Trump aide Kellyanne Conway to leave White House, citing need to focus on family
Husband George Conway, a prominent Washington lawyer, also to step back from public life 24 hours after teenage daughter tweets she is seeking emancipation
Kellyanne Conway, a long-serving adviser to US President Donald Trump known for sparring with reporters, announced Sunday she will step down to focus on her family.
Conway, 53, has been at Trump’s side since day one, managing his 2016 campaign that catapulted the reality TV star into the world’s most powerful office.
But the past four years of singular loyalty to Trump, including defending him on TV and with informal “gaggles” with the press, have taken a toll.
Her husband, prominent Washington lawyer George Conway, is one of Twitter’s most prolific Trump critics, repeatedly and loudly questioning the president’s mental fitness for office.
The politically adversarial marriage generated much speculation in the Beltway and online.
George Conway also announced Sunday that he was taking a leave of absence from both Twitter and the Lincoln Project, an outside group of Republicans devoted to defeating Trump.
Also, Conway’s 15-year-old daughter Claudia wrote on Twitter Saturday that she was “devastated” that her mother would speak at the Republican convention, and pledged to seek legal emancipation “due to years of childhood trauma and abuse.”
Less than 24 hours later, Kellyanne Conway tweeted a statement that closes by saying: “For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama.”
Conway said she would step down by the end of the month and that her husband George would also be making some changes.
“We disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids,” she wrote.
She is still slated to speak at the Republican National Convention this week.
Kellyanne Conway worked for years as a Republican pollster and operative and originally supported Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican primary.
She moved over to the Trump campaign and that August became campaign manager as Stephen Bannon became campaign chairman; Bannon was indicted two days ago for fraud.
She had remained a trusted voice within the West Wing and spearheaded several initiatives, including on combating opioid abuse.
She was also known for her robust defense of the president in media appearances, at times delivering dizzying rebuttals while once extolling the virtues of “alternative facts” to support her case. Conway was also an informal adviser to the president’s reelection effort but resisted moving over to the campaign.
Her departure comes at an inopportune time for Trump, who faces a deficit in the polls as the Republican National Convention begins on Monday. Her exit was first reported by The Washington Post.
