www.foxnews.com. have a great week, and we will see you next "fox news sunday". howie: jim comey memos are leaked to the press by congress igniting media debate whether they hurt or help president trump. >> there's nothing else in there, no red flags, no smoking gun that would incriminate the president. >> if you take the comey memos at their word they are devastate to go president trump with regard to him telling the truth. >> for him to write things down seems self-serving, seems as he was planning the first draft of the book that has now been published. howie: was comey's briefing of trump of steele dossier, journalists are turning on jim comey as he peddles his book now

asking questions about his motivation and tone of antitrump attacks. >> it feels like you have some scores to settle, like you might have anger left over and bitterness, would you plea guilty to all of that? >> i wouldn't actually, i would take that one to trial. howie: is it the time that hold chief accountable? nikki haley being blamed for confusion by larry kudlow for going on the show and announcing more sanctions more moscow. >> by the way, sexist remark. she must have been a little confused. brother, please, confused, -- >> they hung her out to dry. howie: is the administration sending mixed messages or

pundits playing soap opera. >> nbc news has confirmed inside the courtroom that the third client michael cohen is sean hannity. >> it was revealed sean hannity. a bombshell in court. >> it's pathetic. and here is the truth, the media is guilty of every single solitary thing they have been accusing me in the last 24 hours. the media is the sewer. howie: we will look how much of the criticism is fair and how much unfair. final thoughts on barbara bush, i'm howard kurtz and this is media buzz. ♪ ♪ howie: we will get to the new memos in just a few moments, james comey to make a fortune,

what was envisioned as love fest turn surprisingly critical. >> including calling his skin orange, looked like he had tanning goggles, some people say for lack of a better word that was catty, did you enjoy taking the shots tat president? >> i didn't think of them as shots. >> really? >> the folks haven't read the book. >> it's unfair to president trump because the question was if president trump was compromised by the russians, you say it's possible, it's likely but possible, it's possible that there's life on another planet. howie: joining us amy, fox news con attribute outer, susan, correspondent and mary, former state department and spokesperson. he started peddling his book, what changed? >> there was no way for the

media to be as positive as james comey when firing. people were really hoping that the book would have new details or fuel the fire against trump and it didn't have those things and because he was so personal and petty, he wrote a book on leadership but he seemed to drift, the reporters were responding to what was in the book. howie: would you agree, reporters are starting to challenge him in a way that they haven't in the past? >> jim comey isn't liked by democrats or republicans. reporters were trying to respond to the book, what's been interesting over the week in the book tour now, news has been made every day and reporters are having to ask him about that and i actually think that's pretty interesting. howie: we will get to that. i went in the interview after george stephanopoulos interview, he was hurting tone. james comey attacks on trump may

heard cultivated image. let me put the presidential tweet one of many about comey. shady james comey and leaking, made money from third grade book that never should have been written. okay, but didn't michael flynn agree to lying to the fbi? we knew most of the revelations. >> just about all of it. nothing in there they had hope today see that would move the narrative about russia collusion. there was no there, there, what you saw this week was the frustration bog born out by the press, where are the goods. howie: postpartum depression. this stuff leaks in an hour, ap and others, in another memo comey told trump that he was

briefing him on sexual allegations because the media cnn in particular telling us they were about to run with it but needed a news hook, your thoughts? >> there was nothing in the memos, the fact that there was nothing in the memos is the most important thing, they were selectively leaked to launch a special counsel. nothing to justify a special counsel is huge news actually. even the first memo where he explains why he briefed him only on the solicitous part of the dossier and said because cnn was looking for a hook to justify writing about it, the hook, if you remember, that story that got everything going was the comey had briefed donald trump. he says -- he says he's telling him about this because cnn is about to do this and that they're going to keep it very close to the chest, instead this meeting became the hook to justify putting the dossier into the bloodstream and he was not telling the truth about how closely held the information was which makes all the other information about trump asking for loyalty look totally

different when you realize -- trump realized that intelligence chiefs were leaking against him. howie: comey doesn't control what cnn does, cnn held back, can we completely blame that on comey or would it have come out anyway? >> absolutely. a lot of media elections leading up to election had dossier and buzzfeed put the whole thing out there, cnn didn't. howie: the reason organizations didn't go with it because they were allegations. >> exactly. >> comey briefed after election, all the intel chief went to tell donald trump what their assessment had been. at tend, jim comey felt like the president had a right to know that reporters had a dossier. the most interesting things in the comey memos is dossier, not the solicitous sexual parts but

other parts verified by u.s. intelligence. something the incoming had a right to know. >> public information that russia is a country and russia tried to meddle. what's interesting about the memos, comey said that james clapper told him to do the briefing, james clapper is an interesting name, former fbi intelligence -- howie: for obama. >> james clapper gave very inconsistent testimony about his leaks -- or his conversations with cnn and he now works for cnn. that dossier briefing occurred in four days later it was put out on cnn. that is very interesting. they did have high-level -- >> reporters had. i know for a fact. >> as james comey said, cnn said they needed a justification to put it out. howie: i have to jump in. another thing in the comey memos

that struck me, susan, comey was talking to the president he says about stopping leaks, trump replied that we need to go after reporters and referred to the fact that 10 or 15 years ago we put them in jail to find out what they know, he mentioned judy miller at fox by name, spent couple of days in mail, does that concern you? >> judy miller was in jail for three months. howie: part of investigation. she wouldn't reveal sources. >> it's happened before, the threats are ongoing against reporters, what would be different this time if trump did it, it would get a lot more attention and focus and a lot more anger from the public because it would be donald trump doing it, he's waging war on the free press even though president obama spied reporters and subpoenaed phone records. no one seemed to care about it then. not the way they would. it's frightening a president

talking about jailing a reporter, it was a joke, we don't know. it's happened before, it's part of history and i wouldn't rule it out happening in the future. howie: comey's book tour was also barred by the news that the justice department referred the case of andrew mccabe, former deputy for lying about leaks, we just learned about it that's taken place weeks ago. >> he was referred for criminal prosecution for lying about just one of the many leaks that have come out of the fbi. you wrote about another leak he was involved. howie: reince priebus. >> great example how the media has missed a really important story about leaks to journalists. it's fine for journalists to take leaks or you can argue that that's fine and they should not be persecuted but the lack of security of information is a huge and the media has been focused on the russia conspiracy theory that they messed the story about undermining administration through leaks and they missed the andrew mccabe

story. >> they completely ignored. everybody talks about it. nobody writes about it. go try to find reporting on it. it's ignored. >> they love the leaks and they need to leaks and keeps the press going right now. howie: what about the bloomberg story that says that sources say that rod rosenstein told the president he's not a target to have mueller investigation, do you think that deserves more coverage or did we already know that because of washington post story a couple of weeks ago saying trump's legal team has been told the president is not a target? >> i think definitely deserves more coverage. the fact is that there's so much going on with the cross investigations and government and howie: just to close up on comey, it seems to me that there's a guy who when he ran the fbi infuriated the democrats, if you're republicans for not bringing charges, now seems to me he's trying to say,

it would have been been better if hillary clinton would have won. commentators have no use for this guy. >> absolutely. in a week or two he won't be in the top 20 stories we are talking about. he's not the focus -- he's not at the center of mueller investigation. he's a small part of it. interesting book tour that i don't think has gone as well for him as it would have predicted. at the end of the day, it doesn't matter that much. howie: the president taking issue with "the new york times" story about michael cohen personal lawyer being on investigation which say that is he hasn't -- trump hadn't always treated cohen well, here is the tweet. "the new york times" third-grade reporter known as crooked h flunky who i don't speak to and have nothing to do with, maggie interviewed trump many times including several times at president and one of the colleagues tweeted this picture of the two of them in the oval

office so apparently he does have something to do with maggie. when he come back, the flop over nikki haley and russian sanctions, has the press turned that into soap opera. war of words with james comey and the media. you know what's awesome? gig-speed internet.

you know what's not awesome? when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. howie: last sunday's face the nation that u.s. ambassador nikki haley announced sanctions against rush nay the wake of u.s. air strikes. >> you will see that russia sanctions will be coming down, secretary mnuchin will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already. howie: air strikes against syria but turned tout president was not approving new sanctions

against moscow and new economic adviser larry kudlow try today explainthe snafu. >> i was able to get in touch with nikki haley and she said, quote, with all due respect, i don't get confused. howie: the press kind of playing this as personality, is it overplayed or questions about how they work with foreign policy? >> by definition she did get ahead of the curb because she announced sanctions that didn't take place. he said there was momentary confusion. i think he was poorly served, it's true that the policy

changed at some point. she did announce something that didn't happen. there'sing in -- i wish we could be more substantive about what happened there as opposed to make it about a war between kudlow. howie: nicky was sent out with inaccurate information. >> well, the reporting show that it had been vetted by the national security team including the white house, it was after president trump saw appearance, wait a second, i don't actually want to do sanctions and the policy changed in the next 24 hours. we often talk about reporters who report, that was one that spilled out very publicly and on the record. kudlow had to apologize to her, it is more important that the president declines to put additional sanctions even though clearly there had been according to decision.

howie: there were so many. new york times called this a remarkable display of discord involving larger questions of political ambitions, jealousy, resentment and loyalty. the president talked about his whole policy toward russia and media news conference. let's take a quick look. >> there has been nobody tougher than me with the media no matter what i did is never tough enough because that's their narrative. >> all true. >> he's right. howie: well, the i think the president has point about the media, you're saying that it's true, the toughest president in history when it comes to russia, ronald reagan and the evil empire? >> he's been tough enough to not warrant the kind of criticism he's getting from the media. that's the way i interpret it, they have been critical about the way he's responding to russia. that's sort of thrown a shadow over fairly tough policies

against russia since he's taken office. howie: focus on the president's words, he usually speaks positive about putin. >> people really do up sit that he doesn't speak against the humanitarian abuses in russia but when you look, he supported nato expansion, nato countries increase defenses against russia, he did missile defense in poland, he's bombing syria quite a bit. >> he was trying to avoid russia -- he was trying to avoid world war iii. howie: avoiding world warl 3 is a good thing. big headlines now by kim jong un halting nuclear testing. there's some debate about how significant that is. but the press portrayed president trump as hot head when he was calling him little rocket man, mike pompeo mission, does he now deserve some credit at least for what's happened so far? >> we will see what comes out of

the meeting and we will see if pompeo gets confirmed. one of the reasons they leaked meeting was to push confirmation forward because they are worried about getting the vote. howie: maybe no deal with north korea but is the press giving any credit for development? >> no question that this is so much different than what we saw from the previous four administrations. much remains to be seen and people need to be careful but i don't think he's getting the credit and particularly -- >> what has he done? >> so much done, so much done to get to this point even at high-level talks. how ohio i promise we will continue this. ahead sean spicer weighs in on a pretty wide range media controversy. up next sean hannity punching back about friendship with the president's personal lawyer after that emerged in court. is the criticism fair? that's next

howie: meeting went haywire after involving stormy daniels and the judge forced michael cohen to reveal the name of a client that was made public. >> michael cohen never represented in any legal matter. i never retained his services, i never received invoice, i never paid michael cohen for legal fees, i did have occasional conversations with michael cohen. howie: liberal attorney challenged sean in program. >> you should have disclosed your relationship with cohen when you talked about him on the show. >> it was such a minor relationship -- >> you should have said -- >> it had to do with real estate

and nothing political. howie: was surprised by the announcement in court yesterday, we have reviewed the matter and spoken to sean and he continues to have our full support. joining us from new york shelby holiday, senior video reporter for wall street journal. you heard hannity say he wasn't a client but a long-time friend of michael cohen, occasionally legal conversations and didn't pay him and no need to disclose to viewers, what's your take? >> well, it appears he did have attorney-client relationship with michael cohen because in court michael cohen thought to shield communications with hannity. legally you can have a discussion about civil liberties whether name should have been revealed but the reason this was a huge media story is number one there was the drama of michael cohen's third mystery client and sean hannity being revealed and that created buzz, number two, political reasons, gave hannity political foes, easy opportunity to go out and throw punches but number three, the big reason,

this is something that applies to the viewers, the ethical and legal questions surrounding why hannity didn't reveal his attorney-client relationship with michael cohen, covering the raid on michael cohen's office, he's been criticizing and alan dershowitz said it would have been easy, i have legal advice from michael cohen and we have attorney-client relationship. howie: i wrote in fox news column that hannity should have disclosed especially because he was highly critical of what the fbi did to cohen in raiding home, office, last week michael was in show, that would have in my view at least involved the problem. >> well, also i think it's important to point out that he has relationships with attorneys, he has set himself to be transparent with the viewers and that raises more questions about why he didn't say anything about michael cohen. howie: friends before they had

particular relationship with donald trump n. the aftermath, and it was such intense media reaction, a come of people went on the air, cable news channels and got out there, let's take a look. >> the question now lingers for everybody else, what has hannity been involved, is he paying off women as well? >> what is it that he was doing for sean hannity, was he paying a woman for harassment in the workplace? howie: how can professional commentators speculate after this happened that there must have been a woman involved or something when there's absolutely no evidence to support that? >> right, journalistically that's out of bounds, no reporters or news people should be speculating like that like as you said, no shred of evidence and people around hearsay it's not him, the people that you showed are opinion writers and opinion show hosts. howie: they can criticize them

all they want. howie: you can't make stuff up and speculate. >> right. howie: sean hannity is paid for his opinions and he's a fierce defender of president trump, he's hung out with him in mar-a-lago, interviewed him, people tune at 9:00 p.m. eastern, they know what they are getting. >> the president tells them to tune in. howie: the president endorsed the show on twitter. do you think given what was initially wall to wall coverage that there was rival networks or rival commentators taking an opportunity to go after a guy who not only works at fox but not very well liked by liberals? >> yes, absolutely in some cases, for example, opinion shows at night. they, you know, seem today enjoy taking some swings at hannity, however, i would also note that hannity may have fueled some of this himself because instead of going on the program the night that this was all disclosed and saying to viewers, i should have revealed this, i'm sorry, he attacked the media for covering the story calling the media fake

news, partisan hacks with zero credibility and one hannity viewer pointed out to me, that was an interesting way of addressing an issue in which a self-proclaimed partisan talk show host had essentially undermine his own credibility on the cohen. howie: hannity is entitled to defend himself. >> absolutely, he's an opinion host. howie: great to see you. coverage of the president breaking his silence by calling stormy daniels a liar but first sean spicer on the president's complaint about the media narrative about him and russia. ♪ better, faster"

by daft punk is heard throughout.) (sound of typing) (sound of exhaling) (sound of drilling) jimmy (shouting): james!

brand vo: the world's largest workforce works for themselves. we work for them. quickbooks. backing you. howie: president trump's relations with the media has gotten more hostile in my views and sean spicer worked in the white house, i sat down with former press secretary here in studio 1. sean spicer welcome. >> thanks for having me. howie: james comey has taken hits on tour, do you think the president is holding him accountable? >> to some degree, if you look at what probably thought the book tour was going to look like versus what it has looked like there's a big difference. comey went with image of boy scout, loyal, a lot more questions when he came in about how he handled the job and sort of that degree of loyalty that he proclaims. that's awful different. remember, the goal to sell books

and the other goal is to come out with a different image, i think. i don't know where he -- howie: but in one of the memo that is was disclosed the other day he talked about how cnn had the dossier, the unverified steele dossier was needed hook to run it, what comey said to the president about it how cnn handled it. >> all i was getting it at the time on that january 11th is that cnn said the president elect had been shown a summary of dossier, my recollection is it never occurred. i was there, i'm well aware of what actually happened but where they were hanging their hat with the summary had been shown to him, in fact, comey by his own admissions admit that he briefed him on one allegation and that that's where it centered around.

howie: the sexual allegation. both things can be true that comey did veeshly brief and the two-page summary to both president obama and president elect trump. so the president hasn't been exactly idle by standard, would you advise him to use that kind of language? >> the president has effectively branding people, he's marketing genius when it comes to a lot of the stuff, i don't know that he will take a ton of my advice. howie: on another subject the president proclaimed that the media aren't giving him enough credit with the way he deals with russia because he says it doesn't fit the media narrative and he also said no one has been tougher on russia than i have been. i don't think even you would say that from the podium.

>> if he talks about the diplomats expelled and the sanctions brought to russia, it's been tough. it's short contrast to narrative that exists that he's somehow trying to benefit from russia, that there's this behind the scenes back channel. the president has been clear have the beginning that whether it's russia or any other country where we have economic or national security interest it's in the country's best interest to have a healthy relationship with the countries. he's not going to do to fore sake national or economic security. howie: there have been -- the press focuses -- >> sure, but remember it was also obama who was on stwaij the prime minister at the time that says i will get that -- i will convey that to vladamir. to which the degree to those prior leaders on the democratic party had actually try today reset relations with russia, back-channel things to russia, in fact, there's no evidence that that has occurred on this

side with president trump and yet he's getting much more criticism than they ever did. howie: the communication screw-up with nikki haley going on sunday saying there will be more sanctions on moscow, no sanctions announce, does that remind you of the kind of problems that you or any secretary faced in terms of getting everyone on the same page with the president's message? >> well, sure, when you have a big decision coming down there's a lot of parties involved in this case you have probably ambassador haley, you the folks, state department, national security, defense department, treasury, all entities and there's a lot of date cushions going back and forth. sometimes there are decisions that are made at the staff level that haven't been signed off by the president and, again, there's a miscommunication at some point, someone got ahead of a decision or a decision was made that was changed. howie: she didn't get ahead of it. she was operating on the information that she had. >> it's possible that the senior staff by that i mean at the

cabinet-secretary level made a decision and they either thought the president had signed or -- there's a variety of things that could have happened. but i don't think that this is the end of the world. it happens a lot. you look at the clinton administration, they sent people out on sunday show to talk about a video causing benghazi and it was false. howie: that was a huge story. >> it was but yet this was merely a question of timing that was coming out. there were no lives lost. howie: just briefly, just briefly, enormous media attention, speculation against case with michael cohen, whether cohen is going to flip, what do you make of the sheer volume of coverage? >> i think it's unprecedented and what i find fascinating when i watch news these days which i try to watch less, it seems to be more speculative if he does this, we hear this might happen. none of it is based on fact.

it's just a lot of speculation. if somebody did something outside the scope of the relationship to donald trump in some ways, that doesn't make the president complicit in anything. howie: there has not been a white house communication director since hope hicks, will there be one? >> i don't know that it matters. he kind of does, he has a talented team. howie: is he his own communications director? >> he is in a way. the structure went out the window with the president coming in. he has talented staff that are performing the very same functions, they may not have the same titles and sit in the same offices but they are very talented women over there running the shots. howie: sean spicer able to watch less news. coming up opposing view from long-time hillary clinton adviser. later former playboy model settles with tabloid that bought

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howie: kellyanne conway got into it with cnn dana in state of the union this morning, husband's tweets being critical of president trump and said that was sexist and had crossed the rubokon. >> it's fascinating that cnn would go there and the world -- excuse me, it's now fair game what people's -- how people's spouses and significant others may differ with them on -- i'm really surprised. that should be fun. >> first of all, i would ask you if you were a man -- i'm just asking about -- >> it was meant to harass and embarrass. >> absolutely not. howie: i do think it's questionable for the white house

council, it's good for gossip but how is kellyanne's problem? stormy daniels, is she really out of the news, first showing up in hearing and media tour on the view. >> so how come you came here today? >> because i'm tired of being threatened and intimidating me and trying to say that you'll ruin my life and take my, you know, all my money and my house and whatever, i'm sorry, i'm done, i'm done being bullied. i'm done. howie: reference to threats include the porn star's a man who allegedly threatened her to keep quiet about relationship with donald trump, daniels and lawyer released a sketch of what the man looked like prompting a presidential rebuttal on twitter. a sketch years later about a nonexistent man, playing the media for fools and they know it. this is the first time president

has directed stormy daniels, but if stormy's lawyer who has 55 tv appearances was trying to draw trump into responding, he succeeded. another trump accuser karen, former playboy model had sued media to overturn contract to which tabloid bought contract for $150,000 but never published it. publication with columns, free to talk about donald trump except she already talked about donald trump in long cnn interview and doesn't have to pay a dime for violating the contract for doing that. still to come, always remember still to come, always remember you won't see these folks at the post office

they have businesses to run they have passions to pursue how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters ship packages all the amazing services of the post office right on your computer get a 4 week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again howie: televised funeral reminded me the thing about her, how candidness, i won't die my

hair, change wardrobe or lose weight. his wife told ap reporter what she thought of opponent ferraro, rimes with rich. most embarrassing episode of her life but then we all kind of laughed at her feistiness and asked about jeb bush considering a run for the same office. >> do you think jeb bush would run, would you like to see him run? >> he's by far the most qualified man, but no, we've had enough bush's. howie: that was a wow moment. i remember that. barbara bush spoke her mind, she was 92. that's it for this edition of media buzz, let's continue to conversation on twitter at howard kurtz, make out facebook page, original content like videos and we try to respond to your comments, criticisms and what not. also remember if you're out sunday morning you have a life, dvr the show, watch it later, we

appreciate it and back here next time heather: it is monday april 23rd, i'm heather childers. this is "fox & friends first". happening right now on the east coast, fox news for you, urgent manhunt for cold-blooded intensifying in tennessee as the hero who took him down breaks his silence. >> it was at that time that i made up my mind. >> you saved people's lives. heather: what we learned about the gun-in. >> now we will have to deliver. heather: north carolina