Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, whose sexual harassment claims were a catalyst in former Fox News CEO and Chairman Roger Ailes’s resignation, said she doesn’t believe “one word” of another woman’s sexual assault claims against President Donald Trump.
The right-wing media pundit blasted author E. Jean Carroll—who was awarded over $85 million in punitive damages in her sexual abuse and defamation cases against Trump—in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times published Saturday.
Carroll alleged that Trump sexually abused her in a dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s. However, Kelly said she has sided with Trump, who called the allegations “a hoax and a lie.”
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“I don’t believe one word of that. Not one word,” Kelly said.
“The things I heard included things like he got handsy on an airplane. Now, I don’t know whether that happened or it didn’t, but do I find that a deal-breaker for a possible politician? Not really,” Kelly continued.
Kelly also said that she didn’t want her own sexual harassment claims against Ailes to give credence to those of former co-worker Gretchen Carlson—who sued the network and reportedly received a $20 million settlement. Kelly, who did not pursue legal action, said she didn’t want to hurt Ailes as the network’s “cult leader.”
“I really cared about Roger, and we had gotten past his harassment of me, which, for the record, never led anywhere. I did not submit to any of his advances. I had forgiven him, and he had done so much for me, and I did not want to hurt him,” she told the Times. “And I didn’t like Gretchen Carlson, who was kind of looking for help in a way. The whole question was, can he be this thing who she has alleged he is? And I was really not inclined to help her and stick a knife in him.”
Despite her very public endorsements of Trump and his administration, Kelly insisted that she is “still a journalist” and can play hardball when needed. She mentioned her viral exchange with Trump at a 2015 Fox News debate during his first run for president, in which Kelly took heat for asking the president about calling women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.”
“Look, you have to separate when you’re in this business, you the person and you the professional. Megyn Kelly the woman and Megyn Kelly the brand, and they were attacking Megyn Kelly the brand, which is fair game,” she said.
“I had thrown a very tough ball right at Trump’s face in that debate,” said Kelly, adding that the attacks and threats following the debate led her to hire security to take her children to Disneyland.
But now Kelly is firmly in Trump’s corner, appearing at his victory rally just before the inauguration, and has rebuked suggestions that she has somehow caved into pressure to support him from his base.
“I don’t think it was me caving. It was me rising. It was me answering something I truly felt called to do,” said Kelly. “I’m thrilled Trump won. I shudder to think of what the country would be right now if Kamala Harris had won, and in the end, I had no qualms about going out there for him whatsoever.”
