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Has become part of the news more than she would like during this past campaign and the highly-publicized events at fox as well she's the author of the new memoir settled for more and i sat down with her in New York megan kelly welcome Thank You Donald Trump was courting you early on he sent you notice he offered to pay for hotel weekend which of course decline in a few days before the famous first debate in Cleveland he supposed to appear on your show he was ticked off at an earlier segment and he called you what did he say.
So I read about this in the book settle for more and you are in this scene the opening chapter of the book is a real page-turner and there's a scene in which howard kurtz comes over to me right before that presidential debate and says what's going on and I say if only i could tell you you'd realize it's the biggest story in the country whatever you work me and those virgins well I remember that moment distinctly because at that moment I thought it was a huge deal that the Republican frontrunner was threatening me had threatened to unleash his beautiful twitter account against me for days before a presidential debate little did I know how that would pale in comparison to what would ultimately happen so what happened was mr. Trump was upset with the segment I had done the Kelly file the previous week and that monday he insisted that I call him the monday before the thursday debate so I did he expressed his displeasure about the segment I had done I said he should've been thanking me because the segment actually I thought was very good for him he didn't see it that way he told me I was disgraced and that I ought to be ashamed of myself and then he told me I almost unleashed my beautiful twitter account against you and I still may I still may so when you ask the famous question that the debate in Cleveland about is the meaning comments about women you write that you have the impression that he knew this was coming.
What gave you that impression know what I right was that the day before the debate he had called one of our fox news executives and said that he had heard my first question for him was going to be a very pointed question but he did not know what the question was certain TV hosts were in the tank for Donald Trump you say it to the point where you say that.
They would range with Trump in advance to asking certain critical questions to do certain hits on him so they would appear to have some credibility after you suggesting that they were play-acting yes it was acting and this was in more than one network sorry yes but you can tell us him no because these were off-the-record conversations that I was privy to that I'm not at liberty to reveal so while I'd love to tell you who was i have this information and I I'm not allowed to name the names but trust me this did happen and it's been confirmed to be by more than one television executive during the many months at Donald Trump was going after the following the debate on Twitter public comments you know all kinds of language lightweight MOU and went on it seemed relentless at the time at the same time in some of his fans many of his fans are attacking you and very crude language on Twitter sexual language violent language there were death threats you had security you still bear the scars from that no I mean I'm fine and I think Donald Trump and I are fine and I'll say this the vast majority of Donald Trump supporters have been lovely to me and watch the Kelly file and we're all good they get it they understand what journalists supposed to do how do you go through something like that and then just leave it behind I i think i'm pretty resilient I mean I write about this in the book one of the purposes of writing settle for more was to take issue with this so-called cupcake generation that's what I've done them who believe they're entitled to their safe spaces they're entitled to never be offended.
They're all about PC culture and having grown up in a different era I really have a problem with this because i think we are was defying our children and that does not comport with real-life we're not letting them build the muscles they're going to need to function in real life where there is upset.
There is a fence there are people who behave badly at times so I lived a life in which I had plenty of adversity as detailed in my book from bullying a couple of times in my life to you know a divorce to the loss of my father to issues when I practice law and all of that served me well in the end because it helped me deal with the people who are.
Very unhappy with my questioning of Donald Trump and it helped me sort of categorize it correctly which is it didn't change who I was it was just an irritant that needed to be dealt with although the press call this a few do you were mostly not fighting back because you didn't want to become part of the ongoing story with the guy who became a Republican frontrunner at the same time you say that there were debates between you and your producers on about the show and how are you being too easy on Trump too hard on trumpet must have been difficult in light of the fact that you were so much in the news well it was odd because my team is amazing in my executive producer Tom law is amazing as you know and we just held steady you know we were steady at the helm trying not to veer off course from doing fair and balanced coverage we didn't want to be too hard on Trump to retaliate against him for what he was doing to me we didn't want to be too soft on him to try to curry favor with the man who's coming after me and I I think we did a great job I really do and I credit my team for that but then the nights where my relationship with Donald Trump was national news were bizarre i mean everyone in the country was talking about me and Donald Trump and we were talking about policy or something else having nothing to do with that because we didn't want to shine a light on that story and it would have been too weird and two met up with you eventually saw at the trump tower meeting with him you gotta hug you got interviewing for your broadcast special and then you moved on other things you admire about Donald Trump plenty of things I think what Donald Trump's detractors don't know about him.
In addition to the fact that they now know he can connect with millions of Americans in a way that many you know in New York City and San Francisco might not be able to that he understands them in that way I think it's got a lot of charm.
I mean if he wants to charm you you're going to be charmed and I always had a very nice relationship with him and I think actually were we're back on good terms now it was just that weirdness of the campaign where things went south but I think he's magnanimous I think he's a very good father i love his children reflect on him.
I think he's got a great relationship with melania and my own experience with Donald Trump is he is funny he's quick he's smart he's as straight and direct communicator and trust me i think a lot of people be surprised how much they like him if they spend some one-on-one time with it right but isn't it a little weird now for you to be covering president Trump and do you think there's any sort of warning for the press in the way he not only went after all kinds of news organizations journalist by name but the way you went after you.
So no it's not weird for me to be covering him at all i'm looking forward to it is going to be riveting and I think we're really gonna have to steal our spines in covering president Trump because if he decides to go after another journalist as he did me while he's in the Oval Office it's going to have real First Amendment concerns and journalists and their news organizations are going to have to stand strong in the face of that kind of pressure for now for my conversation with megan kelly their points in this book something about trumpet something much earlier in your life where you describe dealing with raw emotions and sometimes crying seems might be a little eyes with your battle-hardened image but you put it all out there ah cash i mean as the I I cry all the time.
I'm not like I'm only here because that would be weird but I actually don't mind cry feel like it's a release of the pain that you may be feeling inhuman situation and I mean the truth is I i know people see me as the sort of top news woman who is some people said fearless but I am NOT fearless I have plenty of fears and the book talks about sort of mustering the courage to get through them and listen there are many nights over this past year where I cry there have been many nights over my life where I've been really sad i I've dealt with a lot of tough times but i do believe it's self-defeating to wallow and once perceived victimhood during the months of battles with Trump oxygen sharing roger ailes defended you Yusei but he also had to balance networks interest in covering presidential candidate was it hard for you in writing this book.
To go public with what you have now acknowledged that a decade ago your young reporter you were sexually harassed by roger ailes you say you detail in the book he still denies it and then you volunteered when the investigation came up this summer that led to illustrating the company that you wanted to tell your story was hard to relive that.
Well it wasn't pleasant but honestly I talk a lot about it with the Murdochs about whether i should write about what had happened that's this past summer at fox news and what happened to me 10 years earlier and i am proud to tell you that they believed as I did that it ought to be written about and that sunlight is the best disinfectant I think for too long women have kept quiet about this kind of thing just as I did out of fear of being labeled a whiner complainer or someone who couldn't get along with the boys and i wrote about it because i know that there are other women out there how he who are wrestling with this at all kinds of companies everywhere everywhere news organizations and beyond and they don't know what to do about it.
My own experience in speaking with women here to whom this happened is that they all felt that they were the only one they all felt that they had done something they they were self blaming you know like I must have invited it somehow and I want women to know it can happen even if somebody who practiced law for nine years.
You know I was new to this company but I practice law for nine years when this happened to me so it can happen to anybody and look what happened to me I made a record of it.
I retained a lawyer i did tell a supervisor and that person advised me to just try to avoid him for the next four seeing you know foreseeable future and they did and that worked and Roger and I went on to have a healthy professional working relationship and all of your career a lot for my career night when I wrote the book i thought you know do i go back and take that out of there now that this has come out that we did have this other chapter of our lives and I felt it was important to leave the good stuff in there.
They could see it's complicated people look back at the last year and a half and boys behind the tents her to have for you.
They say well you know you have these battles with Trump but you became internationally famous your own all these magazine covers people to buy with money making it all of that they say well it's pretty good for her but you know at the time must not have felt as good as it might looking back in retrospect you weren't trying to necessarily use it as a brand building exercise.
No i mean i'll say this i feel incredibly fortunate to have the job I have you know and to have a life i have incredibly fortunate but it's not all luck and the book details the value of hard work you know I busted my tail to get what to where i am and i didn't come from any money or any circles power i had none of those advantages you know but I had parents who love me and helped me believe in myself and on that note that Kelly thanks for sitting down with us thanks Ali.
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