Senator-Elect Jones, you haven't even taken office yet and you are already selling out women who have been sexually harassed. Let me remind you that less than a week ago, you narrowly won an election in a deep-red state that voted for Donald Trump by a 28-point margin. Do you know why you won this race against an alleged pedophile who has been accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls? Because of Councilwoman Sheila Tyson and other black women who rallied and organized a ferocious GOTV campaign to support you across Alabama.
Sitting down with CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday morning, you were asked “In the wake of Al Franken's resignation, some of your democratic colleagues have been calling for President Trump to resign because of the allegations against him, including Senator Cory Booker, Democratic [Senator] of NJ, who recently campaigned for you in Alabama. Do you agree with Senator Booker that President Trump should resign because of these allegations?”
Your response was:
“I think at this point we need to move on and try and work with some real issues that are facing this country and not worrying about getting at odds with the President anymore than we have to.”
Fixed It For You
I don’t normally do pro bono work for politicians, but I think it’s important for you to review your statement and how it silences women and erases their stories of being sexually harassed and assaulted by the President of the United States. Below are edits (in bold and underlined) to your recent CNN interview. I’ve also crossed out some of your word choices from your interview. Please adapt these talking points moving forward and stand up for women against sexual predators.
“You know, Jake, [here’s] where I am on that right now: is that at least 15 brave women have risked everything to come forward and share their horrific, detailed stories of being sexually harassed by President Trump. those allegations were made before the election, and so people had an opportunity to judge before that election and so People had an opportunity to judge before that [the Presidential] election and the voters did. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2.9M votes, according to certified final election results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
I think Senator Booker, Senator Gillibrand, and other colleagues of mine are right. President Trump should resign. Like my Alabama opponent Roy Moore, President Trump has been accused of being a sexual predator. He should do the right thing for this country and resign. At the very least, there should be a congressional hearing on this. President Trump is not above the law. It’s our job to hold all sitting Presidents accountable for their actions regardless of political party we need to move on and not get distracted by those issues.. We can address Trump’s resignation and tackle the Let's get on with the real issues that are facing people of this country right now. And I don't think that the President ought to resign at this point. We'll see how things go. Certainly those allegations are not new and he was only elected with those allegations at front center because of gerrymandering and voter suppression by Republicans.”
After this response, the reporter asked you, “I guess the question is why should Al Franken resign if there are even more horrific allegations about President Trump and no one is calling for him to step down?”
Let Me Fix Your Response Again
“You’re right. President Trump should resign. I go back to the fact that those allegations were made and he was not elected President of the United States through the popular vote, and I think the American people spoke on that at the time. There's other things out there that we need to work on as well, and we can get them done too. But I don’t think at this point we can just need to move on from these serious allegations against President Trump, who is supposed to abide by the law and set an example for the rest of the world. and try and work with some real issues that are facing this country and not worrying about getting at odds with the President at anymore then we have to.”
Senator-Elect Jones #DoBetter
Senator-Elect Jones, for the last several months you stood up to an alleged sexual predator in Alabama. I expected you come to Washington and continue fighting against sexual harassment and sexual assault. Instead, you went on CNN and sold out women. #DoBetter!