By ,
Published January 23, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," September 30, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST, "THE KELLY FILE": Breaking tonight, we have new numbers from the first major polls since the presidential debate and they give us significant new insight of how the showdown of Hofstra is affecting this race.
Welcome to "The Kelly FIle," everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. This new Fox poll was taken entirely after Monday night's debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. And we'll get to it in just a moment with these two guys.
Chris Stirewalt and Howie Kurtz with us live tonight.
Plus, with just 39 day to go before the election, Charles Krauthammer offers his advice to the candidates. But we begin on the campaign trail tonight. Over the past 24 hours, we have witnessed a remarkable series of attacks from the two candidates capped off by a fiery Trump rally in Michigan this evening where the businessman went after his opponent, went after lobbyist, politicians and the media with a furry that looked a whole lot like the Republican primary. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Some people didn't give us a good chance. The other day, one of the biggest people in that business, the very dishonest press visit. They said, Mr. Trump, when you started off, you have to tell me the truth. Did you really think you would be here? We're going to win the White House and it's going to be an awfully good November 8th. That evening is going to be a celebration.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
We're going to take on the special interests, the lobbyists and the powerful politicians that have stolen your jobs through theft and incompetence, they've stolen your wealth; they've taken your middle class. When it comes to Hillary Clinton, all you have to do is remember these words. Follow the money. On November 8th, we are going to end Clinton corruption. We've had enough.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
If the doctor says, I'm sorry, Jim, I'm sorry, Alice, I'm sorry whoever it is, you're not going to make it, you're not going to make it, you'll be gone by the end of November. I don't give a damn, show up and vote on November 8!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
KELLY: Chief political correspondent campaign Carl Cameron is live in Romulus, Michigan. Carl?
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT CAMPAIGN: Well, his campaign has been telling him he has got to leave the debate behind him, he's got to be more disciplined and stick to the prompter and not adlib. And he didn't do much adlibbing tonight, he was really getting that right off of the text. A very aggressive speech for Donald Trump.
He started this day quite early, at 3:00 in the morning, he was up tweeting, continuing the battle over Miss Universe. And during the rally tonight he really amped up his attacks on Hillary Clinton. It was almost entirely about her. And at one point, he did sort of take a bit of a detour and he started talking about President Obama and he said that -- well he challenged President Obama, through Donald Gauntlet (ph). Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Can you promise that not one of the five people who were granted criminal immunity will be ever allowed to serve in a Clinton administration? Mr. President, will you pledge not to issue a pardon to Hillary Clinton and her conspirators for their many crimes against our country and against society itself?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON: And of course there are no charges against Hillary Clinton or the five staffers who got the immunity deal. So that's not happening. And it's interesting to note that as part of his visit to Michigan here where he trails in the polls by seven points to Hillary Clinton, today he stopped at the Gerald Ford presidential library and museum, toured the place and of course Gerald Ford himself once pardoned Richard Nixon. Two hours after that visit, Trump was saying, Obama certainly should not pardon Hillary Clinton -- Megyn.
KELLY: Carl, thank you. Tonight, we are getting our very first look at nationwide polls taken entirely after the first presidential debate. They've shown that Hillary Clinton has gained some ground on Donald Trump. In a two way match-up, she's now at 49 percent to his 44. Earlier this month he was ahead of her. What's more the poll show, this fight is really a battle of the sexes with Mrs. Clinton enjoying a 23 point advantage over Mr. Trump with the women voters. He's doing 17 points better when it comes to the men.
And when it comes to what's motivating voters this year, 57 percent say fear, fear that the other candidate might win is behind their choice. Just 39 percent say, it's enthusiasm for their candidate.
Chris Stirewalt is our Fox News digital politics editor. Howie Kurtz is host of "MediaBuzz" on Fox News. Okay. So, the random sampling polls, you know, the sort of official polls say that Hillary Clinton won that debate. So, good for her, right? She did what she needed to do. However Mitt Romney killed President Obama in the first debate back in 2012, Stirewalt. And so you tell me whether he got this similar kind of polling bounce thereafter and just how hopeful Hillary Clinton should be feeling tonight.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: Well, a little bit more spring in her step in the head-to-head matchup than there was for Romney. But you are exactly right. That not only did Mitt Romney get -- debate reviews back in 2012 and end up limping home, but also famous names like Walter Mondale, John Kerry and others won the first debate. So the first debates aren't necessarily predictive. But of course in politics you would always rather win than lose.
KELLY: Uh-hm. Right. She doesn't want to get too cocky. And the thing is, Howie, of course Trump, as we've seen from the beginning, his biggest impediment toward maintaining any momentum he gets going is himself and his thumbs, like 3:00 in the morning and 5:00 in the morning as he continues to, you know, fight these just petty battles that he doesn't need to be fighting.
HOWIE KURTZ, FOX NEWS HOST, "MEDIABUZZ": I've been thinking about it all day, not since 3:00 a.m. And for many years. And I can't understand what Trump thinks he's getting out of a 3:00 a.m. tweet attacks on a former Miss Universe that nobody have ever heard off. When you look at this poll, look, none of us are shocked that Hillary got a small bump since she did better in that debate by most people's estimation.
But there's one number that really jump out at me, 67 percent in this Fox News survey say she has the temperament to be president. Thirty seven percent say Donald Trump has temperament to be president. That's something that Trump has to find a way to change. But you're right, the pundits are all saying, oh, this was just a complete and utter disaster, this debate for Donald Trump. The race is still tight. Much of the country disagrees.
KELLY: He, you know, on the fight with the Miss Universe, Chris, you know, he could have come out and said look, I was running the Miss Universe pageant. I wasn't running for president. Right? I was a colorful character, you know this about me. I kind of still am. I don't speak the Queen's English. I haven't always said the perfect stuff. But in the midst of saying all of this bad stuff about her, I said some stuff that was kind of nice. You know, she could have been fired. I talked about how I too like to eat. Like if you're going to get hung up on one person, maybe it shouldn't be this person. But he can't let it go.
STIREWALT: Five days. Five days. This campaign has wasted on this issue because it is one that you know that the press is going to go for. It's got sex, obesity, it's got Donald Trump, it's like a whole segment of the view all in just one whole story. And so here you have these -- all of this catnip that the press is not going to be able to resist and Trump, even this morning, he's like, oh, it's almost over, one more day. I am going to do it one more time. Remember the rule, you can be right or you can be happy but usually not both.
KELLY: Yes. Because when Hollywood is trying to titillate us into going to see a movie, that's what they say, it's got obesity. Yes.
STIREWALT: And fatness! Yes!
KELLY: I'll be there.
(LAUGHTER)
KELLY: Howie, just another word on these polls. So, she did get a big bump as a result of that debate. And the two-way race between the now according to the, you know, the four-way race is 43 Clinton, 40 Trump. But that's within the margin of error. And in early September she had one point over him, 41/40. So why the freak out in all of these corners like she's got it, she's winning now and he's losing.
KURTZ: Are we done talking about the sex tape? It's not a sex tape? Okay. I'll move on.
KELLY: Yes. I don't know. Today he said that she was in a sex tape and apparently she wasn't on a sex tape. But she was on some reality show and she made you believe she was doing something in the bedroom. And then it came out that Trump made some cameo in a soft porn show.
KURTZ: What?
KELLY: Yes. I don't know. He broke a bottle of champagne over something. He didn't do anything but this is our presidential race.
KURTZ: Okay. But you asked about the pre-data. Here it is. Trump had a very good September, he stuck to the script, he gained ground, Hillary Clinton was losing. Then comes the debate. You know? People can debate about why he didn't do as well. The opportunities he let go, and all of that. And so, now, the media are saying, well, it's because we're bipolar. You know? She's winning, she's losing, no. Now she's going to win. This race is not over.
KELLY: It's true. And with all due respect the most bipolar of all has been Nate Silver who was such a rock star in 2012. Nate Silver says this. Oh, no, he says exactly the opposite. Oh, he's back to this. He's exactly the opposite. My head hurts, Nate. My head hurts. I got to go.
KURTZ: Bye.
STIREWALT: Bye.
KELLY: He's super smart but he made some mistakes. Great to see you both.
Well, as you just heard, voters believe Hillary Clinton won the first debate but the folks we polled are not showing a lot of enthusiasm for either candidate. So, what should Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump do next?
Charles Krauthammer is a FOX News contributor and syndicated columnist. Charles, good to see you. So, if you had to advise team Trump, if they came to you and said Charles, it's go time, what's the number one thing he needs to do with a five-and-a-half weeks left. What would you say?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: When you see a trail of cheese, don't follow it because there's a trap at the other end.
KELLY: Right.
KRAUTHAMMER: And for him, that means self-control and discipline. Look, the reason his numbers have gone up over the last month is very simple. They shackled him, they put the bracelets on, handcuffs, everything, they made him read from the prompter and he got his issues out and he didn't get into too much trouble. The minute you're in a debate, you're loose, you're not controlled and for him he just went to where he goes.
And that is to protect his self-image. And the basis of his self-image -- you know, he made two huge mistakes. Number one was taking the bait on the Miss Universe which raised all of the issues of which you are unfortunately familiar. And the other issue was, he took the bait on taxes and actually admitted essentially to 86 million Americans that he doesn't pay them and he's proud of it.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
KRAUTHAMMER: Now, that's not a good idea. And that will dog him I'm sure.
So he needs to simply refuse to follow those issues. It's not about him. Of course that's easy for someone to say on the outside. And the stick for him what works. What works for him particularly in the Midwest is trade and economy and then to go after her, not on the sexual harassment stuff, the husband stuff, the impeachment stuff but to go after her on her own damn scandals to quote Bernie Sanders, her e-mail, her untruths, et cetera.
KELLY: So, there's a debate about that, right? Because he's suffering now. I mean, his numbers with women were already low going into that debate and they fell another seven points according to our poll as a result of that debate. You know, so some disagree with you there and say show the American public that she's no angel either when it comes to her treatment of women.
KRAUTHAMMER: I don't think that's going to work.
KELLY: Why?
KRAUTHAMMER: I don't think it works. Well, first of all it would be a man saying it. Secondly, that's been adjudicated and at least 20 years ago, you could argue that the -- to the country has changed. But 20 years ago it caused the Republicans untold the grief. They lost several speakers of the house, they got crushed in mile elections. President Clinton in the middle of all of this had his highest approval ratings as did she. Look, if you're desperate, that's the nuclear option, yes.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
KRAUTHAMMER: If you're ten points behind, you got nothing else, then you launch your missiles and you hope it lands.
KELLY: Is he desperate yet?
KRAUTHAMMER: No.
KELLY: I mean, even in the playing field before this debate and --
KRAUTHAMMER: Yes.
KELLY: -- gaining, I mean, beating by at least a couple of points in some critical swing states.
KRAUTHAMMER: But there's a difference between losing your momentum which was about to take you into the lead and a collapse. He did not collapse. He's been stalled. I think the way to get out of the stall is to go back to the main, the main reason for his campaign, which is she's status quo, you're new, that's the major appeal, particularly in the Midwest you go for the economy, you go for trade which is the real salient issue, much more than immigration and you stick with what works.
KELLY: What about her? What do you see -- I mean, she's clearly feeling good right now. Right? She's got some more, she's got her mojo back. But she has stumbled many times in the course of this campaign. So, what should she be watching out for in the next five weeks?
KRAUTHAMMER: Do what you did in the first debate. It worked. And that is, I mean, she was lucky because he didn't come back on the issues on which she could have been easily hit. But for example you've got to have a better answer on TPP, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal. She obviously had contradicted her own position. There may be no way out. But there should be a way perhaps to reverse the issue, to send the volley back over the net and talk about his flip flops on other issues. But that was her one weakness.
She had a bad half-hour at the beginning. She needs to study and to have a better answers. Otherwise, she sticks to what is the essence of her campaign, which is, I mean, that line she had where she said, you know, I prepared for this debate. He criticized me for preparing. You know what else I prepared for is the presidency. That's her calling card. He has some status you. Yes, you've seen me and perhaps yes I'm not that trustworthy. However I'm prepared. I know my stuff. I'm ready. I'm not scary. I can handle the job. That is her calling card. That's what he has to stick with. She can't invent a new idea or a new issue for her campaign. There isn't any.
KELLY: Hillary Clinton, I am not scary. Charles, that's the state of the race, right? In 2016 America.
KRAUTHAMMER: How about I've heard of Aleppo.
KELLY: That would be helpful to. Great to see you, sir.
KRAUTHAMMER: Thank you.
KELLY: As we mentioned a moment ago, just when you thought the political fight over a Venezuelan beauty queen couldn't get any more dramatic, Donald Trump today sent people looking for her sex tape. Yes, he did.
So Mollie Hemingway and Nomiki Konst are next on where the story went then.
Plus, breaking news moments ago as Donald Trump opens up a scathing new attack on Bill and Hillary Clinton and their marriage. He's going there, folks. He just gave an interview to "The New York Times" and we'll tell you what he said in moments.
And then "The Kelly File" like you have never seen us before. You'll see what cameras captured behind the scenes. Here's the people on the control room right now. On one of most watched night of television when the Circus creator Mark McKinnon joins us to dish on the debate drama you have not seen. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're getting reports that Mr. Trump may decide to leave the debate stage and head into the media spin room. This would be a first.
KELLY: That will be fun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Effectively we're going to go into the most watched broadcast in our history having no idea what's going to happen.
KELLY: So, it's just a typical night on "The Kelly File."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Thirty nine days to the election. And new fallout tonight in the feud playing out over Twitter between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton she got into. It all started when Clinton mentioned former Miss Universe Alicia Machado at Monday's debate which you've heard about by now. Now, four days later Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump are still locked in a major disagreement shall we say over what Machado means for this race? Especially after Trump today sent people looking for her alleged sex tape. Because that's what happens in presidential races. Remember when Mitt Romney did that?
Trace Gallagher has the story. Trace?
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, as Hillary Clinton pointed out, this is day five of Donald Trump going after former Miss Universe Alicia Machado and apparently Mr. Trump didn't want to let the morning slip away. Beginning his flurry of tweets at 3:20 Eastern Time and continuing for the next two-and-a-half hours saying, quote, "Wow, crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an angel without checking her past, which is terrible."
But a few minutes later, Trump clarified his no angel comment tweeting, quote, "Did crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizenship so she could use her in the debate?" I'll ask for helping Machado gain citizenship the Clinton campaign answered no, no, no. As for Machado's sex tape, fact-checkers say, it does not exist. The former Miss Universe did appear on a risque scene on a reality TV show but there was no visible sex. And like many scenes in the world of reality TV, it's unclear how much of it was actually real. And as for the early morning tirade, Hillary Clinton said this. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I mean his latest twitter meltdown is unhinged even for him. It proves yet again that he's temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Alicia Machado also responded saying Trump is trying to intimidate and humiliate her. Quote, "I will keep standing sharing my story. I absolutely support Mrs. Clinton on behalf of women, my sisters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins, friends and female community." Today Newt Gingrich called the Machado story an ambush by the Clinton campaign that's as false as Benghazi. And Donald Trump said for those mocking him for tweeting at 3:00 a.m., at least they know he'll be there awake to answer the call -- Megyn.
KELLY: Trace, thank you.
Joining us now with more, Mollie Hemingway, she is the senior editor at The Federalist which if you're not reading, you should. Also Nomiki Konst, she's the host of "The Filter" on Sirius XM and a DNC Platform Committee member. Great to see you both.
So, Mollie, you don't disagree with Newt Gingrich that this is a hit, I
mean, this is basically a planned hit on Trump. Explain.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, THE FEDERALIST: Well, what's hard about this story is that when Hillary Clinton brought it up, she brought it up with a very selective set of facts. She wanted to make this part of her war on women messaging, and the media have largely accepted this framing, they have run with it and they have made many stories out of this. Thanks also to the help of Donald Trump continuing to keep this story in the news.
It turns out that this person that she chose to make a surrogate for the campaign, to make a hero victim for her campaign does have quite a shady past, everything from being accused of running a getaway car for murder, threatening to kill a judge who handled that case, she's alleged to have had a child with a drug kingpin. And there are all sorts of problems and also contrary to what we just heard, actually there is a sex tape if you define sex tape as a videotape of someone having sex which is I think a fair definition of sex tape. So, she's also been cut on that.
KELLY: On a reality TV show. It's not, you know, I guess, I don't know. I haven't seen it. The suggestion was I guess that it was like a Kim Kardashian situation.
HEMINGWAY: It is. But no. But she's filmed having sex with someone who is not the fiancee that she was engaged to. That fiancee publicly made a big deal about breaking up with her after that sex was shown on TV.
NOMIKI KONST, HOST, "THE FILTER" ON SIRIUS XM: That doesn't matter. I'm sorry. I've got to stop you here. You're a reporter. You're supposed to report on stats. This is all speculation. And it doesn't matter. This is about Donald Trump losing his mind and degrading women in a tirade. Come on. You can't just go on and character assassinate a woman who is running for president and putting her as the victim or that she understands how the media works, so she's sending out messages to reinforce the message that Donald Trump treats women poorly. I mean, he's still not winning with women and he needs to. And that's why
KELLY: Go ahead, Mollie.
HEMINGWAY: It's actually great to bring up character assassination. Because in this race, we have two candidates for president, and one of them has spent decades involving character assassination of women who were involved with her husband, that includes everything from hiring a private investigator who is a former colleague of hers to trash Gennifer Flowers when Gennifer Flowers went public about her lengthy affair with Bill Clinton. It also includes taking a list of women who have had sex with Bill Clinton, bringing him into her legal offices and sitting in on these meetings while lawyers threatened these women so that they would stay silent. This includes releasing information to --
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: Hold on. We're going to get some of this in the next segment too. But Nomiki, go ahead. Respond.
KONST: Okay. Well, there's a big difference between right now and those allies of Donald Trump in friendly media publications, conservative media publications, essentially trying to equate a consensual relationship between adults while it might not be morally great, it is not illegal --
KELLY: They're not trying to blame Hillary for Bill's affairs. They're trying to say she had a hand in threatening these women and intimidating these women and shaming these women who came forward to tell their story about their relationship with Bill.
HEMINGWAY: And remember Hillary Clinton is the woman who came up with the term vast right wing conspiracy.
(CROSSTALK)
KONST: And again it's all alleged and it's used. I mean, you have to put yourself --
KELLY: This is alleged too though, Nomiki. The comments that Miss Universe is making about him calling her miss piggy and miss housekeeping are alleged to. They haven't been proven. There's no third party witness. However, having said that, there's a litany of other comments made about her weight that all -- which are on camera. I don't know why we're arguing about this.
KONST: You know, he has tried to hurt her reputation. But with that being said, there is this long history of trying to shame Hillary Clinton for her husband's infidelity which is quite frankly is not working.
KELLY: That's not what is happening.
KONST: It is.
KELLY: It's about her role in it. That is not true. No one is saying poor Hillary, she got cheated on. They're saying, look at the testimonials that all these women that came. And there are a lot of them. There are a lot of them. It's not like one or two.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMINGWAY: And it's in fact Hillary Clinton's role involved in defaming these women that is relevant now.
KELLY: Okay.
HEMINGWAY: So forget to talk about defaming women, we need to be fair and equal about it.
KELLY: Okay. We're going to pick it up there. And you've teed up our next segment beautifully. Nice job.
KONST: Thanks.
KELLY: Both of you.
So, breaking up. Donald Trump just launched a new attack on Bill and Hillary Clinton telling The New York Times that quote, "Hillary Clinton is married to the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics." Seems like he's going a different route than the one he thought, said he was going to go.
David Wohl and Richard Fowler are next on that.
Plus, a rare glimpse behind the scenes of "The Kelly File," actually we've never done this with anybody when "The Circus" of Showtime covers us covering the debate. Trust us, it gets a little wild.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by, we're about to be hot. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, after days of dropping hints, Donald Trump just went there. In an interview with the New York Times that just hit warning Hillary Clinton that he is ready to get quote, "nasty" and going on to describe her husband as, quote, "the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics."
It comes on the same day that a cup of intrepid reporters dug up details on just how far Hillary Clinton allegedly went in what they say the effort to silence the women who got a little too close to her husband Bill Clinton.
Trace Gallagher has the report. Trace?
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, using a mix of interviews, biographies and personal profiles, the reporting attempts to pay in a fairly stark image of Hillary Clinton's history of intimidation tactics aimed at keeping her husband's career on track.
Exactly 1988, when a political enemy threatens to make public a list of Bill Clinton's girlfriends. Clinton biographer Gail Sheehy says Hillary hired two of her law partners in Arkansas largest law firm to confront the women one by one.
It apparently worked because the lengthy list of paramours ended up staying private. Other point out that when the other women couldn't be controlled, they could have to be discredited.
The Washington Post notes that in 1992 the Clinton campaign hired a private detective Jack Palladino to investigate the accusers involved in dozens of allegations against Bill Clinton. And according to Sheehy, it was Hillary's idea to hire Palladino whose goal when it came to Gennifer Flowers was to, quote, "impeach her character and veracity until she is destroyed beyond all recognition."
In 1988, when Kathleen Willey spoke to reporters about Bill Clinton's unwanted advances in the Oval Office, two other Hillary biographers say it was the then first lady who told the White House to release nine fawning letters that Willey had sent the president after the alleged incident.
Many reporters then dropped the story concluding the letters disproved Willey's version.
And when the controlling and discrediting failed, the public record is replete with the accounts of Hillary Clinton attacking the character of the accusers, think Lewinsky and Paula Jones. But the Clinton campaign has made it crystal clear an effort by Trump and Trump surrogates to dredge up ancient history will not throw Hillary Clinton off her game. Megyn?
KELLY: It's again dicey. Trace, thank you. Joining me now, David Wohl, a Trump supporter and attorney, and Richard Fowler, senior fellow at the New Leader's Council and a nationally syndicated radio host.
You know, that lays it out very well, right, what the attack on Hillary would be. It's not you got cheated on. That you don't attack a woman for you got cheated on repeatedly. It's you helped to smear, embarrass and intimidate a long list of women who got involved in an extramarital affair with your husband who was first the governor and then the president.
But David, I ask you, as Trump, his initial instinct on Monday was not to go there as he struggles to win female voters, and five days later it appears to have done a 180.
DAVID WOHL, ATTORNEY & TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes.
KELLY: So, which judgment was right?
WOHL: Well, this is, you know, Megyn, this so transcends gender that it's unbelievable. Bill and Hillary Clinton were literally thug nation. I mean, what they did as far as intimidating and coercing these women that made these allegations against Bill Clinton is literally not just unethical but it's arguably criminal.
She waged an all-out war on the women who stood in the way of not just Bill Clinton's ambition but her own political ambition. And Megyn, it gives us some really good insight into the mindset of a woman who years and years later would engage in the activity she did as Secretary of State with the Clinton Foundation, the pay-to-play scandal, and the e-mail scandal when she would destroy an illegal server, she would destroy the cell phones that contained classified and top secret e-mails.
This is a woman who never believes she'll be held accountable. And guess what? She hasn't to date. But my guess is that the voters on September 8th will take all of this into consideration and hold her accountable. They have to. This is unbelievable.
KELLY: Well, David -- David supports that Trump of tonight who appears to be ready to go there. And he's been getting battered for five days over his treatment of women. But he brought it on. I mean, like as Charles Krauthammer said, she laid out the cheese and he ate it all up until there was no cheese left. Richard?
RICHARD FOWLER, NATIONALLY SYNDICATED RADIO HOST: It's indeed a self- fulfilling prophesy by the Trump campaign. Well, I love David. I got to invoke monopoly here. Don't pass go. Don't collect $200. They're trying to make this connection between Hillary Clinton being a woman who was cheated on both the government as you mentioned the White House, to Hillary Clinton as the candidate for president.
That's the wrong assumption to make. But what that does say is that Donald Trump's sexual past and Donald Trump's marital past is on the table. When he had his wife Ivana and he was cheating on her publicly with another. And in Ivana's divorce testimony she indicates that she was raped by Donald Trump. So, one can go depth...
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: She recanted that.
FOWLER: But it's in -- it's in court testimony which with is under oath.
KELLY: It is, but she recanted it and he denied it.
FOWLER: But it is under oath.
(CROSSTALK)
WOHL: You know, Megyn.
FOWLER: But it is under oath.
WOHL: Rich, and I love you too, but to compare an affair -- to compare an affair to allegations of sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual harassment isn't even in the same universe. What these women complained about Bill Clinton doing to them...
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: That's my -- that's exactly 9, 10 of them.
WOHL: ... that's criminal in nature. Criminal.
FOWLER: No.
KELLY: Ok. Let him respond. Go ahead, Richard.
FOWLER: A sexual assault or harassment which she recant, that might be fair, that's criminal in nature as well. This is the problem. For Donald Trump to win this election, Megyn, he needs to convince educated white women to go out and vote for him.
KELLY: That's right.
FOWLER: When you make these types of statements and you attack an educated white woman, educated white women are like wait a minute, why would I vote for someone who is attack an educated white women.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: Yes, but the thing is, Richard, what he's trying to do now through his surrogates and now tonight is fill out the picture which is he make...
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: It's too late.
KELLY: I said some things, they weren't great things but she's done some things, too.
FOWLER: It's too late.
KELLY: And the women of America will be left thinking, we're so lucky.
We're so lucky.
WOHL: An educated white woman who was out to destroy five, six, seven other educated white women because they made it -- they had -- they made allegations against her husband that made her life...
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: You're going to wrap -- just like Donald Trump should make this argument.
KELLY: All right. I'll note this before we go. When she was going through these, you know, scandals when she was being cheated on, Lewinsky and so on, her approval rating shot up. It was 67 percent. The American public had great empathy for her, but they weren't talking about this other -- it was just Hillary Clinton the victim who has been cheated on. It wasn't this other stuff. So, we'll see where the race goes in the next five weeks, folks. Great to see you both.
WOHL: Good to see you, Megyn.
FOWLER: Thanks, Megyn.
KELLY: Remember super storm Sandy and how it played out in the fall of 2012? Meet Matthew, the category 4 hurricane headed for the East Coast. We'll update you on this guy.
Plus, the Show Time documentary "The Circus" this week went behind the scenes of us, the Kelly File. And Mark McKinnon is here to dish on what he caught on camera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Megyn is aware of what we're working on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready?
KELLY: Is the pope Catholic?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six, five, four...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The storm is here and we react to it as best you can. What we call rolling thunder. But hey, you know, that's TV.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, a history making showdown, 15 months in the making. Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump in the highly anticipated first presidential debate. And it appeared nothing was off limits. Welcome to a live 11 p.m. edition of "The Kelly File."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Well, that's what you saw at home if you were one of the more than five million viewers who tuned in to this program on Monday night. What you did not see were the highly intense scenes that unfolded off camera to get us to that moment. We never show you that, right? You just want to see the end product. But sometimes it's fun to see more.
For that we allowed Show Time's "The Circus" to invade our offices both at the debate site and back here at the studios in New York and bring you a very rare look behind the scenes. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Do you know anybody who is not watching this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In terms of its significance, it reminds me of a moon launch.
KELLY: Yes, right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me talk about logistics tonight. We are getting reports that Mr. Trump may decide to leave the debate stage and head into the media spin room. This would be a first.
KELLY: That will be fun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Effectively we're going to go into the most watched broadcast in our history having no idea what's going to happen.
KELLY: So it's just a typical night on "The Kelly File."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what makes our job so fun.
KELLY: Like I've made many of these things before and there's nothing else like it. The tension. I asked Trump that first question at the first presidential debate Fox News question about the women, Trump thought he could dismiss it with a laugh about Rosie O'Donnell. I didn't allow that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You pressed him.
KELLY: I kept pressing and that's when he got mad.
This snake are so high. I know he's been told by everybody to keep it together and not let her bait him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
KELLY: But that could actually happen tonight. Here we go. You coming?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Entourage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any other position for her to set aside. And at that point in time -- hang on one second. I got another call coming in. Make sure that Megyn is aware of what we're working.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready?
KELLY: Is the pope catholic?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The storm is here and react to it as best you can. What we call rolling thunder. Hey, you know, that's TV.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: I love that. Rolling thunder is when he throw out the rundown and we just bring you the news as it's happening. That's Tom Lauer (Ph) the executive producer who is amazing and he doesn't get enough credit and Tommy Firth is there as well.
In the next clip you're going the see another woman on our team named Christine Gubala (Ph) when the (muted) fan. As predicted, very little went according to plan. And while you didn't see it on TV, here's how that looked in our control room.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we ready? Come on in. I thought the cameras. These cameras are live. How are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey. They still have a minute and a half. Obviously 12 minutes over. We don't have that kind of lag time. It makes it a little more challenging, but.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by. We're about to be hot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight, seven, six, five, it's all going to be history -- four, three, two, one. Megyn is my cure.
KELLY: Breaking tonight, a history making showdown 15 months in the making.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Stand by to change. Change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Brian Fallon lead is ready to go. Go to Fallon whenever you want.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not have Fallon on set.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're saying he's not there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get him down. Get him down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our crew is saying he's not there. I don't know what you want me to do about that but he is not there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, listen, they're trying to find Fallon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're bringing him now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To Fallon right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may go, go, go. Bring him in.
KELLY: Joining me now, Brian Fallon. He is the National Press Secretary for the Clinton campaign. Did she execute the plan you had for her because she was on the attack most of the night?
BRIAN FALLON, CLINTON CAMPAIGN PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I have to be honest we were surprised by the Donald Trump that showed up tonight. This is somebody that on the tail end of the debate seemed to really go off the rails.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are doing great. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need a status update on Kellyanne Conway. We need Trump representation here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to go to that sound bite and then we're going to bring in Kellyanne.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four, three, techs, next to you. Kill the mic. Change the guest. Go!
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I thought Mr. Trump at different times tonight showed great restraint, more restraint than I might have in the face of fire and lies.
KELLY: He was taking heat for interrupting her.
CONWAY: She was doing -- she was rolling her eyes, she was very glib and sometimes she had a very smirk on Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And clear. Excellent job, everybody. Good work. Good hustle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll walk you out.
KELLY: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Generally take on the day. What did you think?
KELLY: This was an exciting night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was. Yes.
KELLY: I mean, it was thrilling to see how they would do against one another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
KELLY: I think we learned a little bit about both of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think we learned?
KELLY: She's not dying. I think we'll see a different Trump in the next debate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Joining me now, Mark McKinnon, co-creator and co-host of The Circus.
That was fun, Mark.
MARK MCKINNON, THE CIRCUS CO-CREATOR AND CO-HOST: There was more drama in the control room than it was in the debate stage, that you guys are really operating with that and that. And thank you for letting us do that.
Part of the ambition of "The Circus" is to show viewers and voters what it's like to be behind the scenes of a campaign. And we've -- I've seen that from and we showed from the campaign side but we've never even show it from the news side. And that was fascinating for me because it's tense. And I know what the tense -- I know what it's like being tense on the debate side...
KELLY: Yes.
MCKINNON: ... being with the candidate but I've never been to the control room of your men. That's hot stuff.
KELLY: You've seen more than I've seen. Because you know, we're like a, you know, Superman and Clark Kent. We're never in the same room at the same time. The control room team and me, but that's Scott Rosenthal, our director who keeps, you know, the madness under control in there.
And you can see the viewers never get to see the problems because we try to hide them from you. Oh, it's me and me. But that night we don't have Brian Fallon. He was supposed to be our lead guest. We didn't have Kellyanne Conway. She was supposed to be our second lead guest. Nobody was showing up. We were going on the air in front of, you know...
MCKINNON: Live TV, right.
KELLY: Yes. It's five million people. We had no guests at all. So, you have to be able to roll with it. And one of the fun things about TV is you're getting an eyewitness view of what's happening in the control room when things are melting down. Like, where's Fallon? And I'm out on the set, all I ever hear is Brian Fallon will be here in two minutes.
MCKINNON: He'll be right there.
KELLY: Right. Brian is up next.
MCKINNON: They're trying to keep you calm.
KELLY: And my only hint that something is wrong is in the background you'll be like get him!
MCKINNON: They did a great job.
KELLY: Any surprises, you know, when you saw the whole thing go down?
MCKINNON: The whole thing was a surprise. I had no idea the control room was that chaotic and that dramatic. It was fascinating for me to see that and I think for viewers, too.
KELLY: Yes, I think so, too. And you'll get sort of a flavor for how we put the show together and the choices that we make and why we make them. And then there will be some other -- there will be some other shows featured too that you don't need to worry about. You tuned it away.
MCKINNON: Well, the thing that we're doing, the whole week we have come a theme every week and the theme this week is the newsrooms. And we want to show what it's like to see the campaign through the lens of the news programs like yours.
KELLY: Well, you guys were pros. All of you.
MCKINNON: Thank you, guys.
KELLY: So, thank you for doing such a beautiful job.
MCKINNON: You kick it.
KELLY: Pleasure having you. Kick it. Mark goes at the end, we goes -- he goes, Megyn, can I get a kick it. So, I was like, kick it? Kick it? Only Mark could pull that off. >
Coming up, meet Matthew, the newest contender in the 2016 race and you're not going to like him. He's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Remember super storm Sandy and how it played out in the 2012 election, meet Matthew the hurricane now pointed at the East Coast.
Meteorologist Rick Reichmuth is live in the Fox weather center. Rick?
RICK REICHMUTH, FOX NEWS CHIEF METEOROLOGIST: Hey, so, OK. So, hurricanes-- it's tropical super storm Sandy was about week, eight days or so before the election. We're a little bit away from that. I don't think we're going to be talking about a big game changer as far as the elections go, but this is a really strong storm right now and across the Caribbean, down towards Columbia and Venezuela.
But we are going to be dealing with impacts from this I believe across parts of the U.S. Maybe by around five to seven days from now. All of our model guidance pulls this off towards the north. Cuba, Jamaica getting an impact from this.
But what we're going to watch is maybe by Wednesday, about five days watching some sort of impacts here across parts of the Bahamas, maybe in towards areas of Florida. And these are the two most reliable models here, Megyn, having some sort of interaction with the eastern seaboard there, Wednesday through Friday, Saturday of next week. So, we do have a storm in hands that we're going to watch.
KELLY: Wow. We will. Rick, thank you.
REICHMUTH: You bet.
KELLY: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: What do you think, should Trump go there on the Hillary Clinton and Bill situation? Go to Facebook.com/thekellyfile. On Twitter @megynkelly. Let me know what you think. Thanks for watching. Have a great weekend. I'm Megyn Kelly and this is "The Kelly File."
END
Content and Programming Copyright 2016 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/key-takeaways-from-fox-news-post-debate-poll-results