WASHINGTON — A day after the latest in a dizzying series of sexual assault revelations enveloped Senator Al Franken and rattled the Capitol, politicians and comedians were left trying to assess the line between predatory behavior and an inexcusable mistake, as calls mounted for him to resign.

Mr. Franken, Democrat of Minnesota and a veteran of both comedy and politics — two industries under increased scrutiny for fostering cultures where sexual abuse is pervasive — was targeted by Republicans, including President Trump, who has himself been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault. Republicans are grappling with their own senatorial scandal, as Roy S. Moore pursues a Senate seat amid accusations of assaulting teenage girls.

But that did not diminish their zeal as they called on Mr. Franken to step down.

On Twitter, Mr. Trump publicly hinted at a pattern of assault, and the political fallout continued as two Minnesota candidates for governor, both Democrats, called on Mr. Franken to resign. The conservative writer and activist L. Brent Bozell III said Mr. Franken had been “caught red-handed conducting lewd and unacceptable behavior,” adding, “there is a pervert in the United States Senate.”

By Friday evening, Mr. Franken had canceled a coming appearance at a book fair in Miami.

But while there was no widespread public showing of support for Mr. Franken, a number of his allies, including three former “Saturday Night Live” colleagues and 10 former aides, all women, said that they did not believe his behavior fit a pattern or was in the same realm of misconduct as other high-profile men accused of sexual abuse in the entertainment industry... 

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/us/politics/franken-sexual-abuse-mistake-apology.html

Meanwhile:

Ed Henry, a Republican state representative, suggested it's the women who accused Mr Moore who should be prosecuted, for not coming forward with their stories sooner and so allowing an accused predator to roam free. Seriously.

And Jerry Pow, the Republican chairman of Bibb County, Alabama, told a reporter he'd vote for Roy Moore even if the allegations are true, and he did commit a sex crime against a teenager.

Take a breath and let that sink in for a moment - it's 2017 and an Alabama Republican official says he'd vote for a paedophile.

What's so revealing in the context of tribalism is Mr Pow's reasoning. He'd vote for Moore, he says, because he can't bring himself to vote for the Democrat in the race.

Jerry Pow believes any Democrat is de facto worse than any Republican - even if that Republican molested girls and then lied about it.

This is a whole step beyond the realm of fake news. This is taking facts, chucking them out with the trash and quite happily forming your own opinions based on nothing more flimsy than pure prejudice.

To the extent that tribalism comes from the top, it's worth noting President Trump has been conspicuously quiet on the subject of Republican Roy Moore, but tweeted scathing comments about Democrat Al Franken.

read more:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42031670

The chorus of Democrats calling on Minnesota Sen. Al Franken to step aside just got a whole lot louder. On Wednesday, as a seventh woman came forward to accuse Franken of inappropriate sexual conduct, a group of female Democratic senators led by New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand called on Franken to resign.

“I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn’t acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve,” Gillibrand said in a statement posted on Facebook.

JUST IN: Sen. Gillibrand calls for calls for Sen. Franken to "step aside"

"I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn’t acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve." pic.twitter.com/iZFv7jCwgR

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 6, 2017

Gillibrand was joined within minutes by Sens. Mazie Hironi (D-Hawaii), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). They were the first Senate Democrats to call on their colleague to resign. After Franken was first accused last month of forcibly kissing a colleague during a 2006 USO tour, he seemed determined to ride out the scandal and wait for the conclusion of a Senate ethics investigation into his conduct. But now he faces quickly growing opposition within the Senate. After these female senators demanded he leave the Senate, several Democratic male colleagues joined the call for Franken to quit. The group included Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). And Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tweeted Franken should step down.

Read more:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/a-growing-number-of-democrat...

Meanwhile:

Time magazine has named the social movement aimed at raising awareness about sexual harassment and assault, epitomised by the #MeToo social media hashtag, as the most influential "person" of 2017.

"This is the fastest-moving social change we've seen in decades, and it began with individual acts of courage by hundreds of women — and some men, too — who came forward to tell their own stories," Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal told NBC's Today program, referring to them as "The Silence Breakers".

The two runners-up were Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, himself accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women. He has denied any wrongdoing.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-07/time-magazine-names-metoo-movement...

read from top

It seems like a distant memory now, but Al Franken’s arrival in the U.S. Senate eight years ago marked the very moment when Democrats’ control of Washington reached its highest point in a generation.

After an eight-month recount, the one-time “Saturday Night Live” star had been declared the narrow winner of the 2008 election in Minnesota — and Democrats, who also held the House and the White House, had gained the 60th Senate vote they needed to push their agenda through without fear of a filibuster.

Franken’s announced departure Thursday, amid allegations of sexual misconduct, came at another inflection point for Democrats.

Shut out of power completely, they are looking for a way out of the wilderness.

Toward that end, getting rid of Franken was both a moral and political calculation. It was the Democrats’ strongest declaration yet that they — unlike the Republicans — are willing to sacrifice their own in the interest of staking out the high ground

read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/why-democrats-decided-franken-h...

• By Ben Terris

...

Beyond Mr. Franken, who was accused of groping and forcibly kissing women, only a handful of prominent Democratic politicians have lost their jobs as a result of allegations of sexual harassment or assault. Fewer still have hurt their party’s grip on power: Mr. Franken, who represented Minnesota, was replaced in the Senate by another Democrat, Tina Smith, who won re-election by a comfortable margin last year.

“My worry is that people have some sort of contorted idea that #MeToo has meant lots of powerful people losing their jobs,” said Fatima Goss Graves, the president of the National Women’s Law Center. “The truth of the matter is, we are still in the midst of a really important reckoning that hopefully will allow people to work and live with safety and equity.”

Still, concerns about Mr. Franken’s resignation persist for some Democratic voters, prompting some politicians to change their approach toward claims of sexual misconduct. The independent investigation into the allegations against Mr. Cuomo — as well as an impeachment inquiry authorized by the New York State Assembly on Thursday — creates a process for handling accusations in a way that may be perceived as fairer by the public.

“There were some lessons learned from Franken,” said Shaunna Thomas, a founder of UltraViolet, a women’s rights advocacy group. “You can’t reach a conclusion about what needs to happen ahead of the process or investigation.”

She added, “It’s a really unfair proposition if this is all left to the court of public opinion.”

The debate over the appropriate process for handling the accusations against Mr. Cuomo underscores larger questions for Democrats in the post-Trump era.

After Democrats cast their support for equality in moral terms during the Trump administration, conservative news outlets have eagerly tagged the party with charges of hypocrisy for failing to uniformly demand an immediate resignation. That has revived worries from some Democrats that their party is imposing a politically damaging purity test.

Similar questions rocketed to the center of the presidential campaign last year, after President Biden, then a candidate, was accused of sexual assault by Tara Reade, a former aide. The allegations did not resonate among most Democratic voters, and the issue faded.

Politics, with its tribal loyalties, is a challenging environment to litigate such claims, which can involve a lot of gray area when it comes to delineating the severity of sexual misconduct. Political institutions generally lack independent mechanisms to fairly investigate claims in a way that protects both the accusers and the accused. And in the court of public opinion, not all accusations carry the same weight, despite the intense public scrutiny faced by those who come forward.

The anonymous nature of the most serious accusation against Mr. Cuomo — not an uncommon occurrence when dealing with traumatic sexual assault — makes it easier for some voters to dismiss the alleged behavior.

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/us/politics/andrew-cuomo-metoo.html