In 2015 and 2016, Megyn Kelly was all the rage in media.
She was dubbed a feminist champion and given a hero’s welcome by the press after she asked Donald Trump an uncomfortable question during the first GOP primary debate.
“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?” Kelly asked the Queens businessman in August 2015.
Trump didn’t like the question. He attacked Kelly personally in the days that followed. The newly minted feminist warrior was rewarded for her efforts with several glowing media profiles and a plum anchoring gig at NBC. So it’s all a bit amusing, watching Kelly give TBS’ Samantha Bee the thumbs-up Thursday after the cable comedian “apologized” for calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless c–t.”
“First of all, apologies that are quickly followed by the word ‘but’ are always problematic,” Kelly said Thursday morning. “I give her credit for saying on the air that she’s sorry.”
That said, “being a comedian doesn’t excuse everyone’s comments,” she added. “It was more than uncivil…it is deeply offensive to a lot of women.”
Still, the NBC host concluded, “I tip my hat to [Bee] for saying on the air she is sorry, which isn’t always easy to do.”
It’s a bit weak, to say the least. Bee didn’t apologize for calling the president’s daughter the C-word. Bee merely said she was sorry if you were offended.
“[A] lot of people were offended and angry that I used an epithet to describe the president’s daughter and adviser last week. It is the word I have used on the show many times, hoping to reclaim it. This time I used I see it as an insult. I crossed a line, I regret it, and I do apologize for that,” Bee said Wednesday evening.
Yes, the word “apologize” is there, but Bee’s chief point is clear: She’s annoyed that you people made a big deal about her vulgar, premeditated slur against the president’s daughter. She’s annoyed her scripted remarks overshadowed her comments on immigration. In short, Bee thinks it’s the fault of everyone who saw her and reacted as she expected.
“I hate that this distracted from more important issues. I hate that I did something to contribute to the nightmare of 24-hour news cycles that were all white-knuckling through. I should have known that a potty-mouthed insult would be inherently more interesting to them than juvenile immigration policies,” Bee complained.
She added, “I am, I’m really sorry that I said that word but you know what, civility is just nice words. Maybe we should all worry a little bit more about the niceness of our actions.”
That’s not an apology for her own actions. That’s a scolding for everyone who watched her. So Kelly’s thumbs-up here is especially bizarre considering she was one of the first, and loudest, critics of Bee’s original remarks:
This is disgusting. How is this acceptable? And how are we expected to take any of these publications seriously if they gleefully repost something like this at the same time they (rightfully) condemn @therealroseanne? You know the saying Love is Love? Well Hate is Hate. https://t.co/YTjmZQ4zMV
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 31, 2018
I understand letting bygones be bygones and all that, but Bee doesn’t deserve credit for an apology she didn’t actually make.
