Conway: Obama and Clinton could ‘shut down’ lingering election questions
Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, vaguely suggested Friday that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could “shut down” remaining questions surrounding the election that Trump has tried to portray as an attempt to delegitimize him.
Speaking on Fox News Friday, Conway reiterated her dismissal of White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who has been increasingly vocal in criticizing Trump for refusing to accept intelligence that Russia sought to disrupt the presidential election with cyberattacks.
While experts agree that the Russians hacked into Democrats’ emails during the campaign, it remains disputed whether they were actively trying to get Trump elected; Trump has denied both charges without offering alternative evidence. In caustic remarks at Thursday’s White House briefing, Earnest insisted that Trump knew the leaks were helping his campaign.
Asked on Fox if Earnest’s comments were coming from Obama, Conway declined to say, but acknowledged that the president did not stop his press secretary from making them. Without offering specifics, she then suggested that both Obama and Clinton could stop the criticism to pave the way for “this peaceful transition in our great democracy between the Obama administration and the Trump administration.”
“There is another person who has not, and her name is Hillary Clinton,” Conway said. “If you want to shut this down and you actually love the country enough to have this peaceful transition in our great democracy between the Obama administration and the Trump administration, there are a couple people in pretty prominent positions, one’s named Obama, one’s named Hillary Clinton, since it’s people want to fight for her election, they can shut this down.”
Conway did not explain how Clinton could affect Earnest’s actions, given that she has no formal role in the Obama White House, but she may have been generally referring to the continued resistance to Trump from Democrats.
Clinton has continued to blame FBI Director James Comey for her upset loss in the race, and some liberals devastated by the results have gone so far as to call for members of the Electoral College to reject Trump when they formally vote on Monday.
Despite Trump trying to push the questions about Russia aside, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill continues to call for an investigation into the Kremlin’s attempt to meddle in the U.S. election.
(h/t Politico)