talking points
George Stephanopoulos ruthlessly challenges Kellyanne Conway to actually prove Comey was lying
The morning after former FBI Director James Comey's interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared on the network to dispute some of Comey's claims.
Conway slammed Comey's credibility on Good Morning America on Monday, calling him an "admitted leaker" and suggesting that he was an opportunist looking for future memoir fodder. Stephanopoulos interviewed Comey on Sunday, in the former FBI official's first major press appearance following his firing last year and ahead of his forthcoming book, A Higher Loyalty.
Conway suggested that Comey's allegations were disingenuous because he had waited nearly a year to take them public, prompting Stephanopoulos to remind her that Comey had in fact told the Senate Judiciary Committee much of the same last year. The ABC anchor prodded Conway to actually prove her assertions. "Does the president have any evidence to back up his side of the story?" Stephanopoulos asked, questioning Conway's denials that Trump ever asked Comey to drop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Conway insisted that Comey testified that nobody ever asked him to drop an investigation, but Stephanopoulos cut in: "I have to stop you there, because that is not correct either." Comey had only ever testified that no one in the Department of Justice had made such a request, Stephanopoulos said, but he has always maintained his claims about Trump.
Comey just loves "being in the proximity of power," Conway shot back. Watch the exchange below, via ABC. Summer Meza