Speed Reads

whodunnit?

Watch Kellyanne Conway masterfully spin from discussing the op-ed writer's identity on Fox News

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway had a chance to deny writing the infamous New York Times op-ed. She didn't.

Conway joined Fox News' Laura Ingraham late Wednesday to discuss the anonymous Times piece, in which a "senior official" claimed to be part of a conservative "resistance" to President Trump. But beyond suggesting that the official might not actually be working in the White House, Conway notably didn't say outright that it wasn't her.

After the op-ed was published Wednesday, wannabe detectives noted how George Conway, Kellyanne's husband who notoriously hates the Trump administration, repeatedly retweeted the piece. Conway only furthered suspicions on Wednesday's Ingraham Angle, opening her appearance by saying she's "not really sure it matters" who penned the op-ed anyway. "It's not clear to us anyway that it's someone in the White House," Conway continued, adding that there are "hundreds" of appointees who would "qualify" as a senior administration official.

Conway then reclaimed critics' howls that the essay was a "historic, unprecedented" breach of presidential norms, saying that "that's exactly how we describe the economy" under Trump. The Times critic's identity is "not particularly relevant," Conway declared, before pivoting to more presidential accomplishments.

Ingraham never directly asks Conway — who she describes as a "friend of too many years to count"— whether she wrote the letter, so arguably the opportunity never came for Conway to deny it. The closest Ingraham got was asking Conway if any of the op-ed "ring[s] true, at all, in the slightest." Conway said only a few words before Ingraham interrupted, spinning Conway away from the answer political speculators were hoping for. Watch the segment below. Kathryn Krawczyk