Megyn Kelly is coming under fire for comments she made Wednesday on her podcast where she attempted to downplay Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse.
Kelly was interviewing conservative journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon when she made the dubious claim about the disgraced financier, which she attributed to “somebody very, very close to this case who is in a position to know virtually everything. Not everything, but virtually everything.”
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Kelly said the unnamed source told her they didn’t think Epstein was a pedophile, just “into the barely legal type, like, he liked 15-year-old girls.”
She elaborated on what that meant, and you are forgiven if you feel like you need a bath after reading her rationale (which she insisted were “facts,” not an “excuse”).
Kelly said her source said Epstein “wasn’t 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.”
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She said that she believed Epstein was a real pedophile for years and admitted that “it wasn’t until we heard from Pam Bondi that they had tens of thousands of videos of alleged — forgive me, they used to call it kiddie porn, now they call it child sexual abuse material — on his computer that for the first time, I thought, ‘Oh, no, he was an actual pedophile.’”
“I mean, only a pedophile gets off on young children abuse videos. She’s never clarified it, I don’t know whether it’s true,” she added. “I have to be honest, I don’t really trust Pam Bondi’s word on the Epstein matters anymore.”
Kelly admitted she doesn’t know what’s true about Epstein, but noted that “we have yet to see anybody come forward and say, ‘I was under 10, I was under 14 when I first came within his purview.’”
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She then engaged in a bit of hairsplitting over the definition of pedophilia.
“You can say that’s a distinction without a difference. I think there is a difference. There’s a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old, you know?” she said, before admitting the obvious.
“Whatever. It’s sick. Every time we start talking about Epstein, it makes your skin crawl. You’re right. The whole thing is just disgusting,” she said.
You can read a transcript of the complete exchange at Media Matters for America and watch a clip below.
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Despite Kelly calling Epstein “disgusting,” her hairsplitting on underage sex abuse was heavily criticized on social media.
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