Megyn Kelly Tackles Trump, O’Reilly On Stephen Colbert’s Post-Super Bowl ‘Late Show’
“Why is Fox News feuding with Donald Trump?” Stephen Colbert asked FNC show host Megyn Kelly on tonight’s live post-Super Bowl broadcast of The Late Show. “What do you have against that good man. He’s just a billionaire who also wants to have the nuclear launch codes.”
Kelly responded: “Donald Trump has been on Fox News 140 times in the last year. We are not feuding with him. But he does have a beef with me.”
Colbert noted Trump’s tweet of a while back in which he said he would not call Kelly a “bimbo” because that would be politically incorrect, and would instead call her a “lightweight reporter,” wondering if Kelly would like to refuse to call Trump a “blowhard” or “second-place loser.”
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“The only thing I really wanted to ask him was, he recently said his supporters are so devoted to him he could go in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and he wouldn’t lose a single voter. In response to which I want to ask him, ‘Were you talking about me?'” Kelly said with a smile. “I never go there anymore.”
Kelly has emerged as one of the lead characters in the country’s most watched TV series, The GOP Debates, after she was cited by Republican front-runner Trump as being among
the reasons he boycotted FNC’s recent debate on the eve of Iowa caucuses. It’s a move Trump later said may have cost him the win among GOP hopefuls in that state. Trump had a run in with Kelly at the first GOP debate of this election cycle, in August, when she opened with a question to Trump: “You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘’slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals’. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president? And how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?”
Trump subsequently said of Kelly’s question-asking: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever.” That debate exchange, and his subsequent comments, turned the FNC primetime star into a household name, and a Vanity Fair cover – which Colbert held up once or twice during his interview tonight.
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When Kelly moderates the next GOP debate, which Donald Trump has said he will attend, her first question should be: “Mr. Trump: Boo!” Colbert suggested. Kelly had her own thoughts on that.
“I’m going to start with ‘Apology accepted,'” Kelly said.
Our money’s on Trump having something to say about that on Twitter at the crack of dawn Monday morning.
“And then we’re going to have at it, like we’ve had at it with all the other guys – and Carly – up there,” Kelly said. She and GOP candidate Carly Fiorina appear to be on a first-name basis.
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Colbert wondered how the elected officials who’ve done time at GOP debates kids tables feel about having “Donald Trump the lead guy at the Big Boy’s table” at virtually every debate since the White House race began.
“Trump has electrified the Republican base,” Kelly acknowledged.
Colbert’s Late Show tonight is live, as is Kelly’s primetime show every weeknight. “I love it. I think it adds a lot to the show,” Kelly said. “If you’re not live at 9, because the shows around me are taped, you lose a lot.”
Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, between whose programs Kelly’s is sandwiched on FNC’s schedule, are “phoning it in,” Colbert said, throwing Kelly an opening.
“Let’s just say they tape earlier in the day, which is an advantage to us,” Kelly replied, smiling again.
“Wow,” Colbert responded, as his studio audience made surprised noises too.
Trump’s least favorite debate moderator was a later booking for Colbert’s post-Super Bowl broadcast. She joined Whiskey Tango Foxtrot stars Tina Fey and Margot Robbie, Zoolander 2’s Will Ferrell, and Colbert’s former Comedy Central colleagues Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who are starring together in Keanu, as Colbert’s show makes TV history in becoming the first late-night series to snag a live post-Super Bowl broadcast.
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