Chris Cuomo, Kellyanne Conway Renew Rivalry in Epic Fight Over Impeachment: ‘You Want That Moment to Go Viral’

CNN host Chris Cuomo and presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Conway reprised their ongoing, fractious on-air relationship in a long, rambling segment where almost no actual questions were answered and instead the pair talked past each other to score points with their respective constituencies.

Cuomo continues to bring Conway on air long after other news programs have effectively banned her from appearing live, primarily based on her track record of telling lie after lie after lie after lie after lie after lie after lie. And Conway held consistent with that pattern, initiating her appearance with a complete misrepresentation of the House impeachment and the US judicial system.

“Well, Christopher, thanks for having me,” she said and then batted back a question about why President Donald Trump doesn’t want witnesses at his Senate trial. “First of all, that’s not how American jurisprudence works. You don’t try to prove your innocence if you’ve not been proven guilty. And we don’t need to present witnesses.” In fact, presenting witnesses to disprove one’s guilty before one is found guilty, is exactly how trials work in the United States.

“I’ve never heard anybody hiding an alibi. If I had somebody, if you had somebody who cleared you of a charge, you would bring them up,” Cuomo said later, trying again. “Why? That’s in the interest of justice and it’s in your personal interest.”

“That’s just not true,” Conway shot back, before piling on the snark. “Christopher, you invited me on the show tonight and there’s got to be a question lurking in there. You’re talking a lot. I’m just standing here. I’m just standing here. But go ahead, do you have a question.”

Conway then bizarrely moved on to impugn the Democratic House members chosen to present the case against Trump in the Senate as unfairly biased because they voted in favor of the impeachment.

“A bunch of impeachment managers, six out of seven who were already in favor of impeaching President Trump before they had the process, before you had the whistle-blower complaint,” Conway said. “Think about that.”

“The house managers in the Clinton situation were also populated by people who were against Clinton…” Cuomo pointed out before being interrupted.

“I don’t want to talk about…,” Conway broke in, and after several seconds of cross talk she said. “You’re talking over me, being rude to your guest.”

When Cuomo brought up the bombshell revelations made by Lev Parnas, that Trump lied and knew everything that Rudy Giuliani and he did, that it was “all about Joe Biden,” and that Parnas conveyed a clear quid pro quo to a Ukrainian presidential aide, Conway spun away again.

“I don’t know Lev Parnas,” she protested. She then complained that Democrats get no pushback on air when they’re on his show before claiming “you’re not letting me speak.”

“You can’t deal with the facts of the circumstances because you can,” Cuomo said.

“But if you’ll let me speak, then I would,” Conway promised.

“Speak to what Lev Parnas says and what the documents show and what the president shows…” Cuomo began.

“I don’t know Lev Parnas! What documents?” Conway said again, pulling the football away from Charlie Brown once again.

But, in fact, that appears to be a lie, as a photo surfaced later on Wednesday night, posted on Twitter by Parnas’ attorney Joseph A. Bondy, showing Conway and Parnas posing together and smiling for a selfie.

Enjoyed watching @KellyannePolls on @CNN, arguing with @ChrisCuomo about @realDonaldTrump and repeatedly claiming she does not know Lev Parnas. #LevRemembers #LetLevSpeak pic.twitter.com/jIYIG5PzjZ

— Joseph A. Bondy (@josephabondy) January 16, 2020

Moments later, the whole thing fully descended into farce when Conway offered up this surreal response to Cuomo listing out the impeachment evidence and latest Parnas allegations from a MSNBC interview that aired on Wednesday evening.

“So that was said on a TV show? That’s not said on Earth,” Conway said. “Guess what, you’re not the judge, jury, and executioner.”

“No, I’m not! I’m just trying to get answers to very obvious questions,” Cuomo said, to someone who has spent the past three-plus years building a reputation for doing the opposite of that.”

“You don’t have anybody under oath,” Conway then said, stating the obvious.

“Obviously, because man do they lie,” Cuomo said. “People who come on in defense of this president lie like crazy. I defend you against it because I think you spin away from questions. I’m not accusing you of it.”

“I would never lie to you and you know that, and you said that to me privately,” Conway crowed, even though she had misrepresented her relationship with Parnas just moments earlier.

“I’ll say it publicly,” Cuomo reiterated.

“And you said it privately. You want that moment to go viral,” Conway said, shrugging her shoulders and closing her eyes, “and it won’t.”

The rest of the interview was a garbled mess of unanswered questions and pro-Trump non-sequiturs, no doubt leaving CNN viewers wondering what journalistic value, if any, there was to the whole sordid experience.

Watch the videos above, via CNN.