Megyn Kelly is Rush Limbaugh in drag
Right-wing influencer sells theatrical nastiness to boost her sick career
Last week, right-wing influencer Megyn Kelly said Alex Pretti was asking for it when Border Patrol agents shot him 10 times, murdering him on a Minneapolis street.
“I know I’m supposed to feel sorry for Alex Pretti, but I don’t. I don’t,” Kelly said. “Do you know why I wasn’t shot by Border Patrol this weekend? Because I kept my ass inside and out of their operations.”
That comment made me recall the brief moment when I thought Kelly might be standing up for decency. It was at about 9:15 p.m. ET on August 6, 2015, when the then-Fox News anchor asked Donald Trump a question at a presidential debate:
“You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals. … 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?”
Wow, I thought. She’s standing up for women.
Turns out, she was grandstanding for one woman – herself.
Trump fired back at Kelly and the media delighted in their supposed feud even though it soon developed a championship wrestling vibe. Kelly pretended not to like the attention. “He was so very focused on me that I became the story,” Kelly said, “and you know, you never want to be the story when you’re a newsperson.”
Yeah, right.
Eight months after their confrontation, Kelly met privately with Trump, afterward describing him as “gracious.” The next month, he granted her an interview and said he’d stop attacking her “because I think I like our relationship right now.”
That’s when she climbed onto the Trump train, sipping a fizzy fascist soda in the club car.
During her Fox days, Kelly had some controversial moments, such as when she insisted in 2013 that Santa Claus was white. In recent years, she’s gotten away from network TV and embraced Sirius radio and YouTube, where she’s amassed a huge right-wing audience. And not coincidentally, she’s become even more outrageous and downright nasty.
It’s reminiscent of the style of the late Rush Limbaugh, who called feminists “femi-Nazis,” said actor Michael J. Fox was “exaggerating” his Parkinson’s Disease, and described 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton as “the White House dog.”
Kelly has become Rush Limbaugh in drag. Some examples:
When she endorsed Trump in 2024, she praised him as a “protector of women” – a far cry from her calling him out in 2015 for describing women as “disgusting animals.”
She dismissed sexual assault by Trump, saying, “I don’t give a shit about Trump getting handsy with somebody 20 years ago. I want someone who will close the border, which he has.”
She was so desperate to defend Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein case that she defended Epstein, too. She said “somebody very close to this case” told her that Epstein ”was not a pedophile. … He was into the barely legal type. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls.” (WE INTERRUPT THIS QUOTE TO POINT OUT THAT SEX WITH A 15-YEAR-OLD IS NOT LEGAL.) Kelly continued: “I’m not trying to make an excuse for this, I’m just giving you facts — that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds. But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passer-by.”
She showed bizarre bloodlust after two men on an alleged drug boat survived the initial U.S. strike but were killed in a second strike that appeared to be a war crime. “I’d really like to see them suffer,” she said. “I would like Trump and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth to make it last a long time so they lose a limb and bleed out.”
In addition to blaming Alex Pretti for his own death, Kelly insulted ICE murder victim Renee Good: “It’s not that I have no empathy for her family, but I have empathy for them because they had a dumbass mother …”
She said women who protest ICE are “obese and unattractive with multiple piercings, no makeup, skin issues,” and aren’t having sex with men. “If you’re having positive interactions with men where you’re going to bed with them … you’re not going out there and looking at all these men as the devil enemies who you want to hurt and kill and stop.”
Kelly’s show is obviously designed to tap into toxic masculinity and entertain people who fantasize about violence. As a supporter of the First Amendment, I believe she has a right to be this terrible. But we shouldn’t pretend she’s a “journalist,” as she claims on her X account. Megyn Kelly is a fascist propagandist selling out her country for attention and profit.
This week’s media atrocity
Politico wrote this headline on Friday: “DOJ announces full release of Epstein files.” Full release? Wrong. Didn’t happen.
As the New York Times explained: “[Deputy Attorney General Todd] Blanche rattled off a number of reasons that the Justice Department withheld documents, saying that they were permitted under the law passed by Congress last year. They included files with personal identifying information or medical information of Epstein’s victims, material depicting child sexual abuse and material that depicted death or violence.”
Blanche also said documents could be withheld if there were ongoing investigations, but he declined to say whether there were any. And, of course, the questionable redactions mean that Politico claiming “full release” is ridiculous.
Advertise in this newsletter
Do you or your company want to support COURIER’s mission and showcase your products or services to an aligned audience of 190,000+ subscribers at the same time? Contact advertising@couriernewsroom.com for more information.
Support COURIER’s Journalism
With newsrooms in eleven states, COURIER is one of the fastest-growing, values-driven local news networks in the country.
We need support from folks like you who believe in our mission and support our unique journalism model. Thank you.
I remember that brief period where after she confronted Trump during his first run for the White House regarding his many vile, disgusting comments about women. She then gained some credibility in certain circles, resulting in a gig with NBC.
But she's NOT anything approaching a legitimate journalist which is why she was canned by NBC. And now she desperately tries to hang on to what little following she still has by trying to out-extreme her fellow unhinged right-wing extremists and MAGA Morons. But she's finding out that with SO MANY loud, obtuse, vicious, vile and mendacious loudmouths out there, competing for the same shrinking number of reliable TrumpSuckers, her desperate attempt to stay relevant is falling far short.
She is an awful person. Just do not understand what happens to people.