Al Franken accusers respond to his resignation announcement: 'I expected him to come and share the truth'

Lindsay Menz and Leeann Tweeden are two of eight women to publicly speak out.

ByABC News
December 7, 2017, 10:15 PM

— -- Two women who came forward with allegations that Minnesota Sen. Al Franken groped them, said his resignation announcement on the Senate floor Thursday didn't fully address the specific accusations against him.

"People have asked me, 'Do you feel relieved' [now that he has resigned]," Leeann Tweeden said in an interview with "Nightline." "I said, 'No, I don't know that I'll ever feel good about it.'"

Eight women have spoken out publicly detailing different alleged incidents when the now Democratic lawmaker groped or tried to kiss them, including Tweeden and Lindsay Menz, a mother of three daughters.

Leeann Tweeden is seen here during a press conference.
Leeann Tweeden is seen here during a press conference.

"I definitely wanted more answers today," Menz told "Nightline." "I expected for him to come and share the truth, share what he had experienced, you know, give us some sort of resolve to the situation. And I don’t feel like there was a resolve to the situation today."

Menz accused Franken of groping her while posing for a photo together at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. She is the only one of the eight accusers who claims an alleged incident occurred while Franken was serving as a senator.

"I felt like he was going to actually talk about the accusations against him," Menz said. "I felt like he was going to share his point of view. I felt like he was going to either say, you know, 'I did these things, and I'm sorry for doing these things. I shouldn't have done them.' Or, you know, fully renounce them, because he hasn't fully renounced them."

Lindsay Menz is seen here during an interview with "Nightline."
Lindsay Menz is seen here during an interview with "Nightline."

Franken announced Thursday he will resign from the United States Senate "in the coming weeks," a day after several of his Democratic colleagues called for him to step down amid mounting allegations of sexual misconduct against women.

"Today I am announcing that in the coming weeks, I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate," Franken said on the Senate floor Thursday. "It's become clear that I can't both pursue the Ethics Committee process and at the same time remain an effective senator for [the people of Minnesota]."

"All women deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously," he continued. "Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember very differently."

The allegations against Franken began less than three weeks ago. Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio host, was the first woman to come forward with allegations of impropriety. She claimed Franken groped her while she was sleeping aboard a military plane on her way home from a USO tour in 2006. The alleged incident was captured in a photograph. She also claimed he forcibly kissed her when they were practicing a performance together for troops overseas.

"I do think my voice was heard," Tweeden said.

PHOTO: Leeann Tweeden posted this photo online that she says was taken while she was asleep on a flight back from a 2006 USO trip. She says it shows then-comedian Al Franken, who is now a U.S. Senator, groping her.
Leeann Tweeden posted this photo online that she says was taken while she was asleep on a flight back from a 2006 USO trip. She says it shows then-comedian Al Franken, who is now a U.S. Senator, groping her.

Though Franken apologized -- Tweeden said she has received three apologies from the senator -- as well as acknowledged some wrongdoing and called for an ethics investigation to be initiated, he resisted early calls for his resignation, even after additional accusations of misconduct surfaced. Franken has issued multiple statements apologizing in some instances and saying that he does not remember other alleged incidents or remembers them differently.

The tipping point seemed to come on Wednesday, when Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.; Patty Murray, D-Wash.; and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., called for Franken to resign.

"A couple months ago, I felt that we had entered an important moment in the history of this country," Franken said in his announcement. "We were finally beginning to listen to women about the ways in which men's actions affected them. The moment was long overdue. I was excited for that conversation and hopeful that it would result in real change that made life better for women all across the country and in every part of our society. Then the conversation turned to me. Over the last few weeks, a number of women have come forward to talk about how they felt my actions had affected them. I was shocked. I was upset."

PHOTO: Sen. Al Franken listens during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Sept. 20, 2017 in Washington.
Sen. Al Franken listens during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Sept. 20, 2017 in Washington.

Tweeden, a mother of two, said she didn't call for Franken's resignation when she came forward with her allegations, but that his announcement today made her feel "some sort of validation."

"It doesn't make me feel good but I would use that word," Tweeden added.

Menz said she decided to come forward after she learned of Tweeden's story and said she hopes sharing her story will help change the culture. She said she felt sorry Franken had to resign.

"Instead of being able to own mistakes and move forward and make things right, he's having to resign," she said. "I feel sadness that he's having to leave a job because of the actions that he's taken, but it's unfortunate he's left a wake of women in his path that have had bad interactions with him."

ABC News' Candace Smith and Meghan Keneally contributed to this report

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