White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday castigated Hillary Clinton for taking five days to condemn Harvey Weinstein for the recently surfaced sexual harassment allegations against him, adding that Clinton has "kept the dirty money" the Hollywood mogul gave her.
Fox News host Bill Hemmer asked Conway to explain a tweet she sent Tuesday in which she criticized Clinton's delayed response to the Weinstein controversy.
It took Hillary abt 5 minutes to blame NRA for madman's rampage, but 5 days to sorta-kinda blame Harvey Weinstein 4 his sexually assaults.
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 10, 2017
In her tweet, Conway referenced the criticism Clinton has received for staying silent on the Weinstein controversy until Tuesday, five days after the initial New York Times story on the allegations broke. Clinton released a brief statement saying that she was "shocked and appalled by the revelations."
"Yes, it took five days and clearly you had an issue with that," Hemmer said to Conway.
"I felt like a woman who ran to be commander in chief and president of the United States, who talks about women's empowerment, took an awfully long time to give support to those women who were coming forward and has still, as far as we know, kept the money, kept the dirty money that dirty Harvey has given her in her campaign," Conway said.
Conway appeared to be referring to the thousands of dollars that Weinstein donated to Clinton throughout her political career. He maxed out donations ($5,400) to Clinton's failed 2016 presidential campaign and gave more than $30,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee between Clinton's campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and more than 30 state Democratic parties. The Hollywood mogul has also given at least $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Conway said that not all Democrats have failed to distance themselves from Weinstein, a major Democratic donor.
"I'm happy and heartened and proud of many Democrats across the aisle and a lot of people in the mainstream media who are very anti-Trump coming forward about this. She [Clinton] ought to do that, too," Conway said.
"If she gives [Weinstein's] money back, does it make it better for you?" Hemmer asked.
"No. First of all, she doesn't need to mollify me, but not be a hypocrite about women empowerment," Conway said, before continuing to question Clinton's commitment to women's issues.
"What has she done privately in her private life?" Conway asked. "She is talking about herself and a campaign she lost on a book tour. She is not trying to help victims of sexual assault ... We don't hear that from her."