July 25, 2017
Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway called the investigation into possible ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and the Russian government a nonstory during a tense interview with CNN's Brian Stelter on the network's "Reliable Sources" over the weekend.
Conway appeared on the show Sunday, following Friday's announcement that White House press secretary Sean Spicer would be resigning and that Anthony Scaramucci, whose background is in financing, would become the White House communications director.
The two touched on Spicer and Scaramucci, as well as Russia, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the network's coverage of the presidency.
“It’s not our job to do your PR, it’s your job, and it seems the White House this week admitted that there has been a lot of failures because the press secretary all of the sudden resigned and left his job," Stelter told Conway on the show.
"That's Sean's decision, and Sean was up against incredible odds," Conway said, "and as the president said in the tweet about Sean, he thanks him for his service and thinks he took a lot of unnecessary abuse."
Conway maintained throughout the interview that the mainstream media has focused too heavily on Russia and called coverage "disproportionate, out of whack" and "unequal."
"Your network is obsessed with that," Conway said. "You're invested in it. All the chyrons say it constantly; all the guests talk about it."
Stelter explained that the ongoing coverage was because "there's a big story going on," to which Conway remarked that "it's not a big story."
The 25-minute interview continued as a back and forth between the two. Aside from a shake-up in the White House communications department, the interview comes weeks after Donald Trump Jr. released a set of emails setting up a meeting between himself and a Kremlin-connected lawyer.
"Americans are looking at the media," she said. "They're looking at Congress and saying, 'Do your job.' Your job is not to Russia, Russia, Russia all day long and hoping that something, manna, will drop from heaven one day and this will be real and not phony."
Watch the full interview below:
