Trump and Cruz compete for major conservative endorsements

close

Video

Trump and Cruz compete for major conservative endorsements

National spokespersons for Trump and Cruz campaigns weigh in on 'The Kelly File'

This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," January 20, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MEGYN KELLY, HOST, "THE KELLY FILE": Breaking tonight, the stakes are raised after one of the two Republican presidential frontrunners mounts a big response to a campaign trail challenge in a critical state.

Good evening and welcome to THE KELLY FILE, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. We are exactly one year out from the swearing in of the next president. Think about that. Just 12 days away from the first votes and the Republican nomination fight. And an Iowa, two men are out in front. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Less than 24 hours eye go, Mr. Trump electrifying a pumped out crowd in Iowa announcing the endorsement of former Governor Sarah Palin which you've heard about last night. Today, Senator Cruz and supporters responded.

New reports that conservative media star Glenn Beck will appear with Senator Cruz in Iowa this weekend. With two of the senators most prominent Iowa supporters taking to the airwaves. National co-chairman Congressman Steve King, an influential evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats. All speaking out on Cruz's behalf today. In moments, we will be joined by the national spokes people for both the Trump and the Cruz campaigns and they are going to have some things to say. But first, the Trump campaign continuing its roll-out of Sarah Palin's endorsement before an overflow crowd of 15,000 down in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Governor Palin delivered.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN, R, FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He has spent his life looking up, and being optimistic and building big things. Big things that touch the sky. Infrastructure that puts people to work. He spent his life building up this success. So his power, when he's in D.C., it's not going to come off of opium, being high off opium, other people's money. That OPM, that other dopes in Washington sure get high off because they take it from you and then they distribute that other people's money. That's not Trump. Trump, his power, if you will, his passion, is the fabric of America. It is work ethic and dreams and drive and faith in the almighty. And that is America. Are you ready to share in that again, Oklahoma?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: Katrina Pierson is the national spokesperson for the Trump presidential campaign. Rick Tyler is the national spokesman for the Cruz presidential campaign. Good to see you both.

Let me start with this, Kat.

KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON: Hi, Megyn.

KELLY: Is this -- is this dust-up awkward. Because if Donald Trump doesn't win, you will probably going to back Ted Cruz. And I have the same question for you, Rick. Whether it is awkward. Because you're fighting. It's, you know, the Bloods fighting the Bloods. The Crips fighting the Crips. And it seems a little weird when you watch it. Because both of you guys are going to want Hillary or Bernie to lose. But right now you have to fight with each other. Go ahead, Kat.

PIERSON: Well, I think, Megyn, only one person can win the nomination. And that's what we are seeing play out now. And it is unfortunate that there is this sort of what we are calling fighting here but really it's not. What we have is a competition for the Republican nomination for 2016. And I think we can all agree that a lot of things have changed since 2008. And it is going to take someone that can do deals, that can do coalition building which Donald Trump has shown that he can do and successfully and so really it's coming down to who the Republicans want to represent them going after Hillary Clinton when we know we have to have a larger coalition in order to win in the general election.

KELLY: What do you make of it, Rick? Because Cruz supporters say, Trump isn't exactly known as a unifying force.

RICK TYLER, CRUZ CAMPAIGN NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON: Well, he's not. And it is been interesting. You know, Donald Trump has held liberal progressive views all his life. He's played for the other teams. He's given lots and lots of money from Democrats. And I heard this morning from Donald Trump's son, that's what you have to do when you're in business. You have to pay off the other side. Well, if that's the pay master for the cartel, and look, people are sick and tired of the deals. What they want is someone to unify the country, to get their congressmen in to pass the things that they need to be passed. Not people to make deals. And they're beholding to K Street, and the money on K Street in Washington and all insider games. That's not the way it works. The way you pass big large legislation is you get the country on your side and win the argument before you win the vote. That's what Margaret Thatcher said. That's good advice. And I think Donald Trump would not be able to do that and Ted Cruz would.

KELLY: Kat, Glenn Beck today --

PIERSON: But you know, Megyn --

KELLY: I am going to give you the floor. But listen, Glenn Beck today, he came out and he said, I'm done with Sarah Palin. He doesn't think she is the conservative she once was. And he said, this is why, he said, big government, bailouts, executive orders, not just abortion but partial birth abortion, nationalizing a banks, stimulus pathway to citizenship, all these views were held by Trump during this administration. During this administration. He said, when Sarah and the Tea Party won a hard fought election, went under attack in 2010, Trump was giving money to Pelosi, Reid and Rahm Emmanuel. Why is he wrong?

PIERSON: Well, I don't really give much stalk into what Glenn Beck is saying right now. Considering, if you look at the movement, there are a lot of people coming in behind Donald Trump. And I kept hearing about all these liberal values, as Rick just mentioned, his whole life. But he was at the convention as George W. Bush's guest. He had supported Republicans in the past like Mitt Romney and like John McCain. But we never hear about that. And we also never hear about the Republicans that Donald Trump has supported.

And I think it is safe to say that you can hold a belief system at any point in time in your life but when it comes to actually making decision and implementing policy that affects millions of people, you probably don't want to do the whole do as I say, not as I do.

KELLY: Uh-hm.

PIERSON: But I will say this, Ronald Reagan was also a Democrat who also endorsed Democrats, campaigned for Democrats, held very liberal policies.
He campaigned for Truman who was far to the left of Barack Obama when it came to health care.

TYLER: No, no, no, no.

KELLY: Good ahead, Rick.

PIERSON: People change. People change.

TYLER: Yes. Values don't change. But I'll tell you. Ronald Reagan, the Democratic Party that Ronald Reagan grew up with is nothing like the Democratic Party of today. Ronald Reagan's Democratic Party wouldn't have conceived of partial birth abortion. They wouldn't have conceived liberal policies. John F. Kennedy, actually was four ties, because he knew how to grow the economy. So, that is not going to -- that's not going to wash.

Look, the reason Donald Trump has to answer for giving $50,000 to Rahm Emanuel, tens of thousands of dollars into the Democratic Party of New York, giving thousands of dollars to Anthony Wiener, Chuck Schumer, Rendell, I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And so, yes, he might have given money to the Republicans, but the whole point is, and by the way, yes, he has given lots and lots of money to Mitch McConnell and lots of money to Speaker Boehner too. But that's the whole problem. The problem is the money and influence, you can't say I'm against the cartel and then be the pay master to the cartel. He has the answers for those questions. He has and he is trying to hide behind Sarah Palin and her conservative values. But look, it won’t work, Donald Trump is not how he says he is --

KELLY: Is that just sour groups because Cruz did not get the Palin endorsement?

TYLER: Look, we would have loved to have gotten the Palin endorsement. Look, we tried to get 10 million conservatives plus one to come behind us and we fell short the one. But look, we've got people coming, like you say, Glenn Beck will be with us in Iowa. We have actually more surprises coming. There will be more conservative endorsements on the way.

KELLY: What surprises?

TYLER: It doesn't change anything we are doing. We don't make one less phone call, we don't make knock on one less door. We have 12,000 volunteers in Iowa now. We got 700 people from the United States working in Iowa now, we are excited. We've done --

KELLY: It's on. It's clear that the race is tight in Iowa.

PIERSON: But to Rick's point, Megyn --

KELLY: Quickly, Kate, because I got to go.

PIERSON: But to Rick's point, you know, the Republican Party isn't the same as what's either and that's the problem we have. When we talked about partner with the Cartels, the grassroots Republican movement is against TPA and TPP where Senator Cruz joined Paul Ryan to try to push that effort.

KELLY: Don't ever say TPP on this show again. Nobody knows what that is. It sounds like a trade deal.

PIERSON: ObamaTrade.

(CROSSTALK)

KELLY: No time to explain.

(LAUGHTER)

KELLY: All right. Good to see you both.

TYLER: Thank you, Megyn.

KELLY: Well, we are also digging into a stunning story tonight that suggests the sex scandals of the 1990s could be coming back to haunt the Clintons.

Plus, Judge Napolitano is here on the new drama over what investigators found on Mrs. Clinton's private server. This is going from bad to worse for her.

Then new numbers out tonight and how many people came here from countries with terror ties then went missing when it was time to go home. Nobody apparently bothered to look for them.

Speaking of terror, meet the American college professor now accused for recruiting for ISIS. And that is just the start of this man's story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the things he's known for is, shouting death to Israel during an Israeli diplomat’s lecture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Breaking tonight, new reports suggesting the sex scandals of the 90s could be coming back to haunt the Clintons. First, new polling shows Hillary Clinton's numbers are dropping among women voters. Then we're learning that one of the Clinton's best known supporters may have serious reservations about Mrs. Clinton's candidacy. Actress Lena Dunham has been spotted campaigning across the country. But look how sad she is. The "New York Times" reports that Dunham has told people privately she is disturbed by how the Clintons treated women who said, they had been sexually assaulted by President Bill Clinton in the '90s. Still Dunham's team tells THE KELLY FILE tonight that Lena is, quote, "Fully supportive of Hillary Clinton and her track record for protecting women." And at least publicly, it would seem Dunham is Team Clinton all the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LENA DUNHAM, ACTRESS: Do you consider yourself a feminist?

HILLARY CLINTON, D, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. Absolutely. You know, I'm always a little bit puzzled when any woman of whatever age but particularly a young woman says something like, and you've heard it, something like, well, I believe in equal rights but I'm not a feminist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: I can explain it to her. If she would come on, I would explain it to her happily.

My next guest warned weeks ago that President Clinton's past would become a big problem for the Clinton campaign. Kirsten Powers is a "USA Today" columnist and a FOX News contributor, great to see you.

KIRSTEN POWERS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good to be here.

KELLY: Before anybody even mentioned this, you were saying, this is my prediction, this is going to be an issue. Why?

POWERS: Well because I've been following the feminist movement pretty closely for quite some time. And as you know, Megyn, one of the biggest issues if not the biggest issue in that movement is sexual assault. And one of the things that has become a central belief is that women should be believed when they make an accusation of sexual assault. We even saw this happen with a Rolling Stone hoax where even after the woman was discredited you had feminists coming out and saying, I chose to believe her. Hillary Clinton herself tweeted out, sexual assault victims must always be believed.

KELLY: Yes.

POWERS: And it just struck me while, you know, if she is going to say that, then people are going to probably start asking questions about well, what about the women who accused your husband of sexual assault and interestingly I think what we see with Lena Dunham is, she probably didn't even know about this. I think a lot of young women are unaware, they don't know the name Juanita Broaddrick, they didn't live through the `90s the way that we did. And so, it is not something that they are even aware of and they’re going to have to process for the first time.

KELLY: How are her critics going to get at that? I mean, is it going to be about the allegations made about President Clinton which have now been dealt with? I mean, one way or the other, they've been dealt with or is it going to be about the satellite people around the Clintons, including Hillary herself at the time, who disparaged the accusers?

POWERS: Yes. Well, the problem -- so this New York Times story is pretty devastating, I think, because it talks about the fact that it has referring to Democrats who participated in these smear campaigns against the women, saying themselves, they realize that what they did would not fly today, that it would not be acceptable in the climate that we live in where you are not really supposed to do that to women. And of course it really shouldn't have been acceptable then either. And --

KELLY: Yes, but you know, they talk about how you couldn't get away with one of their defenders refer to the bimbo eruptions.

POWERS: Right.

KELLY: How you can't get away with that today. And I would challenge that the notion that you cannot be a presidential contender and call a woman a bimbo and continue to see your poll numbers rise.

POWERS: Yes. You may have a little insight into that Megyn. That little insight. Yes. I think the idea of more -- everybody sort of just -- everybody referred to them as bimbo eruptions though. You know, this was the way that we all talked about it. I mean, I have to say that, you know, I was probably no better in that way. That people were very disparaging of the women. I was working in the Clinton administration at the time. And these women were treated as the enemy. And I just think in today's climate that type of public talking about them is trailer trash or stalkers --

KELLY: Here's my last question for you. Does it stop -- if it winds up being Hillary versus Trump, does it stop her from attacking him on women's issues?

POWERS: Well, no. Because I don't think that they appreciate the danger that they are up against right now. And I think that they think this has been litigated and that nobody cares about it anymore. And that -- and I just truly do not think they appreciate it. If they appreciated the danger of it, they would have never sent out that tweet.

KELLY: Great to see you.

POWERS: Good to be here.

KELLY: Also tonight, new fallout from reporting we brought you on dozens of top secret e-mails found on Hillary Clinton's server. A new report indicates that some of the e-mails contain information about controversial drone strikes. This is a stuff that's even more secret than top secret. And earlier tonight, The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes said, if anyone else had information like that, he is being told by professionals they would not be treated with kid gloves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN HAYES, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: I talked to three national security lawyers who deal with this for a living. This is all they do today. And they all said, without exception, that there's no question this person would have lost her clearances if this were, you know, a senior GS-14 or 15 employee. Probably would have lost his or her job. And possibly would have already been indicted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: Judge Andrew Napolitano is our FOX News senior judicial analyst. You agree with that?

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST: I do. I do. I actually go a couple of steps further than Steve and suggest that Mrs. Clinton should be consulting very high powered national security criminal defense lawyers. That is criminal defense lawyers who have national security clearances so they can see the evidence against her to negotiate with the FBI. Because the case against her is overwhelming, damming, and from her perspective, grave. And when she says there is no there, there, when she laughs about it, when she says this is the rigged suggesting of an old New York Times story, she is effectively mocking the 100 FBI agents that are investigating.

KELLY: Even today she said that she never sent or received classified information.

NAPOLITANO: That infuriates me, Megyn. Because that's a word game when she says, I neither sent nor received anything marked classified. I'm making the quotation marks with my fingers because nothing is marked classified. It is marked confidential, secret, top secret. And under top secret, there are four sub markings. The most sensitive of which is this select access privilege which is what 12 -- excuse me, two dozen, 24 of her e-mails had on there. That is the most secret information the government has.

KELLY: But unlike David Petraeus, her supporters are saying, she didn't willingly, she is not being accused of willingly sharing this information with people. That's what he did when he gave this information to his biographer. And so, if she was nearly negligent in not protecting it, criminal charges?

NAPOLITANO: Absolutely. I happen to think that intent should be an element of criminal charges. That's just me. This particular law expressly says intent is not an element. Meaning the government doesn't have to prove that she intended. Her negligent treatment of National Security secrets, her failure to safeguard and store National Security secrets --

KELLY: On a server that the Russians and the Chinese may have hacked into it --

NAPOLITANO: Correct. Can be basis for a criminal prosecution. We're not talking about one. We're not talking about a loose leaf in a desk like General Petraeus, we're talking about hundreds.

KELLY: First of all, they're saying, they think that this inspector general for the intelligence community who is Obama's appointment is in cahoots with the Republicans to hurt her with leaks. And secondly, they are saying, this stuff that we are all treating is like so scary, it is stuff that could have appeared in the newspaper. That the CIA would treat classified information as classified, even if it is about a drone strike and it appears in The New York Times but it's also in her e-mail, they say that is also classified.

NAPOLITANO: There is a bona fide argument to be made that the government classifies too much information but not at the SAP category. That is the highest level of classification. Do you know what type of information is in there? The names of moles? Black ops. That is secret programs that government wants to deny the existence of. For her to have put that on an open server while she is the Secretary of State is absolutely grossly negligent and must be the basis for an indictment.

KELLY: It's getting more dangerous for her on that side. Judge, good to see you.

NAPOLITANO: Likewise.

KELLY: Well, the growing controversy surrounding Mrs. Clinton's e-mails along with her plummeting poll numbers are leading to some speculation that she could possibly drop out. If she does, what does that mean?

Chris Stirewalt is our FOX News digital politic editor. Is there any real chance to that?

CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITIC EDITOR: Well, I think drop out maybe isn't the right term. Forced out or the president has to come out with that ether-soaked rag and just sort of take her off of the stage very slowly, as she goes away. I don't think she's going to wake up and say, boy, there is just not working out. I’ll smell you later.

KELLY: You know, if she were smart, she would. She would say, I'm done, this sucks.

STIREWALT: Every time I try to run you people are terrible to me and I'm over it.

KELLY: This is why I hate running for public office.

STIREWALT: Thank God, I have a quarter billion dollars and you suckers can go away.

KELLY: All right. So, let's go into this, you know, possibility that something happens.

STIREWALT: Right.

KELLY: The FBI says, she needs to be prosecuted. And Obama's DOJ says, yes, we're going to do it. What happens then? Bernie Sanders has got it?

STIREWALT: It depends on when. So, if it happens, if Hillary Clinton were indicted and the president basically said, for the good of the party, you got to go, if that happens before she has clenched the nomination, because as it goes, I know Bernie Sanders having a great time in Iowa and New Hampshire, the delegate count is so good for her and she's going to wrap it up fairly early. But if it happens before, let's say April or let's say middle of April and the delegates aren't allocated and the nomination is still up for grabs, it would be awfully hard for the Democrats to deny Bernie Sanders the nomination because he would be the guy that was in the race and he'd go on and win it. And then the Democrats would sob softly into their hands and lose the presidency.

KELLY: Uh-hm.

STIREWALT: Now the other way that it goes is, she had locked up the nomination, she is indicted or somehow forced to leave the race. And that means you go to a convention and it is crazy town. It is totally crazy town.

KELLY: Because Joe Biden is like, remember me, remember how much I said I regretted not running?

STIREWALT: Exactly.

KELLY: But then the delegates are pledge to Bernie Sanders in this hypothetical --

STIREWALT: No, no, no, no, no. He's got some --

KELLY: But Joe Biden is not on any on the ballots in any of these states.

STIREWALT: But if she leaves the race and she releases her delegates and the Democrats have a ton of super delegates, they have a lot of unpledged delegates. Anyway, if she leaves the race and her delegates are now unbound, they can do whatever they want.

KELLY: But I thought, you know, he had to announce by the certain day because he wasn't getting his name on the ballots on certain states --

STIREWALT: He would never have to run. And under that scenario, if she was ousted prior to the convention but after she locked up enough delegates for the nomination and the primaries were over, you just go to an open convention.

KELLY: So, it's like Debbie Wasserman Schultz can just write a check saying, she's out, Joe Biden is in. And then feel the burn, she feel the burn if she did it.

STIREWALT: She would totally feel the burn. But the scenario that works most like -- the way you're describing it after the convention and Hillary Clinton is the nominee, any time between the end of July and Election Day if she is forced out at that point, then the Democrats get to sort of make- up rules as they go. And that's when you send a fruit basket to Debbie Wasserman Schultz and say, for all of the terrible things that we ever said about you, we are so sorry.

KELLY: You know what, David Benioff has nothing on this scenario.

(LAUGHTER)

"Game of Thrones," this is like, forget it. This is the real "Game of Thrones." Great to see you.

STIREWALT: The real deal. You bet.

KELLY: Unbelievable.

Wow! We have new details tonight on a huge winter storm. And what is seen in our nation's capital right now are any indication, millions of Americans could be in for tough weekend. Look, like two centimeters of snow. It's paralyzed.

Then for the first time ever, the Department of Homeland Security has released numbers on how many came here from countries with terror ties and then went missing when it was time go home. Because we are so good at enforcing our visa overstays.

Dana Perino has the detail on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, R, UNITED STATES: We welcome legal immigrants, we welcome people coming to America. We welcome the process that encourages people to come to our country, to visit, to study, to work. What we don't welcome are people who come to hurt the American people and so therefore, we'll going to be very diligent with our visas and observant with the behavior of people who come to this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: Well, that was President Bush nearly 14-and-a-half years ago. After the first meeting of the Homeland Security Council and the aftermath of 9/11. Just six weeks before, 19 hijackers nearly killed nearly 3,000 people. Two of those terrorists were in the United States on expired visas. And others had visa overstays as well. Today we're learning about a first of its kind report revealing the United States still, still does not have control over who is entering the U.S. on temporary visas and refusing to leave. The numbers are amazing. Just last year alone, nearly half a million foreigners, including thousands from countries like Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and good old Yemen, are living in the United States with expired visas. What could go wrong? The reports sparking serious concerns about our nation's security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-TEXAS, SENATE MAJORITY WHIP: The 9/11 Commission pointed out at least two of the 9/11 attackers were overstayed their legitimate visas.

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, R-ALABAMA, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: It places our country at risk both economically for jobs and for terrorist attacks. And in fact, by far the highest percentage of overstays well over 10, 20 percent, come from some of the most dangerous countries in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: Uh-hm. Dana Perino served as White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush and is co-host of "THE FIVE." Dana, good to see you.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS CO-HOST, "THE FIVE": Thank you for having me.

KELLY: So, this is actually a big issue because, we're going to see this at the Republican debate next week. A lot of these Republicans say they are in favor of legal immigration.

PERINO: Yes.

KELLY: And they are talking about visas in large part. People who are allowed to come here. They don't sneak across the border. But visa overstays is a real problem. Up to 40 percent of the illegal immigrants here came via this way.

PERINO: Right. So, they enter legally and then you're supposed to leave after about six months. So when I moved to England to be with Peter, I was on a six-month tourist visa and on the six month and one day, we were really nervous because we've gotten married but the paperwork wasn't finished. So, I could have been thrown out of the country. So, I had this kind of like a panic thing. So, you have 500,000 people a year. This is the first report of this kind. So, we don't know how this compares to previous years.

But we know now from the Department of Homeland Security, who was pushed by the Congress, the Republicans in Congress, to find out how many do you think there are. They finally have come up with this number, it's about 500,000. The problem is, they are very hard to track. In the United Kingdom, they have fried to figure out a way to track people who have overstayed their visas and allow them to leave voluntarily. Guess what? Fifty percent of them don't leave voluntarily. Then you have to expend resources --

KELLY: To find them.

PERINO: -- to try to -- not just find them but deportation hearings and lawyers and things like that.

KELLY: But they don't even know where a lot these people are. From Syria, in Iran --

PERINO: That's exactly right.

KELLY: -- in Afghanistan, in Yemen and our country.

PERINO: Right.

KELLY: And some of these Republicans have been pushing biometric tracking systems. What is that?

PERINO: So, that would mean -- so let's say that you want to get into the building in the future, and instead of flashing your badge, they would scan your eyes. OK? That sounds like a really good idea. To some people. Extremely expensive. That is coming. But imagine what we just went through in the privacy discussions with Ed Snowden.

KELLY: Uh-hm.

PERINO: A lot of Americans don’t necessarily want the government having that information, the problem is, those who overstay their visas are in and amongst us so, you can't figure out a way to pick them out.

(CROSSTALK)

KELLY: They have to have a retna scan to go into the gap, we'd probably find them, right.

PERINO: That's exactly ...

KELLY: Do we want to live in that kind of society?

PERINO: You have to do a cost benefit analysis. A thing that the Congress could do immediately and that the president could do is one, stop bragging about how great your interior enforcement is on immigration because obviously, based on this report from the Department of Homeland Security, it's not that great.

The other thing is they could pass very strict penalties. There has to be some sort of consequence or deterrent to overstay your visa. Right now, the consequence is just isn't great enough to make people leave when they are supposed to.

KELLY: Need a slap on the wrist. I want to ask you on a different subject, we were having this discussion with Judge Napolitano about this special category, above top secret. Dana worked in the White House for years and tell the viewers what you just told me about that special category of classified intel--

PERINO: So, I had SCI clearance which is just the level just above top secret. When this news broke, I had never seen an e-mail with SAP classification. I wouldn't have access to that. If I had -- I didn't even need to know that and I didn't try to find out about it.

To think that she was just so reckless with the classified information and then acts like it's a Republican problem, that the Inspector General, which is a nonpartisan person, she is actually accusing him of politicization when it was actually the Democrats who were politicizing the Inspector General. All he was doing was responding to a congressional inquiry as he is supposed to do.

KELLY: That's his job. It's unbelievable Dana, good to see you.

PERINO: Thank you.

KELLY: And bye. Well, we're also digging into the story of the American college professor now accused of recruiting for ISIS, and wait until you see what turned up in his background.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: And now "The Kelly File" investigation into a college professor accused of recruiting for ISIS. Julio Pino is an associate professor of history at Kent State, a public university where he has been teaching for decades despite some wildly controversial statements. Yesterday, 20 of Pino's students and a few of his colleagues were interviewed as part of an FBI probe.

Pino was no stranger to controversy posting pictures like this of child jihadists on his public Facebook page, and while he denies supporting ISIS and says if he -- he says that he never incited any of the students to violence. A review of his Facebook page turns up a posting in which he praises Usama bin Laden as the "greatest." Ryan Moro is a professor and National Security Analyst with the Clarion Project who's been doing some digging on Professor Pino. Good to see you, Ryan.

RYAN MORO, PROFESSOR AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks for having me.

KELLY: What is first of all should the -- the FBI is confirming its investigation into this man?

MORO: Right.

KELLY: On the record.

MORO: Well, there's been an anonymous statement by FBI agents and then I'm not sure if there was a public statement but what he is saying is, "Look, I haven't been arrested yet and I haven't been informed that I am the subject of an investigation."

KELLY: They think he is recruiting for ISIS?

MORO: Right, recruiting students for ISIS, actually using his position as a professor in order to find recruits and when I was looking at his Facebook page, I found many indications of extremism, including posting pictures that are supportive of ISIS and saying the Al Qaeda, which was once led by the great Usama bin Laden in his words and kicked off this current jihad, supporters of him now join ISIS because they are now the ones that are the best jihadists.

KELLY: He talks about the oath that the "19 martyrs made, was a glorious oath among the most noble oaths, among others." But I mean it goes on and on and on. He has been doing this for years. How has he survived at Kent State this long?

MORO: Well, here is what is really shocking is that his first statement he was noticed for in which supported terrorism where he was praising suicide bombings happened in 2002. And so, there's been controversy surrounding this individual all the way since back -- all the way back then. But the university has not fired him and so, what I really want to know is why aren't you firing him and if there's a reason that you cannot do so legally, explain that because right now, all we're hearing from the university leadership is that well, we condemn these statements and FBI assures us there is no threat to the campus.

KELLY: The university says free speech. This is free speech and these are his view points. Recruiting for ISIS is a different story but he is denying that. They say it is free speech. One has to wonder if you are getting up there saying the N word every three words in his sentences, whether they'd be telling us this is free speech and we can't do anything about it.

MORO: And that was my thought exactly especially because it has been going on so consistently over the years where he was reportedly writing for a pro Al Qaeda website that was distributing training manuals for jihadists. And when the campus -- when the university and the authority say, well, there's no active threat here, we have to ask ourselves, what else are they supposed to say? There's a guy that we can certain to be a threat but we don't have the evidence to arrest him for so, sorry -- that's what they have to say. Anywhere where there's an ISIS supporter, it is a threatening situation. I would not go on that campus if I was a student.

KELLY: He is currently teaching. He's teaching two classes right now. History is one of them -- history of Cuba and Central America and a seminar in history. So right now, he is teaching students. He said he plans to continue teaching these classes this semester and he will be back in the following semester. So, isn't it up now to the faculty and parents of the student body to come out and say, "No, he won't be. No, he won't."

MORO: It is and it is up to the university leadership to explain how inciting terrorism isn't a violation of the faculty code of conduct. And if they want to fire them -- fire him, why they're unable to do so? We need a greater explanation here besides just saying, "Oh well, it's free speech and there's no threat." Again, anywhere there is an ISIS supporter who believes that any Americans is a legitimate target for jihad, that is a situation that is unsafe.

KELLY: This is unbelievable. We'll stay on it. Ryan, thank you.

MORO: Thank you.

KELLY: Well, we have crazy pictures out of Washington, D.C. tonight where the leading edge of a winter storm -- thousands of commuters still sitting in their cars. It is not moving. Look at this. Rick Reichmuth is here with what this storm is expected to do.

Plus, a case of contaminated water has turned into a new national fight over the role of government in our lives. See what it means for America next.

(START OF VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In 10, 15 years, we can see a community suffering from the cognitive, the behavioral ramifications of this population-wide lead exposure.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Growing fallout in Flint, Michigan after the Governor apologizes for the city's poisoned water supply. Critics say State Officials knew Flint's water was contaminated with dangerous levels of lead months ago but did not tell the public and now newly released e-mails reveal more about who knew what and when. Trace Gallagher is live in our West Coast News room with this story. Trace?

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL LOS ANGELES CORRESPONDENT: Megyn for more than a year and a half, residents of Flint, Michigan complained the water had a foul odor, tasted funky and was causing side effects like rash and hair loss. Federal State and local agencies all reportedly had evidence the water was bad yet they kept saying it was not. That is until doctors finally started diagnosing kids with high levels of lead in their blood.

The water has turned out to be so tainted and so corrosive, General Motors has stopped using it fearing it will corrode machinery at their engine plant. Now, the local water is forcing national action, watch --

(START OF VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Over the weekend I declared a Federal emergency in Flint to send more resources on top of the assistance that we've already put on the ground.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: But Michigan Governor Rick Snyder says a state of emergency isn't enough. He wants the president to declare it a disaster, which would free up tens of millions of federal dollars. But it's the Governor getting the brunt of the criticism. Even Hillary Clinton has accused him of ignoring the needs of an already disadvantaged community. Today the governor released his e-mails regarding Flint and they appear to show that his chief of staff informed him the water was "less than savory, but no clear evidence of lead."

The same chief of staff went on to blame State and County water authorities. The reason Flint made the switch from using the Detroit Water System to using water from the Flint River was to save money. The city by the way is still demanding residents pay for the water that was making them sick. Listen --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels personal and it makes us all -- people who are tied to Flint is very, very angry.

GALLAGHER: Several lawsuits have now been filed on behalf of the Flint residents. Megyn?

KELLY: Unbelievable. Trace, thank you.

This has new become a national political story and you can see why.
President Obama, today visiting the city of Flint and suggesting this water crisis is just a symptom of a bigger problem.

OBAMA: Sometimes we down play the role that an effective government has to play in protecting the public health and safety of people and clearly the system here broke down.

KELLY: Back with us now to discuss, Chris Stirewalt and Dana Perino. Thanks both for coming back. Chris, Ron Fournier writes today, this town is a hard bitten industrial town where they're full of people too proud to give up and too poor to matter. Is that why this happened?

CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: I grew up in a part of America that is not entirely different from Flint, Michigan and I can say that Ron is right about flint and a lot of places in the rust belt in the United States. Part of the problem is the insane lying that politicians in both parties have done to people in these communities for generations.

To say somehow it's coming back or it's going to get better or just hang on, I have a plan to make it better because nobody wants to tell the truth, which is, it ain't going to work. And you have these failed cities, you have these failed communities, where people keep hanging on to hope for the next good thing and then you see this and realize it is only getting worse.

KELLY: Dana, who is to blame here?

PERINO: Well first, I think Ron Fournier, who wrote a great piece and he's from Michigan, his from the area. He knows the politicians very well. He writes about how there is a systematic failure over and over again at the local state and possibly the federal level. I think the most important thing is the governor said all right, I will take responsibility. Let's try to fix this right now.

I don't think it should -- that the White House should waste another moment deciding whether this is a disaster or not. Basically, that distinction allows for more resources to flow to Flint immediately and I would hope the taxpayers all across the nation would say, "okay this is where we can all come together and help them and do the right thing."

KELLY: Right.

PERINO: But now, the city manager apparently knew. I mean it's not -- the thing that's so egregious about this, correct me if I'm wrong, is they had knowledge. They knew, Chris, that there was something wrong with the water and they let the people who were too proud to give up, but too poor to matter continue drinking it including children.

STIREWALT: Well, look, I will say that an individual -- people have no choice, right. If you're poor and you have no place to go and you don't have resources to move, but if you were pouring water into a cup for your child and it stunk and it smelled like sulfur and was rotten, would you give that to your child? No. You'd revolt. You'd march in the street. You know, we've had a lot of demonstrations of late in the United States.

We've had a lot of demonstration movements about justice for this and don't do that and don't say this. The people of Flint should have been protesting in the streets. They should have been demanding at their leadership. And may I say this, Dana mentioned that maybe the EPA knew. Oh, the EPA knew. The EPA absolutely knew. The EPA said, well, it was a bureaucratic problem, blah, blah, blah. They knew and they failed to do their job.

They failed to act to protect people and this is the same agency, dad gum it, that claims that it should have the power to regulate every facet of human life in this country and it cannot keep sulfur out of the drinking water or the baby bottles of children in Flint, Michigan. Give me a break.

KELLY: And now the worst have already circled as of course they would. I mean there's already been five state and one Federal lawsuit filed against Flint in connection with this crisis and more to come. And the question is whether the EPA buried this because there is a Virginia Tech researcher who did a water analysis in 2015.

It helped to expose this contamination and they're saying at the federal level, the EPA knew and buried it. And the question is what should happen as a result. I mean who should get fired? Where is the accountability going to be besides the courtroom?

PERINO: Well remember also, just six months ago that the federal EPA poisoned an entire river in Colorado and I don't think anybody paid a price for that. I think that the first thing -- I think that the president should be able to hopefully face the city of Flint or to the governor somehow, these residents are not going to pay for the water.

KELLY: No, they're not going to pay for the dirty water.

PERINO: That's number one. Okay, so that's not happening so, let's let -- at least releave them of that being on their minds. You don't even have to have a legal dispute about that.

KELLY: Talk about insult to injury. We have to stay on this. This shouldn't happen in America in 2016. It shouldn't happen. Thank you both.

STIREWALT: You bet.

KELLY: Well, 50 million Americans could be in the path of what forecasters are calling a potentially crippling storm this weekend. Rick Reichmuth is up late and here with the forecast. It's new, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Fox News Weather for you now, people from Virginia to New York are preparing for what forecasters are calling a major and potentially crippling snow storm that could bring several feet of snow, sleet, and power outages. These pictures are coming back from Washington, D.C. where the leading edge of the storm has made a mess of the evening commute and before it is done, the storm is expected to do impact an estimated 50 million people along the East Coast. Rick Reichmuth up late for us live in the Fox Weather Center tonight, Rick?

RICK REICHMUTH, METEOROLOGIST FOX NEWS: Yeah, we've had about an inch of snow Megyn from the storm that's kind of going through the area today and caused big problems. This is really a separate storm. The storm that we're watching is going to be the blockbuster storm. It's back here across parts of the Central Rockies right now and it is moving very quickly at this point.

It's going to slow down once it gets across parts of the coastal areas and that's why snowfall totals are going to be so big. You can you get an idea of where we have winter weather advisories all the way down across the mid-Mississippi River Valley through the Tennessee Valley, Ohio valley and then take a look at this, blizzard watch is in effect for D.C. up towards Baltimore. I think that's going to be the area that gets a lot of wind and potentially the cities to see the biggest snow. Tomorrow we're going to have a lot of severe weather across parts of the south also so be very careful, that could see a few tornadoes.

Then Friday we see snow here across most Virginia, West Virginia back through Kentucky but it's around the 5:00 p.m. area, evening commute in D.C. that the snow starts there. That's good news, we're not going to be talking about it happening during the work week, which will help a little bit. But what we're going to watch here, to take a look closer across the big cities, it's all snow for D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia.

How far north this goes could have big impact here for New York City and all the people there. These are some of the model numbers here. You see these big numbers, D.C. maybe up around 2 feet of snow, New York a little bit less than that. We'll have much better idea tomorrow and of course we'll be keeping you posted right here.

KELLY: Just before I let you go, who is usually right, the Europeans or the United States in these estimates?

REICHMUTH: you know what, it is a big battle that goes on between the two.

KELLY: The Europeans aren't exactly known for their conservatism. I know if it crosses over into weather.

REICHMUTH: They have some stronger weather computer models than we do. More robust computers to give it a -- ingest all that data and put it out, so.

KELLY: Grab the sleds. See you, Rick.

REICHMUTH: You bet.

KELLY: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: So, tune in tomorrow night because we're going to have Senator Marco Rubio, but we're also going to have Rich Lowry who is going to break a big story within the Republican Party. Looking forward to seeing you then. DVR us if you haven't already. I'm Megyn Kelly. This is 'The Kelly File.'

Content and Programming Copyright 2016 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.