Meghan Markle Accused Of Cold Calling Republican Senators
Meghan Markle has reportedly been cold calling Republican senators in the US in a bid to get them to support paid parental leave.
News of Markle’s efforts came to light on Wednesday, November 3, on the same day House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in a letter to colleagues that US Democrats will add paid family and medical leave back into their $1.75 trillion social spending and climate policy bill.
The Duchess of Sussex is said to have reached out to West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito to plead her case after having previously advocating for paid family leave in a letter to Congress posted on the website PaidLeaveforAll.org.
The senator told Politco she received a call from Markle while in her car, though at first she thought it was coming from her colleague, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, who doesn’t support including family leave in the spending bill.
Recalling the unexpected conversation, Capito said: ‘I’m in my car. I’m driving. It says caller ID blocked. Honestly … I thought it was Sen. Manchin. His calls come in blocked. And she goes ‘Sen. Capito?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘This is Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.’
Capito said she ‘couldn’t figure out how she got [her] number’, though it later emerged that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York had been the one to share the contact details.
Markle continued her efforts with Republican senator Susan Collins, of Maine, who was in the gym when she received the call in which the duchess pitched paid family leave.
Collins said: ‘Much to my surprise, she called me on my private line and she introduced herself as the duchess of Sussex, which is kind of ironic. I was happy to talk with her, but I’m more interested in what the people of Maine are telling me about it.’
3 months agoGillibrand claimed she had spoken to ‘each of the women senators and let them know that she’s going to reach out, because she only completed two of the calls.’ She added: ‘She’s going to call some others, so I let them know in advance.’
The New York senator said Markle ‘wants to be part of a working group to work on paid leave long term’, and claimed ‘she’s going to be.’
‘Whether this comes to fruition now or later, she’ll be part of a group of women that hopefully will work on paid leave together,’ Gillibrand said.
In her letter to Congress, Markle described herself as an ‘engaged citizen and a parent’, and said she was writing to the officials because they ‘have a role in shaping family outcomes for generations to come’.
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Topics: News, Congress, Democrats, Meghan Markle, Republicans, US
