HLN host Ashleigh Banfield isn’t completely convinced about a woman’s claim about a sexual encounter with Aziz Ansari. Banfield tore into a photographer, known as Grace, who told Babe.net she left Ansari’s apartment feeling “violated” last year after a date where she says he pushed himself on her.
“I have to ask you, what exactly was your beef?” Banfield says on Monday, Jan. 15 on “Crime and Justice.” “That you had a bad date with Aziz Ansari? Is that what victimized you to the point of seeking a public conviction and a career-ending sentence against him? Is that what you truly thought he deserved for your night out?”
Banfield emphasized that if a sexual assault occured— especially if it hinders a woman’s career — it should be reported to the police. But in 23-year-old Grace’s case, it should have been something you go home and talk to your girlfriends about.
“You have chiseled away at a movement that I, along with all of my other sisters in the workplace, have been dreaming of for decades,” she says. “All the gains achieved on your behalf and mine are now being compromised by the allegations that you threw out there — and I’m gonna call them reckless and hollow. … I hope the next time you go on a bad date, you stand up —sooner — you smooth out your dress and you bloody well leave. Because the only sentence that a guy like that deserves is a bad case of blue balls, not a Hollywood blackball.”
