thank you very much for watching the factor tonight. i'm bill o'reilly. as you all know, we're looking out for you. we'll see you on monday. lots of news breaking tonight. a day of national celebration turns into a scene of mind-numbing horror as france once again finds itself the target of a major terror attack. welcome to "the kelly file," everyone. i'm megyn kelly. the news tonight out of the resort town of nice, france, is very grim. a local official now saying 77 people are dead, 50 injured in what by all measures appears to have been a terrorist attack. it all started as a beautiful night on the french riviera where folks had gathered to watch fireworks on bastille day. but the beauty of the night quickly shattered by someone

intent on doing as much harm as possible. we warn you the videos and images you are about to see are disturbing although we will not show you the most disturbing in our possession. a large truck reportedly laden with explosives appears to come out of nowhere going at full speed, plowing through the crowds of human beings. eyewitnesses report the truck appeared to be intentionally targeting peeople, zigzagging through the crowd. those in its path desperately tried to save themselves while horrified onlookers in hotel rooms above watched helplessly, some filming the aftermath. we'll be joined by some of them this hour. gruesome images also flooded social media accounts. many so awful we cannot show them on tv. we will not. images of bodies strewn across the roadways. some barely recognizable. we have a lot to get to tonight, including eyewitnesses who were on the scene and breaking news on who may be responsible. with general mike flynn, author

brad thor, and more than a dozen others. we begin the evening with benjamin hall reporting from london. benjamin. >> reporter: yeah. good evening, megyn. another terror attack has hit the very heart of europe, and this is the heart. this is one of the most famous roads in europe. it's along the most beautiful stretch, most famous hotels, and it was just after 11:00 p.m. when the crowds were watching the celebration of liberty, fraternity, equality, their independence. this truck came out of nowhere, mowing down people. the truck traveled about 1.2 miles before it was stopped, zigzagging left and right. there are indications that the driver was also firing from the window as he did so. we know that may well be the case as they found guns and explosives in the truck later on. he was eventually stopped when he was killed by police through the wind death toll now continues to rise as they start piecing together what exactly happened. 77 already with 15 critical. sohis number pushing right up

to the 100 mark. remember 130 were killed back in november in paris. that was the most ever killed in a french terror attack, and this one is almost getting up there too. french president francois hoeland, just a couple of hours before the attack, had come on television and said that the threat level was going to come down, that since november it had been at its highest level, and that now maybe things are moving on. this was the end of a one-month french soccer tournament which had been so successful. they had thought that would be attacked. it wasn't. tonight was. now we have many, many dead. trying to piece together who this man was and where the truck came from. megyn. >> ben, thank you. well, our next guest was one of thousands celebrating bastille day when her family -- with her family when the truck rammed through the street, closed off for just pedestrians. as hundreds ran for safety, our next guest was there to capture this video.

>> you can feel the panic as you watch. grace ann morrow is an american visiting nice for the summer. she joins us now by phone. you were over there visiting your aunt and uncle.

how close to this attack were you? >> i was approximately 500 meters. whenever i got home, my uncle figured it out, and i was about 500 meters away. >> what was the first sign you had of trouble? >> well, as we were talking home from the fireworks show that happened on the promenade des anglais, out of nowhere this panic just erupted from the street. and at that point you kind of, you know, had to make a decision of, you know, how seriously do i take this because you had no idea what was going on in the moment. >> you didn't hear -- you didn't hear anything, i take it? >> no, no. but as i -- sorry. i'm -- kelly? >> i'm here. i'm waiting for you. i'm just trying to give you your time.

>> no. as we were walking back, towards the end of the fireworks show, i believe during the finale of the fireworks show was whenever the truck ran through the -- drove through -- i'm sorry. i'm a little bit shaken up. i don't think i can articulate very well. it's also 3:00 a.m. here. >> i understand, hon. you have been through so much this evening. as we watch the tape you took t allows us all to see some of what you saw and some of what you experienced. you were not there as the truck drove through is my understanding. you were leaving, and then you saw the people run. did you -- what did you do? i mean did you take shelter? did you run toward home? what did you do? >> i actually stood there and questioned what was going on because i did not have any incentive to believe that something crazy had just happened because i did not hear any explosion. i did not hear or see blood,

nothing -- sorry. i didn't hear any gunshots. i think that the gunshots happened toward the end of the fireworks show, so it was all kind of muddled, the noise. but what i did see was hundreds of people running in the opposite direction of where it happened. >> did you go back to the scene, or did you go back home after the running stopped and the crowd calmed down? >> well, briefly i walked towards -- i walked towards where everyone else was running from because i was really curious as to what was going on. i was questioning, you know, how serious was this. were people just panicked over nothing? is this a joke because it just didn't make any sense. it was so paradoxical to the energy of the night, i mean the

mood. everybody was so happy and enjoying themselves, and all of a sudden people are running and screaming for their lives. and you just kind of have to stop and go, okay, how do i react? what decisions do i make now? do i run for home? >> mm-hmm. >> do i -- do i run toward the scene and try to help? >> and i know that you're still trying to find out whether your friends are accounted for and okay. >> yes. >> we'll say a prayer, and we thank you so much, grace ann, for being with us tonight. >> you're welcome. >> all the best. more horrific video of the attack coming into our newsroom right now. in this next one, you see families, children on their fathers' shoulders, strollers. and then on the right of your screen, a white truck comes into the picture, accelerating into the crowd. for a moment, everyone is stunned, and then chaos.

our chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has been working this story for the past few hours. she's live for us tonight in washington. catherine. >> thank you, megyn. the white house issuing a statement tonight condemning in the strongest possible terms what it says appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in nice, france. the u.s. government is offering assistance to investigate. in previous attacks, that has included intelligence from the nsa that was used to identify and track the terrorists responsible for the massacre last november. a u.s. government official tells fox news that the homeland security secretary jeh johnson is receiving regular updates on the attack. the officials said given the indicators, a soft target in a major economic tourist hub on the french national holiday, it all points to terrorism and isis, that has become more brazen in its targets and plots. the officials said they are, quote, starting with terrorism and then working back. the officials said a trucks used

as killing machines or scloevs was not in today's intelligence briefs nor in recent days and described the attack in nice that they were in fact blindsided. today two sources report that isis accounts are, quote, celebratory and telling followers to use the nice hashtags. this is not a claim of responsibility, and these are not leadership accounts, but it gives us a flavor of the attack's immediate impact. and a former senior intelligence official is drawing our attention tonight to al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. in this fall 2010 edition of its propaganda magazine inspire where it calls on followers to use trucks as killing machines to mow down civilians. al qaeda and isis share the same tactics, but al qaeda has really been the one to champion these styles of plots with trucks, megyn. >> catherine, thank you. >> you're welcome. another view of the terror as it unfolded on the streets of nice, france.

this one shot from a room above street level, showing innocent men, women, and children running for their lives after trying to have a celebratory evening. joining us now from london, a former islamic fundamentalist who now leads a counterextremist think tank. majid, thank you for being here with us. here we are again. france with its third major terror attack in a year. why? >> let's be clear. i mean these sorts of attacks are not unexpected. at least they shouldn't have been. h hamas has been for years encouraging drivers to kill citizens. in 2010, al qaeda announced to the world it wanted its followers to do the same. and only two years ago, in 2014, isis' spokesperson not only encouraged their followers in isis to get into vehicles and to mow people down on the streets, he specifically said especially in france. there are a number of reasons

jihadists are angry with france, one of them among any others, as we know, is the tragic attack on the "charlie hebdo" offices and their stance on free speech was a praise worthy stance. they've taken it upon themselves to attack france as a symbolic gesture that symbolizes generally attack on the west. >> let's back up because i don't think a lot of americans are familiar with that. five, six years ago, they banned the face veil, the burkas, and they wanted the muslim culture to assimilate into french culture. and this has not gone over well. >> reporter: it's not gone over well among those who belief -- and there's an austere fundamentalist strand within islam, mainly found in saudi arabia, who believe that women are obliged within the religion to cover their faces. i must emphasize that, a strand within islam.

but the jihadists subscribe to that strand. it's yet to be confirmed whether this was isis or any other terrorist organization. we certainly know this is a terrorist attack. isis, al qaeda, and other jihadists groups across the world have long been encouraging their followers to perpetrate exactly this kind of attack. we just had the football games in france, but we were expecting attacks there. >> over here in the united states, we're also asking what to do. how do we prevent this kind of a thing? obviously it's a soft target and it's very easy for these terrorists to get in. so you ask, okay, how do we fight the ideology? how do we defeat the group such that it doesn't want to unleash hell on all of our citizens? query whether it has anything to do with france's ban on burkas or the veil as opposed to their ideology that supports freedom. i mean we see that right here in the united states where we have no such bans. your thoughts. >> yes. it's nothing to do with that.

i mentioned it as that's what's isis uses as an excuse. it's what jihadists use as an excuse to rile their followers. we know they were seek any excuse in any country. why turkey, why medina? they will find any excuse to attack anywhere, but they do look for these excuses of course. the issue is the ideology. now, we can't begin to defeat that ideology in this way with such unpredictable attacks unless we prepare ourselves and accept we are in for a generational struggle. we have to galvanize civil society to push back against this ideology so that people in the long term aren't recruited and don't join this phenomenon. that requires recognizing it, naming it islamist extremism, and then putting forward a strategy that can isolate it from islam as a religion and then start -- to push back against it as we've done with racism in the west and as we've done with homophobia and anti-semitism. >> what do you think the odds are this was a lone wolf?

>> i don't use that phrase. i use the phrase self starter because these days people are inspired online and offline by all forms of networks, by relative relatives, or by other attacks they've seen. so they're certainly inspired by the jihadist ideology. whether they start the operation themselves or are taking demand directly from isis headquarters. we've looked into this. very, very few people if any are lone wolves in the literal sense of that world. >> majid, thank you. a witness to what frerge officials are calling the worst tragedy in the history of nice. tony molina and his wife were setting on a terrace just above where the attack occurred. once the fireworks ended, tony and his wife heard screams and terror as the truck barreled down the promenade. tony says bodies were everywhere, and we saw it all. he joins me now by phone.

tony, thank you for being here. so you saw the truck come down the street, and what exactly did you see? >> yeah. what happened, we actually had stepped inside to our -- just inside the patio area and actually closed the door. before we walked in, there was a huge crowd basically leaving the fireworks show. so they were leaving the beach, heading onto the streets. so this whole area right in front of where we're staying was crowded. we were inside for just a couple minutes, and we started hearing what sounded like thumping and the crowd just getting loud. so we went back outside quickly to see what that was. i actually thought, well, maybe there were more fireworks going off. we looked over the balcony down to the street. that's actually when we saw the truck going by right in front of our view and just hitting people. it was -- it was just unbelievable because initially it kind of looked like, well, maybe it's a drunk driver.

but we realized quickly that it wasn't, seeing how it was driving, you know, purposely aiming for people and zigzagging and going at a pretty good speed. >> did the people have any chance to get out from in front of it? >> i'd imagine -- and i mean just looking down at the crowd, the way it was swerving around, i'd imagine people had no idea which way to go. and by the time we looked down, it had already gone, i'm guessing, about half a mile because it took us some time to get to the door after hearing all this thumping and screaming. and so, you know, i knew people down there must have heard things happening and not known, you know, really which way to go. so the size of this truck, i'm sure they really had no chance, whoever was in front of it. >> when it stopped, there's some confusion about whether the driver got out, whether he was shot by police while he was still in the cab of the truck. did you see the end of it? >> yeah. i wouldn't be able to answer that. the truck continued.

basically the area that it went in front of us, we're just west of the negresco, and the area that went in front of us was on the sidewalk area, which is like a huge boardwalk. it got to kind of a pergo la and had to get back on the street, and we lost sight of it at that point. and probably several seconds later is when we heard massive gunfire, which i'm assuming is when the authorities stopped the vehicle. >> what was the condition of the victims who he left behind? >> yeah, that was really astonishing because when i looked down, i actually didn't see people, you know, like walking away hurt. everyone that was down appeared completely lifeless. in fact, you know, it was very -- it felt very helpless to be looking down and see this unfold. but at the same time, you could

see and just realize looking down that there is absolutely nothing you can do for any of those people that were out. i mean there were obvious signs of them being deceased and just everyone running, you know, for their lives after that. >> was there any apparent distinctions? you know, most of the victims men, most of the victims old, or was it -- did it appear to be completely random? >> yeah, that i could not tell -- well, it appeared to be completely random, and i couldn't tell you, you know, different genders or even ages. just the bodies that i could see appeared to be adults only because of the size. but we counted ten bodies just from our view in front of our particular apartment. >> how are you processing this right now? how are you? >> yeah, you know, it's

definitely rough. i feel awful that my son had to witness that. i mean we -- we had no idea when we ran out to the balcony what we were going to see. so the fact that he watched -- you know, saw that happen, i feel bad for him. >> how old is he? >> i'm sorry? >> how old is your son? >> he's 14. >> tony, we're glad you're okay. thank you for being with us. >> you're welcome. think of that. how many times have you watched the fireworks with your kids, much less in a beautiful place like the french riviera? you know, family time in one of the most beautiful places on earth. it can happen anywhere. we're here in times square, new york. you know, we walk around here understanding what could happen here. it's right here in the frontal lobe. you're over in nice watching the fireworks, it's not -- i don't know. no place is safe now. that's how it's starting to

feel. mark thiessen is with us. he's our fox news contributor, former chief speechwriter for president george w. bush. mark, those comments are not meant to induce or enhance anybody's panic or the terror that clearly is meant to be unleashed by an attack like this. but this is why they're hitting soft targets, to truly terrorize. >> no, that's exactly right, and they've been saying for a long time that they're going to hit soft targets. when i saw this attack and the news unfolding, i immediately recalled a series of articles in the al qaeda in the magazine inspire called open source jihad, which were published in 2010. and one of those articles described exactly what happened in paris today. this was the magazine that was published by anwar al awlaki, who were american born al qaeda terrorists. in this article, the ultimate mowing machine, let me read you this because it's exactly what happened. the idea is to use a pickup

truck as a mowing machine. pick your location and time carefully. go for the most crowded locations to achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control of your vehicle in order to strike as many people as possible in your first run. the ideal location is a place where there are maximum number of pedestrians and the least number of vehicles. if you can get through to pedestrian only areas that exist in some downtown city areas, that would be fabulous. and finally this is the kicker. if you have access to firearms, carry them with you so that you may use them to finish off your work if your vehicle gets grounded during the attack. the idea would be to implement it in countries like israel, the u.s., britain, canada, australia, and france. that is exactly what happened tonight. al qaeda published it in 2010 in their magazine "inspire." >> mm-hmm. this is back to the anwar al awlaki writings which remain on long past his death, which some criticize in the drone program,

and people continue to find inspiration from that magazine unfortunately, mark. there's not much we can do about it. the question is what can we do about the larger problem of radical islamic terror which was not uttered tonight by president obama. in his defense, we don't have confirmation who was in that truck, although our -- you know, the clues so far would certainly suggest we do know. what he called it tonight was a horrific terrorist attack. >> and that's true. but the problem is that the jihadists are inspired. just the other day, isis put out an info graphic showing that they had killed -- bragging that they had killed or injured 5,200 people around the world in 14 different attacks during the holy month of ramadan, and they had a chart with a map and all the attacks they had carried out. they of course declared a caliphate. they've taken over territory. if you talk to interrogators, we don't interrogate terrorists any

more. that would be a good start. but when you talk to the interrogators who spent thousands and thousands of hours with terrorists, like james mitchell, who you've had on this show, what the terrorists tell you is that what inspires terrorist recruitment, what inspires attack, are successful terrorist attacks. so the more success they have in taking territory, the more they stand up to america and iraq and syrias, the more attacks they carry out, more jihadists flock to them and carry out more attacks. the way you stop them is to defeat them over there so we don't have is to face them over here. that's not what we're doing today. >> we're past ramadan. that ended. the terror attacks did not. mark, thank you. >> thanks, megyn. my next guest says he's irate at what has been happening and has been in contacts all across europe, which are plentiful in his case. he's now worried he's hearing about another possible target. lieutenant michael flynn is my guest now.

general, it makes many people feel hopeless. it makes you feel angry. your thoughts tonight. >> yeah. yeah, this is unbelievable, and i've been able to catch your -- you know, three or four of your last guests. this is unbelievable. so first of all, i mean what we have seen on the clips of this vehicle, this is about a two and a half ton vehicle, so it's about 5,000 pounds. and what these guys did -- what i was told by a friend that was there was that they basically drove very slowly up to the crowd, and i think you've shown it. and then the guy gunned it, and he basically swerved to hit as many people as possible and just literally run them down like they were, you know, chattel. i mean this is unbelievable. that's the tactic that they used. you've had enough people on tonight that said they've written about using this tactic. we've actually seen this tactic

by hamas, which was talked about by the gentleman from london. hamas uses cars, and they've done this in israel to run israelis over. this is a tactic that we know of. >> but we've never seen this sort of mass terror attack. i've never seen 77 dead because of a truck. you tell me. >> right. i mean all of this is just a larger-scale version of this tactic that we have seen used. so they have used this tactic before against -- we know this in the middle east against israelis. the thing that i'm concerned about, there is a warning that is coming across social media for germany, and i've gotten little bits and pieces about the potential for berlin. so i don't know what activities are going on there, but i'm just -- i'm putting that out. i've already contacted my friends over there to let them know because i have social media capabilities that we look at. and so anyway, the thing that we have -- and let me just take a step back because i am really irritated about this.

president obama came out with his statement. okay, i got it. that's wonderful. you know, i'm done trying to convince him to really recognize what it is that we are facing, and we should not fear what it is we are facing. we should stand up to this. what i want, megyn, after something i saw tonight, i want the president of egypt. i want the king of saudi arabia, i want the imam, or i want khomeini in iran to stand up and be counted. and i want them to be counted tonight and to talk about this radical form of this ideology in their bloodstream, in their dna, and declare this thing that it is just -- it cannot exist on this planet as it exists and as we've just witnessed again. this is not about just instilling fear. okay. we have captured their campaign plans over the last decade. i know personally we've captured it twice, and it is essentially the same thing. so we're going to hear about how

well we're doing in iraq and syria, that we're pushing them back, we've fought them out of fallujah. actually, that's not what i see, and that's not what i hear. there is so much chatter right tonight by what i would kind of describe as the jihadi soldiers, the jihadi army on the twitter and telegram social media. there's no -- there's no chatter by leaders, but we don't know exactly who these guys are. but i know there's a lot of chatter by their soldiers, praising what just happened. so i want these leaders in this world -- okay. i want these leaders in this world, in this muslim world that have this radical islamic ideology festering, metastasizing, to stand up and stand up tonight and be counted and say something to condemn this attack that we have just seen. we are going to see more of these. these guys are executing a campaign plan. thiessen, who you just had on recently, he read it out of

their magazine. i think that's the 18th issue of this magazine. there is another thing for your listeners, megyn, called al amok. al amaq is like their version of headline news. it's like their fox news headline. i mean these guys are so sophisticated. there's so savvy, and we are foolish. what we have not done -- and i'll stop here and get off my soapbox in a second. but what we have not done is we have not, from an international standpoint, we have not established an international strategic set of objectives to go after this very vicious, barbaric enemy. they have declared war on this. this is a world war. this is a world war. it's not like it was in the history books of world war ii. it may not feel like that, like tanks on the desert and planes and ships at sea. but this is a world war. they've declared war on us. we must -- we must internationally, and we must create, i believe, a new 21st century alliance, but we have got to take the arab muslim

world to task. the leaders in this world, that's who i want to see get up on the net tonight, get up on their soapbox like i'm on my soapbox right now and condemn this madness. i mean it's happening, and it's crazy, and we cannot continue to have this. the ideology inside of this islamic world is -- it just cannot exist like this. and frankly i'm sick of having, you know, just the europeans and frankly our own, you know, leaders condemn it even though our own president -- i mean like i said, i'm done trying to convince our president to actually define this enemy. we know what it is. it's radical islamic terrorism. they are vicious. they're barbaric. they are on the march. if you -- and i'm sorry. i'm on a roll here because i'm so just pissed. >> you're one of the few people in the country who knows of what he speaks, so we're listening. >> yeah, so what do we do?

what do we do? and, you know, this -- i've thought a lot about this, and i'm very passionate about this, and i'm irritated about it because what we have just seen, and it's just unbelievable, untold amount of tragedy that is going on tonight. i mean we still -- and i keep harping back to what has happened in our country, in orlando, in san bernardino. i mean people forget about 9/11. we in this country, we in this country, we can't think past saturday night. we have got to start thinking much more strategically in this country. and i'm serious about this. >> i'm going to have to cut you off because -- >> i'm sorry. >> you take the last word. keep going, sir. >> well, here's what i would say. there are solutions to this. there is no enemy that is undefeatable, and we should not fear this enemy. we should beat them, and i'm telling, you we can beat them. we have proven it many, many times. when you have victory on the

battlefield, you must sustain that victory, and we did not. >> there is no enemy that is undefeatable. general flynn, thank you so much. thank you. congressman pete king will be here next. don't go away. nally get in shap. not to be focusing on my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis. so i made a decision to talk to my dermatologist about humira. humira works inside my body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to my symptoms. in clinical trials, most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear, and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores.

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and played gigs from new york to miami. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and he prescribed lyrica. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs, and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. now i have less diabetic nerve pain. ask your doctor about lyrica. breaking tonight, 77 people reportedly killed in an attack

in the city of nice in southern france. my next guest was watching fireworks from the promenade of a nearby restaurant when just a few minutes after the fireworks concluded, he heard the horror unfold. joining me now, american eyewitness shy bin amu. thank you for being with us by phone tonight. tell us what you first heard and saw. >> hi, kelly -- megyn, sorry. well, we were in the restaurant. we were just -- we were on the promenade actually a little bit earlier and got to the restaurant before the fireworks started. we actually, you know, were able to have some drinks, enjoy the fireworks. luckily we were able to find a spot at the bar right at the opening of the windows. had we not, we probably would have been on the promenade enjoying the fireworks with everyone else. as the fireworks concluded,

there was music. there was a lot of people on the streets. you know, maybe five minutes or so after the fireworks, we heard a loud kind of a bang. there was a lot of commotion. all of a sudden people running, screaming. you knew it wasn't, you know, something minor although it was kind of hard to make out from the sounds. we definitely heard a few, you know, small pops that kind of sounded like they could have been gunshots. again, being the fireworks had just happened, there was a little bit of a confusion. but when i saw people running in fear and people yelling "run" and it's an attack et cetera, my first instinct was, you know, something's going on. this is definitely serious. and, you know, i turned and grabbed my girlfriend. i pretty much tackled her to the floor, dragged her behind a column so we were kind of -- we had some kind of shelter. people in the restaurant, there was a lot of commotion. tables getting overturned.

a few people diving next to us. i was trying to peek up to see if anybody was coming, you know, if there was anything to worry about as far as, you know, people shooting at the restaurant. you know, obviously i have recent memories from recent attacks. >> mm-hmm. >> creeping into my mind, you know, of shooting at the restaurants and whatnot. at that time, you know, i'm kind of trying to -- i'm staying calm. i was actually quite calm throughout, which, you know, i'm surprised thinking back as of now. >> you never know how you're going to react in a situation like this. when you left the restaurant, did you go over to the promenade at all? did you see what had happened? >> so at the time, we didn't know what was going on. we didn't know if there was an attack, there wasn't an attack. i'm operating under the assumption there was. i come from new york. the first thing that pops into my mind, i have family in the middle east, it's not foreign to me to think this way.

one of the restaurant workers propped open a back door. we crawled towards the back and kind of shot out the back of the restaurant and ran for it. we probably got four or five blocks up, you know, as far as -- i'm not from here. i didn't know where we were running to. all we knew is we were running away. we ducked int building with a number of people, went upstairs. there was a nice elderly couple that took us in, gave us shelter until we figured out what the situation was. you know, we were kind of trying to, you know, assess how dangerous it was outside, peeking out the window. >> and there was no information for a while about whether this man acted alone. in fact, that's still not determined about whether, in fact, he acted alone. and there were reports early on he might have had an accomplice. that is all being investigated. shai, i thank you for taking the time on a night like this to call in. >> my pleasure. thank you very much. joining me now with the way

this ties into u.s. intelligence, congressman peter king. here we are again. here we are again, congressman. here we are again. it's not the united states, but it's like every week now we sit and we talk about how many dead. what happened? what was the weapon of choice? it's becoming not -- not rote but not surprising either. >> megyn, you and i have done this so often lately, and it's really a disgrace. the fact is that our intelligence -- you know, there was no doubt that isis has been preparing and attacks in europe, it was thought it would happen during the soccer tournament. but they are definitely preparing, and they are -- as they carried out this attack in france, but basically all of western europe, they are aimed at. >> you can never let your guard down. they were about to lower the threat level.

ramadan had ended. they were going to lower the threat level, and then they said they were, quote, blindsided. >> i don't know how they were blindsided. i'm not trying to monday morning quarterback french intelligence, but there's no doubt whether or not there's a soccer tournament or not, that isis and islamic radicals and terrorists, they are planning to attack europe, and they have had these isis foreign fighters that have been in syria and gone back into europe. we also know in countries like france, there are very hostile muslim populations. we saw what happened last year in france. we've seen what's happened over the years in europe, and so, again, i don't know why france would even consider letting its guard down. >> what do we do? yes, you talk about the hostile muslim population to some extent in france. here we're looking at a situation where obviously in the united states, we have many peace-loving muslims. then there's a faction that's more aligned with sharia and has beliefs that don't align with any american values.

and the country's been asking itself now, especially in the political season, what to do. what do we do? we don't want to further alienate muslim people who may be on the verge of radicalizing by antagonizing them, but we also need to protect ourselves. >> megyn, i think we have to forget about hurting people's feelings. the fact is there are people out there who want to kill us. there are people in the muslim community -- it's a small minority, but they are there. i think if we hold back, it's looked upon as a sign of weakness. we have to have more surveillance. we have to be looking at the muslim community. we have to be calling on them to make sure they cooperate and step forward. >> but we've been doing that. we've been doing that, and we've seen in some cases that they do report, right? the guy down in florida got reported at one point by a muslim man, and yet still it turned out to be an intelligence failure. >> again, in fact jim comey, director comey was before the homeland security today, not knowing this was going to happen. but i said isis has managed to

really radicalize and bring in people on the fringes of society so carry out acts like we saw in orlando and san bernardino. and i think the fbi does not have the personnel to be constantly investigating. what they have to do is if they get tips or investigate something and they come to -- and it's inconclusive, then hand that to the local police. they have people on the ground. we have to go in there, surveil the muslim communities, watch them more carefully. we can't be shutting down investigations. >> you're talking about all muslims? i mean muslims we have no suspicion of whatsoever? i mean, you know, my friend who is a yoga instructor who is a muslim, we're going to surveil her? >> we have to surveil the community, and we have to have people in the community who are willing to be sources, who are willing to be undercovers because that's where the threat is coming from. it's what's done with every group whether it's the italian community, the irish community. that's where the threat is coming from. you're not violating anybody's civil rights. it's just common sense. that's where it's coming from. but especially if you get a tip.

and the fbi, there was maybe not enough to continue the investigation in orlando -- >> you get a tip. that's not controversial. it's the other part that is, and yet we're a country that is struggling to survive, to protect its people. i got to go because i've got to -- >> we have to put aside political correctness. we've got to get the job done, and that's where the threat is coming from. >> thank you, congressman. >> thank you, megyn. actually i have two guests for you now. dr. duedy jasser is founder and president of the american islamic foreign for democracy, and bill bennett is the former secretary of education under president reagan and host of the bill bennett podcast. good to see you both tonight. zudi let me start with you where i left off with the congressman. the surveilling of muslims. you think in your head, some guy who is radicalizing, go for t. i think of my friend, the yoga instructor who has got like three little girls, like no. people don't want that. so where do we land this plane? >> well, we can't land it until we know what the runway looks like, and the runway has a muslim, i'll tell you, who loves

my country and loves freedom, is about defeating political islam. it's about defeating the sharia state. i agree with the general earlier that we need more from the arab leaders but they're not going to do it because they're drinking from the same drug. so what we need to land on is develop a strategy that we call the enemy and declare war just like we did in the cold war against communism. declare war against political th theocratic islam. we have a muslim reform movement that lays out that we believe in the secular state. we reject violent jihad. >> you've said this for years and it makes a lot of sense. where is that going? >> well, as long as the greatest media governments in the west ignore us and continue to point -- you know, there's an old arabic saying and it sounds better in arabic that says when the leaders point to the moon, the idiot looks at the finger. so far we have been looking at the finger. we're not looking where we need to be going. this is a long war, and as long as the pundits and our

government apparatus continues to look at terrorism and calls it counterand violent extremism, we're going to lose. when we start countering violent islam, and the axis starts to look at the precursor ideologies -- what congressman king was talking about, yes, not all muslims are islamists, but all islamists are muslim. the fact that most americans don't even know what those terms are is a crime. >> those are the more extreme, you know, versions of islam. but i want to ask you, bill, because you tell me. i've never seen general flynn so angry as i saw him tonight, with good reason. >> you bet. >> he has the same complaint about our leaders and not being heard. >> yeah, he's got another reason to be angry at our leader. you know, i'm sure the president has good intentions when he goes as healer in chief, but that's

not the job description. the job description is commander-in-chief. and you know how many times commander-in-chief met with general flynn when he was head of defense intelligence? none. he never met with general flynn. that would be another general flynn would be mad. it would be a reason that i'm mad too. >> it's incredible when you think about that fact. he's running the sister to the cia, and never got a meeting with the commander-in-chief, ever. >> right. and i agree with zudi. i agree with flynn. i think this is doable. i think they have told us how to do it. they have said that they would welcome -- isis would welcome a fight in dabiq, in northern syria, but that would be a reckoning for the world to see. president obama said we're not going to give them what they ask for. we should give them what they ask for and really give them what they ask for. >> stand by, bill. the french president is talking. we want to listen. >> translator: we must do

everything to fight against this terrorism. the driver was shot and killed. we are investigating whether he was linked to any others. france has been hit on its national day, the 14th of july, our national symbol. because human rights are linked and attacked by fanatics. i want to express my solidarity with the nation, which is now in mourning.

i've instructed all regional hospitals -- >> and we lost our feed. you can see french president francois hollande saying that they are investigating whether this man was linked to others. that's one of the outstanding issues here. he's back. take a listen. and apologies. he's back without translation, and that doesn't do us much good here, does it. bill, i want to let you finish your thought. >> well, it's just osama bin laden said it's the strong horse and not the weak horse that's respected. let's be the strong horse, let's break their necks and break their hearts.

demoralize them so they don't foster and encourage these attacks and we take them out where their nest is, where their greenhouse is. this is the only way to do it. we know how to do it. they have challenged us to do it. there's also a notion out there that this is somehow theo logically totally at odds with islam. i believe zuti when he says he is a good muslim. there are a lot of experts who will tell you these guys are consistent with very important strands of islam. this is part of this religion. a lot of people say killing apostates, killing heretics is not part of islam. there is doctrinal foundation for it. unless we understand that, unless the president understands that and acts on that, we're never going to do this. haven't we had enough? how many more? how many more teddy bears? how many more balloons? i appreciate people's heartfelt sympathy, but can we stop this parade of horribles, of tragedies? donald rumsfeld said something the other day. he said it ahead of a former

superpower in europe said to him for god's sake, united states, start acting like a superpower. can we, please? >> gentlemen, thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. joining us now with more, mu bain sheikh, a former jihadist, along with brad thor, a former member of the homeland security department. do you believe, the french president when we last left off, was talking about whether this man is linked to others. what do you think the odds are he did this by himself? >> yes. it's usually very rare that it's just one individual. in order to purchase the weapons and sh i'm sure there's an underlying network. there's still unconfirmed reports of whether there was an accomplice. but a lot of times it's not going to be one individual by

themselves. of course the isis fan boys are cheering the attacks. they're -- you know, they're doing their photo shop. they're showing images of france suffering, you know, people holding caskets. this is exactly what they do. they cheer it on. they're very happy about it. they celebrate it, and that's exactly what we're seeing them doing right now. >> brad, this evening some democrats were holding an anti-gun gathering on capitol hill. they paused for a moment of silence for the victims in nice. but after we saw the orlando terror attack, this country, half of it, turned to the issue of guns. what we see tonight here in nice, yes, the man had some guns. he also had grenades inside of that truck. but he killed those 77 people, most of them, with a truck. a truck he drove down a promenade. your thoughts. >> well, absolutely. this has never been about gun control. this has been about fundamentalist islamic terrorist

control. and what we're hearing out of france right now, the french newspaper, that this was a 31-year-old resident of nice with tunisian roots. i don't know if he was born in tunisia and his parents moved as part of the migration from the north african french counties into france, but that's something that's breaking right now. as your other guests have said, and i think it's very, very important, megyn. we need to go after the ideology, particularly -- and mr. bennett was on it. we've got to break the back of the fundamentalist ideology. zu tirks is a friend of mieng but if we don't get serious about going after what is fueling this, we're going to lose. we are at war, and only one side is going to win, and it has to be the west. >> what does that look like? >> number one, it looks like i think general flynn had a great point, which is let's get the king of saudi arabia, because a lot of money is flowing from saudis into the wahhabi sect

that creates a lot of this violence. let's get the king of saudi arabia coming out and saying this is not okay. the king of jordan has been a great friend of ours, but let's get morsi in egypt, and let's put the iranians to disavow this kind of stuff too. you're either with us or you're against us now more than other. >> and yet we're not seeing that. you know, it makes you wonder what will it take before -- before we do see that? i mean if president obama or the next president calls you into the oval office and says, any thoughts on diminishing the ideology, on stopping the radicalization, what do you say? >> well, what they need to do is, you know, have the scholars, islamic scholars step up their role, take the lead. if they're theo loejens, if they're running educational institutions where people are being taught this kind of interpretation, they need to correct that interpretation. they need to teach them the proper rules of interpretation.

you don't take in an individual, what you're seeing with these extremists, it's do it yourself islam. it's an individual who goes to the koran and decides i'm going to take this piece and i'm going to apply it. and you become a vigilante. that's what they're doing. i think religion scholars and theo loejens, need to take the lead when it comes to the theological side of things and when it comes to the military side of things, muslim armies need to be the ones to be doing this. it's great that the u.s. and the coalition are involved, but there needs to be muslim armies more involved. >> brad, you know, what we typically see here is president obama will come out with a statement. he had a paper statement tonight, and he will warn there shouldn't be a backlash against american muslims, which there shouldn't. but the country repeatedly, when we've had these terror attacks, be they in the country of an ally like france, or right here at home, they don't feel that he gets it, that he feels the urgency and the fright and the anger that so many americans more and more are starting to

feel, in a way that may be mobilizing the country toward next steps where they weren't perhaps right after the iraq war. >> megyn, i can't even begin to gauge what the president goes through sitting in the oval office, so i want to be very careful about casting aspersions. but i as a citizen get the strong feeling that if he thought it would offend somebody to tell them what was causing cancer, that he would not tell them what was causing their cancer. i mean we've got a real problem here. when you see attacks in orlando, san bernardino, in brussels, and in paris, that's cancer that has spread. we need to go to the heart of where this cancer is growing, and cut it out, and we need our muslim partners to go after it hard core because us non-muslims, we cannot bring about a reformation in islam. christianist has had one. judaism has had one. islam is need of a refreformati. >> orlando, we barely mention it now. it just happens a few weeks ago. thank you. like so many others, our

next guest was enjoying the fireworks display in nice just moments before the attacks. in the course of 25 minutes, he went from tweeting happy bastille day with pictures of young children on their parents' scholess to suggesting people were runniscreaming and running their lives. mark, what a horrific change in events in just moments. what did you see? >> well, yeah, i was down there at the fireworks like you said. i tweeted the picture. it was you know, ooh, aah. there were nice fireworks just like on fourth of july. when it was over, i was tired. my family didn't want to go anybody. they stayed back, so i went home. it's not that far away, a few minutes' walk. as soon as i got into my apartment, right ou the window we overlook a pedestrian mall with caves and stores and things. we started hearing people screaming, knocking over tables, breaking stuff. just hysterical.

i'd never seen anything like this before in person. you know, and then when i got down to the site after a little while, there were still ambulances coming, still police cars coming, and really it was gruesome. there was a whole convoy of minivans from the nice city coroner's office being waved in by the police officers at the police line. >> did you see -- i mean the number of emergency vehicles on scene, was it adequate to the problem? >> well, i mean i have no idea. but, you know, there were police and ambulances continuing to arrive. i mean even this has to have been an hour, hour and a half after the attack. there were still some ambulances showing up. so, you know, obviously they called all hands on deck from all over the place. >> mark, what was the condition of the survivors, you know, those moving about in the scenes

of carnage if you will? >> well, i saw people that i have no idea what they saw, but there were a whole bunch of civilians that were released by the police. in other words, they were on the other side of the police line toward the attack, and a whole bunch of them came out afterwards, you know, from -- i assume from being questioned by the police about what they saw and all of that. and obviously they were shaken up. i mean people were still obviously, you know, shaking, crying, that kind of thing. so it was something, as you can imagine, it's got to have a really devastating effect on people. >> mm-hmm. and that is part of the intended effect. mark, thank you. >> right. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. bye. >> here we are again. is anything going to change? we don't often see this kind of event followed by a change in policy, a summit, what have you. we'll see whether this time's

different. 77 dead. the number will likely change in one of our closest allies, france tonight. we're taking your thoughts, facebook.com slash the kelly follow. thank you for trusting us for your coverage tonight. good night. this is a fox news alert. a horrific attack in southern france. at least 77 are dead. 50 injured after a truck driving at full speed plowed into a very large crowd in the city of nice. welcome to "hannity." we are in cleveland, ohio, tonight ahead of the republican national convention. authorities now say the massacre was deliberate, and france's president is in fact calling it a terrorist attack. joining us with the latest details is our own benjamin hall. >> reporter: sean, that all too familiar news of another terror attack striking at the very heart of europe. as you say, the death toll continues to rise. it does stand at 77 now but there are 15 at least critically wounded and fears