At the top of Tuesday’s Kelly File on the Fox News Channel, host Megyn Kelly tore into President Obama and his remarks at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day where “America's commander in chief celebrate[d] the absence of a major war, while his own top security advisers warn the American people directly that the danger right now is greater than at any time in a half century.”
Prior to senior political analyst Brit Hume joining the program, Kelly made her displeasure known with a three-minute-plus introduction in which she detailed the numerous foreign policy crises that currently brewing at the very time that the President made his speech touting how “this Memorial Day is especially meaningful.”
Kelly first set the scene by pointing out what some of those in the intelligence community have been observing over the course of just over the past year:
It was a little more than a year ago that our Director of National Intelligence suggested the crisis and threats around the globe are as bad as anything in 50 years. Just a couple months ago, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff said the community was the most uncertain he's seen in 40 years and just weeks ago, the former CIA Director argued we are in a terror war that will still be raging when our grandkids are adults[.]
Despite those warnings, however, Kelly noted that “the President seemed to take a different view” when he stepped to the podium at Arlington. Following a clip of the President’s speech, Kelly declared that “[a]lmost immediately, critics started responding” and specifically cited Victor Davis Hanson’s piece at National Review.
On the subject of Iraq, Kelly declared that the situation there “hardly seems a cause for celebration” despite “the President’s pat on the back” since “[t]he Islamic State terror army is butchering innocents in Ramadi” where “American soldiers died to liberate twice.”
Turning to Syria, Kelly cited the fall of Palmyra to ISIS and quipped that “President Obama's red line on Syria now just a distant memory.”
Kelly then went after “Washington” for squabbling over terminology “[w]hile the bad guys behead Christians with regularity and celebrate the carnage with videos on social networks” and for blaming “the organizers” of a Prophet Mohammad cartoon contest “and not the guys meant on bloodshed” when two ISIS-inspired terrorists tried to carry out a terror attack.
After touching on conflicts in Libya, Russia, and Yemen to name a few, Kelly closed with a question: “Yes, the President is absolutely right, the United States is not engaged in a major ground war, but there is a battle raging, and the question tonight is: Are we losing?”
The relevant portion of the transcript from FNC’s The Kelly File on May 26 is transcribed below.
FNC’s The Kelly File
May 26, 2016
9:00 p.m. Eastern
MEGYN KELLY: Breaking tonight, new fallout from the Memorial Day remarks by President Obama, America's commander in chief, celebrates the absence of a major war, while his own top security advisers warn the American people directly that the danger right now is greater than at any time in a half century. Welcome to The Kelly File, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. It was a little more than a year ago that our Director of National Intelligence suggested the crisis and threats around the globe are as bad as anything in 50 years. Just a couple months ago, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff said the community was the most uncertain he's seen in 40 years and just weeks ago, the former CIA Director argued we are in a terror war that will still be raging when our grandkids are adults, but this weekend, the President seemed to take a different view.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: For many of us, this Memorial Day is especially meaningful. It's the first since our war in Afghanistan came to an end. Today is the first Memorial Day in 14 years that the United States is not engaged in a major ground war.
KELLY: Almost immediately, critics started responding, including Victor Davis Hansen, who posts a remarkable piece in National Review today. First, there is Iraq, which contrary to the President's pat on the back hardly seems a cause for celebration. The Islamic State terror army is butchering innocents in Ramadi, a city they captured a week ago after the Iraqi military we trained turned and ran. It’s a city American soldiers died to liberate twice. While we complain about the Iraqi's will to fight, the country of Iran is there, pounding away with ground troops. They are now leading the effort to recapture Ramadi and one of the Iranian generals leading the battle to defeat ISIS, this weekend, questioned our will to fight. When the White House was asked about all this today, they said our strategy is working. Roughly 400 miles to the west of Ramadi, that same terror army is running roughshod over the Syrian town of Palmyra. Historians weeping over what this means for historical ruins and western treasures dating back to the Romans, not to mention the residents there. President Obama's red line on Syria now just a distant memory. While the bad guys behead Christians with regularity and celebrate the carnage with videos on social networks, Washington argues about whether it appropriate to call these people jihadis and when the terror recruits gunning for American lives, at a Florida event designed to challenge radical Islam, the first response is to criticize the organizers and not the guys meant on bloodshed. Israel is our one true ally in this part of the world and they, today, feel more alone than ever before. When they asked for our help getting tough with the terrorists, they complained that they get lectures from our leaders on what Israel is doing wrong. The bad guys ran us out of Yemen just weeks ago, a place the President called a model of success, and now it's a free for all, in a country where al-Qaeda's worst branch festers. The terrorists are running the show in huge sections of lawless Libya, where four Americans lost their lives in the Benghazi terror attacks. Russia is engaged in armed combat to reclaim the country of Ukraine, a topic we hardly even get to, thanks to the flood of bad news from the Middle East these days. North Korea is basically the crazy uncle with nuclear weapons in his closet. No one worries about the repercussions of using them, because we don't have time. While China just about swallows our economy, a few million at a time, while gearing up for an inevitable showdown, the experts say we are ill-prepared to face. Yes, the President is absolutely right, the United States is not engaged in a major ground war, but there is a battle raging, and the question tonight is: Are we losing?
