Elisabeth Hasselbeck took aim at fellow conservative Megyn Kelly during a live segment on The View this Tuesday, sparking a heated exchange in response.
Hasselbeck, stepping in for Alyssa Farah Griffin this week, used her temporary spot on the talk show she once co-hosted to voice her disapproval of Kelly’s recent criticism of U.S. military actions in Iran.
‘If I can just say this, number one: Megyn Kelly’s clip that we ran before saying who those troops died for. How dare you, Megyn Kelly?’ the guest host said after Kelly’s comments spawned some pushback from conservatives.
“When they are sacrificing their lives in our uniform, how dare you tell them, or their families, or our nation, what they died for?” Hasselbeck questioned.
Kelly did not hold back in her reply.
“Elisabeth was too weak to handle the ladies of The View and even the morning set on Fox and Friends,” Kelly remarked to the Daily Mail on Tuesday.
Hasselbeck, who had a notable exit from The View in 2013 following an on-air clash with co-hosts Barbara Walters and Joy Behar, left Fox News in 2015 after a two-year tenure.
‘She ran from the public square into exile so she could avoid mean people saying unflattering things about her – and there are many to say,’ Kelly said.
View veteran Elisabeth Hasselbeck, filling in for fellow conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin, used her old show to criticize Kelly’s public condemnation of the US’s strikes on Iran on Tuesday
Kelly immediately fired back, pulling no punches in a conversation with the Daily Mail directly afterwards
The former Fox News host continued: ‘Now she thinks she’s going to come back for a day and be the arbiter of appropriate conversation around the war we just launched in Iran? Please. No one gives a damn what this know-nothing has to say.’
Kelly is an outspoken Donald Trump supporter but broke with the president on Monday over Saturday’s initial strike against Iran.
The SiriusXM host said of US soldiers killed in the conflict: ‘My own feeling is no one should have to die for a foreign country. I don’t think those four service members died for the United States.’
Kelly said that she did not think the White House had made a strong enough case for the bombing of Iran, which was done with the assistance of Israeli forces. The death toll of American service personnel has since risen to six.
Iranian state media, meanwhile, confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday, following an initial volley of strikes seen the day before.
Trump told reporters the effort in the region could last four to five weeks or ‘go far longer’ on Monday.
He has refused to rule out the prospect of putting US troops on the ground – an idea that visibly frustrated Kelly during Monday’s Megyn Kelly Show.
She maintained that Trump’s claim that Iran was about to launch a preemptive strike against the US was a lie.
Kelly acknowledged that early polling on Operation Epic Fury has been divisive and she’s leaning towards being against the attacks. A US-Israeli air strike near the Azadi tower in Tehran Tuesday is seen here
‘Does it make any sense to you that Iran was planning preemptive strikes against us and our civilians, knowing full well of the massive military assets we had moved into the region, the aircraft carriers and so on?’ Kelly said.
‘Obviously, it doesn’t.’
The host added that she was ‘praying for the troops’, before questioning why they were taking part in such a mission.
As she did, Kelly singled out Israel.
‘My own feeling is no one should have to die for a foreign country… This feels very much to me like it is clearly Israel’s war,’ Kelly said.
Iranian leaders have long vowed to wipe Israel off the map, with a succession of Israeli leaders insisting such a threat means that Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
On Tuesday, Israel launched a fresh bombing raid on Tehran, Iran’s capital.
The US and Israel’s other main mission in the region is to thwart the county’s nuclear development, Trump said Monday – a claim Kelly already cast doubt upon last week.
‘What do we get at it? Why is President Trump considering this?’ Kelly said on her eponymous show at the time, just before the operation was launched.
Kelly, a supporter of President Trump, has expressed skepticism over the purpose for the war
Kelly’s comments earned a response from the president on Tuesday. He said the former Fox News host has ‘no impact’ on his decisions.
Kelly’s old colleague, Tucker Carlson, spoke out against the US’s strikes over the weekend as well.
‘I think that MAGA is Trump – MAGA’s not the other two,’ Trump said in retort.
