Hume: West Virginia reveals Clinton's weakness as candidate
Fox News senior political analyst sounds off on 'The Kelly File'
This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," May 10, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Breaking tonight, the polls just closed in Nebraska and we can now say Donald Trump is the big winner in his quest to build up the delegate count.
Welcome to "The Kelly File," everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. Today, voters in Nebraska and West Virginia headed to the polls. Donald Trump winning big in both states. Of course he was the only major candidate on the ballot so, you know, it was kind of expected. But it was a different story over on the Democratic side. Where only West Virginia counts for them. Front- runner Hillary Clinton suffering yet another loss. To Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders.
Now, you may recall West Virginia has been hit hard by coal's decline and folks there did not take kindly to Clinton's suggestion that she would put a lot of coal miners and companies out of business. But this is not the end of Mrs. Clinton's problems. New polling indicates her likely matchup with Donald Trump may be tighter than previously thought. Not only that, she has a big problem with male voters. We'll have more on that just a little later in the hour.
Plus, we'll be joined by Brit Hume in moments. But we begin tonight with West Virginia's favorite son, Chris Stirewalt, our Fox News digital politics editor who is tracking the exit polling as it comes in. He is over there by the decision desk. He steps away from me. But apparently they thought it would be more exciting if we could see him with some computers behind him. So, I take you to Chris Stirewalt to tell us what we should glean -- what you believe is the headline from the races we've watched tonight.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: I'm in here as evidence, not that I am smart, but I know smart people and then I'm around them and they will tell me things. The reality tonight for Hillary Clinton is this, we could probably go ahead and make the call on the West Virginia general election vote. She'd get beat bad. And I mean really bad. Half of the Democrats said they wouldn't vote for her. Third of them said they'd vote for Trump. Those are the Democrats. Those are the people who went and voted in the Democratic primary today. What this tells us is that when it comes to White voters, and West Virginia is the perfect core sample of white working class voters in America.
What it tells us is, when it comes to these voters, especially among men, it is a disaster. You made reference to those polls in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, that showed the same thing. The gender gaps here are maybe 10 points as much as ten points higher than they were the last time around with the general electorate. Mitt Romney losing women by substantial numbers. Donald Trump losing numbers by huge numbers. Hillary Clinton doing horribly with male voters. This is battle of the sexes. And also, White voters big for Trump. Minority voters as little as 14 percent. So this is tough stuff.
KELLY: Don't you find that interesting, though? That she is struggling so mightily with the men and Trump continues to struggle with the women. And as somebody who watches elections, Stirewalt, how does that play out?
STIREWALT: Well, here's the deal. Generally speaking, women vote at a greater frequency than men. The numbers aren't a huge difference. If you had to pick one gender, yes, it would be women. The issue here basically is this. If you -- this cannot persist. It will not persist that you can have such a wide delta. A national discussion is getting ready to take place. And it's going to take place in a lot of homes. And it's going to take place between a lot of husbands and a lot of wives about, okay, I want him, you want her, I'm right, you're wrong.
And they'll going to go back and forth about that stuff. And it's going to happen on the air waves, it's going to happen around the country. I'll put it this way, if a chasm of this magnitude were to persist, this enormous chasm, if that was what was going on, you better believe that we would be in for a deeply fractured country.
KELLY: Is there any reason to watch Trump continue in, you know, states like West Virginia in Nebraska tonight, Oregon coming up? Do we care what happens in those states now? We know he's got it.
STIREWALT: No, I mean, we don't. Whatever Mitt Romney -- in the end, here's the amazing thing. Donald Trump had about the same share of the primary vote of both Mitt Romney and John McCain when the race ended about 40 percent.
KELLY: But he got it before the race ended, you're saying?
STIREWALT: Right. No, the race has ended. When after Indiana, when it was kaput and the last guy -- Ted Cruz said, I might run if we click our heels together three times and everybody in Nebraska says, I'm the guy. Maybe I'd get back in. Give me a break.
(LAUGHTER)
The reality is, when it was over, after Indiana, and they all dropped out, they had the same share. Donald Trump did about his -- now, he had some things going against him, particularly that nobody's ever gotten more votes against him in a Republican primary than him. But he did about as well as Romney, he did about as well as McCain. But the situation around him looks very different than it did for those two.
KELLY: In what way?
STIREWALT: In the fact that he's facing these chasms.
KELLY: Yes, right, right. There was not this strong objection from women, from Hispanics, from young people and so on that at least exist right now. Chris, great to see you.
STIREWALT: You bet.
KELLY: For the Clinton campaign, tonight's results in West Virginia are a far cry from 2008, watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, may God bless you and God bless America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: That's Mrs. Clinton from eight years ago delivering her victory speech after beating then Senator Barack Obama by a 41-point margin. What a different story tonight. And it may be revealing a big problem for Mrs. Clinton in her matchup against Donald Trump.
Brit Hume is our Fox News senior political analyst. Brit, wow! It's incredible when you think back about that. You forget about how badly she crushed Barack Obama and could not manage to squeak out a win tonight. What does it tell you?
BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it is this night, in more than one respect, is all about her weakness as a candidate, her weakness, surprising weakness, despite the odds now in her favor among Democrats. The new polling out today in those three battleground states that you mentioned earlier suggests that she is far weaker as a general election candidate in those key states than one might have imagined against Donald Trump. So, that's your story tonight.
And I think it has a lot to do, Megyn, with the economy in West Virginia, that is to say the West Virginia piece of this does, because the coal industry has had a rocky history over a very long period of time. Boom and bust cycles. And now of course you have this concerted effort on the part of the Obama administration to basically put coal industry out of business. And when Hillary Clinton made that comment, you know, we're going to be putting a lot of coal companies out of business, she was speaking the truth.
KELLY: And she later says, she misspoke and she didn't mean to say that?
HUME: Well, she didn't -- what she said was, it was robbed of the context, in which she was promising a big job training program and other aid for displaced miners. But the problem is of course, a lot of these people who worked in the coal mines, I wrote a book about the coal industry years ago. It's not that they love the job, it's hard work, but they are wedded to their region and coal has been a way of life in those Appalachian regions for a long time. And what they all sense is the -- what's needed is to get the regulatory boot off the neck of that industry.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
HUME: And it's pretty clear that Hillary Clinton with fidelity to the green, her interest and so on is not about to do that. And that is why the statement is so revealing. Not because it was, you know, a falsehood but because it was true and it made it clear she's not going to change anything, she's simply going to try to apply some kind of assistance to the people in that region.
KELLY: Meanwhile, Sanders continues to burn. I mean, he's not out of it yet. He continues to win. And what does that do to her campaign?
HUME: Well, first of all, it's embarrassing. And it makes it difficult for her to make the turn that I know she would like to make toward mounting the attacks that I'm sure are coming on Donald Trump. Donald Trump, you know, as has been noted by many people, is kind of a target-rich environment has a lot of things that he has said and done that are quite controversial, and would be presumably offensive to segments of the electorate that she would like to appeal to. But as long as, you know, he's still nipping at her heels and beating her various places, it exposes her weakness, exposes the fact that she hasn't got the base of her party sewed up, which you need to do to win elections, and it keeps her focused on something that she'd rather not have to focus on.
KELLY: So, the Republicans like to have Bernie in this race. Is there any chance the Democrats, after all the talks of the Republicans having a contested convention, is there any chance the Democrats are facing that?
HUME: Well, it looks like her delegate lead because of the presence of the super delegates and their overwhelming support for her, Republicans don't really have super delegates, the Democrats have that. She's got a prohibitive lead. And it would be, you know, a bolt of lightning were that to begin to slip away from her and him to win so big everywhere that he accumulated. Remember, the Democrats, all these states, are proportional representation.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
HUME: So, you can win a state, you know, handily but the person you beat gets nearly as many delegates as you do.
KELLY: Yes.
HUME: So, it's very hard for him -- I think it's impossible for him to catch up at this point.
KELLY: I got to ask you about --
HUME: But he's not given up. And so, there still continues to be this race and she's not won it.
KELLY: So, what we saw between Trump and Clinton yesterday was this, and over the weekend was a dust-up about the issue of women. Trump's language about women in the past. And a group supporting Hillary put out a tough add, attacking him for the words. And Hillary meantime, is saying I'm not going to respond. He's going to run his campaign. He is going to say what he wants to say about me, about women, whatever, me and Hillary Clinton. And I'm just going to run my campaign, she said. Can she possibly maintain that with him bringing up all that stuff Bill Clinton did and she allegedly did. Back in the '90s, that a lot of these young voters are hearing for the first time? Can she maintain the "I'm not going to comment on it," you know, defense?
HUME: Well, look at the options. If she wants to engage in it, look, she can counterattack Trump it seems to me by highlighting the things that he said about women, the number of marriages, and his braggadocios, about his sexual exploits and all the rest, she could do that if she wanted too. But she can't really defend -- she can't deny the idea that Bill Clinton was kind of a horn dog when -- and long had that reputation and was carrying on with women while he was in the White House. I mean, that's true. And, you know, he got impeached for lying about it, you know, for lying to a grand jury about it. So, I can understand why she didn't want to feed that story.
KELLY: She can just see the general election debate where she tries to say something about Trump's language and he just keeps responding horn dog, horn dog.
(LAUGHTER)
It's going to be interesting, Bill. It's going to be interesting. Great to see you.
HUME: Thanks, Megyn.
KELLY: Well, with Trump inching closer to being the actual GOP nominee, two of his former opponents made news today on what may happen in Cleveland. Herman Cain is next on that story.
Plus, we've got new reaction tonight to a stunning poll on Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton in three of the must-win states.
Also, former Facebook employees claim the site has a serious bias against conservatives and they're not blowing the whistle on what's happening behind the scenes there. Howie Kurtz joins us live on that. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA., FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I intend to continue to do that. But look, here's a situation that were in. On the one hand, I don't want Hillary Clinton to be the President of the United States. I don't want her to win this election. On the other hand, as I said, I have well defined differences with the current -- the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. And like millions of Republicans, you try to reconcile those two things. I intend to live up to the pledge that we made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Well, that was Marco Rubio in his first interview since ending his campaign doing a delicate dance around the question of whether he will pull the lever for Donald Trump. But Senator Rubio isn't the only also ran sending mixed messages today. Both Rubio and Ted Cruz were out suggesting that they will continue to support their party while tiptoeing around the specific questions of whether that means they will actually vote for Donald Trump. And Cruz added an even deeper wrinkle in an interview with Glenn Beck, suggesting he may be leaving the door open to getting back into the race if he does well in the Nebraska primary. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If there is a path to victory, we launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended the race last week is with Indiana's loss, I didn't see a viable path to victory. If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Chief Washington correspondent James Rosen has more. James?
JAMES ROSEN, FOX NEWS CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, good evening. In his first appearance at his Senate office since February, Ted Cruz returned to what he called, with a touch of sarcasm, the welcoming embrace of Washington. The Texas senator made clear he has no plan to endorse presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump anytime soon. No time to release his delegates anytime soon and no real plan to re-enter the race should he win Nebraska. As he seen in a light-hearted interview with Glenn Beck earlier in the day to be leaving the door open to pursue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: We're not going to win Nebraska today. There should be no mystery, no excitement in that. We've withdrawn from the campaign. And it's in the hands of the voters. If circumstances change, we will always assess the changed circumstances but I appreciate the eagerness and excitement of all the folks in the media to see me back in the ring. But we may have to wait a little bit longer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSEN: Also making a splashy return to the capital, Marco Rubio talking foreign policy at the conservative Hudson Institute Think Tank. The Florida senator who is holding on to his delegates said he wouldn't spent the next six months taking shot at Trump. Even as he rejected Trump's rhetoric about the U.S. paying too much to defend regional allies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: And I don't necessarily disagree that sometimes our efforts on behalf of others is disproportional. What we think is the return or the gratitude of others. But we also have to understand that we have benefited from this arrangement economically, politically, geopolitically, even domestically. If you think back of what it would have been, what would age it look like today if the United States has not been engaged in efforts to help Japan rebuild.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSEN: Now, the Cruz campaign or what remains of it, may define pm deadline on Monday to file the slate of delegates for California primary next month. Cruz's state director told us that was just, quote, "to keep faith with our supporters" -- Megyn.
KELLY: Hmm. James, thank you.
Joining me now with reaction, Herman Cain, a former GOP presidential candidate, Fox News contributor, and the author of "The Right Problems: What the President, Congress, and Every Candidate Should Be Working On."
Great to see you, Herman. Thanks for being here. What do you make of this Ted Cruz business? You know, if I win, he didn't win Nebraska. And then he said, I knew I wasn't going to win Nebraska. Is this guy thinking about get back in, do you think?
HERMAN CAIN, FORMER GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think so. He's throwing a handful of mud in the water. It was already murky enough with this whole anti-Trump Never Trump movement. So now Ted Cruz has just muddied the waters even more. Here's the other significant thing about him saying that, and even alluding to it. I understand that he wants to try to give his supporters a little bit of hope. But this further divides the Republican Party and Ted Cruz, like Marco Rubio, said they will support the ultimate nominee. Marco Rubio just said that he would. Ted Cruz is muddying the water and going back on his word. That's not going to get him a path to victory and it's not going to set well with the voters.
KELLY: How does, you know, Ted Cruz even attempt to work this out with Donald Trump or vice versa? Because, you know, Ted Cruz, last we heard from him on supporting Trump, he said, I'm not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife. And then the last day in Indiana, Trump attacked Ted Cruz's father, suggesting he was in on the JFK assassination. So that happened. So who reaches out to whom?
CAIN: Well, I think that Donald Trump has shown, he will sit down and talk with anyone, even if he has differences with them. But as long as Ted Cruz says he's not going to support him, he's not going to do this and he's not going to say he's willing to sit down, then I think --
KELLY: He didn't go quite that far. He didn't go --
CAIN: Right.
KELLY: Mitt Romney went that far but Ted Cruz --
CAIN: Mitt Romney went that far. Right. Now, let's look at the meeting that's supposed to take place on Thursday as an example. Donald Trump welcomed the meeting with Ryan and Priebus. That is a good move. He didn't say, okay, no, I'm not going to talk. No, he's willing to talk. So, but as long as Ted Cruz keeps saying, I'm not going to support the nominee --
KELLY: I might not.
CAIN: The presumptive nominee is now Donald Trump, that way he's digging in his heels and continuing to throw mud in it. When Ted Cruz suspended his campaign, I thought it was the first step on his part to help healing the Republican Party. Now, he has stepped back in terms of helping to heal the Republican Party.
KELLY: But what does Donald Trump need to do to heal? Because, you know, what the experts say is the victor is normally the one expected to reach out to those who have been defeated and say all right, come on, let's get together, you know, to be the gracious winner and try to bring those people into the polls. Now, I don't know what he's going to do about Mitt Romney who is out there saying, he will not vote Trump or Clinton --
CAIN: Right.
KELLY: And saying quote, I wish we had better choices which, you know, I don't know what the Republican Party is going to do about that, right?
CAIN: Megyn, we started with 17 choices. We now have one. What are they looking for?
KELLY: You.
CAIN: You know, probably the choice, you know, the choice they want died on a cross 2,000 years ago. I keep trying to get that message over to them. But see, Trump issued an olive branch in his Indiana victory speech. When he commented on how tough a competitor Ted Cruz was. He didn't bash Cruz. He didn't bring up any of the old laundry. He said some very complimentary things about Ted Cruz. Now I think he's extending an olive branch. But now Cruz has done just the opposite. I'm not going to support Donald Trump. I'm not going to do this. And if there's a path to victory, was that isn't, he may consider it. I think that further divides the Republican Party.
KELLY: Herman Cain, great to see you.
CAIN: Thank you, Megyn.
Also tonight, explosive new details in the claim that Facebook is doing things behind the scenes to hurt conservatives. And to promote Liberal causes. We have news on this. We'll bring it to you.
Plus, Quinnipiac released a stunning poll today on Trump versus Clinton in three key swing states, key to the election in November. Our superstar panel has a new look at what it means right after this break. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: And it's why I've been so concerned about the reckless talk coming from Donald Trump. People say, well, maybe he doesn't really mean it. When you are running for serving as president, you'd better mean what you say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight. Donald Trump has added to his delegate count tonight with win in both West Virginia and Nebraska. While Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton handily in the state of West Virginia. That comes on the same day, we got brand-new general election match-up polls out of three key swing states. Trump wins one state, and is inside the margin of error and two others. So even though Clinton is now beating Trump nationally in an average of all polls, there are new question about the idea that Clinton could win easily against the New York businessman.
We've got a power panel on this. But first, John Roberts has the details. John?
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, good evening to you. It's a Quinnipiac poll. Three of the most important battleground states, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Let's take a look at the numbers here, the Quinnipiac poll found that in Florida, Hillary Clinton beats Donald Trump by 43 percent to 42 percent. You said, within the margin of error. I mean, that is so far within the margin of error. It's literally dead even.
Go to Pennsylvania now, she leads him by the same margin. But when we go to the state of Ohio, we always talk about Ohio being so important to the general election. Take a look at this, Donald Trump ahead 43 percent to 39 percent. Then as a four-point split. To break the poll down even further, she has a substantial lead among women. But he has an equal if not greater lead among men and they both pretty much split independent. So you couldn't have a race that's tighter than that. Now what do polls mean six months ahead of the election? Not a whole bunch because so much can change between now and November.
So much can change between now and next week for that matter. But it's important for Donald Trump because you had a lot of those big Republican donors who had been sitting on the fence thinking, this guy is going to get blown out in November the same way that Mondale got blown up by Reagan in '84 or Goldwater got blown out in 1964. But this is an indication, Megyn, that maybe that assumption is incorrect and at this point in the race, it looks like he's got at least an even, if not better than even, shot to beat her in November. Again, a lot can happen between now and November.
One of the big things that can happen is this meeting with Paul Ryan on Thursday. I talked with the Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski earlier tonight and he says the two of them despite their differences still have a lot in common in terms of creating jobs, fixing the economy and lowering tax. Does he expect that Speaker Ryan is going to come out after that Thursday meeting and say I wholeheartedly throw my support behind Trump? Not necessarily. The Donald Trump did say earlier tonight on Bill O'Reilly he thinks the meeting is going to go well. So there's a chance that at least the two of them will come out of there saying, we have points of agreement which would be a very strong signal to conservatives in the Republican Party that maybe Donald Trump is not the type of person that they think he is, at least if Speaker Ryan can get behind him to some degree -- Megyn.
KELLY: John Roberts, good to see you.
ROBERTS: Good to see you too. Thanks.
KELLY: Here with more, Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist. Monica Crowley, Fox News contributor and host of the Monica Crowley radio show. And Richard Socarides, White House senior advisor under President Bill Clinton and Democratic strategist. Good to see you, all.
So, Ben, let me ask you, you haven't been a huge supporter of Donald Trump's. But what do you make of these new polls?
BEN DOMENECH, PUBLISHER, THE FEDERALIST: I think these polls indicate that Donald Trump absolutely has a path to beating Hillary Clinton. It's another sign that if he doubles down on his appeal to Rust Belt voters who are less economically conservative than a lot of other voters that are within the Republican Party, that he absolutely has a path to making Ohio, Pennsylvania, perhaps even Michigan competitive states. Bernie Sanders, you will remember, won Michigan by a significant margin. It's also an indication that maybe the split on the Democratic side is going to be a more significant problem for Hillary Clinton entering a general election campaign.
You saw the win in West Virginia tonight by Bernie Sanders. Is she going to be able to unite her own party? We had all these questions about the Republican side. Maybe it's the Democrats who are going to have a bigger problem when it comes to an actual divide.
KELLY: Richard, are you surprised that it is this tight in Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania, at least according to this one poll?
RICHARD SOCARIDES, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'm not surprised because of course those are the most competitive states in every election. And that's why they're called battleground states, right. I do think that polling at this point in the election doesn't really matter very much because most voters have not really tuned into the election. And, in fact, now, there are a lot of polls that show Hillary Clinton winning in these states and there are also the polling -- the poll of polls, shows her about seven points ahead of Mr. Trump nationally, which of course would be a blow out. But, listen, I think it's clear, you know, we've all underestimated Donald Trump during this primary season and I think this is going to be a very tough and competitive race. But I think when people focus on the issues and focus on the kinds of things that Mr. Trump has said and the kinds of crazy things he stands for, that Hillary Clinton will be the clear victor.
KELLY: The thing is, Monica, it may come down largely to what kind of campaigns they run. And the question is whether Hillary Clinton is a good campaigner.
MONICA CROWLEY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, and I think that she has a proven track record, Megyn, of not being a very effective campaigner. She is not her husband. And I think that's causing a lot of discomfort for a lot of Democrats. She can't even really call on her husband, who's been out there, and use sort of judiciously by the Clinton campaign, but not -- he's not the powerhouse that he once was. I think what is surprising for a lot of people, taking a look at particularly the battleground numbers, Megyn, is the fact that it's tightened so quickly. And I would just say to keep in mind that Donald Trump has been in a sprawling Republican primary. That's the race he's been waging now for the last, what, 10 months or so. Now, that it's switching to a general election campaign, and he is training his political fire on Mrs. Clinton and the Democrats more broadly, that's why you're seeing the numbers now start to tighten. I think you will see a continuing shift in those numbers, now that we've moved into a new phase of the campaign.
KELLY: The problem for Trump in this, Ben, is that his record is his record. And that he threw a lot of sharp elbows over the past 9, 10 months, and there's a record of them.
DOMENECH: There's a record of them. It's going to be used against him in a general election. And it's, you know -- frankly, it is a pretty fiery record. A lot of pretty crazy quotes and things were said over the course of this primary campaign. But the fact of the matter is he was able to dispatch what the other 16 Republican candidates. And on the Democratic side, I mean, granted it's not quite as appealing to see the equivalents of Larry David arguing over what makes a nice piece of fish, but it is the sort of situation that is a real conflict over the issues, over ideological things that matter to Democratic voters. I feel like in this context, as mean as this primary may have been on the Republican side, the divides within the Democratic side may actually turn out to be more significant because it has to do with those issues that you were talking about before, that are very divisive within the Democratic coalition.
KELLY: What's going to be really ugly is if she emerges as the nominee and goes head to head with Trump. I want to tell you that we are getting some brand-new exit polling. Donald Trump, he won big tonight in Nebraska and West Virginia. And he did so because the voters continue to be receptive to his populous message. I want to ask Richard about this in a moment. Look at this. These are from West Virginia. Two-thirds think trade takes jobs away from American workers. About half feel betrayed by Republican Party politicians. Nearly half angry with the federal government. We've seen this over and over again. As a result of this, a lot of these voters want to change. And for them that candidate is Trump. Numbers in Nebraska look similar. Sanders won West Virginia. And you can see how. He had support from the usual groups, young people, independents, he picked up some of Clinton's groups, women, seniors. Look at these. Look at these, 71 percent with young voters, Sanders gets, 61 percent of independents, 52 percent of women he's winning. And on and on it goes. So let me go back to the panel. Richard, the Democrats are not united. They are not united. Does it worry you?
SOCARIDES: It does not worry me because I think we will be united, and I think you have to really look at the facts. I mean, those exit polls from West Virginia and Nebraska are interesting. West Virginia and Nebraska are hardly representatives of the country. I would dispute the notion that Hillary Clinton is not a good candidate. I think she has been an excellent candidate. She was elected twice as senator of New York, she almost won the.
(CROSSTALK)
SOCARIDES: She almost won the Democratic nomination for president eight years ago. She's about to secure.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: The point is, she can get -- Hillary and Trump, as they're fighting each other, they're going to be fighting for the middle. I guess it's weird with Trump, you will never know.
(CROSSTALK)
SOCARIDES: Listen, I think though, it's going to be clear. I think it's going to be a tough campaign. It's going to be very competitive. But the choice is going to be so clear for voters, whether you want to take a risky chance on someone like Mr. Trump who's all over the place, who changes his mind all the time, who suggested that, you know, his foreign policy experience consists of going to the Ms. America pageant in Moscow. I mean, this guy is not going to be elected president. Now, I know we've underestimated him before. I know he has been proven a very effective politician. But I think when the country is focused on this, and when all Americans are focused on what it means for our country, the choice is going to be clear.
KELLY: There are a lot of world leaders there. You're being too tough on him. Monica, your thoughts on that.
CROWLEY: You know, what's interesting, Megyn, is that even at this late date, neither one of the front-runners really has locked down their bases. So Donald Trump is now in a position of reassuring conservatives, meeting with Republican leaders, trying to get the Republican Party united behind him. Mrs. Clinton has also not locked down her base. Her base is with Bernie Sanders.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: Let me just finish my point. So Mrs. Clinton has the serious problem of her base is now with the other guy who remains in the race. But even more importantly, Mrs. Clinton has been on the national scene for something like 30 years and she has serious challenges because the majority of the American people find her dishonest and untrustworthy. So she has a huge mountain to climb, especially she is running against the candidate who doesn't care she's a Clinton and doesn't care she's a woman, and has thrown the rule book out. She's going to face a race unlike anything.
KELLY: Go ahead, Richard.
(CROSSTALK)
SOCARIDES: I just think you know we have to look at the facts, right. Bernie Sanders has said that he will support the Democratic nominee and he will do everything in his power and campaign his heart out for the Democratic nominee in order to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. So I think the Democrats are already a lot more unified than the Republicans. And I think the choice will be clear.
KELLY: Go ahead, Ben.
DOMENECH: I think the choice is between candidates who represent change and candidates who represent the status quo. The reason that there's so much energy behind Bernie Sanders and there's been so much energy behind Donald Trump is because people are angry about the status quo. There is no better candidate to represent the status quo than Hillary Clinton. And that's going to be a problem for her.
CROWLEY: Yeah, the redevelop is against the bipartisan ruling class. So you see the populous revolt happening with Bernie Sanders on the left and with Donald Trump on the right.
(CROSSTALK)
SOCARIDES: I think there's a lot about Hillary Clinton that does not represent the status quo. First and foremost, the fact that we will be electing the first female president of our country.
KELLY: All right. OK. She's going to have to do better than that. It's not just going to be the woman thing that is going to get her into office. We all know that. All right. Great to see you all.
CROWLEY: Thanks, Megyn.
KELLY: And that is a good thing for women because it's not just your sex or your gender that gets you in or keeps you out hopefully.
Up next, former Facebook employees claim the site is going out of its way to prevent conservative stories from getting attention. And tonight conservatives are firing back. Howie Kurtz joins us on that.
Plus, the Belgian-owned company that owns Budweiser has decided to do away with one of the best-known brand names in America. Really? Is this true? The story behind that just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, new developments on a bombshell report alleging that Facebook selectively chooses what is trending on its site, based on political bias against conservatives. And tonight, the social media giant is facing mounting pressure to account for its methods. We'll get reaction from critic Howard Kurtz in a moment. But first, Trace Gallagher in our West Coast Newsroom with the report. Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, the trending box appears in the top right-hand side of the Facebook homepage, with an ever changing list of popular stories. Facebook has not explained how those stories are chosen except to say algorithms scan what's trending on the web and then a team of so-called news curators check to see if the stories are in fact news. But a former news curator tells that the technology blog (inaudible) that the trending feature is suppressing news stories about conservatives, excluding links to conservative news outlets, and promoting progressive stories like things with #BlackLivesMatter. In other words, manipulating what we see.
Facebook executive Tom Stocky, who for the record, is a Hillary Clinton campaign donor, denies the allegations, saying, quote, there are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives. And it turns out Facebook has enormous influence on the news we consume.
According to Pew research, 61 percent of 18-year-olds to 33-year-olds, or millennials get more of their political news from Facebook than any other source. It is also a primary news outlet for 40 percent of baby boomers. Now, South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune who is chair of the Senate Commerce Committee has sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wanting answers about how the company chooses its trending topics, and whether Facebook is using an objective algorithm. Facebook is now reviewing that letter. Megyn.
KELLY: Trace, thank you. Joining me now, the host of "MediaBuzz" here on Fox News, Howard Kurtz. Howie, good to see you. If this is true, it's deeply troubling. The allegation from this former anonymous as of now worker is that if the news was trending and it had to do with Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, C-PAC, Glenn Beck, Ted Cruz, drug report, Lois Lerner, things like that, if it was trending, pursuant to the algorithm, they would take it out of the trending column. And if news regarding things like Black Lives Matter or Syria was not trending, they would move it in. So they would actively manipulate the data.
HOWARD KURTZ, "MEDIABUZZ" HOST: These allegations, Megyn, really strike at the heart of Facebook as a neutral platform, to hear journalists were hired by Facebook to fiddle with the formulas, to inject their own opinion, not all of them, perhaps some with anti-conservative bias, as Trace Gallagher just explained, it really amounts to cooking the digital books, if true. And this is a massive public company that depends on its users to post a lot of personal information. If it loses that trust, it's got a big problem.
KELLY: According to this whistleblower who is an anonymous at this point, and so we haven't been able to check this person's credibility, but the report is that they provided, they kept records of the manipulation and provided them. But they're saying stories covered by conservative outlets like Breitbart, Washington Examiner, Newsmax, that were trending were excluded, unless mainstream sites like the New York Times, BBC, and CNN covered the same stories. Think of what that does. Think of what that does in a presidential race, right. If Ted Cruz is trending, but he can't get trending on Facebook because it's being too dominated by others who are sucking up the oxygen.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: People would cull the information.
KURTZ: Right. Some are calling this Trend-ghazi. And the fact you need some kind of mainstream media stamp of approval, because the Washington Examiner is not enough. Now, look, even these anonymous sources that spoke to the tech site, Gizmoto, they don't say that there's any top-down management directive about this, but it is important for our viewers to know that, for example Mark Zuckerberg openly supports President Obama on his immigration policy, that he gave a speech last month pretty openly ripping Donald Trump and that Facebook employees, some of them in an internal survey, asked this question, what should Facebook's responsibility be to prevent President Trump in 2017?
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: We don't know how to answer that. He may have responded by saying no responsibility, we stay out of politics?
KURTZ: It tells you something about the sentiment within Facebook. People are entitled to their opinions, they're entitled to donate money, but this is not just some website. This is the giant social network that basically tells us it doesn't.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: I mean, Senator Thune now wants them to account for their trending possess, which you tell me, does that cross a line?
KURTZ: Well, as troubling as these allegations are to me, I don't want the government locking around in this. If a Republican senator, or if any United States senator demanded for information about how to you make your editorial decisions to the New York Times, to CBS, to Fox News, I think there would be an uproar. I think the lawmaker would be told to go jump in the lake because, you know, this is not the business of the government. I think Facebook should investigate all this. I think Facebook owes the public a better explanation, but I'm not sure it should be the subject of a federal government investigation.
KELLY: They do say they're investigating. To their credit, they had said, look, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, our guidelines require that the review team members allow all points of view. We've seen the allegations that folks did not honor the intent of the guidelines. We take the allegations seriously. We're continuing to investigate. So I feel like you know we'll see more Facebook on this. They're going to have to let us know what happened.
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: I want to see an aggressive investigation.
KELLY: All night. Well done. Good to see you, Howie. I will give you a light, too.
KURTZ: Yes.
KELLY: Coming up, with the intense political season heating up this summer, the folks who own Budweiser decided it's a good time to reach for an ice cold can of America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
KELLY: You know how that really goes. Nevermind, I swore last night. I can't swear two nights in a row. Trace Gallagher is next as to what could be the end for one of the world's best-known brand names.
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KELLY: I had to dig deep into the archives for that one. The Budweiser -- the Budweiser Clydesdales have been part of the beer company's ad campaign since 1933. The beer, itself, has been around since 1876. Soon, the Budweiser name may be no more. The owners, a Belgian company, called in -- called Inbev, are planning for a name change. They should start with the name of the company, not the beer, right? Trace Gallagher.
GALLAGHER: Yeah. Inbev, Anheuser-Busch, whatever, except for the fact it's owned by a Belgian company and run by a Brazilian company, what could be more American than Budweiser? So beginning May 23rd, and going through the presidential election, the Budweiser logo on 12-ounce cans and bottles will be replaced with America. The company says because of the Summer Olympics and the election, they're trying to inspire drinkers to celebrate Budweiser's shared values of freedom and authenticity. Along with the name change, the labels will also have lines from the Pledge of Allegiance, Star Spangled Banner, and America the Beautiful. Reaction has been somewhat mixed, so we did our own informal marketing survey. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not? It's due for a change, Budweiser.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could live with it. I love America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they ought to stick with Budweiser. I don't know why they would change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Some tongue in cheek comments online say they finally understand what Donald Trump's hat stands for. And others wonder if Bud Light will soon change its name to Merica, you know, a George W. Bush pronunciation. Past Budweiser cans have also featured the Statue of Liberty and American flag. Anheuser-Busch, Inbev, sells 25 percent of the world's beer. The U.S. is their strongest market. But sales have dipped recently, so maybe this is kind of a way to boost them back up. Megyn.
KELLY: America is not a beer. We'll be right back.
GALLAGHER: Right.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: One week from tonight, my interview with Donald Trump. Nothing was off limits and we discussed it all. The interview airs next Tuesday on my new Fox broadcast special, "Megyn Kelly Presents." That's over on big Fox, Fox Broadcasting at 8:00 p.m. We'll also have exclusives with O.J. Simpson attorney, Robert Shapiro, his first interview in 20 years, Laverne Cox and Michael Douglas. "Megyn Kelly Presents," next Tuesday, May 17th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on your local time Fox station.
Question of the day, should Ted Cruz consider getting back into this race? Oh, Facebook.com/theKellyFile, and Twitter @MegynKelly. I'm Megyn Kelly. Thanks for watching. Here's Sean Hannity.
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