Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway speaks with reporters at the White House, Tuesday, July 16, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway has said she meant no disrespect when asking a reporter to reveal his ethnicity.
Her question came during an informal press gathering when reporter Andrew Feinberg asked her about US President Donald Trump’s tweets regarding Democratic congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar.
Mr Feinberg wondered what countries Mr Trump was referring to when he suggested the American politicians should return to their countries of origin.
Ms Conway replied: “What’s your ethnicity?”
After a brief pause, Mr Feinberg asked why that was relevant to his question.
Ms Conway, who said she is of Italian and Irish descent, tweeted later that she was trying to make the point that “we are all from somewhere else ‘originally’”.
Mr Feinberg works for the technology publication Breakfast Media.
