November 20, 2017
Watch: Video Shows Franken Accuser Getting Gropey With Guitar Player
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Ye without sin cast the first grope.
Supporters of beleaguered Senator Al Franken are feeling some justification on Monday with the emergence of video from the 2006 USO Tour that shows a side of his accuser Leann Tweedon that doesn't necessarily jibe with her role of victim.
A video published by liberal group Citizens Fed Up shows Tweedon on the stage of the 2006 USO tour to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan in which she alleged Al Franken groped her as part of an onstage bit. In the video, Tweedon can be seen groping a guitar player on stage.
Franken supporters were also surprised Monday when conservative columnist Andrea Peyser came to his defense in an opinion piece published by the right-leaning New York Post.
"Lewd and crude?" Peyser wrote of Franken's behavior "For sure. Grounds for public censure? Perhaps. But potentially career-ending? I don't think so."
Last Thursday Tweedon, Hooters girl turned talk radio news anchor made headlines when she wrote that Franken forcibly kissed her during rehearsals for a sketch on a 2006 USO tour.
"We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth," Tweeden wrote. "I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn't be so nice about it the next time."
She claimed he retaliated against her complaint by taking a photo of her while she was sleeping in which he feigns grabbing her breasts over her flak jacket.
Many speculate that Tweedon (a frequent guest of Fox News' Sean Hannity) had political motivations behind raising the eleven-year-old story against the liberal Senator. Verified Politics notes that she recently signed a book deal with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which has also inked deals with prominent conservative voices, including Sebastian Gorka, Steve Bannon, and the Mercers.