us and it's for everything good about the game. chris: mike, thank you for joining us. and my little friend here -- [laughter] thank you. that's it for today. have a great week and we'll see howard: on our buzz beater, the media grow even more polarized, republicans said they wanted impeachment hearings, and president trump denounces the process as unfair. >> the president is now facing the protracted public airing of his wrongdoing, including his corrupt abuse of power. >> this entire thing is a saturday night live skit, okay? this we've been dying to have this day happen. been looking forward to this since the moment trump was handed the bible. howard: a media debate e represents over testimony by a decorated veteran born in ukraine who raised an alarm after listening to trump call with ukraine's leader. >> i find that astounding and, you know, some people might call that espionage. >> i don't know that he's

concerned about american policy. we all have an affinity to our homeland where we came from. like me, i'm sure he has the same affinity. >> not as sienlt-immigrant bigotry, and it's an odd question of patriotism coming from sean duffy. >> both have testified that they want heavy american -- because they want to weaken russia. >> some of the president's allies even reverting to smearing with racist and xenophobic trope about his immigrant background, a dual loyalty attack. howard: we'll take a closer look. the president wins a clear and decisive victory by authorizing a raid that kills the world's most wanted terrorist, but the press responds with grudging praise and sharp criticism before quickly dropping the story. katie hill, the congresswoman who resigned over an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, now blames right-wing media. is that true? plus, a washington nationals crowd, that's the world champion washington nationals, boos the

president and some give that move a standing ovation is. come on, it's a flipping baseball game. i'm howard kurtz, and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ ♪ howard: it's a huge story, an historic story, and yet it felt like an entirely predictable story. 231 house democrats voted to formally back an impeachment inquiry e against president trump. the speechifying and the news conferences drew live cable coverage, but the arguments from the politicians and the parade of pundits all sounded familiar as nancy pelosi pushes this closed door investigation toward public hearings, and the president was dismissive. >> so when you talk about the impeachment hoax, it's a hoax because the letter was perfect. the democrats are crazed. they're lunatics. in the meantime, we have of the greatest economy ever.

howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, emily jashinsky, susan appreciate show, chief congressional correspondent for the washington examiner x grace juarez, former correspondent for the pbs "newshour." emily, are the media so intense on portraying this against president trump that they have glossed over -- certainly been mentioned, but not exactly plaid out -- this was a purely party-line vote supported by zero republicans? >> right. and there were two democrats defected to vote with the republicans. actually, i think the media glosses over the democrats' process to get here. i think a very interesting part of this narrative is that nancy pelosi in march was saying that impeachment shouldn't be part of it. so while the vote was entirely predictable this week, it wouldn't have been predictable back in march, but nancy pelosi would have taken this extraordinary measure. howard: on the other side of the question, are the media paying enough attention to the fact

that the democrats, for weeks, have demanded they open up the hearings and now they say, well, it's too late, and the whole process is a sham? >> well, in response to calls that a rule be adopted, a rule was adopted, and they don't like that either. it's going to be a fight until the tv cameras start to roll and people start to testify in an open manner that everyone can see. those are still going to be the complaints, and even once those people start to talk, there'll be complaints about what they have to say and whether it's truth or not. we are going to fight down to every last vote, every step of the way. why is this a surprise to anyone? howard: given the polarized atmosphere, it certainly should not be. super, you're up -- susan, you're up on the hill, what about what you might call the shifting of the goalpost where nancy pelosi did say in march, can't do impeachment, it has to be bipartisan. her rationale was it divides the country, and the fox news poll shows 49% -- down 2% from last

month -- support impeachment and removal, but the rest of the country does not. >> it kind of echoes what ray is saying here which is the country's really divided about. this they're going to fighter to bitter -- fight to bitter end. if you look at polls, republicans do not support impeachment almost entirely, democrats do. so there's no shift from when pelosi was worried about this in march. they have the same predicament right now while they're doing impeachment that the public is divided along party lines. and this is going to end up in the senate where it's going to be defeated, it's going to be over. so what's the end result going to be for everybody here? well, we've sullied the president enough that he's going to lose in the next election, or is this going to embolden the republicans and help them pick up votes as it did when bill clinton was impeached in that's the larger question. howard: makes me wonder whether the avalanche of coverage is changing minds. everybody seems so locked in to

their position. the key witness this week was alexander vinman, lieutenant colonel, born in the ukraine. his testimony was pretty strong in that he was on the call. again, this call leaked because it was behind closed doors. he went to a white house lawyer to complain, he said the rough transcript had some key omissions, and yet there were attacks on him, dual loyalty, he cares more about ukraine, and that or or caused cnn anchors to condemn sean duffy -- >> who was provided to give the republican perspective so they could have a contrast. he was actually just doing his job. would i have said what he said? no. but i think there's a very fair skepticism among republicans about the motivations of some of these whistleblowers for very justified reasons. i'm not saying that was at all the case here, but i think that's where it's coming from. howard: right. and, ray, you had this with the

bush administration justice department official who went on fox and says this sounds like espionage, but later he went on cnn and said he regretted his words, he meant the ukrainians, not colonel vinman. people are attacking their own over this sr. -- very sensitive question of the witnesses and their motivation. >> all in a scramble to prejudge what the result. everybody wants to write the last story of impeachment before we've even started the damn thing. vinman's testimony is not a matter of public record. nobody knows for sure what he said on the record except what's been leaked since after his testimony. the dark art of discrediting in the modern media with world is to start whispering about other things other than what he said, and that's what happened with vinman. howard: what explains what you call the rush to prejudge? why not cover the story one step at a time based on what we know? his opening statement was put out. leaked, to be sure. so is it that we -- everyone

wants to fast forward, everyone in the media wants to fast forward the process, predict what's going to happen? >> yeah. i think people think process is boring x reporters who, you know, already want to rush this thing along to get to the next step already are trying to write the next story when there's so little that we actually know on the record about what was said by volger -- >> we do know what was said by president trump, because we have a transcript of the call. >> i would argue process here that the media's ignoring is really important here. because process can shape the outcome, and i think it has to some degree because of the way democrats are conducting this, the question about how this started with the intelligence community. you see the president tweeting about this now and then, and you see some outlets, including our own, writing about how did this start, who did schiff work with ahead of time to launch all this. it looks like they knew a lot of things ahead of time and were deciding is this something we can use to launch impeachment and are they, in essence, awe

auditioning the witnesses now to decide who should go public -- howard: right. and the counter is republicans also had closed door hearings during benghazi. let me bring you back to vinman, he certainly had serious questions about why the military aid to ukraine was held up. heed asked for, he was asked for help by the ukrainians were help with dealing with rudy giuliani's demands. the media can question his judgment or interpretation without saying he's partisan or without saying he's loyal to a country he left when he was 3 years old. >> you can definitely -- i think the media should raise questions about all the witnesses here. what i'm hearing from people in these depositions -- and i can't reveal a lot of details -- is what they're hearing from witness after witness is their interpretation of what the call was about. we know what the call is, we have the transcript. these witnesses are talking about their view of the president's foreign policy. and that's what it's boiling down to, was it right or was it wrong. howard: right. >> at the time that refugees were coming in from the soviet

union under the jackson-vanek amendment, i never thought i'd live long enough to see people question soviet jews who arrived during that era and a man who goes on to become a lieutenant colonel in the united states army, now questioning his loyalty to ukraine? bizarre. howard: and won a purple heart. "the new york times" sunday review today, how to beat trump in 2020. four opinion writers show the way. people wonder why the coverage seems loaded, but the president says witch hunt, worst in american history. democrats say they're following the constitution, solemn responsibility. is it inevitable that the media are going to be attacked by both sides as they attempt to cover this? >> oh, absolutely. we have to remember the media incentive that we cannot forget about during this entire process is ratings in a lot of cases and clicks in a lot of cases, so there is that incentive. but i think it'll color their coverage through the rest of the

process. might not necessarily deserve that. howard: "the washington post" has a report growing number of republicans are ready to acknowledge that, yes, donald trump used military aid as leverage to get an investigation going of the bidens in the ukraine, but it's not an impeachable offense, it doesn't rise to that level. nothing happened in the end. if they do acknowledge that and the stories reporting this are not fake. >> well, they have -- senators have been telling me now for weeks that they don't like what the president did on the call, but that doesn't rise to an impeachable offense. that's not changed -- howard: on the record? >> oh, yeah. no, no, they've been telling us that in the hallways. i think the story is really about the words quid pro quo, because they want to be able to check the president who has gone out and said there's no quid pro quo but now, oh, wow, we've got the republican senate. they've always said we don't really support what he did on the phone. we don't think that's an impeachable offense. i don't think that's changed. howard: i think that's a fair a

argument. ray is this more reminiscent of the clinton impeachment than the nixon impeachment? we have the rough the transcript, the text message. in clinton's case, it was sex and lies. and the media argument was, okay, he did manager that was -- something that was wrong, trump, but it does not rise to level of -- >> we have been living in the age of the star investigation for years by the time the clinton impeachment process dropped. similar to watergate where a long trail of stories led to the smoking gun time where it looked like nixon was actually in jeopardy -- howard: this one came out of nowhere. suddenly, the ukraine story exploded. >> yes. howard: that's one difference. let me get a break here. when we come back, are the media undercutting the president's successful mission to kill the world's number one terrorist? ♪ ♪ ♪

hey. hey. you must be steven's phone.

now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network... only with xfinity xfi. download the xfi app today. ♪ ♪ howard: it was an absolute clear cut victory in the war on terror, a special operations raid that led to death of isis leader abu bakr al-baghdadi. president trump drew mixed reviews for a free-wheeling 40 minute news conference. >> he died after running into a dead end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. he died like a dog. he died like a coward. >> he sounded not like a president of the united states, he actually sounded like saddam hussein after torturing people. >> he's turned it into a weird kind of torture, like he enjoyed the guy's demise and some sort of street fight has been won by

the good guys -- >> and they're picking apart the fact that trump likes to tell a story that reinforces memories for us that -- because we want to take part in this? >> because of donald trump's unpopularity with the mainstream media, the whole thing gets muted. howard: emily, look, killing al-baghdadi, major blow in the war on terror. look, most presidents would have stopped with the speech and not taking questions and the humiliating language that trump used. >> yeah, absolutely. used it e as basically a way to find some negative in the story, and i think this is a case study in the media's intense bias against donald trump in that they turned the what should have been a day of coverage, especially that day in particular, glass half full into glass half empty. and those clips were aatrociously over the top reactions to what happened. i don't think donald trump went -- maybe it was unusual presidential behavior, i don't think it was beyond any line, anything like that.

so the coverage of this was particularly disgusting. howard: yeah. and you had to watch the post taking so much heat. ray, look, it was unusual to see the president's sort of emotional, rambling account, but that's his style. it's an in your face style, and i believe the press has never gotten used to. of. >> we're years into this, and really we haven't been able to calibrate as a profession how to cover this guy. i'm not in the morning meetings that are making some of these decisions, but i don't know if i would have launched two reporters to fact check whether the president could have heard the whimpering and the screaming. in the midst of the chaos in northern syria that's happening right now with the movement of the russians and the turks into kurdish areas, there's so much chaos in that part of the world. if you get al-baghdadi, good on you. it goes on your balance sheet, absolutely. howard: absolutely. >> whether or not he was whimpering or screaming or

crying, you have to decide what in this novel, weird world of presidential news conferences are we going to be cover and what are we just going to leave alone. howard: absolutely. now, "the new york times," susan, while raising legitimate questions said this delta force operation succeeded in spite of rather than because of trump. and then you had the president saying conan the dog got more publicity than me. of course, it was the president who made conan famous. >> yeah. and, you know, the president would do himself a favor by avoiding that kind of petty argument on twitter that he's not getting enough credit for something like that. he can just talk about it the way he did, a big victory for america, and then the larger issue -- which is an important issue -- is what's going on in syria right now because of our decision to move those troops. howard: what about the coverage of the dog? >> the coverage of the dog was, as you were saying, a real symptom of this incredible bias against the president. to go and have people fact checking, and if you looked at the headlines, first they were

blaming the president saying he photoshopped -- when they figured out it wasn't real, which took a while -- he photoshopped it himself, the medal of honor winner who they then went is and found, he said i don't see anything wrong with this, i think the dog's a real hero. they made themselves look so stupid. i was reading through these twitter feeds where everyone is is attacking the president, "the new york times," "the washington post," and all i could say was, you've got to be kidding me. howard: slate ran a piece, that why does donald trump hate dogs? [laughter] in less than 24 hours, the media began to pivot back to impeachment, and it was almost lie they couldn't wait to get back to their preferred narrative. >> oh, absolutely. because it's something that makes the president look good. as gross as the press conference may seem to media, what he was saying about the death of a terrorist probably resonated with a lot of american people watching that, proud of their military, proud of their country, proud of their president. howard: everybody should be proud of the military and the incredible they did, including

the dog. but, now, this was not quite on the par with killing osama if bin laden because al-baghdadi had sort of faded from public view, but do you agree with the assessment the media, either consciously or unconsciously, wanted to sort of diminish this achievement by -- and now here's the latest on impeachment, by going back to that, pounding that storyline? >> we -- well, up until now three presidents out of 45 faced impeachment. and the fact that that's what's dominating the news right now, it's tough to get beyond that. that's a big deal. howard: no one's questioning how big a deal it is. >> killing al-baghdadi is a big deal too. howard: right. >> so, what, is there a statutory number of hours or column inches we have to spend on it? howard: well, it was literally by late the next afternoon that the al-baghdadi story started to fade, and maybe it is the drama and import of impeachment,

but i had a feeling that the press enjoyed the notion of moving on. >> well, certainly donald trump enjoyed the notion of moving on when he undermined obama's victory lap by saying you shouldn't give him any credit for killing osama bin laden, it was the navy seals -- >> i just think one story is a lot more exciting than the other. howard: thanks very much for joining us this sunday. ahead, congresswoman katie hill blames right-wing media after she resigns. but first, some left-wing pundits are just in heaven as donald trump gets booed at a washington nationals game. seriously. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ howard: the underdog washington nationals won the world series, as you've been hearing from all the baseball-biased pundits who live here, after a string of incredible comebacks.

this moment of unity was briefly shattered when president trump showed up for game five and was jeered in heavily democratic d.c. okay. politician gets booed at ball game, not a big deal. the chants of lock him up, though the, pretty rough. but detractors say he did nothing to stop the anti-hillary chants at his campaign rallies. what was surprising was how some political pundits absolutely reveled in the booing. >> yea, boo, yea! >> one of the most exciting parts except the president's facial expressions as he realizes how the crowd's reacting to him. >> that is what happens when you unleash something ugly like the lock her up chant lobbed at clinton. it's out there now. howard: new york times columnist jennifer wiener just couldn't

help herself. quote: i watched the video over and over, scrutinizing every second of the footage, waiting for the exact moment when mr. trump's smirk key grin gives way to stony petulance. but then she chides herself with the joy she felt from trump's pain and finally we -- democrats, liberals, resistance -- are supposed to be better than that. when they go low, we go high. except, it turns out, going low feels wonderful. some left-wing pundits get off on a hostile crowd, even if they feel kind of guilty in the process. by the way, you might have missed my interview with fox's veteran sportscaster joe buck when i tried to warn him. something of a photo op. >> one of these? see, now, if i'm seen with this -- howard: yes. >> -- then for all your viewers, so i have to just drop that -- howard: okay. >> i'm here to call it. howard: america, he did not fall

into the trap. >> yeah, well, i'm smarter than that. howard: breaking news, i just got a chance to meet the nats' general manager mike rizzo and to look at the team's world series trophy. never actually seen one of those in person. he was here at fox, and there was a long line of people to meet him. up next, mike huckabee. and later, the coverage of elizabeth warren's massive tax plan to cover, to fund medicare for all. ♪ the good news? our protection lasts all day. the bad news? your patience might not. new depend® fit-flex underwear offers your best comfort and protection guaranteed. because, perfect or not, life's better when you're in it. be there with depend®.

howard: joining us now from florida to h in on this tumultuous political week is mike huckabee, former arkansas governor who ran for president in 2008 and 2016. governor, what do you make of the party-line vote in the house to proceed with impeachment, the coverage of it, and what about the notion that many in the media perhaps seem sympathetic to this effort? >> oh, you mean you've detected that the media might be sympathetic to an impeachment of

donald trump gee, i didn't catch that, howard. it escaped me completely. you know, i think the big thing to remember is that impeachment was and should be something that rises above partisanship. it certainly did during the nixon impeachment. over 40 members of the -- 400 members of the house of representatives, in fact, all but four voted for impeach. so you had the overwhelming majority of republicans who joined because they really believed there was something there, and they felt compelled to go there. that's not what's going on here. this is an impeachment in search of a reason, and they've been looking for one since day one. it was russia, then it was obstruction, then it was racism, now it's ukraine. they've yet to come up with a good reason, and when you ask them to name the specific crime, they can't do it. it's just nebulous stuff. howard: right. >> i think it's an embarrassment to the country. howard: of course, the nixon impeachment never reached the house floor because of resignation, but in 1998 it was

the republicans with a largely e party-line vote to impeach bill clinton. did you support that move against one of your predecessors as governor of arkansas? >> you know, i was governor. i largely stayed out of it. i wasn't in congress, for one, so i wasn't part of the evidence, and i felt that something as a republican governor of bill clinton's home state, i needed to stay away from that. so, no, i didn't get involved and push for it. i was pained by it because i thought it was an embarrassment to the cup as well as to the state of arkansas. -- to the country as well as to the state of arkansas. but you mentioned it, there were over 30 democrats who did vote for impeachment. you had zero republicans, zero, not even francis rooney who doesn't like the president and some others who don't, and they didn't even vote for this. of. howard: right. on the other hand, whether you will agree with it or not, it is a stone cold fact that democrats in the house are moving towards impeaching this president, and the press can't exactly ignore a story of that magnitude,

correct? >> they can't ignore it, it's just that they should report it objectively and fairly, which they cannot bring themselves to do. they're gloating over it. they went wait for it to happen. [inaudible conversations] howard: let me jump in for one second. i didn't mean to interrupt you, but when there are witnesses who who work for the white house go before these committees -- and, yes, it's closed door and, yes, this is leaked to the president -- and testified they had problems with the way military aid was handled, that they thought rudy giuliani was running shadow foreign policy, is that coverage not objective, in your point of view? >> these are people that maybe worked at the white house, not necessarily for this president. in some cases they were part of a larger bureaucracy. here's what frightens me, we have people who are saying, well, what about these very celebrated military people? and i'm not disparaging their military past. i salute and acknowledge and appreciate that. but, howard, there's something that's got to be remembered. if you haven't seen the tweets

by lieutenant colonel jim rickman, i think everybody ought to take a look and see his assessment. here's the bigger issue. the reason that in our constitution we have a civilian president leading the military and a civilian secretary of defense is because we don't want military people making policy. military people carry out policy, but elected officials make the policy. here's what we need to remember. what we're seeing is that there were some people in the bureaucracy, in the military, in the deep state, if you will, they didn't like the policy. the proper thing for them to do to resign, not to try to undermine the policy and undermine the elected president who created it. howard: well, fair point. >> that is, for me, the heart of this whole issue. howard: some of them went through channels and reported this to superiors. let's talk a little geography. a few years back you relocated to florida, and now donald trump famously switching his legal residence from new york to state of florida. he says he doesn't feel fairly

treated by new york city and new york state officials. do you think that's been the motivation here, or could it have more to do with the manhattan d.a. making efforts to subpoena his tax returns? >> well, i think he's sick of being completely disparaged daily by the people who run both the state and city governments of new york. when he announced he was going to palm beach, what did the governor say? good riddance. howard: that's what andrew cuomo said. >> think about. yeah. i wonder if his brother, chris cuomo on that network that nobody watches, i wonder if he will call out his brother if for being less than a very civil public servant, whether he likes donald trump or not? i've never heard, i don't think, of a governor who actually celebrated the loss of one of its wealthiest citizens. howard: well, in fairness, governor cuomo was responding to the criticism from trump. and by the way, i hear the taxes are a little bit lower in the florida than in new york. >> yeah, they're a lot lower. of it's not just donald trump.

there are thousands of people who are leaving new york, thousands leaving new york to go to states where they're not put upon because they worked hard and have been successful. this is absurd for cuomo to blame donald trump. they ought to be blaming themselves for raising taxes, having ridiculous regulations and making it really difficult for people to be successful -- howard: mike, i've got about half a minute, and again, i didn't mean to cut you off, but i want to get you in on this. i just did a little reader about the president being booed at a washington nationals game. the media a made that a very big deal, why do you think they did? >> i don't know. politicians get booed at every sporting event in america. howard: has it happened to you in. >> oh, of course. each when my approval ratings were sky high in the 80s, i'd go to a sporting event, and people felt obligated to boo. that's what makes america a great country, hot dogs and booing politicians. howard: and on that note, governor huckabee, thank you for

joining us. new york magazine asks how on earth is joe biden till winning, fourth place in iowa. and later, stephen colbert takes on me. ♪ ♪ great weather, great friends. you just saved a bunch of money by switching your boat insurance to geico. it was easy. folks, can it get any better than this? is that what i think it is? that is an armada of tiny sushi boats. awesome! i forgot to pack lunch. you had one job... chopsticks wasabi and soy! comin' in a little hot. it only gets better when you switch and save with geico.

♪ ♪ howard: beto o'rourke dropped out of the democratic race over the weekend after a campaign that never came close to matching the media hype.

jeannie, the media practically drafted this guy. it was the "vanity fair" cover, we can put that up, which he said he was born to be in it. he called his speeches a near mystical experience. wasn't this mainly a media-created candidacy? >> it was to a certain extent. he got so much buzz from his senate race against ted cruz, and the media really hyped him for this race. but as he said, he simply couldn't find traction, and there was a new shiny object in mayor pete that came along and sort of stole all the thunder from behind beto. and we saw him have to drop out just the other day saying he simply doesn't have the means or the resources to go forward. so, you know, something we see with the media with all the time which is all the energy behind someone new that simply just gets denated very, very quickly. howard: -- deflated very, very quickly. howard: right. now, politico says there's a

collision course between the impeachment process which is expected to drag on until probably the end of the year in the house which would mean the senate trial in january, and, of course, iowa and new hampshire happen in early february. is that a problem, and isn't the impeachment saga already diverting most of the spotlight from the 2020 democrats? >> it's absolutely fascinating. this is uncharted territory for us historically. we've never had an impeachment in an election year, and i think there's going to be a lot of people questioning what the democrats in the house did and how it impacts the 2020 candidates. we see six major candidates who would have to spend their time in the senate when they otherwise would be out on the campaign trail if, as you mentioned, the senate trial -- if there is a trial -- starts in january. we see the iowa caucus february 3rd, the new hampshire are primary a week later, and you go right down to nevada and south carolina. there's a potential that you have six candidates who want to be on the campaign trail who are

stuck in the senate or making the very difficult decision, i've heard some democrats talk about, to maybe say, hey, i already announced i was going to vote for impeachment, i'm going to stay. so they're in a -- howard: talk about unintended consequences. let me move on here because the press has been predicting joe biden's demise. so this new york magazine cover has the headline, how is this guy still winning? it describes his campaign as the zombie campaign, the staff is aware that he might collapse. it's a fair piece overall, but why if pundits still writing biden's obituary? >> i think part of it has to do with the fact he's simply not giving interviews to the press. the pieces in new york magazine, that reporter wuss on the trail with him -- was on the trail with him for six months, and he didn't give one interview. and i think also the reality is the energy of the democratic party is not on joe biden's side. that latest iowa poll that we

saw has people under 45 only 2% are supporting joe biden. howe right. >> i think that is something that the media keeps hearkening to as well with. so that piece is fascinating to me because, you're right, it's a fair piece of journalism, but the guy is also ten points ahead in most national polls. howard: right. he has done a couple of interviews with "60 minutes" but iowa has biden in third -- excuse me, biden in fourth. technically, mayor pete in third. is it time for the press to start taking pete buttigieg more seriously? >> i think they have taken him seriously, and i think the one thing we need to keep saying about this poll, it has just under 500 responses, respondents, rather, at a 5% margin of error. so they're all still within the margin of error. but the big story is that mayor pete is really the only candidate who has sort of defied expectations in this thing.

you know, this mayor from a small town who is now third in this poll in the race in iowa. so that is a big story. but i think the bigger story is it's a dead heat on the democratic side. elizabeth warren at 22 and biden at 17. howard: oh. warren finally comes out with this 20 trillion tax plan to explain how she's going to pay for medicare for all, says it would kill two million jobs in the health industry, and it's pretty complicated stuff as was noted in this portrayal by kate mckinnon on "saturday night live." >> i'm going to tax the banks. duh. let me stop you right there. we're talking trillions. you know, when the numbers are this big, they're, they're just pretend. howard: quick question here, the press adequately scrutinizing her complicated plan, and this kind of snl portrayal, has that become a kind of liability if she's playing with numbers? >> these numbers are so astronomical, and i think kate

mckinnon, she's amazing at this, and she makes a really important point. when you're talking $20.5 trillion or 52 trillion overall, how are you going to pay for medicare, you know, i go back to what nancy pelosi said, people sort of like their private insurance. we can talk about making things better, but it's a big cry from $20.5 trillion for an entirely new government-run health care plan. howard: jeannie zaino, great to see you. after the break, the reporter who prompted katie hill to who prompted katie hill to resign has been working with the when we started our business

we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free. the amount of student loan debt i have, i'm embarrassed to even say. we just decided we didn't want debt any longer. ♪ i didn't realize how easy investing could be. i'm picking companies that i believe in.

♪ i think sofi money is amazing. ♪ thank you sofi. sofi thank you, we love you. ♪

♪ ♪ howe katie hill decided to resign after coming under investigation by the house ethics committee after the freshman democrat apologized for

an inappropriate affair with a female campaign staffer but denied a relationship with a male staffer on her payroll. she blamed two media outlets for posting pictures of her that she said were leaked by her estranged husband. >> i didn't want to be peddled by papers and web sites used for the dirtiest gutter politics that i've ever seen and the right-wing media to drive clips and expand their audience by distributing intimate photos of me taken without my knowledge. howard: the story was broken by a reporter whose own role has come under scrutiny. >> i care that she holds to ethics standards that she votes for. but, of course, i don't, didn't like being smeared as some kind of revenge porn peddler or vast right-wing conspiracy because that's simply not what happened. howard: and we're back with emily ya shin sky.

jennifer wrote these stories as managing editor at red state, a conservative site. she's also worked for politicians who ran against katie hill, and she currently owns the republican consulting firm in california, and on twitter she endorsed knight, former lawmaker, for his old seat. is she a journalist? >> it's tough, because i do think there's such thing as partisan journalism, i think there's such thing as ideological journalism. i think it's possible for people with particular viewpoints to participate in journalism. howard: and to be perfectly up front about the fact that they have those viewpoints. >> absolutely. but the problem in this case, this site is literally called red site, so we -- red state. we know they're coming from the right. that said, there was some unprofessionalism. i think that did not do service to story of the people of this district. jennifer van warren tweeted out that she knew katie hill

personally. i went back and looked at all of her coverage, and nowhere in the eight stories she wrote about katie hill was that disclosed. while she may have been acting as a journalist, i don't believe this was ethical journalism. that said, katie hill is the much bigger story here. katie hill's moral failures, i think -- howard: just to finish on this point, how do red state and the daily mail publish the pieces with her photos which she, of course, is understandably upset which led toerer resignation without disclosing that this journalist had worked for the congressman that katie hill defeated? >> absolutely. the consultant, opposition researchers in d.c. and elsewhere get this stuff all of the tile. it's their job to go out and look for it. it's not their job to publish it themselves just because they have access to a news outlet. no, i think this was absolutely a lapse in journalistic judgment on red state's part.

they're capable of better. they do it all the time. this was a lapse. howard: okay. so few people in the media, i think, wanted to touch this story originally. and i understand her point about revenge porn. nobody would want such photos published. she is in the middle of a messy divorce. but she chose to resign after disclosures that, for example, she paid the female campaign staffer many thousands of dollars in consulting fees. she could have stayed and fought the allegations, but now she is portraying the herself as the victim of conservative media. >> right. ultimately, she did not resign because of some vast right-wing conspiracy or because of conservative media, she resigned because as sloppy as this reporting was, it clearly showed she was unfit to represent the people of her district. that is the bottom line. she resigned because of that. these stories could have been reported in a damning way without the photo, and she still would be resigning. howard: right. but at the same time, of course, photos like this get so much

attention. that becomes a debate. i guess it was also a debate of would this have happened to a man, and was she treated -- >> i think it has happened to men. anthony wiener, joe barton. this is sensationalist. you get clicks, waives, whatever it is. the media has incentive whether it's a man or a woman. howard: right. which still, i think, makes us uncomfortable especially when they're published without somebody's permission and, as i said, in the middle of a divorce. still to come, my response to stephen colbert after i somehow made a brief cameo appearance on "the late show." ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ howard: i got into a spar with stephen colbert back in his comedy central days, now the host had a little fun with my wild, crazy and kind of testy interview with rudy giuliani. >> rudy has been on tv doing damage control, minus the control. [laughter] >> we got anonymous

whistleblower who says that donald trump did something wrong. donald trump, like hunter biden says, i didn't do anything wrong. >> we have the transcript and the president's remarks -- >> wait, wait. before you interrupt me, howard -- >> classic legal defense. [laughter] sir, your client stands accused of multiple can accounts of arson. how does he plead? >> your honor, the defendant pleads -- shh. howard: i am so tired of you trying to get laughs by taking my show out of context and -- well, that's pretty much what happened. by the way, the whole shushing thing did not work. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. check out our buzz meter, we rip on the day's hottest stories, and you can subscribe. apple itunes, google play or on your am device. also hope you'll like my facebook page, and let's continue the conversation on twitter @howard kurtz. got a lot to talk about

impeachment, baseball, nationals and all of that. this is the time in the program where i tell you we look forward to seeing you next sunday, 11 ian is the time, with the >> good morning to you, it is monday november 4th, happening right now at 4:00 a.m. on the east coast, escalating impeachment calls to identify the whistleblower growing by the day and now that the person is offering written testimony to gop questions we have the latest with why republicans say that's still not enough and clean sweep, the governor of texas ordering a crack-down on homeless camps. were we have people camping, walking around bothering people asking for money. >> i've literally seen people urinating on this sidewalk, right