Public radio icon Garrison Keillor was fired for "inappropriate behavior" on Wednesday, only one day after he defended Democratic Sen. Al Franken (Minn.) from multiple groping accusations.
The Associated Press reported that the "Prairie Home Companion" creator had been fired by the show's home station Minnesota Public Radio.
BREAKING: Garrison Keillor says he's been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of inappropriate behavior.
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 29, 2017
In a statement, Keillor told the AP that he was fired for "a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard."
Only a day earlier, the Minnesota native penned an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he defended Franken from accusations that he forcibly kissed and groped a co-star on a USO tour and also fondled several women's backside during photo ops.
Keillor wrote that Franken's behavior on the USO tour was just "low comedy," and called the notion that the former "Saturday Night Live" star should resign "absurd."
"He did USO tours overseas when he was in the comedy biz. He did it from deep in his heart, out of patriotism, and the show he did was broad comedy of a sort that goes back to the Middle Ages," Keillor insisted.
"Eleven years later, a talk show host in LA, she goes public, and there is talk of resignation," he wrote. "This is pure absurdity, and the atrocity it leads to is a code of public deadliness. No kidding."