Source: Politics<\/p>\n
One of Donald Trump\u2019s most steadfast aides acknowledges in a new book that the president lost the 2020 election and says he was ill-advised by campaign staff and the election deniers who surrounded him.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the mountains of money Trump had raised, his team simply failed to get the job done. A job that was doable and had a clear path, if followed,\u201d Kellyanne Conway writes in her memoir, \u201cHere\u2019s the Deal.\u201d \u201cRather than accepting responsibility for the loss, they played along and lent full-throated encouragement (privately, not on TV) when Trump kept insisting he won.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team had failed on November 3, and they failed again afterward. By not confronting the candidate with the grim reality of his situation, that the proof had not surfaced to support the claims, they denied him the evidence he sought and the respect he was due. Instead supplicant after sycophant after showman genuflected in front of the Resolute Desk and promised the president goods they could not deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Trump loyalist since taking over the reins of his 2016 presidential election and serving as his counselor in the White House, Conway\u2019s admission of the ex-president\u2019s electoral defeat is particularly notable, even if it amounts to stating out loud a well-established fact.<\/p>\n
Other top Trump aides have acknowledged the same in their books, including former Attorney General Bill Barr and Defense Secretary Mark Esper. But those were written by disaffected Trumpers who have since warned about the perils of Trump running for office again. Conway is still in Trump\u2019s inner orbit and would be on the shortlist of individuals poised to advise a future presidential campaign, should Trump choose to run again. She also continues to speak regularly with Trump and is commonly spotted at Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n
Her acknowledgment of a Trump \u201closs\u201d appears to be one of, if not the, most upfront admission about the 2020 election that she\u2019s made in public to date. In a December 2020 interview with The 19th<\/a>, Conway said that even though the Trump campaign had every right to explore different legal avenues to challenge the results, the Electoral College vote tally suggested Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would win.<\/p>\n In her book, she writes she told Trump the same.<\/p>\n \u201cStuck in a parallel universe, many Trump supporters deluded themselves into thinking that somehow the president would remain in office or be reinstated once gone. Trump was more shocked to lose in 2020, I think, than he was to win in 2016,\u201d Conway writes, although she adds that questioning the election results or \u201cpartisan activists\u201d doesn\u2019t make you the \u201cQAnon Shaman.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI may have been the first person Donald Trump trusted in his inner circle who told him that he had come up short this time,\u201d Conway writes.<\/p>\n Though hardly an unbiased narrator, Conway writes a book that is part biography, part dishy political tell-all, part heartfelt reflection on motherhood, and part marriage therapy session. She also provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Trump White House during some of its most tumultuous moments.<\/p>\n Throughout its 506 pages, she is quick to level sharp critiques at some of her former colleagues, like Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner (\u201cHe misread the Constitution in one crucial respect, thinking that all power not given to the federal government was reserved to him.\u201d), Trump\u2019s 6-foot-9-inch tall campaign manager Brad Parscale (\u201cIt is easy to conclude with Brad, height is not depth.\u201d), or former chief of staff Mark Meadows (\u201ctrying to be POTUS\u2019s BFF\u201d).<\/p>\n But she also notes, in passing, that she found allies in unexpected places. For example, Conway says that after the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, she consulted with two \u201ctrusted, wired, smart accquaintances,\u201d Democratic commentator Van Jones and former Democratic National Chair Donna Brazile, both Black, about the moment.<\/p>\n Conway is known for her occasional sharp elbows and unrelenting capacity to spin, and her book is full of trademark sarcasm and barbs, especially when it comes to the press and the never-ending quest at the Trump White House to find internal leakers. But Conway does write with evident pain about her own family dramas that spilled out into the public, like her husband George Conway\u2019s spats with Trump, and her teen daughter Claudia\u2019s rebellion on TikTok.<\/p>\n She rarely criticizes Trump himself, though does cop to regrets about steps taken, especially around the Covid-19 pandemic. In one passage, she recalls proposing in the Oval Office that Trump deliver a message to the public with former presidents George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking at Trump across the Resolute Desk, I could picture all five presidents standing there, lending their support to him as he tackled this \u2018once in a century\u2019 pandemic,\u201d writes Conway. \u201cHe declined.\u201d<\/p>\n