Sen. Al Franken: Inside Washington

of the best words, Katie. A lot of sick of fans or sick of fancy. Have you guys ever been to the Capitol? I mean you see all these politicians on TV giving speeches, kissing babies, eating a lot of unhealthy junk at State Bears. But there's a place where our representatives are actually doing their work office buildings in Washington, d C. That you can walk right into. Well after the metal detector, that is, you can get a snack in the cafeteria, peek backstage and see how our government

really works. You want to just describe where we are. Yeah, it feels a little like Old Home Week for me. Because here we are in the heart Senate office building. When I lived in Washington, I covered a lot of stories here and uh, I have to say it's a beautiful building. It is. It was very famous for cost overruns, for a huge delay and its construction. It costs more than three million dollars to build. How do you know that? A little research beforehand, and this is named after Gary Hart,

No Phil Hart, longtime senator from Michigan. I was wondering that my friend and co host Frank Goldsmith and I recently traveled here to the heart of the Capitol to talk with Senator Al Franken. Now, most of the time on the show, we talked to our guests in the studio, but this time we went on a little field trip. Yeah,

you did make my mom signed that permission slip. That's right, And we should let you know that we were there at a pretty important moment, just a couple of weeks before the Democratic Convention, a few days before the Republican Convention. That's right. Bernie Sanders had just endorsed Hillary right, and it was the week right after the tragic shootings in Baton, Rouge St. Paul and Dallas that had captured all of our attention. People immediately came up to talk to you.

How are you nice to see you? Yahi Texas. We're in Texas and four praying a lot awful, awful, I mean obviously lived close by, seriously and like we weren't going out anywhere, Like I wasn't going to leave the house. I got two kids and his son, and it's just a sense of hate. I mean it's the only words

like it's awful. It's just you can and feel safe to walk out of your house because some dumass is gonna shoot somebody, you know, like it's it's awful, just going on our knees, praying, praying for old officers that we know what senseless, senseless murders. How do you feel about the African American men who were who were shot as well earlier in the week. Honestly, I feel like I feel like we cannot socuss on a specific race because it's happening everywhere. White, black, kissman. I mean, there

are murders everywhere. As a nation, everybody's life matters no less than anybody else's, no more than anybody else's. So it infuriates me that anybody has died that anybody has been singled out, that anybody feels like their life is more important than anybody else's, because it's not. We're all equal, And until everybody starts to believe that this hate will continue.

It felt like everybody was a little fragile on the day we went to Washington, and people had a lot on their minds and some really important things to talk about. As a mom, my first thing is to protect my child. So I teach him to be respectful no matter what. Um that's just not about it that I want to have to fight. And I don't want him to have to fight. So if they say sit down, you sit

if they say you know. And it's hard as a woman to teach him that because I don't want him to feel like he's being demeaned or he's left in But I don't want to have to identify my child one day, as you know, in the morgue. So I teach him you say, yes, sir, you, I don't care if you didn't do what you just do what they tell you to do, because it's a matter of that.

That's not about it that I want to fight. What do you think hat needs to happen to to improve this situation, because it seems like the country is such a tender box right now, and no one wants to see police officer slain. That was such a tragedy, But no one wants to see people of color being mistreated by the police. And what do you think needs to happen to make the situation less combustible? If you will, I think it goes back to that saying seek first

to understand them, to be understood. It is about all lives matter. But you have to remember that black people as a community have been the less than group for two I mean, we've been fighting and so at some point you just get tired. Now is it appropriate to retaliate and slaughter officers just because you're mad and frustrated. No, So that sets us back for what we're fighting force, none of us against them police brutality is the issue is not the police. It's not white Americans, it's not

black people. It's we want to be treated the same way as another person who stopped for our traffic stop. If my son is out and he gets stopped by the police, I shouldn't be in fear and in tears about what's going on with my son if he's not at home. Do you you agree with that? I learned something and I hadn't even left the lobby. This is the kind of energy I think you get in this building

so much Washington, I really appreciate. One of the perks of my job as a journalist is that everyday people come up to me like this and share their personal thoughts. Another perk is that I get to have serious face time with the people who said policy and make the laws that affect our lives. Are we going up? Sorry? Don't kill us? And you hate when people do that. I always want to close it like clothes, clothes, clothes. I know not everyone gets this kind of access. I'm

really lucky. I done, and I want to share it with you. Nice. Oh yeah, Marge Gunderson, Hey you bet shot. How you guys doing. Nice to see you. Thank you. No Minnesota treats. What are Minnesota treats? So we used to have post it? Oh yeah, I know, really delicious, lots of fiber. I really like the sticky part. Yeah, hey, how are you? Nice to see you? Senator are you? That's Al Franken. He's a senator from Minnesota. But that may not be why you know his name Because I'm

good enough, I'm smart enough, and dog on it. People like me. He went from comedy to political talk radio broadcasting live from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Al Franken Show is on the air to the Senate everybody. But he nearly didn't make it there. He squeaked in in two thousand eight by just three hundred and twelve votes. And I am so excited to finally be able to get to work for the people of Minnesota. But now in his second term, Senator Al Franken is one of the people

shaping the world we live in. So I asked him, after seven years, are you still jazzed about coming into this office we're sitting in. No, not my own office. But but if I when I look at the Capitol, I do when I get over there the Capitol, I get I go on, holy mackerel, I do that a lot. We saw go my own office. You know it's my office.

I mean, quite lovely, I should say. One of the things we noticed is to photos of Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who died in two thousand two in a plane crash eleven days before the election, and ironically he went to my high school, Senator Wellstone in Arlington, Virginia, and I know he is and continues to be one of your role models. Sure why, Well, he was a special guy. He was a passionate guy. He um cared about the little guy that was. And he said some

things that are mantras or uh. He said, uh, we all do better when we all do better, and uh Minnesotan's Minnesota dfl ER's that's the Democratic Farmer Labor Party. We say that all the time. But it's interesting when I say that around the country, especially to Democrats, they think about how simple and profound that is, because we do we do all do better when we all do better. Where I grew up middle class. You know, I was born in UH. I grew up in in Singalis Park,

Minnesota entering suburb. We had two bedroom, one bath house. My dad didn't graduate high school, mom didn't graduate college. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world because I was because I was growing up middle class in St. Louis Park in Minnesota, in America, and I felt like I could do anything I wanted and I and it's because the middle class everything was expanding them. The middle class was expanding, and I do believe that

we grow the economy from the middle. And what we've seen, uh, in the last thirty forty years has been this tendency to grow things at the top and hollow out the middle class. And I think that's why people are so so angry the middle class. The bottom seems to have fallen out. Robert Reich did a whole documentary just Bryan and I were talking about it called Inequality for All and basically saying liddle class is what fuels the entire economy because that those are where the consumers are, right,

of course. I mean, if if the middle class is buying stuff, the economy works, and if the middle class is hollowed out, if you're really, really, really really rich, you can buy only so much stuff, you know, I mean that there is a limit to how much you can buy, I guess. I mean, but the real economy

is fueled by those in the middle. Do you think the fact that the middle class is struggling so much and the bottom has fallen out is one of the reasons we're seeing this upswing populism during this Yeah, well, I think there's been a lot of anger, especially uh, you know, There was an interesting statistic that came out or finding by some Princeton economists or something a few months ago that we're seeing life expectancy drop for white people and a lot of it was suicide and opioids

and that kind of thing, and it hadn't dropped for Latinos or blacks, and I think it was it's partly in that white working class middle class who have expected things to get better and not seen it happen. I think that that maybe in a sad way, that black and Latinos or don't expect things necessarily. Isn't part of your inheritance that things automatically get better and then you'll be better off than your than your parents, or more importantly, that your kids will be better off than you. And

I think there's real a feeling of betrayal there. You know, you saw Bernie and you saw Trump, and I think Bernie's analysis is well, first of all, it's an analysis, and Trump's is whatever it is, So I think Bernie was closer to the truth. But the fact is, this is globalization, automation, unions under assault. Rice talks about that definitely in that in his book and and in his

documentary all these things are contributing too. You know, there aren't a lot of jobs where you get a really good living and work for forty years at the same job anymore. And the traditional political answer, at least for the last couple of decades, has been, oh, well, we can't reverse globalization, so we need to train workers for the jobs of the future. Is that enough? Is that sufficient? And if it isn't, what else should be done? Well, first of all, it's that's a really good idea. We

we do need to train people for those jobs. And this is something I believe in workforce training. I believe that you don't have to go to a four year college, that you can go to community and technical college and get credentials and start working in some advanced manufacturing UM facility and with a company and continue to get your education get paid for by your employer. I've seen this

a lot, and I've seen at Minnesota a lot. And I remember, right I took office a little late, because you might remember his close election, And right after I got into office the first recess, I went back to Minnesota and I was in Alexandria, Minnesota, which is an UH served central western north central western Minnesota and in Douglas County, the county seat of Douglas County, unemployment was about two and a half points lower than in the

rest of the state. And part of the reason was they had a great community and technical college, one of the highest ranked in the country. And they have a food packaging industry there. There's the Silicon Valley of food packaging. Someone had to figure out how to get potato chips into a bag without breaking them, and they figured that out, and they have a number of companies, manufacturers, advanced manufacturers

to do that, and they had the high school. During the summer, kids would take industrial arts, had an industrial arts camp. So and I said, this is working here. These kids have these there are these adults now have these advanced skills, and there's a ladder where you can move up. So that isn't the whole answer, but it's part of the answer. Is like anything, it's silver buckshot,

not a silver bullet. It's one thing to train young people, right, but what about these middle aged workers who are suddenly finding themselves without a job. And that's a real issue. You're right, the fifty year old guy who got you hit uh. We had a summit at the White House sort of on rehiring people have been unemployed for a while, and I went back to Minnesota do roundtables on it.

So many of these people were in their fifties because people don't want to hire necessarily people in their fifties, and much harder job market for them. So you're absolutely right. There are people that got hit by the Great Recession right at the wrong moment in their careers, and a

lot of these people that were still unemployee. We're doing certain kinds of training, but a lot of them were really employable, I mean, really had a great experience, and you'd go, oh, my goodness, you should, you should, I'd hire you. I wasn't hiring at the time. Some of their manufacturing firms were moved to China, moved to other

countries and in Mexico and Mexico. Yeah, well, this is the trade issue, and this is why Trump tapped into something that was very against sort of conservative Republican um uh philosophy. If I were a fifty year old guy and my company moved overseas and I was left high and dry, I'd be pretty piste off too. Well, there there are I know a lot of those people, and uh, you know in Minnesota we're we're recovering. But I gotta tell you that, you know, I'm against TPB, and I'm

against it for a reason. I don't think they um the labor provisions in it or right, I don't think um. The currency manipulation has been taken care of. But people are very emotional about this subject. It's really a conundrum, isn't it. How do you become part of the global economy and yet protect your own There in lies the rub right, Well, yeah, and it's about enforcing. It's about writing good agreements and enforcing them. It strikes me that you have to know so much center, Frank and about

so many issues in your job. Do you ever get overwhelmed? And did you? Never? Never? Now that never happened because I stay on top of everything. You always wanted to be a politician. You ran for president of your seventh grade class with a very unique campaign slogan. Do you remember what it was? Don't spit in a man's faceless his mustaches on fire, that's right, dinging? And I lost, no, no waittment, no no, no, I won. I won that. Then I lost eighth grade, and then I ran for

vice president a ninth and I got that. My sister ran for president of our elementary school and my mom put up a campaign poster above the water fountain and it said free water courtesy Emily Current. All nice, clever she did. Well there you go. YEA good slogan really helps. I remember I felt very bitter because I lost. I got us a mixer. That was my big achievement. I got a mixer muzzle. Yeah, thank you, And it was the Beatles were very big. This was when the Beatles

were big. And the theme of the mixer was peace peas me and it was the value of the Jolly Green Giant, which is in Minnesota. It was. It was a very successful mixer, and yet I was not re elected. You are fairly new to the Senate, and I'm wondering if if you know, well relatively I mean some and I'm just curious, what did you think you're getting yourself into?

And are you disillusioned? Um? Well, uh, you know, I wish I could remember what I thought it was going to be, because then I could tell you whether I'm disappointed. But I really enjoy this. I get things done. Paul Wellston said politics is not about winning. It's about improving people's lives, and that's what I tried to do in so many different ways, and I've been successful in many of them, and then others. It's incredibly frustrating. Of course,

it's very frustrating. What's the most frustrating thing right now? I don't know what we're doing to address that. I just haven't heard name any real attempt to address just what's happened this last week in terms of I mean, we know that people of color get profiled, and we know there's something we need to do about this, and I don't feel like we're I've heard us addressing it here.

Let's talk about the police shootings that we've seen witnessed in this I guess you could describe fourth of July week in America is a very different kind of hell week. Two shootings FIR Saint Baton Rouge and then in St. Paul, and then the shootings of those police officers in Dallas. Is Capitol Hill really the right place to come up with a solution for this or should police departments across

the country start really acknowledging there's an issue here? I think, you know, ironically, I think Dallas is a police department that did do that. It's true, but we need to address this. And it's a national problem that doesn't get fixed by something some one piece of legislation or a number of piece of legislation gets fixed one community at a time. And Falando Castile was your constituent. There was an a p story that came out a couple of days ago that he was stopped at least fifty two

times by police before he was shot. What can be done about that sort of thing? Well, uh, we we we one. We have to. I think we have to have police the composition of police forces reflect the composition of the communities that they serve. I think that would be very helpful. You know, it's interesting to me that the Black Lives Matter movement makes some people so angry.

And I was interviewing somebody when I walked into the building before we sat down from Fort Worth, and she was saying, you know, all lives matter, it shouldn't just be one group. I don't think that person is quite understanding the context. I mean, And and but you hear that time and time again, you know, but what it means is is that black what black lives matters is saying like this is happening, It's happened, It's historically happened.

We now have videotape, but this is historically happened, and it matters. It's as if black lives don't matter. That's what they were. I know I'm not explained, yes, but I'm trying to explain to the listener here, But how do how do we keep and white Americans from being alienated? But former Mayor Juliani said the other day on whatever show he was on, fascination about you know, black Lives

Matter is a racist? Is inherently racist? He's not. He's either deliberately not getting it or isn't paying much attention. We'll be right back to our conversation with Al Franken after a quick break. Let's get back into our conversation without Franken. So we're sitting here in your center office. UM, why don't we kind of go back to before you enter this profession, and UM cover some of the years between that failed eighth grade class president campaign and the

successful Senate one. Hum I stopped running after that for about forty years, But you got bit by the political bug very early. You were I think always engaged in these issues. How did that start? Start with my parents? As I think it probably usually does. Uh, we ate dinner on trade tables watching the news. So we watched either Cronkite or Huntley Brinkley, and my mom was been good night Chet for that. I used to say that to my mom and dad before I went to bed

at night. Ideal goodnight David, and ideal goodnight Chet. Well, maybe that's why you went into what you went into. Um. By the way, these were not TV dinners. My mom was a really good cook. So I just want to make sure because people have gotten the idea that we ate TV dinners on these trade tables. No, no, this is we always had a fresh vegetable and a protein anyway,

So we would watch. When I was eleven ten eleven, twelve years old, watched civil rights demonstrations in the South, and when the sheriffs would put fire hoses or dogs or billy clubs on the demonstrators, my dad would point to the TV and say, no jew can be for that, No jew can be for that. My dad grew up in New York and he also inhaled a pipe for

fifty years. He sounded like that, no Jew can be for that, and um, I knew, we knew exactly what he meant because we as I said, I think I said in fifty one, the Holocaust was pounded into our heads. And this is my dad had been a Republican, he was like Jacob Javitt's Republican. And um he became a Democrat that year because Barry Goldwater in six four anyway, and I didn't never look back. So so that was it. It was basic, the basic It's the same damn issue.

If you think about it, do you think that something's been lost in our country? You know, you describe this almost idyllic scene where you're watching the evening news with your family, talking about things, learning about the world. That's really not done so much anymore because of the changing landscape of more. Um, well, there's that. There's we all don't have only three networks to watch and listen to,

and so we don't have that shared experience. And then what what you have is, you know, the sorting out of America where people tend to live with people who have the same political views that they do watch the people who Foxes and some much MSNBC and so much CNN, UM and some listen to MPR and some listen to Russia Limball. What was the title of your book about Russia Limball? It was called Russia Lima was a big, fat Idiot and other observations, And the intent was to

talk about the loss of civility in our discourse. It was really if if you read the book, that's what it was about. And it was ironic and a lot of what I did in comedy and still do and my every is irony. And during my uh first race, a lot of that was a lot of my humor went through the de humorizer. What's the what's the demizer? It was a fifteen million dollar machine that my opponent put together using uh, some Soviet era technology that stripped humor.

There was that there was a Playboy article, as I recall, that got some attention that titled porn Orama and it was about there's a reason for what I wrote an article for Playboy for their millennial issue. They had asked William Buckley, he wrote for it, and Isaac asim Off and me and I thought that, Okay, it's a Playboy,

it's for their millennial issue. Uh, you know, I want to do a parody of Playboy, and Playboy would do these, um very often doing article do articles on the newest technologies, and I figured, since it's Playboy, what would the what's this new millennium going to bring in? So it's all about kind of virtual sex and things like that, and um, if you read the piece, it will prove that I was not intending to run for the Senate eight years later.

I'm gonna have to google that. Sure, go ahead, Let's get back to the Senate out You were talking about how dysfunctional the Senate is and how you can't often is very dysfunctional. What is the root problem of the Senate's dysfunction? Well, I think there are a lot of things I think that um our politics. And I was kind of writing about this in Russian. Limbaugh is a big Fettiti and that's why I really was about the

breakdown in the civility of discourse. And there was a chapter on that on Gingrich who had put a list of words for Republicans to to use to talk about democrats and it was like sick and trader and corrupt and me. It's literally a list of words that was sent out to Canada saying you can learn to talk like newt And there was also a real run against Washington and against government and people in government are bad

and don't live in Washington. To bring your family to Washington, and you know, this town, I guess used to be a lot different um. You know, you would bring your family to Washington, you live here, and you go back to your district when you go back to your district, but you wouldn't go back. You wouldn't keep your family in your district and go back home on weekends and

not visit them while you go around your district. And what that meant was is that your family, your kid might play on the same baseball team as another congressman from or senator from a different party is his kid, and it's hard to not like, you know your your kid's teammates. Father and people had more time, and now it's so much fundraising and so much rushing back to your eight the campaign and that sort of thing. I

think that's part of it. I think part of it is is that when the senator is up for grab, as it is this time and as it was last time, that there's more jockeying. And I think there was sort of a settled um Democratic majority for a big period of time. Uh, during the fifties and sixties and seventies that uh, you know that, And that's easy for me to say they were Democrats in the majority. But there's tended to be sort of a Okay, this isn't about

the next cycle, this isn't about next November. We're going to just actually do our job here. But now it's all about re election. Steve Israel wrote about that congressman from Long Island about how much time has spent fundraising and do you guys hang out? Do you hang out with other senators? Do you have lunch in this at dining hall and eat Senate bean soup with Republicans? I have,

I don't do it a lot. I hardly every in the signate Senate dining room does anybody, Because to me, you've got to have a place where people can congregate and get to know each other. One of the things that we do we have, and I just came from it, the Senate Democratic Caucus lunch. So we have lunch on Tuesday and Thursdays essentially as a caucus, and the Republicans have it three days a week. Why don't you guys caucus together? Occasion, well, I have had. I just did

a bipartisan lunch with Lisa Murkowski. I've been trying to promote these bipartisan activities um them. During my first term, I, Franny and I would go out regularly with the end zs and the Joe Hands Uh Sarah n Zi from Wyoming, Sena Johannes is Left from Nebraska and their wives and Tom Udall and Jill and me and Frannie would beat all have dinner. We right off going to each other's houses. And I'd like to start that again. Let's talk about the campaign, because it has just been the most insane

campaign of my lifetime. Certainly I would assume of yours as well. I don't know, uh, you know sixty eight was tragic obviously, and but yes, I mean I think that that the Republican nominee she what's his name, uh is uh is of a just of a different um quantum lee different than any other nominee we've had in terms of they're they're they're part of what I've seen

over the last few years. I'm kind of a policy I mean, I don't think I'm a policy wonk, but I do try to get into the areas where we're legislating. I like to be a legislator, So in education and healthcare in those areas, that's way more way I came here than anything. And then in telecommunications, I was against the uh Comcast Time Warner deal and that neutrality is important to me. But those those are things I care about. But I just don't think he thinks about any of

this stuff at all. I don't think he just he'll say I, um, I have a good brain, I know more than the general's of Ballet, Syria and the Iraq. He'll say that, and it'll be just one of a million things he'll say that are just absurd, and yet he will be the nominee. How do you explain that? Well, I tried to. You know, it's happened so and um, observing what's happening, I'm not Uh. I guess he tapped

into this anger that we were talking came about. And uh, he certainly staked out a you know, in any trade, which I think is different on his side, and tapped into that feeling among those a lot of a lot of voters on both sides. Of course. Yeah. I also I think he had let some crossover and in many states. And I also think that the media contributed to it a little bit by having him on constantly. And the guy can be funny and can be charming. It's worn

off a little on me, but um, and fascinating. It was kind of fascinating. So I think that, um, a lot of America's loves Donald Trump, and a lot of America's shaking their hands, that's going like, what's your theory on how this happened? Anything? We've talked, and we've talked enough about Donald Trump. No, I think we should talk only about him for the rest of this A big question mark I think about this campaign is whether young people who are so enthusiastic about Bernie Sanders are really

going to come out and vote in November. I think they will. I think they will. This is you know, I did not see the event with Bernie and Hillary today. Lara went well, and I think that's Bernie said he's going to do everything in his power to see the Trump it doesn't win, and I think that means he's going to be stumping for her. I think that that's

going to help. And I think you know, when you look at the issues and you look at something as simple as simple, something as important as climate change, and millennials know this is a real thing, and there is a scientific, overwhelming scientific consensus and the sea levels rising. That happens for a reason. Uh, and it is the existential issue of her time. And boy, it affects millennials more than you know. I mean, I have I have grandchildren now, so I'm a senator and I don't want

my grandson. You know, Joe, I have a three year old grandson, and I don't want him fifty years from now going, Grandpa, you knew there was climate change. Why didn't you do anything about it? And also why are you still alive? That's ridiculously, I'll go, Well, because of all the scientific developments, well the funding of n I h I did instead of on climate change? You and Larry King are doing that. What's it called when you

are frozen? Oh, I'm not doing it. If Flowery is doing it, good for him, But I'm not doing it. He did it years ago. Actually I got that good. So so give us your prediction for the fall. I am not a prognosticator. That's not what I do. So what I do I thought Cindy Lopera was gonna be a lot bigger than Madonna. Do you think Hillary Clinton is gonna win? But I don't know what the margin is going to be. I don't know. I'm not predicting anything.

I'm hoping for, you know, I'm hoping for a large win, blowout. I'm hoping for that. I'm really I've been working for our Democratic Senate candidates, and I want to take back the Senate so we can have the agenda here and not have to do filibusters to get on a gun vote and you know, those kind of things. To last questions, I believe of the electorate field that Hillary Clinton is not trustworthy. That's a devastating Sorry, how does she fix that?

I don't know exactly. I can tell you this. I've known her for twenty two years, and I find her totally trustworthy. I I um. I also, I just know her as one of the hardest working, the hardest working person I know, uh, someone who is has through their career been dedicated to helping children, helping poor people, helping uh women. Why don't people trust her? Why don't people see that? Well? I think there's been just a ton and ton and ton of constant, you know, opposition to

the Clintons, both her and her husband. I think her husband, did you know, unfortunately did something that made people not trust him. And I hope she'll have the opportunity to be president and and that Americans will learn to trust her. Are the ones who don't. Do you think she bears any responsibility for that? I think she'll say, you know, she she will say, for example, on the email, that she made a mistake, and so she does bear some

responsibility for that. I also think that if you look at her responses on these things, I don't think she was lying. I think she did not know that she sent three classified things because they had partially marked. I think that, as usual, there's a battle over this in terms of messaging, and they're going to be considered she lied, she lied, she lied, and if people know the full story,

I don't think she didn't. If Paul Wellstone were alive today, Senator, what do you think he would make of this whole campaign, the players, the rhetoric. Well, I think he'd be out there fighting, you know, just like I think I am. I don't I don't quite have the There was some power that he had and he used to basically the last three minutes of his any presentation he gave where this real, real energetic tub thumping thing where he'd get

people on their feet. And the only time I get that happen is like if I imitate him doing it, I do an impression of him. But I think he would be I think he would be amazed and zaddened by some of this. Of course, you may not be able to compete with Paul Wellstone, but your grandson looked pretty in awe of you in a photo we saw as we want. I love that photo. It's like my

favorite photo. What was going on? It was a um and my my uh, I got my I was sworn in for my second term, and it was just a party we had for that, and everybody was there in this big hearing room, and he was with his grandma, and he just and and and mom and and and his dad, and he just walked over to me. And it's a beautiful, beautiful photo. For those of you listening, I can't it's amazing. He's staring up at you, and that's probably, as you said, who you think about when

you make decisions in this office. And he's older now, of course, as we all are, and so now he's three. But yeah, being a grandparent is a great, great thing, and uh, it does make you think that what we do here is important to generations. Be on us. That's a nice way to end things. Senator al Frankin, thank you for hanging out with us in your office. So I really enjoyed that interview. But I'm not sure I

was surprised by anything he said. I wasn't super surprised, but I have to say I was really impressed because it reminded me how fluent senators have to be on such a myriad of issues, and it made me thank god. It's hard to be a senator. And even though he's a lot more relaxed and comfortable with the job now that he's been reelected and he's not known as landslide Al ironically anymore, um, you could still see the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. He took the job very seriously.

Definitely doesn't want to be you know Don Rickles all the time. No, no, no, I mean he's clearly a highly highly intelligent guy, and I think he believes fiercely in the direction he wants to take the country. And he talked about Paul Wellstone and talked about being a progressive and talking about doing the work. I mean, he is a very he's a very funny guy, but he's also a very serious guy, and gosh darnette, people do like him. So we want to thank Senator Franken and

his staff for making the interview possible. It was a lot of fun and we're gonna do a lot of interviews like this. Clearly we want to interview bold face names, but also people who just have bold things to say. And one of the great things about social media and the telephone, quite frankly, is we get to hear from you all as well, So we want to know what you'd like to discuss, who you'd like us to talk to, so you can leave us a message on this line

nine two to four four six three seven. Brian is standing. Body take your calls. I'm just sitting by the phone. That number again is four four six three seven. And while we're at it, we want to thank the team at your Wolf, Chris Bannon, Gretta Cone, the right Reverend John Dolor. We want to thank Mark Phillips who composed our theme music, which I really love, by the way, and one more thing, subscribe, rate and review this podcast if you could, because it really helps other listeners find

the show that does it for us. Brian, this was fun, wasn't it, Yes, ma'am. Anyway, thanks for listening and we'll see you next time. Yes, we do. Thanks. I took a few ashtrays. I hope that's got