I’m starting to think Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is not an honest person.

The senator declared this week that she is giving serious consideration to a 2020 White House bid, revealing the news to CBS’s Stephen Colbert just two days after she was re-elected to another six-year term in the U.S. Senate.

Colbert asked if there was “another election that you might be concentrating on.”

Gillibrand coyly smiled. "I’ve seen the hatred and the division that President Trump has put out into our country, and it has called me to fight as hard as I possibly can to restore the moral compass of this country,” she said.

She went on: “I believe right now that every one of us should figure out how we can do whatever we can with our time, with our talents to restore that moral decency, that moral compass and that truth of who we are as Americans. So I will promise you I will give it a long, hard thought of consideration.”

“That close,” Colbert said, implying that she was on the edge of running. Which, given her answer, she appears to be.

So let’s look at what Gillibrand said on Oct. 25, back when she was asked twice during a debate whether she’d serve her full term should she win re-election. Here’s the transcript via conservative columnist Jazz Shaw:



Moderator: Can you tell New Yorkers, who plan to vote for you on November 6, that you will, if re-elected, serve out your six-year Senate term?



Gillibrand: I will.



Moderator: Just want to make this clear, you’re saying that you will not get out of the race and you will not run for president? You will serve your six years?



Gillibrand: I will serve my six-year term.



From “I will serve my six-year term” to “I will give [running in 2020] a long, hard thought of consideration.” In just two weeks! That’s an impressive turnaround time.

I agree with Politico’s Burgess Everett when he says, “There’s the pre-midterm truth and then the post-midterm truth.”

However, I’d take it a step further with Gillibrand and say there’s the truth, and then there’s whatever she needs to help advance her political ambitions. I’d take it even further and agree with Shaw, who writes that “Gillibrand once again demonstrated that her promises all have an expiration date which arrives precisely as soon as they are no longer convenient.” I also agree with Shaw when he writes that “Gillibrand is a serial liar and is one of the biggest phonies out there.”

Gillibrand is indeed a liar. But if you think this is bad, just wait until we get closer to the 2020 election. The senator's White House flip-flop is just the latest in a long history of flip-flops, and there's no reason to think we'll see a slowdown anytime soon. In fact, we should expect to see a marked increase in these brazen acts of political self-interest. Ambition and an incapacity to feel shame are great political assets, and Gillibrand has them in spades.