Trump campaign manager to GOP: Stop "pussyfooting around" on Trump support
Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway called on Republican lawmakers Wednesday to stop “pussyfooting around” when it comes to supporting the GOP nominee.
“We want the support of anybody who’s going to publicly endorse us,” Conway told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in an early interview. “But enough of the pussyfooting around in terms of do you support us or do you not support us.”
She identified GOP leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan as being “wishy-washy” with their endorsements, in light of Trump’s 2005 vulgar tape where he can be heard bragging about his aggressive sexual advances towards women.
“The fact is some of these leaders have been wishy-washy,” Conway continued. “And Paul Ryan has a job to do.”
When asked about Trump’s views on keeping Ryan as the House speaker, Conway responded that the matter should be settled by the lawmakers in Congress.
“That’s up to the members of the Congress,” she said. “I hope it means that we have a majority in the House, the Senate and presidency.”
Conway’s interview came after days of Republican legislators rescinding their support for Trump over the crass 2005 recordings. Like others, Ryan, who said he was “sickened” by Trump’s words, hasn’t withdrawn his endorsement of the GOP nominee, but the House speaker has vowed not to campaign with Trump in the month leading up to the election.
Considering Donald Trump’s recently resurfaced lewd comments boasting of how he would “grab [women] by the p****,” Conway’s use of “pussyfooting” is an interesting turn of phrase -- and one that seems to be rising as surprisingly commonplace terminology this election cycle.
On Thursday, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov weighed in on the U.S. presidential campaign with this:
“English is not my mother tongue, I don’t know if I would sound decent,” Lavrov told CNN in an interview. “There are so many pussies around the presidential campaign on both sides that I prefer not to comment on this.”
And at the height of the political fallout from Trump’s crude comments, wife Melania Trump wore a Gucci shirt to Sunday’s presidential debate that was marketed as a “pussy bow” top.
A campaign spokeswoman, however, said Melania Trump’s fashion choice was unintentional.