Megyn Kelly is going with the just-kidding defense after drawing mockery for her claim that Santa Claus — and Jesus — are white. On her show Friday, she accused Scrooges who didn’t get the joke of race-baiting.

“In kicking off the lighthearted segment, I offered a tongue-in-cheek message for any kids watching, saying that Santa, who I joked is a real person… is identifiable is white,” she said Friday. (You can watch the video here.)

Also read: Stephen Colbert and Megyn Kelly Agree: Santa Is White (Video)

Kelly made her initial comments in response to a Slate piece by Aisha Harris saying that depictions of Santa as a white man hurt children of other races. Kelly said on her show Friday that her comments were in a the spirit of humor, like Harris’ piece.

“That’s in part why we covered the story in the first place — humor is a part of what we try to bring to this show, but sometimes that is lost on the humorless,” she said.

Also read: Jon Stewart on Fox News and Its White Santa Debate (Video)

She also said she was only noting, as Harris had, that Santa is usually portrayed as white. She then ran a montage of late-night hosts and black news personalities, including CNN’s Don Lemon, calling her out for her remarks.

“This would be funny if it were not so telling about our society, in particular, the knee-jerk instinct by so many to race-bait and to assume the worst in people, especially people employed by the very powerful Fox News Channel,” she said.

In her initial remarks, she told “all you kids watching” not only that Santa was “just white,” but that Jesus was white, too.

“By the way, I also said Jesus is white,” she said Friday. “As I’ve learned in the past two days, that is far from settled.”

The post Megyn Kelly Says Her ‘White Santa’ Critics Are Race-Baiting appeared first on TheWrap.