the trump presidency has come to a close. what a week it was. successful visits from northern leaders, prime minister from canada, a sidewinder of a presser that may have topped it all. here with grades for not only this week but the first month, guy benson political director for town hall.com, alex connan. and crystal ball author of the upcoming book. good to see all of you. happy friday. shannon: happy friday as well. to crystal, congratulations on your new book, you have a brand new baby and made time to come on the first 1900 days. we have to let you start first. kwon dpratlations. thank you very much. ida rose is here in the studio actually, her first trip to the tv studio. shannon: stashting her early. we like it. shannon: would you grade this week, how would you grade the
this is a chronic issue, and you want to use the energy and the support and the honeymoon of a new presidency. controlling the two houses of congress. to go ahead and attack it. and i m afraid a lot of that energy is being squandered on peripheral issue. what d f. you don t get a honeymoon, if you go straight to the seven-year itch? i think the president did not have a honeymoon. he got involved in policy soon after beak elected. his money moon should be under way now. but i think it honeymoon. bpt it ended in the transition. he s in, now, i mean look, you realize he s been here for four weeks. tell me if it feels like four weeks. it feels like a lot more than that. it does. it s hard to remember barack obama. it does. and i think the honeymoon was over november 10, 11, maybe. if he made that it far. yes. charles, always good to see
shannon: and these days, i feel like all of us have to be super skeptical, richard. when something passes on the wires, the a.p. we generally believe it and respect it. even we had to hesitate and say something about this just doesn t sound right. how important is it for the media to have that sniff test to think about it, or do you think, would you admit, there is some motivation to, anything that sounds negative or crazy for this administration, some people want to run with it? this is a tough, tough place for the media and the white house. here s the truth. the truth is that the job of the media is to report information. if they received what seems to be some sort of leaked document they have a responsibility to release that to their viewers. but without backtracking wait a second, i was going to say, with that being said there should be double sourcing and triple sourcing. the a.p. didn t do it in this particular situation, unfortunately. this brings to us a larger proble
i think you re right, too, that the media has learned a lot, too. i think that the media would be significantly more skeptical and less cheerleadery now than they were for any sort of new venture, than they would have been in 2002-2003. almost every major news organization, including most major newspapers and television networks went along with the wmd barrage of the bush administration, fell for it, didn t vet it, buried stories, challenging it, or actually helped further the propaganda. it didn t help any of them. it led to major meltdowns in some of these organizations. so it s in their best interests, not only their patriotic interests, their own selfish interests, to not make that mistake again. before i let you go, frank, i have to ask you if you see the newt gingrich surge persisting. are you looking forward to the santorum surge? feels awful to even say. or the jon huntsman surge. what do you think s going to happen? i think gingrich may be a
i think you re right, too, that the media has learned a lot, too. i think that the media would be significantly more skeptical and less cheerleadery now than they were for any sort of new vent e venture, than they would have been in 2002-2003. almost every major news organization, including most major newspapers and television networks went along with the wmd barrage of the bush administration, fell for it, didn t vet it, buried stories, challenging it, or actually helped further the propaganda. it didn t help any of them. it led to major meltdowns in some of these organizations. so it s in their best interests, not only their patriotic interests, their own selfish interests, to not make that mistake again. before i let you go, frank, i have to ask you if you see the newt gingrich surge persisting. are you looking forward to the santorum surge? feels awful to even say. or the jon huntsman surge. what do you think s going to happen? i think gingrich may be a