Trump Reportedly ‘Gave Personal Approval’ to Kellyanne Conway to Blast Doug Jones on Fox & Friends

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway engaged in a head-spinning flip flop during an appearance on Fox & Friends this week, when she declined to condemn Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore over allegations he sexually assaulted and harassed a number of underaged women.

Less than a week after declaring “no Senate seat is worth more than a child” in response to the allegations, Conway was asked about an update on the White House position on Moore on Fox & Friends (watch above.) Her response? Blast his Democratic opponent Doug Jones as “weak on crime” and tacitly endorse Moore by claiming that “we want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through.”

And according to a new Politico report, President Donald Trump himself “gave personal approval” to Conway to hit Jones on the Fox News morning show.

That comes after “days of behind-the-scenes talks in which [Trump] vented about Moore’s accusers and expressed skepticism about their accounts,” per Politico.

That skepticism spilled out into the open on Wednesday, when Trump expressed support for the accused pedophile running for a Senate seat. Trump told reporters that Moore “totally denies” the allegations, adding “we don’t need a liberal Democrat in that seat.”

Per Politico, that follows a number of conversations in the White House in which Trump drew similarities between his Access Hollywood tape, released weeks before the 2016 election, and Moore’s predicament:

During animated conversations with senior Republicans and White House aides, the president said he doubted the stories presented by Moore’s accusers and questioned why they were emerging now, just weeks before the election, according to two White House advisers and two other people familiar with the talks.

The White House advisers said the president drew parallels between Moore’s predicament and the one he faced just over a year ago when, during the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, Trump confronted a long line of women who accused him of harassment. He adamantly denied the claims.

Read the report here.

[image via screengrab]

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