Fact checks, heated disagreements, and hot-button issues were flying fast and loose on October 1. But we're not talking about the vice presidential debate — we're talking about Megyn Kelly's X feed.
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00:00Fact checks, heated disagreements, and hot-button issues were flying fast and loose on October
00:051st.
00:06But we're not talking about the vice presidential debate.
00:09We're talking about Megyn Kelly's ex-feed.
00:12Like many people across the country, Megyn Kelly tuned in to watch the vice presidential
00:16debate between Ohio Senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on October 1st,
00:22and she didn't seem to like what she saw.
00:24The debate was moderated by Margaret Brennan and Nora O'Donnell and covered a range of
00:28important topics during the 90-minute broadcast, touching on issues that included abortion,
00:33climate change, and immigration.
00:35Kelly spent the event live posting on X, and she got particularly fired up during several
00:40moments.
00:41One of those came when Vance brought up Springfield, Ohio, while speaking on immigration.
00:45The fact that that subject came up wasn't a surprise in and of itself.
00:49Baseless rumors about Haitian immigrants in Springfield eating pets made for a big moment
00:54in the debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as
00:58well.
00:59But what seemed to surprise Megyn Kelly was when the CBS moderators paused to fact-check
01:03Vance's claim that illegal immigration was a problem for the city.
01:07Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian
01:13migrants who have legal status."
01:15Kelly slapped the caps lock and wrote,
01:17"'F-U CBS!
01:18How dare you!'
01:20Less than a minute later, she followed up with,
01:22"'Tried to fact-check?
01:23J.D. put you in your place.
01:24You won't let him fight you, and you won't let them debate.'"
01:27But on the debate stage itself, as the moderators tried to move on to another question, Vance
01:32seemed to take issue with the situation.
01:33"...Senator, we have so much to get to."
01:36"...Margaret, I think it's important because the debate — Margaret, the rules were that
01:41you guys weren't gonna fact-check."
01:42Vance was correct that before the debate, CBS moderators said that they wouldn't be
01:46fact-checking during the debate.
01:48They did say that the two men could fact-check each other, and they also said that they reserved
01:52the right to cut off the candidates' mics during the debate.
01:55And in fact, that did happen as both Walls and Vance attempted to talk over each other,
01:59as well as the moderators, to clarify the process of obtaining temporary legal status.
02:04"...Gentlemen, the audience can't hear you because your mics are cut."
02:08In a podcast streamed after the debate, Kelly again torn to the moderators over that moment,
02:14saying that she was, quote, "'dripping contempt' for the moderators out of her pores."
02:18"...He was fact-checked by the non-fact-checkers, who were fact-checkers."
02:22Kelly was once a mainstay in cable news, working for both Fox News and NBC.
02:26She was also a debate moderator during the 2016 election, and has since continued to
02:31be an online-based commentator.
02:33So it's no surprise that she kept a watch on the night's proceedings.
02:37And of course, this isn't the first time that she has gotten fired up during this presidential
02:41election season.
02:42Back when Taylor Swift posted her endorsement for Kamala Harris and signed off as Childless
02:47Cat Lady — a jab at Vance's derogatory use of the term — Kelly went off on the
02:51pop star in multiple podcast episodes and interviews.
02:54"'Screw you, Taylor Swift.'"
03:00Hardly a second goes by that there isn't a disagreement unfolding on X, and Kelly's comments
03:05on the debate were met with both approval and some fact-checking of their own.
03:09All in all, though, most political commentators found the debate to be balanced and focused
03:14— and, most surprisingly, polite.