Gillibrand campaign links low fundraising to Al Franken backlash: memo

[Celerity]

118. actually it is true, all Democratic Senators except 5 called in public or private for him to resign

Only Joe Manchin said he should not resign. 3 of the other 4 were on the Senate Ethics committee and could not comment, and the 4th, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, was under federal criminal indictment for corruption at the time and chose to say nothing.

Female Democratic senators coordinated a wave of calls for resignation

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/06/politics/senators-al-franken-resignation/index.html

Nearly three weeks after sexual harassment allegations first emerged against Sen. Al Franken, a wave of Democratic senators — in coordination and following a flurry of text messages and phone calls — called for his resignation in rapid succession Wednesday morning.

Starting around 11:30 a.m. ET, the senators posted statements in a coordinated effort, one after the other, on social media, saying the Minnesota Democrat should step down. Some comments were elaborate, lengthy and loaded with a moral message. Others, like that of Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, were straight to the point. "Al Franken should resign," she simply tweeted.

Within the next 90 minutes, 16 Democrats -- 10 of them women -- and one Republican senator -- Susan Collins of Maine -- had publicly urged their colleague to vacate his seat.

The flood of calls came just one day after Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat who has also been accused of sexual misconduct, announced he was resigning following calls from leaders in his own party to quit.

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Women Democratic senators had been talking behind the scenes for at least the past week about how to deal with Franken, multiple aides told CNN. But those talks reached a tipping point Wednesday morning, they said, when Politico published a report at 9 a.m. ET of another woman alleging that Franken touched her inappropriately in 2006, before he was elected to office.

The story prompted a flurry of calls and texts between Senate offices within minutes, and it was decided sometime between then and about 10:30 a.m. ET that the women senators would go public in a show of unity with their desire for Franken to step aside.
"Their patience had worn incredibly thin," said an aide to one of the women senators.




Democrats stampede to drive Sen. Franken from office amid sexual misconduct allegations

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/democratic-women-senators-call-franken-resign-amid-sexual-misconduct-allegations-n827036

Democratic women on Wednesday led the charge of more than two dozen senators who called on their embattled colleague, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, to resign after multiple women accused him of harassment or sexual misconduct.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Kamala Harris of California, Patty Murray of Washington and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin kicked off the stampede on Wednesday, all putting out statements within minutes of one another saying it was time for Franken to go.

By the evening, at least 35 Democrats — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York — were calling on him to quit, and Franken's office said the senator was planning an announcement from the Senate floor Thursday morning at 11:45. Some fellow Democrats said they believe he will announce he is resigning.

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Avalanche of Democratic senators say Franken should resign

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/363543-women-in-senate-call-for-franken-to-resign


That changed when a new charge became public on Wednesday from a woman who said the senator has sought to forcibly kiss her in a 2006 incident.

Six female Democratic senators quickly followed Gillibrand in saying that Franken should step down: Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) and Maggie Hassan (N.H.).

"I believe the best thing for Senator Franken to do is step down," Harris said.

By early afternoon, Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat, and Democratic Sens. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Tom Carper (Del.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Tom Udall (N.M.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), Gary Peters (Mich.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) had also called on Franken to resign.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Angus King (Maine), both Independents who caucus with the Democrats, also called on Franken to step down.

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Warren joins chorus calling for Franken’s resignation

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/12/06/aide-says-warren-called-franken-and-told-him-should-resign/FB0n5aTIdNc3IiRM8gSwXN/story.html

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren joined the chorus of Democratic senators calling for Minnesota Democrat Al Franken to resign in the wake of new sexual harassment allegations, including fellow Senator Ed Markey.

Female Democratic senators lead the charge for Franken’s ouster Wednesday, but Warren was the last among them to speak out publicly against him, waiting until mid-afternoon to do so.

“I think he should resign,” Elizabeth Warren said in a statement put out by her staff. She did not elaborate.

Earlier in the afternoon, a Warren aide told the Globe that the senator had talked to Franken privately and told him he should step down.

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Even Senator Klobuchar told him to resign in private and called his resignation the right decision

'The right decision,' Amy Klobuchar, others say of Franken's resignation

https://www.twincities.com/2017/12/07/amy-klobuchar-mark-dayton-others-react-to-al-franken-resignation-announcement/

U.S. SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR

“Today Senator Franken acknowledged that he could no longer serve in the Senate and resigned. As he and I discussed yesterday, this is the right decision. Senator Franken has worked for years on behalf of the people of Minnesota and he has been a leader on issues that are fundamental to Americans’ lives, including education, privacy, healthcare and mental health. He has been a friend to me and to many in our state.

“As the women who have come forward to tell their stories across America have made clear, sexual harassment is never acceptable. In every workplace in America, including the U.S. Senate, we must confront the challenges of harassment and misconduct. Nothing is easy or pleasant about this, but we all must recognize that our workplace cultures — and the way we treat each other as human beings — must change.

“For Franni, the Franken family, Senator Franken’s friends and supporters in our state, it’s a very tough day. I want you to know I remain as committed as ever to working together and standing up for people, for common decency, and for our democracy during an incredibly difficult and divisive time in our country. And as we go forward together, we must never forget the words of Senator Paul Wellstone, whom Senator Franken quoted in part today, ‘Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives.”

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https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/08/politics/amy-klobuchar-senate-al-franken-minnesota/index.html

"I had condemned his conduct early on when the first allegation was made," she told CNN's Dana Bash on "Inside Politics." "I felt I was in a different role as his colleague, that I'm someone that has worked with him for a long time, there's a lot of trust there, and I felt it was best to handle it in that way."

In a coordinated effort, female Democratic senators called for Franken's resignation in rapid fire Wednesday. Klobuchar did not join in that effort and said in a statement at the time that she spoke with him privately. By Wednesday evening, more than two dozen senators -- including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer -- had called for Franken's resignation.

"I talked to him about the fact that you had reached the situation with the mounting allegations and the fact that there was an ethics investigation going on," Klobuchar told CNN Friday.

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When asked about the ramifications of Franken's decision to resign, which Bash said was "under duress" -- and Klobuchar agreed -- the senator said it's "not about just toppling men." "This is about guaranteeing we will have better workplaces where people treat each other fairly," she responded. "And there is a lot of good men in the workplace. You know some of them. I think the key here will be due process."

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https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2017/12/why-democrats-pushed-franken-out.html?page=all

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A contrast is just what Democrats likely want to focus on, according to The Washington Post. Forcing out Franken, along with Rep. John Conyers, shows the party is “willing to sacrifice their own in the interest of staking out the higher ground,” per The Post.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar called Franken Wednesday and privately urged him to step down, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. While she plans to uphold Franken’s legacy and the work he’s done for the state, she thought his speech was “short.”

“I know that he didn’t really apologize to the people and that would have been nice,” Klobuchar said, per the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

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http://www.startribune.com/sen-amy-klobuchar-says-franken-s-legacy-will-last-but-adds-he-should-have-apologized/462628583/

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As for the farewell speech itself, Klobuchar said: “I thought the speech was short. ... I know that he didn’t really apologize to the people and that would have been nice.

“I think the bigger deal for me was that he was able to talk ... with a lot of love for our state, what he liked about his job and what he wanted to be his legacy.”

That legacy, she said, would include Franken’s work on issues like health care and privacy.

But the legacy will also be shadowed by more than half a dozen sexual harassment allegations against Franken. On Wednesday, Klobuchar said, as a seventh accuser came forward and other Senate Democrats began calling for his resignation, she called Franken to privately urge him to do the “right thing” and step down.

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my thoughts:


At the end of the day, the ONLY Democratic Senator to publicly say Franken should not resign was Joe Manchin.

As I said above, every other one, except for Bob Menendez of New Jersey (at the time facing a federal corruption trial) and the 3 members of the Senate Ethics Committee (Chris Coons of Delaware, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who could not make any statements), publicly or private told him to resign. I am pretty sure those 4, if their situations were different, would have joined the calls for Franken to go.

It is patent revisionism to lay the blame almost solely on Gillibrand. Take her out of the picture and the exact same thing would have happened, as evidenced by the articles above.

She is not my first (or 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc) choice for our nominee for POTUS 2020, but she also was the ONLY Democratic Senator to vote against EVERY single Trump nomination for high positions and she has been a tireless worker this 2018 cycle to help get out the vote across the country. She is a solid as hell liberal who is on the good side of most, if not all, issues that I care about, and she backs it up with actual votes.

She has even been called a Quisling on some threads. That is outrageous. Vidkun Quisling was the NAZI leader of the puppet government in Norway during WWII. It is beyond the pale to compare one of our great Senators a Nazi war criminal who was executed for his crimes against humanity.