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the face of the biden family scandal ever since the infamous laptop emerged at the end of the 2020 campaign. ignored by most in the media for a year and a half, his muckraking has been an embarrassment to his father and is now at the center of the impeachment inquiry into the president. hunter is under criminal indictment, more charges may be coming, but he's mounting a more aggressive counteroffensive. he sued rudy giuliani, sued the irs, he's published an op-ed accusing the gop of weaponizing his past drug addiction, painting himself as a victim. the house oversight committee has been demanding hunter's testimony for nearly a year. he's under subpoena, but the president's son -- in a move that has upset some in the white house -- said, sure, i'll tell, no problem. but it has to be in a public session. his lawyer, abby lowell, writing: a public proceeding prevents selective leaks, manipulated represents, documented exhibits or one-sided press statements. now committee chairman jim comer

is rejecting the offer. >> hunter biden is not above the law. we will gladly have a public hearing with hunter biden a of he do -- after we do the deposition to go over the 101,000 plus pages of bank records and documents that we have $ -- 10,000, with countless questions about specific transactions. howard: shouldn't republicans take the offer, letting the world watch while they interrogate hunter biden on all the outstanding questions related to his father and questionable payments, or is that, as the chairman said, letting the president's son play by his own rules? i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ ♪ howard: ahead, george santos, whose fabrications provided so much media ford, is expelled by the house, and hows israel actually obtained hamas' war plans in advance but did

nothing. the media are sharply divided over hunter biden's offer to publicly testify before a house republican panel. >> this is an attempt, obviously, to turn this into the kind of capitol hill circus that we've seen in the past when it comes to these public hearing. >> never has the opening line of send in the clowns been so appropriate. when these republicans begging for hunter biden's testimony get it, and now they say they don't want it publicly. >> a congressional subpoena is not like an invitation to a debutante ball. you don't get to just debate when you're going to show up and how. you have to show up. >> every republican is going to take everything he says every single day and turn it into a commercial. when the numbers are that soft, do we really need this right now? >> the white house feels like it doesn't want the son to have current to get out and also add fuel to the fire away from the president of the united states. howard: joining us now to analyze the cover arkage ark

mollie hemingway, fox news contributor, and in new york, ken walling, a joe biden surrogate. mollie, why given the hot and heavy pursuit of joe biden -- excuse me, of hunter biden -- doesn't the committee call his bluff and say, okay, we'll intergate you in front of a national audience? >> hunter biden saying i don't want to do a staff-lawyer-led deposition, i want to do this in public, that makes sense for hunter biden. if he can do it in public, he can have a bun of democrats -- bunch of democrats who will grandstand, republicans grandstanding, and it will keep him from being forced to answer the really tough questions that republicans want him the answer. so good work on him for trying that, but i'm not in any way surprised that republicans are saying, no thank you, we'd like to do this first and then later we can do the public thing. howard: kevin, you could argue that hunter biden has called the committee's bluff to bar the

selective leaking, follow generally following these closed door depositions. >> exactly right. and we've seen a history of that with chairman comer where he's select ily released, you know, information from those transcripts from previous interviews. he's not an honest broker whatsoever when it comes to that, and hunter biden's lawyers are saying we want to testify in public, in the open. let both parties ask questions out in the open, transparency is key with all this and, unfortunately for james comer, you know, he's not interested in that because the facts certainly are not on his side at this point. they don't have the votes, you know, to pursue this impeachment inquiry, you know? tom emmer said just last week it's going if to to be a few weeks from even now to potentially move in that direction. so clearly, you know, the process is breaking down on the right, and they're not interested in actually getting to the bottom of this with hunter biden. howard: well, whether they have the votes remains to be seen. mollie, politico reports that some white house officials are irritated with hunter's more

aggressive approach because it shines a bright spotlight on his past addiction, his legal problems and questions about his father's involvement in his business. >> they might be saying that in part to put things on hunter when really this investigation is about joe biden. the people are interested in this story not because hunter biden to or james biden were taking money from foreign oligarchs. they want to understand what was the biden family miss business. millions of dollars through eight family members, dozens of shell companies was sent from communist chinese-affiliated groups. hunter biden referred the one as the spay chief of china, the energy chief of china. this guy actually had been convicted of bribing i think it was the like eight other presidents of other countries, so people want the know what was going on with this biden family business. nobody, and i doubt kevin or anybody else can even come up with an explanation, what were they getting in response to the millions of dollars that went to biden family members?

you'd like people in the media to press the biden administration and other people on what was it that people were getting in exchange for this money from these corrupt oligarchs, these energy officials, these communist chinese officials? what were they getting in response? why were they so keen to give money to people who weren't businessmen, who weren't criminal dee fence attorneys, but were getting money for those things? howard: you know, hunter biden has acknowledged in an e-mail that he was well aware part of what he was selling or much of what he was selling whether to ukraine or china was his haas name. he explicitly said that. kevin, i'll let you respond to mollie, but let me also give you the flipside which is some in the white house also said according to this politico report to be happy that munter is fighting back -- hunter is fighting back, feeling you can't let these allegations go unrebutted. but as he's swinging away and filing lawsuits, all that sort of thing, doesn't it add fuel to the house impeachment inquiry of president biden? >> well certainly, you know, i

think, howie, the president's son has been subjected for years to this kind of awful, these awful attacks without any ability to defend himself. let's not forget james comer ran a committee hearing where marjorie taylor greene held up a naked photo of hunter biden in that committee hearing. hunter biden should have his day in court in the public sphere to clear his name. and mollie knows well as do you, howie, this is not the first son or daughter of a president, brother, sister of a president to use their last name in order to, you know, gain money, influence, what have you. but again at the end of the day, as we've seen, there is no direct link whatsoever back to president biden. they've failed to identify any direct link. any direct action a that the president or then-vice president or even senator biden took in reaction to any of these kind of conversations that hunter biden had in his business dealings. howard: let me just follow up briefly. you say that hunter biden until recently didn't have any ability to defend hardships?

he's gone on tv and does interview, he issues statements, he is pretty prominent, so why do you say he can't -- wasn't able to defend himself? >> surely, he's provided interviews, he wrote an impactful memoir talking about his addiction in the past and how it destroyed his life, but certainly having the ability to come forward in this kind of setting, i think, would be critically important to talk about all these kind of accusations that james comer and others have thrown at a him. howard: mollie, there are a lot of unanswered questions, no yet about it, about hunter biden, including his dad as vp joining a whole bunch of business calls with hunter associates. a $20,000 check from the president's ooh brother, james biden, who's also been subpoenaed. but assuming we eventually get to some kind of public showdown, would the media root for hunter and praise his testimony? you're laughing. >> well, the one thing we know is that the media truly don't think their job here is to do

anything other than to protecting the biden family. and, again, this was a family business. everyone admits they were trading on the name of joe biden and his position of privilege. to view this as an abuse of his position that the family was able to get so much money, and we do know now from some of the documents that have been released, like official government documents, official copies of checks that money died flow to joe biden himself from -- did flow to joe biden himself from some of these business dealings that were done to his name. this is something the media should be obsessed with, and instead they protect joe biden by even not asking questions like why was he using his son for this family business when his son clearly did have so many demons and so many problems in i think a lot of people look at that and say that son should have been protected from the family business of taking money from foreign oligarchs in exchange for millions of dollars instead of being exploited and if used in the way that he was. howard: i should add that the white house says that $20,000

from the president's brother was repayment -- >> but even that -- >> exactly right. howard: just giving the other side. >> again, if he benefited from this -- first of all, they've shown no evidence that a loan existed, but even if you say that, that still shows that he was benefiting financially from these financial arrangements with a chinese communist party which controls china, which has so much to do with american policy making, you know, foreign policy, domestic policy. we really, you know, when you think about what happened during the russia collusion scam where people invented stories of engagements with russians and said this meant that donald trump had stolen the 2016 election and here you have millions of dollars flowing from communist china to the biden family and we have a media that acts like it's no gig deal. howard: -- big deal. howard: well, tie thing it to any specific foreign policy is a whole different question -- >> there is no evidence at this -- >> we have a president when has not been very strong against china while this is all going on. howard: we can debate the level, but i also think it's true that

the media cover this story when they have to, but they would sort of like it to go away. here's the thing, hunter's team, kevin, must believe that he would get a favorable public reaction if he has a chance to defend himself. in public, taking questions from both sides. but, and the ratings would be huge. but is he a sympathetic character? >> i think to many people, howie, the president is a -- or, i'm sorry, the president's son is a sympathetic character. listen, i mean, you think of hunter biden's first memory on this earth is losing his mother and his sister in that awful car accident. and then flash forward a new few decades, and he loses his best friend and brother. and, you know, i think he's been very open in that book and in interviews, howieing as you mentioned about his struggles with addiction, about his problems in his open marriage. and i think that he is a sympathetic character. we all have people that we know or in our families, our friends

that have struggled with addiction and, again, i think he and his lawyers just want a fair shot to speak to the american people. howard: all right. we're clearly getting two different portraits right here today of the president's son. when we come back, "the new york times" reveals precisely what israel knew long before the brutal hamas attacks on october 7th. ♪ ♪ lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. delicious too. just ask my old friend, kevin. nothing like enjoying a cold one while watching the game.

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"happening now" "the new york times" has the devastating details, israeli officials obtained the war plans for the attack on october 7th a year in advance and did nothing. >> this is the an intelligence failure on par with 9/11 or pearl harbor. >> that is just shocking israelis and, of course, people across the globe that actually

netanyahu's government knew about this plan for a year. had the details of it. the specific details -- >> [inaudible] >> -- for a year. howard: this wasn't a rumor, it was a 40- page report code named jericho wall in which that a palace hate out exactly what it planned to do, and yet senior israeli officials believed the terror its were just incapable of pulling it off. >> yeah. people have been make comparisons between the october 7th terrorist attack on israel and the 9/11 terrorist attack on the united states, and that makes sense not just because both done by muslim terrorists, but also just the death toll in both countries was so intense. but it's always apt because of this issue. there were intelligence failures in both of those incidences that people should have been looking for warning sign, they should have been looking for -- they should have been having the imagination necessary to think this was such a possible thing. they shouldn't have been so in

love with their own theories of what was going on in the world that they didn't ignore this and here this reporting does suggest that was what was happening. howard: kevin, nerve is invoked in my next question. this is not like president bush getting a cia briefing. bin laden determined the strike in u.s. but without any details. this would be like getting a briefing that said the terrorists of that time plan to hijack airplanes and doing nothing for a year. >> yeah or, howie, exactly right. i mean, there were specific, actionabling intelligence in that 40-page document. and to mollie's point, and it's spot on, it's a failure of imagination just as the 9/11 attacks were. there was confidence within the idf that hamas was not capable of achieving this kind of lightning strike attack with the rapid advance even to though there was the also evidence in that reporting in "the new york times," howie, that hamas a had staged some pre-invasion exercises nearly to the same

level. so this is clearly a failure of imagination to system degree like 9/11, but then also too some element of hubris, some element of folks on the analyst level early on in that reporting not having the ability to get that information up the chain of command to serious, you know, the higher levels within the idf. so certainly, it's a breakdown. howard: well, you set up my next question. the times says that senior intelligence and military officials of israel did see that report. how high that went, we're not quite sure. mollie, after hamas practiced this attack in july in plain view, a female israeli analyst said the following: i utterly refute the scenario this is imagination -- imaginary. it has the content of jericho wall, the name of the report, and it is a plan designed to start a war. it's not just a raid on a village, but an israeli colonel brushed that off.

whether bibi netanyahu saw this or not, it kind of looks bad either way, wasn't this a catastrophic failure? >> it was. i do think we need to remember that there are things like this happening all the time where people debate about what different intelligence means. i do think there's a media angle here too which is that we frequently see the media just uncreate critically accept whatever they hear from various intel sources, and this is a reminder that these people are not to be uncritically listened to, particularly sometimes at the highest levels. they might not know what's going on, they might not be thinking through things as well as they should. and we've seen in this country far too often a people take whatever they get from an intel source no matter how absurd, and we even saw that in the leadup to the iraq war -- howard: yeah, slam dunk intelligence. >> there was bad intelligence, but we had people in the media treat it like it was the word of god. howard: kevin, i don't know that we completely asked this questions -- question but, you know, what made these fairly senior israeli military

intelligence officials so convinced hamas could never achieve this when it was their job to protect the country? obviously, there have been several wars with hamas, and 1200 israelis wound up being slaughtered. >> certainly. and the worst today of destruction in israel's history since 1948 in terms of the loss of life. you know, to mollie's point, and i think it's well said, you know, you have this chain of command issue to some degree, and you mentioned that lower level analyst that is immersed in that information saw what was happening over the summer, went -- with those exercises and the lack of ability to get that up the chain of command. and to moll mollenwelcome back ie's pointer as well, someone within the israeli government provided this report to the new york times that likely has an agenda in terms of shining a light on this massive intention failure. so we have to also -- intelligence failure. we have to understand what this leak represents and to also giver space to netanyahu, you

know, cabinet, now war cabinet, to respond in time. howard: mollie, a lot of pundits questioning whether bibi netanyahu can survive at least after the war. record lower popularity because of this. >> well, rightly so. howard: yeah. >> this, ultimately, was his responsibility, whether or not he saw this. you're seeing that across the political spectrum, people are very concerned. they also understand this is probably not the time to change leadership while they are prosecuting this war against hamas. but i would be surprised if there weren't repercussions for him politically. howard: put diplomatically. and, no, it's not going to happen while the war's going on. the war may go on for months. mollie hemingway, kevin walling, thank you. up next, a mideast ceasefire is over. has it given hamas a military advantage against israel? ♪ ♪ a digital money coach in the chase mobile® app. use it to set and track your goals, big and small...

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swapping hostages for prisoners, how much military benefit has there been for the terrorists running gaza? joining us now from new york, retired general jack keane, fox news strategic analyst. general, how much of an advantage is it for the hamas terrorists to have gotten that week-long respite from the israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion? >> well, certainly, there is a decided advantage. israelis' momentum is stopped cold as a result of it. look, the israelis knew that to get the hostages back, they would absolutely be giving hamas an opportunity to reposition, relocate, rearm and, in a sense, reorganize. and they have done all of that. the mast majority of -- vast majority of the fighters and leaders are now in the south. some still left in the north that israel has to clean up a little bit more of the gaza operation. but, yes, there's definitely a swing towards hamas as a result of the ceasefire. howard: right. what's your take on president

biden and his lieutenants saying israel must change tactics, kill fewer civilians just as it has started bombing the south of gaza where there are, you know, a huge number of palestinians who fled their homes in the north after israel essentially ordered an evacuation? >> well, there's definitely a change in policy here. i mean, the administration started out with full-throttled support of israel taking down hamas as an effective military terrorist organization and as a government entity. now the administration is involved in the tactics that are supporting that by saying we can't have an operation in the south which is a repeat of the operation in the north with large casualties or blinken telling the war cabinet you should not evacuate civilians in the south, you should establish safe zones in the south in various neighborhoods which, of course, permits hamas to be in those safe zones.

these are tactical decisions in support of a strategy, and i think the administration should be not involved in this. so our viewers really understand here, when you put these restrictions on, it is impeding israeli opportunity to take down hamas as an entity, to achieve their goal. these are similar restrictions that we've seen in ukraine when the administration doesn't give ukraine all the capability to have a decisive victory in 23 -- howard: right. >> finish and now we're heading towards a protracted war that favors putin. these will have profound impact. so we understand the majority of hamas' force are in the south. israel, there are five brigades. israel has effectively taken down one of the five brigades -- howard: let me jump in here -- >> so the majority of the campaign is in front of them, howie. most of the -- motive of what --

most of what they have to do is in the south. howard: this whole hamas if strategy of embedding in heavily populated areas, making it difficult for israel to avoid civilian casualties, your thoughts. >> yeah, absolutely. what makes this campaign so different, is so our viewers understand, in most urban warfare from world war ii to the present the population, when they hear the sound of the guns coming closer to their town or city, they flee. so by the time the battle is taking place in the neighborhoods, in the city, most of the civilians are gone except those who want to stay or are infirmed and cannot get out to. in gaza, it is completely different. the egyptians will not let the gaza ans get to the sinai and u.n. refugee camps. hamas holds on to hundreds of thousands, diabolically so, so that they create casualties and widespread condemnation of israel by the international

community and isolated geopolitically. howard: right. >> that is what it's operating. it makes this operation completely different -- howard: general, i -- >> therefore, you can't avoid civilian casualties. howard: i just have half a minute. is there any doubt in your mind that israel can topple hamas? >> yes, they can effectively take down this organization given the time and the continuous support to do it. howard: general jack keane, thanks very much for joining us. ♪ howard: next on "mediabuzz," a live report from israel as journalists discover just how badly some of the hamas hostages were treated. ♪ ♪

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terrorists in kidnapping these civilian families and using them as bargaining chips. family members have been doing interviews, such as relatives of the first hostage release, 4-year-old abigail, who say said had barely been 23e8d and was very hungry. >> as a mother of four children, the thought of a child being hostage for 50 days and coming out to a new life without her parents -- >> i think that for 50 days we continued to live in an ongoing terror attack. howard: joining us now from if israel is fox news correspondent trey yingst. and, trey, i'm not surprised in the slightest that hamas would horribly mistreat israeli and american hostages according to interviews by "the new york times" and others and what you just saw. what does surprise me is that these terrorists, knowing they would eventually release many hostages as leverage against israel to get concessions, would barely feed them, expose them to

lice, break one elderly woman's shoulder. they had to know this would all come out once they were released. >> reporter: yeah, howie. when you look at the before and after photos of so many of these israelis, you get just an idea of what this experience was like for so many held hostage by hamas as part of this 7-day ceasefire, the israelis were able to get more than 100 hostages exchanged at a 3 to 1 ratio for palestinian prisoners. and you see the photos. they're lost weight. they're sick. they have lice. we spoke with doctors at the hospital just outside of tel aviv, the schneider medical center, and they said people were malnourished when they arrived. they were not receiving enough food to survive, and many were held for more than 50 days. and so the conditions that hamas if was keeping these hostages in was not just below average, it was horrific. and so many will have long psychological trauma associated with any of the physical

injuries that they experienced when they were dragged into gaza on october 7th. some were burned with the exhaust of a motorcycle, others beaten, ohs exposed to just such trauma inside gaza, it will talk years for them to recover. howard: yeah, i'm glad -- it was horrific. that is the perfect word. look, obviously, or there's been positive stories in the media. it's nice to see hostages, at least the ones that were released, reunited with fair -- their families. i wonder if it's getting enough anticipation, for example, 4-year-old abigail edan getting a daily piece of peta bread to share with others. i mean, that's a starvation is diet. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. and this is being spun by many of the pro-hamas internet personalities as manager that was good conditions, that they're describing what took place as these hostages being guests of hamas. and it is shocking that so many

people can look at that and take that away from the situation. we've not only talked with doctors, but also family members. and when you turn on the news every night here in israel, you see these stories of specific instances of what took place and the concern that israeli officials have that we are talking with every day is that the hostages that were treated even worse than these horrific stories that we are getting, starting to trickle out, that they may be killed or still be inside gaza because hamas doesn't want those stories told. howard: speaking of hamas and stories, you said on the air a couple todays ago that getting the truth out of the hamas officials and sources you deal with is very difficult. explain. >> reporter: absolutely. when you ask hamas officials about what took place on october 7th, i'll take you through a timeline of what those conversations were like. we were here in southern israel as the attack was unfolding. and when we were reaching out to hamas officials on that day and the days after, they often

denied that an attack took place. and then they moved the goal post and said they were just targeting soldiers. and when we provided evidence, they said, well, some civilians were caught in the crossfire. the reality is that this was a coordinated attack to terrorize the civilian population, kill more than 12000 people and take more than -- 12000 people and take more than 260 hostage. now, some of those have been leased, but you just get a sense of what they were aiming to do. so when we posed this information to hamas officials, not only do they deny what took place, but they also make accusations against our reporting. i've had officials send me videos that are edited, doctored on the internet in an effort to make us look fake, to make our reporting look discredited. because they want to say, look, this is you participating or this is you showing something that's not true. howard: right. >> reporter: the reality is we are showing exactly what's happening on the ground, and they simply don't want the accept it. howard: yeah, i'm glad you've talked about this publicly, because a lot of news outlets do

accept it, or they talk about what gaza officials say. of course, it's run by hamas, and there's a lot more to come out on that. what's been the israeli public reaction to that bombshell new york times story that israel obtained hamas' war plans a year in advance, watched the terrorists do a dry run three months before october 7th, and despite warnings from its own analysts, failed to act? >> reporter: we've been able to independently confirm those reports that israeli officials were warned ahead of time not just from those in power and the commanders that had the ability to influence decisions, but also by the soldiers, those that stand on the gaza bonderrer -- border where we are now each and every damon to having the situation. they raised red flags to their commanders, is and often times they weren't heard, they were ignored. and so the israeli public is incredibly frustrated about what happened. they still are asking questions as to how and why this took place, and there is an understanding on the ground even by the top leadership, including

prime minister benjamin net if an ya hue and the defense minister, that someone or a group of people will have to answer for what went wrong, because there were clear intelligence failures on october 7th that led to this massacre in southern riles. howard: yes. the at accountability, i think, is going to happen. it may not happen until after the war. thank you so much for your reporting, trey yingst in israel. stay safe. after the break, why the house expelled serial fabricator george santos and how he's striking back. ♪ . known for lessons that matter. known for lessons that matter. known for being a free spirit. no one wants to be known for cancer, but a treatment can be. keytruda is known to treat cancer, fda-approved for 16 types of cancer. one of those cancers is advanced nonsquamous, non-small cell lung cancer, where keytruda is approved to be used

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♪ with my arms wrapped around... ♪ ♪ howard: george santos could have avoided being the first member of congress expelled without being convicted of a crime, but he refused to quit. >> why not just resign? >> because if i leave, they win. if i leave, the bullies take place. this is bullying. it's all theater. it's theater for the cameras, it's theater for the microphones. howard: the house voting friday to boot the fabricating long island congressman who said he didn't have to answer reporters' questions nimby more than the required two-thirds margin, 331-114. >> they broke precedent. [laughter] i mean, he's the reason here. you know? he was so awful, he was a parody of a corrupt congressman if. howard: joining us now, griff jenkins, fix news anchor and correspondent. griff, the media was so transfixed by this lying and

fabricating house member because his tales were so ludicrous, and yet as the house ethics report made clear, these were very serious educations. >> to hell with this place, howie. that was his last words. washington is going to miss george santos in his ferragamo loafers. as he told us in that disastrous train wreck press conference, they're 6 years old. if you just go to the web site and check for yourself -- howard: what about the payments for botox and only fans and designer clothing? >> in there lies the irony in that there are no background checks on members of congress. and there was such a walterprks i -- mitty fantasy. he does face, we should point out, a 23-count criminal indictment. howard: yeah. and could wind up in prison. about a half the republicans turned on santos.

the leadership did not, joining democrats in that vote to expels conference the day before that santos held, he really seemed to revel in media attention. >> he loves it. but he also loves the fantasy that he's created. he was telling voters he was jewish and catholic at the same time. he was a seasoned wall street investor, yet citibank -- or goldman sachs -- howard: yeah, never heard of him. yeah. >> the colleges he said he graduated from, never heard of him. and the worst of it, he says he saved thousands of dogs and cats with a pet charity that the irs says doesn't exist -- howard: you've been a big fan of his, you've got all the details. >> it's a fascinating story, because he was able to continue to just defy the scrutiny, and i would argue maybe he had on his side the fear of such a slim republican majority that they were willing to go along to keep it. howard: yeah. well, let's get to this because santos posted a bunch of nasty

remarks about republicans who had voted against him and said he filed ethnics complaints against them. of course, or he's just a private citizen now. for example, congresswoman nicole malliotakis. he writes, nicole is a dirty, dishonorable swamp creature selling the american people down a river. her office said they're not going to comment because he's a serial liar. not exactly graciously bowing out. >> no. he's on a revenn tour, and he also went after other republican members of new york's congressional delegation -- howard: yeah. >> mike lawler, and then he threw in bob menendez for good measure -- howard: yeah, bipath san. >> -- with egyptian gold bars. the point is he's done, he's gone. now this seat that's going to be fought over, and governor hochul will appoint somebody, but you're going to have a special election very soon -- howard: yeah. >> -- will there be the kind of scrutiny on that seat and other members of congress as we go into an election year for a guy

like this? howard: speak of media with scrutiny, you alluded to this earlier. "the new york times" broke the story about george santos hadn't graduated from these college, didn't play on the volleyball team, wasn't jewish, as you note. but that came after the guy was elected. so didn't the media, especially the new york media, really botch the coverage of this race? if it would have taken two phone calls to realize that a lot of this was made up. >> absolutely. and, look, even after he got here, you just show he up on capitol hill with a baby strapped to your chest walking around that nobody knows who it is, nobody knows where the baby is now. [laughter] it's the most bizarre behavior. from the campaign trail to the baby episode, i call it, the media didn't doha what they should -- didn't do what they should have done on going into who this guy was. and as "the new york times" did do a piece -- howard: yeah, belatedly -- >> -- you've learned this was pretty easily discoverable

stuff. howard: absolutely. five minutes. there was one local long island paper that published some of this. nobody picked it up because the race really wasn't being covered. a lot of congressional races -- his staff found out, urged him to drop out, but he refused. again, it's a classic case of things that the voters in that long island district should have known before, but the media had other priorities, and they didn't find out until it was too late. >> no. but people will be fascinated in what happens next with him. i mean, look, we haven't had this kind of episode since the salahis crashed a white house din everybody -- howard: i remember that. >> you know, we continue to follow them, she married a member of the band journey. what happens next with this guy, could he ever come back to congress? we'll see. he seems to be on this revenge tour, and he says, as i said in the begin, to hell with this place, but i think we haven't seen the last of george santos. >> there's all this light hearted coverage, will he get a reality show, and the -- he

could be in prison. i think you're already missing him, because he definitely provided plenty of fodder. griff jenkins, thanks so much. still to come, donald trump accuses msnbc of illegal activity, and elon musk tells advertisers to buzz off. ♪ mucinex instasoothe sore throat medicated drops. uniquely formulated for rapid relief that lasts and lasts. that's my babyyy! -ow! get mucinex instasoothe. it's comeback season.

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howard: donald trump loves to bash the media, yet his latest attack on truth social was largely ignored, msnbc is nothing but a 24-hour hit job on donald j. trump and the republican party for purposes of election interference. brian roberts, its chairman and ceo, is a slimeball. our so-called government should make them pay for their illegal political activity.

msnbc -- >> take this seriously. i mean, he's telling you what he wants to do. this is a man who wants to take power back telling you what his policy on news organizations he doesn't like is. howard: a cable channel that doesn't use government airwaves ising in fact, largely anti-trump, but there's nothing illegal about that. is the former president trying to signal that he'll crack down on news outlets he doesn't like? and after a gag order was lifted in the new york civil fraud trial, trump quickly defied it slamming the judge's wife for twitter attacks on him, but she's told "newsweek" she has no twitter account. elon musk still trying to contain the damage from his endorsement of anti-semitic conspiracy tweet claim. >>ing jewish communities are pushing hatred over white people that's continued to drive big with corporate advertisers away from twitter. so the x owner flaw to israel where bibi netanyahu showed him the damage from the hamas attack on a kibbutz.

>> i was having an emotionally difficult day to see the places where people were murdered and to also watch the video where the murderers are rejoicing. >> exactly. that's the worst part. howard: but wait, there's more. at a new york times forum, musk apologize ised and then went x-rated. >> essentially, i handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and argue arguably to those who are anti-semitic, and for that, i'm quite sorry. that was not my intention. if somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go [bleep] yourself. >> but -- >> go [bleep] yourself. howard: just to be clear. shouldn't musk be conciliatory toward advertisers upset about the anti-semitic post? that's not elon.

"sports illustrated" is in turmoil after a very tense staff meeting with a top editor related to his misuse of a.i. as disclosed by the site, hiring a can accounter who posted boy owes of people who don't exist. the magazine's spin is the company hired this firm which used pen names to protect the authors' privacy, actions we strongly condemn, says the magazine. and it's ended the partnership which sounds like "sports illustrated" knows it screwed up. henry kissinger, who just died, had a very mixed record helping build relations with china but also deeply immersed in the vietnam war. the uber-liberal huff post ran this screaming headline. fifty years after kissinger left office, left-wingers are still blasting president nix sop's secretary of state. war criminal was their label, but even with the secret bombing of cambodia, those decisions were ultimately made by nixon,

not kissinger. and a big scandal at the golden bachelor where 732-year-old jerry turner cried when speaking about the death of his longtime wife and also made this claim -- >> i'm a neophyte to this. i mean, i haven't dated in 45 years. howard: but the hollywood reiter interviewed a woman who says they lived and dated -- lived together and dated for two and a half years. imagine, a reality show fiddling with the facts. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. check out my daily podcast, media buzzmeter. i riff on the day's top five stories, and sometimes we squeeze in a few more. we are back here next sunday, 11 eastern, as we continue our war coverage. i was very happy to hear from general keane and trey yingst. we're the only media analysis on national tel. ♪ with easy, more affordable ways to ship. so you can deliver even more holiday joy.

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