美国国家公共电台 NPR With Women's Rights As A Focus, Attention Turns To Gillibrand（在线收听）

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For years, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has made sexual harassment one of the top issues on her political agenda. So this past fall, as allegations of harassment swept through the U.S. Capitol, it was no surprise that Senator Gillibrand became a leading voice on how to handle the issue. NPR's Scott Detrow examines how the cultural moment is also boosting her political stature.

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: There's a small chance that if "Saturday Night Live" hadn't been so mean to David Paterson, Kirsten Gillibrand wouldn't be in the U.S. Senate.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

FRED ARMISEN: (As David Paterson) And it's bad out there, Seth. And if you don't believe me, take a look at this graph that I got here. Now...

(LAUGHTER)

DETROW: In late-2008, Hillary Clinton was vacating her Senate seat, and the New York governor was trying to decide who should fill it. The show was mocking him over and over mostly for being blind.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

SETH MEYERS: Governor, it's upside down.

ARMISEN: (As David Paterson) You bet it is.

(LAUGHTER)

DETROW: Paterson says his staff advised him to laugh along with the jokes. But when the upstate New York congresswoman came and met with him about the Senate job, Gillibrand urged him to fight back, saying it was wrong for the show to target a disability.

DAVID PATERSON: Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time. That consoling and yet strong support she gave me that moment stuck in my mind for a month and a half until I appointed her U.S. senator.

DETROW: There were many other reasons Paterson picked Gillibrand, but nine years later, she now has held the Senate seat longer than Hillary Clinton did. She also has a clear signature issue.

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KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: If we have 26,000 sexual assaults and rapes every year in the military and only 3,000 victims are willing to report, you have a huge structural problem.

DETROW: That's Gillibrand back in 2013 urging the U.S. military to change how it responds to sexual assault accusations. She has long pushed for policies like federal paid family leave and used her political organization to try and get more women to run for office. So when the #MeToo moment came to Congress, Gillibrand was ready. She sponsored a bill changing how Congress processes and responds to harassment complaints.

GILLIBRAND: The way it's set up in Congress is so horrible. I mean, it is literally designed to protect perpetrators.

DETROW: Several high-profile Republicans have signed on, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Gillibrand was also the first Democrat to call on Minnesota Senator Al Franken to resign despite a close relationship that included regular squash games between the two Democrats.

GILLIBRAND: That was difficult. It was very difficult because this is somebody I really do care about and think has done great work in the Senate. But the truth is, if we are defending this behavior but not that behavior and talking about this - the gradations between sexual assault versus harassment versus groping and then where on the body you're groping - I just don't think that's the right conversation to be having.

DETROW: A cascade of Democrats quickly followed suit, but since then, there's been some backlash. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin urged Franken to withdraw his resignation, calling the demand from Gillibrand and other Democrats hypocritical.

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JOE MANCHIN: It's just unbelievable to me how you can destroy a human being's life and his family and everything that they stand for without give him no chance.

DETROW: That was on CNN. Gillibrand says while Franken had a right to an ethics committee investigation, she had a right to her opinion. This has all put Gillibrand in the news day after day, though her profile had been rising all year since a speech at the Women's March the day after President Trump was inaugurated.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GILLIBRAND: This is the moment that you are going to be heard.

(CHEERING)

DETROW: It all seems a far cry from January 2009 when Paterson and Gillibrand stood on a crowded Albany stage to announce her surprise appointment.

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GILLIBRAND: I realize that for many New Yorkers, this is the first time you've heard my name, and you don't know much about me.

DETROW: One thing many New York Democrats quickly heard about - the relatively conservative views she held at the time on hot-button progressive issues like gun control.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GILLIBRAND: You know, in upstate New York, you typically shoot the Thanksgiving turkey. So that's what we do. And so I've always wanted to protect hunter's rights because it's such an important part of our culture. It's an important part of our heritage. It's an important part of upstate New York. So I'm going to be an advocate for hunters' rights, but there is so much area where there's common ground where I can work together with anti-gun - with really solving the problem of gun violence.

DETROW: Paterson says he picked Gillibrand knowing she'd be an excellent senator 10 years down the road.

PATERSON: I knew she would not be the best senator at the moment I appointed her. She struggled a little bit kind of explaining her positions.

DETROW: Gillibrand credits an early turnaround to something that keeps coming up during her interview with NPR - listening, whether that's listening to other lawmakers or to constituents.

GILLIBRAND: There's areas in my own history where I didn't know why it was important, and when I did, I changed my opinion. And that certainly could be said for my views on trying to end gun violence and certainly my views on immigration reform.

DETROW: Gillibrand has been steadily increasing her stature in the Democratic Party and in the Senate over the last few years, so that's put her in a similar position that her predecessor was in. Listen to how Hillary Clinton fielded questions about a presidential run when she was still in the Senate and running for a second term.

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HILLARY CLINTON: I'm going to stay focused on this election because I don't want to take anything for granted.

DETROW: Here's how Gillibrand is responding to those same questions.

GILLIBRAND: Well, I really aspire to getting re-elected next year, so I'm very focused on that.

DETROW: Scott Detrow, NPR News.