Monday evening on FNC’s The Kelly File, host Megyn Kelly and senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano eviscerated the media for their most recent line of “questioning” for Hillary Clinton. While Clinton claimed she has done more than 300 interviews in 2016, she has not held a single press conference in 2016. Her most recent Q&A lasted for eight short minutes. What was missing? A single substantive question.
KELLY: Eight minutes of questions, not a single question about the IG report because they were very busy asking her you are the cusp of being the first female nominee, what does that mean to you? You might be making some serious history tomorrow? Come on!
NAPOLITANO: You know, Donald Trump says the, the press is corrupt. The press is weak. The press is tepid. They had an opportunity to go directly for her, you lied to George Stephanopoulos a half a dozen times. Isn't it true you're going to talk to the FBI in the next two weeks? Isn’t it true your lawyers have been negotiating with the FBI? Isn’t it true no other Secretary of State ever did what did you did? Isn't it true you exposed state se – state secrets to hacking which, General Hayden who ran the CIA in the Bush years, says was done by the Chinese, the Russians and the Israelis.
Kelly and Judge Napolitano hit the nail on the head. The press is weak. The press is tepid. Especially when it comes to Hillary Clinton. The press would rather dote on Clinton than do their due diligence as journalists.
Another seasoned Clinton-supporter, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, sat down with Clinton on This Week this past Sunday. When asked about the IG report, Clinton justified her actions yet claimed she would not make the same mistake again:
HILLARY CLINTON: I thought that the report actually made it clear that the practice I used was used by other secretaries, other high ranking state department officials. I will say it was a mistake. I would not do it again, but I think that the rules were not clarified until after I had left.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Has there--have you had any contact yet with the FBI, you or your agents over this matter?
CLINTON: I, I have not been asked to come in for an interview.
Judge Napolitano was quick to jump on the fallacy of that statement:
ANDREW NAPOLITANO: I am surprised she lies so openly knowing that the FBI is monitoring everything she says in public about this.
KELLY: What was a lie?
NAPOLITANO: That I have not been asked to come in. Her lawyers have certainly been asked by the Justice Department to bring her in. Second lie. What she did had been done before. No Secretary of State before or since has ever had a server in his or her home that diverted 100% of the e-mails including the top secret ones through that server.
Is this what a Clinton presidency will look like? A starry-eyed media who would rather sing her praises than ask the tough questions? Roll out the red carpet and unfasten your seatbelt, there are still 153 days until the election in November.
View the Full Transcript Here:
06-06-16 FNC's The Kelly File
9:45:55 PM - 9:49:52 PM
MEGYN KELLY: So when Hillary Clinton met with the media earlier today after going about a month without speaking with them, no one asked her about the secret service book or about the inspector general report slamming her on her e-mails. She was asked about the IG report on ABC this past weekend.
[Video from 6/5 ABC Interview]
HILLARY CLINTON: I thought that the report actually made it clear that the practice I used was used by other secretaries, other high ranking state department officials. I will say it was a mistake. I would not do it again, but I think that the rules were not clarified until after I had left.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Has there--have you had any contact yet with the FBI, you or your agents over this matter?
CLINTON: I, I have not been asked to come in for an interview.
[End of clip]
KELLY: Hmm. Judge Napolitano, Andrew Napolitano is our Fox News senior judicial analyst.
ANDREW NAPOLITANO: I am surprised she lies so openly knowing that the FBI is monitoring everything she says in public about this.
KELLY: What was a lie?
NAPOLITANO: That I have not been asked to come in. Her lawyers have certainly been asked by the Justice Department to bring her in. Second lie. What she did had been done before. No Secretary of State before or since has ever had a server in his or her home that diverted 100% of the e-mails including the top secret ones through that server.
KELLY: She continues to say this about, about Colin Powell. That he also used personal e-mail. And the, and the, the inspector general report did acknowledge that and found that inappropriate. But is it the same as what she did?
NAPOLITANO: No. The inspector general report reflected that General Powell used personal email on three dozen occasions, more or less, to respond to emails from staff. Never an occasion involving confidential, secret or top secret. Mrs. Clinton used her own e-mail 100% of the time which by her count is 66,000 e-mails, 2,200 of which had state secrets in them.
KELLY: Mm-hmm. And top top secret information according to the reports. Now, the, the next thing that happened today Judge was she finally spoke to the press. They didn't ask – so she was getting hit for not speaking to the press in over a month, or about a month.
NAPOLITANO: Right.
KELLY: Eight minutes of questions, not a single question about the IG report because they were very busy asking her you are the cusp of being the first female nominee, what does that mean to you? You might be making some serious history tomorrow? Come on!
NAPOLITANO: You know, Donald Trump says the uh, the press is corrupt. The press is weak. The press is tepid. They had an opportunity to go directly for her, you lied to George Stephanopoulos a half a dozen times. Isn't it true you're going to talk to the FBI in the next two weeks? Isn’t it true your lawyers have been negotiating with the FBI? Isn’t it true no other Secretary of State ever did what did you did? Isn't it true you exposed state se – state secrets to hacking which, General Hayden who ran the CIA in the Bush years, says was done by the Chinese, the Russians and the Israelis.
KELLY: You just put, put the report in front of her and ask her. I mean it’s not that hard. I don’t know why—and, and then, and here's the last one. “You see people here come up to you and get tears in their eyes. Do you feel the weight of what this means for people?” COME ON! Get—say what you will about Donald Trump.
NAPOLITANO: Were these reporters or is this her own campaign staff?
KELLY: Say what you will about Donald Trump, but he, he’s out there all the time, he submits himself to questioning all the time. And he doesn't have to do it. There's a reason he puts his, you know, foot in his mouth a lot of the time, he's out there talking. She never talks!
NAPOLITANO: She—
KELLY: She’s so buttoned up and polished!
NAPOLITANO: She—
KELLY: But she—but we know there's more to the story.
NAPOLITANO: We do. She knows that the FBI knows every lie she's told. She knows that if she goes in to talk to the FBI they're going to confront with those lies. She knows if she lies to them in that confrontation they will seek an indictment--
KELLY: That’s a crime.
NAPOLITANO: For lying to her--
KELLY: That’s a crime.
NAPOLITANO: --for lying to them.
KELLY: Meanwhile, the secret service agent has a book out saying that she was too erratic, uncontrollable and occasionally violent. Uh, to become, leader of the free world [laughs].
NAPOLITANO: Has she, has she denied any of that?
KELLY: He's not, he’s not a fan. I don’t think, she, she says his book should be in a fantasy section. Which, um, I wonder what else is in there. Judge [laughs] it’s good to see you.
NAPOLITANO: Always a pleasure - no matter what we talk about it's always a pleasure.
KELLY: Hmm. [Laughs] We’ll be right back.
