Kellyanne Conway goes completely bonkers as it all goes wrong for her
Last night, Rachel Maddow walked us through the first of two hours presenting her extraordinary interview with Lev Parnas, a man at the center of the scandal that got Donald Trump “impeached for life,” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently needed to emphasize. Parnas offered a detailed and informed account of his involvement in Ukraine, handily throwing Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Bill Barr, and others under the bus. At the same time, Kellyanne Conway appeared on CNN insisting to Chris Cuomo and anyone who would listen that what we see on TV is not exactly what happens on our planet.
When Cuomo asked Conway about the growing impeachment evidence, including Parnas’ new statements, the best Conway could come up with was, “So, that was said on a TV show? That’s not said on Earth.” At another point, Cuomo tried again: “How can you look at what Lev Parnas says and what the documents show and what the President asks for in the summary and not say that he did this the wrong way?” Even before Cuomo could finish, Conway claimed, “I don’t know Lev Parnas.”
It should go without saying that the idea that you must personally know someone in order to be eligible to comment about that person’s actions is ridiculous. Nevertheless, Conway appears to have met her own inane test. Within hours of her remark, Parnas’ attorney Joseph Bondy tweeted: “Enjoyed watching @KellyannePolls on @CNN, arguing with @ChrisCuomo about @realDonaldTrump and repeatedly claiming she does not know Lev Parnas.” Bondy’s tweet included a selfie of Parnas and Conway sporting big smiles and standing just about as close as two people can without kissing.
In just one hour, we saw a Senior Counselor to the President of the United States go off the rails with a wildly incoherent defense of Trump on one TV show while we watched the co-founder of Fraud Guarantee blow up Trump’s presidency in spectacular fashion on another. Although Conway may insist otherwise, what we witnessed on TV last night happened on Earth. The way things are going, Trump has every reason to worry that his removal or resignation could be hitting the airwaves soon. Stay tuned.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month