Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has taken a major step toward announcing a presidential bid, saying she is launching an exploratory committee for a White House run.

The 52-year-old New York Democrat said Tuesday on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”: “It’s an important first step and it’s one I am taking because I am going to run.”

Gillibrand joins what is expected to be a crowded primary field for the Democratic nomination that could include more than a dozen candidates. Already, Gillibrand has plans to travel to the leadoff caucus state of Iowa later this week.

She also has more than $10.5 million left over from her 2018 re-election campaign that she can use toward a presidential run.

Tonight I announced that I’m preparing to run for president, because I believe we’re all called to make a difference. I believe in right vs. wrong – that wrong wins when we do nothing. Now is our time to raise our voices and get off the sidelines. Join me: https://t.co/I1vp93u0wh

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) January 15, 2019

Meanwhile, former NY Assemblyman Dov Hikind released a statement upon her announcement:

Congratulations to Senator Gillibrand upon her announcement to run for president in 2020. The only question is, which Gillibrand is running? “There’s likely no other candidate seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination that has been less consistent or a bigger flip-flopper than Senator Gillibrand,” says former Democrat assemblyman from New York and chairman of the Coalition for a Positive America, Dov Hikind.

Consider the following facts of her voting record and public statements: as a candidate for Congress running in Hudson Valley, N.Y. she was considered (by herself and colleagues) to be a ‘moderate to conservative’ legislator. As a newly-elected Democrat from N.Y. she joined the conservative caucus called the Blue Dog Coalition, bragging that her voting record was “one of the most conservative in the state.” She even campaigned against granting amnesty to illegal immigrants. Fast-forward to today where she was one of the first and loudest to declare “abolish ICE!” That’s not the only issue she’s flip-flopped so radically on.

As a congresswoman, Gillibrand was one of the original co-sponsors of the largely bipartisan legislation making it illegal to boycott the State of Israel, but now she’s against the very same legislation citing First Amendment concerns, taking a position closer to the far-Left Bernie Sanders. Following in his footsteps, and despite the outrageously anti-Semitic statements made by Women March leaders, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour (who famously wrote “There’s nothing creepier than Zionism”), Gillibrand praised these very open haters as “extraordinary women.”

As a congresswoman from upstate New York, she was all pro-gun and had an A-rating from the NRA. She even told Newsday in February of 2009 that she “kept two rifles under her bed.” Despite having been gung-ho on guns just years ago, she has now joined the far-Left in seeking some of the most restrictive gun legislation ever proposed.

In all fairness, Gillibrand, like every politician, has a right to change her positions; she’s even stated publicly that all of her old positions were outright wrong, and her newly adopted positions are the correct ones. But what accounts for this complete about-face? What happened? Was there some late-night epiphany with the sky parting and a voice calling out to her? Did she have a religious awakening? Was it a dream? Or does she suffer from political amnesia?

“As a Democrat from NY,” says Hikind, “I don’t trust her because I don’t believe she believes in anything other than to do what is most expedient for her political prospects. She’ll do anything to move ahead with her determination to be the candidate of the Democratic Party. She’s the last person that I would ever support because she has been by far the most inconsistent. Does the Democratic party really need a Hilary 2.0 in 2020?”

(AP / YWN World Headquarters – NYC)