Minnie Driver: ‘Every girl I know’ has been sexually assaulted

A newly released 2005 video of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump making sexually explicit and lewd remarks about women during a 2005 interview caused a seismic shift in the conversation around sexual assault this election cycle.

“We have to talk about it,” actress and musician Minnie Driver told Pete Dominick Tuesday, referring to the conversation. “We are citizens of the world before we are whatever we do for a living.”

“Would you admit to having ever been assaulted?” Dominick asked.

“One hundred percent and every girl that I know,” Driver revealed.

Driver shared a personal anecdote from a vacation to Greece when she was 17 years old. She refused to dance with a man who she says ultimately punched her for rejecting his advances.

“Now this guy was arrested….And the police they come and they do this thing and it’s all guys…. The way they presented it was, ‘this guy was just having a good time and if you’d just gone along with it, it would’ve been fine. If you just danced with him, you wouldn’t be in this position you are in now,'” she said. “And I think that’s how it’s framed for a lot of young women.”

She added, “I don’t know a woman who has not had some form of sexual assault at some point in their life.”

British-born Driver is currently in the process of becoming an American citizen. Although she can’t vote in November, she has been outspoken about the 2016 presidential election since she has “an American child.” She has watched and live-tweeted the presidential debates and has used Twitter to comment publicly on current events. It’s clear that she’s personally invested in the larger conversation about sexual assault.

“[Trump] has not got women,” Driver said. “It’s so funny, nobody’s going ‘boy, I wish he’d grab me by the p—y.’ Nobody said that.”

“The idea that when you’re a star you can just grab people by the genitals and that is somehow sanctioned behavior, it’s astonishing and weird,” Driver added. “And, by the way, women talk about guys. And I don’t know what the female equivalent of the locker room is. I guess, it’s the locker room.”

“If that dragon is vanquished by a woman on November 8th it will be a beautiful and wonderful and righteous thing,” she concluded, referring to Trump. “Whatever you feel about Trump’s opponent, it is, it will be, a good thing for girls everywhere.”

See part of Minnie Driver’s conversation with Pete Dominick below.

Stand Up with Pete Dominick airs at 9 am ET on SiriusXM Insight (Ch. 121)

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