CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has come into the national spotlight as of late, taking a lead role as an advocate for victims of sexual harassment and assault.

"What my job is then is to provide accountability. We have to create the structure around this pervasiveness and begin to show accountability, transparency and offer justice," said Gillibrand, D-New York.

Gillibrand said in the last month that former President Bill Clinton should've resigned in the 90s and then called on her Senate colleague Al Franken to step down amid sexual harassment allegations.

"It's not about me. It's about all these women who have been standing up and trying to be heard because it's a moment of reckoning right now in this country and women who have suffered sexual harassment, sexual sexual violence, they need to be heard and they need to be able to tell their stories," Gillibrand said.

Perhaps the senator has received the most attention for her call for President Donald Trump's resignation which led to the president retaliating on Twitter. He said it was not long ago Gillibrand was asking him for campaign contributions and that she would "do anything for them."

"I think it was intended to be a sexist smear, intended to silence me on something I care very deeply about and the truth is the president's not going to silence me or the women who have stood up against him or the millions of women who have been marching since inauguration and showing up at town halls and running for office to be heard on the things that they care most deeply about," Gillibrand said.

According to the Federal Elections Commission, Gillibrand did receive contributions from Trump in 2007 and 2010.

"We have actually given all his donations to a not-for-profit that deals with sexual violence," she said.

Gillibrand is considered a Democratic contender to challenge Trump in 2020, although earlier this year she said she was ruling out a White House bid. While in Western New York on Friday, reporters asked her is she was reconsidering.

"I'm really focused on running for Senate in 2018 and so my hope and dream is to be elected here and so that's what I'm hoping for," she said.

Meanwhile, the senator said there's a bipartisan effort to change the way they deal with sexual harassment in Congress, pointing to a bill she and others introduced Thursday.