News

Actions

Conway: Do falsehoods matter as much as what we get right?

Posted
and last updated
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House aide Kellyanne Conway seemed to acknowledge Tuesday falsehoods spread by the Trump administration.
 
CNN's Jake Tapper asked Conway repeatedly about President Donald Trump's attacks on the press and spreading of misinformation. In response, she asked if those falsehoods should matter as much as what Trump does say and do correctly.
 
"How about the President's statements that are false?" Tapper asked at one point. "I'm talking about the President of the United States saying things that are not true, demonstrably not true. That is important."
 
"Are they more important than the many things that he says that are true that are making a difference in people's lives?" Conway asked in response.
 
At a different part in the interview, Tapper told Conway the President's words mattered and they were obscuring other things he did.
 
The CNN anchor said that instead of being able to focus solely on policy, the media was spending time sorting through attacks and falsehoods from the White House.
 
"Every day there are these sprays of attack and sprays of falsehoods coming from the White House. It would be better if they were not coming from the White House, for me and for you," Tapper said.
 
"Agreed, and let me just say it has to go both ways. I do, Jake, I sincerely don't see a lot of difference in coverage from when he was a candidate and when he became the Republican nominee, the president-elect and, indeed, the President," Conway said.
 
"This White House and the media have joint custody of our country," Conway said. "I am beseeching everybody to cool it down a little bit here and there, but look there are some stories that are false."
 
On Monday, Trump said any negative poll was "fake news" and said the media suppressed news of terrorism. On Tuesday, he again attacked the media and lied about the murder rate.
 
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2017 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.