Conway refuses to answer whether Trump walked in on teen beauty queens

Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday refused to answer questions about allegations that Trump walked into the dressing room while Miss Teen USA contestants, some as young as 15, were changing.

Conway repeatedly tussled with CNN’s Brianna Keilar, accusing the network of unfair coverage, as she tried to avoid weighing in on the appropriateness of Trump’s past words and actions.


BuzzFeed reported earlier Wednesday about four women who competed in the 1997 contest and described how Trump intruded upon the dressing room.

Keilar also played an audio recording of Trump from a 2005 interview with Howard Stern in which he describes a similar narrative to the accusations leveled against him.

“I am allowed to go in because I am the owner of the pageant,” he can be heard saying, later adding, “They're standing there with no clothes. Is everybody okay? You see these incredible looking women. I sort of get away with things like that.”

Conway denied knowledge that any such thing happened. “You want me to comment on something he said to Howard Stern in 15 seconds 10 years ago and that somehow I am an expert on it,” she said.

As Keilar tried to press Conway on the issue, Trump’s campaign manager repeatedly accused CNN of refusing to cover negative news about Clinton, and focusing on negative stories revolving around her candidate.

Conway lightly defended the candidate by saying, “Well, no, he didn't say -- what she described was pretty graphic and detailed. So let's not conflate the two. I heard what she said and I heard what he said.”

She continued, “And the fact is that all you want to do, it seems, is talk about something he said 10, 15 years ago and, yet, we never, ever want to talk, particularly CNN when we offered up these women to you.”

“We never want to talk to the women shamed and blamed by Hillary Clinton because they had sexual contact with her husband. Some consensual long-time affairs including in the white house and others victims of predatory conduct,” she argued.

Trump has seen his campaign set off into a tailspin after the revelation last week of a 2005 tape in which the billionaire describes being able to sexually assault women because he’s “a star.”

The Republican nominee has apologized for the remarks, but has said Hillary and Bill Clinton have done “far worse” in victimizing women.

Earlier in the interview on Wednesday, Keilar and Conway got into a prolonged argument about Trump’s recent statements on House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has distanced himself from his party’s nominee in recent days, saying he will not defend him or campaign with him.

“It's not what they do. They go around and they raise money, and they help to support, protect their majority, maybe increase their majority,” she said of the House speaker’s job, arguing that nobody questioned John Boehner not campaigning for Mitt Romney.

Keilar pushed back repeatedly at Conway’s assertions that CNN avoid reporting on Clinton’s negatives, including allegations that her husband sexually assaulted women, and that Hillary Clinton attacked them. The CNN host also forcefully rejected Conway’s claims that network does not sufficiently cover Trump and his policy positions.

