On Wednesday, CBS This Morning's anchors hounded Kellyanne Conway over an appendix to a recent intelligence report given to Donald Trump that supposedly highlighted Russia's attempts to compromise the President-Elect, as well BuzzFeed's unsubstantiated document dump related to it. Charlie Rose, Norah O'Donnell, and Gayle King repeatedly tried to get Conway to verify something that she wasn't privy to — whether or not Trump read the classified appendix. The guest blasted BuzzFeed for "really violating basic journalistic standards" by their release. O'Donnell agreed with Conway, but still pressed the Trump aide on the issue. [video below]

Rose first asked the former campaign manager, "Did he see the appendix; did he read it; and has he reacted to it?" Conway replied, "I can't comment on that, because it's an intelligence briefing. And I myself have a top secret clearance that is pending; so I was not part of that." She continued by pointing out that "if you're referring to a two-page appendix that people are talking about in the media that was somehow meant to tip him off to a 35 page, unsubstantiated report from the Internet, which is not a report from the intelligence community — then I would just say that's not even fake news; it's just fake."

The CBS anchors spent much of the segment sparring with their guest over the appendix versus BuzzFeed's "reporting." Rose followed up by wondering, "So you are saying that everything that's in that appendix is wrong and fake?" Conway clarified, "No. What I'm saying is that 35-page report has clearly come from the Internet." She pointed out that many press outlets took the website to task for their sketchy article:

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP: ...I was very heartened last night, Charlie, to see so many journalists — even those who were actively against Donald Trump all through the campaign — really pushing back on the publication of this type of information, when — when we just can't — we can't conflate to the American people that this is actually intelligence information. We know people were chasing these rumors for months, and couldn't come up with any verification.

<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>

O'Donnell then rephrased Rose's question: "Is President-elect Trump saying never that he never read this addendum to the report?" The counselor to the President-Elect again denied that this was the case, and added that "we're talking about that this morning because, in addition, you have some news sources going over, I think, really violating basic journalistic standards." The anchor interjected that she "agreed" with Conway, but then kept up her confrontational approach with her guest:

CONWAY: He has not said that. What I'm saying is that we're talking about that this morning because, in addition, you have some news sources going over, I think, really violating basic journalistic standards and— NORAH O'DONNELL Agreed— CONWAY: Thank you. Thank you for agreeing; and thanks to CBS for agreeing, frankly. Going ahead and releasing 35 pages of something that reads like a...grade-B spy novel — is certainly not an intelligence document— O'DONNELL: But these are two different things. Did he read the report that was given to him? CONWAY: I can't comment on that, because the fact is, it's classified; and he had an intelligence briefing where— GAYLE KING: You can't comment on whether he read it or not? We're not asking— CONWAY: He reads anything that's given to him. I can tell you that, but— ROSE: So therefore, he had read then. If he reads anything that's given to him, then he's read it. CONWAY: But Charlie...let's not confuse the viewers today that anything in those 35 pages — that is meant to refer to the two-page addendum that Norah is mentioning— O'DONNELL: An important point — an important point— CONWAY: It's a very important point, because so much gets lost in our sound bite-ridden society, where people are — they're not talking about facts and figures in this report. They're talking about rumors and unsubstantiated information that we have been able to debunk at the very basic level.

Later in the interview, King cited how Democratic Senator Chris Coons "says this: if there's cooperation or collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russians, it would be a bombshell." She asked, "Can you say that nobody from the Trump campaign had any involvement with the Russians before, during, or after the campaign?" Conway answered by blasting the politician's "very dangerous rhetoric, particularly at a time when responsible print and electronic outlets were chasing this story and came up empty handed...and decided not to pursue it."

Rose decided to hound his guest one more time at the very end of the segment: "The Russian intelligence doesn't have anything that might be possibly used as leverage against the President-Elect. You have seen it, and you're saying the stuff that is being talked about is not true —never happened!?"

The full transcript of the Kellyanne Conway segment from the January 11, 2017 edition of CBS This Morning: