Silke Jasso
In a new interview with Politico, White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon went on the record about his feelings toward former Fox News journalist and political commentator Megyn Kelly. Although it seemed that Breitbart and Fox News might have been allies early on in the 2016 presidential election, Kelly’s tough debate questions for then candidate Trump caused Bannon’s relationship with then Fox CEO Roger Ailes to “sour.”
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“The big rift between Breitbart and Fox was all over Megyn Kelly. She was all over Trump nonstop,” Bannon said. “I told [Ailes] then, I said, ‘She’s the devil, and she will turn on you.'”
By the end of that summer, Ailes had been forced to resign after being accused of sexual harassment by several female Fox employees, a list of women that eventually included Kelly. Since then, Ailes’ legacy has been greatly diminished, and a few of the major stars he brought to the network have left, including Kelly and Greta Van Susteren. Fox News powerhouse Bill O’Reilly also parted ways with the network after news of his own sexual harassment lawsuits came to light.
In her memoir, “Settle For More,” Kelly revealed that Ailes spent his final days at the network attempting to have her ousted. And before that, he asked her to speak out publicly in support of him after Gretchen Carlson filed the initial sexual harassment lawsuit against him.
“There was no way I was going to lie to protect him,” Kelly wrote. It was later that she revealed the CEO had sexually harassed her on multiple occasions too, which led Bannon to believe she was turning on Ailes.
This isn’t the first time Bannon has claimed that he warned Ailes about Kelly. In a November interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Banon reportedly told Ailes that “Kelly would be out to get him.”
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