While Megyn Kelly is “already a respected journalist,” as Stephen Colbert noted on Monday’s The Late Show, she’s “become a sort of cultural icon over the last year, partly because of going head-to-head with Donald Trump.”
Kelly wasn’t too sure about being a “cultural icon” because she said it involves a lot of responsibility and being followed by paparazzi, who would be “very, very bored.”
The discussion turned serious when Kelly said it’s “obvious” why she wants to talk to Trump:
“This, to me, was a chance to sit down, clear the air, and the one thing I really wanted to talk to Trump about was temperament, and I think that’s the theme of the interview you’re going to see,” Kelly said.
She explained that “temperament” includes Trump’s attitude as a leader, toward women, in some ways towards herself personally.
“I ask him about his conduct, and about his responsibility, now that he has gotten so powerful,” she said. Specifically, she wants to know if Trump understands the effect his words have on people and specific demographics, and “when you have a microphone as big and as powerful as Trump’s, whether you need to exercise more restraint.”
Colbert showed a clip of Trump telling Kelly his behavior is him responding as a counterpunch. Kelly told Colbert she thinks “it’s complicated,” but that journalists have a job to be the counterpunchers, since they’re “really the only thing that stands between them and the Oval Office, so we have to ask tough questions, which in my own view doesn’t make us fair game for you know a year of personal insults.”
When Colbert asked Kelly if Trump’s supporters had come after her, she admitted that they had and “there’s no question it’s been a dark year, in many ways.” But, Kelly has seen positives, noting “there’s also been a lot of silver linings. I think when you’re tested like that it shows you who you are and who your friends are, and it’s definitely brought my husband and me closer together, and so it hasn’t been all bad.”
