White House counselor Kellyanne Conway spoke to Fox Business Thursday morning about the growing animosity between her husband, attorney George Conway, and her boss, President Donald Trump, saying she had never considered quitting over the feud because, among other things, it would send a bad message to “feminists everywhere.”
One day earlier, speaking with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump called George “a whack job” in retaliation for a number of critical tweets posted by the attorney. On Thursday, Kellyanne said she appreciated “the president defending what he thinks is unfairness.”
Speaking specifically to her husband’s critiques of the president, Kellyanne said she believed derogatory comments about Trump should be kept private and that she preferred not to comment on the couple’s relationship or conversations. When asked whether George had asked her to leave her White House job over the feud, she pushed back, suggesting such a move would be anti-feminist.
“I know George was quoted recently as saying ‘I wish she didn’t work there.’ … But what message would that send to the feminists everywhere who pretend they’re independent thinkers, and men don’t make decisions for them?” she said. “They can talk it and I can walk it. I can live it.”
“I’m very focused on my work, and I feel so blessed to be serving this country that I love so much, that has given me so much,” she added, noting her role gave her the ability to wield increased power behind the scenes for “the good of the country.”
The Trump-Conway feud ratcheted up this week after the president tweeted insults about George, suggesting the attorney was jealous of Kellyanne, who had been invited to work in the White House.
“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted,” Trump wrote. “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!”
Kellyanne herself addressed this during her Fox Business interview on Thursday, noting her husband had originally been up for consideration as solicitor general in the Trump administration, and later for head of the civil division of the Justice Department, which he turned down.
Speaking to the recent media coverage, the White House counselor criticized journalists for not including her husband’s reasoning in their reports.
“When George took himself out of contention for a top job in the Department of Justice — almost two years ago now — he put out a public statement that many in the media refuse to cover now, which is that we’ve decided as a family it’s not the right time for both of us to have big jobs in the federal government,” she said.
George did put out a statement in June 2017, stating, “Kellyanne and I continue to support the President and his administration, and I look forward to doing so in whatever way I can from outside the government.”
Since then, however, he has said the reason he didn’t take that job is because, in his opinion, the Trump administration is a “shitshow in a dumpster fire,” specifically referencing Trump’s televised admission that he fired former FBI Director James Comey over the Russia investigation.
“Why would anybody want to do this?” he said on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery in November, referring to the Justice Department role he had turned down.
