WASHINGTON _ Senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was characteristically feisty Monday morning on CNN, accusing the cable network of focusing on alleged scandals over substance in reporting on President Donald Trump.
"You talk about Russia more than you talk about America," Conway told host Chris Cuomo, complaining that the media ignore Trump's plans on jobs, health care, infrastructure and more.
But aside from Conway's marathon appearance _ Cuomo let her talk well over her allotted time, and just as feistily refuted her _ and a series of morning tweets from Trump himself, the White House seemed to be in bunker mode. Aides struggled to respond to bipartisan criticism over the weekend of Trump's first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and new reports that Trump's son, son-in-law and campaign manager met last summer with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The White House listed no events on Trump's schedule, either public ones or the private security briefings typically noted. There will also be no televised press briefing yet again; deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will instead hold an off-camera "gaggle" with White House reporters.
The practice under recent administrations was for the White House to hold televised briefings daily any day the president was in Washington and would not be meeting with reporters himself. The Trump administration has increasingly moved toward off-camera briefings on days when Trump speaks at public events.
"I want the president's voice to carry the day," press secretary Sean Spicer said two weeks ago. Trump's comments on a given topic, however, do not address the myriad questions reporters have on other domestic and international issues.
Barring a change in schedule, Trump will not be seen nor heard from Monday. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans struggle to plot their next steps on a health care bill some have pronounced near-dead, and members of the House are lacking clear direction from the White House about looming budget battles.
Trump and other White House officials, including Sanders and Spicer, returned to Washington Saturday after a trip to Poland and Germany _ where Trump did not hold a customary news conference at the close of the G-20 summit.
He is due to depart Wednesday evening to return to Europe, to Paris, for a celebration of Bastille Day at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.
