MARTHA MACCALLUM: So the White House pushing back hard against the latest leak, a copy of the president's personal schedule which led to a lot of questions over the weekend over what the president is doing during his, quote, “executive time.” Here now, Howie Kurtz host of MediaBuzz. Howie, good to see you tonight. Thank you for being here.
HOWARD KURTZ: Same here.
MACCALLUM: I saw this when it came through yesterday morning, and I thought it was interesting, the way the story defines “Executive time.” Let's put that up on the screen, so everybody can see it. This is what is going on during “executive time.”
Instead, he spends his morning in the residence, watching TV, reading the papers, responding to what he sees and reads by phoning aides, members of Congress, friends, administration officials and informal advisers. What does that sound like to you?
KURTZ: Well, first of all, it sounds like a heat-seeking missile of a leak by somebody on the White House payroll who clearly doesn't like the boss, because this is solely designed to embarrass Donald Trump, to play into the narrative of his detractors that he is lazy, that he doesn't like briefings, that he watches too much TV, and that he plays golf and all of that.
To me, and to the average American, I think, like -- basically, who cares how he runs his schedule, as long as he gets things done?
Nicole Wallace, the Bush White House aide who hosts a show on MSNBC says “Ah, the secret is out. Trump doesn't do much of anything,” but at the same time, the president's detractors saying he is wreaking havoc on America with his terrible agenda, and threatening world civilization. You can't have it both ways.
MACCALLUM: Yeah, what -- what kind of struck me, when I read it, is that it sounds a lot like work. I mean, he's reading the papers. He does watch a lot of television. He admits that.
KURTZ: Yeah, maybe too much.
MACCALLUM: He watches tons of news, he watches probably almost every cable channel during the day and can you can, you know, make whatever you want of that.
