This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," October 17, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Breaking tonight, just 48 hours until the third and final presidential debate and both campaigns are dealing with major new controversies.
Welcome to "The Kelly File," everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. Developing on the campaign trail tonight, there are new complaints about a rigged election, new accusations against Donald Trump, his wife steps forward to defend his behavior and there are new bombshells from WikiLeaks.
Let's begin tonight with the Clinton campaign. A stunning report that say, one of her top State Department lieutenants tried to make a deal with the FBI in the middle of its investigation into her e-mail scandal. Now that lieutenant is Patrick Kennedy. And if his name sounds familiar, it should. This guy was neck deep in the Benghazi controversy and his fingerprints were all over her e-mail scandal from the very start. The details on Kennedy's attempt to reach a deal comes directly from the FBI's own files.
Now keep in mind, this guy was working for you. He was supposed to be working for you at the State Department in dealing with the FBI that was investigating Clinton and the e-mail. The FBI's own files -- and this was the lead issue that was discussed in an exclusive interview that Fox's Carl Cameron just landed with Donald Trump where he asked him about an FBI note that certainly makes it sound like Patrick Kennedy cared more about protecting Hillary Clinton than protecting you. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, it's illegal. I mean, what's taking place is illegal between the Justice Department and the FBI and Secretary of State and the State Department. I think it's crazy what's going on. It's totally illegal. It's a criminal act, it's a crime. And I hear the Republicans are going to hold hearings after the election. Why would you hold them after the election? You want to hold them before the election. But this is a criminal act and it's incredible that they can do this and get away with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: In moments, Judge Andrew Napolitano will tell us if Donald Trump is right, whether a crime has been committed here.
But we begin tonight with our Chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge who is going to set this up for you so we all understand it. Catherine.
CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Well, thank you Megyn. These FBI records released today state in black and white that one of Secretary Clinton's most trusted lieutenants, Patrick Kennedy wanted a backroom deal with the FBI over the classification of Clinton's e-mails. A leading Republican says tonight it's evidence of a broad conspiracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON CHAFFETZ , R-UTAH, CHAIRMAN, OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE: I think it's corruption. I think it's manipulation. I think it's against the law and it certainly goes to the intent. Somebody should have been prosecuted for this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HERRIDGE: According to the FBI interviews known as 302s, Kennedy wanted to do a swap. The FBI would downgrade a highly sensitive Clinton e-mail to unclassified and in return the bureau would get coveted slots for agents overseas. An FBI agents name was cut from the records posted on line today, they read in part, quote, "Redacted believes state has an agenda, which involves minimizing the classified nature of the Clinton e-mails in order to protect state interests and those of Clinton."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The FBI agent specifically uses the term quid pro quo. This is no small thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your executive is accused of trying to --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand that. Which is why you came out here and said, there is no quid pro quo.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well it never happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HERRIDGE: Both the FBI and State Department emphasized to reporters today the e-mail's classification was never changed and the FBI never got additional slots for its agents overseas. But legal experts say even the discussion of a back room deal potentially violates federal law -- Megyn.
KELLY: Catherine, thank you.
HERRIDGE: You're welcome.
KELLY: Joining us now, Judge Andrew Napolitano, FOX News senior judicial analyst. Well, this stinks to high heaven and we don't have to look far to figure out whether at least the person on the receiving end of the proposed deal thought it was a quid pro quo because it's in the FBI agent's notes.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST: Right. Right. So, an FBI agent who is in charge of handling documents that had been accumulated in the Clinton investigation was approached by Patrick Kennedy. Mrs. Clinton is not the secretary of state at this point. Patrick Kennedy is working for Secretary Kerry. And he makes the offer that Catherine Herridge just described for us. Can you change the marking on this document? Now --
KELLY: He was working for us when he's doing that.
NAPOLITANO: Correct.
KELLY: He doesn't answer to Hillary Clinton anymore.
NAPOLITANO: Correct.
KELLY: He's supposed to be looking out for us.
NAPOLITANO: Markings on documents are changed all of the time. They're changed so that people at a lower level of security clearance can read documents that they otherwise wouldn't be able to read because they need so see what's in there. But they are never ever, ever lawfully changed after they've been subpoenaed and when they've been accumulated as evidence in a criminal investigation. And it was under that circumstance that Patrick Kennedy asked this FBI agent, whose named we haven't been given, but who obviously reported it to his bosses, to make those changes which of course he refused to make.
KELLY: And let's say Patrick Kennedy who is, again, he is neck deep in Benghazi. I mean, the blame was, there was plenty to go around when it came to how that hit was handled. The absence of security, despite the begging of Ambassador Chris Stevens and others. But Patrick Kennedy was right in the mix of it and was not blameless. So, he pops up again. And it would be one thing if he saw a document Judge that he said this is legitimately problematic and we shouldn't be producing this. And so, we need to go into a basement and never to be seen again. But this, if that were true he wouldn't have to offering the FBI all of these carrots to get them to agree to his little proposal
NAPOLITANO: The offering of the carrot as you put it, even though it was not accepted by the FBI, is an attempt to commit bribery. The FBI didn't see it that way. They didn't charge him with anything either because they felt they couldn't prove the case or maybe the FBI was in the tank for Mrs. Clinton and all of her people from day one of these investigations.
KELLY: Yes. That's not easy to believe.
NAPOLITANO: It's very, very difficult to believe. I agree with you. But the evidence is there. And the FBI document which came out over the weekend, he offered me something of value, not to me personally but to the FBI if we would alter evidence. So, that's an effort to bribe, to deface evidence, to obstruct justice. Was anybody charged with any of those crimes? No.
KELLY: And the advantage to him in having the FBI classify this document from what it was to something else, was that it would get buried than the FBI wouldn't have to have it, it wouldn't have to get produced publicly. No one would ever have to see it?
NAPOLITANO: Correct. And his former boss and still dear friend Secretary Clinton could not be blamed for exposing a national security secret which of course she's done hundreds of times.
KELLY: Judge, good to see you.
NAPOLITANO: Likewise.
KELLY: So the Clinton campaign is also dealing with new fallout from leaked e-mails including one that shows their immediate unvarnished reaction to a national tragedy. It came immediately after the December 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack when two Muslim extremists opened fire on a holiday party, killing two people and injuring many more.
Chief national correspondent Ed Henry is live in Washington tonight with more. Ed?
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Megyn. Julian Assange says, the Ecuadorian government cut off his internet access but WikiLeaks at this hour is now back up and running and just dumped out about another 3,000 e-mails, one that is pretty fascinating you mentioned from last December after the San Bernardino massacre leaving 14 people dead. John Podesta, the campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton sent an e- mail suggesting, it might be better for the campaign in terms of its narrative if a non-Muslim had led the terror attack.
After Clinton aide noted that MSNBC host Christopher Hayes had tweeted the name of the suspect, that it was Sayeed Farouk. "Damn" wrote campaign staffer Karen Finney who is now the spokeswoman for VP nominee Tim Kaine. Podesta responded, "Better if a guy named Sayeed Farouk was reporting that a guy named Christopher Hayes was the shorter."
Meanwhile, in a battle against ISIS, Clinton and herself sent Podesta shocking e-mail, taking aim at two U.S. allies. Clinton writing to Podesta in 2014. "The government and the United States needed to quote bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region."
Yet when it comes to Qatar, the WikiLeaks documents dumps also show, two years earlier, Bill Clinton had no trouble accepting big money from that same county for the Clinton Foundation. E-mail showing that officials from Qatar, quote, "Would like to see WJC," using his initial of course, "for just five minutes in New York City to present a million dollar check that Qatar promised for the former president's birthday in 2011." When questions were later raised about the million bucks, on whether it was appropriate, top campaign aides e-mailed each other, said, no big deal, take the money -- Megyn.
KELLY: Ed, thank you. Joining us now, Matt Bennett, a former deputy assistant to President Bill Clinton and Pete Hoekstra, Trump campaign national security advisor and a former congressman.
Great to see you both. So, let me start with you on this, Congressman. The notion that this was problematic in the Clinton camp, that this man who committed this horrendous act of terror was Muslim and it would have been far preferable if the man had been white says what about Team Clinton in your view?
PETE HOEKSTRA, R-FORMER CONGRESSMAN: Well, it says a couple of things. Number one, it's always about the spin. In San Bernardino, they had to control the spin because the Clinton narrative was always, we don't have to worry about the threat from radical Islam. They did the same thing in Benghazi when they said the attack was a result of a demonstration when it was really because there was an attack. They also said it was America's fault because there was a video. In reality it happened because they hated us. So, it's always about getting the spin right time after time in time. It is political corruption because everything is about getting to the vote and winning the vote and never solving the problem.
KELLY: Matt? Matt, what is wrong with that? Because you can see a lot of people not understanding why it was so problematic in their view that the killer happened to be a radical Islamist, you know, killer.
MATT BENNETT, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, first, Megyn. Let's just remember where this comes from. These were stolen documents, just like in Watergate where someone broke into the DNC and stole the documents. Here, the Russian government stole documents from --
KELLY: That's a good admonition.
BENNETT: It's personal property.
KELLY: You're right.
BENNETT: And has dumped them out on to the internet with no context whatsoever. So, what we're seeing is this one exchange between two Clinton staffers without any context. We don't know if they talked in the hall two minutes before this. We don't know anything about the context of this. So for Pete to say that this is clearly political spin is ridiculous. We don't have any idea why John and Karen were having this exchange.
KELLY: I'll grant you all of that. But you have to see this as problematic. I mean, it plays into the narrative that many people already believe about the Clintons and the Obama team for that matter which is there's just a complete unwillingness to accept reality, which is that there are radical Muslims, not mainstream Muslims, but there is a faction of Islam that has corrupted the most extreme words that are written in the Koran and elsewhere into a mandate to kill. Why is it so hard -- that's not condemning all of Islam. It's just understanding that sometimes when domestic terror attacks are committed, they're committed by radical Islamists.
BENNETT: There's no question that's right. And there's also no question that Secretary Clinton understands that to her bones. I mean, she was involved in every major decisions --
KELLY: Why is her team so upset that it's a Muslim committing a terror attack as opposed to a white man?
BENNETT: Well, look, I don't know. Because I don't know the context. But let's just take -- Peter speculated. I'll speculate too. If a white man commits this, unfortunately in this country, there's 33 murders every single day. This would be par for the course. But if this is Muslim terrorism, then there is all kinds of other implications, there could be follow-up violence. It's enormously dangerous to other people as opposed to being what would likely be an isolated incident. So, there's a lot of reasons that they could have been reacting the way that they did.
KELLY: That Congressman Hoekstra, you tell me, that sounds like a very charitable read of what we saw in that Karen Finney e-mail.
HOEKSTRA: It is a very charitable read. And Matt is absolutely right. Hillary Clinton was involved in every major foreign policy and domestic security decision for about four years. And she always sided with the radical jihadists. In Egypt she decided to engage with the Muslim brotherhood. In Libya, she sided with jihadists to overthrow Gadhafi. In Syrian, again, we allied ourselves with the radical Jihadists. Today Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, they are all failed states, they are all sending massive flows of refugees into Europe. She's consistently been wrong on her strategies to confront, contain and ultimately defeat radical jihadists. We've gone from 3,000 people killed per year to over 30,000.
KELLY: Okay. We got to leave it at that. Great to see you both.
HOEKSTRA: Thank you.
BENNETT: Thanks, Megyn.
KELLY: Well, there was a landslide of new polls today on both the national race and the swing states.
And Chris Stirewalt is just ahead with some interesting findings buried in the numbers. Is that a new head shot? Look how sweet. Look, he just looks like -- hi, Stirewalt.
Plus, Donald Trump is taking heat from all sides as he ramped up warnings about what he's calling a rigged election. Dr. Ben Carson is just ahead to weigh in on that.
And then with nine women now accusing Donald Trump of crossing a serious line involving sexual assault, his wife has come forward to talk about the accusers, her husband and how she reacted when she saw tape of her husband talking about grabbing women. That's next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AINSLEY EARHARDT, CO-HOST, "FOX & FRIENDS": From a woman's perspective, what were your thoughts when you heard those tapes?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, we have brand-new reaction from Melania Trump who is speaking publicly about the series of women who have come forward now accusing her husband of sexual misconduct. Mrs. Trump's decision to address the issue comes as a ninth accuser, a woman by the name of Kathy Heller talked about an incident 20 years ago when Donald Trump she says, attempted to forcibly kiss her.
Trace Gallagher is in our West Coast newsroom with the very latest. Trace?
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, 63-year-old Cathy Heller claims that on Mother's Day in 1997 she and her family were having brunch at Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach when Trump came to introduce himself. But instead of shaking her hand, Heller says he grabbed her arm and went for the lips kissing her on the side of the mouth. A relative who was there has backed up Cathy Heller's account.
But the Trump campaign says, quote, "There is no way something like this would have happened in a public place on Mother's Day at Mr. Trump's resort. It would have been the talk of Palm Beach for the past two decades. For the record, Cathy Heller is a Hillary Clinton supporter and donor and claimed that she's owed money by the Mar-A-Lago resort. In an interview for tomorrow's "FOX AND FRIENDS," Melania Trump talks about the growing list of accusers. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: Why now? Why three weeks before the election? And what they're accusing my husband, that is not the person that I know.
EARHARDT: Why do you think they would make this up, then?
MELANIA TRUMP: Because they want to damage the presidency of my husband. And it was all planned, was all organized from the opposition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Melania Trump also addressed the "Access Hollywood" tape that prompted these allegations, acknowledging it was painful. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELANIA TRUMP: Those words, they were offensive to me and they were inappropriate. And he apologized to me. And I expect -- I accept his apology. And we are moving on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Moving on but also looking back, realizing that when Donald Trump decided to run, those negative stories would come out. Here she is again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELANIA TRUMP: We talked about it. And of course we knew, because he's live for what he's achieved in life, where he was. His life was open book. A lot of people know about it. My husband, he's raw and he's real and he tells it as it is. He doesn't want to brush it off under the rug.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: And we should note Donald Trump calls his accusers horrible, horrible liars -- Megyn.
KELLY: Trace, thank you.
Well, Melania Trump isn't the only one taking on these allegations today. Earlier tonight, the issue came up between Carl Cameron's campaign trail interview with Donald Trump. Here is his response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Look, first of all they are all lies, made up stories, they were fabricated, whether they like Hillary or whether they just want to become a little bit famous or something. Every one of those charges were false and they were lies. The woman on the airplane 35 years ago, or 30 years ago? I mean you don't even believe that one, okay? But I don't know, maybe you're very gullible but you don't believe that one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Joining me now, Krystal Ball, senior fellow with the New Leaders Council. Carl Higbie, former Navy SEAL and spokesman for Great America Political Action Committee. And Kristen Soltis Anderson, Republican pollster and Washington Examiner columnist.
Good to see you. So, Krystal, let me start with you on this. Now, there's nine accusers. But just to be fair to Mr. Trump, the accusations range from, you know, he explicitly grabbed a woman's genitals to he went and gave me a kiss on the side of my mouth upon greeting me. Now, I don't know whether all of these are going to amount legally to sexual assault.
KRYSTAL BALL, SENIOR FELLOW, NEW LEADERS COUNCIL: Right.
KELLY: But you heard Donald Trump's dismissal. Your thoughts on Melania's statement tonight and Trump's.
BALL: Well, look, I think for Donald Trump he continues to assert this as some sort of a vast conspiracy and that all of them are lying. And one of the things that really bothers me Megyn is this idea that the women are out seeking fame. No one is having fun right now. This is not a good time to go out and accuse a powerful man of sexual assault. They're being scrutinized for their looks, for their stories, they're being called liars. And Lord knows what kind of ugly threats and messages they're receiving. So, this is not a fun thing for anyone to do. In terms of Melania, she doesn't need our sympathy.
She's a grown woman but I do feel for her. I mean, she's fighting for her husband. She of course believes her husband and is going to defend him. One thing I would say though is that I hope people would show Hillary Clinton when she was in a similar situation trying to defend her husband, the same sympathy that Melania Trump also deserves and received here.
KELLY: Don't hold your breath on that one. You know, in her defense, I don't know that Hillary was as sympathetic when she was out there saying, this is a vast wing right conspiracy as Melania is.
BALL: But what you hear from Melania is also, it actually reminded me of the vast right wing conspiracy comment. Because she's also asserting that this is essentially a conspiracy rights.
KELLY: He was close. I'm only saying the tone, the tone and the delivery was different.
BALL: The tone is definitely different. But when you're the wife, of course you're going to defend your husband, of course you're going to go to bat for him. And so, I think that's what you see here and she does it very well.
KELLY: Let me ask you this. Kristen, let me ask you this before we get to Carl. How dug in are people on this issue of the tape, because the latest poll that came out showed they do think it's a legitimate issue. I mean, that virtually everybody has seen that tape in the entire country. And here are the numbers. Fifty five percent believe that it is a legitimate issue in the election are Trump's treatment of women is. And that only 42 percent believe it's not legitimate, which just about near Trump's support. Almost exactly the 42 percent. So, how dug in are the voters?
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Voters are pretty dug in and Donald Trump has to be pretty glad to have a character witness like Melania Trump coming out giving support to him. Because the slew of polls that have come out in the last day or two have not been great news for him. But right now you have about 85 percent of Republican voters who say they're voting for Trump. About the same number of Democratic voters say they're voting for Hillary Clinton.
Nine out of ten of those folks that are not going to change their mind. And even though a majority say that this issue is relevant, most people also said in that same poll that this isn't going to change their mind. So, while Trump is probably glad to have Melania out there hopefully putting this issue to bad, hopefully getting this out of the headline so he can get back to the issues, his big challenge is not necessarily just sort of batting this down because a lot of voters do think that his character is something that we should be discussing.
KELLY: Uh-hm. Carl, one of the things that Melania said tonight was, first of all, she believes that Billy Bush, she told CNN, she believes Billy Bush egged on Donald Trump in that tape and that you know, she's sort of saying sometimes she feels like -- she said it was boys' talk even though he was 59 years old when he engaged in it. I mean, how is that grab you?
CARL HIGBIE, GREAT AMERICA PAC SPOKESPERSON: Well, you know, the thing is, that he's still engaged in it. But, you know, to the defense of Donald Trump, these women are getting debunked just as fast as they're coming out here. Natasha, she was debunked by the butler. You have this Jessica Leeds, she was debunked by another passenger on the plane. You have Mindy McGillivray, that was debunked by the event that --
KELLY: I would say challenged is probably a more fair characterization. Debunk suggests they've been proven wrong. There have been some challenges raised by--
HIGBIE: One woman said it happened at an event that didn't even occur. So, yes, I would say that's debunk.
KELLY: Well, there's a headline saying that a woman on the airplane has been refuted, Jessica Leeds. And when somebody comes forward and says, that is not how I saw it, and that person is seriously flawed character witness, that does not refute anything. That is just another person saying, I have an issue of what she said.
But Krystal, the problem for Donald Trump is he doesn't have enough time between now and November 8th to try to disprove these women. And even if he did, the opinions on Trump among women and Independents were firming up and not in his favor long before that "Access Hollywood" tape broke.
BALL: That's exactly right. Nate Silver actually -- or 538 has a column saying essentially men are voting in this election are indicating that they're going to vote in this election like it's a normal year and women are not. Women are disproportionately and in historic numbers right now going for Hillary Clinton. And the big problem for Donald Trump here is that majority of voters think that he did the things that are being alleged because it's consistent with his own words and with the way that frankly he's treated women over the course of his life and over the course even of this campaign. So, it's too late for him to turn around that perception.
KELLY: Carl, I got to go. But I want to ask you. What do you want to see? What version of Trump do you want to see at this debate on Wednesday night? Do you want to see fighter Trump? Presidential Trump? What do you want to see?
HIGBIE: I want to see 25 percent of what we saw in the second debate and the other 75 percent pure policy and I think he can do it.
KELLY: It's fascinating. All right. I got to go but I got to ask Kristen quickly. Kristen, the poll is not in his favor. Does he have any chance, I mean, really, do you believe he has any chance still of winning?
ANDERSON: He's got to pull off an almost perfect run in Florida, Ohio, Iowan, Nevada, New Hampshire and I think that Congressional district in Maine. He's got to have everything go right. The odds are very long. But everybody has been wrong writing Donald Trump off until this point. So, you can't completely count him out.
KELLY: Great to see you all.
HIGBIE: Thank you, Megyn.
BALL: Thank you.
KELLY: And it's just two days, for the first time ever, a Fox News anchor will be moderating a general election presidential debate. Award winning journalist Chris Wallace wildly regarded as one of the best questioners in the business. I'm convinced he wrote this. I knew it. I knew it. They just slip the copy and he is very good. We'll moderate the all-important final debate between Trump and Clinton. It's a make or break event. It's less than three weeks before the historic election. And it will be held within 48 hours, October 19th in Vegas.
The best play to watch it is right here on the Fox News Channel because Brit and I we're be on all night and we will be giving you all of Chris Wallace's questions -- I mean secrets. We know how he prepares and we will take you inside the process and try to walk you through what to expect. We hope you join us.
Well, we also have breaking news tonight on more than half a dozen new polls just out and the shape of this race heading into Wednesday night's big showdown.
Plus, we'll show you how Amy Schumer, the comedian angered her fans and touched off a national backlash with what she did to a Trump supporter in middle of what was supposed to be a comedy show.
And then Mr. Trump tonight added to the controversy over what he calls a rigged election. Dr. Ben Carson is next on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You look at certain areas of the country in terms of the voters and the booths and everything else.
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: What evidence is there that you've seen that suggests that there's voter fraud underway now?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, despite a growing backlash, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is continuing to charge that we are looking at a rigged election. And he's putting the blame squarely on the media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You see what's happening, the process is rigged. This whole election is being rigged. These lies spread by the media...
We're going to make history together. Remember, it's a rigged system. It's a rigged election. It's a rigged system and they take these lies and put them on front pages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: In moments we'll be joined by Trump campaign adviser Dr. Ben Carson but we begin with our chief political correspondent campaign Carl Cameron who as you saw just spoke one on one with Donald Trump.
CAMERON: Thanks, Megyn. Trump was once again on fire tonight and he quickly rattled off a while series of ethics reforms tonight that he says will cure the corruption of the Clinton organization as imposed on the American government.
And as for his argument that there is a rigged election in the works and that there will be rampant voter fraud across the country, he acknowledge tonight that most of what he's basing is this on is not what's happening right now, but what's happened in past elections. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Well, I am talking about past elections. I'm talking about recent elections but past because that's the ones we have to judge by. And when you look at the voter fraud, when you look at illegal immigrants voting all over the country, when you look at people that died ten years ago, that we have voters all over the country where they're not even citizens of the country and they're voting. And you look at certain cities -- I won't name them right now, I mean, there are cities...
CAMERON: Well, you've mentioned Philadelphia quite a bit.
TRUMP: Philadelphia is one that's mentioned. I think Romney got no votes and McCain got no votes, I mean, like no votes. And Philadelphia is certainly one. You look at what's going on in Chicago. You look at what's going on in St. Louis and many other cities. There's tremendous voter fraud and how Republican leadership doesn't see that is beyond me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON: Trump seemed very relaxed in the interview and all of the questions he seemed to handle pretty easily. Tomorrow, he goes to Colorado, another battleground swing state where he's trailing in the polls and then there's the big debate on Wednesday, moderated by Chris Wallace. And you heard it tonight Megyn, he still thinks the media collectively, including Fox, is a little bit out to get him although he says we're better than most, Megyn.
KELLY: Carl, good to see you. Joining me now, former Republican presidential candidate, Dr. Ben Carson, who is now a Trump campaign adviser. Doc, good to see tonight. So, let's say the system is rigged. Let's just say it is. Why is he going after the Republican leadership for rigging it? Is the Republican leadership rigging the ballot boxes and gearing up the media to be in the tank for Hillary?
BEN CARSON, FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, of course not. I think he's a little bit miffed in terms of why they aren't investigating some of the allegations that have been made in places like Philadelphia where there are huge numbers that voted for Obama and like zero for Romney. You know, those have been...
KELLY: But that's just in a few -- that's just in a few counties. There are all these precincts, I should say, and in some precincts Romney and McCain got zero votes and in other precincts, they got many votes. And in some of these little precincts it's only like 100 people voting so it's not that suspicious that Republicans got no votes.
CARSON: Yeah, I think the poin is that, you know, we obviously -- it's too late to do anything for this election, but we should be looking at the integrity of our voting system. I was talking to someone last week who said they went to vote in the last election and they weren't asked for an identification of any type.
You know, those are things that really could easily be rectified. But I think what's really being talked about here is the media and the excessive amount of attention that they've paid to, you know, the allegations against Trump and almost nothing with these massive things that are going on with the e-mails and with the leaks with Hillary Clinton.
What that is doing is it is saying that that level of corruption let's just put our heads in the sand. And what is that saying to our children? If we continue to accept corruption, everybody is going to be corrupt. That's what the book of proverbs says.
KELLY: But let me ask you a question -- let me ask you a question as somebody who was up against Donald Trump in the Republican primary season. Do you see a difference in the way the mainstream media is covering him now versus the way they covered him back then?
CARSON: Oh, it's a massive difference. Yes.
KELLY: What is it?
CARSON: You know, well, during the primaries they were all too eager to hear everything he had to say and, you know, to put it, you know, in a much better light than they are now. Now, they've kind of turned against him and become instruments of the political class. And remember, this election is not about Democrats and Republicans. It's about the political class versus the people.
That's where the real difference is and that's the reason that I actually think that Trump is going to win. Because I think the American people are actually wise enough to see what's going on. They recognize that the media is very biased.
KELLY: But you know, having benefitted from some inherent bias of the media to promote the ratings machine as he calls himself in the primary season, is he really in a position now to complain when they cover him just as much now but the coverage tone has shifted remarkably? And I might add predictably.
CARSON: Certainly it would be wise at this stage, at this late stage to really concentrate on the issues because, you know, the differences between Trump and Clinton on some of the major issues that affect our society are gigantic and yet people aren't getting a chance to hear about that and they need to hear about it so they can make an intelligent decision.
KELLY: Well, it's been interesting. There is -- I mean it has been pretty marked, I mean the difference between the primary coverage as you of all people know versus the general election coverage, but that was never going to be a mystery. That did not come into shock.
CARSON: That shows you how much power they have. It shows you how much power the media has.
KELLY: They do. That's true.
CARSON: And I continue to plead particularly with young journalist to bring some integrity back. It would help us as a nation tremendously.
KELLY: Great to see you Dr. Carson.
CARSON: You too Megyn.
KELLY: Well, less than 48 hours to what could be the most important debate of the year or it could be completely -- no, actually it can't. This is going to be a big one. And we just got a landslide of new polls.
Chris Stirewalt and Tom Bevin are here for what the numbers mean for Clinton versus Trump. You heard Kristen Soltis Anderson saying, "Don't count Trump out." People have done that time and time again only to find themselves embarrassed. These guys are here on round three.
Plus, we have new details about the weekend firebombing of a Republican campaign headquarters. And then we'll show you what "Saturday Night Live" did that has Donald Trump firing back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Twenty-two days to the election, think of that. Three weeks and one day away. Just 48 hours from the third and final presidential debate and today we saw a half dozen major polling firms release new results. And to see how a debate can help move the numbers, look at where we were right before the last debate and we are tonight. She was up 3.2, tonight she is up 7.1 percentage points over Trump.
Joining me now is Chris Stirewalt host of "I'll Tell You What" right here on Fox with Dana Perino and Tom Bevan, co-founder and publisher of RealClearPolitics.com. Good to see you both. So, I mean, 7.2 percentage points is huge -- that's huge, right Chris. I mean, you tell me -- that's huge and tell me whether there's any historical precedence for a candidate overcoming that kind of gap with this much time left.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: No. But then again there's no historical precedent for the reality television show host becoming a major party nominee. So, we can't pretend like this is a normal year, right? There's not precedent for a former president's wife being a major party nominee.
So, to a certain degrees we have to allow that things that we haven't seen before could happen this time and that's why this is the most fascination election that I've ever covered. That having been said, Donald Trump was almost tied going into the first debate.
If you had shown the first debate, so he's almost tied going into the first debate that he started to lose ground and he lost more ground and it wasn't just what happened in the debates, it was how he conducted himself in the weeks after those debates that set him back, and that's why he's down so much going into this one.
KELLY: Because not only -- would be to go up there with this beauty queen, but he insulted women and he insulted fat Americans which is not smart at all, you know, less Chris.
STIREWALT: I'm here. I'm sitting right here.
KELLY: I can hear you.
STIREWALT: Exactly.
TOM BEVAN, REALCLEARPOLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: To be honest -- to be honest, I mean it wasn't just Donald Trump's debate performances. It was the release of this tape, right. It was the accusations. I mean, that's what happened between the second debate and now which is really driven. I mean, if you would look at all the data, I mean, women had flood him.
He's lost his lead with independents. I mean this last 10 days has been catastrophic for him not because necessarily had a bad debate performance, but because of all the other stuff that has gone on surrounding his campaign.
KELLY: What do you make tonight, Chris, of the poll that came out showing - - it was four-point race according to this "Washington Post" poll but they're also saying that he's stuck and he's hit his ceiling, but still, I mean four points according to Washington Post/ABC News survey?
STIREWALT: I like chicken. I like ribs. I like steak, but I like Slim Jim better than all of them and if Dana Perino were here right now, she would tell me to explain about the Slim Jim. We take all of the delicious meats, we combine them into one fantastic (inaudible) sausage and we get a polling average. And on the halftime report polling average, you know what we found out?
It started tacking (ph) the wrong way for Trump and it goes and it goes. So, is it four points? Is it 12 points? How about the average of those two, and we found ourselves seven to eight points down.
KELLY: And then the end, he brings it home ladies and gentlemen, sort of. Tom, Ohio? CNN's latest poll showing Trump up four, North Carolina Trump down just one, Nevada Trump down just two, is the race closing in a bit?
BEVAN: Yeah, I mean it's interesting, right. We've got Clinton expanding her lead nationally up to seven points but we got Trump holding strong in some of these battleground states. Ohio being one, Iowa's another one. North Carolina still remains relatively close, but again, he's now behind in most all of the states except for the two that I mentioned.
And while his base is sticking with him as I mentioned before, these other groups are leaving him and if he doesn't turn something around in the next few weeks and bring those groups back, he's going to end up with his base and that's it and he's going to lose.
KELLY: Hence the, you know, having Melania come out and try to speak to some of those women that he's lost. Great to see you both. Up next, Amy Schumer and her having to defend herself today over how she treated a Trump supporter in the middle of what was supposed to be a comedy show. We'll show you what happened.
Plus, new details on the firebombing of a Republican Party office in North Carolina when he come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Well, a GOP campaign office in North Carolina was fire bombed and vandalized other the weekend but in a rare feel-good story during what's been a brutal election year, some local Democrats pitched in on the effort to help repair the damage over at Republican headquarters. Brian Kilmeade is co-host of "Fox & Friends" and also the author of "Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates," which is now out in paperback and get it real cheap. He joins us now. Brian, good to see you.
BRIAN KILMEADE, "FOX & FRIENDS" CO-HOST: Great to see you.
KELLY: So this is a moment of unity in the end. It starts off ugly, it ends nicely.
KILMEADE: Right, and Joe Trippi's point of view (ph) is Fox News only come to our Christmas parties, we hang out with them, he invites us to barbecues -- I couldn't got -- I'll have more on that later, but he is part of the Democratic cadre that said, let's get a you page together, see if we can get $10,000. They got $13,000 almost right away.
They gave it right to the Republicans and say rebuild your office in a very democratic district of Orange County right near Chapel Hill. Associate professor says, you know what, Hillary Clinton should even give this money. After all, there's flammable liquid, this firebombing of the building went in.
Thank goodness nobody was hurt, but serious stuff -- Nazi paraphernalia on the sidelines, Nazi graffiti so, nothing good about it. If it was on the other side, they'd be saying see how poisonous Donald Trump is. Right now they're saying Democrats picking on Republicans in a democratic district.
KELLY: Well, it's good to see them sort of staying together against something like this. OK, Amy Schumer comedienne, actress in a lot of trouble. When I hear the sound bite, I just want to tell the guys I can't understand it that way. This is what she's going to say, she's got a Trump supporter on stage. She's giving him a hard time about being a Trump supporter. Watch and listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY SCHUMER, ACTRESS & COMEDIAN: Do you think he will be impulsive and get us in a lot of (BLEEP) trouble we can't get out of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) some of the stuff he says, but I'm not really voting for Trump. I'm voting against...
SCHUMER: OK. You can go sit down. This is cool to hear what one guy who doesn't seem like a psychopath, why he would want to vote for that orange sexual assaulting, fake college-starting...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: So she's making the man defend his vote for Donald Trump and the support -- the fans there were not happy Brian.
KILMEADE: Calls this guy Dave on stage. What is this with Trump supporters in my audience? It's Tampa. Very Republican area and there's a lot of Trump signs there. This guy goes up there he says no, I like him. And everyone starts booing, a lot of people start booing even though she might be ticked off because there's a 21,000 seat stadium theater and she only got 10,000.
So, if you guys have a problem, if you make any more noises, you yell out, I'm going the throw you out. Two hundred people got up and walked out. This is the cousin of Senator Schumer so, Amy Schumer, quite liberal. By the way, the first thing she said is the first four rows can see my private parts. She also talked about cooking so much she blacked out and how happy she was to be in Tampa because that's where she had a one-night stand. So if she's so squeamish, why is she bringing all that up?
KELLY: One more thing, SNL, epic Saturday night. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: I need all of my supporters to get out there and vote on election day, mark your calendar calendars, write it down. Here's the date, it's November 35th.
KATE MCKINNON, ACTRESS: Number one, insurance company can't deny you coverage because of a preexisting condition. Number two, no lifetime limits which, you know, is a big deal if you have serious health problems. And number three...
BALDWIN: Martha (ph) she is trying to silence these women but they need to be respected. They need their voices heard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about all of the women accusing you of sexual assault?
TRUMP: They need to shut the hell up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KILMEADE: He says time to retire the unfunny boring show...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: So, Trump was displeased about that SNL clip calling it a boring and unfunny show. He doesn't look like Alec Baldwin. What do you think? Facebook.com/thekellyfile, let me know. Thanks for watching. See you in Vegas tomorrow night.
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