Donald Trump campaign: Kellyanne Conway quits before Republican Convention
One of US President Donald Trump’s close aides in the White House has revealed they are leaving his administration before his Republican Convention gets under way.
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Kellyanne Conway, one of US President Donald Trump’s close aides in the White House, has revealed she is leaving the administration.
Ms Conway, a pollster and strategist, said she would reveal her future plans in time, but cited family reasons as being behind her decision to go.
“The past four years have allowed me blessings beyond compare as a part of history on Election Night 2016 and as senior counsellor to the president,” she wrote in a statement posted on social media.
“It’s been heady. It’s been humbling.”
Ms Conway said her husband, George Conway, was making changes, which he said included taking a hiatus from Twitter and an anti-Trump group of Republicans called the Lincoln Project.
“Needless to say, I continue to support the Lincoln Project and its mission. Passionately,” he wrote in a tweet.
“We disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids,” Ms Conway said.
“Our four children are teens and ‘tweens starting a new academic year, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months. As millions of parents nationwide know, kids “doing school from home” requires a level of attention and vigilance that is as unusual as these times. This is completely my choice and my voice.”
TRUMP SEEKS TO REVIVE ELECTION HOPES
US President Donald Trump will seek to revive his re-election hopes this week at the Republican Party’s largely online convention, battered by the coronavirus pandemic, economic troubles, racial unrest and polls pointing to an uphill fight.
It was also revealed that Mr Trump will speak each of the four nights of the convention.
Mr Trump and his top aides striven over the weekend to put an optimistic spin on the convention as he prepares to head on Monday (local time) to North Carolina to formally launch the four-day event.
“I think we’re going to see something that is going to be very uplifting and positive, that’s what I’d like it to be,” Mr Trump told Fox News.
He sought to draw a sharp contrast to the just-ended Democratic convention, which he has called the “darkest, angriest and gloomiest” in history.
Republicans, facing polls that give Democrat Joe Biden an eight to 10-point lead, were also hoping for a boost from a planned Trump announcement Sunday on an advance in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 175,000 lives across the country.
Of Mr Trump’s decision to speak at each of the four nights of the Republican National Convention, an aide of the president said that it was purely to deliver an uplifting message to the American people.
“You’ll have President Trump speaking at various parts for each of the nights,” Jason Miller said on Meet the Press in the US.
Calling last week’s Democratic National Convention that nominated Joe Biden as president and Senator Kamala Harris as vice president a “massive grievance fest,” Mr Miller said the RNC will tell a “beautiful story.”
“One of the things you’re going to see this week is a complete change in the perception that I believe that the media tries to tell about what a Trump supporter looks like or who a Trump supporter is we’re going to talk about the American story,” Mr Miller said, adding that the RNC will highlight Mr Trump’s accomplishments over the past four years and set a vision for a second term.
“We are going to see a great uplifting message from the president and from our allies, and some of these stories that you hear they’re going to be some breakout stars, some people that you would not expect to be supporters of the President, and it’s going to tell a very beautiful story,” he said.
Mr Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are expected to be in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the RNC’s first night on Monday (local time) when the delegates assembled in the Charlotte Convention Centre officially nominate them for the 2020 Republican presidential ticket.
A list of speakers was also announced with some seen as intentionally provocative.
The schedule includes a Missouri couple who pointed guns at anti-racist protesters marching past their mansion in June — an image that quickly went viral.
And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to deliver a speech Tuesday in support of Mr Trump during an official visit to Israel.
Such a directly political intervention by the nation’s top diplomat while abroad would be highly unusual.
Convention speakers include former ambassador Nikki Haley and Donald Trump Jr. on Monday; First Lady Melania Trump and Mr Pompeo on Tuesday; and Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday.
While Democrats heard from all living former Democratic presidents as well as former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, former Republican president George W. Bush is not expected to appear. Mr Bush has been a critic of Mr Trump’s.
Mr Trump will formally accept the nomination in a speech on Thursday from the South Lawn of the White House, while Mr Pence will do the same Wednesday at Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
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Originally published as Donald Trump campaign: Kellyanne Conway quits before Republican Convention