Kellyanne Conway Blames CNN For Covering Russia Over Gun Control in Vicious Spat With Chris Cuomo
Kellyanne Conway appeared on CNN to face off with Chris Cuomo Thursday morning, and things got about as nuts as they can get on early-morning cable news, with the two engaging in a messy rhetorical fistfight over President Donald Trump’s response to Las Vegas and Puerto Rico — that at times got pretty personal.
Things kicked off with Cuomo asking Conway about Trump’s comments that now is not the time to talk gun control and mental health issues, asking “why not take this challenge on right now?”
Conway replied that Trump was focused on consoling the victims of the Las Vegas shooting on Thursday, before pointing out that “bump stocks” — the device that allowed the shooter’s near automatic fire — were declared legal by the ATF in 2010, when Barack Obama was president.
The White House counselor then seemed to blame Democrats like Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren for tweeting more about Russia than gun control, before turning her ire towards CNN: “It approximates CNN’s own coverage: your obsession with Russia has been to the exclusion of this conversation.”
That jab at the network did not sit well with Cuomo, who shot back “Kellyanne, I’m tired, so I apologize in advance, but I have to tell you — a lot of this just doesn’t wash.”
“Don’t cheapen what happened in Las Vegas,” Cuomo continued, as Conway protested “no, no, no, don’t go there, to get the soundbite.”
The two went back and forth about the appropriate time to talk about gun control in the wake of a mass shooting, before Cuomo declared: “You need to seize on the urgency of this otherwise it will never happen. ”
“If you care about the victims, you care about why they were killed,” he continued.
“You know darn well he cares about those victims,” Conway replied. “And you shouldn’t say otherwise, and you know it.”
“I never said otherwise!” Cuomo shot back. “Kellyanne it’s so obvious when you run away from a point and try to blame the questioner.”
“We’re all banking on him caring. Puerto Rico we wanted him to care, we wanted him to care about it when he wasn’t talking about it, when he was talking about the NFL. We went down there to show the need. It’s not fake to show need! It’s not fake.”
“Somebody hit a nerve!” Conway quipped.
“Sure he does! When he maligns an entire crisis by saying it’s fake, by saying it’s not that bad by saying it’s not like Katrina? It’s offensive, it hits a nerve.”
Conway defended the administration’s response to Puerto Rico’s crisis, before again bashing CNN for its focus on Russia and “phony baloney collusion.”
“Nobody who’s investigating it says it’s phony baloney,” Cuomo replied.
Conway then criticized CNN for not having graphics about bump stocks, and Cuomo cried back: “It’s the first time we’ve seen it used in a mass murder — what are you talking about!?”
The vicious spat between the two old sparring partners continued for a while, and shockingly, no common ground was found.
Watch the full and fiery debate above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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