Franken Urged to Reverse His Resignation
By Edward-Isaac Dovere, Politico
18 December 17
The demands from Democrats that he step down were 'the most hypocritical
thing I've ever seen done to a human being,' Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
says.
At least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning,
including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks
ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to
judgment.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who urged Franken not to step down to begin with
- at least not before he went through an Ethics Committee investigation -
said the Minnesota senator was railroaded by fellow Democrats.
"What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats," said West Virginia Sen.
Joe Manchin in an interview for POLITICO's Off Message podcast to post on
Tuesday. Subscribe here.
Franken's unusual timeline - in his departure announcement he said he'd go
"in the coming weeks," without setting a date - has fed the fleeting hopes
that there's still time to reverse course. However, Tina Smith, Minnesota's
Democratic lieutenant governor, was named last week as his appointed
successor.
People familiar with Franken's plans said he has not changed his mind and
intends to formally resign in early January. He praised the selection of
Smith and has begun working with her on the transition.
Manchin was among the few Democrats who did not call for Franken's
resignation. The West Virginia senator stressed that he believes it would be
appropriate for Franken to step down if the allegations are proved true.
Manchin ripped into the members who issued statements insisting that Franken
resign - only to gather on the Senate floor the next day to watch him
announce he was doing just that.
"The most hypocritical thing I've ever seen done to a human being - and then
have enough guts to sit on the floor, watch him give his speech and go over
and hug him? That's hypocrisy at the highest level I've ever seen in my
life. Made me sick," Manchin said.
He added, "Here's a man, that all he said [was], 'Take me through the Ethics
Committee. I will live by whatever decision and I will walk away thinking
about this opportunity I've had while I was here. But you find out if I'm a
predator.'"
Manchin said he hopes Franken reverses his decision, but even more that the
senators who led the charge against him reconsider and call for the two-term
senator to stay until the ethics process is complete.
"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.'"
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who issued a statement calling for Franken's
resignation, has since told him privately that he regrets doing so,
according to two people familiar with the conversation. Leahy declined to
comment.
"I think we acted prematurely, before we had all the facts," said a third
senator who has also called for the resignation, and has since expressed
regret directly to Franken. "In retrospect, I think we acted too fast." The
senator asked not to be named because of the political sensitivity of the
issue among Democrats.
Two of the senators who issued resignation calls told POLITICO they felt
rushed to weigh in, as they were focused on hearings and other meetings and
pressure on Franken mounted. In retrospect they said they signed off on
statements without the appropriate care and thought.
The feeling is not pervasive throughout the conference. Aides to several
Democratic senators who called for Franken to step down, despite their
conflicted feelings about doing so, said they remain comfortable with the
move.
That includes Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The New York Democrat helped lead the
charge against Franken the day that POLITICO published the account of a
former Democratic congressional aide who said the former comedian tried to
forcibly kiss her after the taping of a radio show in 2006.
Gillibrand has said that sending a clear message of zero tolerance is
important, and that she was worried that the Ethics Committee process was
being used as a shield.
"She has said, 'He was entitled to a process, but he was not entitled to my
silence,'" said one person who has spoken to Gillibrand about the decision.
Franken's office declined to comment. The senator has been spending time
with his colleagues as he comes to terms with leaving. He made a surprise
appearance last Tuesday night at the Bible study group of Sen. James
Lankford (R-Okla.). Franken had never attended before but joined at the
urging of a colleague who suggested it might help him.
Lankford continues to believe and say that he thinks Franken should have
gone through the Ethics Committee process. A spokesman for Lankford declined
to comment but pointed to the senator's previous comments urging that the
ethics process proceed.
The feeling that Franken should reconsider has gained some steam outside of
the Senate, too, among Democratic donors and others, including a former
Republican governor of Minnesota, Arne Carlson.
"I and many other people - and specifically feminists - feel that it's not
too late, that he should not resign, and that the rush to sweep him out was
ill-conceived, and we think that he has been supportive of women and women's
issues," said Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York state Supreme Court
judge who's helped start a Feminists for Franken group on Facebook.
"Although we do deplore any kind of gender-based misconduct, we think at the
same time he is entitled to a fair hearing."
The group directly counters Gillibrand's statement that there should be no
gradations made in assessing problematic sexual conduct: "We believe it is
crucial to make distinctions and to respond proportionally," the group's
mission statement reads.
Manchin said he still holds out hope people will come around and call for
Franken to go through the ethics process.
"That's the human and decent thing to do. If they have any decency in them,
they'd do that," Manchin said in the podcast interview. "Every one of them
that signed for him to go out -including Chuck Schumer - should do that."
The minority leader, who has a close personal relationship with Franken and
struggled with his decision to call for the resignation, isn't changing his
mind.
"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."
e-max.it: your social media marketing partner