Conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly warned her audience not to follow in Fox News’s steps by championing President Donald Trump for capturing the deposed Venezuelan president — adding that she had been “embarrassed” for blindly supporting the administration in the past.
Kelly, who worked at Fox News for 13 years, criticized her former employer for “cheerleading” Trump’s recent attacks in Venezuela that led to the capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, saying it was “like watching Russian propaganda.”
“I turned on Fox News yesterday, and I’m sorry, but it was like watching Russian propaganda. There was nothing skeptical,” Kelly said on Monday’s episode of The Megyn Kelly Show.
“It was all ‘rah rah cheerleading, yes, let’s go.’ But there are serious reasons to just exercise a note of caution before we just get on the ‘rah rah train,’” she added.
Kelly recounted that she had contributed to the blind cheerleading of the U.S. intervening in foreign matters while serving as an anchor for Fox News, but that it occasionally “embarrassed” her when a situation did not end positively.
She added that, while working at Fox News, she was expected to uplift the conservative administration – seemingly, regardless of its actions.
“I will not be joining the Fox News cheerleading brigade this time. I’ve been burned too many times,” Kelly said.
On Fox News Monday, anchors such as Sean Hannity appeared to defend the U.S.’s recent actions when insinuating that Venezuela owed American companies oil that it “stole.” Laura Ingraham asserted Trump’s move was a “needed global reset.” Jesse Watters dramatically recounted the military operation, emphasizing the president’s success.
The current anchors’ positive narrative about the military operation appeared to be consistent with Kelly’s claim about how the network went about covering world affairs.
Now, with an independent podcast, Kelly encouraged her audience to use a “yellow light” approach and think critically about the recent events.
“I have seen what happens when you cheerlead, unabashedly, U.S. intervention in foreign countries, thinking it's for our good and the international good, only to wind up with what we called a quagmire,” Kelly said.
At Trump’s direction, U.S. forces launched a small attack in Caracas, Venezuela, over the weekend, to capture Maduro and Flores and bring them to New York to face federal prosecution. Last week, prosecutors charged the two with counts related to drug trafficking and weapons offenses.
Appearing in court Monday, Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty to their respective charges.
After the military operation, Trump claimed the U.S. would be taking over Venezuela for the time being and, in an interview with The Altantic, warned the current interim leader to abide by his requests or face a worse fate. Trump administration officials said the U.S. had taken over an oil reserve.
“We’re not great at going into these foreign countries, decapitating them at the leadership level and then saying ‘we’re going to either steer the country to a better place or it’s going to steer itself,’” Kelly pointed out, citing U.S. actions in Iraq and Libya.
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