Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) mocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) speech criticizing Democrats over President Trump’s impeachment to taking advice from serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Said Franken: “Listening to Mitch McConnell talk about the decline of bipartisanship is like listening to Jeffrey Dahmer complain about the decline of dinner party etiquette.”
A former staffer for Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) told New York magazine that she was groped by former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) at an event in 2006.
She said that when it was her turn to be photographed with Franken, “he puts his hand on my ass. He’s telling the photographer, ‘Take another one. I think I blinked. Take another one.’ And I’m just frozen. It’s so violating. And then he gives me a little squeeze on my buttock, and I am bright red. I don’t say anything at the time, but I felt deeply, deeply uncomfortable.”
After resigning from the U.S. Senate at the beginning of 2018 due to sexual-harassment allegations, Al Franken is working with a Hollywood firm to make paid public speeches, Bloomberg reports.
The agency sent an email this week pitching Franken to potential bookers and promoters, touting his “unique voice,” Emmy awards, best-selling books and career in the Senate.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) declined to say whether she opposes a comeback by former Sen. Al Franken, suggesting that the Minnesota Democrat should make that decision himself, the Washington Post reports.
Said Gillibrand: “We’re a country that believes in second chances. We believe in someone who has humility, who comes forward to say they’re sorry and they have paid consequences and want to reemerge — that’s always there for everyone. And that’s a decision for someone to make themselves. It’s not my decision. It’s certainly not my responsibility. It’s for someone else to make their own judgments and decisions. But there’s always a path for redemption for anybody.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said that she had no regrets about calling for then-Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign over sexual misconduct allegations, NBC News reports.
“Her quotes followed a New Yorker story in which seven current or former Democratic senators expressed regret for calling on him to resign in 2017. Gillibrand was the first senator to come forward.”
New Yorker: “When I asked him if he truly regretted his decision to resign, he said, ‘Oh, yeah. Absolutely.’ He wishes that he had appeared before a Senate Ethics Committee hearing, as he had requested, allowing him to marshal facts that countered the narrative aired in the press.”
“Pete Buttigieg distanced himself Monday from Democrats who pushed former Sen. Al Franken to resign amid allegations of sexual misconduct, in an implicit critique of his primary competitor, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand,” NBC News reports.
Said Buttigieg: “I think it was his decision to make, but I think the way we basically held him to a higher standard than the GOP does their people has been used against us. I would not have applied that pressure at that time before we knew more.”
New York Times: “In a memo on Sunday, Ms. Gillibrand’s campaign suggested that her fund-raising had been hampered by a continuing backlash to her decision in 2017 to call for the resignation of a fellow Democratic senator, Al Franken of Minnesota, over sexual harassment allegations.”
From the memo: “There’s no question that the first quarter was adversely impacted by certain establishment donors — and many online — who continue to punish Kirsten for standing up for her values and for women.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “defended her decision to call on former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign after allegations of unwanted touching and kissing were made against him,” CNN reports.
Gillibrand said that she made the decision to help push him out because “my silence meant I was defending him and carrying his water, which I was unwilling to do.”
She added: “Enough was enough. Al Franken is entitled to whatever process wanted, if he wanted to say and wait six months for his ethics hearing. His decision was to resign. My decision was not to remain silent.”
“Nearly a year after he resigned his U.S. Senate seat amid sexual misconduct allegations, Al Franken is testing whether he can make a comeback in the #MeToo era,” the AP reports.
“The former Saturday Night Live funnyman released a podcast on health care this week, just days after a Thanksgiving Day Facebook post in which he mused how much he missed ‘being in the fight every day.’”
Said Franken, on his podcast: “When I left the Senate I said I was giving up my seat but not my voice, and after the midterm elections I thought I’d start experimenting with ways to make my voice heard.” He ended by saying: “Maybe I’ll do another one, I don’t know.”
Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) “is staying silent in the face of attacks on his ex-colleague, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who has been shunned by major Democratic donors and criticized heavily online after calling for Franken’s resignation last year in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations,” BuzzFeed News reports.
President Trump mocked former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) at a campaign rally in Minnesota for resigning following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “That guy was wacky. Boy did he fold up like a wet rag, huh? He was gone so fast, I don’t want to mention Al Franken’s name, he was gone so fast.”
Al Franken: “It wasn’t that long ago that nearly every Trump tweet included a NO COLLUSION! But those have become few and far between since Giuliani came up with ‘collusion isn’t a crime.’ The thing is, collusion IS a crime, if you collude with somebody to break a law. That’s called ‘conspiracy’… You can’t get out of a crime by finding a synonym.”
“If that were the case, all any criminal defense lawyer would need is a thesaurus… This is the kind of insult to everyone’s intelligence that Trump specializes in.”
Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) hinted in an interview with WCCO-TV that he could run for public office again.
Said Franken: “I don’t know. I haven’t ruled it out, and I haven’t ruled it in.”
“That means a lot to me. It was very moving for me. It was very gratifying. I put my heart in the job. I miss the whole job. I loved that job, I loved the job as Senator. … It was very meaningful for me and bittersweet, I would like to still be there.”
— Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), quoted by WCCO, responding to a crowd in Minnesota during his first public appearance since resigning.
New York Times: “A prominent donor to the Democratic Party says she is considering withdrawing support for senators who urged their colleague Al Franken to resign after he was accused of sexual misconduct. The donor, Susie Tompkins Buell, has been one of the Democratic Party’s most generous supporters for decades.”
“As I leave the Senate, I have to admit that it feels like we’re losing the war for truth. Maybe it’s already lost. If that’s what happens, then we have lost the ability to have the kinds of arguments that help build consensus.”
— Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), quoted by the Washington Post, in his final speech on the Senate floor.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told the Burlington Free Press that he was too quick in calling for Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) resignation in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.
Said Leahy: “I have stood for due process throughout my years as a prosecutor and in chairing the Judiciary Committee. I regret not doing that this time.”
☑️ Life in the Middle: Marginalized Moderate Senators In the Era of Polarization is available on Amazon. It takes a deep dive into the power of moderates and why we see them behave so precariously.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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