Former CNN host Don Lemon lashed out at former Fox News host and conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly, calling her a "racist" on Monday morning.
Lemon made the comments during a recording of his Don Lemon Show podcast.
"Let's talk about the haters," Lemon said, taking a sip from a Megyn Kelly Today mug. The mug comes from Kelly's former stint at the helm of a short-lived NBC talk show bearing her name.
Lemon said he didn't typically like talking about Kelly because "she's one of those people, she thrives on it," and went on to say that the second half of her career has been her "being a troll."
“Instead of supporting – just remember, Megyn Kelly is allegedly, right, although I do hear, the streets are talking, that allegedly, she’s not ... as supportive of women as she makes out to be. Especially that whole thing that went on at Fox News with Roger Ailes and all of that there," Lemon said. "They’re like, ‘Really, Megyn is saying that? Huh. Y’all don’t know her.’ Oh, I’m going there.”
Kelly was outspoken about the sexual harassment women faced under Ailes including allegations that he tried to forcibly kiss her and asked her for nude photos. Ailes died in 2017.
Lemon claimed that Kelly has a PR team boosting clips of her that start with the phrase "Megyn Kelly calls out," and said the "call out" phenomenon was a mostly right-wing marketing tactic for media personalities.
“I don’t want to be one of those people whose Google profile begins with ‘Don Lemon Calls Out.’ It’s gauche, it’s unseemly, and it’s beneath me, and it should be beneath her,” Lemon said.
Lemon was let go by CNN in April 2023, three years before his contract was set to expire.
He then went after Kelly for her response to the news that Joy Reid's show at MSNBC had been cancelled.
Kelly issued a social media post — which Lemon read out loud — celebrating Reid's exit.
"Remember when Joy Reid laughingly mocked 'white women tears' as pathetic and offensive to her? Who’s crying now, Joy? Good riddance to the absolute worst person on television, and shame on NBC for letting it go on this long," Kelly wrote on social media.
Lemon said that her response was evidence that Kelly's pro-woman persona was a facade before calling her a racist.
“And she has, you know, she has an ax to grind when it comes to MSNBC. And also, you know, you know, this whole – she’s racist, right? ...I’m gonna give you the evidence. Supposedly learned from and then spent every day after apologizing for it and being fired for it, then spent every day proving the point that she is a racist. And not very supportive of women, if you look, all you have to do, the evidence is in her Google search and what she says about women, and how she calls them out all the time,” Lemon said.
The former CNN host then turned Kelly's words around and tossed them back at her.
“The worst person? No, Megyn Kelly! The worst person on television was fired from NBC and The Today Show a few years ago, and that’s Megyn Kelly," he said. "That’s the worst person who’s not on television anymore — it’s you. That’s the worst person who’s not on television. So hurrah for that, NBC did something good for with that.”
The Independent has requested comment from Kelly.
