Al Franken accuser says disgusting USO tour grope photo was an 'in your face' parting shot after nearly two weeks of being 'belittled and humiliated' – as Democratic senator apologizes to her for a THIRD time

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The radio host groped and forcibly kissed by now-Senator Al Franken during a 2006 USO show says the now-infamous photo of the Democrat's hands on her breasts while she slept wasn't meant as a joke: It was an 'in your face' parting shot after nearly two weeks of being 'belittled and humiliated.'

The lawmaker issued a third apology to former Playboy model Leeann Tweeden on Friday afternoon just before she appeared on 'The View,' a sign that he may feel support slipping among advocates who want him to weather the storm and refuse to resign

Tweeden said hours earlier on 'Good Morning America' that she 'had to endure being with him for almost two weeks' after 'he stuck his tongue in my mouth' as Franken mocked her with one passive-aggressive gesture after another. 

In some cases, she said, Franken would draw devil horns and tails on her glossy photos while she was trying to autograph them. 

'So at the end when I got that picture, it was like the final parting shot of the, "Ha, ha, she's going to see this when she gets home" that I couldn't, you know, see him face-to-face to confront him.'

'It was like, "She's going to see that!" and sort of, that was like his parting shot of the, you know, kind of, "In your face! I got you one last time".'

Radio host Leeann Tweeden said Friday that an infamous photo of now-Senator Al Franken groping her aboard a military plane after a 2006 USO tour was no joke, but a purposeful 'in your face' gesture from Franken after she endured nearly two weeks of humiliation from him

Tweeden told 'Good Morning America' that Franken was harassing her repeatedly during the tour after she rebuffed his forced-kissing advances

Franken is a Democratic lawmaker who excoriated Harvey Weinstein and supported his many accusers last month, ultimately giving a women's charity in Minnesota all the money Weinstein had donated to his political campaigns – but the facade now seems to be wearing off

Franken groped Tweeden while she slept on a military transport plane (pictured) and forcibly kissed her backstage during a 2006 USO goodwill tour; she now says this photo was meant to send her a message that he had power over her

Tweeden appeared Friday afternoon on 'The View,' revealing that Franken had sent her a THIRD apology just before air time

'Most people are just hearing about the forced kiss and then the picture at the end,' Tweeden said, 'but it was – you know, it was the humiliation through the two weeks of the tour that people don't hear about.' 

Franken's lengthy apology for groping Tweeden a few years before coming to Congress seemed to undermine a political reputation he had carefully cultivated as a champion of women's issues.

He reached the point of tears in 2012 while arguing on the Senate floor for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Among the first things he sponsored as a senator in 2009 was legislation blocking the Pentagon from contracting with companies that don't allow their employees to sue for jobsite sexual harassment or discrimination.

But with his stunning fall from Democratic darling to dirty old man, and a lengthy Senate Ethics Committee investigation facing him, Franken spent all of Thursday holed up in his Capitol Hill office – even skipping the day's legislative votes.

Franken's third apology, issued Friday afternoon, read: 'Dear Leanne, I want to apologize to you personally. I don't know what was in my head when I took that picture. That doesn't matter. There's no excuse. I understand why you feel violated by that photo.'

'I remember that rehearsal differently. What's important is the impact on you and you felt violated by my actions. For that I apologize. I have tremendous respect for you and the work you do for the USO. I am so sorry.'

On Thursday night President Donald Trump weighed in, calling him 'Al Frankenstien' in a series of tweets, calling him a hypocrite for 'lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women.'

'The Al Frankenstien [sic] picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?' Trump tweeted.

The president dubbed the senator 'Al Frankenstien' in a series of tweets which also accused him of being a hypocrite for 'lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women'

In this screen grab from a video shot during the USO tour, Franken (center-right) leers at Tweeden (center) as she signs autographs

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders fielded questions Friday about Franken, and the parallel but far deeper accusations against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama.

'I think it's an uncomfortable conversation for the country,' Sanders replied. 'I think that this is something that's being discussed pretty widely, and we certainly think that it should be taken seriously.' 

Sanders also tried to distinguish the Franken fracas from a series of lurid accusations against Trump during his campaign for the White House.

'I think in one case specifically, Senator Franken has admitted wrongdoing, and the president hasn't,' she said.

Tweeden said Friday morning and then later on 'The View' that she wasn't passing judgment on Franken's job performance in Washington, and 'I didn't do this to have him step down.'

'I think Al Franken does a lot of good things in the Senate,' she added on 'Good Morning America,' saying his political future is 'for the people of Minnesota to decide.'

'I just wanted him to understand what he did was wrong – and how he treated me,' Tweeden said. 

'And how abusers who I think do that under the guise that "It's funny" or "I can get away with it because I was a comedian and it's funny." That's never funny.'

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday that 'it's an uncomfortable conversation for the country. I think that this is something that's being discussed pretty widely, and we certainly think that it should be taken seriously'

Trump chimed in on claims that Democratic Sen. Al Franken groped and kissed a Playboy model without her consent on Thursday night

Leeann Tweeden, pictured in 2006, just months before performing in the fateful USO tour, says she's still angry at Sen. Franken, and has found the courage to speak about her experience because other women have described similar mistreatment at the hands of powerful men

Tweeden said on CNN that she is speaking publicly in part in order to set an example that will one day give her children, ages four and two, a better social climate as they grow up

Accusations from the radio host, who was a 23-year-old model at the time of her allegations, could send Franken into the same reputational basket with Moore, movie producer Harvey Weinstein, comedian Louis C.K. and actor Kevin Spacey. 

'It happened so fast. He mashed his lips against my face and stuck his tongue in my mouth so fast,' Tweeden said Thursday. 

'All I can remember is that his lips were really wet and slimy and in my mind I called him 'fish lips' the rest of the trip. That's what it reminded me of.'

'He stuck his tongue down my mouth and I remember I pushed him off with my hands and I remember I almost punched him – because every time I see him now my hands clinch into fists.'

'And I said, 'If you ever do that to me again, I won't be so nice about it the second time.' I walked out away from him and I wanted to find a bathroom and rinse my mouth out. I was disgusted.' 

Franken's apology was forceful and calculated – and called 'heartfelt' by Tweeden on CNN.

She said she is speaking publicly in part in order to set an example that will one day give her children, ages four and two, a better social climate as they grow up.

'I don't want to be a cliche, but you know, you talk about trying to leave the world a better place for your kids, you know,' she said, shedding a tear. 

'You do. You want to leave – you try to set examples for your children.'

'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,' Franken wrote in a statement hours after Tweeden went public.

'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,' the accused government groper added. 'And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.'

He specifically addressed the photo, shot as the USO performance troupe headed home the day before Christmas in 2006.  

'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,' Franken added. 

'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.' 

Tweeden said Thursday that Franken approached her at a USO event just a few years ago and tried to make small talk, without any offer of an 'I'm sorry.'

'He had a chance to apologize to me then, because he knew exactly what he did to me then, and that picture was out there,' she said.

Initially in reputation-saving mode, Franken's office had sent a much shorter statement Thursday as news coverage of Tweeden's story reached a frenzy.

'I certainly don't remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way,' he said then, of the forced-kiss allegation, 'but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann.'

'As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn't. I shouldn't have done it.'

Just 24 hours earlier during a Senate confirmation hearing for a Texas jurist nominated to be a federal judge, Franken engaged in a back-and-forth on one of the nominee's humorous tweets about the right to marry bacon.

'I don't get it,' Franken scolded Judge Don Willett. 'But sometimes when you don't get a joke, it's because it wasn't a joke.'

A reliably liberal champion of women's causes, the senator last month donated to the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center all the money his campaigns and political action committees have received from disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

And he responded to Weinstein's apparent history of serial sexual-assault last month in a stinging Facebook essay, saying that 'the disappointing responses women often face when they go public both embolden harassers and encourage victims to stay silent.'

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a swift statement of his own, calling for a congressional investigation into Tweeden's claims.

'As with all credible allegations of sexual harassment or assault, I believe the Ethics Committee should review the matter,' McConnell said. 'I hope the Democratic Leader will join me on this.'

'Regardless of party, harassment and assault are completely unacceptable – in the workplace or anywhere else,' McConnell added.

Franken said an hour later at the U.S. Capitol that he agrees.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters late Thursday afternoon that 'on Senator Franken, it appears that the Senate is looking into that, which they should. And we feel that that's an appropriate action'

Stage antics? Franken holds up a piece of women's lingerie as Tweeden looks offstage during one USO routine in an unknown setting

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

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters late Thursday afternoon that 'on Senator Franken, it appears that the Senate is looking into that, which they should. And we feel that that's an appropriate action.'

USO Campaign Manger Shannon Shannon Joyce told DailyMail.com that '[t]his 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,' Joyce added.

On Thursday morning Tweeden posted a lengthy essay describing Franken, before he ran for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, writing a script that called for him to kiss her – and insisting on a full-contact rehearsal backstage.

And she later was shown a photograph of Franken groping her breasts while she slept aboard a military transport plane on the way home to the United States.

Tweeden and Franken were both veterans of USO tours, entertaining American military troops; she had already completed eight such trips before the one in question.

Frnaken has been a reliably liberal senator from a deep-blue state, posing a problem for Democrats who will have to decide how hard to come down on him

The quickness of Al Franken's admission and apology was reminiscent of fellow comedian Louis C.K.'s swift mea culpa following several allegations of lewd sexual misconduct against him; Mr. C.K. has receded from the spotlight and it's unclear if he will return to performing

Country singers came along to croon, and some of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders provided window-dressing.  Tweeden had already appeared, clothed, as a cover girl on FHM, Maxim and Playboy.

But Franken, the comic writer whose ideas propelled much of the first 20 seasons of 'Saturday Night Live,' was the main draw. 

'I was only expecting to emcee and introduce the acts, but Franken said he had written a part for me that he thought would be funny, and I agreed to play along,' Tweeden wrote Thursday.

'When I saw the script, Franken had written a moment when his character comes at me for a 'kiss.' I suspected what he was after, but I figured I could turn my head at the last minute, or put my hand over his mouth, to get more laughs from the crowd.'

But on the day of she show, she recalls, Franken insisted on rehearsing the kiss.

'Relax Al, this isn't SNL. ... we don't need to rehearse the kiss,' she remembers telling him.

But nevertheless, he persisted.

Instead of letting Tweeden turn her head upstage to avoid his lips – a common sleight-of-hand bit of stagecraft – '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.'

'All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth,' she writes now. 'I felt disgusted and violated.'

Tweeden was discovered In 1992, working as a hostess at a Hooters restaurant in Colorado, going on to be a Hooters calendar girl and win the Venus International Model Search; she has appeared as a host on Fitness Beach and Poker After Dark, and as a correspondent for Fox Sports Net's 'Best Damn Sports Show Period.' She has also done Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pre- and post-game coverage on Fox Sports West

The new accusations against Sen. Franken come at a time when Hollywood is reeling over accusations against men like film producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Kevin Spacey

Franken's version of the real kiss was never repeated on stage, and she never told the USO brass what happened because 'I didn't want to cause trouble. We were in the middle of a war zone, it was the first show of our Holiday tour, I was a professional, and I could take care of myself.'

On Christmas Eve, after 2 weeks of performing in the Middle East, the troupe headed home on a 36-hour journey.

Tweeden fell fast asleep in her bulletproof jacket and helmet. 

Later, when a photographer passed out CD-ROMs of candid pictures from the trip, she saw one depicting Franken grabbing her chest. 

'I couldn't believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep,' she wrote Thursday.

It's unclear when this photo was taken – before or after the sexual assault alleged by Tweeden (right) but it depicts her performing onstage with a USO banner visible in the background

FRANKEN'S SECOND APOLOGY TO LEEANN TWEEDEN

For Immediate Release: November 16, 2017

Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) released the following statement: 

'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.'

'I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated. How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it's funny?'

Like other women in similar situations at the mercy of powerful men, Tweeden says she kept quiet for more than a decade out of fear of what pointing fingers might have done to her career as a broadcaster. 

But a recent appearance by California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier on her show gave her courage.

Speier told a story about being sexually assaulted when she was a young congressional aide, an episode where a powerful man 'held her face, kissed her and stuck his tongue in her mouth.'

'At that moment,' Tweeden recalled Thursday, 'I thought to myself, 'Al Franken did that exact same thing to me'.'

And she's still angry about it.

'Senator Franken, you wrote the script. But there's nothing funny about sexual assault,' she wrote.

Reacting to the Harvey Weinsten sex-abuse saga, Franken himself wrote last month that 'the disappointing responses women often face when they go public both embolden harassers and encourage victims to stay silent'

'You wrote the scene that would include you kissing me and then relentlessly badgered me into 'rehearsing' the kiss with you backstage when we were alone.

'You knew exactly what you were doing. You forcibly kissed me without my consent, grabbed my breasts while I was sleeping and had someone take a photo of you doing it, knowing I would see it later, and be ashamed.' 

'I want the days of silence to be over forever,' she added. 

Franken wrote in his own October 11 Facebook essay that '[t]he women who have shared their stories about Harvey Weinstein over the last few days are incredibly brave. It takes a lot of courage to come forward, and we owe them our thanks.'

'And as we hear more and more about Mr. Weinstein, it's important to remember that while his behavior was appalling, it's far too common,' he wrote then. 

Franken won his first election in 2008, after the abuse alleged by Tweeden. The final margin of his statewide victory was a razor-thin 312 votes.