On Tuesday, Donald Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway tried to prepare for what will undoubtedly be a long evening of note-taking and brainstorming for ways to spin whatever comes out of her boss’ mouth during his primetime address regarding his proposed border wall and the surrounding government shutdown he began by refusing to sign the budget legislation passed by Congress.
Clearly, the stress of that undertaking was getting the best of her as she addressed the media in the White House driveway. Conway, who must already be under tremendous pressure at home given her very public and very different positions on the President’s penchant for lying from her husband George — who provides regular commentary on Trump’s falsehoods via social media — unexpectedly (it seemed) encountered White House arch-nemesis Jim Acosta, the CNN reporter that Trump attempted to strip a press pass from after he cornered him on a question that Trump didn’t like.
Kellyanne was hostile from the outset, and when she heard Acosta’s question — “Can you promise that the President will tell the truth tonight?” — it set her off in a way that deserves perhaps more than the word “snaps” in our headline.
Yes, Jim, and can you promise that you will?”
Her tone was icy as the two went back and forth. Conway was, of course, defensive because she so often finds herself having to excuse grand errors or lies by the President and others in the administration as “unfortunate misstatements” — like her unseemly defense of Press Secretary Sarah Sanders’ lie about how many terrorists have been captured at the Mexico border by Customs and Border Protection (Sanders claimed 4,000 but the number was just 6, which would be the most unfortunate misstatement perhaps ever).
After some light back and forth that included a jab about whether she was “allowed to mention God” in front of Acosta, Kellyanne literally did snap at the veteran journalist:
Let me get back in your face because you’re such a smartass most of the time and I know you want this to go viral, a lot of these people don’t like you. But just let me be respectful to the media at large as I always am, I explained that was alternative information and additional facts and I explained it many times. And don’t you put it back it my face for all the corrections that your network needs to issue. I was on your network 25 or 26 times in 2018 and I’m one of the last people here that even bothers to go on. And the disrespect that you show to me personally, I’ll just look past.”
Acosta, trying not to laugh, reminded her that he was simply asking if the President’s speech would pass a fact check.
Watch the uncomfortable exchange here:
Featured image via screen capture
