Roger Ailes was ousted from Fox News in the summer of 2016 after Megyn Kelly accused him of sexual harassment. Steve Bannon claims that he warned Ailes about Kelly in advance, telling the former Fox News CEO that she was "the devil." In an interview with Eliana Johnson of Politico, President Trump's chief strategist and former executive chairman at Breitbart News divulged the secrets of his up-and-down relationship with Ailes.
Bannon blames Kelly for rift between Fox and Breitbart
According to Bannon, the friction that developed between Breitbart and Fox in August of 2015 was the fault of Megyn Kelly.
“The big rift between Breitbart and Fox was all over Megyn Kelly," Bannon told Politico. "She was all over Trump nonstop.” It was around this time Bannon claims he warned Roger Ailes about the popular prime-time Fox News anchor: “I told him then, I said, ‘She’s the devil, and she will turn on you.’"
Unfortunately, Bannon's warning only caused the chasm between Breitbart and Fox to widen, especially after Fox News defended Kelly when Donald Trump lashed out at her after she moderated the Republican primary debate in August.
Bannon says that Breitbart viewed Trump as a serious contender, while Fox refused to take Trump's candidacy seriously. A source with close ties to both Ailes and Bannon told Politico that Fox News executives viewed Trump as "kind of this clown," and things between the two conservative media giants went downhill quickly after the first debate, when Megyn Kelly needled Trump on his treatment of women.
"We had a massive falling out over the first debate, over her treatment of Trump," Bannon stated. After Breitbart editor-in-chief Alexander Marlow penned an article blasting Kelly's performance as debate moderator, Ailes called Bannon and warned him to "knock it off." Bannon, insinuating that the Fox News CEO was blinded by his affection for Kelly, says that Ailes then sent his lawyers after Breitbart.
Kelly wrote extensively about her alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Roger Ailes in her autobiography, "Settle for More." Shorty after the book was published in the fall of 2016, Kelly left Fox for NBC.
Bill O'Reilly was no fan of Megyn Kelly
Bannon apparently wasn't the only one who tried to warn Roger Ailes about Megyn Kelly.
While Kelly was busy making the rounds on her book tour in November of last year -- at the height of the Ailes sexual harassment controversy -- Bill O'Reilly began taking veiled jabs at Megyn Kelly on his show, while she was still employed by Fox News.
O'Reilly ended the November 15 episode of "The O'Reilly Factor" lecturing about the importance of remaining loyal to your employer. "If somebody is paying you a wage, you owe that person or company allegiance," O'Reilly stated, without ever mentioning Kelly by name. "If you don’t like what’s happening in the workplace go to human resources or leave."
