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Sally Kohn, a liberal political pundit who previously worked as a Fox News commentator, has opened up about the sexual harassment she faced at the hands of Roger Ailes, the former chairman and CEO of the network.


In a new Women Rule podcast interview with POLITICO, Kohn related two instances in Ailes’ office when she met with him – once before she worked for the network and another just before she left Fox.

“I go into Roger’s office and he tells me I have pretty eyes,” Kohn said. “Five times in like five minutes.”

“Let’s be honest – I think I got off easy, right?” Kohn added of that interaction.

Just before she stopped working at Fox News, Kohn said, she had a final meeting with Ailes, who died last May at age 77.

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“He told me again how pretty my eyes are several times and then he told me — I can’t say this straight-faced – ‘I mean, you’re so beautiful. Men must not know what to do with you,’” she recounted.

Kohn, who is gay, said she responded: “I don’t know what to do with that statement, Roger.”

In the podcast interview, Kohn said she was “more distracted by the things he was saying about Obama and Muslims” to fully comprehend his statements to her.

“The big sexual harassment thing didn’t register because there was like – there was a lot to wade through, you know?” Kohn said.

Ailes, who was accused by several women at Fox News of sexual harassment and misconduct, resigned from his post as chairman in July of 2016..

In the far-ranging interview with Kohn, the pundit, who now works at CNN, also discussed the ongoing controversy over her new book, “The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity.”

“I have tried over and over again to both clarify the facts, apologize for both the mistakes I made -- my own shortcomings, the things I wish I had done differently, and in all honesty, my blind spots as a white person,” Kohn said.

The dispute began when Aminatou Sow, co-host of the podcast “Call Your Girlfriend,” told the lifestyle blog The Cut that Kohn had misrepresented what Sow had said in the book. Kohn quoted her as saying: “Why is it black women are always asked to do the work? Once you're provoked, the rules of engagement change, and I can ... kill you and I'm justified in doing that."

Kohn was also recently criticized by writer Ijeoma Oluo for taking her tweets out of context in the book and drawing unfair contrasts to Sow.

“I’ll continue to apologize when I have the chance,” Kohn said of the controversy. “All I can do is continue to learn, grow, try to be better.”

To hear more from Kohn about what she found out talking to white supremacists and her own online trolls for her book – as well as how she stumbled into the cable news punditry business - listen to the full podcast here. Women Rule takes listeners backstage with female bosses for real talk on how they made it and what advice they have for women looking to lead.