August 5, 2018

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to Donald Trump, falsely claimed on Sunday that former President Barack Obama "buried" information about Russia's attacks on U.S. elections.

In an interview on Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan asked Conway why Trump is not echoing his own national security team on the ongoing threat of Russian election attacks.

"This president wants to make very clear that he was not the president in 2016 when evidence of Russian interference and meddling in our democracy in 2016 was presented to that president and his security team buried [the intelligence]," Conway opined. "Because they wanted the other person to win and, indeed, thought she would win the presidency."

"This president is not burying it," she continued. "I was there [last month] when the president directed his national security team to go and tell everyone what's happening."

Under President Obama, the intelligence community did put out a statement about the Russian election attacks. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to sign on to a full-throated warning about Russia prior to the 2016 election.

Conway went on to complain that the "number one topic" on news shows "is, in fact, Russia."

"And yet, when the president says 'Russia hoax', he's not talking about Russian meddling," she asserted. "He's been very clear about that."

"The president, when he says 'Russia hoax', he means [special counsel Robert Mueller's] investigation and some on TV, never under oath, wanting to suggest that somehow Russia meddling in the 2016 election was successful in changing a single vote or the electoral outcome," Conway said.

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