Sen. Al Franken, accused of sexual harassment from 2006, apologizes and agrees to an ethics investigation
Sen. Al Franken apologized Thursday after a Los Angeles radio show anchor said that he had forcibly kissed her and later groped her on a 2006 USO tour, and said that he would “gladly cooperate” with an Ethics Committee investigation into his actions.
“I respect women. I don’t respect men who don’t,” said Franken, who joined the Senate in 2009 after a career as a comedian. “And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.”
Leeann Tweeden, a news anchor on KABC’s “McIntyre in the Morning,” said in a post on the station’s website Thursday that Franken had written a skit for the USO tour in which they kissed, and he demanded that they rehearse the scene.
After Franken aggressively kissed her, Tweeden said, “I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time. … I felt disgusted and violated.”
Tweeden said she found out later, from a CD of photographs taken of the tour, that Franken had groped her while she was sleeping on the plane ride from the Mideast to the United States. It is not clear from the photo whether Franken touched her, but Tweeden said he had.
“I couldn’t believe it. He groped me without my consent while I was asleep,” she said.
Franken: Sad.
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