Rich Lowry appears on The Megyn Kelly Show.

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Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of the well-known conservative magazine National review, denied the allegations that he had performed at a performance in The Megyn Kelly Show, and said it was a mispronunciation.

Kelly asked Lowry, who has worked for the magazine since 1997, about JD Vance’s comments regarding the vicious and debunked claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating neighborhood pets.

In a CNN interview on Sunday, Vance, the Ohio senator and Republican candidate for vice president, said he was willing to “make up stories so that the American media will actually pay attention to them.”

“He admits they made it up,” Kelly said, to which Lowry replied, “Think of ‘alternative facts’ with Kellyanne (Conway). They did the same thing.”

Lowry added: “They only found two Springfield residents who called to complain about Haitians (word) – migrants taking geese out of ponds.”

Lowry’s original pronunciation of the word “migrants” – which he later said he simply stumbled upon – sounded like the N-word to some social media users.

However, Lowry’s comments sparked different interpretations.

“I’m having a hard time coming to any conclusion other than the obvious, which is what Lowry is blurting out here,” wrote Madeline Peltz, deputy director of rapid response at the liberal group Media Matters, which posted the clip on X.

While Kelly did not visibly react during the interview itself, she later came to Lowry’s aid at X. Write in response to a clip from the show: “This is so disgusting and obviously coming from someone who doesn’t know (Rich Lowry) at all.”

Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy, who is also a National review The contributing editor also responded to the controversy, writing on X that Lowry “had evidently confused ‘immigrants’ (short i) and ‘migrants’ (long i) – he began to mispronounce ‘migrants’ with a short i; corrected himself immediately and without embarrassment because it was obviously a mispronunciation.”

Lowry responded to X: “Yes, that’s exactly what happened – I started to mispronounce the word ‘migrants’ and caught myself halfway through.”

NPR media reporter David Folkenflik commented on X, saying, “After watching it multiple times and even slowing the speed down to 0.25x, my opinion is that Lowry mutilated migrants and immigrants right after he said the word ‘Haitian.'” Folkenflik added, “It’s appalling to hear what came out of it. Still, critics can best address the content of what he’s saying directly.”

NPR has the National review asked for a comment but have not received a response yet.

The debunked, racially motivated allegations were not only spread by Vance, but were also brought up by former President Donald Trump during last week’s presidential debate when he responded to a question about immigration: “They’re eating the dogs, the people who came in. They’re eating the cats.”