Tag: Kellyanne Conway

White House moves to bar counselor Kellyanne Conway from testifying to Congress about alleged violations of Hatch Act

Washington Post logoThe White House will block counselor Kellyanne Conway from testifying before a House panel about allegations by a government watchdog that she violated the Hatch Act, increasing the likelihood of another subpoena battle between the two branches of government.

White House lawyers planned to reject the House Oversight Committee’s request for Conway to appear at a Wednesday hearing, according to two White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity Monday to freely discuss private deliberations.

The White House counsel will argue that in accordance with long-standing precedent, staff in the West Wing do not testify before Congress.

View the complete June 24 article by John Wagner, Rachel Bade and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump fires the polling firm Kellyanne Conway built over leak of polls he said didn’t exist

“They’re giving out phony polls.”

Days after President Donald Trump was caught gaslighting the American people about an embarrassing campaign poll that he falsely claimed did not exist, he has taken action. Rather than change the conduct and message that has made him the most consistently unpopular president in modern times, he has instead opted to change the messenger.

Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign reportedly dismissed three longtime pollsters over the leak of an internal poll that showed him trailing Joe Biden badly in several key states. They included Michael Baselice, Adam Geller, and Brett Loyd. The latter name is particularly noteworthy: he is president and CEO of the polling company inc./WomanTrend, the public opinion firm created by Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway back in 1995.

While polling about an election that’s still more than a year away is notoriously unreliable, it is significant that the president of the United States — who, as a candidate, vowed to America “I will never lie to you” — flat out lied about the existence of his own poll.

View the complete June 17 article by Josh Israel on the ThinkProgress website here.

Oversight Committee Schedules Hearing On Conway’s Hatch Act Violations

The Trump administration is refusing to act on Kellyanne Conway’s constant lawbreaking, and a House committee chairman has had enough.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which is headed by a Trump appointee, announced Thursday that Conway repeatedly violated the Hatch Act, a law prohibiting certain federal employees from “engaging in partisan political activity” while in their official government capacity, and recommended she be fired. The OSC cited more than half a dozen television interviews Conway had given as examples of her violating the law.

However, the White House isn’t budging and dismissed the idea that she would be punished. But Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-M.D.,) the chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, announced late Thursday that Conway is not off the hook, and scheduled a hearing with the OSC.

View the complete June 14 article by Mike Stankiewicz on the National Memo website here.

Oversight Committee Schedules Hearing On Conway’s Hatch Act Violations

The Trump administration is refusing to act on Kellyanne Conway’s constant lawbreaking, and a House committee chairman has had enough.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which is headed by a Trump appointee, announced Thursday that Conway repeatedly violated the Hatch Act, a law prohibiting certain federal employees from “engaging in partisan political activity” while in their official government capacity, and recommended she be fired. The OSC cited more than half a dozen television interviews Conway had given as examples of her violating the law.

However, the White House isn’t budging and dismissed the idea that she would be punished. But Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-M.D.,) the chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, announced late Thursday that Conway is not off the hook, and scheduled a hearing with the OSC.

View the complete June 14 article by Mike Stankiewicz on the National Memo here.

Trump says he will not fire Kellyanne Conway for Hatch Act violations

President Trump said Friday he will not fire Kellyanne Conway as White House counselor for violating the Hatch Act, rebuking the recommendation of a top federal watchdog.

“No, I’m not going to fire her. I think she’s a terrific person,” Trump said during a call-in interview on “Fox & Friends.”

The president’s comments came one day after the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) publicly said Conway should be removed from office, calling her a “repeat offender” who has flouted the law barring federal employees from engaging in political activity in their official duties.

View the complete June 14 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Federal watchdog recommends Conway be removed from role for Hatch Act violations

A federal watchdog agency on Thursday urged President Trump to remove Kellyanne Conway as White House counselor over repeated violations of the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in elections in their official capacity.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) sent a 17-page report to Trump accusing Conway of breaking the law on numerous occasions “by disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media” and calling on the president to oust her “immediately.”

“As a highly visible member of the administration, Ms. Conway’s violations, if left unpunished, would send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act’s restrictions,” special counsel Henry Kerner wrote to Trump. “Her actions thus erode the principal foundation of our democratic system — the rule of law.”

View the complete June 13 article by Jordan Fabian and Al Weaver on The Hill website here.

Trump scolded and embarrassed Kellyanne Conway in front of a journalist: report

In an excerpt from his upcoming book, “The Best People: Trump’s Cabinet and the Siege on Washington,” author Alexander Nazaryan describes an interview with the president in the Oval Office where Donald Trump humiliated White House adviser Kellyanne Conway as she sat there and smiled and said nothing.

According to Nazaryan, he met with the president to get his take on how members of his cabinet — past and present — have performed, with the president forced to read from a tip sheet sitting on his desk that contained boilerplate compliments about his many appointees.

Trump stated that HUD Secretary Ben Carson, “has done a very good job,” and perfunctorily called Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue all “great.” But the author noted the president didn’t have anything to say about Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

View the complete June 6 article by Tom Boggioni of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Kellyanne Conway Broke the Law Attacking Joe Biden in the White House Driveway and Should Be Fired: Bush Ethics Chief

A chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush accused Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway of breaking federal law yet again for bashing former Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on the White House driveway the past two days.

Conway, while speaking to reporters on Tuesday and Wednesday, talked down Biden. Former ethics chief Richard Painter flagged these actions as violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees other than elected officials from using their official positions to influence the result of an election.

“Oh we must be worried about Biden,” Conway said on Wednesday. “Look at what Kellyanne said today, so thanks for the free commercial on all the things Joe Biden didn’t get done for the eight years he was vice president.”

View the complete May 2 article by Jessica Kwong on The Newsweek website here.

Kellyanne Conway reveals her deep cluelessness as drug policy adviser with bogus claim about marijuana

Among other roles in the Trump administration, Kellyanne Conway is the White House’s opioid crisis czar. But a comment she made last month demonstrates how totally clueless and unqualified for the job she is.

At a news conference before briefing Trump on the latest developments in the opioid crisis, Conway took on fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid linked to an ever-increasing number of overdose deaths in the country. The presidential adviser warned that fentanyl was turning up in other drugs, which is true. The illicit drug is showing up not only in heroin, where it might be expected to add to the opioid’s kick, but also in other powder drugs whose users are not even looking for an opioid high, such as the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine.

The concern about drugs being adulterated with fentanyl is warranted. But Conway went a step further in her remarks, making a claim that would require only a moment’s thought (or some actual familiarity with illicit drugs) for her to realize was not only false but ludicrous.

View the complete April 1 article by Philip Smith on the Independent Media Institute on the AlterNet website here.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace takes on Kellyanne Conway over Trump’s claims of exoneration: ‘Just isn’t true’

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace badgered White House advisor Kellyanne Conway early Sunday morning over President Donald Trump’s claim of total exoneration, with Conway repeatedly attempting to bat it away.

“The special counsel cleared the president on collusion, absolutely no question about it. But he especially did not clear him on the question of obstruction, so why is the president telling Americans something that is not true?” Wallace pressed.

As Conway insisted Trump had not fired special counsel Robert Mueller, Wallace pulled her up short.

View the complete March 31 article by Tom Boggioni of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.