White House chief strategist Steve Bannon believes the loyalty President Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway exhibited following the "Access Hollywood" incident empowered him to finish the race and win the election.

"If Kellyanne had not been there when the firestorm hit, I don't know if we would have made it," Bannon said.

"She literally became a cult figure during that time period, just because of her relentless advocacy for Trump on TV," Bannon added, according to an interview published Tuesday in the Atlantic.

In the days and weeks following the early October finding, Conway addressed the incident in countless television interviews.

The spokeswoman did not defend her boss on the specific charges. In fact, Conway deemed his sexual remarks about women as "indefensible," but said the decade-old incident constituted only one example of a mistake he had made.

Conway said she has been the victim of sexual harassment many times when she was "younger and prettier." Conway added that it was the very politicians denouncing Trump over his comments who had harassed her years earlier.