As we learned last during Michael Moore’s first Fox News appearance since 2009, Donald Trump’s decision to skip the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses has created some strange bedfellows for Megyn Kelly. The unlikely lovefest continued on Wednesday night’s Daily Show when host Trevor Noah came to Kelly’s defense, asking the Republican frontrunner why he’s so scared.
Noah began by looking back at the inciting incident between Trump and Kelly, during the first GOP debate last August when the Fox moderator asked him if his history of making disparaging comments about women befits a potential president.
“‘Hell yes it does,’ said millions of Americans,” Noah remarked. It was this “tough, but fair” question that Noah said makes Kelly “one of the most fearsome anchors out there.” But if you listen to Trump, he swears he’s not afraid, tweeting the following about her earlier in the day:
“Nicely done, Donald Trump, nicely done,” Noah said. “It’s the same way we won't call you an asshole—we too are constrained by political correctness… asshole. Now, Trump is entitled to his crazy opinion, but it raises the question, if he thinks Megyn Kelly is a lightweight, then why is he scared of her?”
While on the one hand Trump pulling out of the debate makes him look like a “petulant child,” Noah said he might actually be a “genius.” That’s because he’s winning the “fight for attention.”
“Taking part in one more debate wouldn’t help Donald Trump get that much press,” the host said. “But blowing one off? That's like DeflateGate crossed with a natural disaster crossed with a celebrity sex tape.”
In his official press release on the decision Trump said, “Like running for office as an extremely successful person, this takes guts and it is the kind of mentality our country needs in order to Make America Great Again.”
“Yeah, because apparently what America needs is a president who will quit the moment things don’t go his way,” Noah argued. Referring back to his inaugural bit about Trump, in which he compared the candidate to an African dictator, Noah pointed out that another multi-billionaire candidate also decided to skip a highly-anticipated debate last week: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.