White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway commented Wednesday to C-SPAN radio about a recent exchange she had with CNN’s Jim Acosta in which she called him a “smarta**” after he asked if she could “promise the president will tell the truth” in his address Tuesday evening.
“I show respect to and engagement with the press writ large, and I’m just going to look past the personal slights like I always do,” she emphasized. “But I am watching and I do see what people write and my children do hear what they say, and I try to explain to them, ‘Just don’t be a miserable person.’ That’s not about any one reporter, including that one for sure. Be the bigger person, don’t be a miserable one, work hard.”
“I’m just not going to be bullied and insulted,” she added. “And it’s that simple. So if somebody tries it again, you know I never draw first blood, I’m very nice, let the record reflect that I’ve been nicer to people than they are to me during our tenure at the White House, but if anybody bullies me again, they can expect the same kind of treatment.”
.@KellyannePolls on Jim @Acosta: "I'll be darned if I'm go to sit down and take it and be bullied by someone who's known for it."
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 9, 2019
Listen to complete @cspanRadio @SteveScully interview on #WashingtonToday at 5:25pm ET. https://t.co/5iHoQlDx51 pic.twitter.com/c9C6382hig
Conway said that the press needed to ask legitimate questions rather than “wisecracks.”
“I don’t need a reporter to then get in my face and be personal and insulting to my boss or to me by extension to the country,” she said. “Ask a legitimate question, ask a wise question instead of giving a wisecrack.”
She said that she is privileged to work where she does and, for that reason, has to take the occasional insult.
“I suck it up and swallow hard many times when I am insulted because of where I work and I work for the country I love that has given me and the single mom who raised me so much that I’m happy to give back in my modest way through my service here,” she said.“But I’ll be darned if I’m going to sit down and take it and be bullied by someone who’s known for it.”