Kellyanne Conway: If you disagree with the president's policies, run for president
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway reacts to Senate impeachment trial, reports tied to John Bolton's book.
EXCLUSIVE: Kellyanne Conway unloaded on the 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls on the eve of the first nominating contest, calling the field "unimpressive" and saying Iowa caucus-goers are essentially forced to choose which level of socialism they prefer.
In a phone interview with Fox News on Sunday, Conway, who traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, in a personal capacity, applauded Republican leadership in the state while taking a series of shots at the Democratic contenders.
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“Caucus-goers on the Democratic side will have a choice — which level of socialism they choose to reject or advance, and of which of these unimpressive, unremarkable and underwhelming candidates who remain, which by the way is a much older and whiter field than they would like people to think," Conway told Fox News.
She added: “I think Democrats’ idea of ‘woke’ is a joke.”
The presidential adviser went on to criticize the Democratic field for their lack of diversity as they enter the first-in-the-nation caucuses and primaries.
“They have already spit out of their primary, before even a vote, two African-American U.S. senators – one male, one female; a Hispanic former Cabinet official of President Obama; a female senator running on a female empowerment platform; a few two-term governors … Jay Inslee was running on a platform of climate change and couldn’t even qualify for the climate debate” she said.
Conway was referring to Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Kamala Harris; former Obama Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro; and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., as well as Govs. Jay Inslee and Steve Bullock, among others who dropped out before the first primary races.
Conway went on to take a swipe at current Democratic front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Iowa is a state where Joe Biden came twice and thought this was Ohio,” she said. “He is the weakest self-designated front-runner in recent memory.”
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Reached for comment, Biden campaign rapid response director Andrew Bates shot back: “It’s major news that the keeper of ‘alternative facts’ has broken with her boss in such a public way. Because Donald Trump is so panicked about Joe Biden that he became the only president in American history who attempted to force a foreign country to bail his re-election campaign out with lies -- bringing his administration to its knees in the process. The Vice President will see you in your dreams, Donald.”
Conway also recalled President Trump’s 10-point victory in Iowa during the 2016 presidential election and previewed his reelection efforts ahead of the caucuses.
“We have a smart, strategic and essential team Trump that came to Iowa to deliver this American revival — this economic comeback that has happened through President Trump, Vice President Pence and leaders like [Iowa] Gov. Reynolds and Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley,” Conway said.
The “team Trump” staking their ground in Iowa includes the Trump family, Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale, and 80 supporters of the president across the state, like White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney; Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and five other members of Trump’s Cabinet.
Others out making the case for the president’s reelection are House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Lynne Cheney, R-Wyo.; Mark Meadows, R-N.C.; former Texas governor and former Energy Secretary Rick Perry; Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr.; and Mike Lindell, the inventor of “My Pillow.”
“Our Caucus Day operation is just a preview of what is to come,” Parscale said. “This will be the strongest, best-funded, and most organized presidential campaign in history. We are putting the Democrats on notice — good luck trying to keep up with this formidable reelection machine.”
Iowa was narrowly carried by the Democrats in the 2000 election and narrowly by Republicans in 2004. But then-Sen. Barack Obama captured it by 10 percentage points in the 2008 election over Hillary Clinton, and 6 points in 2012. Trump won Iowa in 2016 by nearly 10 points.
Meanwhile, while broadly discounting the current Democratic field, Conway touted the Trump administration's efforts.
“The Democrats’ message is — it’s increasingly not the Democratic Party I grew up with,” Conway continued. “With the Green New Deal, Medicare for All — women are the chief financial officers of their households and they are in the majority of health care providers.”
She added: “And the Democrats’ socialist and government-run health care would rip from these women their health care-related jobs and benefits and they should know that.”
“We’ve never had an economy like the one we have now, and that happens through causation, not coincidence,” Conway said, noting that the Trump administration wants to “bring along American public opinion so that they can understand” their policies.
“The deregulation agenda saves money, but more importantly, it delivers more freedom. It means the federal government is less invasive, less expansive and less expensive…The story about unleashing American energy is truly remarkable…it makes us as a nation less dependent on foreign sources,” she said.
Meanwhile, Democrats on the campaign trail have taken aim at Trump even more than each other in the final stretch.
"So, tomorrow night is the beginning. It is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday. "At the beginning of the moment when we tell the billionaire class in the 1 percent: this country belongs to all of us, not just a few."
Biden said last week of Trump: “He’s more a bully than a president,” adding, “Welcome to Donald Trump’s world. Up is down. Lies are the truth. Allies are enemies.”
Conway argued that Trump's economic agenda is helping the country as a whole: “We have new trade deals—the phase one with China and the reconfigured NAFTA, USMCA … And it puts China on the hook through a written enforceable agreement to actually purchase billions of dollars in American goods and services.”
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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