Megyn Kelly: Is the Chicago torture video 'just thugs' or 'a statement on who we are as a people?'

On Wednesday, police in Chicago detained four people suspected of abducting and torturing a mentally disabled 18-year-old, an apparently long and brutal assault streamed for half an hour on Facebook Live. The victim is white and at least some of his assailants are black. On Wednesday night's Kelly File, Trace Gallagher got Megyn Kelly up to speed on the terrible details of the story, then she turned to two guests for a sort of point-counterpoint reaction to the video. First up was David Wohl, an attorney and Donald Trump supporter, who is white.

"What I found a little bit disturbing is the cops, in a press conference, said they're not quite sure if this was a hate crime — it's being investigated — and that's after viewing this video," Wohl said. "Now Megyn, rest assured, if the races were reversed and they said that, they would be fired the next day — I think Richard would agree with that." Richard Fowler, a senior fellow at the New Leaders Council and Kelly's other guest, didn't look so sure. Wohl predicted that the Illinois prosecutors won't treat it as a hate crime, warning: "Don't forget who's going to be the attorney general of the United States in a couple months, Jeff Sessions. I guarantee you he takes this very seriously; this could easily turn into a federal civil rights prosecution, along with several piggybacking federal crimes, and the hate crime would definitely be included. So they need to take this very seriously, they can't allow political correctness to dictate the prosecution."

Fowler, who is black, agreed it is a hate crime, and said America needs to have a conversation about how we can "really come together." Kelly interrupted him. "Does this one act — this disgusting, awful, criminal act — is it any sort of a larger statement about who we are as a people, or are these just thugs? And not young people making stupid decisions, no! Thugs who are torturing a man. But does this say something about us as Americans?" She seemed especially skeptical that these "thugs" could be reasoned with, as Fowler suggested. Watch below. Peter Weber

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