Al Franken sexual misconduct allegations: After 8 women came forward, the Minnesota senator plans to resign

In a June interview with the Washington Post, longtime Democratic donor George Soros blamed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for Sen. Al Franken’s resignation, and suggested that she pushed for the Minnesota lawmaker to step down to advance her own political aims. At the time Gillibrand declined to comment. On Wednesday, however, she didn’t pull any punches in a withering response to Soros — who has also said he hopes she doesn’t get the Democratic nomination in 2020.

“If standing up for women who have been wronged makes George Soros mad, that’s on him,” Gillibrand told HuffPost in a statement. “But I won’t hesitate to always do what I think is right. For nearly a year, we have seen countless acts of courage as women and men have spoken hard truths about sexual assault and sexual harassment and demanded accountability.”

Former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, who resigned from the upper chamber in January after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, now says he hasn’t ruled out running for public office again.

“I don’t know,” Franken said when asked about the possibility in a recent interview with a Minnesota CBS affiliate, according to Roll Call. “I haven’t ruled it out, and I haven’t ruled it in.”

Al Franken gave his last speech as a US senator on Thursday — the final of three speeches he has delivered this week to culminate his work in the Senate and share his Democratic vision for future.

To a room of mostly Democratic colleagues in the Senate, the Minnesota Democrat made a heartfelt case for economic and social equality. He made a plea to protect the nation’s safety net and spoke against voter suppression. He urged his Republican colleagues to recognize the effects of climate change, and to “stand up for truth.”

When Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) gave a speech two weeks ago announcing he would resign amid a growing number of sexual misconduct allegations, the same Democratic colleagues who had called for him to resign the day before lined up one-by-one to comfort the Minnesota senator with a hug or a handshake. Some cried as he departed.

But for Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the scene on the Senate floor was more like the Ides of March — the moment when Democrats stabbed a fellow colleague in the back.

Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has named his Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to replace outgoing Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who resigned last week following allegations of sexual misconduct from multiple women.

Smith also said she will run for Franken’s Senate seat during the next year’s special election, bucking expectations that she would serve as a placeholder candidate and sit out the 2018 race.

Congress wrapped up one of its most inglorious weeks in recent memory today, slinking out of town under heavy clouds of scandal. Three members of Congress announced resignations this week, and almost everyone believes there will be more to come.

Meanwhile, leaders of both parties in effect asked for an extension on reaching an agreement on how to fund the government next year, and Republicans’ moment of triumph on taxes was stolen away from them on the recognition that the bill the Senate passed last week suffers from massive drafting errors. Then the White House decided that, for good measure, it wanted to stir the pot a little on the Israel-Palestine conflict for no particular reason.

There was something missing from Al Franken’s speech on Thursday.

Sen. Franken (D-MN) was resigning after multiple women reported that he had groped or otherwise sexually harassed them. He had apologized before, saying in a news conference just a few days ago, “I know that I’ve let a lot of people down.” Surely the speech announcing his resignation was a chance for him to show contrition before the Senate, the country, and, perhaps most importantly, the women who had risked public shaming to report their experiences with him.

The moments that followed Minnesota Sen. Al Franken’s resignation announcement, amid eight allegations of sexual harassment, were filled with sounds of mourning.

The slap of a comforting hand on his back. The rustle of a Well said handshake. The sniffle of a consolatory tear.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) announced his resignation from the Senate on Thursday after eight women came forward with sexual misconduct allegations against him.

“Let me be clear,” Franken said as he announced his decision on the Senate floor. “I may be resigning my seat but I am not giving up my voice. I will continue to stand up for the things I believe in as a citizen and as an activist.”

As more and more women came forward to accuse Sen. Al Franken of sexual misconduct, top Senate leaders — all men — stayed quiet. It was not until a group of female senators stood up and said, “Enough,” that the tide turned.

“The allegations against Sen. Franken describe behavior that cannot be tolerated,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) tweeted. Within minutes, five other Democratic female senators posted messages urging him to step down.

I’ve been saying for a while now that Al Franken should resign. And I’m glad that this week many of his colleagues — and, eventually, the senator himself — came to that conclusion.

I also acknowledge that I might have felt differently about this if Minnesota had a Republican governor who would be selecting Franken’s replacement. And I don’t feel bad about admitting that.

In the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct from eight women, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) announced during a speech on the Senate floor Thursday that he will resign his office “in the coming weeks.”

Franken said that he was not admitting to the allegations against him. “Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember very differently,” he said. But, he added, it’s become clear that he can no longer be “an effective senator” — so he’ll step down.

Two more women accused Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) of sexual misconduct Wednesday, bringing the total number of women who have come forward with allegations against the lawmaker to eight.

A former Democratic congressional aide told Politico’s Heather Caygle that after a taping of Franken’s radio show in 2006, he tried to block her exit from a room in an attempt to forcibly kiss her. She says that Franken told her, “It’s my right as an entertainer.”

The Democratic Party was on the verge of failing a moral and political test. Then its women stepped in.

On Wednesday, several women Democratic senators called on Twitter for Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign in the face of allegations of repeated sexual misconduct. A few male colleagues, and Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez, joined them shortly thereafter. The tweet swarm came a day after Rep. John Conyers’s (D-MI) resignation, ostensibly for health reasons, as new allegations continued to surface about his own record of harassment.

On Wednesday morning, several Democratic senators for the first time made their stance very clear: Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) should resign.

It began with several Democratic women in the Senate, including Sens. Claire McCaskill (MO), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Maggie Hassan (NH), Mazie Hirono (HI), Patty Murray (WA), and Kamala Harris (CA). They posted messages on social media within minutes of each other.

Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor, and Russell Simmons all lost their jobs this week as a result of sexual misconduct allegations against them. John Conyers, Blake Farenthold, and Ruben Kihuen kept theirs. Donald Trump still has his. And Roy Moore might be about to get a new one.

The list of high-powered men hit by sexual harassment allegations continued to grow this week both in corporate America and on Capitol Hill. While the private sector has generally dealt swiftly with such allegations, Congress has been much slower to act, even as more of its members come under the microscope.

Democrats have a sexual harassment problem.

Al Franken (D-MN) currently stands accused of groping multiple women before and after becoming a US senator. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has stepped down as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee after reports surfaced that he’d paid a former staffer $27,000 to settle a 2014 sexual misconduct complaint.

A new poll suggests some Democratic and Republican voters want lawmakers to face the consequences for alleged sexual misconduct — but the issue doesn’t break down along partisan lines.

A new poll from Morning Consult and Politico found fully half of voters believe Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) should resign in the wake of allegations that he forcibly kissed radio personality Leeann Tweeden while they were on a USO tour in 2006. An additional 28 percent said they didn’t know or weren’t sure if he should resign.

In less than a month, Alabama voters will decide whether to send to the United States Senate a man accused of abusing and romantically pursuing teenage girls.

If Roy Moore wins, it will mean his constituents either don’t believe or don’t care about the woman who says Moore assaulted her when she was 16, or the woman who says Moore kissed and touched her when she was 14, or the women who say Moore kept approaching them at the mall when they were teenagers. And a Moore victory will set the standard that someone who is the subject of multiple reports of abusive behavior toward minors can represent his state in the Senate. Unless the Republican Party finds some way around the election in December, it will be a referendum on whether the safety of girls and women matters to voters in one of the most conservative states in the country.

President Donald Trump took a pair of shots at Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) on Twitter Thursday night over allegations that Franken groped a Los Angeles radio host in 2006, slamming a picture of the act as “really bad” — despite the many allegations of harassment and assault against Trump himself.

“The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps? …..” Trump tweeted.