Veteran Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway expects President Donald Trump to take sides in the race for the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey and said she would bet on Jack Ciattarelli to be that candidate.
“I think the odds are that he does,” she said. “If I were a betting woman, I’d say that I’d say he endorses, and he endorses Ciattarelli.”
So for Conway, who managed Trump’s 2016 campaign and spent four years in the White House, the issue isn’t as much if as when.
“It’s the timing that is the surprise,” Conway stated. “The fact that he takes this seriously is a tell. It’s why he hasn’t endorsed yet, and he knows that that ultimately will turn the race one way or the other.”
Conway made her comments on a press call organized by Kitchen Table Conservatives, a super PAC she helps run that has been critical of another GOP candidate, Bill Spadea.
She said she spoke with Trump about his meeting with Ciattarelli in Bedminster last month.
“I thought that Ciattarelli made the strongest case for (a) Trump endorsement on his own that anybody could have made, from what I heard,” Conway said.
Conway described the meeting as “a very fruitful, mutually respectful exchange of ideas, information, and data between President Trump and Jack Ciattarelli.”
Carlos Cruz, a senior advisor to the super PAC, said the super PAC has spent months combing through Spadea’s past comments on his radio and television shows.
“Bill is somebody that loves to bring up Jack’s comments from ten, twelve years ago about Donald Trump when he spent the last four years attacking Trump as a failure, encouraging the party to move on from Trump,” Cruz said.
Conway noted that “Spadea has made this a pretty simple layup so far for the Kitchen Table Conservatives PAC.
“We’re not characterizing his thoughts. We’re quoting his words,” she stated. “We literally are repeating verbatim and quoting without ellipses and without different words here and there that you have to characterize or mischaracterize what Bill Spadea said.”
She acknowledged that Trump is hearing from people advocating for Spadea, suggesting that the 101.5 New Jersey radio is “the true, authentic MAGA guy.
“I think if you’re a Spadea and the best you’ve been able to come up with as a pro-Trump comment so far is you’ve always had my back, and maybe a couple other twining’s and kindling’s here and there, it does tell you a lot,” she said.
Conway confirmed that Spadea’s own meeting with Trump, the day after Ciattarelli saw him in Bedminster, was arranged by now-interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba.
“She helped to broker a very quick meeting on the sidelines in the grill at Bedminster,” Conway said, noting that Habba has said she “wants to get to know Jack better.”
The Spadea campaign pushed back on the criticism.
“Jack and Kellyanne can attempt to rewrite history but here’s the truth. Jack Ciattarelli is, was and always will be an anti-Trumper. From his call for President Trump to be replaced by Mike Pence to donating thousands of dollars to and supporting Chris Christie’s 2024 campaign for President against Donald Trump, Jack’s true thoughts on the President are clear,” said Tom Bonfonti, Spadea’s campaign manager. “Like President Trump, Bill Spadea is the outsider who is willing to make the tough decisions to fix our state. That scares the crap out of career politicians like Jack.”
According to Conaway, Kitchen Table Conservatives will spend the next two months targeting likely – and unlikely voters for the June 10 Republican primary.
“You got to target those low-propensity voters, those Trump 2024 voters who just aren’t going to come out unnecessarily, even with his endorsement, in an off-year election,” Conway explained. “It takes a lot more nudging, as we all know, to get folks out.”
The South Jersey native said the super PACs efforts will mirror what Trump, the RNC, and other outside groups did in 2024.
“Forget about still trying to talk to the same voters again and again,” she said. “Let’s go for the low propensity voters.”
Conway also suggested that Trump has embraced other Republicans who had been critical of him in the past, noting Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance.
“He accepts folks who convert and adopt,” said Conway.
RELATED ARTICLES
-
February 25, 2018 -
December 10, 2024 -
November 27, 2024