Conway: I've talked to NBC about Trump singling out Katy Tur

Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Thursday that her boss “didn’t mean it in any malicious way” when he singled out NBC News reporter Katy Tur by name at a rally Wednesday in Miami.

Trump was delivering a regular riff for him on the campaign trail, complaining that the media refuse to show footage of or otherwise report on the size of his rallies. Then he taunted Tur by name, pointing at the press area near the back of the rally and directing the ire of attendees at her.


"There’s something happening. They’re not reporting it. Katy — you’re not reporting it, Katy," Trump said. "But there’s something happening, Katy. There’s something happening, Katy."

Trump previously criticized Tur, calling her a "third-rate journalist" during a December rally.

Asked during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” about Trump’s decision to rile up the crowd with malice toward Tur, Conway was reluctant to say much.

“Well, he obviously didn't mean it in any malicious way. You heard what he said,” she said in response to a question from panelist Willie Geist, who noted that Tur has had to be escorted from past Trump rallies by Secret Service officers. “But I’ve spoken to NBC News about that issue, and I'll leave it there.”

“Would you like to shed any light on it?” Geist followed up, to which Conway replied, “No. Sorry.”

View Trump calls out NBC News reporter Katy Tur During a campaign rally Wednesday in Miami, Donald Trump called out NBC News reporter Katy Tur by name.

That response prompted a “wow” from “Morning Joe” cohost Mika Brzezinski, who Conway said could “call me later,” presumably to talk off-air about the episode. Geist pushed the issue further, asked Trump’s campaign manager “Why can’t we talk about it on TV?”

Conway dodged the question, instead launching into an answer focused not on Trump’s interaction with Tur but on an overall perception among the general public that the media is biased in favor of Hillary Clinton. Brzezinski interjected to ask how that point related to Tur, of whom the “Morning Joe” co-host said “I have never seen in her reporting her telling anyone what to think. Never once.”

Trump’s campaign manager replied that she was not speaking specifically about Tur but instead reiterating one of the more resonant messages of the Manhattan billionaire’s White House bid. She said Trump, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz were all among the most successful candidates in the Republican primary, a contest Trump eventually won, because they ran anti-establishment campaigns. That streak of opposing “establishment organizations,” Conway said, has fueled frustration with the media as well.

Geist took one last swing at getting Conway to answer for Trump’s singling out of Tur, asking the campaign manager, “Do you agree Donald Trump was wrong to call Katy out?”

“I always prefer when he talks about institutions generally,” she said. “I had an exchange with Katy last night, and I've been in touch with NBC News.”