• Megyn Kelly’s NBC News colleagues on the “Today” show discussed the TV host’s controversial blackface comments on Wednesday morning.
  • The “Today” show’s Al Roker said Kelly “owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country.”
  • ‘Today’ anchor Craig Melvin said the argument that the backlash Kelly was facing was “political correctness run amok” was “ignorant and racist.”

Megyn Kelly’s NBC News colleagues on the “Today” show discussed the TV host’s controversial blackface comments on Wednesday morning, with weather anchor Al Roker saying she owes people of color a “bigger apology.”

The panel discussion on Wednesday’s “Today” show came after Kelly defended wearing blackface for Halloween and questioned why it was racist.

Kelly later apologized for the comments, saying her behavior was “wrong,” adding that “the history of blackface in our culture is abhorrent; the wounds too deep.”

In a panel on the "Today" show Wednesday, Roker, Craig Melvin, Morgan Radford, Hoda Kotb, and Savannah Guthrie discussed Kelly's apology and the racism behind blackface.

"While she apologized to the staff, she owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country because this is a history going back to the 1830s," Roker said. "Minstrel shows to demean and denigrate a race wasn't right."

He added that blackface magnifies the worst stereotypes about black people.

Melvin mentioned that some people on social media said the backlash Kelly was facing was "political correctness run amok."

"That's silly, and it's disingenuous and it's just as ignorant and racist as the statement itself," Melvin said. "In Addition to her being a colleague, she's a friend, and she said something stupid, she said something indefensible."

Along with her internal email to colleagues apologizing on Tuesday afternoon, Kelly also apologized in a segment of "Megyn Kelly Today" on Wednesday morning.