Anti-Trump lawyer George Conway accused first lady Melania Trump of violating Barron Trump’s privacy by protesting the 13-year-old boy’s name being mentioned at Wednesday’s impeachment hearing.
He also said President Trump’s supporters were using the minor teen as a political human shield to excuse what he called the president’s manifest crimes.
The husband of Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump, began his Wednesday evening salvo by sarcastically retweeting Mrs. Trump’s telling liberal law professor Pamela Karlan that “a minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics.”
“So therefore you’re amplifying what was a nothingburger reference a hundred-thousand-fold. Got it,” Mr. Conway replied to the first lady.
So therefore you’re amplifying what was a nothingburger reference a hundred-thousand-fold. Got it. https://t.co/MMSBhMWQE4
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) December 4, 2019
He then accused the Trump administration more broadly of making Barron a public figure and said the “fake outrage” is a greater violation of the boy’s privacy.
“Given that the complaint is about ’privacy,’ the question is how many people will know about the reference because of the fake outrage versus how many would have known about it in the absence of the fake outrage,” he wrote.
Mr. Conway went on to say that Barron Trump is a legitimate public figure, made so by the White House for spin purposes.
“And let’s leave out the fact that, in the ordinary course, there have been countless references to the young son in the media, including stories about how he was named, and about his life, to which no outrage was offered,” he said.
Thus, he concluded, all the complaints are being made in bad faith to shield Mr. Trump.
“So no one should be pretending that the president and his supporters weren’t using his youngest son today to distract from his crimes,” he said, going on to predict further use of Barron Trump.
“They will keep talking about him nonstop because that’s the best way to protect his privacy, which of course is their paramount concern. If protecting his privacy means repeating his name ten thousand more times on national cable television, that’s what they’re going to do,” he concluded.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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