by WorldTribune Staff, November 16, 2017
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should resign amid allegations that at least two members of Congress, who still hold their seats, committed sexual harassment, radio host Mark Levin said.
“Not to be provocative or controversial, but if this sexual harassment has been going on – I’m quite serious about this – in the United States Senate, in the United States House of Representatives, and they are the leaders,” they should step down, Levin said on Nov. 14.
“The Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives since 2011. [Republicans] have controlled the Senate since 2015. And Ryan and McConnell have been around a long time, and they know, they know who is who, or they know about many of those who are who is who, they should resign. And I am quite serious about that.”
The allegations were made on Nov. 14 by Rep. Jackie Speier, California Democrat.
“We do know there is about $15 million that has been paid out by the House on behalf of harassers in the last ten to 15 years,” Speier told MSNBC.
Speier, who said she did not know how many members of Congress were involved, explained that victims had signed non-disclosure agreements.
Speier’s allegations come amid reports of a “creep list” of congressmen who women are urged to avoid.
Female staffers on Capitol Hill are advised not to ride in elevators alone with the men and to be careful of male lawmakers who sleep in their offices, according to accounts compiled by CNN.
A female political veteran who worked on Capitol Hill told CNN there are women who will reciprocate the sexual advances in order to advance their careers.
“There’s a little bit of a sex trade on Capitol Hill. If a part of getting ahead on Capitol Hill is playing ball with whatever douchebag – then whatever.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Al Franken apologized on Nov. 16 after a Los Angeles radio anchor accused him of forcibly kissing her during a 2006 USO tour in Afghanistan and of posing for a photo with his hands on her breasts as she slept, The Associated Press reported.
Leeann Tweeden posted the allegations against the Minnesota Democrat, including the photo, on the website of KABC, where she works as a news anchor for a morning radio show. Tweeden joined the then-comedian on one of several trips to entertain troops in December 2006.
She said that Franken told her he wrote a skit for the pair that included a kiss and that despite her protests he insisted they practice the kiss during rehearsal.
“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,” Tweeden wrote.
The photo that she included was taken on the trip home from Afghanistan. Franken is shown grinning and staring at the camera while reaching out as if to grope Tweeden’s breasts as she sleeps. Tweeden said she didn’t discover the photo until she returned home.
Franken said in a statement that Tweeden’s account of the skit did not match his memory.
“But I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” Franken wrote. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”
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