“You knew exactly what you were doing,” Leeann Tweeden writes, addressing Franken.
A Los Angeles radio host has come forward with allegations that Minnesota Democrat Sen. Al Franken sexually assaulted her during a 2006 USO tour in the Middle East.
And there is a photograph to prove it.
Leeann Tweeden, a radio host for KABC in Los Angeles, recounted a story of having to perform a skit with Franken, who has served in the US Senate since 2009, and said the then-comedian forcibly kissed her during a rehearsal and then posed in a photograph groping her while she slept.
Tweeden wrote her story for the KABC website, at the end of which she addressed Franken directly:
Senator Franken, you wrote the script. But there’s nothing funny about sexual assault.
You wrote the scene that would include you kissing me and then relentlessly badgered me into “rehearsing” the kiss with you backstage when we were alone.
You knew exactly what you were doing. You forcibly kissed me without my consent, grabbed my breasts while I was sleeping and had someone take a photo of you doing it, knowing I would see it later, and be ashamed.
Franken has responded to Tweeden’s story, saying he doesn’t remember the rehearsal in the same way and chalking up the photograph to a failed attempt at comedy.
“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” Franken said. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”
According to Tweeden’s account, Franken, a former Saturday Night Live cast member, wrote a skit with a kissing scene for the two of them while performing for troops in the Middle East. He insisted on the two of them rehearsing the kiss, despite Tweeden’s resistance, at which point she says, “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.”
“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,” Tweeden writes. “I walked away. All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth. I felt disgusted and violated.”
Later on the trip, while she was sleeping in her flak vest and Kevlar helmet, Franken posed in a photograph with his hands on her breasts.
Tweeden said she went public with the story after bringing Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), who started a video campaign to encourage women in Congress to come forward with their own sexual harassment experiences last month, on her radio show.
I’ve decided it’s time to tell my story. #MeToohttps://t.co/TqTgfvzkZg
— Leeann Tweeden (@LeeannTweeden) November 16, 2017
Allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein launched a national conversation about sexual harassment and assault, and women across industries have begun coming forward with their stories of assault in recent months on social media, tagging their posts with the hashtag #MeToo.
This, Tweeden said, was her #MeToo story.
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Breaking News: LA radio host shares photo of Sen. Al Franken groping her. He said it was “intended to be funny.” - News Paper
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