Facing a massive internal backlash amidst mounting fresh allegations of sexual misconduct and vanishing support from fellow Democrats, US Senator Al Franken [D-Min], announced Thursday he would resign from the Senate in the wake of groping allegations
Making the announcement Thursday morning from the floor of the Senate, Franken maintained his innocence and blasted President Trump for bragging about ‘his history of sexual assault.’ when he
Franken said he will leave in ‘the coming weeks’ – even as he insisted the public charges he groped six women were not accurate.
He had earlier pledged to cooperate with the Ethics committee, that is before a raft of his colleagues disagreed, coming out against him 24 hours earlier in an extraordinary effort to flush him out of the chamber.
‘Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember very differently,’ said Franken.

Lindsay Menz [left] claims Al Franken [right] grabbed her rear end while they posed for this photographIt started when radio broadcaster Leeann Tweeden, who produced this notorious photograph and accused Franken of unwanted sexual overtures

As the most high-profile politician to lose his job over recent harassment allegations, he took a direct shot at President Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
‘I, of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits the Oval Office,’ Franken said, in an obvious reference to the infamous ‘p**** tape.’
‘And a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaign for the Senate with the full support of his party. But this decision is not about me. It’s about the people of Minnesota,’ he said of Moore, who is accused of dating and sexually touching teens, some as young as 14, while he was in his 30s in Alabama in the late ’70s ad early ’80s.
The charges against Franken dated from before he became a senator, and he said that: ‘Nothing I have done as a senator, nothing has brought dishonor on this institution.’
Continuing to tout his own record, Franken said: ‘I am proud that during my time in the Senate I have used my power to be a champion of women.’

‘All women deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously,’ Franken said, even as he continued to dispute public claims by women who say he grabbed and kissed them without consent.
He said his initial decision to submit to an inquiry and speak about honoring the experiences of women ‘gave some people the false impression that I was admitting to doing things that in fact I haven’t done.’
Franken concluded his speech with a hat-tip to political service. ‘Even on the worst day of my political life, I feel like it’s all been worth it,’ he said. When his speech concluded, there was silence inside the Senate.
The move makes him the most high-profile politician to be brought down by the wave of sexual harassment allegations that have rocked business, Hollywood, and politics.
It was not immediately clear when Franken would vacate his post. Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, himself a former senator, gets to appoint a temporary replacement until a special election would be held.
Speculation is that Franken would be succeeded by a woman such as Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith.