Megyn Kelly seized on Harry Reid’s “domestic terrorists” comments about the armed-militia types who threatened federal agents on Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s land as an excuse to spend not one, not two but three of her show’s opening segments demonizing Reid in response. Hilariously, she even blamed Reid for it, as if she and Fox News had no choice in what to discuss. I guess it was Reid’s fault as well that she just “had” to call on guests she knew would ratchet up the hostilities and inflame tensions further.

In the first segment tongiht, Kelly’s guest, a radio talk show host who’s a Bundy supporter, called the BLM the “real domestic terrorists.”

“Documentary filmmaker” Dennis Michael Lynch calls Reid a “terrorist”

As Priscilla noted about Lynch, he’s very paranoid concerned about the lawlessness of undocumented immigrants but Cliven Bundy’s lawlessness – not so much. He has also been hilariously skewered by The Daily Show.

Kelly made a stab at fairness by explaining that Reid was referring to the Bundy supporters deliberately putting women and children in harm’s way to further their cause. She added, “And what he accuses them of was supported to some extent by a sheriff who came on Fox News earlier this week.”

Supported to some extent? The sheriff said that was the plan – for the women, anyway. Huffington Post has video that aired on Fox’s The Real Story identifying Richard Mack as a former sheriff from Arizona and saying, “We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front. If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.”

The same footage aired on Hannity that night, though Mack was unidentified in that clip.

Instead of playing that clip, Kelly played a clip of Reid. Because why discredit Lynch when she could make it look like Reid was making unsubstantiated accusations?

Lynch replied slowly and haltingly so that we could all know how deeply sincere and thoughtful he is. “I was. At the front. Of the front line. I heard nobody say that we were going to put women and children first. Nobody said that.”

Well, yeah, somebody did. Kelly had just told him so. But she never corrected or challenged his “certainty.”

Instead, Lynch turned dramatically to look at the camera and said:

Senator, I am calling you out right now on national television. I’ve called your office today. I’m gonna call your office every day until you grant me an interview. I’m gonna sit down like a polite businessman… and ask you one question: Why did you point guns at the American people?...

In real life, law enforcers routinely point guns at Americans as part of their job. But Kelly didn’t mention it. She took the opportunity to promote the conspiracy theory that Reid’s private interests are behind the whole thing:

Kelly said coyly: “Some people are suggesting that Harry Reid had some stake in this whole matter and that he was against the rancher, Cliven Bundy, for political purposes. He wanted the land for development and other people who pad his political pockets.”

Kelly just “forgot” to mention that other people have completely debunked that theory. Instead, she gave herself cover by saying, “None of which has been substantiated but there’s anecdotal evidence and circumstantial evidence of that out there.” But having covered her “I helped Fox smear Reid without lying” bases, Kelly went into full indignation mode:

Nonetheless, Mr. Reid is the one who’s calling more attention to this. It was over, people were moving on. He is the one who keeps stoking this fire.

That’s right. It’s all his fault Kelly had to devote three segments to attacking him!

Of course, Lynch agreed. “It is disrespectful to Americans for that man to call these people terrorists. ...He is the terrorist! And as far as I’m concerned, in this situation.”

Rather than object, Kelly piled on: “Not the first time, either, because he called the Tea Party a bunch of anarchists.”

Lynch continued: “You know why he’s a terrorist? Because he – that man right there is trying to kill the American spirit.”

Kelly broke in. Considering that she had no objection when she originally heard Lynch's accusation, I suspect a producer told her to speak up. “Listen,” she said, “You don’t want to call Harry Reid a terrorist. Now you’re reverting to the same tactics he used.”

“I’m not saying that,” Lynch said. Even though he just had. “And I apologize. But I ‘m not going to be afraid of Harry Reid.”

Kelly quickly ended the interview.

Andrew McCarthy presents Obama as terrorists’ soulmate

Andrew “impeach Obama” McCarthy was Kelly’s third and last guest for this discussion.

McCarthy began reasonably enough. “I don’t think we can defend lawlessness. It seems clear to me, looking at the case, that (Bundy) is in the wrong.”

But from there, McCarthy and Kelly made Obama, Reid, the BLM and everyone but Bundy the real evildoers. First, McCarthy accused Reid of trivializing terrorism.

KELLY: You raise a good point. …You actually used to put terrorists in jail for a living. You dealt with real terrorists. And this is the same administration that will not refer to the Fort Hood massacre as terrorism. …And yet, they can look at these Americans out there and call them terrorists with ease.

MCCARTHY: Look, we had Eric Holder, when he was at the Clinton Justice Department, facilitated the pardons of FALN terrorists and Weather Underground terrorists. President Obama has long-standing connections to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn – actual domestic terrorists who admit that they were terrorists. …They backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. They issued a visa to a member of the blind sheikh’s terrorist organization in Egypt so that the could come to the White House and consult on the future of Egypt.

Although Kelly insists she’s not an opinion host but there to “keep everybody honest,” she failed to challenge a single assertion. One blatant distortion is Ayers. President Obama was never close to Ayers and Dohrn and by the time he met them they had long been upstanding members of their community. But Kelly put on her respectful listening face and cocked her head to the side, signaling that she thought McCarthy’s remarks worthy of thoughtful consideration. 

Apparently, Reid’s comments were so significant that Kelly was not only forced to spend three segments deliberately exacerbating an armed conflict – but she needed three Bundy supporters (plus her own jabs at the Obama and Reid) to make a “fair and balanced” counterweight to Reid’s brief clip.