George Conway knocks CNN for Trump trial coverage
Conservative commentator George Conway slammed CNN for its coverage of former President Trump’s hush money trial, criticizing the network for what he claimed was the permitting of right-wing “lies” to be told on the air.
Conway, the former Trump ally-turned vocal critic, reflected on his tense conversation on CNN last week with Scott Jennings, a conservative commentator, over the Trump hush money conviction, in which he accused Jennings of “lying” about the charges.
“It’s just wrong,” Conway said in an interview on Greg Sargent’s “The Daily Blast” podcast. “Scott — I don’t think he’s a lawyer, but he was clearly repeating talking points that are coming from somewhere. I suspect from somewhere near Palm Beach, Fla.,” in reference to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.
“And … these people repeat these talking points without regard to their truth or falsity. And then on CNN generally — I know some people have some complaints with some of the coverage on the MSNBC — but particularly on CNN,” he continued, “I came to the impression during the trial that people were getting a deeply misleading impression of what actually was happening in the courtroom, and they were getting … kind of textual summaries of what was being asked and what was being answered.”
Conway sparred with Jennings on a CNN panel Friday reacting to Trump’s conviction on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York.
Conway, during the panel, claimed the GOP has shown “moral rot” and argued Trump is “not the victim” and “did all these things to himself.”
CNN anchor Kasie Hunt then asked Jennings about where the Republican Party is at today, and he said he disagreed with “a number” of Conway’s arguments.
“He’s talking about the obvious crimes that were supposedly committed, but that’s the core of what a lot of decidedly non-MAGA Republicans are mad about, is that there is no underlying crime,” Jennings said.
Jennings then compared the attitudes after the Trump verdict to those after the Senate held hearings focused on sexual assault allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and argued the conviction will “backfire politically” on Democrats.
Sighing, Conway shook his head and said, “Look, I mean, you know, Scott’s lying, and that’s the problem with the Republican Party. It is continually addicted to lying.”
The two engaged in a back-and-forth over claims about the GOP before Hunt stepped into and urged Conway to be respectful of Jennings.
Conway told Sargent he “finally decided” to say something about what he called a repeat of lies from some pundits on CNN.
“The notion that he [Jennings] is doing it as a paid contributor to CNN really gets my goat, and frankly, gets the goat of people at CNN,” Conway said, adding later, “I’m ready to say this more, including today, because I do think it’s a problem. … I do understand the problem that CNN has, and I don’t mean to suggest that they’re doing it for a nefarious reason — at least the producers there, and the journalists there, who I greatly respect. But I do think there is a problem, and I’m not exactly sure what the solution is other than to call it out.”
Conway claimed he received fewer invites to comment on CNN following his criticism of Trump.
“When Chris Licht was running CNN, you know, I used to for a long time, I’ve been getting tons of requests from CNN. Maybe I won’t get any after today, but I don’t care, I don’t get paid. It’s fine,” Conway said.
The GOP commentator recounted doing an appearance on CNN after Trump was arraigned in New York and noted he “probably said the wrong words, because the words I said was, ‘Well, Donald Trump is a narcissistic psychopath.'”
“Then I stopped getting phone calls from the bookers … at CNN for weeks,” he said. “And you know what was announced within a day or two of that? The the town hall … that they held with Trump where they put poor Kaitlan [Collins] out there with this manifest psychopath, and where Chris Licht behind stage told Donald Trump, ‘Go out there and have fun.'”
The Hill reached out to CNN and Jennings’s public relations firm for comment.
Licht, the former CNN CEO, stepped down last June as the company’s top executive, after about a year at the company.
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