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Blackburn: Americans joined me in standing up to Twitter

Twitter reverses restrictions on Republican ad it originally flagged as 'inflammatory;' congresswoman makes her case on 'The Story.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Story," October 10, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, "THE STORY" HOST: Breaking tonight, hypocrisy in Hollywood where many may have been complicit in the massive cover-up that damaged scores of young women. Good evening, everybody, I'm Martha MacCallum and tonight, "The Story" begins at the 2013 Glatt Awards honoring Bill Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to congratulate Harvey and his wife Georgina on the birth of their new baby boy. If he's anything like his dad, he's going to be relentless, passionate, and just the best mentor and aspiring actor could ever hope for.

HARVEY, WEINSTEIN, AMERICAN FILM PRODUCER: Thank you, Gem, but you can stop kissing up to me for forgetting to thank me at the Oscars.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So, that was then, and now the dirty secret is on some A-listers that kept a long time their secret within them, apparently, as their careers did very well. And it was an issue that was openly joked about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please. I'm not afraid of anyone in show business. I turned down intercourse with Harvey Weinstein on no less than three occasions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, you five ladies, no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.

(LAUGHTER)

MACCALLUM: Wow! Though certainly come across very differently. Now, to these accusers, three of whom are charging rape; those jokes now feel very far from funny and to everybody as well. So, what about the Clintons and the Obamas -- both huge benefactors of Weinstein? Hillary Clinton, who has blamed sexism in part for her election loss put out a statement, everybody was wondering where this was, it came out just a little while ago through her spokesman's Twitter account, and she said this: "I was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior." And moments ago, Barack and Michelle Obama released the joint statement saying they are "disgusted by the recent reports against Weinstein." Trace Gallagher, out in Las Angeles with the latest developments tonight. Hi, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Martha, in 2015, a 22-year-old model, Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct. And as part of the New York Police Department sting operation, Gutierrez agreed to meet Weinstein and wear a wire. Here's part of the audio where he actually admits sexually assaulted her. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEINSTEIN: Honey, don't have a fight with me in the hallway. Please, I am not going to do anything. I swear on my children. Please, come in. On everything, I'm a famous guy.

AMBRA BATTILANA GUTIERREZ, MODEL: I'm very uncomfortable right now.

WEINSTEIN: Please come in now. And one minute, if you want to leave when the guy comes with my jacket you can go.

GUTIERREZ: Why yesterday you touched my breast?

WEINSTEIN: Oh, please, I'm sorry, just come on in. I'm used to that. Come on. Please.

GUTIERREZ: You're used to that?

WEINSTEIN: Yes, come in.

GUTIERREZ: No, but I'm not used to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: The full audio runs a minute and 48 seconds, and in that time, Gutierrez says, no, I can't, or I'm uncomfortable 17 times. Ultimately, prosecutors decided not to file charges and when the allegations went public instead of pursuing the Weinstein story, many reporters instead looked into Ms. Gutierrez's sexual past. Now, two A-list of actresses, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow have come forward with their stories. Jolie says, Weinstein made advances toward her in a hotel room in the late '90s but she rebuffed him and decided never to work with him again. Paltrow claims, he also came onto her in a hotel room. She, too, turned them down and told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt, who confronted Weinstein.

Actresses Rossana Arquette and Mira Sorvino believe, when they rebuffed Weinstein, it damaged their careers. Other aspiring actresses say they either weren't confident enough or strong enough to fend him off. One time, actress Lucia Stoller says, Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex. And actress Asia Argento says, Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her. According to the reporting of the New Yorker, employees of Weinstein were not only aware of his proclivity towards young actresses, they helped arrange the meetings.

Yet after Weinstein was fired, the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Donna Brazile, praised the company tweeting: "The Weinstein Company has taken the lead against sexual harassment and assault after being widely criticized on social media," Brazile deleted the tweet. And for the record, it took Hillary Clinton five full days to comment on the accusations as you noted, same for the Obama's. The last time Michelle Obama made a statement about Harvey Weinstein, she called him a wonderful human being, a good friend, and a powerhouse. Martha.

MACCALLUM: All right. Trace, thank you. And we just showed that just came in moments ago from the Obama's. Here now, Dana Loesch, Host of "Dana" on the BlazeTV, and author of "Hands off my Gun; and Jessica Tarlov, Democratic strategist and a Fox News contributor. Welcome, to both of you. Jessica, let me start with you. What took so long for the Obama's and the Clintons and the Democratic machine, as represented in some way, by Donna Brazile there?

JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR AND DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'm not sure what took them so long. This is an easy one, this is a gimmie, just as I think it was a gimmie for many people to come out or a majority of the people to come out when we heard the access Hollywood tape for the first time about Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton has been a champion for women's rights, she should've been on the forefront of this. Tim Kane came up this morning and said, you know there's no excuse for this. I'm not completely sure what was going through her head right now. She's not running for re- election or election at this point. You can only be praised for making a statement like that. And last night, she was giving a speech and I wish it had come from her own mouth at that time.

MACCALLUM: Interesting. Yes, it's interesting that she was speaking last night and that she didn't mention it at that point. Dana, Harvey Weinstein back in 2009 said Hollywood has the best moral compass. And that's a notion that gets sort of perpetuated a lot, you know, from Hollywood. They do pass judgment on a lot of people, a lot of institutions, and sort of enjoy that high ground in that way. This is a tough pill for them.

DANA LOESCH, THE BLAZETV HOST AND AUTHOR: Yes, it is. I mean, this is -- and Martha, thank you for having me. I mean, to think that Hollywood has any sort of moral compass, I think, would be shocking. The audio from that tape that you just played makes me absolutely sick. This is a guy who's a serial predator, he is a pervert, he has preyed upon, probably, half of the women in Hollywood, if not all of them for who knows how long. And everyone looked the other way because people were worried that either their careers would be ruined or people didn't want to lose that access to influence and power. And it's sickening to see this.

I mean, Hollywood is rotten. Hollywood has a black soul. And in fact, I was just looking a little earlier, Terry Cruz was tweeting how it's not just some of the women in Hollywood that are being prayed upon, it's some of the men that are being preyed upon as well, and it's not just Harvey Weinstein. And you know what, Martha? The Weinstein Company, they can change their name all they want to, they need to delete their whole account, and their whole company as far as I'm concerned. Because when I was looking at both of these articles, The New York Times and The New Yorker, it discussed how there were numerous executives, Martha, and assistants throughout that entire company that was aware and were complicit.

MACCALLUM: Yes, it certainly does. If those accounts are true, it paints a very ugly picture and criminal charges that could perhaps become down for Harvey Weinstein. And we're talking about that with Jonathan Turley in just a moment. You know, you think about, Jessica, sort of the idea of, you know, the casting couch, which is way too cute a phrase for the kinds of things that we see described in this. And when you hear Harvey Weinstein say, you know, I'm used to this, you know, you wonder how many people went in there and had what they considered to be transactional sex with this man because they felt that that was only that they were going to get ahead.

TARLOV: Absolutely. I mean, I completely echo Dana's sentiments, and I know they feel the same way after hearing that tape when you actually hear the voice that just takes it to a whole new level there. And I'm sure there are countless women who, at this moment, don't have the access to becoming out or still don't feel brave enough to do it. I am thankful that so many powerful women have done that, and as Lauren (INAUDIBLE) said, they have paved the way for women who are less powerful to say that. But I do wonder if after saying this and knowing this is something that is a bipartisan problem if we are going to have an outcry on both sides of the aisle here that this should not be tolerated. I know this is our skunk right now.

MACCALLUM: You know, whether it was not a peep, basically, over the weekend except John Oliver, who had the guts to stand up and give the same treatment that he has given to others in the past. And I just want to point out, this is Georgina Chapman that you see -- a picture with Harvey Weinstein, this is his wife. But People Magazine is reporting right now that she is leaving Harvey Weinstein. So, perhaps, not a surprise given all of the revelations here.

Let's put up with Jeffrey Katzenberg had to say, because we talked last night about the fact that Harvey Weinstein had implored the industry in Hollywood to surround him, to rally to his cause, and to help them out. Jeffrey Katzenberg said, he didn't know whether to just ignore that plea or to respond to it with a letter of his own and he decided to write a letter. He said, I bounced it up to some of my friends, and they said absolutely.

This is what needs to be said, so here it is: "you have done terrible things to a number of women over a period of years. I cannot, in any way, say that this is OK with me." And he goes on to say, "It's not at all. I'm sickened by it, angry with you, and incredibly disappointed in you." You know, and it goes back, Dana, to just this question of, you know, the silence and the complicit nature of so many people in this, which really needs to be a lesson here. Because you look at, you know, some of these actresses who came out, Rose McGowan, who's just livid, you know, that she spoke out -- she's very brave, she spoke out, and so many who did not until after the ball started rolling.

LOESCH: And they didn't. And that's a great point, Martha, because, you know, Rose McGowan, I'm sure, I don't agree with her on hardly anything. But I think it's a shame what has happened to her and what has happened to her career. I saw what Jessica Chastain tweeted, her excuse, Martha, was that she didn't feel that those victim stories were hers to tell. I saw Meryl Streep's statement -- really, if Meryl Streep wins an Oscar for anything, it should be that B.S. letter that she wrote and talking about Harvey Weinstein. Here, you have the woman that's at the center of Hollywood that everyone reveres, and she pretends not to know anything about this man's past? Please, it's because of people like Meryl Streep and her silence that other women were brutalized and victimized, Martha.

TARLOV: We should not be -- let's not blame on people like that. If you read statements from Glenn Close, that everyone looks at. It's important to hear their story. Look at what George Clooney set as well in his interview where he said, yes, I thought he was a guy who chased young Taylor Brown. I had no idea that this was going on. You cannot, in a moment like this, put a blame on any shoulders to any woman.

LOESCH: No, I'm not putting a blame.

TARLOV: You did. You said --

LOESCH: You're a fool if you think that these people were unaware of it. You're a liar if you think these people aren't aware of it.

TARLOV: You think Meryl Streep was OK with women getting raped by Harvey Weinstein?

LOESCH: We know that this man was a predator, and people who were trading on third-way feminism and female were quiet about it for the betterment of their own careers. As a woman, I find it sickening that women were victimized --

TARLOV: What about -- Dana, for popularity's sake, what about Donald Trump and who's on camera and there was audio, you just grab her by the --

LOESCH: Donald Trump talks about grabbing women's vagina.

TARLOV: And all the woman, the woman who accused him?

MACCALLUM: All right. We got to go, ladies, thank you very much. Good to have both of you here. Obviously, this is a very emotional subject for all of us. I would say that there are in the situations sometimes people who don't know what is going on and we really cannot cast aspersions on them if we don't know for a fact that they were hiding the fact that they knew. So, thanks to Dana, and thanks to Jessica, good to see you both tonight.

Jonathan Turley joins us now, Constitutional Law Attorney and Professor at George Washington Law School. Jonathan, welcome to you.

JONATHAN TURLEY, CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY AND PROFESSOR AT GEORGE WASHINGTON LAW SCHOOL: Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM: Obviously, it's a very heated topic across America, and we've watched it many ways over the course of the last year. And now, Hollywood is getting a huge dose of this as well. When you listen to that 2015 tape, which was a wire that was worn by that young woman bravely, why (INAUDIBLE) apparently to pass here in New York City on pressing charges on that? Why would that be?

TURLEY: Well, I think that the position of the prosecutors was that, first of all, the New York Police didn't bring them into the loop. Which is a bit odd that they didn't consult with prosecutors to try to build a case from bottom up. But they're certainly correct in saying that the tape doesn't have a clear confession or admission to sexual assault. What it does strongly suggest, however, is that a sexual assault occurred, it's very circumstantial.

What's a bit odd is that the office then dropped it. They looked at this as a misdemeanor sexual assault case. And that's what strikes me as rather odd. You know, it appears that many people were familiar with the reputation of Mr. Weinstein. If these women's accounts are true, he would be a serial rapist. I mean, what these women are describing would constitute rape.

Now, a misdemeanor sexual assault in New York is only a two-year statute of limitations, but a Class B felony, something like first-degree rape, which could apply here for some of these women, that does not have a statute of limitations. Then, when you go to California, the statute of limitations earlier was ten years and then they got rid of it but that's not applied retroactively. So, you have a 10-year limit there. So, the point is that-- I find it strange that even if they didn't think that the tape alone constituted a misdemeanor, it seemed to me that there's plenty of there to investigate for a possible felony.

MACCALLUM: And it sounds, in terms of what you're saying, that it's not too late in some of these cases for --

TURLEY: Not too late.

MACCALLUM: -- him to be charged potentially with rape.

TURLEY: That's right. I'm a little surprised that people are saying that, you know, anything would be barred by the statute of limitations, that's not my reading of New York Law. It seems to me, it depends on what the class of assault we're dealing with. Some of these women are describing what would meet the definition of first-degree rape. Now, that would obviously be subject to investigation, but it is by no means a stretch based on their statement so far.

MACCALLUM: Jonathan Turley, always good to have you with us, thank you very much.

TURLEY: Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM: So, as the president gets ready to fight for health care and tax reform, defection by Bob Corker and others. makes this a pretty tough climb. Steve Bannon, says he's coming after those folks, watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: He said, there are only two or three senators on Capitol Hill that have President Trump's back. McConnell and Corker in that entire click, establishment globalist click on Capitol Hill have to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Bill Bennett responds to that coming up next. And Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn has her pro-life Senate adds censored on Twitter. She is here on what she is demanding from the social media site tonight, and we have breaking news on that front for you this evening, so stick around for that. Plus, reports swirling about drama and discord within the walls of the White House and State Department. Governor Mike Huckabee has a bit of an inside track and he's here to weigh in when we come back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, is Senator Corker right that you're putting the U.S. on the path to World War III?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: Tired of continued inaction from Congress, President Trump plans to take on a health care fix without them. Here's some of what he said about that earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I'll also be signing something probably this week, which is going to go a long way to take care of many of the people that have been so badly hurt on health care. With Congress, the way it is, I decided to take it upon myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Does he have a pen and a phone? What does that mean? Chief National Correspondent, Ed Henry, joins us with details from the White House tonight. Hello there, Ed.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Martha, good to see you. Another example of President Trump's deep frustration with establishment Republicans right here in what he likes to call the swamp of Washington. Yesterday, he was tangling with Senator Bob Corker, as you know. Tonight, he is drafting plans to push forward with executive action that would actually chip away at ObamaCare without waiting for Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders, who as you know, who have failed several times to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Specifically, the president expected to issue an executive order on Thursday. He did a little teaser on Twitter today that he will use the power of the pen, as you noted, to get more coverage to people quickly by letting health insurance be sold across state lines.

That's something conservatives have been talking about for several years. They believe it will lower costs. Here's what the executive order would actually do. Direct several government agencies to rewrite federal rules so that trade associations and other groups of people can offer their own health plans. These association plans would be released from having to follow certain ObamaCare regulations and can be sold across state lines to boost competition. The goal, also, will be to give consumers more choice by charging lower premiums for scale back plans with little benefits. Critics say, this will bring in young, healthy people, who want smaller plans and lead to more trouble for ObamaCare, which will be stuck with the sickest and highest cost patients.

Well, the president pushed back on those critics in an interview today that was published in Forbes Magazine, pushing back on the notion that the struggles of former President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement are his fault somehow. The president's declaring, "what we're doing is trying to keep it afloat because it's failing. I mean, the insurance companies are fleeing and have fled. They fled before I got here. But that being said, no, ObamaCare is Obama's fault, it's nobody else's fault." And it's not just health care that the president is pushing forward on. Tomorrow he will be pushing tax cuts in the state of Pennsylvania. Of course, he a key (INAUDIBLE) state he carried last year but there's also a Democratic Senator Bob Casey Jr. who's up for reelection next year, he could be a swing vote on those tax cuts. Martha.

MACCALLUM: Thank you so much, Ed Henry, at the White House. So, here now with more, Bill Bennett is Host of "The Bill Bennett" podcast and a Fox News Contributor, and he's joining us on the phone tonight from a place where there's not good electricity and power. Bill, how are you doing? Good to have you with us.

BILL BENNETT, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR AND HOST OF THE BILL BENNETT PODCAST (via Telephone): I'm doing OK, still recovering from your first segment.

(LAUGHTER)

MACCALLUM: Aren't we all? OK.

BENNETT: By the way, you know, that phrase was thrown around, I wrote the book called "The Moral Compass." I don't know if you know that.

MACCALLUM: I know.

BENNETT: But it was the follow-up to "The Book of Virtues," "The Moral Compass." So, at least I appreciate Harvey Weinstein, the phrase. It's not honoring it.

MACCALLUM: And we read those books to our children while they were growing up, and hopefully they stuck. So, in terms of what Steve Bannon is talking about, because it goes right to the heart of what President Trump was saying there that he feels that he can't get anywhere with Congress, many people say he's more and more isolated, that he may not have majorities enough to pass even tax reform at this point. So, Steve Bannon, now on the outside of the White House, says that he is going after every never-Trumper that he can find. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BANNON: What you saw what Corker said today is what they talk about on Capitol Hill. That's when I left the White House. Remember, I said I'm going to the Republican establishment, and we're going to go after them. We're going to challenge -- there's a coalition that's coming --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me the states.

BANNON: There's a coalition coming together that's going to challenge every Republican incumbent except for Ted Cruz.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Everybody except Ted Cruz, who received quite a bit of ire from President Trump but apparently, they've forgotten about that, Bill.

BENNETT: Yes. I like Steve Bannon, had dinner with him a couple weeks ago. And we got a friend that doesn't agree entirely here but gave him a little of a rhetorical row. Everybody except Ted Cruz? Come on. Tom Cotton, do you want to get rid of Tom Cotton? I don't think so. Jim Risch from Idaho. You know, Jim Langford from Oklahoma. You know, these are very able people and very conservative people, and they're with the program. But going after the never-Trumpers, fine. You remember, (INAUDIBLE), Martha?

I mean, this is the (INAUDIBLE), which is guys are doing anything, let's replace them and part of the analysis revealed the same problem, their degree of contentment and not the urgency about getting things done. But the president is a man of chronic, you know, impatience, and he still very angry about the healthcare thing. And I understand that they have seven years to come up with an alternative, as a tool to the last time I was on, I actually said the problem was, a lot of people, a lot of Republicans didn't believe he would win.

MACCALLUM: No. There's no doubt. There's no doubt. You know, what have been good if they were in the wilderness over to the course of seven years to maybe be working on that plan just in case. But apparently, that's not what happened. I want to get your thoughts on the NFL before we run out of time here because it looks like the NFL is buckling. The president got so much criticism for going after them, the way that he did, but they're going to have a meeting this week and Roger Caddell is indicating that he would like to see everyone stand for the anthem.

BENNETT: Yes, Jerry Jones made a requirement as for the Cowboys, America's team -- I don't believe it, but that's fine.

MACCALLUM: Neither do I.

BENNETT: But now the commission has talked about this. Look, I think this thing is over, it's done. He won that. He won this argument. The American people are with him. And let's move on, and let's move on to tax reform, please. To move on to some challenges with some of these Senators. But you know, I've heard some of the proposals that have come out, one of them is really crazy, which is each team will decide whether they would come out of the tunnel or not during the national anthem.

MACCALLUM: Oh my gosh.

BENNETT: Come on. So, the fans stand up, listen to the national anthem, and then we have a bunch of (INAUDIBLE) come out on the field. I mean, who are these guys if they can't stand for the national anthem? But I think they are seeing the bottom line and I hope some of these owners have explained to the players that it's not just a matter of your country, this is a matter of your business and our business, and you're --

MACCALLUM: Yes, that's the message that seems to be heading home. Monday night football, Bears-Vikings, which I watched last night down 17 percent from the week before. So, that's the picture that --

BENNETT: We watched it. You know, we're the only three or four people who watched it.

MACCALLUM: A couple of people in the control room watched it, too. Thank you very much, good to see you, Bill.

BENNETT: Thank you very much, Martha. Bye, bye.

MACCALLUM: Still ahead tonight, the dashcam video that captured some apocalyptic scenes. Look at this. In Northern California, these poor people running for their lives in tears while their homes are burning -- deadly wildfires. We are live on the ground in California where officials say that the worst of this devastation is still lying ahead of them there. Plus, a major development just into us regarding Twitter's ban of the campaign ad containing an "inflammatory pro-life stance" they said. That video belongs to Congressman Marsha Blackburn, she's here with the brand- new breaking information on this story right after the break, don't miss it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: I'm 100 percent pro-life. I thought Planned Parenthood, and we stop the sale of baby body parts, thank God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: Breaking tonight, the death toll rising to 15 as several massive and deadly wildfires tear through northern California. The flames leaving almost apocalyptic scenes in their wake, more than 20,000 people, some literally on foot, is fleeing their burning homes. And officials are warning that that death toll and the number of missing is very likely to rise tonight. Claudia Cowan is live in hard-hit Santa Rosa this evening. Claudia.

CLAUDIA COWAN, FOX NEWS: Well, Martha, you see a block after block and neighborhoods like this one in Santa Rosa where we are tonight, you can only imagine the panic when the flames roared through in the middle of the night. Sunday night, people grabbing their children and pets and anything else they could and just jumping in the car to get out fast, and now, a day later wondering what, if anything is left. And I can tell you as you look at the charred wreckage of cars and homes, there is nothing left here. Utility crews are working now to fix down phone lines, down gas and transmission lines, working as fast as possible because until the power is restored residents will not be allowed to come back in, and thousands of people remain evacuated tonight.

Seventeen large wildfires are burning in norther California. Together they have scorched nearly 180 square miles, that's an area larger than the city of New Orleans. They've also destroyed more than 2,000 homes and businesses. The charred wreckage here among the 500 homes lost in the tub's fire burning in Sonoma County. This one fire is blamed for 9 of the 15 fatalities that have been reported so far, and there is a growing concern tonight, Martha, that the death toll could rise because a number of people have suffered very serious injuries including burn injuries. And as you reported at the top of the program, more than 150 people are reported as missing. As these northern California wildfires continue to burn out of control and strong winds returning in the forecast for tomorrow. Martha?

MACCALLUM: Horrible. Claudia, thank you very much. So breaking tonight, after some major backlash twitter is now announce that they're backing off a controversial decision to restrict this campaign add from Republican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn. Here's a piece of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARSHA BLACKBURN, U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN: I'm Marsha Blackburn. I'm a hard- core, hard caring, Tennessee conservative, and politically incorrect and proud of it. I'm 100 percent pro-life. I fought Planned Parenthood, and we stopped the sale of baby body parts, thank God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So that last line was the reasons that twitter originally banned that video from their site. Blackburn, quote, inflammatory, they said, pro-life stance. But just a short while ago the pressure was on, and Blackburn's team was notified that she is allowed not only to leave the video up, but she also has the right to pay to promote it on twitter. Congressman Blackburn joins me now. Good to see you tonight. Welcome back to the program.

MARSHA BLACKBURN, U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: So, what do they say to you? Tell us what happened here.

BLACKBURN: You know, Martha, I think that what has happened the American people rose up. They are sick and tired of the liberal elites and the liberal media telling them what they're going to listen to and what is going to be pushed forward and broadcast and what is not, and in this example it was twitter. And they've decided that to talk about pro-life, pro-woman, pro-baby, was inflammatory and would evoke a negative response. And they said if I chose to leave that wording out they would allow it to serve. So they double down on censoring me. So I double down on standing for life and fought them back on this. And now they have reversed their decision after the American people have joined me in standing up to them, and they're going to allow the video to stand and us to push it forward.

MACCALLUM: I mean, when you see some of the stuff the floats around on twitter it's pretty shocking that this is what they consider to be, you know, overly sensitive for people's eyes as they're scanning through twitter. You fought hard, as you say to ban the sale of baby body parts. I mean, it's such a difficult phrase even to say. I think, you know, you have fought very hard for it, and perhaps that phrase, you know, tripped them up. But if they really thought about it, I can't imagine that they would believe that was worth banning.

BLACKBURN: Here's the thing, they won't go out and ban people who are in sex trafficking, or human trafficking, or help us fight -- to find ISIS, but they will come in and do this. They didn't take down any of the pro- abortion things when we were doing the pain-capable child's bill. They don't take down things when people are promoting kneel during the national anthem. You know, I stand for the national anthem and I kneel at the cross. And this is something that most American people agree with and there are sick of outlets like twitter saying we are going to decide what you hear and what you don't.

MACCALLUM: I want to show you a tweet from President Trump, obviously, this ad is all about the fact that you're running for Bob Corker seat, and the president has not back down on his twitter war with the senator that you hope to replace, and who I know you have enjoyed working with over the years. He says the failing New York Times sent little Bob Corker up by recording his conversation, was made to sound a fool and that's what I'm dealing with, your thoughts?

BLACKBURN: Everybody knows that the senate is dysfunctional and that we have got to get our agenda finished. This president ran on an agenda that he wanted to put across repealing ObamaCare, dealing with tax reform, building a wall, and my colleagues and I are incredibly frustrated with the U.S. senate. We want to see things put on the president's desk, and people are just tired of it not getting done. And if you're with me in Tennessee, you'll like Murray County at cattleman's last night. First question, when is the senate going to get to work? We're sick of this. Deliver something to the president.

MACCALLUM: All right. That's the message to your senator in Tennessee, I think, and to the rest of them. Marsha Blackburn, thank you very much. Good to have you with us tonight.

BLACKBURN: Thank you very much.

MACCALLUM: So the president butting heads with his own cabinet, where is this whole thing really headed?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Governor Mike Huckabee was just at the White House and joins me next with an inside look at the west wing dynamic as well. Also ahead, North Korean hackers may have stolen major military plans from South Korea. What was in those plans? That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: Breaking tonight, President Trump's relationship with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson perhaps becoming even a bit more strained, and the moron calling report was perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back. The president is still going at it, responding in an interview with Forbes Magazine saying, quote, I think it's fake news, but if you did that I guess we'll have to compare I.Q. tests, and I can tell you who's going to win. And later in the day he added this bit of reassurance for Rex Tillerson. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you undercut your Secretary of State today with the I.Q. comments?

TRUMP: No, I didn't undercut anybody. I don't believe in undercutting people. Thank you very much everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: He said, yes they do. Joining me now former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, also a Fox News contributor. Good to see you this evening, sir. Let's see.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Great to be with you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: You know the president -- let me play -- you know the press secretary? She spoke today about this. So I thought I might play a little something and get your reaction to it. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: The president certainly never implied that the Secretary of State was not incredibly intelligent. He made a joke, nothing more than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So the press secretary said it's a joke, do you agree with her?

HUCKABEE: Absolutely, I do. The president has a sense of humor, but most of the people in that pressroom don't. And I thought Sarah did a great job of pointing that out and kind of sticking it to them about it. Look, the cabinet doesn't pick the president, the president picks the cabinet. And their job is to be loyal to him. If, for some reason, a member of the cabinet says, I don't know that I really want to support this agenda, and then it's real simple, they can leave. They can run for president if they want to. But let me be very clear, I don't think that's what's happening. I think the president has a great relationship with Rex Tillerson.

MACCALLUM: You do?

HUCKABEE: Yes, I do. Now, do they have some conflicts from time to time? Of course, they do.

MACCALLUM: So then why don't they come out together and talked about the fact that they have a great relationship, instead of Rex Tillerson coming out to the microphone and sort of saying that he didn't call the president a moron. You know, people watches back and forth and they wonder, you know, it feels like eighth grade.

HUCKABEE: Yeah. But I think the worst thing they can do is to come out and keep trying to say we really have a great relationship, we really do, let's hug, let's do that in camera, that's not necessary. These are both alpha males. They're both guys who got where they did by being good at what they do. And I think that they have a great relationship, but they also are big enough guys that they can disagree with each other. But this idea that the cabinet is in disarray, Martha, I've been around some of these folks. I don't know Rex Tillerson. I can't speak to him personally. But for the most part, these guys joined onto the Trump team because they believe in what he's trying to do in this country.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: General Kelly might last until, you know, through the year. That Rex Tillerson wants to make it through the year. I mean, there's a lot of discussion about Tom Barrack, perhaps, coming in as chief of staff. You're saying all of that is not true?

HUCKABEE: Well, just remember that so much of what gets reported about the White House comes from people who never get named as a source, so you never really know whether this is coming from somebody who actually know something, which most of it does not, or it's just coming from people ripping it from the blue sky out there. But look, the one thing I know is that if there's a cabinet member who doesn't want to work with the president from whom they took a job, then I think the message is simple, you know, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. That's how this works.

(LAUGHTER)

HUCKABEE: If you have somebody who doesn't want to work for the president they can leave. But I don't see that happening, and I've been around some of these folks. I was in the White House. I talked to General Kelly, who was a terrific chief of staff. He's done a great job. I get no sense at all that there's anything other than delighted to be there, and he feels that he's on one of the most important missions of his life. I just think this is, to put it in Donald Trump's words, a lot of fake news.

MACCALLUM: We will see. Governor Huckabee, thank you very much for weighing in, good to see you as always.

HUCKABEE: Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM: So as Senator Corker warns of World War III, the president says international relationships are better than they've been in a long time. And General Mattis got some attention with this comment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: There's one thing the U.S. army can do and that is you've got to be ready to ensure that we have military options that our president can employ if needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So was that a signal? Marc Thiessen and Isaac Wright here next.

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MACCALLUM: So the upper mentioned Rex Tillerson and General Mattis were at the White House with the president today, what was said behind the closed doors about the very real rising tensions that face our country? First up, Iran. Sources is now telling Fox News that it seems President Trump will not recertify the Iran nuclear deal, delivering a crushing blow to the Obama administration's foreign policy legacy. Iran is already warning of potential consequences if the president does that. It comes amid troubling new signs involving North Korea. U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis urging military leaders to be ready with options if diplomacy fails. So which rouge actor presents the most immediate threat to our country? Tough choices, right? Here now, Marc Thiessen, American enterprises chief scholar and a Fox News contributor, and Isaac Wright, Democratic strategist and former executive director of Correct the Record. Gentlemen, welcome.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: We talk about the NFL, we talked about the tiffs that may or may not be happening inside the White House. But the thing that perhaps presents the greatest threat to this country is Iran and North Korea. Marc, let me start with you. Not recertifying, what are the implications of that?

MARC THIESSEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, he can't recertify. First of all, it's nothing to do with the actual nuclear deal. Under U.S. law the president is required every 90 days to recertify the deal. And so, what he's required to say if he recertify the deal is that Iran is transparently, verifiably and fully implementing the agreement, and that the agreement is in the vital national security interests of the United States, he can't say that because the agreement, under the agreement Iran does not have to allow the IAEA into its nuclear -- into its military facilities. So they cannot literally, transparently, verifiably say that they're complying with the intent of the agreement, which is not to pursue with their nuclear program.

And second, he just went to the U.N. and said correctly that this agreement is an embarrassment. So how can he sit then now with congress and certify that this is in the vital national security interest of the United States, so he cannot truthfully recertify.

MACCALLUM: So he's essentially kicking this back to congress. Condoleezza Rice spoke with Dana Perino earlier today, she said I would never have agreed to this deal in the first place. But she felt that it should be recertified, what do you think?

ISAAC WRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: So let's be clear, the JCPOA, as it's often called the Iran nuclear deal, addresses specifically nuclear arms. It has successfully kept the Iranians from becoming a nuclear power since it was implemented. The IAEA that Marc mentioned, the U.S. secretary of state's office, our own defense department, our intelligence departments have all actively monitored Iran. Seventeen thousand nuclear centrifuges have been removed. Ninety five percent of the enriched uranium has been removed. The one heavy water plutonium reactor has been disabled. Right now this agreement is working.

MACCALLUM: All right. So you believe that it's working and that it should be recertified, and Marc Thiessen.

WRIGHT: If they're compliant it should be recertified. Right now, Telford, Mattis and the state department have all said they believe they're complying.

MACCALLUM: That's true, Marc. Tillerson and Mattis support continuing this deal. So you've got a divide happening between the people who had lunch together today and, you know, how do you think that's playing out?

THIESSEN: Well, first of all, they're compliant with the deal in the sense that the deal is so bad that it doesn't require them to allow the IAEA to visit any facility that it wants to check whether they're complying with the intent of agreement, which is to dismantle the nuclear program. They're also pursuing ballistic missiles whose only purpose is to deliver a nuclear warhead to the United States. And they're allowed to continue enriching uranium. And it's also -- bad things that they're allowed to continue doing because it's a terrible deal.

But the problem with the deal is that it was front loaded, so the Obama administration has already sent them plain-loads of unmarked bills with billions of dollars that they're now using to destabilize the entire Middle East to fund the Taliban, to fund terrorist groups, and left with us now are the restrictions on them. So, you know, it's a terrible deal. But, yeah, you might have to stay in it, but that doesn't mean the president has to say it's in the national security interest of the United States.

WRIGHT: Marc brings up a lot of important points there. I say important because those are myths that we need to dispel unless people mistake them for the truth. Let's be clear here, this deal, if you torpedo it, it will cut off our nose to spite our face. It is the most stringent deal in arms control history internationally. It's not based on trust, it's based on verification. They literally monitor from the import-export.

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: Yes, it's in the deal.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: But I think it's very interesting.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: Hold on, guys. I do think it's very interesting that Tillerson and Mattis believe that they should be recertified. It's going to go back to congress, and then they're going to be the ones who have to deal with certifying it themselves and saying whether or not they're going to recommend that the president signed this thing. I've got to leave it there, guys. Thank you very much. Quick break and we will be right back.

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MACCALLUM: A nice thought to leave you with tonight, a message from first lady Melania Trump, who spent today addressing the nation's opioid crisis. She visited Lily's Place, a nonprofit infant recovery center in Huntington, West Virginia, where they're doing important work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We need to open the conversation and to teach children and young mothers how it's dangerous to use drugs and to get addicted to it, and so it's from the child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: That is our story for tonight. It will continue here tomorrow night at 7 PM Eastern. Thanks for joining us tonight on "The Story." Tucker Carlson is coming up right after this.

END

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