good evening every, and good evening, everyone. welcome to "the kelly file" special on the presidential power grab. i'm megyn kelly. tonight, we investigate the growing concern over what critics are calling a lawless presidency with an executive branch ignoring the constitution and creating, editing or ignoring laws as the president sees fit. to be fair, mr. obama has not tried to hide what he is doing. >> we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional congress to do its job. i told my administration to keep

looking every single day for actions we can take without congress. with congress, or on my own. i've got a pen and i've got a phone and i can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions, administrative actions that move the ball forward. now, i'm going to be working with congress where i can to accomplish this. but i'm also going to act on my own if congress is deadlocked. i have a pen to take executive actions where congress won't. and i've got a telephone to rally folks around the country on this mission. where congress is not acting i'll act on my own. i've got a pen and i've got a phone and that is all i need. so wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families that is what i'm going to do. >> wow, so you get the point. president obama made good on that pledge when he recently re-wrote the obamacare law

in order to delay a key mandate affecting millions of workers. he says it was done to smooth the transition of the law's implementation. critics argue he did it to help the democrats avoid paying a bigger political price in the 2014 mid-terms. but motive doesn't really matter. a deadline was clearly written in the law. it was written "it shall happen, the employer mandate shall kick in." and the president ordered the country to ignore it on his own without congressional approval or any legislative review. now, this is not the first time. in fact our research team says this is the 28th major change to obamacare that was simply ordered by the white house. and it is not just health care. the president recently declared a hike in the minimum wage for some federal workers. he unilaterally re-wrote the immigration law, very contentious issue, repeated in recent years. and the white house is facing increasing challenge for appointments to the national

labor relations board without the required congressional review. he claimed congress was not necessarily in recess. now, the concern is growing in congress and growing increasingly loud. listen to this. >> we have an increasingly lawless presidency. presidents don't write laws, congress does. >> what this president has done is unprecedented. what this president has done is to repeatedly change laws, even laws he himself has pushed through congress for his own political benefit. >> the president seems to have an extra frustration, and he reacts to it through unilateral reactions that i think are counterproductive and in my opinion, in some instances, borderline unconstitutional. >> for the president to declare i'm going change this law that congress has passed is unconstitutional. he is outside the bounds of his article 2 limitation. >> the president says he has a pen and a cell phone but the american people have a constitution and the constitution doesn't give him the authority to unilaterally change the law. he has to come to the congress to do that.

>> this president and this administration chooses to enforce the laws he wants to enforce and ignore the laws he doesn't want to enforce. this is something the american people should not be required the tolerate. nor should they be required to tolerate. >> when the president says it is the law of the land, it is one of the reasons why there is so little trust of this white house. >> and the worry about the power grab is not just a republican talking point. two recent polls had clear results. nearly three quarters polled say this is not how government is supposed to work. in fact, there were a huge number of democrats that agreed with that. 60% say they don't approve of executive orders to go around congress, 37% are okay with that. tonight, we'll see how this compares to a much criticized

bush white house, and we'll look at how even the left is starting to raise questions about an absentee media in covering all this. we begin with two men who have spent much of their careers writing about political history. and tucker carlson is editor and chief of "the daily caller" and host of fox & friends on the weekend. good to see you both. here's where i want to kick this off. i take you back to 2008. remember this man? >> but this is part of the whole theory of george bush, that he can make laws as he's going along. i disagree with that, i taught the constitution for ten years, i believe in the constitution and i will obey the constitution of the united states. >> chris, what happened to that barack obama? >> well, he got elected. what he was talking about were signing statements which is where the administration, president bush would say well, i'm signing the law but i think

it says this or will do this or won't do that. and democrats were very much up in arms about that. imagine if president bush had -- he wouldn't enforce the tax code as it was written about one thing or another. it would have been an even greater uproar. i think what happened is this president became unwilling to deal with republicans once they took over in the house and excused himself from the political battlefield, giving himself the out by saying i will just rule by executive order and i won't have to deal with those knuckleheads. >> the thing is, gridlock, the system was set up to work that way. >> and it was set up to work that way precisely because the framers were so concerned about the tendency for the president to become an autocrat. and also about the tendency of the voters to want an autocrat. the framers set up this

legislative branch as a co-equal branch. roosevelt tried to basically nullify the judicial branch by packing the supreme court. >> he put the japanese in camps during world war ii. you want to talk about executive power grab. >> what is so striking is how passive the congress has been. the truth is just on the nsa spying business, the congress does not have access. only 12 members on the intel committee have access to that information. they're prohibited by law from sharing it with their elected colleagues. talk about an emasculation of the executive branch. yop why they stand for that, but it is really baffling. >> what is -- because the system was designed to work this way. it is a pain when you can't get your agenda through, but oh well, they're still there. they're in the constitution just like you are as the president. is this a massive copout by him

rather than trying to find a way to work with these people? >> he doesn't strike me as a president who enjoys the job. he has complained about it and he doesn't like it. the copout relates to saying these republicans are particularly bad. they're extra mean, and really not patriotic. they hate me, they hate what this country is about or has become. and therefore, they're beneath my contempt even as president. so i will just not deal with them. the problem that stems from it, however, is very serious, and these executive powers are not adequate to govern the nation. they wouldn't fit the bill, and either the president has to become a tyrannical president, or he will have to work with congress. >> as he grabs more power for himself, does that have the affect with these republicans on capitol hill who have their own

agenda of not making him want to give them anything. he just -- whatever the law is, he is going to say what he thinks it is. >> well, it makes any cooperation nearly impossible. there is a moral component to it. what chris said, it is absolutely right. he considers his opponents bigots who are opposed to him for rational reasons. and we're the ones we have been waiting for. there is a spiritual dimension. >> let me ask you that final question, is that why in your view the left has been so silent about this when they were so vocal when president bush did power grabs? >> that is it. where are all the honest civil libertarian liberals i grew up with? i don't know if they moved to new zealand or what, but they should be speaking out right now. we need them. >> great to see you both. >> you bet.

some legal experts from across the political spectrum have we gun questioning these presidential power grabs. in december, the house judiciary committee called a series of witnesses to testify on this issue and here is a little that. >> i agree entirely that the president cannot simply refuse to apply or enforce a law for policy reasons. >> and the center of gravity is sheeting. and that makes it unstable. within that system you have the rise of an uber-presidency. there would be no greater danger for individual liberty. >> if the people believe that the government is no longer constrained by the laws, they will include neither are they. >> if you find the president is willfully and repeatedly violating the constitution, if on your hypothetical he were to declare war, that would be a clear case for impeachment. >> he is not simply posing a danger to the constitutional

system, he is becoming what the constitution has been designed to avoid. >> joining me now, jonathan turley and nicholas rosencrantz. gentlemen, good to see you both. professor rosencrants, let me ask you, you suggested the president has gone beyond what president bush or at least what other presidents have done. where do you see this going? because i think a lot of our viewers are getting concerned because there won't be a check on the president's power. that he will just keep doing this over and over and that nobody is going to stand up. so have we now turned a corner that we can't go back around? >> well, megyn there is very good reason for people to be concerned. i think regardless of your view of the president's policies you need to take note of a fundamental change happening in our government. i happen to agree with many of his policies. but we have a system that really

it is more important sometimes how you do something than what you do. and in this system, the framers designed to have three branches that excessed a type of orbit. they're held there by equal powers. when you have a concentration in one branch it creates a dangerous instability. and it is not just a danger to the authority of those branches. that separation of power was designed as a protection of civil liberties. because when you have that kind of concentration, it brings authoritarianism. it can bring tyranny. >> what do you think happened to that barack obama we played in that sound bite from 2008? he was a constitutional lawyer, if you take him at his word he was determined not to be this way. >> you know, it is a disappointment. i voted from barack obama, and i'm from chicago originally. i'm astonished at how this has turned out.

but frankly, president obama has always put programs ahead of principles in my view. he has good motivations, he really does believe in what he is trying to achieve. but how he achieves it is less important to him. he is not the first, you could say, that worked in the white house. but he has succeeded to a degree none of his predecessors ever could have imagined. he succeeded in things that his predecessors tried and failed at. >> professor rosencrantz, we have 28 executive actions on obamacare. we have controversial actions on immigration. he basically jumped into a civil war in libya without congressional approval. he decided doctors can ask their patients about whether or not they have guns at home. the list goes on and on, not to mention the fact that drones can kill american citizens, i mean,

at what point would it be clear to everybody that this needs to stop? >> well, megyn, some of these examples are crystal clear. the clearest in my mind are the various obamacare extensions. the statute could not be clearer. it says january 1, 2014, and he has repeatedly extended these deadlines in the teeth of clear statutory text. i think that's just indefensible. >> but you have a congress, they wanted these delays. they have been saying delay the employer mandate, the individual mandate. so they're really not in the best position to turn around and say, what is he doing? in your view, what is the best remedy for people who have genuine and sincere objections to what is happening? >> well, first of all, i want to applaud professor turley, the

folks who like these policies should nevertheless be up in arms about these constitutional violations. if you want obamacare to be suspended you should go to congress and ask them to suspend it or delay parts of it or whatever it is. the president can't do it unilaterally, and you should not sit by just because you like the policy results. this has to be dmoen a constitutionally proper way, which is new legislation. >> what do you make of it professor turley? because you circulate in the circles of the progressive elite. i don't know that for a fact. i'm just guessing. what do they say to you, your colleagues? >> privately, i think civil lib tear yaps -- libertarians, democrats, are concerned ant this. on my blog you have a heavy libertarian group, and many can't give themselves the idea of opposing the president who holds this iconic position in american history.

it's a terrible mistake. he's not going to be our last president. these powers will out last him. and the terrible thing about the constitutional authority is that once you lose it, you pay a heavy price to get it back. and i think people will loathe the day that they were silent in the face of this type of concentration of power. >> if you want to check out professor turley's blog, i recommend it. thank you both so much. >> thanks, megyn. also tonight -- >> the biggest problem that we're facing right now had to do with george bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch. >> president obama promised he would bring humility to the white house, so how is that going? former attorney general michael mulcahy reacts. plus -- >> he has usurped an extraordinary amount of authority in the executive branch. this is not precedented.

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general holder, i respectfully but forcefully disagree with the assertion, when you look at the quality, not just the quantity of the executive orders he has issued, he has usurped an extraordinary amount of authority within the executive branch. this is not precedented. at a minimum, he owes us an explanation as to what his legal analysis was. >> that was senator mike lee. republican lawmakers are now demanding more.

not satisfied with the explanation that attorney general holder gave, they asked for more, seeking constitutional justification stating the separation of powers exist to prevent tyranny. as you are aware, we do not have a king. nor do we have unchecked power in any single branch of government. joining me now, republican congressman michael kelly. now, you are pointing to that case law, saying the president can go as far as he has gone. first of all, has he responded to you? >> no, they have not responded yet. but i think in -- this is -- there's no precedent for this. this is so over the top. >> this is this so different from any other president? >> listen, we're talking about things that really have deep seated changes in the way our constitution was written. we all took the same oath when we came into office. protect and preserve and defend our constitution. but when you go through the process, it is very difficult

for congress to do this. it is very difficult to get answers from the department of justice, especially attorney general holder. this is the chief law enforcement officer in the country who doesn't answer the subpoenas. the department of justice doesn't hold him accountable when he's in contempt of congress. if is not a republican issue, this is an american issue. if we can't get answers from these folks, definitive answers as to what has given this president the ability to leapfrog and go over the constitution, and the powers he's granted in the constitution, you cannot just change laws. >> i don't know if they agree with you that's an accurate characterization. does he have an obligation to respond to you? does he work for you, does he have to respond to you when you give him a homework asite, come back and give us justification for what the president has done. >> we've already seen this, delay, delay, delay, deny, deny, deny, listen, when you write a letter i expect a response, will we get it? i don't know.

we're in a difficult position, though. number one, there are only certain things we can do. we can look at trying to do something as far as the law is concerned but would have to have the center on board where he could block funding. again, we would have to have the senate on board. we could let gate, but that would mean i as a member of congress could have been adversely affected. >> standing is a big problem in bringing some of these proposed laws. i want to ask you specifically about the latest -- >> sure. >> power grab. and that is this week the president delayed the employer mandate for smaller businesses, between 50 to 100 or 99 employees saying okay, it's not going to kick in for you. the requirement that you get for your employees is note going to kick in until 2016. he then said by the way if you want to reduce your work force, below these levels, you're going to have to certify

to the irs you're not going to have to do it to avoid obamacare. you have to basically pay homage to obamacare. and if we think you're lying, you're going to be in trouble because you have to certify this with risk of penalties of perjury. this is crazy, he doesn't have the power to create new crimes in the white house. what can you and congress do about that? >> we can do investigations, we can expose, what we really need are the american people to be outraged by what's going on. the real answer is an outcry from the public. if we can't get this back under control we are at risk of losing everything that this country has been about for several hundred years. why are we at this position? now, i don't know, long range where this president is trying to take us. it doesn't look good to me and it doesn't look good for members of congress. it should not look good to any single american. >> look, he says -- the president thinks that you guys

are unwilling to work with him. we can't have a country with a do-nothing congress. we can't have a congress sitting around getting nothing done. he says look, maybe i'm pressing it but i'm going to have to press it to help the american people have some sort of legislative achievements over the next four years. >> the division of powers is very clear. we don't need a tyrant, a king. do we agree with him on policy? no. that's where the heavy discussion takes place. the heavy debate takes place in the congress. >> how can he woo you? more outreach, parties on capitol hill? >> listen, i don't need to be charmed. i need to be assured that when i come back home, that i can tell people we did defend the constitution. megyn, what the president is doing is the unprecedented overreach of executive powers. people can't sit back and say i still like him. this has nothing to do with liking him, this has to do with policy. if you don't get it your way,

then there's no way. it is only his way. we have a process we work by. we are the most admired country in the world in the history of the world. this is a government that works for the people. this is not a place where people work for the government. my goodness, if we can't see clearly if i don't get my way i'll tell you what i'll do. i'll disregard the law and go above it. i'll do what i have to do to get it done. i dare you to do something about it. i sit with a lot of men and women right now on both sides of the aisle right away that are very, very concerned about what this president is doing. >> they're not saying much. i got to go -- >> i tell you what, listen -- >> all the best, see you soon. another issue when discussing the presidential power grabs is how the media is covering them. coming up, media analyst howard kurtz on why some of the media have ignored this entirely. plus, president obama promised he would be different than president bush. so how is what he is doing now not the exact same thing. former attorney general michael mukasey reacts. . exact same thing. [ cellphone dings ]

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i take the constitution very seriously. the biggest problem that we're facing right now had to do with george bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through congress at all. and that is what i intend to reverse when i'm president of the united states of america.

one of the first things i'm going to do is call my attorney general and say to him or her, i want you to review every exective order issued by george bush, whether it relates to wireless taps or reading e-mails, whatever it is, go through every single one of them. and if they're unconstitutional, we are going to overturn them. >> that was then senator obama when he was returning for president in his first term. hard to believe that that same man would one day tell the american public he has a pen and a phone and intends to use them, to press his agenda with or without congress. joining me now, former attorney general michael mukasey. he was president bush's younger attorney general for a stint. it's great to see you. it was your administration they wanted to review because they wanted to reign in these executive power grabs. let me ask you your reaction,

that barack obama versus today's barack obama. >> i didn't believe that barack obama when he said it then, and i obviously don't believe it now. >> why not? why didn't you believe it then? >> because it was quite obvious he wanted to do things that would never get passed congress. from day two when he started signing executive orders, closing gitmo, eliminating the cia interrogation program that it was obvious he was going to do this. and he has proceeded along that road. if you take a look -- there's an interesting youtube video of him signing executive orders on the second day of his administration where he signs an executive order to close gitmo. takes a look at it and says do we have another order that says what we're going to do with these people? another voice off camera says we're going to have procedures. so he was making it up as he went along. >> that's clearly the case with

obamacare, because every week we get another executive action on this law. it was a hard-fought battle. karl rove said what is happening now with these changes with obamacare, particularly the delay of the employer mandate. that was going to kick in, and there was a lot of predictions that employers were going to start laying off people before the midterms. now that's been delayed by another year. he maintains it was done for political reasons, and that's a fact in karl's view. did president bush make executive orders for political reasons? >> not in my experience. the only executive orders that i ever knew of he was criticized for were the ones on 9/11 where he was acting based on what he regarded as his constitutional authority and responsibility. >> the cia interrogations and -- >> the eavesdropping, other programs that he believed he had

the power to implement, and that by the time they were later the subject of newspaper articles, in fact, had come under the control of congress and the courts. but that was the only criticism. he never tried to disregard a statute, only apply parts that he wanted. >> if that is true, if the president did delay this employer mandate for millions and millions of businesses for political reasons to save the democrats come 2014, what does this say? i guess we're so cynical in the press and many of the viewers are by now that say yeah, that's how it works. is that not how it works? >> yes, that's not how it works. that's not the way it's supposed to work and that's not how it works when somebody takes the oath that he took seriously. >> i don't know. did you actually witness this with president bush? were there things he could have taken advantage of but didn't? i'm trying to buy it, you know what i mean? it just seems like anybody with that much power would say yes, i

want more power and if i have a do-nothing congress, that has a 9% approval rating, i'm going to take my pen and phone and get it done. >> i can't think off hand of a situation in which it was even considered that something a law -- we would do any way, or where we would take part of a statute and apply it but not the rest of it because it was inconvenient. >> what do you make of this push by republican congressmen to bet eric holder to send them justification of these actions. >> good luck with that. i would be interested to see the legal justification, but it's not his justification but the president's actions that need to be examined. >> is this just a white house thing or does it go beyond the white house? >> it's physically a white house thing but it goes beyond the white house in the sense that in the executive agencies, the

environmental protection administration is implementing regulations that a -- that any new coal fired plant has to have a scrubber. each the one plant that's got it, the person who runs that one plant says it's economically unfeasible, it can't be installed. it hobbles them. it essentially rules out any new coal fired plants without legislation from congress. but instead putting into place an epa regulation that can't be complied with. how has the media been covering this? howard kurtz takes a look at how some are ignoring them and some are outright blessing them. plus, the 2014 midterm elections. will the president's actions play a part in those races? we'll have a fair and balanced debate coming up. it was a blistery rash.

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where is the main stream media on this? can you imagine -- i mean, we say this all the time and you sometimes get tired of making the point. can you imagine if this were george w. bush? we would be talking about a constitutional crisis, front page "new york times" splashed above the fold, george w. bush, dictator president. you're seeing none of that now. it's a big deal when you change the laws and it should be a big deal. >> another major issue comes up in discussing these power grabs, the issue how the media is covering them. while we've seen criticisms from republicans and liberal scholars, some news outlets have ignored the story, others have even defended the president.

"the washington post," obama's justifiable power grab. "the l.a. times" said, rational response to an increasingly gridlocked congress. and then there's the huffington post. necessary roughness. why obama's use of executive power is justified. howard kurtz is with me now. i'm sure the huffington post was just as vocal in defending president bush with his executive authority uses. >> had this been george w. bush, megyn, changing unilaterally several times over and over the law, the main stream media would have gone ballistic. with a few exceptions, "the washington post" did mildly criticize, but the media are not raising these questions about barack obama. it is debatable whether he's exceeded his authority, but they're not even having the debate. >> why? >> well, i think part of the reason has to do with not

because the media are in love with barack obama. for example, there has been critical treatment of the bomped rollout of obamacare and broken promises of you can keep your plan or doctor. but journalists are more sympathetic to the goals of the affordable health care act. but with president bush, in the dna of many journalists, they were opposed to what the bush/cheney administration was doing. >> it's not just obamacare, however. it's, i can kill an american with a drone. i can engage in war in libya without congressional approval. the liberals should be objecting to, would normally be objecting to, but for the fact that it's their guy in the white house. >> i can't argue with that. you don't have to take my word for the fact that this would have been very different if it was a republican sitting in the oval office.

did a little digging. during the bush administration, "the new york times" said we have to reverse the lawless policies of bush and chainy, ban torture, stop spying. another editorial talked about bush's morally repugnant detention policies. and "the los angeles times" editorial page talked about bush's disregard for the law after 9/11. >> how shortsighted are the media? we had two constitutional law professors on earlier talking about, president obama doesn't stay in office forever and there will be another president after him, and it may be a republican. and you can get dollars to donuts any person who takes over this office is going to say, hmm, that's the new standard for what i can do. in the same way barack obama ignored obamacare so many times, maybe i can ignore it to the point where i gut it and hobble it.

>> well, there's a lot of selective outrage here. many on the right were not that exercised when bush issued a lot of executive orders, more than obama to this point. >> but it's not the number, it's the substance, it's the scope. >> that's key here, and it's crucial if they're going to maintain credibility, particularly if you're on the left and you care about civil liberties and executive overreach and what used to be called the imperial presidency, that you have an honest debate and criticize when necessary when a democratic president does it. because as you say, the table also be turned the next time a republican is elected. >> when i anchor on this program, i feel an allegiance not to any republican or democrat but to my viewers. those are the only ones i care about. i read these articles that give the president a pass on these controversial issues and think, who are they working for. what do you think?

>> i started digging into the main stream media coverage. i thought i would see more full throated defenses of what obama was doing with the constant changes to obamacare and other changes. but i didn't see much. the easy way out for many outlets is not to pay attention to this when clearly it would have been a major issue under a bush administration. circumstances change and every executive order is not created equal, but if you are silent on these things, you're doing your readers and viewers a disservice. >> howie, great to see you. >> same here. what about voter reaction? will congress look any different after the midterms? we'll have a debate on that, next. plus, the world knows him as president bush 41. but tonight, you'll get a rare glimpse at the man from the people who know him best. a bush family album, hosted by brit hume, coming up. >> we did not expect that then.

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the president's actions come as democrats are trying to hold on to the majority in the united states senate. but with so many americans saying the use of executive orders to bypass congress is not how the government is supposed to work, how will this play come november? ebony williams as political analyst and trial attorney. dana lash is host of "dana" and a conservative radio talk show host. let me start with you, dana, you think voters are really going to

care? i get that we care about obamacare. are they going to care as a voting issue about executive power grabs? >> when you consider the context and how it's related to obamacare, absolutely they will. think about this. out of the 15 vulnerable seats for the senate, 13 of those are democratic seats. i like to use mark prior in arkansas as an example. arkansas is not too happy with obamacare right now. mark prior was a champion of it. he's been running from it. i don't see him getting re-elected. part of that goes into, look at how many times the president has modified obamacare. how many times has he modified this law. every single modification, every single delay, every single whatever he's doing, amending the law from the white house, is an admittance of failure. people are seeing that and asking questions. if this was so great, how come you have to have so many waivers? how come it's delayed so many times? how come you have to allocate more millions of dollars to fix a website that should be op rage? this is going to affect those races and obama care is going to

be the defining issue going into midterms and 2016. >> to your original question, no, i don't think voters are going to be concerned about recess appointments. they'll be concerned about making sure job numbers are going to continue to rise. they'll be concerned about a senate willing to have the guts to address immigration reform. let's point out president obama has used less executive orders than any president in 100 years. to be fair. even so, nobody likes executive orders when it's not their guy sitting in that white house. so i understand your frustration. senator obama didn't like it and i'm sure given 2016, depending, people might not like that either. it's a constitutionally valid tool. >> let's look to 2016 as opposed to 2014 for a minute. it does make you stop and think. whoever we put in the white house, it better be somebody who we really trust and who has

humility, who has humility, because the powers of that office are so very great. >> yeah, absolutely, megan. i think it's going to be important to voters for whoever's going to be in the white house in 2016 to understand the full scope of their authority and the limitations thereof. it's not a constitutional tool to sit here and modify a law bypassing congress. that's congress' job. you're legislating from the white house. that's unauthorized by the constitution. for a constitutional law scholar, he should know that, our president. the senator, when he was a senator, he disapproved of it when george bush did it. george bush did it and it was so bad -- >> that's the risk. we're going to have a 2016 presidential election and two candidates who say -- >> it's going to make things work without having the bureaucracy involved in it -- >> that's the risk. when you look at then senator obama, it looks like a different guy now. thousand 2016, we're going to get two candidates who sound like then senator obama. what's to stop them if nothing happens now to what's happening in the oval office now from

becoming another power grabber? >> absolutely. we all want to see someone in that chair who's responsible and exercises sound judgment. that's a huge risk we all take when we go to those polls areat the end of the day we have to recognize that threshold of what's executive power and what's overstepping that and becomes unadditional, we know there's no bright-line rule for that. that is where that judgment becomes imperative. that's what the checks and balances system is for. >> but they're not doing any checks and balances. they're just complaining, running around complaining. as our earlier guest tucker carlson said, emasculating. good to see you both. >> thank you. >> we'd love to know what you think about all of this and the president's use of executive power. facebook.com/thekellyfiles. or send me a tweet. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing.

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we will be reporting from california. also a special waters world. the presidents' day edition. all on the next "factor." your life will be better if you see it. james madison wrote "in framing a government to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this. you must first enable the government to control the

governed, and next oblige it to control itself." let us know what you think. facebook.com/thekellyfile and follow us on twitter. thank for watching. i'm megan kelly. this is "the kelly files." tonight on "red eye." coming up on "red eye," will belgium ever achieve flight? the exclusive look at the nation's decade-long struggle to catch up with the rest of the modern world. plus is the white house claiming to clone a t-rex and set it loose in times square on new year's eve? >> what confidence it's going to happen, we remain optimistic 2014 is the year that it will happen because it's the right thing to do. finally are skateboarding dogs threatening to crash the stock market? the story cnbc refuses to cover. none of these stories on "red eye" tonight. >> let's welcome our guests. breaking hearts for olympic sports. dripping in gold medals. and also her