October 26, 2016

Newt Gingrich Explodes at Megyn Kelly, Accuses Her of Being “Fascinated by Sex”

The House Speaker lost all control when discussing Donald Trump’s misogyny.



Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich engaged in a tense confrontation with Megyn Kelly on Tuesday, clashing with the Fox News host over Donald Trump’s treatment of women on live television.

The exchange first started when Kelly pointed to several polls, including one by Fox News, indicating Hillary Clinton leading in a number of key swing states, prompting Gingrich to allege the media was biased against the Republican nominee.

“Let me point out something to you,” Gingrich said. “The three major networks spent 23 minutes attacking Donald Trump that night and 57 seconds on Hillary Clinton’s secret speeches. You don’t think this is a scale of bias worthy of Pravda and Izvestia?”

But it was when Kelly then turned to broach the allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump, describing the real estate magnate as a “sexual predator,” that Gingrich appeared to lose control.

“You’re fascinated with sex and you don’t care about public policy,” he said.

“You know what, Mr. Speaker,” Kelly responded, visibly taken aback. “I’m not fascinated by sex but I am fascinated by the protection of women and understanding what we’re getting in the Oval Office and I think the American voters would like to know…”

Some prominent Trump supporters took to Twitter to commend Gingrich:


Conservative pundit Amanda Carpenter, who just hours before penned a Washington Post piece asking why men in her own party refused to defend her against Trump’s sexism, said that the “Kelly File” encounter proved her point:


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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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