Kellyanne Conway wants her former boss, Donald Trump, and Mike Pence to make amends for the good of the Republican Party following a “nasty divorce” in the wake of the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Both men, whose relationship soured after the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and pro-Trump supporters chanted to “hang Mike Pence” for his refusal to heed Mr. Trump’s requests to contest the results, are expected to run for president in 2024.
“They did fabulous things for this country together for four years. It was a nasty divorce in the end, but they need to find a responsible way to co-parent the future of the party and the conservative movement,” Mrs. Conway told reporters at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on Thursday in Washington. “I certainly hope they will come together.”
The former senior White House adviser said she still advises Mr. Trump and speaks with the former vice president regularly.
“Whoever is the next Republican [nominee] in two short years, that person should really look at what Trump and Pence accomplished, especially early on, as a model,” Mrs. Conway said.
Mr. Trump will announce his long-awaited campaign soon after Tuesday’s elections, she said.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence have been active on the campaign trail this year and have made public digs against one another since leaving office, but in diverging fashion. While Mr. Trump has blasted his former vice president directly on social media and elsewhere, Mr. Pence has taken a more cryptic approach in speeches that do not directly mention his former boss.
Mrs. Conway recommended that Mr. Trump not comply with the Jan. 6 House select committee’s subpoena to testify by Friday’s deadline because she views it as a “political exercise so that he never runs again.” She also questioned why the panel waited until the end of its more than year-long investigation to subpoena Mr. Trump for questioning after speaking with countless former aides and officials within his orbit.
The committee has pushed back against such criticism by saying it wanted to build a case and gather evidence before seeking information and testimony from the man at the center of its inquiry.
Mrs. Conway, a lawyer by trade, said she’s advised Mr. Trump of her opposition, adding that she believes the probe is part of a “relentless pattern of … trying to get Donald Trump.”
She added, “No, I don’t think he should cooperate. I think they should have done their work a whole year earlier.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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