White House counselor
Kellyanne Conway said Sunday that she does not believe that
journalists are the enemy of the people.
The assertion comes shortly after President Donald Trump, who has made attacks on the media a staple of his presidency, ratcheted up his criticism of members of the Fourth Estate, saying in a tweet on Sunday that the "Fake News" is the "Enemy of the People." Trump added, "They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!"
When asked to clarify the President's tweet in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation," Conway suggested that Trump was referring to "some reporters" who she said "aren't always telling the truth." But she later said, "I don't believe journalists are the enemy of the people."
Conway added, however, "I think some journalists are the enemy of the relevant, and the enemy of the news you can use."
The President's daughter Ivanka Trump, who serves as a White House senior adviser, made headlines on Thursday when she indicated that she did not agree with her father that the press is the enemy of the American people. "No, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people," she said.
National security adviser John Bolton defended Trump's anti-media tweet during an interview on "Fox News Sunday," saying, "that's the President's view based on the attacks the media have made on him."
Downplaying the escalation from the President, Bolton said, "the issue of press bias has been around for a long, long time," and added, "I think this kind of adversarial relationship is typical."
Last week, Trump suggested that he did not take issue with what Ivanka had said, while still insisting that "a large percentage of the media" should be viewed as an enemy of the people.
"They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!," the President tweeted.
During Thursday's White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to say that the media is not the enemy of the people when pressed on the subject by CNN's Jim Acosta.