White House counselor Kellyanne Conway had some words for Washington Examiner reporter Caitlin Yilek this week regarding how she handled their recent interview. Yilek's report largely focused on rumors about the new White House chief of staff, but she included a line about Conway's relationship with her husband George. George has made no secret of his dislike for President Trump and he and Kellyanne's political differences have made several headlines the past couple of years, and Yilek considered it to be relevant information. According to the Examiner, Conway and her staff phoned them after the report came out, gave Yilek an earful, mocked her and threatened her.
"Before ending the call, Conway threatened that the White House would delve into the personal lives of reporters if they wrote about her husband," the Examiner claims.
Conway disputed those claims during an interview with Fox News anchor Sandra Smith on Friday morning after Smith provided viewers the Examiner's account.
"None of it happened," Conway said. "No, of course not."
Conway told Smith that "respectfully," she "didn’t need to show those three things because I’ve already disabused everybody of what he said."
"I never said the conversation was off the record," she insisted. "I never commented on that one way or the other. Everything I said in that phone call, I’ve said publicly before. Every single thing."
Conway shared that she asked the reporter why she calls herself a breaking news reporter when she practiced little more than “lazy” reporting. Not only that but in her subsequent reporting, she got Conway's kids’ names and ages wrong.
As for her relationship with her husband, she said, "none of that affects my job here. And none of this is anybody’s business."
Conway encouraged folks to read her full statement on the matter.
The false tweet below makes my point about how dangerous it is to characterize someone else’s intentions, feelings, or state of mind, even if it’s for clicks and kicks. https://t.co/v6df2aoU3T pic.twitter.com/B3Qzzra0uW
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 24, 2019