Veterans react to political fight over Trump's fundraiser
Presumptive Republican nominee defends donations to vets; debate on 'The Kelly File'
This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," May 31, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Breaking tonight, just hours after the end of the Memorial Day holiday, America's veterans in a political fight over millions in donations and the race for the White House.
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to "The Kelly File." I'm Megyn Kelly. Earlier today, Donald Trump holding an epic 40 minute news conference from the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City. Mr. Trump trying to put to rest lingering controversy over millions dollars in donations, raised for the men and women in America's armed forces. Outside Trump Tower, a dozen veterans staged a protest against the billionaire Republican front-runner. They are accusing him of using them as political props. But inside, standing on the stage behind Mr. Trump, were his own veteran supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL BALDASARO, AL BALDASARO, NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I would never, ever in a million years put my name on a candidate that did not from his heart look me in the eye and tell me he's concerned about veterans. That's Donald Trump. I think the liberal media, and I've been dealing with you a long time, you need to get your head out of your butt, focus on the real issues.
ALEXANDER MCCOY, FORMER MARINE: What Donald Trump doesn't understand is he cannot buy the votes of veterans in this country. No matter how much he donates, he still is not standing for the values that veterans stand for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: And on the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton's team making it no secret that they are trying to push this controversy to the voters. This is Clinton's campaign today unleashing surrogates to highlight what they say are Donald Trump's past disparaging remarks about veterans. In moments, we'll be joined by two of the veterans there today. One of whom spoke at the Trump event. They have two very different takes on Trump.
But first, we begin with chief political correspondent campaign, Carl Cameron who was inside the Trump event today. Carl?
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT CAMPAIGN: Thanks Megyn. A very combative news conference today. And this all goes back really to February when Donald Trump chose to skip a Fox News debate and set up a time that he would instead hold a rally to raise money for veterans. And he said it would be nice to raise about $1 million. Back then, he said that they would look for a number charities to be donating to. And as the dollars started rolling in, much to his surprise, it was much more than $1 million.
And ultimately, it got up to several campaign staffers and sometimes Mr. Trump himself said, it was anywhere between four, five, six or maybe even more millions of dollars. And over time, reporters began to ask which charities got the money, how much, how were those charities selected, were they vetted or not, might be there a possibility of getting scammed by some sort of a bogus veterans organization. And the Trump campaign was not forthcoming with very many answers. Today, at his news conference, he blamed the media and said that he'd been treated totally unfairly.
And the total -- $5.6 million he's collected. And he said that there was probably some more coming in. And from the original list of about 20 or 22 beneficiaries, groups that would have gotten this money, it went up to more than 40 today. And campaign aides say in the last couple of weeks about another million and a half or $2 million was in fact all doled out for a total of 5.6. It's over. The money's been given often to charities. And Donald Trump is now blaming the media and essentially saying that what they were doing was unfair.
Now, the truth of the matter is, the Clinton campaign has been protesting Trump and driving a lot of the questions in the press, saying that it was unfair and Trump is somehow been stove piping the money and not making it available. The Trump campaign argues that they were just vetting it and they need to make sure that it was going to go to the right people at the right time and now that's been done. Both campaigns use vets. Notwithstanding their service and patriotic efforts for the country there are plenty of liberal service vets, plenty of conservative vets and they're picking up sides right now -- Megyn.
KELLY: Carl, thank you.
Joining us now with more, Al Baldasaro, he's a retired U.S. Marine Corps, first sergeant, Republican, New Hampshire State representative and veteran adviser to the Trump campaign. And Raymond Curtis is a decorated disabled combat Iraq war veteran and part of the vets versus hate movement. Great to see you both. Thank you guys, for your service and for being here.
BALDASARO: Thank you for your service, by the way.
RAYMOND CURTIS, DISABLED IRAQ WAR VETERAN: Thank you very much.
KELLY: Let me start with you, Representative. So, you were there on behalf of Trump today. Speak to the reporting by the "Washington Post" and the AP that said Trump did not cut those checks, at least half of them, until the past week, after "The Washington Post" started pressing for where the money had gone.
BALDASARO: Right, first of all, I want to clarify something. I was there on behalf of veterans, okay, who were in need, and Donald Trump has to be one who supports those veterans. So, I want to clarify that. As far as the money that is being sent in today, you know, it takes time to vet. In New Hampshire, we have attorney general who constantly going after veteran groups that are raising money to help veterans. Twenty cents of the dollar goes to the veterans. There's so many scams going on there. So it takes time when you're dealing with that.
KELLY: Are you suggesting then that all these veterans groups, nearly half of them were just cleared coincidentally in the past week since "The Washington Post" submitted its report?
BALDASARO: You know, what we're doing, we're nitty-gritty, we're picking and choosing.
KELLY: No, it speaks to honesty, that's what we're talking about.
BALDASARO: What it speaks --
CURTIS: I actually wanted to respond to this.
KELLY: Go ahead, Ray.
CURTIS: Because we have the American Veterans Foundation, one of the organizations that Trump claims to have fully vetted when he was given an enough time and then donated money to. But you can check yourself right now, Google, the ratings.
KELLY: They have an "F" rating. They have an "F" rating. But apparently that was because they were harassing people to donate and they said that was just our telemarketers and we replaced that telemarketer.
CURTIS: Also 75 percent of donations goes to something other than veterans. So the 20 and 25 cents a dollar that you're trying to avoid wasn't avoid --
KELLY: But Raymond, speak to Al's point which is, he was going to give the money. He was going to give some portion of millions, some millions of dollars to these vets. But it does take some time to, you know, vet them.
BALDASARO: Right.
CURTIS: Well, yes, absolutely. And I think the main point here, and for all of us that were there on the grassroots organization moving there to make a statement and bring light to something not organized by anyone except for Alex McCoy, the main point that were there is not about the money. We don't care. You can write us a check for $30 million and give it to a bunch of veterans. That is very wonderful. And I am very happy that my fellow brothers and sisters who served in the Armed Forces is going to get that. However, now the issue is transparency. Now the issue is honesty. Now the issue is integrity. Selfless service. A lot of these things are moral values and core values of the military that he is not representing.
KELLY: What about that, Al? Because Trump and his campaign said that they had raised $6 million after they had this event and then they don't even have that now.
BALDASARO: I brought in a list of of course, 5.6. You know, I've done many fund-raisers back then.
CURTIS: I can tell you about the money --
BALDASARO: Can you take a break there, young man? Thank you.
KELLY: Go ahead.
BALDASARO: I've been to many other places where the money -- make donations -- until the checks clear or the money comes in that people donated on the phone, that's it.
KELLY: Right. But I mean, to suggest that this is --
BALDASARO: Let me --
KELLY: -- pure coincidence that half of it came in in the last week after "The Washington Post" did its report, I mean, Al, isn't that stretching it a bit?
BALDASARO: You know, we're trying to grab on to things here. This is what they're talking about with Hillary Clinton right there--
KELLY: He was out there with Raymond --
CURTIS: Yes. Absolutely.
KELLY: And you say he's affiliated with Hillary.
CURTIS: Yes. Absolutely and --
KELLY: And her campaign admitted that they tried to promote this protest.
BALDASARO: Right. Yes.
KELLY: Are you affiliated with her? Did you reach out to the campaign?
(CROSSTALK)
CURTIS: There were many campaigns that were reached out to by the organizers to get information --
KELLY: So, were they using you as props?
CURTIS: Absolutely not.
BALDASARO: Yes.
CURTIS: We started this and we organized this and I worked with Perry and I worked with Alex and so I have this all internalized. And so, all you have to do is simply look very shortly into this and you will quickly see that these allegations are untrue and what --
KELLY: But you're a Democrat, you're a Republican. It's not surprising that you guys -- okay, but what is it about Trump that you object to? Because, you know, he is whatever you can query the reasons it took him so long, but he is getting this money to veterans.
CURTIS: What is it about Trump donating?
KELLY: Yes.
CURTIS: Or what is it about Trump in general that I object too?
KELLY: That you object too. I mean, was there a moment that --
CURTIS: Absolutely.
(CROSSTALK)
For a very long time, I tried to stay out of any discussions about this. I don't like to try and influence other people and how they vote. I like for them to be able to find their own ways and also, you know, it's just something I fundamentally disagree with. However, when Trump made his statement that he would target the families of terrorist cells, innocent civilians, it gave me pause. And I thought, wait, though, let's give them a chance to rescind that. When he was given the opportunity to take it back, he did not, he stood by it. He stood by it in the debate. And that was where I went from the moments of, I'm not going to engage to, I must engage.
KELLY: Okay. I will give you a quick word --
BALDASARO: So, in other words now, he took a personal issue, used veterans as political pawns, instead of we're talking about the veterans funds that are getting out there.
CURTIS: So -- for speaking out --
BALDASARO: In the trenches that the veterans need, one dollar is one dollar more that go to veterans and other issues that we have throughout the community. Thank God we got somebody like Trump.
KELLY: Great to see you both. Thank you guys.
CURTIS: Thank you.
KELLY: We appreciate it.
Well, the Republican front-runner was dealing with more than just a fight over vets today. He was also defending his attack on a federal judge. U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel is presiding over the lawsuit against Trump University. A now defunct real estate seminar set up by the candidate about a decade ago. During a campaign speech Friday, Trump spent more than ten minutes hammering this judge. And here is just a bit of those remarks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He's a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel. And he is not doing the right thing. And I figured what the hell, why not talk about it for two minutes. The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, Federal Judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself. The judge who happens to be we believe Mexican, which is great, I think that is fine. They ought to look into Judge Curiel because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace, okay? But we'll come back in November -- wouldn't that be wild if I'm president, that I come back to do a civil case?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Trace Gallagher has more. Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, these 381 pages of documents related to Trump University that were unsealed and made public by a San Diego Federal Judge are essentially playbooks that detail exactly how Trump University was run. Everything from convincing prospective students to pay up to $35,000 to enroll to teaching them how to use tax breaks and financial shelters to maximize profits. The school's real estate training was said to be blessed by Donald Trump himself.
In fact, Trump claims he personally chose the instructors but later in a deposition admitted that he didn't pick them, in fact, didn't even know their names. Trump and the now defunct school are being sued by a number of students who claim they were defrauded. But as you heard in this epic 12 minute tirade, Trump believes Judge Gonzalo Curiel is giving him a raw deal. And the Trump campaign is now actively supporting the claim of judicial bias. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATRINA PIERSON, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: I think what's really interesting about this particular judge, as Mr. Trump refers to him as a Trump hater, if he even mentions on his judicial questionnaire that he was a La Raza Lawyers Association member. This is an organization that has been out there organizing these anti-Trump protesters with the Mexican flags. They are pushing it --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Judge Curiel has not responded to Mr. Trump's tirade but did release a statement saying the defense had not met the bar to keep the documents out of the public eye, saying, quoting, "The defendant became the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race and has placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue." The trial date is scheduled for November 28th. And Trump's lawyers say, the GOP nominee will testify. Of course, by then, he could be the president- elect, Megyn.
KELLY: All right, Trace, thank you. And there is important clarification on what you just heard there about Katrina Pierson's allegations about this judge.
I'm going to get to it with my panel.
Joining me now, Trump supporter and Attorney David Wohl and Ben Shapiro, former Breitbart News editor-at-large and editor-in-chief now at DailyWire.com. Good to see you both.
So, that allegation by Katrina Pierson is wrong and I just want to correct the record. La Raza Lawyers Association is completely different from the group that's organizing the anti-Trump protests, which is national council on La Raza. They are not affiliated and they are not the same. That was an error by Katrina. Having said that, I'll ask you, Ben, about the appropriateness of going after a sitting federal court judge and mentioning the fact that, quote, "He is Mexican, also wrong, he is American, he is not Mexican."
BEN SHAPIRO, FORMER BREITBART NEWS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: No, he was born in Indiana, but -- typical Trump. Again, it's not a surprise that Trump is going after people he feels victimized him. This is sort of what he does. But to go after the judge on the base of his ethnicity is a little bit bizarre. Given the fact, again, that his ethnicity really has nothing to do with the case and it demonstrates once again that for Trump who has plenty of grounds to go after this judge, by the way. The fact that he's an Obama appointees, you heard it mentioned by Trump.
The fact that he has relations with groups that Trump finds unpleasant, all those are fine, but to go after his ethnicity that demonstrates that for Trump there's some sort of bizarre connection between the ethnicity of the person and the ideology the person must hold. I don't know why him being a Mexican would be relevant to the conversation. Especially when he's not from Mexico, and his parents are Mexican.
KELLY: David, why would it be?
DAVID WOHL, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes. I don't think it's a non sequitur, Megyn --
KELLY: Why does he keep mentioning it over and over when he rips on this judge?
WOHL: Yep, I think his ethnicity is Hispanic, he's from Indiana. Non sequitur, Megyn. The issue of him going after this judge, though, I got to say, you know, this is -- how is this any different than Barack Obama in 2010 at the State of the Union when he ripped, he excoriated the Supreme Court justice who were sitting right in front of him --
KELLY: Also totally appropriate and out of line. Out of line.
WOHL: About a Citizens United case, Megyn, he bullied them right in front of them. And you know what, Megyn --
KELLY: So are you justifying that behavior by pointing to other bad behavior?
WOHL: Well, Megyn, I'm just saying, and you know what, Bill Burton by the way, who is Obama's press secretary at the time, you got to listen to this, he said, I'm quoting, one of the great things about our democracy is that powerful members of government at high levels can disagree in public and in private and this is one of those instances.
KELLY: Wow!
WOHL: This is all it is, Megyn, he's got the First Amendment right.
KELLY: Really, really?
WOHL: It's frustrating him because I reviewed this case --
KELLY: I reviewed this case too.
WOHL: It should have been dismissed a long --
KELLY: No.
WOHL: -- time ago on summary judgment motion no question about it.
KELLY: No, no. I mean, Ben is not a lawyer. David and I are lawyers. I completely disagree with you on that.
FERGUSON: No. Actually, I am a lawyer.
KELLY: Oh, I'm sorry, Ben, I didn't know that. And the court of appeals actually upheld this. It wasn't all this judge. Listen, you can say that there is no merits to the case. And Trump will get his day in court. But to go after the judge as a, quote, "Mexican," and hater, takes it to a different level, Ben.
FERGUSON: Well, absolutely and the fact that Trump defenders have to rely on Barack Obama was a bad guy, therefore, if our guy does the exact same thing, it's just doubly as awesome --
WOHL: No, that's not why.
FERGUSON: No, Trump campaign, I mean, okay so you tell me, David, why is it better that Trump did it now that Barack Obama did? I thought we were running against Barack Obama if were on the right -- I thought the idea was Obama is a bad guy.
WOHL: No, the point is, the point is, you know what he said immediately after he said, I love the Mexican people, I've got millions of Mexican supporters. He clarified it. You know, don't take it out of context. The majority, Megyn --
KELLY: I mention it because I want to take this opportunity to express my love for the Mexicans. Come on.
WOHL: Megyn, you know what, sometimes you have a slip of the tongue and I submit to you --
KELLY: He does it repeatedly! That's the thing that's so crazy about it. I don't know why he's doing this. Listen, listen, nobody gives Trump a hard time. He says, I don't like this judge. I don't think he's been fair to me. I'm going to get my day in court. I'm going to win this case. Great, go for it. That's fine.
(CROSSTALK)
What we're debating here is his taking it a step further, personalizing it, going after the guy's ethnicity and he does it every time.
WOHL: You know something, Megyn, he is a member -- maybe he misconstrued that membership in the La Raza Lawyers Association. I don't know. A lot of people have gone after him because of his border policy. I don't know whether he felt this judge should recuse himself because of those issues.
KELLY: He doesn't need to recuse himself.
(CROSSTALK)
There is no basic for the judge to recuse himself. This is what he does. He creates a phase, he creates a bias, non-exist, and then demands the person be removed --
WOHL: No, no, no. Megyn right after Donald Trump -- right after Mr. Trump complained last week about the judge, the judge releases the document immediately thereafter. Now, I submit to you, does that create an appearance of impropriety? It may well do so. And if he doesn't recuse himself, and maybe up to Mr. Trump's lawyers to file the motion for recusal with the different judge --
FERGUSON: All right, so basically you insult the judge and then when the judge does something that he's perfectly allowed to do under the law and there's a motion before the court in order to release these documents. Then you say he has to recuse himself. So you create the issue and then --
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: Hold on, let Ben finish.
FERGUSON: Okay, so you create the issue and then the only solution is for Trump to get what he wants? And by the way, there's a whole slip of the tongue nonsense. When your tongue keeps slipping in the same direction, in a certain point, you sort of have to figure that there's a little bit of intentionality to it. The guy's tongue is a slip and slide he doesn't just slip every so often.
KELLY: Okay --
(LAUGHTER)
I leave you at home with that mental image. Great debate, guys. Thanks for being here.
WOHL: Thank you, Megyn.
KELLY: So, with Trump now having enough delegates to be the Republican nominee, there are new questions about what that means for other Republican races and whether this man will still be the Senate Majority Leader come next January. Senator Mitch McConnell joins us next.
Plus, one of America's best-loved journalists is being accused of deceptive editing to make gun groups look bad. Brit Hume is here on the Katie Couric controversy.
And then THE KELLY FILE exclusive. Your first look at a new Dinesh D'Souza documentary on Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What if the goal of the Democratic Party is to steal the most valuable thing the world has ever produced. What if their plan is to steal America?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, with Donald Trump all but locked in now as the Republican nominee, there is a growing debate about what this means for other Republican races particularly in the U.S. Senate. Twenty four of the 54 Republican Senate seats are up for grabs and will share the ballot in November with Trump. And some media outlets are suggesting that's a problem for Republicans. From "USA Today," "down ballot GOP candidates fear Trump shipwreck." And from "The Washington Post," want to see a GOP senator duck and run? Ask about Trump. The folks at the week made their conclusion obvious when they wrote, why Donald Trump will doom Republicans' Senate majority.
Joining me now, the majority leader of the Republican-controlled Senate Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He has a new book out which is called "The Long Game" and it's fascinating. We'll get to that in a minute. Great to see you, thank you for being here.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY., MAJORITY LEADER: So your take on that, disastrous predictions down ballot if Trump, when Trump is the nominee in November?
I don't think so. I mean, regardless of what happens at the top of the ticket. You have two nominees here who we know for sure are very unpopular. And so, I think neither one of them can count on a kind of Barack Obama 2008 landslide in which your party sweeps the House and the Senate. And everybody is saying, not only we are going to elect your president, but we want you to do anything you want to.
KELLY: No one is getting a mandate?
MCCONNELL: I don't think so. This is going to be a ticket -- we do have a lot of exposure, as you pointed out, 24 members up and only 10 Democrats. But they're very popular incumbents. People like Kelly Ayotte and Toomey and Rob Portman and others.
KELLY: Now what about -- let's talk about what's on the Senate agenda going forward, which is the number one thing you hear people talk about when they support Donald Trump when they really don't like Donald Trump.
MCCONNELL: Uh-hm.
KELLY: Supreme Court vacancies. Because when it comes down to what you're talking about, a legacy appointments situation already with the Scalia seat. You have said that you're not even going to give Merrick Garland a look if it's clear, you know, let's say leading up to November, Hillary is, you know, prevailing over Trump or let's say it's lame duck and she's already won, you're not going to give Merrick Garland a hearing if she's already won?
MCCONNELL: Right.
KELLY: Come on!
MCCONNELL: Here's the point, here's the point. We're in the middle of a presidential election year. No vacancy on the Supreme Court occurring in the middle of a presidential election year has been filled in 80 years. You had to go back to 1888, go over Cleveland in the White House to find the last time a Senate --
KELLY: You could have gone back to --
MCCONNELL: No, no, no. Look, this is about the principle. Does Barack Obama get to fill the seat, tipping the court to the left, for the next generation?
KELLY: What if she's the president-elect?
MCCONNELL: Let me finish, on the way out the door, a lame duck? No. Let the American people speak. Let them decide who they want to make this appointment. Look, there's no chance that if Hillary Clinton's elected she'll pick anybody to the right of Merrick Garland. He's not a moderate. Barack Obama declaring someone a moderate doesn't make him a moderate. So, you're going to get a liberal Supreme Court nominee if Hillary Clinton wins. That's what we got with Barack Obama.
KELLY: So you're ready for that?
MCCONNELL: If Trump wins, if Trump wins, he's already put out a list of people that I think are outstanding, currently serving in the federal judiciary. That's the kind of person he's appoint, that reason alone is -- determines support.
KELLY: Now, let's talk about the book a bit, "The Long Game," it's a memoir, talking about your childhood battle with polio. Your failure to excel in baseball which sent you into the student council and would up -- and you running the U.S. Senate, and how Roger Ailes, our boss here at Fox News, was really responsible for your entire political career. How is that?
MCCONNELL: Well, the most competitive guy I've ever known and you see that here at Fox. Without his creativity, he was doing the commercials in my first long shot race. Here's the situation. It was July. The election was in November. I was 30 points behind. We had a strategy meeting and I said, Roger, is anybody this far behind this late ever won? And he said, not that I can recall.
(LAUGHTER)
But he was so competitive. I said, is it over? He said, no. And so we came up with kind of a needle in the haystack issue. My opponent was missing votes on the floor of the Senate to make speeches for money. Roger created this -- what we call bloodhound ads which had a bunch of hounds with the hunter out looking for (INAUDIBLE) to try to get him back to work. It captured the imagination of people in my state. They started laughing. It woke the race up. And I ended up winning by one vote a precinct.
KELLY: Oh, wow!
MCCONNELL: One vote a precinct.
KELLY: That is all you need.
MCCONNELL: What is even more remarkable, that was the day of the Reagan sweep. He was carrying 49 out of 50 states where he lost his seats in the Senate. And the guy Roger Ailes helped me defeat was the only Democratic incumbent U.S. senator and the whole country to lose that day.
KELLY: How about that?
MCCONNELL: So, I do indeed owe my first Senate race to Roger Ailes.
KELLY: Wow!
MCCONNELL: Without him, I'd be practicing law in Louisville, Kentucky.
KELLY: Well, I wouldn't be too bad either. I mean, especially --
MCCONNELL: Not as good as this.
KELLY: Given the approval rating that you see as members of Congress, you know, who knows? But --
MCCONNELL: Well, lawyers don't rate that high either.
KELLY: I feel like you.
(LAUGHTER)
Great to see you, sir. Good luck.
MCCONNELL: Good to see you, Megyn.
KELLY: My pleasure.
Well, media outlets are now attacking Donald Trump for how he treated reporters at his news conference today. Brit Hume has some thoughts on that, next.
Plus, there's now a criminal investigation into the parents of the four- year-old who fell into that gorilla pen at the Cincinnati zoo. Mark and Arthur will weigh in on what happens when something bad happens to your family.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the world headquarters of Fox News, it's "The Kelly File" with Megyn Kelly.
KELLY: Breaking tonight, new reaction to Donald Trump's combative news conference at Trump Tower today. As we told you earlier, Mr. Trump defended his handling of donations to veterans. But then he turned his fire on the media and did not hold back, calling out reporters who were sitting just feet away from him. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know my opinion of the media, it's very low. I think the media is, frankly, made up of people that in many cases, not in all cases, are not good people. I didn't want the credit for it, but it was very unfair that the press treated us so badly.
Yeah, go ahead. I like scrutiny but you know what when I raised money -- excuse me, excuse me, I've watched you on television, you're a real beauty, but what I don't want is when I raised millions of dollars, have people say, like this sleazy guy right over here from ABC, he's a sleaze in my book.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why am I?
TRUMP: You're a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this what it is going to be like with you as a president?
TRUMP: Yeah, it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Brit Hume is our Fox News senior political analyst. Brit, good to see you so, you know, did Trump basically say this is who I am, get used to it?
BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the one who's going to have to get used to eventually is Trump himself if he gets elected because this scrutiny of the donations he claimed on the very night of the event, that was back in January, remember, he said on that night that he had already raised $6 million.
And then later on, he said it again. And he said it as kind of an applause (ph) line at that event. So for him to say, as he did today, that well, he wasn't seeking credit for it, well he certainly took credit for it on that first night.
KELLY: We have that. Let's show the viewers what you're trying to say. Now, today he says he never wanted credit for raising this money. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If the press writes false stories like they did where I wanted to keep a low profile. I didn't want the credit for raising all this money for the vets. I wasn't looking for the credit. And by the way, more money is coming in. I wasn't looking for the credit, but I had no choice but to do this because the press was saying I didn't raise any money for them.
We held something, in lieu of the debate, I said let's have a rally for the veterans. We raised in one hour $6 million. Is that good?
We raised in one hour, listen to this one, $6 million. Okay.
(Applause)
Just one thing on the vets, during the last debate, I raised $6 million for the vets, and I will tell you something --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUME: Well, there you go. He did took credit in that last sound clip. He said "I raised $6 million" so, he clearly did take credit for it. And then of course it didn't appear for a time that anybody could really account for that, including the Trump campaign, which had difficulty saying where the money was, how much actually had been raised. And now finally today we got a pretty full accounting of how much money there was.
It wasn't $6 million, at least not yet, although it might become that large a number, and he said -- set forth all the directions in which the money had been sent, which all appears so far to be noted on the up and up. Why he would be so angry about people raising questions about a claim that he made, it strikes me -- this is what journalists do. This is what journalist -- this is what biased journalist do.
KELLY: He just said (ph) with his counter punching and yet...
HUME: This is what -- yeah, I understand but...
KELLY: This is part of the job.
HUME: This is what we do. This is what we do Megyn. Biased journalists do this. Unbiased journalists do this. All journalists do this. We are professional skeptics. We ask questions about the claims that politicians make. He mad a claim, questions were raised and he got his nose (ph) how to join to the (inaudible), just calling out reporters by name, calling them names in a way that I've never seen a presidential candidate do in my memory.
We know that behind the scenes presidents and presidential candidates fume about media coverage. They all do it and they always have. But you rarely see it shown in this public way, by someone who is obvious, takes it all so personally. And if he goes at -- if he has that frame of mind as president, he will have a terribly hard time.
KELLY: You say professional skeptics. I call us cynical mofos. You know, six one way, half a dozen the other. I want to ask you speaking of the press, Katie Couric's in a middle of controversy. Her documentary "Under the Gun" has been found to have had some selective editing in it.
She came out and said she regrets it now, that it was misleading and she didn't raise her concerns more vigorously. Why has this turned in to such a deal?
HUME: Well, because she waited so long. When you see what the documentary showed, which was a question posed by her to a group of the people she was doing this about, and they -- the gun rights advocates -- and they sit there as far as the documentary showed in stony silence apparently, stumped by her question. That didn't happen. This wasn't a matter of saying being edited out. It was what was edited in, it was the silence.
There were immediate responses from a number of the people present to her question and the documentary, that piece of the documentary was a falsehood, and at first, she defended it. Why or how she could defend it, I don't know, I don't understand that. I've known her a long time. I've known her since -- when she first got her start at ABC news, it was years ago. I can't understand it.
But what that did was it fed the controversy, which then dragged on for days. Until now, finally, she properly apologized for what happened, which was pretty blatant piece of editing. Or insertion, I should say.
KELLY: Yeah, and now they're admitting it that it was inserted after the fact. Brit, good to see you.
HUME: Thanks Megyn.
KELLY: So, big news today and a possible third party run for the White House. And "The Kelly File" just spoke to the possible candidate himself. That's just ahead. Plus a "Kelly File" exclusive when we unveil a sneak peek of a new documentary about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. And filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza is next with that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Democrats went from slavery to enslavement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Corrupt big city bosses, that's how you get corrupt unions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is progressive actually mean?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Social engineering and social control.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Well, the rumors are confirmed. Weekly Standard founder Bill Kristol is eyeing constitutional lawyer David French as a possible third party alternative to Donald Trump. Moments ago, our team spoke to Mr. French. The writer is choosing to maintain a low profile by politely declining our request for an interview. But he did offer us the names of several people we should speak to who could speak for him. We'll pick up that part of the story tomorrow night right here on "The Kelly File."
So, Dinesh D'Souza is known for statement making documentaries that deliver a jolt of controversy during key moments of a political campaign and his latest project is no exception. In "Hillary's America," D'Souza sets out to expose Hillary Clinton's motives by examining what he says is the history of her progressive politics. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DINESH D'SOUZA, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Who are these democrats?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is my judgment...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dinesh D'Souza was sentenced on Tuesday to spend eight months in a confinement center.
D'SOUZA: It all began when the Obama administration tried to shut me up.
(Inaudible)
D'SOUZA: What did i learn? All crime is about stealing. The big criminals are still at large.
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ...see any reason to keep him.
D'SOUZA: The system doesn't go after them because they run the system. It's time to go behind the curtain and discover the soul of the Democratic Party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty lashes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Screaming).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The democrat supports slaves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This civil rights act will allow colored men to sit at the same table beside the white guests.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many (ph) old Democrats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ku Klux Klan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the democratic party --
D'SOUZA: Why has all this been swept under the rug?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To cover the tracks of the Democratic Party.
D'SOUZA: And we're not even talking about ancient history.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The racism continued well into the 20th century.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as the black man continues to ravage our white women, we will continue to lynch him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to give them a little something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plantation politics.
D'SOUZA: The democrats went from slavery to enslavement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Corrupt big city bosses. That's how you get corruption unions.
D'SOUZA: What is progressive actually mean?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Social engineering and social control.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ...and a large family does wanted its members is secure it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The opening video of the Democratic Convention of 2012.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The government is the one thing we all belong to.
D'SOUZA: No, government belongs to us. We don't belong to it.
D'SOUZA: What are these democrats hiding?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is about buying and selling influence by foreign oligarchs and foreign governments. When you follow the money, there are very, very few coincidence.
D'SOUZA: What if the goal of the Democratic Party is to steal the most valuable thing the world has ever produced? What if their plan is to steal America? Who will stop them now?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Oh, my. So he's a fan of Hillary's and joining me now to discuss it is the film's creator and executive producer Dinesh D'Souza. Dinesh good to -- so, you know, sure you're open-minded. She might still get your vote is what you're saying?
D'SOUZA: Well, in my Obama film four years ago, I focused just on Obama because he was an unknown guy. No one knew much about him. In this film, we focus on Hillary to be sure, but we also focus on the whole history of progressivism and the Democratic Party. So we're telling an unknown story of American politics. And it's going to roil up this race, I'll tell you that.
KELLY: This is a point that we hear made fairly often about the Democrat's history when it comes to race issues in particular and one that doesn't get, you know, that much of a spotlight. But today, you know, if you listen to folks today, it's the Republicans. The Republicans are the racist party that's against blacks and the Democrats are the opposite.
D'SOUZA: Yeah, and I think this is going to be the attack on Trump. He's a racist, he's a sexist, he's a xenophobe, he hates immigrants, et cetera. I think it's very important for people to know that the Democratic Party historically has been the party of slavery, of segregation, of Jim Crow, of lynching, of the Ku Klux Klan, forced sterilization, support for fascism, the interment of the Japanese after World War II.
I mean, it's an unbelievably sordid history and it's been somehow all swept under the rug. It's all been covered up and the blame has now switched to the very party, the Republicans, who fought to end slavery, who opposed segregation, who proposed anti-lynching laws throughout the 20th century. So, there's an unbelievable inversion that's gone on and our film blows the lid on it.
KELLY: But in today's America where Republicans don't tend to support affirmative action and don't want, you know, certain civil rights laws to be extended, that's, you know, that's what the other side uses to tar them with the, you know, racist accusation among other things.
D'SOUZA: Yeah, you know, Megyn, as late as the civil rights movement of the '60s, the civil rights movement would never have gone through without Republican support. More Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Bill of 1968, the Democrats. The main opposition to civil rights came from Democrats and this, too, has been part of the history that most Americans don't know.
KELLY: Its fascinating Dinesh. We talked the last time you were here about your suggestive (ph) that they tried to shut you up and that the criminals -- the big criminals were still at large right after you got out of the overnight confinement, which is worth your while. We post that on facebook.com so people can see it. It's always a pleasure, sir, good to see you, and congratulations on your marriage.
D'SOUZA: Thank you.
KELLY: Is it true Ted Cruz's dad married you two?
D'SOUZA: He did, yes. He did the ceremony for us so we're thrilled about that.
KELLY: So confused, very confused, but congratulations. Best wishes to you and your wife.
D'SOUZA: Thank you.
KELLY: This is a little tease for later, I'll find out why. Up next, Mike and Arthur on the controversy over a young boy, a rare gorilla, a tragic incident and questions of responsibility. Arthur (ph) when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: A holiday weekend incident at the Cincinnati Zoo is raising serious questions about responsibility. These parents had to look on helplessly when their 4-year-old son fell into the gorilla exhibit. A rare gorilla then dragged the child around for nearly ten minutes. Worried the boy's life was in danger, a zoo keeper shot and killed the gorilla and touched off a national debate.
Mike Eiglarsh, is a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Arthur Aidala has the same pedigree. They're with me now. So, now they are confirming, the prosecutor, that the incident is under investigation. What they are considering is whether the parents and the family of the child should face any criminal charges. Mark, should they?
MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely not. Listen, this was a tragedy and unless there's evidence of them hoisting their child over the protective wall saying, "Go have fun. Mama wants you to go play with the gorilla," then you don't bring criminal charges. Civil responsibility, maybe, not criminal charges.
KELLY: Arthur?
ARTHUR AIDALA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there's something you call "res ipsa loquitur" which means "that thing speaks for itself." So, if a 3- year-old is able to get into the gorilla area, obviously there was some negligence there. Obviously it wasn't good enough. I mean, if the kid could do it...
EIGLARSH: Negligence on whose part, Arthur?
AIDALA: On the zoo.
EIGLARSH: On the zoo or the parents?
AIDALA: If a 3-year-old could get in there unassisted by an adult, obviously somebody did something wrong.
KELLY: Do you think the parents should sue the zoo.
AIDALA: I'm not saying the parents should sue the zoo. I think that -- I don't think anybody should sue anybody. How about that? How about the law doesn't always have to get involved with all of these issues? An investigation needs to be done so that it doesn't happen again.
EIGLARSH: I agree with Arthur.
KELLY: Well change.org -- well, the change.org petition calling for the boy's parents to be held accountable for their actions of not supervising him, has over 100,000 signatures, Mark.
EIGLARSH: Megyn, what parent hasn't gone through the horror of temporarily losing their child for a second or two? I talked to my mother tonight and she said she lost my kids at Disney World. I learned that for the first time. It happens, Megyn.
KELLY: Yeah.
EIFLARSH: It does. It doesn't mean you're a bad parent or should be stripped of your liberty like Arthur is suggesting.
KELLY: People are upset that this gorilla was shot, this 17-year-old silverback gorilla...
AIDALA: I am. Everyone is.
KELLY: ...endangered species was shot. He didn't do anything wrong. They don't think they had to use, you know, a fatal shot on him.
EIGLARSH: They don't know what they're talking about.
AIDALA: Unless the kid was injured, if that gorilla would take less than one second to kill that child, even unintentionally. You had no choice in those circumstances. It stinks. It's horrible.
KELLY: Go ahead, Mark.
EIGLARSH: It would have taken 10 minutes for the tranquillizer to work. It doesn't work like you see on television. If that was anyone's child, they would have wanted that gorilla gone...
KELLY: But people are pointing to an incident in 1986 at the Jersey zoo, a 5-year-old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure, broke his arm, fractured his skull, but the gorilla stroked his back until he was brought to safety.
AIDALA: And who's willing to take that chance with their child? What human being who's a parent of a 3-year-old is going to say, "Let's give it a shot and see what happens." I'm sorry, as a parent, you're going to want to do whatever you got to do to save your own kid.
EIGLARSH: Of course.
KELLY: Do you think, Mark that this family will sue the zoo? Because you know some lawyer is going to call them up and tell them they should.
EIGLARSH: Absolutely not. And then the zoo then will counter sue saying, "Listen, had you not watched your child" -- they're both going to g away and learn their lesson and raise their level of awareness.
AIDALA: I mean, they have so much money -- I think Mark's right. They would tell the -- do you know how much money the zoo is going to lose by not having this attraction there? The gorilla was a big attraction, 17-year- old, beautiful, beautiful animal. That was a main viewing point for people at the zoo.
KELLY: So sad.
AIDALA: Horrible.
EIGLARSH: It is.
KELLY: You got to watch them every moment. Guys, good to see you both. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: So Ben Shapiro is so smart, how smart is he? He graduated summa cum laude from UCLA then went to Harvard and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and did practice law -- my apologies again to him. Summa cum laude, cum laude, the radio's too laude. Name that movie.
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