|
 Anchor Leeann Tweeden related her experience in
a first-person account on the website of Los Angeles station
KABC amid outrage over numerous reports of sexual misconduct by
powerful men from Hollywood to Capitol Hill.
Franken, a Democrat, issued an apology on Thursday. The Senate's
Democratic and Republican leaders called on the Ethics Committee
to review the allegations and Franken said he would cooperate.
Tweeden said Franken wrote a skit that included a kiss between
the two and said he insisted upon rehearsing it, which she at
first resisted.
"He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and
that we must practice the kiss. I said 'OK' so he would stop
badgering me," she wrote. "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 said she pushed Franken away but felt disgusted and
violated.
Tweeden also said Franken groped her while she slept during
their flight home on a military plane. "I felt violated all over
again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated," Tweeden wrote. "How
dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it's funny?"
She posted a photo taken at the time of Franken mugging for the
camera with his hands above her breasts as she sat in the
military aircraft wearing a flak jacket with eyes closed.
"I certainly don't remember the rehearsal for the skit in the
same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann. As to the
photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn't. I
shouldn't have done it," Franken said in a statement.
Reuters was unable to independently verify Tweeden or Franken's
accounts.
She told reporters in a later press conference that she
considered the kiss an assault but accepted his apology.
"The apology? Sure, I accept it," she said. "People make
mistakes and of course he knew he made a mistake."
U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in on Twitter, calling the
photo "really bad."
"And to think that just last week he (Franken) was lecturing
anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for
women," Trump tweeted.
Trump himself came under fire last year over alleged sexual
misconduct after a decade-old outtake from his appearance on the
television program "Access Hollywood" surfaced during the
presidential campaign, in which Trump bragged about kissing and
grabbing women without their consent.
Trump later apologized for the "Access Hollywood" comments,
which he called "locker room talk." He told reporters last month
that allegations of sexual assault and misconduct leveled at him
before the election by several women were "made-up stuff."
'COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE,' FRANKEN SAYS
Franken, in a longer statement issued after his first apology,
was more contrite. "I don't know what was in my head when I took
that picture, and it doesn't matter. There's no excuse. I look
at it now and I feel disgusted with myself. It isn't funny. It's
completely inappropriate," he said.
The USO, which sponsored the tour on which Franken and Tweeden
traveled, said it was never aware of the incident.
"This incident was never reported to the USO," USO spokeswoman
Ashley McLellan said in an email. "We have no knowledge of it.
The report is deeply disturbing and does not reflect the values
of the USO."
[to top of second column] |
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) listens during the Senate Judiciary
Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee judge Neil
Gorsuch on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. March 20, 2017.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
Franken was a well-known American comedian before he was elected to
the U.S. Senate in 2008 as a Democrat from Minnesota.
Sexual misconduct allegations have been lodged against several
well-known men in the entertainment industry, and Roy Moore, a
Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, has been accused of
having sexual contact with teenage girls decades ago. Moore, 70, has
denied the accusations and said he was the victim of a political
witch hunt.
Trump on Thursday said Moore should step aside if sexual misconduct
allegations against him are true, a stance that puts him at odds
with other Republican leaders in Washington who have said they
believe the women making the accusations against the former Alabama
Supreme Court chief justice and have demanded that Moore withdraw
from the race ahead of the Dec. 12 vote.
Lawmakers this week shared stories of women and men being
propositioned and groped in the halls of the U.S. Capitol as
Congress reviewed sexual harassment policies.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic leader Chuck
Schumer agreed the Ethics Committee should investigate. Franken also
called for an ethics investigation.
"It appears that the Senate is looking into that, which they should,
and we feel that is an appropriate action," White House spokeswoman
Sarah Sanders said on Thursday when asked about the allegations
against Franken.
Franken's Democratic Senate colleagues Clare McCaskill and Kirsten
Gillibrand both expressed deep concern about 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 wrote on Twitter.
Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, asked
about Alabama Senate candidate Moore, said reporters should be
asking her instead about Franken and called up the photograph on her
phone.
“This is what you should be asking me about,” Palin said, as she
talked to reporters in the U.S. Capitol, complaining about “double
standards here.” She added Franken should leave the Senate if the
account is true.
Tweeden said she was inspired to tell her story by women members of
Congress who spoke up against harassment this week.
"I’m telling my story because there may be others," she said.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Makini Brice, Richard Cowan, Patricia
Zengerle, Susan Cornwell, Jeff Mason, Alex Dobuzinskis and Ben
Klayman; Editing by Alden Bentley and Cynthia Osterman)
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