Gov. Pete Ricketts says Kellyanne Conway, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest advisors, has it all wrong.

Ricketts refuting comments Conway made recently regarding the ongoing battle between Charles Herbster, one of the leading GOP candidates for governor, and State Sen. Julie Slama.

Slama has accused Herbster, who is endorsed by Trump, of sexually assaulting her. Herbster adamantly denies it as he does similar accusations from six other women, none of whom have made their names public.

In an on-camera interview Conway—while defending Herbster against Slama—described what she claims was a previously unreported face-to-face confrontation with Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is backing statehouse hopeful, NU Regent Jim Pillen and has insisted for months that Herbster would be a "horrible" governor.  

According to Conway, ten months ago Ricketts told her that he would “destroy Charles Herbster and everyone around him.”

Today Ricketts told KFAB radio, “It is utterly untrue that I said ‘we’re going to destroy Herbster or everyone around him'. She’s making that part up. She’s clearly misremembering the events or trying to mislead people; I couldn’t tell you which.”

[View the comments from both Conway and Ricketts above]

Conway went on to note that several months after the allegations, Herbster gave Slama a $10,000 campaign contribution, which has been confirmed by News Channel Nebraska.

At the same time, Conway also repeated Herbster’s claim that in 2019 he met with Slama to discuss her campaign for the Legislature, a meeting attended by former Gov. Dave Heineman.

But as News Channel Nebraska first reported, Heineman says he never attended a Herbster-Slama meeting.