Conservative media personality and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly told Stephen A. Smith that her “love” for President Donald Trump — who once made disparaging and sexist remarks about her — was a “slow climb.”
“What I saw was somebody who governed in a way that I very much respected. … And saw him in a new light. And then we got Joe Biden. And, I mean, it was such a disastrous four years. I probably would have run open-armed into the arms of any Republican, but Trump is just the anti-Biden in so many ways, and was just tailor-made for this moment to take him down, and to take the reins of the country back,” Kelly said on an episode of “The Stephen A. Smith” show that published Thursday. “I don’t know how to say this in a way that, you know, isn’t weird, but I, professionally, I fell in love with Trump, the president.”
Trump famously attacked Kelly as she moderated a Republican presidential debate in 2015 for Fox News. When she questioned Trump about his long history of misogynistic comments, such as calling some women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals,” Trump recoiled and accused her of asking questions that were “ridiculous” and “off base.”
Trump then followed up by telling then-CNN anchor Don Lemon that Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her … wherever,” an apparent menstruation reference.
Smith asked Kelly about the president’s sexist comments and how she could forgive him.
“There are people that still look at you to this very day and say, how could you support somebody that would talk about you that way?” the ESPN anchor, who has toyed with a presidential run due to his displeasure with the Democratic Party, said to Kelly.
“It really wasn’t sudden. It was a slow climb between Trump and yours truly. When he was attacking me for that nine-month period, I really was not his fan and I wasn’t really gearing up to vote for Trump, because he was staying on me like a dog with a bone and it was highly unpleasant,” Kelly responded. “But over time, I was able … to check my personal feelings about the guy and start getting back to what needs to be my focus as a journalist, which is the professional relationship with the guy, the professional Trump.”
