On Tuesday night, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 to defend President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. Conway and host Anderson Cooper battled for over ten minutes on the timing of the firing and the fact that Comey, as mentioned by Cooper, was heading an investigation into Trump campaign officials’ ties to Russia. At one point during the unfriendly exchange, Cooper can be seen rolling his eyes at the former campaign manager.
As noted by Business Insider, both the White House and the Justice Department claim Comey was axed over his handling of Hillary Clinton’s private email server during a July presser, in which he recommended no charges be brought against the former Secretary of State. “Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein said in a letter Tuesday that Comey ‘was wrong to usurp the Attorney General’s authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution,’ and added that ‘the FBI Director is never empowered to supplant federal prosecutors and assume command of the Justice Department.'”
“Why, now, are you concerned about the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation when as a candidate Donald Trump was praising it from the campaign trail?” started Cooper.
“I think you’re looking at the wrong set of facts here,” replied Conway. “In other words, you’re going back to the campaign. This man is the President of the United States; he acted decisively today. He took the recommendation of his deputy attorney general.”
“That makes no sense,” interrupted Cooper.
“It does make sense, Anderson, I get that’s a new talking point,” the White House counselor shot back.
“He said one thing as a candidate and now he’s concerned as president?” asked the CNN host.
“It makes complete sense because he has lost confidence in the FBI director and he took the recommendation of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general to whom the FBI director reports,” answered Conway, before noting that Rosenstein was confirmed a mere two weeks ago in a landslide 94-6 vote.
Cooper then asked about the timing of the firing due to the current ongoing investigation into Russian ties, which has yet to find any evidence. Referring to Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer’s remarks, Cooper asked if the release of Comey was a “cover-up.”
“Well, he’s wrong. It’s not a cover-up,” said Conway. “In fact, the president makes very clear in his letter the fact that Mr. Comey, on at least three occasions, assured the president that he is not under investigation.”
Trump made it clear that Comey told the president on three occasions that he was not under investigation for alleged Russian collusion in his Tuesday letter firing the FBI Director.
The CNN host played back clips of then-candidate Trump praising Comey for his bombshell October letter reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Before the clips were even played, Conway can be heard muttering the word “irrelevant.”
“Now, your White House is saying that what [Comey] did was wrong, but previously, as a candidate, Donald Trump was saying it was the right thing,” contested Cooper.
“You’re conflating two things that don’t belong together,” Conway said. “Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I was on your show often last fall saying we were going to win Michigan and how we were going to do it, so that was fun. But here’s what happened today. Today, not in a campaign, in the White House, the President of the United States took decisive action.”
It was the Michigan comment that earned an eye-roll from Cooper.
“So, that person doesn’t exist anymore?” interrupted the clearly irritated CNN host. “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?”
“Anderson, I’ll ignore how unkind that is and all I’ll say is that as President of the United States, he needs confidence in his FBI director and he doesn’t have it,” said Conway.
Before the interview ended, Cooper probed regarding Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ involvement in the decision to fire Comey. Cooper suggested this was a conflict since Sessions recused himself from the Russian investigation, the investigation Comey was heading before being let go.
“Why’s somebody who’s recused himself from anything having to do with the Russia investigation involved in the decision to fire the guy who’s heading the Russia investigation?” asked Cooper.
“The FBI director reports to the deputy attorney general,” answered Conway. “The deputy attorney general reports to the attorney general. The attorney general reports to the President of the United States. This had nothing to do with Russia. … it has everything to do with whether the current FBI director has the president’s confidence.”
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