Trump adviser Conway reveals assault

She says of sex attack: ‘You’re responsible for your own conduct’

WASHINGTON — White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday she was once a victim of sexual assault.

But she added women’s shared outrage over such misconduct shouldn’t affect Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.

Conway made the personal revelation during an interview with Jake Tapper on the CNN program “State of the Union” during which she largely derided the “partisan politics” of Kavanaugh’s hearing Thursday.

Christine Blasey Ford said during the hearing that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her decades ago when they were teenagers, an allegation he then angrily denied.

Many, including Democratic senators, have seen Blasey’s testimony as a rallying cry for survivors of sexual abuse, saying a vote for Kavanaugh would be an endorsement of not only the alleged behaviour but of a culture that condones it and dismisses its victims.

Conway pushed back against that notion.

“I feel very empathetic, frankly, for victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment and rape,” Conway said.

She then paused and cleared her throat.

“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.”

She was referring to Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who had been confronted by two women who said they were sexual abuse victims about his intention to vote for Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Conway said those women should “go blame the perpetrator.”

Tapper later said, “This is the first time I’ve ever heard you talk about something personal like that,” adding, “I’m really sorry that you went through that.”

He asked a question, noting that Conway works for Trump, who himself has denied allegations of sexual misconduct.

“Don’t conflate that with this and certainly don’t conflate that with what happened to me,” Conway responded.

“Let’s not always bring Trump into everything that happens in this universe.

“That’s mistake No. 1.”

She did not go into further detail about her own experience and could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.

In an interview with MSNBC in 2016, Conway said that when she was younger, she knew members of Congress who were “rubbing up against girls, sticking their tongues down women’s throats who, uninvited, who didn’t like it.”

At Politico’s Women Rule Summit more than a year later, Conway referred to that interview, saying some members of Congress had tried to “shove their tongue down my throat or rub or do worse,” but asserted that “nobody wanted to hear about it” because she was aligned with Trump.

“Every time that happened to me, when I was younger and in the workplace, every time that happened to me, I always told a friend, I always told a female relative,” she said.

“There is shame involved because you tend to think it’s on you, ‘It’s your fault,’ somehow.”