In a telling moment on ABC’s This Week, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway tried to change the subject when she was asked if Trump would commit to not firing the Special Counsel leading the Russia investigation, Robert Mueller.
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STEPHANOPOULOS: But will he commit not to fire him?
CONWAY: We are complying and cooperating with — he has not even discussed not firing — he has not discussed firing Bob Mueller.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s not what I’m asking.
CONWAY: And in fact, Ty Cobb — well, hold on. I’m not the president’s lawyer here. But I will tell you, as his counselor, he is not discussing that. He — you have to listen to listen to his special counsel, Ty Cobb, who works in the White House now. He has said very clearly, George, this week, that we will continue to cooperate with Bob Mueller and his investigation. Even though he just hired his sixteenth person. Many of them are Democratic donors. But we’ll continue to cooperate and comply.
And Ty Cobb said something that reflects the thinking of all of us, including the president. Anything that gets us steps further to this conclusion of what the president has called a complete false and fabricated lie, a conclusion in search of evidence, anything that brings us closer to that conclusion, we are all for.
But so far you’ve got conclusion and no collusion. And anybody who denies that is lying. We were promised Watergate, we were promised direct evidence of interfering and changing the electoral results. People talk about the 70,000 votes in Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. There’s none of that. Nobody even talks about that.
What about Adam Schiff and Mark Werner, the two Democrats who are in charge of the intelligence committee? They spend more time on TV than they do interviewing witnesses.
Conway immediately started changing the subject and throwing all sorts of verbal spaghetti at the wall in the hope that something else would stick when she was asked about Trump firing Mueller. Her answer that Trump wasn’t thinking about firing the Special Counsel is not the same as a commitment not to fire Mueller.
If this president weren’t keeping the door open to firing Mueller, the answer would have been a simple no.
Instead, Kellyanne Conway went into a soft shoe routine and danced like she was in a 1950s MGM musical.
Congress should be worried about Trump firing Mueller, as Conway made it clear that legislation protecting the Special Counsel needs to be passed ASAP.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
