White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and CNN co-host Chris Cuomo duked it out in a heated interview Monday morning over the network’s coverage of a report Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer last summer and a number of other topics.
In addition to the burgeoning controversy involving the eldest Trump son, Conway and Cuomo fought over President Trump’s comments in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and classified information former FBI Director James Comey leaked.
“Which is it? Did he say ‘I know you did it, stop?’ Or did he say ‘did you do it, Mr. Putin?’ Which is it?” Cuomo asked Conway on “New Day.”
“Chris, let’s back up. So, you’re saying — you used the word ‘squishy,’ which, itself, is unusual to describe the president’s state of mind. So, somehow that makes people on CNN insist that the president is never going to raise this with Putin,” Conway responded.
“It’s not about CNN. It’s about what the president said, Kellyanne,” Cuomo shot back.
“No. It’s about people stating things that they want America to think are facts. Aren’t you the least bit reluctant, if not embarrassed that you now talk about Russia more than you talk about America?” Conway asked.
.@KellyannePolls talks infrastructure, health care, jobs and more: https://t.co/awTRM7CFNZ— New Day (@NewDay) July 10, 2017
Cuomo, the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, said members of the Trump campaign taking a meeting with a Russian lawyer because he expected negative information on Hillary Clinton put the campaign in a bad legal place.
Conway said the co-host should be focused on the news of the day, a report that former FBI Director James Comey shared classified information.
“The article that has officials familiar with the documents. So unnamed sources are OK for you on Comey but not anywhere else, huh?” Cuomo asked.
“I didn’t say that,” Conway said. “You’re putting words in my mouth.””Unnamed sources is the code word for you guys on fake news but it’s OK on Comey,” said Cuomo. “I never uttered those two words either. That is a bombshell people should know about that,” Conway replied.
