Slut-Shaming Kirsten Gillibrand, London Breed, Doug Jones Wins

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Roy Moore has lost the Alabama Senate race, Kirsten Gillibrand won’t stand for getting “slut-shamed” by President Trump, and San Franciso’s acting mayor is a black woman. Have a lovely Wednesday.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

• Slut-shaming a Senator. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) is one of four Democrats to call for President Donald Trump's resignation due to the sexual harassment allegations against him, yet she's the only one to be verbally attacked by the president. She is—after all—the only woman to have called for his ouster.

"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," Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

The tweet, while not entirely out of character for the president, is still shocking in its phrasing. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) put it, "Are you really trying to bully, intimidate and slut-shame Senator Gillibrand? Do you know who you're picking a fight with? Good luck with that," she tweeted.

Even more incredible is that the president would use this kind of verbiage in the midst of the current cultural upheaval. As my colleague, Claire Zillman, writes in this most excellent thought piece: "Trump did with his words what his accusers claim he did with his hands and lips: reduce women to their sexual attributes, casting them as subservient playthings of powerful men." (For those who don't know: a flunky is defined as "a person who performs relatively menial tasks for someone else, especially obsequiously.")

Gillibrand's own response was defiant: "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." And some political pundits are seeing a silver lining to the controversy. As Vox editor Ezra Klein wrote in a tongue-in-cheek tweet yesterday: "So do Trump's tweets today count as an in-kind contribution to the Kirsten Gillibrand 2020 campaign or is the FEC treatment more complicated than that?" Fortune

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

• No more Moore. Doug Jones narrowly won yesterday's election for Alabama's vacant Senate seat. This makes him the first Democrat from the state to be elected to the body in a quarter-century and makes Republicans’ Senate majority even slimmer (51-49). His victory has much to do with the accusations of sexual harassment and assault against his rival candidate, Roy Moore. Fortune

• Senate switcheroo. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is expected to reveal his choice to replace Al Franken in the U.S. Senate today. His longtime adviser, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, is considered a top contender for the job. Smith served as a VP of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota from 2003 to 2006. After that, she served as chief of staff to the mayor of Minneapolis before taking on her current role under Dayton. Fox News

• London in San Fran. After San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee died suddenly early Tuesday morning, London Breed, the president of the city's Board of Supervisors, became its acting mayor. If she's selected by the Board to serve out the remainder of Lee's term, she will become the second woman and second person of color to be mayor of San Francisco. Fortune

• Moving on from Microsoft. Julie Larson-Green, who spent nearly 25 years at Microsoft and was seen as a top contender for the CEO job under former chief Steve Ballmer, has revealed that she's switching gears: In January, she will become the first chief experience officer at Qualtrics, a Provo, Utah-based company that competes with SurveyMonkey. Fortune

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Interpublic Group has named Kristen Cavallo CEO of Martin Agency. Cavallo had worked at the Martin Agency for about 13 years; she was most recently U.S. chief strategy officer at MullenLowe, another Interpublic-owned agency. Kraft Heinz has appointed Rashida La Lande global general counsel and corporate secretary. La Lande is a currently partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• Get out of the kitchen. Sexual harassment allegations continue to roil the restaurant industry. Ten female employees say they were sexually harassed by star chef Ken Friedman, the owner of the Spotted Pig in New York City. Meanwhile, five Latinas have filed a lawsuit against McCormick and Schmick's, saying they were sexually harassed and groped by male employees at the restaurant's Faneuil Hall location.

• Making amends? Talent agency CAA is redirecting the funds it normally spends on its annual Golden Globes party to establishing a legal fund to assist victims of workplace harassment. The entertainment agency has also joined the "50-50 by 2020" pledge, committing to achieving gender parity in company leadership in three years’ time. CAA had been named in a New York Times story about Weinstein's "complicity machine." The paper reported that multiple CAA agents were aware of the producer's predatory behavior toward women, but continued to arrange meetings for him with their female clients. Hollywood Reporter

• Good riddance. After the ouster of NBC anchor Matt Lauer, Today Show ratings are doing better than ever. For two consecutive weeks, the show—now hosted by Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie—has surged ahead of its main rival, ABC's Good Morning America. Relatedly, NBC execs are refusing to appoint an outside investigator into sexual misconduct at the network, announcing a series of internal steps instead.

• Papa don't preach. Social media is buzzing with what is being viewed as Ivanka Trump openly defying her father; the first daughter tweeted a photo of herself with the caption "Happy holidays" yesterday. It's notable because President Trump made a point of bringing the Christian greeting back during his campaign. ("If I'm president, you will see 'Merry Christmas' in department stores, believe me. Believe me.") Ivanka converted to Judaism in 2009 when she married Jared Kushner. Newsweek

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