Senate Braces For Al Franken Speech As Calls For Resignation Crescendo
Amid growing calls for his resignation, Senator Al Franken announced this morning that he will be giving a speech on the Senate floor before noon.
Franken’s office announced the speech in a bare bones tweet that belied the dramatic drop in support from congressional Democrats in the wake of a seventh accusation of sexual misconduct levied against the Minnesota politician.
Senator Franken is scheduled to deliver a speech from the Senate floor at 11:45 AM ET.
— Sen. Al Franken (@SenFranken) December 7, 2017
While some outlets are reporting that Franken will resign Thursday, others have cited Franken’s Twitter account, which demurred on the question of an immediate resignation.
“No final decision has been made and the Senator is still talking with his family,” Franken’s Twitter account tweeted in response to a Minnesota Public Radio story late Wednesday evening. “Please update your story.”
But the Democratic leadership is now standing firm in statements calling for Franken to leave.
“He has a higher obligation to his constituents and the Senate, and he should step down immediately,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Wednesday.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO