Al Franken May Have Left Foot in the Door to Remain in the Senate
SEN. AL FRANKEN (D), MINN./AL FRANKEN, FORMER MINN. SENATOR: I am announcing that in the coming weeks, I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate.</s>SMERCONISH: In the coming weeks, that was one of just many aspects of Sen. Al Franken's resignation speech that struck me as unusual. If you listen carefully, he kept his foot ever so slightly wedged in the door. In fact, if instead, Sen. Franken had been making a speech, and announcing that he was staying and fighting instead of stepping down, he would've had to have changed maybe one sentence in the speech? There was no admission, there was no contrition. And who announces that they're resigning in the coming weeks? If you've done something so egregious that you're resigning your job, ya head for the door immediately. In fact, that's what Trent Franks did yesterday, and that's not what Al Franken is doing. He was trying to thread the needle of refusing to admit charges of his accusers, while not antagonizing them further. Franken's hand was forced by female Democratic colleagues, led by New York's Kirsten Gillibrand, who perhaps had their eyes on Tuesday's special Senate election in Alabama, and wanted to establish the moral high ground by ridding Washington of both Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Franken before Alabama voters cast their judgment on Roy Moore. Franken walked the plank. But maybe he had his fingers and toes crossed. He never admitted wrongdoing. He said he'd been anticipating an opportunity to defend himself before the Senate Ethics Committee.</s>SEN. AL FRANKEN (D), MINN./AL FRANKEN, FORMER MINN. SENATOR: Some of the allegations against me are simply not true; others, I remember very differently. I said at the outset, that the Ethics Committee was the right venue for these allegations to be heard and investigated and evaluated on their merits -- that I was prepared to cooperate fully, and that I was confident in the outcome.</s>SMERCONISH: Don't misunderstand -- I am not saying that Franken is staying. If he leaves in a week or a month, it won't diminish my observation. I am saying that, when he spoke on Thursday, he sought to leave open the possibility that after Tuesday's vote, there might be some rethinking among his colleagues, perhaps with Moore getting elected, where Franken would then, say, hey, here's a guy against whom credible evidence exists that he assaulted a 14-year old, and he's about to be seated in the U.S. Senate, but I have to pack my bags? That doesn't seem right, he'll think. Joining me now, someone who was on CNN's "NEW DAY" with me yesterday morning, and called my analysis crazy --</s>SMERCONISH: -- Minnesota Public Radio Host, Kerri Miller. OK, Kerri, I've invited you to explain crazy. Why do you think he said in a couple of weeks?</s>MILLER: You know, Michael, when I hear you explain all this, I think you're trying to have it all ways. I mean, you're saying, "Don't get me wrong; I don't think he's staying, but I'm not convinced he's leaving." And I'm also say -- going to say here that somebody better tell Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton what's going on here if Franken has his fingers and toes crossed, because Gov. Dayton is spending the weekend thinking about who's going to replace Sen. Franken. So I think it's a done deal. I'm not sure why you're going around saying --</s>SMERCONISH: Yes (ph).</s>MILLER: -- that you think it's not a done deal. But everybody here in Minnesota, at least the political leaders, are proceeding as if it is a done deal. So I think if Sen. Franken --</s>SMERCONISH: Well, did you --</s>MILLER: -- would change his mind on Wednesday morning, it'd be -- it'd be a complete shock, and I don't think anybody --</s>SMERCONISH: I don't think --</s>MILLER: -- is expecting that.</s>SMERCONISH: -- no. I don't think he changes his mind. I don't think he changes his mind. I think he's tried to leave the foot in the door so that, if there's a -- look. He's leaving with a gun to his head, which was set by female Democratic colleagues in the Senate. I don't think he's leaving of his own volition. This is a guy who in that statement, acknowledged no wrongdoing. And to the extent that your governor --</s>MILLER: I disagree.</s>SMERCONISH: -- is quickly going to make an appointment known -- I'll just finish this thought -- it's because your governor wants to slam that door shut, because your governor is not on board with Sen. Franken. You get the floor.</s>MILLER: No, no, no. Governor -- no. Gov. Dayton is proceeding because he is taking Sen. Franken at his word, as most people are -- you being the exception. Gov. Dayton doesn't want to leave Minnesota unrepresented in the United States Senate. He's also aware that whoever he's going to appoint needs a few weeks to, you know, get to Washington, and get prepared. Everybody in the political class here in Minnesota I think is acting like Sen. Franken meant what he said, and as I said to you yesterday on "NEW DAY," I take Sen. Franken at his word. I hear what you're saying. His reluctance is obvious. It's clear that he does not want to be leaving, and that he feels, in some ways, maneuvered into leaving. But he's --</s>SMERCONISH: Right.</s>MILLER: -- a grown man, and he got on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and he made this decision, and he expressed that decision. And I just simply think it's kind of absurd to think that on Wednesday --</s>SMERCONISH: OK, so --</s>MILLER: -- he's going to say, you know what? I've thought --</s>SMERCONISH: -- I didn't say that --</s>MILLER: -- about this, Roy Moore won --</s>SMERCONISH: -- I didn't say that.</s>MILLER: -- and now, I'm not going to do it.</s>SMERCONISH: -- I did not say that.</s>MILLER: Well, it sounds like that's what you're saying.</s>SMERCONISH: That's not my theory. No, not at all. I couldn't be more crystal clear.</s>MILLER: Well, what is your theory?</s>SMERCONISH: I think you're the only one hearing it that way.</s>MILLER: Well (ph) -- what? No.</s>SMERCONISH: So let me ask you --</s>MILLER: No, I don't think so.</s>SMERCONISH: -- my original question --</s>MILLER: I'm confused about your theory.</s>SMERCONISH: -- one more time. My question --</s>MILLER: OK. OK?</s>SMERCONISH: -- is, this is a guy --</s>MILLER: Let's hear it (ph).</s>SMERCONISH: -- who wants to keep his job. So let me ask you the very first question I asked, which is this. Why did --</s>MILLER: Yes.</s>SMERCONISH: -- he say, I'll leave in a couple of weeks, if it's not his angle to leave his foot in the door? Why a couple of weeks?</s>MILLER: You are correct that Congressman Franks resigned and left. I think Sen. Franken is going to wrap up his business in Washington by the end of the year, and I think that that's the timeline that he's given Gov. Mark Dayton to name somebody, and have that person get prepared to step in. That -- that's what -- I don't think there's anything underlying the, "I'll do this in a couple weeks" other than, it's a timeline that allows a replacement to get settled, and Sen. Franken to pack things up and leave Washington. I don't hear anything --</s>SMERCONISH: Yesterday, a guy in the House of Representatives --</s>MILLER: -- you know, unusual or nefarious in that.</s>SMERCONISH: -- said he's resigning, and he did it the conventional way. He -- I'm not saying nefarious. There was no acknowledgment of wrongdoing, and a couple of weeks. And in combination with Tuesday's election, and the way in which he was forced to walk the plank, mine is only analysis that he'd like to stay, and he's hoping that there will be requests made that he can do so. Hey, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your --</s>MILLER: But it (ph) --</s>SMERCONISH: -- point of view, even if I disagree with it.</s>MILLER: -- it (ph) --</s>SMERCONISH: Thank you.</s>MILLER: --</s>I -- SMERCONISH: Let's see what you are saying --</s>MILLER: -- disagree with you, thanks.</s>SMERCONISH: -- about this via Facebook and Twitter. What have you got? From Facebook: "Michael, you are absolutely correct" -- really, I'm not crazy? -- "and I think it is genius of Franken to do it this way. It is the only thing that makes sense. Really, why should Franken leave if Moore gets seated?" Nathalie, I think that's what's going through his mind. There's no other explanation. If you're -- the guy yesterday, Franks, who's leaving the House of Representative -- what did he do? I'm out of here, and, boom, he's, you know, gone like the wind. That's not what Sen. Franken did. I'm not endorsing it, I'm not criticizing it; I'm analyzing it. He'd like to stay, and he feels like he's been forced out the door -- "maneuvered," to quote my guest. Up ahead, what harm comes when the FBI's reputation is subject to the political divide? The president on the attack against the Bureau after the demotion of the agent who led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server, and had been the FBI's lead investigator in the Mueller probe.</s>TRUMP: This is a rigged -- this is a rigged system. This is a sick system from the inside.