Chutzpah quote o' the week

Chutzpah quote o' the week

by digby

At a "heroes and villains" party

No, it's not Trump, for a change. It's his mouthpiece, Kellyann Conway, to CNN's Andrew Cuomo last night during a back and forth that the Washington Post's Philip Bump describes as an exchange in which "she was repeatedly forced into an unavoidable paradox: defending the veracity of a president who frequently lies." Frankly, she didn't seem to mind.

An excerpt:

“Here’s what I think. You need a better relationship with the truth, and not the truth as you want it to be.”

That comment happened during one of the most maddening, frustrating TV hits I've ever seen. Some excerpts:

CUOMO: He said on the plane, I know nothing about the Stormy Daniels --

CONWAY: Not a fact. When the payment was made. That’s what he meant.

CUOMO: He said, I don’t know anything about it, ask my lawyer.

CONWAY: No, no, no, I asked him specifically --

CUOMO: The truth is, he knew everything about it.

CONWAY: Christopher, that was April.

CUOMO: We have him on tape saying it. David Pecker, who’s a party to it, says he was there. It’s incontrovertible, that is why prosecutors believe it.

CONWAY: Whoa! It is not. You’re way offline, you’re showing partisan stripes, respectfully.

CUOMO: Am I?

CONWAY: You cannot say it’s incontrovertible. Yes. You cannot say it’s incontrovertible when it’s based on plea agreements by individuals --

CUOMO: That he knew? Incontrovertible.

CONWAY: Hold on. That’s not true. Hold on. ... The president said in April, on Air Force One, they said, did you know about the payments? He said no. I asked the president, what did you mean by that? Because by April of 2018 the whole world knew, based on the Stormy Daniels revelation.

CUOMO: Good point. Why did he lie?

CONWAY: So, he wasn’t talking about what he knew in April. He did not lie! He’s talking about when the payment was made. I asked him that, and I said it on a couple Sunday shows that very next weekend in April or May, because I asked him, what did you mean? And he told me.

CUOMO: Why didn’t he ever clarify it?

CONWAY: I have the benefit and the privilege of asking the president. Hold on, he sends me, we do. We did qualify. It’s important. Christopher, in April of 2018, Donald J. Trump, the president, and everybody else were told about the payments.

CUOMO: He knew about it from its inception. He came up with the plan.

CONWAY: No, no, no, hold on. You’re saying ‘incontrovertible’ based on the testimony of people who are trying to get a better deal and a lighter sentence for themselves. Be fair here.


This fine fellow offered the best riposte:

Given that Trump has repeatedly lied about the Daniels and McDougal payments—and given that he lies about virtually everything else, to the point that his own former personal lawyer described him as a “f****ing liar”—why should we take his word over that of federal prosecutors?
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) December 14, 2018


That's right. It's Conway's husband George. He also wrote this op-ed for the Washington Post making the legal argument that Trump did, in fact, break the law.

I don't know how they stay married. If this is a game it's a really cynical one.

I don't recommend watching the whole thing. It makes you want to throw your shoe through the TV. But here's a little taste if you want to see how bad it was.

After Cuomo points out that Trump said contradictory things about the sort of work Cohen did for him during a Fox News interview, Conway deflects by making a case that the whole hush money scandal is just a result of liberals being bitter about Trump's 2016 victory pic.twitter.com/ts2TLEZK2N
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2018


Kellyanne Conway is insufferable.

"Here's a good opportunity, a very natural inflection point for me to remind the donors to the GoFundMe page for Stormy Daniels that they have given their money to, possibly, Donald Trump... congratulations." pic.twitter.com/ZbMsNfQhZ5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2018



If you find what we do here to be helpful in understanding what's happening around us in this wild political era, if stopping by here from time to time gives you a little sense of solidarity with others who are going through their days as gobsmacked by events as you are, I hope you'll find it in your heart to drop a little something in the Hullabaloo stocking to help me keep the light on for another year.

The paypal buttons are on the sidebar and below as is the snail mail address.

As always I am immensely grateful for your continued loyalty and interest in my scribbles.

And I wish all of you Very Happy Hollandaise!


cheers --- digby













Digby's Hullabaloo
2801 Ocean Park Blvd.
Box 157
Santa Monica, Ca 90405

.