Update, 12.22.16 – for Conway, it’s inside after all (Kellyanne Conway, ‘Trump Whisperer,’ Will Be Counselor to President).
Jennifer Rubin accurately describes (in Trump’s own ‘truther’ act is frightening) the roles that Reince Priebus (house apologist) and Kellyanne Conway (field apologist) play for Trump:
As they fanned out across the Sunday shows, President-elect Donald Trump’s closest aides and a number of GOP spinners evidenced a frightful willingness to deny the existence of a cyberattack on American sovereignty and democracy because it might make Trump feel less like a winner….the Trump camp insists we must believe — contrary to the overwhelming mound of evidence from all intelligence entities — that Russian responsibility is unproved, for to do otherwise would make Trump’s win seem less convincing. And if U.S. national security interests are harmed, well, that’s a small price to pay for supporting the frail ego of a narcissist.
Priebus and Conway play a similar role as apologists for anything Trump does or says, but to my mind Conway is more skillful. Priebus is a dull company man, in a position he’ll find it hard to keep once Trump needs him for a scapegoat after the new administration’s first (of many) inevitable blunders.
By contrast, Conway, without an official position, has a freedom of action that matches her dishonesty: she lies and distorts with an abandon that only the smartest and most shameless people possess. Priebus is just a forgettable apparatchik by comparison.
One will be able to gauge the success of Trump’s efforts through Conway’s own: when even she’s at a loss for words to defend him, he will have exceeded even the most extreme capacity for dishonesty and deception on his behalf.