From that Atlantic article:
He was also critiqued for a series of rape jokes he made about the journalist Lesley Stahl that were reported in a 1995 New York magazine piece about Saturday Night Live. Suggesting lines for a sketch, Franken said at a script meeting: “And, ‘I give the pills to Lesley Stahl. Then, when Lesley’s passed out, I take her to the closet and rape her.’ Or, ‘That’s why you never see Lesley until February.’ Or, ‘When she passes out, I put her in various positions and take pictures of her.’” At first, Franken refused to apologize for what he considered “his job,” that is, writing humorous content. As he later recounted in his autobiography, he said he was sorry, but considered the apology a little white lie.
As we parse his apology for these two assaults, I think it would be worth pulling that quote from his auto-biography and beating him repeatedly with it (metaphorically). There is ZERO reason to believe he is sorry, or has any intention of changing his behavior, or the underlying pathology that would lead him to think this behavior was OK in any context.
As such his statements and apologies are worth less than nothing, because they aren't even an ineffective attempt to fix a wrong, they are a smokescreen intended to continue to act improperly with impunity.
I also wonder what her Air Force pilot husband is thinking right now. Were I to discover someone had sexually assaulted my wife, even before I knew her, I would be unlikely to accept a written, stock apology delivered to the press. Situations like this and Harvey Weinstein really make you wish for some legal way to duel.
