Welcome back! Megyn Kelly has fiery exchange with Ron DeSantis over him still trailing Trump – eight years after THAT debate appearance with Trump
In a moment that showed shades of her confrontations in previous debates with former President Donald Trump, Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly clashed with Ron DeSantis in Thursday's debate.
Kelly — who made peace with Trump but was unable to convince him to attend the NewsNation debate on her podcast — was once accused by Trump after a 2015 game of “bleeding out of hair wherever he can.”
As moderator of the final debate of 2023, she pointed out to DeSantis early in the battle that the Florida governor is in third place in New Hampshire and South Carolina and is losing to Trump in his home state.
'Is it fair to say that, as a senator? Tim Scott did when he dropped out that voters tell you, not no, but not now?”
DeSantis seems troubled by the demand, the polls and the pundits declaring his candidacy prematurely dead.
In a moment that bore shades of her confrontations in past debates with former President Donald Trump, Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly (pictured left) clashed with Ron DeSantis (pictured right) in Thursday's debate
“So we have this great idea in America that the voters actually make these decisions, and not the experts or pollsters,” he said.
He then noted that pollsters had misjudged the midterm elections, saying: I'm tired of hearing about these polls because I remember those polls in November 2022. They said there was going to be a big red wave. It would be monumental. And it crashed and burned down.”
DeSantis pointed out that he won by double digits in Florida, where other Republicans failed.
Kelly began by noting how far DeSantis' campaign had come from his status as a conservative darling.
“Governor DeSantis, your campaign and his super PAC spent the most money, had the most wealthy donors and built a wave of momentum in this race after your big re-election victory in Florida,” she said.
“You were seen by many as the candidate most likely to consolidate the non-Trump field.”
'But we're now a month away from the first real votes and you haven't succeeded yet. In fact, Nikki Haley is now beating you in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and getting you in Iowa,” Kelly added.
According to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEightTrump is now on track to win about 60 percent of the vote in the contest, which begins with the Iowa Caucus on January 24.
Kelly — who made peace with Trump but couldn't convince him to attend the NewsNation debate on her podcast — was once accused by Trump after a 2015 game of “bleeding out of hair wherever he goes.”
After branding his debate with California Gov. Gavin Newsom as “the Battle of Loserville,” former President Donald Trump continues to dominate Florida's Ron DeSantis in the Republican primaries.
It leaves Ron DeSantis way back in second place with 12.6 percent, with just 52 days before votes start counting.
DeSantis will join former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at the next Republican meeting Wednesday, but Trump will skip it — as he did at all three previous debates.
The Florida governor recently lost two key cogs in his Never Back Down Super PAC, with Chairman Adam Laxalt resigning a week ago and CEO Kristin Davison being fired on Saturday.
According to the BBC, they have been replaced in both roles by Scott Wagner New York Times.
The numbers mark the first time in 2023 that Trump has reached 60 percent of the polling average.
DeSantis is in second place in the polls, which such a low total shows how none of the other candidates have been able to lay a gauntlet on incumbent candidate Trump.
Haley currently averages 9.5 percent, Ramaswamy 5.1 percent and Christie 2.9 percent.
The debate was the first hosted by Kelly since the 2016 debates, where she initially clashed with Trump.
Trump has launched a stunningly personal attack on Fox News host Megyn Kelly after she fired “unfair” questions at him during a televised debate.
The Republican front-runner said she had “blood pouring out of her… everywhere” when she called him out on his history of insulting women.
The comment, in an interview with CNNis the latest in a series of disruptions in what Kelly called the “war on women,” in which Trump has turned on female targets.
The intervention surrounding Kelly also saw him removed from the line-up at an influential meeting of conservative activists planned for Saturday, after the comments were widely interpreted as a reference to Kelly's menstrual cycle.
Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier moderate the first primetime Republican presidential debate
In the CNN exchange, Trump roundly attacked her, saying, “I don't have a lot of respect for Megyn Kelly. She came out, read her little script and tried to be tough and sharp.
“When you meet her, you realize she's not very tough or very sharp. She's zippo.'
When Lemon asked him to expand, he said, “I just don't respect her as a journalist. I don't respect her, I don't think she's that good. She is highly overrated.
'I got there and they started saying all these things… they got out and started asking me all kinds of ridiculous questions. You could see blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever… you could tell she was off base.”
He concluded, “She's a lightweight, I don't care.” Some commentators online criticized Lemon for not asking Trump to explain himself.