>> on the buzzfeed of this sunday, nancy pelosi spurred by reports wall street journal and washington post, launches impeachment investigation as president trump's call to ukraine leader sparks warfare on the air waves. >> my god, it is just flagrantly corrupt. open and obvious abuse of the totality of the united states foreign policy, the media sites growing -- >> if the allegations are true, the country is now in a place they have not seen since watergate. >> forgiven for not understanding why was the president be itch peached for a

story that democrats can't really explain. >> it's really shocking, we would all be incapable of being shocked and yet donald trump says, talk to my attorney general. >> i will predict tonight donald trump a huge favor and backfire and blow up in their face. this has everything to do with the left's unyielding, unhealthy, obsessive-compulsive hatred of president trump. >> we will look at these questions? are many americans rooting for impeachment? trump privately compared him and those helping him to spies. are media comment at a timers saying that president pressured ukrainian president and

down-playing actions of biden and son hunter. trump repeatedly asked for help repeatedly on investigating the bidens. the trump accusing fake news media on working with democrats to exploit a nothing-call, would the saga dominate the coverage for month just about everything else will be blotted out, i'm howard kurtz and this is media buzz. ♪ ♪ howie: one week after whistleblower report house speaker nancy pelosi dropped her opposition and announced an official impeachment inquiry. the president dismissed the allegations, ripped the whistleblower and denounced the press.

>> there was no pressure, the way you had that built up, that call, it was going to be the call from hell, turned out to be a nothing call. all they are talk about is nonsense, if you look at that, it's all fake stuff that the media makes up with the dem-- democrats. howie: there's a lot of talk about biden's son, a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general, that would be great. biden went around that stopped the prosecution, so it sounds horrible to me. the media las, -- laser-focused on impeachment. >> to have a justice department go so rogue. howie: joining us to analyze the coverage of this intense week, guy benson, fox news

contributor, host of the guy benson show on and juan william, cohost of the 5, transcript has president asking for a favor of zelenski says they want to buy missiles, nothing, nothing to see here, do the president's words define the story when you spin on both sides? >> yeah, you have to look at the president itself and what the president said, you talked about polarities, he has to be thrown out of office or this is a nothing-burger, this lies in between, we see what the president did, he made an ask, inappropriate ask, you can call abuse of power, i don't think

it's something necessarily impeachable but it's pretty clear the way media is rooting for this one, they wanted to unpresident him from the very beginning, there's a cry wolf scenario here that's a problem for the left and media, this seems like a legislate mitt story, others that have gone 11 out of 10 on crazy scale. howie: relentless mueller investigation, president says, perfect call, given the history of media coverage, don't a lot of americans believe that? >> yeah, on the right, cynical attitude towards the press, this is exploited by people on the right because they constantly say to their audiences, you can't trust the press, trust me on the right, i think what we are seeing here is a little bit

of the partisan divide that you said this morning, it's the press' fault even though from my perspective as someone who has a career as reporter, you can't fault the reporter and president trump and the question of impeachment is the news. >> impeachment may or may not backfiring on democrats, generally praised by the press for making this move? >> yes, they've also given her a complete pass on the procedure she's using which is skipping over the formal vote which gives her the sort of maximum flexibility, gives her out and remove accountability and the press is really given her a pass on that, i think there are also giving a pass to the way they've shifted over in intelligence committee and away from judiciary committee that handles -- maybe one case for about 150

years ago, always handled by jury that was not going well, the message was not selling to the american people, it was turn ing into theatrics, they can control what's public and what's private and all give them maximum control over the message. howie: let's go to new york times partially outed the whistleblower. cia officer and his daughter said that was reckless and could endanger his life, went through official channels, we wanted to remain unanimous, should the paper have done that? >> it's a tough call, it is news worthy who is this person, right, there were reports that the inspector general was concerned that they were at least attached to a campaign against trump or was -- i don't know. political opponent on some level so the fact that this person is a cia officer is interesting and news worthy, do i suspect that

if this were not someone going through official chance but going through let's say, i don't know "the new york times" to leak, they would be jealously guarding his identity and against exactly what they did. howie: times editor try -- tried to preempt and whether the president abused power and tried to cover it up. he has no firsthand knowledge -- >> weird thing. howie: that's why i point it out. disturbed by ukraine call and locked down records in special classified area. if this is boomerang, if this is weapon against the president, it's presidential aides. >> if you recall there were actually news reports about previous conversations that president trump has had with foreign leaders and they leak.

the only way they can leak to reiterate your point is through white house officials. it's not as if the white house, the trump white house is sealed, they have lots of leaked and a lot of people acting on self-interest and grudges and a lot of people, in fact, even john bolton, the former national security adviser, that's inside base law but to your point, i don't think that you can hold "the new york times" anything but accountable for this leak about who this man is because i do think that it is very dangerous and, again, i wonder why they did it. howie: yeah, i would agree, inevitable the identity will leak and he will become the focus, we don't need him as much anymore but he's part of the story. susan, the president, leaked video obtained by several news organizations of breakfast he had in which he had pretty hour-things to say about reporters, take a look.

>> you know the animals in the press, they are animals. >> thank you. [applause] >> they're scum. howie: your reaction to that and also at the same breakfast the president saying that the whistleblower and the people who gave whistleblower information are close to spy and you know how we used to handle spy and treason. >> you could outline many parts of that that support the theory, the press is not friendly to him, they've investigated him more than any other president, so that doesn't surprise me, but you really sense hostility building here between the president and the press, i don't think there's anything you can do about that. whether the whistleblower is a spy, phone calls leaked, things going on in his office by white house, it's really incredible what goes on, his whole staff

not supporting him. howie: white house aide steven miller that it was a deep-state operative, we do not know the man's identity. let's get to the biden part of this. using as leverage when he was vice president to fire controversial prosecutor who had a case against ukrainian oil giant that was paying big bucks to hunter bind, although hunter biden not accused of wrongdoing, is this on the same level, should they be paying more attention to it? >> the trump people want to say it was only the biden stuff and a lot of the press it's the biden stuff doesn't really matter, it's just a trump story and i don't think either one of those is exclusively true, we can walk and chew gum at the same time but serious questions that biden needs to answer and so far he has hunkered down and done nothing.

when trump is out there talking to the press constantly, biden is not talking at all, i would like to know, for example, how does the point person for the obama administration on ukraine policy, the vice president of the united states, how does his son get hired by this gas company for 50 grand a month with no relevant expertise whatsoever. come on. >> looks like trading on his father's name, by the way, the president tweeted hours ago, but in fairness, full page story in washington post start on the front, ukrainian tycoon and the vice president's son, looks unseemingly but also ultimately no wrongdoing by hunter biden himself. your thoughts on coverage over biden story. >> comes back to partisan echo chambers because if you go to the right right now, if you look at websites on social media, the focus is on joe biden, and to me -- to my mind this is an effort to distract or somehow from the real story the phone call

between the president and the president of the ukraine. on the left, though, i would say there seems to be this tension, frenzy, oh, my gosh, you finally got him and i don't think it's seemless, it weakens us at journalists to have the pressure created that we didn't. people did pay attention to hunter biden and there's nothing been found. howie: stories as far back as 2015 but clearly not getting this level. there's been programs msnbc, impeachment is serious and somber thing for the country and susan the white house and allies had some success in shifting the media spotlight from trump to biden but the coverage of impeachment, half a minute, totally overshadowed that? >> no, not necessarily because, okay, it will as it turns to the house, i don't think the biden story will die down, i don't think the trump administration will allow it.

if this makes it to the senate for trial you can bet that we will hear a lot more about hunter biden and joe biden. howie: two competing stories here, let me great a break, rudy giuliani's dealings with ukraine and he's fighting back and deputy campaign manager on the media impeachment fever

what are you doing back there, junior? since we're obviously lost, i'm rescheduling my xfinity customer service appointment. ah, relax. i got this. which gps are you using anyway? a little something called instinct. been using it for years. yeah, that's what i'm afraid of. he knows exactly where we're going. my whole body is a compass. oh boy... the my account app makes today's xfinity customer service simple, easy, awesome. not my thing. howie: rudy giuliani pushed biden story for months turns out to be key player in current drama, the president asked ukraine's lead the other work with him and giuliani insists that's not true. >> why are we talking about us and not bind? because the media in this city is corrupt, that's why.

howie: why did president trump's personal lawyer play back-stage role, he responded to critics by the washington post. >> rudy, he did all of this one u.s. official said, it's him injecting himself in into the process insiders saying you mock this up, your response. >> man, i really did, you know who i did it at the request of, the state department. i never talked to ukraine official until the state department called me and asked me to do it. howie: press so focused on giuliani, he's right, he does have cover, texts, emails from the state department asking to do the meetings, but the question is why is the trump state department asking the president's personal lawyer to do this kind of digging. >> that's a very good question and a question that needs to be answered and another question that i would love to hear why does the president keep allowing rudy giuliani to go on television every single day,

it's great for us, he will sit here and talk for 15 or 20 minutes and can be entertaining but i think on the whole it doesn't strike me as -- howie: i don't think he cares, i think he sees as taking a lot of flak that would be taken to president trump. >> exactly. the clip was someone saying why were you doing this, who were you doing this for and his response was, i am working for president trump. he's president trump's defense lawyer. so to guy's point, as observer of the media i think to myself he doesn't look that great, if he was representing me i would

have questions as representative because on the fact that he goes out there and makes an aggressive, i would go beyond aggressive, zealous attack on the president's critics, i think that's valuable. howie: well, rudy when he was u.s. attorney and mayor of new york especially after 9/11, now trump's tv warrior, that's what he is, overzealous, he told it's impossible that whistleblower is a hero and i'm not, when this is over, i will be the hero. >> if he was working for a democrat. [laughter] >> i'm sorry but he said this morning on maria's show, my client the president colluded with the russians to win the election, i'm out there to prove it was something else going on, that the democrats are really behind a lot of this collusion and that's what he said he's doing. so what do we do in the media, what's our role, should we will

listening to defense attorney little more closely, following the things he's talk about a little more closely or should our attention would be turned on whatever the president did on the phone and whatever other collusion or corruption things involved the president and not what his so-called defense attorney wants him to do. >> what about giuliani's point, the media, he made the point on television are protecting joe biden, that, you know, they are not aggressively investigating biden because they like him, he's a democrat, whatever. >> politico looked into that whole situation and new york times did pretty aggressively as well, i would like to hear a more drum beat of criticism from the press about the evasiveness of joe biden not answering any questions on any of this, that at some point can't last. howie: he hasn't done any interviews. he's been on the trail and talk today reporters. >> but if it were the republican in the bunker on this, there would be lots of loud screaming about quick point, it is true that the ukrainians did, in fact, meddle in the 2016 on

behalf of hillary clinton and against the trump campaign, looked like there were anchors and other network who did not know that was a thing that happened even though it was and part of the context of this current. howie: briefly, juan, bill barr, he should recuse himself, it's not clear that he did very much on this. >> lots of people are concerned about the way the whistleblower complaint was handled because if you recall, howie, goes back to director attorney's office, it was an urgent and critical concerned but they checked with the white house, eventually with the justice department, it's not urgent, no need to reveal it, people felt that's part of the cover-up. howie: so many stories and chris wallace discovering, they have been working to dig up opposition research on joe biden working with rudy giuliani, a lot of threads here.

panel, thanks very much, ahead what impact will impeachment have on the coverage of democratic campaign but up next msnbc cuts into press conference twice and call them a liar and as you guys are saying some as you guys are saying some cable news are way when we started our business

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former campaign manager and fox news contributor, dave, most of the media as you know portraying president trump's call to ukrainian leader inappropriately after temporarily froze aid to the country, why are they wrong? >> well, first of all, the rush to judgment is just out of control, the democrats have no facts, look, let's talk about the media for a second, they are so breatheless in their desire to destroy this president, let me give you a couple of headlines, msnb news, shell shocked, white house struggles impeachment footing, really, the president went through 3 years, 1500 subpoenas and 500 search warrants and hundreds and hundreds of -- howie: deal with this new environment. >> i understand and if you look at the clinton model, how the

press handled it, you look at george papadopoulos, pack of killers is what bill clinton brought together, inside and outside operation, this president doesn't feel that he needs that, he's doing fine -- howie: if president clinton called foreign leader, suggested investigating bob dole, you would be on fire and leading the impeachment charge. >> we would have obviously had questions about it but i don't know that speaker gringrich at the time would have went out before the transcript of the call was even released, okay, have quid pro quo, there's going to be pressure, none of those things happened obviously, so this -- look, this president

does -- he talks the way he talks to people, it is not a problem, the president can ask anything he wants, there was nothing wrong in this call, what's wrong is the desire by the democrats on the hill to impeach this president at all costs, they've been trying it since before he got elected an this whistleblower, he is or she will have a lot of questions to have to answer. howie: so the president and rudy giuliani are saying, the real scandal is joe biden, hunter biden, what they did in ukraine and biden's son with no experience in the area while father was vp, smells bad, of course. no investigation has found hunter biden guilty of specific wrongdoing, isn't this a classic case by your side of political deflection? >> no, no, this has been going on, the biden inquiry, we have demanding investigations for a long time.

citizens united has lawsuits over this material because we can't get it out of the federal government, they would not give it pup r. howie: the media have covered the biden story -- >> they've lost their collective minds, they want to defeat this president next november using impeachment, al green, the congressman from texas said it in his own words that we must impeach him in order to not have him get reelected, this is all political, it's all politics, that's what this is about. howie: you think the media are positive toward impeachment? nancy pelosi has been holding the line, now that she's before it, 225 democrats, majority of the house that could bring impeachment articles. >> they are a team, the democrat party and mainstream media are working in concert together to undermine the president, they did throughout the fake russia collusion in 2 and a half years and breathlessly attacking the president without any facts.

hold on, the facts are on our side on this thing, howie, the only thing that is transcripts to have call, there are no facts in there that are impeachable. people can -- you can argue over the policy. howie: you can argue that it's not impeachable but it's not nothing, isn't it the russia play book, president going on offense, fake news, enemy of the people. >> "the new york times" editorial page just the other day, trump impeachment inquiry is the only option, what are they talking about, that is before we have one single fact, there was no quid pro quo, no 7 or 8 times of biden mentions, there was no withholding of anything, this is classic democrats, look, i want to know a little bit and i think this is where we will be headed which is who is this whistleblower and are they on team brennan, clapper and were they part of

peter strzok insurance policy. we have a lot of questions of whistleblower and their credibility. it's going to be -- howie: thanks to the new york times that it's a male and cia officer, why is the president attacking the whistleblower, by the way, we don't know the identity, even if he's an antitrump partisan -- when the president decided to release the actual language, the rough transcript of the phone call, we and the media, the political can focus on that and not whistleblower who didn't have firsthand knowledge. >> same thing with comey, mccabe, clapper and brennan and peter strzok and folks inside of our government that we wanted to defeat the president since 2016 and -- >> you're saying it. >> inspector general has said there's some political animus, we don't know what that is,

look, the motives of this whistleblower are going to be important and we will have to flesh that all out. howie: i agree it's important and i also think that we are -- the president made the decision controversial in some quarters to pull out the call, that's why we have here to make the case, david bossie great to see you, hillary clinton back on tv and denouncing the man who beat her, would the media give her a big would the media give her a big platform during the

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howie: joining us from new york with a very different point of view, veteran democratic strategist who once worked for bill clinton, the media are in on impeachment story to put it mildly but only a few journalists are asking about whether nancy pelosi jumping on this band wagon could backfire on her party, why is that? >> because it seems too logical that it won't, look, it will, it will take forever to get accomplished, no trial in the senate and the better way to have done to beat donald trump and pick up seats in the house would have frankly to wait and fight it out on the battlefield, that would have been much smarter. howie: mitch mcconnell did say that there would be trial in the senate, leaving that aside, if it would be much smarter, ultimate goal of democrats to get president out of office and looks vulnerable in the election or at least they think they can

beat him, why drive this and given serious of allegations? >> people want to see this happen now and think they can win battle in november and give them a bump in trying to take the senate back, that's not necessarily the case, americans have been pretty clear about the impact of foreign policy discussions of any kind in presidential elections and they haven't mattered much. howie: interesting because nancy pelosi said during months when she was resisting pressure from progressive wing that impeachment can work if it's bipartisan, president trump has hay approval ratings among republicans, shouldn't journalists ask wasn't she right in the first place, one-party impeachment doesn't necessarily work. >> they should ask that question, very analytical about it. nancy pelosi was right, the democrats are wrong overall and this -- whether it backfires or not is not the question but it

won't provide what they want, what they want is trump's removal, it's not likely to happen unless you win it by election, you can't do it any other way. howie: what happens -- not that a lot is going on with the hill, we can't do guns, we can't do infrastructure, we can't do -- the coverage would be by impeachment, impeachment. >> that's the good news for the president, nothing gets accomplished. he wins the gossip and entertainment argument, he's highly entertaining, tremendous amount of gossip, rudy giuliani is defender of the president and create controversy, takes all eyes away from government and all eyes go to politics. howie: do i see embedded in your response there, suggestion to the extent that television is performance that democrats, most of them are kind of boring or at very at least can't compete with

the trump show? >> the trump show is ongoing show, seems to be rewritten every day, new act, kind of ed sullivan, whatever you expect will be there will be there with intensity. there's smog else going on and missing the point. trump entertains, they bore. howie: glad you're not holding back, hillary clinton was cbs sunday morning talking about the man who beat her, let's take a look. >> i believe he knows he's an illegitimate president. applying for a job and getting 66 million letters of recommendation and losing to a corrupt human tornado. >> hillary has been off the media radar for some time, is it helpful that she's out there denouncing trump again? >> listen, she's not going to get much ink and she won't get much of attention because you know, someone who was a news man for many, many years, she's old

news and she's not much news, not important. howie: interesting by the way, washington post has story saying state department is investigating dozen and current former officials that sent messages to hillary clinton's private e-mail some which have been retroactively classified, others are raising questions about the timing, so finally, hank, you know, many media outlets say that the trump-ukraine call bringing up biden is outrage, dirty trick, violate it is constitution, we are seeing pretty heated rhetoric, could it be like the russia investigation that much of the country simply isn't that exercised about it? >> they're not exercised about it because it doesn't -- it's hard to make sense it's not a single-fact issue, it's complicated an has shade and nuance and most interesting to me with the manafort investigation, with all of the investigations, what we see is the more unseemingly side of political consulting and lobbying i don't ever seas, that's not good news, what the

president is trying to do hillary all over again, trump -- biden is hillary because biden is corrupt, well, let's see if that works. howie: you called out political consultant profession which shows you being candid and thank you for the candid commentary, sean thank you for being on the show. still to come impeachment hearings wipe out just about

>> press busy chronicling democrats announcing impeachment. director of the university of virginia's institute of politics, let me

start with this, larry, i have a strong feeling that much of the media, most of the media are excited about impeachment not just because they think it would vindicate investigative reporting on donald trump but major boost to clicks and ratings. >> well, that was certainly true during nixon impeachment hearings and certainly true during clinton, the other impeachment of andrew, they didn't have television, the hottest ticket in washington was the seat in the gallery, i mean, this is just the way it is, it's a big story. howie: right. nixon impeachment there's no internet but certainly clinton. after the house impeached him, 73% approval rating because he was a one-party impeachment.

should backfire on pelosi and democrats because if you look at polls, i know you do, impeachment is not all that popular with the overall electorate? >> they would be led by polls not just their own but others that they see and as you know we have an awful lot of polling, if the public responds negatively they want to be with that because it's reflected in their ratings, so they maybe reluctant about it but i think they will follow public opinion if that's what happens. howie: so it seems to me that, you know, by pelosi authorizing because she was the one holding all of this back, pelosi authorizing impeachment inquiry, isn't she pretty much committed to having a vote and pretty obvious that any articles of impeachment would pass and if you're suggesting that if the public turns against this and the media starts to show skepticism they might pull back and not actually carry through with the impeachment? >> well, anything the possible at this early stage, i suspect

they would impeach him. the key to pelosi can whether she can get this over quickly, she's trying, i was surprised that they said we will try to get this over by thanksgiving in the house, we will see, that's what she said, if they don't get it over by february 3rd which is the start of the presidential voting in iowa, they're going to be new deep trouble. howie: right, some people say they are rushing it, obviously they want -- they seem like they have the momentum but led me to my next question, even if it happens, all wrapped before the iowa caucuses, what would be the impact on the 2020 democratic primary race of all this wall to wall coverage of impeachment, every possible forum, won't it consume with the exception of joe biden who obviously is a player in this, wouldn't it consume most of the available media oxygen from all the other candidates? >> yes, yes and yes.

howie: i like when the guests agreed with me. >> i've known you for a long time, howie, i don't want to argue you through the segment. look, the essence of it the candidates are trying to get out their message on health care and gun control, fill in the blank, and there's only so much air time and also people are getting tired of the campaign and always happens about this time, the same people are showing up for the most parton the debate stage for the once a month debate, i don't think they benefit from this, they'll only benefit from getting it over relatively quickly. howie: right, again, biden is sort of an exception and he has to play defense here because of the attempt to turn the spotlight on him, paul gigot, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, not that they won't get some coverage but less than half a minute seems to me that they are going to make fewer headlines. >> and what -- what is to distinguish them from one another? they're all going to endorse the impeachment, so, you know, you say well, one used more stride and language than the other, who

cares, they are all going to agree on this subject, they need to get back to whatever is motivating their personal campaign's base, that's what will either get them elected or defeated. howie: bind has been less proimpeachment but certainly says it should be looked at, good to see you. >> thanks, howie. howie: i'm howard kurtz, check out my podcast, you can subscribe at apple itunes, google play, foxnews.com, you can get it at amazon device, hope you like facebook page, you can check out columns and videos, i look forward to it, we are back here next sunday, this was a packed show, 11:00 eastern, we will see you these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper

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heather: good morning to you, monday september 30th happening at 4:00 a.m. on the east coast. we love a hero, man who shot veteran police officer with his own gun just identified as last words. impeachment push now an overdrive, president trump firing back at adam schiff saying he may have committed treason. talking politics has you stressed out. >> the most important election of a lifetime.