ABC reporter walks back claim that a Democratic senator dismissed Franken's groping allegations

Sheldon Whitehouse.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Update 1:28 p.m. ET: ABC News reporter Mariam Khan, who originally relayed Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's (R.I.) supposed response to the allegations against Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), walked back her initial characterization of Whitehouse's remarks. "I must clarify: It appears [Whitehouse] made this comment in passing before he was directly asked about the Franken allegations," she wrote. Our original post appears below.

Democratic Sen. Al Franken (Minn.) was accused Thursday of groping reporter Leeann Tweeden as well as kissing her without her consent while the two were entertainers together on a 2006 USO tour. Tweeden, a morning news anchor for KABC news, wrote of the incident Thursday, saying Franken forced a kiss on her while they were rehearsing for a skit and providing a photo of Franken groping her breasts while she was asleep.

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.