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Published January 23, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," February 5, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST, "THE KELLY FILE": Breaking tonight. Four days out from the first in the nation primary, and suddenly the political pros say they are seeing some big changes in New Hampshire.
Welcome to THE KELLY FILE, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. Just a few others ago, The Boston Globe dropped the latest in the series of late breaking of polls, showing a changing race. While frontrunner Donald Trump is holding steady in the lead in New Hampshire, Senator Marco Rubio and his rivals are closing the gap. Rubio surging nine points in the Globe survey. This poll from NBC tells the same story with Trump holding at 30 percent, and Rubio again making a move. A poll from New Hampshire TV station WMUR sees the same trend as the sentiments in the Granite State seem to be getting pushed by the political winds from Iowa.
Tonight, we have Chris Stirewalt and Rich Lowery here to breakdown the data. But we begin with campaign Carl Cameron out on the trail live in Manchester, New Hampshire. Carl?
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Megyn. Well, a big storm hit this morning, so a lot of the candidates were stranded, particularly Donald Trump who wasn't able to fly his plane to New Hampshire. Though he did make it to South Carolina today. And though there's a tremendous amount of buzz about Marco Rubio and the tight race in the double digits with Ted Cruz to sort of try to catch-up to Donald Trump. We saw something we haven't seen in the longtime today and that was Jeb Bush actually getting a lot of the news coverage. He was out campaigning with his mother, Barbara Bush was with him. And today, Jeb Bush really went after Donald Trump harsher than he has the entirety of the campaign and he went after one of Donald Trump's sensitive issues, his bankruptcy and his finances. It was a busy campaign day for Bush and throwing down this gauntlet in-front of Trump is sure to get a reaction. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Didn't go bank result once, didn't go bankrupt twice, didn't go bankrupt three times or four times like some guy that's running for president.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
And if I did go bankrupt, I wouldn't be bragging about it by the way, saying I just manipulated the system. What about the people by the way that lost their jobs, how do they feel about that? What about the vendors that got totally screwed?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON: Equally aggressive at the campaign trail, but aimed in a different direction was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie was going after Marco Rubio, promising himself to focus on experience as the key thing to be commander-in-chief, and suggesting that Rubio does not have anywhere near enough. Rubio for his part was focused more on Ted Cruz, and making reference to allegations that Cruz campaigned in Iowa, said that Carson had dropped out of the race and was going home. This is how he sort of took a shot at Cruz. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: By the way, if you get a call on Tuesday night saying that I dropped out, it isn't true, it's a lie. Keep voting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON: Well, that's exactly what Carson has to say and the allegation that Cruz was behind it. Ted Cruz had one event tonight. It was basic, standard stuff. Not a lot of attacks on his rivals. He knows that New Hampshire is going to be tough to duplicate his Iowa win, particularly with Trump as far ahead as he is and with all guys looking at Rubio who's clearly got some momentum -- Megyn.
KELLY: Carl, you've been covering New Hampshire forever. What say you about the volatility of these voters and the likelihood of six months of polling putting Donald Trump way ahead being wrong?
CAMERON: Well, I don't think he's ahead as much as the polls say. New Hampshire polls always tighten and we won't see polls on Monday or Tuesday and generally speaking, things get even tighter then. Usually it's very, very close at the end. There's no question that Marco and Cruz are in a very tight race. New Hampshire voters are also very important to watch for the Independents and most die-hard Republicans are going to have a very hard time accepting a candidate who has campaigned in New Hampshire as little as Donald Trump has compared to everybody else.
This is the 100 year anniversary of the New Hampshire primary. They don't want it to be his last. The Republican Party is talking about making changes to the first of the nation's state. And the word around here as advanced by most of the Republican candidate who aren't Trump, is that a vote for Trump could hurt the primary.
KELLY: Fascinating. Carl, thank you.
Joining me now with more, Chris Stirewalt, our FOX News digital politics editor and Rich Lowry who is editor at National Review and a FOX News contributor. Great to see you both.
RICH LOWRY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Megyn.
KELLY: So, Stirewalt, you know, we asked the guy -- what do you think, you know, before the come on? And this is Stirewalt's first line, we knew the Iowa result would change the race, but Whoa Nellie! Explain "Whoa Nellie."
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: That was just between us. That was just a Whoa Nellie just between us.
KELLY: You would never speak of it because we're on the air.
STIREWALT: I wouldn't -- publicly Whoa Nellie yet. That's a big pressure, Whoa Nellie is a huge --
KELLY: Why are you saying that, because of Rubio doing that? I mean, you know, he's like doing that but he's not like -- he's not at the top.
STIREWALT: No, he's not at the top. But look, this is now a three-man race. This has changed nationally. We have a Quinnipiac poll that was out this morning, that looks at the national scene. Ben Carson, who is on a trajectory to get more clean clothes. We have everybody else, no one is over three percent. So now you have the grouping of three candidates who are really in this thing, and that is Rubio, Cruz, and trump. And then everybody else is heading towards the exits. Yes, they're going to do last stands in New Hampshire. But you can see how Iowa changed the race. You can see Republicans consolidating and picking their lanes. And now it's New Hampshire where Trump obviously has a structural advantage because Independents can vote in the Republican primary that includes left leaning Independents who are choosing between him and Bernie Sanders. It's going to be different here. But the national landscape is hugely changing.
KELLY: All right. So you say, those three guys are Whoa Nellie, and like those others -- like Carson it's more like, giddy up, Nellie. Come on!
STIREWALT: No, Nellie.
KELLY: You can do it, Nellie. All right. Rich, how do you see it?
LOWRY: Note to self, I got to work some Whoa Nellies into my notes here, producers clearly. Well, look, it's amazing that Marco Rubio has been able to play a third place finish in Iowa into a surge in New Hampshire. And he has now an enormous target on his back. You see Jeb Bush and Chris Christie going after him hammering -- Rubio. In fact may need secret service protection from Chris Christie. If Christie stays this aggressive as he is. And we'll see. Now Rubio, ten points back, several days out, not so bad. If he's further back, it's still a big gap to make up. But we have a debate that's going to set the narrative for the final days.
KELLY: All right.
LOWRY: The dynamic for the final days just the way it did in Iowa.
KELLY: All right. ABC News has got the debate, final debate before New Hampshire tomorrow night. I want to ask you this, Chris. Because you've been saying all along, Donald Trump played his second place finish in Iowa pretty well in the first 24 hours and then you didn't like the fact that he tried to complain. But then it's like he heard you. Because then started to sort of get his messaging back in line and continued to say, like, I did very well in Iowa and forward we go to New Hampshire. And then there was this today that he said in South Carolina. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I got, other than the one, who was a double candidate, you know, it's two candidates for one, I got the largest vote outside of the one candidate. So the person that came in third, they said, unbelievable result! Unbelievable. This is a huge victory. But I came in second and they said, Trump didn't do so well. But you see, I don't think I did come in second. I think I came in first, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STIREWALT: Well, that's a way to look at it. I came in first other than another person --
(CROSSTALK)
I came in first other than another person is a way to go. OK. He also had a double "s" word situation, and I don't mean South Carolina as he was campaigning today.
KELLY: That's bad in a state that has 54 percent evangelicals?
STIREWALT: They don't dig it. So that's for home, that's not for the rally. The deal is, there seems to be restraint. There's restraint for a period of time, and then the turkey, that little doneness thing on the side of the turkey pops, he goes off, he lets go. He has to get up to New Hampshire. He's canceled a rally to New Hampshire today. He's got to get to New Hampshire pronto. He's got to get up here --
KELLY: He's going.
STIREWALT: -- and he's got to make a plea to these voters -- and beg, beg, beg.
KELLY: I want to -- on this Rich Lowry. Jeb Bush, speaking of Whoa Nellie, and that was a new looking and sounding Jeb Bush today.
LOWRY: Yes, that's an avenue of attack we really haven't heard very much against Donald Trump, hitting on his business record and I'm sure we'll hear more about that in the debate Saturday night. But Jeb is in a potentially existential situation here along with Christie and Kasich. If they fall pretty far behind Marco Rubio, it's going to be hard to come up with a rational for going forward. So, if he's going to get a tigerness (ph) tank, he needs to do it right now.
KELLY: Existential situation. Great to see you both. That was entertaining.
STIREWALT: You bet.
KELLY: So, with the race suddenly shifting, what should we expect when the votes are actually cast? You heard campaign Carl Cameron's take. And Dr. Charles Krauthammer is next with his prediction for New Hampshire.
Plus, after some very powerful Democrats watched last night's showdown between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, one of them made a dramatic show of concern and Ed Henry is here with the breaking news on that.
Plus, Brian Kilmeade joins us with a sneak peek of the ads you must see on Super Bowl Sunday.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Get out on Monday caucus. I think the storm is going to be on Tuesday, I hope. And you know what, supposing it's on Monday, so you go through some snow, OK. You're from Iowa. Are you afraid of snow? Are you afraid of snow?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Back now to our top story and that Donald Trump comment came just a week ago when he was encouraging Iowa residents to brave a coming snowstorm in order to vote. But Trump is the one now facing a blizzard of criticism, thank you. After earlier going on twitter to announce, quote, "Big storm in New Hampshire, move my event to Monday. We'll be there next four days." A spokesman for Ted Cruz immediately reacted saying, quote, "Everyone like to go home at night but those who don't show a commitment to winning will lose."
The Bush camp then joined in saying, quote, "Donald's need to tweet in his slippers every night in Manhattan demonstrates a lack of commitment to earning every vote that Jeb has demonstrated here in New Hampshire and across the country." And then Jeb Bush himself followed up with this quote, "My 90-year-old mother made it out to campaign. She met Destiny, age five." And she included this photo of the former first lady and this little girl.
Joining us now, Dr. Charles Krauthammer, he's a nationally syndicated columnist and the bestselling author of "Things that Matter."
Charles, good to see you. So, what do you make of it, Trump going, you know, staying put in New York because of the snowstorm?
DR. CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, NATIONALLY SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, it's really the tempest in the snowstorm. There were a lot of criticisms that you can make of Trump, and I will make just about all of them. But inconsistency on the issue of snow is not one of them.
(LAUGHTER)
But look, if you wanted to be argumentative, you could say look, New Hampshire wants retail campaigning. Trump wants to campaign from 30,000 feet and airplanes have to land. You can't land in snow, whereas his competitors are down there on the ground, with buses, they're more, if you like, pedestrian form of transport. But look, in the end, Trump is still ahead. He has a substantial lead, looks like double digits, as of now. And there is no denying that he's got the best chance. He's likely to win.
And what the race is about is all the other candidates are scrambling to come in second and third.
KELLY: Does it feel a little desperate by some of these other candidates to be, you know, like we got updates on which airports were open and how he could have made it happen and if he had just spent the night in New Hampshire, rather than wanting to stay -- I bet all those guys would like to stay at their home if they had a private plane that could fly them home.
KRAUTHAMMER: That's right.
KELLY: But I mean, it's come down to this. Like he didn't get on that plane and fly --
KRAUTHAMMER: Yes.
KELLY: Right?
KRAUTHAMMER: It's a little amusing. And you might say that having spent one night in a Holiday Inn express in Iowa, Trump has needed at least a couple of weeks to recover. So he's now, he's back, you know, with the comforter and the gold plated bed posts and I bet he sleeps a lot better.
KELLY: He's like, why do these caps in the bathroom have plastic wrappers on them? I don't understand this. This is not the way we do it.
KRAUTHAMMER: But he did say his hotel room, the Holiday Inn was clean, which I think was sort of appreciative of how the rest of us live.
KELLY: Excellent. All right. So, what do you make of these polls? Do you think that Trump now has it locked up in New Hampshire? Because the last -- I'm going to get the stat right. Trump has led in 60 straight New Hampshire polls since mid-July. I mean, it would be shocking at this point if he did not win that state, or am I wrong?
KRAUTHAMMER: No, I think it would be, and I think there's no indication that he is going to lose the state. He stays consistently high 20s and low 30s and there's no reason to believe otherwise. What's interesting I think is how the rest of the field is scrambling. You have Rubio and Cruz, of course, leading the pack. And what you've got really essentially New Hampshire is going to decide if and which of the three governors that's Kasich and Bush and Christie is going to make it into the finals. It could be none of them. I think each of that has the objective to come out ahead of Rubio in the so-called establishment lane. It doesn't look as if right now any of them is within striking distance. If that's how it ends up, I think we're going to have a heavily winnow the field the day after New Hampshire.
KELLY: Rubio is getting hit by the local paper however, I think the Union Leader saying, they're basically suggesting don't fall for this. Like he comes here, now he tries to tell us that he's the one that, the conservative who can unite the party. Where was he? He hasn't even campaigned here and he hasn't done much. And don't be so quick to abandon these governors who have been boots on the ground in New Hampshire for months trying to make their case to the people. Your thoughts on it?
KRAUTHAMMER: But that assumes that the reason you go out to vote on a winter day in a primary is to reward someone. And I think the reason you go out to vote is to pick a president and to sort of strengthen the party. You want to see your party regain the White House. And I think Rubio's argument is a good one. And in fact, I don't think there's a lot of dispute. He has support among the so-called establishment, the main line, the mainstream he has a lot of support among Tea Party. He came up in the Tea Party. But you see it in the numbers. It's not just a claim. Rubio I think has the highest numbers on who is your second choice.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
KRAUTHAMMER: Meaning you've got people all over the field, all over the political spectrum. And if they say, if they feel that Rubio is somebody that they can accept -- he's also the highest on who could you accept, whereas for example, Trump I think is the highest or second highest with Bush on who would you never accept? That's a definition of uniting the party.
KELLY: But Chris Christie has been making the case, if you do this, if you vote for Rubio or you vote for one of these other guys who hasn't been here the way I, Chris Christie has been here, then you're going to render New Hampshire irrelevant. You're not going to be the first in the nation primary state anymore, because you're going to send the message that you don't have to spend the time here. You can just swoop in at the last minute after you do well in Iowa and win New Hampshire and no one is going to spend any time paying attention to you.
KRAUTHAMMER: But that assumes that the parochialism of a New Hampshire-ite exceeds he's Americanism. I mean, this really is isn't about the President of New Hampshire -- the President of the United States. So, it may appeal to some of the votes, but I don't think that really is a substantial argument at all.
KELLY: Last question. John Kasich got out there speaking of snow. He didn't have a jet to fly but he did get out there and had some fun, American-style in the snow today. The snowball fight with the presidential candidate, good idea? Look at him, no gloves. That's how you do it Ohio style, no gloves. It's fine. He's going for it. Does it have an impact in the race? I don't know.
KRAUTHAMMER: No, I think -- I hate to say this, but I do think that snowstorms or snowball fights are not really at the center of a presidential election. Now, that's a guess, so we'll see if my prediction turns out to be right. And I've been wrong a lot this year.
KELLY: Man looks like --
(CROSSTALK)
-- Snowball. I say that. Having grown up in Syracuse, New York. I'm going to tip my hat to him. Charles, great to see you.
KRAUTHAMMER: My pleasure.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Also tonight, a moderator is in the news for a remarkable moment at the end of last night's democratic debate. Howie Kurtz is next on why the critics tonight are piling on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Plus, an atheist group forced a small town to take down a tribute to the victims of September 11.
And tonight, Brian Kilmeade is here with the report on the town's inspiring response. Don't miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Developing tonight, new questions for one of the moderators after the first head-to-head debate of the democratic presidential race. Last night, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced off against Senator Bernie Sanders, but it's outspoken liberal commentator Rachel Maddow is getting a lot of the attention tonight in part for this moment right here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: We also want to thank our host, the University of New Hampshire, and the people of New Hampshire. You guys get to vote in just five days. I can't wait to see how it turns out. Don't screw up.
Thank you.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Howie Kurtz is host of "MediaBuzz" right here on FNC. So she advised the voters of New Hampshire not to screw up, and then she hugged them, she hugged the candidates, which, you know, maybe if I had hugged Trump at the end of that first debate, we would have wound up in a very different spot. Maybe people are being too hard on her.
HOWIE KURTZ, FOX NEWS HOST, "MEDIABUZZ": Would have been a great photo- op. Look, I'm pro-hug, I'll even hug Stirewalt if he's nice to me. But I don't hug politicians after I interview them. And the optics of Rachel Maddow embracing the two Democrats, you know, kind of made it look like they are on the same team.
KELLY: I think if I was going to hug anybody it would be Chris Christie. But he was too busy hugging President Obama. He's a hugger, like Rachel. She says, I'm a hugger. She sent out this tweet saying -- there it is -- "If and when the GOP invites me and MSNBC to host a primary debate, rest- assured I am definitely hugging those guys too. I am a hugger." I have trouble believing that. Is it just me?
KURTZ: It's a little hard to imagine her with an embrace with Ted Cruz. But putting that aside --
KELLY: Isn't it?
KURTZ: It is. It really is. But I'm less troubled by the hug than I am by a larger question. But first, let me say a couple of nice things to Rachel Maddow. She is smart. She is passionate. She is a Rhode scholar.
She knows the issues.
KELLY: She knows all about the Rhodes.
KURTZ: She asked pretty substantive questions. Yes. She kind of ended on a polite note with most of those questions which enabled the candidate to sidestep. And it wasn't much follow-up. But she should not have been on that stage. NBC put her in a terrible position --
KELLY: Why?
KURTZ: Because she is an unabashed liberal commentator. He bashes the Republicans every night. And she's sitting next to Chuck Todd who is the moderator of Meet the Press who is the political of NBC News. And, you know, I'm old fashioned about these things. I think journalist should question the candidates in these high stakes debates.
KELLY: OK. But Hew Hewitt was there at CNN. The RNC pushed these news organizations to put a conservative out there on that stage. FOX News said, you don't get to tell us who is going to moderate our debate. A position I might add, FOX News has maintained throughout this ordeal and we use the journalists. But some of the news organizations, respected news organizations said, fine, all right. So, we have somebody that is not a straight news person out here asking questions, who cares?
KURTZ: Well, I don't think the RNC should be imposing conditions on news organizations is going to sponsor a debate. But the thing is, that MSNBC is in the middle of this big rebranding, that tried to get rid of the left wing label.
KELLY: They had Chuck Todd out there.
KURTZ: They had Chuck Todd. Could they had another journalist --
KELLY: You know what? I find myself in the unusual position of defending MSNBC on this one.
KURTZ: OK.
KELLY: Because I think nobody is under the misimpression that Rachel Maddow is a straight news journalist. So, she's out there as a liberal commentator. She knows the question that the Left wants to hear from these two democratic candidates. And you've got the straight news guy next to her. As long as it's all clear, right? What is the harm? Same thing as Hugh Hewitt sitting next to Jake Tapper.
KURTZ: Imagine the uproar on the Left if FOX has put out Bret Baier and Sean Hannity. An unabashed conservative. People would have said, this is your news team, are you really a news organization?
KELLY: Did anybody get upset about Hugh and Jake? Hugh and Anderson?
KURTZ: Look. He did a good job, but I don't think the RNC should be dictating to CNN or anybody else --
KELLY: I've got to go. I want this one. I've got to go.
(LAUGHTER)
KURTZ: See you.
KELLY: All right. Good to see you, Howie.
Breaking tonight, there is new fallout from Hillary Clinton's one on one debate with Bernie Sanders and how it caused some big concerns for one powerful Democrat.
Ed Henry is the man who dug up the story and he is next.
Plus, Kilmeade is here with a new ad that changes what it means to score on
Super Bowl Sunday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight in a Fox News exclusive, we are learning that panic among some democrats is spreading so much about Hillary Clinton running into trouble with Bernie Sanders, that the idea of drafting vice president Joe Biden is popping up yet again. It comes immediately after a bruising debate, and new national polls that show Sanders and Clinton virtually tied at the national level. Ed Henry reports on all the dem drama from Manchester, New Hampshire. Ed?
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Great to see you Megyn. What's funny about this is that Hillary Clinton had a pretty good debate last night. I mean she actually was fiery. She was pushing back on Bernie Sanders over his attacks about her accepting money from Wall Street, between speaking fees and campaign contributions. But when you put that poll together, with the fact that Bernie Sanders came so close in Iowa.
He's now leading by double digits here in New Hampshire and then the third piece that Quinnipiac poll says look, she's only winning by two points, which is a statistical dead heat. When she was leading in that same poll in December by 31 points, I got an e-mail from a former person who was very much involved in the Draft Biden 2016 effort. He's a businessman in Oklahoma named Bill Bartman and wrote this, "I would urge all of you to join me in keeping our powder dry until we see it's for the good of the party and the country. We should resurrect the Draft Biden movement.
We could not afford to lose the White House." Now, I want to be very clear. He sent this to dozens of Democrats today. Vice President Biden has shown no evidence he's looking at this again or that he will jump in. He decided last fall he will not get in for family reasons, other reasons. But remember, he said in January that he regrets every day that he did not get in. But it doesn't mean he's running. What it means is that there are democrats who are just going to freak out about this until Hillary Clinton locks things up. The Clinton campaign is tonight dismissing this Quinnipiac poll.
This is does not have a lot of credibility, number one. Number two, they want to get past Iowa and New Hampshire, Megyn because they think once they get down to South Carolina, other states down south, they'll have the African-American vote, where she has a huge advantage over Bernie Sanders and they think everybody will just chill out.
KELLY: Ed, good to see you. Joining me with more, Eboni Williams, who's a Fox News contributor and Alan Colmes, who host "The Alan Colmes Show." So, it's very exciting to look at New Hampshire and see a tight race and he's not supposed to be this close, you know, it is supposed to be his state, whatever. You tell me whether the polls that follow after, because I'm looking at South Carolina, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Clinton's cleaning up. I mean she's killing all those. So, is this just drama for the sake of TV?
ALAN COLMES, HOST OF THE ALAN COLMES SHOW: Look, don't forget Bill Clinton lost Iowa and lost New Hampshire. Became the comeback hit. She's going to do very well. They do not expect her to win New Hampshire because of Bernie's backyard. He will do very well post New Hampshire and this is people love to divide and conquer. Oh my God, there's all this trouble in the Democratic Party, it is not a lot of trouble going on there and she'll do very well and her national polling is quite good.
KELLY: Well, except for this latest poll...
COLMES: What poll?
KELLY: ... where they're within two points, but the national polls, as exciting as they are for people like us, they don't really tell us that much. It's the state by state polls that tell you where the race really is.
EBONI WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That's true Megyn, but I've got to disagree a little bit with Alan. I don't think this thing is as open and shut as some of these early polls in the south even betray. I think when we talk about the black vote, and that's a place that Hillary and her camp really expect to clean up and do so well. We're seeing more and more interesting things there.
Ben Jealous, the former NAACP president has endorsed Bernie Sanders. Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner who died of a choke hold here in New York, endorsing Bernie Sanders. So, I'm just thinking that there are some questions within the black community around how good is Hillary Clinton for us, because she's been in a position to help many in the black community for a while now and some are not so satisfied.
KELLY: Do you believe this Draft Biden thing? Do you think, I mean I know he says he's not running, but every time he talks about it, he's like --
(CROSSTALK)
COLMES: I think he would like -- I think he's got some remorse about the fact that his time has passed. You tell me one guy who'd love to see Biden run. But I think Biden would be a great candidate, but this is not his year.
KELLY: It's too late.
COLMES: It is too late for him.
KELLY: Is it too late, I mean short of Hillary getting the nod and getting indicted. Does he have any way in?
COLMES: No, unless she's indicted or has a health problem, neither of which is I believe will happen, there's no way in for Joe Biden.
KELLY: How about the confidence she expressed on that stage last night that this e-mail thing is done. She is like, I am a hundred percent confident there is no issue there. In response to what people say, how could can she know?
WILLIAMS: I was going to say with my experience with the Feds, Megyn, you can never be a hundred percent sure. As long as there is an open DOJ investigation, open FBI investigation. You've got to say, look, I don't blame her for saying it, she's got to say that but you know, you'll never know and they're not wasting 150 people investigating this for just kicks.
KELLY: Well she made another point because if Hillary gets indicted, we're not going to be saying, you promised us it wasn't going to happen. You said you were confident!
COLMES: And when she gets indicted ...
KELLY: We're going to say, she's indicted.
COLEMS: And she won't win if she's indicted, but ...
KELLY: She can't run from jail now?
COLMES: This looks more like a political play because we just found out that Colin Powell used private e-mail server. We just found out that Condoleezza Rice's aides used a private e-mail server. There's a double standard about Hillary Clinton. We found out this committee that went after here was fully a political play. She stood up for 11 hours and looked really, really good ...
KELLY: This Inspector General is not a political guy. He's a Barack Obama appointee and she had highly secret classified documents on this.
COLMES: Classified after the fact like they've been in every other case. At the time, it's been said, in fact the State Department said, at the time they received...
KELLY: No, that has not been proven. That's not true! That has not been proven.
COLMES: The State Department issued a statement saying at the time they were sent to receive, they were not classified.
KELLY: No, that is not consistent with Catherine Herridge's report.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: I don't think it matters (ph).
KELLY: She's reporting. Go ahead Eboni.
WILLIAMS: I was going to say I don't think it matters from legal perspective Megyn because under espionage, it's gross negligence. So whether she knew or she didn't know and whether it was classified before or after, there's still the content of the e-mails.
KELLY: And the sources who have seen these are saying that it was actual spy intelligence information, identification, sources methods and people in these documents.
COLMES: You also know ...
KELLY: You would know that on sight.
WILLIAMS: One thing that at least it's arguable. I think it's ...
COLEMS: We know that -- our intelligence agencies argue after the fact that what should or should not be classified ...
KELLY: But in its most recent batch that they refused to produce even state agreed. Now, they're top secret. This cannot be shown to the public.
WILLIAMS: We can't even talk about it.
KELLY: After we are told by her, there's nothing classified, nothing.
COLMES: Because they weren't classified at that time, that she either sent them ...
WILLIAMS: Look how we're arguing about it. The FBI is going to take us seriously.
KELLY: All right, it's in the hands of Mr. (inaudible). Good to see you both.
COLMES: Thank you.
KELLY: Well, for Democrats and Republicans alike, turnout is going to be a big story in New Hampshire. In moments, we will check in with the state's Republican's chair to see what they're expecting and seeing so far. And then Brian Kilmeade is here with a story of how one small town responded when a lawsuit forced them to remove God and America from the public square.
Plus, one of my early favorites from the Super Bowl ad sweepstakes, this powerful message, next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My dad is giving me a dad-do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A dad-do comes from the heart. Probably not whole lot of style.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Well, it's Super Bowl weekend and that means that years of practice, sweat, strain, stress, and shouting come down to one thing -- some of the best damn TV commercials of the whole year. Here is one of the top fan favorites so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): No, i can't forget this evening or your face since you were leaving but I guess that's just the way the story goes. I can't live if living is without you. I can't live
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to resist great taste. Meet the ketchups.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Well, Brian Kilmeade is the co-host of "Fox and Friends" and author of "Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates." Great to see you.
BRIAN KILMEADE, CO-HOST OF "FOX AND FRIENDS": Great to see you.
KELLY: So, that's one of the best. That's adorable. It's a wiener dog.
KILMEADE: Small stride, very small dogs, but they're wieners dress as -- dogs in costumes are always a winner.
KELLY: Winners dressed as wieners.
KILMEADE: Yes, and I get -- what i liked about this ad, Megyn -- by the way hello to you. What I think about this is the direction you're looking for and what it's about. So many times we were entertained I have no idea what the product was. I knew the product was therefore I liked it. I'm wondering do you want to see more of those ads?
KELLY: I want to see more of the wiener dogs and apparently we were able to do in "Fox and Friends" this morning.
KILMEADE: Yeah, because it's one of our hard-hitting segments we were able to do it
KELLY: That's great. Who made the call?
KILMEADE: It was just the -- probably Lauren (inaudible). You know what the thing is, the dog just walked around the studio. We kind of lost track of him after a while. He just kind of blended in. We were raising him for three hours.
KELLY: Look how natural you are.
KILMEADE: Right.
KELLY: Not.
KILMEADE: I just did not want to keep a wiener in my lap too long in a morning show because people start talking.
KELLY: I want to get to the next ad. This is one of the sweetest ones about little girls ...
KILMEADE: Girls, sit back and watch this segment.
KELLY: ... getting their hair done by their dads. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know where they make these very so complicated for guys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My dad is giving me a dad-do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A dad-do comes from the heart. Probably not a whole lot of style.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who knows, I mean maybe there's a post career here. What you giggling for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, dad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look in the mirror, who do you see? That's strong as beautiful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: I have chills. Pantene gave me chills.
KILMEADE: That's right. This is shampoo and also seeing a guy with his daughter and you see these big, strong guys. We never see them with their helmets off. That's part of the NFL. Wants to get people to know these guys, 99 percent are great guys. We only hear about the problems. When you see an ad like that, it's a winner. And it's cost them 5 million bucks. It's worth every penny.
KELLY: Worth every penny.
KILMEADE: I'm buying that shampoo. I don't even know if it works.
KELLY: I have to tell you it does. I have to tell you that -- so, my husband doesn't really do our daughter's hair. He would let her go out without a brush at all. However, he does work on her outfit, right. So, she'll come out dressed and I'll say, honey, really? And he'll say, what, she matches? I'll say she matches in that she's wearing a horizontal striped dress and horizontal leggings underneath. Too much matchy is not always good thing.
KILMEADE: Does he dig in on this or does he act ...
KELLY: Oh, God. No. Are you kidding me? He doesn't even comb his own hair. Like, you do it. Okay, I want to get to the third ad because this is a good one too. This is -- did you know that nine months after all the Super Bowls, a lot of new babies are born. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: That is great.
KILMEADE: And they go all the way back to the Packers, which won the first Super Bowl in 1964, when we see those kids and they are -- and the kids .
KELLY: What are they selling?
KLMEADE: They're just selling the Super Bowl. I thought that too. They're just selling the game.
KELLY: But you're already watching the Super Bowl.
KILMEADE: I agree. It's a lot of money but it's your game. They probably don't charge as much. I have a message for you.
KELLY: What's that?
KILMEADE: And it's the message to the Panthers and a message to the Broncos. If you want kids and if you want kids in your community in your town and more fans, win. You don't see the Buffalo Bills kids in there. You don't see any of the Vikings kids. Listen, they're wonderful people, but they lost. You've got to win. You've got to win this game for the next generation.
KELLY: And on the other hand, if you've had enough children and your team wins, you know what to do.
KILMEADE: Throw the game.
(LAUGHTER)
KELLY: The fans at home know to be aware. Okay, let's move on, because we have these other stories to get to, including a town in where, Pittsburgh, Kansas. Oh, did they have the last word on some atheists. What happened?
KILMEADE: So, on 9/11, the post office says we're going to put up a sign that says, "God Bless America." For 15 years it stood there. And one atheist who is nameless teams up with a Wisconsin-based group called Freedom From Religious Foundation and they say, I'm an atheist. I'm offended by God Bless America. I'm suing to take it down ...
KELLY: Violates the separation of Church and State.
KILMEADE: With a lawyer, and it works. It's down. It's done. It's through.
But that wasn't good enough for Jake's fireworks. He hears about it, he goes on Facebook and he says "hey, town of 20,000, if this outrages you, let's take action. Tell me if you want a sign that says God Bless America. I'll make you come pick it up."
Next thing you know, within 45 minutes 1,200 people show up, and you can see some of these pictures, they just all on their lawns. Let the atheist sue the individuals. You can't. It's your property. You can do it. So, a town rallies, a small town America overcomes big-time lawyers.
KELLY: Good for them. All right, last but certainly not the least. Man tries to have his wife killed. Apparently the would-be murdering hit man has a heart and decides not to do it.
KILMEADE: Right.
KELLY: Man tells friend wife died in a car accident and he throws a funeral for his wife who he believes is dead.
KILMEADE: Well, he's got to act like he's sad because he actually thinks he had her killed.
KELLY: Yeah, he's hoping. And the woman heard him say, kill her, kill her to the hit man.
KILMEADE: And it really broke her heart, by the way.
KELLY: Oh, I'm sure. Look how happy they looked at one time. And so then what happened? So, the funeral takes place but she's not dead.
KILMEADE: So the funeral takes place. She's sitting in the car. She's on the outside. She waits and then she confronts him and he thinks this an afterlife experience. He can't figure it out. But what he should realize in reality, what happened is, this killer knows the brother of this woman, and these killers say, "we're taking the guy's money and we're going to let you live."
So they take the guy's money. They let her live. He lets them hear that they're not making up the story. She teams up with a pastor the sheriff. They get this guy arrested.
KILMEADE: So, at the end of the funeral, he thinks he's buried her and standby, we have her on tape. Listen.
(BEGIN RECORDING)
NOELA RUKUNDO: Oh, you're surprised I'm alive. He come, he touch me like a two time, jumped to make sure I'm still alive with me.
(END RECORDING)
KELLY: Surprise!
KILMEADE: Surprise. The hit didn't work, you lost your money. Then he tried to make up with her and says, "would you forgive me?" She said no. Listen, it's worth a shot. That is Noela Rukundo. We could be like -- I had a bad day. But it turns out Balenga Kalala, the man who married Noela Rukundo, all in Melbourne, Australia, she should have Googled him because evidently he had a violent past and he came from this past. But I guess love is blind and Google is sometimes burdensome.
KELLY: Balinga! How could you?
KILMEADE: How could she? It was bad judgment. They do have some kids but she's got nine years to find somebody else. She can go on Tinder perhaps, I'm not sure. But again, if you're going to have a hit man knock you off, hopefully, he has a heart and he doesn't.
KELLY: That's right. I mean of all the hit man to land, she got the right one. Brian Kilmeade everybody.
KILMEADE: Right.
KELLY: Thanks for the popcorn.
KILMEADE: No problem.
KELLY: By the way, it smells like microwave popcorn. (Inaudible)
KILMEADE: Let's go to commercial.
KELLY: All right, thank you.
KILMEADE: It was really my popcorn. [LAUGHTER]
KELLY: Up next, record turnout is expected for the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night. What that means for the top tier candidates. Plus, a key granite state prediction from a woman in a position to know. Don't miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Just one campaign weekend left before the first in the nation primary gives us an even better look at how the race for the White House is shaping up. Earlier Fox News caught up with voters to ask them about the issues that are important to them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, the first thing that I want is a stable economy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The economy is a huge thing. Minimum wage is a huge thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The issue for me is leaving my granddaughter with a huge debt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me it's the economy and foreign policy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My opinion is foreign policy is a real big issue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The economy, our safety as far as Isis goes.
KELLY: Jennifer Horn is the New Hampshire GOP chair. Great to see you, Jennifer. Thank you for being here. All right. So, let's talk about the voters in New Hampshire. In Iowa, we saw a fair amount of the population, about 40 percent that said they were still undecided and persuadable all the way up to Election Day. How's that compare in New Hampshire?
JENNIFER HORN, NEW HAMPSHIRE GOP CHAIR: Very much the same, Megyn. Thank you so much for having me today. You know, we have a large block of undecided voters up here and they're you know -- that's where the difference is going to be made. The most recent poll I saw showed as of today still a full third of our voters are undecided.
KELLY: Wow. All right so now, what is it -- they're more moderate I guess than the Iowans.
HORN: Not necessarily more moderate but, you know, more independent I guess is what I would say. Whether even, on both sides of the aisle, Republican or Democrat, just a very independent streak up here. And I was listening to what the voters told you about their issues and very much, you know, reflective of what people are worried about here -- national security, economic security.
But also, here in New Hampshire, on both sides of the aisle, basic principles, things like integrity and character, really make a difference here and I would suggest that that's why we see this huge discrepancy between Hillary Clinton and then Bernie Sanders. You know, I think that, you know, the craven dishonesty of Hillary Clinton is really highlighted when she's on stage next to somebody as sincere as Bernie Sanders.
KELLY: Okay, so Jennifer will not be voting for Hillary. That's clear. As ahead of the GOP, not a big surprise. Speaking of surprises, might we be surprised on Tuesday?
HORN: You know what? I won't be surprised if we are surprised if that makes any sense at all. You know, we have such a large number of voters who still are going to decide who they're going to go for. The question becomes, are they going to spread out among five or six different candidates or are they going to start to coalesce?
KELLY: Do you feel momentum building for anybody?
HORN: I do.
KELLY: Who?
HORN: Well, you do feel momentum on the ground. But I have to tell you, you feel the energy and the momentum, it's really hard to get a sense of exactly where it is going to go. There's no question that Senator Rubio's doing really well here. On days like this where we just went through snowstorm and every single one of our candidates except one is out there doing their events. You know, Chris Christie had volunteer's literally shoveling people's sidewalks so they could get to the doors of undecided voters today.
KELLY: Wow, wow.
HORN: There's a lot of energy, a lot of, you know, a lot of intensity building.
KELLY: We have seen it.
HORN: I can't guess which way it's going to go.
KELLY: Jennifer, thank you so much. We will see you on Tuesday. Don't go away. Special surprise when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: A special visit for yours truly last night. We swung by "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." I told Jimmy we didn't know at last week's debate whether Trump would show up until the very last minute. And Jimmy could picture the moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, HOST THE TONIGHY SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON: Did you think he was going to show up last minute and go, surprise. Forgot about somebody? Yeah. Guess what. I was hiding behind a wall. A giant wall. I've been here the whole time. Biased.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: He is hysterical. So, behind the scenes shots for you here. My love, my amazing assistant Abby and look, she's expecting a baby in April. Look how good Jimmy was at the baby. He's talking to the baby. There's Duggar and yours truly in the green room, my husband.
Plus Kristin Vincenza, my super talented hair and make-up team. Without them I look just like O'Reilly. So, whatever they're paid it too little. Finally, don't forget to turn into CBS with Stephen Colbert after the Super Bowl, my first time there. Hope you'll join us. See you then.
END
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