Sitting with Donald Trump on Thursday’s episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” host Megyn Kelly briefly looked back at her notorious clash with the former president at Fox News’ Republican presidential primary debate, praising that he “handled it well.”
“Your poll numbers went up! Let’s move past it,” she said.
The moment in question came in 2015 when Kelly, then at Fox News and co-moderator of the debate, confronted the former president about instances where he derided women he didn’t like as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”
“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Trump said, raising his pointer finger to the sky.
“For the record,” Kelly responded, “it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell.”
“Yes, I’m sure it was,” he said sarcastically.
The widely publicized back-and-forth at the time led to Trump slamming Kelly on social media and to various news media outlets, telling CNN, “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” The escalation of their feud was also documented in 2019’s Fox News sexual harassment drama “Bombshell,” in which Kelly was portrayed by Charlize Theron.
Trump brought up the notorious moment from the 2015 debate in Thursday’s interview with Kelly, arguing that “the people want a smart president” and citing his ability to think on his feet in that debate as being reflective of his intellect.
“You asked me a question when you were moderating the debate for Fox, that frankly, if I didn’t come up with the answer, ‘Only Rosie O’Donnell,’ I would’ve had a problem with that,” Trump said. “That was a bad question.”
“That was a great question,” Kelly countered, adding that it was “awesome” while Trump maintained it was “nasty.”
“Yeah, I got a little bit lucky,” Trump said at the end of the interview clip. “I came up with a good answer.”
Kelly appearing playful while defending the question and gassing up the former president for his performance that night before saying they should “move past it” marked a notably change in tune from the 2015 media blitz. The topic came up during the 60-minute sit-down in the first place because Trump was arguing that he saw no point in sitting for another Republican primary debate for 2024.
“I don’t want to debate people that I’m 60 points up on because what’s the purpose of doing it?” he said.
Kelly said that he should at least consider doing one debate “just before Iowa” — “Do it, I’ll moderate it.”
Watch the full exchange in the video above.
