Tensions are rising between top White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and CNN, the network her boss, President Trump, loves to hate.
A source at CNN told the Washington Examiner on Monday that the network’s weekend show, “State of the Union,” declined to book her as a guest, in part because of “credibility issues.”
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Conway ran into controversy last week when she wrongly stated during a media interview that there had been a “Bowling Green massacre” committed by terrorists in Bowling Green, Ky.
“I bet it’s brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,” Conway said in the interview.
It was quickly pointed out that no such incident ever took place and she corrected herself on Twitter, saying that she meant to refer to “Bowling Green terrorists.” (In 2009, two Iraqi refugees living in Bowling Green admitted to attempting to sponsor terrorist activity.)
On Sunday, New York Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg reported that the White House declined to make Vice President Mike Pence available to CNN for a Sunday interview, but offered Conway in his stead.
CNN turned Conway down, Rutenberg wrote, citing “serious questions about her credibility.” A CNN source confirmed that account of events to the Washington Examiner.
“Kellyanne is not a substitute for the vice president,” said the source. “That’s why ‘State of the Union’ declined. And more broadly, credibility issues. Although I’d expect to see her on at some point.”
Conway disputed that version of the story.
“False,” she wrote Monday on Twitter. “I could do no live Sunday shows this week because of family. Plus, I was invited onto CNN today and tomorrow. CNN brass on those emails.”
CNN’s public relations Twitter account shot back and said that Conway “was offered to ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday by the White House. We passed. Those are the facts.”
A spokesperson for CNN declined to comment on that, and Conway did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
Conway is one of President Trump’s closest advisers and a regular fixture on cable news programs.
The “Bowling Green massacre” controversy wasn’t the first time she made headlines. In January, she used the phrase “alternative facts” to rebut critics who said Trump lied about the size of his Inauguration Day audience in Washington.
