Franken apologizes after groping report
Lawmakers urge ethics probe for ’06 USO tour incidents
Woman says Sen. Al Franken forcibly kissed her and later groped her on a 2006 USO tour.
WASHINGTON — 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 amid a blizzard of criticism said that he would “gladly cooperate” with a Senate ethics committee investigation into his actions.
“I respect women. I don’t respect men who don’t,” said Franken, a Minnesota Democrat 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 and in interviews throughout the day 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 wrote, “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 photos taken of the tour, that Franken had groped her while she was sleeping on the plane 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 wrote.
The USO, or United Service Organization, said Thursday that the incident had not been reported to the group in 2006. The USO, which has long organized entertainment tours to serve military members overseas, called the allegation against Franken “deeply disturbing.”
Franken first issued an apology to Tweeden, in which he said that the photo “was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”
Tweeten said at a news conference in Los Angeles that she has no reason not to accept his apology. She said people make mistakes.
After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the ethics committee should review the matter, and several prominent Democratic senators joined that call, Franken issued a second statement in which he agreed.
“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. “I am asking that an ethics investigation be undertaken, and I will gladly cooperate.”
Democrats throughout the day weighed in with expressions of disappointment in Franken and calls for ethics committee action.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called Franken’s behavior “unacceptable and deeply disappointing” and said she looked forward to an investigation.
“Women who come forward are brave and deserve to be respected,” she said. “We’re not going to fix the problems of sexual harassment and assault until men take responsibility for their actions and change their behavior.”
For Democrats, the swift requests for an investigation into Franken were necessary to avoid the suggestion of hypocrisy, since most of them have condemned Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate from Alabama who has been accused of making advances to teenagers when he was a local prosecutor in his 30s.
Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones on Dec. 12 in an election to replace appointed Sen. Luther Strange, who has held the seat since Jeff Sessions left to be attorney general.
The accusations against Moore have prompted numerous Republicans, including McConnell, to call on Moore to drop out. The Senate leader backed Strange in the GOP primary.
Moore mocked McConnell in a tweet Thursday: “Al Franken admits guilt after photographic evidence of his abuse surfaces. Mitch: “Let’s investigate.” In Alabama, ZERO evidence, allegations 100% rejected. Mitch: “Moore must quit immediately or be expelled.”
Franken next faces voters in 2020. He has been married to Franni Bryson since 1975.