Conway says Obama, Clinton, and Sanders must calm 'paid' anti-Trump protesters

In interviews Sunday with NBC's Chuck Todd and Fox News' Chris Wallace, Kellyanne Conway said it is the responsibility of Democratic leaders to quiet protests of President-elect Donald Trump. She also suggested at least some of the protesters are paid professionals intentionally fomenting turmoil.

Trump's former campaign manager and a key member of his transition team, Conway told Todd it is "time really for President Obama and Secretary Clinton to say to these protesters, 'This man is our president.'" With Wallace she made the same point in regards to Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, adding that it is their supporters who are "masquerading as protesters now — many of them professional and paid by the way, I'm sure."

Later in the conversation with Wallace, Conway defended Trump's choice to organize his transition with Washington insiders after an anti-establishment campaign. "Look, these are people who are talented and have done this before," she said. "You can't just appoint novices, you have to have people who know what they're doing." Conway also reiterated her Saturday comment that a chief of staff pick announcement is "imminent."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.