howie: a media uproar in a wild news conference as president trump declares a national emergency to get funding for a border wall after a fears debairtd. some anchors accuse the president of the selling the wall through falsehood. >> he's pretending to fulfill his campaign promise by pretendinged to build his wall. >> the president is lying to you about his wall. >> he'll be doing photo-ops. >> any republican who supports this garbage compromise, you will have to explain.

>> 55 miles of fencing that allows people to get through, what's the point of that. howie: the pundits praised him or vilified him. >> this is a direct violation of constitutional rights. >> the campaign promise the majority of americans don't want you to keep. what kind of emergency is that? >> i don't like the idea of a national emergency. >> one reason the president is supporting this horrible bill is because weak republicans in the senate behind the scenes are afraid of the president using emergency measures. howie: the crumbling claims of actor jussie smollett who said he was attacked. i have got exclusive reporting on the jeff bezos "national enquirer" mess.

plus long-time nbc sportscaster, bob costas, blows the whistle on nbc. he says he was benched from the super ball because he blew the whistlele on brain concussions. >> i imagine the next press release is it's an open question whether the earth is round or flat. howie: nbc isn't even denying this stunning charge. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." with some republicans publicly dissenting from the bill to declare a national emergency at the border. there was an often test ypres on

forensic. president trump: we'll deny a national emergency and we'll be sued, it will go to the 9th sir curtr -- the 9th circuit. then we'll go to the supreme court. howie: joining us. ben domenech and beverly hallberg and philippe reines. the media is covering this as a shock abuse of power that shatters constitutional norms. ben: we have a number of national emergencies going on for different reasons. president obama found funding for the obama care exchanges. the fact is we do have a national emergency at the

border. and the fact that that's sustained by the coverage of the humanitarian crisis going on there for a long time. on the very evening president trump gave his remarks in el paso. we had 1,800 different family units coming to the border a row including 316 west of el paso where you have an enormous group of people to the point where they had to move atvs out of the garage to find a place for them to sleep at night there these should not happen. it should be something congress should adrech because presidents shouldn't have the power to do these things. but what the president did is legal. howie: susan collins and other republicans are opposed to this

declaration. beverly: we know this is a possibility from trump even when the shutdown happened. republicans looked at it and said we didn't like the when obama did it. the media has never covered it the same way we are seeing the coverage now. one of the problems with the coverage for president trump is it changed the news cycle that was very favorable to him. you had what happened in virginia with the scandals there, you also had the new green deal which was very positive when it came to republicans and president trump. howie: he had a deadline. either the government was going to shut down or he would have a deal. president obama protected the dreamers and did an end-run around congress.

philippe: ben did a better job of conveying why there should be an emergency than the president's sing song recital of it. immigration is the third rail in republican politics. and trump keeps touching his hand, whether it was sean hannity or ann coulter, they are the ones being most of vicious about him. you can't say the left or mainstream media is overcovering or being overcritical when all they have to do is show a tweet from ann coulter. howie: the press loved the executive authority when it came to the families. you don't see a double standard? philippe: i have to admit i don't remember when obama did it. howie ben: president trump didn't

declare -- president obama didn't declare a national emergency when he declared the dreamers. he used the penn and phone. for decades the congress has been derelict dealing with the immigration issue because they don't know what their base wants to do. it's something the president exploited when he was candidate trump. for two years congressional republicans didn't want to go along with what he wanted to do. howie: the story line in the days before the emergency declaration was trump got rolled. he got less than he could have gotten before the 35-day shutdown. and he's acting like it's a victory. laura ingraham on fox called the measure the president signed a total scam. are the media right that the

president put himself in a box and ended up with little money. beverly: many people when he decided to end the shutdown said it was a loss for him. he's dealing with an issue that democrats wanted border security. there are reports that obama did build 97 miles of border fencing. in 2014 he came out and asked for the humanitarian crisis at the border. but his word of crisis is never critiqued by the media. philippe: to say it isn't fair because obama got away with something bad, you are acknowledging what trump is doing is bad. beverly: i'm acknowledging the

word crisis. ben: the obama administration was negotiating with a leader in mexico who was paid by el chapo to ignore him. this is a reaction to what's been going on at the border for more than a decade. the cartels profit from it and will continue to profit. philippe: donald trump's border crisis is of his own making. ben: that's ridiculous. howie: we'll agree to disagree on this. a shutdown would have hurt the republicans more. since we have anchors calling the president a liar. let me play sound of the president talk about what's happening now with the wall. presidenpresident trump: the was

being built at a rapid pace. i have a lot of money and i am building the wall. howie: the journalists are saying why did we have the shutdown in the first place? address the question of journalists saying the president is not telling the truth. philippe: as a general rule he often does not tell the truth. to say we have an emergency when we don't, if you want to say previous presidents have declared when they shouldn't doesn't mean you are lying. donald trump's campaign promise was that mexico would pay for the wall. howie: we established that. been report issue is not who pays for the wall. a wall alone will not solve this problem. it's totally hip why it cal for the and i -- it's totally

hypocritical for the anchors to say the president is lying. howie: when journalists say the president is talking about a crisis when illegal immigration has declined in recent years. or to say el paso was a crime-infested city before the wall was built. ben: they have a point that the president will frequently make arguments that go beyond the realm of what will be support by the facts. but what he has understood with it comes to the border, this is an issue the national democratic and republican leadership don't want to deal with. howie: the president did not look happy. it was a testy news conference. some reporters were testy as well. i got the impression he was

trying to make the best of a bad situation. beverly: acosta asked a lot of testy questions. but the line that everybody is using, i didn't have to do this which is not the narrative you want. but here is what reporters are doing when it comes to those facts. they are cherry picking the data that they want. it's not giving the full picture. you talk about one of the reasons there is such an issue, it's a humanitarian crisis of children coming over. and there are not enough beds. so reporters don't want to focus on all the facts at the border. philippe: it's fair for a reporter to ask where are you getting the facts.

it was sneering. howie: this is heading to court as the president himself acknowledged. are the media touting andrew mccabe's version when he is accused of lying. - in a crossfit gym, we're really engaged

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morning america." >> the attacker was masked. and he said this is maga country [bleep] and punched me in the face and i punched right back. i looked down and i see there is a rope around my neck. howie: he didn't budge when he was asked about the growing scepticism about his account. >> why did you wait to call the police. >> we live in a society that you are considered somehow to be weak. and i am not weak. howie: cory booker called it a modern-day lynching. police say sources told them smollett paid them to stage the

assault. kamala harris said nobody should have to fare for their life because of the color of their skin or sexuality. mara: it amplified the story. wait before you tweet. you don't have to react to everything. once the actual truth is established, then how do they react. what he did, if that's true. he undermines the claims of every person who is legitimately assaulted. howie: i turned down an invitation to talk about this 10 days ago because i thought it was too murky. when discrepancies or problems came up, his delay in notifying the police, those were reported, and wouldn't it have been reckless for reporters to say we

think this is b.s. mara: this is an evolving, breaking news stories. at npr we get cautionary emails from editors, we are not going with this. it's fine to report the chicago police are looking into this. even the president weighed in on this. howie: many of us thought the story did not smell right. howie: the president's son tweeted most of of the media not only uncritically accepted his lies for weeks but attacked those who questioned the validity of his story. his own father called it a horrible attack. mara: unless you want to say based on what we know now, it's horrible. howie: jussie smollett's lawyer

saying he's been further victimized by these claims justy played a role in his own d -- jussie played a role in his own attack. mara: i am not here to suck up to the host on the store. your lead on the story was funny. this is a big field, it hasn't sorted itself out clearly into lanes. and the media is trying to explain what's the difference between all these candidates. you come up with these quick cartoonish labels that i think in the end are going to fall apart. they are not giving a full picture of these candidates. the candidates haven't given us a full picture of themselves.

howie: the wal -- cory booker is running as a vegan. mara: and amy klobuchar reportedly is a bad boss. howie: a headline, is america ready for a single president. "huffington post" and "buzzfeed," they are reporting on anonymous sources. but the candidate cooperate with this sort of thing. mara: the real debate will come when there is a candidate of medicare for all or the candidate of debt-free college versus the candidate of free college. then we are talking. howie: we'll get to the policy

stuff. mara liasson, great to see you. the senate intel committee finds no collusion with the trump campaign and russia. but if you blinked you missed it. jeff bezos and the "national enquirer" almost struck to deal to stop reporting on his to stop reporting on his personal when we started our business

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sanchez. he says he has been trying to protect jeff and lauren's relationship. the suspect now includes several girlfriend with whom lauren shared the pictures and texts. to prove they weren't planning a second straight cover on the affair, an a.m.i. executive provided the bezos team with an advance cover of the next issue on clooney's marriage. the gesture led to a steady stream of calls and messages between the two side. i had access to essentially these were settlement talks while the bezos side said it was responding to extortion. during this period my sources

say bezos mused about buying american media and shutting counter inquirer but decided it was too risky. both side made legal threats. the bezos team wanted no more of the photos to be published. and. the billionaire becker never agreed to that. after ami sent a letter with x rated pictures of bezos. this was putting what it had on the table. but it read like a threatening letter. allowing bezos to blow up the

talks by accusing the company of blackmail. ami executives believe that. but people on both sides believe bezos led them into a trap. federal prosecutors are now looking into the matter. you can read my full report now at foxnews.com. mccabe talks about donald trump and the 25th amendment.

howie: andrew mccabe who was fired for lying is puddling a book and he's getting a big boost from a "60 minutes"

interview airing tonight. >> the discussion of the 25th amendment, rod raids it with the context of thinking about how many other cabinet officials might support such an effort, counting votes or possible votes. howie: the president wasted little time in tweeting andrew mccabe pretend to be an angel when he was part of the russia hoax. a puppet for leakin james comey. he said they had discussions about the cabinet invoking the 25th amendment. should the public believe him? ben: it's possible it's true. he is someone who was fired for lying to the fbi. he lied not under oath to james

comey and under oath repeatedly to the investigators from the office of the inspector general. he is a guy we have to take everything he says with a grain of salt. he's engaging in public spin to try to boost his image knowing that frankly these charges were referred to prosecutors to look for for potential indictments. he could be facing criminal penalties. he's engage in a public p.r. campaign to boost his reputation. howie: the "new york times" reported rod rosenstein the deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire to record the president during this period. rosenstein said he wasn't serious. mccabe says he was serious. does this vindicate the "times"

story? philippe: i don't know. in the end they will all write books. this is an important conversation about his credibility. i have had the same conversation on other networks, he said this, should we believe him. i would hope that he would be asked why should we believe you. the answer is let's just look at all the facts. when we have all the facts rosenstein might have been trying to get himself out of trouble. howie: on one side we have mccabe is a proven liar versus mccabe is a truth teller. beverly: mccabe is hoping you will buy the book and find out for yourself. he has a lot of legal cases ahead of him. what he has said so far, he seems to want to throw

rosenstein under the bus. i think the mainstream media is always happy for somebody who is critical of trump to be on their show. there will be a media tour from this book. howie: the media treated this as a big deal when a federal judge ruled paul manafort had lied about a meeting when he was running the campaign in 2016 with a russian operative. he's going to prison for a long time. but it doesn't resolve the question about whether donald trump knew any of this. ben: that's an open question. but the public was sold a story about president trump and his relationship with russia that we know at this point simply hasn't been held up by the facts. it does not exist in the format it was sold to the american

people. manafort was a shady character and that's not news to anyone who has been in washington the last couple of decades. i'm not surprised that we see he engaged in behavior that runs afoul of the format he presented. philippe: conspiracy by donald trump with the russians. the format originally by donald trump is no one in his campaign did anything like this. talk about credibility. it's hard when you make comments, no one who worked for me, i barely knew the guy, then suddenly -- howie: the fact is -- ben: after millions of dollars and years of investigation we have no evidence whatsoever that the president engaged in anything even approaching the

base level of collusion. philippe: you both acknowledge it's an open question. howie: the ranking member and chairman of the intel committee said they have not turned up anything. >> after two years and interviewing 200 witnesses the senate intelligence committee mass not uncovered any evidence of conspiracy between the trump campaign and russia. bow lo -- beverly: if you take a look at the difference between this coverage and jussie smollett. unless the narrative fits that there was collusion with russia, the mainstream media doesn't want to report on it.

howie: the president tweeted after snl did a skit saying all is good, we want the wall. the trump says how does the network get away with total hit jobs. ben: it's a comedy show in which the comedy has been absent the last few years and i would like them to bring it back. beverly: he should take a note from representative dan crenshaw. self-deprecating humor goes a long way. howie: you think he should go on snl? philippe: he did. bill clinton was in the heartland eating hamburgers. if hillary clinton had won i

think snl would be going after her on a regular basis. howie: great to see you all this sunday. after the break, a strange press conference on the border emergency. he was going at it with jim acosta and others.

howie: when president trump took to the rose garden it took 10 minutes to get to his announcement of a border emergency. >> what do you say to your critics who say you are concocting a national emergency. president trump: ask the angel moms. what do you think? your question is a political question. you have an agenda. you are cnn. you are fake news. you have an agenda. howie: joining me, emily jashinsky and cathy areu *. it gives him something to push back on because he knew he had a difficult argument to sell with the emergency. emily jashinsky there is a reason president trump routinely

calls on jim acosta. acosta absolutely has an agenda, and the agenda is trying to get a clip he can put on social media so everyone will be talking about jim acosta. he is right to push the president to come up with a factual basis for his claims. but there always reason for cnn and donald trump. these press conferences where the clashes happen are good on both sides. they both like it. howie: the same thing happened with brian carrom. he said where do you get your facts from. he said i get my facts from homeland security and the facts are a disaster. cathy: the reporters were respecting the situation. this wasn't typical acosta, this

wasn't typical reporters attacking the president. he was making quite a big deal on word we haven't heard since 9/11. so reporters have a right to ask tough questions. his answers didn't even respect the establishment. so the press itself. he didn't respect the press with appropriate answers. he gave no answers. emily: that was typical acosta. the president -- they are both within their rights. the press should be asking the president tough questions and what people in the country want to see is the president calling him out. howie: nbc's kelly o'donnell asked about his conservative media supporters. president trump: sean hannity has been a terrific supporter of what i do. not of me. if i changed my views, he

wouldn't be with me. rush limbaugh is a great guy. he can talk three hours without a phone call. howie: he praised two people who are often on his side. emily: the president was eager to answer this question. if this was a culture presidency, the hannity presidency, the drudge presidency, this man would have been governing dramatically differently. it's just not true. he consults with them web's happening to admit that. howie: hannity said it was stupid and inaccurate that he tells the president what to do. ann coulter who was a big supporter on immigration has turned critical. he was asked about miss coulter as well. president trump: i don't know her.

i hardly know her. i haven't spoken to her in way over a year. but the press loves saying ann coulter. i just don't have the time to speak to her. but she is off the reservation. howie: here is a brief clip of ann coulter. >> forget the fact that he's digging his own grade. the only national emergency is our president is an idiot. cathy: he did her a huge favor. she is not affiliated with any news organization. she is an entrepreneur. she is an author and she needs publicity. so for the president of the united states to go on and on about ann coulter and giving her an opportunity to reply and call him an idiot. he did something so nice for

her. howie: similar to emily's response, when the clashes come, they both get something out of it. i think the president sometimes . . .

howie: bob costas spent four decades with nbc sports and now revealed why he wasn't in the booth during the super bowl. he said nbc benched him because of his criticism of the nfl and the damage players have suffered with concussions. >> i think it words were you crossed the line. my thought was, what line have i crossed. i remember reminding them of this going back to the 90s of what i had done, what credibility i would have to comment about these things, and their reaction to that was you are right.

you are right. but this puts us in a position that's untenable for us. so you can't do the super bowl. howie: he said he was relieved by the decision. he agreed he wasn't the right guy to preside over a day-long celebration of football. he departed company with nbc. nbc didn't like one of its stars saying football to destroys people's brains. britt: i tend to side with nbc. it's no different than the political world. there are different lanes you stay in. i don't know who all was dying from this revelation from bob costas. i think he has a point. a researcher at boston

university found 110 out of 111 brains from deceased football playered that brain damage. howie: that suggests that you are just there to make football look good. nbc told the "new york times" the cross the line comment expressed to costas was he promised not to talk about football and concussions again in interviews without prior permission from the network. but that says to me the networks were trying to muzzle this guy talking about ar an important societal issue in sports. >> he said the buyer has less control than the seller. when you are part of the actual game broadcast, which he was

doing pregame commentary. so they handcuffed him. howie: i am interested in you being so sympathetic to nbc. espn takes an adversary approach. britt: they do. but those reporters aren't on monday night football. howie: he has been doing this for 40 years. he has been mixing other issues like domestic abuse. here is one of the comment he made. he said as great a job as network tv does at capturing the beauty and drama in sports, it falls short in the category of journalism acknowledging uncomfortable but undeniable

truths. britt: do you want to hear that when you are watching the game? we all know football is a dangerous sport. so is hockey. howie: the anthem protest. doesn't that come up during the telecast? britt: it does, and espn refused to air the anthem because of the controversy. howie: you are fine with the reporting but you feel it should take place somewhere other than the game coverage. britt: yes. howie: i think we butted head. britt: for the first time. howie: that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." check out my buzz meter. you can subscribe at google play or apple itunes. a lot of original video.

i look forward to seeing your comment. we'll see you next sunday

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>> deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the white house. he was not just joking, he was absolutely serious. heather: good morning to you, it's february 18th, monday morning, this is "fox & friends first", happening right now, fears of a bureaucratic coup to out president trump triggering calls for deep-state investigation. bombshell revelations and andrew mccabe's testimony. democrats buffle down for