Radio host accused Democratic senator of harassment

Democratic senator and former comedian Al Franken apologized to the woman who accused him of sexual harassment.

According to Air force, radio host Lin Tweiden, said that in the 2006 year, when they toured overseas American bases, Franken kissed her violently under the pretext of rehearsing a number, and also touched her on the plane while she was sleeping.

Al Franken, representing Minnesota in the US Senate, has in recent years cultivated a reputation as a champion of women's rights, including abortion, pay equity and protection from sexual harassment.

Franken is also actively involved in the activities of the Senate committees investigating Russian intervention in the US 2016 election and the possible collusion of Donald Trump’s entourage with those acting in the interests of the Russian state.

It was Franken at the hearing of the legal committee in January that asked Jeff Sessions, who was nominated and subsequently approved as attorney general, whether the headquarters of Trump had contacts with Russian officials.

Sessions replied that he himself had not met with anyone and that he did not know about any such contacts. At the beginning of March, after several meetings of the Sheshns with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 year, the prosecutor general considered it a blessing to withdraw from the oversight of the investigation of the Russian intervention, which, in parallel with several congressional committees, leads the FBI who reports to him.

Questions about the Russian connections of the Trump Session headquarters are still being asked.

Culture of harassment

Al Franken was the last in a series of influential white men on both sides of the Atlantic, who in the past few weeks had to answer charges of sexual harassment to women or to men with lower social status.

The first and loudest accusations relate to the recently powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein; he insists that all his contacts with women occurred by mutual consent.

The Franken scandal began with an article by Lin Tweden on the website of the Los Angeles radio station KABC, where she now works. She said that in the script of their joint number, Franken specially registered the scene of their kiss. Tweden wrote that she was not going to follow this scenario, but during a rehearsal in Kuwait, Franken insisted on his own, and when it came to a kiss, he opened her lips with his tongue.

Then on the plane, when Tweden fell asleep, he touched her chest and asked someone to photograph this moment.

Franken's position

Franken said his recollection of the rehearsal kiss did not match Tweeden's account, but he offered her his "most sincere apology."

“As for the photo, it was clearly made for fun, but it didn’t turn out funny. I shouldn’t have done this,” the politician said.

Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer immediately called on the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Franken’s conduct.

“Sexual harassment is always unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Schumer said in a statement.

The leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, supported the proposal for an investigation.

Franken said that if the investigation starts, he intends to cooperate with him.

The first apologies to the senator seemed to many not convincing, so two hours later Franken made an even more penitent statement.

“I respect women. I don't respect men who don't respect them. And that my own actions gave people reason to doubt this makes me ashamed,” Franken said in a second statement.

Regarding the Tweeden photo, he added: “I look at it now and I’m disgusted with myself. It's not funny. This is completely inappropriate."

Recall that earlier the American producer Harvey Weinstein was in the middle of a scandal: Dozens of actresses and his former female employees accused him of sexual harassment. After the producer was exposed, a wave of confessions of victims of harassment from other stars began, in particular, the accusations fell Kevin Spacey, Donald Hofffman, Steven Seagal and others.

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