Trump escalates fight with Democratic critic Gillibrand The president called the New York Democrat a 'lightweight' who 'would do anything' for political donations.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday escalated a fight with a leading Democratic critic, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, calling her a "lightweight" who "would do anything" for political donations even as the White House faces fresh scrutiny over his treatment of women.

"Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office 'begging' for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump," he wrote, adding that the New York lawmaker was disloyal to former President Bill Clinton and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.


Gillibrand quickly shot back at Trump on Twitter, writing that "you cannot silence me or the millions of women who have gotten off the sidelines to speak out about the unfitness and shame you have brought to the Oval Office." In remarks to reporters on Capitol Hill, Gillibrand said Trump's comment was "a sexist smear attempting to silence my voice."

It was not immediately clear what the president meant in writing that Gillibrand "would do anything for" campaign contributions, but some critics interpreted Trump's post about the senator as a sexual reference. "What do u mean @SenGillibrand would 'do anything' for campaign contributions?" tweeted Gretchen Carlson, a former television host who settled with Fox News after alleging sexual harassment at the network.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked on Twitter if the president was "really trying to bully, intimidate and slut-shame @SenGillibrand? Do you know who you're picking a fight with? Good luck with that."

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The Twitter attack on Gillibrand came after Trump blamed Democrats for fresh attention to allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him by at least 16 different women during last year’s presidential campaign.

The new scrutiny comes in the wake of a tidal wave of sexual misconduct allegations against powerful men in industries ranging from entertainment to the media to Capitol Hill — and after the president endorsed a candidate in Tuesday's Alabama Senate election who faces his own accusations of misconduct.

“Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia,” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. “So now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don’t know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS!”

But where many of the allegations that have emerged in recent weeks have resulted in professional calamity for the accused men, Trump has thus far paid little in terms of consequences for his alleged behavior. The president has denied all of the allegations against him, and the White House has argued that the veracity of the accusations against him were settled on Election Day last year.

Trump has also claimed not to know the women who have accused him, even though the group includes a reporter who has interviewed him, a contestant from his reality TV show and a former business partner.

Gillibrand led a drumbeat from Senate Democrats for Trump to resign, after she also was first to push Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to announce his own plans to leave office over misconduct allegations. At least five senators have called for Trump to resign, including Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

“President Trump should resign,” Gillibrand said in a Monday interview with CNN. “These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I’ve heard these women’s testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.”

One accuser, former “The Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, has sued Trump for defamation and accused him of kissing her against her will, groping her and thrusting his genitals at her. Three others, Jessica Leeds, Rachel Crooks and Samantha Holvey, held a press conference Monday to call for a congressional investigation into the president’s behavior.

“You know, it was heartbreaking last year, when we all — you know, we’re private citizens and for us to put ourselves out there to try to show America who this man is and especially how he views women, and for them to say, ‘meh, we don’t care,’ it hurt,” Holvey told NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today.” “And so, you know, now it’s just like, all right, let’s try round two. The environment’s different. Let’s try again.”

In a statement issued to NBC News as Kelly's show was airing, the White House called the allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump false and said they had been "totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts." Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday that she would produce a list of the eyewitness accounts that dispute the accusations, but no list had been made public Tuesday morning.

The resurfacing of the allegations against Trump are set against the backdrop of Tuesday's special election in deep-red Alabama, where voters will choose between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore, who has been accused by multiple women of inappropriate relationships and in some cases assault when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Moore has denied the allegations.

After initially calling on him to drop out of the Alabama Senate race if the allegations against him were true, Trump last week offered a full-throated endorsement of Moore and implored Alabamians to vote for him at a rally last Friday in Pensacola, Florida. Moore also has campaigned in Alabama with the support of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

"Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL," Trump tweeted Tuesday, referring to his proposed wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. "Roy Moore will always vote with us. VOTE ROY MOORE!"

