General Discussion

Note that Amy did NOT specifically say that she thought Al was guilty of what the Republican-sponsored “accusers” said he did. She knew Al well by that point, and I’m sure she knew Franni as well. So, she must have known to what point Al and Franni were/are devoted to each other. She thought Al was in an untenable position, and I think her prosecutorial instincts took over (get a wrongly accused defendant to plead guilty to a lesser charge rather than risk a trial where one of the two sides loses big).

I’m well aware that Kamala Harris—another former prosecutor who was known for aggressively pursuing defendants on weak evidence, but also with a weak defense—was first out of the barn to attack Al. In fact five Democratic Senators who later entered the 2020 presidential race enthusiastically joined the calls for Al to quit. Al harbored no presidential ambitions, but the more he denied it, the more they disbelieved him, and saw him as a threat to their own ambitions. At least one of them acted despicably after the fact (another story, ask me in ten years). One of them I even like personally, but still will not contribute a dime to any primary race he is in unless he joins the few of his Senate then-colleagues in apologizing to Al, as e.g. has Sheldon Whitehouse.