Three of Sen. Al Franken’s accusers are speaking out about his decision not to apologize when addressing the claims on the Senate floor Thursday.
The Democrat from Minnesota announced his intention to resign from the Senate in the coming weeks, but opted to not say he was sorry to any of the eight women who accused him of sexual misconduct.
Instead, Franken pointed fingers at President Donald Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, claimed some of his own accusers are lying, and asserted that he “respects women.”
The non-apology left some of his accusers bristling, including Stephanie Kemplin, an Army veteran who said Franken groped her buttocks during a photo-op.
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“I have to say that I’m so sad and appalled at his lack of response and him owning up to what he did,” Kemplin said during an MSNBC interview on Thursday. “I feel that he just keeps passing the buck and making it out to be something that we took his behavior the wrong way, or that we misconstrued something, or we’ve just flat-out lied about what happened to us.”
“Justice to me would be him owning up to what he did and stop passing the buck onto other individuals,” she asserted.
Tina Dupuy, a journalist who alleged that Franken inappropriately squeezed her waist, had a similar reaction to Franken’s speech.
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“Well, I thought that he said to listen to women and then he talked about himself,” Dupuy said. “It wasn’t an apology — it was very defiant. He wanted to talk about the pain that he was going through, which is obvious, but not the pain that he’s inflicted.”
“I thought that was inappropriate to do that from the Senate floor, quite candidly,” she declared.
Lindsay Menz, who claimed that Franken grabbed her buttocks during a photo-op at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010, told CBS Minnesota that she was “disappointed” by Franken’s refusal to apologize.
“I guess I’m a little disappointed by his statement. Just that he would continue to dismiss and put the allegations down,” she said.