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Published January 23, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," November 10, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Breaking tonight, just two days after his victory, President-elect Donald Trump heads to Washington to meet with the current president and Congressional leaders. But as lawmakers work to ensure a peaceful transition, streets across America are anything but serene. As Mr. Trump's critics once again stage protests ignoring by partisan calls for unity insisting Mr. Trump is not their president and in some cases even calling for violence.
Welcome to “The Kelly File,” everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. We are keeping our eyes on a number of cities tonight amid calls for more protests in the wake of Mr. Trump's White House win. Just 24 hours ago on this program we showed you massive demonstrations that were breaking out in major cities across America. People seen burning flags and Trump effigies. Folks in New York even marching to the foot of President-elect Trump's home, at Trump Tower, at times of these protests got out of hand and lead to arrests. One woman in California taking it a step further. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we don't fight, who is going to fight for us? People had to die for freedom where we're at today. We can't just do rallies, we have to fight back. There will be casualties on both sides. There will be because people have to die to make a change in this world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Afterward, President Obama's spokesperson said people have every right to protest but cautioned that they should not resort to violence. Today Donald Trump's campaign manager encouraged the President and Hillary Clinton to address the situation. We'll speak with Kellyanne Conway who is here live in about that in a moment.
But we begin tonight with Rob Schmitt who is live in New York City covering the situation there. Rob, what are you seeing?
ROB SCHMITT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, you know, today we saw, you know, President-elect Trump having a cordial meeting with President Obama and a handshake, getting olive branches of some sort extended to him from people like Elizabeth Warren and from Bernie Sanders. But tonight, the objection to this election remains here in New York City, albeit, it is much smaller than last night. Last night we saw a thousands of people, tonight just about 200 people here right outside of Trump Tower.
The NYPD has done a much more dramatic job of cordoning off this area here at 56 and Fifth Avenue here in Midtown. So, it hasn't been what we saw last night. And I think the NYPD was ready for it. This was the same kind of thing though. They marched up from Union Square, they did that same about two-mile march into Midtown. Just a much smaller group and I will say that this is a much more on message group, it appears to be a much more mature group, here that we're seeing tonight.
People that really want to talk about things and want to have a discussion about this and not just scream obscenities and do some of the things that we did see last night on your show. And now we want to come over here and bring in a couple of people that we want to talk to, people that are here protesting and are willing to talk to us about what exactly what brought them out here.
This is Emily. She lives in Queens, New York which is just across the east river. And I just want to ask you, I mean, we can understand as a woman what might worry you about this president. We've heard some of the things he said. What specifically brought you out here tonight at 9:00 on a Thursday night?
EMILY: I'm here. I want to change the message. I want to speak to the other side. I hate saying that because I think that this might be possibly furthering the divide which worried me. I don't want to alienate the other people. He does scared me because of the way he campaigned. I'm mostly concerned about the environment. I'm sad that it will become a liberal conservative argument.
SCHMITT: Yes.
EMILY: I think that everybody needs to live in the world and I don't want him to undo all of the progress. But I'm hopeful he will prove me wrong.
SCHMITT: Right.
EMILY: I just want to let everybody know that voted for him, that I don't think all of us think they're all racists and bigots and homophobic.
SCHMITT: Sure.
EMILY: And I think that this might be sending the message that we think they're all that way.
SCHMITT: Was there one thing that he said that was the most offensive to you? Was there one thing that bothered you the most?
EMILY: That climate change is not real and not happening in a --
SCHMITT: Okay. So, you have a whole different perspective on this thing, I understand. Yes, I got you.
EMILY: I don't think he's as bad as we think he is but I'm worried.
SCHMITT: Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. And so, there you have it, I mean, that's just one opinion of several out here that you see. That's the first time I've heard environment as a reason, though.
We'll send it back to you, Megyn.
KELLY: All right. Rob, thank you.
Well, there are certainly divisions, Donald Trump's victory did make history and on that night, there was someone by his side who made history as well. Kellyanne Conway, his campaign manager, the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign. There you go. Let's say it loud, say it proud. She joins me now live. Congratulations.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thank you, Megyn.
KELLY: On his victory and on yours.
CONWAY: Well, I appreciate that. And I just think he's a very unique compelling messenger who took his message directly to the people. We were totally impervious to the naysayers, the critics, the polls, the pundits and many in the media frankly. And I'm just glad -- I think this is the people's election, I really do and I feel like my Republican Party was veering dangerously close to becoming the party of the elites for a number of years and I'm just glad it's a party --
KELLY: Well, there's no question that Donald Trump earned this victory but you also helped. And he had been through two other campaign managers who were not able to get him quite in a space that would prove to be successful and then Kellyanne came in and managed to help us successful candidate --
CONWAY: We have a great team.
KELLY: And so, I know. You're sweet. She's giving all of the credit to other people because that's how she is. But let's talk about what your reaction was the other night. Because we're seating -- and you go to those exit poll meetings at 5:00, it looks good for Hillary, not for Donald, probably able to call it in the 11:00 hour, it looks like it's going to be a Hillary win. And these are just data crunchers. These aren't partisan.
CONWAY: Right.
KELLY: This is just reading what the polls, the exit polls have said. When was the moment you knew, oh my God, like he actually is winning, he's winning this?
CONWAY: So our goal was always to protect the core four as I call it, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa. Not an easy feat. We knew Iowa and Ohio looked good going into election night. And we knew we were behind in the early vote in Florida and North Carolina but we weren't as far behind as Governor Romney was in 2012. Because we were ready for that. And in concert with the RNC, we built a field operation of ground game, a data operation that tried to mitigate the loss of early voting that just Republicans seem to experience.
We needed a big day of vote in the states. And when we saw that catch-up, we knew that we were going to be close but probably prevailing in both states. The other thing Megyn is that in later weeks, we saw about six different paths to 270 but most of those paths ran to the Upper Midwest. And we figured, you know, when I saw Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania competitive and I saw Hillary Clinton not getting over 50 percent -- the thing about her in all of these swing states --
KELLY: Yes. She's got a low ceiling.
(CROSSTALK)
CONWAY: I've been saying that all along.
KELLY: But when did you realize that Michigan was in play, that Pennsylvania was really in play? Was it Comey? What was it?
CONWAY: Well, our internal polls. And I know --
KELLY: Like when at one point?
CONWAY: Probably three weeks before the election. I mean, these were states that were always attracted to the Donald Trump message of renegotiating back trade deals, getting your jobs back from Mexico and China, creating 25 million new jobs, energy and infrastructure investments and patriotism frankly. Those jobs are always resting it. But he was getting crowds wherever he went and people were saying, oh, who cares, they call him the risk takers. Oh, crowd size it doesn't matter. It does matter because --
KELLY: Because they didn't matter for Romney. They didn't matter. That's why. I mean, honestly, if you look at the last election, Mitt Romney's crowd sizes were huge, not consistently in the way Trump's were. But, you know, and he didn't win. So, that -- you go by history but in the end, Trump, I mean, not only did he have the huge crowds but they were motivated and they were mobilized.
CONWAY: They were.
KELLY: Let me ask you about on a go forward basis now. Everybody is wondering about the cabinet. Who is he going to use as his top advisors? You confirmed publicly that you've been offered a job in a Trump White House. Want to give us any hint or forecast what that might be?
CONWAY: Yes. And it's not a specific job. I'm just pushing back on a ridiculous media report that I was reluctant to go inside the administration --
(CROSSTALK)
I wanted to run my own -- I wanted to run my own business. And people just say that without checking with the source.
KELLY: So, Dave Sherman reported that without even asking you whether it was true.
CONWAY: Correct. And I just said false. Maybe the people who are the sources would like my job in the White House. But no, that's something, a conversation that I'll have with Mr. Trump when it's appropriate and I've told him that I'm willing to serve.
KELLY: What do you think it's going to look like? I mean, because the names that come to mind, Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, Ben Carson, Steve Bannon, all of those in the running as far as you know?
CONWAY: Well, I know, they've been incredibly loyal, incredibly capable and qualified to take these types of positions. I don't like to speculate on personnel. I think those are personal decisions.
KELLY: We'll get to that soon enough.
CONWAY: That's right. And this is Donald Trump's presidency and it's his cabinet and it's his senior team to name. I just think the major quality will be loyalty to him.
KELLY: Yes. He needs to have people he feels comfortable with.
CONWAY: Yes. But then also capable and qualified to do the job. But everybody you just named certainly is.
KELLY: Now, let's talk about what we saw there with Emily, the protester. She's fearful. Right? For her the issue is climate change. And we've heard so many other issues with other people who are out there, women, Hispanics, people who are afraid they might get deported, right? Some Muslims. People who found themselves on the other side of Donald Trump's pledged policies or his, you know, behavior at some points during the campaign. Does he do anything to reach out to them other than, you know, just try to act presidential. Like does he -- do you think he's going to do something where he has a specific message for them?
CONWAY: He's off to a great start in that regard, Megyn. The minute he won the election and went out to do his victory speech, a speech he wrote, he went out there and he said, I'm going to be the president of all Americans, including those who do not support me. I think that's incredibly important, very important to him personally, I assure you. Secondly less than 36 hours after being elected president of the United States, Donald Trump and Melania Trump flew down to Washington to meet with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
KELLY: Who was brutal to Donald Trump just as he was to them but they were brutal right back.
CONWAY: But they all love America and democracy and I know all four of them share in interest and a peaceful transition into the next administration.
KELLY: We're going to get to that with Charles Krauthammer.
CONWAY: I will show you something also that this afternoon, President Bill Clinton called President-elect Donald Trump and they had a very warm conversation.
KELLY: I would have loved to have heard that.
CONWAY: President Clinton congratulated Mr. Trump on his victory and wished him well. And so you're hearing that again and again. I think -- that's my message to the protesters too, which is take your cues from these five or six people today. The sitting president, the former president.
KELLY: Yes. Keep an open mind.
CONWAY: The First Lady, keep an open mind and certainly the Trumps, they had a wonderful day there.
KELLY: They're rough and tumble. But during the campaigns, you never liked the personal attacks, you never liked the -- Ivanka made clear she didn't like the personal attacks. You know, nobody is a perfect person and everybody has got flaws. Do you think that as president, as President- Elect Trump and President Trump will be able to refrain from that from going to tic for tat, with anybody who attacks him and sort of going, you know, to the darkest place on twitter or otherwise?
CONWAY: We see his focus. He has his 100-day plan out there and that's going to be his focus. And he also has a Republican House and Senate which means he can actually get things done. I think folks on both sides of the aisle like to hide behind divided government, Megyn. It's a great foil to fear, frankly.
KELLY: I wasn't brave enough to get things done.
CONWAY: Well, that's right. I think, oh, I would have expect the President is of a different party or I would have except the Congress is in my way. Well, you know, here you have a complete control by the Republican Party and the country decided that. They also decided to put Republicans in charge of 69 over 99 the state legislative chambers.
KELLY: No, he had coattails in many ways.
CONWAY: Yes.
KELLY: And then the Republicans had a great --
CONWAY: But on this point about reaching out and talking to people --
KELLY: Just personal attacks.
CONWAY: You know, can we agree, I hope we can agree that no one has ever been subjected to the deluge and just unbelievable avalanche of personal attacks as Donald Trump. I just can tell you as one of his senior staffers --
KELLY: It's only going to get worse now that --
CONWAY: My goodness. It's like we're the walking wounded. I mean, there's nothing like it. And it's just -- like the Edward Scissorhands of insults and frankly, I think, if Secretary Clinton had not run such a nasty negative campaign towards the end, she could have made the race more competitive. People don't like that. They don't like the paid advertisements --
KELLY: You know that Trump gave as much as he got. And he gave --
CONWAY: But he had to bring aspirational message in there too. He did.
KELLY: I am not denying that. But my point is, as president of the United States, you know, he can't be engaging in attacks on civilians, verbal attacks or shots like that. And that doesn't lift us up. And do you think he's going to stop that?
CONWAY: I know that he's fully capable of being the president of all Americans and he's promised to do that. And that would be included in there. But I would say that these protesters who are burning his images in effigy or who have all of these nasty signs, not my president, can you imagine if Hillary Clinton had been elected, which I supposed they were all expecting. And the Trump protesters were saying not my president.
KELLY: Yes.
CONWAY: We've seen that about President Obama. That's all you would hear about, so --
KELLY: That is right.
CONWAY: I think people should really take some self-reflection and realize we've got a lot in common in this country. But having said that, he's going to be a tough leader. He is going to make -- he got elected on certain issues and you can expect him to tackle that very quickly in his administration.
KELLY: We are looking forward to watching the next 70 days and see what your team puts in place, Kellyanne.
CONWAY: Thank you.
KELLY: And we're watching you too.
CONWAY: Thank you.
KELLY: Congrats.
Well, amid signs of unrest in some cities across the country, we saw a different scene in our nation's capital earlier today as you heard Kellyanne mentioned. As President Obama and President-Elect Trump met for the very first time.
Charles Krauthammer is here next on why he thinks there was another face to face that was actually far more important for Mr. Trump today.
And President Obama has used the power of the pen in office to his favor but could Mr. Trump undo it all on January 21st? He has a pen and a phone too as it turns out. Two former campaign insiders, Marc Thiessen and Mark Hannah are here with the answers.
Plus, Zeke Emanuel, chief architect of ObamaCare is here as we go one more round on the uncertain future of the President's signature law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Don't you agree the system is going to collapse unless we get --
ZEKE EMANUEL, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: I don't agree with that. The President has given you a plan that will cover everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: A second straight night of anti-Trump protests unfolding in major cities across the U.S. and even overseas. In Washington, D.C. today however it was a very different scene as President Obama hosted President-elect Trump for his first White House visit. And this was no average encounter. Charles Krauthammer joins us on that in a moment but we begin with campaign Carl Cameron with more on Trump's day in D.C. Carl?
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Megyn. The peaceful transition of power underway. Donald Trump and President Obama, after years of acrimony were very cordial today. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Most of all I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.
TRUMP: We had never met each other. I have great respect. The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half. And I look forward to being with you many many more times in the future. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON: While the President and President-elect were chatting, the First Lady and incoming first lady had a meeting in the White House residence while the vice president-elect and the outgoing Vice President also had a brief meeting. Then it was on to the hill for Donald Trump where he met with the two Republican leaders of the House and Senate. He has maintained and helped them keep their majority. But there too there is an awful lot of ill will and none of it was visible today. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, R-WIS., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Donald Trump had one of the most impressive victories we've ever seen and we're going to turn that victory into progress for the American people.
TRUMP: We're going to lower taxes, as you know. We're going to fix health care and make it for affordable and better. And we are going to do a real job for the public. And that's what we want to do and that's why we are excited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON: After meeting with Paul Ryan, Trump went and visited with the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- Megyn.
KELLY: Carl, thank you.
Well, the two men were cordial at the White House but they did not pose for a couples' photo along with their wives as the Obamas did here with the Bushes in 2008.
Joining me now with more on it all, Charles Krauthammer who is a syndicated columnist and a Fox News contributor.
Great to see you, Charles. So, let's just start with what happened today in (audio gap), shook hands. There is a lot of bad blood between them and they've both taken brutal shots at one another, such as the nature of politics. So, given that, how do you think it went?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: It went according to textbook. They have to be cordial, they have to make a show of amity and comedy which they did. And the most important element of that whole day was the constant repetition of the phrase Mr. President-elect. It is always hard to get used to saying or hearing that with any new president. I remember with Clinton it was sort of hard to get used to it, especially with an outsider like Trump who's never been had been called governor or senator.
But we heard it so much today. And when it came out of the mouth of the current president speaking with respect, all of the sudden it becomes real and that was the most important element of today. This idea of normalizing what was shocking one and a half days ago --
KELLY: Uh-hm.
KRAUTHAMMER: I remember in the broadcast on election night around 9:00, Chris Wallace said, oh my God, we really could be seeing a President Trump. The phrase sounded very strange. It's becoming rather normal now.
KELLY: Uh-hm. And so, that's all part of it because the American people need to get behind President-Elect Trump and accept him as our president and wish him well. And they may disagree with his policies but we want our president to be successful and be safe and be confident in the job. And President Obama plays an important role in setting the tone for that. But of course at another level, Trump has got to figure out what's going to go on with these guys who are still going to be there when he ascends.
Obama is going to go off and enjoy himself presumably, President Obama, doing something where he's going to make some money or playing more golf or whatever. Paul Ryan is going to be there, Mitch McConnell is going to be there. And the question is whether Trump you think will work with them, will President-Elect Trump really work with Paul Ryan or do you think he wants to get rid of him?
KRAUTHAMMER: Well, he may want to get rid of him but I think he understands absolutely that the last thing he needs in a transition where he has no legislative experience and he's got a guy in the House who's ready to work with him on what they share in their agenda, which is really quite a lot, it would be nuts to try to undermine him and to create a civil war in the party right now. He has the movement, he has the party. He's the leader. He will pick and choose among the items that the Ryan and House Republicans have already prepared. They're ready to go with a very long agenda. Trump will decide what is going to be acted on at the beginning. And on that there should be not much disagreement.
KELLY: Right. Because while Paul Ryan may not -- Donald Trump may not have been his favorite candidate. But, you know, the odds are he's sitting there on Capitol Hill now thinking, this is great, I have a Republican president, we maintained control of the upper chamber, I'm speaker of the House, let's go for it. We can do all of the things that we wanted to do and piece by piece start dismantling President Obama's legacy.
KRAUTHAMMER: Ryan is as giddy as a kid in a candy store. Because he's got all of the stuff, a host of issues, some of which he's already gotten through the House that died in Harry Reid's Senate or died on the veto desk of Barack Obama that now he's got a chance to actually enact, so he's ready to go.
KELLY: And number one on that is repealing and replacing ObamaCare. So, speak to that. Speak to the legacy issue for Barack Obama now.
KRAUTHAMMER: Obama's legacy is toast. Obama's legacy is gone. Which explains why he's so desperately and unusually in American history campaigns so roughly against Donald Trump. He knew that so much of his accomplishments had been built on ramming stuff through the House and the Senate with very little consensus, in fact none on ObamaCare coming from the Republicans, on executive orders that are reversible with the stroke of a pen, on regulation that is easily reversible, that it collapses if and when his successor turns out to be a Republican.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
KRAUTHAMMER: And that's what happened. And I think he's going to end up as a parenthesis in American history in the sense that he thought when he came into office, he thought he was the Ronald Reagan of the left, meaning Reagan came in, he changed the ideological trajectory of the country, he turned it into a conservative country where that was sort of the underlying consensus. Obama thought he was going to change all of that and begin a liberal ascendency the way that Reagan began. A conservative ascendency.
Well, it did not turn out that way. The country rejected his policies. Remember what Obama said when he was campaigning, I'm not on the ballot but my legacy is on the ballot. It was on the ballot and the country has rejected it. The idea that he would be the beginner of a new liberal ascendency is now dead and Obama I think understands that very well.
KELLY: Yes. I mean, he really -- I don't think he believed that Donald Trump could ever become the president ever. He said that many times. He's not going to become president. And now this appearance he made on Jimmy Kimmel where you read mean tweets and you read other, like, let's just show it to the audience. Because this is making the rounds now. As, you know, the Trump supporters feel vindicated. Here it is before I let you go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!”/ABC)
OBAMA: President Obama will go down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States! @RealDonaldTrump.
(LAUGHTER)
@RealDonaldTrump. At least I will go down as a president.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KRAUTHAMMER: That's why there weren't that many smiles in the Oval Office today. And I think that's why you also did not see a portrait of the two couples.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
KRAUTHAMMER: But again that doesn't matter how you feel. They went through the motions and that's what we needed. And this is all in the name of transition of power and legitimacy.
KELLY: That's right.
KRAUTHAMMER: Something we have done very well except for a little problem with the civil war. But otherwise, we did it very well.
KELLY: There's something beautiful about it, though. There is.
KRAUTHAMMER: It is.
KELLY: Just seeing people so ideologically opposed and who had fought such a brutal fight. Just sit down together, shake hands and say to the nation, we'll be just fine. Charles, great to see you.
KRAUTHAMMER: My pleasure.
KELLY: Still ahead, Barack Obama was accused of running an imperial presidency by some, executive orders bypassing the Congress. Saying hey, election have consequences. They do indeed. So, what are the consequences of Tuesday night's election for Mr. Obama's executive orders?
Marc Thiessen and Mark Hannah are here on that.
Plus, now that the GOP controls the White House and Congress, ObamaCare will almost certainly be repealed and replaced. What does Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel the law's chief architect have to say about that? He's here live. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We can replace ObamaCare and save health care for every family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, for second straight night unrests in cities across the country as the protesters take to the streets to vent their frustrations after Tuesday night's election did not apparently go the way they wanted. President-elect Trump taking notice and taking to twitter. Minutes ago, tweeting this out in response, "Just had a very open and successful presidential election, now professional protesters incited by the media are protesting, very unfair!" with his signature exclamation points. So they have returned the twitter account to President-elect Trump and we shall see how he chooses to use it over the next four years and 70 days.
Also tonight during his nearly eight years in office to date, President Obama's willingness to use his pen and his phone has resulted in thousands of regulations, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. One of President-elect's Donald Trump's major campaign promises was to undo many of those, just as soon as he took office. So which of these policies could soon find themselves on the chopping block? Shannon Bream has more from Washington, Shannon?
SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: He promised to use his pen to go around Congress more than two years ago and President Obama has done plenty to make good on that pledge ever since. President-elect Donald Trump says on day one, he'll start tossing out scores of executive orders. And rolling back what he said had been an abusive overreach. The Supreme Court in fact unanimously struck down the president's decision to stake the National Labor Relations Board saying he exceed his constitutional boundaries. Another one of the areas in which the administration has exerted substantial control is through Title 9, which bans sex discrimination in education. And that can be defined to include sex assault. If the school doesn't comply as the administration sees fit, it risks losing millions in federal funding and it can even be ordered to pay out damages.
That has been a real issue for young men who say, they've been falsely accused and face severe disciplinary action even expulsion without due process. Much of the trouble apparently stems back to a 2011 letter of guidance from the Department of Education which actually counseled some schools to lower the standard of proof they should accept before mediating out punishment. Experts call items like those letters, dark regulatory matter which provides for severe penalty without ever going through congress. And predict the Trump administration will tackle it head on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Obama legacy defended on a Hillary Clinton victory, and he didn't get that so a lot of the things that Obama did or going away. ObamaCare is going away. The keystone pipeline is coming back in. And you can practically put together a new year's list of these things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: There will be plenty to waive thru given that the Obama administration has set numerous yearly records for the amount of rules and regulations added to the federal register, Megyn?
KELLY: Shannon Bream, thank you. Joining me now Marc Thiessen, former Chief Speech Writer for President George W. Bush and Mark Hannah, who is a campaign aide for the Obama and Kerry presidential campaigns and an author of the book "The best worst president - What the right gets wrong about Barack Obama," great to see you both.
MARC THIESSEN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISING SCHOLAR AND FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thank Megyn.
MARK HANNAH, CAMPAIGN AIDE FOR THE OBAMA AND KERRY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: Great to see you, Megyn.
KELLY: Marc Thiessen, let me start with you. The danger in enacting policy with your pen and your phone, is the next president has a pen and a phone too, and if you don't have bipartisan consent and the support of your rivals on Capitol Hill, they're going to undo it all just as soon as you're booted out of office.
THIESSEN: That is exactly right. And look, you know, I was in the Bush administration during the transition to President Obama and he did the exact same thing. I mean President Obama when he came into office, one of the first thing he did was repeal Bush's order banning federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, overturned the Mexico City policy, overturned his interrogation policy by executive order. So President Obama has done this as well when he first came into office. But the difference is that President Obama has been almost unprecedented in the executive actions he took. When he lost control of congress, he said he was going to impose the agenda with his pen and his phone. So when he couldn't pass the dream act, which was giving amnesty to certain, groups of illegal aliens, he imposed it by executive order, when he couldn't pass Cap and Trade, he imposed it by executive order. Same thing when it came to gun control, financial regulation, health care, transgender bathrooms, impose by executive order and so when you rule by executive fiat, you can't be surprised when the new executive comes in and undoes your fiat. That is what Barack Obama is facing right now.
KELLY: Marc Hannah, this is not just a question of you know what will the new Republican control congress and Republican control White House push through its legislation and that, you know Presidents Trump would sign in the law. This is about undoing Barack Obama's legacy, because so much of what he did, he did on his own.
HANNAH: Right. And he did through this executive order which Republicans were quick to criticize him about. It will be interesting to see whether those same Republican criticized a President Trump for using.
KELLY: Just for undoing it? How it is hypocritical for them to just undo the thing they criticized?
HANNAH: Look, what is going to happen when, I want to start off by congratulating -- I mean this sincerely. The people out there who supported President Trump this is a historical election, I am not going to, you know scoop trying to delegitimized a man who is elected, a newly elected American President, not the mention the fact that that man came to political prominence by trying to delegitimize another American president, President Obama with his further nonsense. So the American people, the majority of the American People voted, well voted for Hillary Clinton, but the majority.
KELLY: Can you get to the point?
HANNAH: The majority of electoral votes are going to Trump and he has a mandate to make executive orders and he is going to. I'm fearful. I just saw Shannon Bream's report on, you know, sexual harassment, sexual assault on college campuses. I teach in College Campus, that is a serious problem. The Obama administration has come down on universities who are permissive about this. One in five women report being sexually assaulted or almost sexually assaulted.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: She is not saying that President Trump is going to undo this. She is saying this is one of the controversial things.
HANNAH: And he is criticized.
KELLY: Because -- the criticism is not that young women don't deserve their day in, you know college court. The criticism is that young men also deserve due process on campus, Marc Thiessen?
THIESSEN: You know that is exactly right. And look at these, we are also -- these weren't executive orders, they weren't even regulations. They were dear colleague letters. They have no force of law. They had been threatening to sue these universities if they don't do it. And the Department of Education is going to go simply just withdraw those dear colleague letters.
KELLY: What about the Department of Justice investigating 26 police departments throughout the country? Could President Trump dial that back?
THIESSEN: There are a lot of things that he can dial back. And absolutely, and he should dial back, some are harder. Someone, when it's a regulation it's a little bit harder because you've issued rules and regulations as a process. And you probably -- this is also why it's important for him to pick really good Supreme Court nominees. Because a lot of time the Supreme Court when they overturn a regulation, they don't only just undo the damage of an illegal executive action, they actually set a precedent which will be lasting and binding on the next president. So I think it is really important to have good Supreme Court justices.
HANNAH: Do you have a man who's boasted of sexual assault going easy on sexual predators on campus, scares the bejesus out of me.
KELLY: But going easy on them is in the eye of the beholder.
HANNAH: Due process.
KELLY: But the (inaudible) say, is that young men deserves due process. Right now they don't get a lawyer to go in with them to these hearings. They're deprived of the ability to see a lot of the evidence and so they've said, fine we'll have a process, but the process hasn't been fair to us. That's the controversy. Outline in 20 seconds, forgive me, because we got to go, good to see you, double Marc's.
THIESSEN: Good to see you, Megyn.
KELLY: The Democrats passed Obamacare without a single republican vote. Ezekiel Emanuel, Chief Architect of Obamacare is here on whether that decision will come back to haunt the Democrats as President-elect Trump pledges to repeal and replace the law. That is next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Today the American works class is going to strike back. Real change begins with immediately repealing and replacing the disaster known as Obamacare.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Developing tonight, President-elect Donald Trump promising to repeal and replace President Obama signature law, back in 2010 when the law ObamaCare is being written. Republicans asked for a seat at the table and here's how President Obama responded to his rival, Senator John McCain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: My constituents in Americans now are overwhelmingly reject this proposal, saying go back to the beginning, they want us to go back to the beginning, they want us not to do this kind of legislating. They want us to sit down together and do what's best for all American, not just for some people who live in Florida or happen to live in other favored states.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Let me make this point, John, because we're not campaigning anymore. The election is over.
MCCAIN: I'm reminded of that every day.
OBAMA: Yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Oh boy. Joining me now in an exclusive interview, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who is a chief architect of ObamaCare and vice for Global Initiatives of the University of Pennsylvania, great to see you again, Dr.
EZEKIEL EMANUEL, CHIEF ARCHITECT OF OBAMACRAE: Nice to be here.
KELLY: So, let's take about what they can do. You know, because the Democrats pushed this through with 51 votes citing budget reconciliation. It there basically a way to get it through without all those.
(CROSSTALK)
EMANUEL: We had 60 votes in the original Senate proposal.
KELLY: Ok. But when they lost Scott Brown in Massachusetts and they had to use budget reconciliation to get a bunch of it through. So, what can the Republicans undo?
EMANUEL: Reconciliation deals with anything financial that affects the federal budget you can deal through reconciliation which is a 51 vote majority. Stuff that doesn't deal with money you cannot repeal.
KELLY: So, can they take away the funding mechanism of the law?
EMANUEL: Yeah.
KELLY: What would that do the law?
EMANUEL: If you don't have subsidies, the exchange doesn't work. You can't pay for Medicaid expansions at the states. They can certainly wreak havoc in a number of ways, even without repealing, I mean, there are subsidies for people, the loft 250 percent of the poverty line that they get for paying, whole payments and deductibles. They take those subsidies away, which they certainly can and insurance companies will bail on the exchanges. So, you can certainly wreck this law.
I mean it doesn't take a lot to wreck a law, but the question is, what you would do for the 20 million Americans who had got insurance out of this, for the hospitals, who no longer have bad dept, for the insurance companies that have rearranged their products. The Republicans keep talking about replacement, but they've never given a credible bill that will get everyone insurance including people who have preexisting conditions at an affordable price.
KELLY: Ok. Let's talk about the preexisting conditions. That is popular for me.
EMANUEL: Very popular.
KELLY: But the problem is as predicted, there's too many sick people taking advantage of the plan and not enough young healthy people to supplement it. If President Trump called you, Dr. Emanuel and said, you know it is going away, I am changing it, I've got to get rid, you know of the bulk of this law, how can I keep the preexisting conditions covered and not got the rest and not have a mandate and not have all of the unpopular things about the law, possible?
EMANUEL: No. So, what they're proposing is to have these high risk pools, not just to have a number of people who are older or sicker, but to super concentrate them and give them subsidized insurance at the state level. It is about the most inefficient way of giving people insurance for just 3 million people in those high risk pools that cost $25 billion to pay for them. That is not a good proposal.
You have to have a mandate if you are going to say anyone with a preexisting condition has to get insurance.
KELLY: Those two things go hand in hand.
EMANUEL: It's linked and you can't have both. And the American public, they don't like having both, but that is the way the insurance market works.
KELLY: How does it make you feel to see the law now on the chopping block? I'm just curious.
EMANUEL: What do you think? You don't have to be psychologist to be very -- I'm very upset, because I think we did a very positive stand. No matter what is your metric, if it's getting people insurance, you know we have about 20 million people got insurance, if its cost control, the ACA has definitely brought cost down. And so it's been a pretty big success. The public doesn't see it that way.
KELLY: No.
EMANUEL: But that is a different.
KELLY: Rise in premiums and so on, which we have talked about before, Doctor, good to see you.
EMANUEL: Nice to see you, nice to be here.
KELLY: Up next, behind the scenes at Fox News.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the world headquarters of Fox News, it's “The Kelly File with Megyn Kelly.”
KELLY: Election night 2016. You watch it, we lived it. And here's the tale of one host, two shows, two networks and nearly 12 hours of live television. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Ok. I'm leaving the Fox News green room, it's got the bells and mistletoe, got to go over the sets, due to The Five with Bret, this is our first hour of coverage. This is the fancy new set.
BRET BAIER, HOST, “SPECIAL REPORT”: This is it.
KELLY: After more than a year and a half of campaigning, election night 2016 is officially here. “The Five” is still on you can see it on the riser behind it. New York City is getting ready now only for this election but for Christmas, this is the 12/11 building where we all come to work every day and back mind me is the set that Bret and I will be going on momentarily and probably within the next four hours, maybe five we'll be announcing the next president of the United States. Let's go do it.
BAIER: What a campaign it's been and it is now over yet. The polls are set to close.
KELLY: And the votes will be counted. Who will be the next president of the United States? A question 15 months in the making.
Things right now, Chris Wallace are looking much tighter than I think the Clinton camp may have expected.
CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, “FOX NEWS SUNDAY”: I think we're all, at least I'm coming to the conclusion -- conclusion is the wrong word. Open to the possibility that Donald Trump could be the next president of the United States.
KELLY: (Inaudible) 1:00, unbelievable night. Trump is in it. He is way in it.
BAIER: Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States.
KELLY: As he said all along, he didn't have to do this. He is got a lovely life and a lovely lifestyle, a lovely family right where he is and this required a lot of guts by Donald Trump. And boy, did it pay off with him tonight.
BAIER: What a journey it's been.
KELLY: You know what, we are very grateful to all of you for keeping attuned to the Fox News channel through a weird year for all of us, it's had ups and downs, but we've all done it together and we're grateful. Thank you for watching us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now here are Kelly Ripa and Megyn Kelly.
KELLY: Half the country is severely disappointed.
KELLY RIPA, HOST, “LIVE! WITH KELLY”: Right.
KELLY: And half the country is thrilled, right? This happened four years ago as well. And it all winds up being ok. That is one of the things that makes us great is we go through this electoral process, we get battered and bruised, but at the end of it, we do accept the results, we get behind our president. We can fight still, there can be disagreement on policy, you can criticize positions or language or you know certain statements, but we all share the same basic core values as Americans and that is what we should focus on.
I will say this, you know, love him or hate him, he is the president-elect of our country and the one thing he needs more than anything right now is our prayers.
RIPA: Oh my god.
KELLY: And good wishes for a strong performance. He is got a lot to deal with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Certainly does. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: So next week is an exciting week for yours truly as my new book "Settle for More" will finally be released. It's been under wraps for a year. I was writing it all the way through August and it's finally becoming available for you, the people I actually wrote it for. It covers my time here at Fox News and years before, including some recent controversy.
It also discusses Mr. Trump with some fascinating details of this past year, but it's really about American values and resilience and developing grit. And an attempt to reach out to any of you who may be feeling sad or unfulfilled or who have that little voice in your head saying, I can do better than this. To say, I know how you feel. I was once there too. And you're right. You can improve your life. I did and here is the story of how.
I hope you'll buy it. You can order it now and have it by Tuesday when it's released and then we can discuss it together. It's available at Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com. I hope you go there right now, order it "Settle for More" and I hope you do. Have a great night. I'm Megyn Kelly.
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