Glenn believes there was a clear winner at the 4th 2024 Republican presidential debate: moderator Megyn Kelly. So, he invited her on to reveal her biggest winner and loser. Kelly breaks down the performances of each candidate — Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie — and her biggest issue with the previous debates: "They didn't let the candidates debate each other." She also describes why she "prayed to God" that Chris Christie would be on the debate stage and explains whether she believes former president Donald Trump (who will be 78 if he wins the presidency) is fit for office.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: We go to Megyn Kelly who is calling us, I think probably from the airport. Hi, Megyn.

MEGYN: Hi, Glenn.

GLENN: How are you?

MEGYN: I'm great. A little tired you, but good.

GLENN: I'll bet you are.

Last night, I said when I first got on today, that the big winner, I thought last night was you.

MEGYN: Oh.

GLENN: You were spot-on. You asked really tough questions. But you phrased them in a way that conservatives want to ask them.

I thought you were fair, tough, and when you said, nobody can hear any of you, everybody shut up. You ran a tight ship. You did a fantastic job, last night.

MEGYN: Thank you so much, Glenn. You know, for me, watching some of the earlier debates, it's very frustrating. Because I knew that there was a way of controlling them.

You know, it was clear to me. There was a way of controlling them.

And I have a repour with all of these guys, same as you do. They know you. If you were out there, they would respect you. They know you don't hate them. You're not trying to hurt them.

You're trying to foster a great debate, good TV. And so when we had that opening exchange, for me it was fun. Because it was kind of like what I imagined, it's like to be in the NBA. Where you're kind of passing the ball behind your back, and somebody catches it with ease. And they go. Like, we kind of got into a rhythm. Where, I go, you go. We make eye contact. I'm coming for you.

That's what I hated about the NBC debate, is they just -- he didn't let the candidates debate -- I don't want to hear a Kristen Welker interview of Nikki Haley. I want the other candidates to talk to Nikki Haley. So, anyway, thank you for saying that, it was a relief for me to get out there, and let them let it rip.

GLENN: So who did you think was the big winner and the big loser?

MEGYN: Well, with all respect to her, I thought Nikki Haley lost last night. Because she shrunk away. She's not really a presence. And she's been increasing her poll numbers by getting out there and being futuristic. And that version of her, did not appear on stage last night. I thought Ramaswamy, if you didn't like him, he became even more unlikable to you. If you love him, he became even more lovable to you.

I thought Ron DeSantis had his best debate yet.

And so I think you could probably say he's the winner, because he's in the best poll position of the four.

And he not only didn't hurt himself, although there was one bad exchange. He didn't hurt himself, he actually did help himself. He was tougher than we've seen. And I think that was the DeSantis we fell in love with, back when he was battling nasty voters during COVID.

Chris Christie, look, the same rule for him as Vivek. If you're one of the 25 percent of Republicans who likes Chris Christie, you probably said, yeah, good.

Now, screw Trump. He did the same thing.

And if you were one of the 75 percent that doesn't like him, you probably enjoyed watching some of the other candidates get into it with him, and some of the questions that the moderators had.

GLENN: I have to tell you, we were watching it, as a team last night. And we all cheered when you went to Chris Christie on transgenderism.

We were like, oh, this is going to be good. This is going to be good.

MEGYN: You know, can I tell you? And he tried to tell me, that I didn't have my facts on my second question. And, of course, I did, and he was misleading.

But those are the two questions I showed up to ask, Glenn. I'm like, you know how much work goes into these things. Right?

Every single question we ask, takes hours and in some cases, days. You know, you have to research so much. And you craft it, you recraft it. So on. And you know, this is an issue, near and dear to not only my heart, but to most conservative's hearts. And he's been so weak on it.

He is too radical on this issue, to be the Republican nominee in my view.

This is way out of step with where the Republican Party is.

And it's -- it's -- it was the one reason why I wanted him to make the debate.

I prayed to the -- all the angels above.

Please, please, let him make --

GLENN: Last night, I thought there was one weird moment with Chris Christie.

And I think it really did not look good, for -- for Nikki Haley. When Chris Christie came out, and tried to defend her.

I -- I -- that was nice and everything.

But I think she should have turned and said, I don't need a man's help here. I'm fine. I don't need anybody's help. I can defend myself.

The way she kind of looked down as he was saying that, I thought it made her look weak. And she's not a weak woman.

MEGYN: It was her lowest moment. And I have to give credit to Chris Steyer Walt. Because he had said to me, here's my prediction, Chris Christie is going to try to white knight Nikki Haley. And, man, he was right. She did look weak.

I thought, man, she's been so strong in these debates in terms of defending herself and attacking others.

And of all moments, she should have put her hand out and she should have said, Chris, I appreciate the help, but I got this.

And then defended herself. And I could only conclude, was it because she was shaky on the Ukraine, you know, counties? Like the provinces? She did eventually come up with a few.

I couldn't read it. Maybe she didn't know the answer, and she was stalling. Or she wants this pass, because it was a bad moment for her.

GLENN: I read that moment with the free provinces as, wait a minute, I know them. But are they provinces or regions? You know, just that -- that moment of hesitation, where you don't want to get it wrong.

And then that moment just passed her.

MEGYN: Yeah.

GLENN: And then she came in. Unfortunately for her, when everyone was talking. And nobody really heard her, give the answer. And I still know. Because I didn't hear all of them. I don't know if she was right or wrong.

MEGYN: I know. The only other one I heard was Crimea. We all know that one.

GLENN: Right. Right.

MEGYN: So it is awkward. It could be -- it's -- if the body language were different.

It could be the power move to not take your opponent's little test. You know.

I could see that, being screw you. I don't take your little exams, Vivek. You're not at Harvard anymore. But her body language was not projecting, I am confident, and I'm dismissing this twerp. It projected, I have no idea! Help me!

So that was not her finest moment. I do think -- I bet you, there will be a little movement in the polls after this.

Because DeSantis, it was the guy we kind of thought he could be.

And it wasn't in any way, set up like in me

But DeSantis had issues, that were important to him, brought up last night.

It's not like we said, oh, let's bring these up for Ron DeSantis. We brought these issues, because conservatives care about these issues.

Trans. The vaccine issue. COVID.

And he was very strong on this.

He hasn't really had a chance to speak on a lot of these issues in the debates.

You have the Univision anchor out there, talking about the dreamers.

GLENN: Right. Right.

STU: I agree. I thought DeSantis was really good last night.

What did you make of the one exchange, where he wouldn't say, he thought Trump was fit to be president or not.

That was the one moment. It was very strange to me. Did you think he wanted to say no?

He's not fit. Did you think he was trying to say yes. He was trying to walk the line. What was he doing there?

MEGYN: That's when I said, he did great except for one moment. That was the moment. He did not handle that well.

And I got to give credit where it's due. Chris Christie is great at that kind of thing. He didn't answer it. Like forensically diagnosing somebody that answer, there's no one better than Chris Christie at it.

And he honed in on him, and it was uncomfortable. DeSantis doesn't want to make news.
He doesn't want to alienate the Trump base, with a big headline from him, saying Trump was unfit. So he was, you know --

GLENN: But why not say, right now, he's fit?

MEGYN: Hmm. He doesn't want to say that either. He doesn't believe it.

And I think he understands that there's a certain psychology, within the Republican Party, that is recognizing the two people that are likely to be the nominees are too old. They are really not as fit as we would like them to be.

Either one of them, let's face it.

GLENN: Hang just a second.

Because I think, I would love for the Nancy Pelosi generation, to sit down, and retire.

Okay?

Let the younger generation now take this.

However, do you think that Donald Trump has faded from where he was in 2020?

MEGYN: Yeah. I do.

I mean, I would take him over Joe Biden any day of the week.

I don't think he will fill out this term, never mind the second.

But there's no question that Trump has lost awe step. Or multiple steps. He is confusion Joe Biden from Obama.

I know he's saying, he intentionally did that. Go back and look at the clips. It wasn't intentional. Anyone could have a slip of the tongue. It's happened to him repeatedly.

The reference about how someone will get us into World War II.

Confusing countries. Confusing cities where -- it's happening more and more. With all due respect to Trump. This is what happens when you're 77 years old. Trump seems inhuman, but he's not inhuman. He's a human. He's a man. DeSantis didn't lie, Father Time spares no one. Was a good one.

So, look, if it's between Trump and Biden, I don't think there's any question who is more fit, more capable.

But are we really going to pretend that Donald Trump is just as vibrant and mentally sharp as he was at 16? Well, okay.

GLENN: I only have about 70 or 80 seconds here for this. But do you think Trump is going to jail?

MEGYN: I'm starting to worry. I didn't -- he definitely will get convicted, in multiple jurisdictions. But Andy McCarthy, who is very smart on these things, was pointing out that Judge Chutkan in DC, in the federal case, on J6, you know she hates him. In DC, the jury is going to hate them.

That he thinks there's a -- there's some pretty good odds, she will not release him from jail, pending appeal after his lengthy conviction.

GLENN: So what does that do, to the system?

MEGYN: Glenn, that's why we have to have an undercard.

GLENN: Yeah. No. I agree with that.

I agree with that.

They have to run all the way to the end.

Somebody has to run all the way to the end.

We have to have an undercard. That is going to -- is that just chaos in the streets.

MEGYN: There will -- America will burn if they put Trump in jail before this election. It will burn. I don't want it.

GLENN: God help us.

MEGYN: I just see the reality, the same as you do. And we will need the National Guard city to city. You know, MAGA is going to rise up. And there will be a lot of sympathizers who understand it, and won't try to stop it.

They cannot be allowed to do that.

GLENN: All right. Thank you very much, Megyn. Best of luck to you today. And, again, great job last night.

Thank you for bringing a reasonable debate to America.

MEGYN: Thank you.

GLENN: Appreciate it.

MEGYN: Aw. Thank you so much, Glenn. Good to see you, Stu, all the best.

GLENN: Don't give him any love.

MEGYN: I love Stu.

STU: Yes!
(laughter)

STU: Thanks, Megyn.

GLENN: Get off my phone, Megyn. All right. Megyn Kelly.