Fox News Had To Explain To Trump's Attorney Why Killing Megyn Kelly Would Be A Bad Thing, Politically

Yup, this is real life.

(Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

(Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

In retrospect, when Donald Trump went after Megyn Kelly — conservative darling — it should have served as a warning to us all that this was not going to be a typical election. Back in those innocent days, there was still hope that Jeb! or Marco Rubio or just about anyone else would rally to become the GOP standard barer, but alas, that was not to be.

Now Megyn Kelly has a book out, Settle For More (affiliate link), and it includes a chapter on the feud with the Donald. As one might imagine, it is the behind-the-scenes stories from that skirmish that have gotten the most media attention in the days following the election. Kelly appeared on Anderson Cooper’s show today to discuss the death threats following her moderation of the Republican primary debate. As Talking Points Memo reports, it got really ugly:

“We had security guards the whole year,” Kelly said. “I mean the threat level got so high that it was impossible not to take that seriously.”

And the Trump campaign didn’t seem particularly inclined to stop the threats. Indeed, it seems that they only got the message when it was related to the success of their candidate:

Cooper asked how the Trump campaign fed that fire.

“Michael Cohen, who is Trump’s top lawyer and executive vice president with the Trump Organization had retweeted ‘let’s gut her,’ about me,” Kelly said. “At a time when the threat level was very high, which he knew. And Bill Shine, an executive vice president of Fox, called him up to say, ‘You got to stop this. We understand you are angry but she’s got three kids and is walking around New York.’”

“And he didn’t much care,” Kelly continued. “And what Bill Shine said to Michael Cohen was, ‘Let me put it to you in terms you can understand: If Megyn Kelly gets killed it is not going help your candidate.’”

That’s… incredible. You can watch the video below.

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For his part, Cohen has denied that he really wanted Kelly dead, and has called Kelly a liar (via Slate):

Cohen took to Twitter to call Kelly a liar and retweet people calling her a “snake” and a “psycho.”

Cohen’s basis for calling Kelly a liar is that “[I never said] that I didn’t care about her fears and that her children were in danger.” Kelly didn’t say that Cohen said that, of course. Kelly said that Shine, who has since been promoted to co-president of Fox News, felt that Cohen seemed so indifferent to the danger his and Trump’s actions were putting Kelly in that he felt compelled to explain to Cohen that it might hurt his boss’ political chances if she were murdered. Cohen, for his part, did not deny on Twitter that this is what Shine said.

These are the people in positions of power now. This is the world we now live in. It’s going to be a long four years.

Kelly: Fox Exec Told Trump Team It Would Not ‘Help’ Him If She Was Killed (VIDEO) [Talking Points Memo]
Megyn Kelly: Fox News Had to Explain to Trump Lawyer Why It Would Be Bad if I Were Killed [Slate]

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Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).