It’s true. We are on the edge of our seats. Will they keep feuding, or will they file for divorce?
What a lucky coincidence for a story on the unconventional marital relationship between conservative lawyer George Conway and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway: NYT‘s Mark Leibovich happened upon George walking out of the Washington Zoo.
As readers woke up Sunday to a story about the Conways’ marriage, Kellyanne appeared on Fox News Sunday and dressed down host Chris Wallace for even asking about her marriage.
This is a prime tactic of President Trump‘s White House: Ridicule the media. No matter that Trump publicly called Kellyanne’s husband “a loser” and a “husband from hell,” Kellyanne contended that Wallace’s questions were rude and tried to make him look like a fool.
“Oh, Chris, what are you, Oprah now?” she asked, as Fox News’ nerdiest host presented a cascade of Trump’s nasty tweets about George and asked, “Why is your husband attacking your boss?”
Kellyanne replied, “Well, you could ask my husband.”
It was the least offensive way Wallace could open up the touchy topic. He didn’t immediately ask about Kellyanne’s relationship with her husband, which is what everyone really wants to know. Instead, his question referred to her husband’s near-daily attacks on her boss’s alleged narcissistic personality disorder. This public spousal bomb-throwing is all so foreign to Wallace. His wife, Lorraine, makes him soup every Sunday. And yes, she used her husband’s work to write a book about it. It’s called Mr. Sunday’s Soups.
Wallace eventually got around to asking Kellyanne if Trump’s remarks had hurt her marriage.
She continued attacking him: “I mean, what am I? On a couch? And you are a psychiatrist? I think it’s a really inappropriate question.”
Meanwhile, Leibovich’s “news analysis” piece — “We’re All Stuck Inside George And Kellyanne’s Marriage” — was making the rounds.
The reporter noted that George wouldn’t talk on the record, which implied that he got an earful off.
“George has complained to friends that Kellyanne has fallen inexplicably under the thrall of President Trump — and that he would prefer a wife who was not captured. Kellyanne, meanwhile, believes that her husband has been disrespectful of her in his public criticisms of her boss, and she wishes he would air his complaints in private. It’s obviously more complicated, but those seem to be the broad contours of their grievances.”
Like other reporters, Leibovich wonders if the Conway family fight is a prelude to a reality show or a lucrative book deal. But he also wants to know if we’re actually watching their marriage crumble.
“It is …impossible not to wonder whether their joint memoir is being written in real time, and we are watching a life partnership fracture on Twitter, a casualty of a third wheel in the marriage — Donald Trump.”
Comedians are also going for the ride. Last week, Conan O’Brien said, “I’ll bet Kellyanne and George Conway have pretty disturbing makeup sex.”
On Monday, after what was possibly an awkward weekend inside the Conway household, Conway continued roasting Trump and downplayed the MeTooing of former Vice President Joe Biden, who has been accused of sniffing former Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores‘s hair and kissing her slowly on her head. Flores has motives — she’s a hardcore Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) supporter and was a campaign surrogate in 2016. (RELATED: Mika Scarborough Wonders If It Matters That Bernie’s Accuser Is A Huge Bernie Supporter)
“Oh, please, spare me,” George tweeted. “He doesn’t deny it, and it’s inappropriate and weird. And I’m not saying he’s anything like the piece of scum in the White House. But the sniffing bit is bizarre.”
“Piece of scum” aside, the first thing he said Monday morning at 7:58 a.m. may be the most telling. It’s a signal that he won’t be shushed, no matter how many times Kellyanne publicly takes Trump’s side. (RELATED: Kellyanne Picks Trump Over Hubby)
In reaction to NYT Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker mentioning a Ukraine comedian who is doing well in the country’s presidential election, George replied, “That’s no biggie—over here, we have a hyper-narcissistic, sociopathic clown with nuclear weapons.”