Megyn Kelly: Don Lemon should run for president

Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said she thinks independent journalist Don Lemon should run for president after he teased launching a 2028 bid .

During a Tuesday episode of her YouTube show , Kelly referred to Lemon’s Oct. 3 appearance on the podcast “Uncloseted,” where he said the odds he might launch a presidential bid were around “65, 70” percent.

“OK, I’m going to shock you,” Kelly said. “I think he should do it. I actually think he should do it. First of all, it’s not a dealbreaker that he has spent his life as a journalist. I mean, you could absolutely parlay that into a career in public service.”

Kelly took a dig at former President Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris before asking viewers if they think the pair is smarter than Lemon, later adding she believes the former CNN host “could match wits against” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

“I know [Harris] was at least a lawyer, she was an attorney general for the state of California –– no, I don’t believe so,” Kelly said. “Do you think Joe Biden was? I don’t. Are we so enamored with our public officials now we don’t think somebody like Don Lemon could do it? Honestly, I’m not.”

Kelly said that a Lemon candidacy would give reporters “lots to talk about.”

“I encourage him and I’m rooting for him. He doesn’t actually think he’s going to win, however,” she continued before playing a clip of Lemon on “Uncloseted” in which he talked about the prospect of being the first Black and gay president.

In the clip, Lemon added that he thinks the U.S. is ready for such a candidate, but perhaps not leading into 2028.

The pundit told “Uncloseted” host Spencer Macnaughton that some viewers had asked him about pursuing elected office, specifically about running for president. Lemon said while there’s “a lot on my plate right now,” the feedback people gave him was “very humbling.”

“If the people want me, I’ll do it,” he said last week. “But it is a daunting undertaking to run for president in this country because you’d have to be devoted to it full time. And I would like to devote much of my time to journalism.”

Lemon started his YouTube series, “The Don Lemon Show,” after CNN fired him in 2023. He has been an outspoken critic of President Trump for years.

Earlier this year, he was indicted on federal civil rights and conspiracy charges in connection with his reporting on a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Minnesota church.

Among a long roster of diplomats, lawyers, generals, lawmakers and some celebrities to be elected president, former Presidents Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy were the only two commanders in chief with careers in journalism, Business Insider reported in July.

Harding was the editor and publisher of The Marion Star, which he purchased for $300 in 1884, while Kennedy was a foreign correspondent for Hearst Newspapers during World War II.