Is Megyn Kelly A (Gasp!) Liberal?

Megyn Kelly is officially back to hosting The Kelly File, after taking some time off for a family vacation. The Fox News journalist returned on Monday to much acclaim, conducting an interview with GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson and once again receiving the ire of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. It was Tuesday's show that might have prompted the most chatter, however. Presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz insinuated that Kelly may be more Democratic than she lets on. Cruz deflected a key question on birthright citizenship by, in turn, questioning the host's political leanings and comparing her to Barack Obama. So is Megyn Kelly a liberal?

According to Cruz, she acts like one. While detailing his plan on immigration after being asked about the 14th Amendment, Kelly asked him the exact same thing that Trump had answered the night before on The O'Reilly Factor regarding birthright citizenship. Kelly proposed this hypothetical question:

If you have a husband and a wife who are illegal immigrants, and they have two children who are here, who are American citizens, would you deport all of them? Would you deport the American citizen children?

The two went back and forth for quite some time as Cruz continued to detail his immigration plan. When Kelly kept pestering him to simply answer yes or no, Cruz fired back and said:

I get that that’s the question you want to ask, that’s also the question every mainstream media liberal journalist wants to ask ... It's [the question] a distraction from how we actually solve the problem. You know, it’s also the question Barack Obama wants to focus on.

Cruz never did adequately address Kelly's question. Trump, meanwhile, managed to issue a rather explicit answer, indicating his support of the mass deportation of children born in the United States to parents who have entered the country illegally.

Likewise, Kelly has recently made it very clear where her politics align. In a June Variety cover story, she admitted to voting for both parties, and said that she considers herself an Independent. Kelly said:

I’m not rooting for anybody. I’m a Fox News anchor, and I have no horse in the race. I can give anyone a hard time ... Nobody asked me about my political stripes. When Roger Ailes hired me, he knew I was the daughter of a college professor and a nurse. There was nothing in this resume that would telegraph, ‘She’s a secret conservative.’

She's certainly made some conservative-leaning statements, but according to Kelly, it's her independent status that makes her a better journalist. It certainly hasn't prevented her from shying away from asking tougher questions of politicians, which may be why The Kelly File has been dominating airwaves since her return. Monday night's program fetched a whopping 3.1 million viewers.