Bill Gindlesperger, Columnist Published 7:00 a.m. ET Sept. 2, 2020

Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway leaves position to focus on family, and her husband will also be stepping away from the Lincoln Project. USA TODAY

So who is George Conway, and why should you care?

George Conway is a 57-year-old American attorney and ultra-conservative Republican. Not a RINO (Republican in name only). He is dyed in the wool.

Conway knows Donald Trump. He was on the shortlist for appointment to U.S. solicitor general. He was also recruited for assistant attorney general heading Civil Division in U.S. Department of Justice.

Trump wanted him, because Conway is a star. Conway argued Morrison v. National Australia Bank before the U.S. Supreme Court. He won unanimously with the opinion authored by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Twenty years ago Conway dated conservative Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham. Then he saw Kellyanne Fitzpatrick on the cover of a society magazine and was stunned. He called another friend, Ann Coulter, for an introduction.

Bill Gindlesperger(Photo: Bill Gindlesperger)

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George and Kellyanne were married in 2001, and Kellyanne Fitzgerald became Kellyanne Conway. Today they have four children and live in Washington, DC.

Kellyanne turned out to be no slouch. She is a pollster, political consultant and pundit. She worked as campaign manager and strategist in the Republican Party and was CEO of The Polling Company / Woman Trend. She became Trump's campaign manager when he ran for president.

Up until recently Kellyanne was Trumps counselor and spokesperson. She appeared regularly on Fox News. Thats why you may recognize the Conway name.

Meanwhile George Conway and Neal Katyal, another high-powered lawyer, wrote an op-ed in New York Times challenging the constitutionality of Trump's appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general after Trump fired conservative Jeff Sessions. Conway and Katyal argued Trump was overriding explicit wording in the Constitution.

George Conway sought support from members of the ultra-conservative and libertarian Federalist Society. Members were influential in selecting candidates for Trump to appoint to federal courts. They concluded Trump was betraying well-established legal norms and conservative values.

None of this went down well with Trump.

With Trump suffering from narcissism to the detriment of the country and its Constitution,George Conway founded the Lincoln Project.

This conservative Super PAC wants to Defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box. In fact the Lincoln Project is dedicated to "persuading enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College, and congressional majorities that dont enable or abet Mr. Trumps violations of the Constitution".

Contrary to what Trump has tweeted, the Lincoln Project is hard right, conservative, libertarian, rule-of-law, and Constitution-based.

Trump has called George Conway a "stone cold LOSER & husband from hell".

Trump has publicly called George Conway Moonface. This racial slur is based on George Conway being half Filipino. His mother was a well-respected organic chemist from the Philippines.

George Conway grew up near Boston, graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude, and obtained a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. Thats where he was editor of Yale Law Journal and president of Yale Law Schools chapter of the ultra-conservative Federalist Society.

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Several weeks ago, conservative Republican George Conway made a statement regarding COVID-19 and Trumps responsibility to the American people. Here it is:

"For Trump supporters, let me make one thing VERY clear!

For the record NO ONE is blaming the President for the virus. Let me repeat. Coronavirus is not Trumps fault.

Heres a detailed list of what we are blaming him for:

* Trump declined to use the World Health Organizations test like other nations. Back in January, over a month before the first Covid-19 case, the Chinese posted a new mysterious virus and within a week, Berlin virologists had produced the first diagnostic test. By the end of February, the WHO had shipped out tests to 60 countries. Oh, but not our government. We declined the test even as a temporary bridge until the CDC could create its own test. The question is why? We dont know but what to look for is which pharmaceutical company eventually manufactures the test and who owns the stock. Keep tuned.

* In 2018 Trump fired Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossart, whose job was to coordinate a response to global pandemics. He was not replaced.

* In 2018 Dr. Luciana Borio, the NSC director for medical and bio-defense preparedness left the job. Trump did not replace Dr. Borio.

* In 2019 the NSCs Senior Director for Global Health Security and bio-defense, Tim Ziemer, left the position and Trump did not replace the Rear Admiral.

* Trump shut down the entire Global Health Security and Bio-defense agency. Yes, he did.

* Amid the explosive worldwide outbreak of the virus Trump proposed a 19% cut to the budget of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention plus a 10% cut to Public Health Services and a 7% cut to Global Health Services. Those happen to be the organizations that respond to public health threats.

* In 2018, at Trumps direction, the CDC stopped funding epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries including China.

* Trump didnt appoint a doctor to oversee the US response to the pandemic. He appointed Mike Pence.

* Trump has on multiple occasions sowed doubt about the severity of the virus even using the word hoax at events and rallies. He even did it at an event where the virus was being spread. Trump has put out zero useful information concerning the health risks of the virus.

* Trump pretended the virus had been contained.

* Trump left a cruise ship at sea for days, denying them proper hospital care, rather than increase his numbers in America.

Repeat. We do not blame Trump for the virus. We blame him for gutting the nations preparations to deal with it. We blame him for bungling testing and allowing it to spread uninhibited. We blame him for wasting taxpayer money on applause lines at his rallies (like The Wall). We blame him for putting his own political life over American human life. I hope this clears things up."

This is not a liberal speaking. These are the words of George Conway and members of the ultra-conservative libertarian Federalist Society.

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Shippensburg University trustee and founder of eLynxx Solutions that provides Print Buyers Software for procuring and managing direct mail, marketing, promo and print. He is a board member, campaign advisor, published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com

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