All politicians lie. Some lie more brazenly than others. Consider Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
The Associated Press reports she is reportedly eyeing the little city of Troy, N.Y., for her campaign headquarters.
There is no scandal in that per se. Troy is a charming city on the banks of the Hudson River, not far from bigger metropolitan areas like Albany and Schenectady. The scandal, rather, is in the lie that Gillibrand told voters in the election cycle that just ended. Gillibrand gave her word in a debate that she wouldn’t run, a promise that she would like all of us to forget. When asked about her presidential ambitions during the final televised debate, the senator stared straight into the camera for the following exchange:
Gillibrand: “I will.”
Moderator: “Just want to make this clear, you’re saying that you will not get out of the race and you will not run for president? You will serve your six years?”
Gillibrand: “I will serve my six-year term.”
It was a good line, and it would have been a decent promise had Gillibrand managed to keep her word for more than 48 hours after winning re-election in November. Two days after declaring victory, she was asked by Stephen Colbert whether there was “another election that you might be concentrating on.” She didn’t deny it.
“I’ve seen the hatred and the division that President Trump has put out into our country, and it has called me to fight as hard as I possibly can to restore the moral compass of this country,” Gillibrand said.
“I believe right now that every one of us should figure out how we can do whatever we can with our time, with our talents to restore that moral decency, that moral compass and that truth of who we are as Americans,” she continued. “So I will promise you I will give it a long, hard thought of consideration.”
That promise to the late night television host, not the promise to her constituents, is the one that Gillibrand will likely honor.
