President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday at “lightweight” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) on Twitter after she called for his resignation on Monday.

While powerful figures across Hollywood and Washington, D.C., face a reckoning amid sexual harassment scandals, the senator from New York urged the president to resign because of the allegations he faced during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

Close

In response, Trump ripped Gillibrand — who is seen as a potential Democratic 2020 presidential primary entrant — as “a total flunky” of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is “in the ring fighting against Trump.”

[lz_ndn video=33344564]

“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. “Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked—USED!”

[lz_third_party includes=https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940567812053053441]

Gillibrand did meet with Trump in 2010, according to a source close to Gillibrand and quoted by CNN.

The president pointed to Gillibrand’s decision to call out former President Bill Clinton for the sexual harassment and assault allegations he fielded over the years. Gillibrand shocked the Democratic Party and made headlines when she told The New York Times in November that Bill Clinton — 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s husband — should have resigned after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Trump’s tweet also highlighted his past contributions to Democratic politicians. He donated $2,100 to the Gillibrand Victory Fund in 2007 and $4,800 to Gillibrand for Senate in 2010, as data from the Federal Election Commission showed.

Over the years (and before he became president, of course), Trump donated $344,900 to New York Democrats, according to Ballotpedia. The last donation to Gillibrand represented the last Democratic politician to receive a Trump check.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

Gillibrand tweeted in response to Trump, saying, “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.”

[lz_third_party includes=https://twitter.com/SenGillibrand/status/940580340560809984]

Gillibrand later told reporters, “I see it as a sexist smear. I mean, that’s what it is.”

The president’s tweet unleashed a firestorm of criticism from liberals and pundits, with some people accusing Trump of engaging in sexual harassment through the tweet.

Related: Dem Senators Suddenly Call for Al Franken to Step Down as Roy Moore Rebounds

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host, Mika Brzezinski, said Tuesday that Trump “just literally sexually harassed, in a cruel way, a woman on Twitter.”

“Trump insinuating Senator Kirsten Gillibrand would perform sexual favors for campaign contributions is a form of verbal sexual assault,” Scott Dworkin, co-founder of the anti-Trump Democratic Coalition, tweeted Tuesday. “No one can condone this sort of talk from a public official, especially the president of the United States. He must resign for this. He must.”

[lz_third_party includes=https://twitter.com/funder/status/940598758827577344]

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter here.

(photo credit, homepage image: Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore / Gillibrand and Team Announce Senate Passage of 9/11 Health, CC 0, by U.S. Senate Photographic Studio; photo credit, article image: Donald Trump Sr. at #FITN in Nashua, NH, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Michael Vadon / Senator Kirsten Gillibrand 2, CC BY-SA 2.0, by personaldemocracy)