MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Monday that he would rather “set himself on fire” than go on the debate stage because of Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s bias.
Scarborough bashed Kelly, framing her as a biased journalist the morning after Donald Trump announced he’d skip Thursday’s GOP presidential debate out of protest to Kelly’s inclusion as a moderator.
{mosads}Scarborough’s “Morning Joe” program played a series of Fox News clips showing Kelly criticizing Trump’s decision to skip the debate hosted by Fox.
{mosads}”That is just good, unbiased journalism. And if I were a candidate, I certainly would want that person asking me questions in a fair and balanced way,” Scarborough deadpanned with sarcasm.
“As I’ve said before, I would rather set myself onfire in front of the Fox News studio than go on the debate stage with that.”
MSNBC and Fox are huge rivals, along with CNN, for cable news viewers. Fox is the leader, averaging 349,000 viewers last year in the 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen. CNN averages 243,000, while MSNBC trails with 143,000.
In one of the clips shown by the television network, Kelly lampooned MSNBC and CNN for allowing Trump to call into the network regularly for 30-minute interviews.