L.A. radio anchor says Al Franken forcibly kissed her during USO tour

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, actions that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said should trigger a sexual harassment investigation.

Leeann Tweeden, a news anchor on KABC-AM’s “McIntyre in the Morning,” said in a post on the station’s website that Franken, then a professional comedy writer and performer, 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 said, “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 photographs taken of the tour, that Franken had groped her while she was sleeping on the plane ride 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 said.

Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who was elected senator in 2009, apologized in a statement released Thursday.

“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” he said. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”

McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said the Senate Ethics Committee should review the matter.

“Regardless of party, harassment and assault are completely unacceptable — in the workplace or anywhere else,” he said in a statement.

The Franken episode followed repeated claims by women on Capitol Hill that they have been the target of groping and unwanted advances from men and that Congress lacks sufficient protections for them.

The issue of sexual aggressiveness has also marked the Alabama Senate race. Republican Roy Moore had been the frontrunner until a series of women came forward and asserted that he had made advances toward them when they were teens and he was a local prosecutor in his 30s.

UPDATES:

9:05 a.m.: This article was updated with Sen. Al Franken’s apology and other staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 8:25 a.m.