- Kellyanne Conway in her new memoir criticized Mark Meadows' tenure as White House chief of staff.
- Conway said Meadows "did not match the moment" during the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- "The president was being underserved, poorly advised, and, ironically, ignored by 'senior staff,'" she wrote.
In August 2020, then-White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was concerned about the guidance that then-President Donald Trump was receiving from some in his inner circle, notably Mark Meadows — the conservative ex-North Carolina congressman who had been chief of staff since March of that year.
Conway would soon be leaving her role in the White House, but she ruminated on the continued challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and Trump's reelection matchup against then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The veteran pollster didn't think Trump was being well-served by Meadows and didn't bite her tongue in laying out her frustrations him and several other top aides in the White House, which she detailed in her memoir, "Here's the Deal."
"Some of the staff egos were bigger than the enormous tasks confronting us. Others acted like adolescents in cliques or hungry sharks with agendas separate from that of the nation. People could not even agree on a mask policy. Most of them were insisting he would win reelection in a landslide before 'Sleepy Joe' ever awoke," she wrote.
She added: "Meadows, the self-described 'chief 's chief,' was the fourth person to serve in that role, and the only one during the most fraught time for the president and for the nation. The man did not match the moment. I could have been angry, but mostly I felt worried."
Conway went on to state that during such a tumultuous time — with thousands of Americans dying from the coronavirus and millions of people contracting the virus before vaccines were authorized for emergency use — Trump needed top-tier advisors who would steer him in a good direction.
"Trump can be as good a listener as he is a talker, so quality of counsel and pureness of advice are imperative," she wrote. "Personnel could be a blind spot for him. Facing the twin challenges of COVID and a reelection campaign, he deserved the best and the brightest."
In the book, she opined that Trump was "poorly advised" on many issues — including gay rights — pointing out that "senior staff" put a stop to a plan by the then-president and first lady Melania Trump to commemorate Pride Month in 2020.
"My eyes were already wide open. The president was being underserved, poorly advised, and, ironically, ignored by 'senior staff,'" she wrote.
She continued: "Like in June of that year, when the First Lady was finalizing a plan to light up the White House in the pride colors and send out a tweet that the president planned to retweet. All of a sudden when the day came, nothing happened — the whole plan had been blocked."
Conway took another dig at Meadows in the book, remarking that "he wanted to be the president's BFF," which "meant more important than the duly-elected vice president."
Insider reached out to Meadows for comment.
Last December, Meadows released his memoir, "The Chief's Chief," where he detailed his response to Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization, while also describing his loyalty to the then-president, writing that he would have "dressed in a giant penguin suit" to have him back in the Oval Office after the health-related ordeal.