June 05, 2017
Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway was quick to criticize coverage of President Donald Trump's tweets during a Monday morning appearance on NBC's "Today" show.
Conway, who hails from Camden County, joined anchors Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin via a live video stream from Washington, D.C. Guthrie started the interview by asking Conway about Trump's immediate take to Twitter to tout the country's need for a travel ban following the attack in London that killed seven and injured 48.
We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2017
Trump also doubled down on his criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan Monday by quoting him out of context for the second time since the attack.
Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017
"Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days," Khan said in the complete statement. "No reason to be alarmed."
Guthrie asked Conway if Trump owed Khan an apology. Conway responded by questioning the media's reporting of the president's social media presence.
"You want to make this about something other than what it's about," Conway said. "I'm not going to allow on the day and a half after terrorists did it, whether they're ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed, they're savage murderers, it's an evil slaughter as the president said last night, I'm going to not let him be seen as the perpetrator here. For every time you said Russia, imagine if you said ISIS. Every time you say Twitter, imagine if you said terrorist."
Melvin later said coverage of Trump's tweets has been so closely followed because it's his "preferred method of communication with people," noting he hasn't had an interview in weeks.
"So we've got the 23rd ISIS-inspired or -directed attack taking innocent lives, children in Manchester, children in Nice, and we want to know, put some blameworthiness here on President Trump?" Conway said. "I'm just not going to allow it."
She later called the reporting an "obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what he does as president."
The three moved away from the attack and then devoted air time to covering the travel ban as well as former FBI Director James Comey's upcoming Senate hearing. Guthrie asked if the president would use any executive power to block Comey from speaking.
"The president will make that final decision, but if James Comey does testify, we'll be watching with everyone else, Savannah," Conway said.
Watch the full interview below:
