To officially recognize jerusalem as israels capital. Host good morning. Its thursday, december 7, 2017. Pearl harbor Remembrance Day across the country. It marks the 76th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. Flags have been lowered to halfstaff at the u. S. Capitol. The house and senate will both reconvene at 10 00 a. M. Today. At some point this morning on the senate floor, minnesota democrat al franken is expected to make an announcement about his political future, one day after new allegations of inappropriate behavior emerged and after over 30 of his fellow Democratic Senators called for him to resign. Thats where we begin this morning on the washington journal, as we take your calls and hear your thoughts. Phone lines republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. A special line this morning for minnesota residents, 2027488003. You can also catch up with us on social media. On twitter, cspanwj. On facebook, its facebook. Com cspan. A very good thursday morning to you. You can start calling in now on the topic of al franken and his political future, as we show you some of the headlines this morning. From yesterday, in the wake of that new allegation and the cascade of calls for al frankens resignation from his fellow democrats, this from Minnesota Public Radio yesterday, their headline, senator al franken will resign citing a democratic official on the front page this morning of the Washington Times, they go with the headline, franken expected to step down from the senate. Of course, al frankens office responding very minimally yesterday, but they did send out a tweet saying, at 6 11 yesterday, that senator franken is talking with his family at this time and plans to make an announcement in d. C. Tomorrow. Any reports of a final decision are inaccurate. That is from al frankens Office Yesterday afternoon. For more on the latest on this topic, we turn to politico reporter maggie severn, joining outs phone this morning. Thanks for being here. What more do we know this morning about what al franken will say when he addresses the senate, and do we know exactly when hes going to do it . Guest yeah, thanks for having me. You know, like you just mentioned, theres this tweet sent out by frankens Office Yesterday that said that no final decision has been made, and there hasnt been any real announcement about exactly when this might happen. Meanwhile, what were seeing or what i reported yesterday is that, in minnesota, theres this scramble to, you know, if he resigns today, be ready to replace him, so governor mark dayton has been lining up different possibilities, and looks like hes leaning towards appointing the Lieutenant Governor as a place holder for the next year to serve in frankens seat. So, you know, we might not know exactly when this announcement is coming, but the wheels have certainly been set in motion if franken chooses to resign. Host a place holder until when . When would a new special election happen for that seat . Guest yeah, so if franken leaves today, the governor is expected to move pretty quickly to put someone in that seat, and then minnesota has an endorsement process, so early june of next year, people will gather to endorse a candidate. Theyll have a primary in august, and then in november 2018 election, there will be a special election for frankens seat. Whoever wins the special election will serve until 2020, which is when franken would have been up for rehe licks, and they will run reelection, and they will run again, or there will be another election today so. Were going to have elections for frankens seat in 2018 and 2020 if he resigns. Host remind us what the story was yesterday from politico that seemed to break the dam here when it came to Democratic Senators calling on franken to resign. Guest yeah, so this story, as listeners well know, follows several other stories from recent weeks in which six different women have accused franken of either trying to forcibly kiss or grope them, and yesterday politico reported that another person who was working with franken on a radio show in 2006 had been he had tried to kiss her after a taping and then had said that it was his right as an entertainer to do Something Like that. Politico withheld the persons name, but it was confirmed with two other people who she had told after this happened. And i think that that extra allegation just, for some people, was kind of the straw that broke the camels back. At this point, there are seven different women who have said that franken did something inappropriate, either before he was in the senate or in some cases after he was in the senate, 10 saw more than half the Democratic Caucus call on him to resign yesterday. Scommoip it was a cascade of calls that just started around 11 30 yesterday morning, and it was it began from female Democratic Senators. Was this a coordinated effort that we know about . Guest you know, it began with a group of female Democratic Senators that announced this together. You know, you can say that thats coordinated. And after that, i think that other people felt like they had some cover to come forward, you know, once there reached a critical mass, more and more people have called on franken to resign. You know, you saw people like Chuck Schumer coming out yesterday and calling for this. So i think that having that initial push from a group of female senators helped give everybody else cover and a reason to say yesterday that now is the time. Host and maggie, have you gotten any more guidance from al frankens office today on exact timing of this . Guest i havent, but i certainly we should all keep an eye out, because were expecting this to happen today. Host Maggie Severns from politico, thanks so much for your time this morning. Guest thanks for having me. Scommoip were taking your calls this morning in the wake of this effort by democrats in the senate to call on al franken to republican down. Well be addressing his political future this morning as we wait to hear about that sometime after the senate comes in at 10 00. We want to hear from you. Phone lines for republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. A special line for minnesota residents this morning, its 2027488003. And michael is on that line from pipestone, minnesota, a republican. Michael, good morning. Caller oh, sorry, john, i am a democrat. Host a democrat, go ahead, michael. What are your thoughts . Caller yes, my concern would be, for mr. Franken to step down, mainly because its a distraction, and with him stepping down, we can move past this as a party and fight some bigger issues. Now, i do understand that some women have been offended and has been assaulted, but we as a nation is under assault with this tax bill and all the other accounts that mr. Trump has brought to the attention. With him stepping down, this is my opinion only, it opens up the door for us to get back to business. Scommoip michael, who would you like to see fill that seat if, in fact, he does step down, since youre in minnesota and i assume youre tapped into the politics up there. Caller yes, i am. To be honest with you, whoever governor presents would be fair with me. Right now, im in pipestone, so were in the southwestern part of the country, which is a republicanheld community. And we are basically onan annex to minneapolis, but we have certain things going on as a party as democrats. Host michael, what do you think of tina smith, the Lieutenant Governor in minnesota, Maggie Severns from politico talking about her as a possibility for appointment. The star tribune saying shes the likeliest replacement, but would not expect it to be someone who would run for that seat in the ensuing special election. What do you know about tina smith . Caller well, i met her too as well, because i work as well for Education Minnesota here in the state of minnesota, and ive met her at fund raging events, and even some issues that dealt with serious issues with education in our great state. She would be an excellent choice. But where do we go from her . You know, the thing of it is, we are in a scramble right now, so he needs to step on to the side so we can get everything in order for the june elections. Host michael, thanks for the call this morning. Joy, park forest, illinois, line for independents. Go ahead. Caller i have two comments. Please let me say them. First of all, i dont understand why theyre asking anybody to step down when trump is still in office and he has an admission of guilt on those tapes. I dont understand it. Hes on video recording saying that he groped women by their private parts, but theyre asking i dont understand. Its a double standard. And second, i really would like move on with this issue, because why are we even talking about what happened in jerusalem yesterday . Thats the hugest thing, because the moral fabric of this country is religion, christian and muslim and other religions. And for him to make that move yesterday in jersey limb, i think thats on the hearts and minds of many. Can we please talk about that as well . Its huge. Host we are certainly going to be talking about that this morning. To remind viewers, donald trump, as the Financial Times reports, breaking with decades of diplomatic precedence by officially recognizing jerusalem as israels capital, prompting warnings from foreign leaders that the move could raise regional tensions. The president also saying yesterday that he would move the u. S. Embassy to the city. Were going to be joined later this morning by the Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs committee, certainly a topic of conversation well have with him and with some of our other guests this morning. So thanks for bringing that up. If you missed the president s News Conference on that, you can watch it in its entirety at cspan. Org. We were actually just playing it on cspan just before we came on the air. You can go there if you missed it. Peter, san francisco, california, line for democrats. Peter, your thoughts on al franken. Caller yeah, what im confused about is, you know, at least al franken has admitted that he has done these things and hes, you know, asked for his apology, and he said hes going to seek help to straighten himself out. Where it seems like some politicians like roy moore and donald trump that have been accused of even more allegations like that, they deny it and they just keep going. Its almost like if you deny it , you can stay in. And if you admit it, at least tell the truth and say youre seeking help. You get punished for it. So theres something really backward about that. And, you know, its almost like you getting punished for telling the truth. Host the conversation happening here, also happening on facebook and on twitter. On twitter, its cspanwj. Heres a few comments from that thread, as weve been having this conversation this morning. About al franken and his political future, all he needs to do is change to republican and he will not have to step down. One says, if democrats want to use Sexual Misconduct and pedophilia against republicans in 2018, franken must resign. Timothy writes in asking, will the same people who call for his resignation demand the esignations of trump, moore, farenthold and thomas . Host a special line for minnesota residents, 2027488003 is the number if you live in minnesota. Give us a ring. Eric is in white plains, maryland, line for independents. Go ahead. Caller yeah, good morning, pedro. Good morning, america. Thank you. Thank you very much. When it comes to franken, im not surprised. Im not surprised, because my opinion is that all politicians are hypocrites. They always say one thing, and they will do another. I cant remember how the democrats could decide donald trump when he did that comment about grabbing private parts and, you know. But my advice to america this morning is do not follow a party. Be an independent. Thats what i am. I am an independent. I dont vote the party. I vote the candidate. If you keep voting the party, you will always be disappointed. Thats my comment. Host before you go, as an independent, as you look to the two parties and on this issue of misconduct and Sexual Harassment, do you think the two parties have handled this issue differently when it comes to their members . Caller oh, yes, yes, they have handled it differently. The first reaction i will say is each party is trying to protect their candidate first, and then they try to drop it, you know . So far i congratulate the democrat because they have somebody resigning, while the republican, you know, they are just denying and denying and denying. But its really sad, because at the end of the day, just show that politician doesnt really care about us. They just try to protect themselves. You think that this serial molester doing it for year and year, they knew about it, but they didnt say anything. Host all right, got your point. The Editorial Board of the wall street journal weighed in this morning, usually a conservative voice on the editorial pages. Heres what they call it, trumps frankenmoore nightmare. This is what the state of play looks like host if you want read more, wall street journal Editorial Board today. Mary, republican from pennsylvania. Youre up next. Go ahead. Caller hello. Host good morning, mary. Caller hi. My name is mary. You know, i think its very good that theyre all admitting their little mistakes when they were in their youth, like we all made. You know, when youre young, youre young. But hillary was not young when she called stand down to the military and had those four guys killed. Shell never convince me shes right. And then, you know, you cant blame people for making mistakes. Host donald trump, mary when you talk about issues in their youth, does 10 years ago count as youth for al franken, the latest report coming from the incident described in politico, described as happening in 2006. Caller well, you know, we make mistakes every day, whether youre young, whether youre old. But theyre in the limelight. And people make mistakes if theyre innocent limelight. But, you know, donald trump is married three times. Hed even still be married to the first wife if not for marla maples. She thought she had talent. He brought her a broadway show. They wanted to be host all right, mary, we got your point. Not necessarily a conversation about marla maples, but well take the point and go to patty in connecticut, line for independents. Go ahead. Caller hi. Am i on . Host yes, maam. Caller ok, i just want to say is from ver her name new york host senator gillen brand. Caller yeah, shes a little off the wall. Ive heard her speak, and she has used, in speeches, the f word. No one went after her. I know shes running for president. And so was franken. I think she just knocked one off the wall. Hat was her purpose. Secondly, if there was a republican governor in minnesota, this would not be happening. So theres a method to their madness, as always. Host why wouldnt it be happening, because of the appointment process . Caller yes, yes. Yes. Theyre throwing him out to they dont care what he did. This is just to make the republicans look, you know, bad. But i believe theres a plan. When moore gets in, which i think hes going to, once they get him there, theyre going to throw him out, and then theyre going to name someone, you know, to take his place. Thats what i think is going to happen. Host thats patty in connecticut. You mentioned senator Kirsten Gillibrand of new york. The timeline as reported in the Washington Times today discusses how this went down when it came to calls from fellow Democratic Senators for franken to step down. Gillibrand made the first move, they say, quoting her facebook post, saying while senator franken is entitled to have the Ethics Committee conclude its review, i believe it would be better for our country if he is not a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isnt accepted by stepping aside to let someone else serve. Within 15 minutes, most of the enates other Democratic Women followed ms. Gillibrand in demanding mr. Frankens resignation. Soon afterwards, they were joined by other senators host heres a statement from he Senate Minority leader host expected to hear from senator franken sometime this morning. The senate is in at 10 00, so sometime after that. Still about 8 00 this morning. Our phones are turned over to you, our viewers, to hear your thoughts about how franken and the calls for him to resign. Democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. Special line for minnesota residents, 2027488003. Indiana, republican, go ahead. Caller hi. My name is joanna. John, im sorry, but im a democrat. I had to call on your republican line. I tried your democrat line, and it would not answer. It rang for over 10 minutes, and then it hung up. But i feel that mr. Franken, if hes going to step down, i want all the other ones to step down, including mr. Trump. Mr. Trump should be the very first one, because hes the first offender of it all. Franken, he was a show person. He was in show business. They did that all the time and still do that all the time, trying to touchyfeel each other. Well, thats just the way they are. We know it. We knew it when he was now i want to know, is minnesota residents asking him to resign . If not, then no. If so, then i would like to see mr. Trump take the first lead of it all, if he wants it all cleaned up. Hes the one who admits it on tape doing the most obnoxious things to women. He doesnt respect us. Why is he in there . Host we heard from one minnesota resident this morning saying that he should step aside to get past the distraction. Hopefully well hear more. We have a special line for minnesota residents, 2027488003. It does work best on this program if you do try to stick to your lines, lines for democrats, republicans, and independents, so we can cycle through, get a variety of opinions here. I apologize that it was a busy mornin