♪ can i kick it? ♪ yes you can ♪ well i'm gone howie: why weren't news outlets more aggressive from the start. more than a week after an expose' from politico, president trump fires tom price for misuse of private jets. >> they told the white house this would be a one-day story. >> i think he's a fine person. i don't like the optics. i'm not happy, i can tell you. >> president trump is not upset by what secretary price did,

he's upset by the negative press caused by what secretary price did. >> politico, the reporters tracked this down, they did the reporting. howie: politico reporting that price charged the taxpayers a million bucks. the president is talking about the nfl over other issues. in puerto rico the human need is so great. >> today five tweets about the nfl and two about puerto rico. >> trump is not being divisive. the people who kneel during the anthem, i consider that divisive. ripping people that kneel isn't

racist. >> wondering why in the president's view a blackman kneeling during national anthem is a son of a bitch, but whites marching against the removal of a confederate statue is a quote very fine person. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." politico disclosed 10 days ago hhs secretary tom price spent $100,000 on private jets and another half million on military flights overseas.

>> what were you thinking. some of these flights were clearly to places with commercial possibilities. there is one in philadelphia, you drive 45 minutes to dulles and you get on a private flight to fly to philadelphia. if you take amtrak you would be there in an hour and a half for $100. we had a meeting that morning on the hurricanes i needed to be at and a meeting in the afternoon at the white house. these trips were approved through the normal process. howie: the secretary insisting he had done nothing wrong until president trump decided he had enough. he said he would decide that night whether to fire price and that's when he resigned. juan williams and katie pavlich

and susan ferrechio. is this a classic scandal from the swamp? why wasn't price gone in 48 hours? katie: i think the president wanted to make sure he had all the facts. but the excuses tom price gave from beginning to end were pathetic. he said he had these meetings and commercial flights weren't available to get back in time. politico exposed there were commercial flights almost at the exact same time as the private flights he took. and to hold himself accountable saying i will pay for my seat on the private plane i took looks even worse when it comes to the overall administration message of making sure taxpayers money is taking care of them, not washington, d.c. bureaucrats.

howie: you saw with bret baier, i love this none apology. i regret it was not sensitive enough to my concerns for the taxpayers. wasn't that red meat to the media? juan: it should have been red meat for the media. it seemed a contra disks our populist president appeal to the grassroots who want to drain the swamp. i think we also have to look at the va secretary, look at vine zinke, and the famous case of mnuchin, the treasury secretary and his wife who had to explain why they were traveling on private jets. i think the president is upset with tom price for failure to get rid of obamacare. howie: other news organizations didn't join in the digging.

very little on fox. why do you think that was? >> partly because jet travel from administrative officials is not news. it's been going on for many officials. howie: at this level? susan: the day price announced his resignation is the day we learned about the trips to europe. all the emphasis on trump and the jet travel. where was this careful examination during the obama administration. leon panetta used to fly home every weekend to the tune of 1800,000. i never knew how -- at the tune of $800,000.

howie: it's true a number of obama officials used private jets. this guy is running the health department. but it's also true that those earlier examples were not as big a story. katie: the obama administration didn't have a mantra or slogan of making sure taxpayer money was spent in a way that was helpful and not beneficial to the washington, d.c. swamp. yes this has been done by previous administrations and it deserved as much scrutiny they are giving it now. the trump administration needs to look at the policy. why is it not okay for tom price to do it but okay for the treasury secretary to do it. they are not law enforcement officials, so what is the safety concern. howie: the media says president

trump is taking private jets when he goes for his weekend golfing vacation. when your own president you support does it you get a pass. juan: it's the president of the united states. you have a lot of apparatus attached to the president of the united states. security is intense. i used to fly around with ronald reagan. that's how old i am. it wasn't just me and reagan. you wouldn't believe how many cars are involved. even to this date there are secretaries who get private transportation because of security concerns. howie: in the first week after that devastating hurricane caused so much havoc on the island, it wasn't the kind of

coverage you saw on previous hurricanes. now the narrative has shifted the media is saying is this president trump's fault. now it's a bigger story. is that fair or unfair. katie susan: let's imagine hillary clinton was president. dew think we with see the same narrative. he did well with texas and florida and democrats were looking for a way to turn puerto rico into a katrina-like disaster for trump. howie: the associated press is making comparisons to katrina. but any administration would be struggling with the island, more than 1,000 miles from florida

just getting in supplies and water is difficult. katie: you had sarah huckabee-sanders tweeting out informational tweets with what the administration has done. there is a supply and demand issue. not necessarily not having enough medical supplies or fuel on the island. it's a matter of not having enough people to distribute that. i think they are not pointing out in fairness of yes the san juan mayor is saying these things, but the governor is praising the president's response. we need more help obviously. this is not going to be over in the week coming. it's going to be a long-term process. but they tried to opinion all this on the president and ignore the timeline of what the department of security has done and try to get those people on

the ground. howie: one banner, trump attacks san juan mayor as she begs for help. there is a tweet from the president. the mayor of san juan because very complimentary. she is doing a very poor job. people are saying he's attacking a woman of color. juan: what is her color? i don't know. but i don't think that's relevant. but from what i can see, the mayor is in a desperate situation and is asking for help on behalf of her people. represent your people. i didn't think -- i didn't understand president trump change the media narrative by engaging in this kinds of aggressive takedown of a mayor who is in the midst of a crisis. but he has done this before. it does affect the media

narrative. it's so much like catnip for nuts media to say trump is attacking the mayor. but she is in a desperate situation. howie: another tweet by the president. fake news. cnn and msnbc are disparaging our first responders. susan: he's right to fight against the media narrative. from the get-go it's been about him not doing enough to help this desperate situation. in the meantime all our revoarss pouring in a difficult situation. fit was president obama or hillary clinton the media narrative would be different. howie: is it paul fake news? susan: he's not labeling fake news that things are desperate in puerto rico. he has talked about that on

person on twitter. the fake news is that he's not getting in there to do everything he can to help the people. howie: let me get into a break now. why did it take television so long to focus on the devastation in puerto rico.

howie: the devastation in puerto rico after hurricane maria is devastating. but the television coverage was quite modest. >> tonight the president responds. but has he done enough for

puerto rico? the governor saying it's a humanitarian disaster. >> growing fears of a mass exodus from puerto rico as president trump defense his administration's response. >> a cry for help from puerto rico. >> we need help now. not tomorrow. now. >> the president says he's on it. howie: joining me from miami is antonio mora. why was there such meager or modest coverage in the first few days and what do you make now that this more coverage in the way those evening news stories were framed? antonio: i don't understand why there wasn't more coverage to begin with. you can give excuses, there was hurricane fatigue, the mexico earthquake wassed the day before the puerto rico earthquake. but to say we have to cover this

hurricane the same as harvey and irma. this also u.s. territory. it's that far away from miami. it's about the same distance as houston is. we have to send the big guns top cover this. i don't understand this. the responsible way i can understand it from a network standpoint is there are not enough latino voices at the networks to say you cannot make this coverage so different. howie: that's an interesting points. some of the major newspaper coverage was better from the start. is this related to the fact puerto rico for most of of the time is a blim on the american media radar. when you say not enough peninsula continueo voilss, you are -- not enough latino voices, it is covered differently.

it's his bank and generally impoverished. half. americans didn't realize puertoo rico is american citizens. i believe there is a lack of latino representation in the networks in the executive with suites and cane core ranges. this not one latino in the anchor cheryl at cbs, nbc, or msnbc. if they did they would have covered it a different way and send anderson cooper down there before. howie: why should it take latino

voices to tell the people who make decisions on television networks that puerto rico, 3.5 million folks, and massive food shortages, water, gas, why should it take latino voices. >> antonio: it shouldn't. if you look at the newspaper coverage before puerto rico, before maria hit puerto rico. it was clear everybody knew how bad it was going to be. irma already knocked out power in puerto rico. you should see what miami looks like two weeks after irma hit as a category one. so there were already articles talking about how this could mean power out for most of of the island for 3-6 months. and i do put some blame on the

white house. they probably under estimated the response. they sent in thousands of people and prepositioned some aid, but clearly not enough. howie: antonio mora, thanks for joining us from miami. steve hayes on the trump tax cuts and whether it benefits him. esurance does insurae a smarter way. which saves money. they offer paperless billing and automatic payments. which saves paper. which saves money. they offer home and auto coverage, so you can bundle your policies. which saves hassle. which saves money. and they offer a single deductible. which means you only pay once when something like this happens. which saves money. esurance was born online and built to save. and when they save, you save. that's home and auto insurance for the modern world. esurance. an allstate company.

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howie: san juan's liberal mayor was asked to respond to elaine duke. >> i know it is a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people. and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a

devastating hurricane. >> when you are drinking from a creek, it's not a good news story. when you have to pull people down from their buildings it's not a good news story. i'm sorry but that upsets me and frustrates me. howie: joining me is jennifer gonzalez-colon and puerto rico's only member of congress. there is criticism that the administration's help has been a failure. congresswoman gonzalez-colon: of course it's unfair. it was less than 10 days to recover. in the first hurricane we got 4,000 federal employees on the island, before, during and after. the same burg maria.

then the government sent 10,000 persons. president is sending his staff, his secretaries, his cabinet to make sure the provisions are arriving. and he understands the main issue we have got is the logistics issue of the supplies. howie: you were just telling me you were down there during the hurricane and holding on to the door of your home. you just heard the mayor of san juan saying people are dying, she is not going to be polite, the feds should get their ass moving. what is wrong with her indictment. congresswoman gonzalez-colon: everybody is frustrated. the governor is frustrated, the mayor is frustrated. i'm with frustrated. but it's one thing to say that and another to say there is no help, no provisions, no military

persons there. the army, engineers, you have agencies on the island doing the job as we speak. there are ongoing operations for rescue. one thing is ventilating your frustration and another to take action and promote coordination between the agencies. that's what i'm doing and the governor is doing. we have 78 mayors. howie: the president is tweeting and saying some of the coverage of puerto rico is fake news. would you agree with that? congresswoman gonzalez-colon: there is a lot of the media covering the disaster and devastation. but saying the federal government not there is false. you can go to the streets and you will not national guard.

howie: they are not saying the federal government is not there. but quick enough to mobilize the military. congresswoman gonzalez-colon: in less than 8 days we have the military there. howie: when the hurricane first hit there weren't that's journalists who went there. did that bother you? why do you think that was? congresswoman gonzalez-colon: it's so easy to take a hit on somebody when they are doing the job. this is not politics. this is a real thing. it's real devastation we have on the island. if some people want to hate the administration because they are doing the job, that's the wrong thing. we need to be united and be a leader of people to work with the administration to help the situation. howie: i thought there should have been a brighter media spotlight from the beginning.

the president said after the alabama contest there is still a war going on. steve hayes is next. morning on the beach was so peaceful.

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to lower your cardiovascular risk. talk to your health care provider today about diabetic heart disease. and find out more at heartoftype2.com. your heart and type 2 diabetes. make the connection. howie: president trump's tax plan is coming under sharp media scrutiny. >> can you guarantee president trump won't get a tax cut under this plan? >> when we looked at the tax plan and look what it does for americans, we are very confident that americans are getting a great deal here. howie: joining us is steve hayes, the ""usa today"" banner headline. trump could reap millions in tax plans.

why is this a huge deal. didn't other presidents benefit from thanks cuts? steve: yes. but in fairness to the media, we don't have his tax returns so we don't have an understanding how he may or may not benefit. howie: it's understandable i think that the media would show how this would explode the deficit. the "new york times" saying. steve: it's a perfectly legitimate question to talk about the deficit. but my question for the media is where were they the last 8 years. barack obama introduced a new entitlement and we have seen the

debt go from $11 trillion to $20 trillion under barack obama and there was virtually not a people from the mainstream media and debt and deficit. to be fair to trump this has come up through the republican congress for years. and all of a sudden the media is obsessed with deficits? if you ever wanted an example of how the media is biased on these issues, this is a good one. howie: so the obamacare replacement bill collapsed for the third time. the president is out there saying he has the votes and he will get in a few months. he talks about one senator being hostile. a lot of journalists jump in and say he doesn't have the votes. steve: he didn't have the votes. it was not true. he made the claim once.

he wasn't doing well. and reports was going to come back. so what donald trump did was make up an excuse. it wasn't true. journalists are right to fact check him on it and say what he said was not true. howie: president trump appointed an incumbent luther strange, he lost to roy moore. the president campaigned for him. rich lowry writes the republicans are locked in mortal combat between the establishment and a populist wing. where does that leave you? steve: in the middle actually. my problem with this whole discussion. there has been a civil war inside the republican party for a couple years. if you go back to the 2016 presidential election. my problem with the coverage

broadly is there is this sort of binary framing where the establishment on one hand and trumpists on the other. there are republicans, conservatives in the middle of that that are neither establishment or trumpists. you can make an argument they haven't been aggressive enough in making their case and haven't responded directly to president trump's. howie: as far as you and the weekly standard, he cite sides you during the campaign. you don't feel like you have to choose sides. steve: or traditional movement

conservatives, what we are doing for response is old school reporting. we believe the debates we are having as a country inside the conservative movement should be based on facts, logic and reason. we are making arguments based on empirical facts. howie: is it hard to move the needle with this approach when such passions exist. steve: yes. but if it fails, if going back to facts, logic and reason fails. we'll have problems for the country. howie: coming up, a rocky start as meghan kelly tries to make a

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instead of puerto rico. >> i wasn't preoccupied with the nfl, i was ashamed of what was taking place. howie: the media won't let go. katie: i might disagree with the assertion that he created accuse brought it up isn't necessarily true. but the reason we keep talking about it is because the president is talking about it and reporters keep asking by the, and americans are interested in seeing how this moves forward and whether they are going to keep watching football. howie: every time this week

there has been a question about the nfl. juan: he's still tweeting about it, too. but this is a culture wars issue. this is something everybody is interested. everybody wants to know what's going to happen in the next game. i remember people anticipating the thursday night games the way we are anticipating the game today. how can they meet with players and owners to finds a way around it. howie: the real focus is now on the first two minutes before the play starts. let me play for you something msnbc's rachel maddow said on jimmy fallon. >> 3.5 million americans in puerto rico and the president was preoccupied with trying to make a racial issue out of the nfl while he wasn't doing anything about that.

howie: i'm not sure receive wasn't doing anything about puerto rico. susan: nfl, 16 million voters. puerto rico 1,000 miles away from america. antonio mora said the average american doesn't even though puerto rico is part of the united states. football is the most of popular sport in america. joined with the protest. you have a perfect combination. howie: cnn did a special on it it's got president trump, sports, race, and two sides denouncing each other. katie: people are interested in look at this. there are results happening as a proved this. there was a political poll that shows the nfl's brands

favorability is lower than it's ever been and has gone down 13% just in the last week. fans are burning their jerseys, they want it resolved not by the president but by the nfl. howie: the "new york times" story says the president is being divisive by pushing a wedge issue. isn't there another side that protesters with making this a wedge issue by protesting on tv. juan: i disagree, they are using a platform. we especially here at fox are critical of the hollywood elite when they use their platform. howie: can you not see how some people would see that as abusing their platform? >> as datey just said, when capper knick was doing this, there was some attention to the fact that kaepernick couldn't get a job this season.

now it's combusted. the sports, the media, and donald trump. howie: i guess some of us will have to make a decision whether to watch football later today. thanks very much. after the break. meghan kelly says on the "today show" she is done with politics. how do you chase what you love with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis? do what i did. ask your doctor about humira. it's proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver,

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ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. entyvio. relief and remission within reach. howie: meghan kelly made her debut on the "today show" and the reviews have been harsh. wek

about that? howie: joining me is marisa guthrie. was it good for her to announce she is done with politics? marisa: it's a misreading of the cultural moment because megyn was so good at done interviews.

we saw with that jane fonda interview, her instinct is too ask the probing -- is to ask the probing questions. everyone is talking about politics at the breakfast table. oprah is talking about politics on "60 minutes." and suddenly the person who rose to prominence because of her political interviews is done with politics. it's a weird whiplash for people who have watched megyn all these years. howie: some of the critics have said things like she seems awkward and uncomfortable. she is not connecting with the celebrities. by and large, fair or unfair? marisa: i think you have to give shows more than a week and reserve judgment.

howie: one day and they make the pronouncement. marisa: everybody wrote their reviews on day one. i do think that there is an awkwardness. you saw it swt jane fonda interview and some of the other fluffy segments. question is not that megyn -- i can understand being tired of the nightly cable news combat and everything she went through with trump. but is she the celebrity stands girl? i don't know. is she ever going be better doing those interviews than kelly ripka or ellen degeneres. howie: jane fonda has talked openly about plastic surgery in the past. is the morning show host only

supposed to ask questions like tell us how great your new movie is? marisa: i think jane's response -- her response was a little bit surprising. she decided she wasn't going to roll with it and answer the question nicely. we don't know what went on before the interview. i think megyn maybe is a little intimidating and can put people back on their heels. that's what makes her a good interviewer. howie: "the washington post" saying meghan kelly was the bride of frankenstein. martha: it's a different audience that watches her on the "today show" than watched her on fox. what do they want? i think they want a little more about what's going on in the world than we saw that first

week. howie: that's a good place to stop. and a fair assessment. marisa guthrie, thanks for joining us. til to come, some ruminations on the contributions of "playboy" magazine by one of its initial contributors.

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and with esurance, coverage counselor® can help you find great coverage that's a perfect match too. esurance. an allstate company. click or call. howie: hugh hefner told me the endless availability of x-rated fare on the web has not been good for "playboy" or society because it destroyed the mystery of sex. james rosen. hef built an iconic brand and he gets much of the credit or blame for spurring on the sexual revolution.

james: true. the question that's debate in the wake of his death is good or bad. i come down on the side that it was mostly positive. not just because i think he threw open the doors of sex that was necessary after the conformity of the 1950s. but the literary caliber of the archives. martin luther king. the beatles. howie: i'm told this magazine served the adolescence of millions of teen aged boys. i'm not sure if that's true or not. james report indictment against hugh hefner is the internet pornography is in some way directly attributable to him. the question is what would

become the case 2/3 if hugh never -- what would be the case if hugh hefner had never come along. howie: he seems tame by comparison. people are saying this is a guy who was selling pictures 6 pictf airbrushed naked women. james: he was also selling interviews. william buckley, jr. wrote articles for "playboy" for years. howie: . that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. let me know what you think on twitter @howardkurtz.

everything is up to the last moment to keep it fresh for you. [♪] eric: >> fox news alert. authorities authorities in france launching a terror investigation after a deadly attack at a train station. another terror investigation opened in canada. police say a man ran his car through a traffic barricade in edmonton knocking down an officer and he jumped out and stabbed that officer, and an isis flag inside his car. i'm eric shawn. arthel: nerves are on evening in two countries.