Megyn Kelly refused to host author Michael Wolff on her show during the promotion of his now bestselling book Fire and Fury last week, a source has claimed.
The Today anchor is reportedly still annoyed about an article he wrote about her last year.
An insider told Page Six: ‘Wolff was OK with doing her show, but Megyn said absolutely not.’
Refusal: Megyn Kelly is reportedly still annoyed about an article Michael Wolff wrote about her last year
Michael Wolff (shown above on Friday on Today) is the author of now-bestselling book Fire and Fury
Wolff wrote for Newsweek, in a piece titled ‘The truth behind Megyn Kelly’s NBC deal’, at the time: ‘There is at any given time in the television news business invariably one person more mistrusted and reviled by all the other mistrusted and reviled people in the business.
‘This is what’s called the Eve Harrington Syndrome, after the amoral and unscrupulous showbiz heroine in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1950 film All About Eve…
‘At Fox, for star colleagues down to make-up artists and, seemingly, by common agreement throughout the television news business, Megyn Kelly is the era’s most hardcore Eve Harrington case—soulless, heartless, shameless, avaricious, etc.’
Wolff did however give Today and exclusive interview with Savannah Guthrie Friday.
On Saturday, Donald Trump again hit back at Fire and Fury – the sensational biography which is rocking is White House – to dub it a ‘work of fiction’.
At a press conference at Camp David, the president blustered through his reasons to undermine Fire and Fury, the bombshell book by author Michael Wolff which has dominated headlines for days.
Denying Wolff’s claim that they had spent three hours together over the course of the campaign and in the White House, Trump fumed on Saturday: ‘This guy does not know me, he doesn’t know me at all.
‘He did not interview me for three hours. He said he interviewed me for three hours in the White House. It didn’t exist, OK. It’s in his imagination.’
Later, he said Wolff had never been in the Oval Office and that the pair never sat down.
While Trump admitted to participating in a previous interview with the author for The Hollywood Reporter before the inauguration, he had little knowledge of his presence in the White House and said it was likely the only person who did was ousted Steve Bannon.
President Trump doubled down on his criticism of a sensational biography that is rocking his administration as he spoke at a press conference at Camp David on Saturday (pictured)
‘I guess Sloppy Steve brought him in quite a bit. That’s why Sloppy Steve is looking for a job now.’
In a side complaint, Trump bemoaned the country’s ‘weak’ libel laws which he said had allowed the book to be published.
‘I consider it a work of fiction and I think it’s a disgrace, that somebody’s able to have something, do something like that.
‘The libel laws are very weak in this country, if they were strong, it would be very helpful. You wouldn’t have things like that happen when you can say whatever comes to your head,’ he said.
Wolff stands by his remark that he had contact with Trump in the White House and that the comments he made, alongside those of others in the administration, informed his reporting.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter which was published on Saturday, he validated Trump’s lack of memory of him and sought to explain it by claiming no one saw him as a real threat because they were not familiar with his works, or any books at all.
‘I literally think you go in there and say, “I’m writing a book,” and they go, “Oh. A book.” It’s like a cloak of invisibility. And then also they would do this thing that would be like, “Oh, this is off the record.” And I would say, “I would like to use it for the book.” And they would say, “Well, when does that come out?” And I would say, “Next year.” “Oh, oh, yeah, OK, fine.”
Trump bemoaned the country’s ‘weak’ libel laws and claimed the book was ‘fiction’
‘You don’t get the feeling that he has thought of anything other than himself at any given time. Certainly he was very open with me, accessible with me, and then he started to talk.
‘Did he ever listen to me for one second? I never got that feeling. He just talks at you,’ he said.
Later, he said: ‘These guys don’t just not read books — they don’t know what books are.’
Wolff played down the unfettered access people believe he was granted, saying instead that he merely showed up and was never told to leave.
‘I asked, people sort of said “OK” or didn’t object, and I kept coming.
‘We’ve elevated it to this thing like it’s some kind of magic. In truth, it’s just showing up.
‘You just keep going. Eventually someone says, “Who are you and what are you doing here? Go away,” or you get lucky and they don’t. That’s certainly what happened over the last year in the White House,’ he said.
Only one subject of note out of the 200 interviews Wolff conducted was on record – Bannon. He is the only source Wolff will confirm by name.
The others, he said, were people who had ‘minute-by-minute contact’ with the President. ‘100 per cent of them’ doubt the president’s abilities, he said on Saturday.
Among the other explosive claims he makes is that Melania Trump cried tears of despair when her husband won the election and that they do not sleep in the same bed nor have a functional marriage.
Wolff also described how Trump locks himself in his bedroom at 6.30pm on some nights with a cheeseburger and how he watches three televisions at once.
He says all of the people around him questioned his mental ability and that they liken him to a child. Some, he alleged, fear for the president’s health and say he is repeating stories and failing to recognize people he knows well.
Trump was joined by members of his cabinet and congress but questions about the book persisted
The sensational and explosive accusations drove the president to defend his mental capacity on Twitter on Saturday morning.
In an astonishing choice of words, Trump wrote: ‘Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.
‘Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try).
‘I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius…. and a very stable genius at that!’ he said.
Friday night, he labeled Wolff a ‘loser’ who has had his credibility questioned as a journalist in the past.
It is an issue that has been pointed out by others who say Wolff is likely to embellish or ‘create’ stories he then reports as true.
The book is now the highest selling on Amazon.