if he hits back at, i don't know, cable news hosts, that ex-steppe exte extends it. the president in ways they think are unfair. >> nick. >> howard, i got to ask you, you know, you talk about the responsibility of reporters and how they're overbearing with the president. but this is a president, i think we can all agree, who has more of a tendency to make things up and lie than office holders in either party. so what is the president exactly supposed to do? should we not be fact checking him? should we not be looking at what he's saying and seeing if it comb parts with objectives, the reality? >> of course the press needs to fact check the president. i think we get into a situation now where -- by the way, there's a lot of exclusive reporting here about self-destructive leaks and dysfunction at the white house, as well as something his aides call defiance disorder. he does it because that's his style. sometimes he does it strategically. sometimes he does it because he's just angry at reporters and sometimes, you know, he knows that he can set off a firestorm and mayb