In a stunning display of hypocrisy, Democrats are now backtracking and calling on Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) not to resign his seat in the Senate. The Washington Times, Politico, and The Daily Wire are all out with the story and analysis this morning.
Many power players on the Democrat side had previously pressured Franken to resign after allegations emerged about inappropriate misconduct in his past, including a widely-publicized and shared photo of him groping a woman.
It is blatantly obvious now that Democrats only did so in order to take a supposed moral high ground against Republicans, in particular Alabama Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore. Moore just barely lost to Democrat Doug Jones in the special election just last week while under a dark cloud of harassment allegations of his own. But now, of course, with no tight election in the foreground, it appears some Democrats are changing their tune.
It’s more than enough to make one wonder how serious their claims of standing with victims of harassment and rape are.
A fellow Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has even called out the hypocrisy, Politico reports:
“Manchin was among the few Democrats who did not call for Franken’s resignation. The West Virginia senator stressed that he believes it would be appropriate for Franken to step down if the allegations are proved true.
Manchin ripped into the members who issued statements insisting that Franken resign — only to gather on the Senate floor the next day to watch him announce he was doing just that.
“The most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen done to a human being — and then have enough guts to sit on the floor, watch him give his speech and go over and hug him? That’s hypocrisy at the highest level I’ve ever seen in my life. Made me sick,” Manchin said.
He added, “Here’s a man, that all he said [was], ‘Take me through the Ethics Committee. I will live by whatever decision and I will walk away thinking about this opportunity I’ve had while I was here. But you find out if I’m a predator.'”
Manchin said he hopes Franken reverses his decision, but even more that the senators who led the charge against him reconsider and call for the two-term senator to stay until the ethics process is complete.
“I hope they have enough guts … and enough conscience and enough heart to say, ‘Al, we made a mistake asking prematurely for you to leave.'””
