A CNN source told TheWrap on Monday that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has “credibility issues” but will appear on the network “at some point.”
The Trump administration offered Conway as an alternative to Vice President Mike Pence to appear on “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper on Sunday, but the network declined her appearance.
“Kellyanne is not a substitute for the VP. That’s why SOTU declined. And more broadly… credibility issues. Although I’d expect to see her on at some point,” the CNN insider told TheWrap.
Conway and CNN have battled on Twitter over the situation, with Conway writing “False. I could do no live Sunday shows this week BC of family. Plus, I was invited onto CNN today & tomorrow. CNN Brass on those emails,” with a link to a story about Conway not appearing on the network’s Sunday political show.
CNN communications fired back, writing, “@KellyannePolls was offered to SOTU on Sunday by the White House. We passed. Those are the facts.”
The Trump Administration had been feuding with CNN on a regular basis, often attempting to discredit the network by referring to it as “fake news,” but CNN has been fighting back recently.
On Thursday night Conway told MSNBC’s “Hardball” that “two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”
There was no much massacre at the college and CNN decided to have some fun with Conway’s “alternative facts”:
Kellyanne Conway is right. We did not cover the Bowling Green massacre — because it never happened https://t.co/ROp7TQeEjj pic.twitter.com/WduiA3tJKx
— CNN (@CNN) February 3, 2017
On Monday, Cosmopolitan reported that Conway made similar claims during an interview that did not appear in its initial story.
“In an earlier interview with Cosmopolitan.com, she not only used this same phrase but also went a step further in describing the actions of the two Iraqi men involved in the case to which she was referring,” the magazine’s Kristen Mascia wrote on Monday before describing what Conway told the publication on Jan. 29, prior to the MSNBC interview.
“Conway used the same phrasing, claiming that President Barack Obama called for a temporary ‘ban on Iraqi refugees’ after the ‘Bowling Green massacre,’” Mascia wrote.