Kellyanne Conway, 51, gave a telling interview to Jake Tapper on Sept. 30 about the current scandal surrounding Supreme Court judge nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and during her time in the CNN spotlight, she admitted that she is a victim of sexual assault. The adviser to President Donald Trump was discussing women speaking out about their alleged accusers when she hesitantly revealed the shocking news. “I feel very empathetic frankly for victims of sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape,” she said. “That… I’m a victim of sexual assault. I don’t expect Judge Kavanaugh or Jake Tapper or [Senator] Jeff Flake or anybody to be held responsible for that. You have to be responsible for your own conduct.”
Despite the surprising confession, the outspoken political consultant chose not to focus on the admission and instead went on to express her disapproval of the way CNN was handling the Judge Kavanaugh coverage. “This is not Bill Cosby,” she expressed, referring to the actor who was recently convicted of aggravated indecent assault. “Those comparisons on your network are a disgrace and the anchor should have called them out. This is not even Bill Clinton. You have Senate Judiciary Committee members who refused to remove Bill Clinton from office after he received oral sex in the Oval Office and lied about it to a grand jury as President of the United States. The hypocrisy is ridiculous.”
After apologizing to Kellyanne for being a victim of sexual assault, Jake brought up the fact that she works for a president who has been accused of similar allegations, including unwanted kissing and groping, by 22 women and that although he’s denied the allegations, all the women have accused him of lying about it. In Trump’s infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” tape, he himself could be heard admitting that because he’s a star, he feels he can “do anything,” including grab women “by the pussy.”
“Don’t conflate that with this and certainly don’t conflate that with what happened to me,” Kellyanne responded to Jake’s mention of Trump. “It’ll be a huge mistake, Jake. Let’s not always bring Trump into everything that happens in this universe.”
Jake went on to elaborate that he wanted to bring Trump up because the Commander-in-Chief has admitted his opinion about the Judge Kavanaugh situation has been affected due to his own experience with false allegations. He then asked Kellyanne if she believes, as a sexual assault survivor, women should be heard and believed when they make sexual assault accusations even if they have no evidence or witnesses. “Jake, they should all be heard and they should be heard in courts of law, they should be heard in depositions, they should be heard in proceedings,” she explained. “Those who can prosecute, those who have civil and/or criminal causes of action should pursue that but we do treat people differently who are either the victims or the perpetrators of this based on their politics now and based on their gender. That is a huge mistake.”
.@KellyannePolls to @jaketapper: "I'm a victim of sexual assault." #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/ZQcmnFIicQ
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) September 30, 2018
As counselor to Trump, it’s not too surprising to hear Kellyanne defend the controversial president but as a sexual assault survivor, it’s definitely causing people to talk. Although she didn’t go into specifics about her unfortunate experience, it further proves that sexual misconduct can happen to anyone in or out of the spotlight.