Don't Do This Joy

Today, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand appeared as a guest on Go Off, Mom!— uh, I mean, The View. There, co-host Joy Behar decided to hold her accountable for former Sen. Al Franken’s acts of sexual harassment and his subsequent resignation.

Behar told Gillibrand that she had a “bit of a bone to pick” with her, finding Gillibrand to be at fault for the fact that Franken has resigned but Donald Trump, who has bragged about sexual assault and has had dozens of sexual assault allegations launched at him, hasn’t.

“I know that you led the charge to get Al Franken to resign from the Senate. I just thought that was unfair, to make him the example when the president of the United States — so many allegations of harassment against him and I don’t see him going anywhere.”

Behar isn’t wrong to point out the dissonance between the ways Franken and Trump have been treated, but positing that Franken shouldn’t be held accountable for his actions because Trump hasn’t been misses the point completely. Also, the reason Al Franken is not in politics anymore is because tons of women said he sexually harassed them, not because Kirsten Gillibrand betrayed him.

As Gillibrand said, “Why would you want to hold our elected leaders to the lowest standard, not the highest standard?” She called for hearings on the allegations against Trump—and for Trump to resign completely—but she maintained that it’s her job to speak out about people like Franken too.

Unfortunately today, it was also Gillibrand’s to explain to Joy Behar that groping women without their consent is, in fact, not okay.