Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, talks to reporters on the driveway outside of the White House November 1, 2019 in Washington, D.C.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway went on a tour of Sunday morning news shows in which she was repeatedly pressed on matters related to the impeachment inquiry. And while she obviously defended the president at every turn, there was one point while talking to CNN in which Conway said she didn’t know whether President Donald Trump ever withheld military aid to Ukraine as a way to pressure the country to investigate the Bidens.
During the interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Conway at first tried to dismiss the suggestion Trump did anything wrong saying there was “no quid pro quo in this call in terms of the president.” But when Bash pressed Conway about what was said in the call between Trump and Ukraine’s president, she refused to give a definite answer. “Was there a time when military aid was held up because the President wanted Ukraine to look into the Bidens?” Bash asked. “I don’t know. But I know they’ve got their aid,” Conway said.
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s spokesman Andrew Bates said that Conway’s words show how the administration is scrambling to come up with a response over the Ukraine question. “In an extraordinary development, even the Trump adviser who coined the term ‘alternative facts’ is unwilling to say that Donald Trump didn’t subvert American national security with a quid pro quo that would force a foreign country to lie about the candidate who’s beaten him in over 70 polls,” he said in a statement.
Conway also sparred with Chris Wallace over the impeachment inquiry, insisting there was no evidence of a quid pro quo as the Fox anchor pointed out that numerous high level officials had said otherwise. “All of them top foreign policy officials to this president have all testified about repeated instances where they saw the support for Ukraine dependent on Ukraine investigating the Bidens,” Wallace said. “Isn’t that the definition of a quid pro quo?” Conway repeated that the important fact was that Ukraine “has that aid” and “they’re using that aid as we sit here.” Conway also insisted that even if Trump put conditions on the military aid, it wouldn’t be an impeachable offense. “Is it a high crime and misdemeanor? I wouldn’t think so,” Conway said.
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