“The president is obviously defending me,” Kellyanne Conway said after Donald Trump's attacks on her husband. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images White House Kellyanne Conway defends Trump after he attacked her husband 'You think he should just take that sitting down?' she says about Trump after George Conway questioned his mental fitness.

Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday defended President Donald Trump’s attacks on her husband George Conway saying he’s “a counterpuncher” and asserting that the president is free to respond when he’s accused of having a mental illness.

“He left it alone for months out of respect for me,” Conway, a senior Trump aide, told POLITICO in a brief telephone interview. “But you think he shouldn’t respond when somebody, a non-medical professional accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?”


“Don't play psychiatrist any more than George should be,” she added. “You're not a psychiatrist and he's not, respectfully.”

Conway’s defense of her boss comes as Trump has spent the past two days ripping her husband on Twitter. While the president has generally restrained from attacking George Conway, a longtime conservative lawyer who has repeatedly mocked Trump on Twitter, he broke from that habit on Monday after George Conway claimed he suffered from mental illness.

“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!”

Trump later on Wednesday took the Twitter feud offline, telling reporters that George Conway is a “whack job” and doing a “tremendous disservice to a wonderful wife.”

George Conway responded in kind to the latest attacks, sending more than two dozen tweets on Wednesday in which he called Trump “nuts” and re-upped his claim that the president suffers from narcissistic personality disorder.

Congratulations! You just guaranteed that millions of more people are going to learn about narcissistic personality disorder and malignant narcissism! Great job! https://t.co/Dk9bI3sBs7 — George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 19, 2019

The vicious back-and-forth has grabbed headlines during an otherwise tense week. The White House is anticipating the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, and the president has vented about everything from late Sen. John McCain to Saturday Night Live to Fox News.

In the interview with POLITICO on Wednesday, Kellyanne Conway said Trump has treated her with the utmost respect.

“The president is obviously defending me,” she said. “He could privately say to me, ‘Honey you’re a distraction. We love you. You'll always be a part of the family but go be with your kids. They need you. Go make a million dollars an hour. Go do that honey.’ It’s the opposite.”

Conway said she’s talked about Trump’s criticism of her husband to the president “in passing” but such talk is not dominating their discussions with him but is rather something that the media wants to focus on. She declined to comment on whether she wants Trump to stop tweeting against her husband.

She also said her effectiveness as Trump’s counselor has not been affected by Trump slamming her husband.

“Why would it affect my job? Hasn’t everybody tried to push me out already and here I am, stronger than ever,” she said. “You're looking at it the wrong way.”

“Yesterday George spent the day tweeting about the president,” she noted. “I spent my day doing two one-hour briefings with press and intergovernmental affairs people, agency people from all across the country and then over an hour briefing that I led in the Oval Office with the president and first lady in the cabinet on opioids at one year, so this is what I do here. I think it probably looks differently if everybody is turning into ‘Gossip Girl.’”

