‘Gratefully & humbly’: Kellyanne Conway leaving White House

Both said they want to focus on their family. The couple have four children together.

Kellyanne Conway, who built a powerhouse Republican polling firm, became the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign in 2016 upon Trump’s victory in the 2016 general election. The veteran Republican pollster went on to become one of the most ardent defenders of Trump during his first term as president.

She announced her departure on the eve of the Republican National Convention, sharing a statement with a tweet that said she is leaving the White House “Gratefully & Humbly” after more than three and a half years.

“The past four years have allowed me blessings beyond compare as a part of history on Election Night 2016 and as Senior Counselor to the President. It’s been heady. It’s been humbling. I am deeply grateful to the President for this honor, and to the First Lady, the Vice President and Mrs. Pence, my colleagues in the White House and the Administration, and the countless people who supported me and my work,” Conway wrote in a statement. “As many convention speakers will demonstrate this week, President Trump’s leadership has had a measurable, positive impact on the peace and prosperity of the nation, and on millions of Americans who feel forgotten no more.”

Conway said she would be “transitioning” from the White House at the end of August.

“George is also making changes,” she said. “We disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids. Our four children are teens and ‘tweens starting a new academic year, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months. As millions of parents nationwide know, kids ‘doing school from home’ requires a level of attention and vigilance that is as unusual as these times. This is completely my choice and my voice. In time, I will announce future plans. For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama.”

Neither Trump nor the White House had commented on Conway’s departure just before midnight on Sunday.

Conway has been a fierce defender of the president, even as her husband criticized and mocked her boss on a daily basis.

George Conway said he would also be taking a break from all social media while announcing that he would be stepping back from the Lincoln Project.

“So I’m withdrawing from @ProjectLincoln to devote more time to family matters. And I’ll be taking a Twitter hiatus. Needless to say, I continue to support the Lincoln Project and its mission. Passionately,” he wrote in a tweet.

The couple’s 15-year-old daughter, Claudia Conway, has made repeated public outbursts against both her parents, speaking to media outlets about her own political views. Her father tweeted at journalists demanding they cease communication with her.

“To journalists: @kellyannepolls and I do *not* consent to any communications between you and any of our minor children, including our daughter Claudia. So desist. Thank you,” George Conway tweeted.

“[Y]ou’re just mad that I’m finally getting my voice heard. sorry your marriage failed,” Claudia tweeted in reply to her father.

On Saturday, the teenager tweeted that she was “devastated” that her mother agreed to speak at the Republican National Convention, signaling that she was now “officially pushing for emancipation.”

Not only has there been media fascination with the political dynamic between the Conways, but early on in the administration, Kellyanne made headlines for some comments on air.

Shortly after Trump’s inauguration in 2017, one of Conway’s first media appearances on NBC’s Meet The Press previewed the forthcoming, contentious dynamic between the administration and many media institutions. Defending then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s comments about the president’s inaugural crowd size, she stated that the White House spokesperson was presenting “alternative facts.”

“Alternative facts aren’t facts, they are falsehoods,” Chuck Todd, the moderator of the show, fired back.

George Conway has publicly put his political disagreements with the president on full display. In the summer of 2018, he wrote an op-ed published by the Lawfare blog criticizing Trump for characterizing special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation as “unconstitutional.”

“It isn’t very surprising to see the president tweet a meritless legal position, because, as a non-lawyer, he wouldn’t know the difference between a good one and a bad one,” he wrote.

His criticisms have escalated in intensity since then, writing multiple opinion articles in the Washington Post that called for the president’s impeachment, tweeting barbs at the president, and co-founding the Lincoln Project, an organization whose mission statement is to defeat Trump in the general election.

On multiple occasions, Kellyanne Conway was put in the uncomfortable position to defend her boss against her husband’s criticisms. In 2019, Trump called George Conway out by name, accusing him of being envious of his wife’s successful political career. “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!” Trump tweeted.

In reaction, the presidential counselor said her boss was justified in defending himself. “You think he shouldn’t respond when somebody, a non-medical professional, accuses him of having a mental disorder?” Kellyanne Conway said. “You think he should just take that sitting down?”

After George Conway’s anti-Trump organization began taking out negative ads against the president, Trump renewed his attacks, calling him a “deranged loser of a husband, Moonface.”

In reaction, Kellyanne Conway took aim at the Lincoln Project’s other founders, several of which have advised failed Republican political campaigns. “I can’t even say I’ve seen it. But to my point, they’ve all failed. They never succeeded the way I did as campaign manager, and they never got their candidate where my candidate got. He’s president of the United States,” she said.