Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of the conservative magazine the National Review, denies saying the N-word during his Sunday appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show. Lowry was discussing baseless claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, when he seemed to stumble over his words.
In the clip, which began trending across social media on Monday, Lowry said, “They’ve only found two Springfield residents calling to complain about Haitian migrants taking geese from ponds.” However, a number of users on social media are saying that, before he corrected himself, it sounded like Lowry used the N-word instead of “migrants.”
Host Megyn Kelly did not seem to react to Lowry’s stumble.
X user @peltzmadeline posted the clip and wrote, “Having a hard time coming to any conclusion besides the obvious one about what Rich Lowry catches himself blurting out here.”
In a reply to the post, Andrew McCarthy, a colleague of Lowry’s at the National Review, came to his defense. “Ridiculous,” he wrote, “@richlowry (not tagged here, natch) obviously got crossed up between ‘immigrants’ (short i) and migrants (long i) -- started mispronouncing ‘migrants’ with short i; instantly corrected himself with no embarrassment because it was patently a mispronunciation. Geez.”
Lowry himself soon after agreed with McCarthy’s characterization of what happened. He replied on X, “I began to mispronounce the word ‘migrants’ and caught myself halfway through.”
Kelly also backed Lowry’s character in response to the clip. “This is so disgusting and obviously leveled by someone that doesn’t know @RichLowry at all,” she posted on X. “A finer, more gracious man of good character you will never meet.”
The Haitian migrants of Springfield, Ohio, have been a political talking point in the past days since former President Donald Trump endorsed the baseless conspiracy theory that some have been caught eating people’s pets.
