Tag: sexual misconduct

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Sen. Al Franken Apologizes For Groping/Kissing Incident

A female radio host claims Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota made a lewd gesture while she was sleeping aboard a military plane on her way home from a USO tour in 2006 before he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

She also says he forcibly kissed her when they were performing together for troops overseas.

From ABC News:

“I felt disgusting and violated,” Leeann Tweeden wrote on KABC’s website.

Tweeden, who is a radio news anchor based in Los Angeles, wrote on KABC’s website this morning about what she says was her experience.

She claims that in 2006 Franken insisted on kissing her as part of a rehearsal for an act. He later groped her while she was asleep on a plane, she also claimed. Franken was elected senator in 2008.

Franken issued this apology via Facebook:

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. There’s more I want to say, but the first and most important thing—and if it’s the only thing you care to hear, that’s fine—is: I’m sorry.

I respect women. I don’t respect men who don’t. And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.

But I want to say something else, too. Over the last few months, all of us—including and especially men who respect women—have been forced to take a good, hard look at our own actions and think (perhaps, shamefully, for the first time) about how those actions have affected women.

For instance, that picture. I don’t know what was in my head when I took that picture, and it doesn’t matter. There’s no excuse. I look at it now and I feel disgusted with myself. It isn’t funny. It’s completely inappropriate. It’s obvious how Leeann would feel violated by that picture. And, what’s more, I can see how millions of other women would feel violated by it—women who have had similar experiences in their own lives, women who fear having those experiences, women who look up to me, women who have counted on me.

Coming from the world of comedy, I’ve told and written a lot of jokes that I once thought were funny but later came to realize were just plain offensive. But the intentions behind my actions aren’t the point at all. It’s the impact these jokes had on others that matters. And I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to come to terms with that.

While I don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit as Leeann does, I understand why we need to listen to and believe women’s experiences.

I am asking that an ethics investigation be undertaken, and I will gladly cooperate.

And the truth is, what people think of me in light of this is far less important than what people think of women who continue to come forward to tell their stories. They deserve to be heard, and believed. And they deserve to know that I am their ally and supporter. I have let them down and am committed to making it up to them.

Tweeden says she accepts Franken’s apology and isn’t asking for him to step down as Senator:

There are reports that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will ask for an ethics investigation which Franken has already agreed to cooperate with.

It’s interesting that Franken will be investigated for pretending to grope a woman while asleep, but Donald Trump has over a dozen accusers about misconduct and … nothing.

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Roy Moore’s Lawyer Says MSNBC Host’s “Background” Should Help Him Understand Dating Underage Girls

More amateur hour antics from the Roy Moore team.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Velshi & Ruhle” this morning, Moore’s lawyer Trenton Garmon tried to defend his client from allegations of sexual misconduct with young girls by bringing up the “background” of Ali Velshi.

Things went off the rails as Ruhle asked, “Why would [Moore] he need permission from any of these girls’ mothers if they weren’t underage?”

“That’s a good question. Culturally speaking, I would say there’s differences. I looked up Ali’s background there,” said Garmon. “Wow. That’s awesome, that you have got such a diverse background. It was cool to read through that.”

The two hosts were obviously perplexed by the odd segue.

“What does Ali’s background have to do with dating a 14-year-old?” Ruhle inquired.

Garmon never really got to any kind of salient point, but for the record: Velshi was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and raised in Toronto, Canada.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell On Roy Moore Sexual Misconduct Allegations: “I Believe The Women”

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters today, “I believe the women,” when it comes to the allegations of sexual misconduct by Roy Moore in his 30s.

McConnell also said he thinks Moore should “step aside” when it comes to the Alabama race for U.S. Senate. The Senate Majority leader says Republicans are exploring the possibility of an effective “write-in” candidate for the Alabama seat.

In related news, attorney Gloria Allred has announced a press conference for later today where she says she will appear with a woman who has new claims of sexual misconduct by Roy Moore.

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George Takei To Howard Stern: Sometimes You Have To “Persuade” Men Who Are “Skittish” About Sex

George Takei

In the midst of the ongoing allegations of sexual misconduct flying all over, I was surprised as many were to hear George Takei accused of sexual assault from back in the early 80s by former model/actor Scott Brunton.

As I reported last week, Brunton says he passed out after a couple of cocktails at Takei’s apartment after a date in 1981, and when he came to his pants were around his ankles and Takei was trying to remove his underwear.

Takei vehemently denied the entire event. He also says he doesn’t remember knowing Brunton.

But folks have found a recent interview segment with Takei and Howard Stern, and the chat was downright prescient.

In an interview with Stern just last month, Takei and Stern were chatting up the recent Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations when Takei was asked by Stern if he ever “hassled” or grabbed another gay man inappropriately.

Here’s how it went down:

Stern: “You never sexually assaulted anyone…..?”

Takei: (long pause) “Hey, boner” (laughs)

Takei: “Some people are kind of skittish, or maybe, um, uh, afraid, and you’re trying to persuade.”

Stern co-host Robin Quivers: “But you didn’t do this grabbing at work?”

Takei: “It was either in my home. They came to my home.”

Stern: “So what do you mean, there’d be some guy who was hesitating to have sex with you and then you gave’em a gentle squeeze on the balls or something?”

Takei: “More than a gentle…. [laughs] but it didn’t involve power over the other.”

Listen below.

(h/t Towleroad)

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Roy Moore: I Never Dated A Teenage Girl Without The Mother’s Permission

Roy Moore

During an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio show today, embattled Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore denied any truth to the allegations raised in an explosive Washington Post article in which 4 women detailed inappropriate behavior by Moore when he was in his early 30s.

Moore began with saying the entire reporting was “completely false and misleading,” but then muddied the waters as he continued.

Later in the interview, he admitted he remembered knowing two of the women.

So much for “completely false and misleading.”

From Business Insider:

Hannity went through the Post story and detailed the allegations of the four accusers. Moore claimed to know two of four, but denied any instance of misconduct with either. In response to the allegations involving Debbie Wesson Gibson, Moore said, “I don’t remember going out on dates. I knew her as a friend. If we did go out on dates, then we did. But I don’t remember that.”

Speaking of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Moore said he “dated a lot of young ladies” after “my return from the military.”

“I do recognize the names of two of these young women,” he said of Gibson and Deason, denying that he gave the latter alcohol when she was underage. “As I recall, she was 19 or older.”

Asked if he remembers dating teenage women when he was older than 30, Moore said, “Not generally, no.”

“I don’t remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother,” he said. He later pointed to The Post’s story and said, “These two young girls actually said their mothers encouraged them to be friends with me.”

After a commercial break, Moore became more forceful in his denials of dating teenagers. He said doing so “would be out of my customary behavior” and that he “never” would have dated a teen without her mother’s permission.

“Not generally, no” is not a “No.”

The Twitterverse had a field day:

Moore issued a statement this afternoon:

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Louis C.K. Breaks His Silence On Sexual Misconduct Allegations: “These Stories Are True”

In the aftermath of numerous sexual misconduct allegations leveled at comedian Louis C.K by the New York Times, he has broken his silence by penning a statement addressing the scandal: “These stories are true.”

Via EW.com:

I want to address the stories told to The New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.

These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly. I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position.

I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it.

There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with.

I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work.

The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with who’s professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You, Daddy. I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much; The Orchard who took a chance on my movie, and every other entity that has bet on me through the years. I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother.

I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.

Thank you for reading.

Louis C.K. has denied the allegations for years saying the stories of misconduct were simply “rumors.”

After the New York Times piece was published yesterday:

• His new film, “I Love You, Daddy” has seen it’s distribution deal scrapped

• Netflix canceled an upcoming stand-up comedy special

• HBO has scrubbed all of his content from it’s On Demand library

• FX is considering doing the same

• His business partners have issued statements distancing themselves from him