Kellyanne Conway wants people to look into Donald Trump's "heart," not "what's come out of his mouth"

Kellyanne Conway doesn't want us to pay attention to Meryl Streep's speech — except she totally does

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published January 9, 2017 4:10PM (EST)

 (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Kellyanne Conway, the incoming White House counsel to President-elect Donald Trump, declared on Monday morning that the media should cover what's in her boss's "heart" rather than what he actually says.

While discussing Meryl Streep's criticism of how Trump ridiculed a disabled reporter during his presidential campaign, Conway told CNN's Chris Cuomo that "that is not what he did." After Cuomo pointed out that there is video showing Trump specifically mimicking the mannerisms of someone afflicted with arthrogryposis — the neurological condition of reporter Serge Kovaleski, who was the target of Trump's jab — Conway asked why Cuomo refused to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

“Because he’s making a disgusting gesture on video about Serge," Cuomo replied.

"Why don’t you believe him? Why isn’t it taken at face value?" Conway replied. "You can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this and he’s telling you what was in his heart? You want to go with what’s come out of his mouth rather than what’s in his heart."

Trump's ridicule of Serge Kovaleski was motivated by the latter disputing Trump's claim that one of his articles proved that Muslims in New Jersey had celebrated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Although Trump has subsequently claimed that he was merely trying to impersonate "groveling," the fact-checkers at "The Washington Post" investigated that story, deemed it a lie, and gave it Four Pinocchios.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Chris Cuomo Donald Trump Kellyanne Conway Meryl Streep