Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., on Friday calling on Republican leaders to stand up against Donald Trump’s lewd comments and allegations of sexual misconduct.
Baldwin, the first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Senate, echoed President Obama in expressing disapproval for the way the Republican leaders have responded.
“They failed, in my opinion, the moral test,” Baldwin told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “How many of these heartbreaking stories do we have to hear before leaders stand up?”
But she defended her own party against charges of hypocrisy for not condemning Bill Clinton following his accusations of sexual assault.
“This is a completely different situation we’re facing today,” she said. “We’re talking about somebody who, as we’ve watched Donald Trump throughout the course of this campaign, has showed how dark his soul is.”
Asked about the recent WikiLeaks publication of hacked emails in which Hillary Clinton’s confidant, Neera Tanden, said that apologizing was Clinton’s “Achilles’ heel,” Baldwin focused on the fact that the emails are believed to have been hacked by Russia and that no one would focus due to the allegation cases.
“We’re talking about hacked emails,” Baldwin said. “I think we have to look at the source and question it.”
