House

Leading House Democrat: Franken and Conyers should resign

by Brett Samuels - 11/30/17 3:09 PM ET

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) on Thursday said he is calling for Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to resign in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.

Crowley is the first member of Democratic leadership to call on Franken to step down. Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) have also said Franken should resign.

Multiple women have separately accused Franken of groping them during photo ops. Radio broadcaster Leeann Tweeden said earlier this month that Franken kissed her without consent during a 2006 USO tour, and provided photographic evidence of Franken appearing to grope her while she was sleeping.

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Franken has not indicated he will resign and has not faced calls from his Democratic colleagues in the Senate to do so.

He returned to the Capitol on Monday, and vowed, “this will not happen again going forward.”

“Again, it’s going to take a long time for me to regain people’s trust, but I hope that starting work today that I can start to do that,” Franken told reporters on Monday outside his office.

Several lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), have called on Conyers to resign in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against him.

Conyers has denied the allegations but acknowledged he previously settled a wrongful termination case to avoid litigation. Conyers’s lawyer on Thursday said the congressman has no plans to step down.