The White House said Monday that there are so many sexual misconduct scandals facing Congress, Hollywood and the media that Donald Trump can’t be expected to weigh in on every one.
DailyMail.com asked press secretary Sarah Sanders what it would take for the president to condemn Sen. Al Franken, who four different women have alleged improperly touched them sexually.
Trump mocked the Minnesota Democrat on Twitter 11 days ago as ‘Frankenstein’ after the first allegation surfaced – accompanied by a photo of Franken groping a sleeping woman after a USO tour – but has steered clear of calling for him to resign.
‘The president is not going to weigh in on every single matter like this,’ Sanders insisted Monday afternoon.
‘Look, every single day we’ve got people from the media, from Hollywood, from members of Congress that have allegations brought against them,’ she said, adding that Franken ‘should first be the one to address’ his own scandal, and it’s ‘not for the president to weigh in every single time one of these accusations comes up.’
Donald Trump hasn’t called on Minnesota Sen. Al Franken to resign, and the White House says he can’t be expected to weigh in every time someone in Congress or Hollywood has to face accusations of sexual abuse or harassment
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders dodged DailyMail.com’s question on Monday oof whether the president is staying on the sidelines because he still faces his own unresolved allegations of sexual misconduct
‘I know that I’ve let a lot of people down,’ Franken said Monday in his first press conference since being accused of groping women
Franken has been hit with allegations that he touched four women inappropriately, beginning with Leeann Tweeden, whose case was buttressed with photographic evidence
Sanders also side-stepped a question about whether Trump was staying on the sidelines of Franken’s troubles because of unresolved sexual misconduct allegations dating from his presidential campaign.
‘I think that the president’s been very clear that he denies any of those allegations having taken place,’ she said.
Franken faced the media in Washington hours earlier but said he doesn’t remember two alleged groping incidents and that he recalls an alleged backstage kissing incident ‘differently’ from how accuser Leeann Tweeden remembers it.
And he declined to rule out the possibility that more women could point fingers at him.
‘If you had asked me two weeks ago, “Would any woman come forward with an allegation like this?” I would have said no, and so I cannot speculate,’ the senator told a crush of media outside his office door in Washington.
‘I certainly hope not,’ he added moments later.
‘This has been a shock, and it’s been extremely humbling. I am embarrassed. I feel ashamed,’ Franken said.
Franken, 66, has framed the groping accusations as a chance for him to reflect and grow, not as an offense that violated the public trust enough to force his resignation
Trump needled Franken on Nov. 16 after the first accusation against him dominated several news cycles, but has stayed mum since then
But he insisted he has no intention of quitting.
‘I am going to try to learn from my mistakes,’ the Minnesotan, a former comedian, told reporters.
Franken’s troubles began when Leeann Tweeden produced a picture showing Franken groping her breasts.
‘The Al Frankenstien [sic] picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words,’ Trump tweeted during the ensuing media feeding frenzy. ‘Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?’
But the president has been mum about the Franken saga since then.
On Nov. 21 as he left the White House for the Thanksgiving holiday, he told DailyMail.com that he wouldn’t pass judgment because ‘I don’t know what happened.’
The Democrat’s woes continued with three other women who say he grabbed their rear ends while posing for photos – including at least one instance after he was sworn in as a senator.
‘I take a lot of pictures in Minnesota, thousands of pictures, meet tens of thousands of people. Those are instances that I do not remember,’ said Franken.
Franken claimed Sunday in an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he doesn’t remember taking the specific photos, but said such groping is ‘not something I would intentionally do.’
Lindsay Menz, (left) was the second woman to claim that Franken, (right) groped her when the two took this picture at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010
Franken said he would not resign, even as other high-profile figures accused of harassment in recent weeks have lost their jobs.
‘I know that I’ve let a lot of people down,’ he said. ‘My colleagues, my staff, my supporters and everyone who has counted on me to be a champion for women. To all of you, I just want to again say I am sorry. I know there are know magic words I can say to regain your trust.’
Franken also spoke about the USO tour where Tweeden says he forcibly kissed her during a rehearsal for a comedy routine.
Franken said Monday: ‘On the kiss at the rehearsal we were rehearsing for a sketch. I said that I recalled that differently from Leanne. But I feel that you have to respect women’s experience. And so I apologized to her and I meant it. And I was very grateful that she accepted it.’
In a blog entry about the experience, Tweeden, a California radio host, wrote: ‘We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.’
Franken continued to apologize without saying he engaged in the conduct he is accused of.
Trump is shown Monday during an event honoring Navajo ‘code talkers’ from the Second World War
On Sunday Franken told WCCO in Minneapolis he had no intention of stepping down
‘From these stories it’s been clear that there are some women – and one is too many – who feel that I’ve done something disrespectful and that’s hurt them and for that I am tremendously sorry,’ he said.
‘I know that I am going to have to be much more conscious when in these circumstances, much more careful, much more sensitive, and that this will not happen again going forward,’ Franken said.
‘It’s going to take a long time for me to regain people’s trust.’
Franken wouldn’t respond directly to a hypothetical question about what conduct would lead to a resignation.