Watch: Kellyanne Chews up Reporter as She Accuses Him of Altering Trump Quote
Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway sparred with reporters Tuesday, accusing one journalist of altering President Donald Trump’s remarks for the purpose of editorializing.
As Mediaite noted, NBC’s Peter Alexander asked Conway about Trump’s remarks from the day before, when he talked about his upcoming Fourth of July speech while also criticizing Democrats on the issue of health care.
“The president just yesterday was asked if he could give a speech that would reach all Americans, and in his answer he said, of the Democrats, that their health care plan would destroy the country,” Alexander said. “It didn’t seem to sort of give that sense of …”
“Well both are true at the same time,” Conway replied. “He actually, you’re not giving his full response, which is irresponsible of you.”
Watch below, starting at about the 1:00-minute mark:
“The full response, please,” Conway said, as Alexander started reading a transcript of Trump’s remarks.
“It’s going to take you a while” to find Trump’s exact remarks in the transcript, Conway said, “because you came here only to give a partial response. Partial information is misinformation.”
Alexander then read from the transcript.
“Do you think that you can give a speech that can reach all Americans on July 4th?” Trump had been asked.
“I think so. I think so. I think I’ve reached most Americans. Most Americans want no crime. Most Americans want a strong military. They want good education. They want good health care,” Alexander said, quoting Trump’s reply.
“If you look at preexisting conditions, the Republicans are going to save preexisting conditions. The Democrats won’t be able to do it,” Alexander said, again quoting Trump.
Then, the NBC reporter added a line that Trump had not said: “Even though [Republicans] voted to undercut Obamacare.”
Conway wasn’t having it.
“Did the president say that, or did you just slip that in?” she said. “No no no, let America know that you’re slipping in your editorial comments, do not say you’re quoting the president of the United States and slip in an editorial comment.”
“Because I don’t think it’s your job to slip that in,” she added. “This man was never Senator or Congressman Trump, he’s never voted to undercut Obamacare.”
Alexander, for his part, tried to defend himself.
Trump “wasn’t talking about himself, he was talking about the Republicans, which is what I said,” Alexander claimed. “The president said what the Democrats’ plan is going to destroy the country and is going to be horrible health care.”
“So the president, when asked in the very question in which he was asked if he could speak to all Americans, said the Democrats’ health care plan was going to destroy Americans. Is that a political statement or is that a patriotic statement?” the reporter went on to ask.
“That’s a factual statement and you know it,” Conway responded.
“Thank you for reading the whole thing because you didn’t come here to do that,” she added. She went on to accuse Alexander of asking the question “just to have a negative, to toss it at me like a Molotov cocktail and hope that you get to be on the nightly news tonight.”
“Give the full response, the president said a lot,” Conway stated.
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