Poll: 50 percent think Franken should step down

Half of U.S. voters think that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) should step down amid allegations of sexual misconduct, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday.

Fifty percent said that the allegations that Franken forcibly kissed and groped a woman and inappropriately touched another warrant his resignation from the Senate, the poll found. Twenty-two percent said he should not step down.

Support for an ethics investigation into Franken’s behavior is even higher, with 66 percent of respondents saying the senator’s actions should be looked into by the Senate Ethics Committee. Only 15 percent said the panel should not investigate.

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The partisan split on Franken is narrow. Forty-nine percent of Democrats believe he should resign, while 56 of Republicans say the same. Forty-four percent of independents believe he should step down.

When it comes to Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, however, Republicans and Democrats are more divided. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats – 73 percent – believe Moore should be expelled from the chamber if he wins Alabama’s Dec. 12 special election. By contrast, only 46 percent of GOP voters think he should be booted from the Senate.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll surveyed 2,586 voters Nov. 16-19. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Last week, Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio anchor, accused Franken of forcibly kissing and groping her in 2006, when the two were on a USO tour in the Middle East. Franken apologized for his actions, and threw his support behind fellow senators’ calls for an ethics investigation into the matter.

Another allegation surfaced this week, when a second woman said that Franken grabbed her bottom while taking a photo with the senator in 2010. Franken entered the Senate in 2009.

Another poll released Wednesday by KSTP/SurveyUSA found that only 22 percent of Minnesotans believe Franken should remain in office after the allegations, while 33 percent said he should resign.

Franken is one of a growing number of powerful men iin politics, business, media and beyond in recent weeks who have been accused of sexual misconduct. 

Moore, who is running for the Senate seat vacated earlier this year by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has been accused of pursuing sexual and romantic relations with teenage girls when he was in his 30s. He has denied most of the allegations, and has resisted calls from GOP lawmakers and officials to withdraw from the race.