Megyn Kelly Coins Nickname to Mock ‘Soft’ CBS Evening News Anchor: ‘Constantly Trying to Therapize Us’

Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly escalated her attacks on CBS Evening News, branding anchor Tony Dokoupil with a new nickname, comparing him to Oprah Winfrey to ridicule his “therapizing” on-air style.

On The Megyn Kelly Show on Wednesday, Kelly promised a deep dive into the show’s ratings through its first week, which trailed its ABC and NBC rivals. Before that, however, she mocked Dokoupil as condescending.

‘T’Oprah’ Dokoupil, that’s what I call him, because he’s crying and constantly trying to therapize us through the news,” Kelly said, remarking that the show under him was “failing.”

Rolling back a clip of Dokoupil after his interview with President Donald Trump, insisting, as he has done repeatedly, that his team “trust” the audience to “decide” what to agree with, Kelly leaned in again.

“Oh my god, the patronization,” she said.

“He’s giving Stuart Smalley vibes,” the host mocked, referencing comedian Al Franken’s self-help SNL character. “‘We’re good enough, we’re smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like us.’ I cannot get over how he continues to patronize the audience.”

“Get up and down on the news and stop trying to handhold your audience like they’re a bunch of babies who need you to stroke them through every update,” she added.

Kelly also took aim — again — at network editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who she’s long been feuding with, for selecting Dokoupil.

“I figured it out. Bari is an out lesbian, and she’s in a marriage to another woman, and they have kids, and so on. This is a lesbian’s idea of what women want. Like, he’s sweet, he’s soft, this is what… this is going to sell,” Kelly said.

She added: “No, no, no! We want someone with balls, with a spine, someone who will protect us. Somebody who like when the burglar comes, we’ll be the first out the door. They won’t be hiding behind us. Like that, as we call it in my family, first defender. Whenever Doug and I go on the road, whether it’s like a hotel or like a rental,  he knows he has to be first defender and he’s perfectly fine in that role. Like Tony ‘T’Oprah’ Dokoupil is not first defender.”

Watch above via YouTube.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!