Tag: Kellyanne Conway

The mainstream media can't make up their minds about whether a public figure ought to be able to answer for the beliefs of his or her spouse. But when it is NBC's "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd, or former FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe, it changes to "no." It is considered unfair to ask a man to answer for the political beliefs of his wife. But, even in 2018, we can't seem to get beyond making that absurd demand of women. She brought up Hillary Clinton's offensive suggestion from a few weeks ago that "white women" let their fathers, boyfriends and husbands tell them what to think about politics. Then Conway declared it "fair game" to talk about the spouses of people who work at CNN. Bash suggested that it can be "hard" for two adults who are married to have different opinions. It seems like just yesterday that we were being told by the media that it was totally irrelevant that Chuck Todd's wife, Kristian Denny Todd, had done extensive consulting and communications work with Democrats, including former Sen. Jim Webb and Sen. Bernie Sanders, and contributed money to Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. When Todd was asked by radio hosts about his wife's political work, he bristled: "I don't control her political opinions, and she doesn't control mine." Kellyanne Conway

Today in 5 Lines After a 34-hour manhunt, authorities said the suspect in a deadly shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee, was taken into custody. Travis Reinking is accused of killing four people at the restaurant early Sunday morning. The Senate is expected to confirm him later this week. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the U.S. has seen “some steps in the right direction” in talks with North Korea, but there is still “a long way to go.” North Korea announced on Friday that they were putting an end to their missile tests. Police said nine people were killed and 16 others injured after a van plowed into pedestrians on a sidewalk in Toronto. The driver is now in custody. Today on The Atlantic ‘The Hardest Job in the World’: The president’s list of duties has grown significantly since the country’s founding, writes John Dickerson in our May cover story. Maybe we’re expecting too much of President Trump. The Future Is Here: After years of traveling through parts of America that don’t receive much attention from the press, James Fallows writes that, “even as the country is becoming worse in obvious ways—angrier, more divided, less able to do the basic business of governing itself—it is becoming distinctly better on a range of other indicators that are harder to perceive.” Is the Senate Bill to Protect Robert Mueller Constitutional? : It could come down to the Supreme Court to decide.

Today in 5 Lines Congress is expected to unveil a $1.3 trillion spending bill to keep the government funded until September. Lawmakers have until Friday at midnight to pass the bill before the government shuts down, but President Trump is already threatening to veto it. The man suspected in a series of recent bombings in Austin, Texas, died after blowing himself up Wednesday morning. A year before being fired, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe reportedly oversaw an investigation into whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions lacked candor when questioned about his contacts with Russian operatives. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates to the highest level in a decade. The central bank is expected to hike rates three more times this year, as the U.S. economy continues to strengthen. Today on The Atlantic A New Hope? But on Tuesday, Democrats in Illinois nominated a billionaire of their own to run against Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. : Robinson Meyer explains the scandal in three quick paragraphs. Mark Zuckerberg Is Wrong: The Cambridge Analytica scandal proves that the time has arrived for the U.S. to create a Data Protection Authority.

One source told Axios that Trump brings up Singapore’s policy of a mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking convictions “a lot.” "He says, 'When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] 'No. Death penalty,’” the source said. “He often jokes about killing drug dealers,” a senior administration official also told Axios. “He’ll say, 'You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them.’” The president has also reportedly said that he doesn’t believe more lenient approaches to drug offenders will work and that the government needs to teach children that they will die if they take illicit substances. White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, who is leading the administration’s drug policy office, told Axios that Trump is referring to drug dealers who sell substances that can cause thousands of deaths. "The president makes a distinction between those that are languishing in prison for low-level drug offenses and the kingpins hauling thousands of lethal doses of fentanyl into communities, that are responsible for many casualties in a single weekend,” she told Axios. Conway also told the news outlet that a bill lowering the threshold for a five-year mandatory minimum sentence from being convicted for tracking 40 grams of fentanyl to just two grams would receive widespread support. “There is an appetite among many law enforcement, health professionals and grieving families that we must toughen up our criminal and sentencing statutes to match the new reality of drugs like fentanyl, which are so lethal in such small doses,” she told Axios. Trump said during his State of the Union last month that the U.S. must get “much tougher on drug dealers and pushers” to end the opioid epidemic.

Sexual assault and harassment allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein highlight hypocrisy on the left, according to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. In remarks at the conservative Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit, Conway criticized liberals who accuse Republicans of sexism and said that in the White House, she's never had to deal with the issue. “I hear a lot of people on their soap box, the high-horse cavalry, always talking about women’s rights, women in the workplace and women empowerment," Conway said. "I’m in an environment where it’s practiced regularly. She then talked about a "great juxtaposition going on right now" in which Weinstein, a big donor to Democrats, is accused of "really ugly stuff." "The juxtaposition of that is I’ve always been in a place where women are respected," she said. As Republicans have called on Democrats to return political donations from Weinstein given the growing list of accusations against him, Democrats have pointed at President Trump, arguing it is Republicans who are being hypocritical. The story about Weinstein broke roughly a year after Trump's campaign appeared to be nearly undone by a 2005 tape from an "Access Hollywood" set in which the Republican nominee is heard talking about grabbing women "by the p----." Trump also said that "when you're a star, they let you do it."

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