You can adjust that person, you can walk away, you can 300 and say this is some drunk idiot. Im in is the president of the united states. Is not a racist by any means. I would go to the point of saying that what he meant was go back home and fix your own problems. Kressa considered donald trump a friend. And it pains me for him to take the low road. I was saddened by what he said invoking the language of racism and xenophobia. And describing these four women. The president made an unforced error. Three of the four were born in america. But the idea hes hitting the because there women of color is just absurd. I mean who doesnt he hit . Howard journal is taking side , should straighteners journalist be flatter branding the present racist as an undisputed fact . And is the president to blame for that rally chant against omar, send her back even drew criticism from the right. While he tries to distance himself with what some of the crowd was strong. And joe biden saying he will china donald trump 2a pushup contest. Really . I am howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. [music] it started just before we came on the air last sunday. Instantly mushroomed into an all out warfare with the media flatly calling President Trump a racist. Which he strongly denies pretty went up to the four democratic freshman congresswomen. Alexandria ocasiocortez, ilhan omar, Ayanna Pressley and rashida tlaib. All but omar born in the u. S. Would want to go back and fix the totally broken crime infested places from which they came then come back and show us how it was done. Aoc called at the hallmark loggia White Supremacists and feels comfortable in the gop into outright racism. And each side ratcheted up rhetoric. On things if they are not happy here, they can leave. They can leave and you know what . Im sure that they will be many people that will not miss them. Quiet. Quiet. Are you okay with your tweets are racist, sir. Quiet. Will not allow him to continue his throwing of the pile of garbage that constantly comes out of his mouth. That allows for the media to be distracted. Howard joining us now to analyze the courage, Molly Hemingway of the federalist a Fox News Contributor and coauthor of the new book justice on trial, carbon confirmation and the future of the supreme court. The president of District Media and former state Department Official under Hillary Clinton. The media combination of the president s tweets has been deafening. Even commentator saying that hes gone too far. Are they right . Will be nice is that media actually discover what was said, they are clearly very upset about this but this seems to be debate that donald trump was to have. Hes been highlighting what he views as the unamerican nature of some of these arguments. I think what we are seeing is a shaping of the 2020 debate. The democrats are worried about their loosening grip on minority voters trying to focus on allegations of racism and you have the republicans trying to portray democratic politicians as being too sympathetic to terrorists, to supportive of socialism, too extreme in our politics so this is just a perfect story where you can highlight those divisions but it would be nice to have the media not take over size and theres no question they are citing and advancing democratic arguments. On that point i will come back to your celibate about the president wanted to be because hes stoked it all week. For all the media demonstrations of the president s comments at attacks against these women is racist. Are they playing into his hands and making is the only story that is utterly dominated discourse in washington . I do not think you can say on the one hand that they might be playing into his hands, on the other hand that they are playing it up, they dont really believe it. I agree with molly. Howard usa and dont really believe it . Is the heat getting to me. [laughter] i agree with molly that the president sees this as beneficial to his reelection campaign. Setting aside whether i agree with that or not or whether even his own people in his own party agree with it. Theres an interesting dynamic that kicks in here every time donald trump says something controversial. Because our room at 2016 where he ran on a lot of things. One of them was i will tell you like it is. You will like it will be politically correct but i will say it. Yet, in two and half years, i dont remember a single time where we were sitting on this panel or any panel on fox or someone says hell yeah, he meant it exactly the way you take it. It always seems to be backing away, excusing him when he said it appeared very clearly, he did not tell dick durbin, the senator of illinois, to go home. He did not tell beto orourke to go home. He didnt even tell Hillary Clinton to go home. It is not a coincidence that these four women are women of color. Howard i hear you on that and also went to an for all these comments go back to the campaign, he will never survive this, hes gone too far this time. I dont think ive ever seen this intensity of media outrage. And i dont think the story will go anytime soon. Leslie fully because he also continued to talk about it and they had a press conference by the congresswomen. But one of the players in this group of players at the . Need to consider the gop in general. Identity necessarily hurts trump with his base will have to wait to see what happens with swing voters but what happened on the gop members have to give an answer or a comment about these tweets. There will be a slower cycle and they were in a very hard position knowing that this is going to be pressed by the media. Howard the present tweeting this morning about the democratic congressman anna believe they are capable of loving our country but here is a treat for him ilhan omar the congresswoman saying, donald trump was every black brown person deported and muslims banned. Now pivoting from go back to where you came from to the language and omars history to antisemitic comments has a present ship to the media spotlight to something that he thinks helps him . I think so. And i think this is what he tried to go. In march he was speaking at the conservative Political Action conference and said there are people in the Democratic Party who dont love their country. At that was a pretty extreme thing to say. Nobody in the media bit on it so he keeps peppering his speeches with things like this. Until he personalize it and went too far as he always does. Then people Start Talking about and is able to go back to the original point that he wanted to be making. Howard heres a New York Times story. America stinks is the beginning. At least thats what donald trump seems to be saying before coming president. He talks about how he called the country a laughingstock when he was a private businessman. In his inaugural address he talked about american carnage. While some democrats are clearly, im thinking of aoc corn the board facilities concentration camps. The media is nothing donald trump as president and before is also complained about america. Hopefully there no democrats watching right now, live television. I dont agree with that. I think you speaking rhetorically about criticizing his predecessor, she thinks differently. I dont think, he was not attacking america in the way that he is accusing others of attacking america. Im not letting him off the hook but i do think its a false equivalency. Howard my take would be that all politicians criticize at one point. That is how to get elected and stay in office. The media now are saying that trump is demonizing dissent by these members of congress. And again, i dont let them off the hook i dont like a lot of the comments that omar has made sometimes i think they go to four. Because they disagree with him he is now saying they hate america. Help leads to a thorough conversation both from what i find fascinating about this is that the press conference that was held, what you heard the congresswoman talk about was not wanting to take the bait of the present, saying we are not going to delve into this but they are using this to their own advantage. It is unheard of to have four freshman members of congress have this type of coverage and that is because their use of twitter and also playing off the president. They do have the social media platforms. And by the way there no power in the house, they are freshman. But they have a lot of media power. But i will also say are they entitled to hit back against the president . If complete power in the house. When nancy pelosi tried to actually separate herself from them, just a week ago, with huge assistance of donald trump, they are now stuck together at the hip. This idea that all is equivalent i dont think it will go over well with people. If you set these women down and talked about americas founding and americas role in the world over the last 250 years, they would have a very different idea than a lot of other americans. And that is a thing that donald trump is trying to highlight. Whether you actually believe in the american project, whether they believe in the foundation. But they agreed that all voices are equivalent thats false. They did it the president and the bully pulpit he owns is in any way the equivalent of even the foremost senior members of congress, is false. He could end this. He initiated it, he could end it. Their choices hes making. That are problematic. Agree with that industry want your president to speak well. It is also true that he has been the target of unbelievable rhetoric from people on the left. Everyone on the left. Everyone in media calling him a traitor, which is a crime punishable by death, is very extreme rhetoric. Theres also issue that for many years, for many years theyve had the policy differences with democrats called racist and i think republicans are absolutely sick of that being this lazy charge anytime you disagree about Border Security or immigration policy or any other issue economic or otherwise, that its racist. When they call donald trump a traitor theres not much you can do about appear but when donald trump was a member of congress and human being a traitor hes in charge of a multimillion portion government. Many of whom react to his comments, maybe the overreact to his comments. Howard to clarify the freshman, they cannot bring a will to the floor they dont share the power in that sense an institution. Lets come back to how the media covered this, here are some sounds from other networks, these are news anchorstalking about the president initial tweets. Four democratic congressman congresswoman of color has spoken for the first time racist tweets aimed at them by the president of theprogress president chubb sparked a storm of outrage after a series of racist tweets target members of congress who are women of color. Present time today denying his racist tweets were racist. Howard beverly, should straight news anchors, journal is in a is not to admit opinion people, they will argue this 24 hours a day. Reporting the president sent out a bunch of racist tweets . No, they should make sure theres a very clear line between what is news reporting and what is opinion. Obviously youre saying that line blurred. Its been blurred a long time theres reason donald trump leave get traction with these comments because is not just that people disagree with the congresswoman on policies they also think the news media has been very biased to them this is an example. You never see the same type of treatment of president obama. And the Washington Post said they started calling him racist because is deeply rooted. Is it obvious that these are racist, one we just laid out, for the context for the readers and viewers andlet them their conclusions . I think too large a statement a large extent they try to do that. If you look at clips from a month a six month ago they are hesitating to say that donald trump comments are racist. They are hesitating to say that something he said is a lie. I think there are times where things are so obvious that they feel on such strong ground to say it. It is a horrible thing for the credibility of the media to assert Something Like this particularly whenever bad track record of covering racial issues throughout the us. The Covington High School boys being a recent example. But your statements from some of these women saying, pouring themselves into identity politics that many people view these things as racist. Black you have to be or only black people cannot have ideas of their own. Those are not called racist so if they wont be equivalent about it makes it worse. Just say what he said let people make their own minds up about it and it will help the credibility of the media. Howard let me get a break here. When we commit another media explosion. Sort of a second wave at a trump rally where people started chanting, send her back, about ilhan omar. And a response with the White House Point one of the benefits we as a country give our veterans is eligibility for a va loan for up to 100 of your homes value. Thank you, admiral. So if you need money for your family, call newday usa. I p u ]÷ug< mno kidding. Rd. But moving your internet and tv . Thats easy. Easy . easy . Easy. Because now xfinity lets you transfer your Service Online in just about a minute with a few simple steps. Really . Really. That was easy. Yup. Plus, with twohour appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. Now all you have to do is move. That thing. [ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. Its just another way were working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. Howard President Trump was attacking ilhan omar a somali refugee is one of the four freshman democrats hes targeted at a North Carolina rally when some of the crowd broke into an ugly chant. Obviously and importantly, omar has a history of launching vicious antisemitic screens. [chanting] i think they low point of the trump presidency. Not just a low point but the worst, the most depraved, disgusting and totally odious thing the president s ever done. I think the people come i dont think they were saying send her back is much there saying, these views are repugnant. We have said this president we are condemned the racist remarks. I believe he is i think the president put millions of americans in danger last night. His rhetoric is endangering lots of people. Howard the president took questions next day and distance himself from the chant. Out that i was unhappy with it. I disagree with it. But again, i didnt say that. They did. But i disagree with it. Howard molly, the president then offered this tweet about the sick Partnership Involving the media, if we can put up its amazing how the Fake News Media became crazed over the chant but its accepting of the vile statements made by three radical left congresswoman. Should the president be blaming the media for covering this . He should not blame them for coming up its only the way in which the covered was completely ridiculous. Also the way they would like it was great even have a little bit of what he was saying before the chant begins. He was talking about the extreme views of ilhan omar. Which includes sympathy for terrorists and antisemitism. It is not to say that this would be appropriate response but you have to have these things in context but also think the media just pretends to be outrage more than they are. It reminds me of how much they responded to the lock her up chance. Hillary clinton was held accountable for mishandling of classmate information. This is the worst point in the campaign it was awful and horrible. And it would better to try and understand whats going on. Want to make one quick point is not just a bunch of blips. For example in britain they called it in the handling of it vile, shameful, racist. Lamed donald trump. But let me put up on the screen how some news organizations, this is cnn, reacted to the president saying. He started speaking quickly in order to move past the chant. Why did you ask them to stop saying that . Number one i think i did. I started speaking very quickly. [chanting] the media counter argued that the president did not do anything in real time. Though he did attempt to distance himself. Next day he was asked about the North Carolina rally goers and he said they were patriots. Is happened a week ago sunday. He said it and then it is not like the media that night said my god, he let 13 seconds go by. It was not until the next day when trump said the clip that we watched, that they then showed the clock, the timer. And said it is a lie. So it is not that the media was looking to jump on him for time, is that they were calling him out on a blatant lie. He did not try to speed up the speech, he does not try to stop it, he sat there and enjoyed it. I generally dont blame politicians for some crazy people in a crowd might say. I do think the present motive discouraged earlier. All given credit, 13 seconds is a long time but donald trump also led up to this with recent comments. When youre in a group of people with a crowd its hard to know what to do sometimes when youre taken off guard by what people say. Also look at the difference between him and how he handled this completely different bodily which he did not chime and i think its a little stretch. Philippe reines, Molly Hemingway, thank you for joining us. And why is kevin spacey getting so little coverage . And the harsh attack on the New York Times columnist tom friedman and joe biden has pretty obvious questions in a friendly interview. Howard a liberal New York Times columnist who once played golf with barack obama is a critic of donald trump. We have a president without shame. He is backed by a Party Without spine. Howard the president hit back hard after a recent column which he accused him of racism tweeting thomas the chin freedom is a week and pathetic i and any recent call could not have been nicer or more special to your favorite president. Now tom friedman is really nasty to me in his columns kiss my a on the call. All of the iq part. Hes a threetime Pulitzer Prize winner and tweeting back to present your right unlike you i