“I look at myself as a product of my choices, not a victim of my circumstances.”

—Kellyanne Conway

 

ou can’t wade into the tweet storm George Conway started with President Trump without thinking about what his marriage to Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s most ardent supporter and top White House Counselor, must be like. Are they unequally yoked, is he simply jealous of his wife’s high-powered position or is it something more nefarious? No matter the reason, the optics are bad.

After firing off acerbic tweets at Trump this past weekend, where George Conway questioned Trump’s mental health, he told the media he needs to vent his frustration about Donald Trump because he doesn’t want to scream at his wife. Not surprisingly, this response went over like a lead balloon, reinforcing the impression with the public that he is a man who doesn’t respect his wife, who also just happens to hold one of the highest positions in the nation.

There has been little written about either Conway because the press refuses to recognize Trump’s legitimacy as a President, and by extension, that means Kellyanne Conway is not fawned over by mainstream media. However, George Conway’s tweets are making the progressive left’s knees weak in excitement over dirty laundry. What has been written about Kellyanne, beginning with the inauguration coverage of her, has been overwhelmingly negative. From what I could glean from the few interviews she has given and from those I have personally watched, there is no doubt she has a quick mind and has no trouble standing up for herself. Both her admirers and enemies alike have described her as a tough trial lawyer with a steel-trap mind.

Although Kellyanne was the first women to ever successfully manage a winning presidential campaign, she started her journey as a tough, can-do Jersey girl from the predominately Catholic town of Hammonton, where she attended a Catholic high school, was a good student and a cheerleader who worked on parade floats and picked blue berries to earn cash. But it might surprise some that she, too, is a smart lawyer like husband George.

After completing high school, Conway studied politics at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C. During her junior year abroad at Oxford, England, Cosmopolitan Magazine reports she met future GOP pollster Frank Luntz. Back in the states, Luntz introduced her to Reagan pollster Dick Wirthlin, who gave Conway a summer job, where she interned in the polling industry.

Kellyanne graduated Trinity and went on to complete her law degree at George Washington University in 1992, passing the bar in three states and the District of Columbia and clerking for a federal judge, but Conway returned to polling and launched her own business, The Polling Company, at age 28. Around this same time, CNN hired her on as a Gen X political analyst for the 1996 presidential campaign. Prior to her work on the Trump campaign, Kellyanne worked as a polling contractor for both the Ted Cruz and Ben Carson campaigns among other gubernatorial campaign elections.

Husband George Conway is also his own self-made man. Notably, he was one of the lawyers who represented Paula Jones in her lawsuit against former President Bill Clinton. During his representation of Jones, he worked closely with Republican commentator Ann Coulter and news aggregator Matt Drudge. It has also been said that he once dated Laura Ingraham, but that it was Ann Coulter who connected him to Kellyanne after he spotted her on the cover of a magazine and called Coulter for an introduction.

The pair have been married 17 years and have four children. As newlyweds, the couple moved into Trump Tower in New York, where they met Donald Trump. George was tapped to have the Trump name removed from the tower and was offered a position on the condo board. He turned it down, but Kellyanne took the job. A move he says he wished he’d never discussed with Kellyanne. The family ultimately settled in suburban New Jersey. Kellyanne’s polling company had her traveling between New York and Washington, D.C. while George worked as a litigation partner at the firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz in New York.

The hard-working pair were doing more than well financially. According to Business Insider, Kellyanne and George Conway were worth $39 million before her work began for Trump. Following the election of Donald Trump, Kellyanne moved to Washington for her new job in the White House and George and the kids followed soon after the school year ended. The pair moved into an almost $8 million home in the prestigious Embassy Row area.

The Washington Post reported that when the networks called the election for Trump, George reportedly began to cry and tell everyone at the Midtown Manhattan Hilton about Kellyanne: “She did it! She did it! She made history.” In interviews following Trump’s election, Kellyanne told media she couldn’t have done it without George, who took care of the children back at home while she campaigned.

As the couple swept into Washington, it was said that Trump was reportedly considering George for a position in the Justice Department’s civil division or to serve as U.S. Solicitor General, but George withdrew his name from consideration purportedly because he didn’t want to work for a Justice Department that was at odds with the President. According to the Washington Post, George reportedly turned down the offer after Trump fired FBI director James Comey and when the special counsel’s investigation of Russia’s interference in U.S. elections gained traction.

The press has gone into overdrive this week, spending digital ink on George’s attack tweets and Kellyanne’s remarks defending the President. It is not an enviable position to be in. The Washington Post reported that Kellyanne said she thought George’s tweets were “disrespectful.” “It’s a violation of basic decency, certainly, if not marital vows.”

Regardless of whether the Post’s quotes are true, Kellyanne is doing what she was hired to do when she told Politico, “He [George] left it alone for months out of respect for me. But you think he [President Trump] shouldn’t respond when somebody, a non-medical professional accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?” When asked if the row between her husband and boss affected her job performance, Kellyanne said, “I think it probably looks differently if everybody is turning into ‘Gossip Girl.’”

Theories on the state of the Conway’s marriage run from Kellyanne is in an abusive relationship to she’s a terrible feminist because she takes her bosses’ side over her husband. More concerning, is the theory bouncing around on the internet that the pair are actually behind the White House staff leaks. Regardless of what you may believe, the Conways are not the first power couple in Washington to be scrutinized by the press over opposing views. Whether their marriage and careers weather the storm, however, it would behoove George Conway to temper his own viewpoint and do what any husband should do—support his wife. After all, George could make more gold in a post tell-all book than airing insults at the President while his wife is earning money to serve in Trump’s White House, all of which makes him look more unhinged than the President. Worse, it makes him looks like a husband from hell—and not a very bright one at that. #Reignwell