Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said in an interview on Sunday he believes various people within the White House have worked to hurt counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway in an effort to damage her reputation.
“She’s gotten a bad rap at times, but I think that’s because of some of the really awful people inside the White House who have been trying to hurt her, as opposed to anything the press came up with on its own,” Christie told The New York Times.
Christie’s comments follow reports of chaos in the White House.
Outgoing communications director Hope Hicks announced last week that she would be departing the White House after working with the president since the beginning of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Conway is one of the last major figures from the Trump campaign to remain in the White House after people such as Hicks and former chief strategist Stephen Bannon departed.
Conway, who was Trump’s campaign manager, said last week that she had been offered the communications director post multiple times, but said she was content in her position.
“I’ve been offered that job many times and no, I work on policy here at the White House,” she said.
“Hope’s been doing this for three years nonstop and I think the president spoke for all of us who have had the privilege and pleasure of working closely with Hope and getting to know her as a friend that she’s fantastic and she has done a tremendous job for him, and as the president says will probably be back in his orbit sometime and someday to help yet again,” she added.
