Senator Al Franken resigns after harassment claims

US comedian turned Democratic Senator Al Franken has announced his retirement following multiple allegations that he sexually harassed women.

Franken made the announcement from the floor of the Senate, in a speech that was “at turns defiant and mournful but hardly contrite”, says The New York Times.

He denied the allegations against him and contrasted his situation with that of Donald Trump and the Republican candidate for the Senate, Roy Moore.

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“There is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,” Franken said.

His “departure from Capitol Hill is perhaps the strongest example yet from the world of politics of the reckoning over sexual harassment and misconduct taking place around the country,” The Washington Post says.

Republican Representative Trent Franks also announced would step down after it emerged he had asked two staff members to bear his child as a surrogate.

The latest resignations come just two days after Representative John Conyers Jr, a Democrat, left his position as the longest-serving member of Congress following harassment allegations.