"I was attacked as a congressional staffer, and I remember the fear and shame," Speier said calmly, looking directly into the camera, as she described how her office boss tried to take advantage of her.
"The Chief of Staff, held my face, kissed me, and stuck his tongue in my mouth," Speier said.
"So, I know what it's like to keep these things hidden, deep down inside."
"Congress has been a breeding ground for a hostile work environment for far too long," the California Democrat said matter of factly, as she called for current and former staffers to tell their stories.
"There is nothing to fear in telling the truth," Speier added in the video.
"And it's time to throw back the curtain on the repulsive behavior that until now, has thrived in the dark, without consequences," she said.
"It must stop," Speier wrote in a series of early morning tweets. "It's time 4 #MeTooCongress," adding a new hashtag to the "MeToo" campaign that has emerged in recent days.
In her video, Speier did not name her boss, or the office she worked in at the time, but she is well known for having been an employee of the late Rep. Leo Ryan (D-CA), who was shot and killed in the Jonestown Massacre in 1978 in Guyana.
Speier was with Ryan on that trip; she was shot five times and basically left for dead, somehow surviving after it took 22 hours for medical help to arrive.
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