we had nothing to do with that, uh, tie. or the suit. or the shirt. voya. helping you to and through retirement. howie: president trump celebrates as andrew mccabe is fired hours before his retirement for leaking to a "wall street journal" reporter. is most of of the press taking mccabe's side. the president dumps rex tillerson. >> rex tillerson disagreed with the president so many times on so many things the president stopped listening to him. >> rex tillerson should have been hand differently because he's a good man. >> he didn't understand the

state department or the culture here. >> if somebody called me a moron and didn't recant it, i probably would have fired them long before donald trump did. >> we have known for a long time the president wants mueller out just as he wants jeff sessions out. are they next? howie: anthony scaramucci on the shakeup and trump's war of words with the press. is the press pushing it own agenda on gun control? stormy daniels sparks a media frenzy saying she was physically threatened but doesn't say who did it. we'll talk to the journalist who broke the stunning news that

espn's president resigned because of a cocaine shakedown. this is "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. it was a friday night media bombshell when jeff sessions acting on an internal doj report fired andrew mccabe hours before he was set to retire. >> it's totally clear and upsetting and disturbing that the president has been gunning for andrew mccabe since the campaign. this friday night massacre is a little concerning. >> this could be the beginning of something great for the country. namely we clean out the under

brush in our intelligence agencies. if andrew mccabe lied as the investigation concluded, that's a problem. howie: . joining us to analyze the tumultuous week. mollie hemingway, sarah a westwood and juan williams. you have the president of the united states publicly ripping mccabe for months calling for his ouster. commentators can say he deserved

to be fired. mollie: what's important is that the media tell this story accurately. the office of professional ethics found he should be fired. he was involved in many investigations that trump takes personally, but this is the office of the inspector general and the office of professional responsibility that found he should be fired. howie: he saider time he spoke to the president privately, the president brought up his wife who won for a virginia seat. juan: i take it differently. i think what the liberal side of the table is looking at is the pattern. the pattern is president trump firing jim comey and his people on the house intelligence

committee saying last week, russia didn't prefer president trump in the election, where do you see that. or attacks on peter strzok, the fbi agent who was sending emails to his girlfriend and saying negative things about the president. sessions is under pressure the president who feels he shouldn't have recused himself in the first place. john dowd, the president's lawyer, was attacking mr. mueller. so there is a pattern of undermining anybody investigating. howie: as the pundits pick side here, we don't know what is in this report by the non-partisan office of the professional responsibility at the justice department. mccabe was fired for leaking

and the jus -- the gist of this report was leaked. sarah: we are seeing it through the lens of trump's tweets. mccabe was used as a symbol of fbi corruption. the fact that opr that's within the fbi, basically his peers recommended his firings. obama apinted the inspector general who has been conducting this investigation. that's not really dominating the coverage of mccabe's removal. even though jeff sessions would have had to have broken protocol to spare mccabe from this action. howie: i wrote in my book "media

madness" that mccabe says priebus leaked on him. he says it's standard practice for a number two at the fbi to authorize the release of background information as in the case of this "wall street journal" reporter who has been doing the story on whether they were slow walking the investigation into the clinton foundation. is that a terrible offense? we don't know, was he honest about it? mollie: we don't know all the details that led to his firing. but the office of professional responsibility took it serious enough to recommend his firing. he was rumored to say he was

going to take down a few people with him. already he said it was authorized by comey and he said the current director wray knew. leaks are journalists' bread and butter. howie: and the white house leaks a lot. mollie: the american people are frustrated with how politicized our law enforcement and intelligence agencies have got be. juan: i have been a reporter in this town a long time. it's difficult to do official business. but once you get a story, they are in the business of trying to shape the story to limit damage to themselves. then you can get some of the top fbi officials to suddenly cooperate. is that a firing offense?

if that's the case we would have been firing people for decade. sarah: he was fired for lying to investigators. a year ago the main story in the made -- the major story in the media was they took the story so seriously. that narrative a year later looks patently ridiculous. howie: everyone in the media knows the president has the right to fire a guy he doesn't get along with on fundamental issues. sarah: so many people cover this as a palace intrigue story. when you look at successful relationships like under bush or

reagan or even if they had a better relationship. howie: "washington post," well, trump didn't like this slow southern drawl. in a dinner with the chinese. trump told tillerson to eat the salad. then said kelly gave tillerson the news while he was on the toilet. juan: if i was on the right, i would say if you are attacking the trump white house, and the white house is saying this person at the secretary of state level didn't have the president's trust and confidence, i would say it's not just tillerson. "the washington post" said they

have 19 sources indicating hr mcmaster, the national security advisor is about to be fired. howie: when "the washington post" says the president has decided to fire hr mcmaster and other stories come out saying well it's a false narrative and it hasn't happened yet. i want to come back to the last question about tillerson. the press never liked him because he barely did interviews. but trump denounced that story last fall. now we hear the president has never gotten over the moron comment. comment. sarah: tillerson has been rumored to be leaving since last

march. howie: the president is bringing in larry kudlow, cnbc commentator. and he did work in the reagan budget office. he has been on cnbc for decade. is the president just attracted to people who are good on tv? mollie: it's not just the president. we just had the media launch oprah winfrey's candidacy for president. howie: we have fox's katie pavlich reporting that the president wants pete hegseth. and you had an observation about

the fox green room. juan: i think it's a staging area for the president. he surround himself with yes people. he has watched them on tv or has become accustomed to seeing them on tv. howie: this is becoming the new narrative. he's just hiring loyalists. is that fair? doesn't every president have his share of loyalists. sarah: the president shouldn't have people in his administration who are trying to convince him not to implement policies he ran on. mollie: he encourages people to fight with him. it's not a good idea for the secretary of state position to be one of those. howie: i think the media wants people to restrain him from the

policies he ran on because some in the media don't like those policies. howie: "media madness." still ahead. scaramucci. smile dad. i take medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol. but they might not be enough to protect my heart. adding bayer aspirin can further reduce the risk of another heart attack. because my second chance matters. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

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howie: the most of televised meetings after the florida school shooting the president embraced gun control measures. >> we'll do strong background checks, we'll work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18.

we'll get rid of the bump stocks. and we'll be focused on mental health. this week the president backed away from raising the age and stronger background checks. the president did seem to change his position. mollie: in a few ways yes, in a few ways no. he backtracked on increasing the age to 21. but he also suggested there is no need for due process when you are taking guns away from people who are deemed a threat. but also i think he was the only person at the federal elected level who has done anything. he began the regulation of the bump stock. and that's something that should be handled legislatively.

and there are other things going on with background checks. howie: the press said you are scared of the nra. juan: i don't know how you defend this one. the argument he made is the polls don't show public support for these i kreelsd background checks. but they do. the polls are overwhelming. what about republic cabs and gun owners. but even there we have seen increases to historic heights. i think the president is the one who is afraid of the nra. >> no one expected a president who ran on the second amendment to do anything on gun control. sarah: that's one the problems opening up the meetings to the

public. those are deliberations that would normally take place in private where he could take positions in a cost-free way. not looks like he's retreating from positions. howie: let me briefly touch on the student demonstrations across the cub triearlier this week. walkouts at many, many schools in favor of gun control. fox in my view could have covered it more. is there an argument the media is promoting gun control by covering these legitimate protests. mollie: there is a march for life he year that has been going on for more than 40 years. how much coverage do you give that? do you give it any coverage? make sure your push for imun control coming isn't totally

what you are doing for pro-life. howie: certainly it was news. juan: mtv and bet are almost co-sponsors. i think that's a little much. but in fact people are restrained in coverage for fear of being criticized for taking side. the american people in the aftermath of the parkland shooting want something done. howie: why did hillary clinton once go after trump voters she once called deplorables. it's oke ignores me while i drive. it's fine. because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months i'm accident free. and i don't share it with mom! right, mom? righttt. safe driving bonus checks. only from allstate.

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howie: the stormy daniels saga got a huge boost as the lawyer

for the porn star made this accusation on morning joe. >> was she threatened in any way? >> yes. >> was she threatened physical harm. >> yes. >> will you deny the president of the united states threatened your client? >> i will not confirm nor deny. howie: he goes on tv and says stormy daniels received a physical threat. all the speculative chatter about whether this was somebody from trump's inner circle, did it go too far? >> i just asked stormy daniels' lawyer that myself. he said it was not a troll on twitter. again this story is changing by the day. it's unclear if that interview

will air. the president is going after stormy daniels for $20 million because he says she breached her non-disclosure agreement 20 different times. howie: i think chris cuomo * took the right tack when he said you don't have proof of this so i consider it an allegation. does that undercut the white house's position well this is all having to do with michael cohen, the president's personal lawyer, the president is not really involved when the president just hired a lawyer who made motion and legal filings. >> yes. we heard from the white house the president was not involved. the white house was saying he doesn't have anything to do with this payment. now we are seeing this president

says in this suit stormy daniels owes him personally money. there are a few reasons why this story besides the salacious allegations is making news. there are legal questions. we don't know if the payment knew -- we don't know if the president knew about the payment and if it constitutes an illegal campaign contribution. and if michael cohen and the president are subject to blackmail. and last but not least it raises a lot of questions about the white house's credibility, when they say it's fake news and it turns out not to be. that does chip away at the white house's credibility. howie: i interviewed michael cohen.

he defends the payment of $130,000. and he says he did it to help his friend and not the campaign. before we go to break. the "new york post" has a classic tabloid headline. "the worst rex i ever had." the press turns highly critical on scaramucci. friends, colleagues,

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howie: tensions still growing between the white house and the press, i spoke with anthony scaramucci who recently served as white house communications director. what do you think of the media chatter over the president firing rex tillerson with a tweet. anthony: the president has a certain operating style. they were expecting him to adjust to their operating style, and it turns out washington is

going to have to adjust to the president. i think the firing, the way it took place, that's sort of the president's style. i didn't get fired by the president, i got fired by john kelly, then the president followed up with a friendly phone call after. i started out as his friend. he didn't want me in the white house anymore. i didn't want to lose my friendship with him, and i hope he didn't want to lose his friendship with me. howie: we talked about him going to a rally and calling chuck todd a sleeping son of a bitch. should he be attacking individual journalists like this? anthony: of all the great strategies that got him into the white house, that's probably not

his best strategy. at the end of the day, if you read the original documents of the constitution, the free press has been put in there to check people like the president. that's something no politician likes from either side. even barack obama was character characterized as a media darling didn't like the coverage from fox news. the fourth estate needs to be there to hand check people. and the president should let it go and not take it personally. howie: is that the advice you offered him while you were in the white house? anthony: we had open conversations about why the steve bannon open war declaration on steve bannon was

not appropriate. he's a counter puncher. he feels like these are news, lt inaccurate information, misguide information, whatever you want to call it, it's been unduly unfair to this president. he has to fight back at it. but i think the personal fight,

i think you can lay that sword down, he's the president and they are not. so he has already won, put the sword down and the personal attacks. >> do you think when he does go after news organizations and talks about fake news that it's strategic or he resents the coverage. or an unpopular president makes a big fat target. anthony: some of it is strategic and some is reactive. i have found in my persons observing the president and working for him during the transition and the campaign. i think you find some of those reactions on twitter go by the wayside and his twitter programming is twitter information and strategic. whoever the next communications

direct years is build a well fortified media advocacy program, internal people work inside the west wing and the agencies. and also his external friends in the business community and elsewhere. there are a ton of leaders in the community out there large and small businesses happily out there to advocate on behalf of the president. howie: when it comes to harsh language, you said rachel maddow should take a lax tough. anthony: once in a while you are prone to a malprop. i'm happy to apologize to her. that was inappropriate by me. it was funny, but if i said it in a bar without a camera and

all these lights on. it would have been funny. it was inappropriate to say and i apologized. howie: we should be doing this interview in a bar. you seem to be suggesting others around the president did a better job of defending him, he wouldn't have to do as much punching when it comes to the press. anthony: i believe that. one of the things i put in my 9-point communications plan by was fired. let's build a broad based media advocacy program for the president and his policies to combat a lot of the misinformation that's out there. howie: anthony scaramucci, thanks for joining us. next on buz -- next on "mediabu" the press roughing up hillary clinton on her comments on trump voters and women.

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[♪] howie: hillary clinton still seems to be relit getting wehat the last election. at a conference in india she seemed to disparage people who live in the regions of the country won by donald trump. >> i won the places that are optimistic, diverse, moving

forward, and his whole campaign make america great again was looking backwards. you didn't like black people getting rights, you don't like women getting jobs, you don't want to see that indian-american succeeding more than you are. whatever your problem is, i'm going to solve it. howie: hillary clinton sounds like she is slamming trump voters as anti-black and anti-indian. >> if you listen to what she said, she is not back off from what she said. i encourage people to read something she wrote on facebook that puts it in context. donald trump made the point. throughout the campaign he said we are in terrible straits. we have to make america great

again. his inaugural day speech was american carnage. howie: i'm getting a mixed message. you seem to be defending what she said. >> from a media per spec touch i understand why how a hard truth does not equate well to a 30 second sound bite. democrats would prefer no one makes any stray voteable. she is not looking backwards, she is looking forward. howie: i don't have a problem with her criticizing donald trump. i think it's a misstep to criticize the americans who voted for donald trump. >> a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever

believes you should. howie: really? in the 21st century? >> you and i probably aren't the best to talk about it. i doubt there are too many women in your life who made you change your vote as opposed you to can influential on other people. she is not running again. howie: more women would have voted for hillary clinton if not for their domineering husbands. >> what she is saying, the democrats have been losing white women for some time, and she is explaining why that happened. she is talking about herself and she could be talking about john kerry or al gore. how around said you understood. you have seen him winning in

2020. you said don't see fox news. explain. >> i mean, fox is the highest rated most of profitable network. i don't see the point in letting this battlefield go uncontested. i'm not criticizing her campaign. i have been with her and been in politics for long. this is a democratic-wide problem. i see adam schiff. it's difficult coming on fox. but it's important. if i'm not sitting here, i don't know who would be. and they would not be giving as strong a defense of a point of view i'm trying to give. howie: you get to say whatever want. >> if even one person watches me and says he's not crazy and has a point. howie: you said you are running for president, not president of

the national press club. you think democrats where too much worried about the approval of the "new york times" editorial page? >> i meant that more that president trump is a master at literally working them. he says you are in the pockets of the democrats. i saw you at their wedding. and it gets in their head. i think no one should think the media is going to do their bidding for them on either side. he got in their heads for the debates for the republican primaries. his republican opponents suffered for it the same way. howie: you are saying donald trump is better at this television game and they need to up their game. >> i'm saying his instinct is to bully. and he doesn't confine that to democrats. he bullies mitch mcconnell and paul ryan and he bullies his

staff. i spent years criticizing the press. but they have a part to play and they have to man up. howie: thanks very much for being here. still ahead. john skipper

>> everybody understands live sports right now is the sweet spot of media. howie: the hollywood reporter uncovered the real reason john skipper abruptly resigned saying he had a substance abuse

problem. he was forced to admit to his boss, someone from how many bought cocaine threatened me. i understood that put me and my family at risk and it would put my professional life at risk as well. i spoke to jim miller. john skipper was clearly reluctant to tell you about the coke dealer and the extortion. how hard was it to get him to confess to what actually happened? >> i think the whole thing was hard for him. he said he has been embarrassed by this. it's been a tough saga for him. but i think getting to that level detailing the story was particularly tough and i don't think he planned on doing so. howie: how did skipper describe the weekend when he was writing up his resignation.

>> it was agonizing. he didn't sleep. he was very distraught. this was a complete surprise. when john skipper woke up friday morning, he had been at disney for 27 years and president of espn for six years and he had no reason to believe that day was going to be unlike any other. howie: so skipper said he used poor judgment kind of an understatement. he kept repeating and you picked up on this, this had no impact on his job, he kept everything compartmentalized and he was careful. but what level of coke addiction would it take. ultimately i'd did cost him his job. >> if you go back to december when he do you feel it was a

mistake for espn and john skipper himself to hide the truth at the time he stepped down? >> i think the problem it created in a post-weinstein world, because they didn't see him as an addict, and also because of the climate we are dealing with, i think it conflates a lot of different issues. people believed he was leaving

for another reason. there were no indications that any kind of substance abuse was affecting him on his job. so i think that that was probably the real take away after they went through. this happened very quickly. it happened on a friday and he was gone on monday. howie: it was a great interview. it was done in a humane way to get the full story here. still to come, a lawsuit against fox news and joy behar apologizes finally on the air.

howie: the parents of seth rich has filed a lawsuit against fox news. as we reported at the time. fox retracted an online story

saying investigators had evidence that rich leaked dnc documents to wikileaks. the network said at the time the web story was not initially subjected to the high level of scrutiny we require for all our reporting. joy behar apologized publicly after privately apologizing to mike pence. >> i think vice president pence is right. i was raised to respect everyone's religious faith and i fell short of that. i sincerely apologize for what i said. howie: good for her for doing the right thing on "the view." continue the conversation @howardkurtz. and you can email us

@mediabuzz@foxnews.com. we'll see you next week at 11:00 a.m. eastern for the latest buzz. eric: the firing of former deputy fbi director andrew mccabe. but the revelation that he kept detailed notes of his meetings with president trump. hello, welcome to "america's news headquarters," i'm eric shawn. arthel: i'm arthel neville. the president is slamming the makeup of mueller's team saying it's populated with hardened democrats. president trump a