White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday’s State of the Union that she’s been a victim of sexual assault.
“I feel very empathetic, frankly, for victims of sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape. I’m a victim of sexual assault,” she said. “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.”
.@KellyannePolls to @jaketapper: “I’m a victim of sexual assault.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/ZQcmnFIicQ
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) September 30, 2018
Conway acknowledged the past assault while defending Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who’s been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by numerous women, including Christine Blasey Ford, who testified about her allegation in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
Despite the accusations, Conway said that support for Kavanaugh has remained strong. “Not a single parent whose young daughters Judge Kavanaugh has coached in basketball has come forward and said, ‘You know what, I now have second thoughts,'” Conway told Tapper.
For her, the saga around Kavanaugh is about “raw, partisan politics.” She cited the sexual assault survivors who confronted Senator Jeff Flake on Friday as an example.
“I want those women who were sexually assaulted the other day who were confronting Jeff Flake, God bless them, but go blame the perpetrator,” Conway told Tapper. “That’s who’s responsible for sexual assault, the people who commit them.”
Tapper asked Conway if her own experience as a survivor affects her working with President Trump, who’s been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.
“Don’t conflate that with this. And certainly don’t conflate it with what happened to me. It would be a huge mistake,” she said. “Let’s not always bring Trump into everything that happens in this universe.”
Conway also condemned the senators who are pushing for an FBI investigation into Kavanaugh despite their refusal to remove former President Bill Clinton from his office while he was facing sexual misconduct allegations.
“The hypocrisy is ridiculous and if not one Senate Judiciary Committee member changes his or her vote because of what they learned from the FBI investigation, that tells you all you need to know about what the president and Judge Kavanaugh [have] said is a sham,” Conway said.