Said the u. S. Faces an economic war with china and he contradicted the president s threat of possible military action against north korea saying there is no military option on north korea. When asked if he still had confidence in steve bannon, President Trump said this. I like him, hes a good man, hes not a racist, i can tell you that. He is a good person. He actually gets very unfair press in that regard, but well see what happens with mr. Bannon, but he is a good person and i think the press treats and frankly very unfairly. Heather and his interview, he also attacked the far right, adding ethanol nationalism and its losers is a strange element. I think the media plays it up too much and we have to cope crush it more. Bryans life for us in bridgewater new jersey. What is the latest . The latest right now is the balance of the president s tweets. He is now saying affirmatively for the first time that he is for confederate statues and a series of tweets this morning. He called taking
years in prison. the state of florida carrying out its first execution in over a year with a drug never used before any lethal injection cas case. the man was sentenced to death for two racially motivated murders in 1997. the truly dishonest people in the media and the fake media, they make up stories, they have no sources in many cases. they don t report the facts. jon: of verbal attacks on journalists and their employers, pretty routine for president trump. the president again called out the media this morning and a tweet, praising his chief of staff. the president waiting general john kelly is doing a fantastic job of s chief of staff. there is tremendous spirit and talent in the white house. don t believe the fake news. let s get into it with philip wakeman, our commentary writer, eric felton for the weekly
the media has become for the right with the soviet union was for the cold war. an adversary of overwhelming importance. i guess the question is how long cannot go on if that s the case? what does victory look like? what does victory over the media look like? that s a crazy notion. the president is constantly hurting himself with this. you look at his response to bob corker today and a tweet. that was a story that had come and gone days ago and by going after bob corker, the president merely made it that people are reentering those comments, so he tends to promote media that s damaging to him by his inability to not let things go. jon: and kind of curious, philip, because the media made him a star. he was the subject of so many tabloid newspaper headlines in new york for decades and then he went on to the apprentice and
opponents know what you re going to do and shut the agenda, i think the president focusing so much on the media merely empowers the very media that he claims he is opposed to. jon: philip, no president has ever loved the media or enjoyed fantastic relationships with the media. to spin off of what eric said they are, the president is trying to throw a haymaker at cnn and he throws himself off balance every time he makes these attacks. reagan and the bushes dealt with the same media, but they knew how to play the game and they re trying to win not personal victories, but actually get something substantive into law. jon: what about gary cohn, his economic advisor? he had that piece in the financial times with some very strong language, philip, about how he feels about what the president should say and how he should respond to the neo nazis.
he needs to expand his base. i don t know that going after the media, though it s resident of the base, helps expand his support. jon: he needs to expand his popularity on capitol hill as well, doesn t he, philip? absolutely. he can only play the base for so long. we are not campaigning at this point, we are trying to pass an agenda at the white house. this isn t helping him move forward. at this point, it s a wasted effort. he needs to keep his eye on the ball and focus on what s going to chalk up a win. jon: there is a headline and politico that i wanted to share with you, you probably artie seen it. the media is trumps evil empire. rich lowry wrote this. he wrote the most republicans matter is he s demonstrated the results against the enemy, not the islamic state or the tele- band, the media.