On Thursday, Melania Trump stumped for her husband in a speech near Philadelphia. She addressed her hopeful First Lady focus, which would be to eliminate bullying in playgrounds and in social media settings. Naturally, folks found this hilarious because Melania is married to one of the biggest bullies of all. Hours later, Anderson Cooper sat down with Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway to discuss Melania’s apparent disregard when her husband engages in a 3am “check out sex tape” rant about a former Miss Universe.
Cooper inquired why Melania is zeroing in on childhood bullies while not realizing that her fully-grown husband acts worse than the kid who steals your lunch money on the playground. Conway tried to erase Trump’s “intent” and say that he’s simply being political: “It is really not okay for anyone to do it with malicious intent. But most of what’s an Twitter is not about politics or journalism.” She continued to say that Melania is thinking more broadly and outside of politics while focusing on “a cultural fact.”
Cooper wasn’t about to let Conway deflect: “But your candidate is the guy on Twitter at 3:00am tweeting out this stuff.” Conway said everyone gets bullied on Twitter — she even sees the F-word directed towards her sometimes. But Cooper wanted to focus on how Trump is the one running for president, and he’s “part of the problem” that Melania is discussing. So, Conway stated that Trump’s only defending himself against attacks, not starting them.
That was the wrong response, for Coop was ready: “Talking about Carly Fiorina’s face, that was not an attack?” Then he brought it home. “That was not a counterpunch. That was just … mean.”
Here’s a longer clip with fancy bookends to make you appreciate the interplay between no-bullsh*t host and spin queen. Five more days to go.
