After a contentious interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN hours after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Kellyanne Conway returned to the network for an even more tense interview with New Day anchor Chris Cuomo that lasted 19 minutes. During the interview, Conway mocked the network’s coverage of the investigation into possible ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Cuomo opened the interview by asking Conway about the curious timing of the firing. He noted that there have been reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from anything related to Russia, was tasked with finding reasons to fire Comey. “It seems very, very connected,” Cuomo said.
“You always want to talk about Russia, Russia, Russia” on CNN, Conway said. She then called it “irresponsible” to think that the Russia investigation is the only thing the FBI is working on or that Comey was the only person working on the investigation. “The director was fired, not the entire FBI,” she said.
“President Trump wants an FBI director who is impartial, who’s not politicized and who has the confidence and trust of people in the bureau, of Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, of the attorney general, of the deputy attorney general who oversees the FBI director and of the President of the United States,” Conway told Cuomo. “And (Comey) had lost that.”
Conway later refused to say whether or not Trump has a replacement lined up. She then suggested that critics “should be happy” because Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s wife ran for political office as a Democrat.
Conway: “You want to question the timing of when [Trump] fires, when he hires… He’ll do it when he wants to.” t.co/5SliOOTse8
Conway then told Cuomo that it was “inappropriate” to ask about the timing of Trump’s firing of Comey. “You want to question the timing of when [Trump] fires, when he hires… He’ll do it when he wants to,” Conway said. She then urged Cuomo to read Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s memo on Comey.
“I’ve read it. It’s two pages, Kellyanne. It doesn’t take that long and it mostly says people didn’t like him,” Cuomo replied.
Cuomo also asked Conway about Trump’s changes in opinion on Comey. Conway didn’t like how Cuomo suggested Trump was frustrated with government leaks and that led to the firing.
“You’re connecting things that aren’t provable and things that have been reported in one or two places that haven’t been verified, because that’s what you guys do,” Conway said.
Here’s the interview Conway had with Cooper on Tuesday night. In that interview, Comway said the firing had nothing to do with Russia.
“This has nothing to do with Russia,” Conway told Cooper. “Somebody must be getting $50 every time (Russia) is said on TV. … (This) has everything to do with whether the current FBI director has the President’s confidence and can faithfully execute his duties.”
The Trump Administration has said that Comey was fired because of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, not because of the Russian investigation. In fact, in his termination letter, Trump claimed Comey told him “on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.”
