In a weird 2017 bedside chat, Sen. Chuck Schumer threatened to sic the entire Democratic caucus on Al Franken if he refused to resign from the chamber amidst several women claiming Franken had inappropriately touched them, a report said Monday.
Franken told The New Yorker magazine that he asked to meet with Schumer, and the minority leader suggested Franken come to his DC apartment to avoid the press.
“It was like a scene out of a movie,” Franken told the magazine, describing how Schumer sat at the edge of his bed while Franken and his wife pleaded with the Dem leader for more time to weather the storm that saw fellow senators call for him to step down.
Instead, Schumer told Franken to resign by 5 p.m. or he would tell the entire Democratic caucus to call on him to step down, according to the report.
Schumer also told the embattled senator that he could be censured and stripped of his committee assignments, the New Yorker reported.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Franken told the magazine. “I asked him for due process and he said no.”
Schumer’s press officer denied he threatened to line up Dems in calling for Franken’s resignation but said the senator did instruct him to resign by 5 p.m., according to the New Yorker.
Franken told the magazine that he “absolutely” regrets his December 2017 resignation over a sexual misconduct scandal.