CNN's Dana Bash calls out Kellyanne Conway over Trump's use of migrant children as 'political pawns'

Dana Bash and Kellyanne Conway on CNN SOTU

published 30 December 2018

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and CNN host Dana Bash had a lengthy exchange over the Trump administration's immigration policies on State of the Union Sunday.

They particularly focused on President Trump's tweeted response to the deaths of two migrant children in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody this month. While administration staff "have said that they have empathy for the deaths of children who are coming across the border with their parents," Bash noted, Trump himself has not. "The only thing he has said is something that is very political and, frankly, misleading, with regard to Democrats being culpable for the deaths of children."

Conway pushed back, arguing Trump's proposed changes in U.S. immigration policy and enforcement would prevent similar deaths in the future, and commenting that she doesn't "like some of the Democrats using these deaths as political pawns."

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"But," Bash shot back, "isn't that exactly what the president just did?" Watch the full interview below. The "pawns" exchange occurs around the 3:30 mark. Bonnie Kristian

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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.