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MINNESOTA SENATOR AL Franken apologised today and faced a likely Senate ethics investigation after a Los Angeles radio anchor accused him of forcibly kissing her during a 2006 USO tour.
Leeann Tweeden also accused Franken of posing for a photo with his hands on her breasts as she slept, while both were performing for military personnel two years before the one-time comedian was elected to the Senate.
Tweeden posted the allegations, including the photo, on the website of KABC, where she works as a news anchor for a morning radio show.
Tweeden said today that Franken was persistent, and “every time I see him now, my hands clench into fists.”
Still, she said she has no reason not to accept his apology, and is not calling for an ethics investigation or for Franken to resign. She told a news conference in Los Angeles that she came forward hoping to inspire others to tell their stories.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called the allegations “troubling” and said he hopes and expects that the Senate Ethics Committee will investigate.
“Sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated,” Schumer said.
Franken’s fellow Minnesota Democrat, Amy Klobuchar, said, “This should not have happened to Leeann Tweeden. I strongly condemn this behavior, and the Senate Ethics Committee must open an investigation.”
Franken initially released a brief statement in which he apologized but questioned Tweeden’s recollection of his behavior during their rehearsal for a skit.
In a longer statement this afternoon, he again apologised while maintaining that he remembered the rehearsal differently.
“While I don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit as Leeann does, I understand why we need to listen to and believe women’s experiences,” he said.
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 realise were just plain offensive.
Of the photo, Franken said: “I look at it now, and I feel disgusted with myself. It isn’t funny. It’s completely inappropriate. It’s obvious how Leeann would feel violated by that picture.”
https://www.facebook.com/senatoralfranken/posts/1553158881436655
Senate Democrats reacted swiftly and with one voice to the allegation that came as Republicans are grappling with allegations of molestation against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said Moore should step aside, quickly said the Senate should look into Franken.
“With all credible allegations of sexual harassment or assault, I believe the Ethics Committee should review the matter,” McConnell said.
Franken said he welcomed the investigation.
Some of the more forceful statements came from the Senate’s Democratic women.
Claire McCaskill of Missouri said she was “shocked and concerned” at the allegations.
“The behavior described is completely unacceptable. Comedy is no excuse for inappropriate conduct, and I believe there should be an ethics investigation,” McCaskill said.
Patty Murray of Washington state said she was glad Franken had apologised but “that doesn’t reverse what he’s done or end the matter”.
Tweeden told The Associated Press that Franken wrote a skit for the pair that was filled with “sexual innuendo”, and that he had brought a woman’s thong as a prop that he waved around during their performance.
Part of the skit included a kiss, she said, and he insisted they practice during a rehearsal despite her protests.
“We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth,” she wrote.
The photo that she included was taken on the trip home from Afghanistan.
Franken is shown grinning and staring at the camera while reaching out as if to grope Tweeden’s breasts as she sleeps. Tweeden said she didn’t discover the photo until she returned home.
Speaking on her radio show this morning, Tweeden said she didn’t come forward with the allegations sooner because she feared her career, including a stint as a swimsuit model, would lead others to discount her story.
“I felt belittled. I was ashamed. I’ve had to live with this for 11 years,” she said on-air. “Somehow it was going to be my fault. It was not going to be worth the fight.”
Franken is a longtime comedian and Saturday Night Live writer who won a Minnesota seat in the Senate after a lengthy recount in 2009.
He drew criticism during his first Senate campaign for joking about rape while discussing a sketch idea during his days at NBC-TV. Franken said then that he regretted some of the things he had written, and said he respected women “in both my personal and professional life”.
Franken is the latest person swept up in sexual harassment allegations that have mushroomed since Hollywood figure Harvey Weinstein was hit with multiple allegations.
Tweeden said the surge of people coming forward with their own experiences of sexual harassment or assault encouraged her to go public with her account.
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If that photo is evidence of ‘the grope’, it seems radically different context and circumstances to sexual assault.
Forcible kissing during a theatrical rehearsal also seems a stretch to be regarded as ‘sexual assault’.
Some of these accusations are doing a severe disservice to women who are victims of serious assault if we are now to associate any sort of physical contact with ‘sexual assault’.
@alphanautica: Forcible kissing in any situation is sexual assault. This is the problem women face with people handwaving away what happened.
@DaisyChainsaw: ‘sexual assault’ certainly is a very broad brush then. Where on the spectrum would you put forcible kissing on a scale of 1 to 100?
In civil law terms ‘assualt’ can be both placing your hand without force on someone’s shoulder to beating them aggressively over the head with a machete.
I get your point, though I do see a difference in terms of severity.
@the druid: did she?
@alphanautica: sexual assault is the non consensual sexual touching, kissing, groping by one person of another person.
The crucial dimension is consent.
@alphanautica: “Forcible kissing”, sounds pretty horrendous to me. How would you like some big ugly mutt coming and forcibly kissing you. Better still, try to imagine some thick ignorant man coming and groping your balls while you are asleep, taking a photo, and then everyone having a big laugh about it.
So, he kissed her during a comedy sketch and pretended to grab her breast. She feels disgusted and ashamed so pursues a career in swimsuit modelling and decides 11 years later on Twitter is the best time to tell all. It’s stuff like this that is diluting the seriousness of sexual assault.
@Dj: You’re a nasty piece of work.
The career she has pursued has no relevance to the sexual harassment she was subjected to and you’re in no position to lecture people on when they should talk about their experiences of mistreatment. It can be extremely difficult for people who have felt violated to recount their experiences, in no small part because of the insidious attitudes people like you hold but the right response is to listen when they do.
In her post she has said that the many, many victims of sexual assault and harassment who have shared their stories had a big impact on her deciding to share as I’m sure it has for many other victims. For people to open about something so personal takes a tremendous amount of bravery, and seeing others sharing their stories can give victims the strength to share.
And don’t pretend that you care about the ‘seriousness of sexual assault’ when you’re trying to pit one set of victims against another. It’s seriously pathetic.
I sincerely hope that your regressive mindset on this issue isn’t common across this country.
@Monty Wuggy: well and truly said.
I hope that I am correct in saying that the vast majority of men treat women decently but a small minority of men behave indecently and with real malice and in a predatory and disrespectful manner towards some women.
@Dj: your last sentence is correct.
wow another leftist male feminist who lectures the common people on women rights turns out to be a sicko, who would have guessed?
@cormacpaddies: thankfully no right wing reactionary conservatives male chauvinists would ever act in such a manner.
@cormacpaddies: She wants $$$
@cormacpaddies: If you defend Trump and go after Franken then stfu with your nonsense.
Can that airplane photo genuinely constitute groping these days!! Really? She’s wearing body armour plus he’s clearly making a joke.. is that part edited out on everyone else’s photo??
The kissing episode sounds ghastly so I can see why that would upset anyone and it’s proper he has apologised.
But not that photo.
It’s ok it is a Democrat.
@Philip Gerard: he boasted about consensual grabbing, big difference there even though you would love it to be the same.
It seems that Irish standards are such that some Irish males think that the photo and the depiction are okay and acceptable.
@Number 14: Hi Liam Flag.
@Fiona deFreyne: lens of time Tony- what you ? Early 60s?
i tried to kiss a girl in 1984 but thank God there was no internet. Wouldnt do it these days w/o a signed contract.
Hang on ,he’s a comedian ok.
He was only joking.
When Senator Al Franken was asked why he was using his superdelegate vote for Hillary “Jezebel” Clinton, even though Sanders won his State by 22%, he said that HIS judgement was more important than that of the people of Minnesota.
@Remy: ^^False horsecrap from one of ore resident fascist tw@s.
@Philip Gerard:
So Franken did cast his vote for Jezebel Clinton even though Sanders won the State. Thanks for confirming that you regressive Commie Goon, dry your eyes.
@Remy: you’re an awful clown..
So, he’s progressed from Saturday Night Live to the Democratic Party to groping unconscious women.
Interesting career.
@Dean Moriarity: I think it went SNL -> groping unsuspecting women -> politics
Now now Number 14. You are splitting hairs.
@Number 14: helpfully the photo is shown.
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&ei=cxEOWoT5I4zXwAKBroqoDA&sjs=3&q=leeann+tweeden&oq=&gs_l=mobile-gws-img.1.0.41l3.0.0.0.2743.1.0.0.1.1.0.0.0..0.0….0…1..64.mobile-gws-img..0.1.45.3…0.BKka967uzBE
Gimme a break
@Brianto: is that your way of saying she was asking for it?
@Karen Wellington: begging more like..
What suits her in one situation doesnt suit her in another… but at least you are here to muddy the waters karen
I have never seen so many accusations of sexual assult. All it is doing for me, is telling me to switch off and ignore same as attention seeking. Apologies to men and women who are sexually assulted with any seriousness (Actual sexual acts). This touching crap or felt uncomfortable is non sense. Its making touching another human being feel wrong at this stage. Shaking hands soon to be inappropriate.
Enough of the groping,stories of victims of gropers ,gropers apologies ,just hack their arms off .
Politicians, actors, the military, religious, the police and who else???
@Alois Irlmaier: people with money
I’d say she’s been living a life of hell ever since. NOT!
That joke was a bit lame but it’s still a joke and the new rules say you have to laugh hard and I’m a comedian on par with Gerry Seinfeld and Billy Connolly.
have your say