During a recent interview with The New Yorker, former Minnesota Senator and Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken was asked whether he regrets resigning from his Congressional seat after sexual misconduct allegations were lodged against him. “Oh, yeah," Franken told journalist Jane Mayer. "Absolutely."
In 2017, Franken was among a host of powerful men who faced the career-ending repercussions of sexual misconduct allegations. At the height of the #MeToo movement, Leeann Tweeden, a conservative talk-show host, accused Franken of unwanted kissing during their 2006 USO tour. Seven other women then came forward with allegations against him, and just three weeks after Tweeden's accusations were publicized, Franken resigned from Congress.
The movement at large has spotlighted the horrific trauma victims have suffered at the hands of men like Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., and Kevin Spacey. In Franken's case, Mayer found that his chief accuser's allegations hadn't been properly fact-checked.
Tweeden accused Franken of not only forcefully kissing her while they rehearsed a kissing scene, but lobbing petty insults in her direction for explicitly rejecting his advances. A photograph showing Franken outlining the breasts of Tweeden while she's asleep on a military plane, further corroborated her account.
In the New Yorker piece, Mayer writes that Franken wasn't given proper notice before Tweeden went public with her allegations, nor was her account fact-checked. "McIntyre, Tweeden’s former co-host at the station, told me that he had 'bluntly' lobbied to give Franken more time to respond but was overruled by Drew Hayes, the station’s operations director, and by Nathan Baker, the news director, both of whom feared that the story would leak. McIntyre and Baker confirmed to me that nobody fact-checked Tweeden’s account," Mayer writes.
After Tweeden's allegations were publicized, Franken called for a Senate Ethics Committee hearing into himself, where investigators could gather evidence and subpoena witnesses. But after seven other women came forward, fellow Senators urged him to resign. Now, seven of those legislators say they regret calling for Franken's resignation before knowing the full story.
Patrick Leahy of Vermont said that seeking Franken's resignation was “one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made” throughout his 45 years in the Senate. Heidi Heidkamp, a former Senator from North Dakota, said she too regrets calling on Franken to resign. “If there’s one decision I’ve made that I would take back, it’s the decision to call for his resignation," she said. "It was made in the heat of the moment, without concern for exactly what this was.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth said the Senate Ethics Committee “should have been allowed to move forward.” She continued, “We needed more facts. That due process didn’t happen is not good for our democracy.”
“There’s no excuse for sexual assault,” said Independent Senator Angus King of Maine. “But Al deserved more of a process. I don’t denigrate the allegations, but this was the political equivalent of capital punishment.”
Jeff Merkley of Oregon said, "This was a rush to judgement that didn’t allow any of us to fully explore what this was about." Former Senator from Florida Bill Nelson said he "realized right away" that he had made a mistake in not advocating for due process. Tom Udall, the Senior Democratic Senator from New Mexico noted that Franken, "had the right to be heard by an independent investigative body."
