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of left-wing commentators who are fans of joe biden, think he's been a good president but simply believe he's too old to run for a second eternal. more on that coming up. the networks called the south carolina race after a big media buildup within seconds last night as donald trump won a landslide 60% of the vote on nikki haley's home turf. it's just embarrassing to lose by that kind of margin where you were governor. there's no other way to view this other than a huge setback for her struggling candidacy. this time the former e president came out first. >> now there's a spirit that that i have never seen. we ran two great races -- [cheers and applause] but there's never been, ever, there's never been a spirit like this. >> we need to beat joe biden in november. finish i don't believe donald trump can beat joe biden. howard: haley had already served notice that she was staying in the race. >> of the same politicians who now publicly embrace trump

privately dread him. they know what a disaster he's been. i feel no need to kiss the ring. howard: but the most unusual moment was when she spoke about her husband. trump had vaguely taunted her about his absence, he's a national guardsman serving a 1-year deployment serving overseas. >> i wish michael was here today, and i wish our children and i could see him tonight, but we can't. he's serving on the other side of the world where conflict is the norm. howard: that emotional response was striking because haley is usually so scripted and disciplined. but it was too late to make a difference, a point that trump had driven home. >> you're not supposed to lose your home state, shouldn't happen anyway, and she's losing it big. howard: nikki haley can keep on

running, but the media will write her off losing her last real shot at stopping the coronation. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz". ♪ howard: joining us now to analyze the cover averages, mollie hemingway, editor-in-chief of the federalist, and richard fowler, radio talk show host. both are fox news contributors. i'm tempted to say what are we going to do for the next nine months, but trump wins iowa, new hampshire, nevada and now south carolina. can the media now basically declare the republican race over? >> well, it has been over for a fairly long period of time. this was a particularly humiliating loss for nikki haley in that she used to be the governor of south carolina, but it's a free country. she's allowed to run. nobody believes that she will win the nomination. she knows she's not winning the nomination. so as she continues running, i think the media should focus more on what her mote if vegas is. we know a lot of democrats are

supporting her both financially and in oral argument, but but why is she running? is it just to hurt trump, or is there something else involved? howard: well,ing you anticipated my question for richard which, by the way, new york times news story today did call it a coronation which i put in semi-facetiously. that's the question that news outlets keep asking on the air, in print, online and asking the candidate why is nikki haley still in this race. >> i think it is the right question to ask. and i think it's also worth looking at last night's numbers to get some takeaways of what is nikki haley's path understanding that she's very unlikely to win the presidential nomination for the gop. here's what you see, and every time she's run she's gotten about 40% of the vote. our recent fox news vote -- voter analysis e said 59% of the people who voted for nikki haley last night would not vote for donald trump in a donald trump potential re-election, sort of serves as this quasi-republican incouple. bent. howard: is she's a spokeswoman -- >> i what you've seen is trump

hasn't done much to expand his base. but how do i get more voters, how do i make up the 7 million voter gap that the i lost to in 2020. and if he's not expanding his base and there's more and more republicans saying, 59 of nikki haley voter s saying i will not vote for this guy -- 59% -- this creates a problem for him. and while he creates a new sneaker and thinks that's going to appease african-american voters, in policy he's failing when it comes to expanding the voter base. howard: well, the sneakers are selling like hot cakes. >> not true. hot. howard: there is a new york times piece just the other day saying that haley is hanging around in case trump deals over or he is convicted in up one of these criminal cases, and the exit polls from south carolina, similar to other states, say about a third of those said the would not support -- they would not support the former president if he's convicted, but there's a lot of ifs in there. >> yeah. nikki haley's not going to be

the republican nominee. there's just no way she's going to be the republican nominee. people do need to think what exactly is going on, why is she running, why are democrats so supportive of it. while there has been openness to someone other than donald trump, the more she continues this campaign, it will sour her with republican voters which is not good for her in the party. most people don't want joe biden to be the nominee -- howard: even among democrats. >> but they've closed ranks, and they're having a closed primary and not allowing debates or anything like that. the republican party should think about does it want to win, does it want to move on, or do they want to continue this? howard: well, as haley has increasingly sharped -- sharpened her criticism obviously former president, for a long time she was pretty mild, but when she's saying he's unhinged and he's in love with putin, he brings day yo -- chaos, has she alien may noted

republicans to the point where her future in the party is rather limitedded? >> well, i think you've got to be honest, and this is where i agree with mollish s e. i do think the former ambassador might be on some kind of kamikaze mission understanding that i likely will not run again. this is the end of it for me. but in this moment, i'm going to do everything in my power to call out the problems i have with former president donald trump. and like i said before, i think where she might have a little bit of runway to do something like that is that you haven't seen from the former president an expansion of his base. how do you go, how do you make up that 7 million vote delta that joe biden had in the past election. how do you talk to voters that reason will be with you. how do you talk to voters who voted for you in 2020, saw january 6th and decided you are no longer the president they're going to vote for. all of these things set up a world in, which -- >> yes, there's issues with joe biden and also with donald trump. howard: the former president, even when he was in office, always talked to the media even

when he was angry or using the media as a punching bag. >> right. and, you know, we talk about how joe biden did in the 2020 election are. but leading up to the 2020 election joe biden was winning in national polls by 10, 11, 12%. now he's down by those numbers. i mean, he's down significantly. so we're dealing with a very different situation and a very unique situation in that you have people in america being able to compare what life was like you should a trump presidency and what it's been like under a biden presidency, and that fully explains why so many people are supporting trump over biden. howard: you know, it is the oddest election i think i've ever covered in that i don't think any non-incumbent has swept the first four contests on the republican side. so all of the media geniuses who said trump was very vulnerable and somebody -- and if only we could just get one candidate against donald trump, they all turned out to be wrong. remember the whole, well, he -- he's not debating, and republican voters are going to punish him for that.

let me ask you -- have you take a step back, mollie, and then i'll come to richard. how does a man who many republican if leaders castigated after the events of january 6th, condemned by the media and -- how does he bounce back to the point where he not if only is winning the nomination, virtually has it won, but is clobbering everybody else who is in the field? >> hatred of donald trump by the media and even by the republican establishment has always been something of a feature, not a bug for donald trump. so the fact that people feel that way about a him does not hurt him with the american voters. americans do very much feel like the country is broken. they look around and see the border is broken, foreign policy is broken, the economy is broken, crime in american cities is broken. when they look out at the political landscape, they see a lot of status quo and that could be joe biden or nikki haley, but they see very few people who are looking at a tackling these issues in a different manner, and they already saw how he

handleed them differently in his first term. howard: joe biden could always argue that the economy is getting better. richard, is are the media upside estimated donald trump -- underestimated donald trump throughout this long campaign from the if four indictments, to civil fraud suit, the nato controversy? if most of which wound up helping him? >> look, i think it depends on who you're talking to, and i don't think the american people are a monolith. i think it depends on what swath of americans you talking to. while you do see the president doing well amongst his base or you do see the president sort of reshaping and owning the republican party because obviously he does, the problem the president really runs into is how do i appease new voters to come over to my camp and think i'm the best candidate. every poll says there's these big swath of voters, and i think it e matters how people vote in elections -- howard: you said e earlier -- >> wait, wait, wait -- howard: i'll let you finish, but you said trump was not making

much effort. >> no, he's not. and the past election in ohio, what we found was the number one demographic to vote to protect a woman's right to choose was not women, it was actually black men. black men voted to protect a woman's right to choose more than any other subgroup. this is a group that the trump campaign thinks they're winning over. >> you know, howard university just did a poll that showed donald trump's support among black men has tripled -- >> well, that's assumption their, mollirk e. >> take it up with howard university. and we just see in all of the national polls people are extremely dissatisfied with the biden administration and how it's handling these major problems. and you can, you know, i agree with you, it'll all come down to the polls, but we're definitely seeing some changes. >> the only reason i say it's illusion their is a poll is a snap if shot in time. in 2016 black men voted higher for trump than in 2020, but the idea that in this election they're going to entirely vote higher than they did in 2016 or

20 to 20 i think is illusionark a ry. howard: all rightful well, unlike last time, excuse me, donald trump didn't criticize nikki haley. he didn't even mention her. when we come back, the coverage of jim biden, the president's brother, called to testify how he made big bucks based on the family name. ♪ jeopardize my vision. it was hard, but taking preservision was easy. preservision has the exact clinically proven areds 2 formula recommended by the nei. i'm taking control like millions of others. ♪(song in french)♪ (♪)

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howard: there is no question that the president's brother, jim biden, made lots of money by trading on his last name. as politico reports, jim biden wrote to a florida hospital chain called americorps in 2017 that he wanted to help obtain some health care business saying this would be a perfect platform to expose my brother's team to your protocols, brother being the former vice president at the time. jim biden gave a closed door deposition before a house

committee the other day saying in an opening statement leaked in advance to the new york times, i have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures. joe biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities, none. now, what americorps paid jim biden $200,000, he turned around and wrote a check the joe insisting he was repaying a personal loan. americorps collapsed, the doj's investigating major allegations of medicare fraud. so, molli everything, these are serious allegations. a lot of money was involved. no question that his last name was something else, jim biden wouldn't have gotten this business. but also when he says it was just rea payment of a personal loan -- repayment of a personal loan, $200,000, do you question that? >> well, he was unable to provide any evidence that there was a loan or any interest paid. he said there was no documentation for this. he had a bunch of problems with his testimony. so you had what leaked to the new york times, but then, you know, where he said there's

never been any involvement in different things. he, he was confronted with claim, he said that he had never done this one particular business deal with hunter biden and tony bobulinski, and when they showed the paperwork with him signing off on it, he was, like, oh, i don't remember. there was also the issue where the chinese communist company gave diamonds to hunter biden, and he said he gave one to james biden, and james biden says he threw it away. this was kind of disastrous testimony. howard: okay. richard, this is the problem with closed door testimony, we get selective leaks without challenging the fact that he changed his accounts, hadn't had this deal with the chinese company with hunter or and his mart merit -- partners. what do you make of that statement being leaked many advance to the new york times and rather than coming out and making a short statement for the cameras? >> let's zoom out, there should be a documentary around the nepotism that happens in washington, d.c. and the nepotism that happens in every industry -- howard: i've covered a lot of presidential relatives. >> right. there's no difference here.

you see people taking advantage of somebody's last tame to benefit. the concern name to benefit. why this was more closed door testimony than open, blockbuster hearings in these particular cases is because there doesn't seem to be any clear connected evidence between this and the president of the united states. since 2018 when the senate was investigating this to now that the republicans are investigating this, we are nine months out from the presidential election, and there still isn't any bombshell evidence that gets you to a blockbuster hearing or potential filings of impeachment articles that could be disinfected in a courtroom. is and that's what lie bfers the oversight chief and the judiciary committee. they come on air over and over and over again, they continue to make these allegations, and there doesn't seem to be not clear evidence for them to subpoena anybody or to put the impeachment documents forward, and that's the problem for them -- hu hu well -- howard: well, that's why you have investigations. there certainly are are unanswered questions, mollie. and do you think also this warrants more news coverage?

>> oh, it's fantastically interesting stuff, to have the biden family business be i under investigation. and it's something that would be would be great if the media itself were investigating rather than working to run interference, which is usually what we see. but there is another problem other than just impeachment proceedings for joe biden which is the american people understand that the biden family benefited in really weird financial deals on the back of joe biden. and so they can claim that he had nothing to do with it, but you have all this evidence and people saying, yes, they were put on the phone with him, yes, they did meetings with him, you have text messages. nobody's ever explained what 10% for the big guy would mean if it weren't or puff joe biden. everyone just understands this is a family that has gained a tremendous amount financially with no explanation for why. howard: yeah. but the key question remains did joe biden himself benefit or just acquiesce in or allow? because they moved the goalposts a little bit saying he had no involvement with any financial

dealingsing, and i guess now his brother or hunter, but at the same time, you know, he certainly didn't have -- we don't know of anything other than any substantive conversations, but we do know that he had the lunches and so forth. >> so i do think when your children are benefiting financially, that is a benefit to you. you also have these texts that are written to owe biden, and you have no evidence to support the claims they were mere if loan e payments. howard: richard, given the complexity of these matters, is this breaking through to average voters? >> look, i think once again, like i said last segment, the american people aren't a monolith. a lot of americans would understand that joe -- hunter biden is not a boy scout. we could go further and say the president's brother is not a boy scout. but once again, we also know that they're -- everybody in their family isn't boy scouts. i think therein lies the problem. you can say that this is a bad actor, it's true, but there are also good actors in this family, and one of those in this movement until evidence proves otherwise is the sitting president of the united states. [laughter] >> there's another problem here

which is it's not just about the biden family business, but it's also about the department of justice and how hay seem to be running interference for joe biden and have been doing that for years even after they ran the russia collusion hoax which did so much damage -- >> knollie, until you can actually prove finite evidence that a connects the president to this, this is just another witch hunt put on -- howard: i've got to call aout here. not a boy scout is an interesting -- [laughter] term for a defense. richard fowler, mollie hemingway, thanks so much for join us. why big-name liberal pundits are pleading the joe biden to step aside, but first, media debate over the president sanctioning russia with the killing of alexei navalny. ♪ muck. ♪ muck hey, jen. i need skin advice. sure. am i ready for retinol? neutrogena® retinol? yes!

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howard: president biden having told reporters he'd unveil a major package of sanctions against russia over the murder of alexei navalny made the announcement friday. >> putin is responsible for alexei's a death. >> these sanctions frequently

make governments feel good because they add incrementally, but it's not clear that it's changing life for the russians as much as we'd like to advertise. >> the best way to accomplish that and avenge navalny's death is to push putin back out of ukraine, have him lose the war. howard: joining us now, griff jenkins, fox news correspondent and anchor. griff, was it inevitable that most of the media would say that these sanctions were minor or inadequate? >> yes, i think so. sanctions simply aren't working, and it's not just this administration. they're very difficult and it's a very complicated thing. the treasury department, howie with, has this office of foreign assets control, and that's where they put these sanctions. so the administration is telling us, you know, this is the steepest package of sanctions, 500 targets. they've actually got about 4,000, and i give them credit for it. but as general keane rightfully points out, at the end of the day the point of the sanctions

is to make putin feel pain and to stop his war machine. but as keane points out, russia grew their economy this past year by 3%, and their gdp defense spending is at%, twice what -- 9%, to twice what the u.s. spends. howard: bret baier spoke president zelenskyy. let's take a look. >> so will ukrainians survive without congress' support? of course. but not all of us. howard: i found that very chilling and, or obviously, the ukrainians are in a hole right now and running short on ammunition. but at the same time, as you point out, the sanctions because other countries are helping russia and putin to circumvent them, how much more could biden have done, he's done a lot of sanctions. >> that's right. you put your finger on it, howie, the most important of the story, and that is no matter how stiff or how large a package

sanction ises is on any country, in this case russia, when you have willing participants like china, india and brazil circumventing these sanctions, buying cheap oil in record amounts from russia, they're going to continue to prop up russia's economy and, ultimately, russia and putin's ability to wage war in ukraine at a critical moment when you've put the pieces together. the american u.s. military aid is stalled, and there's no indication that congress is going to get off the a bench and come to the rescue. howard: yeah. to wage a brutal war that he started without provocation. now, you're at the border a lot. why would the president is and his team leak to the new york times that he may crack down on asylum requests, quickly deport people who don't meet the new standards? after months of insisting that he doesn't have the power to do that? >> because almost every poll out there among democrats and all voters showed that 70, 75% of americans say biden owns this rye sis is.

we've -- crisis. we've been seeing the language change. what's fascinating, howie, what i'm watching for is this is a real watershed opportunity for joe biden to do through executive orders even more than what trump did. if you bring back remain in mexico, if you use a kind of nuanced section of the immigration naturalization act called 212f which is what trump used essentially for the travel ban to deny asylum for those who even still come across, that would do a lot. and biden probably, the big question is, does he have time. if he does these things let's say next week, will it crack down on the crossings and stop, clamp down on the crisis? who knows? howard: well, i would say just do it, don't leak it. but the thing i think that he's gauging is liberal backlash. many of his progressive supporters are not going to like this. griff jenkins, always great to have you on, thank you. next on "mediabuzz," more calls for joe biden to step

aside, and they're coming from media liberals. ♪ ♪ if i like to do things myself. i can't trust anything else to do the job right. kayak... aaaaaaaahhhh kayak. search one and done. feeling claritin clear is like... ♪ is she? playing with the confidence of a pro and getting all up in that grass as if she doesn't have allergies? yeah. nice.

howard: joe biden's been a good president, say pundits on the left, but after the special counsel's report saying he has a poor memory, even some of his fiercest supporters argue he's too old to run for a second term. new york times podcaster ezra kline says the president should go to the august convention and then bow out, letting the tell gates pick his replacement. do -- the delegates. >> he does not want to risk being ruth bader ginsburg. so -- to say this is a media intervention, that people are worried about biden's age because the media tell them to, this is not a thing people need the media to tell them to see. yes, i think he should find a way to step down as a hue row -- hero. howard: nate silver says it's legitimate to view his age as disqualifying. >> nate silver wrote a scathing peach saying in part, quote,

he's losing now and there's no plan to fix the problems other than hoping that the polls are wrong. >> i think think the smart money is that biden does not run in november. that's where i'd place my bet. >> look at these recent headlines, can democrats replace joe biden? after hur's biden age comment, could any democrats really take his place? could democrats replace biden as their nominee? if democrats might need a plan b. howard: others aren't buying the joe must go stampede. >> i've spent a good bit of time talking to joe biden one-on-one, on the phone throughout the presidency. i can tell you he is, he's more together on foreign policy if you sit and talk to him than anybody if else i've talked to. howard: joining us now in new york, caroline downey, a reporter for "national review," and in phoenix, lucy caldwell, an adviser to renew america. kay line, these are not media right-wingers i emphasize.

these are liberal pundits who say, oh, this is so agonizing but, hey, biden will be 86 at the end of his second term, and he should not run again. >> howie, thanks for having me back. like you said, legacy media is torn between feeling uneasy about biden's age and trying to deflect from it. "the new york times" has flooded the news cycle with stories about biden's frailty. the atlantic says biden looks more like a statue of himself tan alive. n npr says biden's age is his biggest vulnerability. but there's other media that's really mad if that this issue is now top of mind for voters. mother jones said biden's age has become a sensationalized black hole that's distracting from trump's alleged threat to democracy. so i think these mainstream publications see the delicate tight rope that democrats are walking with this. howard: a statue of himself, ouch. that hurts. lucy, maybe these liberal pun

admits are right, maybe they're wrong, but their not so hidden concern, a lot of them bring up the fact that he passed up the super bowl interview, evidence he's not running a, quote, normal campaign, their real concern is he won't be able to beat donald trump. >> well, yes. we've talked about the super bowl issue before and, yes, of course, this is a question of fitness in the general election and whether or not he will beat donald trump. but i would say with no disrespect to someone like ezra rah kline, this, i think, is a matter of media prognostication without sort of the reality that political operatives are thinking about when they think about what would it take to replace joe biden. we are where we are. joe biden is going to be the democratic nominee. people like ezra rah kline are saying things like, oh, we should instead just rechoose all of the delegates. do you know how absurd that is and how ridiculous it is to suggest that we would now shift geers and that there would -- gears and there would be basically a shadow election to reselect delegates, the house ol

delegates who will attend the dnc this summer? do you know what with kind of people are who attend the convention? probably not people who are going to create a moderating force in a general election -- howard: right. but the scenario is biden himself would throw open the coys of -- choice of a nominee. in terms of filing deadlines, nobody with -- nobody is going to take this away from president biden. but if he did do this at the con celeb, and personally, i think there's no chance. he's run repeatedly, but you would hen have kamala harris and gavin newsom and a bunch of democrats fighting it out which would be great for the press. journalists would love this, but then that person would have two months to mount a campaign against trump. >> with yeah. howie, like you said, the press would have a field day with that kind of circus. but i'm not so sure the democratic party establishment would benefit all that much from that, and, looking the fact is -- look, the fact electorally

speak swing voters are terrifieded of an octogenarian president. they've seen what that looks like so far. it's gaffes, it's slip-ups, it's incoherence, it's mumbling, and i think that's a national security threat to a lot of independents. but the risk is that democrats, if they publicly plead with biden to ten down and he doesn't voluntarily tire, that does a lot of damage to his nomination. and the robert hur report already did enough. at's why no big name has challenged him. i'm sure they've all thought about it, dreamed about it, fantasized about it but, or you know, income bent president of your own party, you could be throwing your career away. and, lucy, is now a backlash to backlash, by which i mean that biden loyalists like lawrence o'donald are say, oh, you want biden to -- okay, you want biden to back out? which other democrat would have a better chance, would have better numbers going up against donald trump? and it does raise the question of not what the numbers are today, but they would then, of

course, be the target of all kinds of attacks from the former president and the rnc. >> well, sure. i mean, i think that it's important to realize here that -- [laughter] that donald trump and joe biden in that matchup, we don't know how it's going to play out. there the have been a lot of hand-wringing on both sides, but there are a lot of indications including this quinnipiac poll that a came out this week that joe biden is in a pretty good situation. and as we near the general election, one of the things that we're going to see is it is going to hit voters concern. [laughter] in the face that this is going to be a matchup between joe biden and donald trump. donald trump continues to be himself. he's out saying egregious things all the time. this week donald trump said that black people are going to embrace him because they love his mug shot. that is so violently offensive. so we're going to see more more of a contrast between two old guys. and in terms of what caroline said, i would disagree with that. look, joe biden is old, i would not dispute the fact that he is old. when voters are asked do you

think joe biden is old, they say, yes. he is old. that is worrisome. that doesn't mean that they are not going to come home for joe biden. and the voters that we're talking about are what we call the double haters who ultimately did come home for him in 2020 and i think may very well. so i think that savvy democratic strategists are looking at this on balance and saying we're actually probably in pretty good shape. howard: well, both candidates obviously have their weak points. but meanwhile, let me get to this, a star witness in the biden impeachment inquiry, the now-indicted informant alexander smirnoff getting lots of coverage as jim comer soft pedaled his own probe in one interview but downplayed smirnoff's importance with sean hannity. >> as to whether or not we impeach joe biden over here or we just focus on holding him accountable, my goal is to get the truth out there and hold people accountable for wrong doing. that may encompass impeachment. if it doesn't, that's mine -- fine with me.

we wanted to investigate it, but with we never knew who the informant was. all we knew if was what christopher wray said,ing now the fbi arrested him for lying. it doesn't make sense. howard: so, caroline, this gets complicated, but how can the fbi charge that this man, smirnoff, fab i candidated among other things meeting with russian officials and then turn around and say that he got all this from russian intelligence in and also what took the fbi so long with an informant that it had vouched for as being reliable for 14 years? >> howie, look, i think at the end of the day we have to see what this is going to do for, you know, biden's will political prospects. that's e what -- all eyes are on 2024. and this kind of complicates things. it certainly undermines maybe the credibility of the proceedings, but i do think that there is demand among maybe a lot of american people for maybe impeachment proceedings because of biden's abdication of duty on

a number of different major domestic crises, the first one being the border which still weighs top of mind for many independents and moderates. and this is no end in sight. -- there's no end in sight. so i do think impeachment, it's still like a viable thing for republicans to pursue, but if the witnesses are -- go ahead. howard: well, it might be in terms of policy failures, and and that's not usually dealt with in impeachment, but here we have the focus on corruption. let me finish by asking lucy, when you have jim comer saying, well, maybe we'll impeach, maybe we won't, maybe we won't have a vote at all, are the media right in saying this indictment of the informant has kind of blown a hole in this investigation? >> well, of course it has. and, obviously, jim comer will find another reason to attempt to impeach joe biden. the impeachment, i think, will only rally the democratic base to biden and will only rally independents because of exactly what caroline just said which gives away the game, which is making the leap between dispute

and disapproval of policy positions to a witch hunt over supposed corruption of the president's son who is no boy scout, right? the. howard: yeah, or we all agree on that. hunter biden, not even jim bind, they're not boy scouts. they made a lot of money. after the break, why vladimir putin who just had his opponent killed is now a 2024 campaign issue. must be mechanic. ♪ ♪ ♪ seems like the road i'm on ♪ ♪ every sign ♪ ♪ just seems unclear ♪ ♪ ♪ and i, ♪ ♪ i wish i was here ♪ ya know, if you were cashbacking you could earn on everything with just one card. chase freedom unlimited.

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howard: after the tragickic murder of alexei navalny in a siberian gulag are, his widow, yulia, vowed to take over his campaign against the putin regime. >> translator: by killing alexei, putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul. but i still have the other half, and it tells me that i have no right to give up. howard: in a fox town hall, donald trump made more extensive comments about the killing of russia's opposition leader and related it to his own legal trials. >> he was a very brave guy because he went back. he could have stayed away, and it's a horrible thing. but it's happening in our country too. >> a lot of dough. >> it is a form of navalny, it is a form of communism or fascism. the guy's a mutt job. nut job is. howard: that last comment referring to judge engero in the

in the civil fraud case. and the pundits are divided. >> they scramble to put him in jail, bankrupt him and even come after his fall -- family. and, by the way, they brag about it. >> pretty up seemly to use navalny's name in this way. with trump it's always me, me, me. howard: caroline downey, donald trump says the death of navalny was horrible but stopped short of discussing the russian leader who the media, joe biden and multiple -- the rest of the world saw was responsible for his murder. if. >> right. that was a significant blind spot in his statement. trump likes to invoke his own circumstances whenever possible, but in this case many people felt it came off as tone deaf. and the fact is trump's treatment and navalny's treatment in russia are night and day even if trump is facing political persecution by lawfare in the u.s. russia, without question, is an authoritarian surveillance state

run by a maniacal, murderous dictator. and and so this gave the press a really prime opportunity to jump on this and portray trump like a heartless dictator sympathizer. and and it was easy to avoid. all he simply had to do was condemn putin in stronger terms. howard: yeah, right. and, lucy caldwell, trump says he was tough on russia a when he was president, but he is taking huge media flak for not saying anything about vladimir putin's role here. >> yeah. i mean, respectfully, when we refer to something like this as a blind spot, this isn't a blind spot of trump's. this is a feature, not a bug. donald trump has enjoyed being with cozy with vladimir putin. he has enjoyed being cozy with other dictators, and so what we see here is donald trump refusing to come out and condemn something that is really heartbreaking, heart a breaking, appalling -- harte breaking, appalling and reflective of the rise of authoritarianism

globally and that he is not going to be a part of the solution, he is going to continue to be part of the problem not only through his own self-involvement and self-abrantizement, but also his, in comparing himself to navalny or but also in his refusal to condemn the murder of navalny at the hands of vladimir putin. howard: yeah. and keep in mind that the kremlin earlier almost succeeded in poisoning navalny before he voluntarily returned to russia and was jailed. caroline, the media a are not just slamming trump, but any republican who sides with the former president and just gets tied up in the question of ukraine with funding as a putin ally. what do you make of that line of attack? >> i want to address lucy's insinuation with this alleged putin wing of the party that liz cheney and other pundits have claimed. it's the unfair because -- it's unfair because many republicans have always had foreign policy disagreements. there's always been division within the gop on that question. and so you can't really conflate

people sympathizing with putin and those who are simply asking that more attention be dedicated to domestic crises plaguing this country whether that's finish. >> [inaudible] [laughter] howard: lucy, let me just jump in. biden met with navalny's widow, yulia, we have a picture that the white house put out. and his mother, navalny's mother, says that the kremlin pressured her to accepting her son's body with which she now has by agreeing to a secret funeral, otherwise they would let the body decome pose. so if any -- decompose. so if any if situation calls for denunciation of putin and his thugs, i would think this would be it. >> yeah. and, of course, we know that the russians really, really delayed getting that body to the navalny family because they were likely hiding the fact that he had been murdered, right? it was the not a situation where he just died from, you know, mall neuroifishment or from a fast or whatever. it is exactly the kind of thing that everyone, all of us

regardless of political stripes, should be condemning. and this is not a moment to bring up, you know, differences among domestic policy, etc. you would say that is for another day. condemn, condemn, condemn the murder of alexei navalny at the hands of vladimir putin. howard: all right. i will agree with that, that, you know, our domestic politics is messy, but this is an absolute outrage, world outrage. so good to have both of you, kay line downey and lucy called we'll. still to come, joe biden's angry with the new york times, jon stewart responds to his critics, and a legal battle over the eagles' lyrics. ♪

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howard: it was on this program last week that i talked about jon stewart's return to the daily show and how liberal viewers didn't like him spending

more time mock joe biden's memory issues than donald trump's own issues. well, stewart, who hosts only on mondays, felt compelled to respond to the left-wing criticism. >> quite frankly, the response to the first show last monday was universally glowing. [laughter] receiving massive backlash from democrats -- [inaudible] [laughter] tweeted after nine years away, there's nothing else to say to the jon stewart bashing biden except please make it another nine years. sorry, but i won't be watching you either. [laughter] >> okay. i mean, we're just talking here. and ma rrly -- martha:ly trump tweeting not only is it not funny, it's a potential disaster for democracy. >> it was -- [inaudible] if. howard: first rule of television, jon, you can't please everyone. president biden is extremely upset with how "the new york

times" covers the age issue, so says publisher a.g. salzburger, telling the reuters journalism institute we are going to continue to report fully and fairly not just on donald trump, but also on president joe biden. he is an historically unpopular incumbent and the oldest man ever to hold this office. we've reported on both those realities extensively. meanwhile, a mild new york times fact check led to this appeal by msnbc analyst claire mccaskill. >> i move that every newspaper in america quits doing any fact checks on joe biden until they fact check donald trump every morning on the front page. it is ridiculous that the new york times fact checked joe biden on something. howard: i know she's a former democratic senator, but ridiculous? no biden fact checks? come on. ♪ welcome to the hotel california. ♪ such a lovely place, such a

lovely face ♪ howard: hotel california and other big hits by the eagles are the subject of new york trial. back in the '70s, an author obtained 100 pages of handwritten early lyrics from drummer don henley's malibu home. decades later the writer sold the papers to a manuscript dealer, glenn horowitz. now prosecutors say he and two other men conspired to possess stolen property valued at more than $1 million. they say they didn't know it was stolen. don henley says he tried to buy the stuff back but refused when the asking price went to $90,000. that's no flea bag hotel. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." we like to rock and roll with the show with the news, now with the actual eagle's lyrics. see you next sunday right here, same time, same place. meanwhile, at a vrbo...

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