01 November 21
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New York senator led moves to push Franken out as Minnesota senator over allegations of sexual misconduct
In a statement to Politico, Franken said: “Yes, I miss the Senate but I’m not going to run against Kirsten Gillibrand.”
A writer, comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member, Franken was narrowly elected as a Democrat in Minnesota in 2008 and returned to Washington much more comfortably six years later.
He achieved national prominence, particularly as an acerbic critic of Republicans and Donald Trump. His last book before his resignation was titled Al Franken: Giant of the Senate.
He was forced to quit in December 2017, amid the first stirrings of the #MeToo movement and over allegations that he touched women inappropriately or forcibly kissed them.
Gillibrand led moves to push Franken out, writing: “Enough is enough. As elected officials, we should be held to the highest standards – not the lowest.”
Franken did not face investigation by the Senate ethics committee.
In his resignation speech, he said “all women deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously” but added: “Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember differently.”
He was replaced in the Senate by Tina Smith, a former lieutenant governor of Minnesota. In 2019, seven serving or retired senators told the New Yorker they regretted forcing Franken out.
Franken told the magazine he regretted resigning and added: “I’m angry at my colleagues who did this. I think they were just trying to get past one bad news cycle.”
Writing for the Guardian, the academic and feminist author Laura Kipnis said: “I myself thought at the time that if Franken had actually groped women during photo ops, as was alleged, he was right to resign.
“… In late 2017, we were all pretty on edge, I think, combing our pasts for dormant memories of assaults and affronts, and there were so many stories – too many to make sense of. It was an off-with-their-heads moment, and for a while that felt great.
“But there were also opportunists ‘telling their truths’. There was failed distinction-making and political expediency, and the impossibility of sorting motives from facts. That’s what’s starting to get unraveled now.”
After moving to New York City, Franken, now 70, has returned to national politics as a commentator, with a podcast and a venture into stand-up comedy, The Only Former US Senator Currently on Tour Tour. Prior to Sunday, he had done little to scotch rumours of a political comeback.
Politico quoted an anonymous source as saying Gillibrand, New York’s junior senator since 2009 and a failed candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, had been “not exactly cool as a cucumber about” a possible challenge from Franken.
Gillibrand’s chief of staff, Jess Fassler, told the website: “The only thing she’s worried about right now is getting family leave into the Build Back Better package.”
In his statement to Politico, Franken only ruled out a run against Gillibrand.
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