Conway: Assault survivors should be angry with their attackers, not GOP senators

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said survivors of sexual assault should “feel that anger” toward their attackers, not unrelated Republican senators defending Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Conway appeared on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning as senators gear up for a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination following an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.

Conway said the survivors who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) in an elevator on Capitol Hill need to redirect their anger.

{mosads}“I’ve said ‘God bless them’ for coming forward, but they need to feel that anger toward their individual perpetrators, not toward senators who are unconnected completely from the awful things that have happened to them in the past,” Conway said.

Conway said last week that she herself is a victim of sexual assault, though she’s indicated that she doesn’t want to detail the instance publicly. 

Flake announced that he would be voting to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination after the judge and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month.

Moments later, as he was on his way to the actual committee vote, Flake was stopped on an elevator by sexual assault survivors. 

“I didn’t tell anyone and you’re telling all women that they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them,” one protester said to Flake, who stood in the corner of the elevator looking down.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you,” the woman yelled. “You’re telling me that my assault doesn’t matter, that what happened to me doesn’t matter, that you’re going to let people who do these things into power.”

One of the protesters, Maria Gallagher, wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times on Thursday that she saw Flake as a man “torn between his conscience and his party.”

More than 300 people were taken into custody by police on Capitol Hill Thursday as they descended on the Senate office buildings to protest Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Other GOP senators verbally clashed with protesters.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) waved away a group of female protesters and told them to “grow up.”

“Why aren’t you brave enough to talk to us and exchange with us?” one of the protesters asks Hatch. Hatch responds by waving his hand at her, which results in the woman shouting, “Don’t you wave your hand at me!”

“When you grow up I’ll be glad to,” Hatch can be heard saying as he enters the elevator.

“How dare you talk to women that way?” one woman shouts as Hatch waited for the elevator doors to close. 

WATCH: @senorrinhatch tells a group of women and survivors to “grow up” as he laughs in their faces. #BelieveSurvivors pic.twitter.com/ZMe4Rslret

— #VOTEPROCHOICE (@VoteChoice) October 4, 2018

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has emerged as one of Kavanaugh’s fiercest allies, sparred with a protester in front of television cameras.

“You’ve humiliated this guy enough and there seems to be no bottom for some of you,” Graham told the woman after she demanded Kavanaugh take a polygraph.

“Why don’t we dunk him in water and see if he floats?” Graham added to the woman.

.@LindseyGrahamSC: “I have known [Kavanaugh] for 20 years. Not a close friend but a professional relationship. The BK that I knew before the committee is the BK know now — the only difference is an effort to ruin this man’s life.”

Protesters then start heckling him. pic.twitter.com/zvbJpilUW5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 4, 2018 

“Fox & Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt on Friday said there was “so much hypocrisy” surrounding the anti-Kavanaugh protesters.

“You have women who are getting in their faces, in these senators’ faces and saying ‘how dare you talk to a woman that way,’” Earhardt said.

“They’re using gender to get their points across, but they’re the ones who are attacking men in the elevator, and yelling at them and then they’re saying ‘how dare you talk to a woman that way,’” Earhardt continued. “It’s pretty dangerous.”

The host then agreed with Conway that women who come forward with accusations of sexual assault should be heard.

“But why just in the context of this Supreme Court hearing for this man based on 36-year-old allegations that are still uncorroborated ’til this moment,” Conway asked.