
Soledad O’Brien and Megyn Kelly have been going at each other on Twitter this morning.
Why? It stems from a Saturday tweet sent by Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean after she saw that Dr. Anthony Fauci told PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff that New York State had done a good job righting the coronavirus ship after an extremely rocky start.
Dean wasn’t buying what Dr. Fauci was selling:
This is garbage. https://t.co/nhvzfXFFul
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) July 18, 2020
Her husband’s parents tragically died earlier this year from complications over the coronavirus at an assisted-living facility in New York, and she has been extremely critical of Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s administration for its executive order that put coronavirus patients in assisted-living facilities, like the one her in-laws died in. She hasn’t been alone in criticizing the administration for the move.
Whenever a tweet from Gov. Cuomo or a high-level member of his administration pops up in praise of New York’s progress in combating the pandemic, a critical tweet from Dean often follows. She has even appeared on the network’s prime-time programming to speak out about what she believes is a failing of Cuomo’s policies, and has referred to the man himself as “arrogant.”
O’Brien has long been critical of mainstream media coverage of the president, and is also unafraid of sparring with Fox News or conservative personalities/politicians. She seemed to say that Dean’s tweet shouldn’t be taken seriously because of her occupation:
Meteorologist weighs in. https://t.co/pbMg5dYiTf
— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) July 19, 2020
O’Brien’s tweet didn’t sit well with Dean and her defenders, the most high-profile being Kelly:
That “meteorologist’s” name is @JaniceDean. She’s a working mom w/MS who is married to a hero 9/11 fireman. She lost both in-laws in NY nursing homes thx to Cuomo’s disastrous orders & so yeah, she gets an opinion.
She also epitomizes class & kindness. Remember those? https://t.co/uBUztxWIj0— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) July 20, 2020
The early morning back-and-forth commences:
What did I do to deserve the Blackface lady tweeting at me while I’m still in bed? This doesn’t bode well for my day, tbh.
— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) July 20, 2020
(Expert in Blackface weighs in).
Dr. Fauci said “you can bring down those cases”. Which NY’ers did. What he said was not “garbage”, but factually and scientifically correct. She’s welcome to weigh in on anything she wants to. As are you. As am I. https://t.co/FQZSdINomX
— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) July 20, 2020
Oh let me help you! You attacked a woman grieving her dead relatives for challenging the narrative that NY handled corona just great, dismissing her as too small to have an opinion bc she’s just a meteorologist. https://t.co/M1eaWbTfiZ
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) July 20, 2020
1. Megyn admits she’s the Blackface Lady
2. I literally pointed out she’s a meteorologist—‘small” is your word. Hmmmm. You’re welcome to accept her pov over an infectious disease expert.
3. Fauci’s quote is accurate. He said “bring down those cases”. https://t.co/FDcBMDVqIU— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) July 20, 2020