SiriusXM's Megyn Kelly called ABC News' George Stephanopoulos and his team "idiots" Monday on her show for failing to correct themselves after the ABC host claimed President-elect Donald Trump was "found liable for rape" while berating Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace.
Court filings released Saturday revealed that ABC News and Stephanopoulos had agreed to settle Trump's defamation lawsuit against them, costing the network $15 million. On "The Megyn Kelly Show," the SiriusXM host said that Stephanopoulos' team failed to correct him after he had claimed multiple times on air that Trump was "liable for rape" in former columnist E. Jean Carroll's case against the former president.
"You're idiots! Stephanopoulos is an idiot, and so are his producers," Kelly said. "Because let me tell you, in all my years at Fox, never mind my short stint at NBC, the producers have a couple of main jobs. One is to arm the anchor with facts. Fail. OK, fail there. And two is to protect the anchor. You protect the anchor. So if the anchor is out there saying something colossally stupid, usually if you have a great producer, they'll get in your ear to say, 'No, it's this. No, it's that. Be careful.'"
"That happens with me all the time on this show. My producers, the ones who run herd on various segments that I'm doing, if they realize I've said something inaccurate or that I'm searching for a fact are constantly in my ears," Kelly added. "It's why I wear these headphones to say, 'It's this or it's that.' This whole thing that you're watching and listening to is a team effort. And 10 times that, a hundred times that, on ABC broadcast news and a Sunday show like the one George Stephanopoulos sits for -- partisan hack!"
During a March segment of his morning show, ABC's "This Week," Stephanopoulos got into a heated exchange with the Republican lawmaker, with Mace calling him out for "shaming her." At the time, Stephanopoulos questioned Mace about Trump being found liable for defamation and battery in Carroll's case against him, refusing to listen to Mace as she repeated that she was a victim of rape herself. (RELATED: 'Not The End Of The Story': CNN's Brian Stelter Speculates Why ABC Reached $15,000,000 Settlement With Trump)
"He's been there a long time. It doesn't make him any more respectable. He's a partisan hack. He started off as a partisan hack, and he remains one. He's just too ballless to own his partisan nature, wants us to believe that he's straight and narrow now, notwithstanding all those years helping Bill Clinton," Kelly added.
"The irony of him going after a rape supporter in that way. 'How could you support a rape supporter? My God, the nerve to support a rape supporter, a rape committer.' After his years running the war room, tearing down Bill Clinton's assault accusers. I mean, it's just rich. So now the whole thing has cost him his reputation and his company $15 million," Kelly said.
In 2015, Stephanopoulos issued an apology after making undisclosed donations to the Clinton Foundation, which were later revealed to have been an estimated $75,000 over the years, according to the Free Beacon. Prior to the discovery, the ABC host had conducted on-air interviews with the Clinton Foundation over allegations of their arguable relationship with foreign donors, the outlet reported.
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