Fox News’s Megyn Kelly offered a harsh analysis last night of CNBC’s Republican debate moderators, arguing there is no reason why every question should have been combative in tone.
“CNBC came out and said, ‘That’s what we get paid to do: ask hard questions,’” Kelly reported shortly after the debate wrapped. “That’s going to be the defense; it’s extraordinary.”
Kelly, who moderated the first Republican debate on Fox News with Brett Baier and Chris Wallace, contrasted what she saw last night with her own experience: “We went over each and every question . . . no one stood up and said, ‘Hey, you know, you can have a tough one here, and really a tough one there; you can have like a series.’ But to do a whole debate of punch them in the face, in the face, in the face, in the face, leaves a certain impression.”
“At one point I started to think maybe the moderators were pursuing a Herb Brooks type strategy,” Kelly offered. “Like maybe they’re Republicans and they were trying to unite the Republican party by being the foil.”
Kelly also criticized the moderators for making the questions about themselves: “How about personalization of so many of the questions: I, I, I — you heard Becky Quick saying — there was one when she said, ‘I too had student loans, Senator Rubio, and I can’t figure out the math of that; And Harwood, ‘I have spoken with The Economist’; Back to Beckie — ‘our cause’ talking about working women; ‘our cause.’”
Ultimately, Kelly said, the debate was “uncomfortable to watch.”
— Tom S. Elliott is the founder and editor of Grabien.