Kellyanne Conway declined to defend President Donald Trump’s personal attacks on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, while appearing on Friday’s “Good Morning America.”
“The president normally does not draw first blood. He is a counter-puncher,” Conway told “GMA” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos. “I endorse the president’s right to fight back when he is being mercilessly attacked and when the airwaves are filled with raw sewage about him and his fitness for office.”
Stephanopoulos pressed Conway on Trump’s personal attack, in which he said Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” and said “Morning Joe” was poorly rated.
“Bottom line, I endorse his ability to connect on social media with Americans and I endorse, as the First Lady has said, him firing back when he is being mercilessly attacked,” Conway said. “The good I hope comes out of this is that we change the conversation; that respect for the office of the president and its current occupant are intact and that we have a full conversation on policy.”
Scarborough and Brzezinski penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Friday titled, “Donald Trump is not well,” in response to the president’s Twitter attack.
“The president’s unhealthy obsession with our show has been in the public record for months, and we are seldom surprised by his posting nasty tweets about us,” Scarborough and Brzezinski wrote.
10 Women Trump Attacked Based on Looks, from Mika Brzezinski to Heidi Klum (Photos)
Donald Trump's "face-lift" jab at "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski was denounced by all sides. But it was far from the first time he has attacked female critics by insulting their looks, as these 13 women prove.
Getty Images
Mika Brzezinski
Trump tweeted: "How come low I.Q. Crazy Mika...came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"
Jolie has been named "most beautiful woman in the world" by Vogue, Vanity Fair, and others. But in 2007, Trump deemed the liberal actress and humanitarian unattractive: "I do understand beauty, and she's not."
Getty Images
Katarina Witt
Not even a champion Olympic figure skater is exempt from Trump's insults. In November 1992, Trump told New York Magazine that Witt "could only be described as attractive if you like a woman with a bad complexion who is built like a linebacker."
Bongarts Collection/Getty
Carly Fiorina
In an attempt to discredit rival Carly Fiorina during the Republican primaries, Trump said in a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?"
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Arianna Huffington
In 2012, he took to Twitter to insult the liberal co-creator of the Huffington Post: ".@ariannahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision."
Paula Parisi for TheWrap
Rosie O'Donnell
Trump said on a 2006 episode of "Entertainment Tonight": "Rosie O'Donnell is disgusting, both inside and out. If you take a look at her, she's a slob...If I were running The View, I'd fire Rosie. I'd look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, 'Rosie, you're fired."
Getty Images
Alicia Machado
The former Miss Universe said Trump called her "Miss Piggy" and made other disparaging remarks about her body.
Cher
According to The Telegraph, Trump fired back at Cher in 2012 after the singer criticized then-Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney. ".@cher--I don’t wear a “rug”—it’s mine. And I promise not to talk about your massive plastic surgeries that didn’t work," he tweeted.
Getty Images
Heidi Klum
Trump told the New York Times in 2015 that Heidi Klum "sadly" was "no longer a 10." Klum clapped back at Trump's insult with this mocking tweet.
Heidi Cruz
Trump took on rival Ted Cruz by insulting Cruz's wife. Trump compared a less-than-flattering photo of Heidi with a glamor shot of Melania Trump and included the caption, "No need to 'spill the beans.' The images are worth a thousand words."
Donald Trump's "face-lift" jab at "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski was denounced by all sides. But it was far from the first time he has attacked female critics by insulting their looks, as these 13 women prove.