#BELIEVEALLWOMEN: Why Won’t Al Franken Say Whether He Believes His Accusers?

The answer seems clear: Franken is trying to rewrite the playbook for successfully surviving a sexual harassment scandal in our newly conscious post-Weinstein culture. Where the politicos of yesteryear would have issued a terse, blanket denial before sweeping the accusations into the past, Franken is trying a new tactic: the terse, blanket apology, followed by sweeping the accusations into the past. He seems to have deduced—probably correctly—that the damage his admission will do his career is less than the damage done by appearing to silence his accusers.

“What I’m going to do is I’m going to start my job, I’m going to go back to work, I’m going to work as hard as I can for the people of Minnesota, and I’m going to start right now,” Franken said abruptly, ending his Monday conference. He vanished back into his office, ignoring the shouted questions that followed him.

Whether Franken’s political career will survive this scandal is anyone’s guess.

He’ll survive as long as his fellow Democrats believe he can win reelection, and not one minute longer.