♪ ♪ howe there aren't many journalists who bought vladimir putin's endless lies about ukraine. when you look pack -- back at the story, vowing dog protect two breakaway eastern regions, then it was ukraine had no right to exist, then he's actually saving his citizens from some fictional neo-nazi genocide. now that russia has launched europe's biggest war since 1945, it's clear president biden, whether you agree with his tactics or not, was right to expose those falsehoods even as the creme p lin chokes off facebook -- kremlin.

russia, while putting its nuclear forces on alert, has agreed to peak talks with ukraine. some commentators say ukraine is marginal to u.s. interests, but with the nato alliance backing -- yes, some say biden should have imposed sanctions earlier -- it's now clear our credibility and western resolve are at stake. a full-fledged invasion against a sovereign country. >> it was always about naked aggression, about putin's desire for empire by any means necessary. by bullying russia's neighbors through coercion and corruption, putin will be a pariah on the international stage. howard: the media's challenge now is to cover this war as the ukrainians bravely fight back. and, look, it's dangerous with no u.s. troops directly involved, but we also have to aggressively cover the propaganda war, the financial war, the cyber war and stick with it even with our notoriously short attention spans as long as russian troops

are battling or occupying ukraine. i'm howard kurtz, and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ ♪ howard: ahead we're looking into whether the press is favoring ketanji brown jackson for the supreme court. as the russians have invaded, the pundits are taking aim at different targets. >> vladimir putin discovered the hard wayed today that president joe biden doesn't make threats, he makes promises. >> compare that to joe biden, self-proclaimed foreign policy expert who can go toe to toe with putin, he's going to violate every international norm, everier is -- international law, and he's going to lie every step of the way while he's doing it. >> the invasion of ukraine is a humiliating defeat for joe biden. he's our leader:

howard: joining us now, ben domenech, publisher of the federalist, and in new york, liz claman, host of "the claman countdown" on fox business network. ben, whatever the political fallout here at home, are the media now rightly focused on putin as the russian strongman who has lied for months about his intention to invade a neighboring country? >> well, i think they are, but i also think that they're trying desperately to move on from just a series of fictions that they've been telling us over the past several years as it relates to russia. first, obviously, the hoax that donald trump was a puppet absolved by the putin regime and then years of joe biden being someone who intimidated putin, who would be a tough guy to take him on. the cover of time magazine with putin reflected in his aviator glasses. and i think what the american people are seeing now and what a lot of folks in the media are having to admit is that this is not the case, this is not a

situation where putin was in any way intimidated by the biden administration's approach. and i think that they're trying to, you know, kind of cover up for that in a number of different ways including saying, oh, well, he's a pariah, violating international norms and the like and is that something that ever intimidated vladimir putin, someone who has murdered journalists across the world, poisoned his enemies in so many different ways and is not someone who i think ever was intimidated by a biden administration or a return to the obama approach to foreign policy. howard: but is it fair game for the press to critique joe biden's handling of this crisis? bush got hammered in new york, but do you think the media sniping and denouncing bind as a failure could undermine him as he tries to hold the nato alliance together? >> well, howie, i think it's important to separate the pundits from the actual journalists on the ground who are doing an unbelievably heroic effort whether it's our own

lucas tomlinson or, you know, trey yingst on the ground, mike tobin. ing listen, the other networks, richard engel of nbc, the abc reporter, the bbc. this is a war that the media are covering now. this is not really the time to be sniping. you can, i mean, this is a free country, you can go for that. but when we're looking at exactly what the viewership wants, they want to see what is going on. this is a highly unusual war, howie. this is in europe. so of course this is going to be treated extraordinarily serious orally, and what we are seeing is the first war because every single -- tiktok war, because every single ukrainian on the ground has a smartphone, and that means they have a global megaphone. we do know that information from the ground shapes world opinion, so the journalists are joined by -- by actual ukrainians who are looking at a very humiliating defeat. not a defeat yet, but as we look at the russian special forces, they look sloppy, unfocusedded,

and i've been speaking to experts on russia in the military, and they say it's an abject failure for putin who is the expert on this information, and it's not working. howard: vietnam was called the first living room war, this is the first smartphone war. biden -- ben, there was some hype as whether the biden administration was hyping this, and some are saying, well, the u.s. shouldn't really care that much about ukraine. do either of those media arguments have merit in your view? >> no, i don't think so. one thing that we should keep in mind is that polls consistently show americans don't want the involvement of american troops on the ground, but that isn't even a question that i think is really being considered at the highest levels. what is clear at this point is that the world, including america, particularly including our allies in europe and nato, are activate ised on this. -- activated on this. it has enormous implications when it comes to people's pocketbook related to energy

crisis, so i think this is not being hyped as a distraction from the many domestic issues that we have challenging us. howard: liz, some reporters the other day pressed president biden on why he didn't impose the sweeping sanctions before the invasion or right after russia's initial military incursion as a way of deterring him which brings us to your wheelhouse; how much can these western sanctions really squeeze with russia's economy? >> well, they can, definitely, and before yesterday i would have said that the sanctions were puny, that they were watered down because nobody wants to feel any discomfort and, therefore, that's not a deterrence. that's basically, you know, you could call it some type of diplomatic dodge. and so for now swift could actually, definitely have an effect. you already see specific sights of russians lining up at atms. they're trying to convert their rubles which are incredibly weakened right now. we're going to know more tonht when the currency markets open,

but they are worried they won't be able to transact with swift which is the society of western interbank of financial transactions. they'll be kicked off of it. but i'd like to bring this to germany. germany was the one who was holding back much of the united states' push for tougher sanctions, and, you know, they've got nerve. of if anybody rained down destruction on ukraine during world war ii, it was germany. finally you had the germans coming through today and yesterday saying, okay, we will join with swift. but i would give mario draghi a lot of thumbs up, he was saying, come on, we need to exert pain. it's pretty shameful if people across the world don't want to pay a little more per gallon on oil because they don't want to feel it in their own pocketbooks. howard: yeah. ben, conservative new york times columnist fred stevens posed this question, who are we with our long history of invasions

and interventions to lecture vlad a myrrh putin about respecting national sovereignty and international law -- vladimir putin? is it fair for a commentator to equate earlier u.s. interventions, whatever mistakes may have been made, with russia who's actually trying to conquer and take over ukraine? >> one of the things we should have perspective on here is much of what has colored the runup to this in media coverage from the right has been a reassessment of the stakes that they -- mistakes that they believe were made in all manners, you know, both in trying to turn the "american idol" east into a democratic you taupe car or in mis'ding the arab -- misreading the arab spring. but to me, that's a big difference from, you know, engaging in that kind of optimistic and, indeed, sometimes utopian policy v. us maintaining a post-cold war world order that has been an enormous benefit to free people all around the world. and i think that we are absolutely in a position to push back against that. vladimir putin has ignored this

over and and over and over again, however, and i think that there was a lot of media going along with the white house message that, you know, these were the adults back in charge, they were going to take care of this now. we saw urn president obama's tenure that didn't really work, even under the end of president bush's tenure that it didn't work. and i think for anybody who says, you know, whether donald trump was president this wouldn't be happening, i think that what we can argue is, well, it didn't happen, and so maybe western take some lessons away from there. howard: we will come back to that a. liz, two new developments today. one is putin putting nuclear deterrence forces on high alert, which strikes me as kind of muscle flexing, and the other is agreeing to peace talks with ukraine that didn't look like it was going to happen. could this be a russian recalculation given the military setbacks, or just an empty gesture just the way that putin

pretended to engage in diplomacy with the u.s.? >> a little bit of both, i think. the talks, calling for talks on the border of belarus is significant. this, i think, goes back to some of the sanctions that were announced yesterday and, of course, the russian central bank is going to be sanctioned. that has come out. what does that really mean? not to get into too much of the weeds here, but you have a lot of russians who are trying to convert their rubles into dollars. you know, i've been hearing from people in moscow who say that hotels are asking for u.s. dollars or payment up front because they won't be able to actually get the money once the whole system freezes up. so, yes, i think that that has pushed him. but the nuclear threat is not just muscle for exampling. -- muscle flexing. it's extraordinarily significant and people should take putin seriously. putin does not have a reverse gear. okay? so he is increasingly isolated -- howard: yeah. >> -- he is descending into in this madman, you know, from everything you hear --

howard: right. >> and i think that's extraordinarily important for people to understand. howard: yeah. back in 2012 he got all that mockery when he said russia was greatest -- he said the praise for footen from a few -- putin is almost treasonous. ahead, jennifer griffin weighs in on the challenges for journalists covering this war, but when we come back, a debate on the right as donald trump praises vladimir putin. ♪ ♪ y were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. one of my favorite supplements is qunol turmeric. so it was a happy ending... turmeric helps with healthy joints and inflammation support. unlike regular turmeric supplements qunol's superior absorption helps me get the full benefits of turmeric. the brand i trust is qunol.

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♪ howard: it's hardly surprising that donald trump would say vladimir putin wouldn't have invaded ukraine if he was still in office. what triggered a media explosion was a radio interview in which the former president called him very savvy, and he followed up last night at cpac.

>> i went in yesterday and there was a television screen. this is genius. putin declares a big portion of the ukraine, of ukraine, putin declares it as up dependent. the problem -- independent. the problem is not that putin is smart, which of course he's smart. but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb. >> sizable chunks of one of this country's two existing political parties has effectively become a cheerleader for vladimir putin. howard: ben, what do you make of some commentators, including some on this network, who have declined to criticize putin or haven't offered a response to donald trump saying the man's a genius? >> well, i think there's an important distinction to be made here. i personally think that putin is a very smart, canny operator. he's been planning this for a very long time. if you look babb to his days when he was serving the kgb as he saw the berlin wall come

down, you can see the seeds of what's been going down -- howard: evil people can be very smart. >> yes. and i think saying that is not a wrong thing to say or in any way an unpatriotic thing to say. at the same time, i want that to come with denouncing the evil actions that he does -- [laughter] of poisoning and murdering and killing, the early acts of war crime that we potentially see in ukraine. look, pair one with the other, acknowledge -- howard: right. >> -- that that your foe should not be underestimated and at the same time push back against him. unfortunately, i far too often see only one of those thing things being said. and to me, i find that to be totally unacceptable and irresponsible. howard: right. in that a interview trump didn't express any concern against the ukrainian people but last night did call the invasion appalling. liz are, i understand the argument some americans don't care, fox poll says 66% are concerned, 32% not concerned, but you made the point earlier

about putin is a thug, he poisons political opponents, goes after journalists, imprisons his foes, doesn't that need to be part of the equation? >> oh, 100%. and i agree with ben, let's not get caught up on the fine line between gene jus and madman. we know where putin's heading on this. president trump did call vladimir putin a peacekeeper which on, you know, on the preposterous scale of 1-10, that's an 11. that said, nobody should be surprised by this. donald trump had a very good relationship, sort of a fond relationship with president putin. but he also was the one who spoke out very candidly and plainly saying, germany, you're way too dependent on the oil that russia gets. so there's sort of this splitting the line. and i find that really kind of important to point out. biden has to look at this and say, look, he had -- meaning president biden -- a ringside seat to the humiliation of the

obama administration when russia annexed crimea, bit it off, and nobody did anything. so he wants to be tougher, but as we look at the fact that a lot of conservatives see biden as weak, they see him as not present, the fact is that when president trump does things like this and the russians turn it around -- this is key, howie, they turn it around, they put it on a loop tape, and they put it on their state-owned television along with mike pompeo who said i have sinner is respect for putin, and hay use that against the united states just as putin is rattling the nuclear saber, that's difficult for conservatives and republicans to look at and swallow. howard: ben, you got choked up the other night when you talked about your late father-in-law, john mccain, who was a big champion. let's take a look. >> i'm very reluctant to in any way, you know, speak for my father-in-law when it comes to foreign policy.

i have to believe that john mccain would be disgusted with what he is seeing going on when it comes to ukraine and the entire biden agenda when with it comes to this moment. howard: ben, what do you make of the part of the republican party today, the party that used to be fiercely anti-communists that refuses to condemn the invasion? >> i think that part of the republican party has been sold a bill of goods by a lot of people who have used the failures militarily over the last 20 years as an argument that american retreat from the world is a good thing. i think that they've won that a argument. i think they've even won the argument in many corners that in some way the west is degenerate and that, you know, china is our sievizational equal, that we should look up to putin as defender of christian values or something like that. all of that is ludicrous. it's absurd, and think the people who engage in it are doing so irresponsibly and

leading a portion of party down the wrong past. -- path. but if there is a silver lining to this, it is the reassertion of the importance of nato, the importance of countries paying their fair share when it comes to defense. we've seen the most recent changes in policy coming from germany which i think are so critical x i hope that what this does is make a lot of people reconsider america's role in the world with as being something that shouldn't be utopian, shouldn't be fairy tale, but must require engagement in order to defend freedom in the west. howard: a lot of far-reaching implications which the media are going to need to sort out in the coming days, weeks and months. and i should mention a lot of establishment republicans, mitch mcconnell and others, are supporting president biden and saying he should be tougher when it comes to financial sanctions. liz claman, ben domenech, thanks very much. ahead, how much will the press scrutinize ketanji brown jackson? but up next, jennifer if griffin on separating fact from fission

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xiidra. not today, dry eye. ♪ howard: ketanji brown jackson was the media's front-runner from the start, and early friday the white house leaked word that the first black female nominee is president biden's supreme court pick. >> for too long our government and our courts haven't hooked like america. >> justice breyer, the members of the senate will decide if i fill your seat, but please know that i could never pill your shoes. -- fill your shoes. howard: joining us now from new jersey is andy mccarthy, fox news contributor who writes for national review and, andy, you predicted this nomination. isn't this joe biden's safest pick? the media seem enamored, already feature stories of how great she was on her high school debate

team, and she was confirmed last year with three republican votes. >> yeah, i think that's right, howie. she's been scrutinized fairly recently. she got confirmed. she's been confirmed twice in the last eight years because president obama initially put her on the district court. so the senate's relatively the same, they've passed her along. and i think the other thing that hasn't gotten a lot of attention but was probably very important to the white house is that by elevate ising judge jackson to the supreme court, that opens up a slot on the d.c. circuit court of appeals for president biden to fill. i don't think any other candidate who was on his list gave him that kind of an advantage. howard: yeah. it was always a shorter list than we were led to believe. you say it was a mistake for joe biden to make a campaign promise to name a black woman to the high court. others say it's about time after two plus centuries of mostly white male justices, so most of the media disagrees with you on this, and they cite president

ronald reagan promising to name the first woman. >> yeah. i just think for the purposes of the mom fee and the process -- nominee and the process, he could have done exactly the same thing, and i think it would have been better for judge jackson if he had come out and said i'm going to pick the best person. we're going to scrutinize our list and figure out who that is, and that's who i'll pick, and then he could have made the same pick he made. and inshe of, you know, getting the baggage of having basically pigeon-holed his choice and excluded other people, he could have is just pitched her as the most excellent choice rather than the best black woman that he could have put on the court. howard: yeah. i suppose the counter to that is first you've got to get yourself elected. the democrats obviously have the votes to confirm her if nobody in the senate keels over, and jackson doesn't change, as everybody knows, the conservative majority on scotus if she replaces stephen breyer, so will media conservatives as well as republicans still mount

an aggressive case against her, and do you think they should? >> i think what they -- you're quite right, they're not going to be able to block this nomination, and i think she'll get 3-5 republican votes, so he'll have a margin to get her confirmed. if i'm the republicans, i think for the reasons that you just articulated this is not a hill to die on. this is something that they should use as an issue going into the midterm to highlight the kinds of judges, progressive judges that president biden is putting on the court. so i wouldn't try to derail the nomination, but i would raise the profile of the courts as an issue going into the mid midterms. howard: would those criticisms beabout her personally, her experience, more about some of her liberal rulings? obviously, democratic president wins election and goes with somebody prosecute left. >> yeah. i think you concentrate on her ruling, and it would be very important for the reare palins to show that unlike what the democrats did to calf gnawing

and to some extent to barrett, we can have a discussion without trying to destroy someone's character. howard: andy mccarthy, great to see you. next on "mediabuzz," fox's jennifer griffin on the challenge of covering the attack in ukraine and dealing with russian propaganda. ♪ ♪

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was based in moscow in the '90s because what we saw in the buildup in the last month or so, we've been receiving unprecedented levels of declassified intelligence decision, strategic decision by the u.s. and the nato allies to declassify the intelligence to outline putin's plan which has pretty much hued very closely to what they anticipated. putin's encountered some troubles along the way, but basically the plan was laid out for us. and then we were able to, as reporters, to guide viewers, sho toe -- to show them how putin was trying to use misinformation, disinformation. so it was really a very interesting time to be a reporter, something i've never experienced before in terms of having that level of detail in intelligence shared with us. howard: there was some skepticism as well. what do you say to create ins who kept insisting the media were hyping it and being spoofed from sources that might have been flawed as the nonexistent

wmds in iraq? >> that just proved to be untrue. if you go baa -- back to my initial notes 3-4 weeks ago a, this is rolling out pretty much the way it was laid out to us. there may be a few tiny issues that were based on some weather or some other issues, but basically it has hued to if you go back to that initial reporting, i think, the reporters and the intelligence that was shared was pretty accurate, and i think that is kind of fascinating at this point in time from a reporter's position. i've gone back and looked at those notes, and i've been pretty amazed at how other than one issue, i would say, the whole issue they did expect him to use a massive electronic warfare and cyber attack in the beginning to blind the country. that did not happen, but it is still within his arsenal, and the way it's been explained to us is that by outing some of that intelligence, it maybe caused him to shift some of his plans. howard: right. cutting through the fog of war.

what's your take as a journalist who has covered this beat for decades on the questions of vladimir putin's mental stability? >> well, i'm not a psychiatrist, but i have certainly watched him for a long time, and i've talked to many russian experts and intelligence folks who have followed him, and if you listen to the president of france, he says -- and he's met with vladimir putin multiple times and ohs, particularly the leaders of finland who have known him over the years, they do suggest that a something has changed in him. you can see that. i mean, the thing about criminology going back to the soviet days, you can look at the videos, see the positioning of people, and that is what we were well positioned to do. what's interesting about fox is we have not only myself, but amy kellogg and steve harrigan who boast lived and served in moscow, and so we were really well positioned to be able to analyze in realtime a lot of the lies that putin was presenting, particularly that very distorted take on history that he presented a week ago monday to

justify his invasion. howard: right. there's been a lot of media chatter about why didn't president biden prevent invasion, why didn't he send troops to the border of ukraine in advance. is that a reasonable critique? >> i don't think so. i think if you look at what you are dealing with, this did not surprise the western intelligence. back in october they got an indication of it. they began working behind the scenes to come up with a strategic plan that did not end up with nato, the u.s. and russia all nuclear powers in a war. if you started to send troops prematurely to the border, that would have given putin a pretext. this was a very careful chess game that we saw played out in real time. the sanctions that you've seen rolled out in the last few days, you know, i continue to hear some distortions about what what those sanctions are. liz claman and i have discussed and, you know, the sanctions on the central bank and the swift, getting the europeans onboard

with that, the unity of nato that we've seen, the things that we were told for weeks by pundits on the air that germany wouldn't do germany has now done. they are increasing their defense spending, they are giving weapons to ukraine, and they agreed to the swift sign-off and the nord stream. so a lot of the punditry has been very wrong, and i think the reporters have done a really good job. howard: a "wall street journal" report yesterday, jennifer griffin keeps fact checking her colleagues on ukraine. how do you see your role during this war? >> my role is no different than it's been since i joined fox in 1996 in moscow. i cover the news. i've been part of the news division since those beginning days. i'm here to fact check facts because i report on facts. and my job is to try and figure out the truth as best as i know it. i share those facts internally so that our network can be more

accurate. that's what i've always done. there's nothing different than what i've been doing for the last 26 years working for fox. howard: and you do a tremendous job of it no matter which administration is in power. just briefly, how do journalists cover this war? there's no embeds for the troops that are in eastern europe, and it looks pretty dangerous when you see apartment buildings being blown up and other strikes by moscow in. >> it's very dangerous, and my hat is off to our colleagues, lucas tom lynnson, steve harrigan, trey yingst, all of their teams who are over there. the teams from the other networks, they are providing us with incredible reporting, incredible it's incredibly dangerous. we are back to a period of time that i remember in the '90s where u.s. troops -- where u.s. reporters were not embedded with the u.s. military or troops. it reminds me of the balkans, it reminds me of wars i covered before covering the pentagon. and it's good old-fashioned war correspondence city, but it is

extremely dangerous and, again, my hat is off to our teams who are over there in harm's way tonight. howard: yeah. i'm glad you were anal to understood line that point -- able to underline that point. jennifer griffin, thanks very much for joining us. after the break, the president versus the press amid questions about joe biden's sanctions strategy and whether vladimir putin can be contained. ♪ ♪ 2a's monitoring his money with a simple text. like what you see abe? yes! 2b's covered with zero overdraft fees when he overdraws his account by fifty bucks or less. and 2c, well, she's not going to let a lost card get her stressed. am i right? that's right. that's because these neighbors all have chase. alerts that help check. tools that help protect. one bank that puts you in control. chase. make more of what's yours.

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howard: when president biden took questions after announcing severe sanctions against moscow, reporters wanted to know whether that would be effective and why he wasn't doing even more. >> you're confident that these devastating sanctions are going to to be as devastating as russian missiles and bullets and tanks. >> yes. russian bullets, missiles and tanks in ukraine. yes, i am. it's not a bluff, it's on the table. >> sanctioning president putin? >> yes. >> why not sanction him today, sir? why not sanction him today? >> respectfully, sir, what more are you waiting for? howard: joining us now from utah, jason chaffetz, former republican congress congressman k and in st. louis, marie harp, fox news contributor. jason, i was surprised joe biden took questions after that dramatic speech calling out putin and announcing the sanctions. seems more available to the press during this crisis.

is that a smart strategy? >> yeah, i think it is. he's the president of the united states, he needs to be answering those questions, and i'm glad to see him do it. i wish he did it more often. i didn't like the answers to the questions, but i thought that he was actually taking those answers, and i think it's very illuminating to the world and the american public. howard: marie, reporters seemed to focus at that presser on what president biden was not doing. it's interesting, since then, in the days since then, the administration has moved to sanction vladimir putin personally and to exclude at least some russian banks from the swift financial system. as someone who's dealt with the press in those situations, are those frustrating questions when the policy is not quite there? >> well, look, i think they're fair questions, and i am glad president biden took them, but i do think it's frustrating sometimes to hear the press just focus on the united states. president biden talked a lot about bringing our european allies along. we know many of these sanctions

cannot be implemented or effective without them, right, howie? if i think it's important when the press takes a wider look at how we implement sanctions, it's good that they're pressing him, but the news cycle, the 24/7 watching this in realtime, sometimes sanctions don't lend themselves to that kind of timeline, and i think reporters have been effective when they've been following up, updating their viewers and ed readers and also on how our part partners are doing the same thing. that's a key part of the story. howard: right. jason, where are you on this question of some conservatives in media and politics refraining from criticizing the russian invasion, the brutal invasion of ukraine or saying ukraine is not really important to america or america's national security? i meaning only a few speakers even brought it up at the c or pac conference. cpac. >> i think clarity wins the day. vladimir putin is a tyrant, he's a thug, he is killing people. the strongest words should come

out of every republican's mouth saying how totally unacceptable that that is. but i also need to say that, you know, i think there are a lot of people that are afraid of getting american troops on the ground engaged in this fight. and i think that's a worthy discussion. i also think that republicans have done a good job of pointing out the sanctions were really not the toughest thing ever. and i thought one of the biggest debacles of this, howie, was when the vice president, harris, was in germany saying, oh, my goodness, you know, these sanctions are -- they're meant as a deterrence only to have the president of the united states say, well, nobody thought that sanctions were actually a deterrence. that could have gotten even more media attention. howard: right. i don't think anybody in either party wants to see u.s. troops fighting russians in ukraine. but, marie, a favorite conservative talking point, donald trump himself did it last night, was that putin invaded

crimea when obama was president and all of ukraine when biden is president but didn't make a move when donald trump was in the white house. >> well, and of course the story didn't start when joe biden became president. the first trump impeachment was about military assistance to the ukrainians and president zelensky who everyone is praising so muched today, howie. look, there is a long history of u.s./ukrainian relations, questions about how much military assistance we should give them. president trump has certainly played a key part in that and, in fact, held up some of that military assistance to get political favors from zelenskyy. reporters should cover all of it. he also went into georgia during the bushed administration, so i think it's clear that a number of american administrations haven't exactly had the perfect answer for how to deal with vladimir putin, and no one has. and i think the press should cover all of that. howard: yeah. putin has certainly bedeviledded

a number of american presidents. let me turn now to the supreme court nomination. jason, do you envision a strong conservative media and political opposition to ketanji brown jackson even though she's been confirmed with the senate -- by the senate twice in the past eight years and would be the first black woman as well? >> well, i think there can be a strong response and a vibrant debate and intense questioning. what i don't like, what i don't think america likes is when it becomes so personal and you start to dive into what were you thinking about in high school, the absurdity, i think, of how the democrats have dealt with this in the past particularly with justice kavanaugh was just so absurd. i think republicans do themselves well to stick to the issues, talk to the facts, talk to her about her ruling, her judicial opinions and philosophy. but, look, the reality is that democrats can get all the democrats onboard, she will be the next supreme court justice. howard: right. and i think that may influence the political and media decision making because she also, as i

mentioned early, doesn't change the balance of the 6-3 conservative majority. marie, even though she is clearly well qualifieded even though she's a ground breaking minority, shouldn't ketanji brown jackson be subjected to tough media scrutiny for this lifetime appointment? many -- >> absolutely. she should be, and i would emphasize that her rulings and her judicial place my should be. a lot of the criticism we heard from conservative talking heads this week was not about her or her rulings, it was about the democratic party writ large. i get it, we're in a midterm year. but this was no surprise to the press. she was always at the top of the list, and i think if we're going to have media focus on her, it shouldn't be on the wider political scene, it should be on her and her judicial philosophy and record. howard: right. i agree that in a way her nomination was no surprise even though the white house made a big show about considering other candidates, and i also agree it would be nice if personal attacks didn't come into this. so often they do in these

nomination battles as jason just pointed out. let's focus on the substance. and, of course, she's much more liberal than republicans would like just as president trump's nominees were much more conservative than democrats would like. that's why we have elections, and it's nice to have both of you here. marie harp, jason chaffetz, thanks very much for helping us out. >> thank you. howard: still to come, cnn has picked a new president, and an emotional interview with the husband of alec baldwin's accidental victim. the buzz meter next. ♪ ting freedom from pain, with fewer pills than tylenol. instead of taking pills every 4-6 hours, aleve works up to 12-hours so you can focus on what matters. aleve. less pills. more relief

♪ howard: time to race the clock on in this week's buzz meter. go. cnn has picked a new president to replace jeff zucker. chris licht, revitalized cbs

this morning before becoming stephen colbert's producer. it shows it wants a new direction for left-leaning cnn, its ceo has even talked about returning to straight news. jen psaki has become a certified celebrity as white house press secretary and expectedded to heave this year, is being courted by cnn and msnbc as a talk show host. there have been lunches. and while psaki is obviously a strong partisan on president biden's behalf, she has an upbeat style and gets along with the press. i say cnn has an edge because she was a contributor there. psaki says for now she's still busy at the white house. alec baldwin has spoken about his grief in the accidental movie shooting of his cinematographer, hal that hutchins, but with the family suing the actor, her husband matt broke his silence on today show.

>> i just felt so angry, just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly in such a detailed way and then not accept any responsibility. after having just described killing her. howard: he has every right to be emotional about the negligence that took his wife's life. whether baldwin is liable will be up to the legal system is. donald trump's rollout of his much-anticipated social media app has been, well, be diplomat ific and call it rocky. 300,000 people want to join. bad news is they're on a wait list, most of them, because they can't access the site during its launch. oh, and users aren't allowed to disparage the people running the site. the former president banned from twitter and facebook will attempt to challenge those tech giants once he gets his digital problems ironed out. a former white house reporter who got the news at -- boot at news max is now working for mike lindell with a show on

lindell tv. didn't know there was such a thing. and a word about my colleague and friend neil cavuto who has resumed hosting his shows on fnc and fox business. neil made a full-throated appeal for vaccines, but last month he went back in the hospital. >> i did get covid again, but a far more serious strand, what they call covid pneumonia. it landed me in intensive care for quite a while, and it really was touch and go, so some of you who wanted to put me out of my misery got what you wished for. sorry to disappoint you. i've had cancer and now multiple she row sclerosis. howard: neil says he wouldn't be around if he hadn't gotten at least a partial benefit from the vaccine. welcome back, neil. just made it. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. any other week we probably would have done multiple segments on president biden's supreme court nomination, but instead the war

many you vain is the big story. that's why we devoted so much time for it. check out my facebook page, check out twitter and take a look at my podcast, media buzz meter. we have a lot of fun. you can subscribe at apple itunes, google podcast on your amazon device. back here next sunday, see you then with the latest buzz. statin medication. the brand i trust is qunol. the international fellowship of christians and jews is on the ground in ukraine right now responding to this devastating crisis. the current situation here is very critical. there is a great concern for the more than 200,000 jewish people who desperately need food, medicine and emergency supplies. your urgently needed gift of only $45

will help rush food, water, medicine and emergency supplies for one suffering jewish family in ukraine who has no where to turn. the fellowship has been working here on the ground in ukraine with our trusted partners for over 30 years. the distribution centers and volunteers are standing by. we need your help now. your emergency gift of only $45 will help rush food, water, medicine and emergency supplies for one jewish family in ukraine. please call or go online now.

♪you fill up my senses spent about fox news alert ukrainian soldiers holding strongly for the night of a russian invasion this as vladimir putin threatens to ask like the conflict even further. putting his nuclear forces on high alert. hello welcome to special edition of america's newsroom and join me for the next two hours benjamin hall coming to us live from gentoo. good evening benjamin. >> good afternoon to you. we are in lviv that is in the west of ukraine but i can tell you i am at one oh four war correspondent spreader on the schedule bring angles from each