President Donald Trump decided late Thursday that it was a good idea to attack Al Franken over the Democratic senator’s sexual misconduct.
“The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words,” Trump tweeted, referring to a 2006 photo in which Franken, in his former incarnation as a comedian, groped the breasts of a sleeping woman named Leeann Tweeden, who now works as a radio host.
“Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?” the president tweeted.
Trump suggested in a second post that Franken was a hypocrite for “lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women.”
The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps? …..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2017
.And to think that just last week he was lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women. Lesley Stahl tape?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2017
Franken, whom Tweeden also accused of forcibly kissing her when they were both on a USO Tour to the Middle East in 2006, issued a lengthy apology to the radio host on Thursday, which she accepted. The senator’s first, briefer apology was derided for implying that she had misremembered the kissing incident.
Donald Trump has been accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct by many women, at least twenty of whom went on the record ahead of his election.
Despite that, and despite the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which he bragged to TV host Billy Bush about sexually assaulting women, Trump was elected. The White House has now taken the stance that all of Trump’s accusers are liars.