New details emerge about Fourth of July terror threats
Insight into the unprecedented efforts to keep Americans safe on 'The Kelly File'
This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," July 2, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Breaking tonight, we are getting new details on Islamic State sympathizers inside America. Ahead of warnings about a possible terror attack over the Fourth of July weekend.
Good evening, and welcome to "The Kelly File," on location everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. Tonight, we are learning more about the reasons for the recent security worries as Independence Day approaches. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee today released new figures on ISIS supporters inside the United States revealing that over the last 18 months, more than 200 Americans have joined or attempted to join the Jihadist overseas.
Fifty five ISIS supporters have been arrested on American soil just this year alone. And since 2014 the terror group has waged 47 plots or attacks against western targets, including 11 inside the U.S. The FBI is now warning law enforcement agencies across the country to beef up security. In New York the NYPD is planning to deploy more than 7,000 officers, including snipers and spotters to protect the areas around the Macy's fireworks show, in addition to those patrolling the rest of the city. The NYPD is calling its efforts unprecedented.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEP. COMMISSIONER JOHN MILLER, INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTERTERRORISM,
NYPD: This may be potentially the most complex counterterrorism overlay for this event ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Catherine Herridge is live in Washington with the very latest
tonight. Catherine?
CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Megyn, tonight an investigative source who tracks terrorists social media for the U.S. intelligence community says, the chatter is up adding that this appears to be one of the most severe threat environments we have seen in a decade. Across the nation tonight, there is a visible security presence as Fox News is told that recent arrests of alleged ISIS supporters inside the United States, about a dozen in the last two weeks, are connected and the common link is an ISIS recruiter who goes by the Twitter handle al-Britani. From his post overseas, he not only recruits, but drives home grown operatives across the threshold to violence.
Al-Britani is a familiar name because we confirmed back in May, he was communicating with the two shooters in Garland, Texas who tried and failed to take out the Prophet Muhammad cartoon drawing contest. Based on his Twitter feed, al-Britani seemed to have poor knowledge of the plot. And there's also been a shift in FBI strategy opting to pick up suspected home grown terrorist and get them off the street on minor charges rather than take the risk, keep them under surveillance and build a more substantial case. Because the time between making contact with ISIS and going operational, what they call the flash to bang can be only days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANNY COULSON, FORMER FBI DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: We need to know about these things and people need to be put on the alert. I know it makes them anxious but better anxious than dead. They need to be aware of their surroundings. They need to know that there's a potential attack and what
to do if there is one, how to get out, how to run away and be alert.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HERRIDGE: And today, the airport's canceled July Fourth celebrations in two airbases in England because the threat there is judged to be severe and credible -- Megyn.
KELLY: Catherine, thank you.
HERRIDGE: You're welcome.
KELLY: Joining me now with more on the terror alert, former assistant FBI Director Ron Hosko. And Brat Thor, who served as a member of the Department of Homeland Security's Analytic Red Cell Unit. And he's also the author of the new book, "Code of Conduct."
Guys, thank you very much for being here. Ron, let me start with you.
Is it just the uptick in ISIS attacks that we have seen overseas? Plus, I realize we've had five arrests of ISIS members in the past week in New York City. Or is there more to it? Is there chatter? Is there coordination that we believe have taken place?
RON HOSKO, FORMER ASSISTANT FBI DIRECTOR: No. There's very much more to it and not the least of it is just a difference in recruitment techniques that we see from ISIS than we did from say al Qaeda ten or 12 years ago. We have in effect with these ISIS threat, people through social media, through very select productions in effect standing up on a hilltop domestically with a bull horn screaming calls to action and calls to kill.
And the calls are not for necessarily get on a plane and come to Syria to fight with us and be trained and, you know, get your mind-set in Jihad.
But it is a call for an opportunity that you might take here, use the tools available, the time available and the targets available and a time at your choosing. So, it is very concerning.
KELLY: What do you make, Ron, of the possibility of soft targets and the danger there? Because we heard the NYPD come out today and say, New York City has been so locked down, they don't think that's where it's going to happen. They think -- and by the way, just in case the viewers missed this earlier in the week, the former deputy headed the CIA said, he believed on Sunday that this following Sunday, meaning in two days from now, three days from now -- he believes we will be talking about an attack having happened in the United States. So the NYPD comes out today and says that New York City is locked down. It's soft targets. And what we saw last week in Tunisia was a guy concealing a weapon in an umbrella on a
beach.
HOSKO: Right. So, we have seen domestically what a well-armed person can do against a soft target. We saw in in South Carolina two weeks ago, we have seen it in Newtown, we've seen it at the Navy Yard two years ago.
So a motivated person or a sick person or a combination of those can do great damage against a soft target. I agree with the New York police. The same will be true here on the Fourth of July where resources are surged, whether you see them or you don't, they are being surged, they are leaning forward into this threat into this season that we are in. And so the opportunities are greater against the soft target. And ISIS is willing to accept that. Do the maximum damage possible, they will claim credit and
you will die.
KELLY: Brad, you have studied this group and you say that right now ISIS is facing a propaganda challenge given that it's no longer shocking people in the Middle East. And thus that is in part the reason for what we're seeing in terms of the focus on America
BRAD THOR, SERVED IN DHS ANALYTICAL RED CELL UNIT: Listen. Any time any group can get great media exposure, it's good for them and it helps the recruiting efforts. People in the United States need to realize that this is a very, very sophisticated group. Even though we're seeing horrific acts of barbarism out of these cowards in the Middle East, we're talking about people that are advanced degrees, PHD people, the core-ISIS people.
And they're recruiting very intelligent, very well-educated fighting age males here in the United States. And I'll tell you, it's not even the police that are going to spot the next attack. It's you, Megyn, it's your baby sitter, it's me, it's my wife. This weekend, I get it. People have fatigue about terrorists attacks and all this kind of stuff. This is not the boy who cried wolf. This weekend people need to have their heads on a swivel. Pay attention. If you see something, you really do need to say
something.
KELLY: The propaganda value to them in attacking on U.S. soil and in particular on the July Fourth weekend would obviously be enormous.
THOR: Well, it's huge. And dates are very significant, particularly for Islamic terrorists. They love it. They would love nothing more than to hit us on the Fourth of July. It would have great play all around the Middle East and it will be a great propaganda and recruiting tool for them going forward. So, they've got everything to gain by launching an attack or multiple attacks this weekend. And I do share that feeling of, you know, what? I'm worried we're going to be back on Monday saying, you know what, unfortunately we were right. But if people keep their eyes open, we
may be able to stop this.
KELLY: Wow. Happy fourth. Great to see you bout.
THOR: Thanks, Megyn.
HOSKO: Thanks, Megyn. Be safe.
KELLY: Well, we also have a stunning update tonight in the campus rape case involving the student known as mattress girl. A woman who became such a feminist icon to some. She earned an invitation to the State of the Union. Wait until you hear the update here.
Howie Kurtz is next on this case, on the media and the lawsuit now
accusing this woman of waging an anti-male harassment campaign.
Plus, the trial of Bowe Bergdahl is suddenly getting pushed back and Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer thinks, it could involve some ugly new attacks on the soldiers who talked to us about Bergdahl and the White House. He's here
live here tonight.
And first, it was a confederate flag. Next, the "Dukes of Hazzard."
How far will they go to scrub American history? Mark Thiessen in an unforgettable unmissable segment, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN SCHNEIDER, ACTOR: Do I think it's an error? Yes. I think it's an error because "Dukes of Hazzard" one was one of the most beloved shows ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. And now it's being cast in a terrible light that it does not deserve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: That was John Schneider better known as Bo Duke speaking out after TV land announced it's pulling the "Dukes of Hazzard" re-runs off the air because the show features our confederate flag on the car driven by the Duke boys. Immediately after a young white men killed nine black parishioners in a Charleston Church a couple of weeks back, the calls started coming. To get rid of what it's called the racist reminder of the civil war. The killer was a fan of that flag.
First, folks wanted it taken down at the South Carolina capital grounds. Then came calls to remove confederate flag merchandise from retail stores. And now some are calling to rename and re-dedicate city streets and parks across the country that were named for confederate generals. NASCAR has banned the flag from the stands, the Dukes are off TV and now people are asking exactly how far we want to go when it comes to scrubbing our history.
Marc Thiessen is a FOX News contributor and former chief presidential speechwriter to President George W. Bush. Marc, good to see you.
MARC THIESSEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you, Megyn.
KELLY: And it's amazing, they're actually pulling down statues, vandalizing them of confederate generals and the question really is, how far are we going to take this?
THIESSEN: It's unbelievable. And I agree with John Schneider. And he said, can't we all just watch TV? And I mean, the "Dukes of Hazzard"
was not about race. I was about moonshine, and short-shorts and fast cars.
They had nothing to do with race? What is accomplished by banning the "Dukes of Hazzard?" And I mean, we've gone into a miasma political correctness in this country. And quite frankly this impulse to wash away history is Stalinist. I mean, Joseph Stalin used to take people, erase people from pictures, to erase their existence from history. Why would we be following that impulse to erase people from history? I'm speaking to you right now from Washington, D.C. which is named for a man who owned slaves. Are we going to change our nation's capital's name? Are we going to ban the Jefferson memorial? Are we going to rename Washington State?
How far does this go?
KELLY: Right. Bonus points for using the word miasma by the way.
But you're right. Because you can get rid of all the George Washington -- I mean, forget, you know, the dollar bill, forget Jefferson. The nick is going away. You could go down list. Not to mention if you want to go back to more recent history to talk about, okay, let's talk about something more recent. And people are still walking around with some of the pains of the Jim Crow era. You've got, what? We talked about this last night, all of families have got to go, troops got to go, Hogan's heroes has got to go. I mean, the list goes on. Never mind, I mean, like the Jefferson's, like anything that touches on race that might require a trigger warning has now
got to go under the standard.
THIESSEN: It's unbelievable. And, you know, the thing about it is, Megyn, is has nothing to do with what the reality of the South is today. I mean, if you want to see how far race relations have come in this country, just look at the reaction to the Charleston shooting. There were no race riots. The city didn't burn. Blacks and whites and people of all racist in colors came together, they prayed together, they mourned together.
There was a unity chain across the Ravenel Bridge of thousands of people
stretching for two miles in each direction of people of all races.
KELLY: So, who is causing this? So, if it's not the actual southerners involved in what happened in Charleston, who is causing this into --
THIESSEN: White liberals from places like New York and Los Angeles, who want to feel better about themselves. I mean, the fact is, we saw in Charleston that the reality of the new South. Black and White united together. There was no discord. They came together and it's these White liberals from the Northeast and California who are trying to do this. The fact of the matter is --
KELLY: So what about it? I mean is it about the confederate flag which to some is genuinely offensive and disturbing or is it about a general disdain for a negative perception of people who live in the South?
THIESSEN: That's exactly what it is. It's not about a flag. It's about the people who live in the south. It's a perception among these people in the elites that all southerners are racists and bigots who basically agree with the Charleston shooter and what he did. And as we saw
in Charleston that is absolutely untrue. And the fact of the matter is --
KELLY: And yet you've got former civil rights leaders coming out, including Andrew Young who says, the following about the people pulling the "Dukes of Hazzard" which he is against. Listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW YOUNG, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: The problems we face don't have anything to do with the flag. The fact is that 93 percent of the black people killed are killed by other black people. So if black lives matter, let us start believing that we matter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: How about that, Marc?
THIESSEN: He's exactly right. So, here's some stats from the FBI's hate crimes database. In 2013 which is the last year for which we have statistics, there were exactly five murders in America that were classified as hate crimes, and only one of those was anti-black. By contrast, if you look at those, those statistics, there were 2,491 murders of African- Americans and 90 percent of those were committed by other African- Americans, where there were 3,005 white people killed and 83 percent of those were killed by other whites. So, in America today if you're white, you're most likely to be killed by a white person, if you're black, you're most likely to be killed by another black person and almost none of these
are hate crimes. So, there is no race war going on in America today.
KELLY: Uh-mm. And yet "The Dukes of Hazzard" has got to go. And TV
land has caved. Marc, good to see you.
THIESSEN: Thanks, Megyn.
KELLY: Well, remember the federal official they called hot tub guy?
You remember Jeff Neely. Yes, there he is. Remember that? Did we ever figure out if that was sangria or wine? What's in there? Anyway, he was doing it all on your dime. You paid for it. Just ahead, see why he is now going to a place where he'll only wish they served whatever is in those
glasses.
Plus, we told you earlier this week about the college professor fired after she equated whiteness with terrorism. Well, guess what? She had no
trouble finding a new job and we'll show you where.
And there is suddenly a big delay in the trial of Sergeant Bo Bergdahl. Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer thinks he knows why and he is here to explain how FOX News and Bergdahl's fellow soldiers are apparently
about to get dragged into this. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing that matter is you have an American flag on your shoulder. And he's my brother, he's my brother. He's my brother. We're all going to ride together and we're all going to die together. And he, I guess for whatever reason, I don't know how he felt about us, but we would all die for him, and he left.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Raise your hand if you think he deserted. Wow. Raise your hand if you have some question about whether he deserted. Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's not a hero. He did not serve with distinction, that's a spit in the face to everyone who joined the army and
anyone who died looking for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Well, that was a clip from our interview with some of the platoon members who served along with Sergeant Bo Bergdahl. Those soldiers coming forward after Bergdahl was released in exchange for five Taliban commanders more than a year ago. While some administration officials tried to discredit those men, the army did wind up charging Bergdahl with desertion. His preliminary hearing, basically like a grand jury inquiry was supposed to be next week. But now there's been a change.
And Retired Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer thinks he knows why. He's a CIA trained Intel operative and senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research. And he broke the story on Bergdahl's charges weeks before the Pentagon announced them. So, you know of what you speak.
LT. COL. TONY SHAFFER (RET), CIA TRAINED INTEL OPERATIVE: Thank you for having me.
KELLY: Thank you for being here. So this was at the defense's request --
SHAFFER: Right.
KELLY: -- that they postponed the preliminary hearing and you think
you know why. You say there's two reasons. Tell us what they are.
SHAFFER: Well, there's two reasons. First, they've got to come up with a defense. I mean, everybody up and to and including President Obama did know as early as 2010 the factual surroundings of his departure. And his platoon mates are correct. He deserted. So, you've got to find a scapegoat. Well, Megyn, enter FOX News and his platoon mates. This filing recently on the 4th, I think it was the 4th of June actually stipulates that there's a network out to vilify his client. I wonder who that could be. Well, according to my sources, it's FOX. It's Catherine, he's talked to Catherine Herridge before the broadcast. And let me point out something that Catherine asked me to say. Catherine has reached out to Mr. Fidel every time something new has come up. Fidel --
KELLY: The lawyer.
SHAFFER: The lawyer defending Bergdahl. He basically says, no comments. So, vilification, no. They've been given every chance --
KELLY: So, you're just not supposed to cover it at all. I mean,
basically, you just shouldn't cover Bowe Bergdahl's --
SHAFFER: Apparently so.
KELLY: -- at all. And it's not like we have no evidence of Bergdahl's side of the story. We do. We know what he was claiming.
SHAFFER: Exactly. That brings me to the second point which is the platoon. So, if you have nowhere to go regarding your own issues, you got to find a second scapegoat which is going to be the platoon mates. So, Megyn, what's coming is that they're trying to put together out of -- a defense that says that Bergdahl was being victimized, traumatized, whatever words you want to use regarding victimhood, and putting on the platoon mates and throwing them under the bus. So, I'm sure that that's what they're doing. They're trying to lay out a case saying, my client Mr.
Bergdahl had no choice but to go out into enemy territory, looking for an army general, and I don't think we have army generals set up to work with the Taliban. Maybe, I'm wrong. But that's what his excuses.
KELLY: Right.
SHAFFER: And he went out looking for these generals.
KELLY: Yes. They made that clear that his defense is going to be, he went out, he left his unit to go report misconduct in his unit and always intended to come right back. The problem is, his anger and resentment toward the mission in Afghanistan was well-documented, including his e-mail to his father before he left his unit in which he wrote and I quote, "the horror that is America is disgusting." It doesn't really jive that well
with, it was all my platoon mates. I was ready to be there until the end.
SHAFFER: I agree. And Megyn, look, I was disgruntled with the war in Afghanistan. I wrote a book about it. A bestseller called it, Operation Dark Heart. There were mistakes made. You don't walk away and join the enemy if you're not happy with the way things are. You try to improve your situation as best you can. He degraded not only the image of the soldier, he now is trying to degrade the image of his platoon mates who were by the way as they stipulate trying to fight and die to save people like him in this war. And by the way, let me add other point here, ten people died looking for Bergdahl. Seven of ours, three British, they were all out tromping through the wild, trying to retrieve him before he ended up with Haqqani Network.
KELLY: Wow!
SHAFFER: This actually is as worse as you can get without having, you know -- talk about traumatized, I've seen people at Walter Reid who lose arms and limbs. So, I don't want to hear about Bergdahl being traumatized,
his family suffering from his actions. It does not make any sense.
KELLY: Great to see you. Thanks for being here.
SHAFFER: Thank you.
KELLY: Well, we also have a stunning update tonight in the campus alleged rape case, involving a student known as mattress girl.
Howie Kurtz and Rich Lowry are next with an unbelievable look at this
case.
Plus, new reporting tonight about the President apparently giving himself a big pat on the back for transforming the country and Charles Krauthammer is here to explain why one of his own 2012 forecasts about an
Obama second term seems to be going exactly as predicted.
And then, a big new twist tonight in the story of the caught on tape prank that left Paris Hilton screaming for her life, or was she?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Developing tonight, a stunning update in an alleged rape case that received national attention. This time it's Columbia University. The accused rapist is Paul Nungesser. His accuser is Emma Sulkowicz. They have outed their own identities. She became nationally known as the mattress girl and the name came after she started traveling everywhere on campus with her mattress, the one upon which she alleged her assault took place. We say alleged because the university applying a very low burden of proof concluded she had nonetheless failed to meet that burden of proof and found no sexual assault had occurred.
Despite that, a number of media outlets touted Sulkowicz with her mattress in toe, as some sort of feminist icon, like the New York Times, which hailed the mattress as a lever for art and political protest. New York Magazine profiled her with a piece called How to Start a Revolution.
The Washington Post wrote how it was no longer just a mattress but a symbol. In fact, she gained so much attention that she landed a seat at the state of the union as a guest of New York Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand.
None of which informed the people that there are serious questions about whether this young woman is a victim at all. Now Nungesser, the defendant, the man accused who is accused is not only suing the school, he's accusing this young woman of launching a war on men. Earlier tonight, I spoke to KC Johnson. He is the co-author of Until Proven Innocent, Political Correctness, and the Shameful Injustices the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case. And he's a history professor at Brooklyn College. I asked him about this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: KC, thank you for being back with us. And so once again, like we saw in the Amherst Case, he tried -- the defendant in this case tried to introduce evidence at the college trial against him, which was also I believe is all been his favor. But he tried to introduce evidence of texts he received, Facebook messages he received, from his accuser and once again the process set up by the Obama Administration imposed on colleges, did not allow him to do it.
KC JOHNSON, UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT CO-AUTHOR: That's correct. And in the process at Columbia, he didn't have a lawyer. His advocate was a so- called graduate student. And these text messages cast really strong doubt about Sulkowicz's story. What Sulkowicz was claiming is that this was a violent assault -- that was rape by any definition of the term. And what the text messages showed is that for several months after this alleged assault, there were these flirtatious invitations from Sulkowicz wanting to get together once again with Nungesser, which really cast pretty severe doubt on her credibility.
KELLY: And so you look at the text message -- the Facebook messages that she wasn't allowed to get in. Two days after the alleged rape, he wrote to her, a small shindig in our room tonight, bring cool refreshments.
She writes back LOL, yes. A couple of days after that, she initiates a Facebook contact asking him if he wants to hang out a little bit. He writes, whatever I want to see you, you, you, you. Then after the alleged rape, he sends her a greeting and she responds the next morning with I love you, Paul. Where are you? So the university says you didn't meet the standard, no sexual assault took place. And yet after that it allows her to walk around campus even at graduation with this mattress on her back.
JOHNSON: The one protection that Columbia provided to an accused student is that the context within this allegation was supposed to be confidential. So her doing any of these interviews violated Columbia's standards, and yet she was never called out for that. She received academic credit, this was her senior thesis project for carrying the mattress around campus. Imagine what kind of academic context we're dealing with when someone can get credit for essentially levying -- leveling what appears to be a false allegation. And Columbia never stepped in as she went on this media barrage, to say look, these allegations, we investigated them, and even by our very low standards, we found out that they were not true. Columbia basically stood aside because I think they were afraid of bad publicity, of an investigation from the administration, and allowed her to go on this publicity spree.
KELLY: KC, thanks again.
JOHNSON: Thanks for having me.
KELLY: Wow. Joining us now, Rich Lowry, Editor of National Review, and a Fox News Contributor, and Howie Kurtz, who is Host of Fox News Channel's Media Buzz. Good to see you both.
Rich, all right, so now we have UVA, Amherst, Columbia, not to mention Duke, all of these cases involve a rush to judgment to believe that the defendant male did absolutely everything he we was accused of with nary a mention of his defense, and the possibility that the allegations maybe seriously flawed.
RICH LOWRY, NATIONAL REVIEW EDITOR: There's a patter there, isn't it?
And the mattress girl is really the hands up don't shoot of the sexual assault hysteria on campus, where the narrative and the symbol are so strong that the left had this enormous will to believe, even though the facts seem to contradict that narrative. Now we can't ultimately know what happened in this instance. But common sense and the facts suggest that she likely made it up, and this was some sort of relationship gone wrong.
KELLY: Well, that's the thing. The media does need to come out and say, ok, it's not true, when she's reporting it. We can't know if it's true or not true. But the duty is to report both sides. And you look back at those articles I just mentioned Howie, and they barely mentioned anything about his defense. They don't mention the fact that she had two sexual encounters with him, they had sex twice before this incident. They don't mention the fact that she sent these Facebook message to him. A month after the alleged assault saying I love you, I want to see you, all these LOL's. I mean this is relevant to assessing her credibility, and to the media, it's like it didn't happen.
HOWIE KURTZ, MEDIA BUZZ HOST: The media narrative Megyn, it made a heroine out of mattress girl. And the latest example -- a classic example really of the press promoting a rape claim that turns out to be highly suspect. And here's what's telling, New York Times does a big piece on this, nice photo of mattress girl, says stories like this are playing out at colleges across accross the country, so you've got the bigger theme, splashes it on the front page, that was last year. A couple of months ago, when this student Nungesser, surfaces publicly and files suit against Columbia University, page A-25.
KELLY: They're not as interested. And Rich, Kirsten Gillibrand, a United States Senator, not only brought her to the state of the union, but gave testimony before the U.S. Senate saying she was raped. She doesn't know that. She doesn't know that. And the status right now is Senator Gillibrand has not updated her remarks.
LOWRY: That's another key part of this pattern, is most of the people who promote the false or likely false story, never go back and say sorry, I got it wrong. And not only did Senator Gillibrand promote this woman and promote the story, she is sponsoring legislation to double-down on this hysteria on college campuses. And we've been sold this story that one out of five women is raped on college campuses. When the best evidence suggests it's more like 6 per 1,000. Still one is one too many. But that women are actually safer on college campuses than they are off college campuses. And over the last several years, campus rape has been declining.
Instead the media...
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: I get it. This case at Columbia, under the low standards by the Obama Administration was thrown out, right? They basically had to convince them it was 51 percent more likely that he did it, than he didn't, and the university said, we're not convinced. However, in this case Howie, there were two other accusers against the same man. It turned that they were very close to the original accuser. One of them was just alleging he forced her to make out with him. But the university threw those out as well. But I get that people say, well I don't know. But the media doesn't seem to understand that whether it's race in a place like Ferguson, or sexual assault in a case like Duke or Columbia or Amherst, this is not our opportunity to prove our liberal bonafides.
KURTZ: Well, I don't to credit the Daily Best for running a long, detailed pieced that included those text messages and gave the accused students side of the story. But why did this go viral? Why all those headlines and Television coverage? Because the mattress thing was a stunt, it was eye-catching performance art. And so everybody glued on to it, when the guy comes out and gives a defense and all of the things that you just mentioned, it gets a fraction of the coverage, and that is a big mistake.
LOWRY: Well, what are we always told that the foremost value of the media is skepticism, but again and again, you don't see the barest skepticism in these sorts of cases.
KELLY: Guys, thank you.
KURTZ: A pleasure.
KELLY: Well, we also have an update on the professor who lost her job. We're still looking into that. Her relationship ended with one year university, after she equated whiteness with terrorism. Well, you will never guess where she is working now.
Plus, the President reportedly took a big victory lap this week for transforming the country. Charles Krauthammer is here next on the prediction he made in 2012, and how that is playing out in Mr. Obama's second term.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Well, from partying on the taxpayer's dime, to three hots and a cop. The federal manager behind this infamous picture is going to prison for three month, Jeff Kneely, pleading guilty to billing the feds for personal trips, was also of course the organizer behind the lavish conferences the GSA held, complete with mind-readers, after-hour parties, and sushi receptions. He should have spent more time with the fortune tellers. Could have told him it's not going to end well.
Well, developing tonight, we are seeing new reporting detailing a private conference call the President held with staffers, after the recent Supreme Court decisions saving ObamaCare. On the call, the President reportedly celebrated his record of transforming America, on everything from healthcare, to normalizing relations with Cuba. Consider Charles Krauthammer unsurprised. In 2012, just prior to the President's reelection, Charles wrote, "In Obama's second term means that the movement toward European style, social democracy continues, and in part by legislation, and in part by executive decree. The American experiment, the more individualistic, energetic, innovative, risk-taking model of democratic governance continues to recede, yielding to the supervised life of the entitlement state. Charles Krauthammer is a Fox News Contributor, and Author of the book, Things that Matter, which is now out in paperback with the new section on the age of Obama.
Charles, good to see you, and you called it because you said that Barack Obama wanted to be a President like Ronald Reagan, not in his policies, but in his legacy. And today, he appears to have declared victory on that front. Is he right?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, he's not right. But I think he's had this ambition. When he was running in 2008, he said that Reagan was consequential in a way that Nixon or a Clinton was not. And what he meant is Reagan ended 50 years of liberal ascendancy in the country. Within 10 minutes of his swearing in, Reagan declares the government is not the solution of the problem, government is the problem, which is a complete overturning of the whole idea of the new deal. And then he succeeds. And as a result, what Reagan did and what Obama aspired that he could do in the reverse, Reagan brought in a 30-year conservative ascendancy. The proof of that, in 1996, his democratic successor, Bill Clinton declares State of the Union Address, the era of big government is over. When the other guys are repealing your political philosophy, then you've achieved a change in the trajectory of the country.
Obama has always seen himself as the man whose presidency ushers in the return of the liberal ascendancy, in the end of the conservative time, the conservative dominance that Reagan had brought in. It's a little bit early to be declaring it because the reason that Reagan assured in this era, is because his policy succeeded. Obama has this illusion that history has blessed his policies with success, and therefore the new dominant Obama-esque era is beginning. But history will tell. And surely in the foreign policy area where he thinks opening to Cuba and appeasing Iran is of the stature of Reagan bringing an end to the cold war is delusional.
Reagan defeated the soviets, whereas Obama has accommodated and capitulated to Cuba and Iran. That's not hard to do if you want to give away the store. But it's not historic in the sense of anything beneficial.
KELLY: What do you make of his comments, because he also reportedly said that the reason the country needs Hillary Clinton is the same reason Reagan needed Bush 41, to continue the enactment of his policies and make sure that they survive. Is the next election that consequential, or can his policies be reversed by a republican president?
KRAUTHAMMER: Well that, I think that's exactly why he thinks it's so important that he have a democratic successor. Look, the main thing he did, the thing that's in legislation. The thing that could outlive him is ObamaCare. It is the most sweeping piece of legislation -- social legislation in a generation, and were it to continue and succeed, it would be indeed historic. It will not succeed if a republican wins the White House. It will be somehow changed radically, or abolished and surely replaced. And all the other stuff he's done, like immigration, the change in the drug laws by executive order and by regulation. That will be swept away within the first week if the republicans win the presidency in 2017.
So it's very -- that's why he needs a Hillary to succeed him.
KELLY: What do you make of his -- he took a shot at the GOP field today as well, and talked about how voters are going to hear -- let me get the term right, a lot of misinformation as these republican candidates deny the progress made and "make stuff up." He's going after the GOP-ers as potential liars, your thoughts on it?
KRAUTHAMMER: I'm impressed by the sophistication of the rhetoric.
This is Lincoln-esque. They make stuff up. Look, he's obviously trying to preemptively protect his legacy but it won't be up to him. It will be history that determines whether ObamaCare has succeeded, and whether any of his initiatives abroad -- which even Jimmy Carter has said, has brought us less respect everywhere in the world are going to succeed. So he's a hostage to history, not to proclaiming his own legacy.
KELLY: It's interesting to hear this President, you know if you like your plan you can keep your plan. We didn't touch those Benghazi talking points at all. Not a smidgen of corruption. Talk about people making things up, tough to hold the office he's held for as many years as he had, and cast the stone. Charles, great to see you.
KRAUTHAMMER: Take care. Thank you.
KELLY: Up next, the latest thing that makes you a sexist pig. And, Actor Paris Hilton said she plans to sue the pranksters who videotaped her in a fake plane crash. There's a dramatic new twist, next.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this normal? It always does this?
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KELLY: New developments behind that plane crash prank that allegedly scared Paris Hilton right into threatening a lawsuit. It was staged by an Egyptian TV show host, reports whether Hilton had nothing to do with it.
Now TMZ reports that the production company documents show Ms. Hilton knew full well what was happening, and it was a P.R. stunt, by Paris Hilton?
Say it ain't so.
Also, have new details for you tonight on the public university professor blasted for her anti-white tweets that we told you about earlier this week. Like her tweets equating whiteness with terrorism. Now we're learning that she is teaching at yet another university. Katherine Timpf is a Reporter for National Review, and a Contributor to the Greg Gutfeld Show on Fox News, Kat, good to see you. So Zandria Robinson landed on her feet, and not only did Rhodes College hire her, but they say the criticisms of her are themselves racist.
KATHERINE TIMPF, NATIONAL REVIEW REPORTER: Yes. You would think that after all this controversy, they might be second-guessing their decision to hire her, but no. They're saying these kind of controversial comments are great. They're excited to have her, because these comments are going to lead to free and open exchange of ideas. And I have got to say though, knowing what she openly admits, I would be a little afraid to exchange any ideas in her classroom, knowing that she is looking at me, and thinking that I have all the makings of a mass murderer, just based on how I look.
So maybe they didn't really think that one all the way through.
KELLY: You find it a little off-putting to hear her say whiteness equals terror. And she goes on from there, talking about how the only riots that have ruined communities and cost lives in American history are those perpetrate by whites against blacks. And the list goes on and on.
Whiteness is most certainly inevitably terror. And yet this new university comes out and says she is a valued faculty member, and that they hired her because of her extensive understanding of race in American society. So that's what we need to know about Rhodes College.
TIMPF: Right, right, exactly, exactly. I spoke to another professor at Rhodes College today. And he said it seems like its crazy to hire someone who very openly dislikes such a large chunk of our student body.
But what is obvious here is that if she had said something that offended liberal sensitivity, then she wouldn't have done so well. You look at what happened to Tim Hunt, he made sexist jokes, Nobel Prize Winner, his career crumbled. She's not a Nobel Prize Winner, and she's definitely not joking.
This wasn't just a single tweet. This is a repeated pattern.
KELLY: She is a believer. She is a believer. Now speaking of sexism, you mentioned Tim. There's yet another way in which you can be labeled a sexist pig, and it involves commenting on something on a woman's body. Tell us what it is.
TIMPF: Tattoos. If you say anything about a woman's tattoos, no matter what, you're oppressing her, because you're commenting on something that's on her body. So obviously that's oppression. And obviously you're a horrible pig, and a sexist, and oppressing her with the patriarch if you do that. Even though, I won't think I don't have any tattoos but if did, I might want people to like them. I don't know.
KELLY: No, no. Apparently if a man comments on your tattoos, he is asserting his dominance over you.
TIMPF: Yeah, basically if you're a guy, don't talk to women or else you are asserting your dominance for oppressing us. That's what some people are saying tonight. I sure hope that doesn't come widespread.
Believe it or not, I like when people talk to me.
KELLY: Just stay in your basement and apologize for being a man, and then they'll be happy, Kat, good to see you.
TIMPF: Good to see you too.
KELLY: We'll be right back.
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KELLY: What do you think about these terror warnings? Will they stop from you doing what you normally do? And is that the real goal of these terrorists? Facebook.com/thekellyfile, we're on Twitter @Megynkelly, let me know what you think.
Happy Independence Day, America, land of the free, home of the brave.
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