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Trump calls press stories fiction
Published September 01, 2019
This is a rush transcript from "Media Buzz," September 1, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: On the Buzz Meter this Sunday, President Trump takes on the Washington Post, Axios, Fox News, a New York Times columnist, and MSNBS's Lawrence O'Donnell who had to retract an inflammatory Russia charge which he had no evidence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, HOST, MSNBC: We don't know whether the information is inaccurate, but the fact is, we do know it wasn't ready for broadcast and for that, I apologize.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: How do major media outlets keep making these reckless mistakes? The president rips the lamestream media for downplaying the results of the G7 summit and reporters respond with a laundry list of misstatements and shifting positions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Team Trump force to clarify spin and backtrack on multiple statements made by the president with the world watching at the G7 summit. Why can't this president just stick to the truth?
STUART VARNEY, FOX NEWS HOST: Those meetings of world leaders used to be kind of ho-hum, didn't they? Nothing much happened. Trump has changed all of that. He has dominated this G7 get together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president apparently invented a lie to try to extricate himself, saying "the vice chairman of China called and wants to make a deal," but the phone call appears not to have happened, at least the Chinese government says it didn't happen.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Watching the American media's coverage of the G7 in Biarritz, France, I can't help but think they can't go any lower. They're framing again of every story, CNN, MSNBC, et cetera., are essentially taking the word of this oppressive communist government over that of their own country's president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: We'll have a reality check on the conflicting accounts from the summit.
The New York Times says Trump allies are trying to embarrass and intimidate journalists by digging up their old tweets. Here's this news outlets do to political figures all the time. So, why should the public tweets of a Times editor which happened to be anti-Semitic be deemed off limits?
Plus, the inspector general finds that Jim Comey broke the FBI rules in orchestrating a leak to the Times after the president fired him, but he won't be prosecuted. Does this end his romance with the press?
I'm Howard Kurtz and this is "Media Buzz."
Fox News alert, at least seven people are dead and several others are injured after a shooting in West Texas on Saturday. Police say the man was being stopped by state troopers for not using his turn signal when he shot at them and fled. Spokesman for the Odessa police says at least one victim remains in life threatening condition. We will have updates throughout the day on this tragic situation.
Our other top story today of course is Hurricane Dorian, currently strengthening. Senior meteorologist Janice Dean joins us now. Janice?
JANICE DEAN, FOX NEWS SENIOR METEOROLOGIST: Howie, we just got the latest information, 11 a.m. advisory. I haven't seen a lot of hurricanes this strong. A 180 miles-per-hour sustained winds. They have upped the winds, gusts of 220 miles-per-hour.
This is going to cause catastrophic, life-threatening damage for the northwestern Bahamas. This storm continues to strengthen and will probably be intact for at least the next 24 to 48 hours.
And then beyond that, computer models look like they're trending westwards, so we're not out of the woods for Florida, and these are the advisories. I just want to make mention that we have a hurricane watch now for parts of Florida. That means the hurricane center thinks that we're going to see hurricane-force winds in the next couple of days.
The latest track as we go to 11 a.m., very close call here for Florida, up towards Georgia and the Carolinas. You're not off the hook yet. You need to be paying close attention to your local forecasts and your local officials. There will probably be evacuations all up and down the southeast coast. Howie, back to you.
KURTZ: That is a monster storm, Janice, thanks very much.
DEAN: OK.
KURTZ: President Trump has been ripping media reports virtually every day this week. The Washington Post said he privately offered pardons in connection with getting his wall built. Tweet, "Another totally fake story in the Amazon Washington Post lobbyist which states that if my aides broke the law to build the wall, which is going up rapidly, I would give them a pardon. This was made up by the Washington Post only in order to demean and disparage fake news."
Axios reports that in at least two meetings Trump asked for research on whether nuclear bombs could be used to stop hurricanes.
Tweet, "Axios, whatever that is, sat back and said gee, let's see what can we make up today to embarrass the president. Then they said, why don't we say he wants to bomb a hurricane, that should do it."
Joining us now to analyze the coverage, Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist, a Fox News contributor and co-author of "Justice on Trial, the Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court." Susan Ferrechio, chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner. And Richard Fowler, a radio talk show host and also a Fox News contributor.
Mollie, this Washington Post report quoting current and former officials saying the president had advised aides that they seize land or did other things that were illegal they would get pardons, the president says it's completely made up. How do we resolve that?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You say it quotes current and former officials. But that's how they characterized where the quotes were coming from. The only on the record quote comes from Hogan Gidley denying the claim.
And this is the problem with reliance on anonymous resources. There's no way to check what's going on. Nobody is willing to put their name on the record. You have no way of knowing, you know, where the story came from.
And this is the lather rinse repeat that we have seen throughout the Trump presidency, outrageous allegations, source to anonymous officials that you have no way of checking and then denials from people in office.
KURTZ: The story did quote a White House official, or an unnamed administration official saying yes, the president did bring up pardons but he was joking. Again, hard for us to tell as Mollie points out.
Richard, Trump says the Axios report that he asked the staff to at least explore on nuking hurricanes, completely fictitious. Axios says they don't just have sources but that this was recorded in a C memo. Again, two completely different versions.
RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. This is an interesting predicament for this president, right? This luscious of this news media in both of those tweets, it was false information. He continues to say the wall is rapidly being built. What's happening on the southern border is they are replacing wall that's already there. His new wall none of that has been built at all. And I think --
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: That may change.
FOWLER: It could change.
KURTZ: Yes.
FOWLER: But as that tweet states, that's a false tweet because the wall is currently not being built.
KURTZ: Is he also sort of broadcasting the original allegation to seek this --
FOWLER: Of course. And I think that -- this is the -- I think this sort of speaks to the problem of this president. He continues to blame the media for the fact that he's not doing well in the polls or for the fact that his economic numbers are sort of moving in the wrong direction.
But once again, he puts none of that blame on himself when he is the one and his White House is leaking this information and coming out with this information.
KURTZ: Susan, the White House chose not to comment on the Jonathan Swan's Axios story about the hurricanes and then the president rips it afterwards and says it is made up and so forth. Is that a strategy?
SUSAN FERRECHIO, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Clearly. He comes out and says it's wrong and then fake news is lying and that's part of the narrative. And Trump had been very convincing and it's been an argument that works well to him.
But I think to Mollie's point, you don't know if he's kidding or not. I feel like in the media there are so many reporters who interpret what he says without any, you know, recognizing of his sense of humor or how he's sarcastic or how he approaches things. It's like, wow he's a crazy man, look he's talking about nuking hurricanes. He may have been joking about that. He may have been joking about the pardons of saying, I'll pardon you. Go ahead and build the wall.
And to Richard's point, saying the wall is not being built. Actually, the wall is being built because the places where they're replacing the wall are making impenetrable to pedestrian traffic and that was the problem. A lot of the -- the wall that was there before only blocked cars in normal (Ph) defensing. It was so old that people could run through it.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: But this is part of the --
FERRECHIO: This is blocking thousands of illegal immigrants from getting through the border.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: But let's talk -- but I'm not denying that.
FERRECHIO: That's what the president promised to do and that's what he's accomplishing.
KURTZ: Rich, just a brief response.
FERRECHIO: Yes.
FOWLER: Listen, I'm not saying that he's not replacing the wall but this idea that he's building a wall erecting on our entire southern border which he continues to say is just not factual.
KURTZ: All right. Let me go to the G7. Because it's not surprising that the press and the president have very different views out of that summit. But then you have journalists picking up on reports China denying his account that Beijing asked for resume negotiations on the tariffs and Japan publicly disputing Trump's account that an agreement in principle on trade deal saying talks are still going on.
So, is it fair or unfair for the press to spotlight these diplomatic disagreements?
HEMINGWAY: It is totally fair to spotlight diplomatic disagreements. I do agree with what Susan was saying about inability to understand how President Trump speaks is hurting media coverage. It is totally fine if you don't understand him, but you probably shouldn't be a political reporter.
And so here you have some unreliable narrators. Donald Trump unreliable to his hyperbole and exaggeration and China unreliable by being China. And you see the media sort of just reflexively agree with China and be so confused about how Donald Trump speaks. They need to get a better handle on understanding him if they hope to do their jobs.
KURTZ: I thought a classic example was looking up and saying yes, I'm the chosen one, obviously to me sarcastic but the press read that very seriously. But then you have these minor spats coming out of the G7 such as Trump saying that Melania has gotten to know Kim Jong-un and then the White House saying well, she's never actually met him but she feels like she knows him. But is that a big deal?
FOWLER: Listen, I don't think that's a big deal. But I think Mollie does bring up a point here. The point that Mollie brings up is that the president has reliability questions that I think the American people now see. This goes far beyond media coverage.
You could talk to Democrats, or you could talk to Republicans, or you could talk to farmers anywhere across this country that are feeling impacts of this unreliable trade war that we're in.
KURTZ: I do think just to button up this part of the discussion on G7, that there was more unity this year than last year when the president was more disruptive.
But then you had the big story shift to the president talking about his Doral Country Club could host the G7 summit next year when it is the U.S.'s turn. And the press completely went bonkers over that. Was that overplayed or again fair game for criticism.
FERRECHIO: Well, it was fair game because now the House judiciary committee is including that request as part of their impeachment inquiry. They are saying the fact that he wanted to include his own country club is an emolument clause issue and that they need to investigate him.
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: Enriching himself. Yes.
FERRECHIO: So, it's so -- yes, I think it's fine, but also fully report the story. There are many venues being considered. And that is one of them. There are reasons they considered that for the venue. It was not fully reported. It just made it look like we're doing it here. And it's, actually it's not even official. They said they're still not decided yet.
KURTZ: All right. It was a trial balloon, so to speak.
FERRECHIO: Right.
KURTZ: All right. So, Jim Comey as you know, the Department of Justice inspector general saying that he violated FBI rules in taking home memos that he wrote about his dealings with President Trump, saying the president demanded his loyalty.
This was a dangerous example set by Comey, according to the I.G. The memos had sensitive but not classified information, some of which he leaked to the New York Times through intermediary. What do you make of the way in which this has been characterized by the press?
HEMINGWAY: Right. Well, he did mishandle classified information. He leaked sensitive information. The memos did contain classified information. He kept them in a way that was not what the FBI would like it to be.
KURTZ: Were they classified as -- were they categorized as classified at the time?
HEMINGWAY: Well, the issue being he leaked sensitive information.
KURTZ: Yes.
HEMINGWAY: He mishandled classified information --
KURTZ: OK.
HEMINGWAY: -- including sharing it with people who were not authorized to see it. This report was so interesting in part because inspector general reports are usually pretty boring. This is the second report where the inspector general has really come out hard against James Comey and his way of -- his way of operating.
What's interesting is think of the larger media portrayal of James Comey in recent years where he's been lionize, held up as a hero of the resistance.
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: Because he's crusading against Trump.
HEMINGWAY: And yet, when it comes to actual evaluations of his work, he's considered dangerous. He was said to have violated Donald Trump's civil liberties. He flouted rule of law. These are very serious things, particularly for the nation's chief law enforcement officer.
KURTZ: The president tweeted that Comey should be ashamed of himself. But Comey is not exactly chasing. His tweet was among others, "I don't need a public apology from those who defamed me but a quick message with sorry we lied about you would be nice." So, he's fighting back. On the other hand, you can't dispute the facts as laid out by the I.G.
FOWLER: Yes, listen, Comey is no boy scout. Comey gets no praise from me. But I think the larger sort of story happening, and the underlying story here is this. The president and the White House have been so muted on protecting our elections and dealing with the fact that there is Russian intrusion, that Comey and all these other characters have been able to have a larger space in the media narrative.
The real story here is this, is that our elections are still vulnerable to foreign threats and this White House has done nothing about it.
FERRECHIO: That's totally not true. In fact, there have been several classified briefings where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle come out --
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: I'm not talking about classified briefings. I'm talking about action.
FERRECHIO: Hold on. Hold on.
KURTZ: Let Susan finish.
FERRECHIO: They've come out of these briefings, we're not allowed to know what the administration is telling people about their preparation, not only was 2018 a secured election based on the improvements by this administration but they are currently feeling pretty confident based on the actions they are taking now that the upcoming elections are secure, and that's what they are telling lawmakers behind closed doors. They are coming out and telling us that.
So, to say they are doing nothing, that is completely false.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: No, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute, Susan.
FERRECHIO: That is completely false.
FOWLER: You cover Capitol Hill, and you know there is a bill that is in the Senate right now that would secure our elections --
(CROSSTALK)
FERRECHIO: It would plagiarize the election.
FOWLER: The fact that -- excuse me, no, no, no, it would not. No, no, no.
FERRECHIO: That's actually disputed whether it would secure the elections. That's a Democratic talking point.
FOWLER: It would allow -- no, it's not a Democratic talking point.
FERRECHIO: OK.
FOWLER: I read the bill. What the bill would also do is it will back up every vote by a paper ballot. Mitch McConnell has done nothing on it. Neither has Donald Trump.
FERRECHIO: That's actually not true. It would plagiarize the election.
KURTZ: All right.
FERRECHIO: And there actually is a bipartisan bill.
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: I got to stop you right now because we're running out of time. I just want to make the final point that I think that Democrats don't like Jim Comey because he didn't bring charges against Hillary but then trashed her at the press conference and board it up at the end of the campaign.
I think Republicans don't like him because he's now (Inaudible) some of the chief foe of the president of the United States. And I think the media have kind of ran out of sympathy for this guy because he seems to be playing it all different ways. I get the last word.
When we come back, the Washington Post uncovers not just a gaffe by Joe Biden by a blatantly untrue story about a war hero.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: Fox News alert, the president weighing in on the Odessa shootings that claimed seven lives yesterday. "Great job by Texas law enforcement and first responders in handling the terrible shooting yesterday," said the president. "Thank you also to the FBI, Governor Abbott and all others, a very tough and sad situation."
Now Joe Biden has been telling this story for years, how as vice president he went to Afghanistan, pinned a medal on a young navy captain who was a war hero.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This guy climbed down a ravine, carried this guy up on his back, under fire, and the general wanted me to pin the Silver Star on him. I got up there and stand this is God's truth, my word as a Biden, he stood his attention. I went to pin him. He said, sir, I don't want the damn thing."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: But the Washington Post discovered it didn't happen that way, that Biden is conflating bits of several different tales. Here's the quote. "In the space of three minutes Biden got the time period, the location, the heroic act, the type of medal, the military branch and the rank of the recipient wrong as well as his own role in the ceremony."
It was a little painful for me to watch liberals on MSNBC, CNN, and elsewhere saying well, you know, it's OK that he mangled virtually all the facts because Biden's heart is in the right place. He wasn't trying to make himself out to be a hero, he wasn't making himself look good, and by the way, Donald Trump makes all these false statements.
HEMINGWAY: Right, that Joe Biden has received remarkably friendly coverage over the years, despite his lengthy history of false storytelling, plagiarism, general lack of command of the facts. It is clear that the media generally like him. It is also interesting that this comes out during a Democratic primary.
This happens to be one of the only times where you start to see stories that are negative against Democrats of this nature because he's running against other Democrats that media might like as well.
But I thought the story was, you know, very straight forward, very fair. This is an issue going back decades that Joe Biden has had. This is something somewhat similar to what derailed him when he his first run.
KURTZ: Yes, in 1987 the plagiarism derailed his first campaign. One exception was MSNBC's Chris Matthews has said a reporter would be fired for this stuff. Now it was actually President Obama who awarded a medal to this navy captain that Joe Biden was talking about. Although there was an army staff sergeant who did receive a medal from Biden directly in 2011.
Richard, my question is, how do you forget that? The Post story doesn't resolve whether this was a memory problem, whether it was deliberate, maybe it can't be resolved. But as we saw it's just of the version, he's told this story many times conflating all these different details.
FOWLER: Well, the Biden camp has got to get better with the vice president in making sure that he tells these stories accurately or this type of story from the Washington Post, it's a fair story, will continue to come out.
KURTZ: You're saying his aides have to crack down on the former vice president and get him to do a better job as to the --
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: Right. I think from the campaign side, if you look at it from their angle, they're like, listen, why would he do that when he's up in the polls, every poll has him ahead.
I think we have to wait to see what happens in the next debate where all 10 of these top tier candidates will be on the same stage debating the issues, how will Joe Biden fare in this type? Or how will the media cover him. I think the media is covering him fairly and they're covering him accurately. And I think the campaign has to do some cutting and nipping and shaping to make sure that doesn't continue to be a problem.
KURTZ: Well, you know, ultimately, it's the candidate's responsibility. And I've taken the position that while Biden has made a lot of gaffes lately, you know, some of them are minor and the media maybe are playing them up too much because there are questions about his age and his memory, 76 and all of that.
This doesn't -- I don't put this in the category of a gaffe, Susan. And the worst part for me is Joe Biden doesn't seem to get it. He told the Washington Post's columnist Jonathan Capehart on his podcast, quote, "I don't know what the problem is. What is it that I said wrong?"
FERRECHIO: So interesting. It was reminding me of, I remember Hillary Clinton when she was running for president and she told the story about landing in Bosnia and coming under fire, and it turned out that story was incorrect. She ended up apologizing, but it kind of ding her credibility quite a bit actually. And she was criticized throughout her campaign, remember the big lie about Bosnia.
I think Biden runs the risk over time, you saw that Washington Post kind of warning shot story, we're watching you, Joe. We are going to be chronicling all your gaffes, et cetera.
And if he does become the nominee, it will be interesting to see whether once there is only one Democrat as Mollie was saying and there's not others they can pick and choose from, how closely will they follow those gaffes?
KURTZ: It was kind of reporting to talk to military people and find out the actual facts that happened in both of these cases involving war heroes who shouldn't be diminished in any way. At the same time, I don't quite understand why Biden doesn't say, you know, hey, I had this story and had this story I conflated the details and I'm sorry and then maybe the story is over.
HEMINGWAY: It might be because he's had such a pattern of this.
KURTZ: Yes.
HEMINGWAY: That to accept responsibility for this one could cause problems down the road.
FOWLER: I think it also speaks to -- I mean, the media audience as people watching this show and watching -- reading the newspaper, they've also realized that Joe Biden exists in a world where Donald Trump is also around and Donald Trump is known for lying. He's known for twisting the truth. He's known for making up the facts. And so, it exists in that chasm and in that universe.
KURTZ: Right, but that sort of the media (Inaudible) well, therefore, what Joe Biden did was not so bad.
FOWLER: I'm not saying I'm forgiving Joe Biden.
KURTZ: No, no, no, but a lot of pundits have taken this well, it's not really that bad when you look at Trump. Right?
HEMINGWAY: And just in general, if the media's argument is that Donald Trump is horrifically bad for all these different things to have other politicians do very similar things makes their argument not hold as much weight.
FOWLER: No, I just think the world look different because you're in a world where Donald Trump lies a lot.
KURTZ: I got to run. Richard Fowler, Susan Ferrechio, and Mollie Hemingway, thanks very much. Up next, a truly irresponsible mistake by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, and a New York Times columnist loses it over a bedbug controversy. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: It was a spectacularly reckless charge to make against a president without any tangible evidence. Here's what Lawrence O'Donnell said on his MSNBC show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'DONNELL: And this single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that the Trump -- Donald Trump's loan documents there show that he has cosigners. That's how he was able to obtain those loans and that the co- signers are Russian oligarchs.
RACHEL MADDOW, HOST, MSNBC: What? Really?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: But soon after Trump lawyers sent NBC a letter calling the story false and defamatory and demanding retraction, O'Donnell took to Twitter to admit an error in judgment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'DONNELL: Last night on a show, I discussed information that wasn't ready for reporting. I repeated statements a single source told me about the president's finances and loan documents with Deutsche Bank saying if true, as I discussed the information was simply not good enough.
And tonight, we are retracting the story. We don't know whether the information is inaccurate. But the fact is, we do know it wasn't ready for broadcast, and for that I apologize.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Well I'm glad he delivered a full apology. The president not surprisingly took some Twitter shots at, quote, "crazy Lawrence O'Donnell."
(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Lawrence O'Donnell has been saying stuff for four years. It's just as wrong. But this was one that he was forced by NBC to apologize for, and what they say is just MSNBC and CNN and all of them for the most part, but they're just really despicable people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
TRUMP: It's horrible. It's fake news and it's a shame.
(END VOICE CLIP)
KURTZ: How did this veteran commentator and former Democratic Senate aide think he could air such an explosive allegation outside of NBC's normal reporting channels, and where are all the media denunciations that would have occurred if say Fox News had made a similar blunder?
The New York Times has bedbugs in its newsroom. And that weirdly led to a war of words between a professor and Bret Stephens, a conservative op-ed writer for the Times.
Dave Karpf who teaches at George Washington University tweeted that the bedbugs are Bret Stephens. That prompted the columnist to write to Karpf saying, "come to my house, meet my wife and kids, talk to us a few minutes and then call me a bedbug to my face." And he copied the professor's boss.
Karpf made the e-mail public trigger an avalanche of online criticism for the MSNBC contributor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET STEPHENS, OP-ED COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES: All I would say is that using teaching menacing rhetoric like bedbugs or, you know, analogizing people to insects is always wrong. There's a bad history of being told of being analogized to insects that goes back to a lot of totalitarian regimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Now Karpf wrote in Esquire that Stephens was trying to send a message that people like me are not supposed to write mean jokes about people like him online. It was an exercise in wielding power. Stephens a harsh critic has now quit Twitter.
The president tweeted that "the bedbugs were perhaps brought in by lightweight journalist Bret Stephens, a conservative who does anything that his bosses tell at the paper tell him to. Tough guy."
Stephens is a smart journalist, a Pulitzer Prize winner who in this case was too thin skinned for his own good.
As we were going off the air last Sunday, President Trump tweeted from G7 in France that MEDIA BUZZ and Fox News, quote, "are getting worse." I've been covering Donald Trump for 35 years. Sometimes he is loving my coverage. As president he has told me I am to fair, and sometimes he's ripped my reporting. That's fine. It's the big leagues.
In this case he linked to his own tweet pushing back on unfavorable Fox poll that I had discuss discussed. Just to be clear, there can be problems with any poll. I was just saying Fox isn't tilting the surveys against him.
Days later after a Fox interview with a DNC spokeswoman he tweeted this. "The new Fox News is letting millions of great people down. We have to start looking for a new news outlet. Fox isn't working for us anymore."
Well, as Brit Hume and others have pointed out, Fox doesn't work for the president. Now, he's certainly entitled to criticize Fox News' division, which is separate from the opinion folks, just as he takes shots at other media outlets. The President, as I frequently point out, is often unfairly maligned by much of the press. I will try every day along with my news colleagues here to keep covering him fairly.
Coming up, Frank Luntz is here on how the entire press corps bet on a bad poll. And are the pundits right in saying America has Trump fatigue or are they just tired of him?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURZ: President Trump just spoke to reporters on the White House lawn for about 10 minutes. Here's the playback.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yesterday in Texas, they've been incredible. First responders, law enforcement, the police, the FBI, Governor Abbott, incredible the job they did is tragic. But they did it an incredible job under the circumstances. Another very sick person. So I just want to thank everybody involved. And always, you say, as bad as it was, it could have been worse, but it was certainly bad, very, very sad situation.
Also, I would like to introduce Admiral Brown of the U.S. Coast Guard, a highly respected man who spent two days at Camp David going over a lot of different things, having to do with the hurricane. The Admiral has informed me through all of the different sources that he has, but you can pretty much get it on television, Admiral.
They -- this is now a Category 5. It seems to be one of the biggest hurricanes we've ever seen. And that's the problem, that's a problem. So I think a lot of -- we have a lot of great -- we have a lot of great people working right now. We don't know where it is going to hit, but we have an idea. Probably a little bit different than the original course. The original course was dead into Florida. Now, it seems to be going up towards South Carolina, towards North Carolina. Georgia is going to be hit. Alabama is going to get a piece of it, it looks like, but it could change its course again. And it could back more towards Florida.
So we'll be knowing -- we'll be learning over the next, probably less than 24 hours. But it is a very, very powerful hurricane.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: Yes, we are looking at the same things. We're in the process of dealing Democrats, Republicans. They've been working very hard on it. They're coming back very soon. And it's a big package of things that will be put before them by a lot of different people. We have a lot of groups working on it.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: Well, I've finished speaking to them. I've been speaking to a lot of senators. We've been speaking to a lot of House members, a lot of Republicans, a lot of Democrats, and people want to do something. So we're going to see -- this really hasn't changed anything. We're doing a package. And we will see what it's all -- how it comes about. It's coming about right now. And a lot of people are talking about it. And that's irrespective of what happened yesterday in Texas.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: We're looking at a lot of different things. We're looking at a lot of different bills, ideas, concepts. It's been going on for a long, long while, background checks. I will say that for the most part, sadly, if you look at the last four or five, going back even five or six or seven years, for the most part, as strong as you make your background checks, they would not have stopped any of it. So it's a big problem. It's a mental problem. It's a big problem.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: So, China is moving along. We're doing very well. It was brought out very strongly today by a number of great economists that because China has devalued their currency so much that in fact they are actually paying for all of the tariffs. We have in addition to that, as you know, they're pouring money into their economy. So, those two things, they are paying for their tariffs.
As you know, some new tariffs get on we're taking in, tens and billions of dollars. We're giving some of the money to the farmers. I'm making the more farmers more than whole. The farmers are doing better than of China. Frankly, we're buying. I'm taking a piece of the massive amount of tariffs. We're giving them to the farmers who have been targeted unfairly by China.
We are talking to China. The meeting is still on, as you know, in September. That has been changed. They have been changed. And we haven't -- we'll see what happens. But we can't allow China to rip us off anymore as a country. We can't allow China to take $500 billion a year out of our country. We can't do that.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: Yeah.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: I do have a great message for Poland that we have Mike Pence, Vice- President, just about landing right now. And he is representing me. I look forward to being there soon. But I just want to congratulate Poland. It's a great country with great people. We also have many Polish people in our country. It could be 8 million.
We love our Polish friends. And I will be there soon.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: Say it, say it.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: Speak up.
(Inaudible)
TRUMP: Well, I think Congress has got a lot of -- a lot of thinking to do, frankly. And they have a lot of -- they've been doing a lot of work. I will tell you on behalf of Republicans and Democrats. They have been doing a lot of work, having to do with guns. And I think you are going to see some interesting things coming along.
On the hurricane, Admiral, would you like to say something as to the size and scope of the hurricane?
ADMIRAL PETER BROWN, U.S. COAST GUARD: Certainly, Mr. President. Thank you.
This hurricane is very strong, Category 5. We have talked about the wind. It will also have substantial destructive life-threatening storm surge, fresh water rainfall in four states, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. We can all expect to see tropical storms of hurricane force impacts over the coming days. So the time for preparation is now.
TRUMP: And I will be going with the Admiral and many others over to FEMA in about an hour. And we'll be having somewhat of a news conference over there where you won't have the engines blaring, but we will have a news conference over at FEMA. So we will see most of you there. OK. Thank you. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: President Trump telling reporters that Dorian is one of biggest hurricanes we have ever seen in several southeastern states, not just Florida could be impacted.
The President was also asked about background checks in wake of yesterday's Texas shootings. He said for the most part sadly, recent shootings, he says, the background checks are tougher, the background checks would not have stopped those tragedies. He called it a mental problem. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURZ: Joining us now here in Washington is Frank Luntz, the veteran pollster. And, Frank, I wanted to ask you about this running theme that's merging from many pundits left and right in fact. That the Trump show -- we just saw him speak to reporters as he does virtually every day is so constant and so relentless, so many controversies and so many tweets that many voters -- and they are saying wind up being exhausted by Trump. And that Trump fatigue, as they are calling it, could hurt him with voters. Anything to that?
FRANK LUNTZ, VETERAN POLLSTER: Statistically, more people get their information about Donald Trump from Donald Trump, from his tweeting, than they do from New York Times, the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal combined, and the Washington Post.
And he's the first president ever that has the ability to speak directly to the country.
KURZ: In fact, he has his own channel.
LUNTZ: His own channel is his own way of communicating. And so, people get the news straight from the source. They don't have to get the interpretation. That's been a Trump strength. However, there are times when those tweets have not done him a good service. Whether he wants to admit it or not, there are times where he's actually caused himself some public relations problems. So the challenge for him...
KURTZ: Yeah.
LUNTZ: ... is to use that as effectively as you can by saying what needs to be said and not with all this other stuff that goes on.
KURZ: Well, I mean, obviously, he would say counterpunches, he loves to pick fights. So, here you have just a few examples. New York Times columnist, Frank Bruni, he is personally zapped by Trump exhaustion. Washington Post columnist, David Ignatius, I'm tuckered out.
LUNTZ: Yeah.
KURTZ: Trump takes up too much emotional space. National Review even Trump supporters are getting tired of his daily drama. But I'm wondering whether it's the journalists whose job is to cover all these stuffs, all the controversies, all the tweets, back and forth, who are maybe be worn-out by this President.
LUNTZ: And I think they are frustrated because they haven't been able to get to him. Look, on this show I have disagreed with how he's communicated some of the stuff he said.
KURZ: What do you mean they don't know how to get to him? He talks to them every day.
LUNTZ: But they haven't been able to get him. Let me rephrase that.
KURTZ: Oh, OK.
LUNTZ: And they are frustrated with it because the President, no matter what he says, no matter what he does, he has a base he doesn't fall below and he's still in this campaign. He still could be re-elected. And they're frustrated because they disagree with him so much. And they haven't had the ability to crush him.
KURZ: One thing, the message the President has hit pretty hard is that the media are trying and he says to crash the economy, to create a recession. Now, the economy is strong. No question about it. There are some flashing yellow lights. The media have that power and is this a winning argument for the President?
LUNTZ: They absolutely do have that power. And I think the President is correct here, that the media has gone at him, realized that the way they have criticized him has actually built some of his support, has justified his criticism that they are out to get him. The economy, it is like the bank shot in pool, they are going to sink a couple of balls because the public up until 30 days ago absolutely believed this was the best economy they have experienced. And they thought next year is going to be better than this year.
And the work we're doing and others are doing within the last two or three weeks, the perceptions have cratered. You can't say it is because of the tariffs because they did not have an impact until today.
KURZ: But you could say it is because of a volatile stock market. It is not all the press, you would acknowledge that.
LUNTZ: But the market has been up or down and the public ignored that.
KURZ: So you are agreeing with the President that journalists or many journalists are deliberately presenting a pessimistic view of the economy as it will appear down the road because it is their way of getting at the President's strengths?
LUNTZ: I believe it's happening because it is a 3.7 percent unemployment rate. It's the lowest unemployment rate for African-Americans, Latinos, youth, wages are up. All the data shows that things have gone in the right direction, so why should the numbers crater in the last 21 days? It has to be because of outside forces.
KURZ: Democratic race, a poll came out the other day showing Joe Biden, the front-runner, suddenly in a three-way tie -- statistical tie with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. The media went nuts over this. And then the next day, two other polls gave him the same double digit lead, saying the poll was an outlier. What do you make -- is it a quick trigger reaction to any poll even if the poll is flawed?
LUNTZ: It gets more attention if the poll is flawed. It gets more attention if it is outside the mainstream. But I would say the viewers are more sophisticated than this. Don't follow the national polls. They don't matter. I care about what is happening in Iowa, in Hampshire, and South Carolina. That's all that I'm following.
KURTZ: Yeah, it's a state-by-state race. But obviously, national polls influence perceptions and also can influence fund-raising and things like that.
LUNTZ: But we have learned in 2016 that the national perceptions were irrelevant. We learned in 2008, Hillary Clinton was crushing Barack Obama.
KURTZ: Yeah.
LUNTZ: But he did so well in those early states.
KURTZ: Like a sling shot.
LUNTZ: Don't -- let's give a good piece of advice on a Sunday, on a Labor Day weekend. I'm a pollster. Don't believe my national numbers. Follow it state by state.
KURZ: By the way, I have a videotape of you on this program predicting Bernie Sanders will win the nomination. Do you want to revisit that?
LUNTZ: Absolutely. I think he's falling and falling. And I'm watching Elizabeth Warren. I've seen her debate performances. This is going to make some people choke. Elizabeth Warren has the correct opening for Democrats. She has the correct close. She always includes a fact. She tells a personal story and she has dig at President Trump. Those are the five key components to winning a presidential debate. She's won both debates she has participated in. And the one that's coming up, if Joe Biden doesn't get his act together, if he doesn't figure out how to communicate straight to that camera, he's going to lose.
KURZ: Do you think -- I have 30 seconds, do you think the press would prefer Elizabeth Warren to Joe Biden who is often painted as all- uninspiring out of touch and kind of gaffe machine?
LUNTZ: Ideologically, I think the press is more in line with where Warren is. But she's a better candidate at this point. Joe Biden has better experience than anybody running for office.
KURZ: But he's been around a long time.
LUNTZ: He's been around a long time. His communication isn't effective.
KURZ: Frank Luntz, great to see you as always. Thank you very much. Enjoy your Sunday. We will be back right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURZ: And joining us now from Connecticut is Charlie Gasparino, senior correspondent at Fox Business Network. Charlie, front page story, New York Times saying that there's some Trump allies -- this is a very loose thing, it's not an organized effort, who are digging up old tweets by journalists, in order to in the words of publisher AJ Salzberger, embarrass and intimidate journalists and news organizations that are so terrible, but on the other hand, the same technique news organizations including Times use all the time against politicians. What do you make of the distinction here?
CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX BUSINESS NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And also, it's the same technique used by Media Matters for years to embarrass anybody that wasn't conforming to progressive ideological norms. I mean, you know, all you have to do is -- they did it to people on our network. You know, dredging up comments made to shock jocks 10 years ago.
Listen, my view is everybody should stop with this got-you stuff. It is harmful. And it's so beyond the point of the major stories out there. That said, you've got to expect the right to fight back if the left is doing it. And it's -- listen, conservatives are not going to unilaterally disarm this war. It is a war. I mean, you know, reporters on both sides have records and people are going to -- in this environment, people are going to do this if the other side is doing it. But I will say, it is a horrible, horrible thing.
KURZ: I agree with you. It is out of control. A lot of this is 10 years old, when somebody was in college.
GASPARINO: Yes, absolutely.
KURTZ: On the other hand, these are public tweets. It is not going through someone's garbage. It is not digging up dirt. And the back story here -- I just want to get this out was that the surfacing of tweets by a Senior Times political editor whose name Tom Wright-Piersanti who blatantly anti- Semitic tweets like crappy Jew Year and Jew police.
GASPARINO: Yeah.
KURZ: He has apologized for that. And so, the Times say when it is different when journalists do it, but when it is done to us, it is an effort to intimidate. I'm just saying well, everybody is being put through this who has ever said anything dumb on Twitter.
GASPARINO: And it is hypocritical. This guy is particularly hypocritical in this sense. And I agree overall. We should just stop this. When you're 15, or whatever, when you're in college, that's not the sum total of what you are as an adult.
KURZ: right.
GASPARINO: But I'm going to say this, Howie. I've seen stories in the Times about baseball players before they were drafted, or whatever, when they were kids being held accountable and football players for their tweets.
I mean, that's been in the mainstream media. That's absurd as well. So, you know, the press should reflect on its own. I want to say the Times should take to heart what it is saying about itself and stop the got-YOU on tweets from kids. I mean, it really is absurd at this point.
KURZ: Let me turn to another developing story. It involves the President's personal assistant, the woman who sat outside the Oval Office. People don't know her name.
GASPARINO: Right.
KURTZ: It's Madeleine Westerhout. And she...
GASPARINO: I did not know.
KURZ: OK. Well, she was forced out of her job the other day over some pretty indiscrete comments that she made about members of the President's family in an off-the-record dinner and drinks with reporters at the New Jersey Golf Club.
And the thing is because it was supposed to be off-the-record, that we have seen with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you know, this is a woman who you know obviously was indiscrete. But she lost her job because somebody among that group of reporters leaked this.
And my reporting as confirmed, Charlie, the leak came from Phil Rucker. He is the White House Bureau Chief of the Washington Post. He's an NBC -- MSNBC analyst. He basically passed the information to the New York Times. I'm told he feels badly about it. But the President is saying that, you know, this is not fair to have off-the-record rules and then somebody issues it to somebody else.
GASPARINO: She should -- right. She should not have said what she said. That's her boss. I mean, that's crazy stuff to be going even off-the-record in that regard. I will say this, though. I'd like to hear the conditions of that -- of that meeting. I mean, was it really off-the-record? You know, how was it established? Did everybody agree to an off-the-record thing? Because if they did really agree to something being off-the-record, and then leaking it after that, that is really bad form.
I mean, listen, I have reported an off-the-record conversation about Jeffrey Epstein, but he's dead.
KURZ: Right.
GASPARINO: There was a reason why I reported it. There was -- there's a public interest in this guy's background and who he dealt with.
KURTZ: Right.
GASPARINO: There's not much of a public interest here by the way.
KURZ: It's all pretty gossipy stuff, which I'm not going to repeat on the air. Now, the Washington Post pointed me to a statement, who says Phil Rucker is one of the best and most scrupulous reporter in the news business.
GASPARINO: Right. And he is.
KURTZ: He has never violated Washington Post standards or policies. But the New York Times was not at this dinner, so that you get around the off-the- record restriction because you were told this by somebody who was there.
GASPARINO: Well, if He's off-the-record, if he's taking that information off-the-record and giving it to somebody, that is a violation of those policies, the way I read it. Now, I don't know what was agreed to. Phil Rucker is a really good journalist. I think at some point, you got to hear how he handled it. I want to hear the conditions that he agreed to. It may not have been strictly off-the-record.
KURTZ: Right. Well, he didn't respond to my e-mail this morning. But as I say, the Post is defending him. The sad part is Madeleine Westerhout is 28 years old. Obviously, they were having drinks and she said she shouldn't have said and now she's out of a job.
GASPARINO: I'm sorry, it's bad stuff because we don't even -- this woman should not even be a national story.
KURZ: Yeah. And I think if she hadn't lost her job, obviously, this might have gone unnoticed. Charlie, great to see you.
GASPARINO: Any time.
KURZ: Thanks for stopping by as always.
And that is it for this edition of "Media Buzz," a little cameo by the president. I'm Howard Kurtz. Hope you enjoy your Labor Day weekend. Hey, check out my Podcast, "Media Buzz Meter." You can subscribe there at Apple iTunes, Google Play or FoxNewsPodcast.com. We hope that you look at our Facebook page. I post columns there, just about every day and original videos to the web.
And we will continue the dialogue on Twitter where hopefully people like me won't say anything that will end their career. We will see you next Sunday, 11 o'clock Eastern with the latest Buzz. Thanks for watching.
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