The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 12:43 PM
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Conway Declines To Clarify How New Chain Of Command Will Function Under New White House Chief of Staff John Kelly
President Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway declined Sunday to say whether she and new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci will report directly to new Chief of Staff John Kelly, raising questions about whether the president’s recent staff shakeup will bring order to the West Wing.

“I will speak with General Kelly and the president about that as will Mr. Scaramucci,” Conway, counselor to the president, told “Fox News Sunday.”

Trump announced Friday that he would replace Reince Priebus with Kelly as the new chief of staff, with Kelly officially starting in the new post on Monday.

Kelly, a retired Marine general, was the administration’s Homeland Security secretary until the change.

Trump made the change as part of a broader effort to stop damaging leaks within the White House that included recently appointing Scaramucci and forcing out White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Scaramucci said after his hiring and before Kelly replaced Priebus that he would report directly to Trump.

“I will do whatever the president and the new chief of staff asks us to do,” also said Conway, who on Friday declined to say who will report directly to Trump. “I’m always a protocol, pecking order kinda gal.”