Washington Post economics columnist Catherine Rampell lashed out Thursday afternoon at SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly and blamed her for threats and ugly words being hurled her way after Kelly shelled her for smearing Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth as merely a “TV host” and thus tossing aside his 20 years of boots-on-the-ground military service.
“[A]h, so this is why I've gotten a huge uptick in people calling me the c-word and telling me I should be raped. Thanks, Megyn,” she tweeted.
This, dear readers, is what one would call stochastic terrorism or a heckler’s veto of sorts from the woman who once shouted “I’m not a Democrat! I’m a Journalist!” to shut down legitimate criticism.
As for what Kelly actually said, she pivoted from soundbites of Democratic senators going after Hegsetht to “these absolutely smug...snide, overeducated, elite libs who are just sliding in the dagger on Pete in a way that, you know, ‘I’m just an elite’ know everything and so, I can tell you he’s an idiot. Um, you know, I totally respect your service. I believe you care. I, but what are you so afraid of?”
She set up Rampell as a frequent flier “on one of those insufferable CNN panels with the terrible Abby Phillip” on CNN NewsNight and then mocked Phillip, imitating her voice as “like, mild mannered but ‘has never seen a Republican who’s done the right thing. I just want to take control to say that Republicans are bad, they’re even worse than you thought.’”
Kelly then explained Rampell’s background as a New York Times theatre critic and a legacy child at Princeton and that her major was in “anthropology where, okay, I’m sure she learned a lot that would qualify her to be opining on the sec of defense or not, but in any event, CNN thought she’d be an adequate commentator.”
In a clip of CNN NewsNight (aka CNN Thunderdome), Rampell said Hegseth’s “main qualification” is that he’s “very articulate and polished” as “a TV host,” leading to senior conservative commentator Scott Jennings to lambaste this smear:
Why do you denigrate this man’s service? I don’t understand, 20 years decorated, Ivy Leaguer. “He’s a TV host. That’s all he is.” That’s not his main qualification?...You’re denigrating his qualities here...She said his main qualification is that he’s a TV host, and I’m sorry, that’s just baloney...His main qualification is that he’s a warfighter and he’s going to be the closest warfighter we’ve ever had to the enlisted people running the Pentagon.
Rampell doubled down and received help amid the cross-talk from Phillip, which Kelly pointed out included a scolding of Jennings. Her argument? Jennings denigrated the military service of the generals who’ve risen to lead the Pentagon...by complimenting Hegseth.
Kelly shellacked Phillip’s feigned outrage and even said “fuck you” to Rampell for arguing “his main qualification for this job was his stint on Fox & Friends.” The former Fox News host pointed out how, if Rampell were right about TV being Trump’s only characteristic, Trump would have picked weekday Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade (click “expand”):
In the longer clip, and Abby Phillip comes in and says, “you shouldn’t denigrate the service of the generals who have been at the top of the Defense Department before by saying that, Scott Jennings.” Scott Jennings is like, “how am I denigrating them by saying he is closer to the enlisted men than anybody who’s ever held this position?” But that’s Abby Phillip. There — there cannot be a discussion that doesn’t wind in “her fake fact checking with hard left spin, signed Abby Phillip.” Back to this woman, Catherine Rampell. All right, so she, the theater critic, would like us to know that the only reason — the reason — the main qualification, those were her words, for Pete to have been nominated is because he’s a TV host. So, Scott Jennings says, why do you denigrate his service? Then comes Abby Phillip. “She didn’t do that.” Okay, how is it not denigrating his — his tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gitmo, the vast majority of his adult life, by saying his main qualification for this job was his stint on Fox & Friends? Fuck you, Catherine Randall, because that is denigrating his service. His service is the reason he got the job. I guarantee you Trump is more familiar with Brian Kilmeade than he is with Pete Hegseth. I get. Guarantee you he’s been watching Brian Kilmeade for longer, has probably called and texted Brian Kilmeade over the years longer and knows him a lot better, but he did not nominate Brian Kilmeade because he wasn’t just looking for a Fox & Friends morning host to run the Pentagon.
Kelly said what has qualified Hegseth in Trump’s eyes was a “lifetime of service while in the armed services and afterward working for veterans that got him this job.”
Raising her voice, Kelly blasted Rampell’s pomposity as “so disrespectful and disgusting, but that is what the elite thinks of our military and certainly of any Trump supporter.”
She saved some fire for former Fox colleague Gretchen Carlson who, with Kelly, were two of the women who’s stories alleging sexual misconduct against their then-boss Roger Ailes.
Carlson went onto the far-left PBS NewsHour Monday because, in Kelly’s dismissive tone, they “decide[d] that Gretchen Carlson’s opinion would be really important to get.”
After a clip of Carlson giving full weight to the discredited allegation of sexual assault against Hegseth as well as the anonymous smears about Hegseth’s drinking, Kelly went nuclear, starting with some basic facts Carlson must have ignored (click “expand”):
He’s not been accused of sexually harassing anybody. Did that come up yesterday? No. The best they had was somebody at one of those veterans charities may have allegedly harassed somebody at a strip club trip that Pete wasn’t present for and — and I believe it was Sean Parnell, who was present and came out on the record saying Pete wasn’t there. He was not there. So what are you talking about Gretchen Carlson? You can only be talking about one thing and that is the alleged rape accusation. Did you go through the report line by line? Because you know as well as I do — you know better than anyone that I will stand up for women, even those I can’t stand if I think they’ve made a valid allegation. You know that better than anyone and I spent a day going through that woman’s police report, line by line and I’m telling you, that woman’s not telling the truth. That’s my strong legal and journalistic opinion and I’ve gone through it episodes and episodes ago in great detail to explain. Why have you? How dare you get out there and, and wonder why this fake, clearly fake allegation is not disqualifying for him. Get talking about it. What have you looked at? When was she drugged, Gretchen? She was fine at 1:30 in the morning. She was fined at 4 a.m. according to three eyewitnesses, two videos, and her husband on the back end. Are those not reliable for you? This is not Pete Heath’s word. It’s independent eye and videotape witnesses and her marital partner, saying she was fine. Not drugged. When did Pete date rape, drug her and then rape her? It is an impossibility, which is why he was not charged[.]
Along with saying “how dare you” and “shame on you” for boosting such scurrilous charges, Kelly personally hit Carlson “for using the money you managed to extract out of Fox News for this nonsense to try to push these bullshit claims because you wanna see your face on television...I find that absolutely abhorrent.”
Continuing to get personal, Kelly revisited that tenuous time in her history as well as the Fox News Channel to correct the record that “when I came forward to talk about what happened between Roger and yours truly, it was not because” of Carlson, but “I was worried others might” have been as well.
“I just want to be clear that it wasn’t her particular circumstances that inspired me or I think most people over there,” she concluded.
Before going to ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel grossly smearing Hegseth, Kelly laid waste to Carlson’s lack of ethics and refusal to do her homework before commenting on Hegseth (click “expand”):
KELLY: How dare she come out and try to disparage him this way, someone who’d been a colleague of hers for quite some time, and I guarantee you — you never — she never saw him drunk and if she says she did, it’s not true. All of his Fox & Friends co-hosts have said never, never ever, and we spent hours upon hours with him, right? I — like, all of the on the record. Character defenses of Pete have been under people’s actual names, stars that you would know, all the Fox & Friends morning crew, all the scurrilous allegations have been anonymous and behind the scenes. Too much time on her, she’s irrelevant. Jimmy Kimmel had his own little meltdown about the situation. Watch here.
KIMMEL [on 01/14/24]: The main event in Washington today was the confirmation hearing of Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. Former weekend Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth. The hearing started at 9:30 this morning, or as Pete calls it happy hour. Hegseth was hammered by Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who argue that he should be disqualified based on accounts of excessive drinking, allegations of sexual misconduct, which are two of the qualities Trump looks for in the nominee.
KELLY: Ha ha ha. That’s hilarious. So funny. I mean, I don’t remember him making jokes about Kamala’s boozing, which was pretty obvious, both before and after she lost. Where — is that a funny joke? I’d love to see all the funny jokes about what her administration would look like. Is that gonna be surrounded by boozers, so she looks like the sober one, Jimmy? And again, like it’s just so fun to just sort of pretend that ha ha, like he’s a rapist, like some ha ha ha ha, like it’s, it’s super fun to rip on Pete Hegseth as though — yeah, we love serial harassers. That’s not what’s been alleged against Pete Hegseth. Sorry to burst your bubble. You know, there was a day and age in which you’d be more careful about that thing because you would be worried about getting sued and Trump is trying to bring that day back and the media’s having a meltdown over it, right? They don’t like it. “Oh, you’re gonna chill free speech.” I’m — oh, I’m gonna chill defamatory speech, right? Like, that’s — that’s what I’m gonna try to chill. Um, he’s not worried. Pete’s got better things to do, and yeah, he’s probably — he’s probably not going to — to sue Jimmy Kimmel.
To see the relevant SiriusXM transcript from January 15, click here.
