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She had her town hall last night on Chris Hayes and thought she did pretty well-though you could also feel she was on edge-she quite desperately needs to catch fire as her poll numbers at this point are about 1.6%. At the end of what was a decent performance overall I thought-though she definitely was pushing a bit because of the pressure-she went there-brought up Al Franken herself.

I know the issue of Sen. Franken is hard for many Democrats. But he had eight credible sexual harassment allegations against him, and I had to choose whether to stay silent, or not. If some megadonors have a problem with that, that's on them. pic.twitter.com/POLWcTQUsY

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) March 19, 2019

This is evidently her last, best answer-as it’s verbatim what she’s said in the past.

She was so impressed with it she sent out fundraising emails with it:

I have NEVER seen a Tweet with a 100% negative response to it like this one. I am STILL pissed about what happened to Al Franken. Why on EARTH would she fundraise on it?! https://t.co/xfMGOGxHFA

— Laura Clark 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@geekspeeker) March 19, 2019

There were a lot of negative responses.

https://twitter.com/RoseFromPhila/status/1107919295219142656

We've got better options.

— DCPetterson (@dcpetterson) March 19, 2019

I don't want you as a president pic.twitter.com/vp3cWIZuq7

— shaFana Casiano (@leoego0816) March 19, 2019

Which is what Gillibrand did do for her staff member accused of sexual misconduct

— Expand the Court (@ProChoiceMike) March 19, 2019

When you look at NY Senator’s words-my own NY Senator who I’ve voted for multiple times in the past and would do again-for Senator at least-she dismisses those of us in the Democratic base critical of her forcing Franken to resign as ‘megadonors’ as if you have to be a billionaire white male to have any issue with it.

This is ad hominem and is hardly going to win her critics over to her. The truth is that many rank and file grassroots Dems have real issues with it-I’ve never seen my own mentions so trashed as the day Franken was forced to walk the plan-90% of the tweets were from women and 90% were anti Gillibrand and pro Franken. A number of feminist lawyers criticized her position. Many wondered why she rejected calls for an investigation.

This is the opposite of what she says she did when her own staffer was accused of sexual harassment. 

In April 2018, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand urged Senate leaders to pass her bipartisan Congressional Harassment Reform Act. “Congress has a sexual harassment problem — and isn’t taking it seriously,” Gillibrand wrote in Fortune magazine. “If we can’t clean up our own act, how can anyone expect Congress to do the right thing for victims and survivors in the rest of the country? Congress has to do better. I believe that elected officials should be held to the highest ethical standard — not the lowest.”

Just a few months later, when a woman in her own office reported that a married male staffer was making repeated, unwanted and increasingly aggressive sexual advances toward her, Gillibrand did not do the right thing and fire him. Politico reported that “Less than three weeks after reporting the alleged harassment and subsequently claiming that the man retaliated against her for doing so, the woman told chief of staff Jess Fassler that she was resigning because of the office’s handling of the matter.”

Gillibrand’s office defended her inaction, saying in a statement that the senator’s office had conducted a “full and thorough investigation” that included “multiple interviews with relevant current employees who could potentially corroborate the claims” but did not find cause to fire the male staffer.

FN: I don’t agree with the author Marc Thiessen’s grousing about Kavanaugh-the apples to apples comparison is Franken-but a partisan GOPers like Thiessen can’t be honest about it. And Kavanaugh has little to complain about as the GOP would have ‘rammed him through’ if he were Charles Manson so long as he’s an ideological conservative Republican.

But her different standard is highly notable-she certainly handled it very differently than Al Fraken. What I don’t get is why she only seems to demand that Democrats resign-she also has called for Bill Clinton to somehow retroactively resign.

2. And this isn't even smart politically. I mean if I were HER running for POTUS in 2020 as a woman strong on #MeTOO she ought to be calling on 'President Trump's resignation every single day. But that's just for Clinton and Franken evidently

— Expand the Court (@ProChoiceMike) March 19, 2019

Seriously-if she publicly called out Trump for the accusations against him every day and finished with ‘he should resign’ her support my be above 2%. Kamala Harris is my choice but I would love to see any candidate actually attack Trump directly now and again rather than acting like they fear nothing in the world more than one of his mean tweets.

I’m so tired of the canard that ‘Democrats can’t just oppose Trump they have to stand for something’-why? I mean that only makes it a choice rather than a referendum-the American Hitler’s Russia House vs. the Socialists.

Why not just run against the Hitler’s Russia House? In a way Trump and the GOP’s socialism canard makes sense-many Americans are sick of Trump’s crazy but they are arguing that the Democrats are the real crazy.

Not that I think this will ultimately work-I’m an optimist-but it’s the only real hope they have-make this a choice rather than a referendum-if it’s a referendum they will lose. I’m not saying don’t discuss policy but certainly be clear that ‘we are not socialists’ which is what Warren and Kamala have now done. Hickenlooper has a centrist rep so maybe his reluctance on ‘capitalism’ makes sense for him.

FN: We look at choice vs. referendum in more detail in Chapter A. 

Personally, many of us already know Democratic policies are superior-it’s why we’re Democrats which is why I’d love to see some candidates not always so intent on the high road-unless it’s Gillibrand going after Franken and Bill Clinton.\

Regarding the campaign aide’s accusations against Trump the MSM’s silence on it has been deafening as noted in Chapter A.