Watch Kellyanne Conway, Seth Meyers Spar Over Trump-Russia Allegations
Kellyanne Conway, senior advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers within hours of an unverified bombshell report via CNN. The news organization reported U.S. intelligence briefed President Obama and Trump last week that Russia allegedly had “compromising” personal and financial information about the president-elect.
“Nothing’s been confirmed,” Conway said about the alleged classified documents that may have come from a former British intelligence member and a Russian investigator. “It also says that Hillary Clinton and groups that wanted Hillary Clinton to win may have been behind the investigations themselves,” Conway added. “And, most importantly, it says that the FBI is trying to confirm it.”
Conway echoed immediate remarks made by the president-elect, who denied the report via Twitter, decrying: “FAKE NEWS — A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” Trump subsequently compared the intelligence leak to “Nazi Germany.”
In the lengthy interview, Meyers brought the conversation back to the president-elect’s ties – real or perceived – with Russia. He cited a comment Trump made on December 24th, siding with Russia against liberal Americans whom he called “poor sports,” and asked Conway whether she felt this sort of rhetoric was contradictory to his pledge to be a president for “all Americans” after election night.
Without a meaningful answer on that point, the conversation devolved into an elliptical rehash of election tactics between Trump’s team versus Hillary Clinton. Both agreed that Clinton’s campaign was poorly run. “I am not going to sit and argue with you that the Clinton campaign was a well-run campaign,” Meyers said.
“Or that the Russians interfered in the election successfully. That they interrupted our democracy,” Conway added.
“But shouldn’t we care if the Russians tried to interfere?” Meyers asked. “Whether it informed the election or not. I sometimes fear that the president-elect has no curiosity as to the amount they tried.”
“That is completely false,” Conway said. “He has enormous curiosity. I’m there every day with him. He has a number of different meetings every day — briefings and otherwise. He was curious enough to figure out America. He knew America when many other Republicans did not.”
“That’s a pivot right there, Kellyanne,” Meyers said. “And by the way, no one does it better.”
Trump will give his first national news conference in over 160 days from Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan at 11 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday morning.