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Conway Says There's A "Wrong Set Of Facts" About Comey
The Trump administration's dismissal of FBI Director James Comey has been met with a slew of scrutiny and more than a few conspiracy theories. To many, Trump's decision to fire Comey because of how he handled Hilary Clinton's emails during the election just doesn't seem believable. After all, the election ended months ago — and Trump came out victorious. But lucky for you, Trump aide Kellyanne Conway is here to clear things up. Well, kind of. Conway said that Comey's firing isn't a cover up during a Tuesday night interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, and that anyone who thinks so is looking at "the wrong set of facts."
"It's not a cover up. This has nothing to do with Russia ... [This] has everything to do with whether the current FBI director has the President's confidence and can faithfully execute his duties," Conway said.
Cooper challenged her assertion by reminding Conway that Trump, as Clinton's opponent in the 2016 election, previously praised Comey's decision to launch an investigation into Clinton's use of private emails.
"I think you're looking at the wrong set of facts here," Conway shot back. "In other words, you're going back to the campaign, this man is the President of the United States, he acted decisively today."
Nonetheless, Cooper continued to press her on what Trump had said in the past about Comey's Clinton investigation. The CNN host reminded the presidential adviser that it seems very suspicious that Trump would have such a drastic change of heart while Comey was leading an FBI investigation that could, potentially, find charges against Trump and members of his campaign. And don't forget that Trump once said Comey had "guts" for publicly criticizing Clinton's email use.
"You're conflating two things that don't belong together," Conway said, referring to pre-election Trump's statements and post-election Trump's statements.
"So, that person doesn't exist anymore?" Cooper asked. "Candidate Donald Trump, that's a fictional character we're no longer allowed to refer to? We can now only refer to the Donald Trump who exists today?"
Conway's statements are problematic for many reasons. They reflect her "alternative facts" reality in which certain facts can be ignored and disposed of as if they don't exist, while facts that promote her administration's agenda can be manipulated and promoted to craft a politically expedient narrative.
But the issues being discussed here are far from simple. Trump is facing major backlash from Comey's dismissal. For instance, many are going as far as to compare Trump's dismissal of Comey to Richard Nixon's dismissal of the official investigating him during the infamous Watergate scandal. That being said, Conway, as well as the rest of the administration, have a lot of questions to answer.
Unfortunately, in typical Conway fashion, the Trump aide was able to avoid most of those questions by referencing Trump's election win and, of course, blaming the media. Thankfully, Cooper was there to respond appropriately.
"That makes no sense," Cooper told Conway after her "wrong facts" remark — at least someone said it.