Kellyanne Conway suggests her husband George’s anti-Trump tweets violated their "marital vows"

Conway speaks out about husband's tweets for the very first time: "It's a violation of basic decency, certainly"

Published August 16, 2018 4:30PM (EDT)

Kellyanne Conway (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Kellyanne Conway (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Kellyanne Conway has spoken out for the first time about her husband George's tweets bashing her boss, and she suggested the public anti-Trump rants have possibly violated their "marital vows."

During an interview with Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, Conway called her husband's tweets against the commander-in-chief both "disrespectful" and a "violation of basic decency."

Now counselor to the president, Trump's former 2016 campaign manager asked Terris to be quoted as a "person familiar with the relationship" instead by her own name. When Terris, who was working on a story about the couple's marriage, said no, Conway acquiesced.

"Fine. I've never actually said what I think about it," she demurred. "And I won't say what I think about it, which tells you what I think about it."

Terris published his full exchange with Conway Wednesday in The Washington Post. It is a detailed profile of how Conway's job at the White House has impacted her relationship with her husband, himself a former Trump supporter who would emerge as one of the president's most ardent critics (on his preferred social media platform, too).

Throughout the past year and a half, the conservative lawyer, who Trump once considered nominating to be solicitor general, has railed against the president on Twitter. Now, Conway's husband "wishes he had never introduced his wife to Trump in the first place," according to The Washington Post.

Although he has since removed many of his anti-Trump tweets, one that remains on his account from March slammed a report that Trump's attorneys discussed pardons for former aides Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort as "flabbergasting."

In June, Conway's husband also penned a 3,500-word essay, in which he blasted Trump's tweet calling the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller "UNCONSTITUTIONAL!" as a "meritless legal position" based in an argument from a conservative legal scholar that is "uncomplicatedly, flatly wrong."

Earlier this year, Conway, who has been one of the most visible faces of the Trump administration, shamed CNN host Dana Bash on live TV for asking about her husband's Twitter account.

"It's fascinating to me that CNN would go there," Conway said at the time. "But it's very good for the whole world to just witness that it's now fair game how people's spouses and significant others may differ with them." She then accused the anchor of trying to "harass and embarrass" by asking the personal question.

When The Post's Ben Terris asked Conway's husband about the tweets, he dodged the question by saying, "her problem is with her boss – not me." He also noted he was "holding back a little" for his wife.

"It's an outlet that keeps it a small part of my life," Conway's husband said. "It's a quick easy way to express myself that keeps me from making it a bigger part of my life."

He also hinted that he was ready for his wife to leave her post at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"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," George Conway said. "If the president were simply mediocre or even bad, I’d have nothing to say. This is much different."

Later in the profile, he added: "If there's an issue, it's because she's in that job for that man."

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By Shira Tarlo

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