Al Franken gave a speech on Sunday in St. Paul to Jewish Family Service of St. Paul. It was smart, funny, autobiographical, emotional, logical, fact-filled, liberal as hell, and it demolished President Donald Trump, for anyone with respect for facts and logic.
A bit more on some of that below, but I don’t want to bury the lede, which was – well, go back to the preceding paragraph. Al Franken gave a speech, for roughly the first time since he resigned from the Senate 19 months ago.
I’m not going to go back over the tale that led to that event being a major deal, if you wonder whether there will be a next act for Franken. But, for all his passion, humor and interest in public life and political events, Franken has kept an incredibly low profile since his resignation in December of 2017.
A while back he started a podcast. I listened to an episode, and it’s very smart, factual, substantive, logical, funny and aggressive – all qualities I associate with Franken from his book-writing days. Here’s the page that will give you access to the first few podcast episodes. His guest on Tuesday will be Michael Lewis, about Lewis’ latest book, “The Fifth Risk.”
But Sunday’s talk was roughly the first such sighting of Franken on a stage talking since he left the Senate and dropped out of sight. I say “roughly,” but I checked with Franken afterward and he said that yes, he guessed his Sunday morning talk was his first public speech on U.S. soil, but he plans to get back to speaking and has a couple of others scheduled. (I mention U.S. soil because Franken spoke earlier at a cybersecurity conference in Lisbon, Portugal, about Facebook.)
As for the Sunday talk itself, at the Midpointe Event Center, it was a tour de force. Smart, funny, sad (he seemed to fight back tears during some of the personal bits, like talking about the struggle of both his wife, Franni Bryson, and his old comedy partner, Tom Davis, with alcoholism), half autobiographical and half political.
Franken did not discuss (as he has not since his resignation) the facts and circumstances that led to his resignation from the Senate. He told me afterward that he has strong thoughts and feelings about those facts and circumstances and will eventually express them. But not quite yet.
He did a great takedown, both substantive and hilarious, of Trump, as a candidate and as president, especially on Trump’s ideas to make health care better for America. Trump promised to replace the Affordable Care Act with “something terrific,” Franken said. “Something terrific; that was his plan. And it was a good plan” except for the fact there was no plan.
For example, Franken said, candidate Trump’s big idea for making better health insurance available to all was to allow insurance companies to compete across state lines. What Trump didn’t know, Franken said, was that this was already legal under the Affordable Care Act, but insurance companies didn’t compete much across state lines because they didn’t have relationships with doctors in states where they had few patients, and weren’t interested in all the cost and effort it would require to set up such networks.
This would be a problem, Franken noted sarcastically (and to laughter in the room), “because most people like to go to a doctor in their state.”
He panned the level of the issue discussion in the 2016 campaign: “The only way any issues got discussed was if Trump said something stupid. Immigration was a wall, and it was going to be paid for by Mexico. Where’d that go?”
Why did the Republicans get clobbered in the 2018 midterms? According to Franken it’s because “he promised a lot on health care in 2016,” and all they came up with was to undermine the Affordable Care Act and push for a repeal that would cause millions of Americans to lose their insurance and the popular ACA guarantee that health plans must cover pre-existing conditions and mental health.
But the Republicans took over all branches of the federal government in 2017 and got nothing done on heatlh care, which contributed to a 2018 Democratic takeover in the U.S. House, winning most of the Senate races that were on the ballot, but not enough for control.
He also slammed Trump for being a climate-change denier, when the scientific community now considers warming temperatures to be the No. 1 threat to the future of life on earth. He said he started the podcast in hopes of drawing attention to issues like those, and hopes he can find ways to make them interesting and entertaining enough to get people to listen for an hour at a time..
The Washington Post recently did a feature on Franken, in connection with the debut of the new podcast, and tried to get him to talk about the circumstances that led to his resignation and his feelings about how that went down.
“I can’t explain it right now,” he said. “There will be a certain point I give my first interview, and when it happens, I think you’ll understand.” He likewise told me that he is working up to that.
Al: Move to New York and run for Senate against Kirsten Gillebrand.
A total and complete hypocrite: If MN had a Republican Governor and Franken would have represented a loss of a D Senate seat, Gillebrand would have had a lot less conviction and moral principle in being the first to call for Franken’s resignation. Schumer is no better.
I talked to my mom about the Democratic field this weekend, and the only person she has ruled out is Gillebrand, for what she did to Franken. I don’t think this is a unique opinion.
Edward, good point. It is “politics first” with these people. I’m no fan of Justice Kavanaugh but I like that he fought back against the allegations. He was a poor witness for himself, walking into Senator Klobuchar’s trap. Fortunately for him Christine Blasey Ford was even a worse witness for those who put her up to it.
Add: Franken put up a very weak fight against the allegations against him. He should not have rolled over so easily.
One of the many reasons I agree with Pat Terry’s mother on not ever considering Gillibrand for president is what she did to Al Franken for her own benefit (who knew about her at all, outside New York, before she attacked Franken during the height of the #MeToo moment?).
Another reason is that, unlike Kavanaugh, who at his hearing before the Judiciary Committee following the powerful testimony of Dr. Ford about his sexual assault of her dug his own historical grave by trying to belittle and harass Senator Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken is an honorable man, a man of conscience and integrity.
Kavanaugh is a privileged white guy with a serious alcohol problem that has revealed his serious problems with women and with facing his own character, or lack thereof.
I didn’t think there was anything powerful about her testimony. No memory of date, time or place for starters.
Well, you obviously don’t understand sexual assault.
Or how alcoholics behave (there were witnesses to Kavanaugh’s inability to handle his drinking problem, who weren’t called).
Even Donald Trump realized that Dr. Ford was a powerful witness to Kavanaugh’s behavior. That’s why it was so urgent to deny further witness testimony and get the FBI to do a “quick and dirty” shallow investigation of Dr. Ford’s claims. She was treated shamefully.
Eric:
Why do you suppose some politicians can “fall from grace” and never quite recover their losses – albeit how many public apologies they make – and some politicians can be the literal “bull in a china shop” and crush, shatter and break things – never apologizing for anything – yet never face the harsh criticism that the first category described in this comment endure?
It has less to do with the politician her/himself, and more to do with the integrity of those who decide whether or not to support her/him.
Ed Blaise, you are not wrong, but I would prefer to keep Franken here in Minnesota. When he was crucified and resigned, I thought immediately that the complaints lodged against him, especially the “anonymous” ones, were bogus. The first, from Teeden, was cooked up by Fox News, as were the others — probably all of them. They went after him because he was the most effective Democrat in the Senate. And even the bogus complaints did not rise to the level that merited a resignation. As I said in a LTE to another publication, he asked for an investigation, and should have been granted one. Instead, Gillebrand led the pack that rushed to crucify him, and Tina Smith does not have the megaphone that Franken had. (Gillebrand has lost several wealthy donors over this bumbling.) Unspeakably sad, and wrong, all the way around. I’d love to see Franken return to the public stage.
The picture was a problem, but not necessarily one that merited a resignation without investigation.
As for the other accusations – he deserved to have the process play out, and he was robbed of that opportunity.
Franken was also not well served by the MN DFL either.
He should have said:
“I’m resigning and I will run for re-election and let the people decide who they want to represent them”
Dayton should have appointed a caretaker and allowed an opening for Franken, who could have come back stronger than ever with a new vote of confidence behind him.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m happy to see him making a speech again, and since he’s not in public office – at least for the moment – and doesn’t have to tread quite so carefully to avoid stepping on sensitive right wing toes, I hope the “new” Al Franken is closer to the one who wrote “Lies and the Lying Liars…” than the overly polite Senator who kept trying to get along with Republican colleagues whose only obvious personality traits were ignorance and a sneer.
I’ve volunteered at the Minnesota DFL state fair booth and at candidates’ booths for 100 years. The streets and sidewalks are always packed. No candidate could squeeze someone’s body in front of the crowd of enthusiastic fairgoers lined up to meet that candidate – and not have the woman visibly react in any way while smiling for a picture.
We lost a great senator because of fake news.
An earlier opinion piece by Dwight Opperman that does a great job of describing how we used to elect our Senators:
http://tcbmag.com/opinion/open-letter/columns/we-used-to-elect-u-s-senators
Al Franken was judged for what he did as a Comedian in very different times when he was an effective politician in much less tolerant times. Such waste-
The Franken resignation was a huge loss for Minnesota. Tina Smith is a lightweight and in way over her head.
When Al Franken was FORCED to resign from the US Senate, Minnesota lost a Champion who was not afraid to do his job.
Sen. Gillebrand will always be on my shit list for what she did to Al. Who I still consider a friend I met in 2006. He and Franni spent a great deal of time in Rochester in 2007 and I got to know them both.
Franken wasn’t forced to resign. He made the decision, which I still find puzzling. I think that there is more to the story. Also, why didn’t he run in 2018 and let Minnesotans decide? Smith seemed like a placeholder. What is the rest of the story?
And, let’s not forget, that Franken, one of the few non-lawyers on the Judiciary Committee, is essentially responsible for the questioning of Jeff Sessions and his Russian conversations in 2016 that led him to recuse himself:
Sen. Al Franken: CNN has just published a story and I’m telling you this about a news story that’s just been published. I’m not expecting you to know whether or not it’s true or not. But CNN just published a story alleging that the intelligence community provided documents to the president-elect last week that included information that quote, “Russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.” These documents also allegedly say quote, “There was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump’s surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.”
Now, again, I’m telling you this as it’s coming out, so you know. But if it’s true, it’s obviously extremely serious and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?
Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions: Senator Franken, I’m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.
Franken: Very well. Without divulging sensitive information, do you know about this or know what compromising personal and financial information the Russians claim to have?
Sessions: Senator Franken, allegations get made about candidates all the time and they’ve been made about president-elect Trump a lot sometimes. Most of them, virtually all of them have been proven to be exaggerated and untrue. I would just say to you that I have no information about this matter. I have not been in on the classified briefings and I’m not a member of the intelligence committee, and I’m just not able to give you any comment on it at this time.
No Al, no recusal, no Mueller Report.
If Trump is impeached, Franken is a key contributor.
Franken 2020!