Chris Churchill
Sen. Gillibrand made the right call on Al Franken, columnist writes.
In the 10 months since Al Franken resigned from the U.S. Senate, a surprising number of Democrats have pinned blame for his downfall on Kirsten Gillibrand.
New York’s junior senawas tor among the first Democratic politicians to call on Franken to step aside amid allegations of sexual impropriety, and her recommendation carried unusual weight. Gillibrand was a Franken friend who made her national reputation battling sexual assault in the military
Franken’s bad behavior notwithstanding, some on the left branded Gillibrand an opportunist, and their anger has endured.
Last month, the Huffington Post reported that many big Democratic donors, including mega-contributor George Soros, have crossed Gillibrand off the list of 2020 presidential candidates they are willing to support. The donors believe Franken was pressured to resign
too soon for too little.
Rank-and-file Democrats echo the sentiment. When I was on radio station WAMC’S Roundtable last week, a quick mention of a Gillibrand presidential run led to several responses like this one:
“Let’s not forget Kirsten Gillibrand acted as a political opportunist and an unwitting tool of right-wing dirty tricks in ousting Al Franken from the Senate,” listener Steven Sinkoff wrote in an email. “Permanent asterisk by her name.”
The Franken-as-martyr narrative intensified as the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh earlier this month. Many Democrats fondly remember Franken’s aggressive grilling of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch during his nomination process and rued that the Minnesotan wasn’t around to question Kavanaugh with the same force.
The hearing, of course, happened before the sexual-assault allegation that threatens to derail Kavanaugh’s nomination became public.
Now that the allegation is known, consider this: Had Franken not resigned, he would have been one of the men charged with questioning Kavanaugh’s accuser, assuming that hearings on the charge, tentatively scheduled for Monday, indeed happen.
Would a Franken role in the hearing have been awkward for Democrats?
For sure.
Would it have led to reasonable charges of Democratic hypocrisy? Absolutely. Beyond the terrible optics, it would have been difficult for Democrats to argue that the charge against Kavanaugh means he is unfit while ignoring accusations against Franken. That alone would seem to vindicate Gillibrand’s call that Franken resign.
“We should demand the highest standards, not the lowest, from our leaders,” she said then.
I contacted Sinkoff, who lives in Massachusetts, to ask if the Kavanaugh accusation had softened his view of Gillibrand’s decision. It hadn’t.
“I still think Kirsten Gillibrand’s behavior was demagoguery under the umbrella and disguise of the #Metoo movement,” Sinkoff said, while also stressing that the accusation against Kavanaugh is not comparable to those Franken faced.
That’s true. Franken was accused of nothing as serious as attempted rape.
But his defenders tend to downplay the gravity of the charges against him. The accusations include more than that infamous photo of Franken pretending to grab Leeann Tweeden’s breasts during a USO tour. Seven other women accused Franken of groping them or otherwise acting inappropriately.
Lindsey Menz, for example, said Franken “put his hand full-fledged on my rear” and “wrapped (it) tightly around my butt cheek” while he and she posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair.
Franken was a senator, not a comedian, at the time. He violated both Menz and the dignity of his office.
Gillibrand wasn’t available Wednesday for an interview, but she has been asked repeatedly about the treatment of Franken and the resulting backlash. It came up again during a recent appearance on radio station WNYC.
“I believed those women and wanted to say what I thought,” Gillibrand told host Brian Lehrer. “He was entitled to due process, but he wasn’t entitled to my silence.”
Not all the criticism is from the left. Chele Farley, the Republican candidate running against Gillibrand, on Wednesday accused her opponent of “selective outrage” driven by “political expedience.”
Farley noted that Gillibrand, who lives outside Troy, has weighed in against Kavanaugh but has failed to join Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other Democrats calling for the resignation of embattled Cohoes Mayor Shawn Morse, accused of domestic violence.
“She’s selective, shall we say, with her complaints,” Farley said. “She’s willing to throw anyone under the bus if it fits her political agenda.”
Gillibrand faced similar charges when, in 2017, she said Bill Clinton should have resigned during the Monica Lewinsky scandal — though she had campaigned with Bill and Hillary Clinton just a year earlier.
Eyebrows also shot up when, in a February interview on “60 Minutes,” Gillibrand blamed the “lens of upstate New York” for conservative positions she once held on immigration and gun control.
But none of that means Gillibrand was wrong about Franken and his awful behavior. In the end, the blame for his fall should belong to just one person.
A guy named Al Franken.