“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.”
“At least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning, including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to judgment,” Politico reports.
“Franken’s unusual timeline — in his departure announcement he said he’d go ‘in the coming weeks,’ without setting a date — has fed the fleeting hopes that there’s still time to reverse course… People familiar with Franken’s plans said he has not changed his mind and intends to formally resign in early January.”
Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson (R) told Minnesota Public Radio that Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) should rescind his planned resignation and allow a formal ethics probe to continue in order to preserve due process.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) told the Washington Post that Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) “didn’t have to resign.”
Said Cassidy: “There’s no due process for Franken. He decided to accept being drummed out… I’m not defending him. You just can’t help but observe what I’m saying is true.”
David Axelrod: “Strange principle is emerging: If you admit misconduct, you resign. But if you deny it, however compelling or voluminous the testimony against you, you continue in office-or on to office-with impunity?”
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) announced his resignation from the U.S. Senate “in the coming weeks,” citing the “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.”
He said he gave the “false impression” that he had admitted to sexual harassment, which he denies.
Said Franken: “I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a Senator, nothing, has brought dishonor on this institution.”
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) “is expected to appoint his lieutenant governor and close ally, Tina Smith, to Al Franken’s seat if the Democratic senator resigns on Thursday,” Politico reports.
“But that appointment would be just the start of a huge upheaval in Minnesota.”
“Part of the reason Smith could be heading to the Senate, the sources said, is because she has indicated no interest in running for Congress in the past and would not run for the remainder of Franken’s term, which expires in 2020, in a 2018 special election. That would clear the way for a wide-open Democratic primary next year if Franken steps down.”
A Democratic official who has spoken to Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and key aides tells Minnesota Public Radio that Franken will resign his Senate seat on Thursday.
More than 30 Democratic senators have now joined the calls for Franken to step aside, according to Axios.
However, Franken’s office tweets: “No final decision has been made and the Senator is still talking with his family.”
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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