Senator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lindsey-graham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lindsey Graham</a> (R-SC) and former Senator Al Franken (D-MN) made a bet on the winner of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/search/news?refinementList%5Btaxonomies.post_tag%5D%5B0%5D=2024%20Election&amp;page=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 Presidential election</a>.
The two former colleagues made the wager in an interview on &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sTZrgkQx4E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Show</a>&#8221; Monday night. Toward the end of the segment, Graham and Franken sparred over former President Trump&#8217;s legacy and argued whether Trump could beat President Joe Biden in a rematch. Graham said Trump would have to work hard to win back many of his supporters, but bet $20 that he would win.
Graham began the exchange. “Here’s the question for you and maybe others: Trump is trying to come back,” he said. “I think he’s got a better than good chance of winning the primary and a 50/50 chance of being president again.&#8221; Franken put his head in his hand, while the audience jeered. &#8220;So you&#8217;ve got to ask yourself, how can that be?&#8221;
“Here&#8217;s what I know about this country, about this democracy, about our Constitution,&#8221; Franken interjected. &#8220;The number one tradition that’s meaningful in this country is the peaceful transition of power. &#8230; How then can you want a guy who allowed us to go through this violent insurrection?” he said, referring to the January 6 Capitol riot.
&#8220;Well let me just say this — the other side of the story is that when President Trump was president, on the things I care the most about — national security — I thought he did a damn good job,” said Graham, also lauding Trump for negotiating the Abraham Accords, taking out Iranian terrorist leader Qasem Soleimani, securing the southern border, and acheiving energy independence. &#8220;So I look at the policies of Trump, and I like the policies of Trump.&#8221;
But Graham said that both Trump and Biden would be challenged to prove that they deserve four more years in office. “At the end of the day, [Trump]&#8217;s got to prove to people — not me — that he’s able to lead us again. And that will be a challenge for him. And that will be a challenge for Biden to say ‘Give me four more years after the last four.’ We’ll see what happens.&#8221;
“Well, l think Biden wins that,” Franken replied.
“Let’s bet. Can we bet?” Graham responded.
&#8220;Yeah, how much?&#8221; Franken asked.
“Twenty bucks. To be paid here,” Graham said. He then shook Franken&#8217;s hand to seal the bet.
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Then on Tuesday morning, Graham knocked Trump for picking a fight with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and advised him to stop. “If you start this thing, you better be willing to take it,” Graham said in an interview on &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBsuNjq3_VI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox &amp; Friends</a>.&#8221;
“I don&#8217;t like it. Trump&#8217;s not into these &#8216;thou shalt nots.&#8217; That&#8217;s not his thing,&#8221; he said, referring to the phrase, &#8220;Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican,&#8221; the so-called &#8220;11th Commandment&#8221; used by Ronald Reagan during his 1966 campaign for California governor.
&#8220;The bottom line is, I think if I were Trump, which I am not, I would be running on four years of being a pretty effective president, &#8216;the best is yet to come,’” Graham added. &#8220;I would say, &#8216;DeSantis, I picked him out of a crowd. I knew he was talented early on. I&#8217;m the guy that saw the talent. He&#8217;s been a great governor, but I&#8217;m better able to be president the next four years.&#8217; But that ain&#8217;t gonna happen.”

Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham, Al Franken Bet On The Winner Of The 2024 Presidential Election

Lindsey Graham, Al Franken Bet $20 On The Winner Of The 2024 Presidential Election

2024 Election

Al Franken

Donald Trump

Elections

Joe Biden

Politics

The Daily Show

Former Senator Al Franken (D-MN) may be eyeing another bite at the apple.
During a Wednesday interview with Washington Post Live, Franken — who resigned amid accusations of sexual harassment in 2017 — said that the idea of another run for Senate was &#8220;tempting.&#8221;
&#8220;I certainly loved my time in the Senate. I loved the job. I got a lot done. I was able to accomplish things I couldn&#8217;t accomplish anywhere else, I don&#8217;t think. So, yeah, it would be tempting to try to do that again,&#8221; Franken said.
Franken has said on a number of occasions that he regrets resigning – and he even made it clear during his resignation speech on the Senate floor that he believed there were others who should have resigned before he did.
Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/07/franken-resigns-285957">reported</a> at the time:
<blockquote>&#8220;I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,&#8221; Franken said, referring to Trump&#8217;s comments captured on tape about grabbing women&#8217;s genitals and to Moore&#8217;s multiple allegations of sexual assault or harassment of women in their teens.
&#8220;But this decision is not about me,&#8221; Franken added in his floor speech, which began shortly before noon on Thursday. &#8220;It&#8217;s about the people of Minnesota. It&#8217;s become clear that I can&#8217;t pursue the Ethics Committee process and at the same time remain an effective senator for them.&#8221;</blockquote>
In addition, a number of Franken&#8217;s former colleagues who initially called for him to step aside later said they also <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/454135-al-franken-says-he-absolutely-regrets-resigning">regretted that decision</a>. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said that supporting Franken&#8217;s resignation was &#8220;one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made&#8221; in a Senate career that spanned nearly five decades.
Former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) agreed, saying, &#8220;If there’s one decision I’ve made that I would take back, it’s the decision to call for his resignation. It was made in the heat of the moment, without concern for exactly what this was.&#8221;
&#8220;This was a rush to judgment that didn’t allow any of us to fully explore what this was about. I took the judgment of my peers rather than independently examining the circumstances,&#8221; Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) added. &#8220;In my heart, I’ve not felt right about it.&#8221;
If Franken were to make another run for political office, it might not be in his former home state of Minnesota as he has since moved to New York. And he may not be the only politician attempting a comeback after multiple accusations forced a resignation.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) resigned months ago after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and assault, and is now reportedly <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/10000-senior-citizens-died-guest-host-fires-back-when-sunny-hostin-praises-andrew-cuomo-on-covid/">eyeing a return to politics</a>. Reports indicate he may even consider a run for New York Attorney General — an office he held from 2006-2010 — against the woman whose investigation ultimately drove him to resign as governor: incumbent New York AG Leticia James.
Also returning to politics after resignation is former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (R), who has joined a crowded primary field <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/25/former-governor-greitens-maga-warrior-senate-bid-517051">vying for the seat</a> held by retiring Senator Roy Blunt (R).
You can watch the full interview here:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Al Franken discusses his new comedy tour, current events and more (Full Stream 2/9)" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kl02FplvXo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The Daily Wire&#8217;s new film SHUT IN is premiering on YouTube February 10th at 9 PM EST. Turn on reminders so you don&#8217;t miss it: <a href="https://youtu.be/lFs6-pTk4BA" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/lFs6-pTk4BA&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1644536161896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3NJ0tuESDOSEt6KPo4ndnU">https://youtu.be/lFs6-pTk4BA</a>

Al Franken In Concert – Atlanta, GA

Al Franken Admits Another Run For Senate Is ‘Tempting’

Andrew Cuomo

Sexual Misconduct

U.S. Senate

Former U.S. Senator Al Franken defended &#8220;The View&#8221; co-host Whoopi Goldberg this week, asserting that her stage name &#8211;specifically &#8220;Goldberg&#8221; &#8212; proves she&#8217;s not &#8220;anti-Semitic.&#8221;
Goldberg, whose real name is Caryn Johnson, was hit with a two-week suspension from &#8220;The View&#8221; after she argued on the show that the targeting and extermination of millions of Jews during the Holocaust had nothing to do with “race.”
Franken, who is Jewish, said Wednesday on CNN that Goldberg wouldn&#8217;t choose a Jewish surname if she were anti-Semitic. “I know Whoopi,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She’s not anti-Semitic. She chose ‘Goldberg’ for her last name for a stage name.&#8221;
“I think she gave a really fulsome and sincere apology,&#8221; the former senator added. &#8220;I think what she said wasn’t quite what she meant.”
Disney-owned ABC News announced Tuesday that Goldberg would be suspended for two weeks from the show, effectively immediately.
“Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends and communities,” ABC News president Kim Godwin said in a statement.
Goldberg has also taken to Twitter to address the controversy: “As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people — who they deemed to be an inferior race.’ I stand corrected,&#8221; she wrote.
&#8220;The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver [sic]. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused,” the cohost added.
Columnist, author, and former presidential speechwriter John Podhoretz had a different take than Franken, <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/02/03/al-franken-defends-whoopi-goldberg-following-holocaust-remarks-cites-her-stage-name/">accusing</a> Goldberg of &#8220;co-opting&#8221; her stage name from the Jewish people. He urged her to drop the surname.
Podhoretz <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/02/01/drop-the-goldberg-name-you-co-opted-whoopi-you-dont-deserve-it/">said</a> in a New York Post column published Tuesday that “performer Caryn Johnson” did not land on the last name “Goldberg” because it “signified ‘whiteness.&#8217;”
Johnson chose Goldberg “because it would represent the proud ownership of her outsider status. She wasn’t trying to blend in. She was doubling down — on race.”
“Note, please, that Caryn Johnson didn’t become Whoopi Rockefeller,” Podhoretz pointed out. “No. She knew that by becoming Whoopi Goldberg, she would be choosing to flaunt in every way possible the fact that she was a minority person in a majority-white country. The ‘Goldberg’ was the cherry on top.”
“It’s obvious that a 2022 version of young Caryn Johnson would not choose the name Goldberg to gain that extra frisson of non-white pride,” Podhoretz said.
“Whoopi Goldberg should just drop the Goldberg now,” the author closed the post. “There are dozens of survivors of the Holocaust who bear the name — and an untold number who died in the Shoah with it. Caryn Johnson stains them both.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jewish-writer-tells-whoopi-goldberg-who-uses-stage-name-to-drop-last-name-she-co-opted-dont-deserve-it">Jewish Writer Tells Whoopi Goldberg, Who Uses Stage Name, To Drop Last Name She ‘Co-Opted’: ‘Don’t Deserve It’</a>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/liberal-privilege-is-real-disney-fired-gina-carano-trends-after-news-of-whoopi-suspension-by-disney-owned-abc">‘Liberal Privilege Is Real’: Disney-Fired Gina Carano Trends After News Of Whoopi Suspension By Disney-Owned ABC</a>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-effective-immediately-abc-suspends-whoopi-goldberg-over-wrong-and-hurtful-holocaust-comments">‘Effective Immediately’: ABC Suspends Whoopi Goldberg Over ‘Wrong And Hurtful’ Holocaust Comments</a>

Food Network & Cooking Channel New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One – Grand Tasting presented by ShopRite featuring Culinary Demonstrations at The IKEA Kitchen presented by Capital One

Former Dem Sen. Al Franken Says Whoopi Goldberg Name Proves She’s ‘Not Anti-Semitic’

Anti-Semitism

Whoopi Goldberg

With COVID-19 forcing numerous Democratic state primaries to be rescheduled, and with the possibility of a virus resurgence in the fall, many in the media are beginning to focus their attention to a pandemic general election.
One of the ideas being bandied about for November 3 is mail-in voting.
While several states already run entirely mail-in voting processes, and others provide ways to obtain absentee ballots for a variety of reasons, a nationwide mail-in election would be a stunning undertaking.
Many progressives argue for mail-in voting due to ease of use and its potential for increased participation, and many conservatives argue against it because of the generally lax security protocols surrounding the method.
In light of this ongoing debate, The Daily Wire recently spoke with Catherine Engelbrecht, founder and president of True the Vote, an organization “dedicated to election integrity,” according to its official website.
In the interview below, Engelbrecht discusses voter fraud, mail-in security protocol, what certain states are reportedly doing to make mail-in access incredibly easy to obtain, and much more. If you would prefer to listen to the interview rather than read it, the audio can be found at the bottom of this piece. Time stamps will be provided in writing after each question.
<blockquote>DW: Is there evidence of widespread mail-in voter fraud such that it could alter the outcome of a state or national election? (0:03)
ENGELBRECHT: Yes. One that comes to mind – maybe the most notorious of late – happened in 2008 when Al Franken was working to defeat the incumbent Norm Coleman for a Senate position in Minnesota. After months of recounts and new mail-in ballots being discovered each time – each time benefiting Al Franken – the margin finally spread to a point that Al Franken won. They called the election.
He went on to become the final vote necessary for the Affordable Care Act to pass. Without him, the count would have been such that that bill would not have passed.
Then, once all of the dust settled, and there was a closer look given to those ballots that had come in, it was learned that almost 400 of them were cast by convicted felons who had voted illegally. But that wasn&#8217;t known in the flurry of the mail-ins, and it forever altered the direction of our country.
DW: Those 400 tipped the scales? (1:19)
ENGELBRECHT: Right. The margin was 312, and then they came back and found almost 400 that shouldn&#8217;t have counted.
[In a post-interview addition, Engelbrecht said: Another more recent example is out of North Carolina, where a GOP operative was indicted on criminal charges for running an illegal absentee ballot-gathering operation (more <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/central-figure-north-carolina-absentee-ballot-fraud-indicted-multiple-counts-n976991">here</a>). And in any case, regarding the Franken example, numerous reports rightfully raised the question whether he truly would have won – not only because of the felons’ votes (examples <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/felons-voting-illegally-may-have-put-franken-over-the-top-in-minnesota-study-finds">here</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/york-when-1-099-felons-vote-in-race-won-by-312-ballots">here</a>), but also because of the legal jousting after Election Day, as outlined by the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124640687950076679">Wall Street Journal </a>at the time.]
DW: What are the benefits of mail-in voting, and would the cost-benefit analysis be positive given that it might prevent in-person forms of fraud? (1:34)
ENGELBRECHT: Well, I think that there are instances in which voting by mail is appropriate. Certainly if you&#8217;re elderly or infirm, and you cannot go to a polling place, you need to have a way to still have your voice heard. If you&#8217;re out of the county or out of the state, if you&#8217;re overseas, certainly the military.
Every state has different rules by which they determine absentee standards. I think that those rules work in their states, and that&#8217;s fine. True the Vote is not against mail-in voting. It&#8217;s the notion of mail-in voting without the safeguards that protect against vote fraud. That is really the story here, is that with this push to mail-ins nationwide, what is also being lobbied for and passed in these states are the removal of the fraud provisions – like the removal of the ability to compare signatures, the removal of any form of voter ID. Those are the things that make this process incredibly troubling because there are so few fraud provisions in mail-in to begin with, and the fact that they&#8217;re being now stripped away is going to leave the upcoming general election in a very vulnerable state.
DW: Could you take me through the process of what the allegedly most secure mail-in ballot operations are, from sending it out to the return, and what procedures are in place primarily to maintain security? (3:26)
ENGELBRECHT: Well again, every state manages their process differently, and I&#8217;m the first one to give deference to the fact that states need to be able to run according to their population what makes sense for them. With that in mind, though, to have a process where the voter who is wishing to cast that ballot by mail can apply for an absentee ballot and be given a serialized ballot that&#8217;s attached to that voter&#8217;s name, that offers some form of identification, and a signature, and ideally some form of witness, and then have that sent back in a secured envelope for review by a ballot review board that confirms all of the requisite information, including a signature verification.
But that process in and of itself is challenging enough to manage at the current levels. You take this now and you grow it exponentially, and the very few safeguards that are attendant in the process being stripped away, there&#8217;s no rational way to believe that we&#8217;re going to have a process that results in a free, and fair, and accurate count.
DW: Can you talk about some of those specific actions that are being taken in certain states to what you call &#8220;strip away the securities&#8221;? (5:16)
ENGELBRECHT: Absolutely, and in fact we&#8217;ve gone so far as to start an initiative where we are suing states that are taking such extreme measures to force this new process, if you will.
To give you some examples, in Virginia, the governor there – which True the Vote is suing the governor of Virginia for this very reason – in order to enact mail-in voting across the state instantly, the governor declared everybody in Virginia to be disabled, which would then meet the standard for their purposes to usher in full mail-in. Along with that, he removed the security provisions of signature comparison, and removed some of the standards around postmarks.
Again, those are the threadbare ways to affirm the accuracy, the integrity of a ballot – and they are being taken away in Virginia.
In Nevada, another place where we&#8217;re suing, the secretary of state there, by administrative fiat, announced that the whole state was going to be mail-in, and same thing, she removed the signature provisions. Then you saw another lawsuit being filed by the Democratic Party in Clark County that was settled in a friendly mystery agreement that we still haven&#8217;t been able to lay eyes on. A bizarre situation.
But one of the outcomes, according to Marc Elias&#8217; tweets anyway, was that Clark County had agreed to hire vote harvesters. Even though vote harvesting is illegal in the state of Nevada, Clark County is now putting them on their payroll. So, there&#8217;s a lot of moving parts and pieces to this, [that] I believe points to a much broader narrative that is not about providing a safe and secure environment during a health crisis by way of mail-ins. I think it&#8217;s about exploiting the weaknesses of a process, and manipulating those weaknesses to advantage, and it&#8217;s happening with breathtaking speed.
DW: Prior to my question about what True the Vote is going to be trying to do to make this process more secure, I have one more question about potential voter fraud. That is, and you just mentioned it, is ballot harvesting a widespread issue in states with mail-in voting? (7:57)
ENGELBRECHT: Absolutely, and becoming more so. If Nancy Pelosi has her way, ballot harvesting is going to be standard fare. What ballot harvesting does specifically is, it empowers community organizers, special interest groups, to both distribute and collect ballots, without limitation. That has so many problems attendant to it, we could go through them all – but the one that always comes to mind for me first is what this means in vulnerable communities, particularly in communities where you have a higher population of the elderly, who can be intimidated.
Here in Texas, we&#8217;re part of a case that was filed with the secretary of state and attorney general that proved up ballot harvesting in nursing homes, and how these harvesters were using the residents in ways that were abusive toward these same ends.
Vote harvesting goes well beyond the pale of what many states do to give the opportunity for a close family member or friend to bring in a ballot. Rather, vote harvesting is a free-for-all where these groups are bidding for money to collect as many as they can, distribute as many as they can, and it turns the entire intent on its head, and doesn&#8217;t serve the voters well.
DW: What does True the Vote want to do to make the mail-in voting process more secure, especially as it might become more prevalent because of COVID-19? (10:10)
ENGELBRECHT: True the Vote believes strongly, our reason for existence is, that every eligible voter should have assurance that their vote counts, and is counted, that they can be heard through their voice of the vote, and mail-in ballots are going to muddle that in ways that frankly are going to be hard to get ahead of because of the volume of paper that&#8217;s going to be hitting these county offices, these municipalities, that just aren&#8217;t set up to deal with it. So, on the front end, what we&#8217;re trying to do is in the courts, trying to stop as much of this wanton disregard for the constitutionality of protecting the right to vote, not diluting your vote, and we&#8217;re trying to stop it.
However, certainly no matter what happens, the absentee provision is going to raise the number of mail-in ballots that are going to hit the states, no matter how you look at it. So to that end, we are training volunteers to work inside of the counties&#8217; offices, as volunteers for mail-in ballot review boards, for canvassing boards, to try to help assure that processes are followed because we&#8217;re going to need millions of hands on deck for these manual processes that are going to have to be relied upon for the purposes of tallying these votes.
On the front end, we&#8217;re just trying to uphold the Constitution in the courts. On the other end, we&#8217;re mobilizing volunteers to do what they can to help assure that the rule of law is followed inside of those counties and municipalities.
DW: Do you foresee a future where mail-in balloting could become the norm and still be secure? (12:22)
ENGELBRECHT: No. I do foresee, if Americans don&#8217;t take hold of this issue and engage, I do foresee a future where our elections are federalized, and mail-in or even online voting, could become the only option provided. But is that going to be secure? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And it&#8217;s a disgrace because in the age of Amazon one-click, there&#8217;s no reason to not have a system in place now where you can validate identity, residency, and citizenship in real time, where you can securely provide a process that, at minimum, has a standard of voter ID. We&#8217;re the only industrialized country in the world that doesn&#8217;t use a standard for voter ID.
Other countries look at our process and laugh, and the only explanation for why our process is as porous as it is, is that it can be used to partisan advantage. That&#8217;s the only reason that we don&#8217;t solve this. Because it is solvable. It&#8217;s just so easy to manipulate it that the interest is not there to push a free and fair process for fear of what it may show.
DW: Is there anything that we haven&#8217;t touched on in this interview that you are interested in expressing or getting across to our readership? (14:20)
ENGELBRECHT: This is about so much more than mail-in ballots. This is about a fundamental, strategic, long-planned effort to upend elections, and it just so happens to coincide with a health crisis that is being used in full measure to exploit these processes. Americans are such, we&#8217;re such trusting people, and we so want to believe that this process of our elections is still steeped with honor and integrity. There is a movement afoot now across this country, hundreds of millions of dollars are being pushed into exploiting this mail-in ballot opportunity, and removing all of the attendant fraud provisions.
If we don&#8217;t do something now, we are looking at having our presidency decided in the courts, we are looking at a system that could very well implode, and it will lay the perfect trap for the federalization of elections. This is a very serious situation – every day there&#8217;s a new lawsuit filed to impact the situation in ways that destabilize the process.
Americans should take hold of this now, and wake up, because this year, just voting isn&#8217;t going to be enough. We need as many people willing to participate in the process, willing to speak out, willing to be working inside of those county offices, reviewing the ballots, and upholding the integrity of the process, and just reclaiming the process broadly. We&#8217;ve for so long ceded this ground to the government and thought, &#8220;Oh, well, they&#8217;ve got this all under control.&#8221; We&#8217;re about to see, no they do not.
Don&#8217;t exchange convenience for security. Don&#8217;t believe the hype. It is not as it is being presented.</blockquote>
Listen to the full interview (aside from the post-interview addition noted above) here:
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ycdDC4RcbD4" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">﻿</iframe>
The Daily Wire would like to thank Catherine Engelbrecht for taking the time to speak with us about this issue.
For more information about True the Vote, click <a href="https://truethevote.org/news/">here</a>.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Ballots

True The Vote Founder Talks Fraud And Frighteningly Lax Security Amid The Push For Mail-In Voting

COVID

Democratic Party

Mail-In Voting

Vote Fraud

The fissures have quickly begun to show in the progressive coalition as the sexual assault allegation against former Vice President Joe Biden heats up. While some powerful women have opted to just ignore the situation and endorse Joe Biden anyway, others are noticing the glaring hypocrisy.
On Wednesday, comedienne Sarah Silverman blasted Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) for standing by Joe Biden after previously calling on Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign when the #MeToo movement put him in its crosshairs.
“But u called on ⁦[Al Franken]⁩ to resign w/out the ethics investigation HE asked for??” <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahKSilverman/status/1255612418610397186" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Silverman tweeted</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
But u called on ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/alfranken?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@alfranken</a>⁩ to resign w/out the ethics investigation HE asked for?? 
Kirsten Gillibrand on Tara Reade allegation: &#39;I support Vice President Biden&#39; &#8211; CNNPolitics <a href="https://t.co/sUm4oYN44j">https://t.co/sUm4oYN44j</a>
&mdash; Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahKSilverman/status/1255612418610397186?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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. Her allegation was backed by a photograph she shared of him mockingly groping her while she slept. Following her revelation, another seven women came forward with allegations against Franken of inappropriate touching or kissing. He denied all of them.
Sarah Silverman has previously said he was &#8220;bullied&#8221; into resigning for political reasons.
&#8220;I understand that I may have cognitive distortion, because I love him so much. But all I can say is, and he may not be excited about this, but he has no sexuality,&#8221; <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/05/23/sarah-silverman-defends-al-franken-im-so-sad-that-he-got-bullied-into-resigning/">she said</a>. &#8220;I believe in my heart of heart of hearts he never copped a feel.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m so sad that he got bullied into resigning, because all he loved in this world was being a senator and representing the people of Minnesota. I&#8217;ve never met a more pure person,&#8221; she added. &#8220;This is a guy whose passion was serving people and making the world a better place. There&#8217;s a lot of baby-in-bathwater stuff, I think. We&#8217;ll just get it in the process.&#8221;
In March, Tara Reade claimed that then-Senator Joe Biden sexually assaulted her while she served as an aide in his Senate offices during the Clinton administration. She has since detailed her account in multiple interviews and filed a criminal complaint against the former vice president with the Washington, D.C., police department. A former neighbor of Reade and Reade’s brother have both publicly stated that Reade told them of the alleged assault in the 1990s. Recently surfaced evidence also suggests that Reade’s mother called into CNN’s Larry King in the 1990s to complain about a prominent senator with whom her daughter had “problems.”
On Wednesday, Sen. Gillibrand <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics/kirsten-gillibrand-joe-biden-support/index.html">endorsed Joe Biden</a>, arguing that media outlets have &#8220;investigated&#8221; Tara Reade&#8217;s claims.
&#8220;When we say believe women, it&#8217;s for this explicit intention of making sure there&#8217;s space for all women to come forward to speak their truth, to be heard. And in this allegation, that is what Tara Reade has done,&#8221; Gillibrand said. &#8220;She has come forward, she has spoken, and they have done an investigation in several outlets. Those investigations, Vice President Biden has called for himself. Vice President Biden has vehemently denied these allegations and I support Vice President Biden.&#8221;
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.
<div></div>

Bernie Sanders Campaigns Ahead of Super Tuesday in Los Angeles, US

Sarah Silverman Blasts Kirsten Gillibrand For Defending Joe Biden After Condemning Al Franken

2020 Election

Kirsten Gillibrand

Sarah Silverman

Sexual Assault

Tara Reade

According to one prominent MSNBC host, anyone who would dare to defend President Donald Trump is a liar.
Lawrence O’Donnell, host of “The Last Word” on the network, recently appeared on former Sen. Al Franken’s podcast. Franken (who was forced to resign from the senate because of how he treated women in comedy bits a decade ago) said CNN’s coverage of the Trump administration amounted to “playing it down the middle, except we hate Trump,” O’Donnell interjected, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/msnbc-host-lawrence-odonnell-accuses-cnn-of-helping-trump-spread-lies">reported</a> The Daily Beast.
“No, they don’t,” O’Donnell said. “One third of the people on their payroll love Trump. So, you’re guaranteed on any hour of CNN to, minimum one third of the programming will be supportive of Trump—someone on their payroll saying, ‘Here’s why Trump’s right.’”
“That’s one of the reasons why Trump kind of wants you to watch CNN instead of MSNBC,” O’Donnell said, according to the Beast. “Because he knows on MSNBC there will be no one defending him. Because we don’t bring on liars. I don’t bring on a liar. I won’t do that.”
Franken then asked O’Donnell the obvious question: “Are you saying that to defend Trump you have to lie?”
O’Donnell gave the predictable response.
“Yes, absolutely you do,” O’Donnell said. “How else do you defend a liar—a pathological liar who lies about everything? You have to lie.”
“So CNN has people on the payroll who they pay to tell their lies to the CNN audience in the middle of a CNN hour for some number of minutes,” O’Donnell continued “And so Trump knows that if you watch CNN ‘at least you’ll hear someone lying in my favor.’”
The Beast gently pushed back against O’Donnell’s “one third” comment, saying it “may be somewhat of an exaggeration,” but went on to knock CNN for “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/david-urban-why-is-cnn-paying-a-trump-campaign-adviser">paying Trump-defending pundits</a> who <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-cnn-hired-ex-trump-aides-bound-by-ndas-thats-journalistic-malpractice-experts-say">in some cases cannot even publicly criticize him</a> without violating non-disclosure agreements.”
The network also had a habit of paying Obama-defending pundits who didn’t even need a non-disclosure agreement to keep them from publicly criticizing their messiah. CNN also has a habit of paying people who actively tried to bring down Trump, such as former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (who is paid by the network despite being found to have lied to federal investigators). Naturally, these points didn’t make it into the Beast article.
The outlet had previously spoken to two of O’Donnel’s NBC colleagues – “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd and Chris Hayes. Todd told the Beast in early 2019 that he would keep bringing on people to present Trump’s side of the argument, like White House advisor Kellyanne Conway (whom the Beast said had a “proven propensity to mislead,” as if no left-leaning guests ever mislead viewers) because he didn’t “have a hard and fast rule about who I put on and who I don’t.”
“I don’t think you ban anybody. She works for the president of the United States. If she is relevant to a story we’re doing, I do think it’s important for the country to hear from a senior aide to the president,” Todd said.
Hayes said he was more concerned with “good faith” versus “bad faith” arguments.
“To me, the distinction between good faith and bad faith is an elemental one, and I just can’t deal with bad faith hackish spinning,” he told the outlet in September. “I hate running around in circles with people who are just gaslighting you, like Corey Lewandowski. Life’s too short to argue with Corey Lewandowski.”

Lawrence O’Donnell

MSNBC Host Claims No One Defends Trump On His Network Because ‘We Don’t Bring On Liars’

Media Bias

MSNBC

Some commentators used to call it President Donald Trump’s “superpower.” For whatever reason, no matter the quality of the opposition research hurled into the public eye about then-candidate Trump or President Trump, it would just not seem to stick. &#8220;Teflon Don,&#8221; they have called him. For a day, maybe even a week, his poll numbers would drop — but for nearly an entire term, he has nonetheless hovered at around <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html">45% favorability</a>. Ultimately, he has seemed <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/06/15/trumps-superpowers-have-their-limitations/">“immune to the sort of gaffes that typically wound other politicians.”</a>
But as the Democratic Party presidential primary rages on, it has become clear that President Trump doesn’t have a superpower at all. The game of politics has simply changed from that which we were accustomed. In the previous era, where politicians were polished and consumers of political debate were competent, politics amounted to a game of gaffe avoidance. The first one to give up the act was clearly the less competent contender, so we voted for the other guy.
Times have changed. Pseudo media outrage has made nothing outrageous anymore. Hyper-partisan reporting out of Washington and New York has deemed quality reporting increasingly irrelevant. Between that and an ever-changing social media landscape, people simply have shorter memories than in the past. Things only matter as they are happening and are quickly deemed ephemeral or meaningless. Brett Kavanaugh was only an alleged rapist until his U.S. Supreme Court nomination could no longer be defeated. Net neutrality only killed people until it didn’t. And so forth.
With the media’s malpractice and the general populace&#8217;s consumption of their product, the important stories that matter are often overlooked. As such, it often seems that nothing that is actually helpful comes from our frenetic, never-ending news cycle.
Let&#8217;s then return to Trump’s ‘superpower,’ which is not actually exclusive to him at all. If it were exclusive, for instance, then gaffe machine former Vice President Joe Biden would not still be the frontrunner for his party&#8217;s 2020 presidential nomination. He would be long gone by now. But despite all his manifold gaffes, he stays at the top with the hypocritical ‘anti-1%’ one-percenter, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
It’s quite clear that the non-charismatic and, frankly, not particularly talented Joe Biden does not have any such &#8220;superpower.&#8221; Certainly, no charisma has helped him remain at the top, yet there he remains. The lesson to learn for voters, then, is that President Trump’s steadfast base of support and &#8220;teflon&#8221; status is the new norm — and is likely not specific to him.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) made the mistake of thinking that bad press does sticks in our generation. He gave up his Senate seat for no reason. Not only did he make a mistake — <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/454135-al-franken-says-he-absolutely-regrets-resigning">he knows he did</a>. Governor Ralph Northam (D-VA), clearly more in tune with our political age, successfully weathered the storm and now is being affirmatively <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-ralph-northam-came-back-from-the-political-dead/2019/12/27/941e4a46-282b-11ea-b2ca-2e72667c1741_story.html">supported</a> by the Left for having done so. By the time Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was <a href="https://time.com/5680759/justin-trudeau-brownface-photo/">busted</a> for the same offense as Northam, no one seemed to care.
In a world where nothing sticks to anybody and memories are short, in a world where journalists are so gutless that they will <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/01/the-media-is-lying-about-the-attacks-on-the-embassy-in-baghdad/">lie about events that led to the death of Americans</a> while also brutally under-reporting about the<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/"> Afghanistan Papers</a>, politics is different. In many ways, actually, it’s much simpler.
Welcome to our new world, appropriately ushered in with the start of a new decade. Where the candidate who jumps into the race with the most name recognition and resources will nearly always hold on to his/her base, where the primary debates are rendered essentially meaningless, and where we don’t even force our politicians to act anymore.
They don’t need to, after all, because nothing sticks, nothing matters, and even if something significant does happen, it will be neglectfully reported anyway.
&nbsp;
Elliot Fuchs is a political consultant and writer. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Elliot_Fuchs">@Elliot_Fuchs</a>.

Artificial intelligence brain network

FUCHS: The Short Memory Of Our Modern Politics

Bernie Sanders

Brett Kavanaugh

Justin Trudeau

Media

A former Senate aide is alleging that former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, who resigned in disgrace in January 2018, grabbed her buttocks without her consent in 2006.
“I was just out of college in my first job, working for U.S. Senator Patty Murray,” the unnamed woman  told <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/09/another-woman-says-al-franken-groped-her.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">New York Magazine.</a>
<blockquote>
The woman worked the photo line, and when it was her turn to be photographed with Franken, she said, “he puts his hand on my ass. He’s telling the photographer, ‘Take another one. I think I blinked. Take another one.’ And I’m just frozen. It’s so violating. And then he gives me a little squeeze on my buttock, and I am bright red. I don’t say anything at the time, but I felt deeply, deeply uncomfortable.”
A military veteran who is now a senior staffer at a major progressive organization, she is the ninth woman to accuse Franken of inappropriate conduct and the fourth to say Franken grabbed her butt. New York also spoke to three individuals in whom she had confided after the first Franken accusations emerged; she says that she did not tell anyone about the incident after it happened out of embarrassment.
</blockquote>
The woman said she cried when she first heard of other allegations against Franken.
“I really considered adding my voice,” she told the magazine, but said a bad experience with another boss kept her from coming forward. She also worried she&#8217;d never get another job. “I know that anything can be used as a flag to say, ‘Not this person.’ The idea that I would not get a job and would always wonder: Was it the article where I was the one who was raising my hand against a powerful man?” she said.
After allegations initially emerged, Franken at first denied that he’d done what the alleged victims said he’d done. “Some of the allegations against me are simply not true,” he said. “Others I remember very differently.”
But as more and more women came forward to make allegations, 36 Democratic senators agreed that Franken should resign. But after he did, Franken said he thought he would’ve been cleared at the conclusion of a planned Senate investigation. “I said at the outset that the Ethics Committee was the right venue for these allegations to be heard and investigated and evaluated on their merits. That I was prepared to cooperate fully and that I was confident in the outcome.”
Franken also lashed out at President Trump.
“I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape on a history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party.&#8221;
The newest allegation comes just as Franken is debuting a new radio show on Sirius XM. And on Thursday, Franken appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show.
The late night talk show host praised the &#8220;Me Too&#8221; movement, but added: “Many people think that your case &#8230; it made them feel uneasy, and there was some questions and uneasiness about your particular situation and how it was resolved.”
Franken painted himself as a victim.
“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 touched her or something like that?’ — I would have said no,” Franken said. “And after all these allegations came in, I thought, well, I must be doing something wrong, right? Ever since, I’ve been a lot more mindful in my interactions with pretty much everyone.”

Former Senate Aide Says Al Franken Groped Her Buttocks

Two months after he expressed &#8220;regret&#8221; for resigning over #MeToo allegations, former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) now says he &#8220;deserved due process.&#8221;
In an appearance on Conan O&#8217;Brien&#8217;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.
&#8220;They all basically said that I deserved due process and I believe I did, too,&#8221; Franken said on the program, as reported by<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/al-franken-deserved-due-process"> Fox News</a>.
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&#8217;Brien asked Franken why he resigned instead of just sticking to his guns, the &#8220;SNL&#8221; alum said that he was put in an &#8220;untenable situation&#8221; due to the #MeToo climate.
&#8220;I don&#8217;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&#8217;t serve the people of Minnesota,&#8221; Franken said. &#8220;But it really needed to have a process, but I just couldn&#8217;t stay either. It was awful. There were no good choices.&#8221;
&#8220;And there was a lot of pressure on you to step down,&#8221; O&#8217;Brien interjected.
&#8220;A tremendous amount of pressure,&#8221; Franken responded. &#8220;And I don&#8217;t think I had any other choice.&#8221;
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.
&#8220;When this first happened, if you had asked me, &#8216;Have you ever made a woman feel uncomfortable by the way you put your arm around her or touch her or something like that,&#8217; I would have said no,&#8221; Franken said. &#8220;And after all of these allegations came in, I thought, &#8216;Oh, I must have been doing something wrong.&#8217; So, you know, ever since, I&#8217;ve been a lot more mindful in my interactions with pretty much everyone.&#8221;
&#8220;People that know me know I&#8217;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.&#8221;
Franken&#8217;s sudden reemergence into the public spotlight follows a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/al-franken-absolutely-regrets-resigning-over-metoo-paul-bois">lengthy report</a> 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&#8217;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.”

Senator Franken Quits Senate Amid Turmoil Over Misconduct Allegations

Al Franken On #MeToo Allegations: I Deserved Due Process

Comedian Norm Macdonald called out singer and actress Bette Midler for her tweet earlier this week attempting to shame the woman who accused former Sen. Al Franken of sexual misconduct.
On Monday, Midler shamed Leeann Tweeden, Franken’s accuser. In a tweet, the legendary performer suggested Tweeden was “right wing” and forced Franken to resign over allegations of mere “untoward” conduct.
“#LeeAnnTweeden, #AlFrankens accuser, in all her right wing glory. Al was forced to resign, without anything resembling due process, amid HER allegations that something &#8216;untoward&#8217; happened between them,” Midler tweeted.
Midler included a picture of her tweet of Tweeden wearing lingerie, a common slut-shaming technique.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LeeAnnTweeden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LeeAnnTweeden</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AlFrankens?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AlFrankens</a> accuser, in all her right wing glory. Al was forced to resign, without anything resembling due process, amid HER allegations that something “untoward” happened between them. Read about it in <a href="https://twitter.com/thenewyorker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thenewyorker</a>.<a href="https://t.co/FFH2VwfseG">https://t.co/FFH2VwfseG</a>
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) <a href="https://twitter.com/BetteMidler/status/1153419551721381888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
On Thursday, Macdonald shredded Midler for doing what “rape apologists” do and reminding the singer that the #MeToo movement “has nothing to do with due process.”
“Bette, if you haven&#8217;t heard, #metoo has nothing to do with due process. But you putting a picture of this women in lingerie, implying she had it coming, is truly disgusting and what rape apologists have been saying forever. Shame,” Macdonald tweeted.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Bette, if you haven&#8217;t heard, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/metoo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#metoo</a> has nothing to do with due process. But you putting a picture of this women in lingerie, implying she had it coming, is truly disgusting and what rape apologists have been saying forever. Shame. <a href="https://t.co/DP0CDq5fFW">https://t.co/DP0CDq5fFW</a>
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) <a href="https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/1154177868299063297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
It is not the first time Macdonald has waded into controversial territory in expressing his opinion on the #MeToo movement. In September, the comedian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/35756/norm-macdonald-booted-tonight-show-after-ashe-schow">was booted</a> from the “Tonight Show” after he criticized the movement, which called out some well-known men who sexually abused women but also resulted in accusations of mere jerkiness being elevated to similar stature. Throughout the entire episode, men were found guilty in the court of public opinion and saw their careers hampered or ruined without being given the opportunity to defend themselves.
In an interview in September, Macdonald said he was “happy the #MeToo movement has slowed down a bit.”
“It used to be, ‘One hundred women can&#8217;t be lying.’ And then it became, ‘One woman can&#8217;t lie.’ And that became, ‘I believe all women.’ And then you&#8217;re like, ‘What?’ Like, that Chris Hardwick guy I really thought got the blunt end of the stick there,” Macdonald added.
Hardwick was anonymously accused of emotional and sexual abuse by his ex-girlfriend, Chloe Dykstra. As a result of the article Dykstra published on Medium, Hardwick was suspended from his show, “Talking with Chris Hardwick” and “Talking Dead.” The Nerdist, which Hardwick founded, removed mention of him from its website.
Hardwick denied Dykstra’s allegations and multiple former girlfriends, as well as his wife, denied that he ever acted so abusively. Others brought up examples of him behaving like a jerk in an effort to corroborate Dykstra’s claims. About a month later, after AMC conducted an investigation into Dykstra’s allegations, the network reinstated Hardwick. Dykstra claimed she didn’t participate in the investigation and said she only wrote the essay to “move on” and wasn’t looking for “an eye for an eye,” even though her essay was published in a well-known outlet.
Macdonald went on in that interview to defend Roseanne Barr and Louis C.K., mentioning that “very few people that have gone through what they have, losing everything in a day.” He added: “Of course, people will go, ‘What about the victims?’ But you know what? The victims didn&#8217;t have to go through that.”
For his criticism, Macdonald was booted from the “Tonight Show.” So far he does not appear to have received backlash for calling out Bette Midler.
Macdonald also commented on Midler’s tweet claiming black supporters of President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49863/bette-midler-tweets-blacks-attending-trump-rally-hank-berrien">must have been paid</a> to appear at one of his rallies.
“Oh, Christ. Bette’s a racist, too. Fuckxk,” Macdonald tweeted.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Oh, Christ. Bette&#8217;s a racist, too. Fucxk. <a href="https://t.co/sRzzM2FMBo">https://t.co/sRzzM2FMBo</a>
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) <a href="https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/1154176281283444736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Norm Macdonald Takes Bette Midler To Task Over Al Franken Accuser Tweet

Bette Midler

MeToo

Norm MacDonald

On Monday, The New Yorker printed a lengthy piece by reporter Jane Mayer about the sad fate of former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. Franken resigned from the Senate in 2017 after a bevy of women accused him of sexual harassment; their accounts ranged from unwanted kisses to unsolicited a&#8211; grabbing. In the midst of the #MeToo movement, Franken stepped down, all the while decrying President Trump&#8217;s own record of allegations concerning mistreatment of women.
At the time, there were two possible interpretations of events. The first was more inspiring: After decades of defending sexual misconduct by powerful Democratic figures, Democrats and their media allies were finally willing to reset a social standard. In the wake of #MeToo, they had reconsidered their worship of Teddy Kennedy, their pathetic willingness to cover for Bill Clinton. A new day had dawned.
Then there was the second, more cynical theory: Democrats and their media allies were looking to set a new standard out of pure partisanship. They weren&#8217;t really concerned about Franken&#8217;s victims any more than they had been about Clinton&#8217;s victims. Instead, they were looking to establish a level of morally superior ground upon which to attack Trump and demand that Republicans disown him.
This week, we found out which theory was true.
Mayer, the New Yorker reporter, rose to public acclaim just last year when she reported on then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh&#8217;s supposed sexual evils. With no supporting facts other than the hazy accounts of decades-old events, she attacked Kavanaugh with alacrity. Now, however, she has flipped: She&#8217;s concerned with Franken&#8217;s lack of due process; she questions the political motivations of one of his accusers; she points out that the evidence is supposedly scanty. Democrats, too, have risen to Franken&#8217;s defense. Many now claim that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was the real villain in this scenario, having rushed for Franken&#8217;s scalp precipitously.
In other words, Franken was kicked out of the party when Democrats were trying to build a case against Trump. Now that they&#8217;ve concluded that case won&#8217;t work, they want Franken back again. Presumably, they&#8217;ll soon be back to praising Clinton, too.
This sort of behavior is deeply destructive to American public discourse. That&#8217;s because a standard upheld only as a weapon to target political opposition is no standard at all. What&#8217;s more, the partisan interpretation of the standard creates an incentive for opponents to violate their own commitment to the standard. It&#8217;s a classic prisoner&#8217;s dilemma: The person who actually abides by a common moral standard and speaks out against bad behavior on all sides ends up the sucker. Only a fool would call out his own side to the cheers of opponents while his opponents defend their own degenerates.
The problem of politically motivated standards isn&#8217;t restricted to sexual abuse. It extends to race: Why should Republicans condemn President Trump&#8217;s tweets about the so-called Squad while Democrats maintain support for Rep. Ilhan Omar&#8217;s anti-Semitism and Rep. Ayanna Pressley&#8217;s racism? Why should Republicans provide ammunition to their ill-motivated opponents?
The only way to restore a common standard in politics is for both sides to rebuild trust, step by step. And that can only happen when both sides share common goals and values. Otherwise, everyone will decide that losing by abiding by the rules must take a back seat to victory by any means. And that means the destruction of our standards, one by one, until there are no standards left.
We&#8217;re getting pretty close already.

SHAPIRO: Why The Left Is Reconsidering Al Franken

Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) is making his comeback after resigning 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.
On Monday, The <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/the-case-of-al-franken" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="1" data-v9y="1" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0">New Yorker</a> published a lengthy profile of the allegations against Franken, concluding that he may not be the #MeToo villain that he was depicted as at the time. Now, he &#8220;absolutely regrets&#8221; resigning from his seat under pressure from fellow Democrats.
&#8220;The idea that anybody who accuses someone of something is always right ― that’s not the case,&#8221; Franken told the outlet. &#8220;That isn’t reality.&#8221;
Franken wishes he instead went before the Senate Ethics Committee rather than resigning, which came after several of his colleagues pressured him. Two years later, several Democratic lawmakers expressed regret for their role in ousting Franken.
&#8220;A remarkable number of Franken’s Senate colleagues have regrets about their own roles in his fall,&#8221; writes Jane Mayer of The New Yorker. &#8220;Seven current and former U.S. senators who demanded Franken’s resignation in 2017 told me that they’d been wrong to do so. Such admissions are unusual in an institution whose members rarely concede mistakes.&#8221;
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) told Mayer that pressuring Franken to resign is &#8220;one of the biggest mistakes [he has] made&#8221; in his 45 years in the Senate.
Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) said she wishes that she could take back her &#8220;heat of the moment&#8221; decision to throw Franken under the bus. &#8220;If there’s one decision I’ve made that I would take back, it’s the decision to call for his resignation,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was made in the heat of the moment, without concern for exactly what this was.&#8221;
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said that the Senate Ethics Committee &#8220;should have been allowed to move forward&#8221; and that the Committee &#8220;needed more facts.&#8221;
&#8220;That due process didn’t happen is not good for our democracy,&#8221; said Duckworth.
&#8220;There’s no excuse for sexual assault,&#8221; said Sen. Angus King (I-ME). &#8220;But Al deserved more of a process. I don’t denigrate the allegations, but this was the political equivalent of capital punishment.&#8221;
&#8220;This was a rush to judgment that didn’t allow any of us to fully explore what this was about,&#8221; said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). &#8220;I took the judgment of my peers rather than independently examining the circumstances. In my heart, I’ve not felt right about it.&#8221;
&#8220;I made a mistake. I started having second thoughts shortly after he stepped down,&#8221; said Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM). &#8220;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.&#8221;
Tweeden&#8217;s 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.
According to Mayer&#8217;s investigation into Tweeden&#8217;s claims, her initial account of what happened between Tweeden and Franken does not add up to the facts. For instance, according to Mayer, Franken had written the now-infamous kissing scene years prior for other USO shows. People who previously worked with Franken backed up that account. As to the famous photograph of Franken mockingly groping Tweeden while she was asleep, the former senator claims he meant it as a joke in reference to their USO act. Several of his former &#8220;Saturday Night Live&#8221; colleagues defended his conduct as being goofy but not a sexual harasser.
&#8220;He’s lots of things, some delightful, some annoying,&#8221; said former &#8220;SNL&#8221; writer James Downey. &#8220;He can be very aggressive interpersonally. He can say mean things, or use other people as props. He can seem more confident that the audience will find him adorable than he ought to. His estimate of his charm can be overconfident. But I’ve known him for forty-seven years and he’s the very last person who would be a sexual harasser.&#8221;
Read the full <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/the-case-of-al-franken">13,000 word</a> report here.
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Al Franken ‘Absolutely Regrets’ Resigning Over #MeToo Allegations

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