Transcript: Kellyanne Conway on "Face the Nation," May 6, 2018
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who recently joined President Trump's legal team, sent shockwaves through Washington last week. Giuliani revealed that the president had reimbursed $130,000 in hush money that attorney Michael Cohen paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels at the end of the 2016 election.
The revelation raised questions about what the president knew and when.
The following is a transcript of the interview with Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, that aired Sunday, May 6, 2018, on "Face the Nation."
MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin today with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway. Kellyanne thank you for joining us here--
KELLYANNE CONWAY: Thank you Margaret.
BRENNAN: --for FACE THE NATION. Rudy Giuliani in that interview said he's not an expert on the facts yet. Then why has the president authorized him to speak like this?
KELLYANNE CONWAY: Well the president sent me here today. And one thing I do want to say to you Margaret is the president told me just yesterday that when he said no on Air Force One last month he's talking about when the payment occurred. That he was not aware of the payment to Ms. Daniels when the payment occurred. And that is consistent with his tweets from a couple of days ago where in those three tweets the president had a lot to say about this matter. He says that this was a private matter, had nothing to do with campaign funds. That there is an NDA in full force and effect he believes that Ms. Daniels and her lawyer have violated that may go to arbitration. He also repeats that this is a false claim and he also says that Michael Cohen had basically discretion authority to use funds that had nothing to do with the campaign how he saw fit as his attorney at that time.
BRENNAN: In an interview last night on Fox News Rudy Giuliani said that this payment to Stormy Daniels was in fact a campaign expenditure.
CONWAY: I don't know--
BRENNAN: You ran the campaign. So is that what you would characterize it as?
CONWAY: I don't know why anyone would say that. I would not characterize it that way, the president himself characterized it as not a campaign expenditure. All I can tell you is that as the campaign manager for them, winning part of the campaign, this never crossed my desk. I was never made aware of this. I found this out many, many longtime afterwards long after I got into the White House. To the extent that that's relevant. And so I think the president is re-emphasizing that himself as someone who would know this. Margaret, in his tweets when he says it wasn't campaign money. These are private agreements. His personal attorney had discretion to do this, and that people who are wealthy and people who are famous do this routinely. He was trying to save the embarrassment for his family it had nothing to do with the campaign and may say if you go back and you pull candidate Trump at basically any time during that time period between the tape that came out on October 7th and election day a month later, you will find Mr. Trump on the campaign trail almost daily talking about the false accusers, talking about how this just isn't true and that-- he is very much on the record with the way he felt about everything that was rolling around him and he was sticking to the issue six, seven speeches a day.
BRENNAN: Were there other campaign expenditures, I know you disagree with that characterization, that's the language Giuliani used, but were there other campaign expenditures like this, that you were aware of made by Michael Cohen.
CONWAY: No, none that I would be aware of. The campaign expenditures that I knew about were for data and research, were for ads, some 50 percent digital, 50 percent television ads, were for travel. I will tell you that people at the highest levels of the Trump campaign were looking over the schedules of our two greatest assets: Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence and we were very involved and where can we deploy them next. Because we had a fraction of the personnel or fraction of the budget of Secretary Clinton's campaign for example, so we were very creative putting them out there and messaging so the answer to that is no.
BRENNAN: You said that you did not learn about the payment to Stormy Daniels until you were long after the White House. I want to play that full exchange on Air Force One so our viewers can understand what the president was responding to there when he was asked about that 130,000 dollar payment to Stormy Daniels.
(BEGIN TAPE)
Reporter: Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?
Trump: No.
Reporter: Then why did Michael Cohen make this, if there was no truth to the allegations.
Trump: Well, you'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney and you'll have to ask Michael.
Reporter: Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?
Trump: No, I don't know.
(END TAPE)
BRENNAN: The President said there he also didn't know where the money came from. But now his attorney says it came from President Trump.
CONWAY: Well, I'll go by the president's tweets here because I'm his counselor not his counsel so I'm not part of his legal team. Happily haven't practiced law in many decades. Margaret, but I'll go by the president's tweet where he says that this-this money was through reimbursement through monthly retainers. That's what he was explaining through his tweet. And I think that those tweets are very important because there were three in a row that really covered the waterfront of this particular incident. This particular matter the way the president feels about the allegations the way he feels about the NDA being in full force and effect. and really the motivation which is to that people of wealth. I mean we know people on other networks have paid a lot of money millions of dollars for different matters. This was one hundred thirty thousand dollars. He's saying that it's a personal matter. But again I have some visibility into this, having been in the campaign and being in the White House and watching the news like everyone else is. But I don't deal with this everyday when I walk into the White House, I'm charged with looking over things like trade and infrastructure obviously opioids the economy we're very happy with have three point nine percent unemployment rate.
BRENNAN: I want to ask you about some of those policy issues. But just to close this. When did Michael Cohen stop representing the president?
CONWAY: I don't know that. And in the White House --
BRENNAN: He said on April 5th he was still his attorney.
CONWAY: He's saying you have to ask Michael Cohen his attorney. I did see in a different interview today that Mayor Giuliani said Michael Cohen is no longer the president's attorney. I don't know the answer to that. And I'd be happy to ask and have someone get back to you on that but again when I get in there every day as his counselor not his counsel we're not talking about personal matters personal attorney no. He represented him for a long time but the president himself has--
BRENNAN: Why is- why is Rudy Giuliani talking about issues of national security. I mean he is speaking about the release of three American prisoners from North Korea whose lives are literally on the line.
CONWAY: They are, and we're hopeful but obviously very anxious about hostages abroad and the president alone --
BRENNAN: But did the White House authorize him to speak on such a sensitive matter. He doesn't have a security clearance and he doesn't work where you do at the white house.
CONWAY: Not that I'm aware of. I have a security clearance and I'm not going to divulge anything like that. I'll leave that to the president and his security team. Obviously as chief diplomat to make any announcements ,we know it would be a gesture of goodwill on the part of North Korea. Margaret, if in fact they release the three American hostages and we're very pleased with everything that we see coming out of the North Korea-South Korea meetings and this president's leadership literally helping to bring them to the table to end decades of war in Korea and also to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. We want complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization. And so far so good. The president will make these announcements he will announce the date and the place for such-such a summit. And he and his and the people in charge will-will announce on any good news with respect to the hostages.
BRENNAN: Is Steve Bannon still counseling the president as has been reported by The Wall Street Journal?
CONWAY: So I asked the president about this squarely yesterday we had a long ranging conversation when he called me yesterday. He said that report is not true. And he said he has not talked to Mr. Bannon in many months. He had seen the headline, was made aware of it and just happened to mention that to me
BRENNAN: The president said he would very much like to speak to Robert Muller. Giuliani said today he would be a fool to do so. Will he speak with him?
CONWAY: Many, many people say that it wouldn't be necessary for the president to do so based on what they see and what they know. I would note for you that a really fascinating curious development that happened on Friday came from the federal district judge in the Eastern District of Virginia who's presiding over the Paul Manafort case. If you read the full exchange it's pretty remarkable, Margaret where you have not somebody from the White House not a politician no one who's quote "Team Trump" somewhere talking about talking down the Mueller investigation. You had this federal district judge basically saying to Muller's team "have you burned through your ten million dollars yet?. Why did you let go of the Cohen case and put it off in New York and why are you hanging onto the Manafort case where in the Manafort indictments have anything to do with the president these are charges from 2005 and 2007" --
BRENNAN: Would an interview bring that to a faster close?
CONWAY: Well I think what the judge is pointing out is that he's - he's raising many of the questions Americans have raised which is where is this going what is this about? Are you way way outside of the scope in the original mandate. We were promised by many people on TV, collusion that interfered and affected the election result. We haven't seen any of that. We're talking about other things now. So the president has been very cooperative. But you heard him himself addressing reporters, Margaret. The president has said he would be happy to answer questions and continue to be cooperative but he wants to make sure that the process is fair and-and to hear him say it. Often the process has not been fair.
BRENNAN: We'll talk about more of that ahead, Kellyanne Conway thank you for coming in and joining us.
CONWAY: Thank you very much.