Got to go case by case. Sexual harassment is different than targeting teenage girls. This does look like sexual harassment though. Give Al Franken his credit, at least he apologized. That counts for something.
So what was the purpose of taking a photo like that? To make the woman FEEL sexually assaulted? To humiliate her? Even if you are right and he didn't actually grope her(although we can all see he did), he still is sick that he would do this to a woman. Maybe you have a small chance at defending him against actual sexual assault, but you can't defend what his intent was.
You do know he was a professional comedian right? Why do you think he was making those faces? He didn't even touch her from that pic and that's sexual assault? Are you kidding me. There are two accusations here: the kissing and the groping. Let's start with the kissing. According to her own statement, Franken had her verbal permission to kiss her. Was he too pushy and aggressive from her account? Absolutely, but not to the degree that this was sexual assault or illegal. This isn't a case of a boss and subordinate where she was coerced into giving that permission. And he stopped after she told him to stop. The groping claim seems like a complete joke. She states the only basis for the groping claim is the photo (she was asleep), but he's not touching her in the photo. Maybe his finger tips are grazing her thick flack jacket. That's not groping. It is definitely in very poor taste but she's not accusing him of making a joke in bad taste. This whole story is completely overblown, and I fear that Franken will have his career ruined because liberals are so desperate to demonstrate that they aren't like the Republicans sticking up for Moore and Trump. This is nothing like those situations.
The photo does look staged, but there is more to the story according to the alleged victim. She claims Al made unwanted advances and kisses during some rehearsal. She may be nothing more than an opportunist, and her former career puts her in a poor position from a credibility standpoint, but other than the photo, it appears to be another case of he said, she said. It would be easy for me go on one of my leftist double standard hypocrisy rants and say that now that we're in the era of allegations are facts Franken should resign immediately, but honestly I'm more concerned with what this shit is doing to our political system and the country in general. Ladies, you got to come forward with this stuff much more promptly after the alleged event. And in this case the event was 2006, so lets not pretend that this was some way gone time where women had no rights and we're ashamed to say anything. 50's, 60's, maybe even the 70's, okay I can accept that. 21st century? I ain't buying it.
I agree --- the frenzy is starting to go overboard. IMO while Al Franken's behavior may not have been funny in retrospective, it falls far short of being sexual misbehavior in context of the picture and the comedy tour. The entire story is completely overblown. The question becomes how many more women under partisan political pressure will now crawl out of the woodwork and accuse politicians and entertainers of decades old sexual misconduct. Will Congress shortly be holding daily ethics panel meetings to evict members until no one is left to even chair the panel?
It might have been a joke to him, but not to her. As I’ve owned businesses I’ve been schooled on this particularly. As was relayed to me, sexual harassment would fall under title VII of the civil rights act. Gender specifically. She was targeted for harassment based on her gender with a sexually demeaning action. Under title vii, you have to use the reasonable person standard. Would a reasonable woman, in her position, feel sexually harassed? I think the answer is yes.
Sure but her only evidence of being groped is that picture but he is not even touching her in that picture. She is making accusations beyond the scope of evidence provided and given that she is a Hannity conservative who happens to be a birther and has been defending Moore recently, this is clearly a hit job on her part. Also, she is not saying she was harassed, she is saying she was assaulted and her evidence is that picture which disproves her accusation.
Right because that's how sexual assault happens, on camera with a funny face while not even touching. That's exactly what Trump said and did as well.