Franken Accuser Laments That Senator Not ‘Owning Up’ To His Behavior

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Following Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) speech announcing his resignation over sexual misconduct allegations, one of his accusers said Thursday she was disappointed that Franken is still pushing back against the allegations.

“I have to say that I’m so sad and appalled at his lack of response and him owning up to what he did,” Stephanie Kemplin, an army veteran who accused Franken of groping her while he was in Kuwait entertaining the troops in 2003, said on MSNBC.

“He just keeps passing the buck and making it out to be something that we — we took his behavior the wrong way or we misconstrued something or that we just — we just flat-out lied about what happened to us,” she continued.

Kemplin made the comments when asked if Franken’s resignation is justice for allegedly groping several women. Kemplin said that his resignation does not feel like justice to her and that she would like to see him acknowledge his behavior.

“Justice to me would be him owning up to what he did and to stop trying to pass the buck onto other individuals who possibly — they did commit the same things, maybe even more heinous than what he’s done,” she said, perhaps referencing to Franken’s comment in his resignation speech that President Donald Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore have not seen the same repercussions for their alleged sexual misconduct.

Franken announced in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday that he will resign from his seat. He said that the allegations of sexual misconduct are a distraction, but he insisted that some of the allegations he faces are “simply not true.”

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