The sharp-tongued comments from Megyn Kelly, following the abrupt exit of Joy Reid from MSNBC last week, have ignited the ire of former CNN anchor Don Lemon, sparking a fiery verbal exchange between the two ex-Prime Time news hosts. Lemon, in a scathing retort, told Kelly to "take a hike and f— yourself."
Reid's dismissal from the left-leaning cable news network, where she hosted "The ReidOut" from 2020 until her recent termination announced on Sunday, is part of a restructuring plan the network confirmed on Monday. This overhaul happens amidst the Trump administration's sweeping reforms of federal agencies and follows CBS News potentially settling a lawsuit with Trump over its editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, and shortly after ABC News resolved a lawsuit filed by the president.
Kelly, who was previously fired from Fox News and later from NBC News, where she hosted "Today" for two years until 2019, wasted no time in rubbing salt into the wound of Reid's departure from the cable news network. "Remember when Joy Reid mockingly dismissed 'white women's tears' as pathetic and offensive? Well, who's shedding tears now, Joy?" she posted on X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend. "Good riddance to the absolute worst person on television, and shame on NBC for allowing it to drag on this long."
Lemon, who knows firsthand the sting of a public firing after being let go from his nighttime show on CNN last year and then snubbed by Elon Musk after posing less-than-cordial questions during an interview for a show on X, swiftly targeted Kelly on his YouTube show. He labeled her a "racist" who doesn't stand by women and ultimately uttered the phrase "go f— yourself" to her.
"No, Megyn Kelly, the worst person on television was fired from NBC and the 'Today' show years ago, and that was Megyn Kelly," he shot back at her and his audience. "The worst person who is no longer on television is you."
The former CNN anchor then lambasted Kelly for her infamous incident where she dismissively shrugged off the notion of wearing blackface as part of a Halloween costume. "Girl, bye... Look who's crying now, look at the venom she spewed at Joy Reid, and now she's shedding crocodile tears," he said on his online show. "If she had learned from that incident, she wouldn't spend almost every day being a racist, proving the point that people called her out for then. I used to be friendly with Megyn Kelly, but when people show you who they truly are, you better bloody well believe it."
To conclude, Lemon invoked his journalism career spanning over three decades and his life as a minority in America while delivering the final blow to Kelly. "Let me just say this to Megyn Kelly," Lemon stated. "In my 30-plus years as a journalist and 50-plus years as a person of color: Take a hike and f— yourself. Alright?"
