Franken to quit US senate after claims
US senator Al Franken announced his resignation yesterday after a series of claims of sexual harassment against him.
“Today I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States senate,” Mr Franken said.
“I may be resigning my seat, but I am not giving up my voice,” he told the senate.
“I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a senator – nothing – has brought dishonour on this institution.”
Mr Franken quit just a day after new allegations brought the number of women alleging misconduct by him to at least eight. On Wednesday morning, one woman said he forcibly tried to kiss her in 2006, an accusation he denied. Hours later, another woman said he had inappropriately squeezed “a handful of flesh” on her waist while posing for a photo with her in 2009.
A former comedian who made his name on Saturday Night
Live, Mr Franken had originally sought to remain in the house and co-operate with an ethics investigation.
“Some of the allegations against me are simply not true,” he said. “Others I remember quite differently.”
Still, he said, he could not both co-operate with an investigation and fully carry out his duties to his constituents.
Mr Franken had gained respect as a politician in recent years and had even been mentioned in talks about the 2020 presidential campaign.
Mr Franken has acknowledged and apologised for some inappropriate behaviour, but he strongly denies the new accusation that came from a former Democratic congressional aide, who said he tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006.
The woman, who was not identified, told Politico that she ducked to avoid his lips, but Mr Franken told her: “It’s my right as an entertainer.”
Mr Franken said the idea he would claim such conduct as a right was preposterous.
The pressure on him to leave mounted this week after Democratic congressman John Conyers resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct.
The allegations against Mr Franken began in mid-November when Leeann Tweeden, now a Los Angeles radio anchor, accused him of forcibly kissing her on a 2006 tour of Afghanistan to entertain troops.
Other allegations followed, including a woman who says Mr Franken put his hand on her buttocks as they posed for a photo in 2010. Two women told HuffPost that Mr Franken squeezed their buttocks at political events during his first campaign for the senate in 2008. A fourth woman, an army veteran, alleged Mr Franken cupped her breast in 2003.