Karl Rove came to Megyn Kelly’s defense tonight in her first The Kelly File broadcast since Newt Gingrich accused her of being so “fascinated with sex” she had no interest in public policy. 
 
 Before Rove’s appearance on Kelly’s Fox News Channelshow, she’d also had under fire from GOP White House hopeful Donald Trump, who this morning applauded Gingrich for attacking Kelly, calling it an “amazing interview.” 
 
 “We don’t play games, Newt, right?” Trump crowed during the ribbon-cutting ceremony on his new Washington D.C. hotel, as camera rolled. 
 
 Rove, who was Kelly’s first guest tonight, blasted Trump for squandering precious time “to spend today dedicating his hotel in Washington D.C., and complimenting Newt Gingrich on having a food fight with you last night. That was not a good use of today,” with just 13 days left to campaign, he sniffed. 
 
 Kelly diplomatically called the previous day’s Karlpocalypse a “debate about polls, and whether people should believe them.” Gingrich, she said, “did not believe them and said there were two alternate universes: one in which the pollsters live, and then the real one, in which Trump is winning.” 
 
 Kelly’s second segment, not coincidentally, focused on Wikileaked DNC emails to and from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, aka “public policy” material Gingrich had accused Kelly of not being interested in owing to her sex obsession. 
 
 Others had attacked Kelly after Gingrich’s appearance on her show. Dan Scavino, Trumps social media director, for instance, tweeted this: 
 
 .@NewtGingrich just destroyed @MegynKelly. Shows she is totally biased against Mr. Trump & not very smart. Mr. Trump has long known!! — Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) October 26, 2016 
 
 … adding, ominously: ||||| 'You are fascinated with sex,' Newt Gingrich tells Megyn Kelly in heated exchange 
 
 CLOSE Newt Gingrich got into it with Megyn Kelly on her show 'The Kelly File' on Fox News over Donald Trump's accusers. USA TODAY 
 
 Former speaker of the House and top Donald Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich got into a heated exchange with Fox News host Megyn Kelly over the women who have accused Trump of groping them. 
 
 Gingrich felt the media has given an inordinate amount of coverage to the accusers while ignoring the information that has been revealed in the leaked Clinton campaign emails. 
 
 "If Trump is a sexual predator ... " Kelly began. 
 
 "He's not a sexual predator!" Gingrich exclaimed. "You can't say that. You could not defend that statement. Now, I'm sick and tired of people like you using language that's inflammatory that's not true!" 
 
 "Excuse me, Mr. Speaker. You have no idea if it's true or not," Kelly replied cooly. Kelly said she had not taken a position one way or the other. 
 
 Gingrich said that Kelly took a position as soon as she used the words, "sexual predator." 
 
 "I think that your defensiveness on this may speak volumes," Kelly said. She explained that given the context of the allegations, the media had no choice but to cover them in detail. 
 
 Gingrich then said Kelly chose to cover the allegations rather than the Clinton emails because she is "fascinated by sex." 
 
 "You want to go back through the tapes of your show recently?" Gingrich asked. "You are fascinated with sex and you don't care about public policy." 
 
 "Me? Really?" Kelly asks. 
 
 "That's what I get out of watching you tonight," he said. 
 
 "You know what, Mr. Speaker? I am not fascinated by sex," Kelly said, "but I am fascinated by the protection of women and understanding what we're getting in the Oval Office, and I think the American voters would like to know ... " 
 
 "And therefore we're going to send Bill Clinton back to the East Wing because you are worried about sexual predators," Gingrich interrupted. 
 
 "Listen, it's not about me," Kelly said. "It's about the women and men of America, and the polls show us that the women of America in particular, are very concerned about these allegations." 
 
 "The American public is less interested in the deeds of Hillary Clinton's husband than they are in the deeds of the man who asks us to make him president, Donald Trump," she continued. "We're going to have to leave it at that, and you can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them Mr. Speaker. Thanks for being here." 
 
 Gingrich seemed anxious to promote the exchange, posting a link to the interview on his Twitter account shortly after it aired. 
 
 And at an event for Trump's Washington D.C. hotel Wednesday Gingrich was asked if the interview got "a little rough" last night. 
 
 “That’s just the business," Gingrich responded, according to the pool 
 
 And later Trump gave a shoutout to Gingrich, who was sitting in the audience. 
 
 "By the way – congratulations, Newt, on last night. That was an amazing interview. We don't play games, Newt. We don't play games," Trump said. 
 
 Kelly has been in conflict with the Trump campaign before. Trump repeatedly attacked her for her questions in an early primary debate and what he felt was her "unfair" coverage. 
 
 She also got into a brief feud with fellow Fox News host Sean Hannity after she implied Hannity only gave Trump softball questions. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2fdXztZ ||||| There are times when words do not do complete justice to a moment. Tuesday night’s Newt Gingrich-Megyn Kelly showdown is one of those times, which is why we’ve included the clip above of its final moments. (Here’s the full interview, from the top.) 
 
 Gingrich, on Fox in his role as a Donald Trump surrogate, had questioned the stories of women who’ve come forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault — and the relative importance of the controversy itself, relative to Hillary Clinton’s alleged misdeeds. 
 
 Kelly pushed back. “As a media story, we don’t get to say that 10 women are lying. We have to cover that story, sir,” said the Fox anchor. 
 
 “Sure. Okay,” Gingrich said. “So, so it’s worth 23 minutes of the three networks to cover that story, and Hillary Clinton had a secret speech in Brazil to a bank that pays her 225,000 [dollars], saying her dream is an open border where 600 million people could come to America — that’s not worth covering …” 
 
 “That is worth covering,” interjected Kelly. “And we did.” 
 
 Gingrich was still speaking: “ … I mean, you want to go back through the tapes of your show recently, you are fascinated with sex, and you don’t care about public policy.” 
 
 Newt Gingrich engaged in a vicious show-down with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly on Oct. 24 over the sexual assault allegations against Trump. "You are fascinated with sex, and you don't care about public policy," Gingrich said on-air after weeks of lukewarm defenses of Trump. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) 
 
 At that point, Kelly glanced up and past the camera, with the look of someone who wasn’t quite sure she’d heard what she thought she’d heard, and needed an instant replay on reality. (We know this look well.) 
 
 “Me? Really?” she said, laughing. 
 
 “Well, that’s what I get out of watching you tonight,” Gingrich said. 
 
 Cue crosstalk. 
 
 KELLY: “You know what, Mr. Speaker, I’m not fascinated by sex. But I am fascinated by the protection of women …” 
 
 GINGRICH: “Okay.” 
 
 KELLY: “ … and understanding what we’re getting in the Oval Office …” 
 
 GINGRICH: “Okay.” 
 
 KELLY: “ … and I think the American voters would like to know …” 
 
 GINGRICH: “And, therefore, we’re going to send Bill Clinton back to the East Wing, because after all, you are worried about sexual predators.” 
 
 “Yeah, listen, it’s not about me,” Kelly said. “It’s about the women and men of America. And the poll numbers show us that the women of America, in particular, are very concerned about these allegations and, in large part, believe that they are a real issue. And don’t dismiss the women …” 
 
 And: resume crosstalk. 
 
 GINGRICH: “You want to comment, you want to comment …” 
 
 KELLY: “ … don’t dismiss the women summarily.” 
 
 GINGRICH: “ … on whether the Clinton — do you want to comment on whether the Clinton ticket has a relationship to a sexual predator.” 
 
 KELLY: “We on “The Kelly File’ have covered that story as well, sir. I will tell you, the polls …” 
 
 GINGRICH: “No, I just want to hear you use the words. I want to hear you use the words ‘Bill Clinton, sexual predator.’ I dare you. [At that point, Gingrich was smiling slightly. Kelly was not.] “Say ‘Bill Clinton, sexual predator.’” 
 
 KELLY: “Mr. Speaker, we’ve covered — excuse me, sir …” 
 
 GINGRICH: “Disbarred by the Iowa, by the Arkansas bar.” 
 
 KELLY: “Excuse me. excuse me.” 
 
 GINGRICH: “Disbarred by the Arkansas bar. Eight hundred fifty thousand dollar penalty.” 
 
 KELLY: “ … excuse me, sir. We on ‘The Kelly File’ have covered the Clinton matter as well. We’ve hosted Kathleen Willey …” 
 
 GINGRICH: “Well, try saying it.” 
 
 KELLY: “ … we’ve covered the examples of him being accused as well, but he’s not on the ticket. And the polls also show that the American public is less interested …” 
 
 GINGRICH: “He’ll be in the, he’ll be in the East Wing.” 
 
 KELLY: “ … in the deeds of Hillary Clinton’s husband than they are in the deeds of the man who asks us to make him president, Donald Trump. We’re going to have to leave it at that, and you can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for being here.” 
 
 GINGRICH: “And you, too.” 
 
 It wasn’t clear whether he was responding to the first half of Kelly’s farewell, or the second. 
 
 The Trump campaign’s social-media director had some early thoughts. 
 
 .@MegynKelly made a total fool out of herself tonight- attacking @realDonaldTrump. Watch what happens to her after this election is over. — Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) October 26, 2016 
 
 Gingrich himself wanted to make sure people had seen the faceoff. 
 
 Trump himself — whose relationship with Kelly this year has ranged all the way from ice cold to lukewarm, and back again — responded at a midday event at his Washington, D.C. hotel. "Congratulations, Newt, on last night," he said. "That was an amazing interview...We don't play games, Newt, right? We don't play games." 
 
 Donald Trump: "Congratulations, Newt on last night. That was an amazing interview." pic.twitter.com/9WriTNG3is — CSPAN (@cspan) October 26, 2016 
 
 1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Who is NBC News host Megyn Kelly? View Photos A look at the successful NBC News host. Caption A look at the successful NBC News host. June 5, 2017 Megyn Kelly interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin on her show, “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.” Alexei Druzhinin/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 More from The Fix: 
 
 Sean Hannity gives Megyn Kelly another reason to leave Fox News 
 
 Let’s join Megyn Kelly and Kellyanne Conway in talking about the gender dynamics of 2016! 
 
 Donald Trump’s woman problem just got much, much, much worse
– Donald Trump's poll numbers among black Americans are abysmal—he's polling at around half the 6% Mitt Romney received in 2012—but he hasn't given up trying. On Wednesday, he offered a "new deal for black America" in a policy-heavy speech delivered to what the Washington Post reports was a largely white audience in North Carolina. The "deal is grounded in three promises: safe communities, great education, and high-paying jobs," Trump said, per the Hill, blaming Democrats for "total violence" in inner cities. He promised to provide incentives for companies to move to "blighted communities," and to allow cities and states to declare such places disaster areas to receive federal funding. In other election coverage: Earlier Wednesday, Trump took the morning off from campaigning to attend a ribbon-cutting at his new hotel in Washington, DC, reports Politico. "My theme today is five words: under budget and ahead of schedule," he said. He went on to describe America as a great country where there is "no task or project too great" and "no dream outside of our reach." At the DC event, Trump congratulated Newt Gingrich on his "great interview" with Megyn Kelly, in which Gingrich accused Kelly of being "fascinated with sex." Deadline reports that on The Kelly File Wednesday night, Karl Rove told Kelly that Trump had wasted precious time opening the hotel and "complimenting Newt Gingrich on having a food fight with you last night." The Wall Street Journal looks at the latest damaging WikiLeaks release on the Clintons. A 2011 memo from then-Bill Clinton aide Douglas Band outlines how his fundraising work on behalf of the Clinton Foundation also led to paid speaking engagements and other business opportunities for the former president. The New York Times spoke to Trump supporters at rallies in six states and found that many believe there will be violence, or even a "new Revolutionary War," if Hillary Clinton wins the election. But some still expect a landslide Trump win. "You go through any neighborhood and see how many Trump signs there are and how many Hillary signs there are, and I guarantee you it's not even going to be close," a 44-year-old Florida man says. "The only way they've done it is by rigging the election." The AP reports that Clinton, who celebrated her 69th birthday Wednesday, said she was struck that Trump "was paying more attention to his business than to the campaign. That's his choice, but we're going to keep working really hard to reach as many voters as possible." (Wednesday was a very bad day for Trump's Hollywood star.)