Megyn Kelly told an audience at National Review Institute's Ideas Summit on Thursday that Florida governor Ron DeSantis is "afraid" to come on her show because she's an "actual journalist."
The veteran broadcast journalist said that despite DeSantis's current media tour to promote his new book, The Courage to Be Free, the governor and likely 2024 contender would not agree to appear on her SiriusXM program, The Megyn Kelly Show, opting instead to appear on right-wing “basement tv.”
"There would be absolutely no reason not to come to me," she said, pointing out that she is "not MSNBC and he knows it" as her audience tends to be right-leaning with some “center-lefties.”
"There's no reason and I just think he's afraid and he has no reason to be because there's nothing I would ask him about that I know more about than he does," the Fox News and NBC alum said.
She said DeSantis is "only speaking to hardcore right supporters” because "he's a little timid." Kelly claimed DeSantis would not know how to deal with her because if he goes on MSNBC and he "got beat up by MSNBC" he could claim they are "woke leftist jerks" and far right media won't push him in the same way.
"If he comes to somebody like me, who's an actual journalist — I'm not a hater, my vote is gettable — what's he going to do? I'm not going to give him a pass just like I didn't give [former president] Trump a pass,” she said.
She said journalists should be adversarial and she just wants to have a "fun, spicy robust tough exchange" with DeSantis, whom she suggested will likely eventually acquiesce and appear on her show.
Kelly who had stints at MSNBC and Fox before going independent, also put a damper on the hype around a potential 2024 DeSantis campaign, saying she hears from viewers all the time that while the governor is great, it's not his time, and also noted his problems with charisma.
She said viewers tell her "The harder DeSantis makes it for Trump, the angrier I get at him."
"You can't get sucked into the belief that just because you love DeSantis and you're done with Trump that the country is done with Trump," she warned.
Trump's base has been misunderstood, she said, and will not vote for DeSantis out of protest if he bests their favorite for the GOP nomination.
“They’re not Republicans, they’re Trumplicans,” she said, adding, “They don’t care. They’d rather see the establishment go down” and Trump is doing a “good job” of labeling DeSantis as the establishment.
She concluded by suggesting Trump should be praying that a Manhattan grand jury indicts him over his alleged involvement with a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels because his position as a fixture in the news and as a victim of political prosecution will boost him with voters.
National Review has reached out to DeSantis’s team for a response to Kelly’s accusation.
