Democrats Are Urging Sen. Al Franken To Reconsider His Decision To Resign

Sen. Al Franken recently announced his decision to resign. However, he announced it in a very interesting way. He didn’t give a date. He said he’d resign in the “coming weeks.” He gave himself quite a bit of wiggle room.

JUST IN: Sen. Al Franken announces he is resigning from the Senate in the coming weeks after fellow Democrats called on him to resign https://t.co/WmT8OdZlN6 pic.twitter.com/bIFb1NnvOi

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 7, 2017

Many people have expressed their doubts that Franken will actually leave, and I think they’re right to remain skeptical. Especially after reading this.

A handful of Democrats are urging Sen. Al Franken to reconsider his decision to resign. Sen. Joe Manchin is one of those Democrats.

“What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats,” said West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin in an interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast to post on Tuesday. Subscribe here.

Atrocious? Really? There was a picture, dude. Photographic evidence.

Manchin said his colleagues are big fat hypocrites for urging Franken to resign and hugging him after his resignation speech.

“The most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen done to a human being — and then have enough guts to sit on the floor, watch him give his speech and go over and hug him? That’s hypocrisy at the highest level I’ve ever seen in my life. Made me sick,” Manchin said.

He added, “Here’s a man, that all he said [was], ‘Take me through the Ethics Committee. I will live by whatever decision and I will walk away thinking about this opportunity I’ve had while I was here. But you find out if I’m a predator.’”

Others Democratic lawmakers are feeling a sense of regret too.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who issued a statement calling for Franken’s resignation, has since told him privately that he regrets doing so, according to two people familiar with the conversation. Leahy declined to comment.

“I think we acted prematurely, before we had all the facts,” said a third senator who has also called for the resignation, and has since expressed regret directly to Franken. “In retrospect, I think we acted too fast.” The senator asked not to be named because of the political sensitivity of the issue among Democrats.

However, those close to Franken say he hasn’t changed his mind. They say he plans to resign sometime in early January, but again. He has a few weeks to “reconsider.” You never really know. I could totally see him saying something like, “I’m going to wait for the Ethics Committee investigation after all. In the meantime, President Trump isn’t resigning, so why should I?”

It could happen. You never know.

I should note, Tina Smith has already been selected to replace Franken, and word has it they’re working on the transition. So maybe Franken will resign in January after all. We’ll find out soon enough. Meanwhile, Manchin is holding on to hope.

“I hope they have enough guts … and enough conscience and enough heart to say, ‘Al, we made a mistake asking prematurely for you to leave,'” he said of his colleagues.

Oh brother.

h/t Politico