Absolutely.вЂќ He wishes that he had appeared before a Senate Ethics Committee hearing, as he had requested, allowing him to marshal facts that countered the narrative aired in the press. When I asked him if he truly regretted his decision to resign, he said, вЂњOh, yeah. He told me that his therapist had likened his experience to вЂњwhat happens when primates are shunned and humiliated by the rest of the other primates.вЂќ Their reaction, Franken said, with a mirthless laugh, вЂњis вЂIвЂ™m going to die alone in the jungle.вЂ™В вЂќ Holding his head in his hands, he said, вЂњI donвЂ™t think people who have been sexually assaulted, and those kinds of things, want to hear from people who have been #MeTooвЂ™d that theyвЂ™re victims.вЂќ Yet, he added, being on the losing side of the #MeToo movement, which he fervently supports, has led him to spend time thinking about such matters as due process, proportionality of punishment, and the consequences of Internet-fuelled outrage. вЂњBelieve WomenвЂќ has become a credo of the #MeToo movement.ДЄt his house, Franken said he understood that, in such an atmosphere, the public might not be eager to hear his grievances. This reticence reflects the cultural moment: in an era when womenвЂ™s accusations of sexual discrimination and harassment are finally being taken seriously, after years of belittlement and dismissal, some see it as offensive to subject accusers to scrutiny. Although both Franken and Tweeden called for an independent investigation into her charges, none took place. Half the accusersвЂ™ names have still not become public. Seven more women followed with accusations against Franken all of them centered on inappropriate touches or kisses.

Gillibrand has cast herself as a feminist champion of вЂњzero toleranceвЂќ toward sexual impropriety, but Democratic donors sympathetic to Franken have stunted her fund-raising and, Gillibrand says, tried to вЂњintimidateвЂќ her вЂњinto silence.вЂќДЇrankenвЂ™s fall was stunningly swift: he resigned only three weeks after Leeann Tweeden, a conservative talk-radio host, accused him of having forced an unwanted kiss on her during a 2006 U.S.O. At the same time, the Presidential candidacy of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been plagued by questions about her role as the first of three dozen Democratic senators to demand FrankenвЂ™s resignation. On JuneВ 4th, Pete Buttigieg was widely criticized on social media for saying that he would not have pressured Franken to resign-as had virtually all his Democratic rivals who were then in the Senate-without first learning more about the alleged incidents. His tough questioning of Jeff Sessions, TrumpвЂ™s nominee for Attorney General, had led Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election, and prompted the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.ДЄs it turns out, FrankenвЂ™s only role in the 2020 Presidential campaign has been as a figure of controversy. In Senate hearings, Franken had proved himself to be one of the most effective critics of the Trump Administration. Only two years ago, Franken was being talked up as a possible challenger to President Donald Trump in 2020. He had been perhaps the most recognizable figure in the Senate, in part because heвЂ™d entered it as a celebrity: a best-selling author and a former writer and performer on вЂњ Saturday Night Live.вЂќ Now Franken was just one more face in a gallery of previously powerful men who had been brought down by the #MeToo movement, and whom no one wanted to hear from again. But Franken had experienced one of the most abrupt downfalls in recent political memory. There had been occasional sightings of him: in Washington, people mentioned having glimpsed him riding the Metro or browsing alone in a bookstore there was gossip that he had fallen into a depression, and had been seen in a fetal position on a friendвЂ™s couch. But the place felt like the kind of man cave where someone hides out from the world, which is more or less what Franken has been doing since he resigned, in December, 2017, amid accusations of sexual impropriety. His wife, Franni Bryson, was stuck in their apartment in Washington, D.C., with a cold, and he had evidently done the best he could to be hospitable. Takeout containers of hummus and carrot sticks were set out on the kitchen table. It was a sunny day, but the shades were mostly drawn. Last month, in Minneapolis, I climbed the stairs of a row house to find Al Franken, MinnesotaвЂ™s disgraced former senator, wandering around in jeans and stocking feet.

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