“As a party, we should be 100 percent pro-choice, and it should be nonnegotiable. We should not settle for less, and if our party cannot support women’s basic human rights, their fundamental freedoms to make decisions about their bodies and their futures, then we are not the party of women.”
— Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), quoted by the Washington Post.
Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) deputy presidential campaign manager announced on Twitter that she donated to the campaign of rival 2020 candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), urging others to do the same to ensure that Gillibrand qualifies for next month’s Democratic primary debate, Politico reports.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) unveiled a plan on Wednesday to give every voter up to $600 in what she calls “Democracy Dollars” that they can donate to federal candidates for office, NBC News reports.
“Under Gillibrand’s plan, every eligible voter could register for vouchers to donate up to $100 in a primary election and $100 in a general election each cycle, either all at once or in $10 increments to one or more candidates over time. Each participant would get a separate $200 pool for House, Senate and presidential contests for a total maximum donation of $600 for those federal offices.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “is shrugging off her state’s governor’s endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign over her own,” the AP reports.
Said Gillibrand: “Our governor can endorse whoever he likes, but I am the best candidate to defeat President Trump, and I will. The truth is, this presidential election will not be won on the endorsements of powerful people.”
New York Times: “In a memo on Sunday, Ms. Gillibrand’s campaign suggested that her fund-raising had been hampered by a continuing backlash to her decision in 2017 to call for the resignation of a fellow Democratic senator, Al Franken of Minnesota, over sexual harassment allegations.”
From the memo: “There’s no question that the first quarter was adversely impacted by certain establishment donors — and many online — who continue to punish Kirsten for standing up for her values and for women.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s town hall on CNN last night “bagged a paltry 491,000 in total viewers and 115,000 in the advertiser coveted A25-54 demographic,” Mediaite reports.
“For some context: in the first quarter of 2019, CNN’s 10 p.m. host Don Lemon doubled those numbers: on average, he bagged 1.16 million total viewers and 361,000 in the demo.”
“While town halls may not be as big a draw as Don Lemon, they don’t always bring rock-bottom ratings, as Gillibrand’s did. Kamala Harris’ town hall in January drew record ratings for CNN: 1.95 million total viewers and 712,000 in the demo.”
In an attempt to earn an NRA endorsement for her 2008 re-election bid, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) — then a member of the U.S. House — signed an amicus brief in support of overturning a Washington, D.C. ban on handguns, CNN reports.
During her tenure in the House, Gillibrand “fought vigorously in defense of gun rights, including the right to own handguns… Gillibrand has said she regrets her past positions and frames her views on guns at the time as supporting hunting rights.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “will deliver a fiery first speech as an official presidential candidate in New York City on Sunday, calling President Trump a ‘coward’ at the doorstep of one of his most famous properties,” Reuters reports.
“The location in front of Trump International Hotel – which she plans to call a ‘shrine to greed, division and vanity,’ according to excerpts from her prepared remarks – is intended to show voters that Gillibrand will attack Trump directly, in contrast to some Democratic rivals who have hesitated to focus on the Republican president early in the 2020 campaign.”
Gillibrand Will Say: “President Trump is tearing apart the moral fabric of our country. He demonizes the vulnerable and he punches down… Our President is a coward.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in New York finds Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who is running for president, with a lowly 29% approval rating in her home state.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand acknowledged that there were some “post-investigation human errors” when her Senate office investigated allegations of sexual misconduct against various staffers, the AP reports.
“Gillibrand, campaigning in Iowa for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also confirmed that her deputy chief of staff, Anne Bradley, was resigning but said only that ‘the decision was her own.’ Bradley’s handling of a sexual harassment claim made by a female staffer against one of Gillibrand’s male aides came under fire after Politico reported the aide was kept on despite the allegation.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) defended her call for former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign from the Senate in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations, saying that she “stood up for women who came forward,” The Hill reports.
Said Gillibrand: “If there are a few Democratic powerful donors who are angry because I stood up for women who came forward with allegations of sexual harassment, that’s on them.”
She added: “I had a choice to make whether to stay silent or not, whether to say ‘it’s not OK with me,’ and I decided to say that.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand “formally launched her presidential bid on Sunday morning, announcing she will deliver her first major speech next week in front of Trump International Hotel in New York City,” Reuters reports.
“Gillibrand, 52, had already been campaigning in key states that hold early primary contests. She has struggled to see her polling numbers increase in the wake of her initial announcement, a benefit some of her other opponents enjoyed after starting their campaigns. Gillibrand remains at 1 percent in most public opinion polls of the Democratic primary.”
“Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), one of the most outspoken advocates of the #MeToo movement who has made fighting sexual misconduct a centerpiece of her presidential campaign, spent last summer pressing legislators to update Congress’ ‘broken’ system of handling sexual harassment,” Politico reports.
“At the same time, a mid-20s female aide to Gillibrand resigned in protest over the handling of her sexual harassment complaint by Gillibrand’s office, and criticized the senator for failing to abide by her own public standards. In July, the female staffer alleged one of Gillibrand’s closest aides — who was a decade her senior and married — repeatedly made unwelcome advances after the senator had told him he would be promoted to a supervisory role over her. She also said the male aide regularly made crude, misogynistic remarks in the office about his female colleagues and potential female hires.”
“Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is still searching for a first presidential endorsement from colleagues in New York’s delegation, leaving her the only senator running in 2020 without any home-state congressional backing. The New York Democrat, who is still in the exploratory phase of her presidential bid, is working behind the scenes to curry support among her colleagues,” Politico reports.
“Gillibrand is having lunch with House members — some for the first time — and hosting informal drinks with the state delegation next week. She’s made phone calls to them and asked others for help in shoring up endorsements. But, so far, no one has jumped on board.”
Associated Press: “As she cranks up her presidential campaign, Gillibrand isn’t trying to hide her working-mom juggle — she’s running on it. More than any other contender in a field crowded with women, the mom of two is using her dual roles of mother and candidate to pitch herself to Democratic voters.”
“She opens her standard campaign speech vowing to ‘fight for your children as hard as I would fight for my own.’ She’s floated the idea of making an RV trip through Iowa this summer, to be able to prepare meals for her family while she travels to meet supporters. During her first week as a candidate, she baked cookies with a voter, dismissing any complexity in the symbolism. And on a recent Tuesday evening, she even invited a reporter into her Capitol Hill home for dinner with her family.”
Washington Post: “Gillibrand overhauled her political identity during this period, abandoning the conservative positions that made her popular upstate and embracing or even moving further left than the liberal consensus on guns, immigration, Wall Street and same-sex marriage. As the Democratic Party itself moved left, she staked out positions popular with the party’s swelling base of liberals, a posture most evident when she called for abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. She has voted against President Trump’s agenda more than any other senator.”
“Gillibrand’s evolution seemed to reach its apex last week when she introduced herself as a candidate for president and a fighter for liberal values. But her shift in views from a decade ago is already raising questions among Democrats and provoking attacks from Republicans eager to define her as a flip-flopper.”
“Experts who have followed Gillibrand’s rise said the impression that she has hair-trigger judgment and an overriding instinct to capitalize on the political moment could prove more problematic than any one shift on policy.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “defended her decision to call on former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign after allegations of unwanted touching and kissing were made against him,” CNN reports.
Gillibrand said that she made the decision to help push him out because “my silence meant I was defending him and carrying his water, which I was unwilling to do.”
She added: “Enough was enough. Al Franken is entitled to whatever process wanted, if he wanted to say and wait six months for his ethics hearing. His decision was to resign. My decision was not to remain silent.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is expected to enter the 2020 presidential race on Tuesday, launching an exploratory committee just days before she heads to the critical state of Iowa, CBS News reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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