Franken to Make Announcement Thursday, Female Colleagues Including Heitkamp Call For His Resignation
Several female senators are calling on fellow Democratic Sen. Al Franken to resign.
WASHINGTON – Faced with multiple calls for him to resign, Senator Al Franken (D) Minnesota will make an announcement on Thursday.
Late Wednesday on his official Twitter account a statement was posted saying, “Senator Franken is talking with his family at this time and plans to make an announcement in D.C. tomorrow. Any reports of a final decision are inaccurate.”
The include Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.
In a tweet on her official page, Senator Heitkamp said: We must commit to zero tolerance – which is where I believe we as a country and Congress should be – and that means Senator Franken should step down.
In Facebook posts and Tweets, the women said the two-term senator should step aside after a fresh allegation that he forcibly tried to kiss a woman in 2006.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wrote on Facebook that while Franken is entitled to have the Ethics Committee conclude its review, ”I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn’t acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve.”
Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Patty Murray of Washington state and Claire McCaskill of Missouri joined Gillibrand in pressing for Franken to quit.
The senator is facing other allegations that he groped women.
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9:43 a.m.
Sen. Al Franken is denying an accusation by a former Democratic congressional aide that he tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006.
The Minnesota Democrat says in a statement that the allegation _ reported by Politico _ is ”categorically not true.”
The woman, who’s not identified by name, says Franken pursued her after her boss had left and she was collecting her belongings.
She says she ducked to avoid his lips. And she says Franken told her: ”It’s my right as an entertainer.”
Franken says in his statement that the idea he’d claim such behavior as a right as an entertainer is ”preposterous.”
The senator is facing a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into previous claims by other women that he groped them
