CNN Rips ‘Completely Stupid’ Megyn Kelly Over Epstein ‘Not a Pedophile’ Rant
One guest said the right-wing host was creating a “permission structure” for Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
A CNN host was left stunned after hearing Megyn Kelly’s bizarre rant in which she said Jeffrey Epstein was “not a pedophile.”
CNN aired a clip of Kelly saying the trafficker preyed on the “barely-legal type,” like “15-year-old girls,” adding that she felt such crimes were not as disgusting as those perpetrated against elementary-aged kids.
CNN host Laura Coates had a visceral reaction after listening to Kelly and said, “What in the hell?”
She continued, “You had to be under 10 to be preyed upon by a grown man? No, that’s not the definition at all.”
Thousands on the right and left came together to agree that Kelly’s comments were beyond the pale.
The conservative host, who was fired from NBC in 2018 after she defended blackface on air, has not apologized for the controversial take—even as many call on SiriusXM to have her show pulled.
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The Democratic strategist Karen Finney attempted to give Kelly the benefit of the doubt, suggesting that she may just be severely misinformed on sex crimes. Kelly, a 54-year-old mother-of-three, including a teenage daughter, said that Epstein was “disgusting” and his actions were “sick” in the same segment.
However, at worst, Finney told CNN that Kelly was creating a “permission structure” to protect Epstein and other sex predators from wrongdoing.
“At best, it was just a completely stupid, ignorant thing to say,” Finney said. “But it also, at worst, sounded like, despite the protestation, like creating some kind of permission structure. ‘Oh, it’s OK, because they weren’t under 10.’ When we look at these young women now, they’re women, but they were girls when this happened.”
Finney noted that one of Epstein’s victims still had braces when she was recruited for abuse by the disgraced financier’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

New information about President Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell has steadily trickled out since the summer.
Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
The strategist, who had been a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, then turned her focus to the Trump administration.
Agreeing with her co-panelist, Shermichael Singleton, Finney said the issue of Epstein will not end until every document is made public and all perpetrators face justice.
“They’re trying to hide something,” she said of the Trump administration. “They’re afraid of something in there. And frankly, this is not a partisan issue. Under the Biden administration, Ghislaine Maxwell was prosecuted and sentenced to prison. So now we’re in the next administration, let’s keep the case going, and let’s get to the bottom of it.”
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