Al Franken’s Rise and Fall
Once a star of “Saturday Night Live,”
Al Franken took his liberal politics to Washington in 2008 when he
narrowly won a Minnesota Senate seat. He said he would resign over
allegations of sexual misconduct.
By ROBIN LINDSAY on Publish Date December 7, 2017.
Photo by Eric Thayer for The New York Times.
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WASHINGTON
— Senator Al Franken of Minnesota announced Thursday he would resign
“in the coming weeks” from the Senate after his support among Democrats
crumbled, becoming the highest-profile casualty in the growing list of
lawmakers felled by charges of sexual harassment or indiscretions.
“I
of all people am aware that there is some 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, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on
young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his
party,” Mr. Franken said.
Nearly all of the Senate’s Democratic women — and most Democratic men, including the Senate’s top two Democrats — called for Mr. Franken to resign after a sixth woman came forward to charge that he had made an improper advance on her.
“Enough is enough,” declared Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York.
The
accusations against Mr. Franken include an episode of forcible kissing
on a U.S.O. tour before he was elected and several allegations that he
groped women as he posed with them for photographs.
“This decision is not about me,” he said Thursday. “It is about the people of Minnesota.”
Over the last three weeks, Mr. Franken has repeatedly apologized for his behavior,
although he has also challenged some of the accusations of impropriety
lodged against him. Until Wednesday, he had said he would remain in his
job and work with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his case.
But his Democratic colleagues in the Senate made clear on Wednesday that his apologies and admissions were not enough.
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