US senator and former comedian Al Franken has issued an apology after being accused of kissing and groping a woman without her consent.
Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles-based news anchor, came forward with the allegations in an op-ed published by KABC radio
on Thursday that detailed an encounter with Franken during a tour of the Middle East to entertain US troops in 2006.
Tweeden alleges that Franken, then a comedian and formerly of Saturday Night Live, forcibly kissed her while rehearsing for a skit and later groped her while she was asleep. She also shared a photo that appears to show Franken placing his hands over her breasts while posing for the camera.
Congressional leaders swiftly called for a Senate ethics committee investigation into Franken’s conduct. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders also told reporters Thursday a formal inquiry would be an “appropriate action”.
The Democratic senator swiftly issued an apology to Tweeden, claiming to remember the rehearsal differently.
“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” Franken said in a statement provided to the Guardian. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”
Within hours, Franken released a more detailed written statement in which he endorsed an ethics investigation into Tweeden’s allegation while vowing he would “gladly cooperate”.
“The first and most important thing – and if it’s the only thing you care to hear, that’s fine – is: I’m sorry,” Franken said. “I respect women. I don’t respect men who don’t. And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.”
Franken also said the photo of him appearing to grope Tweeden was “completely inappropriate”.
“I don’t know what was in my head when I took that picture, and it doesn’t matter. There’s no excuse,” he said. “I look at it now and I feel disgusted with myself. It isn’t funny.”
Tweeden said she accepted Franken’s apology but said he could have apologized before. “There’s no reason why I shouldn’t accept his apology,” Tweeden told Good Day LA. “[But] this happened 11 years ago.”
Tweeden said she saw Franken at a gala a few years after the incident. She recalled him seeking her out to say hello, but she ignored him and walked away. “He had a chance to apologize to me then,” Tweeden said. “He knew exactly what he did to me then and that that picture was out there.”
Tweeden did not, however, call on Franken to resign. “I’m not calling for him to step down. That’s not my place to say that,” she said.
The allegation comes as controversy continues over Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has now been accused of sexual assault by four women and of sexual misconduct by others, amid a wave of outrage over sexual harassment since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in October. Moore, the Republican candidate in a special election in Alabama next month, denies the claims against him.
Donald Trump also faces allegations of sexual assault by at least a dozen women, most of whom came forward in the months leading up to the 2016 election.
A growing number of women have also described sexual misconduct as rampant on Capitol Hill. A CNN investigation, based on interviews with 50 lawmakers, current and former Hill aides, detailed the environment as “pervasive”.
Franken is facing re-election in Minnesota and has been named among possible Democratic contenders for president in 2020.
In her essay, Tweeden said she intended to participate in the comedy tour, hosted by the United Service Organizations, as an emcee. But she claimed that Franken wrote a moment into the script where his character “comes at me for a ‘kiss’”.
Tweeden said she assumed she could turn her head away or put her hand over Franken’s mouth “to get more laughs from the crowd”. But on the day of the show, Tweeden wrote, she was alone with Franken backstage when he told her, “We need to rehearse the kiss.”
“I laughed and ignored him. Then he said it again,” she wrote. “I said something like, ‘Relax Al, this isn’t SNL. We don’t need to rehearse the kiss.’”
Tweeden said Franken continued to insist. She recalled agreeing “so he would stop badgering me”.
Senator Al Franken Kissed and Groped Me Without My Consent, And There’s Nothing Funny About It
“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,” Tweeden wrote. She said she immediately pushed him away and warned him against doing so again.
“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.”
Tweeden said she did not inform any of the officials on the trip because she did not wish to cause trouble. She said she performed the skit as written but turned her head away so Franken could not kiss her lips.
Upon returning to the US, she recounted looking through photos and seeing an image of Franken appearing to grope her breasts. “I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated,” she wrote. “How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, was first to call for an official investigation into the Franken allegations.
He said: “I believe the ethics committee should review the matter. I hope the Democratic leader will join me on this. Regardless of party, harassment and assault are completely unacceptable – in the workplace or anywhere else.”
Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, also expressed support for a congressional inquiry into what he called a “troubling incident”. He said: “Sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated.”
Other Democrats rushed to condemn Franken. “There is never an excuse for this behavior – ever,” said Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. Patty Murray, another member of Senate Democratic leadership, said: “This is unacceptable behavior and extremely disappointing.”
Last month, Franken condemned Weinstein’s behavior in a Facebook post as “appalling” while noting it was “far too common”.
As a comedian, Franken made jokes about rape and inappropriate behavior that have at times been resurrected during his political career.
They include a 1995 magazine feature about Saturday Night Live in which Franken, then a writer on the show, suggested a joke about drugging and raping prominent CBS reporter Lesley Stahl. He also once joked about child rape during a comedy roast of director Rob Reiner.
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