As he makes his way back into the spotlight, former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken is arguing that he was unfairly treated when he was pressured to resign amid allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women.
His former Senate colleagues have since come out and said they regretted forcing Franken’s resignation a year and a half ago.
“They just basically all said that I deserved due process, and I believe I did, too,” Franken told Conan O’Brien on Thursday night.
Eight women accused the Democrat of forcibly kissing and inappropriately touching them, leading to Franken stepping down from the Senate in January 2018. But Franken said the allegations do not reflect who he is, and it has forced him to be more considerate in his interactions.
“When this first happened, if you had asked me, ‘Have you ever made a woman feel uncomfortable by the way you put your arm around her or touched her or something like that,’ I would have said, ‘No,'” Franken said. “And after all of these allegations came in, I thought, ‘Oh, I must be doing something wrong.’ So, you know, ever since, I’ve been a lot more mindful in my interactions with pretty much everyone.
“People that know me know I’m not that guy, that guy that 36 of my colleagues demanded that I go and put on the pressure — the pressure came on me in no uncertain terms that I had to go,” he added.
In recent months, Franken has been making his way back into the public eye. He gave an interview to the New Yorker, which published a controversial profile of the former senator and comedian that cast doubt on one woman’s allegations against him.
SiriusXM announced earlier this week that Franken will be joining the network to help cover the 2020 election and host a weekly radio show.
