Conway clashes with CNN's Jake Tapper on air

Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to President Donald Trump, clashed with Jake Tapper on air Tuesday afternoon, as the CNN host challenged Conway about the White House’s repeated unsubstantiated claims and its attacks on the media.

Conway defended the administration, saying it has a “high regard for the facts” and also said that CNN is not “fake news” despite Trump repeatedly accusing the network of putting out false stories.


“I don't think CNN is fake news,” Conway said. “I think there are some reports everywhere, in print, on TV, on radio, in conversation, that are not well researched and are sometimes based on falseness.”

Tapper questioned Conway sharply, particularly pressing her on Trump’s false claim earlier on Tuesday that the U.S. murder rate is “the highest it's been in 45 to 47 years."

“Facts are stubborn things, and to say that we're not reporting something that happens not to be true, therefore we're not to be trusted, that's a problem,” Tapper said.

Conway then tried to shift the conversation to the criticism she has received from media reports, while asserting that she’s “the most open press person in the White House.

“I'm now being attacked by the media including networks that are familiar to you. And I'm just going to keep soldiering on,” Conway said. “I came to this White House to serve this president who is serving people.”

While Trump and his aides have long had a contentious relationship with CNN, the tensions have escalated in recent days. Politico reported last week that the administration was freezing out CNN, and while some Trump aides started reappearing on the network since then, the administration made Vice President Mike Pence available to all the major Sunday shows except for CNN last weekend.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that the Trump administration had offered to have Conway appear instead, but the network declined, partly because it wanted Pence and partly because of “serious questions about her credibility.”

Conway fired back on Monday, saying she wasn’t available on Sunday because she had a family commitment. CNN then hit back, with its communications team tweeting that “we passed” on an offer for Conway to appear, and that, “Those are the facts.”

During the interview on Tuesday afternoon, Conway addressed another one of her controversies — her repeated references to a “Bowling Green massacre” that did not happen.

“I was misquoting, I should have said masterminds, and I’ve talked about all that,” she said. “But let me just say this on the broader point, we have a high regard for the facts.”

Conway went on to claim that "the massacre happened in Iraq." But Politifact reported that the arrests of the two Iraqi nationals in Bowling Green was part of a sting operation by the FBI.

Tapper also questioned Conway on a list of terror attacks the White House said the press did not cover seriously enough. However, the list included some major attacks that were widely covered, other attacks that had no casualties, and others whose connection to terrorism is questionable or don’t meet customary definitions of terrorism, as Politico reported.

The list followed Trump bringing up the issue during a visit to Florida’s MacDill Air Force Base on Monday.

“You’ve seen what happened in Paris and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening,” the president said. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”

In response, Tapper played clips of CNN reporters at the scenes of these attacks around the world.

“It's offensive given the fact that CNN and other media organizations have reporters in danger right now in war zones covering ISIS,” Tapper said. “And I just don't understand how the president can make an attack like that.”

Conway said she respected CNN’s coverage, and repeated her earlier defense that the list was aimed to elevate awareness of the threat of terrorism.

Tapper followed up by asking why Trump had not tweeted or spoken publicly about the mosque attack in Canada, in which a white, right-wing extremist killed six Muslims. The White House’s list also didn’t include mention of the Charleston church shooting in June 2015 or the mass shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in November 2015.

“He doesn’t tweet about everything, he doesn’t make a statement about everything,” Conway said.

The CNN anchor said he would rather be covering important issues facing the nation, but the White House made it difficult by “declaring war” on the media.

“I would much rather be talking to you about veterans issues. In fact, when it comes to the Trump administration, I would much rather be covering immigration, I would much rather be covering trade and I would much rather be covering draining the swamp and counter terrorism,” he said. “But instead, every day there are these sprays of attack and sprays of falsehoods coming from the White House. It would be better if they were not coming from the White House, for me and for you.”

Conway agreed, but said it “has to go both ways.”

“I sincerely don't see a lot of difference in coverage from when he was a candidate and when he became the Republican nominee, the president-elect and indeed the president,” she said. “Some outlets, some people cover him the same way and it doesn't have a great deal of respect, I think, for the office of the president and its current occupant.”