Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo is not exactly known as a tough interviewer when it comes to the Trump administration, which helps explain why she scored a rare sit-down with the president this week.
But given the chance to speak with Kellyanne Conway on Thursday morning, she somewhat surprisingly spent nearly 12 minutes grilling her about the bizarre feud that has developed between her husband George Conway and her boss, President Trump.
“Your boss calling your husband a ‘whack job,’ what’s going on?” Bartiromo asked.
ADVERTISEMENT
Instead of defending her husband from the president’s attacks, Conway pointed out that George Conway has also been “very critical of the president publicly, which is unlike him, just because he’s traditionally been a very private person.” She proceeded to lash out at her husband for “not supporting the agenda of the president and my work there.”
Conway told the host that she grew up in a “household of strong Italian Catholic women who taught me that you air grievances like that in private, so it is very surprising to see it be so public.” This is despite the fact that George Conway has said that he tweets against Trump so he doesn’t “end up screaming at” his wife about it at home.
Instead of letting the topic go, Bartiromo pressed on, inquiring how George reacts when Kellyanne asks him to stop tweeting about her boss—“You can ask George that,” she replied—and whether she has discussed her “issue at home” with Trump.
“I didn’t say I have an issue at home, you’re saying that,” Conway shot back, prompting a quick apology from her interviewer.
“But it is odd that your husband is out publicly trashing your boss!” Bartiromo went on, to which Conway said it’s “not only unusual, but it’s unusual for George,” without offering any ideas as to what may have caused her husband to be so outspoken.
Later, Bartiromo, couching her question by putting it in someone else’s mouth, told Conway, “Somebody said to me earlier, ‘Look, I think it’s a shtick. It’s a like a one-two punch. He’s going to be against him, she’s going to be for him, just in case anything goes wrong, she’s got a leverage, she’s got a plan B.’”
The host was echoing the popular theory that George and Kellyanne Conway are already angling for a James Carville and Mary Matalin-esque cable news double act for after President Trump is out of office.
“Do you think that could possibly be true?” Conway asked in response, calling herself the “ultimate White House survivor” who could not possibly be distracted by the question of what comes next.
“A lot of people are going to be mad now that they didn’t get this interview,” Conway added at the 11-minute mark, “because they wanted it. But they wanted George and I on camera together. But I hope I cleared the air a little bit.”
‘The Last Laugh,’ the podcast where comedians get real. Every Tuesday, Matt Wilstein will interview some of the biggest names in comedy—as well as the new voices crashing the party—about what it’s like to be a comedian in this current cultural and political moment. Subscribe to The Last Laugh on Apple Podcasts.
