Hot Mic Catches Megyn Kelly’s Post-Debate Panel Mocking Ron DeSantis’s Expression: ‘Looked Like You Shot His Dog’

A hot mic on the post-debate show of conservative commentator and and debate moderator Megyn Kelly caught panelists mocking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for his reaction to a question at Wednesday night’s forum.

Kelly said that she had wanted to ask DeSantis a question about “his failure to connect with voters,” but ultimately declined to be quite so direct in the interest of fairness.

“You can’t craft a question like that without being very opinionated, ” remarked Kelly. “You know, it’s like me being like ‘You’re not a retail politics person! People don’t like you in the way that you need, yeah you’re lame!”

“You gotta stick to facts and his numbers are just so dreadful,” she added.

Kelly then played a clip of DeSantis responding to her opening question about his failure to gain traction in the polls.

As the clip played, a hot mic caught Kelly saying something that is hard to make out but may have been about DeSantis not liking the question. A male panelist can be heard then saying, “Look at that face. Looked like you shot his dog.” Several people chuckled as the off-screen audio continued over the clip.

As the playback of debate moments continued, a few more pieces of conversation could be heard, and some laughing while an answer from candidate Vivek Ramaswamy played.

On X (formerly Twitter) the comments about DeSantis were not well-received by some, who characterized them as mocking the governor’s “physical appearance.”

So @megynkelly and @RealClearNews were mocking Ron DeSantis’ physical appearance in the post-debate spin room. They didn’t know their mics were still on. (h/t @theredhombre) #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/9Y65cCpxxr

— Defiant Baptist (@DefiantBaptist) December 7, 2023

Kelly was joined on set by The Federalist’s Emily Jashinsky, The Fifth Column podcast’s Michael Moynihan, RealClearPolitics President Tom Bevan, and NewsNation politics editor Chris Stirewalt.

It is worth noting that the video was uploaded to Kelly’s YouTube account with the off-screen hot mic commentary intact.

Watch the clip above via Megyn Kelly on YouTube.