Journalist on Megyn Kelly panel during blackface discussion: ‘Sorry if I let you down’

An MSNBC journalist who appeared on a panel when Megyn Kelly defended the use of blackface in a Halloween costume is apologizing for not disagreeing with her more vocally.

“What was said was vile,” tweeted MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff Wednesday. “Not only has blackface always been and will always be racist — questioning that was disgraceful.”

“I’m ashamed I didn’t speak up more emphatically at the table,” he wrote. “I’m sorry if I let you down.”

Morning. Want you guys to know how I feel about yesterday.

What was said was vile.

Not only has blackface always been and will always be racist — questioning that was disgraceful.

I’m ashamed I didn’t speak up more emphatically at the table.

I’m sorry if I let you down.

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) October 24, 2018

During a roundtable discussion on her block of NBC’s “Today Show” on Tuesday, Kelly defended wearing blackface or whiteface for a Halloween costume.

“But what is racist?” Kelly asked. “You truly do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween.” 

{mosads}“Back when I was a kid, that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”

Soboroff pushed back against Kelly at the time, saying of an example she used, “It sounds a little racist to me.”

Later that day, Kelly apologized to her colleagues for her remarks.

“Today is one of those days where listening carefully to other points of view, including from friends and colleagues, is leading me to rethink my own views,” she wrote. “I realize now that such behavior is indeed wrong, and I am sorry. The history of blackface in our culture is abhorrent; the wounds too deep.”

Kelly later apologized on air for her statements.

The Hollywood Reporter and Variety both reported that Kelly’s talent agency, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), dropped her shortly after her statements.