A DFL candidate for the Minnesota Senate will host a fundraiser this weekend with former U.S. Sen. Al Franken, who resigned from office in January 2018 after facing multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
Franken was accused by eight women of groping or kissing them without their consent, according to The Guardian.
“Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember differently,” Franken said of the allegations, initially declining to step down before facing intense pressure to leave the Senate from women in his own party.
Since his resignation, several Democrats have said they regret calling on the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member to step down and believe his case should have been handled differently.
One of his accusers said Franken groped her in 2009 during a Media Matters party for former President Barack Obama’s first inauguration.
“We posed for the shot. He immediately put his hand on my waist, grabbing a handful of flesh. I froze. Then he squeezed. At least twice,” she said. “It shrunk me. It’s like I was no longer a person, only ornamental. It said, ‘You don’t matter — and I do.’ He wanted to cop a feel and he demonstrated he didn’t need my permission.”
Franken has been plotting a comeback over the past two years, culminating in his recent appearance as a guest host on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
Now, fellow Democrat Grant Hauschild, endorsed by the DFL, plans to host a fundraiser with Franken Sunday afternoon.
“Franken was forced to leave office due to mistreatment of multiple women and it’s atrocious that a candidate for Senate is now embracing him. Does Grant not believe the more than half a dozen women who spoke out about Franken’s groping?” Women LEAD, a group that seeks to elect Republican women in Minnesota, said in response.
Hauschild is running against Republican Andrea Zupancich, the current mayor of Babbitt, for Senate District 3.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
