CNN's Chris Cuomo and presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway have a history of going toe-to-toe, but the pair engaged in an especially explosive debate Thursday as the New Day host pushed for an urgent response to the Las Vegas massacre while Conway defended President Trump's decision not to talk about gun control in the wake of the attack.
Conway began by criticizing liberals for only appearing to care about gun control in the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting. "[Hillary Clinton] has tweeted about guns one time this year," Conway said. "Bernie Sanders, zero times. Elizabeth Warren, zero times. They have tweeted about Russia over 30 times, Sanders and Warren. And to approximate CNN's own coverage, your obsession of Russia has been to the exclusion of this conversation." Conway added that the network has plenty of graphics for impeachment or the Russia probe, but none for bump stocks, the modification used by the Las Vegas gunman to rapidly shoot more than 500 people in 10 minutes.
"It is the first time it has been used in a mass murder," Cuomo rejoined, referring to the bump stock. "What are you talking about? It is the first time bump stocks have been relevant in the discussion."
Cuomo went on: "[Trump needs] to seize on the urgency of this, otherwise [gun reform] will never happen," he said, adding that "if you care about the victims, you care about why they got killed. And if you think what this man had isn't part of that conversation, then you talk about why they died. And you talk about what made it possible." Watch the long, heated back-and-forth below. Jeva Lange