George Conway slams Trump for misrepresenting Kemp's concerns

George Conway, the right-leaning pundit who regularly criticizes former President Trump on cable television, said Monday that Trump doesn’t have the “shame gene that the rest of us have.”

Conway made the comment while criticizing Trump for his remarks that appeared to misrepresent Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) concerns with the Biden administration over recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene in the state.

Trump, during his visit on Monday to Georgia to survey damage from the hurricane, told reporters that Kemp “is doing a very good job,” but added, “He's having a hard time getting the president on the phone.”

“I guess they're not being responsive,” Trump continued. “The federal government is not being responsive. They're having a very hard time getting the president on the phone.”

Kemp, however, seemed to contradict that claim at a press conference when he described his conversation with President Biden on disaster relief efforts.

“The president just called me yesterday afternoon. I missed him and called him right back, and he just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, ‘We got what we need. We'll work through the federal process.’ He offered that if there's other things we need, just to call him directly, which I appreciate that,” Kemp said.

Trump critic George Conway attends an event for the group Principles First off site of the RNC on day three of the convention at Pabst Best Place on July 17th, 2024. (Sara Stathas for Washington Post via Getty Images)

Conway noted the gap in the two Republicans’ accounts, in a panel discussion on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” which played the two clips back-to-back.

“He's a pathological liar,” Conway said about Trump. “He doesn't have that shame gene that the rest of us have when we even make the slightest mistake, even accidentally.”

“He's just going to say whatever pops into his mind that he wants people to believe at any given moment. And it's not even really that calculating,” Conway continued. “Because he's impulsive.”

Conway said the Harris campaign should “absolutely” play up what Psaki described as a contrast between the two major parties’ nominees, noting Biden and Vice President Harris "are actually in charge."

"And if you don't look like you're paying attention – which has happened in the past with snow storms in cities like Washington and New York, Hurricane Katrina didn’t work out so well for the Bush administration – you pay a huge penalty for it.”

He went on to criticize Trump.

“But it's also, you have to do it because it's the right thing to do. And Donald Trump doesn't care about any of that. He only cares about whether a particular crisis can be used to ... manipulate the public, and that's why he's willing to tell lie after lie.”

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for response.

Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing with it devastating winds and rainfall. The Biden administration said there are roughly 600 people unaccounted for across several states because of the storm.

Harris on Monday cut short a West Coast campaign swing to return to Washington and visit Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters for a briefing on the impacts of Helene and updates on the federal response.

The vice president spoke Sunday with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) about the aftermath of the storm and reached out to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). She spoke Monday with Kemp, the White House said. Florida, Georgia and North Carolina bore the brunt of the storm’s impact.