'Completely unacceptable': Senators react to allegations that Al Franken kissed and and groped a TV host without consent

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Sen. Al Franken on Capitol Hill.

• TV host Leeann Tweeden accused Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota on Thursday of groping and kissing her without her consent in 2006.
• Franken's Senate colleagues are expressing a mixture of dismay, shock, and nonchalance about the allegations.
• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, among others, has called for an ethics investigation.

Top senators from both parties are calling for an ethics investigation into Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota after a Los Angeles TV host alleged in a column on Thursday that Franken had kissed and groped her without permission in 2006.

Leeann Tweeden of 790 KABC alleged that the incidents occurred during a United Service Organizations tour, in which Franken aggressively kissed her, sticking his tongue in her mouth during a rehearsal for a comedy skit.

On the tour's flight back to the US, Franken groped Tweeden's breasts while she was asleep - an act which Tweeden only discovered afterwards when she saw a photograph.

"I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated," Tweeden wrote in the column. "How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it's funny?"

Franken issued an apology shortly after Tweeden's column was published, but said he remembered the incident differently.

"I certainly don't remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, 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," he said.

The accusations against Franken come at the same time the GOP is grappling with how to handle the candidacy of Alabama Republican Roy Moore, who faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault on teenage girls.

Here's what senators had to say about Franken: