Independent journalist Megyn Kelly made it clear on Tuesday that she had no patience for the left’s push to cancel student debt.
During the Monday broadcast of her eponymous Sirius XM show, Kelly told her guests — “Ruthless” podcast hosts Comfortably Smug, Josh Holmes, and Michael Duncan — that she was convinced it was a play to stop the bloodletting the Democratic Party was likely to face in November’s midterm elections.
Referring to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a vocal advocate for student debt cancellation — as a “one-trick pony,” Kelly turned to her guests and asked sarcastically whether any of them had been on the receiving end of a free education.
“Everything’s free, we should go back to our socialist roots and then the Democrats won’t be facing a blood bath in November,” Kelly said. “Didn’t you guys have someone pay for your college?”
Smug was the first to reply, and he recalled going to a school that he could afford and taking a job in order to help cover the cost. “I remember being a bouncer at a college dive bar and bouncers are the guys who have to clean the bathrooms,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s true, Smug,” Kelly said with a laugh. “I feel like somebody took advantage of you.”
“Everyone else in this country has always figured out a way to budget for their education and again it’s progressivism masquerading as compassion,” Smug continued. “No it’s not – it’s a handout to the wealthiest, liberal, coastal. It’s like the liberal coastal elite embodied.”
Kelly then shared some of her own story — the fact that her father had passed away when she was still in high school and she had two older siblings already in college.
“He was only 45, we were not – we weren’t rich to begin with. So it’s not like he had some big fat life insurance policy. He had, like the bare minimum for when you’re in your 40’s and a professor,” Kelly said.
“She used the entirety of that payment to pay for the rest of – what she could – of my brother and sister’s college and my college education,” Kelly continued. “And all three of us had to take out loans on top of it, of course.”
“So, do I think now that I would’ve been better if the federal government had stepped in?” she asked, turning back to the issue at hand and asking whether students who voluntarily took out loans to fund their educations should have the government simply wipe that away.
“It would’ve been nice but I don’t think the neighbors should have to pay for my college education. My mom made a sacrifice. We took out loans too but we paid them back!” she continued. “Why should these snot-nosed kids today – I’m sorry, the ones who really need it, they can get loans, but like you point out a lot of these people are going to be these college – Columbia – elite graduates who are going to spend their years in journalism trying to shame half of America for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Why should I be paying for their education? I don’t want to!”
Former President Donald Trump’s administration had frozen student loan payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Biden administration has extended the deadline for that pause several times. According to reports, that freeze is set to be extended again on Wednesday — moving the deadline from May 1 to August 31 of this year.
You can watch the segment here: