Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Franken announces plans to exit Senate
WASHINGTON — Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., announced Thursday that he will resign “in the coming weeks” after his support among Democrats crumbled over allegations of his sexual misconduct.
Hours later, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said he will resign Jan. 31 as a House Ethics Committee investigates possible sexual harassment by him. And, the committee late Thursday opened an investigation into Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, over allegations that he sexually harassed a former staff aide and retaliated against her when she complain about discrimination.
On the Senate floor, Franken said: “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.”
His references were to President Donald Trump, who has been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior including harassment and assault, and Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for an Alabama Senate seat who has been accused of inappropriate contact with teenagers.
Franken steadfastly denied that he has done anything wrong. He said he had been ready to “cooperate fully” with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation but that he decided to leave office because it became clear he could not pursue the investigation and adequately represent the people of Minnesota. He maintained that he would have ultimately been cleared of the allegations.
“Some of the allegations against me are simply not true,” Franken said. “Others I remember very differently.”
He also said he was “shocked” and “upset” by the harassment allegations and that in responding to the claims, he may have given people the “false impression” that he was admitting to any of the accusations. He added that he planned to continue to be a “champion” for women and would be active outside of the Senate.
“Even on the worst day of
my political life, I feel like it has all been worth it,” he said. “Politics, Paul Wellstone told us, is about the improvement of people’s lives. I know that the work I have been able to do has improved people’s lives. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
Wellstone was a Democratic senator for Minnesota until his death in a plane crash in 2002.
Just two days before Franken’s resignation, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., a civil-rights hero who’d been the House’s longest-serving current member, resigned after also facing sexual-harassment allegations.
The two departures underscore the Democratic Party’s determination to show no tolerance for such behavior, a strategy that can bring speedy conclusions to political careers but that party leaders believe give them the moral high ground on a subject that’s shown no sign of fading.
In a 2005 audiotape released shortly before last year’s presidential election, Trump is heard talking about grabbing women, and several women accused him of sexual assault.
Women in Alabama have accused Moore of unwanted sexual contact and pursuing romantic relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s during the 1970s.
Asked about Franken’s comment about him Thursday, Trump replied, “I didn’t hear it, sorry.”
On Wednesday, nearly all of the Senate’s Democratic women — and most Democratic men, including
the Senate’s top two Democrats — called for Franken to resign, after a sixth woman stepped forward to say that he had made an improper advance on her.
“Enough is enough,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said Wednesday.
The accusations against Franken include an episode of forcible kissing during a United Service Organizations tour before he was elected, and several allegations that he groped women as he posed with them for photographs.
“This decision is not about me,” he said Thursday. “It is about the people of Minnesota.”
A star on Saturday Night Live, the Harvard-educated Franken was elected to the Senate in 2008 by 312 votes. In Washington, he distanced himself from his comedic background, largely avoided national reporters and burrowed into consumer issues. He found his voice as a sharp critic of Trump administration officials.
Over the past three weeks, Franken has repeatedly apologized for his behavior, although he has also challenged some of the accusations of impropriety lodged against him. Until Wednesday, he had said he would remain in his job and cooperate with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his case.
But his Democratic colleagues in the Senate made clear Wednesday that his apologies and admissions were not enough.
Still on Thursday, dozens of Franken’s Democratic colleagues, including many who just a day before made his political future in the Senate all but impossible, gathered on the Senate floor to watch his remarks, along with members of Franken’s staff and family. One by one, they rose to embrace him.
Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, the only Republican on the floor of the chamber, said: “He is my friend, and he did the right thing.”
Moments after Franken’s remarks, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said she wanted to thank him “for doing the right thing.”
USO TOUR CLAIMS
By the time Franken announced his resignation Thursday morning on the Senate floor, eight women had either written essays or given media interviews accusing him of kissing them, groping them or both without their consent over the past decade.
The accusations began three weeks ago with an essay written by Leeann Tweeden, a host on KABC radio in Los Angeles. Tweeden said Franken groped her breasts and kissed her without her consent in 2006 while they
were performing together in a USO tour for military members in the Middle East.
Just hours before Franken took the Senate floor Thursday to make his announcement, an eighth accuser stepped forward. Tina Dupuy, a former Democratic Hill staff member, wrote an essay that was posted Thursday on the Atlantic’s website, saying Franken groped her as she posed for a photograph with him at a 2009 inauguration party for President Barack Obama.
In interviews, Franken’s accusers said the lawmaker made the right decision.
“You can’t be a champion of women and then turn around and assault us. It’s not how it works,” said Stephanie Kemplin, an Army veteran who says Franken groped her breast as she posed for a photo with him during a USO tour 14 years ago.
Tweeden said: “It’s a lose-lose situation here. It’s not like I’m jumping up and down rejoicing. You are watching somebody probably having the worst day of his life. I feel bad, and feel bad for his family.”
She added, “I am sad that he took that time to still deny and say that some of this stuff wasn’t true.”
Dupuy said she was offended by Franken’s resignation speech and thought it was inappropriate that he delivered it on the Senate floor.
“His speech was about his experience, his grief, his embarrassment and his pain and had nothing to do with the female experience of what he did against his accusers,” Dupuy said. “It was a very un-empathetic speech to the women who told him and the public that it was not OK. There was no apology.”
Two of the reported incidents took place after Franken was elected to the Senate, and two occurred while he was campaigning for a Senate seat. Four women described incidents that allegedly took place before Franken’s election to Congress. Half of the women who provided their accounts to various media outlets did so on the condition of anonymity.
Of the four who spoke on the record, two are Republicans, one is a Democrat and one is not registered with a political party. One anonymous accuser was identified as a Democratic congressional aide, and another described her politics as “liberal.”
FRANKS AND KEILLOR
In a statement issued Thursday evening, Franks said he never physically intimidated, coerced or attempted to have any sexual contact with any member of his congressional staff. Instead, he said, the dispute resulted from a discussion
of surrogacy.
The Arizona Republican and his wife have 3-year-old twins who were conceived through surrogacy.
Franks said he had become familiar with the surrogacy process in recent years and “became insensitive as to how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others.”
He said he regrets that his “discussion of this option and process in the workplace” with two female staff members made them feel uncomfortable.
Franks is a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. He’s a staunch social conservative who sponsored House-passed legislation to make it a crime for any person to perform an abortion if the age of the fetus is 20 weeks or more.
Separately, radio personality Garrison Keillor asserted that Minnesota Public Radio was wrong to fire him last week without fully investigating what a senior executive has described as “multiple allegations” of sexual misconduct spanning an extended period against the former A Prairie Home Companion host.
Jon McTaggart, chief executive officer of Minnesota Public Radio’s parent company, American Public Media Group, addressed the issue at an employee meeting Wednesday. McTaggart didn’t provide details of the allegations against the 75-year-old veteran broadcaster, saying only that he has shared them with lawyers and board members.
In a statement Thursday morning, Minnesota Public Radio insisted that it conducted a proper review. The statement said two people formerly associated with the show alleged “multiple incidents of inappropriate behavior” by Keillor, though only one claimed that the behavior was directed at her. The station said it hasn’t made additional details public because the two want privacy.
Keillor told The Associated Press in an email later Wednesday that he was not at the meeting hosted by McTaggart, so he couldn’t provide details of what was said. But he expressed disappointment at the company’s response to the allegations.
“I expect to deal with MPR soon to try to fix the enormous mistake they have made by not conducting a full and fair investigation,” he said.