A male former Hillary Clinton aide launched an astonishing attack on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) after the senator said Thursday that Bill Clinton should have resigned the presidency over his sexual impropriety when he was in the White House.
“Yes I think that is the appropriate response,” Gillibrand told the New York Times when asked if Clinton should have stepped down in the wake of his affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
“Things have changed today, and I think under those circumstances there should be a very different reaction,” she said. “And I think in light of this conversation, we should have a very different conversation about President Trump, and a very different conversation about allegations against him.”
But Gillibrand’s comments infuriated former Clinton aide Philippe Reines who, in a savage tirade, dismissed the Lewinsky scandal as a “consensual blowjob” and called Gillibrand a “hypocrite.”
“Over 20 yrs you took the Clintons’ endorsements, money, and seat,” he wrote on Twitter. “Hypocrite.”
Ken Starr spent $70 million on a consensual blowjob. Senate voted to keep POTUS WJC. But not enough for you @SenGillibrand? Over 20 yrs you took the Clintons’ endorsements, money, and seat. Hypocrite.
Interesting strategy for 2020 primaries. Best of luck.https://t.co/KIsnfY4WLT
— Philippe Reines (@PhilippeReines) November 17, 2017
He also cast aspersions on how Gillibrand’s statement would play out if she chose to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
“Interesting strategy for 2020 primaries. Best of luck,” he said. However, it is far from clear that a tactic of distancing herself from the Clintons would indeed be politically dangerous, as Reines suggests.
Democrats and left-wing pundits have been engaging in a re-evaluation in recent weeks about the numerous allegations of either sexual assault or sexual impropriety by Bill Clinton. While many on the left spent years either ignoring or downplaying his misconduct, now that Clinton is out of office and Hillary lost her bid for the White House, many on the left are now declaring that his conduct was, in fact, wrong.
Gillibrand was speaking in the wake of an allegation that Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) forcibly kissed and later groped a journalist on a USO tour in 2006. The journalist, Leeann Tweeden, also published a picture of the groping. Franken apologized, although he said he remembers differently the rehearsal during which the kiss allegedly took place.
Gillibrand strongly backed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, although the Times notes that she has been involved in efforts to curb abuse in the military and on college campuses. However, as Reines implied, the move is likely to draw criticism for its timing — coming as the Clinton machine has lost much of its power.
In an essay last year as she was supporting the Clinton campaign, she wrote:
“I was lucky enough to receive guidance and mentorship from Hillary during that run, and was truly honored that President Bill Clinton campaigned for me in my first run for Congress in 2006.
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY.
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