Soon after the end of Sunday’s presidential debate, CNN’s senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar rushed to the event’s spin room to lob softball questions to John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chair. “Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton the devil but also made a threat that if he were in charge of the laws of the country that he would jail her, that he would imprison her. What's the campaign's reaction,” Keilar asked, while completely ignoring Clinton’s latest WikiLeaks controversy.
Keilar’s other inquires included questions about what kind of signal she was sending to voters who find Trump’s comments disgusting. The CNN reporter posed no questions to Podesta about possible private positions Clinton has on issues that may be in opposition to ones she has in public, as alleged in leaked passages of her Wall Street speeches.
In stark contrast, Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was mercilessly grilled by chief political correspondent Dana Bash. “You're his campaign manager, the only woman at the head of that campaign. What did you think when you saw and you heard that? Truthfully, what was your reaction,” Bash demanded to know. Conway’s response was, “My initial reaction was very close to what Melania Trump said,” to which Bash was left seeming quite shocked.
Conway took exception to Bash calling Trump’s comments sexual assault, which triggered an intense back-and-forth with Bash snapping and Conway with every response:
CONWAY: That's a very unfortunate phrase and people should stop using it.
BASH: Why?
CONWAY: Because I know him better. And I know better.
BASH: It's what he said.
CONWAY: He did not say sexual assault.
BASH: No, it’s what he implied he wanted to do.
Conway seemed to halt Bash in her tracks by reminding her who was sitting in the audience that night. “I know CNN doesn't want to interview them for whatever reason,” she countered, “You give miss universe a big platform, but we have in the hall tonight Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey and Paula Jones and Kathy Shelton the twelve year-old rape victim… So, we can talk about sexual assault but let's have a full conversation about it.”
