White House counsel Kellyanne Conway on Sunday pushed back on accusations that press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted a video of an exchange between CNN’s Jim Acosta and an administration intern that was altered to appear more aggressive.
“Well, Chris, first of all, what do you mean by ‘edited’ or, as others are saying, ‘doctored’ video?” Conway asked when Chris Wallace raised the topic on “Fox News Sunday.”
“He either put his hands on her and grabbed the mic [from] her or he did not and he clearly did,” Conway said.{mosads}
Wallace then interrupted to press the question, “No, he clearly did. But the video was altered.”
“By that do you mean sped up?” Conway said. “Well that’s not altered. That’s sped up. They do it all the time in sports to see if there’s actually a first down or a touchdown.”
“So I have to disagree with the, I think, overwrought description of this video as being doctored as if we put somebody else’s arm in there.”
Sanders tweeted the video of Acosta pushing intern’s arm away during a press conference as she tried to take the microphone from him, after the White House revoked his hard pass for “placing his hands on” her.
Some have said that the video was sped up to make the it appear as though Acosta struck the intern.
“He should have apologized to that young aide,” Conway said Sunday.
“As a woman who has had people put their hands on me, thinking they have a right to get in my personal space,” Conway said. “I don’t like him pulling that mic back and doing on her arm, it looked like a karate chop almost.”
“I didn’t put my hands on her or touch her as they’re alleging,” Acosta said after the incident. “I think I handled myself professionally.”