TOUCHY

Kellyanne Conway Snaps at Trump Taxes Question: ‘Is This Really What We’re Talking About?’

‘Is this really what we’re talking about today?’ the president’s counselor flared at Alisyn Camerota. ‘Oh, so we’re going back to 2016 now?’

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, on Wednesday morning kept her eerily calm tone while talking over and snapping at CNN’s New Day co-host Alisyn Camerota when she was asked about President Trump’s infamously unreleased tax returns in the wake of the midterm elections.

This month, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she would use subpoena power against Donald Trump—to request his tax returns, among other things—if Democrats won a majority on Tuesday night. House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) also echoed that sentiment late Tuesday on MSNBC, saying the committee will “make sure that the oversight role that the Republicans so completely abdicated” is taken up “responsibly.”

When Camerota asked about that potential, Conway appeared surprised, asking: “Is this really what we’re talking about today? After we had historic gains in the Senate and some of the governorships, I mean—”

Camerota: “Yes, because there will now be oversight that hasn’t existed for the past two years. So there will be more oversight, and as you know Democrats have long wanted there to be more oversight of this White House.”

Conway fought back, arguing that voters may not want that mantle picked up after all, based on the election’s results.

“The last time the Democrats did, let’s just say, an extra investigation, it was during the Kavanaugh hearings, and the four Democratic senators who voted against Brett Kavanaugh all lost last night,” she said.

The two women talked over one another for much of the conversation, making it difficult to understand either of their points, before Camerota eventually brought them back to the original question: “Let’s just focus on the tax returns. They just want to see the tax returns.”

Conway replied: “You know what Alisyn, respectfully, I’m not going to only focus on the tax returns because according to CNN’s own polling, that’s not what animated voters last night.”

Camerota countered that an actual CNN poll on Trump’s tax returns found that 68 percent of Americans believe he should have released them, noting that he promised to do so during his campaign.

“Oh, so we’re going back to 2016 now?” Conway barbed back, later adding: “The president is not nervous about anything.”

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Olivia Messer

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