Fox News host Laura Ingraham believes Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is posturing herself for a 2020 presidential bid after the New York Democrat said Thursday that former President Bill Clinton should have stepped down following an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s.
“Let’s face it, the reason why Kirsten Gillibrand has suddenly found sense is that she’s positioning herself for a 2020 presidential bid,” Ingraham said on her show Friday. “She wants to run for higher office.”
The longtime conservative figure also noted that Gillibrand “conveniently” forgot to mention other women who have accused Clinton of sexual misconduct, including Juanita Broaddrick and Paula Jones, who later appeared on Ingraham’s program Friday.
Broaddrick called the sudden backlash against Clinton from a prominent Democrat a “great epiphany” that should have happened 20 years ago.
Gillibrand, a longtime beneficiary of the Clintons, shocked the political landscape Thursday by telling the New York Times that it would have been an “appropriate response” for Clinton to have resigned after the Lewinsky scandal came to light.
The comments were made for a podcast following revelations that Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., groped and forcefully kissed a radio host without her consent in 2006.
Gillibrand holds Hillary Clinton’s former U.S. Senate seat. Her remarks led to former Clinton adviser Philippe Reines, calling her a “hypocrite” after taking the Clintons’ “endorsements, money, and seat.”
In response, Gillibrand said Reines was “wrong” and explained that the her point was to call attention to the need for maintaining “the highest standards for elected leaders and we have to change what is happening throughout society.”
Gillibrand has repeatedly denied that she has any intention of running for the White House in three years.
