howard: as the media aggressively cover the firing of james comey, we'll talk live with kellyanne conway about many aspects of this story. >> it's a grotesque abuse of power by the president of the united states. this is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies. >> a little whiff of fascism tonight, i think it's fair to say. >> absolutely. >> a little whiff of i don't care about the law, i'm the boss. >> this firing was overdue, and everyone in washington knows it. >> quite honestly, the former prosecutor, i was expecting it to even happen sooner in terms of this being a problem with the public trust.

>> i think question you also have to ask, was this a coup or a firing or both? >> he was responding to a recommendation, and now it's completely undermined when the president said i was going to do it anyway. is, you know, who to believe? nobody. >> i think that donald trump's comments yesterday in a strange way blew the lid off of his own cover-up. howard: those media accusations following shifting white house accounts after this presidential interview on nbc -- >> he made a recommendation. but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. howard: and the president now suggesting he may just do away with white house press briefings. >> first of all, you have a level of hostility that's incredible. and it's very unfair. howard: would that hurt the administration as much as the press corps? plus, jimmy kimmel takes a victory lap over his emotional plea for obamacare. is he now a political partisan?

i'm howard kurtz, and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ howard: president trump is ratcheting up his rhetoric against the press corps over its saturation coverage and highly controversial coverage of the firing of james comey, telling judge jeanine pirro that he may have a solution for his communications team not being able to keep up with him. >> we don't have press conferences, and we do -- >> you don't mean that. >> well, just don't have them unless i have one every two weeks that i do myself. we don't have them. i think it's a good idea. first of all, you have a level of hostility that's incredible. and it's very unfair. sarah huckabee is a lovely young woman. you know sean spicer. he is a wonderful human being. he's a nice man. howard: joining us now from new york to talk about way this story's being covered is kellyanne conway, the president's counselor.

thanks for coming in. >> hi, howie. howard: would you recommend as his counselor that the white house press briefings be abolished? >> i'm very happy that the president gave three big interviews this week. it goes with what jeff mason said at the dinner a couple of weeks ago which is that the press has access to this white house. the president gave interviews to nbc, fox news and time magazine this week. so there's not a mystery about a what he thinks on everything. i would go to the other point of what the president said to judge jeanine pirro. he said the level of hostility to the people who work for him is really something. and do you see what some in the media are doing while sean spicer or sarah huckabee sanders are giving their press briefings, they're live streaming them. how many people are talking about health care reform today? did it go away as an important issue? no. it's always the, it's the issue

du jour, it's the explosive, what they decide is the explosive, my developically obsessive story of the week, and they go on that, and it's presumptively negative. we're a white house that presents the president himself as the best communicator and the best connector that i've ever seen. and he's given tremendous access including this week. howard: well, the unusual firing of the fbi director is the story du jour. let me ask you this, because i think a lot of the contentiousness in the white house briefing room this week followed what the press portrayed as conflicting white house accounts about the firing of james comb hawaii and whether or not it was done solely at the recommendation of rod rosenstein. let me play a little bit with nbc's lester holt. >> you're saying i accepted their recommendation. you had already made the decision. >> oh, i was going to fire regardless. he made a recommendation. he's highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy.

the democrats like him, the republicans like him. he made a recommendation. but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. howard: this led to a million headlines, white house changing its story, president was going to fire comey anyway. >> the president said he's been thinking about if this for a while and that he watched mr. comey testify the week before. he's been thinking about this for a while. and then independent of that, his deputy attorney general who oversees the fbi, that's his job, came to this conclusion on his own 14 days or so on the job and made the recommendation. now, i would also point out a what's really important here is everybody is saying comey was investigating. no, comey wasn't investigating. the fbi was investigating, and the fbi will continue to investigate. the acting director of the fbi, many mccabe, said very clearly under oath, first, that the investigation is not impeded and, secondly, he has adequate resources. that is the direct opposite of

what many people in the media print and electronically were saying about this. this is a man, the acting director of the fbi, has expressed confidence to continue the investigation, and the president himself has said he wants the investigation to go forward and to conclude. the leader, leader mcconnell has said the house and senate are also looking at this. so the idea that any of this is, you know, breaking news, the fact that the president has been watching what others have been watching. and, you know, it's the democrats who for months were criticizing director comey. and it is, director comb hawaii himself had said that he went out and he told, quote, that was a hard call for me to make, to call the attorney general, loretta lynch, and tell her i'm going to do a press conference, but i can't tell you what i'm going the say. that wasn't a hard call, it was the wrong call. howard: right. >> and mr. rosenstein has mentioned that it's a usurpation of the powers of the attorney general, and that they don't do press conferences. howard: whenever this question

comes up about the russia investigation and alleged ties between trump associates in moscow, i always say let's slow down because not much is proven, but when the president again talking to lester holt says when i decided to fire comey, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing is a made-up story. it's not a completely made-up story in the sense that there are real, serious investigations here as to to whether there's anything there. >> howie, this has been going on for months. you basically could have a baby in the time they've been investigating this. former dni mr. clapper said based on the information he had when he left his position, he saw no evidence of this he reaffirmed based on what he knew at the time, he saw nothing to suggest otherwise. you know, and, look, i think the best statement that was made this week, ironically, about the president's prerogative in firing the fbi director was by the outgoing fing bi director.

-- fbi director. jim comey himself said he has long thought that the president of the united states has the right, has the ability the to fire the fbi director, and that's exactly what the president did. how're howard we played some clips ott the top, the new york daily news cover calling it a coup, mcclatchy used the word dictator, bob beckel called the president a liar and a boo toon. what do you make of some of this language and covering this admittedly-important story? >> it's irresponsible, and it's conjecture, and it's opinion. it's people passing themselves off as news reporters when they're expressing their opinions, and they're using a lexicon that's never been used about a president of the united states, one who just this week was very accessible to the press in three major interviews. and i'll let what the president said speak for itself on every single issue. but the media has to decide, too, what is its relationship with the white house, how does it want to cover the white house. where are the editors? some days i think a lot of these

editors got fired. twitter is not an assignment editor, it's not a source. you know, i was out in the country, i was in five different states at the beginning of this week, and nobody there is talking about anything but jobs and health care. people at the end of the week were talking about cybersecurity attacks. they'll probably continue to talk about it as they get back to their desks in the morning for work. the country is talking about things that matter to them that the president is working dutifully on every single day. there's such a disconnect now between what people hear as noise and and what is actually news. and what they're paying attention to every single day, what they will judge this president on ultimately is if growth improves. all these confidence measures you've seen from the manufacturers, the home builders, the small business own ors, the consumers themselves, the job production. if that actually continues, health care will get done. and there will be tack relief -- howard: and we will cover that. >> and he's doing great advances across the world.

he has a huge foreign trip coming up with five different stops and three bilateral meetings just this congresswoman coming week. who's talking about that this morning? howard: it's been overshadowed, no question about it. >> that's a choice. i'm sorry, that's a choice the media make. howard: i hear you. >> somebody said, oh, we'd love to cover x, but this overshadowed it. you have a choice to make. you can be part of the sameness, or you can go and cover things that actually matter to americans, and that's the responsibility of everyone, to cover the gamut of issues, all the things that the president is working on at any given time. how're howard some of the people are opinion people. here's the washington post this morning, and you and i have talked before about anonymous sources. one gop figure close to the white house mused privately whether trump was, quote, in the grip of some kind of paranoid delusion. no names attached, just that shot. your thoughts. >> well, that's terrible. and, frankly, i would just, again, show you said it's somebody, close, quote to the white house.

i don't know if they work at the coffee shop across the street, a tourist in lafayette park, because i do see that in a lot of these articles. a very major newspaper earlier this week reported based on a single source that the deputy attorney general had threatened to resign. that just was not true. the department of justice denied that immediately. i haven't seen a retraction. i heard or everybody talking about it, and it actually said someone, close to the white house. there are people constantly on tv who have never worked in a white house, let alone this white house, telling the president what he should be doing. he's the president of the united states, and he will execute on the agenda and continues to. he gets much more done that people don't cover, but the american people are watching very closely. i didn't run into one person in these five states that were talking about what the media covered. howard: right. and on this point about what the media focus on, there's another wave of speculative stories about sean spicer and others,

and the web site axios today says there may be a huge reboot, the president could fire priebus, bannon be, spicer and others. do you think the media have a little bit of an obsession over who's going to get canned? >> howie, the fact is as they work on the 20th palace intrigue/personnel story of this young administration, they totally missed the firing of jim comey coming. and, you know, the president has put together a team, and everybody works very hard there. and he knows it. but he is the ultimate decision maker. and the fact is, you know, these palace intrigue and personnel stories make my point and make the president's point about the type of coverage he gets. makes my point completely. what are you actually covering? are you covering who's up and who's down in the west wing, which you would know nothing about, or are you covering what impacts americans? why they wanted this man to be president as opposed to his political opponent? they believe and already see the

fruits of his labor, the job creation, health care is moving on. somebody just asked me are you, in fact, going to get rid of the obamacare penalties? 6.5 million americans chose to pay it because they didn't want to buy obamacare. where's that coverage? howard: no question. i also want to can ask you about this moment with cnn's anderson cooper. i've got to slip a commercial break in, a couple more break in, a couple more questions on the other

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were going to do it. howard: what did you make of the now-famous eye roll? >> first of all, a lot of folks want things to go viral. they think that's the job of the news media which it's not, of course. you should play the beginning of the clip where he had me sit through president trump, then-candidate trump on the stump in many different places praising jim comey, and it ended with grand rapids, michigan. i turned it around and said, thanks for the trip down memory lane, we loved winning michigan. he rolled his eyes. definitely what i call trumpist, which is many people are treated like house guests and when we go on tv, we're not. and the fact is that it was, you know, we were watching cnn ahead of time, you've got six to one panels against the president. one of us tries to go ott there on his behalf and state the case from the position of the president. the suspicion and derision just generally toward this white house by members of the media -- i'm not mentioning any network,

paper or individual specifically -- and the quest to go viral, that makes no sense. you must be lying. they say it to folks all the time. it really doesn't help democracy, and it doesn't help the body politic, because people are looking for the news. they're not looking for conjecture. they don't care if something goes viral and late night hosts get a couple laughs out of it. the idea that people are so presumptively thing towards so much that's going on, it's frankly often why you see people on this network only for long periods of time. because, you know, we're faced with people with the famed, pained look, the fair rowed brow, the curled lip anytime someone tries to say something, including the president. i would point out to you the president's own quotes in time magazine. i thought it was incredibly revealing, and we've heard this privately and publicly previously. the president said he's given

himself such a great gift, that it's been so liberating for him to tune out so much of the negative coverage. and it's not because he can't hear it, because he knows it's not true. how're howard you mentioned the time magazine interview, but you also had a contend ciaos interview with cnn morning anchor this week, chris cuomo, and the president was quoted that he was full of hatred. now, it's fair to criticize him, but he's not a lunatic. what does the president get out of that type of personal attack? >> i can talk about my interview. he used words, and i said you probably want that to go viral. you were describing a state of mind or a situation, not me, when you used the negative words. and i pushed back very forcefully on, again, which was something that doesn't always feel like someone is trying to get to the news report and the facts. it feels like there's this conclusion in search of evidence. and for the president to say, and i know this hurt some

people, for the president to very clearly say he doesn't want the negative anymore, he's tuned it out x he never, quote, knew that was a skill to not watch all the negative -- it's not because he wants to be surrounded by positive, he's the president of the united states. he knows how much negativing there is in the world. he gets a daily intelligence briefing. but at the same time, no good comes out of having to hear all the blather and having to hear all the nonsense and the negativity and the falsities. again, people who have never worked in the white house, let alone this one, telling us constantly what's going on. knows better, he's the president and he's rising above it. howard: you made a point about what the media choose to cover. what is the press supposed to do when the president tweets and says there might be tapes of his conversation with james comey but then declines to say more about it? how do you not cover that as a story? >> the president said he's not going to comment further on it. but the obsession with every tweet and every comment, and

again, doing that my developically and not covering the jobs numbers, not covering the amazing trade deal that we just made with china. it's huge. that'll impact many more people. and it's like, oh, trade deal on beef with china, yawn. that's news. that affects people. that's significant movement. these job numbers, these economic indicators. the fact that health care has already -- is on its way to being repealed and replaced. the fact that leader mcconnell and the president are working so hard together and others to get a full replacement. that matters to people, i'm telling you. i talk to real people every day, and this is what they discuss in return. howard: maybe we should talk to more real people as well. kellyanne conway, thanks very much for coming in on sunday. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. howard: up next, our panel on the coverage of the comey firing and why some pundits are calling it a coup and worse. and later, a deep dive on the dynamics of the white house

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♪ ♪ howard: the media firestorm rages over president trump's firing of james comey. joining us now, aaron mcpike, white house correspondent for independent journal review, margaret carlson with the daily beast, and molly hemingway, fox news contributor. aaron, it's a big story, a huge story. does that justify the daily news cover coup to trump and these other words we played at the top, dictator, whiff of fascism? >> maybe fascism is too strong to start out with, and we should leave a little more time to see how this plays out over the next month or so. howard: wait. coup? the president firing his fbi director is a coup? >> was that the daily news that you just showed? >> pundits have used it as well. >> okay, i want to go to kellyanne conway's interview with you when she said the press didn't see this coming.

well, i'm pretty sure a number of reporters asked sean spicer and others a number of times if the president still had confidence in james comey. and every single time they all said that he did. so we couldn't have seen this coming, and reporters were asking the questions. i think she's right that there's too much focus on palace intrigue and, you know, maybe all of those stories are wrong. so, look, i just think that that point was kind of misguided on some levels. howard: molly, you used a technical term this week, you said you were gob smacked by the media's coverage of this story. is part of the media because i don't want to apply this to to reporters asking legitimate questions, going off the rails here? >> yeah. there's no question this was a huge story, the firing of an fbi director. what was so fascinating was how so many people in the media went into a take which required you to accept a fairly extreme conspiracy theory about russia and trump, and they interpreted

everything through that conspiracy theory, that this must be an attempt to thwart an investigation even though there was no evidence that that was the case, even though trump himself said he believed that this might even extend the investigation, even though the fbi director has nothing to do with the actual investigation. they just immediately went into this very hostile -- howard: well, he does oversee it. >> he's the head of the fbi, yes, but this would not be the way you thwart an investigation since he's not the one actually doing it. but they did all of this sans evidence. and instead of thinking about why comey lost the confidence of the president and just accurately reporting what happened, they immediately went to the most extreme interpretation of event ares. and that makes it very hard for a viewer or for a reader to distinguish between legitimate complaints that the media have about trump, of which there are many, and completely illegitimate ones.

howard: you could cancel briefings, you could do that. another choice would be to can el lies -- cancel lies. >> well, the first explanations of why and how comey was fired weren't exactly truthful. why is still one of those radioactive words. it's a big word to use, and you don't want to use it. i agree with you, characterizing what's happened as fascism, to go to that length instead of just putting out the facts, and, in fact, the facts are fairly damning, howie. and it took, think about it, it took woodward and bernstein and the watergate committee to deal with the cover-up in the nixon white house whereas trump comes out the next day and says that everything that was said the day before wasn't true. howard: but, wait, the facts are fairly damning. i could see saying this was not a polished performance, particularly by communication staff. they had one hour's notice here.

ultimately, what this leads to and whether or not there's something here at the heart of the fbi investigation, we don't know at this point. >> we don't -- look, sarah huckabee sanders in her press briefing the following day actually offered several explanations for it. 24 hours later. so, you know, yes, there was a problem with the communications staff, but trump didn't give them the real reason for it until he went on tv in an interview himself and gave it. >> but can we stop and say there needs to be one reason and only one reason why someone gets fired? there are many reasons why comey lost the confidence of everyone on both left and right, and it doesn't -- >> it's not believable he's saying he was thinking about this over time and it only -- it happened immediately. who did he tell? howard: we've got to get to a break, sorry. the tyranny of television. ahead, by the way, jimmy kimmel milking the publicity surrounding his emotional plea for obamacare. but first, does the comey firing justify the word cover-up? ♪

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howie: president trump tweeting that he might do away with the white house press briefings. reporters asked sean spicer why that would be. >> i think he's a little dismayed as well as a lot of people that we come out here and try to do everything we can to provide you and the american people with what he's doing on their behalf and yet we see time and time again an attempt to parse every little word and make it more of a game of got you as opposed to really figure out what the policies are, why somebody is being pursued. howie: would president trump kill the briefings and as i ask kellyanne conway is this driven by by sarah huckabee and sean spicer? >> at the beginning of the administration we talked about

how they could change things about press briefings. >> these are good point to be made that the media have still failed to come to terms with the fact that is somebody very different has become differently. that person does not play washington games the same way people are accustomed and the media should start respond to go that reality instead of trying to demand that this president fit into the box that all previous presidents have fit. >> the president was bluffing. they are not going to get rid of press briefings. of course, they're not going to. he just wants to get a reaction. howie: trying to drive the press crazy? >> of course, that's what he does. it's the job of sean spicer and sarah huckabee sanders to get hammered as you say by the press. it is their job to dodge punches every single day. howie: unfairly hammered because

they make mistakes, we all make mistakes. >> it is my job to speak on behalf of the president of the united states. he said that to the press briefing one day. howie: they are given information on all the issues and sometimes they are not getting the full story. let me get you in here, margaret. >> thank you. >> about this as a very active president, it is not possible for surrogates to stand in the podium with perfect accuracy? >> let me agree with erin, he was bluffing about no more press briefings. it's like i'm taking my ball and going home because i didn't get my bat. this is ridiculous thing to say. he's not going to do it. howie: hold on. hold on. i think it's unlikely they will abolish the briefings. they can cut them back. what about the larger points that he feels it's a game of got you and the spokesman or

spokesperson were being hammered. >> the surrogates exploded a story that trump that rosenstein wrote a memo and gave backing for him wanting to get rid of comey. howie: comey mishandling of hillary clinton e-mail. >> right. there was so much on record about hillary clinton that that was so phoney you couldn't believe it for a second and rosenstein wasn't going to back up the president that he was the motivating force. howie: there was still this question, the whole got you game here and maybe it's unfair to character ice it that way, we all know this was really about donald trump being uncomfortable and being a hoax and he got rid of comey. there could be a multiple reasons. as you said, what if the russian investigation doesn't lead to anywhere, will the press look

pretty dumb for making such a big issue? >> absolutely, they better hope that they get the goods that donald trump himself as an agent of the russian government which is what we have been hearing for six months. using leaks that never seem quite to work out in a way -- we don't actually have the goods. howie: you're not saying there shouldn't be an investigation or other people associated with trump might have had contacts like mike flynn? >> what we were told about russia actually meddling in the dnc emails and john podesta emails, we know that. we know that trump has people who he's hired who had some affiliations with russia. we don't have evidence of the conspiracy that the media have put forth and hammered day after day. the only way make sense of the media hysteria this week if you accept the conspiracy idea. we don't have the evidence for that and that's a very serious problem and it's going to make

the media look foolish unless they really -- unless somehow it does come out that donald trump is a traitor. >> it is true that the media tends to get hysterical since president was elected, since president-elect trump. when he tweeted about the tapes, he knew immediately that every single journalist in the city was going to go to nixon. he wanted that. he wanted that. howie: let me close on this. isn't there as we cover this a lot of hypocrisy on both sides, democrats hated james comey for what he did in the last two weeks of the hillary clinton and republicans hated comey when he didn't bring charges to hillary clinton. isn't like comey was such a popular guy but now it's -- >> yeah. yeah. both sides disliked him. maybe he was doing something right. trump brought all of this on himself because he couldn't

control -- howie: what about the coverage? has trump put all on himself? you have two people hysteria in coverage, do you disagree with that? >> the way one story was put out and then the next day it's completely erased by trump giving an interview, yes, that was a very poor way to do it and it's self-destructive. by the way, trump would have been a perfect foil for trump. howie: is there a degree of media hysteria as molly have said? >> there's media hysteria. howie: let us know what you think, mediabuzz, are the media overreacting that there might be tapes of his conversations with james comey and later jimmy kimmel delights that he's an elitist freak. constipated? trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes.

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howie: president trump was asked about most eye-catching tweet of the week. >> what about the idea that in a tweet you said that there might be tape recordings? >> that i can't talk about. i can't talk about that. all i want for comey to be honest and i hope he will be. howie: tapes become instantly story, everywhere, echos of watergate, saturday night massacre with richard nixon.

overreacting to a single tweet? >> we actually got good media coverage out of it, good stories about it learning that, in fact, presidents do take -- tape conversations in the white house . that is what is interesting, james comey, the media didn't do a great job of masking james comey's identity after he was leaking stories after firing and trump is frustrated with leaks and in large part because so many are untrue. we had stories on front pages of newspapers that the deputy ag threatened to resign, he denied on record. we were told that james comey was fired after asking more resources. even though on the record we had multiple people denying them including the principals in question. this leak issue where the media relies so much on leaks almost to the exclusion of source, people with names, is very

frustrating and i think that's -- >> the business about the tape came as a leak, comey told associates that trump had dinner a week into the administration and asked him to pledge loyalty and comey declined and said he would be honest with him. so the press covering a fake here, we don't know. >> in this case the media hysteria of what you speak is being fed by donald trump, by putting out a tweet which says he better not be saying this, i might have tape. that's radioactive tweet to put on top of the bond fire that's already there. there's something about trump in the way all of this was handled, if there was a way to handle it, as you say, comey was an equal opportunity target, maybe he was doing his job but nobody liked him. he could have handled this differently than having one story and another story and topping it off the cherry on the sunday is this revelation he's

not going to talk about that he could be taping. howie: right. when i saw sean spicer deflect the question, i knew that they were going to leave it out there for the press -- >> continue to talk about, another distraction, possibly. howie: okay. >> how can you talk about health care when you have -- why aren't we talking about health care this week when you have the president putting out this. >> one of the ways you can respond to this not deny it's explosive or even problematic, is thinking about how we don't actually have good answers from james comey about whether he did or did not start an investigation of leak that is came out from the fbi which is really not just bad but criminal in some cases. he declined to answer whether he even done an investigation. that would be a good line of inquiry for the media to pursue, is there an investigation, what's happening there, why aren't we getting leaks if it's real. howie: i hope everybody is writing this down. it was a weird situation this week when the president met with the russian foreign minister and russian embassador, in u.s.

press allowed and the pictures emerge from russian photographer but the u.s. press was barred an came from the russians. great to see you on sunday. after the break, has there ever been a more dysfunctional relationship between the spokes people and the press? ed henry is hon

howie: the dynamics between presidential press secretary, joining us ed henry, the rest of the jackie robinson story, good to see you. >> same here. howie: there's the book. great reporting based on leak

that is president trump is unhappy with communication team. is it common to scapegoat if things go wrong? >> yeah, people can get blamed. i think this president has unique challenges because he is a strong communicator when he wants to be, but when it goes bad he sort of doubles down on twitter and what not as his communication staff bears the brunt of the tough questions and the accusations that they want to tell them the truth because he changes narrative. howie: i'm moving so fast i'm susm -- such an activist president, they can't reflect my views with 100% accuracy. >> but where i think judge janine challenge him, you have the ability to slow down and -- howie: just to be clear, we are not talking about slow down in

terms of policies, it's a free country. let's wait a day, let's have a roll out, we will have -- >> man it -- map it out to it works to your benefit. you're the president. when i hear kellyanne conway, you have her saying, you guys aren't covering jobs, yeah, there's good stuff the president has been doing. you know who is also not talking about, the president. kellyanne conway. she talks about it when she's complain to go you that all we are talking about is russia when the president is tweeting about russia. howie: he does talk when he's on the road. firing the fbi director in this circumstance was going to be the dominant story. >> it's his choice and a lot of reasons why james comey should have been fired. you're right, there was no road map or plan to implement it. howie: what about uil of the

speculative stories of who is going to get fired? it could be spicer, priebus and bannon, most of the time nothing happens but also the president is unfair to sean spicer and sarah huckabee sanders. you went through a million briefings at the white house correspondent, it can be contentious? >> dana parino on. do i think republicans often get tougher questions? a lot of times they do. the people in the mainstream media want to admit that or not. look at the wall the -- all of the root of this according to new york times story is that the president feels grievance, he's not gotten credit for winning the election and they say on the jump and unpredictable presidency shaped by deep resentment. where is the front page story of deep resentment on the left and they don't feel credit on why

they should have won? hillary clinton talked about this a week or so ago and agreed and the leftist is marching the streets with anger and "the new york times" is focusing on the president's anger. this president has not gotten a fair shake, that's true. my point to be absolutely clear is that he is not getting a fair shake but he sometimes makes it worse by engaging in these, maybe there's tapes, for example, of course, the white house press corps will and should follow up on that. howie: i have been hearing we should abolish white house briefing. what would it be reaction if barack obama would have fired director. >> you want to cancel briefings, fine, guess what, kellyanne con way. you will not get your message out there.

howie: it lets the administration on cable to get the message out. >> yes, there's got you questions. deal with those and then talk about your message. howie: ed henry, wisdom and experience. thank you for joining us. jimmy kimmel said he shouldn't have used personal ordeal to go after president trump. is

howie: jimmy kimmel has gotten a whole lot of publicity which included a swipe for president trump and appeal for saving obamacare. not all the coverage has been favorable which has given him more comedic. >> i would like to apologize for saying that children in america should have health care, it was insensitive. [laughter] >> it was offensive and i hope

you can find in your heart to forgive me. howie: it is a real newspaper and with lawmakers citing kimmel , while interviewing republican senator bill cassidy. >> i would like to make a suggestion as to what the jimmy kimmel test should be. i will keep it simple. the jimmy kimmel test i think should be no family should be denied medical care or emergency because they can't afford it, can that be the jimmy kimmel -- >> you're on the right track. howie: heartfelt moment about his son. let's put the new york cover-up. we had it up a moment ago as you see, jeff sessions dragging james comey off the plane, donald trump is looking on. that's it for this edition of mediabuzz. i'm howard kurtz.

let me know what you think of the show. mediabuzz at foxnews.com. see you then at 11:00 eastern n. laura ingle is in for harris faulkner. >> the trump administration facing challenges at home and abroad as it ramps up the search for the next fbi director and response on the latest north korean missile launch. this is the fox report. the white house is responding to the latest provocation from north korea. it came just a day after a senior north korean diplomat said they would engage in talk with the u.s. meanwhile, the administration wasting no time on the search for a new fbi director. they are weighing in on more