White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway attempted on Tuesday to defend President Trump’s comments about the media’s reluctance to cover terror attacks, arguing during a contentious interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump was trying to say that reporters didn’t give all terror attacks the attention they deserved.
“There seems to be some coverage these days…that somehow terrorism is not a big problem or somehow, national security is all taken care of,” Conway said.
“The ones that have high casualties…those are covered extensively by all media outlets,” she added.
Conway’s appearance on CNN was the first since a dust-up over whether the network declined to have her on its Sunday program as a guest due to reported issues with her credibility.
“What the president is saying there…is that there are other attacks that don’t get” adequate coverage, Conway added.
Trump had claimed one day earlier that the media collectively ignored terror attacks for unspecified “reasons,” a comment that drew swift criticism from members of the media.
The White House later released a list of 78 terror attacks that they said received too little coverage.
