Jake Tapper slams Kellyanne Conway for blaming Obama: 'Just a lie'

Trump recently told his 3,000th lie in office, and he’s continued that breakneck pace all week. And now, even Kellyanne Conway can’t explain his dishonesty away.

On Sunday morning’s “State of the Union” on CNN, host Jake Tapper repeatedly pressed Conway about Trump’s latest blatant falsehoods.

At first, Conway tried to spin Trump’s lie that he didn’t know about the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. She offered the pathetic excuse that Trump meant he didn’t know about it at the time the payment was made.

Notably, if that were true, it would seem to imply Trump also didn’t know about the non-disclosure agreement that covered the payment. And that would make the NDA invalid.

But when Tapper pointed out that Trump’s response to a follow-up question was clearly made in the present tense, Conway offered a weak dismissal.

“I think there, you want to look at [Trump’s] tweets, where he says through reimbursement,” she said. “That’s the best I can do.”

Tapper then pressed Conway about another lie Trump told, in which he tried to blame President Barack Obama for three Americans being held hostage in North Korea.

“He went on Twitter and talked about the three American hostages, and how the Obama administration tried and failed to get them free,” Tapper said. “Two of the three were detained while Donald Trump was president.”

He went on to point out what ought to be obvious, even to Trump and Conway.

“There is no way that Obama could have gotten them released because they were captured when Trump was president,” Tapper continued. “That is just a lie, and that tweet is still up there.”

“You are focused on the tweet, and we are focused on the hostages,” Conway responded. And she offered the bizarre excuse that Trump was “probably talking about the terrible nuclear deal.”

But Tapper didn’t let up.

Trump’s actual tweet easily refutes Conway’s nonsensical reasoning. It was clearly not about the Iran nuclear deal. Rather, it was explicitly about the hostages being held in North Korea.

“As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail,” Trump wrote.

He callously told everyone to “Stay tuned!”

Conway has a long history of telling absurd lies for Trump. But this week provided such clear and outrageous examples that even she appears to know there’s little point in maintaining the charade that Trump is anything but a habitual liar.

Reporters like Tapper need to keep up the pressure, and never let Americans forget that this is not normal.