with a celebrity surgeon who assaulted her decades ago when she was a young staffer on Capitol Hill.

Kuster, a New Hampshire Democrat seeking her third term, briefly described the incident last summer during a House floor speech about campus sexual assault. But it wasn't until the recent publication of Trump's vulgar and sexually predatory comments that she publicly named the man she says assaulted her: Dr. Christiaan Barnard, who performed the world's first human heart transplant in 1967 and died in 2001.

In an interview Thursday, Kuster said it's Barnard's status, not identity, that's important. She first named him in an editorial board meeting with the Concord Monitor on Wednesday.

"The point I was trying to make is that I was 23 years old and in a situation with someonefor 40 years — they're "complicit in an environment that continues."

"What has happened with Mr. Trump's comments ... ironically, he has launched a nationwide dialogue, and he inadvertently defined lack of consent," she said. "It's been a taboo topic for too long. That's why I want to use this discussion as an opportunity to educate the public and also to advocate on behalf of survivors for change."

Kuster had recently graduated from Dartmouth College when she took a job as a legislative aide to U.S. Rep. Pete McCloskey, a Republican from California. She said she was seated at a business luncheon with her boss and Barnard when the South African cardiologist reached his hand under her skirt. She told no one until last June, just before her floor speech.

"I