White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday said national news outlets hyped up special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe to distract from wrong predictions about the 2016 presidential election.
“You had people … still in the media who were writing articles in late October saying Donald Trump had 0% chance of getting elected,” Conway said. “They have to somehow save their own faces … If they could have found criminal conspiracy, they could have said we cheated, we lied, we stole the election.”
Conway has joined a host of conservative commentators and politicians who, since Mueller’s report found no criminal evidence against Trump, have alleged the probe was a political hit job.
.@KellyannePolls suggests the media pushed the Russian collusion narrative relentlessly in an attempt to “save face” after getting the result of the 2016 election wrong
“If they could have found criminal conspiracy they could have said we cheated we lied we stole the election.” pic.twitter.com/ZWCIJpY44L
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 22, 2019
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, has claimed a criminal conspiracy took place within the FBI and Department of Justice — creating a so-called “deep state” that was biased against Trump and created an “insurance policy” in the event he won in 2016.
On Sunday, Conway said she thinks Mueller acted honorably but maintained that the hopes of congressional Democrats and Trump’s media detractors are now dashed.
“For two years, people denied the electability of Donald Trump,” Conway said. “I think there are some people who are way too invested in the outcome here. They should admit that.”
[Read more: Kellyanne Conway at Easter Egg Roll: Mueller showed ‘no golden showers’]
