Megyn Kelly Whiffs in Her Degrading Quest for Vengeance Against Bari Weiss

(Alex Brandon | Credit: AP) (Sipa USA via AP)

Hell hath no fury like a blowhard scorned; just ask anyone who’s dared to describe Megyn Kelly’s dishonorable descent into the fever swamp out loud.

Kelly presents her latest “takedown,” such as it is, of CBS News as a righteous protest on behalf of an audience victimized by an intentionally deceptive piece of anti-journalism — even as she herself commits just such a sin.

At issue are two versions of a 60 Minutes interview of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the United States’ ongoing military operations against Iran conducted by chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett.

In the abridged version that aired on the network, a voiceover observes that “Some normally enthusiastic supporters of the president have criticized him [Trump], suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the U.S. into a war that, to their minds, did not put American interests first.”

The newsman proceeds to ask Hegseth, “Do you want to address that criticism?”

“All I know is I’m in the room every day, and I see how President Trump operates, and what he’s putting first. And it’s America, Americans, and American interests,” replies Hegseth.

“Okay, so there you see Pete Hegseth defending Bibi Netanyahu, charges about Israel’s interference in the war,” asserted Kelly on Monday’s edition of her program.

The literate surely spot the problem already. Hegseth didn’t offer a defense of Netanyahu or Israel, but one of Donald Trump. What Hegseth objected to is the idea that his boss is a pliable puppet who’s been manipulated into acting on others’ behalf.

Trump and his surrogates have been clear on this point: for better or worse, he owns this conflict.

Nevertheless, Kelly persisted.

“That was not the question that Major Garrett asked! He did not ask anything about Bibi Netanyahu or Israel, nor did then Pete go on to rehabilitate anything in response to Israel. All right? We took a look at the Hegseth interview in full. It’s notable how the Q&A you saw never mentioned Israel at all. Only someone at CBS tried to go back and change the question to make it about Israel such that the answer would then rehabilitate Israel, which isn’t what actually happened. Look at this!” marveled Kelly before rolling the tape on the full exchange between Garrett and Hegseth, which unfolded like this:

GARRETT: You mentioned America First. Some who identify with that movement — Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene — have said from their perspective, this isn’t an America First campaign. Do you want to address that criticism?

HEGSETH: All I know is I’m in the room every day, and I see how President Trump operates, and what he’s putting first. And it’s America, Americans, and American interests, at every level. How long should our bases be tolerating thousands of short-range ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones pointing at our bases and our people? After 47 years of Americans being targeted and killed, the men I served with in combat in Iraq coming home with no arms and no legs, targeted by Iranian EFPs, thousands of Americans killed. Beirut. You want to go back? We can go back to how long-, I mean, the regime itself is premised on “death to America.” So 47 years, thousands of missiles, and an unrelenting pursuit of nuclear ambitions.

I mean President Trump’s right, when he says we obliterated their nuclear program, he’s right. We did. We dropped those bombs exactly where they needed to be, set them back. But that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped their pursuit. Doesn’t mean in the back of their mind they’re thinking, “Well maybe we’ll wait it out and keep-,” they’ve miscalculated the resolve of President Trump. Ask Nicholás Maduro about that. Ask, you know, the Houthis about that. Look at the southern border, look at the cartels and drug boats. When President Trump says he’ll take care of something, he’s gonna take care of it.

“There was nothing, nothing about Netanyahu, and nothing about Israel in the Q or the A. Only CBS decided to style it in that fashion. But you know what? Here’s the thing, they do not give a sh*t about misleading you over at CBS, the old CBS or the new CBS, which has a brand new agenda,” raged Kelly after playing the second clip. The left will tell you that it’s pro-MAGA, it’s not pro-MAGA. Trust me, watch two minutes of the evening news or the morning news. It is not pro-MAGA at all. But it is pro-Israel. Barry Weiss has finally achieved her dream of running a news network that will be entirely pro-Israel.”

This is textbook projection. Kelly is reading a defense of Israel into Hegseth’s answer, as presented during 60 Minutes‘ original broadcast, where there is none because it is she who suffers from a blinding myopia on this issue. One that has brought her “closer” to the rabidly anti-Semitic Owens, who has made a business out of tormenting their mutual “friend’s” grieving widow.

And besides, the voiceover substituted for Garrett’s question is entirely accurate. Here is what each member of the quartet named by Garrett has said about recent events in the Middle East.

Tucker Carlson: “The United States committed troops to this conflict because the prime minister of Israel, not Israel as a nation but the guy who runs it, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bibi, demanded it.”

Candace Owens: “Trump has betrayed America and expects you to die for Israel.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Just so you know, while the admin is waging war on Iran for Israel…”

And, lo and behold, Megyn Kelly: “My own feeling is no one should have to die for a foreign country. I don’t think those four service members died for the United States. I think they died for Iran, or for Israel. ”

“This feels very much, to me, like it is clearly Israel’s war,” submitted Kelly. “Mark Levin wanted it, it’s his war, Ben Shapiro, Lindsey Graham, Miriam Adelson — that’s obvious. They’re the ones who’ve been pushing us into this.”

“Some normally enthusiastic supporters of the president have criticized him, suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the U.S. into a war that, to their minds, did not put American interests first.”

Is that not an apt description of the arguments made by Kelly, Carlson, Owens, and Greene?

Kelly’s contrived tirade over this nontroversy isn’t motivated by a public-minded disgust with dishonesty, but her anger at Weiss for promoting Shapiro’s impressive speech at last December’s AmericaFest, during which he took the conspiracy theorists (Carlson and Owens) and their enablers (Kelly) to task.

“The fact that they have said nothing while Candace has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years is just as cowardly,” argued Shapiro at the time.

He repeated himself last week while responding to her aforementioned criticism of Trump’s operation in Iran:

First of all, the ugly suggestion that Mark Levin is somehow a traitor to the United States, that it’s Israel’s war and Mark Levin wanted it because it’s Israel’s war, or I want it or Lindsey Graham or Miriam Adelson, really disgusting stuff, from Megyn Kelly, but predictable at this point. You know whose war this is? President Donald J. Trump’s war. He’s the president of the United States. He commands the United States military. She is such a coward. She is such an unbelievable coward. You don’t like President Trump? You don’t like what he’s saying? Just say his name, you coward, you unbelievable coward. Tucker and Megyn both, unbelievable cowardice. Say his name!

Kelly’s degrading campaign against Weiss is edifying in one respect: it proves, once and for all, that it’s not lies, but the truth about herself that Kelly cannot abide.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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