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You Op To Know: Liberal columnist discusses Sen. Gillibrand’s presidential campaign

Welcome to You Op to Know, The Daily Orange Opinion section’s weekly podcast.  

This week, Assistant Editorial Editor Michael Sessa and Liberal columnist Nick Turner discuss Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s controversial presidential campaign following her calls for former senator Al Franken to resign over allegations of sexual misconduct.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to submit a letter to the editor at opinion@dailyorange.com.

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TRANSCRIPT

MICHAEL SESSA: Welcome to this week’s addition of You Op To Know, The Daily Orange’s Opinion section podcast. I’m Assistant Editorial Editor Michael Sessa and this week I’m joined by our Liberal columnist Nick Turner.

NICK TURNER: Thanks for having me.

SESSA: Tonight we’re going to talk about Senator Gillibrand’s presidential campaign, and, so far it’s been bogged down by a scandal that you say really isn’t a scandal at all. So what made you want to write about it, and what is this so-called scandal even about?

TURNER: Right, so as people might remember at the end of 2017, then Senator Al Franken, there were several women who came forward and accused him of groping and making unwanted sexual advances toward them. And it was quite the scandal then. Senator Gillibrand was the first person to call for his resignation before it was investigated and everything. And, basically, in the days since then, Al Franken resigned and Senator Gillibrand is now running for president. And now Senator Gillibrand’s campaign’s been bogged down by the question of why she called for his resignation, donors are showing a little bit of reluctance to donate to her, and it seems like some voters have a problem with the way that she kind of forced Franken out. So that’s basically the scandal. Basically, I wanted to, I mean, I guess it just didn’t sit right with the way everything went down. And it seemed like Senator Gillibrand is being unfairly criticized for this whole thing given that all she did was just try to right a wrong, so that’s kind of why I wanted to write about it.

SESSA: Yeah. So you noted in your column that a number of top Democrats even have said that they won’t support her, and some people have suggested that’s because Al Franken was a big force of resistance in the Trump political era. What do you think that sort of behavior from Democrats says about the political climate?

TURNER: Yeah, I mean, so I think it speaks a lot to just the culture around it. Where, I mean, in the days since Al Franken has resigned, I mean, Senator Gillibrand has really faced more damage than Al Franken. I kind of think that speaks to a culture where men who call out, no — where women who call out powerful men kind of face more damage than the men who did the wrong. I think that’s, I think that’s a climate that’s existed in D.C. kind of throughout the country really, anywhere. And I think in general too, I think people kind of have this idea about politicians that they’re either trying to, whether they’re trying to sell out or whether they’re just trying to get votes. And I think they kind of forget that sometimes politicians just act on their own moral compass, and they kind of just do things that they think are right sometimes. So people have kind of called her a traitor, have called her an opportunist. And I think the reality of the situation is that she was just trying to do what she thought was right at the time.

SESSA: You also gave some examples of stuff that she’s done in her career that people should focus on instead, specifically on issues of sexual health or sexual misconduct and assault. So what has she done in that space, and do you think that could potentially help her campaign?

TURNER: Right, yeah. So basically, during her entire tenure in the Senate, she’s kind of been a voice on sexual assault, dating back to 2011 and 2012. She’s been advocating for, kind of, stricter practices towards sexual assault in the military. So, then, at that point she was a junior senator kind of taking on the entire military, taking on the Pentagon. Even in 2013, 2014, she’s been advocating for practices of how we handle sexual assault on campuses. And I think in both those cases she’s kind of taking on very large institutions. And she’s, and I mean, I think when you take on large institutions, I think you’re — she knows that she’s doing it with a risk, but she wanted to do it because she was just doing what she thought was right. And I think when you realize that she has been advocate for this issue her entire life, you kind of realize that she just believes in this. She’s not doing it for votes. She’s not doing it to gain politically. She really just wants to make the country better. And I think we should applaud that instead of trying to scapegoat her for taking that stand.

SESSA: Cool. Thanks for joining us. And as always, if you have any comments, questions, or if you’d like to send a letter to the editor, you can email us at opinion@dailyorange.com. We’ll see you next week!
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