CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday, undermining the network’s recent assertion that the White House counselor lacks enough credibility to appear on its airwaves.
The latest standoff between CNN and the White House began over the weekend, after the Trump administration offered to make Conway available for a Sunday talk show interview instead of Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence was set to appear on four major news networks but not CNN.
According to The New York Times, CNN refused the offer to interview Conway because of “serious questions about her credibility.” Earlier in the week, the former Trump campaign manager was heavily criticized for falsely claiming that a terrorist massacre occurred in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She later apologized and said she misspoke, but liberal pundits waged a campaign to prevent news networks from inviting Conway on TV.
CNN reiterated its position regarding Conway on Tuesday after White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed that the network had retracted its rationale for refusing to interview her.
“My understanding is they retracted that, they walked that back, or denied it, or however you want to put it, I don’t care,” Spicer said during the White House press briefing.
“If they choose not to work with someone that’s up to them, but we’re going to continue to put out key leaders of this administration, including Kellyanne, that can articulate this president’s policies and agenda,” Spicer said.
CNN disputed Spicer’s remarks, saying that it “was clear, on the record, about our concerns about Kellyanne Conway’s credibility.”
In response to @PressSec‘s comment today: pic.twitter.com/2IdzeyDEU5
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 7, 2017
Despite those supposed concerns, Conway appeared on Tapper’s show a couple of hours later.
The questions about Conway’s credibility and her rejected Sunday talk show appearance were not directly discussed. The pair did battle over the Trump administration’s frequent criticism of the mainstream media. Tapper also pressed Conway over the White House’s release on Monday of a list of 78 terror attacks that the administration claims have gone undercovered by the media.
Tapper pointed out that CNN and other news outlets covered many of the attacks included on the list in depth.