Kellyanne Conway said her husband's anti-Trump tweets were 'a violation of basic decency' if not their 'marital vows' - but wanted to be identified as 'a person familiar with their relationship'
- White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told a reporter that her husband's anti-Trump tweets were "disrespectful" and "a violation of basic decency," but she only wanted to be quoted on background.
- The reporter refused.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway recently shared some strong words about her husband's viral anti-Trump tweets with a reporter, but only wanted to be quoted as "a person familiar with their relationship."
Washington Post reporter Ben Terris published an extensive profile of the dynamic between Conway and her husband, conservative lawyer George Conway, on Tuesday. It was the first story in which the two opened up about how President Donald Trump has complicated their relationship.
For more than a year, George has been publicly critical of the president on Twitter, while Kellyanne is often on TV defending him. In the Post profile, George, who introduced Kellyanne to Trump, said he now wishes he never did.
Kellyanne, meanwhile, said she believes there is a part of George "that thinks I chose Donald Trump over him," which she said "is ridiculous."
But asked about her husband's anti-Trump tweets, Conway said they are "disrespectful."
"I think it disrespects his wife," she said.
A few days later, Terris circled back on the remark. And Kellyanne expanded on her thoughts.
"It is disrespectful, it's a violation of basic decency, certainly, if not marital vows," she said, then asking to have that quote attributed to "a person familiar with their relationship."
Terris refused, saying they were on the record during this portion of the discussion.
"You can't say after the fact 'as someone familiar,'" Terris said.
"I told you everything about his tweets was off the record," Kellyanne responded.
"No, that's not true," Terris said. "That never happened."
Kellyanne pivoted to framing her original comment not as her own thoughts, but of how other people view her husband's tweets.
"Well, people do see it this way," she said. "People do see it that way, I don't say I do, but people see it that way."
"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," she added.
For his part, George disagreed with her assessment, saying Kellyanne's "problem is with her boss, not me."
"If my wife were the counselor to the CEO of Pepsi and I had a problem with her boss, I would simply drink my Coke and keep my mouth shut," he said. "If the president were simply mediocre or even bad, I'd have nothing to say. This is much different."