White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said that negative media coverage has resulted in threats that forced her to acquire Secret Service protection.
Conway told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in a Monday interview that she has even been sent packages at her home containing “white substances.”
One source of this antagonism, according to Conway, was a Inauguration Day pool report which inaccurately noted that a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. had been removed from the Oval Office. The bust was actually in its spot but concealed by a door and a Secret Service agent, prompting the Time Magazine reporter who falsely reported its absence to issue a quick correction and multiple apologies.
The incident has been brought up repeatedly by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and other Trump aides as an example of the unfair press coverage the President receives. On “Hannity,” Conway claimed the incorrect report may even be part of an attempt to smear Trump as racist.
“The damage is done because then people look at Donald Trump as the ‘r’ word,” Conway said.
“I don’t say his name publicly because I don’t want him to get attacked like I do,” she said of the Time reporter. “Because of what the press is doing now to me, I have Secret Service protection. We have packages delivered to my house with white substances. That is a shame and yes I hold him to account for it.”
It is unclear from her comments if Conway was saying she received such packages prior to the pool report, or if she was sent them this weekend after it went out.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for confirmation that Conway has been assigned a security detail.
