Former female staffers who worked for Sen. Al Franken issued a joint statement praising Sen. Franken for treating them with the utmost respect when they worked for him.
Here is the statement as provided to PoliticusUSA along with the list of signees:
“Many of us spent years working for Senator Franken in Minnesota and Washington. In our time working for the Senator, he treated us with the utmost respect. He valued our work and our opinions and was a champion for women both in the legislation he supported and in promoting women to leadership roles in our offices.”
Katherine Blauvelt
Alexandra Fetissoff
Jessi Held
Lisbeth Kaufman
Natalie Volin Lehr
Karen Saxe
Charlotte Slaiman
Bethany Snyder
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Late Thursday night, President Trump took to Twitter to suggest that Sen. Franken did even worse things than what the photograph showed. It was obvious that President was not only projecting his own treatment of women on to Franken but was also trying to use the Minnesota Senator to distract from Roy Moore.
What Al Franken did was wrong, very wrong. What Roy Moore did with underage girls is a crime.
Republicans have pounced on Franken while staying silent on Roy Moore. Sexual harassment and sexual assault are not partisan political issues. Sen. Franken has handled the allegations against him in a mature and responsible way. He is not Roy Moore, and the attempts to equate Franken to Moore are an example of cynical partisan politics at their worst.
The United States appears to be going through an awakening on sexual harassment and the treatment of women. Some Republicans are trying to use this moment to save a Senate seat for an alleged pedophile, but the emerging picture suggests that there is no comparison between Roy Moore and Al Franken.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
