Megyn Kelly and Fox News logo with outline of Venezuela

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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Megyn Kelly says Fox’s Venezuela coverage is like Russian state TV propaganda – she’s right

Fox figures have called the strike “justice in action,” suggested “we all should be cheering” for this “flawless” and “perfect operation,” and said Democrats who oppose it are “anti-American” and “communists”

Written by Gideon Taaffe, Noah Dowe & Pete Tsipis

Published

On Monday, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly criticized the network’s coverage of the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela, saying it was akin to “watching Russian propaganda,” and noting, “There was nothing skeptical.” Sure enough, Fox figures have spent the last few days heaping obsequious praise on the president, calling the operation “justice in action” and “absolutely phenomenal on every level.” 

The network also attacked Democratic dissenters as “immature” and “anti-American,” arguing that they “actually like dictators.”

  • Trump attacked Venezuela and right-wing media have celebrated, as Megyn Kelly noted

    • On January 3, the Trump administration launched an attack on Venezuela, bombing the capital and capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump has claimed the attack was part of the “Donroe doctrine,” which NBC described as “a twist on the 19th century Monroe Doctrine” that “asserted a distinct sphere of influence for the young American nation,” particularly in Latin America. Trump said, “We’re going to run it essentially until such time as a proper transition can take place.” [NBC News, 1/3/26]
    • Right-wing media figures broadly celebrated the attack and dismissed concerns over its legality. Some in right-wing media tied the overthrow of Maduro to election conspiracy theories about his involvement in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, calling it Trump’s “revenge.” Some also justified the attack by declaring that “international law is fake” or that “there is no such thing as international law.” [Media Matters, 1/6/26, 1/5/26; The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 1/5/26; The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/5/26]
    • Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said watching Fox’s coverage “was like watching Russian propaganda.” Kelly commented, “When I was at Fox News — which was a long time, 14 years — I would have known exactly what to do in the wake of Trump's attack in Venezuela. His retrieval, shall we say, to put it in mild terms, of Nicolás Maduro. I would have known that I was supposed to cheerlead it. I turned on Fox News yesterday, and I’m sorry, but it was like watching Russian propaganda. There was nothing skeptical.” She urged caution from her fellow conservative pundits, saying, “There are serious reasons to just exercise a note of caution before we just get on the rah-rah train. All right. I have done that enough times in my career as a Fox News anchor to have been embarrassed enough to know I'm going to stay on the yellow light for this.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 1/5/26]

  • Fox News figures and guests praised Trump’s attack, calling it a “perfect operation” and “good news for everyone who loves freedom”

    • Fox News host Will Cain claimed, “There's no such thing as international law. There is only such thing as conquest.” He added, “We rule the jungle. We are the lion.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 1/5/26]
    • Fox host Jesse Watters called the strike “a perfect operation,” adding, “Donald Trump’s like my surgeon. He’s elegant, and he’s precise. And he went in there with the perfect extraction.” Watters continued, “This is not regime change. This is just trying to change the regime's behavior.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/5/26] 
    • Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade praised the attack, saying, “Basically the rest of the world, their jaw is still on their ground.” He gushed, “I cannot believe how much has gone right and how much could really affect us positively in this country from now to the immediate future.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 1/4/26]
    • Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall: “What’s happened so far is remarkable and is a centerpiece. This is justice in action.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 1/5/26]
    • Fox Business host Charles Payne said the news was “absolutely phenomenal on every level” and that “the people of Venezuela need this more than anything else.” He claimed there will be a reduction in narco-terrorism, saying, “We all should be cheering.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/5/26] 
    • Fox prime-time host Laura Ingraham called the capture “a needed global reset for the United States” and a “clawback of power squandered over decades by D.C.'s uniparty.” She also called comparisons to Iraq “facile” and “inept.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/5/26] 
    • Fox News contributor Hugh Hewitt declared the strike on Venezuela and Maduro’s arrest are “good news for everyone who loves freedom, and especially for the Venezuelan people.” He continued, “This isn’t about toppling regimes. It was very surgical. Donald Trump did it again.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 1/3/26]
    • Fox & Friends Weekend guest host Nicole Saphier said the Venezuela attack is what happens “when you are a civilised nation — you hold people accountable.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 1/3/26]
    • Kilmeade said the actions in Venezuela “are not reckless, they are resolute. Not political, but they're necessary.” Kilmeade stated, “My hope is this: that you understand out there what's happening. That these actions are not reckless, they are resolute. Not political, but they're necessary. And for the first time in a long time, America's enemies are being forced to do something they haven't had to do in years: face an America that is not afraid to use its military muscles when words don't work.” [Fox News, One Nation, 1/4/26]
    • Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Griff Jenkins said the strike was “flawless” and “a reminder to the world that our U.S. military is matched by none and that there's nothing we can't do if we set our target.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 1/4/26]

  • Fox figures and guests have also slammed Democrats for opposing the raid, arguing they are “communists” and “come out for whatever is anti-American”

    • Host Brian Kilmeade attacked protesters and accused them of protesting for “whatever is anti-American.” He said: “They immediately came out for Maduro. And I’m [unintelligible], well, these are the same people that came out to burn Tesla cars, the same people that came out for antisemitism – the George Floyd riots. So, all these people just come out for whatever is anti-American and they lean and what they have in common is this push for socialism.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/5/26] 
    • Anchor Martha MacCallum accused Democrats of an “immature, unsophisticated approach to governing” for opposing the operation. She argued Democrats “assume that everything that the president does is bad, and that if they go in the opposite direction, they’re going to be lauded for it by their constituents.” [Fox News, America Reports, 1/5/26]
    • Host Greg Gutfeld dismissed those labeling the conflict as a potential “forever war,” arguing, “A forever war is what Trump is dealing with domestically with Democrats, this complex fraud that is waged against us every day.” He continued: “And it’s like, it’s such a contrast between Trump's decisive action and kind of the Kafka-esque, you know, corruption of Democrat rule in every city that keeps, that continues to keep going.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/5/26] 
    • Guest Jason Miller, a former Trump official, said Democrats oppose the raid because they “actually like dictators” and “act like dictators themselves.” He continued, “Think about Obama and his embrace of the Castros. Think about Joe Biden, his embrace of the mullahs, remember the pallets of cash that they were sending off. In fact, even crazy Bernie Sanders actually wanted his honeymoon to the USSR before even the curtain fell.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/5/26] 
    • Host Rachel Campos-Duffy said the left is “reacting the way they’re reacting not because they’re Maduro sympathizers, but because they are Maduro. This is a hero to them. They are communists.” She also said, “I predict that in the next two years, one or two years, you are going to see a baby boom in Venezuela, and the number one name is going to be Donald. And the second name is going to be Marco. And then it will be Pete.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/5/26] 
    • Guest Robert O’Brien, former Trump national security adviser, cited the strike as evidence that “President Trump does such a good job politically.” He continued: “At the beginning of the week, he had the Democrats defending Somali fraudsters in Minnesota. At the end of the week, he's got the Democrats defending a narco-terrorist that they put a bounty on. So, yeah, his political skills can't be underestimated." [Fox News, America Reports, 1/5/26]
    • Host Sean Hannity said Democrats “whining and complaining” about the Venezuela attack “are showing their true colors.” Hannity argued, “They don't care about the rule of law, or human rights, or fair elections, or even Americans dying from drugs. The same people that told you for four straight years the border is closed, it's secured, all they know is they hate Donald Trump. That is their entire philosophy. That is their driving ideology.” [Fox News, Hannity 1/5/26]