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alvin bragg, is moving toward a likely indictment. trump posted this yesterday on his truth social site calling for his supporters to take action. now illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly political manhattan district attorney's office indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven and based on an old and fully he debunked fairy tale, the far and away leading republican candidate and former president of the united states of america will be arrested on tuesday of next week. protest. take our nation back. this is an immense challenge for the media. many of whose members have longed for trump to be prosecuted. to be fair to an ex-president facing charges in a 6-year-old matter a this most people just don't consider that important. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ ♪ howard: it was just six days ago that donald trump had his lawyer

make the tv rounds to defend him in stormy daniels case. in a lengthy clash with ari melbe, attorney joe tacopina said trump did nothing wrong even with the hush money payment to the porn star made by his fixer-turned-accuser michael can cohen. >> you're making the defense he would have paid this regardless. >> not only would i say that, his lawyer at the time who pled guilty also to the lies and frauds who is now cooperating under oathing he's innocent x if they bring this case because he's innocent, this will catapult him to the white house. howard: what's really striking is that even many in the media are criticizing the potential indictment by the manhattan district attorney. >> i believe it is a mistake not just legally, but politically as well. >> i know that his folks are suggesting this is a weak case. they don't actually know what the evidence is. whats, is trivial. >> you know what? people are sick and tired of the

idea that they're going to come again after donald trump for paying some money, supposedly, to deal with the nuisance charge. finish. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, ben domenech, fox news contributor, and kevin corke who coffers the white house for fox news. ben, why donald trump setting off media frenzy, preempting the announcements, and what about the fact that this is a case of a grave matter of paying a woman who acted -- >> first off, i think, obviously, when it comes to the decision the by the former president to publicize, he wants to get out ahead of the story, he wants to control the narrative going into this, and he doesn't want the impression to be that this was something that was jumped upon him. he wants to have the impression that, basically, this is a trivial matter a i'm very well aware of, and this is a highly politicized person. he wants to get that in people's minds. but when it comes to the second part of your question, this is an indictment of the left's aggressive approach to the way that they have covered the

former president as being a near-constant threat to the survival of the american legal, political and government system -- howard: the investigations over the years. >> so many investigations over the years, they are just looking for one thing to hang him on, and they don't care how thin the actual case is in this. they just want him, want that visual, they want that idea in their mind of him being arrested. howard: some news outlets are saying trump wants this, he will campaign on this as deep state persecution. he's already vilifying alvin bragg and that his base will rally around him. >> 100%, and it'll work at least in this sense. he knows that his followers don't care about this sort of thing. they're saying to themselves, we knew this was going to happen. this is like throwing, to use an old expression, spaghetti against the refrigerator, you see what sticks. i always go to jonathan turley, the the law professor over at gw. he made it fairly clear that not only is this thin ice in terms of the legal aspect of it, i

think politically this could be actually something that boosts him among his supporters. howard: well, ben, you kind of preempted my next question about donald trump taking control of the media narrative as opposed to waiting for it to descend. he seems defiant, he seems like he's not just waiting around for somebody to show up and arrest him. that doesn't mean there'll be a person walk, but he'll be fingerprinted, i guess, assuming all this happens. and so it is once again trump driving the news agenda, and he knows how to do that. >> well, he knows how to do that, and the media actually likes him to do that. that's the thing that we have to remember in all of this which is that, you know, the media has been hoping to find some way to get trump back at the center of their narrative. his campaign really hasn't taken off to the point -- howard: they're bored with the biden white house. [laughter] >> they see those viewership numbers going down, the layoffs

they're having to do across the industry, and they want that sugar high back from the days when they could just be fomenting about trump 24/7. and i think that's something that they're hoping to get -- howard: i i love the nutritional analysis. [laughter] kevin, when trump says protests take our nation back, he didn't say it will be wild. new york times headline said echoing january 6th. is that pair? >> i don't think that's fair, but i am concerned having covered the protests back in 2020 the when you say go out and protest, take your country back, for post people that will mean get out there and be loud and support your president. but for some it could mean something entirely different, and i think there's some danger associated with it. i think people in washington are generally uneasy about stoking supporters to the protest. i think most people prefer he let this play out. this will go go nowhere but we'll have to see. howard: obviously, a lot of security precautions are being taken in new york.

the only way for trump to take the country back is to win the nomination and win the general election. protests are not going another the it, but everyone has a right to protest. ben, msnbc just called in every single person, absolute wall to wall. rachel maddow called in and said about the protest part, trump trying to raise the civic cost of indicting him so that,s she says, a threat of uncontrollable political violence would be triggered by any legal move against him. >> i mean, i don't take that seriously at all. i think the fact is that he's allowed to respond to something like this as the kind of exceptional, ridiculous, over the top thing that it is, you know, to indict a former president based on the evidence as thin as it is, the case as thin as it is and how unimportant this matter is to the american people is, frankly, irresponsible. of it's only going to increase the level of distrust americans have in these institutions, viewing them as simply the tools for advancing partisan agendas against people who are hated.

and that includes, frankly from their perspective, themselves since they put themselves in trump's position as being part of his supporters and, you know, among that same deplorable team of americans that elected him in the first place. howard: by the way, or alvin bragg, who is an elected democrat in new york, put out a memo saying we do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law. beyond that, there's been no comment about what trump did yesterday. so, kevin, you cover the white house, you now also -- now you also cover trump. biden has tried to appear hands off certainly in the justice county investigation, but he has no connection to the manhattan the d.a. bringing a state case, so how do you see that play out? >> i think what the president would probably like to do is let this play out in the court of public opinion. he knows prettily right now he's weak. the economy's not very good, the china problem is there, russia problem is there, so for him this is a political winner inso

much as it's a distraction. if he's smart and his team is smart, they'll sit back and say we have nothing to do with this. but keep this in mind, howie, t not just new york, it's possibly georgia and possibly the doj later on. i think they have a few layers here that they're going to have the in their hip pocket in case they can't stop him politically. howard: just take a step back, to ordinary campaigning one guy gets indicted, the other would probably seize on that. >> sure, absolutely. >> but, of course, it's different with a former president. i'm so struck, ben, by how many people in the media, many of them trump critics, many of them people who would love to see the former president behind bars. they are saying this case is a stretch. maggie haberman of the new york city times said it's trivial january, it's tough to get a contradiction, it probably shouldn't be brought. it must have problems if you're hearing media people say that. >> i think the dirty little secret which isn't that much of

a secret is they would have vastly preferred almost any other case that was brought against the president to have preceded versus this one. and a lot of them think this is alvin bragg looking to shore up political support in new york by going down this route, gaining more support among democrats. but, look, you rarely come up with cases that are successful if you've already got in mind the sort of tv movie that you're going to get at the edge of it. [laughter] and i think in this case that's kind of what's going on, and these reporters and comment ate theres know that. howard: are you saying bragg wants to be in the starring role? [laughter] laugh. >> i'm just saying -- howard: so can does the situation change, kevin, if there is an indictment by the prosecutor in georgia where it's about vote tampering? where there is something about classified cock the units or january -- documents or january 6th by the doj? then you have the utterly unprecedented and bizarre pros peck of a caught for president,

former president facing all these charges, but maybe that that takes the spotlight off stormy daniels. >> precisely. and i think you alluded to something earlier. if you're the current president, what you're really hoping is a that the totality of all this will make people go back to, again, what happened in 2020 for some, enough already, i'd rather have calm, perhaps incompetence over who knows what will come down next. howard: that they'll feel exhausted. >> that's what they're hoping for. i don't know that it would work because i think there's a lot to measure now based on the past two plus years and we'll have in the, say, four years at that point if, again, trump is the nominee which i think a lot of this is designed to prevent. howard: well, finally, or ben, you know, we had the situation where president biden even made democrats don't want him to run primarily because of his age, but you've got the other candidate, again, we're sort of inured to it because of the investigations, but could be campaigning for president during

indictment. >> i just think regardless of what you believe the outcome will be, whether you think this situation will stand to trump's benefit or not, i think that, you know, it's important to kind of a take a beat and say we've been wrong about the way these things have necessarily plaided out before. the mar-a-lago raid -- howard: robert mueller. >> -- the way a lot of these things were supposed to play out, they zig when we thought they would zag, and i think we may be in a situation where even with this coming down, it might not be the number one topic come a year and a half from now when they're starting to think about who they're going to vote for. howard: yeah. the media have been so overheated about a lot of these investigations, some of which have gone absolutely nowhere. and i do think that's a good point, on the other hand, if this happens, whether it's tuesday or any other day, i it may be difficult to get any other news. when we come back, ron desantis keeps deflecting questions about former president. we'll hook at the coverage next.

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howe i'd say the primary battle between donald donald trump and ron desantis is really heating up except that -- except that's just on the trump side. trump unloaded on desantis while the florida governor, not yet a declared candidate, suck to his stance of defrequenting questions concern the deflecting questions. >> ron desanctus, he wants to decimate it and voted against it three times. and to be honest with you, ron reminds me a lot of mitt romney. howard: earlier desantis refused to take the bait in an interview with brian kilmeade. >> you watch president trump come out and try to label you as a paul ryan, jeb bush type of republican, and are you worried

about being defined because you're governor and you're not a candidate yet in. >> so when you have a record of achievement, people can call you a name, but that's not going to trump the achievement. and so, you know, we built an astounding record of achievement. howard: all this has produced a rather unbalanced campaign given trump's attacks. >> it's like going after an imagine imaginary friend right now when ron desantis hasn't even announced yet. it looks like trump already upset, anxious. >> donald trump is still the 800-pound gorilla in this races and the front-runner drawing huge crowds, and he's leading in the vast majority of the polls. howard: ben, ooh i'm not sure i buy the media's convention aal wisdom that ron desantis is smart to ignore. i think there's a real danger he's being defined by this daily trump assault. >> one of the things we need to remember is while those of us who talk about this for a living and the people who are presumably watching today, we all know who ron desantis is. we have opinions about him.

we've been paying attention for a while. the vast majority of the country, that's just not the country. oh, he's that good governor many in florida who's popular -- howard: but that's about it. >> and that's about it. i think there is a danger in the being defined this way and having only one side vocalizing their viewpoint, and you see that in the trend line of the pole -- -- polls. you do also see this pretty steady decline since that enormous victory that he won in november, and i think that's part of the reason that he's basically off the national stage. howard: yeah. and trump is coming up in the polls. kevin, i remember when john kerry spent a month in the summer of 2004 not responding to the swift boat attacks on his military record. true or false. and by the time he hit back with, it was too late and he never recovered. >> he was completely defined by that, and i think the image for most americans at that point was real problematic. i think in this case i actually support the strategy, and i'll tell you why. donald trump is a pugilist, probably the best political

pugilist out there certainly on the presidential stage. howard: oh, yeah. >> you do not want to take this guy on when you have a record to point to. calling him ron romney maybe, people start back pedaling because i think that actually has a connotation. but if i were in desantis' group, i'd say let him punch himself out, rope a dope for a while, when it matters, we'll swing back. howard: you comake a good point that a lot of people haven't tuned in, and we do this for a living. when a trump superpac has filed an ethics complaint in florida, they didn't have really much evidence, and everyone covers it, is the former president trying to maybe throw a brushback pitch and hope that desantis says i don't need this and never get in the race? >> i think the former president is lettingen on that he's afraid of desantis. [laughter] that's what that is. he's not complaining about anybody else in this situation. i mean, it's afraid, you know, on some level. so that's the thing that i think is so interesting about this. trump is choosing in this way to

elevate desantis into being the one guy that he's actually scared of in this field. and i think that that tends to do two things. number one, it's going to make trump's supporters, i think, wear a little-in on some of these lines that -- a little thin on some of these lines, why are you going after ron so much? we voted for both of you. but i also think the other thing it's going to do is send a message to the people who might think about the supporting orr candidates in the race that if you want to stop trump, this is the one guy he seems to have a serious problem with. howard: the trump camp leaped to politico that he's got an oppo file on desantis and that includes his time as a prosecutor when he may have been lenient on child porn cases. is it fair to publish something like that without asking for backup evidence? >> it's fair because it's politics, but it's also, i think, unseemly. it's easy to lob allegations, but remember this, it's up to reporters, howie, to ask for dee the tails, to drill down and

then kiss misif someone can't back it up. i think in this case they've been light on details, but worse, i think reporters haven't punched hard enough. howard: i couldn't agree more because a lot of times i'll see a story the attacking dedesantis on legislation that would make it harder to i skew insurance companies, but i want to know more. look, when trump goes after desantis even though it may have been years ago when he was a congressman about supporting cuts or restraints on social security and medicare, that's perfectly fair game. but again, does the press have a responsibility to dig out was this a bipartisan compromise that both parties were going along with? >> well, look, he's attacking ron desantis for being a conservative, doing concern. [laughter] voting with his fellow conservatives -- howard: right. less government, less spending. >> right. and that's at a split with a lot of his fellow conservatives. but we all saw in 2016 that

someone like -- someone like jeb bush had a money juggernaut, scott walker, one of the most popular republican governors, and we with both saw the problems when they actually started running. with ron desantis, i think a lot of us are just waiting to see what kind of guy is he going to be when he has to defend these kind of votes, when he has to stand up for his own record, and how he responds to that is really going to determine, i think, his prospects -- howard: yeah, and how he performs on the national stage in terms of his if personal the city and even more media scrutiny. -- personality. ron desantis put out an announcement that he was ebbs posing the diversity, equity and inclusion scam in higher education. axios reporter ben montgomery wrote back to desantis' aides, this is propaganda, not a press release. they made that public, it was embarrassing, and axios ended up firing the reporter. this is just a taste of what you're getting now with the

hostile relationship between the two sides. great to see you, kevin corke, ben domenech. up next, why andy mccarthy calls the potential indictment of donald trump and the stormy daniels' probe a really dumb case. ♪ ♪ whoa! of listerine to your routine. new science shows it gets in between teeth to destroy 5x more plaque above the gumline than floss. for a cleaner, healthier mouth. listerine. feel the whoa! i'm feeling better. body pain? headache? nope. all in one and done. cuh-congestion? better. cough? fever? better. mucinex all in one relieves 9 symptoms in 1 dose. it's not cold and flu season. it's always comeback season. my name is joshua florence, and one thing i learned being a firefighter is plan ahead. you don't know what you're getting into, but at the end of the day, you know you have a team behind you that can help you. not having to worry about the future makes it possible to make the present

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howard: there's been intensifieded media scrutiny of the stormy daniels cases with donald trump saying he expects to be charged later this week. joining us now, andy mccarthy, fox news contributor. you say it probably won't be tuesday, but you write this is a really dumb case, and alvin bragg has already dropped it once only resuscitating it. that got a lot of media attention, when he dropped the case. so why is this democratic d.a. bringing the case now? >> well, i think it's for political reasons. they, you know, it's a weird chi namic, i think, howie, in that they would like to run against trump, the democrats would in 2024, but weird hi they also

think -- weirdly, they also think he could win the republican nomination if his base gets riled up enough, and nothing's going to rile up his base and also aggravate a lot of people who don't like politicized prosecution more than something like this. howard: right. well, the key charge here, falsifying business records with donald trump reimbursing his then-hour michael cohen for the $130,000 that went to stormy daniels with help from the national inquireerer, is, as you have written several i'ms, a misdemeanor in new york, and you've got to do something special do connect it to another crime, to make it a money. talk about that part of the potential prosecution. >> yeah, that's the difficult thing because -- and it's a necessary thing for bragg because it makes it a felony. it's really not worth bringing a misdemeanor case. but also misdemeanors in new york have a 2-year statute of limitations. to get the extended a 5-year statute of limations that would allow a prosecution now, he has

to have a felony. so he's got to come up with some crime that donald trump concealed by doing the falsification of business records. the problem i think he has, is twofold. one is the crime most people are looking at is campaign finance violations. those are federal crimes x i think when the statute talks about another crime, it means a new york crime. and the second thing is i don't see why anyone assumes that trump was trying to conceal another crime. i think the sensible interpretation of his behavior is he was doing sort of what you enter a nondisclosure arrangement or hush money arrangement in for the first place, which he's trying to minimize the possibility of personal and political embarrassment, not conceal a crime. howard: right. it may have had as much to do with melania as anything else. >> right. howard: you also write, you write about the statute of limitations, this alleged sexual

encounter one night, which trump denies, 17 years a ago. i'm just so struck by the fact that this case is basically being partially discredited by the media, but then the call for protests, if you can give me this in half a minute, you also say is irresponsible. >> just because of his record on the capitol riot. i think, you know, it's not -- per se it's not illegal to call for protests. it's classic first amendment protected speech. but, you know, we have a history here -- howard: yes. >> -- and he gave a very fiery speech on the ellipse that ended up leading to the riot at the capitol. so i don't think the nypd's going to how something like that to happen, but i don't think he should may with fire like that. howard: yeah. hopefully, history doesn't repeat itself on this score. ann key mccarthy, always good to see you. thanks so much. next on "mediabuzz," where was the press as silicon valley bank was making risky moves that led to its collapse? spoiler or alert, nowhere. charlie gas flee is on deck. --

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howard: it was only a month if ago that cnbc's jim cramer was telling viewers it was a very compelling case to buy stock in silicon valley bank, or svb. >> the ninth best performer year to date is svb financial. being a banker to these pools of capital has always been a very good business. the stock's still cheap. howard: two weeks ago, "forbes" put silicon valley bank on its list of america's best banks for the fifth straight year. five days later, the bank collapsed and president biden defended what can only be called a bailout. >> americans can rest assured that our banking system is safe. no losses, and i want, this is an important point, no losses will be borne by the taxpayers. >> it took joe biden less than one business day to send a giant pile of your cash, billions and billions of collars, to svb -- dollars -- to insure that every

single millionaire, billionaire, tech ceo and winemaker was repaid in full. >> i think the government's done what the government should have done. it was the least expensive way to try to help address this problem. howard: joining us now from connecticut, charlie gasparino, senior correspondent for fox business network. charlie, where was the business press, where was the tech press? usually you have one to -- one or two reporters say, well, i reported on this and nobody cared,and here you just had "forbes" touting what a great bank silicon valley bank was? >> i mean, people generally concern yes, those are all criticisms, and we've all made our boo boos, go back in time, and i'm sure they'll find a couple on you and me. howard: i'm sure. >> my bigger point here is this, you know, at fox business and me, neil cavuto particularly, liz claman, what we've been saying for a long time is simply this: you cannot have the monoair and fiscal policy -- monetary and fiscal policy experiment we had for the past

three years and not have, create the conditions that led to 2008. that doesn't mean we will be in a major financial crisis, but if you're going to print that much money, if you're going to do that much crazy stuff and i can tell you because i know, i'm on those shows a lot, we've been saying this, pounding the table, i've been writing about it in "the new york post". so if you listen to us, i hate to concern hate to say it, you kind of see this stuff happening. now, did the press do a particularly good job? i think one of the problems withs with the media right now is a lot of kids are in it. they weren't around 14 years ago, which i was, covering it like, you know, like a car correspondent only concern war correspondent only it was socially a financial war. howard: there's one former hedge fund manager, william c. martin, who told fortune this was all hid nonplain sight. he started shorting this stock the a month ago, and he was tweeting about it. if this guy can figure it out and moody's can figure it out by moving to talk about grade

silicon valley bank, why was the press sort of out of it? >> well, are you sure they were out of it? howard: i'm waiting for someone to say here's my story -- >> no one ever said, and are you telling me no one ever said we could be hit, we could be in a really serious financial problem with crypto trading off -- howard: no, i'm not saying that.. i'm talking about this one bank with all of these high-tech customers where martin says the securities holdings went up by 700%. but let me turn now to president biden's handling of it. there's a blame game out there. the current president saying former president trump agreed to a partial rollback of the dodd-frank law, passed after the 2008 financial crisis that you were a war correspondent in, and that contributed to the silicon valley mess because -- and i have to add, a few dozen congressional democrats voted for that as well. so suddenly if you had $250,000

in assets, then you get this special scrutiny, but not $50 billion which would have caught silicon valley in its net. >> well, how do you know? those tests that are called stress tests are known as feather tests in the banking system, okay? i know a little bit about this in the sense that i covered cod the-frank, i covered concern the dodd-frank, i covered the financial crisis, and this is more of a propaganda point. it's an easy one to make because they did lore some of the standards, but they're asking you to believe that a bank outside of san francisco regulated by the san francisco fed where the ceo of the bank was on the board of the san francisco fed -- the. howard: right. >> -- never got monitored once? by the way, this wasn't rocket science, what was going on here. howard: yeah. >> you could see exactly what was on their balance sheet. howard: that's my point. >> by the way, and that's -- so this is not a failure of dodd the-frank, this is a failure of the local fed which is probably the most progressive bunch of lefties in the world that are concern the. [laughter] in favor of all sorts of

stuff -- the. howard: no argument here. >> that they allowed this to happen. the guy is on the board. howard: federal regulators bear a lot of the blame here. >> no, local -- howard: that's part of it. okay. when joe biden says taxpayers won't pay a dime, this will come from the fees that banks pay, i haven't seen a lot of media skepticism about that -- >> well, read my column today. howard: okay. you're a skeptical guy. [laughter] but broadly speaking, educate our audience, won't these extra costs be passed on to consumers? >> well, of course they are. i mean, that's why it's so idiotic, what the president said. first of all, the deposit -- the money comes out of the fdic deposit pool p. the banks pay into that pool. heavy got to pay more into it, they pass the fee on to their depositors. guess who concern everybody in the country is a depositor the at a bank. that means everybody in the country is going to be taxed, essentially, for this. so it's kind of, it's one of the couplest things i've ever heard concern dumbest things i've ever

heard because banks always pass those things along to their customers. their depositors are average american taxpayers. duh. [laughter] howard: i do want to mention before i get to the last question that the government also closed signature bank in new york. barney frank was on the board, he maid made more than $2 million, a lot of -- >> dodd the-frank. howard: yeah, it was a bank that the catered to crypto, and that's a risky investment. last question is this, we have about half a minute, why would the fed bail out silicon valley bank anyone with over $250,000, that's usually the federal limit? and so you get gavin newsom and his wineries and mark cuban and some of these guys who are zillionairesesome. >> i'm not saying they should, but their rationale, no business and most businesses do have bank accounts would be using a bank for short-term lending, and that would lead to a massive run on particularly not the money-centered banks like jpmorgan, but everyone else.

howard: right. >> i'm not saying it's good. listen, i believe all these bailouts cause moral hazard. you go out and take more risk in the future, and you're back in the position where you are, where we were in 2008. howard: gotta go. >> that's my opinion. howard: everybody's ooh too big the fail now. >> that's right. howard: thank you, charlie. good to see you. after the break, ron desantis taking heat from the media and some fellow republicans with a statement to fox shifting his position on aid to ukraine. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ cat purrs ] [ phone vibrates ] introducing astepro allergy. steroid-free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. now with astepro fast allergy relief, [ spray, spray ] you can astepro and go.

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howard: ron desantis ignited a fierce media debate when he challenged the continuing flow of u.s. military aid to ukraine. the governor did that as one of many candidates, or potential candidates, responding to a questionnaire from tucker carlson's show. >> while the u.s. has many vital international interests, becoming further entangled in a territorial the dispute between ukraine and russia is not one of them. >> that is sort of a jaw-cropping statement. >> here's another example of the republican party just basically saying the hell with it, we're going to throw in our lot with vladimir putin. howard: joining us now, jim geraghty, senior columnist at national review and kristin hawn. this is a rare instance of desantis the getting hammered by the right and the left for saying the u.s. protecting ukraine is not a vital national

interest. >> there are a lot of times i feel like it gets overhyped, but it is an indisputable fight between the republican party. and i think a lot of people who are preferring desantis to trump were kind of surprised by this answer, and that's one of the reasons it's turned into such an intense flashpoint. howard: excellent point. kristin, the phrase that really set off the media was this is a territorial dispute whens, in fact, a unprovoked, bruisal invasion concern brutal invasion by russia with heinous war crimes, kidnapping kids and so forth, so a lot of people jumped on that phrase. >> i think they did and, you know, desantis the, i i think he's going to come to regret those comment. i get that he was trying to, in the media, you know, separate himself from the president, and, you know, as he looks forward to a potential presidential bid himself. but that, i don't think that's, you know, the thing that's going to to be working for him in the end.

howard: i think coverage has been so overwhelmingly in favor of aiding ukraine that it seems jarring to have a republican potential candidate can object. but, jim, the way i look at it is, the way a lot of pundits are saying that this is trump's position, maybe he went further rhetorically, so desantis is adopting as a kind of pander to trump's voters. but in fairness, a fox poll and others show that 6 in 10 republicans believe there should be a time limit on u.s. military assistance to ukraine. >> yeah. that that coverage being 99% in favor of supporting ukraine, look, there's no getting around it. russia is villain in this story, they are abominable war criminals. it does not necessarily follow from that what the proper u.s. response should be or exactly how far should you concern is there a limit to what concern. howard: except for the argument that if we don't sop putin now, we could -- stop putin now, we could be drawn more directly into a wider war. >> sure. i don't like this argument of, well, we don't give him a blank

check. okay, fine, there's going on the a finite amount. no one ever says i believe that should be this much billion or this much trillion or this much in humanitarian or military aid. everybody enjoys idea of let's talk about this in the form of a blank check, but there is no blank check. howard: yeah. some are reciting what desantis said in 2018 after the invasion of crimea, basically we have to send arms to ukraine, criticizing president obama for not doing so. can the press fairly describe this as a flip flip-flopsome. >> i think they can. howard: you disagree with him on substance. >> right. but i think it's very fairly a flip-flop. i mean, he's been on one side of the our shoe and now he's over here, and it's not clear why. howard: but in fairness, the situation is far different now than it was in 2015, and there has been, i mean, there's always a debate about should we send fighter jets, send this, send that. >> we just had one of our drones

get into a collision with a russian jet over international waters concern the. howard: that was a harsh reminder -- >> we have reasons to worry about this escalating. and i think even the most ardent supporter of ukrainian aid would say, okay, we don't want that scenario, to be in a situation where u.s. pilots are trying to shoot down russian pilots. or maybe they do, maybe they're okay with it, but i don't think you have to be a crazy dove to say, hey, that puts the u.s. in a direct shooting war with a nuclear power, we don't want that. i don't think that makes you anti-ukraine or insufficiently supportive of zelenskyy. howard: yeah. it because seem people like lindsey graham and others are really going after desantis on this. donald trump has been warning on truth social about we're heading toward world war ii as a -- world war iii as a result of the biden administration's actions. met me play a clip of a video that started out talking about ukraine and went on to. >> but the greatest threat to

western civilization today is not russia, it's probably more than anything else ourselves and some of the horrible usa-hating people that represent us. howard: so, jim, trump says stop the war today, which would obviously leave russia as, in charge of those areas. but saying we ourselves are the greatest threat, that's been attacked by a lot of liberal pundits. >> okay, i'll i attack it too. donald trump has never been able to distinguish between who he's mad at and the country's biggest enemies. and i apple sure that he is full of concern am sure that he is full of raging fury at president biden, alvin bragg and anybody else who's pissed him off lately much more than vladimir putin or xi jinping who he used to sing the praises of during the pandemic. howard: kristin, i just have time for a brief comment. >> he cares about himself, and he uses the media to deliver

those types of messages. howard: yeah. it's unusual for a candidate to be so negative about america although, to obviously, he's attacking the biden administration. still to come, is the press overplaying the biden administration's push to shut down tiktok to protect america's secrets from china? ♪ hey david! connect with an advisor to create your personalized plan. let's find the right investments for your goals. okay, great. j.p. morgan wealth management. i'm feeling better. body pain? headache? nope. all in one and done. cuh-congestion? better. cough? fever? better. mucinex all in one relieves 9 symptoms in 1 dose. it's not cold and flu season. it's always comeback season. when aspen dental told me that my dentures were ready, i was so excited. i love the confidence. i love that i can blast this beautiful smile and make the world smile with me.

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howard: "the wall street journal" broke a major story about tiktok, the insanely popular app used by two-thirds of american teenagers, that the biden administration is now threatening to ban it unless the chinese company that owns tiktok agrees to sell it. the demand based on national security concerns about beijing's access to american data. and, jim, "forbes" broke a story about tiktok's parent company using the app to conduct surveillance of several journalists including her and

the k the oj's investigationing. -- doj's investigation. >> you might as well just hand your phone directly to chinese intelligence, save them the time concern the. howard: it's that bad? >> that's my understanding of it. all the location data, everything you've ever done goes straight to a server that the chinese government can access if it wants to. you've got "the wall street journal" report that basically says it's a strip club for 15-year-olds boths in terms of who's on there and watching the inappropriate material. howard: this is making me nervous as the father of teenagers. first of all, if biden bans it, none of us is have to fight with our teenagers many anymore. you're looking at the upside, but tiktok says -- by the way, it condemns the actions of those people who surveilled, and they've been fired. you have marco rubio and angus king with this bipartisan bill to do what the president now says he wants to do. according to the journal's unnamed sources, he will order tiktok to divest or die in america. donald trump also tried to force a sale of tiktok, but it was

blocked by the courts. >> i mean, i think the president makes his decisions, and i don't think it has to do with just, you know, influence from congress or the media, but i think it's actually helpful in this circumstance. it's not often you have republicans and democrats coming together and agreeing on something. and in this instance, you know, many republican senators is have said we need to educate the public more about, you know, why this is dangerous for young children, you know, in our country that are using this. so in that way, i think the media can play a really important role in kind of moving this along. howard: right. but does that role at some point become alarmist? there is heightened media scrutiny now and understandably because, let's face it, nobody wants to hook soft on beijing and have -- we're all carrying around miniature versions of the chinese spy balloon. >> yeah. i was going to say that if all of a sudden the u.s. government finally does step in and say, that's it, tiktok, you're out, if the straw that broke the camel's back was them monitoring journalists, all these other things were okay, but once you're monitoring journalists,

that's going too far, beijing. we could overlook the genocide, but that's too much. [laughter] that would look bald. but i do think this has been a cumulative concerns about tiktok, and we were chatting earlier, basically it lifted -- listed off all the security problems, the underage use problems, you reach the point what would tiktok have to do to say, all right, you're out of here? all of these things have piled up for a long time now. howard: there shouldn't be a special sense about journalists, but if they were surveilling businessmen, it'd also be a big story because it goes to the credibility of the company. >> agreed, but i also think that journalism is the fourth estate, it's very important, and it's critical to the first amendment. so i think it's actually very alarming, you know concern. howard: something we can all agree on, i hope. that's the end of the show. kristin hawn, jim geraghty, thanks for coming by. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz, you can subscribe to my podcast, apple

itunes is one good place to do it. thank you for spending some time with us. i don't know whether this trump indictment is going to happen or it's going to the happen on tuesday, but i'm pretty sure that we will follow it closely as will many of you. we are back here next sunday, 11 eastern, is the time, with the only media analysis show on national television. ♪ ♪ through the pandemic, getrefunds.com can see if it may qualify for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to get started. then work with professionals to assist your business with its forms and submit the application. go to getrefunds.com to learn more. you're in a hurry. i'm off to america's best i heard what you said about not overpaying for glasses. two pairs and a free, quality eye exam starting at just $79.95? the exam alone is worth... 59 bucks. i mean, people deserve breaks, right?

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the biggest deal of the year. stock up early and save up to $20 dollars on the best scotts products. arthel: we begin with a fox news alert on reaction now pouring into the possible indictment trump and a storm eat daniel's hush money case for the 45th president met with fans at a college wrestling tournament yesterday. just hours after claiming he will be arrested in new york this week. welcome to "fox news live" i am arthel neville, hi eric. super hi arthel hello everyone thank you for joining us on their child. alvin bragg a democrat is making it clear that he will no