ABC’s The View hosts took on controversy stemming from a phone call between Kellyanne Conway and Washington Examiner‘s Caitlin Yilek where the counselor to the president attacked the reporter for mentioning her husband, George Conway, in the story.
“Was Kellyanne trying to intimidate the girl, or does she have a point?” host Whoopi Goldberg asked the panel during the Friday show.
Host Joy Behar called Conway “touchy touchy,” adding that Conway’s feud with President Trump was “news.”
“He’s omnipresent in the news,” host Meghan McCain said about Conway.
Host Sunny Hostin said she was bothered that the audio of the call was released because it was an “off the record conversation.” Kellyanne Conway admitted that the call was not off the record in an interview with Fox News on Friday.
Host Abby Huntsman agreed with Hostin but got animated as she said that Conway was “bullying” the reporter in the phone call.
“It was inappropriate for her to bully that reporter,” Hostin said.
“She’s mimicking Trump, the apple doesn’t fall far from the White House,” Behar responded. McCain said that she agreed with the comments about Conway “bullying” the reporter but also stated she believed the conversation was off the record and should not have been published.
The Washington Examiner‘s Editor-in-Chief Hugo Gurdon said about the situation in a Thursday statement, “Off the record conversations are agreed in good faith and in advance between people known to be participating. They are not, and never have been, blanket coverage to shield people who pull a bait and switch, peremptorily enter the conversation, and then spend ten minutes abusing, bullying and threatening a reporter. Other organizations may agree to be played for saps, but the Washington Examiner won’t.”
Conway called Yilek after she wrote a piece about speculation that the senior adviser could become the next chief of staff to Trump. Conway castigated the reporter for writing about her family and said digging into Yilek’s background was fair game for the administration.
