Guy Benson: Peter Thiel's speech an important moment for GOP

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Guy Benson: Peter Thiel's speech an important moment for GOP

Openly gay Fox News contributor reacts on 'The Kelly File' to PayPal founder's address to the RNC

This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," July 21, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Breaking tonight, roughly 13 wild months after Donald J. Trump declared his run for the White House, and there is now less than an hour before the Republican nominee for president formally accepts the nomination, walks onto the stage behind me, and shares with America his most critical speech to date.

Welcome to "The Kelly File," everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. Live in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention. As Mr. Trump might say himself, it has been a huge week here full of drama and intrigue about the future of the party and the nation. The Never Trumpers have ultimately failed to stop the businessman's campaign. The Trump loyalists have made their outrage over the intraparty fighting known. And then there's that thing with Ted Cruz. More on that in a moment.

But first to the big questions tonight. How will Mr. Trump try to win over America, and will Ivanka Trump prove to be Donald Trump's secret weapon?  We have new video coming in just minutes ago of Trump family members arriving at the arena here in Cleveland, ready to listen and support their father. And earlier our cameras spotted Mr. Trump and Ivanka conducting a walk-through and a sound check earlier today. And by the looks of it, they were all business.

We have a jam-packed show lined up for you tonight, but we begin the evening with our chief political correspondent campaign Carl Cameron live near the convention stage. Carl.

CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Megyn. We're here on what's called the podium site for reporters, just a few feet from where Donald Trump will be stepping out in about an hour to make that speech. And today was a bit of an embarrassment when the embargoed version of the speech was leaked by someone in the media, and it ended up in the hands of Democrats who immediately sent it out all over the country on e- mail and online to essentially attack it and suggest that that was yet another example of some sort of dysfunction here at the convention.

Donald Trump, when he did his first few rehearsals without applause and went through about 40 minutes, they estimate with crowd applause, it could be as much as 55 minutes or longer. This is a speech that he's been working on for quite some time. It is very clear he's going to cast himself as the populist, saying he is your voice, telling the delegates in this hall and Americans across the country that he'll be fighting for them.  And he knows that this is a huge audience, Megyn. He's really looking forward to talking to the whole world.

KELLY: We're looking forward to hearing from him. But first, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

(PRIEBUS SPEECH)

KELLY: RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who has had a heck of a year in a bruising Republican primary in which nobody believed that Donald Trump would emerge as the victor. Under enormous pressure at times to try to stop that. And Reince Priebus tonight coming out with a full-throated endorsement of and support for his party's nominee.

I want to bring in our panel now, Charles Krauthammer, who is a Fox News contributor. Brit Hume is our Fox News senior political analyst. And Katie Pavlich who is the editor of Townhall.com.

Great to see you all. What a night for Reince Priebus and the amount of pressure that he has withstood from the Republican Party this year to try to stop this. Instead tonight coming out endorsing and supporting Donald Trump.

Charles, your thoughts on it.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think he's had the most difficult (INAUDIBLE). And the way he handled, which was essentially to bow in the end to the will of the people, as expressed overwhelmingly in the primary, I think was the only afternoon he had. (INAUDIBLE) but there was no way you could deny him the nomination. He strongly opposed these efforts for a third party or for some kind of coup at this convention, which I think was the right course. Trump is going to have to show starting tonight that he can win the country the way he won the Republicans.

Brit, what do you expect tonight? Because the big speeches are, Ivanka Trump, perhaps Donald Trump's big spokesperson and then Trump himself. So, what are the stakes for them?

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Trump has got to begin the task of building out from the coalition that nominated him, which is nowhere near large enough to elect him. So the first step tonight is to present himself and his message in such a way that people who may have had some antipathy toward him or not been anywhere near ready to support him or maybe are disinterested to begin to think, you know, this guy could be president.

He could be my president. You know, I just might vote for this guy. So that's task number one. And he also needs to do it in such a way that people's image of him will survive what is coming next week, which is a four-day ordeal for him of Democrats trying to rip his skin off and portray him as utterly and completely unsuited and unfit to be president.  So it's not an easy task he faces tonight, but based on what we've seen so far this year, it might not be a good idea to bet against him.

KELLY: In the meantime, Katie, Ted Cruz is still sending reverberations through this arena with what he did here last night.

KATIE PAVLICH, EDITOR, TOWNHALL.COM: Right.

KELLY: People saying it was, to his defenders saying, it was a matter of principle. How could he? And he came out today combative, exchange with his Texas delegation defending his remarks. Let's take a quick listen to that sound bite and get Katie's reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father. If you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I'm going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say, thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: What do you make of it?

PAVLICH: Look, I think that Ted Cruz has a point, and Donald Trump walked back essentially his comments about John McCain and it ended up being in his favor. He did that last week with the "60 Minutes" interview with Mike Pence in order to move forward and unite the party. Donald Trump needs Ted Cruz and his supporters a lot more than he needs John McCain, and I would just hope that he would say something like, look, I didn't mean to say what I said. Let's try and move forward. At the same time, I'm not sure that Ted Cruz did himself any favors like putting in the line, vote your conscious. He could have essentially endorsed her, not endorsed Donald Trump last night by simply saying, don't say --

KELLY: Yes. As we can see the Trump family arriving, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, their son Barron behind them. And we'll see the rest of the family shortly as Ivanka gets ready to take the stage before her father, said to be the quote, "Princess of the family." The brothers say that. I don't know if that's got her endorsement. But obviously a well-spoken spokesperson for the family and there's a reason Donald Trump waited to put her on until last.

We're going to take a quick break. We're going to be right back in moments. THE KELLY FILE is live from the convention floor tonight. When we come back, I'll look forward to Peter Thiel, Ivanka Trump, and the biggest moment of the entire convention, Donald Trump's acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for president. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Welcome back, everybody. Speaking right now, billionaire tech investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel. Mr. Thiel is the co-founder of the popular online payment system PayPal, and an early investor in Facebook.  He also is openly gay, and he will be the first person to publicly acknowledge that he is gay at a Republican convention. Many wondering just how far he'll go with his remarks about gay rights. And different people hoping for different things.

Let's take a listen and hear what he has to say as what the Trump campaign calls a bold choice speech for the RNC and the Republicans here.

(PETER THIEL SPEECH)

KELLY: One billionaire to another. Peter Thiel supporting Donald Trump in remarks that really are important for the Republican Party.

Joining me now to discuss it, Mo Elleithee, former Democratic National Committee spokesperson. And Guy Benson who is political editor at Townhall.com. It's great to see you both. So, Guy, you are an openly gay Republican.

GUY BENSON, TOWNHALL.COM POLITICAL EDITOR: That's a thing.

KELLY: Right. It's a thing.

BENSON: Yes.

KELLY: And so is he.

BENSON: Yes.

KELLY: Discuss the significance of what just happened here.

BENSON: Look, I'm proud of what he just did on a personal level, and I have to tip my cap to the Trump campaign for welcoming that message here at the convention.

KELLY: And it should be said you are not a Trump fan.

BENSON: I'm not, but this was important for the party. And what we just saw was Peter Thiel say, I am proud to be gay. The applause began. I am proud to be a Republican. The applause built. But most importantly, I'm proud to be an American. A crescendo, a standing ovation. That is from the rostrum of the Republican National Committee I think a big moment. But I think also what's important is to note, Peter Thiel was not invited to speak here because he's gay.

Peter Thiel is an extraordinary person, an innovator. He's brilliant.  That's why he's here. He happens to be gay, and the warm welcome that he got was exciting and, you know what, I think it was appropriate that he also went out of his way briefly to distance himself from certain elements of the recently adopted platform that in my view range from disappointing to disgraceful. He made that point.

KELLY: What specifically?

BENSON: Well, I don't want to necessarily get into all the specifics of it, but I think some of the party platform probably should not be addressing conversion therapy, for example. That's ludicrous. And I think that there are plenty of gay conservatives who recognize there are lots of people in America and in the Republican Party and in the conservative movement who have different views on, for example, marriage equality. A lot of people are for traditional marriage. They are not by definition bigots or mean spirited, and we should welcome debates within the party because the country is changing. This was a small step but an important one in the right direction to improving our conversation about these issues as a conservative movement.

KELLY: How about this, Mo, because typically we've seen in the past the Democrats really use the issue of gay rights against Republicans. Donald Trump has not -- has not been somebody who comes out against gay rights or bashes the gay community. You saw all of his family on their feet cheering him when he said, I'm gay, and I'm Republican, and I'm American. Has Trump disarmed the Democrats on this issue?

MO ELLEITHEE, FORMER DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE SPOKESMAN: Well, I don't think entirely. I think, you know, to Guy's point, what was in the platform of the Republican Party, of Trump's Republican Party, is still the official position of the Republican Party. It is what most Republican candidates are advocating. And so I think Democrats are going to continue to make the contrast.

What I think was remarkable, and I agree with you 100 percent that what Peter did up there was remarkable for a Republican convention and was a good sign in a week that has not had a lot of good signs. It was one of the very few moments where a speaker tried to reach out beyond the Republican base in a week where there was very few speakers trying to reach out beyond the Republican base.

KELLY: Tonight is all about that, though. If you look at the preview we've gotten of his speech, of Ivanka's speech, of Donald Trump speech, it is all about, you tell me, reaching out beyond the Republican base, Guy.

BENSON: Yes. And I think what we just saw here, when I saw the advance script of what Peter Thiel was going to say. I said, all right, let's see how this building responds. We've seen boos and cat calls in various contexts here. This was unequivocal. This was an embrace of Peter Thiel, which was pretty cool to see.

KELLY: Yep.

BENSON: And you know, Donald Trump, with whom I have numerous disagreements and still do, looking at his speech in advance, he is going to go out of his way to condemn what happened in Orlando specifically talking about the fact that the LGBT community was targeted and we want to protect that community. He's going to say that in his acceptance speech and that's an important thing as well.

KELLY: Quickly, Mo, and I want to ask you before we go, how do you grade the convention so far?

ELLEITHEE: I think this convention has been an unmitigated disaster for the Republican Party.

KELLY: Oh.

ELLEITHEE: I really do. I think this has been a party that has been full of division, of intraparty squabbling, of candidates who have -- or of speakers who have sought to divide more than unite.

KELLY: You think that next week is going to be all about uniting and no division in Philly?

ELLEITHEE: No, but here's what -- here's going to be the big difference. I think that next week the signal coming out of the DNC is that a lot of candidates are going to hit Donald Trump but they're going to try to make a forceful case for Hillary Clinton. There have not been a lot of candidates or speakers here who have actually...

KELLY: His children.

ELLEITHEE: Yeah, but other than his children, other than the people who share his last name or share the ballot with him -- his running mate did it. You don't hear a lot of people making a forceful case for Donald Trump from the stage.

KELLY: Good to see you both. Thank you for being here. So, excitement is building for the biggest moment of the night, the convention and the 2016 presidential campaign to date. Donald Trump has some remarkable comments tonight, and he is set to formally accept his party's nomination to be president in moments. History will be made here this evening. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Breaking tonight, excitement is building on the convention floor as the crowd awaits Donald Trump's speech to delegates in the arena and voters across this nation. "America's Newsroom" anchor Bill Hemmer is live by the California delegation as he waits for the Republican nominee to take the main stage. Bill?

BILL HEMMER, CO-ANCHOR, "AMERICA'S NEWSROOM": Megyn, good evening to you. There's a lot of excitement down here. The arena is more packed than it has been throughout the last three nights and with great expectations for the man who used to host "The Apprentice," who will now be on the biggest stage of his life. Megyn, I can tell you that the Texas delegation rather has been torn asunder by the Ted Cruz news of the last 24 hours.

The overwhelming majority of the delegates from Texas, they wanted Ted Cruz to endorse Donald Trump last night. That did not happen. One delegate told me we're going to win now because Ted Cruz just brought our party together. But a 70-year-old high school teacher, makes $21,000 a year, he donated $500 to Ted Cruz's campaign. He believed he should (inaudible) now for the sake of the party, you hear a lot about down here tonight. Yet one delegate from Texas said Cruz should not say anything until Trump apologizes to him. So far, that's not going to happen.

I talked to Scott Walker, the Republican governor from Wisconsin a moment ago. He said within the hour, Megyn, the Ted Cruz matter will be behind this party because Donald Trump will be on that main stage behind us, Megyn.

KELLY: Bill, great to see you. Trump's big speech is not the only reason he's making headlines today. In some remarks he made to The New York Times" last night are now causing commotion across the globe. Trump was asked if, as president, he would defend NATO allies in the event that they're attacked by Russia.

His answer, quote, "If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes." David Woel is an attorney and Trump supporter. Mark Thiessen is a former presidential speechwriter for President George W. Bush, good to see you both. Mark, just define for the viewers why this is potentially a problem in the eyes of many.

MARK THIESSEN, PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITER: Well, it's potentially a problem because the NATO alliance which has existed since 1947, has been the bulwark of European security, is based on something called Article 5 of the NATO charter which means an attack on one is an attack on all. There's no deliberation. There's no if. If one of the member nations is attacked, it's an attack on all and we will respond. And that's what kept the security during the Cold War -- this was the Reagan legacy, and Donald Trump has essentially thrown away the Reagan legacy.

That's really bad foreign policy, but it's even worse politics because even if you don't care about all of that, you know, outside the Quicken Loans Arena here, there's a Freedom Plaza, and one of the stands there has Polish-style pierogies with kielbasa on them because -- and it's Cleveland- style pierogies. And the reason for that is because they are...

KELLY: Because they're delicious.

THIESSEN: Because they're delicious, number one. But number two, because there are lots of European and Eastern European-Americans here in the state of Ohio. There is over 1.2 million people who are Polish heritage, Slovak heritage, Czech-American, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian. Donald Trump needs those voters.

When they hear that he's going to break the 47-year Reagan legacy when it comes to NATO -- and it's not just them. In Pennsylvania it's 1.5 million voters, Michigan 1.2 million voters, Florida, 1.3, you've got Wisconsin, Indiana, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, all have hundreds of thousands of eastern European citizens. He needs those voters if he's going to win the election.

DAVID WOHL, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Oh Mark, I don't think there's -- I think it's a wonderful incentive for the rest of the NATO nations, 27, to pay their fair share. Right now we've put 75 percent of the total expenditures of NATO. The other 27 nations foot 25 percent. It's out of control. Donald Trump wants to make sure that U.S. taxpayers aren't getting screwed, are going to pay their fair share, and the other nations will as well. We're not talking about third-world nations.

We're talking about the U.K., Germany, France, big powerful nations that are wealthy nations, and we've been basically saying, you know, we've been politically correct about it since 1947 and we'll go ahead and pay all the money. We'll go ahead and foot the expenditures to keep this afloat. And he's basically saying, you know what, you guys, if you don't pay your fair share, you may be out on your own now.

KELLY: What about that Mark? He's basically saying we're chumps -- that we're chumps if he keeps...

THIESSEN: Number one, I'm a Polish-American and I care and I know a lot of Polish-Americans who do care about the NATO alliance. They spent their whole year -- lives in the Warsaw Pact waiting to join the western world and the NATO was a big deal. Second of all, what David describes is actually not how it works. We're not paying 75 percent of the cost of NATO. What every country does is they pay -- they're supposed to pay 2 percent of their GDP into their defense budget, it is a defense capability.

And ironically, the countries that are doing that are Estonia, all the Baltic States that he just said he's going to throw under the bus. These are the countries that sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and are helping us fight the war on terror. And if he wants to have a fight with France, fine. Let him have a fight with France.

(CROSSTALK)

WOHL: Everyone needs to pay their fair share. The big countries are paying 1 percent of the GDP and we're just -- the amount we're paying, Megyn, $800 billion, something completely out of control, is outrageous and this is part of -- listen, Trump is anti-globalist. He's anti-interventionist...

KELLY: He's going to be making that part (ph) today.

WOHL: It is part of that larger platform. He does not want to tell the rest of the world we're going to take care of your problems for you. That's the big picture.

KELLY: America first is what he...

WOHL: America first.

THIESSEN: But that's not what the cost is. We're spending that much on our defense budget. We would be spending that whether we were in NATO or not. Those costs are not costs that we're spending on NATO. It's a question of the amount of GDP...

(CROSSTALK)

KELLY: We have to end because my head is starting to hurt. That's my cue.

THIESSEN: Have some pierogie and kielbasa, you'll do fine.

KELLY: That's all I need. Chin dobre.

(CROSSTALK)

KELLY: So we expect some wild excitement from the New York delegation when both Ivanka and Donald Trump take the stage very shortly. And we sent Shannon Bream to join the New York delegation live on the floor of the Cleveland Convention Center. Shannon?

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS WASHINGTON-BASED CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Megyn. We've got Sue with us. We met her earlier this week. She is full of enthusiasm and she's wearing a button that says she's been with Trump since day one. She's part of the New York delegation. Why did you join from the beginning and did you really believe you were going to get do this day, when you're about to watch him officially accept this nomination.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe that I am here, and to think that I'm here from 2014 when Mr. Trump was thinking of running for governor of New York. We all met with him. I'm a chairman in Fulton County, New York -- that's where (inaudible) -- and when he was thinking of running, we all met with him. So from that possibly running for governor to today, I never saw that. And this is just fantastic. I am in awe.

BREAM: Well, considering you're going to get to hear from Ivanka and from Donald tonight, what are you hoping to hear in their speeches, and do you think it will unify what has been a little bit of a divided body here at the GOP convention?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've already seen some of the unity and I believe that it's just going to continue through the Trump family, when hearing Ivanka. When we were already talking with some of the people, this pin that I'm wearing right here, a woman from Texas came up to me and said I want to give you this because I want you to know, Texas is for Trump and Texas is behind New York. So, we're already getting together.

BREAM: Now, you believed early on but there were a lot of skeptics that this was a showbiz move, whether he wasn't serious or it was a flirtation. Why did you actually believe he would be running for president?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I liked when we did talk with him was, I asked him hardball questions. We're from New York. We don't throw softballs. We throw hardballs. And he answered it respectfully, looked me in the eyes. When he asked me a question and I answered it, he didn't interrupt me, he looked me in the eyes and there was no fluff, there was no flowery answer. It was bulleted, bottom line, and when I had a question after our meetings -- we had a couple of meetings.

When I had a question and called him, he called me back. Then he had a question, and he called me. And so I had a lot of respect because of the way I felt with the way he answered me, looking me in the eyes and not fluffing any answer and bottom lining it for me, he won my respect.

BREAM: All right Sue, you're just minutes away from seeing two Trumps take the stage and a man you've been supporting for more than a year as he is now making the official run for White House. Thanks for sharing with us, and Megyn, we'll send it back up to you.

KELLY: All right, Shannon. Thank you. Any moment from now, Melania Trump will take her place inside the VIP box here in Cleveland has an excited crowd waits to hear from her husband, and her stepdaughter, Ivanka Trump. For more on that, we go to James Rosen who is just steps away from the Trump family. Hi James.

JAMES ROSEN, FOX NEWS WASHINGTON, D.C. CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, good evening. Yes, members of Donald Trump's family are arrayed in the VIP box. We can see Eric Trump, his son, Tiffany, his daughter, and others. The VIP box is being emptied and refilled with some regularity. Just before, we had some members of the congressional delegations who had supported Donald Trump early on like Chris Collins of New York, Tom Marino of Pennsylvania and others.

And we expect the arrival of Melania Trump any moment now as we await Ivanka Trump to introduce her father for this climactic moment of this wild and sometimes raucous GOP convention. We did hear a bit of booing from the North Carolina delegation and elsewhere on the floor when Peter Thiel, the openly gay businessman who was speaking from the podium expressed his support for transgender individuals being allowed to use whatever bathroom they wish.

But otherwise I would say discord is at a minimum. This is looking more and more like a unified party. They want Donald Trump as their nominee. They want to get it on with Hillary Clinton and bring this to the final climactic showdown of the election. I think Ted Cruz probably did himself a lot of damage, even including with Ted Cruz supporters with his refusal to endorse Trump.

And as I say -- I just spoke to security. They're not hearing anything about planned walkouts. They're not hearing any kind of disruption whatsoever. This is a happy crowd, and more seats are filled tonight than at any point in the past few days, even way up into the rafters. That's a sign that the big star is about to speak and formally accept his nomination. Megyn.

KELLY: Some say yes on Ted Cruz. Some are applauding him for standing by his principles and not doubling back on his earlier comments. But I want to ask you, James, on Monday night Trump came out with, you know, a sort of the WWE smoke and mirrors. Do we know anything about how he's going to enter tonight? Will there be some drama?

ROSEN: If that question was for me, I think I heard most of it and about divisions here in the party.

KELLY: No. Drama. Drama on the Trump entry. Is there going to be any drama?

ROSEN: Well, I think the drama is in Trump and his speech to come. We all know he's going to be using a teleprompter and most people who have been subjected to Donald Trump's use of a teleprompter on the half a dozen or so occasions when he's used one, Megyn, have come away I think feeling a little short changed, like they didn't get the full monty of Donald Trump just ripping and speaking in that unique style of his.

So I think one of the big questions for his effectiveness tonight is whether in using the teleprompter, he can stir the passions of this hall the way he did throughout the primary season in securing those 14 million votes.

KELLY: Good point. James, great to see you. Back with us now, Charles Krauthammer, Fox News contributor, Brit Hume, our Fox News senior political analyst and Chris Stirewalt, our Fox News digital politics editor, great to see you all. What do you make of it? I mean, how does Trump top the entrance he did on Monday night and set the stakes for him his evening.

CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: I think parasailing could be good. You could come in that way or a zip line. Look, the stakes tonight, Ted Cruz as James pointed out roiled the pot here. He created a different energy and some of it was created (ph) to Donald Trump's benefit. It's been good. He said no, you shouldn't have done that if you want to be with him. But it is reflective of a division.

Trump's job tonight is to unify the party, bring Republicans together, and then in the next breath, turn and pivot to the general election and say to anxious independents and some Democrats, I am a leader who can provide a steady hand and has a vision for the future that is inclusive of everybody, not just my fired up supporters.

KELLY: The advance copies of Trump's remarks, Brit, seem to suggest he will rile up the base of the party. He's not going to abandon his core principles and walk out of here, but there is some outreach to Bernie supporters, to the LGBT community and others.

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I think, you know, form what we've seen, people are not going to confuse the man we've seen tonight with someone else and they will know that this Donald Trump. On the other hand, he does, you know, he does need as we've talked about earlier, to expand his base of support, and I think he'll try to do that.

And he will also seek to do something that is kind of remarkable that he's been able to do as well as he has so far, which is to identify himself with working people, with people of the middle class, the working class, blue collar voters and their families. And to the extent that this man who lives in the lap of luxury like few of us ever dream of could be able to pull that off, has been quite an achievement, and he's done it pretty well so far.

KELLY: Charles, speak what the importance of Ivanka's remarks because we're told she's meant to soften Trump's image with women and certainly she's had a great experience with him, she's his daughter. How far can she go with that? How much help can she be?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the whole family is basically -- they don't just humanize him. It kind of reflects on him that he has some attractive and successful children reflects on upbringing -- on his bringing them up and on his capacity as a father. So I think, that in it of itself is very helpful. Ivanka, I think, can make the case that this is a man who can be both admired and loved and respected.

I don't know that it carries as much weight as perhaps the more normal kind of introductions the candidates get from colleagues, high officials, military heroes, or whatever. But it's in keeping with the spirit of the four days when the family was so highly featured. I think it's worked for them up to now. I don't think it will be in any way decisive. It's all going to depend on Trump's -- I think a lot on his delivery.

He's bright (inaudible) with the teleprompter. He has to show warmth. He will of course intersperse his little interjections. It hasn't always worked. This is a challenge for him. He does well with riffing, and this is not a place you want to riff.

KELLY: Is the Trump campaign coming under a little fire tonight because Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, was on another network, and the question was, "hey, a lot of women hear a man criticizing a woman when Donald Trump criticizes Hillary. How are you going to avoid that?" That you just hear a man going after a woman.

And Manafort's answer was, "Well, it depends on which woman you're talking about. There are many women in this country who feel they cannot afford their lives. That their husbands cannot afford to be paying for the family bills. And a lot of women took notice that, our husband...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

KELLY: Some of us pay our bills too.

STIREWALT: Talk about the importance of his daughter. This is the person who vouches for Donald Trump. She is the guy who says, I know they're old school. I know that they talk like that. But I'm a young woman. I'm an empowered woman. I'm a mom with a career and a whole full spectrum human being, and I can tell you my dad is cool. He's okay. He gets it. So that's why she is such an important endorser for him because he is so whopper jawed with female voters. I mean, it's a bad scene.

KELLY: And with millennial's, which she is.

STIREWALT: Right, so she is the vouch safe. She says, I know my dad, he may not talk like you, and he may say things that sometimes you don't like. But when it comes down to action, he does the right thing.

KELLY: Right, in practice, he's been a supporter of women. Why you have that look on your face?

STIREWALT: I was just in Washington, seeing down on the stage there when they carried away the lectern that everybody else had been using. And the floor opened up and a new one arose out of the floor, and I started thinking, you know, he's going to make an interesting entrance tonight.

Could it be that he will arrive by some technical gadget we haven't yet seen? Wouldn't that be fun? I don't think they will lower him, but maybe they will raise him from that trapdoor in the floor. Wouldn't that be cool?

KELLY: Never estimate what Stirewalt calls the Trump.

STIREWALT: That's right. It needs a T (ph). That podium needs a T (ph) though.

KELLY: Listen, let me ask you, Brit. You've been through a lot of this. How do you think this Republican Party is doing by night four of this convention?

HUME: Well, there's been a lot of coverage about the difficulties that conventions tend to have. I was on the floor of the Democratic convention in 1980, Jimmy Carter's second convention, and it was a mess. I mean almost from beginning to end, there was all this tension about whether Ted Kennedy would, you know, lock arms with Jimmy Carter at the end and in the end he didn't, although he ultimately did endorse him. And the balloon drop didn't even work at that convention.

KELLY: Oh.

HUME: So, I mean, it was...

KELLY: So, he of course went on to lose.

HUME: Yes, he did. This has gone much better than that. This has gone much better than that. Some of the speeches have been pretty boffo, and the problems have been, you know, relatively speaking minor. Ted Cruz, you know, upstaged everybody for a while last night and stepped on the speech that Mike Pence made...

KELLY: Right.

HUME: ...and that Eric Trump made to some extent. But, you know, I think that actually heightens interest for tonight because, you know, people are kind of thinking there's something going on here.

KELLY: And then Charles, speak to what happens with the convention bounds because of course Trump may get one, but then we're all off to Philly and the Democrats have the advantage of going second since they're the party in power.

KRAUTHAMMER: Look, tomorrow Hillary will likely announce her vice presidential choice, which we expect on whatever story is coming out of tonight. I do think the Cruz event is symbolic of something a little bit deeper. I think he committed political suicide in doing it, but I think what he did do is he undid one of the major objectives of conventions.

No longer they choose candidates. There's four days of propaganda for the party, but they are also the ultimate instrument on these unity on the eve of the final campaign.

And that I think was -- punctured not so much by Cruz's speech but by what he represents. And in a minor way, what Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell did in their speeches, which were very tepid regarding Trump himself and spoke of the party, the agenda, and the principles.

So, I think you've got this undercurrent where the unity thing has not been achieved in a way that they would have hoped. And that I think diminishes somewhat the bounce they might get.

HUME: Which is why Trump has the task tonight not only to reach out beyond the Republican Party, but to finish the task of getting the Republican Party fully behind him, which he has yet to do, and some of these events here illustrated that fact.

KELLY: And there's a lot of red meat in his speech. He speaks to illegal immigration and the people who have been killed by illegal immigrants in the country. And you can see Melania Trump and Barron Trump who we don't see as often -- Donald Trump's son with Melania -- enter the arena. And Trump has said publicly, he never sees Barron anymore because he's been out on the campaign trail so much.

And Melania Trump is managing to raise their son. She's a full-time mom, and she's also a business woman, and she's been a very busy woman. But these two people you're seeing right here have spent a lot of time together over the past year because Donald Trump has been on the road a lot. Can you pick up on the vice presidential news that we expect tomorrow, Stirewalt, and what do you think is going to happen there and how will it impact this?

STIREWALT: It depends on how it goes tonight. If Donald Trump has a great night, if he kills it, if everybody says, my, God, what a magnificent speech, it's the greatest thing ever. Hillary Clinton will announce her vice presidential pick tomorrow, and she'll try to make as much news with it as she can so that she can put the kibosh on Trump. If Trump has a bad speech and she has a bad night, she'll probably let that hang over for a day or so and let that runs its course and...

HUME: It's worth keeping in mind I think that it will be difficult for anybody to step on anybody else's bounce the way John McCain successfully did on Barack Obama's bounce in 2088. Remember, Obama with that elaborate event in Denver with the Greek columns and all the rest of it and it looked huge, but he made such an unexpected announcement of such an interesting new face, Sarah Palin at the time that it really did step all over.

KELLY: All right, I'm going to stand you by, Brit, so we can look at this video about Donald Trump.  

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