Trump's campaign manager denies things he said just hours earlier

Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday claimed that Donald Trump does not really plan to jail Hillary Clinton and is not continuing to attack House Speaker Paul Ryan, despite the Republican nominee providing evidence to the contrary just hours before.

Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, found herself in a combative exchange with CNN’s Brianna Keilar trying to defend the GOP nominee’s charged words.


She argued that, despite what Trump said at two campaign rallies in Florida earlier in the afternoon, he wasn’t actually threatening to put Clinton in jail if elected president.

“He’s talking about going around the democratic process. I mean, talking about jailing your political opponent is something that you—” Keilar began before Conway interrupted.

“No he’s not. He’s talking about the result,” Conway argued. “No he’s not. You’re taking it literally and you’re just stuck on this one thing.”

At a rally in Lakeland, Trump threatened to jail not only Clinton but also representatives of the law firm that helped delete emails from her private server. “She has to go to jail,” Trump declared at one point.

“He’s not talking about she has to stand and be judged. He’s saying she has to go to jail,” Keilar explained to Conway.

“And?” Conway shot back. “In other words, what are you saying? You’re saying that he had to stop and say: ‘And here’s how you get to jail. Here’s the process.’ That’s completely ridiculous.”

At his earlier rally in Ocala, Trump again attacked Ryan, telling supporters he’s at “a major disadvantage” because GOP leaders aren’t supporting the will of the people. He also suggested that Ryan and other establishment Republicans have “a whole sinister deal going on.”

“How is attacking the speaker of the House helpful to him?” Keilar asked.

“You keep saying that. You keep saying he’s attacking the speaker of the House,” Conway said. “He said a couple things and it’s over.”

Trump, however, has said much more than just “a couple things” about Ryan in recent days. Trump went after the House leader in Ocala on Wednesday, in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday night and again in a series of tweets on Tuesday morning in which he slammed the “weak and ineffective leader.”

Ultimately, Conway blamed Keilar and CNN for highlighting for viewers and readers the newsworthy bits of Trump’s appearances instead of presenting the full 90-plus minutes of his remarks.

“You cherry-pick what he says, and then you wanna talk about it for days on end with a breaking news caption,” she complained, reiterating in a later segment, “You’re picking what you wanna choose from 45 minutes’ worth of talking.”

“If he spoke for 35, 38, 45 minutes and you just keep on repeating those two things, where the heck is the other 44-and-a-half minutes?” Conway said. “All I’m asking you is to cover everything he says.”