Kellyanne Conway on leaks hunt: 'West Wing is a very small place'

Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, on Thursday said it shouldn't be too difficult to smoke out the source of leaks out of the West Wing, as new communications director Anthony Scaramucci and others try to crack down on anonymously sourced stories.

"I will just tell you that leakers are easier to figure out than they may think. This West Wing is a very small place," Conway said on "Fox & Friends." "And I'll say, for me, I'm the jerk who hired a chief of staff, right? Because I thought we were supposed to work on policy, not free press or comms assistance, because we're not here to curate our images."


Conway admonished anyone who leaks information from the White House and said there is a difference between leaking and "using the press to shiv each other in the ribs."

"We are not here to read about ourselves," Conway said. "We are here for the forgotten men and forgotten women."

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Scaramucci has gone after chief of staff Reince Priebus recently, appearing to accuse him of being a source of leaks. On Wednesday night, he vented on Twitter about media reports citing his financial disclosure documents, which are available to the public upon request. Still, Scaramucci characterized the publication of the forms' details as a "leak" and tagged Priebus in his tweet. He later claimed he wasn't accusing Priebus of being a source of the information.

"When I put out a tweet and I put Reince's name in a tweet, they're all making the assumption it's him because journalists know who the leakers are," Scaramucci said Thursday morning on CNN.

But he also challenged Priebus to clear the air. "So if Reince wants to explain that he's not a leaker, let him do that. But let me tell you about myself. I'm a straight shooter, and I'll go right to the heart of the matter," Scaramucci said.