howie: talked to white house press secretary karoline leavitt and that extraordinary shouting match between president trump and vladamir zelenskyy in a moment. the press is up in arms and a major change to the white house pool, and the rotating cast of journalists who cover the president in tight situations in the oval office or air force one for instance where the entire press corps can't fit in and they share their information for colleagues. for decades the white house correspondent's association determined the pool but karoline leavitt stunned the media world by announcing the white house will now pick the pool. is this an outrage as many journalists are saying? the danger here is that white house officials will grant this privilege, mainly to friendly reporters who have sympathetic questions. the white house correspondent's association issued a statement saying in a free country leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps. but karoline leavitt made a point of saying legacy news

outlets will remain part of the pool rotation, while opening the process to new media but what people don't get is that the big media companies pay most of the charges for flying on air force one and without them, smaller outlets probably can't afford the flights and by the way, how will conservatives feel if a democratic president hand picks the pool? i'm howard kurtz, and this is mediabuzz. howie: it was a shocking shouting match that derailed the possible agreement with ukraine as president trump kicked president zelenskyy out of the white house after both men had a high decemberable showdown while responding to reporter's questions. >> you see the hatred he's got for putin. it's very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of hate. >> mr. president, with respect, i think it's disrespectful

for you to come into the oval office and lited it gate this in front of the american media. >> have you ever been to ukraine that you see what problems we have? >> you're gambling with world war iii. what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country. this country. far more than a lot of people said they should have. you don't have the cards right now. with us, you start having cards. >> i think president trump was rightfully insulted by the way president zelenskyy has been acting and acting for years now. don't bite the hand that feeds you. >> zelenskyy screwed up. 30 minutes before this happened, everything was fine. >> zelenskyy is super silicons tanly speaking over the president was simply dumb on every level. the one person, one, he had to impress today, was donald trump and he failed that test miserably. howie: but other finger pointing went in the opposite

direction. >> i think what you saw in that meeting was much more of the united states administration, the president, and the vice president, taking all the putin talking points. >> donald trump destroyed the 80-year-old post-world war ii international order. >> in diplomacy you prepare and prepare and prepare for meetings so that something like this doesn't happen. trump treats everything as though it's a television show. howie: joining us now to analyze the coverage in nashville, clay travis, the founder of outkick and a fox news contributor. and in san diego laura fink, ceo of rebell communications claim. much of the media, blaming donald trump, by j.d. vance for losing his temper, and blowing up the planned agreement. but, vladamir zelenskyy is

hardly blameless, how do you see it? >> look, i think everyone wants the exact same thing which is for this war to end and i always look at these questions on big picture. does anyone actually believe that ukraine can evict russia from their territory and win this war? i haven't heard a single person say that and if no one believes that, then why are we continuing to fight this war and have russia and ukrainian young men dying unnecessarily? this morning, on cnn, 78% of americans support a cease-fire, just 16% want this to continue. i believe there is an easy answer here. we're going to have to figure out where the new border is drawn, but what trump is doing is moving us toward peace and what zelenskyy seems to want to do is to continue to fight which was, i believe, why he behaved in such a combative fashion in the oval office on friday, instead of going there in search

of peace and let me just lay this out. trump is imminently correct here. he want say that vladimir putin is evil and zelenskyy is a hero and represents all that is good in the world. howie: and then do a deal. and then do a deal. >> that seems to be what zelenskyy wants to hear and that's right. if you're going to do a deal and you're the broker, the mediator here which is what trump is, you have to appear in public to be somewhere in the middle and what is seen on the left as being somewhere in the middle is somehow being vladimir putin's stage. to me this is just about a negotiation. where is the line going to be drawn? we need peace and we need it immediately a cease-fire in ukraine. howie: laura i'm all for reporter's access but wouldn't this meeting have gone differently even if it got testy, had it been private? trump seemed to enjoy the fact it was in front of the cameras. >> well that's all trump and i think that's part and partial,

howie, of what trump's plans were. when you paint zelenskyy as a dictator you're trying to lower his favorability and promote that of russia but you can't deny the facts and that's why things got testy in the oval office because they were rewriting the facts. the fact is russia invaded ukraine and russia killed civilians and raped young girls. we cannot talk about this war while denying the truth and zelenskyy did not risk his life and the lives of his constitutents and his nation to roll over for russia at the end and seed all of the territory and let's keep in mind this isn't just about ukraine. this is about our allies. howie: hold on, laura, what should happen? honest question. >> this is the first time we've allowed that to stand in 80 years in history. we cannot have this happen and we cannot allow the fabric of our western defenses to erode and that is what trump is trading in this deal. when he says, do a deal on

russia's terms. howie: you know, after that extraordinary shouting match, zelenskyy was interviewed by fox's bret baier and here is what he said. >> i'm not sure that we did something bad. i think maybe sometimes, some things we have to discuss out of media, with all respect to democracy and to free media. howie: it was of course in front of the media, clay. would it have been better if trump had let things kind of cool then and then resumed the session of the rare minerals deal rather than booting zelenskyy out the door? >> i watched the whole 50 minutes. i think that's very important to do. i know that a lot of people just watch the blow-up of the last six or seven minutes. zelenskyy's body language and behavior, to me, was very strange. he did not appear to be as vice president j.d. vance pointed out, thankful to the american

public, and as trump laid out, he was acting as if he had a pair of aces, when he's actually got, at-best, a 2 and 3 and he's holding in his hand from a poker perspective, and i just don't understand his position here, because the only reason he's allowed to continue to fight is because of american support, and laura said a lot of beautiful things about the defense of democracy and western civilization, and all of that, but the question that i really, howie, have for everybody out there is, what do you want? if you don't believe that ukraine can win the war, i'm curious, does laura believe that? all we're talking about now is what are the terms of the cease-fire? again, 78% of americans want this war to be over. you have hundreds of thousands of ukrainian and russian men dying for no reason so what should happen? what has trump done wrong? yeah? >> well let's talk about it. let's give away negotiations before they start.

let's talk about negotiating exclusively with russia without ukraine at the table and talk about writing off nato membership. let's talk about carrying russian talking points to the point we're your clips get played on russia tv. so hold on, do you want a cease-fire or not? >> i'll tell you why. because you don't want to roll over for russia because that allows a bully to take over and what's the next nation they invade and then we have to go and defend them? howie: okay, let me respond to this. >> this is about long-term strategy. not just the short-term deals where we burn our own allies and we empower the rest. howie: that sets up my next question. so, clay, what zelenskyy was trying to say, and was even hard to hear because they were talking over each other, was that any deal was meaningless without security guarantees, because putin has a long history of violating these agreements and he ticked them off going back to crimea in 2014, and the invasion three-years ago. isn't that a valid point for him

to make? >> well, again, i think that's where you're starting to legislate the past history and remember who the presidents were when vladimir putin did not respect those agreements. barack obama and joe biden. i think it's very interesting that trump is supposed to be a stooge of putin yet for four years putin didn't invade ukraine and as soon as joe biden came in he did. that would suggest as trump says that putin actually fears what trump may do in a way he is not with obama and biden. it is a very valid question to say hey. what the are we doing to ensure not only that we decide where the new border should be and put a cease-fire in place, but also, create a deterrent situation so that vladimir putin in three-years when donald trump is not in office anymore, and maybe there's a new democrat stooge in office decides to invade again. my understanding based on the way this is laid out is europe is saying they are going to commit actual boots on

the ground troops, and we are saying, as a part of the mineral rights deal, that we will get 50% of these profits going forward and effectively, as a result of the mineral rights that we will control, the united states property interest will deter russia from coming in because we will have a financial incentive there. howie: interesting that you hads -- >> i have three sons. >> i will tell you hads -- howie: laura before you make your point, shouldn't zelenskyy have refused to engage in the yelling back and forth, given the stakes for his country? ukraine can't survive without the u.s. nobody denies that. >> sure, we can pick on zelenskyy's diplomacy and diplomatic tactics but this is a guy that's up not sleeping for years defending his country. this is someone who risked their life so yes was he a perfect zip perfectdiplomat, no he wants bus willing to give away mineral rights to his country and he

recognizes the strength of american power and the contribution and someone who banked the u.s. over and u.s. people over and over again, absolutely. yeah, no, where trump is right is that trump does hold the cards, but the fact of the matter is theres long-term american interest at play here too and to quote zelenskyy, we're not playing cards. so i drive, i'll tell you, i live in a military town and there are ukraine flags all around naval base, all around north island, should we take those flags down because we don't want to defend ukraine? we want them to give away territory to suffer atrocities with a slap on the wrist for russia and giving away mineral rights to russia? is that how we're going to deter long-term aggression into other eastern european countries? howie: hold on. i've got to get a break, guys. i have to get a break. but that assumes you know the final outcome of the negotiations, and we obviously don't know that ahead. the white house press secretary but when we come back, how the media are covering president

trump's meeting with zelenskyy. progressive makes it easy to see if you can save money with a commercial auto quote online so you can get back to your monster to-do list. super helpful. see if you can save money at progressivecommercial.com. thank you.

howie: it's a growing media backlash against elon musk and his doge budget cutters, as well as his letter to federal employees, the second one has just gone out, demanding they list five things they accomplished last week, or face termination. >> if you have two neurons you can reply to an e-mail. this is, i think, not a high bar is what i'm saying. this should be, anyone could accomplish this. >> the major media narrative just got busted. the liberal press has been breathlessly hyping those viral

townhalls and protest in republican districts as evidence of the major doge backlash, but now, the washington free beacon is blowing the lid on how organic those protests are exposing how "red district doge protests were organized by left wing groups." >> employees are losing their minds over the notion that it was also simply a test to ensure they read it to account for how many are totally retired and checked out while still collecting our money as their salary. howie: and musk media critics feel just as strongly. >> musk seems to want to be the boss, in fact, of the entire country if not the entire world where he can fire whoever he wants and tell everyone what to do. donald trump is running an administration of billionaires where the most powerful person appears to be not the president but the much-richer elon musk. howie: by the way i was a little upset with myself for reading the wrong tease and also by the way, a judge has

temporarily blocked some of these mass firings but clay, washington free beacon says that two groups funded by george soros has urged liberals to go to the republican lawmakers town hall meetings but as long as they live in the district, what's wrong with that? >> well people can show up and voice their opinion as much as they possibly want, and what i would, candidly point out here, is trump is on 80% of the public side in most of these issues. do you support more waste and fraud in the federal government? democrats have decided their answer is yes. do you support men pretending to be women, winning women's championships? yes and i think if you look at what happened with the cease-fire which i hope is going to continue in the middle east and one that we soon, i hope, will get in ukraine, not only has trump come down on the side of things that 80% of americans support. i think he deserves the nobel peace prize if he ends the war in the middle east and the war

in europe. we never seen anything like this. biden makes mess and trump has shown up in 38 days, 39 days and cleaned a lot of them up already. howie: we'll consider that an official nomination for the peace prize. here is -- >> i will speak for him as necessary. howie: here is a heated exchange with congressman rich mccormick in georgia. >> some of this will be litigated. i'll pause whenever you want and you can go and yell all you want. >> we are all freaking pissed off about this. >> [applause] >> you're going to hear it and feel it. liz: so laura, cbs quoted maggie goldman as saying she helped organize some of the democrats who showed up but also she said, i think there were republicans there that were also unhappy, but not every town hall had those disclaimers. >> sure. look. i think as you can sit around and talk about george soros and

pretend this problem doesn't exist but medicaid, one in five americans are affected, more than 60% of people in nursing homes are on medicaid and that's what congress is looking to do when you talk about elon musk and his chain saw wait until we hit the postal service, faa, the research institutions out of the nih in red communities that finance jobs in those communities. like this is not something, you can say that i've got a leaky roof in the house and 70% of americans want to stop waste, fraud and abuse but the fact is you want to rebuild not just burn the house down and that's what elon musk is doing. you've got the richest man in the world in your business, in your privacy, claiming there's waste, fraud and abuse but then admittedly cutting out whole chunks of government that help people in the social security administration, in the faa, all over the place so that's what the americans are reacting to it's not just democratic constituents. this is real life and that's why congress people are worried. howie: i'll come back to you on

that. clay, 21 doge staffers resigned and said in a letter they aren't going to use their skills to compromise government systems, jeopardize american sensitive data or dismantle critical public services. >> i think elon musk should be cutting more than he is. i would love for half of all federal employees to be immediately fired. i think you could use what happened at twitter, yeah, half, i think half could be gone and we wouldn't see a decline in overall quality of services. look what happened at twitter. how do you know? because we have clearly a budget that has grown way out of control. if we just went -- >> what do you know about execution? >> in 2019 if we just went back to 2019 we would have a balanced budget right now. remember what elon is trying to do is cut one trillion dollars in spending, and then also, we want to accelerate the growth of the economy at-large which would then create a trillion dollars

in added overall tax revenue, based on the growth we create. howie: we gotta go. we gotta go. i'm sorry. but i will just say the media increasingly asks the question, is this what people voted for as people feel the pain? thanks guys we'll talk to karoline leavitt in moments but up next jeff bezos issues a stunning order at the washington post. still congested? nope! uh oh. mucinex 2-in-1 saline nasal spray. spray goodbye. aaaaaaahhhhh! mucinex 2-in-1 saline nasal spray with a gentle mist and innovative power-jet. spray goodbye to congestion. it's comeback season! always dry scoop before you run. listen to me, the hot dog diet got me shredded. it's time we listen to science. one a day is formulated with key nutrients to support whole body health. one a day. science that matters.

howie: jeff bezos, owner of the washington post, sparked a firestorm by declaring the paper's opinion section would now advocate personal liberties and free markets and not publish opposing viewpoints on those topics. prompting opinion editor david shiphad. ey to resign. joining us from western massachusetts, marty barron, former executive editor of the washington post and you said you're sad and disgusted by what happened with this order.

why? >> look, i think newspapers like the washington post have always been a place where there should be a wide variety of opinions. that's been its heritage and history. i think that's a good practice. actually, in recent years they have included a lot more conservative voices and that's always good and represents america. the paper is saying that it's for all of america. well, americans have a lot of different views and they should be represented in the washington post. howie: you've said that to his credit, bezos at least when you were there never interviewed the newsroom, and as the owner isn't he entitled to have the opinion pages reflect his views? >> well of course he's entitled to set the overall direction of the newspaper that he owns. traditionally, and appropriately, you know, an owner can dictate what the editorials themselves say, but i think as you know, the history of op-ed pages was the idea that there be opinions that be different from those in the editorials that it be a forum for a wide debate, civil

debate, and look, i mean, that was a way of honoring what is our fundamental personal liberty in this country and that is free expression and they honored free expression by providing a room for civic debate and of all types of people with lots of different opinions. howie: i certainly take your point on that. do you see this new order on personal liberties as related to be bezos' effort to cozy up h president trump? >> i think it's part of a pattern we've seen. obviously donation to the inauguration, appearing with trump, having dinner with mar-a-lago where he negotiated or discussed buying the rights to the documentary about melania trump, amazon labor paid $40 million for the rights to that documentary which was three

times the next-highest bid so i think there's a pattern there and he does fear vengeance on the part of donald trump that could do damage to amazon and his commercial space. howie: tens of thousands of people have now canceled their subscription to the washington post. same thing happened at the last minute, bezos killed the planned kamala harris endorsement but i take your point about bezos promoting his commercial interest, because amazon and his other companies have a lot of government contracts. do you think that's a key factor here? >> well, i do. i mean, i think that look, that's his wealth is tied up in amazon. he's also spent i don't know, i saw one estimate $14 billion into blue origin. it's at a key moment. they just successfully launched the rocket into orbit and they hope now to be competing with spacex. you've got elon musk who previously was camped out at

mar-a-lago and now is camped out at the white house and seems to have an enormous amount of power and definitely does in this administration. he's long been a rival of jeff bezos so i don't see how he can't be concerned. trump promised vengeance and he seems to be delivering on that promise during his first five weeks or so in office. howie: right. it seems to me bezos can crusade wherever he wants but this business about choking off opinions is why so many post fans are upset. marty barron, thanks so much. next on mediabuzz karoline leavitt on the showdown with zelenskyy and much, much more. oh yeah. consolidate bad debt and save money for your next goal. take a swing at your kitchen reno... meant that literally.

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>> he wants to make a deal. i don't know if he can make a deal. the problem is, i've empowered you to be a tough guy, and i don't think you'd be a tough guy

without the united states. howie: i spoke to the white house press secretary this morning. karoline leavitt, welcome. >> thanks for having me. howie: there's no question that volodymyr zelenskyy was irritating, perhaps disrespectful but it also seemed like president trump lost his temper. >> i would disagree with that. i think what happened in the oval office, i was there, was unfortunately president zelenskyy came in with a mindset not wanting to negotiate peace. president zelenskyy was also antagonistic and frankly rude. he picked a fight with the vice president of the united states. he repeatedly interrupted president trump, and so what president trump did was stood strong for america, defended his vice president, but most importantly defended the american people who after three-years of funding this brutal war are sick and tired of footing the bill. president wants peace. it was clear pre president zeley wasn't in the mindset. howie: i don't buy the notion this was pre-planned but the president kicked him out

without the expected agreement about rare minerals and president zelenskyy kept saying he needed security agreements, security because vladimir putin had a long history of breaking agreements, so wasn't that a reasonable point for him to make? >> that's not what this meeting was about and president zelenskyy was told that ahead of time. this was about signing an economic partnership between the united states of america and ukraine, which would have been good for the american people to recoup the tax dollars we've paid to defend president zelenskyy's country. it also would have been a great economic partnership for generations for the ukrainian people. that's what today was and immediately in the oval office, zelenskyy started moving the ball forward putting the cart ahead of the horse. howie: his country is at war. >> our teams are engaged in active negotiations and font wants to end that war more than president trump. he campaigned on this , but there are steps to this process and president zelenskyy wouldn't agree to a cease-fire.

if you want a war to end how can you not agree to stop the fighting? you have the greatest deterrent in the oval office in president trump and you need to trust his ability to deter russia's aggression and his first term proves he has the ability to do that. howie: i would just say a cease-fire might leave all the russian land gains intact but here is the thing. i can't imagine that this remarkable everybody saying i've never seen anything like it would have happened behind closed doors so why hold the meeting in front of the cameras? >> because president trump is the most transparent president in history and it was great for the cameras to be in there because the and the world were able to see what the president and his team has seen behind the scenes in negotiating with president zelenskyy's team. they have continually denied the pragmatic reassuring it of where their country stands today. three-years have passed. hundreds of thousands of people have died. zelenskyy is losing the support of the american public

for funding this effort and it's a different sheriff in town. president trump is not the same as president biden. he has different priorities. he wants to negotiate a deal and president zelenskyy failed to recognize that. howie: you've accruesed the press corps of having an anti-trump bias and reporting things false. is it false to say that the doge budget cutting effort under elon musk has been confusing as to who has to respond to the name five things you did e-mail, and also, that there's a backlash against among those i should say who think that elon musk is moving too fast? >> first of all i would say nobody disagrees with the fact that the legacy media has an anti-trump bias. that has been largely litigated over the past eight years. if you can look at headlines to prove that. howie: is that more evident to you as you deal with reporters? >> oh, absolutely. it's ubs questionable. it's something we deal with everyday at the white house and we're happy to do it because we're used to the hostility from

the legacy media. when it comes to doge, they are doing exactly what president trump wants them to do, which is to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in our federal government and yes, to move quickly. we have four years to fundamentally transform our federal government, to cut through the bureaucracy. that's what president trump campaigned on. 77% of the american public supports a full investigation into federal spending, and there's not a lot of time to waste, so doge is moving fast but that's what president trump wants and again, that's what the american people want. howie: everybody is for budget cutting in theory, and then when you get down to people actually losing their jobs and services being cut, different story. is it false to say that some republican lawmakers are criticizing the doge efforts because i can quote many of them for instance in new jersey congressman jeff van drew says use a scalpal and not a sledgehammer and we have to be careful we don't hurt everyday people. a lot of the federal jobs,

bureaucracy is bloated no question about it but a lot of the federal jobs are filled by everyday people. >> massive government reform is not perfect, nor is it pretty, but it's necessary work that most presidents have refused to do. every president has refused to do. howie: because of the political pressures. >> exactly. but president trump is unafraid and he knows what the american people elected him to do, and doge is, again, focused on identifying the misuse of american taxpayers that have, taxpayer dollars gone on for far too long. howie: the associated press has been indefinitely excluded from the press pool and i know judge in litigation the lawsuit ap filed is refused to issue a tro, but, since this is a battle about the wire services refusal to use the gulf of america, isn't this the white house trying to dictate the editorial stance of an independent media outlet? >> no, howie.

i said on my first day behind the lecturn in the white house briefing room we were going to hold news media outlets accountable if they were pushing lies and it is a fact that the gulf of america is now the gulf of america. the president feels very strongly about that. the associated press is an american news organization and there are many outlets across our country who have properly identified the gulf of america in light of what president trump and doug burgum the secretary of interior have done to lawfully change the name of that body of water. howie: much of the world calls it the gulf of mexico. >> the associated press sued us in court. they started this fight. a judge as you said sided with us in saying that it is not a right of any news organization to walk into the oval office and i want to make a very important point. the associated press still has their credentials and still allowed to cover the white house and still in the briefing room with me. i have taken questions from them. the only privilege that has been revoked is that privilege of going into the oval office being

part of that core 13 press pool members, and not every outlet has the ability to go in there every single day like the associated press has for decades. it's a privilege. we're opening up that privilege to other outlets who deserve a seat at the table. howie: more with karoline leavitt right after this. with hotels and vacation rentals, booking.com has something for everyone. seashells! you got anything more boutique? oui, oui, oui. right this way... now we're talking. what about something more family friendly? oooh! maybe a resort with a waterpark... [water splash] or somewhere less family-friendly? yep! one vegas hotel for the bride to be. what if we hate everything? we have free cancellation. find exactly what you're booking for. booking.com booking.yeah hi, my name is damian clark. and if you have both medicare and medicaid, i have some really encouraging news that you'll definitely want to hear. depending on

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and debris down this river, it seemed hopeless. but when the waters receded, belfor was here. not just to rebuild, but to help restore the life of this community. belfor. restoring more than property. howie: the press as i mentioned is up in arms about this news

from the white house press secretary. >> i am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows, and who listen to your radio stations. moving forward, the white house press pool will be determined by the white house press team. howie: more of my conversation with karoline leavitt. let me go larger on the question of the pool. you say, with the white house taking it over, this is returning power to the people, but it's really transferring power to the white house. what's to stop you from largely, and i say largely, because i know, for example, that you're keeping legacy media outlets as part of the pool, largely picking friendly reporters who will ask friendly questions. >> i love you, howie, but i have to fundamentally disagree with what you're saying. our print pooler two day ago was the independent from the uk which is not a very friendly

outlet to donald trump. the print pooler yesterday was the los angeles times for goodness sakes. cnn was our tv pooler yesterday, and we know the misinformation that they've reported about this administration and this president for years. this is not about revoking the right of biased news organizations to be in the oval office or to cover this president. it's simply about ending the monetized monopoly that the white house correspondent's association has had over press coverage at the white house and this weekend in palm beach, florida there are legitimate news journalists and outlets who are traveling on air force one and covering the united states as part of the travel pool who would have never been able to do that if not for this change. the white house correspondent's association began more than 100 years ago. certainly the media and digital age has changed since the early 1900s and we are simply trying howie: right but you just kind of described the white house correspondent's association as an elite group. it is.

howie: okay, but its members are elected by the press corps at large to represent their interest and also there's the question of who pays for flights on air force one. a lot of people don't know the reporters are charged for that. >> they are, yes, and they will continue to be, and in terms of the issues that the white house correspondent's association since raised saying the trump white house won't be able to handle the logistics of this is frankly laughable to us, because many of us inside of the trump white house were just on president trump's historic campaign. there was no white house correspondent's association helping us with that press coverage. we were putting together seven rallies a day across the country in multiple locations and the press were traveling with us everywhere we went so our team is well-equipped to burden these logistical challenges and we've already been doing that for several days throughout this week and we've opened that access up to new voices while also maintaining the respect for the legacy media who have invested resources and who have

covered this white house for decades and we respect that. howie: you've rightly pointed out that the president provides just endless access to mainstream media. he makes news, you know, 10 times -- >> every second. howie: he's continued to do a number of podcasts as he did during the campaign so are the old news outlets much less important now from your point of view? >> i think they have a different place in this digital landscape, and i think we need to recognize that americans are consuming their news in very different ways than just tuning into cable television at night and president trump recognizes that as well, but very much -- howie: you don't have a problem with tuning into cable i hope? >> no trust me i have cable on my office at the white house all day everyday. howie: you've clearly gone too far and crossed the line in saying you and the president are having fun. >> [laughter] howie: the media don't want you to have fun. what's that about? >> we are having fun. the president is having fun. in fact, the very first day that

president trump was inaugurated he was sworn into office, he raised his hand, took the oath, went to the white house within 10 minutes of returning to the oval, opened up the oval to journalists to ask him an array of questions as he sat there and signed executive orders. howie: the media are anti-fun? >> never in american history have we seen this and the media are having a hard time covering a president who is genuinely having fun when they have a bias against him. howie: i've got half a minute. what do you think is the source of what you call the anti-trump bias? >> i think unfortunately, a lot of reporters just have that ingrained in their own personal opinions of the president. howie: danger to democracy and so forth? >> threat to democracy, all of the lies we've seen spewed from the mainstream media that are just simply not true and i think hopefully, they are finally coming around and seeing that this is a president who wants to do what's right for america and look at the historic action he's taken and just a month on-the-job. in fact yesterday, the new

february border numbers were out. the border has had a historic decline in illegal border crossings because of the actions of this president. he's doing exactly what he said he was going to do. howie: karoline leavitt thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. howie: still to come msnbc cancels joy reid and rachel maddow doesn't like it. chronic kidney disease.” because with a progressive disease like ckd, slow is good. and believe me, i know all about slow. that's why i'm here to tell you about jardiance - it's a little pill... proven to slow the progression of ckd... and reduce the risk of kidney failure, which can lead to dialysis. serious side effects include increased ketones in blood or urine, which can be fatal. stop jardiance and call your doctor right away... if you have nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, trouble breathing, or increased ketones. jardiance may cause dehydration that can suddenly worsen kidney function and make you feel dizzy, lightheaded, or weak upon standing. genital yeast infections in men and women,

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howie: msnbc canceled joy reid's primetime show, i've been critical of her harsh racially-charged rhetoric. she's gone through anger, rage, disappointment, hurt, and guilt. >> my show had value, and that, i'm sorry --

that what i was doing had value, and in the end, i'm sorry, i try not to cry on tv, but this is kind of like me on tv so i apologize. i am not sorry that i stood up for those things because those things are of god. howie: rachel maddow, the network's biggest star ripped her bosses over the move. >> and personally, i think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door. it is not my call and i understand that, but that's what i think. there's also unnerving to satisfy that on a network where we've got two, count them two, non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is katie fang on the weekend. that feels worse than bad. no matter who replaces them. that feels indefensible and i do not defend it. howie: the network's sinking ratings, msnbc's new president,

rebecca cutler hosting shows by alex wagner and jose diaz while bringing jen psaki into primetime. separately lester holtz stepping down as anchor of nbc nightly news after a decade to consoconcentrate on dateline. he was just tired of the daily grind. staffers at the national security agency of using an internal messaging system for exphysiograph it sex chats including having group sex on the weekend according to city journal that brought swift action. >> i put out a directive today they all will be terminated and their security clearances will be revoked. howie: more than 100 staffers have been fired. elon musk has confirmed that ashley st. clair, whose claim we reported last week, has a five-month old baby that's his 13th child, but casts "the

situation" in very different light posting messages allegedly from st. clair shared by an allie that say, elonfollowe. i need his rocket babies. also, i take one for the team. seduce elon, get in a rocket and see what's up and later i need a caption to seduce elon musk. this , from a woman in a custody battle who says she wants privacy. her lawyer had no comment. what a mystery in the tragic death of legendary actor gene hackman, found said in his santa fe home along with his wife betsy and one of their dogs. authorities say no sign of foul play, and the deaths are suspicious. an open prescription bottle and scattered pills found near her body. did the two time oscar winner who was 95 choose to end his life? we won't know until further

investigation. one new media reporter added to the pool was brian glenn of the pro-trump real america's voice. here is what he asked. >> the harvard approximately that came out had you up nine-plus points and all of your agenda that you ran on, you're accomplishing that with the support of the american people including stopping the war in ukraine, and comment on the latest harvard poll i'd appreciate that. >> well i was honored. howie: on friday, he aggressively demanded that volodymyr zelenskyy, why aren't you wearing a suit? well that's it for this edition of mediabuzz. i'm howard kurtz. this is like drinking from a fire hose to get the news in. you can subscribe to the daily podcast where we rif on the today's top stories plus the funny ones and weird ones and basically what we do. we are back here next sunday. c 11ou eastern. vision. it was hard, but taking preservision was easy. preservision has the exact clinically proven areds 2 formula

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ukrainian and president zelenskyy the united kingdom