Kellyanne Conway: Woman Assaulted Me in Front of My Kid

White House counselor tells CNN about incident she says happened in October in Bethesda
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 8, 2019 8:59 AM CST
Kellyanne Conway: 'Unhinged' Woman Attacked Me at Eatery
Kellyanne Conway talks with reporters outside the West Wing of the White House on Jan. 23, 2019.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

CNN has been working on a series about powerful DC women, and White House counsel Kellyanne Conway was the latest to sit before the mic. In the interview with Dana Bash that aired Friday, Conway made an unexpected claim: that back in October, she'd been assaulted at a Mexican restaurant in Maryland by an "aggressive" woman who apparently didn't like that Conway works for the Trump administration. Conway tells CNN that on the day in question, she was with her teen daughter and her daughter's friends at Uncle Julio's in Bethesda when a woman came up to her "screaming her head off," then gripped Conway's arms and shook her, "to the point where I thought maybe somebody was hugging me." Conway, who describes the suspect as "unhinged," with a face filled with "terror and anger," adds that the woman also grabbed her hands, per the Washington Post.

Conway, who called 911, told police the shaking was short-lived, though the woman screamed at her for a good 10 minutes before leaving. "The suspect was yelling 'shame on you' and other comments believed to be about Conway's political views," a police corporal wrote in the charging document for 63-year-old Mary Elizabeth Inabinett, who was later charged in November with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct. Inabinett's attorney tells CNN his client "saw Kellyanne Conway, a public figure, in a public place, and exercised her First Amendment right to express her personal opinions. She did not assault Ms. Conway." Conway's take: "What's necessary is for people to understand—in front of everybody but especially in front of 13- and 14-year-old girls—that you need to control your temper ... You need to get over the damn 2016 election." Inabinett's trial is set for March. (More Kellyanne Conway stories.)

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