Kellyanne Conway, the counselor to President Trump, on Sunday revealed she was the victim of sexual assault as she defended Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh from accusations of sexual misconduct.
“I feel very empathetic frankly for victims of sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape,” Conway said on CNN’s “State of the Union” and then took a deep breath: “I’m a victim of sexual assault.”
“I don’t expect Judge Kavanaugh, or Jake Tapper, or Jeff Flake or anybody to be held responsible for that. You have to be responsible for your own conduct,” she continued, referring to the Republican senator from Arizona.
Conway didn’t elaborate on exactly what she meant and Tapper, the CNN host, did not pursue it in his questioning.
Speaking of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday when she accused Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed and groping her during a high school party in 1982, Conway said it was a confirmation hearing, “not a criminal or civil proceeding.”
“And let me say also it’s not a meeting of the MeToo movement,” she added.
Both Tapper and Conway seemed to be caught off guard by her revelation.
“This is the first time I have ever heard you talk about something personal like that. And I’m really sorry,” Tapper told her.
“Well, I have just had it. I have just had it with it all being the same,” she responded.
She also brought up Flake being confronted by two sexual assault victims as he headed to the Senate hearing on Kavanaugh.
“This is all partisan politics. … I want those women who were sexually assaulted the other day who were confronting Jeff Flake, God bless them,” she said. “But go blame the perpetrator.”
Moments after the elevator incident, Flake, who had announced his decision to vote for Kavanaugh, asked the Senate panel to delay a floor vote for a week to allow the FBI to investigate the claims against the nominee.
Conway was then asked about the numerous accusations against her boss and his admission that his accusers’ claims against him affect how he sees the allegations against Kavanaugh.
“Don’t conflate that with this, and certainly don’t conflate it with what happened to me. It would be a huge mistake, Jake,” she said. “Let’s not always bring Trump into everything that happens in this universe. That’s mistake number one.”
Conway also lashed out people comparing Kavanaugh’s alleged behavior with that of comedian Bill Cosby who was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison last week for sexually assaulting women.
“This is not Bill Cosby. Those comparisons I hear on your network are a disgrace and the anchor should have called them out, this is not even Bill Clinton,” she said, referring to the former president’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s.
“The hypocrisy is ridiculous,” she said.
