An official from the Trump administration accused CNN anchor Jake Tapper of treating White House presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway like a “punching bag” for a contentious interview on “The Lead” program in which he pressed her on her credibility issues.
“The tone was very disappointing,” Dr. Sebastian Gorka, an assistant deputy to President Donald Trump, told The Hill. “It was trying to treat a woman as a punching bag, really. It was clear.”
Gorka said that he was treated very well when he was interviewed a few days earlier by Tapper, and that is why it was “all the more shocking."
He said that in the interview with Conway, Tapper had a mindset of, “I am here to take you down. I’m not here to ask questions, not to get your side of the story.”
When asked by The Hill if he thought Tapper was being sexist in his treatment of Conway, Gorka said “I hope it wasn’t…. but why her, why Kellyanne. Why be so aggressive with her and not with me. Hard to answer.”
A CNN spokesman responded that "If Gorka or anyone else from the administration had been on “The Lead” that day they would have received the same interview. "It's disappointing to see any administration retreat into false claims of addressing the issues at hand."
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