Former Fox News star and now NBC darling Megyn Kelly has a new show starting June 4 on the peacock network, appropriately nicknamed considering the prima donna status of its new centerfold, er, centerpiece of NBC. For her first show, she interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin at an international economic forum in St. Petersburg. NBC released a publicity photo of her sitting with Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Her attire seemed somewhat inappropriate for a past victim of sexual harassment and a self-proclaimed opponent of sexism in politics and the workplace. As Kristinn Taylor noted at Gateway Pundit:

NBC News starlet Megyn Kelly dressed like a hooker for her interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin that is scheduled to air on Sunday. A publicity photo shows Kelly interviewing Putin while wearing a low-cut, off the shoulder blue velvet dress that is slit to mid-thigh, accented by black open-toe shoes with stiletto heels.

Kelly has posed, no pun intended, as a champion of empowered women an opponent of a culture which objectifies women in and out of the workplace. Yet, like Hillary Clinton, who rode her husband’s coattails to political prominence, Kelly has shown no reluctance to put her feminist mindset aside for the sake of her career. Some may know of her claims of harassment from former Fox News chief Roger Ailes [editor's note: Mr. Ailes vigorously denied Ms. Kelly's accusations], but maybe not that she kept it hidden from public view until she could use it to sell her book, Settle For More. As Kate Scanlon wrote last November in The Blaze:

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said Tuesday that she did not come forward sooner with allegations that former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes sexually harassed her because it would have been a “suicide mission” for her career.

During an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” about her new book, “Settle for More,” Kelly said that in the beginning of her career at Fox News Ailes tried to kiss her three times in his office and that when she rejected his advances “he asked me when my contract was up”…

Kelly called Ailes’ actions “disturbing” but said she didn’t immediately come forward because “realistically, that would have been a suicide mission for me and my career.”

“I wasn’t Megyn Kelly of today. I had no power, and he was on the cover of industry magazines as the most powerful man in news,” she said. “There was no one to go to.”

Well, the Megyn Kelly of today remains the same opportunist she was then. Certainly, the first GOP presidential debate on August 6, 2016 was an opportunity she wouldn’t let pass her by. Her question, directed at Donald Trump was incendiary and provocative and, in retrospect, a bit hypocritical:  

KELLY: Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don't use a politician's filter. However, that is not without its downsides, in particular, when it comes to women.

You've called women you don't like "fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals."

(LAUGHTER)

Your Twitter account...

TRUMP: Only Rosie O'Donnell.

(LAUGHTER)

KELLY: No, it wasn't.

(APPLAUSE)

Your Twitter account...

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you.

KELLY: For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O'Donnell.

TRUMP: Yes, I'm sure it was.

KELLY: Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women's looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?

Kelly’s concern about demeaning women and insisting they be treated with respect doesn’t jibe with an interview with Howard Stern, famous for asking women guests “are those real”, in 2010, when she was also not the Megyn Kelly she is today. Then, one supposes, it was okay to talk about breast and penis size with the world’s most famous pervert.

Then there is the famous GQ photo shoot for that magazine’s December 2010 issue in which the rising Fox News star poses provocatively in lingerie, an odd choice for someone who would later pompously condemn the objectification of women, except when used to advance her career. Trump would bring this up after the debate. As Politico reported:

Donald Trump continued his onslaught on Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Thursday, retweeting a follower who criticized a photo shoot she did for GQ Magazine.

“And this is the bimbo that’s asking presidential questions?”, the tweet said. It included two photos of Kelly posing provocatively and the following text: “Criticizes Trump for objectifying women... Poses like this in GQ Magazine.”

A fair question one would think. After that debate viewers noticed the change in Kelly’s persona from the wholesome girl-next-door look to one more appropriate for a more sophisticated image. As journalist Peter Barry Chowka observed:

Throughout 2016, Kelly had been increasingly criticized but not only for her apparent hostility to Trump. She appeared to be focusing and reporting increasingly and obsessively on herself and changing her appearance and persona from a smart, girl-next-door type to a cold and calculating feminist icon-wannabe. In a July 19, 2016 article at Breitbart, Matthew Boyle quotes a “top Fox News host:”

“If Fox wants to become the ‘all about Megyn Network,’ that’s fine. We stand with Roger [Ailes]. And real anger has emerged that the so-called Megyn incident [alleged sexual harassment by Ailes] happened 10 years ago. The consensus among the hosts and contributors is: ‘Why didn’t she say anything then? Really, the same woman that posed half naked in GQ? The same woman on Howard Stern saying what?’”

While Kelly was attacking Trump, she ignored the resurrection of talk about Hillary Clinton being an enabler of her husband’s extramarital activities at the same time the anti-Trump media was hyping the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump engaged in dirty talk about women. Newt Gingrich confronted Kelly about her double standard in a segment on “The Kelly File”:

The exchange, as reported by the New York Times, went as follows, with Kelly arguing that Trump’s dirty talk in a trailer was worse than Bill Clinton’s turning of the Arkansas governor’s mansion and the Oval Office into a personal Playboy penthouse:

“You are fascinated with sex and you don’t care about public policy,” he told Ms. Kelly.

Ms. Kelly: “Me? Really?”

Mr. Gingrich: “That’s what I get out of watching you tonight.”

Ms. Kelly: “You know what Mr. Speaker, I’m not fascinated by sex, but I am fascinated by the protection of women and understanding what we’re getting in the Oval Office and I think the American voters would like to know …”

Mr. Gingrich then began to talk about how Mrs. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, would return to the White House “because you, after all, are worried about sexual predators,” an apparent allusion to Mr. Clinton’s affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

“Listen, it’s not about me. It’s about the women and men of America,” Ms. Kelly replied. She said polls showed that voters were concerned about the allegations against Mr. Trump and believed they were an issue.

As the interview progressed, Mr. Gingrich turned to baiting Ms. Kelly.

“Do you want to comment on whether the Clinton ticket has a relationship to a sexual predator?” Mr. Gingrich said, adding: “I just want to hear you use the words, ‘Bill Clinton, sexual predator.’ I dare you. Say, ‘Bill Clinton, sexual predator.’”

Kelly did not call and has not called Bill Clinton what he in fact was, a sexual predator, insisting instead that the Clinton assaults on women had been covered by her and others and wishing Gingrich well on attending to his “anger issues.”

Kelly, in a sparring contest with Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway essentially called Juanita Broaddrick, who along with other Bill Clinton victims, had resurfaced during the 2015 campaign, a liar:

Megyn Kelly claimed that Clinton rape accuser Juanita Broaddrick denied any rape in a 1998 affidavit. Close, but no cigar, Megyn. The story is a little more complicated than that. It was not that her story was false as Megyn Kelly implied. Like many rape victims, Broaddrick felt no one would believe her and she simply wanted to put it behind her and not be forced to relive it, particularly in any legal setting: she resisted interviews, fearing no one would believe her charge against a popular President…

Broaddrick feared the retaliation of Team Clinton as well as the glare of a disbelieving media. Thus she signed an affidavit denying the rape, again trying to avoid being forced to relive the horrible experience. But she told Starr and his office the affidavit was false. Starr didn’t pursue the rape story not because it was false, but because it was not part of his obstruction of justice investigation.

At the Trump press conference, Broaddrick, tired of being accused of being part of a vast right-wing conspiracy, and afraid that her attacker would once again occupy the White House with the woman who orchestrated the attacks on Bill Clinton’s “bimbo eruptions”, repeated her accusation:

“Actions speak louder than words,” Broaddrick said. “Mr. Trump may have said some bad words but Bill Clinton raped me and Hillary Clinton threatened me. I don’t think there’s any comparison.”

Megyn Kelly may or may not succeed in her new endeavor, but she is sure to be sufficiently provocative in her appearance as she was in her GQ shoot and Putin interview. As for the war on women and their objectification, she will say and do whatever is needed to advance her career.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.