White House counselor Kellyanne Conway stood in defense of President Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general, claiming that his previous criticisms of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe was not something that should disqualify him and arguing that there is no reason to shut down the investigation, Fox News informed.
“If you’re talking about Matt Whitaker’s statements as a private citizen a year and a half ago when the Mueller investigation first started, what he has said on cable TV, I don’t think that disqualifies somebody from being the chief law enforcement officer at the Department of Justice, which is an executive function,” Conway said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
There has been concern among Democratic lawmakers and critics of President Donald Trump over Whitaker’s previous remarks as a commentator on CNN and other news networks about cutting Mueller’s budget as a way to stop the investigation, that looking into Trump’s finances was a “red line” and that there was “no collusion” between Russia and the Trump campaign.
During her interview she stated that nevertheless, shutting down the Mueller investigation at this point would be a “mistake.”
“It would be a mistake to try to shut down the Mueller investigation in the way that you describe it because we’ve been so compliant and everything that was promised,” she said.
Conway also stood in defense of the President about his mixed comments made over knowing Whitaker. First on Friday, Trump said that he did not know the new acting attorney general, but last month on “Fox and Friends” he said that he did.
“The President does know Matt Whitaker,” Conway said, adding that Trump has known Whitaker in his role as chief of staff to the attorney general.
“The President’s point is it’s not like he is putting a friend in there that he has known his entire life. He is putting somebody who has been working at the Department of Justice for 13 months now, in a very senior position as chief of staff to Attorney General Sessions. And the President has dealt with Matt Whitaker in many different situations in the White House,” she stated.
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