Transcripts For FOXNEWSW MediaBuzz 20200210 : vimarsana.com

Senator mitt romney taking a courageous stand vote to go convict President Trump. We dont see things like that that was a classic profile encouraged speech. Romney is going to be associateed with Benedict Arnold forever when hes not a footnote or or footnote on his betrayal. For the first time in my life i commit romney. If i have to move there to run against him in 4 and a half years, i will. Howie why one senator out of 100 became the media story . Others slam her and the democrats as corrupt people. Chaotic caucuses left media with no numbers, no results and not much to say. We thought we had prepared for every contingency, this is the one we didnt prepare for, we will try to piece it together. Howie plus Rush Limbaugh is battling lung cancer. Im how wards Kurtz Howard Kurtz and this is media buzz. Howie we are covering Development Story out of the bronx where two Police Officers is have been shot in less than 24 hours, first attack occurring last night when an offer and policeman was shot at after a man approached asking for directions, the second incident happening earlier this morning when the gunman shot officer in the arm, inside 44 precinct stations, both officers are recosting and we will bring you updates throughout the day. 5248, the president has brief and revealing moment at the Thee National prayer breakfast. Do i my best. I dont know if the president understand but we do pray, i pray hard for him because hes so off the track of our constitution, our values. Then came the victory lap at the white house. It was evil, corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars. Nancy pelosi is a horrible person. Howie mollie hemingway, melanie zanonna, mollie, guilty but acquitted, some people say acquittal didnt count because it wasnt a fair trial . It kind of ended up, ended upturning out poorly for them, not only was he acquitted despite what they said guilty but acquitted, thats not how that works, msnbc, it also was the time when President Trump saw his Approval Ratings go way up, highest that theyve been throughout his presidency, the Republican Partys ratings went up as democrats went down, it went poorly for them and they were trying to pretend it hadnt again as poorly as they did. The one thing that the media did agree this is trumps best week soaring approval rate negotiation gallup, the fact that he was acquit, got great reviews from his own party of state of the union, strong jobs report on friday, thats one area that everyone is in agreement. Low howie do you think everyone is in agreement . Thats not the dominant thing that im seeing on some of the other channels . Democrats on capitol hill this howie right, but do you think thats the media consensus publicly . Yeah, i absolutely do, in politico we have winners and losers and President Trump is at the top. Howie its hard to move on when the day after impeachment the democrats denounce im wondering could it be in the medias interest to keep investigating ukraine and talk about impeachment because it remains a juicy story and the ratings are good . They are saying deployment and manpower, question, news rooms are smaller than they were 20 years ago even though theres so much more to talk about and so much more to cover. Can you really devote two people of this staff bird dogging this continually now that the passing parade continues to move on and its an open question on many places where the need is greater especially in the middle of the campaign, especially primary season and especially in the middle of other stories. Howie we are all being stretched pretty thin, mitt romney vote to go convict and remove President Trump, the first senator in history to do that against his own party in impeachment trial. Lets see what he had to say on the floor and with chris wallace. My faith is at the heart of who i am, i take an oath before god as consequential. Chris you realized this is war, donald trump will never forgive you for this . But on the other side do you do what you know is right, do you know what your conscious around your heart tells you. Howie many journalists not just liberal people who are praising romney as senior statesman act of conscious and all that, some are saying gop nominee heartless businessman and just plain weird. In fact, the media treatment of mitt romney explained so much about current moment, Republican Voters saw that you could nominate someone literally like mitt romney and still have him portrayed in the media as if you were hitler. Howie ray, theres a flip side to this and we saw in the open, many Media Conservative who is did back romney in 2020, he should resigned, he should be kicked out of the Republican Party and tarred and fettered because trump had abused power. I guess you dont have to call a vote and you check how many republicans are in the senate and how Many Democrats ems as score f more, people had voted out of the party affiliation, he would have been less of a story, but being the sole decenter, concentrated a lot more attention on him than he would have gotten otherwise. Yeah, a lot more attention on mitt romney than there was on the House Democrats who defected on the house side which i thought was interesting but, you know, from my perspective on capitol hill, romneys defection was much more surprised than House Democrats especially in senate trial, we knew the outcome, those were up there every day, we didnt think vote would prevail but when romney did come out howie Everything Else was predictable. The good hint if the media appraises you its not courageous, they didnt do a good job why conservative voters didnt like what mitt romney did, they portrayed it as he was just betraying trump. The way he rolled out the media thing showed that he cared very much about being portrayed well by the media, long history of animus toward trump made it difficult to hear argument that he was doing this in good faith and most importantly he hurt republicans an helped democrats with his vote. Interesting moment there, in 2 years, last generation in washington, if you give faith as part of an explanation for why you did something, its usually hands off. People are very conscious about calling that into question. We are now in an era where you use that as explanation, you can still be doubted, smeared and called hypocrite by members of your own party. Fascinating people. Its important that people do talk about faith and that the media understand how they talk about faith, the issue there being a lot of people were motivate bid their faith and hearing that argument, you know, only hearing it from one person that their faith motivated them when many people did have argument. He did give interview to fox news and wasnt play to go liberal media. The day after the president praising allies and ripping into his detractors and we look at the cnn, trump vindictive and acquittal celebration, trump vindictive and vulgar and john, hired as cnn white house correspondent, right from cnbc had this to say. It was dark because hes made clear that his mind is dark, this is something in deep psychological distress right now, selfpitying, insecure, angry. Howie hardwood, describe as psychological distress. The president was accused of being a trader and the media pushed the narrative, they won awards for pushing the narrative, they were completely exposed as not being good reporters, they are embarrassed and in a position right now to accurately describe what is going on, people can hear the speech themselves, the media seem unable because theyre implicated in this false story that led to this acquittal. Howie opinion people can say its vulgar, do you think melanie that journalists should be more cautious, i asked a number of times in describing the president s state of mind, hes unhinged, all the negative attributes as prescribed by the arms chair psychologist to have media . Yeah, we have to be vigilant on how we approach the issue, i dont know if hardwood was making conversation caused on sources and feelings and analysis. I cant speak to that, i will say that the president has an unorthodox way of communicating even 4 years into the presidency with strong response of the media. Not a speech, not a victory speech, i dont know if all the reporters knew how to cover it. Howie the president loved headline, acquittal, the amazon washington post. Its clear that the elite media opinion here is that he should have been convicted and republicans were cowards were not standing up for the president . Well, several republicans also conceded that he did what he was accused of and they just didnt find that it rose to the level howie go ahead. They, concluded, no, we dont remove for this kind of thing, boy, i wish he hadnt had done it, yes, the editorial pages, the unsigned Opinion Pieces under the mask head wanted the president to go in many cases, there were a lot of papers that didnt. Howie many of the big National Papers obviously as we just said wanted him to go. When we come back the iowa caucus chaos average democrats, embarrassment for journalists and later tearing tout state of the union, even liberal pundits are saying nancy pelosi went too howie its just mindbogglingly 3 long days after caucuses democrats finally give media some final results showing Pete Buttigieg with a minuscule lead over Bernie Sanders and party reviewing inconsistencies in dozens of precincts, melanie zanona, partial numbers next day, how do you not conclude that its not a fiasco . It was really difficult in the hours after the results didnt come in, what do you talk about when theres no results to go off of, what i will say is Pete Buttigieg did a good job of winning the spin game, he declared victory and the media ran with it because they didnt have a whole lot to go out with that. Howie he took out flak from that. If buttigieg had been declared by winner even by a hair as normal process, couldnt there have been explosion of positive media stories and wasnt he kind of robbed . The Media Coverage it gives you heading out of it, the next morning the newspapers all declared winner and youre on morning shows, before the caucuses we were told there were 4 different measures of how you declare to be a winner, the first vote, the second vote, the state delegate issue and number of delegates and Bernie Sanders won two of the metrics, he tied in the third and only in the fourth one, confusing issue with delegates is he narrowly behind. He didnt get his due on the way media is covering it proud the process. Howie i agree with both of those. Buttigieg has been being to go on fox a lot. Joe biden and Elizabeth Warren who are trailing not so much. Bernie sanders bounced back from a heart attack, remarkable victory for him, he got robbed of the media spot slight as well, by the next day everybody is doing the state of the union, news cycle marchs on, you can never get that back. Ask president Rick Santorum and it was only weeks later that he was declared the winner in iowa and he could have used the early boost heading into New Hampshire. Its a rough thing and i think pete must have had some sort of incline that he was doing well because it would have been unsurvivable, i think. Howie they get reports reportsm different precincts, even if it works well, complicated, too many conflicting con complications. I dont think first in the nation for the democrats given how badly this embarrassed the party. Mollie. Its going to be rough particularly for democrats, they didnt like to be first in iowa in any case, they didnt think it was representative and this adds fuel to the fire. I absolutely agree, sensitive issue for democrats, if anything theyll be a calendar change, multiple state that is go first and not just iowa. Howie ray, when things work well, and the people of iowa i love and they take this very serious law but still predominantly white, largely rural unrepresentative state. More people in brooklyn and queens than in iowa, im not sure what the argument for iowa going first is any longer especially not with the process like this. Howie are you saying brooklyn and queens should go first . Im down with that, you and i can go and put Campaign Headquarters there. Howie all right, theres a revolutionary suggestion, ray suarez, melanie zanona, thank you for joining us, mollie hemingway, thanks to all of you, ahead frank luntz, up next behind the scene news struggling behind the scene news struggling deal with the colossal hes a systems quarterback. Wheres the truck . What . Parked it right there. Male voice what did i tell you, boys . Tonight we eat like kings chuckling youre a genius, gordon brake hit the brake uh, which ones the brake . crash, bottles smashing stop stop stooop brakes squealing whats happening . What . Theres a half of cheesesteak back there. With geico, the savings keep on going. Just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. Raccoon i got the cheesesteak with your dna results from ancestry®. I was able to discover one cousin, reached out to him, visited ireland, met another 20 cousins. They took me to the cliffs of moher, the ancestral home, the family bar. It really gives you a sense of connection to. Something thats bigger than yourself. Greater details. Richer stories. And now with health insights. Get your dna kit at ancestry. Com. Howie one to have biggest loser of the iowa debacle are the media only to be gap welling the complete absence of news. No results at all from the Iowa Caucuses, huge embarrassment for the Iowa Democratic party. A lot of ramifications if this group out here doesnt get i also feel like i created false expectations. [laughter] the way these things go every 4 years, you do usually get results right away. It is a little bit weird. Howie no numbers and plenty of hours to fill and that continues for much of the next day it also led to the spreading of rumors as is in this report from cnns john king. Two other campaigns who said they are hearing that the Biden Campaign will file injunction and so we dont know that thats true. Howie well, Biden Campaign made clear it wasnt true and king tweeted my discussing even skeptically from rival campaigns was in a word stupid. When Iowa Democrats release partial results late tuesday it was hard to instantly process flurry of numbers even for such savvy analysts like steve. Whats that . Okay. Theyre telling me it says 100 , do we know how much it is . Okay. 100 is not in. Let me go back to this right here. Yeah, okay. Im going to ask if you can give me 3 minutes. [laughter] howie you have to feel for him. We all tried to get a handle of it but sheer incompetence by the Iowa Democratic party, ahead Rush Limbaugh battling advanced lung cancer and receiving high achievement. sensei a live bookkeeper is helping customize quickbooks for me. live bookkeeper okay, youre all set up. sensei thanks that was my business gi, this ones casual. vo get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. 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C. , this the trial was a circus. There was no sense of planning, there was no sense of accountability, no sense of what the American People deserve which is a straightforward, not a partisan approach and howie, i look at this and it may have been a tough week for the media but i think its the worst week for the American People and thats what i care about as a pollster, all they are seeing now is a horribly broken washington, politicians that treat each other with disrespect and its out of control and at some point you reach a breaking point and i think if we have more events like what happened this week, you may have a fundamental slide, a destruction of faith in democracy, everybody is doing it and it has to stop. Howie but, you know, there was a lot of evidence, the bolton manuscript, careered diplomats who testified, nonetheless im wondering whether or not people got sick of endless coverage but simply dont trust the press on the whole subject or anything really having to do with the coverage of this president . They dont and they have every right not to because everyone has a horse that theyre backing, i dont find the reporting, i listen to the language, i read the headlines, i Read Everything below that appears on television, its clear, you can turn it on and you can tell where the person who wrote it stood, thats not the way its supposed to be. Our press has become like the united kingdom, theres a right wing, center and a left and that has never been part of what america was supposed to be and you lose the faith and trust in the media to hold people accountable because they keep picking sides, one more thing, i actually think this makes donald trump reelection more likely not less because if the public feels that theres a deliberate bias against the president , they will rally around him. Just watch. Howie okay, one quick last question on this subject and that is does it hurt the president rather than just sort of taking the win that he goes on and attacking pelosi, schiff, democrats, vicious horrible people, you know, without sort of gesture of trying to bring the country together . Every time hes done it he has gone up or pleased the base, as a pollster im not sure it hurts him politically but privately all of us on all sides wish that we could end this, wish that there can be some sense of civility and decency, i understand his wanting to do this but i dont think its good for the country honestly, i dont think it is. Nancy pelosi is attacking him too but both sides are not deescalating at all. The media chronicled what a complete debacle this has been. Do you think it hurt in particular Pete Buttigieg or Bernie Sanders who might have been declared the winners, also the Democratic Party as a whole . How can you run a country if you cant run a caucus, you criticized the republicans repeatedly for Voter Suppression and yet youve got hundreds of counties that are not reported correctly according to New York Times, i think that once again we are shredding the confidence in democracy. Theres no reason for nancy pelosi to tear up Donald Trumps speech that was petulant and same type of action that the trump people were furious with Hillary Clinton back in 2016 when she called them deplorables. If the republicans show that effort, i actually believe that that could have a Significant Impact on the election, as americans look at this and say thats awful, now, donald trump should have shook her hand and, in fact, the strategy that he could have use today used to express, im still here, nancy. [laughter] howie all right, you predicted on the program 9 months ago that Bernie Sanders was the likely nominee and backed off a little bit when he slid in the polls, you want to revive the prediction and many in the Democratic Party are worried that he would be a nominee who he would lose to the president . I dont think that he would easily lose, i spent a week in iowa, i spent a week in New Hampshire which i did the reporting community would do, all the pundits who are on the cable channels are purporting to know whats happening and yet they are not talking to the voters themselves and they are going toned up like 2016 where they get it wrong, the sanders rally are bigger than anyone elses, more passionate than anyone else, hes drawing people that dont look like they came out of berkeley in the 60s, has similar to donald trump in that they want a wholesale change, they want to drain their swamp actually, if you want to look at the red analogy, they want to fill the trump that donald trump is trying to drain. Howie frank 30 seconds, joe biden disappointing, fourth place, he predicted that he will lose New Hampshire, are the media prematurely saying hes in trouble and hes toast. I never heard a candidate called toast when they are a front runner, when they are still leading in the polls nationwide, that said, i dont think he does well in New Hampshire, i dont think he does well in nevada, and i think he narrowly wins in south carolina, every vote that Mike Bloomberg, and thats the person we should be talking about, every vote that Mike Bloomberg gets its a vote that joe biden once had and doesnt have anymore. Howie we will talk about bloomberg in the weeks to come, frank luntz, good to see you. Thank you. Howie media furor over the president firing two staffers, media States Joe Biden is in deep trouble is that a premature howie fox news alert, we are learning more details about the pair of shootings that injured two Police Officers in the bronx in less than 24 hours, nypd commissioner saying that moments ago the man suspected in both shootings is now in custody, suspect not being named as of this moment and has previous criminal record including shootout with police back in 2002, both officers expect today fully recovered from injuries and the officer from saturdays shooting expected to be released from the hospital this afternoon. 3 years ago we launched the Great American comeback. Howie President Trump drawing mix media review for state of the union but nancy pelosi stole many of the headlines as you know by rather tearing up the speech. Why did you rip the speech up, madame speaker . That was the thing to do considering howie joining us now here in washington Gayle Trotter, the Gayle Trotter show and mora liasson. Gayle many saying it was a low blow to tear up speech at the end to have address which she did deliberately and the pundits are split but not entirely . Thats right, some people gave her flak for hit and the New York Times had two articles making false equivalency between trump not shaking her hand and nancy ripping the speech which had names of all american heros and the Great Stories and so you see some oh the media giving fault for doing that, the big ones are actually trying to say that its equivalent action between President Trump and nancy pelosi. Howie mara, the journalist who is were supporting pelosi on this, the president refuse today shake her hand justified this along with the speech was full of lies which obviously we can go through and factcheck it but often disputed details in any state of the union speech, but the bottom line was, we all saw the image next day she stole a lot of the nextday headlines. Yeah, i think that the ferris reporting has pointed out that what she did got round of criticism from people who support the president and a lot of democrats in congress loved it because she was expressing what a lot of them felt about the speech. The state of the union was an incredible by partisan event from the president s remarks to Nancy Pelosis actions at the end and i think thats the fairest way that the media can report it. If commentators want to say she was right to do it or wrong to do it, thats another thing. But youre taking about violating norms all of the time and how is there not significant blowback to nancy pelosi for violating there was significant blowback, she did violate a norm and too many norms are being violated, i dont know how many norms we have left. I mean, we can go all the way back to to congressman yelling you lied to barack obama during speech. No doubt that both sides are breaking norms. Howie let me get in quick notes, the president did not invite anyone from cnn this time for the traditional off the record anchor lunch before the speech and White House Press secretary Stephanie Grisham leaked in memo that high hypocrisy to leak tidbits from the conversation to some of their colleagues including somet the president specifically asked not to share. Late friday the president in rapid succession firing ambassador to European Union Gordon Sondland and alexander vindman, both testified in house impeachment hearings and lets listen to what some people had to say about that. Anybody who does not side with this president is seen as an enemy. This is just the beginning, vindman, sondland. Its not the end. Mr. Vindman you want to be in charge of Foreign Policy, why dont you try to be president , this is what it looks like. Howie campaign of retribution, obviously the president has the right to do this, but why shouldnt it be portrayed by the press as striking back at perceived enemies . It should not portrayed that way and i think the problem is the media mobs want someone who stays in his lane and that theyre able to manipulate through their coverage of these events but i will tell you that Many Americans across the country were so happy this to the see that people had done the public portrayals are no longer in charge of our Foreign Policy and are no longer able to undermine this president , so thats where the Media Coverage was wrong because it didnt give enough lift to that feeling of relief by the American People that these people are no longer in position to harm this administration. Howie but, mara, when gayle says public portrayals, the view of witnesses that they were summoned to testify, they told the truth, vindman won a purple heart in iraq and his lawyer says this is about revenge and being booted for telling the truth and he was escorted out of the white house, reassigned to the pentagon which is fine but the president obviously was trying to sent a message. Right, the president certainly was within bounds to do what he did, vindman hes not unemployed, hes back in the pentagon from which he was detailed. On the other hand, to say that the president wants to take revenge or get some payback for the people he felt did him wrong is fair, Stephanie Grisham even said when are these people going to pay for this, i think its fair reporting to say that both things are true, he was within his rights and perfectly legal for him to remove the people from the white house but also, of course, hes trying to get back at home that he thinks did him wrong. Howie cnn calling it saturday night massacre, all right, after the break on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, two days away, the pundits say mayor pete is hot, joe biden is not and can Bernie Sanders really win the nomination . Thats daddy . Yeah . Whos peter . Well sweetie, hes your greatgreat grandfather. Here, does he look like me . Yeah. Your familys story is waiting to be shared. At ancestry. Com howie Rush Limbaugh who utterly transformed the media landscape made stunning announcement the other day. The upshot is that i have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and i wish i didnt have to tell you this and thought about not telling anybody. Howie Rush Limbaugh put conservative talk radio on the map filling void on era before the internet, fox news whether you love or loathe his ideology, huge audience and became force of the Republican Party, President Trump praised him at the state of the union. Hes the greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet, Rush Limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless devotions to our country. [cheers and applause] howie emotional as the first lady presented him with the president ial medal of freedom right there during the speech. Some of the media point out that he that used language, i get the debate over whether he should have gotten the medal, inspired millions while fighting for his beliefs, the driveby media, ive interviewed rush a few times, we should all wish him the best, even critics, even those who oppose him ideologically, we wish him the best as he battles the disease either on the left or the right, we are all human beings. Thats this edition for media buzz, im howard kurtz, check out my media buzz meter podcast, you can subscribe at apple itunes, google play or foxnews. Com, we kind of bounced around from the Iowa Caucuses to the state of the union, to the president being acquitted and impeachment charges to the war of words with the democrats and to the firings and all of that, we tried to cover it all for you, continue the conversation on twitter at howard kurtz, back here next sunday 11 00 eastern with the latest heather good morning to you, monday february 10th happening at 4 00 a. M. On the east coast, fox news alert for you, targeted attack, the man accused of ambushing new york city Police Officers expected no court. How the nypd is now declaring war on mayor de blasio. Not just people all over america are looking at New Hampshire, people all over the world are looking at New Hampshire. We need a Political Movement where everybody can find a home. Heather democrats dueling front runners running steam, is there the