Last week, CNN correspondent Brianna Keilar landed on one of the weirdest on-air moments of this very weird election cycle. While interviewing Michael Cohen, an attorney at the Trump Organization, about shakeups in Donald Trump's campaign staff, Keilar mentioned that Trump's popularity has been down in the polls. Cohen responded with a stern "Says who?" When she calmly responded, "The polls. All of them," Cohen repeated himself again. And again. Thus a meme was born. Esquire talked to Keilar about her viral moment:

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What'd you think about the interview going viral?

Brianna Keilar: It's always surprising, because you just don't expect it to happen. We did the interview in two parts with a commercial break between them. The "Says who?" moment happens in the first part and I realized in the commercial break it was starting to get a lot of pickup. My phone starting blowing up with Twitter notifications. It sort of ballooned right away, but then it snowballed over the course over the next couple of days. My producer was at a wedding in India and told me that she saw it there. My coworker who is in London told me it was on the British breakfast shows.

What were you thinking during the interview?

I was surprised he was asking me a question with an answer that didn't look good for his boss. He was asking me a pretty simple question and I was giving him a pretty simple answer, and it was the truth. I was floored. I had gone through the polls early in the day, and I had realized there wasn't a single one that had Donald Trump up.

Afterward, Michael Cohen told Yahoo, 'I think I unraveled her.' Your response?

I asked them to embed the video.

What kind of reaction did you get to the interview on social media?

Some of it was messages from friends, and then it was a bunch of mentions I couldn't even keep up with. Then the knock-knock jokes started. Oh, they're good.

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"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Says."

"Says who?"

"THE POLLS. ALL OF THEM." — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 20, 2016

Then I got Randy Rainbow'ed. That was pretty funny.

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After the initial response to the meme, the interview sparked more serious conversations. Seth Meyers said: "'Says who' isn't just a dumb Trump supporter's response to a few polls, it's the right's reaction to everything, from climate change to unemployment numbers to health care. 'Says who' is the product of decades of work by [Roger] Ailes and others to dismiss facts that don't align with their worldview." What do you think about that take?

Part of the reason it went viral is that it resonated with something a lot of people felt about the campaign cycle, which is that it's really hard to get to the bottom of things. That's true on both sides of this contest.

This week you had another buzzy interview with Rep. Sean Duffy when he brought up Hillary Clinton's "coughing attacks." You said: "I have been there for those. Who doesn't occasionally cough? It sounds like you are trafficking in conspiracy theories as well." Why is it so important to push back on conspiracy theories like these?

Pressing anyone you interview is important when they're talking about things that aren't true. If someone is on your air, and they're saying something that is factually incorrect, then it's on you to point that out.

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You are CNN's lead Hillary Clinton correspondent in addition to being the stand-in anchor for The Situation Room. What have been some stand-out moments on the campaign trail?

This is the thing with Hillary Clinton: She's basically like covering a president. I've been covering her now for almost exactly two-and-a-half years. From the beginning, there's been not much access. She hardly does press conferences, she does the occasional gaggle, but there's not a lot of access. The whole point of being a campaign reporter and going on the road is that you're supposed to get these very moments you're asking about and there just aren't very many of them. And it's frustrating.

A lot has been made lately of the fact that Clinton hasn't done a press conference in nearly nine months – how hard does that make your job?

It does make it hard, because you want to know what the candidate thinks and you want to get her reactions to these important issues and when you can't, it creates this hole in the coverage.

Are you counting down the days until November 8?

Yes! Is it 76? I think it's 76. I'm getting married in December. I'm going to take some time off. I'm focused on surviving, and I'm not even kidding about that.

Kate Storey Esquire Writer-at-Large Kate Storey is a Writer-at-Large for Esquire covering culture, politics, and style.

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