Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson slammed President Trump on Friday after he attacked Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) over a photo in which the senator appears to be grabbing a sleeping woman’s breasts.
Carlson was reacting to a late Thursday tweet from the president in which he labeled Franken “Al Frankenstein.” In the tweet, Trump questioned “where [Franken’s] hands go” in subsequent pictures.
“What about yours?” Carlson shot back Friday morning, referring to women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.
Carlson left Fox News in 2016 after filing a sexual harassment against Roger Ailes, who was then the cable news network’s chairman and CEO. More than a dozen women came forward to accuse Trump of sexual harassment and assault during the 2016 presidential race, accusations Trump says are baseless.
Franken has been in damage control mode since a Los Angeles-based radio show host posted a photo Thursday that appears to show Franken groping her while she is asleep onboard a military plane during a 2006 USO tour. She also alleged that the Minnesota Democrat forcibly kissed her while the two were rehearsing a sketch.
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“It wasn’t until I was back in the U.S. and looking through the CD of photos we were given by the photographer that I saw this one,” Leeann Tweeden wrote about the photo.
“I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated,” she wrote. “How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”
Franken apologized for the photo, but said he didn’t remember the sketch incident the same way. In a second statement, he called for an ethics investigation into himself.
“The first and most important thing—and if it’s the only thing you care to hear, that’s fine—is: I’m sorry,” Franken.
“I understand why we need to listen to and believe women’s experiences,” he added. “I am asking that an ethics investigation be undertaken, and I will gladly cooperate.”