Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren defended NBC host Megyn Kelly on Thursday following reports that Kelly was losing her daytime talk show after she questioned whether the use of blackface on Halloween is racist.
“Love her or hate her, what’s happening to Megyn Kelly is straight bull,” Lahren tweeted of Kelly, who left Fox News in 2017 after becoming the highest-rated female host in cable news.
CNN reported Thursday night that Kelly will no longer host the 9 a.m. hour of the “Today” show at NBC News, less than two years after signing a reported three-year, $69 million contract.
{mosads}Kelly came under fire this week for her comments during a Tuesday panel about Halloween costumes.
The host said dressing up in blackface was considered OK when she was growing up “as long as you were dressing like a character.”
“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,” Kelly said during the segment. “That was OK when I was a kid, as long as you were dressing like a character.”
Kelly apologized in a letter to NBC staff on Tuesday but longtime “Today” meteorologist Al Roker said the apology wasn’t good enough.
“The fact is, she owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the county,” Roker said. “This is a history, going back to the 1830s minstrel shows. To demean and denigrate a race wasn’t right. I’m old enough to have lived through ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy,’ where you had white people in blackface playing two black characters just magnifying the stereotypes about black people. And that’s what the big problem is. … No good comes from it. It’s just not right.”
She later followed up with an emotional apology on air during her Wednesday show.
“I want to begin with two words: I’m sorry,” she began. “The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor.”
“Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too,” Kelly finished and received a standing ovation from the audience.
Kelly has received backlashed before for her remarks about race and racism.
In 2013, a video of Kelly speaking about Christmas and Santa Claus went viral when the anchor declared that “Santa just is white. … Just because it makes you uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change. Jesus was a white man, too.”