At the beginning of the episode we can see an Underwood desperate to divert attention to other things, good or bad. I believe that your attitude within the Congress was an outbreak, since everything is valid to draw attention to what really matters, its various crimes. One who honestly tries to denounce it is passed on as the fool, the bully.
Then we have the scene of his press officer choosing, as if he were exposed to a showcase, tragedies of his fellow citizens. To his taste, his wife chooses the best (worst) situations in which benevolence of the Underwood could be seen, mere politics. Would it be naive for Conway to speak in respect of the dead and the living, while Underwood goes there for pure politics? I will only know in the next episodes.
So, almost the whole episode, Underwood making us dumb, he shows his true face, the Machiavellian man who has everything in his hands, ready to be used. Now he manipulates the situation from within the White House. The use of journalists was not helpful, at least not in this episode.