Megyn Kelly on Trump and the Press: “We’re in a Dangerous Phase Right Now”
I’m not a fan of Megyn Kelly in general, as she has promoted a lot of right wing BS on her show (Benghazi anyone? The New Black Panther Party?), but this is a good interview and gives a first hand account of how Trump operates with the media, and will continue to do so once he begins President, and that is very troubling.
Terri Gross: I’m glad that you have been able to hit reset with him, and you know feel like you are in less danger. On the other hand, it doesn’t undo the things he said about you. It doesn’t undo the danger you say he put you in, and it doesn’t change the temperament that he revealed in his comments about you and in his tweets. That exists. That’s history. That happened.
Megyn Kelly: uh huh…Well, honestly, that was one of the reasons I wanted to document it in the book. I felt that it was important that there be an historical record of what he did, what was unprecedented in modern American politics for a candidate to go after a journalist in the way that he did me. And I wasn’t the only one he went after, I was just a particular favorite. We’ll put it that way. Some people have said, “Why didn’t you come out with this before the election?” And I’ve said, look you have to understand, first of all, nothing I write about in this book would have changed the election. If you don’t think that the Access Hollywood bus, or the twelve female accusers, or the Khan family, or Judge Curiel changes the election, but you think my book would have changed it, you’re deluding yourself. But the thing is, I was not only dealing with this as a journalist, but as a person. You know, as a woman, as a mother, and what I was trying to do was not chum up those shark waters with more blood to create more attacks. I was trying to get out of that shark tank so I could restore sanity, and safety to my life, and I did that. And so I do worry about the press, and a President Trump. I think it’s dangerous, the entire delegitimization that he’s engaged in against all of the media, because the people - as much fun as it is to hate us, they do need us. They need good, strong, skeptical journalists to be covering whoever it is, whether’s it’s Barack Obama, or President Donald Trump, and we’re in a dangerous phase right now where too many millions of Americans aren’t even listening at all to what the press tells them, and that concerns me, and the relative lack of power of certain minority groups and the fear they’re feeling in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, I think, is something we really need to take a look at, because, while I don’t think Trump wants to target any particular minority group, I understand their fear, because he spent many months stoking it. And so I think that’s a legitimate thing we’re going to have to deal with and ask ourselves how far he can go in enacting certain politics that target specific groups.
More: Megyn Kelly Talks About Donald Trump And The Media : NPR