Kellyanne Conway has accused her husband of “cheating by tweeting” and violating their “marriage vows” while she was serving as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump.
She was Trump’s campaign manager and became the first woman to run a winning presidential campaign when he beat twice-failed Democrat Hillary Clinton.
However, her husband, George Conway, became one of Trump’s biggest critics.
In her new book, Here’s the Deal: A Memoir, she sets the record straight.
She writes:
“HEADING INTO THE school year in the fall of 2018, all four Conway children were thriving.
“They were with me full-time in D.C. My mom had moved in with us to help with my Core Four.
“George was spending chunks of time in New York at the firm, where he voluntarily went from partner to an of-counsel role, spending his nights alone at our house in Alpine, New Jersey, 240 miles away from D.C.
“The numbers don’t lie.
“During this time, the frequency and ferocity of his tweets accelerated.
“Clearly, he was cheating by tweeting.
“I was having a hard time competing with his new fling.
“I had already said publicly what I’d said privately to George: that his daily deluge of insults-by-tweet against my boss — or, as he put it sometimes, ‘the people in the White House’ — violated our marriage vows to ‘love, honor, and cherish’ each other.
“Those vows, of course, do not mean we must agree about politics or policies or even the president.
“In our democracy, as in our marriage, George was free to disagree, even if it meant a complete 180 from his active support for Trump-Pence–My Wife–2016 and a whiplash change in character from privately brilliant to publicly bombastic.
“Whoop-de-do, George!” I said to him.
“You are one of millions of people who don’t like the president. Congrats.”
“The usual silence.
“I continued: ‘But you are one of one whose wife is counselor to the president. You shouldn’t criticize me publicly. And when did you become so mean? That is so not you.’
“George’s answers were always the same. Trump, Trump, Trump . . .
“The reflexive, obsessive, formulaic ‘but Trump’ slur that permeated half the Congress and half the country was now dominating half the Conway couple.
“On one side was my marriage and my husband.
“On the other was my job and my boss. George was mixing the two of them in a highly combustible manner.
“I was able to keep these things separate and in perspective.
“George should have, too, but it seemed the flood of reaction and attention he was receiving was magnetic and irresistible.”
She goes on to recall the frictions her anti-Trump husband created in the White House.
“I was summoned to the back dining room, where the president was seated in his usual place with his back to the windows, a jar of Starbursts, and a muted TV in front of him,” Conway said.
“I’d been in there countless times and for just as many reasons.
“I always tried to be prepared for whatever might come up.
“But this was one of a handful of times that President Trump would mention George to me at all and one of just three times that he would do so in a frustrated tone of voice.
“As soon as I walked in, I immediately recognized the perturbed look on the president’s face—and the voice emanating from the box. It was Melania’s.
“The first lady was on the phone.
“’Can you believe this?’ Trump said, referring to George’s recent eruptions. ‘This guy is nasty. He won’t stop. And it’s our Kellyanne. She’s my top person. She knows a lot, too! What are we going to do?’
“Melania’s calm voice piped in immediately as my mouth closed and my eyes widened. ‘Donald,’ she said, ‘this is not her fault. And she is a big girl. Strong and confident.’
“Melania wasn’t done. ‘We don’t control our husbands—and you don’t control us!’
“Trump couldn’t argue with that.
“I didn’t ask for any of this.
“I felt awkward and embarrassed that the president of the United States and the first lady had to spend even a minute on this and yet felt relieved and protected from what was becoming an armful of harmful,” she wrote.
