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Another front opened up in the deepening personal rift between Kara Swisher and Megyn Kelly this week as Swisher revealed that Kelly had pleaded for the tech podcaster’s advice after the former Fox News host decided to go the independent route herself.
During Thursday’s broadcast of On with Kara Swisher, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace and Swisher talked about Kelly’s “confounding” pivot to “really angry” MAGA pundit in recent years, lamenting that she had once been “one of the best to ever do” cable news.
“I don’t watch her anymore, but I thought her observations about where the industry was heading were right,” Wallace, who previously served as George W. Bush’s communications director, said about Kelly’s time as a primetime Fox News anchor.
At the same time, they brought up Kelly’s recent interview with The New York Times in which she said that “the future involves direct relationships between individual journalists and their audience, or personalities.”
Kelly also insisted that the current mode of cable news and broadcast journalism “is dying, if not dead.”
“I think she’s right,” Wallace reacted, prompting Swisher to recount the time that Kelly sought her guidance following Kelly’s unceremonious exit from NBC News in 2019.
“Just so you know, Megyn Kelly doesn’t like Kara Swisher, but at the time that happened, she called me and we had drinks and I talked to her about this and how to do it,” Swisher noted. “Just remember, Megyn, I did help you!”
Both Wallace and Swisher would criticize Kelly for the “confounding choice” she has since made in becoming a rabid pro-Trump commentator who devotes an outsized portion of her programming to right-wing culture wars and picking fights with other media personalities and celebrities.
“I think it’s just terrible and angry, really angry, at especially women,” Swisher sighed, prompting Wallace to add: “Yes! She hates us more!”
In the end, Swisher figured that their observations would only serve as more ragebait for Kelly, who now ranks as the third-most popular conservative podcaster in America. “She’ll have a show on this soon. So, good, great to give you content, Megyn,” Swisher snarked.
The Independent has reached out to Kelly’s representatives for comment.
Swisher’s latest broadside against Kelly comes months after Kelly blew up when the tech insider called her a “rage machine” who “screams at women” while she does her “little act.” During the podcast she co-hosts with Scott Galloway, Swisher asked about Kelly in March: “What is wrong with her?”
Kelly, meanwhile, responded on her SiriusXM show by describing Swisher as “a very tough, ballsy, openly lesbian woman” who is “literally known” for “walking away with people’s balls.” Accusing Swisher of being “nasty,” Kelly also recounted Swisher’s reaction after finding out that Kelly’s sister had passed away from a heart attack.
According to Kelly, she canceled a planned appearance on Swisher’s show because of her sister’s death, leading Swisher to joke to Kelly's assistant: “Oh, that sounds like a good idea and I certainly hope she’ll stay off X in the meantime.”
While Swisher would respond that she “was only joking” after Kelly’s assistant clarified the cancellation was due to a death in the family, Kelly said this was proof of Swisher’s awful personal character.
“She tries to cover her own ass because she knows she’s now made herself look terrible,” Kelly said, adding that the relationship between the pair had fallen apart afterwards. “From that point forward, all she’s done is rip on me, and frankly, vice versa. I mean, I just see her very differently now. I think she’s a bad person.”
