Posted on 11/16/2017 11:35:40 AM PST by markomalley
Exclusive to the Media Equalizer
With additional reporting from Martin Walsh
Immediately raising questions about double-standards in the media and on Capitol Hill, a Los Angeles radio news anchor today accused Senator Al Franken (D-MN) of sexually assaulting her.
Now, Media Equalizer Co-Founder Melanie Morgan has come forward as well, recounting her own experience with the onetime comedian, liberal radio host and activist. Morgan’s disturbing encounter was sparked by daring to disagree with Franken during an August, 2000 edition of ABC’s Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.
Earlier, a bombshell report published by KABC on-air personality Leeann Tweeden accused Franken of kissing and groping her without her consent while she was asleep.
Shockingly, Tweeden even provided a photo as evidence, which shows Franken with his hands on her breasts while he smiles for the camera.
Tweeden said the sexual assault occurred in December 2006, when they were both on a USO Tour to support and entertain U.S. soldiers.
“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,” Tweeden wrote about the photo on in her KABC article.
“I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated,” she wrote. “How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”
Tweeden said Franken had written a skit in which he would kiss Tweeden, where she said she “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,” she wrote.
Tweeden wrote that Franken insisted that they rehearse the kiss several times before the show, which she said made her “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,” she 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,” she added.
According to Newsweek, Franken has since released a statement saying he didn’t recall the incident.
“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,” he said in a statement.
In response to the disturbing allegations made against Franken, Media Equalizer and Media Equality Project Co-Founder Melanie Morgan has come forward to recall her own frightening encounter, sparked by a seemingly-mundane and even obscure topic of political disagreement.
Morgan, who was a ABC Radio talk show host for KSFO in San Francisco at the time, appeared August 19, 2000 on ABC’s late night show Politically Incorrect.
She was joined by Franken, William Baldwin, and then-Colorado Lt. Governor Joe Rogers on the panel.
Morgan and Franken had a dispute over the OMB’s budget numbers.
“I was invited and unaware of who his guests were going to be that night. I’ve since learned that though few know this, Al Franken was actually a writer for the show,” Morgan said.
“I made a statement about the budget numbers, Franken challenged me, I challenged him back. It was about spending priorities, actually just a mundane discussion. But he obsessed over it.”
After the show, Morgan said Franken wouldn’t leave her alone, insisting on continuing the argument.
“He approached me backstage, angrily called me out on those numbers and insisted he would prove he was right. He wouldn’t leave me alone, he kept following me. As a woman, his presence and proximity to me felt very threatening and intimindating.
“I didn’t realize his creepy behavior after the show meant it would continue in the days to come.
“He approached Carol, the show’s producer and demanded my home phone number, which was a clear violation of network protocol. I had thought that was the end of the story and was shocked when he started calling my home, badgering me repeatedly.
“I became fearful and called Carol to complain and asked her to tell him to back off. But he made another call after that. I thought that he might end up stalking me at my home in Northern California, it was that bad.
“By the third phone call I was outraged and terrified, as he is really disturbed,” Morgan recounted.
Morgan said Franken finally left her alone, but only after she pushed back and threatened “to call the police and make a report that he was harassing me.”
To this day, she says she is haunted by it: “I never forgot that experience and it informed me of his lack of character and obsessive personality. I believe every word Leann wrote.”
With many calling on Republican Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore to step aside following claims of sexual misconduct from decades ago, will Franken be asked to resign as senator?
“I will happily testify before the Senate Ethics Committee, should a hearing be held regarding Franken’s behavior,” Morgan added.
Isn’t McCain next in line? There is some groping in his past.
This is actually getting ridiculous. Are we going to have a government, then, of only women-victims?? Puleeze no Lord.
If Franken goes, Moore will be kicked out also. The Franken case may help Moore in the short run with the voters of Alabama, but it provides the perfect rationale (excuse) to evict him from the Senate once elected.
_
As I understand it, there is precedent of legal standing that such an eviction can only be on Constitutional grounds. I believe electoral fraud might be an example of permissible grounds....which puts the target right back on Franken.
Yer Dell the Tur Dell
He did get re-elected without controversy in 2014.
I’m not sure whether election to his his previous term would be relevant.
It will burn out eventually.
We need to go after every single democrat in office. They are all perverts, and only some of our guys are perverts.
I am sure he will respond with his usual balance of speed and determination.
That would be true except for one thing - there is photographic evidence of the actual crime in Franken's case and in Moore's case . . . . .
we have a forged autograph and no other evidence but heresay.
BIG DIFFERENCE
“Frakenweenie should have never been elected Senator...”
I can think of a former senator from Illinois that became a national nightmare.
-PJ
Mahr is a reprobate to be sure; however, I know for a fact at work he treats people personally and doesn’t harass them. This comes from people who work on the show. Don’t get your hopes up. I was disappointed in learning this as well.
Well, it’s different they are saying. First of all, Franken has apologized for his behavior and secondly, it was obviously done in jest and no one is really sure that he actually touched her breasts.
WHEN IS media going to play the disgusting video of Franken suggesting the rape of Rob Reiner by his father and fathers friends when he was little?
Seeing the photo all I can think is “He was able to feel her breasts through that?” And I am a female. I have no use for Franken but the photo is obviously a feeble attempt at humor. As for the kiss that was way out of line and he is lucky to still have a tongue.
As for his harassment of Morgan it seems the station must have violated their own rules and give her phone number to Franken. Even at that time Morgan had several avenues both legal and otherwise to put Franken in his place. Not just Franken but the station could have been held accountable So why didn’t she? What is with these Liberal women who seem flummoxed about how to deal with pigs like Franken?
I remember reading awhile back where he attended some function with a lot of women and they basically blew him off, like the way he was hitting on them. Sorry, I don’t remember the article.
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