Kellyanne Conway 'Didn't See the Point' to Women's March on Washington
— -- Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said she "didn't see the point" to the Women's March on Washington on Saturday.
"I frankly didn't see the point. I mean you have a day after [President Trump] is uplifting and unifying, and you have folks here being on a diatribe where I think they could have requested a dialogue. Nobody called me and said, 'Hey, could we have a dialogue?'" Conway told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" on Sunday.
Conway also addressed the celebrity presence at the march in Washington, D.C., which was one of hundreds such demonstrations Saturday around the U.S. and the world that drew over a million participants. She called out Madonna for using "profanity-laced" language.
"You have celebrities from the podium using profanity-laced insults. You have a very prominent singer who's worth hundreds of millions of dollars not going over to a woman's shelter here in D.C. to write a check, but instead saying that she thought of, quote, 'burning down the White House,'" Conway said.
Madonna made a surprise appearance at the Women's March on Washington and in her remarks said, "Yes, I'm angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House ... But I know that this won't change anything. We cannot fall into despair."
Conway said she "briefly" talked to Trump about the march, adding, "We certainly respect people's First Amendment rights."
She also noted that the Democratic Party's political leaders -- former President Barack Obama and 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton -- didn't make an appearance at any of the marches Saturday.
"The other thing I would just mention, George, is, guess who was conspicuous by their absence yesterday? President Obama, Secretary Clinton -- they were at the, they were up on the platform applauding and embracing President Trump" at the inauguration, she said.
The counselor to the president also addressed the first We the People petition to hit the new WhiteHouse.gov site, which calls for President Trump to released his tax returns. As of Sunday, over 200,000 people have signed the petition.
Asked by Stephanopoulos for a response from the White House, Conway replied, "The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns."
"We litigated this all through the election. People didn’t care. They voted for him, and let me make this very clear: most Americans are, are very focused on what their tax returns will look like while President Trump is in office, not what his look like," she said.
In a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, seventy-four present of Americans say President Trump should release his tax returns; that includes 49 percent of his own supporters, as well as nearly all of Clinton’s (94 percent) and 83 percent of those who had another preference, or none. Forty-one percent, overall, say they “care a lot” about Trump releasing the records.The number who favor release of the documents is higher than it was in two related questions in ABC News/Washington Post polls during the election campaign. In May, 64 percent said he should release the returns, and in September, 63 percent said he was not justified in withholding them.
After Conway's comments that the president would not be releasing his tax returns, WikiLeaks encouraged people to leak the tax documents so it could release them.
The group also called out Trump for refusing to release his tax returns, tweeting, "Trump's breach of promise over the release of his tax returns is even more gratuitous than Clinton concealing her Goldman Sachs transcripts."
