Appearing on Monday’s NBC Today, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway ripped into the network for its “one-sided” hyperbolic coverage of President Trump’s Twitter reaction to Saturday’s London terror attack, calling out the liberal media “obsession” with his tweets.
In the three-minute report [read transcript here] that immediately preceded Conway’s appearance, correspondent Peter Alexander devoted the bulk of the segment to denouncing Trump’s social media response: “The President saying he has spoken to Prime Minister Theresa May, expressing Americans’ unwavering support, but it came after a series of tweets that critics are describing as misdirected and misinformed....the President’s facing backlash for his unfiltered response hours after the violence.”
Conway hit back: “...buried in that report, that one-sided report, here’s the other side, that the President stands firm with the people of the U.K., he spoke to the prime minister of the entire country, Theresa May, that same night.” Guthrie cut her off: “Fair enough, Kellyanne but that was – wait, wait, wait...That was his first tweet – ”
Refusing to being interrupted, Conway continued:
You want to make this about something other than what it’s about. You know, I’m just not going to allow....on the day and a half after terrorists did it again, whether they’re ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed, they’re savage murderers, it’s an evil slaughter, as the President said last night – I’m not going to let him be seen as the perpetrator here.
The presidential counselor added: “For every time you said ‘Russia,’ imagine if you said ‘ISIS,’ every time you say ‘Twitter,’ imagine if you said ‘terrorist’....Maybe we’d have a different type of vigilance.”
Guthrie argued: “But, Kellyanne, in fairness, he’s setting the agenda, he’s the president, he speaks, the reporters cover what he says.” And in some cases, the press don’t bother with the substance of anything Trump says, but instead just hype Twitter typos.
Later in the exchange, Conway again took journalists to task:
So we’ve got the 23rd ISIS-inspired or directed attack taking innocent lives, children in Manchester, children in Nice, and we want to know – we want to put some blame worthiness here on President Trump? I’m just not going to allow it....But you know, this obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what he does as president...
On Saturday, as news of the attack was unfolding, NBC went after Trump for sharing news via Twitter that accurately labeled the incident as terrorism. On Sunday, MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts even launched into a tirade claiming that the President was intentionally trying to “provoke a domestic terrorist attack” with his tweets.
NBC’s obsession with 140-character internet postings has fostered recklessness in its reporting.
Here is a transcript of the June 5 exchange:
7:10 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: And that brings us to White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, who joins us now. Kellyanne, good morning, good to see you.
KELLYANNE CONWAY: Good morning, thank you.
GUTHRIE: Let’s start right there with the series of tweets. I mean, just a matter of taste and judgment and accuracy, does the President owe the London mayor an apology for tweeting a political attack in the hours after this terrorist incident? And also misleadingly quoting him? Was that a mistake?
CONWAY: It wasn’t a political attack, Savannah, and as you – as was buried in that report, that one-sided report, here’s the other side, that the President stands firm with the people of the U.K., he spoke to the prime minister of the entire country, Theresa May, that same night. And again, yesterday, he announced his support for the U.K. people. I was in the Ford[’s Theater] gala when he said, “We will get these people, bring them to justice, the bloodbaths have to stop.”
GUTHRIE: Fair enough, Kellyanne but that was – wait, wait, wait.
CONWAY: Let me finish, because –
GUTHRIE: That was his first tweet –
CONWAY: You want to make this about something other than what it’s about. You know, I’m just not going to allow –
GUTHRIE: Well, he’s the one who tweeted that.
CONWAY: I'm not going to allow – on the day and a half after terrorists did it again, whether they’re ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed, they’re savage murderers, it’s an evil slaughter, as the President said last night – I’m not going to let him be seen as the perpetrator here. For every time you said “Russia,” imagine if you said “ISIS,” every time you say “Twitter,” imagine if you said “terrorist.”
GUTHRIE: But, Kellyanne, in fairness...
CONWAY: Maybe we’d have a different type of vigilance.
GUTHRIE: ...he’s setting the agenda, he’s the president, he speaks, the reporters cover what he says.
CONWAY: And what did he say to Theresa May? What did he say to Theresa May? You’re covering tweets.
GUTHRIE: He did say that to Theresa May, but most of his quotes had to do with either his own political concern, the travel ban, of which he’s been up having four more tweets about that this morning, and a misleading attack on London’s mayor. So my question to you was simply, does he owe – does he owe an apology to London’s mayor for quoting him in a misleading and inaccurate way?
CONWAY: So we’ve got the 23rd ISIS-inspired or directed attack taking innocent lives, children in Manchester, children in Nice, and we want to know – we want to put some blame worthiness here on President Trump? I’m just not going to allow it. Here’s what he’s doing as President of the United States and as commander-in-chief: standing firm because an attack on London is an attack on American values also. They are our greatest ally and we stand with them. And we will do whatever it takes to help them moving forward. The State Department, the President, everybody else involved, me now, will express our condolences and we have expressed that publicly and he has expressed it privately to Prime Minister May as well.
CRAIG MELVIN: Kellyanne, let’s –
CONWAY: But you know, this obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what he does as president –
MELVIN: But that’s his preferred method of communication with the American people.
CONWAY: That’s not true.
MELVIN: Well, he hasn’t given an interview in three weeks, so lately it has been his preferred method.
(...)
