A USO spokeswoman on Friday called allegations that Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) groped his co-emcee, sportscaster Leeann Tweeden, during a 2006 USO tour “deeply disturbing.”
“This incident was never reported to the USO. We have no knowledge of it. The report is deeply disturbing and does not reflect the values of the USO,” Director of Public Relations and Social Media Ashley McLellan said in an email statement to Breitbart News.
Asked whether the USO would allow Franken to go on another tour, McLellan said, “We have no current plans to engage with Al Franken.”
On Thursday, Tweeden revealed in a statement and radio interview that Franken had written a skit in which he kisses her, demanded that they rehearse the kiss, and when she relented, he grabbed her and stuck his tongue in her mouth without consent. She said she warned him never to do anything like that again.
She said afterwards he harassed her on the trip by doing things like drawing devil horns on a photo of her. After the tour, she discovered a photo on the USO tour reel that was given to her showing Franken with his hands over her breasts as she slept, grinning.
“Smiling, laughing with this smirk on his face,” she said during her radio interview. “It’s just that mentality that he thought he could get away with it. And that it was funny. And that’s it’s funny that you can grab someone’s breasts while they’re sleeping and just thinking, ‘Hey, I can get away with this.’”
Tweeden, who is married to an Air Force pilot and whose father is a Vietnam Veteran, said it was her ninth USO tour, and that she had never been treated by anyone like that before.
I’ve decided it’s time to tell my story. #MeToohttps://t.co/TqTgfvzkZg
— Leeann Tweeden (@LeeannTweeden) November 16, 2017
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