OPINION:
Kellyanne Conway, White House counselor, gave a swift and saucy response to Fox News’ Chris Wallace when he asked about the state of her marriage to vocal anti-President Donald Trumper George Conway, snapping off the one-liner, “What are you, Oprah?”
It was a deserved slap-down. Well-deserved, in fact.
It’s one thing to talk about policy, politics and current events — to include current political spats being played in the public eye. It’s another thing entirely to use those current events to pry into privacies while pretending it’s news because, well, people just want to know.
Valid stories and juicy whispers are not one and the same.
“Why is your husband attacking your boss?” Wallace asked, after tossing up a few images of George’s anti-Trump rhetoric.
“You can ask my husband,” Conway said, according to a video clip posted at Mediaite.
But is your husband cyber-bullying you, Kellyanne? Is he jealous of your high profile career? Wallace went on. And on.
“I guess the question I have to ask, bottom line, final question,” he ultimately said, “has this hurt your marriage?”
Actually, no. The question doesn’t really need to be asked. Conway didn’t think so, either.
“What are you, Oprah now? What am I, on the couch and you’re a psychiatrist? I think that’s a really inappropriate question and here’s why: That’s the line over which nobody should have crossed. So if you want to talk about policy issues, policy disagreements, the fact that … George prefer I not work in the White House, I guess you can ask those questions,” she said. “But now you’re asking a very personal question, and I would say to you that you should go ask it of many people because I see messy lives living in glass houses all over.”
Wallace said he was uncomfortable talking about the issue. Great.
So don’t do it again.
And just in case this question is in the works for a future interview, here’s a tip: Serious news watchers don’t really care where Conway buys her clothes, either.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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