saying i won't take money from turkey. his extravagant gesture did not come out of the blue after a saudi-led blockade intended to isolate qatar last year, ankara sided with dohar leading to closer ties between the two countries. the amir has promised to invest $15 billion in turkey at a time when foreign investors are getting cold feet and the turkish currency has tanked. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i'll see you next week. ♪ has the press picked a side in this supreme battle? i'm brian stelter and this is "reliable sources," our weekly look at the story behind the story, how the media really works, how the news gets made and how all of us can make it better. today is a special hour on the supreme court fight as brett kavanaugh's nomination langs ma hangs in the balance? we have breaking news about the

limited skoeb of the fbi investigation. we'll get into that with podcaster katie couric. she'll join me now, american sf union chairman matt slap, a staunch supporter of kavanaugh. we'll hear from david gergen on where we go from here. with emotions running so high, the question everyone is asking, what everyone is talking about is who do you believe? what do you trust? there is so much distrust surrounding the supreme court batt battle, including distrust of the media. there's extreme polarization at play, lots of distrust, but also enormous interest in what's unfolding. people are watching. people are engaged. let's start by recognizing that we've only arrived at this moment because of the media. what i mean is ford reached out to "the washington post" along with her local congresswoman, reached out more than two months ago. later because of a leak probably from the congress, other reporters started showing up at

ford's are doorstep. that's why she desired to speak out, what led us to thursday's hearing. as you know, further reporting led "the new yorker" to the doorstep of another accuser, deborah ramirez. this hearing revealed two very different countries with two very different media environments. the debate about cavanaugh is happening everywhere, but it's happening in two alternative universes. there's only one point of consensu consensus. >> the fight to confirm judge kavanaugh tearing washington apart. >> we're talking about tearing the country apart. >> tearing the country apart. take a look at the front page of "the new york times." this was controversial, the framing, the photo selection the next day. you see on the left, a composed, nervous christine blasey ford. on the right, an angry and defiant judge kavanaugh. some conservatives said the

times was being unfair for not showing kavanaugh being sworn in the way the cover of the "new york post" did. there are lots of arguments and conversations about the press's framing, perceptions of this story. think about what's happening now, kavanaugh opponents are hoping the press will find more evidence to against him to confirm their belief he isn't fit for the court. kavanaugh proponents are saying all this is character assassination and blaming the press for being complicit. we're left with he-said, she-said, the fbi investigation raising more questions. how real is this investigation? how broad or how limited will it be? has this pivotal moment in history done lasting damage to the way we talk and listen to each other? are we able to do that anymore? let's talk with susan glasser, staff writer for "the new yorker" and global affairs analyst for cnn. her former editor is with me, political analyst jeff greenfield. susan, you wrote about this

feeling of two americas this week. you're in new orleans, you've been traveling all weekend. does it feel like two americas to you today? >> absolutely, brian. what i'm so struck by is the one thing that happened that was unifying was that most of america was watching these hearings, taking in the news, everywhere i've gone. i've been in texas as you have in recent days, in new york, in washington. people are talking about this on the airplane, in the airport, in restaurants. it's a national conversation. unfortunately, however, there's not a shared narrative about the facts. to me that's one of the biggest differences between now and 27 years ago when the anita hill/clarence thomas hearings happened, we've almost given up, we've received tceded the idea should be one basis for the conversation. if the effort was to get at the truth, the hearing the other day

was not about truth. that wasn't the outcome of it either. it's myrrh ki whether we'll ever understand exactly what went on. >> the brand new feeling about that from jeff zeleny is that the white house, especially white house counsel don mcgahn has been working to make the scope of the investigation as narrow as possible. this was some reporting starting to come out saturday night. the president came out and said the fbi has free reign to investigate whatever it wants. jeff zeleny reporting the scope will be as narrow as possible as seen by mcgahn. whether he's successful in doing that remains to be seen. there's reason to be skeptical about how extensive this investigation will be. jeff greenfield, do you share my skepticism? >> i'm sceptical about almost everything i've heard. if i can pivot, i think we're at a point where the whole last two

years -- certainly since trump's inauguration has put the press or the press put itself in the position it's in. when you have the president of the nsa saying don't believe anything you hear about me, it's fake, it's a lie, they're our enemies. i don't think it's surprising, at least in my view, a fair percentage of the press n one way or another thinks of itself as a kind of resistance. we have to speak truth. we have to correct his statement about what we do, and in the process -- i have to say this to a cnn anchor, when i look at cnn, hour after hour after hour i see panels rather than reporting, exchanging opinions, the majority of which on this network i regard as quite critical or hostile to trump. that might be justified, it may be these folks have concluded in the way that trump has behaved that they deserve this pushback.

what you've described, these two different universes has only been accelerated. >> you think the press is kpal baiting the feeling of two universes? >> i think the press in some way is trapped because it's a perfectly legitimate argument to say this president has misled, dissembled, outright lied, and we have to call him to that. but what's happened is it's fed the view on the other side of the aisle that, of course they're critical of trump because it's all fake news because they don't like what it's doing. >> has cnn taken a side in this kavanaugh debate? >> i think if you take the overall coverage night after night and you said, well, what have i heard that balances out -- >> sure. >> i want to be clear. it may be that the facts justify that, but i can see how you can look -- anymore than you can look at "fox & friends" and decide it's anything more than state media. in cnn's case it's not at that level at all, but there is an

overwhelming perception as a viewer that cnn in effect or most of its people have taken a stand about this president and about this nomination. >> susan, what's your view of this? i've been thinking about the same thing jeff has been talking about. my impression is lots of journalists trying really hard just to get this story right, trying to be really careful, trying to vet the reporting, trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves, trying not to assume the worst about cavanaugh. i can understand why there's this perception that the media as a whole is out to get him. >> well, i think jeff makes some important and provocative points around sort of the conversation and especially the visual impact on tv of the endless 24-hour conversation. i want to make a slightly different point which i think is very important here. if not for rigorous, independent, investigative reporting by "the washington post," "the new yorker" and

other news outlets, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. to me that's the sign of the breakdown of our political institutions. the idea that we politicize whether or not we're going to have a proper fbi investigation, which is something that's never happened before, even in the anita hill hearings. i think patrick leahy said in 44 years he's been on the judiciary committee, another issue about the lifetime tenure of politicians, but in 44 years this has never happened. our institutions of politics have broken down in a kind of toxic partisanship that has made them unable to do the kind of work that is their job. and it seems to me that makes all the more important the work of reporters who have unearthed facts that the country is now being forced in a very problematic way to consider. i would separate out the debate which is a legitimate debate over the conversation from the question of reporters and journalists doing their job. to me this underscores the critical importance of

journalism as the fourth estate at a time when our national politics is broken. you can call it the resistance, but it's not. people who care about the facts, that's not partisan, it's i understand dend, and i reject the label. the president from day one has tried to place that liable on independent critical reporting. the two reporters at "the new yorker" who broke that story also knocked out a democratic attorney general of new york state who was one of donald trump's most fierce opponents. that's how we do it, without fear or favor. >> susan glasser, jeff, greenfield, thank you both for being here. we're just getting started. i want to bring in matt slap and jessica valencia after the break as well as katy couric for more views on how this week was perceived, how the coverage is perceived and what it means for the country. much more "reliable sources" in just a moment.

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welcome back to "reliable sources," i'm brian stelter. there's a quote bouncing around for the last couple days, i first saw it on the reagan battalion saying democrats don't want the truth, they just want the seat. some on the left are saying the exact same thing about republicans, they don't want the

truth about kavanaugh, they don't want to know what happened in high school or college, the fbi probe is bogus, they just want the seat. this is the debate that's roaring through the country. matt schlapp is the chairman of the american conservative union and a staunch supporter of kavanaugh. i'm curious, what did thursday's hearing feeling like for you personally as a viewer? >> in full disclosure, bret and ashley kavanaugh are good friends of ours. i served with him the entire time i served president george w. bush in the white house. i know him well and i know his character. i know this is not consistent with the man i know. to ping off the conversation you had with geojeff and your other guest, i felt like i was watching my country slip. we've dropped a few more notches. i feel we dropped too many notches. >> whose fault is that? >> there's so much fault to go

around. i blame desperately in this situation democrats on that hearing, democrat staffers, democrat members of that committee who were willing to do almost anything to smear him. i look at the polls out of west virginia and virginia, it's back firing even with women. women in west virginia by a 30-point margin want to see kavanaugh confirmed after the hearing. >> you're bringing that up because of manchin -- >> in missouri, more women now will vote for mccaskill's opponent after this hearing. this is having big impacts in red states and blue states. you've got to also look at the impact in red states. >> i agree with you. i wonder your impression of the media's coverage of this. you wrote in a column on friday that the press has been irresponsible. i was wondering in what specific ways you've seen media malpractice. >> you know, brian, it's happening every moment of the

day. i think this show is covering this issue responsibly. i've watched every minute of your show so far. but i do believe there's a presumption of innocence for anybody who makes these charges and there's a presumption of guilt for anyone who is smeared by false charges, and i think that's very unfortunate. i think for the press, they need to understand, for media generally, they need to understand it's true the nation is divided. most of you live in either new york or washington like i do. the neighbors around me i'm sure would agree that brett kavanaugh should not be on the supreme court. when i talk to americans in the red states or any other place besides this corridor or hollywood, when you talk to other americans, they have a much different impression of what's going on with this supreme court nominee. >> to be fair, most americans don't want him confirmed. >> that's not right. >> most americans in polls -- >> that's not right. that's not right. i just looked at a poll walking

in here where 53% of the american people favor judge kavanaugh. you can't pick one poll and say that's where the americans are. realclearpolitics looks at all the polls. at least say the americans are split, don't say they oppose him. >> i agree with you americans are split on this, unfortunately very, very split in ways that are almost frightening, people can't even talk to each other about this stuff anymore, if you dare to suggest brett kavanaugh's behavior in high school shouldn't ruin the rest of his life, you're branded a rape apologist. if you dare suggest on the other side, his temperament makes him unfit for the supreme court, you're branded -- >> so it is what it is. what do we do as a country? we do have to have institutions like the fbi and the senate judiciary committee that we can put our faith in and trust. unfortunately the fbi for a lot of us who supported donald trump has been sullied by their own

actions. unfortunately the staff on the democratic side decided to hold on to a letter for six weeks and never tell dr. ford she could have done this confidentially because they wanted those theatrics. these are huge mistakes. >> you've litigated that on cnn on recent days. i do want to focus on the dishonesty at the hearing. many fact checkers have concluded kavanaugh was dishonest. >> you can't do that. what fact checkers? they're furnd bid lended by lef donors. >> let's watch. >> i liked beer. i still like beer, but i did not drink beer to the point of blacking out. >> now, i do believe he probably blacked out in college. lots of college people blackout. here is what one of his college friends said to chris cuomo. >> there had to be a number of nights where he does not

remember. in fact, i was witness to the night that he got tapped into that fraternity. he was stumbling drawn north korea a ridiculous costume saying really dumb things, and i can almost guarantee that there's no way he remembers that night. >> if kavanaugh lied on thursday, does that make him a fit supreme court justice? >> look, i think it's a very serious thing to give false testimony to the senate. i wouldn't blame senators for voting against him if they thought he did that flagrantly. i watched that interview with chris cuomo with another former classmate as well. that woman said, i think he drank too much, but i didn't see any inappropriate sexual behavior. blacking out is a very specific question. when you can't remember anything that happened. he is the only person, brian, who can answer that question. how dare anyone say that they know or can get into the inner

most part of his soul and tell him when he blacked out. >> do you really believe devil's triangle was a drinking game? >> i'm going to come across as an aid yot. i've never heard of it. i still don't know what it is. i assume it's a drinking game. i don't know what it is. i could care less whether or not supreme court justices guzzled too much beer. i think we're in a ridiculous place. we should be talking about his legal juris prudence, how has he been as a public official, how has he comfoportaed himself wit six fbi investigations -- >> he does have to split hairs, he has to determine whether someone is telling the truth and the whole truth. >> we all do. >> the idea he wasn't precise enough, that he was saying things misleading on thursday. can you see why it's a concern to the big chunk of the country? >> yes. this goes back to the question we all have to make our decision on what people saw.

what i'm saying is it's a big mistake for the press, for editorial pages and supporters and their twitter feeds, and i follow all of them, to seemingly take a side with their coverage and don't quote fact checkers when those fact checkers have been against kavanaugh from the very beginning or they're funded by the left. this is why we used to love going to media places who had great reputation because we k w knew -- 25 years ago when i'd watch tv or read the paper, i knew there were places i could go to get the left and the right and hear what the facts are. that has been destroyed by the watching habits of american people. this is why you deserve great praise for having me on your show. >> enough of that. >> i don't fit your demographic -- >> sure, you do. of course you fit my demographic. >> it's important that the people hear on your shore what is happening in these red states as well. >> red states and blue states. you tweeted the other day about two conservative voters in a

number of red states saying look at this photo and listed a bunch of states. because these senators were all minorities people called you out and said this was racist. >> they sure did. >> what were you doing? >> i never thought about race. democrats deserve great credit for doing a better job electing a diverse group than republicans have. two of those people are running for president, whether you like it or not. it's not a question of their race. they are leading the democratic party. cory booker, kamala harris and the senator from hawaii hirono. i can't help what race and gender they are. all i can say is they are leading the show. i didn't create that picture. it was retweeted, if dianne feinstein had been in it as well. i don't care what her religion gender is, i think the activities by her and her staff are repugnant and they're making america more divided, not more

united. >> thank you for being here matt. >> thank you. >> i want to bring in jessica valencia, author of "sex object, a memoir." i want to ask you the same question i asked matt. what did thursday feel like for you as a viewer? >> it was difficult to watch. a lot of women felt the same way i did. it was unbelievable she had to be there going through that. the big, broad thing that stood out to me was the disparity in standards that we have for women and men. when i thought about if dr. blasey ford came out and acted the way judge kavanaugh did, she would not be credible. they would havic that en her out by security. that is something i kept coming back to again and again, and just how angry and dishonest kavanaugh was. >> not all men share matt schlapp's views, not all women share your views. there is a profound gender

divide in this country. i feel about it. you worry about it. i worry about it. how can we better understand where women like you are coming from? are there too many pundits on tv and not enough experts? >> absolutely. facts about rape and statistics about rape and studies about rape and victims' behavior are not partisan. we have a ton of experts, there are organizations, researchers, scientists who can tell us about victims' memories, rapists' patterns of behavior. we're not seeing them on television shows, not writing op-eds. instead we have armchair pundits who don't know -- >> i have to admit. i am an armchair pundit at times. >> we all are. >> i want to look at thursday for a moment and look how the coverage of kavanaugh was played. in the morning when ford it was,

there was unanimous agreement that she was very credible, that it was a very important moment. but then things changed when kavanaugh testified. let's watch the split when kavanaugh testified. i don't know if i actually have it. i'm sorry. i'll see if we can get it. on fox news the reactions were different than what they were on msnbc. what we were seeing is kavanaugh has dug himself out of the hole. people were praising his anger and his rage. to your point, we wouldn't have seen that if it was a woman. >> absolutely not. i think part of the reason so many on the right were praising this sort of rageful diatribe that he went on is he was really epitomizing this moment of backlash that we're in among entitled white men who are furious about being finally held to account. it wasn't just about this hearing, but about the broader movement that's been happening in the last year.

>> the me too anniversary, this friday when the fbi investigation is due, the anniversary of the harvey weinstein -- >> they wanted the moment of backlash, wanted that moment of pushback. >> he looked like a conservative radio host. he sounded like sean hannity. he expressed the kind of resentment and fury they express on the radio every day. >> right. and it was, again, coming from this place of -- the destain in his voice, i can't even believe i have to be here and answer these questions. >> let me see if we can look at the "saturday night live" reaction to this. this is matt damon who made this cameo on "snl" with a hyperexaggerated version of kavanaugh and the reactions were pretty intense this morning. let's see if we can play that. >> let me tell you this, i'm going to start an 11. i'm going to take it to about a

15 real quick. >> there's something real there, right? something real about what he's impersona impersonating. >> it was the only moment i've laughed in the last few days. it was a nice moment for me. i don't think it was biased or anything like that. it was a nice moment of levity. i think they made a good decision in not acting out any of dr. blasey ford's testimony as well. >> interesting. interesting. >> they were smart. >> of all the media coverage, what stood out to me were the calls to c-span from women recounting their own sexual assault, sometimes for the first time ever. i think we need to make more spaces for everyday people to be talking about this, the way they are in real life. >> there is such a gender divide on this. we know the statistics about how many women will be raped or sexually assaulted or harassed in their lifetime. this is a really personal issue for women. when women watched dr. blasey ford give her testimony, it was painful because it was so

recognizable, and i think seeing judge cavanaukavanaugh's reacti also difficult for women because they recognized that person, they recognized that anger and that disbelief because it's what we hear all the time. >> jessica, thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> a quick break here. the one, the only, katie couric. we'll get her thoughts on the coverage of the kavanaugh hearing. can you believe it's been ten years since this historic interview? ♪ the new capital one savor card. earn 4% cash back on dining and 4% on entertainment. now when you go out, you cash in. what's in your wallet?

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we're back now here on "reliable sources." i'm brian stelter. we're talking about the fallout from the ford/kavanaugh hearing.

i'm joined by katie couric. she needs no introduction. now the co-host of the katie couric podcast. you have a new pod about your sarah palin interview. first, your reactions to this week? >> what an incredible week. >> i find myself still trying to process it. >> what a confusing week. i agree with a lot of things jessica said, brian, that our understanding of sexual violence against women and the trauma, the lifelong trauma that ensues still has not progressed since i covered the anita hill hearings 27 years ago. there is not a process in place. i think that's a huge problem. dianne feinstein should have delivered that letter because now i think dr. ford's story and account has been understandably politicized because of that failure. i think the way some of the republican members of the senate

judiciary committee handled this was very troubling. i thought lindsey graham's full-throated defense of judge kavanaugh wunfortunate because t distorted dr. ford's account. i'm very relieved an fbi investigation or fact-finding mission has been called. it should have been called already. jeff flake obviously had a crisis of conscience. it will be interesting to see how he, lisa murkowski and susan collins feel after we have a fair appraisal of what happened. >> if we do. >> we may never know the truth. that's right, and it's limited in scope. everyone wants it to be fair so the full senate can decide if brett kavanaugh has the character and the judicial temperament, if you will, to have a lifelong position on the highest court in the land. you're right. we may never know, and can some

evolve after bad behavior in high school or college, or is that behavior so offensive and troubling that it really disqualifies him. those are the things that the country and the senate will be weighing. >> you've been known over the years for your big gets for tv bookings. it's only kavanaugh that has sat down for a tv interview. none of his ak curesers have. does that tell you about the media universe here? >> no. i don't think so. judge kavanaugh went to a friendly outlet, fox news. >> hard questions though. >> that's true. it remains to be seen whether some of the other accusers will do television interviews. >> it hasn't been ruled out. >> there's still time. i think we might see some of them on television or in media outlets in the coming weeks. >> speaking of the big get, this brings us to your podcast. it's been ten years since that famous sarah palin interview you conducted while you were at cbs. you've revisited it for your podcast, by looking how it

changed the media world and also how palin led to donald trump. let's look first at a clip from the interview. this is one of the most memorable questions and answers. >> what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you tapped for this to stay informed and to understand -- >> i've read most of them again with the great appreciation for the press, for the media. >> what ones specifically? i'm curious. >> all of them. any of them that have been in front of me over all these years. >> unforgettable moment with sarah palin. there were many in that interview. you say it was one the most important you've ever done. >> i think it was one of the most pivotal and impactful. it was the third interview that governor palin did. i think it had a big repercussion because i think people saw she was out of her depth and could not answer public policy questions in a

very satisfying or satisfactory way. we really wanted to look at through the lens of these interviews the rise and fall of one of the most captivating candidates in recent memories. how she was selected -- there's an interesting back story about joe lieberman and how he came this close to being tapped. stories about how she was or wasn't vetted, and the roll of the media in this. now with social media ten years later with dis intermediate asian, the ability to go directly to consumers or voters, this rite of passage of the network news interview with an anchor asking probing questioning is no longer necessary in the current media landscape. so we wanted to look at that and how much things have changed and how her anti-intellectual red meat populism, anti media rhetoric did pave the way for donald trump and his anti-media

sensibilities, if you will. >> your critics said this was gotcha journalism. >> you know, it's interesting. i think even republicans thought all the questions i asked were exceedingly fair, and so i think it was after it sort of set in and governor palin knew that she had not performed well that that became sort of the typical trope, that gfs gotcha questions. even senator mccain, when i sat down with him for a joint interview praised the interview i had done with governor palin. he had a very different campaign style and obviously hers diverged from his. he would calm down people who said inappropriate things. she seemed to egg them on and not temper that. >> tvery trumpian. >> you were at nbc with matt lauer, working at cbs with jeff fager. since we're at this one-year mark of the me too movement, can you share with us what you saw

at those networks? >> i think i can talk specifically with matt. he was a terrific professional partner with me for many years. i was unaware of any kind of -- this behavior, predatory behavior, and it was obviously very shocking and disturbing to me, and a lot of his colleagues, brian, as you well known. cbs news, it's clear from ronan farrow's that they have a cultural problem there. it was challenging and quite obsessive. i think obsequious sub serveians is a way to thrive there for many women. >> what does that mean? suck up to the boss? >> yes. thank you for the translation. obviously the male hire aki has been in place for years and it's time for it to end. they're not the only network that has a male hierarchy. if you look at the news

presidents at all major news company, they're all male. the vast majority of executive producers at every network are male. this really has to end. if we really believe that the tone at the top is paramount, then you have to have more diverse voices at the top because they have such an impact on the editorial choices that are made, who covers stories and how they're covered. >> there's a similarity between politics and media that i hear you describing. >> that's right. our industry has to do much, much better. furthermore, i think we also have to look at this glass cliff. when a woman is appointed or elevated, she has to be qualified and supported. otherwise, if she doesn't succeed, all women are penalized for that. finally, i think people need to understand implicit bias. that's a relatively new area that needs to be understood better in media circles. these are cultural conditioning

that cause us to look at people a certain way. i'm guilty of it, too. i remember when sarah palin was picked, i said to cindy mccain, how is she going to be president of the united states, she has all these children, a special needs child. cindy mccain looked at me like i had three heads. she was right. i would never ask that question of a male candidate. i think we have so much work to do. i think if this is a fair analysis, investigation into the culture at cbs news by these outside law firms and they're transparent and sincere and their desire to really change the culture, that will be a good thing. i think every network needs to do so. >> katie, thanks for being here. >> good to see you. >> that cbs investigation, it is on going. we're covering it at reliablesources.com. quick break. david gergen, his view of this week and whether the press appears to be complicit in the destruction of brett kavanaugh. that's what some on the right

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this week has been about moments. moments are the new new yorker story coming out, moments at the hearing on thursday. that moment with senator jeff flake and activist in the elevator. let's get reaction from david gergen, former presidential adviser to nixon, ford, reagan and clinton and cnn senior

political analyst. your assessment of the news media's handling of this. how would you grade the coverage? >> i think over all the coverage has been remarkably responsible. the ramirez story, for example, in "the new yorker," "the new york times" showed enormous restraint because they couldn't reach her. it got tucked away in the middle of store reitz. then along came the avenatti charges. the press hasn't covered much of those at all. >> people have been careful i think. i hope careful. >> careful. i think too often we've been accused of being hysterical and way overplaying something. and then catching that moment in the elevator and the drama of that, how it changed history with flake was really important. brian, i must say to you, i think alarm bells ought to be going off much louder in the press about these apparent limitations on the background investigation. we were told by the president free rein, not the case.

if we're going to be limited to four witnesses by the fbi and have to go back and check with the white house on anything more, that's not a proper investigation. that's not an impartial, serious investigation. >> when you and i were on cnn last sunday, you had a warning for the press. you said it's going to be a problem if at the end of this, no matter what happens, it looks like journalists were complicit in kavanaugh losing this seat. are you more concerned about that a week later? >> i'm still concerned because i do think in this age of tribalism, when people are shoved into different camps, that the press has become seen as a member of the liberal camp, anxious to bring down the president. i don't think that's what the role of the press has done. a new book out by mature pressman on the press, it points out way back in the '60s, the press went from being a descriptive organization, carrying press releases to being more interpretive and tougher

because the white house was lying so much in the vietnam war and on watergate. we've been there -- the press has been more challenging and adversarial ever since. i think that is good. it holds people accountable. but we have to be very, very careful in how we report and not to go overboard, not to get >> and that has caused more distrust in the press. so as we are trying to hold people accountable, that causes further distress. >> yes, exactly, exactly. >> david gergen, thanks for joining us. more in a moment. quick breaking ball here on "reliable sources." we'll be right back.

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fresh off his trip to the u.n., and that press conference where he showed how much he loves reporters, president trump

resumed his midterm rally towards west virginia. he accused the media of stoking the fires of resentment and chaos, while stoking the fires himself. and said things that would have been top of the hour, breaking news for any other president. things like this. >> and you know the interesting thing, when i did it, and i was really being tough, and so was he, and we were going back and forth. and then we fell in love, okay? no, really. he wrote me beautiful letters, and they're great letters. we fell in love. >> then he said the press would punish him for saying that. but the real surprise is how little attention he's getting. trump says we fell in love with kim jong-un. one of trump's top accomplishments is warping the news cycle like this. so that clip, which i would have led the show with, ends up at if end. that's a wrap.

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