White House counselor Kellyanne Conway confronted CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on live television Thursday after he played footage of her husband criticizing President Trump and Republicans as part of MSNBC’s coverage of the impeachment hearing the day before.
Conway accused CNN of “embarrassing” itself by playing the remarks from frequent Trump critic George Conway, suggesting it was only doing so in a bid to drive ratings and make her look bad.
{mosads}“It’s the same stuff all the time. What you just quoted is said every day by other voices but you wanted to put it in my husband’s voice because you think somehow that that will help your ratings or that you’re really sticking it to Kellyanne Conway,” she said after the clip was aired.
The incident came toward the end of an already contentious segment during which Conway and Blitzer sparred over the impeachment hearing.
Blitzer then told Conway he had a “final question” for her.
“It’s a sensitive question and it’s a political question. It’s a substantive question,” Blizter says. “I don’t want to talk about your marriage, I know there are issues there. Your husband, George Conway, is a lawyer —”
“What did you just say?” Conway asks. “No, no, no. Did you just say there are issues there? You don’t want to talk about my marriage but –”
“I don’t want to talk about your marriage,” Blitzer cuts in as Conway continues, “Why would you say that?”
After repeating that he doesn’t want to talk about Conway’s marriage, Blitzer tells Conway, “I want to talk about a substantive point, that your husband, George Conway, made. He was on television all day yesterday during the first day of the impeachment hearings.”
“So before you play the clip, which I haven’t seen. Why? And why are you doing that?” Conway asks.
“Because he’s a legal scholar, he’s a lawyer was really going after the president of the United States and he was all over television yesterday” Blitzer responds.
After the clip was played, Conway said she was “embarrassed” for CNN.
“Where is the shame, where is the introspection,” Conway said.
George Conway, who has long been vocal about his criticism of the president, his wife’s boss, appeared on MSNBC on Wednesday for part of its coverage of the first public impeachment hearings.
During his appearance on the network, the lawyer accused the president of using the power of the presidency “to advance his own personal interest as opposed to the country’s.”
He also took aim at Republicans for defending the president.
“Take that Republican hat off and look at it neutrally,” he said. “Look at what you would have done if Donald Trump were a Democrat. Would you be making these ridiculous arguments about process?”
In her interview with Blitzer on Thursday, Kellyanne Conway said “that’s his opinion.”
“I don’t think MSNBC was lacking in anti-Trump voices,” she said, criticizing the other network’s decision to bring on her husband.
“I think you embarrassed yourself and I’m embarrassed for you because this is CNN now?” she continued. “I looked up to you when I was in college and law school, I would turn on CNN to see what Wolf Blitzer had to say about war, famine, disruption abroad. I really respected you for all those years as someone that would give you the news and now it’s what somebody’s husband says.”