It’s hard to argue with what Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Reps. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) say about the issue of sexual harassment: “When it comes to sexual assault, harassment, and the general mistreatment of women, we must be able to call out anyone, Democrat or Republican.”
After being ignored or vilified for so many years, the fact that women victims are being listened to today with accounts of sexual misconduct by men in power only makes sense if their charges are taken seriously, regardless of political party. Sadly, that’s not the case. Republicans still don’t seem to get the point.
{mosads}Compare how leadership handled recent reports of congressional misconduct. Fifty-two year veteran Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) flatly denied charges of sexual harassment leveled against him by several women. Nonetheless, after waffling for a couple of days, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Steny Hoyer (Md.), and James Clyburn (S.C.) all called on Conyers to resign, absent any House Ethics Committee investigation. They’ve demanded the same of freshman Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.).
On the other side of the aisle, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who was quick to demand that Conyers resign, has still not called on Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) to step down, even though Farenthold’s acknowledged spending $84,000 of taxpayer dollars to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by a former staffer. Meanwhile, facing accusations from two women, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) abruptly resigned his seat — again, before we heard a peep from Speaker Ryan.
The contrast is equally shameful in the Senate, where 32 Democratic senators, including leaders Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.), called on their colleague Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign his seat. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), after admitting that he believed the women who accused Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore of preying on them when they were teenagers, has backed away from his condemnation of Moore and is instead now hiding behind the cowardly excuse that he’ll let the people of Alabama decide today whether or not to send a pedophile to the Senate. If they do, McConnell and fellow spineless Republicans will no doubt embrace Moore as the people’s choice.
Hanging like a black cloud over the GOP’s support for Roy Moore, of course, are the multiple charges of sexual assault against President Donald Trump. Indeed, it’s hard for Republicans to reject Moore after embracing Trump, because Moore is simply following the Trump playbook: deny, deny, attack, attack, and hope it will all go away.
Even U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, a Trump loyalist, says that Trump’s accusers “deserve to be heard.” But that’s not the White House position. Trump himself still calls them liars and fabricators. And Trump’s attorney was in court last week, arguing that the president can’t be charged with a crime because he is, well, president. Or, as Richard Nixon put it: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
From top to bottom, then, there’s a vast difference in how our two major parties are responding to charges of sexual harassment. It’s OK for Republicans, but not for Democrats. Instead of resigning, maybe Al Franken should have just changed his party.
Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down.”