President Donald Trump took shots at former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) at a Minnesota campaign rally Thursday night, mocking him for folding “like a wet rag” and resigning his seat when he was accused of sexual misconduct last year, according to a Thursday New York Times report.
“He was wacky,” Trump said of Franken. “Boy, did he fold up like a wet rag, huh? Man. Man. He was gone so fast, O.K.?”
“Oh, he did something,” he said. “‘Oh, oh, oh, I resign, I quit.’”
“I don’t want to mention Al Franken’s name, so I won’t mention,” he added.
The comments are in keeping with Trump’s personal counterattack strategy to sexual misconduct allegations, as cited in Bob Woodward’s White House memoir.
“You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women,” Trump said, according to Woodward. “If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead. That was a big mistake you made.”
However, they seem so ill-timed, with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination teetering between success and failure, that Republican Senate candidate Karin Housley reportedly made a pointed comment when she took the microphone.
“You really do go off script, don’t you? Jeez,” she said.
