Politico has dug up yet another #MeToo scandal, and yet again, the fetid corpse was buried in liberal soil: the campaign of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democrat from New York.
Gillibrand, a relatively conventional leftist, has famously made #MeToo accusations and stopping such bad behavior a “centerpiece” of her campaign, as the webzine reported, but yet again, another #MeToo problem fits the pattern. It seems to be mostly liberal men so accused, many of them pro-abortion and seemingly pro-feminist.
The revelation comes just two months after Politico disinterred some ugly #MeToo hijinks in the 2016 presidential campaign of communist apologist Bernie Sanders. Bernie Bros tried to make sure Bernie Gals had a chance to Feel The Bern.
Regularly Crude
It turns out that a former aide for Gillibrand felt something too: very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable, Politico divulged, the 20-something gal quit.
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.
Less than three weeks after reporting the alleged harassment and subsequently claiming that the man retaliated against her for doing so, the woman told chief of staff Jess Fassler that she was resigning because of the office’s handling of the matter. She did not have another job lined up.
Politico did not name the woman. But it did name the man she accused: Abbas Malik.
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One reason she resigned? Precisely because Gillibrand positioned herself as a real-life Captain Marvel who would slay #MeToo evildoers everywhere. The woman wrote that the probe of her accusation was “poorly handled”:
I trusted and leaned on this statement that you made: ‘You need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is O.K. None of it is acceptable.’ Your office chose to go against your public belief that women shouldn’t accept sexual harassment in any form and portrayed my experience as a misinterpretation instead of what it actually was: harassment and ultimately, intimidation.
Unsurprisingly, Gillibrand “was not made available for an interview.” But her staff whipped up a statement. “As I have long said, when allegations are made in the workplace, we must believe women so that serious investigations can actually take place, we can learn the facts, and there can be appropriate accountability,” the statement said. “That’s exactly what happened at every step of this case last year. I told her that we loved her at the time and the same is true today.”
Staffers Back Up the Account
Love bombs are nice, but Gillibrand has just one problem.
They didn’t fire the masher until last week, after “POLITICO presented the office with its own findings of additional allegations of inappropriate workplace conduct…. Among the claims were that he made a ‘joke’ about rape to a female colleague — a person whom the office had failed to contact last summer despite repeated urgings by Malik’s accuser to reach out to the person.”
Politico talked to nearly two dozen staff members who corroborated the woman’s account, which included open suggestions for adulterous carnal monkeyshines.
In other words, though the woman resigned in August last year and sent Gillibrand a long resignation letter to explain why, the Champion of the Sisterhood didn’t fire the out-of-control staffer until Politico knocked at her door with an arm-long rap sheet. Indeed, they nearly promoted him!
One of those two former staffers said Malik often called her fat and unattractive to her face and made light of sexual abuse…. Malik remarked that a particular woman they were talking about “couldn’t get laid unless she was raped.”…
Two more staffers … said the woman’s claims of Malik’s inappropriate workplace behavior matched their own experiences. They said Malik regularly made misogynistic jokes, frequently appraised what they wore, disparaged the looks of other female staffers and rated the attractiveness of women who came in for interviews.
As Politico noted, Gillibrand posted a warning to #MeToo harassers on her Facebook page: “Our campaign is confronting the toxic culture of sexism and misogyny in our political system. We’re fighting for women to be heard. We’re fighting to be valued.”
Maybe, but the coverage of the #MeToo movement shows that Gillibrand should probably focus on leftist men in media and politics.
Photo: AP Images
