President Trump smiles as he speaks before hosting a lunch with Senate Republicans in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Dec. 5. (Evan Vucci/AP)

President Trump attacked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in a sexually suggestive tweet Tuesday morning that implied Gillibrand would do just about anything for money, prompting a swift and immediate backlash.

“Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Charles E. 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,” the president wrote. “Very disloyal to Bill Crooked-USED!”

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. Very disloyal to Bill Crooked-USED!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2017

The tweet came as Trump is already facing negative publicity from renewed allegations from three women who had previously accused him of sexual harassment, which are coming amid the #MeToo movement that is roiling the nation and forcing powerful men accused of sexual misbehavior from their posts.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders disputed the characterization of Trump’s tweet as sexually suggestive, telling reporters that “there’s no way this is sexist at all” and later adding: “I think only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way.”

“He’s used that same terminology many times in reference to men,” Sanders added, arguing that Trump was motivated by his long-standing concern about the corrupting influence of money in politics.

The president ignored a reporter’s question about the tweet after he signed a defense authorization bill shortly after noon.

The backlash and criticism was near instantaneous, with Gillibrand replying directly to Trump on Twitter. “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,” she wrote.

At a news conference later on an unrelated issue, Gillibrand called Trump’s tweet “a sexist smear attempting to silence my voice.”

“I will not be silent on this issue, neither will women who stood up to the president yesterday and neither will the millions of women who have been marching since the Women’s March to stand up against policies they do not agree with,” she added.

Gillibrand once again called on GOP congressional leaders to launch investigations into the allegations made by women against Trump, saying, “It’s the right thing to do, and these allegations should be investigated. They should be investigated thoroughly. That is the right thing to do, and I’m urging them to do that — as should their constituents.”

Asked about her interactions with the president, Gillibrand told reporters that Trump was “just a supporter — a supporter of my first campaign.”

Several Democratic senators also rallied around Gillibrand, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who pointedly asked Trump on Twitter whether he was trying to “bully, intimidate and slut-shame” Gillibrand.

“Do you know who you’re picking a fight with?” Warren said. “Good luck with that, @realDonaldTrump.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) also weighed in on Twitter, writing that there is “nobody tougher than @SenGillibrand she won’t be intimidated. Women will continue to speak up.”

Gillibrand was attending a bipartisan Bible study Tuesday morning when Trump’s tweet landed, and her phone was immediately filled with supportive and befuddled messages, wondering just what the president was thinking, a Gillibrand aide said.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who was in the Bible study group with Gillibrand, later issued a statement, saying: “Respectful dialogue and disagreement sets a better example for our children and the world. Our leaders should focus on the issues, not personal attacks.”

Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News personality whose lawsuit against Roger Ailes for sexual harassment led to the resignation of the late network chairman, also weighed in with a duo of tweets defending Gillibrand.

“What do u mean @SenGillibrand would ‘do anything’ for campaign contributions? By the way she isn’t a lightweight,” she wrote. In a second tweet, Carlson continued: “Sexual harassment is apolitical. Women will not be silenced no matter what party they are in. Period.”

Katty Kay, an anchor for BBC World News America, also took to social media to respond to the president’s missive against Gillibrand, casting it in tweets as “clearly sexual” and “demeaning to women.”

“What is so maddening about the Gillibrand tweet is that women can be smart, work hard, become Senator and STILL get sexual c**p thrown at us,” she wrote. “Enough.”

Trump offered no evidence to support his wink-and-nod claim that Gillibrand had gone to him “begging” for campaign donations “and would do anything for them.” In fact, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit website that tracks campaign contributions, since 1996, Trump has donated $8,900 to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and $5,850 to Gillibrand.

Gillibrand met with Trump once in 2010, the Gillibrand aide said, and Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, who has tried to cast herself as a champion of women, attended the meeting,

On Monday, Gillibrand, a leading voice in Congress for combating sexual assault in the military, became the fifth Democratic senator to call on Trump to step down because of the allegations of sexual misconduct against him — accusations the president has denied and the White House dismissed again on Monday.

“President Trump has committed assault, according to these women, and those are very credible allegations of misconduct and criminal activity, and he should be fully investigated and he should resign,” Gillibrand said on CNN. “These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I’ve heard these women’s testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.”

She joined Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in calling for Trump’s resignation.

Trump has not commented on the male senators’ demand that he resign.

On Tuesday, a sixth senator — Democrat Mazie Hirono of Hawaii — called on Trump to resign, citing his morning tweet targeting Gillibrand.

“@realDonaldTrump is a misogynist, compulsive liar, and admitted sexual predator,” she said. “Attacks on Kirsten are the latest example that no one is safe from this bully. He must resign.”

Trump’s attack on Twitter also coincided with a previously scheduled event led by at least 59 female House Democrats, who formally called on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to launch an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by the president. The oversight panel has the broadest subpoena power and investigatory mandate of any congressional committee. The female lawmakers had requested the investigation in a letter to the committee on Monday.

What Trump tweeted Tuesday “is grotesque, it took my breath away and it represents the conduct of a person who is ill-equipped to be the president of the United States,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said at the news conference.

Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) said Democrats are seeking “a fair process” to review the allegations and allow the president to respond.

By Tuesday afternoon, more than 100 House Democrats had joined in on the calls to formally investigate Trump after the letter was opened up to male colleagues.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to say whether Congress should investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump, saying, “We’re focused on the Senate,” and that his chamber’s ethics committee can only investigate allegations against senators.

“What we’re in charge of here is the Senate,” McConnell told reporters.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended his Empire State colleague, calling Trump’s attack “nasty” and “unbecoming” of the presidency.

But he declined to join other Democrats calling for a formal investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct of Trump, saying he would let the comments of other Democrats speak for themselves.

Gillibrand, New York’s junior senator and a rising political star, is widely considered a likely 2020 presidential candidate against Trump, and the president’s Twitter assault Tuesday offered an early glimpse of just how vicious the next race for the White House could become.

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, called Trump’s tweet “disgusting” but also noted, “It will make the Gillibrand folks ecstatic,” implying that the sparring with Trump would raise her profile.

Gillibrand, however, does have her critics. After she said in November that Bill Clinton should have resigned as president after his inappropriate affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, longtime Hillary Clinton adviser and confidant Philippe Reines excoriated her on Twitter for being ungrateful and two-faced.

“Senate voted to keep POTUS WJC. But not enough for you @SenGillibrand? Over 20 yrs you took the Clintons’ endorsements, money, and seat. Hypocrite. Interesting strategy for 2020 primaries. Best of luck,” Reines wrote.

Joshua Dawsey contributed to this report.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The ad from Stars and Stripes Forever runs only infrequently; the conservative super PAC has spent just $4,720 to put it on some of Alabama’s black radio stations. But like all of the super PAC’s work, it grabs the listener’s attention with a fictional conversation between two fictional black voters about Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Doug Jones.

“I heard Doug Jones would add even more black babies to the 300,000 already being aborted this year,” a female voice says.

“Three hundred thousand black babies aborted?” a shocked male voice responds.

“A vote for Doug Jones is a vote for more black abortions, no school choice and higher taxes for job creators,” the first voice says.

“So he says whatever he needs to get our votes …”

. . . then keeps us down once he’s elected.”

The ad, which makes no mention of Republican nominee Roy Moore, is the latest product of a group originally created to help win the 2016 presidential nomination for Ben Carson. But in Alabama, it has been drowned out by harsh Democratic ads that attack Moore directly, accusing him of unexplored ties to white supremacists.

In urban areas where Jones needs to win big, the super PAC Highway 31 — a team-up between the Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA, two Democratic groups — has purchased pre-roll ads that run before some YouTube videos. Over just a few seconds, images of Dylann Roof, who has been sentenced to death for killing nine people at a historically black church in South Carolina, flash across the screen.

[Why party identity causes voters to stand behind their politicians – no matter what]

“Roy Moore has ties to the same white supremacists who inspired the Charleston shooter,” says a narrator in the ad. “Vote for Doug Jones.”

In another spot, paid for by the Jones campaign and playing on radio stations, male and female narrators take turns warning of the support Moore has received from the far right.

“A Mississippi KKK group backed Moore’s refusal to enforce federal law,” the narrators say. “Moore’s organization took $1,000 from a neo-Nazi group. His candidacy is backed by the racist alt-right groups. And Moore is a birther, still insisting that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and isn’t an American.”

Not every ad aimed at black voters is quite as bracing. In another common spot, paid for by the Alabama New South Alliance, a recap of Jones’s work as a U.S. attorney who prosecuted hate groups is coupled with his promise of what he would do in the Senate.

“Just one vote in the United States Senate saved Obamacare,” the ad’s narrator says. “Just one more vote can save this whole country.”

Both camps are confident that their direct approaches — which are not reflected in the TV ads that most voters have seen — will help their sides meet turnout models. In Stars and Stripes Forever’s case, the ad is designed to urge black voters not to vote at all. On its website, the PAC takes partial credit for Donald Trump’s gains with black voters relative to Mitt Romney, something Democrats think was more of a response to Hillary Clinton motivating fewer voters than Barack Obama. The anti-Democratic ads were designed after 2002 spots, controversial at the time, that ran on black radio in areas where black turnout decreased.

“While the increase in the Republican vote was not dramatic, the decrease in votes for the Democratic candidate was very significant,” the PAC explains. “Not only did the black and Hispanic vote total not increase as predicted by the Washington, D.C., GOP consultants, it actually declined substantially in both black and Hispanic areas reached by the radio and television advertising.”

Alabama Democrats, however, are cautiously optimistic about black turnout today. Jones spent the morning zipping between heavily black precincts; in Montgomery County, the single largest stronghold of black Democratic voters, local election officials said Tuesday that turnout might reach that of the 2016 general election. Jones, the first competitive Democratic candidate for federal office here since the early 1990s, also has been able to fully fund turnout operations in the so-called “black belt.”

As the country grapples with a national reckoning over sexual misconduct allegations against powerful men, three women who accused the most high-profile man in America again questioned Monday why their claims did nothing to stop him from winning the presidency.

It was “heartbreaking” for women to go public with their claims against President Trump last year, only to see him ascend to the Oval Office, said Samantha Holvey, a former Miss USA contestant who in October 2016 said Trump inappropriately inspected pageant participants.

“I put myself out there for the entire world, and nobody cared,” Holvey said Monday on NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” show.

[President Trump and accusations of sexual misconduct: The complete list]

During the television appearance and a news conference, Holvey sat alongside Jessica Leeds, a New York woman who said Trump groped her on a plane, and Rachel Crooks, who said he kissed her on the lips at Trump Tower, to renew their allegations against the president.

The women also called for Congress to investigate these allegations amid the dramatic shift happening nationwide in response to charges of sexual misconduct against men from Hollywood to Capitol Hill. Claims have erupted across industry after industry, against lawmakers and movie stars alike, as the country has shown a sudden, newfound willingness to take such accusations seriously.

Trump has denied all of the allegations against him, which were made public after The Washington Post published the “Access Hollywood” recording last year capturing Trump boasting about grabbing women by the genitals.

The White House’s position is that Trump’s accusers are lying and that the issue was settled when he was elected president after the stories emerged.

“These false claims, totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts, were addressed at length during last year’s campaign, and the American people voiced their judgment by delivering a decisive victory,” the White House said in a statement Monday. “The timing and absurdity of these false claims speaks volumes, and the publicity tour that has begun only further confirms the political motives behind them.”

[‘My pain is everyday’: After Weinstein’s fall, Trump accusers wonder: Why not him?]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s press secretary, repeated that sentiment later Monday afternoon, telling reporters the president has denied all the charges against him and saying “these allegations have been answered through” the election.

“The American people knew this and voted for the president and we feel like we’re ready to move forward,” Sanders said of the allegations. She added: “The president has firsthand knowledge on what he did and didn’t do.”

The women who spoke Monday morning on television recounted their allegations against Trump, saying they felt threatened and disgusted by these encounters with the future president.

“I was shocked,” Crooks told Kelly after describing Trump kissing her at Trump Tower. “Devastated. It happened so fast. … I wish I would’ve been courageous enough to say, ‘What’s going on and you need to stop this.’”

Crooks said she felt at the time that she had no way to respond to the situation out of fear that if she reported it to her bosses — who did business with Trump’s organization — she might lose her job. “I wish I had been stronger,” she said. Crooks said she came forward after reading an account from another woman accusing Trump of misconduct, saying that this made her feel a sense of relief knowing that “it wasn’t just me.”

When the women were read the White House’s statement Monday describing their claims as false, Crooks called it “laughable.”

[‘All that anger’s unleashed’: How sexual misconduct stories persuade other victims to come forward]

The news conference was organized by Brave New Films, a nonprofit group launched by Robert Greenwald, an Emmy Award-winning producer, with the goal of promoting activism around progressive causes through short low-budget documentaries. The group has a budget of about $2.6 million, according to Jim Miller, its executive director.

The company, which aims for mass free distribution via YouTube and other social networks, has produced videos about gun control and mass incarceration. In November, it posted a video about the women accusing Trump, weaving together clips of them retelling their stories. That video, along with the news conference, was funded by donations of between $5 and $50 that came in response to social media and email solicitations, the group said.

Greenwald said after the video was launched, his group decided to contact the women, some of whom hesitated when they received an email about it.

“I didn’t want to go through it all again,” Holvey said in an interview after the news conference, recalling the backlash a year ago and the feeling that she hadn’t been heard. But the idea of getting together with other women who had similar experiences interested her.

“As a group there might be more of an impact,” she said. And she was also noticing a change in her Facebook feed in the #MeToo era, seeing people asking: “What about Trump?”

[While Democrats call for resignations, conservative women stand by colleagues accused of sexual misconduct]

Some women contacted by Brave New Films were too fearful of joining the news conference, Greenwald said. The three who did gather met at a dinner Sunday night for the first time.

Beyond pushing for renewed attention to their claims, it was unclear what the women hoped would be the next step after the news conference. Greenwald said that answer would come later, saying for now that he believes “we have an opportunity.”

Leeds said at the news conference Monday that none of the women were speaking publicly for fame, but instead were doing it because they felt it was the right thing to do.

“None of us want this attention,” Leeds said at the news conference. “None of us are comfortable with it. … But this is important, so when asked, we speak out.”

WATCH: “Everybody has a story…It doesn’t matter when it happened, whether they were 8 years old or whether they were 35 or older.” Trump accuser Jessica Leeds on @MegynTODAY pic.twitter.com/Kgb0vKPEId

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 11, 2017

The women spoke Monday as a wave of allegations of sexual assault and harassment by men have swept across the country in recent weeks, stretching into fields including politics, entertainment, the media, the courts and the finance industry.

Numerous high-profile men have been fired or suspended, including Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and broadcaster Charlie Rose, while others have announced plans to step down, including Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), both of whom said last week that they would leave Congress over mounting allegations.

[How Congress plays by different rules on sexual harassment and misconduct]

At least four senators have called on Trump to resign over the allegations. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told CNN on Monday that Trump should step down over what she called “credible” allegations, echoing comments made by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) saying that Trump should resign or consider doing so.

Trump has endorsed Roy Moore, the Republican nominee in Alabama’s closely fought Senate election, even after multiple women came forward to say that Moore made advances toward them when they were teens and he was in his 30s. One of the accusers said she was 14 at the time. Moore has denied the allegations,

For Trump’s accusers, they say it appears Moore is following the script Trump used a year ago in his own election.

“He was able to just deny what we said, and that got him elected just fine,” Crooks said Monday about Trump. “It’s like he’s passing the torch for Roy to do the same.”

Holvey suggested it made sense for Trump’s accusers to speak to the public again given the way the country’s atmosphere — and response to alleged sexual misconduct — has shifted over the last year.

“Let’s try round two,” she said. “The environment’s different, let’s try again.”

WATCH: “If there are other women out there, what do you want them to know?” – Megyn asks Trump accusers Jessica Leeds, Samantha Holvey Rachel Cooks on #MegynTODAY pic.twitter.com/YPt1CxieUA

— Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) December 11, 2017

A day before the women spoke, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that women who have accused Trump “should be heard.”

Haley’s comments were a sharp break from the White House’s position, and they were particularly notable coming from one of the most high-profile women serving in Trump’s administration.

“They should be heard, and they should be dealt with,” Haley said when asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” about the allegations other women have made against Trump. “And I think we heard from them before the election. And I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up.”

[Trump may face a reckoning in case brought by female accuser]

For women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct last year, watching other men felled by allegations has left them wondering why their claims did not have the same impact during the presidential campaign.

In addition to denying the accusations against him, Trump has vowed to sue his accusers and produce “substantial evidence” he said would disprove their claims. So far, Trump has not followed through on either promise.

The only lawsuit to emerge from the allegations against Trump came from one of his accusers, Summer Zervos, who sued him in New York for defamation over Trump’s repeated comments that all of the women were liars.

Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” said Trump kissed and groped her during a 2007 encounter at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In response, Trump said: “False stories. All made up. Lies. Lies. No witnesses. No nothing. All big lies.”

Trump’s attorneys have decried Zervos’s lawsuit, calling it “politically motivated” and based on allegations of something “that never occurred.” They are seeking to have it dismissed, saying Trump was expressing a political opinion and that a sitting U.S. president cannot be sued in state court.

Sellers reported from New York. This story has been updated.

Further reading:

Nikki Haley says Trump’s accusers ‘should be heard’

In Franken’s wake, three senators call on President Trump to resign

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — For many Alabama voters, unaccustomed to a competitive election and the national attention that has come with it, the bitter showdown between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones has become something more personal than a race to fill an open Senate seat. It is now a referendum on the state’s identity.

Supporters of Jones say with concern that a win Tuesday by the firebrand Moore would derail the state’s efforts to escape its painful history and rebrand itself as a forward-thinking place welcoming to Fortune 500 companies and a highly educated workforce. And they express a nagging feeling that a Moore victory would be a deflating sign that Alabama remains beholden to its past.

“You travel across the country and you say ‘Alabama,’ and something goes right across people’s eyes every time,” said retired actor Jonathan Fuller, a 61-year-old Democrat, as he shopped at the Piggly Wiggly supermarket in the suburbs south of Birmingham. “I don’t want to apologize anymore for where I’m from because there is this pocket of stubbornness in my state.”

Supporters of Moore, meanwhile, see his candidacy as a conduit for their rejection of the national media and political elites who they believe unfairly caricature their home state as a cultural backwater. They shrug off the notion that sexual misconduct allegations against Moore — allegations that some see as a fabrication by outsiders — should make a difference.

People wait for the arrival of Doug Jones, Roy Moore’s Democratic rival, at an event Thursday in Cullman, Ala. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)