Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway angrily deflected questions about her candidate’s missing tax returns and his charitable foundation’s phantom donations to charity in an appearance on CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday. Alisyn Camerota asked Conway “has Donald Trump, or will he, release anything from the IRS proving that he’s under audit?”
“I don’t know, why?” Conway shot back. “Are you calling him a liar?” She continued, “Seriously, we’re running against a Clinton, and we’re going to challenge someone’s veracity?”
Camerota pressed on, but Conway attempted to change the subject to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment. “I just wish she would respect the hardworking men and women of this country who she thinks are a bunch of uneducated rubes coming down from the hills with no teeth and long fingernails, and just, you know, they need to be schooled by this precious woman in New York,” she said. “Do we even want a president of the United States who laughs at Americans?”
But Camerota wasn’t through asking about Trump’s taxes. “Part of why people are calling for him to release his taxes is so that we do know how much he himself has given to charity,” she said. “Will you or the campaign release exactly what that number is?”
“I doubt it,” Conway replied. “This is like badgering. In other words, I don’t see it as journalism. I see it as badgering.”
“How is it badgering to ask for the evidence of a claim?” Camerota asked. “If Mike Pence is saying tens of millions of dollars from Donald Trump, shouldn’t we see the evidence?”
“Did anybody ask Hillary Clinton for evidence she was overheated and dehydrated?” Conway asked. “Is anyone asking her for evidence of why she thinks she is so precious and special that she would have to break protocol at Ground Zero on Sunday, Alisyn, and take her to her daughter’s apartment rather than a hospital?”
On the surface, Conway appears even more accessible than Trump’s previous campaign managers, and she’s certainly happy to talk, but she’s also a master of deflection. Perhaps that’s Trump’s intention, to “run out the clock,” so to speak, without addressing her candidate’s issues. However, Conway isn’t nearly as embarrassing of a spokeswoman as, say, Katrina Pierson.
(Via CNN)
