part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. howard: this is a fox news alert, president biden is enroute to texas after resisting republican calls throughout the campaign to go to the southern border, and we'll have live coverage all day. it has been tremendously tedious, and i like this stuff, watching the house take repetitive roll call votes for speaker over four days, and i don't think most americans have been paying rapt attention because this was inside congressional baseball. not a debate over any actual issue average folks care about. what's really striking is how

the media kept touting each ballot as a crushing defeat for ken mccash think -- kevin mccarthy, although he was winning 95% of house republicans. that was especially true late friday night when after flipping most of his opponents to his side, mccarthy lost by one vote. you could see he was stunned as he walks away there, and one ally, mike rogers, made a beeline for matt gaetz who had taken a half step by voting present. not until the early morning our hours yesterday did mccarthy win. some of the talking heads predicted mccarthy would drop out. >> i suspect that when they come back after dinner that mccarthy is going to end up withdrawing. >> oh, i think his goose is very much cooked. i don't think we're going to see a speaker kevin mccarthy. howard: only in the final late night drama did journalists say, hey, shocker, mccarthy, who we all branded the biggest loser, might actually win this thing. of i'm howard kurtz, and this is

"mediabuzz." ♪ ♪ howard: ahead, my exclusive interview with marjorie taylor green, a key mccarthy supporter, on the craziness of that final ballot and her call with donald trump. despite concessions, calamity and endless hours of punditry, the more savvy journalists ask what do these rebels want and the new republican majority actually govern? >> i will always fight to put the american people first, not a few individuals that want something for themselves. >> republicans are in full disarray. it's not hyperbole to say this is a level of chaos and disorganization that is unprecedented in the modern era. >> the ordinary american is saying, what the heck is wrong with these people? [laughter] we elected them, we worked hard, we gave them money, we now have the majority in the house, and they can't get along with each other? >> kevin mccarthy had a month

to lock this stuff up, and he didn't do it. he didn't close the deal, and he was humiliated yesterday. >> mccarthy is ideologically agnostic, host flexible. his real constituency is the lobbying community in washington. that is infuriating to watch. howard: things got pretty heated as leaders of the never kevin movement such as colorado's lauren boebert would not budge. >> kevin mccarthy does not have 218 votes -- >> and you have 20. i asked you a very specific question. if by friday -- >> listen, when we get this -- i will not, sean, i will not withdraw. >> you will not. howard: but in the end mccarthy toll reporters he'd been right -- told reporters. >> how confident are you that you will have this job for a full two-year term? >> a thousand percent. thank you, all. howard: joins us now, ben domenech, editor at large for the sec today to have.com, and

in -- spectator.com, and in los angeles, leslie marshall, both are fox news contributors. ben, my question is about the 20 holdouts. what did they stand for? what did they really want? did they want a deal or just to revel in the media attention? >> i actually think they wanted some very specific things, most of which they got. i think a lot of folks in washington, myself included, think they could have gotten there without this kind of display. part of the business of being a legislator is convincing the majority of people within your conference that these are the number of steps that need to be taken in order to make congress work right. they were not willing to do that and, instead, we had this situation where they showed up in the lobby like chris farley with a bunch of road flares wrapped around them, and they ended up getting most of what they wanted. the interesting thing about the coverage is so many people were getting so many things completely wrong. on cnn i heard from jake tapper and anderson cooper the idea

that this was a fight over the maga agenda. donald trump was supporting mccarthy and so were the vast majority of the republican conference. this was a situation where i think the coverage did not actually match the moment, and they also got completely wrong, consistently wrong the idea that kevin mccarthy was going to drop out. i said on this network on wednesday i thought it would be a long slog, but he had no intention of dropping out and would eventually get will there, and that's what happened. howard: right. i think eventually it might be about the maga agenda but democrats undoubtedly enjoyed the spectacle. but when mccarthy was running -- winning 95% of the republican vote, the headlines were mccarthy fails again, how much more can he take? rather than most of the party backs kevin, and he was going around saying, if not me, who? there wasn't somebody who had a bloc of 150 votes. >> well, it's not a sexy headline to say he has 95%, and it was the historic for him to continue to lose and lose and

lose, and it was more than a popcorn, popcorn and a few margarita moment for democrats to go, whoa, we thought we were fragmented and we wouldn't rein in our fringe elements. look at them, we're not the only ones. but the sad thing about this, headline or not, was for the american people. look, i'm going to go in addition to what ben said. yes, they had an agenda, but in addition to that you have a couple of people, i'm sorry, you have the lauren boeberts and the matt gaetzs who i feel are attention whores, and the cameras are on them. one of the things they got what they wanted which i think is going to be a disaster for the republican party, for the house and for the american people is that they have the ability to ouster kevin mccarr think -- mccarthy as speaker pretty much anytime. any legislation that, you know, they don't like that's put forth and they don't like the way it's going, you know, they can just say you're out of here. howard: right. >> and one last thing. to talk about maga, you do have maga, kevin mccarthy thanked

former president donald trump. howard: we're going to come back to that. doesn't the phrase attention whore apply to an awful lot of people in politics concern the. [laughter] >> you know, i remember when the most dangerous place, you know, to be in in washington was between -- howard: the camera, yeah. >> exactly. one thing that i want to address can is i actually think at end of the day everyone is now invested in kevin mccarthy's success with the handful of holdouts being the only exception -- howard: including democrats? >> no, everyone in the republican party because donald trump is invested in it, he backed it. obviously, the majority of republicans who backed him are invested in him, and all the people who cut deal need of to have him be successful because if this whole thing goes sideways, then the general lesson will be we can't hold on to those rule changes, they're going to go away as soon as we have the opportunity to change them either in a future republican congress or in one

where democrats take control, and and then it's like what did you do all this for? none of it's permanent. howard: there's a whole bunch of stories about this is a disaster. let's give them a day or two to see how he governs as speaker. lesley, my point about most of america tuning out because it's really hard to explain even to other journalists, voting present and all that stuff, if they're squabbling about who gets the plum subcommittee assignments and how many members of the freedom caucus get to be on the ways and means committee, look, that's as old as politics itself, but it doesn't mean that a lot of people who are tuning in are going to be really invested in this, because it's not like it was a grand battle about health care or tax cuts. >> well, again, this was a slap in the face to the american people, the taxpayer. even more specifically, people who voted for these republicans which i, as a democrat -- howard: wait, why a slap in the face? >> because they did not elect, they did not elect these

individuals to waste so many days and so many hours on taxpayer money and time, our dime and time. what did republicans want? a republican, by the way, the republicans don't want hunter biden. what do they want? they want what they believe to be 80,000 irs agents which we know not accurate, but they want specific legislation to be put forth or specific legislation to be changed, overturned or done away with, and they've lost time. republicans -- >> i don't think -- >> -- look, we're going to hit the ground running, and that's not what happened, and i think there are a lot of americans -- i had dinner with a couple of republicans this week, and they are concerned about the rocky start and how that will go forward and how it could actually benefit my party. >> chaos is not a good look for republicans, everybody can agree on that. howard: yeah. >> i don't think this was anything that actually hurt the taxpayers, and certainly i don't think the republican voters are going to be all that upset.

at the end of the day, it matters that you have a speaker as opposed to not having a speaker, and who that speak speaker is for the vast majority of americans, it doesn't really make that much of a difference as long as it was a republican -- howard: no. i was saying all along in two weeks it'll all be forgotten. it was the ugly to watch, no question about it. c-span had control of the cameras, you could see when members were angry and getting in each other's faces. once the government takes control of the cameras, not a lot of that stuff you do not see. let me ask you, ben, before we move on, mccarthy has by every account made a lot of concessions not just to these snap votes that could push him out of i office. you said the people who came over to his side are now invested in his success, but even people who like him or love him are saying this is a weakened speakership. >> and i think that's the question we don't know the answer to, how weakened is he? we're going to find out over the course of the coming months and

whether this is going to be a short-tenured speakership where you have a motion to vacate by the summer and you have a lot of chaos around it, that's definitely an open question. he is making the judgment call that that's something he can avoid and work around. i'm not so sure, but we're going to find out. and i think this was necessary in terms of what he needed to do in order to, again, get to the point because the people like chip roy who i've known for 20 years, worked with him on the senate side years and years ago, they have strong opinions about the way that the house should function, and they wanted to jam it through, and they didn't do it by convincing the other members to go along with it, they did it by engaging in this tactic. howard: i don't know if the house was dysfunctional beforehand, i know democrats were disorganized, but that last minute $1.7 trillion no time to read it business, but, lesley, most of the people who are aligned with mccarthy also backed trump's claims of a stolen election, but a lot of

commentators said when it came down to it it, he put up that media post, it's time to vote for kevin, nothing happened. at the end he was making calls and involved, so it may be a little too quick to say the former president didn't have much influence? >> i really don't think he did have the influence. i'm not just saying that because i'm a democrat and he's a former republican president. i'm saying that because, as ben rightly pointed out at the beginning of this segment, there were specific demands that these people wanted, and they got their demands, right? one. and two, they still did it -- well, not all of them, but the biggest voices in the crowd like matt gaetz and lauren boebert, they didn't vote for him, right? they did not put their support behind him, and they got what they wanted. i think it was more about the list of demands and showing people that a, you know, small minority in the party is powerful, they're loud, they're powerful and they can hold up this process. howard: right. >> and i do think that not only weakens the speakership, i do think it's going to weaken this

republican majority -- howard: well, we shall see. and there are also ways to let something go through without actually voting for it. when we come back, the media coverage of joe biden as he heads to the texas border this morning. ♪ ♪ when pain says, “i'm here,” ♪ i say, “so are they.” just one aleve. 12 hours of uninterrupted pain relief. aleve who do you take it for? - elites. now that we've made travel so expensive, this golf course is all... ours? - how'd you get here? - kayak! they compared hundreds of travel sites to find a great deal on my flight, car and hotel. [hissing] - kayak. search one and done.

howard: after long resisting republican taunts that he should inspect the mess at the border himself, president biden announced the other day that he's doing just that. >> today my administration is taking several steps to stiffen enforcement for those who rye to come without a legal right to stay. howard: but biden's timing was off showing up half an hour late and just moments before the republican-controlled house launched its third day of voting for the next speaker. so cnn and msnbc bailed on the

president -- >> all right, we're going to jump in. i'm kate baldwin, cnn's special coverage of vote for house speaker starts right now. >> -- then that person has to undergo -- >> and good day in washington, i'm andrea mitchell. as you can see, the president just announcing a new immigration policy. if. howard: but fox news stuck with joe biden's complete comments on the border plus q&a with the press, and that didn't spare him criticism on the network. >> so before you cross into our country and hay let you in, now joe wants you to make an appointment so they can let you in. howard: and after spending two years demanding biden visit the border, can media conservatives really dismiss this when, after all, most of these trips to the border are designed to get your message across with the right backdrop? >> i think that a lot of that criticism has been placed in the fact that the president just seems demonstrable of the fact that the president has been ignoring this issue, that he has

not been front and center on it, that they've been treating it at arm a's length and not really yes, sir -- addressing any of the situations that have blown up in their face about a it including that notorious, you know, nonwhipping/whipping incident that, obviously, was at the center of conversation for a couple of days before the truth came out. i think that this is really a sad occurrence in the sense that the president has been ignoring this problem even as it's the increased to levels that have been unprecedented particularly with the flow of drugs from from mexico and from the southern border into our country in ways that are killing so many americans. i don't think that this trip will make that much of a difference, but it does get rid of that talking point. howard: biden said in his speech if the most extreme republicans continue to demagogue this you should eshoo, i'm left to act on my own. how many in the media will say, well, you've been in charge for two years with democratic control of every branch, and things have gotten measurably worse? >> i think it depends if that person in the media leans left

or right and if they like president biden or not and if it benefits them, you know, with ratings or whatever to aplaid him or to -- applaud him or, you know, to put him down. i would disagree with ben on this. steve doocy made a great point and i agreed with and i was saying on my radio program which is republicans were fighting about who's going to be speaker, and the president's like i'm going to the border which i have been screaming at him to do since he got elected, but he's also saying, okay, here is my plan, and now congress has to do the rest. and i think a lot of americans forget that any president only has so much power with regard to the border because we do have antiquated amnesty the laws, and we do have a really messed-up immigration system that needs a massive, you know, reform, a massive overhaul, and only congress can do that, and both democrats and republicans have kicked that can down the road repeatedly and not worked on that for the benefit of not just

people trying to come to the country and the money going to it. howard: let me just slip this in, and you can make your point. to his credit, michael shear of the new york times quote advocates saying this was sad that this is tougher than anything he'd heard since the trump years. it doesn't seem like biden's proposals are going to do the all that much to semitide of illegal immigration, but -- stem the tide, but but the is it about taking away the other side's argument? >> i think it's much more about the latter, you recall. look -- unfortunately. i hear time and again from democrat friends like lesley that this is something congress needs to solve, they have to come together. forget -- set that aside for the moment. the reality is that we don't have a border at the moment. we do not have enforcement of the existing laws that are on the books, and we have a definition of asylum that has allowed the kind of claims that simply are not justified by

this, not actual fleeing of disaster and the like. howard: a new york times story on the president's comments did say, pretty low in the story, immigration advocates denounce the changes as loudly as they had attacked some of the former president's proposals, so it's not like president biden's getting a free ride here. >> well, no, nor should he or any president. you know, we always talk about, you know, people always perceive that democrats are so, you know are, lenient when it comes to immigration and people coming to this country illegally, but just look at the numbers of former president obama who was a democrat who, you know, who pretty much was angering especially the latino community on the issue of immigration, and some people are calling this obama 2.0, what president biden is proposing. you know, it's a very specific slabt, and there is, again, only so much -- to ben's point, congress controls the pursestrings. you want that border that a you say we don't have and more money going there, congress has to make that happen.

howard: there should be more media focus. thank you, ben and lesley. up next, griff jenkins, and later marjorie taylor green on the late night arm-twisting that led to coven mccarthy's -- kevin mccarthy's speakership. ♪ ♪ he shelf like a porcelain doll. but one out of two women over 50 will suffer a fracture from osteoporosis. you should know you can build new bone with evenity® for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis at high risk for fracture. ask your doctor if you can do more than just slowing down bone loss with evenity®. want stronger bones? then build new bone; evenity® can help in just 12 months. evenity® is proven to reduce spine fracture risk by 73%. evenity® can increase risk of heart attack, stroke, or death from a cardiovascular problem. do not take evenity® if you have low blood calcium, or are allergic to it. serious allergic reactions and low blood calcium have occurred.

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and it's natural. treat it that way with aveeno® daily moisture. formulated with nourishing, prebiotic oat. it's clinically proven to moisturize dry skin for 24 hours. aveeno® howard: president biden in the air right now heading to el paso where he'll meet with border patrol agents and local officials. joining us now prosecute border, griff jenkins, the fox news correspondent and anchor in eagle pass, texas. griff, during the campaign, as you know, most of the media kind of downplayed the border issue, dismissed it as republican partisanship or fox beating the drums. do you think that changes now with president biden's visit? >> well, i think it should. i don't know if it will or not, howie, but it should. because, again, you know, what the president is saying he's going to do -- and, of course, he's knocking republicans for saying that they have not come to the table the on immigration

reform and that he inherited a broken system, both of which many republican critics would argue against. but at least he's now acknowledging the problem. look, i looked back in the cbp database through my sources, howie, to january 20th, 2021, the day biden took the office and was sworn in, and there have been more than 4.3 million encounters, unprecedented. we've never -- this border has never been more unsecure. of even though they say the border's not open. now you're hearing this tough talk with the president's visit that he's going to start cracking down on some enforcement policies to try and make people from nicaragua, cuba, haiti and venezuela to play out their asylum claims in another country. that was something the trump administration did. if he does that, it could maybe be a game-changeer, and all the media should be covering it because of the historic irk nature of -- howard: and once the midterms were over, did you start to see

signs some major news organizations were starting to take the crisis more seriously? >> i think so. listen, this is the fourth time i've been in eagle pass this year, and i've got to tell you, i don't see a whole lot of other reporters down here except back in june where governor abbott came and held a press conference, there was a little more coverage, obviously. but i think now you're going to see more, already some of our competitors we've seen reporters across from el paso. and el paso leads the nation right now in terms of the total encounters in just the first 100 days, some 168,000 encounters there along with 78,000 gotaways. these are real numbers. it's not debatable, they're hard numbers, and the border patrol officials will give them to all the networks if they'll simply show interest. and i think that if, indeed, this white house wants to get serious about immigration reform, then every network, every newspaper, news organization should get involved as well so that we see everything as it is lined up so they can start addressing it

whether it be enforcement or paths to citizenship for the 11 million illegals here in the country already. howard: right. wherever the president goes, obviously, the television cameras follow. so my question is, will this be a two-day story and then biden's checked the box and the press just moves on, or will there be a reckoning on in the, particularly with a republican house, that will force the media to do what you have been doing? >> well, that's the $64,000 question, howie, for sure. and as you were sort of covering in the last segment, you know, the president's being attacked from the progressive left about this new border policy and, of course, being hammered still on the right with the situation out of control. so does it become politically untenable and the administration ryes to walk away from from it? that might be a political expediency choice that they make, but i think it would be the wrong move for them to make because now that you've taken the genie out of the bottle and you can see what fox news has been showing americans now for

two years, this is a real story. and it's not just a humanitarian crisis, as we've seen these poor people coming from all over the world at the hands of the cartels, sleeping in the anticipates of -- streets of el paso, but also a national security crisis. 9 8 individuals in the terrorist database last year, the numbers are riding -- rising this year as well. howard: yeah, it's a humanitarian crisis. you've certainly done your part. griff jenkins, thanks for joining us. next on "mediabuzz," marjorie taylor between on how the speaker deal went down, why she sided with kevin mccarthy, donald trump's role and how the media are treating her side. ♪ pressure. ♪

howard: early on in the battle over the next house speaker, mary taylor green -- marjorie taylor green got really frustrated with the other side's negotiating tactics. >> we found out there were several members, three, in fact,

that went in last night and were demanding positions for themselves. demanding gavel positions, demanding subcommittees, demanding for people to be taken off committees and people to be put on committees. i haven't asked for one thing for myself, and i'm the only republican that has zero committees. howard: and joining us now is marjorie taylor green, georgia republican congresswoman. we'll come back to that, but walk us through what happened in the end end because everyone's seen the pictures. were you surprised when kevin mccarthy fell one vote short on the 14th ballot late friday night when everybody was saying he was going to win, and when you were trying to hand your phone to get an opponent, matt rosendale, to talk to the president, why did he refuse to take the call? >> actually, i was surprised that this went on as long as it did. going into this week, this past week, we all knew negotiations were there. it had been going on for months,

and the last final weeks we thought everyone was in a good place. then everything started, and we started seeing that there was a solid 20 that just wouldn't back down. but there was also a solid 01 -- 201 -- howard: right. that got lost in a lot of the compage. >> exactly. -- coverage. and the media kept saying the conference was going to pull away. absolutely not, and president trump really helped with that. there towards the end i had been talking with president trump several times that night, and i was trying to get matt rosendale on the phone with him. president trump wanted to talk to him. pleasure and i was shocked that he refused his phone call -- howard: seemed angry about it. >> he was angry. he yelled at me on the house floor telling me don't you ever do this. i was so surprised. i was holding out my phone saying it's president trump. he wants to speak with you, you know? president trump endorsed i think all 20 the -- howard: was there anybody else

on the floor at that time that you were able to get to take a call from the former president? >> well, you know, these are my freedom caucus allies, and -- yes. our voting records are literally the same. i have a 100% conservative voting professor record and will continue of to have one. but he had talked to them the multiple of the 20 the during the course of the week, urging them to vote for kevin mccarthy for speaker because we have a great agenda. the agenda is easy to support. it's the same type of agenda the base supports, so we were ready to go. but it took a while to get there, but i'm really glad they came around. howard: just briefly, were you concerned at all about there being an actual fistfight on the house floor when mike rogers was lunging towards matt gaetz who had voted present, but clearly there was a miscommunication or screw-up and congressman rogers having to be restrained who?

well, there was a lot of frustration, and people's patience were worn out. there was some things happening behind the scenes that had caused a lot of people to be upset. for example, there were people that had sick family members at home, people -- one member's mother had passed away, babies were -- howard: right, one was premature. >> right. and his wife was in the hospital. there were serious things going on, and there were members in the conference that were saying, enough of this, there is nothing more to discuss. there's no reason to prolong this. let's get on with it. howard: okay. now, you told, a few months ago you told writer robert draper for his book about mccarthy, you said i think that to be the best speaker, we can put this up here, of the house, he's going to give me a lot of power and leeway. if he doesn't, they're going to be unhappy about it. that's not a threat, that's reality. so could it be said -- and this has a gone on in the history of our republic -- that you'd already cut your deal, that if

mccarthy became speaker, you wouldn't be some fringe character, but you would have influence? >> that's not at all true. as a matter of fact, i don't have any committee assignments yet. i've only submitted the same form that every other member gets to submit, and i don't have a promise. i've already heard some people saying what they're getting because that was, honestly, what a lot of the negotiations were all about. i have no promise, i have no deal. i only pulley supported -- fully supported the agenda that's laid out there, it's even on kevin mccarthy's web site what we can accomplish in the republican conference, and the reason why i told that to robert draper is because i have the support of base, and i keep telling everyone here in washington this is what the american people want. and it was easy for me to get onboard with this agenda because i see the conference come around the same things. howard: yeah. just to deal with one bit of history, the democrats stripped you of your committee

assignments. i think that was raw pollices, but in fairness didn't you also say that you were a follower of qanon conspiracy theories, and you were no longer influenced by the group? >> well, like a lot of people today, i had gotten sucked into things i saw on the internet. i never campaigned on those things. that was not something i believed in, that's not what i ran for congress on, so those are so far in the past -- howard: all right. you tweeted i guess in late december the, being conservative and anti-establishment, i used to criticize kevin mccarthy a lot. so if that's true, why did you end up on his side when some of your fellow keys in the freedom caucus -- can conservatives were saying gaits was saying he will not win this week, in the month, this year. >> thanks for that, he did say that. i came into congress and, you know, kevin and i, we had some public confrontations -- not

necessarily confrontations, but said things about one another. but i did something i wish more members of congress would do. i started talking with kevin mccarthy. i went and met with him and got to know him better and got to understand where he sees the conference going, what he sees our agenda and what we should do, and that's why i came around a lot sooner than 0 of my freedom caucus -- 20 of my freedom caucus soon or. here's the great news, i'm glad they came around this past week. what you saw them do, learn to trust him and have faith mt. plan going forward. i was able to do that over the past year. but i hope more of my colleagues do that. howard: when things got heated, you said this about congressman chip roy of texas the: he refused to object on january 6th. that's not what our base wanted. so a lot of the people who were backing kevin mccarthy also didn't vote to certify the electoral college results for joe biden. do you think that's an important thing to the base even today? >> oh, it's very important. what i was pointing out is the

same people that conservatives were holding up in high esteem don't necessarily have those voting records while they're at the same time criticizing ken mccarthy who -- kevin mccar they're who does. he did object on january 6th, and he's been a top -- howard: so do you believe joe biden is a legitimately elected president? >> that's always a silly question. howard: wasn't trying to be salie -- silly, i was just trying to clarify. we have about a half a minute left. the media is saying mccarthy's weakened his speakership, especially when the number of members required to do a snap vote on whether he should stay in that chair went down from five to one. was that a big deal in the machinations here? >> well, no. this is what i've said from the beginning before we ever got into this week, the most important thing that every single member has is their voting card. there's only 222 republicans, and we need 218 to pass anything. that's where the magic happens. and so the big fight that

happened this week, i think that a lot of it was really unnecessary and just a bunch of fanfare that helps popularity on internet but doesn't produce results. now we have a speaker that we can produce if results with, and we have to do that by coming together to get 218. howard: yeah. >> that's where our power lies. and so with this rules package, let's be very real, we've got a biden white house, a democrat-controlled senate, and we've got to get to 218 to accomplish anything. howard: right. ultimately, washington is about the math. >> that's right. howard: thank you so much for coming in today. >> thank you for having me. howard: the second anniversary of january 6th, how clashing coverage turned that dark day into a symbol of pure partisanship. ♪ ♪ because the only thing dripping should be your style! plop plop fizz fizz, with alka-seltzer plus cold & flu relief. also try for fizzy fast cough relief! (tony hawk) skating for over 45 years has taken a toll on my body. i take qunol turmeric because it helps

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howard: nation marked the second anniversary of january 6th on friday, and the fact there are such clashing media views of what that dark day means is capture by a comment that kellyanne conway made on this program. >> the media at this point is one of the threats to democracy. they wake up every morning, they think it says january 6, 2021, on everybody's calendar. howard: joining us now, harold ford, former democratic congressman. harold, part of me says, look, it was an awful day, the violence, the attack on police officers, and some are trying to recast those arrested as patriots. on the other hand, the press vacuumed up every tidbit from this committee that was mostly democrats.

is that why we have, in part, a more mixed view of january 6th than 9/11? >> well, first off, happy sunday and thank you for having me on. howard: thank you for coming. >> i think that january 6th is something, is a date that i wish had moth happened. obviously, the day -- had not happened. obviously, the day will happen, but what happened two years ago. kellyanne is a friend, i would differ with her that this is something conjured up by democrats. you saw a committee made up of democrats and republicans explore what happened, i thought, for the singular purpose of trying to insure it didn't happen again. one of the things i found curious about those critical of that committee -- and, certainly, no one is above criticism -- is that all of the witnesses that came before the committee were all former staffers of president trump and senior staffers -- howard: or people who supported him, yeah. >> by definition, they were people who supported him. i think it's important we understand what happened, i think it's important that we not only understand, but try to

insure that it doesn't happen again. howard: right. let me get you in on the big, chaotic week in the house. were the media too quick to declare that kevin mccarthy was losing, this was terrible the, he should be embarrassed when, after all, he had these 20 holdouts, and he was the only one close to a majority with 200 of the house republicans supporting him? >> i thought the criticism and even, rightly so, the praise that came his way at the end of the vote was all fair. we've not seen 15 votes, i was in congress, we never had more than one vote for the speaker. i never voted for the winning speaker in my party. we were always in the minority when i was in congress. howard: right. >> but i think it was important for the country to get an understanding of how this process works. i also found it interesting that really the debate was amongst republicans about what they wanted, whom they wanted and what eventually would make them vote for him. i thought one of the more

interesting comments from your previous guest, congresswoman green, was that she's finally sat down or at least initiated a conversation and continued the conversation with kevin mccarthy which is eventually what brought her to vote for him. i hope that as congress convenes now she even extends that to democrats, but a -- because i think there's some collaboration that can happen as it relates to board e crime and the debt ceiling which will be probably the most important test hay take up in the coming weeks. howard: right. i guess the two questions that are a hanging in the air, number one, can this very slim republican majority govern given how difficult it was to pick the speaker and, secondly, did the end game -- as congresswoman green described it -- show that donald trump still has plenty of influence in this republican party. >> well, i'll let the republican primary voters and even congressmen disease that. i did think it was interesting -- decide that. i think she talked about congressman who did the not want

to take the phone call from president trump, it would be interesting to see how and if president trump decides to weigh in on other issues as congressional republicans tackle those issues. but i hope they view this as an opportunity or take this as an opportunity to reach out to democrats as well. i know kevin mccarthy. i never served with him, but i know him. i think he's a decent human being, a decent guy, and i think there's a willingness on his part to make the congress work. anyone who has the kind of patience that he had and took the kind of criticism and, for that matter, publicized criticism over the last several days and to hold his head high, and i thought -- i stayed up late friday to listen to his speech. as much as i wished he had mentioned january 6th, i thought he gave a speech that said to the congress, let's come together and work together on behalf of people. howard: well, you're right. if anything's going to get done, it's going to require bipartisanship. which sets up my next session. which sets up my next session. , joe biden and mitch

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howard: the republicans embroiled in the speakership battle, president biden and membership mcconnell were in kentucky to hail the replacement of a decrepit bridge to cincinnati. >> the love affair between mitch mcconnell and joe biden, disturbing to some of us. i'm asking whether, you know, this bridge gets renamed the mitch mcconnell bridge and all the rest that goes with it. everybody's so tired of the pork barrel stuff. howard: harold ford, biden's going to do this again and again, touting roads, bridges, port projects -- projects, you name it, under the bipartisan infrastructure law. won't the national press pretty quickly get bored with that sort of thing and want to focus more on the investigations of the president and daily controversies?

>> we shall see. i think that, first of all, i was pleased to see the president there in kentucky with the minority if leader of the senate. i think that the country at times says they want and the press will say that people want democrats and republicans to work together the, they'll say they don't want them to work together, and we will certainly see moments in the coming weeks where president biden's probably not going to like what the house and senate are saying about him, the administration and perhaps his family. so when you can have those moments when they're together, i think we should applaud that. howard: okay. we'll see how much attention it gets, but it was such a striking contrast to the speakership battle. i know you're a big sports fan. there was a stunning moment on monday night footballing, espn, i happened to be watching live, when the game between the bills and the bengals had to be delayed, nobody knew what was going to happen, and here's how some of the espn sportscasters handled it. >> then when we got the update that within five minutes these

players were going to start playing football again, we're talking about life and death here. we're getting further and further away from talking about football. >> i just don't know how any of these players can come out and play football. >> as has been said many times already, who cares? this is about damar hamlin, his health. there's just nothing to say right now. howard: damar hamlin, of course, suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field, and joe buck, who you heard there, they were giving him bad information. the league hadn't made a decision, of course they weren't going to continue, but what were your thoughts at the time? i know you tweeted about it as this unprecedented situation unfolded on e espn. >> you and i are both football and sports fans at large. i thought that they handled it well. i think the league handled it well. this was something that they had never experienced before, and i thought they made realtime decisions and made the right decisions. what i'm most thrilled about, and i know we all are, is that our prayers are being answered,

as they always are, but certainly with mr. hamlin, his family. his recovery is my miraculous in so many ways, and i rehides -- it reminds me of the importance of the power of prayer. best to him, and i thought the league -- there's been some criticism leveled at the league. i thought they handled this about as well as they could in realtime, and i'm thankful and grateful that they made the right decision. howard: well, i'll disagree a little bit, because i thought the league didn't communicate well. of course there was no way to continue this football game. i also thought to restore the heartbeat of damar hamlin both on the field and again when he got to the hospital, it's just a story that the whole country has rallied behind, and it did make clear that football's important, sure, but this was a life and death situation. harold, thank you so much. you can go root for your team now. [laughter] >> thank you. happy sunday. howard: and to you. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. you can subscribe to my podcast, media buzz meter. we hit 3.7 million downloads

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