Relax Al, this isn’t SNL…we don’t need to rehearse the kiss.’
You might think that in the article she posted at her KABC radio website entitled Senator Al Franken Kissed and Groped Me Without My Consent, And There’s Nothing Funny About It LeeAnn Tweeden accuses Franken of kissing and groping her without her consent. But that is not true, at least if we accept her own account of what happened.
I make no claim to know what actually happened on their 2006 USO tour, and do not intend to make any moral assessments of what anyone did. Instead, I am going to examine what Tweeden said happened in her article and see if it can reasonably reconciled with her headline.
According to Tweeden:
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.
The comedian grabs the pinup and plants a big kiss on her is a staple of USO shows. Here is the bit in footage from 70 years ago.
I will not consider the question of whether such a display is inherently wrong or exploitative and whether Franken deserves condemnation for suggesting or participating in it. I will attempt to determine whether Tweeden gave her consent to the kiss. The “gold standard” of consent in sexual matters is what is called affirmative consent. It has three components. First that the party understand what is being proposed. The video of Benny above pretty much matches Tweeden’s description of what ultimately Franken did to her, “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.” (with the possible exception of the tongue which we cant observe — apologies to the squeamish). Certainly she anticipated that the proposed kiss would be unpleasant to her. She tells us she “suspected what he was after”, that she intended to avoid the kiss when the moment arrived on stage, and that she refused to rehearse the kiss despite his “badgering.” She expected that the proposed kiss would be unpleasant, and got what she expected, except possibly in two respects ( the tongue and the swiftness of the kiss that precluded her turning away.)
Did she provide explicit affirmative consent? Franken presented her a script, which included the kiss. She reports only that “I agreed to play along.” She did not tell Franken that she “figured I could turn my head at the last minute, or put my hand over his mouth, to get more laughs from the crowd.” In the hours before they go on stage both understand that they have agreed to perform the scripted kiss, although unbeknownst to Franken, Tweeden has lied about her intention. Franken is anxious about the kiss, which they have neither discussed in detail nor practiced. He insists they must rehearse the kiss, it is unprofessional to go on stage without knowing exactly what they will do.
Franken is not pressuring her to agree to let him kiss her — she has already done that. He is pushing her to rehearse in advance a potentially awkward moment under circumstances where she can withdraw consent, or react privately rather than in front of 10,000 people. Because that is what professional actors do. They set firm clear limits so no one is embarrassed or subjected to treatment they are not comfortable with. Tweeden is planning to go off script on stage, and doesn’t want to tip her hand so she simply puts off Franken. She claims now that she was simply avoiding the unwanted kiss, but in doing so she reiterates her unqualified consent for whatever Franken wants to do onstage. She dismisses his concerns about the lack of clarity, “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.’ Based on her assurances he believes she has consented to being kissed on stage in a few short hours, and told him his worrying about the details is unwarranted. Still, Franken is unwilling to proceed on those terms. “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.”
What did she say OK to? From Franken’s perspective she has agreed to follow the script that calls for him kiss her, and has dismissed his concerns about the details. She understands he intends to place an uncomfortably intimate kiss on her lips which she had intended to deflect in the moment on stage. There is nothing preventing her from now withdrawing her previously expressed explicit consent. Even the odd notion that it would somehow be funny to deny him at the last minute without telling him that is what she intended no longer makes sense, as according to her description they are alone backstage. Still, by her account Tweeden agrees to rehearse the scene as planned for the stage, despite her expectation of an unpleasant kiss. She has provided explicit consent, and despite the opportunity, did not withdraw it.
The final component of affirmative consent is that it must be voluntary and freely given. While Tweeden talks of being badgered to rehearse the scene she also reports she agreed immediately to the script and never mentions to Franken any concerns or resistance about the actual kiss. She does not anywhere suggest that she felt threatened or coerced to agree to the kiss onstage. Even after the fact she attributes her decision to not come forward to her desire to “not cause trouble” and because she worries that public disclosure might hurt her broadcasting career, rather than concern that Franken might retaliate. Once she finally makes clear her feelings the script is changed to accommodate them. “Not long after, I performed the skit as written, carefully turning my head so he couldn’t kiss me on the lips.” While this suggests that that was how the skit was originally written, that is not consistent with her plan to “turn my head at the last minute, or put my hand over his mouth, to get more laughs from the crowd.” and her suggestion that she needed to “carefully turn my head so he couldn’t kiss me on the lips” is provocative, but she provides nothing to suggest that Franken would not follow the script as written, once she finally makes her preferences known.
With respect to the charge that Franken groped her without her consent she is clear that she was not aware of the incident at the time “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:” and she does not suggest that she has any information about what happened beyond what is apparent from the photo. Close examination of the photograph reveals that Franken is not actually touching the flak jacket she is wearing.
What then are we to make of Tweeden’s claims that Franken “kissed and groped” her without her consent? As I have shown, the details of her story do not support those charges, she provided explicit consent for the kiss, and based only on the photograph no groping occurred. The most charitable read of her headline is that she felt the detailed account clarifies the headline charges sufficiently and that she is not responsible if anyone thinks Franken kissed and groped her without her consent. I am not that charitable. All the news reports repeat the headline, which shorn of the details is simply not true. I cannot believe that was not her intention.
To be sure, consenting to a stage kiss is not consenting to “aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.” If you believe Tweeden Franken was wrong in taking advantage of her that way. Given the magnitude and consequence of the headline lie, I see no reason to credit this detail. You may believe her on this one ugly detail, if you choose, but there is simply no way to justify the endlessly repeated charge that Tweeden accused Franken of kissing and groping her breasts without her consent.
Tweeden is lying. We know this not because she was a cover model, or she wears short skirts, or is a conservative talk show host, but because her own detailed statement leaves no room for doubt.
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