George Conway, a conservative Washington attorney, posted polling results indicating support for a challenge to President Donald Trump in 2020. The catch: Conway is the husband of presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, who is one of the president's most loyal supporters and serves as one of the Trump administration's more prominent and most effective spokespeople.
It all began when Haley Byrd, a reporter for The Weekly Standard, tweeted poll results highlighted in an article titled "How Conservatives Can Win Back Young Americans." She highlighted the following statistic:
An incredible 82 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters between the ages of 18 and 24 say they “want another Republican to challenge President Trump for the party’s nomination in 2020.” So do 57 percent of those aged 25 to 34 and 58 percent of those aged 35 to 44. Compare that number with the 74 percent of Republicans over the age of 65 who oppose a primary challenge, and you’ve got a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon.
"The Trump divide here tells you everything you need to know about the current age dynamics of the Republican Party," she wrote, noting that the poll found that 82 percent of GOP voters between 18 and 24 say the president should be challenged in the 2020 general election and that 74 percent of GOP voters aged 65 and older say otherwise.
Conway quote-tweeted Byrd's message and added other age brackets.
"ages 25-34: 57% yes ages 35-44: 58% yes," he wrote, suggesting that it's more than just millennials who want the president out of office in 2020.
Later in the day, Conway tweeted a New York Times story criticizing Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani amid his claim that hush money payments were common at the firm he just resigned from, a statement he made in defense of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who is currently under FBI investigation.
Conway even retweeted a post from New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, which reads: "Rudy's firm undercuts his claim it was routine for hush $ payments to be made without Trump knowing. 'Speaking for ourselves, we would not condone payments of the nature alleged to have been made or otherwise without the knowledge and direction of a client,' the firm said."
Last month, Second Nexus reported Conway purged his Twitter feed of posts that were critical of the president. When asked why he said there was "no good reason."
Among Conway's deleted tweets was one referencing the difficult time the White House has had finding a replacement for Hope Hicks, who resigned in March from her role as White House Communications Director.
The Trump administration has become notorious for its flurry of resignations. (A New York Timesreport called the number of hirings and firings "unprecedented.)
"So true. It's absurd. Which is why people are banging down the doors to be his comms director," he wrote.
(@gtconway3d/Twitter)
In February, Conway made headlines after he retweeted an article which praised conservative columnist Mona Charen, who'd rebuked Trump after his incendiary statements at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
(@gtconway3d/Twitter)
The following month, Conway praised former FBI agent Asha Rangappa, who wrote a thread criticizing the president for firing former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a noted critic of the administration.
He further retweeted stories which were clearly pro-Robert Mueller, the special counsel spearheading the investigation into Russian election meddling.
Last month, Conway tweeted Federal Election Commission guidelines for personal donations after the president admitted he paid back his lawyer Michael Cohen for hush money he paid adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.
The newspaper article seen below also found its way to Conway's Twitter feed after the president referred to Robert Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt."
Conway was one of many who, in tweeting the article drew comparisons to Leonard Garment, an attorney of former President Richard Nixon’s who resigned amid the Watergate scandal. A Washington Post article dated December 7, 1974, notes that Garment “was one of the first aides to warn Nixon of the potential dangers of Watergate, but his advice went unheeded.”
