marathons on seven continents in seven days. that makes me tired just saying it. truly amazing. that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid. "the story" hosted by my colleague and friend martha maccallum joins us now. >> martha: make us seem wimpy for being cold on the roof the other night. classified methamphetamine -- ms intensisintensifying. the fbi fights to keep it close to the vest. bitter rivals in the house devin nunes and adam schiff are locked in a battle of their own over this whole thing. that is in there and when will we see it? congressman matt gaetz has been leading the charge on getting this thing exposed so he joins us in just a moment. but, first, chief news correspondent ed henry live at the white house tonight where the memo is behind him. hi, ed. >> that's right. good to see you, martha. breaking tonight, senior republicans are pushing back on reports suggesting that

this memo will not live up to the hype. telling me four separate explosive revelations in the memo that have not leaked out ahead of tomorrow's expected release. if that is true it, will be and i have occasion for that man republican devin nunes who has suggested this memo will reveal abuses of the fisa law by top fbi and justice officials dating back to the obama administration. a lot on the line for him though as house minority leader nancy pelosi today called on speaker paul ryan to remove nunes as intelligence chairman charging his actions had been a dangerous attack on law enforcement and all meant to help president trump politically. a senior white house official meanwhile suggested the president is going to tell congress, again, likely tomorrow, he does not object to the public release of this memo. then it would be up to the house, not the white house, to actually release it publicly. the top democrat on the panel, adam schiff, has pushed back on nunes' claim that he made only minor grammatical fixes to the memo before sending it here to the white house. the democrat charging it was

secretly al altered to tar the fbi and the justice department. a claim hotly disputed by republicans like speaker paul ryan who gave nunes some cover. >> this memo is really a spin on a not just a set of particular documents, but broader classified information than that. that because of serious and material omissions is inaccurate and gives a very misleading impression. >> this memo is not indictment of the fbi, of the department of justice. it does not impugn the mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general. what it is is the congress' legitimate function of oversight to make sure that the fisa process is being used correctly and that if it wasn't being used correctly, that needs to come to light and people need to be held accountable.

>> now, just moments ago the former fbi director james comey went off on twitter invoking mccarthyism writing all should appreciate the fbi speaking up. i wish more of our leaders. we but take heart, american history shows that in the long run weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. not a lot of schools or streets named for joe mccarthy. now, that mention at the beginning of the fbi speaking up, a reference to the statement put out yesterday by his successor, current fbi director christopher wray that this memo should be kept under wraps. meanwhile, cnn claimed today that wray was threatening to resign if the president let's this memo out. nbc news knocking that down as false. and we should note that people who have seen this republican memo have suggested that james comey will have some explaining to do, which may explain that fiery tweet, martha. >> martha: ed, thank you so much. my next guest maybe demanding the release of this memo for weeks. former congressman matt gaetz, thanks for being here tonight. >> good to be on.

>> martha: you heard adam schiff say there were material changes made to this memo, he is suggesting things were slipped into it that they are not aware of. is that true? >> absolutely not. i have review you had the version of the memo that was voted on by the house intelligence committee. and the version that was sent to the white house. and you could about hold the both of them up to a lamp and they would look identical. the changes were grammatical in nature. there was a sin ta syntax change. nothing added to the memo that would alter its complex or content or change the context. i would remind director comey that i don't know too many schools or streets are going to be named after him once this memo is in to the public square. >> martha: well, we will see about that. in terms of the revelations that are in this memo. you heard ed henry saying that devin nunes believes that there are substantive issues that are in this memo. the push back tonight is that it's not going to live up to the hype. that even the white house is concerned that they don't want to be too far out on a limb on this thing. you also are out on a limb.

have you spoken out very strongly about this. you said it was watergate 2, kgb style tactics is something you said. are you standing by all those statements tonight. >> i don't think those were my statements, martha. but i do believe that there are jaw-dropping revelations about the extent to which the fbi and department of justice were weaponized politically to go after the folks that they didn't line up with from an ideological or electoral standpoint. that's deeply unfortunate, whether you are a democrat or republican, an independent or a whig. and that's why i'm hopeful that the release of this memo will create a bipartisan opportunity to evaluate the type of country we want to have the type of surveillance protocols and type of oversight that would stop this type of abuse from happening in the future. i would disagree with speaker ryan. i have a great deal of respect for him. but i think that the substance of this memo absolutely implicates senior officials at the department of justice and the fbi. and i think that it shows that the entire mueller investigation should have never been started in the first place.

that it is built on a false, rotten premise. i think the american people will agree once they have the opportunity to review this unredacted memo. >> martha: what's your confidence level this is going to be released and what's the time frame? >> i know when i talked with the president about it at the end of the state of the union he turned to me and said can you imagine if we didn't release the memo, people would be so mad. so i think the president, as usual. has his finger on the pulse of the american electorate. he knows there is an expectation that we are going to have a transparent adult conversation about what happened in the senior levels of the fbi and the department of justice. i think heads are going to roll. we already see some folks that are choosing to make career changes and i don't think we have seen the end of it. >> martha: you are referring to andrew mccabe. >> andrew mccabe and mr. robicy as well. >> martha: in terms of the senate intel committee some of them have express add desire to look at this. why wouldn't you want them to look at it before it is released. >> i have no objection to members of the senate reviewing the memo.

if they want to come on over, they just have to talk to the chairman about that. >> martha: in terms of what it reveals, there is reporting that says that it will reveal that fisa was mislead with the information that was presented to them. can you confirm that? >> i wish i could. unfortunately live i can't confirm it on either contents of the memo. i will say the misleading of a court is a very serious offense. there are federal, criminal statutes that do not allow to you use the color of law to deprive other people of rights. and the misleading of a fisa court woulded me that criminal definition. i think that the american people will be very interested in the manner in which information was validated that was presented to the fisa court. it's not just about what's handed over. it's about how that information was validated and ensuring that we have confidence that the activities of these secret courts are not prejudiced by politics. >> martha: so that suggests that they were complicit in what you are seeing. because there is two ways to look at it either they were presented something that was

not accurate, that caused them to go ahead and allow this warrant, or, they were sort of in on it, which sounds like what you are suggesting. >> >> no, no. i am not suggesting that the fisa judges were in any way engaged in misconduct. but a fisa judge can only evaluate the information that's presented to them in the context in which it is presented. it's worth noting, martha, that fisa warrants have to be reauthorized every 90 days. so when evaluating this memo, it's not just the original application. it's what is learned along the way. and then what is either presented or omitted to the fisa court in those renewals. >> martha: last question, do you want to seat supporting documentation from which this memo was written also released because as soon as it comes out, there's going to be people trying to poke holes in it and that supporting documentation would be valuable for everyone to see. >> yeah. i agree. actually, representative lee zeldin has taken the lead on this issue demanding that in our letter to chairman nunes signed by over 60 members of the congress that we

included a demand for the most robust supporting information that can reasonably be released. but this memo is an opinion. it's not conjecture. it is a statement of verifiable facts. and i think that its veracity will be upheld in the court of public opinion for sure. >> martha: congressman mat gates, thank you very much. good to have you here tonight. >> thank you. >> martha: many in the media have called for transparency with everything that involves this. but now that the memo is on the verge of being released, some of those same people are calling for the opposite of that. they want it to be withheld from view by the american people. so here now lisa booth, a fox news contributor and juan williams, co-host of the five and fox news political analyst. good to see you both. that's where i want to start, juan. this is a work product of a congressional committee. and they put together this memo. they have gone through the proper channels to release it. finish the white house, the presidents we understand is about to sign off on it so why wouldn't the american

people be able to see it? >> well, it's the work of the republicans on the committee. >> martha: well, they have the majority on the committee. >> correct. it's the work of people and especially devin nunes the chairman the house intel committee who has, as you know, obviously been in coordination with the white house on the unmasking issue earlier. he had subsequently then to recuse himself. now is he back as chair. and the question, martha is if you are truly engage engagedn an act of transparency, why not release the documentation that attaches to it, which was your last question to congressman gates. i would say this though, congressman getz says more people are likely to change jobs if this memo is released. it's aimed really at the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein because he was the one in terms of carter page subject to the fisa warrant that gave the approval for the extension. if that's what this is about then what we heard from speaker ryan is ridiculous.

this is not a surgical thing that's intended to be about the use of the fisa. this is about discrediting the fbi, discrediting the justice department, discrediting the mueller investigation into president trump. >> martha: lisa? >> in regard to your criticism of nunes, he was actually found to have not done anything wrong by the house ethics committee. your accusation is unfair there. secondly, where -- adam schiff says he is concerned about the process of the classified information. where was he when the conversation between michael flynn and kislyak was illegally released and a crime was broken with that? where was he when hillary clinton was emailing on a server and an email system that was as secure as g mail on foreign soil with classified information? i don't remember him speaking up about that either. so, you know, where was the concern with that? so i just -- and also the criticism of republicans having concerns with the fbi or the doj. it was democrats and democratic leadership not

that long ago with harry reid saying that comey violated the hatch act and they also had concerns over the fbi. so if there is this collective concern over actions taken by the fbi, why wouldn't both sides want to get to the bottom of it? >> i think they do. >> it doesn't seem like it? >> i think obviously the democrats have a memo. the republicans have a memo. the thing is are we endangering national security? that's what we have heard from the fbi director who is a trump appointee. that's what we have heard from the deputy attorney general. they both went over to the white house and said don't release. this sources and methods are at risk here. >> martha: have you another group of fbi officials who went over and many have -- they claim that there is no problem with sources and methods with regard. >> no. what they said was. >> martha: president said he never would want to release a memo that would endanger national security. >> they said it wasn't accurate. i want to respond to you directly. they said it wasn't accurate. what we heard is there is omissions, cherry picking

that allows this memo to create an impression. >> martha: right. the message that the memo sends is misleading and have grave concerns about that. >> that's right. >> martha: that's different than revealing any sources or methods endanger national security. >> this gives you this impression, american public that you don't know about these documents. they say well, yeah, so let me show you the documents well, we can't. >> martha: supporting documents have to be released in order to have substance. i agree. go ahead, lisa, the point is, if the left is so concerned where were they when that conversation was illegally leaked? where were they when hillary clinton was traveling around the world with classified information on a server as secure as g mail, an email as secure as g mail. clearly the that's not the concern here. the concern is there is information damaging to the obama administration and damaging to the doj and the fbi. and we should be equally concerned. >> martha: we will see. >> if this fisa warrant was obtained by methods that shouldn't have happened. or even the fact that a

democrat propaganda piece or opposition research piece was used to obtain a fisa warrant should be concerning for everyone. >> martha: if there is nothing to worry about in there. >> then yeah why the heck not see it. >> martha: if they didn't feel like they did anything wrong. we will see. hopefully tomorrow. >> thanks, martha. >> martha: with a week to go russians accused of massive systemic doping scandals getting a last minute reprieve and maybe heading to south korea. what's going on with that? unemployment at levels not seen since the 1960's. with the roaring economy may actually trigger next. plus, president trump expected to speak within an hour at the annual rnc meeting in washington. we will take you there live. marc thiessen coming up. here is the president earlier today. >> you know, 18 is going to be very interesting. but we have got to do one or the other. either they have to come on board because they talk a good game with daca but they don't produce. ♪ ♪

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>> martha: president trump to speak at the rnc winter meeting in washington, d.c. you can see the crowd gathering there. we will bring that you live as soon as it gets underway. earlier today he spoke in west virginia at the annual g.o.p. retreat giving his party some advice ahead of the mid terms. >> one of the strengths of

the republican party is that we're a big tent with many diverse views but the one thing we can all agree on and that's that in every decision we make it our highest priority to serve and to protect the american people. we have a chance now to pass into law the immigration reforms that the american people have been demanding for decades. and that many of you have been working on for your entire careers. we have to get help from the other side or we have to elect many more republicans. that's another way of doing it. >> martha: which will it be? here now marc thiessen american enterprise scholar and fox news contributor and war room director and former hillary clinton presidential campaign aide. good to see you. >> good to see you, martha. >> martha: what's the outlook for republicans on 2018 right now. >> a lot better than reported for two reasons. number one, the republicans have a major structural

advantage going into the election. in the senate, democrats are defending 10 seats in states that donald trump won, including five seats in states that he won by double digits. republicans are defending one seat in a state that hillary clinton won. so the odds of democrats making gains in the senate are not very likely and in fact likely republican also make divans. in the house there are only 66 seats in play. 46 of those lean republican. only 20 lean democrat. they need to gain 24 in order to take over the house. the numbers are not working for them. the second reason is because the much vaunted and much behind democratic wave seems to be abated. there is a new monday moth poll that just came out today, a month ago democrats had a 15-point lead in the generic ballot. today that lead has disappeared which is three points which is a statistical tie. the wave is dissipating. the advantage on the field is for the republicans it would be very unlikely if they took back either house. >> martha: dan henninger wrote a piece looking at the prospects and laid out an argument where republicans can do well and also historical examples where they get creamed as they head into the mid terms.

but he said that he thought that nancy pelosi at the state of the union was sitting there thinking, hmmm so next year by this time i will have the gavel back and you will be facing impeachment. zach, i'm sure that's a picture you would love to see, right? >> absolutely. look, i was actually talking with a couple democratic consultants a couple hours ago about that monmouth poll the consensus we had god we hope that republicans believe that thing is true. if you look at all of the evidence we have seen so far from republicans losing a senate see from alabama from a democratic sweep in virginia from 34 house republicans, retiring 36 house republicans being outraised by democratic opponents in the fourth quarter to state legislative races in states like oklahoma that are going to democrat not by small margins but by huge margins. we feel we are not -- everything is not in the bag but we feel very good. >> martha: i want to bring up one concept paul ryan

brought up today perhaps people able-bodied might want to work for welfare and have some limits on how long. i'm sure, zach, you are hoping that's something they will take up, right? >> absolutely. it has absolutely no chance of passing. but paul ryan showed his hand. he said that welfare reform is actually code for medicaid reform. so let's be very clear. >> martha: medicaid was expanded. if kentucky they have a program to have people work. >> they will cut people's medicaid. >> martha: whole idea was pretty wise. watch this. >> nothing is done more to undermine our sense accountability than our failed welfare system. we have to make welfare what it was meant to be ah second chance, not a way of life there ought to be a simple, hard rule anyone who can work must go to work. >> martha: do republicans have the spine to see that through, marc?

>> i don't know if they do. but i will tell you, that hearkens back to days when republicans and democrats, despite their disagreements were able to overcome the contempt they had for each other and actually accomplish something together. bill clinton signed and newt gingrich and the republican house passed ke welfare reform. here we have a situation with immigration reform where you have the opportunity to do the exact same thing. donald trump just came out and endorsed amnesty. amnesty for 1.8 million people and the democrats are acting like he is some sort of a monster. he is actually behaving like a president. behaving like a great leader who made coo concession so the other side and they don't want to make a deal. >> martha: how are the democrats going to look those nearly 2 million dreamers in the eye and say oh, yeah, we did get an offer for you to stay here but we turned it down. >> actually the offer was that turned down was donald trump. bipartisan agreement on the table. >> martha: you don't want 2 million dreamers to stay,

zach. >> he disagreed. >> martha: today two million dreamers you don't want them to statement. of course we want them to stay. but what they're soferg a cut in legal immigration by half in order to pass something that everybody says that they want. mcconnell says they want to pass it. >> martha: on both sides. i have got to leave it there i would love to keep going because this is fun. we will see you guys next time. thanks a lot to both of you. coming up, president trump versus the media. howie kurtz with some juicy revelations behind the scenes of that battle. stick around. plus, the economy is booming right now under president trump. one chief economist has a very bold prediction for the coming here. melissa francis tells us what that really means for you after this. ♪ ♪ as the one who's always trapped beneath the duvet,

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>> unemployment claims are at 45-year low, which is something, after years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages. >> martha: that was president trump earlier today at the g.o.p. retreat touting some of the nation's recent economic successes and low jobless numbers. a chief economic mist at moodies went so far to predict today with the way things are going under the

administration that the united states could see unemployment rate which is currently at 4.1 get down to 3.5 and you can tell from that chart it has not been there since the 1950s and 1960s. that's a really big game changer. melissa francis is here after the bell on fox business network. that's extraordinary. >> right. >> what does it mean and what is mark zandi say happens because of that chart. >> this is one of those things where they are trying to warn you of the bad news that comes with the good news. unemployment falls that low, we would see a lot of weird things would happen -- a lot of inflation and stuff. because they are thinking full employment that's below that i don't think this is going to happen, first of all. mark zandy's matt is the one who did. this i have a few problems with he is the guy whose math the obama administration used for stimulus shovel ready stuff and they said the economy was going -- >> martha: i remember that. >> only 2.5%. didn't happen. i struggled with the math a little bit. i think what's happening is, i think we currently are at full employment.

i bet that we won't see it go down much more. but what i'm looking for in the next employment report, i want to see wage growth. that's what this is really all about. we saw wage growth in the private sector really grow last year. it was up to multidecade high. very high. i want to see that wage growth really take off in the for hourly wages it dipped a little last year. >> martha: only way to go up is people are looking around for workers and they are saying i can't find them so i'm going to have to pay people more to get them to come to work at my place. >> we are at that point right now. when you look around whether it's the local bank. >> martha: which is great for people. >> it's fantastic. you are already seeing people having pricing power when they go for the jobs. that's the reason why you are seeing people give out these bonuses. it's not because they want to please the president. martha that's a great point. they have to entice workers. >> having a hard time finding responsible adults who will show up for work. all of a sudden those people are hard to find. there are some jobs that are

en. unfortunately though that i don't think are getting filled. that's a lot of the tech jobs that we don't have the right people for. that's what's left open. and i think that's a bigger problem. i don't know that we necessarily have the people to fill those. >> martha: aren't the robots going to fill those jobs. >> unfortunately. >> martha: i'm say going there jobs that can't be filled by the people available in this country. isn't that the whole. >> visa thing we have to retrain people for the high skilled jobs. robots aren't doing the high skilled jobs. people training the robots we have to train people. >> martha: what about the market? a lot of folks are saying they watched their 401(k)s, they are really happy with their investments. the naysayers out there say it can't last forever like this. >> that's tough. i do think the economy is going to expand and grow. right now we are seeing that sincerely for the first time. this isn't fake fed driven. this isn't some of the stuff we have seen in the past this is monday nest to god i have to pay my workers more. seeing it in consumer

sentiment. businesses invest. taxes are lower. this is big. the economy is going to grow. with that the stock market i think, will continue to go up. but it's pretty richly priced at this point. and the specter of inflation, i think, could be on the horizon. when i talk to ceos that are out there and buying stuff, they say they are seeing it in commodities which is bad news. they are see egg it in oil, in lumber. >> martha: even if interest rates go up a little bit. >> that's fine. >> martha: obama administration they were scraping at the bottom. >> that's true. >> martha: going as far as they possibly okay. >> that's true. that cost of input. that's where it starts to come in. when you see it coming n oil and that sort of thing. that's where -- i mean, some inflation is good. we need that we haven't had that we need wage inflation. you don't want to see it percolate too quickly. i don't think the point behind this whole oh no unemployment may fall so low and that sounds goods. it's actually a trap where they are saying to you something bad is coming. and i don't think something bad is coming. >> martha: i think people know how much money is in their wallet and know what

they are getting paid at work. >> people got paid more today. it was the big day when paycheck went up. if you haven't looked at your pay stub yet. >> martha: look at your pay stub. good job, i'm going to look. thank you, melissa. great to see you. >> absolutely. >> martha: coming up next, a chilling new warning from a former defense secretary saying president trump's war of words with north korea could put tens of thousands of americans, he believes, at risk. former ambassador john bolton wants to weigh in on that theory coming up next. plus, new yoments at the gymnastics scandal. bombshell report allegedly provides proof officials failed to act when they were presented with evidence years ago. >> i want to continue this fight and make sure that, you know, change keeps happening and keeps going in the right direction. it keeps the momentum going. ♪ ort, with align.

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>> martha: serious new questions tonight for the u.s. olympic committee. a bombshell report in the "wall street journal" suggests that officials were made aware of abuse allegations against former u.s. ga gym that the gymnastics. he continued to see and abuse more people during that time after those allegations came to light. just yesterday, we spoke specifically to three of the gymnasts who were sexually abused and one suggested that there are still major problems that need to be investigated. >> did bella and marta can a rollie know what the consistent consisted of? >> in my opinion, they had to know. they have known about -- i know that they knew about sexual abuse dating back from the 70's not just from larry nasir but other

coaches. >> there were other coaches abusing people. >> yeah there are other coaches abusing athletes. >> martha: reiterated that an investigation has been launched into nassar's abuse and there is much more, obviously that needs to be investigated there also tonight, just a week to go before the start of the 2018 winter games. now more than a dozen russian athletes that were deemed as dopers might be able to get a last-minute pass to compete. trace gallagher live in our west coast newsroom with the story. we all remember how crazy this whole thing was when it came out. now there is a chance they might go, trace. >> yeah, yeah. when it comes to international sporting events, martha, the court of arbitration for sports or cea based in switzerland is the highest authority. not only did cas overturn the doping bans for the 11 you mentioned but 17 other russian athletes it also reinstated their results from the 2014 winter olympics in sochi. meaning if they won a medal

back then, they get the medal back. in its ruling the cas says the evidence against the russian athletes was quote insufficient. yet the evidence of doping coverup was overwhelming. former doping official turned whistleblower detailed the elaborate plot during the sochi olympics to swap out dirty urine for clean urine. first russia ordered athletes to collect clean urine and store it in coke bottles and baby bottles inside a secret freezer. then russian officials figured out who r. how to remove the caps from tamper-proof testing bottles without leaving marks or scratches. finally at night the dirty samples were swapsd with clean samples through a mouse hole in a wall that was connected to a room with the secret substantial of clean urine. the lawyer for the russian whistleblower who is now in witness protection here in the u.s. says, quote, the cas decision only emboldens cheaters, makes it harder for clean athletes to win and provides yet another ill gotten gain for the corrupt

russian doping system. but now the kremlin wants the international olympic committee to allow the 28 russian athletes to compete in pyeongchang. the ioc says not so fast. watch. >> this may have a serious impact on the future fight against doping. therefore, the ioc will analyze the recent decisions very carefully once they're available and consider consequences, including an appeal to the swiss federal tribunal. >> and the world anti-doping agency says it, too, may appeal the cas ruling. russia already has 169 athletes competing in south korea. but because of russia's systemic doping, they won't compete under the russian flag. instead, they will be, quote, olympic athletes from russia. >> martha: they love that they don't like that. trace, thank you very much. joined now by ambassador john bolton former ambassador to the u.n. and fox news contributor. and i think you won medals

in the luge, right? [laughter] seriously, i remember reading this report when it first came out. and the mouse hole in the side of the wall and they are stuffing the urine samples through there to swap them out. i mean, it was unbelievable story. the idea that this could be overturned by this body is, i think, shocking. >> look, i think it's an indication and your earlier story about the u.s. olympic committee that we have got serious governance problems in international sports actually in the bush 41 administration at the state department, i was in charge of our relations with the international olympic committee. and you could tell at that time during the cold war still the russian olympic team was entirely controlled by the government. unlike the united states where we have almost no government involvement, which i think is correct. they systematically use the olympics for political purposes and this doping issue is simply something that is carried on even after the soviet union collapse. i'm appalled by this result by the arbitration panel.

i think the international olympic committee is correct not to simply bend over to it. but, honestly, they made a mistake in allowing any russian athletes to compete. if you think the state itself in russia is responsible for the doping policy, you have to send a clear sthal. you don't allow any individuals to compete. >> martha: that's a great point. if they know they are going to compete under this neutral flag and the russian flag won't go up. the anthem won't go up and obviously an embarrassment in their pride but you make an excellent point. >> maybe they can join the joint korean team. [laughter] >> martha: in terms of another story that i want to talk to you, about chuck hagel the former defense secretary under president obama is speaking out. we haven't heard from him in a long time. now is he speaking out about president trump's stance on the north korea situation. watch. >> if you get into an all-out war, if that's where this president wants to go, or others want to go, eventually can the united states win that war?

but i would ask this question. what is winning? there would be literally millions of people dead in south korea. it would be tens of thousands of americans dead. >> martha: in the obama administration and now he is warning the trump administration about how they are handling this. your thoughts? >> well, it's interesting fiction on his part. look, nobody wants military hostilities on the korean peninsula. the question that chuck hagel did not address is how many dead americans are you willing to tolerate if north korea gets nuclear weapons and even worse if it sells them to other rogue states around the world? the choice that the administration is likely to face is not between the world as it is today versus the world after a preemptive strike against north korea's nuclear program. but the difference between that and north korea, this regime, the world's only hereditary communist dictatorship with deliverable nuclear weapons

there are military options. i'm not saying this is pleasant. but the due bills are coming due. and if chuck hagel is willing to say i can live with a nuclear north korea, that's the choice he's making. i'm not willing to live with a nuclear north korea. >> martha: it sounds like that is a choice he is making. he is encouraging. he said we should get busy and start following what the south koreans are doing and find openings with the north. you also say the mistakes that were made during the obama administration in terms of intelligence and what they knew about the program, the nuclear program set us back. >> look, i think they politicize the intelligence because they didn't want any bad news. so when the trump administration came, in conveniently it became their problem. this is. >> martha: didn't president obama warn that that was the biggest problem out there to trump. >> he was following a doctrine called strategic patience which is a synonym for doing nothing. the fact is this regime has oppressed its people, king jong un has killed his relatives and colleagues by using chemical weapons, by

unleashing feral hogs against them. unleashing military to shred the bodies. nobody in the world said that doesn't sound like the kim jong un we know. this is a dangerous regime. if you don't like the way it behaves now, just imagine the way it will behave with nuclear weapons. >> martha: i think of otto warmbier's family during the state of the union and that brave man with his crutch. you could see what he described all over his face. ambassador bolton, thank you for being here tonight. >> good to see you. >> martha: trump trauma is what my next guest calls the media's visceral and tribal coverage of president trump. fox news media analyst howie kurtz here with his explosive new book to describe what do you mean by those labels after this. >> no politician in history, and i say this with great purity, has been treated worse or more unfairly. ♪

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>> donald trump is the most deviant man ever to live in the white house. >> he is unhinged. it's embarrassing. >> i can't pretend and sort of try to cover this fairly. >> martha: there is no shortage of hostility towards president trump in the media. fox news howie kurtz says it

is at unprecedented level in terms of coverage of white houses and he writes about it in his new book "media madness" which is tearing up the charts howie kurtz is here host of media buzz. good to see you, howy. >> good to see you, martha. >> martha: cover what's going on here at 30,000-foot let's be rational about the situation. how did it get so bad and why is it. >> jared kushner likes to use a line he makes other people unhinged. what i try to do through a lot of exclusive reporting trump trauma. journalists who privately disparage the president both in private conversations and on twitter and unprecedented barrage in tone and volume of negative coverage. we have never seen anything like it. and we have had some news in the news business. some of that is driven not just by ideology but cultural resentment donald trump the man and his style and of course the president fans the flames at times by disregarding aide's advice

and going after journalists by name all of which has resulted in a very dysfunctional and at times hostile relationship. >> martha: just looking at some of the folks that were this that montage, mika brzezinski and joe scarborough accused of having too cozy a ri relationship and then it went the other way. >> they were friends and joe a machined mika got rather tough on candidate trump. there was a makeup session first at mar-a-lago and then at the white house. after that scarborough criticized the new president pretty strong terms. president trump called him and said, you know, i invite you over to the white house and this is how you treat me? it's gotten very, very personal. donald trump feels betrayed. joe and mika feel like they're chronicling a president who they have serious doubts about. sometimes their language may go a little far. they acknowledge that they are supposed to be the conservative and liberal even underscores in the news business people on the right as well as the left are

very, very hostile to this president. reporters legitimate stories. look how quickly the coverage moved, martha from a fairly state of the union back to pounding russia, russia, russia. >> martha: moving on to another story that we are watching closely here, especially football fans. fofox is going to have thursday night football now. what does it mean for the company? what do you think it means for the future. >> there is no question that is a cue for fox. fox is paying more than $3 billion for those rights. that says to me that even though the ratings have been down this year. it's been a very controversial season for the nfl because of the anthem protest. it's still an incredibly lucrative franchise for the networks. it would be good for both the league and all the networks that pay all this money for the nfl if somehow we could move beyond the protest and get the protest under control and concentrate on field behavior. >> martha: speaking of on

field behavior the super bowl is coming up this weekend and interview at halftime with the president of the united states. that is not going to happen this time around. >> i am not shocked that president trump is choosing not to sit down with nbc carrying the super bowl this year. in fact, had off-the-record luncheon before the speech. he got into it with nbc's lester holt took a swipe at nbc's chuck todd who he sometimes talks to off the record. >> martha: i was there i can't confirm any of that. >> i wasn't there. i can tell you that happened. usually though super bowl with huge audience is a great platform for any president. this president talks to the press a lot despite the contentious relationship. and given his twitter megaphone doesn't actually need to do that. can he just stay home and watch football. >> martha: let's look at an interchange with lester holt that may have provoked the decision not to do. this. >> saw images of republicans burning their republican registration cards. your negatives are staggering. how much of that is self-inplaintiff'

inflicted by some of the rhetoric from the primary campaign? >> i think the president came away not pleased by that fair questions. also you know he has a thing about nbc because he worked for nbc apprentice. i made that network so much money that doesn't mean the nbc news division should go easy on him. because nbc has the super bowl this year, i think donald trump has decided to get the diet coke and the popcorn and not do the interview. >> martha: do you see any of this changing? >> people ask me that, and i would love to give optimistic answer. i thought in the beginning of the administration there might be a thou. thea. the press is so resentful this war is going to go on for a long time. >> martha: quick break and we'll be right back with more.

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what is next for him. i will sit down with trey gowdy on tuesday for an exclusive interview. his first since announcing that on cable. so that's coming up. have a good night, everybody. we will see you tomorrow. tucker carlson coming up next. ♪ ♪ >> tucker: good evening and welcome to tucker carlson tonight. we are awaiting remarks from president trump is he at the winter meeting of the republican national committee. the president is scheduled to start speaking 8:10 tonight from the trump hotel in washington, d.c. you are looking at pictures of it right there. of course, we will take you live when he does. but, first, washington has been in near limbo all day. mesmerized by the promise that the now famous house intelligence committee memo will be released at any moment. any second. we don't know when it turns out. at this point all we know for certain about the memo is that it's four pages long. it was compiled by intel committee chairman devin nunes and as of tonight remains classified and