President Trump brought national attention to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) after tweeting about her Dec. 12. Here's what else you need to know about Gillibrand. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post) 
 
 President Trump attacked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in a sexually suggestive tweet Tuesday morning that implied Gillibrand would do just about anything for money, prompting a swift and immediate backlash. 
 
 “Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Charles E. 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,” the president wrote. “Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!” 
 
 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. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2017 
 
 The tweet came as Trump is already facing negative publicity from renewed allegations from three women who had previously accused him of sexual harassment, which are coming amid the #MeToo movement that is roiling the nation and forcing powerful men accused of sexual misbehavior from their posts. 
 
 White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders disputed the characterization of Trump's tweet as sexually suggestive, telling reporters that “there’s no way this is sexist at all” and later adding: “I think only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way.” 
 
 “He’s used that same terminology many times in reference to men,” Sanders added, arguing that Trump was motivated by his long-standing concern about the corrupting influence of money in politics. 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was no sexual connotation to President Trump's tweet on Dec. 12, criticizing Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) (Reuters) 
 
 The president ignored a reporter's question about the tweet after he signed a defense authorization bill shortly after noon. 
 
 The backlash and criticism was near instantaneous, with Gillibrand replying directly to Trump on Twitter. “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,” she wrote. 
 
 At a news conference later on an unrelated issue, Gillibrand called Trump’s tweet “a sexist smear attempting to silence my voice.” 
 
 “I will not be silent on this issue, neither will women who stood up to the president yesterday and neither will the millions of women who have been marching since the Women’s March to stand up against policies they do not agree with,” she added. 
 
 Gillibrand once again called on GOP congressional leaders to launch investigations into the allegations made by women against Trump, saying, “It’s the right thing to do, and these allegations should be investigated. They should be investigated thoroughly. That is the right thing to do, and I’m urging them to do that — as should their constituents.” 
 
 Asked about her interactions with the president, Gillibrand told reporters that Trump was “just a supporter — a supporter of my first campaign.” 
 
 Several Democratic senators also rallied around Gillibrand, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who pointedly asked Trump on Twitter whether he was trying to “bully, intimidate and slut-shame” Gillibrand. 
 
 “Do you know who you're picking a fight with?” Warren said. “Good luck with that, @realDonaldTrump.” 
 
 Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) also weighed in on Twitter, writing that there is “nobody tougher than @SenGillibrand & she won’t be intimidated. Women will continue to speak up.” 
 
 Gillibrand was attending a bipartisan Bible study Tuesday morning when Trump's tweet landed, and her phone was immediately filled with supportive and befuddled messages, wondering just what the president was thinking, a Gillibrand aide said. 
 
 Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who was in the Bible study group with Gillibrand, later issued a statement, saying: “Respectful dialogue and disagreement sets a better example for our children and the world. Our leaders should focus on the issues, not personal attacks.” 
 
 Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News personality whose lawsuit against Roger Ailes for sexual harassment led to the resignation of the late network chairman, also weighed in with a duo of tweets defending Gillibrand. 
 
 “What do u mean @SenGillibrand would 'do anything' for campaign contributions? By the way she isn’t a lightweight,” she wrote. In a second tweet, Carlson continued: “Sexual harassment is apolitical. Women will not be silenced no matter what party they are in. Period.” 
 
 Katty Kay, an anchor for BBC World News America, also took to social media to respond to the president's missive against Gillibrand, casting it in tweets as “clearly sexual” and “demeaning to women.” 
 
 “What is so maddening about the Gillibrand tweet is that women can be smart, work hard, become Senator and STILL get sexual c**p thrown at us,” she wrote. “Enough.” 
 
 Trump offered no evidence to support his wink-and-nod claim that Gillibrand had gone to him “begging” for campaign donations “and would do anything for them.” In fact, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit website that tracks campaign contributions, since 1996, Trump has donated $8,900 to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and $5,850 to Gillibrand. 
 
 Gillibrand met with Trump once in 2010, the Gillibrand aide said, and Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka, who has tried to cast herself as a champion of women, attended the meeting, 
 
 On Monday, Gillibrand, a leading voice in Congress for combating sexual assault in the military, became the fifth Democratic senator to call on Trump to step down because of the allegations of sexual misconduct against him — accusations the president has denied and the White House dismissed again on Monday. 
 
 “President Trump has committed assault, according to these women, and those are very credible allegations of misconduct and criminal activity, and he should be fully investigated and he should resign,” Gillibrand said on CNN. “These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I've heard these women's testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.” 
 
 She joined Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in calling for Trump's resignation. 
 
 Trump has not commented on the male senators' demand that he resign. 
 
 On Tuesday, a sixth senator — Democrat Mazie Hirono of Hawaii — called on Trump to resign, citing his morning tweet targeting Gillibrand. 
 
 “@realDonaldTrump is a misogynist, compulsive liar, and admitted sexual predator,” she said. “Attacks on Kirsten are the latest example that no one is safe from this bully. He must resign.” 
 
 Trump’s attack on Twitter also coincided with a previously scheduled event led by at least 59 female House Democrats, who formally called on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to launch an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by the president. The oversight panel has the broadest subpoena power and investigatory mandate of any congressional committee. The female lawmakers had requested the investigation in a letter to the committee on Monday. 
 
 What Trump tweeted Tuesday “is grotesque, it took my breath away and it represents the conduct of a person who is ill-equipped to be the president of the United States,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said at the news conference. 
 
 Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) said Democrats are seeking “a fair process” to review the allegations and allow the president to respond. 
 
 By Tuesday afternoon, more than 100 House Democrats had joined in on the calls to formally investigate Trump after the letter was opened up to male colleagues. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to say whether Congress should investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump, saying, “We’re focused on the Senate,” and that his chamber’s ethics committee can only investigate allegations against senators. 
 
 “What we’re in charge of here is the Senate,” McConnell told reporters. 
 
 Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended his Empire State colleague, calling Trump’s attack “nasty” and “unbecoming” of the presidency. 
 
 But he declined to join other Democrats calling for a formal investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct of Trump, saying he would let the comments of other Democrats speak for themselves. 
 
 Gillibrand, New York's junior senator and a rising political star, is widely considered a likely 2020 presidential candidate against Trump, and the president's Twitter assault Tuesday offered an early glimpse of just how vicious the next race for the White House could become. 
 
 Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, called Trump's tweet “disgusting” but also noted, “It will make the Gillibrand folks ecstatic,” implying that the sparring with Trump would raise her profile. 
 
 Gillibrand, however, does have her critics. After she said in November that Bill Clinton should have resigned as president after his inappropriate affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, longtime Hillary Clinton adviser and confidant Philippe Reines excoriated her on Twitter for being ungrateful and two-faced. 
 
 “Senate voted to keep POTUS WJC. But not enough for you @SenGillibrand? Over 20 yrs you took the Clintons’ endorsements, money, and seat. Hypocrite. Interesting strategy for 2020 primaries. Best of luck,” Reines wrote. 
 
 Joshua Dawsey contributed to this report. ||||| CLOSE White House Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders flatly denied that President Donald Trump's tweet about NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was in any way sexist, insisting only people with their minds "in the gutter" would have read it that way. (Dec. 12) AP 
 
 A president who'd all but call a senator a whore is unfit to clean toilets in Obama's presidential library or to shine George W. Bush's shoes: Our view 
 
 President Trump viewed through a lens in Pensacola, Fla., on Dec. 8, 2017. (Photo: Gregg Pachkowski, Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal) 
 
 With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office. Rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low. 
 
 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. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2017 
 
 White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday dismissed the president's smear as a misunderstanding because he used similar language about men. Of course, words used about men and women are different. When candidate Trump said a journalist was bleeding from her "wherever," he didn't mean her nose. 
 
 And as is the case with all of Trump's digital provocations, the president's words were deliberate. He pours the gasoline of sexist language and lights the match gleefully knowing how it will burst into flame in a country reeling from the #MeToo moment. 
 
 RNC: Democrats’ response is laughable 
 
 A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush. 
 
 This isn’t about the policy differences we have with all presidents or our disappointment in some of their decisions. Obama and Bush both failed in many ways. They broke promises and told untruths, but the basic decency of each man was never in doubt. 
 
 Donald Trump, the man, on the other hand, is uniquely awful. His sickening behavior is corrosive to the enterprise of a shared governance based on common values and the consent of the governed. 
 
 It should surprise no one how low he went with Gillibrand. When accused during the campaign of sexually harassing or molesting women in the past, Trump’s response was to belittle the looks of his accusers. Last October, Trump suggested that he never would have groped Jessica Leeds on an airplane decades ago: “Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you.” Trump mocked another accuser, former People reporter Natasha Stoynoff, “Check out her Facebook, you’ll understand.” Other celebrities and politicians have denied accusations, but none has stooped as low as suggesting that their accusers weren’t attractive enough to be honored with their gropes. 
 
 Listen in the player below to hear editors explain why the Editorial Board chose to write this piece, and what they hope it achieves on the Cup of Politics podcast. 
 
 If recent history is any guide, the unique awfulness of the Trump era in U.S. politics is only going to get worse. Trump’s utter lack of morality, ethics and simple humanity has been underscored during his 11 months in office. Let us count the ways: 
 
 He is enthusiastically supporting Alabama's Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of pursuing — and in one case molesting and in another assaulting — teenagers as young as 14 when Moore was a county prosecutor in his 30s. On Tuesday, Trump summed up his willingness to support a man accused of criminal conduct: “Roy Moore will always vote with us.” 
 
 Trump apparently is going for some sort of record for lying while in office. As of mid-November, he had made 1,628 misleading or false statements in 298 days in office. That’s 5.5 false claims per day, according to a count kept by The Washington Post’s fact-checkers. 
 
 Trump takes advantage of any occasion — even Monday’s failed terrorist attack in New York — to stir racial, religious or ethnic strife. Congress “must end chain migration,” he said Monday, because the terror suspect “entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security.” So because one man — 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. who came from Bangladesh on a family immigrant visa in 2011 — is accused of attacking America, all immigrants brought to this country by family are suspect? Trump might have some credibility if his criticism of immigrants was solely about terrorists. It isn’t. It makes no difference to him if an immigrant is a terrorist or a federal judge. He once smeared an Indiana-born judge whose parents emigrated from Mexico. It’s all the same to this president. 
 
 A man who clearly wants to put his stamp on the government, Trump hasn’t even done his job when it comes to filling key government positions that require Senate confirmation. As of last week, Trump had failed to nominate anyone for 60% of 1,200 key positions he can fill to keep the government running smoothly. 
 
 Trump has shown contempt for ethical strictures that have bound every president in recent memory. He has refused to release his tax returns, with the absurd excuse that it’s because he is under audit. He has refused to put his multibillion dollar business interests in a blind trust and peddles the fiction that putting them in the hands of his sons does the same thing. 
 
 Not to mention calling white supremacists "very fine people," pardoning a lawless sheriff, firing a respected FBI director, and pushing the Justice Department to investigate his political foes. 
 
 It is a shock that only six Democratic senators are calling for our unstable president to resign. 
 
 The nation doesn’t seek nor expect perfect presidents, and some have certainly been deeply flawed. But a president who shows such disrespect for the truth, for ethics, for the basic duties of the job and for decency toward others fails at the very essence of what has always made America great. 
 
 USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature. 
 
 To read more editorials, go to the Opinion front page or sign up for the daily Opinion email newsletter. To respond to this editorial, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com. 
 
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 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2z4EzXg ||||| After several high-profile men have resigned due to claims of sexual misconduct, some Democratic lawmakers are suggesting that President Trump should follow suit. 
 
 In the wake of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, “Today” show host Matt Lauer and Democratic Sen. Al Franken losing their jobs over misconduct allegations, a couple of high-profile Democratic senators suggested that the president should do the same. 
 
 “President Trump has committed assault, according to these women, and those are very credible allegations of misconduct and criminal activity, and he should be fully investigated and he should resign,” Gillibrand told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. 
 
 The remarks came as three of Trump’s accusers spoke out again about his behavior. 
 
 “In an objective setting, without question, a person with this record would have entered the graveyard of political aspirations never to return. Yet, here we are with that man as President,” Rachel Crooks, one of Trump’s accusers, explained at a press conference Wednesday. 
 
 Here’s what the lawmakers have said. 
 
 Kirsten Gillibrand 
 
 Gillibrand told CNN’s Chrisiane Amanpour Monday that Trump should resign, and have congress investigate the allegations of he does not. “These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I’ve heard these women’s testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking,” she told Amanpour. 
 
 Ron Wyden 
 
 Wyden, a Democratic Senator from Oregon, echoed Gillibrand’s sentiments on Twitter. “These women are right. If [President Trump] won’t resign, Congress must investigate allegations by many, many women that he sexually assaulted and harassed them. No one is above the law,” he tweeted. 
 
 Cory Booker 
 
 Booker told Vice News Saturday that if Franken can be coerced into resignation, it’s only fair that Trump follow suit because the allegations are more damning. “I just watched Sen. Al Franken do the honorable thing and resign from his office. My question is, why isn’t Donald Trump doing the same thing — who has more serious allegations against him, with more women who have come forward. The fact pattern on him is far more damning than the fact pattern on Al Franken,” the New Jersey Senator told Vice. 
 
 Jeff Merkley 
 
 Speaking on MSNBC on Dec. 7 — the day Al Franken resigned — Merkley mentioned the possibility of Trump’s resignation when disavowing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused by multiple women is sexual misconduct when they were teenagers and he was in his thirties. “He should drop out of that race right now.” Merkley said of Moore. “And by the way, for that, matter, the President should resign because he certainly has a track record with more than 17 women of horrific conduct.”
– In defending himself against renewed allegations of sexual misconduct by female accusers, President Trump on Tuesday also called out Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand after she said he should resign. Since then, the backlash has been fast and furious from Democrats, including Gillibrand herself, who say Trump's tweet was sexist itself, reports the Washington Post. The White House refutes the notion. Details: The tweet: "Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Charles E. 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," the president tweeted. "Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!" Gillibrand's response: After tweeting that Trump had brought "shame to the White House," Gillibrand doubled down at a news conference. Trump's tweet, she said, was "a sexist smear attempting to silence my voice." She repeated her call for GOP leaders to launch congressional investigations into the allegations against him. "I will not be silent on this issue."