Megyn Kelly ripped into ABC News’ David Muir on Thursday for showing his “abject vanity” when he decided to cinch his “fake fireman’s jacket” he wore while reporting on the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
“Ladies and gentlemen, he’s first of all wearing a fake fireman’s jacket, and what you’re seeing on the close-up as he turns to reference the scene behind him and shows us his back, which clearly he wasn’t anticipating would make it on cam, his clothes pins pulling his jacket in — cinching it, if you will, my ladies — so that his waist looks morse svelte on camera,” Kelly said of Muir’s attire during her latest installment of “The Megyn Kelly Show.”
“The abject vanity of this man,” she further noted.
Kelly’s shade towards Muir came after viewers spotted clothespins attached to the longtime journalist’s bright yellow jacket. At the time, Muir was reporting on the wildfires during his “ABC World News Tonight” program when he turned to show the aftermath of the fires, also unknowingly showing the wooden fasteners.
One video clip appears to have been recorded and uploaded by Ozzy Osbourne’s son and TV personality, Jack Osbourne.
Continuing to drag Muir, the podcast host alluded to the newscaster being childish for playing “dress up” and called the journalist an “actor” who’s concerned with his looks (though it’s worth noting using clothespins in this manner is extremely common in the world of broadcasting).
“Why is he pretending to be a fireman? This is not dress up time. That’s something that my little boys did when they were still in the single digits. They would put on the fun fireman’s jacket and pretend to be firemen,” Kelly said. “That is not something that the host of ‘World News Tonight’ for ABC News broadcast network should be doing live from a disaster scene. It’s not dress up time, my friend, I’m big on the costume nights. We do it at home with my children when we’re on vacation, not on the news when people are dying. What are you doing?”
She continued: “And there’s no need to put David Muir in a yellow jacket with the fireman’s reflective stripes on it. He’s surrounded by ABC News crews, by ABC News trucks, by ABC News photogs, producers, lighting, sound guys. You can’t see them. They don’t put them on camera. But trust me, there is a semi-circle on the other side of David Muir. That is probably a couple dozen in number, and they want us to look, ‘Well, he’s going to get run over by a car.’ No, he’s not. It’s for show. He’s an actor on screen. That’s what’s happening there. And the clothespins just put a period behind that sentence. Yes, he’s an actor who’s worried about his own vanity and beauty on camera. God forbid you think David Muir might be a little boxy in the waist.”
While Kelly did acknowledge that she too cares about how she looks on camera, the conservative news pundit stated that Muir’s move was just “too much.”
“His little pretend fireman role, coupled with his ‘Is my waist looking skinny enough?’ vanity is too much. And we saw his vanity on full display at that Trump debate… He’s in love with his own face, waistline and opinion, and it shows,” Kelly concluded. “He has disgraced and discredit himself here and ABC News really needs to move on… They spent so much money trying to build this guy’s image. The promos for David Muir, you would think he was Jesus… With the jaw line, and I hate to rip him, because he went to Syracuse like me, but rip I will, because he deserves it. But you know, it’s all about image.”
Notably, Muir did not wear the clothespins during all of his coverage. In other footage, some of which you can view above, Muir is seen without the fasteners.
TheWrap has reached out to ABC News for comment.
Last but not least, Albert Brooks also got in on the conversation with a slightly less pointed tone by referencing “Broadcast News” on X: “David Muir must confess which movie he got this from!”
