Megyn Kelly hit back at actor George Clooney for attacking her journalism credentials and saying he might be more of a journalist than her.
Speaking with Broadway star Patti Lupone for Variety‘s Broadway Actors on Actors, Clooney said that he makes no apologies for speaking “truth to power” and shunned his critics.
“I don’t care much in terms of what they say,” Clooney said. “You see Megyn Kelly, who’s come out and said I’m not a journalist. I didn’t say I was a journalist.”
“Neither is she,” Lupone interjected.
“I’ve at least been to Darfur and Sudan and the Congo and been shot at to try to get stories out. I’m not quite sure what she’s done to be a journalist,” he replied.
Clooney stars as legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow in the Broadway adaptation of Good Night, and Good Luck and mentioned how the play ends with a montage of news clips featuring Megyn Kelly, Elon Musk, and others.
“We don’t tell people what to think when we show that montage at the end,” Clooney said. “We only show her words in this play. We don’t tell people what to think. It’s not out of context. We don’t manipulate it. We literally just go, ‘These are your words.’”
Kelly shot back at Clooney in a recent episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, mainly attacking him for his infamous oped calling for Joe Biden to exit the 2024 race.
“He’s starring in a play about Edward R. Murrow because Clooney fancies himself a journalist, you see, and has lots of thoughts on how journalists need to do journalism,” she said. “He does it mainly by stumbling upon the biggest story of the decade, that a sitting president is mentally infirm and ought to be 25th Amendment’ed right out of office, and then burying it, saying absolutely nothing for weeks on end, and then only after that president humiliates himself on the national stage at a Presidential debate, and then refuses to step down as the entire Democrat Party watches its electoral chances up and down the ticket go swirling down the toilet.”
“Finally he decides to write an op-ed in The New York Times saying Joe Biden is not up for the job. That’s not journalism, George — it’s cowardice and naked partisanship,” she continued. “You’re not fooling anyone. So now he’s starring in his Broadway show … by the way, what’s the matter, George? Are the Hollywood roles getting a little hard to come by as you age and get decidedly more smug and self congratulatory? I’m just asking!”
The actor engendered severe backlash after Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the election, with Democrats squarely placing the blame on him for encouraging former President Joe Biden to drop from the race. Reports later indicated that the actor felt he was being used as a “scapegoat.” Speaking with Jake Tapper of CNN this week, the actor defended his decision once again.
“Well, I don’t know if it was brave,” Clooney told Tapper. “It was a civic duty.”
Clooney admitted in his op-ed that he noticed signs of Biden’s cognitive decline prior to his debate with President Trump, when the two met for a fundraiser with former President Barack Obama. For some reason, he did not call for Biden to step down until after he bombed on live television in his first debate with Trump. Clooney told Tapper that he wrote the op-ed to finally tell the truth.
“When I saw people on my side of the street, not telling the truth, I thought that was time,” he said
Clooney also admitted that some people are still “mad” at him for writing the op-ed, considering that Vice President Kamala Harris not only lost the Electoral College but also the popular vote to Trump.
“Some people, sure,” he responded. “It’s okay. You know, listen, the idea of freedom of speech, you know, the specific idea of it is, you know – you can’t demand freedom of speech and then say, but don’t say bad things about me. Well, that’s the deal. You have to take a stand if you believe in it, take a stance, stand for it, and then deal with the consequences. That’s the rules.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
