Not defending Kelly here, but it seems likely that Fox News had an agenda going into the debate. Thinking that all were simply doing what they were told, as even the post debate analysis from all the contributors was oddly similar.
“Thinking that all were simply doing what they were told,”
Their pre-game enthusiasm for “doing what they were told” seems a bit over the top to support that hypothesis, but of course, Josefs Mengele and Goebbels followed orders and were enthusiastic, too.
That may be behind it, in the end, but it seems that once you have your own show on FOX, you do own it. Kelly was talking with a self-satisfied smirk all week, prior to the debate, that they were all lying awake nights thinking and reframing questions for the debate. She indicated she was laying in wait for Trump in particular.
That’s when I begin to think these professionals are paid plenty to make their own bed, at FOX. They are smart and given carte blanch to show off their skills as they see fit.