Megyn Kelly intends to throw ‘fastballs’ at RNC debate: ‘Not there to make friends’

EXCLUSIVE — Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said she’s bringing the same tenacity to the Republican National Committee’s fourth primary debate next week as she did to the 2015 GOP debate, where she memorably hit former President Donald Trump on his treatment of women.

“I’m not there to make friends with anybody,” Kelly said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Kelly will moderate the debate, hosted by NewsNation, alongside network anchor Elizabeth Vargas and the Washington Free Beacon’s Eliana Johnson.

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But, the host of the Megyn Kelly Show on SiriusXM added, “I’m not there to sandbag anybody either.”

The debate will take place Dec. 6 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where Trump has declined to attend, avoiding a rematch with Kelly.

With or without the GOP front-runner on the stage, Kelly pledged to ask compelling questions that GOP primary voters care about and admonished the moderators in each of the last three debates.

The second debate in September was specifically not understanding of what Republican voters want, Kelly said, adding that moderator Ilia Calderon, a Univision anchor, asked “just dreadful” questions at the Fox Business-hosted event. Kelly said the questions would have been acceptable for a general election debate but that they fundamentally misunderstood what Republican voters are looking for.

That debate, she said, was “far worse than the first” and “an exercise in frustration.” She wondered how Fox News host Dana Perino’s question, asking candidates to eliminate a competitor from “the island,” made it to the final list of questions.

Kelly was similarly critical of the other debates, which were hosted by Fox News and NBC News.

Fox News’s debate, which was the first primary matchup, included some avenues of questioning that Kelly didn’t understand, “like the UFO question.”

“They tried,” she said of the channel. While she was sympathetic to “my old pal Bret Baier,” she described Fox News’s inability to understand what she referred to as the “MAGA base,” referring to the large segment of the Republican Party and electorate that support Trump and his policy preferences.

Kelly suggested the channel may not even “want to get close to the MAGA base and its view of the world,” which she said is “not OK.”

The reality, she explained, is “the Republican Party is fractured right now [and] MAGA is a huge part of it.”

On the most recent debate, hosted by NBC News earlier this month, Kelly said, “The way NBC handled it was abysmal,” referring to the moderators’ failure to allow candidates to respond when attacked.

“It was an absolute sin,” she said. “You had Nikki Haley call Vivek Ramaswamy ‘scum’ from behind the lectern on debate night, and no moderator followed up on it.”

“It was absurd. It was unfair. But on top of that, it missed lightning in a bottle. That would have been fiery,” Kelly claimed.

She said NBC News is unprepared for any spontaneity, and the anchors aren’t “seasoned in it.”

“They just continued reading their notes, and it showed — and they lost,” she said.

Kelly emphasized that she takes seriously the responsibility of moderating such a debate, noting how infrequently the opportunity to question candidates directly arises.

When she was asked if viewers would see the same moderator who, in 2015, fearlessly questioned Trump on his comments on women, Kelly quickly confirmed.

“You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals.’ Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” she asked then-candidate Trump at the time. Her question seemed to infuriate him, as he responded in part, “I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be based on the way you have treated me.”

Kelly said in 2016, she viewed his response as “a veiled threat.”

Trump’s irritation at her questioning continued long after the debate, with him attacking her character and journalistic ability on several occasions.

Despite the feud ignited by that debate, Kelly isn’t afraid to keep asking the tough questions. “You’ve got to throw fastballs, which is what I intend to do,” she said.

That feud, however, has since been resolved, as evidenced by Kelly’s recent sit-down interview with the former president on his 2024 campaign. “I wish he would come,” Kelly said of Trump’s decision to skip GOP primary debates. “I think he would have fun.”

“Of course, we would have very hard questions for him. But as he’s proven, he can handle those,” she continued.

While she wasn’t willing to disclose which topics will be the most prevalent at the debate, Kelly forecast some of what viewers can expect. “There are definitely topics that have not been touched that we’re excited to have the first crack at,” she said. “We’ve got quite a few of those actually, and it’s exciting.”

However, there will be issues that are discussed again due to “their importance to the voters.” But Kelly assured those topics will be looked at in “new ways so we can advance the ball. We don’t want to just cover retreaded ground.”

One issue that has become increasingly important to Kelly is transgender policy, coupled with women’s and girls’ spaces in society. It has similarly become more of a concern among Republicans, who are particularly opposed to its ushering in the use of drugs and surgery on minors to alter their hormones and genitalia. Despite its importance to many Republicans, transgender policy hasn’t been given a large spotlight in the past three debates.

The problem is so significant for Kelly that she calls it “the women’s rights issue of our time.”

In previewing the fourth primary debate, for which only Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Trump have qualified, Kelly said, “It’s going to be a debate that understands fully what Republican voters want to hear.” Despite having qualified, Trump did not attend the previous three debates and is not expected to attend next week’s event.

Even though there have been three primary debates already, Trump still maintains the majority of Republicans’ support going into the primaries and caucuses. For this reason, the events still play a somewhat secondary role to Trump, Kelly said.

But this doesn’t mean the matchups aren’t having an effect. “The reason Nikki Haley has gotten any momentum is because of the debates,” she noted. Her performances have led to rises in polls and endorsements from wealthy donors, Kelly pointed out.

Regardless of Trump, the debates remain a “huge opportunity,” she added. Not only is it an opportunity, but “it’s also killing off candidates.” Kelly attributed the suspensions of former Vice President Mike Pence’s and Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) campaigns in the last month to the debates.

Make no mistake, “they have been consequential,” but, Kelly added, “they haven’t moved the needle in a way that would threaten Trump.”

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The reason this hasn’t happened, though, is because the non-Trump lane remains fractured. “The Republican Party actually still does have a chance to stop him if that’s what it wants to do. But it’s going to have to consolidate the anti-Trump lane,” she claimed.

If the GOP doesn’t manage to do this in time, Kelly said, it will be stuck with the same result as the 2016 Republican primary.