Gingrich and Megyn Kelly got into it last night on Fox News’s The Kelly File.
This an exceptional two minutes of television for a lot of reasons. We’ll start with the one that’s getting the most attention—Gingrich accusing Kelly of being “obsessed with sex.”
Gingrich: “You are fascinated with sex and you don’t care about public policy.
Kelly: “Me? Really?”
Gingrich: “That’s what I get out of watching you tonight.”
Kelly: “You know what Mr. Speaker, I’m not fascinated by sex, but I am fascinated by the protection of women and understanding what we’re getting in the Oval Office and I think the American voters would like to know…”
Kelly’s “Me? Really?” is about as subtle as jokes about Gingrich, one of America’s jowliest men, get. It’s hard to imagine a more hypocritical accusation, given that Gingrich led the campaign that ended in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. It’s especially hypocritical given that Gingrich led that witch hunt while having a secret affair of his own. Gingrich is the last person who should be lecturing Kelly, or anyone else, about sexual mores—though admittedly that has never stopped him before.
But the segment is fascinating for other reasons as well, most notably that Gingrich accuses Kelly—and by extension Fox News—of having it out for Trump and of downplaying Clinton scandals (involving both Bill and Hillary). For this reason, many on the (far, far) right are championing the clip, including low rent Pravda Breitbart, which has it splashed all over its homepage, and Trump’s own director of social media.
If that seems menacing, that’s because it is. The really sad part is that he’s operating on an assumption shared by no thinking people at the moment, which is that Trump will win the election.