- Kellyanne Conway, a top counselor to President Donald Trump, made a forceful case for the president’s reelection in a speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night.
- One of the president’s fiercest and longest-serving advisers, Conway attempted to humanize Trump.
- “President trump and Vice President Pence have lifted Americans, provided them with dignity, opportunity and results,” Conway said in her remarks. “[Trump] has stood by me, and he will stand up for you.”
- Conway’s speech comes just days after she announced she’ll be leaving White House post this week, citing a need to focus on her family.
- Her husband is an outspoken critic of the president.
Kellyanne Conway, a top counselor to President Donald Trump, made a forceful case for the president’s reelection in a speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night.
One of the president’s fiercest and longest-serving advisers, Conway attempted to humanize Trump, arguing that he’s surrounded himself with women like herself and regularly provides emotional support to struggling Americans.
“President Trump and Vice President Pence have lifted Americans, provided them with dignity, opportunity and results,” Conway said in her pre-recorded remarks. “[Trump] has stood by me, and he will stand up for you.”
The White House adviser focused on the administration’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis, which she was involved in. Conway claimed that the president had done much to alleviate the crisis, but after a decrease in 2018, fatal drug overdoses rose last year by over 4%.
The coronavirus pandemic has severely exacerbated the crisis — drug overdoses spiked 18% in March, 29% in April, and 42% in May over last year.
“We have a long way to go, but the political inertia that cost lives and the silence and the stigma that prevents people in need fro coming forward is melting away,” she said.
Conway’s speech comes just days after she announced she’ll be leaving White House post this week, citing a need to focus on her family.
“This is completely my choice and my voice,” she said in a statement posted to Twitter. “In time, I will announce future plans. For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama.”
The 53-year-old veteran GOP operative is perhaps best known for the false statements, spin, and lies she delivered as a surrogate for Trump both on the campaign trail and over the last nearly four years in the White House. Shortly after Trump was sworn into office, Conway infamously coined the term “alternative facts,” in reference to then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s blatantly false claims about the number of people who attended Trump’s inauguration.
Conway’s husband, conservative attorney George Conway, has become an outspoken anti-Trump activist in recent years and helped found the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, which has endorsed Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
—Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) August 24, 2020
George Conway’s public attacks on Trump — he’s called the president a “sociopath,” a “malignant narcissist,” and “a pathological liar,” among many other descriptors — have attracted significant media attention. The president lashed out at him on Twitter last year, calling him a “a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!” and accused him of being “VERY jealous of his wife’s success.”
Kellyanne called her husband’s sharp criticism of her boss “disrespectful” in a 2018 interview with The Washington Post.
“It’s a violation of basic decency, certainly, if not marital vows,” she said.
Last week, one of the Conways’ daughters, Claudia, who is 15, publicly announced she is seeking “emancipation” from her parents after months of publicly criticizing their politics.
George announced last Sunday that he would step back from his work with the Lincoln Project to deal with family issues.
In the announcement of her departure, Kellyanne said that she and her husband “disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids.”
Kellyanne joined the Trump campaign as its manager in August 2016 and helped lead it to victory a few months later, becoming the first women to manage a winning presidential campaign — a fact she’s repeated often, including in her speech on Wednesday night.
—ABC News (@ABC) August 27, 2020
