President Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHR McMaster says president's policy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is 'unwise' Cast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response MORE's aide, Kellyanne Conway, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the poor coverage the president received before assuming office has had a negative effect on the country's democracy.

"He has just absorbed an unprecedented — qualitatively and quantitatively — unprecedented deluge of negative criticism and coverage that's frankly unfair and a little bit dangerous to our democracy," Conway said on "Sunday Today."

"You know, the question for everyone who covers him and who thinks about him is: What is the line between thoughtful criticism and skepticism and, you know, flat out denial and delegitimization of what just happened?"

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Conway was talking about polls showing the president's approval ratings heading into office. In polls conducted before the president assumed office, Trump's approval ratings were in the high 30s or low 40s.

Conway said she's concerned about "how the poll numbers got there."

"If this man got a much higher percent of that as a vote than the number of people say they approve, I'm concerned that we're just not — we all love our country, and we all love our democracy," she said.

She drew a distinction between the coverage of former President Obama before he assumed office eight years ago and the coverage of Trump.

"It's embarrassing. And it's disproportionate," she said.

"And I just believe if people can take a deep breath and watch him progress, I actually think those poll numbers will change when he starts making amazing progress for people."

Trump and his team often rail on the media, accusing reporters of biased and dishonest coverage against him.

On Saturday, a day after the president was sworn into office, he again took a shot at the media, claiming the press was lying about the crowd size at his inauguration.