The media is too busy covering itself rather than substantive issues, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Monday, but the American people can see the media is trying to interfere with President Donald Trump and his use of Twitter.
"I know it is a heck of a lot easier to cover 140 characters here or there what the president may be saying about the media than it is to learn the finer points of how Medicaid is funded in this country, and how that would or would not change under the Senate bill," Conway told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
She said she did talk to a few members of the media over the weekend who said they would cover such items, but the president had "did this or said that."
"I think if you have a 24/7 cable news outlet or network or print reporter you can probably cover all of the above," Conway said, pointing out that most of Trump's positive tweets about the stock market, ISIS, or jobs got no coverage, but more controversial tweets did.
Trump tweeted three times on Monday, saying he was to speak with Germany, France and Italy on Monday and that he'd spoken on Sunday with the king of Saudi Arabia about peace in the Middle East, noted show co-host Pete Hegseth and Conway commented it is "typical" for him to have such calls.
"He hosted two dozen, if not that, bilateral meetings in the White House in his first six months on the job," said Conway. "He had an amazing foreign trip, you and I knew it was success. The media stopped covering the foreign trip the minute Air Force One touched down on American soil."
Trump is about to make two more foreign trips and the phone calls allowed him to speak with the world leaders about national security, trade, anything particular to that region, said Conway, and most of the discussions are private.
"People make choices whether they want to connect their viewers and readers with what the president has discussed," said Conway.
"Look, the other thing is, we know the statistics. They're worth repeating that in a five-week period, 353 minutes on the three networks was committed to Russia, FBI, [James] Comey. Not a minute to tax reform."
The media also is focused on whether Trump will speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin, from the sidelines of this coming weekend's Group of Twenty summit, about Russian interference in the 2016 election rather than other issues.
"Why isn't anyone saying will he discuss the fact that Russia, what Russia said or did not say after Assad gassed men, women and children in Syria?" said Conway. "Again, they're talking about themselves again. This is why America doesn't trust many of them."
Conway also discussed the ongoing talks over Obamacare repeal, saying it's hoped Trump will have a bill on his desk this summer.
"This is something not getting enough coverage," she said.
"We have to talk about 20 million people that opted out of Obamacare. Six-and-a-half million forked money over to the IRS rather than get on Obamacare exchanges and 19 of 23 co-ops have failed. Eighty-three insurers pulled out of the market."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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