Today, to validate the results of the president ial election. Typically its a ceremonial event. This time around, though, it comes with an unusual amount of attention and even controversy. 538 members of the Electoral College will vote today in their state capitals. Its a formality required by the constitution. But there will be protests this year and some electors are urging others not to vote for donald trump. It seems that people are Still Holding out hope that the Electoral College, when they vote tomorrow, will somehow miraculously decide that Hillary Clinton is the winner. Then came the actual voting. And it was a nothing. What weve known for weeks was made official this evening, as members of the Electoral College cast their ballots in all 50 states and the district of columbia. Its official, the electors across this country putting donald trump over the 270 electoral votes he needs to become the president in january. It did not come without some fiery moments today. Joining us now to analyze the coverage of the trump transition, erin mcpike political commentator and former reporter for realclear politics. Molly hemingway Senior Editor at the federalist. And michael tamassy columnist for the daily beast. He tweeted we did it. Thank you for all of my great supporters. We just officially won the election. Parentheses despite all the distorted and inaccurate media. So it has worked for him so far. But in the sense of coverage of the story, some of it, it has been a shocking year with all kinds of surprises, so we had to cover it some. Some . But maybe too much. I want to come back to the coverage but i want on this tweet now. Trumps advisers believe, and he believes, that he is battling back, still, this post election period against coverage that is consistently negative. Well, the media have far worse Approval Ratings than even donald trump does. We always talk about Donald Trumps bad Approval Ratings. Media have far worse. And this is a great example of why. I mean, they hyped that hillary was going to win the election. She didnt. They hyped the recount efforts. That went nowhere. They hyped this Electoral College story in a way that was very bizarre, and it didnt work out well for them. I mean Hillary Clinton ended up losing more electors than donald trump did. It reminds me of that character on the simpsons side show bob who is always stepping on rakes. Thats what the media seem like. Whichever direction they turn they just keep stepping on rakes. A cartoon character. But the debate here with trump continuing to bash the president , and journalists by name, you know, should he be more gracious . And unifying . Or is it better for him to be riling up his base and keeping them. Yes he should be more gracious and unifying. But yes its better for him politically to rile up his base. In a normal world, they would not be very mutually exclusive. No, he knows that the people who voted for him, and the hardcore Trump Supporters whenever he sends out a tweet that says the media did this and its outrageous, theyre going to believe him no matter what the actual objective truth of the matter is. So that the way to keep people on his side is to keep people worked up. Right. To a grand total of two electors going rogue against trump and four against hillary, yes, of course it has to be covered. But sort of interesting. Should we now admit that this was blown out of proportion by the media, perhaps, wishing that maybe this was actually happen . Well, it wasnt covered appropriately. As you may remember, politico had a pretty lengthy story on how a number of these electors were lobbied. They got phone calls. They were badgered. They were harassed. They got emails. There were some death threats. But as far as im concerned, only politico did that story, and then everyone else talked about it. Thats an important story that should have been done more broadly. But not just about News Coverage. You had columnists, you know, whove been around a long time like Kathleen Parker actually encouraging this, and erectors should go rogue, which you know, if this had been a serious thing, which it was not, would essentially overturn the results of the election. Right. And it fits into that pattern of the media trying to affect a particular change rather than just report on a given issue. And its not healthy. But the end game whoa talk further about the Electoral College. And whether we still need the troll college. And that coverage is going to die going forward. We should actually talk about that again, before the next election. Some media are entitled to try and encourage an outcome. Theyre called columnists. Theyre allowed to have their point of view. And theyre allowed to say, purposely allowed to say what he wants to say about the Electoral College. Number one. Number two to pick up on erins point to the extent that we had and i think to some extent we did have a serious conversation about what the Electoral College is, why it came into existence in the first place, and why it should still exist, that was a useful conversation. That is a good debate. But we would be talking about whether the Electoral College should be abolished in the future, as opposed to sort of changing the rules in the middle of the game. Right. Which is why the lack of forwardgoing conversation is why this is trying a lastditch attempt to unseat donald trump. There was some news the other day because theres been a lot of focus not just on Donald Trumps own potential business conflicts, his worldwide empire of real estate, and so forth but those of his kids, who obviously will play some role in his administration. Eric trump announcing that hes no longer going to solicit money for his charity, this came after kind of a drum beat of news stories about all three of the adult kids. Having essentially opened the door to potential conflicts in the view of the stories for example Eric Trump Foundation was going to auction off coffee with ivanka trump and invitation drafted without his knowledge, trump and don jr. , to award a hunting trip with one of the two sons, if you gave a half Million Dollars or a Million Dollars. So, eric trump telling the New York Times as unfortunate as it is i understand the quagmire. You do a good thing that backfires. Were these stories that raised these questions actually raising legitimate questions . That caused maybe i dont know if its apositi back on charity. But its just a fact of life that the trump family and all of People Associated with them do have tremendous conflict of interest and this is something the media really should Pay Attention to. Paying attention to it in a good faith effort understanding that its a complicated issue for everybody to deal with its not just the family, its going to be all the properties, all the businesses. Theres so many ways that different corporations and foreign governments and other people can work with trump family, or their business ties to affect their interests. The media really do need to be on top of this. Being on top of it in a calm, racial way. The family hadnt totally grappled with winning the presidency would mean and kind of facing reality that in the effort to raise money for fighting cancers, which is one of the main things eric trumps foundation does, could be viewed as opening the door to influence. I think the president plays a part in the role here. Were in an unprecedented situation with all these family ties and business ties that molly just discussed, and its going to be an ongoing story. Theres no way that this is going away. And part of it was exacerbated, i believe, by trump canceling that press conference on december 15th that he had scheduled where he said he was going to address these questions and the questions remain unaddressed. Some of the same questions came up about the clinton foundation. Youve got to ask the question, at the same time, it cant be over the top. Ask the questions and see what the family decides to do. Heres a big scale. Donald trump spent 30 minutes talking to a group of reporters at maralago off the record. And they posed for a photo, and everyone was smiling just like when you get your picture taken with the president , and a lot of people were horrified. Well, you do want to have offtherecord meetings with sources, and the president if you can. The issue i had with this in particular, its not a big deal, you dont need to show a photo of it. Whats the big deal . Because then you know exactly who is having an offtherecord meeting. Well the existence of the meeting wasnt secret. The contents of the conversation was. Sure but you know exactly which reporters then have access off the record to donald trump and which reporters dont. Well it happened to be the group of reporters, and commentators who were there in maralago. And heres the thing. Look, would be it be better if all interactions were on the record and you could share it with the world . I understand the debate but if you have a chance, some insight into the thinking of a president elect, or a sitting president and the ground rules are off the record i dont think its some great betrayal. I dont think taking a photo is that big deal. But the reactions. Embarrassing, you should be ashamed. Im not a big fan of offtherecord discussions. I think they really serve to benefit the politicians, maybe far less the public interests. But to kind of hold donald trump accountable for his presidency is really much more when he becomes president. This is exactly the time when you want to have an offtherecord conversation. You need a thaw in relations between the media and the press. Theres just been so much. Theres a perception in the people that theres been an unnecessary hostility towards trump. If they can smooth some things over so that they can do a better job covering him, im all for it. Every president does it, barack obama, they always do it on the day of the state of the union, and yes, donald trump should hold a press conference. I wish he had not gone so long but i just dont understand the shock, its almost as if, i think because its trump, in some way i dont think anybody whos really like in the know was really shocked by this. Right. I mean you know ive been part of these offtherecord conversations. I think everybody has. The only part i object to is the smarmy picture. It shouldnt have happened. Im not quoted on this. I didnt make the alist. All right kel onconway was named white house counselor this week. She had a lot of hesitation about joining the plrgs. We talked about it on our show last week with her because shes got four kids age 7 to 12, and could she balance it . So this question came up as she went on a whole bunch of morning shows, when the new appointment was announced. Heres what kellyanne had to say. We were talking with ron williams, questioning kelly has four kids, hows she going to do it. She got creamed on twitter. I would just say to everyone, not ron because i dont want him to be creamed, i would say i dont play golf and i dont have a mistress so i have a lot of time that these other men dont. Shes a really good communicator, who is going to be i think the public face of the trump white house. All agreed . Good joke . Bad joke . I think it is interesting that women tend to get asked questions about how theyre going to balance their work life and im all for those questions, theyre very important and i wish more people would think about this. I actually just wish that men would also get asked those questions because its important for men right. Fair enough. Let us know what you think. Email us, media buzz fox news. Com. Questions and comments about the media. Ahead did the press buy into the clinton blame game about why hillary lost the election . Up next facebook has designed a plan to combat fake news working with the mainstream media, and some critics arent giving it a like. Facebook is finally trying to end its tied of fake news and not everyone is happy about that. Its teaming up with Fact Checking operations including abc news, politifact and factcheck. Org to confirm stories that are out and out fake. Stories will be easier for reerd to flag, and theyll be labeled false and buried in users news feeds. Mark zuckerbergs company saying weve focused our efforts on the worst of the worst. The narrative is being pushed by progressives to explain how Hillary Clinton could possibly have lost an election to donald trump. I have to partially disagree. There is absolute made up b. S. On both sides and it does have real consequences as we saw the d. C. Pizzeria, invaded by armed gunman who believed online story about a child sex trade headed by hillary. Theres nothing but about fake news. Its been with us since the world began. Whether its the weekly world news or what you can get an facebook. This is a desperate attempt to not deal with the reality that the media doesnt do a very good job covering the news this year. You can hunt down literally every corner of the internet trying to find any possible evidence of fake news. Or you can just do a better job doing your own job and thats why if the media would focus on rather than cinching for enemies, real or imagined. Is the narrative being pushed by progressives . Oh, no. I mean, look, we have to be able to agree on a few things in this world. Theres not that much left and right agree on in this country but we have to be able to agree, i would hope that if somebody is sitting at home and intentionally put some stories out that they know to be false, like that pizzagate thing, that we have to collectively do something, make some effort to try and stop that from happening. Okay, so for instance Rolling Stone putting out a story they knew was false on a gang rape at university of virginia they didnt no that was a horrifying there were journalistic failures every step of the way and instead of condemning Rolling Stone we have media figures praising it, president obama saying its a great example of a publication. Thats a much bigger problem. Who praised that story . Initially everybody praised the story until it was revealed total hoax. Journalistic failure. And thats what we should be focused on. Our failures. Our inability to report back instead of pushing narratives im trying to make a distinction here between all kinds of failures by the mainstream media, bad information, and the people who sit in their living rooms and deliberately make stuff up like the pope endorsed donald trump. Yeah, look in order to make some money. Fake news may have been around since the beginning of time but the internet has not been. And facebook is a huge source of news for billions of people on the planet. I mean, this is a really important story, and facebook has been talking about how theyre in a news distribution business, content gathering business, you walk around the city and you will see advertisements to go live on any bus that you have, any bus stop. Its a problem. And facebook really needs to take responsibility and theyre shirking it because in this statement they say we believe in giving people a voice and we cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves. It is weak. They need so you believe that facebook should hire editors and do it think about how their content and distribution then facebook would be accused of bias and censorship any time it makes a disputed call. Tough. That comes with responsibility. When youre giving news to that many people. You see for example politifact as partisan and unreliable. And here is the Washington Post fact checker, factcheck own organize none of these organizations is not perfect but dont they at least try to use facts to debunk things that are not true . The entire Fact Checking enterprise has serious credibility problems. Politifact is a great example. Not just because they are so partisan as theyve shown through what they covered but they dont necessarily cover facts. Facebook says theyre just going to be looking for the worst of the worse. But politifact has such mission creep. They check opinions, predictions, analysis. And thats subjective. And people who dont know the difference between objective truth and subjective analysis should not be in the business of determining what is or is not by the way, some of these people who are upset, nobody is deleting these posts, essentially tagging them to let people know, although in a few polls, americans say theyre confident they can detect fake news. This is something journalists are more concerned about than the average person. I dont think 84 of people can defect fake news. What irn said is it, facebook is a news Delivery System and they have to own up to it. What about when fake news starts to blend with censorship is also a serious problem and i think its interesting. Media thought facebook plan was a great plan. That should concern us. That instinct is exactly the opposite do you see censorship even if it just means a story is demoted in the news feed because theres some kind of consensus that its fake . I think its missing the entire problem which is we need to do a better job with our coverage rather than looking elsewhere for problems. The more we try and control things the more people are going to distrust us. Its going to make the problem worse. We need to do a better job with our coverage. Lets all agree on that. Great to see you. And ahead the newsweek reporter who had a meltdown on twitter and a health scare. Well talk with tucker carlson. But what are samantha bee and glenn beck doing doze ziing up to each other . In the holiday spirit we bring you a story of reconciliation. Or at least a brief bit of shtick for a ratings pop. Samantha bee who hosts full frontal on tbs invited glenn beck, conservativive crusader, onetime fox host who runs the blaze to sit down and find common ground. My audience is going to think that i am crazy for sitting down with you. My audience hates your guts. My audience hates your guts more. My audience would like to stab you relentlessly in the eyes. My audience wants to kill me for normalizing a lunatic like yourself. Really . Yes. So far this is going great. Great, indeed. Now it turns out the key attraction for these strange bed fellows is both of them dont like donald trump. So that kind of ruins the christmasy narrative. At least when sam tells glenn they should join in a Broad Coalition of nonpartisan decency. But then came this fascinating concession from beck. I believe you actually dont want to do damage. I as a guy who has done damage, i dont want to do any more damage. I know what i did. I helped divide. Im willing to take that. And yes, they wound up reaching out and holding hands. A little too long. Now, maybe theyll go back to saying politically inflammatory things for fun and profit but theres a serious point here in a business increasingly built on polarization. Maybe folks in the opinion business could score their points with a little less demonizing and a little more respect for those who disagree. That would be one heck of a new years resolution. But social media its been a season of polarization after Donald Trumps victory as the hill noted a new study found that 24 of democratic voters blocked unfriended or stopped following someone on sites like facebook and twitter. Only 9 of republicans and independent voters did the same according to the poll by the Public Religion Research institute. 28 of liberals said they distanced themselves on social media because of the content posted by their former friends, compared to 8 of conservatives. So some hard feelings still out there on the left. Editor Graydon Carter is ramping up his war on trump. Trump has shown he doesnt always beat up on the big newspapers and networks one day after vanity fair called his trump tower grill possibly the worst restaurant ever the president tweeted has anybody looked at the poor numbers of vanity fair magazine, way down, big trouble, day. Graydon carter, no talent will be out. Carter has been after trump since the 80s. And carter blasted trump just before the election and doubted he would win. I dont think hes leaving vanity fair any time soon and vanity fair is touting itself as the magazine donald trump doesnt want you to read. That sounds like a bit of spectator sport but carter calls him a preening and vindictive strong man at the top living in gilded opulence surrounded by generals and business cronies. Is this what a hunter looks like . We may look back on november 8th and january 20th as days that will live in infamy. Now hold on thats taken from fdrs famous line after the aerial attack on japan on december 7th 1941. Graydon carter is comparing the election of a president to pearl harbor . Looks like another journalist is suffering from trump trauma. Ahead a look back at my interviews with donald trump and how his antimedia message evolved during the campaign. But first it hasnt been that much media scrutiny of why the democrats lost the election. Or whats emerging as hillarys blame game. I thought i married an italian. My lineage was the vecchios and zuccolis. Through ancestry, through dna i found out that i was only 16 italian. He was 34 eastern european. So i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors we thought was italian was eastern european. This is my ancestor who i didnt know about. He looks a little bit like me, yes. Ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. Get started for free at ancestry. Com a lot has been overshadowed by the trump transition, but Hillary Clinton, her husband and her inner circle are in a blame game about her defeat and that has started to generate some headlines. But were also learning more every day about the unprecedented russian plot to swing this election. And this is something that every american should be worried about. You know, we have we have to recognize that as the latest reports made clear, Vladimir Putin himself directed the covert Cyber Attacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me. Do you believe this is a free and Fair Election . Well, look, i think the russians clearly intervened in the election. And i think that the thank you we know that both the cia, the director of national intelligence, the fbi, all agree that the russians intervened to help trump. But the media didnt cover itself with glory on the way they handled, i think, the matter, the New York Times reported this week in their own reporting said that they became an instrument for russian intelligence. The bogus email deals, be vicinity indicated at the end. And she prevailed against it all. But you know, then at the end we had the russians, and the fbi deal, she couldnt prevail against that. Former president also told the bedford, new york, record review that donald trump doesnt know much but he knows how to get angry white men to vote for him. Those angry white men that bill clinton are talking about are the same, quote, angry white men that got him elected president. And were the same angry white men that bill clinton was complaining about for months that the clintons werent reaching. Are the media doing an indepth examination of why the democrats really lost . Joining us is chief Congressional Correspondent for the washington examiners, and associate editor and columnist for real clear politics. Susan six weeks after the lekd, bill clintons talking about bogus emails, angry white men, and his grousing is becoming pretty big news. Well, whats been drowned out is a close introspection of why democrats werent able to win an election that everybody thought they were going to win very easily. But you cant ignore what influence the russian hacking or the late fbi letter from director comey to the congress had on the election because it was a close election. The outcome she won the popular vote by several million votes, these are all good arguments. But i do think whats being drowned out is how democrats werent able to reach out to the voters in those key swing rest but states. Thats a conversation were not hearing much about. Not much. And thats not as sexy of course. I understand when the fbi affidavit was made public this past week the rationale that james comey used to look into the Anthony Weiner laptop and emails right before the election and he made it public and got so much coverage, i understand clinton people being upset about that. It was kind of flimsy. But theres all this drum beat about its comeys fault, its putins fault, its huma abedins fault, its the medias fault. Do you think the media are buying into this blame game . No i think theres always a story of how the loser and the losers team interprets the defeat. And theyre all coming at it from different viewpoints. Hillarys trying to kind of hide. Shell be embarrassed if the donors never give another dollar to the party so shes trying to give them something to hang onto. John podesta,s Campaign Chairman saying theres things broken at the fbi. Theyre all having different responses. It is true what wur both referring to is they dont want to look inward at how many democratic voters just wouldnt get in the car and support her. And you know, bill clintons wrong. The email deal was not bogus. The email deal really killed off her candidacy because it showed her like repeatedly long before the fbi letter from comey. She was under an fbi investigation. People felt she wasnt honest. They werent motivated to support her. Any of these things could be said in a typical election, but the essential here is it was hard to tell what hillarys core message was. But people also forget how tense relations were between Hillary Clinton and the press. But the media usually loves party and disarray stories and theres been some, absolutely. But im not seeing much of it, especially with the democrats now controlling nothing on capitol hill here. The white house, and it just were talking about trump. I would correct you on that. I think the media loves republicans in disarray stories. I dont think theyre as attracted to democrats in disarr disarray. I do believe that the onslaught of attacks against trump in the mainstream media. What reporters are tweeting out on social media, it just shows me that the deck is stacked against trump. A lot of reporters didnt care for him as a candidate. Just because of his style. And his approach. And i think thats what youre seeing now, in the reporting. And thats why, like look what happened after 2012 there was so much attention and focus on the autopsy report from the republicans and the fact that they were a splinter group. How were they get back together and move forward . Youre not seeing any of that right now. Maybe well see that later and so much attention focused on the gop civil war over trump during the primaries, and during the general election. But do you agree that is there is it not the question of mr. Trump making so much news that hes soaking up all the oxygen that there is more media interest in when republicans are falling or having some kind of civil war . I actually disagree about this moment. I think were looking at trump transition makes incredible amount of news. Its just constantly pouring forth every hour. Yes. And then you look at like you said theyre not in control of anything. So we focus on whether the House Democrats were reelecting nancy pelosi. We are focussed on the fact that Keith Ellison is a leading contender for the fight to run the Democratic National committee. Today,s you know, youre looking at still the remnants of what harry reid has done, the first Senate Democrats in the senate. Theres i think theres a lot of focus on how kind of lost they are. Right. And how much in denial theyre in like its overshadowing theres much more of a thing. We have a new president in eight years. Weve probably never had a new president like donald trump who makes news just by tweeting. Politico had an investigative report the other day, i found fascinating. Top aide to Hillary Clinton, were talking jennifer palmerry, jake sullivan, were in pretty regular touch by email, by phone, by text, with the top organizers for this lets make the, lets get the electors to go rogue, vote against donald trump and take the presidency away from him, even though he won 60 million votes. The clinton folks never quite committed to it but they certainly were aware of it. The media missed that story . Well, first, id just like to point out more leaked emails, this time the campaign this was clearly coming from one of the electors. What could clintons camp really do. Think about that last debate when Chris Wallace asked whether trump would accept the outcome of the election and he said well well see. And clintons response was well, thats horrifying. Thats not how democracy works. How on earth could they now publicly get involved . So they youre saying that the clinton remnants of the Clinton Campaign had an incentive to hide this from the press oh, absolutely. Knowing that they would be vilified for even giving tacit support to this like lets overturn the Electoral College. Whats your take . They knew it was going to fail. Remember, Hillary Clinton and bill clinton have to move on. I dont know what fantasies they have about their daughter running for Public Office one day but all of these democrats are scrambling for jobs. Theyre staying in this party. Theyre not going to leave the democratic party. Theres nothing left of it so theyre under different pressure from different groups and activists to remain engaged and say yes this is an outrage. When it comes to the Media Coverage do you think this is a big story that they did the same thing with the recount, kind of hands off. Not opposing it. But now secretly were in touch with these people and i was kind of dismissing the whole thing as, up know, a show, a side show, wasnt going to go anywhere. If i had known the Clinton Campaign was in regular touch with people i would have tweet treated it as a much bigger story. It is a much bigger story but to the moo ed yeah they were downplaying it. Especially how they played the story up at the end of october to their advantage to make trump i think they felt this was the nail in the coffin for trump. Remember how crazy the media went after the third debate when he would not vow to commit in advance to the result. I dont want to overstate it but its pretty fascinating stuff particularly based on political stories. Susan, a. B. , great to see you. And after the break from las vegas to maralago, donald trump and i went oneonone half dozen times during the campaign. Look at how his message evolved during his march to the white house. I interviewed donald trump more than a half dozen times during the campaign and whats fascinating looking back is how some of these themes on dealing with the media emerged, how fleeting other controversies seem, now that we know hes the next president. There was a time when even trump didnt think he was the favorite. Youve been quoted as saying you have a 10 to maybe 20 chance of success. Not great odds if this was a business deal you probably wouldnt do it. No. Its not good. I mean i dont know what my chances are. Somebody asked me that say id i dont know, 10, 20 . Im not saying its a lock. But i have something that works. There was a time when the media mocked him for talking about size while denigrating marco rubio. In the detroit debate, we you talked about the size of your hands i didnt talk about it. Marco talked about it. I was going to say, he started it. You were responding. It was a joke. I didnt have any great problem with it. But it led to a tsunami of coverage including this front page headlines of the New York Times, the descent into Donald Trumps pants. How does that help you . Look he made a statement that i had small hands. He made it up. Hes a politician. Politicians lie. I dont have small hands. I have good hands. Look let the record show. Okay. I have good hands. I always tried to ask trump about specific news outlets and journalists. Ben smith, editor of buzzfeed, he told his reporters in memo its okay to call trump a mendacious racist because thats not an opinion, thats fact. The daily beast editor noah shaktman says people should boycott your businesses because he thinks youre a racist and a neofascist. Im the only one that speaks my mind and tells the truth and Everybody Knows im right. And i have great friends that are muslims and they call me, some of them, not some of them are not so thrilled, but at the highest level, and they call me and they said, what you did is right. Theres a problem. We have to great to the bottom of it. Theres a level of hatred, and viciousness, that we have to find out what were going to do about it. Talk about some of the journalists whove been attacking who are not in the opinion business after your proposal temporarily bar most muslims from coming to the united states. Tom brokaw a dangerous proposal that overrides history, the law, and the foundation of america itself. You want me to comment on tom brokaw . Im not a fan of tom brokaw. Never was the fan. When i did the apprentice he came over to me when i was sitting with george stein braener. He said thank you mr. Trump, because i had the big show on nbc and it was good for him for his newscast, now all of a sudden the first chance he gets heme. Thank you, mr. Trump, thank you so much for doing such a great job. And we talked about the tech titan who owns the Washington Post. But the reaction to the amazon founder jeff bezos, also owns the Washington Post tweeted that hell offer you a oneway ticket on one of his companys rockets. I wouldnt go on his rockets. I dont like that world. Ive seen too many of those rockets exploding before they get off the ground. I wouldnt like that. You talk about jeff bezos. He bought the Washington Post. And he bought it as a thing to buy influence so that he doesnt have to pay tax at amazon. Thats in my opinion. He has influence he paid for it privately. Sure, but he uses it doesnt affect amazon. Of course it does. He bought it privately so that he can influence people not to tax amazon. Come on. I said you were smart. Okay . And the only reason i say this because the Washington Post treats me terribly. I mean, if i did 12 good things in one day, i would have 12 bad stories. Its terrible. Well, speaking of did but the press is very dishonest. Youve gone from calling journalists scum to sleaze bags. But you also said those arent strong enough. Trump constantly slammed cnn now but there was a time when he was not too happy with fox. You said that cnn treats you better than fox. Now in terms of the commentators, charles krauthammer, george will, karl rove, steve hayes, rich lowry theyre terrible. They have ripped you. Although rich lowry is coming along even today hes got a nice article. And you have hit them back in speeches and interviews and on twitter but would you say that fox is unfair to you in its News Coverage . It doesnt matter. Because look when i when they do a story on me and then a guy like krauthammer gets up and hes so angry, you can see, hes crazed. George will is crazed. They mention the name trump and he starts to shake. They dont think youre a real conservative. Let me tell you. You know what i am . Im a winner. I know how to win. Ive been winning all my life. These guys arent winners. And people sometimes forget that conservative journalists were among his biggest detractors. More importantly about the guy, im not treated well when they do a story and then i get krauthammer commenting. Or i get george will, or steven hayes. I mean this poor guy, they mention trump and he goes its like, he becomes he becomes like a shaky monster. I never saw anything like that. The level of hatred is incredible. And you know the amazing thing . Im pretty much on their side on most of the issues. Bill oreilly said to you you were being petty and thin skinned in going after the journalists. I say you have every right to hit back when youre criticized but you almost seem obsessive about it. My question is, is it that you cant restrain yourself or is it a strategy . Because a lot of your supporters despise the media. Its neither. I dont mind a bad story when i do something wrong. Hey, when i do something wrong, bad stories, doesnt even bother me. Id rather not have it you said youre controversial. People think youre divisive. I dont like a bad story or a false story, or a false critique. When i do something good. And they dont give me the credit that i deserve. Okay . Such as, you know, not only ill take something good, do something amazing and theyll make it negative. So theyre very biased. It wouldnt matter if i were abe lincoln doing the debate, krauthammer will say negative. It wouldnt matter if i was William Jennings bryant, because they say he was great, unfortunately we dont have too many tapes, right . But it wouldnt matter who i was, they have their critique written up about me long before the debate even takes place. But does it help its dishonest people. Its honest because they disagree with you. First of all it makes me feel good. Second of all, second of all, it takes away credibility. You have to fight for yourself. Which is the problem with our country, we dont fight for yourselves. Were not respected anymore as a country. You have to fight for yourself. When youre right. Look, again, if they critique me and i thought they were right, i wouldnt be upset by it. But when you do something great, and they try and belittle you, you got to fight. Trump knows how to fight. More of my sitdown with the president elect in just a moment. A look back at my interviews with trump and his less than flattering views of the press. At times trump would seem to strike a bit of a truce with the media. After months of attacking the presses, dishonest and slim, you seem mostly to be toning it down. Are you from nuclear to low level war fair. I started off with basically zero and now im at 42. In florida im 48. I think im probably a little different. You have to be able to change a little bit, but i think im a little bit different. Im doing very well. Are journalists treating you with new respect because they think you may win . Not all. The wall street journal has been terrific. They really changed their views and i gained a Great Respect for some of the people in the wall street journal. Some of the others really changed their views and rightfully so. Im not saying from my stand point. Time magazine wrote one of the most beautiful cover stories, last week talking about this whole campaign. So yeah, i think there is a big change in mood and mode. The seize fire periods would never last. You say again and again that most political journalists, not all are dishonest. Why do you think that is . There is great dishonesty in the media. I didnt see it to the same extent with the financial media. Ive only been a politician for three months. They dont want to cover me accurately. They have a couple sites like politico. Its dishonest. You tweeted about them the other day. Why doesnt somebody do something about the clones. You called them pure scum. They are a very dishonest site and i would say problably why . Because they write things that arent true and rare recall us. You are constantly denouncing some journalists that talk about you and write about you. Unprofessional and bias you say, Nbcs Chuck Todd a real loser and dumb as a rock and george will a total dope, foxs charles totally over rated clown. I dont think you really believe that. I think they criticize you and your instinct like a boxer is to punch back. I do punch back. Those are people that i dont think treated me fairly. Awhile ago they said he will never run and never file his papers. Now they dont know what to say and all of a sudden, i get really big poll numbers and they are really good. Fascinating to look back. Still to come the news week reporter that made reckless charges and blamed hostility on twitter for a health setback. Digging into business dealings and Tucker Charleston confronting him about twitter messages including one with absolutely no evidence that he believes trump is institutionalized. I read your twitter feed. At one point, you ask of conservatives why they hate ameri america. You describe trump as stupid and lazy and [ bleep ], f you. Hold on. A lot of things are out of context. Yeah, i want you to answer this question. Was he in a Mental Hospital in 1990 as you alleged or not . Let me answer the question. Go ahead. Look, youre not fooling anybody. Youre trying to stop me from giving the answer. [ laughter ] give me give you the answer. This is a little nutty. I got to be honest. Im asking you i noticed earlier thats stunningly responsible. Here is where it gets strange after taking flak on twitter. He said he suffered a seizure of twin tweeted a flashing strobe light and threat of a seizure. Hes threatening legal action. Now copy cats. Apparently, i cant look at my twitter feed anymore, but apparently, a lot of people find this very funny. A lot of people who identify themselves as Trump Supporters are loading up my twitter feed with more strobes. It is amazing to me that, you know, simply because im a political reporter, simply because i write about, you know, donald trump that we have become so sick and twisted in this country that people think they have, you know, the right and obligation to inflict, you know, potentially very serious injury. This doesnt sound like a criminal case to me but we certainly wish him good health. I cant fathom anyone trying to induce a seizure but trying to dismiss the donald trump in a Mental Hospital, hes hardly an innocent victim here. Your top tweets are backer one of the best and worst aspects of the coverage. Ed shurmur openly extension of the Hillary Campaign best host spacing 118 and trust total loss and exposed how media colludes, sanders got a short straw as a result. Worst was the media distorted by giving over 2 billion in free publicity and come pliplained h. How charges against hrc were handled, media ignored, excused, trump no benefit of doubt ashamed of my journalism degree and never a dull moment, worst, use of the term elite and realized 80 plus of journalists are lazy and not too bright. Ouch. Anchors always gave a personal opinion and closed segment with ugliness. Orange skin, fake hair. Facts were the best. At least the hair is real. Thats it for this edition. Merry christmas, happy hanukkah. I wrapped up special prime time with megyn kelly in the 2016 campaign. Fascinating hour. First airing monday night at 9 00 and take a look at our Facebook Page and let us know what you think. Media buzz, we respond and post a lot of original content there called your buzz. Continue the conversation on twitter. Have a great holiday. Were back here on new years day. See you then with the latest buzz. We begin with a fox news urgent iconic singer George Michael has died. That according to sky news u. K. The stars publicist saying he passed away peacefully at home at age of 53. As a solo star and before that one half of the musical duo wham, George Michael sold more than 100 million records, you may have even heard the well nope Christmas Song a few times today. Last christmas, i gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away this year to save me from