My, what a difference nine years – and a potential Senate pickup – make.
In 2017, Kirsten Gillibrand helped push Al Franken out of the Senate without even an Ethics Committee investigation. After the picture of Franken fake-groping a sleeping colleague went viral, six women came forward to claim that Franken had kissed them without consent while working on Air America and in stand-up comedy. That's not exactly nothing, but it all took place before Franken won his Senate seat. Rather than investigate the allegations for truth and context, Gillibrand insisted that the allegations alone were disqualifying:
JUST IN: Sen. Gillibrand calls for calls for Sen. Franken to "step aside"
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 6, 2017
"I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn’t acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve." pic.twitter.com/iZFv7jCwgR
Gillibrand was the first woman in the Senate to call on Franken to quit, writing in a lengthy Facebook post that "enough is enough" when it came to her Minnesota colleague.
"While Senator Franken is entitled to have the Ethics Committee conclude its review, I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn't acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve," she wrote.
Her note was quickly followed by tweets from McCaskill — who posted "Al Franken should resign" — and Hassan, who wrote, "It is clear that Al Franken has engaged in a pattern of egregious and unacceptable behavior toward women."
Gillibrand actually went further than the NBC News report included, which also included many other reactions from Democrats at that time. Gillibrand scolded people who tried to argue that Franken may have engaged in objectionable conduct, but that the degree mattered. Nonsense, Gillibrand went on to scoff:
We have to rise to the occasion, and not shrink away from it, even when it's hard, especially when it's hard. This is what the larger moment is about. So, I have spent some time reflecting on Senator Franken's behavior. Enough is enough. The women who have come forward are brave and I believe them. While it's true that his behavior is not the same as the criminal conduct of Roy Moore, or Harvey Weinstein, or President Trump, it is still unquestionably wrong, and should not be tolerated by those of us who are privileged to work in public service.
As the mother of two young boys, we owe it to our sons and daughters to not equivocate, but to offer clarity. We should not have to be explaining the gradations between sexual assault, harassment and unwelcome groping. And what message do we send to our sons and daughters when we accept gradations of crossing the line? None of it is ok and none of it should be tolerated.
We should demand the highest standards, not the lowest, from our leaders, and we should fundamentally value and respect women.
Powerful words, and nine years later, utterly empty and hypocritical. Gillibrand pushed Franken out of the Senate because it was politically expedient; Franken had become a PR problem in the big #MeToo wave. Minnesota's governor was a Democrat and would select a Democrat as a replacement (who ended up being Tina Smith), and the state was safely blue. Gillibrand's leadership on railroading Franken led to a brief exploratory presidential run in 2019, followed by a leadership position the Senate Democrat caucus as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee – which recruits and supports Democrats running for the upper chamber.
Nine years later, Democratic Socialists of America activists cast a Nazi-tatted Graham Platner to run for the seat, and Gillibrand stuck with him. She stuck with Platner last night, too:
DSCC Chair Gillibrand: Over the past year, we have created a path to win a Democratic Senate majority and put a stop to the chaos and damage of the Trump administration by defeating the Republicans who enable his harmful agenda. Susan Collins has never been more vulnerable after…
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 10, 2026
Nine years ago, Gillibrand scolded Franken's defenders and those who thought some due process might be a good idea over their arguments about the "gradations" of "unwelcome groping." Platner has been credibly accused by three women of more than just "unwelcome groping"; Lyndsey Fifield described multiple assaults and one incident of false imprisonment and arguably kidnapping. That is criminal conduct that went well beyond anything Franken was accused of doing, and actually comes close to certain allegations made about Weinstein. Gillibrand wrote in 2017 about the need to "fundamentally value and respect women"; last night, she endorsed the man who described women as "hatchet wounds" in reference to their genitalia. Is that what Gillibrand wants to teach "our sons and our daughters"?
Finally, and not least, Platner sported a Nazi SS tattoo on his heart, the symbol of the death-camp guards during the Holocaust, and has lied about his knowledge of it for months. Rather than "demand the highest standards, not the lowest," Gillibrand is giving a pass to a violent Naziphile just because Democrats really want to take Susan Collins' seat in November.
Or maybe it's something worse. Democrats have mainstreamed anti-Semitism over the last three years since the October 7 massacres. The influence of the DSA's anti-Israel, anti-Jewish agenda has permeated into the party establishment. Only John Fetterman has remained a figure of integrity on this point in the upper chamber, and only a handful of House Democrats have spoken up against this mainstreaming of ancient bigotry and old blood libels.
Perhaps Gillibrand is simply telling us that the Nazi tat was a feature, not a bug, and that Democrats really are in the Tomorrow Belongs to Me scene from the 1972 film Cabaret. If so, Maine voters had better get a big whiff of what comes afterward.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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