Al Franken calls Senate bid ‘tempting’ four years after resignation
Disgraced former Democratic senator and “Saturday Night Live” fixture Al Franken is considering running for office again, calling the idea “tempting” four years after he resigned following multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
“Do you have it in your bones or in your blood to jump back into the political arena and run for elective office again?” Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart asked Franken in a podcast interview this week.
“I don’t know,” Franken said. “I certainly loved my time in the Senate. I loved the job. I got a lot done. I was able to accomplish things I couldn’t accomplish anywhere else, I don’t think. So yeah, it would be tempting to try to do that again.”
“Mm-hmm, at some point,” Capehart suggested.
“Yeah,” answered Franken, who claimed that at age 70, he has ample time to plot out his political future.
Franken was first elected to the Senate from Minnesota in 2008 and won a second term in 2014. He announced he would resign in December 2017 after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct.
One of the claims against Franken came from radio host Leeann Tweeden, who accused him of forcing an unwanted kiss on her and pretending to grab her breasts during a 2006 USO tour.
Seven other women also came forward, some anonymously, to recount similar experiences with Franken.
Franken’s resignation took effect in early 2018. However, it wasn’t long before he began regretting his decision.
“I can’t go anywhere without people reminding me of this, usually with some version of ‘You shouldn’t have resigned,’” Franken said in a 2019 interview with The New Yorker.
The comedy veteran told the magazine that his normal response to such support was to say “Yup,” which he later elaborated meant “Oh, yeah, absolutely.”
In the months that followed his resignation, Franken revealed that he hadn’t ruled out running for office again.
“I don’t know. I haven’t ruled it out, and I haven’t ruled it in,” he told a Minnesota CBS station in the summer of 2018.
Franken’s resignation was strongly encouraged by his fellow members of Congress, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who reportedly threatened to sic his colleagues on Franken if he refused to go.
In his interview with The New Yorker, Franken revealed that Schumer told him to resign by 5 p.m. or he would tell the entire Democratic caucus to call on him to step down
“It was like a scene out of a movie,” recalled Franken, who added that Schumer had threatened him with censure.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Franken added. “I asked him for due process and he said no.”
Last month, Fox News host Mark Levin slammed Franken for comparing the US to Nazi Germany during an episode of his podcast.
“This is a serious one, and I just — I think other people are feeling it — it feels like, I don’t know, 1933 Germany,” Franken said of the Democratic failure to pass election reform legislation and the potential for Republicans to take back the Senate and/or House in the 2022 midterms.
“And I’m just like, in a tavern and looking over at the other table and there are guys in black jackboots and Nazi uniforms, and I’m going like, ‘Hmm. This looks bad, wonder how bad it can get,’” Franken added.
Levin blasted the comparison of the US to Nazi Germany, saying “we’re getting so far away from our history.”
Just last week, Franken defended “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg after she was suspended over a widely criticized segment in which she claimed the Holocaust was “not about race.”
“I know Whoopi. She’s not anti-Semitic. She chose ‘Goldberg’ for her last name for a stage name,” Franken said on CNN. “I think she gave a really fulsome and sincere apology. I think what she said wasn’t quite what she meant.”
If Franken has any designs on his old seat, he may need to wait a while. His successor, Tina Smith, isn’t up for re-election until 2026.
