Podcast host Megyn Kelly had some kind words for Donald Trump on Monday — years after embroiling the Republican in a bitter feud online and on national TV.
The inflammatory comments came during Monday’s taping of The Megyn Kelly Show, and in hindsight seemed to intensify the pair’s long-standing feud.
Kelly’s song of praise comes as she says she enjoyed a personal, ‘one-on-one’ conversation with the 77-year-old firebrand, who just a few years ago slammed her as ‘crazy’ and a ‘bimbo’.
The feud between the two figures began in August 2015, when they clashed at the first Republican presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina.
At the time, Kelly, now 52, was serving as the event’s moderator and found himself in Trump’s crosshairs after airing a question about his past derogatory comments to women. Trump, in trademark fashion, fired back on Twitter days later, paving the way for a war of words that won’t soon be forgotten.
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The uproarious comments came during Monday’s taping of The Megyn Kelly Show, and in hindsight seem to intensify the pair’s long-standing feud.
The comments came after Trump summoned the former Fox News reporter for a private discussion on Sunday — before the two spoke at the Turning Point USA conference in Palm Beach. Trump is seen here speaking at a conservative convention
However, on Monday, Kelly made it clear after Sunday’s conversation with the re-elected president in Palm Beach that he was doing just that.
There, Kelly revealed that he had been invited for a private discussion before both spoke at the Turning Point USA conference.
‘One of the most interesting things I’ve ever done was a private audience with former President Donald Trump,’ Kelly recalled Monday of the previously unreported encounter.
He continued: ‘When he came onto the field, we only met one person, his team was standing nearby, but he and I got together for the first time in years and it was great to see him. ‘
Of their previous spats – which included a particularly venomous jab from Trump after the debate that appeared to chalk up his line of questioning to the words of a menstruating man – Kelly said: ‘All that nonsense between us is under the bridge.
‘He couldn’t have been more generous,’ she added.
Trump’s earlier criticism of Kelly — a former Fox News personality who experienced a significant surge in popularity during the 2016 election — was notably less kind.
After Kelly was confronted with comments he deemed sexist in her first debate in 2015, Trump slammed the questions as ‘ridiculous’ and Kelly as ‘off-base’.
Continuing the verbal onslaught on Twitter later that night, Trump – who at the time faced scrutiny for calling several women he disapproved of names like pig, dog, slob – sniped: ‘Wow, @MegynKelly really bombed tonight. People are going wild on Twitter! It’s fun to watch.’
In other posts in a series, the polarizing politician continued to vent his displeasure — labeling Kelly, then on Fox, a ‘bimbo’ and ‘unwatchable.’
In an interview the day after the debate with CNN’s nixed Don Lemon, Trump continued to criticize Kelly’s line of questioning — calling it a hit act.
‘You could see blood coming out of his eyes,’ he said at the time. ‘He’s bleeding everywhere.’
Two days later in an interview with ABC News this week, Trump claimed he meant Kelly’s nose when he said ‘wherever.’
The feud between the two personalities began in August 2015, when Kelly clashed with the then-presidential aspirant at the first Republican presidential debate in South Carolina.
And after calling Kelly – ‘ridiculous’, and calling Kelly ‘off-base’ – Trump – here during the second debate he attended only on the condition that Kelly didn’t moderate it – soon fired back on Twitter in a war of words that has been going on for years. widen
Kelly, meanwhile, called Trump’s comments indicative of the candidate’s “war on women.”
The controversy would continue into the next year, when Trump referred to Kelly as ‘crazy’ in three separate tweets – repeating a tactic he used against his rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, whom he called ‘Lin’ Ted Cruz. and ‘Little Marco’.
‘Highly overrated and crazy @megynkelly always complains about Trump and yet she dedicates her show to me. Focus on others Megyn!’ The then President wrote on Twitter.
In another post, she said: ‘Crazy @megynkelly is now complaining that @oreillyfactor didn’t defend her against me – yet her poor showing is a total hit piece on me’, referring to an interview Kelly gave in which she said she wished her Fox News colleagues Bill O’Reilly was more supportive of Trump when he interviewed him on his show.
Hours before that tweet, Trump wrote: ‘Crazy @megynkelly supposedly lied to Ted Cruz on his show last night.’
The next day, he launched a similar tirade against Kelly with three tweets again calling her ‘crazy’ – all in the space of 30 minutes.
‘Don’t worry, everyone’s smarter than crazy Megyn!’ Trump wrote in a post.
From 2015 to the following year, the pair’s feud took place mainly online
On Monday, Kelly cited Trump’s no-nonsense nature as one of the reasons she has come to support him after all these years.
Later, he added: ‘Can’t see Crazy Megyn anymore. 43 percent talk about me but never mention that there are four people in the race. With two people, bigger and more!
Less than five minutes later, he sniped: ‘Watching other networks and local news. Good night indeed! Crazy @megynkelly invisible.’
In April of that year, Kelly — then in the middle of his final year at Fox — had a one-on-one interview with Trump, but admitted before it went public that the process wasn’t easy.
Kelly told ABC News, ‘There was a lull in the tweet storm in April and I took advantage of it. ‘I’ve been looking for months for the right window to go there. But every time I thought I was there, he would start again, whether it was boycotting the second Fox News debate or calling me crazy and sick after the third debate.’
The latter comment came in the context of Trump’s refusal to participate in a second debate with Kelly as moderator, leaving Ted Cruz as the only willing participant after John Kasich also withdrew.
That said, their interview didn’t boast the same verbal fireworks seen a few months ago, and even saw Trump admit that he thought Kelly’s question about his comments about women was ‘unfair’, saying he understood the decision to ask it.
‘I don’t really blame you, because you’re doing your job. But from my point of view, I don’t have to like it,’ she said at the time.
The dispute would simmer for months – before being revived in October during an interview Kelly conducted on Fox News with then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
During the sitdown, Gingrich appeared to come to Trump’s defense after mentioning Trump’s sexual assault allegations — one of which has turned into a full-blown federal lawsuit.
At the time, Gingrich accused Kelly of being ‘obsessed with sex.’
He asked: ‘I mean, do you want to go back through the tapes on your show recently? You’re fascinated by sex, and you don’t care about public policy.’
Undeterred, Kelly went on to prove Trump was a ‘sexual predator’ – quoting his now infamous hot-mic “Access Hollywood” moment from an old interview with then-host Billy Bush in 2005.
Angered, Gingrich insisted: ‘You can’t defend that statement. I’m sick and tired of people like you using inflammatory language, it’s not true.’
Trump praised Gingrich for his behavior during the widely watched interview.
“By the way, congratulations, Newt, last night,” Trump tweeted at the time, calling it ‘an amazing interview.’
‘We don’t play games, Newt, do we? We don’t play games.
On Monday, Kelly cited this no-nonsense nature as one of the reasons she has come around to supporting Trump after all these years.
she said. ‘The thing about Trump is that he commands the room… It’s not just because he’s now the former president because I knew before. There’s just something about her, like an aura that takes over the room. There is only one person you can see.
‘He couldn’t have been nicer or more generous and had some interesting thoughts about the debate, whether he was going to join. I wouldn’t bet on it. At least I wouldn’t bet on participating in that first Fox News debate.
‘If I have to put money into it, you know, it’s Trump so he can change his mind. But that was my feeling in talking to him. He didn’t commit one way or the other though. And we had a great exchange.’
She continued: ‘I thought it was interesting that as a journalist, as a woman, as a human being, who’s been through so much with Trump, you know, it’s fair to say we’ve had our ups and downs.
‘To me, there was a lesson in that kind moment between the two of us. And it was that even as a journalist, if you can take your ego out of it – and I went through a lot of things like Trump attacking me in those nine months, I documented that in my book and elsewhere.
‘But if you can get your ego out of it, you can quickly get over these conflicts and these negative experiences. You can open such possibilities for yourself, you can open an area of wellness, positivity, good relationships.
‘So take the truth of Donald Trump, former president and well-known journalist Megyn Kelly, it can be true in your life. If you find a way to say, “You know what? That was yesterday, I’m here today. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
‘I think it’s a testament to how people can change and people can rebuild relationships and people can move forward in a positive way,’ he concluded.
‘And I know I’m not alone because when Trump came on stage and addressed the roaring crowd – which was completely in his corner – he said the following which caught my attention.’
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