Tina Tchen

In August 2021, Tchen resigned as president and CEO of Time’s Up after it was revealed she had helped to advise disgraced then-Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) on a public relations campaign to discredit accusations of sexual harassment against him.^{4 5} Tchen was named in state attorney general Letitia James’ (D-NY) lengthy report into allegations of Cuomo’s sexual harassment, and initially downplayed her involvement, but it was later revealed that Tchen had commanded her colleagues to “stand down” when they pressed her to issue a statement in support of Cuomo’s accusers.^{6 7 8}

Tchen worked in the Obama administration in various roles from 2009 to 2017, including as chief of staff to former First Lady Michelle Obama.⁹ She has worked as an internal sexual harassment investigator for the controversial left-leaning¹⁰ Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC),¹¹ and is on the board of left-of-center nonprofits including When We All Vote, Civic Nation,¹² and United State of Women.⁹

Career

Tina Tchen was the president and CEO of the left-of-center women’s advocacy and anti-sexual harassment group Time’s Up Foundation and the Time’s Up Now from 2019 to 2021.¹³ In 2017, Tchen co-founded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund and raised over $24 million for the group between 2017 and 2019.¹³

In March 2019, Tchen was hired by the controversial left-leaning¹⁰ Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to investigate SPLC workplace culture after allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination led to the ouster of SPLC co-founder Morris Dees and the resignation of SPLC president Richard Cohen.¹¹

From 2009 to 2017, Tchen served in several roles in the Obama administration. She was an Assistant to the President from 2011 to 2017, Executive Director for the Council on Women and Girls from 2011 to 2017, chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama from 2011 to 2017, and director of the office of public Engagement from 2009 to 2011.⁹

After the end of the Obama administration, Tchen joined the board of left-of-center voter mobilization group When We All Vote and became the treasurer of left-of-center Civic Nation, left-of-center voter outreach and registration groups founded and promoted by former First Lady Michelle Obama and other left-of-center celebrities.¹²

Tchen also co-chairs the left-of-center United State of Women,⁹ which she first launched with fellow Obama Administration official Valerie Jarrett at the White House in 2016.¹⁴ Speakers at the inaugural event included left-wing political activist Jane Fonda and Me Too Movement founder Tarana Burke. ¹⁴

Tchen fundraised for former President Barack Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign,¹⁵ bundled at least $200,000¹⁶ for Obama’s presidential campaigns,¹⁷ and argued cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.¹

Tchen received a career achievement award from the American Bar Association in 1999,¹⁸ received the Women of Achievement award from the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League in 1996, ¹⁹ and was the chapter vice president the feminist organization National Organization for Women (NOW) in Springfield, Illinois, in the late 1970s¹⁹

Controversies

Advising Andrew Cuomo

In August 2021, it was reported that Tchen, fellow Time’s Up founder Robbie Kaplan, and Alphonso David, later president of the left-progressive LGBT-interest group Human Rights Campaign,²⁰  had advised staffers of embattled then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) seeking to mount a public relations campaign⁴ to discredit allegations of sexual harassment which eventually led to Cuomo’s resignation.⁶

Tchen was named in New York state Attorney General Letitia James’ (D) lengthy report about her probe into Cuomo’s sexual harassment. The report alleged Tchen helped the governor’s office draft an op-ed, which was never published, ⁶ that allegedly smeared Cuomo’s first accuser, Lindsey Boylan, and “impugned her credibility.”²¹

Kaplan resigned shortly after the investigation’s findings were published²² and Tchen’s alleged willingness to work with Cuomo drew sharp public criticism.²⁰ Despite Tchen’s public apology for Time’s Up Now’s role in downplaying the sexual harassment allegations²³ and her claim that her role in drafting the op-ed was overstated and that she played no role in it,²⁴ she faced calls to resign from her from her position with Time’s Up.⁵

The day the investigation into Cuomo was concluded, Tchen published a tweet denying the allegations made in the New York Attorney General’s report, writing, “I had a phone call with Robbie Kaplan about a letter she said was being sent by [Cuomo’s] staffers during which I gave the same advice I give to everyone else: No survivor should be attacked and the truth should be told.” ²⁵

On August 26, 2021, the Washington Post reported that newly obtained text messages proved Tchen was much more involved with the cover-up effort than she initially claimed to be. The text messages reportedly showed that Tchen told her colleagues to “stand down” from issuing a statement in support of Lindsey Boylan in the days following Boylan’s accusations against Cuomo. ⁷ Tchen was joined in her opposition to issuing a statement by Hillary Rosen, managing director at SKD Knickerbocker, who wrote that she was concerned that issuing a statement would give Fox News “a headline to run all day” that would negatively impact Cuomo. The same day, Tchen announced her resignation as president of Times Up. ⁸

In the weeks after the investigation into Cuomo was made public, a for-profit sexual harassment investigation and consulting company that Tchen and Robbie Kapalan founded, HABIT Advisors, also reportedly took its website offline. ⁸

Jussie Smollett

Tchen allegedly intervened in the 2019 Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax by facilitating connections between Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx (D) and the Smollett family to reduce the risk of leaks to the media²⁶ before charges against Smollett were dropped.²⁷

Tchen was subpoenaed for “any and all documents, notes, phone records, texts, tape recordings made or received at any time concerning your conversations with Kim Foxx in re Jussie Smollett” as an outgrowth of a civil case filed on the matter.²⁸ According to a process server, Tchen refused to be served with the subpoena in May 2019.²⁷

SPLC Internal Investigation

On March 18, 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced that it would be retaining Tchen, to lead “a comprehensive review of the SPLC’s workplace culture and its past policies” following the resignation of SPLC leadership amid widespread allegations of workplace sexual misconduct and racism. ²⁹

Left-leaning journalists employed by the SPLC during the time of Tchen’s investigation have since claimed that the investigation suffered from a lack of transparency and that its findings were never put into any writing that SPLC employees were shown. According to the former SPLC employee, once Tchen’s investigation began “it became abundantly clear to many of us that she had been hired to protect the reputation of the SPLC, and not to enact or recommend changes that would benefit staff—changes that we desperately needed.” ³⁰

Political Statements

Following the 2020 election, Tchen has said the work of forming a “more perfect union lies ahead of us;”³¹ claimed the COVID-19 pandemic has been a “pandemic, health care, and racial-justice crisis”; ³² labeled criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2020 presidential campaign “sexist and racist and misogynistic;”³³ and labeled U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s record “disqualifying.” ³⁴

Tchen has said the fight to end critical race theory-inspired “systemic racism” requires self-examination, leadership, and a commitment to “structural change”;³ argued that the “new normal” of COVID-19 restrictions has adverse consequences for women, particularly women of color; ³ and called criticisms of women candidates for political office unfair, saying they “handicap leaders in multiple dimensions.” ³⁵

At an event promoting Sesame Workshop fellow Jordan Shapiro’s book How to Be a Feminist Dad hosted by the Brookings Institution, Tchen emphasized the importance of having a woman-centered narrative, not a neutral objective, and suggested those who agree with her “use whatever words you can use” to get the desired result in the end, when referring to differences between critical race theory-inspired terms like equity in comparison to words such as equality. ³⁶ Tchen also said it was important for those who share her views to “double down on efforts of change” because the political climate could be less favorable for left-of-center views in the future despite ongoing “demographic change.” ³⁶

Political Contributions

Tchen has made Federal Election Commission-reportable contributions to Democratic Party political candidates, campaign committees, political action committees, and Democratic-affiliated passthroughs such as ActBlue 62 times since 1995.³⁷

Tchen contributed a total of $6,100 to committees supporting the 2020 candidacy of President Joe Biden, the Biden Victory Fund and Biden for President,³⁷ and donated $2,000 to former Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)’s unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign.³⁷ She has contributed to the U.S. Senate campaigns of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), former State Rep. Sara Gideon (D-ME), Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Jaime Harrison (D-SC), former Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO),³⁷ and the congressional campaigns of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL),³⁷ Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL), Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL), Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), former Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), and others.³⁷

Tchen has also supported the left-of-center Progressive Turnout Project, left-of-center Voter Protection Project, the pro-abortion advocacy group Emily’s List, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.³⁷

Personal Information

Christina “Tina” M. Tchen¹ was born on January 25, 1956,¹⁹ in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio.³⁸ She holds a B.A. from Harvard University and received a J.D. from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in 1984.¹⁸ Tchen has two children¹⁹ and resides in Chicago, Illinois.³