Abby Phillip’s primetime program continues to fail in the ratings department while racking up viral clips.
A fiery argument erupted during the Friday edition of CNN’s NewsNight when Philip found herself in a shouting match with guest Katie Miller, wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and former spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Mark Halperin, host of MK Media’s Next Up, to discuss the dustup and what it reveals about Phillip.
The Argument
Miller was part of the show’s nightly panel alongside Bakari Sellers, who criticized those in MAGA and the GOP – like Vice President J.D. Vance and Tucker Carlson – who have not, in his view, done enough to distance themselves from Nick Fuentes.
“The fact that we’re even mentioning Nick Fuentes, he’s [4 foot, 11 inches], he’s misogynistic, and he’s antisemitic, but yet he is somebody who has the pulse of the Republican base right now,” Sellers said.
Miller took issue with the claim, responding that Fuentes “does not have the pulse of the Republican base” and accusing the left of trying to “divide the Republican base.” She then turned her attention to the host.
“You had [podcaster] Jennifer Welch on your show very often, and you never pushed back,” Miller said. “She called my husband a white nationalist – that is no different than Nick Fuentes going on Tucker Carlson’s show. It’s not, and you should admit it.”
Phillip was none too pleased with the assertion. “Wait, hold on. How is it similar? It’s not remotely similar at all,” she protested. “Nick Fuentes sits around and says that he likes Hitler. How is that similar?”
The CNN anchor said Fuentes “is literally a neo-Nazi,” while Welch – who, as you can see in the clip above, has made a career out of saying vile things about Stephen Miller and many on the right – is simply “a liberal who who has an opinion.”
Miller corrected Phillip that it is, at best, a “hateful opinion,” and she argued that Fuentes espousing views on Carlson’s show that Carlson didn’t push back on is the same as Phillip not pushing back when Welch called her husband a Nazi in her presence. “It’s not different, Abby, it’s not,” Miller said.
Phillip maintained that it is. “If someone comes on this show and says, ‘I love Hitler and I admire what he did,’ they would never, first of all, I would never invite them on the show, and they would never be invited back,” she claimed. “So those two things are not the same.”
The Receipts
To Miller’s point, Phillip was a guest on Welch’s podcast in late October when she called her husband one the “real sociopaths that are real antisemites, true white supremacists” of the Trump administration. “Even though he’s Jewish, he’s, like, a Nazi Jew,” Welch raged.
Phillip’s response? “Well, look, I can’t, I can’t speak to what Stephen Miller’s motivations are.”
Megyn was not impressed. “You’re such an asshole… What a cowardly dodge just to try to maintain some semblance of objectivity,” she said. “The only proper response to that is, ‘Come on. Hold it. We can criticize his immigration policy all day long, if you want. Don’t call him a Nazi Jew. That’s disgusting.'”
“[In] Abby Phillip’s world, that’s just a liberal with an opinion. That is how she described her,” Megyn added. “Abby Phillip finds absolutely nothing wrong with what that woman said. I guarantee you she agrees with all of it. She is a fan of this Welch person, and so she wants her to come on her show… She said yes to going on this person’s show.”
Phillip’s Future
While Phillip attempts to pass herself off as an arbiter of truth, Megyn believes she is anything but. “She tries to act like she is just totally benign, totally neutral. You know, it’s just the facts that make her always come down on the side of the Democrats. It’s not her bias,” she joked. “She can’t be in charge of the fact that all the facts run in favor of Democrats. That’s just how it goes.”
Halperin said that might come back to haunt her. “If Paramount buys [Warner Bros. Discovery] and [David] Ellison enacts his vision, I’d be surprised if she is still in that job,” he speculated.
Should that be the case, Megyn doesn’t think Phillip’s future is bright. “By the way, she will fail in the independent lane because she has no personality,” she concluded. “She has a lot of bias and no personality. It’s a bad combo.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Halperin by tuning in to episode 1,203 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.