When Megyn Kelly interviews Donald Trump next month will she pull her punches and do a softball, as she usually does with conservative guests, or hold Trump’s feet to the fire the way she made a big show of doing at the debate last summer?
According to CNN, Trump will participate in Kelly's special, called “Megyn Kelly Presents,” on the Fox broadcast channel on May 17. The show will reportedly include other interviews.
In one of the most memorable episodes from the 2016 presidential campaign, Kelly set Trump off on a long jag of obsessive, sexist attacks on her after she confronted him about his sexism with this exchange from the August 6 Fox News debate:
KELLY: Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter. However, that is not without its downsides and in particular, when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like, “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”
TRUMP: Only Rosie O’Donnell.
KELLY: No, it wasn’t. ...For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell. Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?
TRUMP: I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness and to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win any more, we lose to China, we lose to Mexico... we lose to everybody. And, frankly, what I say - and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding, we have a good time. What I say is what I say. And honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have treated me. But I wouldn’t do that.
As I have repeatedly written, Kelly is great at creating YouTube moments for herself that make her look like an independent journalist at Fox News. But any observant viewer should easily see through the guise.
So will Kelly pull out her fake-independent persona and ask some splashy tough questions followed by softballs designed to reassure conservatives, the way she did with Dick and Liz Cheney or will she spend the entire interview playing nice with Trump, the way she did with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar?
Something tells me the grandstanding, argumentative Megyn Kelly that showed up during her extended interviews with Bill Ayers, the former 60s radical, will be nowhere in sight when she meets with Trump. Even though Ayers has long been an upstanding citizen and Trump is a racist, sexist liar who promotes violence.
Or maybe Trump will change his mind and be a no show, the way he was at Fox's January debate.
Caricatures of Megyn Kelly and Donald Trump by DonkeyHotey, via Creative Commons license.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
We watch Fox so you don't have to!
