Accusations dim Franken’s political star
WASHINGTON — “Many of you have jobs, many of you have families,” Sen. Al Franken told Democratic leaders gathered on the eve of a hotly contested governor’s election in Virginia. After an expectant pause, he leaned into the microphone and added, “Ignore them.”
Franken was jokingly beseeching activists to get out the vote the following day, in what ended up as a surprisingly decisive victory for Democratic candidate Ralph Northam. But the moment, barely two weeks ago, also underscored how high the one-time Saturday Night Live comic had risen in his party’s firmament.
After spending much of his nearly nine years as senator trying to shed his funnyman image and quietly digging into issues like internet access and consumer protection, he was now a draw at political events and mentioned by some as a 2020 presidential possibility. Months of savaging some of President Donald Trump’s appointees had turned the Harvard-educated Franken into a weapon of choice for Democrats eager to attack the administration and energize party voters.
Now, Franken’s rising trajectory has been interrupted by allegations he had physical contact with four women without their permission. He faces a Senate ethics investigation for improper conduct and hasn’t been seen publicly since the first claims of misbehavior last week. His future is suddenly unclear.
“It’s always a great disappointment when leaders you like and admire do bad stuff,” said Mike Lux, a liberal Democratic consultant. He said it was premature to say how the allegations would affect Franken’s career. But, Lux added, “If more incidents come to light, he’s got a real problem.”
Los Angeles radio anchor Leeann Tweeden last week said Franken had put his tongue in her mouth during a 2006 USO tour, before he became senator. She also posted a photo of him with his hands above her chest as she slept wearing a flak vest aboard a military plane. Franken, 66, has apologized.
Another woman, Lindsay Menz, said Monday he’d squeezed her buttocks in 2010 while posing for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair. Franken, by then a senator, said he didn’t remember the picture but expressed remorse that Menz felt “disrespected.”
In a story published Wednesday by the Huffington Post, two more women alleged that Franken touched their buttocks during campaign events in 2007 and 2008.
Franken canceled a sold-out appearance in Atlanta to promote his book, Al Franken, Giant of the Senate. His aides have said he’s “spending time with his family and doing a lot of reflecting.”
That time for reflection yielded a Thanksgiving statement of explanation and regret — and a pledge to regain the trust of Minnesotans, suggesting Franken wasn’t planning on resigning, as some have called on him to do.
In a statement provided to the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio, Franken wrote that as a “warm person” he hugs people and that he’s learned from recent stories that “in some of those encounters, I crossed a line for some women — and I know that any number is too many.”
He added: “I feel terribly that I’ve made some women feel badly and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again. And let me say again to Minnesotans that I’m sorry for putting them through this and I’m committed to regaining their trust.”
Franken came to the Senate after a monthslong recount gave him a 312-vote victory in his 2008 election. He immediately distanced himself from his decades of professional comedy, which included off-color jokes about rape and disparaging women, and avoided national reporters.
Instead, he focused on building a reputation as a studious senator, pushing legislation to crack down on Wall Street rating agencies he considered complicit in the 2007 economic collapse. As a signature issue, he adopted the push to protect “net neutrality,” an Obama administration policy barring internet providers from blocking or hindering websites. The Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday it will dismantle the rule.
Franken helped shape parts of former President Barack Obama’s health care law and tackled farm and mental health issues. He easily secured a second six-year term in 2014, defeating a Republican businessman.
Franken appeared on his first Sunday network talk show late in his first term amid signs he was bolstering his national profile. But it was Trump’s emergence that teased out a new Franken and had him pivot from staid senator to liberal attack dog.