Huma Abedin Explains Why She Won't Name the Senator Who Kissed Her: 'He's Not the Story'

Huma Abedin held nothing back in an appearance on The View Monday morning to promote her new memoir, "Both/And: A Life in Many Words." The former Clinton official was open about her marriage to disgraced politician Anthony Weiner, growing up Muslim in Michigan, and the senator who kissed her against her will in the 2000s. While Abedin doesn't believe she was sexually assaulted, she has declined to name the senator in question, a decision she defended when pressed by The View's co-hosts. "He's not the story," she said. "He doesn't matter to me. This is my story."

Abedin's chat with the women of The View was wide-ranging in scope, but at the end of the interview, Sunny Hostin brought up a story from her memoir that has generated headlines in recent days. "You write in your book about an incident from your 20s where a senator invited you up to his apartment for coffee, and kissed you. Headlines are calling it a 'sexual assault,' but you call it an 'uncomfortable situation,'" said Hostin. "You don't name the senator, but you felt the story was important to include in the book, and I agree with that. Why do you feel that it was important to include, and why not name him?"

"The choice I made when I was writing the book — people are always surprised when I say the book was actually longer — is I chose to include my full truth," replied Abedin. She explained that "we tend to bury trauma," which is exactly what happened to her at the time. "I did bury that incident. I think back in the 2000s, that is just how you had to act," she said. "One of the surprising things to myself is I apologized. The way I reacted is, I said 'I'm sorry,' and I left."

“He’s not the story. He doesn’t matter to me. This is my story.”

After sharing about an incident in her book #BothAndMemoir where she claims a senator invited her up to his apartment for coffee and then kissed her, @HumaAbedin tells #TheView why she chose to leave him unnamed. pic.twitter.com/JuISxBPo1l

— The View (@TheView) November 1, 2021

Abedin insisted that this isn't "exclusive to being in politics," but rather a reflection of the world in the early aughts. "I totally buried the story until I was watching Dr. [Christine Blasey] Ford on TV, literally being questioned for her convenient memory. And as I see her being questioned, that memory comes flooding back to me."

"In 2021, a woman should be able to share her truth, and that's okay," she concluded. "And that's why I chose to do it."

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.