Journalist Megyn Kelly suggested the ongoing – and very public – feud between herself and Donald Trump was “nonsense”, despite the former president having once made a crude reference about her being on her period.
Ms Kelly said the pair had buried the hatchet after having a private conversation ahead of their individual speeches at the Turning Point Action conference in Florida.
“One of the most interesting things I did was have a private audience with former President Donald Trump,” Kelly said on her Sirius FM show.
“When he came into the arena, we met just one on one, his team was standing nearby, but he and I got a one on one together for the first time in years and it was, frankly great to see him,” she said. “He could not have been more magnanimous.”
Kind words from the TV host, who was described at various times by Mr Trump as a “bimbo” and a “liar”. However, his most outrageous comment about Ms Kelly came after she moderated the first presidential debate in 2016 – asking him questions about the language he used towards women.
Discussing the debate with CNN’s Don Lemon afterwards, Mr Trump said of Kelly: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her... wherever.”
He later insisted he had meant her nose, but it was widely read as a crude reference to menstruation, and he suffered an em=normous backlash.
Former Arkansas Gov Mike Huckabee told CNN at the time that he believed Mr Trump should apologise.
“Megyn Kelly was a colleague of mine for six and a half years when I was at Fox. She is one of the most remarkable people I know. Intellectually unsurpassed as a broadcast journalist, she has great integrity, and so you know I’m going to stand for Megyn Kelly,” Mr Huckabee said. “I would certainly never say anything about a person like that, and I hope he apologises because I think that he should.”
However, Kelly downplayed the comments, insisting she did not want to be part of the story and stating: “He was obviously upset. That’s fine.
“He’s running for president, it’s not a fun business, there’s going to be ups and downs, and I know he considered that a down. So we just wanted to forge forward and try to put it behind us, not pour any more fuel on that fire.”
Mr Trump nonetheless continued to take swipes at Kelly, who appears to have been – to coin her own phrase – the far more magnanimous party.
