Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin describes sexual assault by US senator

[SouthBayDem]

Source: The Guardian

Huma Abedin, a longtime close aide to Hillary Clinton, has written in a new book that she was sexually assaulted by a US senator, an incident she “buried” until allegations against the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh triggered her memory years later.

Abedin makes the shocking claim in a memoir, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds, which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy. Abedin does not name the senator or his party or give any other clues as to his identity.

Abedin details her alleged assault while describing her work for Clinton when the former first lady and future secretary of state and presidential candidate was a US senator from New York, between 2001 and 2009.

The passage comes shortly after a description of how Abedin and the Clintons came to attend Donald Trump’s wedding to his third wife, Melania Knauss, in Palm Beach, Florida, in January 2005.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/26/huma-abedin-sexual-assault-us-senator-book-memoir

[certainot]

1. remember, limbaugh led regular attacks on her

[JI7]

2. I don't think this has anything to do with Limbaugh though. And there is a chance the SEnator

could be a Democrat. In fact I would say it might be even more likely a Democrat since she would probably have been around them more and have been friendly with them which they then took advantage of.

Gillibrand said she was harassed by Inouye a Senator she loved and respected .

[madville]

4. Why not name them?

Don’t see how a vague accusation is LBN

[SergeStorms]

5. Why didn't she drive Inouye from the Senate....

like she did Al Franken? Franken never did or said anything off-key to Gillibrand, yet she led the charge to have him dismissed on hearsay.

No consistency from my State's junior Senator at all.

[usaf-vet]

8. Gillibrand was preemptively tarnishing Franken who she thought would be a political adversary....

...... in a race for POTUS.

She had plans to put her name in the hat and thought Franken might also run.

Just saying!

[SergeStorms]

9. She needs to stop dreaming....

about her future, and start doing something to cement her present position in the Senate.

There are literally thousands of highly qualified women in New York State who'd love to take her place in the Senate. Watch your back, Kirsten. The past is close behind.

[usaf-vet]

13. Agreed with this one addition stipulation. Of the 535 congressional members 95% need to...

... serve and do things that benefit us all. And STOP doing the things that make them richer and keep their seats.

TERM LIMITS !!!

The 95% is and was a number I pulled out of a hat. BUT TERM LIMITS would end these obvious power and money-grabbing actions that ignore us and our ability to get things done that benefit us all.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

21. 95% idk... tho no one will ever out-Bernie Bernie in "doing things that benefit us all"!!

But, if there ever IS anyone, it may be AOC one day.

[SergeStorms]

23. I'm a huge believer in term limits.

No one should be allowed to make "public service" a lifelong cash cow.

[SouthBayDem]

24. The problem is...

Term limits give lobbyists the upper hand:

Term limit advocates contend lawmakers unconcerned with reelection will rebuff special interest pressures in favor of crafting and voting for legislation solely on its merits. However, the term limit literature commonly finds that more novice legislators will look to fill their own informational and policy gaps by an increased reliance on special interests and lobbyists. Relatedly, lawmakers in states with term limits have been found—including from this 2006 50-state survey—to increase deference to agencies, bureaucrats, and executives within their respective states and countries simply because the longer serving officials have more experience with the matters.

[SergeStorms]

29. Do you mean.....

they could actually suck more money out of special interest lobbyists than they do already?

I didn't think that was humanly possible.

[Zorro]

34. Yes exactly

Term limits seems like a good idea, but without the institutional knowledge acquired from years of public service lawmakers become to rely more on lobbyist inputs to "inform" their decisions. Their bullshit meter hasn't been fully calibrated.

[TeamProg]

44. NO TO TERM LIMITS! Elected officials would then be accountable to who??

They couldn't run for re-election, so why keep any campaign promises?

Good reps could be replaced by bad ones - every two years!

Lobbyists will have the upper hand.

It takes years to learn the rules.

Members EARN their committee assignments and chairs by being successful over their many terms.

Reps will just take the money and run.

What we need is:

Fair voting for all citizens.

A National Voting Holiday in the middle of a full week allowed for voting.

Mail-in ballot options in every state.

Districting that fits the population.

Making it illegal for Reps to lie while on any publicly owned property and esp. on the House and Senate Floors.

[usaf-vet]

46. The flip side.

They don't keep campaign promises now.

Bad Reps could be replaced by good ones.

Change the lobbyist's rule and access.

Keep professional paid staff on year to year.
Besides look at how little respect the GQP members pay to rules.

Define successful. Do they raise millions to share with other party members?
Do they go from $180,000 / year to millionaires in less than 10 years?

Reps take the money now and enrich themselves and line up lobbyist jobs that pay more than run.

YES, WE ALSO NEED ALL YOUR VOTING RIGHTS SUGGESTIONS. To recruit good candidates who want to serve their communities and then go home after they are limited.

Accept the fact that the lifetime legislative office holder system is NOT working for OUR benefit. UNLESS you introduce yourself with a $10,000 check in your hand. You will then get their ear for a moment or two.

One of my federal congress members doesn't take phone calls and admits it. It is troublesome and he doesn't want to hear from people with problems and no money in hand.

This brings up the final point to go along with TERM LIMITS. PUBLIC FINANCING of all FEDERAL OFFICES.
No more unlimited money is free speech BS. CITIZEN UNITED need to be overturned.

[TeamProg]

48. This, first and foremost:

""PUBLIC FINANCING of all FEDERAL OFFICES.
No more unlimited money is free speech BS. CITIZEN UNITED need to be overturned."""

[usaf-vet]

50. Agreed!!

Agreed!!

[Texin]

26. I agree. And I stated that at the time. She was winnowing the field, so to speak.

[PatSeg]

33. Plus making a name for herself on national news

I think she might have sacrificed anyone for the media opportunity. She wanted to be the first woman president so badly.

[Polybius]

40. Inouye was very old

For some reason, people look the other way a bit more when the elderly sexually harass. Whether they think it's because of the times they grew up in or think that their mind is going, it's commonly not reported.

[Polybius]

39. I agree

Huma Abedin wasn't around many Republicans.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

3. Why not release the Senator's name to protect other women from possible future attacks??

Assuming, of course, the Senator is still among the living.

[JohnSJ]

6. It should be released regardless if she wants to have any credibility

[Jose Garcia]

15. The Senator may be retired or dead

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

17. Retired would still present a threat, which makes me think the perpetrator's dead.

No doubt Huma consulted with Hillary about this and I doubt Hillary, a huge proponent of the #MeToo movement, would encourage Huma to allow someone guilty of sexual assault to continue to present a threat to other women.

[PJMcK]

16. The Senator might be a Democrat

After all, she says she accepted an invitation to his apartment for coffee. Would Ms. Abedin really go to the apartment of any Republican?!

I admire this woman. Yet this seems like an odd story to share if she isn’t being specific. Otherwise, she should have been more vague to make her point about revealed memories.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

18. You have a point.

[Texin]

30. More likely than not it was a Democrat.

She worked for HRC and it seems likely that she'd be most comfortable amongst other Dems. She also mentions that she was 25 at the time of the incident. I think older males tend to be bolder about making a move on a young(er) woman. I've been hit on and groped by men I've worked with in the past and each one was in a senior position within the organization. I think the power differential is a factor in the boldness factor with which some men feel they can get away with assaulting a woman.

[JudyM]

42. and possibly one she admired...

which would’ve afforded possible closeness/opportunity and a dynamic that led in a sick way to her being taken advantage of. And an added complication in revealing it now.

[RosedaleGuy]

52. Because it would be wrong to accuse someone without any evidence

Let's eliminate Republicans. Why would she hang out with a Republican?

Let's eliminate guys too old to have any hope of succeeding in making such a pass.

Al Franken? He does have a history of misreading the situation.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

55. Huma Abedin IS the evidence. I believe her... she has no reason to lie.

[pfitz59]

7. Name names, or face criticism

that the revelation is just a ploy to sell her book.

[SouthBayDem]

49. Chances are lawyers advised her not to reveal specific names

In today's lawsuit happy world, risking a libel lawsuit is too great a risk even for a major publisher. That's probably the advice that Abedin/her publisher got.

[Raine]

10. Name him or don't bother writing about it,

it's worthless without a name.

[demmiblue]

11. Wow, the attacks on Abedin are disgusting.

She doesn't have to do jack shit to quell your curiosity. Get over yourselves.

[obamanut2012]

14. Seriously

[greenjar_01]

20. Thank you! What is going on in this thread???

[Metatron]

27. Yep

Really fucking disturbing coming from Democrats

[LizBeth]

28. +1

[Texin]

31. Agreed. She doesn't need to name the guy for several reasons.

And any others she has for her own reasons. I can think of a couple off the bat. The man (I guess it was a man) may no longer be in the senate. The person might not still be living and or capable of defending or answering the allegation. And she fended off the person's attempt to take it further and left the premises. It's possible that at the time it happened she simply brushed it off as a close call and put it behind her. I think a great many women have done the same thing, only to remember an incident (or those incidents much later).

[WhiskeyGrinder]

32. +1

[Ron Obvious]

12. Repressed memory?

an incident she “buried” until allegations against the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh triggered her memory years later.

Hmmmm......

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

19. Why the skepticism?? Repressed memories are VERY real phenomena.

[CTyankee]

56. This is true. I suffered such an attack when I was in college and it was YEARS before I remembered

it. This was because my attacker had been killed the day after when his motorcycle crashed into a car. With my attacker dead, I was relieved that he could never do that to me again.

My memory was brought back (don't know why really) only a few years ago.

[IronLionZion]

22. Did she say it was a male senator?

it would be a real game changer if it was a female senator.

[Jose Garcia]

38. She used male pronouns describing him

[greenjar_01]

45. Well...

[Harker]

25. All that and Anthony Weiner, too. n/t

[NH Ethylene]

35. Unless it was a brutal attack, I am dubious about repressed memory.

Many of these public reveals about women sobbing over gropings of decades past, which they have suddenly become driven to speak about, are really annoying to me.

Some are put forth out of a necessary duty (re: Kavanaugh, for example), but most are put out there to fulfill a political or personal agenda. I'm not questioning their veracity; I'm criticizing two things: that it is a secret until there is a motive to reveal it, and that when it is revealed it is done so in a way that exaggerates the woman's victimhood.

Fighting back tears when you tell a reporter how a politician grabbed your ass on one occasion is not how women can be seen as strong, as equals in the workplace and elsewhere. It's telling young girls that we are delicate and have to be protected.

As a girl and woman, I have endured MANY minor sexual assaults, a couple of close calls for gang rapes in which I was threatened with a knife and a gun, and one actual rape. I remember them all. If I had actually been through a gang rape or a violent rape during which I was beaten, the memory could have been so horrible I might have repressed it. I know it can happen, but it can also be a ready excuse.

When women face adversity, we need to fight back. That can look like a lot of things. What it doesn't look like is throwing out accusations, from the safety of a book, toward an anonymous attacker, about an assault which you claim you just remembered.

[ARandomPerson]

37. You misread the OP.

It says that *HRC* was a US Senator from NY between 2001 and 2009, not that the senator in question was.

[UnderThisLaw]

41. That is literally the worst misreading

of a statement I’ve seen on DU.

Now, I’m sure being a faithful Democrat, you’ll realize your mistake and self delete your post.

[Orinocojhon]

43. had to be a Democratic Senator

Logic Dictates:
id reckon there's NO WAY that Huma Abedin would have hanging out, with much less, "going upstairs for coffee" with a REpublican senator. Id REALLY like to know who this is .....
We have a right to know

[demmiblue]

47. No, we do not have a right to know.

[Orinocojhon]

51. Respectfully disagree

We need to lead by example
Hold our leaders to the same standards that we hold others to.
Otherwise we are subject to criticism for double standards and hypocrisy
Lead by example . and others will follow you to the gates of hell and back

[karynnj]

57. In that time frame, there were Republicans who did meet with Democrats

Their aides meeting the Senator and his aides could happen. I agree a Democrat is more likely.

[Buckeyeblue]

58. HRC liked to work with Republicans

With W in office her entire time in the Senate, she was only going to get legislation passed if it were bipartisan.

Maybe it was a popular Republican senator who is no longer alive but his wife has been very supportive of Democratic candidates since his death?

[oasis]

53. Need to take a peek at Trump's wedding guest list.

[Withywindle]

54. In my painful experience

Calling out your sexual abuser by name will probably damage your career much more than his. I think most women know this. This is why we generally don't do it at the time. She can reveal his name if she wants to, later, but she's not obligated to do that. The most important thing is that moment when you can finally come out in public and say, I was assaulted, and get some support. For some of us, it takes years to even get to the point where you can even do that without the name.