Gillibrand: Bill Clinton should have resigned over Lewinsky affair

[Mr. Morden]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/us/politics/gillibrand-bill-clinton-sexual-misconduct.html

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[Mr. Morden]

Gillibrand also announced today that she's donating away any money that she received from Al Franken's PAC:

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/360738-gillibrand-to-donate-money-from-frankens-pac-to-group-combatting-sexual

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[Mr. Morden]

Like her mentor Hillary, Gillibrand changes with the wind

Gillibrand in 2016:

I was truly honored that President Bill Clinton campaigned for me

https://medium.com/@SenGillibrand/why-i-m-supporting-hillary-clinton-for-president-9bff244ca353

Aren’t you just upset that she’s a potential competitor to Harris? Yes, you are. Half the forum is convinced this is RIP for her career...

Not me.  I think this is politically shrewd.  No one actually wants to defend Bill Clinton anymore.  I think there's more upside than downside in her saying this.

[Mr. Morden]

lmao this won't hurt her. Enough people hate the Clintons to agree with her.

"Hate" is a strong word.  Most Dems like the Clintons, yet enough at least retrospectively think that Bill was a creep in his personal life that this dig at him isn't going to hurt her.

[Mr. Morden]

One thing to clarify on my earlier comments: I said that this may be "shrewd" on Gillibrand's part, but I actually don't think her comments were pre-meditated.  That is, she didn't walk into the interview, having decided that she was going to say this.  She only went there when the interviewer pressed her on the subject, and listening to the audio, there's a long pause before she goes ahead and says yes, he should have resigned.

[Mr. Morden]

All this will do is mean that a small band of Hillary die-hards won't vote for Gillibrand in the primary, like 2-3 staffers will run their mouths and a couple of donors will turn away.

However both 2008 and 2016 really show that whatever consists of 'Clintonworld' is mostly deadwood

The implicit threat that the Clintons used to be able to make was that they'd remember who their real friends were when HRC is elected president.  But since she's now no longer the POTUS of the future, that threat is empty.  They don't have the same leverage anymore.  So yeah, the extent to which they can still enforce loyalty is now pretty limited.

[Mr. Morden]

Gillibrand got Politico’s attention:

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/17/kirsten-gillibrand-bill-clinton-democrats-247427

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[Mr. Morden]

RIP Gillibrand

I disagree. It's not like either Clinton is especially popular within the party right now. Hillary is being blamed for losing the 2016 elections...and Bill quite possibly is at blame for losing Hillary the 2008 nomination.

This doesn't help Gillibrand, but it doesn't really hurt her....and let's face it, an incumbent Al Gore probably would have beaten Dubya.

That's not what I meant.

Yeah she's going on the list now.

Even if we assume Hillary had Vince Foster killed (which probably did happen), that's a huge step down from placing a hit on a sitting Senator (assuming that's what you are referring to).

?

It's a crazy Clinton conspiracy theory from the 90s.

Hillary had Vince Foster killed while Bill had Ron Brown killed.  True partners in crime.

https://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/bodycount.asp

[Mr. Morden]

It seems like "Should Bill Clinton have resigned?" or some variant thereof is inevitably going to be asked of all of the 2020 presidential candidates at some point now, quite possibly in the 2020 primary debates.

I imagine most of them will try to dodge the question, or say something like "that's not relevant to the issues of today".  Will any of them give an unqualified "No, he shouldn't have resigned"?

[Mr. Morden]

de Blasio (after just having announced an upcoming trip to Iowa) says he agrees with Gillibrand:

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2017/11/20/de-blasio-says-he-agrees-with-gillibrand-saying-clinton-should-have-resigned-120432

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[Mr. Morden]

Gillibrand won't quite bring herself to say that Franken should resign:

https://twitter.com/CNNValentine/status/938145852383727622
https://twitter.com/CNNValentine/status/938145981979414528

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[Mr. Morden]

The NYT has a new story on Gillibrand's role in the Dem. reaction to sexual harassment allegations:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/nyregion/gillibrand-franken-sexual-misconduct.html

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[Mr. Morden]

*bump*

This may or may not be relevant when this issue inevitably gets brought up again when Gillibrand formally enters the presidential race, but Lewinsky herself has finally turned on Bill, after having just a few years ago given a quasi-defense of Bill in which she emphasized that it was a consensual relationship, and nob abusive.  She now writes this in Vanity Fair:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/monica-lewinsky-in-the-age-of-metoo

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[Mr. Morden]

*bump*

Bill finally responds:

http://www.newsweek.com/bill-clinton-hits-back-gillibrand-suggests-she-951963

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