The media and President Donald Trump are at war. Conway and Todd show the tension
If today’s edition of Meet the Press is any indication President Donald Trump vs. the press is going to be a full on blood sport. President Trump’s aide Kellyanne Conway engaged it what nearly became a yelling match with “Meet The Press” moderator Chuck Todd over Inauguration Day crowd estimates, condemning the show’s host for calling the claims “ridiculous.”
In a combative interview with the NBC News host, Conway was repeatedly pressed about Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s assertion that inauguration attendance was the “largest…ever” – and his blast at the media’s “irresponsible and reckless” coverage.
Meanwhile, Todd did not back off his point calling Spicer’s assertions a “falsehood” that “undermines the credibility of the entire White House press office on day one” – but Conway shot back at him for being “dramatic.”
“Sean Spicer gave alternative facts to that,” Conway said, to which Todd snapped back: “Alternative facts are not facts, they’re falsehoods.”
Then Todd described Spicer’s remarks as “ridiculous litigation of crowd size,” Conway lost her normal cool and demeanor.
“Chuck, your job is not [to] call things ridiculous,” she declared. “You’re a news person, not an opinion columnist… Think about what you just said to your viewers, that’s why we feel compelled to go out and clear the air.”
“All I’m looking for is an answer to a simple question,” Todd concluded at the end of the tense interview. “You never answered why or the motivation of what was necessary about doing that yesterday.”
“Tell me why you just referred to us as ridiculous. Why were we lied about,” she responded.
The cool Conway and the normally reserved Todd clearly started day two of the Trump presidency off with a bang. The battle between President Trump the media seems to escalating.
Quotes used in the story came from a transcript of the NBC show.
