Gifts to reporters?? Info about debate questions?? Oh, wait a minute...
Megyn also claims that Mr. Trump might have gotten wind of Kelly’s plans to ask President-elect Trump about his disparaging comments about women. With the Associated Press enjoying an advanced copy of Megyn’s book, the publication explained what Kelly says is Mr. Trump’s routine of offering gifts to reporters. Kelly called the move smart on Mr. Trump’s part.
“This is actually one of the untold stories of the 2016 campaign: I was not the only journalist to whom Trump offered gifts clearly meant to shape coverage. This is smart, because the media is full of people whose egos need stroking. Trump tried to work the refs, and some of the refs responded.”
Megyn wrote in her book that she did not find it difficult to resist Mr. Trump’s offer to provide a free stay at the downtown New York City Trump Hotel.
Nor did Kelly find it difficult to turn down an offer for her and her husband to stay at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida estate. Megyn wrote that some journalists accepted Trump’s gifts — even though Megyn wouldn’t name the journalists in her book.
Kelly did find it hard to resist the kinds of ratings that Mr. Trump drew with Trump’s “unscripted, unguarded” brand of attention-seeking that was akin to “television crack cocaine,” as Kelly deemed it.
Megyn admitted that Mr. Trump had placed a call to Fox News executive Bill Sammon the day before the infamous debate to let him know that Mr. Trump knew Kelly would ask him a pointed question. Megyn wrote that she wondered how President-elect Trump knew that Kelly planned to ask him the question that reverberated around the world.