Political commentator Megyn Kelly blasted Fox News for claiming Charlie Kirk was “theirs” while it effectively banned him from the network because of his support for Tucker Carlson.
On her popular “The Megyn Kelly Show” podcast Friday, the former Fox News anchor didn’t mince words about the network’s treatment of Kirk.
“It’s really bothering me how Fox News is talking about Charlie, like he was theirs — he wasn’t. It’s a lie. Just stop,” Kelly said.
Kelly quit Fox News in January 2017 and has since been one of the network’s most vocal critics, particularly after Carlson’s firing in April 2023. She claimed that although some Fox personalities were friendly with Kirk, network leadership deliberately kept him off the air.
“Fox News, they wouldn’t put Charlie on, OK?” she said. “I know this from my own behind-the-scenes conversations and I’m not going to specify from whom. But they were annoyed on Team Charlie because he was banned. They wouldn’t put him on. He had been too supportive of Tucker.”
Kirk appeared to be completely absent from Fox News in 2023 after Carlson’s firing and early 2024 – though Kelly claimed the network would give him brief appearances to cover for their effective ban.
Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, had complained about the ban, which he said was ongoing after Carlson was fired. In a December 2023 interview with Breitbart, Kirk pointed to the absence of Fox News at his AmericaFest event in Phoenix.
“We don’t have a single person from Fox here, and in the years past, we have,” Kirk said. “They’ve been very good to me.”
He added, “I hope we can heal our relationship, because for whatever reason, it’s gone off the reservation.”
He noted that he had been effectively banned from the network.
“You just look at Grabien, no Charlie Kirk for nine months, right?” Kirk said, referring to the online video archive of clips from newsmakers.
Kirk said the source of the rift was his support for Carlson.
“Since Tucker’s departure, I haven’t been on — and so, we had to do an event without Fox, and that was a great thing, man, because sometimes desperation is the mother of innovation, right?” he said.
Kirk added that his team had grown used to Fox News hosts such as Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld supporting TPUSA events.
“But that wasn’t a thing, we couldn’t do it, they’re not allowed to be here,” Kirk said.
Others said Kirk also earned the ire of Fox News brass and the Murdoch family for being a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, even though Trump lost the 2020 election and was mired in legal troubles.
Kirk’s situation with Fox News mirrored other pro-Trump allies during Trump’s post-presidential years, including Jason Miller, Pam Bondi, Kari Lake, Karoline Leavitt, Peter Navarro, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and Andrew Giuliani.
Fox News previously denied Giuliani and his son were outright banned, but the Giulianis maintained the network’s claim was patently false.
Abby Grossberg, Carlson’s producer who was fired by Fox News, sued the network in 2023, claiming it tolerated a hostile work environment. She reportedly alleged a number of people were “on and off the banned list,” including Kari Lake, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Steve Bannon, Navarro, and Jenna Ellis.
At the time of the lawsuit, Fox News said its claims were “baseless” and “riddled with false allegations.” Still, the network reportedly settled with Grossberg for $12 million.
Longtime Trump fundraiser Caroline Wren took to X last week soon after Kirk’s death to remind Trump supporters of Fox News’ actions.
“I appreciate the coverage Fox News is giving Charlie Kirk tonight, but let’s not forget that Fox banned Charlie from coming on the network from 2021-2024,” she wrote, “and the same anchors crying on air tonight over losing ‘an amazing champion for free speech’ are the same anchors who didn’t have the guts to challenge Murdoch, Paul Ryan, and Karl Rove when they banned Charlie from their network.”
Kelly argued Fox also employed a soft ban by putting Kirk on only occasionally after Carlson’s firing.
“He was considered ‘other,’ ” Kelly said.
“They put him on in July to co-host ‘Fox & Friends,’ which was a shock,” she said. “They finally caught on to his magic. And they had him on Will Cain’s show, I think, in August. And prior to that, that’s it. Years and years ago, 10 years ago. Yeah, OK.”
Kelly emphasized that Kirk was an insurgent who thrived outside of corporate media.
“He was independent – fiercely independent,” she said. “And while he was a rising star who would say yes to anyone; I mean, he was on everybody’s podcast doing the shows like ‘Surrounded,’ going to the Oxford Union.”
Newsmax continually had Kirk on without interruption following Trump’s first term.
After Kirk’s death, a top TPUSA executive wrote to Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, thanking him for the network’s strong support for Charlie.
“You made your network always available to Charlie, and we felt that,” he wrote.
For Kelly, Kirk’s exclusion by Fox News only underscored his resilience.
“Charlie was ubiquitous in his appearances,” she said. “He was loving, forgiving, and would say yes to anyone. He was independent. He built his own thing, created his own platform, he rose to power on his own, notwithstanding the absence of help from a lot of these big platforms that did their level best to demonize Charlie and Turning Point.”
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