♪ if.

howard: "the wall street journal"'s conservative editorial page is praising republican senators for derailing the nomination of matt gaetz as attorney general saying he not only helped the country, but donald trump as well. that devastating house ethics committee report says it vindicates the skeptical gop if lawmakers. the senate's role is to protect the country from nominees. the former congressman explained why he withdrew his bid to the run the justice department at a turning point usa conference. >> i saw the writing on the wall in that my nomination would cause a delay of the important work that we see ahead. and that is because there remain anti-trump forces within the republican conference in the united states senate. and if president trump needs an attorney general on day one. howard: now, there were legitimate questions about the timing here, though the press doesn't seem interested in that.

why release the report now when gaetz has already resigned from congress? and i have to point out federal prosecutors investigated this whole mess and and brought no charges against the florida republican. the ethics report found substantial evidence that gaetz committed statutory rape by sleeping with a 17-year-old. the report says he generally paid $400 for young women to come to washington or new york for sexual encounters that he took such illegal drugs as cocaine and ecstasy, that the he accepted improper gifts, that he violated federal and state laws. gaetz paid one woman $5,000 over two years, according to the report. another said the use of drugs impaired her ability to fully consent. matt gaetz posted this: in my single days, i often sent funds to women i dated. i never had sexual contact with someone under 18. any claim that i would have would have been destroyed in court which is why no such claim was ever made in court. it's embarrassing though not

criminal that i probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than i should have earlier in life. liberal pundits quickly piled on. >> the results that have come from this investigation, i emphasize the adjective, they're salacious, but they're criminal in nature. >> donald trump made the most inappropriate choice of attorney general in history. >> i don't make much of it because most of details or most of the stories that we heard we already knew. a lot of this stuff was already swirling in the public do main anyway -- domain anyway. howard: fox news if mainly stuck to straight news reports with a couple of exceptions. >> they don't like matt gaetz about as much as a lot of people on the hill don't like him, and they found the allegations were completely lacking in credibility. howard: i think it's fair to say had the unanimous ethics report been released while gaetz were still in the running for a.

a.g., it would is have quickly ended his how many -- nomination battle. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ if. ♪ howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, in west palm beach, caroline downey, staff writer for national review, and here with me, megan hayes, former top official in the biden white house and campaign. caroline, this ethics report getting an enormous amount of attention, paints a devastating portrait of matt gaetz, particularly this accusation about him having sex with a 17-year-old high school student. >> of course this story is juicy for legacy media with. matt gaetz is an arrogant blowhard, showboat and playboy involved in a sex scandal, and and he made it really easy for legacy media to hate him because he liked to sow chaos in congress for only really self-aggrandizing reasons. but, howie, you mentioned in

your opening monologue other outlets are questioning why the committee would release this report two two days before christmas on a now-former congressman. it supports the argument of some conservative outlets that this is more about reputational ruin of someone who challenged doj corruption than about restoring ethics to lawmakers. and the bottom line is that, you know, matt gaetz is in the rearview mirror, so for legacy media to obsess on it at this point is a bit tabloid-y. we also don't know if every detail is accurate. there's been plenty of media narratives that have fallen flat over time like much of trump lawfare. howard: just to follow up, i could see a strong case for making this public while he was still the nominee by donald trump, by the president-elect, to run the justice department and then, so why do you think it was released now when he's already out of congress? >> as i said, i think there are enemies on the republican side of matt gaetz, and he certainly

put a target on his own back because he created battles with many of the congressmen on the gop side but also democrats who, i think, wanted to air out what was in this report even though, as you said, the report never mentions that charges were never brought against matt gaetz anywhere. and to mollie hemingway's point, it's because there was issue with credibility in the witnesses. two of them. howard: well, megan, the report says there's substantial evidence that gaetz violated federal laws, state law, house rules. it's bipartisan, it's unanimous x. gaetz says, well, he didn't know this high school junior, didn't know her age. but if you're 35 and you're having an encounter with a 17-year-old, maybe you ought to ask? >> sure, yes, absolutely. but i also think there's more to this, right? i think the republicans just as much as democrats didn't like matt gaetz -- howard: so it was bipartisan.

>> it had to be -- howard: no p i mean, the attitudes towards the former congressman. >> absolutely. howard: yeah. >> the day before this was released, he said he was thinking about running for governor or senate in florida. i don't think the republican people want him in in the party for just this reason. there's a lack of judgment with him. howard, and megan, the report also says that matt gaetz was uncooperative with this whole investigation. so count it look like the media are kind of kicking the guy when he's down? >> no, absolutely not. he did things wrong. republicans and democrats do not like him. the media took a fair stance. this is why the media exists, to air things like in that need to be out there so the public know who they are voting. if i highly doubt that that floridians want somebody who acts like this to represent them as governor or senator. howard: i guess the constellation prize, caroline, is that matt gaetz will be hosting a show on oan, one

america news, rather than running to be the nation's chief law enforcement officer. >> yeah. well, i mean, i think his time in politics for now, in public office, is over. you know, william f. buckley, the founder of my magazine, always said that this character really does matter for public service. that's a standard that that has gone out the window in recent decades. but, you know, i do think that this was partially character assassination from folks in congress who really did not want matt gaetz to return to to government at any point. and i think that has to do with the timing of all of this as much as it disgusts me, what he's even been accused of. but, you know, this report, it was -- it came out at analyst interesting time. howard: do you want to respond to to the character assassination argument? >> he put himself out there. he tweeted that he had done things that people would find lacking in character. i don't think it's character

assassination when he was admitting this is 40 how he was. howard: there's also the question of experience and whether or not, because he wasn't a career prosecutor or anything like that, and now, of course, pam bondi, the former florida attorney general, i think, is a virtual lock to be confirmed. let me turn now to something i didn't think we would be debating a month before the president-elect takes office, and that's h-1b visas which how particularly -- allow marley high-tech companies -- particularly high-tech companies to bring in from other nations people who have special skills. and this is been an enormous media backlash, as you both know, against billionaire if vivek ramaswamy for posting this, and i'm going to read his tweet. the reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first generation engineers over native americans, our american culture has venerated mediocrity

over excellence for way too long. so a lot of backlash because here you have a guy who, along with elon musk, is running doge committee. and and he says american workers with mediocre. caroline. >> well, trump weighed in partially in defense of vivek and elon musk. look, elon musk's stake is that his companies were built off foreign labor, and we know that tech is an extremely powerful and wealthy industry that can influence policy to advance it interests. so donald trump is going to have to figure out what is most consistent with his america first agenda here. but, howie, i think the central question is, does this country actually have a shortage of highly skilled labor. we invent virtually everything. everybody in the world wants to come here, yet we have to recruit from china and india? and there's also plenty of abuse in the h-1b system that needs if to be examined. and i think what's probably more likely is that companies just like cheaper foreign workers.

the boeing 737 max if service ware was made by $9-an-hour engineers in india. howard: well, there's some question about whether sam -- vivek ramaswamy's a billionaire, but he's a very rich guy. some of the things i saw on twitter, one of the most offensive things i've read. and if a host that works at the blaze, turns out the waves that -- waste that doge wants to cut from america was americans. meghan. >> yeah, absolutely. i think the republican party needs to figure out whether they are american first or money first, and it seems here that they are about profit not about hiring americans and really having an immigration policy that they stand for and that the american people voted for. howard: caroline, as you alluded to, it was "the new york post" that trump told he has long supported these h-1b visas and that he has used them at his properties. didn't say particularly which

ones. so, you know, the anti-populist argument here is, well, yeah, all these people who have a lot of money are very happy to have, you know, they're against illegal immigration which, of course, is against the law. we should all be against people coming in here, you know, the border, obviously, has been pretty porous. but at the same time that -- at the same time, to denigrate american workers because trump and elon and vivek all say all these people have special skills, it's clear wily sparked a lot of anger -- clearly sparked a lot of anger. >> i think trump needs to remember what he said in 2016 which is that the h-1b program very prone to exploitation and that it does displace american workers in some of these highly skilled fields. i spent the holidays with a number of computer scientists and software engineers in my family who said it's actually kind of a tough job market out there, and they're struggling and asking why that is.

so trump does need to really embrace the populism that he, you know, has been saying for years now even if business moguls like himself and elon musk did use foreign labor in the pennsylvania. s i think the compromise if might be to ensure that those we do recruit from those other countries are, in fact, the cream of the crop. because as i said, with what a lot -- what a lot of these companies are doing is abusing the system so that they can pay pennies on the dollar for jobs that americans could had. -- could hold. howard: you've clearly got me, because i have trouble dealing with a key chain. [laughter] but elon musk has really gone heavy on this. he said that most republicans who oppose this visa system, this special h-1b visa, meghan, are hateful racists. and then some hours later he said that critics of this whole system could go f yourself. >> sure. dwerng he's worried about his bottom line, not what the american people voted for --

howard: a lot of people are reached by, you know, his -- i don't know -- i still call them tweets even though it's called x. >> absolutely. but elon musk wasn't elected, donald trump was. even as a dem democrat who doesn't like his policies, i think his immigration policies are fraud, they have to decide what they are going to do. is donald trump going to listen to elon musk, or is he going to worry about the policies that the american people elected him to do? the key thing is the american people elected donald trump, not elon musk. howard: yes, but at the moment trump apparently does agree with elon. enter when we come back, donald trump making huge headlines with hot rhetoric about greenland and the panama canal. ♪

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howard: president-elect trump

has been making headlines during the transition saying it's in our national security interests for the u.s. to buy greenland which danish officials say is not for sale. making a threat about a certain famous canal. >> has anyone ever heard of the panama canal? huh? [applause] because we're being ripped off at the panama canal like we're being ripped off everywhere else. a secure -- he just said take it back. that's a good idea. howard: caroline downey, what is donald trump trying to to accomplish other than generating headlines, which he's very good at, by demanding to buy greenland from denmark which says it's not for sale and to seize the panama canal under the theory that we bought it except there's a treaty between the two countries? both of these things, as everybody here knows, are extremely unlikely to happen and perhaps impossible. >> well, look, howie, this is not a nonsense call discussion for both panama and greenland. trump is using both an economic

and a geopolitical argument. even truman, in 1946, secretly tried to acquire betweenland as a strategic deterrent -- greenland -- to the soviet union. in our case today, to counter chinese expansion into the arctic and reduce their monopoly on a rare earth earlies. as far as the panama goes, i can't speak to the situation that trump has ab issue with, but panama if is in violation right now of a tree treaty that it signed with jimmy carter which said that the canal has to operate neutrally, and if it doesn't, the u.s. can intervene. the ccp china, our adversary, currently controls two out of five profit if port -- profits -- ports, and the united states is the country that uses the panama canal the most. and that's including for naval force. this actually is a worthwhile conversation. howard: well, it's certainly true that the u.s. even going back before the century has repeatedly tried to buy greenland. but as a result, danish

officials have doubled the defense budget. i think that was more symbolic for greenland. let's put up the a.i. post that donald the trump put online. waterway there and there's the american flag. so, meghan hays, does this reinforce his image as a disrupter, taking on the washington establishment? because when he becomes president, almost by definition he's the new establishment. >> no. this is what authoritarians and dictators do. they try to take sovereign land from people. and if truman -- this was a problem that truman tried to solve by having nato. if a country invades greenland, we have nato. and also panama, we have an independent company from hong kong which is not the ccp operating the two out of the seven ports. so i think it's a little bit more nuanced than donald trump is making it, but this is not what a democracy does. howard: caroline, i've said for

a long time that for donald trump even negative publicity is good publicity because then -- and tell me if you disagree with this -- he's got the press and the pundits playing on his turf. we're talking about what he wants talked about whether either of these things ends up happening or not, as i say, extremely unlikely. i'm not saying it's crazy, it's just extremely unlikely to happen. but it's part of the way in which he shapes the news agenda. >> he's always been a deal broker, howie, and that's an image that these kinds of pitches just continues to solidify. and, look, greenland might have a price, we don't know. even though the prime minister has said we're not interested, it's a population of about 50,000 people, and i'm not so sure that betweenland's citizens know -- greenland's citizens know that for future generations they would get immediate citizenship into the united states and the freedom to travel and work there. so it could be a mutually beneficial situation. again, trump is not crazy for proposing this. and i'll just say about panama, hong kong hasn't been sovereign

for a while -- [laughter] we know that. the ccp exercises influence over the companies that control these ports. so china absolutely does have a footprint in the panama canal, and that is not good for our national security interests. howard: well, there's our headline, trump is not crazy. meghan, mostt closely, unlike journalists and political obsessives such as ourselves. they probably don't remember that donald trump tried to buy greenland in the first term and created a kind of diplomatic crisis with denmark. but all of this could be seen as negotiating tactics, don't you think? you know, maybe he'll get the fees down or something like that. >> sure, absolutely. but, again, you don't practice diplomacy through tweeting or through truth social. howard: why not? >> because it doesn't work. because if it's outrageous and outlandish. these are outlandish things to say. other countries do not want to be tweeted at and threatened. that's being a bully. if he wants to get the fees

down, have diplomatic conversations with them, not through tweeting. howard: well, because the way that donald trump operates foreign policy is he gets others, including allies, on the defensive by doing some of this. so i'm going to stick with my if idea that this is part of his sort of negotiation process. we've seen that with canada as well. >> how's that working out for him? howard: okay. [laughter] i don't think canada's going to become the 51st state. >> exactly. howard: up next, president biden commutes the sentences of 37 death row killers, and most of the media back him up. ♪ if. ♪

howard: president biden, in a purely ideologal move, communitied the sentences of 37 of the 40 murderers and heinous criminals on death row, bluntly declaring he's opposed to the death penalty in federal cases. this spark pd harsh criticism from donald trump, but by and

large, the coverage has been mild and even supportive. >> he announced this weekend he'll be commuting the sentences of almost every inmate sentenced to die. child murderers, rapists, you name it. there was a time when joe biden actually believed in law and order. >> i think that what president biden did was exactly right. it's interesting, he was actually a prime sponsor of the 1994 crime bill which led to additional federal death penalties, so it's interesting that the facts have moved him and and as they should all of us. howard: joining us now, griff jenkins, fox's national correspondent and anchor. look, these are truly horrible, unthinkable murderers and child killers. and biden acknowledged that. he did this for ideological reasonsful he was open about that. what do you think about the coverage? >> well, the white house, to be clear, says biden has long maintained he's against the death penalty accept for in the cases of terrorism and

hate-filled crimes which is why 3 of the 40 were spared. finish here's the problem. we have heard countless family members on this channel speaking out about how devastated they were not only because they feel that it's morally inconsistent that one crime is more heinous if than the death of their loved ones, but also, howie, that there is this dagger of grief thrust into these families on christmas week. the timing, even rachel timmerman was a 19-year-old woman that was murdered, the murderer was, his sentence was commuted. and the father of this 19-year-old girl said i actually agree with the president's move to pardon my daughter's murderer, but called it despicable, the timing of christmas week. i think really, you know, while it's getting play sort of on both sides, i think that the families are rightfully upset, and many of them have said that biden doesn't even talk to them about it -- didn't even talk to

them about it. howard: the timing is terrible, and how do you say the boston marathon bomber is more heinous than somebody who took the life of a child or young woman. but i think the criticism that that's been newted, in my -- muted, in my view, that most journalists are opposed to capital punishment and, therefore, this is okay. >> i think one thing that many are looking at now is how present was biden in this decision after of that bombshell "wall street journal" article that details much of his declining mental acuity. did he take time the sit down, to the look at all of these cases? for instance, laura hobbs and crystal tobias, they're -- a 9-year-old, they were raped and murdered. did he know their name? karl rove said, no, i don't think he knew them at all. and he called this morally bankrupt, making this decision. but as you point out, obviously, the death penalty is a long-running debate in our country. and biden has been consistent up

until now to exclude the three. there are questions, i think, that'll linger. howard: donald trump says when you hear the acts of each, you won't believe he the did this. makes no sense. isn't the coverage likely to be far more critical when it's the opposite point of view? >> well, sure, was now the president-elect, soon to be inaugurated donald trump, is already saying he's going to direct his doj to forcefully enforce the death penalty in federal cases. so you're going to see the pend if lumbar swing. but -- pendulum swing. there's nothing that i believe legally trump could do in the cases, these 37 cases, that ship has sailed. howard: yeah. there's a lot of concern here, but to do it christmas week, i think, just adds to it as you pointed out. next on "mediabuzz," documents reveal a sleazy smear campaign against actress blake lively. how a studio tried to bury her. and a reporter tracks down a

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howard: actress blake lively has filed a complaint accusing her do to star in the film it ends with us, justin baldoni -- who's also the movie's director -- of sexual harassment. >> we all have an idea of what life can be. >> i want to see you again. >> now you see me. >> you know what i mean. howard: blake lively says baldoni improvised unwanted kissing and gratuitous sex scenes, and another member of the studio showed her a video of his wife naked and watched her in her trailer when she was topless and having body makeup removed. a crisis p if r rep wrote, you know, we can bury anyone, and planted made-up stories portraying her as difficult, tone deaf and a bully. one daily mail headline, is blake lively set to be canceled? and here's what emerged of the

subpoena, the pr woman writing: when we send over document, we can't send over the work we will or could cobecause that could get us in a lot of trouble. we can't write we will destroy her, and all of us will be most importantly untraceable. another pr executive on the team wrote: i'm having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible blake lively is to work with just to get hate of it. attorney for the way farer studio told the times these claims are false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. griff jenkins, this is the most blatant evidence of a smear campaign that i have ever seen. all these references to we will bury her, but nobody can find out. >> well, sequel to it ends with us, it's going to be called it feuds with us, because this feud is about to go nuclear, and you're right. i think what's so fascinating

about this case is that blake lively actually gave baldoni a pass the first time. way back in january had a meeting, outlined a long list of her grievances of the things that you mentioned there and said it's gotta stop. well, guess what? baldoni then decides to launch what's a smear campaign. and when she went to the civil rights, california civil rights division, that's where the subpoena then comes out, there's clear evidence of what is by every stretch and and means a smear campaign against her. and even some of those texts between the pr crisis people, the narrative's going so well, i never thought it was -- howard: yeah. they're congratulating themselves. >> they're supporting baldoni, they're congratulating themselves. we'll see what baldoni does next, but already it has had an impact because his agency, william morris, has dropped him. howard: right. there's starting to be backlash there. but, you know, for wayfarer to say rehashing a narrative in the

media, it's pretty clear from these documents that that narrative in the media was at least partially shaped not just by justin baldoni, but by these pr crisis experts and so forth. oh, we can't say what we're really doing, but that's an admission. i mean, the fact that they admitted in these texts and e-mails that, i think, just makes it awful attack on a talented actor. >> they did it after -- blake lively did, it's a lesson, i think, for everyone even when you're not even a hollywood star, in your work environment she created the ed of a hostile work -- the evidence of a hostile work environment before the campaign smear comes against her. all of the evidence was there. so even if they weren't going to make themselves traceable, which is what they did here even though they said they weren't, they seem to have refused -- my point is they refused to really dig into this list, and nobody said, hey, hold on. she's laid out what most civil rights acquisitions would say -- divisions would say is a pretty

clear campaign of a pervasive hostile work environment, and that's what originated all of this. howard: make lively saying she doesn't want other people to go through this -- blake lively concern but what i'm hearing, this goes on to to varying degrees, but in this case, these folks got caught. >> and now in the pr world, you're seeing blake lively get enormous support or from people that are continuing to speak out in her favor. and so one wonders, you know, if the intention was to cancel blake lively, which is what it looks like it was, it may have boomeranged back on baldoni who a may end up getting canceled for the very smear campaign that he tried to launch. howard: this backfired bigtime. let me move on the a reporter for the dallas express kept digging into the strange disappearance -- this was months ago -- of texas congresswoman kay granger. he found her after a lot of digging at a nursing home that specializes in dementia and

other memory issues. to public announcement if by congresswoman granger, but he got the confirmation on camera. and i want to point to that out because this was really good reporting. >> you know, listen, kay granger was the first woman to head the house appropriations committee, a trailblazer in that right, and she has done a great service. but this is, as cliche as it is, this is a perfect case to bring back the conversation over term limits. and you're seeing other members of congress, tony gonzalez and others, saying at some point as public servants we've got to figure out when is the time to step off the stage. and the fact is in the name of -- we've been, howie, in this town for decades, and we've seen cases like this. if you go way back to the days of senator strom thurmond and others that were very obvious had passed their prime -- howard: right. >> -- to serve the public, this is a case where she clearly now

and prayers with kay grapinger and her family, has dementia, should not be in the role as a member of congress. howard: one member said collectively we're all guilty. this is a member of congress. there would have been enormous sympathy for this 8 is-year-old concern 81-year-old woman if she had leveled with the press, her constituents and the public. instead, she put out a statement just saying i appreciate, you know, i'm going through some health problems. she never if told the people who elected her that she was having these issues. >> and there's no mechanism -- look, i don't blame her staff in washington for not sounding the alarm because with in many cases it might cause a problem for your job. and at the end of the day, we don't want to get ourselves fired. but where was the sort of accountability from her office notifying somebody liking, hey, listen, the boss has been gone quite some time, and we're concerned. the chief of staff, press secretary, somebody. and not to blame them, but there's really no mechanism in

here for accountability, i think, for cases just like this. howard: and, by the way, the congresswoman's 81 -- she's 81. her son telling the "dallas morning news" she does have dementia issues. and, again, i have a lot of sympathy, i think most people will, but how to you hide out and not tell people that? all right. we'll see you one more time after the break. a stunning media expose of how joe biden's confidants shielded him from the if press, but most news outlets are just yawning. ♪ ♪ but could be due to a buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain. the sooner you talk to your doctor, the more options you may have. learn more at amyloid.com.

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ethos.com. howard: it was a bombshell report in the "wall street journal" detailing how the tight inner circle around joe biden began shielding him from other staffers, the media and the public as soon as he became president, limiting his meetings, making him increasingly remote from his own cabinet. i spoke to jacqui heinrich, fox's senior white house correspondent from new york. jacqui heinrich, welcome. >> thanks, howie. howard: this "wall street journal" story is just devastating, talking to 50 people and revealing how tightly-managed joe biden was even right after he took office. and the next day karine jean-pierre held a briefing, and nobody asked about the journal story. >> yeah. no one asked about it. to my outrage, i had my hand up that whole briefing and, surprise-surprise, didn't get

picked. i think they probably had an idea that i was going to ask about that because, who wouldn't? especially fox, who's been following this story for so long. and through, by the way, the whole era of cheep fakes when -- cheap fakes when the administration was trying to disparage anyone who would even bring up the question of the president's age. i think that this "wall street journal" report really raises questions about complicity of staff, because there are two things going on here in my mind, you know? if you're the president and you are, in fact, fully capable of all of the duties of the office, at some point it is incumbent upon you to push back on your staff if they are raising walls around you and keeping you insulated from even your cabinet. howard: and yet as early as 2021, biden had just become president, a national security official in this journal piece told a colleague that he has good days and bad days. and so we're -- today was a bad day. so we'll address this tomorrow. so they were actually moving

meetings and, again, i think we were lied to. how much of this surprises you having followed joe biden's presidency? >> well, the anecdote about the national security official does surprise me because when you had outlets exploring the question of the president's age, nobody came up through the ranks and, you know, slipped anything to reporters and said, hey, keep asking about this. so if that is, in fact, true, that that appointment was canceled because the president was having, quote, a bad day, you would think that that national security official would is have some concerns about that and if if the impact that it could have on martial security if the president was not -- national security if the president was not able to carry out his duties. howard: and as time went on, he was getting less and less contact with even such key cabinet officials as lloyd austin and janet yellen. again, protecting him from his own staff not to mention the press and the public.

>> it's devastating really. howard: i think george clooney if turning on the president saying he's losing it was a key factor here. but let's look at the shutdown drama because joe biden didn't say anything during that whole period, and democrats didn't want him to weigh in. why wases that? >> well -- why was that? >> well, the line from the white house was that this is the republicans' deal, to let trump with -- be the face of it and elon musk. if there was a government with shutdown, it would be their fault. so the strategy was silence. at the same time though, i think that's a convenient thing to say because -- [laughter] really you don't have anyone if within the democratic party who is the heir apparent at this point in time. you don't have anyone who's clearly going to pick up the mantel and, you know, be the messenger. you had rank and file lawmakers hand wringing over this saying we don't know what the strategy is. howard: politico reports that donald trump is unhappy with the way speaker mike johnson handled this whole thing and there's

questions now with the leadership election coming up whether or not his speakership might be in jeopardy. >> i saw that report. i wonder how that plays out in the next few days because if you are president-elect trump, you want to get started on your agenda. and as we saw after kevin mccarthy was ousted, it took three weeks for republicans to settle on a speaker, and people below mike johnson have tried and failed. i mean, steve scalise, jim jordan, tom emmer, nobody could agree to install them, landed on mike johnson to. and the same thing would likely play out. the i think the -- i think the margins are so narrow that republicans can't afford to be pure ifists. and when you have, you know, the need to get something across the finish line with a one or two-seat majority, you're going to have people who are disappointed. and i think it's a very tough job for mike johnson, but trump could still rescue him by sayin,

effectively, to prioritize his agenda, not waste any time with a protracted speaker battle and give him an endorsement. howard: jacqui heinrich, thanks very much. >> thank, hour howie. howard: "the washington post" reports joe biden believes he could have beaten trump. i'll just say that kamala harris came a lot closer than the 82-year-old president would have. still to come, how elon musk blew off that stopgap spending deal, and jeff bezos knocks down an utterly false story. ♪ only took 4-hour cough liquid? [cough] unlike robitussin dm, delsym liquid offers 12 hours of cough relief all day or night. delsym, cough crisis averted.

howard: elon musk tweeted 150 times on x to blow up that bipartisan spending deal on the stopgap measure, and donald trump weighing in only later and

taking that half a joking swipe at his billionaire buddy. >> you know, he's not going to be president, that i can tell you. and i'm safe. you know why? he can't be. he wasn't born in this country. [laughter] howard: so, griff, the media chatter is that trump may be getting a little annoyed at being upstaged by elon? >> to be clear, trump is factually accurate. foreign-born, can't be with president. howard: yes. >> but there's a different message in there, and it's the unwritten rule of the trump world. there's only one star of the show, and his name is donald trump. that said, you've seen mismusk become -- musk become, quickly, a highly influential pot-stirrer. he stirred the pot, and the spending bill went from 1500 pages to 118. he's stirring the pot -- howard: howe but it didn't save that much money. >> didn't save any money, but it felt like a win to, basically,

you're not even inaugurated yet, and yet the president-elect is fundamentally shaking washington up. we'll see. it may end up costing mike johnson his speaker's gavel come next friday. but on the h1 is b visa now -- h-1b visa, all of a sudden there's a different front, and that is what many in the media are calling a civil war in maga world because you've got steve bannon if attacking elon miss many, calling him a toddler, and musk on friday night going pretty harsh words saying he's going to go to war -- howard: including words we can't repeat on television. you're right about that. and, look, this is usually trump's role. he got into it, at least publicly, so much later. i want to turn to this daily mail story reporting that jeff bezos was secretly planning a $of 0 600 million wedding in aspen this weekend. "the washington post" other than put this up, the whole thing is completely false. none of this is happening. don't believe everything you read. will be interesting to see9 if the outlets that covered and

reported this will issue a rex. -- a correction. i haven't seen any corrections. enter and i haven't seen any wedding picture pictures so, clearly, it didn't happen. one of my favorite tweets about that, he basically was invoking a mark twain thing saying a lie can make it all a around the world before the truth can get its pants on. and bill ackman was tweeting saying, look, this isn't even possible, to spend $600 to million on a wedding, unless you're buying every guest at the wedding a house. howard: you know who else didn't retract the story? the daily mail. they just updated it with bezos' denial. it was supposed to be this weekend, it hasn't happened. i just love the owner of "the washington post" saying this is completely false and all those people who repeated it, hey, how about acknowledging that you were wrong? >> my favorite part of the story is elon musk weighed in saying i really hope that jeff bezos has an epic, huge, massive wedding. and, by the way, it was supposed

to be at kevin costner's ranch, so whatever you're going to spend, let's still do it out on my ranch. howard: how did you get that detail? >> i read it in the media. as bezos said, don't believe everything you read. howard: griff jenkins, thanks for done -- doing, i guess, triple duty today. that's it for the final edition of "mediabuzz" in 2024. i'm howard kurtz wishing you all a healthy and happy new year. now, you can subscribe to my free, daily podcast, media buzzmeter, as you know from all the promos i do. i riff on the day's top stories plus the funny ones, the weird ones. apple podcasts is a good place to do it. this is the point in the show where i say we are back here next sunday, you know the time, 11 eastern, with the only media analysis show on national television. thanks for watching. ♪

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