media make. Howard i hear you. Somebody said, oh, wed love to cover x, but this overshadowed it. You have a choice to make. You can be part of the sameness, or you can go and cover things that actually matter to americans, and thats the responsibility of everyone, to cover the gamut of issues, all the things that the president is working on at any given time. Howre howard some of the people are opinion people. Heres the Washington Post this morning, and you and i have talked before about anonymous sources. One gop figure close to the white house mused privately whether trump was, quote, in the grip of some kind of paranoid delusion. No names attached, just that shot. Your thoughts. Well, thats terrible. And, frankly, i would just, again, show you said its somebody, close, quote to the white house. I dont know if they work at the coffee shop across the street, a tourist in lafayette park, because i do see that in a lot of these articles. A very major newspaper earlier this week reported based on a Single Source that the Deputy Attorney general had threatened to resign. That just was not true. The department of justice denied that immediately. I havent seen a retraction. I heard or everybody talking about it, and it actually said someone, close to the white house. There are people constantly on tv who have never worked in a white house, let alone this white house, telling the president what he should be doing. Hes the president of the United States, and he will execute on the agenda and continues to. He gets much more done that people dont cover, but the American People are watching very closely. I didnt run into one person in these five states that were talking about what the media covered. Howard right. And on this point about what the media focus on, theres another wave of speculative stories about sean spicer and others, and the web site axios today says there may be a huge reboot, the president could fire priebus, bannon be, spicer and others. Do you think the media have a little bit of an obsession over whos going to get canned . Howie, the fact is as they work on the 20th palace intrigue personnel story of this young administration, they totally missed the firing of jim comey coming. And, you know, the president has put together a team, and everybody works very hard there. And he knows it. But he is the ultimate decision maker. And the fact is, you know, these palace intrigue and personnel stories make my point and make the president s point about the type of coverage he gets. Makes my point completely. What are you actually covering . Are you covering whos up and whos down in the west wing, which you would know nothing about, or are you covering what impacts americans . Why they wanted this man to be president as opposed to his political opponent . They believe and already see the fruits of his labor, the job creation, health care is moving on. Somebody just asked me are you, in fact, going to get rid of the Obamacare Penalties . 6. 5 million americans chose to pay it because they didnt want to buy obamacare. Wheres that coverage . Howard no question. I also want to can ask you about this moment with cnns anderson cooper. Ive got to slip a commercial break in, a couple more questions on the other side. Kellyanne, thanks. Excuse me a minute. Hi dad. No. Dont try to get up. Hi, im julie, a right at home caregiver. And if id been caring for toms dad, i would have noticed some dizziness that could lead to balance issues. Thats because im trained to report any changes in behavior, no matter how small, so tom could have peace of mind. Well be right there. We have to go. Hey, tom. You should try right at home. Theyre great for us. The right care. Right at home. What are you doing . Getting your quarter back. Fountains dont earn interest, david. You know i work at ally. I was being romantic. You know what i find romantic . A robust annual percentage yield thats what i find romantic. This is literally throwing your money away. I think its over there. That way . Yeah, a little further up. What year was that quarter . What year is that one . 98 thats the one. You got it nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. Ally. Do it right. Lets get out of that water. For igniting togetherness every time you push the button. 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They think thats the job of the news media which its not, of course. You should play the beginning of the clip where he had me sit through President Trump, thencandidate trump on the stump in many different places praising jim comey, and it ended with grand rapids, michigan. I turned it around and said, thanks for the trip down memory lane, we loved winning michigan. He rolled his eyes. Definitely what i call trumpist, which is many people are treated like house guests and when we go on tv, were not. And the fact is that it was, you know, we were watching cnn ahead of time, youve got six to one panels against the president. One of us tries to go ott there on his behalf and state the case from the position of the president. The suspicion and derision just generally toward this white house by members of the media im not mentioning any network, paper or individual specifically and the quest to go viral, that makes no sense. You must be lying. They say it to folks all the time. It really doesnt help democracy, and it doesnt help the body politic, because people are looking for the news. Theyre not looking for conjecture. They dont care if something goes viral and late night hosts get a couple laughs out of it. The idea that people are so presumptively thing towards so much thats going on, its frankly often why you see people on this network only for long periods of time. Because, you know, were faced with people with the famed, pained look, the fair rowed brow, the curled lip anytime someone tries to say something, including the president. I would point out to you the president s own quotes in Time Magazine. I thought it was incredibly revealing, and weve heard this privately and publicly previously. The president said hes given himself such a great gift, that its been so liberating for him to tune out so much of the negative coverage. And its not because he cant hear it, because he knows its not true. Howre howard you mentioned the Time Magazine interview, but you also had a contend ciaos interview with cnn morning anchor this week, chris cuomo, and the president was quoted that he was full of hatred. Now, its fair to criticize him, but hes not a lunatic. What does the president get out of that type of personal attack . I can talk about my interview. He used words, and i said you probably want that to go viral. You were describing a state of mind or a situation, not me, when you used the negative words. And i pushed back very forcefully on, again, which was something that doesnt always feel like someone is trying to get to the news report and the facts. It feels like theres this conclusion in search of evidence. And for the president to say, and i know this hurt some people, for the president to very clearly say he doesnt want the negative anymore, hes tuned it out x he never, quote, knew that was a skill to not watch all the negative its not because he wants to be surrounded by positive, hes the president of the United States. He knows how much negativing there is in the world. He gets a daily intelligence briefing. But at the same time, no good comes out of having to hear all the blather and having to hear all the nonsense and the negativity and the falsities. Again, people who have never worked in the white house, let alone this one, telling us constantly whats going on. Knows better, hes the president and hes rising above it. Howard you made a point about what the media choose to cover. What is the press supposed to do when the president tweets and says there might be tapes of his conversation with james comey but then declines to say more about it . How do you not cover that as a story . The president said hes not going to comment further on it. But the obsession with every tweet and every comment, and again, doing that my developically and not covering the jobs numbers, not covering the amazing trade