Several Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls -- including Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and now Kirsten Gillibrand -- are defending their self-professed commitment to the ideals of the #MeToo movement against a series of accusations they recently mismanaged sexual-misconduct claims against their subordinates.
As
the three prominent senators each have sought to draw a sharp contrast
with President Trump, who has faced his own misconduct allegations, the
claims highlighted vulnerabilities that could become major liabilities
not only in a heated Democrat Party primary, but also in the general
election.
Back in 2017, Gillibrand and others ramped up the pressure for then-Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to resign amid sexual misconduct allegations. He ultimately stepped down.
Gillibrand, who has been described by GQ Magazine as "the face of the MeToo movement," said at the time
that Franken's alleged conduct had "shocked and disappointed her" and
that he should "step aside" because "enough is enough." But, it emerged
on Monday that last summer, an aide in her mid-20’s who was working in
Gillibrand’s Senate office also apparently decided that enough was
enough, as she resigned in protest over the office’s handling of her
sexual-harassment complaint against a senior male adviser to Gillibrand.
“I
have offered my resignation because of how poorly the investigation and
post-investigation was handled,” the woman, who resigned less than
three weeks after reporting the purported harassment, wrote to
Gillibrand in a letter obtained by Politico. Gillibrand,
responding to the allegations on Monday, said an appropriate
investigation was launched -- and her office later said the male staffer
had been fired after other unreported, "deeply disturbing" comments
surfaced.
The woman was granted anonymity because of fears of retaliation.
Gillibrand faced immediate friendly fire
after calling for Franken's resignation -- in 2018, liberal billionaire
megadonor George Soros argued that Gillibrand turned on Franken to
"improve her chances" in the 2020 presidential race -- and some of those
hard feelings among her fellow progressives have not subsided.
For Sanders, the Vermont Independent who caucuses with Democrats, looming resentment from establishment progressives also has posed a major challenge. A January report in The New York Times outlining what
one former Sanders delegate called an "entire wave of rotten sexual
harassment that seemingly was never dealt with" during his 2016
presidential run seemed only to bolster on-the-record claims from Democrats that Sanders was too impersonal and arrogant to lead the party.
Asked by
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper earlier this year whether he was unaware of
the sexual harassment allegations, Sanders replied: "Uh, yes. I was a
little bit busy running around the country, trying to make the case." He
then appeared to smile.
The
next week, after reports surfaced that a top aide was accused of
sexually assaulting a female subordinate during Sanders' campaign, he
issued a strong apology and a vow to change.
Bernie Sanders kicking off his 2020 presidential campaign earlier
this month in Brooklyn, N.Y. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)
"To the women in that campaign who were harassed or
mistreated I apologize," Sanders said in a statement. "Our standards and
safeguards were inadequate."
Allegations of sexism also briefly
surfaced contemporaneously during Sanders’ 2016 bid, as some of his
young, white male supporters -- known as "Bernie Bros" -- attacked
Hillary Clinton and her followers online, contributing to a hostile
atmosphere between the campaigns. In her book, the election
retrospective "What Happened," Clinton slammed Sanders for
using “innuendo and impugning my character” such that she
suffered “lasting damage" into the general election, although Clinton
did not accuse Sanders of orchestrating the gender-based attacks.
The
back-and-forth has continued into 2019. Late last month, after former
members of Clinton's team leaked details concerning Sanders' expensive
travel on behalf of the Clinton campaign after she secured the
Democratic nomination, Sanders 2016 campaign spokesman Michael Briggs
returned fire. "You can see why she’s one of the most disliked
politicians in America," Briggs said, referring to Clinton. "She’s not
nice. Her people are not nice." Briggs went on to call Clinton and her
team among the "biggest a--holes in American politics."
But,
although Gillibrand and Sanders have made public overtures to the
alleged victims who worked for them, California Democratic Sen. Kamala
Harris acknowledged earlier this month
that she still had not spoken to a woman who sued her former top
adviser for sexual harassment, leading to a $400,000 settlement.
A
spokeswoman for Harris insisted last December the team was “unaware” of
the harassment allegations while Harris was California’s attorney
general, but the agency that she oversaw, California's Department of
Justice, reportedly was informed about the complaint three months before she exited in early 2017.
The
lawsuit, filed by Danielle Hartley, accused Larry Wallace of demeaning
her based on her gender while she worked for him as his assistant.
Hartley said Wallace placed his computer printer under his desk and
often asked her to crawl under and refill it with paper as he sat and
watched, sometimes with other men in the room.
"In this specific
case, I have not talked to the victim," Harris told Univision. "That
case is being handled by the Attorney General's Office and I've left it
up to that office to handle the case as they've seen fit, which included
a settlement."
In an uncomfortable twist,
Harris' autobiography, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” which
was released in January, praised Wallace's "leadership" in
orchestrating a bias training program. Wallace, the former director of
the Division of Law Enforcement in California, resigned last December.
Republicans, meanwhile, have previewed a possible line of attack against Harris on the episode as primary season approaches.
“No
one is buying Kamala Harris’s claim she didn’t know her top aide of 14
yrs was accused of sexual harassment, resulting in a $400K settlement,”
GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted. Fox News' Paul Steinhauser, Louis Casiano and Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 12:05 PM PT — Sunday, March 10, 2019
Senator John Kennedy takes aim at disgraced Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, accusing him of harming the Bureau’s reputation. During an interview on Sunday, Kennedy said McCabe should “hang his head in shame.”
.@SenJohnKennedy
says former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and others at the FBI
acted on their political beliefs and for that, they “should hang their
head in shame…and put their head in a bag.” pic.twitter.com/2JRvEO5C4p
Kennedy also accused him of politicizing the agency during the 2016 election. He added agents are entitled to their opinions, but claimed McCabe crossed a line by acting on his political beliefs. Kennedy continued to say McCabe is lucky he wasn’t prosecuted for perjury and misleading the FBI.
Pete Buttigieg is the 37 -year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind.
Pete Buttigieg, the little-known 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., said in an interview Sunday that Vice President Mike Pence
has in effect become a "cheerleader for the porn star presidency" and
questioned aloud when the former Indiana governor "stopped believing in
scripture" and started to believe in Trump.
The
"porn star" reference is an apparent shot at Trump’s alleged
extra-marital affair with the former porn star Stormy Daniels, which the
president has denied. Buttigieg told CNN’s Jake Tapper in Austin that Pence's "interpretation" of scripture is different from his.
"My understanding of scripture is that it's about protecting the
stranger and the prisoner and the poor person and that idea," he said.
"That's what I get in the gospel when I'm at church and his has a lot
more to do with sexuality ... and a certain view of rectitude."
Buttigieg, who is in the second tier
of Democratic candidates for president, is a Rhodes scholar who was
first elected mayor of his hometown in 2011 at age 29, making him the
youngest mayor of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents. A
lieutenant in the Navy Reserve, he served a tour in Afghanistan in 2014.
Buttigieg
raised his national profile with an unsuccessful 2017 run for
Democratic National Committee chairman, saying the party needed a new
start. He withdrew from the race before a vote when it became clear he
didn’t have the support to win. Amid
his campaign for a second term, Buttigieg came out as gay in a column
in the local newspaper. He went on to win re-election with 80 percent of
the vote. In 2018, three years to the day after the column ran, he
married his husband, middle school teacher Chasten Glezman. The Associated Press contributed to this report
Mayor de Blasio
got himself into a real Space Jam on Sunday when he was caught on video
flapping his arms to a version of R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly”
while visiting a church in South Carolina.
An
18-second video shows de Blasio standing on the left side of the chapel
as a female choir member belts out the refrain of the late 1990s
mega-hit by the since-disgraced R&B superstar, who is facing sexual
abuse charges tied to four underage victims.
The
mayor moves his arms from front to back, then holds them out by his
side and waves them up and down before clasping his hands.
“I wonder if the @NYCMayor realizes who sings this song,” tweeted NY1 reporter Courtney Gross, who captured the video.
VideoThe
clip shows a sizeable number of women churchgoers remaining seated,
despite the encouragement of their pastor, whose gestures appear to urge
the congregation to stand up and join in. Kelly was indicted last
month in Chicago on 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse against four
underage victims between 1998 and 2010.In an email, de Blasio
spokesman Eric Phillips insisted: “The Mayor wasn’t the church’s DJ and
he certainly can’t be expected to recognize every R. Kelly track.”
“I Believe I Can Fly” was featured in the 1996 move “Space Jam,”
which starred Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny in a combined live
action/animated comic adventure at the peak of the legendary Chicago
Bull’s playing career.
The movie grossed more than $250 million in
global ticket sales, and “I Believe I Can Fly” reached No. 1 on
Billboard’s “Hot R&B/Hip-Hop” chart and No. 2 on the “Hot 100.”
Aside
from the linkage of the once revered song to the Kelly sex scandal de
Blasio’s arm flapping also evoked imagery from critics who’ve likened
the 6-foot-5 pol to various avian characters.
During the mayor’s
2017 re-election campaign, challenger Bo Dietl repeatedly derided him as
“Big Bird,” while a 2015 profile in The Atlantic magazine said his
“hooded eyes and dour countenance” was reminiscent of “Sam the Eagle,
the Muppets’ harrumphing, censorious patriot.”
Last
week, Thomas Friedman, the columnist for the New York Times penned a
column about his obvious connection to Rep. Ilhan Omar, the newly
elected firebrand from Minnesota’s Fifth District—a Democratic
stronghold.
Friedman was raised there. He called the district a
"crazy mix of Minnesota Jews (we called ourselves "the Frozen Chosen”)"
that welcomed Somali refugees like the 37-year-old "a half-century
later" and elected her to Congress.
The Washington Post reported that
Somali refugees started to arrive in the state back in 1993 and,
despite their cultural differences, these groups came together to work
for the common good. But recent comments by Omar has reportedly strained
the relationship in the community.
Omar
Jamal, a Somali community activist, told the Post that he has been in
touch with Jewish leaders after Omar's comments viewed by some as
anti-Semitic. He supported her campaign but called her recent comments,
"wrong, period," according to the report.
"This is up to Ilhan
Omar," he said. "She has really spoken in a very dangerous way, and it’s
going to be up to her to reach out to people and fix this."
The
paper reported that one Jewish leader showed Omar a picture of a cousin
who was killed in WWII and said that is why questioning dual loyalty is
offensive.
Avi S. Olitzky, a senior rabbi in St. Louis Park, which is in the Fifth District, told The Star-Tribune that Omar’s comments have been a clear attack on the Jewish community.
Omar has apologized for
her comments and has support from her Democratic colleagues. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised eyebrows on Friday when she said the
congresswoman “doesn’t understand” that some of the words she uses are
"fraught with meaning."
Omar – who filled the House seat that was
held by Keith Ellison -- also took aim at former President Obama in an
interview with Politico on Friday, saying his message of “hope” and
“change” was a “mirage.”
"Recalling the ‘caging of kids’ at the
U.S.-Mexico border and the ‘droning of countries around the world’ on
Obama’s watch," Omar charged that Obama "operated within the same
fundamentally broken framework as his Republican successor,” the piece
read.
“We can’t be only upset with Trump… His policies are bad,
but many of the people who came before him also had really bad
policies," Omar reportedly said. "They just were more polished than he
was."
Omar’s rhetoric has been embraced by some. Her proponents
see her attack on AIPAC as bold. Amber Harris, a constituent, told the
Star-Tribune that the attacks against Omar are unfair and “obscene.”
“She’s trying to change the Democratic Party to what I think it should be,” she said.
Friedman,
for his part, pointed out in his column that he has a lot in common
with Omar, but said his dislike of Aipac is based on that fact that it
has “let itself become the slavish, unthinking tool of Netanyahu, who
opposes a two-state solution, I believe Aipac works against Israel’s
long-term interests.”
He wrote that evidence that he's seen suggests that Omar's dislike for Aipac is based on a dislike for Israel.
"Ilhan
Omar represents, among other neighborhoods, a significant and liberal
Jewish community — my hometown," he wrote. “I can tell you that a vast
majority of Jews there would be proud if their congresswoman used her
links to American Jews and Muslims to be a bridge builder for peace in
the Middle East and America, not just another Aipac/Israel basher. She
is young and very new to the national spotlight. Friends of mine back
home tell me her humanistic instincts are impressive and authentic. I
don’t know if it’s her or her advisers, but she’s gotten herself into a
bad place — a huge missed leadership opportunity.
Bernie Sanders kicking off his 2020 presidential campaign earlier
this month in Brooklyn, N.Y. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)
