After an interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, which resulted in some criticism from conservatives due to his answers to tough questions posed by the podcaster, former President Donald Trump stated at a campaign event Kelly was too hard on him, before referring to her as “nasty.” Guys, come on. No matter how hardcore you are for Trump, this kind of childish behavior whenever someone actually asks him hard questions needs to stop. Kelly did what a journalist is supposed to do. We as conservatives cannot get angry at leftist media for not holding Democrats accountable and not asking them difficult questions if we are guilty of doing the same thing with our own candidates.
Part of the problem with modern-day politics is that Democrats and Republicans have largely become two sides of the very same coin, an inconvenient truth no one wants to admit, but it’s still accurate nonetheless. We need to be better than the left in every way, not just in the principles we espouse. We need to be living examples too.
“I did a Megyn Kelly one, and she y’know, just, she became nastier all of a sudden. She was pretty nasty, didn’t you think, anybody that watched it?” Trump went on to ask the crowd in Maquoketa, Iowa on Wednesday during a campaign event.
NEW:
Trump slams @megynkelly as “nasty” for asking him tough questions during their interview pic.twitter.com/ty3PqQ8jZC
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) September 20, 2023
Listen, even if Trump is your guy, and to be honest he’s a good choice, maybe even a great choice, that doesn’t mean he’s above reproach. He’s going to make mistakes or hold positions that are, ultimately, not ones that line up with genuine conservative beliefs. We need to be able to rebuke him when he steps out of line. Period. That goes for anyone in an elected position. They work for us. We should not be creating cults of personality around our leaders. It’s unhealthy and dangerous. It’s what the left did with Barack Obama. Let’s not be anything like them.
Here’s more from the Daily Wire:
Trump’s complaint came after he received some blowback from the right for claiming he didn’t know who gave Dr. Anthony Fauci a Presidential Commendation in his final week in office and also his answer when Kelly asked him simply “Can a man become a woman?”
During the interview Kelly said, “For years you’ve been saying that the reason you didn’t fire Anthony Fauci was because he’d been there for a long time, that you would’ve taken heat, that it would’ve created a firestorm, quoting your words.”
“But I also said I didn’t listen to him too much,” Trump replied.
“I’m getting there,” Kelly assured the former president. “But then in May, you started saying, ‘Well, he’s a civil servant, so I couldn’t, technically. The truth is though, not only did you not fire Fauci, who is loathed by many, many millions of Republicans in particular, but also some Democrats, you made him a star. You made him a star. This is the criticism of you, that you made him the face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.”
“You think so?” Trump then asked Kelly.
“That he was out at every presser, that he was running herd for the administration on Covid, and that you actually gave him a Presidential Commendation before you left office,” Kelly added. “Wouldn’t you like a do-over on that?”
“I don’t know who gave him the commendation,” Trump told Kelly. “I really don’t know who gave him the commendation. I wouldn’t have done it.”
“It’s a presidential commendation,” Kelly pointed out.
The correct response would have been a simple, “yes.” That would have indicated maturity and growth on Trump’s part, as he would have been taking responsibility for this particular misstep. He would have been praised for that, no doubt about it.
The White House website during Trump’s tenure announced on January 19, 2021, “Today, President Donald J. Trump awarded Presidential Commendations to the below individuals in recognition of their exceptional efforts on Operation Warp Speed:’
Among the names listed was Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Later in the conversation, Kelly asked the former president if a man could become a woman, to which he replied, “In my opinion, you have a man, you have a woman. I think part of it is birth. Can the man give birth? No, no, although they’ll come up with some answer to that also someday. I heard just the other day they have a way that now the man can give birth. No. I’ll continue my stance on that.”
The podcast host later criticized Trump for his answer on the question referring to it as “weak sauce,” before adding, “I really wish he did better on that. I liked Ron DeSantis’ answer, “I’m going to be honest, which is ‘No, no, no, no. Obviously, no. And it’s not determined based on who can give birth. It’s determined by God. And it’s pretty obvious just as soon as you come out of the womb. That’s the way it’s always been. That’s the way it continues to be. Notwithstanding this weird agenda by some activists in this crazy trans-agenda-pushing cult.”
She’s right. Trump’s answer was not a good one. Again, this was a fairly easy question to answer.
If it seems I’m being hard on the former president, it’s because I am. There’s a lot at stake in this upcoming election and if Trump is going to be the nominee facing off against Biden — and it certainly looks like that’s going to be the case — he needs to be able to answer hard questions with grace, strength, humility, and boldness. The left is going to throw everything under the sun at him if he gets to the general election. He needs to be able to handle that kind of pressure from a rather hostile group of individuals who want nothing more than to see him and the country he — and the rest of us — loves completely annihilated.
Let’s hope Trump doesn’t allow himself to fall into the traps the left has set for him.