White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said he warned former Fox News head Roger Ailes in 2015 that his talk show host Megyn Kelly was "the devil," The Hill reported Friday.
In an expose in Politico, Bannon described his run-in with Kelly began while he was working at Breitbart News, where he also told Ailes that Kelly "will turn on you." Bannon's primary grievance was over Kelly's performance as moderator of the first Republican presidential debate in August 2015, hosted by Fox.
"The big rift between Breitbart and Fox was all over Megyn Kelly," Bannon told Politico. "She was all over Trump nonstop."
Bannon described a "massive falling out" he had with Ailes over her treatment, in particular, of then presidential candidate Donald Trump. Bannon co-authored an article at the time titled "The Arrogance of Power: Megyn Kelly’s 'Good Journalism,'" where he accused the former Fox News host of asking leading and "gotcha" questions, rather than soliciting responses from the Republican candidates that would provide information for TV viewers.
In response, Ailes demanded that Bannon cease from his negative coverage of Kelly, according to The Hill. When Ailes told him, "You gotta knock this off," Bannon said he flatly told him "No."
Kelly left Fox at the beginning of 2017 and joined NBC News, though no date has been set for her return to television. Ailes was forced to leave Fox in 2016 over sexual harassment claims by host Gretchen Carlson.