Rachel Maddow on the Howard Stern Show: Roger Ailes ‘told me he wanted to hire me at Fox’

She headlines the No. 1 news program on the left-leaning MSNBC. So what could possibly bring Rachel Maddow to the conservative Fox News?

A tempting offer from the network’s embattled former CEO Roger Ailes, who died last week after making headlines himself for sexual harassment allegations.

But Ailes was undoubtedly a savvy television expert, and Maddow once solicited his advice on how to improve her work, she revealed Wednesday on The Howard Stern Show, saying, “He was really, really kind about it.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t tell you to wear a mini skirt,” Stern cracked.

“He’s a smart enough guy to know how that would have ended,” she said.

Of Ailes’ insights, she added, “He was gracious about it and constructive. He gave me some interesting stuff to think about.”

“Would you have ever considered working at Fox News if Roger said to you, ‘Look, I like you. I don’t agree with you politically, but I think this would be a good sort of mix, you being part of the Fox News team.’ Would you have taken that seriously and looked into it?” Stern asked.

“He once told me that he wanted to hire me at Fox, and actually this is not that long ago, within the last few years he told me wanted to hire me at Fox and then he told me he’d never put me on the air,” Maddow said, laughing. “So nobody else could put me on and [he could] put me on ice! I was like, ‘So you’d pay me a full contract to not work?'”

“Would you consider that?” Stern asked.

“Who would not consider that?” she said.

Maddow also discussed our tenuous relationship with Russia, saying the nation “is not a superpower.”

“Militarily they tried to match us, and they really haven’t,” she explained. “Their weapons, their entire military structure, the size of their military, the resources, its training — they cannot keep up. Not even close. And the way they decided to keep up militarily, the way they decided to maintain offensive competition with the United States, was with cyber and information warfare.”

Hear the full interview on demand on the SiriusXM app. For more coverage of The Howard Stern Show, follow @sternshow on Twitter and check out HowardStern.com. Hear more Howard on SiriusXM Ch. 100 and 101.