of an apartment building. we did our best to get them out of the area as quick as possible. at that point, we spent time keeping residents that had come outside as well as pedestrians had that were just trying to enjoy their morning, keeping them away from the area, trying to carefully explain what was going on and to stay away for safety. thank you. [ applause ] >> our fifth officer is amanda topping, amanda has been with us for just under two years, also assigned to the central precinct's midnight shift. >> i'm closing this thing out. oh, my god. all right. so i remember that morning, i was sitting with james wells, we were talking over my zone and i heard tyler luellen and brenda

go out for the call. we were kind of listening, it was an old call. we were sitting there and my wife had just called because it was towards the end of our shift. she was seeing what time i was coming home. so i'm talking to to her and i'm like we're about to head to this call. it's a little strange. so i hung up with her and we head down there and we get there. we didn't really know too much about it. unbeknownst to us, we parked right next to it. of course we moved, that seemed ideal. we take my car down to second and broadway and sergeant miller wanted me to stay down there to help with -- because pedestrian traffic on broadway, the busses were starting to do their routes and stuff. so of of course i was listening and everything and they went up to the apartments and i kind of stayed down there and kept on going up to second and commerce

to hear what the rv was saying and that's just stuff that i'll never forget, you know, the sound of the announcement saying primary objective is to evacuate, evacuate now, and it's a female voice. odd. and then of course i'm kind of pacing back and forth because i kept on having to turn pedestrians around. it was a weird feeling, not being able to be with everybody else but i knew that i needed to stay where i was at. because you want to be with your detail, especially when you have a feeling something's not right and something that weird just you don't get stuff like that. so -- but i was standing there by my car and i heard tyler say the music just came on. so i got -- i went to go get closer and i heard it and i was like oh, my gosh. so i was about to get on the radio and say i know it's almost

not my place but, like, everybody's getting out of the buildings, right? we need -- i wanted everybody to be safe. so then i saw a group of them which couldn't really tell that i was assuming was brenda and sipos and tyler walk around the rv back toward their cars so i kind of saw them. i started walking up to second and commerce because i wanted to talk to them. i wanted to know, like do we need to go to more buildings. what do we need to do? you know, i was just getting really antsy. and i talked to my wife again, told her that things were just really strange. and so -- but as i'm walking towards them on the right side of the road, right side of second, i see wells at his car and i was like, well, he's closer and i'll go talk to him, see what we needo do. so i don't know what told me to do this. it was really weird.

but i decided to change my direction, go on the other side of the road, start walking towards wells. so as i started walking towards him, he starts walking towards me. you could see on the camera too the footage, i've seen it, and i told him i didn't think anybody would ever believe how close he was. i was probably 1 o 10 steps away from him, 15. we were walking towards each other and i just saw the biggest flames i've ever seen, the biggest explosion. i mean, i just saw orange and then him and i saw him stumble and i felt it. i felt the heat, the wave, and i don't know how i kept my footing but i kind of blinked and i couldn't see him for a second and i lost it and i took off at a sprint towards him and like he said, i've never grabbed somebody so hard in my life. i grabbed him, he grabbed me.

and we just ducked into a doorway because we didn't know what was coming afterwards and i will never forget the windows shattering after the blast, all around me, kind of looked like a big prop from a movie scene, all the glass breaking at once. it hit me all over. just being able to hold him and grab him. the first thing i could do -- you couldn't hear anybody at first, it scared the heck out of me. but just i said there's been an explosion and multiple medics, i didn't know what we had and i was so scared that i lost my entire detail because i didn't know where they were. i just saw them pass by it. so after that, we just made sure that -- we felt a little bit safe enough to go back and regroup and luckily i heard everybody on the radio and didn't know how okay everybody was but i knew everybody was you

alive and so i was happy to hear that nobody else was seriously injured. but that's pretty much it. yeah. can i go now? [ applause ] >> all right. these officers have agreed to take just a few questions. please, if you have a specific officer, identify that or if you don't have a specific officer, we'll try to find the best one. >> bomb squared, were they on the way. >> yes, the bomb squad was on the way. they had been requested and they were on the way. ma'am, right here. >> [ indiscernible ] >> yes, ma'am. the front had a shade as well to keep view completely obstructed. all of the shades on the back

windows were down as well. so you couldn't see in at all. i didn't see any person in or around it at all. when i first arrived, i didn't notice the rv but with it being christmas, i was like maybe they're just visiting family and parked there so i didn't pay much attention to it but i did not notice anyone outside around it either when i first arrived. >> [ indiscernible ] >> to my recollection, i went around behind it, just to double check after the announcements started, to see if we could get a tag for more information and stuff like that. i did not notice a tag anywhere, i did not notice any kind of bracket for a tag even. so unfortunately, couldn't give more information. >> [ indiscernible ] >> yes. what i specifically remember and we found out later, what i remembered was downtown where the lights shine bright, later, the atf agent i spoke to pulled it up and it's downtown by

petulia clark was the specific song that was played. >> [ indiscernible ] >> i'm sorry, got to speak up for me. >> [ indiscernible ] >> it wasn't a consistent countdown. it was like a hello, this is a warning. for your safety, evacuate the area. that looped for a few minutes. as we were getting red i do go in the building, it changed to you have 14 minutes to evacuate the area and that's when my mind started changing, we started looking at the building and there was also of cameras on the rv, like surveillance cameras above the mirror. so you got the hangover part that hangs over the windshield, sorry if -- i'm talking with my hands. you have to -- you got the hangover part, the rear view

mirror here, the camera set in between that. it felt like whoever was behind it was watching it. for me, it felt weird. all of the cop lingo that you hear about spider senses, the hair standing up on the back of your neck, all that went through my body and immediately the training kicked in that we do as far as staying calm but being vigilant and watching around us. so that became our primary objective, is to as we were evacuating, also looking for any threats in the surrounding area. >> [ indiscernible ] >> okay. -- >> we have been watching the six national police officers who -- nashville police officers who helped evacuate downtown before the massive explosion. these are people who ran toward the danger, risking their own lives. each one inspiring in his own way as we heard what they did that day, undoubtedly saved a whole lot of lives. in a year where there's been focus on police abuses, that police officers, not just there

in tennessee, risk their lives every day. time now for media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. howie: the media were celebrating after congress passed the $900 billion covid relief bill and then president trump who had not been involved in the negotiations posted a video that deep sixed the christmas package. >> i am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000. or else the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package and maybe that administration will be me. >> now, he blows up a bill that's actually the first chance for working class americans not in donald trump's oligarchy but working class americans to get a little bit of relief. >> it would be a damnable thing to delay relief the way you are right now by not signing and force millions of americans to

suffer, to starve, all through the holidays, and into the new year, if you don't deliver. >> the president has always had a sense for what average people are feeling and they look at this bill, guys, and they see it loaded up as a typical d.c. swamp bill and see a $600 check for me. are you kidding me? >> $600 is absurd. it's insulting, it's grotesque. which is why president trump is demanding those checks are more than doubled. howie: joining us to analyze the coverage in new york, will cain, co-host of "fox & friends weekend." jessica tarlov of, a fox news contributor and here in washington, griff jenkins, fox news correspondent. the president made some good points about $600 checks being too small and some of the pork in the bill that the conservatives have focused on but there's been media condemnation because he waited until the house and senate already passed the compromised

measure. >> i think we should establish two things. first of all, would it be better if the stimulus, the covid relief checks went from $600 to 2,000? well, there are many republicans and democrats who think the answer to that is yes. there's the issue of process. has the president always played by the rules, has he always done business as usual as it is done in washington, d.c., the answer is no. so as this plays out in the coming days, if the bill is made better, if pork is taken out of the spending bill and if the stimulus and coronavirus relief checks go up, we'll have to say it was a success. the president doing something that the media condemns and may not be business as usual, but might just get the objective accomplished. howie: griff, some of the spending that the president object ofs to and some of -- objects to and some is hard to defend, it's not the $900 billion covid bill, it's in the $1.4 trillion government spending bill that the two got merged by congress. many are not making the distinction. >> this is not normally done when you have a relief bill,

such as the covid bill, married to the $1.4 trillion spending bill which has to be spending to keep the government running. what's interesting is that the president as you mentioned in the intro was not involved in these negotiations. in some of that actual aid to the foreign countries was requested by the president's own state department. so many on his own negotiations team to include obviously led by secretary of treasury, secretary mnuchin, left sort of clueless left to figure out what they would do now because you have this being held up. at the end of the day, i think the fact that the aid is being held up is going to be the defining moment. howie: well, jessica, nancy pelosi and the democrats love the idea of $2,000 stimulus checks. the media also say the aid package was too small. but what the pundits are focusing on is trump having the mia during the negotiations and steve mnuchin negotiating a deal that the president now called a

disgrace. >> yeah, i don't think that the focus is improperly placed. i think the fact that the president deep sixed the bill and went off to mar-a-lago to have his holiday when unemployment benefits ran out yesterday and you look at what is in the bill on the covid relief side, $400 billion for food banks. how many times have we talked about the lines of americans sitting in their cars, stretching miles, sometimes down highways in order to get in there so that their kids can eat. we have a food insecurity problem in this country. we have an unemployment problem. all of that would have been taken care of by the bill. the president should have signed it and demanded extra money for americans which democrats and many republicans would have been happy to sign. he blew this up. howie: you made the point about the president's unusual negotiating style. he did this back when he was a reareal estate developer. he would make demands after the contract was signed. journalists said he blind sided

some of his aides and allies who didn't know he was going to do this, including mitch mcconnell. republicans, some of them didn't want to spend this much money. >> that may be, howard. there are others that are questioning the president's motives in this entire thing as well. here's the thing. i think we've gotten so used to the same way of doing business in washington. maybe it's time to try a different approach and the president has. look, i'm not going to sit here and ascertain the president's motives every step of the way. what i will look at is the outcomes. does he get accomplished what he says he wants accomplished, which is increasing the covid reis leaf checks to everyday americans and reducing the amount of money of -- no one debates what jessica just brought up. we should have aid coming to small businesses and american that's are hurting right now. what americans are looking at is side-by-side, meager covid relief checks with things like gender studies programs in pakistan being funded. can the president increase the relief going to americans while

decreasing the pork in the stimulus bill. whatever his process is, even whatever his motives are, i want to see the end result. howie: griff, just briefly, this is not a washington game. as of yesterday, unemployment benefits ex fire expired for ab0 million americans. even if the president signs the bill tomorrow, they will lose a week. there are real life impacts for people who were told they would get the package at christmas time. >> that's right. they'll lose a week and toward the end of the week the eviction moratorium will expire as well. we know tomorrow morning, speaker pelosi will put on the house floor a bill for increasing those checks but no indication she's stripping any of that pork out that the president is upset about. and so the real life consequences that impact 10 million plus americans is definitely on track unless the president acts fast. even if he acts by the time we go off this show today, there's

still going to be some negative impact on the 10 million plus receiving the unemployment benefit assistance. howie: you know, there's been a lot of focus of course on the president still fighting the election battle. he tweeted up a storm on christmas even and again yesterday. the media have ramped up 24-r criticistheircriticism of the p. i want to play a piece of of sound from msnbc contributor, jason johnson. >> it's not just we're in a coup. we're in the beginning of a coup that will only get more violent and the men and women who are placating the president on this, the men and women in congress who are pretending this isn't really an issue, they are now terrorist sympathizers. howie: the president is fair game, especially one who declines to concede after the electoral college votes. but describing republican lawmakers and supporters of the president as terrorist sympathizers, doesn't that go

too far? >> it does for me. i've never supported that language when it comes to any side of the aisle. we know what a terrorist is. it's not anyone who hasn't killed a bunch of people or crafted a plot to do that. i do agree with the sentiment the president is subverting american democracy, he is feeding lies to millions of people who have blindly supported him for four years about the most secret of democratic institutions here in america and it's dangerous. it's also of going to hurt his party for the georgia runoffs. kelly loeffler doesn't know what do. she can't call joe biden president-elect even though he is, because of what might happen. president trump might parachute in and say don't vote for loeffler or perdue, they don't support me, stop the steal or whatever ridiculous hashtag he uses. howie: will, the president tweeted yesterday that the elections in afghanistan are

more fair than those in the u.s. which have produced a fake president. i guess to go along with fake news. and he's referring to joe biden. he talked about supreme court being incompetent and weak. what do you make of that language and is this part of the president trying to set up the argument he'll make for the next four years? >> i think what we're talking about in both of these topics is hyperbole. useful hyperbole, absurd high hyperbole. when you played that clip, it's an absurd analogy. terrorism, i don't know whatever other ani analogies he was using there, it's hyperbole stretched to the point of being a lie. it's just not true. you're also talking about the president using hyperbole and saying the american election is worse than those that take place in afghanistan. however, i believe at least one of the things the president is referring to is the massive use of mail-in balloting in the united states. unprecedented. no doubt. it's not a form of voting employed throughout the world. throughout the world, first

world countries, modern economies, modern countries have not accepted the idea of mail-in balloting being legitimate form of balloting because it's open to potential fraud. does that make us as bad as afghanistan? i'm doubtful of that, howard. i think it points to a problem that should not be one rolling forward. howie: all this comes after reports of the president being pitched in white house meetings on try to seize the disputed voting machines, on using the military to rerun the election in certain states won by joe biden and he's relying more now on people like rudy giuliani and mike flynn and sidney powell, who has been at the white house three times in the last week. let me get a break and we'll be right back.

howie: media are going haywire over president trump handing out a whole bunch of pardons and commutations just before christmas. there was one for paul manafort, one fort george papadopoulos.

and one for charles kushner, jared's father, who served a prison term a decade and-a-half ago. there were three former republican members of congress convicted of offenses ranging from money laundering to conspiracy and misusing campaign funds and four black border guards, convicted of killing iraqi civilians. there were plenty of journalists outraged. >> you have political cronies, grifters and war criminals. that's who the president is giving pardons to. >> at critical moments in the mueller investigation, they were floated a pardon by this president, all bribed by the president of the united states to keep quiet. >> hopefully anyone who was at all pu punished in the russia investigation should be pardoned. the thing was dirty from the beginning. mulmueller should not have been

appointed. >> stone and manafort were not convicted. the response was wildly disproportionate to alleged crime. you have to ask you're. howieyourself why.>> they wante witness against the president and i refused to do so. howie: well, the president has the constitutional right to pardon anyone. papadopoulos was a fringe character who served a brief prison term. paul manafort got a seven year term for extensive bank and tax fraud in his foreign dealings. so very different kinds of cases here. >> i think that -- i'll say this. you know, i think if you have a poll, i don't think you have it right now, i think if you do a poll of americans who believe the russians somehow colluded with donald trump to steal the 2012016 election, i think a numr of americans still believe the lie. i think the mainstream media went with it over and over.

many americans don't understand that now there is an fbi, doj investigation into hunter biden. the point i'm making is, if the media keeps repeating it over and over, they can dupe the american people. some of the pardons are well earned. the story with the russia collusion was absolutely a hoax. it was not true. now, you separate those couple out. i will say this, i looked into not all of these, you howie so i can't be an a expert on every one of the pardons. i can say i looked into the blackwater ones, looks like there's credible evidence that was not an act of war situation. charles kushner, i can't come up for a defense, why president trump pardoned charles kushner. we heard chris christie say it was one of the worst cases he came across when running the justice system in new jersey. you can make the point that all presidents do this. we should look at them individually. some of them look valid, some of them do not. howie: let me get griff jenkins

in, on the four blackwater contractors. they were prosecuted for killing iraqi civilians. it was called a massacre. pete hegseth said they were put in an impossible position. >> well, yes. and remember the prosecution back in 2007 when this happened was at the height of a low point in u.s./iraqi relations, howie. that matters. because while the war had been going on for four years in iraq after the invasion, you had this situation where the blackwater guards are doing what they believed was acting in their best interest but yet civilians were killed. i think that military advisors certainly have a few different opinions. one of which is that they're operating outside of their rules of engagement that our own military members were being put in and, therefore, brought us all down as a team. it's going to be interesting to see where this pardon goes because while the president has

unfettered access and right to issue these pardons, you're hearing from the u.n. human rights committee as well as members of the iraqi government right now, calling on president-elect biden to get involved and undo them. howie: right. jessica, the three former republican members of congress, duncan hunter, chris collins and steve stockman, serving a 10 year term for fraud and money laundering, this has prompted journalist critics soy what president trump did in the case of these ex-politicians undermines the rule of law. >> it absolutely does undermine the rule of law. even if we take them as individuals and separate george papadopoulos from paul manafort which we can agree should be done, the president is making it clear that laws don't matter. the case of charlie kushner, obviously broke the law. chris christie, no democrat, no liberal-leaning fellow, said it was one of the more egregious cases that he's seen.

we're not talking about the fact that on top of that he blackmailed his brother-in-law by sending a woman seduce him, videotaped it and sent it to his sister. this is the level that is going on with some of these people. whatever you want to say about the mueller report which by the way the first book of it did find that the russians were trying to interfere and their interference was welcomed by people in the trump campaign including paul manafort, roger stone, et cetera, that everyone who did not cooperate with the u.s. government, with the special counsel, got a pardon. those who did cooperate, like michael cohen, and rick gates, did not get a pardon. that is corruption in its purest form and bill barr has said as much, his own attorney general who had to resign because he didn't want to be present for these pardons. think about the timing of that. it was too much for him. howie: you don't know that that's why barr resigned. he may have had other reasons. i do want to point out that charles kushner served a couple

of years in prison for the crimes. we're a little short on time. but some of the pundits are saying that the president was -- is furthering the russia coverup because he's pardoning people like mike flynn and roger stone and manafort who was convicted on something that had nothing to do with president trump who may know more things. seem like we're rerunning the russia investigation. >> it doesn't end. the story doesn't end. what happened in 2020? the russians stopped caring about the elections? they didn't care in 2020? it's the story that doesn't go away no matter how many times truth is confronted with the story. keep running the same old hits out there. worked for the ratings on other networks, i guess. howie: just briefly, griff, it's not like -- while it is true that higher percentage of trump's pardons and comiewl coms are people that have political ties with, it's hardly unprecedented.

you go back to george hw bush with weinberger. the media are thinking no one has ever done anything like this, except president trump. >> we're going to see more of these pardons. but the bottom line is, no matter how controversial they are, there is one area of presidential power that really has remained untouched and unchallenged and it is the power to pardon. i don't think it's going to change in this case either. howie: definitely not. thank you very much, panel, for important discussion. griff je jenkins, jessica and wl cain. coming up, frank luntz weighs in on the president and the press during this tumultuous transition.

howie: joining news to analyze the media, the president and the transition, frank luntz, the veteran republican pollsters and frank, with the death toll from

coronavirus going higher and higher, it's now about 330,000 americans, what's your take on the whole year's coronavirus coverage by the media, which played it up, at times, president trump played it down and we have the vaccines. what's been the impact on the credibility of the press. >> it's horrible. it's horrible. the credibility of the politicians, it's been damaging to the credibility of the press. everyone has suffered. we did a study for the beaumont foundation and what we found is that there's still about a third of americans that are nervous about this vaccine and we need them to take it. my frustration right now as we end the year is that the president is tweeting about an election that's over with and instead he should be tweeting about saving lives, about taking this vaccine and ironically the group that is most likely to not be eager to take the vaccine are young republicans, republicans under age 50. his own vote his listening to him and they don't realize how important this is. they need to wake up.

the black community, latino community, young republican community, we need people to take the vaccine and that's what the president should be talking about and frankly that's what the press should be talking about. enough of the politics. enough about what trump is saying about the election. focus on saving lives. howie: right. since you make that point of, i mean, some of your friends on the right don't seem particularly pre tushed about some of -- upset about the extreme measures being talked about. the president hasn't embraced them. he is tweeting and talking about a rigged election, calling joe biden a fake president yesterday. can you imagine the conservative reaction if barack obama in 2012 lost the electoral college and was having meetings talking about rerunning -- using the military for example to rerun the election in certain states. >> you're correct. absolutely. and i'm not sure if they're going to be my friends. i know it's having an impact on fox, having an impact on republicans in the house and the senate. it feels like this president's trying to do as much damage as he can, not just to mitch mcconnell but the republicans

in the house and the senate and the press is going along because it will help in the final race of 2020 in georgia. and i'm afraid and i believe that those two republicans may well lose on the fifth of january because of what the president is doing right now. the media is helping him and this should not be happening, that that election should be waged separately from the ugliness that's happening here in washington. howie: what about the sixth of january, the day -- usually it's routine that the congress accepts the results of the electoral college. the president has talked about having a republican senator and house members from the same state challenging that which would lead to a congressional debate. do you see a good chance of that happening? if so, how does the press cover it. >> i do see that happening. the president is trying to make it happen. there are house members who are going to help him make that happen. what they don't realize is the ramifications, the consequences. this is not the responsibility

of the press to take sides. it is the responsibility of them to report what's happening accurately and in a balanced way and to a great degree they're doing that. but i want to emphasize the impact. if the republicans lose that senate race in georgia, and again, this is not the responsibility of the press, you may have two new states, puerto rico and d.c., you may have the packing of the court, you may have the repeal of the tax cuts and the president is spending his time just upsetting as many people as he can, driving a wedge between those two senate candidates and what will be this fundamental change in american democracy and, guys, just wake the hell up and howie i know you care about numbers. the republicans have never trusted the press less. the democrats actually trust the press more. i'm watching among independents, floating voters, their numbers for the press are falling with every successive month. the credibility of the press among independents who don't have a political bone in this,

they're believing that the press is taking sides and they're trying to encourage a democratic win in the senate in georgia. howie: but since you have the courts and bill barr's justice department, he has just resigned, finding no evidence of widespread fraud, despite the president repeatedly pressing these claims, the question i would ask is, you have every poll shows that you have a majority of republicans not believing the media in that this was a fair election. and a lot of people feel very strongly about this. that suggests to me that either the media have failed or that the level of distrust is so great that conservatives and maybe even independents are not going to believe much of what the press says. >> it's both of those. and i'm trying to figure out how to fix it. in the end, regardless of whether you like or dislike their approach, in the end our democracy depends on a media that is trusted, that has trust and confidence.

it depends on holding people accountable. we need that. whether or not we disagree with what the media writes or says, we need them to be honest brokers of this and we need them to hold republicans and democrats accountable. and they're incapable of doing it. the president is making a situation worse. we're ending this year with what i believe is not a constitutional crisis, it's a crisis of credibility. it's a crisis of confidence. and frankly, i don't know how to fix it. howie: last point, i've got a half a minute. you talked about holding democrats accountable. what do you think about the way that joe biden is being covered so far and if he is covered in a relatively easy way, compared to trump, doesn't that further convince people there's a double standard, a blatant double standard in the press. >> not only is that a fair point, it's an accurate point. it's a love fest that the democrats are having the same trouble with their progressive lane that the republicans are having with some trump voters but you don't hear about that or

you're hearing about that, they're taking the side of bernibernie sanders and elizabeh warren. donald trump has found common ground with bernie sanders and elizabeth warren on the covid relief package. that should wake everyone up that there's something wrong going on right now. howie: after the break, a reporter asks joe biden about the hunter biden investigation and the media finding more pork in the spending bill. charlie gasparino is on deck. or psoriatic arthritis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring.

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howie: when joe biden held his prechristmas news conference, nbc reporter mike memley asked him about the hunter biden probe, whether that would influence his choice of attorney general and there was the traditional shouted question from fox's peter doocy. >> the story about your son, hunter -- [ indiscernible ] >> yes, yes, yes. god love you, man. you're a one horse pony. i promise you, my justice department will be totally on its own, making judgments about how they should proceed. howie: i believe he meant one trick pony. joining us now, charlie gasparino, senior core upo -- correspondent. what do you make of peter doocy having to repeatedly shout questions. >> it reminds me of sam

donaldson. he used to scream questions at reagan back in the day and reagan would be like i can't hear you, sam. peter's done a great job on this. the press has generally done a horrible job on this from day one. even when the story broke at first, even if you were skeptical about the hunter biden laptolaptop and the issues surrounding it, when it broke, if you notice, biden has never denied the basic facts of the whole story that to me should have been the calling card for most of the media, not just us, to go and a find out about what was going on here and i think the media's done a horrible job with hunter biden and it adds to this sort of cynicism that you see every day on twitter, it's okay that donald trump gets investigated and there's two very active investigations going on in new york -- manhattan da and new york state attorney general, but it's not okay for everybody to hold biden's feet

the fire on this. so this is -- i think it's a low point for the media in sort of fairness here. howie.howie:. howie: let's talk about the covid relief bill that's been deplaid laid by the president's -- delayed by the president's objections. is the impact on the economy exaggerated by the media in your view and what about the coverage of president trump, now that he has said no, no, no, we need $2,000 checks per person as a stimulus. >> if you notice, the coverage gets all of a sudden really good when he starts agreeing with raphael warnock and john ossoff who are running for those democratic seats in georgia. howie: good as in favorable for trump. >> favorable to him. there's really no sort of delineation as to what we're talking about here. listen, most americans would say listen, we need more unemployment insurance, particularly as all these state governments which i think they're going overboard are shutting down the economy. people, small businesses need help. the checks having different. there's not a lot of reporting on it.

the checks are going out to people who maybe are mostly employed, right, and probably saving money because they can work from home. i mean, there's no sort of investigation to where -- you how this is part of the whole porkification of the bill. there's money going to pakistan. i get it. we are handing checks to people that are employed that are not really affected by the covid shutdowns and that's pretty bad. also, not a lot of reporting on -- howie: well, so is -- those making under $100,000. i want to ask you, because there have been a couple of news stories about a once gigantic, being called a gift to business in terms of tax breaks, can you briefly explain that. >> well, listen, there's a ton of stuff in this bill and i will just say this. in terms of pork, i don't see where there's a huge tax break for business. i do see where we have taken the corporate tax rate down to 21%.

that's the biggest tax break of all. really, what this bill is, what's holding it up is clearly this sort of the notion of these checks and what we are not hearing from the media is what do these checks mean. this is not unemployment insurance. this is literally free money to many people who are working and who are saving. and i think that's part of it. that's part of the sort of tragedy of this bill and the lack of coverage in it i don't think a lot of reporters understand the difference between unemployment insurance and the free checks. howie: i was referring to a new york times story on businesses that have gotten those federal loans that didn't have to pay back and now they want -- they'll be able to under the bill if it gets signed this way, deduct and in effect double dipping, deduct the cost of the loans on their taxes. >> you're talking about the ppp loans, yeah, i get it. howie: let me close on the cyber hacking scandal. mike pompeo says this has done massive damage to u.s. government agencies that russia is the culprit and the president

is saying the media are exaggerating the impact of the cyber hacking and maybe it's not russia, could be china. what do you make of the coverage of that story? >> i mean, i guess it could be north korea. here's the problem with the president on this, howie, is that every time something -- that russia does something his default position is always china or somebody else and it really -- it erodes his credible when he starts disagreeing with the experts, particularly -- mike pompeo has no reason to lie about this and the only thing i can think of is that president trump when he becomes private citizen trump is going to want to do business in russia. howie: that's a speculative answer but you're entitled to your opinion. we appreciate you joining us, charlie gasparino. more to come, right after this. sharing smiles together is a gift. at aspen dental, it's easy to gift yourself the smile you deserve. new patients, get started with a comprehensive exam and full set of x-rays with no obligation.

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help the world believe in holiday magic.thing and this year was harder than ever. and yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. it's not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. santa, santa, you're on mute! just wanted to say thanks. thanks for believing.

howie: kamala harris did an interview with msnbc this week and man was joy reed happy to see her. >> have you had the opportunity to even take it in, the history that you have now made, that you will be making as the first woman, first black woman, first woman of color, first asian american woman to be vice president of the united states? have you taken it in? >> you know, i have to some extent. howie: look, i get that after four years of eviscerating president trumevisceratingpresis thrilled with the incoming vice president. a cartoonist is taking flak after publishing a cartoon with the headline all the republican rats, naming gop officials and law make aers backing president trump's battle to reverse the election results. some critics are saying it echos

nazi propaganda. i stay away from hitler analogies. by depicting them as rats, she's not just saying they're wrong or dumb, she's saying they're sub-human, on the level of animals. this often gets a pass from the mainstream media. the kansas city star published a series apologizing for decades of coverage that disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of black kansas cityians. there was decades of coverage that depicted them as criminals living in a crime laden world. the milestones were missing from an entire population. charlie bird parker didn't get a headline until the jazz great died, then his name was misspelled. a tip of the hat for a self examination. when rush limbaugh was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in february, he leveled with his

listeners he might not be around that long. yet here he is on the last show of the year. >> i wasn't expected to be alive today. i wasn't expected to make it to october and then to november and then to december. and yet here i am. my point in all of this today is gratitude. my point in everything today that i have shared with you about this is to say thanks and to tell everybody involved how much i love you from the bottom of a sizable and growing and still beating heart. howie: now, rush is a fierce supporter of president trump and has always been a controversial media figure but those emotional moments show he's still doing what he loves. and that's it for this final media buzz edition of 2020. i'm howard kurtz. hope you're all enjoying the christmas weekend. check out my facebook page, let's done to -- continue to

talk on twitter and download the pod of cast, media buzz meter, subscribe on apple or amazon music. we're back here next sunday, 11:00 eastern, in the new year. see you then with the latest buzz. want to sell the best burger in every zip code?

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eric: federal investigators are reportedly identified the person of interest in the shocking christmas day bombing that devastated downtown nashville. right now we're learning investigators are following up on hundreds of tips that have poured in over the last two days, this as the mayor of nashville has pointed to a possible motive. hello, welcome to america's news headquarters here on the fox news channel. i'm eric shawn. hi, laura. >> i'm laura ingal in for arthel neville today. law enforcement searched a home said to be linked to the person of interest in the associated press reports. it's about 10 miles southeast of the blast site. meantime, the police department holding a news conference about an h