Right-wing commentator Megyn Kelly, though initially critical of President Donald Trump, has since become an often-supporter of the president. Now, Kelly has landed in hot water with another Trump supporter, Barstool Sports founder and owner Dave Portnoy, as she panders to Trump’s base by vilifying transgender people who play sports.
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After Kelly referred to women’s basketball player Caitlin Clark as a “coward” for responding to a question about transgender athletes by saying “it’s for the leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions,” Portnoy unequivocally denounced Kelly’s reaction.
“Absolute moron/idiot to call Caitlin a coward for this answer,” Portnoy posted on X. “1st of all you don’t even know how she feels on this issue and more importantly she doesn’t owe it to you or anybody else to be your political talking point. She just wants to play ball. Total coward cheap shot to call her a coward for not being your puppet.”
Kelly has aroused considerable controversy as she moves farther to the right. As Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha pointed out in July, influencers like Kelly, Candace Owens and Benny Johnson have seen major dips since Trump’s second inauguration as conservatives feel disgruntled over the president’s failure to keep his promises to stay out of foreign wars and reduce taxes.
“I think it signals back to what you started this conversation with this panel, which is way the way that people are disenfranchized right now, or sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Rocha explained. “A lot of these folks you’re talking about in social media on the right, they wanted Donald Trump to be elected, and they were united behind that early on because he said we would not get in any foreign wars. He said he would bring the prices down on day one. He was going to make America great again and rebuild industrial America. Even some things this democrat agrees with.”
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He added that the result of this is that “you have all these folks fighting each other because they’re not getting what they were promised, and a lot of them are feeling, again, disgruntled like a lot of your viewers are. And that’s why you see the numbers upside down.”
In another recent example of Kelly’s far right turn, in June Kelly went on a racist rant against Haitian immigrants.
“And half of you people, more than half, you won’t assimilate,” Kelly said. “We don’t want you. We don’t care if you’re offended. Get out. Go home. Go back to f—— Haiti. Sorry. I’m just I’m thinking about our friends in Ohio who’ve been dealing with these … Haitians for years now. Drunk driving all over their towns and killing people.”
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