White House counselor Kellyanne Conway claimed Monday that Martin Luther King Jr. would oppose the impeachment of President Trump.
The comment was given when a reporter asked Conway how the president planned to observe the MLK holiday.
“I can tell you the president is preparing for [the World Economic Forum in Davos] and agrees with many of the things that Dr. Martin Luther King stood for, and agreed with for many years, including unity and equality,” Conway said.
WATCH: Asked about President Trump observing #MLKDay today, Kellyanne Conway discusses MLK's values and the impeachment effort against President Trump. pic.twitter.com/Tx5q70Yf1d
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 20, 2020
She continued to say impeachment is “tear[ing] the country apart. When you see the articles of impeachment that came out, I don’t think it was within Dr. King’s vision to have Americans dragged through a process where the president is not going to be removed from office, is not being charged with bribery, extortion, high crimes or misdemeanors.”
I asked White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway how Trump is observing King Day. Conway said, "Well, I can tell you that the president is preparing for Davos" and she then linked Trump's impeachment to the kinds of injustice that Dr. King fought against.
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) January 20, 2020
The formal impeachment trial is expected to begin Tuesday with an announcement of proposed rules by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a bid by his counterpart, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to guarantee testimony from additional witnesses.
Trump leaves Monday night to attend the Davos economic forum in the Swiss Alps.
Meanwhile, Conway’s comments had no shortage of detractors.
Sherrilyn Ifill, the president of the NAACP Defense Fund, quickly took Conway to task.
“What an embarrassingly incompetent answer,” Ifill said on MSNBC. “There’s is no answer that she can give that would be acceptable because he’s doing nothing to commemorate MLK Day, and frankly, it would be hypocritical if he tried to do that.”
