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is finally free. the "wall street journal" reporter take hostage by the brutal putin regime on totally fabricated charges has been reunited with his family after almost more than a year and a half along with ex-marine paul whale season and others in a multicull -- paul whelan, multicountry -- if you had to boil down this brand new matchup to its essence, a former president against the a vice president who replaced the incumbent president, it might look like this. >> you know who's plain weirdsome and she's plain weird. she's a weird person. >> and, by the way, don't you find some of their stuff to just be plain weird or? howard: it's the weirdness olympic, you might say. donald trump was asked how world leaders would treat kamala harris if she wins the the election. >> she'd be like a play toy. hay look at her and they say, we can't believe we got so lucky.

they're going to walkal over her. and i don't want to say as to why, but a lot of people understand it. howard: harris roused a big crowd in atlanta over trump's mixed signals on debating her. >> because, as the saying goes, if you got something to say -- [cheers and applause] say it to my face. howard: but most of the mainstream media are showing virtually no interest in the extremely liberal things that harris has said in the past, in stark contrast to their voracious appetite for any controversial utterance by j.d. vance. the only scrutiny coming on fox and from some conservatives. >> so, apparently, the kamala harris campaign is anonymously linking stuff to the new york times because, remember, we've been talking about how when she was running for president in 2019, 20020, she said some crazy stuff. it's all on tape. she's not actually for that stuff anymore. >> i think a lot of people want to see the media doing its job. let's ask serious questions

about kamala harris' record. let's ask about the quite stridently left-wing positions she was take as recently as 2020. howard: shouldn't that be part of the media's responsibility? is i'm howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. ♪ ♪ howard: donald trump's biggest confrontation not only a test for him, but for the national association of black journalists. the group's cochair resigned partly because of the invitation. april ryan, who shared a mutual disdain with trump, said bringing him in was unacceptable because he's an authoritarian, and the panel which included fox's harris faulkner, began with this question by abc's rachel scott. >> you have pushed false claims about a some of your rivals from nikki haley to former president barack obama saying that they were not born in the united states, which is not true.

you have told four congresswomen of color who were american citizens to go back to where they came from. you have used words like animal and rabid to describe black district attorneys. you've attacked black journalists, calling them a loser, saying that the questions they ask are, quote, stupid and racist. you've had dinner with white strep cysts at your mar-a-lago resort. so my question, sir, now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you, why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that? >> well, first of all, i don't think i've ever been asked the question so, in such a horrible manner, first question -- [inaudible conversations] you don't even say hello, how are you. are you with abc? because i think they're a fake news network, a terrible networ- [background sounds] and i think it's disgraceful that i came here in good spirit. i love the black population of this country.

howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage in utah, jason chaffetz, former republican congressman and fox news contributor, and here on set, lucy caldwell who is a political analyst and finder of mockingbird lab. jason, straightforward question. what do you think of the way the nabj treated donald trump? >> i thought it was abhorrent9: i think this was totally wrong. the idea that they have already preconceived notions and they aren't going to ask legitimate, serious questions of a presidential candidate and they came out of the chute -- look, ask him as hard of questions as you want, but the way it was framed, i give a lot of credit to donald trump for showing up, actually being there, knowing that he was going to get a lot of tough questions. that's in part what i really like about a donald trump. but at the same time, i thought they were way over the top in their aggressive nature and saying a lot of us don't even think you should be here. that's not what a journalist

does when asking questions of a presidential candidate. howard: on that point, lucy, does trump have a point when he says he was treated rudely and that that that opening question from rachel scott was, in his words, a disgrace? >> i don't think it was a disgrace, i think she actually handled the situation like a pro. the interview began 30 minutes later or something because the trump campaign and the nabj couldn't agree on what the exact terms should be around fact checking, and it is the case that in the lay leading -- days leading up, it was very controversial. is rachel scott began by acknowledging what she said is9 elephant in the room. a lot of people didn't have the idea that this interview should go on, and as for preconceived notions, they're based on donald trump's record. she was asking him directly about things that he has said. howard: yeah, but the way she did it, it sounded like an indictment. it didn't sound, you know, her tone made clear -- and, by the way, it wasn't april ryan that

resigned, it was somebody else. but april ryan was a big critic. her tone was you're a rest us, and i'm not even -- racist, and i'm not sure why we lowed you to come to err here. >> i think she was getting at, asking about things that are relevant to black voters, how he has spoken to other candidates, how he has talked about members of congress, talking about women of color who are members of congress going back to where they came if from. that are concern those are issues that needed to be addressed and,s of course, there was a lot of balance in that interview because harris faulkner, who is a person people consider friendly to trump, also was part of thatter is view -- howard: i don't know why you say she's friendly to trump. she asked questions that made system news. jason, i just want to come back to this opening sequence. it seems like almost everyone in the media can't question the nabj's conduct at all toward a man who had been shot two and a half weeks earlier. not a sentence, not a phrase. it was basically the group did everything right and trump did everything wrong. >> yeah.

this is what frustrates a lot of americans. look, donald trump is out there answering questions. kamala harris has been at this now, what, two weeks as the presidential candidate? she has yet to even do a serious interview? she has not yet answered any of these questions, the democratic nominee was supposed to be there at that eventer, wasn't there at that event. again, donald trump will answer tough questions from anybody, anytime. he does it on a regular basis. there's a lot to be said about somebody who won't show up and won't answer other questions. howard: well, donald trump has certainly done it with me and many other journalists. lucy, it's not fair to say, well, how would kamala harris have been yesterday by the same group, but let's say that joe biden was still running. would this group have given him a far friendlier and more sympathetic reception? >> i have no idea, but what i do know is that donald trump gives reporters more fodder than any candidate ever has.

he decided in that a interview that he was going to the talk about whether or not kamala harris is black or not? i mean, he goes down a path where he is his own worst enemy in interviews like this. howard: but i -- can you envision that the opening question would have been six or seven things about everything that joe biden has done wrong? come on, i mean, isn't this a liberal advocacy group? >> i really know nothing about the nabj -- howard: you can judge based on that event. >> i think that rachel scott gave a very tough interview, leveled tough questions at donald trump, and i think that he consistently answered those questions in a way that made him his own worst enemy as a person who is with out trying to curry favor with black voters. how would they have treated joe biden? i don't know, i don't want to speculate. i don't want to speculate. howard: all right. now, i want to play some sound. trump said something similar at nabj, but this is from an interview with fox about joe biden and the classified documents case.

let's roll it. >> now, with biden he really was convicted of that case. he was -- let go of that case. and by the way, he didn't have presidential records act. just one thing more. they said he was incompetent and, therefore, he can't stand trial. howard: well, congressman, that's not true. biden wasn't convicted in the case. he -- and he didn't stand trial. it's not that he didn't stand trial because he was deemed incompetent, although special counsel robert hur did say he had memory if problems, he voluntarily turned over documents from his days as vp. look, a lot of documents sloppily handled, didn't get any medals for that, but he never had an indictment. >> but if you look at what special counsel hur said, he said there was a reason why he wasn't prosecuting the current president, because he would be a very -- and paraphrasing, obviously, he was going to be very sympathetic was he was old,

had memory problems. and there are a lot of us who used to be in congress and are now outside that a want to hear those audiotapes. and, boy, they released the transcripts, say they vetted -- they've edited it. why not release the actual interview? to use the word convicted, that's not accurate. howard: lucy? >> i actually, you know, i am no big fan of donald trump, i don't think it was that big of a deal. i think he wasn't literally that biden had been convicted. maybe he answered it in a somewhat sloppy way, but i have a lot of criticisms to level at donald trump, but i think the way he answered that question was generally fine. [laughter] howard: all right. he did use the word convicted, just pointing a -- pointing that out. now, there is this question, jason, about the debate. we're heavily into the debate over debates right now. so there the had been an agreement for a september debate on abc. trump says, no, i'm not going to do that,s and he has now said he wants to do the debate with

kamala harris on fox news on september 4th with an audience. obviously, there was no audience at the cnn debate. he said he would accept many of the other same rules. fox has offered to do this. now kamala harris says, no, no, no, first do the debate that you already agreed to,then we'll talk about this other debate and he's scared. what do you make of the back and forth, the fencing, the spar if being on this. >> come on. there's nobody that believes donald trump is scared of debating kamala harris. is he good at negotiating and trying to find a format that has some semblance of balance to it? yeah, i think that's right. donald trump had a previously agreed to debate joe biden, but joe biden's not going to show up. they had a vice presidential debate, and i don't think kamala harris is showing up to that a one. they've got to negotiate this out. the american public needs to see it. i think everybody wants to see it happen, and it should happen before voting starts.

>> i think that's a little too cute by half to say, well, the previous agreement was to debate biden, right if it's a presidential debate -- howard: why doesn't he get to renegotiate it? >> sure, he can -- howard: -- 81-year-old president. >> i actually do think it would be very good to have a live audience, and i think that's a much better format. that first debate was extremely strange, and it made it super weird. i actually think it would sprb a much better night -- howard: there's that word, weird. [laughter] it's a weird campaign. >> i didn't say trump was weird, i said the debate was weird. howard: i know, i know. just kidding. a cbs poll out today finds trump and kamala harris tied in georgia and concern pennsylvania and michigan, trump by one point in wisconsin. so i think obviously for now she's doing much better than the president decided to step aside. when we come back, the night and day difference between the coverage of kamala harris and coverage of kamala harris and j.d. vance. ♪

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howard: this new york magazine cover just about a sums it up, the made ya love fest with the democratic media. most news organizations have shown little to no interest in the uber-liberal positions harris tack -- took in the past. >> it is wrong haledded thinking to think the only way you're going to get communities to be safe is to put more police officers on the street. there's no question i'm many favor of banning fracking. >> what would you do about the millions of specifically assault weapons -- >> right. >> -- hard already in circulation? what do you do about those? >> i support a mandatory buyback program. howard: what a striking contrast with past remarks by j.d. vance. not just childless cat ladies, but calling those without kids

sociopaths who make the country less mentally stable. the ohio senator says the left is aggressively lying about what he said. >> look, the price of admission meaning the price of getting observe the people of this country is the democrats are going to attack us with everything that they have. howard: jason chafe forgets what explains why the media are vacuuming up every controversial past statement by senator vance -- fair game, in my view, but really seem uninterested in the positions of kamala harris including promoting a bail fund for the thugs arrested in the bmlm riots. >> yeah. kamala harris is one of the most radical progressive, far-left candidates we've had. everything from the border to overseas, to the inflation, i mean, her solutions, you know, and she even wants to have a discussion about getting rid of meat in this country. the media does not report this. they don't ask her the hard questions. and here she's gone nearly two

weeks and not answered a single question. why isn't she ever holding a press conference? why doesn't she sit down for interviews? if media -- the media just relates it go, it is such a double standard. americans see through the it, but she's got to be the asked hard, difficult questions, and she never gets asked those because she has tried to change her positions routinely. howard: the media often get asked, why don't you ask her tough questions? well, she count take questions. lucy, she's entitled to change her mind, she can say she's evolved, but doesn't she have some obligation to explain now that she's officially the nominee rather than leaving to these unnamed aides, oh, you know, now she's against fracking? now she's for fracking, excuse me. >> there are so many threads to pull on here because -- howard: pick one. >> -- i actually don't think it is the case that she has moved from being a far-left progressive the suddenly trying to parade as a centrist --

howard: you don'tsome. >> no, look, she has certainly changed her position on fracking. he said before she wanted to ban it, now she doesn't, candidates change their minds as have donald trump and j.d. vance. but things like policing, she's a former prosecutor. in the early 2000s she talked about a one of the best things to do for a community so put more police on the streets. then when she was running in the 202020 cycle, she talk abouted about how we should look at reallocating funding so we can spend more money on mental health and other resourcing that would balance out how -- howard: when she ran in 2020, i'm going so interrupt you for half a second, she said she was for medical care for all which was a big bernie sanders position, and she said that would eliminate private insurance. i don't think she's for that anymore, but how would i know? because she hasn't taken these questions. >> certainly, she should get out there more. she has only been in this race for less than two weeks, and she had to spend the first several days making sure she could line

up the delegates. far be it from me from suggesting we should not hold a candidate accountable, can ask them to get out there, but i just don't think she is the narrative that she was a far-left progressive who's now suddenly trying to get us to believe she's a centrist is not going to stick. on some of these issues, where she is now, clips of her talking about assault weapons ban, many of those views are consistent with what many americans want. background checks, we could go on -- howard: the climate may well have changed. the coverage reflects that j.d. vance has had a could have couple of -- rough couple of weeks, i get that. as you pointed out and we just played a snip tet -- snip if pet, he's out there doing interviews. >> well, yeah. he's doing interviews, and i think he's had a great rollout. he gave an incredible speech at that convention -- howard: wait a minute -- >> his movie is number one on netflix -- howard: even some conservatives

are saying maybe trump regrets this choice, and he's certainly had some stumbles. you think he's had a great roll tooutth? >> i do. i think -- roll? i do. i think he's an amazing figure. he's got an amazing story. howard: that's true. >> you don't discount the fact that there are millions of people out there watching that movie on netflix about his life and his rise up. and the book that's out there as well. i thought he gave an incredible speech there at the convention. i think he's widely accepted there in the rust belt as having been somebody who who pulled himself up by his boot straps, served his country as a marine. again, are there media a out there that tried to to go nitpick some comment from, you know, half a sentence from the past? yeah. i mean, that's part of the territory, and it's also showing the double standard with kamala harris. howard: okay. >> because almost every single major issue she has flipped and flopped and changed her position. you don't find that with j.d. vance. howard: i agree he has a great

life story, no question. hang on, lucy. so the press helped push joe biden out because he wouldn't take questions about his age and competency. but he didn't do many interviews, and now we know why. why isn't there a clamor for kamala harris to take press questions? it seems like everything's scripted. >> yeah, definitely, she should take more interviews. are we comparing her -- howard: well, more right now with zero. >> yes, she should do more interviews. no dispute from me. howard: okay. we found something we agree wit. so, jason chaffetz, lucy caldwell, thanks very much. up next, the diplomatic deal that finally freed "the wall street journal"'s evan gershkovich. ♪ ♪

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howard: evan van gershkovich, "the wall street journal" reporter held hostage in russia for 16 months, is back in america. after meeting with the hostages -- the families of the hostages, that is, to announce the prisoner swap with russia and other countries, joe biden and kamala harris embraced gershkovich as he got off the plane. you see there. as well as ex-marine paul whelan and another american. after emotional hugs with his family, this was quite a moment -- >> how does it feel to finally be home? >> [inaudible] howard: it's not bad, he said. joining us now from london, elle yacht yacht brown, "wall street journal" reporter and friend of evan. how difficult was it for you as evan's friend and colleague to go through the last 6 months not knowing -- 16 months not knowing whether the kremlin would ever let him go? >> candidly, it was a nightmare.

i've literally had nightmares about it, you know? we sort of would hope and wait and read and just think that it could come at some point. you know, recently, we got some really good news and we're really stressed about it before with it happened. howard: yeah. >> and then the it did. it is a really good feeling, i can el you that. howard: well, i'm glad it's great for you, great for the journal, great for media and great for the country. but was there a concerted effort by you and others at the journal to keep his name in the news, on social media so he didn't just become another foot note as a captured american? >> yeah. i mean, it was something that, you know, we typically wouldn't do at "the wall street journal," so to just focus on this one issue and sort of create news events and points, you know, for other people to write about. we swam in the ocean in, i think, february or march. we, you know, would have runs for him, i served evan

burkers -- [laughter] you're scraping at the bottom of the barrel toward or the end. howard: right. but i think that was important because if it's hard for the everyday person to keep track of everything -- everybody, but everybody knew evan gershkovich's name based in part on the media coverage that you can and your colleagues generated. as you know, this prisoner swap has also been criticized, for instance, donald trump calling it a win for putin, a great deal for putin because the russians get to free hardened criminals and killers in exchanging for americans who have done nothing wrong and have been framed by moscow and these fictitious charges. enter with yeah. i mean, i don't have many thoughts on the policy perspective. i am just beyond elated to have my friend back, my colleague back, and that's true of sort of all of us at "the wall street journal." howard: right. it's always a tough call. obviously, there are going to be critics given the fact that i think the russians do this

deliberately to have a bargaining chip. just that note at the end where he walks over -- walked over to reporters and he says, it's not bad, he used humor a lot, didn't he, that sort of thing? >> that's evan. he would write me, he once told me that maybe -- i told him i had a fireplace, and he said, oh, maybe i'll get sent to a coal mine, and i can bring you some coal. [laughter] he kept a smile on. he kept a smile on others. that was really important for us, to literally see him smiling in this glass cage in a moscow courtroom. and i know that was important for his family, because with you just sort of believe that it's okay as far as things are considered. he's resilient, and it would have been a lot harder if he didn't. howard: that's an understatement. elliott brown, thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. howard: next on "mediabuzz," donald trump celebrates the end of a favorite media target,

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howard: perhaps the most explosive part of that confrontational encounter between donald trump and the national association of black journalists came on this question again from abc reporter rachel scott. >> do you believe that vice president kamala harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman? >> she was always of indian heritage, and she was only promoting indian heritage. i didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black. [inaudible conversations] so i don't know, is she indian or -- >> she has always identified finish. >> you know what? i respect either one, but she obviously doesn't because she was indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went -- she became a black person -- >> just to be clear -- >> there were journalists, act visits, whatever you want to call people who let their politic show who wanted the nabj

to rescind its offer to the the 45 president of the united states to come and sit. and you and i both know that a once that happens and you're interviewing someone, there is an agenda. >> i can't think of many things that are more offensive to black people than someone, a white man showing up at a conference and trying to be the arbiter the of who's black or not. howard: joining us now in los angeles, steve hilton, ceo of -- pac,a former british political adviser, and here with me, richard fowler, both are fox news contributor.. -- contributors. so, steve, it's all trump screwed up and nobody questioning the nabj for essentially starting off by painting him as a racist. and others in the group say he shouldn't have even been invited. >> i wouldn't blame the nabj, i would blame that particular person from abc news because, actually, i watched the whole panel there, and the other people on the panel, our own

colleague harris faulkner and the journalist from item forbes both engaged in a respectful and stub standtive manner with -- substantive manner with president trump. and this is obvious from the minute she got going that her attitude was to pander to her colleagues. she was out there showing that she was going to stick it to trump. and, by the way, that question we just heard has got to be the most ridiculous question in the history of political television, do you think kamala harris was only on the ticket because she's a black woman, she asked president trump. joe biden told the us that. he said he was going to pick a black woman. it's not a complicated piece of research for abc news. you just have to type joe biden pledges to choose black woman. that's what he did. his shoves list, susan rice, val demings, kamala harris. all of them, black women. it's ridiculous. howard: you can respond to the question -- [laughter] but also what do you make of all the media criticism of donald trump for saying kamala harris

wasn't really black and then decided to become black? >> let's start here. for decades, the national association of black journal withists has been an organization that has stood for the diversity of newsrooms, that has stood for the affirmation and confirmation and uplift.ment of black journalists. i do think there's a lot of folks who are members of that organization felt like there was problems with inviting donald trump because of the stance he's taken, the attacks he's made on black journalists as well as his issues with policewoman people, period. now with that being said, i think you have to zoom out a little bit to talk about how we got here. president trump for the ors past two or three weeks has struggled to own the news cycle, a place he's usually had. howard: sure. >> i think he went into this audience, he went into a room of black journalists with a press pool, he took this question from rachel scott, probably not the best question, but a fair question given the fact that republicans on capitol hill constantly called vice president kamala harris a dei hire, and he

used that moment to reclaim the media cycle. so now sunday, four days after this interview, we're still talking about this instead of other issues. howard: we're talking about a lot of things today. steve, if most of the mainstream media are negative against donald trump and have been since his first campaign, is there any way he gets fair if treatment up against kamala harris in the remaining9 0 plus days of his campaign? >> i think we should be clear that the he got fair treatment in that first debate. cnn did a good job there and were clearly fair, and president trump himself said so. so it is possible. we saw that it's possible. and, in fact, you could say for a brief, few weeks the sunshine came out and we actually had a fair press in this country where the media were holding joe biden accountable. of course, the reason they were doing that was to try and get rid of him, and now we're back to the state-run media and propaganda. i think the good news for republicans and the trump campaign is that we have a whole range of independent media now where there are other ways for

candidates who don't get fair treatment in the mainstream media to get their message across. howard: richard, trump keeps complaining that this was a coup on the democratic side, and i get that nobody voted for kamala harris in the primaries and biden got 14 million votes, but he decided to step aside. but that's because nobody ran against her which is why she was able to clip. the nomination on friday. >> i think that's absolutely correct. there's none of the top democrats that can decided to run existence kamala harris, and she was the only candidate running, thus, she's the presumptive nominee until we get to the convention in a couple of weeks. i think it's worth pointing out that for weeks, if year dub -- for years the trump campaign have been art aful in what they're up aest -- up against. what we've seen is a failure to frame harris -- howard: not for f trying. >> and they're now blaming everyone else that they don't know how to frame this overqualified woman who seems to

be closing the gap in the polls. howard: for now, yes. let me turn to this project 2025, steve, but a donald -- because donald trump essentially pushed out the guy who was running it for the heritage foundation. and his campaign managers say they tried to sort of speak for trump on issues, it won't end well for you. but the media still constantly bring it up as if trump is actively promoting it. >> exactly. that's because they have an agenda. and, actually, what's really interesting about this is that you have a group of people in the heritage foundation, you know, freelancing, hoping the trump presidency would accept their ideas. but at the same time -- [laughter] on the kamala harris side you have a candidate who has a clear set of policies that she herself has articulated directly in terms of equity, fracking, medicare for all and raising taxes, a whole far-left agenda that she's been associated with for years in california, and then she's now trying the to

drop it. and the media are just saying, yeah, fine. she hasn't even said anything herself about whether or not she still agrees with these positions, she's just letting it be known through her spokesmen that she no longer believes -- howard: well, i don't think it's fine, and i think she needs to address it. when donald trump says he knew nothing about project 2025 the which has a lot of parts to it, several of his cabinet members worked on it, and j.d. vance wrote the forward for the book by this guy, pauldance. so your reaction to -- paul dance. can -- paul dans. >> i think that's part of the problem, you can't separate yourself from a plan written by members of your former cabinet and spoke at a convention where you had a hand in planning it. they were prime time speakers that wrote chapters, and i think the reason the trump campaign is now running as far as possible from this project 2025 the is because it is unpopular with the american people, and it scares people. and now they're like, oh, wait a minute, we don't like this and once again they're struggling in

a world in which they can't frame kamala harris. howard: i bet 90% of americans don't know what project -- >> i think a lot of -- howard: well, the media people do. let me get a break. when we come back, breathless coverage as kamala harris is down to three vp finalists. ♪ ♪ rs! starting a business is never easy, but starting it eight months pregnant.. that's a different story. i couldn't slow down. we were starting a business from the ground up. people were showing up left and right. and so did our business needs. the chase ink card made it easy. when you go for something big like this, your kids see that. and they believe they can do the same. earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card from chase for business. make more of what's yours.

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kamala harris interviews three vp final is today. >> the odds-on favorite here has to be the governor of that state, josh shapiro, who i think would bring a lot to the table for them. it would be almost crazy to pick someone other than him. >> arizona senator mark kelly is said to be on the short, short, short list. >> all of a sudden a, tim walz figured prominently. howard: this cracks me up, but it's been going on wall to wall. steve hilton, with kamala harris interviewing josh shapiro, mark kelly, the former astronaut, and tim walz, the minnesota governor, what is the point of the media speculation? we're going the find out in the next two days who her pick is. >> well, it's nice to, you know, sort of play the sport, aspect of politics, if you like. i do think there's an interesting aspect to the speculation which is the real effort from within the chem cabot party to -- democratic party to stop her from picking josh shapiro. i agree with guy benson that he,

actually, would make the most sense politically, would give her the most clear political benefit. but you saw a group of so-called progressive leaders in the democratic party write a let e police sitly saying -- explicitly saying don't pick josh shapiro pretty much because he's jewish. and that really vealed, i think, this rising tide of pretty blatant anti-semitism in the left these days, and i thought that was one interesting aspect -- howard: yeah. also because of his activism on israel. but, richard, isn't this the sort of same ec -- empty exercise we went through with trump? it'll be rubio, no, it's burgum. [laughter] >> we do it every four years. it's like the short list, the mini, mini list, the mini, short, short list. welcome to american media. [laughter] this is how we make our money. and so i don't think this is going to be any different. we'll do this in 2028, probably in 20 the 332, we probably won't be in the studio, we'll probably

be hold grams at that point in time, but we'll continue to do the vp stakes. howard: oh, i prefer to be in studio. [laughter] we spoke earlier, steve, about j.d. vance having a rough rollout to. one of my guests didn't agree, but how much ofs the negative coverage of the senator? when he was on maria bartiromo's show just before ours, he said the inside the beltway types don't like me. and how much is him making mistakes or just having controversial series of remarks? from the past? >> well, i do think that, actually, if if you look at the arguments he's been making, then intellectual can coherence to what he's been saying. and i think that the media, you know, i always think of this phrase that i think it was a british political commentator wrote, for a politician to complain about the media is like a sailor complaining about the sea. [laughter] and i think that's right, you know? you've just got to get on with it, accept that this is what they're going to do. they're going to look at everything you've ever said.

and someone like j.d. vance who's been prominent in the media, he's got a lot more. but i think he's doing exactly the right thing which is basically ignoreing it and focus on the message they need to deliver. and that is what that campaign needs the to get back to; substantive arguments about why a kamala harris presidency would be worse for you and your family. i think j.d. vance, i saw him this morning and on the other interviews, he's actually very good on television, makes those arguments very well, and he's particularly good in hostile territory. he really engages with someone on the other side, and i think that's where they need to deploy him -- howard: i like engagement. >> he does very well. howard: trump was asked if sanction would be ready on day one should anything happen to him if they a won, and he said, well, people vote for the top of the ticket, which is true. he's talking about getting elected though, but he declined to say senator vance could take over immediately if anything happens. >> and, listen, i think that was a fir question, and i think the

fact -- fair question, and i think the fact that trump didn't answer that should raise pause. there's reason to the question kamala harris' record, but once again e, she does have a record as the d.a., as attorney general of california and as a senator. j.d. vance has been in the senate for six months, if that -- howard: a year and a half. >> a year narvetion sure. there's not much of a voting record. before that he was in silicon valley, then he was an author. not very much for the american people to look at, so i think what the media's doing is saying let's go back and talk to some of your old relationships, old friends and see what we can find out about you. i think that's fair journalism, and his own quoters are -- quotes are the most terrible ones against the president. howard: it would be fair if we applieded both standards to the sides. media veterans have been pushed off to other jobs or going back to the white house, but david plouffe who's on msnbc, i don't know, two, three, four times a

week -- there he is -- and who was obama's 20 to 12 campaign manager, there we see him with simone sanders townsend who was the chief spokeswoman for kamala harris, has been tapped for a major role. and it's just interesting to me that there's not a lot to of media chatter about, well, msnbc kind of a revolving door. i also want to briefly mention that the active secret service director, there was a hearing this week, and he said he was ashamed at how poorly the secret service had performed at the attempted assassination of the former president and no way, he said, to defend the failure to secure that roof. well, thank you both for great conversations, steve hilton in l.a., richard fowler here. still to come, why the anchor of the cbs evening news is now out. ♪ ♪ lth? mary, janet, hey!!

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howard: norah o'donnell is stepping down after five years in the chair at cbs evening news. it was a joint decision with the cbs news president, "the washington post" says, code for it wasn't voluntary. but she may also have been tired of the grind after seven earlier years cohosting cbs' morning show. look, i know norah will contribute to both "60 minutes" and the newscast, which has been in third place forever, but even news anchors just aren't as a important with their 222 minutes of news because the money is made in the morning. variety reports the newscast will be an which ared by john dickerson with weather caster lonnie quinn and moderator marching get -- margaret brennan, defined of like a

breakfast show -- kind of like a breakfast show ensemble. an utterly tasteless opening sight scene at the olympics, many christians were understandably outraged. now, first, officials denied it had anything today with the last supper, now they say there was no intention to disrespect any religious group, and if people have taken offense, we are really sorry. if people have taken offense if, it's your problem. a classic non-apology. radio she's charlamagne tha god, a big backer of kamala harris, has a message for the media. >> i don't need the media running donald trump's greatest hits over and over for the next 95 days. the media should focus on whatever candidate is talking about the issues. anything else is not worth the air time. they're going to attempt to weaponize her not having kids, they're going to question her blackness. ig known it all a -- ignore it all. howard: that's a god awful idea. we in the press don't get to

censor attacks on presidential candidates just because we don't like what you're saying. and here's more from that fox interview with trump talking about harris. >> she got rid of the laugh. i notice, i haven't seen that crazy laugh shah thiess -- that laugh, that's the laugh of a crazy person. but i notice she's not using that a laugh anymore. howard: i happen to like laughter. i guess smiling is still okay? well, that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm houser curtis. hey, you might want to subscribe to media buzz meter where we riff on the day's fun. >>iest, most important or weird stories. that word weird, it keeps coming up in this campaign. thank you for joining us as we try to cope with this news cycle where we change the show every two minutes. we're back here next sunday, is 11 eastern, with the only mediae analysis show on nationale televisionun. ♪ and see why pods has been trusted with over 6 million moves. but don't wait, use promo code big25 to save.

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