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.

“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.

“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.”

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.”

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.”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune wants Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign:

Franken is only partway through a second term and had only recently started to become a larger voice on the national stage, particularly with the publication of a new book. But the incidents of alleged sexual misconduct have become too damaging for him to continue. Franken has said he will make an announcement on Thursday: It should be that he is resigning.

If this is to be an actual turning point in our culture, there must be real and lasting consequences to behaviors that never should have been accepted. That these incidents came so late in Franken’s life should make him all the more accountable. Instead, he has mostly offered hollow apologies that failed to acknowledge what happened.

Tina Dupuy is the latest woman to accuse Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) of groping her.

I only bug celebrities for pictures when it’ll make my foster mom happy. She loves Franken, so I asked to get a picture with him. We posed for the shot. He immediately put his hand on my waist, grabbing a handful of flesh. I froze. Then he squeezed. At least twice.

I’d been married for two years at the time; I don’t let my husband touch me like that in public because I believe it diminishes me as a professional woman. Al Franken’s familiarity was inappropriate and unwanted. It was also quick; he knew exactly what he was doing.

Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) office said the senator will make a public announcement tomorrow amid mounting calls for his resignation, CBS News reports.

Should Franken resign, the process to replace him is clear:

• Since it’s more than six weeks before the primary for that Senate seat, Gov. Mark Dayton would appoint someone to fill the seat.
• There would be an election in 2018 to find someone to fill out the rest of his term until the 2020 election.