Former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., resigned from Congress in 2018 amid allegations of sexual harassment. Since then, things have changed.
On Wednesday, Franken spoke to The Washington Post Wednesday, and he discussed the future of his career.
Franken was asked whether he would run for election again.
“Yeah,” he responded. “It would be tempting to try to do that again.”
Franken won election to the U.S. Senate in 2008. Before that, he worked in talk radio and the entertainment industry. Most famously, he wrote for Saturday Night Live intermittently between 1975 and 1995.
Then Franken watched his career fall apart in 2017.
The newscaster Leeann Tweeden, without enough evidence, accused Franken of forcibly kissing her. Several other women accused him of lesser offenses, like inappropriate touching.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sent the allegations to the Senate Ethics Committee. Yet, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., demanded Franken’s resignation before the formal review. More than 20 Senate Democrats joined her.
On Wednesday, Franken fielded questions about running for Gillibrand’s seat in 2024.
“Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was the one who led that effort to get you to leave the Senate,” a Post reporter noted. “You recently said that you would not run for Gillibrand’s seat in the Senate, but this leads to a Twitter question that came in that asks, ‘Are you going to run again?’ Do you have it in your bones or in your blood to jump back into the political arena and run for elective office again?”
“I don’t know,” Franken responded. “I certainly loved my time in the Senate. I loved the job. I got a lot done. I was able to accomplish anything I couldn’t accomplish anywhere else — I don’t think. So, yeah! It would be tempting to try to do that again.
The reporter asked how soon. He said, “At some point, perhaps?”
“Yeah. I’m only 70.” Franken said.
The average U.S. Senator is 63, as of Thursday. The oldest senator, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, is 88.
“Grassley’s running for reelection,” Franken observed. “You know that when someone’s 87 and they won’t stand up against — even though he denounced Trump early on. Then he hugged him on the stage. You know that if he won’t go down on principle at 87, he’s not going to do it probably at any other time.”
Franken has previously expressed his wish to go back to Congress.
After leaving office, Franken spoke to The New Yorker about the sex scandal. He was asked whether he regretted his decision to reign. He said, “Oh, yeah. Absolutely.”
In 2019, seven senators told the magazine that they regretted calling for Franken’s resignation.
Some reporting at The New Yorker has revealed gaping holes in Tweeden’s allegation against Franken. Tweeden may have lifted part of her story from one of her old comedy routines.
Franken has acknowledged the inappropriate touching, and he’s apologized. However, he also took issue with some Senate Democrats for pushing him out.
“I’m angry at my colleagues who did this. I think they were just trying to get past one bad news cycle,” he told the magazine. “I became clinically depressed. I wasn’t a hundred per cent cognitively. I needed medication.”
Gillibrand has defended her call for Franken to resign.
“The women who came forward felt it was sexual harassment,” Gillibrand told the magazine. “So it was.”
Watch an excerpt of the livestream here —