It’s the battle of the former network heavyweights!
Don Lemon and Megyn Kelly — both one-time stars at major networks who have now entered the wild west of independent journalism — are using their newfound freedom to speak more harshly than ever.
Ex-CNNer Lemon went so far as to send Kelly the very not-safe-for-cable message: “Go f–k yourself!”
Lemon blasted Kelly as a “troll” and “racist” on his YouTube show in a rant that lasted over 20 minutes after she slammed Joy Reid as “the absolute worst person on television” amid her MSNBC show’s cancellation. The network canceled her primetime “The ReidOut” show after five years on air.
“Remember when Joy Reid laughingly mocked ‘white women tears’ as pathetic and offensive to her? Who’s crying now, Joy?” Kelly wrote on her X account.
The host of SiriusXM’s “Megyn Kelly Show” bid Reid “good riddance to the absolute worst person on television, and shame on NBC for letting it go on this long.”
Lemon reminded Kelly of her own firing from NBC not that long ago and fired back: “No, the worst person on television was fired from NBC and the ‘Today’ show a few years ago, and that’s Megyn Kelly!”
Beginning in 2017, Kelly worked for NBC for about year, hosting her own hour of the “Today” show and contributing to various other programs. But after a tumultuous run marked by dismal ratings, NBC gave her the boot.
Lemon added: “That’s the worst person, who’s not on television anymore. It’s you! So, hoorah for that. NBC did something good with that.”
The former CNN host googled Kelly’s name and read off a series of headlines starting with “Megyn Kelly calls out…,” noting that she’d criticized a string of women including Selena Gomez, Tiffany Cross and Caitlan Clark.
“And then she is supposed to be a big supporter of women, remember that right?,” said Lemon. Then he shared a clip of Kelly discussing his former CNN colleague Kaitlan Collins.
In the clip, Kelly responds to a viral clip of Collins, whom she said, “CNN is trying to make into a star… I will submit for the record that her biggest sin is not that she is biased, though she is, it’s that she is boring. She’s extremely boring with no personality. I have a pro tip for her: Try smiling every once in a while. Try not to be like, in your delivery, such a cold hearted bitch all the time because it gives people nothing to bond to.”
“Was that really necessary?,” said Lemon, “And how is that supportive of women? Now, she could’ve given some advice and said, ‘Hey you need to somehow establish a bond or connection with your audience.’ She doesn’t have to call the woman a B.’”
He also shared clips of Kelly’s past remarks about Santa Claus and blackflace from her Fox News and short-lived NBC days, as “evidence” of her being a “racist” and “troll,” he said.
“I was actually friendly with Megyn Kelly, and then, when people show you who they are, you better f–king believe it, because we should’ve known,” Lemon said.
He ended his rant in Kelly’s own words to Joe Scarborough and Mia Brezezinski, “Go f–k yourself!”
Kelly posted a video on YouTube about a year ago as Lemon was mounting a media comeback after he was stunningly fired by CNN, in which she said: “I think he’s disgusting, I think he hates America, he hates Republicans, and I’m not looking forward to his voice reemerging, other than to mock it, which I 100% plan to do.”
She has not responded to Lemon’s comments on his show.
