Journalist and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly got slammed for her comments about the U.S. Capitol riot that took place on January 6, 2021.
The riot, which many consider to be a scheme concocted by former president Donald Trump, involved Trump supporters, QAnoners, and Proud Boys storming the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC.
There, the rioters committed crimes such as theft, property damage, assaulting law enforcement, and conspiracy. Some rioters even urinated and defecated on the floors. The attack led lawmakers to barricade themselves in the House chambers in fear for their safety.
The attack resulted in five deaths including police officer Brian Sicknick.
The riot has been deemed an attack of domestic terrorism by the FBI.
Kelly, however, insists that the January 6 attack simply wasn't that big of a deal and argues that the media made the event look 'worse than it actually was.'
"A faction turned," Kelly said in her podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show. "But there's no question the media represented this as so much worse than it actually was."
Despite the five lives lost, the damage done, and the event being labeled as a terrorist attack, Kelly is adamant that the event simply wasn't that bad. She said that the media coverage only served to portray the attack in a bad light and insisted that what took place on January 6 wasn't even an insurrection.
"We've all seen the video of people, like, screaming in the face of cops, being totally disparaging, and defecating on the floor of the U.S. Capitol, and lawmakers were understandably afraid, not like [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying] 'I need therapy for the rest of my life' afraid, but I could understand it, and I didn't like seeing it at all."
Kelly is insisting that the shocking and distasteful footage the media displayed was just the result of 'a few bad apples' who gave the event a bad name, and that the participants in the siege were mostly good people. She even went so far as say the Capitol rioters were just 'tourists.'
"They got tarred by the actions of some losers who went a different way," she said. "And then the media did what it does, which is any bad behavior gets attributed to the entire group of Trump supporters."
Kelly even denied the attack being related to Trump in any way, despite the fact that Trump commanded his supporters to go down to the Capitol building where the election results were being verified and "fight like hell."
Since her statement, Kelly has been getting absolutely slammed with backlash on Twitter:
Kelly is no stranger to receiving backlash on her controversial opinions. In fact, Kelly has recently switched jobs--from NBC to hosting her own radio show--after being let go by NBC for making unsavory racial remarks surrounding the use of blackface.
Now, many Twitter users are boycotting SiriusXM, a well-known satellite radio broadcasting company, for recently signing the exclusive partnership with Kelly to host her radio show.
Although the footage showed during the riots was live and unedited, Kelly is digging her heels in and remains insistent that the media is at fault for making the January 6 attack seem 'worse than it was.' Whatever you say, Megyn.
