♪ ♪ howard: there's a pattern, we've seen it again and again, when the mainstream media want to marginalize a story. you remember the new york post breaking the hunter biden laptop story, not only did twitter lock it -- block it, but others lied that it was russian disinformation. more than a year later "the washington post" and new york times said, hey, by the way, we've now authenticated the laptop story. thanks a lot. the idea is to make a story look like a right-wing media on to session that, you know, is probably a fantasy.

we're going through a similar dance right now after the president's son pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges drawing a chorus of conservative criticism for a sweet settlement that includes only probation, but now we come to the irs whistleblowers who have been all but ignored by the press and, of course, we have to be cautious about unproven claims. but "the new york times," to its credit, broke with the pack by saying it confirmed independently based on a source that a second unnamed irs official claims david weiss, the u.s. attorney in delaware, asked, the oj for special powers to -- the doj for special powers to pursue the case outside the state and was turned down. whistleblower gary shapley has said he was not the sole decision maker in the case and that he was constrained in the probe. >> you convinced looking back at this now that this was an effort to protect president biden and his family? >> there were definitely hindrances that aye never seen

before in my 14 years concerning this investigation that didn't allow us to follow through an investigation of any other individual to include president biden. howard: so will the rest of the media now follow up on these accusation, or will we have to wait another year before they're deemed newsworthy? i'm howard kurtz rt and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ ♪ howard: one challenge from the media is that attorney general merrick garland gnatly denies the act -- flatly denies the accusation by the whistleblower that prosecutor weissed asked the justice department for more authority and was rejected. >> i don't know how it would be possible for anybody to block him from bringing a prosecution given that he has this authority. >> and he was never told no. >> i'd say he was given complete authority the make all decisions on his own. howard: and president biden was, well, rather terse when a reporter asked about a text by

hunter to the a chinese official demanding money and claiming his father was right there. >> reporter: president biden, how involved were you in your son's chinese shakedown text message? were you sitting there? were you involved? with you involved -- >> no, i wasn't -- >> reporter: were you? >> no! howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, robby soave and aneesh shah cross with siriusxm. robby, are these whistleblowers finally starting to get some overdue media attention? >> they are getting some, and and i want to applause the new york times for finding the scoop that there was this individual backing up what shapley was saying. i will note it was 20 paragraphs in. i kept scrolling. if i were the editor, i would have put that front and center. interesting that they chose to bury it, but they can't avoid

the fact that there is manager to this accusation, there are million billion people making it, and next we have to hear from weiss. howard: the problem for journal withism as we just saw you have merrick garland saying david weiss never came to him asking for more authority or information and that the u.s. attorney confirms this in a letter to the a congressional committee so you have a direct conflict between these two versions. >> absolutely. it seem like the whistleblowers have their version of the story and weiss, who was appointed by former president trump who has no reason not to pursue things that he feels are incredulous and problematic, but you also have merrick garlandland who has decided from his appointing that he was not going to politicize that position, that he was not going to go by the whims of the democratic party. and i think that he has, to the chagrin of many democrats, done that. so at the edge of the day, weiss has a wide varian the oi -- variety of things he could do,

and it's frustrating. weiss needs to stand up, and if he was to come forward, say something or if he was to be a part of the congressional probe, we would be in a different situation. howard: it's hard to know, robby whether these whistleblowerses were overzealous, but certainly they're convinced that hunter biden should have been charged with tax felonies. >> right. and they're making a persuasive case. i mean, the i are, s -- irs is not an agency that goes easy on people. other people in the same situation would have faced more serious charges. but what we really want to know frankly, of course, is president biden's involvement, if there is any -- howard: right, if there is any. >> that's what we have to get to. but i would be, you know, i have questions after hearing the things hunter biden has said including those whatsapp messages where he's saying my dad's right here with me, don't make me put dad on the phone. it certainly sounds like trying to rope dad into something. whether that is case remains to be seen.

howard: right. on that very point, one of the texts you referred to hunter biden says to a chinese executive he's trying to get money from i am sitting here with my power, as you said, and would like to understand why the commitment has knotts been fulfilled. but -- has not been fulfilled. but now ashley lowell, hunter's attorney, says in a statement these images are complete fakes, they are one-sided and slanted information orchestrated by disgruntled agents. so if that's true, ameshia, it's outrageous. on the other hand, i don't understand why lowell would met in this sit out there there for a couple of weeks and not deny it earlier. i just can't figure it out. >> i think because a lot of people didn't buy it, quite frankly, and there were some right-wing media hits that came from this, but the majority of mainstream media didn't grab on to out. it did have the air of i don't think anybody's son is that stupid to send those type of messages -- [laughter] howard: unless he made it up and his father wasn't really sitting there and he did send the message, but his attorney says

they're fakes. >> i, quite frankly, when i saw the messages thought the same thing. it's not that this hasn't happened to other people before with, we've seen manipulation of messages. on top of that, i just don't ooh believe anybody could be that dumb, and they will have to investigate and see whether or not this transpired, but i do think that before people basically nail hunter biden to the cross on this one, there is some more investigation into those messages. howard: yeah, i would agree, ameshia. obviously, applies an iq test to her journalistic scrutiny. same question for both of you. have the media learned the lesson about blowing off and minimizing allegations about hundter biden, or are some is of the press essentially protecting joe biden? >> i mean, look, i think it would be a scoop if they could, even the mainstream media, if they could prove this, they'd probably go for it. but i think there's less interest in covering it especially given everything going on in trump world: and i will say, you know, the laptop story, that was a big incendiary thing that they all kind of said, oh, don't even look at

this, and they got the intelligence community to sort of back them up. that's why the american people, conservatives, will have distrust of any mainstream media institution saying those messages or anything else are fake because we've been down this road before, and they got that totally wrong. >> we also have a hunter biden who recently pled guilty to two misdemeanors, he's gone through that process, he's not going to serve prison time for either of those. at the end of the day, something to a point robby made a moment ago, unless you are able to tie hunter biden to some, some type of criminal activity that involves president joe biden, there's not going to be a lot of interest. and, quite frankly, it seems like republicans, conservatives and conservative media, have been trying to chase this for the longest and have not been able to do so. and i think that the general public understands why. howard: yeah. i mean, hunter biden has done some sleazy things in terms of his muckraking and influence peddling, and i'm going not -- the i'm not going to defend him for a second, but at the same time, the average person wants

to know is there any evidence against the president s. and just going on tv and saying, oh, we have some but we're still checking it i don't think quite gets you there. i want to switch now because it's such a big story to the supreme court ruling knocking down race-conscious admissions at harvard university and at the university of north carolina, pretty much knocking it out for all colleges in this country. let's take a quick look at some pundit reaction. >> after 400 years of brutality, of lynching, of discrimination, one generation of trying to at least get the kids together on the campuses is enough. it's too much, the supreme court. >> they're mortified that their diversity shell game has been exposed for what it is. not just unconstitutional, but grossly unfair, stigmatizing and, frankly, just patronizing. howard: so the new york "the new york times" subhead on a story about this ruling says the court all but insured that the student population at the campuses of

elite institutions will become whiter and more asian and less black is and latino. robby, is that fair, unfair assessment is? >> well, the verdict is that you just have to let whatever the most qualified people onto campus get onto campus, and if that makes it more asian, then so be it. i mean, to stop campus from becoming more asian would itself be racial discrimination. howard: yeah. >> and i just want to say this is an issue, you know, we live in such partisan times. most people, including 60% of democrats, oppose race-based admissions on college campuses. the state of california banned it twice. they banned it, then legislators undid it, california. it's not a popular thing. this is, it's time to move on from these kinds of policies. howard: john roberts said in the 6-3 key supermajority nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities the from considering a discussion do about how race has affected their life through discrimination or otherwise.

i don't think most media -- >> no, because at the end of the day, affirmative action in college admissions as it has been known for decades now is dead. and that little note from the chief justice does not change those things. the worry that minority, particularly black and brown people have, one, that most americans didn't fully understand what affirmative action was to begin with, so the argument against merit has always been problematic because the individuals who are applying to these top tier institutions were largely people who topped out on their a.c.t. and a. is s.a.t., they just happened to be black and brown -- black or brown and had not been allow add mission regardless of having jobs, doing all these things and having robust applications. the other thing is that our college admissions process has only gotten more white. the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action are white women. beyond that, 70% of yale and harvard are there the because of legacy admissions, and that's not because of -- so the asians

would have had a much bigger or argument to say at the end of the day their slots were taken up by this group which is the majority of the institution than by anybody -- howard: robby, what some in the liberal media are glossing over it's not whether you pro or anti-minority because asian-americans are a minority, a very studious one, and they felt they were being limbed -- limited by blacks and hispanics. >> if you look closely at how harvard was, the admissions officers were evaluating asian applicants, there is no word you can use to describe this other than racism. they were saying things like they're too asian or will they fit in, they're too much with their own people. it's a stereotypical way of looking at people. by the way, i would absolutely also get rid of legacy admissions. who's defending them? no one's defending them. fine, get rid of them. that's not what they sue is over, but i think on a state by state basis if i'm a graduate of the university of michigan, the state legislature of michigan, they want to ban legacy

admissions, i'll be all for it. howard: i used to write about affirmative action in newsrooms where it got very tense, and white applicants who were passed over felt that they were, furious, passed over for promotions or plum jowls -- jobs, they didn't really have a shot at the job. at the same time, i talked to black journalists who said the label made it like like they were not good enough. >> reporter: i graduated, got a 32 on my a.c.t.s, doubled majors, the first people white people told me on campus was affirmative action. i had a 32 on my a.c.t., i think black people didn't set that up, neither did affirmative action. white people set that up in their own concentration, many of them with ideals that black people would never be able to reach the academic rigor. that wasn't the intent of affirmative action, and that's not what it did in practice. the bigger issue here, i think, is this falls on the heroes of the growing anti-crt movement, and there are several states who

are going to utilize this and expand what its original intent was, and that is scary. howard: yeah. a lot of people didn't like it from many sides. and by the way, supreme court also knocking down president biden's student loan forgiveness program. he knew earlier that it might be considered unconstitutional which is why he waited. and also students who graduate high school, 40% of them don't even go to college right away because they can't afford it, family reasons or whatever, but i think that was not unexpected. let me get a break. when we come back, cnn obtains a leaked awed audiotape about donald trump and a classified document, but with isn't that hugely unfair? ♪

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♪ howard: donald trump told fox's bret baier last week that despite what the indictment says, he wasn't showing aides a

classified military document. >> bret, there was no document. that was a massive amount of patients and everything else talking about iran and other things. these boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things, golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes. howard: but then the audiotape was leaked to cnn which by itself is an outrage with new information that the former president was showing aides or at least brand withering -- brandishing a confidential document. >> millie, i've got to show you an example, he said that i want to attack iran. isn't it amazing? this was him. are -- they presented me this. this is off the record, but they presented me this. this was him. this was the defense department and him -- [inaudible conversations] [laughter] howard: trump now had a new

explanation similar to the old explanation as he returned to reporters, i would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth. i'm referring to magazines, newspapers, plans of buildings, i had building plans, you know? i had a plan for a golf course. and the former president said this to fox news digital: >> i had a whole desk full of lots of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of different plan, copies of stories having to do with many, many subjects. and what was said was absolutely fine and very perfect. we did nothing wrong. this is a whole hoax. howard: many of the pundits especially on the left are not buying it while others teed off on the latest leak. >> whenever he finds himself stuck in a perilous legal mess of his own making, he goes full orwell and just tells the world don't believe your lying eyes. >> fake news cnn has exclusively, apparently, obtained another audio recording used as evidence in trump's

document case. it's kind of weird because there are virtually no leaks from from biden's document investigation if there really even is one. >> the latest defense that donald trump has been able to come up with is i was lying, i didn't have an iran attack plan in my hands when i claimed i did. >> the biden-garland strategy, of course, to fear trump the most and, therefore, put him in jail as quick as possible to avoid running against him. howard: robby with, do does the audiotape of donald trump's voice in which he explicitly says this is a document from general milley and the pentagon undercut his bravado? the media are viewing this as a smoking gun. >> yeah, look, i don't think his explanation, frankly, is very persuasive. it sounds like the documents, to me, you can hear them swishing as he -- howard: right. give me that. >> i will say, however, cbs has reported that that document is not actually red carpet o part of the underlying 31 charges, so

i'm confused about that. they said that's not an issue, then is this leak just an attempt to damage president trump in the eyes of the people or in the news media in and, again, or i'm actually far more interested in this dispute in which did he disagree with milley on war plans for iran, what's going on, is president trump's foreign policy which is supposed to be less interventionist, was that being thwarted by the general? i'm interested in those questions as a policy matter beyond what happened with the documents. i can see trump seems like he mishandled them, and if that's that, that's that. howard: i'm interested in what the president said he was holding all kinds of plans and we know with the golf shirts. look, he may beat this indictment, but even some pundits sympathetic to him are saying he's dug himself a hole by saying contradictory things. >> absolutely. and he just won't stop talking. [laughter] do i think donald trump has bravado? absolutely. but he also had documents.

at this point, he has gone on to be interviewed by several people who are asking questions about the case which, quite frankly, when there's an ongoing case, you're not supposed to answer them anyway. he's incriminated himself so much, and is once you do that, you go on every network you possibly can, you are going to have some -- howard: you say he won't stop talking, as a journalist, it's a good thing that he's very accessible. some of these other candidates are very cautious and very measured about who they will talk to. >> and from his -- [inaudible conversations] >> especially right now. this is a, there's a legal process happening. and i think that he's not doing himself any favors in this arena by making those contradictory statements but also by making himself look a lot more guilty just, again, it's night and day with what he says to one network versus the other. >> but now i think we finally see, we see the reason and we wonder why would he keep these documents? well, it's because he has a different can narrative for how decisions got made behind closed

doors, differences he had with the military, intelligence officials. those people are all beloved by mainstream media and go on and talk about what a fool trump was is and, you know, how blustering and how wrong, and trump wanted to keep some documents that shows, no, they were reckless and war-mongering, and i was fighting them. so i see why he would want to hang on to that evidence. howard: i want to come back to your earlier point. i'm not denigrating cnn's scoop, but criminal investigations are supposed to be confidential. the justice department, trust mentioner i used to cover the agency, leaking this, i think, even though it wasn't in the indictment to make donald trump look bad and give tv something more exciting than a partial transcript. >> yeah. it speaks to the weaponization of the justice department, something house republicans are very animated about and are trying to get to the bottom of. there are a lot of people in this country, a lot of conservatives, who don't think trump is getting a fair shake. even if he ends up being that he is guilty because of the amount of accessibility to the media of

the very forces working against trump. howard: ameshia, you may not agree with the weaponization of government charge, but cnn also broke the story of the partial transcript of the same conversation before donald trump was indicted, so plenty of folks certainly have the impression that the network, like other news outlets, is working hand in glove with doj. >> i know that cnn is in a ratings war with itself, so at the end of the day with as much as they can break anything and chasing the tail of trump for as long as they possibly can, they're going to leak these. it is very interesting that they come in such quick sequence, and i do think that journalists and other media investigators should, you know, be on alert of that. but also where does this go? again, this is greatly impeding the trial in and of itself and the investigation, but i am more interested in what cnn is up to with with this here. also the fact that they serve to diminish already, i think, lax

faith in our systems of government. howard: right. well, i think what cnn is up to and they probably miss the ratings from when trump was president, also like a lot of organizations, is getting the scoop. and i know a lot of people it might seem like, okay, he says this but the transcript says this, might seem incremental, but the question is did he know he had a classified document, did he show it to somebody, and that's one of the key charges in this indictment. robby, ameshia, thanks so much. why is rfk jr. getting so much media attention? but up next, journalists still struggling to figure out what happened in russia with that short-lived military coup against vladimir putin. ♪ ♪ so people think they're open. surprise. [ laughs ] [ horn honks, muffled talking ] -can't hear you, jerry. -sorry. uh, yeah, can we get a system where when someone's bike is in the shop, then we could borrow someone else's? -no! -no! or you can get a quote

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fox correspondent and anchor who has reported from ukraine and other war zones. "wall street journal" says prigozhin planned to capture russian military leaders but backed off when the kremlin spies found out. officials knew of the coup plant in advance and didn't tell allies and on and on. the classic fog of war. >> well, you're absolutely right. we fully don't know what this means or we didn't know it was coming. and when -- howard: we can end the segment right now. >> when president biden said to nicole wallace on another channel -- howard: msnbc -- >> the question was exactly how much did he know, and it appears that our national security is, intel community knew what everybody saw which was prigozhin was openly hammering military leadership, particularly sergei shoigu, attacking him, accusing him of literally attacking the wagner forces in the rear as well as saying that the the military leadership lied to putin over the justification for the war to begin with.

howard: right. >> and so ill say the challenges of covering it has been for reporters like myself on this messaging on telegram. that's where prigozhin puts videos up. we try and translate this to the u.s. to figure out what's going on. howard: well, i love how everyone on twitter is suddenly an instant expert on this. there are certain people who cover the region who do know a lot. so prigozhin, the guy who headed the mercenary group and later it was revealed his forces got $1 billion from the russian government, is now in belarus, basically a client state of the kremlin, and the president of bell louis, like chen coe -- belarus, like shinning coe, says he talked putin out of whacking prigozhin. so it's like a spy novel but nailing down the nonfiction part is difficult do. >> it is like it. there's a great new york times analyst saying china, president xi saying, hey, wait a minute, what does this mean for us? remember when the previous president 23 years ago, boris

yeltsin, turned the reins over to putin, russia and china were not friends. they had troopeds on each other -- troops on each other's borders, now putin looks like a strawman. the military leadership that allowed wagner forces to take that southern town of process to have in the south and -- rostov and march within 75 miles of moscow, that doesn't look like a strong dictator. it's clearly the biggest challenge to putin's power. howard: you say prigozhin hasn't been punished, that was the deal. drop the charms and go to another country, belarus, and we'll see. so this might be good for ukraine in terms of the war because you could be taking 25,000 of the best trained and equipped soldiers off the battlefield, these mercenaries. the media say it's certainly true that vladimir putin's longstanding reputation as a strongman, as a provider of stability for the russian state has been hurt, has been wounded. but if putin is pushed out, this is where where the conversation

these to be going now, you could have a civil war in a nuclear state. so how much is this media conjecture and you've got to consider the alternatives? >> well, just yesterday the cia director, william burns, spoke at a very sophisticated think tank over in england and he says, quote, the repercussions will play out for some time and a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of putin's war on his own people. and i think when we hear not from colleagues of mine in the media, but from the cia director who, by the way, was the russian ambassador, saying this really may be a rebellion that's going to play out in the long term and weaken putin, who knows what's going to be the future of russia. howard: yeah. i mean, i don't know whether in six months this is going to all be seens a turning point or whether it'll just look like a footnote in history, but that's one of the reasons it's so challenging to cover it. griff jenkins, thanks for doing the translation, to speak. next on "mediabuzz",how kevin mccarthy quickly backed off a tv the interview in which

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howard: kevin mccarthy tried to remain sort of neutral when asked in a cnbc interview whether donald trump could win the general election. >> could he win an electioning? >> yeah, he can. the question is, is he the strongest to win the election. i don't know that answer. howard: hours later after a call with the former president, the house speaker walked back his comments in a statement to breitbart. the only reason biden is using his weaponized federal government to go after president trump is because he is biden's strongest political opponent as polling continues to show. i spoke earlier with susan ferrechio, chief political reporter from the washington times, and olivia beavers who covers capitol hill for politico. susan, olivia, thanks for joining us. susan, the media have pounced on this controversy involving kevin mccarthy, of course, and

several sources telling "the new york times" that mccarthy's conversation with trump was an apology. >> mccarthy has supported trump, generally speaking, throughout trump's presidency even through the january 6th controversy, through the impeachment. it's not a surprise now that he continues to back president trump. president trump is ahead in the gop primary over his next highest opponent, ron desantis, by 30 points in new hampshire. it's not surprising that leader mccarthy would want to back the president even given all his legal entang entanglements. but i think he also has an obligation to try to stay neutral in the primary because there are a lot of other republicans running. howard: good luck with that. that's the problem. he was trying to stay neutral. he didn't say anything terrible. mccarthy told breitbart the media are trying to drive a wedge between donald trump and the republican party, but it was his own words that started this flap. >> certainly. and, you know, i was watching

before when kevin mccarthy he's had to make up something that he said about donald trump after january 6th -- howard: yeah. he went to mar-a-lago -- >> after talking about him being censor ised. and i was texting with republicans to see what they thought, is there pressure internally for him to endorse donald trump or to stay out of it, and i'm hearing more so they would like him to stay out of it at the moment. howard: hard to stay out of it when you're on a television interview and you get asked a direct question, and mccarthy tried. susan, let's go big with picture. we're about six months into the house republicans running that chamber. is there too much media focus on these investigations of hunter biden, impeaching joe biden which is not going to happen anytime soon? let's just reflect the messaging of republicans, and this is what they're spending their political capital on. >> i think it reflects reality. the information that's come out is highly troubling, highly disturbing, and if it was a

republican president in a republican president -- and a republican president's son, i think the the media reaction would be overwhelming. it would be dominating the headlines every single day. and it would be getting a lot of attention from democratic investigators as we saw when president trump was president and he was impeached the first time over the whistleblower and a call with the ukrainian president. howard: i'm not saying it shouldn't be covered, and maybe you're right, it's been undercovered, but olivia, what i'm saying is with the exception of the debt ceiling fight, what else have they got? i don't hear them talking about, you know, the average american sitting out there may or may not care about hunter biden but certainly cares about kitchen table issues. is it the media focus or the media following republican -- [inaudible] >> investigations was one of the early beats i had in the house, so i was covering the russia investigation, the fbi, doj, republican-led investigation, and what you find is these

allegations are red meat for the base no matter who's sort of peerheading them. but they also -- spearheading them. but they also are an opportunity to make an impact against whoever they're investigating. howard: i'm just making the point that we hiv in a bubble here especially -- live in a bubble here especially in washington and new york, and people understandably are concerned about the economy, and they're getting a lot of the investigative stuff. and that's an important story, but it's not the only story. last week i had on this program marjorie taylor greene. she talked about her little spat on the house floor with fellow republican lauren boebert, called her a nasty little b. we don't have to get into that. there's also media chatter now, super, about -- susan, about whether congresswoman greene would be forced out of the conservative freedom caucus. in terms of the coverage, are we seeing even the most conservative members not getting alone long -- along on how the house should act? >> when a party's in the majority, there is always more

conflict, there is always more in-fighting, there's always more difficulty getting legislation passed because you're in the majority. and i think you're seeing all of that play out. we in the press love to play out that intrigue especially if you're covering something really dry like a penning -- spending bill or some kind of legs that the prick's eyes -- public's eyes glaze over. it's more exciting to write about the in-fighting and intrigue especially because they're only a few votes away of not being able to pass anything, so everybody's vote matters. when you have conflict and people not getting along, it's much harder for a party to do that. we do all enjoy covering the spats, especially when you have the c-span cameras zooming in -- or they can't zoom in, but you can see marjorie taylor green and lauren boebert and figure out that they're arguing on the house floor. there's nothing more exciting if you're just watching the floor all day than to see an exchange like that. howard: right. >> i can assure you, we'll keep covering that stuff. howard: a razor thin margin is

difficult because hay can't pass anything. olivia, one thing you have to say about kevin mccarthy with all the pressure and cross-pressures that he's under that in contrast to a certain president, he is very accessible to journalists. >> he is. and, you know, there was a moment when he was the minority leader where i think a few reporters were calling him out saying he wasn't doing press conferences as he was facing different scandals. but since he became speaker, we're giving him credit, he's been accessible, he's been holding sort of weekly press conferences like pelosi did except he's doing them in a different matter. he's doing them standing up or outside his office, and he wants people to see the capitol is open and accessible. so we do have a lot of access to him. howard: after the break, how the president sold the press on using bidenomics and how should the media deal with rfk jr.'s falsehoods? ♪ ♪

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stroke, heart attack, or death. even at your a1c goal, you're still at risk ...which if ignored could bring you here... ...may put you in one of those... ...or even worse. too much? that's the point. get real about your risks and do something about it. talk to your health care provider about ways to lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. learn more at getrealaboutdiabetes.com howard: after "the washington post" reported on a memo from two top white house officials repeatedly praising bidenomic, all the cable news networks used the phrase and banners as you see here while the president was giving an economic speech in chicago. >> your economic team is calling it bidenomic, sir. >> get it straight -- [inaudible] "the wall street journal," okay? i don't go around -- bidenomic, so the press started calling it bidenomics. no, i like it, it's fine. yeah, it's fine.

and guess what? [applause] bidenomics is working. howard: let's go back to the possible. the panel. susan, it's amaze -- amusing to the watch president say it was the press that dubbed his policy bidenomics. is the white house trying to reband -- rebrand this with a bumper sticker slogan, and are the media taking the bait? >> not only is there not anything wrong with that, but that could be a really smart political move for the president as he embarks on his campaign re-election bid. i remember when calling the health care law obama with care was considered slang and it was frowned upon, but it later became adopted even by the president himself and now he proudly, former president obama proudly refers to his namesake health care law. politically, it's a great move x. if he manages to spin it and make it look like somebody else made it up, all the beth. howard: sure. but clearly, this white house

indicated they want bidenomics to be used. they're encouraging comparisons with reaganomics which biden sees as trickle down, and, olivia, top aides are basically want this phrase to be used as often as possible. it seems like it's very calculated. >> it's calculated, but it's a messaging battle for them. they want this out there as they're -- [inaudible conversations] >> howe hu are you suggesting it's superior the build back better? [laughter] >> i'm not making that suggestion, but i'm also saying there's risks involved. if there's a recession, which they're wanging that they won't be -- banking that there won't be, biden's name could be tied to the economy in a bad way. biden's trying to say, look, it's positive trying to the economy, republicans are saying, well, look at inflation. howard: all right, robert f. kennedy jr., basically a protest candidate, as high as 19 or 20 points in the polls, the anticipation he's getting lately.

let's take a look at a couple recent interviews. >> you've said in the past there is a correlation between vaccines leading to autism. that's totally been debunked -- >> what it a minute, who -- wait a minute, who debunked it? >> the cdc, the world health organizations -- >> those organizations are captive agencies. wi-fi radiation, it is, does all kinds of wad things including -- bad things including causing cancer. >> wi-fi radiation causes cancer. >> yeah, from your cell phone. howard: he says antidepressants contributed to the rise in mass shootings and on and on. most people know he's a candidate. >> right. i've interviewed him myself for my own candidate, he considers himself a moderate, traditional democrat. but, of course, a lot of his ideas link him more closely in some cases with the republican party, many some cases with the far heft are, so he's sort of all over the map. and robert kennedy comes along and, look, 19, 20 points is not

nothing to sneeze at when you're running against a sitting president, so he deserves the attention he's getting. however, i think he does deeverybody serve a little more scrutiny because his idea seem unorthodox to some peel. howard: does this show the media are desperate for -- kennedy's not going to beat president biden or unforeseen things. right now rfk's the only horse they can ride. >> i think the counterargument is, is the media acting like a gatekeeper and not letting the american people see and decide for themselves the alternative democratic candidate? if you don't show at least some of what he's putting on his platform, the reporters have a responsibility of pointing out, as you did in your show, he's saying these controversial e marks and including fact checks in their articlingses. but at the moment, he doesn't need to have a ton of attention, he's to not polling incred write well, but he's still someone in the race. howard: i would just say if you're going to cover robert f.

kennedy jr., take him seriously. if you take him seriously, you scrutinize a lot of the crazy things he said. they're scientifically unproven, and if that had been the focus, i think he'd be knocked out of the race by now, but instead, he's being treated a little bit gingerly. if he continues to pull big number, we may see tougher coverage, olivia, susan, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. howard: still to come, roseanne's shockingly anti-semitic rant and the cage match between wealthy tech titan, is it back on? ♪ to reel in the fun and savor every bite. to help you get ready your aspen dental team is celebrating 25 years of affordable care with an epic summer of smiles event. don't miss enjoying a moment, with our onsite labs to help you, fast, and 20% off your denture care. so, whether you need a new look or a quick fix, you can celebrate with a smile all season—

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howard: roseanne barr went off on an anti-semitic rant this past weekend. she declared nobody died in the holocaust, absolutely disrespectful to the families of

all those jews hitler killed. continuing, she said that's the truth. it should happen, 6 million jews should die right now because they caused all the problems in the world. has she been hanging out with kanye in and the bizarre thing, she finished by noting she's jewish. she said on friday anti-semitic is the reason abc booted her last year. i've always liked roseanne, but this is beyond the pale. what's the deal with the cage match between mark zuckerberg and elon musk? now tmz says the italian government has offered the concession -- excuse me, the coliseum, for the alleged match. musk says there's some chance that happens but need to work on my endurance going up against facebook's zuck who won a gold medal in jiu-jitsu. why do i have the sneaking suspicion we're all being

played? jesse watters, who's been popular since his man on the street interview, is taking over the open 8 p.m. eastern time slot. laura ingram says she's excited to move back to 7 p.m., greg gutfeld, moves his news and comedy show an hour earlier to 10 p.m. and geraldo rivera got a nice sendoff after 23 years at fox. the network says they reached an amicable conclusion with him. he is a character. >> and this is "american idol"! here we go. [cheers and applause] >> pat sajak giving up wheel of fortune, the replacement has been named. ryan seacrest who's hosted "american idol" for two days says i'm truly humbled to be stepping into the footsteps of the legendary pat sajak. that's it for this edition of

media was. hope you're enjoying this holiday weekend. check out my daily podcast, apple itunes is a good place to do it. we are back here, doesn't matter if it's a holiday, i show up. we're back here next sunday, # 11 eastern, with the only media analysis show on national television. ♪ finish ♪ ♪ huh, huh, so did their dog roger. ♪ ♪ gain scent beads keep even the stinkiest stuff smelling fresh.

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talk to your doctor about building new bone with evenity®! begin with fox news alert. let a holiday weekend in baltimore. at least two people shot and killed overnight. twenty-eight others wounded and a mass shooting at the block party. three victims listed in critical condition hello welcome to "fox news live" in bryan llenas bryan llenas interaction. molly: hi molly line in for arthel neville. police say the shooting happened just after midnight brooklyn homes and south of baltimore but did not identify a suspect. the baltimore mayor calls it ate