Democrat on Weinstein: ‘People that took money from him should probably give it back’

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday those who took donations from film producer Harvey Weinstein should “probably” return them in response to the sexual harassment allegations against him.

“I think that probably makes sense,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to Democrats returning the mega donor’s past contributions. Many Democrats and Democratic committees have been rushing to distance themselves from Weinstein and have already given away some or all of Weinstein’s past donations.

{mosads}”This is a pretty bad guy who did some really awful things and if people need for that money to be returned in order to make it clear that the entities that received them want nothing to do with him and his behavior, then that’s probably a smart move,” Murphy said.

Murphy noted Democrats take tens of thousands of contributions. There are probably “lots of people with unsavory backgrounds,” who have donated to both Democrats and Republicans, he said.

“But this was a high-profile individual who did some truly awful things,” he said. “And people that took money from him should probably give it back.”

Weinstein has not admitted to the extent of the graphic charges made against him in a New York Times report last week.

Nearly a dozen Democratic senators have since pledged to donate the contributions they received from Weinstein to nonprofit groups.