Kellyanne Conway on Friday defended her heated phone call with a Washington Examiner reporter, denying criticism that she bullied or abused the journalist.

“I didn't say anything in that phone call I haven't said publicly before,” the counselor to the president told Fox News.


The Examiner on Thursday published a transcript of the exchange after Conway called breaking news reporter Caitlin Yilek regarding an article that mentioned the tense history between Conway’s husband and the president.

“Let me tell you something, from a powerful woman,” she told Yilek in the call. “Don’t pull the crap where you’re trying to undercut another woman based on who she’s married to. He gets his power through me, if you haven’t noticed.”

She then appeared to threaten the reporter, saying, “So, listen, if you’re going to cover my personal life, if you’re going to cover my personal life, then we’re welcome to do the same around here. If it has nothing to do with my job, which it doesn’t, that’s obvious, then we’re either going to expect you to cover everybody’s personal life or we’re going to start covering them over here.”

Conway was taking issue with a short article Yilek wrote on Tuesday about reports that President Donald Trump was considering Conway to replace acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.


In the article, Yilek referenced George Conway, Kellyanne Conway's husband, who repeatedly scorches the president on Twitter and recently said in a podcast that Trump's closest aides should consider resigning since they have limited ability to positively influence him.

"Conway has been in the middle of Trump’s barbs with her husband, George, a conservative lawyer who frequently makes headlines for his criticism of the president," Yilek wrote in the article.

Kellyanne Conway appeared Friday on Fox News to discuss the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Trump, but when the reporter inquired about her clash with the Yilek, she became visibly frustrated and offered a combative defense of the call.

“Also, you really didn’t — respectfully, Sandra — you didn’t need to show those three things,” Conway told Sandra Smith after she explained the exchange to viewers and displayed a note from the Examiner’s editor-in-chief. “I've already disabused everybody of what he said. I never said the conversation was off the record or commented on that one way or the other. Everything I said in the phone call I've said publicly before. Every single thing. I said it again.”


“George and I agree on many big things. We disagree on many big things. None of that affects my job here and exactly none of that is anybody's business,” she continued. “I think people constantly covering that is lazy and it doesn't add to the conversation.”

Speaking to reporters outside the White House after her Fox News appearance, Conway was again pressed about the perceived threats in the call.

"I never threatened her. Excuse me, don't use that word," she told reporters. "If I threaten someone, you'll know it."

"Don't use the word threaten, and don't use the word investigate and stop being so silly," she concluded. "Honestly, stop being so silly. It's silly."