Two months after he expressed “regret” for resigning over #MeToo allegations, former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) now says he “deserved due process.”
In an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s TBS talk show, Franken said he appreciates the few Democratic colleagues who have expressed regret for supporting his resignation, though he believes he was not given a fair shake.
“They all basically said that I deserved due process and I believe I did, too,” Franken said on the program, as reported by Fox News.
Franken resigned from his seat in 2017 over a spate of #MeToo allegations that began when talk-show host Leeann Tweeden accused him of forcibly kissing her during a USO show rehearsal, backed up by a photograph she shared of him mockingly groping her while sleeping. Her revelation then launched another seven allegations of inappropriate touching or kissing against Franken from other women — all of which he denied, claimed to have no recollection of, or otherwise disputed.
When Conan O’Brien asked Franken why he resigned instead of just sticking to his guns, the “SNL” alum said that he was put in an “untenable situation” due to the #MeToo climate.
“I don’t want to name any names, but my committee work would be at risk. I mean, basically losing that, my staff would be isolated, and I just couldn’t serve the people of Minnesota,” Franken said. “But it really needed to have a process, but I just couldn’t stay either. It was awful. There were no good choices.”
“And there was a lot of pressure on you to step down,” O’Brien interjected.
“A tremendous amount of pressure,” Franken responded. “And I don’t think I had any other choice.”
Franken then reflected upon how he has grown as a person since his resignation, noting that he is much more careful about how he physically interacts with people.
“When this first happened, if you had asked me, ‘Have you ever made a woman feel uncomfortable by the way you put your arm around her or touch her or something like that,’ I would have said no,” Franken said. “And after all of these allegations came in, I thought, ‘Oh, I must have been doing something wrong.’ So, you know, ever since, I’ve been a lot more mindful in my interactions with pretty much everyone.”
“People that know me know I’m not that guy, that guy that 36 of my colleagues demanded that I go and put on the pressure- the pressure came on me in no uncertain terms that I had to go.”
Franken’s sudden reemergence into the public spotlight follows a lengthy report by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker in which she attempted to debunk the many allegations against Franken, suggesting he was victimized by a conservative conspiracy due to Leeann Tweeden’s conservative credentials. Several of his former colleagues have expressed regret for pushing his resignation at the time.
“There’s no excuse for sexual assault,” said Sen. Angus King (I-ME). “But Al deserved more of a process. I don’t denigrate the allegations, but this was the political equivalent of capital punishment.”
“This was a rush to judgment that didn’t allow any of us to fully explore what this was about,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). “I took the judgment of my peers rather than independently examining the circumstances. In my heart, I’ve not felt right about it.”
“I made a mistake. I started having second thoughts shortly after he stepped down,” said Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM). “He had the right to be heard by an independent investigative body. I’ve heard from people around my state, and around the country, saying that they think he got railroaded. It doesn’t seem fair. I’m a lawyer. I really believe in due process.”