'Media Buzz' on ISIS-K threats, ongoing Afghanistan evacuations

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Media holding Biden accountable

Bombing dramatizes deteriorating Afghan situation

This is a rush transcript from "Media Buzz," August 29, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS HOST: Fox News alert, Fox News confirming a new U.S. Military strike in Kabul today. Joining us now from the Pentagon with the latest details and reflections on covering the war during this chaotic week is Jennifer Griffin, Fox's national security correspondent. Jen, what's the latest on this new strike?

JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Howie. Well, here's what we know. The U.S. Military carried an unmanned drone strike against a vehicle filled with explosives that it says post an imminent threat to the Kabul International Airport. U.S. Military officials tell us that it was a, quote, "defensive strike" on a vehicle in Kabul to eliminate an imminent ISIS-K threat.

CENTCOM spokesman Captain Bill Urban adds that there were significant secondary explosions from the vehicle which indicated a presence of a substantial amount of explosives. This official says there were no indications of civilian casualties at this time but that assessment could change, we're told.

The airstrike took place in a crowded Kabul neighborhood outside the airport. We're told the U.S. Military used this over-the-horizon capability and unmanned drone which means that the drone likely flew from a military base in Arabian Gulf like the one on Friday which struck the targets in Eastern Afghanistan which the Pentagon told us yesterday were ISIS-K planners.

I think it's notable that the timing of this military strike, it was just as the president, chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with those families of the fallen at Dover Air Force Base.

We're getting more details but right now we can confirm it was a drone strike in that Kabul neighborhood and the threat was imminent.

KURTZ (on camera): Right. The early reports were just that there was an explosion near the airport. We didn't know what side it came from. So thank you for clarifying that.

And let's talk a little bit about your role at the Pentagon this week. I want to play some sound from one of the many briefings where you've asked questions, this one with Defense Department spokesman John Kirby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN (on camera): John, how can you say with such certainty and how can General McKenzie say with such certainty that the Taliban were not involved in the suicide bombing?

JOHN KIRBY, PRESS SECRETARY FOR THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, ASSISTANT TO THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Actually, I didn't hear General McKenzie put it that way, Jen. The question asked, was there a failure, and the general said, of course, there was a failure somewhere, obviously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ (on camera): When generals and top Pentagon officials are at the podium making statements, say, earlier in the week saying everything was going according to plan, how challenging is it for you to stand up and say, well, that doesn't match the facts as you're reporting them or the facts on the ground?

GRIFFIN: Well, it's not challenging for me to ask questions when they're at the podium. It's not challenging because for us too because this is a story that we have been covering -- I've been covering for more than 20 years. But certainly, since U.S. forces went in 20 years ago, we've been covering this story almost daily since then.

And so we have the context to challenge the Pentagon whether they're generals or spokespeople or defense secretary standing at the podium because we know what is actually happening on the ground. We have good sources after 20 years of covering this conflict. So asking the questions and demanding answers and listening to what they're saying and then asking for clarification, not difficult.

What is difficult is trying to get at ground truth in real-time and what has been so very difficult this week, I think, is for us to explain and even for the Pentagon to explain the very complicated relationship that they have had to work out with the Taliban in real-time as they had to retake that airport, control the airport, and get 117,000 Afghans evacuated and Americans evacuated in the last two weeks.

KURTZ: Right.

GRIFFIN: It truly -- those relationships and how they are actually depending on the Taliban for security and at checkpoints outside the airport, that is really difficult for us to explain to our audience.

KURTZ: There is no substitute for having been to Afghanistan so many times as you have since 1993. Now, you said this week that it's a national shame that the U.S. will be leaving after the August 31st deadline, so many Afghan nationals behind who helped our war effort over 20 years. Talk a little bit more about that if you would.

GRIFFIN: Well, as you mentioned, I started going to Afghanistan in 1993 when I was based in Islamabad. My husband was the AP bureau chief in Islamabad. So we watched as the Taliban were formed in 1994-'95 timeframe. We know what it was like during the Civil War when the Mujahideen were firing rockets to each other after the Soviets pulled out. We know what happens when there are vacuums in a place like Afghanistan.

And so what's been very challenging this week is to hear the president say that we have no national interest in Afghanistan when we know after watching this for so long, after reading the intelligence reports and hearing report upon report about the remaining ISIS threat, the remaining al-Qaeda threat in Afghanistan, and how leaving a failed state and that's what it is, there's no government in Kabul right now, despite the Taliban purportedly being in charge.

We know what happens when you're in a region where -- leaving no government is going to leave a vacuum and terrorist groups are going to take advantage of that. And so you heard Leon Panetta this week, the former defense secretary says --

KURTZ: Right.

GRIFFIN: -- he thinks the U.S. will have to go back in. But again, from my perch having been going there since 1993, it is really -- it's very upsetting also to think of all of the American allies that we will be leaving behind.

KURTZ: And on that point, let me just jump in because our time is short, because you have gotten to know so many military people and soldiers and commanders over the years, when there is something like a suicide bombing at the airport, when you hear about the casualties, is it hard for you to put your emotions aside when you have to be on the air live reporting, sometimes tragic details?

GRIFFIN: There's no doubt that that is the hardest part of the job, the emotions keeping them in check and staying focused to ask the tough questions of the Pentagon when you know that there are individuals who have lost loved ones, colleagues. It is -- there is -- this has been one of the most challenging two weeks of reporting of my life.

KURTZ: Yeah. I didn't want to lose the human dimension. Glad you're there working, looks like seven days a week. Jennifer Griffin, thanks very much for joining us from the Pentagon.

GRIFFIN: Thank you, Howie.

KURTZ: And this is a Fox News alert. Hurricane Ida is on the verge of making landfall in the Gulf Coast having strengthened overnight. Winds are reaching 150 miles an hour. Let us get the latest from Rick Reichmuth at the weather center. Rick?

RICK REICHMUTH, FOX NEWS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, we've got the center eye wall about to move on shore across parts of Southeastern Louisiana. This is a visible satellite. So this is what a satellite looks down and actually sees. Just take a look at this. This is the eye, that center of the storm continuing to pull up towards the northwest, and right there is a place called Port Fourchon, and that's where a lot of our oil that we consume in this country, all of that goes through that spot.

There have been a lot of reinforcements that have gone through there in the last couple of years in order to prepare for hurricane but (INAUDIBLE) hurricane is going to really test that system as well as all the levy system that we have that's been reinforced since Hurricane Katrina, 16 years ago today, across New Orleans area.

Grand Isle is a town of about 700 people. There is going to be massive storm surge. Nothing I don't think will really survive through that area as the storm of this strength makes landfall.

Now, pressure has come up just a little bit. That means I think that period that we saw this morning, a really rapid strengthening probably over, doesn't really matter. We're about to lose any water source port to strengthen anymore as well.

Because the storm is coming on shore as such a strong storm, it is going to take a long time for that wind to really wind down. Because the hurricane warnings are in effect far inland from the storm, we're going to be seeing hurricane conditions this afternoon in places like Baton Rouge. We will definitely see hurricane wind in New Orleans. It is going to cause some very significant damage.

And here you go. This is the latest on the radar, those bands up to the north of that are going to potentially have tornadoes that are going to be embedded in them. So that is going to be one of our stories. And this storm is starting to slow down in its forward progression, expected to slow down quite a bit.

So this is right now. This is this later this evening. That's tomorrow morning. That slow movement means the rainfall that we see from this is going to really pile up. We're going to be seeing some spots here, maybe up towards 20 inches of rain. That's maybe around New Orleans which that kind of rain has to be pumped out of that and eventually we see that rain across parts of the northeast.

Take a look, real quick here, where you see that pink. That is guaranteed that we're going to be seeing very significant flooding. Pretty much the entire state of Mississippi, parts of Tennessee and in towards Kentucky also in the next couple of days have a very significant chance of very dangerous flooding. So while we have the storm making landfall now, get ready because inland impacts from the storm are also going to be very significant.

KURTZ: Yeah. Flooding was the problem after Katrina. Rick, thanks very much. More on the monster storm this hour. When we come back, a hard look at the coverage of President Biden and the chaos in Afghanistan. And later, we will talk to Glenn Greenwald and Peter Doocy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ (on camera): Fox News alert, Hurricane Ida looking to make landfall this hour as we just heard. Louisiana is directly in the path of this massive storm. Winds are 150 miles an hour right now, Category 4. National Weather Service says this is a life-threatening storm with storm surges topping 16 feet. That's the forecast.

After the devastating suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, it's clear the media's aggressive, even confrontational coverage in challenging President Biden and his team is absolutely justified. The attack that claimed the lives of 13 American service members followed an extraordinary period of highly critical reporting and analysis. In fact, "National Review" is calling it the media's finest hour.

But I disagree with the conservative magazine. No awards need to be given out here. The press is simply doing its job, challenging the administration's rosy assessments in the face of facts on the ground, violence by the Taliban, massive problems in getting Americans to the chaotic Kabul airport, and the sheer difficulty of getting Afghans who supported our war effort out of the country by the Tuesday deadline that the Taliban demanded.

Now, I get why this kind of reporting and commentary seems so sharply different after the largely positive coverage of Joe Biden's first seven months which itself was a dramatic contrast with the four-year war between Donald Trump and the media. After one of Biden's televised speeches, NBC's Richard Engel said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ENGEL, NBC NEWS CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: You could also look at this as a tremendously humiliating moment of American humiliation, leaving, forced to leave on the Taliban's clock and with the Taliban's good graces. I think history will judge this moment as a very dark period for the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ (on camera): It was a somber Joe Biden facing the press on the day of the Kabul bombings, hailing the brave service members who lost their lives and delivering a stern warning to the terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They were heroes, heroes who have been engaged in the dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others. We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ (on camera): All week while most liberal and conservative media people have been tough on this president over the Afghan disaster, some on the left started praising the evacuation efforts as a way of defending Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: When you hear people calling the evacuation from Afghanistan a debacle, ask them, compared to what? When has any country ever evacuated from a foreign war that they lost in a way that is better than what we are seeing now?

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: This entire scenario has been so fraught with lies and mishandling, misrepresentations, and as if the humiliation could not get worse, the Taliban is doing the media circuit, sounding triumphant and unmoving.

UNKNOWN: I think the narrative will be, well, he only got 100,000 out. That's a failure. I don't know if there's anything that Biden could do other than promise to leave troops in there for another 20 years in order to satisfy some folks.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Your commander-in-chief has now humiliated this entire country and is being bullied into submission by the terrorists, the Taliban.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Joining us now to analyze the coverage, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist" and a Fox News contributor, and Clarence Page, columnist for the "Chicago Tribune."

Mollie, would you agree that most of the media are being very aggressive in covering President Biden's mistakes and missteps and setbacks in Afghanistan and in challenging the official spin that everything is going according to plan?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR AT THE FEDERALIST, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR, SENIOR JOURNALISM FELLOW AT HILLSDALE COLLEGE: I think you made the great comparison that it only looks tough compared to how the effusive their praise has been of Biden during the previous seven months of his presidency or during the campaign.

It's probably better to compare it to what they were like during the Trump administration which we all witnessed day in and day out for four years. It has become a cliche to talk about those comparisons. But after the media fueled an impeachment effort over President Trump because of a phone call, I don't think you can really say that they're being particularly harsh.

Imagine if President Trump had lost more than a dozen service members, billions of dollars of equipment, was leaving hundreds if not thousands of Americans stranded, the media would be apoplectic.

I think that they're more concerned about what we just heard in the first segment, too, a fundamental disagreement with President Biden over departing Afghanistan rather than the incompetence of the withdrawal.

And so you're seeing a lot of frustration and highlighting of voices that want to continue the war in Afghanistan as opposed to what, I think, the American people are concerned about, which is the utter fatal incompetence of how this evacuation and departure from Afghanistan has been handled.

KURTZ: Clarence, as I said, I don't think the media need to get a standing ovation for doing their jobs and covering what a disaster this has been, but what do you think of Mollie's assessment that the coverage has not been particularly harsh towards the commander-in-chief?

CLARENCE PAGE, COLUMNIST, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Well, I think after the first day, the coverage wasn't as harsh because the news wasn't as harsh. The evacuation, thousands of people exceeded expectations that we heard as far as the grim expectations initially of how many would be able to be evacuated.

And more so, Howard, I'm reminded of the old saying that the first casualty of war is the truth. This is another occasion very much like Vietnam where we had -- we've been fed lies throughout the war.

Robert Kagan, the historian, has an excellent piece in "The Washington Post" this morning about our history (INAUDIBLE). And here, we see it happening again.

I hope after this war -- right now, Biden is taking the fall because it's on his watch that we are leaving. Very much like Gerald Ford. It was on his watch that we left Saigon.

KURTZ: Wait, you say -- let me just jump in. You say he's taking the fall because it was on his watch. That seems to suggest that he doesn't bear the responsibility for the decisions and the way he has managed this evacuation. He just happened to be there.

PAGE: The evacuation, no question about it, Howard. The evacuation has been disastrous as far as that first day. But other than that, it's been amazingly effective. We could pick apart all this and it should be picked apart in congressional hearings. But the preparation for the evacuation was not good. But that was disrupted partly by the fact that we changed presidential administrations. I could go on and on about this.

KURTZ: All right. Let me get Mollie. Let me get Mollie back in. The president looked pretty grief-stricken when he took press questions on the day of or right after the Kabul airport bombing with unfortunate casualties, including more than 100 Afghans killed.

He is also at Dover Air Base next hour. He is going to honor the fallen soldiers coming back. How did his press conference and his vow to seek retribution against the terrorists and now the two retaliatory strikes, how do you think that's playing in the press?

HEMINGWAY: I think just the entire posture of this president has been alarming, not just in the complete incompetence of the plan for the evacuation and the withdrawal. People were worried that there would be something like what happened earlier this week in the deaths of these service members and the casualties, in addition to that.

And he has not seemed to take it particularly seriously, even the day that that happened. It was a long delay before he addressed people. He seemed tired and not particularly focused on the matter at hand. And the media also didn't seem to be -- they seemed to be taken aback by his posture. One of the people in that press conference actually complimented the president before he asked a question.

This is really serious and it's not just about the need for congressional hearings. We already know who is responsible. We already know that Mark Milley was responsible. He already should have been fired. And the lack of accountability when we already know who has been in command of this disaster is alarming to America and her allies.

KURTZ: Clarence, do you think the media have conflated two things? One is the decision to withdraw, which happens to be popular with the American people, more than 70 percent have favored getting out, indeed Donald Trump set in motion the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the details, the execution, clearly the mistakes and miscalculations and the botching of the execution of getting Americans out and with this deadline approaching now in just two days.

PAGE: Well, the botching of execution, like I said before, there's no question that there was lack of preparation there but also a lack of intelligence. Who expected the Afghan government to collapse immediately? A lot of people did. But we heard from after the fact that there were many intelligence reports coming in. That's why I say we need hearings to sort all this out.

But the fact is that the -- because of corruption, for one thing, the Afghan allies who were prepared to turn things over to, they crumbled.

KURTZ: Yeah, they absolutely crumbled. There is a question -- I'm sorry, I'm sorry to talk over you, but I got to get a break. There is a question about how quickly that would have happened. Some people thought months. It ended up being 11 days. More with the panel on the moment on Afghanistan. And then later, we will talk to Glenn Greenwald and Peter Doocy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ (on camera): There was a telling exchange this week between Fox's Peter Doocy and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: By pulling the troops before getting these Americans who are now stranded, does he have a sense of that?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: First of all, I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded.

DOOCY: There are no Americans stranded is the White House's official position on what is happening in Afghanistan right now?

PSAKI: I'm just calling you out for stating that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan when we have been very clear that we are not leaving Americans who want to return home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ (on camera): Mollie, that took place before the suicide bombing. We'll hear from Peter Doocy on it later. But do you think that Jen Psaki was making a semantic argument by, quote, "calling out" Peter Doocy for using the word stranded?

HEMINGWAY: Yeah, but it was such -- definitely she was making a semantic argument and an inappropriate one, given the reality of what we know. One of the problems facing the Biden administration right now is that their spin is contradicted by the reality on the ground.

People are actually -- reporters, lots of reporters are in Afghanistan. They know that Americans are stranded. They've talked to them. There are many other people working in private security who are trying to extricate Americans out of the country. And all of that reality makes it hard to accept the Biden administration's spin.

And accepting Biden administration spin, carrying water for the Biden administration, covering for them is what the media are normally accustomed to. It's very hard to do that when there are actual pictures showing that what they're claiming such as that this withdrawal is happening without any problems are contradicted by just gruesome, horrible visual images that's we're seeing.

KURTZ: Yeah. I mean, some Americans feel stranded. Doesn't mean the administration hasn't been trying to get them out. Clarence, there is a piece in New York magazine -- go ahead, Mollie.

HEMINGWAY: Just even the Defense Department has used the language of stranding to describe what's happening with some Americans. So it shouldn't be that controversial to admit that some Americans are currently stranded there.

KURTZ: Clarence, there's a piece in the New York magazine by a very liberal writer that says that the description of what's happening in Afghanistan as disastrous and humiliating and a fiasco comes from the mainstream's media objective foreign policy journalists.

Yet, says the magazine, this political fiasco was not a development the media covered so much as one that it created. How do you argue -- how do you blame the messengers on this for reporting some pretty awful and pretty ugly realities on the ground? How is this just media fiction?

PAGE: Well, the article cites the changing conditions after that first disastrous day that I mentioned earlier. The evacuations picked up and actually succeed so far faster than initially anticipated. Also, we're sitting here talking at a time when evacuations are continuing to go on as well as who knows what actions to go out beyond the gates of the airport and rescue people in secret military missions, which have already been conducted and expect to see more.

This story is changing even as we talk, but I think it's too soon just to bury the Biden administration entirely for a development that's still going on.

KURTZ: Well, Mollie, I understand it's certainly fair to say there have been a lot of soldiers that risked their lives and some have given their lives to help this evacuation effort. It has gotten over 110,000 people out. But to suggest that it's all media spin, it is making President Biden look bad, seems completely at odds with, as you were just saying, the pictures that we see every day and the reporting on the ground.

HEMINGWAY: It was insane thing to say when it was published. It was gruesome after the reality of the bombing that led to the deaths and casualties of so many Americans and other Afghans.

The media coverage is not the reason why things are going poorly. It's the lack of planning. And that is one issue though that I think the media could do a better job. I think they're excited that they finally are testing out a little bit of anti-Biden sentiment, but there are a lot of fathers of this failure going back decades and they need to be focused on all of them, not just Biden.

KURTZ: I agree with that. Twenty years, several administrations, and there will be more to come on that. Good to see you both, Clarence Page, Mollie Hemingway. Thanks very much for coming by this Sunday.

Next on MEDIA BUZZ, is the coverage of Afghanistan colored by pundits who favor endless war? Glenn Greenwald is on deck. And later, Peter Doocy on his contentious exchange with the president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ (on camera): A Fox News alert, Louisiana feeling hurricane force winds as Ida nears landfall.

Let's go to Jeff Paul on this 16th anniversary of hurricane Katrina. Jeff, what's it like in New Orleans right now?

JEFF PAUL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Howie, the weather here in New Orleans right near the French quarter where we are is starting to take a turn for the worse. As you can probably tell, the winds have really started to pick up as you see some of the trees out here really blowing hard as gusts move through and heavy bands of rain are starting to fall throughout this area and the areas surrounding New Orleans.

And that's a big part of the reason why people, at least when it comes to this storm, have decided to evacuate and leave and even when we were coming into town yesterday, you could see the i-10 west heading to Houston, people were jammed on that highway as they try to get out or i-10 east, trying to get away from the storm or just straight north. People are really taking this storm seriously.

As for the people who decided to stay, for whatever reason, they're really starting to kind of band together. You know, you've got restaurants that are staying open to provide shelter and food and then other people who are just checking on their neighbors and they really say this is just what Louisiana is about and they'll be there for their neighbors as Hurricane Ida gets closer and closer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOEL DILLON, HELPING NEIGHBOR WITH SANDBAGS: I think that Louisiana will be the state to stay in, if we were selfish, it's all about helping your neighbor, in my case, my immediate neighbor.

DANIELLE MITCHELL, NINE MONTHS PREGNANT RESIDENT: When you have neighbors like this, you know you're blessed, neighbors who are willing to come out and help you out even though they've got their own home to prepare for but they're looking out for one another. And that's what we do around here. So, I count myself really blessed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL (on camera): Now, there have been a lot of comparisons to hurricane Katrina which made landfall 16 years ago. But as people would say, you know, hurricane Katrina will be hurricane Katrina and this will be Ida, so we'll see what it brings.

There have been a lot of changes especially here in New Orleans, you know, the pumps have been improved, the levies have been improved. They will certainly be tested over here in the next few hours. Howie?

KURTZ: Jeff Paul, thank you very much for that report. I remember the flooding, the awful flooding in Katrina when I went there after hurricane Katrina that devastating storm. Let's turn now back to Afghanistan.

Joining us now from Rio de Janeiro, Glenn Greenwald, the Pulitzer winning journalist who now writes at Substack and is the author of the new book "Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro's Brazil."

Glenn, let me update our audience first. Just crossing the wire, a senior U.S. defense official quoted as saying that in the attack today, the U.S. missile strike on a car that the United States military believed there were suicide bombers, perhaps multiple suicide bombers in that vehicle, civilian casualties cannot be ruled out. So obviously, that is a story in progress.

Turning to the devastating suicide bombing at the Kabul airport a few days ago, you write the deep state ghouls on CNN insinuating or even stating that the Taliban wanted this attack and may have even helped launch it know they're lying, they're desperate to find a way to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan. My question, who are you talking about, how do you know they're lying and shouldn't CNN include their point of view?

GLENN GREENWALD, JOURNALIST: Yes, well, first of all, I mean, the specific segment I was referencing was when they put H.R. McMaster on, who was President Trump's national security advisor until he left with great conflict with President Trump over Trump's desire to remove troops from Syria. His desire to wind down the war in Afghanistan, his attempt to improve relations with Afghanistan.

He's the kind of person who long has been a member of the national security state that brought us 20 years of endless warfare that was not only a huge failure but based on lies, not just in Afghanistan but in Iraq and Syria, in Libya.

And the idea that it was the Taliban behind the suicide bombing attack was not only completely without evidence but contrary to what everyone from President Trump to President Biden were saying, which is that the Taliban, the last thing that they would want, is an event that that would keep the United States in Afghanistan.

They want the United States gone as quickly as possible and the group that is being blamed including by McMaster for having done the group, ISIS-K, is not league with the Taliban. Quite the contrary. They've been at war with the Taliban --

KURTZ: Right.

GREENWALD: -- since 2015, a really vicious war.

KURTZ: I think that's an important distinction.

(CROSSTALK)

GREENWALD: So, I think so often we have to realize that this kind of propaganda.

KURTZ: All right. Now you have favored getting out of Afghanistan for some years now but you say the beltway media and the corporate press are pretending to be angry about the details of the botched pullout, the evacuation but they're actually mad about something else. Explain.

GREENWALD: I do think there are people genuinely angry about how this withdrawal was effectuated while also favoring withdrawal. I also found the first segment you did with Jennifer Griffin who I respect a lot as a foreign affairs reporter, who talked about the friendships she formed and others formed when they were in Kabul with English speaking Afghans, I'm sure their emotions about their concern is very genuine.

But at the same time, we have had 20 years of war in Afghanistan that killed huge number of Afghan civilians, usually not English speaking, educated, sophisticates in Kabul who U.S. journalist befriended, but kind of unknown villagers and there was little media attention paid to that.

And I always go back, Howie, and I've talked about this even before I began appearing on your show to the 2004 article you wrote when you were the media critic for the Washington Post, the media reporter, where you detailed how at the Washington Post, the paper perceived to be liberal, they back paged or excluded any dissent from the Bush, Cheney arguments about the war in Iraq.

Why would a liberal newspaper like the Washington Post go to such lengths to help George Bush and Dick Cheney? It's because while they are liberal in many instances, their alignment in reality is to places like the CIA, to the Pentagon, they do generally support war and I think we're seeing a lot of that now. They didn't just turn on Biden out of fairness but because they really do believe in this endless U.S. war machine as a matter of ideology.

KURTZ: Well, it wasn't just the Washington Post. A lot of media organizations later did mea culpas for --

GREENWALD: Right.

KURTZ: -- aiding and abating the march to war in Iraq. Now, you say that some of these corporate media organizations are pure militarists, they revere the CIA and so forth. If you're right, how did that happen after half a century after the press was a leading platform for the anti-Vietnam war movement?

GREENWALD: So that's a really interesting and a complex question. I just want to kind of emphasize that last correction or clarification you made. You're absolutely right. You know, in 2002, 2003, Fox News obviously was in favor of the Iraq war but that didn't make a difference.

There are largely conservative viewership already supported it which sold the war where places like The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, selling the war to American liberals.

And while it's true that there was some opposition to the war in Vietnam, if you go to the Cold War, very often it was Democrats who were called warriors under Truman, under Kennedy, under LBJ, Democratic president who prosecuted the war in Korea, the war in Vietnam and outlets like The New York Times and time that worked hand in hand with the CIA and with the deep state to disseminate pro-war messaging.

So, the American left has been against the war in the '60s but I think the corporate press has often been aligned with the Democratic Party and many of them were hard core warriors of the Cold War and then also in the post- 9/11 era supportive of this endless war and we're still seeing that ideology now.

KURTZ: Yes. Well, let me just suggest to you that Fox News doesn't have one position on the war or anything else, Fox News has opinion people and it has reporters. I mean, I've got 20 seconds. By and large, you like the fact that President Biden, however messily is getting us out of Afghanistan. Just briefly.

GREENWALD: I like the fact a lot that Trump initiated the negotiation with the Taliban and wanted to get out, I like the fact that Biden did too. I think there are valid critiques about how. But in general, it's long past time to end this war that was only enriching contractors doing nothing for the American people.

KURTZ: Well, in that last point I think you have a lot of support from the American public. Glenn Greenwald, I appreciate you stopping by this Sunday. Thanks very much.

GREENWALD: Thanks, Howie.

KURTZ: After the break, Peter Doocy got the last question the other day from Joe Biden who then tried to question him. We'll look behind the scenes, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ (on camera): President Biden was winding down his news conference on the day of the ISIS bombing in Kabul when he decided to call on one more reporter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Let me take the one question from the most interesting guy that I know in the press.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Now 12 marines are dead. You said the buck stops with you. Do you bear any responsibility for the way that things have unfolded in the last two weeks?

BIDEN: I bear responsibility for fundamentally all that's happened of late. But here's the deal. You know, I wish you one day say these things, you know as well as I do that the former president made a deal with the Taliban.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ (on camera): I spoke earlier with Fox's White House correspondent Peter Doocy from the North Lawn.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KURTZ: Peter Doocy, welcome.

DOOCY: Thanks for having me.

KURTZ: Joe Biden never used to give you a question. Now it seems he can't walk away without calling on you as the most interesting guy in the press. What do you make of that?

DOOCY: Yes, I don't know who he polled before determining most interesting. But it's -- it's a thing I think that he appreciates we have an audience where there are a lot of people watching and if he thinks that not everybody watching understands his policies the way that he wants them to, I think that he sees Q&A's as one way to get the word out, directly, you know, to kind of use the questions to answer our crowd directly.

KURTZ: At that news conference you asked him quite respectfully I thought whether he takes responsibility for the awful events of the last two weeks. Why did you frame it that way?

DOOCY: I think that after several hours of this heart-breaking coverage, that was the thing I was most curious about. We've heard him talk for many years about all of his foreign policy experience. This is his first real foreign policy crisis. And I was just curious what exactly it felt like in that moment, hours after it as the sad news was still coming in.

KURTZ: Yes. Well, I think you made some news when Biden essentially said yes, I do take responsibility but in the process of that exchange, President Biden asked you a question about President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: He was given the commitment that the Taliban would continue to attack others but would not attack any American forces. Remember that? I'm being serious.

DOOCY: Mr. President --

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: No, I'm asking you a question. Because before I --

(OFF-MIC)

BIDEN: No, no, no, wait a minute. I'm asking you a question. Is that accurate, to the best of your knowledge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ (on camera): What was in your mind as he tried to turn it back on you and repeatedly pressed you to answer his question?

DOOCY: Well, I usually go into those presidential press conferences or a Jen Psaki press conference with notes just in case I am challenged on the premise of a question which happens sometimes. But that is the first time that the president has asked me about something and I did not have the Trump agreement and the most current agreement, whatever it is, with the Taliban in-hand.

But I understood the point that he was trying to make and that's why my answer was very short. And it is interesting few hours after that happened somebody in the press corps came up to me in the briefing room and said it's about time that Peter Doocy took questions from the president. We've been waiting for that.

KURTZ: But were you also weary of being drawn into answering his question because then it looks like you're debating him as opposed to questioning him?

DOOCY: Yes. And I was not there to debate him. It was a horrible day. Everybody that was on the complex had the same feeling that it's heart- breaking. You could tell that the president was as somber as we have ever seen him. And so, that was not -- I was not there trying to debate him. I was just trying to --

KURTZ: Right.

DOOCY: -- kind of get to -- to get into his head.

KURTZ: Right. Now you got into it several days this week with Jen Psaki when you asked a question about whether some of the remaining Americans in Afghanistan could feel stranded. She said that was irresponsible of you to ask that question. Were you trying to be provocative or were you surprised by the intensity of her reaction?

DOOCY: No, they're very careful about language here. I know that stranded, whether people are stranded behind enemy lines became a story line but my question was actually just about whether or not the president essentially regretted pulling troops out before getting all these Americans evacuated.

And I used the word stranded, it is a word that many other news outlets have used in headlines, --

KURTZ: Yes.

DOOCY: -- in descriptions, in photo captions. It wasn't something that I just pulled up out of thin air, trying to be provocative but that was what she wanted to hone in on. Her answer eventually was to -- for anybody in the press room who was concerned about somebody, a U.S. citizen who might be stranded just to reach out directly to the White House and so they moved on from whether or not people are stranded or not after two days.

KURTZ: Just briefly, the White House very rarely puts top officials on Fox News Channel. I asked many times. Do you think there's been an evolution of your relationship with the president and the Biden White House?

DOOCY: I'm not sure. I know that I have not been a White House correspondent for very long but I have been on the Biden beat now for two and-a-half years. And so, I think the combination of a familiar face with somebody who is just kind of tall with crazy hair standing in the back that's easy for him to spot at some of these events might help the most and he always is very generous with his time with Fox.

KURTZ: Being tall is a journalistic advantage. Peter Doocy, thanks very much for joining us.

DOOCY: Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KURTZ: Next, we'll check in with the Fox weather team in Louisiana with the latest on the extremely dangerous Hurricane Ida.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ (on camera): This is a Fox News alert. The outer bands of Hurricane Ida are pummeling Louisiana. Our Fox weather correspondent Steve Bender is in Lafayette, Louisiana with the latest on this category four storm. Steve?

STEVE BENDER, FOX WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Howie, you just said it correctly, those outer bands are now starting to hit Louisiana, that including us in Lafayette. It's been quiet most of the morning. We woke up with some blue skies. But now we are seeing those outer bands come in and with it the rain.

I want you to notice behind he me, the road is wet. We're starting to see that rain move in. But if you look across the street, that's where you'll notice businesses are not only closed today on a Sunday, but quite a few have decided to also board those windows.

That is the main threat for us here in Lafayette. We could see wind gusts anywhere from 70 to 80 miles per hour later this afternoon with that steady burst of rain getting anywhere from six to eight inches. And that could lead to some flash flooding on some of the roads.

Now, the worst hit area is going to be coastal Louisiana and also coastal portions of Mississippi like Gulfport and Bay St. Louis. They're already seeing storm surge in Saint Bernard Parish that is going over top of the levee there in (Inaudible).

And that is the concern for coastal Louisiana is this rain that's moving in. There are what we called the dirty side of the storm. Whenever you're looking at the northeastern quadrant, that is the strongest wind impact. And that wind is coming in from the south to the north and that's going to pull in that gulf moisture, force those waves potentially up against those levies.

And this is once again going to be a true test for those newly established levies in New Orleans. They spent $16 billion on this. This is a strong storm that's coming in and right now we're seeing those outer bands hit the coastal part of Louisiana. Reporting from Lafayette, Howie, we send it back to you.

KURTZ: One more question for you, Steve. Given the legacy, 16 years ago today of Hurricane Katrina, is there concern about flooding in these low- lying areas where it's sometimes the aftermath of the hurricane that is the most devastating.

BENDER: Howie, definitely some concern because when you add that the storm surge could get up to 16 feet in some of those coastal areas, but then it's also the rainfall, whenever this makes landfall a lot of times the storms stall and then we could see those dynamic thunderstorms, heavy downburst of rain meet along with those storm surge and that's when that flooding can really start to take hold in those low-lying areas, something we will be watching through the afternoon and evening here in Louisiana.

KURTZ: Steve Bender, thanks very much. Steve getting wet for us there in Louisiana. We hope for the best in terms of the storm and the aftermath.

Well that's it for this edition of MEDIA BUZZ on an extremely busy news day. I'm Howard Kurtz. We had to deal with the latest U.S. retaliatory strike in Kabul, we also had to deal with the approach of Hurricane Ida. So, we were tearing up the show right up until air time and even while we were on the air. That's what you do in live television.

Hope you'll follow us on Facebook and Twitter and check out my podcast, Media Buzz Meter. Glad to have you along for the ride. We'll cover these breaking stories all day long here on Fox. Back here next Sunday with the latest buzz.

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