Megyn Kelly says Trump gaffes ‘not intentional’ and ‘no question’ he has ‘lost a step’

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Following her return as a moderator on 6 December, Megyn Kelly called into Glenn Beck’s show to talk about the fourth Republican debate and the current state of the GOP field.

After praising the performance of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for having “his best debate yet” and saying that Nikki Haley did not do well because “she shrunk away” and giving her take on the more divisive figures of Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie, Kelly was then asked about Donald Trump.

Beck asked whether the former president and current frontrunner in the race to be the Republican Party’s nominee for 2024 “has faded from where he was in 2020”.

The SiriusXM host responded: “Yeah. I do. I mean, I would take him over Joe Biden any day of the week. I don’t think he will fill out this term — never mind the second — but there’s no question that Trump has lost a step. Or multiple steps. He is confusing Joe Biden from Obama.”

“I know he’s saying, he intentionally did that. Go back and look at the clips. It wasn’t intentional. Anyone could have a slip of the tongue. It’s happened to him repeatedly,” she continued. “The reference about how someone will get us into World War II. Confusing countries. Confusing cities where — it’s happening more and more.”

“With all due respect to Trump, this is what happens when you’re 77 years old. Trump seems inhuman, but he’s not inhuman. He’s a human. He’s a man,” Kelly noted.

In another nod to the Florida governor, she quoted one of his debate responses: “DeSantis didn’t lie — ‘Father Time spares no one’ was a good one.”

“So, look, if it’s between Trump and Biden, I don’t think there’s any question who is more fit, more capable. But are we really going to pretend that Donald Trump is just as vibrant and mentally sharp as he was [in 2016]? Well, okay,” she concluded.

Kelly and the former president have quite a history together since she made headlines in 2015 when she confronted him over his temperament and comments about women at one of that year’s Republican primary debates.

The moment set the tone for the Trump campaign and boosted Kelly’s profile further still when he added in an interview afterwards: “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

Mr Trump refused to participate in any of the Republican National Committee debates and so there was no rematch between the pair.