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Published March 13, 2018
This is a rush transcript from "The Story," March 12, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Thank you, John. So, breaking tonight on 'The Story.' There is terror in Austin, Texas, tonight. Three package bombs left on doorsteps. Two people dead and two critically injured this evening, and the manhunt to stop the next bomb could be anywhere and is underway. Good evening, everybody. I'm Martha MacCallum. Governor Greg Abbott is now offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible for these bombings. The first bomb took the life of a 39-year-old man, and then today, ten days later, as the police chief was warning the public after another explosion this morning. Right after he spoke, another package exploded. A 17-year-old boy is now dead and two women were injured. All of the explosions occurred when people were doing what everybody does every single day, went out to their front steps and picked up a package. Here is Austin Police Chief, Brian Manley, just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN MANLEY, AUSTIN POLICE CHIEF: What we know has happened on this incident similar to the other two incidents, the one both from this morning, and the one that occurred back on March 2nd, is that the victim in this incident came outside of her residence and found a package out front, and she picked up that package, and at that point the explosion, the bomb detonated. This again is the third in what we believe to be related incidents that have occurred over the past ten days, and we are imploring the community: if you know anything about these attacks, it is imperative that you come forward and that you let us know. We are having innocent people getting hurt across this community, and it is important that we come together as a community and solve this. It's not time to panic, but it's time to be vigilant, and it's time to pay attention, it's time to pull together as a city and a community and solve this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Chief Manley joins us exclusively tonight on THE STORY in his first televised interview on this; he will be here in just a moment. First, let's go to Trace Gallagher who has the back story for us from out West Coast Newsroom tonight. Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Martha, at 6:45 this morning, a 17-year-old boy found a package on the front step, brought it inside the kitchen to open where it exploded, killing him and injuring a 40-year-old woman, it's unclear if that was his mom. Here's a neighbor describing what it sounded like. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CYNTHIA BURDETT, AUSTIN NEIGHBOR: It was just a loud, loud boom. And I cannot figure out what it was. I thought it was my heater exploding or something like that. It was very loud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Very loud and very powerful. And very similar to the package bomb that killed the 39-year-old man on March 2nd. And just as police were investigating the parallels of the first two bombs, a third package exploded severely injuring a 75-year-old woman. Now, investigators are in the process of establishing any patterns. For example, they believe the explosive devices are similar and were delivered in similar size boxes though they will not go into detail. We know that the first two explosion happen about 12 miles apart; the third bomb went off five and a half miles from the second. Both victims who died are African-American; the 75-year- old female, who is now in critical condition is Hispanic.
Police are not ruling anything out, but they say it's too early to tell if the victims were the intended targets or if these might be hate crimes. Surveillance cameras near the locations are now being scanned to see if the video captured any potential suspects. The packages do not appear to have been delivered by the postal service or shipping companies like FedEx and UPS. And police are now telling everyone in and around the Austin area that if a box shows up at your home and you were not expecting one, call 911. We should note the south by southwest music festival is this weekend in Austin. So far, there are no plans to change that. And back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, Ted Kaczynski mailed and planted several package bombs around the country that killed three and injured several more. It took investigators nearly 18 years to bring him to justice. Martha.
MACCALLUM: Awful. Terrifying situation, Trace. Thank you very much. So, here now, exclusively tonight on THE STORY, Austin Police Chief, Brian Manley. Chief, good to see you. These have all been dropped off at night or overnight, you think, and then around 6:45 or 7:00 a.m., the people had open their doors and pick these up, correct?
MANLEY: Yes. In the first two, what we had was the victims came out on their porch in the early morning hour and found the packages on their porch. And when they picked them up, or in the second incident when they brought it inside and opened it up, both of those packages detonated. The one that happened this afternoon was in a little bit of a later hour, but under the same circumstances.
MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean, we pointed out, you were out there telling people what to be cautious of. You know, your hearts must've just sunk when they said, chief, we got another one. There's a 17-year-old boy who just died when exploded in his hands.
MANLEY: Yes, I cannot explain to you what that feeling is like, because we're trying to get the message out as quickly as possible, letting people know that based on what we had to happen March 2nd, which we thought at that time was an isolated incident, and then we had happened this morning, we realized the importance of getting the message out and getting it out quickly. And in the process of getting that message out to hear that we, in fact, did have a third incident occur was very troubling given that we now lost two lives.
MACCALLUM: It's horrible. You've talked about surveillance, have you been able to find on-the-video surveillance, any person walking up to any of those steps? Have you got an I.D. or a look at anybody yet?
MANLEY: Not yet, but as you can imagine with this having begun this morning and then with the second incident shortly thereafter, we are in the process of painstakingly doing post-blast analysis, picking up all of the various pieces of evidence that are strode throughout both scenes, and included in that will be a canvass of the neighborhood for anyone who may have witnessed something or any surveillance cameras that may exist in either of these neighborhoods so that we can hopefully get something to start working with.
MACCALLUM: I mean, somewhere in your area, obviously, you've got somebody who's building bombs and putting them in packages, and this person is out there. Do you know or have any sense of whether or not it's one person or a group of people, and how sophisticated are these explosive devices?
MANLEY: So, whether it's one individual or multiple, we don't know it this time. And as far as sophistication, it takes a certain level of skill to be able to build a device like this, and then deploy it to your intended target without having it explode in the process. We're seeing how easily they explode once the victims are handling them, so there is a certain level of skill that is going along with what this individual or individuals are doing.
MACCALLUM: But can you tell us anything about the technique or the kind of explosive it is? What is in these boxes from what you've seen so far?
MANLEY: So, there's a lot of analysis being done by the alcohol tobacco firearms and explosives division along with the FBI as far as the types of explosives that are being used, that is still being analyzed. But what we're doing in the message we want to get out is don't limit yourself to thinking that it's only if an unexpected cardboard box shows up. If you go out on your porch and you see something that does not belong to you -- a package or other item -- just give us a call, because we want to come out and we want to take a look at it to ensure that there's nothing suspicious or nothing that we need to do as a department to make that safe, so that we don't lose in another life or have another life significantly impacted by this.
MACCALLUM: What about these individuals? Two dead -- a 39-year-old man, 17-year-old boy today, and then the 40-year-old woman, and a 75-year-old woman, Hispanic woman, who are in critical condition tonight. Is there any connection that you can see between these individuals?
MANLEY: You know, first, I want to say that my heart goes out to these families. This is just an unexplainable tragedy at this point, and that's exactly what we're looking at now. What can we piece together about these three individuals to determine if there's something that connects them?
Right now, we have not yet identified any ideology that may be behind this or any specific link between these victims. And so, that's really at the core of what we're working on right now trying piece it together on top of the evidence collection and all of the analysis that will be done on that.
MACCALLUM: Let me ask you this chief, in terms of what was on the package, is their handwriting on the package that has their address? Were these packages addressed to someone in the home that live there? Did it have their name on it?
MANLEY: So, we are keeping some of these details private right now for the integrity of the investigation. As this would be information that really is only known to the suspects in this incident, and again, that's why we're highlighting to the community here that if you see something that looks suspicious or out of place or if you had a package delivered that you weren't expecting, just give us a call and let us come clear at first. And you know, so now, this person, whoever is doing this or this group of people, obviously they know that you guys are on to what's going on, and I imagine that you are going to -- are you upping your patrol, your presence on the streets all around Austin tonight, what's your plan?
MANLEY: So, we are obviously having our patrol officers be vigilant in the neighborhoods. They, in addition, to all of the neighbors that we're asking to look out for anything suspicious, our officers will be looking as well for something that looks out of place or looks suspicious. But there is a level of attention and a level of involvement by our federal partners here in Austin that we've not seen before. The number of ATF and FBI agents that have come into Austin to assist us with this investigation.
The governor himself has put a $15,000 reward out there for any information leading to a closure of this case. And then we have also had assistance given to us from any of the local partners as well. We are all working together so that we can clear this as quickly as possible before we move lose any more lives or have any more lives seriously impacted.
MACCALLUM: Terrifying. Thank you so much. Good to have you tonight, Chief Manley, and we'll be watching your story. We hope you keep us posted. Got to find this guy. Good luck to you.
MANLEY: Thank you, Martha, I appreciate it.
MACCALLUM: Danny Coulson joins me now, Former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI and a Hostage Rescue Team Commander. Danny, good evening to you.
You listen to the story, you listen to the chief, what are you picking up here in the tea leaves so far?
DANNY COULSON, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE FBI AND HOSTAGE RESCUE TEAM COMMANDER: First place, that was an excellent briefing by the chief of police, you don't often see that. He did an outstanding job by getting the people in Austin notified that of the danger. And this case will be solved by a public assistance, I feel quite sure. Right now, he mentioned this, and I know it to be true that ATF, and the FBI, and GTF, and Austin P.D. are putting a full court press on this. And there are a lot of things that are going to be done. Remember, the FBI saw the Boston marathon bombing in a couple of days. This may take a little bit longer, but they will solve this case. You know, it will be done a lot by public assistance and the saturation that the law enforcement puts on these types of events.
MACCALLUM: Yes. You know, you think of the Unabomber, who the chief mentioned. I also think of the D.C. sniper, because you've got this fear of just a random act potentially that are happening anywhere in your city, and you don't know where it's going to happen or if it might happen to you.
It's really terrifying for anybody who lives in that area to touch anything, I would imagine, coming in your mail.
COULSON: Well, we want to them to be afraid. That sounds a little sinister, maybe, but they want -- we want them to be very much aware of the threat to them. And I think that it's interesting that all of these are at residences and not in public places. Generally, a terrorist or someone bent on making a statement will put it in a public place for more carnage. The fact that it was done at a home, I think that will maybe the focus of the investigation by both the FBI and the APD. And I will tell you, I managed the Unabomber and we only caught him because he wanted his manifesto published. Before that, we had no clue who he was. So, these things are difficult.
MACCALLUM: And that took 18 months.
COULSON: Yes -- no, years.
MACCALLUM: I mean, it's incredible. This person is good at what they did, no doubt, because these. They appear -- he appears to be three-for-three at this point.
COULSON: It does, and the chief said this, the truth to this thing, and when you talk about sophistication is that it doesn't go off in your hand, it doesn't go off in your car as you're transporting it. And all of these -- there's some sort of a pressure switch, and the person knows what he or she is doing, and that makes it even more sinister. And if we get the message out, Martha, if you find something on your front porch, don't touch it call the police -- no matter if it's pay forward box or a wooden container or whatever. Just be really careful. Better safe than sorry.
MACCALLUM: That's a -- it's a tall order for the police. I mean, if you have any packages with Amazon and all this, everything comes to your house, it's the only way people get things these days. They're going to be chasing after these boxes all the time. It's going to be insane, I would imagine.
COULSON: Yes. But remember, these were not delivered by Amazon or FedEx.
It's just a package with nothing on it that would identify. So, that makes that limited to some degree.
MACCALLUM: You bet. Danny, thank you very. Got to catch this person, individual, individuals, whoever it is.
COULSON: Thank you. It's always a pleasure. Thanks.
MACCALLUM: Good to see you too, sir. Thank you. So, coming up, we've got another Fox News alert for you tonight. The House Intel Committee has completed their Russia investigation, and they say that they found no evidence after all of their interviews that there was any collusion with Russia by either campaign. Corey Lewandowski just appeared before the committee, his reaction to the breaking news tonight coming up next. And Hillary Clinton now telling an international audience that she lost because White women were just voting the way their husbands, and their bosses, and to their sons told them to. Former Senior Adviser to Hillary Clinton, Philippe Reines, and also Karl Rove will jump in to respond to that and the Pennsylvania race as well tonight after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I really feel strongly about Rick Saccone, and I know him. I feel strongly about him. He's a very fine human being. He's a good person. Go out on Tuesday and just vote like crazy. You got to get out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Vote like crazy. Breaking tonight, we are just 12 hours away from voting to begin in what is turning out to be one of the most highly anticipated races this year so far. President Trump held a raucous rally over the weekend for Republican Candidate Rick Saccone. Today, his son, Donald Jr., was campaigning there as well, both fighting to keep a congressional district outside Pittsburgh from turning blue. And this is a district that now President Trump won by 20 points in 2016. So, this should not even really be in play for Republicans. The latest moment polling shows a very tight race. 45 percent Saccone, 51 percent for Connor Lamb as we head into election day, which is tomorrow. So, joining me now, Karl Rove, Former Senior Adviser to President Bush and a Fox News Contributor; and Philippe Reines, a Former Senior Adviser to Hillary Clinton. Welcome, gentleman. Good to see both of you as always. So, Karl, you know, they're really pulling out a lot of money and the big guns from Washington and from the White House to try to pull him across the finish line.
KARL ROVE, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BUSH AND FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, absolutely. Look, the Democrats have the picture- perfect candidate, a former Marine, prosecutor, somebody who says he won't support Nancy Pelosi, that he's personally opposed to abortion. Applauding things of President Trump with which he agrees, not the normal Democrat, and the Republican has been underwhelming. But if Saccone wins, it's going to be because Donald Trump came in at the end and campaigned for him. If he loses, it will be because the president's approval ratings -- even in this district -- are not particularly high. They're certainly not where they need to be for somebody in a year and a half in office.
MACCALLUM: Yes. Philippe, what's your take on this? Because this clearly should not have been a battle for the Republican in the district?
PHILIPPE REINES, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO HILLARY CLINTON: No, it shouldn't. And I think just a shorthand of what Karl just said, it's clear the president doesn't have any coattails. And while we'll be hearing that talking point again about Conor Lamb being an exceptional candidate, which he absolutely is. The truth of the matter is, is that it shouldn't come to this. And more importantly, that if it comes to this repeatedly in November, the Republican Party can't put in the resources, can't put in $10 million into dozens and dozens of close races. And you know, it's not a good sign even if Saccone pulls it out by a couple of points -- I would not feel good if I were the head of the RNC.
MACCALLUM: Yes, how does this reflect on the work that the GOP has done, Karl? Because we've been hearing for months that this is all about candidates, that they need really strong candidates in all of these places.
ROVE: Well, I'm involved with a super pac that's acting on the senate side, and there are limits to what these outside groups can do. At the end of the day, the principal reason a candidate gets close to winning or wins is because of the candidate in the campaign's organization. Outside groups can help lift them up three, or four, or five points, but they can't get them from, you know, zero to 51. I want to comment on something quickly that Philippe is saying, you know, Democrats are going to find it hard to duplicate Conor Lamb. We saw it here in Texas, for example, the preferred candidate in one of their best shots to pick up a Republican seat was in West Texas, the guy named Jay Hollins, he's a former prosecutor, military background, spent $500,000, was beaten by somebody who spent $600 who move back to the district after something 18 years in Washington, six months before the election. And he actually came in fourth, Hollins, came in fourth behind a guy who spent $20,000 and another candidate who spent $30,000. So, why? Because he wasn't -- he wasn't a typical Democrat, the typical Democrat issue tends to be far more left wing than either Hollins or Lamb.
MACCALLUM: Yes. And it is about a candidate that has to pull them across the finish line in the end in all of these cases. Here's President Trump over the weekend talking about his new 2020 campaign slogan. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: A new slogan, when we start running in 'can you believe it, two years from now', is going to be 'Keep America Great!' Keep America great!
(CROWD CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: So, he beloved those exclamation points, you know. We see them all over Twitter all the time. You say that just watching him over the weekend, that you could see him winning again.
REINES: Oh, yes, once he won on election night, I could see that. I mean, it's -- and Karl has better success rate at this than I do, but it seems to be harder to win the office and to keep the office if you go back as far as Richard Nixon, five of the last seven president who sought the second term, won it. And it comes with some built in advantages. We saw some of them the other night. Frankly, I think the president prefers to campaign like that. I was a little surprised -- that keeping America great was no surprise, I'm a little surprised about the exclamation point, because to the extent that there is a Donald Trump tweet for everything, I'm sure that there is one making fun of Jeb Bush with the Jeb!
MACCALLUM: There's a lot of exclamation point in those three. I do want to get to this, because saw this from Hillary today, and I was a little bit taken aback by it. She's at an India today conclave, and she was speaking, and here's what she said. She said, 'What happened in my election? I was on the way to winning white women. I'm told former Director of the FBI Jim Comey dropped ill-advised letter then down my numbers went. All of the sudden, White women who are going to vote for me and standing up to the men in their lives were told she's going to jail.' And what we don't have here is that the top of this, which is what I found the most striking, actually, in the whole thing was that she said that women voted -- that White women voted the way that their husbands and their bosses and their sons told them too. Which I think a lot of women will take great offense to. Philippe.
REINES: Karl, do you want to take this one?
MACCALLUM: No, it's for you, Philippe. What have you got?
REINES: Well, I'll invoke Karl on the one friend, and explain on the other. This is something that she has said before. And I think, you know, Secretary Clinton seems to definitely trigger people when she asks -- when answers questions about what happened in the election and she thinks out loud. In this particular case, she's talking about an Oregon State study that does a look at this fact. And I understand why that would come across as insulting. Obviously, that's not how she meant it.
MACCALLUM: Can you imagine all of those women who elected this president, Karl, you know, being told that they voted that way because their husbands and their bosses -- I mean, this is a woman who has fought for women's rights and women's power as long as she's been in politics. I couldn't believe that she actually said that.
REINES: Karl, help me out here.
ROVE: I can't either, frankly. Look, this is a reminder of why she was such a terrible candidate.
REINES: Come on.
ROVE: The deplorables and insults. And look, if you look at the polls from -- and I'm not a fan of Jim Comey's, but if you look between that Friday announcement and the election, there's very little change in the polls. And somehow, to suggest that White women moved away from her because of Jim Comey remarks on Friday that were undone on Monday is ridiculous. But the whole concept that women who voted against her were told to do so by their husbands or their bosses or their children, and women who voted her did so out of, you know, I don't know what -- it just is jaw-droppingly tone-deaf, arrogant, condescending and stupid.
REINES: To correct one thing, Karl, you're skipping ten days in between -- it was not Friday, Saturday, Sunday; it was a week and a half before, and the numbers did change.
ROVE: No, no, no, but on Friday, Comey comes out and says we've reopened, and on Monday they say, never mind we check it over the weekend.
REINES: It was not the same weekend.
ROVE: I know and there are ten days more to go, there's eight more to go after that. That Friday and --
REINES: Do you agree --
MACCALLUM: I want to hear from all of those women who voted just because their husbands and their bosses and their sons told them to you. I just think it's great.
ROVE: Oregon State, looked up the Oregon State.
MACCALLUM: OK. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Good to see you both. All right. We have this breaking news tonight as well. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE CONAWAY, R—TEXAS: We can find no evidence of collusion between either campaign and the Russians.
MACCALLUM: The House Committee says, they're done with their work. They've spent a year investigating and they have their findings, they've done numerous interviews with witnesses. They say they didn't find any collusion, not only between the Trump campaign in Russia, but between the Clinton campaign and Russian. Former Trump 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has testified in front of this committee twice but he is live here next. And then, in the wake of a series of paternity hazing deaths on college campuses, one university now charges that a sorority is just as bad. Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS: The big piece of the puzzle that everybody has been talking about, which is one of the reasons why your investigation was struck in the first place. No collusion that you found.
REP. MIKE CONAWAY, R—TEXAS: No evidence.
ROBERTS: No evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
CONAWAY: How are the Clinton campaign?
ROBERTS: How confident are you of that?
CONAWAY: Well, we've got -- we've found none.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARTHA MACCALLUM, THE STORY HOST: That was Congressman Mike Conaway announcing the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation has ended. There are others, as you know, on the Hill. But his committee says this in part, quote, 'We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians,' as he basically just said there.
The committee has conducted more than 70 interviews during its probe including, just last week, former manager of President Trump's 2016 campaign, Corey Lewandowski. Corey joins us now. He's also served as chief strategist of America First Action, a Trump super PAC. Corey, good to have you here tonight.
COREY LEWANDOWSKI, THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
MACCALLUM: So this is, obviously, something that you've been saying all along that you believe that there was no collusion. I just want to put out what Adam Schiff has said now in response. And he says, 'While the majority members of our committee have indicated for some time that they have been under great pressure to end the investigation, it is nonetheless another tragic milestone for this congress to represent he had another capitulation of the executive to the executive branch.' He would like for you to come in for the third round, Mr. Schiff.
LEWANDOWSKI: You know, it's amazing. I sat voluntarily before the committee for a total of more than 12 hours answering every question that they had about what I saw during my tenure at the Trump campaign. And I was very clear. I never interacted with Russians. The candidate never interacted with Russians. There was no collusion. There's no cooperation, and there's no coordination. And I could have my testimony done in five minutes because it was very simple.
I didn't coordinate with anybody to impact the outcome of the election that was a foreign entity. So -- but, you know, Mr. Schiff wants to use this as a bully pulpit for him. I sat through on Thursday of last week and said, 'Before I get up and leave, I've been here for four and a half hours, are there any additional questions before I get up and go home to see my family?' And there were no additional questions.
So this notion that he wants to grandstand and have people come back and talk some more, he had all the time in the world on Thursday to ask me as many questions as he wanted and he had no more questions, that's the bottom line because there was no collusion.
MACCALLUM: I mean there're two pages of pictures that we could put up that they have talked to. So the suggestion that they haven't been thorough, I think, is going to be kind of tough for them to sell here. And they've been at it for a year, which I think most people would consider a fairly reasonable amount of time. And there are other investigations that are ongoing as we know. But he says he might subpoena you because you were selected, that you cherry picked what you would answer and wouldn't answer. Would you comply with that subpoena, Corey?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, look, it's not to Adam Schiff to subpoena me. It's up to the majority, and the majority knows I answered every question that was relevant to their investigation. I sat there for 12 hours, and I answered all of their questions.
They've interviewed 73 people before the committee. And what Chairman Conaway has said was he saw no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, and for that matter, between the Clinton campaign and the Russians. But what we haven't seen, as you know, is the list of 73 Democrats, including Robbie Mook and all the members of the Clinton campaign, who had to come and testify before this committee.
Why didn't that occur? Because the only campaign that I know of that took money of the campaign coffers and paid a former spy was the Clinton campaign. And he took that money and went to Russia to create a false dossier. That's what really took place. And the House Investigation Committee never looked at that issue that I'm aware of.
MACCALLUM: You know, obviously, Sam Nunberg has been out a lot, and he has said a few things about you. I could play probably 30 seconds of it, but here is just like seven seconds. Here's the snippet. You get the idea.
Let's play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAM NUNBERG, POLITICAL ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP'S 2016 CAMPAIGN: Corey was so lazy, he couldn't organize a campaign. He couldn't organize a foreign policy division.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: You get along really well, right? You fired him twice, right?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, I fired him twice. I think if anybody knows me that there's a lot of things you can say about me. Lazy is not one of them. I'm usually up around 4 in the morning to try to keep up with then- candidate Trump, going to bed at 11 or 12 at night. I don't think the same could have been said for Mr. Nunberg.
And look, you know, unfortunately, for Mr. Nunberg, what he said, these are his own words, he was going to testify in front of the grand jury on Friday, which he did. That he was going to check himself into rehab. Clearly, he has some substance abuse issues that he needs to deal with. And I think he should take care of those for his own health.
MACCALLUM: All right, last thoughts. I wonder if you heard that Hillary Clinton quote. Basically, she was speaking at a conference in India, and we're working on getting that sound. Hopefully, we'll have it soon. But she said that women who voted for President Trump did so because they basically were pressured by their husbands, their bosses and their sons.
That's why they voted for him. What's your response to that having been on the campaign trail for all of those months?
LEWANDOWSKI: You know, it's so outrageous to say such a thing. The bottom line was Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate. And can you imagine what the mainstream media would be saying right now if Donald Trump or another Republican said the exact same thing? That women aren't intelligent enough to make their own decisions, and that the only way they can decide who to vote for is if their husbands, their sons, or their male bosses tell who to do so, it is such a disgusting thing.
This is supposed have been a person who has fought her entire life to destroy the glass ceiling -- that was going to have fireworks on election night to destroy the glass ceiling in New York, and now she makes this type of statement with no backlash. I hope women around this country stand up and tell her how wrong she is.
MACCALLUM: Yeah. She thinks only Democrat women speak their mind. So, anyway, that's her opinion. Thank you, Corey, good to see you tonight.
LEWANDOWSKI: Thank you.
MACCALLUM: You bet. So still ahead, this is fascinating, the Amelia Earhart mystery may finally be solved, a new clue that could close the case on what happened to her. But first, more than a year after the death of Penn State fraternity pledge, Timothy Piazza, whose parents you know well and you've seen here many times, one university is now crossing the line and banishing a sorority. They're accused of being pretty-much just as bad as the boys. Governor Mike Huckabee on the culture in our country that is creating this awful scenario, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: Developing tonight, the scrutiny now turning to hazing at sororities. Over the past five years, at least 20 people have died in hazing incidents in fraternity across this nation. Last year, eight fraternities and sororities were shut down nationwide, and a trend that may continue.
Now, we are learning about a scandalous scavenger hunt, which sounds like a pretty harmless thing, right -- out of Pennsylvania Lehigh University. To our knowledge no one was hurt, but it was enough to get the sorority Alpha Chi Omega, which is a huge national sorority, banished for two years from the campus. They're appealing that question.
Trace Gallagher joins us now live from our West Coast newsroom with the back story. Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Martha, the scavenger hunt at Lehigh held back in December was called the road rally. It happened both on and off campus and involved drugs, alcohol, sex and other activities that violate university policy. Four days after the scavenger hunt, Alpha Chi Omega's Theta Chi chapter was placed on interim suspension, and the organization national headquarters ordered the sorority to cease and desist all activity.
Now, the full investigation has led to a two year ban with the investigative committee saying just because the participants were willing does not mean it wasn't hazing. The committee also found evidence this event has been going on for years saying, quote, 'This incident was a significant reprehensible event that the entire chapter was aware of and leadership endorsed. This type of behavior is simply unacceptable considering the current climate on college campuses.'
That's current climate clearly intimates cases like Timothy Piazza, the Penn State sophomore who last year during a pledging ritual, called the gauntlet, drink excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time and suffered multiple falls including down a flight of stairs. His fellow pledges and fraternity members waited several hours to get help. And Piazza died of traumatic brain injuries two days later. Twenty six fraternity members were then charged.
And there's the case of Florida State University pledge, Andrew Coffey, who died from alcohol poisoning in November, following hazing rituals. Coffey drank an entire bottle of Wild Turkey 101 proof whiskey. And after passing out, he was left on the couch unattended. His blood alcohol level was six times the legal limit. Coffey's parents have now sued the Pi Kappa Phi national fraternity for negligence among other things. Martha.
MACCALLUM: Trace, thank you very much. Joining me now, former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, Fox News contributor. Governor, good to see you tonight. We turn to you often on, you know, sort of issues of where were going as a country, and I think these questions raise this. When you have -- you know, this is just one example, but you've got the sorority. And a scavenger hunt sounds like a fun thing, right?
I mean, you look for things, maybe look for a certain statue around the campus. But it turns out from what it sounds like the stops along the way in the scavenger hunt dealt with sex acts, alcohol and drugs that had to be accomplished, let's say, as part of this scavenger hunt, what do you make of this?
MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the worst part of it is the whole idea of a sorority or a fraternity as being part of a brotherhood or a sisterhood. This isn't treating people like their brothers or sisters, it's treating them like their slaves. It's an indecent way for a person to be treated regardless of the circumstances.
And the depersonalization, the fact that you can take a human being that has been entrusted to the care of the university by parents who are spending an enormous amount of money to send them to college, and then they end up needlessly dead because of this kind of outrageous behavior.
Martha, it's symptomatic of a society that has lost touch. I would say -- and let me be bold and say lost touch with God, lost touch with each other, lost touch with the common sense of decency, and it's alarming. And, you know, I'm hoping that not just the suspension of a sorority, but a greater sense of a personal and spiritual revival breaks out in this country where we start treating people like human beings rather than things and objects.
MACCALLUM: Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people have a nostalgic view of what fraternities and sororities were like when they were growing up, when they were going to school. I was in one when I went to school. And there was, you know, in all of these institutions. I think there's, you know, too much drinking, too much of a lot of things, OK.
But I find it interesting, because these students today were raised in a culture where they had an enormous amount of focus in grammar school, on things like bullying, on sensitivity, on, you know, fitness, and your body, and understanding drinking, and all of those things. And I'm starting to wonder if these things sort of blew up in our faces because we have not raised, overall, you know, a generation that is treating each other very well, at least not in these situations
HUCKABEE: It is not new, I mean, we go will go back to the '60s and the '70s, and there were some pretty raunchy things that were going on, not only in college campuses but around the culture. But I do think that there's a depersonalization. There's not one thing that's a contributing factor and the only thing.
But social media has given people a sense of anonymity. They don't have connections with human beings. They have connections with devices. And I do think that that has contributed to this notion that people aren't really humans, and I can say things to them, I can do things to them, because after all I'm hiding behind a pseudonym, I'm hiding behind this identity that I don't have to reveal, and I think that's a horrible way.
When we depersonalize people, whether we depersonalized an unborn child, it's simply a fetus, we depersonalized Jews as the Nazis did, wee depersonalized people of color and we say to them as they did in 1857, in the Dred Scott decision, they're only three-fifth of a human being, that is the beginning of horrendous inhumane treatment to other human beings. And I don't think you can divorce that. The depersonalization is a critical part of it.
MACCALLUM: Yeah. I think you're right. And I think we have to remember when we send kids off to college that they need to, you know, look out for themselves, and their integrity, and where they came from, and be able to say, 'I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. Part of the scavenger hunt, whatever it is.' It's tough. A lot of peer pressure. And we've got to give them strength for it. Thank you so much, governor. It's always good to talk to you. Thanks for being here.
HUCKABEE: Always a pleasure.
MACCALLUM: You bet.
HUCKABEE: You bet.
MACCALLUM: So coming up next, for more than 80 years, the fate of Amelia Earhart has sparked theory after theory. But now her mysterious disappearance has been solved. What we just learned that may answer a whole lot of questions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: She took off from Miami, and flew two thirds of the way around New Guinea, on women's greatest exploits in aviation. Only the pacific was left, that most dangerous part. She missed Howland Island and was forced down at sea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: The disappearance of Amelia Earhart, one of America's biggest mysteries may finally be solved. A brand-new analysis found that the bones discovered on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which they once thought belonged to a man, so they say it weren't her. But now they did a new scientific analysis and they say, yes, 99 percent chance that they do belong to the same pilot. Earhart disappeared in July of 1937, and ever since, theory after theory of her fate has intrigued generations.
Joining me now, Dorothy Cochrane, the curator of the aeronautics department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, one of the best stops in Washington, D.C., joins us. Good to see you tonight, Dorothy. Talk to us about the science behind the new measuring of -- the measurements of the bones or what he was going by, what did he find?
DOROTHY COCHRANE, CURATOR SMITSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM: Well, I don't think that he found Amelia Earhart's bones, because I don't believe she was flying into the vicinity of Nikumaroro Island.
MACCALLUM: Why not?
COCHRANE: Because she was -- the morning that she was doing Howland Island, we knew that she was very close to Howland Island because the coast guard cutter, Itasca, was there awaiting her. And they were receiving strong radio calls from her that she was in the vicinity there and she was actively searching for Howland Island.
So, for that reason, that's one of the reasons I believe that she was up near Howland Island. And the second reason I don't believe that she was down at Nikumaroro was because six days later, the Davey overflow that island and saw absolutely no signs of any person or airplane crash.
MACCALLUM: Fascinating. And then, there's this picture that was found, not too long ago, let's put the picture up on the screen. That is from -- I don't know, J-A-L-U-I-T Atoll in 1937. And if you look at them closely, some people believe that that could be Amelia Earhart on the dock, and then, Noonan, her navigator, is off to the left in that picture. What do you think about that theory? Do you give that any credence?
COCHRANE: No, that was actually debunked two or three days later after that broadcast when a researcher in Japan notified everyone that that picture had actually been taken in 1935, so she was nowhere near there either.
(CROSSTALK)
COCHRANE: Yeah, well, you know, it could be anybody. It could be a man or a woman. It's a backside of someone. So it's really, you know, it's not conclusive at all.
MACCALLUM: So what do you think, you know, just in the minute that I have left, you know, what's your theory?
COCHRANE: Well, I do believe that she was very close to Howland Island. She had an excellent navigator. They were searching in the morning, they were tired. They got close to the island. They were searching for it. They were flying into the sun. There were major communication problems with the coast guard, and with her communication project program.
The main thing is she didn't know Morse Code, neither did Fred Noonan, and you needed to have the Morse Code signal to be able to really communicate with them.
MACCALLUM: Dorothy, thank you. So the mystery continues tonight. Thanks for being here --
COCHRANE: My pleasure.
MACCALLUM: -- good to talk to you.
COCHRANE: Thank you.
MACCALLUM: So our quote of the night is from Amelia Earhart, who said, 'The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home and love and understanding companionship.' More of The Story after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: Ending on this note tonight, President Trump welcomed the world champion Houston Astros to the White House, it's always a nice event, and offered special recognition for the team's ability to triumph after tragedy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Incredible that -- what you went through, that you're the champions with what you went through with Harvey. It was a -- it's really a befitting tribute. What was really a show of world spirit and Houston's strong. You're Houston's strong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Congratulations to them. And he's right about that, tough year for Houston and a good finish, so more story tomorrow night, right back here. My friend Tucker Carlson coming up, next.
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