White House staffers are scrambling to try to do damage control over the president’s recent incendiary and extraordinarily racist remarks against Democratic congresswomen of color — all except Kellyanne Conway, who has apparently decided that “lean into the racism” is the best line of defense here.
In a truly mind-boggling exchange with a reporter, the woman who infamously coined the phrase “alternative facts” tried to argue that President Trump also told white members of Congress to “go back to their countries” in conversations that don’t reach the media.
How xenophobia towards nonwhite foreigners makes any of this better is still a mystery, but that’s Republican logic for you.
NEW: @KellyannePolls suggests @realDonaldTrump has told White members of Congress to “go back to their country” in her defense of his racist tweets. Here’s our exchange: pic.twitter.com/DnB2yOvqVv
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) July 16, 2019
But then Conway decided to dabble in a little racism her own self, responding to a question from Breakfast Media White House reporter Andrew Feinberg by demanding to know his ethnicity in an absolutely jaw-dropping exchange.
“What’s your ethnicity?” Kellyanne Conway asks a reporter when the reporter asks her about the intent of the president’s tweets.
“A lot of us are sick and tired of this country – of America coming last, to people who swore an oath of office.” pic.twitter.com/Tia1VUQluP
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 16, 2019
Feinberg is Jewish and did NOT appreciate her remark. “Uhh…why is that relevant?” he asked. Conway refused to both answer his question — was the president telling Rashida Tlaib to go back to Palestine — and then punted with an utterly nonsensical deflection of “a lot of us are sick and tired of this country – of America coming last, to people who swore an oath of office.”
https://twitter.com/AndrewFeinberg/status/1151149199276281856?s=20
It’s almost too predictable that things would end up this way. When confronted with the President’s racism, Republican members of Congress are openly defending him while Trump’s sycophants are turning the racism on to the members of the press, contemptuous of all criticism and incapable of feeling shame.
Backlash to her remark immediately kicked off online, including some surprising vitriol toward media darling and opportunistic Trump critic George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband, who has played both sides of the fence relatively comfortably…until now.
You know your wife asked a JEWISH reporter his ethnicity today?
This isn't a fucking game. Whatever dissent you think you are accomplishing with your anti-Trump tweets, your RACIST ASS wife is crossing a fucking line.
— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) July 16, 2019
This is truly fucking sick.
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) July 16, 2019
guys its just unfair to call the trumpers racist fascists, its just that kellyanne conway wants to know your bloodlines before you question her
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) July 16, 2019
Excuse me?
— Anita Creamer (@AnitaCreamer) July 16, 2019
The sneering contempt of Kellyanne Conway on display in this clip is something else. It’s almost parody-proof. https://t.co/vCSINfoi0x
— Rob Pegoraro (@robpegoraro) July 16, 2019
