Departing senator points to Trump’s sex assault ‘history’
UNITED STATES: Al Franken, a former comedian turned US Democratic senator, is to step down amid allegations of sexual misconduct but lashed out in his resignation speech at President Donald Trump for surviving similar accusations.
Franken, 66, told the Senate chamber: ‘‘Today I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate.’’
His departure comes after Trump and the Republican National Committee rallied behind Roy Moore, an Alabama candidate for the Senate, who is accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl.
‘‘I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,’’ he said.
Franken, who became famous on the satirical TV show
stepped aside after 35 of the 47 other Democrats in the Senate called for him to resign. He is the highest-profile figure to stand down so far as Washington faces a reckoning over a culture that has long tolerated poor behaviour from men in power.
His future had been in doubt since Leeann Tweeden, a radio broadcaster and model, revealed three weeks ago that he had groped and forcibly kissed her during a tour to entertain US troops overseas in 2006.
On Thursday, two women came forward with similar allegations, including a former congressional aide who said Franken had tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006. She said that when she ducked to avoid him, he told her: ‘‘It’s my right as an entertainer.’’
Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York, was the first Democratic senator to call for him to quit: ‘‘Enough is enough,’’ she said. ‘‘We need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is OK, none of it is acceptable, and we, as elected leaders, should absolutely be held to a higher standard.’’
The Democratic governor of Minnesota is expected to appoint Tina Smith, the lieutenant governor of the state, to replace Franken until a special election in November 2018, with the winner staying until the end of Franken’s term in 2021.
Democrats are under pressure to practise what they preach after they attacked Trump’s treatment of women last year and Roy Conyers, 88, the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, resigned on Thursday.
The Michigan Democrat stepped down after more than half a century in office after he was accused of groping and harassing women who worked for him. A civil rights icon, Conyers was the only congressman to be endorsed by Martin Luther King.
Republicans appeared to be standing by Blake Farenthold, a Texas congressman who agreed to an US$84,000 taxpayer-funded settlement with a former staffer who alleged that he made inappropriate sexual remarks. Farenthold has said he will reimburse the US Treasury with his own money.
A former doctor to the US Olympic gymnastics team was sentenced to 60 years in prison yesterday after he pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse images. Larry Nassar, 54, also faces an additional sentence of at least 25 years after he admitted molesting more than a hundred young girls and women who came to him for treatment.
Three London 2012 gold medallists – Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Gabby Douglas – were among those who had accused him of abuse.
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