| Washington Post | - |
With
a single word, Fox News Channel star Megyn Kelly weighed in Thursday on
Donald Trump's latest juvenile antic - this one involving a photo
illustration that the Republican presidential front-runner retweeted
just before midnight.
Megyn Kelly: A reluctant feminist, thanks to Donald Trump
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Quoted
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Campaign 2016
✕
Megyn Kelly has stood up for other women offended by Donald Trump. (Photo by Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post.)
The illustration juxtaposed two images: One of Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi, making a facial expression that she probably wouldn’t pick for a portrait, and the other of Trump’s wife, Melania, Vogue-ing like the former supermodel she is.
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And Kelly’s response continued what is becoming a trend in this lowest of low-brow campaigns — generally letting Trump go after her, until the attacks involve other women.
The “Kelly File” host is, of course, Trump’s favorite female target, going back to the first debate of the Republican primary season. As a moderator of that event, Kelly cited Trump’s history of disparaging remarks about women and asked if he possesses a presidential “temperament.” The next day, the billionaire real estate mogul said Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever,” launching a sub-campaign of hateful commentary about the journalist that continues to this day.
Just last Friday, Fox News felt compelled to issue a statement denouncing Trump’s “sick obsession” with one of the network’s top draws.
But Kelly has mostly ignored the insults, perhaps not wanting to give Trump the satisfaction of seeing her rattled and desiring to stay journalistically neutral. In August, for instance, she acknowledged on her show that Trump had "attacked me personally" but said she had "decided not to respond." Earlier this month, she moderated another debate in which Trump participated, and she did not confront him or treat him any differently from the other candidates.
When others are harmed, however, Kelly seems to have a lower tolerance level. After a Breitbart News reporter accused Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski of grabbing and yanking her arm at a news conference this month, the reporter, Michelle Fields, gave Kelly her first TV interview. And Kelly was unequivocal about what she saw in the campaign's attempt to deny anything happened and to cast Fields as a serial liar.
"They're basically trying to destroy her," she told viewers.
In February, Kelly condemned the hostile environment at Trump rallies after a man in the crowd cursed at NBC News reporter Katy Tur. She needed two words this time.
In a cover story for the February issue of Vanity Fair, writer Evgenia Peretz described Kelly as "a feminist icon of sorts — the sort who won’t actually call herself a feminist."
What
with all the male bullies she’s put in their place, Kelly would be
perfectly positioned to become a leader in women’s issues such as equal
pay and reproductive rights. But Kelly, whose position on abortion, she
says, is known only to her husband and herself, claims these issues
actually divide women. “Why can’t there be an acknowledgment that, in
some instances, women remove themselves from the workforce for a long
time and, when they come back, of course they’re not going to get
exactly equal pay?” she asks. “It’s like some of these things are
anathema — if you say them, you get booted out of the feminist club. …
Gloria Steinem doesn’t get to kick those other women out of the feminist
club, or the female-empowerment club, because she says so!” Sensing
herself getting uppity, she laughs and does a sassy snap across her face
for emphasis.
Kelly might not fit the conventional mold of a
feminist crusader, but in this election, she is emerging as a prominent
ally for other women targeted by Trump and his supporters. It's probably
not a role she wanted to fill. On that August episode of "The Kelly
File" where she refused to fire back, she added that her desire was to
"get back to the news."Too often, however, the news is Trump's lack of respect for women. And Kelly isn't letting it slide.
Donald Trump certainly isn't the first person Megyn Kelly has asked tough questions. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
Callum Borchers covers the intersection of politics and media.
