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Megyn Kelly: Santa reaction was race-baiting

Megyn Kelly said Friday evening she was making offhand and "tongue-in-cheek" comments about Santa Claus and Jesus Christ being white, and that the controversy over the segment is a result of "race-baiting" while the real debate was lost.

Devoting more than 15 minutes of "The Kelly File" to the subject and bringing on two panelists to discuss the reaction, Kelly said the original Wednesday segment was just a way to bring some humor to her show.

"I realize that the piece by [Aisha] Harris which went on to argue that Santa should be a penguin was also tongue in cheek. That's in part why we covered the story in the first place," Kelly said. "Humor is part of what we try to bring to the show. Sometimes that's lost on the humorless."

(Also on POLITICO: Megyn Kelly absent from show)

Kelly played several clips of other networks and late-night comedians discussing or making jokes about the Santa segment. The frenzied reaction would be funny, Kelly said, "if it were not so telling of our society. In particular the knee jerk instinct by so many to race bait." She attributed part of the blowback to Fox News' popularity.

Most of the Friday segment was devoted to debating Santa, as Kelly admitted that the argument over Jesus' race is not settled.

"I also did say Jesus was white. As I've learned in the past two days, that is far from settled," she said.

Kelly said she was simply trying to make the same point as Harris was in her piece for Slate; that all the Santas depicted in modern society are white, and asking whether that should change.

(Also on POLITICO: Megyn Kelly: Jesus and Santa were white)

"Should that change? That didn't get acknowledged because I acknowledged that the most common image of Santa has white skin," Kelly said.

On Wednesday night, Kelly said that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white.

"You know, I've given [Harris] her due. Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change," Kelly said. "Jesus was a white man, too. It's like we have, he's a historical figure; that's a verifiable fact, as is Santa. I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?"

Kelly's segment was widely panned by news organizations, bloggers and late-night comedians. Some, like The Washington Post's Max Fisher, took a factual approach to the story, interviewing religious scholars about the long debate over the race of Jesus. Others pointed to the segment's apparent contradiction to Kelly's assertion on Monday night during an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" that she's a "straight news anchor."