The man who called Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand “chubby” has been revealed.
Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, described in her new memoir instances when her male colleagues openly commented on her weight. But when the book was published earlier this month, Gillibrand declined to reveal the identities of the perpetrators.
But The New York Times on Monday reported that the late Daniel Inouye of Hawaii was the senator who squeezed Gillibrand and said: “Don’t lose too much weight now. I like my girls chubby!” In her book, Gillibrand describes him as “one of my favorite older members of the Senate.”
Gillibrand’s team neither confirmed nor denied Inouye’s identification with the Times, and weren’t immediately available to comment to msnbc.
Inouye, a Democrat, decorated veteran and civil rights hero, died in December 2012 at the age of 88 from respiratory complications. Inouye, who was the most senior senator in Washington before his death, worked as an advocate for women, minorities and the disenfranchised. As the Times report mentions, Inouye was accused of sexual misconduct in 1992 by his hairdresser, who said the senator had forced her to have sex with him.
In “Off the Sidelines,” Gillibrand explains how she wasn’t afraid to tell a fellow New York Democrat her feelings about his suggestion she was so fat that she wouldn’t want her photograph splashed across the covers of tabloids. Her co-workers in Washington, she said, also repeatedly remarked commented about her weight, including when she was pregnant.
Gillibrand’s profile has risen quickly in the Senate. She was once the youngest serving senator when she was 42.
Michele Richinick