When three of the women who claim Donald Trump sexually assaulted them went on a media blitz on Monday, it was hard not to get the sense that it was merely a prelude. As it turned out, another shoe dropped on Monday afternoon, when Senator Kirsten Gillibrand became at least the fourth member of the Senate Democratic caucus to call for Trump to resign.
New York’s junior Senator detonated this bombshell in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. Watch here.
Amanpour asked Gillibrand, one of the Senate’s leading voices in the effort to turn the hot lights on sexual assault, if Trump should be worried about the “#MeToo” movement’s growing momentum. Gillibrand minced no words. She doesn’t think Trump should just be worried about it. She thinks it’s time for him to go.
“Well, President Trump should resign. These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I’ve heard these women’s testimonies, and many of them are heartbreaking. President Trump should resign his position. Whether he will ever hold himself accountable is something you really can’t hold your breath for.”
Gilibrand believes that if Trump is not willing to resign, Congress should investigate the allegations itself. She thus added her voice to three other Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Cory Booker of New Jersey all called for Trump to resign over the weekend.
Gillibrand also addressed what seemed to be a major break in the Trump camp. The third-highest ranking woman in the administration, United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, said that Trump’s accusers, and indeed all women who claim to have been harassed and/or assaulted, “should be heard.”
Gillibrand went further, saying that accusers not only should be heard, “but they should be believed.” She believed that allegations of sexual assault should be addressed like any other allegation of criminal conduct. She stressed that Trump should be held to account, in light of what she described as the “very credible allegations of misconduct and criminal activity.”
This interview went live at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. As I write this just after 7 p.m. Eastern, we have yet to see an angry tweet from Trump. After all, he seems to jump at the tiniest slight from a network he calls “fake news” and “fraud news.” But so far, nothing. Perhaps Trump knows that between Gillibrand, Booker, Merkley, Sanders, and his accusers, he’s busted.
(featured image courtesy Department of Labor, part of public domain)
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