Alternative Facts with Kellyanne Conway

[GreyhoundFan]

"George Conway calls Trump a liar on Twitter after Kellyanne Conway defends him on TV"

Spoiler

The sharply divergent views that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and her husband hold of President Trump played out in public again on Thursday night, with George Conway calling Trump a liar on Twitter after his wife defended him on television.

Kellyanne Conway sparred with host Chris Cuomo during an extended segment on CNN in which she steadfastly insisted that Trump had not directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to break the law by buying the silence of two women who say they had sexual relationships with him.

In the segment, during which Cuomo and Conway repeatedly interrupted one another, Conway sought to downplay the significance of a tape recording that suggests Trump was aware of a payment being made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

She also sought to explain away Trump’s comment to reporters on Air Force One in April that he was unaware of a payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

George Conway apparently didn’t come away convinced of the president’s truthfulness.

“Given that Trump has repeatedly lied about the Daniels and McDougal payments—and given that he lies about virtually everything else, to the point that his own former personal lawyer described him as a “f****ing liar”— why should we take his word over that of federal prosecutors?” Conway, a lawyer, wrote on Twitter.

The former personal lawyer to which Conway was referring is John Dowd, who was quoted in Bob Woodward’s book “Fear” questioning Trump’s credibility in colorful fashion. Dowd has disputed the account.

George Conway, who has become a regular critic of his wife’s boss, also weighed in with an op-ed in The Washington Post that published online Friday morning. The headline: “Trump’s claim that he didn’t violate campaign finance law is weak — and dangerous.”

In the piece, which Conway wrote with two other lawyers, he argues that a federal campaign-finance case against Trump would be much stronger than the one brought in 2011 against John Edwards. Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, was put on trial related to a payment by his supporters to a woman with whom he had an extramarital sexual relationship.

George Conway was back on Twitter on Friday morning, reacting to an interview of Cohen on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

During the interview, Cohen told host George Stephanopoulos that his past loyalty to Trump had been a mistake.

“I gave loyalty to someone who, truthfully, does not deserve loyalty,” Cohen said.

“Truer words were never spoken,” George Conway said in response.

 

[Howl]

This is just getting way too weird, even for the Trump administration.  Weird.

Kellyanne has managed to hang in there; remember early on when there was day by day speculation that she was going to be fired?  Now she's utterly debasing herself to prove her loyalty to Trump while her husband is busy firing up to twitter torch the guy at every opportunity.   

I have to wonder if there's a long con underway, but I can't figure out what it is, or if they are truly that opposite in their perceptions.  

Also, Kellyanne, ETTD (Everything Trump Touches Dies)!  What's your exit strategy when this entire thing heads south?

Edited December 14, 2018 by Howl

[Audrey2]

54 minutes ago, Howl said:

Also, Kellyanne, ETTD (Everything Trump Touches Dies)!  What's your exit strategy when this entire thing heads south?

Donald Trump? I never knew the guy. Didn't he used to get coffee or something?

[fraurosena]

Finally!

 

[fraurosena]

Does he tell his wife this too?

 

[Howl]

Ha! I just came here to post this!  George isn't mincing words.  Is this a message for Kellyanne via twitter telegraph, because they aren't speaking and are living on different floors of the same house?  

[GreyhoundFan]

"It’s high time for media to enter the No Kellyanne Zone — and stay there"

Spoiler

Lies are coming at the American public in torrents — raining down on them everywhere they turn.

A report prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee, and obtained by The Washington Post, made that breathtakingly clear over the weekend. The intentional spreading of disinformation on every platform — from Facebook all the way to PayPal — should frighten everyone who cares about democracy.

One place that truth can prevail is in the reality-based news media, where editorial judgment comes into play.

That means it’s more important than ever not to give falsehoods a megaphone there.

Which brings us to Chris Cuomo’s 39-minute interview on Thursday with Kellyanne Conway, President Trump’s top dissembler.

It should have been no surprise that Conway — who coined the immortal phrase “alternative facts” in early 2017 — blithely spun her way through the interview.

In her usual never-been-wrong tone, she waved away the undeniable facts about the pre-election hush-money payments made to two women, Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, who had been sexually involved with Trump.

“Christopher, in April of 2018, Donald J. Trump, the president, and everybody else were told about the payments,” she said.

This, of course, is straight-up false — and Conway knows it, which makes it a lie. After all, in an audio recording from August 2016 (made public this summer), Trump and his then-fixer/lawyer Michael Cohen are discussing one of the payments.

A New York Times fact-check branded Conway’s statement false: Her assertion “that the president did not know about these payments until this year is not credible, given the audio recording, news reports and statements from Mr. Trump’s current lawyer.”

Even George Conway, Conway’s husband (and frequent political opposite), seemed to fact-check his wife. He tweeted: “Given that Trump has repeatedly lied about the Daniels and McDougal payments — and given that he lies about virtually everything else, to the point that his own former personal lawyer described him as a “f****ing liar” — why should we take his word over that of federal prosecutors?”

Cuomo’s CNN colleagues smacked him around, with Don Lemon leading the way, and with Brian Stelter devoting time to the Cuomo-Conway shoutfest on his “Reliable Sources” show Sunday.

Perhaps most absurd among Conway’s declarations was her objection to Cuomo’s referring to Trump as a liar, although she wouldn’t repeat the term. “You’re saying he’s not telling the truth. That’s a slur. That’s a slur.”

No, it’s not a slur to state the facts. But it is a shame to give liars a megaphone.

So it’s time (actually, well past time) for the mainstream media to enter the No Kellyanne Zone. And that goes far beyond banning her, or any particular adviser, from cable interview shows.

The news media continues — even now when it should know better — to be addicted to “both sides” journalism. In the name of fairness, objectivity and respect for the office of the presidency, it still seems to take Trump — along with his array of deceptive surrogates — at his word, while knowing full well that his word isn’t good.

When major news organizations publish tweets and news alerts that repeat falsehoods merely because the president uttered them, it’s the same kind of journalistic malpractice as offering a prime interview spot to Kellyanne Conway.

This is how NBC News spread the news of Trump’s reaction to recent legal developments that were extraordinarily negative — maybe devastating — to him:

NEW: “Totally clears the President. Thank you!” President Trump asserts in a tweet after new Cohen and Manafort case filings.

Reuters and the Associated Press did much the same: “BREAKING,” said the AP’s tweet: “White House says Cohen, Manafort filings offer nothing new or damaging about Trump.” (The AP later deleted its tweet and explained that it lacked context.)

Citizens, meanwhile, seem to be catching on. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 62 percent of Americans think Trump has been untruthful about the investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Given all of this, the responsibility to bear down on reality is greater than ever.

When news organizations hand a megaphone to lies — or liars — they do actual harm. What the president himself says must be reported, of course, but only within the context of what we know.

To state it without immediate, adjacent reference to factual reality is to enter the Kellyanne Zone.

In an era rife with disinformation — and American democracy teetering on a precipice — that’s the wrong place to be.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

Kellyanne and George are the yin and yang of the Conways

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[fraurosena]

7 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

 

The question is, does his wife? And if she doesn’t, why the hell is she still raking in a taxpayer funded salary working for him? Money George himself also benefits from, by the way. 

So George can snark all he likes on social media, but until his wife stops living off taxpayers by working in that administration full of criminals, defending the presiduncial caprices with absurdities of her imagination, I don’t care at all about what he says. Talk is cheap.

[AmazonGrace]

It would be fun to book these two in an interview at the same time 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 How does she stay married? Forget political differences, this sort of person would drive anybody stark raving mad. "Oh I promised to buy eggs? Yes darling but  what  about your eggs? I'm the only one who even gives you the time of day because you break your eggs most of the time"

Edited January 8, 2019 by AmazonGrace

[AmazonGrace]

Response to a very presidential message

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

Response to a very presidential message

 

Yikes! This tweet reminds me of the old language arts books in elementary school in the 70s and early 80s, where all of the words were in a sentence and you had to arrange the words so it made sense.

[AmazonGrace]

Maybe they are auditioning for a reality show. The Real White House Wives of Washington DC, need drama

Trump is Kellyanne's child from another relationship and a constant source of conflict.

Edited January 11, 2019 by AmazonGrace

[AmazonGrace]

Tippy-top.

[GreyhoundFan]

I wish every media outlet would refuse to book K-Con. Nobody needs to hear her crap.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

George now out calling Trump an idiot and he's still Kellyanne's boss.

 

[onekidanddone]

7 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

George now out calling Trump an idiot and he's still Kellyanne's boss.

 

Is a tiny fissure starting to form between McShitFace and his flock?

[Howl]

43 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Is a tiny fissure starting to form between McShitFace and his flock?

I think there's a major rift forming, like Grand Canyon size.  Republican senators are watching their political futures and the future of the Republican party circling the drain and they want this shut down OVER. 

As I mentioned elsewhere, my Social Security application won't be processed until at some point after the shutdown is over. According to the AARP, 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every single day.  

Do the math here on the number of people between the ages of 62 and 70 who are applying for Social Security every day and whose applications won't be processed until the shut down is over.   

The 800,000 federal workers are only the tip of the damned ice berg on who is adversely affected by the shut down. 

Word is that the shut down does not affect processing MediCare applications. 

Edited January 25, 2019 by Howl

[GreyhoundFan]

"Now we know the secret of Kellyanne Conway's success in the Trump White House"

Spoiler

(CNN) It's h-a-r-d to survive very long in the Trump White House. The President is a hugely judgmental man who also happens to be incredibly mercurial; people he loves today may be people he hates -- or at least distrusts -- tomorrow. Like, literally.

Which brings me to the somewhat curious case of Kellyanne Conway, the senior counselor to President Donald Trump. Conway has been a regular presence at Trump's side since spring 2016, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, for whom she had been serving as an adviser, dropped his challenge to Trump. She eventually rose to be Trump's campaign manager for the final months of the campaign and has been ensconced in a top role in the White House since Day 1.

Which is weird because so many people in those senior administration jobs are gone. Reince Priebus. John Kelly. Sean Spicer. Jim Mattis. Rex Tillerson. H.R. McMaster. Anthony Scaramucci. Hope Hicks. Rob Porter. Scott Pruitt. Steve Bannon. There are SO many more. But you get the idea.

And yet, Conway remains. Not only that, but she is never mentioned as someone who has fallen out of favor with Trump, someone he has lost faith in, someone who is clinging to their job. She seems to sort of skate under the radar -- despite the fact that she is one of the most recognizable and high-profile figures in an administration filled with them.

How, you ask? Good question! And a new excerpt from former Trump aide Cliff Sims' book on his time in the White House -- "Team of Vipers" -- offers one very likely theory: Conway is the person most like Trump in the White House. Here's the key bit from Sims:

"Her agenda—which was her survival over all others, including the president—became more and more transparent. Once you figured that out, everything about her seemed so calculated; every statement, even a seemingly innocuous one, seemed poll-tested by a focus group that existed inside her mind. She seemed to be perennially cloaked in an invisible fur coat, casting an all-knowing smile, as if she'd collected 98 Dalmatians with only 3 more to go.

"I'm not sure the president ever fully understood that about Kellyanne. But what he clearly shared with her was a love of media attention. Unlike most human beings, Trump's greatest fear wasn't death or failure or loss. It was obscurity. If he was noticed, he mattered. And he didn't care much if the attention was good or bad, as long as it wasn't indifferent."

That's an important bit of insight into Conway and Trump. They both view their ultimate gift as their ability to survive anything -- and to even thrive. Trump went bankrupt three times but declared victory every time and just kept surviving. Conway worked for Cruz, who savaged Trump as a "sniveling coward" during the primary, then managed to work her way into Trump's inner circle, and stay there. Trump was confronted with audio of him talking about women in deeply misogynistic terms just before the 2016 election and won anyway. Conway invented the phrase "alternative facts" and suffered no negative consequences inside Trumpworld. Even her husband's public and oft-stated opposition to Trump doesn't seem to have hindered Conway's central role in the White House.

The other important thing to note in that Sims' excerpt is the obsessive focus on the media -- and its opinions -- of both Conway and Trump. While Trump attacks the media at every turn, he is also the most avid consumer of its journalism -- especially via cable TV -- of any president ever. And while Trump will never admit it, he cares deeply what the media a) thinks about him and b) says about him. ("Trump sincerely held most members of the media in low regard -- that wasn't just for show," writes Sims. "But what he didn't like to admit was that he also craved their approval.")

What Conway has understood throughout her time with Trump is that how the media perceived her -- and her value to Trump -- was the coin of the realm. Every adviser in the White House could tell Trump that Conway was a leaking nightmare -- that's certainly how Sims portrays her -- but none of it mattered if Conway was regarded by the media as someone who was an effective advocate for Trump. If the media thought she mattered, then she mattered to Trump. Period.

Like her or hate her, that was Conway's central insight -- and what has kept her in the White House (and still with the ear of the President) long after many of her colleagues have either been fired or fallen out of favor. She endeared herself to Trump by being like him. If she leaked, well, hell, he likes to leak -- for his own benefit -- too! If she used people to accomplish some broader goal, well, he did the same! If lots of people said she was bad and needed to go, well, hadn't people been saying that about him his whole career?

Asked about the book's accusations of her leaking, Conway said Thursday that if she has something to say to the press, she says it in public. "You know who the real leakers are," she told reporters. "If I reveal ... them I'd have to reveal who they leaked to. That would be a lot of fun."

For Trump's part, you just don't fire yourself. Or someone who reminds you of yourself.

"What a job she's done," Trump said of Conway last year. "What a job she's done."

Indeed.