A news anchor and former sports broadcaster has accused Senator Al Franken of sexual assault.
Leeann Tweeden, who covers the news on KABC’s McIntyre In The Morning, has published a lengthy post about the alleged assault. In it, she describes how, while on a USO tour in December 2006, Franken recruited her for one of his skits—performances that, “like many USO shows before and since,” were “full of sexual innuendo geared toward a young, male audience.”
Although she had also been a model, Tweeden assumed that her career in broadcasting and news meant she’d just be emceeing and announcing on the tour. But Franken claimed to have written a part just for her in one of the skits, which involved kissing. On the day of the performance, Tweeden writes that Franken kept asking her to rehearse the kiss, which she kept trying to politely decline. Finally, she agreed to practice the kiss so he would “stop badgering her.” Here’s what Tweeden says followed:
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.
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.