♪ ♪ howard: it was a moment when the

shock of to have the attempted assassination of donald trump 48 hours earlier had not worn off when the calls for national unity clashed with the finninger if-pointing over inflammatory rhetoric when we got our first glimpse of the former president of the united states, his ear bandaged where the gunman's bullet came within millimeters of taking his life. >> he will be the next president of the united states. ,. [cheers and applause] if. ♪ howard: it was the an electric scene at the republican convention in the milwaukee which was also excited over trump's vp pick, j.d. vance, who was battling largely negative commentary from the press. journalists constantly recycled the ohio senate's blistering criticism from 2016 when he denigrated trump, and vance hit back at the media establishment. >> you text that trump is a cynical a-hole like nixon who wouldn't be that bad and might even prove useful and that he's

america's hitler. >> i bought into the media's lies and distortions. i bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. it was a joke. howard: prierntiond who called trump the night of the shooting, used a rare oval office address to appeal for a lowering of the temperature. >> there's no place in america for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. if period. no to to exceptions. no exceptions. we can't allow this violation to be normalized. howard: on that even media partisans can agree. but biden, while battling covid, is also trying to beat back an increasingly loud campaign of leaks as chuck schumer, nancy pelosi let it be known they're trying to pressure him out of the race. all while the convention spotlighted a republican matter for if uni-- more unified than ever behind donald trump. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ if muck. ♪

♪ howard: donald trump's speech began with what he calls the painful story leading to plenty of on-air debate. >> i started to, like this, urn to my right and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which i'm very lucky i didn't do, when i heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard. on my right ear. there was blood pouring everywhere, and yet in a certain way i felt very safe because i had god on my side. >> but the real thing was the emotion. what it showed was that a this man, this extraordinary man after those extraordinary events on saturday has got the republican party 100% behind

them. -- him. >> this was about lulling you into thinking that somehow this man has changed. he has not. he still wants to be a dictator on day one. >> not only did he survive an attempt on his life, put his first up, get to milwaukee and give a 90-minute if speech, he displayed a side of grace. >> oh, my god, it was flabby and windy and flat. 932 minutes? -- 92 minutes in somewhere in hell fidel castro is jealous. >> i think he's more emotional than we've ever seen him in the years of covering this week or, certainly. from there he quickly went off script. howard: joining us now, robby soave, senior editor at reason magazine, and maggie boyle where the "wall street journal." robby, i found donald trump's recounting of what happened to be absolutely riveting. but the media weren't exactly high on the rest of the 932-minute speech which ended after midnight. >> right. which isn't surprising because

the media's often a very critical of the remarks that donald trump makes. i found it to be, yes, like i yo said, gripping. we were all paying very close attention the first part, then it was much like he is at his rallies, going off the script, talking about the issues that are important to him, that he thinks are important to the base, and his audience, his supporters love that kind of performance. so i was not surprised that he did it. i think it's clear he's trying to make a contrast between joe biden who can't be expected to to get through a single sentence at this point, he wanted to show that he can talk for 90 minutes -- howard: well, he did show that. >> his supporters loved it. did the media want to to to go to bed? it's his big moment. i wanted to go to bed, but that was what a he was going to do. so i found the criticism very strange. howard: molly, you were in milwaukee, and i think most of the media found a stark contrast between trump's some somber tone and the second half it wasn't just crazy nancy pelosi, biden worst president ever, throw out

the cases against me. were you struck by that contrast as well? >> absolutely. it was like two different speeches. and as you could tell from the tape, i was in the hall, this is a giant hall with thousands of people in it, but when he was telling that story, you could have heard a pin drop. it was almost an intimate silence because people were so moved by what he was saying. and then he very quickly reverted to form and started giving his normal rally speech, almost as if he were picking up where he'd left off in pennsylvania when he was so rudely interrupted. and i will say, you know, some people remarked there were many moist eyes in the beginning of of the beginning of his speech, there were a few closed eyes by the end of the speech. you could see the delegates, some physically leaving, some getting bored. paragraphs it was a show of -- perhaps it was a show to of vigor, it was very much a trump speech. and we had been in the previews that were put out by the campaign and so forth led to believe that the whole speech

would be a very different tone, and it certainly start out that a way -- howard: right. >> even to the point where the campaign said that he wouldn't say joe biden's name, and thenning, of course, he couldn't help himself and he did, even remarking on that while he was speaking. so people, obviously, noticed this is a man who is who he is and can't help himself. howard: at the rally last night, trump said i took the a bullet for democracy. it's inevitable and perfectly fair for him to talk about the attempt on his life, but robby, the vast majority of journalists believe donald trump is a threat to democracy. so even though they would sympathize with somebody who had been shot, might be, with a heart whether you like or or don't like trump, his policy, whatever, can they now from this point cover him fairly? >> well -- [laughter] have they been covering him fairly -- howard: you're saying why should it change. >> yeah, wrong that's going to change. i think it's not how they're handling trump, but how they're

handling biden. biden is now getting -- he's now getting the same level of scrutiny that donald trump has gotten since he arrived on the political scene. i would never expect hem -- them to be fairer or nicer to trump although, yes, i think even people in the media were struck by what happened -- i mean, we've with all been struck by it as a nation. it was an unthinkable thing. it's horrible, it's horrifying. we're all, you know, or still reckoning, still in shock -- howard: yeah. i think that's true. i still can hardly believe that it happened and, by the way, i don't care about the gunman's motives because it turned out he was also researching biden, so maybe he was willing to kill anybody. trump's whole persona, molly, has been fight. i'm being persecuted, and they're coming after you, or i'm just in the way. he can be very disciplinedded as i found when i interviewed him at mar-a-lago. do you think we will still be sliding back to trump -- of the people and the media a will

continue to be tough and/or depending on your point of view overly negative toward the former president? >> well, look, i think the convention obviously was aimed at resetting public perceptions of trump. and you had a lot of people in the speeches leading up to his testifying to him being supposedly a different person than you've been told, you know? trying to humanize him, trying to cast him in a different light. but this is someone who is, has been for a long time one of the most well known and polarizing figures in not just american politics, but american culture. and i think you see that in the way that the polls have not moved that much even in the wake of joe biden's disastrous debate performance not to mention the assassination attempt on president trump. it is just an electorate that has had its mind made up about him for a very long time. so i don't think it really even matters that much how the media portrays him because people have opinions about donald trump, they have been watching him for a long time. they know what they think about

the him, and he is behaving in largely the same way, so there just hasn't been that much reason for people to reconsider what they already believe. howard: yeah. there's certainly an argument to be made that the race is kind of frozen even though trump is leading in various battleground state polls. these are two of the most well known people on the planet, and in the case of joe biden he's been in politic for 50 years. a couple of msnbc hosts are floating conspiracy theories. how do we know what really happened to his ear, and was that really shattered from as that blood keyed his face? if -- blood keyed his face? >> they are obsessed with this idea that it wasn't the bullet, it was the glass fragment. yeah, joy reid has been talking about this constant hi and some others. i know initially when it happened i i saw some reporting on that, but i think now they've said, trump has put out a statement the, it was the bullet. it count matter or change the gravity of what happened --

howard: there's a photograph by a new york times photographer, i believe, that you actually see the bullet's trajectory. so i don't understand -- >> it's pretty conclusively determined it was a bullet, but i think what joy and others are trying to do on the left side of things is somehow subtract from what a harrowing moment it is and the optics of the photograph oring something. it seems very, i don't know, i don't know why they think that's a good idea. it shows this cupid of irresponsible misinformation, blah, blah, blah, which we're always being told is only shared on the right. no, no, there are partisans on the left engaged in the exact same -- howard: right. well, it look like if you just landed here from mars and you turned on the tv, you would say it looks like trump is substantially ahead, perhaps on track to win. the delegates were ecstatic, the convention was unified. it's supposed to be the other way around if you go back 6-8 months. when the media repeat that again and again, does it become a

self-fulfilling prophesy? regardless of how grounded in reality it might be, trump's going to win? >> i think what the media is reflecting reality, you know? trump has been ahead in this race for most of the time that we've been tracking it. and and that really hasn't changed, and so we report that accurately. it was a very unified convention. this is absolutely -- i've been to several political conventions at this point, and i can hardly remember one that felt more not just unified, but sort of jubilant. in part because of that expectations, you know, people e they're on a winning course. now things can change in politics. polls are a snapshot, not a prediction, but i think we in the media have been correctly informing our audiences that this is how things look right now. it certains -- certainly looks like trump's on a glide path, and he continues to get these lucky breaks whether it's the documents case being dismissed as the convention opened on

monday, the supreme court decision before that, the president coming down covid on -- with covid on wednesday. so many of the delegates there particularly given the republican republicans' very strong religious base felt there was a sense of destiny -- howard: the biden intervention -- divine intervention, yes. very briefly, do you think trump and his team really want to run against joe biden? >> yes. howard: i do too. robby? >> oh, yes. certainly. howard: that's why they keep saying all the delegates are voting -- >> there's something to that. howard: i'm not dismissing it. >> the elites want joe out. to. howard: when we come back, how the media are piling on j.d. vance, and later what was the secret service thinking? ♪ ♪

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howard: j.d. vance has a lot going for him, ex-marine, yale law school, tech entrepreneur, but as we noted, an old trail of anti-trump comments. >> there's a movement to sort of gloat over the fact that the elites were right about donald trumping right? i'm a never if trump guy. i never liked him. there is definitely an element of donald trump's support that has its basis in racism or xenophobia. howard: and his selection triggered very mixed reactions. >> it's maga now and maga in the future, and that's what donald trump is interested in. >> he says that democrats' criticism of trump led directly to that assassination attempt. despite the fact that he himself called trump america's hitler. >> it's not entirely clear to me that a people look at him and say, now, that's a president. >> you're going to see j.d. vance with a blow torch taken to him. >> they consider vance a threat because, like trump, he's unbowed and undeterred by their

baseless attacks. and his life story isn't just compelling, it really connects. howard: then the ohio senator had his say. >> i grew up in middletown, ohi- [cheers and applause] a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their that hands and loved their god, their that many i -- their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts. howard: robby, are j.d. vance's 2016 attacks on trump fair game for the media? and, by the way, as we saw earlier, he's blaming the media, bought into the media's lies. do you think many pundits have a chip on their shoulder about the guy? >> i think it's fair to bring that up, obviously, he did say those things -- howard: sometimes in front of a camera. >> and he did attribute harsh, rhetoric to being partly responsible for the shooting, and though our knowledge of the shooter seems to suggest it's not political. that said, virtually every single person in the republican party has taken the same journey

from trump skeptic or create into dieharder fan. this isn't going to the make anyone who's maybe going to vote say, oh, wait, i can't trust this guy because he changed his mind. everyone changed their mind, and trump has more control, there's less dissension in the rank ranks than ever before. everyone at the convention totally behind him. that's really the the thing to report on, that trump after eight years, after everyone turned on him multiple times in the party for access hollywood, after january 6th, he has greater control, he's more beloved by republicans at every level than ever before, and that's really the phenomenon. howard: it's a remarkable political comeback if you use january 6th as the starting point. >> napoleonic. howard: yeah. my sense is that many in the press think j.d. vance -- i wonder if you think that portrait or that sense of him is

is off mark. >> well, look, i think this is j.d. vance's introduction to america. howard: right. >> he's been a little known figure to this point. his book was certainly quite famous, but -- howard: he was not a household name unlike, say, marco rubio. >> so he's being introduced to the country, he's being vetted and it's our job to be skeptical, not to simply tell the story he wants to tell, but to tell the whole story, warts and all, and this is clearly part of it. think about why j.d. vance was being interviewed in 2016 to to begin with. it was because his book was sort of seen as a skeleton key to trump's appeal. he was viewed as someone who understood why trump was successful even if he didn't like trump himself. and when i interviewed ised him when he was running for senate in 202211, that was his explanation for why i came around. i always understood why people liked -- liked trump, and and gradually i began to see he was actually someone who could successfully speak for these people who believed in him and

who i always understood why they believed in him. so i find that explanation rather plausible. but as robby said, it's certainly fair to bring it up. howard: well, he did in his speech seem calm and conversational. he's talked about his childhood above sixer his mother's drug addiction, but now the cover average has shifted to, well, y.d. vance favors a national ban on abortion -- which he did at one point. neither of them mentioned abortion in their speeches, but isn't it the job as vice president, assuming they would win, to sport the president's position in -- to support the president's position? at what point do you not care enough what the running mate's positions were because his job is to get in line with the boss? >> welsh certainly. and donald trump has rewritten the agenda to de-emphasize the national abortion plan. think the media coverage of. >> d. vance's views, yeah, they made a lot about his cultural views, his social views, how he would have handled the election

differently. actually, his use on economics are in line with what you used to the think of as the kind of democratic, progressive view. he supports -- trump does too -- tariffs. he's actually called a very top democratic biden staffer, lee a that if khan, head of the ftc, he said she's doing a remarkable job. i found that interesting, and maybe that would be something even for the liberals on msnbc -- howard: he's unorthodox in some ways. >> he loves the lord of the rings which, you know, rachel maddow said was a far-right hard harbinger. howard: we have about a minute. vance would say the media and the democrats are part of the coastal elites. nobody likes the heats. they don't understand the small, imabove rich -- impoverished, midwestern towns. and since you've interviewed him, would he have a point given his unique background? >> well, i think that was why "hillbilly elegy" was such a sensation, because those very coastal recents were surprised

by the results of the 2016 election and were looking for someone to explain to them this foreign if country, and j.d. vance was someone who came from that place, you know, came from not appalachia, but middle america and had spent a lot of time in appalachia where his roots were and could explain the views of those people. so i think his coming to fame based on the book was, in fact, a reflection of the curiosity that a lot of elites had about a part of the country that they sort of admitted they didn't understand. howard: and, of course, it would be the instant the front-runner for 2028. maggie, robby, thanks so much for coming by this sunday. up next, the reporter who was at the attempted assassination on the mounting evidence of a secret service fiasco. ♪ clearchoice dental implants makes every day... a "let's dig in" day... mm. ...a "chow down" day... a "take a big bite" day...

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crowd mixed in -- howard: alexis mcadams joins us now from grand rapids, michigan. alexis, when you heard the pop, pop, pop, were you sure they were gunshots? and when you looked at that building, 135 yards away, were you struck by how close the gunman was able to get? >> reporter: well, howie, i can't believe that we're talking about a football field away on a rooftop this guy was able to climb up there and fire shots at the former president. so in those first minutes when we heard those pops, i thought maybe that a they were fireworks. and i think some people in the crowd did too until then you heard those shots from the sniper take that guy out on the roof. and then there was some chaos and people tried to get down and take cover because somebody was able to get that close to the former president with this secret service principle her, people thought is there going to be a second gunman. so people kind of tried to get down on the ground.

but then the secret service was able to move in, and it felt like a lot longer than it really was for the former president to come back up. when he went down behind that podium, i wasn't sure if he was even alive at that point, so really a scary situation. howard: absolutely. now, the more we learn about the secret service handling of this, the more it's just inexplicable. so they decided that that this building, close as it was, was outside their perimeter, and they would turn it over to the local police who don't have the manpower or the expertise. at the same time, the secret service saw the gunman who we're not naming but lost track of him a couple people told the cops they saw somebody climbing the tower, and the washington post reporting today that top secret service officials were repeatedly denying trump's request for additional resources for screening and snipers. no one warned him. what's your rah reaction to all of that? is. >> reporter: yeah. well, hearing too in jesse watters' interview with the former president, he's

reflecting back, if if he hadn't turned his head just by millimeters the talk about that graph on the screen, he would have been shot and killed. he said he end up hearing about those people in the crowd that were alerting not the local law enforcement, possibly state law enforcement saying, hey, somebody's up on the roof or this kid is acting really odd. so i think people are wondering, including the former president and his team, how was this allowed to happen? you're talking about one of the most important people in the country, let alone the world, up there on stage, and you're going to let somebody get up on a rooftop? one more thing the just in terms of where this was. where the former president was speaking when all those people were coming into that crowd whether they were in the stands or not, they had to go through, basically, airport-like security. we did too. they got wanded down. but behind where trump was talking was basically a neighborhood. there was a retention pond and some other setups where this guy was just able to park his van

that we all know had explosives -- howard: let me jump in because you mentioned jesse watters interview airing monday evening, 8 eastern, and here's what the former president had to say about this. >> how did somebody get on that roof, and why wasn't he reported? because people saw that he was on the roof. you had trumpers scream ising. the woman in the red, in the red shirt, she was screaming there's a man on the roof. and other people, a man on the roof who's got a gun. and that was quite a bit before i walked onto the stage. howard: and secret service chief kimberly cheatle resisting republican demands that she step down. just quick reaction to the president, former president, recounting what happened. >> reporter: i think it's so emotional to hear him speak. like at the rally here in grand rapids last night, he said i shouldn't be here. he knows he was basically saved by, he thinks, god. so i think he's even reflecting

on how this was allowed to happen, and people in the crowd want to know what went wrong here because more people could have been killed. and that poor fireman who was gunned down in front of his family, it's horrible. howard: i think the whole country and the whole world wants to know what happened here. alexis mcadams, thanks so much for your reporting. next on "mediabuzz," democratic leaders using a gusher of leaks to pressure president biden to step aside. mug. ♪ this is steve's stomach, where voquezna can kick some acid, heal acid-related damage to the esophagus called erosive esophagitis, and relieve related heartburn. voquezna is the first and only fda-approved treatment of its kind. 93% of adults were healed by two months. of those healed, 79% stayed healed. and voquezna can provide heartburn-free days and nights. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. don't take if allergic to voquezna or while on products with rilpivirine. voquezna may cause serious side effects

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howard: it's been a calculated campaign of democratic leaks turning private conversations into news stories abc, axios with, major papers and web sites saying party leaders want president biden to step aside as a likely loser. when chuck schumer, hakeem jeffries, nancy pelosi could not the convince biden, they made sure their warnings became public with journalists quoting unnamed sources. >> he's going to make the decision that he needs to go and

this he's not going to be able to hold off. >> many seniormost officials inside the white house expect biden campaign privately believe at this point that the president does both need to drop out. >> nbc news is now learning that members of president biden's family have talked about what an exit from this campaign might look like. howard: this as biden was trying to demonstrate his competence in a press conference and sit-downs with nbc and bet. >> look, i wouldn't have picked vice president trump, to be vice president finish. >> could you reconsider your decision to stay in the race? >> no, unless they came back and said there's no way you can win. [inaudible] because i named a, the secretary of defense, the black man. why doesn't the press talk about all the lies he told? >> we have reported many of the issues that that finish. >> no, you haven't. no, you haven't -- >> we'll provide you with 'em. >> god love you. howard: joe biden now blaming

the media just like the republicans. joining us now in new york, rich lowry, editor-in-chief of national review, and kevin corke, fox's senior national correspondent, with the president in rehoboth beach. rich, nancy pelosi probably the key player, but some of these other top democrats are now making sure that the press gets the story. even barack obama telling allies that he can't see his former vp winning, that that biden seemed disoriented when last he saw him. so why don't they go public instead of this drip, drip, drip of leaks? >> well, because they prefer that he got the point, got the point privately. so this is, howie, this is one of these stories where, yeah, people use anonymous leaks for underhanded agendas. but it's the subterranean story that's more important than what everyone's saying publicly, because pelosi at least not yet is going to say i don't think he's up for this and i want him to go. right? she's not going to say that.

biden's not going to say i'm furious at these people betraying me, right? no one's going to say that. so the only way you going to get it is through the leaks. and fat that is correct that these -- and the fact that these private conversations were leaked, you know, they're an inch away from going public. howard: yeah. you do have more people going public, joe manchin, sherrod brown, adam schiff, and at least they're saying it publicly or in front of a camera. kevin, reports in axios reporting a person close to biden as saying we're close to the end. it's a matter of when, not if. and then some other white house source denies it, and others say it's the up in the air. how do we figure out the pieces of this puzzle? >> look, i think the president is recalcitrant. he doesn't want to go, and i think he knows who's behind all of the leaks. and the truth is it's sort of like catnip for journalists. and what happens is they feel like they got a little insight, they got a little scoop, some clicks.

at the same time, i think they're being used by those who really would like to move away from the if president and give what they believe the democratic party a better shot come november, howe -- howie. howard: yeah. a new ap poll says two-thirds of democrats are opposed to the second term for the president. donor ifs are holding back must be. and i thought, well, maybe widen is digging in, the campaign manager was on msnbc, we can put that the up. that said to me, well, you you don't put her out there and then drop out the next day. so, rich, how would you say biden has fared in these interviews and that a news conference? >> it's been the worst news cycle for any presidential candidate in memory. and it's been extend thed over time, right? if it's not just been a couple days, it's been weeks now. so you had the combination of the press feeling as if it was lied to about his condition, although a lot of them knew about it and just didn't report it. and now having their scales fall from the their eyes and just

seeing the condition of this guy. and the fact this the interviews objectively have been terrible. i mean, these are the worst interviews and events any president of the united states has ever done, and only because there's a diminished standard that biden himself is creating. oh, it's not so bad. it's been horrible, and i think everyone recognizes that. howard: i've got a new abc poll here in which after the convention and, of course, the attempt assassination, trump is at an all-time high, 40% favorable, up about 9 points, and biden's favorability, 32%. so, ken, rich make -- kevin, rich makes a good point. many blame the media what saying, well, you know, biden's decline has been obvious. we've certainly watched it on tv. but as you know, journalists were not let within 50 yards of the guy most times except for a few shouted request questions here and there, and now we know why he was kept away from reporters and more interviews. >> 100%. listen, if you're the times, if

you're the post and you expect sort of this regular interaction with the president of the united states, a decent sit-down and you don't get it, you should be asking questions, why haven't we been able to secure something like that? i think you're right, i think people knew. but what i don't think happened, howie with, the general public perhaps. because, again, he was shielded. maybe they didn't know the extent to which the president had cognitive decline or apparent cog anity decline, and i think that's why there was such shock and outrage. and now they thought, probably, hey, he did the sate -- state of the union, he can do it again. now they know that's not the case. howard: yeah. there was even -- even when the interview was relatively okay, he'd talk about vice president trump or something and mix up the names. rich, just to elaborate on what you were saying earlier, you wrote in national review this is embarrassing, we've never seen a president like this. he's getting a passing grade because the standard for judging his performance is now so

abysmally low. let me turn that around. is it possible, like, dan quayle when he ran for vice president that every single misstep, every single mixed-up maim is jumped on because -- name is jumped on because everybody's on high alert for another sign of bind's decline and maybe we're going too far with some of this? >> i don't know. i think there's normal speaking, we all do it, and this is something different. we've never seen a president of the united states have to be led around by other leers or former -- leaders or former presidents. and everyone kno knew this, howie. i'm not a white house insider. no democratic donors are coming to me in a state of panic, but i knew because i saw it. you had a lot of the media had created this conventional a wisdom that biden was being smeared and all these videos were so-called cheap fakes. the ap did a fact check of that the hollywood freeze-up at that fundraiser where obama led him off by the hand. it turns out clooney and others

were freaked out and saw the same things we did, they just wouldn't say it. and too many reporters didn't report it. howard: yeah. no, everybody says it and they get on tv. just very briefly, kevin, cnn reports that biden is seething at nancy pelosi. new york times, he's very upset with obama. obviously, these are leaks from the biden camp. >> well, listen, howie, he's been around this town an awful a long time. he's done a lot of high-placed democrats a lot of favors. sometime you expect a bit of relate processty, but sometimes as they say in the movies, it's not personal, it's just business. howard: it's business. all right. let me get a break, and when we come back, kamala harris, is she waiting in the wings? ♪ ♪

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sore throat, common cold symptoms, flu or flu-like symptoms, back pain, high blood sugar, and redness, pain, or bruising at the injection site. we won't let another heart attack set us back. and neither should you. listen to your heart. lower your ldl-c and your risk with repatha. talk to your doctor. howard: with major media outlets all but declaring joe biden is probably, sort of definitely getting out of the race, what would happen if the president does decide to to step aside? kevin corke in reto 40 bos, if there is an open convention and someone beats out camilla a harris, would there be an uproar in the party that the number two on the ticket with the president, a black woman, is passed over -- kamala harris? >> reporter: if that happens, they're done. i don't mean done in november; i mean they're done for an awful long time. the idea that a black woman would be passed over, the way it would be perceived in the community would be devastating

not just to the 2024 the campaign, but probably for quite a long time for democrats. if it's not joe, it will be kamala or else. howard: well, the other day the vice president took her kids to an ice cream shop opened by tyra banks, i should add a, in d.c. and all three cable news networks took it live with headlines like -- i'm sorry, with headlines like harris gets ice cream as pressure mounts on biden. that shows you the level of interest. but, rich, whether it's kamala harris or gretchen whitmer or gavin newsom or kentucky governor andy bashir, is it a flaw in the media hand my capping that -- handicapping that they haven't been attacked yet? if one of them were to emerge as the nominee, or their standing is never going to go down because they would be hit with all this opposition research, not experienced enough and all that. >> yeah. let's take a step back, howie. this whole story has been terrible for the country, but for journalists, there's been no

better ricin donald trump. you don't know how it's going to turn out, and it's hugely consequence, everyone -- consequential, obviously, a lot of cable producers think they know how it's going to turn out. and if it's kamala, at least initially the media a bump for her will be huge. i mean, she'll be on the cover of vogue every month until election day -- [laughter] they'll really puff her up, you know? obviously, she has flaws, to put it mildly, as a candidate. but she will get no matter how bad biden's coverage has been the last three weeks, hers will be much, much -- you know, ten times better than that on the other end if it's actually her. howard: yeah. that's an excellent point. i just think, you know, to handicap it now without the the idea that, you know, there'll be, you know, concerted everett on both sides to -- effort on both sides to define whoever the nominee is. kevin, one story that joe biden clearly wanted leaked was his point for supreme court term limits and his stricter ethics

code because he talked about it in a zoom call with the progressive congressional caucus. how much more confident could you be with somebody on a call would make sure that the rest of the world knew about that? >> they definitely know how to use their friends in the media, and let's be honest, he knows that's not likely to happen particularly if you read the tea levs -- leaves with respect to congress and the senate. that said, we used to call it red meat for the party, it's perfect catnip for democrats. it's the right thing to say even if it never happens. but they're using the media in this way, howie, at the same time they're not always able to count on them to carry their water, and they're finding out especially now that's especially difficult. howard: rich, i want to touch on judge aileen cannon tossing out the classified documents case because of how jack smith was appointed a although every other special counsel going back to robert mueller and robert hur in the hunter biden counsel was

named the same way. so a lot of critics are questioning throwing the whole case out. >> first of all, it just shows as far as a lot of the media's concerned the sole responsibility of anyone involved in this case to hurry it up and make sure it happens before the election. and if she hadn't done that. i think this is a legitimate issue. he is a little different than the others. but she has been vilifieded and now has become the main villain in this piece at least for the time being. howard: well, constitutional argument as aside, kevin, i've just got half a minute, almost every ruling she has made has been in donald trump's favor. [inaudible conversations] >> without a doubt. yeah, exactly. i think you're spot on on that,s and i think that will also feed the fire for november. but i don't think it will happen between thousand and the election, so it'll just be moot. we'll find out soon. howard: i never thought it was going to happen between now and the election especially given the built-in delays, but that's lawyers for you with.

rich lowry, kevin corke, thanks so much. still to come, the morning joe hosts furious at being knocked off the air, rfk jr. apologizes to the former president and donald trump jr. versus msnwc.lt ♪ -h,- ms, this bc. han ♪ so his doctor prescribed austedo xr— a once-daily, extended-release td treatment for adults. ♪ as you go with austedo ♪ austedo xr significantly reduced dan's td movements. some people saw a response as early as 2 weeks. with austedo xr, dan can stay on his mental health meds— (dan) cool hair! (vo) austedo xr can cause depression, suicidal thoughts, or actions in patients with huntington's disease. pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have sudden changes in mood, or have suicidal thoughts. don't take if you have liver problems, are taking reserpine, tetrabenazine, or valbenazine. austedo xr may cause irregular or fast heartbeat, or abnormal movements. seek help for fever, stiff muscles,

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howard: when the networks resume ised regular programming the monday after donald trump was almost assassinated, msnbc's morning joe was kept off the air, but all the other hosts anchored their regular shows. >> we were told in no uncertain terms on sunday evening that there was going to be one news feed across all nbc news channels yesterday. that did not happen. we don't know why that was, didn't happen or team was not

given a good answer as to why that didn't happen, but it didn't happen. we were very is surprised, we were very disappointed. howard: they had every right to be upset. nbc had certainly delivered a vote of no confidence that they could handle the trump tragedy with sensitive. it was embarrassing enough that video footage of donald trump calling rfk jr. talking about vaccines and offering him a role in exchanging for his endorsement was leaked online. >> -- and it's, like, 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it's been for a horse not . [inaudible] i would be, i would love you to do something. i think it would be so good for you, and we're going to win. we're way ahead of -- howard: but the leak came from rfk's own son who criticized the choice of j.k. vance, prompting the older kennedy to apologize to trump. after a moscow show trial,

"wall street journal" reporter evan questioner, cowits was found guilty of doing his job, journalism, and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison. it's an outrage that he's been held for a year and a half, no evidence disclosed. this is nothing more than a hostage taking by the putin regime to arrange a prisoner swap which might be the one glimmer of hope to emerge from this tragedy. and there was a colorful clash when msnbc's jacob -- was on the convention floor pressing donald trump jr. about immigration. >> would there be a second family separation -- >> i expect nothing less from you clowns. you couldn't wait with your lies and your nonsense, so just get out of here. howard: the former president's son explained his insult on "fox & friends". >> why am i even wasting my time? if because 48 hours ago my father was shot in the head, and they can't stop. howard: but in a broader sense,

none of us should forget the assassination attempt against donald trump. it should not be a one week story just because he literally dodged a bullet. it changed the campaign, changed him, and it should change the way we debate difficult issues with less vitriol and a little more humanity. finish that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. you can subscribe to my daily podcast week kays, media buzzmeter, where we have a little fun and the insight we offer on the day's top stories. and, you know, you would think that you wrote this all off as a movie. one candidate gets covid, the president is going to be dumped by his own party, possibly. attempted assassination, the candidate survives barely. nobody would believe it. we're back here next sunday at 11 eastern. we'll see you then.r ♪ ♪oto s are stopping you in your tracks... ...choose stelara® from the start...

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