The anti-sexual harassment backlash started with the Harvey Weinstein expose claimed its latest victim on Thursday when news anchor, former model and sports broadcaster Leeann Tweeden accused Minnesota’s Democratic Senator Al Franken of “kissing and groping” her without her consent in 2006.
In an essay published this morning on KABC, Tweeden accused Franken of groping her, without her consent, while she was asleep and provided a photo as evidence.
I’ve decided it’s time to tell my story. #MeToohttps://t.co/TqTgfvzkZg
— Leeann Tweeden (@LeeannTweeden) November 16, 2017
The incident happened in December 2006, when she and Franken, then a comedian, were on a USO Tour to “entertain our troops.”
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Tweeden, a morning anchor on Los Angeles station KABC, said she was part of a United Service Organizations (USO) tour in 2006 to entertain troops stationed in the Middle East. At the time, Tweeden said, she was “a TV host and sports broadcaster, as well as a model familiar to the audience from the covers of FHM, Maxim and Playboy,” and did not expect to play a large part in the performance.
She wrote that it was her ninth time on such a tour, which Franken, then a comedian, headlined. Tweeden said she agreed to play a part in one of Franken’s skits. “When I saw the script, Franken had written a moment when his character comes at me for a ‘kiss’. I suspected what he was after, but I figured I could turn my head at the last minute, or put my hand over his mouth, to get more laughs from the crowd,” she wrote.
According to Tweeden, Franken insisted on rehearsing the kiss backstage, and “continued to insist” over her protestations until she agreed so he would stop “badgering” her.
“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. “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.”
“It wasn’t until I was back in the U.S. and looking through the CD of photos we were given by the photographer that I saw this one,” she wrote on KABC. “I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated,” she wrote. “How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”
In the photograph published in Tweeden’s essay, Franken is looking into the camera and grinning as he reaches toward Tweeden’s chest. Tweeden’s eyes are closed, and the person sitting next to her also appears to be asleep.
“I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep,” Tweeden wrote. “I told my husband everything that happened and showed him the picture.”
“I wanted to shout my story to the world with a megaphone to anyone who would listen, but even as angry as I was, I was worried about the potential backlash and damage going public might have on my career as a broadcaster,” she wrote. “But that was then, this is now. I’m no longer afraid.”
She said she is sharing her story because there may be others.
“I want the days of silence to be over forever,” she wrote.
Tweeden also issued a direct statement to Franken.
“Senator Franken, you wrote the script. But there’s nothing funny about sexual assault. 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.”
In a statement obtained by Talking Points Memo, Franken apologized to Tweeden saying “I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann. As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”
Tweeden said she is “still angry” about what she says Franken did. “Every time I hear his voice or see his face, I am angry. I am angry that I did his stupid skit for the rest of that tour,” she wrote. “Senator Franken, you wrote the script. But there’s nothing funny about sexual assault.”
Tweeden’s comments come amid increased reports of sexual harassment in the workplace, including on Capitol Hill. Multiple women in Congress have come forward to say they have been victims of sexual harassment, prompting lawmakers to call for reform.
Rep. Jackie Speier said Tuesday the House has paid out $15 million in harassment settlements over more than a decade, though a spokesperson later clarified that figure does not only account for sexual harassment claims. She said at a Tuesday hearing that two current members of Congress, one Republican and one Democrat, have been accused of sexual harassment.
Her comments come after multiple women have accused GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct. Moore is facing growing calls from top Republicans to step aside in the Alabama race, though he has indicated he plans to continue running.
It remains to be seen if the public backlash against the Democratic Senator will be sufficient to prompt his resignation.
Tweeden’s full report can be read here.
Hey, that photo was funny
The esteemed senator was dumb enough to have someone photograph the asshole as he groped a sleeping women? Any pictures showing Roy Moore molesting defenseless women show up yet? Hilarious.
It was a turbulent flight and the good senator was simply keeping her from being tossed about the cabin.
You tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists always see something where there’s nothing.
Oh the irony, someone dressed in combat gear complaining because someone touched her. LMAO
Who touched who …. fucken decades ago … who gives a flying fuck!!! And why ain’t no men coming forward about being groped?
Women. They are starting to annoy me. Seriously.
I wonder if covering them in a burka and telling them to stand in a corner and shut the fuck up isn’t such a bad idea, after all.
Saves a lot of money on clothes.
A song for Al Franken:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKGeJnOCRDI
I love this band…
Steve C.
Spring, Texas
Steve
I have been listening to these guys at my desk all afternoon. The’re awesome. Gotta give you a thumbs up on link. Be great to see them live. Listening to a Salsa number right now..
Picturing Leann shaking those titties and me horning in on Woody’s action and grabbin’ her ass.
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Yeah, that whole concert at the Majestic was great:
Glad you like it.
Steve C.
Spring, Texas
Franken is a zionist piece of shit. I hope he gets tarred and feathered.
He is ‘my’ senator – Minnesota has a history for electing fuck-ups.
Besides, I thought he was a faggot.
What you can’t see is Al Franken being violently pushed byAlt-Right reporter Mike Cernovich (off camera, to the left) and he is trying to break his fall.
What is wrong with you people?
This doesn’t make sense. I am no fan of Al Franken but how could he grab this woman’s Tits without her waking up. Was she shipped overseas in a coma. Looking at that picture it sure does seem that way. And why is Sleeping Beauty in full kit and ready for combat.
What a hypocrite she is. She went on that USO tour to shake her tits for the troops and now she is playing poor Miss Innocent…
Rinny: I’d have to feel her tits, before making a judgement. I’m ready to be an impartial judge.
BTW: You can find pictures of her tits all over the internet.
Okay Woody I will nominate you to take one for the TBP team. As for the pics I just got done a search. Gotta say not too shabby! But if I was going to grab her I wouldn’t bother with the tits.
Hard to grab any skin through a flak jacket, but if it brings down that idiot Franken, then good on her for coming out with it. That flunky didn’t win his election honestly anyway.
Franken challenged incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman in 2008. When the initial count was completed on November 18, Franken was trailing Coleman by 215 votes. This close margin triggered a mandatory recount After reviewing ballots that had been challenged during the recount and counting 953 wrongly rejected absentee ballots, the State Canvassing Board officially certified the recount results with Franken holding a 225-vote lead
Franken stole the election.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
It turns our her pockets were on fire and Al Franken saved her and everyone else on board that aircraft with his heroic actions by suffocating the flames with his bare hands.
That picture: The Horror, the horror —-off with his head.
OTOH, a cigar shoved into a Vag is just something to smile about.
Did I miss a transistion sequence to explain a common sense reversal?
Greetings,
This really throws a wrench in that special election down there in Alabama. After all, didn’t these same senators scream that judge Roy must drop out of the race because of unsubstantiated 40 year old claims? We must demand a special election to replace Al Franken.
Yes, get rid of that asshole. He wants to censor the Internet.
The haji lovers in Minn will just put another clown in his place.
I was standing at the bar at the VFW one night minding my own business.
This FAT ugly chick came up behind me, grabbed my behind and said,
“You’re kinda cute. You gotta phone number?”
I said, “Yeah, you gotta pen?”
She said, “Yeah, I got a pen”.
I said, “You better get back in it before the farmer misses you.”
Cost me 6 stitches…but,
When you’re over seventy…………..who cares?
**********
I was telling a woman in the Club about my ability to guess what day
a woman was born just by feeling her breasts.
“Really” she said, “Go on then…. try.”
After about thirty seconds of fondling she began to lose patience and
said, “Come on, what day was I born?”
I said, “Yesterday.”
Cost me a kick in the nuts, but…
When you’re over seventy…………….who cares?
*********
“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me. ” ~ Stuart Smalley (middle name dick)
Like I said, getting paid for playing a “pattern” early on can be hard to recover from. The power centers, the people running the places that have what other people want, get used to a bent version of noblesse oblige. The new normal.
And then the pattern splatters. Heads on platters. Trees don’t grow to the sky & woodys, oblivious to the forest but for their tree, find their woodpeckers.
B\Lather, rinse, repeat.
Reality, love it or leave it – it don’t care. But the Knights in white satin decide which is right & which is an illusion & which is a pattern. Sometimes this leads to moody blues…often, actually.
This is extra entertaining since Minnesota’s other Senator, the boner-killing Amy Klobuchar, was the first to condemn Roy Moore based on mere accusations.
What – you don’t like Ferengi?
Amy Klobuchar should go back to her trough.
“I respect women. I don’t respect men who don’t. ”
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“As you can see in the photograph above, I am respecting the shit out of her shirt pockets.”
I think it’s best to keep partisanship out of this. I support all gropers.
It’s hard to tell if he is touching her, and, she is wearing a flac jacket.
Where is the line between presenting yourself naked and protruding in pictures and complaining that someone would like to touch you?
He did what to the prick tease? Pretended to fondle her. OH NO.
The touching part.
Did ya read the story she wrote? Combine that with this picture. In this environment, that is more than enough proof. This is orders of magnitude more substantive than the shit being flung onto Moore.
Frankinbeans thinks he’s being funny. Thing is he’s not and never was.
I knew I had seen Leeann Tweeden before. In those “Amazing Discoveries” infommercials from the 1980s, there was an episode for a fitness program.
Whatever the veracity of her allegations, whatever one says about Al Franken (let’s just say I’m not a fan)… she’s done well for herself since this infommercial was shot.
Stucky: I do agree with you to an extent. Women at times are a very difficult bunch. The stereotype of them being irrational is not just a stereotype.
This is by far the funniest thing Al Franken has ever done.
If Al Franken is ostracized for groping one gal, the lot of them should be hung by the neck for what they have done to the American taxpayers!
she’s a Russian agent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you’ll never get “big” al never:>
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It’s fun to watch the left eat itself…
Another chick is coming out of the woodwork about Franken creepiness.
$hrillary wants some of that me too…
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/breaking-more-dem-confessions/
Al Frankenstein should be horse whipped and imprisoned. It is shameful that he would take advantage of a proper virginal working girl struggling to succeed. NOT! I’m no fan of his or that nigger Cosby but these starlets fucking their way to the top and groupies trying to score parties and drugs from celebrities crying rape after 15 years ? Give me a break . They are a bunch of gold digger cunts. overthecliff