This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," December 9, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SANDRA SMITH, FOX NEWS HOST: Breaking tonight, exactly six weeks before President-Elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office. President Obama orders a new intelligence review aimed at alleged efforts to influence the 2016 election.
Welcome to "The Kelly File." I'm Sandra Smith in for Megyn Kelly. The review comes after both the DNC and the Clinton campaign had embarrassing e-mails released to the public. The Obama administration suspects the Russian government was behind the DNC hack. A charge the Russians deny. The review is scheduled to be completed before President Obama leaves office. As for Mr. Trump, he was in Michigan tonight as part of his Thank You Tour but did not address the controversy.
In moments, we will talk to Mr. Chris Stirewalt about the political implications of all of this. And then, we'll be joined by Governor Mike Huckabee and Julie Roginsky.
But we begin with White House correspondent Kevin Cork reporting from Washington.
KEVIN CORKE, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sandra. Good evening. A full review, that's what President Obama is ordering his intelligence agencies to conduct into the hacking activity aimed at meddling in the 2016 election. Now this review comes after the administration has already accused Russia of conducting many of the hacks that surfaced during the run-up to the election. Of course it did also deny that there was any impact on the actual vote outcome. But Deputy National Security Adviser Lisa Monaco now says, it's time to take stock of U.S. cyber defense of capabilities and reduce future threats.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders to include the Congress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections and this report will dig into this pattern of malicious cyber activity timed to our elections.
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CORKE: Now to his part, Schultz says, the President expects that report to be on his desk before he leaves office in January. And keep this in mind as well, Sandra, this review is happening after the Democrats lost in the general election instead of say, victories in 2008 and 2012 and that's led some to accuse the administration of partisanship. But experts say, that's highly unlikely.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is unusual here is the cyber feature, the ability to hack e-mails, dump large amounts of documents. What we're seeing is that's having an outside influence and so we want to make sure that we are addressing that appropriately.
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CORKE: Very specifically said, Sandra, the person who most likely stands to benefit from this kind of review is Donald Trump himself, not the President. Back to you.
SMITH: Should we be surprised by all of this?
Chris Stirewalt is our Fox News digital politics editor. Kevin Corke set it up very well for us tonight. So Chris, did Russia try to disrupt American elections? I mean, that's the hotly contested debate right now.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: Well, of course. Of course they did. Why is everybody acting so surprised that Russia which hates the West and NATO, which wants to disrupt the West and NATO tried to disrupt our elections. They've been doing it since the end of World War II and except for about a ten-year hiatus, this has been a part of the M.O. for the Kremlin, whether they be soviets or under the Putin regime to go and remains the same. To so as much discord as they can in the West and to undermine elections there and as we can say from the partisan responses today, it's working.
SMITH: Okay. But so, with the attempt to disrupt American elections by favoring one candidate over another? Like favoring Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump or Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton? Is it partisan?
STIREWALT: Washington Post reporting tonight and what would seem to be quite apparent was that Trump was the preferred candidate for the Russians and their hackers. But that's not really the point. Yes, in the past they've preferred Left candidates. Maybe now they prefer Right candidates. They're always looking of course for somebody probably who is more sympathetic to the position of the Kremlin. And Trump has made no secret of the fact that he wants to do business with Putin and wants a good relationship there.
So yes, I'm sure they preferred him. But that's not the point. The point here is to undermine confidence, the ultimate point here is to undermine confidence in the system. To make Americans and people across the West in NATO countries doubt the system and despise one another. And boy, if you can do that by undermining the system by which we choose our duly elected officials in Washington, if you can undermine confidence in that, where the ballots hack is the news fake, if you can sew all of that out there, you can really hurt America and that is job number one --
SMITH: All right.
STIREWALT: -- for Russian intelligence.
SMITH: So, they're going to do this deep dive on these cyber-attacks. We're supposed to see that it's on the President's desk. We don't know if we're going to get a good look at it or some of it. But what is the ultimate outcome? I mean, we're about to talk to somebody who's going to say that there's evidence of this hack. I mean, you're saying it's obvious that they would want to do this but is there any hard evidence?
STIREWALT: Well, either we believe our security apparatus or we don't. If we're at the point now that we say that our intelligence community is lying to us, then we're way over Niagara. So, we have to accept some of that on its face. But remember, the problem here is again, partisan ranker. Republicans don't want to believe or accept the findings here because it makes their guy look bad. Democrats are clinging to it like life itself --
SMITH: Yes.
STIREWALT: -- because it gives them an excuse for why a heavily favored candidate went down in a narrow election. It's better for them to blame it on the Russians than it is to blame it on the fact that their candidate wasn't very good at running for president.
SMITH: Chris Stirewalt, thank you.
STIREWALT: You bet.
SMITH: Always good to see you. Joining us now, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican. Also, Julie Roginsky, a Democratic analyst. Both are Fox News contributor.
And Governor Huckabee, I want to get in there what exactly Donald Trump had to say about this. He says, "I don't believe they interfered. Anytime I do something they say, oh, Russia interfered." He said, it could be Russian, it could be China, it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.
MIKE HUCKABEE, R-FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: Let's assume for a moment that Russia did in fact hack into it. I think it says more about our lack of sophisticated cyber defenses than it does the fact that Russia would try to hack into every American system it can. Do you think for a minute that if they can get into all of Donald Trump and his campaign e-mails that they wouldn't have done it? Of course they would have. But here's what I don't think I agree with Chris about.
With all due respect, this notion that Russia wanted Donald Trump to win is nonsense. The last person they want in the Oval Office is Donald Trump. For eight years, they've pretty much done whatever they wanted to. They wanted to invade Crimea, they did it. They wanted to go and partner with Syria, set up shop there, they did it. They wanted to fly fighter jets 30 feet over the heads of an American destroyer in international waters, they did it. I don't think they're going to do that kind of stuff under Donald Trump because he's bringing in a whole new kind of approach that says America isn't going to sit back and take it in the teeth.
SMITH: It does seem Julie that Clinton supporters are adamant about blaming Russia for Hillary Clinton's loss.
JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I'm not blaming Russia for Hillary Clinton's loss. The only thing I'm blaming Russia for is for the fact that it seems based on our intelligence and a bipartisan manner, this is not just Obama's White House saying this, it seems that Senator McCain, Senator Graham, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, both Republicans, all agree that Russia most likely hacked. And quite honestly if they did, I think we need a national intelligence estimate and I think part of it, it needs to be declassified so that the American people have some access to this information. This should not just be taken as the word of our leaders.
SMITH: But Julie --
ROGINSKY: I will say -- let me just say something quickly about what Governor Huckabee said. When you have a President-Elect who on the campaign trail was not aware that the Russians has invaded Crimea, has said publicly at one point that he might be okay with Crimea now being part of Russia and not part of Ukraine, saying that he wants to essentially weaken NATO with some of his proposals, saying that Bashar al Assad maybe somebody we can do business with, because he allegedly going after ISIS.
SMITH: Okay.
ROGINSKY: That to me strikes me as somebody that Vladimir Putin is pretty comfortable with, sir.
SMITH: Governor Huckabee, I'll let you respond to that.
HUCKABEE: Well, Julie, again, that's nonsense. And here's why. What Donald Trump is talking about with NATO is making it so that the United States isn't picking up the entire check for the meal when everybody else had the buffet and we had the salad. That's what he's been frustrated with. I don't think Donald Trump is ready to destroy NATO. But look, NATO hasn't had a very effective stance against stopping the aggressive moves of Russia over the past few years.
And the Obama administration certainly has is as far as the hacks, let me make one point very clear. It seems that Democrats are more embarrassed that the Russians hacked the system which is a major concern and I do think that that's a bipartisan concern, but why aren't they just as worried about what those hacks revealed, that the Democrats --
SMITH: But they are. But they are, Governor Huckabee. I mean, Congressional Republicans are calling for this too. They want to learn from it.
HUCKABEE: Yes.
SMITH: They want to find out why this happened and how it happened.
HUCKABEE: Sure.
SMITH: We've heard from many of them -- but Donald Trump says, he doesn't. I mean is that setting up for a clash within the Republican Party?
HUCKABEE: No, I don't think so. I think Congress has every right -- and I think frankly they've got a responsibility to investigate it. The fact that Donald Trump is, you know, saying he doesn't know. At this point maybe he doesn't know.
SMITH: So Julie --
HUCKABEE: But to say that he doesn't care, I don't think is fair.
SMITH: Julie, a little known facts about you since you're so familiar to this audience.
ROGINSKY: Right.
SMITH: You're a political refugee from Russia, 1980. You have a graduate degree in Russian studies. I want to know what you're suggesting by saying that you want this fully investigated and you want to retaliate in kind. What are you suggesting there?
ROGINSKY: Well, what I'm suggesting there is that we have means -- and I'm not suggesting we've start World War III. But we have means to cut off a lot of fundings for Vladimir Putin's inner circle. We have access in the West to their bank accounts for their shelter, a tremendous amount of money in the city of London for example here in New York and real estate. We have access to hurt Vladimir Putin. I'm not suggesting hurting the Russian people, I'm suggesting hurting his inner circle who are likely responsible for this.
When you a man in Sergei Markov Governor who is an accolade of Vladimir Putin, was a member of the DOMA and part of his party saying, yes, you know what, we may have had a little bit of something to do with WikiLeaks, saying that publicly very, very vociferously right after our election, I would take him at his word and I would take him at his word that the Russians are gloating over this. As for NATO, let me just get this in really quickly Governor, I guess when Russian tanks start amassing at the border, the President-Elect is going to tell Rica (ph) to send a check and then maybe we'll consider coming to their defense. I don't think that's how our NATO alliances worked since the 1940s and it should not begin to work that way now, sir.
SMITH: All right. Governor Huckabee, we have to leave it there but last word to you.
HUCKABEE: If you think Jim Mad Dog Mattis is going to sit back and let the Russians just do whatever they wish to do, you clearly I don't think understand who this man is and the kind of caliber that he's going to bring to the Defense Department. There's no reason at all to believe that Donald Trump will be anything less than a very strong president, much stronger than the one we've had in office for the past eight years who basically stood back, hands in the pockets as the Russians did what they wish.
SMITH: All right. Thanks to both of you.
ROGINSKY: Thanks very much.
SMITH: Governor, Julie, thank you.
Even before the President-Elect is sworn in some political analysts are looking down the road to 2018. And it does not look good for the struggling Democratic Party.
UVA Political Director Larry Sabato is here, next to explain why.
Plus, even though Mr. Trump went to bat for organized labor at Carrier, he's already being accused of prepping for war against the unions. Anthony Scaramucci, a key member of the President's transition team is here on that.
Plus, a college student videotape a shocking anti-Trump rant from one of his professors and now the school is trying to punish him. We'll talk with the young man who posted this video just ahead.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White supremacists and the vice-president that is one of the most anti-gay humans in this country.
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TRUMP: You know, so I won Michigan and, and Michigan hasn't been won for many, many years. We did phenomenally in Michigan and then we won Wisconsin, we won Wisconsin and of course we won Pennsylvania. It started with Ohio, that we won by almost nine points. And then Iowa came in and we won by more than ten. And we won almost every single county in Iowa and we won one county that hadn't been won since 1952. That's a long time.
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SMITH: That was President-Elect Trump in Michigan just moments ago thanking local voters for helping flip blue states like Michigan to red. And even before Mr. Trump is sworn in the political analysts are starting look at what's coming down the road in 2018 when Senate Democrats will defend a record 25 seats. Democrats haven't been that exposed in Senate midterms in nearly 50 years. So, could we soon have an even more Republican Congress?
My next guest knows a thing or two about trends. Joining me now is the director of University of Virginia's Center for Politics. Dr. Larry Sabato. Let's look into your crystal ball, sir. And what do you see in 2018?
DR. LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UVA'S CENTER FOR POLITICS: Yes, we've got a new one and it's repaired. And in the case of 2018, as bad as this past November 8th was for Democrats, I think particularly in the Senate the Democrats are likely to be bitterly disappointed. As you noted, out of the 33 Senate seats that are up in 2018, 25 of them are Democratic, meaning Democrats are very exposed, have to raise a lot of money just to protect and defend the seats they already have. Only eight Republican seats are up and out of those eight, at least early on only one is even vulnerable, the one in Nevada. So, it's a great situation for Democrats as long as President Trump keeps his job approval high. And it's going to be --
SMITH: So that's the key point. So what does it have to look like?
SABATO: Yes.
SMITH: What does the Donald Trump presidency have to look like in 2018 for everything that you just said to still remain true?
SABATO: I think he has to show real progress on the economy and the promises that he made. The key promises that he made. And it starts out with the economy, because ten of the Democratic seats, ten of those 25 seats are in states that Donald Trump carried this past November 8th. So that is a real warning sign to the Democratic incumbents in those states. Now if the economy doesn't improve for the voters who backed Trump, who were hoping to see a turn around, then they'll be less inclined to show up and vote for Republican candidates.
On the other hand, if we see real economic progress and they're pleased with President Trump's performance in other ways, then I think some of those Democrats like in North Dakota and Missouri and Indiana and on and on, some of those Democrats will be in real trouble.
SMITH: Can I talk about one other number here? Because you say Dems need the three seats to take Senate control but it's much more likely Republicans go from 52 to mid to upper 50s. Some GOP analyst believes Republicans can go to 60 or beyond. Why is that important?
SABATO: Well, yes. Ed Morsi and the hot air blog thinks that Republicans could go to 62 or 63. And two years in advance I'm not going to argue with him. I think it's probably, you know, mid 50s, upper 50s. Why does it matter? Because on many subjects in the Senate, in order to pass something you really have to have 60 votes. You have to control 60 votes. Now you don't have to get 60 Republicans to get 60 votes. Because again there are some Democrats representing red states. Those who survive the election may be more inclined to vote with the Republicans on certain key issues. But you have to get to 60 to make things work for most votes in the Senate.
SMITH: All right. You gave us a lot to chew on there. And Larry Sabato, thank you.
SABATO: Thank you, Sandra. Here with more and we want to go through those numbers a little bit. He served as chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush, Marc Thiessen and nationally syndicated radio talk show host Richard Fowler. Both of these gentlemen are Fox News contributor.
Marc, I'll start with you first, it looks like trouble for the Democrats in 2018. What do you see?
MARC THIESSEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, it is trouble for the Democrats and it's particularly it puts them in a bind in terms of how they govern. You look at the numbers that Larry just put out. There are ten Senate Democrats who are vulnerable because they are running in states that Donald Trump won, including some states that Donald Trump won overwhelmingly. West Virginia, he won by 42 points. North Dakota, 36. Montana, 22. Missouri 19. Indiana 19. Ohio by eight.
Those Democrats are going to be targeted by Republicans for every single important vote coming up in the United States Senate. So Chuck Schumer, the new incoming Democratic leader, he's facing a very tough Senate map, he's facing a new president who's just won a lot of Democratic states. He's got to decide. Do I let these ten Senate Democrats, do I release them and allow them to vote with Trump and give him the votes to pass his agenda?
Or do I force them to vote the party line and then become obstructionist. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Because if he releases them and then they vote with Trump, then Donald Trump becomes a very popular successful president who passed a lot of things by bipartisan majorities and the country is very happy with him and there's no anti-Trump sentiment to help them. But if he doesn't release them, if he makes them obstruct, they're going to be attacked as obstructionists in the states that Donald Trump won and the people who are stopping Donald Trump's agenda that's going to hurt them a lot.
SMITH: In the meantime, Richard Fowler, Democrats have to decide who they want to be. And look in the mirror and reflect after this stunning loss.
RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: There's no question the Democratic Party is going to have to rebuild and it's going sort of -- a little bit. But I think it's really, really way too early. We are two years away from the 2018 elections, number one. This time last year we thought it was going to be George W -- I mean Jeb Bush versus Hillary Clinton primary general election. That didn't happen. So, I think we really have to look to the American people and let them make that final decision.
One thing I would have -- that on Marc's point, right, so he's talking about all of these races. Right. But you have to think about, these are individual races. So, in the West Virginia state, we're talking about former governor very popular in the state, now Senator Joe Manchin who is a very independent guy. He didn't vote with the Democratic Party all the time. He didn't vote for the Republican Party all the time. What the Democrats are going to do is this. When Donald Trump does something that supports working families, that supports the American people, Democrats will vote with him. When he goes against working families, when he goes against immigrants, they will go against him. It's a pretty simple strategy.
SMITH: Marc, and I'll go to you on this last point here. Recent polling is showing that. I mean, Pew Research are seeing a dramatic uptick in the way that the Democrats are perceiving Donald Trump. Even as the President- Elect. This is the share of Democrats who think Trump will be a poor or terrible president. Back in October, Marc, 89 percent of them. That's dropped 25 points to now 64 percent.
THIESSEN: Yes. Because I think that everybody wants -- we're at the start of a new administration. Everybody wants Donald Trump to succeed, at least most of the country wants Donald Trump to succeed. And that's every president starts with a clean slate. And so, what the Senate Democrats have to realize is that obstruction didn't work very well for them. Harry Reid was one of the most obstructionist Senate majority leaders in American history and in three elections, he lost 12 Senate seats and lost control of the Senate.
So, does Chuck Schumer want to continue that Reid approach of obstructing everything that Donald Trump does in trying to stop his agenda or is he going to release these people to cooperate? Because obstruction hasn't worked too well for them.
SMITH: We've got to leave it there, guys. Richard and Marc, thanks to both of you for being here tonight.
THIESSEN: Thanks, Sandra.
SMITH: All right. Well, we have a new report tonight that the President- Elect could add yet another woman to his cabinet. And we'll show you how his critics are responding.
Plus, less than a month after his election, Mr. Trump was going to bat to save organized labor jobs at Carrier. So why is he being accused of going to war with the union? Anthony Scaramucci and Bud Jackson are next on that.
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TRUMP: And, you know, we did a great job for Carrier with the help of Mike Pence. We did a great job.
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TRUMP: And you know we did a great job for Carrier with the help of Mike Pence. We did a great job. But you've got to understand. We got to that table a little bit late. They already had built their factory in Mexico and lots of other things and yet we saved a tremendous number of jobs.
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SMITH: All right. Well, that was President-Elect Trump talking jobs tonight at a rally in Michigan. Ironically while Mr. Trump won the White House, thanks to support from organized labor strongholds like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, some major media outlets are now suggesting Trump is getting ready to go to war on unions. Comes after the President got involved in a plan for Carrier air to move some of its operations south of the border. Mr. Trump helped halt what would have been more than a thousand jobs cut. And then he took criticism from the local union boss who seemed to suggest that President-Elect should have done more.
Joining me now, Anthony Scaramucci, President-elect Trump's Transition Team Executive Committee. And Bud Jackson, Democratic strategist and chairman of American Working Families, Political Action Committee.
Anthony, you have supported Donald Trump for a very long time. You're a member of his transition team. How would you describe his relationship as of right now with organized labor?
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, TRUMP'S TRANSITION TEAM MEMBER: Well, definitely I would go on the war with the unions. That he had a little bit of an issue with union leadership that is questioning his advocacy for the regular union member. And so speaking as a child of a union member, what I would say to fellow union people out there is you finally have a friend in the White House. So here is a guy that went out of his way during the transition with Vice President-Elect Mike Pence to bring people jobs into Indiana and to keep them there. And so what I would say, Sandra, to the all the union members out there, you've got a friend in the White House, but union leadership should stay on their toes.
SMITH: Yeah, I mean, Bud, it is an important distinction to make. Donald Trump in the series of tweets is saying that union boss is a terrible leader, doing a terrible job. He is attacking the leader, not the union itself or organized labor in general.
BUD JACKSON, CHAIRMAN: AMERICAN WORKING FAMILIES PAC: He is attacking a local leader who's representing his working members. And he is being honest about it by the way. I mean Donald Trump said he saved 1100 jobs. The reality is he only saved 730, which is good news.
SMITH: But he saved jobs. Is there any good news there? I mean did he save jobs.
JACKSON: Yes, it's good news that he saved jobs, but that is a small amount of number of jobs when you're the president of the United States. What he just did is basically practicing socialism and that is not coming from Bud Jackson. That is coming from George Will.
SMITH: All right. I've got to get Anthony Scaramucci to respond to that.
SCARAMUCCI: It is obviously not practicing socialism. And you know, you can then say.
JACKSON: Of course it is.
SCARAMUCCI: Where was President Obama?
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JACKSON: The President is putting his fingers on the scale for one corporation in the country.
SCARAMUCCI: Totally not the case. It is a cost benefit analysis done by that state. It is $794 a job paid out over ten years. It's absurd thing to say its socialism. The government has to be.
JACKSON: $7 million break.
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SMITH: One at a time or else nobody can hear you, but Anthony, I have to point out.
SCARAMUCCI: You're going to point louder than me because you're wrong on the facts.
JACKSON: No, I'm not.
SMITH: You were talking to me, right? Anthony, you were talking to Bud.
SCARAMUCCI: No, I'm talking to Bud. You're wrong on the facts.
SMITH: All right, go ahead. Let's deal with what we know right now. And Anthony we're hearing from some major union leaders that are coming out and saying that he is not for organized labor. Randy Weingarten talking about the recent nomination of the labor secretary, Andrew Brewster she got 1.6 million members by picking him to be Secretary of Labor that the President- Elect makes a mockery of the promises and puts the Department of Labor which was created to help workers squarely in hands of tightens of corporate America.
SCARAMUCCI: So, she sounds like a labor leading (inaudible) herself by making a statement like that. But I think the actions have to speak louder than words, with the left is really concerned about Sandra, is that Mr. Trump and his team is going to hijack their constituency, the same way that constituency was hijacked behind the supposed blue wall of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And so, what those labor leaders are really fearful of, is that they've ignored their base for such a long period of time that they've allowed Mr. Trump and our team to come in there and be advocates for them.
SMITH: And I have to reference what's going on with the economy right now, Bud. There seems to be a lot of optimism out there about what the President-Elect has announce, the picks he is made so far. This recent CNBC all American economic survey for the fourth quarter found that the percentage of Americans who believe that the American economy will get better in the next year has jumped 17 points to 42 percent. The stock market again closed at an all-time high today. People seem to like what is going on.
JACKSON: Well let's wait until the rubber meets the road. But of course those people are happy, because he is appointing billionaires and people from Wall Street to his cabinet. We talk about facts in terms of helping working people, let's look at who he is appointing to these certain positions. I agree with Lee Saunders, the president asked me said, during the campaign Donald Trump talked a good game to working people, but right now he is appointing people and stacking the deck against working people.
He is got a guy working for the labor department right now whose own business was cited, over 50 percent of his restaurants were cited by the labor department that he is not going to head for violating the law and now this guy is going to be running it? It's like appointing criminal to a parole board.
SMITH: Anthony, I am going to the last word to you. I know that you meet with the President-Elect on a pretty regular basis. We just saw the video of you going in out of the lobby there, Trump Tower, what are the President-Elect's thoughts right now on organized labor?
SCARAMUCCI: He loves people in that are in the blue collar community that are part of the labor community and Andy Puzder is going to be focused on bringing high quality jobs to those people.
SMITH: Do you think it's a good idea for him to be attacking the union leaders in the form of twitter like he is?
SCARAMUCCI: I think it is a good idea to save the jobs, Sandra, when the union leaders are attacking him, Mr. Trump is a nonpolitician president and he is going to fight back. And the people love it.
JACKSON: The executive.
SMITH: All right, got to leave it there.
JACKSON: The executive producer of celebrity apprentice and he is behaving that way.
SCARAMUCCI: That was a good line.
SMITH: Ok. All right it is starting to look like that the Trump administration may end up with more women in key positions than the Obama administration. How are the critics reacting that? Nomiki Konst and Rachel Campos-Duffy are next on the answer to that.
Plus, a college professor is caught on video comparing Trump supporter to terrorists. And guess who the school wants to punish? You've got to see this to believe it, when we come back.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our nation is divided. We have been insulted. It's an act of terrorism. One of the most frightening things for me and most people in my life is that the people committing the assaults are Muslims.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Women, thank goodness, women. Man, women, the women, that was the other thing with the polls. It's like I go to these rallies and they have the pink signs all over the place going crazy, we did great with women. So I want to thank the women.
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SMITH: That was the President-Elect talking tonight about his support from female voters. That comes on the same day we learned he is considering Kathy McMorris Rogers a congresswoman from Washington to be the Secretary of the Interior with four other women already announced for top positions in his administration. Some folks are giving the President-Elect a thumbs- up for his inclusivity, but, isn't enough to silence his critics? Fox News Peter Doocy is reporting tonight from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sandra, tonight the President-Elect, thank voters here in Michigan and he introduced them to a new member of his team.
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TRUMP: I'm thrilled now to welcome to the stage, your next Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Come up, Betsy.
DOOCY: She is among four women who have already been tasked for cabinet level position so far in the transition. Governor Nikki Haley, who Mr. Trump hope will soon be you and Ambassador Haley. WWE cofounder Linda McMahon who Mr. Trump wants on top of the small business administration and Elaine Chao Transportation Secretary There is word a fifth woman may get a top job, at the Trump White House, Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rogers, who is said to be hopeful still be tab to leave congress and become the Interior Secretary. But even with the possibility of five women holding cabinet level jobs by this time next week which would be just shy of President Obama's cabinet record for women in the cabinet since start of first term, some on the left are not impressed and there is noise now among the critics who say they are offended. Labor Secretary Pick Andrew Puzder once said he liked beautiful women eating cheeseburgers. And that is why he uses them to promote his fast food, then there's the "The New York Times" opinion page who published a list of seven areas which they believe the Trump cabinet will be hostile to women. The paper cites votes cast in congress like some of the male cabinet members like Senator Jeff Sessions and Congressman Tom Price against reauthorizing the violence against women act. But they also accused some of the women who are set to work at the White House of being anti-woman. That is because Elaine Chao has in her career a host raising the minimum wage with the paper argues disproportionally affects women in the workplace and because Governor Haley sign into law on abortion ban after 20 weeks, Sandra.
SMITH: All right. Thank you very much. Peter Doocy. Joining me now Nomiki Konst she hosts of the Filter on Sirius XM Progress, Rachel Campos- Duffy is a Fox News contributor, it is good for both of you to be here. Rachel, I want to start with you first, because you are very in touch. You are actually part of a women's group or lead a women's group of Latino women. What are you hearing? Are they giving him a thumbs-up?
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY: I think they're opening their mind to it. I mean, look, we had a community organizer president for eight years. We just elected a businessman as president of the United States. Hispanics start businesses at three times the rate of the average American. A lot of people don't know that. And Latinos are leading that. So these are very entrepreneurial people who are having trouble with the regulations that are hampering their business and having trouble getting access to the capital. All things that newly elected soon to be President Trump is promising to fix for them. So, I think they are opening up. And you guys talked about it in the last segment, all of the optimism in our economy. Latinos get that to. They are also up in they think about it.
SMITH: So not even Nomiki four current women for cabinet ranked positions in the Trump administration and possibly one more, not even that silencing his critics.
NOMIKI KONST, POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR TO CBSN: It's not just about having women.
SMITH: Extremely qualified women.
KONST: They're qualified. No doubt about it. They have the qualifications, but their backgrounds and their policies and their histories and records do not reflect what's best for women. These are women who voted against pay equity. Elaine Chao is a perfect example. Elaine Chao has voted against equal pay, she had voted against the paycheck fairness act, pay discrimination.
SMITH: Let me ask you a very simple question. What do you believe is the primary concern for the female voter out there? What is most important?
KONST: Economics. It's always about economics. And when you're against equal pay, when you come from Wall Street, these are the people who fought against the policies for women.
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: But it seemed like in the last hour, Nomiki in which I will go to you on this, we are seeing some research showing up right now that even Democrats are warming up to Donald Trump during this President-Elect process right now. They like his picks. They're confident about the economy. Look at the stock market, a record high today.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Absolutely. I think the economy likes a businessman president and likes the thing he said is going to do and what many of this appointments. What's interesting to me is that the Democrats see women as a special interest. I think that Donald Trump, if you look at these picks, these are highly talented women. Even she admits that they are. And I think that is the difference. He is not trying to people his cabinet and win women's support that way. That is the Democrat way of doing things. I think what he is doing is putting the right people in place and it's the policy and the results of the policies are going to win women over.
SMITH: Let me ask you about Cathy McMorris Rogers, because you know her personal, she could be his fifth cabinet position.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: She is an amazing pick. She is not only highly talented and successful in government and by the way his cabinet is filled with people sector on business and government. She is amazing, because she was also a mother, a very busy mother. And as we all know, women who are very busy are very good at managing their time. And I think that.
SMITH: She would know you're the mother of eight children.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: We talk baby talk.
SMITH: Unbelievable. And Nomiki, I will end with this, you know some people are saying it's time to just give him a chance, he is the president. Are you doing that? Are you giving him a fair shake?
KONST: I wanted to. He talks about joining the swamp, but so far when I look at that cabinet is full of bureaucrats, lobbyist people from Wall Street, people of conflict of interest, not of them is joining the swamp. They are not local readers, they are not white working class people who reflect the voters that he went after and he won. They're people that are part of the elite establishment that he fought against.
SMITH: All fired up on a Friday night. Thank you so much for being here.
KONST: Thank you.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: thank for having us.
SMITH: All right a college student is now in hot water for recording this video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A white supremacist and a Vice President who is one of the most anti-gay humans in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: We're about to hear from the college Republican who posted that video online and the attorney vowing to defend the student until the end.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: Developing tonight, a California college student is receiving threats after recording a now viral video of a professor's tirade against President-elect Trump and his supporters. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED PROFESSOR: White supremacist and a Vice President that is one of the most anti-gay people in this country. And so we are in for a difficult time, but again I do believe that we can get past that. Our nation is divided. We have been assaulted. It's an act of terrorism. One of the most frightening things for me and most people in my life is that the people created, it's not a stranger from some other country, coming in and attacking our sense of what it means to be an American and the things that we stand for. We are waiting on Republicans and Democrats and we're back to being in a civil war. And I don't mean it in a fighting way, but our nation is divided clearly as it was during civil war times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: The video was posted to social media by Orange Coast College Republican shortly after, a local Education Union, commented on it with a menacing threat for filming the instructor without consent.
When "The Kelly File" called, however the Union assisted legal action is not on the table saying quote, the union has never threat legal action and does not intend to pursue legal action. Obviously Professor Cox's statements were hyperbole. Joining me now in "The Kelly File" exclusive is Joshua Recalde-Martinez, The President of Orange Coast College Republicans and Attorney Shawn Steel who is representing the students in all of this. Good both of you to be here and tonight and tell your story. Josh, you did not take that the video, but when you saw that video and you're Orange Coast College Republicans, you decided to post it online. What happened then?
JOSHUA RECALDE-MARTINEZ, PRESIDENT OF ORANGE COAST COLLEGE REPUBLICANS: So after posting the video it actually started skyrocketing really in the same day. Currently we're at 18,000 views on Facebook and we've recently posted it to YouTube and we have received close to 24,000 views on YouTube alone. It's started to gain picked up by small conservative media outlets and from there it was first picked up by the Huffington Post does the first major news outlet to report on it.
SMITH: Ok. SO they are saying that you were you not threatened with legal action? Were you or were you not?
RECALDE-MARTINEZ: So that is completely not true with what the Union is saying. We actually were threatened with legal action. They posted that on our public page, for the Orange Coast College Republican. And the fact that they're back pedaling now just goes to show that we have them on the defense. They have nothing against us and we have everything to show that what they're doing is trying to target this student and we want to make sure that the student is protected in every way shape and form that we possibly can and to make sure that statements like what Professor Cox said are not going to be able to happen again in Orange Coast College Republican.
SMITH: Let me just say some of the words again and get Shawn in here. Our nation is divided we have been assaulted. It is an act of terrorism referencing the election of Donald Trump as our president. Sean, is there any legal action here? Is there anything that can be done? What other response are you seeing and hearing?
SHAWN STEEL, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING OCC STUDENTS: Well, first of all, this went all over America. Thousands of thousands of college students got the same kind of rants, shaming, attack, hatefulness from professors. This is the video that some brave student did. And actually, we presented it to the college president before it became viral. Said you've got a problem on this campus what are you going to do about it.
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: Are you trying to get the instructor fired?
STEEL: No. First of all the Union is lying. They had threatened legal action. They put it in writing. This is the first I've heard no, we're not serious. We're not trying to get her fired. Three things.
SMITH: All right, you know I'm going to have to leave it there. We wanted to get you on, show the video and tell the story. Thank you to both of you for being here. We'll follow the story and we will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: Christmas is just over two weeks away and some are saying "Settle for More" would be a great gift. Amy Snead tweeted, can't put down "Settle for More." Thanks you Megyn Kelly for showing what hard work and that anyone can change their life. You are an inspiration.
Sanjanadesai says, #settleformore, great read for young professionals. I admire your confident, intelligence and hard work. Love your sense of humor.
And ErinNudi tweet, Megyn saying finish "Settle for More" about Megyn Kelly last night. Eye opening and inspiring doesn't begin to cover it. Thank you for a great read. And thank you for joining us on this Friday evening. Good to have you. And thanks for watching. I'm Sandra Smith and this is "The Kelly File."
END
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