One of President Donald Trump's top aides got defensive Tuesday when asked about Russian election meddling and whether Trump will raise that issue with his Russian counterpart during an upcoming meeting.
Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway appeared on Fox News and discussed, among other topics, Russia.
"It was addressed previously, as you know," Conway said when "America's Newsroom" co-host Bill Hemmer asked her whether Trump will bring up Russia's alleged election interference when he meets with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki next week.
"Let's just make very clear the difference between that report about interference, about the fact that Russia wanted to interfere in the elections, tried to interfere in the elections, and what we were promised beginning 18 months ago — and in some corners still — which is collusion that had a direct nexus to the election results that swung the election to Donald Trump," she said.
"Nobody's even saying that anymore, Bill and [co-host] Sandra [Smith]. Nobody's even saying that anymore. But boy, were they saying it. Wanna see the clips? I've got 'em ready for you."
Hemmer then asked for confirmation that the Russians' actions did not result in any votes being changed.
"Well that's right. It did not swing the election results. The only person who still talks about that once in a while is the person who lost the election. Because the person who lost the election won't admit why she lost the election," Conway said, referencing Hillary Clinton.
When Hemmer pushed back further and simply asked what harm there would be in Trump asking Putin about the allegations, Conway explained how the topic has come up in several discussions between U.S. and Russian officials since Trump took office.
"It is foolish for anybody to still be going back to 2016, almost two years ago now, and trying to pretend that that election result was what it was — 305 electoral votes happened because of any outside interference," Conway said during the testy exchange.
"If you go back and look at the money that was spent, the value of what was spent, it couldn't have swung a local dog catcher election. And people know it when they're being honest."
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