♪ ♪ dad: you can talk to me. son: it's been really, really hard for me. ♪ ♪ howard: half a century ago the media expect liberals loved the supreme court, and why not? those justices established the constitutional right to abortion in the roe v. wade and said race could be considered in college admissions. conservatives ripped those rulings but didn't try to discredit the court. but with today's john roberts court overturning both those rulings within a year, it's been something of a media freakout.

add to that the court knocking down joe biden's student debt relief and saying a web designer can't be forced to design a same-sex wedding sight, and -- site, and you have many infuriated democrats. congressman ted lou says he wants to expand the high court because of its radical, extreme supermajority. keep in mind that court pack turned into a fiasco for fdr are. affirmative action has always had a contradiction at its heart, hurting some people like asian-americans who are also a minority, or helping others such as blacks and hispanics. and it's brought out plenty of ugliness. the atlantic's jemele hill, who is black, saying you gladly carried the water for white supremacy and stabbed the folks in the back whose people fought diligently for asian-american rights, white supremacy? it's perfectly fine for pundits to attack coe discuss i rulings they don't like -- scotus rulings they don't like, but is it going too far to try to

undermine the institution? i'm howard kurtz9 and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ muck. ♪ ♪ howard: these end of the term rulings are fueling heated media reactions on the left and the right. sometimes in quite personal terms as well as from the president. >> reporter: is this a rogue court? >> this is not a normal court. >> impeach the justices, term limit the justices, pack the court. for all the talk of civility and the talk of the restoration of norms, it seems there ises no institution of our republic that won't be destroyed in defense of their democracy. >> this court has adopted a kind of imperial mindset. six right-wing politicians in robes on trump supreme court are ganting themselves the right to govern as a superlegislature. >> the court's affirmative

action ruling, which was pivotal, it's causing liberals' heads to explode. they are even using it to call asians white supremacists. and i'm not joking. i'm not making this up. >> it's the feeling that i and people who look like me and were born like me don't have the right to the promise of america as spelled out in our founding documents. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, ben domenech, editor at large for the spectator, and richard fowler, radio talk show host. both are fox news contributors. ben, how did we go from the media criticizing these last supreme court decisions to denouncing its credibility and calling it corrupt? >> welk one of the big things that's left out of all of this is that this court has actually been quite balanced in its rulings. it dealt some real losses to republican efforts when it came to redistricting and the like just earlier in this term. and, obviously, you know, there's a number of other areas where, you know, it performed in

ways that are completely at odds with the framing of them, you know, as chris hayes said there, of being this kind of imperial, you know, entity handing down rulings. the other thing that i think is left out here is that of all the entities that represent our federal government can at the moment, i would argue that the court is being the most representative of public opinion in the sense that if you actually look at the affirmative action question whenned asked both by harvard's own polling efforts and by the pew forum and the like over the last several years, it's a 70-30 issue at best. most recent pew poll was 74-26 in terms of the number of americans who are opposed to affirmative action. and so i don't think that this has the same kind of flavor as it would in perhaps other areas where it's viewed as the court sup planning itself over public -- supplanting itself over public opinion. they're ruling according to the constitution, and it is consistent with where americans are. howard: well, you have a point on affirmative action. richard, with aoc talking about

impeachment and dems talking about court packing, the media reporting on this is not that this is loony tunes. we all know none of this is going to happen. >> listen, i think the media's missing a story here, right? i think t important to figure out the missing story so you can understand where aoc and all these folks come up with court packing. that has to do with many of the ethical missteps the court has made over recent. pictures of supreme court justices palling it up with millionaires and billionaires who had cases in front of the court -- howard: specifically just two, clarence thomas and sam alito were reported by propublica to have accepted fringe benefits from billionaire pals. they deny any wrong doing. but, certainly, opponents of the supreme court on the left have seized on that. >> i think it's beyond just opponents on the left. i think folks on all sides are saying there should be some ethical boundaries that members of the supreme court have especially given the fact they have lifetime appointments and there is no way to say, hey, we're going to unelect them or they're behold.

en to the people. that a being said, when you put the affirmative action ruling in the microscope and you say, okay, so if this is true, why not look at this case and say is, hmm, is this really the problem with our admissions system in this country, or is it more so the fact that 40% of harvard's admitting students are folks who are millionaires' or billionaires' children, and they're a bigger hurdle to equity and admission to the universities -- howard: i'll come back to that. a few days after the ruling new york times, to its credit, says this really only involves about 10-15,000 black and hispanic applicants because most colleges accept is most applicants. so, but before that the coverage was like this was the apocalypse. >> no, i certainly think, you know, there's an overreaction on this point because of so much of the dedication of a lot of the significant portion of the left to the ideas that undergird the affirmative action system. but i would point to the analysis of someone who i think is one of the most intelligent

political analysts on the left who's former formerly at the center for american progress, now at aei, who made the point if you running against this, you're doing it at odds among the current trends, you're doing it completely at odds with what we see them saying about the way that they want our college system to work. and i didn't hear any of that in this media coverage, any of it sort of saying, well, you know, the court is basically saying we have to reset on these things, on these different questions. the colleges are free to analyze things in different ways which i expect that they will, or you know? leaning more into personal essays, leaning more into things like that as opposed to test scores. there's going to be a back/will, but -- backlash, but it's not this kind of hair on fire apocalypse. instead the i think the reaction of the american people kind of shows, no, this isn't the same thing. this is not something that, you know, the democratic party in particular is going to be able to lean into and gain political

benefit. howard: it's the difference between general public opinion and the media. between boston, new york and washington. look, some of this gets very personal. of msnbc host joy reid said she never would have gotten into harvard without affirmative action because she had no college test prep. what's been your experience in the perception? >> look, i think there's a couple things, and i think to a point ben is right. even those folks who are celebrating this ruling saying this equalizes the college admissions system, let's take a look at the numbers. and i think the media miss this point too. georgia's a great place to do it. the state of georgia has 30% african-american population. the university of georgia only has 8.2% african-americans in its student body. so the idea that affirmative action is somehow creating this bastion -- howard: that it's the magic bullet. >> -- is not actually true. but to ben's point, i think what this ruling will actually do is cause universities to look at many of the inherent biases that

exist in the admissions process, the least among them which is legacy admissions and, two, standardized testing. because college has become so competitive, many students are engaging in test prep at the eighth grade because their parents can afford it. how do we say, hmm, maybe this student is better than this student -- howard: so the lawyers for civil rights just sue harvard on this question of legacy admissions, the sons and daughters of donors or others who went to harvard in this case. 70% of those are white, 28% of the student the body are made up op of legacy admissions. i had no idea it was that high in a recent year. and they have a seven times better chance of being admitted. the media never seemed concerned about it. [laughter] so what? big deal? >> i would agree with richard that's actually a bigger problem. look, you know, the colleges are free to make these decisions,

but i think what you actually see there is manager that is that is a problem that's much bigger than on the surface. you might say it doesn't matter whether you have this unfairness when it comes to legacies at harvard. they tend to to flow into the nation's elite. the elite in our corporate world and our -- howard: harvard, yale -- >> of course, multiple institutions. as someone who has argued consistently on your show and others on this network, we have a problem with america's elite right now because it does not look like the country, it's it's not connected to the rest of the country, and it's doing a poor job of what we ask it to do. we're always going to have a class of elites, but we want them to be good at their job, and unfortunately at the current moment we don't, and maybe a big part of that is we've been credentialing people as opposed to make them do the work to earn the advantages they achieve. howard: washington post story, biden faces renewed pressure to embrace supreme court overall, but he's resisting it. >> look, i understand why.

he seems to be very traditionalist, somebody who believes in washington institutions, so that does not shock maine i do think ben has a point. and when you think about the legitimacy of the supreme court, 98% of the supreme court justices came from yale and harvard, and at those institutions you have a problem with legacy add migs. howard: hocking. >> so we're having this conversation around the elites in this country and making sure that that reflects what the country actually looks like both in socioeconomics as well as racial breakdown whether we're going to have a conversation about the 6% of african-americans there or the 28% like you quoted of rich folks and harvard alums -- howard: you both have made the point and, by the way, you're agreeing way too much -- [laughter] that the media have missed this point or that point. why do you think that is? does that have too with the mistakeup of -- >> i think it absolutely does, including a lot of people who have gone through a lot of these institutions, have fellowships connected to them, have reasons they can end up as an ad jupt professor after they graduate

from the dirty work of cable news. [laughter] so because of that, they don't want to insult these institutions. but, look, i think the fundamental thing we have to get back to is as we try to adjust to a reality in which we are trying to appreciate diversity of thought and diversity of perspective, that that should include a broader range as opposed to set categories according to the political winds of the moment. howard: let me get a break. when we come back, now even liberal pundits are ripping hunter biden and his dad for barring hunter's forty child from using his -- fourth childin fromg) using his last name. ♪ mechanic have you tried downy rinse and refresh♪ it helps remove odors 3x better than detergent alone. it worked guys! ♪yeahhhh♪ downy rinse and refresh. i've become a bit of an expert in suncare... an spf-icianado if you will. my bottle of choice? neutrogena® ultra sheer a lightweight blend that protects 6 layers deep

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howard: hunter biden has9 settled a child support case brought by the four of -- mother of his fourth child who he's

never met but opposed her request that the 40-year-old -- -- 4-year-old girl be with able to use the last name bind. last name biden. jessica tarlov said this has gotten ugly. >> this is a moment where the president really could have told his son enough's enough. this is someone who is proud of the fact that her grandfather is the president of the united states. and doesn't get acknowledged and, frankly, the american people would care 0% about this, right? [laughter] we would just say, oh, he has seven grandkids, hunter slept with this woman. howard: and in today's new york times, ben, as you know, liberal columnist maureen dowd writes: the president can't defend hunter on all these other messes and draw the line at accepting one little girl. you can't punish her for something that she had no choice about. jessica tarlov and maureen dowd and others write there's something downright unseemly here. >> i think the big reason that

this has gotten so much attention is that it's a human story as opposed to being a political story, and it cuts directlyly against the kind of joe biden that a lot of americans believe that they voted for and that they have known for a long time; that is, the empathetic joe, the joe that's experienced personal tragedy and all sorts of different things in his life. and instead, to have "the new york times" report, you know, this weekend, this past weekend that, you know, you -- there have been instructions from the highest levels that aides are supposed to refer to six grandchildren, you know, that obviously jill biden's book was dedicated the their six grandchildren, there's been a total closing off of this young girl and that, you know, all the other sort of details about hunter's activity where hunter refers to, you know, the mother of his child as what's her name and things like that in text, that's one thing. that is different from joe. people are not using to seeing -- used to seeing that from joe, and this is the thing that i don't understand and maybe richard has thoughts on this. this is the easiest win in the

world for joe. joe can ask this little girl to come to the white house to meet him, they can get some behind the scenes shots. they don't need to make a big deal out of it, they can basically embrace her and say we love our son, we love our granddaughter. we understand every family is messy, every family goes through different things, but we accept her and don't deny her, and then the story's over. and people are like, great, good for joe, and they can go back to feeling -- ine ted it's this bunker mentality that i think really turns people off. howard: ordinarily, richard, i would say this is a private matter for hunter biden who as part of the set element had to offer some of the proceeds of his painting, and he's insisted and has won this, that his daughter daughter cannot use the biden name. >> yeah, listen, i always say this, when adults do adult things, you can't trap kids in there, and i think this young lady, this little girl is the victim of circumstance, and i don't think she should be trapped into this media story. where i agree with jessica tarlov is this: if this story, and i also agree with ben here,

if joe biden said this is my granddaughter and i love her like i love my other six grandchildren, the story would go away. this is an unforced error. is this the biden white house or is this the biden family, and where's the delineation between the two pieces. howard: right. the president has made clear he doesn't want a vice from his aides, and i think he's going along with what his son wants. and you made the point, ben, what is joe biden known for, family, empathy the, you know, losing family members right after he was elected to the senate, 1972, due to a car crash and yet he's going along with hunter 's plan. now that people on his own side are, are criticizing him in pretty blunt terms, i guess we'll see whether he just hopes the story goes away. >> look, i just -- keep in mind the sequence of the last two weeks. you have this plea deal, this sweetheart plea deal and from my perspective for hunter, you have him show up at the state dinner which was, obviously, jen psaki

herself criticized that, said it was bad optics. then you have the revelation of this deal in terms of his child support, and then the you have this, you know, crazy sort of situation with, you know, cocaine at the white house while he's showing up at the front of the white house and the like. no, no, i think it's a continuum for people. i think what it suggests -- >> continuum for you -- >> no, no, i think what it suggests to most people is that this doesn't look like the white house that we thought we were getting from joe biden. howard: i see. >> it doesn't look like the kind of family situation that we were promised, norms and stability -- howard: and you just tee me up -- >> and this just seems like a really bad situation. >> it's a little unfair to -- and, listen, don't get me wrong, i think we can have a conversation about hunter, him not paying taxes, his business dealing, the 5-year justice department investigation, what's happening on capitol hill. let's separate that from the fact that hunter's somebody who's recovering from being, somebody who's had a hard road

with drugs -- howard: let me jump in. there's been all this media speculation, does the cocaine belong to hunter even though the family wasn't there, and i know there's arguments about when were they there. is it unfair to go on tv and just toes this out? >> i think it's very unfair because it's not substantiated by reason. hundreds of people go through the white house. to assume -- >> i will dispute that. >> -- the fact that it's one person is ridiculous. especially on the fourth of july weekend when they were having multiple events -- >> i would like to dispute that only because, and i'm sure you've been to the white house, the lower level of the white house where this was found not actually well trafficked. that is a place -- i have put my phone in that cubby, okay this. >> so have i. >> but you and i know when you go to that a part of the white house, you're meeting. >> all the times i put any phone in that cubby, i've been in

meetings with 20-30 people. to assume it's one person -- >> i don't think you can assume anything -- >> but you just didn't. >> no, i do think that the nation is saying as a whole this looks like a family situation that is not what we thought it was the, and the white house is not behaving in the way that we expected it. howard: i think the last place hunter biden would put cocaine if he is using again would be in a federal building -- [laughter] that's it. ben or, richard, thanks so much. up next, cocaine found in the white house, why are tv anchors finding that so funny? and gw waters down a piece on media titan david zaslav. he fund serve up great times. to help you get ready ♪ng

howard: evan gersch can cowits is "the wall street journal" reporter who has now been wrongfully detained by the russians for more than 100 years on bonus -- 100 days.

journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until evan is released. >> we want to draw attention to evan's plight. we don't want him to be forgotten. so today's a really good day for everyone to get behind us to hoe their support on social media, to pick up a copy of the paper, take pictures, send it to their friends. howard: it has been an absolute ordeal to evan's family, and for the russian-speaking reporter to be behind bars as the ukraine war rages on. >> how frustrated is it for you? >> this is absolutely nothing i can do even though i would like a chance to do anything. >> he just wanted to get the next story and the next story, so i know that must be one of the hardest things right now. howard: one possible glimmer of good news, the biden administration's efforts to free gersch coswifts -- gershkovich, a spokesperson saying the countries are talking about a possible prisoner swap.

>> but those discussions have not produced a clear pathway to a resolution. howard: prisoner swaps, as you know, are often controversial. i hope our diplomats can find a way to bring evan home very soon. secret service, as we talked about, investigating cocaine found near a work area of the white house when the biden family was away for at least the holiday weekend. that's pretty serious stuff, but for some anchors, the story was somehow hi hilarious. >> they're kind of blaming it on the tourists. >> are people careless with their cocaine? [laughter] >> you know, it's an expensive drug. >> of course, social media's trying to make fun, bring up hunter's name. it's not funny. >> no, it's not. >> i think cheap shots taken against hunter biden, he's a recovering addict. >> i would like to know blow by blow who is responsible for this. [laughter] howard: i don't know. a white house drug probe doesn't seem especially humorous to me. gq magazine ran a piece titled

how david zaslav became public enemy number one in hollywood. after a day, the piece vanished into the ether replaced by a short, just the facts version. it was missing such passagings as whether he's the most hated man in hollywood and carrying on like a mogul but only good at breaking things. a zaslav spokesman complained to gq which now says they regret the editorial error of publishing the story before it was ready. the times' bailey told "the washington post" i wrote what i felt was the story i was hired to write. when i was asked to rewrite it, i declined. i asked asked to have my name removed and was told the option was to pull the article entirely, and i was fine with that. it's pretty clear that gq caved to pressure. marjorie taylor green was on the show a couple weeks ago, she's

been booted from the house freedom caucus in part because of the argument with lauren boebert. she says she didn't come here to serve any group. she's a staunch ally of kevin mccarthy who doesn't always do what the caucus wants. next on "mediabuzz," a judge orders the biden administration to limit its contacts with social media giants as mark zuckerberg launches a copycat competitor to elon musk's twitter. charlie gasparino is on deck. ♪ hi, i'm michael, i've lost 70 pounds on golo.

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you nurture we listen, you teach we thrive. you lift our spirits, but we've gotta lay down the truth. it's time for you, our shero to stretch for the stars. a free online chat can give you the personalized tips you need to start boosting your retirement savings today. start saving more for retirement, so you can feel prepared and live your life to the fullest. visit aceyourretirement.org howard: a federal judge has ruled the biden administration must limit most contacts with social media giants in a suit filed by republican a.g. in louisiana and missouri. a decision some media folks are calling an attack on free speech, the trump-appointed judge ruled that biden officials went too far in lobbying to remove posts dealing with vaccines and interference in american elections. >> there are some allegations of some very heavy-handed tactics here where the government was

pressuring social media companies to say what it wanted to say. when the government is telling social media companies what to do, there is a risk of censorship there. >> for them to now suddenly are a hands-off attitude and let anything run rampant across all of these platforms would just be radical. howard: joining us now from connecticut, charlie gasparino, senior reporter at fox business network. charlie, the judge in this case, and the biden administration has appealed and the injunction could be overturned, says not only did the administration go too far in lobbying, pressuring these social media companies to take things down, but has silenced conservatives in the process. >> well, all that could be true, and this still could be kind of a funky ruling, right? obviously, the facts are not great here. the biden administration basically was trying to, basically got twitter, essentially, to censor anything that was not following the party line regarding vaccines and more than that. and actually getting people canceled.

alex berenson, the journalist, was canceled because he's a vaccine skeptic. all horrible, disgusting stuff. but i don't know, how is it illegal for the government to ask? howard: right. they don't make the final decision. the company make the final decision. >> right. we're reporting -- reporters. we get a lot of crap from people. people call our supervisors. the question, you know, you kind of want to have that dialogue with people that you're covering, and social media is kind of a journalism outfit even though it does have, you know, pleasures that we don't have like section 230 of the communications act, they can't get sued, but in any event -- howard: let me just jump in because the trump campaign did some of this as well, and the twitter files investigation uncovered is some of this, and the mainstream media basically ignored out. do you see it as a battle over free speechsome. >> you know, it is a9 ballot over fee speech. i don't know the law here. the law seems dubious here that you can tell the government not to call up anybody, not to call

up a social media company. now, if the government was essentially, i don't know, bribing them, extorting them, okay. you know, we'll take away x if you don't, if you don't ban alex berenson from twitter. then we're talking -- then that's legal, and that's not a first amendment issue, that's a crime, okay? can you charge a government for that -- howard: fair point. >> -- that gets into another area. howard: so mark zuckerberg got 70 million sign-ups in a couple of days for threads. everybody had to come over from instagram. i signed up, a little bit dull right now. doesn't that have to be considered a success even though people are saying it's kind of boring? it's four days old. let's see what it turns into. >> yeah. i mean, this is an interesting battle between these two heavyweights, elon musk, you know, obviously, the guy that now runs twitter. he didn't run it during the censorship days. and zuckerberg. they're both titans of tech and media, and, you know, z can uck has a broader vision.

i think it's more coherent than elon when it comes to social media, and he's looking at this whole a.i., you know, this virtual reality stuff. and what i think he's doing -- and this is just my my surmise -- is that he wants to somehow make threads into some sort of a media outfit that is combined with his a.i. i mean, that's where i think he's going. and you know what's interesting about that, when you combine all that together? it's very futuristic and novel, and, you know, we're a ways off, obviously, you know, that could put, that could really hurt twitter. elon is not, like, you know, out there on the a.i. thing really. i mean, he's behind the 8-ball. zuck has got a huge head start on him. so this is an interesting battle. watch this, because it has huge implications for social media, for a.i., for virtual reality -- howard: you know, the head of instagram said on the site, well, it's not in our interests to push hard news and politics, doesn't really help us. i commented on it because i think that's one of the main

attractions of twitter, and there was a kind of backtracking the. let me ask you this, musk, you know, had a lawyer sending a threatening letter accusing threads and zuck of engaging in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of twitter trade secrets. well, good luck with that. meta says they haven't hired anybody from twitter, and at the same time musk is actually turning twitter into a pay site, limiting the number of tweets you can see each day unless you pay the $8 a month subscription fee. >> again, you've got to look at this in the broader battle between zuck and elon. i mean, listen, elon has a problem, musk has a problem, and his problem is that twitter is not making money, and it's kind of expensive, right, to do all the stuff that it does. the upkeep for that technology to treat is -- tweet is very expensive. how do you pay for that? well, he could pull money out of his pocket which is selling tesla stock which he doesn't want to do, or he has to monetize one of his other

properties. a lot of people think he's going to do an ipo of starlink or one of those side projects he's doing. that's the only way to pay for that. zuck, other than, can pay for it out of -- on the other hand, can pay for it out of existing operations. so i think he sees an opening on how to go after musk. again, this is a fascinating story. it's a media story and also a huge business story. howard: yeah. look, people are calling mark zuckerberg or a copycat, he's been doing this for years. he doesn't care, he just wants to make money. look, musk -- let's go back to elon -- telling china he agrees with its core socialist values. obviously, an a attempt to keep selling cars there, but his conservative fans might be taken aback by this. >> yeah, i mean, listen, if conservatives want to hook their wag wagon, hitch their wagon to elon musk, be prepared for some wild stuff. i mean, he's all over the place. he's like jell-o. he's not a conservative. he's, i don't know, maybe sometimes a libertarian. he's also a businessman that has

to sell stuff, and when it comes down to it, when you've got to sell stuff, elon musk is really no different than larry fink, jamie dimon and every other corporate oligarch that i know. i like these guys -- [laughter] howard: yeah. it's a them of endearment for you. i know you train all the time, are we ever going to see this cage match between musk and zuck? i don't think so. >> based on what i know, and i only know this from listening to joe rogan, zuck will kill elon musk. howard: yeah. which is why elon musk is not going to do it. all right, charlie, no cage match between you and me. great to see you. thanks so much. after the break, how the press is covering donald trump versus ron desantis on fund raising, gay rights. it's getting a little ugly. ♪ ♪

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howard: when donald trump nearly doubled his fund raising total from the if first quarter, $35 million, many pundits said it's because of his duel indictments -- dual indictments. after the head of his own pac said desantis is the clear underdog, the governor was asked about his sinking poll numbers. >> why is it, in your estimation, the numbers have not reflected your success in florida? >> well, i think if you look at the people like the corporate media, who are they going after? who do they not want to be the

nominee? they're going after me. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage in new york, charlie around know, outkick.com/charly. and with me, kevin walling, democratic strategist. charlie, you don't usually hear the head of some candidate's pac saying it's going to take us a long time to catch up. does that produce headlines like this one in the new york in "the new york times," desantis campaign continues to struggle to find its footing? >> yeah. you don't normally hear this spokesperson saying that. i think it's a good indication that there are some struggles that everyone's realizing internally. you just look at it from the beginning of his campaign, he had it on twitter spaces, many would call it a failed launch. highly are unsophisticated. ron desantis also just lacks a lot of the charisma that we see from other candidates, former president trump, vivek ramaswamy, for example. you also look at kind of the

gaffes that have been made surrounding his campaign team. i mean, just one day after announcing the fact that they had all the campaign cash coming in, they failed to do their due diligence, they didn't get the proper licensing for one of their paid-for ad as, and that would have only cost them a couple thousand dollars. when you make mistakes like this, it's hard to understand how he expects to suck'd e in a big way -- succeed in a big way. howard: let's will look at some pictures from the other night, las vegas, ufc, donald trump hobnobbing with celebrities k and he generates excitement. so, kevin, i know the press loves to fixate on fund raising. jeb bush raised $100 million and went nowhere. do you agree with the politico and elsewhere that the dual indictments have actually helped donald trump raise money in. >> oh, no question. he came back to bedminster that night and raised $2 million, the same day that he was indicted and showed up in court in florida. so, but again, i think the media loves to fuel this narrative, loves to give oxygen to donald

trump because it's good for ratings. you have a desantis -- howard: the media also want him to be the nominee because they think he can be beaten? >> oh, 100%. as a democrat, that's who i would like to see. howard: you made your vote clear. >> but listen, the desantis team is not out of contention whatsoever. we've got our first debate coming up in august, of course, that's going to be on our network here. and $150 million haul between the hard side and the soft side is not insignificant whatsoever. howard: it's a long campaign, so we do always have to remind people of that. but governor desantis is getting a lot of flak for an ad that he ran to try to demonstrate that donald trump has flip-floppedded on lgbtq and trans rights. let's just run a little piece of that. >> i will do everything in my power to protect our lgbtq citizens. howard: charlie, the liberal side of the media a really beating up on this and calling the ad homophobic and so worth

which, of course, the governor denies. is this fair, in your view? >> you know, i just think it was a very strange thing to publicize. we understand why he did that. his goal was to really a paint trump as a being a eye poo near -- pioneer in the admission to reject -- by saying he would allow transgenders in his beauty pageants but now taking a more aggressive dance to be more anti-lgbtq. but really in my opinion, desantis is between a rock and a hard place because on one hand he can't so publicly criticize president trump because that would be political suicide, but on the other hand, he can't so much disalign his own talking points from trump because of the same reason are. to me, it's kind of like, you know, what do you do? howard: yeah. the lead headline on drudge today is desantis -- [inaudible] which is unfair, but that that's the kind of press he's getting.

desantis is running to trump's right. are the media convinced this is a bad strategy, or do they just not like these conservative culture war stances? >> i think it's part both of those situations. they have a winner picked out because, again, the ratings issue. they want to see whoever runs in that second place taken out by their great white hope which is donald trump in terms of -- howard: it's funny to hear you call donald trump the great white hope. the media can't stand president trump. -- trump. >> they love to talk about him, certainly. howard: they love the ratings. desantis, who has not shown he's a natural campaigner, has carefully choreographed public events, offered few headline-generating moments. that seems like a fair observation. >> yeah. a little bit awkward, i think we can all agree, when he talks. it's a good thing his wife is a former television host. she's probably at home trying to give him some tips -- howard: and she's on the

campaign trail. >> exactly. and you just see, you know, her kind of stepping up for him in so many instances which is great, but it also really then, i guess, more shows us how unprepared that desantis and his team really are for these events. just the other day we saw him standing there soaking wet because his campaign team failed to get umbrellas during an event where it was -- howard: i'm so glad you mentioned that because it was mentioned in a numb of these new york times stories, the media love a met for. if he was neck and and neck with trump, who cares whether he got caught in a rainstorm. otherwise, aha, we got him. still to come, why symptom -- some in the media are pushing democrats to dump joe biden or at least find a real primary to exempt. -- opponent. ♪ ♪

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howard: president biden with his undeniably low poll numbers isn't getting a lot of love from the media. in the hill, columnist becca adams says we need a serious conversation about joe biden's brain. jack schafer has a piece in politico, why democrats should primary biden. the atlantic's lead story, step aside, joe biden. charlie, why are so many in the media so determined to see a challenge to biden? is it because they're afraid the president -- he'll be just shy of 82 on election day -- will lose? >> well, it's funny that you say he should step aside because i feel if he did, he would likely fall down, and that's the whole point here, howie. he's so old that he's just losing it, and every day it becomes so much more apparent. it's the verbal gaffes, god save the queen to putin is losing the war in iraq, tbroaping eva longoria, it's very awkward. it's almost like your embarrassing grandfather, yet it's not your with grandfather, it's the man leading this country, and i think people

realize if he's losing this day by day and it's being noticed on a world stage, what's it going to look like if he tries to run again? it's obvious to everybody that he is not going to be the candidate. there's just absolutely no way. howard: that's an interesting prediction. as somebody who's covering him for a long time, i can tell you, he made gaffes even when he wasn't this age. gavin newsom or gretchen whitmer or a hundred other dems are dying to run, but they would risk their political careers if they took on an incumbent of their own party and lost. >> i think it's a suicide mission for anyone considering a primary challenge to the president, and we've seen in recent memory those kind of challenges against an incumbent president often weaken that president, whether it be pat buchanan, gerald ford and ronald reagan, so i don't think they're interested in going down that path whatsoever. howard: well, interesting, suicide mission. charly, the media clearly want a race, that's a given, but is it

also possible if there was a serious candidate, a significant number of democrats given the choice of someone other than maryann williamson or rfk jr. would abandon the president? >> yeah, i definitely think so. i think all it would take is joe biden putting all of his power behind someone younger, really pushing them out into the spotlight, someone who's young, energetic, charismatic. i definitely think there could be a better candidate, although i think gavin newsom is the front-runner here. howard: right. if, in fact, he was to get in the race -- >> exactly. which i imagine he will, probably by late summer, i imagine that's going to be the case. howe and yet, kevin, you say that or somebody else doing it is a suicide mission. and so it's just so interesting. a lot of these publications are at least left of center, and they're all, they're saying -- eliot cohen with the atlantic piece says clinging to office in old age is selfish. and they're all saying biden would get applaud. [applause] for all he's accomplished in

their view in his first term and then he gets off the stage and the world moves on. >> howie, you've covered presidents for a long time, it's very difficult when you're in that position and you have the chance to run for re-election -- howard: yeah. you get to ride on air force on- >> 29 when he was elect. howard: come back to your suicide mission, i like that phrase. what makes it so certain that somebody, you know, as gene mccarthy pushed lbj out of the race in 1 # 60, that would be a complete failure. >> it's very difficult, obviously, to do that. but right now gavin newsom is running hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising -- howard: a shadow campaign. >> 100%. he's raising money for a national pac i think with the idea of running down the line. he's building his national profile, taking on ron desantis, of course. so it's an interesting dynamic playing out. howard: well, it's good to be prepared, right? kevin, charly, thank you so much. and that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz.

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