'NOT a good look'! Sounds like #MeToo crusader Kirsten Gillibrand's got some 'splaining to do

Sarah D | 2:00 PM on March 11, 2019

Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand is currently at zero percent in a new Iowa poll, but maybe this story will help her out with name recognition:

Per Politico, Gillibrand declined to fire a male staffer despite a female staffer quitting over alleged sexual harassment. But when Politico reached out about it, she finally fired him https://t.co/37JK4a8kc6

— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) March 11, 2019

More from Politico:

In July [2018], the female staffer alleged one of Gillibrand’s closest aides — who was a decade her senior and married — repeatedly made unwelcome advances after the senator had told him he would be promoted to a supervisory role over her. She also said the male aide regularly made crude, misogynistic remarks in the office about his female colleagues and potential female hires.

Less than three weeks after reporting the alleged harassment and subsequently claiming that the man retaliated against her for doing so, the woman told chief of staff Jess Fassler that she was resigning because of the office’s handling of the matter. She did not have another job lined up.

…

[Gillibrand’s] office said no one responded to the letter because it determined that “engaging again on an already settled personnel matter was not the appropriate course of action.” It said the letter came after she’d given three weeks’ notice, “contained clear inaccuracies and was a major departure from the sentiments she shared with senior staff in her final days in the office.”

…

Two weeks ago, however, POLITICO presented the office with its own findings of additional allegations of inappropriate workplace conduct by Malik. Among the claims were that he made a “joke” about rape to a female colleague — a person whom the office had failed to contact last summer despite repeated urgings by [Abbas] Malik’s accuser to reach out to the person.

Gillibrand’s office opened a new investigation and dismissed Malik last week. Malik did not respond to requests for comment.