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.
McCsin is angry that Al has sexually harASSed him
You mean McConnell hasn’t said anything yet about A. Franken resigning? Somehow, I’m not surprised.
You mean McConnell hasn’t said anything yet about A. Franken resigning? Somehow, I’m not surprised.
Frakenweenie should have never been elected Senator it’s a travesty he was so maybe some well earned schadenfreude is coming his way.
That pretty much sums up his whole career.
Yurtle the turtle is hiding under the covers...sans balls.
"Mitch! For Pete's sake, get outta bed!"
"I'm calling in sick today, Elaine!"
"Chuck's on the phone"
"What the heck does he want?"
"Nothing. He's just laughing..."
Hat Tip: COBOL2Java (John McCain treats GOP voters like he treated his first wife)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3605408/posts
Not a fair trade to give up Franken who is an actual Senator for Moore, who is just a potential Senator.
Get Franken out. Then let the people of Alabama have their say about Moore.
Hollywood and Demorats together are feeding these sex scandals (tag teams)in order to occupy the publics mind from what they should otherwise be paying attention to but are not....and the media just loves it!
frankin is a piece of $hit.
Wouldn’t it be a hoot if we got Moore into the Senate and Franken kicked out?
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.
I vaguely remember Melanie talking about it on the Lee Rogers Show. It certainly wasn’t about sex.
I’m tired of this stuff. If all they have as evidence is a claim that it happened, as far as I’m concerned, it didn’t happen.
I’m beginning to believe what another freeper said a few days ago - that we’re being set up for an “only a female can be elected” environment in 2020.
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The problem with this assertion is that Melanie is a total flirt.
Its how she got, and lost, her husbands and her jobs.
She’s also a dingbat.
She got her scarred feet by trying to walk across a bed of hot coals in a TV stunt when she worked in Seattle.
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Al franken has no business being in comedy. He’s not funny.
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When the 17th amendment made the senate elective, it also essentially eliminated its ability to reject an elected senator.
Impeachment for misdeeds in office is essentially the only way.
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He looks funny...
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I've met her and she is VERY butch.
Kyle Whitmire is an effete "columnist" there (though he's married) and he's written with more vitriol against Judge Moore than anyone, with the possible exception of John "I forgot I declared bankruptcy and I've got a gay brother" Archibald.
They hate Judge Moore and they have made it clear that they do.
Their jobs are also dependent on pleasing their editor. Those 3 papers are owned by Advance and they have laid off over 40% of their employees in the past few years and now only print 3 days a week.
So you have lesbains and leftists calling the shots and maybe a couple of people who are afraid to speak out in fear of losing their jobs.
But this is a hate campaign of the highest order.
You had a serious doubt?
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