White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway slammed former national intelligence director James Clapper on Thursday for what she called his “absurd analysis” on President Trump’s fitness for office.
Clapper was one of numerous CNN pundits who tore into the president after his late-night rally speech in Phoenix on Tuesday. The Obama-era intel boss called the event “scary and disturbing.”
On “Fox & Friends” Thursday morning, Conway called his attack “way over the line.”
“It’s such an absurd analysis playing armchair psychiatrist, and it’s not just him, it’s a lot of people on TV,” Conway said.
She cited the “parade of pundits” who are “conjecturing” about the president.
Clapper, who is now a CNN national security analyst, had questioned Trump’s “fitness to be in this office.”
“This behavior and this divisiveness, intellectual and moral and ethical void that the president of the United States exhibits,” Clapper said. “And how much longer does the country—to borrow a phrase—endure this nightmare?"
He was far from the only pundit on CNN that night tearing into Trump.
Don Lemon, the host of “CNN Tonight,” earlier accused the president of “trying to ignite a civil war” and giving “oxygen to racists.”
Trump’s remarks in Phoenix were reminiscent of candidate-Trump on the campaign trail, slamming the media over its coverage of his presidency—specifically noting his response to recent violence in Charlottesville, Va.
“They are sick people,” Trump said of the media. “You know the thing I don’t understand? You would think … they’d want to make our country great again. And I honestly believe they don’t.”
Trump continued to trash the media’s coverage of him, calling out CNN and saying “you wonder why CNN is doing poorly.”