Megyn Kelly hit out at Today Show stand-in Hoda Kotb for crying as she interviewed Savannah Guthrie about her mother's disappearance, as she noted that the journalist failed to follow-up on new details the distraught daughter brought up.
Savannah's 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona on February 1, sparking a massive search that has so far resulted in no arrests and no sign of the grandmother.
As the investigation now enters a third month without any suspects or signs of Nancy, Savannah sat down with Kotb for an emotional interview, the first part of which aired on Thursday.
It showed both Savannah and Kotb breaking down in tears, which Kelly admonished the interviewer for.
'This interview was not about Hoda, it was about Savannah,' the former Fox News reporter said on her podcast Thursday.
'And I'm sorry, but Hoda kept wiping away tears that weren't there either. This was acting on Hoda Kotb’s part, and it was a distraction and an unnecessary one.'
She also pointed out that Kotb failed to ask Savannah follow-up questions when she revealed new information about how she and her siblings Camron and Annie found their mother's $1.4 million house following the abduction.
She noted in the interview that her mother suffered from severe back pain and could not walk far, and revealed that 'the doors were propped open.'
Megyn Kelly lashed out at Today Show host Hoda Kotb for crying as she interviewed Savannah Guthrie about her mother's disappearance
Savannah sat down with her Kotb for her first interview since her mother's abduction
Nancy Guthrie, 84, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona on February 1, sparking a massive search that has so far resulted in no arrests and no sign of the grandmother
'Why would the door be "propped open?"... I don't understand,' Kelly said after playing the clip on her podcast.
She then told her guests, security experts James Hamilton, Eric O'Neill and Randy Sutton that she wanted to offer her own 'editorial... from a journalistic perspective.'
'With respect, I have to say I think Hoda Kotb fell down on the job, and I don't think she was the woman for the interview,' Kelly continued.
'They put her out there because they use this as a promotional vehicle. The two are friends, look, "We're a big family, look at them relating,"' she then claimed of NBC's decision to have Kotb handle the interview.
Kelly also noted that the producers at the Today Show kept Kotb's mic on 'for her empathetic sounds and her active listening,' which she called 'a major distraction' and a 'very odd' choice 'because normally the network would turn down, hold Hoda’s mic during Savannah’s very compelling answers, especially in an interview this big.'
'The reason they left Hoda's mic open is because I'm telling you, NBC had an agenda here, which was to show you one big, happy family. Look how empathetic she is,' Kelly argued, reiterating that the mic was an 'inappropriate choice, journalistically, because it served only as a distraction.'
But Kelly said her biggest complaint with the interview was that Kotb did not ask any follow-up questions 'and therefore it was not journalistically sound.'
In a portion of the interview that aired on Thursday, Savannah revealed that the door to her mother's $1.4 million home was left 'propped open'
She spoke about how she, her brother, Camron, and sister, Annie, found the home following the abduction on February 1
'She did not ask very basic questions, like, “What do you mean ‘propped open?’” Kelly noted. 'That’s it. I'm not talking about you go for the jugular… I mean very basic reportorial ABCs - What does propped open mean?'
'And the sins got worse as the interview went along,' Kelly said. 'I objected to how it was handled.'
'I'm just being honest. I'm not trying to be petty. I'm trying to be honest about what I saw there and what should have happened in an interview this big,' she concluded.
The interview marked the first time Savannah opened up about the investigation into her mother's disappearance and the effect it has had on her family.
She told how she had spent the evening with Today Show co-host Carson Daly and their children in New York City when her sister Annie called to tell her that their mother was missing.
The two sisters were then left in a 'panic,' she recalled.
Savannah said she was out with Today Show co-host Carson Daly and their children in New York City when her sister Annie called to tell her that their mother was missing
She said it was her brother who first brought up the possibility Nancy's abduction could be linked to her fame and wealth
They initially suspected that Nancy had suffered a medical episode in the night, but quickly realized something more sinister had occurred.
'Her phone was there and her purse was there and all her things, and it just didn't make any sense,' Savannah told Kotb.
'I started calling the hospitals and the police were there and talking to her at the same time and it was just chaos, and disbelief.'
Soon, Savannah said, her brother Camron brought up the possibility that the 84 year old may have been abducted in an effort to gain some of Savannah's wealth.
'My brother, he was in the military, he saw right away what this was. He said: "I think she's been kidnapped for ransom."
'I said "Do you think, because of me?"
'He said "Sorry sweetie, yeah, maybe." But I knew that.'
It still remains unclear whether Savannah's fame and wealth had anything to do with Nancy's abduction, but Savannah said the thought that she 'brought this to her bedside' is 'too much to bear to think' about.
Savannah also called speculation that her brother-in-law Tommaso Cioni was involved in her mother's abduction 'unbearable.'
'It piles pain upon pain. There are no words. There are no words,' she cried.
'I don't understand, I'll never understand, and no one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law. No one protected my mom more than my brother. We love her and she is our shining light. She's our matriarch. She's all we have.'
Savannah now says 'someone needs to do the right thing' and come forward with information to help the investigation. She is pictured hugging Dylan Dreyer during a visit to the Today Show earlier this month
There has been no trace of Nancy since her disappearance, with Nest doorbell camera footage released weeks later showing a masked figure in black nitrile gloves with a gun on the doorstep around the time Nancy vanished.
Savannah now says 'someone needs to do the right thing' and come forward with information to help the investigation.
'We are in agony,' she told Kotb in a portion of the interview that aired on Wednesday, sharing how she wakes up in the middle of each night thinking about the pain that Nancy suffered.
'To think of what she went through. I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night,' she said, tears streaming down her face.
'In the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought. And I will not hide my face. But she needs to come home now.'
