Rich Lowry explains at National Review Online why the recent movement targeting sexual harassment and assault is not going to force Donald Trump out of the White House.
The Franken resignation usefully established a standard that could be readily turned against Trump. Franken quit despite being duly elected, despite almost all of his alleged offenses taking place before his time in office, and despite being accused of nothing nearly as monstrous as Harvey Weinstein or the other most notorious abusers.
Trump isn’t going anywhere. Unlike Franken, he has the support of his own party. And there isn’t a production company that can dump him, or a corporate board that can pressure him to leave.
Al Franken could slip away into political obscurity while a new cookie-cutter progressive was appointed in his place as Minnesota senator, without most of the country noticing. If a president of the United States resigns — it’s happened once in our history — it is a major trauma to our political order.
The accusations against Trump were spectacularly aired prior to the election. They got extensive press coverage. They were a topic in the debates. Paired with the Access Hollywood tape, they were thought certain to doom his campaign. No one could claim to be unaware of them prior to November 2016.
