Fox’s Megyn Kelly on Monday said that if the New York Times doesn’t want to cover Bill Clinton’s problems with women, the so-called paper of record should be “shamed” into doing so. Appearing on Fox and Friends, Kelly highlighted the Times’s efforts to go after Trump’s issues with women: “They ought to do the same to her. Because Trump's allegations about Hillary's past with women and the role she played in trying to diminish ones who claim they had affairs or attacked by Bill Clinton is also relevant if we're going back 25 years on him and figure out what he did.”
If the Times won’t cover Bill Clinton’s problems with women? Kelly declared, “The only solution is for them to be shamed into doing it. If they don't do it, they need to be shamed into do it. Right? Because otherwise they'll play into the narrative that people already about them and that Trump has about them that they're not fair.”
Calling for equally tough coverage of Trump and Clinton, Kelly concluded, “They want George Washington's job. That's good. They better get hit. We should be doing in-depth pieces on them. On both of them.”
A transcript of the May 16 exchange is below:
Fox and Friends
5/16/16
8:37STEVE DOOCY: We do know, and we all did this story last week, about how the Washington Post has got a team of 20 reporters digging up dirt. Then this hit job pops up in the New York Times, which feeds into the narrative, “Oh, Donald Trump has got a problem with women.” Ainsley talked to the woman who says I'm going to vote for him.”
MEGYN KELLY: I wasn’t bothered by it.
DOOCY: But then, I'm going to play one sound bite and get your analysis on it. CBS sat down with a couple of the reporters from the New York Times this morning. Played Ainsley’s sound bite with the woman and watch this. They are standing by the story as they wrote it.
MICHAEL BARBARAO: I interviewed Rowanne Brewer Lane.. I'll let her speak for herself. But I think readers of the story can digest what happened to her at Mar-a-Lago in 1990. They’re at an evening pool party and he asked her after taking a long tour of Mar-a-Lago if she had brought a bathing suit. When she said she had not, he opened a drawer of bathing suits and asked her to put one on. She did and then he brought her back out to the pool and crowd and essentially asked the crowd did they think she was a beautiful Trump lady? And I recall in my interview with her that she expressed some — she said I was taken aback by this. And I think that's how we depict it. A vote for president is a profoundly personal one. Something in your gut. We're giving the readers information they can use.
DOOCY: CBS also asked the reporters why didn't you use any of the names of the women trump has helped over the years. They wouldn't answer that part.
KELLY: Well, they do mention his one female top executive who has been mentioned in a few pieces. And I think she's a powerful testament to Trump in terms of advancement of women. He obviously has his daughter in a powerful position. But her name escapes me right now. Barbara Res, I think it is.
DOOCY: She’s in charge— She was in charge of construction.
KELLY: At a time when no women were placed in those positions and article talks about how trump's dad was, like, “Are you sure you want to do that?” Trump was, like, “I am sure.” He's such a contradiction in that way. He's much more complicated than, you know, sort of the buffoon that the New York Daily News, for example, would have you believe when it comes to women, when it comes to these other issues. I don’t think it’s as clear cut as either side would have us believe. But I will say this: The Times, that’s our job to dig into these candidates. But, I think, they ought to do the same to her. Because Trump's allegations about Hillary's past with women and the role she played in trying to diminish ones who claim they had affairs or attacked by Bill Clinton is also relevant if we're going back 25 years on him and figure out what he did at the time, then it's fair game for them, too, especially because they are both making gender an issue.
DOOCY: Just one other thing regarding the women depicted in this story. This was 30 years ago, when he was single.
KELLY: Yeah, but you know, the treatment of women, the objectification of women. This is what I was trying to go for in that debate question, which is you make a lot of comments about women's looks. A lot of comments about women's looks. And listen, he makes a lot of comments about men's looks too. I hear he thinks you’re awesome. He thinks your gorgeous.
BRIAN KILMEADE: The New York Times also did a good job on Clinton Cash. Remember, they took Peter Scheizer’s book and they did some investigations.
KELLY: And Benghazi.
KILMEANDE: Very curious to see when the movie came out, I saw it the other day about Clinton Cash. It was screened. It’s going at one of those festivals. to look at direct correlations between the donations they took and places they got and influence that came. I'm curious to see now that there’s something— now that she looks like the presumptive nominee that if they're be just as aggressive.
KELLY: You know— The only solution is for them to be shamed into doing it. If they don't do it, they need to be shamed into do it. Right? Because otherwise they'll play into the narrative that people already about them and that Trump has about them that they're not fair. So, this is all well and good. These guys are in the arena. They want George Washington's job. That’s good. They better get hit. We should be doing in-depth pieces on them. On both of them.
