Kellyanne Conway Wanted To Criticize Her Husband -- But As An Anonymous Source
Kellyanne Conway, President Donald Trump’s chief counselor, found a unique way to let her husband know how she feels about his public bashing of her boss.
During an interview with Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, Conway complained that her husband’s recent tweets about Trump were “disrespectful” and possibly violated their “marital vows,” but insisted that she was speaking off the record. She asked Terris to be quoted as a “person familiar with their relationship” ― not as herself.
Terris, who was working on a story about their marriage, wouldn’t let her. He published their full exchange in the Post on Wednesday in a wild profile revealing how Conway’s job as Trump’s right-hand woman has affected her relationship with George Conway, a former Trump supporter who has become a vocal critic of the president on Twitter.
When Terris asked Conway about her husband’s tweets criticizing Trump, she appeared to complain about him candidly before Terris reminded her that she was speaking on the record.
“I told you everything about his tweets was off the record,” Conway told Terris.
“No, that’s not true. That never happened,” he replied, later adding, “We never discussed everything about his tweets being off the record.”
“Fine,” Conway relented. “I’ve never actually said what I think about it and I won’t say what I think about it, which tells you what I think about it.
You can read Terris’ transcript here.
The stunning exchange gave the public a rare look into how Conway deals with the media when the news cameras aren’t live.
I'm late to this but Kellyanne Conway trying to go on background to badmouth her husband tells you everything you need to know about Kellyanne Conway https://t.co/hu8GetVyeJ pic.twitter.com/FHPN8cFEyp
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) August 15, 2018
Of course @KellyannePolls tried to throw her husband under the bus on background. https://t.co/KxaJ31PVbG
— Matt Wilstein (@mattwilstein) August 16, 2018
Despite his wife’s position in the White House, George Conway, a conservative, began openly criticizing the president on Twitter in 2017 and ramped up his attacks this year. The same week the Post’s profile was published, he used an analogy of a lying and scheming CEO to describe Trump’s presidency.
Terris’ profile of the Conways’ marriage paints a picture of a successful couple whose bickering ― usually over the wife’s boss, Trump ― straddles the line between playful and personal.
In one exchange between the couple, Kellyanne Conway refers to the Taj Mahal casino, Trump’s former Atlantic City, New Jersey, property, as “wildly popular” and her husband replied, “It went bankrupt twice.”
In another scene, George Conway said he regretted introducing his wife to Trump, which he did when he passed on an offer to be on the condominium board of the Trump World Tower in Manhattan.
“Knowing what I know now ... I would have said no, and never mentioned it when I got home,” he told Terris.
Conway also threatened to “push back” on Terris if his profile on their marriage was “all about” about her husband.
“Nobody knows who I am because of my husband,” Conway told Terris later in the profile. “People know of my husband because of me.”
Hours after the profile was published on Wednesday, George Conway retweeted a CNN legal analyst who criticized the White House.
Read the public’s response to the Conways’ Washington Post profile below.
I mean ... You almost have to admire the sheer chutzpah here. Kellyanne Conway tries to give the Washington Post a comment about her own marriage as "a person familiar with their relationship". https://t.co/3CBWc1WoAt pic.twitter.com/UzCnxWbroc
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) August 15, 2018
This is the greatest exchange with Kellyanne Conway I've seen since 'alternative facts.' Just read. https://t.co/BVYUMBMxPA pic.twitter.com/Pqvsl9zjf3
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 15, 2018
Thanks to this new WaPo article I will forever believe that any “anoynomous White House source” or “Trump staffer” is actually Kellyanne Conway. pic.twitter.com/4V5F2Y4Y0a
— Farron Cousins (@farronbalanced) August 15, 2018
In which we are treated to the most Trump-era exchange ever: Kellyanne Conway trying unsuccessfully to go off the record to blast her husband's anti-Trump tweets as a violation of their marital vows https://t.co/KcDMnFYsl0
— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) August 15, 2018
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.