Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich dismissed FNC’s Megyn Kelly of being “fascinated with sex” over her reporting on allegations of groping by the GOP nominee Donald Trump. Kelly told Gingrich to go work on “your anger issues.” And a good time was had by all, on Fox News Channel’s The Kelly Files.
Viewers thought they were about to be subjected to one of those dry-ish discussions as to which candidate was leading where in the polling, in the final days of the White House race. Gingrich spoke of “alternate universes.” Kelly insisted polls showed Trump lagging. Gingrich responded stoutly that Trump was ahead in the polls he’s looking at.
Then Trump-pal Gingrich blasted Kelly, and the media in general, for paying far more attention to the allegations of 10 women that his candidate had groped them, and to that Access Hollywood in which Trump had boasted he could grope women with impunity, than they paid to Hillary Clinton’s speech to a bank in Brazil, for which she got paid $225K.
Kelly insisted her primetime show had covered both.
Gingrich rose to that bait: “Do you want to go back through the tapes on your show recently? You are fascinated with sex and you don’t care about public policy.”
Responded Kelly, “You know what Mr. Speaker, I’m not fascinated by sex, but I am fascinated by the protection of women and understanding what we’re getting in the Oval Office.”
That’s when Gingrich introduced the Bill Clinton leitmotif. Electing Hillary Clinton, he said, would send Bill “back to the East Wing.” Before he was through, Gingrich had literally challenged Kelly to also call the former POTUS/current Hillary Clinton husband a “sexual predator.”
“I want to hear you use the words ‘Bill Clinton’ and ‘sexual predator’ – I dare you,” Gingrich sneered. This was pretty yeasty stuff.
“You can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for being here,” Kelly suggested by way of ending the conversation.
Earlier in the election cycle, you’ll recall, Kelly had a run-in with Trump himself, when she asked him at the first GOP debate, addressing his past remarks to and about women. The next day, Trump had described the exchange to CNN’s Don Lemon, saying he could see there was “blood coming out of her wherever.” That exchange made Kelly one of the storylines of primary season. And now, she’s back.
