A Washington Post story published yesterday revealed that Time’s Up, the group founded to fight harassment against women in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, had held it’s tongue when an accuser came forward with allegations about Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Text messages show that Time’s Up chief executive Tina Tchen told her colleagues to “stand down” from a plan to release a public statement supporting Cuomo’s first accuser, Lindsey Boylan, after two people connected to the group spoke with Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s longtime adviser.

A day earlier, DeRosa had briefed Roberta Kaplan, then the chairwoman of Time’s Up, about Cuomo’s plans for an initial response to Boylan, and Kaplan shared the statement with Tchen, according to people familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose them.

Eventually the Post story reveals that the decision not to support Boylan came in conjunction with advice from a board member who is part of a Democratic PR firm. The concern was that a statement supporting Boylan would give Fox News an excuse to run a story that might catch on. Defending abusers to own the cons.

In the text message exchanges, Tchen argued against releasing a statement in response, joining board member Hilary Rosen, a vice chair of the communications firm SKDK, who wrote that she was concerned about the negative impact of giving Fox “a headline to run all day.”

“As a survivor I have always thought that serious allegations of sexual harassment should not be politicized and Fox News had a reputation for doing just that,” Rosen said in a statement, explaining her objections at the time. “So part of this text chain is only responsive to the question about Fox. Context matters.”

Partisan people making behind the scenes choices to support a powerful figure over a woman claiming she was mistreated by him at work. Isn’t that exactly the sort of situation Time’s Up was created to counteract? In this case, they just became one more powerful interest group working to discredit the accuser and then blamed their own hypocrisy on Fox News.

After this report from the Post, Time’s Up CEO Tina Tchen, who formally worked as Michelle Obama’s Chief of Staff, announced her resignation.

Tina Tchen, who had led the group since 2019, said in a statement that her “position at the helm of Time’s Up has become a painful and divisive focal point.”

Explaining her decision to step aside, she said, “Those very women and other activists who should be working together to fight for change are instead battling each other in harmful ways.”

Founded in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, backed by influential women including Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, Time’s Up has been in what its own vice chair recently called an “existential crisis” over its mission. The board chair, Roberta Kaplan, also resigned over the Cuomo matter. Powerful backers like Shonda Rhimes have tried to rally support and reboot.

Not everyone was impressed with Tchen’s resignation statement. Lindsey Boylan tweeted that it was “sad” she didn’t take responsibility for her actions.

It’s sad that @tinatchen still can’t take responsibility for the harm she’s caused. I’m not talking about myself.

I speak about the many women who haven’t had the privilege of some accountability.

We aren’t fighting. We aren’t confused. We know where we are going and why. https://t.co/HVQOctakSQ

— Lindsey Boylan (@LindseyBoylan) August 26, 2021

Charlotte Bennett, another Cuomo accuser, had a similar reaction.

Instead of offering a sincere apology to the survivors, activists and allies she’s harmed, @TinaTchen goes out the same way our former Governor did — listing her accomplishments, pointing the finger at others, and attempting to justify her inexcusable behavior. Good riddance. https://t.co/2PeS8ycKzZ

— Charlotte Bennett (@_char_bennett_) August 26, 2021

And Rose McGowan, who remains a force of nature, said she was coming for all the “fake activists” like Tchen.

Lying Tina Tchen of Time’s Up has resigned on #WomensEqualityDay2021 And to all of you fake activists who smear, deny, suppress, harass & silence truth for power & money – I’m coming for you. One by one. You are falling. ⏰ pic.twitter.com/pTXKtucgio

— Rose ✨ McGowan (@rosemcgowan) August 26, 2021

Finally, Biden accuser Tara Reade had a very sharp response to the resignation:

No apology @TinaTchen ?
The pain @TIMESUPNOW & @TIMESUPLDF & harm you all caused myself & other survivors violating our trust & supporting the powerful men who abused us.
My life was destroyed coming forward about Biden by Anita Dunn’ s SKD PR firm You all are complicit to rape https://t.co/oUIxJnPbbd

— Tara Reade 🦋 (@ReadeAlexandra) August 26, 2021

It really is pretty remarkable to go into the business of standing up for women and come out being denounced as a failure and a liar by the women you were supposed to stand up for. I wonder how Tchen will scrub that off here resume.