What does "let's gut her" mean?

Question

Michael Cohen retweeted something which said:

let’s gut her

"her" is referring to Megyn Kelly.

He later said that this was not a threat to her safety, as the definition of "gut" is:

to make (something) no longer effective

I looked at Webster, and it defines "gut" as:

• to remove the internal organs from (a fish or an animal)
• to destroy the inside of (a structure)
• to destroy the power of (something) : to make (something) no longer effective

[...]

Examples of gut in a sentence

• The salmon is already gutted and filleted.
• Critics claim that these reforms will gut the law.

I knew that both definitions exist, but I didn't know that the second definition - to make something no longer effective - could be used when referring to a person, I always thought it could only be used when referring to things such as laws and regulations. So my questions are:

1. Can "to gut" be used like this, referring to a person?
2. Is it commonly used this way?
3. Is that how most native speakers would interpret the sentence?

Answer 1

"Gut" is one of those wonderfully picturesque verbs that can be used metaphorically to mean something related, but still retains the image of its original meaning (to remove the internal organs of an animal).

Other examples of similar metaphors:

The rock band trashed their hotel rooms.

He's just fishing for compliments.

Let's nail down the details of the contract.

Hopefully Cohen doesn't really mean he wants to eviscerate Kelly -- that would be problematic. Still, there are many words he could have used that don't have such violent connotations like, "Let's wreck her," or "Let's ruin her," or "Let's make her pay," or various others.

The fact that he chose to use gut over all the other phrases at his disposal creates ominous overtones which Kelly (and those who support her) might take the wrong way.

[Edit] In the context of the overall discussion, apparently Kelly mentioned something about being "in a shark tank". "Gut" is a verb often associated with the process of cleaning fish, and so its use could be considered a related metaphor (sharks -> fish -> etc.) However Cohen has a reputation for being a vicious and nasty person, and so his use of a violent metaphor like "gut" was probably deliberate.

Answer 2

There is one definition of Gut that defines it as:

To reduce or destroy the effectiveness of (something)

As I have not heard this form of the word used often, I do believe he was trying to avoid a situation he did not anticipate. It may have been meant as an empty threat, per say, but very rarely have I seen it used to directly describe the act of destroying someone or somethings effectiveness.

You could argue that, by gutting someone's insides, it does destroy their effectiveness ;)