Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway declined Friday to provide specifics of President-elect Donald Trump's telephone conversation with the president of Taiwan — but she slammed attacks by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy as "incendiary" and "pretty negative."
"It sounds like Sen. Murphy's tweet is pretty incendiary and does not signal much of a shift from what seems to be the documented Democratic response to the election results," Conway told Anderson Cooper on CNN.
"'This is how wars are starting' and 'it is a major policy shift' because he had a phone call?" she posed. "That is pretty negative and presumptuous."
In a Twitter rant, Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat in his first term, ripped Trump for his call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, including:
Trump, who broke nearly four decades of U.S. policy on formal relations with Taiwan with the call, himself tweeted that Taiwan initiated the communication:
Conway declined to provide further information beyond a summary the transition team released earlier Friday.
"President-elect Trump spoke with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, who offered her congratulations," the summary said. "During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political, and security ties exists between Taiwan and the United States.
"President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming president of Taiwan earlier this year."
Conway told Cooper that "whatever is in the readout and what's been publicly disclosed is really the only thing I'll have to say on the matter.
"This is the commander-in-chief who will be president of the United States — and he either will or will not disclose the contents of that conversation," she added. "But he's well aware of the U.S. policy" toward Taiwan and China.