2 things bother me. Most important, why is the accuser remaining anonymous?
Certainly, her career can't be hurt by coming forward . Other women who've
made accusations against powerful men, have been willing to give their
names. The second thing that bothers me is that women in the Democratic
Party are so quick to assume that the people accusing Franken are not doing
so for partisan reasons. The first accusation seemed, to me, to be clearly a
partisan attack. Why aren't the Democratic female office holders insisting
that Trump step down, given his sexual assault history? Why isn't that a
basis for impeachment rather than all this Russia nonsense?
Miriam
Senator Al Franken. (photo: Getty)
Another Woman Says Franken Tried to Forcibly Kiss Her
By Heather Caygle, Politico
06 December 17
The Minnesota senator is accused of making an unwanted sexual advance after
a taping of his radio show in 2006. He denies the allegation.
former Democratic congressional aide said Al Franken tried to forcibly kiss
her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, three years before he became a
U.S. senator.
The aide, whose name POLITICO is withholding to protect her identity, said
Franken (D-Minn.) pursued her after her boss had left the studio. She said
she was gathering her belongings to follow her boss out of the room. When
she turned around, Franken was in her face.
The former staffer ducked to avoid Franken's lips. As she hastily left the
room, she said, Franken told her: "It's my right as an entertainer."
"He was between me and the door and he was coming at me to kiss me. It was
very quick and I think my brain had to work really hard to be like 'Wait,
what is happening?' But I knew whatever was happening was not right and I
ducked," the aide said in an interview. "I was really startled by it and I
just sort of booked it towards the door and he said, 'It's my right as an
entertainer.'"
The former staffer, who was in her mid-20s at the time of the incident, said
she did not respond to Franken.
The woman said she had never met Franken prior to the incident. Franken was
elected to the Senate in 2008 but began ramping up his political activity in
2006.
Franken, who has been accused by six other women of groping or trying to
forcibly kiss them, denied the accusation.
"This allegation is categorically not true and the idea that I would claim
this as my right as an entertainer is preposterous. I look forward to fully
cooperating with the ongoing ethics committee investigation," Franken said
in a statement to POLITICO.
Two former colleagues of the woman independently corroborated her version of
events, including Franken telling her he had the right to try to kiss her
because he was "an entertainer." The first former colleague interviewed by
POLITICO said she was told of the incident in 2006, shortly after it
happened. The second former co-worker said she was made aware of the
encounter sometime in 2009 or 2010.
Hours after this story was published, more than a dozen Democratic senators,
led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, called on Franken to resign.
"While Senator Franken is entitled to have the Ethics Committee conclude its
review, I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear
message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn't
acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve," Gillibrand said in
a Facebook post. She was referring to a Senate Ethics Committee
investigation of the sexual harassment claims against Franken.
Franken will be making an announcement on Thursday, his office said after
the first wave of senators called for him to step down. Franken's office did
not provide information about the announcement, only saying "more details to
come."
Franken is one of several lawmakers and candidates facing sexual harassment
allegations, amid a national outcry over misconduct that has roiled
Hollywood, media and politics. On Tuesday, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)
resigned after multiple former female aides accused him of harassing them.
Conyers, the longest-serving member of the House, faced a drumbeat of
demands from top Democrats to step down. No Senate Democrats have called on
Franken to resign, though a smattering of House Democrats have done so.
The former congressional aide, a longtime Democrat, said she is not
attempting to force Franken out of office by coming forward now. Her aim is
to encourage the former comedian to acknowledge that his behavior towards
her and other women was intentional.
"His resignation is not the top of the list there. That's not my point. It's
not up to me what he does," the former staffer said.
Franken has said he was "ashamed" about the prior reported incidents but has
also said through a spokesperson that he "never intentionally engaged in
that kind of conduct."
The former staffer said a more direct statement of culpability - not just
differing recollections of events, as Franken has offered in apologizing to
other women - could help shift the national conversation about sexual
assault and push harassers to take ownership of their behavior.
"I don't want to be in the position of deciding whether to tell this story
but I'm not the person who put me in that position. He did that," the woman
said. "I think for this moment in time to lead to meaningful change there
has to be more than 'I'm ashamed but I remember things differently'
accounting."
The former staffer said she mostly kept the encounter to herself, not even
telling her boss at the time. But she started to talk more openly about it
to close friends after the "Access Hollywood" video was aired in October
2016. In the now infamous tape, Donald Trump is recorded saying his fame
gives him carte blanche to grab women's genitals.
"When it really started impacting me in more of a 'I'm really angry about
about this' way was last fall when the Trump tape came out," the former aide
said. "Hearing Donald Trump say essentially the same thing that Al Franken
said to me, which was 'It's my right as an entertainer,' that was a real
trigger," she continued.
The former staffer says she was particularly shaken after seeing Franken on
TV responding to the Trump tape last year. Franken dismissed Trump's excuse
that he was just engaging in "locker room talk" and joked that maybe Trump
worked out with Roger Ailes, the now deceased Fox News chairman who was
forced to resign in 2016 amid allegations he sexually harassed several Fox
employees.
"It was a moment in time where I told a number of my friends about my
experience with Franken because I saw him on the news being asked about the
Trump tape and I felt like it was really hypocritical," the former staffer
said. "It's a power dynamic and the fact that Donald Trump could say that
was not much different from the fact that Al Franken could say it."
Franken took pains to separate himself from Trump earlier this year before
he was accused of sexual harassment, saying just because the two were "both
in a branch of show business" is no reason to lump them in the same category
politically.
"I consider myself a polar opposite of him, I mean I really do," Franken
said on CNBC of Trump in September, two months before the first sexual
harassment allegations against the Minnesota Democrat surfaced.
Franken has agreed to cooperate with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation
into his behavior.
"I do feel this very heavy responsibility to speak the truth," the former
staffer said. "I don't think that there are different versions of truth and
that's what's bothered me a lot about [his] responses."
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