Kellyanne Conway Threatened a Reporter After She Brought Up Her Husband
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During an interview that swerved way off course, Caitlin Yilek, a Washington Examiner reporter, endured White House aide Kellyanne Conway verbally berating her and threatening her, all because Conway believed that the phone call was occurring off the record. In her story, Yilek says that she was first speaking to Conway's assistant, Tom Joannou, when Conway abruptly took over the conversation and never agreed to keep things off the record. Yilek posted the audio transcript online, giving everyone a chance to listen to the conversation and see Conways's anger for themselves.
Conway was irate that Yilek had mentioned her husband, attorney George Conway, in a story about the possibility of Kellyanne becoming President Trump's next chief of staff. George Conway has been criticizing Trump's actions, something that he's prone to doing, though the situation has escalated to what the Examiner calls a "feud." Kellyanne criticized Yilek for adding that to her story.
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"So, I just am wondering why in God's earth you would need to mention anything about George Conway's tweets in an article that talks about me as possibly being chief of staff," Kellyanne said. "Other than it looks to me like there's no original reporting here, you just read Twitter and other people’s stuff, which I guess is why you don't pick up the phone when people call from the White House because, if it's not on Twitter or it’s not on cable TV, it's not real."
When Yilek explained that she was adding context to her story, Kellyanne shot back, belittling Yilek's work and questioning her methods.
"Do you talk about other people’s spouses in your pieces, 'cause I’ve been looking around, I haven't learned a single thing from any of your pieces, and I'm just wondering if you routinely talk about peoples spouses."
As the conversation continued, Kellyanne called herself a "powerful woman" and insisted that her husband gets his power through her. She even suggested that she speak to Yilek's editor to get the story straight.
"Let me tell you something, from a powerful woman. Don't pull the crap where you're trying to undercut another woman based on who she’s married to. He gets his power through me, if you haven’t noticed. Not the other way around. And if these are the quote standards unquote at the Washington Examiner, then yes I'd be happy to talk to your editor. But I've known your editor since before you were born."
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Yilek added that Kellyanne is "notorious for berating journalists" and the transcript seems to prove it. Kellyanne finishes by saying that she feels like she's being treated unfairly, because not everyone is having their personal lives interwoven with their professional lives when they're being covered in the press.
"Listen, if you're going to cover my personal life, then we're welcome to do the same around here," Conway concluded. "If it has nothing to do with my job, which it doesn’t, that's obvious, then we’re either going to expect you to cover everybody's personal life or we're going to start covering them over here."
To listen to the full interview, visit the Washington Examiner.