The White House spin on Flynn’s departure is only getting more self-contradictory

Ned Resnikoff/Think Progress

Was National Security Adviser Michael Flynn sacked or did he resign of his own volition? The White House can’t seem to make up its mind.

On Tuesday afternoon, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump had asked for Flynn’s resignation on Monday, several days after the Washington Post reported the national security adviser had discussed U.S. sanctions with a Russian diplomat prior to Trump’s inauguration and then lied about it. But Spicer’s account of Flynn’s departure flew in the face of the account given just hours earlier by White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway.

Here’s Spicer on Tuesday afternoon: “The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for Gen. Flynn’s resignation.”

And here’s Conway, speaking to NBC’s Matt Lauer on Tuesday morning: “I spoke with the president this morning. He asked me to speak on his behalf and reiterate that Mike Flynn had resigned. He decided that the situation had become unsustainable for him, here, and of course the president accepted that resignation.”

Later that morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) also contradicted Conway and said that Trump had asked for Flynn’s resignation.

Did he offer his resignation, or was it demanded?

The White House’s fogginess regarding Monday night’s resignation is just one more mystery among several related to Flynn’s dealings with Russia. Shortly before Spicer’s Tuesday press conference, a group of Republican senators said Flynn should be called to testify as part of a broader investigation into links between the White House and the Kremlin.

Kellyanne Conway: Ignore what Trump actually says and ‘look at what’s in his heart’

Zack Ford/Think Progress

Receiving a lifetime achievement award Sunday night at the Golden Globes, actress Meryl Streep expressed her concern about President-elect Donald Trump, focusing in on the moment during the campaign in which he mocked a reporter’s disability. Doing damage control Monday morning, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway pleaded that people ignore Trump’s words and the video of Trump obviously mocking the reporter, and instead look at “his heart.”

“You can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this and he’s telling you what was in his heart?” Conway asked CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “You always want to go by what’s come out of his mouth rather than look at what’s in his heart.”

Just an hour earlier, Conway had been on Fox and Friends, attacking Meryl Streep for “inciting people’s worst instincts.” Streep gave an eloquent speech about rejecting bullying and encouraged everyone to feel empathy for others.

Whether Trump was intending to mock the reporter in the infamous clip has been well litigated, but the evidence in support of Trump’s after-the-fact claims are not particularly believable.

In the speech from November of 2015, Trump was defending his bizarre claim that thousands of Muslims were celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11. He attacked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who he knew enough to call a “nice guy,” for standing by his recollection of his own 9/11 reporting at the time of the tragedy.

In his gestures mocking Kovaleski — “you gotta see this guy,” he said — he clearly kept his right hand in a hooked position to mock the way the reporter’s arthrogryposis limits the flexibility in his arms. Trump later explained that he couldn’t possibly have been mocking his disability because, “despite having one of the all-time great memories, I certainly do not remember him.” Trump did not apologize.

But Kovaleski challenged both claims in his statement, highlighting that he had interviewed Trump as many as a dozen times throughout his career, including in his office in Trump Tower. “Donald and I were on a first-name basis for years,” he explained to the Times.

Conway’s argument is that no matter what Trump might do or say that is actually wrong or objectionable, it doesn’t matter so long as people believe he meant well. Streep, on the other hand, must be held accountable for promoting division by not standing by the President-elect.