An MSNBC host proudly told former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly to “be humble” and invoked the actions of high school cliques while telling Kelly to “let the grown women speak.”
Tiffany Cross dedicated a segment of “The Cross Connection” to assailing Kelly for criticizing tennis star Naomi Osaka.
Cross, whose show airs Saturdays on MSNBC, called Kelly a “50-year-old bully” who is “trying to bulldoze her way back into relevance” from “the land of the inconsequential.”
Cross went on to imply that Kelly’s criticism of women like Osaka, Meghan Markle, Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 Project, and Olympic athlete Gwen Berry (who protested during the playing of the national anthem), was due to racism.
“It’s no coincidence that Snow White and the Seven Dumb Takes she’s had recently overwhelmingly target black women,” Cross said. “Kelly is really just trying to crawl her way back into social relevance and the hearts of Fox News viewers.”
Cross also critiqued Megyn Kelly for claiming that Santa Claus was a caucasian, and Jesus was white. “To all you Karens watching at home, please make a list for your white Santa and pray to your white Jesus for a life, please,” Cross said.
Then Cross addressed Kelly directly: “When it comes to us, Sister, stop punching above your weight,” Cross continued. “You keep asking for smoke that you don’t want. You want to act like a high school mean girl, and you’ll get treated that way.”
“Sit down and be humble,” she said. “Let the grown women speak,” she added.
Immediately after professing her maturity, Cross channeled the voice of sophomoric high school girls. “You’re not invited to this table. You don’t have the range,” she concluded.
The idea of Cross, the relatively new host of a low-rated weekend show, questioning the relevance of Kelly, who once hosted the top-rated show on cable news, seems ironic.
Kelly’s latest controversy began when Osaka bowed out of the French Open and a press conference, saying she suffered from “social anxiety” and “long bouts of depression.” But shortly afterward, the 23-year-old tennis champion appeared on the covers of numerous magazines.
“Since saying she’s too introverted to talk to the media after tennis matches, Naomi Osaka has launched a reality show, a Barbie, and now is on the cover of the SI swimsuit issue,” tweeted Clay Travis, whose radio show with Buck Sexton succeeded Rush Limbaugh’s legendary program.
“Let’s not forget the cover of (& interview in) Vogue Japan and Time Mag!” replied Megyn Kelly.
Osaka entered the conversation, replying, “Seeing as you’re a journalist I would’ve assumed you would take the time to research what the lead times are for magazines, if you did that you would’ve found out I shot all of my covers last year.” She concluded the since-deleted message, “Instead your first reaction is to hop on here and spew negativity, do better Megan [sic].”
Osaka then blocked Kelly.
Kelly replied that Osaka “blocked me while taking a shot at me,” because “she’s only tough on the courts.” The “truth is she just doesn’t like [questions] she can’t control.”
Poor @naomiosaka blocked me while taking a shot at me (guess she’s only tough on the courts). She is apparently arguing that she shot her many covers b/4 publicly claiming she was too socially anxious to deal w/press. Truth is she just doesn’t like Qs she can’t control. Admit it. pic.twitter.com/izyRzOrUVm
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) July 19, 2021
Tennis great Martina Navratilova also targeted Kelly for her criticism of Osaka, calling the longtime Fox News and NBC News anchor an “a**hole.”
Kelly pointed out that Navratilova initially denied that Osaka had a mental health issue and needed to “woman up.”
Osaka hopes to win the Grand Slam, as well as a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, in the same year. On Monday, she advanced to the third round of the Olympics tennis competition, defeating Croatia’s Viktorija Golubic 6-3, 6-2.