Unlikely ally coming to its defense. Thirdrace reporter flungies, is there no end to the commander in chiefs namecalling . President trump is putting the bully in bully pulpit. Hes on the attack this weekend, seemingly supporting calls for a Justice Department probes into his opponent, but of all the tweets, up to hone in on one. This is think boldfaced lie about maggie haberman. It says Michael Cohen could flip. Now, trump took exception to some of the quotes in the story. The quotes saying that he treated cohen like garbage. So i guess now hes treating hmm a haberman a flungie. That tweet is wrong in at least four different ways. He didnt even spell her name right. He called her a thirdrate reporter, heck, she just would not a pulitzer, next weekend another award at the correspondents dinner, showing a deep understanding of what makes President Trump tick. Thats what makes this tweet a lie. You know, sometimes covering the president is difficult to determine what is actually a lie, but this one is crystal clear. Trump said, quote, i dont speak to her, appeared i have nothing to do with her. Here they are in the oval office together. Haberman has interviewed trump on the record more than a dozen times. By the way, she doubles as a political analyst here at cnn. I know she takes these attacks in stride, but i dont want to. Lying is disrespectful. Its not disrespectful to haberman or the journalists, but to the public. We know he delivers talking points to the base, but its also disrespectful. Is he really does he really think that had is believers, his supporters are going to believe this lie . You know, when theres photographic proof to the contrary . It is disrespectful to his fans, to his twitter followers to post this kind of stuff. We havent even gotten to the tweet about chuck todd. So what do you do about a will bully . , joining muss a truly allstar panel. John avalon, ed fessenfall and sarah ellison. Theres lots for us to dig in on this hour, including the news about sean hannity and Michael Cohen. Lets save that for later. Lets start with bullies. The ump calling Chuck Todd Sleepy eyes and calling nbc fake news. We have heard it all before, but this is bullying bied president of the United States. I think it deserves to be the later story. Youre damn right. President trump is proud about putting bully bat in the bully pulpit, but it didminishing the presidency. We have 44 other president s to compare him to. Nothing look this has happened. Even the comey memos this week. We know he talked about jailing journalists in the oval office. That doesnt even rise to the level of our story cache, because it seems part of a theme. It is, but its dangerous, it dumbs us down, and it really shows the extent to which hes part of a piece of replied cal leaders who attack the press as a matter of principle. Thats usually seen in autocrass, not the United States of america. This is one of those words versus actions issue, the president talking about it with comey more than a year ago, now its revealed in the comey memos. Do some look at that and say hes talking about it, not actually doing it, so is it a big deal . I dont think most journalists do say that. I think a lot of journalists even recognized under the Obama Administration that that was not an administration particularly press friendly, but they attacks hes always opposed the press, alternates a talking point for him. His fans like to hate the press. The effect of that, though, is that its very fertile. Steve bannon has talked about this. As soon as you have people not believing whats in the press, then you open a whole other avenue for you to deliver a different message, one that is entirely whatever it is you say is the truth. An alternative reality. And i think this is alternative facts, were all sort of familiar with this, but its the Public Opinion of the press really does lead the way, i think in some ways for a greater kind of legal action against journalists. I think people will be more primed for that kind of activity. Youre saying it softens the ground for future action. I think it could. Ed . I think it eddos something john mccain has been saying, sarah is certainly right, we can worry about what happens in our own country, but this empowers this kind of talk empowers repressive regimes around the world that are already jailing journalist, there are already two in jail in myanmar that led to a pulitzer price. You have ted cruz this week praising President Trump on the pages of the time 100. Ted cruz who was attacked by the president , and yen he turned around, praised him lovingingly. If hes going to turn around and do thats an example of maybe bullying working. Loving up your opponents that you fought officially, is a time honored tradition, though i think this one went further. Kudos for you guys to get him to write it. This is more pending fences that stockholm syndrome. People saying things in private totally contrary to what theyre saying in public much of the time. The press and the president will be in tension, thats time honored, but theres a problem that goes well beyond partisanship, that too many republicans will only acknowledge in publrivate, beca in public theyre afraid of angering their base. Leaders around the world, assad, erdogan youths it, putin uses it, the legitimacy of the american president helps to mainstream that. Lets talking about some of the administrations sloppyness and why this matters. Accuracy is part of the job for doctors, for engineers, for reporters, for lots of people. Every time i make a mistake, i have to run a correction, i am mortified, but it doesnt seem to be true for the white house. The spelling mistakes are infamous. Shady comey misspelled on twitter, also factual errors, the president went to key west on thursday, then on saturday he said i had a great time there yesterday, he meant two days ago, we could go on and on, special counsel spelled the wrong way. All of these examples of the errors that he shares on twitter. I think it trickles down to the staff as well. I thought the most embarrassing was in a statement on the occasion of Barbara Bushs passing, the date was wrong. I would have been happy to proofread or fax check it for them. I wonder what the i know this is not the most important issue, but i think its important, if you cant get the small stuff right, can you get the big stuff right. Does this matter at all . I think its more of a reflection of the way this white house operates, which among other things is seat of the pants fashion we all know from being part of news organizations, you make the most errors when youre flying off on dead likes or, you know, theres not an orderly process. I think thats more of what this is an indication of than a Critical National issue. Does it matter, john . Of course it does. Tone comes from the top. Thats the key thing in any organization. If the president has an untidy mind, isnt paying attention to details or pesky things like facts, it flows through the organization. Its worth assuming that the president of the United States should be held to at least the same standard of a cub reporter. If we let him off the hook there, i think thats a sign of a slippery slope. I wonder if this is exactly what his base would mock, they would maybe see this as sort of authenticity. Obviously hes doing his own tweets, hes not getting someone to manage some people suggests that he makes errors on purpose, in order to appeal to ordinary folks who see, i can just maybe hes trying maybe it works for him. Obviously those kinds of things work for him in a way that doesnt resonate with this panel, but i think there could be a deliberate effort to do that or its just something that shows hey, im busy, so what if i have a misspelling or two . I think we should all be more concerned with the facts than the spelling. And the issue with the tweet this morning about chuck todd talking about due nuclearization, theres a real question whether that is accurate or not, what the north koreans mean is very different from what the americans mean. Even though its on twitter, and just a tweet precision matters in policy. Governs is not the same as grandstanding. Every tweet we know is an official statement. Hes issuing policy on twitter so what he does on twitter is not just a tweet. Its his organ of communication. Misspellings shouldnt be there, but it is something thats kind of important. Quick break here. More from the page later this hour. Right after the break, david remnick, he interviewed comey and noel well talk to him about the book tour. Well be right back. Investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. Yobut life can throw them off bibalance. F bacteria, wealth. Try align, the 1 doctor recommended probiotic. With a unique strain that realigns your system. Realign yourself, with align. Its ok that everyone ignores its fine. Drive. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. And i dont share it with mom right, mom . Righttt. Safe driving bonus checks. Only from allstate. Switching to allstate is worth it. Welcome back to reliable sources. James comeys book tour continues for several more days. Hes crisscrossing the country, talking about his new book. It will debut at number one on all the bestseller lists, but its also stoke a lot of controversy, with some saying he oversold parts of the book, some saying that this is overblown. I do think one of the big revelations came from the memos that were released earlier in the week. We see in the memos that President Trump and comey sharing a common enemy leakers. Leakers to journalists. Lets put on the screen what the memo says, talking about jailing journalists. Comey says i said something about the value of put a head on a bike as a message. Then he quotes the president. They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend, and theyre really to talk. Comey says he laughed as he walked to the door. Dame remnick is here, editor of the new yorker form the illulgz is to prison reign, prison veal iniolence. But to see the head of the fbi recountings his conversation with the president of the United States, to hear the head of the fbi, and then the president of the United States talking about the press in such terrence, whatever our faults, that is highly alarming. By the way, the president of the United States talks about these terms in plain sight in public. He refers to us as enemies of the people, which is a term out of the french revolution and this from josef stalin. There are comments he made in public, if he made them in private it would be a huge scandal, but because its on twitter, people shrug. This president hides in plain sight. Hides in plain sight. For the most part the ugliness thats displayed in private is displayed at the lectern and in public. I remember you said early on, this is an emergency, the president is unfit for any office, about you do you worry youre not persuading anybody, given that we havent seen any movement in the polls . I dont think my job, brian, is to persuade this one or that one. My job and my colleagues job and your job, is to tell the truth as you know it, with depth and rigor in reporting, and with integrity, no matter how it cuts. I cant think about this percentage of people believes x. We know the reason for this. People have honest disagreements of opinion and also people live in their silos and filter bubbles because of the nature of the media today. Youre saying your job is to describe as accurately as possible. Reality as we best can discern it. You interviewed him on stage at a town hall. A new yorker radio podcast. Have we learned much of comey through this book . Theres facts and then theres my emotional read of james comey. I think the facts are out there. So let me go to the latter. I got the sense that james comeys own sense of righteousness and what he thought was right, he was making decisions in real time, really difficult decisions that had bad options and worse options. Now, i disagree with a number of things he did. I think what he said it was not his job to talk about the sloppyness or nonsloppyness of hillary clinton. His is it job was to prosecute or not. The next time on october 28th when he decided he had to reopen the investigation because of the Anthony Weiners emails, that was an absurdity. That got cleared up in a few days. They went through the emails and saw these all duplicative. He feels horrible about it he doesnt say that explicitly, no. But its very evident to anybody you talk and you read the book carefully, he feels an enormous weight of conscience, as opposed to donald trump who never feels a sense of conscience about anything. Theyre very different characters. I think thats why theres a huge disconnect between the two of them. You may loathe what comey decided on one thing or another, but i think in his own terms, he sees himself as a man of conscience. Its hard to read otherwise in that book. Even though you may disagree enormously and blame him for a lot of what were living through now. And so many critics, as youre alluding to, the president talking about jail time for comey, again an example of hiding in plain sight thats absolutely shocking. You mentioned orbonne. For those who dont know. The eselected leader, and has become an avatar of illliberalism as Fareed Zakaria would put it, hes a real warning to us americans. But in hungary, the government has taken over the newspapers and the leader of turkey is elected. Hes doing the same thing. There was a rally with tens of thousands of hungarians protesting the control of media, so youre seeing people rising up against this man. Look, youre seeing this pattern all over the world, elected leaders becoming semithor terrence and resistance from the press, civic institutions, the courts, sometimes let furthers. Thats the dynamic everywhere, include the United States. We put together a bit of your coverage, some of the critiques that comes through these covers. The question i request is, how do you find time and make space for stories other than trump, other than the administration . You defeated time and energy to ronan farrows investigation of harvey weinstein. He shared the pulitzer price for public service. How do you make sure those get ample time and space. Thank got theres other things in life than donald trump, good and ill. We publish stories about all kinds of things, and ronan farrow, and his colleagues at the times our colleagues at the times, won for really brave reporting, but i should say the bravery there, the real bravery there is of sources. The women who came forward and spoke the truth. So Susan Shearer is writing about factory workers at a ford factory plant. Thats an unbelievable act of bravely to go on the record, an actress lie temperature argento, despite all the threats, and her reward in large measure in italy, for example, is to get denounced by the italian tabloid press. She continues to show enormous strength in the face of all that. I think ronan and the reporters would say that award goes to the sources who were so brave to go forward. Harvey weinstein might call them them leakers. I think we would call them whistleblowers. I think we would call them people of enormous courage. Thank you, and congrats on the pew lit zest. Stormy daniels attorney has a message for one sean hannity. , Fisher Investments avoids them. Some advisers have hidden and layered fees. Fisher investments never does. And while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, Fisher Investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other money managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. You can switch and save time. It pays to switch things up. [cars honking] [car accelerating] you can switch and save worry. You can switch and save hassle. [vacuuming sound] and when you switch to esurance, you can save time, worry, hassle and yup, money. In fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved hundreds. So you might want to think about pulling the ol switcheroo. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Nausea, heartburn, when indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea heres pepto bismol ah. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. An expectation to surpass. Burden. But thats the point. Bring us doubt, and well bring you the first car with true hands free driving for the freeway. Bring us a challenge, and well reinvent what it means to own a car. Bring us all your expectations, and well defy them. Again, and again, and again. It can detect a threat using ai, and respond 60 times faster. It lets you know where your data lives, down to the very server. It keeps your insights from prying eyes, so theyre used by no one else but you. It is. The cloud. The ibm cloud. The cloud thats built for all your apps. Ai ready. Secure to the core. The ibm cloud is the cloud for smarter business. Thisreally passionate about i really want to help. I was on my way out of this life. There are patients out there that dont have a lot of time. Finally, it was like the sun rose again and i was going to start fighting back now. When those patients come to me and say, you saved my life. My life was saved by a two week old targeted therapy drug. Thats what really drives me to to save lives. If youd have told me three years ago. That wed be downloading in seconds, what used to take. Minutes. That guests would compliment our wifi. That we could video conference. And do it like that. snaps if youd have told me that i could afford. A gigspeed. A gigspeed network. Its like 20 times faster than what most people have. Id of said. Id of said youre dreaming. Dreaming definitely dreaming. Then again, dreaming is how i got this far. Now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. There were audible gasps when Michael Cohens lawyer was forced to reveal one of cohens clients was sean hannity. Hannity has downplayed it saying it was mostly about real estate. Fox news says that hannity has the networks full support. Meanwhile, Stormy Daniels lawyer says he thinking that hannitys trouble are far from over. Theres no question in my mind theres documents with his name on it, the extent of that relationship, when it finally surfaces i think will be very embarrassing to sean hannity. Joining me now is that lawyer, michael avenatti, from los angeles. Good morning. Good morning, brian. What do you think is embarrassing . I shy sean hannity has described the relationship as one on real estate, he paid Michael Cohen by the way, i think he overpaid if thats true, but he described it as a 10 attorneyclient relationship. Theres no question that there are documents relating to whatever in the representation was. We know that, because the context in which mr. Hannitys name was disclosed in that courtroom on monday, and so what i meant by my comment is that i think the relationship will be far more extensive that is mr. Hannity has led people to believe. I dont think theres any nefarious that went on between mr. Hannity or mr. Cohen or any nda type of involvement or anything of that nature, but what i do know is i think its going to be far more extensive than people have been led to believe. Do you have some sore of mole thats giving you clues about whats going on . You hinted before there was even a raid on cohens office. I dont have a mole. I have a fair amount of information at my disposal. Im really at ground zero of this. I have about two decades of experience. Ive been involved in similarities cases, but my intuition is pretty spot on. Well keep shooting until we miss, and we havent missed yet. Youre out there saying that you think the president will resign on whats to come. Are you feeding on anybodys fantasy . No, im not. If you look at all the people in mr. Trumps orbit, and who would have the most damaging information on mr. Trump other than himself, that person is Michael Cohen. Mooically cohen has not had his office, home and hotel room raided. He is clearly not that bright, unfortunately. It is clear to me that mr. Trump trusted mr. Cohen with his innermost secrets. Mr. Cohen knows where theres the bodies are buried. If it makes anyone vulnerable, its mr. Cohen. I read the tweets and the attack on the columnist, which i was outraged by. This woman is nothing but a professional. She didnt deserve that from anybody, let alone the president. I read those tweets. What is most interesting, brian, why is the president suggesting that Michael Cohen will not flip . Shouldnt the president , if he was innocent of anything, or of everything . Shouldnt he be saying, i dont care whether Michael Cohen talks or not, because i have nothing to hide . Thats what you would expect, but thats not what has happened. Im interested how youre using television with regard to the Stormy Daniels case and also more broadly in your critiques of the president. Tell us about the strategy here. Im not going to be critical of it. Youre on my program now, youre clearly willing to come on and give the interviews, the other side is not nearly as willing. How much of a thoughtout strategy is this to be on tv every day . Well, we keep being invited to come on television, on various programs. I only appear on about maybe 25 or 30 of the programs im invited on. Okay. We have a message to provide. This is a constant evolving case and situation. Theres new information coming to light, you know, almost by the hour, at least every day. Im willing to comment on it and provide my critique or what information i have, and people should be interested launching the sketch on the view for example, revealing the sketch, did it work . Have you received a lot of tips . At this point weve received over 2500 leads. I would classify about 500 of those legitimate, were spending a lot of time and energy trying to get to the bottom of that. I think that was effective, but i want to go back to what you just asked me a moment ago. People have a keen interesting in the facts and circumstances, and the bay of the 130,000, and what Michael Cohen knew. You know what, brian . They shall. These a very serious matter. The American People need to know the truth, and if there was a coverup, and i absolutely believe there was, and i absolutely believe that Michael Cohen will be charged with very serious crimes. That needs to matter to people. This isnt about the sex, this is not about what happened in lake tahoe many, many years ago. Its about the truth and the American People being entitled to know exactly what happened here and what their president knew and whether theyve been lied to. Have you been invited on by fox recently . Are you avoiding fox . Are they avoiding you . Well, for the first two weeks i wasnt invited at all. I actually happened to mention that on msnbc, and lo and behold i was invited the next day. I made an appearance on fox. Im planning on going on fox next week. Im not avoiding fox, but they dont seem to want me on their shows much. What about Stormy Daniels, will she continue to give live tv interviews . Were looking into whether that makes sense, this is very Serious Business at this point. Weve got a criminal investigation, were cooperating with the u. S. Attorneys office in the Southern District of new york, which i might add is one of the best offices in the country, very diligence, very strong attorneys out of that office. The lead lawyer, tom mcvay, who appeared in court on monday and the preceding friday, was exception exceptional, nothing short of exceptional. I know at the end of the day theyll get to the bottom of this and what transpired. I have a lot of confidence in him and his colleagues. Michael, thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Should sean hannity just have a desk at the white house . Accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war, and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. If that isnt a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president , then what has our government become . Im tom steyer, and like you, im a citizen who knows its up to us to do something. Its why im funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less. Yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger whos mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. And they do nothing. Join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing whats political and start doing whats right. Our country depends on it. burke so we know how to cover almost anything. En almost everything even close claws. driver so, we took your shortcut, which was a bad idea. [cougar growling] passenger what are you doing . driver i cant believe that worked. I dropped the keys. burke and we covered it. Talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum welcome back to reliability sources. With high ratings comes high headaches. The relationship with sean hannity quoting here they usually speak several times a week. And occasionally speak specifics. The frequency means that, he has a desk in the play. Sarah, youre suggesting that hes also a producer of the show . So, donald trump is actually helping produce what hannity and the message, the funny thing about it is hes also helping produce the president s message, which i thought was the most surprising about this story. And ed fesenthal, you have him on the time is 00 this week. The time 100 is a measure of influence, for good or ill. I think the supporting case is it, you know, sarahs reporting on the desk and the white house, thats influence, but newt also points out he hayes three hours a day on the radio, and an hour on the television, and he played a major role in getting trump the nomination so i think that sums up the case. Theres always talk about fox being staterun tv. What to you make of this suggests . You know, there was outcried from conservatives. Litman, ed murrow, walter cronkite. Our how about ben bradley and jfk . Maybe even more relevant. It was those relationshipses that let it decry the close necessary, and democratic president s. Weve never had Media Outlets staffing an administration literally to the extent that breitbart have been, and for hannity remember trumptv was plan b for the president. The enormously dynamic relationship, of course it should be divulged. It ends up demeaning the independence of the good reporters at fox, people like bret bahr, and theres no obvious parallel. Versus what is set on fox. By democrats really a hoax created largely by the democrats. As an excuse. That was never supposed to happen. Softening the blow of a loss, which is a loss that frankly they shouldnt have had. The fbi was never actually able to look at the dnc servers. The dnc server was never gotten by the fbi. Why did the fbi take it . The Robert Mueller investigation is tearing the country apart. It is a bad thing for our country, very, very bad things for our country. There was no collusion. Everyone has known that. Theres been no collusion, they wont find any collusion. It doesnt exist. The administration doing some pretty tough things against russia. Theres been nobody tough other russia than president donald trump. Trump is not getting tough on russia, its spinning in circles. In that claim he with the media, no matter what i did, its never tough enough. Thats their narrative. Fox said it first, the president said it second, john, your reaction . Thats extraordinary. Typically talking points in the past have gotten from politics to partisan media. This is a twoway street in something close to real time. Its selfreinforcing, and then it increases the tribalism on twitter, the social media mob that dumb down our debate that makes us meaner, dumber and and those conservatives decried the too cozy relationship, theyre actively complicit or by their silence, the laziness, theyre complicit in it as well. To our panel, thank you. My question i dont think any of us know the answer to whether the murdochs are really proud. Were back with a newsroom revolt. Ill explain what i mean with the mayor of denver, right after this. Tailored recommendations, taxefficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. To help you grow and protect your wealth. Mim evenarts win the kitchen. I need my blood sugar to stay in control. So i asked about tresiba®. Tresiba® ready tresiba® is a oncedaily, longacting insulin that lasts even longer than 24 hours. I need to shave my a1c. Tresiba® ready tresiba® works like my bodys insulin. Releases slow and steady. Providing powerful a1c reduction. Im always on call. An insulin that fits my schedule is key. Tresiba® ready i can take tresiba® any time of day. So if i miss or delay a dose, i take it when i remember, as long as theres at least 8 hours between doses. Once in use, it lasts 8 weeks with or without refrigeration, twice as long as the lantus® pen. announcer tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. Dont use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Dont share needles or insulin pens. Dont reuse needles. The most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. Check your blood sugar. Low blood sugar can be serious and may be lifethreatening. Injection site reactions may occur. Tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions. Taking tzds with insulins like tresiba® may cause serious side effects like heart failure. Your insulin dose shouldnt be changed without asking your prescriber. Get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, fast heartbeat, extreme drowsiness, swelling of your face, tongue, or throat, dizziness or confusion. Ask your Health Care Provider if youre tresiba® ready. Covered by most insurance and medicare plans. Tresiba® ready i had a very minor fender bender tonight in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. But what a powerful life lesson. And dont worry i have everything handled. I already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. Which is so smart on your guys part. Like fact that theyll just. Forgive you. Four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With accident forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. We need to help more tocalifornians get ahead. D, thats why Antonio Villaraigosa brought both parties together to balance the state budget with record investments in public schools. And new Career Training programs. As mayor of la, he brought police and residents together to get illegal guns off the streets and keep kids out of gangs, and on the right path. Thats Antonio Villaraigosa. A governor for all of california. Local news rooms versus multinational hedge funds. There is a rebellion brewing in local papers like the denver post. The paper is owned by ald and global capital. The paper sending out an sos, condemning the quote vulture owners for cutting more than half the newsroom staff. The paper went a step further, calling for help from the local community. And there has been a remarkable response from local leaders. The governor, the mayor, senators, local lawmakers. Theres even an effort by area investors to raise 10 million, almost as a down payment to try to buy the paper. Now the hedge funds is not commenting on this, but it seems the denver post has lit a fire that is starting to spread. The Southern California news group mimicked the posts approach with a series of articles calling for support from the public there, as well, to try to combat steep cuts that have gutted news rooms. You can see here the executive editor for that papers news group talking about journalism jobs disappearing, causing democracy to be at risk. I wanted to zoom in on whats going on in denver, with michael hancock. Hes the mayor of denver, colorado, and joins me now. Mayor, thank you for being here. You bet, brian. My pleasure. Good morning. Whats going on with the denver post . You have spoken out, and it seems to me you would like to see new ownership come in. You know, its been difficult to watch over the last, i dont know, three, five years as we have seen the reduction of staff at the denver post. We are certainly not seeing the level and breadth of reporting were used to here in colorado. You might recall up until about ten years ago, denver was a twopaper town. One of the very few remaining twopaper towns in the country. When the Rocky Mountain news went away, the denver post was le standing, and now we see it diminish. Its difficult to see. Begin to see it diminish is a tough thing to watch. I was struck by the fact that you issued a statement supporting the paper, because the paper has been tough on you. The editorial page recently said you had lost trust. Theres been accusations from a former member of your security detail, accusing you of sexual harassment. The denver post covering this story extensively. Why are you deciding to speak out in support of the paper . One of the things we can trust as a reader, as a general public, when we have Mainstream Media like the denver post, we can always trust they are reporting with standards. With the advent of social media, one of the things were losing as a society is the trust and the, you know, belief that this is a these accusations, these concerns, these stories have been vetted and corroborated. And you cant do that in the social media platform. Standards like the denver post bring to the market one in which many of us believe in and pick up on every day, we can trust that what we read is at least has at least been vetted. And to give at least those accused the opportunity like myself to, you know, give a response that is appropriate, and accurate, and but at least have the balance. And you cant count on that within the social media platform. The denver post is a responsible, objective medium here in our city, and weve got to believe that its important for democracy and for those of us who depend on getting good information in our city, that it survives. And i believe that to my core. But mayor, youre a politician. Arent you supposed attention to its all fake news . Isnt that the thing to do now, just to attack the newspaper if its covering you critically . Listen, i believe in democracy. I believe in the freedom of the press. And as someone who studied journalism in college, i also believe in the standards in which good media comes to the people. And once people are given good information, youve got to trust theyll make their own decisions and decide how they move one way or the other. Unfortunately, again, with the lack of standards and lack of vetting and social media, we have people all over the place, and people dont know what to believe any more. And unfortunately, believe in the wrong thing. Absolutely. So, yeah. Sorry. I saw the governor saying he thinks the paper has got to be sold. There are these investors trying to organize something. But, look, 10 million is not nearly enough. This paper would probably go for over 100 million. Absolutely. What do you think is going to happen with the denver post as this hedge fund continues to try to cut, cut, cut . My hope is that it survives. But ive got to tell you, it doesnt look like there is much of a lifeline for the papers like the denver post. Ive got to tell you, its really unusual, to your point, brian, the city of denver asking the question, what can we do as a government to save the denver post. We move in and work wenties, institutions, private businesses every day to try to keep them in the city. Because this is about jobs. This is about an industry that is very important. This newspaper is 125 years old in the city of denver. Were almost the same age. Denver is 160 years old. So its hard to emergenimagine f denver without the denver post. I would love to maintain this possibility, Venerable Institution in our city. Mayor, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. My pleasure, brian. After a quick break here, another story about local news you probably havent heard about. Your digestive system has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. Try align, the 1 doctor recommended probiotic. With a unique strain that realigns your system. Realign yourself, with align. Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im gonna follow the sun now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im gonna follow the sun transitions™ light under control™ transitions™ this scientist doesnt believe in luck. She believes in research. It can take more than 10 years to develop a single medication. And only 1 in 10,000 ever make it to market. But what if ai could find connections faster. To help this researcher discover new treatments. Thats why shes working with watson. Its a smart way to find new hope, which really cant wait. With esurance photo claims, you could have money for repairs within a day. Wow that was really fast. So it doesnt have to hurt for long. Thats insurance for the modern world. Esurance, an allstate company. Click or call. Does your Business Internet provider promise a lot . Lets see who delivers more. Comcast business gives you gigspeed in more places. The others dont. We offer up to 6 hours of 4g Wireless Network backup. Everyone else, no way. We let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. Them, not so much. We let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. The others . Nope get internet on our gigspeed network and add voice and tv for 34. 90 more per month. Call or go on line today. Finally this morning, the real world consequences of tariffs. A newly imposed tariff on news print from canada is hiking up the price of production for newspapers across the u. S. Some of these papers are already struggling. The Tampa Bay Times is feeling the pinch. The chairman, paul tab, says he has to lay off 50 staffers. Heres how he explained the math. Since that petition went into place, and the tariffs have been imposed, the price of a ton of news print has gone from 600 a ton to 800 a ton. We use 17,000 tons a year at the Tampa Bay Times, an additional 3. 5 million in expense to us, which is a consequence that we simply cannot absorb. Fewer staffers, fewer stories, its a vicious cycle. You can hear more about it on this weeks podcast, our reliable sources podcast is online right now at reliablesources. Com. Thanks for tuning in. Well see you right back here this time next week. Breaking point. President trump lashes out at james comey and suggests the special counsels investigation is based on an illegal act. They wont find any collusion. It doesnt exist. Is the president laying the ground work to fire Robert Mueller . We want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us. Counselor