President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team ended speculation about the future of his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, announcing Thursday that the Republican has selected her to be counselor to the president.
“She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message. I am pleased that she will be part of my senior team in the West Wing,” President-elect Trump said of Conway in a statement.
Earlier this month, Conway’s comments that she might not continue to advise Trump at the White House because of her young children raised criticism.
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“My children are 12, 12, 8, and 7, which is bad idea, bad idea, bad idea, bad idea for mom going inside [the White House],” Conway said.
Asked about time management during an interview with Fox Business to discuss her new role, Conway had a different tune:
“I don’t play golf, and I don’t have a mistress, so I have a lot of time that a lot of these other men don’t.”
The Trump White House will be “family-friendly,” Conway said.
Conway also confirmed that she had turned down the position of press secretary.
During a postelection forum at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, she engaged in a shouting match with top aides to Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
“Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?” Conway asked after Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri said she “would rather lose than win the way you guys did.”
“You did, Kellyanne, you did,” Palmieri responded.
Conway was named Trump’s campaign manager in August, succeeding Paul Manafort, who resigned from the campaign in that same month amid concerns about his work in Ukraine.
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Nicole Hernandez can be reached at nicole.hernandez@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @NRHSJax.