Megyn Kelly Sees Backlash Over Epstein Remarks

One of the big media names trending in regard to Jeffrey Epstein is that of Megyn Kelly. As Mediaite explains, it's because she spent part of her Sirius XM show on Wednesday suggesting that people were wrong to label Epstein a pedophile.

• "Like, he liked 15-year-old girls. And I realize this is disgusting," said Kelly. "I'm definitely not trying to make an excuse for this. I'm just giving you facts, that he wasn't into, like, 8-year-olds. But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passerby."
• A bit later, she added: "There's a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old, you know?" Kelly also said she knew someone close to the case who didn't consider Epstein a pedophile.

• The backlash has been swift. "Jeffrey Epstein is a pedophile. Full stop," Elisa Batista of the advocacy group UltraViolet Action tells Mother Jones. "A middle-aged man grooming and sexually exploiting 15-year-old girls is child abuse. Full stop." Social media has also been on fire, though many of the attacks on Kelly exaggerate what she said. A typical sentiment: "Megyn Kelly has gone from fighting sexual harassment by Roger Ailes to defending underage rape, pedophilia & the sex trafficking of minors," tweeted one critic. "Her family must be so proud."
• For the record, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders defines the criteria for pedophilia, including "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger)."
• Newsweek talks to University of Ottawa psychiatry professor Michael Seto, who points out the distinction between pedophilia and hebephilia, an attraction to young adolescents, typically ages 13 to 15. "But I also recognize that for many people this distinction is not important because they are understandably outraged that children of any age or stage of physical development are being sexually harmed."