White House: Conway ‘has been counseled’ after Ivanka Trump remarks

by Ben Kamisar - 02/09/17 2:20 PM ET

Press secretary Sean Spicer said top aide Kellyanne Conway was “counseled” after she promoted Ivanka Trump’s clothing line from the White House briefing room in a TV interview Thursday morning.

“Kellyanne has been counseled, and that’s all we are going to go with,” Spicer told reporters during his daily briefing.

“She’s been counseled on the subject, and that’s it.”

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders later told reporters the consultation occurred after Conway’s interview.

Both she and Spicer declined to say who spoke to Conway or speak about the nature of that conversation.

Conway’s comments drew criticism from those who say she violated a prohibition on using a public post for private gain. The White House counselor was responding to Trump’s criticism of Nordstrom for dropping his daughter’s clothing line, a move that he called political but the company said was strictly a business decision.

“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, is what I would tell you … I hate shopping but I’m going to go get some for myself today,” Conway said.

“I’m going to give it a free commercial here, go buy it today,”

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) wrote a letter to committee chair Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to refer Conway to the Office of Government Ethics.

Chaffetz later said that her comments were “clearly over the line.”

Speaking to a small group of reporters following his daily briefing, Spicer declined to comment on the lawmakers’ statements.

Jordan Fabian contributed to this story, which was updated at 3:35 p.m.

Tags Jason Chaffetz