On Wednesday, syndicated daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres told NBC’s Megyn Kelly that she would refuse to have President Trump on her show because “There’s nothing I’m going to say to him that’s gonna change him and I don’t want to give him a platform because it just...validates him.”
“And I can’t have someone that I feel is not only dangerous for the country and for me personally as a gay woman, but to the world,” DeGeneres ranted. She decried Trump “dividing all of us” and reiterated: “I don’t want him on the show.” Her declaration was met with thunderous cheering and applause from her liberal audience.
The commentary from the self-avowed Hillary Clinton fan and ObamaCare booster came after Kelly recounted being a favorite media target of Trump’s throughout the 2016 campaign:
I was on the receiving end of his [Donald Trump’s] attentions, shall we say, for a long time. And I think in a way I was a canary in the coal mine because now we see what he was doing to me he’s doing to all the media. As much as we love to hate the media, I worry about them. It’s hard to be out there reporting on him fairly and get beaten up every day and every night. And it’s bad for the First Amendment, it’s bad for the country, even if you think the media is biased. For my own purposes, I feel happy to have removed myself from that life.
DeGeneres then wondered: “But now you have a new show and would you have him on your show?” Kelly replied: “Definitely. I mean, I would not say no to the sitting President of the United States.”
The biased segment was brought to viewers by Oxi-Clean, Werther’s Original, and Bounty.
Here is a transcript of the September 20 exchange:
3:20 PM ET
(...)
MEGYN KELLY: I don’t know, Ellen, you know, it’s been hard. I was on the receiving end of his [Donald Trump’s] attentions, shall we say, for a long time.
ELLEN DEGENERES: Right.
KELLY: And I think in a way I was a canary in the coal mine because now we see what he was doing to me he’s doing to all the media. As much as we love to hate the media, I worry about them.
DEGENERES: Right.
KELLY: It’s hard to be out there reporting on him fairly and get beaten up every day and every night.
DEGENERES: Yeah.
KELLY: And it’s bad for the First Amendment, it’s bad for the country, even if you think the media is biased. For my own purposes, I feel happy to have removed myself from that life.
DEGENERES: But now you have a new show and would you have him on your show?
KELLY: Definitely. I mean, I would not say no to the sitting President of the United States.
DEGENERES: Really?
KELLY: Absolutely not. Would you?
DEGENERES: Yeah.
[APPLAUSE]
KELLY: You would?!
DEGENERES: Yeah.
[CHEERS]
DEGENERES: I would not have him on the show. I mean look – now I’m going to get bad tweets like. But I just – you know, he is who he is and he has enough attention and he has his Twitter account and he has ways to get his message across. There’s nothing I’m going to say to him that’s gonna change him and I don’t want to give him a platform because it just – it validates him. And for me to have someone on the show, I really – I have to – I have to at least admire them in some way. And I can’t have someone that I feel is not only dangerous for the country and for me personally as a gay woman, but to the world. He is dividing all of us. And I think – I don’t want to represent – I just – I don’t want him on the show.
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
(...)
