There is blaming and a look for who is the villain. Bernie sanders to ghastly attempted murder. This guy was essentially radicalized by the leftwing media. If people are using rhetoric like this president is a traitor and the republicans are treasonous and destroying our country, that might give the unhinged among you an excuse or target as it were. Howie the shooter was a Bernie Sanders volunteer who loved Rachel Maddow. The Washington Post reports bob mueller is examining obstruction of justice allegations against the president. Trump launches a media offensive against the special counsel. Its particularly a nightmare for the president of the United States. If President Trump fires Robert Mueller he might as well hire a sky writer to fly over the white news, i am guilty. Howie is the speculation getting way ahead of the facts . They call you the most paranoid man in america. Is that true . Absolutely not. A paranoid person would be hiding out in their house. I go out there and battle black lives matter and the communists. Howie should she give a platform to a man hop calls the sandy hook shooting a hoax. Many. Im howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. There have been some calls for unity after the shooting across the river. Steve scalise is upgraded to serious condition. Joining us to analyze the coverage. Guy benson, editor of townhall. Com. And Michael Tomasky of the daily beast and erin mcpike. Is there too much finger pointing in the media . Guy yes. Especially after a horrible event like this. I think people want to associate speech they dont like with acts of violence. They did that after Gabby Giffords and i think its wrong. Erin there was a lot of nasty and hateful rhetoric about president obama the entirety of his 8 years in office. Michael i remember Newt Gingrich trying to blame the woman who drowned her two kids on the democratic party. But the politicians by and large have been pretty responsible this last week. Howie when you look at what they say routiney when they get invited on talk shows, let, go back to the dead killer. The hodgkinson guy who despises republicans. It doesnt mean Bernie Sanders and Rachel Maddow are responsible. But some republicans say this is typical of liberal hate. Guy we remember tucson very well. I covered that closely and recall the media coverage. Immediately the left narrative was palin is responsible, rightwing hate is responsible. Her shooter was a schizophrenic who was not political and not trite wing. The New York Times repeated that this week and had to correct themselves. Howie i wrote that day it was ridiculous to blame sarah palin. But the point purchase making is beth sides are perfectly willing to engage in extreme rhetoric. At the time of the gifford shooting there was a bullseye thing that made people jump to conclusion. But there was less of this i thought this time. I think there was less of it than there has been. I think the left and the media is much more willing to run with the narrative that right wingers are at fault. The media moved on, lets have a nice time at the congressional baseball game. If this was a rightwinger shooting a democratic congressman we would with having a different conversation. Howie people spewing opinions online and television. Is this what sells . Is this what gets ratings . Erin im not sure i want to go down that road. I think because the shooter targeted part of the members of congress there is an element to that. But in so many Mass Shootings there are political angles. But you have shooters trying to make a political statement. What bothered me in the days followed is that a number of reporters asked about increased security for members of congress. I think if i were a parent of a child in newtown or a patron of the nightclub in orlando. I would have been concerned that they focused on security for members of congress. On the right there is anger the press always goes to gun control. But we need to ask questions about the intersection between access to guns and mental health. Howie right after the shooting paul ryan in the house joined by nancy pelosi gave unifying statements. Ryan talking about an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. But the next day nancy pelosi talked about a case where she faced a stalker who made death threats. One of the people went to jail for threats to me eventually when they finally found him because he was resourceful in hiding. When he was being tried his mother said he just watches too much fox tv. Howie his mother said he watched fox so somehow he watches fox. Guy she also went on to say in this whole context she thinks this all got bad and really got worse starting in the 90s when republicans decided to go down the route of personal destruction. It will be interesting to hear what Robert Bourke or clarence tom fast would say about that. Howie steve king very conservative called a radio station. He contributed some of the blame to barack obama. Michael thats to use a trump word, sad. You know, there is way too much of this. And both sides do it at times. And it just didnt happen. Howie a writer at the huffington post, says in the wake of the shooting whats more harmful, putting millions already on the margins more at risk by draconian policies or shooting a racist lawmaker in the hip . Erin i think we are getting caught up in some of the same patterns. The congressman mike faust, his office received 14 messages in the last 6 months from the shooter saying they were angry messages. But he said they never had any threats. I would like to see those messages. If they saw these things why didnt they do a better job trying to prevent it before. He said there were no threats. But if you are getting angry messages. Guy Congress Gets angry messages every day. Erin shouldnt we do a better job of look into these angry messages . Guy if it goes into threat territory, yes. Erin we are giving him cover. Howie the reason im doing this, i think its important to call out people who politicized the tragedy. This is joy reid. She puts up a tweet who says rep scalise was shot by a white man and saved by a black Lesbian Police officer. Hes still in the hospital, but isnt this wildly inappropriate . Guy its a bad look for miss reid. The police officer, not thinking about her Sexual Identity or her race did her job with her heroism and saved a member of congress. To go down the route there that she was there is really unfortunate. Howie is there any hope that this is such a wakeup call that there will be a lowering of the temperatures . And by next week everybody will be back im afraid you know the answer to that question. It was nice to see these bipartisan expressions for a couple of days. But lets not count on anything. Howie let us know what you think . Later megyn kelly facing a swarm of protests over her interview with a controversial radio host, alex jones. I use whats already inside me to reach my goals. So i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating whats within me with onceweekly trulicity. Trulicity is not insulin. It helps activate my body to do what its supposed to do release its own insulin. Trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. I take it once a week, and it works 24 7. It comes in an easytouse pen and i may even lose a little weight. Trulicity is a onceweekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. Trulicity is not insulin. It should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take trulicity if you or a Family Member has had medullary thyroid cancer, if youve had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to trulicity. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms such as itching, rash, or trouble breathing; a lump or swelling in your neck; or severe pain in your stomach area. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis, which can be fatal. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your risk for low blood sugar. Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite and indigestion. Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may make existing kidney problems worse. With trulicity, i click to activate whats within me. If you want help improving your a1c and blood sugar numbers with a noninsulin option, click to activate your within. Ask your doctor about onceweekly trulicity. With a noninsulin option, click to activate your within. Everything your family touches sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Hey youve gotta see this. Cno. N. Alright, see you down there. Mmm, fine. Okay, what do we got . Okay, watch this. Do the thing we talked about. What do we say . Its going to be great. Watch. Remember what we were just saying . Go irish see that . Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Howie a Washington Post story said special counsel mueller will interview dan coats about their conversations with the president on the russia probe. The president said they found zero proof now they go for obstruction of justice on the phoney tory, nice. He said the investigation is being led by bad and conflicted people. People are saying the president is under criminal investigation which has not been true before. Guy since we are talking about the media, i would want to point out, the swiftness with which the media pivoted back to the top story being russia, when you had a member of Republican Leadership fighting for his life after an act of political terrorism. It was two days, then back to russia as the top story. Howie it wasnt two days. The very night of the story msnbc put it on some shows near the top. Guy im not saying they shouldnt have covered it. But it wasnt the top story. Howie wasnt it inevitable trump would talk to top officials. Erin donald trump himself made it an even bigger story by going on to twitter. Im not one who thinks he shouldnt go on twitter. Hes speaking to the people and giving us a lot of material every day. But he made this a bigger story. Howie lets talk about what seems to be a somewhat orchestrated counterattack by mueller and his allies. Will the president promise not to order the Deputy Attorney general to fire Robert Mueller . The president of the youth as we all know is a unitary executive. I think hes considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. I think hes weighing that option. Howie this started a lot to talk about, is the president going to fire bob mueller. Michael the basis of it originally was it seemed trump was not under investigation. That was the just of ann that was the gist of ann coulters tweet. Howie is it fair for people to say mueller might be a great f. B. I. Director but hes a long time associate and friend of comey and he cant conduct this investigation. Michael thats a fair thing to say. People with Public Opinion will decide. They can say whatever they want to say, sure. Guy im not a big defender all the time of the president , but one thing the media can do a better job of in this conversation, there are Many Americans who believe this obstruction charge has to do with the russia probe itself. That the president was trying to shut down or impede the russia investigation. Thats not the case. This is related to a tertiary investigation into michael flynn. Howie when this happens, you are saying the president s tweets fuel it. Erin absolutely. I think it was probably in poor judgment in this situation for the president to get on twitter as quickly as he did. He might have considered waiting a day or two. Howie when hes talking about badly conflicted people, hes talking about mueller and rosenstein. Erin when he was referring to rosenstein in that tweet, which was clear, hes the one who asked for the memo from rosenstein to fire james comey. Howie erin mcpike, rich lowry and guy benson and Michael Tomasky. Thank you. What was it like to cover the awful shooting in virginia. What if we pull Customer Insights from the data in real time . Wait, our data center and our clouds cant connect . Michael, can we get this data to. . Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. You used to be the yes guy. What happened to that guy . Legacy technology can handcuff any company. But yes is here. So, youre saying we can cut delivery time . Yeah. With help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. With the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. Depression is a tangle of multiple symptoms. Thats why theres trintellix, a Prescription Medication for depression. Trintellix may help you take a step forward in improving your depression. Tell your healthcare professional right away if your depression worsens, or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior or thoughts of suicide. Antidepressants can increase these in children, teens and young adults. Do not take with maois. Tell your healthcare professional about your medications, including migraine, psychiatric and depression medications, to avoid a potentially lifethreatening condition. Increased risk of bleeding or bruising may occur, especially if taken with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin or blood thinners. Manic episodes or vision problems may occur in some people. May cause low sodium levels. The most common side effects were nausea, constipation and vomiting. Trintellix had no Significant Impact on weight in clinical trials. Ask your healthcare professional about trintellix. Howie susan ferrechio, chief correspondent for the washington examiner. Was it hard for you personally to cover this . You know Steve Scalise and the lawmakers. Susan we see the congressmen and the agents who walk along with them. We know them by their first names. We stand in the hallways with them. These are well we work with every single day. Howie were you upset . Was it hard to separate your emotions . Susan it was shocking. When you compare it to the shooting of Gabby Giffords. Here you have the lawmakers returning to the capitol right from the baseball field. And there we all were with our cameras and microphones. We are were all stunned listening to them recount what happened. Howie everybody was in a state of shock understandably. Playing baseball on a nice morning in virginia, how did you get your information in those first hours when everything was a blur. It wasnt clear how many people had been shot . We got it straight from the lawmakers which made it so fascinating to cover. They talked about what happened. First we thought one member was shot, then we learned he only injured his foot, and the only nebraska injured was Steve Scalise. It took a while to ferret out who was injured from a bullet and who was hurt dodge a bullet. We got a firsthand account. You dont usually get that right away. Howie you are waiting for the police news conference. Susan we got the information from them which made it raw. They felt as though they just donged death. They talked about if the gunman had turned a corner into the dugout many more of them would have been shot because they were cornered. Howie except for the brave cap toll Police Officers who were there. A couple nights later they carried on with the Charity Baseball game, 25,000 people showed up in nationals park. How much have you detected a tone from these members that they want to lower the temperature and how long will it last . Susan particularly the people who were on the field with the bullets coming at them. They want to create a more civil tone in congress. The democrats are in the minority. They dont have legislative control. They are going to be the ones who are the most critical and most vocal. They are too far apart on what they want to accomplish. Howie have the political fights but maybe in a slightly more civil way. Thank you for that firsthand account. Coming up, rich lowry on the media fallout of the shootings and the widening investigation of President Trump. Bill cosby gets a mistrial. Was he convicted by the press . Mmmm. Ugh. Nothing spoils a moment like heartburn. Try new alkaseltzer ultra strength heartburn relief chews. Its fast, powerful relief with no chalky taste. [ sings high note ] ultra strength, new from alkaseltzer. Enjoy the relief. Could save money on car insurance. E in fact, safe drivers who switch from geico to esurance could save hundreds. So if you switch to esurance, saving is a pretty safe bet. Auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. And my brother ray and i started searching for answers. vo when its time to navigate inhome care, follow that bright star. Because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. And brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with moms changing needs. woman because dad made us promise wed keep mom at home. vo call 8444brightstar for your free home Care Planning guide. Howie lets take a deeper dive into the shooting at the baseball field. Rich, some voices in politics are saying because the shooter hated republicans and targeted republicans, that the violence is somehow linked to harsh or liberal rhetoric. Rich i dont buy that. I dont like it when the liberals do that to the right. There was nothing Bernie Sanders said that would lead any rational person to go and massacre republicans. We should treat people with respect and recognize every individual as decency, we are all americans. But the idea that any political receipt rick beyond going say and shoot these people i really reject. Howie the whole guilt by Association Efforts by extreme partisans o