Transcripts For FOXNEWSW The Story With Martha MacCallum 201

Victims of these horrific allegations. If now left wondering did anyone really care about their cries for help . The New York Times piece citing washington lawyer deborah katz says there is a danger in this environment that unsophisticated individuals who have been abused by powerful people could be exploited by groups taking part as or by lawyers seeking a moment in the limelight. At one of the political operatives whose name is at the center of the story, david brock. If the founder of media matters. He famously declared war on fox news and launched a campaign because he got dirt on the people who worked here both on camera and off. According to the times, brock and his fellow operatives are at it again, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to womens rights attorney lisa bloom, who in turn pushed more female victims into the spotlight to accuse donald trump of sexual assault. Here now is the man behind the expose, New York Times reporter kenneth. Kenneth, walk us through your reporting on this and what you learned. We found, sandra, that in the week before the election there had been a press conference that lisa bloom scheduled at which she was promising that a woman would come forward in detail explosive allegations against donald trump. When that fell through she said that number of major democratic donors reached out to her and offered help, financial help we are talking about to see what they could do to bring this woman back to the table and get her to go public with her allegation. She did not come forward, lisa bloom said she wouldnt come forward but lisa bloom told these donors that she had several other women with whom she was working who also had allegations against donald trump who might be convinced to come forward if there was funding provided. She said for their safety, possibly even a safe house, relocation services. Several of these donors did end up writing checks, at least 700,000 we found including 200,000 from a group associated with david brock, 500,000 from susie tompkins, a major donor in san francisco, cofounded the esprit clothing line, very close to Hillary Clinton. They provided this money. Ultimately those women with whom lisa bloom was working did not come forward and she refunded some, but not all of the money. Sandra i know when you you follow the money trail. Were you able to determine exactly how much money was used to go after these victims for political gain . No, we werent. Theres no real disclosure on this. In fact, interestingly david brocks group that wrote the 200,000 check to the law firm, american bridge 21st century, it filed recently filed its tax return, public tax return for 2016. It did not include this 200,000 payment in there, im not exactly sure why. They may be some legal reasons why it was able to to avoid disclosing that, but it just goes to show how difficult this money can be to be traced because its money being paid to either private individuals or to law firms in this case that have no disclosure requirement, so we dont know how much of this is going on. We did find out in a reporting, sandra, that in fact lisa blooms mother, another wellknown womens rights attorney gloria allred, who has brought her fair share of Sexual Harassment allegations is currently raising money for another lawsuit against donald trump, a defamation lawsuit by a woman who was on the apprentice who accuse donald trump of sexually harassing her. Thats yet another example we found of an effort to raise money to bring forward and support these allegations. Sandra in your reporting, examples of the left going after the right using these victims. But this is something that you are reporting also revealed is seen on the right as well. Thats right. Mike, the wellknown trump backer who has a big and sort of controversial social Media Presence offered publicly 10,000 for any woman who came forward with details of her actual documents showing a settlement by a member of congress. He did not specify a democratic member of congress, a member of congress who had settled Sexual Harassment. In fact, he did end up getting the Sexual Harassment settlement that ended up bringing down john conyers, representative john conyers, democrat from michigan. Until then, the longestserving member, democrat in the house of representatives. He told me that he was surprised. He actually offered him and brought him a confidential settlement money in exchange for it and the person turned it down. Just because money is being offered, it doesnt necessarily mean that people are coming forward. Sandra an excellent point. Something else that has stood out to me in a reporting is the title of your peace in New York Times itself. Partisans wielding money begin seeking to exploit harassment claims. Do you think that we are just at the beginning of this . I think we could become a sandra. Certainly david brock has already promised that he will start a fund explicitly to try to bring forward allegations against republican politicians, so he is saying he wants to do more of this despite the backlash that he has gotten, the controversy around his effort with lisa bloom in the runup to the 2016 president ial election. Sandra thank you for your reporting on that. Pleasure. Sandra here with more, katie pavlich. News editor for townhall. Com. Tammy bruce is a columnist for the Washington Times in a radio talk show host. Mo elleithee is a former dnc spokesman. If all are fox news contributors and two of the ladies are upset with me tonigh tonight. We will get to you next, but i will start with you katie because the lawyer that uses in his piece, she says that this can be a very dangerous environment and his reporting is showing hundreds of thousands of dollars chasing down these victims. It can be a very dangerous situation if you have a powerful man going after a woman who feels like she doesnt have any say in her work environment. She may feel like she needs some of those protections. If you follow money trail here, all of the things that are being accused, the allegations that are brought up are questioned and what this does is it gives powerful men who have done bad things a way out they can look at it and say they are being paid to come all this money is coming through, this is only about politics and therefore we shouldnt believe any of them. The other side of this is when you offer this amount of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars for these types of stories, you really have to be careful about going through every single one to set the validity of it. If that doesnt mean youre discounting the claim, however you need evidencebased claims to meet the allegations to be proven without any doubt because innocent peoples lives can also be ruined as a result of this. A partisan political operatives have a lot to gain if they can take down a candidate for powerful seat in the senate as a result of these actions. You wonder if this is going to dilute that Metoo Movement that wed seen. Even that has moved it into activism as opposed to a search for justice. Weve also heard the idea that all women should be immediately believed. Im a feminist, work within the feminist movement. All women should be taken seriously and we should have the opportunity to make our case and thats what women ask for. We ask for an environment where we can make that case. We want to process ourselves and a framework of due process that takes us seriously and allows allegations that we are making to be dealt with properly because otherwise as we are seeing here, when you put the politics into it, and this is classic for the left. They move through victimhood. They sought work as an example with the roy moore case and once that worked i knew they would move this through the nation. But also look at those victims. They were in the media almost every day and now we dont hear from them, we dont know their situation. Sandra its a great point how little you are hearing about this. We are leading off the show tonight with this, but you are not seeing this at the top of many hours today or this week. And then theres this former Hillary Clinton Campaign Manager who has now been accused of detecting a staffer who sexually harassed women. Theres proof, wikileaks released an email, top clinton aide cornered women, protected by Campaign Manager. According to accusations that were discovered in a 2015 email. Theres a lot here. I agree with almost everything that katie was saying that there are two sides to this and that youve got to take these women seriously, youve got to go through this process and that a lot of times these women who are being victimized by powerful men feel no other recourse and so they may need some assistance. I also agree, however, that there is the risk of this becoming hyperpartisan and being overly politicized. When groups are out there singling out potential bad actors of a single party, thats a problem. If you are in this for justice, be in it for justice. We have seen this on both sides. Remember the paula jones case against bill clinton was financed by a conservative group. Ken vogel talked about Michael Serna veg out there. Offering money for evidence against particular members of congress, them will make mainly focused on democrats. If you are in is for justice, be in it for justice, dont be in it for political gain. I would just add that weve been having this conversation for months now about the solution to these problems. How does the private sector handle Sexual Harassment and assault versus the Public Sector on capitol hill. At the bottom line is you actually cant get to any kind of accountability or change when it comes to this issue if it so politicized and my fear is that we are already there and because of all the money that is involved and the power involved we cant take the politics out of it. Then theres the fear for the victims, the women who want to come forward, need to come forward and you wonder are they going to somehow now have to prove that they are not one of the ones being paid . I think if you are coming up a few weeks before an election. If youve been solicited to come forward with a story, if you are being paid for an allegation, or to make the allegation even though it looks like its something you may need, thats going to be a factor. At the same time, lets remember where this started. Back when bill clinton said this is private, it doesnt matter, you hired me to do a job, that framework that was in politics said our behavior doesnt really matter, you dont need to worry about that. This clearly is changing but it is about politics of control and humiliation and for those who use it politically to just deal with certain political opponents, we got to make sure this conversation continues and unfortunately, we do have to look at them with some cynicism depending on the timing and the nature of whats happening and then we can still find a way to the truth. Sandra you are hearing the conversation here. Tammy, mo, katie, thank you. Heres one of the stories you have heard all day, steve bannon has turned on President Trump, suggesting members of his campaign committed treason. Up next, a side of the story you will not hear from steve bannon from inside the trim campaign. And President Trump didnt hesitate when it came to calling out iran for abusing its own people, but what about one of ours . Coming up, the son of an american who went missing there more than a decade ago with a message for the white house and his fathers captor. This is an american citizen and there should be outrage around the world and theyve been getting away with it and this is unbelievable that its been this long and that im still coming out here and having to plead to get action. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. We know that when youre spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. And you dont have time for a cracked windshield. Thats why we show you exactly when well be there. Saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace i think furious, disgusted would probably certainly fit when you make such an outrageous claim and completely false claims against the president. His administration and his family. Sandra strong words from White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders today describing the president s reaction to explosive allegations from none other than his former chief strategist steve bannon. Has his once trusted confidant turned into a traitor . In a moment, a side of the story you will not hear from steve bannon. But first, Trace Gallagher live in our west coast newsroom without todays feud went down. Interesting day, trace. Very, sandra. At the white house wasted no time distancing itself from steve bannon and the comments he reportedly made to author Michael Wolff for his upcoming book fire and fury inside the trump white house. In the book bannon describes a 2015 meeting between a russian lawyer, donald jr. Jared kushner and then Campaign Chair Paul Manafort as being treasonous and unpatriotic. Going on to say the three senior guys in the campaign but it was a good idea to meet with a Foreign Government inside trump tower in the Conference Room on the 25th floor with no lawyers, they didnt have any lawyers. Bannon added this, they are going to crack don jr. Like an egg on national tv. He said he also believed the russians were taken to meet donald trump after the meeting. The white house says the book is filled with false and misleading accounts and the president released a four paragraph statement that reads in part steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Now that he is on his own stevens learning that winning isnt as easy as they make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory. The statement makes it clear that President Trump is now at war with one of his closest political allies, who was still reportedly advising the president well after he left the white house. Even Sarah Sanders acknowledged the two men spoke last month. But sanders argues the president can believe bannon lost his mind and still talk to him. Watch. The president continue to have conversations with him, often ask for by mr. Bannon. At the president spoke with him, but that doesnt mean that he cant hold that position. Donald trump jr. Also responded today tweeting steve had the honor of working in the white house and serving the country. Unfortunately he squandered that privilege and turn that opportunity into a nightmare of backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying and undermining the president. Steve is not a strategist, he is an opportunist. Steve bannons allies were also reportedly caught off guard by the release of the explosive excerpts from the book, but steve bannon himself has not yet commented on either the book or the president s response. Sandra Trace Gallagher, thank you. Here now, Michael Cavuto with a Term Campaign Senior Advisor until june of 2016 and that timing is important because he then left two months before bannon, then came on board. Important to get your thoughts tonight on what you have heard. Is what you have heard today true . I will tell you, i really question anything michael wolf writes. I think this book will be dissected and parts of it will go into the true bucket, parts of it will go into the false bucket like anything that he writes. But the president believes what was written about steve bannon. I think about what other people were quoted as saying in that book and thats what matters here. I was really disheartened to hear about this. I stand with donald trump 150 . He has the right and the duty and fact to put together a white house that he trusts in the white house that he believes can implement his agenda. I believe hes entering into 2018 with that kind of team, but for those of us who view Donald Trumps agenda as something that we really want to push for this year, its a difficult day. Sandra the president did not waste any time slamming right back saying bannon lost his mind. It was a four paragraph takedown. Just ours, by the way, after we saw this, the president said bannon had nothing to do with me or my presidency. Is that true . I will tell you i will leave it to the president to define what brought him to where he is. I know that when i was there up until the convention or before the convention, steve was still outside the campaign, so was Kellyanne Conway and some of the other folks who came in and took this to the end game in november. The president put together a team with Cory Lewandowski the five musketeers that took him almost to the convention and then brought in manafort and gates and others to make sure that the convention went his way and he came away with a nomination and Stephen Kelly an end others help the president all the way to election day. Its a pretty broad and Diverse Group and i wasnt there to see what steve did, but from what i consider from here forward, i dont really have concerns about the base. I dont have concerns about the agenda. At the is therefore donald trump, but for donald trump alone. I think Stephen Bannon knows that too. But i like to see allies working together and both of these men think alike and are on the same page. Sandra you were with the president during the primary, much of the general election. You were there for a big chunk of that time. Lastly tonight, i wanted to bring up all the speculation around mitt romney possibly senator mitt romney and remind folks of a few things that mitt romney, some choice words that he had to say in the past abo