White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and her husband, conservative attorney George Conway, are not the first political couple with different views. But the others — Democratic strategist James Carville and outspoken conservative Mary Matalin, “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC — haven’t displayed near as extreme a cleavage as the Conways. And journalist Gabriel Sherman examines the Conways’ radically different views on President Donald Trump and some of the fallout this week in a Vanity Fair report.
Kellyanne Conway is one of Trump’s most aggressive defenders, while her husband is a Never Trump conservative who absolutely despises the president. Sherman reports that according to “three sources close to George,” the Conways’ relationship has “become increasingly distant as impeachment has gained steam.”
A Republican insider, quoted anonymously, told Vanity Fair that George Conway “tells people she’s in a cult.” And another source identified by Sherman as “close to George” told Vanity Fair, “It’s not going to get better until she’s cast out of the cult.”
Sherman reports, “Sources say George currently spends much of the time working out of Manhattan. When he sees Kellyanne in Washington, they rarely talk about Trump, except for some ‘passive-aggressive digs,’ a person familiar with the conversations told me.”
Trump, Sherman notes, is furious over George Conway’s relentless attacks, and White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner — according to a Sherman source — has pushed for his father-in-law to force Kellyanne Conway out of the administration because of her husband.
“Jared wants her gone. There’s real friction,” a White House source told Vanity Fair. And another anonymous source also described friction between Kellyanne Conway and Kushner, saying, “Kellyanne has complained that Jared has tried to do a number on her from day one.”