Kellyanne Conway asked a Jewish reporter 'What's your ethnicity?' while defending Trump's racist tweets

Kellyanne Conway asked a Jewish reporter what his ethnicity is after he questioned her about Donald Trump’s racist ‘go home’ tweet, widely believed to have been aimed at four congresswomen of colour.

In an exchange that White House reporter Andrew Feinberg called “bizarre and weird,” she became angry when he asked her about the relevance of his ethnicity in answering his question.

“It is [relevant] because he said ‘originally’ from,” she said, after telling him her own ancestors came from "Ireland and Italy".

“You know everything [Mr Trump] said since. He’s put out a lot of tweets. He made himself available to all of you yesterday.”

Trump’s aide followed her comments with a tirade about America: “A lot of people are sick and tired of this country - of America coming last.”

She continued, saying people were “sick and tired” of "our military being denigrated", and of the Customs and Border Patrol agents, who she claimed are “overwhelmingly Hispanic, by the way” being “criticised” and "doxxed".

Feinberg on CNN (Picture: CNN)

Feinberg found the exchange “weird” and appeared on CNN to talk about it. He said:

When I asked her why it was relevant she said the president was talking about where these congresswomen were ‘originally from’.

In the case of everyone except congresswoman Omar who was born in Somalia and came here as a child, is the United States.

To my thinking, she was essentially saying what she denied seconds before – that the president was not suggesting that the African American congresswoman could go back to Africa or congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez could return to Puerto Rico if they don’t like his policies.

And what did he think of the exchange?

Bizarre. She frequently responds to questions I ask her by asking questions of her own.

It felt very weird to be asked about my personal background

People found her question about the reporter's ethnicity "shameful".

Kellyanne Conway attempted to explain herself in a follow-up tweet.

But for many, the damage was done.