Without mentioning him by name, Megyn Kelly rebuffed her Fox News colleague Bill O'Reilly on Monday while opening her show, Media Matters reported.
Kelly began her show on Monday by weighing in on Donald Trump's ongoing dispute with District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has argued that Curiel has an inherent conflict of interest in deliberating a case involving his for-profit university because his parents emigrated to the US from Mexico.
"Even some pundits are demanding that Judge Curiel step down to eliminate doubts as to his motivations, but that is not the way our system works," said Kelly. "Judges must indeed avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest, but litigants do not get to create that appearance by vocally complaining about the judge."
An hour earlier, O'Reilly argued that Curiel should remove himself from the case.
"Talking Points believes the judge should recuse himself. Not because he did anything wrong, he didn't, but to eliminate any doubt as to the motivation in court rulings," he said. "There are plenty of federal judges that could immediately step in. It is valid that some may see any recusal as caving to intimidation. But stark justice in a case this important, trumps, pardon the pun, any theoretical argument."
But Kelly, a former attorney, said that Curiel leaving the case would create more problems than it would solve for Trump.
"If a litigant making a stink about a judge necessarily resulted in a conflict that would force a judge to step down, it would lead to chaos in our court system," she said. "It would prejudice the other party who's not complaining or taking their licks. And it would lead to more parties throwing fits in order to bounce judges off the case whose rulings they do not like. Simply put this is not the way our system was designed to work."
Watch Kelly's commentary, as posted by Media Matters on Monday, below.
