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Former Sen. Al Franken says he “absolutely” regrets his December 2017 resignation over a sexual misconduct scandal — and some of the senators who’d pressed him to quit are also questioning their actions. “I can’t go anywhere without people reminding me of this, usually with some version of ‘You shouldn’t have resigned,’” Franken, the former “Saturday Night Live” funnyman-turned-politician, said in a lengthy look back at the incident in The New Yorker. “Yup,” was his usual reply, he told the magazine. Pressed on whether he means it, he adds: “Oh, yeah. Absolutely.” Leeann Tweeden, a conservative talk-radio host, had accused...

Did anyone notice Hirono ‘prompt’ Gillibrand this evening, when Gillibrand was braying about Kavanaugh?

Former Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) said he hadn't ruled out the possibility of running for public office again during an interview with a CBS Minnesota television station on Monday. Franken attended the dedication of Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig High School on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. He sat on the Indian Affairs Committee in the U.S. Senate and helped secure $12 million in funding for new facilities to replace the old one, which was in dismal condition. "That means a lot to me. It was very moving for me. It was very gratifying. I put my heart in the job," Franken said....

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Fox News took Bill O’Reilly off the air after a heavy campaign to fire him led by CNN’s media unit and The New York Times. If all the charges of sexual harassment are true, his case is indefensible. That said, it’s time for his media critics to stand down. They are guilty of rank hypocrisy. These same media outlets despised the idea that Donald Trump would drag Bill Clinton’s sexual harassment lawsuits into the presidential campaign. On Jan. 8, 2016, the Times editorial staff sneered: “It is also a tired subject that few Americans want to hear more about. If...

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) wouldn’t say Monday whether his colleagues Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) should resign over multiple sexual assault allegations that include, in Franken’s case, photographic evidence. While Ellison didn't want to call for resignations, he was willing to say that his colleagues should "examine their consciences." "Well, you know, Amy, you know, here's the thing,” Ellison told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman when she directly asked if he thought Franken and Conyers should resign. “I would ask every member of Congress, including those, to look inside their conscience and ask themselves just a few...

Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey stormed Senator Al Franken’s D.C. office Wednesday, demanding the embattled lawmaker resign over multiple sexual harassment allegations against him. Reporter Melanie Morgan, a Franken accuser, joined Broaddrick and Willey. Of course, Broaddrick and Willey are two of former President Bill Clinton’s most famous accusers.

Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) exhibited mounting frustration Wednesday with the inaction on Capitol Hill in light of the recent sexual allegations. She has called for the resignation of both Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and even walked out of the House Democrats’ morning conference meeting saying harassment wasn’t being addressed seriously. “I don’t have time for meetings that aren’t real,” she told reporters. Rep. Kathleen Rice leaves House Dem meeting early, saying harassment wasn’t being addressed seriously. “I don’t have time for meetings that aren’t real.” pic.twitter.com/hoB6lAmBqX— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 29, 2017 Rice asked House...

BOOM! As I’m writing this morning’s Update, Down Goes Lauer! Down Goes Lauer! Down Goes Lauer! More on this tomorrow. Melanie Sloan, a former top communications aide to 88 year-old Democrat Congressman John Conyers, told an interviewer on Tuesday of an instance in which Conyers called her to his office when he was in his underwear. “I was pretty taken aback to see my boss half-dressed,” she told The Washington Post. “I turned on my heel and I left.” Alrighty, then. Ms. Sloan has leveled sexual harassment allegations at Conyers that date back to 1997, 20 years ago. The unfortunately...

To say yesterday was a bad day for Pelosi is putting it mildly. She allowed ego and hurt feelings to trump (see what I did there) the possibility of proving the Democratic Party is willing to sit down and negotiate on important issues like immigration. Instead, she and Chuck Schumer chose not to attend a planned meeting with President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Seems Pelosi’s delicate feelings got hurt when the President tweeted ahead of time that he didn’t think there could be a deal because Pelosi and company...

Franken and Conyers get protected by both their fellow Democrats and by Republicans Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, who have begun “investigations” into their behavior by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). This is akin to siccing Inspector Clouseau onto the paths of serial killers. Placing these matters in the hands of the OCE simply means that nothing will happen for many months, as the “investigation” proceeds at a snail’s pace, in the hopes that it will all fade from the public’s collective memory in the meantime. It’s a bi-partisan protection racket. – But of course, we all must keep...

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) defended former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) against allegations of sexual misconduct while attacking President Donald Trump and Alabama GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore. On Clinton, Pelosi said, “I think it is a generational change. Let me say the concern we had then was that they were impeaching the president of the United States. and for something that had nothing to do with the performance of his duties and trying to take him out for that reason.” On Conyers, Pelosi...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) backtracked on Monday evening from her previous defense of Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.) by describing his behavior against Melanie Sloan in the 1990's as "unacceptable and disappointing." Pelosi released a statement after meeting with Sloan, a prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer who previously worked with Conyers as the minority counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 1995 until 1998. Sloan alleged last week that Conyers harassed and verbally abused her when they worked together. "This afternoon, I spoke with Melanie Sloan who worked for Congressman Conyers on the Judiciary Committee in the mid-1990s,"...

Yesterday, Sen. Al Franken broke his silence and did a media tour explaining away his sexual offenses. “I’m looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow,” he said. He should instead take some of his own medicine and resign. Five years ago, Franken co-sponsored a bill, the End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act, to strengthen federal legislation on human trafficking, which includes sexual exploitation. The bill, which was approved by the Senate in December 2012, was necessitated because of the failure of the existing “zero tolerance” policy. In July 2013, Franken co-sponsored another bill, the Military Justice Improvement Act, to...

As Guy has thoroughly exposed, over the weekend House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi defended Congressman John Conyers as an "icon" amid allegations he fired a woman on his staff after she refused to give him sexual favors. Over at Vox, Pelosi is being called out as the ultimate enabler of sexual harassers and abusers. "That woman." She'll also being held accountable as part of the reason why women don't come forward more often when they are victims of sexual misconduct. Conyers is the credible one. He is an “icon,” she told Todd. The woman? “I do not know who they...

Video House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi defended Rep. John Conyers on Sunday while saying accusations of sexual harassment against the 88-year-old Democratic congressman from Michigan should be taken “seriously.” On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Pelosi called Conyers “an icon in our country” who “has done a great deal to protect women” and deserves “due process.” “Just because someone is accused — and was it one accusation? Is it two?” Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “The fact is, as John reviews his case, which he knows, which I don’t, I believe he will do the right thing.” Last week, BuzzFeed revealed that in...

President Donald Trump now claims that the Access Hollywood tape on which he boasted of sexually assaulting women may not be genuine, according to a report in The New York Times. On the tape, which surfaced weeks before the November 2016 presidential election, the former reality star can be heard bragging to TV presenter Billy Bush of grabbing women “by the p***y.” Trump faced calls to step aside from the race after the tape went public, and apologized for the remarks, dismissing them as “locker room talk.” However according to the Times, the president told a senator earlier this year...

It has not been a good week for serial groper Al Franken. The Democratic senator from Minnesota is facing multiple bombshell accusations of unwanted groping and sexual misconduct against female reporters and constituents alike. Last week, Franken was accused of groping and kissing broadcaster Leeann Tweeden while on an overseas trip with her. An image of the groping was then released. Franken issued an apology after the incident, saying: “I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann. As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be...

Well, he didn’t do anything to me. That, in so many words, is what three dozen women who worked on “Saturday Night Live” said in a letter supporting Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Tuesday.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton contrasted the response of Senator Al Franken following an accusation of sexual harrassment to President Donald Trump's reaction after multiple allegations of harassment that emerged during the 2016 election campaign. In an interview with Rita Cosby on WABC radio on Friday, the former secretary of state said that party colleague Franken, who was accused this week of groping a female broadcaster in 2006, acted responsibly by apologizing and requesting the Senate ethics panel investigate his conduct. "I deeply regret what he did," Clinton said. "There's no excuse for his behavior. But he's called for...