For all the buzz over Fox News star anchor Megyn Kelly’s interview with her antagonist Donald Trump, the hyped up event was a flop for many of her critics in the media.
What was expected Tuesday to be an unpredictable confrontation between the two ended up being more of a meeting of the minds and a soft-focus human interest Q&A. And that was a disappointment for media critics.
“Megyn Kelly’s awkward primetime debut was a little too focused on Megyn Kelly,” wrote Washington Post TV critic Hank Stuever. He called the interview, which was included in Kelly’s first Fox network special “Megyn Kelly Presents,” an “awkward and unimpressive landing.”
Bill Carter, a CNN analyst and former media reporter for the New York Times, said if the interview “had been any softer, it would come on a cone [with] a swirl.”
Kelly’s pre-recorded interview with Trump lent itself to drama, given that the two have engaged in a long-lasting public feud nearly ever since the presumptive Republican nominee launched his campaign for president last June.
When the two met at the first GOP debate in August, Kelly confronted Trump with a series of past statements he had made publicly disparaging some women and asked him to account for them. Trump charged that Kelly’s question was unfair and he spent the next several months, on and off, calling Kelly “crazy” and urging his supporters not to watch her Fox News show.
But Kelly did not use her interview with Trump to aggressively confront him over what some have called “sexist” language toward her or other women. She briefly broached their conflict asking him to address it and explain why he had used the word “bimbo” in a Twitter message about her.
“Did I say that?” Trump asked.
“Many times,” Kelly said with a smile.
“Oof, OK,” replied Trump. “Excuse me.”
He went on to say that “bimbo” was “not the most horrible thing” Kelly, 45, had likely been called over her life.
“It’s not about me,” Kelly said. “It’s not about me. It’s about the messaging to young girls and to other women.”
For most of the rest of their interview, Kelly asked Trump for his feelings on his unlikely race for the GOP nomination and other easy-going questions, like to name his favorite book and movie.
A write-up of the interview in Politico called it “softball after softball in an encounter that was, for all the hype, ultimately unrevealing.”
Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple, who believes Kelly’s life has been “ruined” by Trump, said the interview was “bankrupt.”
One person who enjoyed the interview, however, is Trump.
“Well, that is it,” he wrote on Twitter at the conclusion of the hour-long special. “Well done Megyn — and they all lived happily ever after!”
