White House official Kellyanne Conway delivered a message to young women to be outspoken and also heralded President Donald Trump’s energy.
“He replaced this fiction of electability with this revelation of electricity,” @KellyannePolls says.
The Trump campaign manager, who now serves as counselor to the president, even told the gathering at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, that vanquished Democrat Hillary Clinton deserves credit for her public service, but added a caveat.
“It is telling that so many women voters looked beyond gender and looked at issues they care about,” Conway said. She later added, “I would tell my daughters and your daughters that the job for the first female president of the United States remains open.”
Addressing the women’s marches challenging the Trump agenda, Conway stressed that women are independent thinkers and won’t be told they have to be liberals or Democrats.
“I think this younger generation, particularly women, don’t like labels,” Conway said.
CPAC, the annual gathering of conservatives from across the country, has taken on added importance in 2017, the first year of the Trump administration. The president will speak to the conference Friday, and Vice President Mike Pence speaks on Thursday.
In an on-stage interview, Mercedes Schlapp of The Washington Times asked Conway how Trump might define the conservative movement going forward.
“By tomorrow this will be TPAC,” Conway said. “He has brought this infusion of energy. He made people feel from the beginning they are part of a movement. People felt so energized as they had a seat at the table. … He replaced this fiction of electability with this revelation of electricity.”
It’s energy that the president admires the most with his White House staff, Conway said.
“The greatest compliment you can get from Donald Trump is not ‘Hey, that’s brilliant’ or ‘that’s smart or great.’ It’s ‘You’re really high-energy,’” Conway said. “You see him coming around the corner, stand up, and start doing jumping jacks.”
CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, runs from Wednesday to Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington.
