Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway says she was assaulted last year while at dinner with her daughter and her daughter’s friends.
Speaking to CNN in an interview that aired Friday, Conway said that while she was at dinner at a Bethesda, Maryland, restaurant, a woman grabbed her from behind and shook her repeatedly to the point that she “thought maybe somebody was hugging” her.
When Conway turned around to see who it was, she says, “it just felt weird, it felt like that’s a little aggressive. I turned around and the woman had grabbed my hand.” While the physical contact only reportedly lasted a few seconds, Conway alleged that the woman continued to yell and gesture at her for several minutes before being escorted from the restaurant.
“She was out of control,” Conway explained to CNN’s Dana Bash. “I don’t even know how to explain her to you. She was just, her whole face was terror and anger. She was right here, and my daughter was right there. She ought to pay for that.”
The suspect was caught with the help of a video her daughter took of the alleged assault. She has been charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct and will face trial next month.
This incident is the latest in a series of attacks on members of the Trump administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and then-Environmental Protect Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt are among the others who have been confronted at various greater D.C.-area restaurants in past months.
