Kellyanne Conway marched out to the White House lawn this Friday and took questions from reporters, and let’s just say that the exchange did not go well for those concerned about the security of U.S. elections or the safety of the free press in the United States. When pressed for the president’s take on the apparent continued threat from Russian interference in domestic political processes, she jumped into claiming that journalists are some of the real culprits “interfering” in elections. It should mostly go without saying that it’s outlandish to compare people whose jobs have them follow the national political conversation with secret agents of a foreign government stealing emails and running misinformation campaigns. That didn’t stop Conway.
In recent days, the threat from Russian interference has again rocketed back up to the top of the national political conversation thanks to developments like testimony from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who said that the country is continuing their efforts to interfere “as we sit here.” Asked for the president’s take, Conway shared:
‘We want secure elections. We don’t want anyone to interfere with them, whether they’re a foreign government or a domestic press corps.’
A reporter quickly followed up by asking what that was supposed to mean, and Conway replied melodramatically:
‘You know what it means.’
Watch her nonsense:
Then @KellyannePolls said the administration wants secure elections from foreign intrusion or the “Domestic press corps.” Hey Now! Don’t know any domestic reporters who hacked the polls. pic.twitter.com/GX5VpGLTyD
— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) July 26, 2019
She went on to rail about supposed examples of this meddling found in media coverage of Hillary Clinton’s apparent path to victory ahead of the 2016 election — although it’s again outlandish to suggest reporting on the many, many national polls that had her ahead of Trump by significant margins is some kind of election meddling on Russia’s level. That’s a third-grade understanding of the concept — although that might be insulting to third-graders.
Conway got a follow-up question about whether the administration would be willing to work with Democrats to protect the American electoral system in the final lead-up to 2020. Although the journalist behind the follow-up valiantly tried to get some kind of substantive point out of the discussion with the petulant Conway — it didn’t work. She instead complained, totally wrongfully, that Barack Obama supposedly didn’t do anything to combat Russian election interference when it happened while he was in office, saying the Trump team would have worked with him if he had — although it’s unclear what form this haughty asserted possible action would have taken.
It’s also unclear what universe Conway is in, because in reality, Obama countered Russian efforts through means ranging from personal pressure to public statements to eventual sanctions that Trump’s own adviser Michael Flynn blunted the impact of because he secretly told the Russians not to worry about the then-incoming Trump administration keeping the penalties in place. That’s what actually happened!
In recent days, Senate Republicans blocked a number of election security bills from coming to the floor, so it’s clear that as the 2020 election gets closer, Republicans seem poised to continue politicizing the process surrounding keeping American elections safe. The unsettling thing is that the Senate Intelligence Committee unveiled a report just the other day saying that Russians targeted elections systems in all 50 states.
Featured Image via screenshot
