Nicole Moschella
Megyn Kelly wasn’t interested in any of the political statements made at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, specifically one segment that poked fun of the president.
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“Recent award shows, as you know, have taken on a political theme, and the Grammys were no exception. Musicians used the stage with some powerful and sometimes controversial messages,” Kelly introduced a series of clips from the award show including Kendrick Lamar’s big statement in the opening number and U2’s performance in front of the Statue of Liberty.
Kelly invited Melissa Rivers and Rolling Stone’s Joe Levy to discuss some of the evening’s biggest moments.
The host was clearly unimpressed with the parody of celebrities including John Legend, Cardi B and Hillary Clinton reading some of Michael Wolff’s controversial book “Fire and Fury.”
“This book right now is under fire for it’s sexist smear, it’s author’s sexist smear against our U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley,” Kelly said, telling the audience about Haley’s tweet that night.
“I have always loved the Grammys but to have artists read the Fire and Fury book killed it. Don’t ruin great music with trash. Some of us love music without the politics thrown in it,” she tweeted during the award show.
I have always loved the Grammys but to have artists read the Fire and Fury book killed it. Don’t ruin great music with trash. Some of us love music without the politics thrown in it.
— Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) January 29, 2018
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Kelly continued, “If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a million times. Powerful women get dismissed as nuts or sluts. And what he said about her was a sexist smear, and there’s a question about whether we should have had people including Hillary Clinton reading from that book.”
Rivers also chimed in, “my guess is, they probably pre-taped the piece long before this Nikki Haley allegation came out. That’s Number 1. Number 2: for me, the Grammys were probably the least preachy of all of the award shows this season because it was artists doing their music. I thought that everyone is looking so desperately to jump onto something. It’s like, it was a piece that wasn’t even that funny.”
“It was a piece that is basically a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit. It’s a a skit that we have seen on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in a different context. What was it doing here? It was a bit of a reach. I found it funny, but it didn’t need to be in the show,” Levy said.
“The thing that jumped out to me was that somebody said they really wanted to reach out to middle America with their messaging and I felt like, ‘what part exactly?'” Kelly said. “Standing up and celebrating a book [that smears Nikki Haley] isn’t going to do it. She’s the daughter of immigrants. She’s a top leader in our country. She doesn’t deserve that. Never mind Trump.”
The trio then moved on to the #MeToo protest where musicians showed up on the red carpet with white rose. Rivers felt that the roses “fell flat” but applauded Kesha’s performance with all of the women joining her onstage all wearing white. Levy pointed out that the producers of the Grammys wanted to also make a statement about immigration with the flowers but agreed it wasn’t necessarily as impactful as other protests at former award shows.
