--- title: Clinton Endorses Gillibrand Bill to Curb Military Sexual Assault description: Move puts Clinton on the other side of Obama, the Pentagon and Claire McCaskill on the issue canonical: https://time.com/2895141/hillary-clinton-military-sexual-assault/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-18T17:57:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:47.597Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clinton Endorses Gillibrand Bill to Curb Military Sexual Assault og:description: Move puts Clinton on the other side of Obama, the Pentagon and Claire McCaskill on the issue og:url: https://time.com/2895141/hillary-clinton-military-sexual-assault/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5013708eed2bac3b/69869828cd68485fa709545b/ap184779997905.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clinton Endorses Gillibrand Bill to Curb Military Sexual Assault twitter:description: Move puts Clinton on the other side of Obama, the Pentagon and Claire McCaskill on the issue twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5013708eed2bac3b/69869828cd68485fa709545b/ap184779997905.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Backs Gillibrand Bill to Curb Military Sexual Assault > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Jun 18, 2014 5:57 PM UTC  Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during CNN's Town Hall interview on June 17, 2014. Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during CNN's Town Hall interview on June 17, 2014. David Holloway—AP  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Jun 18, 2014 5:57 PM UTC Hillary Clinton revealed a surprising position Tuesday: She actually supported Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s bill to take the handling of sexual assaults in the military outside the chain of command. The bill failed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate in March. Instead, a version sponsored by Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, which tightens the Pentagon’s prosecution of such cases, passed into law. From the interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour: --- > “” --- Clinton’s endorsement was news to Gillibrand, a Democrat who succeeded Clinton in her New York senate seat. Gillibrand and her staff learned about it on television. “Based on Secretary Clinton’s record of standing up for human rights, we were not surprised,” said Glen Caplin, Gillibrand’s communications director. The move was surprising in that it means that if she becomes President, the normally hawkish Clinton would go against the advice of military brass and remove the cases from the chain of command. It also must have had a little bit of a silver lining dig at McCaskill, who endorsed Barack Obama over Clinton in 2008\. McCaskill this time around is an early endorser of another potential Clinton candidacy. Gillibrand intends to bring her bill back up next year. The question is, if she’s in the middle of a campaign at that point, will Clinton campaign on it? It is an issue popular with the Democratic base and with female swing voters—so like many things in Clinton-land, it’s not a terrible position to take, if you’re thinking in terms of triangulation and, um, an election. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2895141/hillary-clinton-military-sexual-assault/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2895141/hillary-clinton-military-sexual-assault/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Backs Gillibrand Bill to Curb Military Sexual Assault","datePublished":"2014-06-18T17:57:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:47.597Z","description":"Move puts Clinton on the other side of Obama, the Pentagon and Claire McCaskill on the issue","url":"https://time.com/2895141/hillary-clinton-military-sexual-assault/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","kirsten gillibrand"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5013708eed2bac3b/69869828cd68485fa709545b/ap184779997905.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jay Newton-Small","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5013708eed2bac3b/69869828cd68485fa709545b/ap184779997905.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton","caption":"Hillary Clinton","creditText":"David Holloway—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2895141/hillary-clinton-military-sexual-assault/","name":"Hillary Clinton Backs Gillibrand Bill to Curb Military Sexual Assault"}}]}] ```