What we know about the terrorist behind the Nice attack
On 'The Kelly File,' Ali Soufan examines clues about Mohamed Bouhlel's past
This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," July 15, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST, "THE KELLY FILE": Breaking tonight, two huge stories unfolding as we watch both new fallout from last night's horrifying terror attack in France, and today an armed battle for power in the streets of Turkey. One of our most important allies in the Middle East.
Welcome to a very busy night here on "The Kelly File," everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly, and all hell is breaking loose in Turkey right now. Watch.
(GUNFIRE)
Explosions and gunfire rocking the capital of Turkey where reports of a military coup starting breaking just a few hours ago. The U.S. cares a lot about Turkey. A lot. Which has played a key role in our fight against ISIS. Just look at where it's located. Look at this map that I'm putting up for you. Now, we're not sure who is in control at this hour, who is trying to take control, or how this is going to end. We do know that Americans are being told to take shelter, to stay away from the embassies, and to stay off of the streets.
The Turkish military has more fire power than almost any other country in the region, much of it American-made. And in moments, former CIA Director James Woolsey joins us on how high the stakes are here. But first, there is breaking news on the attack in Nice, France, last night. The heroes who brought it to an end and the heartbroken families who are still looking for missing loved ones. The death toll has now risen to 84, including 10 children.
Stuffed animals, strollers, and a child's bike were among the items investigators were combing through along a crime scene that stretches for more than a mile. More than 200 others were injured in the chaos. One marked by noises and cries that one witness said they will never forget. But we are also learning about some of the heroes who emerged amid the horrors, like the person on a motorcycle who tried to cut off the driver of that track before attempting to enter the moving vehicle.
We're also learning that this attack might have continued were it not for another brave soul who reportedly jumped in front of the truck before the police were able to subdue the man inside. But the stories of the would be heroes last night likely mean little to the families who lost their loved ones, like Sean and 11-year-old Brodie Copeland, a father and son from Texas who were on a family vacation and who are now being mourned by friends and loved ones a world away. Look at that. Look at that.
We are also learning more about the man behind the attack, whose home has been raided and has reportedly his estranged wife has been taken into custody in the hours since his rampage along with the French Riviera. We've got an all-star line-up for you tonight.
Former FBI special agent Ali Soufan is here on what more we are learning about the Nice attacker. Charles Krauthammer weighs in on the President's response today. And then Brigitte Gabriel and two American Imams will wade into the firestorm over a suggestion from Newt Gingrich about deporting some American Muslims.
But we begin tonight with Bill Hemmer. Co-anchor of America's Newsroom, who is live in Nice, France, with more on what we witnessed last night. Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CO-ANCHOR, "AMERICA'S NEWSROOM": Megyn, good evening. 3:00 in the morning here. Over my left shoulder, a small candlelight vigil here. About a dozen or two people come by even at this late hour as the crowd starts to thin out here. The one remarkable thing is how many come over here, and they sit or they stand, Megyn, in complete silence. And that reflects what they're trying to understand on the inside. They exchange hugs and often there are tears that run down their face.
This is another story that has hit this country yet again, trying to figure out why. For more than a mile, a 31-year-old Tunisian who was raised here in East France, took an 18-ton truck and drove it at maximum speed, trying to hit as many people as possible along that treacherous, deadly route. And he was wildly successful at ripping the heart out of this country yet again. But there are many questions tonight. We're only 30 hours into this investigation. There's been no claim of responsibility. I think that's important so far because there was a claim in Paris back in November.
There was a claim at the Brussels airport back in March. But so far, we have not been told of any. The other thing is that there is no link for this killer to an Islamic radical group. Maybe that changes. Again, we're in the early stages of this. But so far, no evidence has turned up. Throughout the country, though, you hear from the President Hollande, who has really -- he's become the face of this tragedy for a country for more than a year now. He has issued a state of emergency that has now extended another three months.
He's put 10,000 soldiers in different parts of the country of France. And on Saturday, when the sun comes up here in about four hours, they will begin three days of mourning throughout the country as well. One thing that is significant about Hollande is that he talks about the terrorist as if he's going to take them out. That has not happened. And many are wondering tonight whether or not this is a country that can take on a challenge for a madman jumping in a truck that he rented, telling police he had ice cream in the back of the truck, getting past that security line, and doing the damage that he brought here. How do you stop that? That's the question they're asking in many parts of the world tonight -- Megyn.
KELLY: Indeed. Bill Hemmer, thank you, sir.
We are also learning more about the terrorist behind the attack in France. And just throughout the evening we're going to be popping up the situation in Turkey on the screen for you as well. So you can keep your eye on this attempted coup there, and we'll get into why you should care. But the terrorist in France last night, we now know, is a 31-year-old North African living in Nice. And some terror experts say he fits what has now become a familiar profile. Then today his ex-wife was taken into police custody, and we learned still more about him.
Trace Gallagher is live in our New York City Headquarters tonight with the very latest. Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And Megyn, we are learning a lot more about Mohamed Bouhlel, except for the motive, whether he was inspired by radical beliefs or whether he was depressed about his impending divorce. But Bouhlel's family is now shining some light on the 31-year-old's killer's background. His cousin telling the Daily Mail that he was, quote, "a nasty piece of work and an unlikely jihadist," someone who didn't follow any of the basic rules of Islam.
The cousin claims Bouhlel drank alcohol, smoked, ate pork, took drugs, did not go to the mosque, didn't pray, and didn't observe Ramadan. His relationship with his wife, the mother of his three children, had recently crumbled. The two were in the midst of a divorce, and those who knew him say, he had a fierce temper. Today on Shepard Smith reporting, I spoke with Daily Mail reporter Nick Fagge. Watch.
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NICK FAGGE, DAILY MAIL REPORTER: Well, we do know for a fact is that he repeatedly beat her and all the neighbors know what a violent, horrible man he was to her. He was finally kicked out of the family home two years ago and moved to a smaller flat down the road.
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GALLAGHER: There is no indication so far that the killer's ex-wife knew about his plan, but she has been taken into custody both for questioning and for her own safety. And we are also learning the Nice killer was having financial trouble as well. He lost his job as a delivery driver after falling asleep at the wheel and crashing into four cars. Neighbors say he was a strange man, always looking at them oddly, staring at their daughters. And one neighbor even claims that after an argument recently, Bouhlel said to him, quote, "One day you'll hear about me." Investigators are now combing through evidence in his small apartment and following up on leads that at one time suggested he may have had an accomplice -- Megyn.
KELLY: Trace, thank you.
Joining us now with more, Ali Soufan who is a former FBI supervisory special agent who investigated the 9/11 terror attacks among many other terrorist attacks.
Ali, good to see you tonight.
ALI SOUFAN, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Good evening.
KELLY: And so, I mean, you hear that quote from the cousin of the wife. He wasn't religious, didn't go to mosque, didn't pray, didn't observe Ramadan, drink alcohol, ate pork, took drugs. He was not a Muslim, she says. That's certainly how it sounds. But what do you think?
SOUFAN: Well, you know, he fits the profile for many other people who joined ISIS and joined these extremist groups from France and from Belgium. Eighty percent of those who traveled, for example, from Belgium to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups had criminal records, and they were not observant in any way, shape, or form. Same thing in France. So that fits the profile. I mean I still remember the 9/11. Some of the hijackers went to a stripper joint before they boarded the plane. Muhammad Atta, the leader of the operation had a fight with a bartender on how many shots of vodka he had because he thought the bartender was charging him more money. So a lot of these guys --
KELLY: But let me ask you, is that cover? Because we've been told by other terror experts that some of these Islamic terrorists are told to lie, to adopt a more Americanized lifestyle, for example, over here, to act western so they're not suspicious, or is that a genuine rejection of some of the tenants of Islam, which certainly don't allow drinking and drugs and carousing by people who maybe have a foothold in Islam but aren't true believers?
SOUFAN: It might be for some people, it's a cover. But also from my experience in dealing with a lot of these guys and interrogating many of them. You know, religion is an afterthought usually. It doesn't mean that they are not dangerous. It doesn't mean that they are not lethal. There are so many different reasons and incubating factors that feeds into the mentality of these individuals and help to radicalize them.
Now, to go back to this person in Nice, for example, Megyn, you know, we have to keep in mind that in 2010, "Inspire" magazine, which is an al Qaeda magazine for its branch, its affiliates in the Arabian Peninsula, the same magazine that taught the Boston bombers how to cook a bomb at home, it's the same magazine that, you know, advocated and promoted violence against the U.S. and our allies. This magazine actually asked jihadist and asked supporters and sympathizers to use their vehicles to kill pedestrians and create damage.
KELLY: Yes. They laid it all out. So clearly he was at least inspired by that sort of messaging. But the question is, is this what ISIS looks like now? Recruiting these disaffected, you know, I guess he was a Muslim, at least in name although perhaps not in practice according to the cousin of the wife. But recruiting these disaffected young men into just killing, just kill in the name of Islam, kill in the name of ISIS, kill in whatever name you want, but here's how you do it and do it on our behalf.
SOUFAN: And not even recruiting them, inspiring them as we saw in Orlando, for example. The only thing a person have to do is just to say, I am ISIS before they die, and I pledge allegiance to al Baghdadi, to the caliph, and then ISIS is going to consider it as an ISIS operation even though they didn't lift a finger. And yesterday, ISIS Twitter accounts and social media accounts were urging their supporters to wait because they don't have information about what's happening in France.
So that's something that we have to keep in mind, too, but ISIS now is not a physical terrorist group. It's morphed into a narrative, an ideology, a brand, and a lot of these people who are disenfranchised, crazy, they just do what ISIS want them to do, and then it's an ISIS operation.
KELLY: Ali, thank you. I just want to bring our viewers up to date on what we're seeing here on screen right. And you can see the anger in the streets of Turkey tonight, where there has been an attempted coup. We have breaking news out of Turkey right now. We want to get back now to that. We just got video of military forces facing off with a group of what appears to be supporters of the Turkish president, President Erdogan. In the last couple of hours, we've seen soldiers in the streets. We've seen huge crowds of Turks marching and chanting and reports of explosions and gunfire. Wait, let's just listen here.
You can hear some of the anger. Particularly we've seen these incidents happening about around the Turkish parliament and government buildings. Now in moments we're going to be joined by the former CIA Director James Woolsey.
But first we go to Fatih Artun. He's a reporter for our sister network Sky News, and he joins us on the phone from the heart of Istanbul. Thank you so much, Fatih, for being here with us. Tell us what you're seeing tonight in the streets.
FATIH ARTUN, SKY ARABIA REPORTER (on the phone): Actually, maybe you can hear right now Turkish military -- are flying over Istanbul right now. Actually one of them just passed really, I mean, close to us, and they are circling around the airport right now. Actually, what we're hearing now, (INAUDIBLE) Ankara or neighborhood from Istanbul, there is a military attempt, but it's not clear who is doing or which part he is supporting because some (INAUDIBLE), they don't support.
Also Turkish intelligence, I mean, head of media, Department of Turkish intelligence said that Turkish army general was -- but they saved him and now he is on his duty. Actually in Turkish history, we faced a few military coup, but no one happened like that because Turkish helicopter, Turkish jet fighters are hitting their country, hitting their parliament. It didn't happen in Turkish history before. I mean it's really -- they are now facing -- it's all 9/11 right now.
KELLY: Oh, wow. Wow. That's a stark way of putting it. Thank you very much.
I want to stand you by because we want to get to James Woolsey. Just to put this in perspective for folks, he's a former CIA director.
JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Thank you very much, sir, for being here tonight. Let's just -- with all due respect to the former CIA director, let's just take the pictures from Turkey live full screen so the viewers can see what's going on. So just assume that people don't know anything about Turkey, okay? We know where it's located on the map. We know it's a neighbor to Syria and Iraq which we care about. We know it's a NATO ally. Why should we care about what's happening with this coup, this attempted coup over President Erdogan?
Well, Turkey is very much the linchpin of that part of the world. It has a sophisticated labor force and a solid economy compared to a lot of the other places in the Middle East. It went through a huge transition in the aftermath of World War I with Ataturk moving toward a secular state. For many years, a number of us, me and both intelligence and arms control negotiations have worked with the Turks and have found them extremely helpful, useful, clever, wonderful allies.
And a lot of us would like to have it that way again. It was certainly not headed -- our relationship with Turkey was certainly not headed in that direction over the course of the last few years as Erdogan has imprisoned journalists and taken a number of other heavy -- very heavy-handed steps.
KELLY: So this guy -- just to set the scene. So, Erdogan gets elected and becomes more and more Islamist and more and more authoritarian. And what we've seen over the past few years is, he's called birth control treason, insisted all mothers have four children. He wants to ban alcohol, public kissing. Other signs of secularism. He's jailed hundreds of journalists, university professors. Thousands of people have been charged with the crime of insulting him. That's a crime there, if you insult Erdogan personally. So this is our supposed ally.
The Obama administration is backing him tonight, and yet what we're being told, although it's unclear -- you tell me -- is that this attempted coup, the military has, you know, for years said, you're getting, you know, you're getting too far afield. Let's pull it back. Let's be more secularized. If you try to go too Islamist, we'll pull you back. And yet the reports tonight are maybe that's what's happening or maybe -- maybe it's some other group? Is that what we're worried about? Because you tell me why the Obama administration would not be backing a coup like this.
WOOLSEY: Well, this part of the world is the home of many conspiracy theories and I'll pass one on to you that has come to me today from a friend in Turkey. And he says there are a number of people who believe this, which is that the coup was so clumsy and so ineffective and so badly pulled together, that it may have been at least in part a fake and something that was organized by the Erdogan government in order to be cracked down on.
Now, I don't know that that's true. I floated it because it seemed interesting, and there are apparently a number of people in Turkey who believe that. But whether it was something like that or more likely just a badly organized coup that was not well-coordinated and that failed, we have a situation where it looks like the people who would more or less be regarded as reformers are likely to lose.
KELLY: All right. If I can just stand you by, Director Woolsey, because this is President Erdogan right here. He's landed in Istanbul. His plane was circling reportedly with no place to land, looking for asylum was an initial report. I think we may have the English translation. Let's listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those are unconfirmed reports. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also has been speaking in the last few moments. We'll be having more through the morning here on Sky News.
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KELLY: All right. We're trying to figure out what he said and what -- 150 injured. Okay. That's the latest reporting.
And back to you, Director Woolsey. So, you think this may not actually be the military staging a coup as we've seen them do in the past. This may be a group of fakers. This may be Erdogan messing with himself in other words, his own government? Because what the experts are saying is the worst possible outcome is more instability in Turkey.
WOOLSEY: I think the chances that that was a fake are well under 50/50, but they may not be zero. It's hard to understand why they went forward with something as clumsy and likely to fail as this.
KELLY: And so what are we looking for tonight? Because, you know, are Americans more in jeopardy, in other words? If President Erdogan stays, then, you know, tomorrow are we in the same position we were in yesterday with respect to Turkey?
WOOLSEY: I think we may be in a somewhat less good situation even than we were yesterday. I think the tensions between his government and us are likely to increase. I think it could be a very unpleasant coming months in American-Turkish relations. I wish it were different. I love working with the Turks.
KELLY: Wow. Instability. More instability in the Middle East is not what anybody is looking for.
WOOLSEY: No.
KELLY: And yet, nor is more extremism. Great to see you, James Woolsey. Thank you, sir.
WOOLSEY: Good to see you.
KELLY: While we keep an eye on this coup or attempted coup unfolding in Turkey tonight, we're also getting new reaction to President Obama's response on the French terror attack we saw last night. And Charles Krauthammer joins us next on that.
Plus, Newt Gingrich touched off a firestorm yesterday with suggestions that we may need to deport some American Muslims from this country. See what he's saying tonight when we come back. Stay tuned.
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NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We should frankly test every person from here who is of a Muslim background and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to win this fight by building, by never giving up on diplomacy to end the Syrian civil war, by working with partners around the world, including Muslim communities, to push back against hateful ideologies that twist and distort Islam. And we will win this fight by staying true to our values, values of pluralism and rule of law and diversity and freedoms like the freedom of religion, freedom of speech and assembly.
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KELLY: That was President Obama speaking earlier today on the terror attack in Nice, France, that killed at least 84 people. He said we would win this fight by never giving up on diplomacy and went on to stress that Islam is a religion of peace. But many of the President's critics were hoping for something stronger. Case in point, 1986, Libyan terrorists bombed a West Berlin nightclub hoping to kill off-duty American servicemen. The explosion took the lives of three people, including two U.S. soldiers and wounded hundreds of others. Within days, President Reagan had launched a military response that was not without controversy and said this to the nation.
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RONALD REAGAN, 40TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We Americans are slow to anger. We always seek peaceful avenues before resorting to the use of force, and we did. We tried quiet diplomacy, public condemnation, economic sanctions, and demonstrations of military force. None succeeded. Despite our repeated warnings, Gaddafi continued his reckless policy of intimidation, his relentless pursuit of terror. He counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong.
I warned that there should be no place on earth where terrorists can rest and train and practice their deadly skills. I meant it. I said that we would act with others if possible and alone if necessary to ensure that terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere. Tonight we have.
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KELLY: Joining me now, Charles Krauthammer, syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor. Charles, good to see you.
Those Reagan remarks just make you feel something. They make you feel among other things that he got it. He got it. Your thoughts.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Obama's rhetoric was completely wrong, repeating everything he's been saying for seven and a half years, which has yielded us the worst outbreak the terrorism that we have seen the last 12 months. All over the globe, mass murders on a large scale and quickening in pace. So his turning to diplomacy is almost pathetic because he doesn't seem to be able to articulate any other answer.
KELLY: At this point, Americans want to know what it's going to take to win. I mean, the resolve to defeat this group is growing by the day.
KRAUTHAMMER: Well, he's tried diplomacy. People don't even remember now when they called for a big summit of world leaders to go after this. Kerry called a huge summit right after the earlier ISIS attacks, the earlier ISIS -- the cold-blooded executions on video and on the internet. When it was, you know, a large number of countries. Obama boasted of a 61-member coalition, which is pathetic. Where are these people? Essentially the U.S. Air Force, a couple of other allies, and of course the Iraqi army and militias on the ground and the Kurds, of course.
But the idea that our diplomacy is solving this has simply been shown to be false. What needs to be done, everybody understands, ISIS has alienated every country in the region, alienated people around the world, and it can be taken out. It is not ten feet tall. The Washington Post had a lead story earlier in the week talking about the fact that ISIS is quietly preparing its own people for the fall of the caliphate, what's happening on the ground right now in Mosul is the next target, and ultimately it will be Raqqa. They are now metastasizing to live, to strike, to execute their plans elsewhere.
But they are being squeezed in their homeland, and that, to me, is the key. That's the way to win this. You have to make them homeless. You have to remove the sanctuary. You have to remove their income. Ultimately they then have to go underground. Yes, they will continue to strike, but they will be nowhere near the threat they are now. It hinges on what happens on the ground in the region, and you don't execute that by diplomacy.
KELLY: Charles, what do you make of what's happening in Turkey tonight?
KRAUTHAMMER: Well, the reports are conflicting. The military clearly has seen itself for a hundred years as a defender of secularism, and they have a president who has been relentlessly pushing Turkey into a dictatorship. He's been suspending judges, imprisoning journalists, taking over all the institutions and islamistizing (ph) the country, one that is famously secular in the Muslim world. And they have done this before. They've had a coup almost every decade.
Whenever the elected government would move Islamist, they would strike. Now, if they succeed, I think ultimately it would be to our benefit because the Turkish military, the secular arm of Turkey, is a very strong ally of the west, very anti-Islamist, will join us with a lot more vigor in the fight against ISIS and terrorism.
If Erdogan wins, I suspect he'll be strengthened. He will accelerate the Islamistization, and he has been playing a double game with ISIS, allowing infiltration into ISIS territory, allowing the fighters to go in and out, and also allowing the refugees to pour into Europe. So his game is he's not an enemy. He's been warming up slightly, allowing us to do air strikes out of Turkey. But this could change. He could be embittered. He could be radicalized, and that would be a terrible outcome.
KELLY: Charles Krauthammer, thank you so much. Good to see you.
KRAUTHAMMER: My pleasure.
KELLY: Well, ISIS affiliated groups are promising that the violence we saw in Nice, France, is likely to continue across the globe. And Newt Gingrich is taking some heat tonight for suggesting that American-Muslims who subscribe to Sharia law should actually be deported. Here's what Gingrich told Sean Hannity last night.
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GINGRICH: Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported. Sharia is incompatible with western civilization.
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KELLY: Azam Akram is imam of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Chicago. Bridgette Gabriel a New York Times best-selling author and president of Act for America and Sheikh Ahmad Salman is imam of Darus Saalam mosque in San Francisco. Thank you all so much for being here. Ahmad, let me start with you on this and your thoughts on Newt's proposal to potentially deport American-Muslims who follow Sharia law.
IMAM AZAM AKRAM, AHMADIYYA MUSLIM COMMUNITY: First of all, thank you Megyn for having us on.
SHEIKH AHMAD SALMAN, IMAM OF DARUS SALAAM MOSQUE: To begin with Kelly...
KELLY: That's for Ahmad, sorry.
SALMAN: To begin with, Kelly, I think Newt Gingrich does not know anything about Sharia. Before he understands Sharia, if we talk about Sharia, it stands totally on the basis of justice. What we see in the United States as a constitution, it is on the basis of justice and the holy Quran teaches that we have to obey by the law of the land. So this is what Sharia is. Now, in order for Gingrich to know more about this, he can come to my mosque in Darus Salaam mosque, house of peace, where we can talk more about Sharia on that matter.
KELLY: Bridgette, what about -- I mean, I don't know if it's Sharia, but Islamism is, you know, considered problematic by many Americans because if you are an Islamist, you approach Islam very different from modern, more reformed Muslims.
BRIDGETTE GABRIEL, ACT FOR AMERICA PRESIDENT: Exactly. You are correct. Islamists are very different than the imams that we are having here right now, who belong actually to the Ahmadiyya movement. The Ahmadiyya movement started in the 19th century and they actually believe in angels. Those sets of imams and mosques are not the ones we are talking about. They have reformed their religion.
What we are talking about is the authentic Sharia practice that the majority of Muslims around the world practice, the 1.6 billion Muslims who follow Sharia and it's not compatible with our constitution and this is what ISIS follows, and that's what causing mayhem around the world right now. That's what I'm worried about.
KELLY: How is it not compatible, Bridgette?
GABRIEL: It's not compatible with our constitution. They believe (inaudible) should be killed. They believe a woman's value is half of that of a man. They believe if a woman is raped, she needs four witnesses in order for her to be saved, to testify against the rape. They believe in supremacy. They believe Islam is supreme to all other religions.
They do not believe in manmade laws such as the constitution. That's just the tip of the iceberg, and that's why Sharia law is not compatible with the United States constitution.
KELLY: Assam, this is not -- Andy McCarthy, a well-respected attorney and former federal prosecutor who prosecuted terrorists, he's made this point several times, that we need to be distinguishing between Islamism and Islam for the very reasons that Bridgette just outlined. Is she wrong? Is he wrong?
AKRAM: Well, the crux of the matter is that it's failed Muslim leadership. And as part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, we have the consistent leadership of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who is the founder of the community over 120 years ago, and now his successor who is the Khalifa of Islam, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, has over 4,000 imams under him promoting the same message.
So, when you look at the world today, the Muslim world is calling for that leadership, that guidance. And just like a body without a head, you have no sense of direction. And this is why all over the countries and all over the world, in over 206 different nations, we have been promoting the peaceful message of Islam, the justice.
KELLY: That's your group. Bridgette already conceded that. That's a different question about those who believe the things that Bridgette just outlined. I need to stand you by. We've got breaking news in Turkey. I'm coming back to you in a minute. We've got late breaking details on this attempted coup and we're going to go back to Trace Gallagher to get us up to speed. Trace?
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And I want to show you Megyn. We just, a few minutes ago showed you that Turkish president Erdogan was actually holding a news conference there. We couldn't understand what he was saying because there was no translation. Now we're getting a better idea of what he was telling his followers.
Just for some background, you should know that president Erdogan was actually out of town vacationing at the Black Sea when this attempted coup happened. And then about 35 minutes ago, he flew into Ataturk airport -- that's the main airport in Istanbul -- the same one that was attacked just a couple of weeks ago, and he was greeted by, we're told, hundreds of his supporters. And then he was escorted to a television station where you saw that news conference. And now we hear that he is saying things like those responsible will pay the appropriate price.
He went on to say this was carried out by a minority number of people who cannot stomach the unity of the country. The president went on to say millions are now in the streets of Turkey protesting the uprising and that the cabinet is functioning as usual, and they are in the process now, Megyn, he says of arresting police who were involved with this attempted coup. What's fascinating about this is that earlier, those who attempted the coup took over the main television station in Istanbul and they sent out a message saying they had control of the country.
Well, now that has flipped. That is back in control of the government. So clearly, they no longer have control of the television station and it has been several hours, maybe three hours since we have heard from the opposition, those who attempted the coup. And that is a sign some say, that this may have been a failed coup. Very early, still getting conflicting messages coming in, Megyn. We'll keep you up to speed with what's coming across the wire.
KELLY: All right, Trace, thank you. I want to bring back Bridgette Gabriel because she actually has some expertise on Turkey. And Bridgette, all right, so this -- you tell me, is this good or not? Because our government, our president, Hillary Clinton has put out a statement saying they're against the coup.
They stand behind the democratically elected leader. And yet what the other experts are saying is if Erdogan survives an attempted coup, he's only going to get more extreme in his Islamism, and that's not good for Turkey, and that's not good for the United States. Your thoughts?
GABRIEL: That's not good for Turkey, the United States, or the Middle East. If Erdogan wins and comes back to power, it is very, very bad. Actually, it's a win for ISIS and it's a loss for the civilized world. We need the coup to succeed because that will be our way to actually be able to defeat ISIS and basically bring some stability to the Middle East. Erdogan is the one who said Islam is Islam.
There's no moderate Islam. There's no radical Islam. Islam is one, and that is Islam. He's very radical. He actually has been bringing Turkey to a cliff -- this is why you see the divided Turkey. Turkey is basically under Erodgan is heading towards in Islamic theocracy. He's running it like a dictatorship. It will be another mini Iran if he comes to power. We hope and pray that the coup will succeed.
KELY: In Turkey, if you investigate or question his anti-terror policies, you can get investigated by his government. You can come under scrutiny. You can potentially be thrown in jail for questioning him, for insulting him. And you know, this is somebody who our government right now is saying, leave him alone.
GABRIEL: Exactly. This is the same government that actually had dragged the world for the last eight years into destruction, under President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and under this current administration. Libya is in shambles. Syria is in shambles. Iraq is in shambles. They do not know what they're doing.
They are bringing the world into the brink of war, and the fact that they came out in support of Erdogan is just mind-boggling. The American public needs to wake up and realize that what our administration is doing right now is leading the world into war. We cannot support Erdogan and we can just hope that the coup will succeed and Erdogan will be out of power.
KELLY: On the flip side, we've seen many, you know, new dictators or actual dictators deposed in the Middle East over the past seven to eight years and it has not always worked out despite great hopes on our part. It has not always worked out. Bridgette, thank you. Back to you in just a bit and back to this breaking news in Turkey.
But first we want to get to what's happening in Nice, France because up next, we've got the former assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom. He's with us tonight. He called us last night as we watched what was happening in Nice and has some strong thoughts on the terror threats facing the globe. He's up next.
Plus as the craziness in Turkey plays out, Colonel Tony Schaffer will speak about what this means for U.S. forces in the Middle East. We have a key NATO base in Turkey and we have an update on the Americans there in a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, new followup (ph) from media coverage of the terror attack in Nice, France. Hours after the French president and president Obama said that all signs pointed to terrorism, "The New York Times" omitting that fact from its front-page headline instead writing, "Truck Attack on French Crowd." Compare that to the front page of the British Daily Telegraph.
That newspaper listing in bold, blood splattered font the death toll from a wave of recent terror attacks starting with Nice, including Orlando, San Bernardino, California as well in the U.S. James Kallstrom is former FBI assistant director in charge. He's with me now. Jim, wow, the Daily Telegraph, I mean, that says it all. Just put that back on the screen. Your thoughts?
JAMES KALLSTROM, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: You know, Megyn, the mainstream media is a fifth column in this country. They might as well just all, just join the Democratic Party. They're a mouth piece for them. You know, they would make pride -- jealous of what they did into this country by not reporting the facts and what they don't say. I mean, it's just unbelievable.
KELLY: You've been talking for some -- yeah, go ahead.
KALLSTROM: No. I've been thinking about this thing in France, Megyn. I mean, you and I have been talking about this for, what, a long time, a couple of years maybe. You know, we have one of these outrageous events, and then we talk about what needs to be done and really nothing ever happens, you know. And we need to -- we need to, you know, bring this thing up to a much higher level. You know, I think we need -- the Congress needs to declare war on radical Islam.
They need to do that right away. It needs to happen. We need to discredit the ideology. Folks have been talking about that today. We do that two ways. We kill them and we get the other Muslims that aren't radical to stand up and talk about, you know, what this ideology is doing to their religion. I don't see that happening in the United States until we have a new administration because they're not going to want to go to the -- you know, the weakness that's in there.
You know, the FBI is operating -- we've talked about this under this heavy, heavy burden of political correctness, this heavy blanket. They've got one and a half or maybe one and three quarters arms tied behind their back. Why do you think we had that situation in Boston with the Russians? Why do you
think we had all these cases that seemed to drop through the cracks? Well, the reason is this P.C., this...
KELLY: Yes, the terrorist down in Orlando.
KALLSTROM: Absolutely. Because you know, the rules of engagement are ludicrous. You know, the FBI can't do things that normal citizens can do. It's outrageous, you know, and you don't hear about that. Jim Comey needs to stand up and talk about that. And, you know, it's just unbelievable. And of course they don't have the manpower to do the job either, you know. And I think Comey really needs to get up to Congress.
You know, he needs to put his big-boy pants on, go up there, talk to the Intelligence Committees, talk to about the Oversight Committees and tell them the truth about what the FBI really needs to protect this society. I think the attorney general should -- I think the attorney general should...
KELLY: I know you said in the past about the FBI, that you feel that they've been put in a straitjacket, that they're wearing a heavy straitjacket right now and Comey and our leaders need to take it off.
KALLSTROM: Yeah, I don't know if any of them will admit it, but I'll tell you right now that's how the agents feel. You know, he could get some of his credibility back if he actually spoke the truth about that. The attorney general, I think, should resign. You know, in March, Megyn, she directed the FBI to consider bringing certain climate change denials (ph) up on RICO charges. I mean can you believe that, that she would ask the FBI to look into charging...
KELLY: Well, they said they consider climate change one of the gravest threats facing the nation and they won't name radical Islam. This is an argument we've heard time and time again. But you know what the response to that is Jim but they don't think naming it does any good. You look at this guy that we saw last night in nice -- and by the way we are watching this situation in Turkey and this attempted coup, that's why we have that on the screen.
But the guy in Nice, you know, he's eating pork and drinking beer and getting a divorce and didn't go to mosque, and people are saying, well, that's -- I don't know what that is. It doesn't sound like any form of, Islam, so why should we be saying radical Islam? Why shouldn't we just be saying radical killer?
KALLSTROM: For the attorney general of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer, to talk about bringing people up on RICO charges for expressing their first amendment rights, she did the same thing with the people that talked badly about Muslims. I mean, it's just unbelievable and you know, I don't know.
I don't know where that all ends. And of course the meeting with Clinton on the tarmac, I mean those three things, I think -- she should do the country a favor and think about resigning. And, of course, Sharia law is -- are we done?
KELLY: Yes. I'm sorry. I've got to go, but I'll give you your final thought. Why don't you take the last word, and then we'll wrap it.
KALLSTROM: Sharia law is not consistent. Anybody that comes in here from nations that practice Sharia law should go through some sort of a Sharia test, and if they're Sharia-type people and they want to practice that, they should be turned around to head back where they came from.
KELLY: Jim, thank you for being here.
KALLSTROM: Thank you.
KELLY: What are your (ph) reactions tonight, from the Republican National Convention site in Cleveland, Ohio, it all goes down next week. And you may have heard there was some big news today that on any other night would have been the lead of every broadcast in America. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump announced a running mate today, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana.
And that pick is already raising some questions. Joining me live from Cleveland, our Fox News digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt. Stirewalt, great to see you. So, what do you think of the pick?
CHRIS STIREWALT, DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: Well, we talked before about the liabilities of the pick, but it is what it is. The question at this point becomes the theater, the staging of how the pick goes and can they as a ticket get along? Can they work together? And while Pence certainly buoys up Trump on some issues with the Republican base, there is some question about how the two of them are going to work as a team.
KELLY: What was up with the weird -- I'm announcing him on Friday morning -- wait, I'm not announcing him on Friday morning because we had a terror attack in Nice. Oh, but wait, I'm going to make other announcements, and then I'm going to announce it via twitter and like -- there he is and here's our logo.
STIREWALT: Yeah. Well, the logo was not exactly a smash hit, but the Trump campaign vehemently denied any wish on the part of the presidential nominee to ditch Pence at the last minute. But one could understand why he would have wanted to given the fact that the leaks came out of Indianapolis and blew the story that Trump was getting ready for the big reveal and there was a feeling that maybe Pence was trying to jam Trump and prevent him from switching at the end.
But reports from other outlets were either Trump was looking even late into the night to try to find a way to ditch Pence. And then today, Pence is the guy, but he doesn't get the ceremony. And then tomorrow, they take it to Chris Christie's home state, I guess to rub his nose in it, but take it to his home state to say Pence is the guy, announce it in New Jersey.
KELLY: Oh well. It's like an arranged marriage that is getting off to a rocky start. Chris, stand by because our friends at "The Five" are already making their way to you at the Republican National Convention. Oh, my lord, would you look at this? Would you look at this? They boarded a bus to Cleveland. Now they're in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is so unfair.
Why can't I be there with you? Never mind, I don't want that. And they're giving us a live look at night one of their two-week road trip. So, all right, Gutfeld, I'll start with you. How is it going so far?
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS THE FIVE SHOW CO-HOST: Well, there are a couple of problems whenever you do a road trip. One is the smell. I stink, which is why I have Febreze to go. And then whenever I'm hungry, I just have Easy Cheese. You just squirt the cheddar into your mouth. It's beautiful.
KELLY: All right. Dana, what do you think? I mean, let's take -- I'm not sure about your quilted seat there, Dana. I think I would have sat next to Kimberly.
DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS THE FIVE SHOW CO-HOST: Everybody wants to sit next to Kimberly. We've been rotating every 15 minutes, somebody gets to stretch out. I'm sitting so I can oversee everything. I'm in charge of educational games for the road trip. So far, so good. We've learned a lot. We've learned a lot.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, FOX NEWS THE FIVE SHOW CO-HOST: Exactly.
KELLY: Another round of Scrabble. May I recommend to you Family Feud 2, you can download it right now on your app, and it's a great family game. Eric Bolling, in between your bus trip and your Cleveland responsibilities --
ERIC BOLLING, FOX NEWS THE FIVE SHOW CO-HOST: Any show, any show, you name it.
KELLY: Well, this is the part of the show that is Eric's book tease, so everybody else needs to be quiet. Eric has written a book called "Wake Up, America." Wake up.
BOLLING: Did you see what I did? I dropped it off next to Dana.
KELLY: How does this relate to your bus tour? How does this relate to your bus tour, Eric?
GUTFELD: That's what bus tours are for.
BOLLING: The bus tour, right. You know, it's a book tour bus tour -- no, it's not. Look at this.
PERINO: We have shot glasses, too.
BOLLING: Shot glasses for the book.
PERINO: They're for water.
BOLLING: Red Bull.
GUTFELD: This is a normal glass for me.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah, that's actually a full size cup for you.
JUAN WILLIAMS: You know, Megyn, what we've been doing on this bus, we've been watching you.
KELLY: Why? What do you think of the show tonight?
WILLIAMS: We've been watching you because there's a giant TV on this fabulous bus.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah, it's pretty -- very good. It's really cool. We have nice sight (ph) setup. It's like having our own little cozy kind of, what, like a little den or something. We're all living together.
PERINO: Plus we love to watch Charles Krauthammer. We watched him on your show.
KELLY: So what do you think -- Kimberly, are you like -- what are the sleeping arrangements? This is what I want to know, Kimberly. And what's the deal with the bathroom? Is there a bathroom on the bus?
GUILFOYLE: Yes, there is one bathroom, only for one. So that's going well so far actually, and because we're going to arrive at least at our first stop in about 15 minutes, we should be safe. So it's going very well. We're excited about that. We've got "Fox & Friends" tomorrow. We're also going to go to Hershey Park. We're going to go to the zoo.
KELLY: OK, we'll be watching. I want a full update on Hershey, Pennsylvania. We'll miss you guys and we'll watch you. Road trip by "The Five." We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: And we, at "The Kelly File," will be live in Cleveland next week for the Republican National Convention as well. We'll be joined by some special guests as Donald Trump is expected to be officially named the 2016 GOP nominee. We'll be taking a plane. Two bathrooms, better. Thanks for watching.
END
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