Megyn Kelly Says Fox News Made 'Terrible Move' Parting with Tucker Carlson — and Defends Don Lemon
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Kelly said on her SiriusXM show Monday that she isn't worried about Carlson personally, saying she thinks the termination will be a “great thing” for him
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly is speaking out about Tucker Carlson's exit from the network as well as Don Lemon's exit from CNN.
On SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Show Monday episode, Kelly, 52, was blunt regarding her opinion: "This is a terrible move by Fox," she said, adding "It's a great thing for Tucker Carlson."
"I don't know what drove Fox News to make this decision, and it was clearly Fox News's decision because they're not letting him say goodbye," she said. "I think this is a massive error. I think this is a massive misjudgment of what their audience wants."
Related:Tucker Carlson Departs Fox News, Effective Immediately
Kelly went on to speculate that Carlson's firing may have come as a result of the recently settled Dominion lawsuit, in which Carlson, 53, was featured prominently.
The $1.6 billion lawsuit brought against Fox News by voting equipment company Dominion Voting Systems targeted the conspiracies of widespread election fraud and other wrongdoing in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
"If this is a reaction to the Dominion lawsuit, why is Maria Bartiromo [at Fox]? Why is Jeanine Pirro still there? Why is Suzanne Scott still there?" Kelly asked. "The CEO of Fox News. She got them in far more trouble with her executive emails panicking about Dominion and the audience than anything Tucker did behind the scenes."
"I realize the left hates Tucker's guts. I get that this is a joyful day for them," she said. "But internally at Fox, they always had that gauge, at least under Roger Ailes, of how to ignore those critics and do what was right for the channel and its audience and the truth."
As for Carlson's next move, she predicted, "This is going to be great for Tucker. I'm not worried about Tucker at all. I predict Tucker goes independent. Tucker launches a podcast or digital show and crushes it. "
"A lot of people think he's going to run for office. I don't think so. I just don't think so. Tucker's got way more influence sitting behind a microphone than he does standing on a debate stage."
Kelly, who left Fox News in 2017, stated, "Tucker's the only reason a lot of people still watch Fox News. With respect to my other colleagues there...he's their favorite."
The network announced Monday morning that "FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor."
Related:CNN Pushes Back at Don Lemon for 'Inaccurate' Twitter Statement About the Way He Was Terminated
Carlson's last program was Friday. Beginning Monday evening, the network will air Fox News Tonight as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is determined.
Kelly additionally served up support for CNN's Don Lemon, who was similarly ousted from his network in an announcement Monday that stunned not only viewers but Lemon himself, who claimed his agent was tasked with telling him the news.
"After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly," he noted on Twitter.
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"He's not wrong. I mean, everybody knows I'm not exactly Don Lemon's fan, but he's not wrong that if that's true, that he was just told by his agent he was fired and they didn't have the balls to tell him man-to-man," Kelly opined. "I mean, that's just classless. He's got a right to complain about that."
However, soon after Lemon's tweet, CNN pushed back on the chain of events.
"Don Lemon's statement about this morning's events is inaccurate," CNN Communications tweeted. "He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter."
The 57-year-old anchor's exit from CNN This Morning came months after he received backlash for comments he made about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley being "past her prime."
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