- White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday asked a reporter what his “ethnicity” was when she was questioned about President Donald Trump’s recent racist tweets.
- The reporter asked Conway how her question was relevant to his inquiry as she continued to defend Trump.
- Trump earlier in the day defended his tweets and said he didn’t have a “racist bone” in his body.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump’s racist tweets from the weekend that played off of the “go back to Africa” trope.
The tweets were directed at four Democratic lawmakers who are women of color.
Trump in the incendiary tweets said the lawmakers, who he said “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe,” should “go back” and “help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
When asked where Trump thought the lawmakers should “go back” to, since they are US citizens, Conway asked the reporter Andrew Feinberg, “What’s your ethnicity?”
Feinberg questioned how Conway's question was relevant to his inquiry.
She insisted it was indeed relevant, stating, "It is, because you're asking about ... [Trump] said 'originally.' He said 'originally from.' And you know everything he has said since."
“What’s your ethnicity?” Kellyanne Conway asks a reporter when the reporter asks her about the intent of the president’s tweets.
“A lot of us are sick and tired of this country – of America coming last, to people who swore an oath of office.” pic.twitter.com/XOypuqmA4H
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 16, 2019
"He's tired," Conway went on to say of Trump, adding, "A lot of us are sick and tired of this country - of America - coming last to people who swore an oath of office."
In a subsequent exchange on Twitter, Feinberg rejected the suggestion Conway was attempting to be anti-Semitic in relation to his surname. Replying to his tweet, Conway said, "Thanks @AndrewFeinberg. I'm fact, in that same gaggle, I made clear my outrage at the anti-Semitic comments flowing so easily out of @IlhanMN and how absurd it was that the House could not condemn her by name in a resolution in March."
Thanks @AndrewFeinberg.
I’m fact, in that same gaggle, I made clear my outrage at the anti-Semitic comments flowing so easily out of @IlhanMN and how absurd it was that the House could not condemn her by name in a resolution in March.
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) July 16, 2019
She appeared to be referencing comments Omar made earlier this year about the nature of US support for Israel that sparked allegations of anti-Semitism and led the Minnesota lawmaker to issue an apology.
Conway's comments to the press on Tuesday came after her husband, the attorney George Conway, wrote a scathing op-ed for The Washington Post on Monday excoriating the president over his racist tweets.
"I thought, President Trump was boorish, dim-witted, inarticulate, incoherent, narcissistic and insensitive. ... He'll attack anyone he thinks is critical of him," he wrote.
Conway's husband went to say that no matter how "unfit" he felt Trump was for the presidency, he still wanted to give him "the benefit of the doubt about being a racist."
"No matter how much I came to dislike him, I didn't want to think that the president of the United States is a racial bigot," he added. "But Sunday left no doubt."
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump in a tweet rejected the notion he's racist.
"Those Tweets were NOT Racist," Trump said. "I don't have a Racist bone in my body!"
Trump has said the progressive lawmakers he attacked "hate" the US and should therefore leave if they're unhappy.
In a separate tweet on Tuesday morning, the president said, "Our Country is Free, Beautiful and Very Successful. If you hate our Country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!"
