Sarah Huckabee Sanders: The difference between Al Franken and Trump is that 'Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't'
Screenshot/White House
- White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was a major difference between the sexual misconduct allegations levied against Sen. Al Franken and President Donald Trump.
- Franken, Sanders said, admitted wrongdoing. Trump did not.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that a major difference between the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against Democratic Sen. Al Franken and President Donald Trump is that the senator "has admitted wrongdoing" while "the president hasn't."
Sanders was asked how multiple allegations against the president, which both he and the White House have painted as lies, are different from the allegations against Franken, the Minnesota Democrat whom Trump lambasted on Twitter Thursday night.
"I think in one case, specifically, Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't," she said. 'I think that's a very clear distinction."
Franken is under intense scrutiny after a Los Angeles broadcaster, Leeann Tweeden, alleged sexual misconduct during a 2006 United Service Organizations tour in Iraq. Tweeden said Franken forcibly kissed her, and she released a photograph of Franken reaching for her breasts while she was asleep.
Franken apologized for his actions in a pair of statements.
"Coming from the world of comedy, I've told and written a lot of jokes that I once thought were funny but later came to realize were just plain offensive," he said. "But the intentions behind my actions aren't the point at all. It's the impact these jokes had on others that matters. And I'm sorry it's taken me so long to come to terms with that."
Franken is now facing an investigation in the Senate Ethics Committee.
"The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words," Trump tweeted Thursday night. "Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?"
Last month, Sanders suggested that the women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct were all lying.
"Yeah, we've been clear on that from the beginning and the president's spoken on it," Sanders said.
During a press conference alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Rose Garden last month, Trump said the accusations leveled against him by roughly a dozen women following the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape last fall were "fake news."
"All I can say is it's totally fake news," Trump said. "It's just fake. It's fake. It's made-up stuff, and it's disgraceful what happens. But that happens in the world of politics."
Watch Sanders' comments:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Trump sexual misconduct allegations: "Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't" pic.twitter.com/pUpn6EtYfg
- NBC News (@NBCNews) November 17, 2017
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