US Senator Al Franken said he feels “embarrassed and ashamed” amid allegations that he groped several women, but said he looked forward to returning to work yesterday and gradually regaining voters’ trust.
The Democrat on Sunday spoke to a handful of Minnesota media outlets in the first interviews he has granted since being swept into a nationwide tide of sexual misconduct allegations.
Four women have accused the senator of sexual misconduct.
Photo: AFP
Three women allege Franken grabbed their buttocks while taking photographs with them during separate incidents at campaign events in 2007, 2008 and 2010.
Franken told the Minneapolis Star Tribune he does not remember taking the photos, but said such groping is “not something I would intentionally do.”
Asked whether he expected other women to step forward with similar allegations, Franken said: “If you had asked me two weeks ago: ‘Would any woman say I had treated her with disrespect?’ I would have said no, so this has just caught me by surprise... I certainly hope not.”
The first woman to come forward was Los Angeles radio news anchor Leeann Tweeden. She earlier this month released a photograph showing the then-comedian grinning while reaching out toward her chest, as if to grope her, as she slept on a military aircraft during a United Service Organizations tour in 2006.
Franken on Sunday told Minnesota Public Radio that the photo was “inexcusable.” He declined to explain it further.
“What my intention was doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am chained to that photo,” Franken said. “She ... didn’t have any ability to consent. She had every right to feel violated by that photo. I have apologized to her and I was very grateful that she accepted my apology.”
Franken faces a Senate ethics investigation — which he welcomed in the wake of Tweeden’s allegation — although it is unclear when the review would begin.
Franken missed votes after the first accusations were made public, but said he said he would ask tough questions about proposed tax legislation that “would affect Minnesota and the rest of the country in a terrible way” back at work yesterday.
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