Exactly What Is Happening Here??
[guest post by Dana]
I don’t know, maybe I’m still in a post-Thanksgiving-leftover stupor, but several peculiar things seem to have happened today. Maybe you know have some good ideas about what they mean, who is behind them, or what the end game is.
Today, on the heels of Trump’s camp calling on Mitt Romney to make a public apology for his attacks on Donald Trump during the campaign, Kellyanne Conway made a not-so-subtle attack on her boss’s potential selection for secretary of State:
President-elect Donald Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway attacked former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, now a contender for secretary of state, warning him, “This is Trump’s party now.”
“I think that there was the ‘Never Trump’ movement and then there was Gov. Mitt Romney. He went out of his way to hurt Donald Trump. He gave two speeches that I can recall in this calendar year, and they were both about Donald Trump,” Conway said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We’re all for party unity. I don’t think a cost of admission for party unity has to be the secretary of state position,”
Conway also reinforced this “betrayal” of supporters:
“It’s just breathtaking in scope and intensity the type of messages I’ve received from all over the country … the number of people who feel betrayed to think that Gov. Romney would get the most prominent Cabinet post after he went so far out of his way to hurt Donald Trump.”
In spite of this, Conway said she would “support 1000%” whoever the President-elect decided upon.
Keep in mind that last week it was reported that Romney is Trump’s preferred choice for the coveted slot:
The New York businessman views Mr. Romney as the prototypical choice to be the nation’s top diplomat, and a group of advisers inside the transition are pushing him to select the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Two people said Mr. Trump is inclined to select Mr. Romney.
Several theories are being floated about motives for Conway’s public hit on Romney: One being, perhaps Trump sent Conway out to do a public bashing of Romney before he is selected, just to remind him of his place. Or, maybe she undermined Trump with this attack as part of a collaborative effort between herself, Guiliani (who is lobbying hard for the coveted position), and Steve Bannon, who reportedly believes that Romney will not be “loyal” to Trump. Leading the group effort may have been major GOP donor and Trump supporter Rebekah Mercer. Mercer has a seat on the Trump transition team and is said to wield immense power and influence over the President-elect. And yet one more possibility might be that Conway went rogue: Given that Romney has not apologized (or removed himself from consideration), perhaps this attack was designed to push him harder in that direction. Romney steps down and Trump is free to select Guiliani, thus pleasing Conway and her faction of Trump’s team as well as pleasing the President-elect’s loyal supporters at large.
Anyway, hopefully Trump received some sage advice at his Thanksgiving dinner party where he allegedly solicited opinions from his guests on the vexing matter of Romney and Guiliani.
The next item making the rounds today has to do with the Jill Stein’s efforts for a vote recount. As you know, millions of dollars have been raised for the effort, and the Clinton camp announced it will be participating. Yesterday Donald Trump seemed to take this seriously, and released a statement pushing back against recount efforts:
“The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, ‘We must accept this result and then look to the future.’
“It is important to point out that with the help of millions of voters across the country, we won 306 electoral votes on Election Day – the most of any Republican since 1988 – and we carried nine of 13 battleground states, 30 of 50 states, and more than 2,600 counties nationwide – the most since President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
“This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn’t even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount. All three states were won by large numbers of voters, especially Pennsylvania, which was won by more than 70,000 votes.
“This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing.”
Today, however, his fast Twitter trigger-finger may have caused him to unintentionally indicate that he supports a recount after all:
–Dana
