White House counselor Kellyanne Conway did not rule out that President Trump may oust more administration officials now that his Senate impeachment trial is over.
Conway appeared on Fox News on Monday morning and discussed the White House’s next steps following the president’s acquittal by the Senate last week, after which Trump stripped Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman of his National Security Council detail and recalled Ambassador Gordon Sondland from his post at the European Union. Both men had testified in the House as part of a Democrat-led impeachment investigation. Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, was also stripped of his NSC detail.
When asked if Trump planned to reassign more officials, Conway answered, “Maybe.”
She then defended Trump’s decision to relocate Sondland and the Vindmans, saying that “they are employed today.” The White House counselor also hit back at allegations that Trump was retaliating against the officials over their impeachment testimonies.
“They’re working at the Army — where they were. They were detailed to the NSC staff. This is typical. I’ve had detailees on my small staff. This is very typical in a White House to have a detailee for a temporary period of time who then returns to what their full-time job is,” Conway said. “In the case of Ambassador Sondland … it was nice of the president to give him that post in the first place.”
Conway declined to say whether the reassignments had stopped but suggested that people working in the White House who disagree with Trump’s leadership or agenda should quit.
“Why would you want to be here if you don’t — if you’re spending your time writing books and op-eds instead of trying to at least do what many of us do,” Conway said, referring to the author of Anonymous, the anonymously written White House memoir critical of Trump.
