Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said Tuesday that the “prominent, historical” figure in Congress who sexually harassed and assaulted her in 1982 was not former Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., nor any U.S. senator.
“I don’t want to name a name, but the speculation is all centered on it was a United States senator and it wasn’t,” Dingell told CNN Tuesday morning.
“It was not Ted Kennedy, I will say that,” she added. “Because all the media took off that way. He always treated me with dignity and respect. And that’s why it’s dangerous for people to start speculating.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell declines to say which “historical figure” touched her inappropriately, but says it was not Sen. Ted Kennedy https://t.co/z9XhjB2SxK— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 21, 2017
Last week, Dingell said she had been in a meeting with this unnamed man decades earlier when he put a move on her.
“I was lucky the night it happened, I didn’t know what to do. I was in my first year of marriage, tells you how long ago it was,” Dingell recalled. “Historical figure, hand kept going up my leg, I took it off. A woman was at my table, recognized what was happening, said switch places.”
Dingell, 63, said she would not name who the aggressor was and admitted that that was “part of the problem” in changing a culture where this type of behavior is tolerated.
“As you read the articles, people are afraid to have their name because they are afraid of consequences. And the dam has broken. So I hope that we are going to have real change and we need to focus on how we’re going to go forward but hold people there accountable right now,” Dingell added. “By the way, there’s more names coming. There’s no question. I’ve heard them for years.”
