Kellyanne Conway discussed her new memoir on CBS Mornings Tuesday, and she offered some unusual praise for her former boss, Donald Trump.
The former presidential counselor talked about Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election, saying, “I’ve always had a great relationship with President Trump, and I go on and on in the book of how protective he was of me, my family. He was a great girlboss.”
The term girlboss, popularized in 2014 by clothing retailer CEO Sophia Amoruso in her book of the same name, refers to a successful woman leader who has faced sexism in her rise to the top.
Conway’s praise, or attempt at it, seemed to be an effort at damage control. In her book, Here’s the Deal, which a critic for Kirkus called “bilious, querulous, and preposterous,” Conway admits that Trump lost the 2020 election, which runs counter to the former president’s repeated claims that the race was stolen from him.
She says that she told Trump that he had lost, a claim that he disputed last week on his website Truth Social, writing, “Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election. If she had, I wouldn’t have dealt with her any longer—she would have been wrong—could go back to her crazy husband. Writing books can make people say some very strange things. I wonder why?”
On CBS Mornings, Conway maintained that she had told the truth about the election to Trump. “I did say that, and it broke my heart,” she said. “I wish he were still the president, because…I think this man-made disaster of Biden-Harris has hurt a lot of people.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
