Leeann Tweeden said her treatment by Al Franken reminded her of the aggressive advances Harvey Weinstein made on a model who secretly recorded them.
Franken apologized Thursday after Tweeden came forward to say Franken kissed her against her will while they rehearsed for a 2006 USO show, and groped her while she was asleep during the flight home. She also provided a photo of his groping.
Tweeden told reporters in a news conference Thursday that Franken’s conduct reminded her of Weinstein’s advances on Ambra Gutierrez, which the model secretly recorded for the New York Police Department. The New Yorker posted the recording online.
Tweeden said Franken kept pressing her to practice a kissing scene he had written into a script for the USO show.
“He just kept persisting and it just reminded me of the Harvey Weinstein tape that you heard the girl when she was wired up by the NYPD, just persistent and badgering and relentless, you know. So I was just like, fine, so he would shut up, you know and he just sort of came at me.”
She added: “He just mashed his lips against my face and he stuck his tongue in my mouth so fast. And all I can remember is that his lips were very wet and it was slimy. In my mind I called him fish lips the rest of the trip … I almost punched him. Every time I see him now my hands clench into fists.”
In a statement, Franken said he did not remember the rehearsal as she does, but apologized.
“The first thing I want to do is apologize: to Leeann, to everyone else who was part of that tour, to everyone who has worked for me, to everyone I represent, and to everyone who counts on me to be an ally and supporter and champion of women,” said Franken in his statement. “There’s more I want to say, but the first and most important thing — and if its the only thing you care to hear, that’s fine — is: I’m sorry.”
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would seek to open an ethics investigation into Franken, which the senator said he would be happy to fully cooperate with.
“I am asking that an ethics investigation be undertaken,” he said. “I will gladly cooperate.”