Megyn Kelly of FOX News hosted her first prime-time special on Tuesday in an extensive interview with Donald Trump. This was a much anticipated interview as both Trump and Kelly have received significant media attention in the past for a feud that developed after the first Republican debate, when Kelly criticized a comment Trump made towards women, referring to them as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” Since that interaction, Trump has openly spoken badly about Kelly, calling her “Crazy Megyn” and accusing her of “having blood coming out of her wherever”, a comment that has been interpreted to mean menstruation.
So as you can imagine, the reunion of these two was bound to be interesting. Kelly didn’t beat around the bush and immediately took to addressing some of the bad blood between her and Trump in the past nine months.
Here’s video of the moment @megynkelly confronted @realDonaldTrump over the “Bimbo” retweets pic.twitter.com/x7CobejwG3
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 18, 2016
Trump began by saying that Twitter has seemed to get him into trouble these days—especially through retweets. That’s when Kelly brought up the fact that Trump had referred to her as a “bimbo” several times, not just through retweets but by saying it himself. Trump looked appropriately sheepish and semi-apologized by way of an “Excuse me.” He then added, “Over your life you’ve been called a lot worse.”
That’s probably true, but not by a recent presidential candidate, Mr. Trump.
Trump finally admitted to having “regrets” when it comes to some of his inflammatory remarks that he’s made over the course of the election. Despite sometimes (or maybe often) stumbling, he reinforced his belief that although the language he used while campaigning may be controversial, it was necessary to get him where he is today.
Beyond their feud, Kelly also caught up with Trump on other personal details, ranging from his favorite movie (which was Citizen Kane) to his brother’s alcoholism. Donald also said that if he doesn’t end up winning the election, he would consider his entire campaign a “waste.”
Kelly went easy on the presidential candidate, perhaps because the meeting itself was largely seen as a reconciliation. Trump even seemed pretty pleased at how the interview turned out. Maybe Trump didn’t deserve to get off that easy—especially after all of the comments he has made throughout his campaign. Overall, Kelly handled the situation with grace and conducted a lighthearted interview that made the events of the last few months seem like they never happened to those who easily forgive and forget.