Kellyanne Conway calls out 'the always-wrong Never Trumpers:' 'You have stage 5 Trump Derangement Syndrome'
'You're out of touch with the public,' Kellyanne Conway said, 'This election was a rejection of wokeness'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway shredded a Never Trump activist and argued that movement helped cost Democratsthe election.
During the New York Times' DealBook Summit, a large panel of political figures offered their autopsies of why the Harris campaign failed and how the Trump campaign successfully tapped into changes reshaping American culture in 2024.
"The Democratic Party right now, every day they wake up it's still January 6, 2021, on the calendar," Conway said. "You're out of touch with the public. This election was a rejection of wokeness, and people - every state went more red except Nebraska and Washington state. That is a sweep. That is a mandate. That is President Trump coming into office and the American people saying, ‘Please make my life safer, more secure, more affordable, please get us out of these foreign engagements.’"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Longwell traded barbs during a tense moment in the DealBook summit. (New York Times Events YouTube channel)
But the anti-Trump Republicans, she said, were on another trajectory.
"I think the always-wrong Never Trumpers, who had unlimited money, cost the party, cost the Democratic Party, which they say they're not even a member, another presidential election," she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sarah Longwell, publisher of Never Trump news outlet The Bulwark and host of "The Focus Group" podcast, began to respond and got into a back and forth with Conway.
"You have stage 5 Trump Derangement Syndrome," Conway charged.
Longwell replied, "I think you guys are bad people who are bad - yes - who are bad for the country - yes - who attacked the Constitution," while Conway continued talking and asking, "Who's ‘you guys’? The country?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Stop, please, stop," host Maggie Haberman pleaded as the women talked over each other.
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President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a reception at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) after being named TIME’s "Person of the Year" for the second time on December 12, 2024, in New York City. Trump followed the event by ringing the opening bell on the trading floor. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Longwell did acknowledge some of the Democrat Party’s flaws in this election, ranging from arguing that President Biden should not have run for reelection to how "Democrats have no answer, no plan on immigration, and voters really care about it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nonetheless, she went on to argue that Republicans won partly because they "lie to people all the time, Donald Trump is a professional liar, and as a result they are better at working the media channels."
"So the people are stupid, you're sitting here saying the American people are stupid?" Conway asked.
"No, I'm saying you guys are better at talking-," Longwell started to respond as Conway again asked what she meant by "you guys."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The Trump campaign," Longwell responded and the pair continued.
Conway was Trump's campaign manager in 2016, but did not have a role in the Trump-Vance 2024 campaign.