Politics
Megyn Kelly On Trump And The Media: 'We're In A Dangerous Phase Right Now'
Kelly felt that power firsthand in August 2015, when she pressed the candidate about his derogatory comments about women during the first Republican primary debate. Trump responded with a Twitter attack, which was quickly followed up by a barrage of insulting tweets and even death threats from his followers.
"What people don't realize about Donald Trump — and I don't even know if Donald Trump realizes it — is that every tweet he unleashes against you ... creates such a crescendo of anger," Kelly says.
The host of The Kelly File says that although she worried for her own safety and that of her children, she and her producers were determined not to let the threats impact their coverage of Trump. Now that Trump is the president-elect, she is especially concerned about his "de-legitimization" of the media.
"I think it's dangerous," Kelly says. "People ... need good, strong, skeptical journalists to be covering whoever it is — whether it's Barack Obama or President Donald Trump — and we're in a dangerous phase right now, where too many millions of Americans aren't listening at all to what the press tells them."
Kelly's new memoir, Settle For More, revisits her feud with Trump, as well as her work as a journalist and her decision to come forward in the sexual harassment case against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes.
Interview Highlights
On how Trump's rhetoric represents a backlash to the notion of "PC culture"My general sense is [Trump voters] feel they've been lectured to enough on how they're supposed to speak and how things that were very innocuous or innocent over the past several years were spun back to them ... and so when Trump came up as this PC-buster they said, "Yes! He's our champion." He was given a permission slip for everything he said and did because of that. The gradations of what was appropriate or not seemed to get completely lost. ...
But I would submit to you that Trump's history of comments on women go well beyond the line, if you look at them in their entirety, past the normal backlash to PC culture.
On the fears minority groups have expressed following the election
The relative lack of power of certain minority groups and the fear they're feeling in the wake of Donald Trump's election, I think, is something we really need to take a look at, because, while I don't think Trump wants to target any particular minority group, I understand their fear, because he spent many months stoking it. And so I think that's a legitimate thing we're going to have to deal with and ask ourselves how far he can go in enacting certain politics that target specific groups.
On the threatening and misogynist tweets Kelly received from Trump supporters
The c-word was in thousands of tweets directed at me — lots of threats to beat the hell out of me, to rape me, honestly the ugliest things you can imagine. But most of this stuff I was able to just dismiss as angry people who are trying to scare me, you know. However, there were so many that rose to the level of "OK, that one we need to pay attention to," that it did become alarming. It wasn't like I walked down the street in constant fear of someone trying to take my life, but I was very aware of it.
The thing I was most worried about was that I have a 7- and a 5- and a 3-year-old, and I was worried I'd be walking down the street with my kids and somebody would do something to me in front of them; they would see me get punched in the face or get hurt.
On how to cover news from Trump's Twitter feed
It's a challenge, there's no question, because some of these tweets I would submit to you are bait, you know? Maybe an attempt to distract from a news story that Donald Trump doesn't love, and he's holding the shiny object up in an attempt to say: "Look over here! Look over here!"
Donald Trump and the First Amendment, it's not a beautiful match; it's not a match made in heaven. Between the free speech rights that he has not defended and the freedom of the press, which he has not defended, it's problematic.
On deciding to come forward about Roger Ailes' sexual harassment, more than 10 years later
When it happened to me, I did bring it to a supervisor, which is what you're supposed to do. ... I knew very well what my legal rights and obligations were, but let me just start with this: ... So many ask, "Why didn't you report it sooner?" ... And I would submit to you that the appropriate question to ask a victim of sexual harassment is not "Why didn't you report it sooner?" You don't get to ask me that until you've asked me whether there was a safe avenue for reporting in my company, and only if the answer to that question is "yes" do you get to ask the next question.
The Rise And Fall Of FOX News CEO Roger Ailes
On how Trump's election has empowered white nationalists and the "alt-right" movement
It is also a dangerous game to empower them, as clearly has happened. I mean, Steve Bannon is the chief adviser to our president-elect, and I understand the argument that he's just a provocateur and he comes up with these crazy headlines and they want clicks, but if you look at what's happened to Breitbart [News] over the last three years, it's shocking.
I knew Andrew Breitbart very well and he was great. I loved him. He was a true provocateur who would be fun about it, you know. He'd show up at a democratic protest and engage with the protesters and then he'd go have a beer with them. This is something else entirely, and I don't know that Trump can stop it. I don't know who, if anyone, can stop it. I think right now the answer is for good people to exercise their own voice and their own power.
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