WASHINGTON — The Trump White House and CNN did battle again on Tuesday, with Kellyanne Conway calling reporter Jim Acosta a swear word during a sharp exchange outside the West Wing.
The exchange began when the network’s chief White House correspondent asked the longtime confidant and adviser to Donald Trump if the president intends to “tell the truth” during a prime-time address Tuesday night from the Oval Office.
Conway then shot back a question about whether Acosta intends to tell the truth when he goes back on air, prompting him to opine that she has an “alternative facts problem.”
That reference to her now-famous January 2017 description of former press secretary Sean Spicer’s insistence the day after Trump took office that his inauguration crowd size was larger than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama, drew Conway’s ire.
“You’re such a [expletive] most of the time,” Conway said in front of a small throng of journalists — including television cameras — after she did a television hit on the White House’s North Lawn to preview Trump’s first Oval Office address.
As they traded sick burn for sick burn, Conway charged Acosta with wanting the exchange to “go viral,” adding of the other media members gathered around them: “A lot of these people don’t like you.”
Acosta’s White House press pass was briefly revoked last year after he sparred with Trump during a news conference in November the day after Trump and Republicans lost control of the House. A federal judge ruled in favor of CNN on the matter, and the White House opted to restore his “hard pass” rather than continue the legal battle.
Notably, Conway was spotted by a Roll Call reporter taking umbrage with Acosta’s questioning of Vice President Mike Pence on Monday during a border security briefing. As Acosta asked his questions, Conway stood across the room shaking her head with clear disgust and seemingly muttering her disagreement with the premise of his questions.
