Studying Time: 4 minutes
Megyn Kelly picked a bizarre time to separate hairs about Jeffrey Epstein and pedophilia.
This week, the world first noticed Epstein’s emails about Donald Trump. They’re unflattering, describing Trump spending time with victims and protecting quiet.
To be blunt, it’s clear that rather more is poised to come back out. Political commentators count on damning images of Trump within the combine.
In what seems to be an effort to pave the way in which politically, Kelly actually needs to speak about how Epstein wasn’t a “pedophile” however moderately into “barely authorized” 15-year-olds. (Oh no!)
Megyn Kelly says that Jeffrey Epstein was most likely not a pedophile, most popular ‘barely authorized’ 15-year-old women
With only a handful of Republican defectors pushing for the discharge of Epstein paperwork over the objections of Donald Trump and his loyalists, Megyn Kelly seems to be doing harm management.
In the course of the Wednesday, November 12 episode of her podcast, Kelly claimed that she is aware of “any individual very, very near this case who is able to know just about every part. Not every part, however just about every part.”
Kelly continued: “And this individual has instructed me from the beginning years and years in the past that Jeffrey Epstein, on this individual’s view, was not a pedophile.”
As you might have guessed, she’s drawing the road between youngsters who haven’t but began puberty and youngsters who’ve began puberty.
“He was into the hardly authorized sort. Like, he preferred 15-year-old women,” Kelly described. There’s nothing barely authorized a couple of grown man preying upon 15-year-olds. It’s a crime! Not barely authorized, however totally unlawful.
Megyn Kelly: “I do know any individual very near this case…Jeffrey Epstein, on this individual’s view, was not a pedophile…He was into the hardly authorized sort, like he preferred 15 yr outdated women…He wasn’t into like 8 yr olds…There is a distinction between a 15 yr outdated and a 5 yr outdated.” pic.twitter.com/a7wmT3BRJU
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) November 13, 2025
“And I notice that is disgusting,” Kelly admitted. She claimed: “I’m undoubtedly not attempting to make an excuse for this.”
Nonetheless, she continued, noting that Epstein”wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds.”
(There are sometimes authorized distinctions between the sexual abuse of kids beneath sure age thresholds, nevertheless it stays a criminal offense nonetheless)
“However he preferred the very younger teen sorts that would move for even youthful than they have been,” Kelly described, “however would look authorized to a passerby.”
Kelly famous that Pam Bondi has claimed that authorities discovered CSAM on Epstein’s gadgets, saying “they used to name it kiddie porn, now they name it youngster sexual abuse materials” and including: “I don’t actually belief Pam Bondi’s phrase on the Epstein issues anymore.”
‘There’s a distinction between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old’
“Yeah, so I don’t know what’s true about him,” Megyn Kelly mentioned of late intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“However we have now but to see anyone come ahead and say I used to be below 10, I used to be below 14 after I first got here inside his purview,” she added.
For the file, Epstein’s youngest identified sufferer was 14 years outdated. That may very well be as younger as an eighth grader.
“You may say that’s a distinction with no distinction. I feel there’s a distinction,” Kelly insisted. “There’s a distinction between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old, you understand?”
There’s a distinction, certain. However, once we are speaking about decades-older grownup males — not, say, barely older teenagers — does the excellence matter? What, one wonders, is the purpose of quibbling over phrases, right here?
In equity, on the subject of the details of what a pedophile is and isn’t, Kelly is appropriate.
A pedophile is somebody with sexual curiosity in a prepubescent youngster. A hebephile has an curiosity in additional tween-aged victims. And an ephebophile is extra concerned about teenagers (a few of whom could also be authorized adults, others not).
There’s a cause that we don’t actually toss round these different two labels. As a result of, like somebody being somewhat too conversant in age of consent legal guidelines from state to state and nation to nation, it doesn’t sound like a enjoyable reality.
It sounds such as you’re being overly technical and splitting hairs since you’re a creep. Generally, when drawing a distinction feels like defending an evil man, you simply have to focus much less upon being technically correct.
Comic Gianmarco Soresi has a stand-up about this. He has even repurposed it extra not too long ago to focus on Epstein and Trump this very week.
Proper now, Trump loyalists are circling the wagons and bracing for the reality to come back out
These kinds of distinctions come up in different contexts. For instance, folks will say “assassin” about somebody who could have dedicated manslaughter.
(On this space, being technically appropriate could make it easier to keep away from a lawsuit — whereas “your honor, I’m merely a hebephile and this individual is defaming me” is unlikely to get you far in courtroom)
The true query right here is why Megyn Kelly is selecting to mince phrases so fastidiously about Jeffrey Epstein at this explicit time.
We don’t declare to know the previous Fox host, former NBC host, present podcaster’s inner-most ideas.
Nevertheless, right now, the discharge of extraordinarily damning materials connecting Donald Trump to younger teenage women — just like the “barely authorized” 15-year-olds to whom Kelly referred — seems imminent.
The place others within the MAGA cult are trying past Trump, others like Mike Johnson and Megyn Kelly seem determined to do harm management. If that isn’t their aim, one has to marvel simply what’s.
