Amy Klobuchar explains why she did not join female colleagues in calling on Al Franken to resign

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Friday that she did not come out against Sen. Al Franken out of professional courtesy as his fellow Minnesota representative.

“I felt that I was in a different role as his colleague. That I’m someone that has worked with him for a long time, and there was a lot of trust there, and I felt it was best to handle it in that way,” Ms. Klobuchar, a Democrat, said on CNN.

She said that she spoke with him the day before he decided to resign and told him of the mounting calls for his resignation on Capitol Hill. Mr. Franken, also a Democrat, has been accused of forcibly kissing and groping several different women. He has denied some of the accusations. 

“I felt that giving him that time and that moment to reflect and talk to his family was important, and he ended up, as you know, resigning, with many of our colleagues there on the Senate floor,” Ms. Klobuchar said.

When asked about Mr. Franken’s floor speech, which did not include an apology to those who accused him of inappropriate conduct, Ms. Klobuchar continued to point to Mr. Franken’s resignation announcement.

She also said she did not see the calls for resignation as a political tactic by Democrats, saying if that were the goal, then more people would have called on him to resign sooner rather then differ to an ethics investigation.