Two more women are accusing Sen. Al Franken of touching their backsides amid the politician’s recent sexual harassment scandal.
This makes four women to accuse Franken of inappropriately touching them within the last week.
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Radio host Leeann Tweeden, wrote last week that Franken had kissed and groped her without her consent during a 2006 USO tour. Monday, Lindsay Menz accused the Senator of groping her at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010.
The two new women to accuse Franken spoke to The Huffington Post on the condition of anonymity, but were not aware of each other’s stories, the publication reported.
The first woman said Franken grabbed her while she was taking a photo with him after a June 25, 2007, event hosted by the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus in Minneapolis. The publication was able to corroborate her story with two other people who were at the event.
“My story is eerily similar to Lindsay Menz’s story,” the first woman said. “He grabbed my buttocks during a photo op.”
“My mother loves Al Franken. She listened to Air America [on which Franken had a radio show] every day,” she continued. “I saw him and asked if we could take a photo together for my mother, and we stood next to each other … and down his hand went.”
The first woman said she wanted to tell her story because Franken is “a serial groper.”
“Only two people have come forward, and people are saying that this is a right-wing conspiracy,” she said. “It’s not. I’m a liberal person. … I voted for him after this happened.”
The second woman told the publication that Franken “cupped her butt” with his hand at a 2008 Democratic fundraiser in Minneapolis, then suggested the two go to the bathroom together.
“My immediate reaction was disgust,” the second woman said. “But my secondary reaction was disappointment. I was excited to be there and to meet him. And so to have that happen really deflated me. It felt like: ‘Is this really the person who is going to be in a position of power to represent our community?’”
In a statement to The Huffington Post, Franken said, “It’s difficult to respond to anonymous accusers, and I don’t remember those campaign events.”
He did deny asking the second woman to the bathroom with him, “I can categorically say that I did not proposition anyone to join me in any bathroom,” Franken said.
