If you thought the flurry surrounding Donald Trump’s baseless claim that President Barack Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped during the 2016 campaign was over, think again. Inquiries into what inspired Trump to tweet about the matter in the first place — let alone Washington’s response — dominated the news cycle all last week. And thanks to Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s presidential counselor and former campaign manager, this week will be no different. Why? Because of her inexplicable answer to a New Jersey newspaper reporter’s questions about Trump’s wiretapping claims.
When The Record columnist Mike Kelly asked Conway whether or not Trump Tower was wiretapped, she deflected the question by saying “there are many ways to surveil each other now, unfortunately.” Kelly asked again, at which point Conway alluded to an unnamed recent article detailing all the ways Americans can be spied on:
“You can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets. Any number of different ways. Microwaves that can be turned into cameras, etc. So we know that that is just a fact of modern life.”
Unsurprisingly, Kelly notes in his column that Conway offered no evidence to back up her claims — including the unnamed, unsourced article she mentioned before discussing microwaves. And when she appeared several Monday morning talk shows to discuss health care and other matters, television anchors were far more interested in grilling Conway, to which she told Cuomo, “I’m not in the job of having evidence.”
Like during her slot on Good Morning America, on which George Stephanopoulos asked Conway point blank about the matter. “Why would you make a suggestion about that without any evidence?” Her response? “I wasn’t making a suggestion about Trump Tower. These are two separate things, and I answered [Kelly] about surveilling generally … I have no evidence, but that’s why there’s an investigation.”
Kellyanne on her cameras in microwaves answer: “No, of course I don’t have any evidence for those allegations…” pic.twitter.com/JKnmdCsugv
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 13, 2017
Conway was also on CNN this morning where she told Chris Cuomo, “I’m not Inspector Gadget…I’m not in the job of having evidence.”
I'm not Inspector Gadget. I don't believe people are using the microwave to spy on the Trump campaign. I'm not in the job of having evidence pic.twitter.com/4rPPzvXQCD
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 13, 2017
Donald Trump was apparently riled up about the media’s “rude” treatment towards Conway in reaction to her TV appearances. He’d like everyone to “be nice.”
It is amazing how rude much of the media is to my very hard working representatives. Be nice, you will do much better!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2017
(Via NorthJersey.com, MSNBC and Good Morning America)