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Published January 23, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," April 5, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Thanks, Bill. Hey, everybody, we are just minutes away now from the polls closing in Wisconsin. At 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time we should have some indication whether the front-runners will run into a road block in the badger state.
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to "The Kelly File" Special Coverage of the "Battle for Wisconsin." So important as this race. We busted into "The Factor" to bring it to you. I'm Megyn Kelly.
(LAUGHTER)
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: That's important. And I'm Bret Baier. Ted Cruz wants to reset the GOP race tonight. The Texas senator hoping a victory in Wisconsin will reverse the narrative of the Republican primaries and put him into the driver's seat heading into the convention in Cleveland. But Donald Trump has proven this. You can never count him out of this race. And John Kasich could still play spoiler and second our votes and delegates from the others.
KELLY: At stake tonight, 42 delegates for the Republicans. Eighty six for the Democrats. For the Republicans, a win for Ted Cruz could further complicate Donald Trump's path to the nomination. A win for Donald Trump could end the discussion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are seeing victory after victory after victory on the grassroots. In Wisconsin tomorrow, Wisconsin, this race has national implications. The entire country is looking to Wisconsin.
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we do well here, folks, it's over. If we don't win here, it's not over. But wouldn't you like to take the credit in Wisconsin for ending it?
GOV. JOHN KASICH, R-OHIO, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I mean, think about what this guy said. He said he needs to get out because he's getting my votes and I want to have my votes. This is not fair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: We have Fox team coverage in the battle for Wisconsin. Ed Henry is with the Clinton campaign. Here in New York City. But we start with John Roberts with the Cruz campaign in Milwaukee. John?
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Bret, good evening to you. You know, we talked about votes and we talked about states. But what this race is really coming down to is a battle for people. And those people are delegates. Both Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are trying to get to a majority of delegates, 1237, by the time that the Republican convention kicks off on July the 18th. Ted Cruz needs about 756 delegates. Donald Trump, 501. So Trump has got to build an advantage there. If you point it out just a moment ago, Ted Cruz is hoping that a big win here in Wisconsin tonight, which may net him most if not all of the 42 delegates available, will begin to shift the wind in his favor in the next couple of weeks as we head towards that big New York primary.
Trust me, everybody already looking ahead to future contests. Donald Trump, though, has a commanding lead in New York State and if he gets over 50 percent on April the 19th, he could take home all of New York's 95 delegates, which would certainly keep him in the game. Then we go to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California from there. So tonight is a weigh point along the way that Ted Cruz hopes might start to shift things in his favor. Donald Trump trying as hard as he can to stop a win from Ted Cruz. He spent the last four days in the state. He was here as early as this morning out of the diner talking to people, visiting polling places, talking to folks out in parking lots. Also had his wife Melania here to try to convince many of the women who say they would never vote for Trump to maybe give him a second look. We'll see how it turns out very soon -- Bret.
BAIER: John, thank you.
KELLY: On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton abandoning Wisconsin and heading to her home state of New York where voters head to the polls two weeks from tonight. Ed Henry is live near Hillary Clinton's headquarters in Brooklyn. Ed?
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, good to see you. Adopted home state I suppose since she was born in Illinois. Came of age in Arkansas of course. But Hillary Clinton has now spent six of the last seven days campaigning here. Only in Wisconsin on Saturday, because her campaign in private admits she's likely to lose tonight. Bernie Sanders is expected to continue that string of contests. He has momentum. He also has a lot of money. He raised $44 million in March. Hillary Clinton just under $30 million. So he raised far more and it suggests he can stick around for a long time, drag this race out more than the Clinton camp ever wanted.
In fact, something interesting about tonight is that Hillary Clinton, not here in Brooklyn, she was in the Bronx raising money. She's not going to be coming out and giving the normal speech you see on primary night from all of the candidates on the Democratic and Republican side because she knows she's likely to lose tonight, she's putting her focus here on New York, April 19th, still a couple weeks away. But almost 250 delegates at stake. So the bottom-line for the Clinton camp tonight is, they believe even with a loss tonight in Wisconsin, they can make up all of that and more with a win here in New York. Though she's only up by about 10 to 12 points in the latest polls. Sanders trying to come on strong. And the bottom-line is, the Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, back in February said this race would be decided in March. Here we are in early April, it has not been decided. It's going on far longer than the Clinton camp ever planned -- Megyn.
KELLY: Ed Henry, thank you.
BAIER: As in all states, primaries, caucuses, we can pin point key counties to watch for this race. All eyes tonight are on the Waukesha County, just downside of Milwaukee. It could be crucial to the outcome to today's GOP contest.
Bill Hemmer is over at the billboard. Bill, what about Waukesha?
BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Bret, good evening. If it's Tuesday, it must be Wisconsin. Right? Here we are in April and then Waukesha County. This is ruby red Republican territory for Republicans winning the state you need to get votes here. And this is where people like Ted Cruz want to run up the vote up here in Ozaukee County. It's called the WOW, the WOW counties and in Washington County as well. These three, which surrounds to the west and north of Milwaukee, that's where you go to win if you're a Republican.
Mitt Romney did this in 2012. He's in green. Look how it shades in. McCain four years prior, he won the state. Look again how it shades in this part of the state. Watch here for Cruz, possibly to do well. If he does, Trump has got to run up the numbers in Upstate Wisconsin. This is Dane County here. That is the University of Wisconsin in Madison. If John Kasich is going to come in Wisconsin tonight and take a delegate or two or more, look for him to do well in that part of this state. But again, we're watching here the southeast right around Lake Michigan to tell us possibly in about four minutes or so how Wisconsin has a good or not. Bret, Megyn, back to you.
BAIER: Bill, thanks.
KELLY: Well, the big question, are we headed towards a contested Republican convention? Right now, Donald Trump leads the delegate pack but he's still 500 delegates shy of the 1237 needed to clinch the nomination. Senator Cruz is in second place with 481 delegates. Senator Rubio in third despite dropping out of the race, with 171. Governor John Kasich trailing in fourth place with 143.
I want to bring in our panel tonight. Tucker Carlson is the editor of The Daily Caller. Dana Loesch is the host of "Dana" on BlazeTV. Kirsten Powers is the USA Today columnist. Stephen Hayes is the senior writer for the Weekly Standard. And Dana Perino, is former White House press secretary and co-host of "The Five." Tucker is also a co-host of "Fox & Friends Weekend."
Let me start with you on this, Tucker. The stakes for Donald Trump this evening?
TUCKER CARLSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE DAILY CALLER: Well, the stakes, I mean, the stakes are really about momentum. I mean, I do think Trump is the only person in the race likely to even getting -- or the possibility of even getting to the majority of delegates. If he loses tonight and doesn't get any delegates, and that seems possible, that will be a much tougher task. He's at five primaries after tonight that look good for him, but really tonight, what's at stake, the convention in July in Ohio. Will it be contested or not? That could truly be a tough moment for the Republican Party. Of course, if Trump wins tonight, it will probably a close question, he will be the nominee. That again, looks unlikely. So, I think it's all about the convention tonight.
KELLY: Steve, a Wisconsin native, how is Wisconsin different? You know, you see this playing out, that the anti-establishment vote. Well, in Wisconsin, you have establishment figures, Governor Walker, Paul Ryan, who are pretty well liked in Wisconsin.
STEPHEN HAYES, SENIOR WRITER, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Yes, I mean, I think the results tonight should put to bed this myth that the contest thus far has been just the establishment on the one hand and Trump supporters on the other hand. There is a huge swath of the American public, Republican primary voters, who are both anti-establishment or not part of the establishment but also not Donald Trump fans. And I think that's who we're talking about in Wisconsin. What Bill just mentioned with the WOW counties, the counties around Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties, that's who those are. Those are movement conservatives who have fought alongside Governor Walker for years for these big bold reforms that he's implemented. They're not for Trump but they're not establishment and that is true of so many people who don't like Donald Trump around the country.
KELLY: Dana Loesch, what does it mean for Ted Cruz if he wins tonight?
DANA LOESCH, HOST OF "DANA" ON BLAZETV: Well, he's still has a battle ahead of him. He doesn't mean that he wraps us up tonight. He's not going to get obviously close enough to the number of delegates that Donald Trump has. But I do think as Tucker was saying just a little bit earlier, I mean, this does push it more towards a contested convention. And I think the goal for the Cruz campaign, if they're not being able to get that majority, they're not being able to get that 1237 going into the convention. They need to make sure that they're scooping up enough delegates in this Congressional districts to prevent Trump from walking in with that number. And one of the things the Cruz camp has been doing to, they've been doing this in Wisconsin. Make sure that you have delegates who support your campaign who are elected to those slate of delegates that are going to be sent to Cleveland --
BAIER: Quickly, Kirsten, we're coming to the top of the hour. But Bernie Sanders, if he pulls off the win, does this reset the Democratic race in anyway?
KIRSTEN POWERS, USA TODAY COLUMNIST: I don't think so. Because I think this is a state that is very much a Bernie Sanders type of state. It's overwhelmingly white, it's extremely liberal. Sixty eight percent of the people describe themselves as Liberal, it's a state Hillary lost to Obama by double digits in '08. And so I think it was expected that he would win it. Certainly simply it doesn't help her, but moving forward, I think the states are coming up are going to be more favorable to her because we kind of have most of the caucus states behind us. And so, you know, it's something that she's going to have to deal with in terms of maybe being pulled to far to the left. But I don't think it is going to impede her ability to win the nomination.
BAIER: She's obviously focused on New York. She's been here for a number of days.
KELLY: And what Dana Perino has to tell you is so important. We need to hold her over to pass the 9:00 moment. Wait -- just wait for it.
And it is 9:00 p.m. here in the East and 8:00 p.m. in Wisconsin where polls are now closed across the state.
BAIER: Fox News can project that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton according to Fox News exit polls. That means Sanders has won six of the last seven states, giving him significant momentum in advance of the New York primaries we talked about two weeks ago.
KELLY: Fox exit polls also show that Texas Senator Ted Cruz enjoys a solid lead over New York businessman Donald Trump, although it is too early to project a winner in that race. Want to bring back in our panel. I know, here we go.
(CROSSTALK)
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST, "THE FIVE": Because I was enjoying the commentary of the panel. You know, I love election night coverage. It's my favorite thing to do. I was just thinking about something about something Steve said, which is about Wisconsin voters. Something people kind of forgot, like way back, you may remember that Scott Walker fought a huge battle with the unions, and that was all the coverage for weeks on end about this dissension up on the capital in Wisconsin to figure out who is going to win that battle and then there's a recall elections. So Republicans in Wisconsin have been very tested and recently.
So they're a little more united than you might have in other places. I do think it will be interesting to see how Donald Trump talks about this result tonight, because he could say let's just blow it off, I had a bad week, I've admit I had a bad week or moving on. I'm going to win in New England, I'm going to win my home state of New York and we're going all the way to the convention. If that's the way that he plays it, then I think that would be better for him in the long run. If he doesn't do that and he starts to lash out and blame and has a different reaction, that could be bad for him.
BAIER: We'll start seeing raw vote totals come in from different precincts, Tucker. But the fact that the Fox News decision desk can't make the call right away suggests, you know, it's not as definitive a win yet for Cruz and who knows, this hour we may be able to make this call or incoming this week. The fact that Trump spent so much time of the past week campaigning, trying to go to these different areas, suggested that he was delegate hunting in some of these Congressional districts.
TUCKER CARLSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE DAILY CALLER: And trying to redeem the last couple of weeks, which have been terrible for him. I don't think I've ever seen a candidate behave as poorly in the last couple of week as Trump has. He has a ton of momentum, I think he squandered it. They've also hired Pomenefort (ph), who is a pretty serious guy in Washington in the long time, helped managed another presidential campaign. His job is to make sure they have enough delegates coming into July and if they don't, you know, keep the nomination anyway. So, they're thinking a little bit differently in that way. But I think Trump -- I do think people around Trump any way understand that it's been a remarkably bad couple of weeks for that campaign.
KELLY: Dana Loesch, speak if you will about what we've seen the past couple of weeks with Donald Trump and women because we've seen terrible numbers for him nationally. Seventy three percent disapproval rate. We also saw that in Wisconsin coming into tonight.
LOESCH: Right.
KELLY: We'll see how it pans on the exit polls. But when I had my Ted Cruz town hall just yesterday, he talked about his wife, he talked about his daughters, he made an allegation that he thinks Donald Trump has a difficulty with strong women. How much did that resonate?
LOESCH: I think it did. I think it resonated a lot. It humanized Ted Cruz. Because a lot of this people, when they look at these candidates and when they sit down and do these interviews, the candidates are always very thoughtfully prepared. Their comments are very orchestrated. They don't like to let you look behind the veil too much. Because that's for their vulnerable. Families are vulnerable. And I think that was a more humanizing moment that Ted Cruz has. I wish that Trump would allow himself to be humanized a little bit more instead of portraying himself and showing himself to be just an icon or pop culture icon.
Because I think that his staying power, in terms of growing his voter base, I think that that would be more effective if he were to do that. Cruz did it last night. It's why he's surging right now, it's why you have the latest Reuters poll showing him for the first time in this primary contest, he's leading Trump right now, because he's having an effect. He's resonating with voters. And it's appealing to them, to see him as he humanizes himself talking about his wife and his kids.
BAIER: But Kirsten, you had Melania Trump on the campaign trail this week. Some people said that that humanized Donald Trump a little bit more especially when you're talking about women. And it's clear from the exit polls that he has, Trump does has a loyal following that is not leaving him.
KIRSTEN POWERS, USA TODAY COLUMNIST: Right. I mean, he's winning 35 percent of the female vote. And I went back and looked in North Carolina, he had 36, Ohio 32. Michigan 38 percent, and Illinois 35. So he's pretty consistent with where he's been. The results of an NBC poll that came out today I think or yesterday that basically showed he had dropped three points among women, Republican or Republican leaning women. Same us among men. So his -- in terms of where he is with women, it really hasn't changed that much. And in the Republican primary, those voters hasn't affected him. But it doesn't mean it would affect him in the general election. But it doesn't seem to affect him here.
KELLY: Steve, what do you make of what we've seen now? Because some people are saying that if Ted Cruz doesn't win tonight, if he loses, and if he wins but he wins only by a little, it's going to be dispiriting and perhaps deadly to the so-called Never Trump movement.
HAYES: Yes. I think it would be tough. I think if Donald Trump were to win tonight, were to win in Wisconsin, it would certainly be a big surprise and would give him additional momentum and more importantly additional delegates on the March to 1237 the Republican convention. But I think, you know, looking at the exit polls, that seems unlikely. I think it's fair to say. And, you know, there are so many reasons for that in Wisconsin in particular. When you look at the facts that Wisconsin voters have had two full weeks basically to themselves, to scrutinize these candidates, to evaluate these --
KELLY: But that is what is going to happen from this point forward.
HAYES: It slows the race down. I think that's one argument that you're hearing from Trump critics saying that he's been scrutinized more because of the time and also because of talk radio in Wisconsin. Talk radio plays a huge role in Wisconsin politics particularly in Southeast Wisconsin. Trump had a very difficult interview, 17 minutes with Charlie Sykes on WTMJ in Wisconsin, asked a series of tough questions, asked follow-up questions and this is something that Donald Trump doesn't often get. I mean, it's not uncommon for Donald Trump to sit for a full hour being interviewed by some people and not face a tough question the entire time. He had 17 minutes and a dozen tough questions. I think that's new for Donald Trump and he did holed up very well.
BAIER: Dana, I want to ask you quickly about the exit polls and something else we're seeing in this split in the Republican Party. If Cruz is the nominee, seven in 10 today said they would vote for Cruz over Hillary Clinton but three in 10 said they would either vote for Clinton, vote third party or stay home. If Trump is the nominee, four in 10 or six in 10 said they would vote for Trump over Clinton, but four in 10 would either vote for Clinton vote third party or stay home. The split between the Cruz not voting for Trump and Trump not voting for Cruz suggests that if he doesn't get to 1237, we're in for a rocky road to Cleveland.
KELLY: It's like trying to mix oil and water under this big ten. And I don't know if they're being able to do it. But it is very early. On the Democratic side, I think the same type of exit poll said they're going to be able to heal very quickly, they're going to be able to get in line and everyone is going to be fine. For the Republicans no matter who he is, it's going to be much more difficult and they need to get every single vote that they can possibly can in order to try to beat her in November.
KELLY: Just one quick question, Tucker, we did see a change from Trump at the end of last week where, you know, he admitted that he had not a great week, he admitted that it was a mistake to attack Heidi Cruz, he brought out Melania on Hannity show last night. They had a nice exchange. She's very likeable.
CARLSON: Right.
KELLY: Do you think, you know, is he going to sort of shift his messaging a little bit, not dramatically but he'll lose his core people if he does that, but just shift it a little bit. To try to bring more people to build bridges as opposed to burning them?
CARLSON: I think it's very simple actually. I thought this from day one, the Trump campaign was more about issues than people gave it credit for being. If you're upset about open borders and bad trade deals and pointless foreign wars and the bailout of '08 and an awful lot of people, I've known them -- but a lot of people in the rest of the country are. If a candidate addresses those things, doesn't talk about themselves and pick fights with people who are peripheral to the process, but talks about these things, he can win. And I think Trump shifted his focus from those things to again, peripheral things that were irrelevant and weird and that's the problem.
BAIER: All right. Panel, standby. We also just had a brand new wave of exit polls showing why voters in Wisconsin are supporting their selected candidate. Martha MacCallum is crunching those numbers. Martha.
MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes. We do have some new numbers and it really goes to exactly what you all were just talking about. The Republican divide is clearly alive and well in Wisconsin. There are the Trumpians and there are those who are not. And despite the efforts on both sides to make the other go away in the badger state, it is not working. Take a look at another number similar to the one that Bret just mentioned. But this one shows that four in 10 voters say that having Cruz as their president, six in 10 rather would make them either excited or optimistic. But four in 10 said on the other hand said it would make them scared or concerned.
The Trump numbers are kind of the flip mirror image of that number which goes exactly to what you're saying. So what is the most important characteristic? This is something we always like to see. In Wisconsin, what matters to you the most for the GOP voters? Thirty four percent say that what matters the most is to bring change. Now, this is an area that Donald Trump has been very strong. But this time you basically got a split between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump on can bring about change. Shares my values, this one is very consistent.
Ted Cruz wins this one pretty much across the board in every state we looked at. Tells it like it is, this is a Donald Trump category, 20 percent this time for him. But look at win in November. Okay? This is electability. So, for people in Wisconsin who say, look, the most important thing to me is that my candidate beat Hillary Clinton, most likely or Bernie Sanders, in November, among those voters, they're saying that Ted Cruz is the person that could do that. Now, remember, in the past, that was Rubio territory. He was the most electable candidate until he dropped out. So it's very significant, interesting I think that that vote in Wisconsin has went towards Ted Cruz.
This is a moderate GOP state essentially. It's a state that's not as angry as other states that we've seen, so it's an area where you would have expected a Marco Rubio perhaps to do very well or even a John Kasich to do pretty well in a state like this. But it is Ted Cruz, the real outsider, Tea Party candidate, who is getting some of these categories in the exit polls that typically you would think given the makeup of this state, might go to somebody else. You know, just to keep in mind before I send it back to you, it's a state where the issue of Muslim immigration, immigration in general is not as hot a topic as it is in some of these other areas. And yet, despite that, Ted Cruz is the one who is getting some attention. So, Wisconsin was never supposed to be a state that was tailor made for him. If it turns out that he does do well for tonight, it's too close to call at this point, as we all know, but we'll going to be looking at some of these interesting markers for Ted Cruz tonight. Some very good stuff. Interesting stuff out there to look at tonight. You guys, back to you.
BAIER: All right. Martha, thank you.
KELLY: I want to bring in the campaign cowboys Chris Wallace who is the anchor of "Fox News Sunday." Karl Rove was the deputy chief-of-staff to President George W. Bush. And Joe Trippi who is the former Howard Dean campaign manager. Both are Fox News contributors. Chris, take it away.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Thanks, Megyn. Well, let's talk first of all, Joe, about the race that Fox News has called and that is for Bernie Sanders winning the state of Wisconsin. This means he will now have won six of the last seven states. You know, we've been talking about this for months. Well, you know, Hillary Clinton has an overwhelming lead, she has all the super delegates. She has -- Sander is raising a lot of money staying in the race. But she's going to be the nominee. What's going on here when he has won six of the last seven states?
JOE TRIPPI, FORMER HOWARD DEAN CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, Wisconsin in particular, another state that was sort of made for Bernie Sanders. It's one of the whiter states in the country, doesn't have the diversity. He's going to win this state. He's going to win more states. The problem is it's not about states anymore. It's always been on our side because of proportional allocation of delegates. It's about delegates. And so you'll see tonight I think part of his problem. No one understands how important that 239 pledged delegate lead she has is. There's 86 delegates in Wisconsin. If he gets 46 and she gets 40, because of proportional, she gets 50, he gets 50, she gets 36. Fourteen delegates he picks up. It's a win, bragging rights, money is going to keep happening, his people are going to be recharged. But in the end it's not going to matter that much.
WALLACE: Money is happening. I mean, my God! He raised $15 million more in March than she did. It's quite extraordinary. I mean, she may win it, but he's certainly is sticking around. Let's turn to the Republican race. You said earlier this week, if Donald Trump wins Wisconsin, the race is over. And a lot of people thinking you don't particularly like Donald Trump we're saying that kind of set it up because you didn't think Donald Trump was going to win, is that what's going on there?
KARL ROVE, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF-OF-STAFF TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: No, no. Look, if he wins tonight in Wisconsin, it will be effectively over. Because look, you had a very popular governor, you had influential local radio, you had a well-organized Cruz campaign, you had a well-organized anti-Trump advertising effort --
WALLACE: And Trump had two terrible weeks.
ROVE: And Trump had two terrible weeks. And so if Trump wins tonight, then it says he's superman and there ain't no kryptonite around.
WALLACE: Okay. Now, the flipside that there is kryptonite around in the form of Ted Cruz and he wins, how much, you know, there is a lot of stuff. Does this reset the race? Does this mean that Trump is in real trouble? You know, one of the things I noticed in the exit polls, the Republican voters, primary voters, less angry, less likely to won an outsider, less opposed to trade, more supposed to legal status for people who were in this country illegally. To what degree is this sort of a one-off, an aberration of, you know, and not translatable to other states down the line?
ROVE: Well, it is a slightly different state, but it is slightly different not grossly different than a lot of the states we've seen before. So, let's watch the margin tonight, if it is a double digit margin, then this is a problem for Trump. Because right now, look at the delegates who have been chosen. Associated Press count, 736 by Trump. That means 862 are not Trump. So right now there's 126 vote gap between Donald Trump and --
WALLACE: One hundred and twenty six more delegates that aren't Donald Trump than were Trump.
ROVE: Right. And so if tonight if Cruz wins this state, he's going to extend that. The statewide winner gets 15 delegates, the other delegates are up, 15 delegates plus three winner take all by Congressional district, but this could be another 25 or 30 added on top of --
WALLACE: And the point is, Cruz in the end doesn't have to win. All he has to do is if the non-Trump delegates are more than the Trump delegates, I mean, Trump doesn't get to 1237, does not have the majority, isn't the nominee at least in the first ballot. Back to New York.
KELLY: Chris, thank you.
BAIER: Well, this is going to be interesting. And AP is saying that Wisconsin voter turnout projected to be the highest since 1980.
KELLY: Wow!
BAIER: Forty percent. So a lot of people turning out.
KELLY: You know, Ted Cruz made a comment about Chris Wallace's last point about, how he doesn't have to get the nomination, he just has to get enough to stop Trump. Telling that joke about two guys running in the woods from a bear. And the one guy -- not a Baier --
BAIER: Oh, thank you.
KELLY: And the one guy stops and puts on his running shoes and the other guy looked and says, what are you doing? You know, you're not going to -- the bear, like -- and he says, I don't have to outrun that bear, I just have to outrun you.
BAIER: You. That is exactly right.
KELLY: That is the situation he says he's in.
BAIER: To 1237. Listen, that does it for me. I'll be back at 11:00 p.m. Eastern as we wrap up the evening. And we'll call Bernie Sanders, Wisconsin winner. We'll see what happens on the GOP side. Next.
KELLY: We'll be waiting for that. I'll continue on with you for the remainder of THE KELLY FILE. Bret and I will resume at 11:00.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight. We are awaiting results in Wisconsin's Republican primary, which may determine the future of this GOP race. Right now, the polls are closed but it is still too close to call on the GOP side.
Welcome back to "The Kelly File," everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. The full excitement of the White House race centering on Wisconsin tonight. All five Republican and Democratic presidential candidates crisscrossed the state over the last ten days. The energy driving an expected record turnout tonight, the highest in more than 30 years. On the Republican side, with votes still being counted, Texas Senator Ted Cruz is showing a solid lead. Businessman Donald Trump in second there so far. And Ohio Governor John Kasich in third place. On the democratic side, Fox News can project that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
We take a live look here at the contenders' campaign headquarters. Senator Ted Cruz is the only candidate in Wisconsin tonight. We expect him to speak shortly after the race call. The other setting their sights on the upcoming contest. The Trump campaign is in New York City. Hillary Clinton is in Brooklyn. Senator Bernie Sanders is in Wyoming. Republican Governor John Kasich canceled his events tonight. He's delivering Ohio's state of the state address tomorrow night. Right now we are awaiting some remarks again from Senator Cruz in Milwaukee, we're told they won't happen until race call is made in getting a heads up on what some of those remarks would be. We're going to bring them to you. We expect that we're allowed to, uhm -- yes, okay, so we're from being told now that if he wins, if he wins we are going to hear something from him along the lines of the following. Tonight is a turning point, a rallying cry, a real choice.
Joining me now with his thoughts, Charles Krauthammer, a Fox News contributor and author of the book, "Things That Matter." Charles, good to see you. So, I mean, that's going to be the message from the Cruz campaign, a turning point, a rallying cry, a real choice for the voters. Your thoughts?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it could be. And I know that's Cruz's hope and he will certainly enjoy the delegate lead he will get from that out of Wisconsin. It will help to narrow the fact that he trails Trump. It will probably end up being less than 200 delegates as a result. And if they go into Cleveland bunched up, that's a huge advantage for Cruz relative to where he is now. All of that is true. Could be a turning point. But I'm impressed by one thing, according to the exit polls, Trump, who will come in second if the exit polls are right, is going to have somewhere in the high 30s.
Now, think about what has just happened. He runs in a state where he's up against a popular governor, who has a very strong machine. He's also up against -- this is Trump -- up against very sophisticated, very influential local talk radio. He's also up against a ton of money. Huge amount was dropped on him. It wasn't only the Cruz money or the Cruz PACS but it was the stop Trump PACs dropped millions of dollars on him. And on top of all that, it comes after the worst two weeks of the campaign, the fact that Tucker said earlier, is the worst two weeks he's ever seen for any candidate. If in spite of all of that, Trump comes in with high 30s, then he has the most rock solid floor of support of any candidate in memory.
Trump said he could walk out on 5th avenue, could do that tonight, and I suppose if his twitter ever broke down he might do that, and shoot somebody and he'd never get -- he wouldn't lose a vote. There's something about his support that is so solid, that despite the loss in the face of all this, it shows a remarkable staying power.
KELLY: And that's -- I mean, we've seen that in contest after contest, that you know, his core of basic supporters will not abandon him. And, you know, those Republicans who think they will are diluting themselves from the look at these exit polls we've seen in every single race. But the question seems more to be about whether he can go above those numbers and in large in the party. I mean, at this point, you're supposed to be, you say you win elections by addition. You know, by bringing more people over. And that's why Ted Cruz will try to make the most of this and say, not yet, it's not happening yet. Now it's one on one and the voters have this choice.
KRAUTHAMMER: I think it's a perfect reflection of what will likely happen in Cleveland. If this continues, Cruz wins it tonight, does reasonably well in the states coming up, there will be proportional, there won't be huge gains, ends up where Trump has a plurality but not a majority, it will reflect where he is in the polls. A plurality almost a 40 percent but has been unable to expand to get the 50 that he needs to be the nominee. And once you go to a second ballot where so many of the delegates are released, roughly half of them are released, at that point, nobody has any idea where it goes. But I think Trump, beyond the first ballot, is far less likely to win the nomination --
KELLY: What are the predictions if that leads to riot?
KRAUTHAMMER: Well, it depends on what Trump decides. He has tremendous power over his troops. If he decides to stand up and walk out, a thousand will walk out after him. If he decides he is going to make real trouble to disrupt the convention, I don't mean with violence, but I mean, protests, demonstrations, boycotts, you could see that. It will be up to him whether he feels it's in his interest and whether he feels -- because he reacts viscerally in many ways, whether he feels he's been cheated. And if he does, all hell will break loose.
KELLY: What do you make of the fact, Charles that tonight we're not expecting to hear from Donald Trump, we're not expecting to hear from Hillary Clinton?
KRAUTHAMMER: They all expect they're going to lose, they're going to lose big and they're going to lose in a way that's going to be hard to spin. Remember in Iowa, Marco Rubio came on stage, he finished third and gave a victory speech. So there was a time when you could spin almost anything. We're now at a time where the candidates are winnowed down and it's pretty obvious if you won or lost and you'd rather not show up if you'd lost. People have heard your stump speech. At the beginning in the early content, you get out there, you give a stump speech win or lose. But at this point, it's not going to help you in anyway. Better to get off the stage, go to New York and give a big speech tomorrow.
KELLY: Do you think Charles given what we're seeing, that the Republican Party is headed for destruction hit her way, because the Trump supporters, so many of them are saying they would never vote for Cruz, so many of the Cruz supporters saying the same thing about Trump. And, you know, there's a real question about, you know, those who will suggest, oh no, they'll come on board, eventually they'll come on board. Given that if this thing goes all the way to the convention and gets even uglier and even bloodier and even, you know, more uncomfortable, you know, those who say oh, know, they'll come over, does that conventional wisdom apply?
KRAUTHAMMER: No, it doesn't. And you can see it even now before it reaches the bloody stage. Look at the exit polls today. I think it decided a bit earlier. The voters are asked if this candidate were the nominee, would you feel concerned or afraid? And with Cruz, the total number of Republicans, 37 percent say they would be afraid or concerned. If Trump is the nominee, that's 57 percent. That's a split rarely seen and I don't know that it can be healed.
KELLY: Charles, thank you.
KRAUTHAMMER: My pleasure.
KELLY: Got some news coming in for you now, as Fox News is now able to project that Ted Cruz will win the state of Wisconsin in a contest that was largely between him and Donald Trump. The final vote is still coming in. We're still counting. And this is our projection at this hour that Ted Cruz will win. And now Bret Baier is back with me. The question is the margin.
BAIER: Exactly. And now, this is a big win for Ted Cruz. Let's not minimize this. He was positioned well going in. But the fact that he pulled off a win, where just three, four weeks ago, Wisconsin looked like it was lining up for Trump. Now we're looking at the margin. Right now, you know the spread as you look at the raw vote total coming in is huge, but that will narrow according to our Fox News decision desk.
KELLY: The numbers that are basically meaningless that are on the board right now.
BAIER: Right now, as they're coming in. But listen, as the night goes on, if Ted Cruz gets upwards of 48, 49 percent, he's going to get the state winning delegates and then you look at each Congressional District. He could box Trump out of a lot of delegates, the 42 that are on the table right now.
KELLY: Because it's now coming down to the point -- I thought Tucker hit it on the head when he said, what is at stake tonight is where there is a contested convention. The convention is what's on the line tonight. Because no one is going to win or lose this race based on these results. But every delegate that Cruz can deprive Trump of, makes that last stretch over the finish line more difficult for Donald Trump and even though he's expected to win big in New York, there's a question about how he will do in Indiana, how he will do in California. So he wants every last delegate.
BAIER: It's all about the Math, 1237. And even in New York, which is the next contest two weeks from tonight, if Trump doesn't get to 50 percent, he then, all of the Congressional districts split in New York and the 95 delegates there get divvied up among the candidates, you're talking Trump and Cruz and Kasich.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
BAIER: And again, it's a breakdown of math. You suddenly look at California, June 7th, and that will be the deciding factor in this race.
KELLY: In which Ted Cruz is well organized and has been fighting now for months. I mean, he's been looking at that June 7th day, understanding its potential significance. Trump's campaign does so well at motivating people from the candidate. It emanates from Donald Trump himself in his speech and media appearances. People feel inspired by him. You know, many of the Republicans do. He hasn't had to have the superior ground game, and now it's getting a little bit dicier, because now as Ted Cruz puts it, it's more mano y mano. So let's see whether you know he can have the same power.
BAIER: Trump started to spend money on that delegate game because he sees the writing on the wall.
KELLY: That's right. And he hired a good guy who knows how to do it, too. Bret.
BAIER: Hey, it's good to back.
(LAUGHTER)
KELLY: To be continued.
BAIER: All right.
KELLY: With Bret's suspension, with the results now coming in, there is some new math shaping up in this delegate race. And Chris Stirewalt knows how to do math. And so as Larry Sabato. So they'll do it next and tell us what they're seeing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking news, Fox News is now projecting that Texas Senator Ted Cruz will defeat Donald Trump in Wisconsin's Republican presidential primary, according to Fox News exit polls and the early vote returns. This victory helps Ted Cruz slow Donald Trump's momentum after a rough week on the campaign trail for the New York businessman. Joining me now, Fox News digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt and the director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics Larry Sabato. Good to see you both. Chris, so what does this mean? Do you agree with Tucker that this basically means that we're headed for an open convention or is that not actually that clear?
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: Well, I think the likelihood of going to Cleveland with any candidate with an outright win among bound delegates got lower tonight. How much lower will depend on whether Ted Cruz is able to shoot the moon and win all or almost all of the state's eight Congressional districts, how many of the state's 42 delegates. We'll see.
KELLY: It's too early to say that.
STIREWALT: It's too early to say. Trump had some real strength in the north and western part of the state. He might be able to pull off one or maybe two congressional districts up there. We're still tracking that and we'll know how good a night this was for Cruz. But right now, we know this. The likelihood of anybody walking into Cleveland as the outright winner went down tonight, not up.
KELLY: Larry, as we await Ted Cruz, your thoughts?
LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA'S CENTER FOR POLITICS DIRECTOR: Well, that's exactly right. Look, it's still possible for Trump to exceed the 1,237 majority needed to win on the first ballot, but the odds have been lessened because of tonight. And it was always going to be tight. Look, he's either going to get a few dozen less than that number or he's going to go slightly above it. In any event, we're probably in for six weeks of very tough negotiations after the final primaries on June 7th.
KELLY: Larry, you did a piece on your amazing Crystal Ball blog, talking how the Electoral College math for Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton, right now, looks bad. It looks like a landslide victory for her. Have you done that, with the understanding that it's very early and that can completely change -- have you done that with Ted Cruz or for that matter, John Kasich?
SABATO: We've not been able to because there isn't as much data and information on the other candidates, as there is on Clinton versus Trump. I would expect, based on the national polls I've seen for Cruz to do better than Trump against Clinton. Although how much better is a big question. Kasich, to be blunt about it, is probably of the three candidates, the Republican's best shot to defeat Clinton. He leads her almost everywhere.
KELLY: But that just shows how hypothetical it is, Chris. Because the exit polls today did not have good news for John Kasich and you know the odds of him becoming the Republican nominee are you know slim and none at this point.
STIREWALT: And that's exactly right. The longer he stays in this process, the more embittered the other members of his party will be against him. And the idea that somehow that he in third place, I think he's still in fourth place behind the not running Marco Rubio. But the idea that somehow this embittering process that he stays in the race and then is the white knight at a deadlocked convention is poppycock. And I don't get it. Though there is one thing that Kasich is doing. I guess he is depriving some votes from Ted Cruz, but as we swing in to the next phase of races in the northeast of the United States, there are a lot of voters there who will be a lot more inclined toward moderate bipartisan Kasich than they would be to conservative Ted Cruz. So he will steal more votes from Donald Trump in the coming weeks than he is from Ted Cruz.
KELLY: That's the thing, Larry, is that Trump, even though, OK, this is a loss for him tonight, he's very well positioned in New York. Right now, he's leading in California, he's leading in Pennsylvania, all of which are delegate rich.
SABATO: Yes. Look, he's clearly going to do very well in New York, and I think he'll do very well the following week in the Pennsylvania plus Middle Atlantic northeastern primary. So he's likely to pick up a lot of delegates there. And then it switches back in this ping-pong match. It's going to go to Indiana and Nebraska. I would say Cruz is pretty substantially favored in both of those states. That's what we're going to see now, back and forth, back and forth, all the way through June 7th when we finally could do that addition and see whether Trump is at 1237. Nothing else much matters. I think one thing that Chris and I would agree on is if Trump does not get to a firm 1237 delegates on the first ballot, he's not going to be the nominee.
KELLY: Why? Because Ted Cruz has worked the other delegates so much?
(CROSSTALK)
SABATO: Go ahead, Chris.
STIREWALT: I was just going to say, Cruz's best shot is to win on the first ballot because of exactly what you said, Megyn. The fact that he is working these other delegates. Remember, we have got at least 150 unbound delegates plus others that are going to come into Cleveland, not pledged to any candidate. And we also have Rubio's delegates. If Rubio releases them in advance, what Cruz would want to do is sling-shot pass Trump on the first ballot. He may be behind in bound delegates, but he is going to hope that there are 200 delegates or so that might be able to pull him into an outright win on the first ballot. It's a powerful argument that he can make to his party, that the best way and the best time to stop Donald Trump is not on the fifth ballot.
KELLY: I am learning something. You're telling me that the Ted Cruz plan is to get Rubio's delegates to vote for him, Ted Cruz, on the first vote?
STIREWALT: To get as many first ballot votes as he can from unbound delegates and beg, beg, beg, beg, beg Marco Rubio. Come on, go ahead and release your delegates. Let me do this so that he can take it over the top, right from the start. Because once you -- you have all these establishment Republicans.
KELLY: I got it.
STIREWALT: . high on all this fifth ballot stuff.
KELLY: Oh, that's fascinating. Gentlemen, thank you both. We're awaiting Ted Cruz. I want to get to our next guest as we do, Stuart Stevens, author of the upcoming book, The Innocent Have Nothing To Fear. And Scott Brown, Fox News contributor and former Massachusetts Republican Senator. Thank you, guys. Stuart, your thoughts on what we're seeing tonight on the Ted Cruz win?
STUART STEVENS, THE INNOCENT HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR AUTHOR: It's a good night for Ted Cruz and not such a good night for Donald Trump. I really think that, as Larry was saying, that there's two numbers to focus on, the 1237 number. But also, the head-to-head with Hillary Clinton. I think that it's going to be very sobering, as increasingly that number sets in unless it changes. If it stays the same, we're looking at an epic landslide for Democrats that is likely to take out not just the White House but the Senate and throw the House into jeopardy. For a party to do that is very unusual when there are any other plausible options.
KELLY: But, Stuart, you know that Ted Cruz in the head-to-head matchups with Hillary loses by 3 points. Donald Trump loses by 10 or 11. Ted Cruz loses to her by 3. Kasich wins but Kasich has only won one state, his home state.
STEVENS: Well, listen, what can I say? I mean, I think that Kasich should have run earlier and run longer. It's very hard running for president. It's very, very difficult to win a nomination. I think he's a tremendous talent and a great governor, it's just hard.
KELLY: But, Senator Brown, what I'm going for here is, if the Republicans want simply the most electable candidate, they go for John Kasich, if they're just following the polls. That is not apparently what is driving the vote this year.
SCOTT BROWN, FORMER MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR: No, of course not. People are angry. They look at John, who is a great guy. And they look at him as part of the establishment, somebody who has been in the Senate obviously, who has been a governor, and kind of you know talks about all the establishment things that he does. So there's that anti-establishment thing that is just there on the left and the right. It's interesting what's happening tonight with all the negative press, with the unforced errors, with the barrage of negative ads, you know, if Donald comes out of it with a handful of delegates, you know, I think that's a win. If he doesn't, I said a long time ago, Megyn, before I started appearing on your show, that this is going to go to California. I said that like five or six months ago. And I still believe that. And then, we will see what happens.
KELLY: California is June 7th. And there will be a period between the end of the voting and the actual convention where these guys can work the delegate math and they can work the delegates and so on. But you know obviously at this point, they say Wisconsin predicts the winners, right? Wisconsin has a great history of predicting the eventual nominee. Stuart, that's because typically at this point in the contest, the party has coalesced behind one person.
STEVENS: Right.
KELLY: . wherein an alternate universe this year where the party refuses to that and the divisions seem to be growing deeper.
STEVENS: I don't think that these predictors are very accurate. In 2012, Mitt Romney lost South Carolina, and no Republican had ever lost South Carolina and went on to win the nomination in modern history. I think the key here really is electability, I think, is a weak message. And I don't think Ted Cruz is out there selling electability. But within three points you're within the margin of error, you have a fighting chance here to win an election. And certainly, he's someone also -- and this is important, Republicans can stand on stage with Ted Cruz. They may not agree with him on everything. He certainly hasn't been my favorite candidate in a lot of regard. But I really think a lot of Republicans are going to have trouble standing only stage and embracing Donald Trump and saying I stand with this person who has said these things, who does these things. Now, to a certain degree, you have to say the Trump campaign is trying to adapt and shift, but schedules a series of policy speeches, I think that's positive for them. They've hired (inaudible) seasoned operative. If they can prove to be a learning organism and adapt, they can change.
KELLY: That's the thing.
STEVENS: If not, I think it will be very tough for Republicans to go with someone who is losing by double digits.
KELLY: So, Senator Brown, now that Donald Trump is so close to the end, you know, he's successfully eliminated almost all of those 17 other contenders he was against.
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome the Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: Stand by. We'll get to them when we get to Ted Cruz. Now, that Donald Trump has eliminated almost all but the last two remaining candidates, can he shift? Can he reach out to the Republican Party, try to mend some fences? Try to be as his wife said more presidential, stay away from the Twitter?
BROWN: Sure.
KELLY: Twitter Rowdy. As much as they love him, it may not appeal to his best instincts.
BROWN: Sure. Obviously, he needs to, and I think he started that when he met with the RNC and has tried to reach out to other members of Congress. I think that's critically important. I know I made that suggestion and many, many other people have. So it's very important. I thought your analysis by the other guest about talking about policy and really putting forth you know where he stands on positions is critically important now. I think that will give people a good sense of where his head is at. And he is learning. He is growing. And you know, we'll see what happens. Like you said, it's not over until it's over. And this is far from over. So you guys are going to have a lot of fun and a lot of things to talk about.
KELLY: In the meantime, Stuart, you know, Hillary Clinton, her unfavorables, we talk a lot about Donald Trump's unfavorables with women, because we've seen some numbers lately that are not good for him. But her numbers with women are quite bad, too. They're almost as bad as his. And so, the Democrats are vulnerable this year. It is not a lock for her.
STEVENS: The problem with Donald Trump is he's depressing Republican base vote, because he's turning off a lot of Republicans who voted for Mitt Romney. What he's saying these inflammatory things motivate Democratic base voters. So you have to have the worst of both worlds. You're turning off your base and turning on the other base. It's hard to win that way. I have to believe there's somebody inside the Clinton headquarters that sacrificing at least a small goat every day hoping that Donald Trump wins. I mean, she has only 37 percent of the public thinks that Hillary Clinton is honest, but only 27 percent think that Donald Trump is honest.
KELLY: But they don't care about honesty. The only thing the exit poll shows us is only like 15 percent of the voters care about honesty. They have given up with honesty among their politicians.
STEVENS: I never know how to answer that.
KELLY: Let's give it to Scott Brown. He actually held office.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Yeah, listen. Honesty is very important and people don't trust Hillary Clinton and they think of her as a liar. And there's no trustworthiness. And the fact that Bernie Sanders, a socialist, who has been a politician virtually his whole life, has done nothing to solve all these problems. He's looked at as the outsider? It's fascinating. All I can say is if in fact we don't unite, let's just say hypothetically.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: Senator, my apologies. But we don't want to miss this. Because Senator Ted Cruz is coming out for an important night on him, in a victory that he was looking for. I asked him last night, what do you want? You want to win by a certain margin. And he said I want to win. And he's gotten that win tonight. You can see him on stage in a state, which he's worked very hard to win. His wife, Heidi Cruz, Harvard MBA, standing next to him, you can see some of his supporters on the stage. One of the interesting things tonight is whether Ted Cruz waxes poetic and sounds like a preacher or whether his message starts to change to appeal more to the northeastern states which come up next. That's been one of the criticisms of Cruz and his messaging and something that you could hear a little shift on in the past days. So we'll listen together and find out whether we hear certainly a jubilant Ted Cruz tonight, but the message he has for Republican voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: God bless the great state of Wisconsin.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: What an incredible victory tonight. And thank you to your tremendous governor, Governor Scott Walker, for his principles and passionate leadership.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Tonight is a turning point. It is the rallying cry. It is a call from the hardworking men and women of Wisconsin to the people of America. We have a choice. A real choice. The national political terrain began to change two weeks ago. In the state of Utah, we won 69 percent of the vote, a landslide election.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Winning every single delegate in the state. Then, just three days ago in Colorado, two congressional districts voted. Once again, they elected six delegates. And of those six delegates, we won all six.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: And then two days ago in North Dakota, we had another tremendous win. They elected their delegates. Of the delegates who specified their support, 18 are supporting our campaign, 1 is supporting Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Eighteen to one, I'll take that ratio any day of the week.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: And now tonight here in Wisconsin, a state that just three weeks ago, the media written off, three weeks ago, the media said Wisconsin was a perfect state for Donald Trump. But the hard working men and women of Wisconsin stood and campaigned tirelessly to make sure that tonight was a victory for every American.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Four very different states, Utah, Colorado, North Dakota, Wisconsin. Four victories.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: So just how significant is tonight? Well, just today, our campaign has raised over $2 million.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: People all over the country going to Ted Cruz.org. Ted Cruz.org. Ted Cruz.org. Contributing $10 or $25 or $50. We've had over $1.3 million contributions.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: In the last two weeks and in the coming days when Colorado and Wyoming finish voting, we are likely to have gained over 100 delegates on Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: And as a result of tonight, as a result of the people of Wisconsin defying the media, defying the pundits I'm more and more convinced our campaign is going to earn the 1,237 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Either before Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland, together we will win a majority of the delegates. And together, we will beat Hillary Clinton in November.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Tonight was a bad night for Hillary Clinton. It was a bad night in the Democratic primary, and it was an even worse night for her in the Republican primary.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: We're winning because we're uniting the Republican Party. Of the 17 candidates who started this race, a terrific talented dynamic field, five have now endorsed this campaign.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Rick Perry and Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: And Wisconsin's own Governor Scott Walker.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: When you toss in Senator Mike Lee and Mark Levin, we've got the full spectrum of the Republican Party coming together and uniting behind this campaign.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: In 1960, accepting the Democratic Party's nomination, John F. Kennedy observed, I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent and the stakes too high to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness. But to light the candle that can guide us to see through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office, if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future. The same is true today. Tonight, Wisconsin has lit a candle guiding the way forward. Tonight, we once again have hope for the future.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Tonight is about unity and tonight is about hope. Young people in America once again have hope that we will bring jobs back to America.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: By repealing ObamaCare, passing it.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Raining in the federal regulators that are killing small businesses.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Passing a flat tax. And abolishing the IRS.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: We will unleash incredible economic growth. Our border will finally be made secure. And sanctuary cities will end.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Truck drivers, and mechanics, and plumbers, and steelworkers, union members, men and women with calluses on their hands, will once again see wages rising, opportunity expanding. Working moms.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Working moms struggling to make ends meet will see take-home pay rising, the cost of living falling, and common core ending.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Catholic schools and Jewish day schools, bring them young (ph) and the Little Sisters of the Poor will see a Supreme Court that protects their religious liberty.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: The fundamental freedom of every one of us to live according to our faith and our conscience. We'll see a Supreme Court that protects.
KELLY: And Ted Cruz telling the viewers and the voters tonight that this is a turning point and a rallying cry saying this was the perfect state for Donald Trump to win according to the prognosticators. And yet, Ted Cruz has a victory there tonight saying Hillary, get ready, here we come.
Our coverage continues tonight with my friend, Sean Hannity. Thanks for watching, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. This is "The Kelly File."
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