Nine years ago Donald Trump accused Megyn Kelly of having “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” after his first debate as a Republican presidential candidate in 2015.
What a difference a decade makes: Now the former Fox News anchor will rally alongside her one-time nemesis on Monday evening in Pittsburgh.
On the latest episode of her podcast, Kelly said she would be doing something she’s “never done before” when she campaigns with Trump Monday night.
Trump, or at least his campaign, appears to believe her help is needed to rally a certain type of female voter during his final stop in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania.
As she explained it, the Trump campaign reached out to her directly over the weekend with an invitation she “never expected” to speak at the rally on Trump’s behalf.
“I will proudly explain to that audience, any beyond, why I think it’s absolutely essential that he wins this election,” Kelly said.
The move by the Trump campaign hints at an acknowledgment of weakness in his appeal to women voters. Last week, Kelly publicly criticized the campaign for its “bro-tastic” rally at Madison Square Garden, asking, “Do they have no women advising their campaign?”
She was complaining out of concern that it could cause him to lose.
Kelly has been a strong supporter of Trump during this campaign—and an even louder critic of Kamala Harris. She recently defended Trump’s comments about putting Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad and dressed up as literal garbage for Halloween in a performative demonstration of MAGA solidarity. It’s a remarkable development given their contentious history dating back to that 2015 debate.
Her first question that night highlighted Trump’s history of calling women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” And Trump did not take kindly to the line of questioning, lashing out at Kelly in the days that following by appearing to suggest she was on her period and calling her a “bimbo” on Twitter.
In 2023, Kelly made it clear that the bad blood, so to speak, was behind them. But then, as recently as this past March, Trump bad-mouthed her from his rally stage in Georgia.
“Megyn Kelly. May she rest in peace,” Trump joked before adding, “She’s sort of making a career by pretending she likes me.”
Trump has turned to another ex-Fox anchor, Tucker Carlson as a crucial prop too during his last-minute rallies. He appeared at the Madison Square Garden rally in New York on the second-last weekend of the campaign and at an event in Duluth, Georgia, where Carlson, rather than appealing to female voters, launched into a bonkers rant, “When Dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You‘ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting a vigorous spanking.’”
