The Megyn Kelly Show - Megyn Kelly Reflects on the Outrageous Duke Lacrosse Case, as the Accuser Finally Admits the Truth ｜ Ep. 965

00:00:00.460 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM channel 111 every weekday at noon east.

00:00:12.020 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and today's AM special episode

00:00:17.480 where we take a deep dive today into Duke La Crosse accuser Crystal Mangum admitting once

00:00:26.400 and for all that she made up that entire story. This is such a crazy story on so many levels,

00:00:33.800 you guys, and for me personally it has an additional layer because this is the story on

00:00:38.500 which I cut my teeth as a young reporter at Fox News. Many of you may remember that. I actually

00:00:45.200 heard a lot of people, saw a lot of people tweeting at me and emailing us saying they do remember our

00:00:52.100 coverage because it was not only a massive travesty of justice, almost, almost, but it

00:00:59.520 was a massive travesty of journalism and virtually everyone was sinful. I'm, I, look, be honest,

00:01:10.540 I don't remember anyone other than yours truly and Dan Abrams at Court TV at the time reporting

00:01:20.640 honestly on this case, reporting accurately on this case. Are you ready to challenge yourself

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00:02:30.020 Everyone, everyone else in the media rushed to judgment because what was alleged in this case,

00:02:37.000 for those of you who were not around or too young to care, or it's just been a long time,

00:02:42.140 was that on March, um, I don't remember the date, but in March of 2006, three Duke lacrosse players

00:02:50.280 gang raped a woman of color, a black woman from Durham, North Carolina. That's where Duke is located.

00:02:58.800 And Durham has a not well-off side of town and it is a majority minority town. So these are three 0.97

00:03:12.280 white boys at Duke on the lacrosse team and one black stripper who claimed she'd been gang raped by

00:03:21.780 them. I mean, just in those allegations alone, you can see and feel how explosive it was and would

00:03:28.440 have been. And it allegedly happened at a house in which the Duke lacrosse team was holding a party.

00:03:36.280 So it wasn't just these three, it was the team. And this hit the media like wildfire. They loved this

00:03:45.900 story. Now with retrospect, you know, we've got some, you know, 19 years of dealing with this

00:03:53.000 version of the news media under our belts. So you're not surprised to hear that given those dynamics,

00:03:58.740 the racial differences, the class differences, uh, the gender differences that the media rushed

00:04:05.900 to judgment against these boys. But at the time, believe it or not, we weren't like that yet in the

00:04:13.660 media. We weren't used to the media doing this. It was still a time in which we tended to be more

00:04:20.660 judicious in our coverage and careful. And this was the before and after moment at which we abandoned

00:04:29.000 that. It really was, this was the seminal moment in the media leaning into what we now know as

00:04:37.620 wokeness. When they looked at cases and stories like this one, it was a travesty in many ways.

00:04:47.260 And thank God, these three boys wound up getting let off the hook by the attorney general who stepped

00:04:53.260 in to take over, but the media, they got away with it and they continued to sin in exactly the same way

00:05:02.560 they did in that case ever since. Here we are almost 20 years later and they're still at it.

00:05:11.660 And that's really, what's remarkable about this case. And for me, it is personal because I lived

00:05:15.260 it firsthand. And I'll tell you what brought me to the case. I was hired by Fox in August of 2004.

00:05:21.200 I had done a year in journalism working for the ABC affiliate down in Washington, DC. And so I was

00:05:29.180 young in my reporting career, but I had almost 10 years of legal practice under my belt as a

00:05:34.260 litigator. So I was very used to looking at disputed fact patterns and being asked to make arguments to

00:05:41.520 judges and juries and to behind the scenes, talk frankly with my own teams about what we believed

00:05:47.500 was true. You know, you don't come into it with any superior knowledge as a lawyer. You have what your

00:05:51.960 client tells you, you have what you hear from opposing clients in depositions and in court,

00:05:57.440 and you form your own judgment on what you believe. And if you can get to the actual truth,

00:06:02.200 it's very helpful that you may argue it one way or another when you're actually in court,

00:06:06.460 but you do your level best to figure out what did happen. And that's exactly how I approached this

00:06:12.460 case. But even I, who was not woke and who was a trained litigator needed a warning on this case

00:06:18.440 because I was still young. I was 33. No, I went 33 when I joined Fox, but by this time, March of,

00:06:28.060 of, uh, Oh six, I was 35 and I'm going to confess. I saw the fact pattern. I was like,

00:06:37.540 I could see it happening. I'm not so like jaded, certainly not by media. I was barely in it,

00:06:44.700 but or by life that I could never see this happening. You know, lacrosse players. Uh,

00:06:51.080 I know I love lacrosse players. Truth be told, because I went to Syracuse and I dated

00:06:54.160 the captain of the team that won three national championships there. And I knew a lot of these

00:06:57.780 guys and they were great guys. They certainly weren't a bunch of rapists, but they liked to

00:07:02.400 party. I just, you know, it's just the general atmosphere of debauchery did not seem impossible to

00:07:11.440 me and a bunch of guys really drunk at a party. Who's to say it's impossible. So I wasn't ready

00:07:17.900 to condemn them knee jerk, but I also wasn't of the thought, no way. And Brit Hume put me on this case

00:07:25.300 who was my boss in the DC bureau. He was the managing editor down there and it was getting a lot of

00:07:31.800 traction this case. And he said, you need to go to Durham and get boots on the ground, if you will,

00:07:37.060 and start reporting and breaking news in this case. And I said, okay. And we talked about it.

00:07:43.000 And I said, do you think they did it? And he said, what do you think? And I was like, oh, maybe now

00:07:47.760 Brit had had a very different background than I did. Brit, uh, had gone to, I believe a private

00:07:55.460 boys school. And he had sent his own son to a private boys school for sure in Virginia.

00:08:01.680 And it was a feeder school for programs like Duke lacrosse, by the way. And Brit had a very nice

00:08:10.060 family background, you know, maybe like a little bit of prestige and connection. I didn't have any

00:08:16.000 of that. Brit had an academic pedigree that was beautiful and a journalistic pedigree that matched.

00:08:21.700 And Brit is a brilliant guy, as you probably all know. Very, very, very smart. And we used to joke

00:08:28.680 in the DC bureau about if Brit says it, it's right. Okay. I realized there are some people who are

00:08:34.320 like, well, I didn't get Trump right. He was not a big fan of Donald Trump first time around, but

00:08:38.700 nine times out of 10, Brit has his facts straight and his instincts when it comes to news judgment are

00:08:45.680 spot on. So he said to me, be careful, you know, that deep voice he has, be careful. And I said,

00:08:54.740 what do you mean? And he said, the media senses something here that is not consistent with the

00:09:03.860 Fox news mission. And he was talking about leaning into identity politics back then it was called more

00:09:08.540 political correctness. And he said, that's not what we do at Fox news. And he said, go down there

00:09:14.160 and keep an open mind. That was his sole direct to me. Keep an open mind. And honestly, that's all you

00:09:22.480 had to do to get this story, right. That's all you had to do. And you know what? Not coincidentally,

00:09:27.980 Dan Abrams, the other person who was getting it right and did get it right, went to Duke.

00:09:32.820 My husband went to Duke. Um, and actually it's the reason that Doug and I got married. I'll explain

00:09:37.100 that later. But anyway, so Dan went to Duke and he knew a lot of these guys too. And he and Brit with

00:09:43.460 that background, they knew from their experience and exposure to guys like, no, these are not a bunch

00:09:50.280 of gang rapists who happened to just get into Duke. And they were familiar with media narratives around

00:09:55.780 privilege and white guys that were BS, right? So it was a very interesting collection of those who got 0.52

00:10:04.460 it right. And the re what saved me was my background as a litigator and Brit's advice. Okay. So I go down

00:10:10.740 to Durham, North Carolina, and I was very determined to not only pursue the guys and their story. And I

00:10:17.000 developed the best sources you could get on team defense, but also to pursue her, the accuser and

00:10:23.660 see if we couldn't find something, something exclusive, something more. And boy, did we ever.

00:10:29.680 So we covered both angles of the story and had great sources. And I'll tell you one other reason

00:10:34.840 why Brit had it right. Uh, my boss and, and encouraged me because he sensed immediately there,

00:10:43.200 this is a political story in addition to a legal one, because what we had in the Duke case was a

00:10:49.460 white district attorney who was up for reelection in an election year in, as I pointed out, a majority

00:10:57.420 minority district. So it was a chance to pander. It was a chance to say to the black residents of Durham,

00:11:05.440 I'll get those privileged white pricks, even though I'm a white guy and Brit read it. And we actually would

00:11:15.440 later find out that Mike knife on, if he could retire at this sort of higher level, if he could get reelected

00:11:24.240 and he could retire, retire, retire at that level, he would have a much higher pension than he otherwise

00:11:29.620 would. And so he had a personal stake in it, not just to get reelected, but also a personal financial stake

00:11:35.020 in, in, in pursuing this case and, and leading us to believe there really was one. This is the villain

00:11:40.780 of the case. I mean, he's the biggest villain. Now, Mike knife on is the biggest villain involved

00:11:45.320 here. And again, the reason we're covering this again is because the other main figure in making

00:11:52.820 this case happen against these young men, crystal Mangum has now for the first time in 19 years

00:11:59.520 admitted. It was all a lie. We knew that we just never heard her say it. And by the way,

00:12:06.680 we just got reaction from one of the boys and I'll read it to you in a minute. One of his lawyers.

00:12:11.140 Um, so we go down to Durham, uh, my producer, uh, Jake Gibson, our photog and I, and we start

00:12:19.720 working sources and it was insane. So many crazy things happened when I was down there one night we

00:12:24.920 were trying to find her. She was impossible to find. She had gone underground. She accused three boys of

00:12:29.240 rape and she went completely underground. No one could find her. No one's even trying to find her

00:12:33.020 because they just wanted to believe her story and what we did to find her. I mean, we went into this

00:12:36.760 strip club after strip club was hilarious actually, because, uh, we'd walk in, we, we try to act like

00:12:42.280 civilians. So they wouldn't mark us as press. And I mean, we were two steps into the door of these

00:12:46.660 facilities and they'd say press. And, and my team looked at me and said, it's you. I said,

00:12:53.360 where are their bread and butter? They would never suspect us as press. Anyway, we had many funny

00:12:58.940 conversations with these strip club owners where I got my fake strip club stripper name, where we asked

00:13:05.740 the one guy, what, like, what do you think, what would my name be? If we, if we got up here and, uh,

00:13:10.640 one of my guys said something, how about sugar? And he said, white confectioner sugar,

00:13:16.020 which is like the pasting of sugar there is. I don't think it was a compliment. Anywho,

00:13:22.740 on we go. That's just one memory I have. Um, she was sat down by the police and given

00:13:32.840 a photo lineup of the Duke lacrosse team. That was her allegation. I've been gang raped

00:13:38.800 by Duke lacrosse players. And so they gave her the Duke lacrosse roster, which is not an appropriate

00:13:46.020 lineup at all. That's accepting that it was definitely somebody on the Duke lacrosse team.

00:13:51.160 Any sane person would have put in at the police station would have put in non Duke lacrosse

00:13:55.960 players, plenty of them into a bigger lineup and asked her to choose. Well, it turns out

00:14:01.160 she failed even the stacked test that they gave her and was unable to identify anybody.

00:14:07.580 And we would later learn that she went through it at least twice and was unable to identify anybody.

00:14:12.680 And then under pressure, she selected one of the team's captains, Dave Evans,

00:14:18.040 who was a senior and two others. And Colin, uh, Finnerty and Reed Seligman were the other big losers

00:14:26.300 of the Crystal Mangum guesses that day. That's, uh, Finnerty on the right with the yellow tie,

00:14:37.240 Evans in the middle and Reed Seligman on the left. Just so you know, um, they,

00:14:42.380 they almost went to jail for 30 years. These three boys almost went to prison for decades.

00:14:50.280 They would still be in prison right now. If this woman had her way, if Mike knife on the DA had his 0.99

00:14:57.680 way. So the media went wild with it and started reporting the most vile details as though they were

00:15:05.880 true. And I will give the media one crutch here in, in terms of my criticism of their,

00:15:12.140 them falling down on the job. It is that Mike knife on actively misled them in the community

00:15:17.900 about what he knew and what he didn't know. He overstepped bounds that prosecutors should never

00:15:22.300 overstep. You know how now the prosecutors are very loath to say anything about a case.

00:15:26.580 They'll charge it, but they'll say, I'm not going to try it in the press. It's not appropriate.

00:15:29.260 The prosecutors are, are supposed to seek justice, not a conviction. There are exceptions. Hi Fanny

00:15:35.240 looking at you, looking at you, sweetheart. There are exceptions like Fanny Willis. Um,

00:15:41.680 but it's in part due to the sins committed by Mike knife on who was out there. We pulled just a couple

00:15:48.180 of them saying things like, we don't have a lot of him on camera, but I'll just read you some of what

00:15:53.860 he said. Uh, I believe a crime occurred. The guilty will stand trial. And there's no doubt

00:16:00.620 a sexual assault took place. The information I have leads me to conclude a rape did occur.

00:16:06.500 It must be dealt with quickly and harshly. The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep

00:16:10.660 racial motivation for some of the things that were done. Keep in mind, it's all fake. Okay. 0.95

00:16:15.640 We know now for sure. Totally fucking fake made up stuff. And the DA is saying there was a rape

00:16:22.000 with a deep racial motivation. It makes a crime that is by its nature, one of the most offensive

00:16:27.880 and invasive, even more so to MSNBC. There's evidence of trauma in the victim's vaginal area 0.92

00:16:34.280 that was noted when she was examined by a nurse at the hospital. I'm convinced there was a rape 1.00

00:16:38.480 says to ABC local where you have the act of rape, essentially a gang rape. It's bad enough in and of

00:16:46.600 itself. But when it's made with racial epithets against the victim, absolutely unconscionable.

00:16:52.160 The, the contempt that was shown for this victim based on her race was totally abhorrent to the

00:16:58.720 New York times. The thing that most of us found so abhorrent. And the reason I decided to take it

00:17:03.220 over myself was the combination gang, like rape activity accompanied by the racial slurs and general

00:17:10.100 racial hostility. This is like, think about this. Think about these poor guys knowing they did

00:17:17.160 nothing. They did nothing. And they're being accused of being vile, racist rapists by the DA who can't

00:17:28.580 smear them often enough. And a complicit media who refuses to pause to check it out. You know,

00:17:35.780 the old saying in journalism, if your mother tells you, she loves you, check it out.

00:17:39.020 They wouldn't check it out. His word was gold. They had to be guilty because they were white. 1.00

00:17:46.240 They were allegedly privileged and they were prick Duke lacrosse players who don't, we all just hate

00:17:52.000 all of them anyway. Meanwhile, they weren't all from families of privilege. Uh, and, and that was

00:17:59.500 well-documented at the time by Hannity on whose show I would go regularly. Um, and he knew at least one

00:18:05.600 of them, I think it was, um, affinity who is from his area of long Island. These kids were not all

00:18:11.480 from families of privilege, but they, no one cared. Duke lacrosse players, enough said, uh, and she was

00:18:20.460 a stripper and black and a single mother. So all of that. Great. We know what to say. Um, 0.96

00:18:27.260 here's a little bit of knife on his allegations in the press at the time. Stop 40.

00:18:34.280 What happened here was one of the worst things that's happened since, uh, I have become district

00:18:42.200 attorney. The reason that I took this case is because this case says something about Durham

00:18:50.060 that I'm not going to let me see it. I am not going to allow Durham's view and the mind of the world

00:18:57.820 to be a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl in Durham. Then I said

00:19:05.980 that the lacrosse team was the focus of the investigation because they self-nominated

00:19:10.340 themselves for that. You know, if a body had been found in front of the courthouse with four

00:19:14.720 bullet holes in the back and I said, looks like a murder. Well, we'd be hearing this thing about,

00:19:18.380 oh, he prejudged the crime. I don't think so. No, the fact is that I didn't pick the crime.

00:19:25.420 I didn't pick the time, but I'm going to do the case right because you deserve that.

00:19:33.200 Is it any wonder that protests arose at Duke and within about three minutes,

00:19:43.820 the entire Duke lacrosse season was canceled. It was canceled by the university. You're all guilty

00:19:52.760 before a trial, before we've even tested the credibility of your accuser. You're done.

00:20:00.380 And you all know at this point now, with sports having gotten so big that, you know, these kids

00:20:05.140 who got into Duke lacrosse, one of the best programs in the nation repeatedly, they devoted their entire

00:20:10.940 lives, you know, their first 18 years to mastering their abilities at this sport. You get into Duke,

00:20:17.200 it's a dream. It's a great school. You're playing. This is like truly a dream come true.

00:20:21.320 And now because of this one woman's allegations, your entire dream is in shambles. And that guy's

00:20:28.420 out there accusing your teammates. And if you're one of these three, you of being a racist rapist.

00:20:34.120 Here's some of the protests we saw. We will be here from gavel to gavel to when the final

00:20:42.020 jury verdict is read. And we demand and are pursuing that this jury verdict come back

00:20:49.120 guilty against the accused. It should come back what? Guilty. It should come back what? Guilty.

00:20:55.340 This is out in front of the home. The players.

00:21:03.840 Signs talking about them being castrated. Outraged. Duke alum.

00:21:20.160 The people who think that it's okay to propagate sexual violence and racial violence and class

00:21:31.920 violence. There are not just legal consequences for these actions, there are community consequences.

00:21:37.100 And the people that are here today are members of your community and who will be here tomorrow

00:21:42.260 and into perpetuity, protecting each other and taking care of each other. The community consequences

00:21:47.900 for this action, I guarantee you, will range far beyond the legal consequences that you will face.

00:21:52.840 We saw a kind of mob mentality that took hold of the activist wing of the Duke faculty,

00:21:59.980 which culminated in an April 2006 statement signed by 88 Duke faculty members, called the group

00:22:07.420 of 88, in which before any charges even had been filed, these 88 faculty members took out an ad,

00:22:15.280 a full page ad, in the Duke campus newspaper. They unequivocally asserted that something had happened

00:22:22.160 to Crystal Mangum. She was claiming rape. The lacrosse players said nothing happened. They said that they

00:22:28.100 would continue their activism regardless of what the court decided or what the police said. And they thanked

00:22:35.360 public protesters for not waiting and making themselves heard. And the highest profile public protest that

00:22:42.600 had occurred at that point had been a march in front of the captain's house in which protesters had

00:22:48.840 carried large signs urging the castration of the lacrosse captains. Sick. That was Casey Johnson. God bless him.

00:23:00.080 He's a professor in, I think it's Brooklyn College in CUNY, City University of New York. And he's been

00:23:10.440 right on this all along too. He wrote a book about this. He's been on the show many times. You guys may

00:23:14.220 know him. He's been doing great advocacy work on the Title IX revisions and what's happening to young

00:23:18.560 men on college campuses. If you have a young man in your family who's going to college or has over the past

00:23:24.500 20 years, you owe that man, Casey Johnson, a debt of gratitude because no one's done more than he has to try to

00:23:30.100 get to right the ship when it comes to young men's rights on college campuses, their due process rights. And he

00:23:36.560 also saw through this nonsense and was very good about talking about it. So that was him describing after the

00:23:42.680 fact, you know, in a retrospective piece, what happened. Those professors immediately rushed to judgment.

00:23:50.240 Unlike Brit or Dan, you know, who are familiar with whatever, these storied institutions,

00:23:57.740 these professors who work there were so quick to crap all over it. Yes, Duke players suck. Yes,

00:24:04.800 they're evil. They're disgusting. We totally believe it. And we're on board. And here is in part what

00:24:10.700 they put in that group of 88 faculty member statement, thanking the campus demonstrators for

00:24:16.380 distributing a wanted poster of the Duke lacrosse players calling for them to be castrated at their

00:24:24.160 protest. Uh, their ad reads in part, this is a social disaster. No one is really talking about

00:24:31.380 how to keep the young woman herself central to this conversation, regardless of the results of the

00:24:37.780 police investigation. What is apparent every day now is the anger and fear of many students who know

00:24:43.720 themselves to be objects of racism and sexism. Will they come forward now? I mean, truly,

00:24:52.140 will they were the woman who was in that protest video speaking out on that bullhorn? Will they come

00:24:56.900 forward and say again, I would like to be heard and I got it deeply wrong. And I'm very, very sorry.

00:25:06.240 Very, very sorry. Because now the accuser has admitted what we knew, which is she lied and made

00:25:14.620 the whole thing up. She made the whole thing up. The temperatures were rising in Durham and around

00:25:24.340 these boys. The lacrosse season was shut down. The university was in the news every day. And Mike

00:25:31.580 Knifong, the DA was briefed by the Durham police investigator who told him that there were a number

00:25:37.640 of weaknesses in this case, including that Mangum, the accuser had made inconsistent statements to the

00:25:43.920 cops and had changed her story several times. That there was another dancer named Kim Roberts present 1.00

00:25:49.600 with her on the night in question at the party and that she disputed Mangum's story, saying that she

00:25:56.200 did not see a rape occur and suggesting that the accuser wanted it to appear as if she had been

00:26:02.520 attacked and saying that she, that, that the lacrosse players were disappointed in their strip tease 1.00

00:26:13.220 and that some racial slurs were used, but then they left without any assault taking place that she saw

00:26:20.960 or knew of or heard crystal Mangum complain of. Um, okay. Mike Knifong took that information

00:26:28.320 and was not persuaded at all. It was pedal to the metal. And we played you some of his public

00:26:34.440 statements about it. He told, um, MSNBC on March 31st, 2006, that somebody had an arm around her like this,

00:26:45.120 which she then had to struggle with in order to be able to breathe. What? This is the level of detail

00:26:51.520 he was going into in the public arena, knowing nothing. We would later find out he had never

00:26:57.220 even spoken to crystal Mangum at this point. He's saying all this stuff. He'd never even spoken to

00:27:00.920 her. What he'd spoken to who he'd spoken to were his detectives who were telling him there are massive

00:27:05.220 problems with her case and her story is very inconsistent. And the woman who'd been with her,

00:27:09.940 who said, don't believe crystal. Um, he told a reporter with rally news and observer, I'm not

00:27:16.480 going, uh, to let Durham's view in the minds of the world. You heard some of this, uh, be a bunch of

00:27:21.720 lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl in Durham rush to judgment. Anyone the goal again to

00:27:29.160 achieve justice, not a conviction on, um, in early April between the 7th and the 10th, 2006, there was DNA

00:27:37.840 testing of the rape kit, which, uh, found DNA from up to four different males, not one of whom was a

00:27:46.500 Duke lacrosse member. And the day that happened, the initial report said it was up to five. The day

00:27:53.040 that happened, I broke that news on Sean Hannity's show that night in primetime. And it was a huge

00:28:01.160 development in the case that now they had the DNA test back. There was in fact, semen from multiple

00:28:09.140 men inside of the accuser. And not one of those men was named Reed Seligman, Dave Evans, or Colin

00:28:17.960 Finnerty, nor a player on the Duke lacrosse team at all. That is it folks. That's ball game. And I had it

00:28:28.120 dead to rights. I went out on the air that night and reported it. And it was huge news should have

00:28:36.220 been over. Nifang should have ended his case the next day. That's what happened. In fact, was April

00:28:43.320 11th. He comes out and says to the news media, it doesn't mean nothing happened. It just means

00:28:49.200 nothing was left behind. Okay. So she had sex with at least four men right around the time that she was 0.88

00:28:57.040 allegedly gang raped and the three now gang rapers who she wasn't able to identify in the first two

00:29:01.620 passes of the photo lineup, which was already biased, took time to put on condoms that they

00:29:06.260 just happened to have on their persons when they allegedly locked her in a bathroom, which by the

00:29:11.760 way, where she said she was raped orally, anally and vaginally and didn't get a mark on them. Not a,

00:29:17.800 not a fingernail mark on them, nothing. Um, and somehow managed to escape without leaving any DNA on her. 0.85

00:29:24.880 This is what we were dealing with. It was becoming more and more obvious. And yet, by the way,

00:29:29.060 the media held on. It's not like even at this point, the media was like, she's a liar. No,

00:29:33.060 they held on. If you go back and look at the reporting, they still, the New York times was

00:29:37.380 among the worst to cover this. Um, on April 17th, after that news, Nifang sought the indictments

00:29:46.560 against Finnerty and Seligman for first degree rape, first degree sex offense and kidnapping.

00:29:51.840 And within a month he indicted Dave Evans for the same unbelief. After all I just said, this was

00:30:00.060 mind blowing, but the media was not reporting these details. And most in the public was not aware

00:30:08.820 of these exonerating details. Dave Evans at the indictment, the team captain came out,

00:30:16.180 made a brief statement. He hadn't spoken to any of the media that none of them had.

00:30:19.680 I was there. And the part I remember the best, I don't think we have it in the soundbite,

00:30:24.440 but was he looked at us and said, I am innocent. You have all been told some fantastic lies.

00:30:34.540 Watch. These allegations are lies fabricated and fabricated and they will be proven wrong.

00:30:43.320 It was as clear a statement of innocence as you could get. It was not, I will not be found guilty

00:30:51.040 or I deny these allegations or I would never, it was, I am innocent. These are lies and they'll be

00:31:01.500 proven untrue. And every word of that was correct. Still the media and this DA pushed forward.

00:31:12.200 May 18th, 2006, Nifong handed over discovery mirror materials to the defense, but they did not

00:31:18.920 include any underlying data or information about the DNA testing and analysis. Did not include any

00:31:27.160 documentation or information indicating the presence of DNA from multiple unidentified males

00:31:32.740 on the rape kit items. Did not provide statements of any witnesses taken during the investigation.

00:31:39.280 Nifong told the court, the state is not aware of any additional material or information, which may be

00:31:43.760 exculpatory, meaning tending to prove innocence. October 27th, 2006, lawyers for the defendants

00:31:50.500 finally determined that they were not given the results of the DNA tests. And in December,

00:31:59.000 Nifong finally interviewed Crystal Mangum. December, this case started the previous March.

00:32:06.440 We're coming up on a year now. When he finally did, he discovered that her story had changed.

00:32:11.080 She was unable now to say whether she'd been raped at all. Did he drop the case? No, no.

00:32:17.640 Let me give you a feeling of what else was happening. I was still down there, up and down

00:32:22.880 between DC and Durham. And we figured out, thanks to our visit to these strip clubs,

00:32:29.440 where Crystal Mangum lived. And so my team and I, the three of us, drove over there. It was in

00:32:35.260 a not great neighborhood. We were a little scared. And a police officer actually stopped us when we got

00:32:42.460 almost into the neighborhood and said, what are you doing? And we said, looking for the accuser in

00:32:48.220 the Duke case. And he said, don't go in this neighborhood. And he said, it's not safe. But we

00:32:54.020 did because we were chasing the story. What we knew is that she had a boyfriend named Matt

00:32:59.400 and that she lived with him. So we expected that she was going to be in this home with Matt.

00:33:04.240 And we saw these serious looking dudes on the corner of this block. And then the next block

00:33:12.300 as we approached her house. And none of us wanted to mess with these dudes. And all I can remember is

00:33:16.400 my producer, my photog saying, hope that's not Matt. Hope that's not Matt. It was a crazy time.

00:33:26.660 So we get there. And the plan was I would go up and ring the doorbell and they would, you know,

00:33:33.740 shoot the scene so that if she came out, we'd at least have her on camera. We might get lucky and

00:33:38.040 get her to say something. And so I did ring the doorbell and rang the doorbell and rang the doorbell

00:33:43.600 and no one came to the door. And as I'm standing there ringing the doorbell, a car comes out from

00:33:48.120 behind the house that she's in and peels out and we can see it's her. So my guys are like, let's go.

00:33:56.660 So I run back into the van. It was like something out of a movie where we started moving before I

00:34:00.480 was actually fully in the van and we followed her and we don't know what to do. We're like,

00:34:05.420 we're not even sure if we should be doing this. We're not tabloid, but we do want to get,

00:34:09.560 you know, something with her on camera. And it would be great if we could actually have her speak into

00:34:14.180 the microphone, give us two lines, where's she going? That could be newsworthy, all of it.

00:34:19.700 And we followed her for a short time, but we didn't know if this was the right thing to do.

00:34:23.540 We were all very green. So we called back to the DC bureau and, uh, we said, we've got the accuser.

00:34:29.600 She's in our line of sight. She's in the car in front of us and we're following her. But what should

00:34:35.140 we do? What should we do? And the desk, the guy who answered at the desk said, stand by, I've got to

00:34:40.140 get Kim Hume involved. And, uh, so we're standing by as he asked Kim Hume what to do. And the feedback

00:34:46.040 was continue pursuit. I'm like, continue pursuit. So we continue pursuit and, uh, didn't quite know

00:34:54.280 where it was going to lead. Well, it stopped at a red light and we got out of the car and we had

00:35:00.520 the camera and we're going up to, to get her on tape. I mean, look, this woman was presumed by

00:35:07.800 everybody to be a rape victim, but she was not presumed to be a rape victim by us. We had serious

00:35:13.160 doubts about whether she was telling the truth. These guys' pictures were all over everywhere.

00:35:18.480 Their career as lacrosse players had already been brought to an unceremonious early end.

00:35:23.500 And we did not think she was off limits. And, uh, so we went up to get her on camera and she threw 1.00

00:35:29.600 herself on, on the passenger side of her car and covered her head. And we said, we're out of here.

00:35:35.740 That's too much for us. We're not going to do this anymore. And I think that was the right call.

00:35:42.200 And I don't, I think chasing her initially was the right call too. But at some point as a reporter,

00:35:46.920 your humanity kicks in and you say, let's do this, but we'll do it another way.

00:35:50.380 So we got back into the van and we took off and we were not able to find her again. And no one was.

00:35:57.340 Now I did track down her father who told me, and I reported this exclusively on Fox news at the time

00:36:02.200 that she was claiming she'd been sodomized by these boys with a broomstick,

00:36:08.640 which is just so absurd. You know, again, that the woman who was with her doesn't even remember

00:36:14.360 anything happening to her, but she was in a closet. So long in a bathroom, so long with these guys,

00:36:19.020 they were using other objects, but they had their condoms on so that no, see like just the notion

00:36:24.180 of it. And then it was dropped by another news outlet that she had accused other men of gang rape

00:36:30.360 when she was 18. And now you see a clear profile of this woman coming out, but still knife on pressed

00:36:38.220 forward. And still the press was derelict in its duty. Um, eventually we, the case was taken away

00:36:49.680 from like dive on. Eventually what we had was an attorney general step in and take over this case.

00:36:57.640 His name was Roy Cooper. Um, he eventually became governor of the state, but he held a press conference

00:37:07.460 in which he announced that he was dropping the charges against the three. They, they figured out

00:37:12.920 that knife on was a dishonest broker that he hadn't handed over required discovery to the defense,

00:37:17.820 including DNA results. And that this was an out of control, rogue prosecutor

00:37:21.960 and a miscarriage of justice. He stepped in and announced that these guys were not guilty and

00:37:29.720 he was dropping the charges. Here's a bit of that. The result of our review and investigation shows

00:37:36.720 clearly that there is insufficient evidence to proceed on any of the charges. Today we are filing notices

00:37:46.500 of dismissal for all charges against Reed Seligman, Colin Finnerty and David Evans. The result is that

00:37:57.540 these cases are over and no more criminal proceedings will occur. We believe that these cases were the

00:38:08.260 result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations. Based on the significant

00:38:21.140 inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness,

00:38:27.380 we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges.

00:38:35.920 Guy got a chill. Just listening to that actually brings up like an emotion for me.

00:38:40.420 Um, they'd been put through hell. I remember Reed Seligman had receipts second by second for where he'd been

00:38:51.380 that night showing that he could not possibly have committed this crime. And she made a mistake

00:38:57.260 in picking him because like he really had an alibi. Still, they put him through this same hell

00:39:02.980 that they put the other two through and their parents absolutely batshit crazy over what was being done to

00:39:10.440 their boys. And yet no one giving them a fair shake, not the DA, not the media, no one, almost no one.

00:39:17.640 Um, that was an extraordinary day when finally someone of reason took over and Dave Evans spoke out

00:39:28.060 on April 11th, that same day, 2007. Listen,

00:39:31.280 my parents, my sister, uh, Lord knows I've put them to hell and back. And, uh, their support is let me

00:39:40.560 remember and stay true to who I am in the face of tremendous scrutiny, speculation, and out

00:39:47.120 great, fantastic lies. I could never imagine what they've gone through. I was indicted the day

00:39:53.060 after my graduation. As difficult as that weekend was, finding out on Friday before I was indicted

00:39:58.160 on Monday, I reached a path in my life where I could take some time off. I still worked through it.

00:40:04.240 I didn't want to have idle hands. But these boys were ripped out of school. The team that they loved,

00:40:10.140 their friends, everything they'd ever worked for based on lies. It's painful to remember what we went

00:40:15.560 through in those first days. And it's just a testament to all of our character that we never

00:40:20.600 lashed out. We stood there strong. If you want to know what character it is, walk around your campus

00:40:25.900 and see signs and put your photo all over and wanted signs and have people in the media relating

00:40:30.740 you to Hitler and other terrible people from history when you've done nothing wrong. That is character. 0.88

00:40:36.640 Just sit there and take that as the young men of the Duke University wins across from the dead.

00:40:40.920 That innocent people can be charged of a crime. And it is up to the justice system

00:40:45.960 to determine guilt or innocence, not the news, not speculators, and not people with some other agenda.

00:40:55.060 Well said, Dave Evans. Just an example in class, fortitude, and character. He was given credit there

00:41:03.500 to his two co-defendants, but he deserves a lot as well. All of them do. And the men on the Duke

00:41:08.180 lacrosse team who nearly had their lives ruined as well, just by smears and reputation, adjacency.

00:41:17.020 Even after Nifong's claims fell apart, some on the left held on to the nonsense. Just one example.

00:41:23.620 Her name is Amanda Marcotte. She'd written for Slate, The Guardian, and other leading progressive

00:41:29.240 publications. She defended the hoax. She defended the baseless prosecution, even after the charges were

00:41:36.100 brought against Nifong. Because ultimately, I'll tell you what happened to him, but it wasn't good. 0.77

00:41:40.960 When he found himself on the defense, she was still standing by this bogus hoax. On her blog,

00:41:47.600 she wrote, people who defended the wrongly accused Duke students were rape-loving scum.

00:41:54.980 She complained about the charges being thrown out, sarcastically asking,

00:41:59.580 can't a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all wound up

00:42:04.640 about it? She is now the senior politics writer at Salon. The left doesn't throw you out for race 0.99

00:42:15.840 baiting and getting it so deeply wrong that you could easily be sued. They promote you. They celebrate

00:42:23.780 you. They have you write more articles like this one. She's author of, I guess it's a book,

00:42:30.820 Troll Nation, How the Right Became Trump Worshipping Monsters, Set on Rat-Fucking Liberals,

00:42:36.840 America, and Truth Itself. That's lovely. That's our left-wing blog, Salon. Nice. Good for you. Must be

00:42:42.900 very proud. Mike Nyfong did find himself on the receiving end of charges. Crystal Mangum, no. The

00:42:52.820 attorney general said he would not be charging her, even though he clearly could have, because of her

00:42:58.180 mental state. They believed she was nuts, so they didn't charge her. It was very controversial at the

00:43:04.460 time, but they didn't think that was the way to go. They did, however, seek to disbar Mike Nyfong,

00:43:12.740 which was easy. He was disgraced and disbarred, and then they went after him criminally, and he wound up

00:43:21.480 having to spend a day in jail, which was symbolic, just to say to the public, he's the villain, which,

00:43:29.200 yeah, he is. It's clear. He did, ultimately, after losing his entire career, never mind his

00:43:38.700 reputation, come out and apologize. It was during his disbarment hearing when he was struggling to

00:43:45.800 save his law license. Here's some of that. My actions have caused pain to the Finities and the

00:43:55.920 Senators and the Evans. I apologize to the extent that my actions have brought disrespect and disrepute

00:44:07.680 to the bar, to my community.

00:44:17.540 It didn't work. Lost his law license. Spent a day in jail for contempt of court. That's what he was

00:44:24.200 being punished for, and has never recovered since. He's still disgraced and a walking example of what

00:44:34.180 happens when a rogue prosecutor misunderstands his role in the system, a lesson many prosecutors out

00:44:41.140 there today could stand to benefit from learning, wish they'd pay attention. As for Crystal Mangum, 0.98

00:44:49.000 things did not go well for her after this case fell apart. She came out in 2008, so not long after the

00:45:00.560 case was dismissed, April of 2007, and she wrote a book, and in her book, she reasserted her claims.

00:45:10.320 She reasserted them. Take a listen to her here from 2008. 0.82

00:45:14.940 No one deserves to be sexually assaulted, regardless of their profession or regardless of what they have

00:45:22.020 done. I'm a real person. I have feelings.

00:45:30.180 I'm not just an exotic dancer. I'm not just someone who tried to frame someone who was innocent of sexual

00:45:38.460 assault. My only intentions were for justice, and I wanted justice for myself.

00:45:50.060 Still a liar. She was threatened with a defamation suit by one of the boys' families at that time.

00:45:55.080 She was doubling down, just not admitting it. Okay, so we're still supposed to go with mental state.

00:45:59.540 Got it. Supposed to still feel sorry for her. Don't. And that was 2008. And then,

00:46:05.880 you know what happened? In 2013, she went to prison for second-degree murder of her boyfriend.

00:46:16.300 I don't know if it was Matt. Hope that's not Matt. I don't, I'm not sure. She went to jail for second-degree

00:46:24.960 murder. And when she was found guilty, newsbusters reported at the time that they keep an eye on left

00:46:34.520 wing bias. There were no Duke accuser updates at ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS, USA Today, or the Washington

00:46:42.640 Post. New York Times had a tiny little column on it. Turns out she's a murderer in addition to being 1.00

00:46:51.080 a false rape accuser. Eh, eh, not worth an update. Eh, why step on our old narrative? We already took a

00:46:59.720 black eye on it. No reason to make it two. And then, this week, we get this extraordinary piece

00:47:08.460 of tape from a little old show no one's ever heard of called Let's Talk with Cat, spelled with a K,

00:47:15.780 in an interview that happened at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women. And

00:47:22.540 finally, finally, almost 19 years after this happened, Crystal Mangum tells the truth that she

00:47:34.500 made this whole thing up and addresses the young men specifically. Listen.

00:47:41.860 Do you have any regrets? I don't have any regrets. Everything happens to get everybody to the point

00:47:51.440 where they are. Correct. And it's all to show God's love and His forgiveness, His grace, and His mercy.

00:48:00.920 Thank you. Thank you. It's all to show His glory. I'm a living witness of God's forgiveness.

00:48:13.500 That night, my Reed Seligman, Colin Bennerty, and Dave Evans, they took me into their home,

00:48:34.840 and they trusted. The Bible says that you shouldn't do harm to your neighbor that lives trustingly beside

00:48:43.080 you. And they were my brothers, and they trusted me that I wouldn't betray their trust. And

00:48:53.020 I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn't, and that was wrong.

00:49:02.720 And I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me and made up a story that wasn't true

00:49:18.040 because I wanted validation from people and not from God. And that was wrong when God already loved me

00:49:26.560 for who I was. Regardless, I didn't need to seek validation from him because I already had validation from him.

00:49:36.560 I just didn't know it. And I hurt my brothers. And I hope that they can forgive me. And I want them to know that I love them. And they didn't deserve that. And I hope they can forgive me.

00:50:00.560 And that I hope that they can heal and trust God. And know that God loves them. And that God is loving them through me, letting them know that they're valuable.

00:50:26.560 And that they didn't deserve that.

00:50:31.560 Crystal, thank you so much. That's it.

00:50:35.560 Yeah. Can I give you a hug?

00:50:40.560 Yeah.

00:50:41.560 Wow. Wow.

00:50:47.560 So that's how the saga ends.

00:50:52.560 It almost never happens.

00:50:57.560 We were dangerously close to her lies sending those three innocent, promising, amazing young men to prison for the vast majority of their lives.

00:51:09.560 We were dangerously close to it.

00:51:11.560 I'm glad she acknowledged it. I'm glad she apologized. I don't know what it'll do.

00:51:18.560 She can no longer be prosecuted for lying under oath as she did because the statute of limitations has run on that claim.

00:51:24.560 But she's in prison for a long, long time, thanks to her second degree murder conviction. 0.91

00:51:29.560 The boys did ultimately sue.

00:51:33.560 They sued in a civil suit, Duke University, which was settled.

00:51:39.560 And reportedly, though we don't know, the university paid approximately $20 million to each claimant.

00:51:45.560 That's unconfirmed.

00:51:46.560 We reached out to them to see if they had any reaction to Crystal Mangum finally coming clean.

00:51:55.560 And we actually have an exclusive statement here from not Dave Evans, but his lawyer, Joe Cheshire, who represents him.

00:52:02.560 This is just to us.

00:52:04.560 Quote, I'm extremely pleased that Crystal Mangum finally decided to tell the truth.

00:52:09.560 For those of us that were involved in the Duke Lacrosse case, there was never a question as to the innocence of these young men.

00:52:15.560 It was a travesty of justice caused by one prosecutor's corrupt effort to win an election at the expense of three innocent people.

00:52:22.560 Prosecutorial misconduct can have a devastating impact on the administration of justice by causing wrongful convictions of innocent people and must be carefully guarded against.

00:52:32.560 Although Miss Mangum's admission is long overdue, it does put the final layer of validation on the unequivocal innocence of these three fine men.

00:52:44.560 Colin Finnerty left Duke and enrolled at Loyola College in Maryland.

00:52:51.560 Dave Evans, who you heard there, had already graduated from Duke before he was officially charged, received an MBA from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania in May of 2012.

00:53:01.560 Reed Seligman enrolled as a student at Brown University in that fall of 2007 and was an important part of Brown reaching the 2009 NCAA lacrosse tournament, as well as a number 10 national ranking.

00:53:16.560 I believe one of them went on, I think it was Seligman to law school, hoping to practice criminal defense.

00:53:23.560 We'll check that.

00:53:25.560 I think one of them's in finance and I'm not sure what the third one's doing.

00:53:28.560 Yep, he went to Emory University Law School.

00:53:33.560 Seligman did.

00:53:35.560 So good for him.

00:53:36.560 You know, taking that trauma and turning it around to actually save others from going through it is pretty noble.

00:53:41.560 All of this is just so upsetting and it's so deeply immoral and the press has learned nothing.

00:53:48.560 They're just as vile and disgusting and they do it over and over again.

00:53:52.560 And so do officials who have no business trying to lead the public into thinking there's guilt when there isn't.

00:53:58.560 Like Joe Biden when he was running for president saying Kyle Rittenhouse was a white supremacist.

00:54:05.560 The irresponsible rhetoric from Barack Obama in in these cases, not to mention the entire leftist media whenever there is a black man on the wrong end of police in a violent confrontation. 0.60

00:54:18.560 They they don't learn.

00:54:20.560 They don't learn.

00:54:21.560 They don't learn.

00:54:22.560 Which is one of the reasons why Leslie Stahl should not have been so confused in that clip we showed you yesterday where she spoke to Peggy Noonan about why.

00:54:31.560 Why is it that the legacy media has died?

00:54:34.560 She can feel it happening.

00:54:36.560 Even she's acknowledging it of 60 minutes.

00:54:38.560 Why?

00:54:39.560 This is why.

00:54:40.560 This is why.

00:54:41.560 You changed nothing.

00:54:43.560 You learned nothing.

00:54:44.560 You doubled and tripled and quadrupled down on the same sins and we no longer trust you.

00:54:52.560 In fact, we loathe you.

00:54:55.560 Look at the way they covered Donald Trump's four indictments.

00:54:58.560 Look at the rogue DA's who indicted those cases to begin with.

00:55:02.560 The left has learned nothing.

00:55:05.560 There is no fixing them.

00:55:07.560 There is only forging on without them.

00:55:10.560 That's why shows like this were born.

00:55:13.560 It's why the digital lane has taken off.

00:55:16.560 It's not just all about swagger and good for us when we talk about it.

00:55:21.560 It's it's because it was important.

00:55:24.560 It's because necessity is the mother of all invention and we needed an honest press and didn't have one.

00:55:31.560 It's journalistic Darwinism.

00:55:36.560 Finally, I'm going to end with a nice story, a nice piece of this story.

00:55:43.560 I mentioned it's one of the this case is one of the reasons that I met my husband.

00:55:48.560 So flashback to 2006 when this is all unfolding.

00:55:53.560 I was going down to Durham.

00:55:54.560 I was doing a lot of reporting and.

00:55:57.560 My husband, Doug, who I mentioned, you went to Duke, saw me.

00:56:02.560 I was Megan Kendall.

00:56:03.560 Then I was still using my first husband, the first husband, as you know, it ended amicably, but I still had Megan Kendall as my name.

00:56:10.560 Um, he saw Megan Kendall reporting on the Duke fake rape case from Durham, and he was interested in the case for obvious reasons.

00:56:19.560 I've gone there, not, not that far in the past and, uh, wanted to keep up to date on what was happening and like the reporting.

00:56:26.560 And as it turns out, like the reporter, a long story short, we were set up and I met him for a blind date.

00:56:34.560 And the rest is history.

00:56:37.560 We met in July of 06.

00:56:39.560 And by September of 07, he proposed to me and we were married in March of 08.

00:56:46.560 And it's funny because one of our traditions is we go out once a year with our friends from New Jersey who we spend the summers with.

00:56:57.560 And time after time, we would see family members.

00:57:02.560 I've never actually met the three lacrosse players.

00:57:04.560 I've never met one of them, but I've met their dads.

00:57:08.560 I've met family members who will come up to me.

00:57:11.560 And it used to always happen at this one restaurant.

00:57:13.560 We'd go to in New York on this, this celebration.

00:57:15.560 And they were so profoundly thankful for what?

00:57:19.560 Just honest coverage.

00:57:20.560 That's it.

00:57:21.560 I was not on the air every night saying they didn't do it.

00:57:23.560 You know, I wasn't allowed to do that back then.

00:57:25.560 Now I'm much more opinionated and able to share my opinion.

00:57:27.560 But back then I was a straight news reporter and I would never have shared my actual opinion.

00:57:31.560 I could only report the news honestly.

00:57:34.560 And they were so grateful just for that, just for reporting the news honestly.

00:57:41.560 You know, I gave you the one example, but there were a lot of them in that case where we bonged in on Hannity with a Fox News alert and set the cable news world on fire with our reporting there.

00:57:53.560 And it's just a wrong, immoral thing where someone who's the target of those kinds of allegations has to be so deeply grateful for just honest coverage about the facts in their case.

00:58:05.560 Anyway, Doug and I lived happily ever after, at least so far, went on to have three wonderful kids who we adore.

00:58:14.560 And that's my hope for these three guys, too.

00:58:17.560 I don't know personally where their lives took them.

00:58:19.560 They're all older now.

00:58:21.560 You know, they were figure they were 20 when this happened to them 20 years ago.

00:58:25.560 So they're probably all married with kids of their own and careers.

00:58:28.560 And it would be great if they'd come and talk about the lessons that they've learned.

00:58:33.560 They've given a couple of interviews, but I'd love to hear how this very negative experience has affected them positively, because I bet you there's a whole bunch of things in that lane.

00:58:43.560 You know, that would help the people who feel sorry for themselves today because they got a bad test grade or because somebody snubbed them that they could learn from these guys who went through true adversity.

00:58:55.560 You know, not exactly the way our soldiers do, but not not totally dissimilar from the way our soldiers do.

00:59:01.560 They went through their own kind of hell and have been really great, fine, upstanding guys.

00:59:08.560 So they're the heroes of the story.

00:59:12.560 Mike Knifon's the villain of the story.

00:59:15.560 Crystal Mangum, it's more complicated.

00:59:19.560 I do believe there's something seriously wrong with her. 0.99

00:59:22.560 I don't know if I'll use the term villain.

00:59:28.560 I don't know what to say about her.

00:59:31.560 Hers is a sad, sorry case.

00:59:34.560 But in the end, at least this week, she finally did the right thing.

00:59:41.560 OK, before we sign off today, we did something really fun with the fellows from Ruthless the other day when they were here.

00:59:47.560 We didn't air it because we wanted to save it for you guys this weekend.

00:59:50.560 We got into their four and my one, the four of them, favorite Christmas movie.

00:59:57.560 Tis the season.

00:59:59.560 Their hilarious smug does not disappoint in particular.

01:00:03.560 And it's a quick segment, which I think you'll enjoy.

01:00:06.560 We'll be right back.

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01:01:13.560 I'm Megan Kelly, host of The Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM.

01:01:18.560 It's your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations

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01:02:12.560 All right.

01:02:16.560 I will kick it off and tell you I was very, very torn because I love, love, love watching

01:02:22.560 this movie Christmas in Connecticut.

01:02:24.560 It was made in 1945.

01:02:26.560 It stars Barbara Stanwyck.

01:02:28.560 And the fun thing about this movie is she's basically a Martha Stewart type who writes 1.00

01:02:34.560 like a home, you know, helper column in this popular magazine.

01:02:39.560 But it turns out she's a fraud.

01:02:42.560 She can't cook. 1.00

01:02:43.560 She's not a homemaker. 1.00

01:02:44.560 She doesn't know what she's doing.

01:02:45.560 She's a city girl living in Manhattan wearing furs. 0.98

01:02:48.560 The whole thing is fake.

01:02:49.560 She's using this cook friend of hers to write all this stuff.

01:02:53.560 And that's working out fine for her until the owner of the magazine, Alexander Yardley,

01:03:00.560 which, by the way, is where I got my daughter's name.

01:03:02.560 I always tell her you were named after a fat, bald, old man in Christmas in Connecticut.

01:03:07.560 He gets this idea of trying to honor and celebrate this World War II hero who's just back from war

01:03:14.560 who really just wants a home cooked meal.

01:03:16.560 And he wants his main writer to celebrate this guy at her Vermont farm by hosting him.

01:03:23.560 But she is not married.

01:03:24.560 She does not have a baby.

01:03:25.560 She does not have a Vermont farm.

01:03:27.560 And she, her editor, and this guy who does want to be her husband and happens to own a Vermont farm,

01:03:34.560 talk her into a ruse where she pretends it's all happening and they have the guy come.

01:03:41.560 And here's the scene in which they hatch the scheme.

01:03:44.560 Elizabeth, I just talked with my wife.

01:03:48.560 This is her editor.

01:03:49.560 I didn't have the heart.

01:03:51.560 She told me what she was getting the kids for Christmas in.

01:03:55.560 Well, she sounded so happy.

01:03:58.560 Of course, I know it's asking a lot, but I'm a pal in a jam.

01:04:03.560 John, darling, it would only be for a few days.

01:04:06.560 After all, that's been so good to me.

01:04:08.560 I am getting out of it now, thanks to you.

01:04:12.560 Oh, John, couldn't we so he won't lose his job?

01:04:15.560 Elizabeth, I know I shall regret this for the rest of my life, but if it's what you want.

01:04:19.560 Oh, Johnny, you're a lamb.

01:04:21.560 So I take everything back.

01:04:23.560 I'll never forget this.

01:04:24.560 I thank you.

01:04:25.560 And my family thanks you.

01:04:26.560 Wait a minute.

01:04:27.560 That's no good.

01:04:28.560 Why not?

01:04:29.560 I can't cook.

01:04:30.560 She can't cook. 1.00

01:04:31.560 She can't cook. 1.00

01:04:32.560 Felix, you'll take him with you.

01:04:34.560 He'll do anything for you.

01:04:35.560 Felix.

01:04:36.560 Yes, Mr. Meacham.

01:04:37.560 Felix, I have great news for you.

01:04:39.560 May I have the honor of announcing to you the engagement of our dear Elizabeth, the Mr. John Sloan, a Prince of Goodfellows.

01:04:44.560 A Prince of Goodfellows.

01:04:45.560 Thank you.

01:04:46.560 Please get me.

01:04:47.560 Is it true?

01:04:48.560 Yes, Felix.

01:04:49.560 I decided quite suddenly.

01:04:50.560 Congratulations, Felix.

01:04:51.560 It's colossal.

01:04:53.560 Colossal.

01:04:54.560 It's catastrophic.

01:04:56.560 It's catastrophic.

01:04:58.560 So cute.

01:05:00.560 And what I love about it, guys, is it's black and white.

01:05:02.560 There are all these scenes in the snowy outdoors in a horse-drawn sleigh.

01:05:07.560 And it's just the feeling, you know, that old-timey stuff like you're a lamb gives me when I watch this. 0.76

01:05:13.560 That makes me love it so much.

01:05:16.560 So, okay.

01:05:17.560 How about you guys?

01:05:18.560 Who wants to go first?

01:05:19.560 I mean, I love this old black and white.

01:05:22.560 And we do a lot of that around my house.

01:05:24.560 But I also just like a laugh.

01:05:26.560 And there's nothing funnier than, you know, when you've got a family and everything that goes wrong can go wrong.

01:05:32.560 And it's just like life as a dad, as I've found it within a family when you're hosting Christmas, like something's going wrong.

01:05:38.560 And it's a calamity of errors.

01:05:40.560 So Christmas Vacation is my movie, right?

01:05:42.560 And Chevy Chase.

01:05:43.560 Oh, wait.

01:05:44.560 Stand by.

01:05:45.560 We have it teed up, right?

01:05:46.560 We have something.

01:05:47.560 Stand by.

01:05:48.560 Where do you think you're going?

01:05:50.560 Nobody's leaving.

01:05:51.560 Nobody's walking out on this fun old-fashioned family Christmas.

01:05:54.560 No, no.

01:05:55.560 We're all in this together.

01:05:57.560 This is a full-blown four-alarm holiday emergency here.

01:06:00.560 We're going to press on and we're going to have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap dance with Danny fucking K.

01:06:07.560 And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney night, he's going to find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.

01:06:13.560 Classicals.

01:06:17.560 Classicals.

01:06:19.560 And it's just like so relatable to me, you know?

01:06:22.560 It's like he has all these errors and like finally just lost it.

01:06:25.560 That's it.

01:06:26.560 I just love that movie.

01:06:27.560 That's right.

01:06:28.560 We've all been there at one point or another.

01:06:29.560 All right.

01:06:30.560 We'll do it this way.

01:06:31.560 So I don't know what yours is, Ashbrook, but my team knows.

01:06:34.560 Let's get into it by them playing some of your favorite Christmas music or movie.

01:06:39.560 And we'll all find out together.

01:06:41.560 A football.

01:06:42.560 Oh, no.

01:06:43.560 What was I doing?

01:06:45.560 Wake up, stupid.

01:06:46.560 Wake up.

01:06:47.560 No.

01:06:48.560 No, no, I want an officer right out of a car when I shoot you when I get my rifle. 0.70

01:07:01.560 You'll shoot your eye out, kid.

01:07:05.560 Merry Christmas.

01:07:07.560 Ho, ho, ho, ho. 0.87

01:07:10.560 Ho, ho, ho. 0.99

01:07:14.560 Once again, you have Santa laying down the law.

01:07:17.560 That is my favorite Christmas movie.

01:07:19.560 Yeah, it's a Christmas story.

01:07:20.560 I've been watching it basically every year since the 80s.

01:07:22.560 And one of the things everybody thinks that movie is about Ralphie who wants a Red Rider BB gun and he ultimately gets it at the end of the movie.

01:07:30.560 But I think the movie is really about the dad.

01:07:33.560 And if you listen to Ralphie narrate as an older person, his memories of being a kid, some of the best moments are when his dad loses his mind on a broken furnace.

01:07:43.560 He's mad at the Chicago Bears.

01:07:46.560 He's mad at his neighbor's stupid dogs who come in and ruin everything in his house.

01:07:51.560 And I just think I find that guy so hilarious.

01:07:54.560 And I love how he's like, sons of.

01:07:57.560 Oh, my God.

01:08:00.560 It ends mid word, which works.

01:08:05.560 All right.

01:08:06.560 So the team will show us now.

01:08:08.560 What is Michael Duncan's favorite Christmas movie?

01:08:12.560 I'm a.

01:08:13.560 Cradle, Robert.

01:08:14.560 Honey, beautiful.

01:08:15.560 Just keep going.

01:08:16.560 Don't worry about it.

01:08:17.560 Just keep going.

01:08:18.560 You're a therapist.

01:08:19.560 No, no, no.

01:08:20.560 Not, not, not Capricorn, but.

01:08:21.560 Libra.

01:08:22.560 Yes.

01:08:24.560 Fun.

01:08:25.560 Okay.

01:08:26.560 This is what you dripped on me.

01:08:29.560 Oh, wax.

01:08:30.560 No.

01:08:31.560 After that.

01:08:33.560 It's brown.

01:08:34.560 Okay.

01:08:35.560 Make this stop, please.

01:08:36.560 Oh, oh, chocolate.

01:08:37.560 Oh, no.

01:08:38.560 Before that.

01:08:39.560 After the wax.

01:08:40.560 Oh, the syrup.

01:08:41.560 Yes.

01:08:42.560 Yes.

01:08:43.560 Way sticky, dude.

01:08:44.560 I would not recommend that.

01:08:45.560 Okay.

01:08:46.560 Okay.

01:08:47.560 Time.

01:08:48.560 Time.

01:08:50.560 Yeah.

01:08:51.560 What is this?

01:08:52.560 This is for Christmases, Megan.

01:08:55.560 It's the greatest Christmas movie.

01:08:56.560 Everyone loves it.

01:08:57.560 Yeah.

01:08:58.560 Everyone's telling me to watch this.

01:08:59.560 I've never seen it.

01:09:00.560 Duncan.

01:09:01.560 You gotta watch it.

01:09:02.560 Okay.

01:09:03.560 No, no, no, no, no.

01:09:04.560 It is hilarious.

01:09:05.560 So Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon are sort of living like the childless millennial dream.

01:09:10.560 Like every Christmas they like tell their families, oh, we're doing humanitarian relief

01:09:14.560 in Africa.

01:09:15.560 We can't come over for the holidays and all that sort of stuff.

01:09:17.560 They show up to the airport and there's a huge storm.

01:09:19.560 And so local news is there to cover it, you know, all the flight cancellations and everything.

01:09:23.560 And here they are fine.

01:09:24.560 Like they're on camera, they're on live news.

01:09:26.560 And so all their families are watching them not be able to get on their flight.

01:09:30.560 So they have no excuse.

01:09:31.560 So now they finally have to travel to their families for Christmas.

01:09:35.560 And both of their parents are divorced and they're sort of dysfunctional families

01:09:38.560 and all this sort of thing.

01:09:39.560 That scene that you saw there was Vince Vaughn's mother who is now dating one of his buddies

01:09:46.560 from high school.

01:09:47.560 And so it's four Christmases of some of the most awkward family exchanges you could imagine.

01:09:55.560 I love that.

01:09:56.560 But the lesson in all of this is like the families could be totally, totally dysfunctional

01:10:00.560 and you may not like each other all the time.

01:10:03.560 But at the end of the day, it's worth it.

01:10:04.560 And so Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn decide at the end to settle down, have a kid,

01:10:08.560 have a family.

01:10:09.560 So it has a really good message at the end.

01:10:11.560 And it is hilarious.

01:10:12.560 Robert Duvall plays Vince Vaughn's father.

01:10:14.560 And I don't want to ruin it.

01:10:15.560 But he is the funniest, funniest character in the entire movie.

01:10:18.560 Oh, great tease.

01:10:20.560 It's on.

01:10:21.560 We may watch that tonight.

01:10:22.560 OK, I want to see here.

01:10:26.560 I don't know what Comfortably Smug would pick.

01:10:28.560 Neither do we.

01:10:30.560 I don't know.

01:10:31.560 I can't wait to see.

01:10:32.560 OK, let's watch it.

01:10:33.560 Oh, my goodness.

01:10:37.560 Awesome.

01:10:38.560 Incredible.

01:10:39.560 Incredible.

01:10:42.560 What?

01:10:45.560 The Godfather.

01:10:52.560 And we're watching an execution attempt.

01:10:55.560 Fredo.

01:10:56.560 Of course.

01:11:00.560 The God.

01:11:01.560 That's better than his first choice.

01:11:03.560 His first choice.

01:11:04.560 I'm not sure you could have put on your.

01:11:05.560 Yeah.

01:11:06.560 So Amanda. 0.99

01:11:07.560 The pick to your team for eyes wide shut.

01:11:12.560 Why?

01:11:13.560 The Godfather is not a Christmas movie.

01:11:15.560 It is.

01:11:16.560 So right after that, Michael Corleone is Christmas shopping with Kay when he realizes his father's

01:11:20.560 been shot.

01:11:21.560 It's a Christmas movie.

01:11:22.560 The whole idea is this rejection of people who pick die hard as their favorite Christmas

01:11:26.560 movie.

01:11:27.560 Like that was a funny joke 10 years ago, but they cling on to it so strongly.

01:11:30.560 So I propose the Godfather eyes wide shut.

01:11:34.560 All right.

01:11:35.560 I mean, very tenuous link there, but I'll take it.

01:11:37.560 I'll take it.

01:11:38.560 Very.

01:11:39.560 It's.

01:11:40.560 Do you have two minutes additional or do you guys got to run?

01:11:42.560 Sure.

01:11:43.560 We've got two minutes for you.

01:11:45.560 I just want to show you this.

01:11:46.560 So I love Christmas in Connecticut.

01:11:48.560 I love the way it makes me feel.

01:11:49.560 I put it on and I just like wrap presents or do something like it's not something that

01:11:53.560 I would always just be focused on every every minute of the movie.

01:11:57.560 But the movie I really need you to watch if you haven't seen it.

01:12:00.560 And the movie I absolutely love is Family Man.

01:12:06.560 Family Man stars Nicolas Cage and Taya Leone.

01:12:11.560 And it is so good.

01:12:14.560 The message is so good.

01:12:15.560 The acting so good.

01:12:16.560 It's hilarious.

01:12:17.560 It's it's a heart tugger.

01:12:19.560 It's got all the elements in it.

01:12:21.560 And it's so wonderful that I teed up the trailer because I really want you to see it,

01:12:27.560 though it was made now almost 25 years ago.

01:12:30.560 It's so good to watch.

01:12:31.560 Mm.

01:12:32.560 Good night.

01:12:37.560 Merry Christmas.

01:12:38.560 I'm giving everything I've got to this deal.

01:12:40.560 You're a credit to capitalism, Jack.

01:12:44.560 Come on, Dad.

01:12:45.560 Get up.

01:12:46.560 It's Christmas.

01:12:47.560 It's Christmas.

01:12:48.560 Jack.

01:12:49.560 Strong coffee.

01:12:51.560 Where's my Ferrari?

01:12:52.560 You got a Ferrari?

01:12:53.560 Just tell me what's happening to me.

01:12:56.560 This is a glimpse.

01:12:57.560 A glimpse of what?

01:12:58.560 This is not my beautiful house.

01:13:00.560 This is very strange because this isn't my house.

01:13:03.560 This is not my beautiful wife. 1.00

01:13:06.560 Those aren't my kids.

01:13:08.560 You're not really my dad, are you?

01:13:11.560 I don't have time for this.

01:13:12.560 I'm in the middle of a deal.

01:13:14.560 Well, you're working on a new deal now, baby.

01:13:16.560 Good lord.

01:13:17.560 You must have needed this every day.

01:13:21.560 Sir?

01:13:22.560 Yeah.

01:13:23.560 You're needed in Mad Wheels.

01:13:25.560 You want me.

01:13:26.560 That is the general idea.

01:13:29.560 Oh, God, you're beautiful.

01:13:31.560 How can you look at me like you haven't seen me every day for the last 13 years?

01:13:37.560 Jack!

01:13:38.560 What's up?

01:13:39.560 How you doing, baby?

01:13:40.560 Can't keep coming in and out of people's lives messing things up.

01:13:42.560 It's not right.

01:13:43.560 I need you to remember me, Kate.

01:13:45.560 Keep it with you no matter what happens.

01:13:47.560 Well, it's too late tonight to drag the past out into the light.

01:13:59.560 One life, but we're not the same.

01:14:03.560 We can carry each other, carry each other.

01:14:08.560 The Family Man.

01:14:10.560 I love that movie, guys.

01:14:17.560 It's a good one.

01:14:18.560 What a good movie.

01:14:19.560 Yeah.

01:14:20.560 And there's this one scene in there where he says to her, I want us to have a life that

01:14:26.560 people will envy.

01:14:28.560 And they live in this small home in New Jersey.

01:14:30.560 Their kids go to this public school that neither one is making any money.

01:14:33.560 And she says what they have is amazing marriage.

01:14:36.560 They already do envy us, Jack.

01:14:39.560 And like that right there, that's it.

01:14:42.560 You know, it's like we get sucked into, you know, money or fame or some, some version of

01:14:50.560 success that doesn't involve the real people who you surround yourself with, who you really

01:14:54.560 love, who you're building a life with.

01:14:56.560 And you, you forget about that, right?

01:14:59.560 You forget that it's like the genuine love between you and your partner, hopefully, like

01:15:04.560 the feeling you have when you pick up your baby and smell his hair, you know, that, that

01:15:09.560 is the stuff of envy, you know, and it's a perspective setter at the perfect time of year,

01:15:16.560 right?

01:15:17.560 When we get so materialistic about what matters.

01:15:19.560 Yeah.

01:15:20.560 It's like the, the, the things that make you happiest in life aren't the acclaim or fame

01:15:25.560 or money.

01:15:26.560 It's the hardest things, right?

01:15:28.560 Like it's, it's family and kids and all of that sort of stuff.

01:15:32.560 And it's easy to overlook all of those things, but around the holidays, when you're around

01:15:35.560 family, it gets a lot easier.

01:15:37.560 Well said, right on.

01:15:39.560 Well, you could watch that or you could watch the shoot him up, kill him.

01:15:43.560 Godfather with Fredo.

01:15:44.560 It's your call.

01:15:45.560 It's really, it's a personal preference situation.

01:15:49.560 I'll take the pain.

01:15:50.560 You guys are the greatest.

01:15:52.560 Merry Christmas.

01:15:53.560 Happy New Year.

01:15:54.560 Merry Christmas.

01:15:55.560 Merry Christmas.

01:15:56.560 Thanks for another great year.

01:15:57.560 You look the best.

01:15:58.560 Oh, love the fellas. 1.00

01:15:59.560 The fellas are so great.

01:16:01.560 What is your favorite Christmas movie?

01:16:03.560 Megan at MeganKelley.com or just go to MeganKelley.com.

01:16:08.560 And you can sign up there for our once a week email.

01:16:11.560 It's from me and my pal Meg Storm, who helps me put it together.

01:16:15.560 And we collate all the best events that happened on the show that week.

01:16:18.560 And it gives you the news of the week in one minute or less, which is why we call it the

01:16:23.560 American news minute.

01:16:25.560 We also give you the updates where appropriate on what's happening behind the scenes on the

01:16:30.560 show.

01:16:31.560 And with my sweet, sweet Strudwick, never fails to disappoint.

01:16:37.560 So check it out.

01:16:38.560 Go to MeganKelley.com and we look forward to seeing you Monday.

01:16:45.560 Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.

01:16:48.560 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - December 14, 2024

Megyn Kelly Reflects on the Outrageous Duke Lacrosse Case, as the Accuser Finally Admits the Truth ｜ Ep. 965

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