if your business kept on employees through the pandemic, innovation refunds could qualify it for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to find out. then work with highly qualified professionals to fill out your forms and submit the application. go to innovationrefunds.com to learn more. ♪ ♪ howard: just when we were all sick and tired of hearing anti-semitic garbage from kanye west, he goes on the air with alex jones and sparks a whole new wave of media outrage involving adolf hitler. >> there's a lot of things that i love about hitler. a lot of things. and he didn't kill 6 million jews, that's just, like, factually incorrect. howard: that is factually correct. and the hitler praise drew some

pushback. >> i think hitler was a really bad guy. howard: when alex jones is the moderating guy in the room, you've got a problem. but there's more -- >> nazis are kind of cool. god runs the world, and it's satan that, that gets inside of the zionists and makes them do evil things. howard: believe me, i don't like giving this vile stuff a platform, but this is a frighteningly new low. next, the man now known as ye tweeted a swastika. when elon musk saw the image, he tweeted: i tried my best. despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. account will be suspended. at least musk acted quickly, but given his stance against permanent bans, how long will the suspension last? i'm howard kurtz, and this is the "mediabuzz." ♪ ♪

howard: the media, led by msnbc and cnn, ratcheted up their coverage of the mar-a-lago dinner controversy as top republican leaders came forward to criticize donald trump for sharing a meal with kanye west and nick fuentes. in an exclusive statement to fox news digital, the former president actually budged a bit in discussing fuentes. that came in ponce to increasingly vocal attacks from pundits and politicians in his own party. >> president trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an anti-semite and a holocaust denier a seat at the table, and i think he should apologize for it. >> there is no room in the republican party for anti-semitism or white supremacy. and anyone meeting with people

advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the united states. >> the republican leaders of the house and senate are criticizing former president trump tonight over last week's dinner with accused white nationalist nick fuentes. apparently there is room for anti-semitism and white supremacy in the republican party, because donald trump made room for anti-semitism and white supremacy in the republican party. >> donald trump knew exactly what he was doing there, because he correctly surmised that a portion of the republican base, a strong one, held these vile, reprehension bl, racist views. >> the national news media should be pressing our leaders on what is most pressing for us. the border is, obviously, a much bigger issue for people particularly in is statements like california, arizona -- in states like california, arizona, texas and even florida than is a meeting with the former president and a white

supremacist. howard: trump seemed particularly stunned by mcconnell calling him a loser in that statement to fox and has said this about fuentes who has a history of racist, anti-semitic opinions. >> i had never herald of the man, and his views weren't spoken of at the table or it wouldn't have been accepted. joining us now, mollie hemingway and in new york, julie banderas rahs, fox news anchor and hour of "fiona's fantastical fort." mollie, the criticism from numerous senate leaders who often go out of their way to not criticize donald trump the, doesn't that turn this into a pretty significant political story? >> i'm not entirely sure. former president trump met with kanye, now ce, someone he's met with previously in the white house. they worked on criminal justice reform. clearly, kanye is in the middle

of a mental breakdown of some kind. but it's one thing to have a dinner with kanye, entirely another to knowingly is have a dinner with these other people. but he didn't knowingly have a dinner with these other people. so when the media say they're going to make a big story about this and mischaracterize -- including, by the way, this is a president whose daughter is jewish, whose grandchildren are jewish, who brokered all of these peace accords with enemies of israel, the idea that this man is supportive of anti-semitism is insane, and no one in good faith would say that. so for the media to make a big deal about this, and then you see all these republican leaders who are no where to be found on the actual issues that matter to republican voters coming out and losing their mind and doing whatever the media wants, it's a great example of why average republican voters are so frustrated not just with the media, but we palin leaders. -- republican leaders.

howard: julie, trump's antagonists say -- [inaudible] i have no reason to doubt that he didn't know nick fuentes was coming, but donald trump certainly knows of abhorrent rhetoric now, and the media asked why is he not denouncing anti-semitism and holocaust denial? >> i think he waited a little too long to actually come out and say, first of all, he did not know nick fuentes was going to be the at that dinner, he didn't know he had the background that he did and and he did, in fact, did say had he known that and had he spewed any of those anti-semitic remarks at that dinner, it wouldn't have been accepted. i do feel a lot of republicans feel it's not strong enough language for denouncing anti-semitic remarks. but as far as the president's concerned, the former president is not anti-semitic. i agree with mollie's sentiments that anybody who paints him out to be an anti-semite is insane,

and the only insane person at the table was kanye west. howard: we'll come back to that. first, let me play the reaction of kevin mccarthy speaking to reporters outside the white house and he, of course, has been very loyal to former president trump. >> i don't think, i don't think anybody should be spending any time with nick fuentes. he has no place in this refrain palin -- republican party. i think president trump came out four times and condemned him and didn't know who he was. >> well, he didn't say he -- he just said he didn't no who he was. howard: so reporters did correct the house republican leader on that. what do you think of that statement, and should trump have had this dipper? >> are no. i think, like, the criticism is clearly that trump and his people need to do a far better job of vetting who's going to be having dinner with the president. with but again, it's not like this was knowingly -- we have the people who orchestrate thed the dinner admitting they did

this attack on trump, milo, who wanted to hurt him by bringing in guy. but that's why you want staff that are capable of vetting. this is a longstanding issue with the former president, and it needs to happen. howard: julie, as a few journalists have pointed out, what gets lost is that trump did invite kanye west who, as we've seen earlier in the show and before that, has been spewing all this anti-semitic crap, and he praises hitler, praises the nazis and gets himself suspended from twitter for tweeting a swastika. "the washington post" says that trump's advisers tried for days to get the former president to cancel the kanye dinner. it wasn't like he just waltzed in at the last minute. is it fair or unfair for the media to say sitting down with kanye west sends the wrong messagesome. >> i really, truly believe that donald trump has one weakness, and that is loyalty. and i don't think loyalty is a weakness. but when it comes to kanye west, i do believe it's a weakness of

his. kanye west has always been very supportive of donald trump. he also has been sort of an avenue for donald trump to extend himself is and become more popular among the hollywood elites which is not a community which you see a lot of support from the gop. so while kanye west has sort of been a convenient outlet for the president because he did invite him to the white house when he was a sitting president, clearly things have changed. he has made comments, he has gone, you know, absolutely insane on social media and said some really despinning e bl things, and i think -- despicable things, and i do believe this'll be the last we see of these two sitting down. i think the president was trying to be low drool a former friend who was support i of his campaign, his presidency and was one of the only people out in hollywood who was actually vouching for him. and it really worked because he did appeal to a big demographic that ordinarily would not be listening to rump had ann kanye west not originally supported him. howard: had he not blown up his

own business career with all of this stuff. and i've known donald trump for 35 years. i don't believe he's anti-semitic, but the question of whether you're giving a platform to that. okay, congressman jim comber, who is the incoming chairman in the next republican congress of the house oversight committee, did criticize donald trump on the dinner, but then he said this: >> i can shed some light on why republicans don't immediately respond to many in the media every time they're offended by something trump does. it's because a lot of republicans believe there's a trouble standard in the media. howard: mollie, so it's the media's fault? >> it's an obvious double standard. there's a host on msnbc right now with a history of problems on how he's talked about the jewish community, and he's platformed every day. yes, it's just all of this what are we going to talk about versus what's important for the american people. from the average republican voter, what they see is a country that is in serious decline, that has massive

problems not just with the economy and foreign policy and the border, but also kind of a cultural decline. the media won't say anything about that, but they'll obsess about stories like this. and i really think no matter who's talking about this, we have to remember that kanye is in the midst of a very serious mental breakdown. he has nobody around him, apparently, that's taking care of him, and the media should do what they can to help him get the help he needs. there's a lot more going on here too. howard: president biden ended up tweeting about this saying the holocaust happened, hitler was a demonic figure, and instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antiselltism. he doesn't -- anti-semitism. he doesn't mention trump by name, but everyone knows who he's talking about. that shows you some of the pushback from democrats and lib liberal -- liberal journalists as well. >> i don't think, again, trump was trying to give kanye west a platform to spew his anti-semitic sentiment.

i really, truly do not believe he was trying to give him a platform, because i do believe a had he started to talk about all this nonsense at the table, that he would have shut him down. should he have shut him down sooner? yes. should he invite him back ever again? no. just full disclosure, i know the family personally, i know the kardashians, one of my sister was one of the many executive producers. kanye does need help, the kardashians tried to help him, he suffers from bipolar disorder. this is a man who is sick. and with that said, i sympathize in a way for all those who do suffer from bipolar disorder. he doesn't have the support system because he's alienated everybody in his life. i think we need to focus less on the politicization of, you know, donald trump being affiliated with kanye west. obviously, the main street media's going to go all over this. why don't you focus on the mentally ill and the unfortunate things coming out of his mouth

and how it has completely destroyed his career. that's the focus it should be, not on donald trump. howard: mollie, there has been an intense media focus an all of of -- on all of this. i'm wondering whether for a lot of people it's just inside baseball or noise. >> i think it is just hard for the american people to, you know, how much can be said about in the? and it is very uncomfortable to watch. it's exciting to watch someone in the midst of this kind of breakdown, but every media outlet should be thinking about whether to platform this in any way versus giving him help. howard: yeah. i went through that same calculation, but i think it's important to call it out. ahead, glenn greenwald on twitter and a look at those twitter files on the hunter biden laptop. but ahead, kevin mccarthy h targeting the januaravy 6th committee. ur pose, at pnc private bank we will work with you every step of the way to help you achieve it. so let us focus on the how. just tell us - what's your why?

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howard: kevin mccarthy has told the january 6th committee to preserve all its records making clear that when republicans take over, they will be investigating the investigators. republican leader said in a letter saying you've spent a year and a half and millions of taxpayers' dollars conducting this investigation, questioning whether the probe was supported by the facts. mollwith ie, sounds like a pretty juicy story -- mollie. mainstream press has ignored it. >> yeah, they have. there were a couple of interesting stories from abc and washington post, both based on how angry staffers on the j-6 committees were with liz cheney's trump obsession and how their good work on investigating all the issues about security failures or other important things were killed because of cheney's -- howe she wants to make the final report mostly about trump. >> yeah. you know, as it is right now, we've only gotten one side of this story, and it's very

politicized. it would be like only andrew wiseman's version of the russia collusion hoax. the american people want to know what happened, not just see how liz cheney's obsessed with donald trump. howard: julie, i guarantee you the press will portray this as overreach. we already know the committee is 100% anti-trump. >> yeah. and i would love to watch how the mainstream media plays this story, because the conviction of these two oathkeepers, that is a significant advancement in this story that that basically takes away the blame from the president which the mainstream media has been convicting of january 6th now for, since january 6th. that's all they have spoken about. and it basically lays the blame on these two extremists that, obviously, began this conspiracy theory on the internet x and they started to circulate their mal intentions, and that is how this sort of rolled into what it is, january 6th. but the mainstream media has been doing nothing but pointing the blame directly on the

president and accusing the president of inciting violence on january 6th when, indeed, it was oathkeepers like these two that were convicted that proves the intent was, obviously, to go and storm the capitol and raise hell but not at the words, advice or of the prompt of the president of the united states, but of these conspiracy theorists that started to start these e -- rumors online, and that's how it garnered so much attention. howard: well, the press has jumped on the conviction of stuart rhodes and a top deputy as the most significant case to come off the january 6th hearing. but, mollie, first time in 30 years that anyone's been charged with seditious conspiracy, one of only a few times that statute's been used. >> and the only time any american has been convicted of it. the media really loved this story, and they were very excited that there were some convictions. i think they underplay ared some other issues which was that there were five people charged, and even in d.c. with notoriously heft -- left-wing

juries, three of the people were not convicted of that. howard: they were convicted of other things, however. >> yeah. the big picture story here too is about political violence andr institutions are treating these differently. when you have the hundreds of violent riots that killed a lot of people in the summer of 2020, doj wasn't interested, they didn't do much of an investigation. even though there were attacks on the white house, federal courthouses and other federal properties, and here it's so outsized. and because the media love that, they haven't covered that critically. howard: julie, liberal commentators, i've seen a lot of them portraying this as the mob that donald trump sent to the cap old to conduct a seditious conspiracy if -- cap old. they're blaming trump for -- >> look -- [laughter] that was my point. and, i mean, i just have to hammer this home. yes, they are covering the fact that these oathkeepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy. what they are not covering is the fact that he was nothing to do with the -- they have nothing to do with the president of the

united states. the president did not conspire with him, the president never heard of these people before. the president never communicated with them, nor did they somehow seek each other out on social media. howard: right. >> the president had nothing to do with these oathkeepers. that's the connection that you will not hear, i guess, reversed by the mainstream media. howard: julie, tell us more about your latest project, your children's book. >> i've partnered with a christian publicking company, and i have julie's signature treasure box for christmas. if you go to brave books.com/julie, you can pick this up. we have a cyber week special going on. basically, you get seven wonderfully-told stories that are pro-american, pro-value and morals, stories and lessons. and you get a fort-building kit and a compass, a moral come pus. so it's a lovely package that i have signed, i autographed some books as well for our readers.

howard: i don't know where you find the time. julie, mollie, thanks so much. up next, elon musk releases the twitter files on the handling of the hunter biden laptop story sparking an intense media debate. ♪ ♪ through the pandemic, innovation refunds could qualify it for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to find out. then work with highly qualified professionals to fill out your forms and submit the application. go to innovationrefunds.com to learn more. my most important kitchen tool? my brain. so i choose neuriva plus. unlike some others, neuriva plus is a multitasker supporting 6 key indicators of brain health. to help keep me sharp. neuriva: think bigger. the day you get your clearchoice dental implants makes every day... a "let's dig in" day... mm. ...a "chow down" day... a "take a big bite" day... a "perfectly delicious" day... - mm. [ chuckles ] - ...a "love my new teeth" day.

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that easy. getrefunds.com has helped businesses like yours claim over $1 billion in payroll tax refunds. but it's only available for a limited time. go to getrefunds.com powered by innovation refunds. howard: elon musk released the file shared with journalist math taibbi on how twitter suppressed the hunter biden laptop story, and there were regular reports from democrats to delete betweens. -- tweets. such questions came from both parties, be but taibbi says the democrats had more channels to complaint complain. joining us now, jim garrity and ameshia cross, siriusxm. jim, i spent two hours trying to down load this disjointed stuff. when trump press secretary

kayleigh mcenany had her account locked, trump campaign angrily wrote: nobody on this team called me regarding news you'll be censoring news articles. this reason for the ban, hacked materials. >> yeah. at that point there was no evidence it was hacked, yet to be any evidence it was hacked. this all appears to come from the laptop left at a store by hunter biden full of unflattering information. and i can understand why the biden campaign and other democrats wouldn't want this out, but the fact that you don't doesn't make i -- it any less true. and is one of the rare surprises in this ugly tale was democratic congress ro khanna reminding the twitter executives and the twitter legal team, well, there's a constitution. there's new york times v. sullivan, and the standards for the government saying, no, you can't do that is very strict. why should twitter have even more lenient -- howard: yeah. iowa sheer -- ameshia, twitter suppressed the story on its own,

is and some of the requests were to delete pornographic pictures of hunter biden. given the severe risks here and the lessons of 2016, meaning trump could get elected, we're erring on the side of including a warning, so media conservatives are raising this as being anti-trump move. >> the. [inaudible] quite frankly -- [inaudible] [inaudible] a story that is essentially a nonstory, it's really frustrating -- [audio difficulty] it's problematic because officially this is -- [laughter] [inaudible conversations] howard: we're going to fix your audio. let me go back to jim. taibbi said he was given access with conditions, but all these attacks on him, i think, are unfair. although posting some people's e-mail addresses was dumb. he looks forward to pr for the richest man on earth and seeing

how many of them have run stories for anonymous sources at the pentagon, cia, fbi, etc. >> this was clearly an effort to distract from the old management on twitter by saying it's matt tie the yee by's fault, he's a bad guy, look, you could love or hate matt taibbi, i've got to say i would have preferred if this had not been in a series of betweens and we would have seen -- betweens and seen it in a serious of documents, but by and large, it's a distraction. howard: and taibbi found no government involvement. i'm sorry about the audio problem, come back to what you were saying. >> there is no constitutional argument here. first and foremost, we're talking about a campaign. biden was not president or senator, he was not in a government role. and anyone who is trying to protect -- and both campaigns have done it before -- who had been trying to protect from nefarious acts, that would be

problematic. these are questions that are often handled. this is largely conservatives who for whatever reason like to take shots of this man, hunter biden, and be able to talk about it across social media. this is not a kim kardashian-esque cape from the 2000s. let's get over it. hunter biden had significant issues with drug abuse, he should not be used for media fodder. taibbi, there's nothing here. there's no there there. republicans should be focused on trying to win elections, because the midterm red wave didn't happen. howard: even some conservatives say there was certainly no smoking gun. ceo jack dorsey didn't even know about it at the time. musk said in a chat from his private plane that he barely read the twitter files, he just turned it over to matt taibbi and a couple others. meanwhile, no new york times story on this. don't you think it's newsworthy? >> absolutely not. it's no more newsworthy than

anyone else trying to bring up old things about relationships of the past and share hem on social media. there is nothing here. hunter biden was a private citizen, joe biden was a private citizen running for office. this had no bearing on the election, it had no bearing on whether or not there should be social media engagement, there should be rules and regulations through social media. but at the end of the day, this has happened on both sides of the political aisle -- howard: one sentence from you. >> 10% for the big guy. there's much more significant stuff there. you want to take off the pictures of his you know what, fine. that's perfectly fine. but there was a lot more in that laptop -- >> there's a lot more hanging at mar-a-lago right now hand on that -- howard: we'll debate that another time. donald trump said this on truth social talking about in the: do you throw out the presidential election results of 020 and declare the rightful winner, or do you have a new election? a massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even

ethos found in the constitution. a lot of media criticism on that. make up your own mind. next on immediate "mediabuzz," glenn greenwald on why the media keep trashing elon musk and his battle with apple. muck i. ♪ if you have diabetes, then getting on the dexcom g6 is the single most important thing you can do. and it's covered by medicare. before dexcom g6, i was frustrated. all of that finger-pricking, my a1c was still stuck. (female announcer) dexcom g6 sends your glucose numbers

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howard: elon musk says apple threatened to boot twitter from the app store asking, do they hate free speech in americasome he's also accusing democratic politicians of a coordinated effort to attack him and tweeting, why are so many in the media against free speech? this is messed up. i spoke before the twitter or files were released with glenn greenwald, the pulitzer prize-winning journalist who has a new show coming on platform rumble from brazil. glenn greenwald, welcome. >> great to be with you, howie. howard: what do you make of so many in the media attacking elon musk constantly, especially after he lifted the ban on most

previously suspended accounts? >> i think it's always been one of the most bizarre components of our relatively new debate over how much social media should be censored that journalists, of all people -- who, of course, have a variety of different views but are supposed to have some values in common like transparency, believing in that, believing in a free press and free speech -- have become in many ways, a lot of hem, the leading agitators and advocates for censorship and seem to be unbelievably hostile toward elon musk in part because he wants to restore free speech to the platform, but in particular because he wants to bring back voices with whom they have a lot of political disagreements beginning with people like donald trump. howard: yeah. now, musk attacked apple, as you know, as an enemy of free speech. he said apple had threatened to kick twitter out of the app store which would be sort of doom and gloom. but then he talked to apple ceo tim cook and he tweeted while we

resolved the misunderstanding, tim was clear he never, that apple never considered doing so. so in other words, musk was wrong. wasn't that a fairly irresponsible thing to accuse apple of without the facts? >> it's really hard to know what went on there. i've seen before that apple can sometimes send what look like routine messages saying it seems like you're not complying with our con content moderation policies, and this can result in the removal of the store, and people go ballistic because they're afraid of apple as they should be given its power. i doubt apple would have made a threat like that without having it be very clear that they intended it. and elon musk, you know, part of him is a showman, and i think he uses these things to draw attention to himself and twitter the, but in this case i think he obviously went way overboard if he wasn't deliberately exploiting this. howard: yeah. no, he puts on quite a show. he says this is a battle for the future of civilization. i think he goes a little far,

this is twitter. but when karine jean-pierre told reporters we're keeping a close eye on twitter and not one person in that briefing room pushed back and said, hey, this is a private company you're talking about, what do you make of that? >> first of all, just to defend that statement by elon, melodramatic though it might have been, i do think the internet is the most significant innovation in our lifetimes technologically. and if a question of whether it is going to be the used as a tool of propaganda and information control, whether it's going to empower the citizenry to speak freely may be one of the most important debates of our time. i actually would defend that proposition. and i think the key thing that you're zeroing in on, howie, is often overlooked. often times the censorship happening over the internet is not because private companies are deciding on their own to do it, but because they're being pressured to by explicit threats from the congress and the white house that, if they don't censor for, they will suffer legal and

retaliatory reprisals which is a form of free speech abridgment. howard: yeah. the last thing we want is the government involved in regulating this. now we have this little uproar about kanye west going on alex jones where ' show and saying he likes hitler, the nazis kid some good things and then -- did some good things and then tweeting an image of a swastika. and elon musk says i tried my best, he violated our rule again against incitement to violence and suspending him. what does that say about musk's approach to obviously fencive speech? >> i don't think it says anything good. obviously, any decent person finds what kanye west and what he said earlier this week repulsive. the point of free speech though is there's really only two positions on it. if you view is you want there to be free speech until it gets to an opinion that you really -- that really bothers you, that's pretty much everyone's view on

free speech who's actually a censor. the idea of free speech is that all views sort of -- short of say something illegal, and nothing kanye west said was illegal, should be heard. and that's what elon musk said he was going to do until he ran into an opinion that was so troublesome, that he decided he didn't want it on his platform. that bodes, i think, quite poorly for his commitment to make twitter a free speech platform. howard: let's turn to julian as julian assange who's facing extradition from britain. "the new york times," along with some european papers including "the guardian,s" "der spiegel", saying the charges should be dropped because they set a dangerous precedent under the espionage act and pose a significant threat to the first amendment. they criticized hem at the time. what explains the about-face? >> i think they're finally waking up to the fact that if you're able to prosecute julian

assange for what he did, you can prosecute the missouri times and "the guardian," very easily. people like chelsea manning, daniel snowedden, these are all people who had a vow not to disclose -- he was in the same role "the new york times" is in and other papers. he got information in the public interest from somebody else who took it and then published it. and i think these papers a realizing that if you can criminal that, which is really the core of investigative journalism, you can easily go after those papers next since they did the same thing as sang did. howard: we'll see if there's any change in the u.s. position. tblen greenwald, thanks very much for joining us. >> great to be with you, howie. thanks. howard: after the break, herschel walker keeping reporters far away, and joe biden gets the primary schedule changed in his fair. changed in his fair. ♪ ♪ in his favor. could qualify it for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee.

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howard: with the georgia runoff just two days away, herschel walker giving new meaning to keeping his distance from the press. jim, reporters in georgia say walker's keeping them 20 feet away from his events so they can't even shout a question. what message is that saying. >> oh, sure, now he's social distancing. of. [laughter] look, he was always an elusive runner. i think you should give herschel walker for not being willing

to -- grief for not being willing to answer questions. howard: ameshia, a woman says herschel walker swung at her, will this be dismissed as a last minute effort to stop himsome. >> it'll be dismissed like every other allegation because, quite frankly, republican voters have shown they don't care about allegations of sexual abuse, harassment, about how many outside -- this man has had and the fact that he is one of the most problematic candidates that republicans have ever put bard in a general election. so, yeah, it's going to be dismissed because republicans have a very low threshold. howard: i'll put you down as not a fan. all right. the senate passed a bill this week with 12 republican votes to make same-sex marriage a law in case there's any attempt to undo the supreme court ruling. most of the media are hail aing this as a victory and sign of product. >> i was kind of struck how it

was not much of a story. it was a busy news week, but i think a lot of americans have felt, yep, this is resolved, let the gays get married or and everybody just kind of moves on with hour lives. howard: but, journalists and some of the people mt. republican party still oppose this, and there was a question about infringement on religious freedom, and the senate added an amendment saying nonprofit organizations won't be forced to do anything, but some senators still considered this so is s&p sensitive that they voted against the bill. >> i wish that republicans in america were as processive -- progressive as jim tried to make them seem like they are, but we know that the religious freedoms argument has been used to thwart gay marriage, the no to thwart lgbtq rights and civil rights. there's a lot of there there when it comes to trying to push america to a place where love is

love. if you fall in love with someon- [inaudible] this secondary part of that bill was that it was also about marriage equality not only in gay marriage, but also in interracial marriage. and we know that there are, sadly, still americans who quite frankly don't believe many either of those things, and a lot of them vote with an r in front of it. howard: i agree with jim that it's pretty much settled in the country which actually is pretty incredible. all right. let's get to how the dnc at president biden's insistence -- and every president gets their way on this -- just blew up the primary calendar. south carolina now, if this goes through, will be the first primary contest in 2024 because the president comes out and says it, voters of color should be in the leadoff contest. then would be nevada and new hampshire the next week. new hampshire is not happy about this and might challenge it, then georgia, then georgia -- michigan, and the iowa caucus is not anywhere in the earlier week.

is this about protecting joe biden from a primary challenge because south carolina was a great state for him? >> remember, iowa couldn't count the vote back in the -- howard: oh! >> there are 48 states that would love to see, new hampshire's state law requires them to be first, so new hampshire says we're going to go a week earlier, so hope you're ready to vote in 2023. howard: is something lost here, ameshia, and maybe i'm showing as a guy who's covered many new mexico primaries, but -- new hampshire, but a small state like new hampshire, where somebody can break out of the pack as pete buttigieg did in iowa, jimmy carter in '76, mike huckabee and rick santorum on the republican side. now you pretty much have to have money and name recognition. >> i think now you pretty much have to appeal to diverse voters. that is what this is all about. the democratic party has a

stronghold on minority voters, particularly black voters. we recognize that is extremely important as the democratic party continues to expand and south carolina, quite frankly, saved joe biden. it's been a bulwark for the democratic party. iowa's one of the most lily white places in the country, it's a very small point. the viewpoints -- small state. what they choose is not anticipate indicative of what the democratic party wants to be, and they totally clustered the last caucus. [laughter] i've been willing to see iowa go by the wayside for years now, finally that a day is dawning. howard: yeah, the caucuses are so complicated. jim, i've got less than a minute. what about the argument that this is just, this is 2024. biden's not saying you have to do it in 2028. the media said he was toast, he shouldn't be running, he was too old, too out of touch, so so really isn't this, again, about biden wanting to have an easier run if -- >> yeah. unless you were going to say we

want to rotate the statements, want every state -- then it really does look like, hey, you're the state that helped me out, gold star for you. you guys get to go first again. howard: well, that was certainly lively, jim and ameshia. thanks very much for joining us. still to come, joy behar apologizes, the clip -- crypto king's apology tour on the buzzmeter. ♪ to have a visitor. it looks like - looks like you paid too much for your glasses. ... who? anyone who isn't shopping at america's best - where two pairs and a free exam start at just $79.95. book an exam today. i remember the gift, it was one of those gifts that it just landed perfectly. i figured this is a great holiday present since i won't be with him for christmas. it was the best gift that i ever received, because it opened up my life. unwrap your family story, with ancestrydna. ♪ my relationship with my credit cards wasn't good. i got into debt in college and, no matter how much i paid,

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howard: time now for the buzzmeter, let's go. joy behar made an awful accusation against supreme court justice amy coney barrett on "the view." >> she is, you know, a religious person, she belongs to the people of praise group which the, this the southern poverty the law center has label ared

them a hate group. i want to correct something i said on air when i stated that people of praise had been deemed a hate group. i just got them mixed up with another group. it was inaccurate. howard: at least she apologized, but how about checking the facts before trashing someone's religion? cnn laid off hundreds of staffers this week, and it includes such folks as pundit martin savage. it's been a sad week there. i was also struck by stephen colbert having this exchange with don lemon. >> the word on the street is that you guys aren't allowed to be liberal anymore. is that the case? >> i don't think we ever were liberal. >> what? >> yes. howard: where does lemon think we've been the last six years? the apology tour by the disgraced crypto king reached "good morning america" which had george stephanopoulos sit down

with sam bankman-fried. he also owned alameda and ftx and tried to mudty the waters with -- muddy the waters with financial jargon. >> if alameda's borrowing the money that belongs to ftx depositors, that's a bright red line, isn't it? >> there are a lot of cases where that's actually explicitly part of the programs and that are -- howard: excuse me. he was playing with other people's money. they lost billions they'll never recover and took a billion dollar loan for himself. >> but you're ultimately responsible. >> i'm ultimate absolutely, like, i -- look, i should have been on top of this, and i feel really, really bad and are regretful that i wasn't. and a lot of people got hurt, and that's on me. >> how do you explain the failure? inattention? arrogance? >> it's a good question. >> was it unethical? >> some part of it was just

literal distraction. howard: he just couldn't be bothered to do a little supervision, but he's only got $100,000 left. he was kind of disorganized. you're right, no one on the planet should feel sorry for this dude. it was an intense media focus on the u.s. world cup team playing iran in part because it's providing russia with drones to use against ukraine, and on the field the americans had a 1-0 goal as he crashed into the goalkeeper, an injury that landed him in the hospital, and television footage showed some iranians celebrating. [background sounds] they were happy because the u.s. won because they hate their government. he managed to play in yesterday's game which the u.s., unfortunately, lost to the dutch team. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. you can subscribe to my podcast, media buzz buzz meter, we're back here next sunday, 1 # 1 eastern, with the only media

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go to innovationrefunds.com to learn more. ♪ spee2 we are learning more about a disturbing tragedy in texas where 7-year-old girl was abducted killed allegedly by a fedex driver. athena strand was reported missing from the driveway of our home on wednesday. digital evidence and interviews lead them to believe she was killed within one hour of her abduction. hello. welcome to fox news live. i am arthel neville. eric: i am eric shawn.