Sen. Al Franken showed no sign of giving up his Senate seat Monday, even as calls on the left for him to resign intensified following a second allegation of sexual harassment.
Leading progressive groups Indivisible and CREDO Action joined Justice Democrats and UltraViolet in urging the Minnesota Democrat to resign after another woman, Lindsay Menz, accused him of groping her in 2010.
“We believe that Sen. Franken should immediately resign from the U.S. Senate and that Gov. Mark Dayton should appoint a progressive woman to replace him,” CREDO, an activist network that boasts 5 million members, said Monday in a statement.
The feminist group UltraViolet called Mr. Franken’s actions “deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable. He should resign.”
Ms. Menz, 33, who lives in Frisco, Texas, said Mr. Franken grabbed her buttocks in August 2010 as they posed for a photo together at the Minnesota State Fair after he was elected to the Senate.
“I felt gross. It’d be like being walking through the mall and some random person grabbing your butt,” Ms. Menz told CNN, adding that she told her parents and her husband immediately afterward.
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Mr. Franken said in a statement that he didn’t remember taking the photo, which showed the two of them pressed close together, but that “I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected.”
His staff told Minnesota Public Radio that the senator would not resign after Los Angeles news anchor Leeann Tweeden last week accused him of forcibly kissing and groping her in 2006, but that he would do “a lot of reflecting” as he spent Thanksgiving with his family in Washington, D.C.
Most of the calls for Mr. Franken to step down have come from the left, although a group called Voices of Conservative Women posted a pro-resignation petition on Change.org, citing the viral photo of the former comedian groping a sleeping Ms. Tweeden as they flew home from a USO tour.
“While U.S. Senator Franken acknowledges the photo, he claims he did it to be ’funny,’” said the petition, which had gathered nearly 5,000 signatures as of late Monday. “A sleeping woman can never consent to being sexually touched or propositioned.”
A petition by Justice Democrats, made of former Sen. Bernard Sanders campaign staff and other progressives, to replace Mr. Franken with Rep. Keith Ellison, Minnesota Democrat, had collected more than 7,000 signatures.
“It would be profoundly hypocritical for Democrats to stand by Franken in this moment,” said Justice Democrats. “We can’t tolerate harassment or assault.”
We believe Lindsay Menz. We believe Leeann Tweeden. Senator @alfranken should be held accountable and he should resign.
— Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam) November 20, 2017
Two candidates for the Minnesota Democratic gubernatorial nomination — state auditor Rebecca Otto and state Rep. Erin Murphy — called on Mr. Franken to step down shortly after Ms. Tweeden’s allegations went public on Thursday.
“Al Franken is my friend, but we can’t have a double standard,” Ms. Otto said in a statement.
His supporters argued that Mr. Franken deserves another chance. A petition called “We support Al Franken,” which had collected about 20,000 signatures, described him as a “dedicated, hard-working, respected legislator.”
“There is a difference between abuse and a mistake,” said the petition, posted before news of Ms. Menz’s allegation.
If Mr. Franken does decide to stick it out, his continued presence in the Senate “would be a gift to the Republican Party,” said National Review’s Kyle Smith.
While Mr. Franken himself has called for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, the allegations against him make it difficult for Democrats to claim the high moral ground as they target Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, a Republican facing multiple accusations of sexual harassment.
“To Republicans it’s Thanksgiving come early,” said Mr. Smith. “It makes no difference to the Republican policy agenda whether Franken or some other generic liberal Democrat holds that seat. If Franken remains, Roy Moore’s chances of victory in Alabama increase.”
The Alabama special election to replace Jeff Sessions, who stepped down to become U.S. attorney general, is scheduled for Dec. 12.
A number of Senate Democratic women have criticized Mr. Franken, including New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand and Washington’s Patty Murray, but so far none of them has called on him to resign.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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