A top Trump adviser thinks if President Obama and Hillary Clinton “loved the country enough,” they would put a stop to the spat over Russian hacking between President-elect Trump’s camp and the Democrats.
Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News Friday White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was playing political pundit when he said on Thursday Trump knows the Russians hacked into the Democratic National Committee. She said it’s part of a campaign by Democrats to blame everyone but Clinton for her defeat.
It’s up to the president and the former secretary of state to say something, Conway said.
“If you want to shut this down and you actually loved the country enough to have this peaceful transition in our great democracy between the Obama administration and the Trump administration, there are a couple of people in pretty prominent positions — one’s named Obama and the other’s Hillary Clinton… they could shut this down,” Conway said.
Earnest said on Thursday that Trump was briefed on the hacks and that the intelligence community believes Russia was directing the cyberattacks. He said Trump was aware during the campaign the attacks were hurting Clinton, but insinuated Trump was OK with that.
Trump shot back at Earnest Thursday night in another one of his “thank you tour” rallies in Hershey, Pa., calling him a bad messenger for the White House. Trump has maintained he doesn’t believe the Russians are behind the hacks and his advisers are pushing the message that the leaks from the intelligence community are an attempt to delegitimize Trump’s win.
Conway said all the talk about hacking is a cover up for Clinton’s failures as a candidate.
“They never entertained the possibility that, in a divided country, the other candidate could win,” she said. “That’s what this is about.”
Conway also dismissed worries about Trump’s children, who are expected to take over the Trump Organization when he takes office, sitting in on transition business.
She said the Trump family has already sacrificed so much, “hundreds of millions of dollars in deals,” due to the campaign and Trump’s election that people should give them a little slack on figuring out how to ensure their business doesn’t interfere with the presidency. A press conference scheduled for Thursday to discuss Trump’s separation from the organization was postponed until January.
“Some people won’t be happy until Donald Trump never talks to his children again,” Conway said. “That’s not how you disentangle the government’s business from your personal business.”
