Shane Goldmacher and Lisa Lerer

The two have been intertwined ever since, as Franken’s supporters and donors have blamed Gillibrand for his abrupt political demise and Gillibrand’s backers have expressed bewilderment that, somehow, a woman has been held responsible for a man’s alleged transgressions (Franken, a senator from Minnesota, was accused of unwanted touching and advances).

The spark for the latest episode: Franken telling The New Yorker, in some of his first public comments since his resignation, that he “absolutely” regretted his decision to step down rather than fight the charges.

But Gillibrand, who has predicated her presidential campaign on being an unyielding advocate for women, expressed no regrets on Monday.

“There is no prize for someone who tries to hold accountable a powerful man who is good at his day job,” she said at a town-hall event hosted by Mic and Bustle Digital Group in New York. “But we should have the courage to do it anyway.”

On the campaign trail, Gillibrand, who has staked much of her bid on her feminist credentials, has faced periodic yet persistent questions over her decision to call for Franken to step down, starting with her first trip to Iowa in January. She has consistently said that while the decision to resign was Franken’s alone to make, the only decision she faced was whether or not to “remain silent.”

Some prominent Democratic donors, including billionaire investor George Soros, have refused to back her campaign, arguing that Gillibrand was more interested in scoring political points than determining the proper response to Franken.

In an interview in January, Gillibrand said of Franken, “If he wanted to stick it out for a six-month ethics investigation, God bless him; if he wanted to sue every woman who made an allegation against him, God bless him — those are his decisions. My decision was really simple. I was either going to stay silent and carry water for something I didn’t believe in or I was going to say what I believed: that it’s not OK.”

Gillibrand was hardly alone in arguing Franken should step down, and her news release calling for his resignation came just minutes before similar calls from her colleagues. By the time Franken had announced his resignation in December 2017, three dozen Democratic senators — including fellow 2020 presidential candidates Michael Bennet, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — had called for him to step aside. The tipping point appeared to be an allegation from a former congressional aide of an unwanted advance by Franken.

Gillibrand on Monday cited a “double standard,” noting that female senators were pressed for comment about Franken far more frequently than their male colleagues. “Who is being held accountable for Al Franken’s decision to resign? Women senators, including me. It’s outrageous. It’s absurd,” she said.

Gillibrand has argued that Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, would not have won a special election in Alabama if Franken had not stepped aside and provided the party with a clear message against the Republican, Roy S. Moore, a state jurist accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls. Others in her party, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader who nudged Franken out of the Senate, voiced similar concerns.

In the New Yorker piece, Franken alleges that Schumer forced his resignation, saying that if he remained in the Senate, he could be censured and stripped of his posts on committees. A representative for Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The magazine quoted seven current and former Democratic senators who had demanded Franken’s resignation as saying that they regretted the decision.

Franken had appeared unhappy with this choice in real time. “There is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office,” he said in his farewell speech.

In recent months, Franken has gingerly waded back into public life, after sinking into what he called a clinical depression. “I’m angry at my colleagues who did this. I think they were just trying to get past one bad news cycle,” he told The New Yorker.

His resignation — and Gillibrand’s role — has divided Democrats, with some activists and donors, blaming Gillibrand for costing the party a rising star who was able to effectively take on President Donald Trump. Wealthy contributors continue to refer to Franken as a factor in Gillibrand’s inability to raise money for her campaign and her lack of traction in the polls.

Lou Frillman, a Democratic fundraiser in Minnesota who had supported Franken, said the party is now missing “a powerful voice” who had opposed the Trump administration at a moment of “national emergency.”

“I’m not going to get into a debate about any of this with Senator Gillibrand. All I’m going to say is it seems to me that the idea of proportionality was never considered,” Frillman said of the accusations against Franken.

But in response to Franken’s regrets over resigning, Frillman said, “You’ve got to blame yourself. He’s the one who pulled the plug.”

Gillibrand made a similar point at her event on Monday. “Blaming a woman for the actions of a man: I don’t know. I don’t believe in it,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right.”

The latest flare-up with Franken broke as Gillibrand prepared to take a victory lap on an issue that has been a centerpiece of her political career: securing permanent funding for the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, established to aid first responders and those who became ill following the terrorist attacks.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/politics/al-franken-kirsten-gillibrand.html" id="dabfb7e1-d81d-360f-a8f8-f986f3863cb3">The New York Times</a>.

Franken Has Regrets. Gillibrand Does Not.

Al Franken is back in the news more than 18 months after he resigned from the Senate following a half-dozen allegations of sexual misconduct. And that means that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, his onetime friend who was the first Democratic colleague to call for him to step down, is back in the news too.

<h1>Sen. Amy Klobuchar seemed quite clear when she revealed the first state she would visit as a presidential candidate: Wisconsin. “Because, as you remember, there wasn’t a lot of campaigning in Wisconsin in 2016,” she said. “With me, that changes.”</h1>

Many Democrats took it as an unmistakable swipe at Hillary Clinton, who lost that battleground state after never appearing there during the 2016 general election campaign. The jab ricocheted across the internet, enraging Clinton admirers and earning Klobuchar attention as a Midwesterner willing to speak hard truths.

But behind the scenes, Klobuchar of Minnesota sprang into damage control mode, firing off an email to Clinton. In a phone call that soon followed, she apologized and said her off-the-cuff remark had been misinterpreted, according to people familiar with the episode.

The Klobuchar comment came out of nowhere for the former Democratic presidential nominee: Only three days earlier, Klobuchar had been sitting in Clinton’s Washington home, the latest in a line of 2020 Democrats who had sought her private counsel ahead of their campaigns. Two days before that, it had been former Vice President Joe Biden who had visited, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

After eight years as first lady, eight years as New York senator, four years as secretary of state and five months as the party’s presidential nominee, Clinton remains a singular and complicated figure when it comes to Democratic presidential politics. In a 2020 race featuring a historic number of female candidates, Clinton’s shadow is inescapable, particularly as she is a favorite target of President Donald Trump.

Whether it is building or deepening a relationship with Clinton — or navigating or repairing a long-term one — the men and women in the 2020 race must grapple with how the 2016 nominee will factor into the next 18 months.

“I love the Clintons,” said Terry McAuliffe, the former Virginia governor considering a 2020 run and a close friend of the Clinton family for decades. “But this is about the future.”

Clinton is, at once, a glass-ceiling-shattering symbol of women’s empowerment and an emblem of the past. She is both the first woman to lead a major party ticket and the candidate who lost the Electoral College in a defeat that left Democrats stunned and demoralized. She is a party elder but also a politician who will not be nudged out of the arena, declining to unequivocally rule out a 2020 run. She still possesses a loyal and powerful constituency of female supporters even as she is the farthest she has been from center stage in American politics in almost three decades.

“This party is part of her DNA, and she deserves the respect,” said Minyon Moore, a strategist who has advised Clinton for decades. “How many candidates have lost their campaign? Some twice, and they’re still running again, potentially. She has a stature in this party that she has earned.”

At a time when Democrats are driven by their desire to defeat Trump, Clinton knows the strengths and weaknesses of the crowded primary field more intimately than perhaps anyone. Over the past quarter-century or so, she has served as a mentor, colleague, supporter or rival to nearly every Democrat running or considering a run. She vetted at least five of the current or possible 2020 candidates as her running mate in 2016, going so far as to print signs for one of them, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. And her campaign alumni pepper the upper reaches of numerous 2020 campaigns.

In recent months, a parade of ambitious Democrats has held private sessions with Clinton, who has counseled them about the unmatched rigors of the campaign trail and hardships of facing Trump, according to people familiar with the conversations. Beyond Biden and Klobuchar, she has spoken with Sen. Kamala Harris of California; Booker; Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado; and former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, among others. She and McAuliffe speak regularly. Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana is trying to schedule a meeting with her.

“She knows almost everybody who’s running, and with most of the people she has a close relationship,” said Hickenlooper, who interviewed to be Clinton’s running mate in 2016 and had dinner with her last year, as he prepared for a possible presidential bid. “You talk about divided affections. She’s got it.”

Not everyone has sought Clinton’s advice. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whose 2016 primary challenge ruptured their relationship, has not spoken with Clinton, or even reached out, despite the imperative to make inroads into her coalition. Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman considering a run, has not spoken with Clinton either.

A notable name not to consult Clinton is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, whose once close relationship with the Clintons deteriorated after she said President Bill Clinton should have resigned over his sexual relationship with a White House intern.

In her conversations, Hillary Clinton signaled that she has no plans to endorse someone in the primary, say those who have spoken with her, but is eager to help the eventual nominee. “She will certainly not insert herself,” Moore said.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton, said, “She’s been meeting with our 2020 candidates and telling them one thing: They can count on her to help get the 65 million-plus Americans who voted for her to vote for our nominee.”

But even as she offers supportive words, Clinton has given the impression that she harbors a faint hope she could still become president one day. In private conversations, she occasionally muses about an opening, according to some who have spoken with her, sounding more wistful than realistic.

There are no actual signs Clinton is pursuing a campaign. Her former campaign chairman, John Podesta, said flatly weeks ago she was not running. Merrill declined to comment on her plans, pointing to her remarks last fall when she twice said “no” about wanting to run again before adding, “Well, I’d like to be president.”

Clinton’s deep connections have complicated the political calculations for candidates at a time when her party is acutely aware of not repeating what some Democrats see as her mistakes. And while several candidates and their advisers said they would welcome her endorsement, they acknowledge it could come with political risk, as Clinton remains a representation of the party’s old guard.

Advisers to McAuliffe expect that his close association with the Clintons would be an issue if he ran, even as the relationship enhances his ability to raise money from some of their loyal donors.

“Hillary Clinton is a leading expert in any one of a dozen issues, from politics to policy, and it would be crazy not to try to extract as much of that knowledge as you can in any amount of time you can get from her,” said Matt McKenna, a former Clinton family adviser now working with Bullock.

Since her loss, there is little question that Clinton and her husband do not have the same pull they once did in a party that was once nearly synonymous with their last name. With their army of donors, influential circle of current and former staff members and a powerful public platform, the Clintons were seen as career makers — or breakers. No longer.

As the party has searched for a way forward in the Trump era, Democrats have become more open with their criticism of the couple. The party’s left wing has repudiated some of Bill Clinton’s main achievements, including the 1994 crime bill and the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which allowed the rise of big banks, and is eager to distance itself from the scandals that defined Clinton’s second term.

But as Klobuchar saw, those who cross the Clintons risk blowback.

Gillibrand and Hillary Clinton were not on speaking terms ahead of Gillibrand’s run, even though Clinton had inspired Gillibrand to get into politics, wrote the foreword to her book and campaigned for her in her first House race. Their relationship deteriorated after Gillibrand in late 2017 said a resignation by Bill Clinton would have been “appropriate.”

In an interview in January, Gillibrand gingerly said she planned “to reach out” to Hillary Clinton: “I would like to hear her perspective, and I would be very grateful for her advice.” Later, she added: “I value her counsel. I hope I will be able to earn that in the future.” The two are now supposed to meet soon, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Those who have spoken with Clinton say she has plenty of advice. After running a campaign that published a 288-page policy book, she urges candidates not to let their message get clouded by wonky policy debates. As a politician who famously claimed a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” she has warned about the barrage of Republican attacks they are likely to face. She has specifically warned female candidates of the gendered expectations they will face, in particular on national security. And she has encouraged everyone to preserve their health amid the rigors of campaigning, a struggle for Clinton, who found her campaign derailed by conspiracy theories about her physical fitness after she fainted at a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony.

In conversations with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, she has urged the national party to fundraise more aggressively and build a data-sharing program for its candidates that is comparable to the one Republicans successfully leveraged on behalf of Trump in 2016, according to some who have spoken with her, including Perez.

“She had a lot of advice,” Hickenlooper said. “She’s been there. It’s one thing to read about stuff, and it’s another thing to live it. She is very insightful about drawing wisdom from her experience.”

As they turn their focus to a 2020 rematch against Trump, Democrats are determined not to repeat what they see as the missteps made by Clinton and her campaign.

“I begin by acknowledging that Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by millions of votes,” Castro said. “At the same time, it’s clear we want to go with a laser focus on winning back Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.”

A few days after her talk with Clinton, Klobuchar pushed a message of “heartland economics” in Iowa. But, this time, she was careful to credit Clinton.

“Hillary is a good friend and would have been a great president,” Klobuchar said. “I was just showing that I can win in Wisconsin, that I can win in Iowa, that I can win across the Midwest.”

This article originally appeared in <a id="c86956a4-8f79-47fb-96c5-8f810dd2ef81" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/politics/hillary-clinton-2020-democratic-candidates.html">The New York Times</a>.

Hillary Clinton Is Not a Candidate. She Looms Over 2020 Anyway.

Many Democrats took it as an unmistakable swipe at Hillary Clinton, who lost that battleground state after never appearing there during the 2016 general election campaign.

Hillary Clinton is not a candidate, she looms over 2020 anyway

This article originally appeared in <a id="542fd1b9-4f43-4430-b31e-3c6f29146eb5" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/politics/hillary-clinton-2020-democratic-candidates.html">The New York Times</a>.

Clinton Isn't a Candidate, but Her Shadow Is Inescapable

Clinton isn't a candidate, but her shadow is inescapable

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Shane Goldmacher and Lisa Lerer

Articles written by the author

Franken Has Regrets. Gillibrand Does Not.

Hillary Clinton is not a candidate, she looms over 2020 anyway

Clinton isn't a candidate, but her shadow is inescapable