Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, became indignant on Sunday after NBC host Chuck Todd suggested that the White House was separating immigrant families as a way to force Democrats to fund Trump’s proposed border wall.
During an interview on Meet the Press, Todd noted that Trump could stop the policy of separating immigrant children from their parents with a simple telephone call to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“Chuck, let me just tell you,” Conway replied. “Nobody likes seeing babies ripped from their mothers’ arms, from their mothers’ wombs, frankly. But we have to make sure that… these laws are understood through the soundbite culture that we live in.”
Conway went on to blame Democrats for refusing to close “loopholes” that she said allow “open border policies.”
“It sounds like you are holding these kids hostage,” Todd explained, “to get the Democrats to the table to pass some law.”
The NBC host pointed out that a White House official reportedly said that “the thinking is to force” Democrats to negotiate on new immigration laws.
“I want that person to say it to my face,” Conway snapped. “I’ll meet them at the White House today because I think that’s a disgrace.”
“You don’t have to be doing this,” Todd said of separating parents and children. “This policy got implemented in April — the zero tolerance policy, where every migrant, every asylum-seeker is treated as a criminal first.”
“This is a question of American morality,” he added.
“As a mother, as a Catholic, as somebody who’s got a conscience and wouldn’t say the junk that [a White House official] said allegedly, I will tell you that nobody likes this policy,” Conway admitted. “But Congress has to act.”
“[Trump] can end it on his own,” Todd reminded Conway.
Watch the video below from NBC.