Former President Donald Trump called Sirius XM host Megyn Kelly “pretty nasty” on Wednesday after granting her a sit-down interview for the first tine in seven years.
Trump sat down for an exclusive interview with Kelly, which aired Thursday on a special edition of “The Megyn Kelly Show.” Kelly asked the former president about his approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, whether a man can become a woman and House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
“I sat down for an hour and then I did a Megyn Kelly one and she had, you know, just, jeez, she became nastier all of a sudden,” Trump said during a Wednesday campaign event in Maquoketa, Iowa. “She was pretty nasty, didn’t you think?”
Trump has a long history of conflict with Kelly, beginning in 2015 when she criticized his rhetoric toward women during a Republican presidential primary debate. (RELATED: Trump Says Politicized Impeachments, Indictments Are ‘Bad For The Country’ As GOP Turns Up The Heat On Biden)
“You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals,'” the then-Fox News host said during the debate.
“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Trump responded, drawing loud applause from the audience.
“No, it wasn’t,” Kelly said. “Your Twitter account — for the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell. Your Twitter account has many disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice” it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?”
After the debate, Trump told then-CNN host Don Lemon that Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever” and later told then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that he had “zero respect” for Kelly.