Megyn Kelly Warns MAGA to Stop Helping Gavin Newsom

Megyn Kelly is warning MAGA influencers not to appear on Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, arguing that the California governor’s guests are really helping him more than themselves.

During an interview on her podcast The Megyn Kelly Show with MAGA youth activist Charlie Kirk—who was Newsom’s first guest when his podcast launched earlier this month—Kelly argued that Newsom’s new venture was just a form of spring training for a presidential run.

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“I don’t like to see it, because my own feeling is this guy’s in training for 2028 against JD, probably… and he needs practice,” said Kelly, noting that Vice President JD Vance was looking likely to be the Republican party’s next standard bearer.

“We saw that when he debated [Florida Governor] Ron DeSantis on Hannity, he needs practice. He’s not very good at it, and we should not be helping him,” she said. “The more times he sits across from Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon and any of our sort of lead fighters, the better he will get, the better he’ll do, the more he’ll understand how to appeal to people who are more right-wing or independently minded but on the right.”

It was a rare moment of bipartisanship, as Democrats have also blasted Newsom’s choice to have overly “chummy” chats with some of MAGA’s biggest names. Liberal lawmakers and pundits alike have accused Newsom of boosting MAGA activists and failing to “push back on lies” about his own party.

Kirk responded to Kelly’s concerns by saying he hadn’t known exactly what he was getting into by appearing as Newsom’s inaugural guest.

He had been promised ahead of time there wouldn’t be any “gotcha” questions and that it would just be a discussion, which he said was “largely true.” Then he arrived, he said, and Newsom hit him with an “over-the-top charm offensive.”

“I was like, ‘Are you gonna want to become a member of [MAGA youth wing] Turning Point or something, Governor Newsom?’’ he said. “It was like almost nauseatingly positive, right? In that way it was very difficult to navigate.”

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But he said he didn’t think he was helping Newsom’s political career, because the governor’s approval ratings have already gone down as a result of the podcast.

“I don’t think Gavin Newsom is getting his spring training to become a presidential candidate. I think he’s actually being exposed as someone who will not be able to get through a Democrat primary.”

He said he would encourage other MAGA Republicans to appear on the podcast as long as they’re “incredibly disagreeable and firm” and are willing to challenge Newsom and ask him questions on the record.

But Kelly wasn’t convinced, saying she still thought the podcast was helping train Newsom and was building his media brand.

“There’s also a possibility what he really wants is to be Charlie Kirk and not Donald Trump,” she said. “That what he really wants is to be the next Bill Maher with an audience that’s large and can appeal to both sides. And maybe that’s his next invention.”