Kelly says Michael Cohen wasn't locked out of his account after he retweeted a threat to "gut" her after her debate question for the then-presidential candidate.
Megyn Kelly may have declared she's done with politics, but the NBC host hasn't forgotten about how Donald Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen went after her following her Republican primary debate question about the then-presidential candidate's remarks about women.
In fact, the Megyn Kelly Today host referenced one of Cohen's retweets on her NBC morning show Friday as she talked about Rose McGowan being locked out of her Twitter account. Twitter said McGowan violated their rules when she tweeted a personal phone number.
But, Kelly says Twitter didn't seem so quick to "enforce its rules" when Cohen retweeted a threat from a Trump supporter who wrote, "we can gut her" following her highly publicized debate question. Kelly, who details the backlash she received to her question in her book Settle for More, wrote there that she was "alarmed" by the retweet, leading Fox News executives to call Cohen.
Kelly wrote, "[Fox News co-president Bill] Shine, exasperated by Cohen’s indifference, tried to explain it in terms Cohen might understand: ‘If Megyn Kelly is killed, it’s not going to help your candidate.' ”
"The point is not to dredge up that old dispute, it's to say there's an inconsistency here and who is Twitter kidding? Right. Give me a break," Kelly said on Friday's edition of her morning show. "Twitter, do better."
Indeed, as Kelly pointed out, Twitter's rules stipulate that users cannot incite harassment against or threaten another person.
"Who do we know that has ever done that on Twitter? No, not him [Trump]. Well, him, too," Kelly said.
McGowan had a hold placed on her Twitter account Wednesday night, posting to her other social media accounts a screenshot of a message from Twitter saying that she had violated their terms of service and that she would be locked out for 12 hours and had to delete certain tweets. McGowan's account was unlocked Thursday morning with Twitter telling The Hollywood Reporter that the temporary lock was due to her tweeting out a private phone number. McGowan deleted that post to regain access.
News of McGowan's Twitter suspension led to many users, including Hollywood stars, pointing out that white supremacists and President Donald Trump consistently provoke outrage but apparently don't have their accounts affected.
At the first Republican primary debate in August of 2015, Kelly asked Trump about calling women he doesn't like "'fat pigs,' 'dogs,' 'slobs' and 'disgusting animals'" and whether that temperament was befitting of the office of the president.
Trump quickly quipped to Kelly that he'd only hurled such invectives at Rosie O'Donnell but she kept pressing him. The next day on CNN, Trump indicated he was still upset by the line of questioning, calling her a "lightweight" and that she had "blood coming out of her wherever."