Megyn Kelly is launching a new expansion to her growing media empire and defended Tucker Carlson after he ignited a blistering civil war in MAGA world over free speech.

The star spoke to the Daily Mail ahead of the launch of her own SiriusXM satellite radio channel on Tuesday. Fans will be able to hear The Megyn Kelly Show, featuring ‘bold, no BS news’ on channel 111, which will become The Megyn Kelly Channel.

It will also feature an exclusive daily after-show call-in with a high-profile mystery guest, and other commentators from her MK Media podcast network including Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan, Mark Halperin, Link Lauren and Emily Jashinsky.

Kelly said: ‘Now we’ll be able to really just let it rip. And if we’ve got a really hot interview… we can keep it rolling.

‘After my show we’re going to have somebody host and take a bunch of calls from the audience with thoughts on what we discussed. The audience is going to be thrilled when they hear who’s hosting it.’

Kelly, who now owns her own media company, said it was ‘amazing’ doing so, and she is ‘100 percent’ never going back to traditional television.

‘It’s the wave of the future,’ she said. ‘Corporate media is dead or dying.’

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The Megyn Kelly Channel launches on SiriusXM on November 4

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The outspoken star told the Daily Mail: ‘We’ll be able to really just let it rip’

The launch of her satellite radio channel comes days after Carlson set off a political storm across the conservative media sphere by interviewing Nick Fuentes, 27, a controversial far-right figure known for making antisemitic comments.

Kelly said she was ‘not a fan’ of Fuentes and would not have him on her own show, but the First Amendment means America does not ‘police nasty thoughts.’

She told the Daily Mail: ‘My own take on it is that’s not somebody who I want on my show but I think Tucker enjoys having on people who are provocative or controversial and just talking to them. He does it with a lot of people.

‘I mean, he, of course, did it with Vladimir Putin. He doesn’t believe in this person is too bad or too controversial to “platform,” and I’ll let him take it from there, but I think that’s why he did it, and it was an interesting interview, I did listen to it.’

She added: ‘I’m not a fan of Nick Fuentes, and I’ve heard him say some really vile things, but I also understand why he [Carlson] did it, because there are certain viewpoints this guy has when it comes to being a young, frustrated man in America on the right. So there was value in it.’

Fuentes leads a group known as the Groypers who see themselves as trying to preserve America’s white, Christian identity.

In 2022, he had dinner with Donald Trump and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago, but the now-President later clarified that Fuentes was an unexpected guest of the rapper and he ‘knew nothing about’ him.

Amid a row that drew in Republican figures including Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee, and the influential conservative Heritage Foundation think-tank, Kelly said too much attention was being paid to Fuentes.

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Tucker Carlson sparked major backlash across the conservative media sphere after he interviewed Nick Fuentes on his podcast

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Carlson’s interview with Fuentes sparked a GOP civil war

‘Why are we treating Nick Fuentes like he’s running for president? He’s not. He’s a podcaster, you know, a YouTuber, and he’s got really controversial views,’ she said.

‘I think most people don’t talk to Nick Fuentes for a reason, but that doesn’t mean no one should if they’re interested. And those two (Carlson and Fuentes) have had a bit of a feud too. So there may have been that element to it as well, like, “Who are you? Who’s this person?”

‘So it’s not like he’s not newsworthy, though I totally understand why many people find him just absolutely abhorrent, and we’ve talked about that many times on our show.’

Referencing recent free speech rows in the UK, the star added: ‘This is the United States of America. I know what happens over in the UK, we’ve been covering it, but over here we don’t police nasty thoughts.

‘That’s why we have the First Amendment. You’re allowed to have them. It’s actually there to protect the nasty, controversial, upsetting thoughts, not the lovely rainbows and unicorns thoughts.’

After leaving cable news in 2017 the former Fox News star has become one of America’s most popular broadcasters, with interviewees including Trump and Vice-President JD Vance.

Her YouTube channel got 1.4 billion views in a year and, in January, it beat NBC’s channel by 143 million views to 132 million.

The Megyn Kelly Show is currently on a nationwide tour and Carlson is set to be a guest in White Plains, New York, on Wednesday.

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The ex-network star now owns her own company and said corporate media is ‘dead or dying’

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Donald Trump greets Kelly at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last year

In the wake of his interview with Fuentes, a coalition of prominent conservative voices called for Carlson to be exiled from right-wing circles.

Cruz said: ‘If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool, and you say nothing, then you are a coward and you are complicit.’

But Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, one of the most influential Republican think-tanks in the country, released a video statement standing by Carlson.

He denounced the ‘venomous coalition’ criticizing Carlson and said ‘their attempt to cancel him will fail.’

‘Christians can critique the State of Israel without being antisemitic, and of course, antisemitism should be condemned,’ Roberts said.

‘I disagree with, and even abhor, things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer either. When we disagree with a person’s thoughts and opinions, we challenge those ideas in debate, and we have seen success in this approach as we continue to dismantle the vile ideas of the left.’

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Heritage Foundation boss Kevin Roberts, seen in Washington, DC, last month, backs Carlson

Roberts released his statement on X after speculation online suggested that Heritage had cut ties with Carlson due to a pressure campaign from pro-Israel voices.

The defense of Carlson created huge fallout in MAGA circles as pro-Israel conservative figures denounced Roberts.

‘My mother was a Heritage board member for 40 years. You have befouled her, you rancid wretch of an amoeba,’ wrote conservative editor John Podhoretz.

Other prominent conservative voices online approved of Roberts’s decision to stand by Carlson.

Turning Point USA official Gabe Guidarini praised Roberts for not attacking Carlson, adding, ‘Moral courage wins.’

Meanwhile, Kelly said Republicans remained overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, but the war had needed to ‘wrap up’ because it was losing support generally.

‘I think it was the natural result of the conflict going on as long as it did, which included the United States getting involved directly in the Iranian strikes,’ she said.

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Kelly at the Super Bowl earlier this year with the President and Donald Trump Jr

‘The Democrats don’t support Israel at all anymore. I mean, none of them, and Israel’s lost tons of support with independents in America, and their numbers have fallen slightly with the Republicans, 5 or 6 percent, according to the latest polling, right before they struck the peace deal.

‘And so I think this is why a lot of people who really care about Israel on the right, including yours truly, said it really needs to wrap up, because we cannot have a situation where Israel loses all support in the United States and loses the Republican Party.

‘It already lost the Democrat Party and the independents, and that’s just too dangerous a situation where most, the majority of America, turns on Israel. That’s not anything any friend of Israel or lover of America should want.’

She added: ‘I think there are some very prominent voices who have some serious objections to the way Israel handled this conflict and with respect to its conduct toward the United States.

‘And that’s fine. They’re entitled to those viewpoints. Those are points that should be aired and discussed and debated in the public square.’