(♪) (♪) (♪) (♪) (♪) experience the magic of the season at santa's wonderland with a free photo with santa— a holiday tradition to treasure forever. bass pro shops and cabelas— your adventure starts here. ♪ ♪ howard: we'll get to the coverage of the barely-avoided

shutdown melodrama in a few moments and be joined by congresswoman nancy mate. s donald trump is back to beating up on the media and using lawsuits as a powerful weapon after winning $16 million and an apology from abc and george stephanopoulos. trump ramp chedded -- ratcheted up his rhetoric. >> i have to do it. costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten out the press. our press is very corrupt. almost as corrupt as our elections. howard: the president-elect then sued the des moines des moines register and highly respected pollster ann exemptioner who forecast trump would lose the state he went on to to win by 13 points. >> then she brought it down to where i was down by 3 or 4, whatever number, and that was "the des moines register". and it was their parent and, in my opinion, it was fraud and if it was election interference. howard: he's also pursuing legal action against "600 minutes" for

the -- 60 minutes for the obvious blunder of substituting a kamala harris response to a different question. >> where they took kamala's answer which was a crazy answer, a horrible answer, and they took the whole answer out, and they replaced it with something else. howard: the new york times reports that disney ceo bob iger approved the settlement because he was worried about losing a flawed case. steph knop if louse repeatedly said trump had been found liable for rape when it was actually sexual abuse and having to play a lot more plus the embarrassment of having to turn the over texts and e-mails from its star anchor. look, trump somehow moved from if saying he had tamed the media to filing and threatening lawsuits designed to have a chilling effect on journalism and, perhaps, improve his own coverage which for years has been, let's face it, largely hostile. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ ♪

howard: the reaction to trump's legal offensive, not surprisingly, has been largely divideed. >> george stephanopoulos just cost abc $15 million because he defamed trump, and the post reports he's humiliated. first, disney lost to desantis, and now they're funding trump's presidential library. and stephanopoulos is apoplectic. >> got a snapshot of the race wrong, even though it didn't actually affect the election. even if it did, he won anyway. >> i think one of the reasons republicans are cheering on this muscular attitude from trump and pushing back against some of this is because republicans feel like constantly media organizations, especially in the throes of campaigns, work overtime to create false narratives that may shape the contour it is of the election. >> ann seltzer, ann doesn't have to worry.

"the des moines register," they don't have the worry. that'll be thrown out very quickly. cws news -- [laughter] -- cbs news,for their edits, what they did in the edit bay on "600 minutes," doing what 60 minutes has been doing f like, 60 years. >> this is a moment as well for those who claim to be journalists, you're not going to get away with this crap. donald trump is going to play offense, and the american people don't rust the media at the same time either. >> this was stunning to me and absolutely a gut punch to anybody that works at a major media company. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage in new york, jason chaffetz, fox news contributor and former republican congressman, and in san diego, laura fink, ceo of revelle communications. jason, why is donald trump threatening all these lawsuits? it had seemed like he was moving toward a truce with the press. >> well, you can disagree with

the president, you can offer an opinion that's different, but it you're going to outright lie, if you're going to manipulate what you know to be something else, then i think the president feels like he's left with no other solution but to go to court. that is the remedy in this country. that's what you're supposed to do. he's been complaining about this for a long time, and there's been so many hoaxes, so much manipulation that a lot of us have been cheering on the president saying, good, let's play offense. tell people you can't perpetuate these lies and just get away with it because hay go en masse, they go unanswered. but now in the steph the knop louse case, the abc case is a good example of the fact that donald trump was right and abc and steph knop if louse were wrong. howard: laura, trump would lose most of these cases as a public figure because you'd have to prove if malice or reckless disregard for whether something is true, but does that matter to

him? >> he's used this tactic over and over and over again whether you're talking about the cases of election fraud that got thrown out if not needily, almost immediately, and so forth. huh once said when he was suing the author of a book, it cost me a couple of bucks it cost him a lot more. i would say be careful what you wish for to the republicans who are cheering this on and to the conservative news outlets that might be liking that her competitors are under scrutiny that if the malice standard changes at the supreme court or if these lawsuits are his weapon of choice, be careful crossing him as he continues to pursue policy publish tyes that are unron lahr -- initiatives -- some of which even with these same conservative outlets. the disclosure of internal tock do units, we know, have been very embarrassing across the board, and there's a price to pay. the question is, will the press be chastened by this in their coverage of substantive things that affect americans like the

gutting of regulations that protect workers, a protect consumers or -- howard: all right. >> -- the raising of tariffs and if lowering taxes. howard: this is where i jump in. jason, trump has openly said, he doesn't make any secret of it, if he loses these lawsuits, he's still satisfied because it puts the journalists or media organization new an ordeal and forces them to hire expensive lawyers. >> yeah. but he's hand-picked some cases that the i think he has some very valid points. the pulitzer prize to hand out awards for if people who were perpetuating what was proven to be an outright -- howard: wait, what's the outright lie? let me stop you there. >> well, on the russia hoax and they knew over the course of time that those were wrong, then i think the big question is, did they know it, when did they know it, did they continue to do those types of things, and hal play itself out in the court -- that'll play itself out in the court. that's the type of thing that i think the he's going to say i

can demonstrate, i can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these things are fundamentally wrong, and you knew it and you continued to perpetuate the lie. howard: the pollster board has said there were no inacura rassis in the article submitted by "the washington post" and the new york times. laura, you kind of touched on this earlier, the chilling effect. would some news outlets hold back and say maybe we shouldn't run this story because we don't want to end up with, in a lawsuit with president trump. >> it's something to consider particularly because the policies he's pursuing are wildly unpopular. you want cut $2.5 trillion from the federal budget? you're going to have to go after social security, you're going to have to have to go after medicaid -- [laughter] that's just a math issue. and so when he's going after these wildly unpopular programs, do they feel the pressure to pull punches in their coverage of these initiatives and coverage of how it would affect if american families. we with just saw this year

kroger and albertson's be stopped from merging, one of the biggest potential grocery mergers because of higher price, and that's an ftc -- the ftc stopped that and the courts who stopped that. will the administration be chastened when they are pursuing these policies that affect the pocketbooks of americans, that's the question. >> look -- howard: go ahead, jason. >> laura, with all due respect, we just had an election about this. to say they're not popular is totally inaccurate. they were wildly accurate -- wait, hold on. don't tell us he's going to go out and attack social security and all that. again, that's been debunked. the president's said he's not going to do that -- >> [inaudible] >> wait. laura, hold on for a second. >> it's math. >> about issues, we can debate. the president, i think, is willing or wanting to have the debate. that's what congress is all about. but that is far different than george stephanopoulos lying about what happened to donald trump. that is far different than these other lawsuits. they're not about policy.

they are about legal terms and the characterization of the president. was it legal and lawful. howard: let me turn now to the des moines register lawsuit. so trump's lawsuit says that seltzer's polling, ann is seltzer, was not an astonishing coincidence. it was intentional, she knew exactly what she was doing, it was election interfering action. fiction, excuse me. so when the suit was just a threat, a spokeswoman for the register said the paper had released all its technical information. we stand by our reporting on the matter and believe a lawsuit would be without merit. and ann seltzer told iowa if pbs the following. >> but to suggest without a single shred of evidence that i was in cahoots with somebody, i was being paid by somebody, it's all just kind of -- it's hard to pay too much attention to it except that they are accusing me of a crime.

howard: laura, do you think this suit if it is to be pursued will find any wrongdoing by the register and now-retired ann seltzer? >> no. but that's not the point. donald trump knows that's not the point. i respect the congressman's intelligence to know that also is not the point. the point is to make an example, to have a chilling effect on the accountability that the press provides. and donald trump knows what he's doing. he's actually very, very good at this, and it does have that chilling effect because of the corporate ownership. because individuals who might be sued, reporters, pollsters, others, that costs them a lot of time and money, and donald trump has a lot more than they do in that regard. so it does, it will impact coverage of these critical issues that do affect americans. and i would say this, his policies are unpopular. howard: okay. i don't want to debate the popularity of his policies. obviously, he won the election. you keep going to that, and i want to stick with the coverage. didn't mean to the -- >> [inaudible] if. howard: well, jason, trump told

me and other journalists that success would be the best retribution. but he also posted that liz cheney could be in a lot of trouble after after a republican subcommittee said she should, be investigated for allegedly improper dealings with the house january 6th committee and marley witness cassidy hutchinson. go ahead. >> yeah. well, i think this is going to play out. i think they're going to go and look at what did that committee do, how did they do it, did they destroy records? look, going to court is far different than going before congress. i used to chair the oversight committee, and it is different when you come and testify and how you do things there. was it in violation of house rules? i think the house has to lead out on that. the president has said perhaps the fbi would look at some of the forensics and how things happened. we'll see how that a plays itself out, but there are a lot of legitimate questions that i think congressman jordan, congressman if comer as chairman

in the committee as well as potentially the fbi are going to look at. howard: laura, liz cheney said the report fabricates lies in an attempt to cover up what donald trump did. and it goes to this thing that was a big issue in the campaign although obviously, again, trump winning by a healthy margin the electoral college which is, is he out for retribution or not. he says he's not going to personally get involved, he would leave it to his attorney general and fbi chief. >> well. and pam bondi has demonstrated her loyal deto trump. it's sort of one and the same. but his prosecuting the case against his perceived political enemies is part and parcel of who he is. he does have an enemies' list. it's why kash patel has been nominated to be head of the fbi, because these are people that are going to, to the degree they can pursue trump's agenda of relately buying. the question is, how does this benefit the american people?

we've seen over and over again congressional republicans investigate, investigator, invest and come up with bub kiss, and i think that's what we'll see again today -- howard: i would just point, again, i'm running up against the a break here, pam bondi was a state attorney general and, therefore, certainly more qualified than matt gaetz was. and also i think that whatever congress does, jason would know this, would be protect by the speech and debate claus. but he has a different view. ahead, elon musk, how he and donald trump blew a last minute spending deal, blew up a last minute spending deal, i should say. how trump used his presser to make a blizzard of news, when we come back. ♪ i'm so proud to see who you've become, and i know, that when i need you, you'll be there. but it's okay to accept a little help.

so you can be my daughter. not my nurse. or my caretaker- just you. ♪ ♪ home instead. for a better what's next. dry eyes still feel gritty, rough, or tired? with miebo, eyes can feel ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ miebo is the only prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause of dry eye: too much tear evaporation. for relief that's

♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ remove contact lenses before using miebo. wait at least 30 minutes before putting them back in. eye redness and blurred vision may occur. ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ ask your eye doctor about prescription miebo.

howard: the president-elect was cheerily enjoying himself when he answered one question after another on all kinds of topics. >> reporter: can you talk about the drones? >> i think they'd be better off saying what it is. our military knows and our president knows. and for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense. you're not going to lose the polio vaccine. that's not going to happen. i saw what happened with the polio. >> [inaudible] can you gives your thoughts about that? >> just a cold-blooded, horrible killing. and how people can like this guy is -- that's a sickness. we'll a take a look at tiktok. you know, i have a warm spot in my heart for tiktok. howard: jason chaffetz, we could have played about ten more. for a president to make that much news on that many subjects at a press conference is a reminder of how he shapes and often control cans the news agenda. >> yeah. and i think america loves it. extemporaneous speaking should

be a core skill set for a president. biden and harris demonstrated that neither of them could do it, and so donald trump is just asking questions as they come. no notes, to no preconceived list of people that he would select on, and i just think, i think america loved it, and he's going to get a lot more of it because he'll answer questions from pretty much anybody every day. howard: laura, that's a pretty sharp contrast with president biden who who went to africa and didn't answer a single press question. >> pride season in the final weeks of his -- president biden is in the final weeks of his tenure, so taking pot shots at him is sort of cheap at this point. president trump said a couple of things, the first with -- is everybody wants to be my friend. we know where he's going to be when it comes time to legislate, the pass policies. he's not thinking about the american people, he's thinking about the people that are running the companies, he's thinking about the people that have all the money already of we saw that with elon musk calling

the shots and overturning what 38 members of the republican party stood up against which is a debt ceiling increase, etc. this is -- he is playing politics here and on his side of the sand box he's got folks that actually across political stripes people want a president to stand up, not to consider curry favor -- curry favor with. howard: wait a second. if mark zuckerberg and the head of google, elon miss, etc. -- elon musk, etc., want to hang out with him at mar-a-lago, they have the right to do that. >> no, no one's disputing that. but whose side are you on? >> laura -- >> that, i think, the american people can take. and i think it's something they're suspicious of. so you've got to be careful when you have got elon musk calling the shots, the richest man in the world. who are you going to actually be writing policy for? who are you going to be thinking about? and i go back to the $2.5 trillion in cuts. that's got to come out of regular americans' pockets, not

the guys rubbing elbows at mar-a-lago. howard: jason. >> laura, i'm sorry, but the election was pretty crystal clear that the working men and women in this country believed more in donald trump than they did in kamala harris and joe biden. >> [inaudible] >> hold on, laura, i get to answer -- howard: okay. one at a time. >> i get to answer this question. donald trump has pretty much opened his door to anybody. you had morning joe crew come in and sit down with him at mar-a-lago. the first interview he did was with kristin welker from nbc news. you can hardly make the case that they were friendly to him during the election. so i think he's shown that he is willing to work with anybody who's willing to to genuinely work with him. that's who he wants to do. and he's going to reach out in a bipartisan way. that's the key to his success. howard: i also thought trump was restrained enough that when one reporter asked are you going to retaliate against iran if the

hostages aren't released, he said i'm not going to answer that question. and it's a question she shouldn't answer. i know you disagree with him, laura, but he seems more serious and focused because, you know, during the campaign there's a lot about, you know, arnold palmer and mcdonald's and all that. but i thought he was responsive to questions from the press. >> i feel like i'm having a flashback to 2016 when everybody would comment on whether or not he had a moment of being presidential. we might be there again. but, again, what's he going to do with all of that goodwill? with the congressman saying he won the election, he absolutely did, and working people voted for him. but they've got their eye on him, and what is he going to do with that political capital, certain himself or their interests? howard: all right. laura fink, jason chaffetz, see more of jason tonight on "the big weekend show." up next, how the media ran

count countdown clocks toward a government shutdown that was literally avoided at the lastel minutedo.al ♪ls it's more than paint. it's more than cleaning. that's the thing we'll never forget. for belfor, it's your memories. it's your life's passion. it's your home. belfor, restoring more than property.

this is our story i was born with idiopathic infantile scoliosis. i've had 17 surgeries. i was born missing my lower right foot. i was born ten weeks early without my left arm. i have osteogenesis imperfecta. i've broken over 70 bones in my lifetime. with my polio, i have tough days and my pain just pops out out of nowhere. there's nothing to be afraid of because all the doctors are all so nice. most people think, oh, it's the medical side of things at shriners hospital. but for me, it's a confidence that i've gotten. when somebody sees these commercials. there'll be a phone number on the screen and all they have to do is call and make a donation to help kids like me. thanks to a generous donor,

every dollar you give will go three times as far to help more kids. when you join with us. we'll send you one of these adorable blankets as a thank you and a reminder of all the abilities you are helping make possible. we have so much to celebrate this time of year. please call or go to loveshriners.org. your gift of $19 a month will have three times the impact in the lives of kids like me. you are the best you because shriners has given you the confidence that you need. it's just really cool knowing that you're part of something bigger than yourself. shriners has given so much to us, and we have a mission, and we have a goal that we want to help more kids. from all of us at shriners hospitals for children™. merry christmas! merry christmas! please call the number on your screen or go to loveshriners.org. if operators are busy, please call again. and when you become a monthly donor, your first gift will be tripled. thank you for giving.

howard: elon musk tweeted more than 70 times existence that bipartisan spending deal saying any member of the house or senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years. hen donald trump weighed in saying even if all the extra are that spending was stripped from the stopgap measure, any republican would be so stupid as to do this should be and will be primaried. joining us now, griff jenkins. since elon musk led this assault on what was a bipartisan deal with trump kind of coming in behind him, griff, doesn't that underscore how host the most powerful private season -- citizen in the country but doesn't really understand how passing anything on capitol hill requires, i know it's a dirty

word, compromise. >> well, listen, there's no doubt that elons musk started the ball that turned into a we can wrecking ball,, tanking and torching the original continuing resolution. and if you needed any proof of that, having karoline leavitt, the incoming press secretary, having to get out there and say, hey, for the record, donald trump is the leader, quote, full stop. but i think the trump adviser saying it was always his intention that he wasn't happy with this bill, and the part that trump took it farther was focusing them all on the debt ceiling which he did not, trump, get in this deal. but he started the conversation because the debt ceiling wasn't even on the bingo card. one thing i think is interesting is how democrats have responded to it. you've already had a number of democrat members of congress from dan goldman to pa manila jayapal, starting to refer to elon musk as president musk. but here's the bottom line, bringing in someone -- in this case, one of the richest men in the world -- to to advise him is

perhaps not such a bad thing when you consider he s.t.a.r.t.ed paypal, tesla, starlink, spacex. what do they all have in common? finding different ways of thinking to do things. and the overwhelming majority of what the americans were saying in the last election is they feel washington's broken, they want a new approach. so perhaps the influence is justified if trump is taking advice from him to think of different ways to do things. howard: trump now says, he suggested elon tweet about this. and after the bill went down the first couple of times, speaker mike johnson, who people are questioning whether he's got a hold on that job, let it grow into the typical washington christmas tree. elon said the political and legacy media puppets got their new instructions and are now parrot toking the same message to drive a wedge between trump and me. they will fail. well, they didn't fail, and it wasn't because the media wasn't in lockstep, it was because they were on the verge of a potential default.

>> well, right. and, listen, elon musk certainly isn't a member of congress, can't be legally, and he doesn't appreciate, perhaps, fully the difficulty of getting anything done in washington. but i will say that you will see elon musk, i think, continuing to have some significant influence because as you were mentioning in the last segment, the number of billionaires whether it was originally mark zuckerberg a few weeks back, and then you saw jeff bezos and all of these people from silicon valley and elsewhere coming through mar-a-lago to sort of get on the same page. and that's a significant influence whether elon musk continues to, you know, these statements about lawmakers on x is one thing -- howard: yeah. >> but on the other hand, if there is a significant, perhaps, consequence of that, well, then that's what we're going to see going forward. howard: some of what musk put up turned out to be false including a 40% pay raise for congress, that wasn't true.

the bioweapons lab, that wasn't true. but he also said let's shut the government down until trump takes the oath on january 20th. remember, furloughed employees don't get paid until later, and at christmas time, that's a tough the thing to endorse. >> yeah. a good point you're making, howie. and he also said that the bill, the original bill was going to have $3 billion for an rfk stadium for the washington commanders. that's not the case. it was a land transfer. so he got that wrong. i think one thing, if you step back just for one second, if you remember in the butler, pennsylvania, rally when trump brought miss musk -- musk up on sage for the first time, he let elon speak, isn't he gate, and then -- great, and then he turned to him and said, don't get too big. it's always been the case in the trump world, there's only one star of the show, and his name is donald trump. howard: right. >> and it'll be interesting to see if this relationship continues to foster --

howard: the media are just waiting for them the a falling out. thanks so much, griff jenkins. next on "mediabuzz," congresswoman nancy mace on why she voted against the final version of the bill that kept the government open and those mystery drones. ♪ ♪

howard: joining us now from outside charleston, south carolina, is republican congresswoman nancy mace. welcome. you are -- >> good morning. howard: -- generally a donald trump support, yet you were one of three dozen republicans to oppose if him three times including on the final passage that avoided the government shutdown, even the stripped-down version that just kicks the can down the road three months and didn't include elimination of the debt ceiling which is what donald trump originally wanted. why was that unacceptable to you? >> first of all, i want to correct the record. i am absolutely, 100%, a supporter of donald trump. but i've also been in washington long enough to know what goes on up here. and what d.c. does is create

this emergency, this last minute, oh, my gosh, we have to do this or the whole world's going to come to an end, and i read the bill. i actually read all of the bills, and the difference between the first bill that was 1500 pages and the second one that was 116 pages, what most people don't realize is that it was the same exact amount of spending. in all three bills. so one of them, the first one, it did take out some of the regulations and authorizations that were really bad and the language, which was good, but it made pay go zero out get around the law about having offsets and having some of these things paid for which is not responsible, in my opinion. but also if we're going to lift the debt ceiling, we have to have some kind of an assurance or agreement that we will make offsets in sec -- reck reconciliation. it will be addressed in reconciliation, i fully support, that as long as we also cut spending. i'm not going to go against what people just voted me into office

for in november. i want us to do it responsibly and be successful because trump's agenda is the only one that matters right now. we have to deport illegals, we -- we have to work on cutting spending and balance whering the budge with. we've got to protect women. he can do all of those things in a fiscally responsible way that has checks and balances within the federal government. i don't trust congress to get his agenda right. howard: well, it's clear to me that in order to do all those things, you had -- i say, you, congress -- have to have some help from democrats. but trump said anybody who went existence him would be primaryed. are you worried after voting against the last measure? >> noment i voted in a way to protect his agenda because what we to do when we do debt ceiling, we also have to cut spending, and those things can be done together in in reconciliation. i support donald trump's agenda. i have. i endorsed him in the presidential election in my home

state of south carolina against all of his opponents. he supported me in my re-election, and i'm deeply grateful for that, and i will continue to support his agenda in every single way that i can. and, by way, that $15 million defamation he won was from an interview that i did in march. howard: we'll get to fit. the debt ceiling doesn't prevent more spending. it's about money the u.s. has already committed. >> yes. howard: then we have these christmas dramas, it seems. and you're right, a huge bill that no one has time to read. >> but the reason we have to keep increasing the debt ceiling is because of all the spending that people are doing in congress and in the white house. so it is sort of all tied together, and we have to do it. we have to do it. but we've also got to be thinking long term of how do we also cut spending in the long term. obviously, not over the next year, but maybe 5 10 or -- 5-10 or 15. there's a way to do this in a

reasonable, i think, manner. of howard: the mysterious drones, you said it's -- if it's not a craft from outer space, and i think that has to be on the table, so are to you not ruling out aliens? >> oh. well, i think everything's on the tableful i've been in some briefings where with specifically about two or three weeks ago we were in a classified setting, and i can't share what shapes these are, but there are two specific shapes that -- there were split image photographs of them that the u.s. federal government cannot identify and and don't know what they are. so i think that all options are on the table. with regard to the drones, i think it's very clear it's the u.s. government. i think it's very clear the u.s. government is lying to the american people and to congress. we don't really know what's going on. i do believe at least congress has the right to know so we can pacify some of the safety concerns and fears that people have all along the eastern seaboard. howard: so when the biden team says there's no national security threat here, are you

still skeptical? >> i am very skeptical. i don't believe anything the white house, biden administration says at thi howard: okay. you started to allude to this, and you were onset whe stephanopoulos talked about -- and we're going to play the clie believed that donald trump had been held liable for in that civil suit by the writer e. jean carroll. let's roll it. >> i'm not going to sit here on your show and be asked a question meant to shame me about another potential rape victim. i'm not going to do that. >> it's actually not about shaming you finish >> no, you are shaming me >> you've endorsed donald trump for president. donald trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. howard: you've spoken openly about being a rape survivor, but george stephanopoulos used the word rape repeatedly when it was

actually sexual abuse he was found liable for. >> ya yes. the $15 million interview. trump just won a $15 million defamation suit against george stephanopoulos and abc news, and i hope donald trump will sue anyone and everyone who has defamed him over the last pour year. hay do it over if and over again. the mainstream media has lowered the bar for journalism just because his name iston do trump. and if i hope, too, when congress gets in session that that we change section 230 because trump cannot sue the blogs that have also defamed him over the years because they're protected. we have to address this. i support him wholeheartedly. i'm proud to be an american, to be a part of that interview to put george stephanopoulos in that corner to make him at fault for the defamation that he and abc news put on donald trump. they might as well put mickey mouse ears on george stephanopoulos. that guy is a cartoon character. howard: okay. >> not a journalist. howard: certainly people that would disagree with that.

just real briefly circling back to the other subject, did donald trump and elon musk just make a tactical error by not realizing that they didn't have the votes to push through what hay wanted? >> no, i don't think so. and this is the how, this is how a republic works. this is how to debate works. this is how the sausage is made, and i think it's a healthy debate. i think it's really important that we have voices within the party that come together, and there were a lot of us in the room with the speaker on friday trying to hash this out. i wanted three single-subject bills including a clean c.r. with a guarantee that we would do some cuts with a debt increase. it was a really simple plan. that's not what ended up happening, but i am always going to be committed the making sure when we do reconciliation, when we come into the 19th --19th congress, that we execute trump's agenda in the best way possible. missouri howe nancy mace, thanks very much for joining us, congress congresswoman. >> thank you. howard: after break, peter doocy on the transition from joe biden to donald trump.

♪ ♪ if i retouched all my wedding photos, and it was even affecting my health. i trusted you because you specialize in dental implants. you created a permanent solution and customized my teeth so it still felt like me. my new teeth have improved my life and changed my future. - thank you. - you're so welcome. finance the smile you want for as low as one forty eight a month per arch. schedule a free consultation.

need a last minute gift idea? get the weathertech gift card! for laser measured floorliners, cargo liner, pet feeding system or the new garage wall protector. get your gift card instantly at wt.com howard: after four years of covering president biden, peter doocy switched to the trump transition. i spoke to fox's chief white house correspondent here in studio two. peter doocy, welcome. >> thanks, howie. howard: what has struck you about covering the trump transition of after four years of following biden around? >> the transition itself is a lot different because i remember in to 2017 i spent a lot of time

in new york city and in palm beach, and there were these nominees coming in for tryouts or hopefuls coming in for troyouts. and four years ago in wilmington, peak covid, they drew those little circles for us to sit in at a theater in wilmington. and he was out this a fair amount. it seems like the president-elect right now is taking advantage of a break. he's already been there. he knows that a press pool is going to be on him every day, 24/7, in january whether he likes -- howard: seems to be running the country. [laughter] >> well, there's that too. but he's able to run the country right now kind of on vacation. this is like a vacation until next month. and it seems like he's taking advantage. howard: president biden occasionally called on you and once apologized for insulting you. but in the last couple of years, it seemed like he didn't really call on many reporters at all, or you'd get a couple of quick comments by the helicopter.

very different style, obviously, than the incoming president. >> it's been less and less and less. and my experience with president biden is that he really liked having a chance to defend his positions, and probably three three-quarters of the times with me it was to raise his voice and show he's still got it. there's just been fewer and fewer opportunities for that. there's this "wall street journal" story suggesting maybe the 50 staffers who they interviewed, very few of them put their names on it, suggesting that the inner if circle was covering up a decline. and then you have to wonder, why would they do that. howard: let's talk about that "wall street journal" story, because it was deeply reported. in the last couple of years, it says that president biden barely spoke even to lloyd austin or janet yellen, that meeting were cut short and as well that a meeting would be canceled if he was having a bad day. >> well, remember, this time last year lloyd austin was in the problem with cardiac

problems, and we didn't know about it, the president didn't know about it for a long time which is a huge problem when there's a war going if on in ukraine that president biden lists as a top priority. if if you think back to this summer around the time of the dropout, there were a lot of questions about president biden's health. there was this doctor who was a parkinson's specialist how was cleared into the white house many, many times. we had an entire white house briefing once where almost every question was about what that doctor was doing, and we did not get clear answers. they essentially were saying, they were essentially citing hipaa if which becomes an issue when there are legitimate questions about an older president -- howard: he is still the president of the united states for another month, and here we go true the annual christmas stopgap measure drama, and he hasn't said a word. and democrats don't particularly want him to weigh in according to reporting. >> it seems like he wants to stick to the things that he's said when he dropped out.

he said he wanted to seek a hostage and ceasefire deal. he never mentioned he wanted to help avoid a government shutdown. [laughter] so that's just -- however it turns out, it's going to be dirty. howard: just briefly, were you surprised at some of the details in that journal story about biden's mental decline? >> by -- i was not surprised. i've had a lot of experiences with president biden. i think something that you get from that story is he never really -- you never really know when somebody is speaking on behalf of the president if they've actually spoken to the president. and every story like in that comes out, it seems like the circle is a lot smaller than we realized. howard: giving away the trade secrets. peterer doocy, thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks, howie. howard: and and we'll be right back. ♪pe y ♪ yourself.

i'm so proud to see who you've become, and i know, that when i need you, you'll be there. but it's okay to accept a little help. so you can be my daughter. not my nurse. or my caretaker- just you. ♪ ♪ home instead. for a better what's next. ♪ [music] i could make a custom pin ♪ ♪ watch the dog walker get in ♪ ♪ so ziggy won't complain ♪ ♪ ♪ when my in-law comes a-knockin' ♪ ♪ i can open, maybe lock it ♪ ♪ if my home just had a brain ♪ dry eyes still feel gritty, rough, or tired? with miebo, eyes can feel ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪

miebo is the only prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause of dry eye: too much tear evaporation. for relief that's ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ remove contact lenses before using miebo. wait at least 30 minutes before putting them back in. eye redness and blurred vision may occur. ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ ask your eye doctor about prescription miebo.

howard: the house ethics committee secretly voted to release its report on matt gaetz even though he's abandoned his bid for attorney general and resigned from congress. we're back with griff jenkins. we haven't seen this yet, but i could see an argument when he was the nominee for making it public, but now that he's no longer in congress or in contention for attorney general, why do this now? >> well, and matt gaetz, howie, is saying that he actually has a plan of sorts. he may try and get revenge on houses lawmakers who release this. but your point is valid. it's not entirely unprecedented, i don't believe, but it's highly unusual for a former member to have this house ethics report released publicly because, obviously, he is not there as a member to rebut it or to confront if it.

and so whether we see it in the coming a days, you would think it would come just before the 118th congress lets out and wraps things up after whatever final votes they may have, but one thing is clear is that matt gaetz intends to fight, and what that looks like, we're not entirely sure. he had tweeted out a possible plan where because he was elected to the 119th congress, he would show up on january 3rd on day one, gavel in, release a motion to release payments, undisclosed payments by house members using taxpayer dollars for me too type situations, but he's not clear that would actually succeed. howard: yeah. so he's fighting back. in fairness, he says, quote, it's embarrass though not criminal that i probably partied, womanized, crank and smoked more than i should have. i'm not that guy nymph. >> right -- anymore.

>> right. and we have heard so much about folks in washington currented -- concerned about trump going on the a retaliation path to settle scores and, of course, people don't look favorably on that. this would sort of look like the house is settling a score with a guy that is resigned from congress. howard: griff, thanks for doing double duty. [laughter] >> thank you, howie. howard: clarissa ward found a man who apparently had been locked away if in a syrian prison. >> he tells the fighter he's been in a cell for three months. okay, you're okay. >> [speaking in native tongue] >> you're okay. this is the third prison they wrought me too, he says. the third prison. after three months in a windowless cell, he can finally see the sky. howe the network now admits it was duped. the supposed prisoner was a henchman for bashar assad, is the mass if murderer whose

regime with was just toppled. they said we reported the scene as it unfolted. we have been investigating his background and are aware that he may have if given a false identity. click, clarissa ward is a courageous reporter, but this one could have used a little more checking before being aired. neil cavuto says he's leaving folk but not journalism. after 28 years of enormous contributions and can candid conversations with me, even as he's battled ms and other serious diseases. >> i might have been unlucky in the health, but very lucky for the support i got here and the things i got to do here, because i got to do what i love to do, report the news. if not shout the news, not blast the news, not -- well, call names, just call balls and strikes. howard: neil has been gracious to everyone from the biggest stars to the low heist workers, just a wonderful guy, and we will miss him. ♪ ♪ howard: oh, that's it for this

edition of "mediabuzz." thanks for watching. i'm howard kurtz. hope you're having a great christmas week. happy hanukkah as well. you can subscribe to to my podcast. one of the things we'll talk about is congresswoman kate granger of texas disappeared six months ago, and a reporter for the dallas express tracked her to a home where, a home for people with dementia. never prickly -- publicly announced, amazing. we're back here next sunday at 11 eastern. really appreciate your time. have a great holiday weekend. this is the only media analysis show on the national concern on national television. ♪ ♪ sore throat got your tongue? mucinex instasoothe sore throat medicated drops, uniquely formulated for rapid relief that lasts and lasts. that's my babyyy! try our new sugar-free cough drops.

instasoooooothe! hunter has been fighting cancer for most of his life. it's been tough, but hunter has to be tough too, as tough as a dinosaur. which is why, when hunter wished to be a dinosaur, we at make-a-wish, knew we had to go big. dino-sized. we have unconfirmed reports of a suspicious animal on the loose.

a granted wish can change everything. it can replace fear with confidence, anxiety with hope, and bring joy to children and their families. call or go online to grantwishes.org right now. your gift to make-a-wish of $20 a month, just $0.67 a day or any amount can help a child feel stronger and more hopeful. we're looking for 1,000 monthly donors to help grant life-changing wishes for waiting kids. every 20 minutes, a child like hunter is diagnosed with a critical illness. and for every wish we grant, there are two more children waiting. so please call or go online now. it lifts your heart a little bit in a sad time. so you know that he's at least going to have a day or two of this complete joy to where he doesn't have to worry about being a sick kid. granting wishes takes all of us volunteers, communities, and someone like you. become one of the next 1,000 monthly donors who are granting wishes to waiting kids.

call or go online to grantwishes.org right now and when you use your credit card to make your monthly gift, we'll send you this limited-edition, make-a-wish t-shirt to show you are part of a movement that is transforming lives one wish at a time™. your support will help give a child like hunter the hope and strength to fight another day. call or go online now to grantwishes.org. your monthly gift will grant wishes to waiting children. arthel: on the road again. of