$11 billion, that's it for this week, have a goo ♪ ♪ ♪ howie: air strike in baghdad that killed top general on president trump's caused uproar can iranians claiming to retaliate, this is media buzz, i'm howard kurtz. even trump's harshest media are shedding no tears for soleimani, the president moved by attack of embassy militia may have unlearned. >> soleimani is a bad person, no

question. no authorization and clinging to another middle east war. >> he has american blood on his hands, long overdue, you can do this without calling for larger middle eastern war. >> president trump has been digging for years undermining the trust worthiness of his own words by spreading lies and conspiracy theories not to mention repeatedly attacking the u.s. intelligence community, the community congress and the world is expected to believe. >> he put red line and if you kill americans, the president responded. >> america appears to be toward middle east war, we have to say it's one that official washington has wanted for decades. howie: president trump defending his action saying he acted to stop a war. >> soleimani was planning attacks on diplomats and personnel but we caught him in

it will act and terminated him. soleimani made the death of innocent people his sick passion. howie: joining us to analyze the coverage guy benson and kirsten soltis and richard fowler, guy, conservatives in the media are cheering death of soleimani, many liberals in the media say soleimani is a bad guy but brought closer to war. >> it is. what you see in criticism of a move like this is a lack of acknowledgment or serious attention to the provocations and escalations of the enemy, ie, iran, right, when we respond to their provocations but when

we respond to them killing americans, the focus is on trump, the focus on america, it's not necessarily and it should be the actions that are being responded to and i think one of the other dividing lines and the other -- howie: does the media make everything about trump? >> yes, absolutely. some things that should transcend this president, it's fair to ask about what is going to come next but not trump all of the time and yet it's treated that way in so many corridors. howie: this is very high stakes debate, real serious real-world consequences especially with iranians saying they are going to go after military targets and president trump says he has his own list of 52, do in people of this hear this, as they have heard the last 3 years as part of endless debate between antitrump and protrump side? >> i don't know if it's just viewed as pro versus antitrump,

part of that when you have many democrats saying soleimani was a bad guy but. the benefits you've taken someone off the battlefield who is mastermind of enormous amount of bloodshed but the costs still unknown whether this would lead to escalation and as trump says deescalation, we are not quite sure what direction that will go. howie: that's absolutely true, richard, many media liberals are making two-part argument, soleimani was a horrible monster, top terrorists, inflicted damages, killed americans through proxy soldiers and militants but trump's move was reckless and could have awful consequences, harder to make two-part argument. if you take a look what was trending on twitter, #world war ii, so the american people

clearly understand what's at stake and they are not for that. howie: so much nuance on twitter. >> this is the point, this is the reason why we are here, i don't think the white house is clear as to explanation as to why this happened initially. if you take guy's point, he killed an american thus for we killed him. you heard the white house say it's eminent threat, future threat, you heard mike pence bring up 911, the white house needs to have clear story to the american as to why they are getting into this and they need to calm the fear that the american people have that we are going into a world war iii when news articles are showing 3, 4, or 5,000 troops preparing. howie: sort of period that we are in right now, nobody wants to defend soleimani and could that look different as we cover next week, next month, over several years? >> are you seeing a rally among

the president? i'm not, i try to call them as i see them, i think it's a right call, tough call by him, maybe he's getting leeway from some people that are otherwise skeptical. almost immediately -- howie: yeah, some of it is skepticism and journalists should be skeptical but in the tone of what i'm seeing from harshest critics, i'm seeing reluctance because they don't want to be seen in position -- who wasn't plotting additional attacks, they just attacked americans, they killed an american, there's a really good story and we do criticism on the show, at least when i'm on, i do, this plan had been debated in the white house and trump turned down the opportunity to go after

soleimani previously despite given that option and changed mind after embassy siege and no rush to judgment and with the drop of the hot, this was carefully considered and there's evidence, there's evidence. >> i think the problem that a lot of americans have and members of the media the president is saying, we did this so we wouldn't have to get any further tanglements with iran. that doesn't make any sense. >> this is going to lead to more interesting shifts as we talk about the intelligence community over the next few weeks, during bush administration democrats had criticism and fast-forward to most recent couple of years where suddenly democrats embraced intelligence community, russia is trying to interfere in elections while republicans resistant or concern, this to me i wonder if we will see a reversal of how people talk about it. howie: the u.s. intelligence

community will be focus of the debate, partly because of what happened to george w. bush's decision to invade of iraq, faulty intelligence, president trump has been critical of intelligence community, mike pompeo was on 6 sunday shows today defending the intelligence saying it did show possibility of imminent attacks, should the media press, continue to press not just pompeo but the white house state department on the question on what exactly is the intelligence which they understandably say we can't reveal too much without getting into sources and methods. >> i think we have to, the reason why that's important many americans see war in iraq and especially the war in afghanistan which we are waging for 18 years, so americans are very weary and i think they are saying to themselves, if we get into this entanglement with iran, how long would we be here, what's the intelligence, are you telling us the truth, that's a valid question to ask the white house when truth is a problem for them. >> yeah, but no one is talk

about a ground invasion of iran. a strike in iraq where there was congressional authority to operate in iraq, he was a terrorist and we took him out. >> guy, i hear that, that argument resinates with me, the problem with the argument to say that this attack will happen without repercussions or this attack will have -- you're going to have escalation here which seems to be likely, then it seems we were going to be in some sort of middle east quagmire for quite some time. howie: we are short on time. just about how many years ago? 2011, so it's almost 9 years ago, businessman donald trump was taunting barack obama on the subject and series of tweets and this video. >> our president will start a war with iran because he has no ability to negotiate because he thinks that's the only way he can get elected, isn't it pathetic?

howie: fair for pundits to throw back at the president right now? >> the president either changed position or taken action since taken office but different than with deny -- than when you're on the sidelines, he used the move as first-step negotiations, iran has never won a war but never lost a negotiation, the argument being by doing this you are trying to deescalate, iran has been trying to operate on strategy, bomb here and do something bad here, this smacks them down, you can't do this anymore, let's talk because we are not afraid to talk back with force. howie: the timeline is proiranian militias killed american contractor, we had the siege by these iranian-backed militias at our embassy in baghdad where they breached

perimeters and set fires and conservative critics highly critical, the new york times, mourners, some also criticizing washington page headline calling protestors, many networks show including fox news protestors, isn't the important thing here to explain whatever label you put on the people that they were chanting death to america and conducting violence? >> yes, right, this is one of the biggest, we talk about trust problems, this is why the media has a trust problem where they are white-washing who these people were, iran-backed militias doing violence and laying siege to embassy, our personnel had been killed and wounded recently and that gets air brushed away, they are called mourners and makes it seem the decision to take out soleimani was disproportionate and it was neither. howie: parliament voted to expel foreign troops including the 5,000 american troops in that country. now this has to be signed by the

prime minister who has indicated he would sign it, it's fluid, not clear what would ultimately happen, if iraq wants to expel our troops and probably increase iranian country, won't the president say isn't this unintended consequences for the president's decision to take out soleimani? >> i think they would say that. i think there's an argument and debate to be had around that, the iraqis said they want american troops out of parliament, wait of minute, we will be in the middle of this, this is iraqi citizens in danger, we have a problem with this and this is where we are today. howie: that's a continuing story, when we come back, the media jump on new emails on ukraine even as the impeachment story remains stuck in concrete and later, selective outrage in the commentary on those despicable attacks on orthodox jews in new york

♪ ♪ ♪ howie: president trump began a new year like ending the old one, turn today impeachment as newly obtained media that white house official telling pentagon that military aid of ukraine was being frozen because of clear direction from potus to continue for hold. if this was a democratic president it would be considered the crime of the century, far bigger and sinister than watergate. he declared on twitter, democrats will do anything to avoid trial in the senate to protect sleepy joe biden and possibly joe were paid by companies by doing nothing, rudy

giuliani reinforced the metrics in mar-a-lago. >> the bidens took millions of dollars, the only reason they are getting away with it is because you in the press protect them. howie: guy, president and media have chance to shift focus but when trump tweets possibly joe was paid millions and no allegation that he got a dime from this. >> i have no idea where that came from, sounds baseless to me. i do find interesting that one of joe biden's in the race, democratic race, pete buttigieg raised the issue, the optics were very bad, he wouldn't want his child making money the way hunter biden did, it's demon dem -- dem on dem.

howie: we are heading to in iowa, when the president shifts from what he did that led to democrats to impeach him -- >> i have long believed that when people look at impeachment story they see it through the lens whether they like donald trump and don't like donald trump, if you like donald trump, you believe that he's innocent, witch hunt, you believe that those on the other side like hunter biden were engaged in things that require further investigation and if you don't like trump then you believe the opposite, so i have not seen polls of impeachment having wall to wall coverage move the needle. [laughter] howie: rudy giuliani keeps giving interviews, when he says the bidens, i don't think that's an accident, is that being

challenged by the press or the press dismissive toward the president's lawyer? >> i think the president's has been dismissive towards himself. he's a very interesting character to sort of watch as we have seen for the past couple of weeks, months, years and my point is this, i think kirsten is absolutely right, it depends on how you view the facts differently which is sad depending on how you view the president, what's really important here, rudy giuliani, has all facts, why not come down under oath and explain all your facts to the american people and show them that joe biden is quote, unquote, profiteering? howie: possibly his boss does not favor the approach. the crime of the century, bigger than watergate, does that rouse

the base? >> i think it would be a massive media fire storm if the parties were reversed and if a republican house of representatives had impeached a president saying it was urgent, they had to do it by christmas because our democracy was at stake and put articles in a drawer somewhere for leverage or something, the media would be all over that as an outrage and joke about, you know, unconstitutional but everybody is shrugging it off. the president says and keeps saying that it's become less and less news worthy, in a way with watergate and jail, isn't he ratcheting up the rhetoric knowing that will generate more coverage of his assault on the process? >> i think this counts more of the same, to guy's point a continuation of frustrated tweets from the president using the platform as his microphone

to speak what he thinks about the process that he views unfair, i don't think it changes things? >> big platform and they often do and finally, richard, trump keeps saying and he said this week, his campaign was spied on, the ig found a lot of problems in the fbi, fisa warrant process from carter page but ultimately approved by a court, so does this spying charged by the president take whole by sheer repetition? >> i don't think he does. with that being said to guy's point, it's important to bring this up, he's right that maybe we can have a debate about how the media will treat this, let's have a conversation about where republicans would be in democratic president would decide not to abide by subpoenas, individual that is have evidence that quote, unquote could clear up and they're not allowed to testify even though they are subpoenaed by congress, democrats say we have to go to court to see if we

will abide by subpoena, i think republicans will be upset about it. howie: we did have mirror image of clinton impeachment, two different situations, democrats were saying party-line impeachment was terrible. >> exact opposite. howie: that's politics, thanks very much for joining us this sunday, two celebrities with most vile attacks on the president, one suggesting he's a terrorist, what the where did it come from?

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♪ ♪ ♪ howie: what did the media get wrong in 2019, well how much time do you have? let's look at the big picture, we began the year with government shutdown and most pundits thought would hurt the president, they didn't. we had the run-up to mueller report, would badly ruin trump.

>> i look at this evidence and sure looks like obstruction of justice to me. >> there's no way to look at that and say that the president wasn't trying to obstruct justice. howie: the press largely believed nancy pelosi's insistence that any successable impeachment would have to be bipartisan and ukraine mess was anything but. it doesn't mean the president shouldn't chide in to attack opponent or dismissing entire media outlets as fake news, does mean that we in the press shouldn't overreact to each episode or conclude that trump is doomed because too many of us know very few of the 63 million who voted for him, on the democratic side many pundits thought beto o'rourke would be hot candidate, he quickly fizzled and many thought cam --

kamala harris. joe biden, some pundits said he shouldn't run, he would quickly self-destruct, sink like a rock. >> biden will loose luster. >> joe biden's 2020 rollout is looking like the crash and he hasn't even officially announced yet. howie: after each controversy and debate performance the media seem biden too moderate, too out of touch but here we are in 2020 and he's still the front runner, in the coming year all kinds of predictions be inundated with scandals and pseudoscandals. make up your own mind, ahead the coverage and the finger pointing in the series of horrible antisemitic attack in new york area, first, mike pompeo defending intelligence behind u.s. air strike on 6 sunday u.s. air strike on 6 sunday when we started our business

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howie: new york times reporting this morning that pentagon officials were stunned, president trump picked most extreme military option they presented killing solemani, one saying intelligence was thin, showed a normal monday in the middle east, what do you make of leaks coming to the times? >> first of all, i think it's sort of business as usual for foreign policy officials for military and defense officials in any administration to disagree about what the best possible course of action is for a president to take. in this case, the media is going whole hog on president trump is

wrong, president trump is at fault and president trump is being dishonest with the american people, if you recall, president obama was celebrated for exact same kind of decision-making when it came to afghanistan in 2009. bob woodward wrote, about disagreement among top-tier officials when it came to how many troops president obama should send for the so-called surge in afghanistan. i think the media in this instance is being quite unfair. howie: okay. mike pompeo making the sunday show rounds says that no one -- he told abc that no one with full access to intelligence is skeptical of the decision as he made those rounds he was pressed on the question about what is the intelligence showing as far as imminent attacks, here is some of what he said. >> why are you concerned if there's eminent operational attack getting put together against american interest, why are you convince today taken out soleimani would have been to

stop it. >> we would have been negligent. >> you're talking about days and weeks? >> if you're in the region, days and weeks, this is not something that's relevant. we have to prepare. howie: is the press being skeptical of intelligence here because of distrust of president trump or because how they covered iraq war in 2003 when george w. bush sold it on nonexistence of weapons of has destruction? >> a scar that's never going heal, frankly. fair for the media to question an administration's decision to question the intelligence that's behind it just like jake tapper asked secretary of state pompeo, it's not fair for the media to say we are not going to accept the justification, we will accuse you of lying unless you produce the classified intelligence right now. that is not an appropriate

standard or dangerous standard to set with presidents. howie: jeopardizes the people who gathers the intelligence. >> not in the position to even consider that, consider how fluid the situation is on the ground inside iraq right now. howie: right. >> probably a whole string of attacks that are inning -- in planning stages. howie: widely reported killing soleimani, changes provocations and not what critics might believe? gillian: the media in this case is underestimating the situation when it comes to the escalating tensions because u.s. and iran by which i mean look -- it's not -- soleimani wasn't just killed because he's planning future terrorist attacks, he wasn't just killed because he targeted americans two weeks ago and, you know, actually killed one

american military contractor, the -- the u.s. embassy in baghdad was attacked, too many people that itself would constitute act of war, that's the part of being underestimated. howie: you're right, obviously happened as part of sequence of events. also brings up, you know, bill clinton in 1998 who delayed impeachment vote against him when he launched missile attack at osama bin laden, i don't think it's a fair charge against president trump, are the media and establishments basically hawkish to questions and cheering on what donald trump did as they did with iraq in a war that obviously ended up costing so many american lives? >> it's interesting because all of the media is usually weirdly and proversly very hawkish when it comes to u.s. military moves

overseas, normally the attack of a terrorist like soleinani is something celebrated, part of the pushback from media to be fair to journalists, part of the pushback is that soleimani is two things, one of the world's most dangerous terrorist, he was also -- howie: government official. >> number 3 government official in iran that in the country is expected as crazy as it is, respected by millions of people inside the country. so, you know, it's fair to question this move but i think don't discount the reality that he's these two things at once. howie: also easy to be hawkish when you're sons and daughters aren't the ones who will serve in the military. it's odd that president trump's received verdict for canceling the air strikes, missiles already in the air against iran in retaliation for drone attack and so this is a president who as we discussed ran against

endless wars, trying to reduce military presence in places like syria and afghanistan and yet felt that he had no choice but to retaliate and going after general soleimani. gillian: quick note on that, because people aren't talking about this, after iraqi bill, the expulsion and having to pull out troops from iran anyway. when were we out of middle east quagmire? when was the situation inside iraq in the green zone ever safe? not in the last 13 years. the idea that we are getting into a new war that doesn't exist already is a bit salacious i think so. howie: thanks so much, good to see you. coming up some pundits blaming the president, others blaming

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howie: media devoted substantial coverage to series of violent attacks on orthodox jews in new york area. how these horrible episodes produced the usual political

finger-pointing. >> so what we are witnessing is anti-semitism driving white supremacy and the mainstreaming of the conspiracy theories redominantly by the republican party specifically donald trump. >> president trump has the authority and the ability to call together government approach on this issue and he has failed to do so but propagating some antisemitic narratives. >> what the media need to do is be honest of what president trump did and wouldn't throw hanukkah parties. howie: here in washington political report for npr, buck, we have seen pundits blame as we saw donald trump and the republicans, we saw bill de blasio blaming and has this all gotten caught up in tribal

politics? >> yes, but i think that it shows that even in a case like this where you really have to stretch to make any of these attacks the fault of donald trump, the stretch to the point of have you -- absolute absurdid take approach and the conversation that has to happen after events like this, 13 horrific semantic attacks in new york city and there's direct line to one of the attacks where somebody was let out after several assaults and perhaps could have been held. that's a real conversation about policy. howie: mara, there's obviously pain on these attacks and not

level where we are seeing daily drum beat, seems muted. >> i don't know how muted it is, there's attacks that people are concerned about it, when you have cable networks, 24 hours to fill, you get dumb takes but the fact is that there isn't one reason for all of these attacks, some of them were perpetrated by white nationalists and people who subscribe to that view, some of them in this case sound like a mental ill african-american guy was the suspect, so there's a lot of things to talk about legitimate reasons for the rise of anti-semitism, policy reforms but i think it's dumb to paint with a broad brush. howie: i agree with you, both of you on that. in the atlantic ben writes that even within the jewish community there's selective outrage depending on who the attacker is, your political side or the other political side raising the questions whether you're primarily interested in weapon -- weponizing anti-semitism of

your opponent for your gain? >> we do have a highly partisan media as we know, almost entirely partisan now, there's facts that are objective, beyond that people are having competing narratives out there and they view major incidents like this, by the way, should be policy discussions and when you have a spade of attacks like this, the number was 13 recently and people almost being killed in one of the incidents and in other serious violence, there should be serious conversation about how we stop this but instead the media holds back because the majority of perpetrators were african american that does not fit the trump is the root of all evil white nationalist view and there's a real public safety issue, not citing journalism and why can't they get this right and be more objective about it and there's also the issue that folks that are reporting on this should be informing people so they can put pressure on mayor de blasio is feeling the heat and rightly so.

>> in new york this is about reform and in other places this is about white nationalism and speak out against that, this is not all coming from the same root. howie: now kind of a related subject, "the new york times" bret stevens writes on jewish brilliance, quoted the study on intellectual superiority and pushes discredited ideas of racial superiority, stevens was not endorsing the study or author's view but mistake to cite it uncritically. stevens was argues that jews are superior, that was not his intent, but buck, took it way way? >> "the new york times" correction or addition to the story, well, he just cited this, he wasn't trying to argue that there's a differential in iq that favors jews over other groups, it was quite clear that

seems like he was making the case and people that say maybe these are areas that should be more open to discussion, this is where you get to nuance essentially forbidden in the media, you can talk about the issues and he also made a mistake, and final -- howie: we are running out of time. >> bret stevens was trying to make a point and pluralism and column about jewish, intellectual superiority, but to talk about it like it's racial.

>> bernie raised the most money but how much does that matter with 2 billionaires in the race.

♪ ♪ ♪ howie: media treating the new campaign runners, bernie sanders pulling impressive 34 and a half million dollars, top story and pete buttigieg who came from obscurity, 24.7 million, 2 million more than joe biden, buck, the media always flag that alter of big fundraising, accomplishment by bernie sanders not taking money from big donors, does it make him likely to be nominee? >> continuing viability. you're right, howie, this is what happens with poll data, you

have numbers here, bernie sanders could win the first two states, he's a real contender, new jersey, he's the favorite right now, jeb bush or hillary clinton, they will tell you that those are examples. howie: if money was determining factor then tom steyer or mike bloomberg would be the nominee. >> the money he's getting is not from new supporters, 5--year-old carefully fertilized e-mail list. the other interesting thing to me of money numbers, donald trump raised eye-popping $45 million, the democrats combined raised more than twice that. that did not happen in 2012, the republican field did not double obama's haul. howie: he still won, so with more focus now on bernie because

the numbers, do you think he will finally start to get serious media scrutiny buck sexton because they don't believe he will win nomination and he's scathing a lot of stuff? >> there's hesitation because the last time around, they were opposed and there's still a sense that they headed to hillary, they may be pulling punches and we wanted to see if bernie sanders is really viable because elizabeth warren's numbers, if she were to drop out tomorrow, the conventional wisdom would she would gain a lot, that would make bernie the front runner. i think they've been in this wait-and-see approach, yeah, filter up the heat on bernie, they don't want to seem like they are handing it to biden like the media handed it to hillary the last time around. howie: talk about the role of

media scrutiny, mara, when the press made that an issue, she was surging in the polls and she started dropping and that is the impact of journalists holding candidates accountable. >> i think you will see more scrutiny of bernie, in 2016 republicans had a failure of imagination of donald trump, they thought he couldn't possibly be the nominee, you have a lot of democrats questioning that assumption this time that bernie can't possibly be the nominee, maybe he can, you will see scrutiny of him, you will not see it from the dnc, the dnc is bending over backwards. howie: more media scrutiny for bernie sanders? >> yeah, they will turn him up a little bit, they have to. he's not really the guy they want against trump in the general, i think they are right to think that. howie: they are thinking ahead who will be the nominee. buck seexton thank you very

much. truly vile stunt by magazin

howie: i'm a big fan of linda ronstadt's music i think she is terrific singer. i was saddened when anderson cooper she likened donald trump to adolf hitler. >> i was sure trump would get elected the day he announced. it would be like hitler and mexicans are the new jews. that is what he delivered. howie: i get most celebrities hate the president when you compare the him to the 20th century's wore murder you're way off-key. tweeting that the usa disrespected your country, your flag, people. 52% of us humbly apologize. we want peace with your nation. we're being held hostage by

terrorist regime. we do not know how to escape. please do not kill us. held hostage by a terrorist regime? perhaps she forgot we had elections. she said okay, i freaked out. no apology for saying our country is run by terrorists. "hustler" magazine sent law makers with a christmas card boasting that he wasn't arrested for shooting the president on 5th avenue. with a graphic drawing of donald trump lying in a pool of blood. this is new low for larry flynt, and it is i don't know dispeckable. sorry to end on that note. that is is it for the edition for "mediabuzz." i think it is important to call these people out. subscribe at apple itunes, google play, or foxnews.com or your apple device. continue the conversation on

twitter @howard curt. we talk a lot. we cram as much as we could into the show. we're back at 11:00 a.m. eastern wi heather: good morning to you, monday january 7th, happening right now at 4:00 a.m. on the east coast, fox news alert for you, vowing revenge iranian general who replaced qassemsoleimani with chilling threat, promise to go revenge successor's death, live coverage where tensions are boiling over and in washington where the blame is spiraling. devastation half under half a billion animals feared death, half a billion after