Megyn Kelly Deflects Blame For Withholding Information About Trump Until The Election: “I Didn't Want To Be The Story”

Written by Media Matters Staff

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In an interview on NBC's Today, Fox's Megyn Kelly deflected criticism for not revealing information about President-elect Donald Trump until after the presidential election. When Today host Savannah Guthrie asked Kelly how she would respond to reviewers who suggested she could have made the revelations election because it “would have been in the public interest,” Kelly said, “I didn't want to be the story” and that if critics think her book would have hurt Trump, “I think you're deluding yourself.” 

Kelly's new book contains several revelations about Trump, including that he received inside information from Fox News on the question Kelly asked him at the first Republican primary debate about his treatment of women, that Trump “appeared to retaliate in creepy, personal ways” to that question, and that former Fox chairman Roger Ailes pushed Fox talent for more favorable coverage of Trump. Kelly, who has been lauded as a tough, straight-news journalist, saved this information for her book, which was published after the election. From the November 16 edition of NBC's Today:

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE (HOST): Some reviewers of the book who've seen it now say there's some information in here about [Donald] Trump that she could have revealed before the election. Maybe it would have been in the public interest to do so, but instead, she saved it for her book. How do you respond? 

MEGYN KELLY: I didn't want to be the story, but Trump kept making me the story and I certainly didn't want to add fuel to that fire. I didn't want to run out there and do a boo-hoo, like look at what this is doing to my life. I just wanted to move on, wanted to stand him down, I didn't want to aggravate his supporters anymore over whom Trump has an enormous effect. Anything I say in this book was not going to bring Trump down. If you think the Access Hollywood bus and the 12 female accusers coming forward and all the other stuff didn't bring Trump down, you think my book would, I think you're deluding yourself.