This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," October 12, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Breaking tonight, two big stories breaking this evening in the presidential race. First, at least three new women come forward to publicly accuse Donald Trump of groping them against their will. Growing calls tonight as well for accountability from the Clinton campaign as more damaging emails are leaked by WikiLeaks, raising more accusations of antireligious bigotry and anti-Hispanic comments now, too, within Hillary Clinton's inner circle.
Welcome to "The Kelly File," everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. Just another night in 2016. We'll get to the latest on Trump and women shortly, but first to the Clinton controversy. As we first reported last night, the emails obtained by WikiLeaks were sent several years ago. Among those included on the exchanges, Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta and Clinton Campaign Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri. In these messages, people of faith are insulted, and there are even suggestions that the Catholic Church doctrine needs to be overthrown by the Clinton team, which apparently better knows what's good for us.
The Clinton campaign argues, there's nothing to be seen here, there's no bigotry, and they blame the whole ordeal on the Russians for exposing the emails in the first place. But the Trump campaign was quick to pounce on the story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The new emails also show members of the Clinton team viciously attacking Catholics and evangelicals. They attack Catholics and evangelicals, viciously. And that won't be tolerated, but it won't be tolerated by the voters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: In moments, we'll speak with Bill Bennett, a Catholic and a Trump supporter, about the political fallout, along with Democrat Julie Roginsky.
But we begin with Trace Gallagher with the late-breaking developments live from our West Coast Newsroom. Trace?
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, the newest batch of leaked emails is from 2012, a time when the U.S. conference of Catholic bishops was strongly opposing a mandate in ObamaCare that called for federal funding of contraceptives. In an email to now Clinton Campaign Chief John Podesta, Sandy Newman, the president of the liberal group Voices for Progress, writes, quoting, "There needs to be a Catholic spring in which Catholics themselves demand the end of the middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church."
Newman, who's Jewish, goes on to admit that he's not qualified to be involved and doesn't know how to, quote, "Plant the seeds of the revolution." But John Podesta responds by apparently assuring Newman that the revolution is under way and that he is helping to push the progressive agenda on the Catholic Church -- quoting again, "We created Catholics in alliance for the common good to organize for a moment like this, but I think it lacks the leadership to do so now. Likewise, Catholics united, like most spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up."
When the first bunch of Catholic-bashing emails was leaked, criticizing our boss, Rupert Murdoch, for raising his kids Catholic and calling conservative involvement in the Catholic church, quote, "An amazing bastardization of the faith." We noted that Podesta, who's Catholic, did not respond, but the current Clinton campaign communications Director Jen Palmieri apparently did, writing, quote, "I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable, politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn't understand if they became evangelicals." Palmieri says, she doesn't recognize the email, but then she was pressed on whether she actually wrote it. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER PALMIERI, CLINTON COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I said I didn't recognize it, but moreover, we're just not -- these are -- we are not, we are not checking. We are not going to fact-check each of the emails that were stolen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: A little struggle there. The conservative group Catholic Vote, which claims 500,000 members, is calling on Palmieri to resign. Quote, "Catholics will be watching Hillary Clinton to see whether she thinks our religious faith should be respected or whether it's fair game to mock us." The former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Jim Nicholson, says no religion should suffer this kind of denigration, and neither should the Catholics. The Clinton campaign accuses Trump of colluding with Russia on these leaks. Former Trump adviser Roger Stone reportedly says, he has back-channel communications with WikiLeaks but does not coordinate with them -- Megyn.
KELLY: Trace, thank you. Joining me now, Bill Bennett. He served as secretary of education under President Reagan. He's the chairman of conservative leaders for education. Bill, good to see you.
BILL BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: Thank you.
KELLY: So, Jennifer Palmieri, I mean, this is her on the inner circle with Hillary Clinton now. And her statement today on whether she was caught red-handed bashing Catholics -- let's just play it again and let the audience make up their minds about whether this is a truth-teller in this moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALMIERI: I said I didn't recognize it, but moreover, we're just not, we're not doing -- we're not -- these are all -- these are -- we are not -- we are not checking -- we are not going to fact-check each of the emails that was, that were stolen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: You tell me, Bill. Your thoughts.
BENNETT: What did she say, the Russians did it, the Catholics did it, the Pope did it? Look, this is -- this crowd has been anti-Catholic for a long time. This has left us any Catholicism. These are transatlantic agnostic progressives. They do not believe in things like the authority of the Catholic Church. Now, as the conservative, I worry that the age of Clinton has been with us too long and may last even longer. But I've got to tell you, I think the Catholic Church will outlast the Clintons, and I think it will be around when they are long gone. This notion of uprooting thousands of years of Catholic doctrine --
KELLY: Revolution.
BENNETT: We know what this is about. Well, it's Catholic teaching on marriage, on same-sex, on contraception, and most of all, on abortion. They just can't stand that. Catholics, I hope, will take note of this. Their faith is being attacked. Their faith is being disparaged, and they should react to it.
KELLY: Can you imagine if this kind of talk were, you know, heard inside the Trump campaign about Islam?
BENNETT: Well, I can't imagine, but if it were, heads would roll. You know, they'd cut heads off, I imagine, in the proper fashion. But no, I mean, it would be crazy. Look, Michael Novak, a distinguished man, thinker and Catholic, said there's one acceptable form of bigotry left in society in America and that's anti-Christianity, and Catholicism in its original form is much hated. They would like to do away with it and its teaching. But others have tried, stronger parties have tried and haven't prevailed against Rome.
KELLY: Is she going to be able to get away with "I don't recognize that"? That's a non-denial denial.
BENNETT: Yes.
KELLY: I don't recognize it. Let me tell you, we put an email on the screen on Friday that was -- we got fooled. It was a bogus one about Hillary allegedly calling some Bernie supporters "buckets of losers," which we corrected immediately before the show ended.
BENNETT: Yes.
KELLY: They were very quick to tell us when we had it wrong. They didn't call up and say we don't recognize that one. They said it was a fake! And it was our bad. We made a mistake. I don't recognize that as not a denial. And you tell me whether given the amount of people involved in this exchange, including the campaign chair, they need to come out and apologize. Is it so hard?
BENNETT: Absolutely.
KELLY: I mean, say what you will about Trump and the women -- and he needed to apologize -- but at least he made an effort.
BENNETT: Sure. He did. No, he did. He apologized, but they won't. Look, they'll stall. They're looking at numbers. They like the way the numbers look, just stalled, you know, rope-a-dope, run out the clock, you know, down the ball, throw it out of bounds. They won't admit to any of this. But the more that comes out, the more we see the heart and soul of this party. This is identity politics and this is the underbelly of identity politics. People who don't agree with us are backward, they need to be educated, we need a revolution. And boy, that may be coming with the reign of Hillary Clinton, should that, God forbid, occur.
KELLY: Well, I've got to ask you about that before I let you go, Bill, because you've been a very strong supporter of Donald Trump. You've been an honest guy, you've supported him but you've admitted when he's misstepped. And this weekend in the wake of that "Access Hollywood" tape, you tweeted out or you said publicly, "It's a shame, a crying shame, but he can't win. He should step down. I hate to say it, but it's over." Do you still believe that?
BENNETT: Well, it's not over, he's not stepping down. I feared it might be because of the play the media was giving it. I do think he responded to it well and he had a good debate on Sunday night. Mine was an empirical judgment based on the facts, based on what I thought the media would do with it, and they have done that with it. And of course, sex overcomes venality, it overcomes any religious, anti-Catholic bigotry, but I think the way that situation developed in the debate helped Donald Trump a lot.
I thought at the moment that Mike Pence as the head of the ticket might prevail, might do better, but that's impossible now. Those ballots are out there. Stick with Trump. It's still possible. It's hard because of the way the thing has been played and because of Trump's mistakes, frankly, many of them. But when you listen to what the Clintons are up to and what this campaign is up to and how intolerant and bigoted these people are, we can see what the stakes are -- Megyn.
KELLY: Okay. And I've got to squeeze this in before I let you go. Back in the '90s when Bill Clinton was being accused by all these women, your brother, Bob Bennett, a famous lawyer, was Mr. Clinton's defense lawyer. You were out there criticizing Bill Clinton and your brother was out there defending him. It was an interesting dynamic. But what do you make now of Trump's attempt to resurrect the claims of Paula Jones and Juanita Broderick and Kathleen Willy?
BENNETT: I don't know how much impact it has. You've got to remember, audiotape has a palpability to it. People hear it. They hear it over and over again. If you had audiotape or videotape of Bill Clinton with Juanita Broderick or with Monica Lewinsky or with Kathleen Willy, he wouldn't be standing up in public today. That's the age in which we live. That's the information age. I think you would agree with that, but I'm not sure how much impact that has. People don't know what he's talking about when he talks about Bill Clinton. To many young people, this might as well have been the middle ages.
KELLY: I feel old. I don't know about you, Bill. Good to see you. Go.
BENNETT: Good to see you, Megyn. Always good to see you. Thank you.
KELLY: All right. I love that. Also with us tonight, Julie Roginsky, a Fox News contributor and Democratic analyst. Julie, good to see you.
JULIE ROGINSKY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Great to see you, Megyn.
KELLY: You know, you were on the show railing about that Star of David. It looked like the Star of David.
ROGINSKY: Yes.
KELLY: Trump said it was a sheriff's star in one of his tweets that he re- tweeted, calling her crooked Hillary. Do you see this as anti-Catholic bigotry by the Hillary camp?
ROGINSKY: Well, I see it as Catholics discussing what they consider to be a reformation in their church. And by the way, Pew just came out with a poll a few weeks ago saying exactly the same thing, that the attitudes of American Catholics, this is not a value judgment by me. I'm not Catholic. I certainly have no right to judge anybody in that sense, but what the majority of Catholics in this country feel seems to be very similar to what they're talking about and seems to be very dissimilar from what the Vatican is saying.
I'll give you an example. Eighty nine percent of American Catholics think that contraception is morally acceptable. Sixty five percent think employers shouldn't opt out of the law based on religious objection. You have 64 percent thinking homosexual behavior is not morally wrong. So, if you look at those statistics, you look at the fact that the majority of American Catholics seem to agree with what Jen Palmieri and John Podesta seem to be saying about their emails --
KELLY: You're being very charitable in your description on the emails, which are very pejorative in their tone. Very.
ROGINSKY: But they're pejorative. Yes. I agree they're pejorative in their tone. I also agree that they're pejorative in their tone towards the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
KELLY: Also towards a couple of Latinos. Maybe you saw those where they refer --
ROGINSKY: I didn't.
KELLY: In August of 2015, Podesta, the campaign chair, urged Mrs. Clinton to reach out to Latinos. The email's subject was "Needy Latinos and one easy call," and he went on to list Federico Pena, Bill Clinton's secretary of Transportation, and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as the two "needy Latinos," she should woo.
ROGINSKY: Well, I don't know what sense he meant it. Are they Latinos that necessarily wanted to reach out to her --
KELLY: Just this characterization of it, you know, the dismissiveness. You know if you saw that in a Trump camp email, you'd be going nuts on them!
ROGINSKY: I actually, Megyn, I have to say this. On Latinos, I agree with you. On the Catholic thing, it's a little different, and the reason I took such offense of the Star of David tweet thing is because that's my faith. That's what I believe and that's what I know.
KELLY: But if you defend one religious belief and the attack on it, then you should be charitable toward all of them.
ROGINSKY: I am charitable, as I said, towards the fact that this seems to me from polling -- and again, not my personal view, but it seems to me from polling the vast majority of American Catholics seem to agree with their view on where Catholicism should be.
KELLY: But I'm Catholic. I've lived as a Catholic my whole life, but I haven't heard my fellow Catholics speak so snidely about our faith, other than in this email.
ROGINSKY: But are they snidely --
KELLY: They talk about it in a way that's hopeful, that's maybe somewhat regretful, but not with disdain about our church and our beliefs.
ROGINSKY: I don't know that that was seen as disdain, whether it was --
KELLY: They were mocking Rupert Murdoch for having the nerve to baptize his children Catholic.
ROGINSKY: That's different. They were mocking Rupert Murdoch, and that's, you and I would both agree, that's not acceptable, but they're not mocking, I believe, is the Catholic Church where it is in America today. What they're saying is where the Catholic Church, and specifically, the majority of Catholics --
KELLY: You can't mock a man's decision to baptize his children --
ROGINSKY: I'm not disagreeing with you on that.
KELLY: -- and say it's not mocking Catholicism or the church.
(CROSSTALK)
ROGINSKY: Different. Different. I disagree with you on that. I think they mock. There's no excuse to mock a man for practicing his faith the way he wants to practice it. Let's take Rupert Murdoch out of this equation. I think it's wrong to mock people who believe contraception is morally wrong. I think it's wrong, and I'm pro-choice to mock people for their pro-life beliefs. What I don't think -- what I do think there's a big difference here is that what they're saying is potentially, and actually actively in step with what the majority of American Catholics believe.
KELLY: You already made that point. We already discussed that, now you're repeating yourself --
ROGINSKY: The tone --
KELLY: But the point is that these people who want Trump out there apologizing for everything he did, and he's taken a lot of criticism for not doing that. God forbid, they said -- they don't even have to send Hillary out there. Once you send your director of communications out there, just own what she said and apologize to the millions of American Catholic voters who you're trying to solicit votes from in this election. I'm stealing the last word. I've got to go.
ROGINSKY: See you later.
KELLY: Love you, mean it.
ROGINSKY: Bye.
KELLY: Well, as you heard at the top of the hour, not only does team Clinton think that they know who is behind the attacks, they think Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin are working hand and hand with the Trump campaign.
And there's a developing story on that accusation tonight. Carl Higbie and Nomiki Konst are next on the cold war claims emerging in 2016.
Plus, we'll have the breaking news on a series of ugly, new allegations about Trump and women coming out this evening. See what the Trump campaign was on edge about all day today and what they're saying tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless, other girls were naked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: More now on our top story tonight as the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party try to deal with a flood of embarrassing email leaks by refusing to discuss the contents of the leaks. Instead, they're suggesting the whole thing is about the Russians and the Trump camp, they claim, working together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALMIERI: This whole effort is led by the Russians. The Russians orchestrated this hack.
JOHN PODESTA, CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Russian interference in this election and their apparent attempt to influence it on behalf of Mr. Trump is I think should be of utmost concern to all Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: And it's more than just the Clinton campaign. Now the White House is involved. Kevin Corke has more from Washington. Kevin?
KEVIN CORKE, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Megyn, good evening from the White House. Another near 1,200 emails dropped today by the website, WikiLeaks, these purportedly belonging to Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta, a real blockbuster here in the nation's capital, and it's just the latest in the ongoing hacking controversy, which White House officials today said, point squarely at the Russians. And while Press Secretary Josh Earnest wouldn't exactly say how the administration would respond, he did promise they would.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: But what we surely will do is deploy all of the necessary resources to protect our system and to prevent the Russians from succeeding in their attempt to undermine our political system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORKE: While Russian President Vladimir Putin said it doesn't matter who leaked the information, it's the content that's most important, experts here at the White House were telling us today, this is frankly, a new page in the old KGB playbook.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that they even can sew some distrust, which is precisely the Russian way. They used to refer to it as compromac (ph) or compromising information or (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) deceiving others of their activities, this is part and parcel of what we've seen KGB trade craft during the cold war.
CORKE: Megyn, Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to raise the issue once again on Saturday when he meets with his Russian counterpart in Switzerland. To what effect, of course, remains to be seen -- Megyn.
KELLY: Kevin, good to see you.
Joining me now, Carl Higbie, former Navy SEAL and Trump supporter, and Nomiki Konst, a former Bernie Sanders surrogate and host of "The Filter" on Sirius/XM progress. And Nomiki is getting over the fact that this was not leaked during the primary season when Bernie was still in the race, but it wasn't. It wasn't. And, you know, as hard as we've been on team Hillary for what, you know, the content of those leaks, they do have a point, that Russia messing with an American election is deeply problematic on a number of levels.
NOMIKI KONST, HOST, "THE FILTER" ON SIRIUS XM: Absolutely. A good Democratic friend of mine said this today. He says, it's as if we were too focused on the documents from Watergate and not enough on the break-in. That's what really we need to be focusing on, is the break-in. That's the illegal matter. And, you know, it is true, all intelligence officials say that Guccifer and the D.C. leaks and WikiLeaks -- Guccifer provided the leaks to D.C. leaks and to WikiLeaks, and Guccifer is directly related, it is funded, it is controlled by the Russian Intelligence Agency. So, there's an absolute connection between this.
And the timing couldn't be more unfortunate. And not only that, Roger Stone, who was an adviser to Donald Trump, Paul Manafort was on the books with the Ukrainian party that was controlled by Putin. You have General Allen who is in negotiations with RTTV, a television agency that is funded by the Russian government. All of these people are advising Donald Trump, have advised Donald Trump, are currently advising Donald Trump. And not only that, Donald Trump says this was just done by hackers? How do we know it wasn't some 400-pound guy in his basement? Well, he got of a national security briefing, that's how we know. He's been informed.
KELLY: You know, when Putin comes out and says, it doesn't matter who leaked, what does it matter? Just look at the content! You're welcome is what he's trying to say. It's kind of a tell.
CARL HIGBIE, FORMER NAVY SEAL: Yes, the Clinton campaign would love to make this about Russia because it takes the pressure off what the content of the emails is. Look, the fact of the matter is WikiLeaks has dropped bombs on Republicans and drop it on Democrats, they'll going to continue to drop this, but what Hillary Clinton wants to do is take pressure off what in the actual emails, the fact that they're talking about Catholics, the fact that they're talking about all of the internal workings of the campaign that are just really negative right now. It's not going to work.
KELLY: But what do you make about the fact that Roger Stone, he's out tonight saying that he does have back-channel communications with WikiLeaks, but he doesn't coordinate with WikiLeaks, which makes it sound like the Trump camp through this, you know, former adviser, and maybe current informal adviser, is working this?
HIGBIE: Well, I know Nomiki, but I don't have any back channels to the liberal campaign. And so, I mean, like, it's the same kind of thing.
KELLY: But he's saying he does have back channel communications.
HIGBIE: He may know somebody over there, but look, I don't think the Russians have anything to do with this. I think that's a completely ridiculous thing. Even people say that we have ideas that it is, but there's been no proof so far.
KELLY: Do you have any hesitation about as I've said before dining off the carcass of somebody's dead privacy rights? You know, Podesta's, Palmieri's, everybody's emails?
HIGBIE: No. The thing is, the media, not all media, but some media has thrown the cloak of invisibility over Hillary Clinton, it's coming out through WikiLeaks now and they don't know what to do. They don't know how. They're in crisis mode.
KONST: What would Donald Trump do if suddenly Russia hacked his taxes? How would he feel about that?
HIGBIE: Well, somebody did hacked his taxes and put it out.
KELLY: Well, they leaked it.
HIGBIE: Yes. They leaked it.
KELLY: By the way, General Allen endorsed Hillary Clinton.
KONST: Excuse me. General Flynn. I'm getting my generals mixed up. Thank you for fact-checking me on that. General Flynn.
KELLY: Wait a minute.
HIGBIE: Somebody did dump one year of Trump's taxes and guess what, he was like, oh, he dumped my taxes, oh, well, get over it. Didn't blame it on the Russians.
KELLY: That had to be somebody who knew Trump --
HIGBIE: He dealt with it and got over it.
KELLY: It didn't seem like a leak, although what the hell do I know?
HIGBIE: Take responsibility.
KELLY: Great to see you both.
HIGBIE: Thank you, Megyn.
KONST: Thank you, Megyn.
KELLY: Less than one week ago, Donald Trump was heard on video talking about groping women and tonight, there is an explosive series of allegations from multiple women claiming that indeed it happened to them.
Chris Stirewalt and Dana Perino join us next on that breaking news.
Plus, dramatic developments on the polling front. Can you spot it in this map here? Larry Sabato is here to explain. He will tell us what this change means for Election Day. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, it's been just five days since we first saw the video revealing vulgar comments about women made by Donald Trump in 2005.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I've got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH, FORMER "ACCESS HOLLYWOOD" HOST: Whatever you want.
TRUMP: Grab them by the (bleep). You can do anything.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: That moment will become the subject of the very first question at the presidential debate just two days later, when Mr. Trump was pressed by the moderator, Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, DEBATE MODERATOR: You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?
TRUMP: No, I didn't say that at all. I don't think you understood what was said. This was locker room talk.
COOPER: Are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago, that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?
TRUMP: I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do.
TRUMP: So, for the record, you're saying you never did that.
TRUMP: I said things -- but frankly, you hear these things that were said and I was embarrassed by it, but I have tremendous respect for women...
COOPER: Have you ever done those things?
TRUMP: ...and women have respect for me. And I will tell you, no, I have not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Now, the Republican nominee is facing new scrutiny tonight as several women come forward claiming they are victims of his sexual advances. First, Jessica Leeds comes forward tonight who says she was on a flight more than 30 years ago with Trump, wound up sitting next to the young businessman in first class of a commercial air flight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSICA LEEDS, TRUMP ACCUSER: It wasn't until they cleared the meal that somehow or another, the armrest in the seat disappeared and it was a real shock when all of a sudden his hands were all over me. He was like an octopus. It was like he had six arms. He was all over the place. If he had stuck with the upper part of the body, I might not have gotten -- I might not have gotten that upset. So, when he started putting his hand up my skirt, and that was it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Another woman, Rachel Crooks, also speaking out to The New York Times, saying upon meeting Donald Trump in his building -- she was just 22 years old -- he "kissed me directly on the mouth." she was a secretary at the time. Those accusations echoing the claim made by the former Miss Utah, Temple Taggart, who earlier this year recalled being kissed by Trump without consent saying, "He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, oh, my God, gross."
We're also learning just as we come to air that a Florida woman has now come forward claiming to have been groped by Mr. Trump 13 years ago. She claims that he grabbed her back side against her consent. Joining me now, Chris Stirewalt and Dana Perino, co-hosts of "Perino & Stirewalt: I'll Tell You What." Good to see you both.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: Hi, Megyn.
KELLY: So, I mean, they say that listening to him at that debate, say that it was just words and he never actually did that stuff he claimed to be doing on the bus, made them come forward, these latest three. Stirewalt, put it in perspective politically what this means.
STIREWALT: Look, we now have a perspective on why Trump took the bellicose attitude that he did in that debate on the subject instead of being contrite. He was on the attack and presented Bill Clinton's accusers from the 1990s and before against him. We now see why. The why is that they expected this, that they knew that this is going to be a race to the bottom and that there were going to be more allegations and more accusations of misconduct against Trump, so they're trying to steal themselves by keeping bringing back these women from Bill Clinton's past.
KELLY: And there's another woman named Tasha Dixon who was part of the Miss Teen USA pageant, who gave an interview today, and here's what she alleged. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TASHA DIXON, TRUMP ACCUSER: He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Other girls were naked. Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half naked changing into our bikinis. I'm telling you, Donald Trump owned the pageant for the reason to utilize his power to get, you know, around beautiful women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Now, that's just an allegation, but it does track with what Trump himself told Howard Stern back in 2005. Listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you the funniest is that I'll go backstage before a show.
HOWARD STERN, RADIO HOST: Yes.
TRUMP: And everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant, and therefore, I'm inspecting it. You know, I'm inspecting I want to make sure that everything is good. STERN: You're like a doctor there.
TRUMP: You know, the dresses. Is everyone okay? They're standing there with no clothes. Is everybody okay? And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Dana?
DANA PERINO, "THE FIVE" CO -HOST: So, this is a pattern, right? So, he says that, and what he's said to Billy Bush he has said to Howard Stern, is that he loves being a star, because when you're a star you get to do things that, even if he's not actually doing them, right. He's like talking about it and bragging about it. And then his excuse is that, well, men do this and men talk like this in the locker room, which there's been a lot of men who have come forward and said no, we don't. The Trump supporters and the Trump campaign tonight has said that this "The New York Times" story is completely false, and they're questioning the timing of it.
KELLY: And threatening to sue The New York Times.
PERINO: They are. Here's the thing about that, though. They are expecting now for everybody that will be seeing these interviews with these women to not believe them. And one of the things they say in their statement is how dare you reach back decades and look at possible sexual assaults from way before, like how could it matter? But the problem is that's exactly what they are asking people to do when they're looking at Bill Clinton and having the people -- the women who have made allegations against Bill Clinton at the debate and doing events with them and doing interviews.
I mean, that -- now it's like they're trying to just muddy the waters. I don't know if I agree with Stirewalt that they knew this was coming, partly because of the angry denial that you hear Donald Trump make to The New York Times when he's on the phone with the reporter, calling her a disgusting human being for even reporting the story.
KELLY: Well, I mean, I don't want to go psychological on you, but they say anger is closely related to fear so, there. I've become Dr. Phil. Let's speak about this in a larger sense and I do want to underscore that Trump has denied these allegations. You know, both campaigns are in a pickle because the Clinton camp wants to say, oh, you know, these women who accuse Bill Clinton, he was never found guilty, they never had a successful lawsuit, it was 30 years ago.
Well, these women, they never had a lawsuit, you know. And the truth is that victims of sexual assault, victims of rape, victims of unwanted groping, they often don't come forward. They're humiliated, especially back in the day. They were told move along, it happens to all women, you've got to take it. It's a complicated issue.
PERINO: Because it would hurt your career.
KELLY: That's right. It's a complicated situation. The 22-year-old secretary in Trump Tower is like, it's Donald Trump, right?
PERINO: She calls her sister.
KELLY: It's not to say it's real. I don't know whether it happened or not. I'm just saying these matters are complicated. But what's not complicated, Stirewalt, is how disgusting so many people feel about this election season and how grossed out they are by it, a feeling that was encapsulated by John Oliver a couple of nights ago. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN OLIVER, HBO LAST WEEK TONIGHT SHOW HOST: Let me just remind you that last Sunday, I told you, if you looked above the clouds, you would see rock bottom. But if you look up there now, just way, way, way up there, all the way up high, you will see right up in the distance where we were this time last week. Because since then, we have sunk so low, we are breaking through the earth's crust, where drowning in boiling magma will come as sweet, sweet relief.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: And it's true when you hear these allegations...
STIREWALT: Fact-check mostly true.
KELLY: And honestly on twitter the other day, there was a picture of somebody at a Trump rally wearing a shirt that talked about the "C" word and Hillary Clinton, and there's been a few of these.
STIREWALT: Yeah, yeah.
KELLY: And it just makes you feel bad.
STIREWALT: Like somewhere, Alexander Hamilton is weeping into some sort of a kerchief? Yes.
KELLY: He's like, remember back in the day when we did it correct, we just shot each other?
STIREWALT: And just shot each other in Weehawken, New Jersey.
KELLY: He's known to judge, although he did die.
STIREWALT: He did die. He definitely died. Look, the thing for Trump is, he has a choice. They want -- the political playbook says now go destroy these women. Women have come forward to make allegations, now go destroy them, discredit them, say they're liars, say they're crazy, say they're psychos, rip them apart. Unfortunately, the gambit that they and their campaign manager used was to try to shame Hillary Clinton for destroying the women who accused her husband.
KELLY: Interesting point.
STIREWALT: So, they have put themselves in a heck of a box here because they need to destroy the credibility of these women, but it is the destroying of women's credibility that they're trying to hoist Hillary Clinton on.
KELLY: Meantime, the polls that came out, this Marquette University poll out of Wisconsin today just shows a cratering with the women. Look at this. Saturday and Sunday it was -- look at the gender gap there that grew as the tape took hold, right? It hit on Friday and it was 60 percent of women for Clinton, 33 percent for Trump, and it had been 45 - 36 just the day before, you know, a closer margin. And then it evened out over Saturday and Sunday to 56 - 23.
If you look at the gender gap in all the states, the 538 block put this together today and you could see, I mean she's killing him with women. He's beating her with men. You can see this. But his numbers are -- he doesn't have as big a margin. Her margin with women is getting scary for him.
PERINO: And I think there are probably a lot of women who thought, I would never vote for Hillary Clinton who is being presented with that choice. The other thing that's very interesting in terms of the statistic and the Trump campaign has known this from the beginning, and so has the Hillary campaign -- in 2016, the entire electorate of eligible voters, 31 percent are single women, OK?
And that is going to continue to grow. So, when we have the big fight after the election about what the Republican Party is going to look like going forward, that obviously has to be a consideration, because that is not going to change.
KELLY: Right, the women, they're everywhere now, as it turns out.
PERINO: And they can vote!
STIREWALT: Wait a minute, what? Whoa, whoa...
KELLY: All that crap about equality. They apparently really mean it. It's like, like we actually want to be treated as equal citizens. It's so crazy now. Okay, great to see you both.
STIREWALT: Bye, guys.
KELLY: And in just one week from tonight for the first time ever, a Fox News anchor will be moderating a general election presidential debate. I know, we're very happy about this. Award-winning journalist Chris Wallace widely regarded as one of the best questioners in the business -- did he write this? -- will moderate the all-important final debate between Trump and Clinton.
This make or break event less than three weeks before the historic election of 2016 will be held in Vegas baby, October 19th. It's Wednesday night, Vegas, best place to watch the Fox-moderated debate is yeah, right here on the Fox News Channel.
And then stay tuned for a special "Kelly File" live at 11:00 p.m. that night with a complete wrap up and analysis of the night's biggest moments. I've seen all the questions and I'm handing them right now to both of -- no, that's not what we do. Okay, I haven't seen any of the questions either, which is sad, because I'd like to.
Anyway, 27 days to go and the electoral prediction map is shifting yet again. Larry Sabato is here on the red states, the blue states and the state of the race, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Twenty-seven days to go, and tonight a state that has voted Republican in every single presidential election since 1964 is now a toss- up. In a surprise development to some, Utah is now up for grabs on November 8th, according to the Fox News decision desk. We have Dr. Larry Sabato with us tonight on what the change means for election day. But first, we turn to Trace Gallagher to crunch the numbers. Trace?
GALLAGHER: Megyn, the primary reason Utah is now a toss-up is because Donald Trump is very unpopular with Mormons, who make up 60 percent of the state's voters. For the record, Hillary Clinton isn't exactly loved in Utah, which is why Evan McMullen is pulling almost even with both Trump and Clinton. McMullen is an independent, BYU grad, and a Mormon.
We should note this poll is from Y2 Analytics and it's the only Utah poll released so far that was taken after the Trump/Billy Bush tape was released. And one poll says 94 percent of Utahns have seen or heard about the tape. In August, Trump had a double-digit lead in Utah, and for Trump, Utah is the canary in a coal mine. The last time the state voted Democrat was Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and now it's anyone's game. But even without Utah, the Fox News decision team says if Hillary Clinton wins the states rated solid Democrat along with the states leaning Democrat, she'd come out with 307 electoral votes.
She only needs 270 to win the presidency. If Trump wins the solid Republican states along with the states currently seen as leaning Republican, he would still only have 181 electoral votes. Here's the bigger problem for Trump -- even if you give him all the toss-up states, that still only puts him at 231 electoral votes, which means not only is Utah a must-win for Trump, he would also have to steal some states that currently lean Democrat, Megyn.
KELLY: Trace, thank you. Joining me now with more, the director of UVA Center for Politics, Larry Sabato. Great to see you, doc. So, let's talk about Utah, first of all. Is that real? Could that actually go Democrat?
LARRY SABATO, UVA CENTER FOR POLITICS DIRECTOR: Well, when I saw it about 5:00 a.m. this morning, Megyn, I figured my eyes weren't focusing.
KELLY: Right?
SABATO: And once I realized those really were the numbers, I thought a bunch of excess Californians had moved into Utah.
KELLY: They got lost.
SABATO: Because Utah -- exactly. They got lost and wandered in the desert. Utah, as Trace just said, reliably Republican and we're talking about 70 percent Republican. Ronald Reagan used to get over 70 percent in Utah. So, it's a shock. I always say this, Megyn, I want to see confirmation.
This is the first poll that shows it being effectively a three-way tie, and you always have questions, particularly when an independent does this well, though there are reasons. He is a Mormon, BYU grad and clearly, the Mormon population is not terribly keen on Donald Trump. And of course, Mitt Romney, who has a lot of influence in Utah, is not either.
KELLY: And that would be interesting. Mitt Romney didn't make much of an impact when he came after Trump in the primaries, but perhaps he's playing a role in denying him those electoral votes now. Meantime, you say Florida, Ohio and Arizona, another state that's usually red, are likely or safe Republican now? Do you believe that? Do you believe Florida and Ohio are safe Republican?
SABATO: Oh, no. Our map has Florida leaning to Clinton, Ohio cleaning to Clinton. We still have Arizona with Donald Trump, but I have to tell you...
KELLY: My notes are wrong here.
SABATO: ...privately, some of the trackings for both Arizona and Georgia are suggesting that Clinton is very competitive in both of those states. If Trump loses either one of them, he's cooked and done.
KELLY: He can't lose -- wait, either one of which?
SABATO: Arizona and Georgia -- Arizona and Georgia. Florida, of course he's done if he loses Florida.
KELLY: Yes, right.
SABATO: But already Clinton has a lead there. The average is about 3 1/2, 4 points in Florida. She's ahead a little bit in North Carolina. She's ahead a little bit in Ohio in the polling average. They can still change, but you know, I'd be concerned if I were on the Trump camp about some of these red states, not just Utah, but also Arizona and Georgia.
KELLY: Because now the priorities USA super PAC is actually moving beyond the race for the White House. They're targeting more the lower, the other races focused on the senate and so on. And some Democrats are saying, well, they're extremely confident they're going to capture control of the Senate because everybody's going to go to the polls, they believe, to support Hillary. Do you believe that? Do you believe control of the Senate and even the House may be in danger?
SABATO: Well, certainly the Senate is. I'd be very surprised if the House flipped. The Senate could go either way. We've got it 47 Republicans 47 Democrats with six toss ups...
KELLY: Anything could happen.
SABATO: And those toss-ups will determine the control of the Senate.
KELLY: Great to see you, Larry. Up next, Republicans and Donald Trump signs. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: In an election cycle that has both campaigns rocked by R rated controversies and behavior allegedly bordering on the criminal, this next story may seem a little tame by comparison. But Republicans in one small Connecticut town decided they had enough with their Trump sign being run over, ripped off and generally vandalized, and they decided to get even. Trace Gallagher picks up the mystery from there. Trace.
GALLAGHER: Megyn, Wilton, Connecticut, is a town of 18,000 in Fairfield County with an average family income of $300,000. Now in Wilton there are signs of Trump taking a beating literally. Trump Pence signs are being ripped up, stomped on and run over. But the vandals may not roam these wealthy streets for long.
City officials have now put up surveillance cameras to record these Trump trumps and are releasing the pictures to the public in hopes of identifying and punishing the culprits. Wilton Republican Town committee chairman Al Alper says the video shows various cars running over campaign signs that are just off the curb. He said so far, at least a dozen campaign signs had been "mutilated or stolen."
You can see one picture showing two young females running up to the signs, but the damage they did is unclear. Alper is turning all the pictures over to police and hopes the sign bandits will be punished. He doesn't consider the suspects vandals but does say they represent intolerance for freedom of speech. Wilton isn't the only town to tear up Trump signs. In Phoenix, someone covered a Make America Great Again billboard in swastikas.
In Haverhill, Massachusetts, surveillance video captured a man spray painting the word never over a Trump sign and this is what's left of a Trump sign in South Bend, Indiana, and circling back to Wilton, e should notice, a 17-year-old boy has already turned herself in knowing that he was caught on camera.
KELLY: Trace, thanks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Have you been feeling a little extra happy during the broadcast? It's subliminal. I was projecting that to you. I dressed the part. Who didn't love that show back in the day? Am I dating myself? What? Thanks for watching everybody. I'm Megyn Kelly. See you tomorrow.
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