Podcast host Megyn Kelly said over the weekend that she believes that one Republican presidential candidate stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field last week during a forum that Tucker Carlson hosted in Iowa.
The candidates who spoke with Carlson at the Family Leadership Summit were Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Kelly made the remarks when asked in Florida by Daily Signal Senior Reporter Mary Margaret Olohan what she thought of the candidates.
“I thought that was the best I’ve seen Ron DeSantis,” Kelly said. “I think DeSantis is starting to find his groove. He’s getting better at this. It was the best he’s done on Ukraine and a number of other issues.”
Kelly said that she thought Hutchinson was done, that Scott and Haley had positive qualities but were not going anywhere in the polls and that Ramaswamy was “falling flat on the inspirational front, even though that’s his main game.”
“So I thought it was a DeSantis win,” said Kelly.
Kelly said that it was true that DeSantis’ campaign has yet to kick things into high gear after an initial lackluster campaign launch on Twitter Spaces that was plagued with technical difficulties.
“But it is relatively early, and he’s got $150 million in his war chest,” she said. “So it’s too early to pronounce his campaign over. Having said that, it hasn’t been gangbusters. You know, he got sort of a false start with that Twitter Spaces thing. And he’s not a natural retail politician.”
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“But if you watch the guy enough, I think eventually he will win you over,” she continued. “He’s a little nerdy. He doesn’t have Trump’s charisma. But he’s a smart technocratic get’er done kind of guy. And I really think the number one thing he needs to do is get himself in front of adversarial liberal media and fight.”
Kelly pointed to Kari Lake, who lost her gubernatorial race in Arizona last election cycle, and said that Lake exploded in the Republican Party solely because of how combative she was in a few interviews.
Kelly said that if Lake could do it, who she said only had a tiny fraction of DeSantis’ success, DeSantis could quickly get things headed back on the upswing.
“He should get out there and fight,” she said. “And you know what do people love about Trump? He’s combative. He never backs down. He gets in your face. DeSantis has that too. He just hasn’t been putting himself in the situations where he could show it.”
WATCH:
.@megynkelly thinks Ron DeSantis was the clear winner of Friday's town hall. And she has some advice for him: “Go on MSNBC! That’s what I would tell him to do."
"He should get out there and fight."pic.twitter.com/BSmfeZzRjS
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) July 16, 2023