Two days after President Donald Trump drew criticism from lawmakers in his own party for making fun of Christine Blasey Ford at a rally, he went after former Minnesota lawmaker Al Franken for resigning from the Senate after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
At a rally stop Thursday night in Rochester, Minnesota, Trump began talking about the comedian-turned-politician after criticizing Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.). “She took a wacky guy’s place,” he said, adding later, “Boy, did he fold up like a wet rag, huh? Man, he was gone so fast. He was gone so fast, I don’t want to mention Al Franken’s name, okay, so I won’t mention it,” he said to boos in the crowd.
Added Trump, “It was like, ‘I did something? Oh, I resign, I quit.’ Wow, he was gone, and he was replaced by somebody nobody had ever heard of.”
Franken stepped down from his post last December after Democratic colleagues in the Senate called for him to resign following three weeks of sexual misconduct allegations. The former comedian was accused of touching and kissing women without their consent; in one case, there was a photograph of the alleged misconduct.
Franken maintained in the speech that announced he would resign that “some” of the allegations against him weren’t true.
Trump smears @TinaSmithMN: “Nobody knows who the hell she is!”
He says this about Franken: “I don’t want to mention his name, Al Franken. He was gone so fast. It was like ‘oh he did something?’ Oh, I resign I resign. I quit!”
Says Franken “folded like wet blanket.” Mocks Smith. pic.twitter.com/o3bvnvQwBx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 5, 2018
