This is a rush transcript from "Media Buzz," September 6, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: This is “Media Buzz.” I'm Howard Kurtz. President Trump and numerous top officials are strongly denying an explosive report by the Atlantic that he repeatedly disparaged American soldiers. Editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, cites four unnamed officials familiar with the conversation saying Trump cancelled a visit to honor World War I soldiers at a French cemetery in 2018.
Extensively because of rain, saying why should I go to that cemetery. It's filled with losers, and calling the 1,800 marines suckers for getting killed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It is a disgraceful situation by a magazine that's a terrible magazine. I don't read it. But I just heard about it. They made it up. If people really exist that would have said that, they're low lives and they're liars. And I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In my opinion, this is one of those stories -- a rabid created and manufactured by the left. There are no sources, all anonymous, no evidence, no tapes. And in my experience, runs contrary to what people who know President Trump know about his disposition, his love for vets.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way that Trump is quoted, the things that he has said, it's not only un-American. It's not only completely bereft of patriotism, but at what point is he not fit to lead?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Joining us now to analyze the coverage, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at the Federalist and Fox News contributor, Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Washington Examiner columnist and Fox Nation Host, and in Los Angeles, Leslie Marshall, a radio host and Fox News contributor. Mollie, as I said, Jeffrey Goldberg claims four unnamed sources and reporting on the French cemetery.
I know you have a major problem with anonymous sources. Certainly, the story would be stronger with on-the-record comments. But as I learned during my years of investigative reporting, sources are sometimes the only way to get a story.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Right. All reporters use anonymous sources. You don't want to overuse anonymous sources or allow anonymous sources to run information operations through you. The Trump administration has seen so many of these information operations where current or former government officials get reporters to allow them to be anonymous, to spread narratives that turn out --
You know, you find out days, weeks, months, or sometimes years later, that the narrative that they spread was false. And so what's important for reporters to do here, if they want to participate in information operation, which I would caution them to be thinking about whether that's a good idea. Make sure that you include all of the on-the-record refutations from government officials.
I think we're up to 10 of or 12 now from firsthand accounts in many cases, the contemporaneous evidence including government documents that dispute the story, and even just the years of photographic evidence of how Donald Trump acts around disabled vets, how he makes trips to Walter Reed, how he likes to bring them into the Oval Office, how he's shown hugging and kissing on them and what not.
And so you want to make sure you include all the information if you decide you want to take part in the information operation that's going on.
KURTZ: Fair points. You know, the White House did initially decline to comment to the Atlantic. Kristen, also from the magazine on a visit with John Kelly to the Arlington grave where his son is buried, Trump reports to have said I don't get it. What was in it for them? Now, Kelly declined to comment. But based on my understanding of journalism, this was clearly run by him, a friend of Kelly's.
A retired four star general was quoted in the piece. President has now attacked John Kelly as having been exhausted and dysfunctional as his White House chief of staff. So it's created this kind of guessing game.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the worry about anonymous sources is without knowing the name of the folks who are claiming that this statement was made. It's hard to assess their credibility. So while on the one hand, you can point to things President Trump has done publicly to either confirm or deny your suspicions about this.
You can say, well, on the one hand, he does lots of things for vets. On the other hand, look at what he said about John McCain. You can build a case either way. But in the case of an anonymous source, without knowing specifically who was making this claim, how close they were to the potential situation, were they really there and overheard it, or is this part of the game of telephone. It's hard for your average voter to know how much credit they should give to this.
KURTZ: Also a fair observation. Now, Jeffrey Goldberg has done many defense stories over the year. Fox's Jennifer Griffin has confirmed key elements of this story based on her sources, as has the Washington Post. But Leslie, this isn't just a routine White House denial. You have several top aides that were there in France, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, saying on the record this didn't happened. John Bolton trashes (ph) Trump in his book saying he never heard it.
LESLIE MARSHALL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think maybe they weren't standing with him when he said it. Look, there are two things here. Jennifer Griffin is an outstanding journalist. And to me, you've got to look at not only if there's an anonymous source, but who was reporting that source. Jennifer Griffin of our own network has confirmed this, corroborated this, Washington Post, New York Times.
But in addition, Howie, you have you to look at a pattern of behavior. And the president, I mean, with the mocking of the disabled journalist, the president, you know, saying negative things about a Gold Star family, a grieving mother, saying to a mother of fallen soldier in Niger, you know, that he knew what he signed up for, the things that he said about John McCain, and also his level of defense about it.
You know, my mom used to say if you accuse somebody of something and they defend themselves again and again and again, they're probably guilty, because if you're not, it doesn't bother you. So to me, the pattern of behavior speaks to the journalist's claims.
KURTZ: I just want to say. President Trump has called for Jennifer Griffin to be fired. This is one of the fairest, most conscientious reporters on the planet, a former war correspondent, has done this throughout various administrations. And she wasn't offering opinion. She was doing her job. Now, it's fine for the president to attack the story.
But he really needs to stop trying to cancel journalists based on reporting he doesn't like. And on that point, Mollie, here's what Jen Griffin told Neil Cavuto yesterday. She said deep throat was an unnamed source, doesn't make what he said untrue. My sources are unimpeachable. Why haven't they come forward? She says you can see how people get destroyed when they get cross-wise with the president, your thoughts.
HEMINGWAY: Well, Jeffrey Goldberg said that the reason why he didn't name his sources is because they didn't want to receive mean tweets. So on the one hand, we're supposed to believe these are high level officials who are bravely coming forward, except they're not giving their name. I want to be very clear about what is confirmed when someone talks to anonymous sources.
What's confirmed is that anonymous sources are talking. It doesn't confirm the underlying claims. We know that the Russia collusion hoax was spread through numerous government officials making claims based on what reporters felt was credible. It turned out it was all false. So we have to be careful. Yes, you can talk to people who you can grant them anonymity if you want.
It doesn't mean other people have to believe the underlying claims. The story hasn't been confirmed, just the fact that anonymous sources are spreading the story has been confirmed. And there's a really big difference between those two things.
KURTZ: Right. Leslie, in the Atlantic, some of this confirmed by other news organizations, disparaging attributed to the president about the late John McCain. But of course, going back to the last campaign, Donald Trump said, you know, McCain -- he likes people who weren't captured, referring to his POW status.
MARSHALL: Again, this speaks to the pattern of behavior. This is not -- you know, quite frankly, it's very sad that these remarks aren't shocking coming from the president. And when you also speak of the pattern of behavior, the president has a pattern of behavior of not telling the truth. So at the end of the day, that I as voter sit down and say --
I think voters look at the pattern of behavior of this individual with regard to truthfulness and with regard to these types of comments about these individuals. Look, there are people that probably believe what he said won't vote for him anyway, Howie, especially in the military. The military are typically very pro-Republican. And the president is the incumbent Republican candidate.
So I don't -- but I do think, and I've heard from on my radio show some vets that weren't shocked but it was just sort of rubbing salt in an old wound that reminded them with the election coming up of who their commander in chief is.
KURTZ: Let me tell you. We're getting a little short on time. By the way, the president this morning continuing his assault, calling Jeffrey Goldberg a conman, and saying people should write to the Atlantic's majority owner, Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs' widow, to express their dissatisfaction, and Kristen, what about the timing.
I mean, the Atlantic is a liberal, anti-Trump magazine was for impeachment early on, comes out two months before the election. Does that make people question it?
ANDERSON: Well, I think the timing of this, of course, being right before the election. It certainly indicates that these sources would quite like to move voter sentiment with these statements. I don't know that the timing necessarily to me affects the credibility of the story one way or the other. I do wish we had some names, on-the-record, saying, yes, I heard this. That would make it much easier to assess whether it's credible or not.
KURTZ: That would make it much easier to you assess. I want to get to the question of urban violence in a week when both President Trump and Joe Biden visited Kenosha, Wisconsin. Let's roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The rioters and Joe Biden have a side. They're both on the side of the radical left. Joe Biden has given moral aid and comfort to the vandals.
JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. Ask yourself. Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters, really?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Mollie, Biden says Trump is fanning the flames. And when the president defends his supporters in Portland for shooting paintball and pepper spray at liberal protesters, it does make many in the media say, see, he's egging his side on.
HEMINGWAY: The media have really struggled with how to cover the violent riots that have hit the country nationwide. For many months, they claimed that they weren't happening or that they mostly peaceful. As soon as they found that they were hurting the Democratic Party's electoral chances, they began begging Joe Biden to finally say something.
And they began claiming that the riots were happening, but they were Trump's fault and whatnot. I think the media really should just not care so much about the fact that the riots are hurting the Democratic Party and just report honestly about what is happening. It's getting to the point that when you see the media claim these are mostly peaceful protests. The average person thinks they must have been particularly violent last night.
KURTZ: Kristen, the president got, let's say, sceptical coverage of his trip to Kenosha. He met with law enforcement officials. Joe Biden got much more sympathetic coverage, in my view. He met with the family of Jacob Blake who was, you know, shot in the back seven times during an attempted arrest. Jacob Blake, by the way, has just put out a video calling for calm from his hospital bed.
So my question is the media say that Trump's playing to his base. But when Biden goes and talks mostly about racial injustice, isn't he playing to his base as well?
ANDERSON: I wouldn't say that when you're talking about the issue of racial injustice that they play to the base. Fighting racial injustice is something that's important to voters of all political stripes. We would all like to see less racial injustice in this country. So I'd push back against you a little bit on that one.
But I do think that certainly Biden is getting much more favorable coverage throughout the course of not just this week, but the last month, the last year. This sort of bar has been very much lowered for Joe Biden. And so on an issue like this where you begin to actually see a lot of voters who previously said, look, I'm sympathetic to black lives matter.
I believe we want to see racial injustice addressed in this country but are now seeing what's happening in Portland, which seems completely divorced from any sense of trying to pursue racial injustice. And it's just people who want to see the world burn, that's where you begin to see voters go I'm off this train.
KURTZ: Leslie, I've got 20 seconds. When the president defends the 17- year-old man who was -- is charged with homicide for -- in the fatal shooting of two people in Portland, says he may have been acting in self- defense. People say, well, he won't criticize his side.
MARSHALL: Well, he doesn't. I mean, you know, look, allegedly, this young man was a Trump supporter. The president likes people that support him and like him. And when they do, he normally speaks favorably of them. Look, whether a president is a Democrat or Republican, in my opinion, a president should stay out of these things.
You can make a comment as the leader of this nation. But certainly, you need to have due process. Everyone is constitutionally allowed that right. You're innocent until proven guilty. And you need to let the law play out in the court with the people and not the president's opinion.
KURTZ: All right. Ahead, the Trump campaign's communications chief will be here but when we come back, the media pouncing on some controversial Trump comments in his interview with Laura Ingraham.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: In an interview with Fox's Laura Ingraham, President Trump was talking about Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times in Kenosha during an attempted arrest, and focused on the pressure faced by that police officer and cops in general during such confrontations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He might have been going for a weapon. And, you know, there's a whole big thing there. But they choke. Just like in a golf tournament, they miss a three-foot putt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not comparing it to golf.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I'm saying people choke.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People panic.
TRUMP: People choke. And people are bad people. You have both. You have some bad people, and you have -- they choke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Choking, it's an interesting choice of words, horrifying when he compares this to missing a golf putt, as he also did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was comparing it to golf. And he was sanitizing what looks like an attempted murder by a police officer on video to just being an imperfect judgment made in a tense moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Mollie, I understand that the president was making a broader point about police under pressure. But wasn't the golf analogy, well, a terrible one?
HEMINGWAY: Sure. I would not use a sports analogy to describe the killing by police officers of individuals. It is very true that the media do need to put police violence in context. I don't think we've seen that in the last -- and we definitely haven't seen that in the last several months. There are hundreds of millions of police interactions each year.
Very few of them lead to violence, particularly against unarmed people. The media have not shown that story. They have not accurately described that story. They haven't talked about how police shootings are down in major cities by record amounts. This is something that's very important to tell, and so that the failures by certain -- a few certain individuals are put in accurate context.
Because I think if you ask the American public because of the media coverage, they have this idea that police interactions are always this horrific hell scape, and that's not an accurate telling of events.
KURTZ: Yeah. Most police officers are good police officers. And we should remember that. Kristen, we could find only one other mention of this golf analogy on Fox. But CNN and MSNBC just kept replaying it time and again. Is it news-worthy?
ANDERSON: I don't necessarily know that it is news-worthy of being played time and time again. It's certainly not a good analogy. You can even hear in the interview, Laura Ingraham kind of trying to save the president from himself, saying you can't possibly mean this, right? And he does kind of double down on it. But if every time the president said something that was indelicate, it blew up the media headlines for weeks, which is sometimes does.
It's a distraction away from the critical stories that matter most to voters. What do you think voters care about more? The president used a really bad metaphor about golf in a very serious situation, or the fact that we still have this pandemic, the fact that we still have riots in the streets, the fact that we still have people who are protesting because for very justifiable reasons.
We have a lot of big issues facing the country. And I'm not sure that this deserves wall to wall coverage.
KURTZ: Leslie, aren't the pundits, many of them, refusing to acknowledge that the broader point by the president of the United States, which is police officers put their lives on the line every day. They sometimes are in life-threatening situations. They have to make split-second decisions. And sometimes, those decisions turn out to be wrong.
MARSHALL: Well, Howie, we all know if it bleeds, it leads, sadly. I mean, and that's pretty much since Adam and Eve with journalism. And quite frankly, it's not as attractive. It doesn't have as many people buy newspapers or listen to radio programs, podcasts, or watch a television newscast if they don't sometimes have that, sadly.
But if the president had to put it in these terms, it's certainly -- he could have brought the focus to what you just said, Howie. And quite frankly, in the eloquent manner in which you just said it. When you have somebody who is going to be allegedly a paraplegic at this point, whose children will no doubt have a mental and emotional issues having watched their father being shot.
And people that have buried their children or their loved ones at the hands of this, it does show a lack of sensitivity. And I do think that resonates with a certain segment of the voting population.
KURTZ: All right. Just was trying to get to the broader point. Let me play one more sound bite from the Laura interview. We've got about 20 seconds each for a reaction from all of you. Roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't even like to mention Biden, because he's not controlling anything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who do you think is pulling Biden's strings? Is it former Obama officials?
TRUMP: People you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows. People that are --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- what does that mean? That sounds like conspiracy theory. Dark shadows, what is that?
TRUMP: People that you haven't heard of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Mollie, people in dark shadows controlling Joe Biden?
HEMINGWAY: Yeah. This is a major theme of the Trump campaign. They've talked about it at their convention that Donald Trump -- or that Joe Biden is trying to present himself as a centrist, but he's controlled by these far left forces. And they do have some reason to say this that Joe Biden, you know, there was a debate last year where he raised his hand that his healthcare plan would give healthcare, free healthcare to illegal immigrants.
He changed his position on abortion to force people to pay for abortions, says he would, you know, sue nuns if he were elected. He picked the woman with the most liberal voting record in the Senate as his running mate. And so this is something that the Trump campaign is really trying to emphasize. At the same time, the media are trying to help Joe Biden present himself as a moderate.
So they don't want to cover these changes in positions or just how much his campaign seems to be controlled by the far left forces of his party.
KURTZ: Leslie, quick response. I understand the Trump campaign, the president does this every day. Joe Biden is controlled by Bernie, by AOC, by the left wing, but people in dark shadows?
MARSHALL: No. I would go with Laura there. It sounds like a conspiracy. You know, maybe he needs to put the grassy knoll away with that. Look, he also talked about people coming in on planes. Yeah, there are people are coming into these cities from both the radical left and radical right, sadly, to stoke up violence and problems, you know, whether it's in the state of, you know, in Portland or in Kenosha.
KURTZ: OK.
MARSHALL: But Joe Biden is not controlled by the liberal -- more liberal radical left faction, progressive faction of the Democrat Party at all.
KURTZ: We've got to go. Thank you all so much. Up next, Joe Biden faces the press and gets an unbelievable series of soft questions. And later, one outlet that just refuses to cover Nancy Pelosi's hair salon fiasco.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: Joe Biden held two news conferences this week. That's a good thing. But most of the questions reporters in Wilmington asked on Friday were headshaking, just downright embarrassing, the contrast with President Trump's pressers, dramatic. None of the national reporters really challenged Biden on his policies or past statements. It was all reciting negative stories on his opponent and inviting him to dump on Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you hear these remarks, suckers, losers, recoiling from amputees, what does it tell you about President Trump's soul and the life he leads?
BIDEN: You know in your heart, you know in your gut, it's deplorable. It's deplorable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president said last night -- he once again suggested to his supporters that they should consider voting twice. State officials have said it's a felony, in some cases. Just curious what you make of it. There are a lot of people out there who are supporting you or inclined to not vote for the president who would say, why isn't Joe Biden angrier about all of this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: What does this tell about the president's soul? Why aren't you more angry, seriously? This is why a big chunk of the country thinks the press rolls over for Joe Biden. The journalists who get these relatively rare opportunities to question the former VP have to get tougher or they will appear totally biased.
The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced the moderators for the fall debates, Chris Wallace of Fox News, widely praised across the media spectrum as the best of the moderators in 2016, Steve Scalia of C-SPAN, extremely fair guy, who served as a backup moderator but has never in the pressure cooker role, and Kristen Welker, a White House correspondent for NBC who is not in the opinion business.
No network news anchors, no cable news hosts, no one from ABC, CBS, CNN, or MSNBC, that's a big change. The Trump campaign says it doesn't like the line-up, but is glad that Joe Biden will finally face Chris Wallace. Coming up, the Trump campaign's communications director on many of the media controversies swirling around the president this week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: Joining us now, Erin Perrine, communications director for the Trump 2020 campaign. Welcome.
Let me start by asking you. President Trump has called The Atlantic magazine article on disparaging soldiers a hoax, says the magazine made it up or the sources are lying. Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg says he has four sources with direct knowledge. How does the president or your campaign know that The Atlantic sources are lying?
ERIN PERRINE, TRUMP 2020 PRESS COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: It's clear that The Atlantic sources are lying. There are 10 on the record sources that are publicly available now for everybody to see that prove this wrong. There are White House e-mails that prove that this story is false. And you have eight people of the 10 that have gone on the record with direct first-hand knowledge.
These aren't sources. These are people who were really there and are out there saying that this is false.
I think it's pretty clear here that journalism was abandoned, that journalistic integrity has to be in question here when you have four off the record anonymous sources who are trying to hide their identities instead of standing up to level such disgusting accusations against the president of the United States.
KURTZ: Well, there are serious accusations, no question. But as you know, Erin, Fox News Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin says she has confirmed some elements of The Atlantic piece. Let me play you part of her report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: My source, a former Trump administration official, told me when the president spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, it was a stupid war, anyone who went was a sucker. The president would say about American veterans, what's in it for them, they don't make any money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: So, all these allegations remain very much in dispute. Jennifer Griffin's report would suggest that story is not a hoax.
PERRINE: You have, again, anonymous sources supporting anonymous sources. A letter was just put out today from seven -- almost 700 veterans of this country, who know they have a champion and who are disappointed to see what The Atlantic has done, to see these anonymous sources.
And this letter says from these veterans that they believe that the media is trying to meddle in the election and undermine the integrity of our nation with this reporting.
Look at what the president does. You don't need unanimous sources. Look at the man's action. Look at the way he is when he goes to Walter Reed, when he's at Dover, welcoming the bodies home of our of fallen members, the work he has done to reform the veteran's administration.
You look at the actions of this president. It's a commander in chief proud of his troops, proud of his soldiers, his sailors and his airmen. And anybody saying otherwise is just turning a blind eye to reality.
KURTZ: Last point on this. On what basis is President Trump calling for Jennifer Griffin to be fired? This is an experienced and seasoned correspondent who has covered wars around the world, widely respected for her fairness and meticulous approach.
PERRINE: President Trump has been attacked needlessly and relentlessly by the media. Again, this is another anonymously sourced story without individuals willing to go on the record. The president has been treated so unfairly by the media. He has every right to stand up for himself and say that there should be questions asked of anybody who is using anonymous sourcing when it comes to levying such accusations against him.
KURTZ: All right. I certainly agree he has every right to stand up for himself and that he gets a lot of negative stories.
Let me ask you what did the president mean when he said that Joe Biden who has given two speeches in two weeks denouncing the violence in major cities, that he sides with the rioters. What does that mean?
PERRINE: Well, you look at what the Biden campaign has done to side with the rioters. Their own staff donated money to the Minneapolis fund to bail out protesters. Kamala Harris tweeting that along the same lines, as well, saying if you can give money to bail out these protesters, these rioters, that you should do so.
Their actions speak louder than any words that Joe Biden finally made over 90 days after violence has erupted. Any day, there has been violence or unrest in the United States. President Trump has said, yes, you have the right to peaceably assemble, but you do not get to choose which laws you abide by.
Violence has no place in this country. He has said he will every day provide federal resources to restore law and order. It's clear that Joe Biden who himself said that he would not send up the National Guard in these instances is siding with the violence instead of siding with trying to restore law and order to communities.
KURTZ: What did you make of the press coverage of Joe Biden's visit to Kenosha as opposed to the president's trip there two days earlier?
PERRINE: Well, again, it's the media picking to try and be so negative against President Trump, who was going there in an official capacity, not for political reasons. The president met with store owners who had their businesses destroyed. Their livelihoods are now really at stake here. He has set up federal resources for them to be able to rebuild.
He met with local law enforcement. He brought Attorney General Barr and Chad Wolf there to have a conversation about what needs to change and how we can better support communities just like Kenosha.
Joe Biden went for purely political reasons. There was no other reason for Joe Biden to go than to try to stoke political unrest in a city that was coming back from what has been an incredibly difficult few days for them.
And you see the media just fawning over Joe Biden and trying to hit this president for going. It really shows the unfairness and the bias that exists in the media and in journalism against this president.
This is why we have to fight every single moment of every day to try and get the truth out there because while the media will hold Joe Biden's hand and help him along the way, they want to try to tear down this president, and we are glad to stand up here --
KURTZ: OK.
PERRINE: -- and fight to get the facts out there.
KURTZ: Well, I just say I think both candidates have the right to go where they want. Last question, I'm a little short on time, the president touched off a media storm when he told voters in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to vote by mail ballot and then vote in person to see what happens or at least attempt to vote in person.
Why did the president go there? Many state officials are saying this would be a felony and it touched off the storm. Did he want to draw more media attention to this issue of mail voting?
PERRINE: The president has been clear. He wants people to, if you're voting by mail, get your ballot in as early as possible and then make sure your vote has been counted.
If that's going to the registrar or to voting location, make sure your vote is counted, because what the media is here is all of a sudden, when they say that there is no such thing as voter fraud, that you can't do this, the president points out a hole in their story and all of a sudden they're concerned about voter fraud.
The president is clear. He wants to protect the legitimacy of the election process --
KURTZ: All right.
PERRINE: -- in the United States and allow everybody who can vote to do so and do so once.
KURTZ: Erin Perrine, nice to see you. Thanks very much for joining us this Sunday.
PERRINE: Thank you.
KURTZ: After the break, why the press is going bonkers about the president's comments about people testing the mail ballot system, and Bill Barr swept up in the controversy on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: It began with New York Times correspondent Michael Schmidt reporting in a new book that when President Trump made that unscheduled visit to Walter Reed last fall, Vice President Pence was told to be on standby in case anaesthesia was used.
The president responded on Twitter, now they are trying to say that your favorite president, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes, never happened to this candidate, fake news, perhaps they are referring to another candidate from another party.
When CNN analyst Joe Lockhart, the former Clinton White House press secretary, asked on Twitter whether the president had suffered a stroke, the Trump campaign called for him to be fired.
Joining us now to analyze the coverage, Gayle Trotter, host of the "Right in DC" podcast, and Mara Liasson, national political reporter for NPR and a Fox News contributor.
Gayle, the president going off on fake news by denying he had a stroke. But no one in the media accused him of having a stroke. He did say that it was not true that vice president had been put on standby. Mike Pence says he doesn't remember that.
So, isn't it Donald Trump with his denials that pushed the story into the media stratosphere?
GAYLE TROTTER, COMMENTATOR, HOST OF "RIGHT IN DC" PODCAST: No. It is surprising how much traction the story got because that was based on hearsay if not outright manufactured about this visit in the first place. Presidents go to the doctor and there was scant evidence that there was anything unusual about this trip.
I think the significance of this story is that if there is anything, it shows the media echo chamber and the lengths that they can go to invent stories out of thin air.
KURTZ: Well, Mara, I was critical four years ago when Donald Trump and some media conservatives were practically portraying Hillary Clinton as being on her death bed.
MARA LIASSON, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER FOR NPR: Yeah.
KURTZ: So now, I'm going to turn it around and ask the question, should Joe Lockhart, you know, obviously long term Democrat on CNN, be raising questions about whether President Trump had a stroke? Again, none of the original stories said he had a stroke or mini-stroke.
LIASSON: Yeah. Look, there are many, many things we can accuse the media, which is not one monolithic thing, of. But this is not one of them because Michael Schmidt did not say the president went to Walter Reed because he had some mini-strokes.
I would hope every time the president, any president, goes to the hospital, that the vice president is told that's happening. You know, if he needs anaesthesia or whatever, you're going to be on standby.
But Joe Lockhart is not a journalist and what Joe Lockhart was doing was what operatives of both parties and Donald Trump as the foremost practitioner of this, say, oh, some people say Hillary Clinton is dying, hmm, some people say Joe Biden takes what did he call them, enhancements, some kind of enhancement drug for his senility.
I think the stories I read about this were stories that pointed out that no one in the media accused the president of having a mini-stroke. I think he overreacted and he gave this story legs that it originally shouldn't have had or it didn't have.
KURTZ: And part of the legs to use your term was banner headline on the Drudge Report. We can put this up. The president denies mini-strokes. And Gayle, the president accused Drudge of not supporting him and said, oh, he's doing poorly, actually he's got record breaking traffic.
But, you know, I don't think Drudge is in love with the president, but it is news, and how can you not cover many of the controversies that President Trump is involved in?
TROTTER: The attending physician said that it was completely a fake. So, these allegations made, if Mara wants to talk about the mainstream media being political operatives, I would agree with that. And in this case, President Trump is pointing out yet again mistreatment by the mainstream media.
LIASSON: I never said that.
KURTZ: OK. Just to clarify what Mara Liasson said, there are political operatives who work for all the cable networks who do what operatives do.
LIASSON: Yes.
KURTZ: That he is not a journalist.
LIASSON: He is not a journalist, yeah.
KURTZ: Also talking about all journalists. All right, I want to move on now because I mentioned this with Erin Perrine in the last segment. The president's comments, we're going to show you from North Carolina, about what voters should do on this question of mail ballots. Roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: So, let them send it in and let them go vote. And if their system is as good as they say it is, then, obviously, they won't be able to vote. If it isn't tabulated, they'll be able to vote. So that's the way it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: So, many journalists went haywire over this, saying the president is telling people to vote twice, this is illegal, it is a felony. Is it any surprise given the wording the president used that this caused a media firestorm?
TROTTER: The media can't have it both ways. This is exposing their very effort to have it both ways because they've spent months telling the American voters that mail-in balloting is secure and yet when the president points out an obvious weakness in mail-in voting, the media go berserk.
It just shows that there are issues with fraud and coercion with mail-in voting. And if the system is good as the mainstream media has been pushing for months, then if anyone were to try and vote illegally a second time, the system would catch them.
So the president is right to point out this weakness and the media, as I said, is trying to have it both ways and this exposes them for it.
KURTZ: Mara, two-part question, what's your take on the -- go right ahead.
LIASSON: Yeah. In many states, it is illegal to encourage someone to try to vote twice. The president didn't say vote twice. He said see if you can vote twice as a way to test the system. There are ways to check if your mail-in ballot counted. That's not one of them.
KURTZ: Let me just jump in and ask you, Mara, as we close this out. Bill Barr sort of fueled the controversy. He went on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and he was asked, and he said, I don't know specifically what the president was referring to, I don't know the law in North Carolina, but then making the broader point that mail ballots, he says, is playing with fire.
And so now, of course, all the media fire is trained on the attorney general. Quick thought.
LIASSON: Yeah, there is no evidence that there's widespread fraud with mail-in balloting. But Bill Barr has consistently echoed the president's concerns about this election, and I think when Bill Barr says the same thing as the president, it gives it a much greater gravity and weight.
KURTZ: All right. Good discussion.
LIASSON: And therefore should be --
KURTZ: Thank you so much, Gayle Trotter and Mara Liasson.
Still to come, how some don't think Nancy Pelosi's hair salon escapade is news and how a former Melania aide justifies secretly taping the first lady.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: When Fox reported that Nancy Pelosi had been seen in the San Francisco hair salon, as you can see her, not wearing a mask, it generated plenty of criticism since salons in that city have not been allowed to reopen.
MSNBC mentioned the house speaker's embarrassment exactly once. Fox frequently followed up on the story. CNN briefly covered it a number of times but with little criticism of Pelosi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Maybe she was listening to the president who said masks are weakness, who is always encouraging people to take off masks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She didn't have a mask on. She wasn't following the rules. This is very, very clear now that she thinks there's a separate set of rules for her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: The congresswoman defended herself to reporters and demanded that salon owner apologize.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY PELOSI, SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I've been to over the year many times. As it turns out, it was a set-up. So I take responsibility for falling for a set-up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: That salon owner, Erica Kious, told Tucker Carlson, Pelosi's visit was a slap in the face, she lost a majority of her clients and staff during the six-month shutdown, and the speaker's comments were hurtful.
Joining us now from New York is Kat Timpf of "The Greg Gutfelf Show" and a Fox Nation host. So, MSNBC weighs in exactly once. CNN, you know, as I say, not really criticizing Pelosi. Fox did dozens of segments on this. Would it be so different at the other two cable networks if this had been maybe the House Republican leader?
KAT TIMPF, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, but I think the reality is this is even worse. I saw a piece in The Washington Post also that was sort of mocking this, saying, huge scandal that Nancy Pelosi got her hair done. No, no, no. That's not the scandal. It's obviously the hypocrisy, right?
I was glad at least at CNN. Don Lemon did sort of mention that. You messed up, say you messed up. It is because Nancy Pelosi has been so, so devoted to promoting herself as a sort of zero tolerance for violating rules when it comes to the coronavirus and the pandemic and social distancing.
And it is unbelievably hypocritical to see her there after she's been saying even since June that we are long overdue for a mask mandate to see her there apparently not mandating one for her own face.
KURTZ: By the way, her hair stylist, Jonathan DeNardo in a statement actually backed up the speaker, saying that the owner had approved the visit and also made several vitriolic and incendiary comments about Speaker Pelosi, suggesting this is political.
I don't think we need a special prosecutor here but it has got --
TIMPF: Right.
KURTZ: Let me move on to this tell-all book, "Melania and Me," by a former senior advisor and former friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.
She says in this book that Melania used private e-mail. That seems to be a legitimate story. She quotes what the first lady supposedly said, negative comments about other Trump family members. That strikes me more as gossip. But on "The Rachel Maddow Show," here's what Wolkoff said about secretly taping Melania Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANIE WINSTON WOLKOFF, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP: Melanie and the White House had accused me of criminal activity and publicly shamed and fired me and made me their scapegoat. At that moment in time, that's when I pressed record. She was no longer my friend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Kat, does that justify secretly recording somebody who had been your friend for 15 years, that brought you into the White House, even though the job didn't work out and she was pushed out?
TIMPF: Yeah. I mean, I certainly hope none of my friends are secretly recording me. But, look, I guess the bottom line is I'm not sure how much it matters. There was a headline about this in The New York Times that I thought was kind of hilariously self-aware.
Who is this woman? Why should you care, right? Because even if there are tapes, even if she did tape, which she says she did, I'm not sure how much it matters because whenever these tell-alls come out, it's its own genre at this point, there's this breathless coverage on the left and people who are anti-Trump, but people who support Trump never really care.
I mean, whatever is on there probably couldn't be as potentially damaging as an Access Hollywood tape in 2016. What happened after that? He became the president. So, we hear a lot of people on the left saying --
KURTZ: Right.
TIMPF: -- how could Trump supporters still not care? It is like, how could you still think they would? These sorts of things don't matter to the people who support his agenda.
KURTZ: Kat, thanks so much. Wolkoff -- questions have been raised about her company's $26 million inauguration contract.
By the way, Michael Cohen out with a new book absolutely disparaging the president but also excoriate himself. He secretly taped the president. The president's niece secretly taped the president's sister. You can see why people get upset about this.
TIMPF: Yeah.
KURTZ: That is it for this edition of “Media Buzz.” I'm Howard Kurtz.
I hope of you like our Facebook page. I hope we will talk on Twitter. Check out my podcast, "Media Buzzmeter" at Apple iTunes or Google podcast or on you Amazon device.
We are out of time, so I will just say we'll see you back here next Sunday with the latest buzz.
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END
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