Kellyanne Conway engaged in a tense back-and-forth with a college student who asked about her repeated Hatch Act violations during her tenure in the White House.
The exchange with the 2016 Trump campaign manager and senior counselor to President Donald Trump took place Thursday night during an event at the University of Iowa.
“Why did your former administration find and recommend that you be removed from office for numerous and habitual violations of the Hatch Act?” a young man asked Conway.
The GOP pollster, who has been touring the country with Young America’s Foundation as a part of its campus lecture series, told the student that people sought to pin violations of the act on her since she has “no subpoenas, no scandals, no indictments, no investigations, no Jan. 6 exposure — nothing. So they came up with the Hatch Act.”
The Hatch Act bars most federal employees from political activity, such as campaigning, in the course of their work. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel did find that Conway repeatedly violated the act. After accusing her of “disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media” in the summer of 2019, the OSC also said Conway should be removed from office, but the White House refused. Another report came out in November 2021 that named Conway as one of more than a dozen Trump administration officials who violated the act.
During her appearance Thursday, Conway touched on some of the examples of violations she was cited for by the OSC, particularly her comments about Democratic senators who ran for president in 2020.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker sounded more like a Hallmark card than a senator running for president, she said. “I said that Elizabeth Warren had lied about being a Native American for 36 years,” she added.
TRUMP SAYS KELLYANNE CONWAY TOTALLY DESTROYED HER MENTALLY ILL HUSBAND
“Fact check: true. But you just don’t want to hear it. You don’t want to hear the facts,” Conway continued.
“Your administration found you and recommended your removal, the Trump administration, your appointee,” the student began before Conway interjected, “I’m shivering now.”
“Do you understand how it looks to be asked to be removed from the position that you were in by the president that appointed you?” the student started up again.
“And was I? He didn’t ask to remove me,” she responded.
“You resigned!” the man claimed.
“I didn’t resign for that reason,” Conway told him. “I resigned for my family. What are you talking about?”
Conway indeed served as Trump’s senior counselor until August 2020, when she left citing the need to focus on family.
Conway joked about the questioner being an actor, asking, “Is he OK? Like, I’m waiting for … like, people to come out with streamers. Are you an actor or a student?”
She further called the “entire exercise and taxpayer money and a day’s worth of hearings” and alleged Hatch Act violations “entirely meaningless.”
Conway reiterated that she was never removed, adding, “It meant nothing. It was completely meaningless.”
Conway is set to appear at a rally in Nebraska on Friday alongside the former president. Trump called Kellyanne’s husband, George Conway, a “mentally ill, a very sick man” in a statement Thursday.
“I don’t know what Kellyanne did to him, but it must have been really bad,” Trump said. “She has totally destroyed this guy — his mind is completely shot!”
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
“No, he’s mentally ill, a very sick man. I don’t know what Kellyanne did to him, but it must have been really bad. She has totally destroyed this guy—his mind is completely shot!” pic.twitter.com/9uVC4KLuKE
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) April 28, 2022
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George Conway responded on Twitter, saying, “Hey, when’s your guy gonna produce his DNA in Jean Carroll’s lawsuit?” referring to a sexual assault allegation against the former president, who denies the claim.
