American people deserve it. The fact of the matter is, we could have got this a long time ago if democrats didnt play politics and wait until after the election. This president gained nothing with all these antics. Nothing. Just needlessly creating chaos because he could. Some people who havent worked for the last five years all of them are going to get a 2,000 check that doesnt make sense and so i think youll see this divide in the republican party. Howie a strange thing happened as the president kept insisting on bigger stimulus checks, the house approved the 2,000 checks which democrats wanted all along and the pressure shifted to Mitch Mcconnell. He conjured up a bill with a commission to investigate trump allegations of Election Fraud. When you put the poison pill in their 2,000 survival check that the democrats support, hes killing it. Any senator who votes for mcconnells poison pill is voting to kill the 2,000 payment. The stories and the words that say hey, Mitch Mcconnell is trying to block this, i think its inaccurate. You can actually be able to tackle some of the things that republicans have been insisting upon and that is the Election Integrity and going back and doing an investigation of that. Howie joining us now to analyze the coverage in new york, kat timpf of the greg gutfeld show and fox nation, gillian turner, a fox news core upon dent and correspondent and anchor in washington and Richard Fowler. Kat, the pundits are almost unanimous that President Trump waited, shouldnt have waited until both houses passed the bill to criticize it for too small stimulus checks. I think what the press misses is he changed the political debate and put pressure on the senate. Your thoughts. Yes, he certainly did and of course the media will take most stories and have them sort of centered through this lens of donald trump, particularly if it can be negative, right. Very little credit for getting the vaccine out quickly, now that theres distribution issues its all over the place. I think that one issue was making all of the coverage so trumpcentric, is you can miss other of things like congress, for example, quite ridiculous. The one they did vote on had the 600 checks in it. None of them read that. They got that six hours before they voted on it. To me, that seems a little insane. People arent really talking about that because its all about trumps golfing, what trump said, youve done this, youve done that, and aim to criticize him. Howie only 5,000 page bill. Jillian, reporters and pundits say that Mitch Mcconnell by combining the 2,000 stimulus checks with the president s demand for an Election Fraud investigation commission, not to mention ending legal immunity for social media giants, that effectively killed the bill which is what mcconnell wanted. He did. Thats exactly what Mitch Mcconnell did. He slowrolled it and killed it by patching together issues that have nothing to do with each other, making a weird frankenstein type bill. I want to push back on something that a couple anchors said, which is that President Trump got nothing out of this. He got nothing except credit for millions of americans for wanting to get more money directly into their wallets. At the end of the day, Mitch Mcconnell had to swallow the poison pill. President trump made him own the fact that millions of americans are going to get 1,400 less than he would like them to do. President trump may consider that a very big political victory at this moment. Howie thats a good point. Richard, conservative comet day commentators said democrats were playing politics by refusing to have this bill before telex because they didnt want to give donald trump credit during the campaign. I dont know if i agree with that but i do agree with jillian. Lets be very clear and think about how we got here. In may, the democrats passed the heroes act. Was it a perfect bill in the eyes of republicans . It wasnt. The heroes act had a lot of things in it that would have benefited the American People. Mitch mcconnell, republicans dragged their feet on it and here we sit today when donald trump has asked congress to give an additional 2,000 to the American People, Mitch Mcconnell is standing in the way. When you look at the coverage of it, what you see is a clear divide. Local media covered this story perfectly. What they have done, they digged into it and 15eu said why cante American People, many are unemployed, many are trying to figure out how to make ends meet, why cant they get the 2,000. The Mainstream Media made the story about this ageold battle in washington between nancy pelosi, Mitch Mcconnell and donald trump. When it really should be a battle for whats best for the American People and on this one Mitch Mcconnell and Senate Republicans are in the wrong here. Howie kat, you made the point about much of the coverage but trump centric. But by delaying the signing of the bill after christmas eve, the president did unfortunately delay Unemployment Benefits for millions of americans and again we have to come back to this question the media asked which is why didnt he weigh in sooner when he might have had a chance of getting somewhat larger checks by putting pressure on republicans while the thing was being negotiated. Look, i certainly dont think there was ever really too much hope of this actually happening this way especially since our lawmakers dont work in the holidays. We sometimes do. But they certainly dont. But, look, and im not saying that trump doesnt deserve any criticism here. I think he does. I think we should criticize everyone in government whenever theres something that deserves it. I do think, though, that when so much of the coverage is slanted so negative and they avoid anything that could be positive, a lot of the people that do strongly support the president , that makes them a lot less likely to listen to any criticism at all. Howie part of the media focus here, jillian, has been the republicans were put into a box where they had to make a choice between supporting President Trump, many of them dont want to obviously alienate the president , and standing up for their principles. A lot of them were on record as saying some of them didnt want 600, they didnt like the idea of large stimulus payments which cost another half trillion dollars if you went to the 2,000 checks. What i dont understand, howie, is how republicans botched the messaging on opposition to the 2,000 check so badly. By my count, i think ive seen or heard two senators on tv talk to the media about why they on oppose an increase of 1,400. I saw pat toomey and lindsey i y graham. They said they dont on of pose it for people that really need it, they said we oppose it in the pockets of americans who dont need it, for example everybody who makes under 75,000, including those who havent lost money during covid, like government workers. What pat toomey said was i want this aid to go out. I want it to be more targeted. I dont want it to go to everybody. I dont want it to be a blanket salary cap, i want it to go to americans who lost jobs, businesses and homes do yo durie pandemic. That makes an awful lot of sense. Howie on that point, while 2,000 stimulus checks was the quote, liberal position, the washington post, the editorial page said rather than targeting the neediest folks, the bigger checks would give money to families making as much as 350,000 a year, some of whom werent hurt at all by the awful pandemic. Well, i think thats a larger problem that we have with the stimulus relief to begin with. You see so many stories and local coverage about the fact that joel osteens church gets 4. 4 million and an establishment in washington, d. C. , black owned and operated was begging to get another much to keep their doors open. That happens in every city, where Small Businesses couldnt get paycheck protection but large businesses, people with an ability with a foothold in washington was able to do that which i think is a larger problem with how this sort of stimulus was done and how Coronavirus Relief was done overall and it should be an indictment on the entire congress and indictment on the entire federal government on how they work to make sure that the Small Businesses, those in need actually got the money instead of big businesses. Howie right. Meanwhile, trumps fading clout in washington was underscored on friday when all but seven Senate Republicans joined democrats in overriding his veto of the defense spending bill. Let me turn to the problems in the rollout of the vaccine. Ive said over and over again, kat, the president deserves a lot of credit that hes not getting from the media on operation warp speed. Now that the program has fallen short of its own goals which was by the earned of 2020 end of 2020, 20 million americans could be vaccinated. And its 2 andahalf million. The press is piling on, its only about trump, its all trumps fault. Thats not surprising whatsoever. Federal says its the states, states says its the federal. It drives me nuts. How come no one is saying all right, cool, but lets figure it out and solve this because this is a serious thing. Right. Lets get this done. And the truth is, something that hasnt been covered very much, is that theres has been issues with government bar bureaucracy slowing the fight against the virus. Certainly in this case and also at the beginning of the pandemic with testing and there not being approval of people owne other tn the cdc to do testing for this. This is why i go crazy when everybody says the problems can only be solved by government. We see a coverage of a blame game, not coverage about solutions we now you have the howie the president , who i touting the vaccines as a great success, now tweeting that it is up to the states to distribute the vaccine. Obviously, the states play an Important Role and have to share some of the blame but is this the typical political blame shifting that goes on in d. C. . Yes, and theres plenty of blame to go around as when you mentioned, howie, over 350,000 americans are now dead. Plenty of blame for the federal government, plenty of blame for the states. What i will say is that President Trump has made clear from day one that the way sees this, whether its the whole issue of preventing and treating the vaccine, whether its regulations about mask wearing, whether its the race to a vaccine, whether its who makes the decisions about who gets the vaccine first, he said you guys, the states, this is up to you. You knows your constituents best, you know who needs access to this stuff most urgently. So a lot of state officials have their head in the sand and are now getting called out for it. Howie one more covid note, a sad one, which is larry king is now in as los angeles hospital battling covid19. The talk show legend who views Light Entertainment with serious politics changed the face of broadcasting, is 87 years old. Ive known larry for a long time i want to wish the best for him and his family at this difficult moment. Ahead well talk to jedediah bila. When we come back, the media no longer scoffing at the growing number of republicans who plan to challenge the electoral vote on wednesday. How much controversy will that unleash . Your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. For psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Howie the media had been pour of trying it as a fringe portraying it as a fringe movement, a small group of senators, planning to push President Trumps claims of widespread Election Fraud. That changed dramatically yesterday when ted cruz and ten over gop senators and senatorselect said theyll demand a special commission to conduct a ten day audit. Its either for democracy or of its against democracy. Josh holly has come out of very clearly against democracy today. Senator hollys move is in conflict with the establishment rhinos and the radical dems, the Left Wing National Media and corporate america. All of whom have dismissed any talk of election irregularities. These lawmakers arent even claiming they have evidence. This is just one more vain attempt to thwart the free and Fair Election of joe biden as the president of the United States. Its undemocratic. Its unamerican. And it will fail. January 6th will tell us whether there are any in congress willing to battle for the america that those soldiers fought for, the one that you and i believe in. Howie kat timpf, republican senators who oppose these efforts say it creates an unnecessary spectacle that with democrats controlling the house basically has no chance of success. But with even Vice President pence supporting these efforts now, at least lending rhetorical support, doesnt that make impossible for the press to just write it off. Yeah, it certainly does. And many have made the point, particularly thinking of that editorial in the new york post, before this effort was all happening, that this kind of distracts from georgia which is super important and even perhaps might make people less likely to vote if they think its all rigged anyway. Maybe not. Maybe theyll be encouraged by more volunteers looking to watch these things. I think, again, people are out of touch in much of the media thinking nobody really thinks this, nothing will really happen when really there are a lot of people that really certainly do. And it comes down to engaging that and being aware so youre not super blindsided when Something Like this happens. Howie yeah. Gillian turner, with ted cruz and Senate Supporters wanting to create a special election audit commission, was last down in 1877, i think its harder for the press to minimize this. I think many in the press misjudged the determination of these opponents. You cant just write it off as in the lawsuit, the unsuccessful lawsuit against mike pence. Is it now being elevated to a test of democracy . Yes, with 12 senators backing not certifying the hell h elecn results, absolutely its a test of democrat c i will say one of the senators who signed onto this, senator marsha blackburn, i had the opportunity to interview her yesterday within the hour that they announced this new effort and one of the things i asked her was what they hoped to accomplish out of it one of her first answers was you know, gillian, there has been resistance to President Trump and nevertrumpers in washington, driving policy against his agenda the entire time. I stopped her and i said is this political res tri because and retribution and she said of course not. She went on to explain herself. What the media is underestimating is the opportunity republicans are seeing in this to drive home their message which they dont believe president elect biden won this fair and square. Thats what theyre trying to do here. I dont believe any of o them believe a 10 day audit will review the results of the election. Howie Richard Fowler points out the media had no problem when the democrats did this in 2017 after President Trumps election, especially in 2005 after president bushs election where congress had to debate the whole thing. So a bit of a double standard here . Listen, should the media cover this, howie . They should. They should cover it for exactly what it is, spectacle. In a court of law just like in journalism, have you to have evidence, have you to have evidence, you have to have sources that say there was indeed Election Fraud, the election was indeed people were taken advantage of, people cheated. But theres no evidence of that you see many, many dozens of cases where there was no evidence of that. So once again, youre going to see republicans play politics and the media will cover it but i do hope the media covers it honestly, for exactly what it is. Fraud and an attack on our democracy. Howie there was also no evidence during those effort by democrats which i guess was a symbolic protest. Absolutely. Howie ive got to move on here. Gillian, kat mentioned a new york posted tore yall, front page piece earlier this week saying mr. President , stop the insanity, you lost the election, youre cheering for an undemocratic coup when you have the new york post, the wall street journal, conservative editorial page saying trump is having a fantasy about overturning the election, both of those newspaper share common ownership with fox news. What does that say about the conservative media now turning on the president . Well, it does seem that the post and the journal in particular have veered sharply away from President Trump over the last couple of weeks. What underrides that, my guess is as good as yours. I will say, though, to Richards Point a moment ago, political theater has become