Minnesota Democratic Senator Al Franken has a new lease on political life after four of his colleagues have stepped forward to say his promised resignation over groping and sexual harassment allegations should be put on pause.
Politico cited four lawmakers on Monday saying Franken was too quick to throw himself on the live grenade of the #MeToo movement and deserved a second chance.
None of them are women.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin criticized lawmakers who demanded Franken’s head on a spit and then embraced him for pledging to quit.
‘I hope they have enough guts … and enough conscience and enough heart to say, “Al, we made a mistake asking prematurely for you to leave”,’ he said.
U.S. Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, announced his resignation on Dec. 7 over allegations of sexual misconduct – but never said when he would be quitting
Fellow Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Monday morning on CNN that Franken deserves to stay as long as an ethics panel of his peers clears him
Franken and his wife Franni (left) arrived at the Senate to deliver what amounted to a vague non-apology on Dec. 7 following eight separate charges of sexual misconduct
Accused: After the first allegation by radio broadcaster Leeann Tweeden, who produced this notorious photograph, Al Franken had a steady drip of follow-up accusers
Politico cited another unnamed senator’s change of heart and reported that Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont has privately told Franken he’s in his corner.
But it’s Manchin who has been most outspoken.
The West Virginian, a moderate often courted by Republicans for aisle-crossing compromise, told CNN on Monday morning that Franken’s slow-motion political hari-kiki was ‘most certainly’ premature.
‘I definitely think he should not resign,’ Manchin said. ‘I think he should submit himself … and go through this complete process of an extended ethics review’ instead.
Gov. Mark Dayton has already appointed Lt. Gov. Tina Smith as Franken’s successor, following an emotional December 7 speech in which the senator said he would quit ‘in the coming weeks.
Lindsay Menz (left) claims Franken grabbed her rear end while they posed for this photograph
The fifth woman to accuse Franken of sexual misconduct, Stephanie Kemplin said he groped her during this picture in 2003, during a USO tour event in Kuwait
In the next breath, though, he blasted the ‘irony’ of his own departure while President Donald Trump remains in office despite his own ‘history of sexual assault’ and the Senate candidacy of accused teen-fundler Roy Moore in Alabama.
Moore lost his race in a shocker but Trump is still in the Oval Office. And Franken’s Pearl Harbor Day speech now looks like an attempt to cool the fires circling him while leaving a Washington-sixed loophole.
Franken had sounded his own political career’s death-knell in response to a zero-tolerance drumbeat from fellow Democrats. Many of them are now in a forgiving mood.
The allegations against Franken began in mid-November when Leeann Tweeden, now a Los Angeles radio anchor, accused him of forcibly kissing her during a 2006 USO tour in Afghanistan.
Other allegations followed, including a woman who says Franken put his hand on her buttocks as they posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010.
Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith has already been chosen to replace Franken, b ut the changeover is in jeaopardy now that Franken sees an opening to stay
Two more women told the Huffington Post that Franken squeezed their rear ends at political events during his first campaign for the Senate in 2008.
A fourth, an Army veteran, alleged Franken cupped her breast during a photo on a USO tour in 2003.
Franken has apologized for his behavior but has also disputed some of the allegations.
His vague resignation pledge followed demands from Democrats after a new accusation surfaced in which a former Democratic congressional aide said he tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was among a group of female senators who called on Al Franken to resign from the Senate
The woman, who was not identified, told Politico that Franken pursued her after her boss had left and she was collecting her belongings. She said that she ducked to avoid his lips and that Franken told her: ‘It’s my right as an entertainer.’
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ boss in the U.S. Senate, is not joining calls for Franken to make a U-turn.
‘Schumer and the vast majority of the caucus like Sen. Franken and will miss him,’ said a Senate Democratic leadership aide, ‘but did what they felt was best and stand by it.’