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Senator Al Franken Kissed and Groped Me Without My Consent- 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.
Franken had written some skits for the show and brought props and costumes to go along with them. Like many USO shows before and since, the skits were full of sexual innuendo geared toward a young, male audience.
As a TV host and sports broadcaster, as well as a model familiar to the audience from the covers of FHM, Maxim and Playboy, I was only expecting to emcee and introduce the acts, but Franken said he had written a part for me that he thought would be funny, and I agreed to play along.
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.
On the day of the show Franken and I were alone backstage going over our lines one last time. He said to me, “We need to rehearse the kiss.” I laughed and ignored him. Then he said it again. I said something like, ‘Relax Al, this isn’t SNL…we don’t need to rehearse the kiss.’
He continued to insist, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable.
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.
Not long after, I performed the skit as written, carefully turning my head so he couldn’t kiss me on the lips.
No one saw what happened backstage. I didn’t tell the Sergeant Major of the Army, who was the sponsor of the tour. I didn’t tell our USO rep what happened.
At the time I didn’t want to cause trouble. We were in the middle of a war zone, it was the first show of our Holiday tour, I was a professional, and I could take care of myself. I told a few of the others on the tour what Franken had done and they knew how I felt about it.
I tried to let it go, but I was angry.
Other than our dialogue on stage, I never had a voluntary conversation with Al Franken again. I avoided him as much as possible and made sure I was never alone with him again for the rest of the tour.
Franken repaid me with petty insults, including drawing devil horns on at least one of the headshots I was autographing for the troops.
But he didn’t stop there.
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
I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep.
I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated.
How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?
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.
But that was then, this is now. I’m no longer afraid.
Today, I am the news anchor on McIntyre in the Morning on KABC Radio in Los Angeles. My colleagues are some of the most supportive people I’ve ever worked with in my career. Like everyone in the media, we’ve been reporting on the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct allegations since they broke, and the flood of similar stories that have come out about others.
A few weeks ago, we had California Congresswoman Jackie Speier on the show and she told us her story of being sexually assaulted when she was a young Congressional aide. She described how a powerful man in the office where she worked ‘held her face, kissed her and stuck his tongue in her mouth.’
At that moment, I thought to myself, Al Franken did that exact same thing to me.
I had locked up those memories of helplessness and violation for a long time, but they all came rushing back to me and my hands clinched into fists like it was yesterday.
I’m still angry at what Al Franken did to me.
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. I am angry that I didn’t call him out in front of everyone when I had the microphone in my hand every night after that. I wanted to. But I didn’t want to rock the boat. I was there to entertain the troops and make sure they forgot about where they were for a few hours. Someday, I thought to myself, I would tell my story.
That day is now.
Senator Franken, you wrote the script. But there’s nothing funny about sexual assault.
You wrote the scene that would include you kissing me and then relentlessly badgered me into ‘rehearsing’ the kiss with you backstage when we were alone.
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.
While debating whether or not to go public, I even thought to myself, so much worse has happened to so many others, maybe my story isn’t worth telling? But my story is worth telling.
Not just because 2017 is not 2006, or because I am much more secure in my career now than I was then, and not because I’m still angry.
I’m telling my story because there may be others.
I want to have the same effect on them that Congresswoman Jackie Speier had on me. I want them, and all the other victims of sexual assault, to be able to speak out immediately, and not keep their stories –and their anger– locked up inside for years, or decades.
I want the days of silence to be over forever.
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Footage of Al Franken Making BABY RAPE Joke Resurfaces Amid Sexual Assault Allegations: Amid sexual harassment allegations made by model and actress Leeann Tweeden against Al Franken, footage of the Democrat Senator cracking a vile baby rape joke at Rob Reiner’s Comedy Central Roast in 2000 has resurfaced.
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I was amazed how suddenly this story broke, and how quickly it destroyed him politically. With photos and a half-apology, half admission, Franken was destroyed from the outset. The only question is whether Franken will resign soon, or if he will finish his term as Senator. He certainly won't be running for re-election.
And just to demonstrate the media bias, at the White House daily press conference yesterday, there was one question about Al Franken (a sitting Senator, regarding a political scandal that is true beyond any doubt) and 15 questions about Roy Moore (a candidate, about whom there are only allegations at this point).
Franken for years has been well-known as a vicious person who is abusive to his staff and lacking in ethics in the way he deals with people. This latest situation with Leeann Tweeden is further confirmation of that.
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Woman says Franken inappropriately touched her in 2010: It is the first allegation of improper touching by Franken, who is a Democrat, while he was in office. It comes just days after Leeann Tweeden, a local radio news anchor in California, said that Franken forcibly kissed and groped her in 2006, when Franken was a comedian.
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The same day 36 loyal Democrat women who have worked for Saturday Night Live have rushed forward to say "Al Franken didn't molest me."
The DNC machine is trying to save Franken. The news media and entertainment world don't want to reveal the truth about Franken, but are obligated to.
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Fair play!
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Army veteran says Sen. Al Franken groped her while she was stationed in Middle East in 2003: “When he put his arm around me, he groped my right breast,” she told the news station. “He kept his hand all the way over on my breast. I’ve never had a man put their arm around me and cup my breast. So he was holding my breast on the side.”
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Gillibrand calls for Al Franken to step down: In the wake of a new accusation of sexual misconduct by U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, his fellow Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand and other female senators are calling for him to step down.
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Yeah, that definitely got the dominoes falling on Franken.
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It seems as if Stewart Smalley is going to be the DNC's sacrificial lamb. They are going to force him to resign so they can pretend theyre the party of principles and then demand that the GOP purge Moore, Trump and even Clarence Thomas.
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Geez! Clarence Thomas?!? That was back in 1991!
Sacrificing a DNC pawn, in an attempt to take the GOP king.
The Democrats don't actually care about women, all this is just window dressing, so they can pretend to care, and then redirect it back at Trump.
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Franken has resigned. Should we send a sympathy card to MEM?
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It seems as if Stewart Smalley is going to be the DNC's sacrificial lamb. They are going to force him to resign so they can pretend theyre the party of principles and then demand that the GOP purge Moore, Trump and even Clarence Thomas. Why would they demand to purge Moore and Trump. Republicans were aware of Trump's sexual assaults allegations as they are with Moore's. If calling all those women liars works for your party I think that's their choice.
Fair play!
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I understand you're upset right now, having lost your hero. Don't worry. Maybe he'll renege on the resignation if Moore wins.
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I think the resignation wasn't much of a choice. My party doesn't accept the Trumpian "all the woman are lying" thing.
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Errr consensual sex with another consenting adult is different than what your party elects these days. And back when he was running to be President you just had an adulterous affair with Jennifer Flowers. Trump ran and voters were well aware of the rape and sexual harassment allegations against him. And like Moore it doesn't matter. Your party just call the women liars and vote them in. This isn't your past but the present day.
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You just changed your argument from "my party doesn't support politicians who call women liars" to "my party does support politicians who call them liars , but it's cool because we only call them liars when the sex was allegedly consensual."
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Do you equate lying about consensual sex with an adult to rape and pedophilia? Sure looks like it. I think your trying to parse some type of argument that ignores how a Trump and Moore can get elected in your party while knowing they would never be acceptable to democrats.
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Essentially, you, yourself, just got caught in a lie. As noted above, you falsely stated your party doens't support politicians who call women liars. Now you're scrambling to change the argument to avoid addressing your own lie. Furthermore, I note that you are also lying when you confine Clinton calling women liars to Lewinsky and Flowers. For example, he also called Paula Jones (who accused him of sexual harassment) a liar, with Hillary going so far as to enlist private detectives, attorneys and others to spread rumors Jones was a crazy slut and " trailer trash." And let's not even get into Juanita Broaddrick.... It's totally obvious here that, contrary to your disingenuous statement, the Democrat party is fully supportive of politicians who call women liars. It's also obvious that the only reason the party called for Franken's resignation at this time was because MN has a Democrat governor, meaning it won't affect the balance of the Senate and gives the DNC a talking point against Moore.
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Not surprised to see you conflate the events that happened but it's false to present it as it all happening when Clinton was running for election. Unlike Trump voters just had rumors of an adulterous affair with Flowers. Paula Jones happened later and it wasn't like Trump, Moore or Franken where large groups came forward with credible stories of sexual harassment or worse. And Broadrick at the time filed an affidavit saying she wasn't harassed. I know you don't want to acknowledge it but Trump had a large group of accusers while he was running for office. That was not the case with Clinton. I think Moore will also win. Like With Trump your base is fine with just calling them all liars. I also think not far down the road, the GOP is going to pay a price.
Fair play!
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Not surprised to see you conflate the events that happened but it's false to present it as it all happening when Clinton was running for election. Unlike Trump voters just had rumors of an adulterous affair with Flowers. Paula Jones happened later Like Franken, the Jones allegations against Clinton were made after he took office. So active candidacy is irrelevant for purposes of your discredited argument. I almost feel bad for you flailing about this way. So let me give you an out. Just admit you weren't thinking clearly when you made your inaccurate statements because Sen, Smalley got offered up as a sacrificial lamb in the attempt to defeat Moore and Trump and you were crestfallen that your hero ended up as collateral damage.
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Your missing the difference between them. Franken had a large number of women that came forward. It just isn't credible to claim all the women are liars like your party is doing for the pedophile and what they did for Trump. Clinton had Paula Jones. Even a not very good lawyer should know a case with one accuser is much different than when you have large numbers of accusers. I doubt you're a bad lawyer but I think like all your fellow party members that are willing to call a lot of women liars your partisanship is warping some fairly easy principles to understand.
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Dems now want accused groper Al Franken back: “I think we acted prematurely, before we had all the facts,” one anonymous senator told Politico. “In retrospect, I think we acted too fast.” So much for the high horse.
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RAILROADED: THE REAL REASON AL FRANKEN IS NO LONGER A SENATORThree weeks after volunteering as Democratic Party tribute Hunger-Games-Style, Al Franken has finally relinquished his Senate seat. Operation: Moral High Ground, the Democrats’ transparent plan to claim victory in America’s #metoo moment, was a simple one.
Step One: Run Al Franken out of town. No ethics investigation. No consideration of Minnesota voters. No censure or lesser discipline. Just an aggressive Franken-ectomoy.
Step Two: Sit back and wait for alleged pedophile Roy Moore to win a Senate seat in Alabama’s special election.
Step Three: Make sure Franken’s exit shares a news cycle with Roy Moore’s entrance. It would have been the Holy Grail of partisan juxtaposition—the split-screen video image to end all split screen video images.
Step Four: Scream into the echo chamber that Republicans are the Roy Moore party and Democrats are the party of women.
But Roy Moore lost, and Operation: Moral High Ground turned out to be an Acme rocket that blew up Al Franken and left Senate Republicans Meep-Meeping as they ran down the road to tax reform. In the end, the Democratic Party sacrificed one of their most high profile Senators without gaining one square inch of moral high ground.
There should have been an ethics investigation. Unfortunately for Franken, there wasn’t time for any sort of fact-finding or due process; there was only time for politically expedient, angry mob justice.
Franken’s fellow Senate Democrat Joe Manchin said on Politico’s Off- Message Podcast that Franken got “railroaded by fellow Democrats” and that what happened to Franken was “the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen done to a human being.”
Franken was railroaded because he got hit with a perfect storm of political opportunism. Franken didn’t resign because he admitted to being guilty. In fact, he maintained his innocence all along saying, “Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember very differently.” He didn’t resign the people of Minnesota wanted him to. A recent PPP poll showed that Minnesotans, by an 8 point margin, wanted him to stay— that’s almost his exact margin of victory in the 2014 election. Even if Minnesotans had wanted him ousted, the constitution of Minnesota allows for a recall.
Here are of few of the real reasons that Democrats saw fit to undo an election decided by Minnesota voters:
1. Because Roy Moore was winning in the polls
Democrats can’t seem to stop getting burned by the polls. While a couple polls looked good for Jones, the majority of the showed Moore winning the Alabama special election by 4 to 9 points. Democrats were banking on all those Alabama Republicans getting it wrong. If a majority of the polls had shown Jones winning comfortably, Franken would still be a Senator. But Moore was up, and the inevitable “Republicans hate women” narrative proved too tantalizing to resist.
2. Because Minnesota has a Democrat governor
Anyone believe the Democrats would have demanded Al Franken resign if it meant they’d lose a Senate vote? Anyone believe if a Republican governor was waiting in the wings to replace Al Franken with a Republican Senator that he’d be going anywhere? Of course not! Democrat Governor Mark Dayton is appointing Democrat Lt. Governor and former vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota Tina Smith to a one year term that will end in 2019.
This played a huge role in the cost/benefit analysis of ousting Franken. Without the security of knowing the seat would stay with the party, there’s no way Franken would have been forced out. Certainly not at a time when the Senate is nearly equally divided and the Senate Democrats are facing a 2018 electoral map that has Waterloo written all over it.
3. Because Kristen Gillibrand wants to be president
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Kristen Gillibrand win the nomination in 2020 because she’s absolutely ruthless. Hours after Franken was first accused of sexual misconduct by Leanne Tweeden, Gillibrand told The New York Times that Bill Clinton should have resigned. Phillipe Reines, a former Clinton aide called her out on twitter saying, “Over 20 yrs you took the Clintons’ endorsements, money, and seat. Hypocrite. Interesting strategy for 2020 primaries. Best of luck.” It’s no coincidence that Senator Gillibrand was later the first to call for Al Franken’s resignation. According to Politico, Gillibrand’s call was “quickly followed by more than two dozen others. The first batch of resignation calls came from female senators, followed by a slew of male Democrats and eventually the majority of the 48-member caucus.”
Not only did Gillibrand seize the opportunity to be a national leader of the #metoo movement by calling for Franken’s resignation, she also took down someone who may have proven a major competitor for the Democratic nomination.
To the ultra-casual or ultra-partisan observer, it may look like the Democrats took a stand against sexual misconduct, but that’s not what happened. What really happened was they vetoed a fair election and destroyed the career of one of their own Senators in a desperate attempt to win a political narrative.
I won’t miss Al Franken and his self-righteous grandstanding, and frankly I don’t believe his denials. But he deserved the chance to prove me and everyone else wrong. His ouster was not justice. Instead, he and the Minnesotans he represented were pawns sacrificed in a Machiavellian political maneuver.
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Eddie Zipperer is a political science professor at Georgia Military College.
We saw this is true in the way Democrats pulled back after the election and suddenly regretted their rush to judgement on Franken. So much for the moral high ground. There's plenty of evidence of Democrat opportunism on everyone mentioned, that can be used by Republicans in future elections.
- from Do Racists have lower IQ's...
Liberals who bemoan discrimination, intolerance, restraint of Constitutional freedoms, and promotion of hatred toward various abberant minorities, have absolutely no problem with discriminating against, being intolerant of, restricting Constitutional freedoms of, and directing hate-filled scapegoat rhetoric against conservatives.
EXACTLY what they accuse Republicans/conservatives of doing, is EXACTLY what liberals/Democrats do themselves, to those who oppose their beliefs.
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