In conversation with President Trump’s White House counselor Kellyanne Conway Wednesday, USA Today columnist Michael Wolff recited the Washington Post’s pompous new slogan, "Democracy Dies in Darkness," and noted to her that "you’re the darkness.”
Conway and Wolff were at The Newseum’s “The Press and the President: The First Amendment in the First 100 Days” forum, discussing the news media's coverage of Trump, when Conway asked, "Do you actually think he’s covered fairly and objectively?"
"Do I think, I think not at all," he responded. "I think, I think 'Democracy Dies in Darkness,' I look at this, I think ‘Oh my God!’ No, from, from my point of view as, as someone who literally writes about this, I think we’re in totally unchartered territory. But having said that, this administration is more media crazy than any I’ve ever, I’ve ever, ever watched. I mean you talk to the media all the time. You want coverage all the time."
Wolff went on to ask a convoluted question and finished with, "How personal do you take this?"
CONWAY: How personal, how personally do I take what?
WOLFF: What the, this, this coverage of you, “Democracy Dies in Darkness?” Because I’m gonna tell you, when they say “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” you’re the darkness.
The unbelievably rude audience -- which must have consisted largely of the tolerant, anti-bullying left -- actually laughed and applauded at this.
Conway responded bluntly, "I’m not the darkness," and Wolff himself tried to clarify to the audience that he was not making an accusation, only saying that Conway was part of the intended target of that slogan.
CONWAY: You’re saying that’s what it’s meant to be.
WOLFF: Yeah that’s not, certainly, an attack here.
Conway put the audience in their place, belittling them as children:
CONWAY: It’s what I tell small children: just because somebody says something, doesn’t make it true. And it’s a great lesson for everyone. And just because, you know, they say the darkness or democracy, it doesn’t make it true.
Wolff later clarified again on Twitter that he had been deriding the Post's slogan, not calling Conway the "darkness," but there is no doubt that countless of his colleagues certainly believe that.
