Minnesota Sen. Al Franken responded Thursday to allegations that he groped a woman in 2006. Los Angeles-based radio host Leeann Tweeden said the Democratic senator assaulted her during a USO tour, kissing her during a rehearsal for a comedy sketch and posing for a photo with his hands over her breasts as she slept.

The former comedian apologized for his behavior and called for an ethics investigation, saying he would “gladly cooperate.” At a press conference later in the day, Tweeden accepted his apology.

“People make mistakes and of course he knew he made a mistake, and so yes, I do accept that apology. The ethics investigation — if that’s what Mitch McConnell wants to do, that’s on them. I’m not calling for that… I’m not demanding for any of that,” she said.

Sen. Franken had first responded to the allegations with a brief statement.

“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann," Franken said, according to KMSP. "As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn't. I shouldn't have done it.”

Tweeden said Franken, who was a writer for Saturday Night Live at the time, forcibly kissed her while telling her they needed to rehearse a scene. Franken allegedly insisted upon practicing the kiss, despite Tweeden’s hesitation, she said.

“He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss,” Tweeden wrote in a personal piece for KABC. “I said ‘OK’ so he would stop badgering me. 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 aggressive stuck his tongue in my mouth.”

Tweeden also posted a photo of herself sleeping while Franken had his hands apparently poised to grope her breasts. Tweeden said she didn’t see the picture until she was back in the United States and looked at a CD of photographs taken during the tour.

Franken's alleged actions have prompted calls for him to resign from his position in the Senate on social media.

Senator Al Franken Kissed and Groped Me Without My Consent, And There’s Nothing Funny About It

By Leeann Tweeden

In December of 2006, I embarked on my ninth USO Tour to entertain our troops, my eighth to the Middle East since the 9/11 attacks. My father served in Vietnam and my then-boyfriend (and now husband, Chris) is a pilot in the Air Force, so bringing a ‘little piece of home’ to servicemembers stationed far away from their families was both my passion and my privilege.

Also on the trip were country music artists Darryl Worley, Mark Wills, Keni Thomas, and some cheerleaders from the Dallas Cowboys. The headliner was comedian and now-senator, Al Franken.

Franken had written some skits for the show and brought props and costumes to go along with them. Like many USO shows before and since, the skits were full of sexual innuendo geared toward a young, male audience.

As a TV host and sports broadcaster, as well as a model familiar to the audience from the covers of FHM, Maxim and Playboy, 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.

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.

On the day of the show Franken and I were alone backstage going over our lines one last time. He said to me, “We need to rehearse the kiss.” I laughed and ignored him. Then he said it again. I said something like, ‘Relax Al, this isn’t SNL…we don’t need to rehearse the kiss.’

He continued to insist, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable.

He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss. I said ‘OK’ so he would stop badgering me. 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.

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.

I walked away. All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth.

I felt disgusted and violated.

Not long after, I performed the skit as written, carefully turning my head so he couldn’t kiss me on the lips.

No one saw what happened backstage. I didn’t tell the Sergeant Major of the Army, who was the sponsor of the tour. I didn’t tell our USO rep what happened.

At the time 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. I told a few of the others on the tour what Franken had done and they knew how I felt about it.

I tried to let it go, but I was angry.

Other than our dialogue on stage, I never had a voluntary conversation with Al Franken again. I avoided him as much as possible and made sure I was never alone with him again for the rest of the tour.

Franken repaid me with petty insults, including drawing devil horns on at least one of the headshots I was autographing for the troops.

But he didn’t stop there.

The tour wrapped and on Christmas Eve we began the 36-hour trip home to L.A. After 2 weeks of grueling travel and performing I was exhausted. When our C-17 cargo plane took off from Afghanistan I immediately fell asleep, even though I was still wearing my flak vest and Kevlar helmet.

It wasn’t until I was back in the US and looking through the CD of photos we were given by the photographer that I saw this one:

“I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep. I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated. How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”

This story has been updated to include Franken's later statement and Tweeden's comments on the apology.

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