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Is Kellyanne Conway Attending The WCHD?
President Donald Trump has made it very clear that he won't be at the 2017 White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD). Perhaps since former President Obama roasted the then-real estate mogul and reality TV star, Trump hasn't been its biggest fan. Add to that his ongoing crusade against the "failing" New York Times and his insistence that CNN is "fake news," Trump's no-show wasn't wholly unexpected. But what about some of the other Trump surrogates? Seeing as her presence might be even more awkward than Trump's, is Kellyanne Conway at the White House Correspondents' Dinner?
First of all, the odds are high that Conway won't be attending. The White House Correspondents' Association president Jeff Mason, who is also a reporter for Reuters, wrote to members back in March that the White House staff would not be attending out of "solidarity" with the president. Conway is, in all likelihood, included in that group. She would probably only end up going if the White House changed its formal answer.
On top of that, she was already on the outs with the White House for her comments on the Michael Flynn national security adviser debacle. She had said that Flynn had Trump's full confidence, but hours later, he was sent packing. Due to the miscommunication, Conway was taken off TV appearances for an entire week, CNNMoney reported.
Now she's reemerged into the spotlight, but in a way that only proves that she should not be at the Correspondents' Dinner. At a Newseum event earlier in April, Conway spoke about the administration's relationship with the press':
You can turn on the TV — more than you can read in the paper because I assume editors are still doing their jobs in most places — and people literally say things that just aren't true.
At the event, the moderator, Michael Wolff of The Hollywood Reporter, made a jab at Conway while referring to The Washington Post's tagline, "Democracy Dies In Darkness."
"I'm going to tell you, when they say 'democracy dies in darkness,' you're the darkness," Wolff said to applause from the audience. She responded, "I'm not the darkness."
Conway's had a rough time with the media, so it might not be the best idea for her to attend the dinner, anyway, considering that it's for and about journalists. Perhaps Conway will join Trump at the rally that he has planned in Pennsylvania at the same time on Saturday.
While the president's event makes it a bit difficult for the press pool to attend the WHCD, it's probably better for Trump. You'd have a bit of an awkward showdown for what's supposed to be a black-tie fundraiser if Trump and the press he's so often maligned were there. And the same goes for Conway.