LeeAnn Tweeden, the news anchor and former model whom Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken groped while she was sleeping on a USO trip, said she called Franken “Fish Lips” for the rest of the trip “because that’s what it reminded me of” when she says the then-comedian forcibly kissed her and shoved his tongue down her throat.
Tweeden said that Franken insisted they practice a kissing scene in one of their skits, which she thought would stop short of actually kissing.
“He came at me and we did the line and he came at me and before you know it you get close and he just put his hand on the back of my head and he mashed his face against — it happened so fast — he mashed his lips against my face and stuck his tongue in my mouth so fast and all I can remember is that his lips were really wet and it was slimy and in my mind I called him Fish Lips the rest of the trip because that’s just what it reminded me of,” she said at a press event Thursday afternoon.
WATCH:
In her column for KABC, Tweeden said that Franken was the one who wrote the kiss into the script, and then insisted they practice it.
“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,” she wrote.
After Franken forced himself upon her, Tweeden said, she grew angry at him and almost punched him.
“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,” Tweeden said. She added: “I walked out away from him and I wanted to find a bathroom and rinse my mouth out.”
It was after that incident, Tweeden said, that Franken groped her on a plane while she was sleeping. (RELATED: Al Franken Said Some Pretty Interesting Things On The Senate Floor About The Woman He Groped)
.@LeeannTweeden writes, “You…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.”
The only person who should be ashamed in this photo is @SenFranken pic.twitter.com/sjHpwC9HKL
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) November 16, 2017
“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,” she wrote in her KABC column.