{"id":80975,"date":"2025-11-14T10:36:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=80975"},"modified":"2025-11-17T07:21:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:21:28","slug":"megyn-kelly-sold-out-girls-to-downplay-epsteins-crimes-it-helps-the-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/megyn-kelly-sold-out-girls-to-downplay-epsteins-crimes-it-helps-the-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Megyn Kelly Sold Out Girls to Downplay Epstein\u2019s Crimes. It Helps the President"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Conservative news show host Megyn Kelly sought to lessen the severity of Jeffry Epstein’s crimes. This op-ed looks at one possible reason why. (Credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine a less appropriate time to get caught up in semantics, than when discussing victims of sexual assault<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Megyn Kelly did precisely that this week. The host of a self-named Sirius XM show used her platform<\/a> to downplay the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, the former financier and convicted sex trafficker who died in prison in 2019. During a recent on-air segment, Kelly went on something of a tangent regarding Epstein\u2019s misdeeds, a frankly bizarre conversational thread that saw her attempting to lessen the severity of them in light of the victims\u2019 ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know somebody very close to this case, [and] Jeffrey Epstein, in this person’s view, was not a pedophile \u2013 he was into the \u2018barely legal type,\u2019\u201d Kelly said. She went on to note that Epstein \u201cwasn\u2019t into, like, 8-year-olds. But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passerby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly added<\/a>: \u201cThere’s a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure \u2013 technically speaking, a pedophile<\/a> is a person who is attracted to prepubescent children, specifically. But let\u2019s be clear: A 15-year-old is still very much a child. At that age, one cannot legally drive a car, or vote, or drink alcohol. And, one cannot legally consent to sex anywhere in the U.S. (In most states, 16 is the delineation point \u2013 and \u201calmost\u201d doesn\u2019t matter.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, a 15-year-old is in the dawn of their life. And in that confusing, exciting, pivotal time \u2013 that\u2019s when Epstein and his cohorts made use of their victims. They abused them, for fleeting moments of pleasure. A deeply entitled and deeply demeaning violation that irrevocably changed the trajectories of the victims\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly\u2019s take is tantamount to: At least they weren\u2019t younger. That would have been a real<\/em> crime. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n \"Virginia\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n \n ‘Nobody’s Girl’ Tells the Haunting Story of Virginia Giuffre, a Jeffrey Epstein Abuse Victim\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s About Trump<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Her rhetoric is especially reprehensible, and confusing at first, when you consider that she endured harassment herself, having come from a workplace \u2013 Fox News \u2013 that was once run by a different predatory, powerful man<\/a> (former chairman Roger Ailes) and was rife with enablers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, though, when folks like her former colleague, Bill O\u2019Reilly, defended Ailes years ago, Kelly was quick to condemn the sentiment. \u201cWomen everywhere are used to being dismissed, ignored or attacked when raising complaints about men in authority positions,” Kelly said in 2017. “They stay silent so often out of fear \u2014 fear of ending their careers, fear of lawyers, yes, and often fear of public shaming.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the same time, actor Scott Baio was facing his own allegations. During an interview with his accuser, Kelly asserted<\/a>: \u200b\u200b”\u200aThere’s no consenting for a 14- or even a 17-year-old.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point between then and now, she became willing to compromise on the well-being of teenagers. The question is: Why? And the answer likely lies in the fact that she has been an increasingly vocal proponent of the Trump administration \u2013 and President Donald Trump himself is one of the more powerful individuals suspected to be on Epstein\u2019s client list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the 2024 presidential election was reaching its end, Kelly was even present on the campaign trail, endorsing Trump loudly. “He will be a protector of women. And it’s why I’m voting for him,” she said<\/a> at a campaign event \u2013 about a man who once joked about her menstrual cycle<\/a> because she asked him tough questions during a debate, and who was found guilty<\/a> of falsifying financial records to cover up other sexual transgressions of his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has famously wanted the Epstein story to go away \u2013 especially now, given the number of times he was mentioned in a recently released deluge of emails<\/a> from the case. Earlier this year, he tried to downplay them matter himself, when survivors of the sex trafficking ring spoke out in Washington, D.C.<\/a>, calling upon Congress to release the case files and expose those who harmed them. After their press conference, Trump waved the demonstration away as merely a \u201cDemocrat hoax that never ends.\u201d He continued, \u201cThey\u2019re trying to get people to talk about something that\u2019s totally irrelevant to the success that we\u2019ve had as a nation since I\u2019ve been president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, he has Kelly\u2019s assistance in making this mountain appear to be a molehill \u2013 because minimizing Epstein\u2019s wrongdoing does the same for any of the people who sought his services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly did get one thing right in her most recent segment. \u201cThe whole thing is just disgusting,\u201d she pointed out \u2013 not realizing how her own words, and her willingness to downplay victims\u2019 suffering for the sake of the wannabe autocrat she supports, falls under that same heading. ◼️<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n \"Women\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n

\n \n Shame on Women Who Abandon Fellow Women. We Need Each Other\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The conservative pundit chose complicity over courage when she minimized the abuses done by the deceased sex trafficker, Candice Helfand-Rogers writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":80976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"Conservative news show host Megyn Kelly sought to lessen the severity of Jeffry Epstein's crimes. 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