Franken Gives First Public Speech Since Resigning To Minnesota Jewish Group
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) looks at his wife Franni Bryson before walking to the Senate chamber to announce his resignation, December 7, 2017. Image by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
(JTA) — Al Franken addressed a Jewish group, reportedly the first public speech he has delivered since resigning from the Senate 19 months ago.
He spoke on Sunday to the Jewish Family Service of St. Paul, Minnesota Post columnist Eric Black reported.
Franken did not discuss the facts and circumstances that led to his resignation from the Senate, as he has not in any forum since his resignation.
Late last month Franken started “The Al Franken Podcast,” amid speculation that he is considering a political comeback.
In his talk, at the Midpointe Event Center, he shared biographical anecdotes and political commentary, according to Black. He mocked President Trump’s failure to come up with an alternative to the Affordable Care Act and his denials of climate change.
The event was billed as a “Celebration of Service.”
Franken resigned from the U.S. Senate in December 2017 in the wake of calls for him to step down following accusations of sexual misconduct by several women. At the time of his resignation he said on the floor of the Senate that some of the allegations against him were untrue and that he “remembered very differently” some of the other incidents.
Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” performer and writer who was first elected to the Senate in 2008, apologized before his resignation to Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio host, who said he forcibly kissed and groped her during a 2006 tour of military bases. Tweeden released a photo showing Franken posing with his hands hovering over her chest as she naps wearing a flak vest aboard a military plane.
Other women allege Franken grabbed their buttocks while posing with them for photos during separate campaign events in 2007, 2008 and 2010. An unnamed former Democratic congressional aide told Politico that Franken tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, three years before he became a U.S. senator.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
