President-elect Trump’s campaign manager said Tuesday that Trump’s Monday meeting with cable news hosts and network executives wasn’t nearly as hostile as portrayed by the New York Post.
The Post reported Monday that Trump’s media summit was a “f—-ing firing squad” for members of the press in which Trump berated the networks and their coverage of his campaign.
But Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday dismissed those reports and said Trump wasn’t nearly as hostile as the Post claimed.
“It just wasn’t,” she said when asked if it was as tense as the Post said. “And the way you know that … is how people reacted afterwards.”
“There was a receiving line for Steve Bannon,” she said, as an example. “Many people wanted to, you know, meet him, and talk to him, make some eye contact, exchange some business cards with him, that’s just a fact.”
Trump has named Bannon as his top strategist, and he will serve in a co-equal role with his chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
“There was a lot of congenial conversation outside … of the room where we all were,” Conway continued. “Nobody left there in a huff, nobody called me and complained …”
The Post said Trump lit into CNN’s chief Jeff Zucker, and said, “I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed.” But Conway dismissed that report as well.
“The way it was described about Zucker specifically is just false,” she said. She noted that Trump and Zucker met privately after the group meeting to let CNN take pictures of Trump for an upcoming story.
