With all due respect to KellyAnne Conway, reciting that Donald Trump won the election over and over again has gotten old due to the childish nature of how it is used as a counter argument to every question from the press.
If she and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and their boss the president are upset at their treatment from the press on the first day, then "too damn bad," as they say because this isn't going to get any easier especially if Mr. Spicer intends to continue with giving 'alternative facts' as Ms. Conway outlined what he said.
Alternative facts? Alternative facts are, indeed, falsehoods. Ms. Conway's admission of the press secretary using alternative facts is as stupid as it is stunning.
Ms. Conway spoke defensively, so much so that she lost her cool, which clearly confirmed that she didn't have any adequate or acceptable answer to give Chuck Todd's single question of "What was the motivation of the press secretary to go out on his first day and state falsehoods? Why was that necessary?" It really is ridiculous, which Ms. Conway took offense to, and said that Mr. Todd was laughing at her. At this point, Ms. Conway played the victim, which is another tactic that she needs to stop. Ms. Conway works in the White House, the ultimate bully pulpit so he attempts to illicit sympathy for being attacked really shows weakness of the Administration's character.
One last thing about Ms. Conway's interview... She said that the mere presence of President Trump at CIA Headquarters shows that he has respect for the intelligence community. Right. This magnanimous gesture was really just the president covering his butt on the fact that he compared CIA staff to the Nazis a week ago in a tweet. And if the intelligence community thinks that Donald Trump has respect for them, sympathetic to the scope of dangerous work they do, then they're not very, well... Intelligent.
Suffice to say that I've lost my patience with KellyAnne Conway because she's incapable of answering a question in a non-defensive tone and to give an answer based in verifiable fact aside from one, that Donald Trump won the election.
Mr. Todd went hard at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about holding up confirmations, like for the prospective new CIA Director Mike Pompeo, accusing the senator of playing politics, trying to give equal tough treatment to both sides. In this case it is unwarranted but Mr. Todd is hamstrung in taking this tact lest he be accused himself of favoring one side over another... again.
Even if Mr. Schumer is playing politics with the confirmations, so what. No president has ever visited CIA Headquarters on his first day and no CIA Director has ever been confirmed on the first day. The senate will vote Monday and Mr. Pompeo will be confirmed. Again, Ms. Conway lecturing anyone of delaying confirmations is disgusting Republican hypocrisy due to the fact that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blocked the confirmation hearing of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
This isn't going to get any easier for the Trump Administration and nor should it. The administration has done this to itself. It's strange to me that the most powerful group of people in the world is incapable of collectively coming up with a single statement that is compassionate or magnanimous in tone. President Trump has yet to say one thing in terms of outreach to the millions of Americans who didn't vote for him. Hence, bigger crowds than anyone expected showed up for women's marches all over the world.
And one more time, though the panel was pretty inconsequential in terms of their impact today, I have to draw exception with something that the ultimate cynical enabler aka Hugh Hewlitt said about Donald Trump's inaugural speech. Mr. Hewlitt said that most memorable (important) line for him was that the president said he was going to destroy Islamic terrorism completely. First, that proclamation is incredible hyperbole. Never mind that Mr. Trump said the country is a disaster, "American carnage," is the term he used. Oh, and forget about the fact that he also used the phrase "America first," which is a phrase that isolationist Americans with Nazi sympathies like Charles Lindbergh used in the 30's to dissuade the public from helping England and France in WWII. In 16 minutes, Mr. Trump disheartened Americans and scared our allies around the world. Way to go. Mr. Hewlitt would say that he wouldn't have done it that way or that he's not defending it, before going on to defend it.
Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Eliana Johnson, Politico; Hugh Hewlitt, Salem Radio Network; Chris Matthews, NBC News
One more thing...
Is Tom Barrack a member of the administration? Does he speak for the president?
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