Before Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, joined the New York Republican’s team, she helped run a super PAC supporting Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign. On ABC’s “This Week” yesterday, George Stephanopoulos reminded her that she wasn’t always complimentary towards her current boss.
In fact, the host aired a clip from the primaries in which Conway complained about Trump being “vulgar,” asking, “Do I want somebody who hurls personal insults or who goes and talks about philosophical differences?”
It led to an interesting exchange on yesterday’s show. From the ABC transcript:
STEPHANOPOULOS: So what changed for you? And do you stand by those comments?CONWAY: I do. And the reason is I don’t like when people hurl personal insults. That will never change. That’s not my style. I’m a mother of four small children. And it would be a terrible example for me to feel otherwise —STEPHANOPOULOS: You think Mr. Trump’s going to change on that?CONWAY: Well, but he doesn’t hurl personal insults.
There was no indication that she was kidding. As far as Trump’s campaign manager is concerned, the Republican nominee really doesn’t “hurl personal insults.”
The problem, of course, is that no one could possibly believe this. Indeed, even Conway herself didn’t believe it when she worked for a rival candidate. The list of groups and individuals Trump has insulted isn’t short — the New York Daily News published one overnight, but there are plenty of others — and it grows quite regularly.
I can appreciate the fact that Trump’s new leadership team is taking steps to change public perceptions about the controversial candidate, but “don’t believe your lying eyes and ears” probably isn’t going to work as a campaign tactic.
Postscript: In the same interview, Stephanopoulos noted that Trump expressed “regret” on Thursday night about things he’s said, but he avoided any details or examples. “What specifically does Mr. Trump regret saying?” the host asked.
Conway did not offer any specifics, instead saying, “He has said that he wants to regret anytime he’s caused somebody personal pain by saying something that he didn’t intend to cause personal pain.”
Trump “wants to regret” slights his campaign prefers not to identify?
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."