Much of the commentary about Kellyanne Conway’s Meet the Press appearance this morning has focused on her criticism of the prospect of Mitt Romney as Secretary of State. We’ll discuss that in a “Note” below but would like to highlight a striking statement by Chuck Todd that immediately preceded the Romney discussion.
Todd was grilling Conway over potential conflicts between Trump’s business interests and his role as president. Conway eventually had enough, and observed “I went back and looked at what all the press clips and the conversations on shows like this eight years ago. It was basically debating just how cool Barack Obama is. . . . if we’re not going to do that about President-elect Trump, we should at the very least trust him to do the right thing and comply with the law here.”
A visibly annoyed Todd shot back: “I understand. Every knee-jerk pushback is going to be to blame the media. It’s a crutch. I get it. And I’m used to it. But it’s not the fact.”
Note: I’ve been a big fan of Conway’s performance as campaign manager, among other things writing at LI that I’d be disappointed if she weren’t named White House press secretary. But I think she has been out of bounds with her public criticism of Romney, which continued on today’s Meet the Press.
Conway prefaced her barrage against Mitt by claiming “I’m just a concerned citizen.” That’s simply not so. Conway serves as a senior adviser to the President-elect. By openly campaigning against Romney, she undermines Trump’s ability to make the choice he feels is best for the country. Conway criticizes Romney’s lack of loyalty, but here it is Conway herself who is being less than loyal to Trump.
KELLYANNE CONWAY: I went back and looked at what all the press clips and the conversations on shows like this eight years ago. It was basically debating just how cool Barack Obama is. So we should at least, if we’re not going to do that about President-elect Trump, we should at the very least trust him to do the right thing and comply with the law here.CHUCK TODD: I understand. Every knee-jerk pushback is going to be to blame the media. It’s a crutch. I get it. And I’m used to it. But it’s not the fact.CONWAY: Not by me. Not by me. That’s not fair.TODD: Let me ask you this. Why are you campaigning against Mitt Romney as Secretary of State?CONWAY: I’m not campaigning against anyone. I’m just a concerned citizen.
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