Hey, Conway, Clinton Doesn't Need To Be "Healed"

Just two weeks after Election Day, a senior Donald Trump aide said he won't pursue investigating Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC's Morning Joe, "I think when the president-elect, who's also the head of your party, tells you before he's even inaugurated that he doesn't wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone, and content."

This proclamation is noteworthy because Trump doesn't actually have direct power to decide whether such a probe would occur. It is even more noteworthy because Conway made this announcement only after running a presidential campaign trail where Trump supporters routinely chanted "Lock her up." Oh, and in case you forgot, Trump threatened to jail Clinton during the second presidential debate.

Conway, who was Trump's campaign manager and is now a senior adviser to his transition, told Morning Joe that hopefully Trump's decision to not press charges will give Clinton time to process the widespread American distrust towards the former presidential candidate. She said, "I think Hillary Clinton still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don't find her to be honest or trustworthy, but if Trump can help her heal, perhaps that's a good thing."

Conway isn't completely off-base in her estimation of American trust in Clinton. A Nov. 2 poll from ABC News/Washington Post revealed Clinton at a 38 percent honesty rating, trailing behind Trump's 46 percent honesty rating. It is worth noting that the poll was published days after the FBI director James Comey reopened Clinton's email investigation but before he had announced that the additional investigation had "not changed our conclusions."

Conway's comments on Morning Joe about the possibility of a Clinton investigation expressed a revealing amount of self-righteousness, in addition to being frustratingly patronizing towards the former Democrat candidate. Even after placing the absurd and unrealistic imagery of Trump helping Clinton "heal" aside, Conway's confidence in speaking for the majority of Americans seems to blatantly overlook the fact that Clinton won the popular vote by more than 1.7 million, according to a recent report from the Cook Political Report. And that amount could grow.

Conway's dismissal by omission of the significance of Clinton winning the popular vote, and what that means about the actual desires of Americans, is only emphasized by the fact that there have been anti-Trump protests for two weeks straight since he became president-elect. While it is a relief that the videos of Trump rallies chanting "Lock her up" aren't an actual preview of what Trump's intentions towards Clinton, the existence of the rhetoric in the first place was horrifying. For Conway to act as if Clinton is the one who needs to "heal," shows how out of touch she, and perhaps the whole Trump administration, is with American voters.