Megyn Kelly Claims Hillary Clinton Too Scared To Appear On ‘The Kelly File’ [Video]

Megyn Kelly says that former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had two reasons for an unwillingness to sit for an interview on The Kelly File, one of which was that she was too scared.

In a panel discussion on her FNC show last night about President-elect Donald Trump’s rocky relationship with the mainstream media, Kelly suggested that both President Obama and Hillary Clinton both blacklisted the Fox News Channel and that criticism of Trump should be tempered with that in mind, Mediaite reported.

Check out the clip below.

Kelly then claimed that when Clinton publicly praised her reporting, it was a form of hypocrisy.

“Take Hillary Clinton. All of her time out there saying what a fantastic journalist I am which she was using because she knew Trump attacked me and was using to curry favor with certain voting blocs. I asked her fifty ways from Sunday to come on this program through everyone who could ask her. She wouldn’t do it. And the reason, I think, was because she was scared, and but also her team didn’t want to ‘legitimize’ Fox News. And people who didn’t call her out at all are now ‘shocked, horrified’ that Donald Trump might not sit with certain news reporters or organizations…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pC8H5Pd8os

Baltimore Sun media reporter David Zurawik chimed in that Trump has found a “sweet spot” with television and social media to go over heads of national media news outlets and communicate directly with the American people.

Megyn Kelly concluded the discussion by insisting that her lack of access to Trump during most of the presidential campaign allowed The Kelly File to cover his candidacy more fairly.

“In a way, it was a gift,” she claimed, adding that her ratings stayed high the whole year.

In the months up through and after the presidential election, The Kelly File has featured a lot of anti-Donald Trump content, in contrast to much of what is presented The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity, which air before and after, respectively, The Kelly File. There have been some nights that her ratings have lagged other cable network news shows in the same time slot or the offerings of her prime-time colleagues, however.

After the August 2015 GOP presidential debate, Trump and Kelly famously feuded (some pundits called it a one-way feud), although Megyn Kelly finally met with the then-candidate secretly in Trump Tower on April 13, which then led to a TV interview on Megyn Kelly Presents that aired on the Fox broadcast network on May 17. The prime-time special disappointed in the ratings, however. Trump regularly appeared on Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity’s bookend shows, however, during the campaign season.

Some Megyn Kelly critics, who have denounced her for playing the martyr card, contend that when she famously challenged Donald Trump during that debate about his past comments about women (“only Rosie O’Donnell,” Trump famously quipped), it was more about careerism and auditioning for CNN or another network than a legitimate journalistic inquiry. As alluded to above, Trump harbored bitter feelings toward Megyn Kelly since then, which he made clear on Twitter and in various media interviews.

About a week or so ago, Megyn Kelly told a TMZ cameraman that things are all good between her and Trump, however.

Amidst the ongoing promotion of the Settle for More memoir, there is still lots of buzz that Kelly may jump to CNN, ABC News, or another platform when her FNC contract expires in July of 2017. Fox execs have reportedly offered her $20 million per year to remain as the anchor of The Kelly File which airs Monday through Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Parenthetically, on the eve of Christmas Eve, Megyn Kelly unleashed a Tweetstorm about Shutterfly for allegedly lying about the status of her Christmas card order and vowing to never do business with the firm again.

[Featured Image by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Images]