Franken to quit as misconduct claims climb
Senator points to irony of his resignation while Trump is in office and Moore is candidate
WASHINGTON— Minnesota Sen. Al Franken announced Thursday he will resign from Congress in the coming weeks following a wave of sexual-misconduct allegations and the collapse of support from his Democratic colleagues, a swift political fall for a once-rising Democratic star.
“I may be resigning my seat, but I am not giving up my voice,” Franken said in the otherwise-hushed Senate chamber.
Franken quit just a day after new allegations brought the number of women alleging misconduct by him to at least eight. On Wednesday, one woman said he forcibly tried to kiss her in 2006, an accusation he vehemently denied. Hours later, another woman said Franken inappropriately squeezed “a handful of flesh” on her waist while posing for a photo with her in 2009.
“I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a senator — nothing — has brought dishonour on this institution,” Franken said Thursday.
Franken is the latest to fall in the national wave of sexual-harassment allegations that have brought down powerful men in Hollywood, the media and state capitals across the nation. His announcement followed Tuesday’s resignation of Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, the longest-serving member of the House.
Franken, the former comedian who made his name on Saturday Night Live, had originally sought to weather the allegations, disputing many of the specifics but apologizing to his accusers publicly. He had promised he would co-operate with an ethics investigation and work to regain the trust of Minnesotans.
“Some of the allegations against me are simply not true,” Franken said Thursday. “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.
Franken, 66, had gained respect as a serious lawmaker in recent years and had even been mentioned in talk about the 2020 presidential race.
Franken pointedly noted that he was being forced out while U.S. President Donald Trump — who has been accused of worse offences and bragged on a leaked Access Hollywood videotape of grabbing women by their genitalia — emerged unscathed. Trump has also endorsed Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct with them when they were teens and he was a deputy district attorney in his 30s.
“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,” Franken said.
His resignation means Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a fellow Democrat, will name a temporary replacement. The winner of a special election in November 2018 would serve through the end of Franken’s term in January 2021. Among the possibilities is Lt.-Gov. Tina Smith, a trusted Dayton ally. Dayton said after Franken’s remarks that he hasn’t yet decided on an appointment to fill the seat but expects to announce his decision in the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, eyes are already turning to the 2018 race. For Republicans, Franken’s exit could saddle Democrats with enough baggage to help the GOP break through in a statewide election for the first time in more than a decade. Republicans haven’t won since Gov. Tim Pawlenty won a second term in 2006.
Top Republicans quickly contacted Pawlenty and former senator Norm Coleman, who narrowly lost the 2008 Senate race to Franken after an extensive recount. Coleman immediately said he would not run.
In a sense, soon-to-depart U.S. Senator Al Franken wrote his own political epitaph when he came up with the title of his recent book: Al Franken, Giant of the Senate.
In a relatively short time, since his election in 2008, Franken became if not giant at least very high-profile, floated even as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2020.
At this seismic moment in time, however, no one could purport to fill that bill, no one could champion the progressive causes Franken made his own after being accused of the kind of behaviour he was — some of it captured in fatally damning photos.
In announcing his intention to resign in the coming weeks, over allegations of sexual misbehaviour that occurred before he entered politics, the comedian-turned-senator from Minnesota did the honourable thing from the Senate floor.
There, he gave every appearance of a man drained by recent events, still bewildered by the altered environment in which the powerful now find themselves, and vexed that his career will end while the current occupant of the White House, Donald Trump, and another disgraced Republican aspirant to high office, Roy Moore in Alabama, carry on.
Franken made no further apology to the women who lodged complaints against him of unwanted touching, groping and kissing. In fact, he pushed back, saying some of the allegations are untrue and that he has a different recollection of events about others. He even said that, owing to his expressions of shame and embarrassment, a false impression was created that he admitted to some allegations against him.
But the political calculus was clear. There was no way the Democratic party could claim moral high ground in the battle with Trump so long as Franken remained. So most of his Senate colleagues pushed him to a decision he could not refuse.
Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat, told the media that government, if it is to have any respect and credibility, “should not be the place where you have serial sexual harassers.”
On that, she is correct. The world of politics and government can be a predator’s paradise. The power imbalance between the elected and the aides and interns who make things run is vast. Many of the latter are young, overworked and underpaid. They toil long hours, with frequent travel and social events, where the obligations of partisanship and loyalty can be distorted.
So if along with Franken’s palpable sorrow there were undercurrents of bitterness and defiance, if his emotions are roiling and conflicted, the soon-to-be-former senator likely represents the bewildered male world at large.
He’s hardly alone it coming to terms with the sudden — and retroactive — change in what behaviour will be tolerated and that — in the era of #metoo — victims will no longer be cowed into silence.
But, in going, Franken set the bar, one all others will be expected to meet.