Almost immediately following Sen. Al Franken’s resignation announcement Thursday, the activist organization MoveOn quickly tried to refocus the outcry against sexual harassment on President Trump.
The liberal group sent out a blast email promoting its online petition that calls for Congress to investigate alleged sexual misconduct by Mr. Trump before he took office.
MoveOn said the petition had 150,000 signatures.
“The petition, started on MoveOn.org’s platform by Susan O’Connor from Wisconsin, is gaining momentum as members of Congress including Representative John Conyers and Senator Al Franken resigned in the wake of harassment and assault allegations — and it comes as Time Magazine named ’The Silence Breakers’ the 2017 Person of the Year,” said the email.
A MoveOn spokeswoman did not immediately respond to questions about the irony that a group founded in 1998 to brush aside President Bill Clinton’s White House sex scandal was now calling for a investigation of sexual misbehavior by Mr. Trump.
The group acknowledged that the email was timed to coincide with Mr. Franken’s resignation announcement, as well as hitting the 150,000-signature mark.
In a speech on the Senate floor, the Minnesota Democrat denied he mistreated women but said he nevertheless would resign because he could no longer effectively serve the people of Minnesota.
Mr. Franken also deflected attention back at Republicans, saying it was “ironic” he was quitting while Mr. Trump was in the White House. The senator was referring to the hot-mic tape from 2005 in which Mr. Trump that his celebrity status gave him license to grope women.
He also pointed to Republican candidate Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate race, who has been accused of years ago pursuing romantic relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s.
“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 campaign for the Senate with the full support of his party,” Mr. Franken said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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