Franken will resign ‘in coming weeks’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Al Franken, a liberal favorite only weeks ago, reluctantly announced Thursday he will, at some point, resign from Congress, succumbing to a torrent of sexual harassment allegations and evaporating support from fellow Democrats.
The 66-year-old Minnesotan, a former “Saturday Night Live” comedian who made a successful leap to liberal U.S. senator, announced his decision in a subdued Senate chamber three weeks after the first accusations of sexual misconduct emerged but just a day after most of his Democratic colleagues proclaimed he had to go.
In largely unapologetic remarks that lasted 11 minutes, Franken said “all women deserve to be heard” but asserted that some accusations against him were untrue. He called himself “a champion of women” during his Senate career who fought to improve people’s lives.
“Even on the worst day of my political life, I feel like it’s all been worth it,” he said.
Franken’s departure, which he said would occur in “coming weeks,” made him the latest figure from politics, journalism and the arts to be toppled since October. That's when the first articles appeared revealing sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood titan Harvey Weinstein and energizing the #MeToo movement in which women have named men they say abused or harassed them.
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton will
name a temporary successor, who will serve until a special election next November.
Franken’s comments appended a melancholy coda to the political career of the one-time TV funnyman who became one of his party’s most popular and bellicose liberals.
Just two days earlier, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who’d been the House’s longest-serving current member, resigned after facing sexual harassment allegations of his own.
Later Thursday, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., resigned as well, effective Jan. 3, after admitting he had asked two female staff aides about becoming a surrogate mother.
At least eight women had accused Franken of in- appropriate sexual behavior. Until this week, he’d said he’d remain in the Senate and cooperate with an investigation into his behavior.
The breaking point came Wednesday, when a former Democratic congressional aide said he forcibly tried to kiss her in 2006, an accusation he denied. Hours later, another woman said he’d inappropriately squeezed “a handful of flesh” on her waist while posing for a photo with her in 2009.
The accusations started last month when Leeann Tweeden, now a Los Angeles radio anchor, accused him of forcibly kissing her during a 2006 USO tour in Afghanistan. She also released a photo of him with his hands at her breasts as she napped aboard a military plane.
On Thursday, Franken walked to the Senate chamber shortly before noon, hand-in-hand with his wife of 35 years, Franni. As he spoke, members of his family watched from the visitors’ gallery, some sobbing. Franken said that thanks to them, “I’m going to be just fine.”
Almost two-dozen colleagues listened silently at their desks, some dabbing their eyes. Those watching were nearly all Democrats and many were women, including New Yorker Kirsten Gillibrand, who released the first of what became a flood of public statements Wednesday calling for Franken’s resignation. Also present was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who one Demo- crat said had spent much of Wednesday persuading his friend to leave.
After Franken spoke, many of his colleagues lined up to hug him.
He said he was leaving because he couldn’t handle an ethics panel investigation while representing his state effectively. He said he’d remain an activist: “I may be resigning my seat, but I am not giving up my voice.”
A star on “Saturday Night Live,” Franken was elected to the Senate in 2008 by 312 votes.
His announcement prompted immediate maneuvering for his seat.
Among the possibilities for Minnesota Gov. Dayton’s temporary appointment is Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, a trusted Dayton ally. The winner of a special election in November 2018 would serve through the end of Franken’s term in January 2021.