Sarah Huckabee Sanders: The difference between Al Franken and Trump is that 'Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't'

The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said there was a major difference between the sexual-misconduct allegations against Democratic Sen. Al Franken and those against President Donald Trump.
Franken admitted wrongdoing, Sanders said, while Trump has not.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Friday that a major difference between the sexual-misconduct allegations against Democratic Sen. Al Franken and those against President Donald Trump was that the senator had "admitted wrongdoing" while the president hadn't.

Sanders was asked how multiple allegations against Trump — which the president, along with the White House, has characterized as lies — were different from those against Franken, the Minnesota Democrat whom Trump lambasted on Twitter on Thursday night.

"I think in one case specifically Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't," she said. "I think that's a very clear distinction."

The Los Angeles TV and radio host Leeann Tweeden on Thursday accused Franken of forcibly kissing and groping her during a 2006 United Service Organizations tour in Iraq. Tweeden also released a photograph showing Franken reaching for her breasts while she was asleep.

Franken apologized in a pair of statements.

"Coming from the world of comedy, I've told and written a lot of jokes that I once thought were funny but later came to realize were just plain offensive," he said. "But the intentions behind my actions aren't the point at all. It's the impact these jokes had on others that matters. And I'm sorry it's taken me so long to come to terms with that."

Franken is now facing an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee.

"The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words," Trump tweeted Thursday night. "Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?"

Last month, Sanders suggested that the women who had accused Trump of sexual misconduct were lying.

"We've been clear on that from the beginning, and the president's spoken on it," Sanders said.

During a press conference last month alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Rose Garden, Trump dismissed the accusations leveled by roughly a dozen women since the release last fall of the leaked 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Trump said his celebrity allowed him to grope and kiss women without their consent.

"All I can say is it's totally fake news," Trump said. "It's just fake. It's fake. It's made-up stuff, and it's disgraceful what happens. But that happens in the world of politics."

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: The difference between Al Franken and Trump is that 'Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't'

Watch Sanders comments:

Enhance Your Pulse News Experience!

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!