The rehabilitation of Al Franken continues apace.
The disgraced former senator got a boost this week on CNN when anchor Alisyn Camerota downplayed the facts of his resignation.
“As you know, Al Franken resigned during this ‘Me Too’ moment, where he was seen pretending to grope a sleeping woman, before he was ever a senator,” the cable news host said in an interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
What a curious characterization of what actually happened.
Franken didn’t step down from the Senate last December simply because he once pantomimed groping a sleeping woman and was caught on camera. His reluctant resignation came only after eight separate women had accused him of unwanted touching and kissing. In fact, the groping picture that Camerota referenced was part of a larger accusation by the woman in the picture that also included forced kissing.
To say the former senator was pushed out of the Senate because of an old, inappropriate photo would be like saying Roy Moore’s Senate campaign fell apart because he was bad at dating.
Camerota moved on from whitewashing the Franken allegations to asking Klobuchar whether the former senator should get back in the game. The cable news host even prefaced her question with a note of apology, because speaking truth to power or something.
“I understand, and he’s your friend, and I know that I’m putting you in an awkward position,” Camerota said, adding, “Would you like to see Al Franken run again?”
To Klobuchar’s credit, the senator didn’t jump on the Franken rehabilitation bandwagon, setting herself apart from left-wing luminaries like EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock and former Obama adviser David Axelrod.
“Al made his own decision to resign, so I don’t see this in the cards that he’s running right now,” said the Minnesota lawmaker. “He’s incredibly creative, so let’s see what he does.”
Camerota kept at it, though, referring to Franken’s comments this week that he hadn’t ruled out getting back into public office.
“This isn’t just wild speculation,” said the host. “He’s the one saying he hasn’t ruled it out, and I guess I’m just wondering, would you like to see him back in Congress?”
“I’d like to see him back in doing good work, and using his skills and his passion for public service in a way, but that doesn’t mean that he necessarily has to run for office,” Klobuchar responded, again not taking the bait.
The senator, who supported Franken’s choice to resign, added, “I have not talked to him about running for office again, and I’m hoping that he works on some of the issues he cares a lot about, and there’s many ways you can do that besides running for office.”
It’s sort of amazing that in a conversation between an Democratic senator and a news anchor, the Democratic senator wasn’t the one downplaying the allegations against a male former colleague while also suggesting he run again for office.
Full disclosure: This author is a paid contributor with CNN/HLN.
