- Sen. Bernie Sanders said President Donald Trump should consider resigning over sexual misconduct allegations made against him.
- Several Senate Democrats have called for the president to resign in recent days, though they have stopped short of calling for his impeachment.
- They spoke up after Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota resigned over his own sexual harassment accusations.
Sen. Bernie Sanders said on Sunday that he thinks President Donald Trump should consider stepping down over his sexual misconduct allegations.
In an interview on “Meet The Press,” Sanders noted that Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota resigned after several women accused him of sexual harassment.
“Al Franken felt it proper for him to resign,” Sanders said. “Here you have a president who has been accused by many women of assault, who says on a tape that he assaulted women. He might want to think about doing the same.”
The Vermont Senator this week joined a number of Democratic Senators who have called for the president to step aside in the wake of Franken’s resignation, citing the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump as well as the president’s own boasts about grabbing women without their permission.
In an interview with Vice News last week, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey suggested that the president should follow Franken’s example and step down.
“I just watched Al Franken do the honorable thing and resign,” Booker said. “My question is — why isn’t Donald Trump doing the same thing? Who has more serious allegations against him, with more women who have come forward?”
On Thursday, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon similarly called on Alabama GOP candidate Roy Moore and the president to step aside, pointing to the allegations of harassment against both men.
“The president should resign because he certainly has a track record with more than 17 women of horrific conduct,” Merkley told “Meet The Press Daily.”
For his part, Trump has never made any indication that he would resign willingly before the end of his term, and plans to run for reelection.
The president has repeatedly denied all harassment allegations against him, and has asked Democratic leaders who will run against him in 2020. The New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump told the leaders that Sanders would run “even if he’s in a wheelchair.“
Though 58 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump this week, Democratic leadership and many Senate Democrats like Sanders have largely avoided the issue. Sanders said he’s not prepared to support impeaching Trump yet.
“I don’t think we’re there right now,” Sanders said on Sunday, saying special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election was working to uncover the Trump campaign’s role. “That’s what the Mueller investigation is all about.”
