Megyn Kelly pushes Rand Paul: If you think interviews are hostile, 'you're gonna get pounded' in debates

Fox News host Megyn Kelly challenged Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) interview behavior on Wednesday, warning him that he faces tougher obstacles as he advances in his presidential campaign.

"It's only gonna get worse. You know it's only gonna get worse," she said. "It's gonna get more contentious. When you get up on that stage for those presidential debates, you're gonna get pounded. It's gonna be ugly. That's the way the process works now."

Kelly showed footage of Paul's clashes with NBC's Savannah Guthrie and CNBC host Kelly Evans.

The Tea Party senator responded by complaining that it was hard to have a conversation in those kinds of interviews because they were being done by remote, thus stopping him from having personal interactions.

"When an interview's contentious, and when an interview is full of a lot of opinion and editorializing, and it's a long-winded question that's setting you up to say, 'Well you know, you've been beating your wife all these years and when are you going to stop beating your wife?,' it's very difficult in those contentious interviews," Paul argued. "I don't think it makes for good TV on both sides. And I do lose my cool, and I do lose my temper sometime, and I should be better at that."

Paul then criticized television interviews where both parties were "yelling" at each other when Kelly interjected.

"Those women were not yelling at you," she pointed out.

"I wasn't yelling at them, either," the senator replied. "Basically it was a talking over kind of thing."

However, Kelly also dismissed criticism that Paul behaved in a sexist manner toward both Guthrie and Evans.

"The Guardian said you were 'condescending to female reporters,' and I, as a female reporter, will say to Chuck Todd and The Guardian, we don't need your help," she said. "Savannah Guthrie doesn't need your help. Kelly Evans doesn't need your help. And you are entitled to push back on the interviewer just as much as you would if it were a man. So these male commentators can butt out. We can give as good as we get. But the 'thin-skinned' question, whether it's a female or male reporter, that one I say is fair."

Watch the interview, as posted by Media Matters on Wednesday, below.