Kellyanne Conway says Trump lost in 2020 -- and blames campaign for not telling him the 'grim reality'

Former Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway acknowledges in her new book that former President Donald Trump legitimately lost the 2020 presidential election, and she blames his campaign for not leveling with him.

Politico reports that Conway accused the campaign of failing to execute its strategy for securing a second term, and then refusing to own up to its mistakes after Trump's defeat.

"Despite the mountains of money Trump had raised, his team simply failed to get the job done," Conway writes in her new book, "Here's the Deal." "Rather than accepting responsibility for the loss, they played along and lent full-throated encouragement (privately, not on TV) when Trump kept insisting he won."

It was this refusal to admit their failings that fed into Trump's delusions that he could somehow reverse the outcome of the election, writes Conway.

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"The team had failed on November 3, and they failed again afterward," she argues. "By not confronting the candidate with the grim reality of his situation, that the proof had not surfaced to support the claims, they denied him the evidence he sought and the respect he was due. Instead supplicant after sycophant after showman genuflected in front of the Resolute Desk and promised the president goods they could not deliver."

Conway also says that this left many Trump supporters "stuck in a parallel universe" where they really believed he would never leave office, or would even be "reinstated" at a later date.

Read more of Politico's report at this link.