POLITICAL FIGURES: “At least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning, including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to judgment.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who urged Franken not to step down to begin with — at least not before he went through an Ethics Committee investigation — said the Minnesota senator was railroaded by fellow Democrats…
Franken’s unusual timeline — in his departure announcement he said he’d go ‘in the coming weeks,’ without setting a date — has fed the fleeting hopes that there’s still time to reverse course. However, Tina Smith, Minnesota’s Democratic lieutenant governor, was named last week as his appointed successor.
People familiar with Franken’s plans said he has not changed his mind and intends to formally resign in early January. He praised the selection of Smith and has begun working with her on the transition…
‘I think we acted prematurely, before we had all the facts,’ said a third senator who has also called for the resignation, and has since expressed regret directly to Franken. ‘In retrospect, I think we acted too fast.’ The senator asked not to be named because of the political sensitivity of the issue among Democrats.”
-Edward-Isaac Dovere, “Franken urged to reverse his resignation,” Politico, Dec. 18, 2017 05:05am