Tag: George Conway

George Conway: Trump can’t accept that the presidency doesn’t belong to him

The Hill logoGeorge Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conwayand a frequent critic of President Trump, argued in The Washington Post that Trump can’t accept that he doesn’t own the presidency like a business. 

“When he ran a private company, one he owned, Trump could command all its constituent parts to do his bidding and make the rules himself,” Conway wrote in an op-ed. “You’d think by his fourth year in the White House, he would have learned that the presidency doesn’t work that way. But obviously he hasn’t.”

Trump on Monday sparked controversy when he claimed he has “ultimate authority” to force governors, who have been issuing stay-at-home orders to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, to reopen schools, businesses and other institutions in their states currently shuttered by the pandemic.

 

George Conway calls for the government to reveal the classified coronavirus reports given to Trump and Congress

AlterNet logoNow that the coronavirus crisis has subsumed all other issues in American life and threatens to spiral out of control, Americans are rightfully left to wonder why their government didn’t do more to stop it and prepare for the outbreak.

George Conway, an adviser of an anti-Trump super PAC and husband to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, wrote an op-ed Wednesday with lawyer Carrie Cordero calling for the release of information that was provided to the president and Congress before the pandemic spread across the country. With this information, we could gain better insight into how political leaders have handled the crisis and whether they should have done more.

“What did the president know about the coronavirus, and when did he know it?” they asked. “What did members of Congress know, and when did they know it?” Continue reading.

There is no new Trump

Washington Post logoIf you think you’ve been hearing a different President Trump this week — more accepting of the reality of the coronavirus pandemic — don’t be fooled. The new Trump is the same as the old Trump. He can’t help it. He’s incapable of taking responsibility for his role in this crisis — and thus incapable of leading us out of it.

After weeks of denial and deflection, a seemingly chastened Trump on Monday conceded that the virus was, in fact, “not under control,” and was, indeed, “a very bad one.” What caused the switch in tone? Who knows? Perhaps it was the largest one-day point drop in the Dow Jones in history on Monday. Perhaps it was a study the White House received saying that 2.2 million Americans could die. Perhaps it was that Trump’s beloved Mar-a-Lago is getting a coronavirus-necessitated deep cleaning.

But the sudden shift can’t conceal the fact that Trump has shown himself to be wholly inept at dealing with the pandemic. It doesn’t change the fact that he puts himself first, always. It doesn’t alter the fact that, as he once told top aides, he thinks of “each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.” It doesn’t dissolve Trump’s compulsion to lie, even when truth would serve him best. It doesn’t diminish his incompetence, ignorance or propensity for administrative chaos. Continue reading.

George Conway: Trump’s ‘King Kong’ nickname has come into full fruition

Washington Post logoNot for nothing did President Trump’s first White House counsel give him the nickname “King Kong.”

Former White House counsel Donald McGahn, who resisted Trump when he sought to violate the law and sometimes engaged in “epic” “shouting matches” with him, reportedly selected the sobriquet to connote Trump’s “volcanic anger” and “emotional decision-making.”

But as Trump’s behavior this week demonstrates, the moniker fits for another reason as well. It reflects Trump’s desire to escape constraints — in particular, legal constraints. That Kong-like urge was illustrated by two developments: the president’s latest executive clemency spree and his continued attacks against the federal judiciary. Continue reading.

George Conway Suggests Why ‘Vindictive’ Trump May Need To Be Impeached Again

“America beware,” writes the husband of the president’s counselor Kellyanne Conway. “He’s very, very angry.”

Conservative attorney George Conway has penned a scorching op-ed about President Donald Trump, in the wake of the president’s firing of two witnesses who testified in the House impeachment inquiry.

Conway, who is married to the president’s counselor Kellyanne Conway, opened his Washington Post article with a quote from Trump following his Senate acquittal Thursday. “We’ll probably have to do it again, because these people have gone stone-cold crazy,” the president riffed on impeachment in the East Room.

Conway posited that, the very next day, Trump demonstrated “precisely why he could be destined to achieve that ignominious fate” with his “retaliatory” dismissals. Continue reading.

George Conway breaks down Trump’s most hilarious geographic blunders after the president whines about being mocked

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump’s circle is up in arms over a late-night CNN segment on Monday in which analysts joked that Trump — and his fanbase — are probably not smart enough to locate Ukraine on a map.

But on Tuesday, conservative lawyer and Trump critic George Conway pointed out that the president has indeed never shown any aptitude for geography — and listed off some of his most well-known and mocked blunders:  Continue reading.

George Conway: Why Trump had to hire this legal odd couple

Washington Post logoThis is what happens when you don’t pay your legal bills.

President Trump, whose businesses and now campaign have left a long trail of unpaid bills behind them, has never discriminated when it comes to stiffing people who work for him. That includes lawyers — which is part of the reason he found the need to make some curious last-minute tweaks to his team, announcing the addition of the legal odd couple of Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth W. Starr.

The president has consistently encountered difficulty in hiring good lawyers to defend him. In 2017, after Robert S. Mueller III became special counsel, Trump couldn’t find a high-end law firm that would take him as a client. His reputation for nonpayment preceded him: One major Manhattan firm I know had once been forced to eat bills for millions in bond work it once did for Trump. No doubt other members of the legal community knew of other examples. Continue reading.

George Conway and Neal Katyal educate Mitch McConnell on how to hold a real impeachment trial — and explain why John Bolton must testify

AlterNet logoAttorneys George Conway and Neal Katyal have written an editorial for the New York Times in which they call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to stop trying to protect President Donald Trump and hold a real impeachment trial in the Senate.

In particular, the editorial hammers McConnell for declaring that there’s no chance Trump will be removed from office before hearing former national security adviser John Bolton’s testimony.

“Remember that the diplomat Fiona Hill testified at the House impeachment hearings that Mr. Bolton called the pressuring of Ukraine by the administration a ‘drug deal’ and said he wanted no part of it,” they write. “Mr. Bolton himself has said that he possesses new information that has not been revealed. He even gave a speech saying that some of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy decisions were made in his self-interest, not in the interest of the American people.” Continue reading.

Foiled in 2016, ‘Never Trump’ Republicans launch new super PAC in effort to oust Trump in 2020

Washington Post logoSeveral prominent Republicans who have loudly opposed President Trump launched a major fundraising campaign Tuesday to try to help beat him in 2020, vowing that cold, hard cash will be more effective in blunting him than the public warnings from the failed “Never Trump” movement three years ago.

In a New York Times op-ed, the group — which includes lawyer George T. Conway and former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt — announced the formation of the Lincoln Project, a super PAC aimed at persuading enough disaffected conservatives and independents in swing states to tip the vote against Trump and defeat pro-Trump congressional candidates, even at risk of losing Republican control of the Senate.

Organizers said they plan to begin purchasing television and digital ads in January.

“Our efforts will be dedicated to defeating President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box and to elect those patriots who will hold the line,” Conway and Schmidt wrote in the editorial, also signed by Republican operatives John Weaver and Rick Wilson. “Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain, but our shared fidelity to the Constitution dictates a common effort.” Continue reading

Ex-Republican lawmakers tear down Trump team’s excuses for ignoring subpoenas: ‘Our constitutional system requires that Congress have access’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has no right to prevent Congress from obtaining the testimony of White House Counsel Don McGahn through a subpoena as the House pursues impeachment, according to a new legal filing made by twenty former Republican lawmakers, government officials, and legal experts.

The filing, as Politico reported, argues on an originalist and conservative basis that the president does not have the authority to unilaterally undermine congressional oversight. This position is in tension, somewhat, with Attorney General Bill Barr’s conservative legal view and disposition which favors expansive presidential powers and discretion — at least when a Republican is in the White House.

The argument takes the form of an amicus brief, which is filed by parties who are not subjects of the dispute but want to offer an opinion on the case. It was organized by Protect Democracy, a group that sprang up in response to Trump’s presidency.  Continue reading