In a lengthy interview with Ivanka Trump about her father’s just-announced child-care policy, Megyn Kelly seemed to think her job was to help sell Ivanka to The Kelly File viewers.
Kelly feigned objectivity. She said, “The big pushback so far from conservatives is, who is gonna pay for it?” But instead of supplying her own, independent facts, she opened the door for Trump to spin. “What’s the answer to that?” Kelly asked. (The self-described “straight news anchor” completely ignored liberal concerns.)
Ivanka replied like a chip off the answer-every-question-with-a-boast-about-how-awesome-I-am Trump block:
TRUMP: Well, we’ve actually had a tremendous amount of support, actually. Sitting in the audience today were five Congresswomen and the feedback’s been amazing.
[…] In terms of paying for it, my father has always been fiscally responsible.
Well, except for the multiple bankruptcies, the multiple business failures and the hundreds who allege he doesn’t pay his bills. But “straight news anchor” Kelly didn’t seem to think it was her place to mention any of that.
Kelly did note that part of the plan would be paid for out of unemployment insurance (which Trump said was “only one component” of it). “That would raise the taxes that employers would have to pay on employees,” Kelly said, “so conservatives are saying they won’t hire as many people if they have to pay more per employee.”
That was it for the challenges.
Kelly didn’t say a word about how it might eat into the already-overburdened unemployment insurance systems or take away funds from the unemployed. She also either didn’t notice or didn’t care how Trump’s plan is a combination of the useless and inadequate for the poor and would hand most of the benefits to the rich.
“It won’t raise the taxes,” Trump assured us, because there’s “billions and billions of dollars” in “fraud, waste and abuse” that, presumably, her awesome father is going to save us.
Never mind that Donald Trump’s own spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson, should be first in line. She reportedly defrauded Texas to the tune of $11,000 in unemployment insurance while she was working on Ted Cruz’s senate campaign. If Donald Trump hasn't weeded her out, why should we think he’ll do a better job with the rest of it?
Kelly also allowed Ivanka Trump to lie: “There’s no policy on Hillary Clinton’s website pertaining to any of these issues,” Trump declared. But as Media Matters pointed out, Clinton published detailed policy proposals on these issues long before Trump and they are all on her website.
Kelly left plenty of time for sucking up, though:
KELLY: What I think is great about you – not everybody knows this about you but I can’t reveal what it is. But I know for a fact that Ivanka has been offered many – let’s call them vanity projects. Things that would allow her to sort of become more famous, more well known and she says no, no, no, no, no because she likes the job she’s doing. She’s a business woman at heart and you’ve been well educated for it and you do it well by all accounts.
All that misogyny Kelly called out on Trump? That he threw at her? That was so pre make-up interview ago! Kelly now said delicately, “Your dad’s had some trouble” with women. Then she chuckled appreciatively when Ivanka said her father is “an equal opportunity offender.”
Watch Kelly’s brown-nosing below, from the September 13, 2016 The Kelly File.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/firm-behind-ivanka-trump-clothes-offers-no-paid-maternity-leave-article-1.2743075
Kinda puts a whole new light on Kelly’s question "who is gonna pay for it?” eh? ;^)