My friends, I cannot continue as a Senator from Minnesota.  I have loved this job. I think I have been good at it. I believe I would continue to be good at it.  I do not wish to cast aspersions on the women who have accused me.  They have every right to feel that way that they feel. Each person has their own interpretation of events.  But I will say I do not remember these events the way the women remember it and believe it is not in my character.  You can ask any woman I have worked with over my adult life and they will say I have treated them with the utmost respect.  But I have reached a point where my colleagues have lost trust in me, and the core of sincere governance — which I guess leaves out pretty much all Republicans — is trust.  I will move on and I will feel sad about it.

I will not however simply be retreating to some unknown hideaway.  Oh no, that is not the fate I see for myself even in light of everything I have been through.  I will instead be starting a publication, both online and in print, to do battle with the Bannons and the Hannitys and the Cernoviches and the other con men and grifters who have weaponized the sincere pain many experience at our society’s injustices.  We will be 21st century muckrakers following these rodents down into their disgusting holes and shining a light on them.  Where there is a victim to their ugly machinations and manipulations we will be there shining light. Where there is a cowardly news organizations cravenly offering up innocents to their boiling pots of dishonest perfidy, we will be there shining a light. Where there are bullies demanding retribution for made up stories we will be there.  There will not be another Acorn, there will not be another Shirley Sherrod, there will not be another Sam Seder without us being there shining a light. Now matter what you think of me I ask you to join me in this quest to save our democracy.