Babylon Bee posts joke suggesting violence against Megyn Kelly, then deletes it amid backlash

The Babylon Bee has come under fire for a post, that was quickly deleted on X, which appeared to suggest violence against commentator Megyn Kelly. This comes after Kelly said that Mark Levin should debate Tucker Carlson at Turning Point USA's AmFest in December. 

The post stated, "Megyn Kelly Gets Rid Of Old Pager Just To Be Safe," and included a photo of Kelly alongside a pager. In the fall of 2024, thousands of pagers exploded in an Israeli operation targeting the terror group Hezbollah. Thousands were injured and at least 30 were killed in the attack, which came during the Israel-Hamas war. 

The since-deleted post was widely criticized on social media, with Kelly writing "WTF," tagging Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon.

Human Events Daily host Jack Posobiec wrote, "Only 2 months ago, the leading voice of conservatism for young people was murdered in an act of blatant political violence. Trump himself was nearly assassinated last year. Comments about political violence against Megyn Kelly or anyone else are insane at a time like this."

Human Events opinion editor Kenny Cody wrote, "The Babylon Bee is a tool used to divide conservatives. Jokes are cool, but the attempt to allude to violence against Megyn Kelly because they hate Tucker Carlson so bad is simply abhorrent after what happened to Charlie. Shame on Seth Dillon and the rest."

Another wrote, "Babylon Bee deleted the tweet. They should delete their account next."

Journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote, "As for the 'it's just a joke' crowd defending The Babylon Bee's pager image aimed at Megyn Kelly, I keep asking them: what was the 'joke' here? None will explain the joke. What was it?"

In October 2024, political commentator Ryan Girdusky was banned from CNN after saying that he hoped that fellow commentator Mehdi Hasan’s "beeper doesn’t go off." Girdusky had told Hasan "You're called an antisemite more than anyone at this table," with Hasan later adding, "Well, I'm a supporter of the Palestinians, so I'm used to it," at which point Girdusky made the "beeper" comment. 

Kelly defended Girdusky for the joke he made and said that Hasan was over-the-top in his drama claiming to have been victimized by the remark.

The post comes after Kelly, in a recent episode of her show, criticized Mark Levin for his comments against Tucker Carlson. Leving called Carlson a Nazi after Carlson asked Levin to debate him at Turning Point USA’s AmFest in December about Israel's relationship with America.

"Just have a debate like a man on principle. And why don’t you show up at the Turning Point event and debate him. Just debate him. That would be so good for this conservative movement you claim to love so much. You know who's at the Turning Point events, future conservatives and current conservatives, young people. Young people. This would be a chance for you to influence somebody under the age of 70. You should show up there and debate," Kelly said.

"Why wouldn't you debate? He's so disgusting you can’t debate him? I can see not debating Nick Fuentes, to be honest, I can. But Tucker? He's so far outside the mainstream—I, all like all the Jewish friends I have in my head who text me all the time … They would all debate Tucker. They would love to debate Tucker. They've got their facts ready to go all day. Why won't he do it? And why is he sounding like a leftist shill with his rhetoric, just trying to dismiss people as like, these horrible bigoted people who I need to be—you can’t even stand next to them on stage." 

In August, Levin had posted "let her go" in response to another post that stated Kelly "has a choice right now" to either "keep her credibility or she can follow the path of right-wing grifters…"

Greenwald wrote, "Mark Levin instructs his flock: it's time to let Megyn Kelly go. She may have been good on American issues for 20 years, but now she interviewed an Israel critic and questioned AIPAC, so she's now persona non grata. Just don't say these people's primary allegiance is to Israel."