Senator Al Franken Accused Of Kissing, Groping Woman Without Her Consent... And She's Got A Picture To Prove It

KABC.com — In December of 2006, I embarked on my ninth USO Tour to entertain our troops, my eighth to the Middle East since the 9/11 attacks. My father served in Vietnam and my then-boyfriend (and now husband, Chris) is a pilot in the Air Force, so bringing a ‘little piece of home’ to servicemembers stationed far away from their families was both my passion and my privilege.

Also on the trip were country music artists Darryl Worley, Mark Wills, Keni Thomas, and some cheerleaders from the Dallas Cowboys. The headliner was comedian and now-senator, Al Franken…

…

…I’m still angry at what Al Franken did to me.

For several days now America has braced itself for the avalanche of sexual harassment allegations to hit Capitol Hill. While numerous stories have popped up, none have identified any individuals. Until now. This morning, Al Franken became the first lawmaker named, as a woman — who is now a radio broadcaster — accused the junior Senator from Minnesota of kissing and groping her without her consent in 2006. The two were on a USO Tour on which they performed together to entertain the troops.

First, she describes how Franken wrote a kiss into one of their skits, insisted they practice it backstage, then took advantage of the opportunity.

He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss. I said ‘OK’ so he would stop badgering me. 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.

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.

She avoided Franken as much as possible the rest of the trip, and says he mocked her for it. Then, on the long trip home, she describes this:

The tour wrapped and on Christmas Eve we began the 36-hour trip home to L.A. After 2 weeks of grueling travel and performing I was exhausted. When our C-17 cargo plane took off from Afghanistan I immediately fell asleep, even though I was still wearing my flak vest and Kevlar helmet.

It wasn’t until I was back in the US and looking through the CD of photos we were given by the photographer that I saw this one:

Yikes.

It doesn’t matter what side you’re on. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. It doesn’t matter how powerful you are. If you violate a woman (or anyone really, but especially a woman) against her will, you’re an asshole.

Franken has released a statement apologizing, saying he thought it was humorous but clearly wasn’t.

And this whole thing looks worse and worse when you consider he’s made statements like:

Franken’s been a comedian and writer for a long time. This photo alone, if he’s not groping but just hovering, is bad but could at least be explained as a funny guy trying to take a funny picture.

But the full context — the kiss, the mocking, the animosity — followed by this type of violation while she’s asleep… complete with this picture, is an awful, awful, awful look for Franken.

Bad actions. Bad story. Expecting a bad outcome for Al, which seems fully deserved.