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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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War On Drugs is already lost. Time to come up with some new ideas. so people should welcome this.
@ericm: Years of excessive alcohol consumption damages the liver. The mental capacity is altered for a number of hours. Drugs on the other hand cause permanent changes to the brain. Trying to conflate the two is devious.
@Tom Molloy: you don’t think alcohol abuse causes permanent damage to the brain? Long term, alcohol is far more damaging, mentally and physically, than heroin
@Tom Molloy: Twit. Please study some biochemistry and neurobiology before you comment. Alternatively (and I recommend this), don’t comment.
@George Salter: because of my work I have met on a weekly bases heroin addicts over periods and out of the dozens I got to know only one has recovered to their former selves, many have died and the others show now indication of ever reaching the potential they once had pre addiction.
@Tom Molloy: “permanent changes to the brain” ,thats called growing up,m’kay
@Tom Molloy: Quite. That doesn’t justify your statement that alcohol is transitory.
A baby step in the right direction.
And yet a Child still gets refused a legal cannabis to treat her severe epilepsy and her mother has to travel with her to Holland while junkies with no one to blame but themselves for being hopeless addicts have a blind eye turned so their evil dealers can keep making money from them… That sounds like a standard “fantastic” FG plan… What a bunch of clowns
@Jay Warner: with comments like this it’s a shame that the journal have removed their thumbs down option
@Jay Warner: FG = short term solutions for long term problems
@Jay Warner: hear hear..they should of just decriminalised cannabis..but why would a neo liberal right wing party piss off the pharmaceutical company’s that are here in Ireland instead of listening to the people regarding this matter
@Medbh Peavoy: why red thumb? Are you saying a person who choses to become an addict should get treated before a child who is sick through no fault of her own. why should a druggie get free Methadone but the poor child can’t get medical cannabis?
@Meadbh Peavoy: With comments like yours, I agree about the thumbs down option. Bleeding hearts like yours never care about the real victims of drug addiction.
It’s high time we started cuddling junkies and inviting them to schools to try and get rid of the stigma
Why should the Irish taxpayer fund this
Put the junkies on the bottom of every list
Use the money for those who are really sick
@in the paper
The taxpayer should fund addiction services and treatment because it is far far cheaper than funding jail spaces.
Besides, this could easily be funded from savings from reduced gardai /court time currently wasted on prosecuting people for personal use of drugs when we do go agead and decriminalise / regulate all drugs.
@In the paper: Take the tax from where I buy my pot. You’re forcing people to give 100% of the money to criminals, by refusing to regulate the market.
@john doe: would you be saying that if a junkie broke into you home…robbed you… or tried to attack one of your family….dont think so…….
@In the paper: Why do you think that “junkies” aren’t really sick? Is it based on science, or some half-assed opinion that you picked up?
@in the paper
If anyone broke into my house I would hope that there would be gardai with enough time to catch and prosecute them. Not for being a junkie but for breaking and entering.
Instead at the moment gardai time is being wasted chasing addicts to arrest them for their next fix. When this is confiscated they will just go get more anyway.
Arresting someone for being a junkie doesn’t make them better. Only a health based drug policy will do that.
About time, we have been fighting a lost cause for a number of years. I have seen a friend on mine get a €1000 fine for having makings of one joint, absolutely ridiculous.
@Gary O’Brien: Did your friend know it was against the law?
@Gary O’Brien: that is simply not true. Have you ever been to the courts?
@Scundered: Just because something is illegal doesn’t make it immoral? Did you know that?
@Daniel Carson: we’re discussing law here though, he’s not complaining that his morals were disrespected.
It’s a joke. A druggie immediately gets free medical treatment and free medication, and free travel cause they have a “disease”. Where as people who are genuinely sick through no fault of there own have to wait years for treatment and pay there own way.
@Roy Dowling: Why do you assume that “druggies” want to be sick?
Go and do some research before spouting opinions that you learned from others…
Te fight against drugs has been lost because it was never properly tackled, people caught smuggling drugs on planes etc should have been charged with a dangering a nation; drug suppliers could not care less who gets their hand on their drugs, methadone is a joke, many junkies take it and then proceed to shoot up with the real thing and as for personal use, this is a handy way for pushers to avoid prosecution and too many judges take a softy softy approach. Cold turkey is what is needed not pampering, it might reduction of crime and cost of treating junkies. Cannabis is a step on the way to hard drugs regardless of how you feel about habitually breaking the law on drugs.
@Jho Harris: Cannabis has not been proved to be a gateway to harder drug use. That myth has been debunked many years ago. You are living in the past
@Jho Harris: funny how many people think that but for me(at least)it was the opposite I’ve been smoking weed for about 10 years now every night and the last thing i would want to do after a smoke is go on the something harder like cocaine! This “gateway drug” crap is painful to listen to- the only time I’ve ever done a few lines was years ago (before i took up smoking) and only after a pile of pints (at least 3 nights a week) so i suppose you could say alcohol was my “gateway drug” its so funny to me that it seems socially acceptable here in Ireland to go out binge drinking and fall around the place rotten drunk but the thought of someone sitting in their own house smoking a dube causing no harm to anyone-watching a bit of TV eating a few sweets is unacceptable to some! The mind boggles
@Jho Harris: Almost all drug addicts took alcohol and nicotine first. So, ban them.
@Jho Harris: that approach is working so well in the US of course
@Luke Moore: I never used the term “gateway drug” I did write that it was a step on the way to hard drugs and that has not been debunked for the dealers who can make bigger profits. It is ironic that a few people want to make the likes of John Gilligan rich beyond their dreams and see their toking as innocent. Michael Farrelly accuses me of living in the past yet he seems to think he looks like David Bowie or is just too scared to show his real face.
@Jho Harris:sorry gateway drug and step on the way sound like the same thing to me! And making drug dealers rich IS the problem! why not just legalize create real jobs for farmers and take the profit out of the dealers pocket? And i don’t buy from the john Gilligan type anyway, don’t need to!
@Damo: The likes of Gilligan or somebody like him is somewhere along the supply chain you use.
@Jho Harris: i don’t use a supply chain is my point! Its a plant! It grows!
Past policies to address this issue ,have failed,a new approach should be welcomed
Its good news but all i can see is working group to look at this and that and protocol for the other.
Lets hope its the start of some thing good.
Leo Varadkar organised community opposition to methadone dispensing from a boots pharmacy in castleknock in 2007.
This republic knows no prejudice unless your opiate dependent and you need easy access to treatment in a middle class area.
So much talking, so many committees,so little action!!
Nice to see compassionate Ireland in full flow in black and white heaven, junkie bad self obsessed me good, many addicts rob many don’t, plenty with mental health issues who can’t access any services whose week would go like so, paid pay dealers score get some tick starve cold turkey paid again rinse repeat. We need new ways of thinking rather than just defaulting to that person is sub human.
Did they forget to include nationwide treatment centers as part oft this new compassionate plan?
These people should be ticketed for small amount of drugs. These people need to be given a reason to hit rock bottom and to be sick and tired of being sick and tired.drug court works very well choice between Jail or rehab. Fines Than can be used to pay for treatment centers and follow up treatment.
@Leanne Behan: That’s not a totally irrational opinion. Thanks.
Really hope the government do get this plan right and actually start to listen to those associations that help people in addiction and not just leave the situation as us going on. I mean Dublin itself has large addiction problem but i hope they stratigise and come up with better options for rural areas with little transport links day programmes drop ins. Addicts need help just like any human being and at the end the day that has not been happening iv seen the decline in staffing in clinics and the way staff treat clients can be demoralizing iv had people tell me doctor said I’m a no hoper who in their life needs to hear that. We need more in programmes and after care aswel so really the government should be listening to the people that have been through systems or are going through systems and act on trying to make these changes viable
Everything is toxic , sure where do you stop ? theyd be sniffin glue anyway , probably need help but ive enough to do meself let tax pay for something like dole and social housing and a slap
Anyone who believes its no ones fault but a junkies as to where they find themselves and they should be punished accordingly, or anyone who is pro “strict drug laws” such as the War on Drugs should really watch these videos and try learn something
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